Azure: Gunner

Chapter 6-4

Mana crystals have many interesting properties. Above all, one in particular stands out as meeting inclusion in Oddities. Any person with a Class can push mana into a crystal, yet the reverse is all but impossible.

Researchers at EULA have many theories and a remarkable lack of hard evidence as to why. Regardless, the reality is that while mana crystals can safely be connected to runic arrays, colloquially known as enchantments, they cannot be used as personal mana batteries.

- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian, Oddities of the System

Yuri rejoined his team during Magical Theory. Fortunately, since they sat on the far side of the classroom from us I managed to avoid eye contact, much less conversation, with any of them. That changed during the Sprint.

As usual, I was going to shoot as much as I could and worry about refilling my bandolier later once I’d absorbed more mana. I was walking towards my typical spot in the last lane when someone intentionally bumped into me.

I turned, finding Clarice looking at me with an expression of utter fury.

“You fucking orphan bitch!” she hissed quietly, obviously hoping the sound of the other students talking and casting would prevent anyone from overhearing her.

“That Skill gem was mine, you little shit! I’m going to make you pay for stealing that from me!”

My face went cold as I stepped closer, getting right into her face and looking down into the shorter girl’s eyes.

“You’re welcome to try, asshole,” I replied just as quietly, putting as much venom in my voice as possible. “Considering Yuri came after me when I was asleep and I still fucked him up, I’d love to see you do any better! Or have you forgotten what happened the last time we fought?”

I could feel my pulse racing as rage poured through my veins. I did not like Clarice. She’d insulted Zaire on top of being one of Yuri’s little gang. I clenched my jaw, feeling my scar ache slightly as anger twisted my features. I leaned forward slightly, my lips only inches from her ear. My voice went even colder and my mouth seemed to move without conscious input, venom slithering into my words.

“It’s too bad duels here aren’t to the death, princess. You wouldn’t be the first

person I’ve killed, after all.”I felt a ripple of cold, hard satisfaction pass through me as she stepped back hurriedly, the blood draining from her face. I kept my gaze hard, watching as she swallowed before stalking away like nothing had happened, but internally I was stunned as well. I’d just casually threatened to kill a girl just because I didn’t like her? Well, hated her was a more accurate description, but still. I was pretty sure I’d never seriously threatened to kill another person before.

My temper had gotten away from me for a moment, but that wasn’t unusual for me. What was unusual was that I’d felt my stamina draining away during my last sentence. Fortunately Clarice had turned away from me and missed the look of shock on my face as I figured it out.

“PAST, what in the Wastes was that? It felt like I just used a fucking Skill!”

[Indeed you did, Gunner! It was an excellent performance for someone with Intimidate Level 0!]

“Dead gods, PAST, what the fuck?! Intimidate? When did I even get that Skill?”

[Why, you earned it last night as you stood over the body of your defeated foe and watched the life drain from his body! It was truly an inspiring moment!]

“That’s pretty fucked up, PAST. Also, why the fuck did you not tell me?!”

[The Skill is called Intimidate, Citizen! Did you expect to learn it by shaking hands and kissing babies?! Furthermore, I announced it immediately! Perhaps you should consider restoring the default volume settings if you are having trouble hearing me!]

“No, I – what in the Wastes does that even mean? I’ve never kissed a baby!”

[Your lack of education continues to astound, Citizen Ashley! Shaking Hands and Kissing Babies is a useful Skill for any Politician!]

“PAST, if you had a face I could glare at you’d be shaking in your fucking boots right now!”

[Very good, Gunner! You’ll reach Intimidate Level 1 in no time with an attitude like that!]

The target in my lane was only five yards away. I had no idea why someone had moved it up so close, but I couldn’t step past the firing line to move it with everyone else already firing off Spells and arrows. Acting on angry impulse, I opened fire – once, twice, then five times in a row, emptying my gun. My first two shots were higher up, spaced well apart. The remaining five were lower, forming a curve. It resembled a smiley face like RaeRae would draw sometimes in the dirt.

I reloaded in a blur. The target wasn’t repairing itself very quickly, so it must have been running low on mana.

BOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-click

Reload.

BOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-clickBOOM!click-click

Each group of four shots formed an ‘X’ over one of the eyes of the face.

That’s for you, Clarice. And for Yuri, if he comes after me again!

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The target just sat there, not repairing itself at all. Exhausted, the way I felt. As I stomped away towards Zaire and Jayce, I didn’t see a small group of students looking wide-eyed at my half-destroyed target. PAST did, however.

[Congratulations, Citizen Ashley! You’ve just reached Level 1 in Intimidate!]

“FUCK OFF!”

At lunch, Thompson walked into the dining hall and made her announcement about the ‘altercation’, as she phrased it. She emphasized that both of us had been punished appropriately, then fixed everyone with a cold stare.

“Normally, duels are permitted from the end of the second week of the semester onwards. In light of this incident, I’m pushing that back by a week to let tempers cool off. If you wish to challenge another student, you must wait until a week from Saturday. The first duels – if any challenges are issued – will take place that Sunday.

“I suggest that you read the rules carefully whether you plan to challenge anyone or not. As a reminder, you are not permitted to refuse a challenge. They are found in your copy of DGA Rules which is in everyone’s room.”

With that, she strode dramatically out of the room, presumably off to make the same announcement to the trainees eating at the restaurant. I personally thought she was making the wrong decision.

If anything, she should have made the date sooner rather than later… I’d bet all the money I have that Yuri is going to challenge me as soon as possible. I’m sure everyone’s figured out that he was the one who started things last night, since it happened in my room. Not to mention, someone must have seen him being escorted out, through their windows if nothing else. He’s so concerned about his image, he’s got to take me down – within the rules, or he’ll lose his gems.

