by Eric Vall
“Oh fuck,” I cried and fumbled for my bandolier, produced a small rounded crystal with a faint gray light, and then flicked it over my head. It flashed, summoning the bullet bass within.
I still tried to dive out of the way as the rambler came crashing down on me. Between that and the cut from my wallerdon which slowed it down, I didn’t take the hit dead on, but I was far from unscathed. The side of its head pounded into my stomach and sent me flying. I yelped and landed in a heap, rolling over debris until I finally settled in a sprawling heap but was otherwise unscathed.
But the beast wasn’t finished with me yet. The rambler closed with me before I could get up and reared onto its hind legs, ready to stomp me into a pulp. The beast’s deadly feet clanged against my now metal body.
The force of the blow cracked the cobblestone beneath me, but I was alive. However, the rambler wasn’t about to let me get up or move. It reared back and stomped aggressively toward my prone body, but I rolled out of the way in the nick of time. I climbed out of the mini crater that the rambler had crushed me into. Loose dirt and broken cobblestone tumbled upon me as I scampered out from between its legs and onto my feet.
It continued to smash the space where I’d just been with a grunt, too dull to realize that I was no longer there, but it would figure it out quick enough. As it was distracted, I fumbled for a sharp essence crystal with a pale green glow.
“Let’s try you out, shall we?” I muttered to myself. This monster was new, bought from the Academy store only a few weeks ago, but I’d yet to find a suitable time to try it out. Truthfully, now wasn’t an ideal time, but what better way to find out how effective it was in combat than to use it against this brute?
So, I gave it a good luck kiss and chucked it back toward the rambler. I pushed my mana out, coursing from me to the crystal. When it reached it, the crystal pulsed and activated.
It flashed briefly and exploded in a small poof of smoke that was less than most summonings. What appeared was the farthest thing from a terrifying monster as you could get. It looked like a butterfly, with long, glowing green wings that gleamed with a silvery sheen that made the tips look sharp and metallic because they were. The little butterfly on its own wasn’t very dangerous. They were like speed slugs in the fact that one had to go looking for them in the Shadowscape to acquire it. They didn’t usually come through rifts.
Though it looked innocent, and dare I say beautiful, it was still a grade C monster.
Swarm, I thought. The magic kicked in. The butterfly whirled around the rambler which had turned back to me, its confusion now gone. My beautiful summon fluttered frantically as it picked up speed and began to glide effortlessly. As it did, it glowed bright and started to multiply, one at first, then four, then eight more, and so on, growing exponentially until there were hundreds of them, no, thousands of them swirling around the rambler.
Gusts of wind followed with each and every butterfly as their orbit picked up speed and force until they formed a funnel, a column of swirling wind so powerful that it literally created a small tornado.
The butterfly monster on its own wasn’t strong, but when it multiplied, it was terrifying, and that was why the store manager at the Academy had told me it had many names: the gale, bladewings, kalgori, and the storm of knives.
And a storm it was. The kalgori were wind element monsters, so soon the vortex it created was strong enough to lift the immense rambler off its feet and into the air. It roared in alarm but was helpless to break free. On the ground, the rambler was a force of power, a battering ram, but now it was nothing but a leaf blowing in the wind.
My brow pinched in concentration as I reined in the kalgori. With each subsequent insect, it became harder to control. I was never any good at controlling large, higher grade monsters. I didn’t really have the mana for it, and besides, I liked to stack my deck with my lesser monsters. Still, Layla and Braden were honing their skills, so I had to progress along with them.
Once the rambler reached the perfect height, I knew it was time to end this. I scowled and exerted my will on the mass of bladed monsters. Slowly but surely, the multitude of butterflies turned their bodies so that their bladed wings faced inward, then the vortex closed in like a vice on the rambler. First, soft pings echoed through the vortex as one blade scratched the rambler’s rough hide, then two, then four, then a hundred.
The constant whirling barrage wore through the thick skin, and one kalgori cut through, then multiplied into the storm of knives and blood that they got their name from. With one split-second scream of alarm and agony, the rambler exploded in a haze of blood and viscera.
