Astral Machine
Chapter Ten: Heat of Battle
That night Lina's team is called to the bridge and given their orders from Milgazia. With the Ryzoku team leading they are going to attempt taking the Mazoku's frontal base. He also thanks them for the information they managed to procure five days ago and assures them that it is because of what they now know that they can lead the charge. As for Zelgadis he assumes that the Alliance is merely tired of waiting. It's hard to be patient when you have new toys to play with, especially after waiting four years to open it.
At midnight the Ryzoku lead the charge, bombarding the Mazoku with all they got. Lina's team zips in beside them, each taking on a squadron with the rest of Milgazia's mecha soldiers. Zelgadis works hard providing everyone with the information they need, including Milgazia. It is exhausting but rewarding as they slice through the Mazoku like thin paper.
What Zelgadis doesn't expect is the heat his body and machine produce. It's one thing to process the information just for his team and fight at the same time, but another to monitor an entire battle while defending himself. Milgazia's own Intel mecha's are working overtime just to keep up with him which makes him feel held down.
Eventually his sensors go off telling him that his body is nearing a dangerous heat so Zelgadis is forced to fall back.
"You're working too hard Zelgadis," Eris's voice cracks in his ear. While he's glad to have her support he is not pleased with her superiority complex. "We also need to take the time to teach you some basic magic, you're depending too much on the missiles."
"I'm doing my job Eris, it isn't my fault that Milgazia ordered my unit to be the anchor of his information network," Zelgadis reminds her. ". . . And I enjoy a good explosion."
"You're networking is working exceptionally well," Rezo's voice pipes in, ignoring his grandson's joy of destruction for now. "Sadly I did not foresee the heating issue and will have to make adjustments when you get back. Part of the problem is your suit and being unable to feel anything while engaged with your mecha partner. It's a double edged sword."
"We've been engaged in battle now for several hours and I don't foresee it ending anytime soon," Zelgadis replies, sharing the data he's calculated to emphasize his point. "I'm not sure when you'll get the chance to make those changes, this is a war."
"True, but your team will have to come in sooner rather than later," Rezo sighs. "While a Ryzoku and Mazoku can fight for days on end even the toughest human can only fight at optimal power for so long. We have the luxury of fighting at our best."
"Gotta love war," Zelgadis sniffs as he sends a request to Milgazia asking that the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Zeta be momentarily relieved of duty. The units themselves might be able to remain fueled for days or weeks but the human body is a more delicate thing.
They must look like a bunch of pansies.
As he waits for a reply, Zelgadis spots an opening in the Mazoku's main line of defense thanks to Amelia's forceful frontal attacks. Her unit is also close to overheating which he again reminds her by flashing a huge warning in front of her face. It's so large he hears her scream. "You're going to need to do something about the heating," Zelgadis mumbles as his team rushes towards the break.
"You're power far exceeds my initial calculations," Rezo proudly admits. "Just goes to show how powerful the human heart and will can be."
Rather than bicker with Rezo over how something like will and heart can't be measured Zelgadis focuses on sending Lina possible strategies of attack.
When Sherra swiftly makes her way on the astral plane towards their location Zelgadis is forced to re-evaluate half of his feasible plans.
So much for a clean retreat.
"Xellos and I will stall Sherra, the rest of you move past us and pair off to destroy the Mazoku from behind," Lina orders.
Pairing off with Gourry, Zelgadis leaves the Ryzoku forces and acts as the support as the large man barrels forward with his specially made sword. Meanwhile Sylphiel is able to cool Amelia's mecha by attaching her own to it while the gun-ho princess blasts forward with a blazing fist. He's glad Sylphiel is helping with the overheating, but wishes that Amelia would show a little more self control.
No sooner does he think this when he watches Lina impute the code for a "Dragon Slave" spell. Of course he sends her a warning, but even before she unleashes the attack he's well aware she's going to ignore him.
After that the tide easily turns in their favor leaving the Mazoku scrambling and desperately sacrificing themselves to take out as many of the Ryzoku as they can. The strategy shocks Zelgadis since he's never known Mazoku to seek their own destruction so candidly.
"Hmph, and they call themselves Mazoku," Xellos remarks casually.
Such a callous comment makes Amelia gasp. "How can you say that?" she says.
"As I see it they're throwing themselves away for no reason," Xellos calmly answers her.
"Either way, they're making things difficult," Zelgadis breaks in. Sherra is somehow alive, hiding on the astral plane and attempting to reorganize her troops.
