Machinist of Mana

I'd never thought I'd see another rock show in this life, and to a point I was correct. The Starchasers as they styled themselves weren't really a rock band, but rather an group of skilled bards. Musically however it was something akin, almost folk-rock or like the pagan-rock bands that had existed in my previous world. A refreshing change from much of the music my family liked, which was much more... staid.

However, even if I wasn't quite sure where to place their style their show was another level entirely. Two hours of nonstop illusions to go with the songs, giant battles between monsters and spinning planets above the skyline. They'd had enough spellcasters in their troupe to bring in smells, temperature shifts, wind, and of course a light show that would stand up to anything.

“Excellent suggestion Reese,” I said, wiping the sweat from my brow as we trotted through the city streets. Superhuman or not a party made a man sweat.

“Agreed,” Lucas said. “We should try to find more like them.”

“We could try to record their music? Maybe they even do it,” Simon suggested.

“Isn't that really hard?” Lucas asked.

“Don't know, you're taking that class right Percival?” Reese asked.

“Magic doesn't do it well,” I said with a shake of my head.

Magically it was possible to make a recording, but it wasn't simple in the least. For anything other than simple tunes of individual notes you needed to figure out how to tell the magical item you were using exactly the sounds to make. These tended to be fraught with difficulties, and massive wastes of power.

“What about a scientific solution, you're always wandering about the Royal Society right?” Lucas asked.

That was probably a better idea. Both phonographs and records were likely within the possibility of this society to make already. However I didn't know how to make either of those. There were some small things like little wire radios bouncing around in my head, but nothing significant, or really useful for transmission. That was just outside the remit of what I understood.

“Sorry, there's surely a way, but I don't know it.” I shrugged as I answered, unable to help with this problem.

“No way the military would let them use radios either,” Simon joked, and everyone looked at him with an odd glance.

Radio, that's the word he used, not some fantasy term like 'far-speaker' or 'talking stones' or anything like that. No, it was radio, there was a bit of an accent to it, but it was comprehensible.

“Which is?” I asked hopefully.

“Oh, they're not secret or anything. The military has magic items that can send sound like, halfway across the country. They won't tell anyone how they work though, so none for us, a lot like the portals.”

We were closing in on the restaurant we were to meet the driver at, but before we could continue on this extremely interesting topic there was a scream. A high pitched wail, sounding like a woman in distress met us, and after the briefest of looks at each other we all ran forward.

Like arrows the four of us shot through the twilight, honing, tracking, a pack of wolves, after whatever was causing such a disturbance. This kind of thing wasn't normal, and all of us were told constantly how we must learn to defend the people. Each of our group were training to become fighters, regardless of what we wanted, and today we heard a fight. Others on the street were still headed to the alley we'd locked onto while we slipped down it at speed.

There was the briefest hesitation as the group of us appeared around the screaming young woman, her eyes bulging.

“My sister,” she yelled, pointing at an open sewer grate. “Something grabbed my sister!”

She wasn't much to look at, with ragged clothes and a face full of scars. No, she was no high lady, no princess in distress, but it was clear she needed help, and looker or no, we weren't going to abandon her here.

With a flash of mana I pulled my blade from the cane it rested in. Lucas for his part drew a pair of knives from somewhere, smiling at me as he did. It seemed I wasn't the only one who'd thought to come prepared for a fight.

“Hah, nice blades. Simon, Reese, stay with her while we go after him, just in case. Lucas,” I began.

“Not letting you go in there alone Percival, let's go.” He said as he ran, leading the charge.

Most sewer lines aren't that big, with the exception of main ones like the one we found ourselves in. Both of us dropped into the depths, landing in the filth with a pair of splashes. The smell was foul, potent, enough to make me want to vomit as we began.

It wasn't hard, from one side came splashes in the water as someone fled. Only for the pair of us to pursue through the dark tunnels. There was light here and there, small shafts that drifted down from above, only enough because of our enhanced senses and the pale blue my sword was glowing, a light in the darkness.

Soon we found him, for it could only be a him. Running, but slower than us was a hulk of a man, clad in a long coat and hood I couldn't see his head, but his gait was off, his arms... long, like an ape. He was also massive, easily over six feet and broad like a linebacker. I couldn't place what it was about how he walked, but it was... wrong, like someone had messed up his legs somehow, like they didn't work like they should. Over his shoulder was a sack large enough to hold a child, what it almost certainly contained.

“Bastard!” Lucas shouted as he charged forward, roaring in challenge, knives leading.

The figure moved faster than any normal man, more like us, like the powerful. In a single move it dropped the sack and spun, hand tearing through the air like a whip and catching Lucas straight in the face.

My friend must have been as surprised as I was as the back of the hand met his jaw, sending him against the side of the sewer with a thunderous crack, and leaving him slumped there unmoving. I heard clinking as Lucas' knives fell to the bottom, slipping into the water and gunk.

“Hmm, strong, Father will want you,” the figure said as he turned to Lucas.

I was briefly stunned at the words, for the creature before me looked almost like a goblin, if you fed one of the little monsters nothing but steroids, protein, and growth hormones. It could talk too, a completely new development.