Metal Mage 9

by Eric Vall

  I pulled one of the 1911 frames out of the backseat along with Cayla’s bazooka, a chunk of copper, and my engraving kit, and then I set up shop on Bobbie’s hood to study Dragir’s trigger rune. First I overlaid it with the mapping in my mind to get familiar with each element, and then I began summoning the elemental degrees and started engraving them on the 1911 trigger assembly. Even though the rune used lightning, the process was less complex than the magazine I’d made yesterday because the cohesion lines were already mapped out for me, and after pushing through the discomfort of grounding the elements with my Terra powers, I quickly balanced everything out with three final strokes.

  “Huh,” Haragh said when I held the pistol up to examine the rune beside the bazooka. “You’re gettin’ good at that, ye’ know.”

  “Yeah, it’s coming easier to me,” I told him. “I created a rune last night that nearly killed me to get through, but ultimately, I think each engraving makes the process easier to handle. Plus, I’m better at interacting with my own runes now, so I’m not as overwhelmed by all the sounds around me while I do it, and that helps speed things up.”

  I started forming a few inches of copper wiring, and I mimicked Dragir’s wiring on the trigger system as I sparked my metal magic to run the wire internally from the trigger to a small bead of copper I embedded at the base of the firing pin.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Haragh mumbled. “I was worried about those runes of yours.”

  “Me too,” I admitted as I brought the wiring down to secure the end to another contact point just beneath the grip plate, and this way, it would align with the one on the magazine case. “Practice seems to be doing the trick, but it’s definitely still irritating to have them constantly muttering in my mind. I can see what Dragir meant about missing the silence.”

  I headed to the backseat to get the other four pistols, and with them all laid out on the hood of the Mustang, I formed a bit more copper since Hulsan and the women weren’t back yet. Then I wired the trigger assemblies of each before moving on to engraving the rune four more times.

  By the time I was done, I had the elemental degrees of the trigger memorized, and I was able to engrave the last two in under five minutes.

  Next, I formed eight more magazine casings and secured their copper contacts, but I only managed to engrave two more with the fireball rune before I heard Hulsan’s coughing a little less than a mile away.

  “I’ll have to finish these up later,” I mumbled, and I hustled to form twelve small, solid copper bullets for each of the three completed magazines. Then I packed everything up and tucked it back in the Mustang, but I kept the completed prototype out since Cayla and the others were already coming through the trees.

  “Just in time for a quick demo,” I told them as I walked over, and I grabbed the large lizard they were dragging behind them. “I think it’s my turn to haul the dead stuff.”

  “Thank you,” Aurora laughed. “That wyvern we dragged in for you last night just about did me in.”

  “Wait, I killed a wyvern last night?”

  “Hell yeah, you did,” Haragh informed me. “Three bullets to the head and a dagger sliced across his throat. Took ye’ less than a minute, and that’s about when Grot started showin’ off.”

  “Damn,” I said with a grin as I hauled the dead lizard across the clearing, and Aurora sparked a fire for me so we could char it up. “I wish I remembered that.”

  “I’m tellin’ ye’, last night couldn’t have gone better,” Haragh assured me.

  “I’ll have to take your word for it,” I chuckled. “Now, let’s see what this baby can do.”

  Cayla was immediately at my side as I pulled one of the magazines from my pocket, and I secured it in the 1911 before I released the safety.

  “Everyone stand back a bit, alright?” I instructed as I took my aim at the trunk of a tree about twenty feet away, and everyone but Cayla moved to stand on the other side of Bobbie. I glanced sidelong at the princess, but the set of her jaw told me she was not giving up her front row seat for anything.

  So, I took a steadying breath, and the moment I pulled the trigger, the familiar sensation of the rune that powered the bazooka coursed through me. It didn’t electrocute the hell out of me, though, which was a relief, and the wiring functioned perfectly to contact the firing pin and propel the bullet. The only question was, did it agitate the fireball rune properly?

  My heart pounded in anticipation as the inconspicuous little copper bullet shot from the barrel, but when it hit the target, all of us gasped.

