Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

Later that evening, with a set of new cuts and bruises adorning her body from her private lesson after class, Emily shows The Claws to her friends at dinner.

“Woah, that’s so cool!” Tom fawns over the weapons.

Hester spares them a glance, as Emily explains the internal mechanism, but she doesn’t show much interest. Juliana frowns slightly when they are first revealed, but still listens intently to Emily’s explanation.

“...springs are under the plates on the back because I plan on changing that system a little after I work out a few issues.”

Emily finishes answering all of Tom’s queries and pulls her sleeves back over the Claws before turning to start eating. They eat in comfortable silence for a few minutes until Juliana leans in and whispers to Emily.

“You know, Emi. I’d prefer if you showed me one of your clockwork birds instead of weapons.”

“Sorry Jules,” Emily chuckles apologetically. “I really enjoy making weapons, so I’m probably not gonna stop. But I promise I’ll make you something less violent at some point.”

“Jules?” Juliana questions softly, staring at Emily with wide eyes.

“Well, if you’re gonna give me a nickname, it’s only fair,” Emily responds while sticking her tongue out.

Juliana giggles lightly and smiles as she returns to eating, quickly distracted from her concerns over Emily’s crafting habits.

 

***

 

Returning to her room alone after eating, Emily sets about making a second set of Claws. As the sound of steam and grinding metal fills the room, she thinks over her priorities for the foreseeable future.

I need to start signing up for more classes soon. Before I can take the Claws or Steam Source to E-Rank, I need some lessons on engraving and possibly spell creation.

She glances over at the trays of powdered mana crystal.

And maybe alchemy before I mess about with those...

 

***

 

Emily spends the next two weeks balancing meditation, tinkering with her machines, spell creation, and lessons.

She signs up for Engraving and Beast Studies, the prerequisite to Alchemy. Her first engraving class turns out to be redundant, as she’s given a brief explanation on the subject before being handed a list of books to read before she can join the class in their next lesson.

Beast Studies, taught by Mr Eleocharis, is more useful. They look at sand stalkers, a familiar beast to her. To her surprise, she finds out that sand stalkers actually have a use in alchemy, with their tendons being a semi-valuable magical reagent.

She also attends her last Elemental Selection, where she is given a pass and sent off one hundred points richer by Jenny after displaying her gesture casting of burning hands. She follows up by passing Etiquette early after completing a short, written test, using the contents of a few textbooks she memorized to avoid the boring lesson.

Her uneventful two weeks come to an end as Emily walks into her fourth hand-to-hand combat lesson fifteen minutes early, as has become a habit now, to find the room empty other than Jeremy and Kyle. Both have their weapons on them, but she thinks nothing of it, walking towards a corner of the room to get warmed up.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the prodigy herself,” Kyle says with a condescending sneer as they slowly approach her.

Emily looks up at the two, unamused.

“Aww, was your little ego bruised by me passing the lesson you’ve been stuck in for months?” she responds to their animosity in kind.

“Silence commoner scum,” Jeremy spits on the floor at her feet as he speaks. “What gives you the right to speak back to your betters?”

“I don’t know, talent and mental acuity you’re clearly missing?”

Jermy’s face turns bright red, and he takes a step forward. Emily lowers her stance, ready to strike the moment he comes close. Kyle quickly grabs his friend’s arm and pulls him back lightly.

“Not yet,” Kyle hisses before turning back to Emily. “Now, we wouldn’t want anything unsavoury to happen here, would we?”

“I don’t know, I quite like where I was going,” Emily says with narrowed eyes, still holding a combat-ready stance.

“You see, a few weeks ago you showed off a very peculiar set of weapons.” Emily recognises the familiar glint of greed in his eyes as he speaks. “Our families would like to know who made those for you. If you tell us now, we can end this easily without any… issues.”

Emily snorts at his demand.

“Well tough shit, I’m not telling you a thing,” she sneers, poised and waiting for them to attack.

“Ahh, what a shame. The hard way it is then,” Kyle says with a sigh, releasing Jeremy’s arm and giving him a small nod.

“Boys! Fuck her up!” Jeremy calls out as he advances.

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily spots two bulky students she doesn’t recognise walking into the hall and closing the door behind them.

Juliana said no magic that harms students, right? Damn, this may be difficult.

Releasing a deep breath and focusing, her perception slows down as her targets approach. Jeremy steps in to throw a punch, and she ducks below, avoiding it by a fraction of an inch. She jams an elbow into his ribs as he passes, knocking him to the floor coughing. The moment she starts to rise though, a sword is thrust towards her face. Reacting quickly, she tilts her head to the side and leaps back.

Reaching up, she touches her cheek and feels a wet warmth on her fingers.

Are they actually trying to kill me?

Looking between the blood on her hand and Kyle’s sword, Emily feels rage bubbling in her chest.

“I guess the great prodigy can bleed!” Kyle jeers.

His two cronies help Jeremy up and then begin to surround Emily, each drawing a weapon. Jeremy takes the spear off his back, and the other two carry a sharp mace and a double-sided axe. Emily springs forward, attempting to take the initiative and strike Jeremy before he can level his spear, but the mace-wielding brute reacts in time, swinging for her legs and forcing her to step back.

She feels a tingle run down her spine and leans over backwards, watching an axe sail through the air where she once stood. Planting a hand on the ground, she pivots over, delivering her foot into the face of her attacker. He stumbles back with his nose bloody, giving her enough room to right herself.

As she lands and prepares to push her advantage, a foot flies in and catches her in the side of the ribs. Stumbling to the side and gritting her teeth through the pain, she leans to avoid a sword slash to her torso. The blade lightly grazes her exposed ribs, and she responds in kind, lashing out towards Kyle’s hand and engaging the Claw’s release mechanism while pouring a small stream of machina into it. The long, thin blade rockets out, cleanly severing two of his fingers.

