Chapter 49: 49: Give the dog a Bone

That’s a lot of Ilethans, Ilethans with lungs.

Calvin considered as he watched them march toward the Academy. There wasn’t enough heat in fireball to immolate them all at once, but disable or slow them down? He could do that.

He flipped out the poison component and concentrated on the plaza and the iron-shod vial in his hand. Luckily, the tower was only thirteen stories high, putting the plaza just barely inside his reach.

Shaping.

4/12 Bent remaining.

He mentally reached out as far as he could with the spell, feeling it bump up against the limits of its range, just at the edge of the plaza, right in front of the academy’s doors.

Calvin concentrated on a narrow line of the poison in the vial and funneled the entire mass of the shaping into it.

A wall of grey-yellow steam exploded in front of the academy as they approached, catching dozens of the Ilethan soldiers in the face. The soldiers scattered in every direction before slumping to the ground, one by one.

The steam hung low to the ground like a mist and began to roll down the steps of the academy, washing over the approaching soldiers, who suffered the same fate as the ones in front of them.

In a matter of seconds, the rest of the Ilethans pulled back to the streets, unwilling to enter the mist-shrouded plaza filled with the bodies of their cohorts.

Remind me not to piss off Borus Igglebaum

We can call that one Cloudkill. No particular reason.

Calvin ignored Elliot and kept his eyes on Grant and Nadia, who’d been in the thick of the initial blast.

Grant had fallen to one knee, retching as the fog passed by him, but Nadia stood stock still, her head tilting to the side and up, looking up at the tower.

She…didn’t breathe any of it?

Maybe I can prevent them from climbing the tower with-

Calvin’s thoughts were cut short when swords flashed out of Grant’s many sheaths and slid underneath Nadia and the giant, lifting them away from the fog, and up into the air.

“Get away from the Fairweather!” Calvin hissed. If he managed to downplay the importance of…the giant glowing machine they were crowded around…who am I kidding? “We’ve got company coming up from outside!”

Calvin pulled out the fireball component. Now that there was just the two of them, they would be easy to put down with an explosion of heat…hopefully.

Shaping.

3/12 Bent Remaining.

In the instant before the shimmering sphere of volatile chemicals exploded, Nadia held up a hand and his spell unraveled into Bent that funneled into her fingertips.

Well, that’s no good, Calvin thought as his absorbed blade came partway out of his palm an instant before he yanked it backward, focusing on a trident shape cut out of the blade.

Shaping.

2/12 Bent remaining.

Calvin created the trident as close to inside her as he could, travelling at the speed of his arm, aimed at the small of her back.

There would be no time to react.

The silvery metal took the leather-bound princess square in the back, jutting six inches out past her ribcage.

Yeah! Calvin thought, pumping a fist.

Nadia’s expression didn’t change as her hand glowed pale blue and she lopped off the blade sticking out of her front before yanking it out, continuing her approach on the wheezing Grant’s swords.

That dampened my enthusiasm. What’s the deal with that wretch? Calvin thought scanning the rest of the plaza and the rooftops. Was Nadia using some kind of meat-puppet dressed up as her? After the first time he’d killed her he wasn’t so sure.

He couldn’t make anything out, and he might not until…

“Kala, can you tell me if that’s an illusion or not?”

Kala leaned over the edge, along with Ella.

Kala’s expression went unnaturally blank as she looked at the approaching woman.

“Nope. That is not Nadia. Incidentally, we’re probably going to die, because whatever’s in there is cold vengeance made flesh.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s been fun.”

About to die? Not if I dead them first. Calvin let the blade sink back into his hand, thumbing his components. Which one would rid him of the raven-haired headache? Kala’s warning was cryptic, at best. Maybe Nadia used some kind of self-hypnosis mind magic or something to increase her pain tolerance?

She didn’t seem bothered by the length of steel through her chest. Or the holes in her arms and legs.

“Likewise,” Cal muttered, motioning for them to back away from the parapets.

They stood back as the leather clad girl and the heaving giant made it to the top of the parapet. The swords were shaking like a spoon in a geriatric’s hand as not-Nadia stepped off them and onto the tower.

Grant collapsed to the ground behind her, shaking in a similar manner as he retched, his stomach thankfully empty.

Rather than her attention turning to the machine with Knick-Knacks crawling over it, her gaze locked on Calvin. The intent from the gaze felt like Nadia wanted to eat him so he could tell her what to do? That’s fuckin’ weird.

