The town of Yorsh was minuscule in comparison to Greenstone, which was in turn, small compared to Vitesse, the towers of flowers that dominated the skyline in Vitesse were truly impressive. The green-stone bridge that connected old city and the island at Greenstone was also truly impressive. Yorsh’s best attraction was the fountain in the town square, surrounded by squat buildings. The girls had gone around the market stalls that surrounded it and more than a few of the vendors once they realised the Mitchells were visitors had proudly pointed out the green stone fountain, they obviously didn’t realise how much of the special stone was used in the city as they were now a few weeks normal travel away from the port city named after the stone.
At the market stalls the girls had replenished their food, clearing out a few of the vendors making their day, they had the ability to store any food at the exact condition it was when it entered their storage. This meant that they cleared out ingredients for cooking and cooked food alike.
They had cleared out most of their money on buying fourth stage crystal from Charlie before heading back to the city. In the weeks since they had managed to earn themselves quite a lot of money already. Four active adventurers earning adventurer money and they all looted from their kills meant that they were always flush. Kyra went around the non-essential stalls, turning over trinkets and feeling cloth. The stall owners were nervous in front of such a beautiful and powerful bronze rank woman, confused why she would be interested in their non-magical wares. She bought a good selection, adding it to storage and moving on.
Lucy found a local bookstore and had a good peruse at what was on offer, a large selection of maps were present and she bought them all, knowing they could add them to Teddy’s mapping power, even if they were multiple maps of the same area with different interest points he could select and unselect layers on the interface to show relevant information.
After the book store Lucy visited the local smith. In such a small town he was a jack-of-all trades, beating metal and fixing enchantments. Wile Kyra looked over silks and rugs Lucy had a long chat with the man to see how he did things differently out here in the remote town, Greenstone still being their nearest city at a few weeks walk. They exchanged some tips and he gave her a book on survival enchantments. She insisted on paying him, and paying more than it was worth, along with that she bought some of his wares that he had put interesting enchantments on that she could reverse engineer using the table she had picked up from the magic society on their last trip to the city.
Lucy went out to the main square again to find at least three vendors following Kyra at a short distance wares in hand, they had realised she was pretty free with the cash and not that bothered what she bought. Lucy rolled her eyes and went and grabbed her by the elbow and steered her towards the town centre building.
When they took out the contract the Director and Deputy mentioned it would be good to hear from them as they were getting on to ensure it was going to plan. Such an expensive, dangerous and high target cargo had them worried. The girls found that the mayor of the town had a beat up old water link that was used for official business. They had negotiated some time on it to get word back and were fleeced for the time, a little bit ruthless but the girls weren’t too bothered, keen on not making a big splash they just accepted the charge and put it to the adventure society. When they had got into the chamber they saw the water rise and two barely distinguishable people stood in front of them with bits of water dashing out of them then being replaced. They now understood what a poorly maintained water link chamber was like.
They managed to recognise the Director but had no idea who the other woman was, and after the Director had explained they tried to remember the details of her face for the future but the connection made it difficult.
After their conversation they rushed back to the Serenity and relayed it back to the boys and they told them to get back straight away. Then soon after they were racing away from the town as fast as they could, at almost a right angle to where they needed to be going. All four Mitchells were in the wheelhouse.
“I just had a bad feeling about it you know? We made a lot of effort to make sure we were not being followed and being stealthy and now there’s some random woman on the call.” Teddy said.
“We didn’t mention what town we were in, all those water chambers look the same right?” Kyra said hope in her voice.
“Does anyone know anything about those water link chambers? Can they be traced?” Teddy asked the others, when he looked around there was a row of shaking heads of uncertainty.
“It’ll be fine.” James said, clapping him on the shoulder. “We now realise the error, in the future we wont make the same mistake again, we can leave notes in the towns to be delivered days after we leave, notes that go from one town to the next before they get to Greenstone, messengers to travel from non-water link towns to ones that are. We’ll manage”
Lucy looked at James with a raised eyebrow.
“Since when have you been so sneaky.”
“Well you never found where I hid the Christmas presents every year. I managed to get your ring size and propose with you none the wiser.” He said smugly.
“Sure you did…” Lucy replied, giving Kyra a knowing smile and nudging her elbow.
Teddy and Kyra got married first a few years before the others and Kyra and Lucy had been good friends and confidants for years before James got around to proposing. There was a good chance they had found evidence of ring choice or present ordering and gossiped about it.
