“Auntie Ran, what is war like?”
That was the very first question I asked my aunt, long before I was put under her care.
It was a question that would evolve over ti, much to her frustration.
“Auntie Ran, could you please tell what it was like to be in a real battle for the very first ti?”
The question grew more specific, more focused. As it beca clear with each passing year what it was I was looking for and why.
“Ask when you’re older” She’d always answer, or rather, find sothing to say to that effect.
This back and forth lasted for months, then years, and increased the closer I got to the end of my ti at high school as I was dead-set on pursuing a course that would see entering a completely different world. At which point, my question beca more of a point of proactive interest, rather than a point of passing curiosity.
It’d been nearly half a century since the last conflict, a series of skirmishes that could barely be considered a cohesive set of battles let alone a war. Yet it was here in these last few flickers of humanity’s violent past that my aunt earned her dals and stripes. It was through her that I could learn what it was like, and what I should be prepared for should another conflict arise. Whilst at the ti I was confident I’d never really need that information, I was glad that I pursued it anyways, given the reality that I quickly found myself in almost imdiately after I left the nest.
“Everyone’s first is different. A boarding action is categorically as removed from an orbital drop as a combined arms push is from a limited engagent. I don’t want to get into the specifics of how mine went down, because whatever battle you find yourself in will be fundantally different. Here’s a few pointers though, which I think are universal enough. One, youwillfeel fear, shock, and confusion or heck any combination of the three. But whatever you do, you cannot lose it.
And yet here I was.
About to fucking lose it.
Though not in the way that my aunt more than likely intended. As out of all the scenarios I was trained for, out of every eventuality the professional overthinkers back at ho had put forth for consideration, this was most assuredly not sothing anyone could’ve ever anticipated.
There certainly wasn’t a ti slot on the Threat Assessnt and Response training blocs that included how to swiftly and safely neutralize an ever shifting mass of undulating shapeless plaster.
One that bared down at with two, amorphous black spheres that rippled with each and every blink. Its irises pulsated like a cell’s nucleus under a microscope, its colors transitioned through the entire visual spectrum faster than a budding strear’s RGB setup.
Its whole mass lacked a cohesive form and shape, instead looking like so sort of an upscaled amoeba, but one that needed to keep forming and reforming itself under threat of the forces of gravity forcing it back into its natural shape; what I assud was just a puddle of blobby gray goop.
“Two. You will be wracked with indecision. But follow your gut, then your training, preferably in that order, and justdosothing.”
My hands moved on their own, running off of muscle mory alone. It took less than a second for to palm my gun, unlocking and removing the firearm from its magholster in one swift, uninterrupted motion. My whole arm moving fluidly as the exoskeleton fra did barely anything to compensate or augnt these movents.
It was pure training and instinct coming through at this point.
Without a second’s hesitation, and with the HUD switching instantaneously into its tactical loadout, I raised my gun towards the creature in front of ; target reticles finding it almost impossible to lock on to any specific point on the creature. As there was no preset reference data for what this creature even was, nor anything it could at least extrapolate from, save for the one very important piece of intel we just gleaned from the library.
The EVI began scanning, desperately combing through every bit of sensor data it had in an attempt to isolate the supposed core hidden sowhere within the creature.
TARGET IDENTIFIED. SPHEROID OBJECT, 0.12 INCHES IN DIATER. HIGHLIGHTING NOW.
A round, distinct object highlighted in another pair of target reticles suddenly ca into view, placing itself square and center on the grid-like layout that was the tactical HUD.
It sat stationary on the upper ‘shoulder’ of the creature’s right ‘limb’, a nondescript extension of its amorphous ‘torso’ that looked as if soone with no prior sculpting experience had tried to freestyle an arm with no reference or guidance.
I shifted my aim accordingly, feeling the slight nudges from the suit’s exoskeleton as it attempted to help along by correcting minor details of my aim through purposefully overriding small little aspects of my stance, grip, and forearm placent. Taking into account the finer details of the surrounding environnt and accounting for every possible environntal factor. Augnting human marksmanship and firearms intuition with the pure, brutal, and unfeeling efficiency of mathematics.
