156. [POLSKA] Like Father Like Daughter (Part 2)

The frog girl ran, and the shark king gave chase.

It inevitably occurred to Renna that this was the first time she'd ever 'played' with her father. A game of tag against a faded ghost—and through a burning, crumbling palace no less. What cruel jokes the gods played on mortals and Immortals alike!

Be that as it might, the game had a clear purpose and objective. It wasn't enough that Renna evade capture; she also needed to whittle her pursuer's HP down to zero. For that, she needed firepower. And for firepower, she needed DREDGER back in her hands.

But until then, her childhood garden trowel would have to deputize. And who knew? It might even be potent enough to provide a bit of chip damage, assuming she had the right 'material' to work with.

The opportunity came as she led Tyr up a sloping corridor. Until now, she'd carefully kept herself out of [Compaction] range, and the bull-shark in turn had seemed content to follow on from a distance. The longer run-up of the corridor gave her a chance to widen the gap—which in turn emboldened her to try mixing a bit of attack into her retreat.

She spun on the spot and 'swung' her trowel at the same time, catching a bit of the dirt that poured down from the ceiling. This baby version of [Surge] sent several mud-balls down range, some of which even managed to hit and splatter against Tyr's muscle-bound frame.

[9!], [7!], [10!] -> [26!]

Pitiful. Truly awful stuff. Then again, the 'elements' she'd scooped up on this occasion didn't hold much damage potential in and of themselves. Perhaps it was worth giving the trowel another shot.

Renna backed up a few steps, ever wary of [Compaction]. She then turned to a pillar of frozen flame beside her—a holdover from Rathor's [Avici]. With two hands on the grip, she gave the pillar a good whack with her garden trowel.

The feedback was akin to forcing a blunt pick onto solid ice. Highly unsatisfactory, but [Surge] managed to throw something up all the same. Blocks of the frozen pillar chipped off and instantly reverted to active flames, which then shot towards the bull-shark pursuer at speed.

This novel way of fighting had tickled Renna's experimental mind, and she was genuinely curious to see how much the damage might improve. Unfortunately, her opponent wasn't of a mind to let her find out:

[TAMPER Spell: REFORMATION]

The third of Tyr's four signature spells—resurrected from the ripples via a game with his daughter. To activate it, Tyr merely faced the flat of TAMPER's plate outward and pushed—ever so gently as to almost caress the ripples flying his way.

If [Compaction] was crowd-control, [Reformation] was specialized solely for defense. It Tamped and altered the nature of Renna's [Surge]-thrown fireballs, such that they lost the ability to do harm. Sure enough, they all disintegrated mid-flight and faded into the air, even before making contact with TAMPER's plate.

100% mitigation, leaving not a trace of the original attacking intent. It was like having an on-demand [Abyssal Plate] at all times, and without having to worry about its [Durability]. And there went any hope Renna had of letting the garden trowel replicate even a fraction of DREDGER's potential.

No good. She turned around and resumed her running, knowing that anything else would be wasted effort. I need something much bigger—much stronger. I'm starting to wonder if even DREDGER would be enough for the job…

It was a chilling thought, one best left for future Renna to worry about. For now, she needed but concentrate on finding her way into the throne hall.

Her quest led her to a fork at the end of the corridor. Here, for the first time since the game had started, Renna hesitated.

She was in a unfamiliar part of the royal chambers, made all the more disorienting by ten years of absence. And even this momentary hesitation left her vulnerable to a hunter's instinctive strike.

Tyr took a leaping stride forward, closing the gap in an instant. He bore down with the flat of TAMPER held over Renna's head—a great dark shadow to frighten a quarry into submission.

Renna wouldn't say she was frightened, but she did panic a little. Still undecided on whether to go left or right, she made a snap decision toward the most 'neutral' option: down.

A mini-[Surge] with her garden trowel, this time to dig a hole in the floor. Renna managed to drop through to the room directly 'downstairs', just Ksanas before TAMPER would've flattened her.

