Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles 1: Wizard Defiant (22 page)

Richard calmed down a little by the end of the elf’s speech. He made a half-hearted apology. “Sorry about that, Shandria. I should have trusted you more. It just caught me off guard.” He paused before adding, “By any chance can I have the link to my Power reserve unblocked? I feel a little helpless.”

“Oh, of course, Rick,” said Shandria. “I guess I was waiting to make sure you weren’t going to try and attack me.”

“No,” Richard said. “All is forgiven.” He meant it.

The elf said several words which Richard heard but quickly forgot. After a few waves of Shandria’s hand, he could
see
again. Once again, he could sense not just his Power link, but also the elf’s link.

“Better?” she asked.

“Definitely,” Richard said. “Now, can you explain what you did?”

For the next several hours, Shandria demonstrated to Richard how to put a block on another’s link. She cast a spell which allowed Richard to follow along with her active scan as she probed his link for weak spots. She was a patient teacher, and she never seemed to mind him asking the same question more than once. Under her watch care, Richard was able to use his own active scan to find weak spots in his link to his Power reserve. Once Shandria was satisfied Richard could find the weak spots, she explained how to block links. She created a link between Richard and herself. She had Richard practice finding weak points in this link, and then she had him attempt to block the link. While he practiced, Shandria explained how some magic users could connect a link to their opponent and use it to draw Power from them. If the magic user could draw enough Power from their opponent, the fight would be over before it even started.

“So how do we protect our links?” Richard asked after he had practiced blocking links for what felt like the hundredth time.

“You have to find the weak spots in your own link. Then you have to put traps on them.”

“Traps?” Richard said. “I’m not familiar with the concept, at least not in the context of Power and magic.”

“Neither am I,” Nickelo admitted. “It’s not in my data banks.”

“One of these days, Master Nickelo,” said Shandria, “we need to have a long discussion on what you are. You are indeed a mystery to me.”

“He’s a mystery to me as well, Shandria,” Richard said. “What were you going to say about these traps?”

“Oh, yes, the traps” said Shandria as she got back in teacher mode. “You can use your Power to set traps on your link. If anything tries to block the link at the point of the trap or noses around it too much, the trap will activate. Traps are normally of the deadly variety. However, for our training, I’ll set some traps on our training link which will only give a mild shock. You will try and locate the traps and disconnect them. Once you get tired of getting shocked, we will switch positions. Then you’ll set traps, and I’ll try and find and disable them. Does that sound fair?”

Richard thought it sounded more than fair. It was interesting training, and they practiced late into the evening. The only bad thing was Richard got shocked a lot. When Shandria finally announced they were done for the day, he did not argue.

__________________

Seal it up, Nick, and activate the override
, Richard said as he mentally prepared himself for the invasiveness of the tubes and needles. The reddish glow of the battle suit’s visor lowered in front of his eyes. The tubes designed to help keep him alive inserted themselves in his body openings. Data readouts appeared on the heads-up display along with a map containing various colored spots denoting possible enemy locations. Two white dots in the center of the map denoted Shandria’s and his positions.

“Remember, Rick,” said Shandria in a final last minute instruction, “try to conserve your Power. If we run into Efrestra, I’ll need your help. Both our reserves are at full Power, but we can’t afford any long, dragged-out battles. My staff and jewelry are nearly drained, so once our Power reserves are empty we’ll be dead, or even worse we’ll be taken captive. Trust me, Rick. You don’t want that to happen.”

“Yes, Mommy,” Richard said. “I heard you the first twenty times you told me.”

Shandria gave a small, tense laugh. “I’m reminding myself as much as you, Rick. Are you ready?”

Richard did one final survey of his equipment. True-to-form, ‘
the One
’ would not let him stock up on extra isotopic batteries or extra grenades. However, Richard did have a bag strapped over his shoulder containing twenty quarter-kilo bocks of J22 plastic explosive.

Go figure
, Richard thought.
They’re more powerful than grenades anyway.

The logic of
‘the One’
does seem convoluted
, agreed Nickelo.
He even let you put timers on them. I think he wants us to get out of this alive, but at the same time, he wants you to know you’re still being punished for your initial defiance.

Whatever
, Richard thought. ‘The One’
hasn’t even begun to see how defiant I can be.

Now, don’t stir up any more problems than we already have, Rick
, warned Nickelo.

I won’t, old buddy
, Richard assured his battle computer.
I’ll be a good little boy until we get out of here.

Richard hefted the new M12 assault rifle. It was much heavier than his standard M63, but Nickelo had insisted Richard summon it as a replacement for his M63 lightweight plasma assault rifle.

