by Gage Lee
>>>Avatar connection opened. Do you wish to accept?<<<
“This is it,” I shouted. “I have to go buy us some time. Drag me the rest of the way. Don’t worry about being gentle, but make sure nothing happens to this satchel over my shoulder. We have to get there fast. Don’t go to the front door; head to the east side.”
“How are we going to get in?” Xin asked.
“I’ll take care of it,” I said, and sat down in the middle of the street. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
>>>Avatar connection initiated in five...<<<
“Prepare the soulforged armor,” I whispered to the interface. Then I closed my eyes and waited for the tug of the avatar ripping me out of my body and dumping me inside Monitor.
I woke to the same red-tinted view of the Academy, but this time we weren’t in the great hall. Monitor had positioned himself in a part of the building I’d never seen. Baylo stood before us, her hand resting on the handles of a pair of enormous metal doors.
“You there, engineer?” Baylo asked. “The suits are ready. As soon as you fuel them up, they’ll do what you need. Say the word and I’ll open the doors.”
It occurred to me that I had no real idea what the soulforged armor did. I knew it required an engineer, but that was it. It was time for on-the-job training.
“Let’s go,” I said.
>>>Soulforged armor restoration complete. Activating soulforged armor. Prepare for integration. Dominant ability for this fusion is Charisma.
Five hundred ghostlight blades expended to fuel soulforged armor.
Current ghostlight reserves are at seven hundred ghostlight blades. <<<
A cold wind blew across the back of my neck as my mind was ripped out of Monitor’s body and cast adrift.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I HUNG IN A DARK SPACE, trapped between here and there. I was blind and deaf, my senses obliterated without a body to interpret them.
And then I was everywhere at once.
Twenty sets of ears heard roaring blasts smash into the school’s roof. Twenty heads turned toward the ceiling, forty eyes burned with rage at the assault on their home. I raised the fists of every suit of armor at the same time, then stomped their feet with a thunderous din. I hadn’t been sure how the armor would work, but so far it exceeded my wildest expectations. Inphyr had thought he’d trapped the engineer outside the school where I couldn’t defend my friends or sister.
Now he had to deal with twenty of me.
Baylo stared at the gleaming suits of armor in awe as I stormed out of the storage facility. My feet slammed into the wooden floors with perfect synchronicity, banging out a marching rhythm that rang through the halls like thunder. I stomped into the armory and grabbed shardthrowers and swords for myselves, then marched through the Academy’s halls and out the main entrance.
The flapping of wings was nearly deafening with so many of Inphyr’s allies swarming overhead. I’d expected that, though.
What I didn’t expect was the amount of fire that rained down from the monsters. Streams of green flames burst from the flyers’ mouths to rake the Academy’s rooftops with burning tongues. What surprised me even more, though, was the fact that they weren’t just small kamarotz. They were something else altogether.
>>>Blightflyer Scrat, Fallen humanoid beastkin
Second-level core
Neutral Strength, Excellent Dexterity, Flawed Constitution, Neutral Intelligence, Neutral Wisdom, Inferior Charisma
Agile flight and blightfire disciplines
Threat level: Yellow<<<
The winged scrats were even more disgusting than their earthbound relatives. Their exceptionally scrawny bodies hung between mangy wings tipped with yellowed claws. Their guts were enormous, probably to contain the green fire they belched from between their blackened jaws. From what the interface told me, they were extraordinarily agile but wouldn’t stand up to any sort of beating. That was perfect for what I had in mind.
So far, Inphyr and his flying circus hadn’t noticed my squad of soulforged constructs. I marched my bodies to the end of the Academy, crouched all of them down, took aim with the shardthrowers, and unleashed a volley of deadly projectiles into the firebreathing swarm overhead. I was no expert with these weapons, but the sheer number of bolts I flung into the sky and the density of the flyers guaranteed me a few hits. Three of the blightflyers squealed in shock as missiles ripped through the flaps of their wings and sent them plummeting earthward. Another pair didn’t have time for so much as a squeak before the quarrels detonated their bellies. The blightfire inside them instantly ignited, incinerating their bodies and spewing green flames in every direction. The incendiary fluid splattered across nearby scrats, burning holes in their leathery hides and adding more flaming corpses to the deadly rain.
