Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

This couldn't be the end. Not yet.

Wulf couldn't move as fast in the linked golem as he was used to in the open air. But he was used to the feeling. He was already tilting his head to the side as the Fiend's spear drove downward, already wrenching Emerald Vanguard's shoulders away, and already reaching up with his hand.

For a regular Low-Coal, the feelings of controlling an Oronith would've been completely foreign, and the entire experience would've been an awkward chain of lurches—if they could even get it moving at all. But half of the matter was experience, and with his new method…Emerald Vanguard was moving with almost the same speed and smoothness as he was able to pilot Fiendhammer.

He gripped the colossal fiend's spear and clenched his fist around it, willing his stone fingers to tighten, then hauled himself upward.

"Kalee!" he called. "I'm about to throw the fiend off. Can you slam it into the ground as it falls?"

"Got it!" she said, and immediately, began another spell Skill. She whispered softly, speaking in the hushed ancient language of spellcasting—unintelligible to Wulf.

Wulf punched the Fiend in the center of its face, where a nose-like lump protruded between its eyes. A spurt of black blood, smoke, and ash sprayed to the side. He smashed his knee into its gut, then dragged his legs under him, carving through topsoil, clay, and bedrock. Shouting with effort, he gripped the Fiend's shoulders, and with Emerald Vanguard's strength, tossed the beast onto its back. His breaths whistled inside his golem's helmet, and desperate panting washed back into his face.

The fiend tried to stand up, but Kalee unleashed a spell Skill, and another runic circle lit up on the ground beneath the beast. The fiend's weight doubled, and an invisible wave washed down from above. It fell onto its back, crushing what remained of its spindly wings. They snapped off and melted into ash and dust.

Wulf shouted aimlessly, giving himself the strength to pick up his warhammer and stand Emerald Vanguard back upright. He hoisted the warhammer back over his head, then leaned back, and, gripping it with two hands, approached the fiend.

A human would've run. A human would've held up a hand in desperation, knowing it was beaten. The fiend didn't.

The fiend, while it had to know it was beaten, looked up and smirked at him. Malice lit its eyes.

Wulf slammed the hammer down on its head. One hit, and its exoskeleton of black bone—hidden beneath a cloud of swirling smoke—cracked. The second caved its head in entirely.

The fiend fell still. Wulf fell limp against the inside of his golem, barely moving it, panting to catch his breath. The back of his head felt light, and a pressure built behind his eyes. Specks whirled in his vision. Thank the Field he hadn't eaten breakfast, or he would've thrown up.

"Kalee?" Wulf called softly. "You alright?"

"I'm alright."

"Seith? Irmond?" Wulf asked through the communication construct.

"I'm alive," Seith replied. "A little bit of mud in my…everywhere, but I'm fine. Trying to mend the connections in your flank where that gash is, otherwise your leg is going to start losing its link to your golem."

"I'm alright!" Irmond replied. "But…watch out behind you! There's another coming!"

"Damn it!" Wulf exclaimed. He straightened himself out, then rammed his arms all the way back into the golem's sockets. He only had about half of his storage core mana left, and it was depleting fast.

As he spun around, an impact jarred the Oronith to the side, and he lurched. His golem bit into his shoulder, and his skull crashed against the inside of his helmet. His neck twinged where his dream socket jostled.

A fiend, about the same as the first—which the enchanted parchment banners in the cockpit also identified as Low-Iron equivalent—gripped Emerald Vanguard by the waist, then, taking a wide stance, lifted him like a wrestler trying to break his opponent's back. The world spun, disorienting Wulf. His hammer slipped out of his grip, and he tried to punch the fiend, but he couldn't get the right angle.

Then he flew.

The fiend, bellowing in its deep, vibrating down, threw Emerald Vanguard back toward the city. They spun through the air. It felt slow, but Wulf couldn't tell. He shifted, trying to right himself and stand upright to land on his feet, but it wasn't fast enough.

He knees smashed a trench of destruction in the housing districts at the edge of Arotelk, and he slid backward. His back crashed through a raised bridge for wagons and carriages, and his arm, out to the side, cleaved through the remains of a guild tower.

Dust, stone, and wood rained down. Wulf hunched forward, using his back as a shield from debris, and hoping that Irmond and Seith had made it to his front in time avoid being shredded by the shrapnel.

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Mana sparks rained down from the ceiling, and ink flared across the sheets of enchanted parchment in warning. Messages about internal system damages washed across the paper, and for the most part, he ignored it—the main sentiment was that they'd taken significant damage. He agreed. The dream-link transmitted faint pain into his mind as the dream nodes took damage.

Grunting, he pushed himself up. His hand smashed down through the roof of a building and crashed a few storeys before coming up against a hard stone surface. His hammer was gone, but the fiend wasn't. It lumbered toward him still, hauling itself over the hills and through the sheeting rain.

