Neska tried to ignore the less-than-subtle attempt at getting her attention as she sat in a line of other students: Awakened, and some humanoids, too. The sun was pushing upward, and she felt a mild breeze kicking in; it was going to be another picture-perfect summer day, with lots of extra sunlight.
The sun felt nice on her scales. Whatever weird metabolic scenario was going on inside her body, at least the cold wouldn't permanently sap her strength when winter came. Maybe she could practice with her [Ember Hex] to alleviate that issue, as the ability did have some level of fidelity for what it affected.
She just needed to be careful not to roast herself by accident.
“Psst.”
She glanced toward the lower profile of Tycus, who looked like a cross between a pangolin and a mole, with a scrunched face and a short snout. The leathery plates armoring his body were thickest on his limbs and chest, and less so on his extremities. “Why are you in the ranged lineup?” he whispered.
“I have ranged abilities,” she answered. She didn’t elaborate further. So far, only a handful of people had seen her abilities. “Remember?”
“O-oh, right, the weird magical bolts.” He looked more relaxed. “What ability is that? Never heard of a lamia having powers like that. They have a lot of poison and stealth abilities. Really hard to pin down."
“Rare subvariant,” she answered without skipping a beat. Rare is an understatement. I’m likely one of a kind, unless Risha was busy making other superpowered Awakened.
That thought made her pause. How many other Awakened had Risha brought back to the world of the living? Dozens? Hundreds? How many Awakened had fallen before now? Were there any other unique Awakened like her?
This was an even more unsettling question in her mind. Were there others with the possible blood of a Divine Beast? And if so, was that blood from their monster origin...or bound to their soul?
A shudder ran down her tail, and Tycuse looked at her, puzzled. “You alright?”
“Yeah. Just…thinking. About how many came before us. How many of us will be fighting the Varadur together.” She said nothing about her worries about what else Risha may have done. Or, the giant gaps in her memories where horrible things could still be lurking.
The sergeant paced the line after splitting the groups, a powerful presence but not an imposing one. He stood proud and spoke confidently, commanding their attention. “Who can tell me what our basic strategies are against the Varadur?”
“Sergeant, to use superior tactics against them. The Varadur lack effective battle strategies, or to react quickly to changing tactics or formations!” one student called out.
“Correct. The Varadur rely more on brute force tactics and sheer numbers rather than any significant strategic planning. Against their Tier ones and Twos, which form the bulk of their forces.” He pointed to Juni. “Miss Semou, what is the exception to this?”
“The humanoid subtype of monsters, or those that choose that evolution path with their respective variants, gain increased Intelligence and tactical awareness. This includes goblins, orcs, minotaurs, as non-exhaustive examples.” Juni stood as straight as her short stature would allow. “They are known to possess weapon skills, both ranged and melee. This may also include caster variants of the monsters.”
“Correct! I daresay that the biggest threat is often the smart ones, not the biggest ones!” Corvin patrolled back and forth through the groups, then pointed to Syra. “Syra, what do the Varadur have that we do not?”
“A single-minded obsession to attack. They do not retreat. They fight to the last, which makes them exceedingly dangerous for this reason alone. There is no negotiating with them, no surrender. This makes capture of Varadur monsters exceedingly difficult, and not an advised tactic.”
Corvin nodded stiffly. “Damn straight. Anyone who successfully brings back living specimens has greater bravery than I. But those are later lessons. Your Varadur biology classes will fill in the gaps that I don't know about, specifically, weaknesses or battle strategies. I care about one thing: your survival against Varadur forces, no matter what they throw against you.”
He pointed to Neska, wearing a hardened smile. “Miss Cassia, it has been a while since I had a student pass my test on the first try. You employed unconventional tactics. You did not try to ‘beat’ me. Why?”
“Your only requirement was to stay on the platform. You excel at close-quarters combat. Tactically speaking, it is better to engage you at range or using disabling techniques. Taking advantage of your adversary's weaknesses and protecting your own is how we survive.”
“Good. I appreciate that kind of assessment. Do you know how many have tried to knock me off the platform?”
“More than zero?”
