by Scott Seier
Assault
With an hour to burn, I covertly dove back into my Micro shaping interface. When life gives you lemons, am I right? The screen I'd been spending so much time in held a perfect recreation of my Alpha design. A cute little octopus. What I'd been trying to do was actually make it do something other than its innate grappling ability. Don't get me wrong, if I summoned a big one of these things I could probably lock down a melee character no problem. But I was going small. Small and numerous was the goal. So they had to have some other ability that made them dangerous. The answer had come to me quickly, but the method to achieve that end was still a work in progress. I wanted Alpha to be able to sap energy, stamina or mana, didn't matter which, as long as I could make it work. The tools were actually built right into the interface, staring mockingly at me the whole time, but I didn't know how to access them.
Next to Alpha was a list of grayed out traits that I could somehow unlock and apply to him. On that list were some crazy things like 'spontaneous detonation' and 'forever sight' , but what I was more interested were the two near the end of the list. 'Mana Hungry' and/or 'Depletion'. The mana hungry one was self explanatory. The shaping would eat mana, simple. The Depletion one worked similarly, except with stamina. I felt like I'd been smashing my head against a wall this whole time, trying to get my Alpha to take on those traits, but to no avail. Yet.
I stared into Alpha's eyes and thought. And thought, and thought. I wanted him to eat mana. I knew it was possible, the trait told me that. How did I bridge the gap? The only idea I had was to actually feed him mana, but I had tried that already. The little guy just grew bigger the more energy I sent his way, the opposite of what I wanted to happen. Minimizing the window for a second I looked around at the people around me. Hael was fully entrenched in a discussion with the four new people, and Gleer, Billy, and Will were all milling around and keeping a weary eye on the woods. I covertly looked down at my hand and summoned an Alpha into my palm. With the micro casting and shaping skills working together Alpha was tiny, maybe half the size of a penny if he spread his legs out flat. That didn't stop him from being wicked fast, using his arms to slingshot himself around.
I smiled down at the happy little bugger, then summoned another one. The original shaping spell had limited how many I could summon at once with the large initial mana cost, this micro version took less than a quarter of a single mana to pull off. I set to work. Every few seconds another Alpha was added to the center of my hand. By the time I was satisfied, my hand was covered with an unpleasant writhing mass of blue ghostlike Alphas.
I pulled the disturbing sight under my cloak before trying the next step. Maybe me trying to channel mana into one of these guys wasn't enough. I was hoping there was a built in threshold. A limit that, once exceeded, would open up the trait. Maybe it was one hundred mana? Maybe it was a thousand? But I figured if there were a bunch of small alphas working together, maybe their experience would stack? They weren't unique after all. They were exact copies of my original design. Perfect replicas that functioned as a single unit regardless of if I tried to isolate one of them or not. If I ordered a single Alpha to crawl up and settle on my wrist, I would soon find myself with all of them trying to crowd the designated location.
Keeping that in mind, I focused hard on my hand and let mana flood the appendage completely. The feeling was pleasant, like a nice warm breeze and the sensation of strength. Then I directed the Alphas to try and consume as much mana as possible, and at the same time began pushing the mana at them, just like I would push it to be infused into Vigil's body. This wasn't new, I'd tried this before. The only change being that I had a ton of the little guys working at the goal all at once, instead of just one. The result was that the available mana plummeted, fast. I selected a few more points of the stuff and replaced the missing power. The Alphas all had at least one of their appendages pressed against my skin and were suctioning to me in an instinctual attempt to follow my order even though they didn't have the actual tools to do so. Four times I let them drain the available mana with seemingly no progress. At least they weren't growing rapidly in size... a few of them looked larger than normal, but most were their original dimensions. That was curious...
Looking closer, I suddenly began to notice all kinds of differences. Some were growing, albeit slowly, while others were withering away. As I watched several faded completely. The energy influx being too much for their spectral bodies to handle and degrading them to the point of no return. Others were subtly changing colors from a nice light blue, the default for the original shaping skill, to more of a purple. Weird how a lot of things that I did magically turned out purple...even Vigil turned purpley when he started ramping up his mana use.
The purple ones seemed to be progressing the most effectively. They maintained their shape at least. Some of the now rather large ones split and sent small splashes of pure mana spilling onto their neighbors. The rapid influx of concentrated energy spelled the end for most that came in contact with it, but some seemed unfazed, or rather, they seemed to like it. The purple ones were certainly one of the flourishing variants, but now there were some that had twelve arms instead of eight and some that were turning a deep crimson color. Regardless of how they looked, one thing was clear. The more that they changed from their original blue form, the more mana I needed to feed into my hand to keep things progressing, even though their numbers had already significantly diminished.
By the time that my regeneration simply couldn't keep up with their power draw, I had five new types of Alphas in my hand. Purple had come out on top. There were six purple Alphas left, the most numerous of the variants. I focused for a moment and confirmed that this type had indeed picked up the 'Mana Hungry' trait...along with a few others that I wasn't shooting for. Searching around the rest, I found the same result. Each of the five types had the mana hungry trait, but each also had a different set other traits. That at least explained their difference in looks... focusing once again on the purple Alpha, I selected it as my target and willed the Micro Shaping Skill to accept it as my new baseline Alpha. Immediately my cute little blue octopus was replaced by my new and improved version.
