Chapter 32

Thankfully, I had some sense as I made my mad dash. “Svalinn’s Mercy!” While Sergeant Lakhdar had been covering for our capricious high command, there were benefits to specialization; since learning the defensive spell from Mariko, I’d mastered its ins and outs. I was lucky I didn’t sleep cast it often, since the edges could be awfully sharp.

Since I was on the move, I formed the shield so that it was strapped to my arm and as tall and broad as I was. The benefit to magical construction was that the oversized spell was a tad awkward, but utterly weightless, so there was no harm in adding coverage.

This turned out to be the right move, and I only had a moment to stop and crouch behind my shield when I heard Gabriella cast another Magic Mortar before I could leave my cover.

Even though the Proxy version was a harmless lightshow, it was still a terrifying sight for somebody who knew the real thing. The submunitions rained down on me in a shower of blue light beams that dashed themselves harmlessly against my shield.

“That one had to get you,” called out Gabriella. “Throw down your gun and come out!”

“Sorry, my dear, but you missed,” I replied. I couldn’t help but throw in the ‘my dear’; it felt so delightfully dismissive.

“Oh, screw you!” I almost expected another Magic Mortar, but she went quiet. That was more concerning.

I burst out of the forest, the tower shield making an excellent battering ram as I smashed through the branches.

My Mimic Sight hadn’t lied about Gabriella’s speed. To my astonishment, she dashed over the snow-covered field without leaving so much as a footprint. There was something magical afoot, but I didn’t know if it was an affinity or a cast spell.

She skidded to a halt when she spotted me, sinking to her knees in the snow when she lost her momentum. “Celestial Arrow!”

To my surprise, she didn’t aim the golden bolt of magic at me; it flashed through the air before dissipating against my Svalinn’s Mercy.

Gabriella’s smugness was obvious even at a distance. “Dispel your shield! I just broke it.”

“Says who?” I said, trudging my way through the snowpack. I didn’t have whatever talent she did, so I had to do it the old-fashioned way. “I made it especially thick.”

“Oh, please,” she said. “Celestial Arrow’s an armor piercing spell. It’s designed to break through shields like that. Drop it or you’re definitely disqualified.”

There was something to be said for headmaster Tachibana’s setup for his War Games. Without it, we were like children playing magistrates and orcs, bickering about who had shot who.

I acquiesced, though, and the shield vanished into a sparkling shower of residuum. “A pity; that was some of my best work.”

Gabriella tensed up, ready to make a run for the flagpole. I could have fired off a spell right away, but I wanted to see what her trick was.

Her first step carried her out of the snow, but her foot sank a few inches down. There was a flash of magical energy and her second step didn’t seem to touch the ground at all.

It was an affinity, and a damned useful one at that. Before I could make it ten feet, she’d crossed fifty.

“Fireball!” My Proxy Spell went straight for her, forcing her to leap out of the way. Whatever magic had her skipping over the snow didn’t protect her upper body, and what would have been a well-executed tuck and roll on flat terrain turned into a faceplant.

With Gabriella out of commission, I had a chance to do something about the terrain. “Fireball!” That one wasn’t a Proxy Spell. Weeks of practice in clearing the training fields let me shape it into an intense jet of flame the carved a narrow path through the snowdrifts. This flamethrower would be terrifying to turn on an opponent, though sustaining it burned through magic energy at a fantastic pace.

I shut it off as I neared her, and I was forced to take my own dive into a snowdrift as she shot a Magic Bolt my way. It had been a wild shot, but without my shield, I didn’t dare take the chance.

Bloody Hell, that was cold! I sprang to my feet with a newfound appreciation for our woolen uniforms. My evasive maneuver had brought us just outside of arm’s reach. With the unsure footing and knee-high snow between us, trying to close in would bog us down for a critical moment if the other fighter went for magic. We both understood the impasse, standing in silence, our hands at our sides like the gunfighters in an American western.

