Corvayne jumped onto the ladder behind the cab and hit the side hard.

"Go GO GO!"

Behind him, he could see the outraged Cultivator he had swapped away from was shaking his fist and pointing, screaming to his allies.

"Did you NOT hear ME?!? GET HIM!"

Juggernaut let out a sharp burst of noise that gave Corvayne a headache as whatever it was that let him get languages translated for him:

"I got everyone and will move, as there is a risk of massive explosion if I bathe these guys in fire, but be careful they look to be low 100s in level and I suspect they will catch up if I don't put some muscle into it, I am going to fill my body with liquid to prevent any accidents. Please grip something immediately."

Corvayne doubled up his grip as the truck blasted out of the station, wind and dust whipping behind it before it bolted down the desert road, eight legs slapping the ground and blowing out of town at something like two hundred miles an hour, leaping over the retaining wall and hitting the road without missing a beat. Corvayne's arms kept a steely grip on the ladder, bags of snacks flapping as wind rushed by him.

A moment later the truck-beast jerked to the side and Corvayne saw a glowing patch of ground that exploded into a pillar of smoke and fire behind them.

He felt and heard a 'twang' and pulled his head and the snacks back before something sliced into the metal of the cab. He stored the bag in his ring and climbed up to the lip of the truck, pulling himself over and belly crawling to the machine gun turret.

He tapped the com pad. “We got hostiles. 7 or 8. On flying swords. They were looking for me because of the money we spent.”

There were wet sounds, and the hatch opened and Spears flowed out, orange liquid clinging to her. “Bleh. Who makes a truck that floods itself?”

Something hit the lid but her arm held it from closing. Corvayne glanced at the fluttering formation of robes behind them, holding steady as the truck dodged something like a glacier.

Corvayne was thinking. “If they tracked me down because of money, that also means that Kirae might have been captured by their faction too.” He hadn't thought to use his ability on the merchant, but using Compass he got a sort of hand wave feeling from the way they had come. It was like the ability felt the key to finding her was using one of the Cow-tivators. “My ability thinks so as well. If they know about me, they might know about Preshe.”

“You know, you can worry about yourself sometimes! You are the lowest level here! It's like your the king piece in chess!”

Corvayne started unloading steel rods, locking them into little hooks built on the roof for that very purpose. “Yes. But Lady Blood Claw is limited with her tree parasite curse, and I suspect that Gylwin will not step in unless she thinks we are going to really die.”

“What makes you say- oh she probably would have done something by now.”

“Mosh is needed to drive and repair Juggernaut. I'd rather Preshe help them. Bellithica will help when they get close to the sides.”

“So... we need to take one alive?”

“The leader, who's in the back. The others might not know as much.” Corvayne was thinking now, how to solve the problem of winning the fight. The truck jumped into the air, pushing Corvayne's face into the metal roof and turning Spears into a puddle for a moment.

“Man the machine gun, I'm going to try to pick them off with [Mass Driver].”

“No way it will stick, they are high level.” Spears was looking at her own weapon.

“They don't know that.” Corvayne smiled back. “If we pressure them, we might get some of them to try to land on the truck.”

There was another chirp which hurt his head. Even Spears winced.

“We can also slow, turn, and burn them if they give me room, but there's not enough time to stop and turn as is as they are very close to overtaking us, and I'm pretty sure anyone with a flying sword is going to be more dangerous to me up close then just harrying me with high cool down elemental attacks.”

Corvayne cleaned his ear, watching as what looked like a glob of lava went over their head. Spears raised a hand and hit it with a ball of water, knocking it off to the side. “You don't want me to use a Tsunami?”

“.... Can you? I haven't seen you do one as well as when you were a Boss. It's also dry out here.”

“... It might kill the guy we need.”

She jumped into the gun without more discussion. She opened fire, the gun's rapid fire overtaking rushing wind with an angry growl. Corvayne tapped into [[Unity]] and requested some Stamina from Bell, LBC, and Preshe. Links formed, their own large reserves of energy flowing into him, and he switched to [[Strength]] to pick up the first steel rod, something like eight hundred pounds feeling hefty as he slowly brought it to throwing position, ignoring a spear tossed at him that hadn't fully taken into account the wind.

