Chapter 53: Cruel and Unusual

Karen swept down with her massive claymore with bloodshot eyes, intent on splitting Calvin in half.

Calvin waved his hand in front of the blade, trailing a bit of nearly invisible Bent through the air. The sword caught in the trail and was tugged off course, following his circulating Bent as it tried to return to his hand.

Karen grunted, and a minor tremor went through the ground as the sword sped up drastically.

Oh, cra-

Karen’s sword sheared through Calvin’s hand like there was nothing there, obliterating his palm and sending fingers flying across the practice yard.

“Damn!” Baroke shouted, chuckling while eating cured Nakya. The rest of the village was watching, cheering Calvin on as he stumbled away, clutching his ruined hand as it gushed blood into his palm.

Beli Ma has reached Level –

Karen interrupted the System with another cleaving strike. Calvin tried to Use Beli Ma with his left hand to direct Karen’s strike down, but the delicate circulation of Bent was ruined, and the sword caught him in the ribs, severed his arm, spine, and every major organ before erupting out his other side.

Calvin toppled to the ground in two pieces, pain staining every fiber of his being. A moment later he reset himself, standing in front of Karen, flexing phantom pain out of his fingers.

“How do people train Beli Ma without losing fingers?” Calvin asked.

“Slowly.” Karen said, rushing toward him.

“Hold on!” Calvin shouted, blocking her strike with a knife erupting from his forearm. The sheer force of the strike blew him away. Calvin tumbled three times before hitting his head against the nearby hut, making cracks on its dried mud exterior.

“What?”

“I leveled,” Calvin gasped.

Beli Ma has reached Level 5!

Level 5: 25% Correction.

+1 Stability

Please choose an ability or mutation.

The Iroh Special: Learn from the best. Spend 1 Bent to redirect an Ability you are the target of and can respond to. You choose new targets for the Ability. If used on a lightning based Ability redirect it for free and instead Bent is used to amplify the redirected Ability. 

Rooted Lotus Style: Double Beli Ma Correction by standing still. 

With Interest: Add (correction) force of deflected attacks to counter-attacks. can be used with thrown weapons, if one is on-hand, but primarily used for Melee.

^ This number can go higher than 100%

Mutations:

Dragon clutches Pearl:  Absorb (Correction*1) of a successfully deflected Ability's Bent cost. limited to original Bent cost.

*From Lady Killer mutation. 

Slippery When Wet: Able to excrete a slippery substance through your pores to make it more difficult for others to grapple or hold you. Can be directed with practice.  

^Never need lube again!

I thought there’d be more.

There are, but they’re locked.

Calvin rested against the wall of the hut, running his finger over the dent in the knife emerging from his forearm.

Dragon Clutches Pearl was appealing, but its effect was directly related to the level of Beli Ma. Getting it now, it was underwhelming, and wouldn’t do a lot. He could always pick it up later when the amount of Bent it stole for him was higher.

Right now…what had the greatest effect...

Calvin passed over Slippery, and Rooted Lotus. The first seemed like a joke and the other required him to stand still and take the punishment, it also improved with Beli Ma, so would be better later in his Skill development.

Calvin Compared the Iroh Special, and With Interest. Similar abilities, but for the price of 1 bent, he was basically guaranteeing a nullification of the enemy’s ability while putting them on the back foot, returning it back to them. With Interest didn’t help you deflect things at all, just adding a little extra punch to counter-attacks.

I choose the Iroh Special. Calvin thought.

“Alright, I picked it,” Calvin said, standing as the knowledge of the ability flooded his mind. It was kind of like Beli Ma, he needed to make a cloud of Bent in front of his palm that would be expended to absorb and replicate an attack, allowing him to choose a new target.

“Oh yeah, what’s it do?” Karen asked, resting her sword on her shoulder.

Calvin gave her the description, word for word, and she got a thoughtful look.

“Alright, let’s practice that now. We need something you can see…” She glanced over at Baroke. “Baroke, get your bow.”

“Awesome.” The muscular archer jumped out of his seat and ran to get his gear.

****

Calvin stood at the end of Mujenan’s firing range he’d conjured with Shadow Boxing, hands held ready.

At the other end were Karen and Baroke. The tall young man had his oversized bow and an arrow nocked.

“You ready?” Baroke asked.

“Ready!” Calvin shouted, fully intending to redirect the arrow toward Karen. A little arrow to the face’ll show her what it feels like.

“Pay close attention, Calvin!” Karen said. “This Ability’s only as good as you are!”

“Got it!”

Baroke pulled back the arrow:

“Penetrating shot.”

He released, and the arrow hissed through the air, almost faster than Calvin could process.

Calvin whipped up his hand and activated the Ability, feeling the Bent flood out of his palm into a cloud of potential in front of him, ready to be triggered.

