Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 15_1

Chapter 15

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Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:18

The night, the barely visible lights of the stars, which are not yet hidden behind the clouds, half of the moon peeking out from behind the clouds, which adds charming glare to the water surface, fresh river air, and a noticeable chill that winds under his clothes. The latter was aided by a summoned spirit, which insulated Stepan sufficiently to allow him to walk on deck in his shirt alone. However, he preferred not to walk, but to sit in a comfortable corner at the stern, in the company of Cherz, who was silently smoking a pipe. The ship's magician smoked not tobacco, judging by the smell, but also not an analog of hashish, just some other herbal collection, saturated with magical energy, and, if Stepan's Sensitivity did not fail, it was Cherz who prepared and saturated this mixture with power. Well, so it would really be useful for him to incense this stuff. The smell of this collection was very pleasant, sweet, and cherry - if the young man was a smoker, he would have asked to share a pinch or two.

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:20

The quiet and peaceful environment of this night was exactly the same as the previous six. There were no urgent matters, no dreadful deadlines, and no constant development and growth using new approaches to old topics. There was no special opportunity to call, if only for small things, tasks had to be skipped, as well as special purchases in the System Store, and in general, the experience gain expectedly slowed down to almost zero. This should have been annoying and for the first couple of days even irritating, but then Stepan caught a deep meditative calm and peacefulness. The desire to rush, to do, to improve, to redo and go round and round again had not disappeared, still remained with him, but now it was as if the young man remembered how good the simple routine of doing nothing was.

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:36

He sat on a wooden bench, his cloak tucked beneath him, letting the summoned small air spirit drive away the clouds of magic smoke, leaving only a barely discernible note of berry flavor. And he, like Cherl, silently contemplating the reality unfolding from new sides, saw no need for words or action. Complete relaxation and falling into nirvana, and without any substances unrecommended and illegal pills. The dark walls of the coastal forest and thickets, whose views were already imprinted in the retina, quietly whispered splashing waves, in which it was almost possible to hear the universal secrets, and the developed shamanic spirit was in such peace that if it were a dozen points lower, one could expect to raise it by one.

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:43

Stepan secretly expected that he would quickly get bored and annoyed by the long view of the monotonous landscape overboard, but nothing of the sort happened. Even on the contrary, to be honest, because with every day and hour, he was becoming more and more at ease with his soul, more and more vividly he understood that even though he would have to return to hard work, - and he would definitely return, wishing it fervently - but only this rest from everything was strongly necessary for him, vital if not for his physical, then for his mental health. Meditative contemplation, interspersed only with rare and brief conversations - in which he showed no special interest in conversation - meals, visits to the toilet, and occasional healer's tasks. While earning his free passage, the young man healed several cuts, bruises, a sore tooth, and frostbite along with pneumonia in a sailor who had dozed off almost undressed. This confirmed his qualifications and finally broke the ice of distrust between him and the ship's crew, led by Bastius. Even his taciturnity did not surprise anyone, for there was a certain Silent Man in the crew, from whom an average of two or three phrases were heard in a month (and he was often confused with a mute), so that the river voyagers called the passenger-healer temporarily seconded to them, and, of course, behind his back, they called him Not-Silent Man.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:01

Everything was fine, everything was even a little bit beautiful: the scenery, the people, the occasional coastal fishing villages, fishing boats, or boats rafting upstream. During these encounters, everyone tensed up and took up arms at the sight of strangers, but parted peacefully. The general mood and even the weather, which was only once pleased with a quick rain. Everything was perfect, but only until tonight, which, frankly speaking, disappointed Stepan. He didn't quite get his bearings at first, but the skills and grasp at once of a specialist agent and a master fighter got him back up and running quickly. A few discreet calls to the spirits that sat in his bracelets and rosary beads, a few more quick calls to the already contracted entities, analyzing the information received from those allies who are always with him in case of betrayal, and then the young man begins to act. Well, not exactly act, but rather hint that it was not him who needed to act.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:10

"Look, Cherz, aren't there any villages around now?" Lazy and lost, all lost in himself, he clarifies the already known. "There shouldn't be any people around?"

