Chapter 19. Beta Level

  Zael returned with Calypso to the observation deck as fast as he could and cleared all the ‘special effects’ from the training field.

  We hurried after Zael toward the teleportation gates while he spoke with Ilforte through his communicator bracelet.

  “Massive dark creature attacks have been detected in several districts of Forland and the surrounding region, activity is anomalous, beta-level threat,” Ilforte rattled off.

  “Head to Gravion City immediately, I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

  “What about the adepts?” Zael asked.

  “Take them with me, leave them at the academy?”

  “Fifth group? You can take them, they’ll definitely be useful. Fire mages will come in handy there. Just have Calypso and Lorelei stay at Armarillis.”

  “What?!” Calypso protested loudly, eyes flashing with anger as he rushed up to Zael to be heard better through the communicator bracelet.

  “You’re telling me to sit on the sidelines while my classmates are fighting?! What the hell?!!”

  “This is not up for discussion.”

  “But Father!”

  “This. Is. Not. Up for discussion,” Ilforte repeated.

  “Yeah, this is not up for discussion,” Zael chimed in.

  I shot a furious look at my father and opened my mouth to launch into an angry tirade and try to change his mind alongside Calypso. But I fell silent in surprise when I heard his next words, addressed to Ilforte:

  “Calypso and Lora are coming with me. And that’s not up for discussion.”

  “What the hell?!” Ilforte protested.

  “You heard me,” Zael said curtly and turned to face me standing frozen and Calypso frowning.

  “You two: follow me and stick strictly to my line, don’t run or fly ahead of me.”

  “Zael, last I checked you’re not the Mentor,” came Ilforte’s sardonic voice from the communicator bracelet.

  “What is this, mutiny?”

  “Buddy, when’s the last time you actually saw your son in battle?” Zael asked.

  “Seen his wings?”

  “What wings?”

  “Energy wings. Golden ones.”

  “Uh…”

  “Exactly,” Zael snorted.

  “You haven’t seen them, but I have, and I just put Calypso through two-hundredth level spells, and this little shit of yours only got slightly winded,” Zael cast a condescending glance at the very pleased-with-himself Calypso and me grinning ear to ear.

  “And as I understand it, it was Lora powering him up. So they’re coming with me and fighting with me on the front line.”

  “But…”

  “Shove your objections somewhere deep until the battle’s over, do me a favor,” Zael cut him off.

  “We need warriors like them. Not someday later, but right now. Let’s go,” he waved us forward, disconnecting from Ilforte.

  “What are our orders and what are the limits on our actions?” Calypso asked briefly, keeping pace with Zael.

  “Something tells me you and Lori have done such crazy things with shadow magic that it’s better not to limit you at all,” Zael snorted.

  “So use your own judgment, but don’t get out ahead of me. If Il is sounding a general alarm, that means there’s some serious shit there, because he hasn’t pulled me in like this in god knows how long. We don’t know what’s waiting for us there, so be extremely careful. And strictly follow my orders. If I say you can’t go any further, that means you can’t, got it?”

  “As you wish, Your Firstness,” Calypso sang in a saccharine little voice.

  It was written all over his face in bi-i-ig letters how happy he was with how things had turned out.

  I wasn’t hiding a certain, hmm, pride either.

  I was proud of myself (for managing to quickly and properly power up my warden’s magic), and of Calypso himself, and simply of the fact that we’d made such effective progress in working together that even my eternally stubborn father thought it right to take us with him now, against the Mentor’s orders.

  But after Calypso’s ‘Your Firstness’ remark, Zael stopped abruptly and spun around, grabbing Calypso by the shirt, pulling him closer, and threatening through gritted teeth:

  “Call me that one more time and I’ll rip your bal…”

  “DAD!!” I exclaimed loudly, drowning out the rest of his sentence.

  “What is it with you and mom having the exact same go-to threat?!”

  “Must be a family thing,” Calypso sighed, carefully extracting his shirt from Zael’s grip.

  “All these aggressive tendencies of yours. One ties you to the bed with ropes and runs off, the others threaten to rip off your most precious…”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I don’t follow,” Zael frowned.

  “What ropes?…”

  “Very sturdy ones, believe me.”

  “Who tied you up?…”

  “Well, not you,” Calypso smiled dazzlingly.

  “I’m afraid I wouldn’t have survived an encounter like that with you, at least not psychologically. And definitely not Lady Elza. An encounter like that I wouldn’t have survived not just psychologically, but physically either.”

  Zael shot me a brief, pointed look. Either questioning, or just surprised that the subject was me — usually so quiet and calm. I held that direct gaze as stoically as I could and didn't even blink — go me. And mentally cursed Calypso for his big mouth. Apparently the adrenaline rush and good mood were making him run his mouth.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I flared up inside, meeting my dad’s gaze defiantly and batting my eyelashes prettily.

  “I’m a grown woman, I tie up whoever I want!…”

  “Mm-hmm,” Zael mumbled vaguely, pursing his lips.

  “So that’s the training program you two have going from morning to night, huh?…”

  “We also play with dolls sometimes, following a methodology I personally developed,” Calypso said with a straight face.

  He finally freed himself from Zael’s grip, gave him a defiant look with a charming little smile.

  “Can we maybe get to business here?”

  “You two need a good spanking,” Zael muttered, turning toward the portal and beckoning us to follow.

  “Are you recommending we try belts instead of ropes?” Calypso inquired innocently.

  “Shut it, Cal, or I really will kill you right now,” Zael said sharply.

  “My patience isn’t infinite.”