I liked my M63 better
, Richard said.
This M12 can only fire four hundred rounds per isotopic battery. Speaking of which, I had to use Power to summon the M12. And, apparently I’ll have to use Power to summon replacement batteries for it. The big butt-in-the-sky must not like the fact I’m not using my M63. I think the M12 should be a freebie since I turned in my M63.

Well
, said Nickelo,
you’ll just have to deal with the M12. You’re going to need a higher-grade weapon for this battle. As far as I could tell, your M63’s rounds only tickled that demon. The M12 has less ammo per battery, but the rounds are more powerful. Plus, the M12 has a 20mm grenade launcher under the main barrel. With the armor-piercing rounds you got loaded in it, you’ll definitely get his attention. And, you were able to summon extra 20mm rounds for it. Besides the initial seven, you’ve got another fourteen in your bag with the J22 plastic explosive.

Richard hated to admit Nickelo was right about needing a heavier weapon. Therefore, he just avoided any more discussion on the subject. Richard decided he was as ready as he would ever be. Shandria had taught him as much as she could. They had even stayed a month more than planned. If he wasn’t ready now after four months of intense training, he wasn’t ever going to be ready.

“I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be, Shandria,” Richard told the elf. “Are you sure you still want me to keep my best stealth shield up? You said they’re going to know where you are the moment you take the blue sphere from its stand.”

“That can’t be helped, Rick,” she said. “We’ve discussed it, already. My stealth shield can’t hide all three spheres, and you can only hide yourself with yours. They’re going to know where I am, but if we can keep them guessing about your location, it may give us a slight edge. End of discussion, Rick. It’s time to go.”

Richard activated his best stealth shield. He watched the elf as she opened the alcove and slipped the blue sphere into her leather bag. The stealth shield surrounding their secret room dissipated. He did not wait to see the elf put the bag in her pack. Speed was everything now. Richard opened the secret door and stepped into the hallway. His heads-up display indicated the straight section of the tunnel outside the secret room was clear of any life forms. Richard glanced to the right, it was clear as expected, but he needed to go left. He turned his head to the left in preparation for sprinting. He wanted to get ahead of the elf to run interference with the run-of-the-mill ghouls before the more powerful foes began showing up.

Demon, Rick
! shouted Nickelo mentally.
It has a stealth shield.

Twenty meters ahead was a humanoid-sized monstrosity from some horror movie. It was not the demon they had fought previously, but it was definitely a demon. It reeked of evil. It dropped its stealth shield as it converted a ball of Power into magical energy.

Richard reacted without thinking. He held down the trigger of the assault rifle. A stream of forty rounds filled the hallway in the direction of the demon. Some missed and ricocheted off the tunnel walls. Other rounds stopped short of their target as if hitting an invisible barrier.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out the demon had a defensive shield. But, Richard had noticed some of the rock shards blasted from the tunnel walls had hit the demon. He assumed its shield was focused on energy attacks, not physical ones. Richard drew his phase rod and charged the demon.

In response, the demon released its ball of magic. Richard sensed the flow of energy heading straight towards him. Shandria’s hours of training in defensive shields paid off. Reflexively, Richard threw a defensive shield between him and the incoming energy. He angled the shield slightly like the elf had taught him. The energy turned into a lightning bolt. It hit Richard’s shield and ricocheted off to the side where it began bouncing from wall to wall as it continued down the tunnel. Richard breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed the white dot on his heads-up display representing the elf was still in the secret room.

Lower your shield,
said Nickelo.
Conserve Power.

Remembering Shandria’s warning to only use the Power-hungry defensive shield the minimum necessary, Richard stopped the flow of Power. The shield faded away as Richard jumped to the demon’s right side. As he passed through the demon’s defensive shield, the battle suit’s electronics momentarily blinked, but Nickelo quickly brought them back online. By the time Richard was even with the demon, he was in full command of the suit again. He thumbed the phase rod’s setting lever to destructive and swung a hard blow at the back of the demon’s head. The phase rod bounced off the demon’s skull. However, the rod’s subatomic energy must have had some effect, because the demon gave a cry. It wasn’t so much a sound of pain as it was a sound of surprise.

The demon made a backhanded swing at Richard with a metal rod it held in its right hand. The metal rod burst into a red flame as it arced towards the base of Richard’s spine. The demon’s blow was too fast for Richard to react, but it wasn’t too fast for his battle computer. Nickelo took advantage of the override to make a hard kick with both legs of the battle suit. Richard felt himself propelled above the demon’s weapon. When Richard hit the ceiling, he was none too graceful, but he managed to brace his feet against the tunnel’s roof. He kicked hard to propel himself back towards the demon. He hit the demon as it was turning around to face him. They both went down hard. Richard pictured an image of himself driving the point of his phase rod into the demon’s right eye. Nickelo picked up on the image and moved the battle suit to accomplish Richard’s desire. In a movement too fast for a mere human to comprehend, the battle suit’s assisters drove the tip of the phase rod into the demon’s eye. The unarmored eye burst upon contact. The phase rod’s tip continued its forward movement and burst through bone into the demon’s skull. Richard took control of the suit and wriggled the phase rod back and forth to scramble the brain. The demon shuddered and stopped moving.

