“Honestly Kel,” Ril said, “I think that reference was weak. Sure, the HAS is the swallow, and the stones are the coconuts, but it’s still a bit of a stretch.”

“Duh, that’s why I got you to say it.”

“You absolute bastard!” She punched his shoulder, this time with her combat gloved hand.

“Bliksem, again?! Both of you girls need to stop this habit of hitting me. You realise I am, physically, the weakest World-side.” He massaged and rubbed the spot.

Rilian and Kay paused for the briefest of moments and, in solidarity, gave him the most uncompelled blank stares they could manage.

Kel nervously glanced between the two of them realising his folly. Grasping desperately for another topic he managed. “Don’t dally team, get your gear on. We move in five!”

Ah yes! Her new toys were preemptively gathered in the Rift Room; she felt the excitement rising. First were the guns holstered on the small of her back, two glorious .50 Desert Eagles in eye-catching stainless steel.

“You sure your wrists can handle those?” Kel posed his concern as she belted them on.

“My wrists handle you just fine.” She winked, and then more seriously, “Honestly, I’d have taken Glocks. Yes, I am strong enough regardless, but handling is a practical consideration. That said, my magic just soaks into these bad boys like your bedsheets.”

“You can fokken say that again. My room permanently smells like vanilla raspberry now. Thanks for that, shit ain’t never washing out.” Kel was rechecking his AK-103. Everyone was already armoured since morning. Kel was getting into his harness, and Kay could float herself directly, the lucky cunt.

“Anyway plastic just doesn’t feel as nice, and imbuing curbs the kick, among other things.”

“Did you shoot fucking Deagles on my HAS?!”

“Only blanks, I swear! I’ll make it up to you later Gamma Boy.”

“Please don’t.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Ril continued, “Very slim armour by the way, though so much for letting my boobies be free.” She made an irritated grunt. “I’ll get some custom made myself, I guess. Kay, dear, you want a set too?” It was for the ratings; Ril would make arrangements.

The cute elf gave an absentminded nod her way before returning her focus. “Master, you call this armour, but it seems rather… inconsequential.”

“Ballistic Level 3A, Spike Level 2, and Stab Level 2. It’ll stop a 320 Joule Earth Arrow maybe even one of yours, but don’t depend on it. Use the ballistic shields for cover.”

He slapped one of three black, slightly curved, rectangular shields leaning on a nearby wall. They were about a metre tall and sported larger than standard polycarbonate viewports.

“These are NIJ IIIA compliant too. Sorry Ril, you’re gonna have to carry your own. I laid on steel mesh and an anchor point for one of your belt spools. Use your magic boys and girls, Or just girls in this case, or just girl. I’m holding yours, Kay.”

Ril’s shield was trivial to tell apart with the overlaid metal mesh. She squirmed, just thinking about it.

“And what of the fabric-only limbs?” inquired Kay.

“Mostly non-lethal, sacrificing mobility is too high a cost. I custom ordered light Kevlar gambeson. Equivalent to traditional gambeson just lighter.”

Kay nodded and relented placing on her black helmet then turning to check her compound bow.

Ril appraised her new harness modified for combat.

“Kel Dear, you wanna tell me what you chose?” Given Ril’s limitations of conducting through solids, she had taken to channelling through ever slimmer and more flexible pipes and springs. That was until Kel, in one of their morning sessions, retrieved some steel cable for her to play with. The revelation and implications almost made her dry hump him right there on the HAS, audience be damned. She managed to hold out until lunchtime before jumping him in the corridor and dragging him off to their room. Or was is Medical? Keeping track was getting difficult; she tapped her jaw with a finger.

“Sure.” He ambled over. “Your belt has got two spools out front. One for the shield and the other is your choice.” He indicated two hip-positioned spindles with coiled steel cable on them.

“Length?”

“Eight metres on the lot, we might scale up to more industrial solutions later on.”

“My lips quaketh.”

“I’m guessing not the ones I’m looking at?” he quirked a humourless eyebrow. Anyway, the wire then feeds through cam cleats and a wire cutter: some final shit I did last night. The cam cleats—you know, those rope and cable clamps they use on sailboats—will grip the wire for pulling. Disengage and engage them with magic. Should you need to cut loose, engage the cutter mechanism.” Then he muttered under his breath, shaking his head. “Never thought I’d be the one saying ‘just use magic’. How the mighty fall.”

“Mmmmm, and the back?”

