Chapter 131 - Mage

<---Chapter 130 - Defiance| Table of Contents |Chapter 132 - Version 0--->

Threads of ice shot past as Kyle dodged them effortlessly, his movements immaculate despite the heavy weight of his new armor, the design alien to the mage. Each step he took closed the gap between him and the mage, and at the final step, he slammed his sabatons downwards, kicking up a cloud of dust that obfuscated the area.

"Seems like you need line of sight," Kyle remarked as he burst out from the cloud, the lightning sword swinging aimed right at the jugular of the mage. Instead of the mage swerving back to avoid, the staff was raised, parrying the hit while it pivoted around the blade, sparks flying with metal glowing red hot as the sharp end swung towards Kyle, who was forced to abandon the swing mid-way, leaping backward.

The ground crackled as ice formed in the seams of the dirt, expanding rapidly as it snaked towards Kyle, attempting to touch the soles of his armor. With another jump, Kyle launched upwards towards the mage, attacking once more with the lightning blade only to be blocked by the staff, the original shock on the mage's face dissipating with time.

"And here I thought Project Guryi would be more interesting. I'm disappointed, to say the least." The mage taunted with a grin, reaching out to grab Kyle's gauntlet, the metal contracting rapidly through frost that began to accumulate through it.

The smile was wiped off the mage's face as Kyle delivered a brutal kick to the side of the mage's left calf, forcing him to let go while Kyle swung once more with his sword arm, attempting to cut the mage down. Instead, a sudden wave of cold pressure erupted as the mage's immediate surroundings began to freeze, the air being sucked inwards before turning into solid ice that expanded in a flash. The sharp sensation on Kyle's skin reminded him of space, his instincts screaming at him to back off.

He hurriedly stepped backward before he was touched by the expanding ice, watching it form a defensive sphere around the mage. Kyle was not dumb enough to touch the ice, having seen how fast it could absorb heat. Instead, he used his free arm to wield a railgun, aiming it right at the center of the sphere. Before he could pull the trigger, however, the sphere of ice instantly melted, causing the air within to surge forward as it sublimed in the blink of an eye, resulting in a rushing gust that forced Kyle backward, the sheer pressure enough to cause his sabatons to skid lines in the hard ground.

"The intruder is here!" Shouts from other Yual soldiers began to get closer, reminding Kyle that the mage was not his only target. As the soldiers came closer to the battlefield, they were not horrified by the half-burnt tents coated in unnatural snow, the frozen crates, or patches of rapidly melting ice that adorned the wooden structures. Instead, it was the sight of what felt like two colossi of humanity clashing as Kyle traded blows with the mage, going toe to toe. Each movement sent tremors through the ground from the weight of both their armors that terrified the soldiers, the mage not letting up as well as he continued to threaten Kyle with the seemingly invincible ice-touch that he had. Some of the soldiers attempted to fire pellets at Kyle, only for them to bounce off his armor uselessly. In exchange, they found a slightly injured but determined Sasha charging at them, fighting furiously while allowing Kyle to focus solely on the mage.

There has to be a limit to his ability. Nothing comes for free. Kyle pushed the mage to the brink, though he kept his trump cards close to his heart. There was no reason to use a System skill with long cooldowns, not until he had a full grasp of the opponent. [Sasha, finish off the supplies!] He tossed the railgun towards her, Sasha catching it in one fluid motion before she drove the tip of the barrel into the eyes of a nearby Yual soldier, blinding him permanently as he let out a harrowing scream.

[Yes, sir!] As Sasha dashed off, the mage noticed the movement clearly, firing a dozen ice threads that snaked across the sky and aimed toward her. None of them could reach their target as Kyle swung the lightning sword once more, the crackling lances of electricity superheating the ice and evaporating it in an instant.

"Pick on someone your own size," Kyle warned as he pressured the mage backward, forcing the mage to stagger backward while staff and sword clashed together in a raging storm of lightning and ice, ravaging the tents and crates they moved through. It became clearer as the battle wore on that the mage was far more adept at long-range battles than hand-to-hand combat, Kyle pinpointing the flaws in his movements and exploiting them in an instant, forcing the mage to steadily lose ground. A single opening allowed Kyle to land a direct hit with the sword, arcs of lightning tracing across the mage's armor in a short circuit that caused the mage to jolt slightly, his muscles tightening up as if he had just been tasered for the shortest moment.

