Chương 24: Chapter 101: Scripted Defeat

You know, I heard Granesh was so afraid of William Oh's arrival on this Floor that he allied with a secret clan of fishpeople to create the Scramble, hoping to delay his progress up The Tower to tear the crown from his head. Just you wait, another Scramble is going to happen again soon. One hundred thirteen strangers on one hundred and thirteen different vessels of the Flotilla. Will's eye twitched.

It had been over six hours of shouting back and forth from the moment the sun rose, a circular argument between Saint Jairus's attack dogs and everyone else with any sense. The Graneshians had lost their majority by the slimmest margin when Will had sunk ten of their believer's ships and taken their votes for himself. They had wanted to declare him an Enemy of the Flotilla and petition the Tower for a bounty.

Will's faction vehemently opposed that, while the moderates agreed that it was a bit extreme, given that the attacks on other Climbers was unintentional. They advocated for a more mild punishment: Temporary Exile. The Floating Church of Granesh pointed out that Will had deliberately left his Tangled party member on board their ship with the explicit intention of attacking them, using that as a reason it should be permanent and carry a more severe penalty, such as confiscating Shimmer.

Will's faction pointed out that the original had indeed left their ship, and the church had attacked Bee and Ria first, the fact that they split into nearly two hundred bodies in preparation for the conflict was irrelevant, as they were defending themselves. They shot back with the extensive list of casualties they took trying to attack the Tangled. Will's faction pointed to the half a dozen 'boarders' that had been captured trying to steal Shimmer and been returned to the church the morning of that day.

On and on it went, in circular reasoning that chewed on its own tail like a mangy dog. And all the while, Will and Saint Jairus stared at each other across the meeting room of Town Hall. The steel-haired priest looked amused, much to Will's irritation. Don't we both have better things to do today? Will didn't particularly care about whether or not he was exiled. His Party had already proven they weren't reliant on The Flotilla when they rolled in on a Leviathan-bone ship.

But if he looked at it another way: If Will wasn't allowed in The Flotilla and the Saint was, they would always have a place to retreat and repair that Will couldn't follow unless he wanted to get attacked by other Flotilla members. Not to mention the Saint's fishmen allies, Will thought. If he got pushed outside the flotilla…

Will pictured Shimmer under constant attack by hordes of fishmen, attacking at irregular intervals to prevent any of his Party from getting any sleep before the Floating Church of Granesh swooped in to finish the job.

Typically that wouldn't worry Will, since Brianna could fend off large scale physical assaults over a long period of time, but now that Jairus knew about Brianna, he would go out of his way to acquire some Charm-based Climbers to deal with the Tangled, And Will wouldn't know if or when he'd done that if he didn't have any eyes and ears in The Flotilla. All in all, it was a bad thing to get exiled, indirectly harming him in myriad ways.

Will thought back to Loth's mantra of leadership: ' Always strive to make things as easy as possible for my Party to succeed' My role as Party Leader is to line up advantages for them so that they can excel. Even if we CAN survive without the Flotilla, it would be poor leadership to have that advantage stripped away from my Party. I'm starting to think I should've attacked Jairus back on his ship, Will thought to himself.

Now, the saint was accompanied by several bodyguards at all times, indicating he had been bluffing earlier when he strutted around Will without any form of protection on his ship. And Will had bought it, assuming the saint, with Saint-levels, was a strong combatant. They'd taken some time to ask around after last night and discovered that the saint's specialty was mega large-scale buffs, not fighting.

This implied very strongly that Jairus had instigated the attack on them last night, buffing his crew to the point that they could fight toe-to-toe with Will's Party. Unfortunately, since their features had been cloaked in shadow, not a single one had been identified. This gave Will no leverage to accuse Jairus of attacking him. In the end, the meeting was adjourned without declaring any particular punishment for Will.

On one hand, the six boarders they had subdued trying to steal Shimmer had launched a shitstorm, and on the other, they had proven a preceding incident that the church had instigated, allowing most of the accusations to slide off Will in the name of self-defense. I guess being merciful has it's uses, Will thought as he and Mason left City Hall. They would reconvene tomorrow to decide on a punishment, but Will didn't expect there to be a tomorrow for certain individuals.