“Six sheaths that six spools feed into, all have cleats and cutters. The shoulder-mounted ones house cylindrical weights: good for concussive attacks. Down the back we have stiletto spikes just below the armpits; these should pierce through chain-mail. They’re your lightest weapons so they can pull the most Gs. Close to eight with your current magic draw by my reckoning, more if you channel just one. Then, just above the kidneys, are claw blades. These will manage all your slicing and slashing related needs. Double-edged Karambit knives basically.”

The six spools were all bilaterally mounted on the spine feeding into their respective sheathes.

He had sidestepped the chain issue with steel cables. Chains, despite their tensile superiority, massively disrupted Aura Conduction whenever she tried moving the links. Ropes and other cord worked better, but Ril felt decidedly less comfortable manipulating them, and her potency was markedly weaker. They also sported inferior durability and tensile strength.

“So Manriki ninja weights on cables instead of chains, shivs, and lacerating claws. Are you trying to tell me something, Kel?”

“Ja, if you kill, please do it as quickly and as painlessly as possible.”

“You give a girl such nice presents you know that.” She kissed him briefly.

Kel wordlessly grumbled and helped her into the new harness. Since her mask remained with the old one, she swiped up a combat helmet.

Expeditiously, armed and armoured, they waited.

Jon glanced around one last time to confirm everyone was geared. “Lee, ETA on the drop-rift?”

“Thirty seconds. The HAS is decreasing elevation, but we won’t be able to provide air support for a while longer.”

“Arigato, Lee-san. Alright, everyone, rule one: don’t die.”

“There is already a ‘Rule One’ Master.”

“Rule Three?”

“I must consult my diary.”

He turned to Ril.

“Much as I’d like a reprint, wearing it in would be a hassle.” It was a half-lie, the best kind!

“Great! Positions people!”

Kay and Kel were on one side of the Rift while Ril took the other. They were not directly in front but off to the side. The Drop Rift and sensor pack from the HAS landed, and their feeds switched to acoustic and thermal overlays. Bodies were bestrewn about the place, and she saw more soldiers gathering at the rubbled entrance. The Rift switched on.

“Smoke grenades out!”

Ril pulled and tossed hers as Kel did his. The Rift shut as they allowed the grey cloud to obscure the LZ. A minute more and the Rift reengaged.

Kel announced. “This is the Multiverse Dive Core. On the authority of Sepha Shalen and the Elgelcian Council, you are to lay down your arms and surrender!”

You tell ’em, boy! I just hope they don’t listen. Ril felt her increased arousal as she stepped forth into the smoke, shield in one hand and a Deagle in the other.

Stepping into Epsilon 30-10 was tantalisingly delicious as her magic suffused all her metals just as soon as she completely broke from the event horizon. She felt the shield lighten as her mana ran through the tether from her belt. Letting go, it floated ahead of her; that was never getting old.

She retrieved the other Deagle; the heft was reduced to wooden toy replicas they became intimately familiar extensions of her hands. The sense of their minutest details and parts scintillated in her mind as she soaked through them. The one barrel had some minor build-up she was previously unaware of, cleaning would have to come later. The safeties flipped off by magic alone, as did the dual cocking. Akimbo never felt this easy.

Her objective was the entrance. She was to hold the forces entering the hall and rout them if possible. Through the heavy smoke a shadow rapidly approached, she saw him on IR long before that.

“Halt or die,” she announced.

He chose to die, and her Deagle went off without even lifting or pulling a literal finger. She felt the slug exit the bore aimed at centre mass. The monstrous mechanism barely kicked in her hands as if mounted to the ground. That was certainly worth smiling about, and she did, there was a hearty chuckle too.

The bellow of the barrel blasted through the hall’s shattered architecture heightening her sonar view for a second. The soldier stumbled a bit and then flopped forward. Two more thermal shadows approached, and the hellish barks of each firearm flared in the half-light. More soldiers found convenient spots to ‘lie down’.

Then arrows started clattering and crunching against her shield, she holstered a gun and braced the bulwark so it would not divert with collisions. The action also decreased exposure, and she sighted a huddled heat mass at the razed entrance. The projectiles pathed from that bearing.

Rilian reluctantly pulled her magical aura from her guns, still sensing them well enough but not actively or intimately. It was time to try the rest of her suite of magical tools, and she could not reliably manipulate more than two at a time, at least for now.

Shield under bombardment, she trudged obstinately forward. The first of her metal limbs, two over-the-shoulder concussive weights floated free. Trying to deliberately control each thin cable was a fool’s errand. Such a flawed focus made initially deploying her helmet unnecessarily tricky. The wires were merely conduits since her aura attenuated severely through the air.

