Chapter 69

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

The morning that he was set to head out on his exam, Myles was in a training hall, holding the brand-new shuriken construct with a bandolier of mana batteries thrown over his shoulder. In front of him, a target stared him down.

In a smooth motion, Myles pulled one of the batteries from the sling, popping it into the handle. After a second, Myles squeezed down on the wooden casing. He felt a little resistance from the springs they had used, but with a firm squeeze, the handle retracted, and the battery popped out, landing on the floor. Myles spun the device using the muscles in his forearm, and then timed the release of his grip so the handle stopped in place, locking into the grooves corresponding to the commutation function.

A moment later, pure mana coated the construct. It was quite a sight. Since the mana was on the outside of the construct, as opposed to traditional commuted armor, the light was blocked before it reached even the outermost layer of metal, meaning it now looked like Myles was carrying a blurry, massive shuriken-shaped mess rather than the metal construct he knew was in his hands.

Jane, with pure mana commuting over her ears, tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a sign they had agreed upon earlier. Unable to keep the eagerness off her face, her mouth moved as well. “Ready?”

Myles nodded, acknowledging the sign since he was protecting his own ears as well. With a twist, he rotated the handle into one of the neutral slots they had added to the construct before taking another battery and sliding it in. He then gave another jerk of his arm, to slide the handle into position at the stun function, pausing for a brief moment before throwing.

It would seemingly take some practice to get used to throwing the construct—at least he and Jane hadn’t been very successful so far—so Myles didn’t leave anything to chance. As he threw, he evoked a thin line of pure mana that started between the handle and disk of the shuriken and ended at the target.

The construct followed the line, effectively using it as a track. Just as it reached the target, a wave of frost burst in a sphere around the shuriken, coating the straw with patches of ice. Myles grinned to himself, letting his pure mana fall away from his ears.

In theory, he didn’t need that extra protection since the sound mana didn’t make it very far before turning into ice mana, but he wasn’t too keen on testing that theory out considering how loud the sound would be.

“Are we all ready to go then?” Silas leaned against the doorway with the rest of their group. Kate and Seth held the twin spears that had saved their lives last month, primed and ready with fire mana. Mercy bore half of their supplies in a pack, and as Myles gave a resolved nod, Silas picked up the other half, swinging them onto his back.

With a heavy heart, Myles passed the shuriken construct to Jane who had her own set of batteries. She took it by the handles and clipped it into the specially made harness she wore on her back, a twin to the harness Myles’ own.

They left through Maston’s gate minutes later. Jane, Seth, and Mercy made up the outside of their formation, forming a spearhead pointed forward. Myles moved inside the protected center of the formation with Silas and Kate. With every step, he felt trickles of the tiny wind mana particles tapping against his pure mana from the bubble Jane and Mercy were currently keeping active.

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They were an hour and a half down the highway before Seth who was maintaining the outer layer of the groups wind mana gave the whole group a signal. The six of them all ground to a halt, and Myles tensed, ready to enter combat if necessary.

Seth pointed down; the sign Primrose had drilled into them for a minor threat. Seth and Jane peeled off to the east, drawing spear and shuriken. Myles evoked wind mana, using it to identify the threat. Five ogren were approaching from the other side of the east-facing hill.

The first three of the beasts swept over the crest, mouths salivating onto their oversized tusks. They were met by a spinning wheel of blades, and a small explosion. All three of the monsters stopped in their tracks. A moment later when the sound mana turned to ice in the air, the three ogren fell to the ground overwhelmed by the sudden sensory input and the rapid change in temperature.

Seth met the other two as they rushed past their twitching brethren. With a spear thrust that pulled heavily from the footwork of the first step, Seth drove his weapon through one of the beasts, then immediately pivoted, performing a snake step that took him clear of the second and delivered another clean thrust.

Jane pulled the shuriken from where it had fallen, and quickly used the spikes they had honed to a fine edge, dispatching the three shocked and disabled ogren.

The group finished extracting the cores, using one of them to restore the battery Jane had used in her attack. Myles admonished himself for thinking it seemed like a bit of a waste. It had been a good opportunity to test the construct in actual combat. Besides, two months ago, he, Silas, and Kate had their entire mission derailed from an encounter just like this.

The group moved along again, this time with the formation reversed. Myles had taken the shuriken construct back from Jane with the change.

As the day moved on, and the sun gradually changed position in the sky, the rolling hills became craggier terrain. Their destination for the day was a small town just shy of Hydrabridge, but even unhampered by the rains they had pushed through last month, it would take them until late in the evening to arrive.

The group endured a few more attacks, but none of the fights required more than two to deal with. At least until Myles felt something bump into his wind mana.

He gave an immediate shout of alarm and did a full turn from his position at the front of the group. He had been evoking the inner layer of their scouting sphere, so whatever was there was just feet away from their group. When he turned around, he saw nothing.

Silas who had been evoking wind mana in their outer layer started to evoke mana in a closer and denser pattern. His eyes also went wide, and a moment later their whole group had pulled back. Weapons pointed at the empty space that held something, something that was very much manipulating their wind mana to obfuscate itself. Even knowing it was there, Myles couldn’t get an idea of its size or shape.

“Whoa, whoa!” A familiar voice rang out. A moment later, Dresden appeared before them, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “I guess I can’t hide from you all day anymore, huh?”

Myles almost cried with relief. It had been one thing trying to sense Dresden and Reah back in the safety of the academy. It was another thing entirely to barely feel an unknown and invisible threat suddenly pop up. A chill ran down his spine. Dresden must have been feet away from them for hours, and they had only just sensed him, and barely at that.

“Well, I had planned to reveal myself this evening, anyway. Primrose gave me orders to help with your bandit hunt.”

The group let out their collective breaths. As one, spearpoints moved away from Dreden’s direction, and stances relaxed. Myles moved the shuriken he held in his hand back to the harness on his back.

There wasn’t really a need for an explanation. Dresden had followed Jane, Seth, and Mercy through their previous two exams. He did reassure them that Reah wasn’t also out there following them though he admitted it bitterly, his pride apparently wounded.

The group continued on, still on high alert, but feeling much safer now that Dresden was confirmed to be with them, and capable of stepping in if they needed him to. They didn’t end up encountering any more monsters before they reached their destination, the town of Gardax.

Silas and Mercy had warned the group it was a somewhat rough town, and they were right, at least in terms of those present. A majority of the sparse crowd on the streets had red bands around their arms, and the looks of shikari on their faces.

It made sense, the town—or if Myles was honest the pair of inns surrounded by a wall—was located at a logistics crossroads that Hydrabridge’s presence had created. There were quite a few smaller mining operations in the area as well, and Myles doubted they had the same level of military presence that Hydrabridge did. There would be more than enough work for shikari to make some good coin.

The group made it to their inn and rented two rooms using the mission funds they had been given. Nobody had the energy to delve, but they made sure to all expend at least a big chunk of their remaining mana, adding it to the mana that was already sitting in the batteries, bringing each of them closer to the maximum capacity they could hold—at least at maximum efficiency.