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SoK Chapter 172
🕑 Added 2025-06-18 15:00:14 +0000 UTC***
A/N: I did some pretty substantial edits to the Sven section of 171. If you wanna read them... Do so.
TJ and Farid blazed through the streets, quickly leaving the New Republic’s “Safe Zone”. They didn’t speak as they rushed forward, and even though they were closing the distance between them and their allies, the ritual’s influence faded before they could arrive.
“I’m going up.” TJ said, not waiting for Farid to respond as he transformed into a coatl and commanded the wind to carry him into the sky. It happily obliged, though as it felt his emotion, the winds became choppier, angrier, and somehow darker as his MP tainted the wind itself with rage and worry. Just as soon as TJ was airborne, he saw the scene where his subordinates, his people, were rushing into battle. They weren’t being forced to engage, so was his worry premature? He looked specifically for a Lightning Dog, and he quickly found her.
Molly crackled with electricity as she threw herself at a pair of Vargrs. Seth and Sarah joined in, Seth staying back with his crossbow that crackled with a strange energy while Sarah laughed as she threw herself forward. A dozen other wolves blessed by Fenrir surrounded the rest of the people, and TJ saw that over half of them were Copper tier, though they weren’t Vargrs. Sam and Mimi held the line against the wolves with William, Stella, and a couple other Zealots that TJ didn’t know the names of. Tessie focused on picking off the enemies when and where she could, her arrows piercing deep into eyes, chests, and skulls.
Between the two Vargrs was the source of the fight. An armored figure, blood spattered across the shining metal, squatted with their shield and spear held aloft. TJ Appraised them as well and was surprised to see the second person who was Appraised by their Occupation.
Warsmith (Copper), 27
Disregarding the changes in the monsters bringing more and more into the Copper tier, TJ flew down at the Vargrs, his maw wide and ready to tear.
“Hold on for now!” Sarah called out. “We’ve got this, I think! Just make sure that they don’t get away.”
TJ gritted his teeth, but he fell softly to the ground and watched as his two “apprentices” fought against Copper tiers. They’d come a long way, Mimi especially. She’d sobbed in fear the first time he forced her into a fight, but now, she held her Geirr in in one hand and a shield in the other, her movements sure and almost predatory as she shredded into the wolves that dared to attack. Sam stood resplendent in his paladin armor and struck out with his sword again and again, focusing more on ensuring that the people behind him were protected than committing himself enough to guarantee that killing blow.
The rest were making a good showing, though TJ could feel while he looked at them that their Skills and abilities were, simply said, inferior to his own. Was that mere pride coloring his thoughts? Perhaps, but TJ didn’t mind it. Instead, he continued to evaluate everyone that’d followed him. There were a couple that, as Sven would have said when they first met, weren’t worth much. Too afraid to fight or to put in real effort. But most were desperate or just determined enough to throw themselves at their enemies until they were victorious.
Looking at the higher danger monsters, TJ was unsurprised to see Molly and Sarah deal with the Vargrs handily. Molly had seemingly decided to match the Vargr strength for strength, and her evolution had obviously changed from TJ’s. Instead of becoming a magical creature like the Storm Coatl, her Lightning Dog self was just a lighting-wreathed monster focused on brute strength. There was cunning in her movements as she leveraged her slightly smaller frame to knock the long-legged Vargr from its feet. It still tried to send its ethereal Skill at her, but she kept it from doing any real harm to her. Instead, she lunged forward under the jaws as they appeared and set her own physical jaws into the Vargr’s throat.
The armored Warsmith leapt up and suddenly a chain appeared in their hands. It wrapped around the Vargr’s neck three times before the other end buried itself in the asphalt below their feet. Then, with a wordless scream of effort, the Warsmith smashed the 15 foot-tall Vargr’s head into the ground, where Molly adjusted her grip on its throat.
It gagged, choked, and died as Sarah lifted her shield aloft and held the other Vargr’s attack back with what had to be a Skill of some sort. Then, as the Vargr slipped past her, she used her dash Skill, but to take her directly up into the air. There, her shield disappeared as she took her axe in both hands. It swelled to twice its size with a glimmering Skill as she fell from the sky. Like a guillotine, the axe clove the Vargr’s head free in a single attack. As she did so, the last of the wolves succumbed to the other Zealots’ and Acolytes’ attacks.
Sarah raised her axe aloft as she roared in victory, then turned to Seth.
“I told you I could kill it myself!”
“I believed you,” he replied, “but I wanted to make sure that nobody over here got hurt.”
“My original Occupation was Guard, I can take care of a couple people that—”
“That’s enough of that.” TJ said as he deactivated his Divine Transformation and came forward. Behind the group, he saw Farid sprinting forward, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. More than one collapsed in his wake. “We were worried about you. What’s going on?”
“That’s my fault, TJ.” The Warsmith said, and TJ finally recognized the fully metal-covered individual for who she was.
“Michelle!” He greeted the descendant of Ogun with a hug. “I’m glad we found you! Not the best circumstances to come across each other, though.”
