Luke clenched his teeth at the pain of the assault, trapping the burgeoning groan that was just about to escape his mouth. His attacker’s cloaking had been nigh flawless while she was stationary, but the inevitable distortions from her movements now revealed her blurry form on the bruiser’s back.

Despite her seeming readiness to levy her next attack, Luke remained in place, unable to blink out of phase due to the knives anchoring his feet. The best he could manage, movement-wise, in the short amount of time it would take for the attack to arrive; would be to power-step through the anchors, and prepare to parry her next attack, so he locked in on this and sought an advantage elsewhere.

[Advanced Appraisal] has been invoked on Unknown>. {RAD} effects detected, analyzing skill…

+-----------------+

|Third-party Alert|

+---------+-------+

|“???”|

+--------+--+

|Limitations|

+-----------+-------------+

|Movement disrupts effects|

+-----------+-------------+

|Description|

+-----------+---------------------+

|“Use reflective and refractive - |

|- nodes to manipulate incoming - |

|light, effecting a cloak against |

|- - - - visual detection.” - - - |

+---------------------------------+

Reflective and refractive nodes of [???] are now passively appraised. WARNING: Node Detection cannot be guaranteed.

Radiance was usually favored over Fire when intensity and fine control were the biggest concerns, but the opposite was true when it came to external effect manipulation. Thus, he would’ve expected the unnamed skill to fall under {FIRE} rather than {RAD}, given how it relied on external and not user-generated light. Barring this though, he could generally understand how the skill functioned.

Besides a good description, his appraisal notifications revealed a passive bonus that would go a long way towards nullifying the woman’s stealth advantage. Passive detection. This seemed to be a guaranteed invocation of his passive appraisal, and although he would’ve preferred more control over when and what to search for, a guarantee was something he hadn’t received from the skill so far, thus a welcome addition.

He pushed his natural observation to its limits whilst levying the skill the best he could, noting how the detection worked as the woman attacked, waning whenever she paused, or when their weapons collided; and strengthening whenever she adjusted the trajectory of her weapon. He felt he had a good read on her next few movements and the speed at which she was coming at him, but a swift kick to the groin followed that thought, disabusing him of that notion.

She’d lulled him into a rhythm with repeated knife attacks, only to switch up the tempo by introducing her legs into the mix. She’s good, he thought. The woman was quite competent, and the remnants of the stamina potion still coursing through his veins wouldn’t be enough to overcome her, not to mention the rest of her group awaiting their turn with the prospective ragdoll, whose becoming he was fast approaching.

Though the flow of the confrontation didn’t seem to allow it, he'd prefer to save his trump cards, especially now when there were too many eyes on him. But at what cost, was the thought that came to him under the pressure of the woman’s assault, nudging the teetering question towards a resolution to use them.

But back and forth he went, for despite the pressure, it still wasn’t an easy decision to make. A few more close calls at the woman’s blade edges finally solidified his resolve to use his first trump. Reserving these would’ve been great, he thought, huffing from his efforts, but not at the risk of never getting to use them again.

He wasted no time in implementing the strategy once he’d decided to do so. A simple bait wouldn’t be sufficient to distract a combatant of her caliber, so he chose to add a -switch to that, beginning the sequence by retrieving a health potion. He feigned a rushed administration, managing to grab the woman’s attention with his efforts, who moved her left blade to intercept. The switch was next, and for this he utilized his Quick Draw skill. Isolating the contents of the vial, he withdrew them to a free slot in his inventory, leaving his attacker with an empty vial to destroy.

He held the vial, open-palmed, and propelled it towards the woman as her knife approached it, and the edge met the glass a split-second later. The shards exploded outwards and Luke’s hand, still in motion, caught a few of them on its way towards the blade. With his anchors long removed, a Phase Blink was now possible, and he used one to escape the knife still swiping his way.

His palm was inches from his attacker’s face when he cancelled the blink, and seeing this, he arrested his arm in place, propelling the shards into her eyes as a consequence. He followed this up with a Quick Draw of the vial’s former contents, designating their former vessel as the target of their manifestation. In shards, the container couldn’t contain the fluid well, but that hadn’t been Luke’s aim to begin with. The drops that clung to each shard provided anchors for the free-floating fluid between them to attach to, resulting in a net-like construct of glass and fluid.

