The part of me that is Threaded off to keep hold of all my constructs distantly notes that a grenade would actually be a good weapon to use with a power like this. Specific physics aside, the explosive power operates through a vastly different medium than a gun or a melee weapon. Getting into position from up high is just a matter of gravity more than anything, inexorable much of the time.
The part that's in primary control on the other hand is sort of panicking, frantically swinging my shield down to block it. My eyes flit to where Winter is supposed to be, and I rush in that direction. Making distance and putting a shield in the way seems to do the trick, the dampened explosion smashing into my shield but leaving it intact.
In the meantime, I'm already running. A fence ends up being in the way, which I really should've predicted, so I grab the top and haul myself up.
After the brief struggle against gravity, I find myself balancing on top of the fence surprisingly easily. I've not really tested the limits of my Agility at all, so perhaps that's to blame. In the moment I attribute it more to the dampening field. Everything seems to struggle to move, so when I stand myself properly it's almost harder to fall than it is to stay standing. It feels very strange.
I really need to focus though, not just linger on random parts of the fence. I chance a small crack in my defences to ask the mist if she moved, finding her still in the same place. If she could see that I've found her she definitely wouldn't, the fog is definitely impeding the both of us just the same.
With that settled, I set off at a careful walk along the top of the fence. If memory serves… I almost walk into the wall the fence butts up against. Theoretically, Winter should be right up there. Looking up, I can almost see through the fog. It's much thinner up here.
Under normal circumstances I'd do a lot of things. Fire a bullet from here firstly- honestly from way back there- or failing that just try for a super powered jump straight up. With the height of the fence, I only need to get up about ten feet.
That is not to be, unfortunately. At least it lets me try things I probably wouldn't ever get a shot at.
In this case, that means doing something weird. I make a very quick hook on the end of the staff, sticking out perpendicular before curling in slightly. Along with it, I real quick make another segment to click on, bringing the total length to five and a half feet. This sort of thing is the main reason I stuck with the segmented design, and I guess it's worth it now?
A jump, more like a hop with the dampening, helps me reach up and hook the staff in the gutter. There's a pretty strong urge to just swing myself up, but I can't see that working even without the dampening field. It almost makes me wish I went more in on Agility, it seems like it could be fun to be completely weightless. Not that I'd be there yet anyway, but my point stands.
Using the staff like a rope to climb up, I crest the limits of the power sooner than I expected. There's a boundary where the mist gets thinner, and when my head passes it sounds that were distant enough to be inaudible come in perfect clarity.
"-tell me not to swear, you little fucker." A white haired woman in a thick winter outfit, more tasteful than the last cold guy I fought, curses at the air. One hand is on her ear, and the other is holding a bulky looking gun with a bandolier of grenades sticking out of it.
She pauses a moment, her expression growing more irritated, before responding to something I can't hear irritably.
"You were supposed to be keeping track of him. This is why you should have just let me handle it. If it were me locking down the house I would have had him dead in no time."
That seems to be a common theme. I stay silent for a little longer, lying in wait.
"I don't fucking care what Jack Slash thinks. I can't believe I'm on a team with a fucking six year old." She mutters the last part to herself as she walks to the edge of the rooftop, glaring into the fog.
She's miraculously not noticed me. That's quite the relief, because I'm not sure that I can hold back any longer. This Bullet floating over my forearm has been loaded long enough, and I'll need to focus if I want to do something about an apparent six year old that's joined the team? Is that normal? There's no way.
Winter walks to the shorter edge, whilst I'm on the longer one. She's just a short distance from me. I silently lift my hand in the air, moving the bullet between it and her. Then, with no more fanfare, I release.
A burst of light and sound claps out across the rooftops, the bullet firing out and slamming straight into her sight and burrowing in. The force pushes air out of her lungs in a strangled gasp, and incidentally also pushes her straight off the rooftop.
Half a second later, the itty bitty bit of mental mana I put in there triggers at last and Detonates the bullet, a blast of fire engulfing half of her torso. I've pulled myself up onto the rooftop before her body hits the floor, just relieved to feel so limber again.
+1 Agility
+1 Thermal Resist, +1 Basic Inspect, +1 Minor Critical Mastery, +1 Minor Pole Mastery, +1 Minor Stealth Mastery
+2 Lesser Bullet
I got… three new skills there. Huh. They're nice. Pole mastery claims to boost techniques when using 'pole shaped tools and weapons', which is just vague enough to still mean something.
Now, to move on. Right after I do one last thing.
A thread of mental mana snakes back into the still-present mist, dipping down enough to check something. Path confirmed, I run to the edge of the rooftop and jump directly off, halfway there summoning a knife to my hand and pointing it down.
The fog obscures my vision completely as I pass into it. When my knife sinks into something surprisingly tough, I can say I don't know what to make of it.
+150 exp
Though, the exp is maybe a bit of a hint. I dismiss the knife and walk onto the street before the fog can clear, as the cold continues to linger in the air even without a power keeping it there.
To my relief, something is there to distract me.
Level up!
+1 Stat Point
+1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom
Only one stat point is definitely disappointing. I'm getting more stats per level over all, up to four, but it really hampers my ability to keep raising Agility. Especially given what I'm about to do.
That being putting five points into Intelligence, of course.
Level 7 - 147/800
HP: N/A - MP: 43/43
Stat Points - 1
Strength - 22 [23]
Constitution - 27 [28]
Agility - 25 [27]
Dexterity - 27 [29]
Intelligence - 40 [43]
Wisdom - 31 [33]
That makes it my first stat point to get three bonus points, in the same day as being the first to get two. What an exciting achievement, albeit one that goes unacknowledged. I take a brief moment to look up and down the street. The only threat I see is the experiments from earlier, outside the front of the house. I should be fine to look at the resulting notifications.
You have reached the third threshold for Intelligence. Please select a trait.
Powerful Mind+ -> Herculean Mind
Strong, tough, and fast. A capable mind stretches in every direction.
Spells deal (0.6*Intelligence+0.3*Strength+0.15*Constitution)% more damage, are (0.4*Intelligence+0.2*Constitution+0.1*Strength)% more durable, and operate (0.2*Intelligence+0.1*Agility+0.05*Dexterity)% faster
Capable Mind
To surpass limits means to understand them, to an extent.
