[CYA] Chapter 189: Crafting and Sparring (Patreon)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d9_ex3HeJclt-KLIeNwUIKODyXGzmQ2LPRUzG7f0RlI/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Staging Bay>

Natasha’s force hexes were very simple magic. Powerful, but simple.

Her overarching spell was actually quite complex, but that was because it created a collection of hexes that moved with her and at her will in addition to floating backups that would slot in at need for an ablative, renewable defense.

Alex only needed the smallest, most basic component of that symphony.

He checked, then rechecked, then checked again.

Yes, he’d remembered the words in the language of power and how they were caveated. The hexes for him to step upon would be a bit bigger than those composing Natasha’s defensive magic, but that was taken into account.

Finally, he input the confirmed version into Fan’s device, checked it one last time, and smiled. “That’s it. Thank you, Natasha.”

She nodded once and turned to go. “Have fun.”

He blinked a few times. “Don’t want to watch?”

She shook her head as the door opened before her. “I’ll see eventually. I’ve lots I want to do.”

Alex shrugged. “Suit yourself. Spar later?”

She waved in acknowledgement, the doors closing behind her automatically.

And, counter to all of Alex’s expectations, that was it. That was all that he needed to verify in order to make this work.

Fan used the device on both shoes, creating the small changes in material portion of the shoes’ magic, leaving the final anchors as very precisely placed empty bits for Alex.

He didn’t like the crutch of the machine, but it kept him from having to cut open his shoes, make a ‘close enough’ opening, and seal it back up. Over all, it would simply be better to have these items to train with now, then having to wait weeks, if not longer.

In truth, he wasn’t using the device to the fullest, but he couldn’t, given he was runewrighting with Life and HP as medium and power source rather than mana.

He had considered just letting the machine make it out of mana and following that standard path, but without inserting a power source of some kind, it would have been incredibly vulnerable, likely falling inert and losing the added magics the first time he took the shoes off.

And that was without considering the issue of it pulling on his MP constantly, a resource he never felt he had enough of as it was.

He hadn’t been willing to accept either of those down sides.

Alex put the shoes back on, then put his hands around them, acting as if he were putting something from his Inventory into the empty spaces now within while he actually put one hundred Life into each one.

From there, he did what he’d been utterly unable to do in the past.

Using his class and skills—specifically Life Manipulation, but also Mana Manipulation seemed to come to his aid as he was shaping a spellform—he pulled that Life into strands, forming it as he needed, just as he had with the dreadweaver magics. He suspected that his class was doing some heavy lifting, allowing skills and features that might usually only apply to magic and mana bridge the gap to assist in shaping the spellforms.

The connection points of his new instruction-sets linked to the connection points of the System’s magics on the shoes, ensuring there would be no interference and that the effects would synchronize.

But, importantly, there had to be a physical medium, and getting something that interacted with Life—let alone his Life—was hard enough that his skills had impressed the hurdle as one of the most difficult aspects of making items with Life and HP as components. More than that, as already noted, it had to link Life to mana, which narrowed the options further. Living steel would be quite useful, but as he’d already lamented, he didn’t have any prepped. What he did have, however, was something that could work quite nicely.

He leaned on a skill that he hadn’t had much use for so far durring this scenario, and Life Blood Transfusion moved a drop of blood—filled and primed with his Life, HP, and aspect—into each connection point, his Life easily linking to his life’s blood. It took two per shoe, so four drops in total.

From there, it was relatively simple, the device having effectively primed the shoes to take power in this form. It wasn’t quite like pouring into a mold, but it was far easier than free-hand drawing.

Thus, between the prepwork done by the device and his class and skills it took very little time to get the language correct and linked to the footwear, intrinsically, allowing the additions to meld with the already established magics.

A System notice popped up, immediately telling him of his success.

Item Modification Successful:Minimalist Shoes of the Traveler (Common) modified to Omni-Stepping, Minimalist Shoes of the Runewright (Rare)

Experience has been earned.

Omni-Stepping, Minimalist Shoes of the Runewright (Rare)These minimalist shoes will seem to all but fade away on the feet of the wearer, while maintaining comfort in all natural weather conditions and providing protection and secure footing on all sorts of terrain, almost regardless of the suitability of the footing.

