Chapter 48: 48: Classic Party Composition

Cool, we’ve got the classic party composition, thief, ranger, wizard, and heavy.

… who’s the thief? Calvin thought as they sprinted through the streets, the heat of the flames searing against their skin from every direction. Time was running out.

You, obviously.

Well then who’s the wizard?

Kala.

That doesn’t make sense, I’m way more of a wizard, Calvin thought as he came to a halt at a corner and used his look-stick to stealthily peek around it. There was a HK on top of the nearby burning building, completely heedless of the flames, watching for any sign of movement.

Um, excuse me, can your eyes pierce the veil? I didn’t think so.

“Up on top of the next building,” Calvin whispered back to the rest of the group, pointing up at it through the corner of the abandoned general store.

Baroke nodded and put one of Calvin’s arrows to his bowstring, switching places with him.

“What’s he saying?” Kala whispered when Calvin shifted closer to her. She’d been watching his ongoing conversation with Elliot for a while.

Calvin looked Kala in her soft brown eyes. “Believe me when I tell you, It’s not important.”

Baroke flipped around the corner and snapped off a shot with the monstrous bow the general had given him, and they were rewarded by a crunching noise and the shrieking of metal. Baroke glanced quickly at the other rooftops and then motioned for them to keep going.

As one, the four of them continued down the street toward the south side of the city, aiming for the distant tower that could supposedly fix their fire problem.

Calvin brought himself to the front again as they ran. He was the smallest, quietest one among them, so he’d be the least likely to attract attention, and maybe that would let him spot the HKs or Ilethans first.

The streets were abandoned after the initial rush, and now the only company they had as they ran through the empty storefronts was corpses and monsters.

They made it to the next major crossroads, and Calvin got his breathing under control as he held out the look-stick and surveyed both directions. Nothing. He peered around the corner in both directions to make sure.

The rooftops and streets themselves were empty, save for the corpses of those who hadn’t been able to flee fast enough.

Calvin saw a young mother and her baby who’d been pinned down by rubble then finished off by HKs, and it made his stomach want to flip.

“Come on,” he whispered, waving to the rest of them as he forced the bile down. “looks clear.”

They began to follow when a HK burst through burning fences on either side of the road behind them, leaping toward Kala and Baroke in a single smooth movement.

Baroke flinched backward with a squawk, holding his bow between himself and the approaching monster. The giant boy wasn’t the best up close.

“Stop.” Kala said, halting the one coming after her in its tracks.

Did she ever have an ability like that? Calvin recalled her doing the same thing to him while they were travelling. Maybe it’s a princess thing.

Meanwhile, Ella rushed past Baroke, grabbed the handle of a door that was partially off its hinges and tore the entire thing away, twisting around to bring the door between herself and the monster like a shield.

In a fraction of a second, the door turned silvery, gaining the same coloration as Ella’s skin, just before she slammed into the creature, driving it into the ground. It was harder than the street itself, so the creature’s razor-bladed limbs were pressed deep into the cobblestone, pinning it temporarily in place.

“Baroke, could you-“ Kala began, stepping back from her frozen opponent.

With the hissing of displaced air, a solid metal arrow plowed through the single lens at the front of the creature’s body. It gave a few odd twitches and sank downward as its limbs lost strength.

A fraction of a second later, Baroke shot another arrow through the eye of Ella’s opponent, killing it instantly.

It was much more Bent efficient for all parties involved for Calvin to spend one Bent on making Baroke a couple dozen arrows capable of penetrating the monsters without assistance than it was to leave everyone to their own devices.

It gave Baroke a big head though.

“How about that?” Baroke said with a grin, easily spinning the heavy bow back and forth in his grip. “That’s three to one so far. I hear you had a real hard time with these things, but I’m just not seeing it.”

“Oh, so you don’t need my arrows?” Calvin asked.

Baroke stopped spinning the bow.

“I never said that.”

“Good, now thank Ella for saving your ass.”

“Thank you ma’m.” Baroke said obligingly.

“You should put on some fat.” Ella said, appraising Baroke. “Too much muscle is bland.”

Baroke paled.

“No scaring my friends!” Calvin said, tossing a pebble at her. “If there’s nothing more here, let’s keep moving. We’re nowhere near where we need to be, and Baroke’s arrows only have another half hour before they disappear.”

