Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 10 (Patreon)

I turned toward the voice. Cyra did as well, but not before rolling her eyes.

“Are you talking to us?” I asked.

The young man was clad in gold-trimmed robes that looked like some of the gaudiest, least practical things I’d ever seen. The amount of precious metals on him might shield him from radiation-based attacks, but otherwise I could think of no practical uses for wearing something that heavily embroidered.

I glanced down at my plain jeans and a t-shirt, covered by the robes I’d looted from the Samhain family dungeon with Myrina and Cyra. Neither piece of gear was all that impressive, but they’d carried me through plenty of battles. A few more impressive specimens, like my Spellsniper’s Bangle, were hidden among the fabric folds, which was just the way I liked things. The last thing I wanted was for my enemies to identify my equipment.

While I considered my apparently meager state of dress, Cyra waved her hand like she’d heard it all before.

“Why don’t you explain who you are and the name of your family...” she motioned for the well-dressed fop to continue.

“Ah, of course. You have the honor of meeting Borelius Limstave, a proud scion of the Limstave family! No doubt you’ve heard of us?”

“Oh wow.” Cyra clapped mechanically. “The mighty Lint-slave family! I have eyes, but I could not see. We’ll get out of your way so you can get your room in the inn.”

Cyra wrapped an arm around my back and made a hasty escape toward the door, where she soon pitched me over her shoulder and started running.

“Hey, wait! I wasn’t done introducing myself yet. Come back!” Borelius yelled at our fleeing backs, but Cyra was too quick. Clearly, this sort of thing had happened to her before, and she’d long since rehearsed the fastest method of extracting herself from the situation.

With Borelius Limstave fading into the distance, Cyra settled us down in the shade of a tree. Clear of the buildings surrounding the archway’s base, I realized how massive this mystic realm of the Dragon Lodge really was.

I looked from one horizon to the next and saw miles upon miles of space. The grassland around us transitioned to the manicured forest, then to the wilderness in the distance. Past that, I could make out mountains, rivers, and streams. The world curved away at the edges of my vision, but far less than it would have on Earth. Either this world was flat, and we were sitting on an enormous mesa, or this world was far, far larger than Earth had been.

When I heard the Dragon Lodge didn’t control the world, I doubted what kind of power such an organization could hold. Those doubts were gone now. With a home base like this, who needed a boring regular world?

Cyra and I rummaged through our bags of holding, and in Morgathor’s satchel, I came up with his tent. It was one of the few things I recognized and kept while going through his things. Between Cyra and I, we pitched it and found it both larger and more comfortable on the inside than something so portable had any right to be.

“I’m not sure how that little bundle of cloth had a bed, dining table, and chairs in it, but I certainly can’t complain!” I laughed as Cyra and I explored the tent. There was even a tea set and a magical stove. This thing was probably nicer than whatever we would have gotten at the inn. Morgathor knew how to travel in comfort, that was for sure. There was only one problem.

“There’s only one bed,” I noted as I glanced at the tent’s bedroom.

“Looks like.” Cyra shrugged.

“I can sleep on the--“

Cyra cut me off. “No, you’re not sleeping on the floor. I will.”

“You’re not sleeping on the floor on my watch.”

We glared at one another a bit. Rather than argue over it now, we set the problem aside.

“We’ll figure it out tonight. For now, we’ve both got a few new skills to learn. Let’s take advantage of this time dilation while we have the chance.”

“Fine.” Cyra turned, eying me carefully. No doubt she suspected I’d try to sleep on the floor before her, forcing her to take the bed.

The two of us sat back on the ground outside the tent, back to back. There was a perfectly good desk to work at, but there wasn’t enough room for both of us, so neither took that one.

I laid out the many skillbooks I’d bought for myself and for my companions. I had pelnty of spells, but looking things over, the ones I’d gotten from Galbatorix were just plain better. No wonder he wanted me to come to his shop.

Not that the other spells were wasted money, though. Those skill books could be sold back home at the Obelisk for anyone to buy. There was an acute shortage of fellow spellcasters back home, but having a few spells for sale might alleviate that. I needed more spellcasters to use the unique bonus I’d get for being the inventor of Mana Barrage based on how many other people learned it.

I went through the various books one by one, settling down cross-legged as I took them in.

You have learned Unspeakable World! This spell has been added to your class abilities.

You have learned Firescorge Breath! This spell has been added to your racial abilities.

