Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School

“Auntie Ran, what is war like?”

That was the very first question I asked my aunt, long before I was put under her care.

It was a question that would evolve over time, much to her frustration.

“Auntie Ran, could you please tell me what it was like to be in a real battle for the very first time?”

The question grew more specific, more focused. As it became clear with each passing year what it was I was looking for and why.

“Ask me when you’re older” She’d always answer, or rather, find something to say to that effect.

This back and forth lasted for months, then years, and increased the closer I got to the end of my time at high school as I was dead-set on pursuing a course that would see me entering a completely different world. At which point, my question became more of a point of proactive interest, rather than a point of passing curiosity.

It’d been nearly half a century since the last conflict, a series of skirmishes that could barely be considered a cohesive set of battles let alone a war. Yet it was here in these last few flickers of humanity’s violent past that my aunt earned her medals and stripes. It was through her that I could learn what it was like, and what I should be prepared for should another conflict arise. Whilst at the time I was confident I’d never really need that information, I was glad that I pursued it anyways, given the reality that I quickly found myself in almost immediately after I left the nest.

“Everyone’s first is different. A boarding action is categorically as removed from an orbital drop as a combined arms push is from a limited engagement. I don’t want to get into the specifics of how mine went down, because whatever battle you find yourself in will be fundamentally different. Here’s a few pointers though, which I think are universal enough. One, you will feel fear, shock, and confusion or heck any combination of the three. But whatever you do, you cannot lose it.

And yet here I was.

About to fucking lose it.

Though not in the way that my aunt more than likely intended. As out of all the scenarios I was trained for, out of every eventuality the professional overthinkers back at home had put forth for consideration, this was most assuredly not something anyone could’ve ever anticipated.

There certainly wasn’t a time slot on the Threat Assessment and Response training blocs that included how to swiftly and safely neutralize an ever shifting mass of undulating shapeless plaster.

One that bared down at me with two, amorphous black spheres that rippled with each and every blink. Its irises pulsated like a cell’s nucleus under a microscope, its colors transitioned through the entire visual spectrum faster than a budding streamer’s RGB setup.

Its whole mass lacked a cohesive form and shape, instead looking like some sort of an upscaled amoeba, but one that needed to keep forming and reforming itself under threat of the forces of gravity forcing it back into its natural shape; what I assumed was just a puddle of blobby gray goop.

“Two. You will be wracked with indecision. But follow your gut, then your training, preferably in that order, and just do something.”

My hands moved on their own, running off of muscle memory alone. It took less than a second for me to palm my gun, unlocking and removing the firearm from its magholster in one swift, uninterrupted motion. My whole arm moving fluidly as the exoskeleton frame did barely anything to compensate or augment these movements.

It was pure training and instinct coming through at this point.

Without a second’s hesitation, and with the HUD switching instantaneously into its tactical loadout, I raised my gun towards the creature in front of me; target reticles finding it almost impossible to lock on to any specific point on the creature. As there was no preset reference data for what this creature even was, nor anything it could at least extrapolate from, save for the one very important piece of intel we just gleaned from the library.

The EVI began scanning, desperately combing through every bit of sensor data it had in an attempt to isolate the supposed core hidden somewhere within the creature.

TARGET IDENTIFIED. SPHEROID OBJECT, 0.12 INCHES IN DIAMETER. HIGHLIGHTING NOW.

A round, distinct object highlighted in another pair of target reticles suddenly came into view, placing itself square and center on the grid-like layout that was the tactical HUD.

It sat stationary on the upper ‘shoulder’ of the creature’s right ‘limb’, a nondescript extension of its amorphous ‘torso’ that looked as if someone with no prior sculpting experience had tried to freestyle an arm with no reference or guidance.

I shifted my aim accordingly, feeling the slight nudges from the suit’s exoskeleton as it attempted to help me along by correcting minor details of my aim through purposefully overriding small little aspects of my stance, grip, and forearm placement. Taking into account the finer details of the surrounding environment and accounting for every possible environmental factor. Augmenting human marksmanship and firearms intuition with the pure, brutal, and unfeeling efficiency of mathematics.