Quick to react, she managed to close her eyelids, blocking most of the shards, but one had managed to beat her reaction, sinking deep into her left eye. Luke took this chance to further injure his attacker, opening a wide gash at her right thigh with his sickle before preparing his next attack. Shimmer would’ve shrugged this off, the effects of the shards stuck in her eyelids, and the blinding of a single eye were it not for the second aspect of the shard attack, the healing fluid, which had already begun playing its part on contact.

Limited to flash bombs in his alchemic capabilities to attack, he’d had to become creative with how to use everything else, and an exploitation of anatomy as it pertained to potion functionality was how he’d chosen to field that creativity.

All entities, by aid of the governing system, kept track of all injuries and their extent, and this information is what that system would use to specify channels for healing effects when they weren’t directed by external means. This meant the healing potion fast being absorbed into his attacker’s circulation would soon counter the shard attack’s effects, but this, like his own use of the stamina potions, would come at a cost, and that cost was what he planned to exploit.

◆◆◆

Shimmer had seen through the blinding attack, but not fast enough to avoid all the shards, and the one had been more than enough to take out her left eye. She experienced a slight pain as the blocked shards met her eyelids, and slightly more as the escapee-shard buried itself deeper into her eyeball, but that amount was still bearable.

However, the pain increased as the fluid burned into her wounds, removing all thoughts of- and the ability to counterattack. To her, it felt like being ravaged by a caustic attack, but prior knowledge and her own notifications informed her it wasn’t an attack at all, but the direct effects of the healing fluid.

These effects were initially concentrated around her eyes, effectively taking out her sight and clear thought, but a sudden gash to her thigh presented a new channel for the effects to follow, and they seared their way to the injured thigh, taking out her mobility next.

“Oi! Get it together, Shimmer!” came the bruiser’s panicked voice, interrupting Luke’s intended next attack. It had taken the man quite some time to slow down, but he’d managed it eventually and was now facing Luke’s way. So, her name is Shimmer, Luke noted mentally, eliciting a response from the system in the form of a notification.

Third-party skill information has been updated. Subject: Headline Update: “???” has been changed to “Shimmer” You have made progress towards a WISDOM point. Gains in WISDOM insufficient for leveling up.

“Echo, Silence. Stampede, ground him,” came a second voice moments later, prompting the team into action. It seems the unnamed hopper’s the leader here, Luke concluded, putting aside the contents of the notification, and deciding to pay closer attention to their leader moving forward.

◆◆◆

From his estimations, their leader, designated Hopscotch for now, was their spook and strategist, meant to run their target down metaphorically, whilst Stampede, as his name and previous attacks would suggest, was there to run their man down. Literally. Echo seemed to be their tracker and communicator, perusing the areas unruffled by their leader’s search, and Shimmer, beyond being their trump card should Luke aim for Stampede’s weakness, was their close-quarter expert.

He’d temporarily bested the latter, but the nature of his interrupted attack guaranteed her quick recovery, albeit with a side-effect that worked to his advantage. The entrenched shard. Although a high-enough dosage of healing potion could do as much as a healing skill, the way the former’s effects manifested tended to be weaker than those of skills due to the lack of a guiding force for the effects.

As a consequence of the lack of that guiding force, potion effects were guided by system memory, which usually resulted in similar injuries being healed in the order they’d been dealt, an order which would be ignored should one injury be more life-threatening than the other, in which case the harshest injuries would go first.

Besides the target order, healing potions fell short in dealing with foreign objects within one’s flesh, and thus tended to heal over shrapnel, rather than expel or absorb it as skills would. For this reason, healing potion use was to be preceded by minor cleanse potions whenever toxins or insoluble debris was expected in wounds. Because Luke had left a cleansing potion out of his attack, even though Shimmer was fast recovering from his attack, she wouldn’t have the sight of her left eye for the foreseeable future since the eyeball had healed over the shard within. The shard’s sharp edges would do tick damage over time as well, which although miniscule, would guarantee the lady was never at hundred percent until she addressed the shard issue.

