Awaken Online- Flame

by Travis Bagwell

  And, in that moment, the world lurched back into motion…

  Finn’s free hand was already moving, winding through the gestures of Haste even as the fighters made another rush at Julia, and Kyyle threw up another wall in their path. A surge of air mana signaled that the mech suit was nearly online – the core crystal almost fully powered up now and glowing a brilliant yellow in Finn’s sight. Meanwhile, the mech’s hatch was beginning to close around Sadik.

  Just before his spell completed, Finn shouted over the noise in the room, ignoring the burning in his throat and lungs. “Kyyle!” The earth mage’s head tilted toward Finn, his eyes still on Julia. “I need you to buy her a few seconds. Give it everything you have left. Then get her to hold still and stow her gear.”

  A faint nod. There was no time for questions. Kyyle just acted – trusting in Finn after days spent down in this hellhole, fighting side by side. With a renewed surge of emerald energy, the earth mage pumped the last of his mana into a single all-consuming spell. A massive barrier of earth stabbed out of the ground, rolling outward in a wave that sent the fighters stumbling backward and created a pocket around Julia – her lance raised and her chest heaving. It gave her a brief window to recover and to make sure her hands were free.

  And most importantly, it allowed her to stand still.

  Then Finn’s spell completed, and the world began to slow around him.

  “Daniel, tell me when my death timer is almost out,” Finn instructed.

  “Of course, sir. You have 15 seconds.”

  That would have to be enough time.

  Finn swept at the air with his free hand, pulling up his in-game terminal. With a few quick gestures, he accessed Kyyle’s file repository, the earth mage having long ago linked his meticulous notes for the team – not that Finn and Julia spent much time reading them. Finn was about to make an exception. He was looking for something specific, his eyes skimming the carefully labeled and organized folders.

  Only a few seconds later, he found it.

  Smelting schematics.

  With a tap of his fingers and a flick of his wrist, two designs were projected into the air beside Finn. He’d seen them a long time ago – something Kyyle had been toying with, but they hadn’t had the time or tools to build. However, Finn planned to make those damn designs work come hell or high water.

  He barely spared the glowing patterns a glance – not yet, anyway. His hand reached for one of the bags at his waist. With a quick jerk, he yanked open the drawstring and dumped the contents. Dozens of the dark metal spheres promptly rolled out, slamming into the glass floor in a series of dull thuds before rolling toward the lake of magma that lingered near the basin.

  “9 seconds,” Daniel chimed.

  Finn needed to move faster.

  He cast his Imbue Fire on one of the orbs. As the spell completed, he dismissed it and cast it again. He was borrowing the well’s mana so that he wouldn’t need to use his own, each spell requiring a fixed mana cost to cast.

  Math was tumbling through his head – the hard mana cost of the spells, the channel cost of the various heat ranks, his total mana pool, the time he would need to create the designs that hovered next to him. He didn’t have the health or the fire mana crystals to recover his mana, and he could already tell this was going to be tight.

  “2 seconds.”

  The second spell completed, and Finn dismissed it.

  “Pull your hand!” Daniel shouted.

  Finn ripped his fingers from the well, the massive surge of fire mana that coursed through his body sputtering out abruptly. He fell to his knees as a sudden weakness rippled through him – like the fiery energy had been holding him upright. His chest heaved, and his vision momentarily swam. His health was sitting at a measly 1%. Each breath felt like fire in his chest. That damn mana well had nearly melted his insides.

  Yet he struggled through the pain. He’d been through worse – far worse.

  He forced himself to focus, raising his arms and his fingers dancing again. He cast Imbue Fire a third time, saying a silent prayer to the Seer. This part was a gamble. If it worked, he was about to save some precious mana, but Finn hadn’t had time to fully test the special effect of Sulphera’s crown. His eyes were locked on the heat rank in the corner of his vision as fire rippled across the pile of dark metal.