Knowledge-based skills are approximately (0.5*Intelligence) more effective
In the case of abstract trait bonuses, an approximate numerical multiplier is provided
I'm almost tempted to take Capable Mind just so I don't clog my traits up with more and more numbers. Herculean Mind seems, frankly, more annoying than it's worth. I know that it's true though. With my new intelligence that's over a thirty six percent damage boost, just on its own. Then of course is the obvious effect on damage that more speed would grant, however exactly my status will grant that speed.
Meanwhile, Capable Mind is just… weird. It would boost my comprehension skills, and likely Core Mastery too. It's just a very vague and forward thinking effect, whereas the better option is both long term incredible and a lot more comprehensible.
I'll be taking that one then, which is unfortunate for my minimalist aesthetic.
When I turn my attention away from the traits, a couple more notifications are waiting for me.
+1 Weapon Resist, +1 Status Resist
Blinking them away, I see the sky somewhere above me, glass still flitting across like a swarm of glittering birds. The sight has lost some of its mystique, recently.
"Oh good, you're paying attention now!" A cheery voice sounds off somewhere to my right. I jerkily turn my head to see a really small… No, that's a normal size for children. A young girl in a bloodstained dress, mania in her eyes and a bloody scalpel in her hand.
"Oh no! You're not supposed to be able to move yet. You can't feel any of what's happening, can you?" She asks suddenly, a note of childish concern in her voice.
Something seems strange. Not just about her, but what she's talking about. There's an odd feeling of separation somewhere in my chest. Somewhere around my mana core, actually. I tilt my eyes down.
A landscape of red stretches out before me. After a moment of confusion it resolves itself as my chest, most of my Carapace shattered so that my torso can be peeled open like an orange. Ribs are visible, and just underneath a bright white glow emanates from something.
My head is being messed with again. I reach out with my Fragment, feeling out my mind to find what's keeping me so placid. It doesn't find the influence of a power, not directly anyway. There's something that touches on it, but nothing more.
Status Resist ticks up another percentage.
"At least you can't talk. I was worried I got that wrong. This is my first time trying to keep someone intact after surgery!" She lets out an excited giggle at that, seemingly looking forward to doing something different.
Her hands plunge into my chest, and I'm sure it should send a stab of pain through me. It doesn't. Not that it feels numb either. It just feels like she's touching me. I can feel the pressure, how she carefully pulls a rib out of the way, on a hinge that I'm sure wasn't there before.
"Well, now that you're awake I can talk whilst I work. I like talking with Mannequin, but it still feels really weird." The girl- Bonesaw- hums happily as she pries me apart right before my eyes, "Jack says if you join I'll be doing a lot more work on you, so I'm just making things easier. Your ribs are more flexible now, see?" She grabs one and wiggles it around, presumably without damaging it.
A distant part of me is probably horrified. So distant I can't feel it through the fog. So far away, so far…
"Your insides are really strange! You're kinda like Crawler. He's been a monster since before I ever joined. Now his energy comes from somewhere else, so he doesn't need to eat. Yours is a lot weaker than his though. You shouldn't be so scared of changing, you know." Bonesaw takes on a chastising tone at that, wagging a blood-soaked finger at me.
Whilst she speaks, I'm just trying to think of a way out of this. My helmet is still on, but every other construct was dismissed. I really need to work on that. Something with mental mana, potentially. Speaking of, that's probably my way out of here.
"And you've got this thing." She prods my mana core, sending a wave of discomfort through me in a way her strange anaesthesia can't prevent. "I'm not sure what it is, but I like it!"
Whilst she speaks, I unspool a wire of mental mana, carefully poking it into her brain. Something lashes out at it, but this time I'm too close for it to fight off. The wire holds strong.
It brushes over her mind, ever so carefully.
Bonesaw. Her name was Riley, but there's some sort of dissonance from that. Her parents… There's dissonance there too. Two different ideas overlapped on top of each other, flickering and switching.
The one that takes precedent is Jack Slash, father/mentor/tormentor. It's more recent, and more obviously bad. There's other's flickering too. Siblings, replaced by Siberian and Mannequin. Pet, replaced by… Siberian and Crawler. The rest of the nine are more distant connections, faint and insubstantial. She doesn't care about them.
"I want to take it out, but I don't know how. I've never seen something I can't remove." As she speaks, her hands continue fiddling around inside my chest, doing god knows what, "I can't experiment during Jack's game though. Don't worry, if you win we'll get to have lots of fun together!"
I'm a connection there too. Bonesaw doesn't seem certain what to call me, or what relationship we have. It seems like she got attached… really easily. That brings into question a lot, as most things tend to do.
None of that helps me too much though. I look just a little deeper.
Her power is very present in her mind. It's tendrils spread across the whole thing, colouring every thought and feeling. As she works, I can almost watch as it touches her thoughts towards me. Twisting them just shy of reality.
Connections spread out, justifying it all. If I were in a better state I might be more surprised by what I see, but right now I just take it in with a clinical awareness. Cutting me open isn't bad because Jack cut her family open, and he's not bad. She's being polite, she's talking with me whilst she works, she's going to wash her hands after and clean her dress. As long as she does all that, then it's fine.
"Jack doesn't want you running away, you know. You wouldn't do that though, would you? You can't anyway. If you do, I won't be able to maintain my upgrades!"
For a moment I wonder. Is there just one thing that could unravel all of this? I watch the path her mind and the power walk on together, the chain of thoughts justifying everything connected back to one moment I can barely perceive for more than an idea. If I could find the right words to bring that memory into focus, would it fix all this or just make it all worse?
"I guess I've not actually given you anything useful though. It's all just for me so far. I'll give you something fun as soon as I can!"
I'm not sure there's any quick fix. Hearing the way she talks, she sounds already too far gone. Is that unfair to say about a child? Her mind seems more pliable than anyone else I've looked through, perhaps a curse and a blessing. She can't have been part of their group for more than a few months, it feels like there's a lot of room to get worse.
"Hm? Oh, do you want a turn? Okay, I'll put him back together! He'll be a little weak, he lost a lot of blood when I cut him open, but I think that's fine."
What? What did she say again?
She hums a song I've never heard as she pushes my ribs back into place, flops my flesh back over them, and starts sewing me back into place with a needle and thread. That doesn't feel very sanitary.
+1 Status Resist
I didn't end up finding much of use in her mind after all. Just a lot of sad stuff I don't know how to fix. I'm not good enough with people to just figure out a way to talk them down, it's never worked before. I've not even got a skill for it.
