"Run Run Run Run Run Run JUMP... Run Run Run Run-"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"WILL YOU STOP NARRATING OUR ESCAPE?"

 

 

 

 

Elyin had tried to talk to Andrew, but he was having none of that. Shortly after spending his next level to advance as a Clawlock, the main gate leading to the courtyard swung open, unleashing a flood of troops. In a swift decision, Andrew determined that if discretion was indeed the better part of valor, then cowardice was the better part of discretion. With that, he leaped to the top of the government building and swiftly sprinted towards the nearest city wall, aiming to escape the clutches of the city-wide teleportation trap.

 

Miriam scanned her surroundings vigilantly, keeping watch in all directions as they made a beeline for freedom. Navigating was difficult, but Andrew tried his best to stick to as straight a path as possible. Their escape route involved darting along the streets, scaling the sides of buildings to hop across rooftops, then descending back to street level. It was a chaotic getaway, devoid of finesse. Adding to the challenge, their invisibility rendered them with a strange glowing aura, making them stand out conspicuously as a peculiar, luminous outline. It turns out invisibility had been banned in the city and casting it upon yourself got you coated with glittering, golden sparkles.

 

"I'm PANICKING!" Miriam's voice echoed, filled with distress. "I tend to babble when I panic! I'm completely lost! None of the stories I heard from the other imp familiars ever mentioned how to flee a city trying to kill you!" There was a momentary pause before she added, "Someone is tweedling in behind and ahead of us!"

 

Despite Ana Seline being enshrouded by a city-wide teleportation trap, this constraint didn't seem to hinder the city guard one iota. They were all too happy to demonstrate they still had the capability to teleport freely throughout the city, bypassing the trap's effects. However, Andrew observed that they required a brief adjustment period upon arriving at a new location. Consequently, implementing sudden and drastic changes in their path often caught the guard off guard.

 

Andrew long jumped off the roof he was running across, not to the roof of another building, but to a window two floors below the roof.

 

Crashing through, Andrew found himself in a spacious living room adorned with couches and throw pillows. Several elves were lounging about, listening to a male elf playing a large harp. The room fell silent as they all turned to stare, utterly stunned by the sudden intrusion. To them, it appeared as if a six-armed outline of a large humanoid had just burst into their apartment, reminiscent of the predator, albeit with a sparkling, golden aura.

 

Without hesitation, Andrew dashed forward, making a beeline for the open balcony on the opposite side of the room. In a moment of impulsive bravado, he couldn't help but shout, "Get to dah Choppa!" as he rushed past the bewildered elves and leaped into the open air.

 

In Andrew's mind, calculations raced. He was meticulously counting down the moments until his initial set of buff spells would expire. Once they did, his movement would slow considerably, and he wouldn't have the luxury of time to cast additional spells. The relentless trickle of guards closing in on him added to the urgency. Reluctantly, he acknowledged that he would have to take an action he had hoped to avoid. He needed to navigate through crowded areas to limit the incoming guards' ability to materialize in clear, open space.

 

Like the evening foot traffic in the local market street below him.

 

"Why do you keep shouting random things like that?"

 

Andrew landed heavily next to a vegetable stand, causing everyone in the vicinity to freeze in surprise. Ignoring the startled onlookers, Andrew resumed his sprint towards the city walls. Despite his speed, he realized he would likely exhaust his magical enhancements just before reaching safety. Dodging and weaving through the evening foot traffic, he casually responded to Miriam, "It's all the speed effects I've layered. It gives me an eternity to ponder things. Strangely enough, I'm growing rather bored because, from my perspective, this feels like it's taking FOREVER."

 

As Andrew hurried along, he made an effort not to harm anyone, but occasionally, he couldn't avoid knocking people aside in his haste. He managed to cover about three more blocks before encountering another group of guards teleported in his path. Each time this happened, he had to assess the trade-off between the time it would take to engage them in combat versus the risk of rushing past and exposing his back to them. Opting to push through the crowded area, Andrew's gamble paid off as the guards were forced to teleport into the only available open spaces. This left the guards disorganized and out of formation.