  The enchanted fireball burst open on impact, plumed around the entire circumference of the stout trunk, and crackled loudly as it burned through the heart wood in about three seconds flat. Then the trunk groaned, and all of us scattered as the pine keeled over and crashed into two others on its way to the ground.

  “Shit,” Haragh chuckled once the clouds of debris cleared. “That would take down an ice giant in seconds flat.”

  “I love it!” Aurora said as she jogged over to join me and Cayla. “The fire has a mind of its own, too, I can sense it. It’s designed to cling to whatever it touches, and the way it burns is like it’s starving or something.”

  “That’s fucking awesome,” I said, and I had a huge grin on my face as I eyed the 1911. “The best part is I can pull the trigger another eleven times without skipping a beat. Watch.”

  I raised the pistol again, but Cayla caught my arm.

  “Please let me,” the princess moaned anxiously.

  “Sure,” I purred as I gladly handed the 1911 over.

  “Yesssss,” she panted when her fingers wrapped around the grip and she bit her lip with anticipation as she raised the weapon toward the next tree.

  Damn. There was probably nothing hotter than a woman in black leather who loved guns.

  “Remember what I taught you about your thumb placement,” I said as I checked her grip. “Practice with the safety a bit first to get in the habit right off the bat. Then show us what you can do.”

  Cayla did as I instructed without any missteps, and after a handful of repetitions with engaging and disengaging the safety, the princess raised her arm, flicked her thumb down, and pulled the trigger.

  Then she pulled it again and again, and within ten seconds, eleven tree trunks were being devoured by the hungry rune. The best part was, the gun was deathly quiet when it functioned, and once the crackling of the enchanted flames filled the air, the next few shots could barely be heard.

  Cayla’s blue eyes glinted greedily with every hit, and when she lowered the pistol, she obediently engaged the safety and stood there grinning at the line of destruction she’d carved in the forest. Tree after tree toppled to the ground while several species of birds scattered in every direction, and by the time everything settled, I counted twenty-three trees splintered across the forest floor.

  Aurora and Deya were laughing as they applauded Cayla’s prowess with the pistol, and Haragh just stood there staring in shock.

  “Alright,” he finally mumbled. “Let’s not do too many trials like that one, yeah? You’ll have the whole forest burnt up within an hour.”

  Cayla’s grin was cryptic as she nodded, and when she turned to me, her cheeks were flushed while her heart pounded heavy and steady.

  “I want one,” she said in a low, sexy purr. “Oh please, Mason. I want one sooooo bad.”

  “You’ve got it,” I cleared my throat and tried to ignore my throbbing erection. “All I need to do is finish engraving a few more magazines, and yours is ready.”

  Cayla caught me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me to her, and then her tongue dove hungrily into my mouth as her breasts pressed firmly against me. I could feel the heat of her straight through her leather bodice, and the commanding way she kissed me made me stumble and have to clutch at her tiny waist to brace myself.

  Haragh cleared his throat loudly to get us focused again, but Cayla ignored him for another minute until she was on the verge of climbing
right up me with those thigh high boots. Then she roughly released me while her icy blue eyes burned into mine, and she handed the pistol back to me without another word.

  I cleared my throat. “So … we should probably test the other magazine.”

  “Good idea,” Deya giggled, and Cayla nodded curtly before turning to enjoy another front row view from my left.

  My palms were sweaty after the treatment Cayla had given me, and I nearly dropped the magazine when I ejected it because my gaze shifted at the last second to the whip coiled at the deadly woman’s hip.

  “What happened here?” Hulsan suddenly demanded, and I whipped around to see him coming into the clearing with his eyes wide. “Was there an attack? Which way did they go?”

  “No attack,” I hastily assured him as I pocketed the magazine and secured the pistol in my belt. “Cayla was just doing a demonstration for us.”

  Hulsan came to a stop beside me as he eyed Cayla and the wreckage, and I could tell he was having trouble believing a woman as petite as her could wreak that much havoc in a forest of hundred-foot trees. The trunks were still steadily smoldering as the fireballs burnt up, and the old guy furrowed his bushy brows in confusion.

