“Ok, so, um,” Sarrah starts, her focus still on maintaining the healing spell. “Right. J said we made really good progress eliminating what my manifestation isn’t, but still has no idea what it is. So, we were in her office scheduling more appointments when the door opened to a bunch of masked people with bullet wands. The lead one pulled down his mask and showed he was a demon.
“J pulled me back to the wall, putting herself between me and them, and they started talking. ‘What are you doing here?’, that sort of thing. He said something about her special project in the basement.”
“Special project?” Allia interrupts. “You mean that thing Alex was talking about at lunch?”
“Um, yeah, probably. You think I can get that favour if I say demons are after it?” She laughs. “Anyways, the leader said to take us and turned to leave, so that’s when J defenestrated me.”
“She did what?!” Allia exclaims.
“Oh, um, it means to throw someone out a window.”
“Oh… why didn’t you just say that then?”
“Well, it’s a fun word with a very specific definition. When else am I going to get to use it?”
“Ah, yeah, that makes sense…Wait, she threw you out a window!?”
Sarrah rolls her eyes. “It has a slowfall enchantment, and something else for the glass. I was fine; I even did some of a shield spell on the way down. I heard bullets above and more glass breaking. It lasted long enough for me to finish my shield, then I ran. They took some shots at me, but didn’t hit. I wanted to look for security, but before I could get anywhere, things started exploding. I kept running, staying away from the buildings in case they fell, then people shot at me. One hit me, but my shield held, so I took cover behind the bench while pretending to fall, and stayed there until you found me.”
Allia suddenly pulls her friend into a hug, gently stroking her back. “That must have been awful. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you.”
“What? Don’t be,” she protests, but doesn’t pull away. “It’s not your fault; you couldn’t know they’d come, and you helped when you could.”
“Yeah but… I guess I still wish I had stuck around…Sigh, I’m going to have to go rescue J.”
“What!?” Sarrah shouts, pushing herself away. “What are you talking about? You just said we needed to leave.”
“Yeah but, that was before I learned they were here for something specific. They’ll have planned this – know what the army’s response time will be. They’ll snatch whatever they’re after and execute their escape plan well before the soldiers get here.”
“So let campus security deal with it. It’s their job.”
“Sarrah, we have maybe twenty guards on campus at any given time. There’s twenty demons fortified just at that entrance, and there’s three other entrances. Plus, those inside and running around doing who knows what around campus? That’s at least a full century. Besides, security is well trained to handle unruly kids growing into their powers, but they’re not soldiers. Most of them aren’t even blossomed. No way they can handle this on their own.”
“Okay, so what? Let the special project be stolen. Let the politicians and generals handle the consequences of their own mismanagement. No reason to be a hero over what’s sure to amount to only a moderate political issue which will be resolved or escalated with or without your intervention in a week.”
Allia shakes her head. “I don’t care about the special project or the consequences for the governments. Whatever it is, it’s not likely to have been held here if it’s important. I care about J. If they’re taking the project, they’ll probably take her too and force information out of her. Probably focusing on the project, but she’s also the lead manifestation expert for our most prestigious magic school. Her mind is packed full with details and weaknesses of hundreds of mages, including people we know. They’ll use this information for assassinations when the next war breaks out, and the details most fresh in her mind are yours and mine, and I just told her I went toe to toe with an illusionary dragon.”
“…Ah, I see your point… but… but Allia, are you sure you want to take that burden? If you go in there, you’re going to have to kill people.”
Allia opens and closes her mouth a few times. “…I… I might have killed one already. The fire mage that tried to kill us. I tried to just knock them unconscious, but I had to use a lot of force.”
Sarrah hugs her friend. “You did what you had to. I would have died otherwise. But this is different. You don’t have to attack them for immediate survival. It’ll weigh on you more. Besides, if the army finds out that you’re capable of killing so many, they won’t leave you alone until you join them.”
“… I think if I can break their shields, and I’m not pressed, I can incapacitate them without killing. I already captured a few.”
Sarrah nods a few times to herself. “Okay… Yeah, I think you might have enough constructs for the job.” She laughs weakly at the luminant arsenal Allia has been continually conjuring throughout the conversation. “But, even if you can avoid killing, the army will still be interested, maybe even more.”
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“I don’t really have a choice, do I? Not if I don’t want to wake up one night with a demon blade in my heart.”
“Yeah, I guess…All right, give me one of those wands.” She points to the bullet wands Allia took from the captured demons.
“What? No way. It’s too dangerous.”
“If it’s not too dangerous for you, then it’s not too dangerous for me. Besides, my details are on the line too.”
“Fine,” Allia says as she hands her both commandeered bullet wands, “but just stay in cover and plink at the shield. Maybe draw some bullets, but fall back if you get hit. Their wands are more powerful than ours.”
Sarrah nods. “I’ll mostly be making illusions to distract them.”
“Good.”
“And extending my shield over you.”
“No! Absolutely not. If it shatters, that would leave you defenceless for way too long. In fact, I’ll be leaving you with a barrier. I’ve figured out how to make them one way so you can shoot through it.”
“…Fine, yeah, that makes sense. I wasn’t thinking. So, what’s the plan?”
“Um, not much of one. Just take my constructs, break the shield and knock them all out, then go in and get to the basement.”