“I’d argue with that.” She grunted as the solid steel faceplate that made her armor disappeared. “I was pretty much SOL if you hadn’t gotten here. Well, if Molly and Sarah hadn’t. I was a minute away from a chewtoy.”
“Well, I’m glad they were able to help.” TJ nodded. “I’d imagine you don’t know the lowdown of what’s going on here?”
“I can guess, but other than the fact that you’ve got people looking for shelter, I couldn’t say.”
“There’s a settlement on ASU campus.” TJ said.
“Their leader’s a prick and we hate him.” Sarah said, clapping Michelle on the shoulder. “No need to check it out. He sucks. Tried to rob an old lady. Did you get her necklace back, by the way?”
“Yes, I got the necklace.” TJ sighed as he held the item aloft and spoke loud enough to be heard across the entire group. “Gertrude, when you want it, come get your locket. I’ve got it here.”
“There’s some asshole up there that’s robbing old ladies?” Michelle asked as Gertrude came forward and, with teary eyes, thanked TJ as she retreated back to the main group of Participants.
“Well, it wasn’t him.” TJ responded. “And, he’s changed quite a bit in the past couple weeks. I don’t know how much of it is his personality coming to light, and how much of it might be the influence of his Bloodline.”
“Why do you say that?” Molly asked as she resumed her human form and gave Michelle a quick hug. “Is there something that you’ve learned? Tell us, please!”
TJ shrugged. “I really can’t say. I just know that I threw myself into Tempe Town Lake to try to kill an Elite in its domain when there was no reason for me to do so. I wonder if Sven’s attitude is influenced by his Bloodline, or something like that.”
“So,” Michelle clarified, “he did condone stealing from an old lady?”
“Implicity.” TJ nodded. “I don’t know how much he did or didn’t know about it, but I’d guess he knew just about everything. Not a lot happens in a Monarch’s territory that they don’t know about. So, probably.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say that it matters if its because of his Bloodline or because the man’s an asshat. I don’t want to be under his thumb if he’s gonna just… rob me.” Michelle shrugged once. “Glad to come along to the land of milk and honey. Or just no tyrants.”
“Excited to have you.” TJ agreed. “I have someone over here who’s probably gonna talk your ear off about smithing, if you’ll let him.”
“Sweet, let him.”
TJ allowed the rest of the group to talk between themselves, thinking about that thought that he hadn’t realized he was even having. How much of what Sven was doing came from his Bloodline as the World-Devouring Serpent? That was sure to influence him at least as much as TJ’s was, so was it something that TJ wanted to try to talk him out of? The few conversations he’d had with the man were always at least polite if not outright cordial, so was there something beyond just him being a snake in the grass to explain the way he was treating people?
Particularly on-the-nose the idiom may be, but did TJ want to put the effort into maybe helping Sven to throw off the influence of his Bloodline when he wasn’t already? TJ knew that while it was sneaky and occasionally insidious, he could determine what was happening, more or less, with just a little bit of space from the moment that spurred the feeling.
“So, where’re we going, might leader?” Sarah asked, walking beside TJ as he lost himself in thought. “You just said to meet in front of the high school, and we got a little distracted by Michelle. You’ve gotta have a long-term idea for where to go, right?”
“I have a couple.” TJ nodded. “I’m not sure which exactly we want to do, though. I’d really like to have Stanton here, given what he can do for getting us some variety of food, but he’s further south than Gila Bend, so like 60 miles away? At least?”
“We’re not about to go out like the damn pilgrims, are we? Cause I might wanna stick around here until you decide to come back.” Sarah grunted. “I’m a city girl at heart, ok?”
“Cities are falling apart, in case you couldn’t tell.” TJ pointed to the nearby buildings, falling into disrepair simply from whatever it was that the System was doing to the world at large. “You won’t be able to be a city girl in truth for many years, I’m sure.”
“You don’t need to rub it in my face.” She grumbled as she looked around. “I know that things are changing. Can’t you let me dream that I’ll continue living in one of the biggest cities in the country?”
“If you want to think of living in a city that, as far as we can tell, has had at least half of its adult occupants yoinked away to never return and another half of those that did return getting slaughtered by monsters in the street, as a positive thing, I suppose you can do that.”
Sarah glared at TJ, and he let himself laugh in response. “I suppose I’m a bit of the asshole that likes to make other people miserable sometimes.”
“I can tell.” She grouched back. Molly went back to Mimi, who gushed over her performance while Molly congratulated Mimi on her steadfast holding of the line. As TJ looked, he swore that he saw Mimi grow a little, but instead of concerning himself with that, he looked south, to where Stanton was.
“Back to your question.” TJ replied. “I don’t think that we’re going south, at least, not any time soon. However, there are a couple places relatively nearby I wonder if we’ll be able to settle in at, maybe make a safer life for ourselves.”
“Looking forward to it, leader man!” Sarah grinned as she walked to the Vargr corpse. “I killed that one, so I get to choose what to do with it!”
TJ shook his head as he looked forward. Even though he felt the inevitability of poor omens settle over him as he thought it, he hoped he could do better for this group than those in Pine. And to do that, he needed to find a place to settle down.
