Chapter 43: 43: Promises

Grant started awake to the sound of screams and the buzzing of insects, that he’d recently come to associate with being on or near the wall.

Horrible pain, like being stabbed, lanced through his exposed skin as a wasp stung him.

“Fu-“ he rolled off the cot, the thing creaking from his enormous weight, grabbing his spare sword from beneath the bed.

Blade came up in his hand, separating from the sheath in a smooth movement that sent the sheath flying off into the chaos. And it was chaos. Men were running everywhere, over fires, through tents, into each other as they swatted at the evil creatures bedeviling them. For every man there were a hundred wasps choking the air.

The boy.

Omni-slash.

5/15 bent remaining.

For the blink of an eye, Grant’s blade resembled a kaleidoscope, its blood-steel edge refracted in a thousand thousand different directions.

Every wasp he could see dropped to the ground as the force of his swing was divided among all of them. Normally the skill wasn’t particularly useful except for fighting large groups of scrubs. That seemed to apply in this case, though.

The problem was, there were plenty of wasps out of his field of view who simply moved to fill the empty cone from behind tents, chairs, people, cookpots. He’d accomplished very little in the grand scheme of things.

Cookpots! Grant leapt into the outdoor mess, trailing thousands of wasps, located the box full of cutlery beside the mess and tossed them into the air.

Blade Dancer

4/15 Bent Remaining.

The fifty or so dull steak-knives stopped falling in midair as though they’d been seized by an invisible hand, then they began to chew up the wasps mercilessly, swatting the creatures out of the air and bisecting them by the thousands. Grant became the sole bastion of safety as the blades created a growing wasp-free dome.

He turned toward Nadia’s tent, running into a stunningly handsome young man with a stomach wound, who seemed to be relieved to be out of the constant buzzing.

“You alright?”

He nodded, clutching his wound.

“Need rest,” he said.

That’s an odd accent, must be from Western Iletha. They do tend to be prettier over there.

“Don’t we all,” Grant scoffed. “Do me a favor and keep your eyes open for a Malkenrovian sorcerer summoning wasps, he’s got a stomach wound exactly like yours. If you see anything make a really distinctive sound so I can find you over all the screaming.”

The young man blinked like he hadn’t quite caught what Grant was saying.

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Grant gave him a thumbs up and kept going.

***Calvin***

What do you suppose he wanted?

Couldn’t quite make it out. I’m not exactly fluent, you know.

Calvin put his head down and made for the forest. He didn’t have time to stop.

You should have used Heart of the Swarm and sent half of your wasps out double distance past Kala, then dismissed it. Could’ve gotten you there fast, with minimal blood loss.

“But then the swarm would be gone.” Calvin said, listening to the screams around him. “And then they’ll be on our asses. Need to maintain the distraction as long as possible for us to get away.”

Point. But keep it in mind. You’re not exactly making good time.

Calvin glanced around. It was true. Since the fight with the leather-woman, he’d slowed down even more, and the seeping in his bandages was getting pretty intense.

Fair enough.

Calvinian summoning

Heart of the swarm.

7/11 Bent Remaining.

Calvin created a swarm and thankfully the two registered as separate entities in his mind. He was getting detailed audio-visual and positioning information from only the swarm he’d just created while the first one was more of a vague feeling.

In order to confuse pursuit, Calvin split the swarm of nearly two million wasps into two halves, and a smaller targeting group of a dozen.

The two larger groups left the camp to the north northeast, and South southeast, while the targeting group went straight east, toward Kala, skimming above the trees.

Because the two larger groups were identical in mass (or close to it) their north-south direction would balance each other out and leave only the easterly direction they were travelling, allowing him to apparate directly on top of her.

Well not directly on top of her.

I don’t think she’d mind.

The targeting group found Kala and the escapees, and using those dozen wasps as a point of reference, the two larger swarms arranged themselves relative to them.

Just a bit further south…there we go.

