PSTH: Chapter Forty-Four (Patreon)

Magic provided a solution to a lot of problems. Nearly any injury can be healed, if it’s fresh enough. Underlying conditions are harder to deal with, but there are options, especially as magitechnical implants and prosthetics become easier to create and more advanced. A single wood spell made the old seeds created by corporations that didn’t produce fruits with viable seeds in them obsolete. Topsoil depletion was a bigger problem, but one that enough earth magians could handle. The one problem that it seems like magic can’t help with? Languages! Nobody’s managed to create a translation spell or anything of the sort. But my boss, he thinks we’ll be the one to crack the code. It’s not that I dislike blue sky research, but…

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Rant posted on an online forum, 441 Modern-Era

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I stepped into the ring across from Lisa Ruth, who gave me a bright smile and popped her neck. Around us, protective enchantments began to whir to life, while River, Laurel, and Gawain all made their own noises of encouragement. River clapped, Laurel let out a ‘whoot’ sound, and Gawain… said nothing. He just stared at me with piercing lavender eyes. 

“You’ve got three Primals, right?” she asked, to which I nodded. “Great! Then I’ll use a team of three as well.”

Why was Gawain here? We’d all split off when our tour had ended. He’d gone off to look for a powerful Primal of his own, and I’d honestly assumed that I wouldn’t see him anytime soon. Maybe I’d see him at one of the big tournaments, or even a smaller local tournament if we happened to be in a city at the same time. But not here, not now. What was–

“Hon?” Lisa Ruth asked, and I was jerked out of my head and back into reality. My augpad was pinging me with a challenge. Lisa Ruth had put forward a bet of seven hundred and fifty credits along with a spell imprint disk, and I matched that with a hundred credits of my own, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Losing a hundred credits wasn’t going to ruin me, but it wouldn’t exactly be fun. I watched as the match was registered with the Tamer’s Consortium, and the cameras panned to focus on us. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 

It didn’t matter why Gawain was here, or why Gawain was watching. That was a distraction. The only thing that mattered were my Primals, myself, Lisa Ruth, and her team. I reached down and tapped two of my storage gems. Essence flowed from the gems as Scales and Zale materialized on the field, and I snapped my eyes open. Across from my Primals were the pair that Lisa Ruth had selected. Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who worked alongside Arkose Nature Preserve, both of the Primals were ones that could be found with some regularity in the park. A Shawk circled lazily in the air, keeping its eye on Scales, while the copper serpent form of a Cuprum uncoiled itself in preparation to strike. Both were absurdly high level, of course, but for this fight they’d been suppressed to level fifteen. 

I felt a pang of annoyance that I hadn’t sent out Hex and Zale, as Hex would have shut down the Shawk’s innate Lightning Dash, but it was too late for that. I could swap after the battle began, but it would eat up precious time. But I could make this work. I began to give some mental instructions to Scales, while Zale began to fight his Anima, gathering and shaping it for a pair of spells. 

“Three…” the worker serving as the referee called out. “Two. One! Go!!!” 

The Shawk’s entire body coursed with lighting and it bolted down, moving right for Scales’ battle form. The Lightning Dash didn’t quite have the same raw speed as Light Dash did, but it packed far more of a punch when it connected. At the same instant, the Cuprum flew forward, preparing to bite down on Scales’ tail. With attacks coming in from multiple directions, both propelled by magical speed that Scales couldn’t hope to match, it didn’t look good. In fact, if both strikes connected, there was a nonzero chance that Scales would be taken out here and now. If I helped Scales dodged one, I’d still be hit by the other. 

So I didn’t have Scales dodge. I’d expected a gambit like this to press me, though admittedly I hadn’t expected it as the opening move. Scales’ mouth began to glow as his anima flowed out, infusing his pneuma, and he leapt into the air. Being a fairly low to the ground water Primal, he didn’t get much air, but it was enough. His teeth smashed down on one electrified claw strike, and he joined with the momentum of the dive. But with the sudden weight, the Shawk was dragged down. Just enough for Scales to shift his head and bodily slam the electrified flight Primal right into the Cuprum’s head. 

Water was an excellent conductor of lightning. But so was metal. The same power that had taken a chunk of Scales’ pneuma now coursed through the Cuprum, and cracks began to appear in the Cuprum’s battle form. The Shawk pulled back, while Scales retreated from the entangled pair, and he began to cast Anima Bubble, helping improve his resistance to any ranged blasts of lightning that the Shawk might throw at him. 

The Shawk let out a battle cry as it circled overhead, gathering lightning around its beak, and the Cuprum shot forward, wary of a potential water move that Scales might possess. He didn’t have one, but Lisa Ruth didn’t know that. The Cuprum’s Axe Tail carved a chunk of pneuma from Zale’s battle form, and the Shawk got into position to release its blast. 

And Zale struck. 

Though he was weakened by his gift fighting him, he’d spent the time since before the fight began gathering up and shaping his anima for two spells. He exploded upwards, using Light Dash to rocket into the sky until he was on level with the Shawk, and then he used Pneuma Bite to slam his horns into the bird-like opponent. It might have taken Zale a long time to fight his pneuma and anima, but even without Hex there to bring out his full potential, he still had an enormous amount of raw strength. His horns tore into the Shawk, and in a single blow, the Shawk’s form was riddled with cracks that began to glow as they lost some essence. The spell that the Shawk had been an instant from striking Scales with was thrown entirely off course, leaving a line of scorch marks along the arena. 

