Bab 2487: 3.3
3.3
I may be oblivious, but at this point it's safe to say the ambient 'old' mana is either intelligent, or programmed in some way. It's a little unnerving since it's spread over the area. It almost feels like someone constantly watching over my shoulder. I'm going to have to find some way to suppress it or these guys may manage to spread it over the entirety of Brockton Bay.
That's something for the future though, along with wondering where the martial artists ran off to, making new spells, insulting the PRT and any number of other things. The current issue is the spell we're flying through. The spell is like a wall, the mana in the air is linked with it and it's pressing against our astral shields, so it's bound to be something more insidious than a simple barrier. Maybe it's just a 'feel bad' zone to keep random intruders from wanting to move in further? I'm a little worried about Impact since he's only protected by his ring. I don't have to worry about Taylor, she has Shard giving her a boost.
Taylor hums bringing me out of my thoughts, "That's odd... I can feel where my bugs are, but the bugs themselves are getting disoriented." She shakes her head, "It's not a problem though, I'll just force them to face the right direction and walk straight."
Huh. That answers that, a disorientation spell to turn people away.
I nod, "It's the spell we're going through. It probably overwhelmed them. Most people wouldn't have any defense against this kind of thing so maybe we'll get lucky and this is their only 'barrier'."
I frown as I feel us pass over a sort of 'boundary' with a pocket dimension now under this one. It's not trying to pull us in, it's not putting any pressure on my astral shield... and the dimension just faded?
Impact immediately shoots down my hopes of an 'easy' infiltration by pointing down to the roof of a building we're flying over, "Mph Umph phse?"
I look down to see six floating purple gems, each about a foot tall, that have suddenly appeared and are rising into the air from various surrounding rooftops. The gems are drawing in mana, as if that wouldn't be obvious by this point, and blue sparks start to build up inside them... Ah... Maybe I should have put some effort into an electric shield. My 'energy' shield just protects against drastic temperature changes. Maybe something that reacts to streamers of elect- No, don't get sidetracked, incoming badness!
I immediately toss up a mana construct as a wall between us and the gems. Here's hoping physical mana is an insulator!
*C-C-Crackle-Boom!*
The gems all fire off their spells in series and I grunt at the sudden drain on my mana. Apparently I have to blame 'fuckin' magic' for the -physical- impact of the lightning bolts. On the plus side, physically manifested mana -is- a good insulator, though it gets in the way of sight, so I'd still like to come up with an electric shield spell.
The air smells of ozone and feels a little tingly, so I guess magical lightning bolts charge the air on top of being a physical force. It's really too bad I don't know how to disable one of the gems without destroying it, I'd like to figure out how to make the lightning bolt spell since I still rely on my staff to make electricity.
My throat feels a little tingly for a moment, like I need to cough, and I would be concerned but there's no spell trying to interfere with me and my filter shield should take care of any poisons/bacteria... probably nothing. People sometimes need to cough without drawing everyone's attention for speaking.
Taylor yells, "OBLIVIUM, SNAP OUT OF IT AND SHOOT THEM!" quite a bit louder than necessary. Oh, right, I have a sonic shield so I didn't realize how loud the lightning bolts were. I feel a little bad for her and Impact.
... Right, snapping out of it. I make three mid-power mana bolts and fire them at the crystals on my side. Taylor/Shard had already formed two for their side and Impact already launched himself at one, accounting for all six.
Luckily, the gems aren't very sturdy. Impact is a bit charred though. Apparently destroying them releases the built up charge in a burst of electricity. Who'da thunk it?
Taylor/Shard grabs Impact from where he crashed into the building and I fly forward to lead the way. Shard needs some time to build up shields and if there are any more traps I'm better suited to taking the hit.
There's the odd sound of a giant rock monster stumbling into a building behind us, so I assume Sophia is still giving Mr. Rocks a run for his nuggets.
I tune their fight out of my mind, since there's an army of people on the roofs in front of us. I have to blink a few times. Not people, rock golems.
Taylor turns to me, "ARE YOU THINKING WHAT I'M THINKING?"
I shrug, "Are you thinking that those buildings are pretty well built to hold that much weight?"
"WHAT?"
