EG Book 7 Chapter 16 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Happy New Year’s Eve! I’ll talk to you all next year :-p

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Three hours later, I staggered into the Portable Home. Jon, Lilianna, Xiao, and Lea were all collapsed on the lounge cushions. The others had come out to train about an hour after I started on my Mist Clone Technique. I’d decided to rename that portion because I could now cut it out of the Dancing Northern Wind and use it with just quick dodges. Using Mist Aether, made from three parts Air to one part Water, drastically improved the fidelity of my Clone.

With Knight Kaminski’s help, along with Bridget and Jon, I’d figured out how to create a layer of Mist over myself, making it harder to tell which was the Clone and which was me. This led to a series of tests against Ming and Xiao where I had to trick them with a Clone, and they wanted to see through my technique. After four passes, I’d managed to finally tag Xiao. An hour’s worth of work let me figure out how to add a third, and then a fourth Clone, though the Aether cost was multiplied for each additional Clone.

After the hour, I was given direction to manipulate a single Mist Clone and have it mimic my movements, while the others went into different training regimes. It was hard to fit everyone outside, so we cleared out the table and shoved the lounge cushions against the wall to get some more space. Everyone was gradually exhausted, pushed to their breaking point and slightly past it.

When I plopped onto a cushion, helpfully pulled away from the wall by Jon, I had a full Core. My tiredness was more mental than physical, my body continuously healed and refreshed by my Aether even as I spent several times even my prodigious capacity in Aether. Keeping a low level gathering technique going the entire time was great practice. I’d lost it many times, but keeping my Aether reserves high would be super important once we managed to get to the war, and gathering while channeling was a useful skill.

“Finally, you dropped,” Jon complained.

“Ming’s still sparring with Knight Kaminski,” I said.

“Yeah, but he had several hours of break,” Jon whined back, “and he is the only one still going.”

“Sam’s piloting,” Xiao said.

“Stop raining on my pity boat,” Jon groused.

The rest of us laughed, though it was a weak sound. “So, did you learn anything?” I asked Jon.

“Yeah, if your weird metal stick breaks, I can fly us all to safety,” he told me.

“You do not have that kind of endurance,” Lilianna said. More laughs.

“Funny,” Jon said with an eye roll. “My Floating Ice Barge Technique is at small success, and I should be able to fit everyone on it if we really need to. Uh, I would need a lot of recharge pills and powders, though, to make it to land.”

“That’s fine. Several of us could ride on Sia and Zimnodlot,” I told him. “And I can keep myself in the air indefinitely.”

“I cannot wait to reach Core,” Lilianna said, “My Flametrail Technique will finally let me fly.”

“That is awesome,” Xiao said, giving his crush a grin. “Unfortunately, my movement technique does not have a flight component to it, so I will be relying on you.”

“Come on, Xiao,” Lilianna said, struggling to her feet. “Let us go gather. I am ready for another of the (Furnace) (Heat) Pills. A few more, and gathering with the Beast Cores we were given, should be enough to advance.”

Xiao hauled himself to his feet, and they both shuffled towards the green door, where he was in room one and she was in room two. Each of the common rooms had at least one box of Beast Cores available for use, and another couple boxes were stored in the Alchemy lab.

“Hey Aiden,” Jon said once they left.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Wake me up in an hour,” he responded, then let his head flop backwards. Within seconds he was snoring.

“You know, that’s a great idea,” I said, then conked out myself.

I woke up with a kiss. I blinked my eyes open to see Vaya kneeling next to me. “Hey you,” I said, a giant smile on my face.

“Wake up time, sleepy head,” Vaya told me. “It is our turn to take a watch. Samantha is ready to be done with her time piloting.”

“Got it,” I said, standing up and stretching. I took her hand, and we walked out the door together. “Hey Sam, we’ll take over from here.”

“Oh, good,” she said. “I don’t know how you do it, keeping channeling for hours at a time. My meridians hurt.”

“They are like muscles, the more you use them, the stronger they get,” Vaya said, taking the other girl by the arm. I saw the flare of green around their arms, and Sam straightened a bit from her slump.

“Thanks,” Sam said, “I didn’t know you could heal meridian strain.”

“Only a bit,” Vaya said with a shrug, “Jamila can do more, but rest is still your best option right now.”

“Oh, yeah, sleep is good,” Sam said. She looked at me, “Can we talk sometime?”

I nodded, “Of course,” I said. “But, not right now.”

“Uh huh,” she said, then turned and walked off.

“I will control the Skysurfer,” Vaya said. “Can you keep an eye on our surroundings?”

