Bullets flew past Prism’s head as he ran through the forest. He'd momentarily hid behind trees for cover, but found that trees provided no safety from his attackers' powerful rounds. The brown pine needles at his feet at least provided a bit of comfort for his hurried steps. He’d been avoiding the special-class mercenary group that was assigned to neutralize him for several hours while he made his way to retrieve his mission's target higher up on a mountain that neighbored Kyero Mountain.
The air started to become cold as he approached the snowy mountaintop where his objective awaited him. He'd been sparse with his magic for fear that his pursuers would use the opportunity to shoot him while he cast spells or actively gathered mana.
"Damn!" Prism shouted when he realized that the mercenaries had him surrounded.
Though they wore masks, Prism had sensed the presence of Lorias and Srell within the group. The others within the group were a mystery to Prism, but he knew that they were all skilled and dauntless. And as they closed in on him, Prism knew that he would need to do something that they'd never expect. And it would require a great deal of magic.
Prism took off running down into a nearby creek that was obscured by a tangle of roots and brush. The sound of his steps across the wet rocky surface was silenced by magic, but that hadn't seemed to stop the mercenaries from tracking him. His eyes began to glow blue as he started to rhythmically move his hands and arms in various gestures and shapes. With each motion of his hands, he felt himself become lighter, and his running become easier. A bluish circle of light began to appear on the side of his bald head involuntarily. Prism hoped that the display wouldn't get him shot.
He ran faster and faster, leaping over downed trees and rocky outcrops that were in his path. He started to hear and feel the bullets once again streak by him, but the wind magic he was conjuring caused the projectiles to be deflected away from him. With one last graceful movement of his arms, blue light streamed from the glowing ring on the side of Prism's head and from his eyes. He stretched his arms out wide to his sides and began running with all his might. It only took a few strides for Prism's feet to leave the ground, and for him to take flight into the air below the treetops.
"Is he..." One of the mercenaries said while dropping his weapon's sight away from his eye.
"Just keep firing!" Srell yelled to his astonished teammate.
Their attempts to hit Prism were in vain as he disappeared above the trees and up into the sky above the mountain forest. Prism felt the wind carrying him higher and higher as he guided the currents that surged around him. The air around him quickly became colder when he flew towards the summit, leaving the mercenaries far behind him.
"Crap!" Srell cursed while he shoved his teammate away from him.
"We should get to the nearest supply depot. There should be at least two jetpacks there." Lorias said calmly over the radio ear clasps that the mercenaries wore. Lorias rested his arms on the stock of his rifle. "Him being able to fly isn't completely unexpected." Lorias added.
"Everything's going according to Bighead's projections yet again." Srell said into his radio with an irritated shake of his head.
"Let's get going, then. I'd hate for us to divert too much from our battle plans." Lorias said with a nod of his head towards the supply depot a kilometer away. Srell and the other scattered mercenaries nodded in agreement, and the group as a whole made their way further up the mountain.
****
It didn't take long before Prism could no longer bear the strain of flying through the arctic conditions atop the mountain. Strong, frigid winds that he couldn't gain control of began to buffet him about the air, eventually throwing him down onto the snowy ground just as he conjured a cushion of air to break his fall. Prism used what little mana he had left to surround himself with an aura of warmth so that he wouldn't freeze to death upon the glacier that he found himself upon.
He sat down cross-legged on the hard snow patch that surrounded him, and raised his arms so that his palms were facing the sky. He controlled his breathing until it became deep and rhythmic. Soon the icy wind began to spin around him, glowing with magical power that he teased out of the glacial environment. The power that he drew from the wind and ice quickly restored the mana that he'd spent flying up to the mountaintop. The wind died down, revealing a mostly white landscape that sloped upwards toward a rocky peak.
"Phew..."
Prism exhaled before he got up from the snow and stood tall, ready to make his final trek to his target. He sprinted up the incline with ease, his body still lightened by the wind magic that had allowed him to fly. He started to leap from one rocky outcrop to another, easily clearing a dozen meters with each step. In a matter of minutes, Prism found himself at the blackish peak of the mountain, standing at the previously-hidden entrance to a cave.
Prism peered into the cave's entrance, and was taken aback by the beauty of what he'd discovered. The cave's roof and walls was completely covered in ice that glittered with a variety of colors as Prism walked within it. The red light from his warming aura danced across the surface of the ice walls, illuminating Prism's path as he began to make his way deeper into the ice cave.
