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Vanguard
Chapter 7
Sever
A/n: Sorry for the wait.
Also, big thanks to Trav for helping me out with editing this chapter.
This is also the big fight chapter. I personally recommend listening to Billy Talent's Viking Death March, or Sabaton, or some other kind of Rock music.
Click
He let out a breath with closed eyes.
Well, that's that.
"…Philip?"
Had he lacked his centuries of training and experience enduring the most trying of times, he would have jumped at the sudden intrusion of his silence.
Instead, he held it inside and cursed profusely, if briefly, in the privacy of his own head. Rubbing a tired hand over his face from the stress of it all, he opened his eyes and glanced at the woman looking curiously at him with a smug quirked brow.
It was the look of a woman who didn't know what she was looking at but knew she was going to find out.
Well… He thought, his eyes flitting around the very public room, I probably shouldn't have done this here
Letting out a breath, he let the issue go, nothing for it now
At least none of them speak Terran.
"My apologies, Carol," He said instead, "That was an associate of mine."
"Oh?" She smirked, "Cayde sounds like a fascinating fellow."
"Yes…he is," He grit his teeth, looking back the cellular phone in his hands.
To be frank, the black brick was little more than a prop. If he really wanted to talk to Cayde he didn't need something as archaic as the brick in his hands, and there was little anything in this timeline could realistically do to stop him. It took dedicated and advanced equipment from the various factions to have a hope of successfully doing so, and each faction was centuries, if not millennia, more advanced than anything here on earth.
With another exhale, this one the lightest of the three, he let the annoyance and stress flow out of him.
"Cayde and I served together," He explained, "He's a good man, but like all men, he is not perfect."
He allowed his face to twitch into a semblance of a grimace for a moment, "He can be…impulsive, reckless, dismissive, arrogant, and even selfish."
"Doesn't sound like a particularly good man to me," Carol remarked.
"No, I suppose he doesn't," He nodded.
"But…" He began, tapping his finger against his leg idly, "Beneath all that, I respect him. He's dedicated to the cause of the righteous in his own way. For all his snark he's a cunning tactician in his own right."
Then he snorted, much to her surprise, gesturing towards the board on the table, "You know, I have little doubt he'd be far better at this game than I am."
Athena, for her part, blinked in undisguised surprise. She considered Philip to be an expert and prodigy in strategy and tactics. He was articulate, well-read, and wise, all things she could respect. But, to see him admit to respecting someone else, to pointing to someone as being his better?
The idea of it just…boggled her. She couldn't' wrap her mind around it.
The Cayde cannot truly be this good, can he? Otherwise, he would not ask Philip for advice. She told herself, But why would someone as great as Philip say this?
"But…he asked you for advice?" She asked, trying not be too insulting. Mortals tended to react negatively to insults directed at their friends.
Zavala rubbed his chin as he moved back to his seat, trying to figure out the best way to put it. "Cayde is…"
He nodded, finally figuring the best way to put it. "Cayde is more focused on the small picture, looking at a narrow scope and the effects in the short term."
"Put him to a game like this," He said, tapping the wooden board, "And I have little doubt he'll work incredible miracles that will make your head spin."
"But," He added, raising a finger, "put him to work on something with a much broader scope, and longer goals…"
"…Such as making a city," He pointed out, gesturing out the window to the beautiful view of the campus and the city beyond. They could see the students outside going from class to class, the people on the streets going to work, shopping in the districts. People making a living, trading goods and services. They could even see the USS Boxer moving in the bay.
"Well…that is more my area of expertise."
Looking at the city like this, a living breathing city filled with people, untouched by the darkness was…refreshing. It reassured him of his purpose, grounded him.
He had to admit that he was glad that Cayde and Ikora had made him take time off. Seeing humanity again, even if it was before the Golden Age, thriving was a breath of fresh air.
This he thought proudly, this is what I fight to protect.
Athena tapped her finger against the arm of the chair, considering what all Philip had just told her.
Interesting…
She could see Philip being a man more about the long game. It explained a lot, really. She wasn't sure how she felt about it, though.
Well, that was a lie, she knew she liked it. She liked the idea of someone who considered thatlong-termm consequences of their actions. It was another piece of the puzzle that filled in what she knew of the man, and it was something she rarely found in mortals. Most of them had no vision, only seeing what was right before their noses.
For him to claim that he was a man about the big picture was very interesting indeed. Still, it was just a claim. She didn't have definitive proof of what he could do.
She had hints.
Oh did she have hints.
But it could all be wrong, it could all simply be a ruse.
She doubted it, but it was possibly, and as the goddess of Wisdom she would be remiss in her duties if she discarded the possibility of failure and disappointment.
But that wasn't the issue.
The issue was that she wasn't sure how to respond to the other revelations.
Namely his friend.
Should I test him too? She considered, weighing the costs and benefits.
Hmm…probably not She decided, at least, not right now.
While he might be interesting, I still have yet to put together the puzzle that is Philip. Cayde might have other clues, but he might also present a whole new puzzle that would suck me in, and it wouldn't do to work on too many at once.
Then I'd be little more than a rabid dog, snapping at all the prey in sight, but all the while never getting a single one.
So instead, she pushed that matter to the side, and decided to focus on the more relevant position.
Phillip Zavala She smirked, looking at the man who was drinking in the sights of the city with hungry eyes, who did you fight, and where did you learn that tongue?
She knew she could probably flex her divine muscles, metaphorically speaking, and found out by taking it from the government that commanded him.
She could
But she wouldn't.
To do that would feel like…cheating. And not the proper kind, no, this was the kind where the only one you cheated was yourself. If she peaked at his files, well, that'd just give the game away, wouldn't it? No more puzzle to solve, no more pieces to place, she'd know everything.
And where was the fun in that?
Oh no she thought, opening her mouth as she began to invite him for another cup of coffee.
He's a puzzle I want to unravel all by myself.
Lara loved puzzles.
This was a fact.
A fact that many knew well. Another well-known fact was that she abhorred violence. Ask any one of her friends, and they'd tell you that she detests it with all her heart.
Except, perhaps, one of them.
Cayde supposed it was an easy mistake for most to make.
It's probably helped by the fact that such an assumption would fall in line with most people's moral compass. A kind of confirmation bias, if you will. They want to believe that Lara hates violence, so they notice all the signs that she does.
But Cayde, despite what some might say, was far from a fool.
He was old, very old. He's seen his way through dark and light, seen some of the nastiest men in the world and some of the kindest souls in existence.
So, when he looked at Lara, he didn't see a girl that hated violence.
Oh no.
