"...Well, after we fix up our equipment," I feel some of the enthusiasm drain out when I recall the dents in our swords and my armour, "Assuming there's any materials still tucked away here?"
Henna bites her lip, "I can do some resharpening on the grindstone out front and hammer out some dings, but I ain't got the material to fix any serious issues."
I sigh, "That'll have to do. Do you not have the Repurposing Talent?"
The smith shakes her head, "No. Gebbie did, but he up sticks and sold 'imself to Geronil years ago. Who knows if he's still alive right now?"
A pity. We could have broken down some of this random collection of scrap metal disguised as knives and put the metal to better use.
Craftsmen and gatherers, in place of Skills and Spells, can utilise Talents once they reach Basic, such as Repurposing, that lets them do things which would ordinarily be impossible with the system as is, but players can't learn them until RotA rebalances the system. I remember learning a different Talent called Project Collaborator from Henna prior to her disappearance, which is considered to be pretty much mandatory for any crafting subclass, as it allows you to bring in other people with the Talent to assist you in the creation of whatever it is you're working on - which can either be an expert in a field you're less accomplished in, allowing you to finish an enchanted weapon with no Enchanter levels, or it can be someone better than you at the same subclass, like bringing in a more advanced Chef to adjust your recipe and elevate the final result. The results of anything created with Project Collaborator (With a few exceptions) will, as recompense, always be numerically inferior to something you create by yourself if you had the same skillset and proficiency as those who took part, but it's the price you pay for being able to finish some Schematics in the first place.
"He should be," I assert, "There'd be no point in killing any of his pet craftsmen and women, as far as Geronil is concerned. They'll still be in the Pioneers' Alliance's basement."
"Take it that's where the big boss is holed up?" Miss Leovoldt guesses, sweeping some broken glass into a pile.
"Might be," I shrug, "It'd be a pretty obvious place for him to be, so the smart money would be on the building being stuffed full of traps and a few Elite monsters to bait and kill pursuers. But that's just speculation on my part, we'll still head over to check it out on the off-chance he's in there."
If anyone knows where he is, it'll be any lackey of his left behind there, but I doubt they'll be feeling talkative. The other option would be to ask Olrica about it, since one of her Inherited memories was of the aftermath of Rambling Rose's confrontation with Geronil, but I probably missed my chance to ask again when we bumped into her earlier. From what she told me, I don't think that it was in the Alliance building, but they also didn't confront him as quickly as we're looking to do, so it's definitely possible that he moved hideouts.
Thus, we need to go kick the Alliance and see what crawls out from underneath it before sundown. We're getting pretty long in the tooth for today, and leaving Geronil exposed for any tom, dick and harry to have a go at isn't the smart decision.
Pioneers' Alliance, Truth District
An arrogant voice calls out my name, "Silver."
Arrayed in formation in front of the building stands almost the entirety of Rambling Rose's core membership, with Hadrian King at the forefront doing his best to look imposing and regal. Concerning the absentees, I note Olrica and the other Scout players comprise the entirety of the list. So, an ambush, is it?
"...Stand aside, Mr King," I sigh, unwilling to waste time fighting them, "Despite what my associate mouthing off may have you believing, Truthseekers has no quarrel with you and the rest of Rambling Rose. If you wish to cooperate in the final raid, however, I am open to negotiation."
Hadrian smiles insincerely, "So you can take the rest of the cake and eat it? Now, why on earth would I just stand by and watch as you stuff your faces silly uncontested? Don't you think you're overstepping yourselves by monopolising what meagre content is available to the rest of the playerbase? You can't honestly believe that your actions sit well with all of us, can you?"
I refrain from rolling my eyes at his blatant attempt to portray himself as some selfless hero speaking up for the weak and unfortunate masses, "The victory your cohort achieved over The Brand is commendable, but I cannot allow your hypocritical greed to interfere with my Quest. We will be the ones to take down Geronil, with or without you, and I'd appreciate it if you would stop fabricating excuses to antagonise us. This doesn't need to come to blows, Mr King."
Glancing left and right, I note the positions of the more obvious Scouts hiding in the ruined buildings on the rooftops. I can't see Olrica, but odds are she's also waiting in ambush. We may be acquaintances with a good relationship, but to her, a job is a job, so she'll still participate even if she doesn't want to. I'm not going to hold it against her.
"Jade," I mutter, "Keep your eyes forward. Two archers left, at least three assassins to the right and behind, take down the archers when Hadrian gives the order to attack."
"Yeah, I noticed," Jade agrees, "Wanna preempt?"
"No, don't give him any more justification," I deny. I can guarantee they're going to be taking a recording of the situation.
Agitated, the young scion leans forward, "It was personal the moment you tried to take what should rightfully belong to me, Silver! This city is to be mine!"
Idly, I consider whether he has some Inherited memories rattling around up there, but I can't be certain. It's best that I don't let my paranoia run rampant and start to see Inheritors wherever I go.
"Rambling Rose," Hadrian announces imperiously, "Remove this pretender to my throne from sight at once!"
Since he's thrown away all pretence of playing nice, I oblige the grandstanding idiot with a Bull Rush, smoothly unsheathing my Terrorsteel Horrorblade and decapitating him almost instantly, shocking his subordinates. I realise that it's a little harder to look 'cool' and heroic from behind your hirelings, but if you're dumb enough to leave yourself exposed like that, then there's no point in me feeling guilty for taking advantage.
"Mr King is dead," I can't help but joke, settling into a defensive stance, "Long Live Truthseekers."
