Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

El rocketed down the street towards the shoreline, a quick glance at her arm showing the rune-inscribed bandages holding her arm tight against her chest. With the aid of her wings and flames for balance, being down an arm hadn't been quite as challenging as she'd feared. Her natural affinity for flying had compensated for her balance being different, and Felps's sword had made it so she didn't need a second weapon.

Yet.

Will that change if a seawyrm shows up?

She put the worrisome thought from her head – it was a problem she'd deal with it if it reared its large, ugly, water-spitting head. For now, there were just hangnails. Then again, if they were in Salid – far from Wirock and the rings – how were they planning on getting prisoners back? Nexin had mentioned some kind of underwater ship.

"Beddy," El said as she blasted out of the street to reach the dock. Even before her next words left her mouth – or the Corporal had a chance to respond – El twisted and flared just her left wing. Spinning like a flaming top, she smashed into the pair of surprised hangnails. Grey limbs and claws flew into the air, along with an unhealthy amount of blue blood, and El cut the flare to her wing and ignited one at her feet.

She jerked sideways at a ninety-degree angle, blade blurring bright blue and cutting through the next monster in front of her. Glasses, who'd been flying down to engage the monster stopped short at her surprise entrance, mouth hanging open.

El didn't have time to small chat, spotting another trio of hangnails scaling a wall towards a roof where a couple spectated like this was all a show. Idiots. A flare from both wings shot her past Glasses – surprise still on his face – and she drew back her weapon. If she timed this right, she could catch all three monsters as she passed.

"Have your folks watch the water for any kind of ship beneath the surface," she said to finish her earlier communication just as she reached the wall. More power from her Spark pumped into the blade as she swung, the backside of it igniting like it had its own wings to add more thrust to her swing. Not that she needed it.

With the hangnails so conveniently lined up, and only the closest one even starting to look in her direction, El's sword drove in hard. Maybe a little too hard as stone parted along with the hangnail bodies during her strafing run. She'd slightly misjudged the length of the sword – Whoops – but at least the monsters were dead. Nothing a few repairs won't fix. Probably.

"Beneath the surface…?" Beddy's voice reached El as she angled herself up higher to scout for more hangnails. "As in underwater?"

"Correct, Corporal," El said. "If these things are looking to take prisoners, they need a way to transport those…" she trailed off, eyes on a patch of thick fog crawling along one of the docks. "Get these hangnails under control, I'm going to go say hi to our other guest."

"Yes Ma'am," Beddy said, not even questioning her giving him an order.

That done, El sheathed her sword back through its hole to the In-Between, then flared in the direction of the fog-covered dock while flames swirled in her open palm. Without her other arm, using a bow wasn't in the cards, but she'd managed to figure out another trick back on Wirock. The roiling fire in her palm quickly spiralled outward in both directions, until she had a churning, eight-foot-long spear of blue flame.

She couldn't risk going into the fog – not if it could control one of those massive fog beasts or somehow damper her powers like what happened to Dayne. So, I'll make it come out… or just blow it straight to the Pyre.

Focusing her power on the spear in her hand, El clenched her fingers and the flame along with it. The fire condensed to the plasma state so quickly El almost lost it in surprise, but a quick look showed her holding a bar of blue so bright it stung her eyes. The air around her hand was already thickening as the ambient moisture flash froze, and blue flames crawled up to her elbow. It didn't hurt or restrict her movement, so El put it out of her mind as she cocked her arm back.

"Welcome to Salid," she muttered, body pivoting in the air until she was practically flying upright. Her boots skidded lines of blue flame along the air until she felt traction, then she twisted her core muscles and hurled the spear at the dock.

I hope those planks are as easy to fix as Singel was saying…

The spear cut a line of piercing blue through the air – leaving an afterimage as if she'd looked at the sun – until it reached the fog, freezing the cloud instantly. Then it…

WHOOSH-BOOM!

