Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (142/?) WiP 1

Author’s Note: Hey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 142 I hope you guys enjoy! :D The revised version for Chapter 141 will be releasing tomorrow some time before the full release of Chapter 142! :D

The Township of Sips. Marsh’s Fishpond. Local Time 1500 Hours.

Thalmin

The cold hit me first — a hundred tiny daggers poking, jabbing, and pricking at the skin beneath my fur.

Then, it was leypull, and the combined weight of both armor and soaked fur that dragged me down mercilessly into the depths.

Dread filled my shorebound heart, as panic threatened to squeeze the air within my lungs out with a burst of reflexive shock.

But I defied it.

I resisted it… by embracing both discomforts, as the former kept my mind alert whilst the latter added much-needed speed to this race to the bottom.

I reached for emberstride, gripping onto its hilt while I attempted to ignore the dark and murky depths of the unknown growing darker by the second. 

I broke through the fear of the unknown expanse, by focusing instead wholly and unrelentingly on the figure just out of sight — the small child-sized figure that continued reaching, flailing, but ultimately failing to free themselves from the grasp of this most vexing of Nexian creatures.

Seconds ticked by, as the Kelpie’s seaweed-like tendrils kept the child frustratingly just out of reach.

Then, it all changed.

SQUELCH!

We hit the swamp’s squishy bottom.

And I finally felt the firm grip of a smaller hand embracing my own.

At which point, the gates of infernium sprung open.

Strips of seaweed-like tendrils gripped both my wrists and ankles.

A coordinated attempt to bind both wrists and ankles together followed—

SNAP!

—but was seamlessly broken with a firm magic-aided tug.

I had to act quickly.

Without a second thought, I shifted emberstride’s form to that of a humble prying knife.

From there, I urgently attempted to find purchase, an opening, or some give between the tendril’s vice grip and the child’s ensnared torso.

But I couldn’t find any.

The tendrils had somehow clung on skintight, preventing any prying or jimmying in of emberstride’s blade between the patches of seaweed and the elf’s torso.

There was only one way forward.

And I winced at the thought.

I stared urgently into the child’s eyes, but all I was met with were the same panicked expressions completely devoid of reason.

Just hang on. I attempted to convey through expression alone, as I channeled both purpose and command through to emberstride’s form.

We’ll have to cut from the outside in. Stop when you feel flesh. Stop when you feel flesh. Stop when you feel flesh. I ordered tersely, bordering on pleading at this point, as I felt the blade making short work of the stretchy, rope-like texture of the tendrils.

There we go, nice and easy, nice and easy, keep going girl. Stop when you feel—

FWOOSH!

I felt the rope-like texture give.

At which point, all I felt was that fur-raising sensation of a finely sharpened blade slicing through—

—flesh.

My heart stopped, as I witnessed half of… something flying off of the kelpie and onto the silt and mud below.

Emotions… of all sorts threatened to overwhelm me.

But neither the Kelpie nor my limited air gave me the privilege of time to even think.

The creature bucked hard, its rear legs and tail that had held the child within its grasp, twitched and writhed with what looked to be pain.

I leaped back, turning to emberstride as I uttered a simple mental command.

Fire.

FA-FWOOOOOSHHHHHHHH!

Darkness gave way to the blade’s flaming brightness, and through the bubbling and boiling water did I finally make out both creature and victim.

…

Or so I’d assumed.

Because under the clarity of light and a deeper palpation of the manastreams did I finally see it.

That was no child.

In the place of a torso was some sort of greenish-grey blob of slimy mimic-like flesh—

WOOOOOOOOSH!

I snapped rightwards, dodging the kelpie mid-thought by barely an inch.

It took the creature a second to right itself.

But that second was all I needed to grapple with the reality of the situation.

I’d been fooled, ensnared by bait from the other side of the water’s surface.

What was just seconds ago an acute sense of both guilt and shame faded away now. Replaced firmly by the shame of a fool, and the growing need for both air and a swift victory.

The latter would necessitate addressing the former.

And because of the previous weeks’ attempt on my life, I came surprisingly prepared…

With a brief incantation and a disorientating sense of pressure growing around my ears and nose, I forged what I’d hoped to have tested in less pressing situations — aquabreath.

It couldn’t have come at a better time too as the Kelpie surged forwards, dashing, and then preemptively shifting paths, moving through water like a wraith, and disorienting me with tendril after tendril of seaweed that seemed to emerge from out of thin air.

Through the buildup of both silt and the relentless assaults of tendrils it finally caught me off guard, slamming into my torso with a force which would’ve caused even the most disciplined to expel air involuntarily.

I convulsed, the armor of my chest softening the blow, and even the impact as I fell back against the muddy bed of the pond with an unceremonious THUD!

Primal panic settled, as instincts told me not to breathe in.

But the civilized mind eventually won out.

As I drew not water, but air into both my mouth and nose.

A renewed surge of confidence filled me following this development as I quickly picked myself back up, ‘dusting’ myself off with a burst of energizing magic, before quickly scouring the local manastreams for the troublesome creature.

The difficulty in doing so in its native habitat proved to be an obstacle.

But not too much of an obstacle, especially when it was poised for another, rather basic attack.

It was a mere animal after all. 

Magically gifted and clearly modified by the life archives, yes.

But it was an animal all the same.

“Let’s finish this.” I uttered audibly, garnering a series of bubble-filled snorts from the wild creature as it surged forwards straight towards me.

I held my ground, arms and legs poised to propel myself through the murky depths as I felt the impact reverberate through my very core.

I could’ve very well boiled the creature to a crisp. Perhaps even decapitate it here and now with a few telekinetic tricks.

But that would be cruel… and most certainly wasteful.

And so, I committed to another path. A more painful, dangerous, perhaps life-threatening path.

But a path that would garner the most gains amidst these developing circumstances.

I stared into its eyes as I grappled with both of its bone-like antlers, locking with it a gaze of determination set against a wild and irate beast that knew only destruction. 

“Submit.” I declared, as I wrangled and pushed it forward with both the might of muscle and magically-aided motion alike.

It was more difficult than I cared to admit, as the creature bucked, writhed, before surging forwards once again with the unimaginable speed of a spearfish.

I was the one holding on now, as it pushed me desperately through the open waters, before eventually, I noticed a pattern.

It was avoiding and weaving through the fishing nets.