AO 6 Ch 23

"Wow, I am impressed," I said, non-pulsed as Eva began pulling shadows left and right, gathering them for a spell to kill whoever was on the other side. 

"Ard, why aren't you freaking out?" Eva asked.

I gestured towards the door as it got kicked inwards, and from the dust that arose, Emlyn strode through with a fierce expression. 

"It's just her." I smiled. 

"Yeah, it's just me," Emlyn said, frowning, glancing at Eva and then back at me. "Why is she worried?" 

"She's not worried," I said, turning to Eva and giving her a look that said ‘calm down or she’ll know. We really don’t want her to know.’

"Right. Yeah, not worried at all." Eva waved her hand and dismissed the darkness that was coiling up ready to kill Emlyn.

My anchor glanced at the receding shadows before her attention pivoted back to me."Ard, what did you do?" 

"Why do you always assume it's my fault?" I pressed. Damnit Eva!

They answered in sync, "Because it is." 

I sighed. Emlyn was wrong once again, but she was too stubborn to admit her mistake. "Well, I pulled down the wall around the fort.” I helpfully filled in the details.

“I saw, Ard. Kind of hard to miss.” Emlyn told me.

“Yeah, well, when I do that and other mages compete with me for that chunk of earth, our magic gets a little mixed up and we can tell where each other are." I offered.

Emlyn scowled at me. "So you're saying the leaders of the enemy army that's quite literally standing atop our heads all just found your location." 

I shrugged helplessly. "If you want to phrase it like that, you can. Personally, I would phrase it in less of a doomy way. I mean, they have a bunch of giant northmen rushing at them, and Aurelia has died almost twice up there but is still kicking.”

“What about Maribelle?" Emlyn frowned.

"What about her?" I asked.

I squinted, looking up into the castle as I peered into her soul to get an understanding of what she was doing. 

"Oh, she's just killing anyone and everyone she can find that has officer stripes on their shoulder. Ah, she almost died there again," I said, blinking away and not wanting to live through that with her. Instead, I just flooded her and Aurelia with even more life magic. 

"See? The mages up there have their hands busy. Just because they might have figured out where I am doesn't mean they can do anything about it at this moment." 

As I said those words, the bluesteel vault that we were inside of rumbled as the earth around it was gripped by a vast magical force and began grinding at the walls. Despite the walls being nearly a foot thick, the walls were buckling under that pressure.  It was like we were currently being swallowed by a giant monster.

Emlyn didn't say a word and just stared at me for a long moment. 

"What?" I said, holding my hands out to the side. "So they are using magic to attack me. I'm very capable of dealing with this situation." 

The clatter of arms and armor sounded from the hole that Emlyn had made as soldiers rushed down towards my little bluesteel vault. 

"And as for that," I gestured towards the oncoming soldiers, "you're the one who cut a hole and made a path for them. I think we can all agree that those are your fault, but because I am so wonderful, I will help fix this for you.”

I smiled as I lifted the door back into place. 

"Don't seal that," Emlyn waved her hand. "I do not want to be trapped in this box while you and some other mage have a magic dick measuring contest.”

“I mean I would win that contest any day, metaphorical or in real life." I gave her my proudest smile as I continued to hold off our space being crushed like a crappy pot under a cart wheel. 

Focusing a bit more, I gestured outwards like I was pushing at the walls and the buckles in the bluesteel smoothed out once again, forming a perfect, neat square.

I then turned my hands inwards and the door split into dozens of little bluesteel knives before another flick of my wrist sent them careening through the wave of soldiers, ripping them to absolute bloody shreds before I gestured back towards us and the knives spun around in the room, twinkling like little stars. They didn't have hilts on them; I wasn't that fancy. Instead, they were more like Maribelle's throwing knives, thin and effective. 

Emlyn snorted, her mood significantly better. "Showoff.”

“Just showing you that I’ve got this under control. There's nothing to worry about. See?" I waved at all the dead soldiers.

"Ard, I think I still am allowed to worry, but you're right. It's not like another mage was really going to be able to come in here and do much to you at all.” Emlyn relented.

I nodded emphatically. "See? You understand. This whole time, I had it completely in my control.”

“Don't push it." She pointed a finger at me. "Now, how about you get us out of here before you cause any more trouble?" 

I shook my head. "I cause little problems by solving big challenges. You all do not give me nearly enough credit.” I insisted as the bluesteel warped beneath me, making a little platform for us.

"No one in their right mind can look at what you do and say you are anything but a giant magnet for trouble." Emlyn gave me a patented look.

To which my only response was to grumble under my breath as I floated the three of us out and over the bloodied carnage I had just created.

It was probably best that we didn’t walk. The hallway was a pretty grotesque image and these bat wing boots were hard to procure the leather for.

I moved us to somewhere more defensible than sitting in a metal box while mages could descend on top of us. 

"Where to, Emlyn?" I let her decide. 

"Oh, I guess if you're going to cause trouble," she decided, "we might as well do it where you can take maximum advantage. Perhaps use that little army of knives of yours and run it through the Garrish forces for us from the top of the keep?" 

I did a low bow with a rolling hand. "Your wish is my command."

The knives floated over my shoulder, gleaming in the torches we passed. And as more soldiers came rushing down a set of stairs, they found themselves ripped to shreds, much like the last group.

Two managed to survive, but that was easy enough to correct. I made the knives dive back in and tear them apart. I had to admit, I was getting better at my control.

Controlling the knives as individual entities would have been too hard. Instead I visualized them more like a flowing river. As long as I kept them moving, the pointy bits would find something to stab eventually. I paused, wondering if Maribelle was rubbing off on me.

