NOVEL NEXT Southside Coven: Path To Power (X): Building An Offense
Southside Coven: Path To Power (X): Building And Offense
--- Jon Whitaker ---
Thinking it through, he eventually decided that, "My best option right now is… probably to use a single cut for something offensive."
"Back when we were fighting the horror I did a lot of chip damage, but up until that soul shard I didn't actually hurt it." He admitted with just a touch of frustration as he remembered his other fights. "And that's how a lot of my fights tend to go, I wear them down with small cuts and blows until they leave themselves open, and then-" He drove his hand forward and clawed back, like he usually would when shoving it inside and ripping something vital out.
"Graphic… though I do get your point." Artemis nodded, taking back her notebook. "And you're sure you don't want something defensive? I mean we both do have defensive affinities to work with."
He tilted his head side to side before shaking it. "True, but that just means I can work on my own defensive stuff whenever. Especially since thanks to Pix I can usually manage with her healing… But all the healing in the world won't help me if I can't put a threat down."
"I… can get that." Artemis grimaced, as she began to flip through her notebook. "I can handle utility and defense in a fight, but when it comes to actual offense I've mostly just got my fire and maybe my knife… Though I'd really rather not get that close to anything that can stab back if I can help it."
"Unless you can sneak up and one shot it." He pointed out.
"You know I thought the same thing when I learned an invisibility spell," Artemis confessed, before gaining a bitter look as she began to roughly sketch on a page. "But then I learned just how often that just does not work on Creeps."
Briefly his mind drifted back to Blackwell, (quietly moving through the forest he approached the Corrupted from behind. Hoping to pick the small crowd off one by one…
His arm wrapped around the Corrupted's throat, before he drove his blade into the corpse's neck. The entire act virtually silent.
As one a dozen pitch black eyes turned his way, as if they could sense that he'd killed one of their own. No matter how silent.)
"Yeah… I know what you mean…" He'd quickly learned that even with stealth hit and runs were a must if he didn't want to get swarmed.
"Still if you want to slip a few tricks in, I can probably figure something out depending on which direction we're going." Artemis assured him, before spinning her notebook around and letting him see her sketches. "Speaking of, the easiest way to make something offensive is to make a weapon."
"Kind of obvious in hindsight." He smirked, looking her drawings over and ignoring the call of 'smart ass' as he instead frowned at the image of a pair of gauntlets. "Wait, uh, didn't you say that you didn't want to make another arm?"
"I don't want to make another Demonic Guard." Artemis corrected, fingers in the air. "This is based on another idea from the same franchise as the Royal Guard. This gauntlet, if we make it, will instead use the Horror's Shadow affinity to make a larger shadow limb for you to fight with. One mostly independent of your own mass and leverage."
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"Okay, that sounds interesting." He admitted, before finding what looked to be a bunch of shaded people around an unshaded one. "I'm guessing this is something similar… A leaning into the whole shadow duplication thing? Sort of like a hard-light copy, but with shadows?" It sounded cool but he had his moon light double spell. (That I never use.)
"I know, I know, shadow clones aren't too creative." Artemis agreed, with a nod before pointing out that, "With the Horror's affinities we could make something a lot higher level than a beginner's light spell. [Shadow] and [Duplication] for cheap production, and then the [Minion] affinity will allow you to better handle controlling them."
Artemis pointed at a third drawing separate from the others, of a vague person with a larger shadow person behind them. "This one is a similar principle, to both of these where we'd mix the idea's to make one massive shadow clone. The downside of that though is that the clone probably wouldn't last too long due to square-cube law being an absolute power hog."
"Good for a quick turn around, but not so good for a drawn out fight." He understood, before looking at a fourth sketch of what looked to be a circle surrounded by another circle with fire and lighting around it. "I uh, I have no idea… what this is supposed to be…"
"Yeah, that one is just a half-baked idea to have options." Artemis confessed, with a mildly embarrassed look. "I was thinking about this thing I read in your books about how a lot of Demons have a sort of 'Domain' effect, where their influence spreads around them. And then I was thinking about how we could blend affinities into the project. With all of those elements we mentioned it could do something… I think? Honestly, it's probably a better idea to just infuse the other projects than something vague like this. Especially since I'm not really sure if we could use the Horror's Arm this way."
He tilted his head at that. "Well, you do like to experiment… I mean, we could've very easily just made a-" He pulled out one of his knives. "You know."
"We could… I guess." Artemis rubbed the back of her neck. "I was uh, I was just more focused on something a little more… magical I guess."
"Fair enough." He nodded, once more looking the pages over. "And you said that we could infuse any of the affinities we mentioned into this?"
"Well there's the form and function element to all enchanting, so it'd vary?" Artemis considered it for a moment. "I don't think any of your fairy's affinities would help in making these Offensive. I mean maybe [Light] but I'm not sure if either of us is good enough to make opposing elements work together."
"I mean, I can use my [Moon] affinity since it's connected to both [Moonlight] and the [New Moon]." He pointed out.
"You could, but there's a balance there since [Shadow] is a part of the core. We could still try it if you want, but uh, don't be surprised if that doesn't work out right." Artemis warned him. "Beyond that though… Your friend with the [Storm] and [Dragon] affinities could be very useful. So could the wolf with the [Beast] or [Wind] affinities… Actually mixing all of those might make something interesting if we have enough room. What about your Malcontent friend?"
"Uh, what about her?" He blinked.
Artemis rolled her eyes. "What are her affinities?"
He didn't actually know that but if he had to guess, "Something with [Fire] and [Portals] probably."
"Ooh, portals!" The arcane teen grinned before shaking her head. "Useful, but that might be using more utility than you wanted. We've a limited space to make all of this fit after all."
Part of him was tempted to use both of his cuts for this project but, (No. It's better to do them separately. Two custom pieces for two separate jobs. I don't want to put too many eggs in one basket.)
"We can chip away at all of these here, but I'm going to need a bit to do some research into… whatever you feel like doing if we're going to do it right. Especially if you're going to be inviting some of your friends into the mix." Artemis told him. "So I kind of need an answer before we split today?"
"In that case… Let's make [Scene Choice]."