I turn to her, "I said, are you-" *Crack!* a disembodied stone 'fist' is diverted by my deflection shield. "... nevermind."
Since these things can apparently shoot rocks, they're a bit more dangerous than I thought. Still nothing to worry about as long as I dodge a bit. There -are- a lot of them, several roofs full actually. I build up several mana bolts, but I take a page from Sophia's book and add a foxfire orb inside each one. These are summons, obviously, so catastrophic damage is the order of the day. Impact is launched once more as Taylor and I dodge to the side to avoid the volley of rocks flying at us. I return fire, taking out a few of them in an explosion of stone fragments.
As with most summons thus far, they aren't exactly intelligent. They simply stand still and fire at Taylor and I, while Impact is swarmed... slowly. About as fast as a somewhat enthusiastic tortoise.
Taylor has gathered her bugs around herself, and is spreading her swarm out. I see a few of her force plates spring up too. I feel a little bad for her, a swarm of insects isn't exactly the most useful thing in the current situation. Thus far she's come against a rock man, a disorientation spell, magic crystals and now smaller rock men. Bugs aren't really helping her much here. They aren't even good as a 'smokescreen' since I'm pretty sure the golems don't use eyes to see.
The swarm she had spread out sweeps down onto the rooftop, but I seem to be right. Stones continue to fly out from the cloud of insects toward Taylor, but she's dodging while Shard's deflection shield takes care of the few that may have hit.
Impact is having a tough time too, he can take care of a couple at a time, but he's being backed into a corner gradually. There really -is- something to say about having numbers on your side.
I feel some of the summons in Taylor's insect cloud fade. When I glance over from continuing my own barrage, the large group of golems that she had been swarming suddenly all start splitting into tiny fragments and falling apart. I didn't quite catch what she did... until she did it a second time.
... I take it back. Taylor/Shard is overpowered. Taylor stuck her force plates to her bugs... then Shard modified them to give them an edge. Swarms of razorbugs with incredible control are downright -terrifying-.
Well, I can't let myself be outdone can I? Screw the cool factor of exploding missiles, time for efficiency. I ignore the rocks being launched at me and fly closer to the group I had been working on, then charge up my newest spell, the one that disrupts magic. I think I'll keep things simple and call it Dispel Pulse, because spells need names.
A moment later, the group of golems on this roof and some on the roof next to it stop moving, crack, then begin to crumble as the stone reverts to energy and the mana in the air siphons it away so it doesn't explode.
Impact is having the most trouble, but due to our practice against the ants he's keeping himself from being -completely- overwhelmed, which is good enough since he's distracting a majority of the golems. They seem to prefer to aim at the closest enemy.
It takes a few minutes, which is actually a -really- long time in a fight, but we manage to wipe out all the golems except those who have now piled on top of Impact. Taylor can't get careless with the razorbugs, Shard doesn't know how to use the Dispel Pulse yet, and I'm laughing at him.
A muffled voice calls out from under the pile of twenty or so golems, "Mrph... mphs? elph phe? phls?"
Taylor tilts her head to the side, probably listening to Shard, then nods, "Sure, see what you can do."
Apparently, Taylor gives control to Shard... only for her to jump onto the pile shouting, "Hugs!"
... Which was fine until all of the golems suddenly started to absorb ambient mana and glow. If games have taught me anything, it's that mooks that suddenly start glowing and pulsing with light are bad news.
A quick dispel pulse disperses the summons, but rather than just crumbling, the mana they had built up is released in a blast of force pelting us with sand and concussive force. Luckily, Taylor/Shard and I can fly and Impact was in his solid breaker state already.
Impact speaks up first, "Mph, pht wuph pha phlsd."
Taylor floats down to grab him again now that the golems are gone, "Yeah yeah, you're punny, now let's go, we have a Ward to rescue."
I sigh as a crash sounds out a good ways behind us, "... Ya think Stalker's playing with her food again, or is Mr. Rocks just that tough?"
Taylor stops for a moment, probably piecing out whatever Shard is telling her, then looks over to me and I can practically hear the smirk in her voice, "Oh? Is someone jealooouuus~?"
I raise my hands defensively, "No no, I'm perfectly happy to have her take out her pent up aggression on someone that isn't me."
