Hatchling

by Lupine King

  AVERY STOOD WITH THE crevice at his back, blocking it with his form. The sharply dressed valet was a mess. His clothes were disordered and splattered with blood. Sweat covered his brow and blood trickled from a cut over his right eye causing him to constantly wipe it lest it blind him. In spite of everything, he remained in front of the gap, an insurmountable obstacle.

  He was panting heavily, breath coming with a slight hiss on account of his bruised ribs but his face was largely impassive. An ice-cold qi exuded from his body chilling all in the vicinity. Even the blood on his sword was frozen making it look like red crystals were growing on it.

  This was nothing. His opponents were worse off. He had dealt them twice as much damage as they did him. Unfortunately, that damage was split among all his assailants and there were four of them. Right now, they stayed out of reach watching him warily as the lull in the battle dragged on. None of them wanted to be the first to step forward and face someone so far out of their league. Mercifully, a cry came from inside the crevice.

  “Avery I'm done. Get in quick!”

  He did not think twice. He took off an arrow fired from a bow, hastening into the shadowed crevice. The bandits made to follow him but he sent a few flying crescents of sword qi their way causing them to scatter momentarily.

  Making his way to his charge, he took note of the array hovering over the boy's palm.

  ‘Was this what he was working on?' he pondered.

  He just hoped it would be enough to get them out of the mess they were in. Then, he saw the floating steel cubes. ‘What are those for?' he questioned with his eyes bugging out.

  VALERIAN BARELY REGISTERED Avery by his side. The majority of his mental effort was still trained on the array. The instant the man cleared the boundary he had designated in his mind though, he burst into action. With a flick of his wrist, the array sailed outwards towards the mouth of the crevice growing as it did so.

  This was an advanced array master technique referred to simply as enlarging and it did exactly what it said on the tin. Instead of drawing the array full sized, a competent arcanist would draw it smaller and then infuse world essence into it to enlarge it to the required size. It was faster that way, only it required a fine degree of control and lot of concentration. It was also one of the techniques that set Valerian apart during the array masters' examination.

  The array continued to grow, covering the width of the crevice in a second. It was followed closely by the large steel cubes that Valerian was keeping afloat. They flew into set points of the array melding seamlessly into the array circle, becoming part of it. Before the bandits could even think of forcing their way through Valerian activated the array.

  The entire thing glowed brightly for a scant second before reducing a bit in intensity. It blockaded the mouth of the crevice, an impassable, indecipherable scrawl of glyphs and lines with six large cubes of steel embedded in it. As soon as it was in place Valerian fell to his knees finally feeling the strain he had been under.

  He grabbed a handkerchief and wiped his sweaty face even as he tried to compose himself. Avery just stared in awe at the massive array shielding the place.

  The array was known as a [Cladded Fortress Gate]. It was both the most powerful array Valerian could create and the most powerful defence in his repertoire. In its simplest form, it created a screen of metal essence to fend of attacks, but its true power lay in its ability to be ‘cladded’. In this, the steel cubes served an important purpose. They were the true heart of the array.

  Each cube was 50 centimetres thick and what the array did was incorporate their properties into its matrix. A single cube ensured that the screen was comparable to a fifty-centimetre thick sheet of steel. Having six meant that the entire golden essence screen was, in fact, comparable to six layers of fifty centimetre thick sheets of steel.

  This was an absurd level of defensive might. The absolute peak of first circle arrays. Valerian would not be able to do more until he became a second circle master but this was more than enough. How many people could get through three meters of steel?

  The only problem with the array was that it took too long for him to set up making it an impractical choice for battles. Also, unlike his other defensive spells which protected his whole body, the [Cladded Fortress Gate] was one dimensional. It only blocked incoming attacks from the front. A smart enemy would simply find a way around it.

