Favors Owed

[Firethorn]

ah the good old motivation to keep on fighting wonder how many time's to goverment just says they betrayed there Country and sell the families in slavery

Click to shrink...

Indeed.

Knowing what they know about how the country "motivates" its sailors, I'd offer, quite openly, a surrender offer thus:
1. We'll tell everybody we killed you all
2. We'll drop you off at a neutral port where you can assume a new identity. Hell, join us.
3. We'll actually kill anybody that you guys don't trust to not blab.
4. We know that the country is lying, because X didn't surrender and they sold the families into slavery anyways. If you're still alive you can at least try to free them. Whether X actually surrendered or not is actually irrelevant, we're just spreading FUD.

 

[Hiver]

Entering Alexis' quarters, I found the place empty. She must still be with visiting her wounded crew, then.

What I found that was of most interest was a map, a map with an island marked. And the captain's log which had details and drawings of murals and symbols.

Putting them on her desk, I turned to walk out when I heard a slight sound behind me. Not empty. Somebody was here.

Tarren was sitting in the corner behind the door, a dagger clutched in his hands. He was breathing quickly staring straight ahead.

"You okay?" I asked him.

He nodded a bit, "...I-it's over?"

"It's over," I confirmed and headed out again for where Witcher was waiting with the sword. When I first arrived in Azeroth… that would have been me. No shame in not being a fighter, neither was I… originally anyway.

Of course, things had changed since then. So I had also been forced to change with them. The least of which was becoming a dragon.

Witcher was standing by a box, the sword laying on top of it.

Giving him a nod, I then unsummoned him and knelt down as I ran my hand above the sword again, casting a spell to see magic. I really need to make a pair of goggles for this for my mortal form.

The sword rippled in this view, shining slightly with magic. Unfamiliar paths of magic… which meant an unfamiliar enchanting system.

Awesome.

Still, I couldn't detect anything dangerous about it, but then again, digging into an enchantment system required that you somehow interacted with it. Usually by touch.

Hmm.

Fuck it. Reaching out with my silver hand, I touched the end of the pommel as I closed my eyes and felt for the enchantments.

No need to risk my remaining flesh hand.

The enchantment system was… very nice. Fluid. That's a power regulator. That one shifts the metal… no, it doesn't shift the metal. The metal is actually always in chain form, just… compacted. Holy shit, this thing has a space bending enchantment on it. Cool. It's bigger on the inside.

I suppose that's one way of doing it.

But anything that uses magic like that, would need to… woah. Blinking, I pulled my hand back as I looked at the sword. This thing… this thing didn't use ambient magic.

Well, it did, but it not in the normal way. It pulled Mana directly from the plane. Actual Mana, as in Land Mana. No wonder it didn't have a large energy storage.

Frowning, I reached and picked it up with my real hand, holding it by the handle as I dug back into the enchantment work.

Closest I'd seen before was from some of Saheeli Rai's work. Nowhere near as good, of course, that woman was an artist, but with the same basis. But hers used eather, not straight Land Magic.

This thing… this thing wasn't just thrown together by some two-bit enchanter. This thing was properly enchanted, and by somebody that used Land magic.

Giving my hand a twist, the blade shifted to the three whips, responding to my will. Twisting back and it snapped back into the long blade.

Hmm. Efficient.

I never really did get a good look at Land enchantments before. Settling down again, I opened my notebook. Well, not 'my' notebook, that one had been destroyed by that elf bitch. But one I 'borrowed' from Alexis. Should tell her sometime that I did that.

Still, it worked for this.

Digging back into the enchantment matrices of the sword, I got to work reverse engineering it, idly drawing them and the equations down in the book with my free hand.
Now, if I could- Oph!

I suddenly found my lap full of lounging Rengosa as she dropped down, resting her head against my shoulder.

"Oh! Uhm… hey," I said in surprise, dropping the sword onto the deck and putting my arm around her instead, "Tired?"

"Bit sleepy." she admitted, "You've been at that for hours, Sheila is helping Alexis with the books you found on the other ship."

"Didn't realise it's been that long. Should we go help?"

Ren shook her head a bit, "Stay."

I was hardly going to argue over that.

 

[Hiver]

"So there it is, huh?" I asked, looking out towards the island in the distance, one hand on a rope leading up to the forward mast for support.

The island on the horizon wasn't the biggest, but it looked very mountainous. A dormant volcano stretched high into the sky, surrounded by trees around its foot.

