Aether Knight: Desolation: A LitRPG Light Novel

by Tracy Gregory

  His gaze drifted to the camp near the base of the mountains. What remained of the chosen warriors locked within its walls of metal and wood. Horton had been working on a plan to recruit them into his knights, to reinforce their number, but had gotten nowhere so far. It was proving difficult to get through to the Chosen, their religious fervour proving an as yet unassailable barrier to progress. Horton would keep trying, giving up wasn’t in his nature.

  Hopefully, Alex's mission would prove the tipping point. Peace with the chosen would allow for the two cultures to work together. The aether lands was a brutal place, and enmity served no one as far as Horton was concerned. Not when Friendspace was out there, doing who knew what. Horton knew they would be experimenting with aether and machina, it was what he was doing after all, but their goals would be much less noble than his own.

  Taking his weight off the railing, Horton turned and began to walk across the deck. He was heading towards the steps that led to the raised area at the aft. From here he could see Captain Matoya standing at the wheel of the ship. It was impossible to keep an airship stationary, the wind causing it to constantly drift slightly. Every couple of hours she would nudge the Moon back the other way and insisted on being on station constantly in case it was needed.

  “Captain,” Horton said as he climbed the steps.

  “Guild master. Spent a lot of time watching that caravan over the past day or two. Something going on there?” Matoya didn’t turn her head, simply staring forward as she tweaked the wheel slightly.

  “Something like that. Repairs coming along well?”

  “As can be. Hard to get things perfectly shipshape out here. Ideally, we need to spend some time moored up to get the work done properly. Though that's hard when we keep needing to put out fires.” The captain glanced to her side at the burnt countryside. “Metaphorically.”

  Horton nodded. “I understand, Captain. It’s true of a lot of things, the guild included. We’ll get there. In time.”

  ***

  Alex raised his shield, his timing slightly off. The metal took the brunt of the impact, sending him skidding across the ground. For the first time in a long time, Alex was panting, the battle with the snapjaw pushing him to the edge. The creature was only enraged by the damage his party were pouring into it and had begun lashing out in anger. The combination of a small patch of usable ground and enormous beast meant that there was little space to escape its fury.

  “Reloading!” Cassius said as he ejected the cartridge from his cannon. “I’m getting low here!” He slotted another cartridge into the waiting slot. There was one left hanging from his belt. After the battle Cassius would collect the empties, assuming he survived. They would gather the ambient aether from the air, recharging over the course of several hours.

  “That’s what you get for choosing a cannon over something more reliable!” Simian said, unable to avoid getting a dig in at his nemesis as he fired another rifle shot.

  “Well, I like my enemies to notice when I hit them!”

  “Focus, please!” Alex ducked under a tail swept his way, jabbing upwards at the momentarily exposed cable. “You can bicker all you want if we live.”

  The snapjaw let out another bellow, rearing up as it screamed in pain. Something had come flying out of the swamp, a sharp object that had punched through its fragile eye. A long cable trailed from the wound as neon blood pumped out around it. A loud whine followed, the cable retracting and pulling a figure through the air.

  “Who the hell is that?!” Casey said, slashing across the machina's rear left leg. Even with the shock of the new arrival, she was determined to chip away at the monster.

  The newcomer was standing atop the creature’s jaws, right hand gripping a spear that was still stuck in the machina’s eye. They were wearing a suit of militia armour, but the skill needed to attack as they had was beyond that civilian force. They had their visor down, obscuring their face.

  “Strike now! Whilst the beast is reeling!” The mystery warrior had a woman’s voice, one Alex found familiar but couldn’t quite place.

  Alex didn’t need to be told twice. The snapjaw had lifted itself onto its hind legs, thrashing its head back and forth as it tried to shake off its passenger. Its stomach was exposed, one that lacked the familiar sheen of armour plating.

