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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 2 of 2))
In an instant, thousands of iron spikes grew out of his armor--a tactic he had used several times before--but it didn't end there. With the basic spike defense mapped to his right fist, he was able to devote more cognitive power to adding complexity.

So the spikes grew faster than they ever had previously, granting them greater puncturing ability. But even more importantly than that, they branched off into more spikes--and kept branching.

Hector felt his spikes catch flesh briefly before Zeff backed off and covered himself in his own armor of solid ice, but this new spike technique was still not done, because he was giving it direction.

The spikes continued growing away from Hector and chased the Lord Elroy down--a feat which the man did not seem to expect, because they managed to catch up to him and enveloped him completely.

Not that it mattered too terribly much, of course. After a moment, giant icicles tore through the network of iron barbs and set Zeff free.

"Hmph." The Lord Elroy dematerialized his ice armor and wiped a bit of blood from a gash on his cheek. "Not bad. Simple, yet effective."

Hector dematerialized his spikes but not his armor. "Thanks..."

"Many a warrior look down upon little tricks like that, but in my experience, they might very well save your life, one day."

Was that praise? Was Zeff actually in a good mood today? Hector was still waiting for the criticism.

"However, that particular trick won't help you much against an opponent who keeps their distance."

Ah, there it was. Still not nearly as harsh as he'd expected, though.

"Have you put similar thought into improving your projectile capabilities?" the man asked.

"Ah--yeah, I have." His projectiles had been key in that fight with the worm, so of course he'd been thinking about different ways to iterate or otherwise modify those types of attacks since then.