Awaken Online: Ember (Tarot #1)

by Bagwell, Travis

  “Most mages tend to allocate their stat points toward Intelligence and Willpower since these statistics are difficult to train and directly improve their spellcasting. However, that means that their physical abilities tend to be rather… lacking,” Brutus said distastefully.

  “There are two ways to help address this shortfall. The first is equipment,” he explained, holding up a calloused finger. “The second is physical training.” Another finger rose into the air.

  “The difficulty with the first option is that you’re giving up the casting stats you could have put on your gear.” Brutus leaned forward, his eyes glinting in the sun. “This means training is the best way to improve those other stats – since you give up nothing but your blood, sweat, and tears. And the more, the better! The longer you keep at it, the more difficult it will become to raise those stats and the more demanding your training will need to become.”

  Finn – as well as the rest of the class – were now staring at Brutus wide-eyed. The logic of his statements each landed like a sword strike. In short, they could dump their stat points in Intelligence and Willpower, but they would need to train like a fiend to keep their physical stats at a reasonable level. Finn was suddenly glad he had decided to hold on to his initial points.

  At that thought, he glanced at his notifications and Character Status.

  x3 Level Up!

  You have (65) undistributed stat points.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Reading

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 8

  Effect 1: 12% increased learning speed while reading.

  x1 Skill Rank Up: Learning

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 5

  Effect 1: 9% increased learning speed for skills and spells.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Mana Mastery

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 7

  Effect: -4% of the mana cost of spells.

  He had already noted that his experience gain and skill growth had started to slow slightly, which seemed to indicate that they had diminishing returns. Finn idly wondered if he could also improve skill growth by increasing the hardship of his training. It was certainly an interesting idea and something he should probably ask Abbad. Assuming, of course, that the librarian didn’t kill him the next time they spoke.

  Finn had managed to avoid explaining the encounter with Lamia. At least for now.

  “Alright,” Brutus barked, clapping his palms together loudly, “that’s more than enough talking and staring into space. I already feel like I’m coddling you with these lectures. In my opinion, people learn best by doing. Particularly, you travelers. I find I need to beat the common sense into at least a few of you.”

  A smile began to creep across Brutus’ face. “So, let’s start the first and most important lesson that you will ever learn.”

  As he finished speaking, the burly man’s fingers twined through a complicated series of gestures. Finn’s brow furrowed as he noticed a few patterns he hadn’t learned yet, but it was the incantation tumbling out of the mage’s mouth that captured his focus. He only caught the occasional word. Something about flames and construction – or maybe construct? The syntax was also strange. The words flowed together in multiple lines, creating a much more complicated incantation than for a spell like Magma Armor or Fire Nova.

  “What is he casting?” Finn murmured.

  He didn’t have to wait long to find out.

  Flames suddenly erupted along the edge of the field, the fire lancing nearly twenty feet into the air and swiftly blocking out the sight of the guild hall. Although, Finn could still barely make out other students watching from the terrace that ringed the field. The group let out a cheer as they saw the fire rise into the air. The inferno roared with blazing force, swiftly melting the sand on the edges of the courtyard into liquid glass.

  Then the sands in the interior of the courtyard began to shift and swirl as flames ignited in erratic pockets across the field, erupting from the ground like miniature volcanos. One such fountain of heat started to form near Finn’s feet, and he and Kyyle backpedaled quickly, trying to put some distance between themselves and whatever the hell was happening.

  Some sort of flaming volcano maybe? Finn thought frantically.

  He was wrong. Oh, so, very wrong.

  The sands spiraled up into the air, lifted by the heat and fire. These particles were soon melted down and combined to form a glowing red mound of liquid glass. From each of these magma pools, hulking creatures rose – swiftly taking shape. They climbed nearly seven feet into the air, their body a mass of superheated glass.

  Finn’s mind went blank as he realized he was looking at some sort of glass golem.

  They must cool off in the air, he thought to himself. If they stepped out of the flames, their bodies should become rigid and fragile.

  Yet that guess was disproved a moment later as the nearby golem lumbered out of the pool of molten glass and ambled toward Finn and Kyyle. Its body did indeed cool in the air, creating a hard, skin-like surface. However, the golem’s limbs were still semi-translucent, which allowed Finn to see that an angry red core of heat still burned in its chest and along the center of each limb, keeping the glass malleable enough to allow it to move freely.

  “I have one last piece of advice for this lesson,” Brutus’ voice boomed across the courtyard. Finn looked over to find the mage awash in flame, his eyes a blazing red and orange as streamers of fire encircled him. Meanwhile, more and more golems were still emerging from the sands.

  “Run!” Brutus declared.

  Chapter 15 - Durable

  The glass golem shifted forward, planting a charred foot into the sands with enough force to cause the ground to shake and yellow particles to launch into the air. Finn and Kyyle backpedaled quickly, keeping an eye on their newfound opponent. Meanwhile, a similar scene played out across the field. At least a half-dozen of the creatures had pulled themselves from the sandy courtyard and now faced off against the scattered students.

  “How the hell are we going to kill this?” Kyyle shouted at Finn, trying to make himself heard over the screams of the other students.