"According to the map," Alexis agreed from next to me, one hand resting on the hilt of her sword, her angel summon standing next to her, "According to the book there is a temple on the east side of the volcano."

"It say anything else?"

Alexis hesitated and nodded, "It mentioned a guardian."

"Oh. Awesome," I grumbled, "A guardian. Of course there's a guardian."

"Would you leave a weather control device unprotected?" Alexis asked with a quick grin, and then headed off towards the rear of the ship.

"...Fair enough," I admitted and then looked towards the angel, "What's your take on this entire thing?"

"I think Mistress Alexis is on a worthy mission."

Nodding a bit, I rested my hand on my new sword hilt, looking towards the island. A guardian. I didn't like the sound of that, because… these people didn't have Land magic. This sword was enchanted using Land magic, which if nobody here knew Land magic, meant it was from somewhere else or made here by somebody that knew Land magic.

Both of which meant Planeswalker.

And the fact that this artifact we were going for was so much more powerful than anything else around here…

Yeah, they were likely related.

Which, in turn, if the power of the artifact and the skill of the elf bitch, Chandra, Lilliana and Ajani was go to by… said guardian may be seriously badass.

I glanced at the angel again. Then again, we had some of that too, especially working together.

Turning, I followed Alexis up to the wheel as she pulled out a copy of the map we had acquired from the navy ship, "Want me to have a scry around?"

Sheila nodded, not taking her eyes off the map, "Good idea. According to the map, the temple should be on the eastern side of the volcano. Check there?"

"Yep," I agreed and started to weave my favorite little scrying spell, a second spell quickly following it to form a viewing portal in front of the wheel for everyone else to watch.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the viewpoint scrying spell, sending it flying towards the island in the distance. It was still too far away, but I could cover at least half the distance to the island, as well as give it some elevation.

"I think I can see it," I said, "there is a structure at least."

It was mostly covered by creeping vines, but the structure looked fairly intact and way larger than the last temple we found the first real clue in. At least four stories tall, with thick white marble pillars. Which considering it was a volcanic island was all kinds of impressive.

Somebody must have hauled it there at some point.

Now that's impressive motivation.

"Not seeing any guardian," Alexis said as she frowned at the image I was projecting, "Can you get it closer?"

"Not until we get closer physically," I said, "This is as far as it reaches."

"Might be inside?" Sheila suggested and looked between the image and the map, "That temple might be going underground."

I nodded, "Yeah, I suspect it might. That tracks with it being an evil lair on a volcanic island," I said before I grinned and looked at Alexis, "Oh! Do you think the guardian is laser traps, hidden pits, and pools with sharks?"

She just shook her head, "God, it's no wonder you and my dad get along," before she proceeded to ignore my comment and pointed at a spot on the map of the island, "From what the map says and we can see through the scrying spell, this beach seems to be the best landing spot. Atregos, when we get closer, I want you to scry the area closely before we land."

"Can do," I agreed and canceled the spell for now.

Well, it has been quite a while since the place was built. Maybe the guardian was pining for the fjords by now.

Yeah, like we were that lucky.

 

[Hiver]

Resting on my wings next to Rengosa, we slowly circled the island, magic-dectecting goggles making the temple shine even in the sunlight.

Not brightly, but it was clearly magical in nature. Somehow.

Hmm.

"Land?" I asked, looking over to Rengosa and Sheila.

"Land!" Sheila yelled back.

Alexis patted the back of my neck firmly in agreement and I started to circle lower with Rengosa.

It didn't feel right to let her take the lead down towards the ground, but she was the one in magical armour right now, I just had my scales.

So as much as I didn't like it, I knew better than to argue about it.

Beating her wings, Rengosa settled down two dozen meters away from the temple entrance, her wings knocking dust and leaves into the air. I did another circle before diving down, pulling up firmly, beating my wings hard and settling down next to her.

As soon as my claws touched ground, Alexis jumped out of the saddle, her angel settling down on the ground next to us.

Nobody moved and just listened.

No movement but the wind and the rustling of leaves in the trees. Some insects buzzing, but no birds or other animals.

But then again, that was normal when Rengosa and I were in our real forms. They didn't really like us for some reason; I suspected it had something to do with the whole apex predator thing.

Sheila unstrapped from her saddle, sliding down onto the ground, "Not seeing anything. Anything magical, Ren?"

Rengosa shook her head, "Only the temple."

