Metal Mage 9

by Eric Vall

  “Duly noted.” I nodded. “What about the other runes I asked for?”

  “The lightning is a tricky one because there are three degrees that channel the element in different ways,” Deya said as she flipped a few more pages. “This one draws lightning down from the sky to any point the rune is placed. This other one looks similar to what Dragir used to power your bazooka, but two lines were altered in his. The last one is confusing to me because the translation is difficult, but I think the word you would use is “web?” Like a spider makes.”

  “It’s a web of lightning?” I asked. “That’s pretty fucking cool. How does it work?”

  “I do not think the rune creates a web,” Deya said uneasily. “It only behaves in this way. I’m not sure how to describe it because I do not know very much about how runes behave.”

  “Playing with lightning sounds dangerous,” Cayla said in a low voice. “Are you certain about using it?”

  “Absolutely,” I replied. “We’re dealing with multiple kinds of creatures with differing abilities, especially where the mages are concerned. At first, I thought I could just pack each element into a magazine, but then we would have to constantly swap them out depending on who we were aiming at. I’d need a magazine the Aer Mages couldn’t counter, then a magazine the Flumen Mages couldn’t counter, and on like that.”

  “That would cost us more time than reloading the revolvers,” Cayla pointed out.

  “Yeah, so we need something the majority of the mages can’t counter,” I continued. “Fire’s always useful because everyone except Ignis Mages can burn, so that one is a must. Lighting though … none of us could fend it off. If I can figure out how this web thing works, I could potentially encase them in it. That’s an instant kill right there, no matter what your element is, and with a semi-automatic weapon, we’d be taking them down by the dozens.”

  “That really does sound dangerous, Mason,” Aurora mumbled as she eyed me uneasily in the rearview mirror. “Lightning is very unpredictable.”

  “Yeah, it’s incredibly dangerous,” I agreed, “and no one I’ve met in this realm can counter it.”

  “Then I think you should try it,” Deya said after a moment, “only please promise me you will be careful with this rune. Study every element very closely before you engrave it.”

  “You have my word,” I assured her. “What about the last one?”

  “There’s more than fire and lightning?” Cayla asked, and she finally looked more sober about the idea of the new weapon. “What else could you possibly need?”

  “Need?” I said with half a grin. “Probably nothing, but want?”

  “Gods,” Aurora sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “Come on,” I chuckled, “I’ve gotta have a little fun with this. It’s my first hybrid weapon. Deya, please continue.”

  Deya nodded and searched through the book for a couple minutes, and by the time she was done, it looked like she had about five different pages she’d saved.

  “Alright,” she finally said as she chose one to begin with. “What you asked for, I have never heard of, so you’ll have to tell me if I am misguided here, but in terms of metal, there are several that stuck out to me.”

  “Metal?” Aurora asked a little too loudly, and Hulsan coughed as he began shifting in his seat.

  None of us moved a muscle until he was snoring once more, and even then, we remained silent for several minutes longer. Then I nodded to Deya, and she continued barely above a whisper.

  “This rune is familiar to me only because I have seen Dragir use it for forging armor, but I don’t know the limits of its uses,” the elf explained. “I do know it is capable of melting any metal you engrave it into, though. This next one creates metal, and as you can see there are different variants to the rune depending on which type you want.”

  “Wait, it creates it out of nothing?” I clarified.

  “No,” she replied. “It draws it from its surroundings.”

  “Oookay,” I said with a nod. “So, if the rocks around you have no gold in them, you’re not creating gold with this rune.”

  “Correct,” Deya replied. “This next rune--”

  “No, no,” I interrupted as I caught her before she could turn the page. “This one’s perfect.”

  “How are you going to use this rune with the 1911?” Cayla asked in confusion. “To create bullets?”

  “Not exactly,” I said. “Let me try to work it all out before we get into technicalities, but this last one is more for my own personal use anyways.”