"There!" She pats my chest, and then something grabs me and pulls me to my feet. The world spins around me even after I'm fairly certain I stop moving, my vision blurring a moment before reasserting itself.
"Oh, hm. He really isn't doing good. When I cure the virus he'll be in a lot of pain as well. Please don't kill him? I really want this one…" Her voice is meek and apologetic as she stabs a needle into my arm. A tingle runs up it as she presses in the plunger, doing something I don't want to think about.
Who's she talking to anyway? I lift my head with some effort, casting my eyes around before landing on a woman. She's… striped. Black and white, and completely nude. Though my body is sluggish, the Fragment keeps my mind active enough. I withdraw the mental mana from Riley and go for the woman. I would assume Siberian, but-
When my mana touches it, I get nothing. No, not quite. A vague sensation of connection, akin to Winter's fog. Pressing on that connection, I get a sense of her power.
Inviolable, absolute, perfect, proje-
A wave of pain washes over me all at once, a strangled cry escaping my throat. My hold on the mana crumbles. It feels like my insides are on fire, criss-crossing lines of lightning sparking within me.
Of course, that's also when the Siberian lunges at me, a feral grin on her face as she comes claws outstretched right at my face.
I don't have time to react, so it's with great relief that I see her divert the attack at the last moment, aiming to just shear my ear off instead of kill me entirely. In the short time I have, I try to throw myself out of the way with a burst of mana.
Her hand hits me anyway. Only, the moment her claw touches my carapace, she vanishes.
For a moment I'm not sure what happened. With the pain still clouding my vision, I thought for sure she just darted out of view and I was going to get knocked to the floor any second.
"S-Siberian? Where did you go?" The child's warbling voice, thick with fear, settles it. She vanished. Somehow.
And I've wasted five seconds just standing here, not running away. I look at Bonesaw, seeing her beginning to cry.
Her little hand reaches for something. You know what? Fuck it.
I use a thick mallet of mental mana to hit her mind with the biggest Stun I can manage. If it does serious damage, then I'll just have to learn how to heal minds before I figure out what people do with orphaned children. The police probably, right?
There's a moment of resistance from her power, but seeing as this is my first time using stun it isn't enough. Her being a child doesn't help of course, and she drops like a stone. Before she hits the ground I haul her under up under my arm, and set off at a Sprint.
Not a magic one, I save my mana for reforming my Carapace yet again. With my newly buffed intelligence it should be more durable than ever, so at least that's something.
She's shockingly light, barely slowing my run at all. In fact, the main thing slowing me is the lingering pain from that impromptu surgery, though when my carapace forms around my chest even that drops somewhat.
Not enough by any metric, but it's better than nothing at least.
For about a minute I manage to run unopposed, and I almost believe that I just killed this 'Siberian' character. My luck isn't quite that good as it turns out, she was probably just continually running into me and then being forcibly teleported(?) back to wherever it sends her.
I'm not sure if it was just a lucky hit, or if she was getting my guard down. Between blinks, my finger starts burning and I find myself running directly into her. My carapace makes her disappear again, but this time not before all my momentum is eaten, and I stumble to a stop.
The pain in my hand is… bad. My right hand, not the left arm we're I'm carrying Bonesaw. It feels like I'm being emptied. Something pouring out of me.
…I don't think I need to look at my hand, actually. I should focus on survival first and foremost.
This time she reappears before I resume moving, stood directly in front of me with a vicious glare on her face. An anger that's frightening in it's absoluteness. The only crack in the expression is the flicker of satisfaction she shows when she looks at my hand.
That's not a good sign.
I take my mental hammer and throw it into her face, hoping for another stun. Instead it passes straight through, and I quickly switch to Telepathy instead.
The first impressions I already saw earlier speed by, and I skip straight to 'asking' the power where its host is. To my surprise, it doesn't seem willing to respond.
I press deeper, irritated at its disobedience. I don't have time, it's fortunate enough that the Siberian hasn't attacked yet.
At first my probing doesn't yield much, but then all at once a surge of information surges through the connection. More than I can parse, enough to have knocked me out just hours ago.
It floods my mental fragment, the crystalline strands of mental force vibrating with the force of the data. It seems to vanish into the ether, into a part of me that I can barely feel.
In one moment, I get a location. A van, two blocks down, specifically away from the other members of the nine still waiting their turn.
In that same moment, the Siberian gets an idea. She lunges away, incidentally breaking connection with my mental thread, and yanks a streetlight out of the ground with the same ease I once pulled a spoon out of a bowl of soup. That is to say, none at all.
I think I get the picture.
When she swings, I follow the trajectory and throw myself to the ground, vaguely in the direction of the next turn off the street. The hunk of metal sails past my head, wind whistling as it misses me by inches.
Whilst she's repositioning from overextending herself, I push myself back to my feet and-
I take the pole directly to the face at impossible speeds. The light itself catches on a wall, barely slowing it enough that instead of shattering my skull it merely throws me backwards. A few point burst of mana helps me throw myself back on balance, and I resume running like nothing happened.
A short wall with a fence atop it approaches. I throw myself at it as soon as I'm within reach, barely careful enough to not accidentally smack the child's head into it as I clamber over.
A violent smash makes me flinch, but it wasn't even close to me. I must have found some sort of limit, then. Is it too much to hope that she doesn't want to hurt Bonesaw?
In fact, whilst I jump through the broken window into the house, I use Telepathy on Bonesaw again to look deeper into her connection with Siberian. On the kid's side, it's very faint. I don't have the words to describe the exact way, but ultimately it seems like Siberian is just filling a void left behind by someone else.
The wall gets absolutely destroyed behind me as Siberian just runs straight through it, pelting my back with shards of brick and wood, fortunately not enough to do any real damage. I start making a shield to protect Bonesaw from the shrapnel, there's no use trying to save her if she ends up dead.
Doing all this whilst using telepathy is a bit of a stretch, which is of course when I remember the third thread. I switch it on, grimacing at the clumsy feeling that takes over my mind, and hand off control of the shield to it. For good measure, I also have it start preparing my now-standard explosive bullet.
Looking at Bonesaw's relationship from the other side, it seems like Siberian cares about her far more. It's a far more solid connection from her end.
Siberian darts around to try and block my path, but when I charge straight at her she's forced dodge out of the way lest I somehow teleport her again. Whilst I pass I stretch out another mental thread, trying to tap into her power again.
Projector.
I cancel it as soon as the word finishes, not wanting to strain myself too much. I'm already doing too much at once.
