Jinnei leaned against the palace walls, the last line of defense against the encroaching horror that was slowly consuming the city of Mujenan. Her belly ached from the reduced rations as she waited for the Alpha strike.

Surely after weeks of fire and fury, the monsters wouldn’t simply decide to starve the last of them out…and yet everything had been quiet for the last seven days while she and the last remnants of Gadvera held on.

The only time they were showed any opposition was when they tried to leave. Hordes of creatures would descend to shove them back in the palace.

At the rate they were growing new soldiers, they had to have stored up enough to literally cover the palace from wall-to-wall, so why hadn’t they killed them yet?

“I don’t like this,” Andra said, standing beside her and scowling out at the flesh-covered city, that ever so gradually expanded forming silk-thin connections between buildings that grew over time into pulsing arteries.

“What’s there to like?” Jinnei asked.

“We’re bait.” Andra said, scowling.

“What?” Jinnei asked, raising her head from the wall.

“I’ve been around long enough to recognize the signs. Look,” She said, pointing at the half-collapsed walls covered in pustules. “There’s even a clear line of sight to the roads. The outside can see us, we can see them. I know for a fact it would be more tactically sound to block sight both ways, and these things are capable of that level of thought, obviously.”

“’Cuz of the boats?”

“‘Cuz of the boats.”

“The only problem is why bait? It makes no sense.” Andra said, chewing her lip. “Gadvera is awful short on allies at the moment. Our army is already in check. There’s no other country whose army would be willing to fall into such an obvious ambush just to try and save us.”

“What about a person, then?” Prince Bekvah asked as he approached, taking his glasses off his hawk nose and cleaning them with his remaining hand. “If not a country, perhaps these things are aiming for an individual.”

“One person?” Andra scoffed, then frowned. “Maybe. It’s as likely as anything else. It’s not as though we understand the motivations of a Warped abomination.” She glanced up at Bekvah. “How are the children?”

“All of them made it, to my extreme relief,” Bekvah said with a sigh. “Getting Breaks back-to-back like that isn’t without risk. In a matter of days, they’ll be able to help get all of us out of here.”

“What?” Jinnei frowned, glancing between them.

“Bekvah has studied magic across the world.” Andra said. “Including knowledge of Malkenrovian Elementalism, specifically earth-shaping. We gathered up all of the apprentices, messenger boys, girls, orphans, anyone without more than one Break to their name, and we went and got them Breaks. Several of them.”

“Ooh, that’s what that was,” Jinnei said, remembering the last four ‘last ditch’ attempts Andra had made to flee the palace with the Hash’Maje, only to be beaten back.

“I thought you were being an idiot.”

Andra’s eye twitched.

“Anyway. We’ve got no less than two dozen children at fifth Break in here, and each one of them has been spending each Break increasing their Mind and Earth-Shaping.”

“Using children to literally dig our asses out of trouble?” Jinnei asked before grinning. “I approve.”

“Children without Breaks are a country’s most valuable wartime asset. Hopefully those things haven’t been around long enough to learn that.”

“We’re going to find out.” Bekvah said, putting his glasses back on the ridge of his nose. “In a week, they’ll be full of Bent, and ready to tunnel us out…assuming nothing bad happens between now and then.”

There were thirty-nine flashes of light, followed by distant detonations, drawing their eyes to the east, where towers of flame were consuming the edge of the forest.

“Is that a wasp?” Jinnei asked, squinting into the distance, above the flames. There was a hovering insect that…had to be a trick of the light. If it was real, it had to be much, much bigger than a man.

A wailing cry went up through the entrie city, as the normally gently pulsing flesh encompassing the buildings began to writhe, spewing out soldiers at an alarming rate, deflating as they took to the streets, screaming with rage.

Then the ground beneath the buildings began to crack and heave as a huge leg jutted out through the cobblestones, shearing off the side of a sandstone building.

Andra reached over and smacked the crown prince of her nation in the back of the head.

“You just had to fucking say it, didn’t you?”

