New Partners, New Problems

Sofia was not too happy with how the final game was proceeding. Separating from Donnelly was troublesome but if she had been paired with Newman, it would have been an even trade. With even only brief exposure, she knew the newcomer had at least a decent grounding in swordplay and seemed amenable to following a more seasoned warrior’s advice and orders.

The other member of Pruzonia was low on her preferred partner list. Even the surly goblin at least showed combat promise, but Renoux had displayed no martial inclination. Worse, her innate magic seemed to be limited; she had seen no real offensive power, only supportive light manipulation. The redhead’s ability to swiftly write out magic formulas was a useful skill, and what she had displayed against the scarecrow had been impressive, but it came at the cost of needing to hide or allies able to keep pressure off her to effectively deploy.

‘Not great limitations given the circumstances we’ve found ourselves in,’ she thought as she led them down a spartan hallway. ‘Narrow passageways leave little room for hiding and I don’t think I can provide enough of a screen to give her time to work.’

“So,” Renoux spoke up, “before we get attacked, it’d probably be a good idea to figure out how we’re going to fight, right?”

‘At least she has a good head on her shoulders,’ Sofia thought before saying, “It would be sound strategy. I hate to be presumptive, but I don’t think I’ve seen you engage in close quarters combat, so I assume you have little experience in that area, correct?”

Renoux nodded, a quick flash of frustration crossing her face. “My skills are in more indirect support. You’ve seen a bit of what I can do with my arrays.”

“Yes, that binding was impressive,” Sofia remarked truthfully. “But it did take some time to prepare. I don’t believe we’ll have the luxury for what we did against the scarecrow.”

“Well, as long as there isn’t something as big and fast as that was, I’ve got enough prepped arrays that should cover our bases,” the redhead said, touching her choker before a piece of paper appeared in her hand, an array of black ink drawn on the page. “Just need to place it.”

Sofia nodded, her opinion of the redhead rising. Then she heard the unmistakable sound of metallic feet steadily marching towards them. Looking down the corridor, Sofia could see a lone figure making its way towards them, too far away to make out the details. “Well, it seems it’s time to see how well we work together.”

Renoux nodded, and kept a page in her hand, the other raising up. The redhead made a cupping motion and the air in front of her face distorted as if a lens suddenly had manifested before her.

“Looks like it’s just the one,” she quickly reported, making another gesture. In the space between them, a translucent form appeared, steadily marching in place. It was a featureless silver mannequin, wearing a simple padded jacket that ran to its knees, and a basic looking sword held in one hand.

“It’s not on the level of John’s Observe, but there’s our enemy,” Renoux said, a hint of self critical lament in her voice.

“On the battlefield, any accurate information is better than none,” Sofia was quick to say, a reflex born from teaching. “We see what our enemy is wielding, numbers and how armored they are. The extra information, while nice and might give insight into possible weak points, isn’t something that can always be relied upon. Sometimes, you only have your eyes. You can end your spell. Conserve your mana for now.”

Renoux nodded and her magic faded.

“What’s the plan?” she asked.

“I will engage to test its capabilities,” Sofia answered. “You may use your light manipulation to disrupt its aim but take up a position to the rear. I do not think we need to employ your paralysis array in this instance.”

Renoux nodded once more and took a step back. She stood awkwardly, clearly not used to waiting for an attack to happen.

‘Still, she was ready to follow my orders and hasn’t impeded Newman in any way I can determine. Likely still green, even with the situations the report listed. I wonder if some sort of cross training agreement could be reached,’ Sofia thought as she readied for their enemy to make contact. ‘The advantages of Newman’s barriers are something the Lord Protector and the Warden are aware of. Getting some resources in exchange for training seems a fair trade.’

She banished those thoughts. While her directive was to both impress upon their allies the Order’s skill and willingness to be of aid and gather more intel on the range of Newman’s barriers, now wasn’t the time to ruminate on them. It was time to fight and a distracted warrior was a dead one.

Their enemy marched nearer, now close enough for Sofia to see its armor. There had been no loss in detail through Renoux’s farseeing, a plain silvery mannequin body wearing a rather plain padded jacket. At a glance, the coat looked to be normal gambeson, layers of padding that would defend against slashes and stabs.