For that matter, I think I've gotten everything I can out of Bonesaw's mind. Or at least, everything I need. Siberian genuinely cares about her, which means she surely must not want to hurt her.
Now what to do about that? I think on it as I sprint through the living room, out through the empty frame of some sort of glass door with Siberian in hot pursuit. When she passes the door she grabs a part of the frame and tears it out wholesale. The way it comes off looks odd, it remains perfectly straight despite being torn with enough force to at least bend it.
Whilst the third thread packs down my Bullet, and the second thinks about how much specificity I'm missing in regards to Siberian's power, my first thread is losing its goddam mind.
What am I supposed to do? I keep running forward, setting off at a burst-empowered Sprint to kick down the fence surrounding the yard. As soon as I'm past it I dart to the left to break line of sight, hopefully making an attack too risky for her to try.
The metal stick flies through the air right next to my head, with a sound far too similar to a bullet launched from a gun. It slams into the wall guarding the opposite backyard, impaling its way through until only half of it is stuck out.
In case it wasn't clear, if that had hit me I'd be dead.
Siberian suddenly leaps straight over the fence, moving with a disturbing grace and a lack of care for the physics I try so hard to fight against. As she passes I reach out with Telepathy again, once more asking where the host is.
It resists less this time, by the time she's landed beside me I've gotten the location. Straight west, moving slowly as if to try and sneak around me. For a moment before the connection breaks, it speeds up drastically.
I hear an engine driving, not so far away. Siberian looks distracted for a moment, a vacant expression on her face.
I burst half my remaining mana, about ten, to throw myself at Siberian head first. She tries to dodge but she was the one to put herself too close to me, and I kick my leg out to the side. My Carapace just barely catches her, and then she's gone.
The engine is still perfectly audible. A car, or truck, or something to that effect. I Sprint to my right, moving as fast as possible. My mana recovery, now up to two per second with my recent level up, is enough to do 1 MP bursts every step.
In no time at all I emerge onto the road, or at least it feels like it. By the time I look up and down the street, there's no surviving vehicle to be seen. The sound of the engine gets fainter before abruptly stopping.
Dammit. There goes my plan then. My only hope is that Siberian isn't actually a person, but without finding whatever the power considers her host I can't confirm that. And besides, I'd probably need to destroy that to end her anyway.
But whatever. I guess that means I just need to continue my escape. My plan for that is still rather shoddy, especially now that I'm trying to potentially kidnap/save a child. I'm not sure how much the weight would effect my flight, but the hope is that the Aerodynamic Core will make up for any extra payloads.
Right now, my plan is to run as far away as possible, and buy time to make wings. A big, stretched out lake surrounds the town from the west, south, and east, which severely limits my escape options. On top of that, I'd need to not be caught by the glass person.
Whilst one thread thinks about that, the rest of me is obviously more worried about Siberian. I slow my pace, keeping the shield behind Bonesaw in case there's an attack from behind. It's impossible to look everywhere at once but I can at least make sure to keep my ears open, listening for even the slightest sound.
It's eerily quiet, as I cautiously walk down the street. The only sound is my soft footsteps and the occasional gust of wind. Hardly a sign of any sort of homicidal maniac out to get me. There's nine total, from the connections the kid still has. Eight now. Six that are likely to come after me, with Bonesaw knocked out under my arm and the glass one keeping me from flying out.
If I wanted I could get the names out of Bonesaw. With no immediate need, I'd rather keep my mental mana busy on Hasten Thoughts. Though my new Fragment doesn't get entirely tied up whenever I use it, so that might be too much caution.
Between the levels I've gotten and my increased intelligence, it's probably pretty high. 20% of my intelligence, at 43 that's… 8-ish. A little over. It's level 12, so 96%. That could very well be over a hundred percent if I bothered to do the maths properly.
The boost is certainly noticeable, the world slowing to a crawl around me. It doesn't technically help me move much faster, but I imagine it would be a lot easier to move at my max speed. Which is nice.
Of course, it also makes me two times as bored. It's definitely more of a combat spell for me, though I'm sure I'll use it as often as I can. Whilst I'm testing it, I should probably actually handle my hand. It's still bleeding, and I'm beginning to feel lightheaded. Maybe if something could come and distract-
+1 Constitution
+1 Multithreading, +1 Mental Fragment
+1 Carapace, +1 Lesser Sprint
I come to a stop as the notifications hit. Huh. I guess she gave up then?
The Siberian
The Siberian glares at the interloper's back as he so casually wanders down the street with Bonesaw under his arm. As if he isn't stealing her from them, whether to hurt or keep her she doesn't know. Nor does she care. He doesn't either, the other side of her. If anyone were alive to know about him they might claim she's the alternative, but if that was ever true it isn't now. If she says that Bonesaw is the priority, then it's true.
His power is strange. She's been stalking him since he first escaped Hatchet Face, and it's abundantly obvious that he doesn't have a normal power. If she were to describe it, she'd call him closer to a tinker than the blaster/brute he appears to be. Only, he's making powers. Even in as poor a state as Manton is, he's not lost that spark that led his research.
Projector must have an agent that should never have gone into circulation. It barely operates by any of the rules she knows of, flying in the face of all his research. And yet, it follows closely enough that it must still be at least related to them.
Bonesaw has been progressing fast with her tinker speciality, but has yet to engage with any of her potential to alter powers. Projector's corpse will make an excellent seed for that growth once he's dead. Siberian herself won't try, though. The risk of her secret getting out is too great.
Watching the cautious way he walks, his constructs arrayed around him for both defence and offence, she's sure he doesn't stand a chance. He's not displayed any particular facet of his power that would be able to handle the likes of Crawler, and his disposition is unsuited to join her family. Bonesaw will be sad, but she'll understand.
For now she expects to keep stalking him until he meets another of the nine, and use that distraction to take Bonesaw back. She's as surprised as anyone else when he abruptly lets his guard down completely, a full one eighty from cautious and afraid to a relaxed ease.
She takes the chance for what it is, limiting any force that can resist her as she throws herself through the air, silent as an arrow.
Her hand passes through his shield as if it weren't even there, the outer construct lacking any of the strange defences the carapace holds, and grabs Bonesaw by the back of her dress. It's almost laughably easy to pull the unconscious girl out of his grip, sharing her power so that she remains unharmed as they leap over a building and away.
In less than five seconds, Bonesaw is safe and sound in her arms again.