The purple variant had small horns that grew above its eyes, along with spines that ran down the length of each of its arms. He looked positively poisonous. I started to dig into his traits to get a better idea of what he could do, but was distracted when I noticed my mana still wasn't regenerating. I minimized the window and looked down. When I added the purple Alpha to my skill the corresponding shapings had disappeared, all the purple ones. That didn't stop the other four from continuing with my former command. I sent the order to stop draining me dry, but only the ones with twelve arms obeyed me, unbinding themselves from my skin and waiting for my next command. Worried now, I focused on the deep crimson ones and sent the same order. They immediately stopped sapping my mana. Hmm...
I got all four of them to stop eating me long enough to add them to my skill. A quick look at the clock told me that only about forty minutes had passed since the guy and his band of misfits had booked it into the woods. I glanced around and found everyone to essentially be doing the same thing they had been when I last checked. The only difference being that Gleer was tearing through pages of her spellbook with vigor, but that was pretty normal for her. Diving back into myself I started cataloging and naming my new little friends.
The purple one, now the official new Alpha, had five traits. The first being Mana Hungry, but the other four being what had altered its form. One of them was 'Anchor' and explained the pointiness. It caused damage when trying to remove him if he was latched onto someone. It even worked through magical means. So if a healer tried to cleanse someone who had my Alpha on them, the healer would get hurt by it and there was a better than normal chance my Alpha would be unbothered by the attempt. The other three were along similar veins to each other. All of them worked together to allow Alpha to be even more resistant to magical effects, but also allowed him to momentari
ly shield himself from magical influence all together. The three traits combined was what cause Alpha to turn purpled, and what made shiny scales run in lines all over his body. The scales took a very close inspection to even notice.
The next most interesting one was the one with Twelve legs. I named this type "Beta". Along with Mana Hungry, it had two traits that had bound themselves together in a way that I hadn't known possible. 'Mobile' and 'Energy Educated' had fused to form 'Energetic Movement' it brought with it a host of benefits, more than it would have received if it had just kept the two separate traits. The description was lacking, but I was sure that, given enough mana, Beta would be able to teleport short distances. The idea of casting Beta on one target and draining them of all their mana, then having him just jump to the next was exciting to me. The other three former Alphas were more straight forward. One that consumes mana until it exploded, the crimson one, a solid green one that consumed only naturally attuned mana and could change its shape based on how much it took in, and a tiny golden one that had been the sole survivor of its type. The golden one was half as small as any of the others and could form astral connections with its target, only having to come in contact once to allow it to draw mana from them, and after that, being able to track them effectively. I had no idea the range, but I was sure it would eventually come in handy. I named them using the same established style. The crimson exploding one was Gamma, the green on was Delta, and the golden tiny one was Epsilon.
"Lyst?" I minimized everything and and blinked at the bright sun. "Is it time?" I said, glancing at the clock and seeing that I still have five minutes. I turned to Gleer, the one who had apparently been trying to get my attention, and was surprised to find her sitting right next to me. I didn't remember sitting down... "Not quite time, but I couldn't help but notice what you just did." She said to me conspiratorially. Unsure why she was whispering, I lowered my voice to answer her. "Caught that did you? I'm trying to create a new specialization for myself. I thought I was being pretty discreet." I looked around worriedly. I didn't want Hael to think that I wasn't taking my job to keep him alive seriously. Gleer shook her head. "No, not discreet at all, but most didn't understand what you were trying to do, so no harm done. I just want to let you know that you're taking your first steps towards getting into real trouble with the Magus Guard."
I stared stupidly at her. I knew that when I got my Micro Shaping skill, it came with warning about teaching it to others. The people the message had said I would need to contact if I did ever want to pass it along was the Magus Guard, but I had no idea why I would be in trouble with them now. "Care to explain?" I asked hopefully.
Gleer had a wealth of knowledge, but wasn't always keen on sharing with others. The mage mulled over my request for a few seconds before answering. "I suppose telling you about one of the Magus accords wouldn't be violating anything too bad..." before I could ask what the hell that meant, she leaned over and cupped her hands around her mouth and my ear, like we were in grade school or something. "There is an accord, enforced by the Magus Guard, that outlaws the use of magic of a certain category. The category system that they use denotes the destructive potential of something. A good example is Milenta, or Guild leader? She's deemed that giant turtle as a category six entity. That's beyond powerful. To put it in perspective, anything above a category three is registered with the Magus Guard. And anything higher than a five is outlawed without special permission. What you are playing at, has the potential to dip very liberally into the category five region of magic. I'm warning you, not to stop you, but just to make sure you're aware that you should really keep that kind of thing to yourself." She spoke quickly and efficiently and when she pulled away from me my perception of magic within Acrion had been completely upturned.
