"Brat," the Shaman said, her eyes still trained in the direction of the hurricane. "Glad to see my lessons weren't for nothing."
"Could have at least left me with a syllabus," I complained, happy not to be having to scream over the wind.
From the position at the center of the tower I could see the three circles Dyonte had mentioned. Each wore colored sashes in bright shades to be distinguishable despite the rain. A golden yellow for the Life Attuned fae and satyrs with reflective white and blue for the elves and merfolk respectively. They were responding only every few moments, sending counter currents of wind or sleet to keep the elementals from growing too organized but not even aiming to disperse them as they'd been doing over the last few days.
A snort from Sharon drew my attention back to the woman. She wore a simple dress with a wide belt secured around her waist. Pouches hung from the belt, clearly holding more than her spare change if the various scars on the leather were any indication. Her staff was held in one hand while a strange bracelet of thick vines rested on her lap. With a start, I realized hidden under the surface was the sliver of Mana Shard she'd been simultaneously babying and using as bait. Fievil prodded me and the Totem manifested with my agreement.
The mole was leaps and bounds more solid than even a few days prior. My growth had been astronomic, especially considering my Level, but the Totem had gone from nothing more than a hazy apparition to a proper Totem. The feelers on his face ran over the shoulder of my armor before Fievil plopped onto Blobby's bulk like it was a beanbag. The Shaman raised an eyebrow, and her two Totems manifested from her staff. The hawk and hippocampi floated over to Fievil, curiosity in their eyes. Compared to the two ephemeral creatures, Fievil was nothing more than a grease painting, but the mole didn't let that affect how it threw his nose up and sniffed dismissively.
"It seems I was right. You are more a 'learn by doing' type. To think you surpassed Sargon after only a day of training. I must be the best teacher around!"
"I spent half of our time together laid out," I replied flatly, and I scowled when the old woman just cackled in response. I gave her a solid thirty seconds of laughter before I broached the more serious topic. We weren't up on the weather tower for funsies, after all. "I was told the hurricane would be here at any moment."
Sharon sighed deeply, getting herself under control, before turning to face the eyewall of the hurricane. "That's right. Nothing much we can do now but wait. Before you ask me, because I can read it on your posture and the fact that you are already armed, I don't expect you to fight Eurus directly. I will do that. However, they bring... sycophants. Those looking for a taste of the Anemoi's essence, lets say."
"So they can mate," I said, speaking plainly.
"Yeah, so they can mate," Sharon conceded. "Big bastard that they are, they have their pick of the elementals. This one has a rather vicious streak, at least compared to its siblings. The 'rain-bringer'."
"You waited until now to give me the Greek lesson? I can't say that it surprises me that a creature based on those folks is trailed by others just for their magnificence."
"Educated, but rude. Didn't your parent's teach you manners?" Sharon snapped, clearly irritated.
"My parents are dead," I growled, glaring at the woman. The mood in our little bubble took a turn as Fievil let out a low hiss in the direction of the elder Totems and Blobby churned between stone and slime.
"Bah," Sharon groaned, thwacking her Totems before they did something regrettable and sending them back into the Staff of Storm Ruling. "That one is on me. Pushed a tad far. It becomes difficult to think about others outside of your family as you grow older. I'm sorry."
I released my fists, sand falling to the ground from where I'd pulverized the stone gauntlet of my palms. With a mental prod, I had Fievil return to the axe-hammer and I ran my hand over Blobby to settle the slime. Anger churned in my gut, but it was true Sharon had said it as an off-hand comment rather than a pointed jab. She'd already apologized, sincerely at that as far as I could tell, so it wouldn't do to get too riled up. Unfortunately, it was yet another reminder that a casual friendship between the Shaman and I was unlikely, as much as we'd come to understand each other in a short time.
"Go on. What else were you going to say about Eurus?" I said after a few seconds.
