"Alright," Dirk said. "We can chat all day, or we can train hard and if we're lucky, be ready for the adventure of our lifetimes. What's it going to be?"
With the answer obvious, Val found himself relishing the practice more than ever, using his ward and PRM to push aside Julia and Dirk's magical attacks while Chris taught Yin the basics of sword and shield before they switched up their training. Soon Val was holding shield and training blade once more, between Chris and Dirk, all of them looking at a row of targets painted onto the hard rocky face a small hill on the property grounds, most of it covered in blossoming bushes and wildflowers, giving off the most delightful of perfumes. The hill had been deliberately cut into, tearing up the symmetry of the grounds but allowing for target practice with minimal risk of any stray shots hitting any innocent bystanders. Atop that mini ledge above the targets was a device that looked like nothing so much as a tennis ball server machine.
Dirk grinned. "I know what you're thinking, and that thing's balls hit a hell of a lot harder than a tennis ball. It will give you a bruise unless you parry appropriately. Now, for all that Chris is getting damned good with his oversized Zweihander, we're training in a classic defensive formation since this world has minimal healing spells. And while we're parrying, you, Val, are going to be casting every offensive spell you have at the targets painted onto the ledge. Everyone follow?"
Chris and Val nodded, Dirk gave a nod, and within seconds the guard stationed atop the hill using the tennis ball contraption was indeed shooting leather covered bundles of pain at all of them, and Val found it distracting at first, trying to summon up Ice Spear while dodging balls that smacked into his shield with considerable force, by a man obviously promised a bonus if he could hit any of them.
"Ouch! Damn that stings."
"Focus, Chris," Dirk reproved. "You're not even casting spells."
"That's right," Chris laughed. "Which is why I have my blaster! Damn if that idiot hadn't almost hit it," he said, crackling discharges marking the sound of the dwarven weapon firing, spearing holes into the clay dummy he was aiming at.
"Val, come on, we're counting on you!" Dirk snapped, and Val knew he was riding Val on purpose, seeing what he was made of, forcing him to accept his flaws by smearing his face in it, just like a drill sergeant.
Val flashed a grim smile as he felt the shuddering rush of magic roaring through him, gripping tightly to any excess arcane radiation, his boosted ice spear flashing through the air, slamming against the face of the overhang and blasting into the solid stone with a loud crack before falling to the ground along with a small shower of rubble. PRM modified boosted Ice Spear successfully cast! 41 mana spent! 302 mana remaining.
Dirk gave an approving nod. "Well done. You've got a knack. Dodge that! Good. But you tend to pour it on when you're tense or seeing action. Control, Val. Try for a standard Ice Spear. It's more than enough to pierce through most man-sized opponents, assuming they aren't wearing plate armor, and we need to conserve our energy in case it's a drawn-out battle. Now rest until you're back up to full, and try standard castings."
"Yes sir," Val heard himself say, feeling Dirk's mental snort through their Spirit Link, knowing he did indeed need to practice control.
The next Ice Spear he cast flowed from his hands as smooth as silk, as did the score he cast afterwards, now having the measure of the increasingly frustrated shooter just above their targets, who couldn't land a ball past Val's shield no matter how hard he tried, Val more than ready to duck and lift his shield, or skip aside no matter where the man aimed, even when he increased his firing rate considerably.
"Val!"
A panicked roar. Val blinked, wrenching his hand away from his target, heart hammering in his throat, having all but tasted the shooter's terror as his Ice Spear almost tore through the man's throat before Val jerked the spell away, all of them looking at that icy spear of death, soaring hundreds of feet into the heavens.
"Shit," Chris whispered.
"What the hell are you thinking? You could have killed my man! This isn't some damned game! What the hell would we have done if you had killed him? Who would have fed his wife and kids? Damn it, Val, you need control at all times!"
Val lowered his head, cheeks flushing in shame. "You're right, Dirk." He swallowed, forcing himself to say it. "I fucked up. I'm sorry."
Yin and Julia had stopped practicing, both of them were presently gazing wide-eyed at Val.
"Julia?"
"Yes, Yin?"
