Book 3 - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Brin took a moment to think about how to approach this. Myra didn't have the same sheer destructive power as Rodrige or the overwhelming speed of Gill, but she didn't have their vulnerabilities, either.

He used [Inspect].

Name Myra Corrigid

Race Human

Age 14

Level 28

Class Weaver

Description    

Myra is a close friend. She likes you, but Davi likes her.

Skills

[Spin] - Myra is able to twist materials into thread.

[Weave] - Myra can turn thread into fabric.

[Manipulate Thread] - Myra can move thread with the application of mana at a drastically reduced mana cost. She can imbue mana into thread, giving it additional properties. This Skill has been upgraded four times.

On first glance, not much had changed recently, but that was only if you ignored the last line of her [Manipulate Thread] Skill. She’d done what Hogg had told him to do a long time ago, and put all her Skill points into the same Skill, rather than taking a wide variety. [Manipulate Thread] had been upgraded four times, while his best Skill was [Shape Glass], with only two.

He also was pretty sure that she had a few Achievements increasing her Magic. Probably one point per level, or maybe even two. All of her efforts during the siege of Hammon’s Bog had been using magic and her Achievements would reflect that.

Myra’s threads were also a lot easier to move. While Brin was stuck hucking heavy rocks around, she was a lot quicker with light, nimble thread.

It didn’t matter. Brin would win. This was the last fight that Lumina would see before she left, and he intended to prove to her that he was worth all the time she’d invested in him. Not only would he win, he would win in spectacular style.

On that note, he had the beginning of a plan.

“Hey, for this one, do you mind if we prepare spells before we start?”

Lumina paused. “I’m not sure if that would be–”

“I don’t mind,” Myra said quickly.

“Very well then, prepare your spells. Nod when you’re ready,” said Lumina.

Davi’s voice came from the crowd. “Shall I play them some proper fighting music?” He stood with his new lute with Zilly and his family. Bruna stood behind him with her arms folded, and she winked at him.

“I don’t see why not,” said Lumina.

He noticed Myra waving her hands back and forth as if she were slowly swimming through a pond. Sharp threads moved through the grass of the square, mowing it down, and then the grass started to wriggle. One weakness of a [Weaver] was that they didn’t have a summoning Skill. She had to [Spin] her threads. The stuff she made with grass wouldn’t be good for clothes, but with her mana empowering it, she’d be able to use it during the fight without a problem. She was taking the chance to build more ammunition.

For his part, he’d had presence of mind to show up in Perris-made leather clothing, made without a single thread for her to take advantage of.

Time to get ready. Brin used [Directed Meditation] to concentrate on forming a spell, Mirror Image. He had to pull the words from [Memories in Glass], and since Hogg had written the spell for a beginner, the incantation was quite long.

When he had it done and all that was left to do was cast, he held the magic on the tip of his tongue and nodded. The danger of [Directed Meditation] was that it put blinders on his brain. All he could think of was the spell he was ready to cast, and waiting for the signal from Lumina. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Begin.”

He stepped back, and pushed mana into [Shape Glass], creating a duplicate right in front of him. The copy was perfect, made from colored glass to look exactly like him, though in the light of the sun there was a bit more gloss than he’d like.

He pushed the glass copy forward with his magic, and by pumping in a wasteful amount of mana, even managed to get it to awkwardly move its legs a little.

Threads erupted from the glass and tied down its legs, and then Myra threw a lasso around its neck. She pulled, squeezing the thread shut and shattered the glass. The action threw Brin out of [Directed Meditation].

There was a brief moment of disorientation as awareness flooded back. He heard screams of shock from the crowd, and also Davi’s music that had begun playing. It was all power chords, sounding bold but mystical.

Myra threw a stream of threads over the broken glass copy and towards him, capitalizing on his hesitation. 

He pushed the copy’s body forwards, and then pumped mana into its core, enough to make it explode.

It tore the attacking threads apart and threw a wave of glass shrapnel at Myra’s face. She swept up a curtain of grassy fabric from the floor just in time to protect herself.

“<Sharpen, Vicious Twist and Tear!>” Brin shouted, directing the pieces of glass to shred the protective curtains.

“<Strengthen, Mend and Heal!>” Myra tried to reinforce her protective curtain, but Brin’s glass cut it to ribbons faster than she could repair it. “<Wrap!>”

She bundled the curtain into a ball and threw it to the side, pulling most of Brin’s glass with it. Her clothes pulled against her, carrying her the other way.

Level up! Hide Status 8 -> 11

Excellent. Now he just needed to win this fight.

Myra had already started snaking her threads up his legs.

“<Glass, Smooth like Water>” He summoned a thin film of glass over his legs, and then jumped, slipping out of her grasp. The threads reached up, following him.

“<Spinning Blade, Summon. Sharpen! Fire!>” He summoned a ninja star, and threw it at the threads following him, backing up while it cut through. The best part of this spell was that it was quick. He threw another, and another, cutting threads as they came.