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Corvayne saw the spear thrower wobble a little on their blade and drew his arm back, summoning intense focus on his target then pushing power into his weapon like a swirling black hole, [Mass Driver] taking over as the bar got heavier and heavier in the lead up to the moment it left his fingers. He was aiming it like a javelin, but the moment it left his fingers he felt it become weightless as it 'fell' to it's target in an instant. The man's flying sword and his legs vanished, and there was a small shock wave that scattered the rest of him and his allies for a moment.

Corvayne dropped to the deck and used [Vitality] as air-blades slammed into him and the truck's armor. He used [Cross-Skill: Flow-Like-Water] with the rod, burning the truck crews stamina to take another shot before he should be ready in theory. One of the riders started turning a lasso into fire, so Corvayne adjusted his hold and used Gravity to help rush the weight he needed to pump into the rod to get it to activate the weapon skill. Logically, he should remove weight to throw it and add it mid flight, but the ability knew what it wanted, and Corvayne cheated to pop off a slightly weaker shot, but one good enough to take most of the lasso holder with it.

He didn't have time to enjoy it, as he felt the charge of a lightning bolt and rolled off the side of the truck, grabbing the ladder as the energy of the attack melted part of the armor and nearly knocked him off, save that his arm was stuck grabbing the rail while the rest of him flopped in the air. He felt muscles tearing and snapped [Vitality] into place, stopping his muscles from getting pulled apart.

He saw one man spinning an blade made of air and used his non-shocked hand to force himself to let go of the ladder as the blade chopped the entire section of armor off. There was a roar from Juggernaut but he had other problems as he hit the concrete of the road hard, road rash burning skin off him as he hit the dust getting kicked up by the truck.

The speed the riders were going both doomed him to get caught but saved him in that perhaps they were not able to slow down. Corvayne saw one aimed aright at him, caught the glint of greed behind the man's goggles.

Duck and he was dead from the other 5 riders or the boss. He tensed as if to dodge, then jumped into the air, spinning and his spear held in both hands as he used [Juxtapose], the ability and his weapon working to pull the man off and place him on the blade, then drop the former rider in front of his own weapon. There was a spurt of blood and then the wounded or dead man fell away into the grit behind them. Corvayne used his spear butt to flip the hat into his mouth, thought he had to switch to [[Agility]] to pull it off.

The sword for a moment wobbled, and Corvayne with a few tilts intuited how it worked. It was basically just a hoverboard you could use to kill people who got in front of it. No problems there. He had done a few short patrols on them, and the magic item hadn't been keyed to it's former owner at all.

Corvayne took the hat out of his mouth and put it on, and with his own cape fluttering he was sure he looked like them. Enough so two of his enemies signaled HIM to keep chasing before they broke off to capture what they assumed was him. Corvayne had to slow down anyway because for a moment Spears was trying to hit him before [[Unity]] shared what he was doing. A sharp spike of 'ARE YOU SERIOUS?' and 'GET BACK UP HERE' came from either Spears or one of the other ladies in the truck sharing through the bond.

He decided to try flexing his power a different way, sending out an aura of being on the same team as he moved his blade to intercept the two that were moving to where the original sword rider was rolling to a stop.

He wasn't sure if it helped, but it worked as they were not looking as Corvayne sped back up and impaled another rider off his own blade on a curving route back into the dust being kicked up by the truck.

Corvayne was looking for his next target when he felt danger and saw the man as his fist hit Corvayne's knee like an artillery shell. There was a horrible crack and he fell to a crouch on the blade, sending it careening back and forth as he tried to steady himself and his very angry passenger started un-impaling himself from the front of the sword.

Corvayne grit his teeth, getting a mouth full of dirt, and pushed the blade forward and down, the back of the sword driving the front just above the ground, which made the sword buck and kick as the man on the front was dragged across the desert and sometimes the gravel on the road.

Corvayne switched to [[Vitality]] and used his shadow arms to punch and impale the man as he took a fist to the face, possibly breaking his nose as he felt hot blood stream down his face. He responded by using [Cross-Skill: Shield Bash] with his forehead into the man's face. The man shrieked as his own nose was broken, but then tried to get his boots flat to push the sword up. Corvayne veered and forced the man to hold onto the edge, both of them now bleeding and covered in dust.