The arrow sailed through the cloud, and Calvin had an instant of surprise before the iron tip bored through his palm, then his shoulder, pinning the two together, and slamming him up against the backdrop behind him.

Baroke slung his bow over his shoulder, and he and Calvin’s foster mother walked over to him, grinning.

“Ow..I can’t move.” Calvin said, trying to pry the arrow out with his left hand. Any understanding that he didn’t have the strength to pull the wooden shaft out was overridden by the pain rampaging through his thoughts.

“I told you to pay attention.” Karen said, her thumbs in her belt loop.

“But..”

“Baroke, did you put any Bent into that attack?”

“Naw, that was just a regular arrow.” Baroke said with a shit-eating grin.

“But you said…”

“Said what? Penetrating Shot?” He flicked the feathers sticking out of Calvin’s palm, causing an explosion of pain. “Looks like it penetrated pretty good to me.”

“It’s important that I point out the weaknesses in your abilities before an enemy does it for you,” Karen said. “Bent-Less attacks are going to sail right through that Ability. Only use it if you’re absolutely sure the attack is using Bent. Look for glowing, independent movement, a shimmering trail, anything unnatural. Never Assume.”

“You…are…a…demon,” Calvin said, shuddering as his lung bumped up against the arrow-shaft.

“I’m a concerned mother.” Karen said. “Now reset yourself, you’ve still gotta get some practice with that new Ability.”

Oh right, I can do that. Sometimes Calvin thought Karen was simply training him to ignore pain.

…

Beli Ma has reached level 6!

Knife-Work has reached level 7!

Read Expressions has reached level 8!

Calvin opened his eyes as his Company’s Nap Time came to an end, dictated by the sun that was slowly dipping beneath the parasol Calvin had set down, shining him directly in the eyes.

How was school today?

Karen sucks.

D’Aww.

How does she know all those things? Calvin asked. I don’t know those things.

Shadow Boxing isn’t drawing from your memory of her, it’s drawing from the System’s memory of her. That’s why it’s so much more effective than pretending to fight her, via mundane shadow-boxing.

So the people in my shadow boxing…know things I don’t know?

Spot on.

That sound deliciously exploitable.

True.

The skin on Calvin’s neck, arms, and side of his face felt someone big approach from behind. They felt male, which ruled out Ella. An instant later, he felt the man’s gaze land on him, bearing a distinct lack of friendship or respect.

Grant, then.

“You ready to get to work, Grant?” Calvin said as he blinked the sunspots out of his eyes and stood.

“Taming the glib, so to speak?” Grant’s voice asked from behind him.

“Pretty much.”

Okay, I’ll admit the Turka was a good choice.

They don’t have eyes, so something must have been going on there, Calvin thought. He’d hunted down and eaten one of the blind predators only a few days ago, and Calvin was starting to be able to process the foreign sensations with ever-increasing accuracy.

His newly sensitive skin allowed him to tell the distance, size, hardness, and vague direction of everything that moved around him. With the Third Eye mutation and Feel Intent, if someone was looking at him, it was even more accurate.

Just a lot to get used to.

Calvin walked over to the recently finished pillory made of solid Steel, where Nadia hung at an awkward angle, glaring at him in defiance, her hands balled into fists beside her head. Her face was covered in scraped and bruises where soldiers idly threw rocks and animal dung at her.

“Hi.” Calvin said in Ilethan, pulling up a stool to sit in front of her. “Feeling any more broken than yesterday?”

Chained Spirit at level 13 lasted just over a day and a half.

“Eat a dick.”

“What was that you told Grant?” Calvin asked, pointing to the towering general.

“That she’d come back and flay you alive and all of Mujenan.” Grant supplied.

Calvin gasped in faux horror. “That includes some of my best friends.” Calvin said, pressing a hand to his chest. “And what did I tell you I would do if you did that?”

“But I didn’t!” Nadia protested.

“Shut up. We both know you have no respect for anyone other than yourself. You’d do it in a heartbeat. Besides, the game has changed already. Princess Nadia is dead. You’re not her. You’re a Bent construct. An extension of my will that I can summon and unsummon at a whim.”

Calvin ran a finger over the scab on his arm where she’d managed to inflict damage before he unsummoned her on their re-introduction.

“Let me out of here, and I’ll show you how much of an extention of your will I am.”

“By doing what? Killing me?” Calvin asked. “You know you would cease to exist, right? never to be summoned again. Killing me is as good as killing yourself, now.”

“I don’t believe you,” Nadia said, shivering in the pillory.

Calvin tried to nudge his summon’s behavior mentally, but the titanic wall she’d put up inside her own mind made the wasp’s violent urges seem tame by comparison. The girl’s mind was a fortress.

“Hmm… maybe you need a demonstration.” Calvin said, standing.