I studied her carefully. Despite her disagreeable behavior, I couldn’t deny she was a lovely woman, even if her hair was a complete fright after her dive. The chill brought some extra color to her cheeks, which served to enhance her looks. If I wasn’t mistaken, she was studying me just as closely.

“What now?” she asked, breaking the truce we’d silently agreed to.

“Good question,” I grunted. Neither of us had been issued a training sword since, strictly speaking, we weren’t supposed to be in this situation. Not our job. At this range, whoever cast the fastest was likely to win. “I don’t suppose you fancy a fistfight?”

“Wouldn’t want to break your nose,” she said. “Or scuff up your pretty uniform.”

More like she didn’t want to break her hand on the magically-enhanced armor. I wasn’t eager, myself. I was never game to strike a woman on her unprotected head or face. Call it sexism or chivalry, if you like, but it would avoid a host of awkward conversations later.

“That was a nice trick before,” I said. “I imagine it helps you keep warm.”

“Thanks, I… hold it! You’re running out the clock.” She gestured with her arm to mime a wristwatch without looking down at it.

“Not falling for that one.” I’d nearly mimicked her gesture, which would have given her a clear shot.

She chuckled. “Can’t blame me for trying. So, we aren’t brawling. One spell to decide it?”

I didn’t respond, twisting my hands into position to cast. At this range, it could be mutually assured destruction. Her hands had twisted into position for a Magic Bolt, which made sense. It was simple to cast and too fast to dodge if I was too slow with my own spell. A guaranteed kill.

Which is why when the runes came to life around her hands, I didn’t respond with my own. Instead, I dropped to my knees.

“Magic Bolt?” The Proxy Spell came out misshapen as my sudden movement distracted her in mid-cast. Despite her surprise, the ball of blue light passed close enough that stars danced in my eyes after its passing.

It wasn’t enough, though. I landed in a crouch with my left hand steadying myself. “Spectral Web!”

Blue strands of magical energy flew out of my hand, wrapping themselves around Gabriella’s right wrist. I kept a thick strand in my hand and a good, hard yank sent her off balance. The snow cushioned her fall as she slammed down onto her side.

Just as planned, I’d felled her within striking distance. She was already flailing around, trying to find a purchase on the slick ground. It was too late, and I pounced. We writhed around in the snow a moment, but my advantage in weight and height were decisive. I ended up on top of her, sitting on her stomach, my outstretched hand inches from her face.

“And that’s a win for me,” I crowed.

“I-I can still fight back,” she stammered.

“Pinned by me and with one of your casting hands bound by a Spectral Web? Be realistic! Yield or else I’ll report you for cheating.”

Her blue eyes glared daggers up at me. It seemed she was going to press on.

“I can Spectral Web your mouth shut, if you like.”

The fight was snuffed out in a moment. “F-fine.”

“Fine what? I won’t let you backstab me with a technicality.”

“F-fine,” she managed. “I yield. N-now let me up, th-there’s melted sn-snow down my sh-shirt.”

Ah, so it wasn’t only nerves that had her stuttering. I helped her up. “Do you know St. Bernard’s Charm?”

She shook her head. “N-not w-well. J-just the Raw Spell. I f-focused on m-my combat magic.”

“Well, I know the full version.” Thanks to Hiroto casting it in front of me, but I left that out. She relaxed as warmth flooded back into her body.

“Thank you,” she said, her chattering teeth finally going still.

Hiroto called out something from where he knelt near the tree line. I’m not sure I would have made it out even in one of my good languages.

It must have been cutting, because Gabriella burst into tears. Not just a little cry, but it was positively ugly.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Curse my softer side. Despite my better judgement, I drew her into a comforting, one armed hug. I told myself it was partially practical, since her ensorcelled body radiated heat. I glared in Hiroto’s direction. “What the blazes did he say?”

“I-I-I-I…”

Thankfully, I’d brought a handkerchief with me. Not that I’d want it back after the way she used it, but it steadied her.

