Icarus Awakens

Daniel could faintly see Murdon’s eyes flicker across the field as the draconoid tried to reassess the situation. “How many are there?”

Daniel’s Quick Mind feature drastically accelerated his response. “34 Sparkbats. Hunter couldn’t tag all of the villagers so-”

There was something in the air between them for a moment, and then Murdon turned away. Using no power but the shape of his helmet and the force of his lungs, the Commander shouted, “THE VILLAGERS ARE HERE! DEFEND THEM!” Word had already spread through the remainder of Roost’s Peak that the Tyrant’s forces were involved in this conflict, so there was no question what Murdon meant.

The message passed on. The weight of the knowledge was off Daniel. That left him and his friends to face a field of battle full of electrical monsters and potentially hostile mortals, all concealed by a curtain of rain and the roar of thunder. He’d thought the battle against Rorshawd had been chaotic, but this?

Daniel had never had to fight without knowing exactly where everything was. It was terrifying, and yet also clarifying. Lograve had asked him before what his answer was, why he fought. He hadn’t known what to say because his depression had been up and his adrenaline down. With people in danger, he remembered. Before coming here, Daniel would have never guessed he’d be the kind of person to run into a burning building to answer a cry for help. Hearing the screams coming from ahead, there was only one thing he could do. It just surprised him how in control he suddenly was.

“Here.” Daniel pushed his crossbow into Thomas’ fumbling hands. “We’re sticking together right?”

“Guy, what’s-?”

“You don’t have any arrows. Can you use this?” Another lightning strike carried twenty more sparkbats to the area. How many were there in the clouds? There’d only been about a dozen in the swarm he fought, and being carried down by lightning was elevating each individual monster to the strength of that original swarm.

Thomas glanced down through the sights of the crossbow and nodded. “Not what I prefer but I guess it’ll do.”

“There’s not much I can do,” Evalyn said, holding her accordion. “The rain’s going to drown out my music.”

“Play anyway, for anyone who can hear.” She nodded, and Daniel wondered just where his confidence was coming from. He wasn’t Gadriel, the Hero currently whirling his sword in the air and killing two sparkbats at a time. How was he taking charge, because he had to?

“Team.” Khare had their assortment of daggers out. The five of them really did make a classic adventuring team. That didn’t change the fact that the average strength of them was high-level one, or Thomas’ inability to use his powers. Charging to the center of the battlefield was a bad option. They were fortunate in that all of the Roost’s Peak force and a part of the Tyrant’s was highlighted. Daniel could tell where their allies were and could keep them on the periphery while engaging sparkbats no one else was handling.

Hunter, I won’t stop you, but you should stay near us. I don’t think people can tell you’re friendly right now.

Hmm. Hard to reach bats anyway.

“Guy, I can’t help but notice I have your weapon? I don't think you've got enough daggers like Khare to just fling them away.”

“I’ve got that handled, don’t worry. There’s a cluster of four just ahead, let’s get them!” Khare and Daniel advanced first while Evalyn and Thomas stayed in the center. Hunter had their back, watching for anything that might be flanking for them. It had only taken seconds to arrange the formation, but it just seemed obvious. Did he accidentally unlock a power or something? Not the time to check his phone. Almost too late, Daniel thought to have everyone choose a target. Thomas one, Daniel and Khare picking one other and sharing the last. Thomas’ crossbow shot went wide, but Khare’s volley peppered their two targets well. As for Daniel?

He brought both arms up, crossing them in front of his face and then pushing them down like he was poorly throwing an ax. Feathers grew out of his arms and shot towards his target and Thomas’, a last minute adjustment. The mana drain of Snap Shot combined with Feather Strike was noticeable due to his dexterity’s level disparity, but he could still keep this up for a while. The others looked like they wanted to comment on the new attack method but Daniel just directed them at the next group of sparkbats Hunter found.

The enhanced versions of the sparkbats could individually shoot out electricity without needing to hit a lightning spine at the other end, but were limited by a range that was just shorter than Khare’s daggers. With appropriate targeting, Valor Song, and the retrieval of Khare’s daggers after each kill, they could take on groups of up to five without giving the monsters a chance to retaliate. It was clean. Tactical. Odd.

Phone, am I under any buffs? They were moving between groups and Daniel felt there was time to ask. He’d almost forgotten it had that function after how long it’d been since he used it.

Alert: You are under the effect of Ability: Valor Song* and a Designation effect of Feature: Tactician

Had Murdon buffed him? Why him? And why was there an asterisk next to Valor Song like Beast Friend? Another lightning strike took his attention and an internal counter ticked. Almost 200 Sparkbats had fallen since the fight had begun. All at once, it would have been devastating. With them being drip fed in random locations, there’d only been a few lives lost on the mortal’s side so far. Every flash also brought a new opportunity for Hunter to mark people he’d missed, to the point that after about ten minutes of systematically destroying clumps of Sparkbats, Daniel guessed that they had just about everyone.

