“I suppose it’s finally my turn,” Levin thought to himself, taking a breath of cool night air as explosions and screams mixed together in the distance, a quiet cacophony. Levin felt at his chest for Kirima’s medallion, but it wasn’t there. He decided he was going to scour the Academy for it when this was over.
"I'm going," Levin said, glancing at the elderly woman next to him. The two of them stood at the highest point on Mount Inuvik, looking down at the battle unfolding below.
“Now? We still don’t know where Panai is,” Uki said.
“I'm sure he'll show in a moment. And if he doesn’t, Mei is going to splatter Hann’s brains onto that wall. We won’t need any strategy if Inuvik loses a Smoke rank this early on,” Levin said.
Uki was sitting on a horse with a crude cylindrical spyglass in her hands which she was using to scan Mount Inuvik. She lowered it from her eye and looked over at Levin, watching quietly as he climbed up onto Cho's back.
“Be careful,” Uki said.
Levin could feel the worry in her voice, and Uki's ability helped lift some of his tension. They both understood that if Levin ran into Panai, their plans would all fall apart and everyone would die. But if Levin didn't get into the central rune array soon, everyone would die anyway.
Levin met her eyes and gave her a final nod before Cho pushed off from the ground. The wind whistled past his ears as man and machine dove down Mount Inuvik, aiming for the campus below. Levin flew into the shadow of the carved-out mountain wall, taking the same discreet route behind the servant's quarters he had used many times. Except this time, he was on Cho's back instead of inside that old tower.
He touched down and climbed off Cho's back, taking a moment to steady himself on emaciated legs. Then he set off through the campus of Inuvik Academy, sending Cho back up into the air. Even now the Academy’s nighttime illumination was on, snake-like threads of light hovering just a few feet above Levin’s head, illuminating cobblestone-lined paths completely devoid of any mages.
Through Cho’s vision, Levin could see where all the members of the Academy were. The Wisp ranks had all gathered at the front of the Academy, and the acolytes were being herded into one large group and ordered to channel their Force into the Force Distribution System. This left Levin all alone as he walked through the darkened pathways leading to the center of campus, and he found himself feeling strangely relaxed despite the chaos happening all over the mountain.
But his state of mind could not fix the ache in his body, the Chaos Sickness eating away at his body from within. His physical pain had worsened steadily in the month since receiving Bolt, but Levin did his best to ignore the discomfort. His body could still move – that’s all that mattered. And his cure could hopefully be found within the treasures and resources of Inuvik Academy.
Levin sent Cho higher into the air, looking at the entire mountain and all its combatands. Furthest down the mountain, Jess’s squad was evacuating slaves as planned, but the process was going painfully slowly. He couldn’t see Jess herself, nor the late-stage Wisp Lieutenant Vulle that she was expecting to fight – they must be inside the tower. And from the smoke pouring out the windows, it seemed a fierce battle was raging inside.
Further up Mount Inuvik, Levin could see that the battlemages who had rushed to Lieutenant Vulle’s defense had been waylaid, caught in a pincer attack between Kana, Kana’s squads, and Jess’s squads. When Levin had described the terrain of Mount Inuvik to Uki during their planning, she had taken special note that the path towards the quarry suddenly became much skinnier when it branched off from the main road up and down Mount Inuvik. As she had predicted, the change disrupted the formation of the charging, mounted battlemages.
It was at that moment that the Mage Hunters, under Kana’s direction, had sent their own cavalry charge pouring out of the trees, slamming into their flank and sowing confusion as a hail of magic from runic artifacts provided covering fire. Kana led the mounted charge, dismounting her foes in the same manner as Miki while her personal squad, composed of ten mounted riders, charged around with the goal of providing a distraction. Her remaining foot soldiers linked up with Jess’s, the sixty fighters loosely encircling the fifteen mages in a wide ring.