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:45

"No, Pann, it should not, we are now in a remote part of the river, the terrain here is either too hilly or swampy, the land does not give birth well, and there are also magical beasts, tribes of green too, even if not orcs, so goblins." The lazy explanations of the ship's mage are full of complacency, he doesn't see Stepan as a competitor and has already made sure that the guy is a competent and polite interlocutor, who will gladly listen to answers to his questions. "There's no sense for villagers to settle here, the land is bad on both sides of the bank, and it's hard to survive. It's the most dangerous part, my friend, that's why I don't sleep. Here, meeting anyone on the water can be a real pain in the ass. Breakwaters, bottom-dwelling assholes, they love this kind of place."

Camrad_RIP 26.07.24 в 09:25

The yawning mage, despite his yawning, stares ahead with very clear eyes, occasionally using magic vision. He does not remove his protective amulet in Stepan's presence even after these days. He thinks the young man does not see and does not know that the man who knows something about working with ready-made amulets, almost a dozen years older than his young colleague, despite his very youthful appearance, always adjusts his amulets in such a way that they strengthen the hemisphere on the side of their guest. Not that he saw Stepan as a traitor or a murderer, but he showed a healthy paranoia, having already seen more than once how deceptive the behavior of scoundrels and treacherous bastards can be. Frankly speaking, such an unspoken and non-threatening readiness to fight even appealed to the Earthman, winning him with its calm attitude. He liked it on the ship in general, the people here mutually respected each other and very carefully watched their words, because there was no escape from the ship anyway, and you still had to live with these people. Even his things, for the safety of which Stepan feared a lot, having put three layers of protection, of which only one was obvious, no one tried to touch them, as they stood in a dry corner of the hold, so they continued to stand there. Probably because of this mutual sympathy with the ship's crew Stepan did not keep silent now, though the smartest thing would have been to just take his things and jump overboard.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:30

"Well, then it's clear whose boats are those, loaded with people, hiding in the reeds on either side, half a league ahead of us." He nods to himself, as if talking about something routine, pointing his finger in the right direction and squinting his eyes suspiciously. "We even hid from the eye, but they didn't think of a defense against the spirits. Are they waiting for us, or don't they care?"

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:47

Cherz hovered involuntarily for a few seconds, blinked like an owl awakened in its nest, reflexively finished puffing the pipe, and then bulged his eyes as if he wanted to turn into an owl, coughing up the smoke and releasing the puff from his mouth and nostrils at the same time. Throwing the pipe on the deck, knocking himself in the sternum, and coughing, he muttered something indistinctly and began to rummage in his belt pockets, taking out some glass and looking through it. At the same time, the moon finally disappeared behind the clouds, and a wave of activity passed through the aura of the magician, who did not forget to strengthen his back with a shield.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.24 в 09:28

"I can't fucking see, but, uh... it's too smooth, yeah, it's too... Fucking bitch, Pann. You're good, good!" Barely shouting the last phrase, managing to yell it in a low whisper, he launched himself from his seat quickly and decisively, kicking the sentinel group and waking up the captain without shouting or yelling. "Bastius, Bastius, damn you, get up, get up!"

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:32

The recently dormant ship was no longer drowsy. The people on it began to scurry back and forth, not noisily but very busily as if it were a single organism that had been kicked in the balls by someone. The association with a disturbed anthill or even a hornet's nest was involuntary but was very persistent. The men were arming and waking up quickly, putting on light leather jackets or even sleeveless ringlets; shields had already appeared on the deck from somewhere; the elders and Bastius were giving commands in a loud whisper. The Silent One, the same one, was busy putting the bowstring on a short but very stiff battle bow, someone was pulling crossbows from the hold. Stepan, as if temporarily forgotten by everyone, continued to sit on the stern and crunch popcorn, though in fact he was working even harder than the others, sending out his scout spirits, shuffling the elements of the rosary, selecting a team of defenders and attackers for the coming battle.