Just like when she'd fired her plasma arrow into the sea next to the Bucking Bride, spikes of vicious ice erupted skyward as the water explosively expanded. There wasn't even a cry of pain as not one, but two bodies of the strange blue humanoids came bursting out of the fog, torn and broken on the ends of icy spines. More than sixty feet wide, and just as tall, the sudden porcupine of ice completely shredded the bodies – and the fog that'd been hiding them.

More than that, a dozen additional hangnail bodies stood skewered across the frozen seawater, and El spotted a large, dark shape beneath the waves next to the dock. From where she hovered, the shape – easily as long as the dock, and definitely wider – looked to have been speared or at least partially encased by the ice expanding underwater.

Gotcha!

Another spear of blue flame immediately ignited in El's hand, but something darted out from the side of the submerged ship, then burst free of the water fifty feet out. Riding on what looked to be a throne of dark water, another of the blue humanoids looked imperiously at El as it rose in the air. Holding her attack to see what the creature would do – or say – the thing didn't stop rising until it flew high enough to look down on her.

Actually, unlike the others she'd seen – were they even the same species? – this humanoid's skin wasn't just blue. From what she could see of its torso and above, the chest was mainly white, while the arms themselves were a dark blue or black. The head and face, though it had the same kind of fin running along the centre of its head and down the back of its neck, was a mix of the black and white. Eyes like the bottomless depths of the ocean stared hard at her.

"Who are you supposed to be?" El asked. The dark water carrying the creature had a similar feeling to what had coated the Fathom's avatar, but there wasn't anywhere near the same terrifying aura.

In reply, the humanoid's mouth moved, dangerously pointed teeth appearing behind the tight lips, and a series of… clicks came out. While she couldn't understand the words – if that's what they were – she got the very distinct impression it wasn't nice. In fact, she was pretty sure it'd just said something about her mother being related to a…

"What is a burning… walrus?" she asked. "You know what, never mind. If I can understand that, it means you can probably understand me. So, here's your one warning. Surrender."

Click, click, clickety click, it responded.

"That… that's just rude," she grumbled. "You had your chance." With that, El whipped her arm forward, the flaming spear leaving her fingers and rocketing towards the crude humanoid. Without even shifting on its throne, dark water bubbled out of the base of the chair and then grew into an opaque wall in front of it within the blink of an eye.

WHOOSH! The spear collided with the dark wall and erupted in a ball of blue flame that completely blocked El's view of her enemy. Not that she waited to see if her initial attack ended the fight – something about that water made her think it wasn't over – and she whipped Felps's sword out of its In-Between sheath. Blade already glowing blue from the connection with her Spark, El flared her wings and shot out to the side, flipping as she went.

Thirty feet out, she flared from the soles of her feet, stopping her like she'd hit a wall. As soon as her knees bent – and her frost armor absorbed the momentum – she flared her wings and feet again to rocket straight in at the side of her floating opponent. The blue flames from her earlier attack receded at the same time, and the humanoid's eyes went from imperious indifference to unnerved shock at seeing her coming in so fast from its left.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Still, even with the element of surprise, El didn't arrive before another wall of dark water sprung up between her and her target. Not going to be that easy to stop me. Pushing power into her blade, blue flames burst out of the back side of it, accelerating her swing as she struck. The moment the sharp edge made contact with the water, icy veins spread like crystal lightning within the liquid, and El's sword began to part the barrier.

Unnerved shock moved to full-blown panic on the creature's face, but El could already feel the resistance building against her weapon. No problem, and she flared her right wing, kicking herself out to the front of the monster. At the same time, her blade dragged along the wall of water, the edge splitting the barrier even deeper as it cut the water like it was a single, solid substance. Then, the instant El cleared the shield, she flared her wings again.

Blue fire gushed out behind her, flash-freezing the water at the front of the shield and shooting El past. Some of the dark water clung to her sword, not freezing immediately like before, but El had to put it out of her mind as she was already flipping mid-air to eject flames from her boots. Suddenly dozens feet out again, she launched back in at the creature's opposite side. Maybe it was ready for the maneuver, or maybe it just reacted quickly, but tentacles of the dark water shot out to intercept her.

