Advent (Red Mage Book 1)

by Xander Boyce

  The first major problem was that there was no intermediate safe location before they got back to the stadium. There was no stopping point between here and there, at least, not one that could hold several hundred people. The mana storms had been coming every other night at this point, so that was their deadline to get back to the stadium.

  The trip was only a few miles along a paved road, but they would need to find a way to guard against mana twisted creatures like squirrels and turtles harrying them until they got to the bridge. Then they would need to cross the bridge while defending against the squid, at which point it was only a few blocks through the patrolled area around the stadium until they were safe. The difficulty with the first portion was that they really only had JP and Drew that could stand against the creatures; the others would be armed with a few guns, the spears, and other improvised weapons they had made. The only workable solution they had for keeping safe along the bridge was for Katie to create a tunnel. It would take some time, with Drew and JP acting as a rear guard on the near end of the bridge while Daryl went ahead to ask for help from the stadium.

  The plan of action decided, the group split up into their various tasks; Drew, Robbi, and Daryl headed north to ambush the trolls if they opted to do another food run. Despite what Ares had told him, Drew wanted to go alone, but even Katie and Sarah had insisted he take Robbi with him in case something got close. Daryl was going to be acting as their forward scout; his invisibility was invaluable for that kind of activity. JP, Sarah, Katie, and all the rest of the former prisoners went to the exchange and commissary to stock up on additional weapons, ammo, and food.

  They waited in ambush in the same place he had two days previously, although this time he didn’t bother to hide as much. He was too worried they wouldn’t see him and would attack the other group. He spent thirty minutes pondering Ares’ words and the things that happened to him onboard the Olympus. If they could transfer a mind into another body like that, why would Ares need to send people to their deaths? Couldn’t they just transfer them into those fake bodies? Or was it a cost thing? Or a cooldown issue? Did his delaying sleep cause Ares to send some of his people to their deaths that otherwise could have been saved if the spell had been available?

  The sound of gunshots to the south roused Drew from his reverie. He glanced south and realized that someone had sent up a flare; where had they gotten flares? He pushed himself up off the roof, blink stepped to the ground, shouting to Robbi, “The Exchange!” Hopefully, Daryl heard him as well, but there was no time to ensure the scout was coming with them. Robbi quickly caught up to him and kept pace with him, but his pistol wouldn’t be worth much against trolls.

  Drew urged himself to go faster but was slowed by his lack of physical training and the heavy combat boots he wore. They were a couple hundred feet from the backside of the commissary. Katie’s group should be either in there or in the exchange still, which was another couple hundred feet of parking lot away from the far side of the commissary. As he ran, he continued to hear gunshots and he pushed through the stitch that was gnawing at his abdomen.

  Rounding the southeast corner of the commissary to where they could see the parking lot, they found the source of the shooting. More than a dozen trolls were circling a group of humans. JP was shooting anything that got close, but there were too many people for him to be able to cover all sides, and the trolls looked like they were trying to separate individuals to carry off.

  Drew skidded to a stop, slipping on the wet morning grass, but kept his footing and began to cast a frostfire storm to protect one side from the trolls. Robbi had stopped with him, but when he began casting a spell, he moved about ten feet out and pulled out another pistol, ready to defend Drew from any trolls that attacked.

  The storm spell caught three trolls who had been jumping towards the group and cut them off from the west side of the humans. JP continued to unload his pistols into trolls that came close, but as soon as the spell went off, the trolls disengaged, moving away from their former prey. Drew shouted and launched a fireball at a troll, causing most of the trolls to look his direction as he began casting firestorm. The fireball missed the troll he’d been targeting but hit one behind it as the first jumped away.

  They cried something in their own language and all the ones on the north and east side of the group turned their attention towards Drew, leaving JP to handle the ones on the south side of the group. Drew’s firestorm went off while the trolls were still relatively grouped up, catching all but two of them within its radius. Two trolls were still bearing down on him and about 175 feet away from him. Drew cast Dancing Blade, hoping that it wouldn’t get to the point he needed it, but not wanting to waste frostfire ball's cooldown while they still were plenty far enough away to dodge the spell.

  As they breached within 100 feet of him, Drew launched frostfire ball, targeting the one that was lagging, where it impacted above the troll, sending icy shrapnel flying. The leading troll’s jump faltered as he was impacted from behind by ice shards. Drew launched an acid dart at his face and then figuring that the cooldown was off, launched a fireball at it, causing the troll to disappear in the fiery explosion.

  Taking a breath, he frowned, the adrenaline causing his hair to stand on end. Almost on instinct he blink stepped forward as far as he could and hearing the deafening crack of thunder behind him told him his instincts had been correct. The shaman who’d sacrificed humans had escaped from his ambush that first day, and he didn’t particularly like Drew.

  Chapter Thirty-Two — Timer

  Drew looked behind him to make sure that Robbi was still standing; he was running forward but was otherwise fine. Drew began running towards JP and the others while scanning around him for the shaman. Where had they come from? How had they gotten out of the DIA building? The west side of that building was open baseball fields and then the river, which would have been nearly impossible to sneak through. Which meant they would have had to go east, along the freeway maybe, and circled back?

