Ivory Armistice

+ 15 Strength

+20 Resistance

+35 Focus

Active Ability: Armistice, 50 Charges, 5 charges per hour to maintain.

Wielder raises the white flag, and as long as those affected are not attacked, they may not attack, leave, or change the state of the battlefield until the flag is lowered. Healing and negotiation are exempt.

“How much you want for that?” Will asked, pointing at the ivory spear.

The massive paladin gave a hearty guffaw as he took off his helmet, spitting out a mouthful of blood before drinking a potion.

The picture of indomitable power that Will had been clashing against for months looked…normal. A bit round in the cheeks but not fat, with a short beard and an almost jolly demeanor.

He didn’t look nearly as cunning as he’d demonstrated himself to be. Popping into Will’s camp alone had been a huge gamble that he could raise the flag before Alicia could stop his heart.

A gamble he’d won.

In response to Will’s flippant request, the paladin glanced up at his spear. “Sorry, kid, it’s not for sale. I have to give it back to the church when I’m done here.” Caddock said, sighing in relief as the holes in his chest sealed themselves.

When he’s done killing me, huh? Will thought, glancing at the horizon with Phantom Eye.

The first blush of daybreak was beginning to appear in the east.

How many hours until the week is up?

“How come you’re not huge anymore?” Caddock asked.

“Thought it would be easier to hide if you were looking for a giant.” Will replied.

“Hmm.”

Beside him, Loth was watching the paladin’s men clearing Loth’s traps with earth-Abilities, clearing a larger arena for more people to arrive. Her expression was…displeased, to put it lightly.

“Oh, come on, how is that not changing the state of the battlefield?” Will asked.

Caddock glanced over and cleared the last of the sticky blood and potion out of his throat with a rumbling cough.

“They weren’t quite here when the Ability went off.” he said. “Those guys got caught in it, though.” He said, pointing to three Climbers who were watching them like hawks.

“How’d you find me, anyway?” Will asked.

The paladin sat on a nearby rock with an old-man groan.

“You’d be surprised at what you can do when you’re willing to abandon your responsibilities as a leader, snag the best of the best and just go for it.”

“So everyone else is still-“

“Running around like chickens with their heads cut off, yes. Starving. Probably tearing each other apart over the stunt your girlfriend pulled. It’s the end of the Caddock Lordship, that’s for sure.”

“But that was never my goal,” Caddock said, staring into Will’s eyes with an intensity that didn’t match his jovial appearance.

“just killing me, huh.” Will said, crossing his arms and frowning.

“Oh don’t pout, plenty of people get killed who don’t deserve it.”

“I think that justifies a bit of pouting.”

Caddock chuckled.

“You know, even though I have you in checkmate right here in front of me, I get the feeling I’m not going to win.” He said, leaning on his palm and studying Will with intense focus.

“Oh?” Will asked.

“It’s as if The Tower itself has a plan for you and will stop at nothing to see it through, and all my effort to kill you is spitting into a hurricane.”

“Must be frustrating.”

“Oh it is. But fret not, young man. I’m old. I’ve been frustrated many times before, and learned to take half-victories as they present themselves to me…I’ve taken measure to ensure that you never leave this Floor, regardless of which of us dies.”

“Sounds ominous,” Will replied.

“Eh.” Caddock waggled his hand and shrugged. “Not for you, anyway.” The paladin kicked his feet out and relaxed on the rock.

“…My god, I wish you could have been my successor.” Caddock said. “Even being half-snake wouldn’t have stopped me from recruiting you. It’s just the little problem of…”

“Me causing the end of the Coil?” Will asked.

Caddock sighed.

“Yeah…Your Build is amazing, it can do just about anything. Not quite as good as a specialist, but pretty damn good. Do you know the phrase, ‘jack of all trades, master of none?’”

“Yeah, it’s all about how a jack of all trades is worthless when compared to a specialist in their own field.”

“Not always” Caddock said with a smile. “The saying continues: Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

“Eh?” That was not how Will had heard it his entire life.

“The saying itself is an interesting litmus test of a society.” Caddock said. “Do you know why?”

Will frowned as he thought about it, his lessons with Loth rising to the surface.

“Because the way it’s presented reflects what the society places value on? The generalist or the specialist.”

“Yes. It reflects how stable a society is. If a roofer can expect regular work and wake up at the same time every day and know that there will be a demand for his labor, he can consistently put in a good day’s work and over time become a master of his craft who can make a water-tight roof that lasts years longer than the generalist.”

“But in an era of chaos, where commoners are regularly displaced, wars are common, survival is uncertain, and people are grasping at straws to survive, demand for roofers is an afterthought, and a man will take whatever job will feed his family. In that situation, a man who can do anything passably well will often succeed, able to adapt, where the master roofer will starve.”

Will thought about it for a moment before nodding. “I get that. But what’s your point?”

“My point is, you, as a generalist, have thrived, despite the common wisdom of specializing in your Archetype.”

“…So you think my success means the end-of-Coil chaos is already here?” Will asked.

“The outer Ring seems orderly enough, but perhaps the chaos of Ouroboros is seeping through the cracks in the façade. Perhaps all the chaos is building pressure under the surface like a volcano, and you’re just the first generalist of many.” Caddock said.