 

 

---

 

 

The warlock class was not particularly popular among players. It granted users an unlimited supply of energy blasts that could be customized to some degree. As the user gained more power, these blasts became stronger, could inflict various effects, and were delivered as ranged touch attacks. This meant they could bypass armor, dealing damage upon hitting the target directly. Consequently, nimble and evasive thieves posed a challenge, while heavily armored foes were easy targets for the warlock's attacks.

 

The primary issue with the warlock class was its lack of scaling in damage output compared to traditional melee fighters wielding two-handed swords or dedicated archers. Moreover, opting for the warlock meant forgoing the versatility and utility typically associated with traditional spellcasters. Essentially, warlocks were limited to blasting opponents with their energy attacks, leaving them subpar in both ranged combat and spellcasting roles.

 

Enter the clawlock variant class.

 

In this version, the warlock's eldritch energy blasts were transformed into claws, effectively becoming natural attacks. This change allowed for the stacking of various bonuses, such as additional damage from strength modifiers or the utilization of items like the amulet of the pugilist to enhance damage output. The classification of claws as natural attacks opened up opportunities for synergistic builds. Additionally, there was a feature available to clawlocks that enabled them to incorporate their unarmed damage into their claw attacks.

 

Andrew took that feature when he leveled up, by the way.

 

On top of all that, when Andrew acquired one level of clawlock, his penalty levels granted him the damage output equivalent to that of a seventh-level clawlock. With the addition of his unarmed damage, coupled with enhancements like the merciful enchantment and other bonuses, Andrew's claw attacks became devastatingly effective. Simply waving a claw in the general direction of a guard was often sufficient to incapacitate them, about ninety-five percent of the time.

 

To the onlookers in the crowd, witnessing two guards materialize out of nowhere, only to be swiftly dispatched by an eight-foot-tall, glowing outline of a six-armed predator slashing with purplish-energy claws was undeniably unnerving. The sight of this formidable figure rushing past without breaking a sweat left the crowd feeling more than a little apprehensive—perhaps even a bit scared. A tad bit unnerved, one could say. Crowds, as a rule, tend not to react with level-headedness when spooked.

 

This crowd in particular was experiencing something akin to blind terror.

 

At that moment, panic swept through the rank-and-file normie elves, prompting them to flee in mass hysteria. Perhaps it was this development that caused the elves to cease attempting to obstruct Andrew's path—it had become too risky to intervene with so many innocent bystanders nearby. Instead, they anticipated his movements and proactively cleared the streets ahead of him. As the city wall loomed closer, the crowds began to thin out, yet there was no sign of reinforcements teleporting in to block his path.

 

As they nearly reached the walls, Miriam dared to ask, "You think they're just going to let us go?"

 

Andrew winced, "Don't Say Something Like-" but before he could finish, thirty-six elves clad in warrior and wizard attire materialized around them. They were strategically positioned in a staggered circle, spaced out enough to evade a single area of effect attack but dense enough to intercept any attempt to break out of the encirclement.

 

As they appeared, the ecto puppet vanished.

 

Andrew had prepared his defenses against dispel magic, but whatever they employed against him specifically targeted summoned creatures, catching him off guard. As the gelatinous body suit dissipated, Andrew acted swiftly, reaching up to seize Miriam and pulling her close, holding her tight in his grasp.

 

Elyin called out, "WAIT!"

 

Andrew whirled around, scanning his surroundings before locking eyes with Elyin. She had materialized directly in front of him, her appearance unchanged except for the addition of an intricately designed cloak. With her hands open and outstretched, she approached him, her expression pleading. "Please," she implored, "Listen to me!"

 

Andrew nodded but didn't look at her. He just held Miriam protectively and slowly turned in a circle, glancing about as if looking for an opening, "Okay..."