One moment I was looking over the notifications, the next I felt notably lighter. I look down at the empty space under my arm, where Bonesaw should be.
…I'm a little confused. I thought battle notifications only came to me when I was safe, but here this is proving that wrong. Or not. I can think of a few good situations, ranging from the fact that I myself wasn't in danger at all, to the possibility that I was safe, but believing that made me more open to attack. Or something like that.
I sigh shakily, my shoulders slumping. I can't keep doing this. It's one thing after another here, when does it end?
And my hand it still bleeding. Whenever I look at it I just feel a sort of vertigo that I don't really understand. Instead, I look around the street.
Empty. No sign of Bonesaw, Siberian, or whatever vehicle the host is in. I'm alone.
Fine. If it's a choice between thinking about how I let a kid get kidnapped and looking at my injuries, I guess I pick the latter. I lift my right hand and stare at it.
There's… quite a bit of blood, first off. Less than there could be, but more than I'd prefer. Four of my fingers are shaking a little, and quite pale.
The fifth is gone.
My pinky and a chunk of hand look to have been torn off, and in the haze of panic I can hardly remember when. All I know is that it hurts, bad. I would assume my body can teleport her away just like my carapace, unless the spell has some properties it isn't telling me about, so I guess she must have hit me with something that wasn't directly her.
Looking at it feels wrong. It gives me a sense of vertigo. That's… so much of me. If it was that much of my brain gone, I'm pretty sure I'd be dead. Why is a pinky any different?
I know why, but still. It feels strange and unnatural that this is even possible.
Finally, I shake it off. Mana threads out, and I form it into a band wrapped around my hand, pressing on the torn flesh to keep the blood inside. It's painful and rough, but it'll have to do for now. It doesn't need to be too dense at least, a translucent barrier that barely has enough mana to take shape. Blood still escapes around it, so I press it down harder.
That'll have to do. I know it's not good enough, but unless I can figure out how to make bandages out of mana in the next minute, it's not worth it. I've managed this long.
Plus, my shield is gone. Not sure when that happened, but I need to fix it soon. I don't expect my break to last much longer. Award ReplyReport230Gravityfunns25/11/2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks 4.9 - Borders New View contentGravityfunnsHe/Him27/11/2025NewAdd bookmark#455+1 Lesser Mana Shield
Remaking the shield was just enough to push the spell to the next level, putting it ever closer to the next threshold. That doesn't make me feel any better right now, but it's something.
Though, I really wish that 'something' was a little more immediate. As I head down the street something gives me momentary pause. Like something on the very edge of my senses, not firm enough for me to even know what it is but enough to get an ominous feeling nonetheless.
It's not the apocalyptic surroundings, or the disturbing knowledge that Bonesaw is already back in the hands of the Nine. Nor is it the strange tingling in my chest, an uncomfortable shifting as her modifications move ever so slightly inside me. Certainly, none of that feels good.
No, it's something else, and I don't know what.
I abruptly duck off the street, darting into a random house to take cover for a moment. Or a minute. Maybe an hour if I can swing it, because something is definitely wrong.
Am I imagining things? I feel off balance in a way I never have before. A voice in the back of my head tells me it's nothing, and I'm inclined to trust it. There's no evidence after all.
And yet…
I truly am tired of this game. It's been less than a day, and I'm already overworked and overwhelmed. I've screwed up in a dozen different ways, I'm sure. My stupid mind is so unreliable, not helped by mental resistance being packaged in with my core now. It's not passive and that's-
Oh, wait. How didn't I think of that before?
I huddle up in a corner, sitting down and pulling my shield out to cover me. It isn't exactly stealthy, but I just need a chance to react. For a moment I toy with the thought of making a larger bubble, fragile but solid enough to alert me if something attacks…
But no, too expensive and slow for now.
Instead I look inwards, to the vague proprioception I have of my Mental Core. Or, Fragment now. That wording… at first glance it felt reasonable enough, but looking with a clearer head I'm not sure I fully understand. That's fine.
Obviously I can't read my own mind with a spell, but with a simple application of raw mental mana I can feel out the edges. At least, in a certain sense. Magic makes my thoughts somehow tangible, something that can be hit to stun and connected with to read.
A battlefield isn't the place to experiment with magic. Nor is it the time when I'm in the air, or when I'm trying to consolidate the skills I've already got. I need just one more skill, one more level, before I can let myself focus on the uncertain prospect of trying to find something completely new.
Right?
And yet. Here I am, suffering for that. Again and again, whenever I think I'm stronger.
This can't keep up. I'm slowing down, I can feel it already.
Once I find the edges of my mind, I firm the mental mana around it. The diffuse cloud forms into solid supports, a crystalline membrane surrounding my mind. This alone doesn't do much, of course.
For a moment, I pause and think back. There's one person I've met who's seemed above it all. When I was still panicked from the fight, she was calm and composed. My magic couldn't touch her mind at all, like it was pushed somewhere else. Elevated.
Before I gained my Fragment, I wouldn't have even thought to attempt what I'm about to do. Or, even if I did, I'd have dismissed it immediately. But now it seems all too clear.
I firm the supports once more, locking them in place. I can already feel that it won't be enough, but I don't let that stop me. My thoughts push on my mind, pressing inwards. Not just into itself, but to somewhere else. It feels unnatural at first, but then my thoughts blur for just a fraction of a second, and it clicks.
+1 Mental Fragment
With a final push, my mind is elsewhere. Partially disconnected, yet not.
It almost feels right.
You have created the spell 'Disconnect' at level 1
Disconnect LV 1/40 - 5%
Use the inherent nature of a Mental Fragment to temporarily suspend your thoughts outside your brain, preventing powers that affect emotions, senses, and thoughts from reaching you. As a consequence, physical sensation is numbed. Uses 98.3% of Fragment processing power.
The spell falls into place so easily it almost seems it was already there to begin with. My pain dulls to little more than an acknowledgement, and despite still looking out of my own eyes, it feels like I'm looking over my own shoulder.
The 1.7% of my mental fragment that isn't tied up in the spell, I can feel something prodding at the part of my brain that used to hold my subconscious. It seems to be asking for acknowledgement, mechanically repeating the question over and over.
With such a small amount of mana to work with I can't pull off a full mind read, I can hardly do that even with my full Fragment, but at least a little greeting is possible. I prod the connection, getting little in return.
I'm not sure what it is. Have I been under a master effect this entire time? If I was, then surely I'd feel different now?