"Clearly magical," I agreed and moved a bit forward, peering through the lenses, "Doors are enchanted. The whole area seems to be magical in general. The entire island actually, but the temple building is the strongest."

Alexis nodded, "Right. I'll let you do your thing," and moved out of my way.

I glanced at her and then nodded, carefully approaching the door, casting a quick telekinetic spell to push the goggles out of my eyes as I got closer. The shine was too bright for me to actually make out details at this range anyway.

Now, I could have turned back to my mortal form, but quite frankly I felt safer in my real form for this. It took a lot more to turn a dragon into a smoking stain on the ground than it took a human.

Soulstone or not, I didn't feel like taking chances.

Settling down, I looked at the door. It was made from a golden material, shining slightly in the sunlight.

The doors were engraved with images, mostly with sea motifs. Sea creatures, waves, storms. A big image of the sea goddess, whatever her name was.

Hmm.

Now, if I had a temple built and enchanted and didn't want anyone to open the door, I would enchant the fuck out of it. Anyone that touched it without knowing the trick might get turned to said stain on the floor… or worse.

Now, there was a simple way to bypass that.

Could simply use a summon to open it. Actually, that was a good idea. Shifting back some five meters, I pulled on my mana and summoned Paladin. If anyone could survive getting swatted by the door, it would be her.

Paladin pulled her shield, approaching the door a couple of seconds after getting summoned, shaking the effect off, already knowing what I wanted her to do.

Raising the shield for protection, she reached out for the door, touching the handle.

Lightning struck her from clear skies, blasting her off her feet, sending her shield flying for a second before they both flickered out of existence as it destroyed my summon.

"...So…" Alexis said, slowly stepping out from behind the angel that had moved to protect her from the possible attack, "No opening the door. Got it."

I glanced back at her, "Indeed. It's already recharged fully so we won't be able to drain it. It also shows signs of absorbing magic, so I doubt we would be able to simply blast it down either."

"Any chance you can disenchant it?" Sheila asked with a frown, walking up next to me, resting her hand on my nosehorn.

"Difficult when I can't touch it. Do we have a month for me to work on it?" I asked, giving her a quick nuzzle on the side before looking over at Alexis.

"...not really."

"Thought so. Luckily, we don't need to."

Alexis frowned, "What do you mean?"

"The door is enchanted," I said before starting back towards the temple, "The wall next to it isn't."

 

[aeroprime]

That thing about the walls and doors always amuses me. It might be a bit of a cliche but its for a very good reason. Mental blind spots are a real thing.

 

[Hiver]

Poking my head through the hole in the wall, I peered down the surprisingly well-lit stairway, then pulled my head back out to look at Alexis with a draconic grin, "Underground lair! We might still get sharks!"

She stared at me for a long moment before she shook her head, "Will you two fit in there?"

"Eh, would be tight," I admitted before I nodded, "we'd better switch to mortal form, Ren."

Rengosa nodded and transformed a second before me, spell smoke filling the air and blowing away in the wind.

"Did it look safe?" Ren asked, as she moved up next to me along with Sheila.

"Fairly," I said, and picked through my bag, pulling out the human-sized set of brand new goggles and putting them on. Second generation, and more advanced than the ones for my real form. These could see magic as well as the larger set, but could also be adjusted for strength so you don't blind yourself looking at something that ended up glowing like a small sun.

After calibrating them using the door, I moved back to the hole and poked my head inside, looking around.

Looked safe.

Just to be sure…

Putting my hand inside, I channeled my mana into a summoning, sending a frost troll running down the stairs.

He made it to the bottom and came to a halt, turning and looking back up towards me.

Yep, safe enough.

If a frost troll didn't trigger any traps, odds were that there were no traps.

Vaulting through the hole, I landed on the stairs and looked back outside, "Looks clear," I said as I pulled my dagger.

"Stay here," Alexis ordered her angel before dropping next to me, Ren and Sheila jumping down after her.

Slowly making our way down the stairs to the frost troll, I sent it further along the corridor into the first chamber through an open set of doors.

Nothing smote it, so we followed it inside. The temple chamber seemed to be… pretty much all there was.

It was of a fair size, the largest temple I'd seen here so far, but it wasn't that large by magical architecture standards.

There didn't appear to be seats or places for worshippers, but the arrangement of large pillars supporting the roof was centered around the altar in the middle of the chamber. The room was lit by large crystals, the lights aimed towards the altar.

