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Amy
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Training is hard. Training with a professional knight with fifteen years of experience is harder. Training magic on top of that is even harder. So of course that’s what I’m attempting.
A huge slab of metal crushes the ground between my feet, sending me flying backwards. Rolling end over end I catch glimpses of a frozen corpse taking the opening to slash at the giant of a man. Brat used me as a diversion.
I hate spinning, it makes me nauseous. What if I just stopped spinning? Wait… I could probably do that. I’m no longer spinning, I think, but I also feel it with surety. It’s not what I want, it's what is. And so it is, I’m standing, no centrifugal force to be found. Excellent.
Suddenly I’m hit with a wave of fatigue. Exhaustion like I just lifted forty boulders that are trying to get away at once. I stagger to the side, but keep myself upright. After a few more seconds the feeling passes, and I’m able to focus on the beef slab that made me try so hard.
He’s currently unarmed, his sword frozen into the ground. The brat is zipping around him, trying to land hits, but the larger man’s fists are about as big as the kids head and just as fast. Everywhere the kid tries to be, the fists soon are.
My goal is not to beat both of them, just land a good hit on the big one. His name is Quince, very nice dude. Probably. His voice is boring. I could think about all the skills and spells I saw in my status, but that means I’d have to read what they do. And that won’t happen, so I’ll just go off my gut. I did read my class description, and that just said I had to want it real bad and I could do what I want. Or something similar, I don’t remember.
What I do remember is that my magics are metal, space, flesh, and creation. Put that all together and I can create black hole cyborgs! Except I can’t because whenever I try I just end up making huge flesh things with bits of metal in them. Things won’t shut up, either. Oh! What if, instead of cyborgs, I make an anvil? I could Loony Toons people to death. Create an anvil overhead and use space magic to throw it. Ahahaha! I’ll ACME their asses!
Right, there’s a fight going on, I forgot. I mean, I didn’t forget, I was strategizing! Yes… Anyways, the big guy got his sword back while I was thinking up a strategy. The kid keeps jumping and landing on the blade so it can’t hit him.
So how do I even use creation magic? Like, I can imagine an anvil over the big guy but how do I ge— oh, there it is! That was easy. Alright, now I grab it, and throw! After I finish mentally throwing the hunk of metal a similar wave of exhaustion ripples through me. I fall on my rear and watch the fruits of my genius.
The anvil is floating over the man’s head, and is slowly falling. That’s odd, I threw it down so it should be going faster than that. I wait a few more seconds and realize something is wrong. The anvil has hardly moved. What did I do wrong?
Then I notice the shadow. The rectangular patch of darkness is already surrounding Quince. But it’s so far up still why is the shadow…
The said shadow gets bigger, slowly at first, but speeds up in growth rapidly. Soon the shadow is covering the entire training circle. The two combatants stop and all three of us look up.
Mr. Anvil has gotten closer, and much bigger. I might’ve messed up the perspective, because the thing is the size of the manor. As it comes in like a meteorite, red flames licking its underside as it punches through the atmosphere, I start to panic. That thing will take out half the town! Dammit! As I try to focus my magic, tendrils of shadow shoot out of the anvil’s own. The limbs stretch upwards at a shocking pace, impacting the base of the metal behemoth. Shadowy liquid splatters on the underside as the falling anvil obliterates the shadow limbs.
Alright, I have to fix this. I look up at the iron doom that is rapidly approaching. That needs to be gone. Nothing happens. Please begone! Nothing. I try focusing, flipping it off, screaming, nothing works. Wait, I need to be sure. That the thing is gone. The anvil is gone. I look up, and sure enough the magically created death has vanished.
And then an appropriately sized wave of fatigue hits me and I pass out.
】〓〓〓〓【
Iota
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The crazy Earth woman just passed out. She made some huge thing in the sky instead of actually sparring, freaked out at it coming down, and made it disappear. Then she just… fell over. Between her and the Corpse Kid Father talked about, humans from Earth seem to be really insane.