“Grant, your sword.”

Grant unsheathed his heavy shortsword, more like a cleaver than a short-sword, but it was exactly what Calvin needed. He palmed the blade and handed it to Calvin handle-first.

“What, you gonna cut me, you sick fuck?” she asked disdainfully.

“In a manner of speaking.” Calvin said, taking a few experimental swipes with the blade.

Nadia’s gaze locked on to Grant. “You’re going to suffer for this, traitor. We’ll bind your soul to the Throne and watch you go mad.”

“I was already assured of that punishment as soon as I allowed the Malkenrovian delegate to kill you,” Grant said with a shrug. “This is my best option.”

“I AM NOT DEAD!” Nadia’s voice rang out through the camp, making Calvin’s ears hurt a little with how powerful her voice was. “Let me out of this illusion! I AM NOT DEAD!”

“Alley-oop.”

Chained Spirit.

8/14 Bent Remaining.

Calvin held his free palm down, and summoned another Nadia, black Bent flooding down his veins and out his skin.

She appeared on her knees, facing the pillory. The green smoke swirled into a skeleton, then cloaked it in flesh, revealing the girls’ nude form for an instant before the last of the green smoke curled into her tight black clothes.

Gotta figure out how Chained Spirit includes clothes.

Probably the Harbinger’s PG-13 Filter.

What?

I’m just kidding, I’ll do some research.

“What the –“ Kneeling Nadia started to speak.

Calvin brought the oversized short sword down, cleaving the new summon’s head from its neck. Pillory Nadia watched in horror as her own corpse slumped over with an astonished expression before it collapsed into slime that evaporated into whirling green smoke.

“So, did you get a moment of being in two places at once?” Calvin asked. “Or just the memory of it? Or neither? Still trying to figure out how Continuity works.”

“I AM STILL ALIVE!” Nadia began chanting ad naseum.

“Let’s try it again, then.” Calvin said with a shrug, holding out his palm.

“No, No NO!”

Ignoring Nadia’s protests, he used Chained Spirit again.

Chained Spirit.

7/14 Bent remaining.

Nadia appeared kneeling in front of him, and Calvin took another swipe at her neck.

Nadia rolled out of the way with a shout, turning around at a speed Calvin couldn’t quite follow and leaping on him, knocking him to the ground.

The Pilloried Nadia cackled as her copy wrestled the blade out of Calvin’s hand, raising it to end his life.

Calvin forcefully ended the summon.

The Nadia on top of him burst into green smoke, dropping the heavy shortsword. Calvin managed to reach up and grab the blade out of the air, pinched between his thumb and fingers, before it fell into his chest.

Heart slamming in his chest, Calvin stood, trying to appear as casual as possible. He was playing with fire, here.

“Almost made it.” Calvin said with a smile he didn’t feel. “Looks like Continuity works. How do you feel about seeing yourself summoned and unsummoned at will? You know if I had this much control over you with mind magic, you wouldn’t be anywhere near this lucid. Accept your situation.”

Nadia was shivering violently in the pillory.

“Im not dead, not dead, notdead, notdead, notdeadnotdeadnotdead….”

“Mmmm,” Calvin hummed, handing Grant his sword back. “I guess this is gonna take a couple more days. Maybe longer since the dead girl doesn’t need to eat or sleep. You haven’t gotten hungry yet, have you?”

“No, no nononono.” She breathed through clenched teeth, her spit flying as she chanted, shaking like a leaf.

Pain or Humiliation?”

“What?” Nadia gasped.

“Would you rather I summon a swarm of wasps to sting every inch of your naked body, or simply give the soldiers free reign to humiliate and dehumanize you in any way they see fit?”

“Go ahead. I can tolerate rape.”

“I was thinking something more along the lines of tying you up, tossing you in the latrine and poking you with sticks until you pass out…over, and over, but hey, whatever works for you…”

Calvin glanced over at Grant. “Wasps too?”

“I don’t see why not.” Grant shrugged.

“Gotta start somewhere.”

“Congratulations, Princess Nadia, you’ve been promoted to my personal torture doll/ toilet. If nothing else, you’ll give us a lot of solid information on how much an Ilethan noble can take before they lose their mind.”

Calvin felt something crack in her gaze, and the connection via Chained spirit registered it too, a tiny little chink in her mental armor. Calvin didn’t start exploiting it immediately, instead he slowly applied his will to widening it, so gradually as to be imperceptible.

“No.” she said lifelessly, her hair hanging over her eyes as she stared at him.

“No what?”

“Don’t do...that. Please.”

“Ah, the magic word.” Calvin said. “I’ll make you a deal, then.”

“What?”

“Kiss my feet.” Calvin glanced down at his shoes. “They’re pretty clean. Carl took care of them this morning. Shiny even.”

