Chapter 43: Chapter 41 - Emergency Response

The first thing Loria did when the shooting started was take off her heels. It was infuriatingly stupid. The one time – the one time she decides to cut loose and something like this happens. But that was the point of the attack, wasn’t it?

She turned to Cliff, but his attention was still fixed on the Hierophant. It was tempting to turn to watch, but when she saw her father’s Fireshell, she knew that her holiness would be fine. The rest of them, though… “Cliff,” she called, but he didn’t hear. People were starting to scream, layering with the gunfire and roar of the tear in the air, and it was difficult to hear anything. “Cliff!” She reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, giving him a shake. He jolted at the contact, blinking rapidly as he turned to her. He stared to stutter, but she cut him off. “Come on. We need to find everyone and get out of here, things are going to escalate, and-”

She cut off with a breath when she felt an odd sensation in the back of her mind, like a feather brushing against her consciousness. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Professor Jericho, speaking to you with my Gift.” The voice was like a calm thought, talking directly into her head. It was an odd sensation. “Pardon the intrusion into your mind. The Academy is under attack by an unknown assailing force. Current estimates put the number of enemy combatants in the low three-digit range. Please remain calm. Students, if you are not at the Harvest Dance, please return to your room and remain in lockdown until further notice. Students and guests in attendance, please make haste to gather in the center of the dance floor. In one minute, the headmistress will be isolating a space while the situation is dealt with. Academy staff, please make your way to the front of the dance hall to retrieve your PMT from Lieutenant Ulster. This is a Code Black situation – the assailants are confirmed to be using live ammunition, and lethal force is authorized in defense of the Academy. If any guests are capable of engaging the enemies, do so at your own risk. May the Goddess preserve you all.”

Loria couldn’t help but shudder at those last few sentences, but there would be time to reflect later. She seized a still floundering Cliff by the shoulder and started moving towards the center of the dance floor. She didn’t know what the headmistress’s Gift was, but she had her orders, and she would follow them.

Cliff was a little more hesitant. “Hold on, Loria – what about the others? Thalos, Nym – Goddess, what about Jenna?” He tried to pull out of her grip, his head swiveling to look around the hall.

“They heard the message, same as us,” Loria snapped, “we can meet them in the middle of the hall.” Around them, people had started their panicked rush inward. Already, there was a growing mass of people, pushing and shoving each other. “Come on!” she barked. This time, Cliff didn’t resist as she dragged him along.

They moved quickly enough once they were in the flow of the crowd. Someone stomped on her left foot, but she hardly noticed. Behind her, an explosion rocked the hall, and she spun to see that the door had been blown off its hinges. Two dozen black-clad men and women with guns in their hands and black-lacquered PMTs on their wrists burst into the hall. Guns came up, but before any shots were fired, a thick wall of earth cracked through the hardwood floor, rising to surround the attackers. Half a dozen teachers put themselves between the wall and the crowd. Sister Aster was among them, a stark frown on her face. Only one of them had a weapon, but they didn’t appear at all frightened.

She left them to their defense, turning to continue their flight towards the center of the hall. There was some shoving, but they managed to slot themselves with the rest of the crowd. The headmistress was standing on a raised platform, shouting into a megaphone. “Stay calm! Do not push! If someone near you falls, help them to their feet! Stay calm!” The repeated commands were mostly lost in the fervor of the crowd, but she took a moment to scan her surroundings to make sure no one was getting trampled underfoot.

Thirty seconds had passed, maybe, since Professor Jericho’s message. She took the time to look towards the front of the hall, where the fighting was intensifying. The Hierophant had disappeared under a mirrored dome of some some force – probably one of the Sentinel’s Gifts. Her heart leapt when she spotted her father, wrapped in his Fireshell, calmly standing in front of the dome. Beside him was a blue-haired Sentinel – Loria realized she’d actually seen the woman at Cliff’s Depressurizer demonstration. On her father’s other side was Roose, or so she thought. His dark hair had melded together into an amorphous shadow, and his eyes – they’d been dyed red. A sinister red energy wreathed him, a crimson flame of power, matching the red trim of his Templar robes. She shuddered – there was something unsettling about the look of him. Both he and the sentinel also wore her father’s armor, and she prayed it would hold.

On the attacking side, there were six figures in black, standing in a shallow arc, facing the Hierophant. One held a giant, vibrating spear, and the rest were also armed.

Her father appeared to be saying something, but whatever he was saying was cut off in an explosion of sudden movement. Two of the attackers launched themselves at her father, and two more for Roose and the Sentinel each. She gasped as a plume of fire exploded in the air, obscuring her view. When the flames cleared, her father was on one knee, the vibrating spear clutched in fire-wreathed hands. Beside him, Templar Roose had a severed arm clutched in one hand, and the Sentinel was leaking blood from a cut in her forehead. The pause lasted only an instant, though, and they were soon moving so quick that she couldn’t follow what was happening.

