The Legendary Fool

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Once again, Tom found himself on the battlefield.

His gaze swept across the landscape in what had become a practiced motion. Tom was stranger to Nexus Quests no longer, having successfully completed seven in the past two months.

While he hadn’t completely perfected his new fighting style, the foreign battlefields that Nexus Quests kept frisking him off to had proven to be the greatest of teachers. Even though it had been two months, Tom felt like he had accumulated a year’s practice. There had been a few close calls, narrow brushes that would’ve left him with grievous injuries because he pushed too deep into the enemies lines or got carried away in testing out his new combinations with his deck. His raw stat advantage ended up being the main factor in him reducing injury to a light wound or avoiding it entirely by the skin of his teeth.

Even that didn’t feel like enough, reminding him once again of Zeth’s philosophy. If you truly tried to master a combat style, gain true proficiency in it, then the depth that could be found was frankly overwhelming. There were branching paths that let to their own sets of permutations and combinations, each that required practice to pull off in real battle, where a single mistake could cost more than anyone was willing to pay.

There had been interesting developments on the Neem Guild’s end as well. Tom didn’t show it, but his guard was up and it wasn’t just the beast threats he was looking out for.

They had accepted Myris’ invitation the very next day after Tom had slain the Nether Shaman and they had walked out fairly cordially, even if they had turned down the quite frankly generous offer the Neem Guild had been willing to offer them.

Tom had known that the Neem Guild was an established one, of course, but to see them so nonchalantly offer up to four uncommon artifacts per person and one uncommon card per person as a six month loan was quite surprising. For all Myris knew, they could flee to the nearest Nexus City and knock off their remaining quests there. A Nexus City was a safe zone, irrespective of who it was owned by.

As long as Tom and his party had enough resources to finance their stay, the Neem Guild would be able to do nothing. But they didn’t even have to steal any of it to hurt the Neem Guild’s finances. Tom didn’t have any intentions of dying anytime soon, but the fact was that if any member of their party fell, the loaned gear and card would be lost to some far flung Nexus City or some random stretch of land days and days away from the Nexus City: Bulwark.

It would certainly be claimed by someone else before they got to it and the first floor was simply vast, so there was not even any guarantee of that happening.

Uncommon rarity artifacts and cards were still valuable to Tom, but it seemed like they were merely investment to the Neem Guild, one that they could afford to lose.

Tom had offered to collaborate with the Neem Guild, an option he knew to exist thanks to his use of Maya on other independent climbers. Myris chose not to reveal the true face of the Neem Guild to Tom’s party, choosing to instead reply with a non-committal offer to let them know if the need arose.

It had made sense to Tom back then. Telling a party that had newly arrived in town that the ruling guild actively worked to limit and suppress knowledge, artifacts and cards from newcomers in an effort to stifle their growth and leave them with no option but to join the Neem Guild would send any sane party running for the next city.

Still, Tom had hoped the situation would be resolved then and there and for a month, it looked like it had.

During that time, they had dealt with what Tom saw as medium-risk Nexus Quests, without any interference from the Neem Guild.

Tom was starting to believe that they were done with the raven-haired recruiter and his guild, only to find him looking around for their party in the Nexus City’s plaza.

In their second meeting, there had been an edge to Myris’ tone, a chink in his usual composure that had convinced Tom to follow him.

Myris had mentioned a second offer and once Tom arrived at the Neem Guild, he had followed him into the same entrance hall as the last time. It had been quite fascinating to see battle trophies that appeared to come from a variety of nether beasts lining the wall on wooden box shelves that adhered to a triangular shape, with five evenly spaced compartments at the bottom row and one to the top.

A wide hearth kept the entrance hall warm and welcoming, the seating area an arrangement of leaf-shaped tables that had stacks of books placed on the lower rung with low sofas and plush armchairs orbiting around them.

Myris had invited them in to let them know that the Neem Guild had upped their offer, having thrown in free stay in any of the local inns for a year, ten uncommon side-fragments and an uncommon artifact as a signing bonus instead of the loan.

Though Myris still didn’t let his overly kind persona crack, his desperation was palpable.

Something was clearly up and Tom had wanted to find out.

Thankfully for him, the SP required to cast Maya on Myris was a manageable sixty and it didn’t take long for Tom to figure out why.

Myris didn’t have a single astral gold star, which Tom found surprising until he realized that there were almost three dozen Lunar Silver stars twinkling in the void. The Neem Guild might not share it’s core secrets with Myris, but that only made sense given that he wasn’t related to any of the Neem Guild’s prominent members or displayed anywhere near the combat acumen required to join their ranks.

But Myris was a recruiter and the people he invited to join the Neem Guild were people who had shown the potential or determination, perhaps both, to be worthy of the ruling guild’s investment.

Tom was under no illusion, it was certain that most climbers that had been recruited by Myris would feel some gratefulness to him. The equipment and the uncommon card that they were willing to loan so easily could be the difference between life and death and even if they were resentful of being unable to leave easily in the future, there was no guarantee they would’ve even reached as far as they had without the Neem Guild’s resources.