Additionally, when triggered by the wearer’s mind, these shoes will draw on the wearer’s HP to create small hexes of force upon which the wearer can walk, run, jump, or stand.

Requirements: The wearer must have access to the aspects of force and life.

Alex whooped and laughed. They were exactly what he wanted. It also confirmed what he’d thought about aspects and items. As the wearer was the power source, it depended on their aspects rather than the crafter’s.

He was also glad that he had the life aspect, or he wouldn’t actually be able to draw on his own HP… Or it might have manifested differently? He wasn’t sure.

All that bore further consideration, but not now. Now? He had footwear to test.

But before even that, there was something more important to ask about. “Fan?”

“Yes, Alex?”

“How can I get one of those devices?”

The man chuckled. “Well, I think this one is worth about a billion merit, or more contribution than your whole crew would get in a year. It’s expensive to effectively mimic a large section of a class’s capability.” He gave a consoling smile. “It’s a D Tier item, Alex. The only reason we have it is that it’s all but required to work on our suits.”

Alex’s eyes widened, and he glanced toward Imotih. “And that’s why…”

She nodded. “Precisely. We’d be disbanded as a unit if you broke it.”

Alex paled slightly. “Well… Thank you for your trust in me?”

Fan snorted. “It’s a D Tier item, Alex. If your ship shot it with a full salvo, it would hardly be scratched. My second is just paranoid.”

“That is my job, Prime.”

Fan grunted in acknowledgement. “Fair, fair.”

Alex shook off the momentary disappointment and refocused on what he’d gained.

Renewed shoes.

He stood up, feeling no immediate difference. Then, he moved as if to walk up a staircase that wasn’t there, and right where he’d have expected a step, his foot stopped.

His HP flickered briefly, and he was sure he’d only paid about five points, recovering it effectively instantly. At the same time, a softly glowing, verdant green hexagon of force appeared below his foot, aligned for best effect.

Such a bit of force would actually be difficult to gain traction on, given its lack of texturing or any materiality, but the core function of the shoes kicked in, and he had no issue stepping up.

The moment of truth.

He launched himself upward with the force-planted foot, feeling a briefly increased drain on his HP until he pushed free, leaping some five feet up.

Alex then twisted and acted as if there were a wall beside him, moving to plant his other foot upon it to jump sideways.

Once more, when his foot reached the point where he wanted there to be an anchor point, his HP briefly flicked down and another hex appeared, allowing him to vault off of it to the side, before it vanished as well.

Alex… slammed into the nearest wall of the large room, but thankfully, he did so hands first, minimizing the impact.

Thus, while it was rather undignified, he wasn’t hurt even as he came crashing down.

He landed on the ground in a bit of a tangle, but he was already laughing. “These are perfect. Thank you, Fan.”

The Prime came over and offered Alex a hand up. “You are most welcome. I’d love to see what you can do with those in combat.”

Alex huffed a laugh. “Yeah, let’s do some sparring.”

He stretched his neck as they moved into the wide open section of the large room.

Alex had become used to Juba’s fighting style over hour upon hour of sparring with the patient man. He was like a fortress, stalwart and powerful as he struck out from positions of power, only moving as much as required to gain better angles of attack or to spoil Alex’s own assaults.

Well… that was true for weapon-based fighting, but that was the important thing in this moment.

Natasha was like most spear wielders—at least that’s what Alex imagined—striking forth like a snake before pulling back to strike again. Her shorter spear allowed for more maneuverability if less range than might otherwise have been the case, but the general sense was the same.

Grant was a charging bull, using power, detonation magic, and his hammer to blow through all that he fought.

Fan Vanel, Prime of the Fire Drake Platoon on the other hand? He was a flash flood, the waves on a hurricane-ravaged ocean.

He swept across the room as an inexorable tide, but he didn’t crash through opposition when he found it. Instead, he turned that very resistance to his advantage.

The man was using a training sword, but instead of being a wooden version of his curved weapon, it was a metal band that he snapped around the handle of his standard one, just below the crossguard.