Before Kyle could follow up, the same defensive sphere of ice rapidly expanded, and Kyle retreated once again. Unwilling to just let the sphere's erupting pressure blast him back again, he nocked back his right exosuit arm with the tip of the sword aimed forward, activating the engraving as the armor whirred to life. Penchant for Violence! As he felt the familiar surge of strength running through his veins combined with the engravings in his armor, he penetrated the sphere with a single lunge of his lightning sword, cracks forming rapidly along the ice as it conducted the electricity, shocking the mage within.

The convulsion of muscles caused the mage to lose control of the sphere, though the evaporating and subliming gases still pushed out rapidly, forcing Kyle back two steps. As he readied for another strike, he noticed that the mage's armor and staff were chilled, as if they had been refrigerated for hours. That's the limit - he himself is not immune to the drop in temperature. But why is he wearing the metal armor?

Kyle didn't sense anything special from the metal armor, but wasn't about to wait to find out. Charging forward, he closed the gap in two steps, both hands swinging the sword down in a ferocious slice that threatened to cleave the mage in half. Yet, instead of the mage despairing for his life, a small smirk erupted on his face, the small burning flame in his lamppost staff suddenly erupting to a blazing heat, bursting and lapping out around the lamppost staff. The fire immediately heated up the metallic surface of the staff, conducting down into the mage's gauntlet and metal armor, the remainder of his purple robe being shredded off to reveal an armored backpack filled with arcite fuel, pipes plugged into the elbows of the mage. Energy surged through the engravings into the lamppost, feeding the fire to grow even larger and larger until the air around the mage began to blur from the immense heat.

"Don't think of yourself on the same level as me, punk." The mage spat as his eyebrows began to smolder. "I fought years before your country was even independent!" He raised his left free armored hand, aiming right at Kyle only to unleash a barrage of ice threads, each one larger and far more quicker than the other. Kyle hurriedly fended off the withering storm, slashing rapidly though some of the ice threads made it through, freezing small parts of his armor and locking down his movements.

Alarm bells rang in his head as a tide of sharp, spiky icicles perforated the ground in waves expanding out from the mage, enveloping the area in ice that soon encompassed more than twenty meters in radius, completely engulfing Kyle's armor as the icicles wrapped around his legs, encasing them in solid ice that was nearly unbreakable by normal humans. Other Yual soldiers who still vainly tried to help the mage were caught in the expanding field of ice, yelling in pain as they suffered from cold shock, their legs frozen to the bone. "This is my domain; playtime is over, Versian." The mage announced with a determined expression, the only source of heat in this seemingly new winter land.

Unexpectedly, Kyle too smiled under the helmet, his breath fogging up through the slits in the helmet. Huh. I had a heating issue, but I guess that's solved now. Time to run at full power. He clenched his fist, arcia energy surging through the seams as each of the arcia crystals was summoned at overdrive, the intense thermal waste melting the ice patches and freeing up the armor once more.

The icicles around him began to melt as well, and the mage's skill was unable to contain the heat generated by Kyle's armor, shocking the mage. "What kind of armor is that?!"

"An inefficient one." Kyle didn't exchange any more words, pushing forward, each stomp crushing the icicles in his path as he closed the gap once more with his lightning sword, but this time, he also wielded an Oriental Bloom handgun in his other hand. Despite the improvement in performance for his armor in cold temperatures, as soon as he got close to the mage, the immense heat that was concentrated in the immediate surroundings of the mage's molten red armor had his skin instantly begin to sear, the pain he felt elevated by the 229-A-X package.

"Maybe you can perform in the cold, but here, I am the master of heat!" The mage swung his molten hot lamppost staff, smacking Kyle's arms, which were raised quickly to block. Instead of Kyle's arms being frozen, it conducted the heat from the mage's armor, scorching Kyle's skin beneath and sending him stumbling backward.

