by A R Chen
The mages began chanting. Even though Fom was technically a one-star magician, he was right on the cusp of becoming a two-star magician by now. The only thing that was holding him back was his mage robes. The three two-star magicians worked together to launch a stone slab they had prepared beforehand, onto the top of the water Steve was levitating. It was thick, with holes through it that turned it into a massive sieve.
The pressure of the water being forced upward through the rock made the mages expend a lot more mana than they initially thought, to hold it in place. The plan to strain all the fish-men out of the lake water seemed to be working, but it was clear that it would take too long to completely clear the lake; this way was too inefficient.
Steve focused on the wagon full of Crystals. He began topping himself off with the small Crystals, until none remained. Then, he looked at the two large dark-blue Crystals available to him; it was time to consume the affinity Crystals. Steve had a plan, although he wasn’t sure if it would work.
The Large Anti-Gravity spell was right next to Small and Medium Anti-Gravity spells in the listings. It said that the user could control a large body’s gravity and invert it for as long as you were casting. Steve wasn’t sure he could accomplish this, given the size of the lake, but he continued, lifting the body of water even higher. He realized that this was probably going to kill all the normal fish as well, but that was a problem for the village to deal with later.
As his energy drained, he tried to adjust the magic so that it would only suspend the water and not the creatures within it, but as Steve had suspected, that didn’t work. He ordered the young mages to place the Crystal into his being. They half dragged it off the wagon, into his body. Magical assistance seemingly wasn’t enough to offset the strength difference of kids and adults.
He felt the deep-blue color of the Water element enter his being. He found himself almost breathing the Crystal in, soaking the color into himself as he drained its energy. Even as he absorbed, he was also expending energy through his spell cast over the entire lake. It took an incredible amount, around a thousand energy units every fifteen seconds. At this rate, he could maintain it a couple more minutes at most, before all the Crystals and his stored energy were depleted.
Steve used his newly improved understanding of Water to probe the lake. He wanted nothing but the pure Water element. He intended to drop all the fish-men onto the lakebed, then drop the hovering lake onto them.
He searched with his magical sense and racked his brain, so to speak, but it wasn’t working. He couldn’t find a way to drop the fish-men out of the water. Then, he felt something in the lake; some of them had already swam their way out the bottom of the water. Unlucky day for them.
The young mages watched as their god lifted the entire body of water up. The lowest point of the water was ten feet above the ground by now and slowly rising. Amazingly, the water remained held in by the green symbols. They didn’t know what kind of high-level spell this was, but watching it was amazing.
Steve felt his energy levels drop below two thousand and he didn’t want to absorb more of the large crystals. It was just about time.
“Get back, everyone! I’m going to drop it soon!” Steve roared. The young mages had been so captivated that they hadn’t moved away yet, even though that had been the plan.
At his shout, his companions realized the danger they were in and flicked the reins, causing the horses to run away as quickly as possible.
Steve finally found the right technique; he had obtained a feeling for Water affinity from the huge blue Crystal and separated that feeling from everything else. He forcefully ejected everything that wasn’t water back onto the mud of the lakebed. They struck the ground with small splashes, as Steve hadn’t been able to get all the water floating, just most of it. He felt his energy level dip below one thousand. Even though it was dangerous to hold on longer, he didn’t want to kill the forgetful mages with what he knew was coming. They needed a little more time.
Then, he noticed a large blue Crystal near the lowest point of the lake. It was huge, several times larger than the one he’d had in the wagon and the color was mesmerizing. The fish-men that had dropped down encircled it, as if they were trying to defend the humongous Crystal. Now that the water wasn’t in the way any longer, Steve could feel the power emanating from the massive Crystal down below.
In this moment, there were hundreds of fish-men and other creatures milling about in the shallow water beneath the massive floating mass of water. A sea of white structures caught his attention. Interspersed between them were different kinds of fish-men. Some were on their knees, in a state of panic. Some looked significantly different than the others he’d noticed before. Were they fish-women? They most likely had absolutely no idea what was going on. Steve saw a lot of creatures that he couldn’t identify, but it didn’t matter to him. There was no time left; his energy reserves were nearly gone. It was too late to think about that now.
He dropped the millions of gallons of pure, mana-infused lake water onto the fish civilization.
***
“The spell we had over the lake has been defeated as if it weren’t even there. It was supposed to block any visitors, but someone or something must have passed through it and somehow killed the Naga King. They might be looking for the Greater Water Elemental Crystal. If so, they are a serious threat,” a voice reported. “What is our course of action, my master?”
“Don’t worry about it. We can’t spare the resources now. Nobody could collect the Crystal that easily. Even if something has killed the Naga King, there’s no way they can go through all the Naga in the Lake that easily. I can only think of a few powers on this entire continent that could accomplish that in one night,” an aged voice rasped out in reply. “We can check up on them in a few days, if there is no news from them. For now, we aren’t worried about the Capital’s outskirts. We need to turn our attention inward.”