  That was why he had them come to the crevice. There was only one opening making it the best place to set up the shield. It probably would not last forever but once it was active it would buy a lot of time. Enough for a quick break and a draft of their next course of action. In fact, he already had something in mind that looked like it could work. Pushing himself to his feet, Valerian began working on the next stage of his plan.

  While he did so, Avery continued to gaze at the array. He could hear muffled cries of anger and frustration coming from the other side. Someone was cursing up a storm as well. He slumped against a rock taking the respite to catch his breath and regain some qi. His gaze wandered to his young charge. The boy was certainly full of surprises.

  He watched as the boy got back up and begun removing other chunks of metal and weapons from his spatial ring. Then, he started weaving streams of arcane energy into the masses of metal. Avery blanched the moment he recognised the actions. This was a spell he had seen Valerian practice. It was not a pleasant spell and the results were very messy. His suspicions were confirmed when the metal pieces began to clump together to form slightly glowing spheres. The childminder promptly distanced himself a bit more from the young lad. Why?

  Valerian was making enhanced [Explosive Spheres].

  TWENTY-SIX

  Widespread Destruction

  LAIT WAS ANGRY, FRUSTRATED and tired. He stood in front of his men, fire essence stone in hand. His sword had been put away a long time ago. Right now, he just stared at the massive golden array between himself and his enemies and muttered curses under his breath. Outwardly, he could do nothing. Not till they brought down the ward. Consequently, Lait just stood there and drew on the essence trapped in the crystal he held, frantically replenishing his reserves to have another go at the stupid thing.

  After about a minute, he put the essence stone away and readied himself. Standing before the array he took in a breath so deep his chest seemed to bulge a bit. Every one of his men could feel the build of qi in his body and watched with tense expressions as their leader made to fire off his most powerful skill for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes.

  ‘[Fire Wyvern's breath!]' he called out in his mind as he expelled the air and qi.

  In response, a sustained blast of fire attributed qi shot from his mouth in a straight line towards the array. Under his control, it was a focused beam only twenty centimetres in diameter unlike the wave of fire it usually was. He directed this beam to strike at the array at a low spot just a meter or so off the ground. That section, already a dull red, began to heat up even further.

  Even after closely examining the array, he and his men were unable to figure it out. They could not be blamed. Not even Evans, that bullshit warder, knew much about arrays. None of them was any good at the subject. Who could have predicted that they would run into an array master?

  Their only choice now was to brute force their way through. Unfortunately for them, it appeared that this shield array was perfectly suited to resist brute force. Seeing that they were making no progress Lait, as the leader, responsibly offered himself up. He was a fire attributed tellurian. The array was clearly a metal based one. Thus, he was the most suited to dealing with it. Metal was weak to fire in the elemental cycle, after all. So he went at it with his most powerful skill and was surprised to see some results. Lait did not know it but the great defensive array before him was just a metaphysical series of metal plates. What he was doing was basically taking a focused blowtorch to a safe.

  What he did know was that his attacks were working ... somewhat. The main problem was that his q
i reserves were not up to par. [Fire Wyvern's Breath] was a very powerful skill and had the energy consumption to match. Lait had worked long and hard to become capable of firing off three in a row but after he did so his qi core would be near empty.

  Today, he had fought with that trice damned water attributed swordsman and used up a lot of his qi keeping him at bay. He was barely able to use the skill twice before he was tapped out. Sadly, it was not enough. They had to break through the array, kill those Steelborns and cover their tracks before the reinforcements the swordsman had called arrived.

  With no other choice, Lait took out a fire essence stone from their shipment. Essence stones were crystals composed completely of condensed world essence. They were precious resources, each worth its weight in silver florins. The one he held was formed purely from fire attributed essence making its price twice the normal on account of its greater rarity.

  Lait was forced to absorb the essence making up the stone to replenish his own. It was an extravagant expense but none of his men uttered a word of protest. They understood the stakes they were currently playing for. Failing this task would be far more costly than even ten thousand of the stones. They just watched as their leader made use of the costly gem.