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:50

He did not doubt that he would have to help in it, not only with healing afterward. When he'd said that the disguise had been weak against the spirits, he'd been understating things a little. It was weak against his spirits, against a well-coordinated pack of bloodhounds, the kind of spirits that could hardly be contracted. But the river breakwaters' camouflage itself was good and respectable. If Cherz hadn't known where to look and hadn't been paranoid enough to prefer waking everyone up for nothing to not waking them up and then getting caught in knives, even his strange lens wouldn't have helped. He had noticed, as Bastius realized from his words, only the strange uniformity of the void of the magical background at the indicated point, not the obvious clue of an impending ambush trap.

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:52

No one laughed or swore at him for being overly cautious, and no one would reproach him for a false alarm if it turned out to be false. This was the river, the mighty and cruel Dantra, there was no concept of excessive caution here, and you could get some sleep at lunchtime if you lived to see it. A few minutes later, as if by magic, the captain and his mage, as well as the first (and only) mate-relative found themselves on the same stern next to Stepan. All three of them were already dressed in protection. All three of them looked stern and worried, though the older men hid their excitement better than Bastius's nephew.

Camrad_RIP 25.07.24 в 16:54

“If it turns out that there's an ambush waiting, a purse of silver for you, Pann.” The captain of the riverboat informs him in passing, though with significance, lacing up the fastenings of a heavy, riveted jacket with a high collar, in the pockets of which a couple of already activated amulets lie, protecting him from weak and primitive spells. “And if you're wrong, it happens, don't worry. If there aren't at least five or six false calls to arms on a voyage, it's not even a voyage. But I can feel it in my gut you're not imagining it, the breakwaters, those bastard bastards, are definitely there. And I don't like the fact they've hidden so well. Albeit only from magic, with vulnerability to shamans, but hidden! I paid gold for Cherz's lens, enchanted by a very expensive jeweler, and ше still couldn't see anything. It's not good. It's not good. Get ready."

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:36

Stepan didn't have time to say anything in response, because he was distracted by a powerful pat on the shoulder from Cherz, who had already taken out his battle staff and put on his fingers a pair of strange and obviously large rings, most likely trophy ones. The mage himself, not too strong, but an experienced and battered Apprentice, only slightly weaker than the potential Stepan was showing, no longer seemed complacent or relaxed. Eyes squinted, pupils dilated, glinting in the glow of the last rays of the moon almost hidden behind a new batch of clouds. If you meet him at night you'll be twitchy for a week. He looked maniacal, and his smile matched it. Not a grin, but a thin string of tightly compressed lips, one corner of which twitched in a jerky and unpredictable rhythm.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:46

“I'll try to break through the net.” He said in a low hoarse whisper, kneading his fingers and breathing evenly. “The Bead are big and toothy fish. They're hardly waiting for us. They have nothing to wait for. I'll accelerate the water under us, we'll pass quickly, if we have time. If we do, they won't chase us, they'll wait for the next merchant. Who's not so sharp."

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:50

His words and deeds were not at odds. He was an experienced gifted man who had more than a dozen voyages under his belt, but he did not shine in battle. However, he could control the flow of Dantra better than other adepts. He boasted so much and believed in the boast, and in general, traders preferred to avoid fighting rather than to fight on the river. The specifics and differences from the sea. Even if they managed to win, they would get only a light and fast dinghy, and the ammunition of the killed, no trophy ship, maybe even a loaded one. So the point of risking and fighting for nothing when you can just bail. In short distances, rowboats with a landing party of boarding parties can give a good run-up, especially if they come in facing or sideways against the current and waves of the Dantra, but in a long race, they're guaranteed to lose. Especially if they try not to enter the side of the merchantman like a shiv in a kidney, but to sit on his tail. From the stern it is very convenient to hit from bows and crossbows, hiding behind shields, there is a place and shelter, but in the dinghy the enemy will be as if in the palm of his hand.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 06:54

