The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 53

Chapter 53

“I heard that you were invited to participate in the upcoming Skirmish, Larek.”

He wasn’t sure if he heard his Fusions instructor correctly. “You did?”

“Of course. I may not look it, but I hear more gossip around here than most. That, and it’s just about the only thing that my students can talk about,” Shinpai said with a chuckle. “What do you think about it?”

“About the Skirmish? It sounds like a waste of time and needlessly violent, if I’m being honest.”

The Grandmaster Fusionist nodded. “Violent? Yes. Necessary? Well, there are many who debate whether we should even encourage it, because of the danger to those participating, but it’s an excellent way to for Mages and Martials to gain experience working together on a team. It’s most likely how well they were able to repel the multiple Scission attack a week or so ago with so few casualties. Even those who decry the possibility of an accident resulting in death – which only happens every decade or so – can’t deny the good it does for our students.”

“Wait—the participants could die?”

His instructor shrugged. “Yes, though any of them could die by tripping and falling down some stairs, breaking their neck; the likelihood of that happening is about the same as dying during a Skirmish, in my opinion.”

“That doesn’t really inspire me to want to participate in such a thing.”

Shinpai smiled at him, which made Larek put up his guard. “Regardless, I think you should do it.”

That was definitely not what Larek was expecting. “What? Why? I can’t even cast a spell—”

“You wouldn’t have to,” the Grandmaster Fusionist assured him. “I spoke to the Dean after learning that you were invited to participate. This was something that we were going to advise as you start classes again, but now might be the perfect opportunity to reveal some of your unique expertise in Fusions.”

That made absolutely no sense to Larek. “But what about keeping a low profile?”

“Well, that was the plan before this show that you and that Martial trainee put on for the entire Academy to see yesterday,” his instructor admonished him. We were going to ease your abilities in gradually, but now with most of the students and half the staff talking about a first-year being invited to participate on a team, all eyes are on younow. This might blow over in the next year or so if you refuse, but that’s only if you don’t call more attention to yourself. As soon as you create a Fusion and reveal what you can do, even to a limited audience, they’re all going to realized why you were invited to a Skirmish team in your first year.

“Unfortunately, these are also Nobles that we’re talking about here, who live and breathe on intrigue since the day they were born. With your refusal and revealed aptitude with Fusions, many of them are going to believe that you were trying to keep it a secret for some reason. Once they get that thought in their heads, they’re going to wonder what other secrets you’re hiding. I don’t think I need to explain why that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Shinpai was correct; Larek didn’t need it explained why Nobles looking into what other secrets he possessed would be a bad idea. “I can see the logic behind what you’re saying, but I don’t like it. It feels like some sort of trap set by Penelope.”

“Penelope? That’s the Jaroupa that asked you to be on her team?”

“Jaroupa?” He hadn’t heard that word before.

“Yes, the blue-haired trainee? That’s her race, as they come from the Protectorate of Jaroup far to the south.”

“Oh. Then yes, that’s her.”

His instructor looked at him for a moment, before cocking his head to the side. “Wait. She’s the one who injured that other trainee who you healed with that Fusion? The Duke of Scorwood’s boy, Bartholomew?”

“Yes; what does that have to do with anything?”

The Grandmaster Fusionist let out a sigh. “Because I believe this is a trap, though not the one you probably think it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“I believe they figured out that you healed Bartholomew with a Fusion. If that’s the case, then they want to get their hands on it.”

“Oh. But isn’t that what we eventually want to share with them?”

His instructor shook his head. “Yes, but not like this. They’re going to do something to force you to reveal it, which means putting either students or trainees in greater danger than the Skirmish would normally elicit.”

Larek suspected that there would probably be plenty of healers close by to prevent the need for him to use the Healing Surge Fusion, but he also knew that he was ignorant of the whole thing. Still, the solution seemed simple enough. “So, we’ll just give it to them ahead of time; that way, they won’t take any drastic actions during the Skirmish that would require it.”

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t take care of the reason why we don’t want to share it with anybody right now. As soon as they have it, knowledge of its existence will be throughout the entire Academy within a few hours. It won’t take more than a few days – at most – for those with enough knowledge about Fusions to break it down and discover that the Effect is based upon the Body Regeneration Martial Skill. Now, that is something that a Fusionist might eventually learn enough about over the years to incorporate it into Effect, but Martial Skills are notoriously difficult for Mages to translate into a Fusion due to lack of experience with them. We have an easier time with boosts to Strength, Body, and Agility because they are a stat similar in effect to our Intellect, Acuity, and Pneuma; Skills are something else entirely.”

Larek hadn’t known that it was harder for Fusionists to learn about Martial Skills, but he supposed it made sense. Regardless, if what his instructor said was true, then revealing the presence of his Healing Surge Fusion so quickly could have unfortunate side effects.

“We were already working on a way to introduce it to the Martials that wouldn’t raise too many suspicions by those in the Academy, but it was still about a year out,” the Grandmaster Fusionist continued. “We can move the timeline up a little, but if it’s one of the first things that’s revealed that you’ve created, then it will raise too many suspicions.”

Larek and Shinpai were quiet for about a minute after that as the former Logger attempted to find a way out of the situation. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a solution other than running away – which was something that looked more inviting by the minute. “What do I do, then?”

“I’m going to speak with the Dean about this, but for now, I still believe the best solution is for you to participate.”

“But what about the danger—”

“That you might be tempted to use your Healing Surge Fusion? I could tell you to simply leave it out of the Skirmish, but then that would be putting you in danger if it wasn’t available for your own use. No, the best solution is one where there will be no need to use it in the first place.”

