“So there we were in the mess hall, just chatting away, killing time after taking the city, when the upheaval comes up. Now I'm sure you’re all familiar with this, but the patch notes they released afterwards hinted at how it was pulled off, namely the layering of spells. Now they went into a fair amount of detail into why this and that had been changed, and how things wouldn’t work anymore, and somehow this translated in Gabe’s mind into “this would be really cool”.” Oda said as they walked along the road to Macross. “Now while we all tried our best to explain to him that A, by definition it wouldn’t work and B, he shouldn’t try in the first place. But for those of you have dealt with our glorious commander here, you’ll know we would have better luck talking the sun out of shining.

So for while it seemed like he’d forgotten about it entirely, days passed and he didn’t mention it at all. Then out of the blue he comes along and smacks this snow globe on the table, and this thing was overflowing with power.”

“Now when you say overflowing...” Another guild member asked. Oda had started to tell Jicker the story as they walked, much to Gabe’s disapproval, and now most of the group was listening in while he rode Princess up front, trying to act like he couldn’t hear them.

“I mean literally had power leaking through little cracks that had started to form. Most people would take this as an extremely obvious sign to stop, but not Gabe here. No, not only did he ignore it, and us when we told him again, but he went and found a way to store some more in there. He went into the vaults that, thanks to this, he no longer has access to, and pulled out some heavily enchanted rope, the kind we use if we need to tie up and sacrifice a demon lord. So he tied it around the snow globe and sure enough it stopped the leaks, so he began to add more power, like a totally sensible person would.”

“Obviously.” Jicker said with a grin.

“Right so for the rest of the day he pours an absolute butt load of power into this thing, way more than a normal player could handle, chugging mana potions like water. Most of the guild had gotten wind that Gabe was up to something, and had followed the protocols, evacuating the area, leaving only a few people who were too dumb, too lazy or too curious to watch what happened next. And before anyone makes a comment, I was curious.

So we're all sitting there wondering how it’s all going to go wrong, when it starts leaking power again, spraying out of the gaps in rope like a hose. And then Gabe cleverly realises that because the rope hasn’t formed a perfect seal, there are gaps for the power to leak through. He decides that it needs to be wrapped and tied differently to do a better job and so, in one of his finest moments in recent history, he unties it to try again.”

“He didn’t!” Jicker exclaimed as several people burst out laughing.

“He certainly did. The second that rope came off the magic all rushed out, the snow globe giving way and letting it all go at once. I saw it start to go and managed to sprint clear, but the rest of them got swallowed up by the ice that formed, and it just kept growing. By the time it was done, about five city blocks had become encased in a giant, almost perfectly clear block of ice. In fact it was so clear that not only could we see some very surprised looking bodies trapped inside, but it acted like a magnifying glass and actually started a few small fires around it. After that, Gabe got assigned to the first mission that would take him out of the city for a while, and here we are.”

Laughing, Jicker looked up as he wiped the tears from his eyes, watching the airship head off into the distance. Since the ships had been designed to only carry the greycaps many people were disappointed they wouldn’t be able to ride one all the way to the city, but most of the opinions changed after the launch. While the first ship had taken the borders by surprise and successfully delivered a present to the players who’d thrown him into the woods, the second hadn’t fared as well. As soon as it had cleared the forest canopy, the first attacks had started to strike it, tearing holes and setting it a flame. The queen seemed to take offense to this however, and ordered the ship to ram the defenders that had launched the assault, the burning airship ploughing through their barricade as it crashed into the ground. It wasn’t according to the plan, but it reduced the number of attacks against the remaining ships enough that they could get away, with varying degrees of success. Their efforts seemed tied to upgraded greycaps that had been put on each ship, their magical abilities put to use in defending the ships. One ship that had held several with fire magic not only got clear, but ignited a wide section of the walls and camp on their way out, where the ship protected by one armed with lightning took shots at any archer that fired back. The most worrying ship had held both an air mage and one made from the body of a druid, which had risen straight up rather than heading out, vanishing above the clouds. Since then they’d heard a few odd rumours about vines reaching out of the sky and dragging people away but only time would tell if there was any truth to them.