She starts flying toward the center of the zone again, "Good, then let's get going and let Stalker have her fun."
I use a boost to launch myself by them, again, better for me to be out front. We only manage about half a block before someone yells at us from street level. Some black lady with blue-jean shorts and t-shirt with purple hair. She's not in immediate danger, is likely part of FL and seems to have no ranged abilities, and although her aura is stronger than average, it's still pretty weak... So I promptly ignore her. The only reason we fought the golems was because they'd just keep shooting at us otherwise and a bit of bad luck could have dropped Taylor/Shard's shield.
Taylor, however, with her 'Hero' complex, apparently has to make sure the lady isn't a civilian.
I groan as Taylor slows down, "No, there is no way this girl is a civilian this deep in FL territory."
She shrugs, "They built this in a single night, they could have easily missed a few people."
I roll my eyes, not that she could see the gesture, "Arachne. They had a small army of golems, a huge swarm of vermin and a barrier to keep people out. This lady is one of them."
"They still could have- What the fuck!?"
When I snap my head around, expecting to have to deflect a car or something, it takes me a moment to realize the girl has produced a knife, and is hesitantly slicing up her arms, though with each cut, her confidence in the next is stronger. Blood is dripping down making a sort of gory decoration, but her aura, which was slightly above normal before, spikes in power. It's a small growth, she's still weaker than Not-Bat-Girl, but as she makes more cuts her aura is getting stronger. I knew we should have just ignored her.
Flying insects swarm out and start to go for weak points, covering eyes and ears and a couple have Taylor's force plates, which are trying to keep the girl's arms pinned so she can't keep cutting herself. The self inflicted wounds begin to heal in seconds.
Masochist-Lady is already stronger than what Taylor's force plates can manage, so the constructs shatter as the lady continues to cut at herself and walk toward us, not even caring about the insects assaulting her.
I frown, "Well, I vote we shoot her with Impact."
"Mph?"
Taylor shakes her head, "No, that could kill her."
I nod and instantly respond, "Plan B, cut her arms off."
Taylor stares at me.
I shrug, "It's for her own good! She won't be able to keep cutting herself, and I'll cauterize the stumps so she won't bleed out. Win win."
Taylor seems a bit annoyed, "You aren't going to -dismember- someone to keep them from hurting themselves!"
I point at the lady who just tore a stop sign out of the road and seems to be gauging it's weight, "How about to keep them from hurting us?"
Taylor turns to look just as my deflection shield diverts the ironic projectile. I'm not sure if it was just convenience, or if she's trying to send us a message.
I create a few mana bolts, "I'm going to take this moment to say 'I told you so'."
Taylor grumbles, then suddenly looks behind her, "Shit! Velocity just appeared and he's injured. Distract her, I'm going to check on him."
Taylor flies off... and I think she forgot that she's still carrying Impact. Or maybe she decided if she left him with me I'd shoot him at Miss Masochist. I turn my attention to my target and fire my three mana bolts at her in lieu of a dragon punch, for want of an Impact.
The mana bolts tear through her, but the damage doesn't seem to bother her. If anything it's -helping- her judging at the sudden large spike of aura. It's raging like a fire and I can feel a confusing array of emotions radiating out, pleasure, pain, anger, joy... they're changing and overlapping constantly. Great. She's insane.
I blink then look down at her legs. Insane, enjoys pain, likely enjoys inflicting pain too, nice legs... I think I found Sophia's older sister.
She looks up at me with a predatory grin and begins to growl.
... Yep. If they aren't related I'll eat my non-existent hat.
Her muscles tense and her aura compresses. I can -feel- the danger. I boost myself to the side instantly, but I'm a little slow. She flies by me, my mana drops from her nails deflecting off my shield, and there's a crash along with the sound of falling bricks behind me. I, of course, turn and produce my staff, then blast her with a crackling bolt of electricity. If physical damage is healed and makes her stronger, then it's time to try something else. I really need a lightning spell, my staff's battery won't hold up like this.