  “She’s a mage?” he asked.

  “With her tongue,” I whispered, and I was close enough to Cayla for her to hear, and both Aurora and Deya laughed, so I knew they had heard as well

  “What?” the older man grunted.

  “No, just a princess,” I clarified as I sent Cayla a wink.

  “A deadly one,” Aurora added with a grin.

  Cayla shrugged nonchalantly and strolled back to join the others, and it looked like we would all have to wait to see the effects of the final magazine now that Hulsan had returned.

  “Hungry?” I asked him when he just stared at the mess in silence, and the man eventually nodded. “How did it go? Cayla told me you were getting the lay of the land for us.”

  I pulled up a ring of seats from the forest floor around the fire, and I waved Deya away as she pulled out her dagger and reached for the lizard.

  “But I liked serving you,” the elf said with a pout. “It was so much fun, and I like the way you watch me when I do it.”

  I dropped the charring lizard on my boot as the woman’s words caught me off guard, and Hulsan chuckled to himself.

  “Tell you what,” I managed as I eyed Deya’s plump and pouting lips. “When we get home, you can serve me all you want.”

  Deya smiled at once and left a kiss on my cheek, and then she happily took her seat as I knelt to sever the head of the lizard.

  I distributed the meat to my women first, and Hulsan let out a tired huff as he joined us near the fire.

  “Well, I scanned the area about three miles north and east of us,” Hulsan told me, “and I didn’t turn up anything more suspicious than an ogre or two. I reckon they’re just out hunting, but now that you’re known amongst them, I don’t think we’d be risking too much by getting close to the hunting grounds. We’d do best to follow Grot’s instructions to start, but the forest doesn’t offer too much cover in terms of terrain once you get close to the cliffs. The trees are thicker toward the south, but the closer you get to those cliffs, the thinner they span. Then they stop all together, and you’re out in the open.”

  I nodded and handed the man a helping of meat. “I’m expecting mages to be behind the abductions here, so we’ll have to stay alert when we get closer to the area and see if we can’t sense any magery being used. That might help us out.”

  “You’re sure it’s mages?” Hulsan asked.

  “Nearly sure,” I replied. “I’ve been told a few Defenders who have gone missing are extremely powerful, and with the Master’s rune assisting their efforts, they’d be the most likely to accomplish something like this.”

  “Well, I didn’t turn up any magery either while I was scanning the terrain,” Hulsan told me, “but I’ll take another look when we begin to head up there.”

  “You can sense something like that from such a large distance?” Aurora asked with some surprise.

  Hulsan shrugged and took a bite, and he chewed for a minute before responding.

  “Just takes a bit of focus,” the old man said. “As long as you can connect to your element at a distance, you can use that connection to scan the area.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Yeah, I’ve used the soil to check the terrain many times, but how does that register the use of magery?”

  “Develop your connection,” Hulsan said simply.

  “Huh,” I mused as I turned back to my helping of lizard. “I guess I never imagined I could use it in that way.”

  “You can with magery because this is a presence we’re all deeply familiar with,” Hulsan explained. “Every time we summon our own powers, and others summon theirs, we inherently sense the energy in the atmosphere. That energy interacts with everything around it. It isn’t only there for our senses, we’re just the ones who notice it. As you’ve learned already, increasing your connection to your element infuses your presence into it. Strengthen that connection, and your presence increases. Then you can begin to read more through it and sense the most minute details, like the familiar energy of magery interacting with it. It’s a subtle art, but for us, it’s the difference between knowing there’s someone out there, and knowing someone is a mage who’s up to something.”

  “It sounds like a useful skill to work toward,” Cayla said as she looked at me. “Something like that could serve us well when it comes time to attack the Master’s fortress. You could use this ability to read how he’s arranged his troops and locate where his mages are the most concentrated. Then we would have time to organize our own forces accordingly if you could manage it from a decent distance.”

  “Good thinking.” I nodded. “I’m sure I could figure it out with some practice.”

  “If magery is utilized at this entrance no one can seem to locate,” Aurora mused, “maybe you could connect with the stonework of the fortress in order to sense where magery is being used and determine the most likely location for the entrance.”