  “Why?” Deya asked with some concern. “Is it very violent?”

  “Could be,” I allowed, “but if I’m the only Metal Mage in this realm, then I’m going to use that to my advantage as much as possible. I actually got the idea from our encounter with Yvette and something Odin and I have been discussing. For now, let me work on getting familiar with these elements. I want to have at least one pistol and two magazines fully engraved by the time we get to Jagruel, so if everyone could try not to disturb the atmosphere too much, that would be very helpful.”

  “I can certainly do that,” Cayla yawned, and I leaned over to leave a kiss on her cheek since I could tell she’d be out cold in minutes. Then Deya curled up so her head rested on my shoulder, and as both women began to doze off, I laid my head back and closed my eyes, too.

  I didn’t sleep, though. I focused on the degree mapping in my head instead as I laid the many runic variations over it and worked on memorizing their elements. Eventually, I decided to focus on the fire rune first since this one was the least complex of all the magazines I wanted to create, and I sparked my metal magic to summon some fresh steel from my stash on the floor. Then I summoned my engraving kit as well, and after double checking the dimensions of the gun’s frame on my pistol, I formed a magazine and installed a spring system in base. Then I melted a small bead of copper and embedded it in the upper left corner of the piece to act as a contact point for the trigger rune.

  I was just picking up the engraving tool when I happened to glance up and notice a pair of emerald eyes watching me nervously in the rearview mirror, and I cocked a brow.

  “Are you watching me, or watching the road?”

  “Just be careful, okay?” Aurora said, and her blue brows crinkled nervously.

  I grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”

  It took me several tries to find the right balance once I added Dragir’s alterations to the fireball rune, but once I got the elements to calm down a bit, I figured it only took me about twenty minutes to get the engraving completed on the side of the magazine.

  The oddest part of the process was how much the various fire elements reminded me of Aurora once I was more familiar with their presence, but they also seemed to gravitate toward her in the front seat. It was like they amplified when they got close to the Ignis Mage, and it gave me the strange sense that I’d somehow seeped into the makeup of her veins.

  If this was what it felt like to be an Ignis Mage, I was officially jealous, but also a little unnerved because it was erratic as hell to work with. The elements would surge out of nowhere and spread around me like fire did on a windy day, and most of my effort was spent on trying to rein them back in to a manageable degree again. It made me sweat just trying to focus on a single degree line, but once all six were swarming around me, I started wondering if the car would burst into flames at any second.

  It didn’t, though, which was cool, and when I opened my eyes, I looked down to see I really was drenched in sweat.

  “Fucking hell,” I sighed, “how do you put up with fire? I’m honestly baffled, that was exhausting.”

  “You like it,” Aurora murmured, and she sent me a wink. “Do you think you worked it out alright?”

  “We’ll find out when we test it,” I said as I slid the magazine into my pocket. “For now, I’m just glad I got them balanced without spontaneously combusting.”

  “Yeah, that was a little intense just to be near,” Aurora adm
itted.

  “You could feel it?” I asked. “Could you recognize that they were fire elements?”

  “Of course, I could,” she chuckled. “I always know fire when it’s near me, no matter the form. It was … cozy. Energizing, too, I feel wide awake now.”

  “Thank you for driving all night,” I said as I pulled another piece of steel from the floor, and I sparked my metal magic to replicate the magazine.

  “I don’t mind,” the half-elf said with a shrug. “I couldn’t sleep with all this snoring going on anyway, but at least it’s beautiful out here.”

  I glanced out the window for the first time since we left Falmount, and in the blaring light of the moon I could make out scraggly grass covered hills that dropped off into dark, jagged cliffs. We were driving along the edge of one of these cliffs, and ahead in the far distance, there was a faint shimmer of black waters on the horizon.

  “There’s hardly any trees out here,” I muttered. “Did Haragh mention a route with better cover maybe? I mean, we’re right out in the open, anyone could see us or follow us.”

