Bolt Action Serenade

The world returned suddenly and I found myself several feet in the air. Gravity decided to remind me it existed and I hit the dirt with a grunt of pain, the sound of Jaina experience the same thing drew my eye to my left. She looked okay, pulling herself up and glancing around with wide and worried eyes.

I realized why as I noticed the lack of trees near us. Also the lack of the train car. Additionally Helanna and the other soldiers were also no where to be seen. Unfortunately the same was not true of the angel.

“YOUR FINAL BREATH NEARS CREATURE. PRAY TO YOUR INTERLOPER PATRON TO OFFER REST TO YOUR TAINTED SOUL.” He spoke as he walked closer. Though I suppose stumbled might be a better word. Those few moments getting absolutely overwhelmed by gunfire seemed to have seriously fucked the guy up.

“Esme! Rifle on your left!” I heard Carmilla in my ear and glanced aside. It was just out of reach but close, laying near to one of the guards that had died defending me. I guess the transport spell or whatever was an AoE.

I quickly moved, diving for the gun as the angel realized what I was doing and lunged with his spear. He was just a bit faster and I felt the blazing metal graze my arm. It wasn’t as painful as I expected but it hit hard enough to send me rolling over my target and hissing in pain.

“CEASE, ABOMINATION. CEASE AND I WILL GRANT YOU A QUICK END.” he said standing over me. The rifle was right there but I didn’t think I would get to it before he finished me. Thankfully, unexpected gunfire proved a distraction and he quickly turned to face the source of the new attack against him.

Just long enough for me to grab the rifle and roll away. I twisted and brought the sights into line. “Go back to your choir, asshole!” I yelled, and the second he turned back to look at me I put a round into his eye.

There was a soft ringing as he stumbled, body going slack and falling forward. He hit the ground with a heavy THUMP hard enough that I felt the impact in my rear from several feet away. The glow in his skin faded and the flames on my his head and his spear went out.

The System demanded my attention.

[Celestial Purifier lvl 51 defeated]

[Additional Experience awarded for defeating an enemy more than twice your level]

[Experience Threshold reached, you are now level 18]

“What the fuck?” I stared “Five levels from one asshole?” I immediately ignored that all however and looked at where the other gunfire had come from and saw Jaina holding a pistol in her hands, panting heavily and staring wide eyed at the dead angel.

“I-, I... oh gods.” she said just loud enough to hear.

I pulled myself to my feet and she aimed the gun at me in a panic “Woah! It’s me, Esme!” that worked and she dropped the gun, looking at it like it was a snake about to bite her. I hobbled over and wrapped my arms around her. She was clearly having some kind of panic attack but I knew I had something for that. “Hey, gonna help you out okay. Just breathe.” and I cast Soothe on her.

I honestly wasn’t sure if just deciding to cast it would work, memory issues and all, but I felt the mana flow through my hands and into her and she started to relax immediately. “Oh fuck, oh that feels… okay. How are you doing that?” she asked, hugging me back and breathing slow and deep.

“I have a spell that lessens pain or emotions. Useful right now, huh?”

“Gods, I still feel sick but I can think at least.” We stood like that for several long moments, her head on my shoulder and arms around me. We were safe right now and needed to be calm to figure out our next move. Jaina broke the silence by bolting straight up with eyes wide “I’m level twenty!” She yelled with a smile “Oh my gosh I actually got to twenty!”

As she pulled back and started pacing as she freaked out about that I wondered why she was so hyped. Carmilla could feel my confusion I guess because she answered “She gets Advancement Options this level. Remember what Helanna told you?”

Oh right. Also, oh shit. I took a better look around and confirmed that we were not in the same place as several minutes prior. The closest trees were a copse that looked a few hundred feet away, I think I saw a small pond they were surrounding. Everything closer was grass and shrubs and rolling hills lit up by stars and two full moons. It would have been a lovely night if not for the dead. There were six bodies nearby, four were our guards, the other two were some of the plainclothes agents after me I assumed. Helanna wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Any ideas Carmilla?”

“Celestial Evocation of some sort, high rank. Teleportation is neither common nor simple.”

“Okay and any idea why it was after me?”

“Celestials are paragons of self destructive stubbornness. Quite a lot of what they do is preventing things from changing, or as they call it ‘maintaining order’ so the beings they hate most are agents of change.”

“So you think maybe our goddess is trying to change things through me?”

“It would certainly anger the celestial plane enough to send a purifier after you. But to calm your fears, angels are notoriously slow to act or respond to anything. If they send another it will likely be months before it happens.”

“That’s good to know at least.” I let myself breathe and walked over to sit next to Jaina who was staring at nothing. Likely reading her Status and seeing her options. “Anything good?” I asked with a smile.

“Kinda intimate question, don’t you think?” She smirked without looking at me.

“Considering I’m actively trying to knock you up, I think I have some leeway there.”

She turned red and avoided my gaze entirely “I’m reading, you should have leveled too. Go… do that.”

I smiled and nodded before bringing my Status back up.

[You have new Skills]

[You have 25 unspent Attribute Points, would you like to use these now?]

I whistled and pulled up my skills to see what was new I felt my breath catch.

[Heavy Heart Piercer: E - When still and focused on a single target, one can enter a state of Hyperfocus that allows the next attack to penetrate some defenses and deal moderately increased damage. This does not work when the method of attack is rapid or light.]

[As a Statue: E - When remaining still, it becomes much more difficult for others to become aware of your presence and sounds you make are lessened.]