  Then he saw it…

  The Imbue Fire immediately jumped to heat rank level 2, the crown’s effect providing a temperature bonus. Even better? The channel cost was still equivalent to a level 1 spell. A smile stretched across his face, and he cast again with his free hand, more flames soon washing across the metal. He quickly ratcheted up the temperature to heat rank 2, shifting both spells to a channel and fire consuming the entire pile of metal. His fingers twitched, splitting the pile into two roughly equal stacks.

  Then he shoved forward with both hands.

  The metal sailed off the glass ledge and into the nearby lake of magma, but his fire mana still stayed wrapped around the ore, holding the material together. He waited several precious seconds and then began kneading the metal with the fingers of each hand as it heated rapidly inside the lake.

  His eyes flitted to the designs beside him.

  It took every ounce of willpower he had left to re-create those floating images simultaneously, his fingers moving out of sync as he stretched and warped the metal. It almost felt like his mind was fracturing as he struggled to maintain the two tasks at the same time, pushing the limits of his Concentration ability.

  He sculpted the metal within the lake, using the ambient heat to save mana. On the left-hand side, curved plates were being formed, merging and diverging to create a series of metallic panels. On the right, he forced the metal together and then pulled it taut, creating a long cylinder that he then flattened and sharpened. Once he had the shape he needed, he started adding details. Curves in the panels for knees and shoulders. Rotating hinges. A hilt and grip.

  Within only a matter of seconds, Finn was ready.

  “Your stamina is nearly depleted,” Daniel cautioned, his voice sounding distant.

  But it didn’t matter now. The designs were complete.

  Finn dismissed Haste, and the world lurched back into motion.

  At the same time, he shifted his attention to his daughter. She had sheathed her shield and lance like he’d asked – Kyyle had come through again. Julia simply stood there despite the way the fighters were already cutting through the earth mage’s stone wall with air-mana-infused strikes and beginning to barrel toward her.

  “Julia, hold perfectly still!” Finn shouted.

  Then his arms ripped upward.

  The metal cascaded out of the molten lake, superheated to a brilliant glowing red, and Finn immediately ratcheted up the channels on both hands to heat rank 4 to keep the metal pliable. A shower of magma rained from each of his two creations, sprinkling the lake and splashing against the glass terrace nearby, causing streamers of smoke and steam to drift up into the air. Droplets landed on Vanessa, and she let out a scream, unable to wipe the molten metal from her robes.

  Yet Finn ignored all of that, his eyes on his creations.

  On the left side was a full set of platemail built of the dark ore, the metal awash in flames. And on the right was a massive sword, the blade stretching roughly six feet, the weapon almost comically large and impossible heavy – at least, for most people. The products were crude, hastily constructed prototypes. Even from here, he could see dented metal and crooked edges, a product of limited time and attention. But they were good enough.

  With a twitch of his fingers, the metal flew through the air, barreling toward Julia.

  She stayed still, her feet firmly planted. The metal cooled slightly as it sailed toward her, but only barely, Finn pumping mana into the metal to keep it heated.

  Just a moment longer, he thought to himself, watching his mana dip.

  The metal plates struck Julia – barely slowing. The heated armor wrapped around her body, forming
itself against her feet, her calves, her thighs. Two halves of the breastplate pressed against her chest and back, the metal welding together along the seams and fully encasing her torso. Plates clung to her shoulder, her arms, and then her hands sunk into mailed gauntlets. Finally, a helm settled across her head, obscuring her face and twin horns jutting into the air.

  As the platemail settled into place, Julia raised her arm, her palm opened.

  She was waiting for her weapon.

  And Finn obliged her. The flaming claymore smashed down into her grip, the metal of the hilt grinding against Julia’s gauntlets and sending off a shower of sparks. Her arm buckled for a moment under the weight but held, her other gauntlet coming forward to hold the blade in a two-handed grip.

  Finn immediately dropped his two channels down to heat rank level 2, the metal cooling swiftly and turning a dark black. Flames coated the armor and sword, flaring brightly and curling into the air.

  The flames also had an added effect – one that Finn had been counting on. Julia’s body absorbed the fire mana as the armor clung to her form, her skin transforming into swirling bands of flame. Orange and red mana filled the cracks and crevices between the armor, his daughter finally visible within his sight – a living flame. He looked at his UI and saw that her health was stable, her health regeneration just barely keeping pace with the damage from her natural absorption.

