Felix Pagonis leaned against the slightly vibrating windows, soaking in the light from the moon. His ride only emitted a dull humming despite the sheer amount of purple Arcani channelled into its circular technomagick engines to keep it aloft, courtesy of the Grand Artificers of Sirius City.
The airship he was in was a stealth one, meaning it was sleek black in colour and a lot thinner than the regular airships. Unlike commercial airships, which normally used a huge balloon to keep them floating, this airship had integrated levitation spells into its wooden holding area. As such, there was no need to distinguish between the holding area and the rest of the flotation device. The only drawback was that it could not hold as many people as a regular airship.
A never-ending sea of wispy clouds swam leisurely below the hovering airship, shielding it from any hostile prying eyes while the starry twilight sky blanketed it cosily. Most would pay a fortune just for a view like this, but Felix could not be bothered at the moment. He was on a mission.
And he was absolutely bored out of his mind.
“Alright, Guardians. Listen up,” a deep voice was directed at him. “I’m going to go through this one last time, just in case any of you weren’t paying attention.”
Felix shifted his body lazily and gave his leader the slightest fake smile he could muster at the moment.
“Target is a sky library just one hundred and sixty-two metres below us. Meta terrorists have taken over and are holding the entire place hostage. Their demands are unclear, and their motives are suspected to be racially charged.”
“What’s the point of taking a bunch of harmless Magi librarians hostage? They’re not proving anything by hijacking a place with such low security.” A guardian rolled his eyes, waving his hands around gracefully as protective symbols flashed over his cloak. “I swear, Metas are such dumbasses.”
Felix glared at him.
“Watch your words, Mage Palladius Severan. Might I remind you that our objective is to save people, not speculate about politics?”
“Yes, Warlock Vulcan.” Palladius looked away begrudgingly as he continued weaving protection spells into his robes.
“Preliminary intel reveals fifteen hostiles led by this lady, Lucia Angelo.” Warlock Vulcan hit the ground with his silver staff, conjured a holographic image of a green-haired woman. “She’s the second-in-command of the Angelo syndicate, so do take caution when dealing with her.”
Felix glanced at the brief description below the name. He made sure to take note of ‘Body transmutation: Organic quartz armour’ under the ‘Abilities’ header.
“Fortunately for us, most of them seem to be focused near the courtyard,” Vulcan continued his briefing. “Sorcerer Deusdedit, you’re in charge of clearing out the hostiles. Make some noise if you have to. We need their eyes on you.”
He turned to Felix.
“Pagonis, you’re his buddy for this mission. Provide him with assistance if he needs it. You can move things with your mind; try to keep the situation from getting too messy. As for the rest of us, we wait for their signal before extracting the hostages. This mission is straightforward; do not make me write another incident report.”
A gust of cold wind swept into the airship as the bay doors opened. Felix’s eyes darted to the Sorcerer, who, like him, had not uttered a single word ever since he boarded the airship.
Sorcerer Gaius Deusdedit was dressed in tighter, more tactical dark brown clothes instead of the loose, flashy robes Magis loved to sport. Felix’s brown hair ruffled in the wind as he approached him hesitantly.
“Hey Gaius, uh…” he started awkwardly, raising a fist for him to bump. “Let’s do our best, eh?”
Gaius shifted his narrow green eyes to his fist and back to him, insistent on keeping the awkward silence. He sprinted off without warning, leaping out of the doors and disappearing into the clouds.
“Rude…” Felix muttered.
“Was… Was he wearing a levitation cloak?” a concerned voice asked.
“No,” Mage Palladius replied, and Felix could almost taste the disgust in his response. Felix rolled his eyes as he prepared to jump off the airship as well.318Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5cxFVrTl1
“That unrefined boy never uses it.”
~ ~ ~
A tiny figure fell from the sky, practically invisible against the backdrop of the night sky covering him. His blonde hair tousled against the wind rushing in his face. A two-storey tall statue of Themis, the Goddess of Order, slowly came into view.
He flipped his body over, choosing to fall feet first instead.
Orange magic channelled into his feet as the figure began to slow down. He narrowed his eyes to focus on the tiny figure below him. The Sorcerer’s descent slowed even further until the solitary man patrolling the field became visible.