 

Elyin closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, "I'm sorry. I am. Everything has been handled quite poorly. It took a bit to explain things to my superiors, but I think I got through to them."

 

Andrew kept turning around, "Uh-huh."

 

"I know you haven't killed anyone. You have taken great pains to only knock people out who got in your way. You even saved the lives of people who would have harmed you." Elyin gestured around at all those gathered around, "This is over, one way or another." She held out a hand, "But if you give yourself up, I promise, things will be different."

 

Andrew kept turning around, "Okay..."

 

Elyin squinted. Something seemed off, "So... you are agreeing to surrender?"

 

Andrew kept turning around, "Uh-huh."

 

Elyin lunged forward to grab Andrew, but her hands passed through an illusion.

 

"Ah, you've caught on," The illusion remarked. Andrew halted his turning, fixating on a random point in the distance. "By the time you realize I'm no longer here, I'll be long gone," The illusion continued, "Don't attempt to trace my teleportation. I'll be unleashing the fiercest Scry and Die you've ever encountered as soon as I return to base, then teleport away from that. So while I've tried to avoid causing harm, anyone attempting to scry my location WILL fry." With a smile and a wave, the illusion dissipated, leaving behind only empty space.

 

Elyin looked around as she backed away. Everyone gathered started looking around as well, trying to figure out how their target had escaped so easily.

 

 

---

 

 

Andrew and Miriam had stepped outside of time.

 

 

As everything around them froze, bathed in a soft, grey glow, only Miriam and Andrew retained their vibrant colors. Andrew reached into his backpack and retrieved a playing card. Giving it a tender kiss, he paused in contemplation before tossing it onto the ground where he had been standing. "That might buy us some time," He remarked. An illusion of Andrew and Miriam appeared in the exact same position they had been standing, taking on a grey scale appearance like everything else that was back in normal time.

 

Miriam looked around, hovering over Andrew's shoulders, "What just happened?"

 

"Stopped time. Didn't want to resort to this. The side effects suck," Andrew muttered as he gathered Miriam in both hands against his chest and prepared to leap. "But we're almost there, so why take chances?" With a surge of energy, he poured four times the usual amount into his jump, effortlessly soaring up and over the city wall. Upon landing on the other side, his expression soured. "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!"

 

"What's wrong?"

 

"I assumed the teleport trap covering the city would end at the walls, but they extended it out a ways," Andrew muttered. He focused on extending the temporal velocity effect, granting himself more 'time' outside of time. Despite sensing the building backlash, he knew he couldn't risk ending the effect while still inside the field.

 

With determination, Andrew broke into a sprint, heading away from the city as directly as possible. Their speed was painfully slow as he could feel all his short-term buffs wearing off. Fortunately, with no chance of being attacked, he could put everything into running, forgoing any sort of defense. Hopefully, they could reach the edge before time resumed.

 

In his head he ran the numbers, tick-tick-tick. Just as he saw the edge of the teleport trap, he ran his final calculations. He'd have just enough time to make it to safety, assuming nothing else went wrong. Upon stepping outside the teleport trap, he uttered, "{Holy Recall}".

 

They appeared next to the tree he kept his shrine in.

 

Reaching inside, he flipped open the ornate box and pulled out an egg. Throwing it at the ground, the spell Scry and Die took effect. Anyone attempting to trace a teleport to this location would be for a nasty surprise for several hours.

 

Miriam looked about the greyscale world that still surrounded them, "So when does this-" She waved around to indicate the rest of reality, "Wear off?"

 

Andrew seized the shrine itself and forcefully yanked it from the tree. "Right after this." He muttered through gritted teeth, "Whatever happens, just ride it out." With Miriam firmly in his grasp, he focused his concentration on one final incantation, "{Sacrificial Spell: Two third-circles to Holy Recall}" He intoned. As Andrew let the temporal velocity effect laps, they were teleported to the only other shrine dedicated to Andrew's god on the planet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one located on the second floor of Andy's Apothecary.