POV: Runa
It was the morning of what Drake called ‘Day 11’ and he could learn a few lessons from her about regulating feelings. Runa also had morons screwing up her life and yet she was able to keep her emotions under control. Mostly.
Baggage as a virginal eromancer wasn’t a common find. Girls in the facilitator program tried to skip weekend dates to keep themselves ready for the hero. Not many made it through, it was demanding. Where Baggage shone, for Runa’s purposes, was her pliability combined with commitment. Women training to be a Facilitator picked a major field of study that could lend itself to a career if they weren’t selected; that was common sense.
This woman though, was not common. She had decided her job was more than a mere combination of talent scout and spokesmodel. Baggage threw herself into her studies and was an authority on Earth. She’d be an excellent linguist on that world, better suited to life there than her home. Drake was not going to find a better companion on Tenka. Fact.
Well, except for Runa of course. She couldn’t really count herself though because she wanted to rule-
She gagged in the middle of rubbing Baggage’s back as Runa’s neck was constricted from the anti-megalomaniac choker.
“Are you OK, Runa-sama?”, Baggage said sleepily.
“Fine, Baggage-chan,” she wheezed. “Just fine.”
For reasons known only to her own empty head, Baggage accepted that answer. Runa was beginning to wonder if the Facilitator ever had any friends. This emotional seduction had been at breakneck speed, and the trust she had given to Runa was amazing.
No one should trust Runa. Her list of crimes was broad in both scope and depth. The only reason she was still alive was that her ratio of demons to people slain was 20:1. If nobody had been in that magic academy or had lived on the ONE island she made disappear, her murder record would be spotless.
What had they called that island anyway? It was north of the demon’s citadel, it should have been uninhabited. She chortled quietly. Baggage would probably know the Earth name, she was a nerd. Teasing her was best when she didn’t realize you were doing it.
“Baggage-chan? What’s the name of the island to the north?”
“Mmmmm? I don’t know Runa-sama. On Earth it’s Hokkaido. I hear some people on Tenka recolonized it. They must be brave.”
Huh? Runa’s fingers froze. She didn’t know? How the hell do you sequester yourself so much that you don’t know that a neighboring island one-fourth the size of your own sank? Did Baggage not learn of Runa’s little mishaps outside of the much-needed academy destruction?
If neither Baggage nor Drake knew, that was a huge relief. That would leave Runa functionally innocent within the team, because Sayaka didn’t care about accidental genocide. Probably.
Runa was sitting on a national treasure. A power bloc that could… plant happy flowers and certainly not dominate what was left of the world, because that was bad and should never be done. Especially by Runa. Yeah.
That settled it. Baggage needed to seduce Drake, ASAP. It was a little surprising that it hadn’t already happened. The little goody-goody girl might be following Drake’s instruction not release her qi if it buildt up too much. A stupid idea that would theoretically kill them eventually, but eromancers couldn’t do that. The eromancer dropout rate in the Facilitator program for women on their 18th birthday was alarming. And male eromancers? There were one or two a century. Tops. Bottom line, eromancers could not contain themselves.
Baggage would leak those fun primal emotions and that would make for a merry campsite in the evenings.
Besides, Baggage just needed a small push and the hero’s libido would do the rest. And one small push was going to happen right now. Runa leaned down and quietly said, “Baggage-chan? Did you see the hero with his shirt off this morning? He is a feast for the eyes, wouldn’t you agree?”
Her eromantic, emotionally isolated pawn never got to answer. The air sled stopped.
*thump* *thump* *thump*
DAMMIT!
How did the man cock block himself?! He should be attending to the needs of dozens of women and all he could do was get angry and train with weapons. No wonder Earth put him in jail!
“Hey, Runa. Get out of here. We got a situation.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
They were in the somewhat climate-controlled area surrounding the air cart, a nice feature, and it was melting the thin snow on the ground. There had been a flurry the previous night. In the distance, there was a small army.
It looked like demon-human monstrosities: orcs and ogres, the dumb kind. They were marching towards them. They were only slowing down for the occasional sapling. The remains of a wall were to the right. There were lots of those in this area, humans used to be able to live here safely. Bridges and towers always fell, always attacked, just not at the speed they were seeing.
“Sayaka, if we go the other way how much time will we lose?”
“Three days, assuming they haven’t destroyed the ferry down that way. Six days if the enemy burned the ferry down.”
“Fuck!” the hero didn’t like that. Going the other way, they’d just barely be able make it to the citadel in time. “Can’t the air sled float over water?”
“No,” said Runa absently, she walked forward and the others followed. “Even ice and deep snow wouldn’t work. Hey, I’m guessing that army is about five or six Chō away. Does that sound right?”
“For fuck’s sake Runa! I haven’t had to judge distance beyond the prison yard in a long time. I suppose between one and two thousand feet. Call it fifteen hundred.”