Gaius spun around, delivering an energised blow to his head.
The patrolling Meta collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes, none the wiser to what had even just happened. Gaius flipped elegantly and landed with nothing more than a soft thud. An orange glow flashed briefly in his eyes as he surveyed the area. He took off running.
Lightly armed Metas littered the courtyard. Some were merely holding bats, while others were even completely unarmed. They shuffled around complacently, confident enough in their powers to repel any hostile force without weapons. But that was a mistake.
“Fireball!”
A patrolling Meta turned around too late, and a fireball struck him squarely in his chest. But instead of being set on fire, his body flew backwards with the explosive force of a grenade.
The Meta’s head collided against a metal beam with a comical clang, knocking him out immediately. His limp body collapsed to the ground, and his fellow Metas powered up in response, searching for whoever threw that weird energy ball.
More ‘fireballs’ curved from behind a wall without warning, chasing their targets as though they were sentient.
The Metas lost all composure immediately as they scuttled around like wild chickens, desperately trying to avoid them. Most did not make it. After all, they were dealing with a member of the elite Guardian Council.
Gaius rushed into their midst under the cover of all the chaos, kicking one of them halfway across the courtyard with energised magic exploding from his foot. One of the Metas pointed at him as she yelled something incomprehensible, and the other Metas finally turned their attention to Gaius.
Bats and claws were flung in his direction, but he parried and dodged them effortlessly. It only took a few more fireballs to knock out the assailants surrounding him. A small movement caught the edge of Gaius’s peripheral vision as the energy within him screamed in warning.
His hand moved up almost by itself, catching an arrow right before it connected with his head. Gaius glared at the last Meta standing.
A barrage of arrows flew in his direction, but Gaius flipped his body like a seasoned gymnast and dodged all of them easily. The hostile Meta bellowed a war cry, relentlessly firing arrows from the numerous holes in his palms as he tried to keep up with Gaius’s erratic path of motion.
The Sorcerer somersaulted and channelled his magic into his feet, using its explosive power to leap five metres into the air.
Orange magical energy flowed from his feet back into his hands, turning white in the process.
This time, Gaius tossed an ice ball at the Meta instead, who raised his palms instinctively to fire his arrows at the incoming projectile. The ice exploded inches from his face as soon as the first arrow came in contact with it, instantly knocking the Meta out cold.
Silence swept the area once again as the Sorcerer landed softly on the ground.
He looked around. If his intel was correct, there should only be two hostiles left in the area: Lucia Angelo and one last Meta. Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found. So Gaius approached a random door to start searching for them—
“Hmm?” he grunted in discomfort as a strange feeling tugged at him. He clutched his chest.
The energy in his body seemed to be reacting to something. The boy closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, focusing his magic.
Gaius opened his eyes again, which were now fiercely glowing orange. The almost sentient magic in him had now directed his attention to an inconspicuous door. Normally, he would see no reason to find a simple annexe room suspicious, but he had learnt through the years to trust in what his magically enhanced vision showed him.
Still, this was unusual. His True Vision normally gave him a vision of possible futures and guided him to the most advantageous ones, but this was different. It was as though his magic was being drawn to something in that annexe room.
Gaius eyed the door suspiciously. It had also been years since he felt his magic react in this manner. Why, of all times, was it reacting like this during a simple extraction mission?
The boy walked cautiously towards the door—
“Sorry, but I can’t let you go in there yet.”
Gaius leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding a rocky fist swinging at him from nowhere.
The Sorcerer rolled to his feet, casting a stoic expression at the woman standing between him and the door. Her entire body seemed to be made of some kind of shiny obsidian rock, which shone and glinted as light hit it at jagged angles. Not that it stopped her from expressing her displeasure.
“You must be one of them Guardian Council bitches, ain’t ya?” The face-shaped cliff scowled at him. “They must be getting desperate if they recruited a teenager.”
Gaius kept his silence, although he immediately recognised who that was.
“All action and no talk, eh?” Lucia Angelo got into a fighting stance. “I can respect that.”
The Meta moved at a speed supposedly impossible for something so heavy, and Gaius made a mistake blocking her blow. He flew backwards from the enormous force and crashed hard onto the floor.
