Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Sera’s right hand shot down.

“Slip.”

A patch of frost appeared in the ogre’s path.

The ogre hit the ice and began to slide forward, but it didn’t fall.

Within a moment, it had corrected its balance.

Sera’s eyes widened as the club swept toward her, too thick for her to dodge, too heavy for her to hope to parry.

A blade pierced through the center of the ogre’s back, and the creature began to vanish, the club losing corporeality as its phantasmal remains whisked harmlessly through Sera’s body.

“Thanks for giving that back to me,” Derek remarked to the disappearing creature. A trace of blood was visible at the side of his mouth.

Sera shivered.

“Contestants, you have cleared the first round.”

Clapping from the audience. I felt only horror.

“Please move to the other side of the stage.”

Derek moved to retrieve his sword from where it had fallen after impaling the ogre, then seized Sera by the hand. “Come on. Only one round down. You’re not done yet, are you?”

Sera shook her head. “No…of course not.” She gave a false smile, the kind I’d offered a thousand times.

I felt the urge to intervene, but I didn’t know how.

Could I break through the barrier outside the ring from the outside and get on the stage to help them?

A single glance at the warding runes showed how implausible that would be. I recognized dozens of individual shielding glyphs, each several times stronger than my sigil.

By the time I’d done that, the pair was on the other side of the stage, and four new barriers rose to mark the stage into sections.

Derek was clutching his chest where the ogre had punched him.

“Thirty seconds until the next round begins.”

Sera gave Derek a look up and down. “How badly are you hurt?”

Derek chuckled, and I thought I heard a wheeze in the laugh. “Oh, this is nothing. I’ve had far worse.”

His several seconds of coughing made his words rather unconvincing.

Sera folded her arms. “Right. I’m sure you die in here on a regular basis. Can you heal yourself?’

He sighed, rolling his eyes. “Well, if you want to ruin the surprise…”

His right hand shot forward, extending his blade toward the wall in front of him. “Tavare, awaken.”

Golden light spread across his mirror-bright blade. I thought I heard the sound of a chime emitting from the steel, like a bell ringing out the song.

He released his grip on the blade — and it floated still in the air. Golden light flowed out from the hilt, forming a mist that began to harden into a solid shape.

My eyes widened as I took in the sight of the creature that it formed.

It looked perfectly human, but too perfect to be human itself. Its skin was the same golden color as the aura that it had emerged from. Aside from its face, however, its body was enshrouded in scale-like armor: armor that I realized seemed to grow directly out of its skin. It was only distinct from its flesh in its obvious thickness and having a stronger metallic sheen.

“Radiance has awakened to serve.”

The creature took to a knee, laying the sword across it.

Derek sighed, his now-free hand across his forehead. “Thank you, Tavare. You—”

The first wall fell, revealing a swarm of bee-like insects the size of dogs.

Sera took a step back, raising her hands.

Derek pointed at the bees as they shot forward. “Handle those, then come heal me.”

“Radiance obeys.”

Tavare glanced at the flying insects. Without standing, it lashed out with its sword hand, making several cuts too rapidly for me to follow. Scintillating flashes accompanied each motion.

The insects fell to pieces, vanishing as they struck the floor.

I blinked. I’d seen no attacks emitted from the blade. Presumably, its attack was similar to the one Derek had used to create the crescents of flame, but I’d seen nothing analogous appear.

This creature was either using attacks that were invisible to me, or that were simply too fast for me to perceive. Possibly both.

“Useless creatures.”

Tavare stood, shaking its head. It stepped close to Derek, putting a hand upon his chest. “You have sustained structural damage. Expect pain.”

Derek nodded and balled his right hand into a fist. “Go ahead.”

Golden light flowed from the creature’s hand across his torso. He shivered, clenching and unclenching his hand. As the light faded, he lowered his head, taking a deep breath.

The next wall disappeared. A single monstrous spider appeared, advancing on the group.

Tavare turned, hurling her golden blade straight into the center of its head.

The spider died instantly.

Tavare made a compelling gesture with its hand, and the sword floated back into its grip. Seemingly unbothered, it returned to healing Derek.

Sera took a step back, moving closer to the edge of the stage.

I didn’t fault her for the caution. I had basically zero idea what they were dealing with.

I’d been reading up about enchanting for quite a while, including about intelligent weapons, since my own sword seemed to be at least empathic.

I had never heard about a sword that could manifest a person.

Was Tavare some sort of summoned monster? I’d never heard of a monster that could take the form of a weapon, but I supposed it was possible. Considering Sera’s expression, though, I didn’t think she knew what it was either — and she was a Summoner herself.

The next wall disappeared, revealing a half-dozen winged spiders.

Winged spiders.

Seeing those, I briefly had second thoughts about ever visiting the tower again.

Derek seemed less concerned, stretching out his arms and passing his remaining sword into his right hand. “I’ll take care of this set, Tavare. Can you offer some mana to my friend Sera?”

Tavare turned its gaze to Sera. “Radiance has little to spare, but it will serve.”

Sera took another step back, nearly exiting the bounds of the stage.

Tavare was in front of her in an instant. “Extend your hand, friend-called-Sera.”

Sera hesitantly extended her right hand, and Tavare clasped its left hand around it.

Derek jumped forward, hacking apart one of the spiders with a flaming cut, and then surged into the midst of the others. Since he seemed to be having no difficulty, I focused on what was going on with Sera.

Tavare leaned in closer, staring into Sera’s eyes. “A binder of beasts. I am honored.”

It can recognize her attunement? Interesting, it must have some kind of detection magic.

Wait, did he tell Tavare to give Sera mana? Isn’t that supposed to be hideously dangerous?

I frowned. I was certain I’d heard that transferring mana to other people was a problem, because our bodies rejected foreign mana.

Maybe that only applied to humans giving mana to other humans? If monsters could safely transfer mana to humans, there had to be a way to use that knowledge… but I’d think about that later.

For the moment, Sera had pulled away from the strange sword-creature, and she had folded her hands in front of her. “Thank you. I am honored by your aid.”

“You are welcome, friend-called-Sera. I must rest now.”

And with that, Tavare vanished, and the sword unceremoniously clattered to the floor.

Sera frowned, knelt down, and gingerly picked up the weapon.

The final barrier fell.

I had been too busy watching Sera’s exchange with Tavare to see the threat that awaited her.

A winged humanoid with perfectly-sculpted muscles of stone. A karvensi.

I shivered. I hadn’t seen one since they’d appeared amongst the gargoyles, driving the students into shelters. But I knew very well how powerful they were. This was no mere insect from the lower floors of the tower.