“Roughly two in three. I have yet to be knocked off the platform in that way.” He pointed to the range, with metal targets sitting on sliding rails. Each of the targets was connected by a linkage attached to cylindrical devices that gave off a soft electric hum. She presumed these were arcane motors to move the targets. “But we’re still on the basics. Most of you have not mastered ranged attacks.
“Take your teams, practice for the next thirty minutes. You will be tasked with scoring five consecutive hits. Start with the range targets stationary, then up the actuator speed. Those with no range abilities will practice with me to further hone their melee capacity. You may also select a ranged weapon if you have the capacity to do so.”
A bow, maybe? Neska glanced at her hands. The words of her younger self came back to her. She’d known how to use a bow. She could remember the motions, the lessons on aiming. But would this body remember how to replicate that endeavor?
Corvin had stepped aside to talk to someone else who had appeared on the observation platform near the training barracks, talking in a low voice. She couldn’t hear their discussion at this range, but she found it unusual. The man talking to Corvin wore a hat not unlike her own, if different in style. He had light-colored eyes, closely cropped hair, was clean-shaven, and bore a subtle musculature beneath the academy uniform he wore.
“That’s Professor Kalloway?” Juni whispered. Her ears canted to one side, then another. “Guys can become witches?”
“I don’t believe Classes are gender restricted,” Syra commented, currently working on her range targets with short blasts of water. The water sprayed everywhere on impact, causing the remaining targets in the petal formation to sway erratically. Her follow-up shots missed, and she cursed under her breath. “Of course…stand still, you little bastard…Corvin wouldn’t make it easy for us to hit a simple target.”
Neska watched the new arrival peering at her with keen interest. She pretended to focus on the weapon rack in front of her. A simple bow, well-polished, was one of many on the rack. Most of the humanoids either grabbed a bow, crossbow, or throwing daggers. A larger, bull-like Awakened grabbed a set of throwing axes.
Why axes, though?
She didn't stay skeptical for long. The minotaur chucked the hatchets with enough force to split the wooden targets down the middle. After the fourth consecutive hit, the wooden circle cracked entirely, and both halves toppled onto the grass. He rubbed at one cow horn and shrugged.
Everyone stared at each other nervously. Getting split like cordwood sounded like a bad way to go.
“Sergeant Corvin? What happens if we obliterate the target?” the bull asked.
“Mister Kieran, did you have permission to destroy my target range?" Corvin asked, arms folded and tone neutral.
"No, sir. I had permission to throw my axes." A few titters of laughter filled the air, but the bull wasn't among those laughing. He looked right nervous, despite his towering height and powerful physique.
"Well now, Mister Kieran, you now have my permission to go to the forest with me to chop down another tree suitable for making target discs,” Corvin announced sternly, wrinkling his nose lightly. Neska tried to keep her own hissing laugh in. Despite the training being thorough and physically demanding, the levity Corvin brought made it that much easier to bear. “How many hits did that take to split that?”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Four, sir.”
“Then you owe me four targets. I think I’ll need spares,” he added with a straight face. The minotaur nodded, fighting their hardest not to laugh.
Neska ran her hand over the bow after returning her attention to it. Only three fingers now, and a thumb. Do I gain anything by practicing with a bow? I don’t have any archery skills onthe Witch Class.
That is not entirely true; the Interface can adapt to an individual user’s preferences. It makes things possible that you always had the capacity to make happen.
Such as?
Indeterminate. As you've observed before, some new ability configurations appear based on frequent use of certain abilities, evolutions, or even Titles.
She gripped the bow firmly in her hand and returned it to the rack. Someday. I’ll try that out someday. There’s something that feels right about that. I need to master my current skills.
Juni peered at her curiously. “What’s with the bow? You were eying it for a couple of minutes. You have magical bolts already.”
“A feeling.” Neska slithered over to where Syra continued to shoot blasts of water, always hitting three of the targets, sometimes four in a row, before inevitably missing. Neska tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
“I’ll get the target–”
“Take a moment. Relax. There is power in precision, as there is a power in brute force.”
Juni nodded thoughtfully in turn. “The snake’s got a point. You have the raw power, I can attest to that. Take a few minutes to let your mana recharge.”
