Standing The Gaff

The man in the cell before me holds my gaze for several moments as if calling for something through me as a catalyst. A trembling rumble suffuses the entirety of the prison, nearly knocking Creil and me into each other. Nearby guards raise their weapons toward the closed cells, prepared to fire at any moment.

Creil then steps back from the cell's edge we stand next to and hauls me with him, a harsh whisper on his lips. As he does so, the figure in the cell, the one I am meant to kill, stretches his lips even wider into a great smile.

"Something's wrong. That was an internal tremor. What is Edward doing?"

The Warden questions Edward's actions while I stare ahead, quickly grabbing his attention.

"The man in front of us. Chris Tain. I think he has something to do with this. Do you see that smile?"

Creil twists from ordering a guard to get Edward to my callout, and he, too, notices the odd grin on Chris' face. As the Warden speaks, I can feel the Ether in his body swirl in preparation.

"What the hell you laughing at, inmate? You think this is funny?"

The Warden releases my shoulder and speaks to the man inside the cell, prompting a response. Chris Tain stands, his body thin and emaciated from the years spent in the Carmine Square. But I instantly detect the power yet hidden within those scrawny muscles.

His outward appearance matters very little if he has a Philosopher at a high Sigil. What truly matters are his chains. I stare vigilantly at the dark blue fetters that coil around him, waiting for them to shift at all. He seems so suspicious.

"Today is the day, huh? I saw it coming a mile away, Creil. And I don't know about you, but I'd instead not be fed to some privileged calf, let alone two, if you managed to gamble my death to the same instant. Thank you for your... hospitality these years. Being beaten half to death is quite the pastime."

Chris Tain speaks low, his voice venomous yet calm. Every word that elicits itself from his mouth, however, shakes the Warden beside me. Creil shouts at the cell, speaking through the thin film that guards us from the inmate.

My left hand tightens on Lily for confidence while the prosthetic prepares to fight if need be.

"What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

The inmate smiles slightly with a curl at the right of his lip as he steps forward, nearing the film. Creil already has a rifle that is missing its stock raised and loaded, aiming it directly at Chris.

"Not a step further. Wyatt. Get ready to kill him."

Nodding, I wait for Chris' move, which is almost guaranteed to come. Ether flows through my figure, loosening my chains and preparing multiple Arbalests alongside an Ironbound. I glance around, checking out the other prisoners, only to find numerous of them out of their jail cells, gaping intently outward.

"Creil. This is bigger than Chris."

The Warden nods just as I see the dark blue on Chris recede, lowering around his upper body as the man yanks back one arm. Creil quickly speaks while his Ether roars to life as well, a tiny little bird of red Ether forming on his shoulder.

"I know. Chris is the most dangerous, however. I've already called all guards to attention. If this is a prison break, we'll just have to kill them all. Now get read—"

I can visibly feel the Ether billowing around Chris' arm as the man throws it forward. The instant before he impacts the film, another tremor encompasses the entirety of the Carmine Square, and I can discern how it weakens the film on the cells.

Chris Tain's cell is the first to be broken open as we all reel back, including the guards already holding onto something for stability. Chainlink Boots quickly recover my balance as I notice Creil's bird fluttering toward Chris without a moment of hesitation.

The Warden, resolute in his authority, unleashes the bird as it quickly ignites, turning into a pyre of burning flame. It blooms with a minor explosion as it barrels forward to thwart the escaping prisoner. The bird streaks towards its target with incredible speed, reminding me of a bullet ripping through the air with trails of flames behind it. It moves so fast that Chris hardly has time to react, but he doesn't seem to need much.

In an instant, the prisoner takes a single step and vanishes, reappearing beside another cell. The fiery avian, undeterred, continues its relentless pursuit, as it twists in the air, leaving behind a trail of fire as it hurries for Chris.

I race to catch up with the Creil's bird as the man fires at Chris with his Colt, each bullet missing due to the prisoner's teleportation. Desperation and the want to gain a Sigil lend swiftness to my steps alongside my Ether. But before I can intervene, the prisoner deftly sidesteps the bird and teleports away, a dance of Ether that defies reason with such a unique Sigil. In the fleeting moment between his vanishing and the bird shifting directions again, the bird collides with the cell as it tries to twist around but can't in time, causing a fiery explosion that covers the entire cell.

A colossal tremor rocks the prison alongside the explosion, sending shockwaves through the crimson walls. The very ground beneath me quakes, and I nearly stumble, even with Chainlink Boots. As I glance up, I see Chris in front of another cell as a muscular woman exits the cell where the bird detonates.

My focus shifts between the two prisoners as Creil shouts at the nearby guards, and they surround the woman, attempting to restrain her, but she quickly proves her mettle. This is the highest floor, after all, filled with powerful 6th Sigileds.

Bullets inundate her, but she doesn't drop. Like me, she is not immune but highly resistant to even high-speed lead. Stumbling from the impacts, she reaches one guard who tries to pull out a Claymore but swiftly has his head crushed by a right hook from the woman.

