Chapter 17: Put a Ring on It

I had thought I would be an elegant bird of prey slashing down all of my opponents, but at the moment, I kind of feel like an angry baby bird attempting to scratch everything that comes my way. My theoretical synchronization hasn't been activated yet, it seems.

All I’ve managed to do so far is scratch at the armor of my opponents before one of my accompanying Orcs knocks them out. They seem to not mind my incompetence and praise me with phrases like “Great job, Small Queen!” and “Small Queen, your fighting is flawless!” and other miscellaneous compliments. I’m not used to positive attention like this, so it does feel quite nice… but I’m also barely doing anything that would receive that kind of attitude. If the Orcs head into battle but don’t have a proper leader, would I even be able to hold the title of Orc Queen in good conscience? I wouldn’t!

With that in mind, I’ve dashed forward to the next floor of the Fort, and have finally approached an opponent by myself. I’ll politely ignore the “Small Queen, wait!” and “It’s dangerous to go alone, Small Queen!” comments that are coming from beyond the staircase. I’ve fought off Bratty Ratties by myself y’know? An apprentice knight isn’t going to do much to me. Hopefully.

The apprentice knight I’m currently facing off with has a pure look of confusion on their face. Is a cute “Village Girl A” fighting that incomprehensible to you? I shall use your confusion to my advantage! I have confidence in my speed, based on previous tests with this body, so I begin our confrontation by quickly disorienting the knight through quick movements. I’m basically copying Cooper’s technique. This was a strategy he often used when he wanted to steal some extra food for himself.

Left! Right! The reverse of that! The clumsy movements of a knight’s sword unused to animalistic combat is quite entertaining. Something I’ve been noticing about these apprentices is that their attack patterns are strangely similar to the animations of the undead enemies summoned by General Wuns Agen. I was confused at first, but by piecing together scattered lore from flavor text in The Tears of Nephelai, I concluded that both these apprentices and the undead soldiers were all trained by the General.

Just like the Bratty Ratties from before, I can read the incoming attack patterns by recalling in-game animations. These apprentices have been slower and more clumsy than the undead knights, which grants me plenty of space to try out my new claws.

After quickly finding my place behind my current opponent, I swiftly deliver a kick to the back of their knees. Doing this a few times has them on the ground and incapacitated. I don’t have the strength to knock them out, so I offer a quick apology before moving on.

Alright, where’s the next room? Since I’m on the third floor, there should be a treasure chest I can raid on the east side of the Fort. Hm. I am trying to improve the image of Orcs and save General Wuns Agen. Stealing precious treasure from a place like this would go against my goals.

But no one will notice in the chaos. I can claim a little something for myself, right? I'll harness my inner greed for a bit.

[Deathly Life Ring Acquired!]

This is a weird item. According to the game, this ring allows the user to utilize a drastic amount of Life Steal. 40% of damage dealt to the enemy will be converted to Life Steal HP. When upgraded into the Hyper Deathly Life Ring, the secondary effect of 5% HP regeneration each turn will be added. Of course, there’s a tradeoff. If you don’t attack while this is equipped, you lose 10% of the unit’s max HP per turn, canceling out any positive effects, even if something like a counterspell is used. Wearing this ring also reduces healing from allies by half. Once you wear it, it cannot be removed unless you are outside the range of enemies, so it’s a full commitment.

It’s a highly dangerous item that encourages ultra-aggressive DPS strategies. Because it’s an item with necrotic elements, the Hero and the saintess Serabelle can’t even equip it, which means the options are truly limited. Garst Gerhard is better suited as buffer and secondary attacker, and later party members like Fischen and Taek don’t typically sport the hulk needed for it either. That only leaves Maya as a suitable candidate to use it on a non-challenge playthrough, but there are better and safer items to use.

Essentially, no one will be sad if I take this! A ring filled with destructive necrotic power needs to be confiscated anyways. I’m using roundabout methods to justify my thievery, but in a way, that’s still a sense of justice, is it not? I have no idea how this will work outside of a turn-based scenario, but if I start coughing up blood, I’ll just take it off.