Despite all of this, for a split second there, my gaze strayed towards its eyes again; and for one brief moment I swore I could feel an intelligence locked somewhere within it.

That didn’t change anything though.

But what happened next, definitely did.

“Three. Expect the unexpected, you can bash me for my cliches but this one’s true. The battlefield is an unpredictable mess that every butterbar thinks they can predict and control. But it’s nothing like the simulations, nor is it anything like the safe sterile environment that is training. Anything can happen. And I mean anything.”

Anything… including how my line of sight was suddenly obscured without any warning. A female figure having placed herself between me and the null. Or perhaps, from her point of view, it was probably the other way around. “Altena Fisero!” The apprentice exclaimed with a sharp, assertive yell, followed up shortly by a localized surge in mana radiation.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 700% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

This caused the Earth beneath our feet to shake violently, before finally cracking open with a deafening crunch that sent rock, dust, dirt, and debris shooting into the air. The ground shifted upwards by a solid few feet, before promptly being brought back down with a gut twisting thump.

The cracks in the Earth gave way to a dizzying army of vine-like tendrils, as well as spears fashioned from the thorny rose bushes that surrounded us. All of which slammed into the null everywhere all at once, eliciting a bassy, heart-stopping roar that all but sent the apprentice stumbling back in disorientation. It was clear why it had that effect though, as the sensors clocked it in at just about 142 decibels.

The null that now more resembled a pin cushion writhed and shifted in place, stunned, but not mortally wounded. It began tugging at the vines which held it in place, parts of it that were pierced all the way through began melting and reforming, worming itself out of its binds and reforming it someplace else.

“Emma Booker, you must take flight, immediately!” The apprentice craned her head towards me, and yelled out desperately. “I shall deal with this beast, this is not a place for students!”

No sooner did the apprentice utter these warnings did the null return with an attack of its own. Having actually taken the spears for itself in one of its newly-formed fists, before turning those very implements right back at us. The attack came just as quickly, the mass of spears bound together within its fist barreling towards the apprentice’s flank.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

CRACK

The spears intended for the apprentice’s side, instead found themselves slamming against an unseen wall. Dozens if not hundreds of the spears splintered and fractured off into a deluge of useless wooden chips.

The elf was unscathed, but breathing heavily now. Her eyes glistening with a panic as it was clear to me that this was perhaps just as new to her as it was to me. A situation where all stops were pulled and the stakes were no longer a disappointing assessment or a slap on the wrist, but actual life and death.

“Impesis Taroni!” The elf yelled out again, the untranslatable mass of words being uttered with the same fervent intensity as the first time she’d uttered out what I assumed to be a spoken spell.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 750% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

The ground beneath us shook once again, but this time instead of a series of physical objects being flung into the null, it was the earth itself trying to envelope the creature like a ravenous hungry maw. The patch of dirt immediately beneath its blobby ‘feet’ opened up like a gaping maw, engulfing the beast all the way up to its torso, prompting it to immediately begin fighting tooth and nail to get out. This only served to aggravate the apprentice further however, as each struggle for escape was immediately countered with an increasingly aggressive set of what could only be described as concentrated bursts of mana.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 370% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

A beam of brilliant blue and white light shot out from one of the apprentice’s outstretched hands. It didn’t resemble a stream of flames, nor was it the distinct eye-watering discharge of a plasma bolt. The closest thing I could perhaps compare it to was the discharge of a laser focusing array, except instead of being visible only under specific optics, this was visible to the naked eye.

As the beam surged forward, our surroundings soon found themselves bathed in a monochromatic hue of blue. The air fizzed, crackled, and buzzed with what sounded like the distant sounds of electrical discharge.

All of this came to a head as the beam finally struck the null.

The attack elicited even more low-frequency roars, if only for as long as the beam was maintained.

