Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 13

Chapter 13

Camrad_RIP 14.07.23 в 17:42

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Camrad_RIP 14.07.23 в 17:42

I have long ago realized the reason why all sorts of lords, invincible warriors, and powerful mages dislike the "lurker" classes. It's not about such an ephemeral thing as honor or conscience, at least because the opponents of such classes don't have much conscience or honor. The reason for dislike and contempt for murderers is hidden in the simple fact that surprise surprise, they kill. Or rather, that's where I misspoke. The reason is that a good assassin has a good chance of killing even a stronger and more dangerous opponent without a fight if he can gather or get information from someone about the target, his techniques, and his habits. The chance is not one hundred percent, but the situation is quite common, almost habitual.

Camrad_RIP 15.07.23 в 05:50

It's hard to feel like a king of life when that life can be cut short by a dagger thrust or a drop of poison in a glass, despite your fortieth level, a crowd of guards, and dozens of layers of protective charms. An underlying fear, displaced by contempt and self-confidence, accusations of foul play and violation of the rules they invented, which play into the hands of those who invented them. Killers kill, as Captain Obvious would say. That is their strength, skill, and calling. In direct combat, even a high-level assassin, spy, or agent can be killed by a much weaker warrior if he can force his opponent to accept combat. The problem is that a face-to-face assassin is a very bad assassin, an unfit specialist.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 16:59

My skills and classes, even with all their power in direct combat, are sharpened for this kind of foul play. Instant jump, super-dense attack, retreat, and repeat until the target or targets run out. Add to this the talent of hiding from the seers, and I can become a local man with a barcode on the back of his head - orders will flow if grateful customers do not kill for all the good first.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:00

All these words to the fact that attacking suddenly, I can kill even those who, in another situation, would have given me, if not kicks, then a good fight going to the other world is not quite easy. No level and stats will allow you to be in full readiness all the time. For this, there are premonitions, intuition, and thousands of different skills, amulets, or perks, obtained independently or through rituals. But when you know how to bypass this intuition, you become a really scary opponent, an ideal liquidator, able to kill any target without a fight.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:02

I didn't think I was perfect, and it would be stupid to see myself as the coolest guy around. The dry lines of the same Weaver's dossier, for whom my efforts would really seem ridiculous, had not disappeared from my memory. Nevertheless, I had the ability to make a sudden "surprise, bitches" to all sorts of bad guys, and I appreciated it. Just because of those situations where suddenness is very necessary and vital to achieve goals or to save one's skin.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:06

It would be a foolish move to use shadow techniques while in the Eternal, where they were searching for one shadow user with a microscope. Yes, the heat of the search has subsided, but too-powerful flashes on the sensors will immediately return it to its former position. And then I will deal not with the guards of the magical Lunapark but with the cadre army of the Empire and its elite units. That's why Shadow was off the list of available means.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:09

The dream was also not so accessible because somewhere there, in its depths, sat Weaver and his horde of creatures, who constantly and passively searched for any clues that would lead the chthonic fucker to Kostenka, who had once offended his child. Yes, he did not have and could not have direct leads simply because I either removed them or did not have time to set them up due to my "youth." But if you stir up Gresa too much, it would be no problem to attract the attention of the main expert in its use. At the very least, because he'll obviously be interested in who's out there making crap with the power of a couple of guilds of dream walkers.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:12

And I did the crap.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:12

And I did it with such inspiration that I even scared myself.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:13

In the utilization of Dream, the main problem may be considered its most important advantage - the extreme lightness, the weightlessness of the energy of this plane. It is this lightness that provides such ultimatum stealth, the ability to pass through most barriers, the ability to ignore conscious mental defenses, and the ability to influence another's mind without alarming either the amulets or the victim. Alas, where one's strength lies, it is easy to find a commensurate weakness.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:15

It is very difficult to hit hard with a Dream, especially if the battle comes suddenly. That's not to say that adepts of this Realm can't show anything in battle. They can but with very great difficulty and problems. To accumulate more power, to strengthen it in pieces of broken mirror, to charge it with broken images and meanings, and then to strike - such an attack, if not more dangerous than direct damage by shadows, then at least it can be considered relatively comparable. It is too unusual an approach, requiring quite unconventional defenses that an ordinary opponent would not have time to reorganize.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:17

The same Weaver proved its fighting ability in practice even to such entities, from which I could only run away very quickly and far away. For those who are not Weaver, alas, the situation is much more deplorable. You can hit, but the effort and time to prepare such a blow will have to spend disproportionately more than for some wave of flame. But if you have a class that allows you to use Dream directly and not scoop it up by its edge, as most of its adepts do, you can do a lot.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:20

I was used to fighting with Shadow, and the Overlord class was much more developed. It was a means of gathering information, stealthy influence, and long-range attacks on an unprotected target. I used it only twice in direct combat. The second time, I used it as a proxy. In the fight with Ferer and during the epic of Kickass. Both times I noticed that my opponents were very surprised by my tricks, not immediately realizing what to hit me with.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:25

