Touch of Fate 224 Spatial Awareness

"Lord Marshal!" A man wearing the insignia of a captain of the 3rd University Division spoke up. "Thank the gods that you are here. We have a situation."
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"I've been briefed." The mage replied as he pushed forward through the crowd to get a view for himself.

The Tenundian camp was just barely visible with the paltry light of the waning moon, but even an inexperienced observer could tell that something was going on. Or rather that chaos was reigning amongst the enemy.

Several fires had broken in out amongst the tents, and frantic soldiers could be seen moving around in a disorganized mess. Shouts and screams were heard, quite a few of which seemed to be more horrified than anything.

However, Emmanuel barely noticed any of that, as his attention was drawn to a much larger and more pressing concern. Near the center of the camp was a massive irregularly shaped mound, roughly 50m tall, that seemed to be trembling and swaying. After watching it for a few moments, he realized that it was moving in their direction like some kind of malformed behemoth.

A moan split the air, seemingly coming from the mound. It shook the air with its intensity and caused several of the soldiers on the wall to fall to their knees in terror. A few of the youngest were even on the verge of passing out.

[This is bad. If it can affect them from this far away, it must be near Tier 4 in power.] Emmanuel thought while gritting his teeth. [It was supposed to be weaker than this. That was the whole point of provoking them into action.]

He turned to the captain, who was looking staggered under the weight of the creatures aura. "Clear the walls of all Tier 1s, then call up the other divisions. We'll need to bring in everyone we can if we want to slow this thing down."

The man saluted and then hurried off himself, shouting commands.

Glancing back at the advancing monstrosity, Emmanuel began mentally calculating how much time they had until it arrived. Although it appeared to be moving slowly, it had already exited the Tenundian camp, and was in the process of crossing the empty filed leading up to the walls. So long as it maintained its current pace, it should be entering the range of their cannons in about three minutes, and would be at the wall itself in five.

He cursed under his breath. Things were moving faster than he anticipated. Based on the report he'd received, the creature was supposed to still be quite weak. Something must have pushed it to evolve beyond his expectations.

[As it stands, I'm not sure if I can take care of it in one go. We'll need to weaken it before it gets to the city, but for that, we'll need time to prepare.] He thought as he strode to the edge of the wall, and clambered up onto the battlements in a manner that belied his rather advanced age, all appearances to the contrary.

Sighing and feeling older than he had in a long time, he turned back to the captain who had relayed his orders, and was now standing by with a confused look on his face. "When the general gets here, have her take charge of the situation. Tell her that she needs to load the cannons with solid shot and prepare to bombard the creature as soon as it gets in range."

"I will sir, but what about you? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go buy us some time." The mage replied as he finished the silent chant that teleported to the ground in front of the wall. He hadn't paid close attention to where he'd aimed the spell, so he was a little surprised when he found himself next to an abandoned cart. One of the wheels had broken off, and the owners must have decided to leave it rather than attempt to repair it.

[Probably left behind during the exodus to the city.] He thought to himself, before turning to focus on the creature, much to his discomfort. It was still too dark to see it fully, but when he was this close, he could make out enough to feel revolted.

If forced to describe its appearance, Emmanuel could only explain it as a walking mound of meat, although walking was a bit of an exaggeration. Staggering was more accurate. It was seemingly composed of pile of disturbingly pale and malformed flesh, bulging and writhing as it moved. Throbbing veins could be seen coursing through the tissue, pumping a dark, sludgy substance throughout the creature.

At the moment, it appeared to have four short, limb-like appendages that it was attempting to walk on, but he could see other, similar pseudopods of muscular flesh occasionally forming from the creature's torso to assist it in the process. This created a stumbling, awkward gait that one would normally associate with a drunkard.

[Or a newborn...] He realized with some horror.

Shaking his head, he focused his thoughts and mana. The creature's awkwardness gave him a weakness he could take advantage of, should his initial attempt to disable it fail.

[Well, let's start things off with a bang.] The mage thought to himself as he finished the silent chant. [Dimensional Slash.]

A vertical, infinitesimally thin rip in the fabric of space appeared in the air in front of the creature before shooting forward and passing through it in the blink of an eye. For a moment, nothing seemed to have occurred, but then a tidal wave of blood spilled onto the ground as its bulbous form fell in two pieces, cleanly bisected.

Emmanuel stared in disbelief. He'd knew that spell was effective, but he figured that the creature would have at least some kind of defense against it. However, from the way its chunks were laying still, it looked like he'd killed it.

[Well, that was easier than I thought. I wonder what all the fuss was...]