“Maybe half a kilometer.” said Baggage.
“Three furlongs.” said the elf.
They looked at each other, not having any idea if they were agreeing or not.
Runa sighed. The air was cold and there was no hint of more snow. Dry air. Good, that would help with what she was trying to do.
She took a few more quick steps to create more space between herself and the air cart. Well then, time to add to her legend. She wished her clothes were a little tighter, dressing for future artist renditions never hurt.
A few quick arcane words, a sacrifice of a bit of silver from her pouch, and she was ready for the show.
Her voice was amplified twenty times and she shouted, “Horde of the Demon-King! Be delighted! You have the honor of dying at the hands of Runa, the Mad Sorceress of the Fallen Tower!”
Kai Drake groaned behind her.
“You can do it, Runa!” Baggage-chan cheered.
Runa winced in embarrassment. No one was supposed to cheer for the Mad Sorceress!
Runa picked up a stick and drew a circle in the snow, it wasn’t even to the height of her small fingernail. She’d need to time this right, the spell would melt the light snow before she was done. All the drawing and math would have to be done earlier in the spell’s construction than normal.
She fished out a gem from her pouch. Another ruby was needed. She threw it in the air while she scribbled on the ground, these were not optimal conditions.
The ruby hovered in place as the warriors grew closer. She had to hurry, the ones in the middle might break formation. Then there would be orcs everywhere. Always a hassle to clean up.
She scrawled more on the ground as she tapped her heel to a slow rhythm. She threw a glass disc behind the ruby. Both of them hovered in the air and grew in size.
“What’s she writing?”, the Earthling asked.
“Magic. Leave her alone.” replied the smart elf. Interrupting wizards was dangerous.
“No. It's not magic.” he insisted.
*whap*
Someone got a light smack! Heh. She could still see them on the side though. Distracting.
Runa muttered arcane word after word. She threw another glass disk in the air, this time in front of the ruby. Followed by two more pieces of silver. She kept tapping the time with her heel. Wizard tip: if you want attention, keep the timing beat with the heel, not the toes; it moves the leg and is easier for bystanders to notice you.
Assuming your hero wasn’t a prig, like Drake.
The demonic army was closer. She could hear their armor banging against itself.
“Yeah! I think I recognize that.” said the fashion prude hero.
The math got hard here. It was easier to do it far in advance, such as in one’s home, but then it wouldn’t be able to take into account the small details that separated a good spell from a great one.
The silver coated the glass discs. The ruby began to vanish as a red light took its place.
She could hear the enemy getting closer their grunting could be heard over their footsteps. As predicted the guys on the road were running the last half Chō.
The red light between the mirrors was growing strong, enough to cast a shadow. The snow was melting, the writing starting to disappear.
“Holy shit!” Drake yelled as Baggage ran away. “Those are Maxwell’s equations.”
Then Drake ran and Sayaka followed him. About time they did that.
The orcs and ogres were close. Suckers.
“Lasing achieved,” Runa said for her victims’ final benefit. “Release.”
A red beam of light broke free of its ethral encasement and hit the first row of orcs. The light superheated the air and Runa could feel her clothes and skin burning. The beam’s direction mirrored the movement of her hands, it was like trying to control the direction of an adorable angry piglet. The demon-tainted orcs burned as the red line cut through them and it was hysterical.
She laughed as she moved the ray back and forth, the side of her body closest to it was being burning and smoking. The light blinded and she had to speculate where they were running. Eh. Forget it she’d just do the whole forest. Then the world.
Her laughs were cut short as she was strangled by her megalomaniac thoughts and she didn't care at all.
The superheated air tore into her body. She doubted she looked human now. Excellent. Her outside would match her inside.
But all good things must come to an end. The spell evaporated in the air as the last of the silver on the mirrors was consumed by the occult energy.
She only had one good ear to enjoy the musical sound of her enemies dying.
A big stong man held her steady on the side of her body that wasn’t abominable. That was nice, she had been about to fall over.
She gasped for breath as the choker’s strangulation effect finally went away.
She was breathing heavily and unable to see. The pain flared up again as Baggage began to heal her and nerve endings regrew.
“Runa, I'm focusing on your arteries. Sayaka, can you stimulate her bone marrow? We need blood.”
“No. I can only do a general all-purpose reconstruction.”
“Do it.” said Baggage. Well, someone was speaking with authority!
Drake lowered her to the ground. She supposed he didn’t paw at her because she looked hideous. No other reason came to mind.
“Drake-dono, I’ll need those protein bars of yours. She’s lost a lot of mass.”
Baggage was an adorable nerd. Runa would have smiled if she could.
after reading this chapter where she burns half her body, parts of it clean off, and would be dead were it not for Baggage.
Why doesn't she just cast that spell all the time?”
