He didn’t expect much from Clive’s gear, as ordinary-looking as it was, but it was under some sort of illusory effect. Once removed from the body, it shimmered and shifted to appear as a mismatched set of armor. The overshirt and waistcoat became dense scale mail made from an unknown dark metal, while thin bracelets under the cuffs of the shirt became a complicated series of leather thongs that Hirrus recognized as intricate handwraps.

The various armor pieces contained a mixture of stats, including BUR, SUP, ATT, and RES, but they appeared unified in the lower, secondary stats. Clive had purposefully maximized his cooldown reduction, which is what allowed him to use such potent Arcana with increased frequency. It was rather genius.

For now, Hirrus elected to stick with the set that boosted his BUR. He had no need of frequent Arcana usage, seeing as how most of his best Arcana just made him hit stronger, faster, or more than once. But he recognized that Alric might have particular affection for these pieces for having been recovered from his tormentor.

The one piece of gear that held Hirrus’s interest was also the only one that wasn’t affected by an illusory effect. It was a head piece, but instead of being a helmet or circlet, it was a hair barrette, rectangular in shape, decorated with a pattern of crisscrossing bands inlaid with a gradient that went from red at one end to blue at the other. The body appeared to have been meticulously carved from a single huge gemstone, with colored glass making the inlay. As soon as he held it in his hands, he knew it was something special, and examining it confirmed that in a big way.

Cosmic Barrette

Head

Ilvl 70 (Legendary)

+350 RES

+350 GLE

+700 Cooldown Reduction Rating

+700 Double Strike Rating

Special: Regain 3.5% of your maximum health whenever you do damage to an enemy with an Arcana.

Clive’s voluminous red hair had allowed the man to hide the accessory, while Hirrus’s shorter hairstyle wouldn’t allow the same courtesy. Just the same, he could not deny the potency of the item. The restorative special ability would likely make him unstoppable. Despite the unusual appearance of the item, he equipped it just the same, making it appear affixed in his hair at the back of his head.

With the gear recovered, the only remaining thing to examine was Clive’s Arcana. The man had a definite strategy in mind when selecting his tools, and Hirrus wondered at his own foolishness in failing to handle them appropriately.

Leer

+5 ATT, +55 Cast Speed Rating

Damage: 1xATT + 1xRES

Cast Time: 1 second

Cooldown: 12 seconds

Added effect: Gaze attack.

Mortal Ray

+8 RES, +20 Cleave Rating

Damage: 2xATT + 0.5xRES

Cast Time: 1 second

Cooldown: 24 seconds

Added effect: Gaze attack. Knock back enemies 10 feet.

Melusine’s Eye

+10 ATT, +78 Cast Speed Rating

Damage: 2xATT + 1.5xRES

Cast Time: 1 second

Cooldown: 100 seconds

Added effect: Gaze Attack. Enemies affected are Calcified for 45 seconds, rendering them unable to take actions. Non-DoT damage instantly ends the Calcified effect.

Eyes On Me

+5 GLE, +32 Critical Strike Rating

Utility

Cast Time: 0.25 second

Cooldown: 240 seconds

Effect: For the next 45 seconds, gain 20% ATT. For the duration of the effect, Gaze Attacks no longer require striking the enemy’s front to affect them.

Clive’s arsenal was entirely formed of Gaze Attacks, which could be avoided by turning away from them. Hirrus hadn’t gathered that during the fight, either taking them full-force, or avoiding them entirely. The Eyes On Me effect was Clive’s secret ability, boosting his damage, eliminating his attacks’ weakness, and using the sparkling effect the buff granted to obscure his attacks. Added to that, the legendary Cosmic Barrette’s effect gave him the ability to recover huge amounts of hit points if the attacks’ extremely large arcs struck multiple foes.

He looked at Clive's split and prone form, left with nothing but smallclothes. Hirrus had underestimated his quarry. It was luck and perseverance that had made him the bigger threat, but he knew that as he continued on his journey, that would no longer be the case.

Every kill made him stronger. But he would need to start thinking smarter about his approach, or they would eventually overwhelm him.