Strangely, rather than head for the palace…the swarm headed for the fire, flooding out of the city as more gigantic, crablike entities pulled themselves out of the ground, taller than the buildings that collapsed around them… and the trees of the jungle itself.

“Oh, looks like the ambush was for Calvin.” Andra said with a frown. “Huh.”

“What?” Jinnei asked, glancing at the general. “Captain Gadsint is Calvin?”

“Why?”

“Oh, gods,” Jinnei muttered, slumping against the wall. “He’s never gonna let me live this down.”

***Calvin***

Shadowboxing 88% Repaired.

Damnit, I really wish I’d had time to practice Chimera on the way here. Calvin thought as his wasps spread out around him and secured the perimeter.

Let me help. I’m good at biology. Hence the mutations. What do you want?

Right now? Calvin thought. Wasps that shoot fire out their butts. Or crystal lances, or anesthetic.

Okay, It’s my understanding that Chained spirits, and therefore Calvinian summons do not need to eat or breathe. We can take advantage of this. There are a huge amount of life support systems in a wasps’ abdomen, along with the venom gland for the stinger. You can afford to remove all of these, and replace it with Fire-Worm guts.

Is the abdomen the middle part?

Jesus Christ, it’s times like this I remember how bad your education was. Alright. The butt is the abdomen, the middle part is the thorax, where the muscles to control the wings are kept. Don’t mess with those. Tell you what, put it up with Visualize.

Visualize.

In front of Calvin’s eyes, a wasp about the size of a pig bladder appeared, perfectly still. under his gaze the outside of the fever wasp sloughed away, showing a fascinating series of organs inside the wasp, highlighted in different colors and annotated as to their purpose.

I’m hacking the stored plans for the Fever Wasp from Calvinian summoning into Drafting. After the fight is over, I’ll whip up something more formal.

Got it.

So, we remove the heart, the breathing, the venom glands, leaving the central nervous system of course…

As he mentioned each part, the corresponding representation in the Visualize ability vanished.

Then we pack it with the Fire-Worm’s beads and squirter. Calvin thought, filling in the abdomen with a tightly packed coil of the interconnected beads, all connected to the fire-worm’s nozzle placed right in line with the wasp’s stinger.

Exactly. Move the nozzle a little closer to the exit, make sure your central nervous system thinks shooting fire is the same as stinging, and you got yourself a build.

Calvin felt a strong urge come over him.

Then we add the catalyst organs from a Crystal Lattice.

What?

Calvin added three of the six Crystal Lattice organs right next to the edge of the nozzle.

Calvinian summoning.

Calvin made another thirty-nine summons, and this time they stayed airborne, hovering in place as they waited for something to unleash their malevolence on.

Calvin nudged one to sting the air, and it happily complied. Wasps will sting anything.

The crystal lattice was interesting in that it could make a huge amount of material from a tiny amount of liquid, and part of the way it did that was by using these three catalysts to create a magical effect that made more of what was already there. Almost like Dupdomancy, but strangely it didn’t register as a Bent Construct.

Calvin’s theory was that one of the catalysts was stored undifferentiated matter, that, when combined with the other two catalysts, could both mimic whatever it interacted with, and unpack its mass.

In short, the spray of flaming liquid widened out, literally adding more of itself as the catalysts unpacked, creating an inverted cone of flame that nearly consumed Calvin and the wasp he was riding on.

Abyssal Alchemy has reached level 6! 30% Correction

Drafting has reached level 6! 30% Correction

You’re just all kinds of stupid, aint’cha?

We’ll see.

Calvin gave the thirty-nine wasps instructions to go sting the air above the approaching troops.

They looked almost human from a distance, but as they came closer, Calvin could tell that their armor was made of some kind of shell bonded to their bodies. Their mouths…Definitely not human.

The wasps did as they were bid, laying down massive blankets of fire across the charging army, reducing the mindlessly charging army to charred corpses.

But they didn’t stop coming. Somehow the enemy had a seemingly limitless supply of soldiers.

Well, as long as I can fly and they can’t this shouldn’t be too bad.