"They'll respond to a challenge. Let me engage them first, or they'll take you attacking their entourage as the declaration. You are strong, ridiculously so for the pup that you are, but the Anemoi don't play. They are alien. Their minds do not follow the confines of humans or beasts."
"I have some experience with Entities like that," I said evenly, glancing back towards the Crystal Wards I could see to the north of the weather tower.
"Good. The next thing is that you'll be in charge of protecting this youngling here," Sharon said, raising up the band of vines holding the Air Mana Shard sliver. "That hunk of rock you call a Totem home will scare away rather than draw in the Anemoi's entourage. Polar opposites in the alignment spectrum that most are."
I couldn't help but frown as I glanced at the seemingly mundane bracelet. If it wasn't for the tiny Arcane Sink I could see around the item I would have thought it wasn't much of anything. I didn't exactly feel like I had the bandwidth to be worried about protecting the Shard while also dealing with skyborne enemies. My magical options were limited as it were. However, the Shaman wasn't wrong. Especially with the juicier target that was her Shard Staff, how could Fievil compare?
"Does it have a name?" I asked, crouching down when the woman passed the bracelet over.
Fievil immediately hissed his displeasure, sending me a visual of throwing a steel cage around the Shard before wrapping it in reflective tape and then dropping it into a mail carrier box-- as if any of those still existed-- so that the thing would be shipped to the opposite side of the world from it. Be nice. Is this really how you should treat your junior? Nurturing! You've seen how I deal with teaching people. The Totem was still less than pleased, but it grumbled as it unwrapped the visual while keeping it in a cage. Progress, I suppose.
"No. Hawk wasn't the most creative name at the time either, but I also didn't know they would develop personalities either. They are too stubborn at this point to let me give them actual names," Sharon provided. "They are practically people if you--"
The old woman paused, jumping to her feet with an agility that beguiled her age. Her knuckles were white on the hand grasping her staff and I saw the white and blue light within stir. She spun up a spell chain with a casual twirl of her staff, letting her intent fill it more than any true structure. I didn’t know what she was doing, but I could tell she was offloading the actual creation onto her Staff, specifically the Air Shard. "Eurus comes. Prepare defensive efforts. Healing circle, hunker down. The rain is here."
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Sharon's voice echoed through with enough force to pop her isolation bubble, letting the storm flow back into the haven she'd created. Her posture was stiff as she glared at the incoming clouds. When I glanced at the gold sashed defenders creating bark-coated defenses, I decided to put my finger on that particular scale. After all, defense was my specialty.
"How much weight can this platform take?" I asked Sharon, my eyes flicking between the woman, the hurricane and the tower top.
"Tons," she said evenly, her voice still augmented. "But if the top weighs too much then the center of gravity that allows it to sway rather than snap will get out of bounds. Let's say three tons."
"I can work with that," I said, turning my back to the storm. Immediately a chill ran down my spine, as if a predator was breathing down my neck and I'd opted to sacrifice myself to them. I snapped around, searching for the source of the sensation. Clouds, rain, lightning... It all looks to be the same. What-- Then I saw.
Where before the eyewall of the hurricane looked like nothing more than an intimidating stretch of condensed water, it had taken on features. A radial pattern of lightning, an elliptical swirl of storm winds that cycled from the ground up into the sky out of sight of the clouds. The lack of elementals within this pattern only served to highlight something was different as an eye the size of the hurricane superimposed itself with each flash of light like a negative hiding within reality. As the eye grew more defined the longer I looked, the hurricane became highlighted in the deepest golden outline I'd seen from the Implant. The whole damn thing was bolded, showing how much importance the Implant was giving the creature manifesting before us.
"They have a Blessing of Magic," I whispered, breathless in a way the storm alone hadn't been able to cause. It certainly had the size to match the Influence of an Entity like Tec or Wec.
"That little knick knack in your head tell you that?" Sharon asked, turning back to me with curiosity in her voice for the first time.
"It also tells me it's at the 8th Threshold," I said, not bothering to mention Eurus' Attunement or Refinement. The way in which those two things were presented was... obvious.
