Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  Although, the subsequent prompt had quickly cleared up any confusion.

  New Effect Discovered: Focusing Prism

  You have accidentally unlocked the potential of the Focusing Prism set into the back of Translucent Flame. This gem can act as a storage vessel for your Mana Absorption, effectively creating a supplementary mana pool. Note that you will still suffer health damage as normal when absorbing mana. Spells cast using this pool will expend all of the stored mana simultaneously. The gem also dramatically increases the effective range and area of effect of your Mana Absorption. These effects will scale with the level of Translucent Flame.

  Total Mana Stored: 0/20,000

  Increased Effective Range: 50 yards

  Regardless of how he had come to discover the gem’s properties, Finn wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  The Focusing Prism’s effects alone were incredible. But when combined with the levels Finn had gained practicing with the hand, he had discovered that they also scaled extraordinarily well – almost 10% of the base stats per level. Eventually, he would likely be able to drain the mana from an incredibly large area. Putting aside that he wasn’t quite certain why he would need to drain the heat from an area the size of a football field. At least, not in most situations.

  However, in this case, the effect had come in handy – pun entirely intended.

  Finn pulled up the prompt for his hand as he stared at the crystalline limb.

  Translucent Flame (Crafted by Nar Aljahim)

  This hand has been built entirely of the so-called neurogem material that you discovered within the depths of the Forge and was crafted by an ancient fire elemental.

  Quality: A

  Level: 11

  Health: 700

  (Soulbound)

  Adaptable Limb

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 1

  Cost: 500 Mana

  Effect 1: Allows the caster to make [moderate] modifications to the limb.

  Effect 2: Decreases shift time by 20%.

  Focusing Prism

  Total Mana Stored: 0/40,000 (100% scaling)

  Increased Effective Range: 100 yards (100% scaling)

  Soulforged Item (Bonded by Nar Aljahim)

  This item has been imbued with the Najima of the traveler named Finn. The limb’s health is counted separately from the traveler’s regular health pool and will scale as the item levels. Damage to the limb is repaired using the 1/6 of the user’s mana regeneration (currently 9.81 per second). Destruction of the limb will result in the user’s death, and the limb will return upon respawn.

  He had been practicing with the hand constantly on the way back from the Forge and during any free moments he found. Much like his early mana training, he would repeatedly shift the hand from one shape to another while he performed other tasks. Multi-Casting had been incredibly useful in that regard, allowing him to cast with his right hand while he trained his newfound limb.

  And now all that work might finally pay off.

  Finn took a deep breath, grasping hold of the simmering energy coursing through his veins. He raised his hands, the sleeves of his robes falling back to reveal the crystalline fingers of his left hand and the regular flesh of his right. Then his fingers began moving simultaneously, as Finn split his attention between the two tasks. His hands were soon a blur of motion as he pulled at the energy at two points along the cave – just above Brutus and Fahima’s position and the area in front of Charlotte, his enhanced control range making this entire experiment possible.

  He could detect the ambient heat in the air of the cavern, only the faintest tinge of orange amid the regular swirl and ripple of yellow air mana. But he drew on that warmth nonetheless – pulling, tugging, demanding that the mana return to him, just as he had done during his fight with the Khamsin. And that energy responded reluctantly.

  The temperature in both locations began to fall steadily, a stream of orange energy drifting toward Finn – first a trickle, and then, as he pulled more forcefully, a torrent of flame. That heat soon encircled his hands and curled up his wrist and biceps, leaving a trail of burnt skin in its wake before sinking down into his crystalline hand, settling within the Focusing Prism. As the seconds ticked past, that gem began to grow in intensity, shining with a brilliant light.

  But the Mana Absorption still cost him dearly. He could feel the sting of the energy seeping into his body – an army of angry fire ants marching through his veins and arteries, pinching and burning as they inched forward. His health was dropping quickly, but he forced himself to keep going.