"Now she's a Mazoku I can respect," Xellos continues as Zelgadis pinpoints her location and sends it to the team.
"Ha! Can't hide can you," Lina guns her boosters and heads straight towards Sherra, but Xellos comes in front of her.
"Let her go, there is no reason to attack," Xellos explains simply.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, out of my way you . . ." Lina is cut off by Zelgadis.
"No Lina let her go," Zelgadis replies showing her a schematic of what the beaten general is doing. "She's merely collecting those loyal and retreating. There's no reason to fight them, not with our mecha units in the state they're in." It wouldn't be long before they broke down. "What we need to do now is make sure those left behind don't detonate and kill unnecessarily."
Grunting, their fiery leader concedes, once again surprisingly letting logic overrule her emotion. "Best we split off and snipe them down individually," Lina commands. "Don't let any of them get close to you."
"Roger!"
The next day the Alliance forces finally finish decimating the remaining Mazoku. Lina, Gourry, Sylphiel and Amelia are exhausted with the later two feeling slightly ill after the hours spent in a confined space and surrounded by death. Repairs begin immediately on their charred units as Milgazia's team takes care of the clean up.
Sadly nothing useful is left of the Mazoku base, having been destroyed by Sherra when she retreated.
For the next several days Lina and her team are left to recover from the battle despite the Alliance requesting that they continue to push forward. Zelgadis has to wonder what their hurry is. Don't they realize how many resources and lives are lost in just one battle? Rather than worry about politics though Zelgadis instead combs over the data he's collected with Rezo's help. He doesn't appreciate going through every bit of data again, but he can't very well refuse his old man.
"How about this?" Eris announces holding out her latest suit design as she waltzes into Rezo's temporary office.
Since Rezo's sight isn't the greatest he smiles and praises her design. "Why I think it looks splendid. Not only functional but fetching as well," he easily answers. "What do you think Zelgadis?"
Zelgadis can only stare at what he thinks is an atrocity. Sure the colors are impeccable, mostly consisting of white and a light blue, but there are gaping holes in it. "Why are there so many holes?" Zelgadis asks trying to keep the disdain out of his voice.
"To grant easier access for all the wires you're attached to and help with the overheating issues," Eris easily supplies. "Now go try it on, I want to see how it looks and if it needs adjustments." Without waiting for a response Eris throws the garment into his arms and shoves him into the closet.
Growling in frustration Zelgadis glances at it and winces. He can't help but wonder if Eris is seeking revenge for the time he ate her share of Rezo's birthday cake when he was ten. Wiggling into the tight garment, Zelgadis is glad his receptors aren't as sensitive otherwise he'd be freezing wearing this.
While tempted not to reappear Zelgadis doesn't doubt that Eris will simply open the door if he dawdles too long and steps out self-consciously. No surprise, Eris is standing right in front of the door her fingers on the handle, showing just how close she is to opening it without his consent.
With mild surprise, Eris smoothly steps back and moves around Zelgadis to inspect the garment.
"It looks nice, how do you feel?" Rezo encourages as his cybernetic eyes glance at him up and down.
"Exposed," he answers simply. When Eris reaches forward and pulls at the elastic around the exposed portion on his spine, Zelgadis lurches forward in surprise. While his spine isn't sensitive to most things if touched directly he feels something.
"I might need to make it a little tighter in the back," Eris says putting a hand to her chin.
"Tighter?" Zelgadis growls and blushes. "Any tighter and I might as well be wearing nothing. And what happened to disguising the implants?"
"I made a cloak to go over this that you can use before docking with your mecha," Eris explains pulling at another hole at his thigh.
Zelgadis grunts.
"After a few adjustments I'll give it back," Eris continues. "Hopefully I'll get it done before your next assignment."
Zelgadis doesn't have to be told twice and quickly changes out of the suit, happily handing it back to the assistant. "Don't rush yourself," he encourages her.
Lifting a brow with tight lips, Eris chooses not to voice her opinion and leaves the room.
When she leaves Rezo shakes his head and sighs. "I wish you two got along better, she isn't such a bad person you know."
"I know and I'm glad she's around for you," Zelgadis says. They've had this discussion countless times when he was young, but it's been a while. He smiles at the nostalgia it stirs within him. "Sometimes she rubs me the wrong way."
Smiling, Rezo doesn't comment and the two get back to work until Lina calls on Zelgadis for their scheduled training session.