There were too many, so he summoned blades on his forearms, and slashed all around himself in wide arcs. Cutting himself free, he added more blades, jutting out from his shins, then lining his back, covering more parts of his body so that she wouldn’t be able to bind him.

Her threads were precise, though, and always seemed to find the unprotected parts. Despite his best efforts, more attached themselves every second. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to move. He pushed through, managing to take a few steps towards where the glass mirror image had been. He’d exploded the body, but the head was still on the floor. He cut and tore the threads on one arm, and with that arm free he picked it up the head and lobbed it at Myra. “<Grow, Expand, and Become Corrupted. Melt. Sticky Glass!>”

In midair, his glass head opened its mouth in a tortuous silent scream, and then expanded and turned black. Myra threw up a net to stop it, but the sticky glass splashed through.

She thrust forwards with her hands, and her sleeves unraveled to combine and create a barrier in front of her. Her dress was made of Tawna’s best fabric and it halted Brin’s sticky glass, though he also locked that fabric down. She let her sleeves drop to the ground.

He noticed a black armband on her forearm. He wasn’t sure what it was, other than it was made from fabric, and Value Sense was telling him it was even more valuable than her dress. He didn’t have time to [Inspect] it.

Myra’s onslaught had stopped, so Brin took the lull to create his strongest attack, the javelin he’d used against Zilly. “<With Translucent Sharpness, Biting Glass that Thirsts for Blood. Summon!>”

Myra waved up from the ground. “<Crude Copies, Cover!>” A lumpy fabric scarecrow flew up from the ground and covered her completely. Then two more grew up on either side of her.

“<Fire!>” Brin shot his javelin, hoping that Lumina really could protect Myra in time. His heart went to his throat when the javelin blew straight through Myra’s scarecrow to explode against the far wall of the protective bubble.

Was she not in that one? What was this, a shell game? He hadn’t seen her move.

He summoned two discs of glass and threw them, cutting down the other two scarecrows. 

Oh. She wasn’t in any of them.

He jumped forward on instinct, avoiding a spear of thread that thrust up from the grass where he’d been standing. He turned to see that Myra had somehow gotten behind him.

“<Glass, Summon. Form into a Beautiful Axe.>”

Brin was starting to run a bit low on mana; this was the last wasteful thing he could allow himself to do. He summoned a greataxe, and put just a bit of light mana into it, tinged with the beauty he’d discovered when he’d met the Hidden Guardian. The glass shimmered like a diamond, but didn’t glow enough to give away illusion magic.

Myra held out the arm with the wristband, and it unraveled into a single long black thread. She cocked her arm back, ready to use it like a whip.

Brin heaved and threw the greataxe. Myra slashed with her thread. It met the greataxe in the air and shattered it into pieces.

The thread kept going, but Brin still had the knives he’d attached to his arms, and brought them up to block.

The thread broke his knives as well and left long gashes in his forearms. That's a strong string.

Lumina didn’t stop the fight; she wouldn’t for smaller wounds, only for killing blows, and that actually gave Brin an advantage. He felt a bit of a thrill as [Battle Fury] gave him a ten percent boost to all his stats.

“<Glass, Summon! Form Shield of Hardened Glass.>” He got a shield up just in time to block another whip crack from Myra’s hardened string.

She slashed at him with it again and again, and he blocked. The blows left divots in his shield, but didn’t break through, and he healed pumped in mana to heal them as quickly as they came. She struck at strange and unpredictable angles, but now he had the advantage on speed. She had to move her entire weapon, and all he had to do was move the arm holding the shield. “<Glass, Summon! Form Spear of Hardened Glass.>”

He took his time and made a spear of the same strong material as his shield, one that would be able to withstand Myra’s new powerful thread.

He realized that once again, she taken his summoning time to cover him with threads, locking down his movement. He felt he threads pulling him, trying to take him off his feet and wrest his weapons away from his hands.

Davi’s music swelled for the climax. This was it; one way or another the fight would be over soon.

He saw Myra panting, sweat dripping down her face as she put all her effort into locking his movement down enough to expose him to her strongest string. All her concentration was on him, which meant she was neglecting herself.

“<Fire!>” By now the field was covered with stray glass, and he launched every bit of it that his magic could touch at Myra.

He felt the thread holding him slacken as she focused on protecting herself with another grassy carpet that flew up from the ground.

He tore free and charged forward, thrust out with his spear, and…

“Stop!” called Lumina.

Brin stopped. More precisely, something stopped him. His spear had gone through her barrier, but then it felt like he’d stabbed a tree trunk; Lumina had completely locked him in place.

A burst of applause came from the gathered crowd, and Davi’s song turned into a triumphant crescendo.

He dropped his weapons and the magic holding him went away. The carpet fell, to reveal Myra with her hands on her knees panting. She brushed her dress. The hem had climbed up to her knees, but when she moved her hand over it, the fabric grew back down to ankle length again.

“Oh, here, let me help with that.” Brin picked up the sleeves that he’d melted glass all over and reached for his mana to pull it away. It was nearly spent; he’d put everything into the fight. It was harder than he cared to admit to detach the dirty black glass from the fabric.