“Either way if he managed to keep secrets before or if it’s something new he’s right.” Interrupting before James could take offence and argue back. “We need to put as much distance between us and the town as quickly as possible, we go back to shifts, you two get you heads down, I’ll get us as far as we can go through daylight then you guys can take it overnight again if you’re happy.”
James and Lucy bumped fists and headed to the back to go down the staircase to the lower decks, just before they got there Lucy remembered Kyra had something for her.
“K, did you have that rug you said you didn’t mind us having?”
“Sure, It’s in our room, its,” She paused for a moment. “It’s now unlocked, help yourself.”
Lucy held onto the rail on the steep staircase out of habit, her balance was better than it ever had been, superhuman compared to earth, the vehicle barely swayed as the magical suspension without the wheels took the force out of the ground and the turns. The rail was smooth and cold under her touch, the staircase elegantly curled around to the middle deck then a second staircase went down from the centre to the lower deck. The stairs were made of the same fourth stage crystal, they looked like blue steeled glass but gripped like they were covered in sandpaper. Turning left at the bottom deck she was on the drop deck at the back, a foot above the bottom of the vehicle which was only hovering three or four feet above the ground which was racing past at what must have been over a hundred miles an hour she guessed. The drop deck had storage on the walls that the buggies folded flat into, with room for them to deploy and be driven off the back. She made her way inside, popped her head into one of the spare rooms to see the lashed down cargo, still solidly secured and not going anywhere. She went forward to the two cabins at the front, she went into Teddy and Kyra’s and was shocked. The whole room was covered in silks, rugs, tapestries and paintings. Art work and decorations from everywhere they had been. There was a tapestry of Greenstone, the scene captured from the air that must have been expensive to be made by an essence user with a flight power in that area. She had a tapestry of a desert landscape she must have found of Boko, the town that James had visited near Charlie’s workshop in the desert. There was a painting depicting the giant towers of Vitesse, covered in flowers with colours so vibrant it was hard to look away. There was a small vase with a painting of the town Yorsh they had just left on her bedside table.
She found the rug that she was promised rolled up stacked against the bed. As she grabbed it she felt the silk sheets with the back of her knuckles. Her bronze rank sense made everything feel… more, the wind held more scents and her skin could feel the threads of her clothes. The bedsheets felt amazing and she made a note to ask Kyra where she got them from. She took the rug and headed into hers and James’ room.
The cabin was spartan by comparison, they had a few things out that weren’t in storage but they definitely couldn’t say they had decorated. The crystal room was made of shades of blue, the huge window that took up almost the entire of one wall was mirrored from the outside so it couldn’t be seen through and they could dim it from the outside to sleep through the day. To top it off there was a huge, hairy, beardy naked man lying on the bed in what he thought must’ve been a seductive pose. She shook her head in disappointment thinking of next door and thought she really needed to make the room prettier.
On the top deck Kyra and Teddy watched the Do Not Disturb signs go up over Jame and Lucy’s communication icons and rolled their eyes. They pushed the Serenity as fast as it would go, feeding it a bronze rank coin every few hours. They managed to kill a pair of monsters on the way just by smashing through them. The ‘defences’ of the ship at the moment mostly consisted of physical damage to anything which touched it. Teddy had to jump off and teleport back on board to loot both of the monsters. When night rolled around they felt the others auras coming out of their bedroom, the privacy on the room blocked outside spying in.
They sat on the front deck. The terrain had opened up to a stretch of salt flat. Teddy had throttled it back slightly but was unwilling to stop to eat so compromised, Lucky was back in the drivers seat ‘driving’ the Serenity, truth was Teddy had locked the controls in place and was keeping a close eye out front and knew he was fast enough to get to the controls if something came in front of them.
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They unwrapped sandwiches in paper, takeaways from the Schooner and had a bottle of ale each from the gastro pub in the heart of the city. They chatted and Teddy explained to James the sort of ground they had been covering during the day so he knew what to expect overnight. He had turned them back on track for the mission and they were making fantastic progress even with the lack of road, there was a main highway they were due to meet up with in a day or so when they deemed it safe enough to use. Interestingly the maps they had been given by Vincent for the trip almost exclusively used roads. They figured that was because the threat was normally so much lower.
Kyra and Teddy headed belowdeck with the setting sun, they peeked in on the potential bomb they were transporting, making sure it was all tucked in for the night then headed to bed.