But Uki had miscalculated. She had expected Inuvik’s forces to split up more evenly, or send more to the mines. Instead, only Lieutenant Vulle’s commander-less battalion had gone down, and the other two divisions along with Poa and Kodan had gone up, clashing with Miki’s squads.
It left them at a horrible disadvantage higher up the mountain, facing down thirty battlemages with forty people. Miki had already burned through his runic boots trying to dismount the mages, but Levin had to commend him – he had managed it, odds be damned. But now his fighters’ runic artifacts had run out, and they were beginning to be slaughtered by the battlemages.
He had to hope the archers would come to the rescue of Miki and his Hunters. Dismounting the battlemages was all to give their archers an advantage, and currently over one hundred of them were splitting out into smaller squads and heading to preassigned locations in the forest that Uki had picked out ahead of time with Cho’s help. Miki and Nano kept Kodan and Poa at bay, preventing them from pursuing the archers, but those two were clearly flagging against the powerful opponents. Levin pushed himself to go faster, even if it meant risking an encounter with Panai.
Closer to Levin, at the front of the Academy, Eliya and Takt dueled in a blitz within the ring of fire that Eliya had created. Takt easily landed blow after blow with the blood lotus blade, but a red glow around Eliya was blocking each one. Just like Azaadi, Eliya possessed a very powerful defensive runic artifact – no mage of any real status would be caught without life-preserving treasures. But it would only be a matter of time before Takt broke through.
Around Eliya and Takt’s battlefield stood the three dozen ordinary Wisp ranks, many of whom had fallen to injuries from the surprise arrow barrage. Runesmiths worked to construct healing runes while the unharmed performed triage, but the mages were in a complete state of disorder. And through Cho, Levin could see Yotti and his squads charging up, slinging magic at distracted mages.
Levin was pleased to see how they fought, the majority hiding safely in cover while waiting for their turn to dash up and fire a potshot at the grouped mages. They were fighting reservedly, patiently, and he could see that they understood their role in this battle. It wasn’t just Yotti’s group, but all of the men and women that trained this past month with the Mage Hunters. They all knew this battle was a matter of stalling for time. It was Levin’s job to take advantage of that time.
Finally, Mei dueled Hann, a wide grin spread across her face as she repeatedly pushed him back atop the thin stone wall encircling the front half of the Academy. Hann had a scowl to end all scowls plastered on his face as he tossed out globs of magma and vials of ink that rapidly formed into runes. But Mei brushed them all aside as she continued to tear away at Hann’s defenses.
Levin now came up to the Smoke Hall, and he grimaced as he came to a stop. There was still one person missing, and Levin couldn’t act further until he showed himself. He watched Mei, hoping she could win faster – with Hann gone, Mei would be able to join up with Levin and then it wouldn’t matter if they ran into Panai.
He considered sending Cho in to help. But Levin hesitated – he had upgraded Cho’s runes, but they were still only at the peak of Wisp rank. He wasn’t confident Cho could do more than provide a temporary distraction to Hann, but even that might be worth it.
However, a moment later, Levin’s choice was made for him. The doors to the Smoke Hall swung open, and Levin cringed into the shadows. A burst of flame erupted into life before his eyes, and Levin saw Panai soaring into the air, hurtling toward Mei and Hann with a rocket-like stream of fire trailing behind him.
“Finally!” Levin thought, dashing forward. “This time, I won’t fail. I’ll make Kirima’s dream come true no matter what.”
Levin rushed into the wide building, finding it empty for the first time. He scanned his surroundings, looking for any stragglers, but there was no one aside from him present. Of course there wasn’t – Levin had just surveyed the entire battlefield and saw that all the groups had been lured out. And no one had been ordered back into the central rune array, thanks to all the runesmiths needing to focus on healing the wounded.
Levin had to commend Uki. Her plan was perfectly crafted, expertly scattering the mages across the mountain as her own troop movements converged down on them. However, very few of the mages had actually been taken out of the battle; Uki’s plan revolved around pinning the mages in place by killing their horses and then continually distracting them, trusting in Levin’s claims about the central rune array. But already their momentum was faltering as the mages dug in and the Mage Hunters’ artifacts ran out of ink. They would soon be laying down their lives en masse to further delay for Levin.