Gaius immediately recovered and jumped upwards, narrowly leaping over the human-shaped rock pirouetting towards him. Magic channelled into his hands.
Fireballs pelted against Lucia in retaliation, but they had little to no effect on her hardened skin. The Sorcerer flipped back to create more distance.
“Magic Missile!” he yelled as three blue glowing darts burst from his palm, striking his opponent directly. It did nothing to her.
Gaius gritted his teeth in frustration. This was a bad matchup for him, and he would run out of offensive spells before he could even put a dent in Lucia Angelo. Nevertheless, he had a job to do, and he’d be damned if he was going to let some oversized amethyst get in his way. After all, all he had to do was keep her attention on him until his colleagues saved the hostages.
He shifted into a martial arts stance as Lucia charged at him again—
“Ow!” Lucia shrieked as she crashed into a pink wall, which had materialised in front of Gaius out of nowhere. She fell to the ground, transforming back into a muscled woman in a loose-fitting tank top.
Gaius looked up at the figure descending gently beside him.
“You’re welcome.” Felix Pagonis landed gracefully, his eyes glowing pink with psychic power. “Next time, maybe don’t run off without your buddy, eh?”
“A Meta? And a strong one too,” Lucia hissed, still massaging her head in pain. “Traitor.”
The duo warily watched the criminal leader get back to her feet. “Two against one, eh? Should’ve known the Guardian Council wouldn’t play fair. No matter, my job here is done.”
An anguished, almost animal-like scream tore through the air as a sinister grin formed on her face. Heavy footsteps rumbled the ground from behind the annexe room door, and they were quickly getting louder. Gaius tensed his body apprehensively.
“Something’s coming,” Felix warned.
“Enjoy, boys.” Lucia cackled as she transformed into her crystal rock form again and leapt off to a nearby building.
The annexe door burst off its hinges and flew in their direction, giving the Guardians only milliseconds to react. Gaius tensed his legs to leap away, but a pink psionic dome formed around him.
He stood unflinching as the oakwood door shattered against the dome.
“That was close.” Felix put his hand down, although the shield stayed up.
An unfamiliar man staggered out of the room, clutching his head and screaming in agony. He panted raggedly as his arms transformed themselves into minigun barrels. And then he pointed them at the Guardians.
Bullets pelted against the psionic shield as Felix furrowed his eyebrows in focus. He flicked his head, and a stone table crashed into the Meta from behind, sending him sprawling onto the ground.
Felix put down the shield, and Gaius took the chance to leap forward.
Gaius quickly pulled out a set of Arcani nullifiers to restrain his foe, but the crazed man had already recovered. The hijacker snarled at the charging Sorcerer—
The concrete floor caved inwards, cracks spreading all over as a crushing telekinetic force pressed the hijacker back to the ground again.
“Hurry up!” Felix called out to Gaius, his eyes glowing pink as he held a hand out. “This guy’s unnaturally strong!”
The nullifiers clasped onto the Meta’s wrist with a faint whirring, blocking his Arcani channels promptly. Felix sat on the floor in relief as the hijacker’s arms regained their normal form. Gaius, on the other hand, was still staring at the man.
Felix turned to him. “We should inform the rest—”
“Wait.”
Gaius stepped back, looking apprehensively at the cracks beginning to form on the nullifiers. Felix got back up to his feet as well, keeping a close eye on the Meta as he approached him warily. He covered his mouth in shock.
“That shouldn’t be possible…”
“H— Help… me…” A dry gasp escaped from the Meta’s lips. “Help me… Help… Help me! GROAAH!”
“Holy shit!” Felix yelled as the nullifier shattered into a million pieces.
Gaius watched in horror as the Meta vomited a chunk of heated bullets at his colleague. Instinct moved faster than logical thought, and he stepped in front of Felix to take the hit for him.
Agony stabbed his whole body as Gaius stumbled back with several large holes in his chest, although he willed the pain away for the moment. He rushed forward and aimed two fingers at the Meta’s forehead.
A concentrated energy beam burst through the back of the man’s head, accompanied by a large splatter of blood.
And his lifeless body slumped to the ground.
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