Because as soon as the apprentice had let up, as soon as she lowered her arm to inspect the damage done, the damaged parts of the null's form simply melted and reformed, only to be replaced by more of the same gray amorphous mass. A mass that had begun to reach its tendrils in every possible direction, rapidly absorbing pieces of the lush garden it could come into contact with, and leaving the ground singed with a dark inky blackness where no biomass remained.

All of this seemed to trigger an even greater aggressive resolve from the apprentice.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 350% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

The apprentice struck it again.

ALERT…

Then again.

ALE…

Then again.

I turned off the warnings at that point, as the apprentice continued her stream of attacks unabated, serving only to stall the creature as it now sat awkwardly halfway between huge chunks of rock. Its core remained so tantalizingly close, yet so far, hidden away underneath layers of thick rock and packed dirt, and away from the effective penetrating power of my gun. As I bided my time, waiting for that perfect shot.

The onslaught of attacks kept the null at bay, but it wasn’t exactly killing it off.

It was around the seventh attack that something changed, as two figures approached the scene in a hurried sprint, just off to the side of the apprentice’s vision.

This development took the apprentice off guard, with her eyes now locked onto the two students, all but screwing over her situational awareness. “First years, get out-!”

“Four. Most fucking importantly. Whatever you do, do not get distracted.”

The distraction, despite being a momentary pause, was enough to spell disaster. In that split second where the apprentice’s concentration broke, so too did the ground’s grip on the null fail.

With that momentary reprieve, the null struck back. Leaping up from its earthy prison in defiance of all the known laws of physics, and then barreling straight back down from an eye watering height.

It landed about 14 feet away from where it was just trapped in the unrelenting maw of the apprentice’s earthen trap.

It landed… right on top of the apprentice.

The elf was knocked out of the fight on impact.

My heart sank as I knew what had to be done next.

Without a second’s hesitation, and with the unknown factor that was the apprentice’s magic-based attacks now completely removed from the equation, I took a step forward-

“Emma!” I heard both Thacea and Thalmin yelling out.

-and fired.

BANG

The whole world stopped.

That deafening noise meant a great many things.

To me? It meant that the gun had discharged effectively, and that was that.

To Thacea, Thalmin, and anyone else here? It was just a loud noise, created by unknown means by as yet unknown mechanisms.

To history? This one simple discharge would be the shot heard throughout the Nexus. Heralding the death knells of a “perpetual” regime, and acting as a prelude to the chorus of a future still yet unwritten.

The age of gunpowder had finally arrived.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as I could’ve sworn I actually saw the jelly-like flesh of the null rippling as the bullet entered it completely unchallenged, before finally, striking the core with the force of more newtons than I could ever care to calculate.

A brilliant flash of light shot out from the core as it was struck, cracks radiating outwards from the point of the bullet’s impact.

A deafening, dulcet shriek unlike any other sound it’d generated up to this point, flooded the gardens. It was hurt, actually hurt.

The null shifted its attention from the apprentice it now sat atop of, to me once again.

But the eyes it attempted to find under my lenses were no longer one of uneasy anxiousness.

They were now the eyes belonging to a soldier with a single task in mind.

BANG

I fired my second round, the bullet penetrating without any resistance, and once more striking the core just millimeters away from the first hit. Yet another brilliant flash of light rippled from it, followed by a dulcet, bassy howl even louder than the first.

Its whole form began to shake now, as whatever fucked up inner workings that had kept it relatively solid was beginning to fail.

The thing finally shifted its weight off of the apprentice, only for it to take a single step towards me.

BANG

And for the third round to strike on its upper right ‘shoulder’ once again. Strangely enough, the brilliant flash of light never manifested, instead, the beast’s entire form had all but collapsed.

In the time it took for me to register what had happened, the beast that had stood a good 9 feet in height had all but condensed. Reduced to a pile of rippling plaster that caked the darkened earth beneath it, before finally, draining off into the various cracks and crevices that had formed throughout the course of the battle.

And just like that, it was over.

“Five. You don’t really know when a battle is over. Because unlike training, there’s no start or stop, there’s no clock-in or clock-off time. There’s no schedule blocks or timetables. The only real way to know it’s over is when you’re rotated out. And until then, you’re never really out of the fight.”