The river under the bottom seemed to quicken, the separate thread of the current became more alive and agile, the ship began to speed up, and the oars of the sailors, who were no longer trying to disguise their movements, drove Bead forward. And for a moment it seemed that everything would go quietly and there would not be another epic conflict, which Stepan did not fucking need, but which he would have to solve while trying to conceal himself. The boat was accelerating more and more, the river was carrying its travelers down, too fast for the enemy to react, too fast to give them a chance to regain their senses. It was not for nothing, not for nothing at all, that the sailors, when they heard the alarm, ran about the deck bent over, and instead of loud orders there was only loud whispering and slaps to the confused! At the moment when the outlines of two boats, each carrying at least half a dozen thugs, appeared out of the reeds on one side and a small pond on the other, they had no time to intercept them.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 11:09

"Let's go, let's go, good one, take us away, take us away," Cherz said this to the ship with a woman's name, or to the river itself, generously, not without haste, investing the reserve, while Bastius had already thrown up some amulet that rose even higher and shone brightly, so that he did not need to hide his information. "At least forty, the good boats, and they no the trash. The illusion was powerful, so either they were gifted or the amulets were good. We wouldn't have fought them off, Bass, we wouldn't have gotten through, we wouldn't have gotten through."

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 11:12

The captain realized it himself, throwing up a few more illuminating amulets, giving him a clearer view of the enemy. Especially the fact that both boats were sailing, each at least five meters long, surprisingly fast, much faster than just oars could accelerate, as if they had a motor attached to those boats. But the quick reaction and timely warning allowed them to pass the narrow place on a high-speed dash, and further, they would get away. Stepan realized that these dreams were a little bit of dreams much earlier than the sad truth reached the captain and his magician. The problem was that he realized it too late anyway and had no time to fix it: even though he had summoned an assortment of scanning entities and sent them to work as soon as the seriousness of the situation became clear, he almost missed another group of the enemy and, what was worse, let them get too close to the ship.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:54

"Bitch!" Cherz hissed with anger, twitched and his eyes bulged more angrily than ever before when the Bead jerked sharply and lost almost all of her momentum, starting to turn sideways, causing several people to fall on the deck and one of them to roll overboard. "They intercepted. Mine. Bitches! Charms. Pulled out of the current, pulled out of the fucking current!"

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:56

Stepan had noticed them too, the fucking divers, but it was too late. They were almost beside the Bead and had already begun to cast their spells. Before that, they had been covered by some obscure veil, including from the spirits, and Stepan had underestimated the likelihood of an attack from below. If they were on the sea, he would have looked more carefully in the lower hemisphere, but on the river, he could not expect such a good swimmer. If he had a little more time, he would call for additional groups of sensors, spreading them in a wide ring not only over the river but also under it so they would notice the enemy in advance. Then he could call Squidward quietly and forget about the attackers from below, but the moment was gone, and now he couldn't call for the octopus without being noticed, especially if he called quickly.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:58

The floating group of the enemy did not approach, did not attack, and did not stick out beyond the masking cloud, so that Cherz did not realize that it was not the boatmen, but the submariners who had got him. The boats were rapidly catching up, despite the fact that their speed had even dropped a little, and the men on those boats were armed and very serious, really not a bunch of trash. That raised a legitimate question as to why such an honor to not the most prominent merchant, because so many gifted, and on the second boat, a strong apprentice, almost adept, stronger than Cherz, both above and below the water, these are not random raiders. Such crews as Bastius told Stepan, do not hunt the first traders they see. They prefer to work for a specific target, and the Bead was not such a target. Well, or these guys just decided to make a quick buck, time and the interrogation of the survivors would tell.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:08

"There is no banner, nor is there any sign of the gang." Gloomily, very gloomily and barely suppressing despair, Bastius stated the obvious, and then, seeing the question in Stepan's eyes, deigned to explain. "If without a banner, then they will not leave any witnesses. It was still possible to let them unload the goods and open the treasury. If you make a deal. But this shit, it's like a direct statement that they're gonna cut. And the signs have been removed so there are no witnesses. Prepare yourself, shaman, support Cherz with what you can, I don't advise you to hope for a capture."