The current just makes her muscles twitch, making her body go rigid, but she doesn't fall. Well, it did have -some- effect. I crank up the juice again and hold the current on her. She fights against her spasming muscles and wraps her arms around herself. Her aura starts to grow and her body is being reinforced enough to fight against the electricity, so I cut the power again. I guess that plan is out. Maybe fire will work? I don't exactly -want- to light a woman on fire, but I'd prefer that over another Mr. Red scenario, which is what this is turning into, and I doubt this lady will be up for a nice little chat like he was. I'm regretting not starting this with overwhelming force...
Eh, talking is worth a shot, "Hey, what's your name? I think I went to school with your younger sister."
"More."
I cross my arms, "That's not a name, and you didn't even say 'please'. No more electricity for you." Besides, giving the bad girl what she wants only works in your favor on a date.
I glance over to where Taylor/Shard had been. Her tendrils of aura she uses to control bugs suddenly disappeared... I'm a little worried, but I assume Shard broke into the pocket dimension the PRT and Protectorate group are stuck inside. This isn't going well. If Taylor has to rescue them then I'm the only one left of the Backup Buddies that can proceed... if I can get by Miss Masochist.
I feel Miss Masochist's aura drop as she uses a chunk of it. I snap my eyes to her, wary of the next attack.
She leans forward, her head lolling slightly, "... nough..."
Her head snaps up, her eyes burning with rage, "Not ENOUGH!" The roar that follows is more beast than woman, a wave of pure mana blasts outward from her along with the roar, similar to my dispel pulse, but less focused and with a ridiculous amount of power behind it. The wave of power actually pushes against my aura and my astral shield lights up from the amount of mana it has to siphon to protect me.
Because my astral shield had lit up, I don't see when she launches herself at me, and I suffer for it. Between the previous strike, the astral wave and this strike, my deflection shield shatters... again. I know she struck the left side of my shield, but I don't see her, obviously that means she's behind me. I spin around in the air, only for her to launch over my shoulder and hook her arm over it to flip around and press against my back. The force throws both of us into a spin, but I feel something warm and sticky against my left cheek.
A low, almost seductive voice whispers in my right ear as her bloody hand gently rubs my cheek, her other hand grabbing just below my right elbow, "I... like pain..." I brace myself as I feel her joy and anticipation grow. I feel her hand tense on my arm and I try to build up aura, but her own is smothering mine, it grinds against me like thorny sandpaper.
She continues, "Do you?"
I scream as I feel her casually snap my arm. My world is blinding pain, but only for a moment. The pain fades almost as soon as it was inflicted, and it's continuing to drain.
I hear her hum appreciatively, "Mmm, you're delicious" Her aura is growing further.
Apparently she can feed off -my- damage as well as her own... only I don't heal like she does. This is bad.
She nibbles on my ear, "Since you won't give me more, I'll take it myself!" She bites down and tears away some of the flesh, and again the pain only lasts for a moment.
I manage to build up enough mana and keep my focus well enough to generate two blades, "Plan B."
I launch the blades against her shoulders, and though they start to dissolve when they enter her aura, they last long enough to dig into her flesh... until they hit her bones. So much aura is reinforcing her bones they can't cut through, she basically has a mana shield over them. There -is- a silver lining though. They cut through her nerves well enough that it forces her to let go of me.
I take advantage of the situation and rocket away from her. I need some time to recover a bit and come up with a plan, and she can't fly.
There's a satisfying *thud* when she hits the ground, though the satisfaction is dulled by knowing she actually got more power from the impact.
I sigh and focus on myself as I fly higher and strafe to put a building between the two of us. A slash along my jaw I hadn't noticed, a piece of my ear torn off, and a section of my forearm is crushed.... And two spots of foreign mana, one at my jaw and one at my ear, and I can feel my pain draining through them, leaving small bubbles of aura in my wake that look like hers. How did it get through my astral shield?... right, it only protects from aura that originates outside of it - skin level. They're in wounds.
I groan as I realize I need to dispel them, and the fact that it's going to leave me in severe pain. I hesitantly consider cutting the nerves, but I'm not good enough to make sure I get them all.... maybe I should just cut the thing off. Amy'll heal it later... right?... ugh... No, better to just deal with the pain for now.
I focus on meditating to center myself and -hopefully- be able to ignore some of the pain. Mind over matter and all that. Then I focus two small dispel pulses to eliminate the marks.
