Wish upon the Stars chapter 2 pt 5

My style of combat in Doom Sovereign was quick and brutal, it was  incredibly agility centric and required lot's of jumping around. It also  involved lots of skill use but beggars couldn't be choosers with this  kind of thing. When I got close enough to Markie I saw the overlay shift  a bit and finally turn green. In Doom Sovereign a red overlay meant you  couldn't hit at all, a yellow overlay meant it would be blocked, and  green meant an opening.

Granted  the opening didn't necessarily guarantee you would hit, just showed a  gap you could exploit at that moment. Still, it was a better attack  point than anything else I was going to get so I went for it. The  beginning of the attack I was using required me to close the distance  quickly and in a way that wouldn't be visible so when I got within range  of Markie I stopped and glared at the big mook.

He  grinned under his bandana. "What's the matter nancy boy. Getting cold  feet?" I honestly couldn't think of a better line than that for my next  move so I took it. When I'd stopped I'd twisted my foot in my shoe in a  very specific way. Specifically I'd twisted my foot OUT of my shoe, so  it was danging from my toes loosely and my heel was hanging out the  back. When he made that cold feet comment I attacked.

By  attacked of course I mean I kicked my shoe at his smug fucking face. In  game I would have had some kind of smoke bomb or throwing knife to use,  but the overlay was adjusted by my Minor Gymnastics skill and my  Fantasy stat to fit my current situation. This attack pattern was on of  very few that could function with only the objects I had on me  considering my lack of any actual attacking ability.

My  shoe flew right up into Markie's face and the big man flinched. Not  because he considered me a threat or was afraid, but because when things  fly at your face you flinch at least a little. This particular action  set off a chain of events that kind of need to be explained all at once  to be understood. Firstly was the obvious link in the chain, his flinch  provided me with a second to act without him being able to respond.

The  second link in the chain was that since my shoe was flying towards his  face it was getting bigger in his vision, perspective making it grow and  take up more of his eye line, creating a blind spot in front of and  below him. With these conditions met I fell forward, dropping into a  roll on my shoulder that carried me down and forward into that exact  blind spot along a trajectory where he wouldn't be able to see me.

All  of this happened in the split second it took him to reflexively bat  away the shoe and when it did his eye line returned to where I'd been  standing when I kicked it off, and in his point of view it looked like  I'd suddenly vanished. I would have been literally incapable of this  level of timing and action without the overlay and without my Minor  Gymnastics abaility, but luckily I had both, so when I came out of my  roll I was right inside his guard.

Using  all that momentum I came out of my roll, pushing all the force into my  feet to fuel a massive spring into the air that probably shouldn't have  been possible and did a full front flip over the seven foot man hidden  by the arm he used to smack the shoe aside. I landed behind him,  primarily on the foot with no shoe, and with enough silence that he had  no idea I was there as I turned to face his back.

Then,  all I had to do was follow the overlay. I bent my knees, wrapped my  arms around he waist, and bent my back into a bridge, suplexing the  motherfucker into the rock of the parking lot. Now, I'm a big guy. I'm  not seven feet tall, but I am six foot three, and I'm not weak, even if  I'm not exactly buff either. Combined with the seven foot bulk Markie  was packing that was a lot of force coming down on a small space.

Markie  was very obviously an Ascendant, and probably a physically focused one,  but he was low level or he wouldn't be here, so he wasn't built for  taking that kind of impact. The overlay had guided me into position  exactly where I could do the most damage, and every single ounce of  force can down on Markie's neck, forcing head in toward his chest as our  combined weight slammed down on the base of his skull.

I  stepped away, letting him fall to the ground as I smiled smugly under  my mask. That had been...insane. It shouldn't have worked, but I'd felt  my Vitality giving me more energy as I went, and my one point of Might  fueling my moves as I pushed off the ground. I'd employed multiple stats  and skills in that one attack and executed it flawlessly. I let Markie  fall to the ground as I started to saunter away, but stopped when I was a  few feet away and heard a sound.

My  stomach clenched with fear as I turned around and watched a very pissed  off Mad Markie climb unsteadily to his feet, eyes blazing with rage as  he glared at me. I noted absently that the overlay wasn't gone, which  meant the fight wasn't over, and I cursed internally as I stared at the  enraged behemoth in front of me. He glared down at me hatefully, eyes  promising his wrath.

Which  was about the time Vinne hit him like a mac truck. The slightly smaller  but still huge member of the Jack-tastic jerks had regained his senses a  while ago, and when he saw me neck smash the other thug and stagger him  he figured it was close enough to his own unsteadiness to make things  even. Vinne hit him low, taking his legs out from under him, and once he  was on the ground he just went to town on the bigger man.