You have learned Dragonscaled Mage! This spell has been added to your class abilities.

You have learned Lightsculptor’s Brush! This spell has been added to your racial abilities.

You have learned Dragoneyed Mage! This spell has been added to your class abilities.

You have learned Dragonblooded Mage! This spell has been added to your class abilities.

I distributed the new abilities, putting what I wanted to be enhanced by Mania into my class slots. Lightscupltor’s Brush and Firescorge Breath could go into racial abilities. That left four racial abilities and two more class abilities I could add, but I wasn’t really sure what I wanted. Perhaps I’d keep them open until I ran into a scenario where I needed to add a new tool for my kit. I’d have enough to integrate these into my fighting style.

But there was one more ability I’d been eager to improve. Deflect. Thanks to my little run-in with the former policemen terrified of werewolves, I’d gained enough spare Dodge proficiency to put all I wanted into it. I did just that and evolved the ability right then and there.

You’ve sacrificed 100 points of your Dodge proficiency!

You’ve sacrificed 30 points of your Running proficiency!

You’ve sacrificed 25 points of your Neutral Mana proficiency!

You’ve sacrificed 25 points of your Storm Mana proficiency!

I’d mulled over this exact combination of proficiencies for a while. What I wanted was something that would redirect incoming attacks. That would work very well with my new bloodline and racial abilities. If an attack could be pushed away, it would be. I was gambling a lot of proficiencies on this skill upgrade. Hopefully, losing them won’t affect the upcoming tests too much. If any of them involved dodging, I’d have to hope making this new skill would make up for the loss of nearly my entire Dodge proficiency pool.

Deflect (Common) has become Hand of Fate (Epic)

Passive ability that shields you from incoming attacks, especially projectiles. Attacks not under conscious control will be caught in spatial distortions that throw them off course. Melee opponents will perceive a slightly distorted sense of you, causing some attacks to miss or otherwise critical strikes to hit non-lethal areas. This ability can be overwhelmed by excessively powerful or frequent attacks but will constantly regenerate.

I sighed in relief. From the description, it seemed like the new ability did just what I wanted. It was Deflect, only expanded with additional features. It was also limited by incoming firepower rather than a single charge every ten seconds. I was happy with this.

I turned to see Cyra watching me out of her eye. She must have finished learning her new skills a bit before me. I looked up to the sky. Sunset was fast approaching.

“You pick up your new skills?” I asked Cyra curiously.

“I did. Along with a few other things. Mother had more plans for me at C-Grade than she had time to share.”

I grinned. “Well? Care to test them? You and I haven’t sparred since you first taught me to swing a sword properly. I think it’s past time I prove that your lessons took.”

“You want to spar?” Cyra asked, eyes sparkling.

“Yeah. I want to spar.”

She leaped to her feet and had her weapon drawn in the blink of an eye.

“Tell me if I’m going too hard on you.”

“None of that now! I’m C-Grade, too. If I start losing, I only have myself to blame. Go as hard as you want.” I taunted her as I prepared myself for battle. I wouldn’t use Mania this time, but Awakening the Inner Beast would bolster me a bit on its own. Then I activated two of my new abilities.

Dragonscaled and Dragonblooded mage each swept over me. Thin outlines of dragon scales traced along my arms. My blood pumped hot in my chest. When I activated Dragoneyed mage as well, it felt like there was a sudden synergy between the three dragon-themed abilities, and all of them felt stronger for it. Mana filled the air around me, ripe for the taking and ready to be used on any spell I wished. I leaned into my old, reliable Power of Nature spell to draw on it and funnel mana into my Mana Bolts.

Cyra waited patiently while I made my preparations.

“You know, you really shouldn’t let a spellcaster prepare,” I teased her.

“In a real fight, I wouldn’t. But I want to see what you can do,” Cyra replied.

I shrugged, looking her up and down.

Cyra Samhain (Level 123)

All the fighting she’d been up to with the battle against Elder Thalassa had gotten her year’s worth of levels in a few weeks. But all that fighting had only put her on even footing with me. For the first time since we’d met, a fight between us would be truly fair.

But did Cyra really know who she was up against? Sure, I’d heard she was good from what Myrina and others told me, but I was a half-decent fighter myself. Now that I’d closed the level gap, could she really battle at my level?

I sent a probing attack at her. This was a single mana bolt filled with ambient earth mana just to test her defenses. Cyra effortlessly sidestepped it.