"Did we just watch Val cast twenty Ice Spears? In a row?"
Julia slowly nodded. "That we did, Yin. That we did."
"Damn, but I want that boy's mana pool," Yin replied, her envious, hungry gaze pinning Val where he stood.
Julia nodded, piercing green eyes catching his own.
Val swallowed, turning his gaze. Each Ice Spear had cost 11 mana with the 4 point reduction that carefully forging his spell webs had given him, his Personal Resonance Mastery growing more and more natural with each casting, having slowed him down less and less until it was beginning to feel second nature to him. He knew he needed practice, however, a lot more. His mana pool wasn't down nearly as much as it could have been, regenerating almost 3 and a half points per second with each PRM casting having been about once every 5 seconds towards the end. He didn't recover mana for the seconds he was tying the magics together, but the pause when his magic muscle unclenched and relaxed had still given him 70 points back between the 20 castings, putting him down 150 mana, even now quickly ticking back up.
Dirk waved his apology to the cursing guard above. "You did fuck up, Val, but you understand that, and I hope from here on out you treat every NPC on these grounds just as if he were a living, thinking human being under your command. So for fuck's sake, think, and try not to kill members of your own team."
Dirk gave a tight, thoughtful nod. "Alright, at least I know the pair of you can cover yourselves against enemy fire, for all that greased balls of leather and lead aren't exactly like lasers or arrows, but it's the best we can do until we see live action." He flashed Val a cold smile. "Now that we know our little prodigy here has more energy than a monkey on speed, Val can start practicing his Synergized Ward while he's shooting out those ice spears. That mana shield's diameter is almost identical to the round shields we train with. Of course, it will also catch spells or laser fire at other angles, but much less effectively. Count on that for handling bleed through damage, and try to use your Synergized Ward just like a shield to counter any direct hit."
Dirk nodded as Val took a few moment's concentration, remembering the dizzying complexity of the synergized ward he had cast the day before, feeling that same visceral rush when it all clicked into place once more.
Synergized Ward successfully cast! 10 mana spent. Mana regeneration slowed by 0.5 mana per second.
Dirk smiled. "Good man. Now. Shoot at the cliff face as before. And this time use your other destructive spells."
Val nodded.
PRM Boosted Firestream successfully cast! 11 mana spent!
Val grinned. His boosted Firestream roared with flesh-searing heat, and cost just as much as his regular Ice Spear to cast. But the range, even boosted, wouldn't hit the targets.
"A great short range spell, that. Okay. Chris and I have backed away. Can you cast a normal stream and maintain it? Mime washing it over enemy troops like a flamethrower?"
Val nodded, his regular Firestream near effortless to summon forth.
Chris whistled. "Damn, this kid's a natural."
Val felt a sudden prickle of what he feared was jealousy, and immediately quenched his spell.
Dirk frowned. "Keep going, Val, I want to see how long you can keep it up."
But he was already heading toward Julia and Yin, the latter suddenly crowing with excitement. "I got it! I fucking got it! Finally, I can cast magic! Thank you so much, Julia!" Yin gave her new friend a happy squeeze before bouncing up and down, trying to hug Val before stumbling back and rubbing he
r face, glaring at Val.
"Sorry," he mumbled, relaxing his Synergized Ward, effectively a nearly invisible shield.
Yin suddenly grinned. "I love that I can actually feel pain! It makes this world seem so real! But don't hit me again, okay? Anyway, look, Val, I can finally cast a spell!"
And Val smiled and stepped back, clapping approvingly when a fiercely concentrating Yin managed to shoot forth a modest jet of flame from her hands.
"Well done, Yin!" Chris declared, giving a now panting Yin a high five.
Dirk nodded. "I'm impressed. Damn impressed. You learned that spell even faster than I had hoped."
Yin flashed a cheeky grin, eyes twinkling. "And what a rush it was! Don't worry, boss, just give this girl a glass of that digital sangria, and I'll keep at it till I can cast it as fast and hot as Mr. Prodigy himself, here."