I clench my jaw and hold back the scream of pain, mind over matter, mind over matter!.... not working! I groan in pain and distract myself by pushing as much mana as I can control into a single fireball, intensely concentrated, leaving out the 'fire' portion, focusing solely on 'heat' and compressing the range of the effect down to a foot and a half radius before stabilizing the spell into a shell of mana... but I want this to be as much overkill as possible. I carefully wrap a second one around it, then as mana recovers, a third...
I manage five of them before an air conditioning unit flies by me. The pain from my arm still hurts like hell, but I've gotten used to it, at least a little... so long as I don't move it. I -carefully- craft a mana bolt, reinforced with an astral shield layer, around the stupidly destructive spell I just made and turn to face the woman.
She grins and drags her nails over her cheek, leaving a furrow of bloody wounds down it and down her throat to her collar bone. The claw marks are deep enough that I can actually see -bone- at her jaw and collar.
I take a deep breath, and I'm glad Taylor isn't here for this.
I raise the mana bolt, "You said you wanted 'more' right? Have a taste of this."
She -roars- again, but this time I'm far enough away that it's not as powerful a blast, and it looks like her aura has decreased a little in the time I was avoiding her. She launches herself at me, but I had expected it and in a wasteful use of mana I release a burst of force in her general direction to slow her down to a manageable level. Right as she comes in contact with my aura, about sixteen feet away, I fire the mana bolt below her ribs. I don't want the thing to hit her impenetrable bones and explode outside of her, this has to be as damaging as possible or she'll recover too fast. I'm actually thinking she may even -survive- this, I just hope it takes her too long to recover so I can go grab Kid Win and get out of here.
She doesn't even try to avoid the bolt, her aura begins to eat away at it, almost like Noelle's secondary core had. Instead her entire focus is on me as she roars with a hand pulled back to slash at me. The roar only lasts until the bolt pierces through her flesh, and the concentrated fire spells all release at the same time, instantly increasing the temperature inside her and charring her from the inside. The roar stops as her lungs collapse and stop working, her eyes go wide as she feebly launches a swing, but even as her body weakens, her aura -explodes- with power and I can feel the pure joy and pain radiate from her. Her recovery is pushing against the damage, even as the heat eats away at the new flesh, but the temperature is quickly dropping as the energy is used up.
Well... on the bright side, I didn't kill her. On the down side, she's recovering faster than I had hoped. How do you deal with something that is stupidly strong and unkillable?... I'm pretty sure the answer is 'throw it into the sun'... Since I can't manage that right now, I guess I'll go with the original plan. Fly to FL's base, grab Kid Win and run like hell. With any luck she won't follow me outside of their mana zone.
I launch myself toward the main base as fast as I can, using all recovered mana for pure speed rather than rebuilding my shield, so it's no surprise that in ten seconds or so I slam into a barrier I hadn't detected in time. I manage to turn to the side so I impact on my left shoulder instead of my face, but it still hurts like hell due to jarring my right arm.
The shield isn't -huge-, but it's large enough to cover their whole building, and it's -strong-. Powerful enough that I doubt I'll be able to blast through it without help, particularly since it's absorbing ambient mana too.
I move around to look through a window, maybe I'll be able to see the hostages at least... Well, I can't get a direct view, but the barrier works similarly to mine, it's not stopping my aura, just -me-, so I create some small mana constructs on the other side, but keep them in my aura so I can manipulate them. I adjust them to distort light, much like what I used to beat the robot level, though this time, I'm using it to see inside instead of redirecting lasers.
My hopes die in my chest as I see Mr. Chains and Mr. Cheapmask inside, along with a guy dressed in a black suit and sunglasses, he looks like your stereotypical security mook, other than the bloody ritualistic dagger.
I curse under my breath as I adjust the mana construct and look around the room... four corpses, one middle aged, two others young adults, likely in their twenties and one girl in her teens. None are Kid Win. Not that I could do much anyway. My best bet would be to 'teleport' past the barrier, grab him and try to run, but I can't 'teleport' other people, their aura keeps me from infusing them, so it would just leave me trapped inside with three powerful enemies instead of outside with one.