Despite all of this, for a split second there, my gaze strayed towards its eyes again; and for one brief mont I swore I could feel an intelligence locked sowhere within it.
That didn’t change anything though.
But what happened next, definitely did.
“Three. Expect the unexpected, you can bash for my cliches but this one’s true. The battlefield is an unpredictable ss that every butterbar thinks they can predict and control. But it’s nothing like the simulations, nor is it anything like the safe sterile environnt that is training. Anything can happen. And I an anything.”
Anything… including how my line of sight was suddenly obscured without any warning. A female figure having placed herself between and the null. Or perhaps, from her point of view, it was probably the other way around. “Altena Fisero!” The apprentice exclaid with a sharp, assertive yell, followed up shortly by a localized surge in mana radiation.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 700% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
This caused the Earth beneath our feet to shake violently, before finally cracking open with a deafening crunch that sent rock, dust, dirt, and debris shooting into the air. The ground shifted upwards by a solid few feet, before promptly being brought back down with a gut twisting thump.
The cracks in the Earth gave way to a dizzying army of vine-like tendrils, as well as spears fashioned from the thorny rose bushes that surrounded us. All of which slamd into the null everywhere all at once, eliciting a bassy, heart-stopping roar that all but sent the apprentice stumbling back in disorientation. It was clear why it had that effect though, as the sensors clocked it in at just about 142 decibels.
The null that now more resembled a pin cushion writhed and shifted in place, stunned, but not mortally wounded. It began tugging at the vines which held it in place, parts of it that were pierced all the way through began lting and reforming, worming itself out of its binds and reforming it soplace else.
“Emma Booker, you must take flight, imdiately!” The apprentice craned her head towards , and yelled out desperately. “I shall deal with this beast, this is not a place for students!”
No sooner did the apprentice utter these warnings did the null return with an attack of its own. Having actually taken the spears for itself in one of its newly-ford fists, before turning those very implents right back at us. The attack ca just as quickly, the mass of spears bound together within its fist barreling towards the apprentice’s flank.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
CRACK
The spears intended for the apprentice’s side, instead found themselves slamming against an unseen wall. Dozens if not hundreds of the spears splintered and fractured off into a deluge of useless wooden chips.
The elf was unscathed, but breathing heavily now. Her eyes glistening with a panic as it was clear to that this was perhaps just as new to her as it was to . A situation where all stops were pulled and the stakes were no longer a disappointing assessnt or a slap on the wrist, but actual life and death.
“Impesis Taroni!” The elf yelled out again, the untranslatable mass of words being uttered with the sa fervent intensity as the first ti she’d uttered out what I assud to be a spoken spell.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 750% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
The ground beneath us shook once again, but this ti instead of a series of physical objects being flung into the null, it was the earth itself trying to envelope the creature like a ravenous hungry maw. The patch of dirt imdiately beneath its blobby ‘feet’ opened up like a gaping maw, engulfing the beast all the way up to its torso, prompting it to imdiately begin fighting tooth and nail to get out. This only served to aggravate the apprentice further however, as each struggle for escape was imdiately countered with an increasingly aggressive set of what could only be described as concentrated bursts of mana.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 370% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
A beam of brilliant blue and white light shot out from one of the apprentice’s outstretched hands. It didn’t resemble a stream of flas, nor was it the distinct eye-watering discharge of a plasma bolt. The closest thing I could perhaps compare it to was the discharge of a laser focusing array, except instead of being visible only under specific optics, this was visible to the naked eye.
As the beam surged forward, our surroundings soon found themselves bathed in a monochromatic hue of blue. The air fizzed, crackled, and buzzed with what sounded like the distant sounds of electrical discharge.
All of this ca to a head as the beam finally struck the null.
The attack elicited even more low-frequency roars, if only for as long as the beam was maintained.
