The Connected System

Loch used Windstep, but in the opposite direction. He sped away from the Golem, getting some space between them. The Golem looked confused, or that was how Loch saw the turning of the creature’s head. It took a second for the Golem to focus on Loch again.

Or maybe it was the thrown Onyx slamming into its visored face.

There was a bright flash as the inner light of the Golem flared.

Onyx returned to Loch’s hand, growing to full size. He set his feet but didn’t Activate his Stance ability. He’d had Aura Of Attack running, granting bonuses to everyone around him. He wasn’t sure if Jenny and Piper were in range.

The Golem took a step toward him, an edge of the open visor bent inward, making the light shine out with an odd shadow. The creature didn’t seem to notice or care. It took one step, then another, arms raised as it picked up speed, starting to charge at Loch. He gave it a couple more steps before Activating Windstep.

He appeared right in front of the charging Golem, each of its steps shaking and leaving deep footprints in the ground. It didn’t even notice Loch or the energy shield made as small and thick as it could be. Loch set his feet, ducking low and leading with his shoulder like a linebacker hitting a running back.

He felt the impact of the giant and incredibly heavy Golem slamming into his shoulder, Bulwark absorbing most of the blow. Pain flared through his shoulder and arm. Loch felt bones breaking and splitting, shoulder moving in a way it wasn’t meant to as it dislocated. Loch bit back a scream, waves of intense pain shooting through his body. Glowing pieces of energy fell from the cracked and broken Bulwark, turning from solid to energy and then nothing. Even Loch’s legs felt the pain, straining not to break. as he pushed up against the Golem.

The weight pushed down on him, making Loch wonder if this had been the stupidest thing he’d ever tried. Knees started to buckle, his whole body straining as he lifted. The Golem rose off the ground, its own momentum and unbalanced feet aiding Loch. He’d timed it almost perfectly, appearing and slamming into the Golem as it had one foot lifted and leaning forward.

Loch twisted, changing the angle he was lifting at. The Golem tilted to the side. It tried to set the lifted foot down but only helped unbalance it further. The forest shook, leaves falling from the trees, as the Golem slammed into the ground.

Loch fell too, hitting the ground on his broken and dislocated shoulder. He let out a loud curse, releasing the cracked and broken Bulwark, as he tried rolling to the side away from the flailing Golem. He had to get up before the Golem or it all would have been for nothing.

Leaning on his good side, Loch tried to push himself up, arm shaking.

“What the hell was that,” Jenny asked, reaching a hand town to help.

Loch accepted it, letting her pull him out.

“Something stupid,” he replied, his natural healing taking care of most of the pain. His left arm still hung limp, each movement sending a shockwave of new and fresh pain through the shoulder. “Go and help Piper.”

“On it,” she said, running around the Golem that was struggling to get up.

Loch turned, raising Onyx in his good arm. He hadn’t planned on dislocating his shoulder, that would make it harder to truly swing the weapon. Moving to the side, avoiding a swinging arm, he took aim with Onyx, Activating Smash.

The weapon crashed down against the Golem’s head, slamming the head into the ground. Trapped between the hard ground and the Spiritually enhanced hammer head of Onyx, Loch could feel the armor that formed the head warping. It caved in, a crack forming down the middle. He could see the inner light leaking out.

Loch raised Onyx, stumbling a bit as his left arm shifted, sending a spike of pain through his body. It really had been a bad idea.

But it had worked.

The Golem tried to get up, unable to do so. Loch shifted his feet, ready to swing.

“I got it,” Brian said, as his large club swung down.

It slammed into the Golem’s head with a dull thud, the metal of the armor completely caving in. The inner light flared, flickered and faded.

YOU HAVE SLAIN STEEL ARMOR GOLEM

Sparks of multi-colored light danced in the air, twirling around the Golem. The largest amount flew into Loch, he could feel his Core Advancing. A small amount entered Brian. More than the one blow would have warranted but it had been the killing blow.

“That was dumb,” Brian said.

“Yeah,” Loch agreed, pointing with Onyx at the other fight.

Brian grunted, running off to join.

Loch grimaced as another wave of pain was sent through his body. The Golem had been a lot heavier than he had thought. Holding his left arm steady with his right, Loch ran to the next fight.

***

Piper had the tree to her back. She’d felt the rough bark and had stepped forward not wanting to feel it. Her robes were thick, the material somehow light and not feeling heavy, they didn’t make her hot wearing them, but she could still feel the bark and it was uncomfortable.