With the completion of a Minor Conflagration blasting the densest portion of the Rambling Rose formation for some heavy damage that incinerates two of them on the spot, the conflict erupts into an open brawl, with the majority of their frontliners' focus placed squarely on me, reminding me somewhat of our escape from Liggit Mine.
Fortunately, I've got the full support of my Guild, as well as Henna and Miss Leovoldt who have the misfortune of being dragged into our mess. I'll have to give them an apology after we're done.
Engaged by Earthen Trellis, I note a degree of reluctance in his body language as I block and parry his swords, giving up ground to avoid being flanked. The weightier, wider construction of the Horrorblade is less than ideal for the situation, even so, so although I can claim somewhat superior skill, the gap is narrowed greatly by our choice of weapons and the pressure from his allies.
The thrust of a familiar zweihander breaks his steady assault, giving me the chance to retaliate with a Brutal Strike, crushing through his Beginner's Bronze armour and sending him crashing into the battle-hungry idiot, Astra Solar, giving me and Henna space to kill off the spearman whose name I can't quite recall.
"I'm with you, Silver," Henna mutters assurance.
"Thanks," I express my appreciation, pressing the attack back on the heavily wounded Earthen Trellis and the irritated Astra.
"Come!" Astra roars, pushing aside his comrade while a Hedge Mage quickly tries to patch up his wound with Minor Succor. Several Minor Ignites also come sailing after me, and an itchy spread of goosebumps across the back of my right arm alerts me to the presence of an Assassin behind me. A superior advantage in gear and Level or not, under a co-ordinated assault, my health will still dwindle to zero in short order.
"<Reaver's Tenacity>!" I grunt, turning quickly to avoid a fatal Backstab, powering through the barrage of Minor Ignites and coming face to face with an apologetic Olrica.
"Nothing personal, you know how it is," The assassin whispers, hopping back to avoid a counter-attack.
Switching grip, I pivot back to attack Astra Solar, the ring of metal on metal from where my sword meets his shield almost deafens me momentarily, forcing the bulky Quirstic back, to his surprise. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Miss Leovoldt hopping over the ruined wall and running out of sight, presumably to take down their backlines, if she's not just abandoning us outright, which I doubt, even if it's understandable.
Still, the fact that she's going from that direction clues me in to the fact that their archers should be dead now, but we're still probably outnumbered.
My faith is proven correct, as the Ravager lives up to the name of her Class and starts tearing apart the Hedge Mages, with additional arrow shots and magical blasts sending them into chaos. However, even with Henna's support keeping Earthen Trellis occupied, my movements are being restricted by the tag team of Astra and Olrica, and the assassin is taking full advantage of her freedom of movement to harass me, although I feel like she's deliberately holding back from trying to kill me, focusing her attacks on my armour instead of trying to circumvent it.
With respect to her consideration, I keep the majority of my focus upon Astra instead, only making a token effort to fend her off when I feel she's getting a little too aggressive. And speaking of aggression, with the Hedge Mages having to deal with Miss Leovoldt, the reckless Astra immediately runs into a problem as his preferred fighting style of attacking and letting his healers worry about the details leaves him up shit creek without a paddle against my damage output.
Realising the danger and desperate, he tries to switch to total defence, but it's too little too late, and the chip damage incurred even after blocking most of my swings with his shield is more than he can handle. I can only hope he takes this as a learning experience in future, for the sake of his healers' sanity.
Freed up, I join Henna in taking down Earthen Trellis for good, while Windy engages Olrica behind us and the remainder of the backlines gradually fall to the combined forces of three post-First Step damage dealers. In the end, only Olrica is left standing, out of breath and nervous.
"Err...I realise this sounds weird, but please just kill me," The assassin shifts her footing uncomfortably underneath the stares of those present, "Don't want to give Hadrian any more ideas about my 'loyalty'."
"That's fine," I sigh, "Nothing personal, like you said."
"Mhm. Good luck with the rest," She gives a thumbs-up, sparing a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glance to Henna, "Give Geronil an extra kick in the dick from me."
"Will do," I end her with a clean decapitation, and she leaves behind her Trophytaker's Dagger. I'll give it back the next time we cross paths.
"Friend of yours?" Miss Leovoldt questions, contemplating whether or not to drink one of the last few mana potions we have left.
"Something like that," I hedge, "Sorry you got dragged into this. Same to you, Henna."
"Don't mention it," Miss Leovoldt twists around, showing a broken off arrow sticking out of her shoulder, "They shot first."
Angelus rushes over, "Let me get that."
"Appreciate it," she smiles helplessly.
Henna takes the gap in the conversation to respond, "Like I said, I've got yer back, Silver."
I accept it for what it is and turn to the other three, "Any problems?"
"Took a beating keeping the assassins off of the magic boys," Windy grunts, "I'm still good to go, otherwise."
"All good," Jade smirks, "Kicked their dickless asses."
"I feel like I should point out that at least half the reason it was even necessary was 'cos you hurt that Hadrian douchebag's sense of pride," Jupiter points out from behind Windy, earning a glare from the small archer, "Used a couple of cooldowns, but my MP is still over 50% and rising. My regen is pretty dumb."
"You're pretty dumb," Jade snaps back toothlessly.
"Thanks, not many people appreciate my good looks, apparently I take heavily after my mom, or something," Jupiter selectively ignores the insult with a shameless grin that's distracted by the sharp, suppressed cry of Miss Leovoldt having the arrow yanked out and healed.
"Cut it out," Windy orders, tiredly, "We oughtta get inside before they come back for another go."
"Agreed," I turn on my heel, "Move out."