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:11

The swearing ship's magician was rapidly tearing off the top layer of planks from the stern, under which was another layer, and on that layer a ritual figure, remotely resembling a very strange hexagram, well carved and even silver poured into the cuts. He poured some powder into it, right into the cut hollows, trying to do it as evenly as possible, but it was not very good. The rocking of the boat, which was not dragged by oars anymore, because everyone was armed, was interfering, and it was as if it was caught in a trap of unfriendly water. Though it was all right, the shaking and rocking did not interfere as much as the untargeted and not especially powerful lightning came from two hundred meters. It was definitely accidental, Stepan could vouch for that, there was no control or guidance unit, and they were aiming at the keel. But the thing hit Cherz, stopping at the last moment in the barrier of his amulet, making him spill the powder and swear terribly in a language unknown to Stepan.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:28

"I'll hit them then?" He clarifies, raising his hands and staring at them with a defocused gaze as if looking through them. "I have a spirit, my grandfather's method, you might say. He used to summon this contract."

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:30

"Don't be a fool, Pann, it's a long distance. What can you do there? They have boats enchanted with the amulet, I'll give you that!" Cherz growls with rage, interspersing his words with curses in a couple of other languages, trying to start his ritual amplifier without blowing it up with him. "You better infuse power into my ritual, so at least we'll last a little lon.... ger. Holy shit, your grandfather, and I didn't believe Kirik..."

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:32

Stepan did not pour the reserve into the ritual draft, a classic method of strengthening one's charms in all schools of high magic, if only because he sensed that due to haste and mistakes, one more vector of investing forces would make the draft and the machine gun point blank burn out, if not explode, then burn out. Instead, he slowly and unhurriedly manifested over the folded palms slightly glistening in the night darkness silhouette-illusion of a boat coming from behind. The one with more attackers, at least two and a half dozen, and where the stronger gifted one almost an adept rather than just a sturdy apprentice, sat. It was better protected than the front, but when could that stop an attack from the spirit world, especially if the attacker was a very strong minor spirit, almost to the next rank, and with an exotic specialization with extremely unpleasant aspects?

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:34

Stepan could understand the hysteria of both Cherz and Bastius, who were choking on their swearing because it was hard not to be hysterical when a small illusion boat seemed to grow old before your eyes, covered with mold, rot, even small mushrooms, and then the shaman's palms simply clenched and crushed the illusion into small splinters. It seems to be nothing like that, but the real boat, which is large, went through exactly the same metamorphosis, to the great displeasure of the passengers, among which there were enough of those who put on their ringlets and therefore swam a bit shitty. The gifted magician even went underwater as a stone, because his high and dandy boots to the middle of the thigh, which even before the illusion of the boat was called by another spirit, suddenly began to weigh fifty kilograms each, and also the magic was pulled out of the reserve, vampirized like a powerful leech.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 19:38

"Yeah, my grandfather was a tough guy, and he didn't take jokes. Not at all." Stepan willingly tells the pure truth and nothing but the truth, pretending that he is shaky from fatigue. "A powerful spirit, however, only against river boats, namely boats, not ships useful, but it often happens with spirits."

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 20:11

Yes, indeed. This entity, which Stepan nicknamed the Sadness of the Dead Wharves, for it was the image and name that suited the spirit best, was born of forgotten and abandoned riverboats, which for various reasons had been left on the shore, doomed to rot slowly, year after year into oblivion. And to summon such a miracle it was necessary to sacrifice no less than five handfuls of corpses from the hulls of five different boats that had taken a similar fate, one per boat, and it should have been the forgotten and abandoned ones, and not specially reagentized. Without reliance on the System Store it was difficult to call such shit to obedience, because at the expense of the bare reserve and will induce to contract this very capricious entity was problematic and risky. However, the young man was not going to tell about it, just as he was not going to tell that his reserve had not really sagged and he was not tired. Why should he be tired, if he had paid for all the work of the spirit in advance, and he had spent only a crumb of his reserve on summoning and drawing up the images and decrees of the target, nothing more?