In the centre of the altar, under a large statue of the sea goddess, lay a silvery gauntlet, shining in the light from the crystals.

It was also shining in the magical spectrum, as brightly as the sun outside. Instantly my goggles automatically adjusted not to burn my eyes, leaving the gauntlet just glowing softly to my sight.

Holy shit.

I had seen items that enchanted in the past, but not many. The Orb of Black Ice had been one of them. The rest had been mostly Titan-made artifacts, or items I made myself.

"That's it?" Alexis asked.

"Going by Atreus reaction, I'd say yes," Sheila agreed, "We should be careful; we haven't seen any guardian yet."

I slowly made my way over towards the altar, reaching up to push the goggles onto my forehead as I peered at the gauntlet. Looking around for possible traps, I glanced towards the sides.

No triggers. No guardians.

Huh.

I slowly circled the altar, looking at the silvery gauntlet. It looked mostly harmless, if heavily, heavily enchanted. I took my time on this one, crouching down, moving to look at it from all directions.

"Atregos?" Sheila asked, "Are you sure that is safe?"

"As much as I can be," I said, and picked up the gauntlet with my silver hand. It didn't smite me or burn me or anything. It just seemed to be a heavily enchanted piece of armour.

Feeling for the enchantments, I confirmed my earlier suspicions. This thing was enchanted with Land Magic style mana. The most advanced enchantment work I'd ever seen too, it made Titan work look like second year whelp enchantment practice.

The magic in this was among the most incredible thing I had ever seen.

But amazingly, that wasn't what drew the majority of my attention

The gauntlet was made from Etherium.

 

[Simon Buchan]

I hear the speculation bubble collapsed on that compared to the hype a few years ago, but the volume is up. Still an odd choice for a construction material though.

 

[Hiver]

Not that I had much time to admire the hilariously expensive metal. The sound of stone against stone behind me caused me to vault over the altar, just in time to avoid getting turned into a smear on the floor.

The statue of the sea goddess raised her fist again, stepping forward, swiping for me once again.

Shit! No time to move!

Raising my left arm, I activated the magical shield, pouring mana into the enchantment.

The blow didn't kill me.

Which was about the best thing you could say about it. The shield exploded in a cloud of sparks as the massive stone fist impacted it about a quarter second before it impacted my chest, sending me flying and rolling across the stone floor.

Coughing, I struggled back up. The shield kept it from killing me, but my everything hurt.

"...Girls, found the guardian!" I coughed, holding my ribs with my right arm. Didn't feel broken, and the fact that I could tell that easily was just depressing, but they sure were bruised.

"We noticed!" Sheila yelled back, sending a stream of green fire towards the statue as it lumberingly stepped over the altar.

Rengosa flung a frostbolt at it before dashing back to get some distance to turn back to her real form.

Alexis pulled her sword, her eyes shining white for a second before she ran at it and jumped, stabbing her sword at its massive head.

Her sword bit deep into the thick stone. The statue didn't seem to care, other than to make a diffident swipe at her with a hand.

She just managed to dodge it, but her sword was left in the forehead of the sea goddess.

Putting the gauntlet in my bag, I then pulled a pair of magic-guns and started to blast away at the construct. The blasts didn't seem to do that much either. Which made sense, they were calibrated to hurt humans. More power meant less shots after all.

Not that useful now.

Rengosa pounced at the statue, slamming into it and tearing into it with her enchanted armour claws, ripping and tearing as she let out a stream of frost with her breath.

That got a reaction. Not many things can not react to getting hit by a couple of tons of dragon in a ton of magical power armour.

The statue stumbled backwards, tripping over the altar while trying to swing at Rengosa. They want down in an almighty crash on the floor.

Pulling out my new sword, I ran towards the right, giving it a burst of mana, sending the chain inwards to wrap around the hilt of Alexis' sword, pulling it free and sending it flying through the air, "Catch!"

Alexis didn't need to be told twice, and ran forwards, jumping and catching it in her hand. The jump turned into a spin as the sword started to glow white, and her eyes flashed a bright white.

As the sword lined up with the fallen construct, the sword flashed and bright lights erupted from the ground around it. They lashed out, wrapping around it tightly and pinning it tightly to the ground.

Ren barely paused and kept ripping at the now mostly defenseless statue.

"...Why didn't you do that to begin with?" Sheila asked as she made her way over to me, green fire rippling along her hands and licking up her arms.