Dirk chuckled. "That's the kind of attitude I like to see in a recruit! You keep at it. Val? Practice with her, coach her, share whatever insights you have. God knows you're doing something right with your casting, and if you can teach her whatever the hell it is that lets you cast twenty Ice Spears instead of dropping after five, our team will be that much stronger. Now I gotta talk to our own magical prodigy."
With that he hurried after Julia who was already walking to the other side of the field at a fast clip.
And Val could all but taste her prickly frustration.
Shit.
But before he could talk to her, Yin was already grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the targets, "So, Val, can you do it while I do it? I think I'll get even better if I can feel your magic flowing through you while I try to cast mine..."
Val frowned. Keeping a low profile or no, he definitely needed a way to talk to Julia outside of the game. Perhaps he and his father could pay another late night visit at their house, bond over a family dinner, dropping off a backup burner phone as well.
"Val? is everything okay?" asked a suddenly concerned Yin.
Val forced himself to smile. "All good, Yin. Come on, let's practice that Firestream spell. Here I'm building it up nice and slow, and there, release." Val couldn't help feeling better as the sweet susurrations of magic resonated through him, the same rush he'd get holding tight to his dirt bike, vibrating like mad as he'd race down the hill near his house as a kid, loving the rush of speed, skirting the edge of danger, enjoying the feeling of mastery and control.
By her intense expression and her satisfied smile with each successful casting, Val could tell Yin felt the same.
And then Val felt it. The sudden tension as the air itself grew heavy with the weight of impending disaster.
12
"Val?"
Yin's startled expression.
No time to explain.
Val was already racing across the grounds, desperate to make it in time.
He could feel the terrible cords of magics he could barely fathom slowly unraveling from a web of exquisite complexity, showcasing skills far beyond his own.
But the cords were stretched tight.
A single burr in the exquisite framework was all it took to kiss oblivion's promise.
Disaster just a heartbeat away.
"Val?" Dirk's gaze. Alarm muting instantly to battle-ready fury. Hand withdrawing from blade and blaster as Val, not a secret assassin out to kill Dirk after all, blasted past him.
"Val!"
Val jerked with his right hand, the SF sign for abort that he had no doubt Dirk understood, even as his left summoned his synergized ward, terror lending a strange icy clarity to his thoughts, feeling it roar to life as skills did for him at times when so many other soldiers stumbled and froze.
Boosted Synergized Ward cast! Critical failure check made! Congratulations! By some flawed understanding in your oddly shaped brain, you've managed to overload your Mageward! 50 mana spent! Your Synergized Ward now has access to your full mana reserves and is capable of absorbing wounds of severe nature or lower! Don't expect this shield to hold too long, Val. All things come at a cost, and your mana is draining even now...
"Julia!" Val screamed. "Pull out! Pull out! Say the P word! Say it now!"
He could see her then, as Val raced for all he was worth, booted feet tearing into the loamy ground.
Julia. Scarred, beautiful, gazing with fierce determination at the furiously crackling ball of death in the form of tungsten carbide crystals surrounding a core of super-heated plasma even now forming into being. Val blinked in disbelief, for all that it was his Arcane Perception intuiting the elemental makeup the weapon.
Tungsten carbide. What tank piercing rounds were once made of. More than capable of shredding steel covered knights, or in the form of kinetic missiles, blowing up hidden bunkers from space. And Val could sense the terrible twisting of the web, how the matrix was heartbeats away from collapsing in on its core.
Julia herself.
"Pull out!" Val screamed. "Say the P word, Julia!"
And Julia blinked, perhaps realizing how dire her peril was only at that moment, fierce determination turning into horrified exhaustion as she collapsed to her knees, the spell cords snapping apart ever faster, the hideous ball of fiery death about to bring oblivion down upon them both.
"Julia!" At that moment Val felt the tight cords whipping free as if they were living tendrils. As real and malleable as the spell matrices he had practiced so diligently controlling with his PRM ability, just minutes ago. Seeing in a terrible epiphany that it was only a tiny jump from manipulating one's own spell webs to shaping another's.
Haunted green eyes locked with his own. "Val..."
But Val had eyes only for the terrible ball of death beginning its descent, shoving outward with every iota of his will to shove the nexus aside, and more importantly, to pivot that shrieking ball of death around.