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 20:46

The situation, as a result of Stepan's little improvisation, became noticeably more stable and not so threatening. The Bead's crew could fend off one boarding team with weaker magic, as well as some simpler fighters. Especially considering how morale had sagged after their companions had been epically sent off to swim - alas, not everyone in the front boat saw it - and then Cherz finished his ritual enhancer, took his wand out of its holster, and chucked two vials of something unhealthy down their throats one after the other. A moment later, slowly and sadly formed front of him, right in front of his face, an ice core, resembling a lemon in shape, but the size of a watermelon, and then flew with good acceleration towards the enemy. The core caused only moral damage because halfway through it was like being slapped by a telekinetic barrier, taking it aside. Meanwhile, one of Stepan's one-time contracts, a very strong spirit, began to cautiously approach the pirates who were floundering in the water and had lost their transportation. They were too heavily clothed, but some of them would have swam out, but almost at once, they were all struck with a terrible weakness and a piercing cold. This spirit drowned only and only pirates of any kind, whether river, sea, ocean, or even lake, but it worked on a large scale and imperceptibly, especially at first. In theory, it could be used to drown a pirate even in a puddle, or a home bathtub, but only if the pirate was active and regularly went to his native biome.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 21:00

An effective, albeit not particularly showy and colorful tactic.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:07

Hardly anyone's going to swim out there.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:08

But Cherz was not allowed to work free, though he was not struck by a gifted man standing on the bow of the remaining boat, who was just beginning to prepare something of his own. They hit him from below. The same guys, through whose disguise Stepan had almost penetrated and could even count them roughly, which he did not like at all. The counting turned out to be sad. The tentacle of water rushed upward with the swiftness of a snake rushing to its prey, aiming at the aura of any living creature, the brighter the better. Both Stepan and Cherz had an equal chance of being embraced, but the shaman was closer to the side over which the tentacle had swung. The Earthling, due to the sensitivity and constant observation through the pile of spirits, managed to notice the moment when the weave went from passive to attacking phase, and for the first time the Earthling used the clock modification, slowing down time for himself and thinking feverishly.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 21:07

Thinking about deflecting now, fending off a blow, or letting the enchantments grab Cherz altogether, he could certainly do that. Yes, he could, no problem at all. The problem, as they say, is another. Underwater sorcerers need to be calmed down somehow because they are not weak apprentices, but at least a couple of full-fledged adepts. And Stepan could do it, standing on the deck and calling like a madman. It's easy enough to finish Squidward's summoning and help him a little. But then he'd either have to sink the ship with all the crew, or knock them all out and correct their memories because it wouldn't work without knocking them out, not on this scale, or just wipe the conspiracy clean. My grandfather told me to pretend to be weak because it's a big world, there are a lot of evil men in it. It's better they not to expect me to be such a tough guy, eighteen years old, organizing all this.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 21:12

Or he could let the tentacle attack, embrace him in a fatal embrace, and drag him to the bottom. In reality, of course, the tentacle would not drag anyone to the bottom, it was just silly, Stepan understood this even without the knowledge of a battle shaman. On the contrary, such spells are used to quickly break ribs and spine, hit a victim on the deck, turn it into a full-fledged corpse, and direct the tentacle to a new target. But if he could just override the spell - he had the right water spirit in his bracelet and two more in his necklace - and let himself be dragged away, it would be much easier. Explaining how he managed to fall overboard and survive there, or even “fight off” the attacker, is much easier than explaining the destruction of the enemy group. The main thing is to kill them all as quickly as possible, without unnecessary special effects, so that the fight is not seen from the board, and tell everyone there was just one weak apprentice with a wand.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 21:23

Yeah, that's exactly what he'll do.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:05

It has to work, it can't be otherwise.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:05

Well, there was a third option. He could take the most valuable of his belongings right now - including gifts from the Dark Lord, because he couldn't afford to let such things out into the world - jump aboard on the opposite side and get away, putting a spirit of some water-type into himself, or even summoning an entity that would carry him through the paths of spirits. It was unlikely they would catch up with him, but it still made Stepan uncomfortable. Bastius turned out to be a normal and even a bit nice man, not without sins, but certainly much better than the average statistic of this world, and he treated Stepan quite well, without any rotten thoughts and intentions, just like the rest of the crew. Of course, one could take into account the fact that only a complete moron would behave badly with a healer and be rude to him, but one thing did not cancel the other.

