Chapter 94: Chapter Ninety Four

We sent Cold Snap on his way all healed up and still terrified out of  his mind. Luckily he had a second mask on him, so he was able to  straighten himself up and come off as someone who hadn't gotten the  living shit kicked out of him. He washed his pants off in a nearby  stream, and rinsed out his boots, both of which were coated in dirt from  Sucking Mud, and finally with what might have been a glare he cut off  before it got started he turned and stormed off into the forest. It was  hard not to laugh at him, but I managed somehow.

Jessie  came to stand next to us, looking at Callie. "You sure he's not going  to turn on us? He doesn't strike me as someone we can trust with...well,  anything. I'm getting a real scorpion and the frog vibe here." She  looked dubious about letting him go, not that she wanted to kill him,  just that I knew she was worried about what was coming. I knew Jessie  was a badass, but she was only newly G rank. Expecting her to just be  completely fine with inviting a murder cult siege was definitely a bit  much.

Callie,  luckily, saw that as well as I did. She knew our teammate needed a bit  of reassurance. "He'll come through. We don't trust him, but we believe  in his self preservation instincts. The puppet master is clearly a  brutal and unforgiving person, we saw that when he blew up all those  sleepers in the G district. He doesn't allow problems or loose ends.  Knowing that, there's no way he's going to let Cold Snap get away with  ratting on him and just let him walk away. Smacks of sloppiness."

The  reassurance that the plan was logical and could work calmed her down a  bit, but she still looked worried. "Still, bringing everyone here is  risky. I know it's the only real way we can get the handler to come to  us, but are we sure we can handle everything they've got?" As we talked  we headed back to the hatchery. Jessie kept the ravens circling us now  to keep an eye out for anyone approaching. The last thing we needed was  to get ambushed before the Heartrippers even got here.

As  the towering structure came into view I could almost feel Jessie relax  slightly. I clapped her on the shoulder. "It's fine. We have advance  warning, both long term from knowing they're coming and short term from  the ravens. I can set up traps, around here with enchanting. Nothing  long term with low level materials but we don't need the stuff to work  more than once or twice and that gives me some options." I wished I  could string together enchantments on multiple items into an array, but I  wasn't even close to good enough to do that, plus it required at least  Intermediate Enchanting.

Seeing  our apparent lack of worry she finally relaxed completely. "You're  right. We have way more going for us than them. A bunch of G rankers,  this awesome building, and time to get ready." I could see her resolve  firming as she accepted that we could do this, and felt slightly bad  because I was WAY more worried than I let on. But in the end what was  important was keeping up morale. I would be the one fighting up front  anyway. Between her crowd control and the ravens, not to mention  healing, Jessie was going to be a back lines fighter at best. We weren't  risking her.

That  didn't mean she couldn't help though. "Can you help some of the trees  get closer together? Or maybe grow something between them? Anything to  funnel them into a tighter group when they hit us or slow them down  without it being noticeable that we did it." Jessie's ability with  plants was noted, but it was also MUCH stronger now than it had been  before. There was no way they would associate her minor ability to use  vines with obviously fully grown trees or shrubs blocking their path.  They could probably punch through them too, but it would be noisy and  they were trying to ambush us.

I  expected excitement or enthusiasm, but she just bit her lip. "Maybe.  The thing is I'd need to either grow the trees out wide enough to make a  wall against them or put new ones in between. The first would take way  too much power, and the second would probably kill the trees long term.  Not enough room for the overlapping root systems or nutrients in the  soil. I can force them to grow, but once my life energy fades it would  devastate the local ecosystem." She looked genuinely upset at the  thought.

I  could understand what she meant. The trees were the main element in the  local biome, if they died, even a few dozen of them, it would displace  all the animals in the trees themselves and the ones who relied on them,  overburdening the surrounding flora and potentially causing conflict  between animal groups. That wasn't really a high priority for me, but as  someone who could actually interface with plants and animals and would  have to do so to make this happen I could understand her hesitance to do  it.

It did  leave other options though. "What about a bush or something? Just a way  to block the space?" If not I couldn't think of anything else except  maybe some kind of golem, but those would make it obvious that we knew  they were coming. We wanted to keep them out and make it seem natural so  we could funnel them into using a few entrances. It would make setting  traps so much more effective than of I had to figure out how to lay down  enchantments over the entire border.