  With his sword held high, Alex charged. He grabbed the hilt with both hands, plunging it into the exposed cabling and pulling downwards with his enhanced strength. The snapjaw's gut split, thick vibrant liquid pumping out from the wound. Alex couldn’t see, the blood covering his visor, but he pulled the sword free and slashed a second time anyway. He felt the same resistance that told him he had torn another serious wound into the beast.

  “Come on!” The voice was Casey's, the sound paired with a hand on his shoulder. She pulled him to the side, Alex feeling water around his ankles as he stepped into the swamp. A loud thud followed - a great crash that caused the ground to shake.

  Alex wiped the blood from his visor. The snapjaw was dead, the wounds inflicted by Alex enough to end the beast. The newcomer was still standing atop its skull. She lifted her spear, and with a loud whoosh, the tip flew through the air and embedded itself in a nearby mushroom. As quickly as she appeared, their mystery benefactor was gone, pulling themselves through the air and into the fungal forest nearby.

  “Uh, thanks,” Alex said. He turned to look at the shattered remnants of the caravan. “They could have stuck around and helped tidy up.”

  Chapter Ten

  You’re my Waterwall

  Alex put his hands beneath the side of the wagon and lifted, tipping the wooden vehicle back onto its wheels. The snapjaw had done serious damage, shattering half of the caravan and scaring off the packhooves that had been pulling it. Alex had taken it on himself to salvage what he could from the damaged vehicles whilst the others chased down the escaping draft machina. His enhanced strength was making righting the wagons a thankfully easy task.

  They had crept slowly forward into the swamp, concerned that the wagons could become stuck in the muck. Attack by machina was always a risk with the slow speed the caravan had adopted, but none of the knights had expected something so devastating. The entire situation didn’t sit well with Alex. All those machina bodies left in the path, forcing them to stop and investigate. He couldn’t imagine the snapjaw leaving remains, not after seeing it tear into a packhoove with such ferocity.

  Wagons placed the right way up, Alex stepped towards the pile of bodies. His harvesting crab was scuttling over the pile, drilling into them to extract its grim harvest. Alex had thrown it out to collect parts from the snapjaw and the tiny machina had simply moved from that corpse to the pile. Its drill let out a loud whine as it began to puncture the skull of a muckgrinder.

  Alex didn't see what he expected. The snawpjaw had lived up to its name, attacking with its fang-filled maw. If it had killed these machina it should have left puncture wounds over their bodies. Alex could see nothing of the sort. Instead, the dead machina were covered in cracked armour plates. Something heavy and hard had crashed into them repeatedly. Alex was certain that something else had killed these machina and placed them in a pile on purpose. It had been a trap, the level of intelligence involved implying human involvement. Alex felt his hand fall instinctively onto the hilt of his sword. If someone laid a trap for the caravan, they were likely still watching.

  Taking his hand from his sword, Alex let out a long controlled breath. He needed to stay calm. If he gave the impression that he was on to their attacker, then he ran the risk of them fleeing into the swamp. As calmly as he could Alex began to gather up the components the crab had shaken free.

  Duolisk plate. Common crafting material.

  Duolisk elemental regulator. Uncommon crafting material.

  Muckgrinder drill bit. Uncommon crafting material.

  Muckgrinder cabling. Common crafting material.

  He placed the components from the pile of smaller machina in his bag. Two regulators an
d two drill bits wasn’t a bad find, even if Alex and his party had progressed beyond muckgrinder and duolisks equipment. Uncommon parts tended to fetch a decent price regardless of what machina they were from. Alex turned his attention to the dead snapjaw scooping its components into his arms.

  Snapjaw plate. Common crafting material.

  Snapjaw tooth. Uncommon crafting material.

  Snapjaw hinge. Rare crafting material.

  Waterwall augment. Waterwall skill rank five. Rare augment.

  Alex placed the machina parts into his bag, keeping a hold of the augment for the moment. He turned it over in his hands, watching the energy tumble about within the glass bulb. It looked like it was filled with raging water, a tiny replica of a crashing waterfall that reoriented itself as the bulb twisted about. It had been a while since an augment had been pushed free from a dead machina by the crab, especially one of such rarity.