Kyle drops his sword and screams in pain, alerting his friends to his plight. Their momentary loss of focus aids Emily, as she turns and bolts towards Jeremy, keen to remove the threat of his spear’s range. Sliding in past his guard she slashes her blade towards his chest, but he reacts just in time, swinging the back of his spear down and catching her in the shin. She falls as her foot is swept out from under her, before following through into a roll to avoid a falling mace.

Ignoring the searing pain in her shin and ribs, she swipes her other hand towards Jeremy’s back leg on her way past, extending a machina charged Claw as she does. The blade rips through flesh, leaving a spray of blood on the dirt as she rises and looks at her handiwork. Jeremy cries out in pain and tries to take a step back, only to fall as his foot doesn’t respond to him. Emily grimaces slightly at the sight of his foot hanging limp, the back tendons completely severed, but quickly regains her focus as another blade sails towards her.

She brings up both hands, catching the axe head between her two blades, twisting them and letting the axe fall harmlessly past her. She uses the thug’s momentum against him, stepping in as his heavy weapon falls and sliding a blade against his exposed forearm, digging deep till she hits bone. He grunts and drops his weapon. Handling the pain better than his masters, he continues fighting and lashes out, sending an elbow into Emily’s arm.

The weight behind the blow sends Emily staggering sideways towards an incoming mace. She twists to avoid the worst damage, getting caught with a glancing blow against her shoulder. She feels a pop and excruciating pain flare through her arm along with a stream of blood leaking from a set of gashes, but she ignores it and turns to face her other assailant. To her surprise though, Kyle is back on his feet as well and holding his sword in his left hand with a hasty bandage wrapping his right.

“You bitch, you’ll pay for this,” he growls through gritted teeth.

“Haha, maybe, but I suspect it won’t be today.”

Emily takes a few deep breaths to consider her attack options before bringing her hands together resolutely.

I really hope this doesn’t count as attacking with magic.

Wincing at the pain in her shoulder, she quickly weaves together a set of hand signs while closing the gap to push the offensive. As she steps into range, a fist and mace close in on her from either side. Hoping her gamble pays off, she steps to the side, avoiding the mace but taking the fist to her gut. As the impact lands, she releases a pained grunt and pours as much mana as possible into her spell before tossing the gathered ball of mana in front of her. She closes her eyes and wraps her healthy arm around her attacker’s fist.

All three assailants cry out in pain as her spell bursts in a radiant shower of light. Emily opens her eyes soon after, seeing them all clutching their faces, or trying to in the case of the man whose arm she has pinned. Making a quick decision, she releases his arm and slashes her blade down his inner forearm, disabling his last working hand and stepping away as he collapses with a scream.

She rushes the other two before they can recover, delivering a kick to Kyle’s chest and sending him tumbling to the ground, dropping his sword. The mace wielder manages to react as Emily focuses on him, raising his mace and sending it careening towards her with poor aim, his sight still hampered. The mace falls harmlessly past her with a slight twist of her torso, and she ruthlessly drives a Claw up through his exposed armpit. She watches with a sadistic grin as the bloody blade tears its way out through his shoulder before she rips it back.

Ignoring the wailing mess of a man as he falls, she releases a small sigh of relief and turns to face Kyle. He looks up as she approaches, growing pale and scrambling back to escape her. She smiles with satisfaction, seeing fear where earlier there had been nothing but haughty pride.

“What’s wrong?” she asks tilting her head. “I thought I was going to pay for this.”

She crouches over his defenceless form, stepping on his healthy hand as she does.

“Well? Where is your scary noble house to protect you now?” she asks as she raises a Claw above his chest, savouring the way he squirms in panic.

Before she can move though, the door to the training hall swings open. She looks over and sees Agnes walking in with a crowd following her.

“Why was that door closed?” Agnes calls out, looking around the room and pausing in surprise when she sees Emily surrounded by fallen students.

Emily clicks her tongue in disappointment as she makes eye contact with Agnes before driving her blade down into Kyle’s thigh. He screams in pain, drawing the full attention of the class as Emily whispers a final warning.

“Try something like this again, and you’ll lose more than a few fingers.”

Standing up, she wipes the blade on her shirt and begins making her way towards her teacher. As the adrenaline from the fight starts to wear off, she begins to limp slightly and winces at the pain she feels all over. Getting closer to the group, she sees a mix of fear and apprehension towards her, with only Oscar and a few others showing no reaction other than approval.

“What happened?” Agnes asks directly.

“Those assholes decided it was a good idea to attack me when I said I wouldn’t sell out my weapons source to their families,” Emily responds bluntly.

“I see,” Agnes scoffs, glancing towards the four collapsed forms with disappointment. “Sit this lesson out and go deal with your wounds. Do you need help with your shoulder?”

“No thanks, I’ll just ask a friend to help. Could you help me put my Claws away though?” Emily asks, not tempted to try to push against springs given the state of her arm.

Agnes nods and helps retract the blades on Emily’s wrists with practised ease.

“Good job,” Agnes says quietly. “Looks like you put our lessons to good use.” She then turns to face the fallen nobles with scorn: “Get out and stop bleeding on my floor.”

Emily laughs as she turns to leave. The crowd quickly parts to let her pass, but just before she steps out of the room, Oscar puts out a hand and lightly stops her. She looks at him with a brow raised in slight annoyance, waiting for him to speak.

“If you need a healer, look for Fionn on the service market. He’s sponsored by my family, so I’ll let him know to give you a solid discount if you want.”

“Thanks, I’ll look for him if I need it,” she responds briskly with a small, grateful smile before quickly leaving.

I’ll be fine with some disinfectant and sleep. Jules isn’t going to react well though, is she?