A Jaded Life

Floating above Queta, I could feel a strange, nervous energy emanating from the broken town below. There was something going on, I wasn’t quite certain what it was, but I had learned not to dismiss the warnings of my instincts outright. Given the number of Shattered I had seen in the broken buildings and hidden underground, it wasn’t all that hard to make a connection between them and the feeling, there weren’t any other foes around the area that the Shattered hadn’t destroyed after all. Plus, given that I had abducted a Shattered each night over the previous week, they had a good reason to be worried, at least if they had the capacity to reason things out to that extent.

Still, we needed more Shattered, I wanted to do some more experiments with my Mind Magic, Lia had some ideas of her own and Luna was cooking something up together with Alex, a combination that filled me with a strange worry. These two could get quite creative and by now, Luna had a lot of experience in creating abominations against Nature, even if only second-hand, to the best of my knowledge she wasn’t at the point that she could make them on her own, just assist me with their creation. Though, was she at the point that she could make some of her own if she had Alex’ help? That, I didn’t know and that ignorance worried me. Maybe I should keep an extra-close eye on those two, and any Shattered I turned over to them for experimentation.

But first, there was the town I had to deal with and the nervous energy I was sensing. There were no Shattered visible anywhere, meaning they were hiding as they usually did before their ability to sense the tremors of a being moving across their turf was triggered. As soon as they sensed these tremors, they had sent one of their number to investigate and if that triggered additional action, they came out in force.

So, the obvious solution was to trigger their tremor sense from afar and make one of them come out, just as I had done the last few nights if I couldn’t find a Shattered out on the streets. Only, this time, I wouldn’t move in directly, but stay away, maybe knock the Shattered out as before but I wouldn’t even try to move in, not unless I was completely confident that I wasn’t bumbling into a trap of some sort.

Maybe I could use some Ice Magic to conjure up a rope, or some sort of frame to carry away the Shattered I was planning to knock out. I needed to get at the Shattered without lowering myself into the streets to make sure the Shattered wouldn’t be able to pounce on me from above. They were fast and capable of intercepting flying targets, something I had learned when scrying on the city, I had little doubt that they’d be able to intercept me if I bumbled around. My stealth, especially when augmented by my cloak, was an excellent form of protection but if that protection failed, I was an easy target.

But first, I wanted to see what would happen if I used the usual stimulus and what reaction I would garner. So, I quietly conjured up two chunks of Ice, nothing grand or special, just two fist-sized blocks I could control with my Ice Magic. Those two blocks were lowered into the streets at the edge of town and dropped onto the ground, one after the other. Then, I lifted them back up and dropped the first about sixty centimetres deeper into town, followed by the other one, a similar distance to the spot it first dropped on. And again, with the first, creating an approximation of footsteps for their tremor sense.

Curiously, the usual reaction of a single Shattered checking out what was moving around didn’t occur. There was some faint noise, indicating movement somewhere below me, but nothing else and that movement was made quietly and in some sort of concealed position. Finally the lone Shattered I had been waiting for came wandering out, just as one had done the last few nights. Still, something felt off to me but I wasn’t sure what.

A quick blast of Mind Magic knocked the Shattered out and normally, that would have been the moment at which the other Shattered came crashing into the streets while I would quickly nab the Shattered I had knocked out and carry it back to my lair. But for once, there was no noise of moving Shattered, just the same, incredibly faint noise of movement somewhere below. The Shattered were clearly trying something different.

But I could do different, too. First, I dismissed the two blocks of Ice, letting them fade back into the Astral River. They had served their purpose, no need to keep them anchored to reality. Then, I conjured a veil of Shadows around myself, hiding a patch of space from outside observation. Into that patch, I conjured Ice Magic, forming a somewhat crude, humanoid shape. It wasn’t perfect but it had the right proportions, which was enough. Next, I opened a small gash in one of my fingers, infusing a drop of blood with my Astral Power and smearing it on the construct, making it radiate the right elemental energies and also spread a faint scent of blood.

Once that was done, I lowered the veil of Shadows into the streets, the construct still concealed within. It landed just a few steps away from the Shattered, giving the appearance of standing there in the street thanks to my Ice Magic. By that point, I was starting to get a headache, thanks to the vastly different things I had to focus on, even with my prodigious attributes, flying, keeping myself hidden, creating a concealed patch of space and a humanoid construct within that space was a serious challenge, both to my ability to multi-task and to my ability to focus.

Luckily, I didn’t need to keep up everything for too long. I only needed to have the construct take a few more steps towards the downed Shattered and have the concealment around it waver for a split-second to get the reaction I had been looking for the entire time. And what a reaction it was.

I was used to Shattered boiling out from underground or charging out of houses but having a whole bunch of them come flying from upper windows, dropping on the construct I had made with bone-crushing force was a bit of a surprise. And not necessarily a good one, if I hadn’t been paranoid and listened to my gut, I might have been down in the streets, trying to figure out what was going on, instead of up here, safe from harm.

There was no way for my construct to withstand the impact of five Shattered dropping onto it, to say nothing of the savagery that was sure to follow their initial attack. So, instead of letting them tear it to pieces, I decided to do so myself and let a surge of power flow into it, causing it to burst apart in a rain of razor-sharp icicles. The attacking Shattered got cut up, the Ice tearing rends into their limbs and ripping through their flesh but, moments later, I realised that these five were only the first wave.

When I had pushed out a surge of power, it apparently was enough to let the Shattered break my stealth and even if I was floating a few metres above the roofs, they had managed to locate me. And now, there were a few Shattered leaping towards me, their movement as nimble as I had ever seen and propelled by their inhuman strength.

The world slowed down around me as Bullet Time came into effect, allowing me to react to their attack at all. My concealing Darkness Magic fell away, my focus needed for other things but the Wind Magic I used to keep my scent contained could be used for other things. Overflow activated, allowing me to push another surge of Astral Power into the Wind Magic while twisting it into something fairly simple, a massive gust to push the Shattered off course, as they didn’t have the means to direct their trajectory, only their initial leap.

The Wind gave me the moments to move out of their path, but even so, one of them managed to lash out with a clawed hand, striking my leg as I frantically tried to get away, It wasn’t enough to make me bleed, but I could already feel a massive bruise forming, the pain making me wince just a little.

Shaking my head, I pushed myself further up, feeling exhaustion clawing at my limbs, trying to drag me down. Both my mind and my magic needed rest, throwing out massive bursts of power was about the most inefficient way I could use my magic. But, it was also the fastest way to get results and sometimes that mattered a great deal more.

Letting out a yawn, I began to fly back to our shelter, making sure I concealed myself as much as possible. We’d have to find a new way to capture Shattered.