“So… I vote we leave her there.” Quill’s statement seems more like a question, and he turns to look at me. I give a nod. “Alright then, more sparring?” His eyes glint as he smiles at me.
“Of course.” I feel myself smile back.
My sparring practice with Quill has become increasingly difficult the last few days. He stopped holding back on me after the stunt I pulled that pulped me a while ago. Apparently he got a good chewing out from his captain about that. I feel bad, as it was mostly my fault. In retaliation he’s attacked me with complete sincerity, so that I get no openings. I honestly prefer this to the sparring meant to let me improve.
I’ve been practicing with my ice magic. Instead of just creating blades and armor, I’ve been creating multiple, and then compressing them into one another. The result is much tougher, harder, and heavier ice. After learning to compensate for the added heft I’ve come to much prefer the new stuff. I’m curious how hard ice can get.
The outcome is that I’m able to block Quill’s full downward strike by crossing my arm blades. No longer shattering, the ice is able to stop the massive piece of slag. My arms on the other hand creak in complaint each time. But every time I do it, I feel it getting easier. And the feeling I get when the mass of metal comes at me can’t be beat. I’m starting to really enjoy fighting.
I swing for Quill's chest as he lifts his sword for another downswing. The larger man jumps back to avoid it, falling straight into my trap. My arms swing down and slam into the dirt. A half second later a sharp spire of ice bursts from the ground, right in the path of Quill. He slams back-first into the ice, knocking the wind out of him.
“Gods dammit, that was supposed to skewer you!” My anger blasts from my mouth, creating a cloud of frost in the air. The slumped Quill is half buried in the collapsed tower of ice.
He starts chuckling. “You finally knock me down, and your complaint is that you didn’t poke a giant hole in me? What a vicious pupil.” His voice is full of amusement.
I wave off his whining. “It’s not like it’d kill you, at most you’d be down for ten minutes.” That really gets the man going. He explodes into laughter.
“Iota, you absolute brat, getting skewered would still hurt like hell!” His eyes are full of exasperation, as is his voice. I just shrug at him.
My face breaks into a bit of mischievous smirk, I can’t hold it in. “So?”
“Oh kiddo, you’re so dead.” The massive man starts extracting himself from the powdered ice, taking off his gauntlets. I feel my frozen blood start pumping in excitement.
Then something heavy and hard crushes me into the dirt. I somehow manage to remain conscious, but nothing will move. I hear two somewhat muffled voices laughing out in the world of ‘not in the dirt’.
“I did it! Hahaha suck it! Wooooo! Get ACME’d!” The insane woman apparently woke up, and is probably responsible for whatever is crushing my bones currently. The other laughing voice is clearly Quill’s. He’s not saying anything, just laughing so hard he’s wheezing.
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Oh they’re so dead. I feel the cold leech from my body, spreading into the object above. My ice probes the metal, searching for a fracture. There’s one! I push the ice into the crack, expanding it as it goes. More cracks grow from the first, giving my ice more and more paths to expand. Once I think there’s enough cracks filled with ice, I expand all of it rapidly.
The metal weight above me explodes violently, the shards of metal going in all directions. Where the object had been is a large ice sculpture not dissimilar to a tree. I turn it to snow and let it get into the cold air around me. I manipulate the temperatures around me slightly to create a spinning mass of snow.
Pulling myself up I feel many of my bones scrape in ways they shouldn't. That can be dealt with once I give these two jerks a pounding. The crazy girl is my first target. My living snowstorm of a body launches at my first victim, who is suddenly not laughing.
【〓〓〓〓】
About two hours later the three of us are standing outside the medical building, just having been scolded by a very angry medic. Quill looks bemused while the crazy woman is just staring off into space, as per usual.
“So, you guys wanna eat dinner with me?” He looks between the two of us. We both nod after a moment.