I  could see why they called him Violent Vinnie. It was hard to equate the  howling lunatic raining punches into Markie's face with the nervous guy  who just wanted to help his girlfriend, but there was no mistaking that  hair or build. Markie, who was clearly caught completely off guard,  didn't get a defense up in time and Vinnie's blows caught him square in  the face and temple the first few times they landed, dazing him badly.

The  combat overlay faded. I was...a bit shocked. I'd been kind of hoping to  put him down myself, but honestly Vinnie deserved it more from what I'd  seen, and that crazy acrobatic neck slam had most likely made me seem  more mysterious and powerful that a fifteen minute fight where I barely  won by tiring him out using the overlay, so I called this a win in terms  of reputation.

The universe apparently agreed, because those familiar purple flame words scrawled across my vision. Tales  of your exploits have begun to disseminate. You have done a great deed  and murmurs of your prowess are on the lips of your enemies. Might plus  one. A threshold has been reached. Begin rank up?  I blinked, staring at the message in front of me.

I  slipped off to the side, not confirming the rank up but getting out of  line of sight of the watching crowd a bit while I considered what had  happened. Ten points. I'd hit ten in my stats with that last point of  might. That had been faster than expected. Still, I wasn't going to look  a gift horse in the mouth. Granted I was far from done. I still needed  to get the money for my obfuscator and register with the Unity so I  could start official cape work.

Still,  ten points wasn't crazy. I decided discretion was the better part of  valor and spun up a call to Zeke on my scan ring. He picked up pretty  quickly. "Hey kid what's up?" He sounded the same as always, lazy and  generally in a good mood. I was standing back out of the way of everyone  and no one was within ear shot, but I still decided to wander off to  somewhere a bit more private.

I  kept my voice low but not at whisper levels as I spoke. "Hey Zeke, I  had a question about that...homework you gave me last time we talked. I  finished it early, should I turn it in now or wait until I get  everything done." I figured that was the closest I'd get to asking  without saying anything too incriminating. Zeke would know what I meant  since our last conversation had been about me ranking up.

He  paused briefly. "You can turn it in now, we can have a discussion about  it when I get home. You got it done sooner than I expected." I thanked  him and said goodbye, confirming the rank up. I was expecting some kind  of grand explosion of light and sound, but instead I just felt a similar  sensation to what I'd felt earlier with Vitality. Probably Might too  but I'd been distracted by my other notifications and hadn't noticed the  feeling. Once I finished I fished out my scroll.

Wishmaster   candidate status. H-rank. Ability: Lesser Wish- Four times a day,  grant a lesser wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be  feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day  period with  current statistics. Current statistics:

Might-2
Impact-2
Fantasy-2
Vitality-2
Focus-1
Perception-1
Creation-1

Skills:   Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Cooking   Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery, Minor Guitar   Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery

I  blinked at the feedback. That...that was it? My rank up had just been a  point of Impact? Though in the same vein, I'd never seen that stat rise  before. Granted I still had three stats that had never risen, but  Impact felt...different. With another point in the stat I felt more  solid, more real. Might made you strong and Vitality made you alive, but  Impact made you...more.

I  also felt tougher, but it was beside the point really. The more I  focused on the feeling that had come with my rank up the weirder it  felt. It was like I was denser, but not. Conceptually heavier instead of  physically. I suspected based on what I was feeling that Impact rose on  rank ups and was one of the main reasons higher ranked Ascendants were  regarded with such awe and fear.

I  shook off the daze I was in and headed back over to where Vinnie was  sitting next to a very fucked up Markie. The red haired Jerk had been  basically destroyed by this point, his face a bloody ruin that was  visible even through the red bandanna and his eyes swollen shut. His  nose looked broken and deformed and I could see bruises across his upper  body, but he was still breathing at least.

Vinnie  saw me and gave me a nod. "Thank's man. I owe you one. That asshole had  been trying to put the moves on Maddie for a while. When he found out  she was sick he tried to use her medicine as leverage, but she wasn't  having any of that shit. Honestly I think he wasn't sure he could take  me, so he waited until he saw I was weak from whatever that wish did. I  mean, I'm sure he was pissed at you too, he's nuts, but it wouldn't have  gone there if I wasn't fucked up."

He  sighed and climbed to his feet holding out a fist. In the old days that  was a gesture of brotherhood or solidarity, but in modern times it had a  double meaning. I bumped my scan ring against his, transferring the  data and he nodded again. "I owe you one man. Give me a call if you ever  need anything." I nodded back and he turned to see a smiling Maddy,  putting his arm around her shoulders. I glanced down at Markie and  kicked him once for good measure. Gotta love a happy ending. Now, time  to head home and talk to my Uncle.