“Can do,” I said. “I was going to ask you anyway. I need to rest my leg meridians too.”

Vaya reached over and grabbed my shoulder. A sweeping feel of her Life and Healing Aether, made from various mixes of Water, Wood, Earth, and Metal Aether, ran through me, and many of my tiny aches vanished. “Do not make me have to force healing,” Vaya grumbled.

“Sorry, I should have asked earlier,” I said.

“Good. Now, what are you going to do about Miss Samantha?” Vaya asked.

I looked over and saw she was gone, and we were alone outside on the Skysurfer. Sia and Zimnodlot were still flying and the only people who could possibly overhear us, and it was unlikely given their distance in front of us. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“She desires you,” Vaya said.

“I know,” I said, my hand combing through my hair, “but I don’t desire her back. I mean, she’s a great young woman, but … Light! I don’t feel that way about her.”

“Yet,” Vaya said. “This is a very similar protest to your’s about Princess Aleksandra.”

I shook my head. “No. I still don’t know how I’m going to give the three of you enough attention, care, and respect. I don’t think I am good enough for one amazing young woman, let alone all of you. Why would I try to add a fourth? Sam is latching onto me because I saved her, and that is not the best foundation for a relationship anyway.”

“Her drive to catch up to the rest of us is admirable,” Vaya said, “and her instinctive ability with Inscriptions is amazing.”

“Do you want me to try and pursue her too?” I asked. “Really?”

“We will see,” she said. “I do like her.”

“I’d be more than happy to have Ma and Pa adopt her, but she needs to be part of this world and not a slave for a lot longer before I think she’d be ready for a real relationship. She is very strong, mentally, to be able to just bounce back from her horrid experiences, but there is no way she’s not extremely fragile right now. This is not a good time for anyone to pursue her romantically,” I said.

“True, she is a limp line right now,” Vaya said.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing off into the distance behind us.

Vaya turned to look at what I was gesturing at. “I do not know, but there are a lot of them, and they are closing in pretty quickly!”

“Sia, there are things closing with us from the rear,” I shouted mentally at my Bond.

“We are returning now,” he responded.

“Good!” I told him, then ran back to the door to the Portable Home. I threw it open. “Some kind of Beasts approaching. Get ready for a fight!” My shout echoed through the common room.

“I am ready,” Knight Kaminski said, appearing next to me while throwing on her shirt. “Help me with this.” A scale mail top was thrust into my hands, and I held it up to allow her to wriggle into it. The power of her armor was evident in the way it burned in my Aether Sight.

Ming threw open the door to the purple rooms while buckling his sword belt across his waist. Lea followed him, and he turned to help her into the armor set I’d gifted her.

The door to the outside was open, and Vaya shouted, “We have at most a minute left until they get here. There are at least fifty of whatever they are. They look like a mix of birds and people.”

“Harpies!” I shouted. “They are one of the peoples that summoned Chaos last time. Be ready to defend, but they should be intelligent. Maybe they aren’t here to fight?”

“We will give them a chance for peaceable contact,” Knight Kaminski said, “but we will also be ready if they want to fight.”

“Would it be better if you revealed your power to start with, or if you hid as a trump card?” I asked Knight Kaminski.

She thought for a second, then said, “Better to intimidate them and possibly prevent a conflict than to appear weaker and guarantee it.” She unveiled her presence, and I felt, deep in my bones, that I could not defeat her. She took a step and moved to the other end of the Skysurfer, then she jumped into the sky above us.

“I do not think this will end well,” Jamila said. “I feel uneasy.”

“I’ll protect you,” I told her. I pulled out my trisula and growled towards the incoming Harpies. “No one will hurt my friends.”

Knight Kaminski’s aura exploded out of her, and for a second I felt like I was suffocating. The initial impact dropped away quickly, and I pushed the rest off with my own aura. “Greetings and welcome,” Knight Kaminski said, her voice echoing across the distance to the oncoming swarm, “If you come in peace, we welcome the opportunity to meet new people. Be warned, we will defend ourselves if you desire war.”

An answering aura, nearly as strong as Knight Kaminski’s, flared out from the foremost Harpy. He looked older, with gray-tinged feathers coming out of the scalp of his human-like head. The Harpy’s eyes were closer together than a humans, and his mouth was a hooked beak like a vulture’s. His wings extended out from his torso nearly three meters in each direction, and ended in a three fingered hand with a wicked claw on each digit.

I scanned through the Harpies and saw that nearly all of them were using some type of Air technique to increase their lift. Most were near the peak of Condensation, with six in Seed Core, one in Foundation Core, and the leader, either Complete or Perfect Core, I wasn’t sure.