  “The air beside Charlotte is ready,” Daniel reported, his voice sounding distant.

  Finn could barely spare the focus to glance in that direction while maintaining the delicate dance of his fingers and the dual absorption. But he could indeed see that he had leeched much of the heat out of the air. The air mage was now trembling in the chill air and shuffling in place with her mechanical legs.

  “Give her the signal,” Finn grunted, his voice hoarse.

  “Charlotte, start casting!” Daniel shouted across the cave.

  The air mage obliged. As soon as she finished casting, a sudden gust of air jetted from her palms and swept through the cavern. That current soon struck the pocket of cold air that Finn had formed in front of her, carrying it forward along the cave. To his eyes, it looked like a slow-moving blue avalanche of energy. Yet Finn never relented, maintaining his Mana Absorption to create a continuous, super-cold gust of air.

  He looked on, his vision bleary, as that wave of blue and yellow energy streamed past his position. The frigid air washed across him, tugging at his robes. Under other circumstances, the cold might have been a burden. But the flames licking at his skin flickered and bent but refused to be put out. Instead, they pushed back at the cold. Kyyle wasn’t as fortunate, his eyes widening as he darted behind Brock’s massive form and tugged his robes closer.

  Then the current of cold air was streaking past them…

  That bank of chill air struck the heated cloud of vapor surrounding Brutus. At first, the cold and hot air merged in a chaotic frenzy of orange and blue, drifting farther down the narrow cave. However, as the seconds ticked past, the colder and hotter portions of the air began to separate. The frigid current settled along the floor and pushed the heated moisture upward toward the ceiling. That billowing cloud of hot vapor soon struck the second pocket of colder air that Finn had created along the top of the cavern. As it did, Finn held his breath, his eyes focused on that one section along the top of the cave.

  Come on. Come on, he chanted in his head.

  Warnings were beginning to flash in the corner of his UI. His health was bottoming out. Yet he couldn’t stop absorbing the heat – not yet. He needed to maintain the cold air current and the frigid pocket of air near the ceiling for a few moments longer.

  Finn pushed himself harder, forcing his fingers to keep moving.

  As the warm moist air surged into that cold pocket, the moisture began to condense, forming large billowing white clouds of loose vapor. Yet it wasn’t enough. He was running out of health… and time.

  Damn it, it’s almost there. I just need another minute, Finn thought, keeping a watchful eye on his health in the corner of his vision. He still had about 15% left.

  He could go a bit further…

  His attention shifted back to the growing clouds along the ceiling. The vapor continued to grow and expand. As the moisture condensed, the cloud released heat, an orange haze radiating away from it. That energy then cooled again under the effects of Finn’s Mana Absorption, and the vapor condensed again. And again. And again.

  A towering column of clouds was forming now, a wall of condensed air and moisture that was pushed along the cavern by Charlotte’s sustained blast of air. And as the seconds ticked past and the clouds grew, swelling and filling with moisture, they began to turn a darker gray.

  And then Finn heard it – the first drops of rain striking the stone floor.

&
nbsp; A deluge soon followed, a haze of sapphire droplets raining down upon the far end of the cave and swiftly soaking the dirt and rock. A mad, excited smile stretched across Finn’s face as he watched the scene. He’d done it! He’d really done it!

  As his health ticked down to 2%, Finn finally dropped his Mana Absorption, listing in place for a moment before Kyyle quickly offered a steadying hand. At the same time, the current of air abruptly petered out as Charlotte finally ran out of mana.

  Yet his gaze never wavered from that artificial storm front. The line of clouds continued to coast along the cavern until they crashed into the far wall where the moisture billowed against the rock, swirling and colliding until it lost its stability. The updraft of hot air and the downdraft that accompanied the rain collapsed into one another in a chaotic mixture of air, heat, cold, and wet.

