The strike teams raced away from the Dawr, being certain to route through the trapped locations prepared beforehand. Given the explosions and distant screeches of pain and surprise, Niko judged that they were doing their jobs abundantly well. Luckily, it seemed that the warlord and his champions weren’t pursuing, though Niko looked over his shoulder more than once to be certain of that. With how much animosity the warlord had with him, Niko wouldn’t have been altogether surprised if he had continued to pursue him.

“Looks like everyone is accounted for, some injuries, but nothing grievous,” Thorne said after a quick examination of their formations. His eyes lingered on the Wyldwalkers for a few moments longer, but he was hardly unique in that. Many of the beasts outright stared at them with shock, and while Niko would have liked to say it was because of how excellent he looked, he wasn’t quite that delusional. Although, he did feel like he was a fair bit more focused on his appearances ever since evolving into his Az-Phorus form.

“What is that thing you’ve made?” Dietre was the one to break the question to Mithel, trying to keep his tone conversational and light, but there was only so much to be done with literally the entire group listening for the answer.

She smiled while putting an arm around the cannon, roughly half the size she was, “This is Hyper Beam. Or maybe Hyper Cannon?” Contemplatively, she drummed her fingers against the metal hull of the thing, “I’m torn between the two.”

“It’s an experimental piece,” Stella offered excitedly as she noticed the noncomprehending stares, “We were wondering what a combination of essence enchantments, alchemy, and—” she smoothly transitioned to a separate word, “Other things could manage. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long it’ll take to recharge, or if it'll recharge at all. Or a lot of things, really.”

Niko was glad she hadn’t mentioned the Memory Thief’s core. Even if he didn’t expect any problems from the group, he didn’t think it was strictly a good idea to tell people that they were using a potentially dangerous weapon made out of a mind-altering predator’s parts. Especially considering that one of the worst-off victims of the creature was with them. Some people didn’t care about such things, using the remains of their worst enemy without a second thought. Others could be less inclined, though Niko didn’t explicitly agree with such thoughts. There were a few lines he wouldn’t cross but using whatever was available seemed pragmatic at the least.

As they pulled away, Niko felt uncertainty in any continued attacks. The warlord had very clearly wanted to come for him, and if it weren’t for the use of their weapon, would surely have managed it. Given how capable it had been, Niko wouldn’t be surprised at all if there simply wasn’t any more use they could get out of it. Even if it did recharge, he wasn’t confident that it would be anytime soon. That much essence didn’t just come out of thin air after all.

‘Well… actually it just might, but not quickly. That’s for sure.’ Niko thought amusedly, before turning to Mithel.

“How is it looking? Do you think it can fire again?” Niko asked as he moved closer to Charlotte simultaneously. The spider seemed to be vibrating, which at first, he worried was out of anxiety or fear. But, given the gleam in her eyes and the way her pedipalps and antennae danced, he suspected it was more out of excitement.

“I think we can fire this more,” Mithel said after a few moments, “But not soon. I don’t think it’ll recharge quickly at all. We can maybe reinforce it with some sigils for speeding up the rate at which it can regenerate, but I have no idea how many times we can do this. Most high-grade magical items use cores, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of one dropping from something so relatively low in tier.”

Knowingly, Niko emphatically nodded at that. Monster Cores were oddly commonplace, though Niko hadn’t actually run across all that many things that he could abundantly consider as monsters. Not all monsters even formed them, especially so when you looked at species that tended to swarm in numbers. Of the Dawr, Niko was aware that basic goblins never formed them, hobs exceedingly rarely, champions much more commonly – all things considered – with Shaman’s being even more common. That he hadn’t seen one so far only indicated the rarity in Dawr. Yet another reason why adventurers and kingdoms tended to loathe goblin-kin incursions; it was a fairly large expense to repel them, and with comparatively little gained in peripheral benefits. As for the Memory Thief, it’d been either tier three or tier four, Niko wasn’t certain which, and had formed a very powerful, concentrated core.

“Any idea how much time?” While he didn’t want to pester too much, having the weapon available to counter the warlord was far too useful for him to not be hopeful.

She shot down those hopes with a shrug, “I’d guess at least two hours? Maybe three? For all I know, it won’t be able to fully recharge at all. Stella’s done some work with cores, but I haven’t.”

Niko nodded, somehow managing to withhold his sigh, before saying, “Then our group is going to have to pull out a little sooner, and we’ll have to swap which side we’ll attack on each time. Maybe even hit a separate area so the warlord isn’t going to be on us instantly.”

“It might still be better being with the group,” Dachna spoke as he came over, the rest of the teams withdrawing and leadership coming together to plan their next strike after rendezvousing with their separated strike teams. “If the warlord does commit, there’s a chance that our combined numbers can bring him down. That’d be worth it, right?”

Ronald grunted at that, “Maybe, but that’s not entirely our choice. I’ll join the team captains and see what they think. They deserve to know that the warlord has a vendetta against Niko.”

“Why is that, anyways?” Sasha asked, “I don’t recall anything in specific that you would have done that anyone else wouldn’t have.”

The only one who knew close to everything was Skye. The others, outside of Thokk, Sasha, Stella, and Charlotte, were all aware of Niko having gained an ability after having defeated the shaman. However, Niko hadn’t been explicitly clear that said ability had been subverted from what should have been a curse from Bant himself.