I have to wonder how this will work on enemies that are outside of the bestiary. Through my scuffles with Reuben and my battles here, I have determined that any attacks to entities outside of the bestiary are real and can be fatal. If I were to slash my claws at one of the apprentice's bare skin, it wouldn’t end with just a sound effect and a damage number. Will Life Steal actually drain their life, or is it something more akin to vitality? Perhaps I’ll wear the ring and attack slowly to study the effects of the ring.

As soon as I think of putting it on the Deathly Life Ring, it slides onto my finger automatically and snaps around it. Even weirder, it went through my clawed gauntlets to do that.

“Eugh, this feels a bit gross. Why the heck is this ring slimy?”

Oh. Oh my. Sliminess of the ring aside, I can hear the whispers of various nefarious individuals echoing in my head. Did this ring have that sort of function? Most of these voices are trying to convince me to perform unspeakable acts. Well, I'm not too worried about that. My own thoughts already bother me enough.

And either way, if I think like a magical girl by filling my thoughts with ideas of love and justice, the voices seem to scream in terror and fade away. I guess users of necrotic power have that sort of weakness.

I'm tempted to strike a pose and act cute.

“Part-Time Magical Girl Pretty Ring Talon, now on the scene! With the powers of love, justice, and chickens, I'll punish evildoers in my way!”

“That girl put on the demonic ring! Get her! Get her now!”

“More knights? Perfect! Let’s see how this works!”

My magical girl transformation was interrupted, but that's fine. I can already feel my energy replenishing as I slash at each of the knights. I’m only slashing at their armor, but they still seem to take damage as I siphon their energy into me. I only slash each apprentice a few times, just in case this thing becomes lethal.

“Small Queen Talon! Please wait for us!”

Forgive me Forkie, but I’m going on ahead! The thrill of having my energy replenished and my wounds healed as I charge forward with my speed can’t be properly explained. It’s a rush that feels similar to a power trip in a game. I can see why the Demon King would crave power when it feels like this.

Ah, but just to clarify, I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart, alright? This may be something akin to a power trip, but I’m teaching these apprentice knights a valuable lesson. The world is a rough and unpredictable place. One day, you get yelled at by an old General who doesn’t understand his situation, and another day, you suffer a brutal defeat from an insane girl like me, who smiles in the face of necrotic whispers of doom.

Hey, hey, thinking like this, perhaps a part-time magical girl isn't my style. Traditional magical girls are pioneers of blind hope and have endless faith in the world around them. With me sharing cruel reality to the masses, maybe I really can become a Demon King instead. What would be a cool name…?

Something like Demon King Valdis Talon Petrichor sounds cool. I'm dipping into some dangerous past delusions coming up with that name, but sometimes we need to harness dark powers for the sake of entertainment, right? As an up and coming Demon King, should I practice my evil laugh?

“Mwehahaha!!”

Hm. Still needs some work. I'll need to have an internal deliberation with myself at some point to decide if Part-Time Magical Girl Pretty Ring Talon or Demon King Valdis Talon Petrichor is more appropriate.

Looks like I made it to the outside walls. The General is usually at the training grounds, so I’ll just jump down below and make my way over there. Just as I’m about to confront the next round of apprentice knights, I hear a familiar sound.

“Bgaaawwkk!!”

…Huh?

I look over the edge of the wall to where I heard the noise. That’s… that’s the sound of–

“Cooper?!”

I can’t help but shout in bewilderment as my entire flock of 22 Rock Chickens ascends the wall and starts to attack the apprentice knights. Cooper, Rocco, Emerald, even all the Pebble Chickens, they're all here!

Right behind them is a face I know too well. Dull hair and eyes, a stiff posture and well-built body, and a strangely firm wooden quarterstaff that's given me a few bruises. He's giving me his signature exasperated look as he leaps over the Fort wall with athleticism I didn't know he had.

“Talon, what nonsense have you gotten yourself into now?!”

“And somehow, Rueby’s here too?!”

At my reaction, all Reuby does is give me a deep sigh.