He was caught by surprise as the two building sized chunks of meat rose from the ground and slapped against each other. The slice along its mid-line closed almost instantly, and in a few seconds he was facing an uninjured creature once more.

[...High speed regeneration and an ooze-like resistance to slashing attacks. Both of which weren't included in the original report. It looks like I'm going to have to have a word with Alexander's agents at a later date. Now what else does it have in store for me?] The mage thought as he prepared for his next attack.

While he was watching the thing closely, he noticed strange convulsions taking place near its center of mass. Feeling a sudden sense of apprehension about it, he aborted his spell and quickly dodged to his right, using the now directionless mana to reinforce his limbs for the maneuver.

It was good that he did, as the creature heaved once, and with a disturbing huffing noise it launched a piece of itself at him. The chunk of meat slammed into the ground with the force of a cannon, cratering the earth with the impact.

Emmanuel resisted the urge to swallow hard as a sudden weakness passed through his body. Unlike his student, he had the typical constitution of a mage, and therefore such an attack could have easily killed him if he hadn't acted sooner.

The worst part, however, was yet to come. As he watched, the separated mound of flesh began to quiver on its on, before six thin, spider-like appendages sprouted and raised its bulk off the ground. This new, smaller monster spun in place a few times, as if to get a scent, before scuttling in his direction. He was forced to dodge again as the flesh spider threw itself at him in a mess of spinning limbs.

He unleashed one of his favorite spells before it had a chance to attack a second time. As the smaller creature stopped its inertia and simply reversed, in a wholly unnatural manner, a quickly moving portal engulfed it, sending hundreds of meters underground and hopefully crushing it against the bedrock.

Emmanuel took a moment to catch his breath, suddenly finding himself winded from all the running around and dodging he'd been doing. Although he was mage at the peak of Tier 3, he had the physical abilities of an average human, and an old one at that. Not to mention, that he'd rarely engaged in combat over the course of his long life, preferring the dusty halls of academia to the blood-soaked battlefield.

He forced his breathing to calm, and started chanting the words to his next spell, the one he intended to use initially. [Let's see how well you put yourself back together with this.]

The creature began its convulsions again, evidently seeking to launch another of its horrible children at him.

"Too slow!" He called as he finished the chant. "Spatial Dispersal!"

This was a spell that Emmanuel had learned from his master, a Tier 4 Space Mage that had long ago retreated into seclusion in a bid to achieve Tier 5. It had been among the last the crotchety old dwarf had shown him before vanishing into the east. The intended purpose of this spell was to violate one of the basic tenets of Teleportation Magic by selectively moving pieces of the target to inter-dimensional space, where they would be destroyed by the chaotic energies that made it inhospitable to organic life.

This was understandably lethal to most of its targets, and due to its nature, was extremely hard to resist. In fact, the only thing he knew of that could help at all, was the blanket Magic Resistance skill, a rarity in the extreme.

Unfortunately, it did have a rather steep mana cost. Forcibly separating the component parts of an enemy required much more energy than simply moving a similarly sized object. As a result, he only made use of this spell when he was faced with a particularly stubborn or resilient foe. One that could resist his other attacks, for whatever reason.

He felt himself smiling as large chunks of the monster started vanishing, creating great, bleeding crevasses in its flesh. An almost agonized moaning sound issued from somewhere near the center of its bulk, although the sound was strangely muted, as if it originated deep within the things body. It collapsed once more, falling onto the ground with tremendous thud.

Taking a deep breath, Emmanuel endured a bit of lightheadedness from his depleted mana reserves. While he still had a fair amount of power left, he doubted whether he could continue in this line for much longer.

Unsurprisingly, the creature stirred once more, reforming into its usual shape, although noticeably smaller. Once it was upright, it paused, as if sniffing the air.

[Well, at least if I keep this up, it will eventually be small enough to simply teleport into inter-dimensional space all at once. For now, I just need to-]

Several pseudopods emerged from the creature's body, before latching onto the trees that lined the road leading into the city. The tall oaks were ripped from the ground and dragged into the monster's bulk, quickly disappearing behind a wall of flabby tissue.

With a sinking sensation forming in the pit of his stomach, Emmanuel watched as the creature regained some of its previous size. After a few moments, the pseudopods reappeared, questing for their next targets.

[Its absorbing organic material to increase its own bulk.] He realized with a start. [What sort of madman could dream of such a thing?]

Calling up his mana once more, the mage began another chant. Although it was clear that he could no longer handle it on his own, he knew he needed to buy time for the others to prepare, and for a certain student of his to return from a mission.

Chapter end