Calvin dismissed the swarm he was part of, and appeared out of nowhere, six inches off the ground in a implosion of green mist, directly in front of Baroke.

“Gods!” Baroke shouted, flinching backward, his deep voice turning rather shrill. His friend’s terror made him want to mess with him a bit.

“I am the end and the beginning!” Calvin shrieked at full volume, his voice cracking. “Worship me or-“

A meaty fist slammed into Cal’s face.

“What the fuck?” Calvin said, holding his bleeding nose and oozing side. In hindsight maybe that hadn’t been his best idea.

“You didn’t tell me you could do that!” Baroke shouted, his fists held up.

“I can do that!”

“Well, now I know that.” Baroke slowly lowered his fists, studying Calvin suspiciously. “What was the deal with that anyway?”

“A master wizard doesn’t reveal his secrets so easily,” Calvin said, posturing. The effect might have been lessened somewhat by his dripping nose.

“My muscular buttocks. You probably can’t wait to brag about it.”

Calvin closed his mouth. He was right about to brag about creating an entirely new style of magic. On second thought, maybe I won’t do that.

“Who is this?” a young Gadveran woman said, approaching them. There were ten other men and women who’d fled into the woods, and they all watched Calvin like he might burst into wasps at any moment, which was a somewhat valid concern.

The girl who was approaching, though, she was looking at him with carefully concealed disdain, without an ounce of gratefulness or fear. Her emotions were like a person studying an extremely valuable lump of stone.

She had typical Gadveran hair and eyes, and was a little on the homely side. Nothing particularly stood out about her except for the emotions he could feel from her gaze.

“This is Calvin,” Baroke said, glancing at the rest of the survivors as he pointed a thumb at Cal. “He’s the one who took out Reilly.” Baroke tapped the skin beside one of the clotted holes on his head.

Yikes.

The girl’s emotions were cast into the turmoil of confusion, manifesting as the tiniest frown as she looked at his face. Her gaze flitted down to his bandage, then back up to his face, understanding dawning.

In an instant, her emotion of treating him like valuable property was undercut and then overwhelmed by intense desire and gleeful amusement.

All the while nothing showed on her face.

“Nice to meet you Calvin,” She said, holding a thin hand out.

“Right.” Calvin said, glancing down at her hand for some kind of trick. “One second.” He turned away from her offered hand and walked over to where Kala was snoozing against the tree, shaking her awake.

“Nn, what? What’s going on?” Kala snorted awake and gave a delicate yawn. “Did you get him?”

“You doing okay, Nala? You weren’t feeling so good when I left.” He bent low and put a hand on her forehead before he whispered. “Does anything look out of place to you?”

Kala glanced over at the other people standing behind him.

“Aside from the Ilethan girl in leather?” She whispered back before she raised her voice. “I’m fine, just needed to sleep it off a little.”

“Good,” Calvin said, donning his belt and standing before he turned back to the spy. Gotta make sure we don’t kill the wrong person.

“Sorry, that was rude of me,” he said, holding out his hand for the shake. “I just wanted to check on my girlfriend, make sure she was okay.”

Calvin felt a flare of jealousy radiate off of the Gadveran girl like heat from the sun.

He caught her hand and pulled her close. Her eyes went wide.

Blade Body.

Calvin ejected his new blade from the skin of his palm, settling it into his hand as he brought the knife down on the girl’s neck. She stumbled back, spurting blood from the enormous gash on her neck.

There was no surprise or fear in her gaze, only amusement.

“What the fuck, what the fuck Calvin?” Baroke shouted.

Calvin felt the pair of eyes that had been watching him detach from the stumbling girl and slowly circle around him as Baroke shook him, demanding and explanation. Calvin ignored him, paying close attention to her gaze.

A moment later, he felt a spike of emotion that spoke of catching him for herself.

“Calvin, she’s right the-“

Cal ducked, and a silvery collar rebounded against Baroke’s chest.

“Oh,” Kala seemed confused at Cal’s ability to dodge the unseen. It was the inverse. He could dodge as long as he was seen.

