Training a moderate amount was an odd thing. Obviously, there was a good reason for it. If people constantly pushed themselves to their limits to try to get maximum improvement, what would we do when an actual emergency happened? We’d be exhausted, so what we would do would be practically nothing. The divisions of training, patrol, and on call were useful for those reasons.
But the last one was boring. Midnight and I were sitting around bored, only able to use small amounts of mana for training. Sure, it was good for training lower level spells since the total amount of mana regenerated over a day stayed the same, but it lacked intensity. Which… might not actually matter for magic training. Though being able to use things in actual combat certainly helped me in particular.
Basically just sitting around between castings of Mage’s Reach and the occasional Enlarge or the like, I had a lot of time to think and feel. Things felt weird and I wondered if that was the kind of thing I should report to someone, or just keep to myself. I had been debating that for several minutes when a message came out through the speakers that permeated all of HQ.
“All combat personnel, prepare your equipment and wait for further orders. Elevators will be entering prioritized mode.”
Midnight’s ears twitched. “This sounds like…”
“Something is finally happening,” I said.
“Like trouble.”
“Well, yeah. Trouble is usually what happens,” I nodded. Let’s see, what did we need to do? We were already suited up, so making sure I had my weapons with me was the next step. Pistols holstered at my hips- I didn’t want to spend ridiculous quantities of money shooting certain people for no benefit. And using Storage to bring them out in the middle of combat sounded like a good way to be behind a couple points of mana at a critical moment. I had my staff as well, and it felt nice to walk around with it so I kept it out anytime I was on Brigade business.
Not so much walking along the streets in my civilian form, of course. People seemed to think it was weird.
I already had my communicator ready, so I just made sure it was connected to the network properly and comfortable in my ear.
“Mage,” a voice came through. “You are to make your way to the ground floor and meet up with Great Girl and her squad. Communication will be routed through Map.”
“Hear all that, buddy?” I asked Midnight.
He nodded. “Yep. suppose we should get moving.”
When we came to the elevator, there was a bit of a crowd. People were scanning their Power Brigade IDs. Various instructions came from the elevator as they did so. “Elevator number two, downward. Elevator number one, upward. Elevator number three, downward. Use stairs for optimal arrival time.” Someone sighed at the last one.
Mine was elevator number four, going down. It showed up about ten seconds later, and Midnight and I crowded in with the others going down, which included Mono. “Hey,” I waved. “We’re working together today, it seems.”
The cyclops nodded. “So I have been informed.”
We’d met a few times and had some good chats, but I didn’t have much that synergized with him in particular, so we didn’t really work together. What was I going to do, cast Haste on a sniper? It might be useful in the most extreme of situations, but it would be a very narrow window and I’d have to be specifically working with him and not the rest of the squad. Though Midnight could do that, technically.
When we arrived in the lobby, it was quite easy to find Great Girl. She was standing at a standard combat height, which was about eight feet tall. Not a ton of people who could match that. Well, the Brigade did have other heavies, but the point still stood.
“Grasp is just outside,” Great Girl commented. “Let’s get moving.”
“What’s happening?” I asked. Then we stepped outside, and she just gestured. “Ah.”
One of the largest portals I had ever seen hung in the sky. It had to be a good fifty feet across… though fortunately it didn’t seem to be getting much traffic. Not none, though. I could see a couple sizable dragons gliding around the portal.
The voice of the last member of Great Girl’s squad came through our earpieces. “Sizable flying creatures are a danger even if we take them down. Our task is to get Great Girl and Grasp into positions where they can prevent as much damage as possible. Getting Mage and Familiar close to the portal to attempt to close it is also high priority, but the hostiles have to be cleared out first.”
“It looks a bit hard to reach,” I commented.
“It will help if you can be held forty feet from the nearest building,” Great Girl commented. “Speaking of which, I’ll be relying on you for extra height.”
“Sure thing,” I said, squinting. “Hey, what color are those guys? They’re too reflective for me to tell.”
“Gold,” Mono said.
“We’d better watch out for their fire breath, then,” Great Girl commented. “And their paralyzing gas. Uh, so I-”
“So you’ve heard, yeah,” I commented. “Midnight, 6 mana at a half split for Energy Ward.”
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“Got it,” Midnight said.
The two of us gathered the aforementioned 6 mana, totaling enough for three castings. But with Multicasting and Midnight and I counting as one for receiving benefits, it was enough for all of us. Great Girl, Mono, Grasp, Midnight, and myself. Map was theoretically safe in some room somewhere, and either way she wasn’t going to be close anytime soon.
“Stoneskin next,” I said. “13 and a half.” This was going to drain Midnight quite a bit, but it was more mana efficient overall this way… and I was not going to go up against dragons otherwise.
“Oooh, nice,” Great Girl commented.
“I can’t afford Physical Freedom for everyone and still do things like stand up straight or help close a portal, so that will have to be it,” I said. “Don’t get gassed, I guess.”
“That’s always the plan,” Grasp commented. “Being warned about it, I should be able to deflect such an attack with a telekinetic barrier.”
