Chapter 205: It Gets Worse (Patreon)

“Everybody understand the plan?” Kala asked, scanning the assembled fighters.

“All I gotta do is make the godlike entity that predates our kingdoms fear for his life, right?” Karen asked, casually heaving the thick sword over her armored shoulder.

Behind her, Learner assumed an identical pose, presumably mimicking the strongest person there to uncover the secrets of her strength.

“I don’t want to look like the most bloodthirsty individual,” Baroke said, idle hands touching each arrow sticking out of the quiver at his waist. “But why not just kill him?”

“Two reasons,” Kala said, her stomach souring as she partially lied to her friend. “First, because killing this thing is rather difficult. And second, it is not the most ideal outcome: it’ll just make him mad. And third…because this is the way it needs to happen.

“Killing him will make him mad?” Maya asked with a raised brow. “That’s…what?” The tiny ranger was unable to wrap her head around something that wasn’t stopped by death.

“It means exactly what I said,” Kala said.

“Okay, so pressure him into leaving so he takes us seriously, but not enough to make him tell on us to his friends.” Karen said.

Kala snapped her fingers. “Exactly.”

“I’ve fought a couple immortal things in my day. They’re tricky.” Karen said, nodding sagely.

“When!?” Baroke demanded.

“Do you think she became the best fighter on the continent by raising Calvin?” Ella asked with a sharp grin.

“I dunno. Maybe?”

The figure in the sky flickered in front of Calvin and backhanded him out of the sky.

“Aaand that’s the signal.” Kala said. “Go, go, go!”

***Calvin***

There was an explosion of white, and the brief tugging feel of centrifugal force acting on his limbs before Calvin slammed full-bodied into something that felt a lot like stone. Calvin’s Body had risen to the point where stone felt more like wood, but any tavern brawler will tell you that getting hit over the back with a chair isn’t exactly pleasant.

Calvin exhaled a breath, blood and tooth fragments sputtering out of his mouth as he tried to open his eyes and stop the world from spinning.

Blue sky dotted with smoke above him, but it was still spinning… As the spinning gradually slowed, Calvin’s tongue found another chunk of tooth and reflexively pushed it out of his mouth.

I don’t think those were baby teeth, Calvin thought, stifling an insane chuckle and trying not to swallow blood.

His jaw was…unresponsive. The piece of bone connected to his muscles hanging there on its own while the rest of it was shattered, only held in place by the flesh around it, and slowly beginning to swell.

Any idea what this guy wants with me? Calvin thought.

He’s probably after me. I’m way more important than you, after all.

Guarshit, you ever destroy a place called Pelior and exile a king of some kind?

…No, I can’t say that I have. Huh.

Calvin was trying to sit up when the blue sky above him turned black.

Crap.

A knee landed on Calvin’s pelvis, a palm on his chest, driving him back into the dirt. It had been the hard-packed dirt of the street, not stone, and Calvin was a couple inches deep.

Nadia, a little help? Calvin thought.

Nadia flew in, aiming to tackle the creature off of him.

With a dismissive wave, thousands of threads of tightly controlled Bent emenated from the creature’s hand. The threads pulled Nadia’s form apart like a master weaver removing a stitch.

Nadia became green smoke that passed harmlessly over the two of them like a rolling fog bank.

“I would love to instill the despair of an entire planet’s death into you,” The creature said, tapping Calvin on the forehead. “But you don’t even know why, and that simply takes the meaning out of torturing you. So we’ll make this quick and painless.”

He reached for Calvin’s chest.

Not good!

Calvin eyed the miniature cannon on his belt and reached out for it…

His Bent was driven back and scattered against the oppressive aura of the creature bending over him.

When in doubt, fight dirty.

Calvin heaved in a breath and spit a spray of blood into the creature’s eyes, followed by a haymaker.

It caught his fist with its eyes closed.

“Really?” It asked, scowling at him as it tore the soaked rags away from its face, revealing a visage that was decidedly not human.

Pebbly, brown-red skin, big green eyes. Yep, that’s definitely a Harbinger.