As he saw Lara take the spear she'd fashioned from an arrow head wreathed in Greek Fire and an oar, and shove it into the chest of a Draugr, he knew that she only hated how much she loved it.
She wasn't as bad as Dregden Yor, she didn't love to kill. Instead, she loved the rush of battle, no matter how much she told herself she didn't.
She wasn't a monster, she was just scared of becoming one.
It was a situation that Cayde couldn't say that he was entirely unsympathetic towards.
He saw her duck under the swing of the second Draugr, darting backwards out of reach. The old creatures, surprisingly quick, ran forward, trying to rush her, but the narrow corridors of the ship gave them little room to maneuver, while funneling them all right into Lara's reach.
She jabbed the first one coming at her right under its guard, hitting it in the leg with the burning tip. The fire immediately consumed the leg, causing the monster to stumble and lose it's balance, holding back the one behind it.
In that moment, the first one lost its balance and the second one was forced to stop, she took her chance and thrust the flaming spear with all her might, impaling the two of them upon her makeshift lance.
Just as a third tried to ambush her from behind, having used the side passages to flank, she slammed the butt of the oar into it. The spry thing managed to twist out of the way, using the momentum to strike at her with the axe.
Not wasting a moment, Lara dropped the spear and rolled under the swing. As she came up on the opposite side of the Draugr she whipped out her climbing axe from her side in one swift moment. As the undead creature spun to cave her head in with it's axe, she deftly parried with her tool, hooking its axe with her own's hooked "blade", and forcefully twisted it out of its hands.
As the Draugr's axe clattered to the ground behind them, Lara slammed her shoulder into its chest, tackling it to the ground. Once there, she slammed her climbing axe into its chest with all her might, the axe puncturing all the way through the creature's meager armor, rotted flesh, and even bone, before finally coming to a stop after embedding itself within the deck itself, pinning the beast there like a nail.
The creature lunged up at her, trying to tear at her with its own two hands, but Lara was too quick for it, darting away once more with the speed of a cricket. With her opponent pinned to the ground before her, Lara took the opportunity to pick up the spear by her side once more and thrust the fiery tip into the head of the rasping monster.
With the last beast dead, Lara unceremoniously jerked the spear out of its head, before yanking her axe out of its chest.
Goddamn, does she have talent He smiled.
"Damn, girl," He whistled, "You cleaned up pretty good."
"Oh, well, you know, I might not have wasted so much time if someone had helped." She snarked sarcastically, throwing him a withering glare.
She didn't mean it.
…Probably.
"Nah, you had that." Cayde dismissed.
" 'Sides," He shrugged, "Bullets are expensive."
"I've seen you make bullet out of thin air." Lara said flatly.
"Ah, but that wasn't cheap." Cayde remarked.
"You're a goddamn wizard." Lara said, exasperated, "For god's sake, I've seen what you can do with a knife."
"True…" Cayde acknowledged, rubbing his chin in thought as he considered some of his greatest feats with a knife that she got to see.
"…Would you believe me if I said I just wanted you to get the experience?" He finally said
She gave him an unamused stare, before finally letting out a sigh and saying, "At least you're not coddling me."
It was things like this that told Cayde how much she really loved fighting. Lara didn't like killing. He hadn't seen her do it too much, and while she did jump to it kind of fast the times he did, to be fair they had shot first.
With a rocket.
It's kind of hard to de-escalate from there.
But, no, as far as he could tell Lara simply loved fighting. It's not a surprise, she was damn good at it. It's hard to hate something you're that good at, and it's hard to be that good at something you hate.
"So how's the spear working out for you?" He asked.
Lara frowned, giving the spear a long look, before she finally broke it over her knee two feet down it's length.
The result was that she now had something of a long spike with a fiery blue tip, as opposed to the makeshift spear.
"It was too long." She said, "It was far too big for me to properly maneuver it around in these tight corridors."
"It also keeps them from maneuvering." Cayde pointed out.
"Not enough," She shook her head. "They can still twist out of the way or deflect it. Considering I couldn't even turn the damn thing around properly, it was more of a problem for me than for them."
"Alight, makes sense," He finally nodded.
"Anyways," Lara said, switching topics, "Shouldn't you be heading off to your own ship?" She asked.
"Ah, right!" He perked up, suddenly remembering the reason he had followed her, "I forgot to give you something."
Her brow crinkled as she gave him an odd look, puzzle by what he meant.
"It's not much," He said, digging into his coat with his left hand, "But it's better than nothing."
"Think of it as a loan."
"The hell is this blasted thing?"
"I believe it's a shotgun, Captain."
The man with a grey beard scoffed, shifting the gun in his hands. "Some bloody new age fancy shit." He cursed in Finnish.
The man behind him chuckled to himself silently, "Maybe you're just due for an upgrade, old man," He responded in kind with a thick German accent.
Charles was a simple German man. Paranoid, perhaps, but simple. He did his duty to his country, and now he just wanted to retire peacefully with his family. Preferably far from some of the enemies in the country that might be out for his blood.
That was the whole reason he had taken this more unorthodox method to head out to Finland. He knew the language, he'd been teaching Hilde, and their daughter would pick it up quickly enough.
Sure, some people might have thought that he was retiring a bit early, he was only 32 after all. Well most people hadn't gotten shot three times and stabbed twice in four raids. He'd been all but ordered to retire after that. There wasn't a damn person in the force that didn't respect him, but everyone agreed that he was walking trouble magnet and he probably wouldn't last another 5 years in the force before something finally did him in.
So here he was.
On his way to a nice sedate life in Finland living off his pension and raising his daughter. Far from any excitement.
Then this shit happened.
Suddenly a door in front of them slammed open. A large Draugr that towered a whole head higher than either of them sauntered out, a two-handed axe held in its withered arms. Its head twisted to give them a baleful blue gaze filled with hate an-
Boom
And suddenly, now lacking a head or much of an upper body, the burning remains of its corpse fell to the ground bonelessly. The deck and walls behind it were sprayed with a black ichor that seemed to be these creature's variation of blood.
The captain, an old man with a white beard and nearly bald head, spat on the thing in contempt.
"At least it kills the bastards," He remarked, racking the pump.
The gun in his hands was, at a glance, normal to a layman. To the two of them, there were some odd things about it. First off, while it was a gunmetal grey, there was an odd symbol painted on the barrel that somewhat resembled a large orange V with the gap filled in with white.
The bigger issue, of course, was the fact that, upon further analysis, they didn't know what it did. Oh, sure, many of the basic parts were familiar, the tube magazine, the barrel, the pump, and even the stock looked normal. But the receiver was heavily modified, and there were all sorts of additions they didn't really know what to make of.