Or at least, I hoped it was over.

I couldn’t afford to waste my time on these silly little insecurities that clouded my mind however, as my sights were set upon dealing with a far more pressing issue that needed attention now.

I sprinted over at full speed towards the downed apprentice. Every fiber in my being refused to believe that she could be dead.

All my reservations on the woman, from the pettiness over the previous night to the blatant cover-ups just moments prior all but faded away.

None of it mattered anymore.

Whatever her story was, whatever kind of person she was, she was still a person. A sapient being that might have been deeply flawed, but never deserved anything like this.

Especially when she’d so clearly stood and fought, purposefully putting herself in the line of danger for the sake of not just her own sake, but the sake of us, the students in her ‘care’.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw the state she was in, but unlike what I’d assumed, my body wasn’t frozen in place or wracked with indecision. Instead, my training came through and I proceeded to perform what I knew would help.

Turning towards the gang, my sights immediately landed on Thacea. “Thacea, get help, now!”

That was the first step of emergency care, provided you had the option: designating someone to get help.

And whilst emergency services didn’t exist here, I assumed the school must have had some top notch magical healing facilities or something.

Thacea immediately took flight, and zoomed off. Meanwhile Thalmin rushed towards where the null once stood, pulling out his dagger and with another burst of mana radiation, transfigured it into a full length sword.

Next, I turned towards the apprentice, taking stock of her condition by first attempting to address her with an admittedly panicked series of breaths. “Larial! Can you hear me? Larial, are you still with me?” I managed out, and in doing so I began observing all that I needed to, for the crucial assessment of this vital step; to determine if her airway was still in working order.

That was the very first step in the ABCDEs of field ATLS, with the exception of the assessment of the area to determine that it was actually safe to proceed to. However, I neither had the magical acumen or the experience to really judge that right now. So I made the executive decision to proceed with the steps that had been drilled into my skull just months ago.

I began fumbling with my medipack, after confirming that her airway was intact judging from her weak but audible speech, I secured her neck with an inflatable cervical collar that would keep her c-spine from deviating to prevent further injury. Before I could get any further into the later steps of the primary survey, a familiar giant hopped back into the fray, his face drained of its complexion as he set his eyes on the critically wounded apprentice.

“W-what are ye doin?!” The giant yelled out, kneeling down next to the barely conscious Larial in an attempt to push me aside. “G-get outta here, now! This is beyond what you first years can handle!” He repeated, attempting to unlatch the cervical collar that was keeping the apprentice’s c-spine safe.

I wasn’t having any of his crap however, as I brushed his hand aside, and locked eyes with him as best I could underneath the helmet.

“Shut up and listen to me. Until we get proper aid from whatever it is your guys’ equivalent of an EMS is, I’m going to do the best I can, understood? So stop fucking around and let me do my fricking job!” I yelled with an authority that came almost naturally to me, causing the giant to relent and allowing me to continue my primary survey assessments.

Just as I was checking her breathing, as I was pulling out the portable pulse oximeter, did I realize I hadn’t considered the finer details of multi-species medical care. I realized that I couldn’t be certain whether or not the same metrics of human medical care could be applied to an entirely different species, even if they looked almost identical to humans. I didn’t have time to entertain this thought however, so I moved in to pinch the device onto her finger regardless, but not before I heard what sounded eerily similar to an ambulance siren emerging from the distance, and approaching fast.

I checked one of my helmet’s cam-feeds to realize that the ‘ambulance’ in question was a floating carpet, a flying carpet if you will, with the source of this this ‘ambulance-like’ sound explained through presence of what could only be described as a floating set of bagpipes generating that low-to-high pitch noise. Flanking this glorified stretcher on both sides were humanoids that both wore outfits displaying a prominent symbol of what I assumed to be the Nexus’ equivalent of an EMS standard.

Though one of the humanoids had startled me back to my feet by virtue of what he looked like, my hand reached for my pistol out of reflex only for an observant Thacea to step in. Her feathered hand was easily detectable through the haptic feedback as she attempted to keep my hand affixed to my sides, preventing me from drawing the weapon.

