Consul Lucas Albright: Artifex

Class: Pending

Profession: Chirurgeon

Calling: None

Consul Type: Artifex - Head of the Academie and Lead Researcher

Sphere of Influence: Research And Development.

Lucas Albright stared.

And stared.

And stared.

It felt like his brain was moving through jello. Like that one time he'd taken a spill off of his skateboard back home and hit that mailbox. Everything hung in midair, not moving, like he'd just hit the Pause button on the entire world and for once it had actually worked.

Dad was standing over Mom, his shield dripping mantis blood and his body shaking with heavy breaths. Isabel was holding a head in the crook of her arm. Olivia was shrieking with joy. And Dinah was just standing there, in the middle of reloading her rifle.

She was so cool and calm… Wow.

Then someone pushed the Play button, and everything started moving again.

"We've got 40 seconds," Dad said, reaching down and hauling Mom to her feet with one hand. "Then that shield comes down again. Liv? Help?"

"Working on it!" Olivia had gone back into Focus Mode and was reading through scrolls as fast as her new owl friend–which was a thing, apparently?–could hand them to her.

"Do we run?" Dinah asked, racking home the bolt on her rifle and staring at the Mantises trying to rip through the big glowing shield Dad had somehow put up.

"No." Mom snarled the word. "These things are too fast. We will stand here, and we will kill them all."

"Dad's calling thing makes him stronger on land you claim, Mom," Olivia said, reading through two scrolls at once. "If we leave here, he'll get weak again and most of his powers won't work. We need to stay here. Think of it like it's home."

"Then we will defend our home," Mom said, grabbing a clip from Olivia and slamming it into her pistol. She racked the slide back… Then her eyes bugged out.

"Oh," she said, and started glowing.

The owl on Olivia's shoulder perked up, then hopped up into the air, flew over to Mom, and dropped another scroll into her hand. This one was one of the fancy ones, like Dad had gotten when he'd gotten his Calling thing a couple days ago.

"Thirty seconds!" Dad called out, hefting his shield. "Everyone reload. Bel, come back here. We need to face them as one."

"Got it!" Bel said, her voice deeper and huskier than Luc remembered.

"Okay, Dad, take center. Your shield can cover multiple allies at once," Liv said, sounding like a general. "Luc! How much coins do you have?"

He checked inside himself, feeling the power there. "Maybe enough for two or three heals? I think?"

"Then stay back and heal when I tell you. Don't go off half-cocked, okay? And get your gun again. If you see a chance to kill a mantis or a mosquito or whatever, take it! You need as many coins as you can ge– Uh. Mom? Everything okay?"

Luc looked over to where Mom was reading her scroll. Her eyes were big, and there was an even bigger smile on her face. She sucked in a breath and snapped the scroll closed, tossing it under-hand to Liv.

"Read that," she said as she started to run. "I'll be right back!"

Liv grabbed the scroll out of the air and unrolled it, eyes going wide as she started reading. Luc was busy grabbing his shotgun, popping the spent shell out, and slapping another one home. Why had Mom only gotten him a single-shot? He needed something bigger and with lots more ammo right now!

"Twenty seconds!" Dad said. He looked like a football player getting ready to square off on the line of scrimmage, his face hard and his feet planted wide and strong. The shield probably should have looked weird, but it didn't. It looked like it could stop a train. Dad's shotgun was still where he'd dropped it, because he would need two hands to use it effectively and–

Luc hiccupped to a stop, because he suddenly remembered something that Dad might be able to use. He took off running too as Liv started to read the scroll aloud.

Thou has stridden into the den of a powerful and vicious foe and slain it utterly. Were this thine only accomplishment, it would have been laudable. But thou hast taken thy foe's land for thee and thine and declared it thy home. Thou hast taken from others that thy kin might survive. Blood thou hast shed that thy kin may live. Through thine own actions, thou hast unlocked the Calling "Harbinger Of The Consuming Flame.

With the might of thy arm thou shalt drive thine enemies before thee, conquering their lands in the name of thy kin. With thy blade, thou shalt spill blood that thy kin may rise in power. Thou art the tip of the spear, the pointed blade, the nocked arrow, aimed at the heart of all who would oppose thee and thine.

Take now thy weapon, Harbinger.

The record of thy adventures hath been updated.

"Ten seconds! Everyone gets ready!" Dad yelled. "Luc! Allie! Get back in line!"

"Coming!" They both yelled at the same time. Luc skidded to a stop right by the skeleton of the fairy that Liv had summoned what felt like ages ago. The poor thing was long, long dead. But the sword through its middle still looked shiny, which probably meant it was magical, which totally meant Dad should use it! He grabbed the hilt with both hands, yanked the blade free, and ran as fast as he could back to the family line.

He got there at the same moment as Mom, who was carrying the minigun her rifle had turned into.

Olivia was still reading Mom's scroll, and her eyes had gotten big.