Nadia glared at him, her emotions raging between shame and some kind of perverse enjoyment. “…okay.”

“Grant, if you would.”

Grant stepped up to her, and unlocked the pillory, keeping a hand on his pommel, to prevent her from trying to steal his blade.

Nadia slumped out of the restraints, rubbing her wrists as she glared at Calvin, her Intent waffling between trying to shiv him, and acquiescence.

I wonder which one she’ll pick, Calvin thought, a hairs breadth from unsummoning her if she tried to kill him.

Nadia shakily dropped down on her knees and pressed her mouth to the top of his shoe.

Your Princess is In another Castle has reached Level 5!

Level 5: 25% Correction!

+1 Stability

Please Choose an ability or Mutation.

The information began unfolding across Calvin’s consciousness, but he caught a intrigued murmur from Elliot that drew his attention away.

That’s weird.

What is?

She still counts as a princess.

Calvin unsummoned the Nadia crying into his shoe and re-summoned her, standing in front of him. She looked slightly confused.

6/15 Bent remaining.

“Well done, I was going to offer a bath, but I figured a resummon would work just as well. For the next day you’ve got a reprieve from the pillory, and that reprieve can continue on good behavior.”

“Let me warn you though,” Calvin said, leaning close. “If you act up in any way, you’re going back to the pillory, and by all the gods, if you hurt or kill someone in a misguided attempt to escape, this world will become your personal Abyss. I will break you until you’d do anything to make it stop, then I’ll summon more of you and have you hurt each other creatively. Clear?”

This was the moment all his cruelty was for. Calvin really didn't want to spend all his time torturing a teenage girl, and for that, he needed her to believe him wholeheartedly. She was too mentally tough to budge if she thought he wasn't willing to do exactly what he said, which is why he executed her in front of herself, to shock her mind. If he couldn't get her to cooperate with him, worst case scenario, he was out of luck and would simply never summon her again, rather than make good on his grandiose promises of torture. It just wasn't cost-effective, and it wasn’t something he’d enjoy.

She hesitated a moment, then nodded, her gaze radiating a bizarre fascination with him that sent shivers up his spine.

“Go take a bath if you want, eat something if you can, Sleep if you want to. You don’t need to do any of those things, being dead, but I’m sure they’ll make you feel better. Grant, don’t let her out of your sight.”

Nadia walked away, her whole body trembling as Grant escorted her.

Let’s see… show me the options

Stockholm Syndrome: YPiiAC correction now also applies to the emotional bonding of captive princesses with the User, as well as the resulting allegiance.

^Yeah, it's a real thing. Damn ugly IRL, tho.

Safe and Sound:  YPiiAC correction now also applies damage reduction to princesses allied with you or in your custody. No distance limitations. Complete damage negation not possible.

Formula: (Damage) / (1+Correction)  I.E. at 100% correction, princesses take 50% damage. Diminishing rate of return.

^ did you know aging is a form of damage to your DNA? Food for thought if you want your princesses well-preserved, kid. 

Save the Last Dance: 4 Bent to begin a dance with a princess that cannot be interrupted. As long as both participants continue to dance, they are immune to physical attacks, physical restrictions, Bent abilities, mental manipulation, etc.

^ Good for moonwalking out of trouble.

True Love's Kiss:  2 Bent, heals a princess of any curses, poisons, or afflictions, including foreign Bent, restores  condition and heals similar to a week's bed rest, potentially sealing otherwise lethal wounds.  Consumes princess' remaining Bent, but restores User's Bent at level/10 efficiency. 

Mutations:

Bloodline: Consume Princess blood to potentially gain access to Skills and Abilities unique to their bloodline.

Itty Bitty slight tiny chance of causing True Ancestor Vampirism

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: User is able to adopt a role that make them appear to belong in a given setting, and behave in a way that draws no attention as they aim for the princess...  From Acting, Talking to Girls and One of the Guys 

The Bowser: Each time the User successfully kidnaps a princess, they receive a permanent +2 to their Body. (retroactive) Once per princess.

^Current bonus +6 to Body

…

….

Give me The Bowser.

As tempting as Stockholm syndrome was, it didn’t really help anything, just sped up his progress with Nadia without providing any tangible benefits. Safe and sound and Last Dance were interesting, but a little too specific to be of use to him at all times. The Bowser boosted his Body capacity drastically, which in turn boosted the maximum capacity of all his physical attributes and skills. It was practically worth six Warp for each princess he kidnapped, permanently, and it easily offset his over-specialization in Mind.

Plus, there’s more princesses being born all the time out there. Two Body for each sounds good to me. No one says I gotta keep them forever, just kidnap them one time.

Oh my god you chose Bowser! AHAHAHAHAH!

User will be rendered unconscious while the mutation is taking place.

Macronomicon

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