The man drops instantly as I hustle over to her, wanting to put down this threat as fast as possible while Creil conjures another two flaming birds. But as I move, another man exits his cell with Chris' help, leaving only three more imprisoned 6th Sigileds. And these aren't any old 6th Sigileds. These are the ones saved for incredibly dangerous missions or to be sacrificed for Sigils. Even the Deadman Switches placed inside them will take time to kill them due to their aptitude with Ether if they aren't already disabled somehow.

The domino effect is immediate. Whether it is from this many escaping at once or something to do with the Carmine Square that keeps everything running being tampered with, I'm not sure, however. The prison trembles as if rebelling against the chains that bind it. With each passing second, the Arca that powers this prison loses its strength, its essence slipping away like sand through clenched fists. Before I reach the woman, she manages to kill another guard, and the other three 6th Sigileds escape from their bindings.

I notice them step out of their cells, glancing around before smiling toward Warden Creil. Cursing, I near the woman killing the guards and Arbalest at her. She twists to face me, not realizing how swiftly I can move in a single moment.

Her eyes widen as she raises her arm, meeting the blade extending from my right arm. She barely catches my forearm before the arm-scythe enters her skull. A moment of terrible contested force passes between us as I suck in a gasp of Ether. As I breathe in, I notice the plaque beside her cell. Sarah Heart. Interesting. I never heard of her before.

I expect my arm to overpower her with the enhancement of Strugglers Gasp, but I am entirely wrong. As my force grows, so does hers. And hers grows much more rapidly.

Gradually, my silvery bronze arm is ripped backward, the metal creaking and groaning in effort as Sarah speaks over the chaos.

"What an intriguing young man you are. How's a night sound?"

I ignore her words and slightly lidded eyes, retrieving Lily with my left hand. As I do so, several guards fire at her, the bullets entering her flesh but not going very deep. She grunts at each impact but simply laughs at the uselessness of it all.

Unable to speak, I merely point Lily at her chest. It is a feint. I won't shoot this at a 6th Sigiled, but she doesn't know that. And as far as I'm aware, all decently high Sigileds hold fear in this weapon.

My expectations prove fruitful as Sarah twists away with a shocked gasp, releasing her grip on my right arm. She frantically attempts to dodge Lily's incoming bullet, but I don't grace her with it. Instead, as she kicks against the ground with enough force to crack the floor, I Arbalest at her again, wrapping the hibernating Bloody Palm around her arm as I holster Lily in the same motion.

Then, while she rears back her arm to swing at me, I sheathe the hidden blade of Earl's sinister design into her chest. Torquing the tiny edge of mercury, it breaks off in her chest, and I jump back before she can land her punch. Simply based on how she hit the guards, I'd rather not get touched by her at all.

The woman's eyes widen as she steps back, glancing down at the hole in her chest I made. Sarah laughs at me, pointing at the small wound.

"You think this will stop me? Are you stupid? I've had badgers hurt me worse."

I simply smile back as I see the bright silver of mercury sink deeper into her chest. The amount of the metal in her veins could kill a dozen bears. It will only take some time to appear. As Earl said, the first symptom to appear is discoordination and neuropathy. For such a close-range fighter, that is a death sentence.

And with how much I just put into her, a dozen pounds worth condensed and solidified into a blade, it will come relatively quickly without treatment. So, instead of directly fighting her, I buy some time and turn around, choosing to sprint toward Creil.

"Hey! Come back here, you little runt!"

Sarah follows me, leaving the guards alone as they fire at her, the bullets not doing much. And at this point, they change their targets toward another 6th Sigiled, one of the five surrounding Creil. A half dozen blazing birds surround Creil, hardly able to defend the man.

In the heart of this crimson turmoil, as the pulsating red walls seem to recede back to typical stone, I charge forward to aid the beleaguered Warden. He stands surrounded, a solitary figure against the onslaught of five formidable foes, each possessing six Sigils and deadly Ether to match.

But Creil, a former leader of one of the largest Hunter groups in the world, conjures more and more blazing birds of flame. These fiery avians explode into existence, one after another, as they seek out the prisoners. Even as I race toward him, he proves his mettle, wounding two of the prisoners despite the offset. Terrible burns cover two of the prisoners as they stagger backward. Creil is the Warden of the Carmine Square for a reason. He isn't weak, even if he's retired from the Wilds.

But Chris Tain's scheme seems to break past that by overwhelming the man. Hopefully, Edward can get here soon.

As I escape Sarah toward Creil, I notice her movements become slower and less controlled, the poison taking its toll. It takes several seconds, but once it starts, it builds rapidly. Twisting around, I find her incredible strength waning, and I exploit her vulnerability, dodging her weakening hooks from her fists. She seems confused as she moves slower than she should, but I don't let her recover. Weaving under a swing of hers as she's slow to recover, I unleash an Explosion into her chest.

Unlike most, however, she is not ripped in twain by the detonation of Ether as my prosthetic from Earl vibrates from the force with a hum.

But just because she isn't decimated doesn't mean she isn't damaged. Sarah tumbles backward haphazardly and slides against a wall as a cavity shows itself in her chest. Not quite deep enough to reach her heart, but enough to put her down with the poison. I observe her carefully momentarily as she tries to stand but can't. Her arms flail out, uncoordinated and weak.