………
Teddy and Kyra were woken up by a frantic message on the interface that even gave them a haptic buzz with the urgency.
“Well thats new.” Teddy muttered, suddenly fully alert from being deeply asleep.
[GET UP NOW!! GET UP HERE!!] James exclaimed on the group chat.
[TEDDY!! Jack-in-the-Box protocol. NOW!] Lucy wrote.
[I thought we were calling it missile silo protocol?!] Teddy complained, but he was already moving.
He was still in his battle robes and he flung the covers back and jumped up onto the bed, he crouched in a superhero pose and exploded upwards. The decking of the Serenity irised apart to allow him through both decks above him. He exploded into the air and took stock around him. Between Lucy’s aura of enhancing thinking and decision speed, his aura of slowing enemies directly attacking him, Eyes of the Swift his perception power which could slow down time to his perception he saw what was happening.
All around him in the air were bats, grotesquely muscled bats the size of Shetland ponies. Roughly two dozen all swarming and diving at the top deck. Lucy and James had closed the roof which was impenetrable to the bats but they hadn’t tested how long that would last, two bats were lying dead on the deck from the Serenity’s defensive resistance. Lucy was opening sections to fire missiles and James was flinging snakes into the dark to try and hit them while steering towards a shallow group of trees to make it harder for the bats. Teddy could see what looked like a little battery pack crudely attached to the outside of the bats with thick cables connecting to them. He saw Lechuza, almost paused mid dive, wings pinned back and talons leading but high enough to not be effected by what he was planning. His Eyes of the Swift power had a new trick now that it was bronze rank.
Ability: [Eyes of the swift] (Swift)
Special ability (perception, time)
Base cost: Moderate mana
Cool-down: Nil
Current rank: Bronze 2 (20%)
Effect (iron): When activated slows down movement to your perception to make real time appear slower.
Effect (bronze): Perception of movement around the user is even slower, almost stationary. Bronze rank effect now shows the ghost of future movement based on the current speed and trajectory of the surroundings of the user. This is not a precognitive ability and is only based on current perception of surroundings. User can use this effect to produce their own ‘ghost’ movement, plotting their next move to the limit of their perception. Effect increased with minor threshold advancement.
He saw that the move he planned had Lechuza outside the blast radius then used his new armour for the first time.
He hadn’t known what to think of the bracers from Hero, everyone else had something very personalised to themselves, Lucy’s wand holster, James’ storage pouch to not have to rely on animals in inconvenient places (Teddy had seen a mouse in the pouch and could swear his brothers ‘princess’ power worked from inside the pocket) and Kyra got magical divine jewellery, nothing suited her more. The bracers were just good armour to Teddy but he realised that with his speed they were incredibly versatile. Which the strength of the armour made by a god he would rely on them to block almost any attack from bronze rank and a lot from silver.
He had thought of this move from the first time he had read the description, if he had time he would have winced at what his brother would say, he hadn’t told him about the move and he hadn’t asked to see the description of the item yet.
Item: [Bracers of Defiance] (bronze rank, legendary) [TOUCHED BY DIVINITY]
A personal gift from a deity. Hand crafted to be personalised to the wearer.
Effect: The wearer may bring the bracers to bare against physical and magical attacks. When brought together the bracers form a shield of force in front of the wearer to block incoming attacks, when struck together enemies will feel the force of defiance. Lesser magical attacks may be absorbed through one bracer and returned from the other.
James had glanced and read the description enough to comment it was ironic a god was giving him a gift of defiance and moved on.
Teddy was in a still world, frozen in mid air, his superhero crouch had turned into a superhero jump. He had one leg straight and the other slightly bent, both feet had toes pointed down, his robes billowed around him and the apex of his jump and arms akimbo. He planned his next move and the march of time resumed.
Quicker than the eye could follow he smashed his forearms in front of him in an X shape. A blast wave of energy originating from Teddy exploded outwards, searing the skin of any enemy it touched, leaving it raw like it had been burnt with jet fuel. The force of the blast scattered the bat-like monsters away from the Serenity, several of the packs strapped to the monsters broke and the monsters screamed in pain and spiralled down dead. The monsters that didn’t die outright were limping along, barely staying airbourne moments after Teddy appeared.