I glanced nervously at the people around me. How many of them had seen what I'd been doing? How many would even know about those accords? Or I suppose, the better question would be, even if someone saw, and knew about the laws, would they even think what I was doing fell into the realm of anything out of the ordinary? That thought was the one that put me more at ease. Gleer was an extreme outlier when it came to magical knowledge in this game. I think I was safe, for now at least.
Picking myself up, I thanked Gleer for the heads up and moved my five new summons onto my quick access bar in my interface. I had put the time into making them, no way I didn't use them. Even if it could get me in trouble eventually. I had yet to open up a specialization, that only told me that I had to push harder, not ease off now. I smiled then, patting myself of the back for completing yet another step.
I was still feeling good about myself when the singing started.
"Report please." Hael spun on our four new information officers. Demetistics shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "I have nothing. No damage going out." I looked out towards the trees where the ethereal voice was coming from. Hauntingly beautiful, the singing was positively thrumming with mana. I could feel it. The song rolled over the assorted players like waves on a beach, but no one seemed to be hurt by it. It was Joe who caught on first. "The Siren's song. We have people walking towards the woods!" his gruff voice crackling with worry. Hael swept his eyes over the front line and sure enough there were players breaking ranks and walking towards the trees. "I thought we got rid of all the dim ones when the first bunch walked to their deaths!" Hael spat. He turned to Gleer and tapped his throat with two fingers. "I need a boost." Gleer nodded and her spellbook was in her hand instantly. She found the page she had been looking for and started muttering to herself. As she chanted a cheery yellow glow began to build around her. As she finished her casting she reached out and set her hand against Hael's neck. The light faded and she nodded to the raid leader.
Hael turned back towards the woods and boomed over the heads of the lines of players. "Hold in formation! That's an order." He said the word "order" with a finality that caused most of the players nearby to shuffle uncomfortably. His words didn't have the desired effect... the players that had started moving into the woods kept on going, unfazed. Hael turned around and drew his fingers over his neck in a slicing motion. A yellow glow transfered to the fingers in question and then faded. When he spoke, it was at a normal volume. "Joe, looks like you're right. Siren indeed. They're all moving against their will or else my order would have had them running back here." The rogue pinched the bridge of his nose and furrowed his brow in concentration. "So this is his play, he even warned us... Okay." He dropped his hand and grinned at the seven of us. "If that bastard wants to draw a chunk of our forces into a trap, then we can't do anything about it. The song apparently has a limit to how many it can effect, or else we would all be doing the zombie walk down there, but the limit is high enough to hurt us. So if we can't stop their plan, then we go with it." Was I the only one who thought that was a bad idea?
Grim sat on a stump in the middle of some god-forsaken forest in some stupid valley so far away from a founding city that the highest ranked royal around was a frickin baron. He mulled over his options as his hand picked team prepared nearby. Well, all but one of them. Siren had already left to fulfill her part of the plan. He spat and his mouth worked itself into a snarl. His job had been so simple. Move into this area and retrieve the crest of Baron Flags. It was originally a simple case of robbery, but then that stupid assassin had gone and got himself caught. Normally that wouldn't be that big of an issue. Comes with the territory, sometimes your team got pinched. Whatever. Happens. What doesn't happen, or what's not supposed to happen, is that guy started talking.
Grim had been forced to kill two guards in his escape earning him the murderer, and the traitor mark at the same time. He cursed again. His respawn point was set an entire continent away. If he died here, in this god awful place, there would be no way to see his job through. Grim's eyes danced with anger. He always saw his business through to the end. That's why people hired him. His most valuable possession was his word.
He stood and kicked the stump he'd been sitting on
. After the escape from the town, things had gone from bad, to worse. His funding was cut off, his contacts had disappeared, only after two days did he find out that the entire mercenary clan that he had been using to funnel funds and supplies into this area had been eradicated. Some inter-guild feud. That's when he was forced to start over. He had to recruit to his cause, he looked over the three near him. Each exceptional in their own way. He had to secure a means of funding himself, he thought back to threatening the lives of several guardsman to make that one happen. And lastly, he had to connect the event that was going on to the loss of the Baron's crest.
That last one hadn't been his idea. The ones that had hired him had intel that stated a huge event was going down in this neck of the woods. When Grim had first set foot in Four Flags he'd thought there had to have been a mistake. No event would ever happen in a place as boring as this... but low and behold. There was indeed a turtle with a mountain on its back battling a top ranked guild several miles to his south at this very moment. Even as he paced in his small little clearing his interface told him he was currently in combat. He had marched his entire raid up to the mountainside as the event was getting ready to set off. He'd lost a few men when the turtle ripped himself from the earth, but it would be worth it in the end.
He only had a couple hurtles left. The defending raid, the guards in the town, and the Baron's personal defenses. When all was said and done, Grim would have every npc in the valley dead, the town burned to the ground, and the royal crest in hand by the end of the day. Anything short of that left too many loose ends for his liking. He itched at his arm where the two marks glared up at him. He wouldn't be allowed into many cities with these things marring his skin. The only way that they go away is if they all die. If the reputation faction of Four Flags doesn't exist anymore, then there can't be marks bound to it.