The guild had been travelling for the better part of two days now, sneaking out after the chaos the airships had caused. Thanks to the queen’s gift, they were able to ignore the faint haze of spores they left behind, unlike the other creatures caught up in its wake. The spores alone didn’t kill anything, little more than a debuff, until something died while under its effects. A fox hunting down a rabbit, a farmer preparing killing some livestock, or one of the hundreds of players doing nothing but killing everything they came across. As soon as it started, the numbers began to grow rapidly, with huge numbers of creatures being changed into fungal zombies. They weren’t a real threat yet, usually even weaker than they had been when they were alive, but with numbers that was slowly changing and people were already starting to prepare for the worst after only a single wave of airships. A small village had already been overrun, and once the second wave of ships had finished growing, things would only get worse.

“Well,” Gabe said, slowing down slightly and rejoining them. “If you’re done making fun of me, we should probably figure out where to put you in our team.”

“Sure, what events are you competing in?” Jicker asked.

Gabe thought about it. “Pretty much all of them.”

The champion games were held in Macross every year, or several times a year depending on what time scale you looked at. It was started as a way for the city to make money, but now the Macross existed almost solely for the games, the population made up of people who ran the events, sold merchandise or ran services for tourists.

The events covered almost every sport, game and contest that could be thought of. If there was a way to determine a winner, then people would compete and others would bet. There were fights, physical and mental challenges, obstacle courses, card games, debates and art contests. Matches for teams, guilds and solo players were available, all with their own tournament rules and prizes ranging from a participation ribbon to millions of dollars. It was one of very few events that was worth hundreds of thousands of people travelling from all over the world of genesis to compete in, and would be viewed by millions more.

“Are the games really that important to your guild?” Jicker asked.

Oda sighed. “Not exactly, but our status with Ardenvale is a bit... tricky at the moment. We’ve still got a bit of a time buffer before people can try to take the city back from us, but it’s going to run out pretty soon, and we’ve currently got more enemies than allies as a guild. We’ve already seen scouts around the place, so we know to expect a fight, but if we can get a few allies, or even just show people we’re a legitimate city rather than just an overgrown bandit camp, maybe we can reduce the number of attackers.”

“Not stop them all together?”

“Oh gods no, we stole a city. That’s not a grudge that going away anytime soon, something you should know plenty about. But maybe we can get the outsiders to not bother getting involved. And the games can do a lot to show off our legitimacy.

“So what was Harrison going to be doing then, before his... donation?”

“He was lined up to fight in a few five man team battles, as well as a summoning contest. The guy was an idiot and a bastard, but I can’t say he wasn’t good at his work.” Gabe replied. “Think you can fill in?”

“The summoning I can probably manage, if we can clear it with the referee, but the combat might be little difficult.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Oda said. “We’ve got a week to get there and register for the games, and we also need to raise you up a few level s so that you can actually participate as part of the guild. I figure if we head off and do some proper hunting we should be able to bring you up to a point where you at least won’t drag people down.”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.” Jicker said sarcastically.

“Fine then. When was the last time you actually fought properly? Actually planned to fight rather than escape?”

He hesitated. “Probably around the siege?”

Oda sighed.”And even then you were mostly hiding and taking shots at people who didn’t notice you. While that’s... fine, for hunting, it won’t be enough if they know you’re coming and it’s a limited environment.”

“Well sorry! I’ve been busy, and I was crafter before this as well. I didn’t fight much then and I don't fight much now.”