Calvin put his fingers on the cannon component, while his left hand sought out the spare knife tucked in his belt. Nadia knew about the spare under his skin, but that was no reason to lead with it. Whatever happened next, it would be fast and bloody.

“Origin, One receives you.”

Calvin felt a tugging sensation as his eyes rolled back in his head, and everything went black.

****

Cal’s eyes flew open, showing him nothing but stone. He took what felt like a long-awaited gasp of air as he slapped his hands on the ground and levered himself up.

What happened?

He felt a gaze on the back of his skull, radiating murderous intent. He lunged to the side as a black…tube hit the ground, piercing the air where his head had been only an instant before. The tube sank into the stone, pulsing like a living thing.

Calvin glanced up and saw Nadia glaring at him, the strange black tube withdrawing into the sleeve of her blood-crusted leather sleeves.

That’s, ummm… Calvin took a quick glance away from his opponent to figure out what was going on.

Ella was embedded in the Fairweather machine, steam rising from her body. She was covered in cuts, and her skin was a dark silver-red. Kala seemed to be unconscious, panting desperately as she stared up into the sky. The Knick-knacks were scattered across the roof, unmoving.

Grant was pulling himself to his feet, taking ragged breaths and spitting out phlegm.

Okay, I can’t have been out more than six to eleven seconds. Grant is still recovering, no one was Coup-de-grace’d

“Wretched creation, We will not suffer an accident like you to live.”

“Is that the royal We?” Calvin asked, edging further away.

“We will prove to Origin his mistake. You are an ill-conceived, poorly trained meat puppet made by a failing System with no purpose other than to house His Greatness while We prepare the world for His coming. Your usefulness has already run its course.”

Oh snap, are you gonna let her talk to you like that?

Is she talking about you?  Calvin thought as he felt another attack coming, flexing his knees for a quick dive.

Nadia lashed her arm forward, creating a spray of blue fire just as Calvin jumped forward. It was counter intuitive, but trained into his very bones by Karen. Moving into an enemy’s personal space was always better than moving out.

The blue fire let off a nauseating energy that warped his senses and seemed to give Calvin’s skin a mind of its own as a bit of it caught his shoulder. After he slid under the attack, his shoulder skin was suffering a deep existential crisis and wanted nothing more than to crawl off of him and rejoin the rest of The One.

Okay, that’s fucking terrifying, Calvin thought as the tiny muscles on the outside of his shoulder rythmically twitched by themselves. He didn’t have time to be terrified, because Nadia was close enough to kiss.

This time, though, she wasn’t nearly as kissable. Up close and intimately personal, Calvin could see her eyes were clouded, her lips grey, mouth exuding the stench of –  Am I fighting a corpse? – Calvin ducked low and drew his knife across her, right hip to left rib.

Calvin’s wrist wasn’t strong enough to pull the knife through the armor.

DING DING DING! What do we have for him, Johnny?

Well, then what Abyssal creature am I currently dancing with? Calvin thought, ducking a clumsy backhand while sliding a foot forward to keep himself close enough to smell dinner.

Good question, inn’it?

Why is it after me!? Cal thought, catching a kidney with a two-handed stab, barely managing to pierce the armor.

Another good question.

Nadia – Not Nadia. – The creature let out a frustrated screech at being unable to catch him and an invisible sphere expanded outward from it. The wall of force picked him up and sent him hurtling backward, slamming into the parapet.

Calvin couldn’t breathe, his world narrowed down to a bright point filled with stars. He could barely see, and his lungs were seized with pain, his spine bent so far it felt like it would snap in half.

The black tubes emerged from Nadia’s wrists again, And Calvin was able to slump out of the way barely in time as they dug into the stone behind him. He groaned and strained his arms rolling himself out of the way, still having difficulty breathing as another relentless strike came down.

He was at the wrong distance now, she could take him to pound town with impunity.

Here’s another good question. Why aren’t you afraid? Calvin thought as he eyed Ella. The Genosian was conscious, picking her way out of the wrecked machine. Kala also seemed to be recovering from…whatever was happening to her, her eyes slowly regaining focus.

Why would you ask that?

When the Hunter-Killers first arrived, you wanted to cut and run, now you’re just amused by the whole situation. Calvin ducked a strike and scrambled backward, minding his feet and trying to draw her line of sight away from the girls.

