Chapter Sixteen - Melee Three

My hand closed around the hilt of Tremble, melted steel now shaped to my hand, as I opened my eyes.

I had now died ten times. It wasn't any more pleasant then before. Without Dauntless, I would have had some serious PTSD issues right about now.

Damn, a swarm. I had literally no way to fight a swarm of size at this point… or multiple swarms, if that was what they were. Swarm damage was impressive and continuous, and half damage meant there was no way I could kill them before they ate through everything I had left. All the dodge and wisdom bonuses to AC in the world didn't help you when a bunch of rats were crawling all over you.

So… getting out of that room was going to be even harder than I thought.

The main way of dealing with swarms was AoE effects, because they took double damage from them. My solutions there would be in the neighborhood of alchemical fire and frost and the like, but I would have needed a bunch to deal with a swarm that size, or the multiple swarms. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a boss rat behind it all, either…

Or rat-men. Mmm. Hoping for rat-men. Rat-men might carry gear…

The other alternative was getting Swarmbane on my Sword, or making a Swarmbane Amulet, which allowed normal damage against swarms.

The one option meant building the Name of my Sword, and somehow improving the QL of it to 26 so I could open the Zvei Slot and start building an Arsenal of alternative Runes on it. The other meant finding something I could use as an Amulet, and then precious materials I could burn to Invest in it. Precious materials I was somehow going to have to take with me, or somehow find the time to Invest.

The former was definitely easier. The latter meant I would have it up at all times, so when the roach swarm hit, I was already ready for it… or whatever.

Still, today was a Big Day.

Melee/3!!!

I had died ten times. I was five points closer to maximum Soak, which should be around 57. Taking a Melee level was an instant +4 Soak over an Expert, plus FC bonus, so I should be sitting at my new max of 62. Dying toughened a girl up, after all.

No change to saves. Armor Mastery +1 kicked in. My Dodge bonus in light or no armor increased by 1, yay, AC increase. MAB to +3, yuzzzz!

Combat Technique, Skill Technique, bonus Feat of either type, Mastery Advance. Another +2 to Maneuver resist pool, now at +6. 9 Skill Points to allocate, still limited to 3 ranks, grrr.

Gained a General Feat for Level 3. Bonus General Forsaken Feat!

Weaponsmith +1 to 3, Climb +3, Acrobatics +2, Lumberman +3. Damn, all I wanted right now was +5, couldn't they at least give that to me?

Anyhoos…

Mastery Advance: Sword Mastery/1, giving +1 to hit and damage. Weapon Spec doubled that, to +2/+2! Huge, huge increase.

With MAB +3 and Ocean and Crystal Mastery, I could now get the first half of the Profound Weapon Styles of Ocean and Crystal Mastery, Flowing Waters giving +1/+1 and Crystal Splitter giving +0/+2. Naturally I went with Flowing Waters for a +1 to-hit for now. I'd also need Way Mastery to learn Frozen Tears, the Glacier School, which allowed both styles to stack. I could switch between them, but doubted I'd need to. I'd just use Flowing Waters to fuel Deadly Precision if I needed a damage bonus.

And given the situation I was in, I might be taking a very different route with my swordplay this time than I had in game. I'd have to see…

Combat Technique: Profound Primary Weapons. This technique treated all my Primary Weapons as monastic, meaning they could advance with damage over time like my unarmed damage, and more importantly, any Feats with IUS could be used with the weapons, if applicable.

Like, oh, Soul and Fist's +2 damage bonus. A d8/d12 longsword right now would have two advances, to 2-12/3-18.

Yes, I was much, much more dangerous with a sword in hand, vs. my d8 damage flesh and bone.

