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Chapter 47: Paddywack
🕑 Added 2019-09-29 17:23:03 +0000 UTC***
Calvins breath caught in his lungs. He knew what was going to happen next: the creature would rush toward him with unnatural smoothness, and its razor sharp legs would reduce him to quivering chunks of bloody meat. The sheer panicked adrenaline saw him fumbling into his belt, drawing the Jerrytanium knife and flicking it forward faster than he could think.
Shaping.
10/12 Bent Remaining.
You- A mans gravelly voice oozed out of the metallic beast an instant before a massive trident of Jerrytanium formed from the tip of Calvins knife caught the Hunter-Killer and pinned it to the wall.
Calvin scrambled to his feet and dodged around the flailing limbs whizzing through the air as the creature tried to unpin itself from the wall.
He ducked to the side and grabbed his component belt before jumping out the window the monster had just come from.
Calvin burst through the shattered slats, his heart slamming against his chest, too in the moment to feel the wood scrape against his skin as he came out of the third story window.
The entire Inn was at a slant, and Calvin found himself sliding down the painted wooden surface rather than falling straight down to the ground. A second later he pushed off the wood and landed on the ground, casting his gaze around for any sign of what had happened.
The buildings around him were demolished, like a toddler had gotten tired of playing with its blocks and upended his entire construction. The street was choked with civilians, men and women, both wounded and unwounded, were panicking on the street. Cries of desperation and pain filled the air, but the herd mentality seemed to lead them in the appropriate direction: Away from the wall.
The Inn Calvin had been staying in was a block away from the wall. Uncomfortably closed for some, but cheap. To the left, the buildings closer to the wall were nothing but rubble, and Calvin noticed that a huge chunk of the night sky was dark, something gigantic was blocking out the stars.
From that direction, more Hunter-Killers were crawling over theruined buildings, swarming toward Calvin and the rest of the civilians.
A man threw a torch at one of the creatures, who dodged it easily, but the burning piece of wood and cloth sailed far past it, bathing a small fraction of the towering thing in illumination.
Far above him, Calvin saw metal plates the size of bathtubs that seemed to slowly move, as if whatever was beneath them was breathing.
Then the torch went out.
Calvin decided it was time to get out of here.
Shrieks rose as the metallic creature began to tear through the crowd.
I need to save as many people as possible.
Oh, come on, dont tell me youre
And use them to buy time.
Fair enough.
Calvinian summoning.
Heart of the Swarm.
9/12 Bent remaining.
Calvin split the swarm into two groups, the escape group of some five hundred pounds, roughly triple his body weight, went three different directions: east, southeast, and northeast. If any of them were destroyed, it would shift the location he reappeared farther away from whatever killed them.
The other half, the amount of wasps hed been able to summon at level eight, spread out among the killing machines, their only purpose to land on the creatures eyeballs and cloud their vision.
Calvin watched in amazement as his awareness ballooned outward, encompassing the entire block, and rapidly stretching even further outward as approximately two million wasps choked the air around the Ilethan creatures flooding into the city.
Off the top of my head? A lot.
The wasps couldnt do anything more than cover the creatures eyes, as their stingers simply clinked against glass and steel, their poison completely ineffective.
It was enough though. People, when faced with death, can find a respectable amount of hustle, and the civilians fled toward the castle while the metal creatures killed Calvins swarm by the thousands, crushing them off of their eyes, slicing them out of the air.
Out of curiosity, Calvin pushed his swarm of wasps over toward the giant thing, that dominated the next street over. He couldnt see particularly well in the dark, but the sensitive feet and millions of contact points allowed him to make out something big and cylindrical, covered in armored plates that doubled as feet.
Feels like the descriptions Ive heard of a Berengas wurm, but its metal?
That would make plowing through solid steel more viable. I actually dont know that kind of bot. Maybe they mutated one?
Calvin didnt know enough to weigh in on that, and his focus was stolen by something off to the side.
Grant and Nadia were walking down the street, just one block over from where Calvin had been, protected by a barrier of whirling knives. It looked like the massive sword weilder had adapted to Calvins swarms, and replaced his steak knives with actual daggers. He looked grim as he walked beside Nadia, the two of them flanked by six of the Hunter-killers.
Nadia, on the other hand, looked terrible. Her face was sunken and grey, wearing the same clothes as Dear Elani, eight days ago? Calvin, like a typical boy, was unopposed to wearing the same shirt for a few weeks at a time if it was still clean, but Nadias armor was torn and crusted with her own blood, in such a state that even he thought it was out of the ordinary. The black eye shed gotten from Kala hadnt healed either, instead it was an ugly purple with greenish tinge at the edges, fresh as the day shed gotten it.