She shot to her feet immediately and scrambled to get as far away as possible. A tall order, she quickly discovered, as this new room happened to be dark, dusty, and cramped with countless objects of all shapes and sizes.

She pushed through and left a trail of destruction in her wake—smashed boxes, torn canvases, and shattered glass. Not a moment too soon, as the a bull-shark's hulking figure dropped down right after her, instantly making the room feel even smaller.

It was a room Renna didn't even know existed, but she had little interest in learning about it just yet. Instead, she was solely focused on pushing her way out of the range of TAMPER's spells. Imagine her dismay then, when she ran straight into a dead end, far too soon!

Renna spun to face Tyr, ready (not ready at all) to defend herself with a garden trowel. To her surprise, however, she found her pursuer's attention turned elsewhere. Tyr stood in the back of the room, his shark eyes turned wistfully onto the trinkets all around him.

Curiosity getting the better of her again, Renna took a moment to give the same objects closer inspection.

The box she'd inadvertently smashed had spilled its contents: a collection of acorns all carved to look like different animals. The shattered glass had been part of an Ulvknall figurine, stylized as a child's plaything. And the canvas was home to a painting of questionable artisanship, depicting a little cod-fish girl holding the hand of a bull-shark man.

Renna's pulse quickened, for reasons not entirely clear to herself. She'd almost immediately understood what she was looking at—understood the purpose of this dark, dusty room—but she needed more convincing to accept it.

It didn't take long for her to find the next piece of evidence. Mounted on the wall beside her was a fishing trident. It was much smaller than GUNGNIR, and its shaft was of weathered wood rather than bejeweled metal, but Renna would recognize it anywhere. How many times had she peeped from her hiding holes as her brother the golden child ran around with the toy trident in hand, terrorizing the handmaids charged with the impossible task of putting him to bed?

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Why?" Renna demanded in a hoarse murmur before she could stop herself. Then, louder: "Why? Why have you kept these trinkets all these years—no, centuries? What do you care about any of your children—who they were and what they dreamed? Why does this room exist?"

Tyr gave no answer. Nor did the ripples speak in his stead. The bull-shark King—the father to all these children he'd survived over the centuries—merely turned his wistful, toothless smile onto Renna.

She was the latest object of his reminiscence. She was a once mortal man's last and deepest regret.

Even as bilious anger rose to her throat, Renna couldn't look away. She now stared past the towering figure of Tyr, toward the back corner of this treasure trove of regrets. As to what she might find there, she feared the worst. And her worst fears were confirmed in short order.

Leaning against the corner and partially obscured by Tyr's shadow was DREDGER.

Finally. Renna had found it. But she almost wished she hadn't.

Snap out of it, she told herself. It doesn't matter how or why it got here. It doesn't make a difference. It's too late to make a difference. All that matters now is I get it back.

Renna pushed aside every emotion that might interfere with smiting her father. She then turned her focus onto the 'how' of grabbing DREDGER without getting herself pancaked in the attempt. Could she simply make a run for it? Create a diversion? Or—

This is what you've been missing all this time, is it not?

Renna blinked, caught off guard by the ripples' sudden garrulousness. Then, before she could even react, Tyr picked up the giant shovel and tossed it to her.

She caught it with both hands—purely out of reflex. The garden trowel clattered onto the floor—just another dusty trinket among many.

There. Now you can stop playing like a child. Face me, daughter, strength for strength. Show me what you're really made of!

Renna inspected the shovel up and down, from its cracked shaft to its slightly rusted blade. It was her DREDGER alright. No trick nor chicanery.

Then, for the first time since she'd been Untamped, Renna allowed herself to relax—so much so that a faint smile now crept into her amphibian lips. Some of it was the sheer relief of being reunited with her weapon. But much of it was the certain knowledge that she could stop overthinking this duel with her father.

"This is just like you, isn't it?" She called across the room, uncaring whether her father's [Gestalt] could even understand spoken words. "Always on the hunt for glory, wherever and in whatever form you can find them. Out of vanity? Boredom? Must've been hard for you, being cooped up in the palace for 400 years. 400 years of ruling over a peaceful Realm, with nothing to show for it other than a room full of children's toys."