At the same time, Penchant of Violence's effect diminished rapidly, his vision, brain speed and strength all began to return to normal values, causing him to huff and pant. As Kyle struggled back to his feet, he could see the explosions going off in the distance, Sasha leading the Yual soldiers on a merry-go-chase as she finished up the job. [Sasha, how long more?]

[Two more minutes!]

I'm not going to be able to kill nor restrain this mage in that timeframe, and soon enough, the whole camp will mobilize to attack me. Kyle had already been fighting for five minutes up to this point, and from the corner of his vision, he could see bright spotlights from the camp's watchtowers swinging towards him and locking onto him. Dealing with the mage would be doable if there was no other interference, but at this rate, he would be captured. As long as we destroy the supplies!

Before Kyle could react, however, he felt the ground beneath him stir as the ice began to envelop him, trying to trap him from all angles and encase him as well. "Direct arcia transmission, hmm?" The mage remarked, having visually spotted the telepathic communication Kyle had with Sasha. "Who trained you? Cult of Nona?"

"Worry about yourself." Intimidation Aura! The wave of dominating pressure pushed forward, rushing directly to the mage like a tsunami that stemmed from Kyle as its source. As it touched the still half-frozen soldiers behind, they began to scream and tremble in fear, some even attempting to claw out their own encased limbs just to get away from Kyle.

The mage noticed the effects, immediately summoning a thick wall of arcia-infused ice right in front of him, stemming the aura that flowed around instead, trying to break through. "Only the Cult of Nona would use such manipulative abilit-"

Arcia Disruption! Kyle quickly aimed his arm at the mage beyond the thick wall, marking the target. In an instant, the arcia energy within the veins of the mage began to flow erratically, causing the body to jerk violently as lava burst out from within the mage's cheeks in large holes, spilling out like a waterfall while other parts of his limbs began to alternate rapidly between hot and cold, the mage screaming as his own ability wreaked havoc on him. A storm of heat and ice began to fluctuate in high oscillations, causing a terrible storm with the mage at the epicenter, the strong winds caused by the temperature differential sucking and pushing air out, buffeting Kyle backward.

[Sir, I'm done!]

[Retreat, now!] Kyle didn't try to finish off the mage, as he himself did not even know what would happen as a result of his disruption, though it was certainly not beneficial to the mage. He broke free of the ice through sheer strength, running the armor at full speed before leaping off over the fence, running as hard as he could away from the main forces of Count Leon.

One by one, the arcia crystals in his armor began to overheat as darkness enveloped him, the lights of the camp fading into the distance while he traveled deeper and deeper into the forest towards Desham. He did not stop running, even as he reached the thicker foliage, gigantic trees, and overgrown shrubs, for the wildfire did not burn here. Only when he spotted an ambient glowing Ghost emblem made out of the same bioluminescent algae harvested from the dungeon did he finally slow down.

His armor creaked, the blows and attacks from the mage still having done their damage on the plates. The sudden cold temperatures caused a snap in many of the internal metal composites, grating with each movement Kyle made. The armor's weight increased as the arcia crystals embedded began to expire, running out of energy to sustain the armor for much longer. Still, Kyle's physique was enough to keep the armor moving, though it was not as fast as he had been in the camp.

He used his armored hands to push aside the shrubs, ignoring the lingering burns felt on his skin, focusing on finding the next sign, an emblem found at the very base of a gigantic red oak tree. Hidden beneath a dense pile of leaves tied on makeshift nets was a secret entrance, forcing Kyle to squeeze his arms inwards a little. A little walking had him reach a steel-plated door, the door immediately opening as Ghosts helped him in, revealing a barely established hideout, the cavern still raw around the edges with pockets of vines and mushrooms clinging to the walls and absorbing air that drifted in through small openings.

A familiar arctech engineer stepped forward, her wrinkled face full of shock. "Weren't you supposed to be just observing? What did you fight, a whole division?" Hayden exclaimed as she stood next to Kyle. Despite her considerable height, of which she was proud, Kyle in the armor suit still towered over her, his combined height totaling two meters tall, the strong shoulder pauldrons and dense armor plates making him gargantuan compared to the other Ghosts in the hideout.