“Does somebody need a lesson in manners? There’s no cause to insult a lady like that.” Even if she wasn’t the most ladylike herself. Neither were the devilmaids back home, and I’ve already described how they enforced manners from the menfolk. It was simple instinct.

“He just said, ‘it’s okay Gabby, you did your best’.” She looked utterly forlorn as she met my gaze. “B-but that can’t be it, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t keep stomping me into the ground. What’s wrong with me?”

“My… can I call you Gabby?” I didn’t wait for her permission. “Gabby, it was one match!”

She shook her head. “No, it was The Gauntlet, and the sword duels, the lessons, just everything. I can’t win! It’s like you know what I’m going to do before I do.”

“You are a tad predictable, my… Gabby.”

“What the Sergeant said the first day has really bugged me,” she said. “About you being a fighter and me just testing well.”

“They can’t put everything about fighting in the book,” I said.

“Then why give us the tests?” she demanded. “Why give us the textbooks and the right answers if they aren’t going to work? Why did I take all those extra classes during High School to get ready for the academy? What was it all for?”

“It did get you into the country’s top school,” I said.

“Top school,” she snapped. “That’s what they said, and then they take all of you remedial students to fill up the place!”

“My dear,” I said, my tone turning as icy as the landscape around us. “I think you’re operating under the erroneous assumption that you’re better than everyone else.”

“Well I… I was, at least,” she said. “Top of Mr. Lahlou’s homeroom in the War Games and the exams. It isn’t supposed to be this hard.”

“How lovely,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Welcome to life outside of your comfort zone. I assure you, the rest of us have been living here for a long time. It’s scary, but it’s real. And your rotten attitude isn’t helping anything.”

I expected her to lash out, or to disagree. Instead, her face turned redder. “God, that’s messed up.”

“What is?”

“You’re dressing me down, but I love it,” she said.

Oh, was she one of those? You occasionally ran into devilmaids who preferred to be, ah, net importers of torture, but I hadn’t met a human with that particular bend.

The Spectral Web had long since dissolved, and her newly-free hand covered her mouth. “W-wait, don’t think it’s like that. I mean you’re real with me. People usually treat me like I walk on water.”

“It looked like you were, earlier,” I said.

She laughed at that, resting her cheek on my chest as her arms slipped around my waist. “Only if I can get up to speed.”

“That’s awfully close,” I said. I tried to take a step back, but my heel stopped on the wall of snow behind us.

“You hugged me, bro.”

“I’d have done that for anyone in the same state,” I replied, managing to disengage myself at the expense of an icy boot. “You were completely miserable.”

“So you’re a badass and a nice guy?” She tucked her arms behind her back and dipped forward, flashing me a flirty grin. “That’s a dangerous combo. Are you sure you’re taken?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Kasasagi, we won!” came Mariko’s cry from the hill above. The field was much longer than it was wide, so Mariko and Kiyo emerged from the woods close enough that I could see their smiling faces.

I turned to face them. “That’s astounding!” It seemed my warning had paid off after all. “Well done, my dear!”

“Hey, where’s my rifle?” asked Kiyo, but I paid her no mind. I was too busy studying Mariko. She was developing a black eye, but I could fix that soon enough.

Gabriella let out a sigh, coming up alongside me. “You’re serious about Yamada, huh?”

“Yes, and nothing you can do will change that.”

“That just makes it more fun to try,” she replied.

There was movement out of the corner of my eye, but I was distracted by Mariko and Kiyo’s approach. Before I knew what had happened, Gabriella had grabbed me by the green capelet covering my shoulder and pulled me into a kiss. Like before, I was frozen by shock. Her cousin Leo’s magic smelled of cinnamon, and it seemed to run in the family, the spicy scent filling my nose as St. Bernard’s Charm burned through her magic reserves.

“Soren?” Mariko’s hurt-filled voice forced me out of my reverie.

I shoved Gabriella away, sending us falling in different directions. When I was upright again, it was Mariko’s turn for a good cry. She was much more restrained than Gabriella had been, but it cut even deeper.