"It shouldn't be too much farther in..." Prism said to himself after he'd walked for ten minutes down into an increasingly narrow stairway-like corridor.
After Prism squeezed through a tight opening of jagged ice and rock, he found himself in a massive room that reminded him of the shooting range he'd been in the previous day. The ice on the room's ceiling and far-off walls was patterned like a carton of eggs. The pattern of the ice seemed too uniform to be natural, but Prism had seen naturally-occurring sights even more geometrically-stunning in his travels. As he walked around, Prism began to see various pieces of Red Wolves equipment throughout the room.
Extensive lighting, generators, and an assortment of other machinery were scattered about the cathedral-like cavern. Prism magically expanded his perception to check if there were any Red Wolves hiding in the room, but he couldn’t sense anyone else. He did, however, find his mission target on the opposite side of the cavern, sitting on a steel work table amongst other knick-knacks and tools. He walked carefully over to retrieve the object that Dr. Liam had tasked him with finding that morning; a data-storage device in the shape of a golden Red Wolves medallion. The shiny medallion was no larger than Prism's palm.
When Prism picked up the medallion, he heard an oddly-familiar sound of whirring at his back. He reflexively turned around to see a dozen roundrones flying towards him. Prism clutched the medallion in his right hand while raising his left hand up at the approaching spherical drones. Prism channeled lightning magic into his left hand, causing it to glow bright red with increasing intensity. But when he shot off a bolt of lightning that would have chained between the machines to destroy them, the roundrones scattered and began to fly wildly around Prism instead.
"Tricky old man..." Prism said to himself once he realized that Gnapp must've updated his inventions after seeing how easily Prism had destroyed them the day prior.
Prism's eyes tried to follow the roundrones that buzzed around him, but they moved too quickly and chaotically. Prism brought his glowing left hand close to his head and closed his eyes. A red circle of light appeared on the back of his shining left hand. When the circle's light matched the brightness of his left hand, Prism caused the circle to expand until it was large enough to encircle him. He overlaid the circle atop the general flight-path of the roundrones that flew in a circle around him. When Prism saw that the machines did not move away when he caused his magical circle to hover amongst them, he closed his shining red left hand into a fist. Tendrils of red electricity erupted from the shining red circle, destroying the roundrones in the process.
Prism wasted no time and began running out of the room to escape the ice caves before more roundrones could appear. He sent forth a wave of intense heat from his left hand when he came to the room's narrow entry point. Enough of the entrance's icy wall melted away to give Prism easy access to the step-like corridor that he'd used to get to the ice cave's large room.
He moved as quickly as he could up through the ice cave to return to the glacial mountain summit. But when he came to the sun-lit mouth of ice cave, Prism was met by a dozen more roundrones at his rear that flew up from the room that he'd escaped.
When Prism raised his left hand to begin casting another complex spell to destroy all of them, the roundrones fired sharp projectiles at him before he could even make a spell circle. A few of the projectiles struck Prism's arms and shoulders, passing cleanly through his clothing and flesh. Prism screamed in pain as he began to bleed.
He could barely believe that the roundrones had actually injured him. Faced with the reality that he didn't know what the roundrones were fully capable of anymore, Prism knew that he couldn't stand back and patiently deal with them like he'd done previously.
As the tricky machines whirred towards him at alarming speed, Prism leapt back several meters to keep away from them while magically-heightening his senses. His right eye continued to glow red while his left eye suddenly flashed with blue light. When his feet touched the cave floor again, Prism saw the golden filigree roundrones open small holes on their complex surfaces.
Before they could fire their sharpened bullets, Prism flicked his left hand towards them, sending forth a pulse of bluish-red energy that caused the roundrones to shake violently in the air. The spherical drones soon fell to the ground and began slowly rolling around due to the sudden malfunction. Unsure if the machines could repair themselves, Prism sent a bolt of chain lightning at the roundrones to destroy them, just to be sure.
His wounds ached as he continued to bleed onto the rocks at his feet. Prism didn't have time to gather a large enough amount of mana to completely heal himself, so he instead conjured small bursts of intense heat to cauterize his wounds. He then willed his body to close the internal injuries he'd suffered to prevent internal bleeding, going so far as to magically numb himself to the pain. Prism's eyes continued to glow two different colors; red and blue. He figured that he'd need a wider variety of tools to face whatever he'd find once he left the cave.
