"What a waste of a good fucking Healing Vial," Deacon let out a slow, tired sigh as he crouched beside the still-warm corpse. He rifled through the cadet's pouches and pockets and found a few items: a cracked Lesser Mana Crystal, three ration bars, and a bent badge marking him as a Class E cadet.
Nothing of use to him.
Leaning back on his heels, Deacon yanked the academy-issued cloak from the cadet's bloodied shoulders. He spread it out on the floor and began piling anything salvageable onto it, canned beans, half-crushed snack bars, sealed jerky packets with faded branding, whatever hadn't been cracked open or spoiled.
"As he worked," he muttered to himself.
"You made two mistakes, my dude. First, if Jass really shattered your potions when the both of you first spawned in, which was when everyone did, then that pouch shouldn't still be wet, as it's been 29 hours since we've arrived. Second…" He paused, pulling open a box of dried noodles and tossing them in the bundle. "For all the wild and daredevil-like attitude she exudes, she's never one to start a fight with someone without any good reason."
He cinched the makeshift sack shut with one of the cadet's belts and slung it over his shoulder as he made his way back up to the attic.
"So, if what you said was true and that she attacked you right after you suggested teaming up, you were definitely trying something more than just 'talking'."
Deacon stood, rolled his shoulders, and cast one last glance at the body. "Wrong person to lie about."
Deacon entered the storage floor and paused for a moment to look through the shattered glass pane that gave him a glimpse of the ruined skyline of Seattle.
The ominous yellow glow of the radioactive thunderstorm had faded and was instead filled by a rising yellow sun.
"You're a lucky bastard," Deacon grumbled while shaking his head in annoyance. "You're so fucking lucky I haven't tossed out your corpse outside for the mutants and rats to chew on cause of what you tried to do to Jass."
He dropped the bundled cloak of food beside the empty crate he'd found earlier and reached for the laptop, and carefully wrapped his Poncho of the Radiation Walker atop it. With swift movements, he nestled the wrapped bundle into the crate and padded the sides with some old cloth and paper that sat atop a nearby shelf. It wouldn't do me any good if a leak happened or if someone comes across this while I'm out.
His hands didn't stop moving as he hid away the laptop, but his voice dropped into a low growl as he muttered, "the fact that you made it here at all… with that level of skill? And almost got done in by a housecat…" He snorted. "You didn't survive Jass on your own. No way. She would have gutted you in less than three moves… Which means that you weren't alone. She had to fight off more than just you."
Deacon slid the top of the crate closed with a dull thunk and hoisted it up onto his shoulder with a grunt. "And if you came running into this place in a panic like that… then that means that she's still somewhere nearby..."
He ran up it three steps at a time and once he got to the roof, he jumped atop a fallen water tankard and began to scan the rooftops around him.
As he did so, he took notice of the ruined skyline, and within it, he saw a couple of cadets far off in the distance fighting off various Elites and regular mutants atop rooftops.
But none of them were Jass.
BOOM!
A flash of light flared in the far distance, followed by a rolling wave of pressure and a pillar of black smoke rising against the rumbling, dark yellow clouds that covered the sky.
Deacon didn't wait a second longer as he bolted across the rooftop of the convenience store and in the direction of the exploded gas station.
He sprinted across the rooftops without care of the mutant birds that lunged at him as he passed by.
Smoke rose in a twisting column.
He vaulted over a ventilation unit, slid under a rusted pipe, and came to a sliding crouch on the edge of a decaying rooftop just as the street fight came into view.
Jass!
A long red scarf snapped in the wind, blood-stained and torn, her boots braced in a wide stance. She pivoted around a group of attackers, three of them. A mage flanked her left, hurling shards of metal like throwing knives. An archer behind cover fired in controlled volleys, while a heavyset warrior charged head-on with a two-handed maul.
Jass moved like she was in a dance, her glaive spinning in deadly arcs. She parried the maul with the reinforced haft, the force sliding her a half-step across broken pavement.
