Akamori launched his armor into the atmosphere, opening the throttle on his thrusters to full bore. Clouds raced by and birds grew to faint dots on the horizon as he continued his ascent. The distance between himself and the waypoint Cenine had sent him shrinking in a rapid countdown. He let out a whoop at the thrill. This definitely beat racing away from the maw of a hungry dragon.
He corkscrewed and rolled as the armor poured on the speed. The dragonmail’s hud continued to count down the distance to the waypoint. Akamori’s focus, however, was just on relaxing and cutting loose a little. All the stress, exhaustion, and tension from his training. He wanted to just stay within this moment, if it were possible.
The clouds fell away, blue gave way to black and soon, he left the upper atmosphere of the planet. Before he could continue to marvel at that super human accomplishment, the HUD chirped. He’d reached the waypoint.
“About time, peasant.”
And just like that, she ruined the mood. He sighed, sweeping the area for the golden fighter. The sleek gold and emerald arrowhead shaped fighter shimmered into view with the sun behind it, illuminated by its golden drive and thrusters. She’d powered it down to mask herself on his approach and used the sun to help stay in a blind spot. Clever.
“You’ve fought dragons before. This fighter packs about the same punch of a light dragon. The goal is simple. Survive.”
A glow built in the underslung cannon barrel on the sleek, claw shaped fighter. Akamori tensed, feathering his thrusters as motes of void aether pulsed out, putting some distance between himself, the golden fighter. His stat bar on the bottom left of his hud blinked as the armor spent a point of magic for the thrust.
**LT. Akamori Shinjo MR:3 Human Spell Soldier 16/21 AP / 35/35 HP**
“Oh. Shit. So we’re doing this. Okay!” He tried not to panic as the fighter surged forward after him. Instinctively, Akamori corkscrewed his way after a formation of lazy, drifting debris. Being smaller, he knifed his way through the debris field that clung nearby to the ruined remains of Eryn’s moon. “Must go faster. Must go faster.”
A brilliant beam of raw concentrated plasma tore its way through space, evaporating rock and cooking dust in a chunk of space Akamori had just narrowly evacuated. The Spell Fighter took five seconds to charge for its attack. He had that much time to get some room to think. Cenine’s laughter sang through the comm line. He could hear the haughty sneer in the noble’s voice as she hunted him.
“I’m coming for you.”
The fighter was on top of him in seconds. The barrel glowed with menacing white and gold energy. Cenine had no effort at keeping him in her sights. He poured on the speed, reaching the armor’s max speeds, but the well-engineered fighter had no issues keeping pace.
“You won’t win by running. So what will you do? Think Peasant. Use that terribly undersized brain of yours.” Cenine taunted him.
The fighter loosed another bolt again. This time catching him firmly in the back. He’d raised a makeshift barrier field of Void magic at the last second. The Cannon blast had no problems devouring the blackish lavender aether and slamming into him. The kinetic transfer sent him pinwheeling into several nearby chunks of rock. Cenine laughed at him some more.
“If the plan is to use your body to block my shots, you may want to revise!”
**LT. Akamori Shinjo MR:3 Human Spell Soldier 14/21 AP / 28/35 HP**
Akamori cursed as his HP took a dive. The barrier had helped in some small measure, but he decided it would be best to conserve his resources. He focused on the spell fighter using his perception skill.
System Info: Eryn Arms Talon Spell Fighter Mk IX. 40/40 HP
The information chilled his blood as rapidly as decompression. The engagement had only lasted roughly a minute now, and she’d already made a few attacks against him. All he’d managed in response was evasion and injury. He needed to counter while he tried to figure something out.
He ported his rifle from its pocket, seizing the floating weapon in both hands and snapping off a salvo of cheap shots. As the spell fighter closed the level 1 void bolts splashed harmlessly against the fighter’s barrier field. He’d figured as much. If he wanted to get anywhere, he was going to have to spend resources. That meant he’d only have a few shots.
“I need to make these count, then.”
Akamori surged into high speed again, flying so close to the surface of a piece of rock he could make out the details of smaller bits of debris along its ragged surface. Cenine’s fighter continued to gain as she charged the weapon. He risked a quick glance back. He needed to kill off some of her speed. Ahead, he spotted a cluster of smaller rocks. He fed his rifle a couple points of magic and channeled the void into the weapon, firing off a small micro gravity well.
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**LT. Akamori Shinjo MR:3 Human Spell Soldier 12/21 AP / 28/35 HP**
He tugged the singularity with its captured rock field and hurled the conflagration into Cenine’s fighter. Before impact, though, the brilliant glow of the plasma beam melted everything in its path. “Points for improvisation, but you’ll have to do better than that, peasant.”
While she took a moment to gloat about how his diversion hadn’t damaged her, Akamori took the chance to get into a covered position on her flight path. He’d only be able to charge the attack up to his maximum magic rating, but that still meant he might deal with her wards. Unlike Cenine’s fighter, he didn’t need 5 seconds to charge an attack. As soon as the golden frame of her Talon soared into view, he fired the level 3 void bolt. It discharged in a pure black and lavender trimmed beam that savaged the fighters’ wards, discoloring them.