  “Holy shit,” Kyyle murmured as he watched that scene. He pulled away from Finn as he steadied himself, rubbing at his arms to get some feeling back in his frigid skin. The cave was chilly – almost ice cold after the current had swept through the chamber. “You… you created a storm front…”

  “This is what you were trying to create?” Brutus demanded in an incredulous voice as he marched back toward the pair with Fahima in tow. The two were drenched, their robes soaked down to the bone, but the moisture did little to subdue the manic grin that had crept across the fire mage’s face – matching Finn’s own. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “That’s because the mages were never taught to work together,” Finn retorted, meeting his former instructor’s eyes. “A storm front is a combination of cold, heat, air, and moisture. And you said it yourself a long time ago – together we are capable of incredible things, results far beyond what we could accomplish alone. Bilel and the guilds have just kept us at each other’s throats.” Brutus gave a curt nod, his eyes never leaving the billowing cloud of vapor along the far wall.

  “They never told us we could create a storm, though,” Fahima said softly, her eyes wide as she watched the clouds break apart ever-so-slowly.

  Kyyle glanced back at Finn, and then his eyes dropped to his left arm, his brow furrowing. “Uh, what’s up with your hand?” he asked in confusion.

  Finn finally glanced down. He had dropped Mana Absorption some time ago, and yet the crystal embedded in his newfound hand still glowed with a brilliant orange light – a collection of the ambient heat in the cavern. He’d almost forgotten what he’d done with everything else going on, but now he finally had a chance to examine the limb.

  “That’s a Focusing Prism,” Charlotte observed as she approached. With gentle fingers, she touched Finn’s hand, lifting it to examine the gem. “They are rare… very rare. They can be used to collect mana and then re-use it later. Normally the gems are embedded in a staff or wand, acting as a repository of additional mana in a pinch and a way to augment normal spellcasting. They can be tied to a specific spell or school of spells.”

  She pulled an eyepiece from her pocket, leaning closer to inspect the gem. “This crystal is of exceptional quality and size. I suspect it can store quite a bit of energy…” Charlotte glanced up at Finn. “Although, I believe you already know that.”

  He just nodded. Kyyle was swiping at the air to bring up his console, staring at Finn’s new hand, but he waved him off. “The notes can wait for a bit. We need to analyze the data from this experiment first.”

  His attention drifted back to the three-dimensional model projected beside him, the display replaying loop of the storm front’s formation. Despite his success, Finn’s mind was already churning on a new problem. Could he improve on this?

  He would need to create something bigger – much, much bigger.

  But he had the resources. If they took his experiment and scaled it up – added a few hundred air, water, and fire mages instead of a handful? They might be able to create something tremendous… catastrophic even.

  The biggest issue was his role in the experiment. Unfortunately, Finn was the only mage that could easily draw heat from his surroundings, and there likely wasn’t time to teach the other fire mages. Although he had a way to collect more heat without killing himself now, and he could possibly kill two birds with one stone – testing the true limits of the Focusing Prism.

  “You have that look again,” Kyyle observed. “And while we now all understand what you were trying to create… the why is still a little unclear.”

  Brutus snorted. “That’s a huge understatement.” The fire mage eyed Finn, a hint of nervousness lingering in his expression. “This was an interesting demonstration, but how exactly are you planning to use this?”

  Finn’s fire mana flared in his chest as he considered his plan. A smile stretched across his face, and his eyes glowed with fiery energy as he met his companions’ inquiring expressions. “We’re facing a demon that can see mana… and will likely notice our army approaching long before we reach the walls of Lahab,” Finn explained.

  “So, you’re hoping to drown him out?” Brutus grunted, still wringing out his damp robes. “Maybe rain on the magical tea party he’s having with his hounds?”

  “Not quite,” Finn answered with a small smile, his gleaming eyes still lingering on the clouds beating against the far wall of the cave. The energy was dense – many overlapping layers of mana concealing the earth mana behind it. Energy that might even be dense enough to conceal an army…

  “You’re looking at how we’re going to storm the city.”