What they did know was that the thing did not take 12 gauge shells. Best guess, they were 8 gauge, which was far from a normal size, and should kick like a mule. Despite that, the recoil was manageable. It was there, but it wasn't in danger of breaking anyone's arm. Plus the spread seemed to adjust depending on how far the target was.
Up close, it had a wide spread, all but obliterating them. At long range, it was more like a densely-packed cloud that punched through them. Charles was working on the theory that it was some kind smart choke that adjusted itself based on the range to target. Nifty, but he wasn't really one for shotguns, himself.
The strange American had given it to the Captain, handing out guns to all the ones he deemed liable not to shoot themselves with it. Smart, considering normal firearms barely did shit against these monster, but strange considering he appeared to be able to just pull an endless stream from out of his coat.
Cayde, as the man had introduced himself, had said he was a Warlock.
Charles, as was said earlier, was a simple man. He didn't believe in magic. But that was before the dead had risen from the waves to take the ship.
After that, he was willing to believe in fucking fairies.
And while something in the American's voice gave Charles the impression he was joking, being able to summon guns from nowhere wasn't exactly normal.
But as Charles shouldered the rifle in his hands, a gun that, at a glance, resembled a modified M4 carbine with a wooden stock and a kind of reflex sight, he found he didn't care too much.
All he needed was a cause to fight for, an enemy to eliminate, and a weapon to strike with.
Everything else was just execution.
Lara was finding that sneaking out of the cargo ship was easier than she thought.
The next part, however, was much harder.
Unlike the massive cargo ship, the vessel that had sailed up next to them was much smaller. While the cargo vessel towered over it, forcing the Draugr to use ladders to get up, this didn't help her much when the thing she had to destroy was all the way down there, something she'd have to destroy up close and personal.
Compounding the problem was the fact that not only was it a long way down, but the ship only had one deck. Once she was on there, there was no hiding. Especially not from the four very large and well-armed Draugr guarding the glowing blue rock.
Come on, think Lara she frowned as she peeked over the edge, knowing there had to be way to do this.
Smarter, not harder.
Going down the ladder to face them all would be suicide, they'd see her coming from a mile away and she lacked the means to reasonably pick them off.
Not to mention her experiences in Yamatai and Kitezh had taught her to avoid direct confrontation whenever she could.
A shiver went down her back as she remembered the Lost City, buried under the ice. It was cold there, colder than it was out here, but the chilly air still reminded her of the bloody place. The biting winds, freezing water, and ice and snow for as far as the eye could see. The valley was a paradise in the middle of a frosted hell.
It's easy to see why Jacob built a city there she smiled fondly.
Then her eyes widened and her mind ran wild as she spotted something very special. Realization and innovation slammed into her like a freight train, setting her mind ablaze with what felt like an obvious discovery as possibility after possibility coursed through it.
Unbeknownst to Lara, a smirk slowly crawled its way onto her pale face.
She ran over to the object discarded onto the ground.
It was a bow. An old, ancient, and rotting bow next to some ashes that had likely been a Draugr at some point, but it was still a bow.
Grinning, she swept it up into her hands, pulling back the string to test the weight. Finding it to her satisfaction, she nocked her one and only arrow into a casual place.
She ran back to the edge of the ship, looking back down to the boat below to make sure she had her angle just right. She stepped back, pulled back the string, took careful aim.
And let the burning blue arrow fly high.
She was gone before the arrow reached the peak of its arc.
I've got you now
Now this is more like it
Cayde could admit that he'd been getting a little bored. He wouldn't dare mention it to Zavala or Ikora because he knew that they'd bring up his decades being the Hunter Vanguard in the city, and that was just…
Cayde shivered, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy
Still, at first going around shooting things again had been fun.
Finally, after nearly half a century sitting on his ass, he finally got to go out and do stuff. Sure, there was the occasional time he got his hands dirty, like Taniks and Oryx, but the rest of the time he had to do organizational stuff.
And paperwork.
By the Traveler's Light, the paperwork.
The worst part was despite the fact that A, he was a walking supercomputer, and B, there was no actual paper involved anymore, he was still swamped in it.
Cayde wasn't sure if it was ironic or just sad that of all the things to survive the Collapse, the term paperwork was one of them.
But that was the past/future, He was finally back to doing stuff on earth. Getting boots on the ground and getting his hands dirty. It was refreshing, it was rejuvenating, it was…
It was boring.
The shiny novelty of being able to do things again wore off after the first year or so.
Now, that wasn't to say it was all boring, he still got to explore a new culture and all the aspect within. He was doing his job as a scout as only he could.
There were just two problems with that.
There wasn't really much of anything…new. Sure, in it's own way, everything was new to him. But it wasn't new to them. The best way he could describe it was going to a new city. Sure, everything felt new to you, but everything you 'discovered' had already been found by someone before you. You were just playing catchup.
There wasn't the same thrill of discovery as when you found a centuries old Golden Age compound, hidden in the undergrowth. It didn't give you the same rush was when you navigated through the traps and defenses, hoping beyond hope that maybe, just maybe, this place might have something useful.
And the absolute surge that you got when you cracked open that last door, and found a treasure inside that made it all worth it.
Instead, it was just…learning the lay of the land where many men had been before.
Cool, fun, but…just not the same.
The second problem was, well, the stakes.
Here, everything was relatively safe. They didn't even have darkness, at least not in any meaningful measure, which meant they probably didn't have a single thing that could put him down permanently. They didn't even really have much that could put him down at all. It was all just so easy for him.
There were a couple big guys that were a challenge, but if Cayde was being honest that was mostly because he was holding back by a large margin. Like that big lion thing he fought. It had been something of a tough fight, but that was mostly because he only used his knife and his Ace of Spades.
One or two Golden Gun shots and Cayde was confident it'd be dead all the same. Hell, a grenade in the mouth would have been trivial to pull off. He doubted it would have been able to stand a trip mine going off in its gut.
The fact that they couldn't really kill him and he could kill them far too easily was all made worse by the fact that there wasn't that impending sense of doom hanging over him, that sense of desperation, that humanity was one step away from being wiped off the board.
But here?
Now?
As he spun out of the way of another axe cleaving through the air in his place, popping off three shots of his hand cannon, drawing a knife in his left hand to parry the backswing of the axe he just dodged, he could honestly say that he felt alive.
He jumped towards the wall, evading another strike from a Draugr that was far too close for comfort. The undead thing spun to face him, aggressively pressing him with its axe in hand.
And was met with a barrel shoved right in it's face.
The loud retort of the Ace of Spades caused it's head to detonate in a burst of golden light that washed over Cayde's form.