  “I’m keeping an ear out,” Aurora assured me. “Haragh said to stay a straight course toward the west until the road splits. Then we should be heading down toward the coast and have more cover.”

  “He would know best,” I sighed, and I laid my head back once more to work on the next engraving.

  I decided to use a combination rune for the magazine that would harness lightning, and I focused on familiarizing myself with the rune that was engraved on the trigger assembly of the bazooka first. I would have to replicate it on the triggers of the pistols, but I also needed to combine the rune that behaved like a web with a couple more directional aspects of it, too. After seeing the result of doing it wrong once before, I wanted to be certain I had this one down before messing with other runes having to do with lightning.

  This was easier said than done, though. My heartrate jacked up the second I summoned the first elemental degree, and just as I realized it was only pounding faster and faster by the second, my healing rune suddenly flared in retaliation.

  I gasped as I broke the connection and sat bolt upright, and Bobbie swerved on the road from Aurora’s surprise. Haragh and Hulsan slumped onto each other, but they stayed out cold while the half-ogre began drooling on the old man’s head.

  “What’s wrong?” Aurora hissed anxiously as I clutched instinctively at my chest.

  “I think I almost electrocuted myself,” I admitted.

  “Okay, no lightning,” the half-elf immediately decided. “Shoshanne would say it if she were here, and she’d be right, so I’m calling it.”

  I sighed and leaned forward against the seat back while my rune slowly quieted down again.

  “That’s not productive at all,” I muttered.

  Aurora just tipped her chin up defiantly and shook her head.

  “Don’t you want to wield a weapon no one in the realm can counter?” I cajoled. “That takes a little persistence to achieve.”

  I could tell the half-elf was having trouble holding firm, and I grinned as I propped my elbows up and waited.

  Eventually, she let out a tense sigh and glanced over her shoulder at me.

  “Fine,” she mumbled. “Explain what happened.”

  “My heart rate jacked up,” I told her. “At first, it was only a bit, like when I’ve been all-out sprinting for twenty minutes, but the element was even more erratic than the fiery ones. I couldn’t get a hold on it for even a second. Then something must have happened because my heart felt like it was seizing or something, and my healing rune started acting up. That’s when I broke the connection.”

  “Gods,” Aurora groaned. “Shoshanne would be so mad right now.”

  “Luckily, it’s just us and a car full of people who don’t ever have to know,” I tried as I nudged her playfully.

  Aurora shook her head to herself, but I could see the grin curling at the corners of her lips, and then her eyes suddenly widened.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Okay, so you said this degree you harnessed was erratic,” Aurora said. “This of course reminded me of my Ignis magic, but then I was thinking of how you’re supposed to be the grounded one, and here you are enticing me into a terrible idea.”

  “Okay … ” I replied. “Is this about Shoshanne again?”

  “No,” Aurora chuckled. “It’s about you. Your element is a grounding one. Lightning needs--”

  “To be grounded. Godsdamnit,” I cursed, and then I slipped my hand around the woman’s slender neck to gently tilt her in my direction. She giggled against my lips while I kissed her, and she was already rolling her eyes at me when I let go. “You’re incredible, by the way.”

  “Don’t you dare tell Shoshanne I helped with any of this,” the half-elf ordered.

  “Deal,” I chuckled, “but you won’t regret it.”

  I dropped back into my seat with my Terra powers already sparking in my veins, and I let the strength of my connection to my own element build without sending it outward at all. I waited until I was almost itching to unleash it, and then I waited another minute more, because I really didn’t want to electrocute myself.

  Finally, I split my attention and began focusing on the degree mapping in my head and which element I was harnessing, and the familiar static surge shot through me again. I tensed immediately as I sensed how shifty it was, but this time, it didn’t immediately jet off out of control. It clung to the space around me and flickered in and out of my veins, and as I slowly placed the engraving tool on the metal, the hair on my arms began to stand on end.