‘Yeah, this is a little messy… this might need to get done now.’ Chagrined, Niko gestured the group to follow him to the edge of the formation. He spoke quietly, and while using his Wyldstrider patterns stealth to the fullest. Niko wasn’t certain that would be effective for what he was trying to use it for; while robust, the pattern wasn’t all powerful.

Sasha noticed, though, and her own pattern helped to fill in the gaps, hopefully enough to keep anyone from eavesdropping. Surely, they noticed the group move away to speak, but with Mithel still holding the Hyper Beam, Niko hoped they would assume it to be about that. Which meant he’d have to make this quick.

“Alright, so, we’re going over this quickly and from the top just in case. Don’t… be too surprised,” Niko had almost asked for them not to be surprised at all, but he doubted that would be possible, all things considered. “As you know, I’m an aberrant, but that’s probably a byproduct of being a Chosen of the Great Mother as she’s known. She blessed me, and a lot of stuff has happened between now and then that you guys are pretty much aware of.” Unable to help himself, Niko looked up at Sasha and Thokk, who had stiffened considerably and had wide eyes. Charlotte just nodded along, looking impressed, but he couldn’t tell if she was humoring him. It was oddly adorable.

He refocused, “So, during the Dawr attack under Greenleaf, we killed the shaman. Well, turns out, their god – which I’m going to not say aloud because I have it under good authority that saying a god’s name can be detrimental for not being noticed by them – tried to lay a curse upon me. Not sure what it would have done, but my blessings were able to subvert it, and let me use the bloody energy for myself. So, yeah, kind of fibbed when I said that I could just use it now. Sorry guys.” Niko said this to the rest of his team, though he couldn’t remember if he’d told Skye directly already. “I thought it’d probably be for the best if I didn’t mention too much about the various gods being a little too interested in my activities, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be going away anytime soon. So, there you have it. Questions?”

The old and new members of the Wyldwalkers looked between amused and anxious for the former and bewildered and a little shellshocked on the latter. Still, Sasha recovered enough to ask, “What?”

Ronald let out a single bark of a laugh, to which Stella harshly poked him in the side, hissing, “Don’t laugh, this is…”

“Overwhelming.” Thokk finished for her, blinking owlishly at Niko. “This… is much to absorb. Do you… I mean to say, why are they interested?”

Niko opened his mouth, wanting dearly to say what was going on. He had traveled enough with them all to trust them, but he likewise didn’t want to put them in undue harm. That said, they were locked in with him on the pilgrimage, and it was looking like their fates were going to be only getting more entangled. Once, he’d thought he could use the pilgrimage to just get stronger, but now… it looked like he would be running aground his adversaries sooner than he'd expected.

“I’ll tell you all the truth, soon.” Niko promised, “It’s not something that should be said out here. But I’ll tell you that it’s not something evil and nefarious, at least.” Mentally, Niko added, ‘Unless you’re with the current pantheon, which might be a difference of opinion, there.’

The others had differing reactions, but whether they were nodding, or simply withholding their doubts, they accepted what he was saying.

Ronald grinned widely, the expression noticed by Mithel, who seemed marginally less perplexed than the others. Niko imagined that was because Mithel thought she knew what Niko was going to tell them… She had no idea that being an otherworlder was only the start of his mess.

“What’s got you grinning?” The gnomish woman asked, still fiddling with the weapon on her lap.

“I guess I’m glad that Niko didn’t try to misdirect? And I’m kind of glad that my gut wasn’t wrong.” He turned his gaze to Niko, “Not that I’ve had my doubts about you directly, Niko, but I’ve always felt that you were always holding something back.”

That made him wince visibly, and Niko nodded slowly, “Yeah… Well, you’ll see what I’m talking about soon enough.”

Niko could practically feel their curiosity on a palpable level, but Ronald finally nodded, looking over to see the other strike teams rejoining the whole. “Well, looks like the meeting is going to be happening soon. I’ll let them know that the warlord is likely to be after us specifically… For reasons.” He shrugged, “I’ll figure something out. You did steal directly from him, after all.”

Skye scoffed a laugh at that, “I do have a very fine knife of his. I wonder if he’ll be angrier about that than Niko’s target.”

The Az-Phorus shook his head, feeling the genuine joy from Skye at that statement. Among the others, with the original Wyldwalkers, he saw them moving on from what they’d just spoken of. The others, too, were doing their best, but… it wasn’t every day that someone dropped the bomb on your lap that one of your party members was a Chosen, let alone of the Great Mother, rather than any of the deities.

As they let their essence abilities retract, Sasha mumbled to him, “That explains a lot of things, actually.”

“Sorry,” Niko whispered back, genuinely regretful, “I would have told you, but…”

She shook her head in understanding, “It’s a big deal. I don’t know that I’d tell anyone without being secure in my power first. Maybe not even my mother.”

Niko nodded at that, though he wasn’t certain what connotations the Chosen had in beast-society. Were they celebrated? Were they scorned? All around, there always seemed to be more things that he didn’t know.

Those thoughts were shattered as Stella said, “So… are your feathers even more useful than you told me?”

“Uhhh. Maybe?” Niko almost thought Stella sounded offended by that information.

‘Ah,’ He realized, seeing her glaring at him, ‘That’s because she is, at least a bit.’

“I could have been testing out so much more!” She huffed, before looking to Mithel and the Hyper Beam that she still cradled like a baby. A predatory grin settled across her lips then, “Oh. I have ideas now.”

Niko felt the feathers on the back of his neck stand on end and pretended he didn’t see the way Stella was looking at him. ‘Please, Ronald, hurry back! I don’t think Skye alone can hold her off!’