C51: Conflict Begins

Due to a dream she had, Cera began the day with a meal, despite normally only eating once a day.  The combination of hearing there was barely any time before they’d all be called upon, and a dream that she’d be having a difficult day made her believe the dream was important, after all.

Once she’d finished her breakfast, she then headed to the mages’ guild to meet with Ann again.  Right as she reached the door, she heard a loud discordant buzz that varied in pitch and volume for several seconds.  While scowling, she opened the warded door, only to see Ann standing beside an unfamiliar man in plate armor.

Before she could notice anything else, the buzzing was replaced with Ann’s voice, “You are to report to your guild, there is a threat to the city, and as a guild member, you are obligated to assist in its defense.  Should you fail to appear, you will be banished from all guilds, and potentially labeled a traitor to the kingdom.  This message will repeat until you arrive.”

As the message played, she could see Ann holding one metal tablet, only to put it down and grab another a moment later, one after another.  Meanwhile, the soldier took a glance at Cera and pointed to her, getting Ann’s attention.

“Ah, you were already on your way, I see.  My apologies for bothering you in that case.  But I can’t edit the enchantment easily.  It simply contacts all members in a large area, and only then does it care if you’re nearby the specific guild or not,” Ann explained as she shook her head.

“At any rate, it’s time to get to work, I’m afraid.  Please practice what you’ve been working on the past few days as we wait for everyone else to arrive.  If things go as planned, you’ll have an important role to play beyond just defense.  The commander was quite interested in what he heard about your abilities.  But for the next day or two, we’re going to be preparing before our enemies arrive,” she continued, as the soldier beside her frowned.

The man sighed before asking Ann, “Why are you telling her so much?  We just need the mages to help with preparing the field, no need to explain everything.  It’s not hard to tell that they’ll be required to lob fireballs.”

“Ah, right.  This is Cera, she’s going to be part of the command group, none of the others can match her defenses, even working together.  Additionally, she can likely take out priority targets in a way even I cannot,” Ann responded, nodding to Cera as she spoke.

She then turned to face Cera and continued, “This is Marcus, he’s one of the commander’s trusted aides.  If he says to do something, listen to him, even if it goes against what I say.”

While she spoke, Marcus frowned for a moment before shaking his head and remarking, “Well, I heard something along those lines; my apologies for seeming dismissive, but most aren’t worth that level of personal attention.  For now, do as Ann suggested and practice whatever it was.  It will likely be an hour or two before we move to the field.”

Cera nodded, then moved to sit against the wall, repeatedly creating small orbs of light and iterating the constructs she attached to them, trying to maximize how long they could last without a connection to her.  In addition, she worked on creating a lance of chaotic energy with the same construct.  The two goals disrupted each other to some degree, but she didn’t need it to last too long.  It was just best if she could make it as difficult to break as possible.

Over time, the other mages arrived, though she did notice that the one who’d decided her teaching wasn’t worth it anymore never arrived.  The braggart immediately tried to talk to Marcus, only to get told to shut up and go away.  As for the rest of them, they mostly sat down, many of them meditating.  Almost everyone seemed both worried and stressed, which made perfect sense; Cera felt the same.

Eventually, Ann nodded to Marcus and stated, “Everyone who was present in the city is here now.  You can take them to the field; I have to visit the other guilds to drop off the tablets before I can join you.”

Immediately nodding, the man promptly ordered them all to follow him and left, not bothering to look back.  Cera figured he probably had good reason to expect them to follow; no one wanted to lose their guild membership, or be considered a traitor, after all.

Not long after, they made it outside the city.  Cera was surprised to find that they were setting up well beyond the fence; even if it was an easily broken fence, it would still make it a little harder to get behind them, after all.  Marcus didn’t bother explaining, merely beginning to give orders on where to change the terrain.

As they all got to work, Marcus came to speak with Cera, stating, “Tomorrow, you are to head to the command tent and speak with General Oran.  Focus on constructing fortifications for today, but ensure you’ll have plenty of mana left for tomorrow.”