“What in the abyss?” Baroke muttered as Calvin spun away from him, holding his side.

Calvin isolated a dart shaped section of his knife and flicked it in the direction of the gaze.

Mass Splitting

Shaping.

6/11

“What’s going on?” Baroke said, glancing down at the wounded Gadveran girl, who dissolved like a mirage, shrinking, warping and fading.

A storm of steel darts shot out in the direction of the spy, who gave a girlish yelp of surprise, followed by a clanging chime-like sound, as if a silver bell had been used to deflect a bunch of iron spikes.

“How do you even know where I am?” The girl demanded, sliding into view, light lapping against her skin like the water’s edge. She had light skin, black hair, and distinctly Ilethan features.

“It’s the smell,” Calvin said. Karen rule # 19, if you can spread misinformation and trash talk at the same time, do it.

He felt a wave of humiliation from her followed by a strange excitement as she took on a fighting stance.

Is it just me, or is that the same girl you killed, like, fifteen minutes ago?

That seems to be the case.

What is she, a Draculina?

Probably just a trick.

She let out a growl and charged toward him, slipping into the edges of the light lapping at her sides and once again vanishing from sight.

Kind of a one trick pony.

Calvin tried to spin out of the way of another attack, but his wound slowed him down, and the girl – Nadia, that’s whose tent it was – caught him on the side of the cheek with her short blade, slicing into his face.

An instant later, a boot caught Calvin’s stomach, and his entire world devolved into blinding pain, forcing him to curl up on the ground, focusing only on breathing.

Nadia slipped back out of her illusion and cocked her head at him as he stumbled away, her gaze laced with disappointment.

“You can see me coming, but you can’t dodge? I’ll have to have you trained better.” There was a hint of boredom in her gaze as she rapidly lost interest.

“Do you not see the stomach wound?” Calvin demanded, his voice hoarse.

“Excuses.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out another silvery circle. “Now, be a good boy and hold still. I’d hate to mar your face any more than I already have.”

She was leaning down and reaching her hand out to his neck, when a giant fist closed down around her own.

Nadia glanced down at it with a frown. She tugged, achieving nothing, to her bemusement. Baroke was strong.

“Now, little lady, I’m not inclined to hit a woman,” Baroke said gently. “But if you don’t leave I might-“

“Fuck off,” She said meeting his eyes.

“Okay.” Baroke stood up and began walking into the man-eating forest.

Damnit, Baroke, you weak-willed fool!

With a glance, Calvin confirmed that the rest of the escapees had turned away and wandered into the dark forest, with the exception of Kala.

“So you’re the bug boy, huh? I didn’t expect you to be. Remarkable, really. You’ll have to demonstrate how that works…” She tapped her chin. “Come to think of it, you were on the wall when I cast Berserk, weren’t you? What kind of bloodlust did you manifest? Some people get so terrified they strike out at anything, some people see their worst enemy in every face, some go mad. It was fun, I bet, if that hint of enjoyment was anything to go by. What happened when you went Berserk?”

Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 16 seconds.

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“I fucked people’s meat holes with my war-pick.” Calvin gritted through his teeth.

“Oh my, how titillating. The berserk spell doesn’t make something from nothing, you know. We’re going to be best friends, you and I,” She said, smiling down at him. Strangely, all of her previous excitement began to dim, and she was practically bored.

“I’m going to dress you up, train you to do tricks, take you to parties, and have you kill the odd political rival.”

“I don’t think that’s what you want,” Calvin said.

“Oh?”

“I think you want to be hurt and humiliated, forced to do things degrading and depraved by someone with complete power over you.”

Cal could tell by the renewed spike of emotions that he’d guessed right.

“You were interested in me because you thought I could provide that, right?”

Read Expressions has reached level 7!

Read Expression Level 7: 35% correction.

Talking to Girls has reached level 8! 40% Correction

Your Princess Is in another castle has reached level 3! 15% correction.

^ Damn, you hit the mark with that one.