“Oh right,” I said. “Might as well give us everything useful.” I could use Multicasting for Force Armor without Midnight- it was only 6 mana total. “I doubt it will fully stop even a single hit from a dragon, but it will at least help preserve your Stoneskin.”
“Great, let’s get moving,” Great Girl said.
“Sure thing,” I said. Then I looked over at Mono. “I don’t quite know how to say this… but why are you down here with us?”
“Because I don’t want to be up on a roof away from my squad when facing flying opponents. And I might need a more central angle.”
“Fair points,” I said.
All of us were fit and able to run swiftly. Midnight didn’t have to, because he was on my shoulder, but he could.
“Hey, Turlough,” Great Girl used my real name, but I didn’t actually care about that. “Are gold dragons… good?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’s just that… it seems like a nice color? Ugh, I mean… traditionally that’s the case.”
“Oh. I would say they’re definitely less likely to burn down surrounding towns, at least.”
“Why are they here, then?” she asked.
“Probably because a massive and weird portal appeared near their nest.”
“... I’m gonna chuck ‘em back through,” Great Girl said. “If I can’t talk them into leaving.”
“You’d need to speak their language,” I said. She looked at me. “It takes more than a few seconds to calibrate. Though I have used Translate for Draconic once.”
“It’s better to try,” she said. “I don’t want to see all these buildings on fire. So… we’re going over towards that one,” she pointed to the one closest to beneath the portal.
As we moved, the streets were in a state of chaos. It wasn’t just the one portal above us- or the whole Brigade wouldn’t have mobilized, at least not in this manner. I could vaguely feel others further away.
Great Girl threw open the doors to a nearby and quite fancy hotel, the Aquamarine Luxury Suites or something. “Power Brigade. We’re using your elevator,” she declared to the people huddling in the lobby. She marched over towards a person who worked in the hotel. “Do we need a key to the roof?”
“Sorry?” one of the men cowering behind the desk said.
“We’re going to the roof. Is the door locked? If so, give us a key or I’ll punch it open.”
“Uh,” the worker turned around, scrambling for something. “I think this will do it?”
“Great. Stay inside unless the building catches fire.”
We squeezed into the elevator- only relevant because Great Girl was sized up. “I can cast Enlarge as we get out onto the roof. Probably awkward before then. Besides Translate, I think I should hold back on anything else if I’m going to close the portal.”
As we rode the elevator, Map reported through our comms. “A third dragon has come out of the portal. All three are currently patrolling a perimeter around the building. No hostilities yet from this group.”
The key didn’t work. An alarm went off when Great Girl smashed against it. The door actually stayed intact… but the surrounding frame, not so much. As the door toppled onto the roof, Great Girl stepped out and I cast Enlarge. Then she began to cry out towards the dragons. “Hey! Dragons! You’re not supposed to be here!”
I wasn’t sure if that was going to work. Oh, right. They might speak common well enough to give us a moment. “Can you listen for a second?” I called. I don’t know if it was my words or Great Girl’s booming voice, but they turned towards us as Mono scoped out the area for the best cover. Grasp focused on the three dragons circling around.
One approached, hovering next to the building. I could see how big it was- and why the portal was that size. The actual body was maybe ten or fifteen feet wide and twice that in length counting the head and neck but not the tail. The wingspan was tremendous, and a fifty foot wide portal might require some wing folding to actually get through. “What --- --- say?”
Oh, my prior experience got partial translations. Great Girl seemed to get something as well. I understood what she was trying to say, but I was fairly certain only a few words properly translated. “You go portal.” She pointed to emphasize her point. The dragon might not have gotten it.
“--- can’t command --!” the dragon roared, flames flickering in its mouth.
At that point, Great Girl grew to her largest size- fifteen feet was the norm, but Enlarge was another double on that. Even as she was reaching her fullest height, she was leaping towards the dragon… which was quite surprised to be tackled by something close to its size and slammed onto the roof of the next building over. It clawed and spewed flame, but Great Girl grabbed its wings and twisted herself around behind it. Then she lifted it, spinning a few times before flinging it through the portal.
“And stay out!” she shouted.
I wasn’t sure if this was the best or worst form of diplomacy with dragons. Well, it was what it was. The other two obviously didn’t take kindly to the aggressive actions, and one breathed fire on our rooftop. Fortunately, Grasp was ready, forming a hemisphere of telekinetic power shortly in front of the creature’s maw and causing it to spew back around towards the creature. The dragon didn’t get injured by its own flames, but it kept the building from catching fire. And you know, us.
Mono took a shot at the second one as it began to draw in breath. It was a simple quiet click, and then a plinking sound inside the creature’s mouth. Then there was a roar that made the building tremble for a moment… before it was muted to a more reasonable level.
Great Girl leapt to tackle that one from behind, but the other one was charging forward towards us, and Grasp probably wasn’t strong enough to stop a full sized dragon- even if this one was slightly smaller than the others.
At least we probably wouldn’t be burned or clawed to death instantly thanks to our defensive spells. It was important to look on the bright side of things.