‘Makes things a bit tricky,’ she thought as the mannequin began to increase its pace, sword raised up to its chest. It was a simple looking weapon, a bit less than a meter in length overall was Sofia’s estimation, and broader than her own by a small bit. A weapon meant more for strong downward strikes than thrusting. ‘This would have been a good opponent for Donnelly.’

Now within a few long strides of Sofia, her artificial opponent lunged, taking an aggressive start to their duel. It swung its sword in a sweeping arc, the motion combined with its leap forward would allow for the blade to hit her with the majority of its edge. Not that Sofia was going to test the quality of her armor.

With practiced ease, she stepped back, bringing her blade up to parry the attack in the same fluid motion, not putting her footwork as the sole avenue for her safety. Her lightning quick, but not empowered, counter strike drove the opposing blade high, leaving the mannequin’s torso exposed. Sofia shifted her stance and coated her blade in a thin layer of electricity, before thrusting with most of her strength.

The coat worked as its design intended, impeding her sword’s entry. Still, she did pierce past the padded jacket, allowing her lighting to course through the mechanical adversary. For a moment, the flow of electricity caused the mannequin’s body to cease up, vibrating hard against Sofia’s impaling blade. Then, Sofia felt her magic being siphoned away, up and into the blade still held aloft.

With practiced movements, Sofia disengaged, wrenching her blade free as she retreated, cutting off the flow of mana through her sword as she did. A second later, the mannequin brought down its weapon in a counter attack, the edge of the weapon cracking with stolen lighting.

“Well, that makes things a bit more complicated,” Sofia muttered under her breath. She had to wonder if this enemy was crafted specifically to counter her, especially after her displays in the last game. She glanced back at Renoux. “I believe they’ve made a counter to me. I think it’s time to employ your binding.”

Renoux nodded as she lifted a paper up. Sofia backstepped and deftly took the page from the redhead.

“Just press it against it, and put a bit of mana into it,” Renoux instructed. Sofia fought to keep a flash of irritation off her face. She knew well enough how to activate such magic and didn’t need her to blare instructions out the enemy could use to its advantage. Still, she could hardly fault her for feeling the need to give instructions, given the circumstances.

Sofia focused her attention on the mannequin. It didn’t seem to be operating with increased caution, its approach favoring aggression over defense. It made a swift lunge, missing by a surprisingly wide margin. Sofia caught sight of the slightest distortion of light and her estimation of Renoux rose once more.

‘If she used the verbal instructions as a guise to set up using her light manipulation, I’ll have to commend her,’ Sofia thought as she slipped under the mannequin’s guard and slapped the array page against its torso. Her magic pulsed and the array powered up, wrapping the machine in a thick layer of rigid ****, locking it in place, mid thrust.

“Well, that is an effective bit of magic,” Sofia remarked before looking over to Renoux. “How long will it last?”

“At most, around ten minutes,” the redhead answered. “Shorter if the restrained puts up a strong fight.”

“Will attacking damage the hold?” Sofia asked, circling the mannequin to look for the perfect spot to attack.

“It will disrupt the spell a bit,” Renoux replied, a finger on her chin. “I’d say at most it would weaken the hold by a few seconds, no more than its struggling would. I designed this so we could still attack.”

“Let’s see if your work is up to the task,” Sofia said as she jammed her sword into the mannequin’s neck, right where the spine met the skull. If it had been a living being, such a strike would be fatal. And it seemed the mannequins were designed to somewhat faithfully replicate mortal weak points as it began to fade away, leaving behind its sword, which fell to the ground alongside Renoux’s array paper.

“Looks like we got the sword as a drop,” Renoux said, picking up the weapon. As she did, a display appeared before her. She frowned as she read it. “Doesn’t say anything about what the sword does, just a prompt to whether we’d like to keep it.”

She maneuvered so Sofia could read the message, and the knight shook her head.

“If there was information on how this weapon functioned, I might consider giving it a test,” she said. “But I'd rather stick with something I already have trust in.”

“Fair enough,” Renoux remarked as she declined the offer. The display and sword disappeared in the same instant and the redhead picked up her array, inspecting it with a critical eye. “Array doesn’t look like it suffered any feedback damage. This one’s still good to go.”

“Then keep it ready,” Sofia said. “Felling one enemy is hardly the end of our trial.”

Teri wasn’t sure if her change of partner was as much of a step up from K’mels as she had initially thought. While she wasn’t a smoldering pillar of anger, the squire of the Order did not offer a pleasant empathic experience. Anger was replaced with chittering nervousness hidden below a calm facade, one that had grown far more cacophonous after the announcement of the team changes.