She stared at him for a timeless moment, her emotions raging inside her. They went every direction at once, bouncing around between horrified and happy, angry, sad and frustrated. Slowly, ever so slowly, they were reigned in and aligned in one direction. A cold, merciless direction.

“Ah well.” She shrugged. “Even if that were true, which it’s definitely not, you’re not strong enough to do it.” She reached toward his neck with the silver collar.

“What about her?” Calvin asked, pointing at Kala.

A tree branch shattered against Nadia’s head, sending the crazy girl spinning off to the side. Calvin held up a hand and Kala helped him to his feet as he kept pressure on the wound.

“I’m sorry, I attract princesses like flies to shit.”

Kala glanced at him with a raised brow. “So I’m a fly now?”

“If it helps, I’m the shit in that metaphor.”

“A little bit.”

“Damn you,” Nadia screamed as she leapt to her feet, her face red. “kneel!”

Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 15 seconds.

Calvin’s legs went out from under him as his body lost the ability to not kneel.

Kala crossed her arms, still standing.

For the first time since she’d arrived, Nadia looked directly at Kala. “Who the Abyss are you?”

I’m bat-

Please, stop doing that joke. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.

“His girlfriend.” Kala said with a hint of a smile.

I never said that.

You totally did.

I also addressed her by a false name, which made it obvious that it was under pretences. I was concealing her identity. It was a cover!

Girls will take what they can get sometimes.

Bah.

“You’re obviously not one of those cattle,” she said, thumbing toward the dark forest where Baroke had disappeared. A slow smile spread on her face. “Maybe you’re worth bringing in myself.”

“Not gonna happen. Your tricks are pointless against me.”

“We’ll see about tha-“

Kala picked up a small rock and flicked it out to the right, and the Nadia standing directly in front of them vanished, while one off to the right let out a girlish yelp and rubbed her forehead.

“He might be able to smell you, but I can see you.”

Calvin groaned and rose to his feet as the restriction wore off, consumed by his Willpower.

“Kneel!” Nadia shouted again.

Ohgodsdamnitalltotheabyss

Calvin’s legs went out from under him again.

Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 13 seconds.

What’s with the reduced time?

Practice.

“Come on, then,” Kala said, delicately motioning Nadia forward. “If you want my lover, you’re going to have to try a little harder than that.”

Nadia narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath, stepping backwards.

“No, I don’t think I’ll play that game with you. I think we’ll play a different one instead. Let’s see how you like fighting your own.”

Bent traveled through the veins in her face in a pulse of black.

Suddenly Calvin heard crashing as the nine escapees rushed into the clearing from the woods, their eyes bulging with rage and terror.

Seems like a good opportunity.

Calvin reached down to his belt and grabbed the vial of uncured spider-silk.

Mass Shaping.

Web.

5/11 Bent remaining.

Calvin doled out his hundred and forty-four pounds of spiderwebs between the nine men and women rushing toward him in thin sheets.

The sheets puffed up in the low-pressure environment, expanding outward rapidly and forming strands as they coagulated in an instant.

Each person ran head-first into a net stronger than steel and designed to tire a prey out by having the smallest amount of give. One by one, they collapsed to the ground, wiggling in a tight cocoon.

“What the-“  Nadia’s smug expression slid off her face. “You can’t do that!”

Her sadistic anticipation of watching friends fight each other to the death sputtered out into disbelief.

“Says who?” Calvin said, picking himself off his knees.

“Kneel!”           

Your Stability is not strong enough to shrug off the effects. Your Will has begun digesting the foreign Bent, ETA 10 seconds.

Really? Calvin thought as he was forced to the ground again.

She glanced at Kala, watching her impassively.

“Fine.” She walked over to the big web where Baroke was wrapped up, hefting her sword. “If you don’t want-“

Before she could finish her sentence, Kala lunged forward, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

Nadia reflexively put her blade between the two of them, but Kala slapped it out of the way with her hand and delivered a close-range punch to the Ilethan’s side, sending her tumbling backward.