Later on, Ann arrived at the head of her small horde of golems, most of which were awkwardly carrying huge metal plates that hurt to look at with manasight.  Each individual plate was somehow storing more energy than she could, even considering the alterations to her body and how she saturated it with mana.  She paid a little bit of attention to what Ann did as she worked, finding the woman fussing about the placement of the plates on the ground.

Hours later, she was only half-surprised to be given a small enchanted rock and told to put it under her pillow.  Apparently, it would wake her early in the morning, giving her time to eat before returning.  After being told she was free to leave, she headed back to her home, having a small meal before going to bed.

The next day started with cursing and flinging herself out of bed, the alarm stone agonizingly loud to her ears.  Fortunately, it appeared to project a small bubble of silence so it wouldn’t disrupt others, so getting away from it let her escape the noise.  She figured she should have expected it, once she got her head to stop screaming at her.  Some people slept deeply, and her hearing was far superior to that of a human now.

After a small meal, she headed back to where she’d been led the day before, then, hesitantly, split off from the other mages and walked towards a large, armored tent that hadn’t been there the day before.  In the distance, there was an odd fogbank that she was certain had to be unnatural.

Unsurprisingly, she was stopped by several warriors in plate armor well before she got there.  Beyond them, she spotted Ann speaking with Marcus and several others, including what must have been the three mages she’d been told about.  She swiftly explained that Marcus told her to meet General Oran, and they paused for a moment before one of them turned and shouted, not bothering to use any words.  The group in the distance turned to face them, and Marcus immediately gestured for her to approach.

At his gesture, the men around her stood aside, letting her pass, then spread apart again, gazes ranging back outward.  Cera found herself incredibly nervous, especially when one of the mages tensed as she got closer, clearly intending to shout something before one of the others yanked his arm and growled at him.

Surprisingly, the man covered with medals wasn’t the one to speak, but rather the almost painfully average-looking one to his side, who wore an unadorned coat and monocle.  She glanced at Ann, who simply nodded at the man, clearly meaning she was to listen to him.

“Cera, I suppose?  I’m General Oran.  Guild Head Ann has been speaking of you, and honestly, it’s hard to believe what I’ve been told.  But she’s never given us reason to doubt her before, so I’m willing to give you a chance.  She said you can project shields at a distance, and make quite potent ones.  Please put a shield around that bush over there, without moving,” he began, gesturing toward a bush several dozen feet away.

Cera frowned, considering the distance to be much too far for a reasonable test.  She was capable of it, but it still seemed unreasonable, given that most would struggle with anything beyond arm’s reach.  Shaking her head, she focused on the matter at hand, and a moment later, a multi-layered shield appeared over the bush.

Despite it not being physically visible, Oran nodded the instant it appeared, then ordered the closest of the three mages to attack it.  A moment later, they were looking at an undamaged bush surrounded by scorched earth and flickering flames, and Oran nodded in approval.

“I’ll admit I expected you to fail, or at least ask to move closer.  Good work.  Next, I was told you can project offensive spells a great distance, and possibly pierce shields?  I’m sure our enemy is watching us currently, so I won’t have you display it here.  But I do hope you are as capable as I’ve been informed,” he remarked before turning to gesture at the tent behind them.

“Inside the tent you will find two sand tables.  One shows the battlefield, one is connected to the spyglass and shows targets we’ve identified as important.  I want you to try to strike those individuals if you can, in order,” he commanded before pausing a moment, then asking, “At least, as long as you don’t need to see through their fog.  I was told your spells can somehow seek out targets on their own.”

Cera nodded hesitantly, then remarked, “I have them able to seek out the face of anyone nearby, but it won’t take much effort to make them seek a specific face.  With the fog, they’ll likely miss, however, since they need vision to home in.”