We killed it
, Richard said
. It was easier than I thought. Maybe that other demon, Efrestra, won’t be as difficult as we feared.

Don’t kid yourself, Rick
, said Nickelo.
This was a low-level demon of the cannon fodder variety. From what Shandria said, Efrestra is one of the higher-level demons right below a master demon. Now, get off the floor and start moving. We’re supposed to be clearing the easy stuff out of the way for Shandria.

Richard rose from the floor and began sprinting down the tunnel again. His mission was to get to the intersection two hundred and forty meters away and hold it until Shandria arrived. He could run much faster in his battle suit than the elf. If he could get to the intersection and clear out the lower-level riffraff before she arrived, it might give them an advantage. The intersection was actually a fair-sized cavern containing the entrances to five tunnels. Shandria had told him one of the tunnels led to the exit that was their destination.

The intersection was quickly in range, and Richard saw a mass of yellow dots. Those would be undead. He saw no other colors. Richard hoped that meant there were not yet any magic-using creatures at the intersection. Of course, they could be using a stealth shield like the demon, but Richard refused the think the worst until forced.

How many, Nick?
Richard asked.

Thirty-two, Rick
, replied Nickelo
. I don’t register any magic users, but of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. There soon will be if you don’t hurry, though. Have you noticed the red dots converging on our location?

Richard had noticed. Just like he’d noticed the hundreds of other dots of varying colors all seemingly headed in the direction of the intersection ahead.

Swap out your rifle’s isotopic battery, Rick.

I only shot forty rounds
, Richard said.
I still have over three hundred and fifty.

You shot forty-two rounds
, said Nickelo.
And don’t argue. Switch it out while you have a chance. You may need every round when you get to the intersection.

Richard stopped arguing and extracted the plasma rifle’s isotopic battery. Reaching over his shoulder, he lifted the dimensional pack’s flap and dropped in the battery. He closed the flap and then reopened in it. Reaching inside, Richard felt a small cube with his fingers. He hoped it wasn’t the same battery he had dropped in the pack. Richard pulled it out and shoved it into the empty slot on his plasma rifle. The heads-up display registered four hundred rounds for his plasma rifle. He had a full load again.

As he was accomplishing the reload, Richard noticed the white dot representing Shandria’s position was about a hundred meters behind him. She had stopped. A group of fifteen or so yellow and orange dots had closed in from behind her. Suddenly, the yellow and orange dots disappeared. The white dot began moving in his direction again.

Did you really think you had to worry about the elf?
asked Nickelo who must have sensed his concern.
Shandria’s a big girl. She can take care of herself. You need to worry about you. Remember, you can’t self-heal until you get your baseline DNA taken. As a resistor, you can’t be magically healed either. So, not only do I want you to try and not get killed, I want you to try and not get seriously injured.

I’ll do my best, Mommy
, Richard said.

*       *       *

When he was twenty meters from the intersection, Richard stopped. A curve in the tunnel blocked his sight of the cavern and tunnel entrances, but he had no doubt the cavern was just ahead. The mass of yellow dots on the heads-up display verified its location.

What are those two orange dots?
Richard asked Nickelo.

I’m not sure
, said Nickelo.
They’re not magic users, but I don’t recognize their signature. That’s why I made them orange. We’ll find out soon enough. Are you ready?

Richard verified Shandria’s location on the heads-up display. She was staying a little over a hundred meters behind him. Two red dots and a score of yellow ones were in the tunnel behind her. Richard heard a series of muffled explosions. One of the red dots disappeared along with a half dozen of the yellow ones. The elf was fighting a rearguard action. Richard was momentarily tempted to go back and help the elf. It grated his male ego to have a female doing the major fighting. But logic won over, and Richard returned his concentration to the intersection ahead. Their plan was sound. His mission was to secure the intersection before reinforcements arrived. Shandria’s mission was to cover his rear and buy him the time he needed.

Richard took off running as hard as he could for the intersection. He turned the corner and raised his plasma rifle. The moment he saw a head he began firing. It didn’t matter that the head was already a skull half covered with rotted flesh. The head exploded under the weight of three plasma rounds. Richard kept the trigger pulled and swept the intermittent stream of red plasma rounds to the left towards a group of zombies lumbering towards him. Richard relied on Nickelo’s override of the battle suit to guide the red stream into the heads of the nightmarish creatures. The group went down amid a spray of rotten-brain matter.