Alexis kept her sword aimed in the direction of the statue, the sword glowing softly with white mana as she kept the spell going, "The range is bad. Only reaches a couple of feet from the ground," she explained as she struggled to keep it running, "Wouldn't be much use if it was standing."

Letting the chains turn back to a sword, I slid it back into my belt as the construct stopped moving. Rengosa ripped its head off and got working on the arms as she growled deeply.

"I need to work on these blasters," I said and pulled one to frown at it, "Not very useful against anything larger and tougher than a human. Should have thought of that."

Alexis lowered her sword, letting the spell go as Rengosa prowled off the now thoroughly wrecked construct, "Considering you made them from discarded bottles and some scrap metal, I'm fairly sure you get a pass on that," she said and slid her blade back into its sheath, "You sure that's it?" she asked, motioning towards the gauntlet.

"Unless you see another artifact in here that's more advanced than any other enchantment item I've ever seen, made from a material expensive enough to buy most cities, then yes, yes I'm fairly sure," I said, before I grinned at her, "I'm going to take it apart."

"Not now," Ren said, retracting her armour into its normal state before turning back to mortal form, "I want to get out of here before it's revealed that that thing can regenerate or something."

I looked past her towards the unmoving pile of rocks before I quickly nodded in agreement, "Yes, let's leave."

 

[Hiver]

If anyone is interested in assisting, then next story is ready for a bit of a betaing. It is the continuation of the MLP series. PM me for googledocs link.

 

[Hiver]

We might not have been inside for very long, but it was nice to climb back out into the sunshine. Moving away from the Door of Death and Zapping, I sat down with my back against one of the pillars.

Sheila dropped down to sit next to me, resting her head against my shoulder, "We did it."

"Did it," I agreed, pulling out the gauntlet, turning it over in my hands, "This thing… I have only been able to glance over it, but it's amazing. Whomever made this was an absolute genius."

Alexis frowned at the gauntlet, "We should destroy it."

I almost hit her.

I likely would have if she had been in range.

"Absolutely not!" I protested, "That's… no! Bad! Bad human! No destroying perfection!"

Alexis shook her head, "If it's as dangerous as the legends say, that's like walking around with a tactical nuke. Do you really think somebody should have that kind of power to use at will?"

I growled at her and held the gauntlet closer.

Ren stretched after climbing out of the hole, "Relax, Alexis. It's Atregos, you know that as soon as he gets back to the Tower, he's going to pick that thing apart to figure out how it works. Nobody else would be able to get their claws on it."

Alexis looked uncertain, rubbing her chin before she finally nodded, "...Do you promise?"

I nodded, "I promise. Trust me on this, Alexis. I'm going to figure out how and why it works and it will be protected by the Dragonflights. Unless we face a Legion invasion or something, it's going to stay locked up somewhere safer than this place. Most likely in pieces."

She still looked unsure, but finally she nodded, "...Okay. If there is anyone I'd trust with that thing, I guess it would be you or Ajani."

"Do we even know what it does?" Sheila asked, and then looked at me, "Can you tell?"

"Kinda?" I said with a frown, "It doesn't have much power storage, but with the material it's made out of it doesn't really need it. And it has something to do with air so… yes?"

"Does this mean we're heading home now?" Rengosa asked with a frown, "Because we should get home and get Atregos healed."

Nodding, I slipped the gauntlet into my bag again, "We just need to get the rest of our stuff from the ship."

Alexis nodded in agreement, "Getting that thing away from this Plane sooner rather than later would be good," she said before she crossed her arms, "I'm… going to stick around for a bit."

"You sure? We did what we were going to do."

"Yeah. I need to report back to the king, let them know what happened," she said and then looked down the mountain towards the beach the ship was anchored, "I still have business I need to finish up."

Hmm.

Getting up, I rubbed my ribs again before reaching and helping Sheila to her feet,

"You sure?" Sheila asked her, "You've been here for quite a while."

"Yeah," Alexis confirmed, "I have responsibilities, and, well… not like I can go back to Earth yet anyway to visit my family. It's been just a couple of months for you guys, I'm fairly sure those wizards haven't stopped looking for me yet."

"Could come with us?" I suggested, "Just take some time to relax?"

That got a smile from her, "A couple of months of vacation sounds amazing right now, and if I didn't have things to do…"

Sheila nodded and then smiled, "Well, you're welcome if you decide to stop by when you are done, you know the way," and gave her a quick hug.