Would you be particularly scared if your Chauffer-bot showed to pick you up?  That’s my ride home. Calvin got the impression that Elliot was pointing at the princess, or more likely, whatever was inside her.

I did you a solid though, slugger, I told One that he had to beat you in a fair fight to prove he’s better than my most recent project.

Calvin shoved the ground out from under him, hopping over another strike from those strange black tubes, before kicking off the parapet, getting more distance.

Level with me, Calvin thought, backing away from the creature stalking him. What do you want from me? and none of your guarshit.

Elliot’s voice turned distant.

Let’s put it this way. There are certain people I want revenge on. If you pursue your goal to become a Wizard-King, you will without a doubt come into conflict with these people. I do not need to steer you towards this end, it will happen on its own.

 You were born a weapon. If you are able to destroy One, then certainly you would be a better choice to be the vessel of my retribution. I will not question your methods as long as they prove superior to One. I’ll even help you with all the knowledge and skill at my disposal.

As long as I continue to pursue my goal, Calvin thought, backing away.

Precisely.

Fair enough. Kala was right, Elliot was evil, but it didn’t seem like he’d stab Calvin in the back as long as Cal made sure there was no way for the rat to jump ship, which meant destroying his Chauffer. Whatever the hell that is.

I like the way you think.

Not-Nadia lunged forward and Calvin ducked the first strike, but the follow-up claw caught him in the shoulder and drove him to the side, collapsing to the parapet floor some twelve feet distant from the big general gasping for air.

Calvin tried to fling himself away, but his arm didn’t want to move, creating a half-assed flop. Adrenaline began to sing in his veins as he realized he was unable to move.

Or maybe you’re not as fit as I thought.

Shit, I’ve only got two Bent left!

Whatever it was had been able to suck in a fireball in the blink of an eye, and somehow end his Heart of the Swarm ability. Calvin’s style thus far was focused on creating tangible objects to affect real change. That was powerful, but also easy to see.

What can I copy? Air, blade, myself? No, I’m wounded, the copy would be wounded too.

“Get away from my Poeor!” Ella rammed into the creature with a flying tackle, her skin shining ruddy silver in the firelight as the two of them toppled to the ground. She got into the mount position and began laying brutal punches into the thing’s face.

I think Ella’s over a hundred and sixty-nine pounds. Otherwise, I’d copy the shit out of her.

Shame.

“Same shit,” Grant let out a retching cough, “different day, huh, kid?” the massive sword dancer was leaning on the parapet and tottering toward Calvin.

“Does your country know their princess is dead?” Calvin returned his question.

The creature that looked like a princess Gave an inhuman screech and black tubes erupted from its chest, emphasizing Calvin’s point.

“Huh,” Grant grunted, frowning.

The tubes slammed into Ella’s red-silver skin and jettisoned her off it and high into the the air, her flailing body drawing a perfect arc…

Off the building!

In a panic, Calvin reached his good hand into his belt, crossing his mental fingers it would work like he wanted it to as his real fingers touched the shiny smooth texture of the Void. Once Calvin knew exactly where it was in relation to himself, he cast the spell.

If this doesn’t work, I’m going to have to use a Web and Ella will be out of play.

Shaping.

1/12 Bent remaining.

Calvin aimed the Void between Ella and the tower, copying the nothing inside and overlaying it on the area.

Calvin dumped the whole energy of the spell into the casting, which was a mistake.

For an instant, there was no more sound.

Calvin’s ears popped, and his sinuses seemed to swell, along with his eyeballs and tongue.

Am I about to explode? Calvin thought as the air was drawn out of his lungs in a silent scream.

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The air hit, slamming into everyone present like an angry Karen. The sudden rush of wind picked him up and slammed him back to the ground like it held a grudge. Grant was battered to his knees.

Ella was snatched out of the midair by the wind refilling the area and thrown the other direction, back toward the tower. She tumbled across the stone, her skin sending up sparks as it dug into the solid rooftop.

Not-Nadia climbed to its feet and stalked towards him, beyond words. Calvin was trying to get his legs under him when Kala entered the fray, her palms glowing with a brilliant light.

Wherever her palms went, the black snakes seemed to retreat, weakening the creature. Kala slipped around it’s clumsy strikes and harried it for a good eight seconds, long enough for Calvin to bring his legs up under himself.

Then she messed up.

Kala’s foot slipped on the round portion of a Knick-knack’s arm, and she began falling, with only enough time to protect her face with her arms. There was a small explosion and Kala tumbled away, her dress shredding against the stone floor.