Hirrus focused on his own statistics.

Level 5

HP: 66500

BUR: 2638

SUP: 636

TEN: 1726

ATT: 396

RES: 751

GLE: 2090

His secondary statistics were only slightly higher in total, but his constantly-shifting gear had changed their proportions. Focusing on them told him that his critical hit chance was now up at 30%, while his critical damage rating had come down, causing those strikes to only add 75% bonus damage. His attack speed rating was increased, giving him 25% increased attack speed even without any of the Arcana effects he had, but the BUR-focused gear he wore didn’t give him any increase to his cast speed, with what was afforded to him by Arcana granting him only a 5% increase.

Unlike the last time he’d looked, Hirrus now had some double strike rating, but between the Arcana set he had and what the BUR-focused gear had and the addition on the Cosmic Barrette, he only had an 8% chance of it activating. His cleave chance was still fixed at 20%, which made it strange that he hadn’t seen its effects activate yet. The increased cleave rating meant that one would do 40% bonus damage.

His cooldown rating had changed the most; Juri’s gear had been intently focused on it, and changing out of it meant he only had 17% reduction now.

Hirrus knew he had to start taking action to create a build out of what he had. Some sort of method to the chaos. But he didn’t know where to begin.

Perhaps Alric could help, if he ever found the adventurer.

Hirrus steeled himself before hefting the two pieces of Clive’s corpse off the floor. He left the room, intending to follow through with his threat towards Clive, even if the man’s bisection made it slightly more inconvenient.

As expected, the mercenaries were gone from the doorway. Their employer’s death would have instantly freed them from their contract, allowing them to seek other employment - or to return to their families for the night.

“Hey,” someone yelled from down the hall. “What the fuck? Where are you going?”

Hirrus made his way down the hall to the balcony over the grand entry chamber to see what the commotion was about. Below, the mercenaries scattered through the manor were leaving down the stairs. Much to the dismay of the adventurers there. One of them had grabbed one of the mercenaries and was demanding an explanation.

“Our contract is ended,” the mercenary said in a calm tone. “Unless you’re hiring, we’re done here.”

“Clive has you for the entire night,” the adventurer complained, “as soon as he realizes-”

Hirrus took this opportunity to throw down the two parts of Clive’s corpse.

“What the-”

The adventurer’s face went through an emotional journey over the next few seconds.

He looked over at the wet slapping sound of a corpse to tile, and then glanced up to see Hirrus standing as ominous as he could over the balcony, covered in spattered blood. There was a moment where the man’s aggravation at the mercenary turned to anger at seeing Hirrus, but it was quickly replaced by fear when his eyes flicked back down to the corpse clad only in underclothes. As if he recognized the bearded face despite its death stare.

There was the briefest moment of realization as he glanced back at the mercenary who had pulled free of his grip and was heading towards the door.

Hirrus grinned. It was not a very nice grin.

“W-what are you doing?” the other adventurer on the stairs snapped, smacking the gobsmacked man on the shoulder and pointing at Hirrus. “That’s him! Fucking get him!”

“N-no you! He just killed Clive!” The first adventurer looked to Hirrus and Hirrus deepened his dark grin another inch. “Nope. I’m not fucking dealing with this. Bye!”

Without another word, the man bolted down the stairs, shoving mercenaries out of the way to vanish out the door and into the night.

The other adventurer looked from the door to Hirrus and then to Clive’s body.

“Fucking coward,” she said, before looking up at Hirrus. “I’m leaving, too, but only because someone needs to carry word to Fidelis so that everyone knows what happened. Not because I’m afraid of you.”

Hirrus clambered over the balcony’s railing and dropped down to the floor over Clive’s feet. He took a knee as he landed, and then straightened up, pulling out his icy greataxe as he regarded the adventurer.

“You should be,” he said in a deep voice.

Despite the adventurer’s words, she froze to the spot for a long moment. When she did start moving, at first she walked calmly down the stairs towards the front door, keeping her eyes on him.