For the most part, it looked like civilians had escaped. There weren't many on the streets anymore, and those that remained were running. But if the fiends wouldn't let him keep the fighting away from the city, then he had to at least try to contain it.

As he hauled himself back to his feet, the third fiend rose from the demon sphere. It tilted its head back and roared, then lumbered after the first, making straight toward them. The Field identified it as a Low-Iron just the same.

Wulf glanced at Kalee. She had a straight, determined expression. They were going to face this together.

"Uh…Wulf!" Irmond called through the communication construct. "They're coming! You see this, right? How can we beat that? Like, we almost died to one!"

"We keep hitting them. Either they die, or we die." He raised his fists. "Let's just hope we want to live more than they want to kill us."

"You're impossible!" Irmond called.

"Just don't fall on your back!" Seith shouted. "I'm repairing your rune-lines down your back, and if you fall, I'm gone!"

"Understood," Wulf said.

The first fiend reached him, opening a snarling, wide maw of obsidian teeth, backlit by glowing orange flame. It carried no weapon, but led with its face and sharp teeth like an animal trying to bite.

Wulf punched it across the cheeks, sending it sprawling across the street. It smashed into an administrative building, taking off half the marble facade and smashing the few windows that remained.

The second fiend was just behind. It wielded a hatchet of black wood and stone with a jagged head. Flame trailed it, smouldering in the rain.

Wulf jumped Emerald Vanguard to the side, then grabbed the second Fiend by the horns and drove his knee into its forehead. Its horns snapped off, and its head lurched back. It let out a horrid snarl, something that sounded vaguely pained, but that didn't deter it.

In fact, it didn't deter either of the fiends. Both charged, and this time, side-by-side.

"Got a plan?" Kalee asked.

"Can you slow one down?"

"I'll get the one with the axe. Hold out your arm—it'll conduct the spell better. But after this, I'm out of mana."

"Got it."

Wulf stepped back, and Emerald Vanguard obliged. Each footfall made craters in the street below. He held out his arm, lifting the Oronith's limb, and Kalee launched a spell along the arm. A runic circle appeared at the tip of the limb, and a corresponding circle opened beneath the fiend with the axe.

The beast slammed to the ground. Its hatchet tumbled out of its grip, and even the smoke from its body stopped rising. Chunks of its exoskeleton fell off, revealing dark red flesh.

"That was the last of my mana," Kalee said. "Any more, and I'll lose a tier."

"You didn't get anything for killing the first one?"

"Helping kill," she said. "And Mages don't gain mana until the fighting's done."

Wulf kept his arm stretched out until the first fiend drew near, then gripped its wrist and tugged it forward. It stumbled forward—right into his second arm and a waiting fist. The impact broke its skull, but didn't shatter it completely.

"Wulf!" Irmond called. "The second one's getting up! It's circling around behind us!"

The first Fiend grabbed his hands and wrists, and with great effort, pulled his arms to the side—the linked golem mimicked the motion, pushing against Wulf's body, and nearly tearing his shoulders. He shouted, then lifted his leg and kicked the fiend in the thigh.

Stone cracked from the effort and exertion. He couldn't move, and the rune-lines to Emerald Vanguard's arms had to be dimming and weakening.

"Behind us!" Kalee called.

Yelling with exertion, Wulf rotated, spinning the fiend and smashing it through a clump of towers, before holding it directly in the path of the second charging fiend. The beast's horns penetrated the first fiend's back, cracking through exoskeleton and piercing the flesh below. The beast hollered. Wulf punched it in the chin, then dragged it to the side, ripping it off the horns and tearing more of its flesh open on its companion's horns.

The fiend fell backward onto the road, crushing wagons and crates and barrels.

But there was still one last fiend, and Emerald Vanguard was falling apart. Chunks of stone plating fell out of alignment off its arms, and Wulf strained just to hold them in a fighting position.

A message crossed the sheet of parchment in front of him.

[Critical Rune-Line Damage. Un-Link Immediately.]

He couldn't. There'd still be one Fiend rampaging around the city, tearing up buildings and killing people.

"I've only got about an eighth of my storage core left," he told Kalee. "I can punch it once or twice, but that's about it."

"I'll get Seith and Irmond back inside," she said, unplugging her sockets.

"I'll keep the cockpit intact as best I can."

The third beast charged, running with its head down, and pounced. Emerald Vanguard limped as he pulled it to the side. Its hands dropped, but he willed one arm up, trying to drive an uppercut into the beast's face. He hit its shoulder, and its clawed hand grazed the cockpit, shattering the glass visor. Wind, smoke, and rain whipped inside. He coughed.

With the very last of his mana, he punched the beast in the cheek, sending it stumbling to the side, but that was it. No more left. His golem unlinked automatically, and the already damaged arms of Emerald Vanguard crumbled to dust.

He pushed out from the center of his golem and knelt on the floor of the cockpit.

They'd done exceptionally for Low-Coals. They'd killed two out of three fiends.

But the third was still there. It was still approaching, and there was nothing he could do about it.