"Choose for thyself a single weapon. This weapon shalt never break not tarnish. Never shall it be taken from thy grasp unwillingly. If a melee weapon, it shall strike with the force of ten. If a ranged weapon, it shall never run dry. If broken, it shall be made whole. If missing, it may be called to thy grasp! Holy mackerel Mom you've got a legendary weapon!"

"Don't I just," Mom said as the minigun was enveloped in the same golden light. And suddenly it was her old rifle again. Except it looked… beefier.

"Five seconds!" Dad yelled.

"Come on then!" Isabel shrieked, planting her feet and seeming to grow about a foot taller somehow. The still-dripping mosquito-blades in her fists made her look like some kind of ancient tribal war-goddess, especially since her face and torso were still streaked with gore.

"Dad!" Lucas scrabbled behind the family line, grabbed his dad's free hand, and slapped the sword hilt into it. "Here! It's probably magic!"

"Thanks Luc," Dad said, looking him right in the eye and nodding once. "Now get behind us! The shield is about to–"

The shield flickered and winked out of existence. And a dozen giant mantis-creatures, backed up by twice their number of mosquitos, all with murder in their alien minds, charged forward.

===================

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Olivia screamed defiance and blasted away with her shotgun as the bug-things swarmed towards her and her family, pumping her shotgun with her newly-healed arm and trying not to think about how a freaky bug-thing had been chewing on her just a couple minutes before.

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Isekais weren't supposed to be like this!

A trio of mosquitos exploded into green mist as Mom's rifle started firing. Two mantises reached the line of Albrights–and bounced off an invisible shield. Dad staggered from an unseen blow, but remained standing. And Bel lunged forward and split a mantis's head right down the middle with her nose-sword things.

We're supposed to get powers and menus and be able to access them all right away!

They shouldn't have to learn it piecemeal! During what was so obviously a boss-fight! They shouldn't have to deal with a broken system!

And she was supposed to be a kick-ass warrior-mage, not some kind of walking Wikipedia!

But damn it if that's what she was going to be, then she was going to be the best damn Fantasy Wikipedia ever!

She shifted fire, blew a mosquito out of the air as it tried to get around them and at Lucas, and then dropped back and held out her free hand.

"Mom's Calling!" she demanded, and the owl still on her shoulder hooted and deposited a scroll in her hand.

"Cover me!" she yelled as she pulled it open.

"On it," Dinah said, stepping over to close the gap. Her friend sighted down her rifle and blew a Mantis's red eyeballs right into jelly with one shot.

Olivia read fast. Okay. Conqueror, dangerous, gun, preferred weapon… Aha!

"Mom! Use [Make A Hole!] on my mark!"

"Use what?" Mom asked as her new gun cut down two more mantises. Smoke and noise and gorey mist was everywhere. It was in her mouth. She was so going to throw up after this.

"Just do it! You've got plenty of coins!"

"Whatever you say, Mija!"

Olivia waited, watching as a wave of seven mantises charged forward as a unit, clearly intending to overwhelm Dad's [Cover Thy Allies] ability.

Oh lord, she was going to have to sit down and explain all this to her parents if they survived this, wasn't she.

Wait for it… Wait for it…

"Mom! Now! Use it now!"

Mom hesitated for a split-second, and then Olivia could see her shrug and do something. The whatever-it-was-they-all-did when they activated their abilities. Dad had done it, Luc did it, and now Mom.

[Harbinger Arts: MAKE A HOLE!]

Mom's rifle changed. In between one heartbeat and the next she was suddenly holding what looked like the mother of all bazookas. It had three barrels, the two on the sides angled out to shoot in a spread pattern. Mom stared at it for a second, but her body was already moving, probably caught up in the ability and moving on autopilot. The rocket launcher came up, her finger pulled the trigger–

And the seven charging mantises–and the ten or so mosquitos coming up in their wake–died in a wall of fire. What emerged from the bazooka wasn't rockets so much as a shockwave of energy that ripped out along the front and utterly destroyed the charging enemy. Mom let out a squawk of surprise and fell back onto her butt–and Dad stepped forward, his shield smacking a Mosquito into paste and his new sword that Luc had grabbed for him beheading another mantis that had managed to avoid Mom's earth-shattering kaboom.

"YES!" Olivia crowed. "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED; MARVIN THE MARTIAN BITCH!"

[Alejandra Albright Has Gained The Achievement 'Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!]

"HOLY SHIT I CAN DO THAT???"

=====================

The Colony struggled

The Colony… had erred.

The Colony staggered under the blast of the prey-creature's attack. It felt shock course through its forms as a full third of its soldier-forms were destroyed in a single devastating instant. The ripple shook its control of itself, and three more soldiers fell before it could bring itself back into the moment.

These creatures were not prey-animals. They were not interlopers.

These creatures… Were dangerous.

