“You know, when all my colleagues developed abilities to make their ships move faster, to grow pulse cannons from any point on the ship, I grew a little envious.”
Syles paced the room, speaking to the person he had fastened to a chair nearly two hours before. This was the first person he found after nearly a full day of searching, which blew his mind. He cut into the ship and hid, expecting someone to show up to investigate the damage, but no one came. He realized he needed more information. Syles used his stealth abilities to move through the ship unseen, yet no one was there to see him. This Seeker ship seemed incredible, but Syles found it completely abandoned. He was not told the nature of this ship when coming out here, but it appeared that someone had boarded and took everyone.
The one tied up mumbled through a simple rag he used as a gag.
“No really! I did. All my… companions…” he said with derision. “Manifested abilities that gave them a direct advantage over me. I grew in different ways, and I couldn’t understand why. They received buffs on their ship’s defensive abilities, and I received my rather unique abilities. Though a rogue I may be, I am not your conventional thief or assassin.”
He continued to pace back and forth, speaking to this person as if he were a therapist rather than a captive.
“Power may be ultimate, but nothing is so black and white. I destroyed everyone in simulated combat with ease, while all I had was the basics. Better ships, better weapons, meant nothing to strategy. Yet I come here, and a single ship… a single fucking ship somehow wipes me out.” His voice grew cold and quiet.
He snapped out in hysterical laughter, turning down towards his captive with wild eyes.
“Of all the recorded abilities Huds can give, you know what we categorize as the rarest form?” Syles asked, seemingly completely changing the subject.
The captive glared daggers at the rather plain looking man in his Class Four Hud. Simple in design, he appeared to be that rare form that incorporates the armor in his body over time, rather than coming out as physical metal plates.
“Well, new things are being discovered each day, but we can broadly break them down into only a few categories. First and most common you have your combative abilities. Guns, lasers, swords, that all fall under that generalization. Second, there are your buffs and debuffs. This is a rather broad group as they can come in all shapes and sizes but remains as the second most common. Third, are the healing abilities. Though anyone can develop a form of healing, Menders are the ones who really take the cake. Then you have all the weird shit Casters can get into, but in reality, those abilities tend to fall under one of those three groups. Now we get to the fun stuff. You know what the rarest form is? I asked, but you didn’t answer.” He laughed again. “But you can’t answer, seeing as you’re gaged like that.”
His captive shook their head.
“Makes sense. To get abilities like this are actually statistically rarer than being assigned a Caster, believe it or not. Abilities like this, like mine, don’t have a name, but I like to call it Mind Magic. Do you know what I mean when I say Mind Magic?”
Another shake.
“I am a Weaponsmith, assassin type. But I don’t sneak around in the shadows, or cloak myself or anything those types do. What I do is a bit more nefarious, you might say. What my specialty is comes in the form of fucking with your head.” His voice dropped the mock pleasantries and turned into a rough growl. “I will fuck with you the way you fucked with my armada.” Spit flying off his teeth and smacking his captor’s face. “Soon… you will have no will of your own. You will be mine. You will give me the information I need and do what I tell you. Then I may kill you, or not. I haven’t decided. You will do my bidding, and you know what the best part is , the cream on the top?” His voice dropped to a menacing whisper. “You will be in there the entire time. You will be aware of what you do, betraying your friends, perhaps even killing them for yourself. And there will be nothing you can do about it.”