**LT. Akamori Shinjo MR:3 Human Spell Soldier 8/21 AP / 28/35 HP**
“Damn.” He silently hoped they would drop on the first shot. Though he knew enough to be certain they wouldn’t. The fighter whipped around in a tight arc and fired off another shot at him. “Oh, crap!” he threw himself down into a rocky depression and pressed himself as flat as possible as the golden beam of plasma roared by in the soundless void.
He popped up and snapped off a series of cheap lvl 1 bolts that didn’t cost him anything as the rifle supplied the magic itself. The rounds splashed harmlessly against the fighters’ wards. “There you are!” Cenine shouted eagerly. The fighter roared after him and Akamori fell back and dove below a ledge, twisting to thrust into a field of smaller rocks.
He crashed through the debris hastily and twisted to fire off another full power shot at the fighter carving a deep groove in its wards. The runes and glyphs unraveled on that side of the fighter. The underslung cannon fired, a beam of brilliant white hot star matter streaked at him. Akamori’s limbs flailed momentarily until he remembered how to pilot the armor and boosted hard to evade. The debris he’d been hiding in evaporated away, leaving specks of molten rock that rapidly cooled.
**LT. Akamori Shinjo MR:3 Human Spell Soldier 4/21 AP / 26/35 HP**
The fighter poured on the thrust and Akamori ducked and wove his way through a patch of rocks. The fighter just crashed through them. He glanced back to see Cenine bearing down on him with a determined look on her face in her cockpit. The golden fighter’s skin discoloring as rocks crashed against it in multiple places, scuffing the polish. The fighter was no longer beautiful, and Akamori found its own sort of beauty in that blemish.
“Awe, lookit that. Your shiny toys paint job ain’t perfect anymore.”
He sensed the mistake almost as soon as he made it. Her fighter smashed clean through the rocks, attempting to spear him into the nose. Physical memory kicked in from years of training under his father. His hands shot out, and using both air and void magic, he vaulted over the fighter. His left hand shot to his sword hilt and plunged the blade down into the skin of the fighter.
The blade punched deep into the polished golden hull. Sparks sprayed out of the surface as his spell blade carved a vicious groove along the smooth curve. Cenine howled inside the fighter. The Talon jerked left and right repeatedly trying to dislodge him. Planting his feet on the hull, he kicked off and tore the blade free, snapping off a hip shot from his rifle into the breach. Normally, the level one bolt shot wouldn’t do much. Against a gash in the damaged hull, though, the void magic devoured the metal greedily. The shot reduced a circular portion of the hull in the middle of the slash into a vapor of matter. A blue barrier ward like the kind used in landing bays deployed a second later staunching the bleed of atmosphere.
The wounded talon cut a tight turn, banking hard to bring its cannon down on him. He instantly realized his situation was not good when the golden stream of plasma rushed out to greet him. Akamori kicked off a nearby rock and punched his thrusters heavily to evade. It melted the rock down into particles in the stream of raw energy.
“I will teach you pain, you backwoods farm peasant. Now dodge!”
The fighter hurled another column of plasma at him. Using the last of his magic, he formed a shield of void magic while jerking his armor hard to the left. The shield cracked against the edge of the beam. He let out a wordless scream of defiance as he continued to block the attack. The fractures snaked and creaked out further along the shield until it shattered into shards and motes of dissipating energy.
He drifted in the vacuum of space limply. His AP indicator blinked alarmingly at a red 1. His HP sat at 10. His armor had several scorch marks on it from stray bits of energy that cut through his shield and from crashing into the rock field. All he could hear was his heavy breathing in his helmet. In and out, in and out. He closed his eyes and got control of his respiration, then straightened out.
Cenine’s Talon maneuvered directly in front of Akamori. She ensured she was close enough that when he saw her in the cockpit, he could see just how pissed she was. “Yeah, she’s mad.” he muttered. Cenine’s lip curled into a snarl and she throttled the Talon forward hard, slamming into him on her way back down to the surface.
“Get your rest. Training resumes tomorrow.” She said into the comms.
He sighed, gathering his strength for the descent. His body ached and having spent all of his aether left him feeling extra tired. He hadn’t been pushed this hard since the Sgt. was breaking him and Amara in. He fed the armor his last point of magic, fueling the thrusters, and brought himself in for a controlled descent.
Landing could have taken him a lot less time if he had the magic to bleed off the speed more. As it stood, he didn’t want to take chances in his current condition. The fight replaying in his head. She’d used the sun as a blind spot. Maybe he could replicate the trick somehow? Mask his approach somehow.
Akamori’s eyelids felt heavy, and the strain of concentrating on his altitude while landing took its toll. By the time his boots touched down, his knees wobbled, threating to give out on him. Pressing the mind rune, the armor went translucent pink, and he fell free of the armor like an untethered soul being kicked free of its physical shell. His bed was just close enough he could crawl into it from the floor. So he did.
Sleep came for his weary body with a vengeance, and he was unconscious before he knew it. The aching sensation in his chest being the last conscious thought his mind had before he succumbed to the black of sleep. He’d been so tired he didn’t notice the man lurking at the edge of the campus, casually smelling some flowers on his way back to his dorm. The man with fierce red eyes like that of a dragon.