They were still gross and dirty when he handed them back. “Sorry.” 

She looked at them, and then shrugged and held them at her side. “No worries. I think the [Laundress] can get the rest off.”

Only then did he look at Lumina, realizing she hadn’t announced the winner. “Well?”

“You know, it’s a little out of the spirit of a magic duel to use handheld weapons,” said Lumina.

“She did it first!” Brin protested.

“I suppose that’s true. Brin is the winner!”

He expected a bit of polite applause, but what he got was a wild cheer. The crowd whooped and hollered. The newcomers grinned, looking impressed, but the native Boggers were the loud ones. He was sure some of the excitement was induced by [Davi’s] music, but maybe some of it was because Brin was sort of popular now? No, more likely it was because Myra was extremely unpopular now, after what her mother had done.

The thought worried him, but Myra seemed more relieved than anything else. “I’m just glad it’s over. That was really intense. I can’t seem to catch my breath.”

“You did great! That was an amazing fight! You know, this is actually pretty fun when it’s safe and it’s not against Zilly,” said Brin.

“She’s kind of competitive. Am I supposed to say I’ll win next time? I don’t want there to be a next time. Fighting is terrifying,” said Myra.

Hogg stepped up and patted him on the back. “Good fight. Well, I don’t think good is the right word. A bit less embarrassing, let’s say. Could’ve done without the ridiculous waste of mana at the start.”

“It wasn’t a waste,” said Brin. “I’m sure everyone wanted to see the Skill I used to take down Siphani.”

That had been pure gaslighting on his part, to be honest. He’d used a mirror image illusion right in front of everyone during the fight with Siphani, but maybe by demonstrating a glass copy here, he’d convince people that that’s what they’d actually seen. Hogg had basically given him the idea, and from the Skill upgrades, it looked like it had worked to some degree.

Hogg snorted, and there was a sparkle in his eye that showed he understood, though he kept up the scowl. “It was a waste. After that, you did ok, though. You too, Myra. Although you could stand to be a little quicker on your feet. Maybe invest in a movement Skill."

"Like my [Athleticism] or Hogg's [Acrobatics'," said Brin.

"You know, I just might. Mother would've never suggested something like that for a [Weaver], but as you can see, she's not here," said Myra. "Anything else?"

 Hogg nodded. "If you’d snuck that stronger thread in with your regular ones, you might’ve won before he realized what you had.”

She shrugged. “Oh. I should’ve thought of that.”

It was too smooth; she was lying. Was there some reason she couldn’t do that? Or had she hoped to avoid using it at all? It was probably her ace in the hole, not something you should bring out for a simple duel for fun. The other theory was that she had purposely held it back, so that he wouldn’t lose in front of his mother on the day she was leaving town.

She noticed him squinting at her. “What?”

“What is that?” Brin asked.

She hid it beneath her sleeve again. “Really good thread. My mother got it from her mother, and now it’s mine.”

“Cool.”

Davi and Zilly stepped up next. Zilly’s eyes were energetic, dancing between Myra and Brin. “Wow, you guys were so cool! Myra, I’m going to make you duel me next time, if you’ve got moves like that.”

“Oh. No thanks!” Myra said.

“You know how I have really good hearing now? Everyone our age is freaking out. That girl over there was like, ‘I think we’re too low level for this town!’ I mean, she’s only level 15 so it’s true, but not by as much as she thinks. Plus, she’ll be relieved to know that the four of us will be leaving soon, anyway.”

All four of them froze all at once. Hogg whistled and stepped away.

Davi sighed. “And there it is.”

“What?” asked Zilly.

“It just seems like we’re about to go our separate ways,” said Davi.

“I could go anywhere,” said Zilly. “If you need to leave, why can’t we go together? I don’t know when, but I sort of thought the four of us would be adventurers together.”

Myra answered, “The path for me here is to join the merchants. I’ll go from town to town until I find one that’ll accept a new [Weaver]. It’s really hard to start any other way. If I end up in a town that doesn’t want me, not getting work is the least of my worries.”

“I’m going with Jeffrey,” said Davi. “Starting as a [Bard] isn’t as hard as a [Weaver], but playing in front of the crowds that he draws is a really big boost. I don’t think I should pass it up. And Brin, you’re going with Hogg, right?”

“Well, I haven’t officially decided, but yeah, that’s right,” said Brin.

Zilly looked between all of them, and then nodded. “Don’t you guys want to travel together?”

“Well, sure, but–”

“Good! Then this is all fixable.”

Davi looked pained. “Zilly…”

“I’ll work it out. Don’t worry about it.”

She turned and stepped away without another word. 

Hogg stepped back up, dramatically looking around as if he expected danger. “Is it safe now?”

Brin gave him a shove on the shoulder, and Myra and Davi laughed.

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t do something ridiculous,” said Hogg. “In the meantime, Brin, it’s time we had a chat. You, Lumina, and I. There are decisions to be made before she has to leave.”