“Then if it’s already happening, and I’m not the one doing it, why are you so dead-set on killing me?” Will asked.

“I’m not going to give up my mission on a ‘perhaps’.” Caddock said, glancing over at the blushing horizon. “I’ll deal with you, then see to the state of The Tower afterwards. Or die here. Whichever outcome The Tower and gods have deemed appropriate.”

Ugh. Zealots.

It was like talking to a normal, thoughtful person ninety-nine percent of the time, and then every once in a while, they try to kill you while spewing crazy bullshit with a straight face.

“If you truly are protected by The Tower, the gods, or Fate itself, I have to say…I’m very interested in seeing how you’re going to survive this.” Caddock said, raising the ivory spear high above his head.

At the signal, the dozens of Climbers around them formed a double line, with the warriors inside, nukers outside, every single one of them waiting for the signal.

“Got any last requests?” Will asked as Caddock donned his helmet, hoping to stall for even a second longer without revealing his intention. “It would be a shame to die without-“

“Nope.” Caddock lowered the flag, pointing the spearhead straight at Will.

Will stomped on the ground, causing ripples of stone to shoot outward and shove the enemy warriors back.

Will’s vision went white and every muscle in his body spasmed violently as Maybin Glasswind’s lightning slammed into them.

The ground opened up beneath them and swallowed Will’s Party whole.

Caddock lunged through the wave of earth and dove into the hole in the ground, his spear catching Will in the chest and shoving him violently back into the walls of the pit they were falling into.

“This way!” Will heard Loth’s voice from the left, the pain of the spear sinking into his chest drawing out Will’s inner feral badger.

Will slammed the head of the spear with his hammer, dragging it through his skin before juking aside from Caddock’s follow-up stab, the solid stone bouncing under his feet, keeping him one step ahead of the heavily-armored paladin.

Will’s balance suffered for an instant as the tunnel they were fighting in suddenly lurched and began to rise.

Shit.

Will didn’t have any time for tactics with Caddock breathing down his neck. The two of them were locked in a furious exchange of blows that left no room for Will to think, let alone be clever.

With what Will had learned about battle-language from Lord Bakton, he was able to tell that this paladin’s geniality and jovial attitude was a deliberate smokescreen concealing a humorless monster.

Caddock was generally kind and pleasant to talk to because it was expedient. It lubricated his social standing, which in turn made his work easier, but in battle…

In battle, Will saw the creature for what it was. His movements lacked any sort of emotional flair, resembling nothing more than a machine.

Will felt like he was fighting a watermill that had decided to fall on him, not so much a man.

Okay, Bakton, you taught me how to feint, but how do you fake out a windmill, huh!? Riddle me that! Will thought sourly, using every trick that he’d picked up from Bakton to keep himself on-balance and not dead as the more experienced paladin kept pushing him backwards through tunnel which continued to rise under his feet.

CRACK!

The floor underneath them cracked open, revealing that they were hundreds of feet above ground.

Some powerful Earth-mage must’ve grabbed Loth’s entire bolt-hole and raised the whole thing back above-ground before splitting it open like an egg and forcing them all to come tumbling down.

As the ground under Caddock disappeared, Will used the opportunity to juke around the paladin’s spear, grabbing it and delivering three swift blows to the side of the man’s head, ringing his helmet like a gong.

In the middle of Will going feral on his head, Caddock seized the collar of Will’s breastplate and yanked him forward, slamming his dented steel helmet into Will’s face.

Will leaned into it, shifting the point of contact up and denting the steel further with his brow before scrambling around Caddock’s enormous bulk and taking the man’s back, blood spraying from his broken nose.

The wind whistled in Will’s ears as he rode the paladin back down to the ground, trying his damnedest to stab the man in the neck while they fell.

BOOM!

Another bolt of lightning came down and tore into both of them. Despite the edges of his armor turning white-hot, Caddock weathered the lightning better than Will, allowing the Paladin to get a grip on Will’s wrist.

Ah, fu-

Will’s personal sense of down twisted wildly as the paladin tossed aside the spear and swung Will like a club at the earth.

Will dug his heels into the air and resisted the downward force just enough for Caddock to land first, his legs buckling under the strain.

Will hit the ground and rolled forward, springing back up with the intention of doing some more brain damage to his opponent.

Caddock seemed to be retreating backwards when a single gauntleted fist shot out and slammed into Will’s chest.

Will’s armor absorbed most of the blow, but it still took his breath away.

Caddock lunged forward and caught Will’s collar again, lifting him up off the ground before whipping a dagger out of its sheath and aiming straight for Will’s face.

Will grabbed Caddock’s wrist and sprinted sideways across the air, using it as leverage to twist his entire body sideways.

The dagger missed his face and sank into the skin of his shoulder before stopping less than an inch deep.

Crack!

Will felt something in Caddock’s hand give way, and he managed to kick the paladin away from him.

“How you gonna kill me if this is all you can do?” Will asked, pulling the dagger out of his shoulder.

“One piece at a time.” Caddock said, his left arm glowing for a moment as he healed himself.

Will used Phantom Eye to scan the chaos. Loth’s bugs were dealing their fair share of damage, and it was everything Caddock’s men could do to keep them away from Maybin Glasswind, but the others…

Where is everyone?