It rained all over me. The torrent of wind threw it every which way, covering me head to toe in the rambler’s sticky blood. I didn’t enjoy being covered in its warm, bloody viscera, but I was alive. I let out a few sharp breaths and calmed my rapid heartbeat. The kalgori wanted to keep going, but I stopped them. First, I forced the original to return to its singular form and back into the crystal it was housed in. It took a lot of my energy to keep it from flying toward Nia and Arwyn, but I reined in its bloodlust.
The small green crystal plopped into my hand. I shook my head. Such an innocent little monster, and yet awesome in its deadly power.
With that done, I made my way back to Nia and Arwyn. I was immediately glad to see that they didn’t need my help.
A smile played across my face as I took in the scene. Nia was a force of nature, a walking inferno, her body covered in flames as dozens of grunts charged and swarmed her. She blasted everything in sight with a stream of red-hot fire. Meanwhile, any stragglers that made the unwise decision of rushing Arwyn were met with the cold steel of her sword.
There were several ghouls locked in combat with my beautiful teacher. The first she cut down with ease as her sword slid through its open maw. It shriveled to dust as it died, but she didn’t have time to dodge the next one’s attack, so it barrelled into her and knocked her to the ground. I cursed and ran for her, my hands flying to my bandolier, but before I could help, she had it handled.
As the ghoul fell on her, Arwyn placed her feet on its chest and pushed it back. It stumbled backward into the other remaining ghoul, and the redhead wasted no time. She flipped onto her feet and ran them both through. Once they were pinned, she used all of her strength to cut up through the monsters, slicing them almost completely in two.
She bent over, hands on her knees as she gulped air through her mask. Blood trickled down her face on one left side while a large cut ran down her neck on the right. Still, her eyes flashed to me, worried.
“Gryff! Thank the Maker,” she said with a sigh of relief. “Are you okay?”
I frowned. “Am I okay? What about you?”
She waved that off. “Just some scratches. I’ll live.” Her gaze froze me in place. “But are you injured, Gryff?”
“I’m fine. Bullet Bass saved me,” I said with a smirk.
Before we could speak more, a trio of goblins broke off from the mob surrounding Nia and ran for us. I stepped past Arwyn, my grin confident as I summoned a single axe goblin and speed slug to give it a boost. The next second it was spinning like a top, and its blade mowed through the goblins before I sent it off to deal with as many of the perimeter monsters harassing Nia as it possibly could. The combination of it and the literal maelstrom that Nia had conjured made short work of the grade E monsters.
Arwyn snorted. “Well, that was efficient.”
I flashed her a smile though she probably couldn’t tell. But then my smile faded when I saw the sudden orb of light shoot into the sky in the direction of Orenn and Varleth.
“Arwyn,” I said as I pointed off at the flare.
She followed my gaze. “Shit, I guess the communicator didn’t work,” she said. Her eyes flitted from the signal flare to Nia, then to me, and back to the flare. Her brows pinched together. “Okay, Gryff. Nia and I have things handled over here, for now, so use one of your speed slugs to get over to them fast and help them to
close the rift.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Arwyn smiled. “Good. Now go.” And with that, she raised her sword and charged back toward the monsters.
With Arwyn gone, I recalled my axe goblin and threw that same speed slug onto my back. Then I shot forward over the bridge to the direction of the flare. I made it through several ruined blocks and past a few monsters I speed punched to death before Orenn exploded through the roof of a nearby building and crashed in front of me in a cloud of dust and debris. It was so abrupt that I hardly had time to swerve out of his way.
He cursed as he staggered to his feet, his metal body stained red and black from monster blood. As he pulled up his gas mask to spit out some blood, he noticed me. “Ah Gryff, thank the Maker. We have a problem.”
I frowned. “What is--”
My answer to that question tore through the same building that Orenn had just flown through. The home was reduced to rubble as a massive mass of muscle bounded through with a roar.