Camrad_RIP 28.07.24 в 18:06

The seconds stretched to the time specified in the meta-skill description. The tentacle easily pierces the first layer of protection, the air barrier long carried only for distraction and camouflage, sinking into the second, purely energetic one. The tentacle shrank around the full-body armor that resembled barely visible ghostly tree bark, and sharply thickened at the end, pumping up water and covering half of the body of the shrieking Stepan. A sharp jerk, as if something was trying to stop him, the enemy's weave carried the shaman right off the stern to the screams of Cherz and Bastius. The first almost destroyed the new ice core because of that, and the second tried to break the tentacle with a good saber with some enchantment, almost hitting Stepan's spirit. If the young man hadn't already strengthened almost completely his tentacle, easily breaking the weave and intercepting the control through his spirits, the captain might have succeeded.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 05:58

After another second, only circles on the water remained of the shaman who had fallen into the seemingly black water of Dantra.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 05:43

And so further events passed completely unnoticed, without unnecessary, annoying, and attentive eyes.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.24 в 14:36

Almost unnoticeable.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.24 в 14:36

* * *

Camrad_RIP 26.07.24 в 14:35

Once underwater, Stepan finished his preparations at the same moment, bringing them into active form. He knew that he was going to sail along the river, and it would be strange not to prepare himself for the challenge properly: updating or revising the old positions of his arsenal was not limited to the boat killer alone, there were other entities specific to such conditions. A blink, and he could breathe freely underwater, or rather, his lungs always self-provided oxygen, and his reflexive attempts to inhale did not let a single drop of fluid into his trachea. Exactly the same moment, but in another line-consciousness, he is all sheltered by a new spirit-protector, letting go of the weaker underwater naturalist. A murky cloud of mud appears around the shaman, transforming his figure into a humanoid and blurry thing that can't even tell his gender or height. The same moment, but in a different form, and new, new, new summons come to his call, ready to kill, protect, or save the shaman who called them from anyone, as long as the shaman stays within their contracts. The shaman finally ceases to hold back, ordering his spirits to literally tear off the enemy's disguise, at the same time, taking advantage of the high sensitivity himself, seeing without eyes, hearing without ears, and sensing with his spiritual body.

Camrad_RIP 26.07.24 в 14:44

//“My constant jokes about a spherical-in-a-vacuum master of combat magic don't seem so funny to me anymore.” - Stepan's first thought comes absolutely calmly, not knocking him off his rhythm, not interfering with his reflexes and mastery of another's experience. It was the ++resilience of spirit, the phlegmatic character of the earthling, the very experience, and, of course, the need to act, not to panic. However, with the full power of the multiplicity of awareness, he was quite able to do both, and there was room for much more. The plurality allowed him to perform all his tasks at once and not to be late, because these fucking swimmers were clearly not happy about the sudden arrival of their guest, not at all, Stepan was offended by such impoliteness. He was mortally offended.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 05:32

To his consolation, the wielder of the brightest aura was not a master. Certainly not by the standards of the System. An Adept, just very strong, experienced, and clearly ready for battle, not taken by surprise. He was slight, a couple percent at most, stronger than Rumorias “Explosive Character” Krellb, only the aura was composed in a very different way. Emphasizing Power in the first place. While the late necromancer emphasized Control, their Sources are almost identical in power and volume. Add to this the characteristic swirls in his aura, indicative of the potions taken before the fight and, it seems, the amplifying ritual completing the picture. Next to him are three of his disciples or companions, two of which are full-fledged adepts, weaker than the leader, but still confidently holding that rank (one of them, it seems, female), another one is just a strong, very strong Apprentice. They too had strengthened, but not as qualitatively as their leader. The alchemy was definitely simpler, the swirls in their aura, discernible to both him and the spirits-watchers, have a dirtyish tinge, characteristic of the intoxication of subtle bodies by powerful, not gentle alchemy.

Camrad_RIP 27.07.24 в 05:40