Inphyr circled high above his minions, well out of bowshot. Even at that distance, though, his blazing red eyes shone down on the scene like a pair of malevolent stars. His words boomed across the battlefield, and the blightflyers responded instantly to his orders. The revolting creatures wheeled away from the Academy, rose higher into the sky, and lined up for a strafing run on the soulforged armor.
My bodies reloaded the shardthrowers, took aim, and waited for the enemies to drop into range again. Even though I wasn’t physically present, my heart pounded in my chest. I didn’t know how well the armor could stand up to fire, but I had to whittle down as many of the blightflyers as I could before they burned the school to the ground. The only hope my friends had was for me to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible before Inphyr himself attacked.
Wind screamed over the wings of the descending blightflyers. They plunged toward my forces like bolts of black lightning from the angry heavens, fire glowing in their gullets as they prepared to unleash their deadly attacks. In seconds, those flames would engulf my troops.
I held my fire until the first flying scrat released its flames. All twenty of my bodies squeezed their triggers. A withering hail of heavy bolts soared into the air. At such close range, the plummeting blightflyers had no chance to escape the brutal assault. Missiles slammed into their scrawny bodies, shredding wings, puncturing distended guts, and ripping through skulls. Blood and fire rained from the sky.
The scrats had come in so fast and close together they couldn’t avoid the fiery devastation that still hung in the air ahead of them. As the front ranks of their formation disintegrated in bursts of green flame, those in the rear plowed into the chaos. Flesh withered and blackened as fire consumed it, sending more of the scrats crashing into the ground. The bodies broke apart on impact with my armor and covered the terrain in streaks of green fire as they disintegrated.
The suits of soulforged armor didn’t feel pain or fear. The flames that dripped from their iron skin didn’t bother them in the slightest. They couldn’t see a thing in the cloud of smoke and fire that was all that remained of the first wave of scrat attackers, so I ordered a retreat to assess the situation.
>>>Fusion connection to soulforged armor has suffered moderate damage. Connection strength at seventy-five percent.<<<
I’d inflicted horrible damage on the scrats, but I hadn’t escaped entirely unscathed. Three of the soulforged who’d taken the brunt of the incendiary assault no longer responded to my commands. The magic that powered them was gone, and the ghostlight they’d once contained leaked out and soaked into the earth in golden puddles. The other loss was the shardthrowers, which might’ve been a more grievous casualty. All their strings had snapped in the heat, rendering them useless. Baylo would probably be able to repair them, but there was no time for that now. The next wave of blightflyers was already screaming out of the sky.
My bodies drew their long swords and braced to receive the attack.
The scrats used their superior range to hammer away at the soulforged armor without fear of retaliation. The merciless volley seemed to go on forever, and I was helpless to stop it. I couldn’t see anything through the blaze that surroun
ded my troops, and I was deafened by the hungry roar of the flames. The metal resisted the fire better than flesh would have, but some armor had already buckled and warped under the intense heat. Worse, the incendiary liquid managed to creep inside a suit of armor, where it damaged the ghostlight containment crystals. A puff of green-and-gold smoke rose into the air, and the metal form collapsed in a heap amongst its fellows.
I reached out to Monitor again and gave him a new set of orders. I still had four minutes of fuel left, but without missile weapons, I’d need help to make the most of them.
The blightflyers finally exhausted the supply of incendiary fluid in their bellies. They climbed back into the sky, their wings flapping more slowly, their flights drunken and sloppy. While they hadn’t lost any of their number in that attack, it had cost them in other ways. The creatures lacked the endurance to sustain their disciplines through a long battle. They were shock troops, meant to hit and then get out. Faced with foes who didn’t flee or catch fire, the flying scrats were much less powerful than they would have been against flesh-and-blood warriors.