But while I pondered, the blades once again tore through the soldiers and anchors while I lifted us higher into the keep. The masonry provided no barrier to me. It parted like water around our group. 

"This would have been so much easier if we just brought you in the first place," Emlyn clicked her tongue and shook her head. 

"Well thank you." I said with a small bow. "But I think you guys really paved the way for me," I laid on the compliments. "Otherwise, there's no way it would be this easy." 

Emlyn glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. "I know you're fluffing my ego, Ard, but I don't mind it." 

"Me doing what?" I said with a gasp. "Never." It didn’t work as well when she caught on, I’d have to be more careful.

"Okay, now that's too much," Emlyn raised a brow and I wisely stopped joking and focused on pushing us up into the castle.

The number of soldiers had rapidly decreased by the number of bodies laying about. It seems my anchors had already done significant work in clearing everything out.

Honestly, I found myself pretty disappointed. There was not much left to do.

I searched around, my attention zeroing in on a powerful, magical signature I could feel pulsing in one of the towers on the wall. 

"Emlyn, don't take this the wrong way, but you guys missed one." I reported, pointing  towards the tower where I felt the magic continue to swell. "What does that mean?" I pondered aloud, watching as the tower that I had sensed the Chancellor in crumbled apart, growing and forming into a massive stone body. 

Emlyn craned her neck back as it continued to grow larger.

"What was that you were saying earlier, Ard, about being the biggest, baddest mage here?" She challenged me.

I clicked my tongue and wagged my finger at her. "This has nothing to do with that, and we all know it. If anything, that giant is compensating for something." I tutted softly, because it really was. 

As the giant reared itself back, stone groaned as it ground together in a deafening roar.

"Well, if you want to have magic-measuring contests, here's your chance, Ard." Emlyn gestured at the giant monster. "Go ahead. Feel free to prove any time now that you're bigger and stronger." 

I gave her a look out of the corner of my eye. "As you might have said once or twice, size isn't the most important factor, it's how you use it." Soul magic flooded through my veins. I made several beads of fire before tossing them out, though they were like specks of dust compared to the giant.

They swarmed towards the stone giant before detonating in an explosion that shook the entire fort. It had the wonderful effect of breaking off a large amount of stone from the massive golem’s chest.

But the golem didn't crumble to pieces immediately. The hit shook the foundation and gave me some time, but otherwise the golem remained standing.

Using my opportunity, I slipped in several small bluesteel daggers into any cracks, connecting them to my fox sphere and pushed soul ice into them. This might be a giant made of stone, but from the lessons I had to take with Maribelle, it is often reiterated on the general properties of chilling and heating materials. I wanted to use those properties.

However cold soul ice was, it even froze the rock, causing it to become even more brittle, cracking and shattering as it lumbered forward trying to swipe at us in the air. 

The golem was definitely noticeable, catching the attention of Aurelia who came flying in from the side, smashing her axe into the body of the stone giant. Emlyn rolled her eyes, but didn't argue, jumping into the fray without another word.

I glanced over my shoulder at Eva. 

"What, do you expect me to get in there too?" She asked with an incredulous expression. "I love you, Ard, and I'm in here for all of this, but my magic's no use against something like that."

"Yeah, of course," I said. "I was just kind of curious that if I stared at you long enough, you'd jump in and surprise us.”

“Sorry to disappoint." She gave me a flat smile. "About the best you're going to get from me is to prepare a killing blow for when things get a little messy." She twisted darkness into a little spiral-shaped horn, one that I knew would find itself lodged in the next unfortunate fellow, which ideally was the mage inside the giant golem. At least, that was the plan. 

Aurelia might seem pretty impressive with the blazing fire coming off of her amid the winter storm. Yet, truth be told, she was only dulling her bluesteel axe against the giant's tough exterior. Every now and then, she would hit a spot chilled by my soul ice and manage to chip something off. But in the end, the damage was minimal. 

I twisted my hand over, concentrating as I pulled the dregs of fire magic that came out when I drew on ice. It was a fundamental flaw of a mage and what caused corruption, but at this point, I was using it so I could access both magics at once. 

The small bead of blue fire continued to concentrate into my hand as the giant swung at Aurelia and Emlyn much like a giant toddler trying to catch a gnat.

But it moved past them, treating them more lie flies than foe after a moment. Each lumbering step moved closer to me as it tried to swing at me in the air.

I used earth magic to move the floating plate of bluesteel to dodge any hits.

My concentration wasn't entirely perfect and we tipped to the side, the slick metal surface not giving our boots much purchase.

Eva grabbed onto me as tendrils of darkness wrapped around both of us coming from the bottom of the plate. "Well, I can do at least this much," Eva said, holding onto me as I tried to keep three different magical elements running at once.

I didn't even have enough concentration in me to give Eva a snarky reply. I would have to come back to that later.

Instead, the bead of fire I was building grew to about the size of an apple of heavily condensed blue flames that flickered violently under my focus, threatening everything if I lost concentration for even a moment. It swelled just a little bigger into the plumpest, juiciest apple I had ever seen, before I launched it out of my hand at the giant and with my focus on it no longer necessary, wove backwards with the bluesteel plate. 

Eva held tightly to me even as I tilted it dangerously, trying to get us further away from the stone giant. 

The golem swung again, a grating roar, as the stones ground together only to miss me by several hands' breadth. Eva gasped in my ear, her heart pounding hard against my back. 

And with that, I tilted the plate even further to use as a shield, just in case I had underestimated the blast.