(Chapter nineteen, hot damn! I’m so glad that y’all are enjoying what I’m writing, and I… do NOT apologise for the cliffhanger at the end of last week’s chapter! #sorrynotsorry. Anyway, please continue to enjoy my work, and support me on Patreon if you can, and thanks for reading! Also, I have my first ever Patreon supporter! Thank you, Gothicshark, you're awesome! )

As I reflexively reach out for my lost weapon, I can see Asteria over my shoulder, looking horrorstruck at what she’d accidentally done. Before anyone can do anything, the newly-accessorized mecha-zombie rises to its feet, resuming its lumbering charge.  Instinctively, I make a fist, a coruscating sphere of lightning sparking around it, before I punch forward, despite being well out of range. The electricity snarls, rushing onward, spearing through the air to impale the nightmarish, half-decayed crypt-golem, even punching through into another one behind. Ulged blinks as the static causes all his fur to puff out and bottle-brush.

“Um… sorry, I didn’t think this move would work…” I admit, shyly. My chat goes a little nuts, asking what I’d just done, leaving me floundering as I try to divide my focus between using Thunder Cannon to attack where I can, while still keeping somewhat on top of the spam and bots. It’s a nightmare, as I’m trying to do it all on my own, Asteria flits over to me, freezing one of the zombies to the wall with a beam of chilly blue energy, tilting her head. “What’s up, sweetie? We’re starting to whittle ‘em down!”

Firing off another Thunder Cannon, the air snapping as it ionises, I sigh, “How do you keep your chat under control??? I’ve been trying to keep them in-line and it’s really haaarrrd!” Asteria splutters, “Kettrin, darling… haven’t you hired a moderator yet?”

I frown. “Like Tanwen?” I ask, unsure of what Astie is driving at. She giggles, and then pulls up her chat for me to see. “Look at the names at the top of the list, right below mine. See the little silver crowns next to those? The top ones, right under my name?” I look, counting about twenty names, each sporting a little silver crown.  “That’s my mod team. At least eight of them are online at all times for my stream, and they’re the ones keeping my chat from running too wild. You definitely need one yourself, cutie. What’s your current audience? That’ll give us an idea of what your budget is. Everyone who subs to you basically pays you for streaming, and donations are just extra!”

Turning my status so only Asteria and I can see, it, I look over and fire off another Thunder Cannon, tearing the lower jaw from one of the uglier ghouls, leaving its tongue waggling impotently in the air as it gurgles in fury. Turning back to Asteria, I blush as she grins proudly. “Look at my little Kettrin, making bank! With these statistics, you’re going to be a well-off young lady!” she whispers to me, so no-one can overhear. “Look, you can easily afford a full team of mods, but you should have at least one. Let me ask my mods if they know anyone who’s available!”

While the camera’s still unable to see the status for my stream, I check it again. I have several thousand viewers, with almost two and a half thousand subbed. At five bucks a month, that means I’m earning, for this month alone, nearly $12,500 and change. That’s… that’s a lot of money…

After I finish up with my status menu, I dive back into the fight again, running low on MP and resorting to using my shield, the Needleboar hide constantly bristling with spines as I ram bodily into whatever’s still standing, pin-balling the livid undead around like grapes in a tumble-dryer. Eventually, the chaos settles, leaving the four of us panting, scratched, sweaty, and relatively unscathed. A healing potion or two patches up the wounds we did receive, though. That could’ve been a lot worse. Noticing I’ve levelled up, I leave that for later, rooting through the bodies, hunting for something to replace that knife with. It takes a bit of rather icky searching, but I manage to find one of the mechano-zombies was armed with a mace, the long handle seemingly screwed straight into the stump of its forearm.  Tugging on it yields no result.

As I yank on the flanged head of the mace to no avail, a massive, hairy paw comes to rest on my shoulder. “Let me ask, lass. Can ye equip a mace?”

I pause, then check through my class window. “Yep, maces, spears, and caesti.” With my confirmation, Ulged grabs the mace haft, close to the socket, and, taking a firm grip on the pallid, waxy arm, starts to pull. With a slow grinding noise that raises steadily in pitch, the gnoll easily accomplishes what I could not, freeing the mace from its outlet and handing it to me before trotting back to Mur’s side as the little golden lizard flops down in the gore and makes what he calls ‘Carnage Angels’. The mace is a little heavier than my spear, but the weight is comforting. I’m not unarmed anymore.

As I turn to rejoin the rest of the group after giving my new weapon a few practice swings, something… happens. The passageway closes off, leaving me trapped on the other side of a wall that hadn’t been there before, isolated and alone.  Asteria calls me through my friends-list, panicking.

“Kettrin, are you okay?! We’ll try and find a way around, just stay there and we’ll come get you!” before I can respond, she’s already made up her mind. I can hear her barking instructions to the other Argonauts as the sound of their muffled footfalls fade away.