Oran frowned for a moment, then sighed, turning to Ann, and asked, “Can you get rid of the fog?  I care more about this than about direct destruction.  You said you can manage three large-scale spells, right?  If Cera is capable of assaulting their command staff, you can skip your attempt at doing so.  Are you confident in her?”

In response, Ann created a barrier beside herself, then asked Cera to punch a hole in it with a plain mana bolt.  After seeing it work, Ann nodded, then walked off a short distance to stand in the middle of an incredibly complex ritual circle composed of nine of the metal plates she’d seen the golems bringing the day before.

“Tell me when you are ready, Cera,” she shouted, gesturing for her to enter the command tent.

Though she really didn’t want to, Cera was certain that this would save more lives than it would end, so she didn’t hesitate much before moving.  The tent was quite interesting, covered in runed metal plates, and upon entering, she was shocked at the detail the sand table possessed.  She could even tell that some of the people it showed had beards!

It didn’t take long to tweak her mana construct, and she went even further, modifying it to be able to focus on multiple different targets as well, with priorities.  Once she felt ready, she imprinted all the faces into several dozen such constructs, also preparing the paired self-maintenance and shield-piercing ones, then moved back outside.

While it wasn’t terribly humid, there were several barrels of water nearby.  It only took a moment to get permission to use them, but she was wary that if the enemy was watching, they might target her later if they realized what was happening.  As such, Cera turned her back to the water barrels, walking away as she created and linked each ice spike to her constructs.  As each formed, she had it move to hover over the command tent.

Once prepared, she shouted that she was ready to Ann, who then began to chant something she couldn’t understand.  Glyph after glyph lit up on the metal plates below the woman, and the air began to crackle as immense amounts of mana began to rise, gathered by whatever she was doing.

Cera was surprised when it finally went off, and nearly thrown off her feet as a tornado tore its way into the distance at shocking speed.  Apparently Ann had managed to direct it such that it didn’t cause terribly much disruption to the others who were still fortifying the area, but Cera had been a bit too close.  Fortunately, she hadn’t lost her grip on her magic.  The others in the command group seemed to expect it, and barely swayed from the wind.

A few moments later, the cyclone slammed into the fogbank, tearing it apart in an instant, and revealing a huge force beneath it, clearly thrown into chaos by the intense winds.  Cera waited for just a moment, then began hurling her collection of ice spikes, letting each connection snap as they left her presence.

Right after the last of her spells were launched, Oran shouted, “Ann, the fire now!”

Cera turned to look at Ann, only to see her sprint to another array and begin casting again.  Looking back, she saw Oran sprint into the tent and return with the spyglass that had been set up under a flap, handing it to the man covered in medals, who spun and began observing the enemy forces.

It made a certain kind of sense, really.  Anyone who didn’t already know what was going on would assume the general himself was just an aide to the other man, giving him a decoy in the case of a decapitation strike like what she herself was attempting.

Not long after, the man reported eleven of her spells and succeeded, the mages having initially ignored the ‘harmless’ spells, obviously certain their shields would hold them off with ease.  Cera was, however, shocked when she heard that she’d successfully taken down the opposing general.  It seemed too easy.

Several of the best-known mages on the other side had also fallen, though two reacted swiftly enough to survive, but they likely wouldn’t be in shape to join the fighting anymore.  Even as the man reported the ensuing chaos, an incredibly loud roar shook the camp.

Turning to face it, Cera watched a fireball that had to be at least a dozen feet across loft high into the air before descending upon the opposing army.  Nearly twenty seconds passed before it impacted, though she found the result shocking.  Upon striking the ground, there was no explosion; instead, it splashed as if it were water, spreading rapidly.

Below them, Cera could hear people shouting in surprise before being commanded to get back to work.

“Left archer wing is completely gone, good aim!” the man called out, even as Cera watched, terrified at how many people that single spell had killed so quickly.

She already knew what was coming next, and watched numbly as a second ball of flame rose into the air shortly after.