The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

With the cleanup done and out of the way, Joram decided to leave the new oven/stove where it was as he manifested [Astral Construct] again, augmenting it sufficiently to get his ten constructs again. He then re-manifested [Inertial Armour], sure that the duration of his last manifestation was close to expiring.

He was liking how familiar the power was getting for him, and was certain that he would be able to do more with it soon. Well, “more” as in: adding more options to the base model, as it were.

Getting back to the reason why he’d recreated the constructs, he had them start arranging the stone into two-part sections. Really, he just wanted to fuse them together so that he could make steps that he’d eventually attach to the side of the house to make stairs. Though, he wouldn’t make them too deep, mostly because he wanted it to be hard for any invading goblins to make their way up to him.

While they were doing that, he went back to his mini quarry and got to work, making sure to recreate his PPE so that he could one: stay safe, and two: keep an eye out for approaching threats. As he worked, he mentally planned how he’d arrange things.

Just making a low wall around the perimeter of the roof wouldn’t quite cut it, as climbing was a thing. So, he planned to angle it out a bit to make it that much harder for anything to scale his walls. As for the stairs, he’d just have to make some sort of gate at the top to prevent anything from just rushing up and smashing him.

With his practice yesterday, things went a bit faster this time around. So, just an hour later, he had enough to finish the stairs and the small landing he wanted to add at the top.

Next, he set about fusing the stone together with [Modify Matter] until he had all the pieces he’d need for the stairs. Once done, he had his constructs hold the stone in place as he once again used [Modify Matter] to not just fuse the stone to the wall, but to also anchor each stair into the wall. It started to get a bit tricky towards the end of the job, as the constructs weren’t quite tall enough to hold the stairs above their heads and reach where he needed them to reach.

Which resulted in Joram manifesting [Astral Construct] once more, focussing on making a “large” construct this time. It was easier than he thought, though, so that made him happy. He was even able to add a whole bunch of strength to it, having access to the “B” options and everything.

With the stairs and landing now complete, he needed to get to work on the angled crenellations. Which meant more stone.

This time, he had his constructs distributed slightly differently. The big guy was stationed beside the house so that he could just pass up each piece to another two constructs he left on the roof, leaving the other eight to move the stone to the house. Well, five of them, as he was starting to get nervous with how close the anticipated attack was getting. The last three were kept closer to him for protection. And as meat shields. Ectoplasmic shields? Shrug.

He started wishing that he could make those turrets that engineers from ME3 could make, but made do with what he had. Which just so happened to be some fairly sturdy constructs. So, he kept working, though a bit slower so that his power pool wouldn’t be too depleted if the goblins showed up unexpectedly. Which reminded him to have a construct close the door to the house, then stack up some stone in front of it.

It was once gain getting dark before he decided to call it quits. He was reasonably sure that he had enough stone now, so he made his way to the roof and had a look.

The stone was arranged in neat piles every metre or so, each one over a metre tall and sitting a bit over the edge of the roof. Well, he’d been calling it a roof the entire time, but it was just one huge slab of concrete that had been the floor of the unit above his apartment. Which allowed for the stone to sit where it was without fear of breaking through and falling into his apartment.

After getting all but the large construct up onto the roof, the then had them hold the two-by-six (if he was thinking in terms of lumber) stone blocks up at an angle, their bases firmly planted on the roof. It took him another two hours to get them all fused into place, but once he was done, he was relatively happy with the results. He’d only fused each one to the roof, leaving about a centimetre or so of space between them so that if one section broke, it wouldn’t take out a larger part of the whole.

He’d have been happier with thicker slabs, but it would have to do for now. It was now already well into the night, and he still hadn’t seen any movement from the southwest, making him think that perhaps there’d be an even larger group this time around. Which also made him even more nervous.

Looking at the leftover pieces, he decided to make a bit of a wall around the top landing on the stairs. For one, it would allow him to fight from the top without having to worry about getting shot in the back. For another, safety was important. The risk of falling off the top landing wasn’t negligible, after all. Though, knocking goblins off the stairs would certainly help him.

When the wall was complete, going several centimetres above his head on the sides, he was really starting to worry. Given how much time passed between attacks and how much their numbers had increased with each attack, he was estimating that there would be around forty of the things this time, possibly more.

And given just how hard each encounter was getting, he seriously worried at what might come next. Would it be a full group of hobs? Would they bring wolves, or something worse? He’d played many a game, and had seen many a movie over the years, so his imagination had plenty to go off of.