Calvin tried to knee it in the balls, but it didn’t seem to do much of anything.

“Enough wriggling,” It said, putting its hand on his chest.

There was a shifting, tearing sensation as the world seemed to tilt, and for a brief moment, Calvin was in two places at once, watching the creature draw a brilliant orb out of his chest.

At the same time, he was the brilliant blue orb, viewing himself, the Harbinger’s palm, and the surroundings, with a perfect sphere of vision. It also felt like there was something on the tip of his tongue. Something important he’d forgotten, that would come back to him any second now.

The view from his eyes started to grow dim…

“Hey!”

A slab of steel impacted against the Harbinger’s midsection, sending it tumbling into the distance.

Calvin’s view snapped back into his body, and he gasped in a ragged breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, veins throbbing at the edge of his vision.

“He’s still breathing.” Karen said, her mannish mug staring down into Calvin’s face.

Calvin groaned wordlessly, trying to wave his adoptive mother’s grimace away. His vision was wobbling and dotted with stars, and the adrenaline was starting to drain the pain out of his jaw, leaving his body numb and tingling from pure endorphins.

I think you have a concussion.

Noo, really?

Karen flickered out from in front of him, and as Calvin tried to sit up, he heard explosions and cursing from all around him. for a brief moment, he thought he saw Baroke’s Thews before an explosion rocked the side of the building beside them.

“Don’t try to sit up so quick,” Kala’s voice echoed through his fuzzy consciousness. “You’ve got a concussion.”

Calvin tried to speak, but all that came out was a dribble of blood from a slack jaw.

Calvinian Summoning

Atom Ant

Chimera

33/47 Bent remaining.

Calvin’s Elite Nadia erupted from the green smoke emanating from his hands.

“Nooo, really?” Nadia said, crossing her arms, acting as his voice. “When did you guys get here?”

“Oh, about an hour ago,” Kala said, her gaze sliding away from his. “I had a hunch you might need some help.” She was guilty about something…was it not warning him what a shit-show Allast would be? Or was it something more?

“Well, your timing is excellent.” Nadia voiced his thoughts. “I gotta get back into the fight.”

He reached out his hand for Nadia to help him up, when a hand gently pressed against his shoulder, stopping him.

“Calvin,” Kala said as an explosion erupted in the sky, painting her in harsh orange light. “We have a couple minutes. Can we talk?”

Oh shit.

Oh shit. Elliot echoed.

Oh shit. Nadia followed. That’s never good.

When girls wanted to talk it was usually not about something ‘good’. When it was in the middle of a battle against some kind of inhuman killing machine…Calvin had no idea, but it couldn’t be good.

Calvin glanced up at the furious Harbinger flying over them, harried by Karen and Ella on the ground, Learner and Baroke in the sky. The body-builder whipped out shots seemingly at random that forced the creature to give up the advantage or receive holes while Learner attempted to drive it down where the land-bound fighters could engage. She was sporting a double pair of wasp-like wings, perhaps stealing from Nadia’s design.

They were doing…surprisingly well. Calvin was hardly needed.

“Okay,” Nadia said for him as he looked back down at Kala. “What did you wanna talk about?”

“I don’t know if It’ll be real, or if this is the last time I’ll actually see you again,” Kala said, her eyes tearing up. “I just want you to know that you made my life worth living. You were a…lifeline that pulled me out of the destiny I was slated for, and made everything a bright, wonderful…”

Kala’s shoulders shook and she seemed to swallow back a sob.

This seems like a good time for a hug.

Calvin grabbed Kala and drew her into a hug, trying not to bleed or drool on her.

“You’re not planning on dying are you?” Nadia asked for him.

Kala shook her head buried in his chest, jostling his jaw in the process. Calvin tensed up from the pain, but didn’t push her away.

“I lub yu,” she said into his shirt.

Calvin wanted to speak, but his swelling jaw simply wouldn’t move. He petted her hair.

“I love your sweet ass too, babe,” Nadia said, petting Kala.

Kala hiccupped, something halfway between a laugh and a sob as she pushed away from him, wiping the tears away from her cheeks. She glanced up at Nadia and shook her head.