Something is very wrong here. Why? Calvins Intuition struggled to put the facts together and form a conclusion out of what he had available, but in the end, failed to come up with anything useful, other than a strange foreboding.
Calvin sent a probe in, a few thousand wasps as a hello, but they didnt make it past the large mans whizzing barrier of knives.
Need to Get Atom ant sooner or later to let my wasps compete with things like that.
At level fifteen, he would be able to sacrifice fifteen times the wasps mass to make it fifteen times stronger. For a little wasp that might not mean much, but scale it up to the size of a small dog, and then you had something dangerous.
Assuming I ever get there, Calvin thought as he guided his escape groups away from the fighting.
At the rate youre getting into life or death situations yeah, I think youll get there.
At Elliots words Nadias head whipped up and she studied the wasp swarm hovering around their dome of safety. She inhaled deeply through her nosem and let out a shuddering sigh, as if tasting the air on the way back out, too.
Well, thats creepy, but at least shed not using her damn mind magic Why isnt she using her mind magic?
An entire week had gone by, so there was no reason for the Ilethan sorceress not to have restored most if not all of her Bent.
Is she saving it for me or something? That doesnt make a lot of sense. She demonstrated more than enough Bent to overwhelm me casually, she didnt seem the type to skimp on it, and yet shes just walking beside Grant sniffing for things.
Calvin watched with a thousand eyes in the growing light of the city-wide fire as Nadia took a sharp left turn angling toward Calvins inn. She stopped right where hed been standing when hed used Heart of the Swarm, and began testing the air with her nose and tongue in a way that seemd to genuinely make Grant uncomfortable, the big man shifting away from the grey princess. The front line had long since moved forward, so there was no one else there to witness the strange sight of a pallid princess climbing the side of an inn, pausing at the broken shutters to sniff the wood, her strangely dark tongue flicking out like a snakes to test the splintered wooden frame.
Hey I think she just-
Divination
She frowned, seemingly unhappy with the result of the spell, just as Calvin felt an itch on the back of his imaginary neck, like some fuzzy something was watching each of his wasp bodies, and he could make out its malignant gaze boring into their backs.
She reached out with a finger and slid it across the sharp edges of the shattered wood slats, the very tip coming back with a bit of red.
Is that my-
Spell Purge.
****
Calvins eyes flew open, six feet above the cobbled stone streets, arms and legs flailing as he slammed into the ground halfway between his three escape swarms and his delaying swarm.
When the time was right, hed planned on having the delaying swarm cease to exist by biting off each others heads, canceling out their mass and allowing him to reappear much further away, but he hadnt had time to do that.
He landed right on the front lines, not nearly as close to the castle as hed wanted to be, among the mass of panicked gadveran civilians running for the safety of the palace. Calvin forced himself to his feet and joined them before he was trampled to death.
Not a hundred percent sure the castle is a safe place to be at this point, buddy.
What, would you prefer I go to the docks and board a ship, with that fleet out there?
Then at least your opponents would be human, am I right?
Calvin weighed the situation. From what hed seen in the air, Fires were engulfing the entire city. The infrastructure, and therefore the citys ability to sustain a war, was going up in smoke as he stood there thinking about it. Even if they pushed the invasion out again, they had a gaping hole in their wall, and nowhere for people to eat, sleep or cook food.
The palace was designed to be easily defended, but against that enormous metal wurm? Cal saw it as a matter of time before the entire structure was torn down.
Were screwed.
Calvin changed direction, turning toward the north and muscling his way through the crowd of civilians that was carrying him westward like a white-water river, aiming for the docks. The port was guarded by twin towers that stood on either side of the bay, with defensive trebuchets ready to rain fiery death on any ship that got too close.
The Ilethan fleet prowled just outside the trebuchets range, circling like vultures. Once they saw the fire spreading in the city, they would be sure to seize the opportunity.
Calvin burst out of the crowd of bodies on a small off-road that led a winding route to the docks, only used by the men and women who lived and worked in that neighborhood.
Calvin took his first step down the street and froze.
I need people.
Escaping by himself was pointless. He needed people to be a wizard-king, and if he lost Baroke, Kala, and Ella after all the loss hed experienced the last few months, well, his Intuition told him it would cause a wound that hed have a hard time recovering from.
For the sake of my girlfriends, my future, and my sanity, lets be heroic, Calvin thought, turning back toward the stream of Gadverans.
Ah, selfish altruism.
Calvin raised his hands and a two thousand giant wasps burst out, each the size of his fist, spreading out over the burning city.
Heart of the Swarm.
