Phantasmal Party

by Trey Myr

  With the skeletons and abominations down, the orcish legati turned their army on the liches. The arms master, seeing that the battle was nearly over and therefore her fun would soon end, decided to stop toying with her lich, and attacked it with a whirlwind of daggers, empowered by a Light Field Skillshard. Between the mages and archers back at the fort, and Mathias's summoned army, the remaining two liches were soon defeated, and Mathias quickly dismissed his army and went in search of Olav.

  Chapter 12:

  Head in the Clouds

  Between the need to reinforce the walls, treat the wounded and gather the loot, it took several more hours before someone came to relieve Ed and Lucy. The sun was rising over the open grassy meadow that was the current form of the bazaar as the tired duo made their way to Ingrid's room.

  Ingrid caught them at the entrance to the family wing, grabbed them, and started walking towards the outside gate.

  "What's going on Ing?" Lucy yawned as she was dragged through the Arctology corridors.

  "Mathias is extremely mad about how the arms master behaved during the battle, and he called a family meeting. I think he wants to have her demoted, which is going to be a huge issue. And seeing that I'm a full family member now, I'll be expected to attend if I'm here. And I am not going to be cooped up in meetings all day, so we're going into the Labyrinth before Mother officially tells me I have to attend. I've already called Katya and she'll meet us at the stairway."

  "I don't think that's a good idea," Ed objected. "Luce and I have been awake all night, and going into the Labyrinth exhausted is a sure recipe for disaster."

  Ingrid stopped abruptly, and pulled two small potion vials filled with a viscous yellow liquid, offering one to each of her party mates. "Drink these, and you'll be fine."

  "What are they?"

  "Uncle Olav calls them tent potions. Gods alone know why. But they're the equivalent of eight hours of uninterrupted sleep."

  "Wait wait wait," Lucy stepped in front of Ingrid and raised her hands in a 'hold it' gesture. "You've got potions that replace sleep and you aren't selling them and raking in the cash?"

  "We can't get them through the AMDA, and Mother flat out refuses to act like a 'traveling show snake oil salesman', so we only market licensed products."

  "Can't get them through the what now?"

  "AMDA. Alchemical and Magical Drug Administration. Think FDA equivalent, except on the UN level and only dealing with any drug that has an alchemical or magical component."

  "And why is the AMDA refusing to license this?"

  "Bureaucratic red tape. We need to do clinical trials to ensure there are no serious side effects."

  "That sounds less like red tape and more like what ordinary drugs have to go through," Ed pointed out.

  "That might be true, but Uncle Olav says they're safe as long as you don't use them more than once a week. And while my crazy uncle will try anything on himself, he'd never give the rest of the family something that there was even a chance would hurt us. We've been using these for years now."

  "I'm inclined to trust Olav Bjørnson on anything to do with alchemy," Ed said, and drank up his potion. "There's a reason Bjørnson brand potions sell for twice as much as any other maker."

  "Yeah, and it's not like we ever checked the AMDA approval on any other potion," Lucy agreed before drinking her own portion. "Wow. That feels like a cold shower made from fresh espresso, and I have no idea why that comparison even makes sense to me."

  "It does that. The disorientation will pass in a few seconds."

  With Ed and Lucy feeling greatly refreshed, the three continued their way towards the gate out of the Arctology.

  "I've been meaning to ask," Ed started a few seconds later, "the Arctology looks like it can hold hundreds of people, but as far as I can tell, there are only the family members and around fifty armsman around. I mean, I know there are cooks and other servants, but how is it that one of the Five is so small?"

  "It's mostly because Granddad really dislikes administration," Ingrid sighed. "He never really wanted to found what amounts to a noble House, but the deal Christine Jacobson struck with the general assembly included him, and he grabbed the opportunity to research whatever magical direction took his fancy. We're really only a major House due to him being one of the original Five, and because nobody else can create the types of contraptions and potions that he and Uncle Olav can make. I personally think it's because they're both utterly insane, and nobody who is properly hinged can think about magic like they do. Mother's been working on getting us more properly staffed since she took over day to day matters, but it takes time to find and train good armsmen."