So, starting an attack right in the middle of the domain of the "Honorable Owner" present here, I was not acting out of thin air but had a plan, albeit one that had been hastily created in the forty minutes that had passed between the moment Losius was challenged to a duel and the moment the duel began. And by plan, I was confident enough that I could carry it out, even if only partially.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:26

To the House Owner's credit, he had done a good job of protecting his creation from dream walkers and mirror mages, only slightly inferior to the Eyes, especially when it came to his private study. But personal chambers were one thing, and it was a different matter to cover the whole thing with high-class and extremely specific protection. Yes, the protection was there, and it was miraculously good, but not enough. It was doubly insufficient, considering that the main source of Dream was, in fact, inside the room, working directly, not through an intermediary or reflection.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:29

I didn't just suddenly decide to have a jolly fight for fear of getting punched in return. I started preparing to strike the moment the duel was announced. And even though the lion's share of concentration was consumed by maintaining the cloak on Losius and the rest of the team, I had enough time to do enough to make my actions no longer seem like jumping onto a tank with bare feet.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:30

First of all, of course, I should mention the stained-glass windows that I'd turned into resonators, which I'd looped together with some of the free shards of mirrors I had. It was enough to not only deploy a powerful closed field but also to make it invisible to the House's defenses. Even that couldn't fool the Owner himself, especially since he was right next to the eye of the storm, but that was the function of the barrier.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:45

Cut off.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:37

Hide.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:37

Decive.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:37

Disrupt.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:37

I didn't even dream of somehow affecting the connection between the Owner and his Domain. I mean, in theory, it was possible but very difficult, costly, and not as stealthy as I still hoped to make it. Except he was standing right there, which not only gave me a perception advantage and nullified the possibility of deception but also put him at risk. A Dream is a great way to fool the mind, a superb tool, and it's hard to think of a better one. And even if I couldn't prevent the old man from changing his position in space by a simple willpower effort, moving to some particularly protected node of his Domain, let it! But I could strike not at this connection but at the very perception of reality. Forbid, for a brief moment, but still forbid him to wish.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:52

A second is like an eternity in the case of battles, but the problem was that I didn't want to kill the old man, though I could try. But if I really hit him hard, there was a good chance he'd be able to kill all the people inside the House if not hit me back. Just because of the agony and grip of doom, as if in some fairy tale where Koshcheyev's kingdom collapses with the death of the Dark Lord. I can't, alas, say, proudly raising my head, that I wouldn't have gone for such a swap if I'd been really serious. But now I saw other options.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:54

But those options, where I could kill the "honorable" with a guarantee and without risk to my companions, on the contrary, were not visible. Not by logic, not by clairvoyance. This place is too strongly connected to him, so much so that it will die with its lord. There were simply no options here. After many years of symbiosis with the House, this property had already become an insurmountable law.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:56

I can survive something like that.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:56

I can even cover my own, with a high guarantee of success.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 17:57

But then I'd have to use Shadow to the fullest extent, causing the others to ask understandable questions and equally understandable desires to grab me by the throat and not let go until I was dead and then some more. So, if I wanted to cover my tracks, even partially, and not draw attention to myself, I would have to solve the problem by using Dream alone, which was what I was doing at that moment.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:06

The first step was the unfolding of the barrier, which simply turned off, imposed sleep on all those who got into it, and were not marked by me as an allied unit. To be more precise, all of them except for the Owner, the strongest fighter in the diplomats' retinue, and some gray-haired beastfolk from the audience who had come here just to gawk. The latter was only holding on by sheer willpower and stubbornness. I'd been smart enough to set up a field against the few amulets that could counteract such a subtle threat, and the attackers lacked much of their strength.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:09

Losing consciousness and having a pleasant dreamless sleep is practically a gentle attack that shouldn't even give you a headache. The fact that I'll be wrenching and mashing their memory in a hurry to get everything done will give them a headache. But this attack? No, no, and again a bold no with a hard sign at the end.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:11

The House guards watching the duel, by the way, were even better protected from Dream than the retinue. Or rather, not so much from Dream as from any influence on the mind - a complex defense, very necessary for a casino worker, who had always tried to bewitch, deceive, or zombify anyone. I push through, of course, especially with preparation, but still - an impressive result and level of service.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:14

While the men who had fallen asleep on the move were only dropping in clumps to the ground, I already knew they would not be a problem. I knew, and I was rapidly preparing my strike against the only worthy target within easy reach. I didn't expect or even want help from the team because they could get in the way. As a matter of fact, I even bother to send them a vision-image telling them not to interfere unnecessarily. The same Tia could have killed Grandpa just in case, and Grandpa himself was weakened by the blow to his brains and could have died from the hit of the liquidator.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:18

The impact of the Dream that had fractured in the stained-glass windows gave me the seconds I needed, but I had to act on my own, relying only on myself. The distance between us was ridiculous for our speeds, but each step cost me a fraction of my reserve and human form. Each step made the ribbons of violet mist around me weave together, surrounding me with a weightless garment. Forcing me to change my appearance from merely human to something faceless, thin, and long, like a melted and stretched mannequin.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:22