Sparks erupted where steel glided atop steel.
She gritted her teeth, bleeding from the ribs where an arrow had grazed her earlier. The warrior began to raise his maul overhead for a killing blow after an arrow stuck the blade of her glaive.
Deacon felt goosebumps flare across his body at the scene in front of him.
He dropped the crate uncaringly to the side with a thud, unsheathed a short sword from his back, and surged mana into his right arm as he cocked it behind him – as though it were a javelin. It surged like wildfire, veins bulging under his skin as the power pooled and coiled, burning with raw force.
"Get the fuck away from my friend!" he roared as he launched the short sword forward with all his might.
The blade tore through the air like a javelin, glowing faintly with fire mana. It sailed over the alley's edge and slammed into the warrior's neck just as his maul was less than a foot away from her neck, crossing the fifty meter distance between them in less than three heartbeats.
*[Human Lv 3 // Warrior Lv 4] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
There was a wet crunch as Jass, the archer, and the mage watched as the warrior's head snapped to the side and staggered back, dropped his maul, and collapsed with a heavy thud, blood spilling across cracked tiles.
Jass quickly regained her cool and darted toward the Archer in the far back.
Deacon vaulted off the rooftop, landing hard and low on the next with a roll, already sprinting to keep up. He pulled free his second short sword, the worn hilt warm in his grip, and surged mana into his legs, just enough to cross the next rooftop and reach the next one over.
On the ground below, the mage shouted in panic and launched a scattering barrage of Metal Shards toward Jass. She twisted mid-run, using her glaive to deflect what she could, the rest grazing past her as she powered through the barrage with gritted teeth.
The archer fumbled with his next shot, clearly shaken as Jass was closing the distance between them in record time, her glaive spinning into a wide cleave that sent his bow flying and opened a gash across his shoulder.
He has no daggers, Deacon noted. Or any backup weapon… Bro, what the hell is going on in Class E for this to be the norm?
He screamed, backpedaling, but she was already too close.
Deacon watched from above, his eyes scanning the battlefield. The mage had retreated a few steps, clearly intending to cast something bigger at Jass as she focused on the archer.
You're too late for an overcharged, AoE spell, you bastard.
He planted a boot on the edge of the rooftop and launched himself forward, falling from above in a blur of motion.
He crashed into the mage, fist-first, knocking the spellcaster flat on his back and sending his casting focus clattering across the pavement. Deacon didn't give him the chance to recover as his short sword plunged down in one precise strike, slipping past weak robes and into the mage's chest.
A system ding echoed faintly in Deacon's mind.
*[Human Lv 4 // Mage Lv 4] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
He let out a short exhale as he yanked his short sword free just as Jass swept the archer off his feet with the haft of her glaive and followed up with a brutal follow-up strike that tore through his chest and sent out a geyser of blood into the air.
After spitting on the archer's corpse, Jass turned to him, chest rising and falling with each breath, with blood smeared across her cheek.
Her eyes found him almost immediately.
She blinked, as if verifying he was real, then let a tired but genuine smile break through. "Thanks for the assist, Deke," she said, lifting her glaive and resting its blade on her shoulder, fingers tightening around the worn grip.
Deacon wiped his short sword on the mage's robe and walked toward her, shaking out his arm as he did. Burning pain flared, starting from his shoulder all the way to his wrist. He fried his mana channels all along his right arm.
Blood seeped through the seams in his leather sleeves, black and blazing, trickling down the fingertips of his glove onto the cracked asphalt.
"Anytime," he muttered, smirking at her, though the expression twisted quickly into a wince. "Got any healing vials?"
Jass's smile faded, her brows drawing together as she looked at his arm. "I used all of mine, just keeping them off me. Sorry…"
"Don't be, I wasted mine for stupid reasons," He waved off her concern with his left hand. "Besides, I'd gladly fry my mana channels any day of the week for you and the rest of the gang."
