Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Apparently she hadn’t been able to hear the conversation from where she was standing. That was probably a good thing.

“Something like that,” Sera replied. “Corin, may I borrow your mana watch?”

I nodded and handed it to her.

Vera took a step back. “Uh, your eyes, Sera—”

“I’m fine for now. Wasn’t an ordinary mana potion.” She reached back to press the mana watch against her attunement mark. As she did, I got a look at it.

It was no longer a Summoner Attunement.

It was like nothing I’d ever seen.

Attunements always changed in complexity when they grew more powerful. Normally, it was just adding an extra line or shape to an existing design. This was a completely different style, and nothing like any one I’d seen. Not even foreign attunements.

She shivered again as she looked at the watch, then handed it back to me.

It read 968/112.

It hadn’t increased her mana capacity properly. She was filled with mana that her body couldn’t properly contain.

“Sera…” I started.

“I know, Corin. I’ll use it as quickly as I can.”

I balled my hands into fists. I couldn’t do anything else.

“Wall. Wall. Wall. Wall.”

“The way is clear,” Jin pronounced. “We should proceed.”

I reached into my bag and withdrew my etching tool again. “Bring me next to the door, then the rest of you get inside.

They complied. “Okay, turn me around so I can draw on the door.”

“I’m not sure we have time for this, Corin,” Jin noted.

“It’s going to buy us time.” I reached forward, and Jin grudgingly turned me toward the doorframe.

I scratched a rune I’d never actually powered before across a combination of the door and frame. It would only be whole when the door was closed.

“Sera, you’ve got a lung attunement. Can you charge the air near the rune with air mana?”

“Easily,” she replied, and she blew into the air near the rune.

I turned my attunement on, watching the air mana coalesce. It was fascinating. Being in the tower was improving my ability to see mana, just as I’d expected, and I hoped that would be enough to help me manipulate it as well.

I brought my hand up to the mana cloud. For a moment, I could feel it. And in that moment, I pushed it into the rune.

The rune’s halves flared, charged with power but inactive while they were apart.

“Okay, Jin. Take us in and close the door.”

Everyone was inside the room when he slammed it shut. The rune-halves met, forming a wind rune.

The door shook as the rune sent a continuous stream of wind toward where Derek was still working at demolishing the walls of ice.

I hope that’s enough to slow him down once he gets through the wall.

I kept the etching tool in hand, scratched an anti-teleport rune into the back to the door, and then charged it with my own mana.

“Okay, we can move now.”

As we moved forward, I scanned the room. Sera had been very thorough.

All four walls of the room were encased in ice. The statues were still active, breathing their fire, but the ice was thick enough that they’d barely made any progress at melting through.

We moved to the center of the room, finding the square that indicated the presence of another stairway.

Vera knelt down, touching the tile. “There’s a mechanism somewhere that moves this tile out of the way. Staircase is right under it.”

“Move out of the way.”

Vera moved.

“Ogre, I summon you.”

An ogre appeared at Sera’s side, shimmering with an icy aura across its skin. “Master,” it groaned toward Sera.

“Ogre, break through this floor tile to reveal the stairway.”

We all cleared the way.

The ogre smashed through the tile in a single blow, then took a few more moemnts to clear away the rubble. “Please the Master?”

“Yes, ogre, you’ve done well. Now, stay here and guard the top of the stairway. Don’t allow anyone to follow us down here. Don’t kill them, just incapacitate them.”

“Yes, Master. I good at stop people.” The ogre nodded happily.

I was pretty impressed. Being a powerful Summoner was useful .

“Okay, let’s head on down,” I pronounced.

“I’ll go first and check for traps,” Vera offered, heading down the stairway. After a few moments she returned. “All clear.”

My back was still in a great deal of pain, but I was starting to feel a tingling sensation — accompanied by periodic spurts of pain — in both legs. I thought that was probably a sign that I was recovering, but I didn’t know how much longer the process would take.

Jin carried me down the stairs, and Sera followed last.

“Wall.”

Sera formed a barrier of ice at the top of the stairway, right where the tile had previously stood. Not a bad idea.

Then she shivered again, and I began to worry.

“You feeling okay, Sera?”

“No time for worrying about that,” she replied. That was a bad sign.

We reached the bottom of the stairs and found a door.

Vera checked it, then opened it.

The room it led into was very familiar.

It was a two-story room with a massive stairway in the center, three doors downstairs, and pristine red carpeting covering much of the floors.

Four tall pillars stood from floor to ceiling, though one of them had a large crack from where Keras had smashed into it, and another had a huge chunk missing.

Vera sucked in a breath. “Well, I suppose this is it, then. How do we get Katashi’s attention?”

Professor Orden appeared right in front of us.

I hadn’t had time to draw an anti-teleportation rune in this room yet.

“I believe,” Orden raised her hands, lightning crackling in between them, “It’s time to teach you children how to behave.”

On the minus side, apparently Professor Orden had lightning magic.

On the plus side, that didn’t mean a whole lot when she was standing right next to us.

Vera must have realized that at the same time as I did. Still holding both of my swords — I really needed to stop letting her take all my weapons — Vera stepped in and started swinging. Orden dodged the first couple swings, then vanished without a word.

She reappeared about ten feet back, then hurled the lightning at us. The bolt hit Vera dead-on, then arced to hit the rest of us.

My second barrier, already heavily taxed, snapped. Only a little bit of the lightning managed to make it through, but it still hurt. I shuddered and bit my tongue hard enough to draw blood.

Jin set me down a moment later. “I need to handle this,” was all he said.

Fair enough, Jin. Go get ‘er.

“Vanniv, I summon you.”

By the time I managed to push myself into a seated position, Vanniv was floating next to Sera.

“Oh, hey, finally in the tower! Nice room, too. I dig the choice of décor.” The winged man turned his head toward me. “You look kind of terrible.”

“Yeah, thanks, Vanniv. Need you to focus.” I pointed at Orden. “She’s trying to kill us.”

“Now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Orden replied, forming globes of flame in her hands. “I need Vera alive at a minimum. The rest of you? Well, I’d still prefer you alive.”

I put a hand to my forehead. “Comforting. I don’t suppose you could tell me where you got another attunement? Elementalist doesn’t seem like your flavor.”

She grinned. “Just more items, darling. Give it a few years as an Enchanter, you’ll look like you have every attunement in the world, too. Unfortunately, for now, that means you’re woefully under prepared to face someone like me.”