Syra gave a baleful gaze to the target swinging erratically, still not disturbed by her bolts of water. “Fine. I’d like to see what you two can do. Tycus, after them?”
“Uh…my range is kinda limited,” he admitted.
“Any range is better than swinging your fists at giant beasties,” Syra countered, rolling her eyes. “Well, Cassia, you’re up.”
She undulated to the firing line and tapped the button on the arcane console to reset the targets. The metal targets all rose to their initial positions, and she set it to the lowest difficulty: stationary. I can hit them with [Venom Bolts] without difficulty. But I want to hit them every time.
She channeled a charge of energy to her claws, feeling the prickling, pulsing energy on her clawtips. Syra took a step behind her.
“Looks dangerous. It’s not green, though. Wasn’t it green before?”
“It’s green when I need it to be.” Neska fired off a mana bolt at a practice dummy, intent on testing a few variables. Her attack struck the metal target with a metallic ringing sound; a solid and direct hit.
Her first answer came almost immediately: she could, indeed, mentally focus on casting a normal [Mana Bolt] if she needed to. The projectile burned with the white-blue light of a normal bolt. The green-tinged ones carrying her active venom effect would make it obvious which ones she was using in a slight telegraph of her attacks.
She fired several more to send the spinning target rolling erratically, and she focused on the targets, lining up and guiding the bolts mid-flight to smack into the targets with ease.
The effort became harder the more erratic the motion. She did miss once, only because the erratic motion became too unpredictable, but she did draw a few murmurs from the nearby students about her steady aim.
The leathery-plated Tycus, taller than Juni but shorter than Neska, watched on with awe. “Where’d you get so good at that?”
“Birds.” She fired off a few more shots, guiding them in the air with minute hand gestures.
Five targets. Five hits. She allowed herself a small smile, despite a building chilling sensation along her hands. It was her own gauge of how depleted her mana was.
She continued with a second set. Then a third. She heard a murmur of excitement from Syra.
"Showing off, or building confidence for us?"
"The latter." She tried something different after she hit three targets, with the last two spinning wildly. She put a charge of mana in each hand, so that she could cast out two mana bolts at once.
It was also more of a drain on her internal reserves, and she winced as if an icicle had melted and carried a chill directly into her veins. But she held firm, eying the sawing targets. Waiting for when their motion would be slowest and most predictable.
Waiting...
Now.
She cast out both bolts at once and mentally nudged them toward their respective targets. Both hit at around the same time, drawing a cheer from Syra, who slapped her back with enthusiasm.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" she shouted in confidence. Neska did her best to look like it was routine training, but she felt her hands shaking from the excitement.
Ability Proficiency Increased
Mana Bolt 12 > Mana Bolt 13
New Ability upgrade added to witch hex selection list: Twin Bolt.
Twin Bolt (Magical, Energy, Hex, Venom (toggle)): Cast two bolts simultaneously with your mouth, tail, or hands, with enhanced tracking capacity. Combining the bolts into a single cast will significantly increase damage and secondary effect potency compared to two single shots, if both bolts hit the same target.
Oh, that is interesting. I should keep varying my abilities. Now she was smiling, if briefly.
Tycus tilted his head, plates flexing as his perplexed expression emerged. “You really got that good at that by shooting birds with magical bolts?”
“Birds. Big, noisy, murderous birds. They kept killing the cuter, more innocent, more edible ones.” One last blast of mana hit the remaining target, sending the metal plating spinning. "Oh, and a pack of murderous wolves. The Varadur really didn't want me to get here alive."
Tycus gulped beside her. “Has anyone told you that you’re scary?”
“Only to monsters. And enemies. I’m pretty sure you’re neither of those.” For emphasis, she lowered her upper body to look at him at eye height. “All I want is for the monsters to stop fighting us. End this war. Maybe if I terrify them enough, they’ll run away.”
Tycus wore an askew smile. “You swing between endearing and terrifying. There’s no middle ground for you.” He clapped his hands together and gestured to the target range. “Guess I’m up, then!”
Neska scooted to the side while he extended spined plates from his wrist and arms. He took a slow breath, then began flicking them forward at incredible speed, the air cracking in their wake.