‘From what John and Beth told me, she probably got a dressing down by the higher ups. She might be worried about screwing up today,’ she thought as they walked down the hallway. ‘And now she’s worried about that happening without the watchful eye of her mentor. What a mess.’

Teri wasn’t sure how to handle this. While they weren’t hiding her empathic abilities, they hadn’t come up, so just going, ‘Hey, you feel like you’re going through some stuff. How can I help?’ wasn’t going to make things better.

A note of resolve calmed Rowan’s aura for a moment and she cleared her throat.

“I think I should take point,” the squire said in a slow, steady voice. Then, Teri heard her resolute melody falter as discordance crept in. “Um, I mean, what I’ve seen of your abilities leads me to believe you’re a support type, so it would be a wise move for me to lead. So any enemies that come at us will face me first.”

Teri had no objections to taking the rear, and even if she did, the tense beat of Rowan’s nervous aura would have dissuaded her from that position. It was clear the junior Order member wanted to appear competent, especially in front of an outsider. So she nodded in deferment.

“Great,” Rowan said, an upbeat note in her voice before she caught herself and coughed. “I mean, I’m glad you’ve seen the merit of my plan. Let’s get moving.”

Teri held back a giggle at the sudden spike in happiness singing off Rowan as she led them down the passageway. The sharp and repetitive chorus of nerves was still there, but now played second fiddle to the beat of confident drumming, one that played in time to Rowan’s march.

‘At least she’s able to get herself going without me having to tune her emotions,’ Teri thought. ‘I don’t think she’d react well to unsolicited magic on my part.’

They walked in silence for only a minute before the sound of heavy footfalls reached their ears right as they entered a large square chamber. Rowan held up a hand, her fist closed and Teri assumed it was a sign to stop so she did. A second later, Rowan turned her head back to her and let out a breath.

“Yea, that, um, means stop,” she mumbled before clearing her throat. “We’ve got incoming. Sounds like at least two. Um, what sort of support can you do exactly?”

“Well, if they’re wearing anything made from plants, I can try to tie them up,” Teri explained, waving her staff slightly. She looked around the room they were in. “Doesn’t look like there’s anything in here I could affect.”

In fact, the only thing in the room besides them was a display case mounted on the wall to their right, equidistant from the two hallways that branched from the room. Hanging inside and visible through the glass door was a sword. It was wider than what Rowan carried by a fair bit, at least six inches in width at its widest and maintaining that along most of the blade before coming to a point. The metal it was made from was a bronze color, but Teri was sure it was likely better than steel if it was something being ‘sold’ by the faux store sponsoring this game. Its hilt was a rather plain cross, but the handle was wrapped in a bright blue cloth.

“Beyond that, I can do some physical empowerment. Nothing outrageous but it can help in a pinch,” Teri continued after the quick survey. “There is one other thing I can do. My innate magic lets me amplify or suppress emotions. I can dampen any fear and rally your courage.”

Rowan looked slightly uncomfortable after Teri revealed her magic, and the creeping notes of uncertainty mixed into the orchestra of doubt and hesitation.

“I think I’ll pass on that,” she said, before an apologetic look crossed her face. “N-not that I don’t trust you to not mess with my head. Just, I need to be able to stand on my own. And I’m not so sure about the strength boosting. I want to see if my training is enough.”

Teri nodded in understanding, but thought, ‘That’s all well and good, but I’m not going to let you freeze in fear and get cut down or get pushed back when I can help.’

Rowan turned back to face the hallway ahead of them, and brought her sword up. The path forward curved a short distance from the room and from around that corner, two machines marched. They were a matched pair, somewhat short and bulky, wearing plate armor and armed with broad short swords and kite shields. Not a stitch of cloth on them for Teri to grab hold off.

‘Maybe I should start carrying seeds and dirt to use,’ Teri bitterly thought as Rowan shifted her stance. The chaotic mix of emotions from the squire made it hard for Teri to gauge how she’d act. Would she give into the relentless drumming of doubt and hesitate, or would the welling strings of courage send her to new heights?

When one of the robots moved to attack, courage won out over fear, and with a swell of determined strings, Rowan moved to counter. Order steel met the blade of unknown make with a loud clang, the two attacks evenly matched. Teri heard doubt begin to subsume Rowan’s determination as she failed to overwhelm the robot’s weapon, the pair locked in a struggle for dominance.