Suddenly bursting into giant wasps wasnt the best way to keep people calm, and more than a few people screamed at the sight of him, trying to force their way deeper into the crowd, but larger eyes had longer vision, so he did what he had to do.
Calvin spread out, covering half the city in a quick sweep with the larger wasps, moving as fast as he could without losing detail.
I just realized youd be really good at Amber Alerts.
In just a minute or two, he made out Barokes heavily muscled frame standing out among the civilians. To his credit, the boy about Calvins age was ushering people twice his age toward the castle without any seeming panic. His yellow and brown livery must have given him some sense of responsibility, despite only being in the army a week
Baroke looked up as the buzzing around him got stronger, tensed to fight. Did I show him my wasps? I dont think I did.
Baroke! Calvin said, appearing at the center of the wasps as he dismissed the spell.
The heavy hitter gave an awkward squawk and a reflexive punch, but this time Calvin was ready, and simply leaned out of the way.
Dont do that! he shouted.
Baroke, lets help people get the fuck outta here! Its not looking good!
I gotta make sure everyone gets into the palace!
The palace is a fucking deathtrap with that thing back there! Calvin said, pointing.
What thing? Baroke shouted over the screams of the people and the roar of the fire.
Yeah, what thing? Andra said, seemingly melting out of the crowd of people.
Dear Kvothe! Calvin shouted, flinching away from his commanding officer.
Calvin, Baroke. The steel-haired woman said, eyeing the two of them. Good to see youre alive. What thing? The crowd seemed to flow around the womans steel-clad body like a river around a boulder.
Some kind of metal Berengas wurm! Calvin said. I was near the wall when it came through! The Palace isnt going to hold up to that!
Youd be surprised what the palace can hold up to. Metal Berangas wurm huh? Andra mused for a moment.
Weve got a better chance of cutting through the fleet outsi- A metal palm snapped out and caught Calvin across the face, before seizing his shoulders.
Andra looked him in the eye.
Thats planning for failure, Calvin. Even dumber than regular planning. Take a deep breath, get your shit together, and get ready to fight to win. Now, did you see any Royals guarding the wurm?
Calvin had gotten a good look at the wurm and its surroundings as a massive swarm of wasps.
He shook his head. Theres only two people that could be considered that, one girl in black, name of Nadia, one in blue, she called Grant. They arent guarding it, theyre coming after me.
You? Andra frowned. Are you sure?
Calvin thought back to the princesss bruise-colored tongue delicately tasting him from the piece of wood.
Pretty damn sure, Calvin said.
I know of her. When did you find the time to make the girl your mortal enemy?
Umm .
And here I thought you snuck off that night for some show and tell with Kala, Andra rolled her eyes. I dont think one smack was enough for you.
She refocused on the two of them, her expression hard. Alright, Ive got a job for the two of you
Kala and Ella came out of an alley and arrived beside Calvin, panting.
What did I miss? Ella asked, crossing her arms.
Are you all right? Kala asked, checking Calvin for wounds. You were bouncing all over the city, we thought you might be in trouble.
She thought you might be in trouble. Ella said.
-Four of you.
Me too? Kala asked curiously, probably expecting to have to fight to stay with the rest of them.
Defending cities while theyre on fire builds character. Andra said with a cold smile. And if you die, Ill feign ignorance to your father.
We never saw each other, Kala said, and Andra made a wordless gesture of agreement.
The general pointed at a tower far to the south, on the other side of the city.
Thats the Academy right there, Bekvahs Alma Mater. Its got a fuck-off big machine that controls the weather. Go there, find out why the nerds arent making it rain, fix it, and dont die while youre doing it.
Whats thirteen pounds squared in gallons of saltwater?
Not enough to put out a city.
Fair enough.
Comments
Isnt kvothe from the kingkiller chronicles
Jachin Nelson
I agree
Macronomicon
13 cubed is 2197, a gallon of water is 8.43 pounds....and i just realized i was totally using the wrong calculation for the amount of water he could make. it's way less. But even with 2197 pounds of water it wouldnt even drench one building. that's only 263 galons, or like, 5 55 gallon drums, or 1/4 of a firetruck. What he can actually make is 169 pounds of water per cast, which is a drop in the bucket, metaphorically. Wait, what was dupdomancy up to again?
loimprevisto
> “Dear Kvothe!” Calvin shouted, flinching away from his commanding officer. This world has some *interesting* folklore...
Mmmmyes
might not be a whole city, but it could take care of a good chunk of it.
Macronomicon
Got 2/3 of this done yesterday, wasn't long enough for a chapter, so I tacked some more on before I go out to D&D. I'll be back in the saddle Tuesday morning, as per the current weekend schedule.