Imotih had lent Alex hers that he could make his dadao ‘safe’, and it sheathed the blades in both a cushioning force and mild aspecting effect to momentarily weaken and numb the area struck.

Alex lay, groaning, on the ground, much of his body in the process of recovering from the odd, tingling sensation.

It was interesting, since it wasn’t a wound or damage to his HP, his ludicrous regeneration didn’t affect the sensation, and given it built with every hit he took… He had at least another thirty seconds before he would be able to stand.

Fan was sitting beside him. “You know, Alex, everything you do is well executed and aligned with proper technique, but it is as if you are simply stringing together a series of perfected actions. You do occasionally shift mid-movement, but…”

The man frowned, and his second clucked her tongue. “You’re a conscious fighter. You aren’t following the flow of a fight, you’re actively considering what’s happening and trying to choose how to act to counter it.”

Alex frowned at that. He hadn’t been a conscious fighter by the end of the last scenario, but now? …Yeah, he could see it. His Mental Agility was getting high enough that he could over-think in rush situations, and he was falling back on old habits. Even so, he wanted to check that he was conceptualizing this correctly. “So… I shouldn’t think about my actions?”

She snorted. “Of course you should. It is far better to avoid battle when such is wise, but in a fight? I must be instinctive, reactive, and faster than thought. Even if you have monumental Mental Agility, you cannot actively choose every action, not if you wish to fight at your best.”

She then walked him through a few places where she’d seen this flaw.

<Alex, Retelling - Combat Training, Innominate Staging Bay>

Alex stepped backward, avoiding Fan’s cut across his middle even as his own sword chopped downward.

The slippery prime slid around the chop, using the repositioning to bring his blade into another sweeping slash.

The danger in the attack was obvious, and Alex lifted his foot, stepping down on a hex to launch out of the way.

“Right there!” Imotih’s voice paused in the recounting, and Alex thought closer.

“Ahh, I see it. I’m already moving, and if I’d struck with a knee, or even kicked out…”

Imotih grunted. “That’s good thinking, but it doesn’t help you. You obviously have some means of sensing danger, and you are right to react to it, but you are still looking. What do you feel?”

Alex frowned, his form paused mid-leap.

He felt… danger?

His eyes widened.

<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Staging Bay>

Alex nodded. “I think I get it.”

She smiled. “Show me.”

Alex pushed himself to his feet, then closed his eyes as Fan squared up against him. “Start.”

Fan didn’t wait, and Alex’s Spherical Sense told him of the incoming danger.

More than that, though, he could feel danger from almost every direction. It wasn’t present danger. It was danger that would come to him if he moved in those directions, in certain ways.

It was an interaction between his 4D Movement skill and his Spherical Sense.

He leaned on that, allowing those two to plug into Advanced Kinesthetics and Stress-Interoception.

Alex also felt a tug and brought up Shaped Force Burst and… Basic Small Force Blade?

In less than a breath five things happened essentially all at once.

First, Alex leapt upward, flipping himself forward even as his head stayed in basically the same space.

Second, a long blade of force briefly appeared on the back of his left hand, letting him bat away Fan’s sword without encountering the aspect field directly.

Third, Alex twisted sideways, moving out of the circling arc he’d knocked the long curved blade onto.

Fourth, his tucked legs pushed out and up, force-hexes flicking into existence to allow the midair redirect and full-power lunge.

Fifth and finally, Alex’s dadao thrust forward toward where Fan had to move to maintain his blade’s deadly momentum.

The seemingly hyper-compressed instant passed.

Alex flashed forward, and the ring of steel was followed by a grunt of pain as Fan’s block was an instant too late to fully avoid the blow.

Alex was past the man, hitting the floor and rolling back to his feet in less than a second. He turned around to find Fan holding his chest with a triumphant smile on the Prime’s face. “That was excellent!”

He took several obviously painful breaths, before the numbing and tingling seemed to pass.

Then, the prime brought his sword up. “Now, let’s see if we can press you to that level for more than just an instant.”

Alex reflexively created some water and swallowed. Ahh… Yeah… It makes sense that he’d been holding back…

It was going to be an… informative session.

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