Dozens of mirror shards popped out of the pockets of my clothes, which were hidden in a blue haze, and surrounded my figure with a halo of mutually reinforcing homemade amulets. If he'd had a second, he would have just thrown the whole thing off. Run the fuck away.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:24

But there wasn't a second here.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:25

Even a fraction of it.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:25

And so, no sooner had my heart struck, no sooner had the unconscious statists fallen to the ground, no sooner had my companions even realized the changed situation, and a dozen mirror blades pierced through the chest of the "honorable", allowing me to pour an obscenely huge amount of Dream into him. And no matter what his level was, no matter what his resistance was, and no matter what protections his Domain connection gave him, he couldn't stay conscious after that.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:28

Somewhere off-screen, looking into the frightened eyes of an old man who is rapidly blacking out and trying to call out to his home walls, I can make out a brief scuffle as the team knocks out the few people who, by some miracle, haven't blacked out because of the field. There are no more standing enemies left, but that's all tinsel.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:29

The hardest part is now just beginning.

Camrad_RIP 17.07.23 в 18:30

I had seconds, not minutes, and those seconds were slipping away. Yes, the closed field allowed me to cut off the dueling ground from the signaling charms, suppress them and prevent them from raising the alarm, but at any moment, everything could go wrong. Whether it be a sudden check of the defense systems, the arrival of backup that could have been summoned by the guards in advance, the attention of one of the high-level aides of the "honorable" or something else, but the options are there.

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 18:58

The Dream is great for turning a living being into your puppet, willing or unwilling, aware of its condition or even unaware of it. But even with a mythic class and a third rank in said class, it takes time to rewrite a personality. In the case when the victim is not trash, but quite a pumped-up individual, accustomed to the integrity of this personality to keep and preserve, we had to talk about hours of hellish labor at best, if not many days.

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 18:59

On the other hand, I didn't need the puppets or the sleeping agents. All I wanted now was to erase some details from their memories. And that could already be arranged. Of course, any erased memories could be brought back, manifested, and restored from the ashes. I even knew of the Empire of Ages' possession of a few suitable artifacts. It wasn't certain that those artifacts would be used at the behest of those who fell into my hands, but the possibility was there!

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 19:01

In general, a simple memory wipe was not an option, or rather, only the initial stage of my actions. As it happens too often in my life, I again need to create a new and very clever technique on the fly, which can survive the attempts to crack its structure and fulfill its purpose. And all this under the threat of help coming and then sawing either us or that help out.

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 19:03

It's just a regular Tuesday, whatever.

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 19:03

Without removing the claws-mirrors from the body of the master of the House (so it was much easier to control the Dream pumped into his subtle body and not let this force endanger the poor man), I take action. Right now, I can easily turn him into a vegetable or erase his memories. It's difficult. It'll take a lot of stamina and control, but given the inputs, when I've literally stuffed him with my energy... it's doable. Except instead of hitting the fragile structure of his memory with a sledgehammer, I'm doing something else. I'm not just fucking up the last few days of his life, no. It can be reversed, at least partially.

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 19:06

It's as if I take in my hands dozens of varieties of paint and a hundred different brushes, and then I start scribbling all over the canvas of memories, distorting, confusing, swapping memories, shuffling images and events, their order, chronology, and participants. Figuratively speaking - I make a frame-by-frame cut from a dozen different movies, creating a five-minute clip reminiscent of some wild trip from the hallucinogens taken. Even just trying to remember this day will cause real migraine explosions, and trying to decipher it all will be a challenge. At the very least, because all of these images are true, not created by me, just mixed up.

Camrad_RIP 18.07.23 в 19:20

Losius's name. All in all, his name is just one of the thousands of details that can be found and pulled out, but only by knowing exactly what to look for. Otherwise, success is still real but difficult, very difficult. The Dream continues to boil and bubble, wanting to take over the old man's memory and soul completely. It is already in him, has already embraced his essence, and is ready to descend on it like boiling water on a sugar statue - to dissolve and lubricate. To merge into one monstrous lump.

Camrad_RIP 19.07.23 в 08:28

Instead, I start tearing the threads of memories, mixing them with the endless stream of events, with the very nature of this plan, turning already disguised memories into mincemeat and then annihilating that mincemeat into nothingness. One by one, these techniques can somehow be circumvented, bypassed, and overpowered. Difficult, very difficult, but still possible, especially with said artifacts. But all three layers of defense together make the process of extracting knowledge and obtaining the truth simply impossible.

Camrad_RIP 19.07.23 в 08:29

Only a god can fix something here, and not just any god, but one who specializes in working with the mind and memory. Or, you can still try to recreate this truth and tear it out without caring about the life and postmortem of the victim. But I sincerely doubt that this old man (I, by the way, never found out his name because I don't have a single extra second for interest) will allow himself to be used as a victim. The rest of my victims - that's another matter, but they have a lower level, and therefore the defense of the mind is also weaker.

Camrad_RIP 19.07.23 в 08:31