“Hopefully the archers are effective in slowing the mages down. It’ll be difficult and time-consuming to hunt them all down without horses,” Levin thought as he hurried through the building.
He pulled out Amaq’s identity token as he approached the door to the central rune array, holding it out before. But to Levin’s surprise, there was no response – the door remained locked, unresponsive to the token in his hands. Levin nearly walked into the door before realizing it wasn’t open, and the surprise yanked him out of his thoughts about the unfolding battle.
Levin tucked away Amaq’s token, and raised his own hand instead. The lock on every door in the Academy was, after all, powered by runes. Levin had been worried about being discovered last time he was here, but it was foolish to think about that now.
“Wave.”
A blast of Chaos energy caused the runic lock to blink into existence and then melt away, and the door slid ajar on its own. Levin stumbled as the Chaos Force flowed through his body, and had to catch himself with one hand on the wall. He cursed under his breath at his own weakness, then pushed through the door.
The ink storage room came first, and the rows of vials on the wall greeted Levin as he entered. He ignored them for now, but was certainly going to claim every single one for himself as soon as he was done below. If he was lucky, there would be something that could save his life among them. If he was really lucky, they might help him in getting home.
His ankles and knees screamed in protest as he flung himself down the stairs, almost stumbling and falling a few times in his hurry. But soon enough he reached the bottom, and Hann’s laboratory unfolded before him in the wide cavern. At the back, the wildly flashing lights drew Levin towards his goal. Towards victory.
He pulled out a vial of dark black ink from his robes, but it would take more than just pouring it in like he had at Lethridge. Back then, Levin had only wanted to break the array. This time, he intended to conquer it.
He pulled out an engraving tool. The silver metal of his pen-like implement was a stark contrast to the black ink, and for a second it almost reminded Levin of a pen from Earth. But then he stabbed a needle into his skin and mixed his own blood into the ink, and the illusion was broken.
As he walked forward, Levin went ahead and preemptively carved a control rune into his skin. His head was down, focused on the back of his shriveled hand as he tried to maintain precision with the other. It was difficult to engrave runes when Chaos Sickness made your arms tremble, but Levin managed.
He looked up as he stepped onto the edge of the central rune array, the flashing lights of multiple runes brighter and more frequent than normal as the mages above called on the shields and Force Distribution System. Levin’s eyes settled on one specific piece of the rune array, the location his new addition would go.
A figure rose.
Levin barely caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, spinning to face them. Shrouded in shadow, sitting in the corner, Levin had failed to notice him.
The figure stepped forward.
"Pilip!" Levin exclaimed. "You should be outside with the runesmiths!"
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"That's Master Pilip to you, traitorous brat," Pilip growled. “I hope you’re prepared to answer for your crimes.”
***
Jess flew around the room like a pinball, a green trail tracing her movements as she ducked and weaved through a storm of flames. The source of the raging fire stood tall in the center of the room, hair whipping back and forth as Lieutenant Vulle tried to track Jess’s movements. She danced around him in a flurry on the first floor of the quarry’s tower, desperately trying to keep him from leaving.
His wanton aggression had scorched this room, and the entire tower had begun to go up in a blaze, especially the elongated wooden bar that churned black, choking smoke into the air around them. Jess was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, but Vulle was also at the smoke’s mercy – no amount of protective barriers could replenish the air’s oxygen.
In a way, Jess was glad for the smoke. Corpses, both acolytes of Inuvik and members of her personal squad, littered the floor around them, and the fire and ash obscured them from her sight. It stung Jess’s heart to see her comrades fall, never to see their dreams fulfilled.
But it was okay. She would probably be joining them soon.