Another feather brushed the back of her mind. “Time is up. If you have not yet reached the center of the dance floor, please seek a group of Academy staff for your protection. Those within the area of isolation-” The voice cut off as an explosion of force rumbled through the hall. “Those within,” Professor Jericho continued, sounding notably more tired, “please remain calm and follow the Headmistress’s instructions.”

As soon as his words were finished, the area around the crowd seemed to distort, and the fighting was suddenly much further away. It was impossible to say how much further away things were, but the volume of the fighting had gone down considerably, and they were left with the sound of panicked students and guests shouting.

Cliff was still beside her, his eyes fixed on the fighting at the dais. “What’s going on?” she said.

“The headmistress’s Gift lets her stretch space,” Cliff replied, almost offhand, “Loria – your father, he’s fighting without a PMT.”

She swallowed. “I know.” It was obvious, even from the bits of the fight that she could see. He was on the backfoot in the fight, and that was before his maintenance of a hundred sets of fireshell for the academy’s defenders. But he was her father, commander of the Crestfall army, and she wouldn’t allow herself to doubt. “He’ll be fine. Come on, let’s find the others.”

“Right,” Cliff muttered, eyes still glued on the battle raging in front of them. He didn’t start moving until Loria tugged his sleeve, dragging him into the crowd along with her. Thanks to his size, Percy was easy enough to spot. Deb was beside him, as were Nym and her date, Tia. They all looked terrified, so Loria did her best to push back her own concerns – someone had to keep it together, after all.

“Loria!” Nym cried over the panic of the crowd, reaching out with shaky hands to grab her arm. “Thank the Goddess! Have you seen Thalos? Or Jenna or Penny?” She was trembling.

She pressed her palm against Nym’s cheek, trying to reassure the girl. “Jenna is quick on her feet. She can handle herself, and she’s with Vince,” Loria said. “He’s sensible enough to keep them out of harm’s way.” She had no idea if that was true, but something about the way the seminarian carried himself suggested poise. All she could do was hope that it kept in a crisis. “As for Thalos…” She trailed off, scanning around them for their team member’s diminutive form.

“Something’s odd,” Cliff said from beside her, low enough that she barely heard him.

She spun a glare his way. “Odd? Cliff, the academy has been attacked. We’re far past odd. Now stop gawking at the fight, and look for–” She cut off at the sight of his expression – it was the same one he’d been wearing before the Depressurizer exploded, the same one he’d worn when he decided he could make the node to heal Thalos. His Gift was working. “What is it?”

“Look,” Cliff said, pointing a finger towards the front of the hall. The chaos hadn’t ceased where her father was fighting, though it seemed that the defenders had beaten back the initial assault. A pair of soldiers she didn’t recognize had joined the fight, and, together with her father, they’d formed a bulwark in front of the Hierophant’s metallic dome of a shield. In front of them, Roose was single-handedly fighting half a dozen assailants. At least, she was pretty sure it was Roose. The air seemed to blur around him, and even trying to look at him sent her head aching with an intense sense of wrongness. Whips of crackling energy spun off of him, slicing through marble and wood wherever they smashed into the ground. Whatever his Gift was, the attackers seemed reluctant to enter the range of his whirling blades. “In the air,” Cliff added. “The guy who’s jumping around.”

She blinked, pulling her eyes away from the haze of Roose’s battle to look above it. The blue-haired Sentinel was sprinting along a fractal platform of what looked to be ice, steaming at the edges and suspended directly above the fight on the ground. It grew as she ran, expanding forward to catch each of her steps. Her hands were held straight ahead, and jagged chunks of frost shot forward like cannonballs.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

In front of her, one of the black clad attackers was flying from pillar to pillar, perching for a moment before he shot off again. He had a heavy rifle in his hand, and each time he paused it was punctuated by a crack of gunfire that cut through the chaos of the battle. It was an acrobatic duel that extended all across the hall as the Sentinel ran on air and the assailant ricocheted from place to place.

“What do you mean?” Loria said breathlessly. The level of combat happening at the front of the hall was difficult to follow. In fact, it was so far divorced from what she was used to in her classes that it was difficult to comprehend. “It’s terrifying, but…” She shook her head, turning towards Cliff.

Cliff’s eyes narrowed as he spun to watch the aerial duel. “There’s something about the way he’s moving. It’s – inefficient.” He frowned.

“So, what?” Loria said. “Is that it?” If it was just that the fight wasn’t proceeding with full efficiency, then they had bigger things to worry about. Especially because the inefficient person in question was an enemy.

