Mage Tank

Chapter 335: Helping Hurts

Chapter 335: Helping Hurts

Mage Tank

“She was already dead,” I heard Xim say as we grew close. “My skill won’t harm allies.”

“Allies? You weren’t allies!” shouted the man. “You hated her!”

I looked the irate Littan over, recognizing him as one of the men who’d challenged me in New Krimsim–the lanky instructor whose students I’d killed back in Eschendur. He had his weapons out, pointing his cruciform dagger at Xim. Between them were the smoldering remains of someone, although the body was unrecognizable. There was a staff laying nearby, one that had belonged to the battle priestess Xim had exchanged insults with.

“I didn’t hate her,” said Xim. “I barely knew her.”

“You ruined her life,” the man spat. He took a step forward, though Xim didn’t react. A few other Littans were standing nearby, none making an effort to step in. Their reluctance didn’t seem hostile. They looked confused more than anything. Baltae was making his way over, alongside his C.O., Captain Pio. Vaulty and Ishi were close behind the pair.

“She never even told me why she had an issue with me,” said Xim, eyes narrowing. “As far as I’m concerned we left our problems in the ring. If I’d wanted to kill her I’d have done it then.”

“General Bavecista never would have let you.”

“This is dumb,” said Xim. She turned to look at everyone else gathered. “You all got hit with the same exact skill. Were any of you injured?” There was some noncommittal chatter in response. Xim pointed at one man in particular. “Did the cleansing fire harm you?”

“It felt like something inside me boiled away,” he said. “It hurt, but I did not lose any health.” He looked at the enraged fellow. “Sergeant Guiom, I think you should take a walk to cool off.”

“That painful feeling was the invading bits of Charl getting burned out.” Xim turned back to the lanky man, whose name was apparently Guiom. “Most of Priestess Ceriana’s body had been remade into Charl’s own flesh and blood. That’s why the skill affected so much of her.”

Lanky stalked forward, teeth bared, until he was within striking distance of Xim. His weapons were still out, and he adjusted his grip on his shortsword. I was ready to teleport in at the slightest twitch, but Xim signalled me to stay out of it.

“If she’d had any spark of life left in her I could have healed her, but she was already gone.” Xim glanced down at the man’s weapons. “Decide if you want to use those or not. You’re making my people twitchy.”

Guiom blinked and looked around. His eyes landed on Ishi, who had her bow and staff floating in the air beside her. Baltae stood nearby with his grimoire hovering, its pages flipping lazily on their own. He then turned my way and looked at Somncres, held loosely at my side. He swept across the Littan soldiers who were clearly uncomfortable with his behavior. Finally, his gaze landed on Vaulty. The hulking golem was ten feet away, with several cannons almost pointing directly at the hostile sergeant. That finally seemed to break his tunnel vision on Xim. The man swallowed and took a step back.

“Good choice,” said Drift. Varrin’s older brother stepped out from behind Guiom, where he’d been standing with a blade to the Littan’s back, angled towards his heart. He’d gone unnoticed by everyone, including me. The Ravvenblaq firstborn slid the point of his shortsword across Guiom’s leather breastplate as he went, then neatly slipped it back into its sheath.

There was stunned silence as everyone processed that. Guiom’s fury had cooled into shock at how close he’d been to death. Xim gave him an irritated look, then went back to ensuring everyone had been cleansed.

“Who’s in charge of this camp?” I asked.

“Captain Smollett is dead,” said Captain Pio, stepping forward. “I’ve taken command.” The petite leader of the eponymous Team Pio had been watching the exchange alongside the other Littans, and I wondered why she hadn’t intervened. “Sergeant Guiom, you’re relieved of duty. You’ll return to New Krimsim immediately.” The man in question had been staring at Drift, but flinched at the captain’s order, turning his attention onto her. Pio ignored him and turned to me. “King Xor’Drel, could you provide the sergeant with a portal?”

“Checkpoints can only be used once per day,” I said.

“This situation is one of the scenarios where it has been authorized.”

I opened the portal without further argument, using the Checkpoint I had in New Krimsim. Sergeant Guiom wore a complicated expression, but eventually dismissed his weapons back to inventory and walked stiffly through the portal, eyes lingering on Xim as he went. Pio signalled me to close it behind him, which I did.

“Please explain what happened, Lady Cleric,” she said to Xim.

