Chapter 5: Enemy
I hoped my disgust and terror would wash away as the putrid, sickly green acid gushed forth, staining my throat, mouth, face, and the floor. Maybe it did, purging just a little bit of unease, but I was not impressed to discover that it still tasted a bit like lunch and the sensation of partially digested chunks pooling around my fingers added to the problem. I spewed again, and my whole body shook, limbs barely holding me above the mess.
“Gross, isn’t it.”
Nightingale was likely referring more to her extra eyes than my vomit. She sounded a tinge sad, as though my reaction had hurt her, but I was not in a position to care. Eyes did not belong squirming beneath the skin; after everything else, seeing them open like that broke my limit.
“I’ll get you some water. Someone else can clean up later.”
I didn’t look up as she left, a loud thud sounding as the door shut behind her. I didn’t want to see that again. I pushed myself away from the pooling vomit, being careful to keep my gaze down to avoid the shelves; there was no way I could bear the sight that was waiting for me there.
“Will I end up like that? Like some kind of freak?” For simple lack of an alternative, I questioned the dark god. I suspect this all amused them.
It is a choice you will make. My boons are more effective when wielded appropriately.
“I don’t want to.”
For now.
Before I could respond, I heard the door open as Nightingale returned.
“Here, this is for you.”
Without looking, I reached out my hand to accept the water bottle.
She sighed, “I’ve closed them, by the way. You can look at me again.”
I didn’t, and she placed the bottle in my hand. I opened it, sipped a mouthful of water, gargled, and then spit the contents straight onto the floor. At this point, I was beyond caring about the room’s cleanliness. I repeated this process a couple times, and then drank a bit to clear my throat. The rest I poured over my hands to rinse them and cupped a little to wipe my face. I glanced at the empty bottle, and haphazardly tossed it to a corner of the room, drying my hands on my skirt before taking a deep breath and looking back over to Nightingale. Her skin was clear and beautiful, betraying no indication of having split open to watch me mere minutes ago. The eyes on the walls still followed my every movement, but I tried not to focus on them.
“Why would you do that to yourself?” I asked. I almost felt betrayed. That the one person I was being lead to trust would disfigure themself and knowingly terrorize me with it.
“Necessity” she said, resolutely staring straight back at me. “I’m sure you’ve never seen magical girls fight, but we’re all like this. The experienced ones, at least. Those of us who care to live.” I stepped back, not sure how to respond, and she sighed. “Look, it’s not as bad as you think. You get used to it.”
That was not reassuring, and I definitely didn’t plan on getting used to it, but I dropped the issue for now. I was still stuck in hostile territory until we finished whatever I was here for.
“So what’s next?” I asked.
“Grab your wand. We need to make sure you know how to use it.” She pointed to a spot on the floor where I had left the eyeball wand. Fortunately, it wasn’t lying in the puke puddle, so I strolled over picked it up, gripping as close to the base as possible. “Alright, now aim it at the floor. Away from us. And then channel energy through the rod. It should fire.”
I looked at her. “I’m supposed to what with it?”
“It’s magic, there’s no complicated rules to follow. Just believe that you’re sending some kind of mystical energy down your arm and through the wand. It works.”
If it weren’t for the voice in my head, I’d think she was insane. Actually, that’s not conditional, she is insane, but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong about this. So I pointed the eye to the far end of the room and acted like I was four years old again, when I thought focusing really, really hard on my hand could let me cast magic spells. Turns out I had been right, because that’s exactly what happened. I felt the silver warm in my hand and immediately a pure beam of light shot out of the eye. I staggered back in surprise and it stopped.
“Focus” Nightingale said. “It’s not hard, but you still need maintain that feeling.”
So I breathed in, pointed the wand again, and shot another beam. This time, I was prepared for it and held the rod steady. The laser was small, maybe inch thick, but it was dangerous. The ground where it touched rapidly sizzled, melted, and evaporated, leaving no trace behind. I stopped the beam and checked; already there was a sizable hole in the floor. Eerily, a random half of the eyes seemed to be looking as well, while the rest continued to watch me. I turned to Nightingale and she nodded her head.
“Good, now we can put you to the test.”
“What do you mean?” Was this not the test? I could use magic.
“We’re going to have you fight a robot.”
I froze and looked at Nightingale, her face was dead serious.
“No. No no no. I’m not ready for that. I haven’t been trained for it. I don’t know how fight, let alone against a robot.” Those things were made to kill.
“You have a magical laser capable of disintegrating solid stone. That’s more than enough.”
Do you doubt my power, maiden? Mere metal is no threat.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Nightingale gestured for me to follow and started walking out of the room, but I shrunk back. I couldn’t do this. She turned around, sighed, and walked back over to me.
“You’ll be fine. Come.”
I didn’t move.
She grabbed my left hand and tugged. “Come on. Don’t you trust me?”
Cold seeped in from her touch, and I stared back.
“Ravensong, you can’t avoid this. You’ll have to fight eventually, so better to practice now.”
That wasn’t my name. I’m Rebecca. I didn’t want to be called anything else.
“Alright, final chance. Come along, or I’ll have to do things the hard way.”
I tried to pull away, but her grip didn’t move.
“Fine, then we’ll do it like this.”
Her eyes opened, all of them, and she yanked my arm towards her. I lost balance, falling forward and slamming into the floor. It hurt, and I screamed out as she dragged me across the rough stones. I desperately swung my free arm and tried to point my wand at her, but without turning she stomped it down with her foot and I cried out again. She bent down and effortlessly pried the wand out of my hand before continuing her march towards the door. She threw it open and dragged my down the hallway, kicking out and screaming to no avail. I desperately tried to grab at her leg, but she simply kicked my hand away and kept walking. She made a turn left, and we soon arrived at a metal door on the right side of the hallway.