Calvin led the way as they resumed their sprint down the empty streets.

“How did you do that door trick? It was impressive.” Kala asked while they were running, the tower of the Academy looming over them.

“I got Shield Work, Heavy Armor, and Meat Shield when Calvin and I were up on the wall,” Ella said with a shrug. “Probably the only reason I’m still alive.”

Calvin nearly missed a step.

She got three defensive skills in a matter of minutes, and I’m stuck with next to none? That’s not including her Iron Skin!

Says the guy who can turn into wasps to escape.

“So you used the door as a shield? How did it turn shiny like that?”

Ella flashed her a bright smile. “Somehow Heavy armor and Shield Work pair well with Iron Skin. The Skill reinforces my armor and makes my skin smooth as polished steel.”

“Oh?” Kala asked, and Calvin could hear the interest in her voice.

“You should feel it sometime.”

Calvin shot a glare over his shoulder at Ella, who shrugged.

“We’re almost there,” Calvin said, glancing up at the tower ahead of them before fixing them with a stern glare. “Raise your hand if you’re ready to stop flirting.” He raised his hand, followed by Baroke, and reluctantly, Ellan and Kala.

“Good,” Calvin said, dropping low and creeping forward.

“Mm, it’s so hot when he takes charge like that.” Someone whispered, too quiet to determine who it was.

“The view when he’s crouched, amazing.” Another whisper.

Calvin glanced over his shoulder and spotted Kala and Ella with grim faces, weapons at the ready. The perfect picture of innocence. Baroke’s head was in his hand. He could feel the inappropriate playfulness from their gaze, a mindset they had both latched onto, playing off each other to mask their fear of death.

There are several options here, I’m going to choose the one that owns the situation rather than start a silly fight.

“No one told you to stop complementing me.” Calvin said, glancing between them and noting a twitch in Ella’s mouth as she struggled to keep a straight face. Kala was better. He turned back and ignored the whispered commentary about his form as he sank down on all fours and made for the entrance to the Academy’s plaza.

Stealth has reached Level 7!

Level 7: 35% correction.

Told ya you were the thief.

Calvin ignored the level and the snarky comment, and silently crawled along the side before peering around the edge of the building with his look-stick. The extra point of view was easier to process now, and Calvin had gotten the hang of shoving it into a pocket where it couldn’t see anything when it wasn’t in use.

He peered around the corner, and his heart sank. There were four of the HKs  patrolling the plaza outside the academy. One of them was perched atop a fancifully robed corpse slumped halfway into the central fountain, while the other three  moved back and forth across the grounds, their single glass eye panning back and forth for anything out of the ordinary.

There were minced bodies of Gadveran wizards strewn across the cobblestones, identifiable by their fancy robes and the way some of them seemed aloof, even in death.

A metal monster’s gaze passed over his little stick, lingered for a fraction of a second that seemed to stretch out forever, then dismissed it moving on with its patrol.

Calvin spotted two Ilethan soldiers minding the HKs, who were engaged in a distant conversation.

Sense-Grafting.

7/12 Bent Remaining.

Sense-Grafting has reached level 9!

Sense Grafting Level 9: Sight, hearing, touch, pain, smell, Taste, Balance. Self-only, 81ft range, 45 minutes.

Calvin chose a point on the right-hand soldier’s armor and connected it to his sense of hearing. He had a rough grasp of the Ilethan language, but still missed a few words.

“I mean, I’d have fucked her, don’t ~ ~ wrong – “

Calvin rolled his eyes.

“But that was ~…” Calvin saw the speaker motion to the four HKs.

“All this. Now she ~ like death, and she smells like my Nana’s ~. You’ve met my Nana, right?”

Sometimes you just waste Bent and don’t get anything in return. Calvin was hoping for some hint along the lines of how many people were inside, or whether they knew about and had disabled the supposed weather machine.

Instead he got idle marry, fuck, kill, gossip.

Welcome to the wonderful world of spying on people. It’s a quantity over quality kinda deal.

Cal sighed dismissed the spell before motioning the others closer.

“Four of them, and two Ilethan soldiers,” he whispered as they crouched close, keeping his attention split between them and the HK’s around the corner.