"Well, we're not leaving quite yet," I said, "If you don't mind, we're several Walks from home, and I think I'd rather have one more night in something approaching a bed before then."

Alexis smiled and nodded, "I wouldn't accept you guys leaving before tonight's party anyway. Come on, let's get back. I'm fairly sure one of you can scare up something big for the fire?"

"Bet on it," I told her with a grin.

"Uhm…" Ren said, looking towards the ocean, "I think we have a problem."

"What?" I asked and turned to follow her gaze. The horizon looked almost like it had a bunch of dark spots at the horizon.

"What? What do you see?" Sheila asked, looking between us. Alexis pulled out her spyglass, taking a look for herself,

"I don't know, it's just on the horizon."

"...Atregos…" Ren asked, "Are those… ships?"

I slowly nodded, "I… think they are."

More and more dots were coming into view.

 

[Krazyfan1]

Ah, but are they enemy ships, or allied ones?

 

[Norgarth]

Ah, but are they enemy ships, or allied ones?

Click to shrink...

If they really want the gauntlet, does it matter?

 

[Hiver]

Alexis slowly lowered her telescope, staring towards the horizon, "Rengosa, your eyes are better than my telescope. Can you see the Aridian flag?"

"I can," Ren answered and I nodded in confirmation. I could just about make out the colour on the sails of the lead ship.

Alexis sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "...Damn it. That ship that peeled off must have gotten them."

I nodded again and crossed my arms, "Shit."

I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

Alexis turned to look at me, "...Do you think you can get that thing working?" she asked and glanced down at the gauntlet in my still open satchel.

I looked down and then frowned at her, "What happened to 'too dangerous and needs to be destroyed'?"

She just sighed, "Just… get it working? Then take it away from this Plane."

Nodding, I dropped my bag and headed over to sit with my back against one of the pillars, crossing my legs as I started to dig into the enchantments of the gauntlet.

It was… amazing. Fuck the actual purpose or mode of operations, blowing shit up was easy, you didn't need to make the Sistine Chapel of mystical weapons for that. The way it was enchanted though…

Wow.

Land magic, woven into the most magical metal known. This wasn't even the enchanting system Rai used, she worked magic into the metal to get the effect she wanted, that was different. She might have used land magic for it, but…

This was Land Magic enchantment.

As different from any of my other enchanting systems as Land magic was from Azerothian magic.

Just this little peek could revolutionize enchantments forever. I had so many ideas-

"You do remember you are meant to get it working, not figure out why it works, right?" Alexis asked as she sank down to sit next to me.

I blinked and looked at her, "Oh. Yes, of course."

"Because for every minute that passes, that fleet is getting closer. Just… figure out how it works and make sure it doesn't eat the wearer or something."

Sighing, I looked across the small yard over to Sheila and Ren. Ren was back in her real form again, laying on the grass, Sheila stood talking softly with her, her hand resting on Ren's nosehorn.

"You changed, you know," I commented softly before I looked towards Alexis.

She leaned back against the stone pillar and sighed softly, "...It's been a long five years."

I just nodded, "I suppose it would have been," I admitted, "So what's your plan after this?"

"Report back to the king."

"And then?"

She hesitated and I smirked at her,

"Settle down with a scholarly elf, maybe?"

Alexis snorted and smiled slightly, "You noticed that?"

"You did give me my eye back."

Alexis smiled a bit and then shook her head, "...To answer your question, no. It was fun, but we're not compatible long term, I think. No, after I report back, I think I'll see if I can find Ajani again."

I nodded, "Well, you're always welcome with the Dragonflights if you are looking for somewhere to just relax for a bit."

"Yes, because when I think relaxing it's hanging out in the snow with a bunch of apex predators," she teased before she smiled, "Thanks though."

"No problem."

"So, any idea how that thing works yet?"

"Oh yeah, I figured that out in the first minute," I said and got up again, "It's basically channel mana into it, aim it where you want to fire, and then mentally activate it. Dead simple."

"It's really that easy?" Ren asked, and shifted her wings as I slid the gauntlet onto my right hand.

"Making this thing? Fuck no. Using it? Seems to be," I said and flexed my hand. It was even comfortable to wear, "As far as I can figure out, it takes any mana dumped into it and affects the target you aim at. The more mana, the bigger the effect."

Sheila looked uncertainly at it, "What's the effect?"

I shook my head, "Not completely certain to be honest, something involving air. But it seems like the more mana you put into it, and it has to be Land Mana, the stronger the effect."