Skill Technique, Lightning Reflexes. +2 to Reflex Save, +4 at Ten. Increased by Armor Mastery, so +3 currently. As a Technique, also gave +2 AoO's and +2 to Initiative, which meant I could potentially skip an Inspired Combat Reflexes if I was satisfied with +3. Now maybe I could dodge that damn dog's hellfire breath a little better…

Feat was Combat Reflexes, since it was centerpoint to so many Feats that I needed and used. I wouldn't be running out of attacks of opportunity anytime soon. Since I was a Melee, the bonus increased by my Expertise Bonus, currently at 1. It also allowed me to advance my position in the initiative order by my CR bonus, every round, eventually meaning I'd always gain the initiative the longer combat went on. It didn't help for the first round of combat, but allowed me to judge the ebb and flow and take advantage of it very quickly.

General Feat #1: Regional Feat, Big Game Hunter: +1/+2 TH/Dmg against size L or bigger creatures! Which was everything but the spiders for now, and I got Foe Hunter against them after slaughtering so many…

General Feat #2 took me a while to settle on. I wanted to pick both Way of Shadow and Way of Fire, but because I didn't have the House Mastery, I couldn't take either. I settled on Extra Ki, which granted me two points of ki, and opened up the Ki Mastery, which could get me 4 more with Advances.

Why did I do that? Because it brought my ki to 10, which was one side of what I needed for my Vajra. Which meant all I had to do was hit 10 Essence with my next Soulshaper Level, and I had my Vajra.

I really wanted my Vajra.

My combat abilities had improved significantly in just one day. This scissor-sword of mine was now a 2-12/3-16 damage killing tool. My to-hit was now +3 MAB, +whatever my Strength was, +2 for Sword, +1 Attuned, +1 for style, +3 for focus/spec, +5 for Finesse, +1 for talent, +2 for Way of Water. A whopping +18, with Foe Hunter, Big Game Hunter, and Wardance still on the table.

Damage was 2-12/3-18, +2 Spec, +2 Sword, +Str X, +2 Soul and Fist, +1 Attuned, +1 Cunning, and +2d6 Sneak Attack possible, for +8 base. I could take down the dog and cat much faster now, let alone the constructs, and spiders I should be able to just massacre.

It was time for me to do some killing.

I did two hours of sword katas in Ocean and Crystal Forms to prep myself and get used to the physical characteristics of my blade, ki and Essence streaming around and through it, moving it more then my arms did. Arcs and angles and responses fluttered through my mind, not as fast as I felt they should be, but better than before.

I walked into the mists.

------

Ha.

Ha ha ha!

Effing Fido! Take that!

Both its front paws cut off, the hell-poodle looked up at me with its burning eyes.

"Payback is Hell, isn't it?" I asked it conversationally, and its eye flickered. "Yeah, I know you can understand me." I blew charred hair out of the way, and stared down at it. "I don't know if you remember toying with me, but that's all changing, and it's going to get even worse in the future." I stretched out as the floor began to rise over in the corner. "I left you alive so you could enjoy being eaten alive by rats."

The burning eye turned, its head jerked in that direction.

"Of course, if you burn your way through them, you just might live. But I don't think so." I leapt atop his huge dark body, balancing on the mesh of his metal sweater and ribs, watching the chittering horde start to assemble, and stream in our direction. "Let's see who lasts longer, you or me!"

They came streaming towards us. Fido managed to inhale once and let loose a long, low blast of hellfire as he lay there, hamstrung and de-pawed, barely able to crawl. Dozens of rats were promptly incinerated, splitting the horde and sending it streaming in two directions, one arcing for his flanks, one for his head.

I was just a happy bonus.

I split a lot of dog-sized rats apart. Fido lasted long enough to get off another breath, and then they were burrowing into his throat and eating him alive. Less then a minute later, they were all over me in a wave, and I over-balanced as I was ripping them off me and hacking them apart all around me, falling into the writhing black mass below and buried in a lot of nipping teeth immediately thereafter.

But I had lasted a LOT longer then last time, and Fido hadn't been able to get into my Health.

Tomorrow was going to be even better, and the day after, hehehe…