Not wasting time on celebration, he jumped backward, using his light to give his boots a firm hold on the wall, and diving under a second axe flying by his body. He landed on the deck right behind a second Draugr before shoving his knife into the base of the thing's skull. It ignited in his golden flames, burning to ash as it fell to the ground.
Three down, He thought, standing back up straight, and only 18 more to go He thought, looking down the long hallway filled with Draugr.
The swarmed the corridors, their numbers more than enough to swamp any normal gunfire.
To Cayde, it was a golden opportunity.
The lights of the hallway all burst in a fit of sparks, bathing the hallway in complete darkness. The hungry blue eyes of the Draugr closing in the only source of light.
And then the corridor of darkness was cracked open by the blinding light of a small star. The burning light blazed brightly, ruthlessly, and relentlessly. The metal deck, walls, and ceiling around it began to melt, warp, and even glow under the extreme temperature. The Draugr stumbled for just a moment, hit with a wave of heat.
And in the center of it all, Cayde stood, Ace of Spades at the ready.
At first, there was no sound, only light.
Only an almighty wall of light.
Then came the sound.
THOOM!
On the other side of the ship, a blinding spear of light exploded out of the wall, flying off into the distance before slowly dissipating. In it's wake, a massive tunnel of molten metal had been burrowed through several dozen meters of hull plating. The still glowing metal sagged and pulled towards the bottom, hissing loudly as the cool fog came into contact with the molten slag.
And behind it all stood Cayde, looking on at the destruction.
"...huh."
He deactivated the Golden Gun with but a thought, the Solar Light dissipating and collapsing back in on him.
"I should probably be more careful with that." He said, beginning to strut forward.
Back in his own timeline, his Golden was still powerful. He knew this. The problem was, he didn't have a proper sense of scale with old pre-golden age vessels.
I thought it was just going to barrel through all the Draugr and leave the ship fine He thought. As he stopped before the pool in front of him, he looked down.
I guess not.
He shrugged, before putting his foot forward. Rather than have his foot sink into the pool he used his light to condense the air under him, allowing it to act like a solid in relation to his body.
It didn't act like a strong solid, certainly nothing strong enough to stop anything that might actually hurt him, but it was strong enough to hold his weight. Using the hunter Double Jump technique like this was pretty difficult. Figuring out how to double jump at all was usually all most hunters got to. They might be able to put more power into it to jump farther, and some managed to have enough control to and one or two more jumps before they had to re-stabilize.
But the veterans? The old Hunters that had been mastering their craft for over a century?
The knew the secret of Air Walking.
...I should probably hurry up Cayde considered.
Then he nodded, and moved.
In just three steps he flew across the river of steel and over the side of the ship. He halted his speed immediately by forming an air platform in front of him and flipping to land feet first on it. The momentum of his speed kept up with him, the force of 12 G's attempting to crush him, but he ignored it easily. For a moment, he just hung there in the air. Quickly spotting the Draugr ship below him, he flexed his legs and shot towards it.
He slammed into the wooden deck of the ship with a loud crack, wood splintering and fracturing all around him, but the boat remained whole.
A flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and Cayde rolled the the side, a massive blacked axe biting deeply into the wood in his place. His instincts blared and he whirled around, twirling a knife in his hands.
He parried a smaller hand axe aimed at his back. He moved to fire his gun into the thing's gut, but another axe came flying at him from the side, forcing him to parry with it. For a brief second he engaged in a small duel with the Draugr in front of him.
Unlike the other Draugr it had blackened and rotting flesh, rather than the taught nearly skeletal appearance. A black pus oozed out of lacerations in it's skin, angry blue flames fiercely raging in each of the holes in it's helmet. It wore dark, rusted, and blackened chainmail armor with sopping wet and mud encrusted furs mixed in. It held two axes in it's hands, both of a similar design with intricate, yet rusted, designs carved into the heads.
Some kind of Major he thought, deflecting an axe with the barrel of his gun before moving to slam the butt of it into the creature's helmet. It deftly moved out of the way, twisting just enough in order to avoid the gun, and in just the right way to power another axe flying to his side, one he parried with a knife.
This one was faster, stronger, and more skilled than any of the other Draugr he fought.
But it wasn't good enough.
Deflecting the axe with a quick parry of his knife he used a burst of speed to quickly slash it across the chest of the undead being. The armor somehow managed to keep his light-enhanced blade from completely slicing the thing in half, but the burning blade still managed to leave a deep burning gash running from hip to shoulder.
The creature stumbled back for a moment, all Cayde needed. He drew his gun up and f-
He was forced to dodge to the right when an axe crashed into his place again.
Dammit, he cursed, looking over the deck again.
There were three of them, three elite Draugr. One held two axes, another one great axe, and another bore shield and sword.
In that instant, Cayde denoted the first a Berserker, the second a Raider, and the third a Warlord.
The third one rushed him with a rusted black shield held first. Cayde tried to dart to the left under and behind the shield, keeping out reach of the sword in its grasp. The undead warrior responded by smashing his shield into Cayde's position. Cayde darted back, out of reach, but found himself one step from falling off the boat.
Before he had time to think about it, the shielded one pushed forward again, his round shield leading the way. Cayde didn't have a clear shot to his body, so he tried to shoot it's foot. While the thing's toe exploded in a burst of black gore, it only gave him an angry grunt of pain.
It gave a rebuttal to his attack in the form of a sword thrust. Rather than giving Cayde a massive opening, the warrior angled the shield to cover the extended arm. Left with little choice, he darted under the sword arm, trying to flank to the thing's unprotected side.
He was met with that two-handed axe swung toward his face.
In a burst of instinct driven reaction he jumped, flying backwards over the edge of the boat.
He landed on the surface of the water with his Air Walking, and gazed back towards the ship.
The three stood looking back at him, the glowing crystal behind them.
"Well...shit." he cursed. While none of them were, on their own at least, good enough to match him for more than a few moments at best, they covered each other. They weren't just brutes, they were trained warriors who worked as a team. Any time he managed to get an advantage over one of them, the other would fly in to cover them.
He took a couple shots at them, but the shielded one dashed in front of them. His shield flashed with some kind of blue rune covering it, and the shots were deflected into far off directions. He would have just blown up the crystal, but a simple glance told him it was made of something similar to the Source, something that was tougher than Relic Iron, and would require more than a couple rounds from the Ace of Spades to crack the thing open.
Quite the predicament.
And then Cayde did something he hadn't done in far too long.
He laughed.
He laughed a deep, powerful, laugh right from his soul, not the light, bitter, sarcastic, or even joking laughs he'd done before.
"Oh man," He began, reloading the Ace of Spades, "You guys are good."