"So aim and fire?" Alexis asked, "That's it?"

"That's it," I confirmed and walked towards the edge of the courtyard, looking out towards the ocean and the approaching fleet, giving them a count.

Twenty-four vessels.

I raised my hand.

Alexis stepped forward and caught my forearm, stopping me, "No."

I looked at her in surprise, "What?"

"...It should be me," she said, "It's my people. Keeping them safe… it should be on me. I brought you into this, this is my responsibility."

Hesitating, I then nodded and removed the gauntlet before putting it on Alexis offered right hand. It had fit me perfectly, but knowing how advanced it was, I wasn't surprised as it automatically adjusted to fit her significantly smaller hand.

Alexis looked down at it, clenching her hand for a second, "Just… aim, dump Mana in and fire?"

"As far as I can tell," I confirmed and took a step back.

She nodded, looking at the gauntlet before she turned towards the fleet and raised her hand, eyes half closed as she focused.

They quickly took on a blueish white glow, and I could feel her start to dump Land after Land of Mana into the gauntlet.

Etherium was an amazing material. No need for any kind of mana capacitors or collectors, it just took in everything.

Too bad it was rarer than literal unicorn tears.

The gauntlet started to glow slightly in a halo of magic for a second before Alexis shifted her arm slightly, then it flashed once and faded away.

Alexis blinked at it, "...It didn't do anything..." before she turned to me, "Is it brok-"

The slight cloud cover above the fleet suddenly went completely clear in a split second before there was a point of light in the sky between the ships of the fleet. It hung there for a second before it flashed once.

A shockwave made the air ripple in all directions. It didn't look like much, but anywhere where the wall of air touched was torn apart.

It impacted the ships and they weren't destroyed.

They were completely obliterated, turned into what looked at this distance like mist or sawdust, simply pushed away from the rapidly expanding wave of force.

Holy shit.

But it didn't stop there. It dug into the ocean, pushing down and digging into the water, pushing a wave of water ahead of it in all directions, smashing the reef beneath into dust.

The shockwave faded to nothing after another couple of hundred meters. There was heartbeat of nothing and then it seemed like everything that had been expanded out from that spot collapsed back into a single point again before exploding.

This time, no ordered wave of force. This time it was a proper explosion. No fire. No smoke.

But the energy sent a shockwave like a small tactical nuke, smashing down into the ocean and towards us, a large wave driven up from the ocean.

"Alexis, that shield you do would be really useful right about now!" I yelled, watching the approaching shockwave.

"No mana!"

Shit!

Rengosa dove in front of us, her armour deploying as she covered all three of us with her armoured wing. Meanwhile, I quickly dug into the enchantment of my vambrace, modifying it and expanding the usual smaller shield into a full dome over us.

The shockwave hit us with hurricane winds, trees breaking as a spray of stone, dust, and water broke down my shield, battering against Rengosa's armour in a deafening roar.

Silence.

The chaos was followed by silence. Nothing but the sound of breathing and dripping water.

I held Sheila a bit closer, my cheek against her hair as I looked towards Alexis, "You know… I think you may be right for not wanting that thing around."

She just stared at me for a moment before closing her eyes again, letting her head thump down against Ren's side with a small sigh.

 

[Krazyfan1]

Could be useful to know how to make....

Imagine Dual wielding them

 

[aeroprime]

So the thing seems to fire magical strategic scale vacuum bombs. Ouch.

 

[RyubosJ]

I was expecting a tornado, not orbital bombardment

 

[stads]

Will be intetesting to see what he can learn from it and craft later on . There just so many fun items to use against people

 

[Night_Rain]

...That seems like a moment of careless behavior. Dumping all of her mana into the gauntlet? Without knowing how strong it was or what it did? Very careless.

 

[Vanigo]

So, is it just me, or would Aridia not be able to do anything with the gauntlet anyway?

 

[Tarantio]

Could be useful to know how to make....

Imagine Dual wielding them

Click to shrink...

Unless he'll make the second gauntlet power significantly different for it to matter I don't see the point.

It's a gauntlet which use all the magic you pump in it, the metal seem to be able to function as a battery with no limit, if I understood the mc explanation correctly, and it have no other external or internal power sources.

We humans (and dragons since they too have only two eyes) can only aim to one focal point we fix within our sight.
So if someone were to dual welder two identical or similar gauntlets, they would only obtain a slightly to significantly worse aim with half the power for maybe a little more windsplosions for second.

