Mage Tank-Chapter 281: Bullet Time

“Thank you for being so direct, Princess Ishi,” said Captain Pio. “While your claim invites many questions, given our situation and the tendency for our mutual acquaintance to find himself embroiled in…” She glanced over at me. “…improbable circumstances, I am inclined to take you at your word for the moment. What form would this proposed assistance take?”

“His Scarlet Majesty has recently decided to prepare his Crimson Bask for an upcoming conflict, but many of the whelps amongst his forces are untested in large-scale combat,” said Ishi. “It is his wish that they bloody themselves against appropriate foes before they are integrated with the rest of his forces. As such, His Majesty offers you the service of a flight of fifty juvenile red Dragons to assist you in securing the airspace around your city, commanded by a young red Dragon with comparable experience to what you would consider a seasoned veteran.”

“I am afraid that I must claim ignorance over the combat power of such a force,” said Captain Pio.

“Consider it significant,” said Ishi.

“I see. And what would His Scarlet Majesty expect in return for such assistance?”

“His Majesty’s first concern is that his forces gain practical experience. Otherwise, this is to serve as an opening to diplomatic relations between our nations, with the hope that a meeting with your empress can be arranged.”

“Then this sounds like a generous offer,” said Pio. “However, it is not our custom to allow foreign forces to land on Littan soil, or take to our skies in this case. While the situation is pressing, your proposition raises some concerns.” Captain Pio glanced at Tavio, who smoothly took over. novelbuddy.cσ๓

“I will not mince words,” said Tavio. “I am willing to accept your assistance, so long as your troops understand that any violence against Imperial citizens, intentional or incidental, will be viewed as outright hostility and treated as such.”

“That is acceptable, Major,” said Ishi.

“Excellent. As for an audience with the empress, ensuring such a meeting would normally be far above my station, Princess. Fortunately, I am to personally present a report to Her Imperial Majesty in the near future, and I will communicate your request myself, along with sending the matter up through the normal channels.”

“I would welcome that arrangement,” said Ishi. “Shall we briefly discuss logistics and how to minimize the chances of friendly fire?”

I left the trio to their discussion and went to check in with my party. Varrin had taken us fifty miles outside of Krimsim before turning and beginning to circle the city, and I looped everyone in on my working plan for approaching the Hierophant. I described it as a “tactical crash landing,” and I was surprised that no one had any problems with the idea. If anything, they were enthusiastic. Especially Nuralie, who immediately started pulling flasks and tools from her inventory.

"Ishi sure moved fast getting involved here," said Xim.

"She'd asked Grotto to keep an eye out for diplomatic opportunities," I said, watching the princess strategizing with the Littans.

"Grotto? He doesn't seem like a good choice for that kind of thing."

"Maybe not traditional 'diplomatic' opportunities," I said. "But when it comes to identifying a potential ally in a position of weakness... I'm pretty sure Ishi knew what she was doing when she recruited him for this."

After that, I went to speak with Guar. “I have a question about your Holy Spear skill,” I said.

“Is it about the name?” he asked. “Because it works with most weapons, not just spears. It can be confusing for people.”

“No,” I said. “Actually, sort of? Do you think you could use it on our entire vessel?”

Guar put a hand on his hip and leaned back as he looked around the cabin. “Hmm, the ship’s too big to count as a weapon for my skills. Max I can wield is about eighteen feet until I snag Colossal Weapons.”

“Would it work on a smaller section of the ship, then?”

“Uh, not Holy Spear, but I might be able to use Smite with my Shield Wall. Do those count as part of the ship? They’re attached to the ship.”

“Maybe,” I said. “How would that work?”

“So, I’ve got the Stormbreaker evolution through my Shields intrinsic, which gives me Stormbreaker stacks whenever I block something. I can burn the stacks to make an AoE Lightning attack with my shield. Shield Wall has “shield” in the name, and it counts as a block when I stop something with it, so I can have the AoE fire from the Shield Wall instead of my normal shield.”

“You got stacks for all those birds we plowed through?” I asked.

“Caps at forty stacks right now, but yeah. I’m full up.”

“Where does Smite come in?”

“I can add Holy Spear or Smite to an attack, but Holy Spear requires either a melee attack or a thrown weapon attack. If Stormbreaker activates off my Shield Wall, it won’t be a melee attack since I’m not holding it or anything. And it’s not a thrown weapon attack, since I’m not throwing it.”

“Right.”