"I like that," He admitted, the cylinder of the revolved clicking shut, "it's been far too long since I had a real challenge. You're even tougher than that damn lion I had to fight."
"This is what I live for!" He exclaimed, his arms spread wide.
And then he disappeared in a flash.
He Blinked into position back four meters above the ship, before throwing himself back down behind the three of them.
They were upon him in moments.
What followed next was a brutal up close melee. His Ace of Spades discarded for another knife, he parried, deflected, and cut wherever he could. It was a close fight, several times the blackened blade of the enemy ran across his shields when he wasn't quite fast enough.
But then, as a whisper quiet hum developed in the air, the end approached.
As the Raider's blade descended, as the Warlord's sword thrust forward, and as the Berserker's axe approached, it arrived.
BA-THOOM!
With a blinding flash of light and the deafening blast of thunder, the three were forced back.
In between all of them stood Cadye, wreathed in arcs of blinding blue lightning crackling over his form.
Then he twitched
And he moved.
His movements were like flashes of lightning, over in an instant and carving through the air itself. The Elite Draugr tried to counter him, and with all their skill and strength they managed to put up a worthy attempt.
But they couldn't hope to truly keep up.
He dashed through and around them, his blades making blue cracks in the sky as they passed by, the high energy temporarily turning the air to plasma if only for an instant. He Passed through flesh, iron, and bone with all the same ease as it cut the sky.
The left arm of the Raider flew off his shoulder before Cayde's blade plunged into his heart. Lines of Arc Light traveled across his body in an instant, before flash vaporizing him and leaving nothing left but ash.
One knife cut a molten line through the shield of the Warlord, before his second blade embedded itself into the back of it's skull. Another flash of light, and it was just ashes.
In another burst of movement, both knives worked in tandem, slicing and slashing through the flesh of the Berserker. The first slice of the hand, the second cut of a wrist, the third slice through the shoulder completely, and fourth severed the other arm. In a brief instant of peace as Cayde drew each blade back, his charged Sapphire eyes met the azure flames of his enemy.
Then each blade plunged into the Berserker's shoulder on either side of it's neck. Cayde drove each blade through it's body, carving two massive burning lines through his body, cutting him from neck to groin.
It fell to the ground in pieces, his body turning to ash from the residual Arc Light.
Turning towards the crystal, Cayde shoved his blade into the heart of the thing, and discharged the last bursts of Arc Light into the unholy creation. Cracks formed upon its structure before it could take no more.
It exploded, throwing him back and sending a blue pulse through the air. Moments later he stood back over, looking over the blackened crater where it once stood.
Well, that's one down
Two to go
On the other side of the ship on a very similar boat a little over a minute ago, three Draugr when suddenly, an arrow flew down from out of the night sky, it's blazing form puncturing the wooden deck and imbedding itself into the old oak planks. Immediately three pairs of burning blue eyes shot up, looking around with all the attention and dedication of a wizened warrior.
But there was nothing to see.
Finally, after a tense moment, they moved on.
In the black darkness of the foggy night air on the boat, the only light upon the boat was blue. The crystal gave off a soft, yet unnerving glow. The eyes of the Draugr similarly shone in the darkness, but cast little light on the area. But the arrow burned brightly and defiantly with a cerulean flame that flickered in the cold Baltic wind, but remained strong.
One of the Elite Draugr marched over to the arrow, his sword in one hand and shield in the other. His steps slow and measured as he approached the edge of the boat. When he arrived, he raised his boot high, ready to snuff out the last fire burning in the crushing empty darkness.
When a spike of carbon hardened steel punched through his shin.
Before he could react it dragged him off the boat and down into the cold depths of the water below.
Still caught off guard, the undead rotting corpse of a man tried to struggle, but another spike plunged into his heart before wrenching it's way out of his chest, leaving a gaping hole all that remained. One leg torn at below the knee and half his chest ripped off, he was pushed away into the deep dark depths.
Lara took his sword from his grasp, taking a moment to pop up for air a ways away from the boat, and getting another look at the other two guards. She sheathed the blade in her belt, before diving back under the water and moving back to the boat. Waiting under the waterline with baited breath, she searched for her moment.
And then, seeing it, she lunged, hand grasping the lip of the boat as her climbing axe reached forward, digging into the back of the Draugr's leg.
But here is where it all went wrong.
A spear plunged through the water. Lara just barely managed to slip around it, but in her distraction a slick and decrepit hand wrapped around her arm. It ripped her out of the water and threw her bodily onto the deck, knocking the wind out of her.
Lara gasped for breath for a moment, desperately trying to suck in air, her lungs begging for mercy. Forcing herself to act through sheer force of will and instinct forged from years of life and death circumstances, she rolled out of the way of an axe cleaving into the deck.
And as she took the briefest moment to look over her situation, she found it to be quite grim indeed.
Before her stood two Elite Draugr, one bearing the great form of a Dane Axe, a powerful viking weapon wielded with two hands by a large giant in chainmail in front of her.. Next to it was another, this one leaner, slimmer, and carrying a shield and spear. Each bore signs of cultural significance and weaponsmithing beyond the simple mass production of simple weapons. The Dane axe bore engravings and a simple, but elaborate design inside the axe head. The spear bore signs of pattern welding, an involved and older method of creating stronger steel. And both seemed to have runes etched into it that began to glow dully with the same unnatural light of the crystal.
With her climbing axe still embedded in the leg of the Raider, Lara drew the sword she had sheathed in her belt. Giving it a cursory glance she saw the similar runes etched onto as the other two. It sent an unnerving shiver down her back to look at, let alone to hold, but Lara grit her teeth and pushed through it. All the while the spear wielder slowly circled to the right of her.
The Raider approached her, the climbing axe in his leg slowing him down, but he muscled through all the same.
Suddenly, her instincts screaming, she spun out of the way, a spear lancing through the space she once occupied with such speed that it managed to clip Lara's jacket. Seeing a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye, she darted back, narrowly avoid a stroke of the axe cleaving through the air where her legs once stood.
Without even giving her a moment to catch her breath, a force collided with her back, sending her stumbling forwards where an axe flew to meet her. She managed to duck under the swing, but before she could counter she was forced to twist out of the way of the spear darting forwards. It had just managed to tear through the same area of her jacket as she narrowly avoided the tip when the axe's backswing arrived.
Lara barely managed to bring her guard up enough to deflect the blade. The weight and force of the axe crashing against her stolen sword and making her muscles scream in protest under the strain.
She stepped back in an attempt to get more breathing room and turned to deflect another thrust of the spear. She could feel it each time the spear scrapped along the flat of the old blade in her hands, all the while she tried to keep the lumbering form of the Raider in the corner of her eye.
Then, a mistake.