“Priestess Ceriana was infected. It had reached the point where she was dead, and Charl was about to bring her back as his minion. My Cleanse purged the foreign tissue. This is what was left of her once Charl had been removed.”

I looked at the smoking remains again. The way she’d been hollowed out gave me a flashback to my Creation Delve, when we’d found the corpses of Chilla and Sayil with their organs removed. At least their deaths had been quick. My mind got caught on that, making the death of this priestess one of the more disturbing things I’d seen since then.

“The same thing happened to somebody at our camp,” I added.

“Major Kai has told me as much,” said Pio. She turned to address the rest of the gathered Littans. “The enemy slowly replaces your body with its own. It eats you from the inside, then turns you into its puppet. What happened to Ceriana is awful, but it is not Lady Xor’Drel’s fault. Her skill burns out the enemy, and this is what happens if the enemy has already taken over.” She summarized things like she’d already known what had gone down, making me think she’d had Xim explain herself for everyone else’s benefit, not her own.

“What’ll happen to that guy?” I asked. “Sergeant Guiom?”

“He will be held and tried for assault,” said Pio. “Even though he did not strike, brandishing weapons at a foreign dignitary is inexcusable. I have already informed the appropriate authorities back in New Krimsim.”

“I see.”

“Everyone, we have new orders!” Captain Pio shouted to the crowd. “Colonel Tavio wants us to pack up and head to Camp 2. We’ll have an easier time defending ourselves if we are not so spread out.”

Captain Pio gave a few more specific commands to different individuals, then turned back to me. Xim was still nearby, talking softly with Etja. Ishi had walked up to join us as well, while Vaulty went to help the Littans break down the important parts of their camp. Drift had disappeared again.

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“You mentioned wands?” Pio asked.

“Right,” I said, tearing my eyes from the body. A pair of Littans had arrived to place her remains into a canvas body bag. “We can slap Xim’s new Cleanse on some wands. That way she doesn’t have to be everywhere all at once and you aren’t working with a single point of failure.”

“How long will that take?”

“How many do you want?”

“Ideally we would have one wand per person here on perimeter 3. Say, thirty?”

“Well…” I trailed off, running the numbers. Regardless of the particulars, it would certainly become a significant investment both in time and materials. I also wasn’t the best equipped to discuss the topic. “Princess Ishi has greater expertise with Wandmaking.”

Pio nodded and turned to Ishi, who acknowledged my deferral and stepped forward. “That’s at least a week of work,” she said. “The base crafting cost will require a minimum of 120 ruby chips, not considering the other materials.”

“The Woodworking Dungeon has resources you can harvest,” said Pio. “I will coordinate with the colonel to get you the time you need and we will compensate you for the mana chips, of course.”

“Very good,” said Ishi. “The standard crafting fee is twice the chips required.”

“This is not a shop,” Pio replied, expression blank.

“You’re right. If anything, the exigency of this matter should increase the price.”

“Princess, with all due respect, are you really going to bend me over right now?”

“Of course not. I am simply aiming for a mutually beneficial exchange.” Ishi stood up slightly straighter, feigning a mildly confused expression. “Surely you didn’t assume our cooperation at cost. We are not soldiers on your empire’s payroll. If we agreed to do this work for free, that would mean we’d be making even less than your own soldiers for our labors. You must see how that is an untenable exchange.”

Pio pulled a ledger from her inventory and looked over some figures. “Fifty percent markup. That’s 180 ruby chips total, plus free use of the Woodworking Dungeon for materials; exclusive access for a week. That alone is worth more than the difference.”

“That is acceptable,” said Ishi with a gracious tilt of her head. Pio looked her up and down before giving a shallow bow and returning to her work managing the migration of her camp.

“Wait,” said Xim. “I have to be involved with this. What’s my cut?”

Ishi raised one perfect eyebrow. “Since you didn’t negotiate anything for yourself, I guess your payment is the free lesson you just received.”

“What lesson?”

“The lesson on making sure you get paid.”

Xim thought that one over, tapping her chin with a finger. “You know, really I’m a subcontractor in this situation, which means it’s your responsibility to ensure my participation.”

“One-fifth share,” Ishi offered.

“Half,” Xim countered.

“Half? Arlo and I will be doing most of the work. You’ll just have to sit there and infuse the spell once in a while.”