The leader cocked his head sideways and cawed, and my gift of tongues triggered again, “M’Zee? No, you are too thick. What are you? Cah, no matter, your blood will satiate Strix, and she will reward us with power. Kill them!”

“They’re going to attack!” I yelled up to Knight Kaminski, then I jumped into the air. I created a platform under my right foot, channeling a Fireball through the Bond mark in my center to my right arm and trisula, letting it improve the power with its Inscription. The Fireball came out blue, though I could also see the red of the Fire Aether inside it, and I could feel the heat coming off it.

Before I could throw it, though, a massive slash of Wind Aether formed from the Harpy leader and shot out at us. It was big enough to cover Knight Kaminski, myself, and the entirety of the Skysurfer. Knight Kaminski threw her hands out, and hundreds of Metal Spikes formed and exploded like the pellets of a shotgun, blowing apart the attack.

My Fireball streaked in as I aimed it at a gap between the other attacks. A Complete Condensation Harpy at the bottom of their formation was my target. It cawed, a cone of Sound Aether streaking into my attack, in an attempt to block. My Fireball blew through the defense like it wasn’t there, then impacted the target. It detonated, the unstable runes dumping all of the Aether in it instantly. Two Harpies tumbled from the sky.

The rest of the Harpies started to chant, “Kill, kill, blood for our Strix, marrow for our brood!” Dozens of attacks rained down on us.

“I am coming now!” Sia said, and I saw him diving from above. He grew, wings extending until they were eight meters long each, with a three meter wide body. Sia was enormous and terrifying. He plunged through the Harpy flock, whose eyes were all on their prey, and fired off a Flame Wave. In his talons, he crushed the Foundation Core Harpy.

She screeched and flexed, ripping his claws out of her, but one of her wings was broken. Sia’s beak flashed down to bite her. She screamed, using the same Sound Cone, only this time it knocked Sia’s head back. With a twist, he threw her, then dove more to gain speed.

I glanced down and saw Jon, Kami, and Lilianna focusing on defense. Jon had streamers of Ice extending from his shield, giving him a nearly three meter diameter circle to block with. Lilianna had dozens of leaves floating around her, each one rushing out to slice apart an attack before it could strike the others. Kami grew to four meters tall, her armor extending over her body as she stood in front of Vaya, Bridget, and Milenna.

Ming and Xiao were sending intricate Aether Slashes out from their swords. Each cut and swing changed the angle, spin, and composition of the Aether attacks, and any Harpy that failed to dodge risked being cut in two. Bridget was corralling the flock, sending Wind Gusts spiraling around to keep the Harpies in a group, while Vaya had grown five-meter long Vine Tentacles that snapped at any Harpy that got too close.

That moment of distraction, though, cost me. One of the Seed Core Harpies talons pierced through my shoulder and yanked me off the platform I’d been standing on. It tried to peck my brains out, but my circlet’s shield stopped it. “Let go of me,” I growled, grabbing its leg with my uninjured arm. With a yank, I snapped the leg. Whoa, that broke easy, I thought.

The man screamed, Sound pounding me while I held onto its crippled limb. My other hand spasmed and my trisula started to fall. A quick twist of Metal Aether brought it back to my hand, but I couldn’t grip it while I had bird in my shoulder. With a twist and an application of internal Aether, I got the claws out of me, and realized that we were falling.

I threw my Aether into Dancing Northern Wind and rotated so the Harpy was below me. It took four platforms shattering before I managed to make one able to hold our combined weight. Of course, the Harpy took the brunt of the impacts, though they didn’t seem to do much to it. “I will eat your bones,” he spat in my face, and three Air Blades formed in front of my eyes.

I released my aura and created a dozen Fire Blasts to knock aside the Air Blades. My aura was stronger, thicker than his, and caused his attacks to slow down. My left hand regained its function, and I used it to punch the bird brain in the chest. Forceful Punch formed instinctively, and the Harpy nearly exploded as my Aether shattered his body.

Light! I thought as I glanced into my center, I’m down at least a third of my Aether. That Beast’s attacks were hard to defend against. No time, more to fight.

The battle had moved past me, and I sprinted towards the others. A massive wave of Air Aether, coordinated between the four Seed Core Harpies swept onto the Skysurfer, buffeting Jon and Kami’s defenses. Six Harpies sped through the gaps created. Four were cut down almost immediately, Ming, Xiao, and Aleks showing why they placed so high in the tournament. Another tried to attack Lampart, only to get eaten.

The final one, though, grabbed Milenna and threw her into the air. It didn’t live to attack her again, but she fell screaming off the side of the Skysurfer.