The massive man leads us to the large eating hall that his squad uses. The door to the building opens and lets the scents of good food and alcohol out into the evening air. Laughter and chatter fill the air inside the long building.
The three of us are waved to by some of the knights who are on the more sober side. Most don’t fall under that category. We sit down at an almost empty table, next to a very small man. The guy is hardly taller than me, and is twice as skinny. Surprisingly he’s wearing the uniform Jet does, so he must be a captain.
Quill waves to the man. “Captain Neffin! Is dinner any good tonight?” The small man jumps in surprise, quickly looking for who is speaking to him. He eventually sees Quill… What a nervous man.
“A-ah, yes Quill. It’s satisfactory tonight.” The captain stutters. “It’s… I’m not sure actually. Meat, beans, bread. Hmm I guess I just ate it without thinking.” His eyes glaze over a bit as he stares off into space.
Quill elbows me. “Time to get our food, he’ll be like that for a while.” I give him a nod, standing to go get whatever grub seems decent.
“Where is the food?” Amy asks. Quill points at the far end of the hall, where several plates of food are available to take from. The woman groans. “I don’t wanna walk all the way down there.” She acts so much like a child it’s bizarre. “Actually, I won’t, because the food is here!”
And she’s right, the serving bowls as well as the empty plates are suddenly on our table. Me and Quill jump in shock, and I see some knights at the serving table completely lost as to where the food went. Captain Neffin is still staring off at nothing.
Amy starts filling her plate with food, and Quill looks at me and shrugs. Once the three of us fill our plates the serving bowls vanish.
Amy smiles contentedly. “Man, magic is great.” She starts stuffing her face.
Quill chuckles. “Ya know, you’re the only person I’ve ever met with magic that can do that, Amy.” Amy’s brows shoot up.
“Maiwm?” She mumbles through her food. After swallowing she tries again. “I am?” Quill smiles and nods. Amy looks a bit dazed. “Oh wow, that’s neat I guess.” She absentmindedly goes back to eating.
Quill and I follow her example and begin to eat as well. The meat is grub meat, making me think of that first meal with Father, which seems like forever ago. I stuff my own maw with the food. My body screams in hunger, looking to make up for all the energy it burned earlier when I was healed. I’m contemplating seconds when the door to the hall opens.
A tall, and unfortunately familiar, figure enters the building. Gold glints in the light, his rapier shining in its gilded glory. As he walks into the hall the warm and friendly atmosphere becomes cold and bitter, almost territorial. A small man walks up to Sasifer, wait, that's Neffin. I look to where the captain had been staring into space, and sure enough he’s gone.
Neffin stands in front of Sasifer, his nervous demeanor totally replaced with an animalistic dominance. “Sasifer, why are you here?” The captain’s voice comes out deep and rumbly, completely unlike what he sounded like earlier. Is that even the same person?
“Neffin! I’m here to see my friend, do I need another reason?” Sasifer’s voice is full of mirth. Neffin just grunts.
“Well no, but as far as I’m aware you have no friends here, Sasifer.” Neffin is almost growling his words. Sasifer is unphased by the man’s blatant aggression.
He smiles wickedly. “You wound me Neffin, I thought we were close?” The shorter captain’s face stays completely flat.
“No, Sasifer. You’re no friend of mine after that last stunt you pulled. Real cute to wait until I was busy with the full moon.” His voice fills with anger.
Sasifer waves away the captain’s words. “Oh that was that day wasn’t it? Completely slipped my mind. What poor timing with those complaints too.” Sasifer grins, satisfied. “You know, Neffin, you’d have a lot less problems if you didn’t allow those types to join. People just don’t like seeing them out and about.”
Non-human, people like Quill, and the others in his squad. This man is going on about leaving them out again. Why? Quill explained it but it never made any sense. I don’t get it. Quill is one of the nicest people I’ve met, Neffin is kind as well. None of the C Squad knights have ever treated me any different, even though I’m the Count’s kid and I look different than all of them. And he wants to exclude these people? That have been nothing but kind to me?