Two more followed close behind. Then three all at once.

Finally, Cyra had to block. But blocking projectiles was something she’d gotten rather good at lately. She swung her sword at the one mana bolt she couldn’t dodge and sliced it straight through. The sword was one of my own making, and the enchantments lining the blade disrupted magic as they passed. I’d intended to give Cyra a weapon that would help her shore up her usual weaknesses against spellcasters, but I’d inadvertently given her a weapon perfect for fighting me in the process.

“I’ve seen all this before,” Cyra said as she swatted my basic attacks aside with the same casual ease with which I’d cast them.

“Maybe I want to warm up. If you want something more intense, then come at me!”

Cyra’s hands tightened on her sword, and a moment later, she obliged.

I felt the wind whip by my shoulder. Her body blurred momentarily, and I realized the person I was throwing spells at was nothing more than an afterimage. I turned, already knowing I’d find Cyra behind me.

Her blade whipped toward the back of my neck, where she’d declare herself victorious. But her aim was ever so slightly off. Instead of stopping near the back of my neck, she was about to pass clear over it. That had to be my new Hand of Fate power at work.

Before she could realize her error and correct it, I slipped into the Shadow Realm and appeared behind her instead. This time, she turned, and her eyes widened as she saw me charging Void Cannon and pointing it at the back of her head.

“You’ll need to be faster than that to catch me,” I grinned as I activated Void Cannon.

I expected her to dodge, but instead, she swept her blade through the incoming magical projectile. The sword broke the spell, and I thought that was all. But out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a shimmering blue light manifesting into being. I might not have noticed it if it hadn’t been similar to my own Arcane Blade spell.

The sword strike reached out a yard past the tip of Cyra’s sword, following the arc of her physical weapon. I activated Arcane Blade and Eldrich Augmentation at the same moment. Even with both abilities, I wouldn’t have succeeded in deflecting Cyra’s magical attack without the bonuses Dragonblooded and Dragonscaled Mage gave me.

Between the two, I locked Cyra’s sword with my own. Her eyes widened as I matched her for brute strength, but only momentarily. Eldrich Augmentation fled an instant later, and I started losing ground. But I had already slammed my elbow against the edge of Arcane Blade to put my full weight behind it.

That on its own would never be enough to stop Cyra, but the move left my hand free. While Cyra pushed and shoved against my sword, I cast spells.

A flurry of Mana Bolts shot right for her, this time showing no mercy. Earth and Air mana from the environment swirled together. Neither would do much damage if they landed, but I slammed the two different elements together with a boost of extra mana behind them.

The exploding mana bolts threw dust in all directions. That dust obscured all physical sight in our surroundings.

Cyra jumped back to get her bearings. “Trying to blind me?”

“How else should I test this new Dragoneyed Mage power?” I chuckled. Then I peered into the dim light and thick dust with inhuman eyes. The normal world faded away, and instead, I saw only mana.

The world resolved itself into tiny particles of various sizes, all of them colored to show their alignment. Earth mixed with the air, revealing the dust curtain I’d thrown around us. At our feet was more Earth, and in the distance, there was water.

But most importantly, I saw a bundle of burning white light standing before me. The dense cluster of human-shaped mana could only be Cyra. She adjusted her sword in her grip, and mana shot along its length.

That, at least, was a benefit of giving her an enchanted sword. If it had been ordinary steel, it would have been invisible to my current sight. But now its enchantments were plain to see.

I attacked, and Cyra defended. Fighting blind was never easy, but that was doubly true when they could fight from range and you could not. Cyra normally depended on slicing through my incoming Mana Bolts to disable them, but now she had only a fraction of a second to see them coming and react. I started scoring far more hits than before.

A lesser foe would already be on their knees, but Cyra was made of sterner stuff. Amazonians filled their bodies with extra mass, granting them incredible quantities of vitality only matched by giant creatures like the Torchdragon. Another spellcaster would take hours to wear an opponent like Cyra down like this, but not me.

Each attack stacked Corrupting Marks, and each hit created more vulnerabilities for me to target, as those marks created festering wounds that could grow and expand when struck again. If those follow-up attacks landed home, they’d result in exponentially more Corrupting Marks. Cyra’s vast health pool wouldn’t last her nearly as long as it would against any other opponent.

“Feel free to surrender!” I called out to her. My heart beat fast in my chest. Now that I was close to winning, I realized I really did want to beat Cyra. I was pretty sure she’d take the loss well, but it would be a way to prove that I was more than a former student of hers. I was now her peer.

