Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

“What’s wrong with him?” Sera’s voice.

Teft responded. “Teleporting someone with a head injury is a dangerous prospect at best. Someone should have known better.”

“The ring will take care of him.” Orden again. I couldn’t see her clearly, yet, but the warmth had spread all the way to my neck, and I was starting to feel a tingling sensation on my back.

By the time I felt the warmth spreading across my face, I was starting to feel a little bit better. “Healing magic?” I murmured.

“Regenerative. It’s not as fast as a direct healing spell, but it also doesn’t require the same degree of precision to get it right. Direct healing spells are almost never used in items, since they can end up causing permanent harm. Regeneration, however, is quite safe.”

Ah, Orden. Always lecturing.

“I’m keeping this.” I managed. “In exchange for my best nose.”

I heard a few laughs around me, which was good.

Orden didn’t join in the levity, but she did respond. “Your humor seems intact at least. Good. Not a useful tool with Katashi, but it implies you’re awake enough to talk. With that, I should be going. You can borrow the ring until you’re recovered.”

“I’m sitting down now.”

I sat, only then noticing the ring of concerned eyes around me.

And, much more worryingly, the vast number of winged figures in the naked sky above us.

And by naked, I mean that there was no environmental shield.

None.

I’d never seen the sky without a shield occluding it. It hadn’t been disabled during my lifetime.

Without it, we were vulnerable. Not just to rain and snow, but to a far more terrifying prospect.

Invasion.

Keeping the elements off of us was the practical application of the barrier, but it served a more important function on the international scale. It blocked a vast variety of foreign spells from getting into the city. Scrying, teleportation, artillery spells — it was an effective tool against both reconnaissance and direct attacks.

And it was gone.

I didn’t even know how that was possible. Was it temporary?

My head had already been swimming before the implications of that lack began to dive into the murky pool.

I was so distracted that I didn’t even notice Orden teleport herself out of the area, leaving the rest of us behind.

Patrick offered me a hand, but I shook my head. “Not just yet.”

At least his hand had stopped shaking. Now that we were here, he looked calmer than I felt .

My retainer frowned. “We’re going to need to move soon. We’ve got company on the way.”

I glanced around, taking in my direct surroundings for the first time since the teleport. My friends were standing in a defensive ring around me, facing outward, along with Teft. And Teft. And another Teft.

Simulacra. I really wished I could do that.

Outside of our protective circle? Chaos.

The tower itself loomed above us, a few hundred yards away. Hundreds — maybe thousands — of flying creatures were swarming around the upper levels, flying in a circular pattern.

The nearest buildings had belonged to the Soaring Wings, the loyal guardians that kept us safe from the rare cases of monsters getting out of the tower. Their headquarters had been smashed to bits.

Mizuchi, the Hero’s End, rose triumphant above the rubble of the largest structure. Her towering mass was unharmed by the dozens of armored attuned that still stood around her, barraging her with a flurry of attacks. Her serpentine body was even larger than I’d realized when I’d seen her in the skies above. It only took a flick of her tail to demolish a nearby tower.

For every one of the Soaring Wings that still stood, I could see three or four more that didn’t. They were bloodied and broken among the rubble, the latest victims of a beast of legend.

They’re dead. Those soldiers are dead.

I shivered. This is insane! We could be next.

How’d I let Orden talk us into this?

As I watched, she reared up, drawing in a deep breath as members of the Wings scattered apart. I could hear a loud hum as blue sparks spread across her body, a glimmering aura coalescing in her mouth.

A blue dome appeared around us. One of Teft’s bodies was kneeling, maintaining some kind of defensive spell.

Mizuchi exhaled.

A voltaic charge of impossible brightness tore free from her mouth, ripping through stone and dirt and leaving a charred and smoking trail where it passed.

The line of lightning grew in intensity, brighter and brighter, until a burning shockwave flashed across the area and forced my eyes shut. I felt the impact against our shield; heard the cracks spreading across the surface the moment before the barrier completely failed.

When my eyes opened, I saw the two other versions of Teft kneeling along with the first, their eyes closed in concentration. They’d formed two more barriers and only the last of them was still intact.

We’d been hundreds of meters away from the epicenter of that blast, barely even in sight of the people on the ground — and it still probably would have killed us outright if Teft hadn’t intervened.

And all three versions of him were sweating with exhaustion.

“We need to move,” Patrick said again.

I nodded and stood. Teft’s last barrier fell, his two copies vanishing. Their mana had run dry.

Marissa and Jin helped a still-shaken Teft to his feet while Patrick led the way.

It wasn’t hard to see our destination, now that I was looking.

Katashi floated just in front of the tower, his brilliant aura of azure extending so far that I had no difficulty locating him in spite of his physical form being dwarfed by the tower’s size.

Fortunately, he was hovering just in front of the gate; he hadn’t taken to high in the skies like many of the gargoyles and karvensi had.

Less fortunately? There were dozens of land-bound monsters between us and him.

I counted about twenty barghensi, a handful of humanoid-sized spiders, and a single orange-auraed minotaur.

Is that a Sunstone aura? I’m not sure we can handle that.

“Got a spire guardian over there,” Patrick pointed out just as my mind processed it.

“I’ll…” Teft coughed and stumbled, falling to a single knee. Jin hurriedly hauled him back to his feet.

“Nonsense,” Jin replied. “You have done enough, Professor. Rest and recover. You will do us a greater service later in this way.”

Teft gave a weak nod.

We continued approaching the horde of monsters without a plan.

When they were about a hundred yards out, I turned to Sera. “Do you think they could tell the difference between Vanniv and one of the karvensi in the sky?”

“No, but if you’re thinking he could talk us through, it probably won’t work. They’re probably not smart enough to understand.”

I nodded. “Got enough strength for whatever your mystery summon is yet?”

She clenched her hands in the air. “I don’t think so. Maybe. But I don’t know if that would be the wisest idea here, even if I could manage it.”

The barghensi started moving forward to intercept us, the spiders right behind them. The minotaur remained near the tower, only a dozen yards in front of Katashi.

We had a bigger problem, though.

Those hundreds of flying creatures above us had stopped circling and they were forming up on our side of the tower.

“Oh, that’s bad,” Patrick mumbled, pointing up.

“No more time for debate.” Sera folded her hands in front of her. “Vanniv, I summon you!”

Vanniv flickered into existence at her side, his eyes widening as he took in the horde in front of us. “Oh, what is this nonsense now?”