Hand raised, she released another bolt of energy from her wand, feeling her Spirit draining from her Core to power the weapon. She’d lost count of how many times in this fight alone she’d wished for more offensive power. Which is something she never thought she’d want.

The idea of hurting animals, that had scared her before the Connection. Even right after she’d hated it but had done it because there was no choice. Now, Piper didn’t think she was used to it, and didn’t want to ever be used to it, but she’d accepted that it was going to happen.

Both her Dad and Cerie insisted that she’d get more powerful Abilities someday. Piper just wondered when that someday would be. She was thirteen, and shouldn’t have had a Class yet, but she had one and she wanted to be as useful as Harper was.

Dad let Harper go off on her own. He let her lead fights and scout ahead. He let her go into danger. He didn’t let Piper. He still treated her like a child.

She wasn’t a child, not anymore. She had a Class.

She could do everything Harper could.

Hadn’t she proved that during the battle with the gaunts? Dad had told her that the inkwall had helped out and the inkdragon had saved a lot of lives. It should have shown that she was ready for more responsibility. If anything it had the opposite effect.

Passing out from using too much power, straining to summon both the dragon and wall, had worried Dad. He’d been more protective of her since.

Piper didn’t regret doing it. She had saved lives and it gave her an idea of just how strong she could get. She hadn’t seen the dragon but had been told by multiple people that it had been incredible. Beautiful and scary. Even Harper had told her how absolutely amazing it had been.

Piper just wished that her Dad could see that she was ready.

It wasn’t just her Dad. Everyone was protecting her. When the fighting had started, Jenny had stepped forward, motioning for Piper to move back. The scavenging team, Piper didn’t know their names, had formed a circle used to fighting with each other, but they had glanced at Piper, obviously wondering if they should have surrounded her. Even Julia had put herself between Piper and the attackers. And Julia was the healer, she was supposed to be the one protected.

She’d just have to prove to her Dad that she was ready.

Elora, Jenny and Harper were moving through the trees as they fought. It was obvious how much slower Jenny was compared to Harper and the elf, who Piper still wasn’t sure how to feel about. She liked Elora, even with how different she was, but she had appeared out of nowhere and quickly joined the Clan in a seemingly important role. She was always around Piper’s dad. She didn’t know much about dating and flirting but she didn’t think Elora was trying to do that with Dad. And it’s not like Dad would respond. Mom was still alive and would be back with them someday soon. Elora treated Dad more like how she had seen servants treating their employers. It was respectful, that was the word she’d heard Julia use.

Elora was like Harper in how she fought. It was like dancing and in a strange way it was beautiful. Piper wished she could fight like they did.

She’d been incredibly jealous of how Harper fought and now there was another just like it. Why couldn’t she do that?

The attackers were similar in size to the Hobs they had fought weeks ago. Only about a foot or so shorter than Piper was, but thinner. They had long arms that almost reached the ground, and really large feet that smacked the ground as they ran. Large noses with full shaggy beards in all kinds of colors. Each wore a cap on their heads. The caps looked funny, being colored red with the top hanging down. They looked like what those little blue creatures in one of her parent’s old cartoons from their childhood had worn. There had been some newer 3D animated movies, even one mixed with live action, from her childhood that Mom and Dad had been excited to share with Harper and Piper. They’d just never formed that attachment Mom and Dad had.

Unlike those animated creatures, the ones fighting now were pale skinned. They wore leather leggings and vests, leaving their arms bare. Their leather boots were huge, covered in buckles with the tip edged in metal.

Cerie, who hovered over Piper’s shoulder, had called them Redcaps.

Piper didn’t know what that meant, she just knew that there were a lot of them. Dozens. She’d given up trying to count all of them. Already there were a lot dead, their bodies laying on the ground, blood pooling and staining the leaves. Piper tried not to look at the bodies. More of the Redcaps kept coming out of the trees.

Her latest inkbear silently roared as it swung its large paws, batting aside a Redcap with each swing. The creatures went flying, some smacking into trees, others landing hard. Some didn’t get back up, the multi-colored sparks of Spirit flowing into Piper. Ones that did get up were met by one of the two inkcats she had summoned.