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After breathing a sigh of relief, Prism ran out of the ice cave and back onto the blindingly-white glacier. The midday sun shined on the snowy ground, causing a glare that would hurt the eyes of most creatures. Prism wished that he could admire the stunning view from the mouth of the ice cave, atop the tall mountain that was surrounded by billowy white clouds that obscured a view of the summer taiga below. But he trudged on; sure that his live combat test had entered its most dangerous phase.
Prism leapt down from the ledge of the rocky summit and began to slide down the hard mix of glacial ice and old snow. He imbued his black leatherine boots with ice magic to make the sliding smooth and controllable. The boots glowed light blue, sending out bluish-sliver sparks as Prism made his way down the glacier like a seasoned skier. But he suddenly dug his boots into the snow to stop himself when he sensed a fast-approaching presence.
"They're in the air!?" Prism said aloud, confused by what he was sensing on the wind a few dozen meters away.
Prism didn't have to wait long before he heard and saw Lorias and Srell flying through the air using jetpacks that they'd retrieved from the supply depot much further down on the mountain. The jetpacks and their attached harnesses were sleek in their design, allowing Srell and Lorias to simply wear pilot helmets and red flight suits. Prism couldn't see the two mercenaries using any sort of hand controls for their jetpacks. He figured that they must have some sort of brain-computer interface to control their jetpacks, an advanced technology that Prism had very rarely seen during his extraplanetary travels.
But to his further dismay, Prism saw that they were both accompanied by over twenty roundrones. Prism couldn't fathom how Gnapp could produce so many of the highly-complex machines, but he pushed that question from his mind so that he could figure out how to evade the oncoming assault.
Prism tucked the medallion into his pocket and then pointed out his left forefinger to his side a short distance from his body. A glowing blue circle appeared and hovered in front of his finger. He then did the same with his right forefinger, but instead conjured a red circle of light from it. As projectiles began to rain from the sky, Prism started to slide down the icy sloped glacier again. He raised his left hand in front of him and caused the blue spell circle to conjure a sphere of wind that surrounded his body.
The sharp bullets that made contact with the sphere were harmlessly pulled away from his body and shot away from Prism instead. The sphere moved with him, whipping up a cloud of mist and snow that obscured him from his aerial attackers. Prism could still see clearly, giving him a distinct advantage. He was also careful to control the flow of snow and wind around him so that he wouldn’t trigger an avalanche that would likely destroy the Red Wolves facilities lower on the mountainside.
“Damn, he’s making a blizzard or something! I can’t tell where he even is!” Srell yelled over his radio.
“Stay calm. We’ll just have to use our howlers.” Lorias said coolly.
“You’re crazy! That’ll trigger a freakin’ avalanche, or worse!” Srell continued to yell.
“We’re supposed to test his limits. We wouldn’t have been given the howlers if we weren’t meant to use them. Just another thing for magical boy to fix…” Lorias explained in his typical matter-of-fact way while Srell hovered in the air several meters away.
“Whatever, then.” Srell said while loading his howler round into his highly-modified aerial rifle. He didn’t need much convincing, and he didn’t hear any of his superiors voice any dissent over what they also heard over the radio.
Srell took a deep breath and then held it in while he aimed at what he believed was the center of the cone of blizzard that trailed Prism. After a few intense seconds, Srell pulled the trigger of his rifle and watched the silvery round fly along the path he predicted would strike Prism. When he believed that the round had come close enough to its target, Srell pulled his rifle trigger again. The howler exploded before it could be deflected by Prism’s wind barrier, sending a tremendous amount of kinetic energy out in all directions. The familiar howling sound of the weapon echoed throughout the mountains and valleys that surrounded them.
Prism was thrown off of his feet and sent flying down the glacier. He was knocked unconscious by the blast, and his red spell circle dissipated as a result. He soon awoke when his body began to quickly and violently roll down the glacier towards the rockier area of the mountain. Prism used what remained of his mana to stop himself in midair before his exposed skin was torn away by the rough ground that he’d rolled along.
After a second of being suspended in the air, he returned his feet to solid ground. His black shirt and red jacket were torn to shreds, but his pants had somehow been largely unharmed. He was bleeding from various cuts and scrapes that he’d racked up, but he didn’t have the time or energy to care.
After checking his pocket to confirm that he still had the medallion, Prism looked up and saw that Srell and Lorias hadn’t missed a beat. They were still hot on his trail, flying several meters above the glacier and maintaining their sight of him. Prism was nearly clear of the glacier, but worried that the howler had caused enough damage to it to lead to its collapse. As if sensing his concern, Prism felt the earth beneath him rumble and shake.