“Now!” Not-Nadia said, immediately whirling to face him. “You, DIE!”

Calvin tried to lean out of the way again, but the strange black tube went out to either side, wrapping around his neck with brutal force and slamming him up against the parapet, his back creaking as he was forced partially over it.

Not-Nadia leaned over him, a crazed look in its dead eyes, and a feral grin.

Fssshhht!

Fssshhht! Fssshhht!

A metal arrow brushed against the hair on Calvin’s scalp as it buried itself in one of Not-Nadia’s eyes, and another two through went her forehead, sending her reeling backward, drawing Calvin with it, away from the parapet.

Calvin heard a faint whoop from Baroke as his royal sniper celebrated his victory.

Perhaps a bit premature, but he can’t see what I see.

Not-Nadia was expressionless now, as more and more black tubes emerged from its body, regarding him like snakes considering the best time to strike. They didn’t have eyes, but that didn’t stop Calvin from having the sensation that they could see him. he felt their gaze, and it felt cold, hungry and vicious.

Blade Body.

Calvin jutted a knife out of his neck, severing the tube around his throat and collapsing to the ground an instant before the black snakes could hit him.

The writhing mass regarded him with fury, looming over him before he could get away.

Well, I guess this is it, unless you can pull a miracle with that last Bent.

Calvin’s mind was a blur of activity, but no course of action seemed like it would solve all of his problems, maybe buy him a few seconds.

Damnation.

Calvin readied a Fireball. If he could cast it while it was killing him, it might be distracted enough to not block –

A blade came down from above and bisected Not-Nadia from head to crotch, then across the waist.

It began to tilt toward Calvin’s prone form when Grant stepped forward and pushed it back, where it fell into four halves, like a butchered animal.

The big man regarded Calvin with cold calculation for a moment.

“I would like to defect.” Grant said, before spitting out some more poison.

“Consider yourself under my command, then.” Calvin rasped, using his good arm to drag himself up, watching the corpse for signs of movement.

The black tubes became shiny, then in a matter of seconds, they collapsed into a smelly goop, then evaporated at a speed that beggared belief, leaving behind only the quartered corpse of a beautiful girl riddled with wounds.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  Elliot said with an audible grin

“I’m thinking I need to make it rain.” Calvin muttered, limping past Nadia’s corpse. The Fairweather machine had taken even more damage in the fight, with cracks running through the power source, and some of its pieces missing entirely.

I guess not.

Below them, the city was still ablaze, lighting the clouds above them with an eerie light and filling the air with smoke. Occasionally Calvin got the smell of roasting human, and his stomach threatened to rebel.

You wanna help, Pick out a good Knick-Knack for me, Calvin thought, surveying the destruction atop the tower.

Ah, now we’re on the same page. To your left, little further..there, you’re looking at him.

Calvin’s gaze landed on a knick-knack that was relatively whole, with a humanoid body, shinier than most of the others. It had a cube-like, blocky head full of glass lenses on top of a Bent engine, with big yellow bands of steel around its arms hiding a dozen tools.

That one’s your best bet. You still got the chip I told you to save?

Yeah.

Use your knife to pry open the panel on top of its head.

Calvin did so, exposing a confusing mess of strange parts that had no place on a living creature.

See that thing that looks like your chip? Very gently pry it out.

Calvin followed Elliot’s instructions and swapped out the two chips, pressed a little red button with the tip of his knife, and replaced the panel.

Will this work? That wasn’t originally a part of his body.

Don’t think about it too hard. The System should recognize it as original, seeing as it’s a ‘bot, and you pressed the reset button.

Calvin placed a hand on the Knick-Knack.

Consume.

0/12 Bent remaining.

Excellent, Elliot said. The chip got taken too. A success.

Calvin felt an instant of discomfort as the creature disappeared, then the feeling vanished, and a prompt showed up.

Entire creature eaten, would you like to assign it to a slot?

Yes.

Please choose a Skill slot to assign this creature to, or refuse to resume normal biological function. (Warning, thirty pounds of steel will cause severe internal damage.)

I Choose Calvinian Summoning, Calvin thought.

All Calvinian Summoning Slots filled.

Fever Wasp: Aggressive carnivorous flying insect with highly venomous sting.

Fields industries Micro Construction Bot (Modified): one of the Tech-races formerly enslaved by humans, Knick-Knacks live underground. They are merchantile, peaceful masters of mining and metallurgy.