As soon as he took a step forward, she broke into a run. Hirrus felt a rumbling chuckle deep in his chest and suppressed it. Despite her fleeing, she still had defiance in her eyes. He wondered if he would meet her again, and if she could follow through on her bravado.

With the manor in its current state, it was trivial to find Alric. He just had to follow the stream of departing mercenaries towards the next group of protesting adventurers.

On the first floor, there were too many mercenaries emerging from the kitchens, and Hirrus followed them to a wooden stairwell that led down to a wine cellar. In the back of the cellar a hidden door stood open, where three adventurers were arguing over what to do next.

Behind them was a metal cell set into the stone, with a bundled and bloodstained figure.

Anger rose like bile.

“Clive is dead,” Hirrus said, spitting the words at the adventurers. He activated his new Eyes On Me Arcana. “Don’t worry, though. You’ll join him soon.”

He didn’t wait for them to respond.

A blast of Melisune’s Eye came out before they could react.

Each one took more than six thousand damage from the attack, and were frozen in place, giving Hirrus time to activate Going Ape before using the enhanced BUR to unleash a Peppered Breath that would devastate them. The breath did around thirteen thousand damage to two of them, killing them before the burn effect even took hold, while the hardiest of the three took only twelve thousand eight hundred damage.

The surviving adventurer made a run for it as soon as the Calcified effect was broken by the damage. They ran back into the dungeon, vanishing around a corner before Hirrus could finish them off. He didn’t have time to give chase, though. Either the burn effect would do the job, or it wouldn’t, and there would be one more survivor to put the proper fear into Last of the Strong, and whoever this “Fidelis” was.

The cell door didn’t hold up so well before the sheer power of Hirrus’s enhanced BUR. He gripped it with both hands and tore. The metal squealed and warped off its hinges before coming loose. It clattered to the ground beside him.

He stepped into the cell, all of his anger rushing away like a river carried by guilt.

The bundled-up figure was a badly wounded Alric. One of his charges. The adventurer was covered in hundreds of tiny cuts and burns, clearly the work of torture rather than a fair fight.

“Alric?” Hirrus said as gently as he could, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Alric, are you alright?”

The man groaned and rolled over. Despite his rough condition, a little smirk came to the man’s face, though it was quickly replaced by a wince as the quirking of the corner of his mouth opened up a barely-formed scab on his cheek, oozing blood anew.

“They…” he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, “they never even asked me any questions.”

“What?” Hirrus asked, renewed rage coming into him at the sight of the man’s condition and the idea that it had just been for the joy of sadism. “Then why-”

“Wait. Jesus. I’m fucking with you,” Alric said with a weak laugh. The motion seemed to hurt. “It’s a Star Wars reference, don’t worry about it. They actually asked me a lot of questions. A lot of a lot. About you.”

“Hold still,” Hirrus said, taking a moment’s concentration to use Phrase of Luminosity on him, covering him in radiant light and applying the buff that would give him some minor healing over the next few seconds. Already, the small wounds were starting to close. “Take your time. Let me know when you’re ready to move.”

“Shit, man. One hit point isn’t zero. I’m ready to fuckin’ rumble if they want to come at us again.”

Hirrus smirked at the adventurer’s bravado. “That will not be necessary.”

“Okay, good.” Alric heaved a sigh of relief and then winced. “I really don’t think I’ve got much in me.”

Hirrus helped him up and half-carried him out of the manor. The place was fully abandoned now. They faced no further trouble on their way back out. The main gate had even been left open by the mercenaries leaving the grounds. It was only a short walk back to the city walls, and with liberal application of Phrase of Luminosity, Alric was walking on his own before they returned to the Violet Plate.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Alric said as they entered the inn, “but I need a fuckin’ nap. We’ll catch up in the morning, okay?”

Hirrus let the man go to his own room, even though he was concerned for the adventurer’s safety. He felt a little bit better when, after the door closed, he heard the scrape of some heavy item of furniture being dragged across the floor to bar the door.

He felt a little bit worse when he went back to his own room and found Dahlia waiting to fix him with a firm glare. The severity of it was not undercut in the slightest by her having to lean up on a pile of pillows to see him over her pregnant belly while remaining in bed.