“What were those guys thinking!?!?” Prism said angrily while looking up at them hovering menacingly above.
Liam had told Prism that the Red Wolves would be doing their best to kill him during the combat test, but Prism hadn’t thought they’d go so far as they had.
Prism waved his hand up at Srell and Lorias and then began pointing vigorously at the ground, hoping that they would understand that he needed to be left alone to stop the impending avalanche that they’d caused. Lorias started to load his own howler into his aerial rifle when he saw Prism’s panicked response.
“You can’t be serious!” Srell yelled over the radio when he saw what Lorias was about to do.
Lorias laughed and simply pointed his rifle at the sky. He then switched on an intercom feature that his jetpack had so that Prism could hear him.
“You have ten minutes. After that, we’re resuming hostilities.” Lorias’ voice blared throughout the glacier. He showed no concern that his booming voice could only make matters worse.
“Jerks” Prism cursed to himself as he began gathering as much mana as he could from his surroundings without making the quakes beneath his feet more terrifying.
Prism’s right eye stopped glowing red and flashed with a green light instead. His aura of heat dissipated, and he began to shiver from the cold. He stretched out his arms in front of him at an angle with his palms pointed at the ground. He saw cracks begin to form on the areas of exposed ice around him. He knew that he’d need to act even faster.
Green and blue light swirled around his hands as Prism weaved a series of naturalistic spells to heal the damage to both the earth and ice beneath him. A shining blue circle appeared in front of his left hand and a shining green circle appeared in front of his right hand. He began imbuing the magic circles with the spells he’d woven, making them the vaunted “spell circles” that he had been known for across many worlds.
When his spell circles were fully charged, Prism hurled them into the cracks that widened around him as the earth shook more and more viciously. Immediately afterwards, Prism could see a torrent of ice and snow begin to roll down the mountain dozens of kilometers further up the slope.
“Crap” Srell said to himself when he saw the avalanche make its way toward Prism. Srell and Lorias flew several meters higher to avoid the impending natural disaster.
Prism appeared unfazed by the quickly approaching avalanche. He brought his hands up into a prayer pose and closed his eyes while he remotely controlled the spell circles’ movement through the glacier. When they’d gone deep enough into the land, Prism closed his hands into fists and yelled loudly upon releasing his magical medicine to the wounded terrain.
Srell and Lorias watched Prism’s strange ritual from their lofty position. They were soon once again amazed when they saw blue and green light begin to stream from the cracks that had formed upon the surface of the glacier. It looked like an aurora was streaming beneath the mercenaries’ hovering feet.
The cracks began to close as the land’s quakes died down all around the area. Once the healing bluish-green light was trapped beneath the ice, it caused the glacier itself to glow once its cracks were sealed. A massive meters-long wall of glowing ice shot out of the ground several kilometers up the glacier from where Prism stood. The wall held back the avalanche as it slid into a narrow area of rock that marked the entrance to the mountains summit area.
Prism fell to one knee and began to hyperventilate. He had completely exhausted himself, and had done more than he thought was possible considering his still-reduced magical capacity.
“He actually stopped an avalanche…” Srell said over the radio, dumbfounded.
“And our time-out is nearly over.” Lorias said with a smile.
“Oh come on, we aren’t seriously going to kill him after he did all that, are we?” Srell asked pleadingly.
“Look at you, having a change of heart. I thought you wanted him dead? I’m sure Dr. Liam would love the opportunity to perform an autopsy. Maybe then Prism’s secrets will be revealed.” Lorias said. He spoke so playfully that he gave Srell the creeps.
“No, it wouldn’t be right. He’s done more than anyone could possibly do during a live combat exercise. He’s passed, in my book.” Srell said resolutely.
“You aren’t the one in charge of this test, Srell Abodot. Resume your assignment at the conclusion of Lorias’ temporary ceasefire or face the consequences.” Dr. Liam’s voice blared over the radio for Lorias and Srell to hear.
“Gah! I can’t believe Ursun is okay with this…” Srell said spitefully before relenting to Liam’s authority.
Srell had been a loyal member of the Red Wolves for over ten years. The thirty-year-old mercenary had no intention of disobeying his leadership, who’d almost never steered him wrong before. It was a strange time for all within his organization, but Srell did his best to keep the faith, even in the face of the absurdity he’d been witnessing. He’d never played too well with others, but even Srell was on his best behavior around his longtime friend Lorias, and while under the leadership of the well-respected Ursun.