The next step the giant took, the bone in his leg, still impaled with her climbing axe, cracked and fractured loudly under his weight, causing him to stumble just as Lara deflected another thrust of the spear.
Seizing the opportunity, Lara turned and rushed forward, slashing her sword across his chest. Lara's eyes went wide as the blade simply slid off the chainmail armor of the giant, doing nothing more than polishing it. Desperate and undeterred she ducked under the Raider's next swing, and slipped behind him. She tried to thrust her blade into the armpit of the undead warrior, but it just pushed against the chain mail.
Before she even had time to despair, an arm built like a rotting log crashed into her, dazing her. A thick, meaty, and rotting hand wrapped itself around her neck, choking the life out of her and bringing her up to meet its face. She looked into the eyes of the undead creature in front of her, gazing into those glowing orbs.
In it she saw the unnatural, the undead, the thing that should not be.
And she saw the torment of a man that hadn't been allowed to die.
Then he slammed her into the deck of the ship, making every bone in her body creak in protest. In her daze he whipped his axe at her again. She brought up the sword up in a sloppy and desperate attempt to parry.
The instant the heavy blow of the axe met the edge of the sword her blade shattered. Fragments of of old steel flew exploded everywhere as the top half of the blade was sheared off, leaving only a jagged stump remaining.
Not even bother to blink, the Raider looming over her brought his blade up for the backswing. In that moment, as his unwavering blue gaze looked into her, she could feel as if death itself was hovering over her, waiting for her executioner to land the final swing. She could feel the cold pool of dread inside her as its hand waited patiently on her shoulder, ready for the moment when it would take her to her maker.
Is this the end? She thought with wide eyes, seeing the gleam of the blade as it reached its peak, ready to swing down in with blinding speed she couldn't hope to dodge. That dread and fear filling almost every inch of her being.
No
But it couldn't snuff out the final spark in her. The spark in her that let her endure the horrors of Yamatai, from the time she had to struggle out of a cannibal's den, to the time she saved Sam from the grasps of a goddess. The unrelenting fire inside her that let her fight through the crushing cold of Kitezh, from killing a bear to taking on the army responsible for her father's death with little more than her axe and bow.
It was the will to survive.
And in that moment, when certain death came calling once more, it screamed NO
Energy sprung up from wells deep within her, sending her exploding into action. She lunged forward, her shattered blade in hand, and acted.
She grabbed onto the right hand of the undead giant, pulling herself forward, before she plunged the jagged tip of the sword into the arm of the Raider. Unprotected by the chainmail, the blade sunk in like the fangs of a wolf, biting dep and digging in. With strength she had no right to posses she dragged the blade down his arms, tearing open a massive gaping rip in it's putrid flesh, causing a black viscous pus to pour out.
The Raider roared in agony, dropping it's axe in pain. It tried to retaliate by throwing a punch with it's left fist, throwing a hard hook at her. She reacted by pulling the broken blade out and thrusting it in the way of the punch. The strength of the giant's arm drove his fist onto the blade, forcing the blade to sink in deep between his knuckles and tearing through bone and muscle.
The black blood of the dead rained down on her as he roared in agony, but she pushed through it all as she reached down and wrenched her axe out of the Draugr's leg. Pulling back, she aimed carefully, before letting out a cry of rage and sending it's hardened tip swinging straight towards his head.
The tip slammed straight into it's eye, causing the ball of blood and flesh to burst, and continued to ram through. It pierced out of the back of it's skull, penetrating through it's rotting and enchanted brain. Using the leverage of the axe, Lara twisted herself and her weapon. The torque wrench, stretched, and broke the bones, ligaments, and muscles in the undead monster. With a wet, crunchy, ripping sound, the head of the Raider was torn off and sent flying into the dark depths of the sea and showering her in it's black fluids.
The Raider's body went limp, falling to it's knees. Taking a breath, Lara relaxed fractionally, reveling in her victory for only a moment. Here, is where she made her mistake.
Shlink
Pain exploded in her abdomen. She gasped out in shock, looking down to see a pole sticking out from the chest of the deceased Raider and into her gut, just below her ribs.
With another wet sound the spear was pulled from her chest. Before her, the giant's body fell to reveal the form of the spear wielding Draugr. She fell to her knees, energy leaking out of her much like her blood. She looked up at her attacker with some degree of shock, and found it looking down at her with something she could have sworn was anger.
Her, she realized, idly noticing from the Draugr's bone visible bone structure that it was, in fact, a female.
Huh, she thought, looking up at the rotting black female warrior's form. Time slowed to a crawl as it raised her spear to finish her off, the glowing crystal shining an ethereal blue light upon her from, looking at like this, she kind of looks like a unholy Valkyrie.
And it was in this time that her mind turned back to the past.
"Cayde" She had once asked. "Why do you run so much?"
"Excuse me?" He recoiled, taken off guard by the insult.
"Er, I mean," Lara stumbled with her words. "You're a much better fighter than I am, but you still run from fights a lot."
"Why don't you just blitz your way through?"
"Eh," He shrugged, "It's too much trouble sometimes. I mean, why waste bullets when you don't have to?"
She paused, biting her lip nervously, "What if you can't run?"
Lara's strength had all but failed her. She could barely stand, certainly not in time to fight, much less run.
"Well, if I can't run, I guess I'll have to fight it." He answered, "I do that often enough, it's not really a problem."
"What if you can't beat it?" Lara asked, getting to the root of the problem.
She wanted to get up and fight, she wanted to fight on until the end, to survive.
But she had given it all she had, and it wasn't enough. Death stood above her now. The undead Valkyrie standing ready to bring her to soul to the afterlife. She couldn't fight her way out, she couldn't best the warrior standing before her. Not with her wounds.
It seemed this was to be the end.
"What if I can't beat it?" He repeated, surprised, his brow raising to his hairline.
"Yeah," She repeated, "What if it's some challenge you can't surpass?"
"But you can't run" She added.
"Why not?" he asked
"Because...maybe there's no way out, or there's something you have to protect." She ventured.
He let out a bark of laughter tinged with something Lara couldn't quite identify, "Something to protect?" He repeated.
"Well..." He tapped his chin
Her hand twitched nervously as the rotten warrior moved to finish her off.
She could feel her heart thundering in her chest, her adrenaline racing through her body, the cold sweat on her fingers.
"I guess there's only one out of it."
And as the spear reached it's peak, as the rotten Valkrie's body tensed, it's blackened and putrid muscles straining as it lunged, the final move was made.
And her time came to an end.