  "That's… really not what I expected from one of the Five Families," Ed shook his head in wonder.

  "I get that. And I should probably remind you that this comes under the heading of 'House secrets' that you're both sworn to keep as armsmen."

  "Naturally. I have to ask though, if the House is so small, and we have so few armsmen, why are we keeping a secret lab inside the Labyrinth where it gets attacked like this regularly?"

  "You'll need to ask Uncle Olav if you want a detailed answer. He'll gladly give you a long technical lecture full of terms like 'residual mana saturation' and 'background essence field levels'. I've honestly never had the desire to try to understand any of it. But it boils down to the fact that there are alchemical and technomagical operations that can only be done above certain floors of the Labyrinth. If Uncle and Granddad had their way, the installation would have been at floor forty, but Mother nixed that idea since there's no way we'll be able to hold it. So Uncle does most of his work in the permanent lab, and occasionally goes to higher floors to do specific whatever-it-is-he-doeses."

  By then, the three had reached the gates, and the conversation turned to other, less secret, matters, until the party reached the stairway to the Labyrinth and met up with the waiting Katya.

  Ed couldn't see Katya when the three got to the stairway, but he could clearly hear her voice whispering in his ear. "Privet. I hope you sleep well before delve today."

  "Good morning to you too, Katya," Ed answered the invisible Drab. "Can you show yourself please, at least until we enter the Labyrinth?"

  "You are no fun," a pouting Katya appeared in front of him, faux disappointment clear on her face.

  "Oh, Ed is quite a lot of fun, I assure you," Lucy winked and grabbed Katya's arm to lead her up the stairway.

  "You are terrible tease," Ed heard the brunette answer as he and Ingrid trailed after the two. "Absolutely terrible."

  "I'm not sure the Labyrinth is ready for the two of them," Ingrid shook her head ruefully and her party mates' antics.

  "I'm not sure I'm ready for the two of them," Ed answered as he stepped off of a flight of stairs, closing his eyes briefly against the disorienting feeling of up suddenly becoming left.

  Five more flights of stairs, and five more changes in orientation later, the four stood in front of a simple wooden door.

  "If it's gremlins again, we're leaving and waiting for the cooldown," Ingrid stated firmly. "I have no intention of going through that again."

  "I think we can all agree to that," Ed reassured her, and she quickly entered the door, finding herself standing on a white, springy surface. A gap in the 'floor' appeared on her left side, showing a dizzying drop that must have spanned thousands of kilometers into a deep blue ocean. Ingrid couldn't take her eyes off the terrifying gap, which thankfully closed up a few seconds later. "Cloud kingdom," she called to the rest of her party before walking forward to clear the entrance. "Keep your eyes open for flyers!"

  The rest of the party entered the floor behind her, and Ed quickly summoned his phantasms to prepare for whatever the floor threw at them.

  "I will scout ahead and see what is waiting for us," Katya said and vanished from sight. "Follow green arrow."

  "We'll give her a minute to move ahead, and then we'll start to follow," Ed ordered, noticing that a green triangle appeared
in his vision as soon as Katya disappeared.

  "Group of five blue wolves ahead," Katya's voice whispered in Ed's ears a few minutes later. "Are probably raijū, but no way to know for sure until they attack."

  Hearing Katya's alert, Ed disabled his Lightning Field, as it would only heal the elemental beasts. "Ing, can you change your armor to leather? I think it will work better than the steel plate here."

  Ingrid concentrated for a few seconds, and her armor slowly transformed itself from a set of full plate into a much lighter suit of boiled leather.

  "OK. We'll move slowly until they're in view. Lucy, you hit them with a Storm as soon as you can. I want the fox kin to save its mana for Acid Bolts, since they'll probably be our best bet for single target damage."

