Icarus Awakens

"You're sure, Hunter? I know it's long enough, but that wide too?"

"Yes, it's… why are you saying it like that?" Hunter asked suspiciously.

"No reason." Daniel hid a smile as he looked at Pinion's Point from above. Plans were brewing.

It was a couple of days after the war at Aurus. By and large people were preparing to leave there. The Spoke's destruction negated and chance of salvaging the region. There had been two casualties in total that Daniel had both known and cared about in some way, the Spoke being one of them. The other wasn't William, thankfully, though the Ranger had apparently suffered some broken bones after crashing the Bekali glider he'd hijacked. No, it had been Marky, the Druid from Farthest Run. The brief story Gordon gave said he'd refused to use his best powers even when in danger. It was sad how the man had lost faith in his class, but in another way Daniel was glad he was the only one.

There had been funerals and celebrations in kind, and in fact both were still ongoing. Somberness and joy. His team had both the space and time for plenty of the latter. Zolyra was handling a lot of the grunt work, relying on Murdon's group for a lot of the work, but Wingcraft would only be called on for a monster sighting on their level no one else could handle. The Arcadian was waiting at the bottom of the broken region, though it was now Zolyra's call on when they would enter no matter how much he wanted to open a gate again. It'd only be a couple more days, maybe tomorrow, and the area was under observation lest more monsters get in.

That left time to rest and welcome Khare back. More importantly, they needed to find out what their new class could do. In what might become a tradition should the need arise again, the team gathered near the outskirts of the town on an isolated sky island where the Artillerist could show off what they could do.

Most were waiting expectantly, save for Tak who was sitting next to Hunter. One of the avianoid's hands was playing with a dangle of bone colored silver hanging from a roughly punched hole in the ringcat's ears, shaped like one of his fangs. Alex had opinions on this but Daniel was proud of his first design, especially because they were also small daggers that could be used to remake the piercing.

Tak's other hand held a book, the wages of his sin. The Blood Contract gave him no compulsion to help the earth gestalt, aside from death if he should ever abandon it, but the Totem Warrior was still taking time away from his frequent casual encounters to make good on his promise. Time would tell if Lograve's new student would rise to the occasion.

Fortunately they didn't have to wait long to see what Khare could do. To Daniel's immense disappointment no long barrel began to ominously protrude from the gestalt's new rocky shell as they burrowed their lower half into the earth. That power was one he'd seen already, allowing Khare to stabilize themself and extend their effective range, an earlier sign of things to come.

"Loading," Khare said, though nothing visibly changed. No, that wasn't completely true. Daniel's eyes caught subtle movements of the vines, concentrating them toward the center. Their mass was ever so slightly compressing.

It's like a ballista getting pulled back, but slowly, Daniel thought. This won't take a lot of windup, will it?

"Aiming." The small movements ceased after about ten seconds, and then Khare's stone chest split down the center. It opened like a window, revealing a depression behind it in the vines. The gestalt angled their top half backward, able to do so easily thanks to their body's composition. "Space. Space," Khare repeated, and Khiat realized who they meant. The dusker was standing the closest to them.

"Oh, sorry. Is this ok?" she asked, taking a few steps back. "I was trying to see what you were aiming for, but there's nothing up there."

"Descent."

"What do you-" Khiat scanned lower in the sky ahead, then pointed to something. "There?"

"Target."

"That's too far! I wouldn't be confident in hitting that without moving my arrows after the shot."

"Weight. Scatter," the gestalt added after a pause.

Daniel, meanwhile, was still trying to find out what she meant. His eyesight wasn't that bad, though the dusker had a long-range vision power that… "No way." He'd guessed Khare had intended to fire in an arc as well and accounted for that, finally picking out a sky island Quick Mind put at over three kilometers away. Well outside even his blast bow's range, though with the far shot bow he'd made Khiat he could see her hitting something barn sized.

"Gonna go ahead and bet way here," Shuni commented challengingly. "I'm starting to get deja vu here."

"That would be insane!"

"But do you want me to be wrong?" Like many guys, Daniel realized he did not want his girlfriend to be wrong. In this case there was a happy coincidence where he wasn't deluding himself.

"Someone mind cluing me in?" Evalyn asked, Khare continuing to make slight adjustments to their positioning as they talked.

"Last time we did something like this, gun boy over here blew up an entire island."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "It was only most of one. I used Power Shot at full charge with exploding ammunition. The thing was just packed dirt so it didn't put up much resistance."

"Uh huh." Evalyn backed away a bit more from Khare, despite being one of the furthest from them. "Has anyone thought about-"

"Firing!" Khare's body shuddered violently as something emerged from the hole in their armor, so fast Daniel didn't catch it until it was an indistinct mass flying faster than his shots through the air. Ten seconds later it was nearly there and only Khiat could make out details.

"It's a bunch of weapons tied together with vines. Oh! It just split apart." The dusker spotter continued tracking the cluster round with Hunter's Eye, while everyone else saw a couple bright flashes in the distance. "Some of those exploded! Not all of them, but a dagger and one of the arrows. I'd say a third hit the island. That looked powerful, but isn't that wasteful?"

"Regenerative." Khare's voice was confident as they spooled down, body returning to a rest position, armor closing. "Identify!"

Daniel obliged, then looked up the relevant powers Khare had shown in his Encyclopedia.