I look around the chamber I’m trapped in. there’s a doorway on the other side of this large, circular room. The ceiling is pretty low, so flying would be too risky. The silence is broken by a fresh set of feet, moving with purpose.  A lantern brightens the gloaming dark, spilling out of the other doorway and into the large space. It’s…

“Long time no see, bitch!” a masculine, unpleasantly-familiar voice reaches me, as a figure emerges, gesturing rudely to me. “Looks like you’re all alone, boo-hoo-hoo. No bimbo skank to save you this time, yeah? That was my doing. You oughta be careful; places like this have loads of nasty traps and shit. But… none of ‘em are as nasty as me.”

It’s that jerk from Tillberry! The one who’d tried picking a fight and got his cheeks clapped by Astie! He’s here?! WHY?! As he starts strolling slowly towards me, I subtly open my stats menu, glad I had it set to invisible to observers when I’d showed it to the newly-Goth Alv. While this jerk begins to villain-monologue, I stealthily begin to level myself up.

Luckily, it seems like this ass is too self-absorbed with his own cleverness, allowing me to get away with the process of powering up. I’ll have to be quick and decisive, since I know he’ll try to work some advantage in his favour if he can.

Kettrin_______

Skyborne

Bulwark Level 11->15

CON: 20 -> 23

DEX: 21 ->23

STR: 20 ->27

WIS: 14 ->15

INT:  14 -> 15

LUCK: 20 -> 25

Once my Attribute Points are distributed, I turn to looking at new abilities. Something about my race that could be a flaw…. Well, Skyborne have an unfortunate weakness to lightning-element attacks. Something that can cover that would be best, as long as it costs less than 24 points…..

Two skills catch my eye, and I carefully engage with one. Tempestuous Affinity: as a Skyborne who’s spent much time wielding the sheer power of lightning in battle, you have come to an understanding with it. While you can be harmed by electrical attacks, they are far less effective against you, removing your vulnerability to them. Your resistance will be at a base level.

Perfect! At a cost of eight points, too! I snap it up, hiding my hands behind my shield as I slowly sling it off my back, waiting for the little lightshow from the expanding runemark to fade away, before checking on the jerk. He’s still monologuing, apparently too wrapped-up in his own egotistical dick-waving to notice. He’s getting a little closer, though. I’d better finish up fast.

Returning my attention to my menu, I peruse what I could spend the remaining 18 points on. Something offensive might be good, to counter the defensive stuff I have. I have no idea if he’s been watching my streams, so I want to get something new to catch him off-guard. Another option catches my eye, a little further down. I furtively touch the icon, and then snaffle it. It’s just too good not to!

Imbue Element-Thunder: by communing with the sphere of elemental influence governed by Voltesse, the Lady of Storms, you can channel the power of a minor thunderhead through your weapon of choice, allowing it to inflict bonus electric damage with each strike, though only for a short time. However, the strain of containing such potent energy severely weakens all but the most powerful weapons, draining the durability of the Imbued weapon according to its grade and level. 

Finally, I feel like I have a chance. Even if I don’t beat him in a one-vs-one, if I can at least make it too much effort for him, or draw it out long enough for Asteria to catch up, he’s gonna get fed up and go away… I hope.

Sighing, I heft my mace, tapping the flanged head against the side of my leather-and-steel boot. “Um, sir? Sorry about this, but I’m streaming right now. Do you mind if I keep it running, please?”  I watch him scowl, clearly still sore about the last time he’d had a run-in with a streamer.

“Do what you want, s’not gonna stop me from beating your fucking face into the dirt. And tell your bimbo girlfriend that she shoulda respected me when she had the chance. You tell her to remember my name. You tell her that I’m gonna do to her what she did to me, only slower…”

I nod, and then raise a hand politely. With an exasperated grunt, he snaps, “Whaaat?!” I clear my throat delicately, and then ask, “Um… what IS your name?”

Silence.  I watch this guy go from smug and threatening to completely and totally dumbfounded. “Are you fucking with me?? She doesn’t even KNOW MY NAME?!?! IT’S RANDY! MY GODDAMN NAME IS RANDY!”

I can’t help but let out a little “snrrk!” as he loses it. Randy freezes, glowering at me, but… seeing his temper tantrum kinda made him less scary. He draws his sword. It’s the same one as last time, but… he pulls something else from his belt pouch. A small clump of cloudy yellow crystals, like dull quartz, but… why would he think that would help? Is it some kind of consumable item, like a potion or something?

He crushes it in his fist, and the muffled crunching sound echoes through the low-ceilinged chamber. He scatters the fragmented mineral along the iron blade, and I start in shock as it explodes into a rippling current of lightning, roiling tendrils of electricity curling up and down its length.

“Didn’t expect that, huh? Let’s cut the shit and do this!” he charges, and I hop to one side, twisting to bring my shield between us, his blade skittering off the hairy surface as I backpedal, raising my liberated mace, gripping it halfway down the haft. As he tries for another assault, I swing, letting the handle slide through my fingers as I swipe at him. The sudden increase in range nets me a solid hit to his stomach, and I shove my shield into him to capitalize, sending him skidding backwards, off-balance as he recovers from the winding I’d just gave him.

“What’s your problem?!” I shout at him, one of my eyebrows twitching as he charges me again, slashing at me several times in succession. “Seriously, leave us alone and quit acting like some kind of nocturnal dumpster-goblin!”