The key came from observing Kel practice. After all, watching him closely, real close, was why she was here in the first place. He required no tethers for his plasma lugs since his aura didn’t attenuate through air like hers. He manipulated the housed plasma directly; his focal point was nowhere else. Just so, her focus should be on the ends: the weapons and tools she wanted to move, not the wiring that got her there.

A few days attempting this, and her brain quickly got the hang of it. Amazing how yea old clump of neurons adapted with input and sleep. The cables were subconsciously taken care of, necessarily imbued and forgotten in the same way her arm was when reaching with her hand.

Frustrated effort culminating in ecstatic reward. Rilian quivered at the experiences this body had accrued in its brief time since birth. One of the best mistakes she’d made in the last thousand years, maybe more.

The Manriki weights extended above her on metal tendrils, and she launched them toward the suspected unsuspecting archers. Hearing and feeling the clang of steel on helmets two figures staggered back and collapsed, the twang of dropped bows echoed in the din.

Exiting the thinning smoke, she saw the entrance.

A group of five phalanx troops took up the vanguard with four archers shooting over them. It would have been six moments ago, the two bowmen with dented helms and bleeding scalps sat limp against the rubbled wall. Finally seeing her widened the eyes on the majority of the elven soldiers.

Black helmet and shield with exotic reflective eyes, she wondered just how they parsed what they saw.

“3 warnings and you persist,” she declared.

“Archers fire!” It was in Elven, but the relevant derivative Latin linguistics had been compiled for this mind. The accent was off, but comprehension was nigh on native. The barrage continued, and one hit the viewport divoting the material on impact. Earthbow projectiles were no joke.

“Billions of sentients die each day in the multiverse. Do you want to join them?”

“Draw…” Repeated an archer. “…loose!” Another volley hit her and rang off the shield. Out the corner of her eye, a thermal signature peeked out from a pillar, she saw the arrow loose but could not react soon enough. It hit her side squarely and knocked the wind from her. If only he hit my arm! Such a lost scarring opportunity, what a disappointment!

The offending archer ducked back behind the pillar.

“Oh no, you don’t.” She extended a shiv from her back, it slivered like a viper through the air and stabbed blindly around the bend until she heard the right sounds. Namely cries of pain. Then she retracted the shiv. Dashing to the side, she kept the entrance troops shielded and maintained a circumspect approach around the pillar—no sense in being caught in close.

The man was there, left upper arm bleeding a short sword unsheathed in the other. “Stand the fuck down, you idiot.” The defiance in his eyes was admirable; it was also stupid. She shot a leg with her Deagle and knocked him out with a Manriki before the moaning would start.

Controlling multiple metal tethers was a bit of a strain. Had Rilian thought to need multitasking, she might have made some adjustments. The impotence was so… intoxicating. No, no, she had to remain calm, now was not the time for excitement.

Continuing her flank, she sped around the side and caught the group trying to reposition. This time she focused and allowed both spikes to slither free, they bobbed through the air and dove for the archers. There were many places to stab, and after two metres, the shivs were hard to see, but she could feel them. Stainless steel fangs, long as knitting needles, she knew where she sent them just as if flailing a limb.

Elven arms and legs were targeted. These men were merely loyal idiots; Rilian would not be wasteful. Cries of horrified shock and pain erupted from the unit as she maimed the archers first. The spikes withdrew, leaving the backline with bleeding arms and legs. The archers desperately routed, stumbling and limping out the broken hall. Fearful screams followed their retreat.

The phalanx remained frozen, their eyes wide in disbelief. What good was a defensive formation if your enemy could attack behind you on a whim.

“Do you wanna join the sea of split blood? Now’s your chance.” Ril gave a broad smile; her spikes casually retracted dripping red. It reminded her of the war machines she piloted in battles past. What technological memories to recall in such a medieval world.

Apparently too petrified to move, she advanced on them and interchanged the shivs with her claws. Not as speedy as the spikes but far more utilitarian, the Karambits clasped the top of two shields and tried to yank them free, one quickly came loose, the wood and metal panel clattered on the stones. The other struggled a bit, so she clawed further and further behind. There was an arm somewhere back there. Horrified the soldier threw the shield off and scrambled backwards, pole-arm forgotten. The shield-less men scampered away, as did another who lost his nerve. That left a lone soldier who refused yield. He dropped his pole-arm and retrieved a sword.

Longsword huh? Somebody’s overcompensating. “Are you sure?”

“Yes I am, beguiling witch. You fall by my sword today.” She clawed for his shield, but it did not come free. Instead, she felt a familiar force push back. It was similar, but the taste was a shade different.

“A melee Earth Mage? You smart little boy!” Tilting her head, “Let’s see how smart.” She swiped from left and right with the claws like pincers, the shield blocked one, and his sword expertly parried the other. As they connected his power briefly fought with hers for dominion over the steel, the resultant blows became flaccid.

Her metal limbs pulled away lethargically. “It’s my first time feeling that. Oh, god, please surprise me more!”

Swinging at a claw with his sword, he instead caught the cable behind it. The wire rope wrapped around his sword, and as Ril tried to rip the blade from his hand. With a huff, he channelled magic through the sword and into her cable pushing her from it entirely. The assertive ploy caught her breath a bit. The man then yanked with all his might.

Each cable usually fed above a cam cleat on her back so it would not engage all the time. As such, the man just reeled more of the spooled cable out; she had a meter or two to spare. Should she desire it, Ril could engage the cleat and start a tugging match, but now was not the time. If the man wanted the toy so much he could have it; Ril was not above sharing. She engaged the cutter just after the cleat on her lower left tether.

The blustering boy had braced expecting some valiant struggle, instead, losing all resistance as he pulled threw him backwards, arms flailing comically.

This was so much fun! Killing him would be a waste. “Do you have any more tricks? Please say ‘yes’!”

Another wayward soldier ran from the smoke, spear in hand. She offhandedly shield-parried the thrust and spiked both his thighs as he ran past. The hapless fool face-planted and slid on the floor, the occasional loose stone pinging off his helmet as he ground to a halt.

“My name is Ril, by the way.” She idly concussed the prone soldier as she spoke.

The sword-bearer cautiously found his feet. “I am Dain Kelris. Your mercy was foolhardy, fanciful tools aside you magical grasp is weak.”

“Teach me a lesson then; I’ve been a naughty girl.” A Manriki flew from her back toward his shield. The distance was a good four metres away and by the time he braced the solid steel crunched into the reinforced wood.

Grunting under the blow, he slid a metre back. The other Manriki flew in to find a softer target. Deftly dodging the fighter spun and clipped the cable shearing the clump of steel free. The cut weight and cable continued past clattering and rolling on the stone. Ril was down two limbs: one hook blade and a concussive weight.

“Very good!” said Ril.

In the act of shielding the first Manriki, he had pelted it to the side and then turned to cut the second. This left his back open as Ril spooled the first weight back toward her. Taking advantage of this, she swung the weapon out in a whipping arc as she pulled it in. She heard the cable whistle through the air as the Manriki thunked the back of his head.

Staggering forward, Dain used his sword as a crutch; the defiant dolt was only dazed instead of out cold. Perhaps he imbued the helmet.

“Give up, please. I kinda like you.”

“Never!” Dain shakily found his feet. It was very ‘last stand’. However, killing people with a death wish was boring, and Ril needed more Earthmage buddies. Her friends circle was rather small at the moment.

“Uh, Huh.” While he was recovering her spikes had wormed a circuitous route low to the ground and behind him.

The soldier’s eyes finally caught sight of her trailing cables, but it was too late.

They darted from behind and speared both his legs, just to be sure she quickly speared his sword arm too.

The man fell forward in a holler of disbelieving pain.

“Don’t worry, the wounds are really clean, you’ll make a full recovery.”

She cautiously approached just outside two metres of the soldier who was flailing fruitlessly on the ground.

“You… will never escape Elgelica, human.”

“I’m not human, silly! Ah! I just had a brilliant idea!” She fidgeted with her belt hung rift pouch and retrieved a syringe with General anaesthetic. Tying a severed cable around it, she found she could imbue the plastic, but her grasp was a little ‘slippery’. In contrast, the needle was fine. Weaving it swiftly through the air she struck Dain in the neck and squeezed the contents out.

“AH! You witc…” And the swordsman dozed off.

“Wonderful!” There were a whole host of things she wanted to put on the end of wires now. Scanning about the entrance, it was mostly deserted or housing the unconscious and dead.

Ril gave her report. “The entrance is neutralised and under our control, over.”

Dain had almost got her off; he was no Kel though, her tampon was still perfectly serviceable.

“Better luck next time, Dain.” She sauntered off to sweep the area.