And time seemed to stretch as he crashed into Julia, holding his left hand high, his exquisite ward blazing even brighter than when boosted moments ago, knowing somehow he had done something terrible with his skill, and that it didn't matter.
Congratulations!...
Because the hideous ball of metal and fiery death touched down, and it was all Val could do to somehow pivot the force point around, and the hideous blast that ensued sent fragments of armor-piercing shrapnel tearing forth in all directions save their own as the superheated core erupted in a ghastly fireball of inconceivable destruction.
You've been critically hit! 40 damage taken!
Somehow, Val's flash of intuition had been spot on. By pivoting the strike point, they were able to avoid the worst of the shrapnel. But the shock wave roared into his Synergized Ward and he fought desperately to hold it steady even as the air burned, even as a hideous thunderclap of force crashed into it, his shield somehow managing to absorb the shock wave itself before finally collapsing.
You've been critically hit! 70 damage taken! Left arm broken!
He was sent flying, tumbling head over heels, the world seeming to switch places with the heavens over and over before he crashed to the ground.
Hard.
You've been critically hit! 80 damage taken! Both legs shattered! Concussion suffered!
Congratulations! Your Spell boost is now Rank 2!
Solar plexus bruised, save against death!
Val tried to scream as he was suddenly flooded by inconceivable pain roaring through his soul like a thousand shrieking banshees, every nerve fiber alive with horrific agony, stomach twisting in torturous knots as his body tried to heave, and he couldn't puke. He couldn't breathe. He could get no air. And suddenly his desperate need to breathe began to override even the agony of his limbs, panicked eyes gazing frantically around as the massive quarterback figure of Chris lurched into view, gazing at Val with a mixture of shocked disbelief and awe.
"Oh shit, you're actually alive, man. Damn, thank god!" His demeanor instantly turned professional. "Alright, hold on, Val. Just try to relax, try to breathe." His guildmate then began massaging his chest, gently at first, then applying mo
re pressure, and Val could tell he was a heartbeat away from performing CPR when Val was finally able to wheeze.
Half a gasp and screams began to fill the clearing, so much so that Val suddenly thought he was overseas, with his unit, and they had just gotten hit.
Then he realized they were all his own.
Flooded with pain, pulling him under like the riptide of a once placid ocean brought to terrible life with a winter storm.
"Val, hold on, man, hold on!" Chris's voice fading in and out.
And Val gasped, eyes widened into full hideous awareness once more as a now deadly serious Chris near smashed his teeth out, forcing a bitter brew between Val's lips.
"Drink this, man! Injuries carry over now! You leave, you're dead! Stay and drink this, damn it, stay with us! Fuck. Dirk, get the hell back here! We need to hit the Dominion Rejuvenation center in York, stat, or Val's a fucking goner!"
And the hideous potion prevented him from blacking out, as dearly as he wanted to, mind stimulated despite itself as he felt strange sweet currents flooding his body, easing the horrid ache in his chest, the odd disconnect he felt in his brain, which only made the pain worse as his thoughts became clear and lucid.
Val flinched at his own screams as an anxious Dirk suddenly filled Val's view, sharing a look with his friend.
"Okay soldier, this is going to hurt like a bitch, but we need to do it. We have no stretcher nor means to make one, so we're going to fireman carry you back to the manor." Dirk turned to his friend. "Which potion?"
"Greater healing. I'm not going to fuck around on this, bro."
Dirk flashed a mirthless smile. "Good call. But the rejuvenation center is a no go."
Chris's brows furrowed. "What the hell?"
"Think, man. You know this game. We're mercs. Appreciated, second tier, but the city's been hit again. Those rebel bastards are determined to shut down any more Dominion players from jumping into the game." He smiled down at Val. "I've been keeping touch on the comms, and I'm able to piece together some of the damn confusing lingo after half a year of dedicated study. Your repairs are still holding and one more player has ported in safe and sound, thanks to your work. One more mech pilot to the game. But if we went there, we'd never get seen. There's only a skeleton crew, no medical restoration specialists, and the Dominion's own soldiers would come first."
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 22