  Lait wasted a great deal of the essence stored in the stone every time he tried to make use of it. He was not exactly in an optimal mental state and his technique was poor and shoddily executed. However, he got the job done. He would fire three quick [Fire Wyvern's Breaths] and then frantically replenished his qi as he rested. As the minutes trickled by, the damage to the array became more and more noticeable but so did his fatigue.

  Mentally drained and physically overdrawn, Lait knew that when he finally got through the shield he would be useless in the resulting fight. All he could do was hope in his heart that his men would be able to handle it without him.

  ‘We have to succeed! We just have to!' he prayed.

  ON THE OTHER SIDE OF the array, Valerian was nearly done with his preparations. He had lined up in front of him a grand total of nine [Explosive Spheres]. Originally intending to make more he recanted and focused on enhancing the ones he had already created. To do so he used yet another metal element array. This one was a reinforcing one to boost their power.

  Frankly, Avery was horrified at what he was doing. Still, he knew his place. He just stood on the side and watched with his usual expression. Nevertheless, his apprehension was justified. The [Explosive Sphere] spell was one that gathered metal attributed essence to form a sphere of magic that well ... exploded. However, all spells could be cast using a medium. When done properly, this lessened the cost and increased their power like with Valerian's favourite attack spell [Heart Seeking Bolts].

  Valerian had done same with these [Explosive Spheres]. He used bits of metal, mostly scraps and weapons. When they exploded, the force would not only be greater, they would discharge metal shrapnel at the unlucky folk in their range. As if that was not bad enough, he had run a reinforcing array through them. Avery actually worried for the bandits now.

  Preparations dealt with, Valerian then began explaining his plan to Avery, asking if it was viable. The blue liveried man thought about it carefully. It was a sound plan. He was even a little surprised at how simple and direct it was and he made that known. He did keep one part to himself though. He was even more surprised that Valerian had consulted him about it.

  “It would work but don't double cast. Just focus your spells on me in instead”, he pointed out.

  Valerian gave him a look filled with incredulity. “And what about me?” he asked.

  “You'd get on my back and I'd carry you”, Avery stated.

  “There is no need. I can cast the spells. We would each get our own”, Valerian countered.

  “That is a waste. I am faster and stronger. Focus your efforts on me. Or is this because you'll be riding piggyback?” Avery questioned.

  “It is unnecessary and undignified”, his charge said.

  “You have ridden on my back for years, young master. It is nothing new”, Avery added.

  “Yes”, Valerian pointed out. “Years. That is how long it has been and if you have not noticed, I am a lot bigger now”.

  Avery smiled. He remembered those simple times. Valerian had been so adorable then. He was a little, precocious thing who would point and ask about everything they encountered and force him to lug him everywhere. Oh, how things had changed! Ignoring his charge's protests, Avery placed a hand on his shoulder. He was not good with words. He wanted to say something but words failed him. He just looked at the boy. The atmosphere turned solemn, with two staring at each other saying nothing.

  They knew the risks of what they were about to do. Chances were; only one or none of them would survive this ordeal. There was no getting caught. There would be no ransom. They would be slaughtered and buried in a shallow grave somewhere and no one would ever know. Valerian, in particular, was very scared.

  He was the privileged grandson of a city magistrate, the scion of a noble family to boot. He had never been in this kind of danger before. He could barely calm his nerves and when he thought of what lay beyond his shield array he was filled with dread. This was different from being in battle. Here, he was not charged by the action and emotion that would draw your mind from such things. This was walking into a situation where death was a very strong possibility. It required a different sort of courage.

  Part of the reason that he was able to stay composed was because he had Avery with him. The man was the sturdy wall he could lean on. He had been with him forever. The blue liveried man was not a servant of the household or one of his grandparents' hired hands. He was Valerian's own manservant. A position he had held since Valerian was born. The boy could not think of a single moment of his life when the man was not around. He had come to rely on him even more than he realised. That scared him. He knew well enough that if push came to shove Avery would no doubt sacrifice himself for his sake. The man was that loyal. He did not want that.

