In Dream...

Time to take those Archer Levels.

Without a missile weapon, Archer Levels were basically almost useless. Almost, but not totally. I could at least plan to the point when I finally got a crossbow or something else useful to throw. It would have been really useful for killing Fido, but, the Hell. When and if I got one, I got one.

Four Skill Points, three into Woodcarving and one into Bowyer/Fletcher.

Advance into Perception Mastery/1.

One Technique, one bonus Feat, choose Primary Weapon. I picked crossbow, planning on my autobow eventually, and into my Primary Weapons it went.

Quickdraw Technique. This subsumed things like Rapid Reload and Quick Drinker and Iajitsu Draw and the like, and even opened up the Iajitsu Focus Mastery. Basically, draw and ready instantly, almost like sleight of hand. There were a few killing moves that relied on being able to get out your weapon before an opponent…

Bonus Feat, Far Shot. Because that would let me throw my Sword 50% further. I could work on the rest after that. Thrown Weapons were all in the realm of an archer…

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My Sword was black, because that was the hue of steel quenched by human blood. I didn’t mind, as it just made me that much closer to my blade.

The hilt wasn’t centered, meaning it favored one side as I wielded it. It was more wedge-shaped, like a triangular saber, but I still didn’t care.

I got used to it very quickly, and I would be improving it in the future. My Melee Levels were right around the corner, and then, then things were going to change.

The first Rune on it glowed with Invested Energy. My Aura aligned to it. The edge of the blade glimmered with faint light.

+1 TH/Dmg. Not much, but better than nothing. It all added up.

I changed my Inspiration, cycling out Thorn Stance for Improved Armed Strike, also known as Sword Beats Fist.

If attacked by anyone without natural reach using a natural weapon, one Attack of Opportunity per round against that attacker, as you can strike at their limb or body before they can reach you, as long as you wielded a weapon.

Needed that weapon. Now I had one. And, oh, did I go to town.

With practically guaranteed first attacks, Cleaves galore, and Ripostes to complement everything, with even greater damage and accuracy, I ripped a path through the spiders, hacked down the constructs straight up, and punished that cat in straight up combat. Bite at me? Get hacked! Miss me? Get hacked! My turn? Get hacked! Openings abounded, and I inserted Tremble into all them.

When it was Fido’s turn, I punished him, too. Did I mention that he was wearing this cute little sweater all this time? I was pretty sure it was armor spun out of steel wire…

If he bit me, I cut him. If he breathed at me, I cut him. If for some reason he took a bite and missed, I cut him. And in between all that, I was in his face and I cut him.

I didn’t hurt him all the time, but I did cut him, with the glowing edge of my Sword.

Glowing, because I had Invested my Artificer energy, and I had earned enough Karma to the Name of my sword to bring it to 2k of Invested Goldweight value, meaning I could open Slot Einz.

Slot Einz was Spirit-bound, and as it opened further up to say hello to my soul, I put in two of my plentiful Essence, and suddenly I had a +II Sword in my hand.

It moved faster, lighter, cut through carapaces more easily, and sank deeper into flesh. With Attunement, my TH/Dmg was effectively +3 higher than it had been.

D8/d12 against size L or bigger. +2 MAB, +5 Dex, +1 Talent, +1 Spec, +3 now for +13 to hit. +2 Spec, +1 Cunning, possible +2d6 SA, +3 weapon, for +6 or 7 to damage, exclusive of Foe Hunting, or me going apeshit in Wardance for another +2/+2.

He did more damage than me, and he hit more, but that was fine. I was attacking a lot more, and man did I mark him up once I popped the Bladedance to tear into him. I didn’t have the staying power to last even thirty seconds, but I got this close to finally killing the bastard, and I was proud of myself. He cooked me dead, and I took out his eye.

I was getting closer.

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I had come full circle… which meant I was at Expert Level again.

Expert, because I had never taken my Expert bonus feats, because I had not earned Expert/3 as Forsaken. But now I had. Karma settled in.