  Finn just shook his head. Brutus had boxed them in – unless they wanted to try braving the inferno that now ringed the courtyard. His gaze skimmed to the walls of fire, noting that the flames were so dense that he couldn’t see through them.

  Okay, that’s not an option.

  Finn’s attention darted back to the golem. He quickly inspected the creature.

  Glass Golem (Summoned) – Level ???

  Health – Unknown

  Mana – Unknown

  Equipment – Unknown

  Resistances – Unknown

  Finn’s guess was that the golem was so much more powerful than the novice mages that they simply couldn’t see its level. He could feel a heavy weight settle in his stomach, and his mind wheeled.

  Finn didn’t have long to ponder on this.

  The golem pulled back its arm, the surface starting to glow a bright red as it seemed to superheat the limb. It almost looked like the golem was winding up for a pitch and Finn’s eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

  “Spellbook!” he said aloud. Immediately, the new guidelines appeared in Finn’s field of view. He began casting Magma Armor, silently thanking his earlier self for having the foresight to practice the spell.

  Just as he finished casting, Finn shouted at Kyyle, “Get behind me!” The young man didn’t hesitate and dove behind Finn.

  A barrier of molten energy swept up Finn’s arm, thickening with each second that ticked past. He turned to the side, holding his arm in front of him like a shield as the barrier glowed with an angry red-and-orange light.

  Finn just hoped it would be enough.

  The golem let loose, its arm arcing forward with surprising speed. Time seemed to slow for a moment, and Finn saw that the creature’s arm had turned entirely into molten glass, a red-hot blob where its hand used to be. The momentum of the swing caused a ball of glass the size of a basketball to detac
h, sending it hurtling toward Finn and Kyyle.

  “Oh shit,” Finn murmured, dropping to a crouch and bracing himself.

  The molten glass crashed against his shield, and his arm trembled from the force of the impact. Even worse, the magma broke apart as it struck, spraying the area with glowing red droplets. His shield didn’t provide enough coverage to avoid the splash, and he felt a dozen hot pinpricks strike his clothes, burning through the flimsy cloth before eating into his skin.

  Finn let out a hissing breath, watching his health dip precariously in the corner of his vision. They could only take one or two more hits like that. He dismissed the remaining fragments of his Magma Armor and yanked Kyyle to his feet in one movement.

  “We need to put some distance between us,” he shouted over the roaring flames and the shouts of the other students. The golem was already advancing again – the only small mercy being that the creature was slow, stumbling in the shifting sands of the courtyard.

  Kyyle nodded numbly, and then his gaze swept back to the golem. “I-I can buy us some time,” he murmured. Before Finn could ask him what he was doing, the young man’s fingers twined through a rapid series of gestures as arcane words drifted from his lips.

  Finn didn’t wait to see what happened. As soon as Kyyle finished casting, he grabbed his arm and yanked him along after him, the two jogging across the sands of the courtyard.

  When they had created some distance, Finn finally spared a glance behind him. He saw the golem suddenly lurch as it took its next step. Its foot plunged into the sand as though the ground had given way. Finn blinked in confusion and suddenly realized that this was exactly what had happened. Kyyle had caved in a portion of the courtyard. The golem stumbled forward before crashing into the hole, its body half-embedded in the sand.

  Maybe this is a way to…

  Finn never got to complete the thought. The sands around the golem turned an angry red as a pulse of heat rippled through its body. Within only moments, the creature was swimming in a miniature lake of molten glass. Finn doubted that would hold the creature for long, but at least they had bought themselves a few seconds of breathing room.

  “Fuck,” Finn muttered.

  “We need a plan,” Kyyle panted beside Finn.

  He could only nod in response, although nothing came to him immediately. Finn glanced at the gauge for his health, mana, and stamina in the corner of his vision. Blocking a single strike and running away had left him almost half-empty. He doubted the others were faring much better.

  With that thought, Finn’s attention turned to the rest of the class. His stray thought didn’t do the carnage justice. Corpses already riddled the courtyard, many of the bodies still smoking as molten glass continued to eat into their flesh. Only about a dozen students remained, and the golems were following them relentlessly.

  As Finn watched, he noticed a student attempting to run away from a golem, clutching at a burnt arm and stumbling in the shifting sands. His foot landed wrong, and he suddenly fell hard on his side, looking at the golem pursuing him with fear-filled eyes as his fingers stumbled through some sort of spell. He finally finished casting, a shard of ice rocketing through the air and slamming into the golem’s body. The ice carved a furrow in the creature’s glass skin, causing the rigid substance to fracture. Yet the golem simply shrugged off the blow. Its glass flesh glowed an angry red before melting back together.

  In his haste, the mage hadn’t noticed that he had walked into the path of another golem – its glowing form pursuing a mage that was sprinting toward the wall of flame that encircled the courtyard. The golem suddenly seemed to notice the fallen novice and switched course. The prone player must have felt a tremor reverberate through the sand since he glanced to the side. His mouth dropped open in surprise, and he tried to move.

  But it was too late.

