Hero Oh Hero

[lord_khaine]

It has been an early christmas present.

[TeChameleon]

Definitely enjoying it.

And when the threads eventually come together, I think meeting Burk is going to give Noah an aneurysm.

[lord_khaine]

If they come together. And if Noah actually meet Burk. And not just Gaston.
Else. Another confirmation. Catz is a free magic user.
And Malhart did train contingencies to deal with Cheryl.
Except of course the empire screwed stuff up in the middle of their own city.

[Welf]

Aw I still appreciate it a lot! Hearing people discuss, enjoy & of course, occasionally praise my work is a big part of the fun for me in creating more content and pushing my story forward. So it always makes me happy to hear someone openly express enjoyment.

Then have some more praise! Love your comic.

Here some analysis: The horse riding blood nightmare said "over a thousand have fallen to my kin" since they made their way down. If I assume she means since they travlled down the hospital, and that was maybe 1 hour including the time stop, ever 3.6 seconds some person dies.
I think you can say 150 words in one minute, so every 1.44 5.2 words someone dies.
In the USA 22% of the population are children, or around 1 in 5, or every 6.5 23.6 words someone speaks a child dies.
Of all children about 26% are in the age group 0-4 years, or 1 in 4, so every 26 118 words spoken a small child dies.

The last page had 44 words, so 30 8-9 humans killed, including 2 children, and 1 or 2 a 1 in 3 chance that includes a small children or toddlers.

Edit: made a wrong calculation, corrected it

Also, had that hospital a maternity ward?

I think this is the only comic I can think of where the evil, authoritarian Empire actually has a point, and blowing up a city full of people might be justified. Only WH40K has something similar.

Wow. That was brutal.
My condolences for Skystroke's future children, they shall never be.

Gotta love Evyle though.
"Abandon my wicked ways?
Why do you think I named myself evil?"

He'll be fine. We know that because we saw him "many weeks" later in one of Tobi's chapters.
Nice foreshadowing of the cats btw.

http://neorice.com/hoh_noah_2861

Final drop starts here! Not an entire chapter but still a decent amount of content!

Hope you guys all enjoyed the numerous drops! Over a 100 pages posted total this week.

I always have a bad feeling when you drop "too many" pages. I follow webcomics since 2007 and remember the old times where hiatuses were the norm. I can never shake the fear that that means your puffer is gone. It never happened, and never will, but I made some baaaaad experiences.

If they come together. And if Noah actually meet Burk. And not just Gaston.
Else. Another confirmation. Catz is a free magic user.
And Malhart did train contingencies to deal with Cheryl.
Except of course the empire screwed stuff up in the middle of their own city.

The meeting will be interesting. Tobi's arc is weeks after Burks, so there needs to be a time jump. And I think we can assume that Burk is set after Noah, since Guy had to travel to a different continent to meet Burk in Eddstadt.

It wasn't the Empire directly, it was Ms Veda. I think she had her own plans she didn't tell her superiors from the Empire about. I wonder what happened to her.

[lord_khaine]

Here some analysis: The horse riding blood nightmare said "over a thousand have fallen to my kin" since they made their way down. If I assume she means since they travlled down the hospital, and that was maybe 1 hour including the time stop, ever 3.6 seconds some person dies.

I will point out that the main thing that was taken away from that encounter was "dont thrust nightmares"

But yeah. It has been commented a few times already, most recently after the dentist. That perhaps blowing up the city wasnt a over reaction after all to Cheryl getting unleashed.

He'll be fine.

We do know spirit healing is a thing.
Skystroke looks like a rather adept spirit user. At least from how casually he Spirit Purged that clone.
So yeah likely he makes a full recovery.

It wasn't the Empire directly, it was Ms Veda. I think she had her own plans she didn't tell her superiors from the Empire about. I wonder what happened to her.

Veda did have her own plans. But clearly Mission: "Murder the kind old painter and steal his adoptive kids" were authorized all the way up.
Since she had Royal Guard support to try and gank Malhart. Veda gets a double dose of blame for knowing the truth about Cheryls power but doing this anyway.

Also. I said it once before and ill repeat it. In another story Catz is the main character.
Last we saw Catz, they were fighting their way through a military base to liberate their foster siblings and adoptive father.
Now we find Catz even further down this messed up place, trying to get to Cheryl and put an end to this.

Well i had also wondered what became of them. It seemed likely noone had made them eat black crystal with Veda not around.

[Forum Explorer]

It wasn't the Empire directly, it was Ms Veda. I think she had her own plans she didn't tell her superiors from the Empire about. I wonder what happened to her.

My money is on her having become the Hollowman in some way shape or form. Or abducted by it at least so it could mock and torment her.

[Gez]

My money is on her having become the Hollowman in some way shape or form. Or abducted by it at least so it could mock and torment her.

Hallowman, as in holy, not Hollowman, as in hole-y.

And it is not impossible -- he is a new nightmare, or at least one that made himself known recently so the timeline of his appearance being somehow related to Veda's capture does fit.



Meanwhile, it seems we're back to thrice-weekly updates... That's alright, winter is kind of a low point for everybody, that's why we have all these celebrations to compensate for the gloom and the cold. Have good end-of-year holidays, Neo !

[lord_khaine]

So.. Meow eye &%¤#ers

[TeChameleon]

Heh. MEOW.

Can't say I blame the nightmares for being a little spooked. Any cat big enough to make that noise is not one you want to **** with, especially since cats are one of the most perfectly-designed killing machines in nature.

Also, poor Noah. Really hoping he's not conscious for this, it's not like he needs more trauma, yeesh.

[lord_khaine]

Sadly i dont think Noah can get enough trauma in this story.

But at the same time. Interesting development.
What is going on with Catz. Is there more than one of them?
Are they twins?