The hideout was not as equipped as the ones before - it was a freshly discovered cavern, with Kyle having done work with two squads of Ghosts to clean it up and act as a forward operating base, a middle ground between Desham and Ocra nested in the Keru Forest from which he could launch intervention attacks to keep the war going. "Things didn't go as planned."

"When have they ever?" Hayden sighed, leading Kyle over to a nearby workbench where the armor was dismantled manually by two other trainee engineers hired from Desham thanks to the integration of the refugees into the Ghosts on a large scale. Resources were aplenty, the Ghosts well supplied thanks to the burgeoning economy due to Kyle's plans. As a worker unlatched the shoulder pauldron, it collapsed to the ground with a heavy crash, lodging itself into the ground despite its small volume, showing its sheer density.

"The armor is effective, but the runtime isn't long enough," Kyle remarked as he wriggled his arm out, free of the armor bit by bit.

"I'm hardly an expert on knight armor, and I've already given the suggestions that I have. This is the best I can do." Hayden shrugged, looking over the blueprints of the armor that had been brought over. "I would have never thought of some of the ideas in the first place if it were not for your knowledge. Who taught you all of this, exactly?"

"I read a lot."

"I think we're far past books now. How long are you going to- Goddess above, what the hell happened to your hand? Did the gauntlet overheat?!" Hayden cried out as she looked at Kyle's scorched hand, though she was also equally amazed at the slow yet visible rate the skin was healing up thanks to the 229-A-X package.

"I've collected information on Count Leon's mage. He should still be alive, assuming he knows how to stop casting his skill." Kyle shrugged as the other two workers finally disengaged the remaining pieces of the armor, revealing his toned body beneath a white shirt and pants, the glistening sweat clinging to the fabric while he stepped off, removing his own helmet and flicking the sweat off.

"Mage?!" Hayden was running out of emotional energy to be surprised at what Kyle encountered. It felt like every day was a new thing, a new journey with Kyle. Maybe that's half the reason why I'm sticking around.

Kyle did not reply to Hayden, instead looking towards the entrance to see a bleeding Sasha entering the tunnel limping, already gulping down a small health potion vial while other Ghosts rushed to attend to her. "Good work. It wasn't an easy task."

[I wasn't strong enough to deal with the mage.] Sasha still felt disgraced at the inability to complete the mission on her own. Kyle was not supposed to be involved in the first place, though he was still there as backup due to the sheer number of troops and the presence of a mage. While they did not collect enough information on the mage's ability due to the military secrecy surrounding it, Kyle knew he had to be there to make sure everything went smoothly.

"Correct. But now you know that there are still greater heights of strength to achieve. Do not rest on your current achievements."

[I won't.] Sasha nodded in agreement, though her forlorn look was enough to tell Kyle what she was thinking about.

"I will replace your runic falchion with a better weapon. Though I'm far from understanding the mechanics on which your words are able to enhance its performance."

[I'll be happy with any weapon you give me.]

"Good. Hayden, relay to Culo that the supplies of Count Leon has been heavily damaged. By my estimations, Count Leon will extend the siege into a blockade until his supplies have been thoroughly restored. He wouldn't risk another intense frontal strike. Do not use arctech radio communication any longer - the mage is able to pinpoint and trace its source and destination."

"Understood. I'll have a messenger Ghost send it directly to him." Hayden got to work, while Kyle focused on the tasks he needed done. Leaving the intermediate forward base behind, he had two Ghosts hauled the armor along with him, returning through a hidden path that turned and bent through the depths of the Keru Forest, Kyle himself having charted out the route. Ghost patrols were established along each part of the routes, providing security and intelligence on the movements of both enemies as well as any mammoth hog herds that were spotted nearby. As Kyle passed the Ghost patrol squads, many of the younger recruits who had only joined a month ago stared in awe at the size of the armor pieces, even while they were separated between Kyle and the two Ghosts trailing behind him.