Cyra knew her position was a losing one, and rather than surrendering or putting up a defense I'd break past, she took action. Another ability blossomed in her chest and she roared a battle cry unlike anything I’d ever heard. Instantly, my concentration was shattered, and my forming spells collapsed.

It took me a moment for my head to clear and to realize what had happened. I’d been struck with an attack designed to interrupt a spellcaster’s concentration and disable their spells. This wasn’t something I’d seen before, so it had to be an ability Galbatorix had given her earlier.

She was already following up her roar with an attack, but she hadn’t been the only one to pick up a stunning ability. I muttered something under my breath. As soon as I said the word, the memory fled me, but the world trembled at the guttural and unnatural sounds. Cyra began bleeding from the ears, stopping her charge in its tracks.

“Unspeakable World. It’s a new ability of mine,” I grinned, though blood dripped from my nose. I’d heard the word, too, after all.

Cyra charged, and I breathed at her. Fire shot from my mouth, though it was a darker shade of crimson than any natural flame. Cyra finally unhitched her shield from her back and brought it about to deflect the incoming flames.

She shrugged off the attack and continued her charge. I’d gotten Firescorge Breath more as a way to avoid getting swarmed than as a way to take out powerful opponents like Cyra. The lack of damage was a bit disappointing, but I’d have to test it on weaker foes before deciding to replace it.

That marked the second to last of my new abilities. The last was Lightsculptor’s Brush, but painting a detailed illusion of light wasn’t the sort of thing I could do in combat. So from there, the fight devolved from experimentation to a fierce fight of dodging, ducking, weaving, and slicing.

It continued, and I exhausted nearly half of my prodigious mana supply. Cyra took some damage, too, and we locked gazes as we shared the same thought. Neither of us could risk fighting further without throwing the exam we’d signed up for tomorrow. Without any words, we put our weapons down and smiled.

Cyra and I fell to the ground, panting in exhaustion. I’d tested my new abilities, and Cyra had done the same. I hadn’t pushed myself to my limits, but I wasn’t quite sure she had either, based on the content look on her face as she lay on her back with her head beside me.

Rather than ask who won, I simply enjoyed the moment. There was a conversation the two of us really needed to have hanging in the air between us, but it could wait awhile longer. Whatever Cyra wanted to do about the two of us was fine by me, and truthfully I was really hoping she'd be the one to broach the topic.

She didn't, and neither did I. We basked in silence for a while as the sun finally set, and we stared at the sky overhead.

Looking up now, the sun had set, and a clear night was overhead.

I saw far fewer stars than I was used to, and there was something strange about them. Big as this mystic realm was, I doubted it reached all the way to other planets. I was pretty sure those points of light in the sky weren’t really stars. When I noticed a few of those lights moving across the sky, I was doubly sure.

“You know what those things are?” I said, glancing overhead.

Cyra followed my gaze and squinted into the distance. “I’ve heard that mystic realms physically reside in the void. If so, maybe those points of light are undiscovered treasures of tremendous power. Or maybe they’re void gods who can consume entire worlds in one bite. There’s really no way to tell, but anybody investigating them might as well be rolling dice with their lives. The void isn’t exactly a safe place.”

My mind went to Sharky, a Void Leviathan. Maybe when I didn’t have him summoned, he roamed the void just like those points of light overhead, only a little smaller and dimmer.

“You look tired. You should go to bed,” I suggested, nodding back toward the tent.

“You look more tired. Take the bed.”

“No, you,” I replied.

“No, you!”

“I’m going to drag you to bed and tuck you in like your own mother if you don’t take the bed.” I climbed to shaky feet and grabbed Cyra by the arm like I planned to drag her into the tent.

She let me pull her a big with a giggle before climbing to her feet and pushing me backward.

“You’re taking the bed, and I’m taking the floor; that’s final!” she said as she shoved me onto the bed.

I rolled off it and fell on top of her. Exhausted as we were, we lay there panting for a moment, with my head resting on her chest.

“I guess we’re both sleeping on the floor then, huh?” I said.

“Looks like.” Her cheeks bore a heated flush.

I gave her chest a pat. Thankfully, I had two soft pillows right there. I grinned and chuckled as I waited for Cyra to push me off and finally claim the bed for herself.

As I fell asleep, I finally realized she planned to stay right where she was.