If Tyr had heard her, he didn't answer with a speech of his own. Instead, he gripped TAMPER with bulging muscles and brought it overhead. In the shadow of his own weapon, Tyr's shark face glinted with a serrated smile.

[TAMPER Spell: CONSOLIDATION]

The fourth and last of a Warmonger's signature spells. It began with Tyr spinning TAMPER in a wide circle above his head. With it, he absorbed and aggregated the ripples around him.

The acorns, the figurines, the paintings. All the memories, regrets, and roiling intents. Then, with one powerful, downward motion, Tyr brought the collective force of a King's centuries-long reign onto a single, plate-shaped point.

On the other side, Renna had started the exchange with every intention to meet her father, strength for strength. But as [Consolidation] sucked away all the ripples for her to use, she realized she had no hope of matching her opponent's power.

She changed tack, acting on a sudden and unexpected inspiration. She flipped DREDGER's blade onto its reverse side, mid-swing. Then, she met TAMPER's plate with DREDGER's back-plate, thereby inventing a new technique on the spot.

[Auxiliary Technique: ELEMENTAL PRESS]

Yes. She used DREDGER as if it were TAMPER, in a like-for-like imitation of her father's [Reformation] spell. The result was a defensive technique that managed to tamp down and nullify much of Tyr's damage potential.

[1,215!]

But not all of it! Not for nothing was [Consolidation] Tyr Djofulsen's single-target finisher. Even with much of its potency [Pressed] down, what energy did get through had been enough to strip away nearly all of Renna's Health!

Once more, she backed away to her side of the room. Low on HP and facing an opponent who could easily one-shot her, there was real reason to panic now. And yet, as she squared up to her father, she once again found reassurance in his serrated smile.

Again! The ripples called. You're a Wayfarer, are you not? Find it then! Where there's a will, there ought to be a Way.

Renna didn't know if she believed such platitudes, but she did agree that she should've done better. Her mistake had been to turn passive at the first sign of trouble. She was done hiding behind shells. It was time she broke through and took what was owed her—by hook, crook, or brute force.

[TAMPER Spell: CONSOLIDATION]

An overhead swing. Ripples gathered and concentrated onto the flat of TAMPER's plate. This time, as Tyr brought down his judgment, Renna did meet him head-on.

Strength for strength. The blade of DREDGER against the flat of TAMPER. Timed just so that Renna scooped up the entire force of Tyr's attack and threw it right back at him!

[Auxiliary Technique: ELEMENTAL SURGE]

[Surge] was only as strong as the material it was allowed to DREDGE up. And even if you searched up and down Mount Meru, you couldn't find an element mightier and more authoritative than Tyr Djofulsen's [Consolidated] power.

[3,227!]

A tremendous burst of translucent sparks. They were the visual representation of ripples made [Gestalt], and they now streamed from every orifice of Tyr's disintegrating body.

TAMPER fell out of Tyr's hands—or the empty space where his hands used to be. Then the Great Pacifier's legendary weapon turned to Dust before it even hit the floor.

[GREATER ABERRANT SMITED]

[Waystation Privilege awarded. Current charge: 1]

[48,000 क]

Renna stood rooted to the spot, watching and refusing to look away as her father was finally allowed to rest. The great irony, at least in her mind, was that Tyr Djofulsen—the most famous absentee father in all the land—had found his final resting place here, amidst the painstakingly curated mementos of his children.

The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth, even as it also stung the recesses behind her eyes. Renna didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So, she bit her lips and chose to do neither.

The Dust faded. The ripples settled back into the here and now. But just before they did, they gathered and twisted into rows of serrated teeth. One last taunt, spoken with one last smile.

Go on, my wayward daughter.

Renna did. She slung DREDGER securely onto her back—relishing the familiar weight. She then climbed out of the rubble and back onto her Path.

As she did—and unbeknownst even to her—Pathsight updated its knowledge base, the better to reflect the latest and final score in a decades-long saga:

[Designation: RENATE SANDVIK]

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