  The golem’s foot came down on the player’s chest, and Finn could hear the crack of his ribs despite the distance. If the blow hadn’t killed him, the pulse of heat that rippled through the golem’s foot and speared into the player’s body surely did. Only a moment later, another half-melted corpse had been added to the field.

  Finn tried to marshal his flailing thoughts – his own fear and adrenaline clouding his mind. Acting on instinct, he summoned his fire mana, feeling the warm energy burn through his chest. His perspective suddenly shifted, the fear receding and replaced by a boiling excitement. This was just another problem to be solved!

  His gaze shifted back to the player’s prone corpse, his thoughts more clinical and detached. The player hadn’t had a chance against the golem. That much was clear. But his death had indicated that the creatures could switch targets, likely choosing whoever was closest. Which sort of made sense if they were being maintained by Brutus.

  Finn’s thoughts abruptly trailed off, his eyes widening. He suddenly whirled to the spot where Brutus had been standing. He now saw that the master mage was standing inside a circle of swirling flames. He didn’t seem to be speaking, but his hands moved steadily. The obvious deduction was that he was somehow controlling the golems and the wall of fire that ringed the courtyard.

  “If we could distract him…” Finn muttered, the bones of a plan beginning to form in his mind.

  “Distract who?” Kyyle snapped, jerking at Finn’s arm. “If you have a plan, now is the damn time. We don’t have much longer,” he added, pointing at the golem that had initially attacked them. The creature had managed to pull itself from the glowing red lake of molten glass, a fresh coating now covering its body. If anything, Kyyle had just made it even larger.

  Finn’s gaze focused on Kyyle. “Brutus. But we’ll need some help. You have your notes, right? You’ve been watching the other novices?”

  Kyyle just nodded, his expression confused. His eyes kept darting to the approaching golem.

  “Okay, of the students that are left, I need a water mage with an area-of-effect spell and someone that can hit hard. Like a physical attack,” Finn ordered. “Hurry,” he insisted when he saw that Kyyle wasn’t moving.

  The young man’s fingers trembled as he brought up his in-game terminal, his eyes skimming down an invisible list and occasionally darting back to the field. A few precious seconds later, he pointed out two students.

  “Zane and Vanessa should work,” he said. “Vanessa has a spell called Frozen Orb, and Zane can cast Earth Spikes. He’s an earth mage too,” Kyyle replied to Finn’s unspoken question.

  Finn nodded, mentally marking the locations. He noticed that the pair were together and were slowly circling the wall of fire, using their spells to slow the golems. Smart thinking, but it wouldn’t last forever.

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Finn said, turning his attention back to Kyyle. “I need you to stay away from the golems so that you don’t draw their attention. When I give the signal, you need to use that pit spell against Brutus,” he said, tilting his head in the direction of their instructor.

  Kyyle’s eyebrows rose. “You want me to do what now?”

  “Make a pit just below his feet. You just need to distract him for a second.” Finn glanced up and saw the golem was still approaching. At least his natural regeneration had recovered his health, mana, and stamina. He was going to need it.

  “You got it?” Finn asked.

  Kyyle gave an uncertain nod. “Sure… but what about the signal?”

  “You’ll know it when you see it,” Finn said with a lopsided grin.

  He should be panicking. What he was planning to do next was insane. Yet with the fire mana burning through his veins, he could only feel excitement boiling in his chest. He wondered if it would work.

  However, he didn’t have any time to lose. He could see that more of the remaining students had already fallen, leaving only Finn, Kyyle, Zane, and Vanessa. Most of the golems were already following the other pair since they were closer. He needed to hurry.

  “Good luck,” Finn said to Kyyle and then shot off across the sands.

 
; He ran straight at the golem that was approaching them, his legs pumping hard. The creature seemed almost surprised by Finn’s change of tactics. As he neared, it swept a hand at him. Finn rolled under the blow and shot back to his feet, stumbling slightly but managing to catch his balance. He could feel a searing line across his back where droplets of molten glass had splashed him, and notifications flashed in the corner of his vision.

  Then he was past the golem and sprinting toward Zane and Vanessa. They were circling around the courtyard toward Kyyle’s position. He could feel the ground shake as the golem behind Finn turned to follow him.

  Good. They aggro based on proximity, he thought to himself. That was one less assumption to worry about. Two more to go.

  Within a few seconds, Finn was beside Vanessa and Zane.

  Zane spared him a frantic look as Finn appeared next to him. He looked terrible. Burns riddled one arm, glass having cooled against his skin and giving it a mottled appearance amid the charred flesh. He seemed to have been covering for Vanessa – who wasn’t injured but looked exhausted.

  “Huddle up, quickly,” Finn shouted at the pair. His hands then began moving through another Magma Armor. He could see the pack of golems following them beginning to wind up for another attack, and he needed to give the pair a few seconds to regenerate their mana.

  They stared at him blankly before they noticed the shield forming along his arm. Then they slowly moved toward him, crouching behind his small shield.

  “I have a plan,” Finn grunted as he finished casting his spell, preparing to accept the next blow. He hoped he could withstand the attack he knew was coming.