Within a few hours of baring a pitstop to rest, Kyle eventually returned to Desham, the path leading out of the forest. The sight of the city was now far different from the sprawling slums and barren fields that once dominated the landscape. The additional time that the Siege of Ocra had bought enabled the city to develop quickly at an unmatched pace, industrializing and building infrastructure at a scale that was not even seen in the Culdao Peaks. Each day saw new wooden houses built up for every family, the waiting list dwindling by the dozens as large amounts of construction crews comprised of former refugees and workers struggled day and night to improve the living conditions of everyone. Unlike the previous restrictive economy run by the previous Governor, Diya was now the head of a burgeoning worker's collective, one truly ran for the people, by the people.

Kyle was greeted with cheers and awe as he walked past the newly paved streets outside the city walls, cobblestone carved and fashioned from the hills within the Keru Forest utilized to smooth transportation and travel through the city. A new circular ring of defensive walls was being built around the city round the clock to protect the growing housing zones, while rows upon rows of newly built wooden houses showed happy smiles on children's faces, refugees now integrating into the economy as they found jobs in the factories that had been overtaken. Naturally, Kyle had Diya uphold a rule that only those who worked in Desham would be allowed to receive a house for free, which further spurred employment. Refugees began to join up as woodcutters with the taken-over Tenar Logging, while others joined the fields as newly trained farmers, led by former villagers who held innate knowledge on how to tend the farms.

As such, the once barren farms around Desham were blossoming once more, their growth rate even further increased as Drake provided his own patented recipes to stimulate plant fertilization, a secret of his own village's success. Apart from logging and farming, refugees also began to fill the ranks of administration, factory workers, and even city guards, forming a new garrison under Diya. The more enterprising ones began to form food stalls and other tradesmen work, offering freelance services as the economy roared ahead.

All of this was to serve as a strong resilient economic base to Kyle's ambitions. Unlike the other gang leaders in Raktor, who would extract every measure of wealth from the people, Kyle knew that he had to balance both the benefits and downsides that he provided, a strict path to stay on. Sway too much to either side, and he would either be exploited by the people, or revolted against, both of which were inconducive to business. As long as the corruption does not touch the baseline of the people, they will tolerate all manners of criminality. This is what the previous council of Desham failed to understand. Kyle could only recall the sheer extravagance and decadence of the former Governor, sighing internally.

As he entered the city proper, the damage and devastation inflicted by the riots and subsequent battles had long been erased. Now, an air of invincibility and prosperity reigned through the bustling streets, once down-trodden slaves and other impoverished citizens uplifted by the redistribution of wealth, invigorating them to work harder with hope in their eyes. Not everyone was aligned with the idea of working however, some still falling back into their old ways of begging for money or stealing from unsuspecting citizens.

Unfortunately for them, the city of Desham was far more well-patrolled now. Law was upheld by Diya's new garrison, chosen from among the most motivated of the refugees who had joined the riots. Diya herself oversaw any arrest or imprisonment made, ensuring that the accused or suspect had a fair trial, to prevent the larger populace from turning against her. Neither Kyle nor Diya wanted to be blamed or shamed for being unfair, knowing that it could trigger another revolution, one that might cause the economy to collapse once more.

Kyle made his way to the barracks, which had now been restored over the last month, the once blown-up storehouse fully refurbished to be bigger and better. Hundreds of new Ghosts were now in training, practicing firing drills and equipment dismantling and assembly in the open parade square, guided by veteran Ghosts. "Grip the rifle tighter, you idiot!" Feldon smacked the arm of a Ghost recruit, using his own hands to squeeze the recruit's fist. "Else you won't be able to handle the recoil. Feet apart. I said, FEET APART-Sir!" Feldon hurriedly saluted, motioning to another veteran Ghost to take over the training.

"Anything new in the last three days since I've been gone?" Kyle asked as he had the two Ghosts carry the armor to the warehouse.

"We've completed the weapons factory. Not an exact replica of the Aspis Weapon Factory, but a smaller one. We'll be able to begin production rapidly, and equip everyone within a month by current estimates. Our total strength of Ghosts in Desham has just hit a thousand."

"That's enough to field a division."