“One more minute…” Lorias said ominously while aiming his howler-loaded rifle at Prism.
Prism had managed to calm himself down while the mercenaries above him argued. He was tired and injured, but he knew that he’d need to prove himself even further to eliminate any doubt as to his power.
Prism drank deep on the mana that flowed densely atop the glacier. He’d realized during his fight against the avalanche that he was atop a great convergence of mana, one of many that crisscrossed across the planet. The mass of mystical energy allowed him to temporarily use powerful magic freely while he was connected to it, and Prism took full advantage of that fact. He wouldn’t make a habit of using it, however, since doing so could destabilize the planet’s overall mana flow.
He healed his body in mere seconds, even going so far as to mend his clothing too. After causing his right eye to flash with a white light, he then imbued himself with a protective aura of golden light that would make him invulnerable to whatever the Red Wolves could throw at him. He made his body as light as a feather with an aura of wind, whipped up a gale around him, and then shot himself forward at the speed of sound. Fortunately, his residual magic safeguarded the glowing glacier from having another avalanche occur from the resulting sonic boom that Prism caused.
“Hah, no way!” Srell said excitedly over his radio when he saw a golden Prism fly down the mountain like a jet plane.
"His body shouldn't even survive breaking the sound barrier! And if he intends on landing down here...we'll all be killed by the impact! You must stop him!" Liam yelled hysterically into the radio.
“After him.” Lorias said firmly before putting his jetpack at full-speed to pursue Prism.
“If I have to.” Srell said lightheartedly as he and his accompanying roundrones followed after Lorias.
Prism flew over the treetops in an arc that would have him land at the foot of the mountain near his mission completion point. His final destination would be a small Red Wolves base. He’d done a few calculations before he launched himself, but he couldn’t be sure about what variables Srell and Lorias would introduce.
Prism knew that he’d run out of mana to sustain his powerful auras before long, so he at least planned his flight around that time constraint. His aura of invulnerability protected his body from the speeds he flew at. He would be cutting it close for it to last long enough to allow him to survive his landing.
Lorias and Srell tried their hardest to catch up with Prism, but he’d had too much of a head-start and was traveling too fast for their jetpacks. Lorias pushed his jetpack to its absolute limit until it began to leave a trail of white smoke a few seconds later. The smoke trail behind him had Srell flying blind until Srell flew above the plume. Lorias' jetpack began to shake so badly that he had to stop and resume a normal speed.
"We can't catch him, and we're too far away for our weapons to make contact. I recommend that you all evacuate and get as far away as you can." Lorias radioed the base camp. He was deathly serious, though he was unsure of how damaging Prism's landing would actually be.
"There's no time! He'll be here in 30 seconds!" Liam screamed over the radio. Srell couldn't help but snicker to himself.
"You'll all be fine." Srell said confidently over the radio.
The days events had turned Srell into a true believer in Prism's abilities, whether he understood them or not. Srell and Lorias could only watch as Prism zipped down the 4000-km tall mountain in only a minute. It would have taken the two mercenaries at least twenty minutes to make the trip down to their base.
"We're fine, somehow. He mitigated the force of the impact with his spooky-di-doo magic." Liam said over the radio in exasperation. It was as if he'd preferred to die in whatever blast he imagined Prism would cause. "He's walking towards our building now. All of you can report back to Pack Command HQ for debriefing." Liam said over the radio before cutting out of the broadcast channel entirely.
"Looks like its over." Lorias said over his radio to Srell on a private, direct channel.
"I'm flying back for as far as this thing can take me. Screw the fuel conservation rules. We've been running enough today." Srell said directly to Lorias through the radio.
"Sounds good to me. I'll take it easy. Don't want this thing blowing up on me." Lorias said to Srell.
Srell gave Lorias a nod and a wave before taking off towards Kyero Mountain with his complement of roundrones, which he controlled with his helmet's brain-computer interface. Lorias ran a quick diagnostic on his own jetpack before following Srell's flight-path at a leisurely speed.
When Srell and Lorias arrived at Pack Command HQ, they learned that Prism had passed his live combat test, and that he'd be officially recognized as a Red Wolves Contractor. And later that day, they would also learn that he'd be assigned to their Mercenary Special Forces team, RED-1, under the direct command of Ursun.
The Red Wolves would finally have the tool they needed to turn the tide of war.