  My heart rate was elevated again, but it didn’t continue to increase, and I took this as a sign that Aurora had been exactly on point about my element. So, I fought against the urge to break the connection as I summoned an extra surge of my Terra powers, and then I began engraving the degree line in the steel of the magazine.

  Every additional line shot through me like ice cold water, and this did nothing to improve the struggle of balancing my magery against the runic elements while trying to keep two different runes perfectly aligned on the map in my mind.

  I felt jittery and constantly on the verge of losing control of every connection, and when it came time to balance all eight elements with cohesion lines, I almost gave up all together. I knew I was so close, though, and the sheer power of the magic around me only urged me onward. They were more potent than any element I’d ever experienced in this realm, and I kept increasing my Terra powers as I clenched my jaw and commanded my attention toward finding the little pings of energy that meant the elements were balancing out.

  I didn’t know how long I spent feverishly trying to feel out the lines of cohesion, but as I engraved one final line in the steel, everything suddenly leveled out. The acuteness of the elements was still at the forefront of my mind, and I could hear all of them muttering around me, but they weren’t warring with each other anymore. So, I tentatively eased my connection to the rune as I lifted the engraving tool away, and I waited until my heart rate evened out before I finally let my Terra magic fade again.

  When I opened my eyes, the car wasn’t moving, and Aurora was turned around in the driver’s seat staring at me.

  “Why are we stopped?” I asked, but I felt like a robot from how mechanically my mouth moved. My mind was weirdly disconnected from my body, too, but I was hyper aware of the space I took up in the car and how still everything seemed compared to the chaos I’d been working in.

  “Are you okay?” Aurora asked.

  “Yes,” I replied blankly. “Why are we stopped?”

  “I couldn’t focus on the road,” the half-elf said as she narrowed her eyes just a little. “The air was heavy, and my head hurt, but I didn’t want to interrupt you. We’ve been sitting here for almost an hour.”

  I looked out the window to see the sky was just beginning to lighten, but even the sensation of turning my head felt weird, and I furrowed my brow as I swiveled my head side to si
de to try and make the movement feel more natural.

  Aurora’s eyes narrowed a bit more. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I think so,” I said. “Just feeling kind of … strange. Lightning is more complex than I ever imagined, and loud. How long was I working on that rune for?”

  “Long enough that we’re in Jagruel,” Aurora answered. “You really didn’t notice the car was stopped this whole time?”

  “I was kind of preoccupied,” I pointed out, and this time, the process of speaking finally felt a little more natural. “I think I did it, though.”

  “That’s good.” Aurora nodded, and we stared at each other like this for a long moment while we processed the utter weirdness of rune magic.

  Then Hulsan must have choked on his tongue, because a loud hacking noise came from his gaping mouth to break the silence, and I jolted so much my Terra magic burst through the ground under the Mustang with a thunderous crack.

  Aurora gasped, and Hulsan clutched the side paneling in a panic as the tires shifted, and the two women sleeping on either side of me slid dead weight into my shoulders as the rear of the car began to lose ground.

  My heart pounded wildly in my chest while I quickly resealed the massive fissure I’d opened beneath us, but I couldn’t tell if this was just my shock or the residual effects of the rune I’d been working on.

  Hulsan was wild-eyed with his scraggly hair in disarray as he looked all around, but Haragh went on snoring.

  “Wh-What’s going on?” Hulsan croaked as he looked back at me. “Why are we stopped?”

  I remained perfectly still as Aurora swiftly summoned her flame back to her in the front seat, and I hoped the old guy wouldn’t notice the branding irons, engraving tool, magazines, and pistols piled on the bare thighs around me.

  “Uhh …” I tried. “We’re in Jagruel. Aurora and I were just getting our plans in order.”

  Hulsan managed a wobbly nod before he fell into a fit of gravelly coughs that finally woke Haragh up, and then the old man dug in his pocket for his tin of Aldrin pollen.