“And that’s what we need to fix.” The assassin said firmly.

~~~~~~

The rest of the Rising Moon headed straight for Macross, While Oda, Gabe and Jicker headed to a nearby swamp to train and practice for a few days. It was initially going to be just Oda overseeing his training, but the rest of them refused to be left alone with Gabe giving orders.

“Right then,” Oda said once they’d found a spot to set up camp, crossing his arms. “Come and attack me.”

“Don’t you want to draw a weapon first?”

He snorted. “Right, despite the fact we’re because you’re a terrible fighter, I should be careful. You could be fifty times stronger and you still wouldn’t even see me unless I let you.”

Sighing, Jicker pulled out his blade and rushed him, holding his blade low to the side. A moment later he picked himself off the floor and wondered how he got there. Shaking his head he found his blade and turned to attack again, but couldn’t quite remember what he was supposed to be doing.

“He’s not going to learn if you keep messing with him like that Oda.” Gabe said from the sidelines, brushing Princesses mane.

“Yeah, I know, but its fun to mess with rookies like that.” Oda said, fading into view. “It all serves to show you that enigma can be used in combat if you’re good enough. Now then, let’s do this for real.”

Over the next several hours he was struck, thrown, shot, kicked, stabbed and a host of other things, until they finally reached an answer.

“You’re... really bad at this.” Oda said, helping off the floor after a particularly heavy fall.

“No, really? Any other amazing insights you want to share? Maybe that I'm short or that Gabe’s not the brightest.”

“Hey!” Shouted Gabe, dropping the stick he’d been using to poke at a nearby snake.

“Yeah I knew you weren’t going to be great, you’ve played this game for a long time now, I figured you’d be better than this.”

“I was a tinker, not some leapfrogging assassin, which I'm sure we can all agree is something I was very good at. And what combat I did learn involved me being about three feet taller than I am now.”

Oda scratched his chin. “Right, so you have some reflexes, but they’re the wrong ones. How have you dealt with things so far as a gremlin?”

“Lately it seems that I get snuck up on then captured.”

“Ha, and the other times?”

“Either hiding with poison darts like you said, or twice now I've survived with my Rageform ability.”

Oda clapped his hands together. “Right, I knew there was something I meant to ask about! That inner rage thing you’ve got, what its deal?”

Jicker thought about how to explain it. “Well Rageform, or the lesser kind I’ve got, turns me into an uncontrollable monster for a while, making me way stronger and tougher.”

“Sounds neat, let’s try it out!” Gabe said, coming over.

“How about no. For one thing it’s got a pretty massive cooldown, even with a reduction from the stat it’s almost three days, and I can’t turn it off early. And I did say it was uncontrolled right? It’ll try to survive and maybe try to follow the last thing I thought of before activation. I’ve had a little luck trying to nudge it in how it does it, but other than it tends to lash out.”

“That’s... interesting, but still worth trying out. And while I believe you when you say it makes you stronger, I'm pretty sure that between me and Gabe we can handle you for what? A few minutes?”

“Around six hours or so, but that not the biggest issue. There’s a small chance, smaller thanks to the stat, that it becomes permanent.”

“And by permanent you mean...?”

“I mean I write off Jicker as a character all together and there’s another mob running around with something that used to be my face.”

“More of a last resort sort of thing then.” Oda said, looking thoughtful.

“Oh, I don't know, you should do it anyway.” Gabe said cheerfully.

“Are... are you serious? I just said-”

“That it’s a massive risk, and it’s one you should take. I died so, so many times when I acquired my own power, and if Mary hadn’t managed to find a way to keep me going, I’d have been a write off as well. But we managed and now I'm one of the most powerful players around. If things really do go wrong, what do you have to lose?”

What did he have to lose anyway? Jicker wondered. His character obviously, but then, he hadn’t really wanted to create a new character anyway and been forced into it. He’d become invested in it, but he could always start again if he had to, though maybe this would give him a way to get out of the contract he’d signed. More likely they’d just fudge some numbers and repeat the whole process, but it was worth a shot.

“You know what, fine. We’ve got a week before the games, so it’ll be off cooldown before then, but if I get stuck then I blame you in particular Gabe.”

“Noted, now let’s do this!”

“Anything we should know before you start?” Oda asked, drawing a large curved knife from his belt.

“Well, it hurts like hell to activate, and both times I've used it, the Rageform came out different so be on your toes. I'm going to try and get it to beat the tar out of both of you, so have fun with that and try to keep me from running off. Are you ready kids?” he asked, dropping his pack and taking off his shirt.

Gabe grinned and bounced on his heels, his hands glowing with power. “Aye aye captain!”

Triggering the ability, Jicker gritted his teeth at the feeling of his bones breaking and resetting themselves in rapid succession, tendons snapping before being replaced with larger muscles. His skin split and rejoined, thickening as it did so, its grey colour spreading over his body as he hunched over in pain. The one upside was that he could see the expressions of the two players in front of him as he first grew to match their height, and kept growing until he towered over them. His vision blurred as his head felt like it was bursting, then suddenly he could see... everything, more than he could comprehend. His eyes had disappeared completely, replaced with just a flat section of exposed bone that covered everything but his jaws, two long tusks jutting outwards. Yet somehow he could not only still see, but could do in every direction, the experience more than he could handle, but apparently easy for the Rageform to manage as it stood once the transformation was complete. Unlike the last time when it had adopted a lean athletic build, this time it had gained nothing but bulk, becoming almost twelve feet of thick muscles coved in a layer of what looked like blubber.

It roared at the players in front of it, causing the local wildlife to scatter.

“So that’s cool, if a little... disturbing to watch.” Gabe said as he looked up at him.

“And apparently more adaptable than I’d figured.” Oda said with interest, his eyes glowing slightly. ‘He’s put on a thick enough layer to get some decent cold resistance, and has somehow acquired omni-directional sight, so sneaking up on him is out of the question.”

“Well he looks pretty fat now, so he should be pretty sl-” Gabe began, before throwing himself to the side as the Rageform suddenly rushed him, throwing a fist that was completely encased in bone plates.

“Or he could be faster than he was before.” Oda said as he threw a couple of knives to test things out, only for them to bounce of his blubbery hide. “This... is going to be fun. Can you hear us Jicker?”

“If he can or not, that not the biggest problem right now is it?” Gabe shouted as he backpedalled, sending out a frigid spray of mist that formed ice when it came into contact with the Rageform, but broke apart before it could thicken enough to be a problem.

Jicker spent a few moments to type out a message to Oda, looking up occasionally to see his body trying to kill them.

Oda

Looks like it didn’t become permanent, so have fun duking it out with me for the next six hours or so. I’ll set a clock to figure it out exactly, but I'm going to log off for a bit and take care of some things, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t kill me while I'm gone.