Maybe I’m just a naive kid, but I really don’t get it.
“Sasifer, I know you’re the one who sent in those complaints.” Neffin says decisively. Sasifer shrugs.
“Who’s to say, not like the complaints were wrong.” He smiles at Neffin, a harsh glint in his eyes.
It was all him?! He made them lose their patrol. He made that knight cry. He made them all feel bad, and for what?
Something deep inside me cracks, like an iceberg shearing off a glacier. It’s soon followed by another thundering snap, then another. I feel a wave of fury wash from my core, mixed with my blessing and magic.
The air in the entire building drops rapidly, the breaths of every person suddenly becoming visible. Every mug of ale or glass of water freezes over, the warm food cools. Everyone starts looking for what’s the cause, but Quill has already caught on. He reaches out to stop me, but an ethereal hand grabs his wrist.
Flickering and translucent forms start to appear throughout the hall, all of them armed and angry. The usually prepared knights are kept in their seats by an intense, invisible presence pressing them down. Neffin and Sasifer are the only ones able to move, and they both have their weapons drawn. I slowly walk over to the two of them, in the center of the room.
The two captains catch sight of me, and quickly put their weapons away. When it’s finally the three of us standing in a vague circle, I feel three souls peel from my body. One by one they fully appear, suited in glittering armor made of ice and mist, and stand behind me at attention. My three captains, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, form a line directly behind me.
The presence flowing from my soul isn’t just my blessing, or my magic. There’s a third thing, some kind of pressure being created from my anger. I feel the emotion flowing out into the room, mingling with my other powers, strengthening them. I look between the two older men.
“Captains.” My voice is still immature and pubescent, but it vibrates with that strange pressure.
“Greetings, Lord Iota.” The two greet me simultaneously. I nod back at them.
“Sasifer.” I say. He looks up at me.
“Yes, my lord?” His face is still a confident smirk, but there’s a hint of doubt in his eyes.
Good.
“C Squad here have been my hosts for a good while now. During the time I’ve spent with them I’ve noticed you appearing quite often. And you always come bringing disparaging words about my friends here.” He tries to speak but I exert more of the angry presence, stopping the words in his throat and knocking him to the ground. “I don’t know why my father hasn’t stopped you from bothering these fine knights, but I don’t care.” I notice the man’s graying hair start to frost over. “If you, or any of your men, bother C Squad again, I will intervene.” My anger spikes at the end of my sentence, and every frozen drink in the building explodes into shards of ice.
I turn on my heel and start to walk back to my seat. Sasifer tries to say something as I move away, but it just comes out as choking noises. Eventually I hear him stand up and scramble out the door. As soon as the doors shut, my anger vanishes, the spirits along with it. Every ghost spread throughout the large room flickers out of existence, and my three captains fly back inside of me. I make it back to my seat and plop down on the bench. The extremely cold anger flows backwards into my soul, and I feel a thick sheet of ice grow over it.
Silence reigns over the mess hall as the cold slowly begins to disperse. The frozen pieces of beer and water start to melt, creating a huge mess. Neffin turns to look at me.
“Gods dammit Iota, did you have to show me up that badly?” The Captain has a huge grin on his face. He starts to snort, probably over the whole situation. Soon someone else starts giggling, and soon enough the entire building is roaring with laughter. Arms wrap around me and lift me into the air.
Quill places me on his shoulder. “Damn boy, have you been holding back on me?” I laugh and shake my head. “Well, either way, Sasifer looked like he’d have pissed himself if it hadn’t already froze in his pecker!” The nearby knights start laughing again. This time I join in. Amy looks around, somewhat lost.
I look around the hall from Quill’s shoulder. So many knights have so many different features. Scales, feathers, claws, bright colors, branches. It’s wonderful, why would people hate it?
I will keep these people safe.