Nodding my head, I turn back to Creil.

The Warden, though outnumbered, does not falter. With each explosion of his fiery birds, he sends shockwaves through his adversaries, buying him the precious seconds for me to arrive. He's diving, ducking, and slipping through attacks just barely while he relies on the flames of his Ether to save him. The Warden's creatures conjured of Ether explode and are destroyed repeatedly, but he summons more, an unending barrage that serves as a shield against the overwhelming odds.

I follow up from behind, Arbalesting into one of the 6th Sigiled. I attempt to be sneaky, but Chris calls out the man that I attack, allowing him to react in time. The scythe blade of my right arm cuts through the air over the man's head as ghostly knives appear in his hands, one nestled in the cracks of each hand. I shift backward, forming another Arbalest as I'm out of them in my feet, but I'm not fast enough.

A flurry of knives crisscrosses along my chest, cutting through my Adumbral and leaving lines of hot red on my front. Cursing, I backstep, earning myself some distance as another turns to face me. The one with knives smiles as they approach me, while the second one, a woman with a scar that runs from the top of her right ear to the bottom of her lip on the left side, addresses me.

"Oooh, real sorry 'bout this one, deary. I see you got Sarah. Quite impressive. But... I'd say we're a bit... gruffer. Why don't you just kneel for us, deary? Would you kindly do that for me?"

A voice tears into my mind from the sound of her lungs, and I nearly fall to the floor in obedience. Yet, I manage to resist the order with a swift Daydream that leaves me half-crouched. A wrench digs into my skull, twisting and contorting it as I groan. My vision blurs as I see the man with phantasmal daggers of Ether receive a nod from the woman with a Mentalist Sigil likely topped by a Lawman.

He rushes at me, and I force myself into motion, a painful breath filling my lungs with the Ether in the air. Strugglers Gasp rips around the Ether in the man's blades as I see shock wrack his face. He attempts to back up only a few feet from me, and gritting my teeth with eyes squinted from the pain in my brain, I rush him, slower than before but still fast.

The man dodges backward, evading my first strike with my right arm. I Arbalest at him like a spring as he flips back, acrobatic in his movement. Cursing inwardly, I feel another pang of agony that drops me to a knee. In my peripheral, I find that woman grinning as the man bolts back for me.

With hands on the floors, I tighten my grip, sinking my fingers deep into the now-gray stone. As I do so, I reach deeply, pulling the pain with me as I force it all into the depths of my heart. And the instant before the man reaches me with his dangers, my heart thumps with a powerful beat.

I see the man panic with extreme fear as he recognizes the beat of Painsforge, backpedaling once more. Just as most know the Blooming Spider Lily, there is not a powerful human alive who does not know the beating of Marshall's heart.

"What the hell are you—"

Kicking off the floor, the pain buried in the depths of my heart as it detonates outward with each beat, I swing the blade of my right arm at him. Then he raises his knives and deflects my swing with a deft movement, but the sheer force of my strike leaves him reeling.

I follow up with a kick at his legs, and the man drops, flipping over. Before he even hits the ground, I pounce with a Detonation. Unlike Sarah, this man's chest disappears into a vapor of bloody mist, allowing my hand to create spiderweb-like cracks along the ground. When I kill him, however, I feel an even more significant pain infiltrate its way into my mind.

Again, I fall to my knees. I've gotten Painsforge mostly down. But, not entirely. Intricacies still elude me. Some levels of pain can force their way through my defenses.

It feels like a thousand ice picks are digging their way into my brain, cracking open my skull a dozen times per second. Everything trembles and shakes as my Painsforge falters. The woman with a Mentalist steps toward me, picking up one of the dead man's daggers as it begins to fade.

"You are quite the nuisance. Two of us dying to you? That was not a part of the plan. Well, Creil's luck comes to an end here. We figured he'd bring two or three nobodies, not... well you. Must be quite the boy to get your own Bestowal like that. With you dead, though, he'll wither, too."

The agony rises even further as my whole world turns black. The eyes I see through vanish, leaving me in the dark again. A familiar feeling creeps through me as I take the initiative to enter Tranquility, giving up on Painforge. I can't use the Dzil if I can't feel the pain. But... perhaps it's better if I feel nothing at all.

A second passes in this dark, then two, then three, then ten, then a hundred, then a thousand. Time passes strangely in this skill, sometimes as if it doesn't exist at all and others as if it moves a thousand times as fast.

But when the dark fades, I find myself standing away from the Mentalist woman with her jaw hanging, broken, and limp. She glares at me in pain as pain spikes in my mind once more. While it does, I glance around for anyone who might have saved me until I feel a painful thump in my left hand, one that is calling for action. And for a second, I consider that the Bloody Palm has awoken, but no. It has not.

My lips widen as an exciting thought strikes me.

Skills are different for every person, even if only minor. Tomas' Painsforge is very quiet compared to Marshall and me. Edward cannot do anything but dodge with his Shiver while Edmund could do it all in limited quantities due to his frail body. Perhaps... I can do more than just evade.

I can hit back.