The Succubus-in-training took the hint and turned around, finding somewhere else to look.

“I Just want you to know that I love you and this was the best outcome I could see.” She said quietly, taking his head in her hands and kissing him, heedless of the split lip.

“MMm!” Calvin groaned as his face flared up with pain.

“Oh, sorry.” Kala whispered before leaning forward and pressing her soft lips to his forehead. Calvin wished he could actually smell her over the blood in his mouth.

The best outcome? I do not like the sound of that.

“The best outcome?” Nadia asked for him. “I do not like the sound of that.”

You don’t warn someone beforehand that something was the best possible outcome unless it’s a shit outcome.

Kala seemed like she was about to say something, when Baroke crashed into the street beside them, tumbling to the side until he crashed into a half-burnt shop-front, sending wooden utensils clattering down around him.

“Agh, he kicked me in the dick!” Baroke groaned, curled up into a ball.

Kala pulled out of Calvin’s arms, glancing at Baroke with a concerned expression. “That’s my cue. Get back into the battle as soon as you can. We’re going to need your help. Maybe do something about that concussion.”

A moment later, Kala’s warmth was gone as she threw herself back into the battle.

Nadia, Calvin thought, directly linking his mind with Nadia’s

“Yeah?”

Ranged. Throw or shoot physical objects and try to stay out of range of his counterspells. I need your main body to be on emergency Siphon duty.

Nadia’s lips curled up in a smile. “Got it.”

And help me up.

One Nadia grabbed Calvin by the waist and lifted him into the air like a small child, the wings on her waist buzzing as they took off.

The other seven Nadia started picking up whatever iron or stone rubble they could find with their bare hands and hurtling it toward the Harbinger from a safe distance.

Atom Ant really shone through, as each throw from Nadia created a loud pop! hissing through the air to deflect off of a blueish field with a slight ripple, with nearly the same power as one of Baroke’s shots.

At the very least, it will force the bastard to keep his shield up. There has to be some kind of cost for that.

Shortly after the battle with Magenta, Calvin had chosen one of his Abilities for Bent Manipulation: Spell Penetration, the one that made his spells harder to counter.

It was irritating that the bastard had basically blown through it like a stiff wind through a fart, but that just meant Calvin had to get more creative.

I can’t cast spells on him directly, and his shield seems to absorb almost everything physical.

“Bastard,” Baroke groaned, staggering to his feet and firing another shot. The arrow pierced right through the blue shield, drawing a silver line between the two of them. The creature dodged the arrow, but Kala managed to sneak a little chunk of rock through the opening and graze the side of Pasha’s face by aiming for his destination.

The Alien creature paused, wiped the blood off his cheek, and glared at them.

Oh boy, he looks mad, Calvin thought wryly.

Open the Warp Tank.

30/34 Warp Remaining

Now, let’s see what we can do about that annoying counterspelling. Nadia, throw yourselves into the grinder please. Slow enough to let Bad Penny recover your numbers.

You got it, boss.

One of the eight Nadias lunged forward, cutting through the air toward the Harbinger, a light-refracting sword emerging from her fingertips.

The Harbinger saw her coming and kicked Learner and Kala out of his space before waving a hand. Calvin could feel him releasing another wave of Bent tendrils to tear the summon apart.

There!

Calvin shot his Bent out in as long and thin strands as he possibly could, aiming in front of his charging summon. If he interrupted the creature’s counterspell, all the better, but Calvin just wanted to get a feel for how he did it.

Calvin’s threads tangled with Pasha’s, and he suddenly felt like he was in an arm-wresling matche with a porous squid, and his arm was made of soggy pulp.

Pasha’s tendrils wrapped around his own and forced them abck while absorbing them. there were more of them, but they weren’t necessarily stronger, simply overlapping their strength and curling together like living things to achieve an effect greater than the sum of it’s parts.

32/47 Bent remaining

31/47 Bent remaining

Calvin quickly severed his connection to his own Bent, to prevent the creature from drawing even more out of him. Nadia was reduced to green smoke in a fraction of a second, with no tangible benefit from losing two Bent to the caster.