"Cheat"
BZZZRT
With a flash of movement and a three-part staccato of electrified energy, three balls of lightning hit the Draugr that was to be her doom. The Valkyrie stopped, stunned by the pain as the balls of plasma and Arc Light burned her rancid flesh and rusted mail. She screamed in agony as arcs of electric blue lightning surged across her form.
Then, in another bright flash of light, the Valkyrie disintegrated in thin air, bursting into so much ash.
Lara's breaths came out in harsh panting breaths, her arm holding the gift Cayde had given her.
"I got it from an old lady friend of mine. Make sure you treat it right."
It was a gun. A strange, inhuman, gun. It was fashioned from brown metal and sprouting grey spikes. Strange designs having an almost tribal accent to them were scrawled along what passed for a barrel and the leather wrapped grip.
She might have stopped to stare in wonder at the fact that she'd just vaporized a Draugr. She might have taken a moment to rejoice about that fact that she was still alive. She might have paused to thank Cayde for providing the instrument of her salvation.
She might have even thanked God.
But she had work to do.
She grit her teeth, groaning in pain, but reached for the spear on the deck, once used by her most recent foe. She picked it up, hand gripped near the spear head, and held her arrow in the other hand. She applied the burning shaft of the arrow to the steel head of the spear.
For some reason, Greek Fire she made didn't actually burn her. In light of what she'd seen, she chalked it up to magic.
I think I need a better name for it than Greek Fire She thought, watching as the steel slowly began to heat up to a glow.
So, while the Greek Fire of the arrow couldn't be used for this purpose directly, it could be used to heat up the steel in the spearhead to do it instead. The heat of Greek Fire was more than enough to melt through steel when properly applied.
Sure enough, in moments, the head of the spear was glowing white at the tip with heat.
She took a breath, just like Yamatai
And applied it to the wound.
She screamed as pure, burning, raging, agony ripped it's way through her. The pain threatened to make her black out, but just like before, just like she's always done, she managed to hold on.
Fighting through the pain like a wolf fights to survive, she struggled to her feet. With the wound closed, she had one last task to do.
She looked at the Crystal hovering before her, a strange unnerving chime humming in time with the glow, all of it pulsing like some kind of heart. She gripped the spear tightly in her hands, before she shoved the molten tip into the center of the unnatural rock.
As it's frame cracked and fractured, large lines breaking across it's entire frame. Finally, it exploded, sending another pulse of blue light flying through the air in a wave that filled Lara with a strange buzzing sensation. She was thrown back, her whole world going white with pain.
And then it all went black.
"Well?"
"Well," She began, taking a sip of her drink, "it's live"
"We've just accomplished our first step in curing cancer."
She was met with a loud round of applause, eliciting a smile from her lips.
To some, if they saw the room, they might have called it the lair of a supervillain.
Considering it was the room of Ikora's inner sanctum, that might not have been inaccurate.
"Holy shit, we're gonna be fucking rich," One young boy said.
"That's hardly the point, James,"
"Duchess, Baron." Ikora said evenly over her glass of wine.
They both had the courtesy to look sheepish.
"Sorry Empress/Apologies Empress" They both said.
Ikora smiled, not surprised at their slipup, considering who they were.
Ikora was currently standing in the research facility for the Ishtar Collective. Due to their small size, it was also their current Headquarters. The building had been built from the ground up with Ikora's intentions in mind, making it work for both purposes just fine.
But more than that, it had been designed with the idea that the Ishtar Collective would grow much, much, bigger.
But as of now, it was only one 5 story building roughly the size of a hospital. The interior and exterior used sloping, smooth, and curved modern lines to give a sense that when one entered the building, they stepped into the future. It had a basic, inviting, white design, with different colored LED highlights in different areas to denote their purpose. At present, that just meant green and yellow for health and disease, but the trend would follow as they grew. But one section of the building had a very different color scheme.
Black.
5 stories below the surface and found nowhere on any of the official, and many unofficial, plans for the building was the Black Sector.
An underground laboratory, communications room, and even rec center. This was where Ikora was free to let herself stretch the edges of modern science a bit more to fit the Golden Age. It wasn't there, not yet, but it was the difference between being 700 or so years out of date, and merely 500.
To the basic untrained eye, it wouldn't look too special. Sure, the hard angular lines and diamond shaped doorways she had borrowed from the Golden Age Bunkers looked advanced, but not impossibly so. To most, it only looked like a short glimpse into the future.
That was because they didn't know that there was a several gigawatt Tokamak style plasma fusion reactor underneath that powered this section of the building. In emergencies it could power the whole building. It was completely safe, and technically outdated by her standards. She could make more energy in an afternoon if she really put her mind to it, but this was something that she was able to throw together with modern materials and limitations.
It powered many high end functions for labs in the Black Sector, things that would allow her to dabble in the more high end and exotic sciences, all without people getting suspicious about the unusual power drain of the facility.
The idea behind the Black Sector was that it would allow her to work on projects roughly 10 years before she officially started work on them upstairs. Most of the power was devoted to maintaining the rudimentary A.I. she had set up for cybersecurity and general operations, as well as the various other security systems and experiments.
The security in the Black Sector made the Pentagon look like the gate to a child's playpen. Not surprising considering it was several centuries ahead of it's time. Considering the technology she would be working with, and the secrets kept here, it was no surprise really. If anything, Ikora wasn't quite sure it was enough.
But this was all useless without something very very important.
People.
As good as she was, Ikora could admit that she actually couldn't do everything by herself. This is why she created the Hidden back in her own timeline.
And now…
Now she had the High Court.
A group of talented individuals she personally vetted and picked up from across the globe, all of which she saw that certain special spark in.
Before a Guardian was reborn in the Traveler's light, a ghost had to seek it out and revive it. A ghost was able to do this by looking at someone's soul and taking a measure of it. This was something that most people tended to gloss over, but it meant that a Ghost could measure the potential of someone by directly looking into their soul.
And it's what she was doing with these individuals.
Had she the ability, and they were dead, she knew that each one of the souls in her Court could have been revived as a Warlock, as a Guardian that delved deep into the very secrets of Light and the universe itself.
Alas, she would have to make due with creating her own secret cabal of young mad scientists for the purpose of uplifting humanity to prepare them for the coming Darkness.
"It's fine, but I gave you operational names for a reason," Ikora smirked, looking on at the 6 individuals in front of her. Each of them young and new to the world. Several older adults technically fit her criteria, but they had all made their mark on the world, they had made a name for themselves and had a loyalty to something else.
They weren't quite as malleable to her.
"Yes Empress" They nodded.
Each of the people in the High Court, including herself, were given a name of nobility in keeping with the region they came from.
Baron was a young 17 year old Caucasian boy from Nebraska she had found who had skipped 3 grades, had been about to graduate MIT, and had a very invested interest in mechanical and electrical engineering.