Now that Daniel was conscious of the effect on him, things were making more sense. It was like how Quick Mind helped him read, do math, or measure applied to strategy instead. The best way he could describe it was suddenly being able to view the battle as if he was playing a real time strategy game instead of personally fighting. There was no overhead view or health indicators, but the tags on everyone made for a kind of minimap allowing him to keep track of how the fight was progressing. Finally, the memories of the past were muted. Everything not important to this fight was something the feature pushed to the side far more easily than he ever could have, just like Claire’s ability had taken his fear. That was probably one of the reasons Murdon had chosen him to benefit from this buff.

The other was that his training team was most suited to benefit from the enhanced coordination given their previous experience together. Lograve or Gadriel could have probably done a better job, but they were also capable of tearing through the lesser enemies alone and had no one to command. Ignoring those wounded, that left Tlara, who was out of the running for obvious reasons. Murdon had done all of that mental calculation in the few seconds after Daniel had told him about the civilians. That, on top of completely adjusting his overall strategy. How was he only level three?

“I need more bolts, Guy.” Thomas hadn’t depleted their supply as fast as Daniel would have thought, the Cleric less practiced with loading the weapon.

“You already have the last from Hunter.” Anything else he can do? Daniel only knew a handful of the powers everyone else had. Whatever the Tactician buff did, it wasn’t telling him things he didn’t know. The best task he could think of was having him collect more daggers as they moved from group to group. Khare had started counting how many they had after each group of sparkbats. How the gestalt could fit almost one hundred daggers within their mass, even with a power, was beyond him.

They kept moving, Daniel keeping them on the right flank and away from as many gray auras as he could. The monster attack had shaken most of the red out of the Tyrant’s forces after the initial hostility sighting Murdon’s forces had created, though there were still a few that were dark red. Lightning strike, nearby. 324 total Sparkbats. This was ridiculous. Daniel’s team had taken down almost forty by themselves but they just kept coming. It would have been bad before, but they had a system now, a pattern that-

Hunter slipped in the mud and fell. Several of them had already, the rain had saturated the ground so much that small lakes were forming in places. The difference this time was, just after that, the mental augmentations of Tactician faded away. Daniel was left suddenly feeling exposed and unsure, his woes returning as his phobia had earlier in the mines. Despite the distance and darkness between them, he caught Murdon’s gaze and understood. The buff’s time was up.

“Where to next?” Evalyn asked. For the first time, Daniel didn’t have an answer. There were plenty of targets, too many targets. Too many moving pieces, allies, and potential enemies Hunter hadn’t tagged yet. How had he decided so easily earlier?

“Guy?”

There was a group of three that split off from the recent lightning strike but, no, Gadriel was already taking care of them. How had he known which ones wouldn’t be killed before they’d get there?

“Guy!” Thomas was shaking him, causing Hunter to give him a warning growl.

“I don’t-” It wasn’t just the loss of Tactician affecting Daniel, he felt slower than normal. Was feedback from the power going away making his inner turmoil worse? This wouldn’t be permanent, right? He should be answering Thomas, but he had to ask his phone if he was under a debuff and if it would go away.

“Ashen sand, we need to move. Daniel!” Thomas, angrier than he’d ever seen him, slapped the phone out of his hand. They watched it fly through the air before lightning intersected it seconds later. Tempered glass and plastic reinforced with magic burst apart as Daniel felt a second loss, and one more intrinsic than the last.

As everyone in his team was thrown backward and deafened from the strike, Daniel sensed control of his Artificer powers slip from him. It was like he was a pilot doing a system check on a failing aircraft mid-flight. Only his Totem Warrior powers and what the bond gave him was active, the metaphorical indicator lights of everything else were dark.

Daniel picked himself up and realized it was worse than he thought. Every tag he and Hunter had active was gone. If Hunter couldn’t maintain the effect, then he’d lost access to it as well. Pain exploded in his leg suddenly, cloth and skin burning near his knee. The main bolt hadn’t hit him, it was the fresh wave of sparkbats that had dropped.

The loss of so much capability in so little time stunned Daniel as much as the pain and returned memories did. It was like he’d suddenly been sunk underwater, or sent out of an airlock into space and expected to fight. He was slow to respond as sparkbats shocked him again, twice now. No Rorshawd to save him this time, but there was Hunter.

The ringcat leaped into the air, catching one of the bats and sinking his teeth into it. Springing Strike. It was like Jump, but it committed him to attacking whatever he targeted. One down, who knows how many left? Without Quick Mind Daniel couldn’t just look at the group and know how many there were.

Get up! Hunter snapped at him. It was the skabs all over again. No Moment of Clarity to give him a second to catch his breath. Sparkbats swarming, lightning flashing!