It had not thought so at first, when they had seemed uncoordinated and unable to resist its soldier-forms effectively.

But then the big-small one had… changed.

And then so had the small big one.

And then the big big one.

These were not prey-animals.

Recalculations were made in haste. The Colony had erred.

The Colony… was alarmed.

In haste, it drew back its soldier-forms and its scout-forms, leaving only a token defense. In haste, it opened its shell to receive its material back inside its true-form. It had lost almost a third of its mass. It could no longer shift into its battle form. It would need to flee. Recover.

No.

Return.

The Hive must be alerted to these new not-prey. These creatures that were new and dangerous and powerful. The Colony must return to the Hive. It must alert.

It recalled the last of its matter, decompiling the forms back into the raw creation-stuff around its core–

=========

That looks important.

Eyes wide open. Focused. Breathing steady. Dinah fired.

At the glowing green spot inside the now-open sphere floating at the back of the clearing.

CRACK.

[By Thine Own Deeds, thou hast awakened thy own class. Arise, Dead-Eye.]

One shot. Two beats.

=======

Something struck its core.

Something hurt.

The Colony screamed.

===========

Consul Dinah Costigan - Custos Naturae

Class: Dead-Eye

Profession: None

Calling: None.

Consul Type: Custos Naturae - Custodian Of Nature In All Its Forms.

Sphere of Influence: Natural Resources.

The Zone consumed Dinah from the inside out. She bled from a dozen different cuts on her body, and she knew she'd need help soon because she felt the dizziness starting to encroach. But it was outside the Zone, and so she wasn't paying attention to it at all.

She felt the terror and the fear and the desperate desperate loneliness out there as well. But she ignored them. Stuff them away in a box and lock the key. Just like always.

The orb-thing on the other side of the clearing screamed as her bullet tore into the glowing green crystal structure in its center. She'd guessed right. It had been important. She racked the bolt on her rifle and slammed it home–and then pivoted and shot a charging mosquito out of the sky as it tried to get at Olivia.

Reload. Aim.

She fired again, and a Mantis's red compound eyeball exploded into gore. It howled and fell back, reaper-claws scrubbing at its face and inflicting even greater injury on itself than Dinah had just done.

Reload. Aim. The Orb flopped and fluttered. She caught glimpses of the green thing, but couldn't get a clear shot. It struggled like a wounded animal, its hemispheres opening and closing seemingly at random.

Shift aim. Fire. Another mosquito exploded. They were moving erratically now, not like they were trying to dodge the fire coming from the line of Albrights and her, more like they'd just suddenly gotten drunk. Or punched in the head. And couldn't quite remember how to move right.

Reload. Aim. Her bullet this time slammed into the orb's innards, just missing the green core and instead splattering into the wriggling pink mass that was inside the hemispheres.

And just like that the tide broke. A buzzing wail came from the throat of every enemy on the battlefield, and the insectoid creatures all whirled at the same moment and ran.

Two mantises were cut down as they tried to flee, one by Mr. Albright with his cool new sword, and one by Isabel with her scary new swords. Three mosquitos exploded in midair, popped by Mrs. Albright's gun.

The orb snapped open, and insects crowded each other trying to get back into the interior. Dinah killed another mosquito. Mrs. Albright blew a mantis apart. And the hemispheres snapped closed, cutting another mantis in half. The back half decompiled and collapsed into unmoving pinkish sludge as the orb started moving away at speed. It looked like it was limping somehow.

They'd won!

No.

The thing was fleeing. It was running away. But that meant that it might come back after it had healed.

It might come back when they weren't ready for it.

Something crackled inside the Zone. Something red and white and glowing with hate. Dinah's cheek found the spot-weld on the side of her rifle. Her eyes were wide and unblinking as she sighted down the barrel. She had one bullet left.

Nothing had been able to penetrate the orb's hide when it was closed.

But she'd been killing things. And she felt the coins inside her roiling like a thunderstorm. And she had a new class now, didn't she. Just like Isabel. And though she hadn't read her scroll, and didn't know the name of what called to her, she knew it was there.

So she reached out for it.

[Deadeye Art: The Final Shot]

Power–so much power-flowed out of her at once. Every coin she'd earned from killing Mosquitos and wounding Mantises. Every ounce of frustration and anger and fear. Every iota of strength. All fed into a single remaining bullet.

A lance of pure white light erupted from the muzzle of her rifle. It shot through the air, crossing the distance between her and the orb-thing in an instant and leaving an afterimage seared into her retinas. She didn't blink. She saw the lance strike the orb, right at the invisible seam where it came open. Saw it blast into the orb, ripping through the weak spot and spearing directly into the center of the creature that had been trying its best to kill them all.

For an eyeblink, nothing happened.

And then the orb blew apart, showering everything within a thirty foot radius in gouts of pink and green viscera, painting the trees an ugly organic color and barely missing the family.

And silence dropped like an axe.

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