Which would have been okay had there not been a second enemy that Teri could do little to impede. The second robot surged forward, its shield held up to block any attempt from Rowan to strike it should she disengage from the first robot.

Teri moved forward, trying to keep to Rowan’s wishes as she called upon Verida’s lingering presence in her staff. Power welled up inside her, making her feel lighter and faster as she raced past the entangled pair. Her chosen opponent kept up its shield and Teri slammed her staff against it, testing her magically enhanced strength.

The robot didn’t budge and Teri was a bit fearful that pressing harder would damage her staff so she stepped back, looking for any way to damage it. As she did, the sharp note of surprise dominated Rowan’s emotional orchestra, and Teri looked back to see the squire pushed back by her opponent, the robot pushing her blade aside before thrusting its shield at Rowan to drive her further away.

A hasty attempt from Rowan to attack back allowed the machine to knock her blade from her hands, the weapon crashing to the ground. With the robot pushing Rowan back, she was in no position to retrieve it and panic began to overwhelm her.

‘And I had to rush into combat range,’ Teri chided herself, now stuck dealing with the other machine. She really only had one move she could do to avert disaster and could only hope the squire could forgive her for crossing that line.

Managing to get a small amount of distance between herself and her enemy, Teri focused all her efforts to invoking Verida’s strength once more, along with touching upon Rowan’s emotions. The two magics twisted around a single purpose: to bring about the best warrior it could from its target.

Teri let the spell fly. The strengthening portion was simple, the moment it hit Rowan, her body was suffused by the echo of Verida’s power, increasing her strength while soothing away any weariness and pain. The emotional part was far more hands-on and Teri’s focus was pushed to the limit, adjusting the severity of the squire’s emotions, quieting down her fear, doubt and hesitation and rallying her courage, determination and willpower.

She could have just depressed the bad emotions and boosted the positive ones, but in this situation, an active hand, ready to make adjustments was a smarter move, even if the concentration meant she only just could avoid the attacks of the robot facing her. Teri could only hope it was the right play.

The shift of Rowan’s emotions played out on her face. Her drawn and frustrated expression lessened, as her eyes grew resolute. She shifted out of the way of a thrust and hit the robot’s smooth head with a palm strike, the boost to her strength causing it to snap back with an accompanying crack.

Emotions untouched by Teri welled up; happiness and a thrill of being able to fight back sang in time with the courage and determination already present. A few notes of inquisition peeked through as Rowan surveyed the room. Teri watched as Rowan’s eyes fell upon the displayed sword and she darted towards it.

With enhanced strength, Rowan dashed to the case and wretched open the front. When her hand grasped the handle, Teri heard a sharp burst of static join Rowan’s emotional orchestra and her head burst into pain from the feedback.

“Ugh,” she uttered as she staggered through the pain. “What was that?”

Her connection to Rowan had been broken, but the prior adjustments to her emotions remained, however, something was off. Rowan’s courage had grown, but it felt more like there was an accompanying section of horns blaring out their song, instead of her own growing louder.

‘That sword has to be doing something to her, right?’ Teri thought as Rowan swung the weapon hard into the shield of her now defensive enemy. Her strike, empowered by Verida’s blessing, **** the robot off balance. She was quick to capitalize on that and thrust the new blade into its exposed chest.

There was a crack as the sword slightly pierced into the robot’s chestplate. Before Rowan could make a follow-up strike, the machine hastily backpedaled towards where it entered from. Surprisingly, its twin did the same, abandoning trying to attack Teri to join its sibling.

“Looks like they have some kind of order to regroup if one takes damage,” Rowan said, a hard focused look in her eyes.

“Sorry I had to…” Teri began, only for Rowan to lift a hand and shake her head.

“I think, if you didn’t, we’d be in a worse state,” Rowan stated. “We can talk about it once we’re done with these guys. Are you good to fight?”

Teri looked at Rowan for a moment, trying to read her. This wasn’t just her positive emotions playing untethered from the negative ones. Something about the sword was reinforcing her will. And while that was a bit worrying, so were the enemy before them. Dealing with them first was more important, especially as she didn’t see Rowan’s old sword anywhere.

“I’m good to go,” Teri answered, gripping her staff hard.

“Then let’s get going!”