If Calvin didn’t have the Warp, he might have had no clue how masterful the opponent’s Bent control was. He would have only known that he got his ass kicked.

But he did have the Warp flowing through him, and for as long as it lasted, Calvin was a savant. He saw the faintest edges of the creature’s methods.

Bent manipulation has reached level 13!

Bent manipulation has reached level 14!

Bent Manipulation has reached level 15!

+1 Intuition

27/34 Warp Remaining

Please Choose an ability or Mutation

Abilities:

Ghost hand: Manipulate Bent stored by Beli Ma as hands with physical attributes mirroring User’s mental Attributes. Increases range of Beli ma by 1 inch per level of Bent Manipulation.

^From Beli Ma

Bent Reclamation: User’s Abilities have a (correction)% chance to reclaim Bent spent on them when countered.

Interference: Bent Manipulation Correction now applies when interfering with other User’s Bent constructs.

Bent Condensation: Condense 5 Bent into one hundred grams of black liquid Bent. One hundred grams restores 1 Bent.

^No wonder those potions are so expensive.

Sliding Scale: Add up to (level)% To one numerical effect of an Ability while taking the same percentage away from another numerical aspect.

^ Ex. +5% Duration, -%5 Mass

Suspend Spell: Delay activation of a Bent ability by (level)^3 seconds. Point of origin at users discretion, within limits of original Ability.

Polyglot: Ability’s Bent signatures are randomly encoded with a combination of user’s fluent Languages, increasing difficulty of deciphering, copying and countering Abilities by (Level)%

^From Language Barrier, Spell Penetration.

Mutations:

All Seeing Eye: User can physically see Bent.

^ Fuck Bent sense, Why not just see the damn stuff?

Warped Bent: User’s Bent is now closer to Warp in the way it interacts with the environment. More difficult to counter, more difficult to control. May cause mutations.

Calvin scanned the available abilities quickly, writing off the ones he’d seen before and quickly sorting the rest.

I Choose Interference.

Calvin’s head tingled for a moment as the technique manifested, his concussion sending sparkling lights across his vision. He didn’t have time to sit and wait, though.

Lets see how this works now. Nadia.

At his signal, another Nadia charged the Harbinger.

The creature snorted, but instead of waving his hand dismissively, he formed a claw and shoved it toward Nadia.

Calvin shot his Bent out, aiming to stop the attack before it gained steam. His Bent filaments came into contact, trying to emulate the creature’s absorptive qualities.

Bent Manipulation has reached level 16!

Bent Manipulation has reached level 17!

25/34 Warp Remaining

Calvin managed to delay the spell a tiny bit longer this time, earning himself a furious scowl.

The creature’s Bent broke through Calvin’s block and lanced through Nadia, poofing her instantly before jumping to the remaining six Nadia, leaping unerringly from one summon to the next before the invisible attack bore down on Calvin.

Calvin put his whorls of Bent from Beli Ma between himself and the attack.

The attack tore through his whorls, but they slowed it down just long enough for Calvin to hold his hand out in front of him and create the thin filaments, trying to tear the attack apart.

It didn’t work.

From what Calvin could tell from making contact, the Attack voraciously sought out Bent to absorb, and it was currently eating through his Bent, trying to follow it back to the source and hollow him out. It was programmed to attack a specific flavor of Bent after getting a taste of it, seeking out targets by order of similarity.

Just by the feel, Calvin could tell, once it was inside him, it wouldn’t be pretty. it was designed to tear apart whatever container it rampaged around inside.

30/47 Bent remaining

29/47 Bent remaining

28/47 Bent remaining

The invisible attack was held back four feet away from him, milling through his Bent, and slowly getting closer. Calvin could feel it consuming his Bent to feed its own power, getting faster and faster.

The spell was so intricate and powerful, it felt like struggling against a living thing, trying to kill a boar by beating it with turnips, bread, and meat-scraps.

Boars aren’t exactly smart, though. You can lead a boar to a cage with food.

Calvin kept fending off the attack with one hand, while the other one built a tantalizing ball using his remaining Bent.