I sigh and let the construct fade, only to curse when I hear Miss Masochist roar. I wince in pain as my arm acts up again and I feel some of the bones drag against each other. I grit my teeth and focus on rebuilding my defenses while I head to the pocket dimension Taylor had disappeared into. I stay down around street level to avoid getting spotted and I take a few detours as I feel smaller dimensional pockets filled with golems, more of the traps we had triggered on our way in, but it still only takes me a few minutes to arrive. Amazing what you can manage when you don't have to deal with traffic.
I glance into the pocket dimension everyone is trapped inside, only to see it's completely overcast, lightning bolts rain down every few seconds and many of the buildings are utterly destroyed. There's a guy dressed like in robes, he looks rather wizard-y, his staff and book really help the look. His book is floating in front of him, and it looks... almost like some sort of steampunk-clockwork contraption, but he flips to a particular page and adjusts some of the runes, which then glow purple as a spell form rises above it and launches out. His current one launches forward and spreads to about fifteen feet in diameter, creating a zone that people are slowing down inside.
A majority of the people are heavily injured and bleeding... and apparently fighting each other, though some are screaming. The three people still actively fighting the wizard are Armsy, Miss Militia and Taylor. Impact is inside too, which means he removed his ring. He's also attacking Assault, so it seems he was hit by the confusion effect too.
The wizard pulls out a gem, tilts his head, then turns to look straight at me. Well, hell. Apparently the element of surprise isn't going to be happening. The wizard's lips quirk up in a slight smile as he slides the gem into some contraption, which begins to float around him. Armsy suddenly attacks, only for a crystal to fly in the way of the strike and produce a barrier. The end of Armsy's halberd launches a small metal orb, which is blocked by a second gem, just as Miss Militia's rifle shot fires in between the two gems. A third gem tries to interfere with the shot but collides with the other two, causing a personal barrier to spring up around the wizard and making him scowl.
Taylor is trying to assist with attacking the wizard, but her main focus is using her bugs with force plates to pin and protect the heroes fighting among themselves.
I slip into the pocket dimension, and the wizard exclaims, "Excellent!" just as the gem he had set out releases a pulse of mana... which is the exact same color as mine. I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but I -do- know the easiest way to directly affect someone's core, you have to use aura at their same wavelength, thus the same color. I immediately use a radial dispel pulse, and hope to -god- the thing will get rid of the spell inside. The spell hits my aura for a split second and I get the feeling of the ant-man level for a moment before the dispel pulse disrupts the spell. It probably has to hit my core to be able to be a full effect.
The dispel aura doesn't push into his aura far enough to affect his defensive crystals, but it -does- wash over some of the people near me and dispels the slow area he had created. They don't recover from whatever spell they're under, but I can feel it weaken.
Sadly, it's not over. The wizard clicks his tongue and waves his staff at the device, which whirs slightly before it begins to release constant waves. Shit. He waves his staff at me. Double shit.
*C-C-C-Crackle-BOOM*
It seems -he's- the one that built the crystal sentries, because the lightning has a physical component like before. I'm almost willing to bet the clouds are just hiding more crystals and he guides them with his staff. Luckily, due to the physical component of the spell, my deflection shield activates, keeping me insulated from the electrical portion.
I start generating my own dispel pulses to counter the gem, but it's taking a majority of my focus, so, I take advantage of that fact. I fly around the other heroes and PRT members, my constant dispel pulses countering the effect of the crystal targeting me -and- wearing away at the spell confusing them. Impact is the first one to recover, probably due to his slightly stronger primary core attempting to fight off the spell naturally.
After a few people recover, which, oddly enough, the PRT guys recover faster than the heroes, Taylor calls out, "Good job Oblivium! Now let's take this guy out!"
The gem targeting me is working on simply -overwhelming- the auras of everyone around, but since it's contending with my own dispel, it doesn't have much effect anymore, but pretty much sets me into a background role.
Taylor flies over and picks up Impact with one hand, who yells, "Mrphgn, PHARRNNGH!"
Taylor launches Impact at full power and at the same time swarms the wizard. Some gems interfere with the swarm, but the ones that get by start to get struck by lightning bolts, however, they occur at intervals, and Taylor times it so Impact will go through during the cooldown.