“Told you so,” said Kiyo.

Leave it to a sniper to go for the kill shot.

Chapter 33

“Do you care to explain what you did to my bird?’ asked Mr. Lahlou, fidgeting and playing with his bushy, black beard. The second we got back to base, I’d been summoned to the sergeant’s spartan office.

“That’s what I’m here for?” I demanded. Once the battle had ended, there had been reports of another blizzard rolling through the mountains, ending combat exercises for the day. Even if the weather hadn’t turned on us, Mariko’s cold shoulder would have chilled me anyway. Kiyo’s knowing smirk the whole way back to base hadn’t helped any, either.

“What did you think this was about?” asked Sergeant Lakhdar.

“To report sexual harassment, that’s what! I know you had some way of tracking the battles, so you must have seen Gabby… I mean, Cadet Hernandez’s antics!”

“That’s the problem, actually,” said Mr. Lahlou, holding up a birdcage with a familiar inhabitant. The crow was oddly still; it still breathed, but otherwise I might have thought it was stuffed. “You grabbed him, said something in Demonic, and then the feed was cut off.”

I’m sure I looked confounded. “Feed?”

“It’s my affinity,” he said, opening the cage and proffering his hand to the bird. Its gaze didn’t shift, but it did perch on his forearm. He withdrew it, stroking the dumb beast’s head. “Bird Keeper. I can see through the eyes of most animals, but crows come more naturally. I can also command them to go where I want, but their instincts tend to win out.”

I nodded in understanding. “Like going for potato chips. I thought that seemed a bit too easy...”

“He’s used to being hand fed,” he said, keeping up his ministrations. “I have a small flock that nests near my trailer. I feed them and ‘volunteer’ them when they’re needed. I’ve had to separate him; ever since you brainwashed him, the other crows keep wanting to attack.”

“Wouldn’t the proper term be murder?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Sergeant Lakhdar, rejoining the conversation. “Did you permanently damage it?”

The wordplay caught me off guard, but I didn’t comment on it. “I… I can’t rightly say,” I admitted. “I’ve only seen it used on pigeons before. It always seemed to wear off.”

“Seen what used on pigeons?” asked Mr. Lahlou without looking up from his pet.

“Well, that demonic spell I mimicked,” I said. “Did you see anything after I cast it?”

“Not a bit,” he said. “The feedback nearly knocked me out!”

“Cadet Marlowe is able to permanently copy demonic spells,” said the sergeant, leaning forward on her desk. “I hadn’t realized he was using them during combat exercises.”

“Am I forbidden from doing so?” I asked. “It was a harmless utility spell. Well, harmless unless you’re a bird.”

The Sergeant leapt to her feet and slammed her fist on the table, catching all of us off guard. “You know darn well what everybody’s going to think when they see those spells.”

I remembered Heida’s rather violent reaction back in Iceland; Mariko had stepped in to keep me from getting perforated. The memory made me shudder; Heida was a beautiful woman, but she looked like a wrathful Valkyrie when I was facing down her disgusted rage.

Perhaps using my dark magic in that skirmish had been an unforced error, but there was an opportunity. Keeping my magic hidden made sense back when I was simply playing at being Soren Marlowe. That ship had sailed; despite all logic and sense, the humans who knew the truth had decided to accept me as one of their own. Hell, I was a bloody knight of the realm. I was trusted to go out to and get close and personal with my former kinsmen, and hopefully leave them with some nice holes blown in them.

However, I was going to be thrown into combat situations with lots of witnesses. Would I have to fight with an arm tied behind my back forever, or try to sneak away so I could throw Bloody Lances like I wanted? Maybe it was time to come out of the closet a little bit.

“I understand, but I’ve had a rather truncated education,” I protested. “I was at the Nagoya Academy for less than half a year, and I struggled in my time at the Merlin Academy back in Kent. If Mimic can give me a fighting chance against advanced students like Hiroto and Gabriella, then why shouldn’t I take it?”