  Julia turned toward the onrushing fighters, her face and skin gone. Now only tendrils of flame licked from the gaps between the metal. She was a walking dark juggernaut, a creature of metal and fire. Her sword sunk to the ground, the blade’s tip slamming against the glass and creating a small crater in the floor.

  Malik raised a hand, and he and his companions halted their charge as they witnessed Julia’s transformation, backpedaling slightly. Finn could see faint tendrils of dark energy creep through their bodies. He knew what that was now.

  It was fear.

  This was what the Khamsin were truly capable of.

  Julia took an experimental step forward, the weight of her armor causing the glass to crumble as she turned her attention to the fighters. Finn continued to maintain his channels, one on the sword and one on the armor. The flames not only strengthened the metal but helped enhance her movements. He could add power to her swings and additional strength and speed to help compensate for the weight of the armor.

  At least that was his theory.

  Julia must have decided to put that to the test. With a lunge, she surged forward and swung her massive flaming claymore. The blade arced through the air, leaving a trail of flame in its wake. One of the fighters attempted to block the blow… A mistake.

  Finn’s fingers twitched, giving it a little more power.

  The claymore crashed into the fighter’s sword. For a split second, the smaller weapon held. Then it blasted apart, the metal crumpling under the force of the strike. The flaming claymore cleaved into the man’s shoulder, severing the arm and cauterizing the wound in a single blow. The fighter fell to the ground screaming, cradling his shoulder. Julia shifted the swing and chopped downward, swiftly decapitating him.

  Malik and the other fighter were stepping back quickly now, their eyes wide and alarmed. This wasn’t a creature that they were capable of fighting.

  It was at that moment that the remainder of Kyyle’s earthen wall blasted apart, sending a shower of debris rocketing through the room. Julia barely reacted, the shards of rocks simply bouncing off her armor or passing harmlessly through the flames that curled between the massive dark plates.

  Kalisha’s mechanized suit came barreling through the wall. The machine moved quickly despite its size – its heavy metal limbs powered by the massive core of air mana in the center of the suit. That energy pulsed and throbbed along each mechanical limb, fueling what Finn could only assume were pneumatic pistons. Finn saw a surge of energy spring up along the suit’s forearm, the mana a brilliant sapphire. The metal casing flipped open, a barrel rotating up and out of the suit’s arm.

  “Water-based attack from its left arm!” Finn shouted.

  Julia was already moving.

  She leaped to the side, kicking off the glass floor and leaving a crater in her wake as she rocketed to her right. However, it wasn’t quite fast enough, and Finn’s fingers jerked, pushing her farther out of harm’s way. Not a moment too soon as a beam of sapphire energy arced through the air. It crashed into the spot where Julia had been standing and trailed after her blurring form, the glass and debris instantly freezing into a solid block of ice.

  Julia slammed into the ground, her mailed boots carving a furrow in the glass floor as she slid to a stop.

  Then she pressed the attack, charging forward toward the mechanized suit and pulling back her claymore to swing. Sadik raised his other arm defensively, and air mana flared along the limb. As Julia struck, her sword collided with a shield of solid air, the barrier a shimmering yellow oval. The force of the shield stopped her sword cold and almost extinguished the flames along the blade. Yet Julia bounced back in time, dodging to the left again as another beam of ice speared toward her position.

  The raw power of the attacks being hurled across the room caused the entire temple to tremble, forcing Malik and his remaining companion to retreat to the safety of the entrance.

  The other fighter was just a touch too slow, however. Julia struck again at the mech, and it raised its arm again to deflect the blow. But this time she tilted the sword at the last minute, causing it to glance off the panel of air – likely hoping to avoid extinguishing Finn’s spell. The effect was to send a superheated current of air blasting off the side. It clipped Malik’s remaining companion, consuming him in a wave of boiling air and blasting him back into a nearby wall, his half-melted body hitting the glass with a crunch.