  Scanning the rooftop of the exchange, the only large building to the south, he didn’t see anything out of the normal They could be lying down, waiting for the spell to come off cooldown? The shaman was an issue, but his late appearance and single attack indicated that he was probably there for Drew. It lent credence to Ares’ statements about him being more important than everyone else and explained why the Go’rai had mostly ignored the group back in the dungeon. How could he leverage that? He needed to be able to flush the shaman out.

  He was getting close to where JP was fighting off the last few surviving trolls. He launched an acid dart at one of the nearest ones, catching it in the side before it realized he was there. JP had managed to whittle down the attackers until there were only two left, but the problem was that they were too exposed. “Everyone fall back to the Commissary!” he shouted as he ran closer. His approach and spell distracted one of the trolls, who exploded in a burst of fire as JP’s incendiary shots took it unawares. That left one who started making a hasty retreat, but Drew launched a fireball at it which caught it mid-jump, killing it before it could land.

  “There’s another one casting lightning bolts. Rooftop probably,” Drew shouted, and JP immediately sheathed his pistols and unslung the rifle he had across his back as his eyes darted around the rooftops. Everyone else was making a beeline to the commissary and the safety it provided from ranged attacks.

  “Don’t see anything,” JP shouted, as he walked backward, rifle at the ready.

  “No idea where it came from, my guess would be rooftops,” Drew said, his head on a swivel, looking to the south and west. The eastern approach was wide open, but Drew considered that the least likely source for the troll to be attacking from since there was not enough cover there.

  “If it’s smart, it’ll stay down now that its cover has been blown, attack us again later, or pin us down in the commissary,” Robbi said, having caught up with the two of them. Drew stumbled and looking down, realizing that there were small in
ch tall walls in irregular patterns all over the ground near him, Katie’s attempt at keeping the Troll’s at bay. “Careful, rough terrain,” He said, to JP, who was just about to trip on the small walls.

  Drew turned and ran towards the commissary, convinced that the troll shaman was gone, for now at least. Besides, who knew what sort of dangers would be waiting for his people in the commissary? He faltered for a second when he realized he thought of the former prisoners as his people. When had that mental shift happened? Ever since the Advent, he’d been acquiring more and more of these rhetorical questions about the nature of his relationship with those around him and the world at large. However, his answers to those questions were frustratingly few.

  Back at the relative safety of the commissary, Drew looked around. Bill was hugging a few people who seemed to be upset, but not injured, while Sarah was gathering the injured together to heal them. He looked around for Katie and found her organizing groups to scout out the commissary to ensure nothing had become mana twisted since the last time they were here. Daryl wasn’t visible and Drew hoped he would show up soon and maybe tell him where the shaman ran off to. Robbi and Trey were chanting something near the doorway, hopefully creating an illusion to prevent them from being attacked from afar.

  Drew glanced at JP, who had turned a shopping cart on its side and was using it to prop up his rifle as he scanned the parking lot for threats. Feeling slightly useless, he walked over to Katie, waiting until she was done sending a group out, doling out glowrocks and light sticks. Drew really needed to figure out who was making the light sticks. They were more like flashlights than the rocks and could easily light things up at a distance. While he was waiting, the blinking notification appeared in the corner of his vision, meaning he had finally dropped out of combat by the system’s reckoning. Hopefully, that meant Daryl had killed the shaman.

  Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Energize xatherite has reached level 4. Charge requirement has reduced.

  Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Lightning Bolt xatherite has reached level 4. Damage has increased.

  Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Minor Mana Shield xatherite has reached level 4. Damage absorbed has increased.

  Congratulations, Midshipman. Your Acid Dart xatherite is ready to be upgraded.

  He had been looking forward to acid dart leveling up for quite some time now; it was hopefully going to be worth casting soon. He activated the upgrade immediately, wincing as the beginnings of a headache formed, but he was already casting energize on himself causing it to disappear almost immediately.

  Xatherite Crystal Name: Minor Acid Arrow

  Xatherite Color: Red

  Xatherite Grade: Common

  Xatherite Rarity: Widespread

  Type: Magic

  Effect: Creates two fast moving balls of acid from a finger that travels in a straight line until it impacts a target, dealing small amounts of acid damage.

  Mana recharge time: 16.1 seconds

  Congratulations, Midshipman. Linked skill: “Minor Shocking Acid Arrow” has been obtained.

  Linked Skill Name: Minor Shocking Acid Arrow

  Xatherite Color(s): Red

  Linked Skill Grade: Common

  Type: Magic

  Effect: Creates two fast moving balls of acid from a finger that travels in a straight line until it impacts a target, dealing small amounts of acid damage. Upon contact, each ball will impart a small amount of electrical damage.

  Mana recharge time: 16.1 seconds

  “Well, that’s interesting,” Drew muttered under his breath. Apparently linked skills could not be created with skills that were in the lowest third of the grade skills; or at least some linked skills required a certain grade before they would activate, even if you had the appropriate xatherite in a linked slot. He had also been correct in that when it upgraded from basic to common it had gained greatly in effectiveness. He glanced over his map and wondered if there would be a similar upgrade in quality when he went from rare to advanced. For some reason, he didn’t doubt that it would.