  The three slowly crept in the direction of the green arrow showing Katya's location, and soon spotted the five wolf-like creatures sprawled on the cloudscape. Ingrid and the phantasmal dwarf set up in front of the party, and Lucy cast her Chromatic Storm, which hit three of the five monsters. Howls of pain rang from inside the storm's radius, and the two unhurt wolves charged towards the party. Ingrid's taunt caught the attention of the first one, and it swerved to attack her, swiping its claws on the now leather-covered shield to little effect. Ingrid's return blow, unfortunately, passed harmlessly through the monster's immaterial body, causing the wolf to howl in pain but doing little apparent damage. The second monster, meanwhile, approached the phantasmal dwarf, but about a second before crashing into the summon, the wolf leaped into the air and transformed into a ball of lightning, passing through the dwarf and towards Lucy.

  Right before it reached her, the ball of lightning changed back into a wolf, and its lightning wreathed claws caught her chest, disrupting her concentration and dispelling the Chromatic Storm, but doing little damage thanks to Ed's newest Shard.

  Barrier

  Tier 0

  Level 1

  0/100

  Creates a barrier around the target that absorbs damage. Can absorb a maximum damage equal to the caster's Int, and regens at a rate of 1/second

  -5 maximum mana when active

  Lucy cried in pain, but before the wolf could attack her again, a sizzling bolt of acid hit its flank, the earth element charged acid eating deeply into the air elemental raijū, which howled in pain and turned towards its new tormentor. The fox-kin had a fresh barrier on it, but even with the barrier it was far too weak to take even a single attack from the wolf, and was dispelled almost instantly when the raijū clawed at it. Ed sent the phantasmal cat-kin to occupy the wounded beast, and quickly resummoned the fox-kin, and a second Acid Bolt was enough to finish up the first raijū.

  Lucy, had recovered from the raijū's attack, and turned towards the three that were previously caught by her storm, finding them standing entranced, swaying to a melody only they could hear. A second cast of the Chromatic Storm brought them out of their trance, and they quickly shifted into their lightning form and burst out of the spell's area of effect, but even the few seconds inside the spell were enough to do serious damage, and two of the weakened beasts died to Lucy's Firebolt and the fox-kin's Acid Bolt spells. The third was caught by a combination of arrow, crossbow bolt and thrown daggers, but didn't seem at all fazed by the purely physical attacks, and the Raijū managed to reach the fox-kin and dispel it again before Lucy took it down with another Firebolt.

  Ingrid and the phantasmal dwarf, meanwhile, were holding off the unwounded Raijū, but doing no damage to it, but the single monster wasn't much of a threat, and Lucy swiftly wore it down with Firebolts.

  "I hate to say this," Ingrid said once the fight was over, "but I think we need to leave. This location is a really bad match for us."

  The other three had no argument to offer, and after a quick check for loot, the party turned back to the door, resigned to waiting for the floor to reset.

  “We need to consider how to prevent this from happening again,” Ingrid said while the party was waiting for the Labyrinth to reset their location. “Most of us could barely scratch those things, and they went straight through our front line to get at Lucy.”

  “I don’t think it’s that urgent,” Lucy countered. “It’s only air elementals that are an issue, since the Lightning Field doesn’t work on them. Against anything else, most of us would be able to deal damage.”

  “Is not big problem,” Katya agreed. “Waiting for reset is annoyance. All parties have bad location, and is not worth trouble to close all weaknesses.”

  “Most parties don’t have what we have,” Ingrid argued. “One more elemental field on Ed will have let us take on the floor easily.”

  “You are upset about have to abort floor twice in a row, yes?” Katya asked. “Is hobgoblin speaking. Goblin-kin, they do not like to retreat.”

  Ingrid growled at her, and Ed went over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Ing does have a point though. It won’t take much to close this hole in our abilities. I just don’t see how we can do it right now. I can’t Slice any more Shards, and I already have a list of Shards we all agree I have to have. And that’s without considering that I’ll want a Raceshard soon.”

  “Is easy to fix, I think,” Katya said. “Should perhaps not be talking about things in open bazaar, but you can use same Shard like girls.”