 

[Baron Ouroboros]

I wonder who made this gauntlet. Was it Urza? Perhaps Tezzeret?

That said, anytime there's a gauntlet of the sort in fiction my mind immediately goes to the infinity gauntlet.

Hmm, imagine an artifact like this that channels all five colors of mana?


Considering it's made of Etherium, it might be Tezzeret's. His home plane has a great deal of the metal.

 

[Hiver]

The ship… was actually in better condition than I expected. Then again, it was heavily enchanted.

There were wounded of course. Some badly, but not bad enough that healing spells couldn't get them back on their feet.

Even so, there was a lot of broken bones.

Alexis, her angel, and Paladin were in full swing tending to the wounded as I stared at the ship, scratching my head with a frown.

"Any ideas?"

Sheila shook her head, "...A lot of ropes?"

"Yeah, maybe."

The ship was more or less intact. But is was also upside down, and a hundred meters from the water. While inspection showed that it was intact, it was… not really usable right now.

"I have an idea," I said and frowned, "I do have that giant growth spell. Turn to my real form, hit myself with that, and roll it over."

Ren bumped my side with her snout, "It only lasts a few seconds."

"Yeah, but that should be enough to get it upright at least. Maybe onto some wooden rollers?" I suggested, scratching beneath her eye, "That would help a ton."

Sheila slowly nodded, crossing her arms, "You may be right. That could work."

"We'll try that when everyone has cleared out," I said and put my arm around her, pulling her close, "Right now, it's the best shelter we have."

"We should gather wood for a fire," Sheila said, and leaned against me for a long moment, "Atreus, you should turn back, I'll find some uninjured sailors to help get some food going. Ren, see if you can hunt something down? Atreus, wood?"

I nodded, "Okay love," and stole a small kiss, "We'll see what we can find."

As she moved off, I scratched behind Ren's nose horn for a second before I moved away so she could take to the air.

Focusing my magic, I wove the spell to let go of my mortal form, turning back to my real form. Letting out a sigh of relief, I stretched my wings wide before looking around.

Plenty of wood around from broken trees and driftwood, but I'm not about to gather it myself. That sounds like work.

Sitting down, I closed my eyes and focused my mana, starting to weave a spell. I had been looking for an excuse for this summon and this was as good a time as any.

This would take almost all my mana which would make it a bad summon for combat. But something like this…

Pouring my mana into the spell, I added every little bit of mana I had into it until I felt the spell complete and I could see the flash of light even through my closed eyes.

What's more, I felt it.

An impact on the ground a bit away from me and I felt a shadow loom over me before a massive trumpet sound echoed through the air.

Opening my eyes, I looked up at the beyond wyrm-sized elephant variant I picked up during the siege of Minas Tirith. It could have lifted an earth elephant with its massive trunk.

Grinning, I backed away and spread my wings before taking to the air, circling above the massive creature as it looked towards me.

Pulling up, I landed on its thick head. It didn't even protest about my claws. Most likely, they didn't even dig through the skin fully.

The massive summon reached up to feel for me with its trunk as if to make sure I was in place before looking around.

Getting comfortable, I directed it to avoid stepping on the small beings that may end up by its feet, and to gather the trunks of trees to pile up close to the ship.

Now this was more like it.

Oh! I could use this to get the ship back to the ocean too!

You know, despite being impractical for fights, at least for me, this thing could actually be rather good for some things.

"Make sure you go for the dry trees," I said, relaxing on top of the massive summon, "And break them into smaller bits so they are usable."

It might not be able to understand my words, but it got the intent well enough, and soon the air was filled with the sound of snapping tree trunks.

 

[Norgarth]

I wonder who made this gauntlet. Was it Urza? Perhaps Tezzeret?

Click to shrink...

It was in a temple to a 'sea goddess', I'm guessing it was created by a female planeswalker, who was primarily Blue (maybe some Green, which also has some weather related cards)

 

[Krazyfan1]

Ya know you could probably have the summon pull the ship as well..
Elephants are great swimmers after all

 

[Baron Ouroboros]

It was in a temple to a 'sea goddess', I'm guessing it was created by a female planeswalker, who was primarily Blue (maybe some Green, which also has some weather related cards)

Click to shrink...

Sea goddess? Perhaps it's Kiora, then, going by the title.

Hmm. Speaking of canon characters whom create artifacts, Saheeli fits the bill, though less so in being a sea goddess.