Duchess was a 20 year old blonde girl from Germany who was well on her way to being a rising star in particle physics.
Emira, Rani, Thilas, and Gaegukja were her other four.
In fact, this was one of the major aspects of the High Court. In spite of their wide cultural draws, they were able to work together. Mostly because of two things.
One, Ikora was a powerful and charismatic force that both encouraged and forced them to work together. Each of them, in some way, respected and admired her, for various reasons depending on the person.
For most of them, however, she was a savior who rescued them from a terrible place in their lives, or, someone who finally gave them a chance when the rest of the world saw only a child. She took a leading role in molding them, and maintained an edge of superiority over them. Despite how intelligent each of them may have been on their own, she was lightyears ahead of each of them, making it so they always saw her as challenge, as a goal, and as a superior.
Empress wasn't technically from her region, but it was a general rank that most regions understood, and it was the highest rank of nobility in the places it was known. It might be a sign of her ego, but considering that Cayde and once called her the Queen of the Crucible, she found it fitting to give herself a promotion.
The other reason was because she was able to give them interesting technology and challenges to keep them interested, opportunities they knew for a fact couldn't be found anywhere else in the world.
Not the least of which was the simple injection of nanomites derived from the Transmission Project, one that actually fixed almost all common issues. There were a large degree of benefits mostly just revolving around general health boosts to raise them toward the peak of human health. The full version was technically supposed to make them somewhat superhuman, but Ikora was far from stupid enough to just hand several young humans superhuman abilities without them having proven themselves.
But, it did have the nice benefit of downloading a complete collection of all recorded human language, effectively shattering the language barrier. It also included a rudimentary summary of culture, enough to vaguely understand cultural ques.
Didn't stop them from making social blunders with each other, however.
Ah, the folly of youth.
"So, you finally going to tell us the whole story?" Thilas, a 21 year old Western African man with an interest in biology, particularly the effects of evolution on biomechanics and how animals were designed to perform different tasks and overcome certain challenges.
She hummed in thought, mostly to entertain them, her mind already made up.
"Yeah, I think we've done a pretty good job down here," Rani confidently said, a 19 year old Indian girl with quite a fondness for genetics, and an almost disturbing predilection for viruses and bacteria.
She'd given them a few concepts, ideas, tools, and equipment to play with down here, just to come up with some prototype ideas and designs. They'd actually done good work. None of it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, granted, however, it was all various projects and idea she's seen from Golden Age documents and research, things that were way ahead of this timeline.
Again, outdated for her, advanced for them.
After all, Rani and Thilas had managed to come up with the groundwork for a retrovirus that could be used to genetically enhance mankind starting with the people alive now, and persisting into their children and the rest of humanity. In effect, it would be a method to forcefully evolve humanity to a higher level with a manufactured virus.
Now, the setup they had Ikora knew would actually end with a terrible strain of virus that would mutate humans into almost vampiric superhumans with such a high metabolism they required twice their bodyweight in food every day lest they starve, to the point that it would override their sanity before spiraling into rampant cannibalism of weaker non-infected humans.
But hey, you live and learn. This was a learning experience more than anything.
Besides, they were on the right track.
"Very well," Ikora began with a smirk, walking over to the table, "How about this,"
She pulled out a tablet, one of the many pieces of semi-advanced equipment she had in the Black Sector, and placed it on the table. The tablet interfaced with the table, and soon enough a hologram sprung forth to hover in front of her Court.
"What is that?" Gaegukja asked in awe, an 17 year old boy from Korea with an interest in Astrophysics.
"This is a project I have for you." She said, unable to keep the grin from her face, "I want you to research something very special."
Before them spun the image of a crystalline blue object with what appeared to be runes and character etched onto it. It glowed with a soft, unnerving, light, and around it hovered various pictures and windows containing certain reports.
Upon its appearance, Emira, a 15 year old girl from the UEA with what some might consider a terrifying interest and aptitude for a certain area of technology, suddenly became very interested. A common rule in the Black Sector was that if there was a possible way it could be used for offensive or defensive actions in war, Emira could and would find it with all the exuberance of a child searching for Easter Eggs.
Ikora thought it was cute.
"I want you to figure out what this is," She smiled, bracing her hands on the table and leaning in.
"And how we can use it."
A/n:
...Still really not sure about those names
Anyways, that's the end of the long awaited chapter 7.
Although there are a couple things in here that bugged me and I'm endeavoring to work on.
First, Lara.
She's sort more of a problem than I thought, but probably not in the way you think. It started with a small itch in my mind about some things in the games and transferring them to here, and then got a bit crazy the more I researched it. Let me put it like this.
Lara should be dead.
Like, super dead.
She does stuff in the games that a normal human just wouldn't survive, things I referred to in this chapter. Like swimming through near-freezing water like it's nothing, and just cauterizing a wound like it's a simple quick fix.
Ha ha, no.
No, that'll kill you. The cauterizing thing more so in the long term because of infection, the ice water thing because frostbite's a bitch.
But, she does these things in the game with relative frequency and such. I could ignore those game, but I've already tied at least Rise of the Tomb Raider in here, at it wouldn't make much sense for Lara to suddenly be squishier than she was there.
But the good news is that I've dealt with it.
Just felt like pointing it out before someone in the reviews goes "Uh, but, a normal human girl would die if they tried to swim in ice water like that, or if they got stabbed, or etc etc". Don't worry random guy, already got that.
On to the other issue.
The High Court and Black Sector.
That...that's actually just their names. I'm really not sure how I feel about "Empress", but I also don't feel like dwelling too much on an Alias. Sides, I can have Cayde and Zavala(to a lesser extent) rib her about it later. Talk about her inflated ego or something.
But on the flipside, we finally got to see Ikora again and you guys finally got to take a look at the research division of all this.
Now, when she mentions "they had the potential to be warlocks", she didn't actually mean that they specifically had light or that she could turn them into warlocks. It had to do with mental potential, and have thing mindset to be one, and the right kind of soul, like...
It'd be like going to ancient Athens and finding someone who had an incredible potential to be a fighter pilot. Except you're in ancient Athens, you don't have a fighter jet, you don't know how to make a fighter jet, and you don't even have what you need in order to make one, assuming you knew how.
That's the problem with the Ghost and making more Guardians.
This story also managed to somehow smash through 100 reviews, 200 follows, and 15,000 views in just 6 chapters. Damn.
Damn.
As a reward, of sorts, I'm going to try to have 8 out as soon as possible. Hopefully (crosses fingers) next week. It's already about...25-33% done.
Along with a...certain special thing
But that's all for now