  “She has a point,” Ingrid was quick to agree. “You can use a bonus slot for another elemental field Shard. Or even go Elementalist and you’ll be able to switch the one you have to whatever element will work best in any situation.”

  “Would that even work though?” Ed wondered. “It’s worth a try, I guess, but I don’t have an Elementalist ready, and can’t make another one right now.”

  “As official sneaky person of party, I have to tell you to stop conversation now. Is better to wait until we are in Labyrinth before discussing further.”

  “You’re the one who brought it up, Katya.”

  “Yes, but I am discreet.”

  When the waiting period was done, the Labyrinth presented them with a barren desert. Reddish yellow sand spread as far as the eye could see, with the door back to the stairway standing unsupported on top of a dune. A dry wind stirred the grains of sand, occasionally raising them high enough to irritate an eye or a nose, and the harsh sun boiled away what little moisture the air could hold.

  Katya looked intently at the door, daring it to open and let someone else in. After five minutes, the drab stood up from her crouch and turned towards her party mates. “Is safe now. Door outside will lead to other location if anyone tries it.”

  “Was that really necessary?” Ingrid asked crossly.

  “How do you think I followed you? If we are talk about secrets, we should make sure no one is listening in.”

  “We were talking about me Slicing a phantasm,” Ed interjected before an argument could really start. “Like I said before, I don’t know if it’ll work, but I’m willing to try.”

  “Which brings us to the question of which phantasm you should use,” Lucy continued. “Of the ones you have now, I think the fox-kin is the best for you. Maybe you’ll finally be able to rank up your Lightning Field with the extra mana.”

  “Elementalist would be better,” Ingrid disagreed. “You can only use one elemental field at any given time, so Slicing a second one is a waste, and Elementalist would give you more flexibility.”

  “At the cost of extra mana,” Ed countered, “which I’m already in short supply of.”

  A group of six giant hyenas chose that moment to charge at the party. The largest of the striped animals, which must have been at least three and a half meters long from nose to tail, stopped fifty meters from the party, and an eerie, chattering laughter filled the air. Dizziness washed over Ed when he heard the strange laughter, and his crossbow slipped from his hands as he fell to his knees, unable to keep his balance. Looking around him, he saw that his companions were in a similar state, and the rest of the hyena pack approached the downed party fearlessly.

  F
ortunately, the clockwork archer was unaffected by the hyena’s laughter, and it slowly and methodically raised its bow and aimed it at the laughing pack leader, the arrow flying true and striking the hyena’s foot. It wasn’t enough to kill the large beast, but it stopped laughing for long enough that Katya was able to get to her feet and start to sing. The pack leader quickly began its laughter again, but Ed couldn’t hear anything other than Katya’s song.

  Ingrid and the phantasmal dwarf have also recovered from the dizziness, and were ready to meet the charging hyenas. A Shield Bash stunned the first to reach them, and Ingrid’s taunt made sure the other four concentrated on her. A barrage of Acid Bolts, Firebolts and crossbow bolts made short work of the hyena’s pack leader, while the phantasmal dwarf and cat-kin peeled off one of the hyenas attacking Ingrid and slowly whittled down its health. Once the leader was down, the party’s ranged attackers turned towards the rest of the pack, and quickly put an end to the battle.

  Chapter 13:

  The Luck of Sindbad

  "So which of phantasms should Ed use?" Katya asked after everyone had caught their breaths.

  "I'm not sure we should continue this talk here, where we can be attacked at any moment," Ed answered after sending his phantasmal cat-kin to skin the dead hyenas.

  "Is safest place from curious ears, unless you invite me into bear's house?"

  "I'm not sure how safe from curious ears home will be if we bring one of Sveta's inside. Mother will certainly do anything she can to listen in," Ingrid added.

  "So we're talking here, but I want everyone to keep an eye out for more monsters," Ed ordered.

  "I still think Sorcerer is the way to go if you're getting a second Classshard, and that means the fox. You getting some extra agility isn't a bad thing too," Lucy said.

  "And you are not at all saying that because you want Ed to be a foxboy," Ingrid muttered.

  "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."