“where are they?” Baroke asked quietly.

“The soldiers and one HK are near the fountain, while the other three are patrolling the edges of the Plaza.” Calvin said.

“that’s enough of them that the chances of something going wrong are pretty good.” Baroke said. “You got a plan?”

“When have I ever not had a plan?” Calvin demanded. Insolent fool. See If I make you the royal sharpshooter now. Ah, who was he kidding? Calvin was still going to allow him to be the royal sharpshooter. If he apologized.

“I’ll disable as many as I can, then run back down the road. Ella will stand about thirty feet back with her door and knock one of the ones that follow me down, Baroke will kill one as it comes in, while Kala will stop the other long enough to let Baroke put it down.

“You realize if any one of us misses their shot, or they don’t move the way you want them to, one of us is going to be facing two or more of those things?” Baroke asked.

“You ladies can handle two monsters at once, right?” Calvin asked with a smirk. Two could play at their game.

“Uncouth.” Kala crossed her arms, subtly raising her breasts.

“We thought better of you, Calvin,” Ella said, shrugging her shoulders as she hefted her wooden door.

“Boo.” Baroke joined in the lynching.

Apparently not.

“Hypocrites, all of you.” Calvin gave a harsh whisper.

“But yes,” Ella said, glancing at her smaller, darker companion. “We can.”

“Alright, then get in position.” Calvin motioned for them to fall back.

They quickly fell back, Kala and Ella forming a wall, while Baroke slung his bow over his shoulder and hauled himself up onto a single-story building, Stupidly large muscles flexing as he went. The extra height gave him a clear view of the road over their heads.

Here goes nothing. Calvin considered trying to keep the men in the plaza alive for interrogation, but after a moment realized it would be pointless. Keeping them alive just gave them opportunities to outsmart them and inflict harm, take a hostage or call for help. If they did interrogate them, they would then have to kill them in cold blood while they were begging them not to.

That was something Calvin would rather avoid.

He reached into his belt and pulled out the Fireball component, identifying it by its scratchy texture. Calvin double checked with his eyes, then focused on the tiny little sealed vial.

Calvin was about to use the whole spell on the one HK when he realized that Dupdomancy had leveled up twice since he’d  last used it. The explosion would be a lot stronger than last time, possibly enough for multiple HKs.

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Mass Shaping.

6/12 Bent Remaining.

Calvin combined the effects of Mass Splitting and Shaping to split the spell, targeting a point directly above the HK, allocating fifty pounds of the spell’s potential. He didn’t know how much heat it could take, so he wanted to be sure it got plenty. The humans were a lower priority, with nineteen pounds, as the average tolerance for being burned alive was low, he put one between the two of them.

That left a hundred pounds, and Calvin targeted two of the remaining HKs with fifty pounds each.

The shimmering spheres appeared above the three HKs, and directly between the chatting men.

The plaza burst into pure heat with four concussive blasts. The chatting men were instantly immolated, collapsing to the ground, while the HKs stumbled out of the circles of glowing orange cobblestone, their armor similarly orange.

Oh, crap. Calvin’s heart hammered in his chest as he pictured an orange hot monster rushing at Kala or Ella, made even more dangerous by the spell he’d cast on it. that could cause problems.

A second later, his fears were put to rest as wisps of smoke rose from the creature’s armor, and they came to a halt mid-stride. They were still standing, but they were either dead, or their melted armor had rendered them immobile. It was a moot point.

One left, he thought, scrambling to his feet as the last one began to sprint toward him, its claws making strange crumbling noises as they cut through the cobblestone behind him.

Calvin didn’t know what gave him away, perhaps some kind of Bent Sense that let them track the origin of the spell? In any case, the plan was still a go as he scrambled back toward Ella, sprinting with everything he had.

He put his head down and sprinted when he heard an arrow buzz past his ear, followed by a squeal of tearing metal.

“Keep going!” Ella shouted, stepping forward as he slipped past her.

Once Cal was behind his meat-shield, he took a moment to turn around. Baroke had missed, his arrow lodged in the upper plate armor above the creature’s eye. Likely because the monster had more time to dodge than others did.

Ella gave a grunt and smashed down on the creature with the door, before Kala politely stepped in with her scavenged longsword and skewered the creature through the eye, the weakest point of its body.