~~~~~~

“What do you mean you’re moving?” Sarah asked, fuming.

“It means I'm going to stop living in one building, and live in a different one. Have you never heard of this before?” Jicker said as he packed a suitcase.

“You can’t just... move! We have forms, security, insurance details... there are things we need to-”

“No, there are things the company probably needs to do. I don't need to do anything other than play a game.”

When he’d logged out, he’d spent several minutes staring at the paper on his desk, the message that had been put in his house. Looking through the footage from security cameras he’d installed, he found that there was a minute in the video where it all went black, and afterwards the note was on the table. After seeing that someone had both gotten into his house and could access his security, getting out seemed like a good idea.

“But it’s not safe out there for you, there are still a lot of people looking for Maser.”

“It’s not safe for me here! My house has been repeatedly broken into, I've even been attacked twice already and that was by August himself! So I figure I’ll take a shot at being somewhere that people might attack me, instead of one where I know they will.”

Sarah had called once she’d seen he’d logged out, wanting to know if he’d any luck in figuring out how to deal with the asteroid, since their own efforts had so far been hit and miss.

“We managed to track down a unique shield that someone made to win a bet,” she said with a sigh. “One that would completely disintegrate any projectile that struck it, no matter what it was.”

“That sounds kind of overpowered, but perfect for what we need right now. So how do we get it in place?” he said relieved, happy something had come through.

“We can’t use it anymore.” She replied grumpily.