  The apparently nonlinear amount of experience needed to level up xatherite meant it would be quite a while before he got any of his xatherite past that barrier though, especially considering that his rare xatherite still hadn’t even attuned... Although Aeon hadn’t attuned yet either, so maybe rarity played a role in how difficult it was to level and attune. However, since he had no idea how much extra ‘rarity’ singular or limited had compared to common, widespread, or uncommon, that wouldn’t help him determine base experience costs much.

  Drew really wished he could go back and ask Ares questions about the basics of the system. There were so many things he just didn’t know and didn’t have a good way of figuring out. He frowned and shook his head, realizing that Katie was looking at him.

  “Drew?”

  “Oh sorry, was upgrading xatherite,” Drew said sheepishly. He had taken the system’s awarding of xp as a sign to say they were out of danger, but that clearly wasn’t the case. “I’m sorry, what did you need me to do?”

  “Hold these glowrocks and walk around. See if anything attacks you,” Katie said, holding out a mesh bag with about six glowrocks in it, creating a much brighter light source than an individual rock would have. “I’ve told everyone to run towards the light if they find anything. Head to the canned goods aisle first, that’s our best bet for ready food.”

  Drew nodded and took the mesh bag. Glancing back out the door, JP and Robbi standing there staring out at the parking lot comforted Drew though. There was something off about the two cops, but that didn’t mean that they both weren’t excellent in a fight. It was nice to have someone else who could deal some serious damage on his side... If they were on his side? He pushed those thoughts away since there was no way for him to prove his suspicions one way or the other, and he didn’t doubt it was Robbi and JP’s primary goal to bring people back to Nat’s Park.

  Walking down the aisles proved to be incredibly boring. Aside from two-foot-long rats that he killed with a single acid arrow spell, there were no mana twisted beasts jumping off the ceilings at the people who were shoving large amounts of canned food into the carts that they were preparing for the convoy north. Drew wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. But he was glad for the extra functionality he’d already acquired from the xatherite upgrade. Another cooldown and a big jump in damage, especially the linked version.

  After about ten minutes of circling those gathering food without any further incidents, Drew headed back to the front of the store. It looked much the same, although Katie had created a series of walls hanging from the ceiling. He ducked under one and realized that they were a great defense against the Troll’s jumping ability.

  Seeing Sarah, Bill, Katie, Robbi, and Daryl all circled discussing something, he headed in that direction. Sarah and Katie both nodded to him as he approached. Sarah continuing what she had been saying before he got there, “We’re in pretty good shape here, but I don’t like the idea of being pinned in.”

  Drew frowned, and Daryl mentally updated him, “I found the shaman, but he teleported before I could attack him. Odds are we’re going to have a significant invasion force here soon.” That was just about the worst possible situation Drew could think of.

  “We’ll need Katie to block the other entrances, so we don’t get flanked, the employee entrance like the side doors and the loading dock,” Drew said, and Sarah nodded.

  “Good point, Drew. Why don’t you take over for JP in a minute and we’ll send him and Katie out to close off the other entrances.” Sarah said. Drew wanted to protest but knew that was probably the best option. “We’ll keep most of the combatants close to the front door and have all the noncombatants ready to move if we need to.”

  “JP and I could go and hit them as they come out. We’d be able to see them from quite a ways away,” Drew said, glancing at the fortifications. He didn’t like the idea of being stuck in here while the trolls slowly ate away at their n
erves.

  “If we knew how they got around us in the first place, I’d agree with you, but since they got around our ambush once, we have to assume they’ll be able to do it again. For all we know, they either found or made some tunnels that they used to get out somewhere in the housing area,” Robbi said with a shake of his head.

  Drew frowned, “I don’t think turtling is going to keep us safe, this is just going to delay our doom. Our sight lines aren’t good enough, and if they can tunnel from the DIA building, they’ll be able to tunnel in here.” Everyone else looked around, but no one had a rebuttal to that. “I think our best bet is to get out into the open; they only seem to have one person that can do ranged attacks.”

  Sarah shook her head, glancing behind him to where a few of the more injured and scared people had gathered. “I don’t think we can move them again so soon after that attack. Maybe we could break out first thing tomorrow morning?”

  Drew glanced at the fortifications, “We always knew we would have to deal with at least one night...but if we delay until tomorrow to leave, that will only give us about 10 hours of daylight to rescue everyone and get them up to Nat’s Stadium before the mana storm hits tomorrow evening.”

  Sarah bit her lip, but it was Bill who answered. “You’re right; we need to get into position up there today. Katie can build some walls to keep everyone safe, but if we sit here tonight, we’re never going to make the stadium before the storm. Which means we’d need to put off rescuing everyone until the day after… And deal with whatever retaliation the trolls are going to send. I have a feeling this next attack is going to be a doozy, too. We’ve beaten them back twice now, so they’ll most likely send everything they have at us.”