He sensed bullshit as the man looked at him and opened his mouth. Dragon breath? He didn't know what element it would be, so he used [Cross-Skill: Shadow Step], burning a bunch of stamina but phasing through the man and dropping him off to unleash some sort of atomic fireball into the air rather then into Corvayne.

He used Compass to double check he was still going towards the truck, then felt hostile intent and flattened himself on the wide blade he was riding as another rider flew over him. Corvayne drew his pistol and fired a [Cross Skill: Drill Shot], but the slugs missed or just didn't affect the man and he vanished into the billowing dust.

Corvayne felt something on his wrist and saw the rope losing slack and there was a moment where he was just not quite able to pull the board up to brace against it, and with a tug he went flying off and was once again getting freeway in his face. He forced himself up on his elbows as they flew off into the desert, then was blind as he felt the ground grinding against him. He had his spear, somehow, even as the Cow-tivator dragged him through a cactus, driving thorns into his face.

He spit out dirt and shook his head, seeing his enemy trying to angle him into a rock. He twisted and managed to roll out of the way, then grabbed the rope and snarled, pulling himself up and trying to ignore how much blood was leaking out of him. His muscles were protesting, having been pulled and shredded and strained over the course of the fight, but he kept pulling himself closer as his enemy dragged him across the pavement. This time, he used his knees to keep the rest of him off the ground, and while his broken kneecap caused him intense pain, the jammies protected his flesh and started sprouting meteors off, each second of grinding acting as an attack.

He saw another rider moving to try and decapitate him or just skewer him with a wicked blade, and he abused Gravity to make one of his little bounces a bounding leap, and he realized he could have just made the rope into a kite string in the first place and nearly slapped his own forehead in the second he was airborne. (Or slapped what was left of it).

He was hurting, covered in grit, and likely couldn't walk for a few days. But he could see his enemies, three riders left. He squeezed his legs, the jam in his pants reacting to his will, then he focused on the cord connecting him to the wrangler.

The strawberry meteorites from his leggings fired like a burning sugar coated shotgun from god, hundreds of projectiles being the largest use of the counter attack from the pants by probably fifty fold. At the same time, Corvayne aimed his spear and twisted gravity, using [Leap Attack] and his power to aim right down the cord. He went from kite to missile, letting the line tug him for just a moment before going slack, the desert rushing up and past as his vision was directly on his spear tip and the face of the man turning, still smiling as he didn't have time to process that Corvayne was coming. Corvayne, for what it was worth, made sure to smile back.

He hit the man at ten times Gravity, the Weapon Skill the only reason he didn't break every bone in his body. He was shocked that his spear could take the hit too, as trusty as the black crystal weapon was. What gave was Cow-tivator and flying sword, turned into a bloody mess and crumpled pile of shards that followed Corvayne as he slid on his boots across the desert, for a moment feeling cool before he hit a fucking rock and the entire world spun in a painful and sickening tangle of sensations until he tumbled to a stop.

He got to sitting up, if to at least see where the next death was coming from. Yep, the leader was lining up with him...

A streak of light hit the man, and there was a whump as something like a cruise missile... no, an actual cruise missile from the truck went off point blank into the torso of the lead Cow-tivator flaring blue energy after the actual explosion in a sort of airborne supernova. Corvayne felt a weapon skill had influenced the shot, and it begged the question how many times Bell had been firing rockets off when he wasn't there with her. He'd at least have to ask her what the hell the skill was called.

[[Unity]] sensed that it didn't kill the target, but it knocked his nice looking ivory sword to fall blade first into the dirt, blasted his hat off, and certainly left his boots stuck to the sword as it skimmed and spun into a stop near Corvayne own feet.

Corvayne pulled two potions out and took his time using his mangled fingers to uncap them then down them, getting more dirt into his mouth and baking a little into his wounds as they started closing. Black crystal surged out as [[Vitality]] helped him start to mend, helpfully cleaning some of the dirt out as he picked them from his armor and deposited them into his ring.

The self-brewed potions went a long way to getting him back to fighting form, but he still accepted Spears arm when she came up next to him to help him reach where their would be assailant had landed in a cactus grove.

“You okay?”

Corvayne had a few snappy replies that he rejected. He appreciated Spears helping him, always had, always would. He needed to praise Bell too, as her singular attack took out the biggest threat.

“Thanks. I made it. Let's go see if this guys got anything to say or needs another few missiles in him.”