"Is Eris insane! There is no way I'm wearing that atrocity," Lina shouts as soon as Zelgadis steps into the training room.
"So she made one for you too, I was starting to think I was the only lucky one," Zelgadis sighs as the door slides closed behind him.
"We all got something new," Gourry speaks up happily. Either he is trying to lighten the mood or is oblivious to how irritated everyone is about their new threads.
"It isn't all that modest," Sylphiel blushes from where she is sitting.
"I'm here!" Amelia bounces in. "I just finished trying on Miss Eris's new suit.
"Annnndddd . . ." Lina raises an eyebrow.
". . . Well," sensing her captain's displeasure, the princess glances side long and thinks of a strategic response. "The design is all right, she obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. But . . . it is a bit tighter then I prefer."
"Exactly," Lina turns and pointedly looks at Zelgadis.
"What?" He replies with a dead pan expression.
"She's your support crew member; tell her that her design needs to change!"
Sighing Zelgadis crosses his arms and shakes his head. "If you want her to change it talk to her yourself, once she gets an idea in her head there is absolutely no way she'll change her mind."
"Ugghhh, fine I will, but first," Lina turns and looks around at her team, but then her eyes stop on Xellos. "You've been strangely quite over there 'Mister Secret' don't tell me you actually like your new suit."
"Actually Miss Lina I wasn't given a new suit since it wasn't necessary," Xellos calmly answers. "You're the ones who are overheating. I've had no such trouble with my unit."
"Heh, well you have more self-control than the rest of us," Zelgadis replies.
"While that may apply to the others, I don't believe it applies to you Mister Zelgadis," Xellos smartly corrects.
Zelgadis only grunts and looks at Lina who uncomfortably clears her throat. "So anyway, since we can't use our Mecha's while they are being modified we're going to run laps around this room."
"Run laps?" Amelia asks. "Why?"
"To improve our stamina since that seems to be part of the problem if the data from the last battle is anything to go by," Lina replies sheepishly. "Except Xellos and Zelgadis, you two can do something else. Xellos, maybe you could teach Zelgadis how to better manipulate his magical output since he hasn't had much practice with it."
Rather than betray his shock that Lina noticed, Zelgadis glowers and doesn't argue. He knows he can't go off natural instinct and instruction manuals forever.
Walking to the other side of the room, Zelgadis moves to collect a set of converter armbands meant to help transfer a person's magic pool into the physical realm. Basically it's impossible to cast spells without a converter, only talented people or Mazoku and Ryzoku can manage without them, but even they use them so they can execute greater control over their spells.
"Let's see what you can do without the converters," Xellos tells him.
Zelgadis stares at Xellos a moment before complying and setting them down. As they move to the center ring meant for sparing Zelgadis can't help but feel a little annoyed. "What's the point of sparing with magic, it's not as if we'll ever be fighting outside our mecha units," he grumbles.
"On the contrary, you never know where a battle might take you," Xellos wisely replies, his irritating smile teasing Zelgadis. "Not all battles are fought out in space; some can take place inside stations and ships or on a planet."
Forcibly clenching his mouth shut Zelgadis conjures the words he needs under his breath. Summoning a blade of energy, he waits for Xellos to begin the match.
For the next hour the two spar, with Xellos teaching Zelgadis basic spells while Lina and the others run around the enormous room. Surprisingly all of the humans do fairly well, lasting longer than most any other soldier might, but they are using their magic to help boost their stamina. Lina turns it into a competition of course, proving who can last the longest.
Sylphiel is the first to collapse followed later by Amelia then Lina, Gourry is declared the winner to which no one is really surprised. Of the four running Gourry probably doesn't need any improvement in his stamina unlike the rest of them. Even after being declared the winner Gourry insists on continuing the race, wanting to find out just how long he can run. Irritated Lina hits him on the head which halts any plans the man might have had demonstrating just how much better he is physically than the rest of them.
When Lina declares their exercise over for the day, Zelgadis and Xellos end their own training bout. Zelgadis doesn't thank the monster verbally but he is grateful that the Mazoku wasn't as irritating as he could have been and was actually helpful. Perhaps he can tolerate the monster.
At least till this war is over.
Author's Note: I think this is the first chapter I really talk about how magic works, which I guess is fine since you don't want to cram all that stuff at the beginning. Could have embellished on it, but basically magic works the same as normal with the exception of using a device to channel it and code, rather than a 'spell'.