  “We will get out of this”, Valerian told Avery. “Do not do anything stupid!” he warned the man.

  Avery nodded and chuckled. To think in the end it would be Valerian trying to reassure him. It was funny. His charge had grown up. He was more like his father every day and yet, he was also different in many ways. In some he was better, others worse.

  ‘Is that a good thing?' he asked himself.

  Valerian stepped back to put the last bits of his plan together. With his mace held in both hands, he began his spellcraft. He cast three spells on Avery and on himself. The first was [Wind Cloak], a defensive spell that rarely saw much use in his hands. The reason; [Valiant Armour] was a much better physical defence and [Mage Guard] was better at shoring up elemental weaknesses.

  It had one great benefit though. [Wind Cloak] boosted speed and agility, which was something they'd need for their plan to succeed. As if in confirmation of this, Valerian followed that with [Wind Speed], a spell he learnt from his grandmother which increased the speed of its target. Adding that to [Wind Cloak] made for an awe-inspiring increase in speed for both Avery and himself.

  However, the spell casting drained him and that was before his final spell, [Valiant Armour]. It was a strain but he managed it in the end. This was the reason why Avery had wanted Valerian to concentrate his spellcasting on him and let him carry him to safety. The strain from maintaining his mental effort combined, with the exhaustion of arcane energy was becoming quite evident in Valerian's visage. But he did not stop. Their lives depended on his plan.

  Unlike Lait, Valerian did not practice a poor method. [The Manifold Elemental Incarnations] was a high, profound technique. Plus, he had attained a perfect arcane vessel. With his method and arcane vessel, he could absorb, refine and channel arcane energy dozens of times better than the average arcanist at his tier. This was a great aid to the regeneration of his arcane energy and provided him with a rather large reserve to draw from. Still, he had to rest a little after expending so m
uch energy. After a couple of minutes of circulating his method, Valerian stood up.

  Avery gave him a questioning look but all he did was nod in response. Holding his mace in his right hand and stretching the other hand out, he let out a pulse. The nine [Explosive Spheres] slowly and carefully levitated from the ground to orbit him. He was ready!

  LAIT HUFFED AND PUFFED as he tried to catch his breath. He was getting close. He knew it. The array was clearly weakened and the place he had been attacking was heated to a cherry red glow that radiated with heat. He fell to the ground and pulled out a brand new fire essence stone – the third one. Collecting himself, he stimulated his remaining qi and begun to drain the crystal in his hand. He never had the chance.

  A change occurred with the array he and his men were camped in front of. One second the array was there, the next it burst into motes of light. The scary part involved the things that flew out of the light cloud.

  Three glowing balls of indeterminate materials shot out towards himself and his men. They moved independently from each other. One headed straight out towards Lait, another went left and the last right. Knowing that they could be nothing good, the bandits quickly scrambled out of the way. Alas, that was not enough.

  Lait was in very precarious position. He was seated on the floor with barely enough energy to get up. There was no way he was going to evade what he guessed was death coming at him. He also had no qi to use any defensive skills. But he did have one trump. Despite looking middle-aged, Lait was actually in his early sixties. What's more, he had been a mercenary for two-thirds of that time. His experience with the border of life and death was plentiful and when he saw that metal ball shoot towards him it came in handy.

  Without even a shred of hesitation, he reached for the necklace he wore and crushed the pendant in his fist. A glowing barrier immediately surrounded him. It was a talisman that he had acquired from the corpse of a young master after a raid. The poor bastard had not even had the chance to activate it. Since then, Lait had kept the lifesaving treasure knowing it could save his one day. Today, he called on its powers and it did not disappoint. The barrier it released was strong enough to protect him even from attacks from the average Lord whilst it was active.