“Why not, is the owner refusing to sell it or something?”

“No, they just gave it to us, but the problem is that its ability can only be used once before it goes on cooldown. And when they picked it up to examine it...” she sighed. “A bird crapped on it. Just... plop, straight down, a few sparks as it triggered and bam all used up.”

Matt coughed to cover a laugh. “What’s the cooldown?”

“A year, so it’s useless to us now. Apparently it’s the same thing that happened to the guy who made it in the first place. But what about things on your end, any luck?”

“Not yet, but I'm back on my way and should reach Macross within the week. But right now I need to do something I should have done a while ago.” He said, putting her on speaker phone while he packed. Since he’d said he was moving all she’d done was rant and complain, partly over her concerns, but it was also her job to keep track of things like this.

“Fine, move if you want to, just let me know where so I can put it in the file.”

“No.”

“Oh come on! Are you just being difficult on purpose?” she shouted.

“Look, I’m sure that the moment I spend so much as a dollar, people from your accounts department are going to start making calls to track me, but right now I want to stay off the radar as much as I can, especially since my main threat has come from the company itself. So for now, you can take a guess, but I'm not going to tell you, though I'm sure it’ll only buy me a few hours at most.”

Ending the call, he called a cab and went into town, having the driver pick a decent hotel at random. The one that was picked was a five star monolith of a building, one that usually catered to the rich and famous. He got a few looks at first, after walking in off the street with his old ratty suitcase, but after putting some of the money he’d earned to work, the looks were replaced by helpful smiles. They were happy to show him to a suite he’d booked for the week, and went to over the various security details it offered, saying that they knew the value of their client’s privacy.

After the attendant had gone he went to order something from the room service menu, after hearing their boasts about the chefs they had on staff when he paused. He’d left his house on little more than a whim, and had the cab driver pick a hotel at random, one that should be extremely secure. Yet sitting by the phone was a single card, containing a familiar looking message.