One…two…three…four out of five targets. Not bad, she thought to herself. Tycus, however, kept missing the last one, which gyrated around the target erratically due to the imbalance of the fallen targets.
“Stop.” She tapped his back gently to get his attention. “You can’t aim wildly expecting to hit. Read the motion first. Picture where the target will be, and where your spines will be at that exact moment. Aim for that spot.”
“It’s hard.” But, he continued, firing his wrist spines more slowly.
“My mana bolts are easier. I can mentally guide them, the more ranks I have in them. It’s a focus of a different sort. But every miss carries a cost. Slowly. You can speed up your rate of fire after you can reliably hit them.”
The metal target rang with a satisfying ringing sound after being scored by the spines, and Neska nodded. “Good. Repeat.”
“Is that what you did?”
“I need to add some extra practice sessions, actually.” Technically, the range was open all day, though the equipment was locked away when class wasn’t in session. “Hitting a target is one thing. Hitting a moving target, harder. Hitting a target in a vital area for maximum effect is hardest.”
No matter. With more repetition and more dangerous conditions, she’d hopefully get her [Mana Bolts] up another rank or two in the near future. Plus, she had a new option for ability upgrades. It was mighty tempting, but then, she still had a lot of good options. “Each missed shot is more time your target is alive, and a threat to you or your teammates. If you have any time to think, you have time to aim.”
Sergeant Corvin coughed somewhere behind her shoulder. “Good advice. Difficult to master in the field, and these targets don’t shoot back at you. Not all monsters are just going to bear hits and keep asking for more.”
She examined the blonde-haired, athletic youth who bore a few faint scars; he was practically unblemished compared to Juni’s companion and guardian Jurik, but even this young man had seen the frontlines himself a time or two. While training might be an ‘easier’ task, it was not one that Neska was envious of.
Fighting in battle to keep yourself alive was one thing; training others to fight effectively and cover each other's weaknesses was its own unique challenge. "Should we expect ranged support from the Varadur?"
"Yes." He hit the reset button on the arcanist circuit, and all the targets popped back onto their stands as if struck by the field of a magnet. It was likely just a small kinesis enchantment with a recall modifier to fly to the previous position. “Tycus, go again. Let’s see if you can go five for five. With the targets already in motion.”
The leathery-looking awakened let out a slight gasp, but a glance at Neska wearing a polite–if unintentionally fanged smile–gave him the confidence he needed. His face hardened into edged lines. “I’m ready. Let’s go five for five.”
He stepped up and rubbed his clawed feet into the dirt, extending the spined plates from his body. “Read the motion,” he whispered to himself. The targets began sliding on a rail perpendicular to his firing path, and the targets gyrated back and forth; additional hits would only unbalance them further and lead to more difficult shots.
He flicked his spines out. One hit.
Two. Three shots, three hits.
He slowed down, took a measured breath, and barely hit the fourth, glancing it with the spine. Yet, the target still toppled off the moving stand. Tycus zeroed in, tensing his arm as he waited for the exact moment.
That precise moment where the plate’s motion came to a standstill, firing just ahead of its path. A resounding metal pinging sound filled the air, and Tycus thrust his hand into the air. “Yes! Yes! Who’s the best?!”
Corvin chuckled politely. “It’s a pass in my books, but you’ll need to do more than pass against the Varadur. Make no mistake, they might attack with ranged abilities, but our aim is truer and more disciplined than theirs. Practice, and combining our abilities with the humanoids and Awakened, is how we win.”
Neska heard the crunch of gravel behind her, and she turned. She nearly arched her whole body in surprise as she saw a familiar figure strolling up.
“Corvin, I heard I was reporting for duty. What have we got to work with?” A confident smile emerged on a tall woman with her blonde hair tied in a ponytail, a well-maintained bow slung over her back, and a quiver of metal-shafted arrows resting on her hip. The woman’s gaze swept across the crowd, and she nodded to Juni and Neska. "Oh, looks like I got a few with potential, here."
For the first time since she’d met, Hadley Feywind was wearing one emotion on her face that Neska hadn’t seen before:
Joy.
Cue the party fanfare...
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