Well, other than the difference I feel now that my thoughts are disconnected from my body. This isn't the best state to fight in, my responsiveness seems to be way down. I tell the shield covering me to move above me, out of the way, and there's a fraction of a second delay.
I'll just have to live with it. I rise to my feet, beginning to use two threads to prepare two bullets at once in the method that has now become my standard. Mana Bullet, Thermal Hardening, and then just a little mental mana to let it self Detonate. This method is somewhat disrupted by having such a small amount of my fragment uninvested in other spells, the detonation will be substantially weaker.
With those prepared, I stand up and climb back out through the same window I came in using. Now, though…
Why was I trying to go North anyway? I can't have been expecting to just walk out of the perimeter they've surely set up. I'll need something a little better than that. If I take out the glass cape, I believe she's Shatterbird according to Bonesaw's memories, I should be able to just fly out, theoretically.
I briefly look up and down the street, checking for any obvious signs of enemies. Seeing nothing, I lean against the wall and hand both bullets to one thread, leaving another to keep watch whilst I think.
It still seems like a good idea to rescue/kidnap Bonesaw. Her mind was very impressionable, so I should be able to stop her growing murderous tendencies in their tracks. If I was to be optimistic, then maybe I could even say that someone more suited to the task will do it. Hopefully then she can undo whatever 'modifications' she claimed would need maintenance.
Obviously flying with extra weight is uncertain, and there's no time for testing it. Plus, I need food and water. That would just be more weight to somehow carry.
I need a vehicle, and of course, I know of at least one functional one. The one that Siberian didn't want me to find, and coincidentally also a likely candidate for where Bonesaw is right now.
There are problems that potentially make that a bad idea. First and foremost, the aerial support. I need to lock her down so it's harder to track me. Kill her, most likely. I might feel bad if she didn't break my wings mid flight.
Problems two through five are various members of this weird little group of murderers. What I got from Bonesaw was disjointed and vague, but more than enough to be on edge. Mannequin is a tinker, for example. Crawler is considered 'fascinating', and she compared certain aspects of my biology to a worse version of his. Chuckles is just creepy, I didn't get more than that.
I've met Hatchet Face, of course. On his own I might be able to handle him now, provided my spells are working. I'll try to stay away and attack him from a distance, but for now my best bet is ultimately to run away again. I don't need to get into any fights right now, that's not my purpose anymore.
Jack Slash, problem six, is confusing. Bonesaw was the clearest about him. His power is just cutting things. What she was most scared about was his uncanny ability to never lose. Something about knowing the right thing to say at all times, a natural charisma that made him impossible to escape from.
Nothing in so concrete words of course. Even if I weren't dealing with vague connections and memories, Bonesaw is still a child. They're known for being a lot weaker and stupider than adults. Still, I think I've interpreted it correctly.
Phase one, then, is to take out Shatterbird. Draw her out, find out where she is, and blast her out of the sky. It would be an uncertain prospect with my spells, as effective as Bullet can be it really lacks the range that conventional weaponry boasts. The mana starts falling apart after about a dozen feet, steadily weakening until it's completely gone some distance after that.
I think I might have a plan for that too though, actually. I turn back into the house, prepared to put Inspect to work.
+2 Basic Inspect
Ruger semiautomatic rifle
It took a few houses, during all of which I was constantly bracing myself for another attack, before I found one. I was fully prepared to get into a fight before I could manage it, and yet here I am completely unaccosted.
I found the rifle in a large safe hidden in someone's closet. I say hidden, but it wasn't really. Other safes I found were harder to spot, Inspect was helpful there by using it on everything I could see, but this one was wide open. The bloodstained carpet tells a story on why, though I don't think I want to read it. How is it possible that they killed everyone in the entire town?
Inspect doesn't call the rifle broken or damaged in anyway, so there's a silver lining there. It's got a large flat part at the back, I'm not sure what it's purpose is. There's a trigger, a barrel, all the normal stuff I think. I would imagine that by pulling the trigger, it will fire out a bullet.
My knowledge of guns mostly stems from my research into bullets when making my spell, so I'll admit I've not got much idea how to use it. From what I've gathered it's as simple as pulling the trigger to fire a bullet, though I still let myself familiarise myself with it a bit. I wasn't planning on moving on anyway, not until I had some idea as to why I've not been attacked again. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're letting me rest.
Of course, I do know better. Kind of. A little bit.
+3 Minor Ballistics Comprehension, +1 Basic Inspect
+1 Disconnect
Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic .22 LR rifle
Through some observation, and Inspecting of individual components, I figured out enough to get a more in depth name. I think I've figured out how it works as well, and I've managed to load in the cartridge. There's just a few little pins and levers that I don't really understand the purpose of. Keeping my two Bullets from exploding the entire time didn't make things much easier, I'll admit.
I gave up on any further examination by a strange sound. At first just a distant crashing, that was soon accompanied by a faint laughter. As it got closer, I moved to the opposite side of the house to try and see it through a window.
The first thing I notice is completely unrelated, strangely enough. The omnipresent glass in the sky has disappeared. In hindsight, it was strange how it was always directly above me.
Another crash sounds out, and this time I can see the source. A long ways down the street, in the direction I was initially headed, a house collapses. It's hard to tell, being on the same side of the street as it and all, but the rubble strewn across the road and the brief cloud of dust makes it a reasonable assumption.
That's my sign to leave. From memory, the most obvious candidate for that destruction would be Crawler. I'm not confident in that assessment though, it seems like he'd be a bit more chaotic. If any of the other members of the Nine had particularly powerful destructive capabilities, Bonesaw didn't pay particular close attention to it.
The continued laughter should probably also point the blame more at Chuckles. I can't say how likely that is, the kid just found his power creepy and didn't seem to think about it much.
I collect a dozen of the magazines that go with my new rifle and split them in whatever pockets are left on my clothes. There's not many, but by reshaping the interior of the carapace a little I can hold a few more in unlikely places. The rifle itself, I hold close to my chest. My charged Bullets are kept hovering at my back, with a shield hiding them from view.
If I get into a fight with any of them this will either be enough or I'd be dead no matter what I tried, I think. After all that talk about trying new things, I still refuse to do any more than this one spell. Of course, I've got neither the sudden inspiration nor the solid direction in which to develop something new. I'm sure there's something good I can do with air, but is it anything my mana core wasn't already good enough for?