  “Anything good?” Casey said from behind Alex. She was leading a packhoove by its reins, the machina half covered in thick mud.

  “Augment. A rare one like your jet skill. Something called waterwall.” Alex turned and passed the augment to Casey. She did the same thing that he had done upon finding it, turning it about and making the aether inside roil.

  “Neat. If only we knew what waterwall did.” She passed it back. “Cassius and Simian will be here in a moment. We found two of our machina nearby stuck in a mud…hole? Like quicksand, but with mud. Don't know the technical term. I pulled this one out and they're recovering the other. Once they finish arguing over how to do that.”

  “Sounds about right. You just found two?”

  “Yeah, just two.”

  “Well, we only have two wagons left anyway. It's not ideal, is it?” Alex gestured at the remains of the caravan behind him. “I've put what's left back on their wheels. Help me clear out the wreckage so we can link them up?”

  “Sure? Shouldn’t be all that hard though, and I need to get this machina tied off. You co-”

  “Just come with me,” Alex said, his voice determined.

  “Fine, fine.” Casey raised her hands, following Alex as he walked towards the pile of shattered wood between the two usable wagons. She bent down to pick up a fragment of wood as Alex did the same.

  “Don’t stand back up yet. Keep looking downwards.” Alex was whispering, trying to keep his voice low despite the amplifying effect of his helmet. “The wounds on that pile of dead machina don’t match what I would expect from that snapjaw. It’s like they died from crushing blows.”

  “Another machina then?”

  “No. I can’t imagine that a machina would pile up bodies like that, and in Rory’s territory as well. I think it was bait to lure him closer to the shore. We wandered into a trap.”

  “Our mystery saviour, maybe?” Casey stood up, tossing a chunk of wood out into the water with a plop. She bent back down, grabbing another.

  Alex copied her, throwing his wagon fragment. “Why would you trap someone, save them, then go swinging off like a superhero? Doesn't make sense, it has to be someone else. I would bet good money they're still watching us.”

  “Agreed. We’ll have to be careful. Could easily be another trap at some point. Who do you think that person was, with the spear?”

  “No idea,” Alex said. “They were wearing militia gear, but they fought like a knight. Pretty sure spears that are also grappling hooks aren’t standard issue in the militia. I think it’s safe to say that our missions isn’t as secret as we thought it was.”

  “So, what do we do about it?” Casey threw another chunk of wood to her side. “Turn back?”

  “No. We’re so close to the ruins that we might as well press on. If we turn back now this would have been a waste of time. And money. How much zenni was the deposit on those wagons?”

  “Too much.”

  An electronic braying announced the arrival of Simian and Cassius, their packhoove protesting at being pulled along by the two men. They eyed the pile of machina bodies suspiciously as they passed it. They tied the machina to the one Casey had recovered, then attached them both to the front wagon.

  “Too busy to tie up the packhoove?” Cassius said as he walked past the front wagon. “We don’t want it to run off again.”

  “We’ll explain once we’re back on the road,” Alex said. “Help us clear this junk out of the way. We’ll need to push those bodies into the water as well.”

  “Find anything good on them?” Simian was leaning against the wagon. The way he asked the question implied he knew the answer. The man had a nose for valuables.

  “One shiny new augment. Rare quality. I figure that it’s your turn to get it, Cass. I got the last one.”

  Cassius shook his head. “I’ve got not slots spare. There’s an augment on them all.”

  “Oh. I’ve never seen you use any of their abilities.”

  “No idea how. I think one of them lets me resist the cold a little bit better, but the rest I’ve no clue. I would kill to understand the effects of aether like you do.” Cassius’s disappointment was obvious.

  “So that makes it my turn then?” Simian said, his hand outstretched ready.

  Casey waggled her finger at him, her other hand resting on her hip. “I don’t think so. Rare augments are a big upgrade for our party. We might need the power if we come across another machina like that one.” She gestured towards the ominous corpse of the snapjaw. “Upgrades go to the people who are usually in the party.”