Because as soon as the apprentice had let up, as soon as she lowered her arm to inspect the damage done, the damaged parts of the null's form simply lted and reford, only to be replaced by more of the sa gray amorphous mass. A mass that had begun to reach its tendrils in every possible direction, rapidly absorbing pieces of the lush garden it could co into contact with, and leaving the ground singed with a dark inky blackness where no biomass remained.
All of this seed to trigger an even greater aggressive resolve from the apprentice.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
The apprentice struck it again.
ALERT…
Then again.
ALE…
Then again.
I turned off the warnings at that point, as the apprentice continued her stream of attacks unabated, serving only to stall the creature as it now sat awkwardly halfway between huge chunks of rock. Its core remained so tantalizingly close, yet so far, hidden away underneath layers of thick rock and packed dirt, and away from the effective penetrating power of my gun. As I bided my ti, waiting for that perfect shot.
The onslaught of attacks kept the null at bay, but it wasn’t exactly killing it off.
It was around the seventh attack that sothing changed, as two figures approached the scene in a hurried sprint, just off to the side of the apprentice’s vision.
This developnt took the apprentice off guard, with her eyes now locked onto the two students, all but screwing over her situational awareness. “First years, get out-!”
“Four. Most fucking importantly. Whatever you do, do not get distracted.”
The distraction, despite being a montary pause, was enough to spell disaster. In that split second where the apprentice’s concentration broke, so too did the ground’s grip on the null fail.
With that montary reprieve, the null struck back. Leaping up from its earthy prison in defiance of all the known laws of physics, and then barreling straight back down from an eye watering height.
It landed about 14 feet away from where it was just trapped in the unrelenting maw of the apprentice’s earthen trap.
It landed… right on top of the apprentice.
The elf was knocked out of the fight on impact.
My heart sank as I knew what had to be done next.
Without a second’s hesitation, and with the unknown factor that was the apprentice’s magic-based attacks now completely removed from the equation, I took a step forward-
“Emma!” I heard both Thacea and Thalmin yelling out.
-and fired.
BANG
The whole world stopped.
That deafening noise ant a great many things.
To ? It ant that the gun had discharged effectively, and that was that.
To Thacea, Thalmin, and anyone else here? It was just a loud noise, created by unknown ans by as yet unknown chanisms.
To history? This one simple discharge would be the shot heard throughout the Nexus. Heralding the death knells of a “perpetual” regi, and acting as a prelude to the chorus of a future still yet unwritten.
The age of gunpowder had finally arrived.
Ti seed to slow to a crawl, as I could’ve sworn I actually saw the jelly-like flesh of the null rippling as the bullet entered it completely unchallenged, before finally, striking the core with the force of more newtons than I could ever care to calculate.
A brilliant flash of light shot out from the core as it was struck, cracks radiating outwards from the point of the bullet’s impact.
A deafening, dulcet shriek unlike any other sound it’d generated up to this point, flooded the gardens. It was hurt, actually hurt.
The null shifted its attention from the apprentice it now sat atop of, to once again.
But the eyes it attempted to find under my lenses were no longer one of uneasy anxiousness.
They were now the eyes belonging to a soldier with a single task in mind.
BANG
I fired my second round, the bullet penetrating without any resistance, and once more striking the core just milliters away from the first hit. Yet another brilliant flash of light rippled from it, followed by a dulcet, bassy howl even louder than the first.
Its whole form began to shake now, as whatever fucked up inner workings that had kept it relatively solid was beginning to fail.
The thing finally shifted its weight off of the apprentice, only for it to take a single step towards .
BANG
And for the third round to strike on its upper right ‘shoulder’ once again. Strangely enough, the brilliant flash of light never manifested, instead, the beast’s entire form had all but collapsed.
In the ti it took for to register what had happened, the beast that had stood a good 9 feet in height had all but condensed. Reduced to a pile of rippling plaster that caked the darkened earth beneath it, before finally, draining off into the various cracks and crevices that had ford throughout the course of the battle.
And just like that, it was over.
“Five. You don’t really know when a battle is over. Because unlike training, there’s no start or stop, there’s no clock-in or clock-off ti. There’s no schedule blocks or titables. The only real way to know it’s over is when you’re rotated out. And until then, you’re never really out of the fight.”