At the last second, Calvin connected the two together and tossed the ball off to the side.

0/47 Bent remaining

The attack chased down Calvin’s Bent and chowed down on it for a moment before dissipating. With no remaining Bent of Calvin’s to consume, it consumed itself.

Bent Manipulation has reached level 18!

Bent Manipulation has reached level 19!

23/34 Warp Remaining

The Harbinger shoved Learner away from himself, flickered up into the sky and glanced down at Calvin, looking back at him, unharmed. He must not have been expecting that, because he bared his oversized teeth in a snarl.

From a Bent standpoint, that was clearly a great win for the Harbinger, but it was expecting it to grievously wound Calvin in the process. Not getting hurt by the attack was a win in Calvin’s book.

They shared a look.

Calvin shrugged, glancing around as if confused about where the attack might have gone.

Not my fault your spell is simpleminded.

“Got anything left in the tank, kid?” It asked.

Try me, Calvin gave the creature some universal sign language. The only one he really knew.

Nadia.

On it.

The creature held out a hand, and a bolt of blue fire arced out, heading for Calvin’s face.

A thousand miles away, fingers made fists in the sheets.

1/47 Bent remaining.

Calvin held a hand up, jettisoning a cloud of Bent from his palm.

The Iroh Special

0/47 Bent remaining

The bolt of fire sank into the cloud, which coalesced around it, replicated the spell and shot back, all in a tiny fraction of a second.

Pasha seemed surprised, warding off the attack with a hasty chop of his hand, causing the counter to wink out between them.

A fraction of a second later, Learner landed a kick on the back of his head, her space-warping blades unable to penetrate the creature’s skin.

The Harbinger spun and punched Learner away, tearing off part of her jaw in the process.

Calvin was interested to note that the number of tiny Learners that spilled out was minimal. It seemed she really had replaced most of her body with human parts.

Which meant getting her jaw torn off was bad.

Learner didn’t seem to care much, backing up long enough to run a palm over her face, the flesh fixing itself instantly before she shook a bit of blood off her fingers.

1/47 Bent remaining

2/47 Bent remaining

“Damnit!” Pasha growled, eyeing Calvin furiously.

Calvin spread his arms wide, taunting him.

Come at me, bro.

The Harbinger vanished from above him, flickering out of sight. The only sign of where he’d gone was the sudden gaze on the back of Calvin’s neck.

Crap, Calvin thought, ducking reflexively, wind rushing over his scalp.

With his tarak skin, Calvin felt Karen burst through the floor behind the two of them, swinging her oversized sword in a perfect ambush.

Claws still outstretched, The Harbinger was only barely able to interpose his arm between himself and the blade before the attack caught him, sending him tumbling off the roof of the building, slamming into the next one over.

The creature coughed, pulling itself out of the wooden building, its left arm hanging loose at its side, a deep gash pumping blood down to his black nails.

Calvin glanced over at Karen curiously.

Why is he not in two pieces? Calvin thought. He’d literally seen an imaginary Karen put a cut through a fourth dimensional being and the real stone wall it was living in. There was no way she couldn’t have bisected the bastard with a clean hit.

Is she taking it easy on him? Why?

More harbingers who might retaliate? Calvin had been playing the politics game long enough to think of a few of the obvious answers.

He was wrong.

“Alright, that’s enough. As nice as it would have been to get revenge, I can’t risk failure here. I’ll catch you later.” The Harbinger muttered, drawing itself to its feet. With its good arm, it pulled out a small black metal handle with a little tube –

Dodge! Elliot’s scream was loaded with urgency, shocking Calvin into action.

Calvinian summoning

Atom Ant

Heart of the swarm

1/47 Bent remaining.

Calvin burst into millions of wasps, scattering in every direction. Whatever the attack the object made, enough of the swarm should be able to survive to allow him to –

>>>System Analyzing<<<

Ravager Identified, Beginning c?????u????l??l??i?????n?????g???? p????r?????o???????c?????e?????????d????u????????r??????????e?????.???????.?????.????.??.??????

Everything went black.