Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (31/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 31 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

We both spent the next few seconds staring intently at the only victim of collateral damage from that very brief, and very one-sided exchange.

An exchange which involved 25 very fast bois, and one very well-protected, hand-crafted suit of enchanted armor.

A suit of armor who was an innocent victim in all of this, whose only offense was simply being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. It was an offense that had led to a hailstorm of bullets creating an unsightly hole where a beefy neck-guard had once been.

This surprising turn of events had resulted in a very perplexed Sorecar, who seemed to be unable to make heads or tails of all of this.

The man’s gaze remained completely transfixed on what could only be described as a clean, textbook-example of a shot-grouping made possible by a tried and proven weapon with centuries of refinement under its belt. The thumb-sized hole that had manifested on a particularly heavily-reinforced part of the armor looked almost surreal given the otherwise immaculate state of the suit. It looked almost intentional, almost mockingly so, and would’ve more than likely been immediately attributed to a great many form of mana-fueled shenanigans, rather than the unassuming mana-less brick that was my pistol.

After a few more moments of silence, punctuated only by an awkward shuffle as the man knelt down to get a closer look at the damage, he eventually turned to face me again with a clenched fist and a single thumb pointed back towards the hole in question. “So… mana-less?” He asked with a genuine display of disbelief, as if needing to hear me say it one last time to douse what few embers remained of his lingering skepticism.

A skepticism which I only had one response for: that being a confident nod and a sheepish smile. “Yup, mana-less!”

A sharp ‘sigh’ soon followed, as the man wiggled his hands in place for a few seconds, causing two back-to-back upticks in mana-radiation.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 200% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

The lights in the room suddenly dimmed.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 230% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

And an object suddenly appeared in the armorer’s formerly empty hands. An object which bore a remarkable similarity to a flashlight, if you were to replace the butt of it with a dull pulsating orb of light encased in a spinning disc of crystals.

It looked like something you’d find in an end-game dungeon, despite its sole purpose being identical to that of your common requisitions-office-grade flashlight.

The purpose of this device, and the sudden dimming of the workshop’s lights was soon made clear to me as he pointed the light through the hole in the armor… only for it to emerge on the other side seamlessly.

“Because you’ve left me with not just one hole to worry about, but two. And as a result, left me with double the questions, double the perplexity, and double the mystery. As to how a mana-less projectile was able to make it through enchanted armor, not just once, but twice.” The man reinforced his sheer and utter disbelief by rapidly flicking the bottom of the magical flashlight with his fingers, causing the light to turn on and off in rapid succession. A very apt metaphor for how the man was currently feeling at this point.

“The armor, despite being enchanted, is still just steel, correct?” I responded with a straightforward question.

“Mana-steel, yes, but your point still stands I’m assuming?” The armorer responded curtly.

“And I’m assuming there’s no funny business involved? No enchantments that can repel projectiles, no shields that slows down anything coming towards it, or anything of the sort?” I continued further.

“Not this particular piece, no. It’s a commission from the same person who commissioned the polearm. All he wanted, and all he was allowed, was a series of complex enchants designed to strengthen the mana-steel. Resilience, durability, and other such assorted enchantments.” The armorer listed off in rapid succession.

“Well, theoretically speaking then, even with enchantments, anything with enough mass, traveling with enough speed, could pierce an object, correct?”

The armorer made a point to cock his head to the other side, and if he still had eyes, I bet they’d be staring at me with all sorts of emotions right about now. “The speeds an object would need to achieve to pierce a piece of enchanted armor, not once, but twice, would be impossible to accomplish without the aid of the direct manipulation of mana, or the construction of an artifice using mana.” The armorer stated plainly, with a hint of disbelief coloring his voice. “No known mana-less mechanism would be able to accomplish a similar end. This is not to mention that the object in question would have to be shaped with the explicit purpose to pierce mana-steel, and would have to be forged out of a material with properties comparable to mana-steel, if not exceeding it.”

The man paused after that spiel for a few seconds, his whole body going completely still as he began mumbling to himself. “A smart smith would have to weigh the cost and benefit of the velocity versus the weight of the projectile, and the energy capable of being transferred at the point of impact, moreover, different shapes designed to pierce certain armors, and the properties of the metals involved would also come into play. Which, given the back and forth nature of arms and defense, all of this would imply-” His mumbles stopped as he rapidly cocked his head towards the hole yet again, then towards me.

“Just how far has your realm come, where your people have found it necessary to develop projectiles capable of piercing materials comparable to enchanted mana-steel, Emma Booker?” The armorer spoke with nothing but shock and disbelief in his voice.

“Far enough.” I spoke vaguely, my hands trembling as I knew I had to tread the line between discretion and answers like a thread through a needle.

“Though, I should’ve expected as much, given how that small weapon of yours was capable of containing a chain of consecutive explosions.” The armorer spoke in no uncertain terms, as I felt my heart practically skipping a beat. “That’s what it was, wasn’t it? That dreadful sound? I’ve dabbled in my fair share of explosive weaponry, I know the sound of a contained explosion when I hear one.”

I paused, trying to wrap my head around an acceptable answer as I landed on a plausible, middling response. “I’m-”

Only to be cut off by the armorer before I could go anywhere with that. “Actually, don’t answer that question.” He urged sharply, as he craned his head towards several aspects of the room, before landing on the entryway to the workshop.

It was the same tone he’d used when he’d hurriedly approved my weapon and prematurely ended the weapons inspection right before Ilunor’s prank. It was that same, almost hushed sort of self-conscious intonation that felt just a bit off from the endlessly-curious tone he usually spoke in.

“It would be rude of me to intrude and to blindly ask for something that might well be a trade-secret of another smithy or armory after all.” He quickly added, clearly attempting to justify that abrupt halt in his curious train of thought by giving me an answer that was just convincing enough.