Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Sera pointed up. “They look like they’re about to dive. Does that sound right to you?”

Vanniv nodded. “Yep. You’re pretty much doomed, sad to say. I would mourn you, but you know, I won’t exist—”

Sera poked a finger into his chest. “No time for banter. Go tell them we’re friends?”

He rolled his eyes. “There’s always time for banter, little Cadence, but don’t fret. I will, of course, come to your rescue.”

Vanniv took off at once, flying toward the disconcertingly massive swarm of flying monsters.

Which just left us with the ones on the ground, now nearly close enough to strike.

Patrick stepped up next to Sera. “You got enough mana left for our new trick?”

She nodded, grabbing his left hand. “Oh, yes.”

Patrick grinned, turning back to me and Marissa. “Buy us a few seconds?”

Marissa nodded.

Then she charged.

She was a blur of gold and white, her Guardian shroud blasting her forward with preternatural speed.

I…couldn’t possibly keep up with that.

I drew my sword and cautiously followed her at a jogging pace.

Marissa slammed into the first barghensi with a punch like a runaway train. It must have weighed eight hundred pounds, but it still flew backward like she’d smashed a toy doll.

Then she was moving again, jumping atop one of the spiders and slamming a boot into its skull. The creature crumpled as she leapt off it, and kicked another barghensi in the face.

I… think I was a little enthralled there, for just a moment.

And then I was in there amongst the monsters, swishing my sword out to slice through a barghensi’s leg. The enchanted sword cut cleanly through, crippling the creature, and I felt a pang of guilt as it howled in agony.

I almost shut down.

These weren’t illusions like the things I’d been fighting during the school tests. That barghensi’s pain was real .

Maybe most people told themselves that a monster’s pain was just part of a convincing illusion, but I’d been reading stories about monsters taking intelligent actions since my childhood. I couldn’t believe monsters to be less sentient than ordinary animals, and some of them seemed even more so. Meeting Vanniv and hearing him try to barter for an extended existence had further solidified my view.

Marissa slammed into me, pushing me out of the way of a monstrous spider claw. Fortunately, she danced out of the way in time to avoid taking the hit herself.

“No dyin’, Cadence.” She slammed a fist backward, not even looking at the creature she’d smashed. “You’ve got a job to do.”

I glanced back at the Hero’s End, the tower serpent still looming in the distance, violently lashing destruction in the next section of buildings.

Marissa was right. While hurting these creatures felt viscerally wrong , the wrong of failing to stop the assault was a far greater one. I’d have to stomach the guilt to save as many people as I could.

Of course, it was possible we would slaughter these creatures and still fail to talk Katashi into stopping the attack…but I couldn’t think about that. It was the kind of doubt that could rob my friends of their lives.

I nodded to Marissa. “Let’s do this.”

She grinned at me. “Back to back, yeah?”

I nodded, turning around and feeling her press against me. “Back to back.”

I lowered my blade, drawing in breath as I looked at the approaching creatures with renewed resolve.

“Uh, yeah, don’t do that!” Patrick shouted. “Be ready to run!”

I glanced at Patrick and Sera. They were still holding hands… and they were glowing, a pulsing aura of bright blue and white enveloping the pair.

I had no idea what that meant.

“Aww, c’mon!” Marissa shouted. She broke from our short-lived formation, stepping forward and slamming another barghensi in the jaw with a fist. This one took the hit without flying back. It merely staggered.

It didn’t look any stronger. That meant Marissa was getting weaker.

She’d burned through most of her mana fast .

I spotted a spider rushing at her from the right. She turned to move, stepping backward — and promptly tripped over her own feet.

I moved without thinking, stepping in the way and bringing my blade upward in a diagonal slice. I felt the transference mana running along the edge as if it was a part of me, pushing it outward with the force of instinct.

A vast wave of cutting energy ripped free from my strike, flashing into the distance.

When it ended, the looming spider fell into two pieces, cleanly split in half.

“Th—thanks!”

I slashed to the left and right, warding off two encroaching barghensi as Marissa regained her footing.

Patrick’s voice hit me next. “Back off, fast!”

The monsters were keeping a healthy blade-length away from me now, which gave us a moment to process Patrick’s shout and move.

As we started to run, two voices rose as one.

“Child of the goddess, we call upon your aid.

Rain frost from the skies in a Permafrost Cascade!”

The world darkened as the sky was filled with ice. Even with my blood burning with exertion, the newborn chill nearly froze me in place.

Wedges of frost the size of wagons flashed downward from the sky in the dozens, smashing and cleaving the horde of monsters arrayed behind us.

When Marissa and I made it back to Patrick and Sera, we found them kneeling, still holding hands with their eyes frozen shut. Hoarfrost clung to their bodies, the withering aura of ice around them too potent for me to come within arm’s reach.

I turned to see if any of the monsters had made it through the spell to close on us, but I had no need to worry. Javelins of frost continued to pommel those few creatures that had managed to survive the initial barrage, pinning limbs and piercing throats until not a single barghensi or spider remained standing.

When the pair finally pulled their hands apart, shivering and panting, no further threats moved toward us.

But the minotaur still loomed in the distance, far beyond their spell’s bombardment range.

Teft staggered close to the pair as the aura around them began to fade. “You did…well. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen first year students manage a cooperative spell on that scale.”

“I will take care of things from here.” Jin stepped in front of the group, calmly walking past us toward the distant minotaur.

I started to follow him, but he turned his head as I moved. “I will not be able to protect you if you are close.”

I wanted to protest that I could protect myself, but Marissa had already almost taken a hit for me, so that clearly wasn’t true.

“I’ll keep a safe distance. Marissa, protect the others.” Jin’s tone brooked no argument. Even Teft simply gave Jin a scrutinizing glance and then nodded.

I sincerely hoped that Teft knew something that I did not.

As Jin marched forward, I stayed a good twenty yards back, deliberately avoiding the frigid grounds where the monsters had fallen moments before.

A glance upward told me little. The ice from the spell had faded when Patrick and Sera had broken contact, and the flyers above were holding steady. I couldn’t see Vanniv in their midst. There were simply too many of them, and they were too high up to be clearly distinct. Of whether he’d succeeded or failed, I could see no clear sign.

When Jin was a stone’s throw away from the tower, the minotaur finally moved.

And in spite of being the height of an ogre, it was fast . With a single motion, it hurled a tremendous two-handed axe through the air, the projectile whirling toward Jin’s location with a visible aura of force.

And Jin wasn’t moving fast enough to dodge.