Artillerist (Feature, Dexterity, Domain: Destruction, Level: 3):

You possess the Power to enhance extreme range Attacks. Abilities: Ranged Attack you use gain a dramatic improvement to their reach and speed, as well as passively enhancing Damage scaling with the distance traveled. If an attack you make in this extended range strikes the intended target, successive attacks against it gain a stacking improvement to accuracy. Significant changes to the condition of your next attack, such as the identity of your target, end this Effect.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

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Motley Bombardment (Ability, Dexterity, Attack: Ranged Weapon, Domain: Destruction, Level: 3):

You possess the Power to make a long ranged attack with an assortment of summoned projectiles. Use of this ability requires a modest amount of Mana and a weapon you can wield alone. After activation, the ability can be actively Channeled to generate up to 25 copies of Ammunition or Weapons: Thrown which will be used instead of the original. These copies will persist until striking a target. Multiple weapons can contribute to speed this process if you are able to wield them at the same time. This is a Magical Ability that does not work in an area of Magical Suppression.

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Explosive Salvo (Feature, Strength, Domain: Enchantment, Level: 3)

You possess the Power to passively generate explosions on with any Ability: Artillerist you use. The chance of this feature triggering scales with the Damage each individual projectile deals to its target, as well as your Attribute: Luck.

A power with the same name as the class. It's like a capstone, Daniel thought, also marveling at the attack power Khare had also awakened. Then again, Lograve did mention Ritualist is a high level Arcanist class evolution, and Padri got 'Reverse Engineering'. I guess Alex should expect to get something similar.

"I may be wrong, but isn't that about where the Arcadian is?" Evalyn asked pointedly. Daniel checked his mental map, and then the one on his phone, and saw what she'd been trying to warn them about before the shot had gone out. She gestured with a hand and Daniel handed her a sending stone. "Zolyra, tell the people watching the Arcadian to look out. We just had an accidental power discharge over them, might be some projectiles around them in a few minutes."

"Sorry," Khare said, the weapon of mass destruction tilting downward in apology while Evalyn dealt with the consequences.

"Eh, happens," Shuni shrugged. "Lots of people let off shots that miss, and they just keep going until they hit something. I knew a guy who got hit by an arrow that looked like it had been looping for years. Least we don't have to worry about that now."

"And it's not going to be a problem in other regions," Daniel followed up, forcing more cheer into his voice. Khare's mental state was somewhat fragile from level disparity, making him glad he had Reassure on standby just in case. It wasn't as if the lower attributes were forcing them to have issues, but what they'd gone through had left marks in the form of depression and low self-confidence. "Anything else to show us Khare? You could aim for something closer so there's less risk."

"Permission?" Evalyn bit her lip at Khare's question but didn't have the heart to tell them no. "Loading!"

"Want to try my blast bow with the ability?" Daniel asked. He wasn't sure if he could commit to supplying someone as ammo hungry as Khare with a second blast bow, even if he was now passively generating bullets at rest with all of the improvements he'd made to his enchanting. His stocks were still replenishing after the core fight. But this was Khare's moment, and the gestalt gleefully accepted the weapon. Then the smile faded.

"Incompatible."

"Ah man, really?" Daniel thought there might have been a problem with Motley Bombardment given how his weapon functioned. His ammunition was in two pieces, and while his powers didn't care about that, Khare's would if it was only copying the bullet part without the propellant. A bow or crossbow would have the motive force in the weapon, while a throwing dagger was propelled by the arm. The gestalt could simply take a bullet with the intent to throw, but that would spoil its damage potential. "I think I know what the problem is. Maybe I can work around it."

"You could try this for now." Khare's eyes opened wide as Khiat handed them her bow. Well, one of them. The one she was currently using was still on her back, the dusker unwilling to give them that one as she'd invested her own mana into it. In a way this was better, because Khare now held her all-black silenced greatbow. The idea of stealth artillery terrified him slightly.

"Gratitude," the gestalt replied, taking a standard arrow from her. The bow was assimilated into the vines, the length almost taller than they were and forcing Khare to extend themself a little. "Aiming!" they called out, and the arrowhead sticking out of the front began to collect red crystalline growth along the flat ends. It was definitely a different kind of attack. "Firing!"

The arrow launched out of the Artillerist and slammed through the air, though thankfully the slap of the bowstring was muffled by both Khare's body and the weapon itself. It flew in a straighter arc toward a sky island half a kilometer away, burying itself into it following a direct hit. It was close enough that Daniel could make out red lights flying off from the point of impact and illuminating sections of the ground. Khare had already shared the power in their tag and Daniel reviewed the description.

Manamine Missile (Ability, Intelligence, Attack: Ranged Weapon, Domain: Transmutation, Level: 3):

You possess the Power to launch a long ranged Attack that creates automatic Traps: Magical around the impacted target. Use of this ability requires a modest amount of Mana and a Weapon: Ranged you can wield yourself. The Traps created by this ability drain an amount of mana from affected targets, scaling with your Intelligence and inversely scaling with the target's Wisdom and level. Friendly Creatures will not trigger these traps, but may be affected by detonation if nearby. This is a Magical Ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.

Daniel whistled. Taken in full Khare's new powers were impressive, but this was just the start. Every new power they gained would be level 3 and better suited to their evolved class, with their latest hit being a good example. They'd be spending more mana on it than normal thanks to level disparity, but they'd still awakened a level 3 power from an intelligence attribute that had yet to get to level 2.

On demand mine fields, air burst attacks… wait, Motley Bombardment doesn't say the copies aren't magical like Rewind Shot does. Holy shit, if I gave Khare splitting ammunition they'd be a menace. The trade off to the Artillerist's raw destructive power was their relative defenseless stance when burrowed, as well as their current weakness to mental attacks. Also, friendly fire. It was a good thing all of their dedicated melee fighters could self heal, though Shuni would have to be careful. Worst case Khare could use their old abilities.

Daniel patted Khare on the shoulder as they carefully extricated Khiat's bow to return to her. "Welcome back, buddy. We're going to kill monsters so hard with you around."