It was a cyclops.
The giant thing was as tall as the surrounding buildings, with huge muscular arms and legs and a pointy tooth scowl that glared down at us. Its one eye locked onto us immediately. Cyclopes were grade C monsters, without much magic but immeasurably strong and durable. The regular cyclops was not nearly as big or powerful as it’s cousin, the fire-eye, but it was still quite a handful.
The problem was that Orenn was a metallogue. While he could bust through legions of grade E monsters with ease, a cyclops had hard skin that wouldn’t be deterred by Orenn’s punches. I had no doubt that eventually Orenn could handle it on his own, but time was of the essence here.
The cyclops let out a tremendous roar and lunged for us. We dove apart with just enough time to dodge. Orenn took off running back the way he came through the ruined building.
“Where are you going?” I shouted after him.
“Need to make sure Varleth is still alive!” he called back.
Yeah, I’d wager that’s a good reason. With Orenn gone, the cyclops’ attention fell on me. It cocked its arm back and went to punch me, but I dove out of the way again. Its fist smashed into the ground where I’d just been, sending up a spray of dirt and gravel. I was tired, my mana running low, but I believed I had enough mana and time to stop the cyclops. I summoned a cementroll and had it freeze the cyclops’ legs in place. Without waiting, I turned and ran after Orenn. That wouldn’t hold the cyclops for long, but I didn’t need long. I just had to make sure they were okay before I doubled down on fighting the beast.
I scampered through the rubble until I came to the next street where Varleth and Orenn both fought back to back against a horde of ghouls and box trolls and goblins. Orenn was fine but blood ran down Varleth’s face and from his mouth, and his sleeves and cloak were torn in several spots. His sword glowed with black energy that made my skin crawl. When it passed through one of the monsters, it shuddered and collapsed
Banishers could drain the energy and life-force from monsters, I knew, but I didn’t know they could transfer that magic to a weapon. That was an amazing trick. It looked like it took a toll on Varleth. He grimaced, his skin pale and dappled in sweat, and his eyes were sunken and bruised.
“Did you find the Catalyst?” I called to him.
Varleth glared at me, turned back to a ghoul, decapitated it, then turned back to me. “Did you kill the cyclops?” His voice was tinged with annoyance.
“No, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. Now do your job, summoner,” the banisher said as he bared his teeth. “And I’ll do mine.”
While I didn’t need the attitude, he was right. My job was to make sure he was safe. While part of me wanted to go back and deal with the cyclops, I decided to help them first. I flicked three crystals into the air which in turn materialized into my lightning imps.
It was a tried-and-true strategy. They targeted their energy at Orenn who paused mid-fight to take in the shock as electricity arced around him. Then I heard him laugh, and he barreled into the ghouls. The electricity arced from him to the monsters and incinerated them into ash. Orenn kept up his maniacal laugh as he ran around. I smiled, as his mirth was contagious.
The electricity crackled through him. As a metallogue, I didn’t need to worry about the prolonged heat of the imp’s lightning heating up his insides, since, unlike bullet bass metal, metallogues completely transformed into metal, their bones, their organs, every cell within them. In essence, he was a human lightning rod.
That’s when the cyclops barreled around the corner in a rage. That took longer than I’d expected which was only good for us. With most of the ghouls in check, Orenn started for me.
“Go find the Catalyst,” he called to Varleth. “We got the big guy.”
Varleth huffed but offered him a thumbs up, then swung his sword and cut down one final ghoul.
The cyclops surveyed us, ready to strike, but I decided that I wouldn’t give it a chance. I re-summoned my speed slug and tossed it to Orenn, who caught it mid-stride. He gave one look to the slug before his metal face smiled through his filter mask.
“I like the way you think, Gryff.”