“Smite can work with a weapon attack, but it can be any type of weapon attack. It doesn’t have to be melee. Since a shield can count as a weapon, it should work with Stormbreaker blasting off the Shield Wall, even though I’m not touching it. Plus, Smite does Righteous damage. Takes a lot more stamina, but it can hit a lot harder, too.”

I was impressed by Guar’s understanding of the nuance in his skill interactions. I decided that what he was describing was even better than what I’d had in mind, so I went over the role I had for him before moving on to Baltae.

“You’ve got the Recon sub-skill Trapping, right?” I asked the mage.

“That is correct,” he said.

“Is that just for disarming traps, or can you make them as well?”

“Oh, I can make them,” he said with a lively grin. “In fact, I can even imbue my spells into them. I have several prepared at all times.”

“Really?” I said. “Tell me more.”

He did tell me more, and I liked what I heard. I liked it a lot. I worked things through with the mage, then went to bother Tavio. He’d just wrapped things up with Ishi by this point, leaving Pio to work out the rest of the details with the princess. Before I could say anything to Tavio, he pulled me aside and spoke in a low voice.

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“I need you to know that once the matter of Krimsim is settled, I will have many questions for you, not the least of which is how you know a Dragon princess,” he said.

“Uh, okay,” I said.

“Dragons are real?” He threw up his arms and shook his head. “No, there is no time for a discussion. We will find out the truth soon enough. Oh, and I saw you two making eyes at one another when she came in.”

“You are a rather observant person most of the time,” I said. “Although the stuff you notice seems kind of selective.”

“This only adds to my confusion. She is a Dragon, no?”

“She is a Dragon, yes.”

“Arlo,” he said, fixing me with a serious look. “Are you fucking a Dragon princess?”

“I’d rather not get into my personal life while we’re trying to save the lives of, like, a hundred thousand people. Also, her human form is a perfect transformation, so she’s technically just as human as any other human. It even comes with all the same needs.” Tavio raised an eyebrow. “Like needing food!” I hastily added. “Or, you know, sleep. And… other things.”

“I only hope that your personal feelings are not skewing your opinion on how trustworthy she is,” he said. “I am bending a number of rules by agreeing to allow her to field military assets in Littan territory, and I only agreed to do so because of how dire the situation is.”

“She’s given me no reason to distrust her,” I said. “Hep is also really chill, so I’m glad the request came from him. If it’d come from Ishi’s mother, it’d be a whole different story. Some of the Rulers are less moral than others.”

“Who is Hep?”

“Sorry, Hep is His Scarlet Majesty.”

“So you are also on a first-name basis with a Dragon king?” he asked. “Are you fucking him as well?”

“They’ve never used the word ‘king’, so I honestly don’t know.”

“To which part? Whether he is a king or whether you’re fucking a king?”

“Gods above man! Drop the judgment for a second and lemme tell you about my idea.”

“It is not judgment. I do not care about your proclivities, so long as they do not compromise your recommendations on critical matters such as this. Also, you evaded my question, but go ahead and tell me about this idea of yours.”

I told him about this idea of mine, and he did have some ways he could contribute.

“I can lay down Court of Roses beforehand,” he said. “It is an ongoing AoE effect that deals Spectral thorns damage. I have several buffs to my thorns damage as well, so it should be quite effective. Otherwise, I can designate the Hierophant as a Focused Target, giving all of our attacks penetration and granting Blessed on a successful strike.” He paused and closed his eyes for a second. “There, I’ve already assigned it as a target.”

“There’s no range on that?” I asked in disbelief. “Not even a perception requirement?”

“No, not if I have already seen it,” he said. “It is a very good Leadership evolution.” Tavio glanced over to see that Pio and Ishi were just about done. He leaned towards me and added, “After we are done, I will also want to know why the princess addressed you as one would address a king.”

Ishi and Pio finished their discussion and came over to fill me in on what I needed to do with my portals. I then gathered everyone up and made sure we were all clear on our individual tasks. Afterward, I checked on Baltae and Nuralie, who were enthusiastically collaborating on what were essentially magic IEDs. I kindly asked them not to blow up the ship while we were still in it, then sent Varrin the signal to start turning us back in towards Krimsim.

Nuralie and Baltae started strapping down bombs into the plane’s seats, which would explode into poisoned spatial rifts. Nuralie then used Cordoning Arrows to fire out a spread of projectiles that would immediately attack anything crossing their perimeter. Tavio layered on Court of Roses, and the entire ship was filled with ghostly vines covered in shimmering blooms and hand-length thorns.