Daniel rolled to the side, still feeling the bite of the shock as current flowed through the water around him. It was painful, but it didn’t stun him like before. Daniel was at a higher level now, and even with Fortitude gone his endurance was still higher. That didn’t stop the ringing in his ears as total deafness changed to partial deafness.

Fear of pain drove Daniel to his feet. The creatures were still circling his team, surrounding them. Hunter was pulling most of the weight and Khare was the only other attacking. Evalyn and Thomas were powerless for different reasons and hurting. They were dodging the lightning fine, but still receiving a shock from the water around them just like Daniel had. He gritted his teeth and stopped overthinking.

Hunter, we have to get out of here. There are too many. Take Thomas and run.

This is his fault. A pause, then, How do I take him?

Figure it out! “Khare! We’re not going to win this. Sink into the ground, we’ll come back for you.” I hope the electricity can’t reach them down there. Wait, can they hear me? Apparently so, since the gestalt started twisting their vines into the earth. Time to find out how this works.

The light of the sparkbats was enough to see in the immediate area, and their attacks against Evalyn and Thomas revealed their position. The distance wasn’t too far, but- lightning! Another sparkbat had recharged and sent its attack towards Daniel. Dodging would still get him shocked, so he Jumped instead.

The ability made him feel like he’d launched off of a trampoline, easily propelling him up in the air and ten meters over to Evalyn. He might not have stuck the landing if not for Graceful Fall.

Evalyn was trying to say something, but the ringing in his ears was still too strong. He could try and mime what he was thinking, or he could act. In a maneuver possible only because of his amplified strength, Daniel grabbed Evalyn by the waist, tried to improve Jump by adding mana, realized he didn’t know how, and just Jumped away. Then again, and again, in a random direction until the Sparkbats were in the distance.

Both took a moment to catch their breath when Daniel landed for the last time. “What about the others?” Evalyn asked, Daniel’s hearing recovered to the point he could make out her words.

“Khare’s underground and Hunter’s got Thomas.” Hunter, do you have Thomas?

Yes. He complains but is safe enough.

Good. See if you can lead him over here.

Evalyn was looking at him blankly so he pointed at his ears. She frowned in realization. “Are they ok?” Daniel gave her a thumbs up, one of the hand signs he knew crossed between Earth and the Octyrrum. “What about everyone else? Crest, I can’t hear myself.” Daniel could only shrug. Without Identify Creature he couldn’t even tell where Hunter was. The only positive was that the rain was dying down slowly. It was still midday, a little more and he could see the rest of the fighting.

Evalyn’s hearing recovered first, though it seemed more due to her natural endurance than any healing power. “Better. You?”

“I think Regeneration’s handling it.” The ringing was almost gone now. Guess I can never get tinnitus. Unless I lose my necklace. Damn, I can’t replace that.

“What about your Focus? Did the lightning-?”

“Yeah. It’s gone.”

Evalyn frowned, trying to look through the storm. “The villagers?”

Daniel tried to zone in on where the sounds of fighting were coming from. Still too obscured by the rain to make out specifics, although there were fewer sparking lights than he expected. “I think they have it handled. Maybe the storm’s over?”

“Gods, it better be. That was horrible. Not because of you. What you did was exceptional. Otherworldly, almost.” Daniel looked around and Evalyn laughed, despite herself and the situation. “There’s no one around.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask me about that before.”

Evalyn shrugged, wincing as the wound on her left shoulder was provoked. “If I was Thomas, maybe I would have. Everyone’s entitled to their secrets.”

He stared at her. “That’s how you respond to someone telling you they’re from another world?”

“You didn’t technically say that. I just have the handful of intelligence needed to figure it out.”

“It wasn’t me,” Daniel changed the topic, not wanting to talk more about this in the open. “Murdon buffed me before we headed out.”

“It wore off right before that lightning strike?”

“Yeah.”

She nodded and brought the conversation right back to where Daniel didn’t want it. “I have to admit, there are a few things I’m curious about.” She looked to the ground. “But I shouldn’t ask. It’s exactly why I stopped when-”

“Yeah. Look, I don’t know if I said this or not, but no hard feelings. You were right about not getting too serious with people right now. I just wish I’d realized that sooner.”

“I guess it’s easier to be nice about these things when you’re getting it somewhere else?” Evalyn’s tone bordered on accusatory, despite keeping its light nature.

Rather than protest, Daniel practically surrendered the conversation. “Maybe. But, Claire’s, I just don’t know anymore.” Neither of them spoke for a minute. In that time the rain faded to the point where those still fighting clarified. Any sense of separation between the two forces was gone, the remaining sparkbats quickly exterminated.

“Are they really going to kill each other? After all of that?” Evalyn asked.

“Gadriel said he’s going to stop anyone from dying.” Evalyn laughed again, loud enough for some to turn towards them in confusion.

“Of course he is. That arrogant bastard. Well, let’s see if he does. It’ll be one hell of a story either way.”