“Relax, Emma.” She spoke softly. “That’s just a water elemental. I know they look visually similar to the beast you just vanquished, but that’s just a superficial similarity.” She squeezed my hand tightly, as if to reinforce her point. “It’s over, Emma. There’s no more danger.”

My hands shook for the longest while as I looked down at the two magical healers warily, before finally, I acquiesced. Stepping back and allowing them to do their job.

“The apprentice was-”

“Apprentice Larial was crushed by a rampant magical creature” The giant interjected, stopping me in the middle of my attempt at giving the pair the proper preceding incident report. “She was trying to protect the students, but it turns out that they really didn’t need her protection after all.” The giant gestured towards me, causing my eyes to widen as I realized that this was perhaps the first time another member of the ‘faculty’ was actually trying to explain the situation in a way that was actually relatively close to reality.

The water elemental leaped towards the apprentice, knelt down next to her, and raised both of its ‘hands’ above her limp form.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 250% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

“She’s stable, but barely.” The water elemental spoke, after having knelt down to examine the apprentice closer-up. “Critical hypotension, and a myriad of other injuries all throughout her body from whatever did this to her. Grade IV bilateral fractures, she needs immediate repair and union, prepare the setting stones, and don’t forget the intravenous and arterial stabilizing potions.”

The elemental stood up, allowing for the other medic present to slip the magic carpet underneath the apprentice. The mass of water shifted its way towards me, eventually ending up mere feet away from me as it ‘stared’ into my visor. My whole body tensed up upon seeing this thing so close up, my mind was going into overdrive up until it gave me a deep nod. I couldn't tell what its expression was, but its words certainly helped fill in the context gap. “Good job stabilizing her spine. You know your stuff. Maybe consider practical healing when you finish your studies.”

With that simple affirmation, the magical healer left, the pair now darting off with the apprentice in tow and hopefully with a fully kitted out medical center waiting to receive her.

Even after they left, I still felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins. It didn’t feel like any of this was over, the calm that was supposed to follow just didn’t show up. Instead, it felt like I was still constantly on edge.

“Everyone, I’m not sure what I’m looking at over here, care to take a look?” Thalmin yapped out, still standing over the fresh cuts in the earth.

That announcement certainly didn’t make things easier on my nerves, either.

All three of us immediately walked over towards the wolf at his insistence, finding ourselves peering over the crevice in question.

After a good few scans of the near 100 foot deep hole, it was clear exactly why he’d called us over.

The null, or what gelatinous-like substances remained from it, was slowly but surely draining down the various pores and root systems that existed underneath the surface. The scanner, however, couldn’t detect the ‘core’ that had consistently been locked onto throughout the entirety of the battle.

This could be because that final shot had all but obliterated the core.

This could also be because the scanners simply couldn’t penetrate that far down.

“I’m sure it didn’t just despawn.” I began under a series of exasperated breaths. “Surely, its body has to go somewhere. I’m assuming that somewhere is just… wherever the path of least resistance is? That probably means it's well on its way to whatever subterranean hole, crack, or pocket it ends up being dragged to by gravity?” I proposed, turning towards the group with a look of nervous unsureness.

“I’m confident whatever foul beast that was, has been thoroughly dispatched by the combined efforts of our dear apprentice, and our daring knight.” The giant spoke with a hefty bout of confidence. His rumbling voice, despite its haggard undertones, still tried its best to maintain an unseasonable level of positivity and optimism. “I’m quite certain of it.” He reiterated, his eyes turning towards the last vestiges of the creature’s former body as it drained away out of sight.

Thacea and Thalmin’s gazes remained… decidedly uncertain. The princess nodded along anyways, whilst the mercenary prince seemed barely convinced enough just to sheath his blade away.

With another hefty breath, and with a shift in positive undertones to one of questioning concern, the groundskeeper turned his gaze towards me in particular. “What business did you kids have with the Apprentice, anywho?”