Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

Wulf and Kalee had no audible communication. They picked the same fiend, reading each others' minds without concentrating, and attacking at once. Wulf knew she was planning a skill, so he held out his arm, making it easier for her to target and place the attack.

As orange runic circles sprang up beneath the fiends, trapping them, or dragging them in one direction or another, Wulf placed his attacks, driving his short swords into their hearts or slicing off their heads.

But he kept close to the road. It wasn't like the ocean, where he had an easy way out, and a detonation that would kill the majority of the fiends. If they surrounded him and overwhelmed him, he was going to die.

More poured through the smoke. Where his early estimates said there were fifty of them, now he guessed there were more like seventy five.

It was the most fiends he'd ever seen gathered in one place, ever. Some broke off and charged toward the walls, but most were aiming straight for the gate, targeting the Oroniths on the ground.

Beside them, an Oronith collapsed with a rocky spear through its chest. Another's cockpit shattered into stone and glass shards when an axe slammed into its head.

Most of the civilians had made it through the gate, but the smaller demons were catching up. Ascendants and mortal soldiers on the ground held them off, though not for long.

"Wulf!" Irmond shouted, breaking his concentration.

Something snapped in his mind, and he fell out of synchronization with Kalee. He couldn't see what she was planning, and he couldn't transmit his own plans back.

"Wulf, they're waving the retreat flags!" Irmond shouted. "Get back inside the wall, or they're going to trap you outside when the gate closes!"

Two enormous wooden doors began swinging shut, shifting closer together, and portcullis lowered in front of it. Chains clinked and giantwood groaned, and the retreating Rubies ducked under the gate.

Wulf kicked back a fiend, then turned and ran back to the gate himself. He ducked under the closing portcullis when it was halfway down, nearly pushing Wraith onto all fours, then rose back to his full height and stumbled into the roadway beyond.

A few more Oroniths had arrived as reinforcements, but more were coming. Three more poured out of the academy hangar as Wulf watched, marching onto the road to help defend the gate.

Civilians rushed into the city, and the guards directed them to travel deeper in the city, before retreating back from the gate themselves.

The portcullis slammed into the ground, making the earth shake, and just in time. A fiend gripped the overlapping bars with its hands and shook it, making the whole wall rumble. An Oronith stabbed it with a spear, and a Ranger shot an arrow into its eye, before the gates closed in front of it and sealed it away.

"That gate can hold them, right?" Seith asked.

"No idea," Wulf replied. "It's never been tested."

"But it would've worked in your last life, right?" Irmond asked. "Like, you'd know how well the gate held up?"

"The wall never made it this far," Kalee replied. "We have no idea if the gate held up."

Wulf inhaled through his nose. "Stay on guard. This isn't over yet. We—"

The gate shuddered and creaked. Something boomed against the wood, and the crossbeam splintered.

"It'll buy us time," Wulf said. "And that's it."

"There's no alchemy you can do?" Seith asked.

"And show them all what I really am?" Wulf tilted his head. "I—"

"Wulf, you'll have to reveal yourself to the world at some point," Kalee replied. "We both will. Why not now?"

"I could transmute the gates into something stronger," he said. "Or, at least, the crossbeam holding them shut. That'd give us more time to gather Oroniths and push them back outside."

He chewed his lip. They were right.

More than that…no one was really mad about him being an Alchemist. The rumour was that he was a reincarnation of Panne—whatever nonsense that Black Pilgrim had been spreading. People expected him to save them.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

How badly would he let them down if he couldn't? It wasn't like last time, where he'd just been a little cog turning in a failing construct. People were watching him, trusting him, expecting great things of him.

He turned around and looked back at the city, where all the little lights glimmered and twinkled behind him. Hundreds of heads poked out from windows or watched from balconies, staring at the giant Oroniths protecting the gate.

He wouldn't have noticed before, he wouldn't have known, but most of them were looking at him. The Silent Wraith, with the glowing green veins.

He remembered the people of Arotelk cheering for him and his crew.

He could bring them hope.

"Just trust yourself," Wulf whispered to himself. "Take one last leap. You're the pilot. You wanted this."