Tonight, I decided, I would limit my Fire practice to at most half an hour, then it was studying time. I’d never been more motivated to do some reading. Once I’d fully understood the rules, I’d start working on a plan. Really, I should have done that already, but now there was no pretending I could avoid being challenged. In the unlikely chance that Yuri didn’t, Clarice surely would.

The rest of the day went by quickly. Tactics and Team Combat were yet more formation work, keeping us away from the other teams. Wolf even admitted that normally we’d have some drills together with the other advanced track Squad, but the instructors were intentionally putting that off for now.

In Monster Basics, we talked extensively about spiderwolves, and I was sure that wasn’t a coincidence either. Not that I learned anything that would help me take on Trite, of course. I thought I’d have a good chance now against the Level 5 alpha spiderwolf Hassan had killed in the cave. Especially if I had some slugs loaded.

Still, even a low Tier 1 would undoubtedly kill me in a 1-1 fight. Whatever Level Trite was, it was probably strong enough to take down Block or Vale, maybe even Hassan if it could get close to the Archer. I was many years away from being able to even run away from a beast like that.

My team skipped the bar that night, heading out from the dining hall once we’d finished eating. With the 2nd semester students in the classroom at the moment, no one was using the range or the training hall.

Wait a minute, my mana is full again, and it’s the second week now so I’m not stuck with Wolf’s rule about no extra practice!

It only took me a couple of minutes to convince my team to do a Sprint. Since everyone had a ranged attack now thanks to their new wands, we went to the shooting range together. This time, I alternated picturing Yuri and Clarice’s faces on the targets with each magazine I dumped. Jayce and Zaire worked on their usual Spells, while most of the rest, including Arlo, tried out their new wands. Raylan still hadn’t learned a base rune yet, so he worked with his shortbow, not wanting to use up any of his remaining pistol rounds.

Since my room was still off-limits, I sat in the common room with a copy of the DGA Rules I’d borrowed from Zaire. He’d already read it twice. I quickly found the section on duelling, which was probably the longest part of the thin book. All right Az, let’s get to work.

An hour or so of reading and re-reading, with occasional thinking going on, was followed by Spell practice. I still hadn’t mastered it to the point where I felt it would come naturally even during a fight, but I was getting close. Concentration was definitely making a difference. I passed out in my bedroll not too long afterwards, hoping I’d be able to use my room again soon. I was getting spoiled by having a bed to sleep in, no doubt.

The next few days passed by in a blur. On Tuesday afternoon, Thompson let Yuri into my room to search for his knife, with me watching. He found it under the bed in roughly the same place JJ had grabbed it from. I assumed that meant JJ’d been successful in his run to LA and back, but Thompson refused to give me any details on what had happened. Yuri also reclaimed his privacy ward. I’d thought about trying to make him leave it, since he hadn’t originally demanded it back, but decided I didn’t want to trust it.

There were more confrontations between my team and Yuri’s, of course. In Melee Combat, Marta taunted me with her superior skills until I lost my temper and overwhelmed her with my Stat advantage, ending the spar by smashing the blade from her hand and then decking her with a left hook.

JJ reprimanded both of us, but it did little good. Thankfully there were people I liked in the class as well, Alex and Arlo being the obvious ones. I also discovered that one of the Rangers – the one who wasn’t a trainee, of course – was a pretty relaxed guy and a good training partner.

That night I took a break from training Fire in order to equip my new mods. First, I had to remove the old ones – well, I didn’t have to – but I wanted whatever I could get from selling them. So I suffered through the intense disorientation as I removed my Level 3 red dot and replaced it with the Level 5 version. The new sight looked almost identical, except for a small button on the side. When I pressed it, the sight changed from a single glowing dot to a larger red circle.

I immediately understood the idea – it would help me tell where all of my pellets were going! I would have to wait for tomorrow to try it out, sadly, but I was happy with the upgrade. Once I’d recovered enough mana, I removed the ammo from my bandolier and sat it on the table, then removed the Level 4 ammo capacity and upgraded it to Level 5. As expected, I got one extra loop on the bandolier, so I now had room for five regular shells in addition to my last seven slugs.

The next day, I determined that the red circle on my sight roughly corresponded to where my pellets would hit at 15 yards in open choke mode and 25 yards in full choke. That was with my standard 4BK shells. The lighter BB rounds always made a wider pattern, so it wasn’t an exact science, but I was sure it would be very helpful. And I could use the regular dot mode when shooting slugs. I also finally got another Level in Variable Load, but still no new ammunition options.

No one stepped far enough outside the lines to bring down Thompson’s wrath that week. Still, it was more clear with every passing day that the enmity had spread throughout our teams. Wolf did surprisingly little to discourage us, which gained him considerable favor from everyone in our Squad. Instead, the instructors kept our teams away from each other, rendering the whole idea of an advanced track somewhat useless.

We sparred four-on-four within our team, or as a group with one of the standard track Squads, instead of going up against Yuri’s. The instructors did hold us to a higher standard individually than the others, offering more detailed criticisms and pushing us harder in PT, but it felt a bit hollow.

Wednesday night I was finally allowed to have my room back. I celebrated by practicing Fire, and finally nailed the Spell ten times in a row. It was still much slower to cast than Force, and I found myself regretting not asking Tara to buy me both Spell gems.

It’s ok, once we finish our training and become full Delvers I’m sure I’ll be making hundreds of eagles easily. Then I can buy all the Spell gems I want! Well… Tier 0 ones anyway. Shit, I’m going to end up spending everything I earn, aren’t I?