Rynth: Four Beats

| 6th of Teryusin — Year 362 of the Cycle of Synthesis, Grand Cycle ??? |

Scanning the battlefield would do all four of them better. In front of them was perhaps the most powerful foe he would face in a while, and Raoul wasn’t going to let even the slightest mistake disrupt his flow. There were four of them—a major numbers advantage, often one most art-of-battle textbooks labeled the greatest relating variable when it came to tipping the scales on one’s foes. Most situations against the superior-skilled could be overcome by adding enough numbers. This Raoul knew.

He blinked both eyelids unhurriedly, breath leaving his nostrils in an obvious attempt to force himself to calm down. He reached into his pocket and brandished the light-sucking dagger from Urfrey. Then, he raised his left arm and pointed,

“Go.”

Idri seized the initiative and took center stage. She lifted off the ground at blinding speed, Kranstor’s broken blade glinting in the moonlight. Clang! Clang! Clang! Merlin met her halfway, easily matching her swings with effortless deflects and parries that glanced each strike away and gave her the opportunity to retaliate.

Each opportunity was promptly shut down, of course. Cali kept close to Idri, shadowing each of her strikes with stabs of her own. When Idri was inevitably overwhelmed every few seconds, she was ready to take her place and take the endless assault. The Merlin in front of them was a clone; they did not suffer from exhaustion the same way a conventional living being did. They were more akin to lifelike constructs with the image of who the spell was cast on.

To win was to overwhelm Merlin and not give her the opportunity to return the favor.

She raised her free hand—still injured from Calliope’s stab, but very much functional— to bring forth the translucent Shield. Recognizing the whoosh streaming off her, Idri prepared another slash to destroy it completely. Anticipating this, Merlin simply released her grip on Fensi’s Blade, letting it disappear into thin air before waving her now open hand to swat Kranstor away with Telekinesis. The sudden kinetic expulsion sent the blade flying away, and Idri gasped in surprise.

“Ah…!”

In that same swift motion, she reached out to pull Fensi’s Blade back into existence in preparation to cut her down—only to be sent back stumbling as two sets of Jati Missiles crashed against the Shield, obscuring the immediate area of forward in an explosion of brown and white. Idri retreated back slightly, ceding ground for Calliope to take.

She’s effortlessly casting spells while barely even using components. Our levels are so different. Avil thought to himself. But I too have an ace on my sleeve, you know!

He brought his hands together immediately after firing the cantrip, already weaving through the complex hand symbols needed for his spell.

Raoul nodded in his direction, already reading his next intentions. “Buy time for Avil, guys!”

Idri and Cali didn’t respond, but they heard his words loud and clear. Kranstor returned to the former’s outstretched hand, and she carried its momentum into her next blow, shattering through the Shield in one strike. Cali leapt off the train seat and landed herself behind Merlin, already assasiling her with stabs of her own, each aimed for the clone’s vital organs.

“Arislaapi…”

His words penetrated the train cabin like a megaphone in a crowded square. The clone Merlin reacted, weaving another Shield to manifest with her right hand while her left reached upward to ignite a potent, condensed ball of fire that roared in its majesty. Idri and Cali once more broke through the Shield, but the small half-second of time it had brought her was more than enough to send it shooting out like a baseball. Cali raised a hand, attempting to catch the spell before it left her fingers. It slipped past easily, its speed almost akin to a bullet from a gun.

“The Fireball!” She warned. “Don’t let it explode near Master Avil!”

“...magai-padi…”

Raoul bent his knees and pushed off the ground, stopping just shy of the ceiling. He pressed the button on his new arm. The glass vials sealed off in a blast of cold air, and he held out his hand to catch the Fireball, completely anticipating the slight curve in its future trajectory with his perception. The Fireball crashed right into his palm, but instead of erupting in a burning explosion, it was absorbed, seeping into the rigid metal like water into a thirsty animal’s lips. It traveled through the entire arm in a mere few moments, emerging again in one of the four vials as a vivid mass of orange energy.

“I’ve got it!” shouted Raoul as he fell back down. “Do it, Avil!”

“...batur!”

Donk, like the sound of two clockwork gears crashing against each other. It broke through the fabric of reality. In those two seconds, Avil wasted no time, retrieving the dagger from Raoul’s hand and racing toward Merlin, primed to strike. Little hesitation visible on his expression, Avil sent the tip straight for her heart.

It traveled well and true for most of the strike, but just as it neared one inch from her heart, it stopped, colliding against something tough and invisible. From there, a hint of emerald shade glowed from the inside of Merlin’s robe, catching his eye.

What the…?!

It offered complete resistance, and the more Avil pushed in those few moments, the more he felt it pushing back. He felt his magic draining from him the next, and he knew well that Time Stop had ended and that continuing to push past his limits would only drain him of more Jati the longer he went. Cursing silently, he retreated back and allowed the spell to fade away. Time once more resumed, and Avil returned to Raoul’s side, handing back the dagger. At the same time, the green that was glowing from inside of Merlin’s robes lost its light, only to return in a few seconds.

He caught Avil’s confused expression first. Noticing that Merlin was still alive and well, Idri and Cali returned to square off with her, attempting to buy more time.

“...What happened, Avil?” questioned Raoul even as he was already preparing to send off another wave of Jati Missiles. “Why didn’t you end it there?”

Avil held off, drawing more breath to replenish the Jati his spell had taken from him in the short instance he had extended it. “I couldn’t. Something stopped me just as the dagger was about to pierce her heart. It was hard and sturdy. Like a stone wall. It glowed green.”

“Hard… Sturdy…” he repeated, already searching his mind for what it reminded him of. He gasped. “You think it could be a contingency ward?”

“It’s likely. The real Merlin probably enchanted the clone’s body or clothes with a ward that prevents attacks aimed for vital spots from hitting. That would explain why I couldn’t kill her.” He pointed in the approximate direction he had seen the glow. Difficult, with how much she was moving. “There. It lost its glow for a few seconds, and then returned.”

Raoul followed his finger and narrowed his eyes, focusing on the clone Merlin’s torso region. There, just as she leapt over a sweep from Idri, he caught sight of a magical formation drawn into her inner shirt. “I see it. Based on the lost-and-return of its light, it means that the contingency ward activates for a short moment, shuts off to recharge, and then returns once the clone infuses it with enough Jati.”

Jati circulation and concentration was important for mages. The amount of Jati applied to each spell, how fast one could make it flow to their fingers from their heart—they were important aspects that every mage needed to master to ensure their spellcasting was as efficient and malleable to their current needs as possible. The average time one needed to circulate Jati to their limbs varied depending on the tier of the spell, but in general the time was around two to three seconds. While the Merlin in front of them was a clone, it still carried the same skills and body as the original Merlin, and that also included her skill for spellcasting.

“I’ve read about a few spells that prevent blows to their caster. Shield is one of them, but that requires conscious thinking and knowing there even is a direct threat from an attack aimed at you unless imbued into the ward beforehand. This is a gross estimate, but based on how long it took to recharge and taking into account Mother’s incomparable talent for spellcasting, we could probably narrow it down to Lifeline and Death Ward.”

Avil nodded in agreement. “Both are tier four spells. The only difference is that Lifeline doesn’t activate until just before being struck, while Death Ward on the other hand, is always active. It’s most likely the latter, given nothing moves when I stop time.”

“Let’s try it again. Time Stop. This time, use Idri’s Kranstor to cut through the ward. It should work, since it’s broken through the Shield multiple times in one swing."

“Kranstor?” He repeated, eyeing him confusedly.

“The sword Idri’s wielding.”

“Oh…! Got it. Cover me while I recast it.”