  “You won’t,” Calypso said confidently as he walked.

  “That would make your daughter a teensy bit upset, and instead of one greater demon at home you’d have an enraged fury on your hands too. Not recommended.”

  “At the next training session I’m going to hang you by your tongue,” Zael said dreamily as the three of us walked toward the teleportation vortex.

  “And make all your classmates throw poisoned darts at you. Although, something tells me I won’t even need to make them. They'll volunteer, they’ll do it all themselves…”

  “Why, you really do know your kinks, Your Firstness!…”

  “What did I just tell you about that title?!” Zael snarled.

  “Well, what else should I call you?” Calypso sighed theatrically.

  “Respectfully, dilmon tear you apart! Not with rudeness disguised as politeness.”

  “Hmm, I need something gentler then,” Calypso mused.

  “But what? ‘Sweetie’, maybe? ‘Sweetie really knows his kinks!’ doesn’t really work, does it?… Sounds kind of wrong, don’t you think?”

  “Cal, goddammit!!!”

  “Shutting up, shutting up…”

  ***

  I’d never been in a bloodbath like this before. I was horrified by the sheer number of dark creatures pouring in from everywhere, advancing on us like an avalanche the moment we stepped out of the portal into Gravion City.

  Slimy creatures the size of wolves that looked like some nightmarish cross between a fish and an anteater seemed to be everywhere: on the tiled roofs of little one-story houses, on the ground, in the trees — everywhere.

  They jumped through trees with ease, ran fast along the paths, and leaped high across rooftops. Only powerful fire spells could penetrate their scaly sides, but their most dangerous weapon was their incredibly long tongues, which they shot forward with lightning speed like projectiles. These tongues instantly froze anything they touched, from windows to people.

  Sadly, judging by the ice statues on the streets and in the yards, some of the locals hadn’t had time to protect themselves and had been caught by the first wave of attacking creatures.

  The other mages were quickly locking themselves in their houses and lighting fires to ward off the creatures. The more experienced ones were also trying to fight back, but our people from the fifth group were busy shoving those brave souls into houses and locking them under protective domes, so they wouldn’t hurt themselves or get in our way.

  If even we, the Fortemins, were fighting under serious strain, ordinary mages had no business jumping in, right?

  “What are these things?” I asked Calypso loudly over the crackle of spells.

  “No idea!” he replied grimly.

  “Never seen anything like them, but they’re definitely from the flip side…”

  “Shadow creatures?”

  “Something like that.”

  Besides these slimy creatures, there were plenty of lesser demons swirling around in black clouds of smoke, trying to break through our protective domes, but those were holding for now.

  Calypso and I really were fighting on the front line of the Fortemins alongside Zael and Elza. Together we pushed forward, literally carving a path through the dark creatures. Our task was to figure out where this horde was coming from and shut down the source.

  I’d never seen my parents in real combat before, and I kept stealing glances at how elegantly and precisely they worked as a pair. I was nowhere near that level of grace, of course, but I was trying hard not to fall behind.

  I was constantly powering Calypso up, and he soared up on his beautiful energy wings, where he and Zael were ‘shredding’ the approaching demons. Strange to think that just minutes ago these two had been trying to kick each other’s asses on the training field, and now they were working together, moving in sync, covering each other.

  It even occurred to me that this training session on the field had been more timely than ever, because Zael and Calypso had warmed up properly before a real battle, had a chance to observe each other’s combat techniques, and as a result worked better together, functioning like a single coordinated machine.

  Plus, Calypso’s magical Spark had been stoked even further by Zael, as if on purpose, as if he could have predicted it would be needed very soon.

  The two of them were cutting down every single demon, not letting a single one fly past them. Air support like this was exactly what we needed right now.

  From the ground, of course, all we could see were flashes of spells and their reflections on Zael’s snow-white wings and Calypso’s golden translucent wings.

  But either way, the sight was incredibly impressive. Especially when Calypso released some kind of golden mist from his palms that quickly burned away any approaching creatures, while Zael released a black mist. This black-and-gold haze hung in the air, creating a perfect protective fog for us.

  My mom was using some kind of demonic magic, literally slicing through creatures with black tendrils she released from her palms. Dozens of these tendrils shot out from each palm, and Elza worked with these unique whips, confidently and precisely clearing a path forward for us.

  I worked with a fire whip, cutting through the ‘anteaters,’ as I’d mentally dubbed these creatures. They would instantly burst into scarlet flames and quickly leave nothing but ash, which the cold northern wind swept away. Soon entire pillars of ash were swirling in the air as we continued pushing forward.

  I was protecting myself with a dome of thin fiery glow, exactly what Zael had demonstrated to us today using Calypso as an example. Without this fire dome, it was impossible to get close to the ‘anteaters’ without getting hit by their stinging icy touch.

  All the Fortemins were covering themselves with these same fire domes, so from the outside it looked like giant fireballs were bouncing around the neighborhood.

  Elza alone destroyed as many creatures in one go as ten of our other colleagues combined. So after the four of us — me, her, Zael, and Calypso — only a third of the creatures remained for our other warriors to finish off.

  Grey was flying low over the ground with a couple of other dragon-Fortemins, breathing fire on the creatures rushing toward the city center.

  Magical battles are usually fast, intense, and fierce, but right now we couldn’t wipe out the creatures quickly because they seemed endless. You hack them and hack at them — and there’s no end in sight…

  Unlike me, Calypso had already done plenty of independent creature cleanup operations in various territories, he had considerable combat experience. But even he was scanning our surroundings tensely, clearly unhappy with how the battle was going.