“By… not participating? I’m confused.”

The Grandmaster Fusionist smiled grimly at him. “No, you’ll still have to participate. But you will have to figure out a way to prevent your team from getting hurt enough to require your Fusion. I highly doubt that Vice General Whittaker would put any of the trainees in opposing teams at risk, so they’ll likely be seeking to injure one of your team badly enough that they would normally die before one of our healer teams can get to them.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“By doing what you do best, of course: create Fusions.”

While it still wasn’t something he wanted to do, Larek immediately began thinking about what he might be able to design that would allow his team to avoid being damaged, but then he thought about the Skirmish itself a little more. The problem was that he didn’t know exactly what it entailed – so he asked Shinpai for a little more detail.

“It begins with 4 teams of 6 controlling their respective fortifications across from each other in the arena,” his instructor began to explain. “The objective is to either infiltrate or overpower the other teams to capture their flag, which is held inside their fortifications, and then to bring that flag back to their fortification; the caveat is that their flag must be also be present when they capture it, otherwise it doesn’t count as a win.

“Martials are allowed to armor themselves any way they choose, but the sharp weapons they use are blunted; that doesn’t mean they can’t kill someone, as hitting an unprotected head with a blunted metal object can be deadly, but attacks to the head are against the rules. A total of 30 full-contact strikes against a Martial trainee ‘incapacitates’ them and they are out of the Skirmish unless they are healed by the team’s healer, which negates the strike count at a rate of 1 per 15 seconds of healing, but the duo must remain stationary. In addition, unless an opposing attacker performs a ‘killing stroke’ to a downed participant, their Body Regeneration Skill will allow them to rejoin the fight if unmolested for a full minute, where they will reduce their strike count at 1 per minute.

“Instead of 30 full-contact strikes against a Mage, only 3 strikes are necessary to incapacitate us, though we heal at the same rate of 1 per 10 seconds.  They affectionally call us ‘squishy’, which is an apt term considering that we can’t sustain the same type of abuse as the Martials.

“As for what the Mages can attack with, only shadow-casted spells that inflict damage are allowed, but each of them are worth the equivalent of 5 full-contact strikes by a weapon. Any spell that restricts or otherwise impairs movement, as long as it only inflicts a minimal amount of physical damage, is able to be cast at full strength.

“There are typically a total of 64 teams that participate in the Skirmish, which means 16 different matches to begin with. Depending on the length of each match, which can take anywhere between 5 minutes and an hour or so, they might carry over to the next day, where the winners will then compete in 4 more matches until only those winners remain. The final match will then pit those remaining teams against each other to crown the overall winner.”

Larek thought about it for a minute or so, before the obvious answer presented itself. “Then this seems simple; I do my best to protect my team from getting too hurt, but then we lose during the first round. I can show a little of what I can create Fusion-wise, but then it’ll be over after that.”

Shinpai nodded. “Exactly. You participate and begin to show your expertise at creating Fusions, which will introduce you to the students and faculty of the Academy as well as the Fort, and by avoiding any use of the Healing Surge, things should go smoothly after that. Over the next few months, we’ll release more of what you can do, building up to the point where we can present the Healing Surge, as well as potentially a new healing Fusion that doesn’t rely on tapping into the Body Regeneration Skill? It depends on what I can teach you by that time.”

That plan sounded like the best option, though he wasn’t looking forward to working with Penelope or the other Martial trainees.

“Alright, I think I can do that,” Larek reluctantly agreed. “But how would I go about creating a Fusion that could protect my team?”

“I don’t know, honestly, but we have less than a couple of weeks until the Skirmish, so I’ll try and prepare you as best I can,” his instructor assured him. “However, in addition to the rules in the arena, there are rules that also apply to the faculty in both the Academy and the Fort before the matches even take place.”

“Like what?”

Shinpai began ticking different things off on his fingers. “We cannot supply weapons or armor outside of the range of normal usage. We cannot design, create, or supply existing Fusions to participants. We cannot help devise Skirmish strategies, which includes directing participants to a specific spell, Battle Art, or Fusion that could help their strategy. We cannot enlist instruction for a participant that goes above their level of scholarship; what that means is that a fourth-year student can’t suddenly transfer to a fifth-year class for a few weeks and learn more powerful spells.  And we cannot play favorites with any singular participant, which means that whatever additional help I provide youmust be provided to every other participant. I doubt that last one will matter all that much, considering that I’ll be teaching Advanced Fusions to you, but they are welcome to learn from me.”

“That seems a bit restrictive, but I guess it makes sense. So, once you teach me about Advanced Fusions, it will be up to me to design and create the Fusions I’ll need?”

The Grandmaster Fusionist nodded. “Yes, essentially. It’ll be up to you to figure it out, but I’m going to at least give you the tools you’ll need to get there.”

“Fair enough. A quick question, if I may?”

“Sure, go ahead.”  Shinpai waved for him to continue.

“Can I apply the spells I’ve learned to my Fusions?”

“Absolutely. That’s part of what we want to introduce to the population of the Academy, after all.”

That was all he needed to know. He wouldn’t be basing any new Fusion on any purely offensive spells, which was a relief, because he was still a bit worried about what he did in the storage tunnels to Ricardo and the Martial trainees. As for defensive spells converted into Fusions, he had a few ideas that might work.

“Fair enough. Now, teach me what I need to know about Advanced Fusions. I’m probably going to need all the advantages I can get to survive this Skirmish thing.”

His instructor took a deep breath before he started what would be a few weeks of teaching Larek all he could about the next evolution in Fusion creation and design.

Book 2 Chapter 54: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84474730