Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

There was no time to hook Wraith up to a squad of Thrustwings, and no matter what, it wouldn't have been faster. Wulf could run in Wraith faster than the birds could carry him.

The only problem was crossing the city. He travelled down the main roads and dodged expressway bridges. Most of the civilians had already rushed inside, either sheltering in the basements of towers or in specific fiend shelters. The roads were clear, but he tried to keep the damage to the infrastructure as minimal as possible. Each footfall still shattered roads and tore up bricks, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been.

And certainly not with how light the Wraith felt, how well its joints and the paalchite connections were holding up, and how it felt like the Field was purposely lightening the Oronith in accordance with Wulf's enhancements.

Or maybe he was just getting much stronger, and it didn't feel as difficult to push against his dream-linked control golem.

When he reached the harbour, he came to a halt. A gust of wind washed over Wraith's shoulder, and Irmond and Speckles landed. Irmond activated a communications construct, joining the channel.

"What're we up against?" he asked. "Also, be quick about it. There're two forks of demons coming."

"What do you mean?" Wulf asked.

"Forks?" Kalee asked.

[Elf boy speaks in confusing terms,] Wraith said.

"Ugh, bad phrasing," Irmond said. We got one wave approaching from the ocean, but they circled around. The main force is coming from the land. From the north. They're approaching the wall, like they're going to try to kick the gate down."

"Does Azanthius know? Or…Athllas?" Wulf asked.

"Looks like the wall spotters just…well, spotted them," Irmond said. "They'll arrive after the force hits us from the ocean."

Wulf scowled. "Acting with a lot more strategy and intelligence than they usually do…" He drew Wraith's swords, then stepped to the edge of the wharf.

"You think there's a demon-spirit around here?" Seith asked.

"How else would they have come up with a plan like that, instead of just running headlong at the wall?" Kalee replied. "There is a plan here, and someone's trying to spread our forces thin."

"And how else would they have gotten across the rest of Centralis without anyone noticing?" Wulf asked. "I'm no expert in geography, but they should have hit other cities first—unless they were specifically targeting Centralis."

"Where are the demon spheres?" Irmond asked. "I didn't see any—only the moon cracking apart."

"I didn't see any either," said Seith.

"They must have marched a long distance," Kalee said. "Over land."

"Probably from the desert," Wulf answered. "There's nothing in the desert, except a few settlements. Spheres would've crashed there. They would've had time to build up a large force of demons and deploy them on us at once."

"Guys…they're getting closer…" Irmond warned.

"Enough talk," Wulf replied. "We'll keep these guys out of the harbour and circle around to help defend the wall."

He jumped off the wharf and landed in an empty hulk-ship's berth. A tidal wave rose up around Wraith, washing over the harbour and making the abandoned cargo ships sway and bob.

He waded through the harbour, approaching the oncoming horde of demons from the water. There were already ten Oroniths outside the under-construction wall, and they clumped together to defend the opening.

Reinforcements would be coming. Lights already blazed across the now-distant academy, and a few teams of Thrustwings were lifting up the Oroniths for deployment. Wulf just had to hold off the demons until then.

"How much you wanna bet that whoever's commanding the demons left these guys to their own devices?" Wulf called as he sprinted toward the horde. There were nearly fifty of them, their horns glowing orange-red and their spindly wings smoking and steaming. A wall of vapour rose behind them, and the humidity fogged up the cockpit glass from the inside, until Kalee delivered a command to one of the parchment sheets beside her, and a construct wiped the glass clean.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"I'd put decent money on it," Kalee replied. "Decent."

"We're going to draw them off?" Irmond asked. "Like last time?"

"We're going to give it a try. Don't let them undo all our progress," Wulf said. He jumped over the under-construction wall, then approached the defenders. "Seith, can you patch us into their channel?"

"One second!" Seith replied.

[There are not very many of us,] Wraith said. [We will be destroyed.]

"I appreciate your concern, but I think we can handle them," Wulf glanced up at the sheets at the front of the cockpit. A few warnings about water seeping into the gaps of the legs, and a single stone muscle acting up from the impact of jumping into the harbour, but it resolved itself in a moment. The more important message was the readout about the strength of the incoming fiends.