An information network that let him tap into the pulse of the Neem Guild— that was the framework Myris had earned himself in his line of work.

Zeroing in on the silver star that contained information on him wasn’t challenging in the slightest, given that he just had to focus on his own appearance, personality and fighting style to feel the resonance from what turned out to be a lunar silver star. 𝖗𝘢ℕỒᛒÈs

After exiting the realm of Yul, Tom had to fight to keep his expression neutral as the truth was made clear to him. He had seized the Lunar Silver star only to be confronted by a projection of himself on the battlefield, experimenting with his Rare Deckholder, Quickdraw Quickshuffle, even as he used Warrior’s Shardsong to defend himself.

The Neem Guild had sent a spy after him, one that used a card that let him record both audio and visual elements of the battlefield from afar. Perhaps the spy had entered with a team that took care of the kills required to complete the nexus quest to return, but regardless of how he’d done it, a good chunk of his abilities were out of the bag.

Myris had gotten him good.

If Tom summarily refused the offer, he was as good as admitting to Myris that he wasn’t tempted by any of his wealth because he had something better. If he accepted the offer, Tom wouldn’t be surprised if the Neem Guild used some excuse or the other to divest him off his assets. The latter wasn’t going to happen, but by committing to the former, he would only encourage the Neem Guild more.

In the end, he had opted for a cordial request for more time to think about it, thanking Myris for his generosity before making his departure.

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Revealing the situation to Aleph and Zirel hadn’t changed much. There was no feasible solution to the problem besides either leaving Nexus City: Bulwark or knocking out all the remaining Nexus Quests in a frenzy and neither of them were exactly good solutions.

They had chosen to keep stalling for time and going out and about their business as they had been, sticking to the pace they were known to accept Nexus Quests at.

Tom took in the sea of faceless creatures that were held at bay by what had to be over a thousand climbers. Every few seconds, a group of climbers blinked away only for their loss to be supplemented by a new group that was teleported in a little distance away from the battlefield.

The Spectral Swarm was a rather terrifying sight to behold, given that hundreds upon hundreds of humanoid constructs that seemed to be more fabrications over perversions of nature like most Nether Beasts were. The creatures’ four arms were constructions of sleek, violet mechanical appendages with joints that turned in every direction. With wickedly sharp claws on the hands and talons in place of feet, the violet skinned creatures were deadly even when they seem to lack any ability beyond enhanced strength and durability.

Tom’s eyesight was sharp enough to pick up on an unfortunate climber behind caught by one of the swarm’s creatures. Before the climber could use a card ability to counter, two more from the swarm leapt onto him without any regard for retaliation.

He turned his gaze elsewhere.

To think that such havoc was wreaked by only three Spectral Swarmlords whose abilities mirrored any other creature’s in the swarm, besides their ability to rapidly multiply. The Divine System had chosen to reveal this crucial information to them, but that didn’t make the Nexus Quest any easier.

Tom’s party had to kill fifty of the swarm creatures. Killing one of the swarm lords would earn them a Rare Card, but given that Tom had no way of identifying the real one, he wouldn’t be aiming for the bonus.

That didn’t change the fact that it was the most difficult Nexus Quest they had taken on till date, because they had to kill sixty creatures that belonged to the spectral swarm before they would be teleported out, for 8 Nexus Points.

It was risky, but Tom was much more confident in taking out a large number of nether beasts that were fairly manageable over one exceptionally powerful one for his eight Nexus Points.

Over the past two months, they had come up with a fighting style that suited their group synergy.

Zirel would immediately stealth and remain relatively close by but operate on his own for the most part. So far, Zirel hadn’t even been scratched in any of the Nexus Quests. Tom had initially thought that his skills were most suited for assassinations and they were but in the chaos of the battlefield, it was very difficult to keep track of him. In a way, he had free reign on the battlefield as long as he didn’t go for the truly dangerous enemies.

Tom would take the lead and Aleph would either trail behind him, picking fights but not wading too deep into the enemy lines or fighting on the periphery depending on what they were up against.

He could shadow shift out of danger, while Aleph’s Last Recall might give her another chance at life, but it wouldn’t make a difference if she found herself surrounded by enemies.

So that was exactly what they were doing against the Spectral Swarmlords.

As Tom sprinted towards the heart of the battle, he noticed ranged attacks flying overhead towards where the enemy was concentrated.

He swivelled his neck to get a glimpse in the direction the attack had come from, noticing a sizable group of about a few dozen that were launching synchronized attacks, likely periodically.

An idea struck him and his pace flagged as he activated his deckholder’s Quickshuffle weapon skill, rigging the order in his favor. He quite enjoyed the sound of cards being shuffled, but it was impossible for even his enhanced hearing to pick that out over the din of the battlefield.

Aleph gave him a questioning look as she ran up besides him.

Tom explained what he wanted to do and Aleph just chuckled with a shake of his head.