  “You’re assuming Mason could read the stonework of the fortress to begin with,” Hulsan pointed out, and Deya crinkled her brows.

  “Why couldn’t he?” the elf asked. “Even if the entrance is concealed by further enchantments, he could at least find out the layout the place since it appears to be made entirely of stone. He uses his Terra powers in this way all the time.”

  “The Master’s too smart for it to be that easy,” Hulsan snorted. “A man who can alter runes to conceal his location will have multiple defenses like this in place. He’s probably gone to great lengths to guard his fortress against something so simple as a Terra Mage’s abilities.”

  “Perhaps not,” Cayla said with a shrug. “What makes you so certain?”

  “I’m more than certain,” Hulsan said with a smirk. “I’m positive, because Mason’s a Terra Mage. Do you think the Master’s forgotten what powers his primary enemy possesses?”

  “Good point,” I replied. “It’d be sloppy on his part to make it so simple. Besides, I couldn’t even sense the structure in the vicinity when we scouted the eastern foothills. Something that large would have registered if it was only the one silencing rune guarding it.”

  “Well, at least you could work toward sensing magery in the area,” Aurora sighed. “That’s a start, but I can hardly believe it’s possible. I’ve never been taught something like that was feasible. Not even Abrus told me.”

  “Oh, it’s possible,” Hulsan assured her. “Get enough practice, and you can push your powers entirely outside yourself. Send them anywhere you want.”

  “Anywhere?” I asked as my eyes went wide. “But … that would take so much energy, wouldn’t it? How would you not drain your magery in minutes?”

  “Resilience,” Hulsan grunted simply, and he pulled his tin of pollen out for another snort. Then he tossed the left-over skins from the lizard onto the fire as he stood up. �
�So, what’s the plan?”

  “We’ll travel on foot to scout the hunting grounds since Bobbie’s engine might alert them we’re in the area,” I decided, and I turned to Deya. “Do you think you could stay behind and transmute with the dragon you mentioned? Aurora can guard you while you work, but don’t get close to the Master’s fortress. Just focus on locating Dorinick and his crew to see if they’re in position yet.”

  “In position?” Hulsan asked.

  “I’m just checking on a scout,” I replied.

  “I can do that,” Deya said with a nod, “but you shouldn’t leave Aurora behind on my account. Her hearing will help you cover more ground, and I can remain invisible while I transmute. No one will even know I am here.”

  I considered this for a moment before I decided she had a good point, and the elf assured me she would remain completely hidden until we returned.

  So, we all gathered our weapons from the trunk, and I kept the new 1911 in my belt even though I wasn’t sure how Hulsan might react if I had to use it. The old guy turned down my offer to lend him some weaponry again, and I only became more curious about how advanced his magery must be. I’d learned a lot since first coming to this realm, but I still wouldn’t venture out without some sort of weapon, especially if I was in the kind of shape Hulsan was in.

  Then we headed north for a couple miles, and Haragh helped us navigate around the mating grounds since he said it didn’t matter how much they liked me, the ogres would still rip anyone into shreds for interrupting them there.

  Hulsan scanned the terrain for any sign of magery being used in the vicinity while Aurora and I kept our eyes and ears constantly scoping in every direction, and I was grateful my rune helped me see clearly despite the lingering fog.

  The stout trunks of the trees made me the most uneasy because anything could be lurking behind them, but as we passed through grove after grove of the giant pines, we turned up nothing. I could hear several ogres out in hunting parties now, but aside from this and the occasional brawl, there were only various harmless creatures and a couple distant wyverns.

  We walked east for half an hour through the pines until we got to the boundaries of the hunting grounds, and then we doubled back toward the west to search the area for a second time. There was a group of about six ogres ahead of us, so we took a different route to avoid interfering with their hunt, and this brought us closer to the base of Izig Cliffs. The terrain shifted drastically where the pines thinned out, and Hulsan had been right about how exposed we would be in this area. Only brambles and boulders bordered the sheer black rocks that rose thousands of feet above our heads, and we could see clearly over the scant foliage for quite a ways.