The inkbear was large, almost the size of a car. That was how Piper pictured it and it was very detailed. The edges were solid, having the appearance of fur. When it opened its mouth, there was the shape of large teeth. The head was a little off. Piper had grabbed a couple of books on animals from the library, as working from memory wasn’t getting them exactly right. For her Ability, it didn’t matter if the inkbear was accurate, but for Piper it mattered. Cerie had said that it wasn’t just the level of detail in her drawing that mattered, that gave the inksummon strength and allowed it to be summoned more often and for longer periods, but also Piper’s belief that the summon was the real that gave it a more solid form.

Piper really didn’t understand how any of it worked. It just did and that was all that mattered.

Her vision of the fight was blocked as the large form of Brian ran in front of her. She shifted to see around the large man who charged at a Redcap that was rushing at Julia. He barreled into the much smaller creature, knocking it down and sending it rolling. Brian followed up with a swing of his club, smashing down onto the Redcap. Piper turned away, not wanting to see what happened when it connected.

If Brian and Elora were at this fight, did that mean the one on the other end with those strange suits of walking armor was done? Where was her dad? From where she was, Piper couldn’t see down the container, all she could see was the end and the corner. It was too loud to try and hear anything.

More Redcaps ran out of the trees, rushing Brian, who swung the big club. One of them moved around the arc of the club, catching sight of Piper. The small black eyes were mostly hidden under the bushy beard and eyebrows but Piper thought she saw them widen in glee. The thing started running toward her.

Extending her hand, wand pointed at the Redcap, Piper was proud of herself. Her hand wasn’t shaking. Pushing Spirit from her Core through the wand, she shot out a blast of silver energy, as she sent a mental command to the inkbear. The energy blast looked like a thick blob of water as it sped across the forest to smack into the Redcap. It twisted the creature to the side.

It turned back to glare at her, smoke rising from its shoulder. Piper could see a scorch mark. The pure Spirit that the wand shot out had hurt the creature but hadn’t stopped it.

With a roar, the Redcap charged at her, long arms raised. Piper stood her ground, not shaking, watching the monster. She could feel her inkbear coming closer.

Something slammed into the Redcap, sparks of lightning erupting. The force sent the creature flying. It slammed into a tree, not getting up. Piper turned to see her dad stepping past the corner of the container, his axe returning to his hand. He stared at the Redcap, making sure it was dead, before turning to her.

“Are you okay?”

Her inkbear came to a stop where the Redcap had been. It just stood there, not moving, waiting for a new command as its target was gone.

Piper wanted to scream. She was okay. She would have been okay. Why couldn’t her dad have let her fight that one by herself? Her inkbear was right there. It would have been on top of the Redcap before it got anywhere near her.

She took a breath. Her dad didn’t know that. He’d just seen it charging at her so he did what he always did. He protected her.

“I’m fine,” she said, pointing at the inkbear.

With a thought, she sent it at a group of Redcaps that were rushing toward Jenny.

“Stay there,” her dad said, running off.

His left arm was hanging weird and he seemed to grimace in pain every couple steps. Was he hurt? Piper wanted to cry out and run to him. Her dad was hurt. But she couldn’t and he stopped at Julia who sent a blast of healing energy into him.

He moved his left arm, still grimacing, but nodded to Julia. Whatever was wrong with it had been partly healed. She watched her dad use that really cool Ability he had, the one that let him move quickly and seemingly jump from one spot to the next. It was so cool to watch. He sped up, becoming a blur, stopping dozens of feet away.

She wished she had an Ability like that.

Piper wanted to be fighting like her dad and Harper. Instead she was in the back, shooting out blobs of energy from a wand, which wasn’t even her own Ability, and drawing pictures. It was cool to see her pictures come to a kind of life. And Cerie said it would only get better. That was something to look forward to.

But why couldn’t she have the cool Abilities now?

All she could do was summon animals made of ink, and it wasn’t really ink but some weird substance that just looked like ink. But she had summoned something else. She’d summoned that wall and like the animals, it performed like the thing she had drawn. That was her belief, Cerie had said. Her belief that it was a wall had made it a wall. Her belief that it had been a dragon had made it a dragon.

Could she do that with other things? What if she drew a sword and really believed it was a sword? Would it function like a sword? What about armor? She’d made a dragon, why not a unicorn or even something she made up?

Was that what Cerie meant by her summonings would only get better? The fairy had said summoners were known to solo Dungeons. Was that how she would do it?

It wasn’t something she could do at that time, or for a while. Maybe she could look into it when they got back to the school?

Even if it worked, it wasn’t like her dad would let her fight with a sword.

She sighed, looking around the battle for a place to shoot a blob of energy.