El didn't hesitate or slow as she dove back in, blade at the ready. Flaring her small wings as she went, she ducked under the first tentacle, whipped left to evade the second, then straight-up rolled over the third, all within twenty-feet. And, having seen the Stormbearer back when it tore apart the Boomers, El wasn't caught off guard as the liquid tentacles sprouted vicious hooks along their lengths to try and catch her.

Slash, and her sword left a crescent of plasma blue in her peripheral vision as it severed all three tentacles at once, and simultaneously cocked her sword back for the next strike. Suddenly, right in the monster's face again, she swung, flaring power out of the back of the sword. Small streamers of the dark water still clung to her blade in wisps trailing behind her swing, but they didn't slow her attack. In fact, they had no noticeable effect, so she tabled the strange phenomena for later.

Predictably, the monster erected a double layer of dark water between El's sword and its own face, and just in time. Her blue sword punched right through the first shield, icy veins carving apart the water before the whole thing froze and instantly shattered into dust. The second layer, though, reinforced by all of the monster's concentration – from the look on its face – managed to stop her weapon. Small watery tentacles grasped the blade, almost as if they were trying to worm their way inside, but the thing's throne seemed weaker – thinner – than it had before.

Just like I planned.

With the tiniest smirk and another flare of power into the sword to continue pushing it forward – all within the blink of an eye – El released her hold on the handle, arched her back, and flared her wings. Up and over she went, her sword staying behind and holding her opponent's attention. Too late, it realized she wasn't there anymore, and it looked up at the same time El rolled in the air.

Flames roared in her right hand, a thick warhammer solidifying and then condensing to the plasma state even as she came around. Try to talk about my mother with a…

WHAAAAAM, her hammer slammed into the creature's skull with the full force of her frost-armor-enforced strength and her rotation. And, without the dark water arriving to protect her enemy, the result was as swift as it was dramatic. Just the initial touch of her attack turned the black and white skin a shade of faint blue, before the might of her swing completely shattered the head like cheap glass. Just like that, nothing beyond a frozen stump stood upon the creature's shoulders, and El flashed past.

By the time she turned around, both her opponent and the dark water it had sat on were falling towards the surface of the sea – along with her sword.

Felps will kill me if I lose the sword… or the body.

A thought doused the hammer in her hand and then sparked new flames in her empty palm. A connection formed with the In-Between even as she dove after the falling body, a flick of her wrist opening a small portal beneath the descending sword. With the weapon 're-sheathed', El flared her wings to dive after the corpse, and her fingers closed around the thing's ankle just before it reached the sea.

"Gotcha," she whispered, arching her back to swoop away from the water. A mental tug returned the In-Between sheath to her shoulder, and El flew back to the shore. Either the loss of the three humanoids – or the pummeling at the hands of the Firestorm – had chased off the remaining hangnails, and El found Beddy and his wing waiting for her. Obviously tired, but waiting.

"Special-Sergeant," Beddy said, with a snappy salute.

"Corporal," El replied. "Report?"

"We've managed to fend off the incursion," Beddy said.

"With your help," Glasses added in not-so-quietly.

Beddy nodded like he agreed. "We've counted thirty-one enemy corpses, including the ones you dispatched."

"Any casualties on our side?" El asked while she looked down at the civilians milling about in the streets. One of them was even poking a dismembered hangnail. "Did they manage to drag anybody off?"

"Felina?" Beddy turned to the only woman on his team.

"Several injuries," she said. "Nothing life-threatening. The worst will probably have a limp after the wound heals. As for captives… none that I know of. But, in the madness of the fight, it's possible they slipped one under the waves."

El shook her head… then the corpse dangling by its ankle in her hand. "While the hangnails can breathe underwater, their captives can't… probably. The ship they would've needed to transport any prisoners is frozen to the bottom of the dock…"

"What dock?" the Firestorm who knew an uncomfortable amount about El asked. Did I ever get his name?