Grimacing, he looked around one last time before deciding to get a mattress and spend the night up there instead of trapping himself in the house like last time. So, he set his constructs to guard the roof and had the big guy guard his front door while he quickly went inside and retrieved one of the twin sized mattresses and a blanket, flipping the lights on in the living room on his way by.

Once back outside, he instructed the big guy to start taking the extra stone down there in front of the door while he turned the corner and quickly made his way up the stairs. Looking around, he decided to place it in the centre of the roof, making it harder for anything to spot him from afar. Well, harder anyways.

Still no attack, he thought as he quickly went down to fuse the stone in place before dashing back up the stairs, nearly slipping on the smooth surface in his haste. Grumbling, he acknowledged that it was perhaps a good thing, as anyone else would have just as hard a time keeping their footing on the narrow stairs.

With the quiet now feeling oppressive, he rearranged his constructs again, placing them between him and the stairs with instructions to kill anything that came up. He still needed to practice, though, so he began meditating on [Psychic Reformation], hoping to get a better understanding of the power, which would lead to him being able to properly use it sooner. Because, the sooner he could use it, the sooner he could get himself more blade skills. Which meant more survivability. And more lethality.

- - -

Morning broke, bringing him not only out of his nightly meditations, but right into a bout of anxiety. The night had been quiet. Too quiet. Which meant that he would likely have a small army of goblins to deal with when they came.

‘Just breath,’ Avi piped in quietly from his side.

“I just hate the waiting,” he said, running a hand through his short hair.

‘Who does?’ she asked rhetorically. ‘But best to concentrate on what you can do instead of what you can’t control.’

“Thanks,” he muttered, appreciating the reminder of one of his core ethea. “If you can’t change it, don’t worry about it,” was the sum of that one. Just plan for the inevitable.

So, what could he do?

He had a very small list of Powers that he could use. The Metacreation Powers were helpful, but not quite made for instantaneous use in combat. Well, [Entangling Ectoplasm] was useful, but in a one-on-one setting. Likewise, with [Crystal Shard]. [Ectoplasmic Creation] might be nice for making a few pointy staves, or perhaps some additional barricades to keep the goblins at bay.

[Energy Ball] would have to be the heavy hitter in this case, along with his mindbolt. That was another reason why he’d left small gaps between the stone blocks; to get line-of-sight for his attacks.

Then movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned just in time to have an arrow glance off his acrylic helmet, leaving a long white scar along his left cheek. He immediately dropped to the floor… rooftop, and rolled to the southern edge where he could peek through an opening in the wall.

His stomach just about flipped.

It seemed as though he’d underestimated the numbers somewhat, as he could easily count seventy of the little blighters coming is way.

Fortunately, they were still a good eighty metres away, so that gave him a bit of time to whittle their numbers down before they arrived. Unfortunately, their archers weren’t as bad as they’d been up to that point, as more arrows rained down on where he was.

Lucky for him they were still getting the angle, so they missed, but not by much. He quickly instructed a construct to lean over him to provide a bit of cover as he pulled up [Energy Ball] and concentrated on electricity this time due to the number of hobs he saw.

As he released the power, he spotted something else that greatly worried him. Two skinny hobs, each carrying a staff decorated with bones of various sizes as well as feathers and ratty-looking robes.

“Shamans,” he muttered as a ball of electricity erupted close to the shamans. Unfortunately, he’d spotted them too late, having instead gone for the front of the group instead of the back where they were positioned.

The [Energy Ball] went off with a boom, sounding as though lightning had struck right beside him. Many hobs fell, but unfortunately, not as many as he’d hoped. As the group of hobs increased their marching speed, he quickly picked himself up into a crouch and formed his mindbolt, choosing the long-ranged shoulder canon option, and began shooting at the shamans.

It wasn’t just that shamans were well known for being able to heal, but they would also cast offensive spells. And seeing as how he was solo up there, he really didn’t want to see what they could do.

Unfortunately for him, his hopes were dashed as the shamans began to chant and gesticulate.

Feeling much more exposed than he’d through he would, Joram quickly instructed his constructs to pile in close as he manifested [Biofeedback], pumping it full of power points, giving him a whopping 7 damage reduction to help protect him.

Which wound up helping him a bit when a lightning bolt smashed into the wall just to his left, shattering it and sending bits of stone flying everywhere. The bolt, and explosion, took out three of his constructs instantly, damaging two more in the process.

Gulping, he turned back to the small horde of hobs and wondered how he thought he’d have a chance against them. He glanced at his remaining power points and knew that sixteen points wouldn’t take him very far, especially considering that he’d need to keep some in reserved for healing.

He looked back at the hobs and saw that they were only about forty metres away now, not leaving him much time to decide what to do.