Lechuza plummeted into them, snatching one in each talon and viciously ripping into them, Lucy coordinated her attack with Teddy and Lechuza and snapped the roof of the Serenity back to bring a pair of rune circles to bear, one in front of the other, the magic missile from her hand hit the first and fragmented into dozens of whirling blue razor-blade discs, they hit the second circle and crackled with electricity. They homed in on the bats, cutting into wings and muscle, further reducing their ability to fly. Lightning arced between them.
James was conspicuous in his absence in the fight, concentrating on driving, Kyra joined them from the back of the vehicle, throwing conjured diamond spears but struggling in the dark. Suddenly the lights built into the crystal glowed in the wheelhouse.
“Shit.” Kyra said as she got to James.
Teddy took a moment from throwing his shards of darkness to look at the interface, James’ head health indicator was red. Looking in the wheelhouse there was also a lot of red. James’ blood was pooling on the floor underneath him, a lot of blood, more than one body should be able to hold. Kyra hit him with a Life Charge and grabbed the steering wheel with him, holding the Serenity straight so it wouldn’t crash. James groggily let her, just about holding on.
[What happened?] Kyra asked.
[We were attacked from behind, I was scouting out to the front, about to circle back when they hit. They kamikazed the wheelhouse, there’s two dead in the blood at his feet but they both hit the back of his head.] Lucy replied.
Kyra watched his stats on the interface take a significant uptick from the healing and the ongoing healing effect from her power. She summoned a spear and put her back to he chair, trusting him to be with it enough to drive while she defended him from further attack.
They took out the last few monsters and Lechuza chased the last one which had the sense to try and flee.
The Serenity came to a stop as soon as they were safe and Kyra took James out of the chair, carried him clear of his own blood on the floor then put him down on the top deck. It looked comical the short slender woman carrying the seven foot bodybuilder shaped man like a baby but her earth essence made her far stronger than she looked.
“Lucy, did you kill any before I came up?”
“No, other than those two in the wheelhouse I hadn’t started yet.”
“Kyra, leave him, he’s going to be fine, get behind the wheel, spin it round, we need to get back to where they began attacking us. Hurry! Lucy show us where you were.”
“Teds, what’s going on?!” Kyra said, moving to the wheelhouse while she asked him.
“Those are someone’s Crebain! We need to get the fuck out of here before someone realises they’re not coming back.”
“Teddy slow down, you need to explain what you’re so worked up about.” Lucy said.
“Crebain, Sarumans crows, just before Saruman tried to bring down the damn mountain.” There was a pause in is explanation while they all saw a notification appear.
Congratulations. You have named a new monster.
Nomenclature chosen: [Crebain].
Will apply to this genus at this rank.
“Well damn, thats how that works. Anyway, they’re someone’s scout-class monster, I don’t think they will know what has happened for a while. I need to see what those things are attached to them.” He stopped and started ripping the devices off the monster at his feet.
Lucy directed Kyra while she drove, the dead monsters forming an X on the minimap that Teddy displayed on the blank space next to the controls. Teddy turned the mechanical unit this way and that then rushed downstairs to the second spare room where they had set up a workshop.
By the time the girls had collected up the dead monsters Teddy came back up.
“Did you collect a unit for each monster?” Teddy said as soon as he saw the pile.
“Yes we did, there’s nothing left behind.” Lucy said.
“How’s the big dude?” Teddy said to Kyra as she hovered over him.
“I’m fine, sorry I wasn’t much help, got sucker punched.”
“No worries, we can ditch those monsters overboard and loot them as long as we keep hold of the mechanical units.”
They were all stung a little by the stink of rainbow smoke.
“Did someone get a little excited and jump the gun?” James asked.
“No dude, it’s just you should shower more, thats eau-de-James.” Teddy said, pointing towards the wheelhouse and the faint drift of rainbow smoke coming from where there was previously a pool of James’ blood.
Essence users when they reached far enough in rank became intrinsically more magical. The Mitchells got a jump on the game by being outworlders, along with perks like not having to breathe and an absence of their internal organs making them less vulnerable to certain attacks. Their ‘flesh’ was made entirely of magic, once the blood had been separated from the body for long enough it turned to rainbow smoke like a monster did.
“Laugh it up, I know I was hit in the head but I distinctively remember a bald Wonder Woman jump up from the deck and bang her magical bracers together.”
Teddy groaned, knowing that he was never going to hear the end of this.
Content they were leaving a clean scene behind them Teddy put Lucy behind the wheel, fed the beast a bronze rank coin and got her to push it as hard as she dared.