Human Talent from my last life, click…

Natural Defender. +1 TH/Dmg, Saves, and AC when defending a place of personal importance, or +2 AC when fighting defensively. Well… Sama on the ramparts, anyone?

Level One Feat… was Nerd (+2 to all Knowledge Checks and Trivia).

That… sounded more like me? Old me. I don’t think anyone alive would dare to call the little girl that could claw through steel a nerd…

So, the only thing to gain was a Mastery advance, and that bonus General Feat.

And since it was a Primary Class, I could take any kind, this time.

I took the Mastery advance to Ocean Dragon Mastery/1, which gave me 1 ki and opened up the Ocean Dragon stuff to me, setting up my Monk Levels… and a couple other things.

I took the Feat as Way of Water, investing the 1 ki needed to keep it active. It was a Power Feat, available once every three Levels, +2 to hit Armor or Natural Armor, not to exceed the value of either. At +2, that meant against just about everything, and certainly everything I was fighting. Even the spiders had that much.

An additional +2 to hit, ki guiding weapons into weak spots, joints, and openings that were felt rather than seen, was very, very good for me at this point. My general To-Hit was now +14 with Sword in hand, +16 with Spiders or Wardancing.

The Way of Water was part of the cycle dominance of the four elemental Dragon Houses. Way of Water dominated the Crystal Dragon, as it trumped their natural armor and DR through Power Attacking and Penetrate Damage Reduction.

Way of Iron and Stone dominated the Fire Dragon, since it wasn’t dex-based, and a bunch of attacks not doing a lot of damage was next to useless against higher AC and DR.

Way of Fire dominated Storm, because negating Dex and Dodge bonuses crippled the speedy wind-based style.

Way of Storm dominated Ocean, because it negated bonuses based on Wisdom, Expertise, Luck, and Insight, being unfathomable and elusively speedy.

The Way lines of Melee Feats didn’t usually stack… unless you took Way Mastery to combine them. I was totally planning on doing so, but, like all else, it would take time.

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I finally killed Fido.

Not straight up as I wanted to, but I killed him.

I got in the first strike as he was bouncing up to me, as I charged and threw my Sword at him.

He wasn’t prepared for that, and it tore along his jaw and narrowly missed his eye. Then the cord of spider silk attached to it yanked it back to my hand, and I nabbed it out of the air as he breathed at me.

The spider silk burned away, but I was already moving to avoid it, coming out from under it and along his right side, tracing a strike along his jaw that basically did nothing… but the thrust into his left eye got results.

I love it when a crit happens. I could feel the blade go in, and almost poke his brain as the fiery pupil popped and flaming goo trickled down.

The rest was a chase and circle as I avoided his paws and jaws and danced around him, shearing off his nose and opening up the side of his jaws, thrusting into his chest and crippling his right front paw.

As his jaws finally found me for a good snatch-and shake, I inserted Tremble into the roof of his mouth and drove it home. He kind of yelped and fell-down head first, which didn’t help the fangs he had driven into my torso.

I had to pry his mouth open as I was bleeding out, and then blow the Vigor and roll free as second-degree burns from teeth and tongue seared me inside and out.

Hah. Just, hah. The holes in me were shut, but I had burns on the inside and outside, and I was dead on my feet. I had killed Fido… what was coming next?

There was a scratching and rustling sound that was fairly familiar. I turned my head, as a couple floorboards in the corner suddenly loosened up, and small figures squeezed up from beneath them quickly.

Rats, the size of beagles. They were all the way across the room there, and I just watched as their numbers built, and they began to stream out in my direction.

A Rat Swarm. Universal features: normal weapons do half damage to a swarm, since individuals aren’t all that important. Damage is Area of Effect, and since so many things are biting you at once, the fact the individual bites are meh still means they can overcome DR.

I was about to get eaten alive by a whole bunch of rats.

I sighed, lifted Tremble, and smiled despite myself. Man, when I could finally last through all these things, I was going to be such a tough bitch…

They came for me squeaking, I lopped a bunch of them in two, and they buried me and ate me alive.