Nadia’s feet and fingers caught the soft floor of the jungle, and she dug furrows through the earth as she slid.

“You shit-colored bitch!” she shouted, her expression one of pure rage.

“Nobody messes with my friends, especially not pathetic Ilethans that can’t do anything real.” Kala said, her words carefully enunciated and princess-like. Her tone was light and gentle, but the meaning was cutting.

Nadia let out a growl and shouted, waving a hand forward. A blast of light seared Calvin and Kala’s eyes, and Kala was forced to cover them.

Calvin couldn’t see what happened, but there was feminine growling, the impact sound of a couple punches, and the tearing of clothes.

Once Calvin blinked the spots out of his eyes, he saw the two princesses rolling on the ground, locked in a slugmatch, and it was anyone’s game. Kala had a black eye and a bleeding nose, the strap of her reserved dress was ripped, while Nadia had a split lip and a crazed look in her eye as she tried to penetrate Kala’s body with a spear hand.

Never thought I’d see a princess cat-fight. Thank you for this.

Nadia stuck with her hand, and Kala knocked it aside with her palm. The Ilthan’s fingers tore through a thick tree-root like wet paper.

Maybe a little more serious than that.

You think?

Calvin reached down and grabbed a component. Neither of them were paying attention to him, and for once, calvin was absolutely sure where the Ilethan was.

Miasma.

4/11 Bent remaining.

Hopefully Kala finds it in her heart to forgive me.

Calvin manifested a sphere of the most noxious chemicals known to Gadverans. The primary ingredient was Swamp Beetle musk, which lingered for weeks, and triggered a violent gag reflex. Mixed in was a little pure fire-oil to blind the eyes and irritate the lungs, together with a strong alcohol catalyst that made it sublimate at extreme speeds.

A green sphere of the awful substance manifested between the two of them and exploded.

The effect was instantaneous. Kala and Nadia broke away from each other, retching and weeping and screaming, unable to see or breath properly.

Calvin pulled out his knife and flicked it downward.

Mass Shaping.

Four steel spikes dropped from the sky and pinned Nadia’s arms and legs to the ground, drawing out a wrenching scream.

Calvin dismissed the Miasma as he walked toward her, and Kala gasped with relief, finally able to catch her breath and stop retching as the irritants disappeared.

Nadia’s head swiveled toward him, fear finally showing itself in her eyes.

“Go-“

Calvin lunged forward and jammed the back of his knife into her mouth, effectively gagging her.

He straddled her back and took his bloody hand away from his wound to grab the other side of his knife, using the cold steel like a guar’s bit and hauling her head back to look at him.

“Now, I’m normally a very relaxed man,” Calvin said, his vision getting a bit blurry from blood-loss. “But I couldn’t help but notice you were about to try to use one of my friends as a hostage. That upsets me.”

He hauled back further on her head, making clicking noises as the steel slid against her teeth, forcing her neck up at an awkward angle as she struggled to pull the iron spikes out of the ground.

“You may ask yourself how upset. Let me illuminate you with an anecdote and a promise. My mother always told me to tell the truth, my entire life. Do you know why she did that?”

Calvin wasn’t sure if Nadia was shaking her head or shivering in pain, but he decided to keep going anyway.

“So my enemies believe me when I tell them what I’m going to do to them. It seemed silly at the time, but I’m beginning to see the merits. Now the promise.

Calvin leaned closer, whispering in her ear.

“If you ever fuck with one of my friends again, I’m going to kill you. You might think it ends with that. No. After I kill you, I’m going to eat you, then treat you to a private hell as my personal possession, and when I’ve had my fun, I’m going to bequeath your luscious teen body to Genosian cannibals until the end of fucking time.”

“Do you understand?”

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and nodded, and Calvin was almost driven back by the wave of desire radiating from her gaze.

That did not have the desired effect.

Speak for yourself.

A familiar, gravelly voice interrupted their moment together.

“Step away from the princess.”

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