Two gems attempt to block him, but this attack took out a fuckin' rage dragon, a couple of gems are -nothing-. They shatter, just as expected, and Impact plows directly into his personal shield. Right before Impact pierces the shield, the wizard shatters a crystal, and a rift opens directly to the chaotic energies between dimensions, right in front of Impact.
I push almost -ALL- of my mana into boost and latch onto Impact with a shell and reversed boost using what's left. The inevitable -explosion- from the chaotic energy destroys the shell and since Impact had to reduce his mass to avoid flying further into the rift, the explosion -heavily- injures him... but it's better than -becoming- an explosion. I would know.
The wizard screams and I see a disembodied finger fly by me, along with a glass vial of some red liquid. When I look up, I see the man has suffered a good bit from his own explosion, and a razorbug has just sliced off two fingers he was using to grab the vial.
I realize I'm not suffering from a confusion spell, and only then see the gem rolling on the ground with the mechanical portion being nothing more than slag.
There's a *BANG* as Miss Militia fires a shot at the injured wizard. The shot was apparently using specialized ammo, some sort of 'taser bullet', as the man starts to twitch and falls down.
Taylor lays some force plate bugs down on him to keep him from moving and Armsy recovers from the explosion fairly quickly. He aims his halberd and fires something at the man, but a moment after it hits the book starts to float again.
I catch sight of a glass vial of purple liquid slotted into the spine of the book converting into mana and activating a spell. Shit! I try to build up a dispel pulse, but I'm injured from the explosion, the pain from my arm is making me see stars and I'm down to almost no mana.
The wizard's book takes a shot from Miss Militia's rifle, but the shot does nothing to stop it. The spell goes off with a flash of light and all that's left is a crystal about a foot tall, with a small image of a man, book and staff inside. The six gems that made up his defensive array fall and turn dull grey, but the gem containing the man disappears as it shunts itself outside of the pocket dimension and flies toward FL's base. The clouds disperse, but no gems fall from it, either I was wrong, or they disappeared like he did.
I groan and roll over, "Taylor, I need you to do some diplomacy. The hostages are dead, Kid Win wasn't one of them, Mr. Chains, Mr. Cheapmask, a new guy in a suit and Miss Masochist are all at FL's base ready to defend and there's a stupidly strong barrier."
I can feel her depression in her aura, it makes sense, she was really wanting to save these people, and this is the first real 'loss' we've had. We're -seriously- outclassed here.
She nods, "Alright... I'll-... I'll see what I can do."
I grit my teeth against the pain, but focus on my breathing and meditation to help me recover mana. Velocity escaped the pocket dimension, but I don't know if it was a fluke. If it was I may have to come up with a way to get us all out of here. Maybe a rift like what Mr. Wizard did, but with some protective layers. The pocket dimension -is- pretty close to the main one after all.
Taylor speaks with Armsy and a couple of the others join in on the conversation, but I ignore it. I'll help them get out, but if they decide to push on, I'm done. I'm -not- going to recklessly run to my death, and I'm pretty sure Miss Masochist and Mr. Cheapmask would gun for me specifically.
I'm snapped out of my meditation by Armsy yelling out, "Everyone gather up. We're leaving. Kid Win is being held somewhere else and we're too late to rescue the others. We've gotten some important information though, so this isn't a complete loss." He holds up one of the grey gems and frowns at it for a moment before sliding it into a pouch.
Velocity pulls an odd device that looks like a bastard child between a propane tank and a radioactive firefly.
I raise my eyebrow causing my mask to shift, "You have a way out?"
Armsy nods, "We've dealt with pocket dimensions before. Your information was invaluable this time."
Velocity speaks up, his tone a bit more friendly than Armsy's, "Every pocket dimension has some connection to the dimension it's built from. This thing apparently just uses that connection point to merge a section of the dimension. It's why I was a bit late getting here."
I nod and relax, siphoning some mana into my flight spell. It's been a long morning, and now I have to give a report.
Wonderful.
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AN: Ack, I didn't think I'd be so swamped with work for so long!
Huge thanks again to both Nigel and Tascion!Last edited: Sep 18, 201694
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone