—Chapter 7—

—Mages—

Kellan set Mavis down and then stepped in front of her. He no longer had his handgun, or the safety of his apartment, but he knew he wasn’t going to let anything happen to Mavis. In a matter of seconds, he took stock of the surroundings.

Broken sidewalk.

Cracked windows on the flower shop.

But the fog obstructed his vision…

“Stay behind me,” Kellan whispered. “When the machine attacks, run for it.”

“Wait, I have an idea.” Mavis gently squeezed the back of his shoulder. “Keep it distracted.”

The landscaping business was just as cracked and messed up at Kellan’s apartment complex. Unlike the complex, however, the building didn’t have Chinese characters—they were English. Easy to read. The side of the building read: OK Flowers and Gardening.

Apparently, in some dimensions, things were just mediocre.

When Kellan focused on the Pestbyter, his eyes filled with the same information he had gathered before.

Name: Pestbyter #56

Race: Semi-Sentient Construct

Magics: Metal, Eclipse

Rank: Impossible

Armor Rating: 5

Health: 20

Stats: Concealed

Abilities: Concealed

Rank: Impossible?

What did that mean? Was it like a military rank? Did it indicate hierarchy in a structure? Authority? Capability? Command? Kellan wanted to ask, but he knew the sinister machine wasn’t here for that. It was some sort of area-control device. It kept things out or in.

“You are not authorized to be here,” the Pestbyter said.

Kellan held up his hands. “Oh, you know what? This isn’t where I parked my car. My bad.”

The moment the camera eye focused solely on Kellan, Mavis pushed away from him and dove into the flower shop through the front door. It was only ten feet from her, but the awkward hobble of her gait drew attention.

The sphere of machinery hovered closer, its camera eye turning toward the shop. “Outsider mages must present themselves to the Arbiter.”

“Oh, right,” Kellan said as he stepped forward. Then he sarcastically whapped himself on the forehead. “Completely slipped my mind. See, I was just heading there, but I got lost.” Kellan stepped closer until he was mere feet from the sphere. He could see his reflection in the scarlet lens of the camera eye.

The machine didn’t back away or hesitate.

It smelled of blood, and its underside was stained with blackish crimson.

“You are not authorized to be here.” The Pestbyter gave Kell its full attention. “As punishment, you will be eliminated.”

Kellan held his breath. As soon as the sphere began to split apart and open—revealing the red crystal within—Kellan knelt and grabbed a chunk of the broken sidewalk. It felt like a brick in his hands. And as soon as the Pestbyter was fully opened, Kellan didn’t hesitate.

He smashed the broken bit of sidewalk into the pulsing crystal, attempting to shatter the whole damn thing in a single blow.

[Alex Kellan] strikes [Pestbyter #54] with a rock for 6 damage (3 +100% bonus for striking a vulnerable spot).

[Pestbyter #54] reduces damage of each hit equal to its armor rating of 5.

[Pestbyter #54] takes a total of 1 damage (-50% accuracy for cracked core).

Although Kellan was familiar with the notifications and information, he could put one and two together. The machines were sturdy. They didn’t take all the damage they normally would—not even their “vulnerable” crystal centers.

Fuck.

A laser shot from the machine, but this time Kellan knew what to look for. With the reflexes of a jungle cat, he leapt through the cracked window of the flower shop, shattering the glass and tumbling across the tile floor. The laser itself blasted through a part of the wall and several pots of roses.

Petals, soil, and water spilled across the floor, some of which was fire. Kellan jumped to his feet, both dirty and wired on adrenaline. They have 20 health? Kellan glanced around and found several impromptu weapons—hoes, spades, bricks, pots—and tensed himself. Twenty more strikes. Maybe I can do it.

Kellan grabbed a spade and hid behind a counter, hoping the machine would float itself inside.

Where was Mavis? He hadn’t seen her in the shop. Hadn’t she run inside?

The Pestbyter didn’t enter the establishment. It stayed outside and fired another laser.

Kellan hit the ground and rolled into the shadowy corner of the shop. The laser carved through a portion of the front desk, destroying a vase and mangling the cash register. The laser seemed capable of ripping through stone, and even partially melting steel. After just two laser shots, the entire flower shop looked like a demolition zone.

Embers wafted through the air, landing on wood and plants and slowly creating a blaze.

“Are you still there?” the Pestbyter asked sweetly. “Outsider mages are not permitted here.”

Kellan glanced at the spade in his hand, and thought back to the last Pestbyter. It had gotten weaker after each shot. With a smirk, Kellan threw the spade across the flower shop. It hit a bucket of tulips, knocking them over and spilling them to the floor.

The Pestbyter shot another laser in the basket’s direction, incinerating the flowers with its powerful blast of destruction. The hum of his hovering body lessened. Kellan got to his feet. He grabbed a hoe with a long handle and then leapt over the counter. When the machine caught sight of him, the crystal pulsed again.

The laser was bright, but Kellan skillfully leapt to the side, avoiding the red beam as it once again sliced up the flower shop. With as much speed and power as he could muster, Kellan ran over and smashed the red crystal with the metal edge of the hoe.

A small fragment of the crystal broke off.

[Alex Kellan] strikes [Pestbyter #54] with a hoe for 8 damage (4 +100% bonus for striking a vulnerable spot).

[Pestbyter #54] reduces damage of each hit equal to its armor rating of 5.

[Pestbyter #54] takes a total of 3 damage.

Damn, Kellan thought. A hoe is a better weapon than I thought it would be. I need to keep that in mind.

The crystal pulsed with a weaker luster.

“Attacking an agent of the Arbiter is forbidden,” the Pestbyter said—its voice no longer sweet and innocent, but mechanical and dark.

The machine’s new tone startled Kellan for a split second. The Pestbyter’s cords lashed out and tried to grab him, but Kellan knocked the cords away with his hoe. When the crystal pulsed again, he leapt out of the way. A fourth laser pierced the air, scorching the flower shop and adding to the ever-growing fire and devastation.

As Kellan stood, he realized his shirt had been singed in the process. He had almost been hit—and he suspected a single hit would be the end of him.

The Pestbyter slowed. Its laser obviously cost it a hefty toll in energy.

Before Kellan could come up with another plan, the rev of a loud and powerful engine caught his attention. A truck drove around the corner of the flower shop. It had the words OK Flowers written along the side—and Mavis in the driver’s seat.

She only had about twenty feet worth of parking lot to gain speed, but the massive vehicle—more a tiny semi-truck—managed to accelerate at a surprising rate. Kellan had a second’s notice to get out of the way. Mavis drove the vehicle straight into the sluggish Pestbyter.

The resulting impact smashed the front of the truck. The Pestbyter hit the parking lot and scraped across the ground, creating sparks. The truck dragged the machine sphere a good fifty feet, creating a line of black and white skid marks, adding yet more marring to the surrounding.

The truck eventually screeched to a halt, stalled by the machine under its engine.

Mavis stumbled out the driver’s side and then hurried toward Kellan, her bad leg giving her trouble, but not much. She pushed through it.

The truck jostled and moved. The cords of the Pestbyter weakly thrashed.

“Are you okay?” Mavis asked once she was close.

Kellan gripped his hoe and stepped around Mavis. “It’s not dead.”

“We should just leave it!”

“No. It’s stuck.”

Kellan strode over to the truck. The fog at the edge of the parking lot swirled, as though something were in it. Kellan knew he had to end this confrontation as quickly as possible. What else was here? What other dangers were lurking in the darkness?

When he reached the smoking engine of the smashed truck, the Pestbyter lashed out with a cord. Kellan allowed the cord to grab his arm. The Pestbyter dragged him toward the ruined engine—its split-open sphere body wedged into the twisted steel.

Kellan swung with his hoe and struck the pulsing red crystal. Notifications flashed on Kellan’s eyes as he hit the Pestbyter again. And again.

The crystal tried to flare to life to shoot a fifth time, but the machine’s core finally shattered on the seventh swing.

The Pestbyter stopped moving. Its cord released Kellan.

While Kellan gulped down air, trying to catch his breath, his attention was drawn to the red crystal. It was shattered into multiple pieces, lying inside the machine. They glowed brighter than before, and then disappeared.

Kellan gritted his teeth and gasped.

He stumbled backward, his body tingling with untold power. A new notification flashed across his eyes.

[Alex Kellan] absorbed 3 arcana.

He rubbed at his eyes, stunned by the power. It felt… so right. Like the type of satisfaction found at the end of a long workout multiplied by ten.

He dropped his hoe.

Then, when Kellan took a deep breath, a whole series of information flashed in his mind and on his eyes.

Alex Kellan

Magics: Eclipse, Body, Metal

Rank: E, E, E

Mana: 5

Health: 7

Unspent Arcana: 3

Strength—4

Dexterity—4 [Accurate]

Fortitude—3 [Tough]

Charisma—3

Manipulation—1

Intelligence—2

Perception—5 [Keen-Eyed]

Wisdom—1 [Broken]

Willpower—10 [Defiant] (Halved)

Abilities:

Personal—[Descended from Zenith]—The mage has the raw magic of Zenith in their blood, and has no rank maximum. The mage can also develop one “unknowable” magic.

Personal—[Blitzkrieg Analysis]—The mage can see basic details of other magical beings and objects upon first glance without the need to spend mana.

Training—[Sharpshooter]—The mage adds a 50% bonus to gun damage.

Flaws:

[Greater Attachment]—The mage suffers greater from personal loss than normal. Whenever the mage loses someone close, the mage’s wisdom is reduced to 1, and their willpower is temporarily halved.

Magical Skills:

None

When Kellan exhaled, the information left him. He rubbed his chest, baffled for a moment while he tried to analyze everything. Magics? Ranks? Abilities? He closed his eyes and thought everything over.

He still didn’t understand what the magics and ranks meant, but now he had a better grasp of abilities. They were special traits that affected the person who had them.

The… mage?

“Am I a mage now?” Kellan whispered.

“What?”

Kellan flinched. Mavis stood next to him, her eyes narrowed in concentration. She gave Kellan the once over.

“Are you okay?” Mavis asked. “You weren’t moving for a few seconds.”

“I’m fine. Are you?”

“Well, the truck is fubar, but I’m fine.”

“I keep seeing information.” Kellan rubbed at his temples. “I think I’m a mage. Well, to be more accurate, we’re mages. Whatever that means”

“Information on your eyes?” Mavis half-smiled and half-laughed. “I keep seeing it, too! Whenever I do anything, there’s like, a narrator who describes my every action but with numbers.”

“Like a video game,” Kellan muttered.

“Exactly! But it also describes things. I don’t understand everything.” She rubbed at her arms. “It’s all so strange.”

Kellan nodded with her words. “It’s magic, apparently. That’s how it works.”

Mavis ran her hands through her dyed-purple hair. “How do you know?”

“Magic is made of numbers.” Kellan chuckled and then paced in a small circle. “Everyone knows that,” he sarcastically muttered. “The world is numbers.” He motioned to the dead Pestbyter. “Even when I was fighting that thing, I thought to myself… I can kill it if I hit it a certain number of times. Numbers. All numbers.”

“Like our health.”

He nodded. “Like the… arcana I have now? I think it’s a power source. Or a building block? Not sure yet. The magic doesn’t seem to care if I understand—it just provides data and seems to assume I’ll know what to do with it. Like seeing the solution to an equation without seeing the equation first. The magic does the math for me, but it’s not about to show its work.”

“My high school teachers would be so fucking pissed,” Mavis quipped.

For some reason, the joke got Kellan chuckling. Then she followed suit. But it didn’t last long. Mavis’s expression hardened.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “How do you know anything about numbers magic?”

Before Kellan could answer, more laughter echoed out over the parking lot. But it wasn’t theirs. It belonged to others.

Then the edge of the fog swirled and moved. The laughter… Cruel and cold and dark. Kellan didn’t recognize it, but he knew it was trouble.

He pulled Mavis close as distant footfalls closed in on their location. They were lazy and casual—no running or hustling.

Kellan stared at the movement in the mist.

C’mon, Eyes. Don’t fail me now. What’s going on?

Three individuals exited the fog. Men. All of them. Confident in their strides, their clothing thick with armor, and somehow biker-gang in style. Two men were normal—humans—but the third was a man with black feather wings. He walked with a slight hunch, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. It was as if the wings were so heavy, it affected his posture.

The first man who strode forward was tall, nearly seven feet, with a shaved head and piercings on his eyes and lower lip.

Kellan’s eyes didn’t need to tell him he looked like an old-world Persian thug.

But his eyes did give him another readout.

Name: Nasir Warren the Butcher

Race: Human

Magics: Entropy

Rank: B

Armor Rating: ---

Health: 7

Stats: Concealed

Abilities: Concealed

So many things are concealed. Kellan clenched his jaw. The only person who hasn’t had information concealed was Mavis… Which is probably because she doesn’t know anything about magic. And this world.

Like me.

Kellan gripped his shirt as the men approached, his heart beating loud enough that he could barely hear the outside world.

I’m probably walking around just broadcasting my capabilities. Everyone else has taken steps to conceal themselves, probably for a good reason. I need… to fix this.

The men stopped laughing as they drew near.

The one with wings stretched them out. His wingspan was massive—nearly fifteen feet—and even if the bones were hollow, Kellan imagined they’d be heavy.

His eyes told him the rest.

Name: Kin Line the Raven

Race: Niav

Magics: Storm, Wyld

Rank: B, C

Armor Rating: ---

Health: 6

Stats: Concealed

Abilities: Concealed

Then Kellan turned his attention to the third man. He was Kellan’s height, with pale skin and short, dark hair. He wore the thicker biker clothing—a metal pauldron on his shoulder, over the jacket—and boots with steel toes.

The man’s right eye…

It was a machine. Like a high definition camera, but glowing in the center with a soft blue light.

When Kellan stared at the third man…

Name: Concealed

Race: Conceal

Magics: Conceal

Rank: Concealed

Armor Rating: Concealed

Health: Concealed

Stats: Concealed

Abilities: Concealed

Nothing? How is that possible? Not even his name?

The three men stopped a few feet from Kellan and Mavis, their expressions similar to sharks who had already been fed, but could still fit a bit more. The bald man and the raven smiled wide. The last one—the nameless one with the weird eye—stared at Kellan with a disturbing intensity, his laughter gone, his eyebrows knitted.

Kellan didn’t like any of this.

The bald one—Nasir—glanced at the busted Pestbyter and chuckled. “Ya know, I thought the two of you were dead the moment the Pestbyter found you.” He shrugged. “But I guess you’re a little more resourceful than I assumed.”

“Doesn’t matter, though,” the winged-guy—Kin—said. “Fighting a Pestbyter is against the rulers. Destroying one is far worse. And the Arbiter isn’t the forgiving type.” When he flapped his black-feathered wings, the fog cleared away from the parking lot. “Every Justice in the city will be agitated now.”

Nasir held a hand up and rubbed his fingers together. “Enough of that.” He turned his dark eyes on Kellan. “I saw you gathered some arcana from the kill, didn’t you?”

His tone wasn’t friendly. Kellan held his breath, wondering what he could possibly say to defuse the situation. He didn’t have threats, or weapons, or any robot allies. Could he outrun them? While carrying Mavis?

Kellan’s silence wasn’t taken well.

The corner of Nasir’s lip curled upward. “What? Not gonna talk to me?” His tone switched to something softer and darker. “That’s fine. We can do this the hard way if you want. I always prefer the hard way.”