  Chapter 36 - Strategic

  “After several days, our numbers have grown. We have roughly 700 bonded mages, 800 bonded fighters, 500 bonded merchants, and 2,000 Khamsin,” Kalisha recited, reading down the list hanging in the air above the crude stone table. “Plus, another 100 merchants and 200 mages held in reserve as healers and support troops.”

  The merchant grimaced at the list, barely sparing any attention to the crowd that lingered around the table, nestled deep within the Hive. A shimmer of yellow mana along the walls indicated that Abbad had soundproofed the chamber. “I’d feel better if we were able to bond the remaining mages and merchants,” she grumbled.

  As Kalisha spoke, a small spiderlike creature skittered up her arm, clamping its mechanical legs around her shoulder. The merchant stroked it with idle fingers as she surveyed the data in front of them. She had decided to undergo the Forging with a smaller version of her mechanids. The choice had seemed odd to Finn, but, if his hand was any indication, he suspected there was more to the miniature mech than met the eye.

  “Unfortunately, that would take at least another day,” Finn retorted. “The Forging process is incredibly time-consuming. In the meantime, Bilel will further secure his foothold in Lahab and grow his own forces from the local population. In the time it takes me to bond a single person, he may convert five. If we wait any longer, he will only continue to grow his lead.” Kalisha just frowned in response.

  “One spot of good news is that those numbers don’t include our new shock troops – which I’m calling the Infernal Guard,” Julia added, swiping at the list. The display shifted to show detailed information on the soldiers she had been training. “The merchants have prepared platemail for a hundred of the Khamsin, and they have each been paired with a fire mage.”

  “How has the training been going?” Finn asked, noting the way his daughter was rubbing at her neck and how her shoulders were slumped forward. Despite her penchant for nagging Finn to take care of himself, she’d been logged in for nearly three days straight, in-game time – or closing in on 18 hours in the real world.

  “It’s going,” she grumbled. A sigh. “They could use a few more weeks, but they’re serviceable. The mages are able to sustain Imbue Fire for nearly an hour straight at heat rank level 1, they’re not entirely hopeless at assisting the Khamsin’s movements, and they’ve learned a few basic formations – mostly designed to protect the mages. Although, none of that seems to come easy to either the mages or the Khamsin.”

  “Both
are accustomed to operating alone – a function of their training and experience,” Abbad said with a knowing nod. “Teamwork is a learned skill, one Bilel always strove to suppress.”

  Julia rolled her shoulders in response, the bone and muscle in her neck and shoulders cracking and snapping. “Well, I just hope they can keep it together in a real fight. There have already been a few scuffles. The mages also need to stay close to maintain the channel, and they’re vulnerable while channeling. It would only take a momentary break in their ranks and a few stray hellhounds to disable many of the mages.”

  Finn nodded at that. They would just have to hope that Julia’s training was sufficient and that a more immediate and common enemy would quell some of the infighting. It was more difficult to bicker when a hellhound was trying to tear your throat out.

  “The bonded fighters have also been training extensively with their Forged weapons,” Malik spoke up, the fighter’s expression stoic. “They’re now accustomed to using the new weapons and have leveled them quite quickly.”

  “Uh, how did they do that exactly?” Kyyle asked, leaning forward with curiosity shining in his eyes. Brock’s bulky form hovered behind him, his glowing green eyes surveying the group impassively.

  “We have been pitting the fighters against one another in duels for the last three days. They’re given a five-minute break every 30 minutes to regenerate stamina and health,” Malik explained. “Normally, we could increase their training rate with potions and consumables, but supplies are too limited to waste. Although, many of the Khamsin have joined in these duels, anxious to prove themselves against our guildsmen. That has helped to increase the experience gain considerably – despite a few injuries.”

  “We need to be wary of driving them to the point of exhaustion,” Finn cautioned. “We still have a war to fight, after all.”