Even as I think, my body heads downstairs almost of its own accord. With Disconnect still up it's easy to forget that it's not something entirely separate, though I'm brought back to reality when it doesn't just automatically leave the house.
I opt to head out through the back door, hopping a fence to get to the opposite street. I've done this enough times that I'm approaching the lake now which isn't excellent for my initial escape plan. It might help with plan B though.
That plan, of course, starts with me making the climb up onto another rooftop across the way. I can get a clearer angle on the houses as something systematically destroys them. The fact that I can't make out what's doing it further rules out Crawler at least, he's supposed to be quite big. It's safe to assume that Chuckles is some sort of brute then, unless Mannequin could manage that.
I continue to cast my eyes across the town, getting a lay of the land now, as best I can from here. There's no other visible capes, nor any sign of Siberian's vehicle. Over the rooftops of the adjoining street I can see a large and oddly maintained park, with a hospital just on the other side of it. The lake is a little to the right of it all.
It seems like an alright place to begin, I suppose. I doubt anything further than this street I'm on is going to matter, but we'll see.
I raise my hand above my head, high as it will go, and pause.
I should think.
Am I sure about this? Chances are there's no going back, and the chances of getting in a mere one on one fight are rather slim. All said and done I'll either be out of here in a few hours, or I'll be dead.
I've never thought too strongly about my own death. I barely even know what it means to be alive, so that's a bit much for me. Fortunately enough, my new spell means I don't have to start now. Fear has no hold on me anymore, screw Fear Resist.
I bunch up a full quarter of my mana pool, a little over ten points, and Burst it all in as bright a blast as I can manage. Award ReplyReport233Gravityfunns27/11/2025NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks 4.10 - Borders New View contentGravityfunnsHe/Him28/11/2025NewAdd bookmark#472For a moment nothing happens, and I think my flare of light had failed to draw anyone's attention. The sounds of destruction don't stop, so evidently the one I presume to be Chuckles didn't notice it.
During that moment of hesitation is when a single shard of glass flies straight for my throat. I only notice it when it shatters off my toughened carapace, unable to pierce the dense mana. I wouldn't have risked this if I wasn't confident in my ability to defend long enough to strike back.
The single piece of glass is swiftly abandoned after the failure, and I take that chance to snatch it out of the air before it falls, briefly deactivating Disconnect so I can plunge a wire of mental mana into it. A wave of sensation washes over me just from the loss of my spell, but I'm able to ignore it by diving into the connection I find in the glass. In the back of my mind I remember to activate Hasten Thoughts, buying more time to track down Shatterbird.
Immediately, something is different.
I sense a momentary blip. Like something that has never even been uncertain is all of a sudden confused. I push a request for information through the connection, and it sends one back immediately.
My mind once more splits in two as I break the connection. One dismisses Hasten to recast Disconnect and keep my mind clear, whilst the other pulls up my new rifle and looks down the sights. I thought it might be difficult to adjust, but in truth it almost feels the gun is telling me where to hold it. The way the handle is curved, the shape of its butt, it seems purpose built for a specific way of holding it.
It points up into the sky, far enough up that I brushed aside the glinting of the glass shield. My eyes squint, trying to focus my vision down the rifle's sight.
Before the second wave of glass can come close, I pull the trigger and fire. The crack of the rifle is a little startling, but Disconnect is already up by then. The recoil can hardly even make it past my Carapace, never mind hit my shoulder, so I barely need to adjust my stance.
The bullet punches through a layer of glass. A swarm of crystalline shards flood in to cover her position, fortifying what must've been a thin defence into something far more substantial.
Dammit. I really thought I'd get her with that one. The bullets travel so much faster than mine, but they don't seem to carry as much impact. They definitely don't explode.
I aim and fire another shot, just to buy myself another moment to think. Through my examination of the rifle I picked up on a lot of its functions, and the names of the individual parts. For example, the fluted barrel. It has a spiral pattern on the inside- which I did in fact only look at when I was sure the gun was unloaded- that seems to spin the bullet. It's also, obviously, really long.
Does that add to speed, or accuracy? Either would be nice, but I really need more speed. It translates directly into range, which is a big factor in whether I could knock that bird out of the sky. If I could get out there I'd try Air Lance, but… obviously that's not doable.
Either way, the rifle is not working. Time for the second plan B. A plan B that exists within the first plan B, to accomplish the same goal through the same methods. I don't think there's any point explaining the naming convention.
I hold the rifle back against my chest, making sure the barrel is pointed away because I don't have time to unload it, and start making a replica barrel sized up for my Bullets. I start with the back, allowing me to use two threads to help make it faster and the third to begin Thermal Hardening the part where the bullet explodes.
After the first second of me not firing again Shatterbird's defences ease up. By the time I reach the third I've got glass falling down from above like rain. My shield moves up to intercept some of it, though if she's half as destructive as what I've seen then the roof I'm stood on won't have long to live.
I spend about fifteen mana making the barrel, spread evenly across its length. Before I can begin aiming, the glass hits and begins smashing through the tiles. Surprisingly, it seems to do more damage with blunt force than the sharpness of its shards. I suppose most glass just isn't hard enough.
Staying here is almost pointless, other than the little bit it gets me closer to Shatterbird. Seeing as I don't want to be forced off, I sprint to the edge and jump off.
The glass turns ninety degrees and follows me from behind like a hail of spikes. I'm forced to deactivate Disconnect again so that I've got enough free mental mana to cast Hasten Thoughts again, the world slowing back to a crawl.
I summon the Aerodynamic Core beneath me, having it blow a gust of wind upwards to slow my descent. Simultaneously, I move the shield to my back and stretch out another wire of mental mana to get another check on her location. Just as I assumed, she had moved. In fact, as I maintain the connection she continues moving, taking a circular route that should bring her down and closer to me.
I drop to the ground painlessly, my arms held over my chest to protect them from the storm of knives that rush past like cutting winds, scratching and chipping at my carapace. Sheer numbers are able to do quite a lot, though not enough to break anything just yet. My back is completely fine, the shield having blocked everything it could reach.
None of the glass curved around to hit me mid flight, something I'm sure they must be capable of. It's not impossible that she just has flight as a secondary ability, but it seems far more likely that she's using glass to fly, which I don't imagine most people would risk doing with a power this lacking in fine control.
The street is littered with glass, much of broken into smaller pieces by impacting my armour or the ground. I sweep the aerodynamic core around to push much of it away, making a circle of clearer road around me. All I leave is a small patch right under my feet that I can keep a connection with.