Crack! A deep-rooted jungle tree was torn asunder as a four story, crablike creature pulled itself out of the fertile earth, several hundred yards behind Calvin. It bore a pulsing lump on it’s back that looked…

“Fairly ominous.” Calvin said as light began to warp around the creature’s back.

You’re telling me. I’m starting to think this might be a little suspicious.

“Nah, this is –“

Hundreds more of the crab-like behemoths tore themselves out of the earth in a half-mile semicircle around Calvin, as buzzing, fist sized insects crawled out of the gaping holes and began taking flight in expanding clouds.

“Trap.”

Trap. Might I suggest getting the fuck out?

“Now that would just be planning for failure,” Calvin said, reviewing what he knew in his head.

The creature that was sending these after him knew him…when he was a Veteran. It had effectively stymied his wasps and his spellcasting before, and it would most likely have refined a plan to do so even further.

So the question was, could he come up with a gimmick that could take this creature by surprise? Something it didn’t know about?

As Calvin was thinking about this, there was an inaudible whine in the back of his eyeballs more felt than heard. It suddenly changed in pitch to a low roar, shaking his ribs and the leaves on the trees beneath him. Calvin leaned and instructed his wasp to dodge as a beam of tightly controlled purple light shot out of the nearest towering crab, catching Calvin’s leg and part of the wasp he was riding.

The wasp burst into green smoke as soon as the beam made contact with it.

There’s the antimagic. Calvin thought, glancing at his leg as he fell. Other than tingling a little, there was nothing wrong with it.

Is it trying to catch me alive? Calvin asked Elliot, focusing on how he was going to slow himself down.

Web down beneath me might be better than a burst of air. less chance of it failing, and I can dismiss it as soon as I come to a halt.

Calvin’s plans were put on hold when another nearby giant crab launched a massive spear from its back, a bone-white, barbed thing with some kind of thread leading back to its back.

Calvin activated Beli Ma, waving a hand and creating a whorl of Bent in front of the spear’s path. He probably couldn’t catch it, but diverting it wouldn’t be too hard.

The rumbling sound came again, and Calvin’s whole body was caught In the purple beam of a third attack, shredding his Beli Ma, and scouring away his externally stored Bent.

For a timeless instant, Calvin saw the harpoon heading for his heart and knew he couldn’t do anything about it.

Then Ella kicked him in the shoulder.

The Genosian was freefalling beside him, having abandoned her mount.

The harpoon buried itself in his stomach, jutting out of his back as the barbs set themselves in his flesh.

And I’m still falling. Calvin thought, adrenaline beginning to really hit now. Gods, I hope that didn’t hit my liver.

Calvin uncapped the Warp Tank. Hopefully it would help with surviving being pinned like a display butterfly.

Extensive training has raised your attributes!

+1 Endurance

1/34 Warp Remaining.

Yaaay.

Calvin could see the crab beginning to reel him in, even as he fell, the sudden tug separating him from Ella and forcing him to put a hand on the harpoon to prevent it from moving too much.

I don’t know how much One knows about human physiology, but there’s no way I’m going to survive the fall with a harpoon in my stomach…unless…

Heart hammering, Calvin watched the dispelling crabs, and the rapidly expanding jungled beneath him. They seemed to be waiting for him to try something, the light around their back-lumps pulsing.

Bastards.

To be fair, your brain will probably be ‘alive’ long enough for a specialized unit to yank your soul out, so massive trauma isn’t really a problem.

Thanks for that.

Calvin‘s view was occluded by green.

Now!

Shifting.

19/33 Bent remaining

Shifting level 16! 80% shift, 16 minutes, targets limited to 4096 pounds in mass.

0/34 Warp remaining

Calvin targeted himself and a tree, shifting all but thirty pounds into the tree as the silken thread he was being reeled in on was caught by a branch.

As if sensing his use of Bent, a beam of purple energy pierced through the trees, missing him by a hair’s breadth as his connection to the harpoon in his guts swung him violently forward.