"I wouldn't say that yet, sir, it may take two more months till all of them are properly trained. Many of them were former villagers, and they were rough around the edges. Even both Lisa and Culo took two months each when they were trained." Feldon scowled at a recruit who was knocked backward by the firing of his own repeater, forcing nearby veteran Ghosts to quickly evacuate the other recruits and prevent them from being shot.

"The training should be faster with the facilities and resources we have at hand. Use as many stamina potions as you need, I need them ready to fight in a month's time."

"Understood." Feldon saluted, Kyle returning to his new office in the barracks, once held by Officer Gabriel. Unfortunately, everything that belonged to him had already been removed, replaced with minimal furniture, providing no distractions as Kyle sat down behind the hardwood table on a reclining chair, focused on a map of the current war state, updated thanks to his Ghost scouts and informants in the city.

The squad I dispatched to Creuliz has yet to return even after two weeks... Kyle was trying to restore contact with Dekar and Yona, but seemingly to no avail. He had no idea if the security in the city was tighter or if Dekar and Yona were still lying low. Or maybe Yona has already killed Dekar and taken him over.

While Dekar's death would hinder his future goals of establishing a docile government compliant with his wishes, he was hardly short of other candidates who could easily assume the role. Masir is a viable choice, and even Hayden could do it. Dekar would be the easiest by far, though. Still, there was nothing he could do until the Ghost squad he had dispatched returned.

Kyle returned his attention to the frontlines of the war, the state worrying him greatly. Despite his attack on the forces of Count Leon, it was but a minor obstacle in the grand scale of things. Not only Raktor was attacking Versia, but Kregol and Perlis were as well, and the forces of Kregol were already besieging Ocra on the west. Even if Count Leon lost his current supplies, he could easily restore them from the city of Raktor, having an unbroken supply line. Yet, Kyle knew he would profit from whatever happened in the next few weeks, his own factories in Raktor and the Culdao Peaks being one of the major suppliers of the war.

What he really needed to do was to prolong the war, and that was to balance the scales of the war. Right now, the Yual forces were far too heavily favored, with the Versian field army in complete retreat to Tenar. As much as he hated Harrison, he had to reinforce Ocra with supplies to keep the status quo. The longer the war went on, the more Desham and the new base of the Ghosts could develop and the more money the Seven Snakes made in Raktor. It was the perfect plan, and Kyle would do anything to keep it going for as long as he could, even if that meant helping the enemy. He could not allow either side to push against the other too hard.

However, with Count Leon blockading Ocra in its entirety now, it would be near impossible to provide meaningful supplies. Kyle was certainly not keen on being the sole carrier fast enough to outrun the blockade - there was only so much he could carry on himself. Using the original secret tunnels was a no-go as well, their exits and entrances having been occupied by Yual forces and collapsed internally by the city garrison. The river that ran through Ocra was also inaccessible from both the north and the south, and too much of a diversion from Desham. There has to be another way...

The next step in the plan began to come together, prompting Kyle to issue an order to Feldon, calling him to the office. "Have Hayden come back to Desham. I need her for a smuggling project."

"A smuggling project... like how we snuck into the catacombs? Please don't tell me we're digging tunnels again, I had enough of that in the Culdao Peaks! Are you really going to dig a tunnel from here to Ocra?! That's close to a hundred kilometers." Feldon pleaded, his mind haunted by the endless nights overseeing goblin slave crews working to connect Raktor and the goblin kingdom.

"Shut up and get to it." Kyle waved his hands dismissively, himself getting up from the chair and making his way to the newly established engineering workshop, made just for him. It was filled with the best etchers and furnaces that Desham had currently, which wasn't as good as the ones in Raktor, and certainly nothing matching the Oracle Chambers in the Culdao Peaks. Still, as he looked at the damaged remains of his armor that were now hoisted up on makeshift mannequins in the center of the workshop, it was clear that a refurbishment was needed in order to make it more combat-worthy.

Let's just say this was merely a prototype to hash out the details. Time to make Version 0.

<---Chapter 130 - Defiance| Table of Contents |Chapter 132 - Version 0--->