“You may live where you like, we can find you there as well. The work must continue.”

~~~~~~

Swearing as he logged back in, he was thrown for a moment as he tried to acclimatize to the strange view he was given. The area was cracked and broken, and almost completely white with frost, with trees torn from the ground and large chunks ice buried in the earth. Both of his legs were currently encased in ice, pinning him to the ground while a tired looking Oda and Gabe sat a short distance away.

“Ice prison is going to give way in a minute.” Gabe said with a sigh. “Your turn.”

“Yeah I know. Jeez this thing is just relentless.” Oda muttered, pulling a sword from thin air.

Swinging the sword down, he vanished for a moment before appearing in what would have been a blind spot, the blade aiming right between his shoulder blades. Instead he found himself twisting suddenly, a chunk of ice breaking free of his legs and being grabbed as a makeshift club against the oncoming assassin who flipped over it as it whistled underneath him. Adjusting his grip, Oda moved quickly and used the clubs momentum to jump above him, and somehow accelerated down, piercing him through the arm and pinning him to the ground.

“Okay that should hold him for a few minutes, then you’re up again.” He said, sitting back down heavily.

Jicker was about to try and send Oda a message, when the Rageform decided it had had enough, and deactivated. The pain and discomfort of his body shifting back to its normal state was bad, but having a sword jammed through his arm made it all the worse.

You have the gained shifted status.

Until your body recovers from having forcibly entered another form, your strength, stamina and speed will be halved.

Duration remaining: 6 hours

Inner Rage has increased by 2! Total: 3

You have unlocked the Natural weapon skill!

Current level: 4

Allows for greater damage, effectiveness and use with any of your body’s natural weapons. This also counts as the unarmed combat skill

Current effects: increased armour penetration, increased accuracy, +4 damage.

You have unlocked the Iron Hide skill!

Current level: 3

Ranks in this reduce incoming damage while in a transformed shape.

Current effects: reduces incoming physical damage by 3 or 3% whichever is higher.

“Hell, how long were you guys fighting me?” Jicker said once his breath came back.

“Oh, you know, a while.” Gabe said, falling backwards. “Are we done now?”

Oda wandered over to Jicker’s prone form. “Yeah we’re done for today. Hold still for a sec .” he said before ripping the sword out.

“Mother-” He said clutching his arm. “How about a bit of warning before you go doing something like that!”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, sorry, but we’ve been stabbing you for ages now, and you’ve fought back. A lot. You set a clock right? How long was that?”

He checked. “Seven hours, plus or minus a few minutes.”

“Right, seven hours of dealing with you attacking us, while we couldn’t kill you, or lose you when you tried to pull back. Oh speaking of which, after a while of your hit and run tactics, this thing showed up. Yours I take it?” he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

Looking the way he pointed, he saw that what he’d though was another pile of torn up snow and rock was actually Hermes, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully despite his surroundings.

“Yeah, his name is Hermes, a mount I put together, but got taken off me when I got kidnapped the last time. I guess we finally got far enough away that the game teleported him to me.”

“Cool, but princess is better.” Gabe said, sitting up enough to throw him his bag and clothes.

Throwing his shirt and cloak back on, which considering his surroundings he was thankful for, he quickly rummaged through his bag for a few of his healing pills, sighing happily as the pain in his arm faded away.

“So, that’s my Rageform ability. What do you think?” He asked the two tired fighters.

“It’s impressive. If we’re being honest, either of us could have killed you easily, but considering the level difference, that was a given. But against someone around your own level you’d definitely give them a run for their money, which makes sense since you’re more monster than player. But the thing that got me the most was how adaptable it was. You said it took different forms before, was that either of them?”Oda asked.

He shook his head. “No that was new yet again. That sight thing gave me a headache.”

“Well yeah, people aren’t designed to see every direction at once. But the fact it shaped itself to specifically counter your opponents is kind of terrifying. There’s a strange, roaming boss up in the highlands that does that, the Nemesis, and people always have to go in as big a group as possible to fight it, so that it can’t counter them all. In a one on one fight it’s straight up death. If you ever reach that point, you’ll be unstoppable.”

“As long as I don't get stuck as a monster and attack people like crazy you mean.”

“Well yeah, assuming that. Now come on and get, your crab up, we need to find a spot to make camp. Tomorrow we’ll try and get you to fight like a player, so I’d get some rest if I was you.”

“Can’t we just stay here?” Gabe whined from where he lay. “I'm tiiired.”

“We might have been able to, but thanks to all the ice around here its freezing, and when it eventually melts it’s going to become very wet, even for a swamp. So get up and let’s find some higher and drier ground.”

As night fell, they found a small hill that lifted out of the murk that would do for the evening. Gabe and Oda began putting together their tents, while Jicker just grabbed a few armfuls of leaves to soften the floor of Hermes shell. Gabe looked at him jealously over the canvas he trying to unfold, but just turned away and said that Princess was still better. After they’d set up they sat around a small campfire, chatting about strategies for the games, elaborate battle plans seeing who could hold a poker face longest. For his part, Jicker spent some time restocking his supplies of potions and pills, making sure he’d have enough for the upcoming days. Oda had shot down a couple of birds to serve as dinner, and while none of them were chefs, hunger was always the best spice, and the roasted meat was quickly devoured. Turning in for the night, Jicker lay inside of Hermes shell, wondering about the potential of his Rageform ability. It was powerful, but wouldn’t be much good during the games, since they were usually multiple round events, and he wouldn’t be able to control himself anyway. The last thing he needed was to lose it during the games and just go wandering around attacking people like that thing Oda had mentioned...

Suddenly sitting bolt upright as an idea struck him, he swore as his head smacked in the shell above him. Rubbing his head, he opened his menus and went through some of the information Sarah had given him and swore louder.

The Nemesis, an unusual, boss grade monster that adapted to its opponents just like he had, roamed the highland area. The same area that, according to his information, was the last known location of the dark chemist trainer.

Shit.