Cliff made a frustrated noise, shaking his head. “No, Loria, you don’t–” He cut off when there was a burst of chaotic movement above them. Instead of leaping to another pillar, the attacker shot straight towards the blue-haired Sentinel. Before the attacker could reach her, a shield of ice spiraled out into the air in front of her, catching him before his attack could connect. Like with the pillars, he seemed to cling to the ice for a second before he leapt away. Not three second later, there was an explosion where he’d been, and a plume of flame appeared in the air, rocking into the Sentinel’s shield. Loria gasped, but when the smoke cleared, she was relieved to see that the shield had held, though the Sentinel looked shaken.

Beside her, Cliff clicked his tongue. “That’s it.”

She looked at him. “What? Was the – ah, inefficiency, or whatever, setup for that attack?”

“No,” Cliff said. “It was setup, but not for that attack.” His tone had turned grim. “Come on, we need to tell Thalos’s Auntie.”

Loria blinked, but before she could ask him to explain, he’d started walking. At some point while Loria was speaking to Cliff, Penny had joined their group with her date. He was injured, though not badly.

“It was like – boom,” Penny explained frantically, “and then the wall just sort of fell into us. Thankfully, I was–” She cut off when Cliff stepped in front of her.

“Penny, I need you to come with me,” he said.

“What? Come with you?” Penny said, blinking in confusion. “What do you–”

“No time,” Cliff snapped. Loria’s eyes widened. Cliff spun, pausing when he saw Nym and Tia. “You too, Nym. Come. Now.”

Penny’s date started to put himself between her and Cliff, but she stopped him. “Cliff–” she started, but he was already moving.

“Come on, Penny,” Nym said, setting off after Cliff. She’d noticed it, same as Loria – Cliff had dealt with the Depressurizer’s explosion with little more than a furrowed brow. If he was snapping at people, it meant that whatever conclusion he’d drawn was serious.

Loria turned to the rest of their little group. “You guys stay here,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

“What’s going on?” Percy said, watching with concern as Cliff led Nym and Penny into the crowd.

Loria shook her head. “I don’t know, but – it’s Cliff, right?”

Percy frowned. “Right.”

“I’ll – I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything too reckless. Look for Thalos and Jenna, and stay together. We’ll be back as soon as possible.” Nym and Penny’s dates didn’t seem to know how to react ot what was happening, but Percy and Deb had enough experience with team B to know that when Cliff’s Gift was involved, it was best to just let things happen and pray for the best.

She turned on her heel, shouldering her way through the crowd to catch up to Cliff. Thankfully, he was tall enough that his head popped out from the top of the crowd, or else she might have lost him for how single-minded he was in his movements.

They passed through the thickest part of the crowd, shoving by and stepping over clumps of shell-shocked students watching the battle unfold around them. Occasionally, there was a collective gasp as an explosion rocked its way through the hall, but with the Headmistress’s gift, it was distant enough that she could force herself to ignore the bits she caught in her peripheral vision – the fighting and destruction. The blood.

A collection of teachers had created a rough perimeter around the crowd of students, eyes pointed grimly outward as they observed their academy come under siege. Projectiles occasionally drifted into the no-man’s land created by the Headmistress’s Gift, and the professors would respond in kind. It left Loria feeling uneasy about their circumstances, like they were spectators on a battle they ought to be participants in.

Cliff shot out of the crowd, Penny and Nym behind him, stomping straight towards the Headmistress. She was standing in the middle of a cluster of teachers, including Dr. Ignis and a very injured Professor Jericho – one of his arms was hanging limply, and Dr. Ignis was beside him, her PMT held up to heal a nasty cut that extended down the side of his face.

A pair of professors Loria didn’t recognize moved to intercept Cliff, but he hardly slowed down. “I need to talk to the Auntie Esmer,” he said. Loria winced at the lack of respect in his tone, and rushing up beside.

“Sorry, professors,” she cut in as the two teachers shared a frustrated look. “He – it’s his Gift, and–”

“Let him through,” the Headmistress called out. Immediately, the two professors parted, and Cliff stepped forward, Loria and the two others trailing behind him. “This better be important, Cliff. I do not have the brainpower to spare for trivialities.” Loria blinked at the strain in her voice. Now that they were closer, it was obvious that the Headmistress was exerting herself. It couldn’t be easy, watching the institution you were charged with protecting descend into chaos. On top of that, whatever she was doing with her Gift had to be taking an extreme toll on her – there were hundreds of students gathered in the pocket of space she’d isolated, and she’d stretched the space between their bubble and the battle to dozens of times its normal length.

“Beggin’ your pardon for interrupting, ma’am, but it’s a matter of life and death.” The Headmistress turned heavy eyes on him, and Cliff frowned. “The man fighting Sentinel Lyn – the woman suspended on the ice – he’s going to try to collapse the banquet hall, crushing everyone still inside.”