“Besides the threat of throwing demonic residuum all over the place?” countered Mr. Lahlou, finally setting his pet back in its cage. “That stuff is darned dangerous, like background radiation. It somehow got into Haru Obe’s system when he turned traitor, and you know how that turned out.”

I winced. The poor, naïve extremist. “Yes, his hand melted off and he was in a coma for a month when his demonic fabricata misfired.”

“Yes, that is the story you told us,” said Mr. Lahlou, his eyes narrowing. He pursed his lips and pulled at his beard as he studied my reactions. “You know, I was asked to inspect the site. There weren’t any signs of shrapnel like you would expect from an exploding fabricata. Still, the demonic signature on that rooftop and in his wounds was unmistakable, so I hadn’t thought to question it… until now.”

“A perfect example,” I said, coughing away the lump of fear in my throat. I could use this to my advantage. “If I’d only had my human magic to rely on, he would have killed Kiyo and I, and gotten away scot-free. It saved the Tower when the Holy Brothers attacked, but I was at a major disadvantage fighting Mol in Iceland because I didn’t dare utilize it with so many witnesses.”

“You’re using their magic, though!” snapped Mr. Lahlou, leaping to his feet and jabbing his finger into my chest over. “Generating their filth, polluting our space and bodies with it! And do you think everybody in the unit is going to give you a pat on the back and a thumbs up when you reveal you know their spells? Do you want nobody to ever trust you again? Do you want to lose your fancy new title?”

I’d been standing at attention, but my shoulders slumped under the weight of his tirade. So much for that idea. “What would you suggest then, sir?”

“Pretend your affinity didn’t seem to like the dark more than the light and step in line,” he responded.

“Hold on now,” I said. “You wanted my aid in studying Mol’s body. You clearly find some use in their skills and magic.”

“It’s called reverse engineering,” he snapped. “That’s why we bothered making our own runic system, so we wouldn’t have to use their spells. I take their poison and make it safe to use.”

I was a bit taken aback; I couldn’t think of a time I’d seen my fabricata teacher so wound up. “There has to be some sort of compromise. If I could save my squad with a well-placed Bloody Lance, and the alternative is losing the battle, what’s the harm?”

His dark cheeks flushing with indignation. “The harm is—”

“Enough, Moulham,” said Sergeant Lakhdar, coming around and forcibly pulling him back into his chair. “You’ve made your point. So have you, Cadet Marlowe.” She paced a moment in front of her desk, her dark eyes not focused on anything in front of her. “Moulham, have we ever captured a magic tome that described Bloody Lance?”

“Not that I know of,” he replied. His tone was neutral, but he was pouting like a spanked child. “It’s an evil spell, though. It draws on the user’s anger to help power it. We can do without it.”

“You make a good point,” she said, though she didn’t sound completely sure.

“Permission to speak freely, ma’am?” The sergeant nodded her assent. “Bloody Lance has saved my life more times than I can count. It’s harder to block than a Magic Bolt, and being able to draw on my anger helps me save magic energy in a fight. You’re asking me to face rifles with a musket.”

“Then maybe we don’t need their rifles,” said Sergeant Lakhdar. “Moulham, he’s all yours.”

“Ma’am?” I asked.

“Carine?” asked Mr. Lahlou, sounding just as confused as me.

“It seems to me that Mr. Marlowe has a point, and so do you,” she said. “The demonic magic is useful, but dangerous. Moulham, you keep asking to steal Mr. Marlowe away to help you with your Mol research. I still can’t give him up for that right now; I have the Corps breathing down my neck about the delays in getting this group ready. However, a few hours a night for a little magical translation seems reasonable. Let’s make some rifles of our own. Say, after dinner every night?”

“During our recreation time,” I said. The only respite from constant drilling and combat exercises.

“Exactly,” she said. “We wouldn’t want you going out there and putting the squad in danger with your ignorance, after all. I think this will work out better for everybody.”

So much for freeing myself…