Vulle made to flee, to dash out the doors that were a mere few meters away, a portal to fresh air and life. Jess countered as she had a dozen times already, sidestepping Vulle’s attack, shielding her face with one arm and repelling him with her sword – it couldn’t cut through his protective charm or the Academy’s barrier shield, but she could push him away from the doors. The longer she could, the more slaves that the rest of her squad outside would be able to evacuate.
With dragonscale armor, she had been able to absorb his attacks while responding in kind, but the armor could only keep the flame from torching her directly. It didn’t block the sweltering heat as red-hot flames passed over her body time and time again, and Jess could feel her skin beginning to blister everywhere. It could do nothing against the smoke that stung her eyes, blurring her vision as tears ran down her face. The armor was the only thing keeping her alive, but it also began to feel like a lead weight holding her back, body lethargic from oxygen deprivation.
What would happen when the wind runes on her boots ran out? Jess pushed the thought from her mind, though of course she knew the answer.
It only made her fight harder. Today, they would win.
***
Miki saw his chance.
He had managed to dismount all the enemy battlemages, despite far more than Uki predicted being sent up after the archers. All except two, the most difficult ones of all beneath the Smoke rank – Kodan and Poa. They had both made it to the location the archers had opened fire from, and Nano had stayed behind with Miki to blunt their advance.
Miki felt relieved to have Nano with him – the youngest, and strongest, of Takt’s five disciples fighting alongside him. Though Miki would never admit that in any other circumstance.
It was right when Kodan and Poa were about to break away that Miki found a moment. Poa raised his voice in a chant, sending a burst of flame toward Nano. Miki dashed forward towards Poa, not even sparing a moment's glance for Nano, his faith in the teen boy unshakeable. Instead, he channeled his entire focus onto Poa, knowing the man would not be able to cast a powerful spell for several seconds more.
Miki was upon him in a flash even without the rune-enhanced speed that he had already spent, relying on his own power he had spent years building up. Miki released a guttural yell and swung his spear, unleashing a gush of flame in an arc before Poa, the final charge of the rune Levin had engraved in his spear. In response, Poa instantly summoned a shield from the central rune array, spreading it wide before him.
Miki continued forward unabated. He had seen plenty of these runic shields already tonight and understood how they moved, how quickly they appeared, and most importantly, how quickly a mage could reposition one. His own athletic ability was all it took to vault the barrier, disguised amidst the fire of his own attack until he crossed to the other side.
Poa wouldn’t be able to reposition the shield in time. He hadn’t had the time to form a new spell. Acolyte-level instant magic would be the only thing he was capable of now, and Miki had killed many acolytes.
“Spirit Spear!”
Miki unleashed his weapon art with a thrust of his spear, but not towards Poa – Miki aimed directly at the head of Poa’s horse. Poa threw his hands up, and Miki prepared for an acolyte-level spell to block his attack, his next attack already planned. The moment that he had seen.
But Poa didn’t cast a spell. Instead, he threw an object out in front of him, a small disc that glowed softly in the night. Miki barely had time to register it before the disc erupted in light as the engraved rune came to life, forming a complete barrier before Miki like a white, translucent bed sheet unfurling in the air.
This wasn’t the desperate, acolyte-level energy a Wisp rank threw out in a pinch. This was a fully Wisp-tier rune, and Miki’s weapon art vanished like mist as he crashed into it headlong. Next, it flung Miki himself backwards like a punted ball, sending him hurtling away and crashing down into the forest. His opportunity was lost, and now Miki had no more Force to call on.
Poa spurred his horse on, preparing to catch up with Kodan who had galloped on unmolested as Nano and Miki both focused on Poa. Poa gained speed, the wind whistling by him – in the wrong direction. He was going down instead of forward, as Poa's horse buckled beneath him and sent him tumbling onto the grass and rock below.
With the illumination from the burning forest below, Miki could see the arrow sticking into the knee of Poa's horse, released by Nano from the blindspot Miki had created. Nano himself stood to the side, rooted in place as he frantically glanced back and forth at the downed Miki and Kodan, who was still racing past them.