“One down, three and a half pairs to go”, he muttered, retrieving a flash bomb from his inventory. He’d managed to conceal the retrieval by keeping his hand within the folds of his hoodie’s sleeve, so his attackers had continued approaching him, unaware of the counters awaiting them.

Surprisingly, the first to begin the next round was Shimmer, who, despite the debilitating effects of the forced heal, the almost-healed gash on her thigh, and the loss of vision in one eye, still came at him like a woman possessed. Her knife attacks were quick, but Luke could see the gaps in them now, an amped up ferocity from the left to force his body towards the right, where her one eye still tracked his movements manically.

Though he saw through her intentions, he did not make any efforts to avoid her maneuvering, choosing to dance towards that side instead for his next attack. Seeing him opening up some distance between them, he prepared his next move, but a sudden chill assailed his back, telling him Stampede was fast approaching. This surprised him, seeing as he hadn’t heard as much as a crunch from the man barreling towards him.

Come to think of it, he’d only heard a consistent, low hum in the background for a while now, even as he’d clashed blades with Shimmer, which told him this had to be a skill, rather than a lack of awareness on his part. A tilt of his head helped him spot Echo, who still hovered out of reach, and though he moved his jaws, no sound came from them. Silence, he thought, before whispering it, letting each syllable play on his tongue and lips as he struggled to understand what was going on. A quick appraisal registered sound, which came out gobbled in the notification text, and this surprised him even more, given he couldn’t hear anything.

Could he be actively channeling counter-waves to mask all other sound? But how would he know what sounds are to come with so many sources? he wondered, ultimately choosing to disrupt before understanding whatever it was Echo was doing.

◆◆◆

A flash and a bang accompanied preceded his retreat just as two of his four assailants had just gotten within inches from him. The two were Shimmer and Stampede, the former being the original target of the attack in an effort to take out her remaining functional eye. Now blinded, she presented an easier target for disposal, and a chance to improve his odds 1-to-3.

The attacks effects, though significantly reduced, had managed to affect the hovering Echo who as a consequence had failed to maintain the silencing effect, allowing Luke to hear all the sounds around him, including the satisfying scream from Shimmer, who hadn’t taken the explosion of light too well.

Luke would’ve loved to make good on his original plan to take her out at her weakest, but Stampede moved in front of her and stood firm as her shield, poised for any attacks Luke would try. Although intimidating, this alone wouldn’t have been enough to deter him, but a second form plummeted towards his position, forcing him to switch targets.

How far can your tail go without a head, he thought, switching his focus to their leader. Without him, they’d still be a team of peculiars, but without their strategist, they would be easier to take out, one after the other. With that thought in mind, he danced around the bounding leader, narrowly avoiding the destructive landings whilst extending the resultant trenches for his own good.

8 x has been added to your inventory. 5 x has been retrieved from your inventory. 17 x has been added to your inventory.

Just… about… now!

◆◆◆

Luke hadn’t been just dancing away from the relentless hops, but setting a pitfall for the slippery hopper, who’d now just plunged all the way in, up to his thighs. This was the opportunity he’d been hoping for, and now that it had presented itself, Luke took it, choosing to reap the leader’s head before anyone from his team could come to his aid. With one mighty swing, Luke made to remove the head, literally, but to his surprise all that accompanied the swing was a stilling of the blade’s motion, followed by a sharp zing that travelled up his arm, popping his right shoulder out of its socket.

The leader turned to beam him a wide grin, whose rage-inducing effects managed to overcome the pain from his shoulder, but this too, like his hopes for a lightening of odds, was short-lived. A sudden burst of cold soon dampened even his breathing to crawl, leaving him powerless to react to the blade’s edge fast approaching his neck.

Although he did fear his own death, the thought of resigning to it like a coward kept him from closing his eyes, and so it was with wide-open eyes that he took in those of his supposed executioner. A shimmering pair, devoid of blemish. One expected, but the other an impossibility.