"What did you get?" Will asked, receiving the Dimensional Assassin's Amulet from Loth before she put on her usual one.

"There's another Scramble coming soon, possibly as early as tonight." Loth said.

"The saint's ledger shows 'proof' that the fish-people can only summon one storm per month, and they have dropped their guard against being hit twice in a row. This is the perfect opportunity for the fish-people to buck the trend and lure another storm on top of The Flotilla, while they are struggling to recover." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"How can you be sure?" Will asked.

"I read through the Saint's journal and surmised the timing of previous Church-instigated Scrambles, then jotted down a note on the Saint's waterproof stationary, attaching one of the many rocks on a string to sink it to the bottom."

"So there is a bottom."

"It would seem so," Loth said.

"Anyway, I requested that the fish-people wait an extra month before the next Scramble."

"Implying that the Flotilla is weak and needs time to recover," Will mused.

"Practically guaranteeing that a sound strategist will see an opportunity to attack immediately." Loth said.

"And if the fish people don't take advantage?" Will asked.

"They will, but if they don't I'll simply sink the Floating Church of Granesh and be done with it."

"There's no 'and be done with it," Will muttered.

"Sink that one ship and they'll commandeer another ship from one of the faithful and call that the Floating Church of Granesh. We need to kill them."

"Killing a religious figure is the surest way to galvanize their followers," Loth pointed out.

"Not if it happens in hyperbole," Will mused. He didn't need to just kill him. He needed to destroy his legend. The only way to destroy a legend was with another.

"You're thinking of violence." Loth said.

"Please, do tell."

"How's Brianna?" Will asked.

"A little shaken after killing several of Jairus's followers last night. And experiencing death through a few of her copies." Will winced at a pang of guilt for putting her in that position. She would eventually be forced to come to terms with killing, but for now, she needed time to rest and recover, so he would try to include her in their defense in the least violent way possible.

"let's put Bee on a mission to spread the rumor that Jairus is summoning the Scrambles, and another one will hit soon. Ria can guard the boat, and Anna can keep our guests happy. Let's have the others guard Jean."

"Ah." Loth nodded.

"Understood." A thought occurred to Will as he glanced up at the afternoon sun. Saint Jairus probably expacted him to respond as soon as the sun went down. Why not immediately? Because everyone was still awake. Because it was bright outside. because he would fail. What would happen if I fail? Will pondered, flashing back to his curse-induced nightmare where he had taken the place of the poor boy that had been tortured to death in the Ring. A stark reminder of what would happen to him if he slipped up.

They'll want to torture me and ask me some questions. The nature of those questions will give me answers to some of my burning questions.

"How confident are you that the fish-people will attack soon?" Will asked.

"Supremely." Loth replied.

"Alright then." Will said with a chuckle as adrenaline filled his body. I guess we're doing this. So much better than tiptoeing around. His duty as Party Leader was to make things as easy as possibly for his Team, and if that meant doing something monumentally stupid, then so be it.

"I wanna do something stupid, but if I'm gonna pull it off, I need to ask Jean for a big favor. Where is she?" Will asked. Loth nodded toward Shimmer in the distance.

"Let's go, go go! if this is gonna work it has to be fast!" Will said, picking up Loth and sprinting across the waves to Shimmer, bypassing the winding boardwalk strung between vessels. Travis Oilton Well, this is a pickle, Travis thought, rattling the chains around his wrist. They were enchanted to drain his strength while being stronger than steel, and like Loth had warned, his Build was strictly designed to manage enemy attention. Nothing more. Manacles didn't exactly have an attention span. Creak.

The door opened, revealing Saint Jairus, mopping a bit of sweat from his forehead with a towel before tossing it aside.

"Sorry about the wait, it's been a busy morning," Jairus said, pulling up a chair and sitting in front of Travis.