“Yeah but, once one position is overrun, the others will fall back inside and bog you down.”
Allia laughs. “Sarrah, they only caused me trouble because we’re in a wide, open space where they can concentrate their shots. Inside, with confined hallways where only a handful can shoot at me at a time? They won’t stand a chance.”
Sarrah laughs at her friend’s confident smile. “All right, I guess no reason to wait,” she says, and moves to chant the illusions.
“Wait, before we start… cast a cleaning spell.”
“What?”
“My blood. Get it off of you.”
“What… Allia, we don’t have time.”
“It’s not sanitary, and what if you get wounded? The opening would get contaminated.”
“…Ok fine, if you’re that worried,” Sarrah says with a slight frown, but does as suggested, taking about 5 seconds to cast – the bright red liquid slurping off her. Allia chants a basic fire spell to sterilize it on the ground, which earns a look from Sarrah, but no comment.
Allia gets in position while Sarrah spends a few minutes creating an illusionary squad of campus guards split between the two buildings opposite the plaza. Once she’s done, Allia counts to three, then rushes out of cover and barrages the area shield with dozens of spears while keeping layers of barriers in front of her. The illusions immediately follow, shooting as they dash for cover. To sell the illusion, Allia places a barrier in front of each guard, as well as the corners of various buildings – one for Sarrah, and others for false guards.
Shots intensify from all around, green flashes from the demons, and blue from the windows as the real campus security joins back in the fight. The demons seem to buy the illusions as the barriers in front of the fake guards all shatter one by one, though most of the shooting is focused on Allia. Still, her barriers hold, and she makes it to another set of benches a third of the way to the building – these under a tall tree which has unfortunately been shredded – and takes cover briefly as she focuses on offence. Her spears batter the demon’s shields, and she manages to bludgeon several into the ground. Just a few more to go.
An inky black pit springs into existence mid-air, intercepting her lances before they hit the shield – shallowing them whole while seemingly taking no damage. At the same time, two small groups of demons rush around each side of their building to reinforce their comrades with wand and spell.
One of the figures, dressed in a grey robe, stops suddenly outside of cover and points at one of the windows where the blue flash of security bullets are seen, and emits a silent thin bolt of grey lightning which strikes right under the shooter. No sign of damage is evident at first, but a second after it hits the spot explodes and takes out a large portion of the structure with it. The figure repeats the process for each of the security force, both real and false, then turns their attention to Allia.
Allia tries to hit them with a volley of spears followed by a combined one, but another figure steps up – this one dressed in a black leather jacket and pants with a smiling white porcelain mask – and gestures, creating another inky black pit which absorbs the attack. Then the grey lightning hits and Allia loses a third of her barriers.
What follows is a battle of attrition, which Allia very quickly begins to lose. Just the two enemy mages would be enough to wear her down, as she lacks an effective means of attack. With nearly 20 demon soldiers shooting her too, her stockpile of barriers quickly dwindles.
She tries attacking the two mages from other angles, but the void mage senses it coming and creates new pits to intercept. She does manage to swerve a few spears at the last moment, slipping through the gaps in the area shield and changing them into spheres at the last moment to knock underlings to the ground, but then the reinforcements add their shields to the first group’s, and the holes rapidly repair.
Allia is quickly reduced to a dozen barriers, which she’s forced to reform over and over again. The bench she’s covering behind is long since blasted apart, and she’s pinned down too completely to even try to retreat to a better position.
Suddenly, a blinding white light fills the battlefield, followed by a scouring heat that the attribute on Allia’s shield does little to mitigate. She takes 5 seconds to cast an eye shade spell, then another as the first proves insufficient. Her eyes protected, she glances towards the building to see an orb of white liquid flame hovering a few feet away from the enemy shield dome.
The area shields, not in direct contact with the flames, seem only marginally strained by it, but those inside don’t do so well. While the heat without a concussive blast barely affects the shield, it does penetrate it, at least to a degree… or a thousand. The demons are quickly overwhelmed by the furnace and start to drop. The two mages fare a little better as they have their own individual shields. They stumble towards the door, using the void as a barrier, but only make it halfway before collapsing.
The instant the last demon falls, the fiery orb winks out of existence just as suddenly as it had formed. Allia wastes little time looking about for her rescuer before running to the door, erecting new barriers as she does. She glances at the demons as she passes the site of the impromptu furnace. They’re covered in first and second-degree burns and are breathing shallowly, but they are breathing… at least the ones she sees. A few more seconds though and things might have been different. The pavement is still hot, even through her shield and shoes, and those on it likely won’t last long. As she goes, she sends barriers to scoop them off the blistering concrete and dump them onto cooler grass a little ways from the inferno site.
“Allia, wait!”
She turns to see Sarrah running after her. With a sigh, she leans next to the door and waits as she creates more constructs and casts a few minor utility buffs.
“You weren’t… going in without me, were you?” Sarrah asks, out of breath as she reaches Allia.
“Of course not,” Allia obviously lies. “You ready?”
Sarrah raises her two bullet wands as a response.
“All right then. Keep behind me and just do what you think best. I’ll keep the barriers one way so you can shoot through them. Let’s go.”
With a gesture, Allia blasts over the doors and strides confidently through.
So, what do you think? Does Allia's reason for saving J make sense, or does it seem like I was just desperate to come up with something to force her to the plot?
