Honest to Himself 32 (Patreon)

For those of you still looking for the other chapters, they are on QuestionableQuesting.

Also, commissioned by Kejmur

Honest to Himself
Arc 5: Scion
Chapter 32

-VB-

Triumph and Dauntless arrived, and together with Armsmaster, they ran into the forest.

Whatever monster that came their way met their ends at their blades and blasts.

Colin noted, as he struck down another plant monster, that the population density of the monsters he and his subordinates were fighting was less compared to the recorded past examples of Protectorate heroes fighting Barrow’s monster in his forest.

“{Armsmaster,}” Dragon chimed in. “{Barrow is going berserk. He is pulling all of his projections away from the periphery of his territory to the combat site.}”

That … was a new development. Because of how large of a territory Barrow’s power affected, the slow-moving nomadic cape had never needed to pull his monsters to fight someone. Even when a Protectorate branch sent all of their capes to fight off his encroachment, he always held back when fighting them.

“{There is some kind of effect that is preventing Barrow’s forest from moving into a location. Zooming in.}”

As he made his way deeper into the forest and now no more than three hundred yards from their destination, he looked at the feed Dragon was providing.

And his eyes widened.

Three stakes, each glowing red, sat at the center of Stitches’ clone formation and kept the ground from changing into Barrow’s forest.

“It’s a power nullifying Tinkertech!” he hissed.

Very rarely did the Protectorate come across a power nullifying Trump.

Even more rarely did they come across a power nullifying Tinkertech.

“We must secure those tinkertech at all cost! Triumph, Dauntless, engage with me! I will ambush them when I get there!”

He increased the strength output of his power armor, and hacked away at the monsters and plants alike.

-VB-

C114 looked up when one of his fellow clones got blasted from above.

It was Triumph and Dauntless.

“Shit, they’re already here,” he growled irritably.

{Shoot to kill.}

Half of the clones retreated into the center of their formation abd pulled out assault rifles and one tinkertech positron beam rifle, and they all fired upon the two Protectorate heroes.

Triumph roared and the bullets blasted away from the intense air pressure while the beam struck Dauntless’s shield and bounced away.

Dauntless dove down like a falcon and struck at one of the shooting clones.

Said clone teleported away and to the back of Dauntless and slammed his feet down.

Dauntless flew too fast, though, and dodged the attack with sheer speed.

Triumph slammed down onto the ground as well, right in between Barrow’s forces to the north and the clone formation, and whirled around while shouting. His shouting blasted outward in all directions and crashed into monsters and clones alike, sending them flying.

Dauntless came down next to Triumph and faced the clones with his shield up while Triumph turned to face the

“I don’t recall asking the Protectorate for help!” C114 shouted at the heroes.

“We’re not here to help you, Stitches! Surrender now!”

“Does anyone fucking surrender when you ask?!”

“MORE INTERLOPERS IN MY FOREST!” Barrow roared from the side.

Then Triumph faltered as [Insomnia] began to settle in on him.

C114 grinned. “Stupid fools. You know we can put you to sleep, and you put yourself in our range?!”

One of the clones closest to the two heroes pulled out a fire axe and attacked.

Dauntless parried the strikes and stabbed forward with his spear, but the clone teleported back before teleporting against on top of the hero. He whirled around and tossed the clone with his shield, but the clone let himself loosen as the shield bash came and then jumped away by using the shield as a platform. The hero grunted at the force of the jump before he quickly brought it back down as the same fire axe wielding clone came for a horizontal strike.

Another clone jumped him from above, but Triumph tossed some stones between him and the ganking clone roared just in time, and that clone popped when the tossed stones rode with the pressure wave and struck the clone’s forehead with the force of a 9 mm bullet.

The fire axe clone disengaged and glared at them.

C114 decided that this was enough. It was clear that they were not going to be able to -.

Clunk clunk CLUNK CLUNK!

He whirled around and saw Armsmaster within striking range.

Right behind C114 was one of the Shaker/Breaker nullifying stakes.

“Shit!” he hissed as he -!

Armsmaster struck first. His halberd swung down vertically and slashed through C114 from the top right of his shoulder and across to his lower left abdomen.

“... you shitter…!” he hissed before he too popped.

---

Armsmaster grabbed the tinkertech stake and quickly ran backwards.

The clones seemed to realize what was happening, and all of them bar three turned to strike him down.

He got the stake. It was now time to get out of here intact.