She  bit her lip again consideringly. "I'll go take a look. I might be able  to come up with something. I'll have to let you know. I'm sure I can  figure out a way to at least make it inconvenient to go certain ways.  I'll have Celine help. She's an elf and had tons of knowledge about  trees and forests. I bet she has more than a few good ideas that I  wouldn't have even considered." She finally seemed cheered by her  ability to contribute and set off to find the elven noble, seeming much  more sure of herself than she had been before.

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I  turned to Callie after she left. "She's going to be out of the way in  all this right? G ranked or not I can't imagine sending our healer into a  mob of evil cultists is anything remotely like a good idea. Not that  she isn't suited for it with her Might stat, but we can't afford to lose  her, especially considering she can recharge us when we get tired on  top of healing actual wounds."

That  drew a sigh from our team leader. "Yeah, she's going to be with the H  rankers. I figure that's two birds with one stone, because she can keep  an eye on them and it'll keep her out of the main fight. Still,  I'm...worried. This is going to be a much different fight than last  time. Forget having more people around, I'm more worried about the  enhanced functionality the puppet master could have when he's here  watching in person. He's limited to the viewpoints of one of the  sleepers I think, at least based on what they did in the fight down in G  district. But that won't be a thing here."

I  exhaled loudly, rubbing my temples to the sides of my mask. "I know.  He'll have full line of sight on all of the sleepers here, they'll be  even more cohesive and he'll be able to react better to our moves.  Depending how many he brings this could be a legitimate threat even more  than the rat king. Especially since he could have more than one or two G  rankers to control in concert." I could tell from her tone she was as  worried about this as I was.

I  put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Hey, it's fine. We're  completely ready. But if you're that worried I still have today's  wishes. I bet we can come up with some interesting ways to use them to  make sure we make it through this with minimal damage." I'd never  considered using wishes to affect a situation like that before, but I  was betting there was a way to do it. Probably not something big like  wishing we would win the fight, but I was better there were other things  we could try. Hell we could try that, I was just pretty sure it would  be way too expensive.

Her  face lit up under her mask. "That's a great idea! What could we try?  Maybe something luck based? Or wishing for certain weather conditions?  Or maybe wish they would come from a specific direction? What are the  limits of your wishes anyway? Like how do they work. I know they're  based on stats, but can we wish for anything as long as you can pay for  it? How would they even make someone show up from a different  direction?" The idea seemed to have energized her, and it was nice to  see her looking as upbeat as Jessie had been when she left.

It  was a completely crazy idea to use my power for battlefield control,  but at the same time it made sense. I'd already had the same idea about  enchantments. My ability could do more than just transfer stats. Granted  that was its most valuable function, since it was basically impossible  to do by other means past a certain point and it was literally how you  progressed, as well as the defining feature of how the power itself  worked, but there was versatility there I hadn't been tapping into.

I  shook off the thoughts, turning to Callie, who was waiting impatiently.  "Anything. They can do anything I can pay for. From what I've seen Wish  is kind of like a power emulator. You wish for something and my power  creates a special ability specifically for the purpose of granting it.  Your power is Shadow Embodiment for instance. If you wished for a turkey  sandwich my ability would make a Turkey Sandwich ability, and then use  it. I think that's where the three times modifier comes from. The  abilities are so perfectly suited that the efficiency of stat use is  multiple times higher than normal."

That  last bit was just a theory on my part, but it kind of fit, and it  explained why altering the ability would get rid of it. It would  essentially be changing the emulator from optimal settings. "Anyway I  don't actually know what it could do in battlefield conditions But we  can always see. Payment would probably be an issue, but maybe you can  pay with a certain number of enemies defeated or something? That seems  like it would be a solid contract to make. As long as we can map out how  many enemies are coming beforehand."

Callie  was nearly bouncing with enthusiasm. "This is going to be great. Jessie  is with the others, so we can leave her out of it, but I want to bring  Benny into this. He's been wishing for things longer than I have and  he's clever. He might see something I miss. I assume you can't be too  much help with brainstorming?" She was chattering rapidly, her voice  increasing in pace as she got more excited.

I  laughed. "No. Sorry to say I can't have any input on what you decide to  wish for or it might not count as being your wish. Still the two of you  should be able to come up with something good. I'll go grab him and  meet you on the top floor of the hatchery." I left her to her planning  and took off to find my best friend. If this worked it would represent a  huge chance in the way I used my abilities, I could be a legitimate  strategic resource. I was absolutely enthralled by the possibilities.  Time to see what I could really do.

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