Chapter 13
The three mages shouted; they had been hundreds of feet away, but still got doused by the water. The horses were even worse off; they’d been drenched completely by the miniature tsunami.
As they ran away, Ash had turned his head back, just in time to see the water fall from up above. He imagined vile creatures perishing to the sheer force of the water. The Elder would be happy to know that god Steve had avenged the Niti warriors that had fallen here years ago. They had lost important villagers to the lake, which caused their village to decline in power. It was one of the key reasons why they were in such dire economic straits before god Steve arrived.
The mass of water had been so large, that it first seemed to fall in slow motion. It had sped up as it fell, until it shook the ground with the massive weight as it made contact. A huge wave had swept toward them not too long afterward. Even though they were far away from the impact, water fell from the sky on them. Luckily, it was still slightly warm outside. Otherwise, Ash figured he might get sick. Having a cold for the Naming ceremony would have been bad, as he needed to be in peak condition.
After that, everything was still. Ash turned toward Fom and Azra to see them staring back at the lake with wide eyes. They were all dealing with the aftereffects of the adrenaline and feeling of awe. They had all grown up listening to legends of things like today. Now, they were witnesses to the great feat that god Steve had accomplished today—
“You can come back now!” Steve called out. The waves moving across the surface of what remained of the lake had died down a while ago, and now he wondered where the kids were. He was sure that he held it long enough to let them get to a safe distance…but maybe his calculations were off.
“Anyone there?” Steve tried again, using a little energy to amplify his voice this time.
As he waited, he heard a faint shout from Azra. Perhaps they had injured themselves? As they came back into view, he saw his guess was half right. He could see a look that was somewhere between awe and trauma on all their faces.
Oh well, better that t
hey understand what they’re getting into now, rather than later, Steve thought.
Azra had a gash on one arm and a scrape on her other forearm. It didn’t look that bad, honestly. Fom had a small gash on his head and looked like he’d had a bad fall. Ash was shaking as he drove the wagon, probably from excitement.
Fom’s face looked odd, though. Steve searched his mind for any information about humans shedding skin. But no, that simply didn’t happen, humans didn’t shed skin. Then why was half of Fom’s face like that?
After a bit, he learned what had happened. Fom had worn a face mask to hide his age, believing that nobody would hire a fourteen-year-old mage, regardless of their power level. Too young and inexperienced. But when Ash and Azra had looked at him a bit after their soaking, they saw a monster whose face seemed to be melting off because of the water. Azra had hit him and they both fell off the wagon, resulting in their injuries. Ash was just shocked.
Peeling the rest of the mask off, Fom looked young. He looked younger than Azra even, but insisted that he was fourteen. It seemed the kid was extremely embarrassed about his youthful appearance.
With the lake completely cleared of its namesake, they needed a new one for it. So, for now, they were calling it Steve’s Lake. The kids had wanted to name it something else, but Steve directly rejected it. He didn’t want to have to say ‘Lake of the Fish Vanquisher God Steve.’ It was inconvenient, if not outright cringeworthy. Steve had heard his dad use that term before.
“That’s cringe though,” Steve had said, but the kids didn’t understand at all. Steve didn’t fully understand, either, he’d just felt compelled to say it like his dad had. Upholding the family traditions, and all that.
The group prepared to head back to the village for dinner. While the kids were preparing the wagon and groomed the horses to calm them down, Steve stayed on top of the water and started draining energy from the lake. Then, he tried going into the water.
It was an interesting sensation. Steve felt the water all around him, even within him, but it didn’t hurt his light body. He continued topping off his energy with the water around him. It was just like draining the energy from the Water Elemental Crystal, but the feeling was much greater.
This must be related to the Crystal I saw at the bottom, Steve thought. After another few moments of absorption he was feeling full, and his energy read:
Current Energy – 7,742
Max Energy – 7,820
He had more than doubled his capacity since this morning! Steve quickly checked for changes to his top evolutions list. Aside from energy value changes, there wasn’t anything of note.
Perhaps the evolutions near the bottom of the list have changed more, Steve mused. Maybe I’ll check another time. It’s interesting that Turtle hasn’t passed Elf though, even with all the Water affinity I’ve gained…
The group made their way back to Niti Village to share the good news.
***
“Here’s what we know.” Leffer was stating the facts. “The Mottor will be here sometime after noon tomorrow. We know that we are more than a match for the Mottor in will to fight, but potentially not in power. We don’t know how many mages they have hired. The advantage still lies with us, given our information about when and where they’ll attack. But this advantage won’t be enough, if we are overwhelmed by their mages’ power.”
The villagers were all wearing their ceremonial caps, as this was a serious village meeting. They had started it in the afternoon and were just wrapping up. The Elder was delivering his ending speech. The Workforces had returned earlier that day, with more than half the Elemental Bark in the whole forest harvested. They were faster today, now having at least a little experience in felling trees.
“Fom, when he gets back, will tell us exactly where and when they’ll strike. We’ll set up a large mage ambush near that area beforehand,” Amon spoke up. They had already decided this before the meeting and were just sharing it with the villagers now. Most of the time was spent answering questions from the villagers. They were all concerned about the attack, as they should be.