In that moment, Fell Lord Inphyr’s plan became clear to me. He’d hoped to strike the Academy while our forces were split and inflict enough damage on the building and its facilities to make it impossible for me to repair the gate. That would’ve given him time to march the rest of his troops through the city and lay siege to the school without worrying that I’d escape before he could capture me. If this strike had succeeded, we’d have had no hope against Inphyr.
It was a good plan, but just like he’d outplayed me at the tower, I’d turned the tables to reclaim the advantage. Inphyr was committed to the attack now, and if he didn’t destroy the refinery or burn the school to the ground, then his only shot at capturing an engineer would slip through his fingers. With most of his ground troops dead or too far away to stop us, my allies and I would be able to go out and gather as much ghostlight ore as we liked. The Fell Lord couldn’t afford to retreat, and he couldn’t wait for the rest of his forces to arrive. Inphyr had to see this battle through to the end, no matter what happened.
And I intended to use that to my advantage.
I marched the soulforged armor away from the school and parked them near the fence, well back from the shelter provided by the Academy. The metal suits formed up in a triangle, with the wide end facing the Academy and the point backed up to the bars. The rear ranks knelt down while the front ranks raised their arms overhead. Those in the middle huddled together, feverishly working on a project their bodies concealed from my enemies. Metal clanked and rattled from deep within the formation as my forces hurried to complete their task before another group of flying scrats could attack.
But they were too slow.
The next wave of scrats dropped out of the sky and unleashed gouts of bilious green fire. The grass ignited around my soldiers, raising a cloud of dense smoke that blinded me.
Just like their last attack, the blightflyers didn’t let up until they’d emptied their bellies on my forces. Fire glowed through the smoke, flames the color of antifreeze clawing their way toward the sky.
But the soulforged armor kept on. The fire had scorched them black, but the metal soldiers were not about to stop.
>>>Fusion connection to soulforged armor has suffered serious damage. Connection strength at fifty percent.<<<
That wasn’t good. If my troops fell apart before the second half of my plan kicked off, we were dead meat. I willed my bodies to stay on their feet despite the grievous damage they’d sustained.
>>>Your connection may be strengthened by infusing your heart meridian. Note that this will increase the strength of your bond to the armor, as well. Damage to your physical form may result.<<<
“Do it,” I spat. There was no turning back now. I had to keep the armor on its feet to keep my friends and sister alive. There was no other option.
>>>Infusing one blade into heart meridian. Charisma temporarily improved by one rank to Good.
Connection repaired to seventy-five percent.
You have sustained minor damage.<<<
Phantom flames raised tiny blisters across my arms and chest. I endured the pain. It would all be worth it when the rest of my plan played out. It had to be.
Inphyr urged his fiery fliers on, roaring commands that hurt my ears even through the secondhand senses of my surviving bodies. He worried there was something stirring within the formation of his enemies, and he wanted it destroyed before it wreaked havoc on his troops. Another wave of blightflyers joined the fray, and then another. The fires had grown so intense that the fence’s bars had warped, and the black spear tips that crowned it were blunted and drooping.
The armor sagged, their legs buckling under the inferno.
>>>Soulforged armor has sustained critical damage. Connection failure is imminent.<<<
“Infuse three blades into my heart meridian,” I groaned. I couldn’t fail my sister again.
>>>Warning, engineer. This exceeds the safety threshold. You will sustain critical physical damage if you proceed.<<<
“Do it,” I snarled through gritted teeth and braced myself for the pain I knew was coming.
>>>Infusing three blades into heart meridian for a total of four blades. Charisma temporarily improved by three additional ranks from Good to Superior.