Or at least, I hoped it was over.
I couldn’t afford to waste my ti on these silly little insecurities that clouded my mind however, as my sights were set upon dealing with a far more pressing issue that needed attention now.
I sprinted over at full speed towards the downed apprentice. Every fiber in my being refused to believe that she could be dead.
All my reservations on the woman, from the pettiness over the previous night to the blatant cover-ups just monts prior all but faded away.
None of it mattered anymore.
Whatever her story was, whatever kind of person she was, she was still a person. A sapient being that might have been deeply flawed, but never deserved anything like this.
Especially when she’d so clearly stood and fought, purposefully putting herself in the line of danger for the sake of not just her own sake, but the sake of us, the students in her ‘care’.
My heart skipped a beat as I saw the state she was in, but unlike what I’d assud, my body wasn’t frozen in place or wracked with indecision. Instead, my training ca through and I proceeded to perform what I knew would help.
Turning towards the gang, my sights imdiately landed on Thacea. “Thacea, get help, now!”
That was the first step of ergency care, provided you had the option: designating soone to get help.
And whilst ergency services didn’t exist here, I assud the school must have had so top notch magical healing facilities or sothing.
Thacea imdiately took flight, and zood off. anwhile Thalmin rushed towards where the null once stood, pulling out his dagger and with another burst of mana radiation, transfigured it into a full length sword.
Next, I turned towards the apprentice, taking stock of her condition by first attempting to address her with an admittedly panicked series of breaths. “Larial! Can you hear ? Larial, are you still with ?” I managed out, and in doing so I began observing all that I needed to, for the crucial assessnt of this vital step; to determine if her airway was still in working order.
That was the very first step in the ABCDEs of field ATLS, with the exception of the assessnt of the area to determine that it was actually safe to proceed to. However, I neither had the magical acun or the experience to really judge that right now. So I made the executive decision to proceed with the steps that had been drilled into my skull just months ago.
I began fumbling with my dipack, after confirming that her airway was intact judging from her weak but audible speech, I secured her neck with an inflatable cervical collar that would keep her c-spine from deviating to prevent further injury. Before I could get any further into the later steps of the primary survey, a familiar giant hopped back into the fray, his face drained of its complexion as he set his eyes on the critically wounded apprentice.
“W-what are ye doin?!” The giant yelled out, kneeling down next to the barely conscious Larial in an attempt to push aside. “G-get outta here, now! This is beyond what you first years can handle!” He repeated, attempting to unlatch the cervical collar that was keeping the apprentice’s c-spine safe.
I wasn’t having any of his crap however, as I brushed his hand aside, and locked eyes with him as best I could underneath the helt.
“Shut up and listen to . Until we get proper aid from whatever it is your guys’ equivalent of an EMS is, I’m going to do the best I can, understood? So stop fucking around and let do my fricking job!” I yelled with an authority that ca almost naturally to , causing the giant to relent and allowing to continue my primary survey assessnts.
Just as I was checking her breathing, as I was pulling out the portable pulse oxiter, did I realize I hadn’t considered the finer details of multi-species dical care. I realized that I couldn’t be certain whether or not the sa trics of human dical care could be applied to an entirely different species, even if they looked almost identical to humans. I didn’t have ti to entertain this thought however, so I moved in to pinch the device onto her finger regardless, but not before I heard what sounded eerily similar to an ambulance siren erging from the distance, and approaching fast.
I checked one of my helt’s cam-feeds to realize that the ‘ambulance’ in question was a floating carpet, a flying carpet if you will, with the source of this this ‘ambulance-like’ sound explained through presence of what could only be described as a floating set of bagpipes generating that low-to-high pitch noise. Flanking this glorified stretcher on both sides were humanoids that both wore outfits displaying a prominent symbol of what I assud to be the Nexus’ equivalent of an EMS standard.
Though one of the humanoids had startled back to my feet by virtue of what he looked like, my hand reached for my pistol out of reflex only for an observant Thacea to step in. Her feathered hand was easily detectable through the haptic feedback as she attempted to keep my hand affixed to my sides, preventing from drawing the weapon.