“We cannot ask for god Steve’s help in this matter since our village wars do not concern him. However, if he feels threatened, like that time last night, I think we can expect him to act. If the enemy can be lured into assailing his position…then god Steve will wipe them all out. This is what we’ll do to even the odds. However, if that plan fails, we will use the village treasure to combat the Mottor,” Leffer addressed the issue of Steve’s role in the upcoming battle.
“Joffrey will lead the ambush. Amon will lead the frontal charge afterward. You will be split into two squads, the ambush squad, and the frontal squad. Are there any questions?” Leffer asked.
A man with an insignia on his pointy hat spoke up; he was a wealthy merchantman in their village, one of the best at his trade. This was a man who would be useless in the upcoming battle; he’d never learned any combat art, but that was fine by the village. Not everyone had to learn to fight.
“Why risk so much in this battle? I say if we have a god in our village, then we need to take advantage of this opportunity. Seize this chance to offer him gifts for his…friendship!"
Bribery was one of the arts that must be mastered to become a successful merchant. Otherwise, the taxes in the larger towns and cities would bleed away all the profit. This was an accepted practice…if one wasn’t caught.
“We cannot bribe a god. There’s nothing we can offer save for the village treasure that he might want,” Leffer answered. He was not going to stoop so low.
“I wasn’t speaking of that kind of bribery.” The merchant held firm. "It's more like, mutual interest, given that he has shown us what he requires…"
“We can’t sink to the same level as the Mottor! We will not bribe the god by sacrificing our own people!” Amon suddenly spoke up angrily. He knew that the merchant had made a decent point. God Steve had expressed interest in their village people before.
“I’ve heard that he was willing to trade Elemental Bark and Crystals for manpower,” the merchant continued, ignoring Amon’s outburst. “I think he would be willing to help our village if we offer more of the same deal. This…god, is a benign one, but he doesn’t work for free.”
Leffer had to consider this seriously, Steve wasn’t like the other gods in the legends. Those gods would rarely, if ever, deal with humans. This plan might actually work.
“We could offer up all of the prisoners and more livestock, as well as permanent command of the Squad of Scoundrels…” Leffer’s heart ached at the last part. The Squad of Scoundrels contained his family, after all. His mind balked at the notion, but if it was for the good of the village…Leffer was at a crossroads.
“He might accept, and we would suffer no losses to manpower. Sacrifices to the gods have always been a tradition, too.”
Joffrey signaled to the Elder, pulling his attention from the merchant to him. God Steve was back.
“We need to consider this matter carefully, we will have another meeting tomorrow morning, after the Naming. The meeting is adjourned,” Leffer announced.
***
“We’re heroes!” Azra was giddy with joy.
“Legends!” Ash called out.
“S…Saviors?” Fom tried. It wasn’t a good try, but it was a try. The other two had taken the good ones.
“Destroyer god Steve, with the help of three young mages, vanquished the Deadly Fish Lake’s inhabitants in one afternoon,” Azra announced. She then imitated a bard and in her best falsetto sang, “We’re like the heroes, in the legends of yore!”
“Legendary heroes!” Ash had dropped his facade of politeness, infected by Azra’s enthusiasm. Now he was just like any other excited kid.
Though there was a glimmer in his eye, there was no response from Fom. The young mage had accepted that he couldn’t keep pace with these two.
They were almost back to the village by now. Steve had checked the countdown timer before they left. It had re
ad:
3 Days 4 Hours 30 Minutes 20 Seconds
He estimated that he would still have a good ten minutes after arriving at the village to prepare for a sudden feeling of whatever was to come. Steve was getting used to the cycle. It went, feeling – memory – feeling – memory – feeling, and so on.
When they arrived, they could see a lot of village men acting as guards now. There was a tense atmosphere; everyone knew that the Mottor would arrive soon. It was just a matter of exactly when.
Steve led the group of children to the Elder’s residence. He noticed a lot of people putting away their weird pointy hats. Steve guessed that there must have been a gathering of some sort since that was the tradition. Weird pointy hats for Niti Village meetings.
Well, I guess there’s no reason to delay in letting them know, Steve decided.
***
Lord Mottor glanced at the stars. He was expecting a notification from Tenk about now. Usually Tenk did all the talking, Fom was always more of the quiet type.
He had bought their contracts from a mercenary group called Rogues for Hire. It was a subsection of a much larger mercenary group in the Capital, but a mere village Lord couldn’t afford hiring an entire mercenary company, so he’d settled for five rogue mages, to bolster his forces.
Lord Mottor was a decent three-star mage himself, but as all mages knew, there was safety in numbers. At least, until the five-star rank or above. After that, it was more a matter of quality over quantity.
Rogue mages were usually better than normal, Capital-trained ones. Until the five-star rank, or so Lord Mottor had heard when he had hired them. They were more accustomed to battle and used to using magic against anyone. The kids at the Capital who trained in magic were usually soft-hearted and weak. Rogues were much better for his purposes.