"Did you need anything? Have they been taking out your chamber pot? Sponge bath?" Jairus wrinkled his nose.

"Please say 'sponge bath'."

"I'm fine," Travis said.

"Are you going to start torturing me, or what?"

"Torture? Pfft." Jairus waved him off.

"The manacles are only there because you'll run off otherwise. My only interest is in making an arrangement between you and the church of Granesh."

"Not interested." Travis said with a shrug.

"I've seen this happen before. William Oh keeps winning for some damn reason and the people who get in his way wind up dead or disgraced. I know enough to know a gravy train when I see one. You're gonna on your ass in a matter of days, if not minutes." Jairus seemed to think about it a moment, nodding.

"He may beat me. He just may. Among all the Deceivers I've met, he's an exceptional one. But that's why this arrangement is between you and the church, not you and myself." Travis frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I have the Ability to grant a permanent boost to a Climber's stat growth." Travis's brows rose.

"Is it retroactive?"

"It is."

"… How much are we talking?" Travis asked. William Oh had insane stat growth that implied he had used at least three A-rank Sacrifices in his Build, something that Travis couldn't measure up to. Even plus one growth to one stat would be twenty-six points at his current level. A remarkable amount. The rest of the Party had been gradually exceeding him for a while now, and the quiet voice in Travis's brain told him that he would either get left behind or die when he finally couldn't keep up.

Even one point of stat growth could remedy that… Counterpoint: You take the deal and you're no longer in the Party at all.

"Two points of stat growth of your choice." Fifty-two to my stats!? I wouldn't even need the Party. Cutting off ties with the Zodiac family…

"Interesting proposition, but no thanks." Travis said with a shrug, glancing up and spotting a nearly invisible William Oh creeping through the door, the hinge's telltale squeak muffled by an Ability as he slipped inside. I guess it was minutes. Wow. That's ballsy. And stupid.

"What do you think is going to happen when you make it to Frederick Wyrd's Stronghold?" Jairus said, facing away from the door and unaware of the Infiltrator stalking towards him.

"He's not going to tear it down. William Oh will make a deal with the new owners, and the legacy of the one who destroyed yours is going to live and grow while your name will be a forgotten side-note in history. With the support of the Church you could-ACK! Jairus stiffened at the feel of Charge circulating an instant before Will flickered across the room and drove a Shortsword directly into Jairus's skull.

All Abyss broke loose, and Travis covered his vitals as his tiny little prison cell turned into a tornado filled with cannonballs, broken limbs and knives. Bodyguards seemed to manifest out of thin air, emerging from the furniture to shove Will away from the Saint while the others healed him before a single heartbeat had passed. It was a brutal, short fight.

Will managed to get one of the bodyguards with a cannonball that rendered the warrior into a fine paste and punched a hole in the wall, but the other three ganged up and beat Will within an inch of his life in the seconds that followed, ignoring the wounds they received in return. A moment later, the recovered Jairus strode up to him, kneeling down and healing the unconscious Will's fatal wounds while leaving the debilitating ones alone.

Jairus knelt down to where Will's one hand was pinned to the floor by his bloodied bodyguards, plucking the gaudy Ring of the Eidolon off of Will's finger and Inspecting it.

"You nearly had me there for a second." Jairus murmured before glancing up at his minions.

"Take him to the holding cell we've arranged. Strip him, fit him with a restraining collar and mute his Abilities. He specializes in a Dimensional Storage Ability, he surely has some clever backup plan inside it." Jairus glanced up at Travis, all the warmth and reasonableness that had been present while he was negotiating with Travis was gone, vanished in an instant.

"…Is that two-point buff to my stat growth still on the table?" Travis asked.

"…No."

"Damn. Should've sold out earlier." Travis muttered, leaning back against the wall. A moment later, Jairus and his bodyguards swept out of the room, leaving Travis alone. Hmmm… Travis noted that one of his manacles was anchored into the wall right next to the gaping hole cut by the cannonball. With a firm tug, the chain popped out of the splintered wall. Hmm….