[Colossal Fiend – Low-Gold]

"They're only Low-Golds," Kalee echoed. "We've taken out worse."

"You're connected!" Seith called.

Immediately, the chatter of forty Oronith crew members slammed into his ears. They were talking nervously amongst themselves. Most of the defending Oroniths were rated at Silver or below, but there was one Gold. Wulf couldn't pick out any specific sentences, but the mood was dire.

He cleared his throat as he ran up behind them, but no one quieted. Grimacing, he called, "Quiet! Listen, all of you! Where is your commander? Who's in charge of the night watch?"

The chatter faded away immediately. A few of the other Oroniths glanced back, and murmurs of "Wraith" and "Silent Wraith" immediately sprang up.

Finally, someone said, "The fiends jumped Tall Man when they first arrived. He was out at sea. His entire crew is gone."

That had to be their commander. "Alright, listen," Wulf said, "I need you to get the demons close together. They view the city as their target, as their biggest threat. You need to convince them that you're the best target. Get close, activate spell Skills, and get your Rangers to attack them."

"And get them to all hit us at once?" someone asked.

"I have a plan." Wulf pushed through the crowd of Oroniths, turning side to side. He held one of his swords in a reverse grip, and one in a proper grip. "I'm going to switch back to private channels now, and you should too. Do you remember your academy hand signals? Use them to communicate. Stay focussed, stay alive."

The chatter cut out, and Seith said, "We're back on our private channel."

"What is the plan?" Irmond called.

"Funny you ask," Wulf said. "I need you to pick and mark the fiend at the very center of their formation, once they start grouping up."

"Mark a fiend?"

"With your arrows," Wulf said. "Wraith knows what they look like, and…" Wulf concentrated on the sheet hanging directly beside him, which displayed an ever-changing map of the harbour. Each of the fiends appeared as a dot as the Field registered them. "Wraith can mark the central point on our map. Our target."

[I can,] Wraith confirmed. [But he must only shoot one arrow.]

Wulf relayed the same message back to Irmond, then held his daggers up. "Alright, Seith. We have that new poison I made stored away in the Smokeblades?"

"We do? But how will this help?" Seith replied.

"You'll see. Just keep us moving."

By now, the other Oroniths turned themselves into targets. Rangers fired enhanced arrows into the crowd, and they whistled through the air with a crack-boom at their speed. Shots cleaved off fiends' armoured horns or gouged their armour, and they targeted the stragglers. Soon, all the fiends were narrowing to a point, approaching the center and marching directly toward the crowd of Oroniths. Mages launched spell Skills, sending up walls of ice or concentrating beams of flame at their fiends.

"Irmond, now!" Wulf called.

Irmond and Speckles took flight, launching high up. Irmond leaned over the side of his Thrustwing and fired an enhanced arrow. Wulf didn't see where it landed, but his map narrowed. All the fiends became hollow circles, except one, which Irmond had marked.

"There's our target." Wulf held out his blades and charged forward. He slid under a fiend's club and turned sideways to navigate between a pair, then kicked off one and jumped onto another's shoulders, giving himself a direct shot at the center of the cluster.

"This had better be enough!" he shouted. Wraith lost altitude, falling slightly, and he pointed his swords in the right direction.

The fiend at the center looked up, but it was too late. Wulf drove one sword into its neck, piercing the armour with ease, and another into its chest—he purposely missed the heart. Squeezing the hilts, he injected poison into the fiend, then hauled the blades out and dove away.

Wraith couldn't swim, but he rolled through the water, then sprinted out toward the ocean until the water came up to Wraith's chest—far enough to be out of danger.

A few fiends were turning, trying to get to him, but he wouldn't let them. Triggering [Deadline], he instantly killed the fiend he'd stabbed. The poison melted its veins and ripped apart its heart.

Then a wave of raw power raced away from the detonation, shaking the other nearby fiends. Ten dropped dead from the impact, their internals turned to a slurry by the shockwave. Another ring of them was sliced in half, and the rest were launched off their feet and thrown aside.

"Ah," Kalee said. "So that's what you wanted."

He nodded. "Now it's time to clean them up."