  Meanwhile, Kalisha was eyeing the room with a severe expression. Finn saw her attention drift toward him, where he kneeled behind the cover of the basin, his eyes ablaze, and his fingers maintaining the channel on Julia’s armor and weapon. She began looking back and forth between Finn and Julia, and he could almost see her mental wheels turning, likely putting together his abilities with the armor.

  Shit. If Kalisha managed to have Sadik take him out, Julia would have trouble moving in that armor.

  Except Kyyle hadn’t been complacent either. Despite the injury to his leg, he had used the distraction to hobble toward the gem in the corner of the room, grabbing the relic and stuffing it into his bag before moving to join Finn. Using the brief respite to regenerate some of his mana, he began forming a wall of stone in front of Finn, quickly thickening the barrier until it was a few feet wide.

  It wasn’t a moment too soon.

  Sadik blocked another of Julia’s swings, and then the mana in the suit’s right foot flared, a blast of air mana sending the mech rocketing to the side. At the same time, he brought up the ice cannon on its arm and leveled the weapon at Finn and Kyyle. A massive beam of sapphire energy crashed into the earthen barrier, cutting through the stone at an incredible pace. Kyyle dove at Finn, sending them both sliding across the glass. Only a second later, the ice cut completely through the earth mage’s wall and struck the lake of lava behind them.

  A dense wall of steam jetted up into the air as the ice touched the lava, filling the area around the basin with superheated moisture. Kyyle yanked Finn to his feet, and the pair raced toward the vault room to escape the billowing wave of death.

  Finn heard screams behind him. He spared a glance over his shoulder to see Vanessa still chained to the ground, the hot vapor literally burning her alive, and her skin beginning to bubble and peel away. The screams cut off only seconds later as Vanessa fell limp and unmoving against the glass, her body soon obscured by the thick steam.

  He didn’t have time to dwell on that – as well deserved as her death might have been. Finn and Kyyle dove inside the vault room as another blast of energy struck the adjacent wall of the temple, forming a thick block of ice and locking them inside the small
enclosure.

  Not that it mattered – Finn could still see the battle raging outside.

  And now they were relatively protected.

  “What do you want to do?” Kyyle asked breathlessly. “Should I detonate the explosives?”

  Finn ground his teeth together. If they could win this without blowing themselves and half the Abyss to smithereens, he preferred that option. He didn’t relish the idea of having to find their way back to the surface from wherever the hell they respawned. “Let’s see how this plays out.” He glanced at Kyyle. “If shit goes south, however, don’t fucking hesitate. You need to destroy your own body completely to protect the relic.”

  The earth mage nodded, his expression firm.

  Finn’s attention whipped back to the room.

  While Sadik had been trying to take out Finn and Kyyle, Julia used the opening to surge forward. Finn had also managed to maintain his channels despite his latest brush with death. The mech suit blocked her next attack, but Julia was expecting that. She simply let go of the claymore as it struck the air shield, Finn holding it in position and his fingers trembling from the effort. Then Julia slid around the suit, grabbing the cannon on the other arm with both hands and ripping at the device.

  Finn helped, the fingers of his other hand twitching as he momentarily ratcheted up the heat on her armor. Flames flared around Julia’s gauntlets, and the ice cannon tore free with a screech of metal. Yet Julia wasn’t done. She was up close now, using the mech’s bulk against it. She moved even closer, ducking under a swinging fist, and her own gauntlets slamming into the cockpit where Sadik was hiding, each punch causing the metal casing to crumple. She slammed it repeatedly with her fiery fists, and the hatch began to cave in.

  In a panic, Sadik activated the air mana thrusters along the mech’s legs, sending the pair barreling across the temple, Julia still furiously beating the hell out of the hatch.

  They slammed into the temple wall, and the glass exploded in a shower of debris. Glass and stone rocketed through the room, a massive crack forming in the wall, and a billowing cloud of dust and shrapnel cutting across the room. Yet Finn simply removed the earth mana that briefly obscured his sight. The mech had Julia pinned against the wall, her health plummeting. Even the super-dense metal was beginning to chip and crack from the force of the impact.