Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (30/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 30 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

There was a clear stark difference between the garden incident and the circumstances currently unfolding here in the workshop.

With the former, the overwhelming sentiment was that of a lack of control. Of being hunted down whilst being on the defensive.

With the latter however, it was the exact opposite. As it was us who were doing the hunting, and with Sorecar taking the charge, there was no question as to who was in control of the situation.

This was evident by how he strutted about the room with a menacing aura, generating the only sounds now audible within the room.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Those footsteps reverberated throughout the room that had previously been filled with the ambient noise of self-igniting furnaces and sizzling steel.

The sharp, hollow, metallic clacks of empty metal boots on solid stone was in equal measures ominous as it was deafening, especially without any other sounds to really drown or dampen them out.

Taken in a completely different context, the sound was nothing more than the footfalls of a grandfatherly figure who would hesitate to hurt a field of melons, let alone an actual sapient.

Taken in this context however? The sounds were nothing short of doom incarnate, as everything down to the man’s stance had changed drastically from the borderline lackadaisical persona that had dominated most of our hours-long interactions.

“Emma.” The man announced loudly, ushering me along as he made his slow, meticulous scope of the now-barricaded room. It was only after I got within earshot of him did he finally speak freely.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 300% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

But not before establishing what I assumed to be another sound-dampening privacy screen. “Stay close to me, and allow me to make the first maneuvers once we find this interloper.” The man announced calmly. “Rest assured, this trickster-in-hiding is less of a threat than their advanced magic may lend you to believe. Indeed the reason why I’m requesting your close presence is not because I wish to protect you from them, but rather, because I’m aiming to protect them from you.” The man announced with a certain level of cockiness coated in a layer of excitement. “Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to use one of my creations against a live target.” Sorecar announced ominously, as we made our way around the workshop, and towards the set of workstations from the weapons demonstration just a few hours earlier. He reached for the sword, picking it up, stopping to admire its craftsmanship as he craned his head back towards me with a single hand placed cheekily above where his mouth should’ve been. “Too much?”

I knew not to respond to a rhetorical question when I heard one.

“Hah! Of course it is. Wouldn’t want to slice up what could well be a student during the grace period after all now would we?” The man admitted slyly, as he placed the sword back down carefully, only to take a few steps forward towards the only non-lethal object here: the polearm. “Ah yes, this will do very nicely!” He beamed out as we continued our careful, methodical pacing through the room.

This time however, the armorer decided to break up the overbearing silence with these slow, rhythmic, marching-cadence-like taps; clicking the polearm’s blunt end against the stone floor.

It felt like he was just toying with the would-be prankster at this point, but while I would generally be sympathetic towards the plight of someone who just wanted to goof around, this situation was the stark exception. The sheer dread that still lingered from the fabricated encounter with the fake-null prevented me from sympathizing.

Whoever this was, they had more than Sorecar to answer to.

Because the implications of this prank went far beyond just how they managed to trick all of my sensors.

It also begged the question of just how they even learned of the null’s existence in the first place. Moreover, it also brought into question how much they knew about the whole null situation. Which just opened up an entire can of worms that I just wasn’t ready to deal with this late into the night, and early into the morning.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife at this point, as it was clear Sorecar had to be doing these little taps for some purpose other than freaking the prankster out.

Or at least I hoped so.

Because whilst I hated to admit it, I did have to rely on him, and his judgment alone, given that none of my sensors could pick up on any other signatures in the room other than the both of us.

“EVI, can you confirm that all of the sensors are currently nominal?” I spoke to my only other reliable companion here.

“I have run a total of 2,793 separate, distinct diagnostics on every sensor and sub-system involving the active and passive sensor suites, Cadet Booker. All systems are operating nominally.”

The implications of the unknown perp’s ability to evade my sensors were worrying, but I put those thoughts aside from now as I awaited the inevitable end of this entire fiasco.

Because there was only one way this could end.

And when you had not one, but two armored beasts hunting you down… it was no longer a matter of if, but when you were found.

Especially when one of these armored beasts was a five thousand year old legendary armorer.

The only question now was just how it would all play out.

“Hold.” The armorer stopped in his tracks, but maintained the constant tapping. He slowly craned his head downwards towards a seemingly empty patch of bare stone in front of us, ceased the tapping, raised his polearm, then-

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 340% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

WARNING MOTION DETECTED.

-all hell broke loose.

The workbench closest to us was abruptly, and violently pushed to the wayside. Causing all manner of tools and equipment to crash against the stone floor with a series of sharp, distinct, metallic clangs.

The cacophony of a thousand different pieces of metal all slamming into a hard solid surface was deafening. However, it only got worse from there.

As another innocent workbench became the target of this invisible assailant.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

Soon, it became clear where the invisible perp was, as each row of work benches was shoved roughly out of the way along the central aisle, as if the perp was trying to cover his tracks in a desperate gambit to book it out of there towards the main entryway.

It didn’t take too long for Sorecar to act with this newfound insight, as he lifted the weapon in the general direction of the rapidly forming mess-

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 590% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

-and lobbed it forward with the strength and ferocity of an olympic javelin thrower out for fucking blood.

So visceral was that throw that I genuinely thought the poor invisible fool at the end of the business-end of the weapon was definitely done for.

But of course, this being a Sorecar-grade weapon, something far different happened.

A flurry of tendrils flared out from the central shaft of the polearm, as it seemed to completely change shape to something resembling a net, before finally slamming straight into a body that manifested as rapidly as it’d made contact.

ALERT: [1] NEW ENTITY (HUMANOID) DETECTED WITHIN THE A/O.

The suit’s notifications pinged, followed just moments later by the dull painful thud as the unknown interloper slammed face-first into the barricaded entryway.

Whatever magic had been used to obscure them from the suit’s sensors had clearly failed after the net had made contact.

This meant that the rest of the sensors and the massive database of cataloged names and faces were quick to make short work of the identity of this trickster.

And the results… should’ve been someone I should’ve seen coming from a mile away.