"Go after him!" Miki shouted.
Nano jolted back to attention, disappearing in an instant amidst a trail of green wind energy, leaving Miki and Poa behind, alone. Poa was beginning to pick himself up from the ground. Miki groaned as he forced himself to stand too, feeling a blinding stab of pain in his side that sent him back to the ground.
“Been a while since I broke some ribs,” Miki thought to himself as he struggled up again, bracing for the pain this time.
His runes were now fully depleted, and he had already fired off his weapon art. His body groaned in pain, bruised, broken, and exhausted. The only thing he had left to fight off a Wisp rank was his dragonscale armor.
Poa brushed the dirt from his robes, the extent of the damage he had taken. Miki hefted his spear, fighting back the urge to double over in pain, and prepared to fight.
***
Panai came down with a meteoric crash atop the thin stone wall, and it buckled beneath his power, sending stone tumbling down below. Enough remained for him to stand level with Mei and Hann, though Hann himself was struggling in that regard. The master runesmith was hunched over and breathing hard, but remained alert, keeping his eyes trained on Mei.
In stark contrast, Mei stood tall, shoulders back, arms cocked, and despite being surrounded she seemed to tower over her two opponents even more than her monstrous height suggested. Mei wore a broad smile on her face as she looked over her shoulder at the newcomer, highlighted in the orange hues cast by the raging wildfires all over the mountain.
“Hann, enough holding back. There’s no need to keep our reserves any longer,” Panai said.
Mei snorted, swinging her gaze back to Hann. “You’ve been holding back on me?”
“I’m a runesmith, you monstrous brute. Even when I win, the cost is great. But, it seems you’re more dangerous than I realized. I had hoped to save these for Takt,” Hann said, straightening up.
“Show me. And I’ll show you it’s not that great,” Mei said, striding towards Hann.
There was little room to maneuver as she approached, on this skinny stone wall designed more for looks than actual guards. Hann stood in place, pulling a vial of azure ink from his robes. Then he crushed the glass tube in his hand, releasing the blue liquid out onto his fingers.
“Flashpoint!” Hann roared.
The ink in his hand stopped running down and instead flew into the air before Hann, arranging itself into a vertical rune pointed straight towards Mei. Mei had already seen him use this technique, but this was the first time he needed the chant. She didn’t stop, continuing to walk straight towards Hann, letting him cast the spell.
“Absolute Zero!”
The rune erupted in a flash of light, unleashing a wave of pure cold devoid of physical form – a burst of raw, concentrated, skin-flaying cold. Mei raised her arms to cover her eyes, but had no time nor inclination to move out of the way as the blast engulfed her in a torrent of energy.
Mei shivered as the attack washed over her, the chill freezing her to her very core. This magic was completely wrong; Hann was a lava mage. Yet Mei had been plunged from the heat of his flames to something from the coldest pit of hell. Worst of all, it hurt. This was proper Smoke rank magic, and just like Azaadi it was capable of hurting her.
Mei grinned, pushing forward against the attack. If she sat still, she would just get hit again. Even through the storm she drew closer to Hann, then lunged toward him, breaking stones off the wall. Hann had just used chanted magic, and according to Uki’s teachings that meant he was vulnerable.
“Phoenix Arrow!” “Eruption!”
Hann and Panai cast magic simultaneously, and a surprise wave of magma bore down on Mei from the front as a sturdy golden bolt raced at her from behind. How had Hann done it, cast another spell so fast? For the first time since landing in Trurok – the first time in a long time, in fact – Mei could feel a threat to her life, an instinct that made her blood boil. She could survive these two spells, certainly, but they were going to hurt. There would be no avoiding it, not at this range, not without magic of her own to support her.
“Oh, right.” A blinding green light sprang from Mei’s boots – Levin had warned that supporting her entire mass would burn through the rune quickly. She had found that quite rude.