"Ha! And here I've been thinking this cheeky bastard was much higher. Maybe it will be worth it to smack them down a peg since I've got you lending a hand," Sharon cackled.
She cracked her neck, walking closer to the edge of the tower as if the dozen feet would make a difference against something that spanned hundreds of miles. That the center of such a thing seemed to be aiming for our little tower was more than a little humbling. You can only do what you can, Ron. Think about this logically. Obviously the single Anemoi doesn't have the power to create that monstrosity on its own, even if it does have a high level and an area of Influence. Just like the leading bands of the storm, it's the frolicking of their brethren that lends power to the hurricane. The longer it continues, the stronger it gets... unless it clashes against one cantankerous old lady with enough force to leave it running for greener pastures. You aren't alone, just do your part.
My eyes drifted down to the woven bracelet in my hand. With only a hint of hesitation, I slipped it over my left arm and reshaped
"You better be ready to earn your keep," I told the axe-hammer. He continued complaining, but I could feel an invisible doorway in my soul swing open as I turned to the meager fortifications the Life Attuned had been able to form atop the weather tower. They were sturdy, to be sure, but not only were they all lower Quotient than me, their Gifts were meant for regeneration and manipulation rather than reinforcements.
The earth rose and formed three circular embankments around the groups of defenders. More than one jumped in surprise at the appearance of the dirt but the spell chains hovering in the air and around my axe-hammer spoke for themselves as to the source. I spent a good twenty seconds raising their cover four feet and hardening it even more than a normal
Unfortunately, as good as building defenses and seeing the confidence rise in the Nash Circles made me feel... That wasn't the job I was there for.
Sharon was already staring daggers at the incoming storm and I made my way to stand beside her. A smaller bubble formed around us as she spoke, her eyes flicking to the defenses I'd added. If I hadn't been watching I would have missed it, but the wrinkles on her brow softened just a smidge. "Thank you. As ready as they are, I don't like to see my kin torn to ribbons."
"That rain is coming, I presume?"
"Any minute. I was going to have to spend some energy protecting us from the outer bands of the hurricane but with your barriers I think I'll be able to concentrate on Eurus. Think those will last under assault?" The Shaman asked, her voice hopeful.
"Fifty-fifty if that thing in front of us has anything to say about it, but I'll keep them in one piece until we engage. Defense is my thing, at least."
"Ah, right. The Vanguard," Sharon said, returning her glare to Eurus. "You really are what I hoped Sargon would be."
"A compliment... from you? I'll take it," I huffed, crossing my arms and turning to the storm when something pinged off my greaves. Then another. The constant patter of rain had gone to the background of my perception even with vibrosense's input. The new note added to the hurricane's symphony was discordant. Jagged scrapes in uneven sizes and irregular beats started to strike the weather tower from the east.
The defenders immediately abandoned their attempts at disruption to hunker down. The knuckle size jagged shards of ice quickly grew to finger length, then hand width until every so often arm long vicious icicles were peppering the tower. While the living reinforcement of the Nash couldn't take the blows as well as my stone barriers, they had a key factor that made it even possible not to be whittled down by the forces of nature: regeneration.
Every time a shard embedded in the wood, it got pushed out and the wound sealed. Stone endured, but I was forced to repair my defenses and protect myself while outside of Sharon's bubble. There was something to be said about adaptive versus static emplacements. While embroiled in keeping the other Nash safe for as long as possible, I even lost sight of the enemy until Sharon called me back... By diverting a bolt of lightning six inches to the right of my foot.
I was ready to give her the what-for when I watched her divert another three back in the direction of the clouds and a fourth down to the earth below. Five elementals that could hardly be compared to the ones I'd been fighting at the Outpost blazed with power within the storm. They each surrounded a glowing outline of light hovering in the center of the hurricane's eye. As if they could sense our intentions, Eurus' elementals rushed forward like a flying tidal wave.
The entourage for the Anemoi had arrived.