Whilst she prepares her trap, I spend a second looking into her power. The main keywords are sound, silica, and telekinesis. She makes some sort of resonant sound that allows her to control all the glass it touches. Closer to the origin of the sound her control is better, though enough discrete shards of silica or glass in an area seem to act as a false origin, of sorts.
It's a lot more detail than I've grown to expect. The only other cape I've read for so long was Bonesaw, and I didn't get much on her power at all.
Oddities aside, her glass informs me that she's in position. I tilt my head back up at the sky as if searching for her somewhere high up, but underneath my visor I look a little more sideways, at where she's hovering just behind a house.
The second I hear a piece of glass moving I Sprint forward, a burst of wind blowing away the shards in front of me as I hurry to get an angle on her. Behind me, a simple wall of knives fly towards me point first.
It's odd, knowing that she's trying to trick me and watching it happen. Without Telepathy and my Fragment buffing it, I'd have no idea what she's capable of.
A wall of glass erupts off the ground in front of me, sharp and threatening. I bring my shield around and smash through it, surprise letting her control on the broken glass falter enough to let me through. A Burst lets me take a sudden turn left, smashing through a wooden lattice and down the side of a house.
At this point she probably knows something is wrong, but she hesitates to move a little too long. I emerge in a yard one house down from where she's hiding, staring straight ahead as if I don't know she's there.
Then my rifle spins to point directly at her. The Bullet fires, set spinning by the curved lines inset into the barrel and with far less wasted force. It crosses the distance in an instant, shattering the comparatively thin layer of glass she had in reserve.
Of course, even then it didn't have enough force to kill her in one. Her costume of thicker and tougher glass caught it, leaving it buried in her side. That's when it detonates in a ball of fire, blowing the wound open wider and scorching her skin.
The glass chasing me attacks with a newfound ferocity, combining into a single point and slamming into my back with enough force to drive me into the ground. I just let it happen, trying to keep my mind entirely focused on the barrel.
It's… hard to stay focused though. Every ache and pain comes right back to the forefront, unbidden. The spike drove the air from my lungs, but the pain makes it hard to get it back. I can't-
+150 exp
+1 Constitution, +1 Agility, +1 Dexterity
+1 Weapon Resist, +1 Minor Critical Mastery, +2 Minor Ballistics Comprehension, +1 Multithreading, +1 Thermal Magic Mastery, +1 Mana Manipulation
+1 Carapace, +1 Telepathy, +1 Disconnect, +2 Lesser Wind Lance
+1 Basic Sprint, +1 Basic Sucker Punch
The glass falls to the ground all at once, a rain of dust landing lightly on my back. There's a much larger thud somewhere a little more in the direction of that hospital. With the battle over I immediately drop Hasten Thoughts and turn on Disconnect, bringing my mind back into clarity.
Of course, as much as I now know Shatterbird is most likely dead, I still can't remain careless. Not after last time. I push myself to my feet and press my back to the wall, loading another Bullet in the barrel.
I can make a safe guess that the Nine are holed up in the hospital then. That makes sense in hindsight. Bonesaw seems like some sort of tinker that works with bodies, and that's essentially what doctors are. There's probably all sorts of useful tools there for her.
It's strange then. When Siberian's vehicle retreated, it didn't go towards the hospital. The lake and the park both mean that it would have to go north to circle around to the hospital, but last I saw it was heading south to get away from me.
Another distant crash reminds me to get moving, they're still searching for me. Assuming Shatterbird at least told them where I am before engaging, this is a dangerous spot to be in.
I consider removing my carapace so that I'm less conspicuous, but… Yeah, there's no way. In the future I'll have to learn how to limit the output of light somehow. For now, I set off at a sprint, sticking to backyards. If I can go under the radar, it'll make the rest of this much easier.
+4 Minor Stealth Mastery, +1 Physical Conditioning
+1 Disconnect
+1 Basic Sprint, +1 Basic Jump
As I run for my life, it hits me that I've never really thought much about techniques. Magic has always seemed a lot more consistent, and a more immediate bump in power. Still, getting at least one good melee technique would serve me well if I want my segmented staff to stay useful.
I only paused my escape long enough to snatch a curtain from inside a house, wrapping it over myself to hide the glow of my armour. Just in time, as the houses soon gave way to buildings that were both larger and sparser. Offices and car stores, and the like. It seems like every town has a section like this somewhere, and this one is bordering the lake.
My stamina isn't unlimited, though when I'm Disconnected it almost feels that way, so after about half an hour I decide to take a break, settling down in a bakery just out of view of the lake.
It's small, opposite a taxi stand and bordered by a nail salon. Inside is ridiculously bloody, but still there are no bodies. The Nine must have been ridiculously meticulous in collecting them all, and for what? I'm not going to have to be prepared for a hoard those 'experiments' I saw earlier, am I?
It wouldn't surprise me if I did, but I doubt their chances. The chances that all of her experiments were successful are slim, especially given her age. Though, if that's true then that means I could've died when she was opening me up.
…
I look down at my chest, covered by the carapace.
It does feel strange. I've grown to associate a sort of tightness with receiving medical attention. Stitches and bandages keeping my skin firmly in place, restricting me. This feels different. Far looser, in a way that makes it feel like my guts are one wrong move from falling out. That's not true of course, I've been thrown around a bit since then and am still fine, but that doesn't change the feeling.
I shake that line of thought off easily and head into the back room, scanning everything I see with Inspect. It's probably not necessary, but-
First Aid Kit
On the wall by the door is a box with a green plus. So, I didn't need it. Big surprise.
Inside I find it mostly full. A few bandaids are missing, but the bandages, wipes, and gauze are all here. I dismiss the construct around my right hand with perhaps less care than I should, clumps of dried blood falling to the ground where they were stuck to the mana.
The injury looks somehow better and worse than I remember it. My pinky is… still missing, unfortunately. But the bleeding has slowed, even if that's because of the mottled flesh and dried blood that has blocked it up.
I don't really know what to do with all that, so I just scrub it with the wipes a little. The pain doesn't hit me through the Disconnect, which I find very convenient. Neither does the disgust when I see a chunk of bone amongst the scab, silently pulling it out and dropping it to the counter.
I slap the gauze on over the torn flesh and wrap the bandage tight as it'll go. As long as blood stays in and diseases stay out, it'll last me long enough. Worst case I lose a hand and I'm motivated to make a new spell.
…
And I think that's totally fine.