“We’re here. I’m going to throw you in there, give you your wand back, and you’re going to break that thing. I went through a lot of trouble capturing it, so don’t make this all go to waste.”
“NO!” I yelled, pleading with all my might. “Don’t do this to me! Please! I can’t do it! I’ll die in there!”
“You don’t even know what that means.”
And with that, she flung the door open, tossed me in, silver rod clinking to my side, and slammed it shut. I pounded on the heavy metal, skin screaming and bones shaking, but it was useless. I grabbed my wand off the ground and pointed it at the door, but before I could fire I heard a whirring sound behind me. Metal scraped against metal, and something moved in the back of the dark room. I whipped around, wand raised, and two piercing red dots shone back at me.
Eight mechanical legs, with rounded ends and jagged metal edges, extended to lift its heavy carapace off the ground. It looked almost like a massive crab, with a circular body that stood up to my waist in height. Two long arms jutted out of its sides, ending in deadly sharp claws. They rapidly clicked together, short blue flames briefly sputtering from the one on its left, while on the right a serrated sawblade protruded and started to intermittently spin with a grating whine. The main body was smooth, though speckled with dirt and a couple fist sized holes burned precisely through its back.
That is your enemy. A soulless chunk of metal. Destroy it.
The machine rushed me, legs working in rhythmic unison, and I fired my laser in panic. The room lit up and the metal chassis reflected a menacing shine. A spot on its front began to melt, but not quickly enough as the robot drew closer. I ran to the right as it approached, barely dodging in time as its claw swiped the air behind me. The robot slammed into the door, metal groaning and ringing out as it staggered back and adjusted, turning towards me again.
The legs are weak. Obliterate them.
Listening to the god, I aimed my wand at the front left leg and fired. The beam quickly melted through and the robot stumbled, but soon regained balanced and continued its advance towards me. Now a corner with my back against the wall, I ran to the right again, but my foot caught against something and I stumbled. Was this room being used for storage? I quickly tried to regain my balance and create distance, but before I could get away the robots arm caught me. I screamed as servos whirred and the sharp claw dug into my flesh. Then, heat flashed and my skin began to burn. I yelled out and swung my body around, using my right hand to jam my wand’s squishy end directly into the robots arm, and shot out a beam. Metal melted and wires sputtered as the claws grip loosened and I dragged my arm out of its grasp, ignoring the feeling of steel scraping against my skin. Blood dripped from the gashes and there was a disturbing singe mark in the center.
I dashed back as the robot finished turning towards me, unable to grab me with its right arm. It charged again, left arm limply dragging across the floor and sending sparks flying. I fired a laser, melting another leg off its left side, and then dodged out of the way. The robot was slowing down, but this time it turned to angle its right side toward me, opposite legs spread out in the back and close arm outstretched. I shuddered with the thought of what that vicious sawblade would do if it caught me. I aimed for one of the closer legs and circled around to the right again. The robot stumbled as my target leg melted off, and I took the opportunity to melt another one off its exposed left side. It struggled to stay upright, shifting to try and face me again, but I just kept circling and took out its last left leg.
“It… just kept charging straight at me, like it wasn’t learning from its mistakes. Is that normal?”
You face scrap metal. It cannot think. Finish this farce.
So I did. The robot was unconcerned with its crippled state, trying to drag its weight around with the remaining legs on its right side to face me again, but it was too slow to be worth my concern. I simply fired a laser straight through its center, and maintained the beam until all movement stopped. I stared for a second, confirming that I had won, and then dropped to the ground in relief and cried. A moment later, the door swung open and Nightingale walked in.
“Good work. I said you could do it.” She looked me over, then noticed my arm and winced. “Oh.” She knelt down next to me and inspected the wound. I flinched away, but she ignored it and remained focused on the burn. “Sorry. That’s not too bad though. Just needs a little first aid and a prayer. Won’t even scar.”
I didn’t know how to respond. Nightingale was being kind again, but I now knew that she had another side. That she could be violent if she wanted, and I would be powerless to stop her.
I slowly plodded behind her as we headed back to the eye room. It was still an unnerving sight inside, and I hesitated to enter, but I lacked the energy or will to resist. Nightingale stepped out briefly to get more water, something to wash the cuts and cool the burn with, and I was left with a thousand eyeballs watching my every movement.
“Lord Shiquoth, would you be gracious enough to heal my wound?”
The mark of your mistake. I will consider it.
From an evil god of suffering, that was probably the most generous response I could expect. Nightingale returned, and poured cold water over my arm; it stung, but it was somewhat comforting to see the blood wash away. She walked over to the table, carefully avoiding the vomit on the floor, to grab the poultice and pulled another bandage wrap out of the bag. She finished dressing my wound, and then gave it a light pat.
“There” she said, “all better.”
“Thanks.” I mumbled out. I still blamed her, of course, for throwing me unprepared into a dark room full of obstacles together with a murderous machine. But if I wanted to keep the nice Nightingale around, I didn’t know if I could say that.
“So, you’ve survived your first fight. This might sound callous, considering…” she looked at my arm, “but it probably wasn’t as bad as you expected.”
I hesitated, but thought about it, and then nodded. I was alive, and if I hadn’t tripped, I might have even made it out unharmed.
“Don’t let it get to your head, of course. These things are dangerous, and that one was specialized for scavenging, not combat, so always stay alert. But from now on, you’re not likely to deal with close quarters, and considering our range that’s a big advantage.”
That… was certainly true. Fighting outside, I would be able to fire lasers from a distance and take out robots before they had a chance to reach me. I didn’t know how much more dangerous the combat versions were, but maybe I could handle them. Maybe.
“So” Nightingale clapped her hands together and gestured towards me, “it’s time for magical girl questions. What do you have for me?”