“Where’s the rest of them?” Baroke asked, peering down the street.

“That’s four for me now,” Calvin said, polishing his fingernails on his vest.

“Bah,” Baroke grumbled as he jumped down to the street, absorbing the shock with minimal effort.

Calvin scanned the plaza and the academy. The looming stone structure built around the tower had weathered the initial earthquake well, without any  lighting up the inside of the building. Matter of fact, there was nothing lighting up the building at all. Each window was dark and forbidding, lending it an abandoned appearance.

Calvin glanced down to the slaughtered wizards and back up at the Academy.

“What do you think are the odds there’s anyone alive left in there?” He asked.

Slim.

“Not great.” Kala said.

“Terrible.” Baroke said.

At least there’s no swarm of Hks flooding out, Calvin thought as he squared his shoulders and approached the academy. He couldn’t drag his feet when he knew Nadia nd Grant were chasing him somehow.

He recalled the way she tasted the air for him, and a shiver went down his spine as he approached the door.

“Hold on,” Ella said, gently moving him aside as he reached for the door. “If there’s anyone in here, they’re waiting in ambush, and I’m the one least likely to be brutally slaughtered.”

She leaned back and kicked the large double doors open, spilling light onto a macabre scene, dozens of men and women slaughtered where they stood, each wearing the different robes of one of the academy’s twelve areas of study.

Calvin scanned the darkness, expecting a trap, but Ella strode in and knelt down, frowning at the bodies.

She tapped a finger against the congealed blood and tasted it.

“These bodies have been here since this morning.”

Ella knew her dead bodies. Genosians were more than familiar with the states of decomposition. Which meant…these people were dead before the wurm plowed through the city wall.

“Something stinks.”

“People shit themselves when they die,” Ella said with a shrug.

“That too, but I meant the fact that these people were dead before the attack,” Kala clarified.

“Oh, I’m not good at idioms yet.”

“Right. There was probably some kind of horrible plot, but we’re not here to figure out what happened, we’re here to put out the city that is currently on fire.” Calvin said, heading for the reception desk, trying not to look at the faces of the dead.

Calvin hopped over the bloody desk and began rifling through the information until he found a helpful pamphlet, giving them a rough map of the college itself.

“Right there, Weather studies and manipulation.” Calvin said, pointing at the tower.

“Of course it’s the tower,” Baroke groaned.

“What’s wrong with the tower?” Calvin asked.

“Nothing, I just don’t…like heights, particularly.”

“I just saw you jump off a roof.”

“That’s different,” Baroke said. “One story, easy jump, easy landing. You’re talking something like a hundred feet up, surrounded by a stone prison, ready to get blown over by the wind any given second. Who knows how much structural damage the earthquake did?”

Calvin took a deep breath and looked back down at the map.

“How about the second floor here?” Calvin asked, pointing to a spot that had a great view of both the tower and the plaza. “Think you could watch our backs?”

“I’m not saying I can’t do it, I just don’t like-“

“It’s fine. Having someone watch our backs is just as valuable. Give a cry if you see anyone coming, and If it’s that Nadia bitch, don’t engage, alright? She’s bad news.”

Baroke took another look at the map, weighing the options in his head.

“Yeah, I’ll watch your backs, no problem.” He glanced up at the staircase. “Wish me luck.”

Calvin was fully aware that if Baroke came across a HK by himself, he was in serious danger, and if he met two, he was likely to be killed.

“I can come with you,” Kala offered, also aware of the risk.

“Nah, I got this,” Baroke said before turning to Calvin and tossing all his metallic arrows onto the floor with a ringing clatter. They were minutes from vanishing.

“Top me off, would you?”

Mass Shaping.

5/12 Bent Remaining.

Calvin grabbed the little ball bearing and created two dozen Jerrytanium arrows, that popped into existence in the archer’s quiver.

“That’s more like it.”

Calvin handed him one of his knives.

“In case we’re gone longer than an hour.”

“Got it,” Baroke said, saluting with the knife and heading up the west-leading staircase. Calvin, Kala and Ella broke for the east staircase, leading toward the tower.

The hallways were silent, the stone so thick that the tumultuous noise from outside couldn’t be heard as they crept along, listening for the distinctive sound of razor sharp legs on stone.