[Kantaki]

Sadly i dont think Noah can get enough trauma in this story.

But at the same time. Interesting development.
What is going on with Catz. Is there more than one of them?
Are they twins?

I think Catz just has company and they reacted to the "Is he dead" line.
Basically, the buff cat got turned into a (video) phone, but without a speaker/screen function Team Noel and whoever is on the other end only get Catz part of the conservation.

Catz is definitely the coolest free(?) magic user so far.

[lord_khaine]

I have said it before and i will gladly state it again.
Gaston and Catz are the heroic shonen protagonists we didnt get because this follows Noah instead xD

But yeah i see. Initially i got confused because the different color speach seemed to indicate 2 people.
Though no it is just Catz with someone else.

[TeChameleon]

Catz is a piece of work, alright. Although I have to say, that's... not exactly how I imagined a cat of any sort would take out the nightmares.

And I love that this follows Noah. We've seen the heroic journey through shonen tropes many times before. The snarky bystander dragged into things against his will is (in my opinion) much funnier.

... that being said, something that is bothering me from a few strips back; Ciel is supposedly an extension of Noah's abilities, no? How is she so active while Noah is non compos mentis? How much autonomy does she have?

[Grim Portent]

I think Ciel is a chaos spirit that was made (or summoned) by Noah's wish for an instruction manual, at least Noel seems to think she's something independant of Noah and potentially dangerous. Her autonomy is probably the same as any other spirit, it's just that most mages who have similar entities attached to them can't see or hear them,* and Noah is ignorant enough that he doesn't know any better.

Ciel might not either if she was made by Noah's power rather than existing beforehand, or she could be hiding her actual knowledge (and goals) behind a facade.


*Based on a sample size of one admittedly, but Infinite didn't seem aware of his spirit, and it seems like it isn't common knowledge among magic users which you'd think it was if every mage in the subset who have them was aware of it.

[lord_khaine]

We really dont have enough evidence to form any sort of conclusion on Ciel.

But from what we have seen from Chernyl, it seems clear mages can create/summon independent sentient spirit entities.
And so it seems plausible Ciel is just like the nightmares.

Except with another purpose. It being to act as a guide for Noah/keep him alive. (not an easy task)
Certain it seems clear she has whats best for him in mind. Even when Noah dont always have the same due to apathy.

[Welf]

I will point out that the main thing that was taken away from that encounter was "dont thrust nightmares"

I wanted to say "why would they lie?", but since that nightmare just tried to make Noel and Gaston fight, they do have a reason. And it's suspicious that they would give Gaston and Noel reason to just kill Chernyl.

[lord_khaine]

Yeah thats the problem.
The nightmares are sociopathic monsters of the worst kind.
If they can gain an advantage by lying it seems clear they will.
And hyping up the danger Cheryl poses could have spiked a fight had Gaston not been smart about it.

[Kornaki]

Catz might tip the balance on the question of whether they kill Chernyl. I wonder how they will feel about it.

[lord_khaine]

I cant see what the pacifist who made bubble cats will pick, is a question
What the real question is i think, is if Cherryl want to continue living after this.

[Welf]

Well, Catz certainly is powerful, but he is not good at following simple instructions.

[Kantaki]

I'm just guessing, but Catz might not be a Int-based caster.
Could be Wisdom, but my money is on Charisma.

[lord_khaine]

Ehh.. its actually harder than it seems, flawlessly repeating a message you hear without any warning.
So far Catz has given the impression of being a fairly effective individual.
I certainly think his escapes from the military base were pretty quick witted.

[Grim Portent]

He's also trying to pay attention to two seperate groups of people at once, anyone who's been on a phone call while someone else in the room won't stalk talking knows that to be hard.

Funnily enough had that experience just yesterday, my gran kept talking over my brother while I was on the phone because she's deaf and couldn't figure out I was on the phone. Made it nearly impossible to keep track of what my brother was saying even when I could hear him.

[Welf]

Ehh.. its actually harder than it seems, flawlessly repeating a message you hear without any warning.
So far Catz has given the impression of being a fairly effective individual.
I certainly think his escapes from the military base were pretty quick witted.

Noel did warn Catz and told him to repeat the message word by word. I think Catz is very creative and a quick thinker, but not a focused person.

I just noticed Noah keeps bleeding from his mouth. I'm not a doctor, but that doesn't seem healthy.

[lord_khaine]

Its hardly warning when its in the same sentence. And Catz are already talking to both a "phone" and a person besides him.

But he still saves the day!
Newer has it been so convenient to transport Noah around!

[Kantaki]

Maybe Noah's next wish should be that Ciel can carry him around.
More convenient for everyone else.

[Gez]

Maybe Noah's next wish should be that Ciel can carry him around.
More convenient for everyone else.

But then he wouldn't get to share such a buff green bod! If Burk were here, he'd totally say to keep with the current Mewdroid plan instead.

[lord_khaine]

To be honest. Noahs main contribution is providing information, and being a spirit source for Noel.
His main liability is the need to protect his physical body.

This is possibly the ultimate version of Noah.
A secondary head on a massive buff cat body, to provide snark or warnings.

[Kantaki]

To be honest. Noahs main contribution is providing information, and being a spirit source for Noel.
His main liability is the need to protect his physical body.

This is possibly the ultimate version of Noah.
A secondary head on a massive buff cat body, to provide snark or warnings.

Well, no. Not as long as he has that torture device in his mouth.
Oh wait. You were talking about Ciel.
In that case, yes. Yes, this might be Noah's ultimate form.

[lord_khaine]

This even cuts down on the snark!

Or well. It would not be a thing anyway now i think about it.
Since he is seemingly unconscious from spirit use.
Looking back at the comic, he did save the team with an unexpected float bubble.
But seemingly knocked himself out with it.