By clenching both hands on the harpoon with a death-grip, he was able to avoid his own body weight ripping the damn thing out of him the wrong way and killing him in a matter of minutes.

Below him, Ella hit the ground without a scratch and began running toward Mujenan, in the direction of the road, where Baroke was, waving at him to follow.

Oh, sure, I’ll get right one that. The fisher crab was still reeling him in, though, and his leeway between himself and the branch was rapidly diminishing.

Calvin used Blade body and slammed an Abyssal Steel knife down onto the silk where it looped over the branch of the tree.

Thankfully, it worked, but Calvin was falling again, seconds away from the ground.

If the beam crab targeted him whenever he used Bent, this was going to be difficult.

As if to add insult to harpoon strike, Calvin heard the buzzing of closing insects that were decidedly not his.

Okay, this is looking pretty shitty.

Calvin bent his knees and began casting Calvinian Summoning.

When he felt the whine in his eyes, he kicked out, catching a tree limb and altering his course just enough to throw off the beam.

Can’t hit what you can’t see.

Calvinian Summoning.

Heart of the swarm.

Atom Ant.

Calvin burst into green smoke a fraction of a second before he hit the ground, separating into three Stalkers with enhanced physical Attributes, each of which weighed just a few pounds more than he did.

The Stalkers hit the ground running.

The one closest to Calvin’s falling trajectory was hit with a purple beam, and it vanished from his senses, leaving two, going opposite directions.

According to Calvin’s understanding of the mutation’s mechanics, he wouldn’t reappear until both of the remaining summons were destroyed. And until they were destroyed, Calvin’s guts were not an issue.

The Stalkers were able to slide through the jungle with speed that Calvin’s mind struggled to keep up with, creating a hissing noise in the air as they moved.

The complacency aura seemed to work in their favor as the beams of purple mana seemed to be belated, unable to accurately pin them down.

Either that or he was too fast. Calvin didn’t care either way.

One he sent toward Mujenan, the other, toward the outside edge of the encirclement. Either way worked for him.

In a matter of seconds the Mujenan Stalker broke out of the treeline into the light of day, and Calvin began zigzagging wildly as beams began to scan the charred as he made his way toward the walls.

He glanced over the Stalker’s shoulder and spotted Baroke and Ella running along the road to his side, mostly unhindered by the nightmare creatures surrounding them. They all had eyes for Calvin.

Baroke.

Now there was a good solution to his giant anti-magic monster problem. Now how to tell him to kill the dispellers without vocal cords?

Hmm.

Calvin ran up to Baroke, ducking and weaving as the light tried to unravel his physical form.

He tapped Baroke on the shoulder.

“Oh, hey, what’s up? Is that you, Calvin?” Baroke asked, slowing down as he fell under the influence of the Stalker’s Complacency Aura.

Able to finally get a bead on him, one of the beams caught Calvin’s summon, bursting it into green smoke in front of Baroke. Calvin’s awareness was jettisoned back to the Stalker still weaving through the jungle.

Hopefully he gets the message. Calvin thought, aiming for the outside of the encirclement.

A streak of light passed over the stalker’s head, and one of the nearby enormous legs staggered as though it’d been subjected to a blow. The archer had got the idea.

Let’s try this again. Time to make some Warp.

Calvin leapt into the air and dismissed the Stalker summon, appearing in midair, stomach burning. He put a hand over the spear and kept running, gritting his teeth against the pain. It wasn’t the worst pain he’d ever experienced.

But it also wasn’t imaginary.

Wasps with Spinner hands? No, no guarantee they’d be able to use them. Exploding wasps? No… too much collateral damage, and only one attack per wasp. Even with Bad Penny, they’d likely all kill themselves I want more damage over time.

Ah.

Calvinian summoning

Heart of the Swarm

Atom Ant

There was a brief whine in Calvin’s eyes before a streak of light shot overhead and silenced the sub-aural noise.

Thank the gods he’s not stupid, Calvin thought, exploding into a swarm of head-sized refraction spinners.