Only a trail of green left in the air revealed her path, from the top of the wall to the side of a nearby tower, and then back to the wall, behind Hann. The two Smoke ranks’ magics hurtled harmlessly through the space she had just occupied, flying out into the forest.
Crazy – even with Levin’s boots and her speed, she had nearly gotten hit.
But she had been faster by just a hair. Her fist slammed into Hann’s back, blunted only by the power of his protective armament. He hadn’t had the time to summon a shield from the central rune array, the only thing that had kept him alive while fighting alone against Mei. Hann coughed up a mouthful of blood, stumbling away as he now positioned a runic shield between himself and Mei. The attack had been effective, but with the light on her boots rapidly fading away, Mei wouldn’t be able to replicate it easily.
“Magus Hann,” Panai said, fingering a transmission tablet. “It appears we have a rat in our basement.”
“What?” Hann said, looking weakly up towards Panai as the leader of Inuvik Academy stepped up beside him.
“In the central rune array. I imagine it’s the anonymous runesmith we’ve been searching for. Or perhaps Levin? Either way, go kill him while I distract this one.”
Mei narrowed her eyes. Levin had been discovered, and that meant he was probably in enough trouble already. No matter what, she could not allow this Smoke rank mage to get at him. But her only rune was gone, all the power in the boots used up in that one burst.
But she still had one more trick up her sleeve to keep both of them with her.
“Of course, Magus Panai,” Hann said. He turned to leave.
“Hey you two!” Mei shouted. “Wanna know the difference between mages and warriors?”
Hann paused, on guard, vigilant against Mei. Panai stepped forward, putting Hann directly behind him.
“The difference is that warriors are far inferior!” Panai shouted.
“Wrong! The difference is…” Mei took a deep breath, lowering her stance. She raised her fist, drawing it back.
“Warriors get to name their attacks!”
Mei laughed manically as she stepped forward, throwing her fist out.
“Galaxy Breaker!!”
The stone wall beneath them fell apart as her weapon art passed over it, the residual shockwaves enough to tear the structure down. It raced towards the two mages in an instant, barrelling down on them with power beyond the Smoke rank.
A visible shroud of energy descended on Panai and Hann as the Force Distribution System powered them up. At the same time, multiple thick and glittering runic shields appeared in the air between the two mages and Mei, and Hann crushed another vial of ink as Panai sent a wave of fire out to meet the attack as well.
It was all useless. Mei’s weapon art crushed through the shields of Inuvik Academy like they were paper, it slammed aside Panai’s spell and Hann’s rune, and it washed away the cloak of protective Force like a stain. The wall collapsed beneath the feet of the Smoke rank mages, but it didn’t matter – the wave of energy picked them up like ragdolls and flung them out into the sky over Mount Inuvik. Mei heard the distinct sound of two protective artifacts shattering, ringing out like dropped glass.
Mei laughed uproariously, exhilarated by the rush of power unlike anything she had experienced back in Earth’s dimension. It took so much out of her, and she could feel exhaustion setting in, but the adrenaline and excitement kept her going.
Mei leapt off what was left of the stone wall, causing even more of it to crumble. The cool night air felt rejuvenating on her skin as she hurtled after Panai and Hann, flying in a massive arc over the mountain, coming down near the base.
There she found Panai and Hann on the ground, wounded but alive. They scrambled back to their feet, and Mei couldn’t help but be impressed at how well they had endured. The two of them stared each other down, and the Smoke ranks summoned forth more shields and Force from the rune array.
Mei realized they were in the endgame now. She was tired and out of big moves, but the mages before her had lost their defensive artifacts. If she could get by the shields of the central rune array even once, she would turn their fleshy meat-sacks into a fine spray of blood. That would be easier said than done against a duo that could threaten her life, but it was just the sort of challenge she lived for.
It almost made her wish that Levin’s predicament would drag on, so her fight could go even longer. Almost.