Zale fell, then lost another chunk of pneuma as his large body crashed into the ground, and both Scales and the Cuprum moved. While the aerial fight had been going on, Scales had coated himself with a layer of Boost Scales to improve his pneuma’s resiliency. The Cuprum had prepared another Axe Tail, but as it swept down, Scales barreled into the Cuprum’s body, crunching down with a Pneuma Bite. The Axe Tail clipped the edge of Zale’s tail. I had Zale start preparing another Pneuma Bite of his own, then glanced up. 

In the air above us, the Shawk rose higher, and the sparking of a Lightning Dash formed around it, then faded. She was having it hold onto the spell, like how I’d had Zale hold onto his own magic until the Shawk was within striking  distance. The Shawk then began to cast some sort of buff spell, making the lightning that bounced between its feathers gain a faint reddish tint. I looked at Lisa Ruth and saw her eyes flick to the Shawk as she did the same mental calculations in the fight that I was always doing. With the Shawk so damaged that even a glancing blow could shatter its pneuma shell, it needed to make sure it got a good strike in. Keeping it ready to dash meant it could dodge another strike from Zale, or cover some distance in an instant to unleash a single ultra powerful strike. She’d be buffing it at least a few more times. 

In the time I’d been focused on the Shawk, the Cuprum’s teeth had sunk into Scales, striking with some sort of toxic element attack spell. It didn’t have a lingering effect, thankfully, but it was still annoying. Lisa Ruth had far more experience in guiding two Primals at once than I did. Scales was down to about a third of his pneuma now, the initial blow from the Shawk being responsible for a good amount of that. I focused and had Scales use a Pneuma Bite, lifting the Cuprum into the air and throwing him at the feet of Zale. Zale slammed down his own Pneuma Bite, and the Cuprum’s battle form faded away. 

“Good job!” Lisa Ruth called out, a bubble of laughter emerging as she smiled at me. “But how about this?” 

She tapped the third of the four gems on her belt, and a stream of ousia emerged from it. A wolflike form, with the left half of its body seemingly made of solid ice, while the right half was fire made manifest. A Lupurubrum. It was an epic Primal, and its power had been reduced, but not as far as the others. Where they had been level fifteen, this Lupurubrum radiated power closer to level seventeen. A competitive glint entered Lisa Ruth’s eye, as she turned to eye Zale. 

“Apaturegius may be powerful, but they’re constantly dancin’ on the edge of a knife against their own power,” she shouted, then thrust her hand out. There was a swell of anima throughout the entire arena as she called out, “Let’s see if you can keep it up!”

Flames exploded from the mouth of the Lupurubrum, flowing over Zale’s form, as in the sky above, the Shawk’s buffs tipped over the power to cost threshold where he would struggle to layer any additional spells. The Lightning Dash that the Shawk had been holding onto began to glow, and Lisa Ruth’s eyes flicked to where Scales had been. And saw nothing. During the time she’d summoned her Lupurubrum and built her magic up, Scales had stepped out of the ring. He couldn’t return to the gem, not if I wanted to use him again in the fight, as that would begin restoring his reserves. Instead, he stood next to me, his battle form cracked and battered, but intact, and a new form materialized on the battlefield, clinging to Zale’s back like a human astride a horse. 

Hex’s power filled the arena, and the gifts of every Primal in the ring instantly shut off. The Lightning Dash that had been building to a crescendo vanished, leaving the Shawk scrambling to regain its footing and cast a new spell. The gift of the Lupurubrum also shut off, though the improved speed in firestorms and snowstorms wasn’t particularly useful right this moment. And most crucially, Zale’s detrimental gift vanished. 

In an instant, the spell that Zale had been working to build completed, and restorative magic washed through his pneuma shell. The cracks that had began to form healed over, and Zale was already casting again. A Light Dash carried it into the air, where the Shawk had formed a lightning spell of some sort and released it right into the path of the Dash. 

Hex took care of that. Even as the Shawk released its spell, she leapt off of Zale, using the momentum of the Light Dash to propel her own innate speed. A Shade Bite, focused through her claw, sliced through the air. The Shawk’s battle form shattered like brittle glass, and the lightning that had been racing down at Zale vanished along with it. Zale and Hex tumbled to the ground, absorbing some impact damage with their pneuma shells. 

The Lupurubrum had used the time to build some attacks of its own, and as they regained their footing, he shot a pair of flaming spheres at both of them. Hex leapt to the side, but the fireball still clipped her, damaging her pneuma a bit. But she’d just entered the field. Her reserves were more than fresh enough to take it. 

Zale, on the other hand, used another Light Dash. Not to the side to dodge, or up into the air. Instead, he rushed through the incoming ball of fire, crashing through it and taking the damage head on. Then he was atop the Lupurubrum, slamming down with a Pneuma Bite. Cracks splintered through our opponent’s shell, even as the Lupurubrum’s mouth lit with flames and it went in for a bite on Zale. The pair exchanged blows, Zale possessing more raw power, but the Lupurubrum being fresher. I wasn’t sure who would win. 

Hex slid in behind the Lupurubrum, and a needle thin spike of shadow pierced into the back of its head as she used Shade Bite, and the Lupurubrum vanished.