Without wasting another word, he walked over to the warrior he'd killed, the one whose throat his short sword had punched through. With a firm grip around the leather-wrapped handle of his short sword and a boot pressed against the guy's head, Deacon yanked the short sword free and wiped it clean on the warrior's plated chest that unfortunately had zero enchantments on it.
No chestpiece replacements, unfortunately.
Then he crouched beside the body and began rummaging through the man's pouches, flipping open flaps, checking for any accessories or vials beneath his armor.
In the end, after stripping the guy to his boxers in his search, he found two healing vials, thankfully uncracked, and a pair of mana vials still sealed with wax atop the cork. No stamina vials, though. "Figures," he muttered.
"Hopefully this asshole carried better loot than he fought with," Deacon muttered. "'Cause if not, I'm using them for that bait recipe Bonehead taught us two years back."
Jass let out a short and tired laugh as she leaned her weight against the glaive, keeping watch as Deacon searched through her attackers' corpses.
He tossed the loot into a small pile and moved to the mage's body next, his boots scraping over scorched tiles. The robes were burned along the edges, but the pouches hadn't melted through.
Inside one, padded with cloth, was a Lesser Mana Crystal. Jackpot. He also pulled out two bundled pieces of travel kindling and tucked them into a free pouch he had. Pulling back the sleeves of the mage's robes revealed a thin, ordinary bracelet of brass on their left wrist; however, a quick application of Identify revealed its true worth.
Item Name: Gilded Band of Clarity
Type: Accessory – Bracelet
Rarity: Rare
Description:
A thin, elegant bracelet of polished gold, enchanted by a mother who wished to pass on the trade of witchcraft to her daughter. It hums gently with latent energy, sharpening the mind and hastening spellwork. For the mind that sees clearly, speed is simply foresight.
Effects: +5 Int, +5 Wis, +5% Cast Speed.
"Well, that's an amazing find." He whistled low. "Pearls before… what was the saying again?... Fuck, I don't know, Pearls on a pigs neck… Yeah, that sounds about right."
Getting up from beside the mage's bloodied corpse, he turned on his heel and walked toward Jass, who was still watching the area around them, the tip of her glaive lightly resting against the cracked concrete. Her body sagged just slightly, the fight and the adrenaline finally fading from her limbs.
Looks like that took more out of her than I thought.
"Here," he said, dropping the crystal, the bracelet, and the four remaining vials into her waiting hands. "I'm keeping two of the health ones, the rest are yours."
Jass blinked, surprised. "What?... Deke, you deserve half the share… And don't get me started on the Bracelet."
He shrugged, rolling his sore shoulder. "I showed up at the tail end of the fight. You tanked three of them solo – four if we're counting the ice mage from earlier that I killed… You're out of vials, and you're better at magic than I'll ever be, so just take them. I need you at your best so we can find Esmerelda and clear the Floor."
Her fingers closed around the items slowly, her expression unreadable for a moment before it softened. "Thanks…I was almost in deep shit right there."
"What are you acting all shy now for? Normally, you'd be threatening to shove your glaive up my ass for not having helped you earlier." He quipped at her before making his way toward the building's edge, and once he did, he let out a low whistle as he looked out over the ruined skyline of Seattle.
"Come on. I know a place we can hole up for a while. Somewhere secure and stocked with food – you look like you're about two steps from collapsing, and I can keep watch while you rest," he said after seeing her completely exhausted look.
Jass let out a breath and fell in step behind him. Her glaive tapped once against the roof before she lifted it and followed his lead.
"You sure?" she asked, glancing at him. "I feel like if I sleep now, I'll sleep for a week straight."
"I'm sure," Deacon replied with a smile, as he leaped from one rooftop to another, going at a much slower pace for Jass in her exhausted state to keep in tempo with him and not try to push herself even more. "I woke up a couple hours ago, so I'm good for now. And if anyone else tries to jump us…"
He gave her a wide grin as he downed the health vial. "…I'll just throw another sword at them."