They made it to the tower without incident, passing by empty classrooms draped in shadow, the only sound in their ears their own breathing and heartbeat.

At the first gaping window in the enormous tower, Calvin glanced out, and spotted the muscle bound archer waving to them from a small second story window. He let out an inward sigh of relief at seeing his friend alive and well.

The tower was comprised of ten floors, each one having something to do with the study or magical control of the weather. Calvin saw a couple interesting machines, and what looked like a living storm in a terrarium, but there was nothing that he would describe as Fuck-Off big.

As they continued upward, Calvin got a bad feeling that whatever they were looking for was probably going to be on the top floor.

They finally made it to the top, and only Kala seemed to be unaffected by the ten flights of stairs, leading the way with a perky sway that made Calvin and his Genosian glance at each other.

Above them, the staircase flickered with the light of the burning city, and Calvin could hear the noise of the blaze starting to come back, along with the sound of tools striking steel and strange high-pitched whines. Something was alive up there.

“Hold on,” Calvin whispered, setting a hand on Kala’s shoulder and reaching into his pocket for his Look-Stick, holding the item he’d slaved his left eye’s vision to over their heads. What came into view was what Calvin would describe as a ‘fuck-off big’ machine, easily the size of a house on its own, the thing was a crazy assortment of metal pipes spinning past each other at dizzying speeds around a core of crackling blue energy contained inside a cracked gemstone the size of Calvin’s hut.

That wasn’t all, though. the machine was being worked on by at least a dozen Knick-knacks, swarming the machine under the supervision of a stately man wearing the long flowing robes of the academy, his shoulders studded with indications of which courses he’d taken.

It was all in the brochure.

Is he trying to fix the thing? Calvin thought.

“There’s a dozen little creatures and a man, they probably aren’t hostile.” Calvin took his Fireball component out and held it in his hand, ready to douse them with…The machine.

With a quick switch he pulled out the Web and Miasma between two knuckles. Those wouldn’t damage the machine.

“Probably.”

Kala went out first followed by Calvin and Ella, so as not to startle the man.

“Princess!” the black-haired man said, falling to one knee.

“What’s going on?” Kala asked, frowning.

“Your highness, Lumentrias brought in a dozen metallic monsters we’ve never seen before.” The man’s fist’s shook as he clenched them. “He said they were for study by the Beast-Singers, but they cut their way out of their steel cages in seconds. When we tried to flee we were cut down.”

“Lumentrias.” Kala said, her face contorting with an instant of un-princess like rage before she schooled it back to neutrality. “Why are you still here?” She asked.

“I hid.” The man said, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I..removed myself from the minds of people who trusted me and hid in a cabinet while everyone around me was being slaughtered. After everyone was dead, Lumentrias sent someone to destroy the Fairweather and left.”

“Who are these?” Kala asked, pointing at the small metal creatures crawling over the giant machine, patching the steel construction with a speed that boggled the mind.

“The Knick-Knacks were flying by, and thought the Fairweather was salvage… I offered them a substantial payment if they could fix it instead.” The wizard held his palms up helplessly. “My specialization is memory, I know very little about weather magic.”

Your meat-bag machines are crude at best, the weather unit at The Forge is far more complicated. This is scribbling of a nascent Builder at best.  

“What?” Kala asked.

“I think they can handle it.” Calvin said, eyeing the creature who’d spoke. Its flat head nodded once before a tiny…fan? Deployed from its head. The fan lifted it up into the air and it’s arm whirled, unfolding into a strange device that began using a bright light to cut around a massive rent in one of the copper pipes.

Off to the side, an antlike series of Knick-knacks were handing a curved section of copper along themselves, without slowing their work.

The copper hadn’t even cooled from it’s orange-hot temperature when the little creature tossed the damaged section aside and placed the patch in.

It fit perfectly.

Damn.

I know right? that’s why I like robots, and by extention, the undead. Hard workers, no pesky unions.

Calvin heard a long whistle coming from the courtyard, and his heart began hammering in his chest. He ran to the edge of the tower and looked over the bannister.

Tiny figures wearing blue and black were streaming into the Academy plaza, lead by a girl in black leather.

I warned her. Calvin thought, his eye narrowing as he slid the nonlethal spell components back into his belt.

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