So, going for the most logical choice, the chose to run.

* * * * *

Theril was already looking forward to the next day. Sure, he was on the walls today, but he’d be off them again soon. Being on special assignment had its privileges, after all.

Like tasty, tasty, food, he thought, practically drooling when he remembered the roast from yesterday.

But then nearly wilted as he remembered getting home that night and eating the dinner that his lovely wife, Amava, had made him. He hadn’t been able to keep the disappointed look off his face, resulting in him sleeping in the living room last night.

Maybe it would be for the best if he stopped eating Joram’s food. Because, if he didn’t, he was sure that Amava would string him up one day for no longer appreciating her cooking. It’s not like it was bad or anything, it was just that it… lacked the additional flavour that Joram could add to something as mundane as a roast. Or vegetable stew.

He sighed again, earning him a weird look from Erim, his partner for the day. He was about to explain his conundrum when he heard a shout from the station over.

Harelle was pointing off to the southwest and shading her eyes against the sun.

Theril turned to see what she was looking at. It took him a few more seconds to spot the figure in the distance, then many more even further behind it.

Then the odd colours clicked in his head, and he started calling for people not to shoot at the lead figure, because he was sure as taxes that Joram would get mad if they shot him.

“Sound the alert,” he told Erim, not taking his eyes off Joram as he quickly stopped, turned, did something that flashed, then began running again. “I think we’ll need backup.”

* * *

“I,” Joram shouted as he stopped, turned, and fired his N7-90 at the closest hob, nailing it in the thigh, then turned and started running again. “Hate… fucking… goblins!!” he panted out as he ran, very much hating that he’d never been a runner, but also thankful that the occasional use of [Natural Healing] seemed to help keep him going.

He was glad that he’d gone in the right direction, because the sight of Kirkwall was a relief beyond words.

The goblins had chased him as soon as he’d descended from the roof. Glancing over his shoulder every now and then had given him no end of heartache, as he’d watched a half-dozen or so hobs break off to inspect his house. His remaining constructs had formed up behind him as he ran, keeping the various projectiles, magical or mundane, from hitting him until he got one of the massive trees between him and them.

That said, [Biofeedback] had proved prescient. After his constructs had fallen, he’d taken more than a few arrows to the back. Between the [Inertial Armour] and [Biofeedback], the injuries hadn’t been too severe.

But as he ran, he’d also taken his fair share of shots. With the short-ranged N7-90, it gave an extra boost to damage that scaled with his physical strength. Meta-gaming it, it added his strength modifier to the damage of the weapon. Probably because it required him to use two hands to fire it.

Either way, he’d slowly whittled down his pursuers as they tried to catch him over the course of the past half hour. Unfortunately, [Biofeedback] had worn off during that time, leading to deeper wounds when he was hit. But again, [Natural Healing] had proved itself over and over again as it kept him from bleeding out as he ran.

So, by the time he’d come in sight of Kirkwall, he’d actually managed to replenish his power pool almost to full. He turned again, this time to try to get a better count of the enemy.

“Still… too… many…” he panted as he resumed running, having spotted at least thirty of them following him. He wasn’t sure, but he even thought he’d spotted those damn shamans in the background.

He was now close enough to see the guards on the wall, standing a good seven metres in height. What interested him the most was the gate, and how it was currently in the process of closing.

“Help!” he managed to call out, choosing to release is N7-90, letting it vanish into the ether.

Then he spotted someone familiar at the gates and just about cried for joy. Reldan was preventing the last gate from closing all the way while at the same time waving him on.

Mustering up what was left of his energy, he starting running for all he was worth, then stumbled and fell on his face as a searing pain shot up from his right leg at the same time that a flash of light momentarily blinded him.

In a daze, he looked down at his leg and nearly threw up. Where a healthy leg should have been was instead a charred mess of burnt flesh.

‘Good thing that it was your leg instead of your chest,’ Avi commented from his side, looking back at the now cheering hobs as they rapidly approached.

Dizzy with pain, he called on [Autohypnosis] to ignore said pain. It wasn’t easy, but he succeeded. So, the next thing that he did was to concentrate on [Energy Ball], willing an inferno of flames into being around the largest clump of hobs as he pushed the Power full of, well, power.

A moment later, a loud *WOOOMPH!* echoed through the forest as a good ten hobs went up in flame, dropping to the ground, either dead or burning and trying to put out the flames.

When they were out of his line of sight, he did it again, then one more time before he ran too low on power to keep going. He grinned as he heard their screams, then grinned some more when he realized that arrows were also falling on his pursuers.

With that happy sight in mind, he then passed out cold.