Everyone fell silent, and the only sound was the chaotic din of the battle. Loria’s eyes shot wide, and they fixed on Cliff’s stony expression. “Explain,” the Headmistress said, “and skip the details – tell me the what, not the how.”

Cliff immediately launched into an explanation. “He’s jumping from pillar to pillar, pausing for a second on each one. He did the same to Lyn’s shield, and about three seconds later, it exploded. He’s been jumping to the same seven or eight pillars, but they’re not exploding. I noticed he was–” He cut off with a shake of his head. “What I mean to say is – I’d bet all the summer rain he’s stacking up mines on the different pillars, waiting to blow them all and bring everything crashing down.”

As he explained, everyone looked up in the sky, following the flying assailant on his peculiar leaping path through the sky. By the look of him, it was clear that Sentinel Lyn had scored some hits, but he hadn’t stopped his insistent leaping from pillar to pillar. Loria tried to remember which pillars he’d jumped to, but it was too difficult for her to follow.

“Probably just before he disappears in that portal they can create,” the Headmistress muttered. She shook her head. “I imagine it’s pointless to ask how sure you are – your Gift doesn’t lie to you, does it?” Cliff said nothing, but that was answer enough. The Headmistress groaned, turning to her side. “Jericho, are you up to send another message?” The injured professor looked at her moment before giving a small nod. “Good,” the Headmistress continued, “get a message out to everyone. Top priority is incapacitating the enemy Cliff pointed out. I don’t need answers from him, I need him out of the picture. That means full lethal from anyone who you can get in touch with.” Loria swallowed. “After that, we’ll need teams to shore up the pillars – what was it, Cliff? Eight teams?”

“Four,” her team’s engineer said immediately. “He’s going for eight pillars, but if we keep four of them up, she’ll hold.”

The Headmistress let out bark of laughter, and she gave a savage smile. It was a stark reminder that, before she was the kindly old director of their academy, she’d been a seasoned commander of dozens of battles. “Never let anyone talk down about your Gift, Cliff. Four teams then, Jericho. We’ll have Cliff point out the pillars.” Professor Jericho nodded, but by the concentrated look on his face, it was clear that he was already sending out their first message.

Loria looked up. All of a sudden, dozens of projectiles started streaking towards the attacker. None seemed to be connecting, but then a huge hunk of stone caught him in the middle of a jump, slamming him in the side. He seemed to ricochet off the stone, bouncing into another pillar. He caught himself there, but another projectile – this time a splintered door – crashed into him. Loria recognized the movement of the projectiles. Nym’s father, the Puppetmaster, was taking care of their first problem.

“I brought Penny and Nym,” Cliff said, cutting off their observation. “They should be able to take care of one of the pillars, if someone protects them.”

Loria shot a surprised look towards him before turning to the two young women. They looked even more surprised than Loria to hear him say it. “Cliff, that’s–”

“Nym’s Gift can call up stone to reinforce the pillar,” Cliff said. “And even if bombs go off, Penny’s Gift can hold them in place until Nym can fuse the broken pieces of stone back together.” He turned towards the two women, both of whom appeared almost queasy at his explanation. “Trust me,” he continued. “You can do it.”

“I’ll protect them, Headmistress,” a new voice said. Loria turned around, and was shocked to find that Vince had joined them. Jenna was beside him, as was Thalos, though there was something off about the final member of team B. He looked absolutely terrified. He was hardly holding himself on his feet, and he had his hands in front of him, pinching at the ring on his finger.

The Headmistress looked between Cliff and Vince for a moment. “We don’t have the manpower to spare,” she muttered, “and I suppose it’s your academy as much as ours.” Her voice strengthened. “Fine,” she said, “but only if Nym and Penny agree.”

“I’ll go,” Nym said, though she looked a little nauseous saying it.

“Me – me too, I guess,” Penny added.

Loria looked between her two friends. “Ma’am,” she said suddenly, “put me in command, please. Vince will be preoccupied protecting us, and Penny and Nym will have to focus on the pillar. I’ll make sure everyone makes it back in one piece.”

The Headmistress looked at her for a long second before finally nodding. “Fine.” Her voice sharpened further to one of a commander giving orders. “Cliff, point the pillars out to Jericho, so he can communicate the plan to everyone fighting. Loria, take command. Vince, you’re on defense. Nym and Penny – follow Loria’s orders.” She turned to the other teachers. “Reilly, Thames, Silvers, rally at the other three pillars. Normally, I’d be hesitant to rely on students to protect the rest of us, but I’m afraid normal went out the door when these sons of bitches thought it was a good idea to attack my academy. We have one shot at this, people, or we might all end up under six feet of rubble. Get out there, and show them why our academy is so renowned.”