He'd be letting them down if he didn't do everything in his power to fight. So what if the world knew he was an Alchemist? He wasn't a small-fry anymore. Azanthius wouldn't kick him out of the academy, not after all Wulf had done to help them.

He stepped forward, approaching the gate, and pressed Wraith's hands against the crossbar.

~ ~ ~

Gom Huteyn watched from afar, perching atop a distant hill. The attack in the harbour had failed. It hadn't drawn off the local forces for nearly long enough, and they were now gathering to intercept the main horde of demons.

He stayed far back, out of the engagement, allowing himself to watch with cool detachment, without feeling drawn into the conflict.

He kept stock of his impulses and habits. Most demons wouldn't notice. Most would just act. He fancied himself different, but he couldn't deny his frustrations. The wall was going to hold.

He hadn't even glimpsed the disturbance yet, but it was there. It was helping protect the city.

Scowling, he turned to his lieutenant and said, "Bust down the gate. Make them suffer before they win."

"Yes, Khinna. Shall we gather demons for yet another attack after, once they're reeling?"

Huteyn snorted. "No. Leave them to their business. We'll accelerate our construction progress. Your sacrifice will advance the species."

"Yes, Khinna."

~ ~ ~

Wulf couldn't pass essences through the Wraith's hands easily yet, but he didn't need to. There was time.

He climbed out the back hatch of Wraith's cockpit and ran down the Oronith's arms until he reached the gate and the crossbar keeping the door locked. He jumped off the hand and landed on the massive beam—chunks of giantwood pinned together.

"What are you doing?" Seith asked, swinging up around the arm and using a Skill that enhanced her strength and speed.

Irmond fluttered over on Speckles and landed beside him. "The demons are going to get through any minute."

"I can give us more time," Wulf replied. "But I need something to draw essences from. When a fiend punches through the door, I'll draw essences from it."

"There are plenty of fiends out there," Seith replied. "But good luck getting it to punch in the exact right spot. You're just a normal human out here."

"Which is exactly why I need Irmond to annoy them. Make them put a fist through the gate right above my head. And Kalee?"

"Yes?" she replied through the communications construct, still in the cockpit.

"I need you to keep the fiend in place long enough for me to transmute this beam."

"Got it."

Wulf pulled his scissors off his back and prepared himself. Any moment, a Fiend's fist was going to come crashing through that door, and he had to be ready. Irmond took flight, and Seith ran back to make some small repairs along the arm.

After a half minute of waiting, the gate above his head creaked and groaned. At first, Wulf worried that Irmond wouldn't even know where to get the Fiend to target, but the boy's senses should've improved massively by now. Being a Ranger, he should've been able to feel Wulf through the wall.

The fiend's fist crashed through the wood, breaking and splintering it. The dark red carapace blasted past, racing overhead—only inches above Wulf's skull. He reached up and jabbed it with his scissors, barely piercing between two plates. The fiend didn't seem to notice. It began pulling its hand back, but an orange glow erupted on the ground below. It tried to pull Wulf down, and the force of gravity doubled or tripled. He clenched his teeth. He could barely move, but he just needed to stay standing.

He kicked off one of his boots, then his sock, then pressed his bare foot against the beam. Shutting his eyes, he drew a steady steam of order out of the fiend's arm and pumped it into the beam.

He concentrated on just his target. The Field registered the beam as an individual item, containing the essences of the world.

His body trembled and tingled as he conducted the essences. He couldn't just move order if he wanted to shift the giantwood up the transmutation scales, though. There had to be a touch of chaos, too.

Once he'd moved all the order he wanted, shrivelling the fiend's arm to a husk and making it howl, he shifted to chaos. The fiend had much more of that available.

Eyes bored into Wulf's back as they watched him work. Other Oroniths, civilians, all eyes were on him.

This had better work.

When he'd pumped enough chaos over from the Fiend's arm, the beam resonated with a chime, shifting to a different substance altogether. He couldn't exactly remember his name, but it wasn't nearly as brittle. Even when the fiends' pounding on the gate doubled in intensity, the beam flexed, splintering at half the rate as before.

Irmond landed beside him and shouted, "That's not going to hold them forever! Get back to the cockpit and get us ready to fight again!"