You have sustained serious physical damage. Current health reserves below twenty-five percent.<<<
I was burning alive. My skin felt tight and crunchy, the muscles beneath soft as bacon fat. The pain was maddening, but I endured it. And the armored bodies refused to fall. They continued to work on the project I’d given them, still standing through the sheer force of my willpower as much as their own structural integrity. Rivets popped free from armored plates, and bolts melted and dripped onto the ground. I commanded the armor on the outside of the formation to support their allies in the middle. None of the bodies under my command was allowed to collapse.
The Fell Lord raged in the sky. He commanded more and more of his troops to join the attack until all of them with fire in their bellies gathered in a deadly thundercloud. My enemies’ attention was focused on one thing and one thing only: reducing those metal bodies to slag.
“Now!” I commanded Monitor.
Shardthrower bolts streamed out of the school’s watchtower. A hail of black missiles plowed into the flying scrats with catastrophic results. One of the blightflyers exploded and unleashed a chain reaction that rolled through the other scrats. Bellies full of fire burst apart, shredding their allies with bone shrapnel. The pyrotechnic display went on and on, laying waste to the blightflyers in shocking numbers. Dozens of charred, shredded corpses fell out of the sky and splattered among the warped and twisted bodies of the soulforged armor.
My connection to those metal bodies had already begun to fade. The ghostlight that held them together was exhausted, and they’d suffered critical damage. One by one, the suits of armor finally collapsed. I’d traded a thousand blades of ghostlight and twenty priceless artifacts for a hundred blightflyers and five extra minutes.
I hoped the sacrifice had been worth it.
Inphyr screamed with rage as he circled above the school. He knew we’d reached the end of this battle. If he retreated now, he’d lose any hope of capturing me. His only choice was to attack.
***What should we do, engineer?***
Inphyr would have no mercy on anyone he found within the Academy. The students inside couldn’t defeat the Fell Lord without the rest of us to back them up. There was really only one option open to them.
“Tell Reesa to leave what I asked for in the meditation garden,” I said. “I’ll need some of Baylo’s healing salve, too. Then get my sister and hide.
“I’m coming.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
THE RETURN TO MY BODY left me groggy and nauseated. I wasn’t sure if it was because the connection had been snapped by the utter annihilation of my metal bodies, or if I’d just been bouncing through too many head
s too quickly. Not that the reason mattered. I had no time to be sick to my stomach or dizzy. The Fell Lord had reached the Academy, and he wouldn’t rest until it was torn to the ground. I had to stop him.
“Let me go,” I told the varm. “How close are we?”
Darok helped me to my feet and made sure I was steady before he released his hold on my shoulder. He gave me a brisk nod and pointed toward the watchtower’s crown of fire. We were close, so a few minutes away.
“You’re not dead,” the varm said. “When your skin started to smoke, we thought you were done for.”
“Not quite,” I said. Now that I was back in my own body, I could really feel the damage I’d done to myself. My skin was covered in wet blisters and felt like it had shrunk tight over the muscles beneath. The worst of the pain, though, was inside me. My heart ached with every beat, and I wondered just how close I’d come to killing myself.
That was a worry for another time. I’d saved my sister from certain death, and that’s what was important.
“We made good time,” Xin said. “We saw what you did. That was an impressive trick you pulled on the Fell Lord. How did you think of it?”
“Less talking, more walking,” I said. As we hustled through the streets, I couldn’t help but think back to the last-minute gamble I’d made.
With no way to reach the blightflyers, I’d needed them to come to me. The easiest way to do that was to make Inphyr think I had some kind of secret weapon. He was primed to believe that because that’s what the scrats in Hodenkai Tower had been after when we annihilated them. I’d pretended to have an ace up my sleeve when really there was nothing left for me to draw. My last orders to Baylo were to get sharpshooters up in the tower and fire into the monsters once they’d gathered.
Fortunately, my long shot had worked out. Inphyr was even more insane and paranoid than I’d thought. I truly hadn’t expected him to commit all of his forces to destroying that armor.