When the next volley of attacks came, Tom used mirror world, the first card in the rigged order he’d chosen with quick shuffle, to snatch a lance of blue flame for himself. Enhancing it’s potency, Tom fired it off deep into the spectral swarm territory.

It didn’t matter if it killed any of the swarm or not, because the attack landed and his deckholder’s meter filled up by 10%.

Tom blurred forward, knowing that he had a minute to use the next card in the order he’d set.

Warrior’s Shardsong crashed into a Spectral Swarmlord, severing two of it’s limbs in one slash. Tom willed his left hand forward and unleashed a gout of flames point-blank on its face. Unsurprisingly, the common The Flame card didn’t do much in terms of actual damage to the Spectral Swarm clone. He supposed that the creature’s visage, if it could even be called that when it lacked a face, was slightly singed, but either way it didn’t matter as Tom switched to lifeblood’s augmentation.

His pulse skyrocketed and he danced with the Spectral Swarm clone for a few moments, dodging it’s swipes and clawed grasps with ease. The clone’s movements were too telegraphed in his perception, so Tom let the creature extend itself too much in an effort to latch onto his shoulder.

Tom pivoted on his right foot’s heel to land a brutal left hook directly on the Spectral Swarm clone with such force that it’s visage crumpled into itself before shattering entirely.

He winced at the pain that strike had caused him, even after Quickdraw Quickstrike insulated him from some of the force behind his strike.

Earth’s Vitality activated. As Tom had discovered in one of his earlier battles, as long as he was using Earth’s vitality to heal himself from a wound of any manner inflicted by or as a consequence of the enemy, it counted and rewarded him the kinetic energy gain from Quick-drawing the card.

The pain in hand ebbed and Tom didn’t hesitate to activate Frost Bind’s Imbue Frost ability, watching his blade was coated in a layer of frost that would jump over to any matter that made contact with it.

It wasn’t as powerful as sounded, being an uncommon card and Tom had to repeatedly strike a Spectral Swarm clone in quick succession to completely encase the creature in a layer frost before shattering it with a brutal kick.

Tom unleashed a jet of water to push away a spectral swarm clone that was trying to creep up on him. Of course, it didn’t work and the damned creature pushed through anyway, but Tom was faster as he used Aura Shift’s decrease mass to push his speed, before committing to a slide that let him both evade the creature’s claws and take out both it’s legs with Warrior’s Shardsong at the same time.

A few moments later, Tom got back up onto his feet and finished off the creature with a swipe of Warrior’s Shardsong.

He was just about to move to the final chain, when his senses began to scream danger. Had Tom not had 50 Proprioception, he would have died in that moment.

The attack was perfectly timed. He just finished using multiple card abilities in quick succession at a blazing speed, which wasn’t just exhausting, it was a constant and continuous drain on his focus.

And the method of attack, a thin, translucent needle whose both ends were tipped in a light green fluid.

It was, or atleast, it should’ve been too fast to perceive something that insignificant in the sheer chaos of the battlefield.

And, it was too fast to dodge.

Tom shattered the chain and summoned mirror world. If the attack somehow went through his card’s ability, he was dead.

Thankfully, it winked out of existence the moment it made contact with his mirror.

He was sprinting before he’d even known it, his gaze turning to the direction the attack had come from.

There were dozens of climbers crowded in that small strip of land, fighting tooth and nail against the Spectral Swarmlord clones. Tom keen eyesight couldn’t tell guilt any more or less from the next person, but he scanned through each visage anyway.

If anyone tried to run, they would obviously give themselves away, but his failed assassin appeared to be a professional.

Through gritted teeth, Tom continued scanning through the crowd even as he ran.

Only to realize that he recognized one of them.

It wasn’t his own memories that he was drawing upon, but rather, Lorcan’s. Few among the younger generation knew the man that had tried to assassinate Tom and even he didn’t know his name. But Lorcan lived with Vulturi, the leader of the guild’s enforcers and that man, with his coarse gray hair, the jagged scar on his forehead and and his nondescript features, was his right hand man.

Tom’s fury reached his zenith as he wrested control over the man’s shadow, which was just within his upgraded range.

He made sure not to focus on him for too long, noting how the assassin acted out his role perfectly. He was thoroughly unimpressive as he slashed with his sword only to leave a narrow cut on the Spectral Swarm clone before he hurriedly pulled back and scrambled to dodge a clawed swipe.

No one would suspect him of launching an attack that could kill in a single blow, absolutely no one.

Except Tom.

He raised his blade above his head and before the assassin could suspect anything, he activated Shadow Shift.

His blade came down in a diagonal slash that separated the assassin’s upper half from the rest.

Tom didn’t stop to check if the assassin was truly dead, or loot him. He simply shifted away the moment the strike was done, because there was no way such a skilled assassin had come on his own and he wanted plausible deniability until he figured out his next move against the Neem Guild.

He had only wanted peace, yet the Neem Guild had come for his head regardless.

For that, he would make them pay.

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