Then he squeezed the slug a smidge as his magic flowed through it to make it metal like him. That seemed to be the ticket to making the slug’s natural abilities compatible with his metal form, as he sprinted forward like he was shot out of a cannon. My imps charged him again with their lightning as he zoomed toward the cyclops. With his body brimming with electric energy, he was an explosive bullet. So when he used his enhanced metal strength and his slug speed to jump forward and put his hands out in front of him, I wasn’t shocked when he punched the cyclops so hard, a bolt of electricity burst through its chest and scorched the creature from the inside.
The cyclops, with its chest decimated, dropped to its knees and began to fade into nothing before it hit the ground. Since we were in the Shadowscape, its body wouldn’t drop any loot, though if I had the time, I could have captured its essence in one of the spare crystals I had. Unfortunately, there wasn’t the time for that since Varleth was already on his way to close the rift.
Orenn, who had flown through a window after going through the cyclops, came bounding out with a fit of laughter.
“Wow, that was wild,” he said. “Quick thinking there.”
“Thanks,” I replied and patted his shoulder.
“By the way, Gryff, you look disgusting,” he said as he motioned to the rambler blood that coated me. It was still sticky and warm, but I’d ignored it during the fighting.
I scratched the back of my neck and laughed. “Yeah, trust me, I know.”
“No worries, friend,” he said with a big grin. “Been there plenty of times.”
I nodded, then looked back to where Varleth had been. I didn’t see him. “Should we go after him?”
Orenn shook his head. “Nah, he said the Catalyst was in that building,” he said as he pointed to a mostly intact one-story shop behind me with a cracked glass window with faded letterings indicating that it was a cobblery. “We shouldn’t worry.”
“You sure?” I asked. Orenn was a veteran on the response squad, so I trusted his judgment, but still, I had some lingering worries.
“Yeah, Varleth is a--”
The world around us started to quake so violently that the air rang and it even seemed to vibrate. I felt like my bones would turn to dust, and then a blinding white overcame my being for a split second. I blinked, and we were back in our world. The sky was a brilliant orange in the fading evening light.
Orenn took off his mask and smiled next to me. “See? Varleth is good, and we’re back.”
Thank the Maker. I shed my gas mask and gulped down fresh air as if I’d been drowning.
Varleth emerged from the cobblery which was near immaculate and not at all damaged as were most of the buildings around us. It seemed this area was spared most of the carnage. Varleth didn’t look good though. His skin was pale, too pale, a
nd I swear his veins bulged against his skin and were much too dark. Sweat poured down his face as he caught his breath.
Orenn noticed my concern and leaned in to whisper. “Channeling the energy of the Catalyst stone takes its toll, but he’ll be fine. Always is.”
Varleth nodded to us and calmly walked past us, his stride slow and his movement rigid as if he was in pain. Judging from how he looked, that probably wasn’t that far off from the truth.
We’d been inside the Shadowscape for maybe half an hour at most, but I knew that time in there was finicky. You could be gone in that hell and come back to find hours had passed or that only a second had passed in our world. It was odd. Based on the light, it was near sunset now, so it seemed several hours had passed in our world.
Smoke still billowed over the town, but there were no more screams, pops of gunfire, nor did the roars of monsters filled my ears.
Orenn and I followed Varleth back to the square where we found Nia and Arwyn amidst the debris. Nia sat back on the steps of the cathedral, her arms on her knees as she sucked in air. Arwyn knelt beside her and ran her hand along Nia’s right arm and leg, a faint golden glow emanating from her hands. Her brow was knitted in concentration as she worked her healing magic. Nia was covered in blood all over, her cloak and uniform ripped to tatters. She didn’t seem to be in pain though, so it was hard to guess how much of the blood was hers and how much belonged to the monsters.
We approached in silence, not eager to disrupt Arwyn. She’d told me once that healing took a lot of effort and concentration and even the slightest mistake could cause damage, so we stayed silent until, at last, she sighed and dropped her hand, the golden glow fading to nothing. Arwyn clapped her hands together.
“There, all better,” she said with a smile.
Nia smiled back and ran her hands over the exposed skin of her arm. “Thanks, Miss Hamner.”
Their eyes found us, and Nia shot to her feet. “I see you did it.”