  “So, it’s yours then?” Alex said, offering the shimmering augment to Casey.

  She shook her head. “Nah, I got the first rare one. The one we found after was only common. This is yours. Besides waterwall sounds like a defensive thing.”

  “Fair enough.” Alex adjusted his shield, screwing the augment into the waiting empty slots near the grip. The glow within grew stronger as it was clicked into place. He raised his free hand, dragging down his menu and opening the skills page.

  Waterwall. Five out of five. Channel your weapon’s aether edge into a defensive shield. Higher ranks increase the multiplication of the aether edge.

  “Casey was right, it’s a defensive effect,” Alex said, closing the menu. “It says to channel my weapon’s aether edge? Not sure exactly how I would do that?”

  “Maybe it’s literally just touching your weapon to the augment?” Casey said, miming the motion as she spoke.

  “It’s worth a try,” Cassius said.

  Alex turned to face away from the group, just in case the effect was dangerous. He drew his blade, taking a moment to admire the shimmering pink field around it, runes glowing along its length. Aether edge was a fine layer of energy that allowed weapons to slice through the thick machina armour. The more energy a weapon could coalesce the better it was at breaking through. Alex held his shield before him and touched the tip of his sword to the glass of the augment.

  The air before him became a swirling maelstrom of water. It was erupting from a central point before his shield, the torrent rushing out from nothingness as it coalesced. The water rushed outwards, forming a curving wall that stretched out about a meter on both sides from Alex. The water at the edge of the wall disappeared as miraculously as it arrived, leaving only a fine mist.

  Alex removed the sword, and the water crashed to the ground, washing across his feet and joining the swamp around him.

  “That was cool as hell,” Casey said.

  “It was. I want to try something though.” Alex sheathed his blade for a moment, fishing an aether stone from his inventory. He pulled his sword back out, the neon pink stone disintegrating as he rubbed it along the metal. The shimmer around the weapon grew slightly more vibrant, the aether edge empowered by the stone.

  Placing the blade against the augment a second time, another wall roared to life. It was larger this time, not by much, but it was instantly noticeable, easily another fifteen centimetres on each side. Alex allowed the wall to collapse and put away his sword, the scabbard clattering against
his armour.

  “More aether edge, more wall,” Alex said. “Good to know. Means the augment will scale with our equipment. I wonder how much of an impact it will take? Looks like it’s big enough to protect a decently sized area. Probably not as good as my perfect guard, but I guess it's a trade-off that's worth making sometimes.”

  “We done playing?” Simian said. “It’s all very impressive, but time is zenni.”

  “Yeah. Take the front wagon with us. We’ve got things to talk about,” Alex said.

  ***

  Anaya watched the caravan start trundling away from her vantage point amongst the mushrooms. The heretics had displayed a starling new ability, a wall of rushing water rising to defend them. Anaya found it fascinating. They had never shown this before, not even during the battle just gone. They had to have acquired the ability after the creature's death. It wasn't a concept alien to Anaya, after all her eyes allowed her vision beyond the heretics as well as allowing strong bonds to form with machina. It followed that the heretics had a similar method for harnessing power from harvested parts.

  She wondered if the same was true about the Developers. Had those strange people from the west found a similar way to harness the powers of the machina? Despite her distaste for the heretics, Anaya had to admit that having access to their technology would elevate the Chosen to another level. Mounted warriors invoking their own machina powers to support their mounts, rider and beast operating at a level of unity previously impossible.

  Anaya’s eyes glanced around searching for any sign of her fellow warrior. She was more certain than ever that one had to be here in the swamp. They had taken the time to lay out a trap that to Anaya’s eyes only existed to try and destroy the caravan. Destroying heretics was the chosen’s sacred duty, and she had to admit it was an admirable attempt. The caravan would likely have to cross the swamp a second time as it returned home, and Anaya wasn’t sure she would intervene a second time should her unseen brethren made another attempt.