I noticed, for the first time somehow, that all of my Heartseeker Skills had thematic names. I felt dumb for it taking that long and only really noticed because As a Statue didn’t fit it and thus I realized it must have been from my Survivor class.

But focusing more I realized the combination of my two new Skills had fantastic synergy for a sniper. Like, incredibly so. I wondered if gunshots counted as sounds I made if I was the one shooting? Maybe with some rank increases I would have silent weapons when I was still. The thought gave me a wide, stupid grin.

Another nice thing to note, at some point my Polyglot had risen to Rank D. I was using it damned near constantly for a couple of weeks so that made sense.

Now to turn to my Attributes. A quick glance told me that Racing Heart’s rank increase meant it gave two points in Coordination a level now as I was ten higher which immediately shot it up to my highest score.

I threw seven more into Coordination to hit forty. If I was going dexterous I was going full tilt. Then four into Endurance for an even thirty. Then five each into Focus and Force and the remaining four went to Strength. I hadn’t really used that yet in anything but the workouts with Vikkel, but having a little extra muscle couldn’t hurt. Maybe I could get a bigger gun with some bigger guns of my own. I blinked after the spends and realized I hadn’t put anything into Willpower like I’d wanted and thought that maybe I should plan some of this instead of just tossing things in to make the numbers feel good.

“Oh! Oooooh love~ This is nice.” I head Carmilla moan into my ear. “I hadn’t realized I’d grown so much but the extra room in here is lovely. Oh! And the depth! Oooh this feels so good! I love you my wonderful Esme~”

“Wait you grew? Like, in my Anima?”

Jaina turned her attention back to me. “Hmm, oh, is Carmilla alright?”

[More than alright dear, my absolutely wonderful love just made it much nicer in here for me. And yes dear, it seems as my levels are increasing, so to are my space requirements. I hope that doesn’t become a problem, I’d rather carve pieces of myself off than have to break contract with you.]

“Hey, if I have to toss a point or two into Focus every time I ding, that’s just what I’ll do.”

Jaina blinked at me in confusion “Ding?” and I paused and stared at her in my own confusion.

“I… think that means gaining a level but I’m drawing a blank. Man I hope I get this memory shit sorted soon.” I sighed “Okay I’m done, your turn. You don’t have to give details but I do want to know if things worked out well for someone I lo-…” I nearly bit my tongue as the word almost slipped out.

Jaina stared at me, pink in her cheeks and her eyes locked onto my own. I could barely breath as she just stared, I wasn’t sure what was happening in her head but I could make some guesses. The worst part was I could feel Carmilla growing angry at me and I knew why and knew she was right. This was my emotional problem and I shouldn’t let it hurt her. Or anyone else for that matter.

I swallowed “Someone I love.” I forced past my mental block, it was really fucking hard and I felt a touch light headed but I did it. “I love you.” I took a breath and it was immediately forced out of me as Jaina tackled me to the ground and kissed me.

The passion in the kiss was so intense I almost missed the tears dripping onto my face. After a few moments she sat up and wiped her cheeks “If you didn’t fucking say it after I shot a gods damned angel for you I was gonna be pissed.”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure all your shots missed.” She punched my stomach “Oof, okay but it still saved me. Thank you. I love you.”

There was a moment where I could feel the heat radiating between us, but Carmilla interrupted.

[Dears. Maybe don’t fuck surrounded by corpses. Even if it weren’t creepy it would be disrespectful.]

“Oh, oh gods, oh gross.” Jaina said as she pulled herself to her feet.

I took a deep breath and dragged myself to my feet completely under my own power. I didn’t at all need Jaina to help me stand because of the rough ground. I was doing great with my metal leg and was utterly in command of my own body. I don’t know why anyone would think otherwise shut up.

Jaina and I pulled the bodies together out of respect, and a bit of an apology for rifling through their clothes for supplies. Sadly there was a lot less to gather then when I’d been in that transport all those weeks ago. Gods, how the hell long had it even been? Like two months?

I had the rifle in the best shape out of all of the ones available, something a bit more advanced than the bolt action I owned before. Semi automatic, eight round internal magazine, good sights and a nice balance but I still didn’t like it as much as my last gun. I missed the bolt, it felt nice to cycle it. I know I was being weird and picky about dumb things.

I had seven stripper clips of additional ammo for it, also not quite the stupid amount of rounds I’d had last time either. No survival tools, no extra socks, a single first aid kit, and a compass thank the gods. I also had a sidearm from one of our fallen and insisted Jaina carry another. Nurse or not she needed to be able to keep herself safe.

They were also more advanced than the revolver I’d pulled of poor dead Bernson, though not magical. Slide action semi auto handguns with a ten round removable box magazine in the handle. We gathered eleven extra mags among the bodies of both sides, since they all seemed to carry the same model. Fuck that was going to get complex once we got back. Internal issues were going to be an absolute shitstorm to figure out but as far as I knew Uvtrayl was still my best bet. Besides, they had Helanna and I didn’t know if I loved her yet and I was determined to find out.

Once we were ready to go we headed east. Uvtrayl was more on the eastern side of the continent and even reached the eastern shore further north. Based on law of probability, we could most likely find something that way. At least that’s how I justified it in my head.

As we walked, Jaina surprised me with a chocolate bar she’d taken from one of the other side’s pockets. We split it as we walked and I took her arm in mine. “So, get something good for your Advancement?”

She chewed on her lip for a moment before answering “Um, yeah actually. Once of my choices was odd but the description made it out to be…” She squirmed a bit and huffed before simply blurting out “I have healing magic now.”