Did I just enslave this thing?

The Harbingers thought so, and they’re the ones writing history. I mean, we designed them so they were cool with having owners and the only thing they wanted to do was their job. That’s not slavery in my book.

I’ll think about it later.

“Kala,” Calvin said, limping over to the groaning girl, not letting Grant completely out of his sight. “are you all right?”

“We’re still alive?” She asked, staring at the sky.

“We are. Are you good?”

“Just sore,” she said, groaning as she sat up. “I’m gonna bruise bad tomorrow.”

Calvin helped her to her feet, and together they approached where Ella was pushing herself to her feet.

“What now?” she asked, glancing around the mess. “We can’t fix your Gadveran machine.”

“Not necessarily,” Calvin said, holding out his hand. “I think I can do it, but I’m going to need some Bent.”

Kala slapped her hand down into Calvin’s before Ella could react. The vigorous movement caused her damaged yellow dress to give up, falling halfway down her breast before she caught it with her other hand, giving a squeak.

“I-I’ve got plenty to spare.” She stammered as Ella raised a brow.

Talk about positive reinforcement.

….

10/12 Bent remaining.

“Okay, that’s plenty,” Cal said, letting go of Kala. The princess swooned, falling backward into Ella’s arms. Calvin was a bit worried at first until he saw her nestle deeper into the Genosian’s cleavage and let out a contented sigh. It was on purpose.

Ella gave him a look that said ‘what do I do with this?’

Calvin shrugged and got to work.

Calvinian Summoning.

9/12 Bent Remaining.

Calvinian Summoning has reached level 11!

level 11:  1331 pound limit, 121 minutes. 0 slots available.

Calvin summoned as many as he could without changing their size, creating nearly forty identical knick-knacks.

Keep your finger on the unsummon button in case they’re less than stable, Elliot warned.

The knick-knacks stood there, staring at him passively.

Fix the machine, Cal thought, pointing at the Fairweather.

With unnerving synchronization, the Knick Knacks turned to study the thing he pointed at. They stared for a moment, before they exploded into action, resuming the job that they had left off, reassembling the towering copper and steel machine with alarming speed.

That was easier than I thought it’d be.

Course it was, I opened up your System and used your connection via Calvinian summoning to input the factory code printed on the back of the chip and registered you as the owner.

I don’t understand half of what you just said, Calvin thought as he watched the Knick-Knacks work.

Calvinian summoning.

8/12 Bent remaining.

Calvin summoned another thirty-nine, and hit the law of diminishing returns as the metal creatures began to crowd each other out somewhat.

After about twenty minutes, the knick-knacks finished the repair, and the machine began emitting a hum that they could feel in the floor.

On the panel in front of the machine were several esoteric symbols beside sliding knobs. Calvin couldn’t read most of them, but the one for moisture was a fairly obvious teardrop, and Calvin cranked it all the way up.

The sound of thunder echoed above their heads as the clouds grew thick and laden with moisture. In minutes, the sky began to unleash a flood of rain, drenching them along with the rest of the city.

Calvin looked over the side of the tower and watched as the fires began to struggle, slowly retreating from the monsoon.

They headed back inside the tower to get away from the rain, checking the state of the fires every half hour for the rest of the night, until morning came.

With the sun rising above the ocean to the west, they turned off the rain and marveled at the sight.

In the morning light, they could make out the corpse of the massive steel worm, crushing half a dozen buildings.

The Ilethan army was a disorganized mess, milling around outside the wall as a barrier of Gadveran soldiers held the gap. Calvin even made out some Stoneshapers slowly wrenching stone out of the bedrock to fill in the gaping hole.

Calvin knew for a fact that their leadership was dead or defected. The Ilethans were going to lose.

“Sweet mother Elani, we’re gonna live!” he exclaimed.

Kala’s brows furrowed. “This calls for celebration!” she said with a faux barbaric grunt.

The slender, brown skinned princess clasped her left palm over her fist with a grunt.

“Enquacha!”

Ella bust into a full-blown laugh, doubling over and slapping her knee.

“What?” Calvin asked.

“Enquacha!” Ella shouted too, slapping her fist into her palm as she scowled at him ferociously.

“What in Vashiel’s sweaty asscrack are you guys on about?” Calvin asked, backing away as they began to shamble toward him.

“Enquacha!” They grunted.

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