Guar moved to the pilot’s seat so he had a clear line of sight to his Shield Walls. Etja moved up next to him, floating within a foot of the beefy Littan. Xim transformed her hands and feet into wicked claws, which she used to crawl around on the outside hull and begin igniting the entire ship. Since the crimson fire was Divine in nature, the wind couldn’t extinguish it, and since the ship was being crewed by allies, the fire wouldn’t burn it.

Once the vessel was a flaming comet streaking through the sky in excess of Mach two, Xim came back inside, and she, Baltae, Nuralie, Captain Pio, Ishi, Madel, Cezil, and Tavio joined Lieutenant Augustin in the Closet. I reduced the portal size to less than a centimeter, keeping it open so that Baltae could maintain his Telekinesis spell on the ship.

I used Reveal to line Varrin up with the Hierophant's soul, and the big guy adjusted course so we were at the appropriate angle. Etja used Siphon on our entire vessel, designated the direction of the Hierophant as down, and began increasing our gravitational pull, further accelerating our ship.

We exceeded Mach three.

I activated Therianthropy. Violet and fuchsia wings unfolded along my back, and downy tentacles wrapped around from my sides. I handed control of the tentacles off to Grotto and used Shortcut to teleport to the nose of the craft.

I realized that I’d forgotten to take my cowboy hat off, and the brim caught the wind and tried to tear my head off while the wooden boots flailed around with absolute violence. The hat had mana weaves to keep it in place and to make it far more durable than it had any right to be. The accessory’s value was the USD equivalent of around $1.2 million.

The microportal to the Closet allowed Grotto to use Animate Object on the ship while we worked together to grip the nose at six equidistant points using my feet, hands, and tentacles. Varrin, Etja, Grotto, Baltae, and I began to spin the vessel on its longitudinal axis using a combination of spells and raw might. My part in this was to use Coordinated Thinker in combination with Reveal to help guide the spin, ensuring our flight path didn’t gain any wobble and subsequently tear the ship apart.

Between all of us, the ship began spinning exceedingly fast, even as I throttled us to ensure that no mistakes were made. Etja and Guar floated just ahead of the pilot’s chair amidst the whirling ship, while Varrin rode the spin, using his massive physical stats to perfectly maintain his position as a combination of Animate Object, Siphon, and Telekinesis ensured Varrin’s thrust was joined by forces that spread evenly across the hull. I’d burned all three uses of Sage Advice to buff their ability to use the skills this way.

The spin established gyroscopic stabilization to help the craft maintain flight stability. It wasn’t necessary that second, but it would be soon.

Etja created a Haste aura encompassing herself, me, Guar, and Varrin. The world slowed to my perception even as Varrin’s speed doubled. Siphon protected us from the crushing G-forces. The ship spun even faster. I learned that I was immune to dizziness.

We exceeded Mach five.

I lost a battle of self-control when my exceedingly durable cowboy hat disintegrated, and I screamed “YEE-HAW MOTHERFUCKER!” as I activated Aura of Persistence, granting everyone Shielding.

We were moving a mile every second, and a mile out from the bird wall, I moved the Closet portal for Etja to blast a hole through it with Repulsion. The avians vaporized on contact. Varrin peeled away as soon as we were through, letting Siphon work alongside our momentum and spin to continue carrying us forward.

The Hierophant was dead ahead.

The seven-hundred-foot-long alpha had one second to react, and was too slow to move out of the way, but the birds on its back were exceedingly quick. They rose from amongst the jungle it bore, each the size of an attack helicopter, and fired off a combined bombardment into our approach. A ray of deathly heat scorched the air while torrents of ice spikes froze it over. Supersonic pressure waves swept through the resulting billowing fog, catapulting a jet of acid along with it. A bolt of lightning split the sky, and the moody overcast created by the swarms of birds above the no-man’s land fled for one terrible instant.

Nothing I hadn’t planned for.

I created a Closet portal ahead of our ship. The guardian birds’ attacks blasted through empty space, as we weren’t there anymore. We exited on the opposite side of the Hierophant.

Guar activated Stormbreaker.

I cast Shortcut as a cloud of Divine lightning erupted from the nose of our craft, snagging myself, Etja, and Guar, taking us 512 feet away. Etja immediately used three Shortcut wands I’d made her to take us another 175 feet while Guar’s arms blurred to grab us both. Immediately after the second teleport, Guar created a Shield Wall in mid-air and used it as a springboard for a skill called Heroic Leap, taking us along as he crossed another 120 feet.

All of this happened in a fraction of a second, and as Guar carried us in his arms, our falling star of divine fire and lightning struck the Hierophant at over four thousand miles per hour.