Instead of asking, El rotated in the air to look back at where the dock was. Well, had been. It… would be a little more than just replacing the wooden slats. Instead of a dock – or even the wreckage of one – El's iceberg stretched into the sky and glinted in the sunlight, thirty feet tall with monster bits and blood staining it. And then there were the stone remnants of the impressive docks Singel had gone on at length about.

Whoops.

"Ahem," El said, finishing her complete three-sixty rotation to return to facing the other Firestorm. "The ship…" she emphasized the important part, "… is no longer a threat. I suspect these guys had something to do with moving it." At that statement, she held up the dangling corpse.

"Is it still alive?" the stalker-Firestorm asked.

"It's missing its head," Felina pointed out.

"My question stands. We don't even know if it had a head in the first place."

"It's quite dead," El said. "And it had a head."

"What happened to it?"

"It asked too many questions," El said flatly. "Then it got in the way of my hammer. Clear?"

"Crystal, Ma'am," the stalker said with a tight salute.

"Good. Now, this… guy here, it's not the same as the other two back on the doc… er… by the ship. I'll need you to collect the bodies…"

"Felina. Stocker," Beddy said.

The woman and the… stalker… saluted their corporal, then darted out to get right to it.

"Wait, his name is…?"

"Stocker. It's unfortunate given how much of a… fan… he is of you," Beddy admitted.

"I can't believe his parents would do that to him."

"You would, if you met them."

"Right… well… okay. That aside, any of you know anything about biology? I'd like to know if this one is a different species than the others, or if it's just stronger. The ones I fought before could only control the fog – something you'll need to watch out for, by the way – but this one controlled some kind of dark water. Same kind of stuff I saw on the Fathom's avatar. That makes me nervous there's more to the Depths than we knew."

"I have some experience," Glasses said. "Enough, at least, to do a very basic autopsy."

"Great, I don't even know what gender this thing is…"

"It's male," Glasses said immediately.

"You can tell just like that? How?"

Glasses coughed into his hand and nodded at the corpse in El's hand, so she looked down and…

"What are you… whoa," she said, immediately looking away again. Without the dark water, she hadn't quite noticed the thing wasn't wearing pants. Yup, definitely a male. But… wow, that looks uncomfortable. Why does it need… claws there…?

"Would you like me to take that?" Glasses asked as El looked everywhere but at the very naked humanoid in her hand.

"Please," El said, handing over the body when Glasses came over. "After the comments it made, that's just icky."

"Comments? It spoke to you?" Glasses asked, far more interested in the question than the specimen in his hands.

"Clicked at me. It had some kind of language. I don't know, it was weird. I'm pretty sure I didn't understand the clicky-words it was using, but I got the gist of what it was saying. None of it was nice, just so you know."

"So you hammered its head off?" Stocker asked, returning with Felina and the two other corpses of the… what?

We'll need a name for these ones. Foggies doesn't work since this one used water. Rude bastards? Clickers… for how they talk. Yeah, that'll be great. Everybody will love it.

"No, that was because of the questions," El reiterated.

"Take the corpses down to that warehouse," Glasses interrupted, pointing to a large building near the water on the corner of the docks. "They have an empty freezer there that'll slow the bodies' decay. Special-Sergeant, how long will you be staying?"

"Not long. I've got a pressing matter… ah burn it. Actually, there is one thing you need to know before I go. Though, it may provide some help for the autopsies," El said, remembering the original Salidians waiting to come through the gateway. She had to make sure they were taken care of, then she needed to get to Sol before he went hunting for the other ring. She'd already delayed too long in the In-Between. If the Depths really did have a limited army, it gave the Pycrin and Pilish forces a much better chance at winning this war.

A chance they'd lose if Sol got his Storm stolen, and unleashed an endless number of hangnails and seawyrms.

El's eyes trailed to the clicker corpse in Glasses hands.

Or whatever worse they still have waiting for us.