“Relax, Emma.” She spoke softly. “That’s just a water elental. I know they look visually similar to the beast you just vanquished, but that’s just a superficial similarity.” She squeezed my hand tightly, as if to reinforce her point. “It’s over, Emma. There’s no more danger.”
My hands shook for the longest while as I looked down at the two magical healers warily, before finally, I acquiesced. Stepping back and allowing them to do their job.
“The apprentice was-”
“Apprentice Larial was crushed by a rampant magical creature” The giant interjected, stopping in the middle of my attempt at giving the pair the proper preceding incident report. “She was trying to protect the students, but it turns out that they really didn’t need her protection after all.” The giant gestured towards , causing my eyes to widen as I realized that this was perhaps the first ti another mber of the ‘faculty’ was actually trying to explain the situation in a way that was actually relatively close to reality.
The water elental leaped towards the apprentice, knelt down next to her, and raised both of its ‘hands’ above her limp form.
ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 250% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS
“She’s stable, but barely.” The water elental spoke, after having knelt down to examine the apprentice closer-up. “Critical hypotension, and a myriad of other injuries all throughout her body from whatever did this to her. Grade IV bilateral fractures, she needs imdiate repair and union, prepare the setting stones, and don’t forget the intravenous and arterial stabilizing potions.”
The elental stood up, allowing for the other dic present to slip the magic carpet underneath the apprentice. The mass of water shifted its way towards , eventually ending up re feet away from as it ‘stared’ into my visor. My whole body tensed up upon seeing this thing so close up, my mind was going into overdrive up until it gave a deep nod. I couldn't tell what its expression was, but its words certainly helped fill in the context gap. “Good job stabilizing her spine. You know your stuff. Maybe consider practical healing when you finish your studies.”
With that simple affirmation, the magical healer left, the pair now darting off with the apprentice in tow and hopefully with a fully kitted out dical center waiting to receive her.
Even after they left, I still felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins. It didn’t feel like any of this was over, the calm that was supposed to follow just didn’t show up. Instead, it felt like I was still constantly on edge.
“Everyone, I’m not sure what I’m looking at over here, care to take a look?” Thalmin yapped out, still standing over the fresh cuts in the earth.
That announcent certainly didn’t make things easier on my nerves, either.
All three of us imdiately walked over towards the wolf at his insistence, finding ourselves peering over the crevice in question.
After a good few scans of the near 100 foot deep hole, it was clear exactly why he’d called us over.
The null, or what gelatinous-like substances remained from it, was slowly but surely draining down the various pores and root systems that existed underneath the surface. The scanner, however, couldn’t detect the ‘core’ that had consistently been locked onto throughout the entirety of the battle.
This could be because that final shot had all but obliterated the core.
This could also be because the scanners simply couldn’t penetrate that far down.
“I’m sure it didn’t just despawn.” I began under a series of exasperated breaths. “Surely, its body has to go sowhere. I’m assuming that sowhere is just… wherever the path of least resistance is? That probably ans it's well on its way to whatever subterranean hole, crack, or pocket it ends up being dragged to by gravity?” I proposed, turning towards the group with a look of nervous unsureness.
“I’m confident whatever foul beast that was, has been thoroughly dispatched by the combined efforts of our dear apprentice, and our daring knight.” The giant spoke with a hefty bout of confidence. His rumbling voice, despite its haggard undertones, still tried its best to maintain an unseasonable level of positivity and optimism. “I’m quite certain of it.” He reiterated, his eyes turning towards the last vestiges of the creature’s forr body as it drained away out of sight.
Thacea and Thalmin’s gazes remained… decidedly uncertain. The princess nodded along anyways, whilst the rcenary prince seed barely convinced enough just to sheath his blade away.
With another hefty breath, and with a shift in positive undertones to one of questioning concern, the groundskeeper turned his gaze towards in particular. “What business did you kids have with the Apprentice, anywho?”
User Comments
0 comments from readers