“Exactly. None of this happens without my spell. One-third.”

“Hmm…” Ishi and Xim stared one another down for several seconds before the princess spoke again. “Very well, but only because I like you.”

I looked between the two women, feeling slightly confused. “Neither of you even care about money.”

“You mustn't let yourself be taken advantage of,” said Ishi.

“And it’s good practice,” said Xim. “You argue with people all the time for practice.”

“I don’t argue with people,” I said, turning up my nose. “I encourage discussion.”

“People don’t shout when they’re having a discussion.”

“It’s not shouting. My voice just naturally projects.”

“Do I get anything?” asked Etja.

“Hugs?” Xim offered.

Etja was more than happy with that arrangement, and put both of her right arms around Xim as we trodded off towards the Woodworking Dungeon. The mage didn’t need to be there for us to make the wands, but nobody questioned her tagging along. It would give me the opportunity to check in with her after her early distress over destroying a sizable chunk of forest and its attached wildlife. Plus, I could tell Xim was upset over the day’s events, and Etja’s presence would serve as a balm for everyone’s mood.

“Hey, Ishi?” I said.

“Hmm?” she replied, veering closer to me so that we bumped arms as we walked.

“A wand with one spell and no extra weaves is pretty basic. There’s no way it’ll take us a full week to make them all.”

“It will if you make them all.”

“You’re planning to lounge about the whole time?”

“I’ll be overseeing the project, which is a critical task,” she said with a grin. “Besides, my skill level is too high to benefit from the Dungeon, but your Wandmaking is still low and you have that human racial bonus that improves your crafting skill progression.”

“Mm-hmm, so you’re not being lazy?”

“Merely providing you with an incredible opportunity.” She bumped my arm a final time and pushed away. “Of course, I’ll probably spend most of the time asleep. A good, one-week nap sounds excellent.”

“A whole week of naps,” Etja said dreamily. “That sounds amazing.”

Ishi looked back at the four-armed mage. “You’re welcome to join me, but you’ll have to contribute your own pile of wands to sleep on.”

“Ohhh, that sounds uncomfortable.”

Ishi frowned. “Have you tried it? You might be surprised.”

“Is that a dragon thing?” asked Xim. “Making beds of things that aren’t beds?”

“We all have our quirks,” Ishi replied. “At least I don’t sleep on a slab of engineered biomass like my mother.”

“That sounds softer and less pokey than wands, though,” said Xim.

“Perhaps,” Ishi allowed. “Regardless, I don’t need my beds whispering to me all night about how much fun they’re having being my bed, thank you very much.”

We all walked in silence for a bit.

“Your girlfriend’s mom is weird, Arlo.”

“Why are we walking?” I asked. “Isn’t the Dungeon a hundred miles away or something?”

Ishi sighed. “I suppose we should pick up the pace. Who shall serve as our steed?”

“Oh!” said Etja. “You can transform and we can all ride–”

“No.”

“Aw…” Etja mourned her dragonrider dreams.

I activated Therianthropy, fuchsia wings and downy tentacles sprouting from my back. I’d recently added an equine modification to the evolution, which failed to turn me into some kind of horse-c’thon-bird-man. It did, however, cause my hair to grow out to glorious length, running down my neck and back.

The hair was also magical in nature like my wings and tentacles, meaning it didn’t care one bit for the physical barrier my armor presented, which it phased right through. The front even naturally swooped forward to fall partway in front of only one eye, giving me the look of a flamboyant and highly lethal runway model. The hair was still my natural color, a lustrous dark brown close to black, but had a multihued sheen when it caught the light, matching the pink and violet of my feathers.

“That makes sense,” said Xim. “He’s literally part horse now.”

Ishi ran over and hopped onto my back, beating Xim to the punch. I looked at the other two ladies. “Tentacles or Gracorvus?” I asked, teleporting Gracorvus between them. By the time Xim looked beside her, Etja was already aboard the shield. She could easily fly herself, but I was faster these days. Our cleric shrugged and walked over to get scooped up by my c’thonic appendages.

And thus we flew off into the sunset.

Not really, it was midafternoon. We were also going north-northeast, so the sun was high, kind of behind us and on our left, not in front of us. Although, we couldn’t see the sun through the canopy…

It doesn’t matter–we went to the Woodworking Dungeon to grind out some emergency wands.