54
Prepare for battle
Time- The next day, early morning
Place- Nita's trailer
"Nita," said Sparkle the next morning after breakfast, "I have a request." The two girls were leaning on a fence, watching the goings on around the farm, and Sparkle had looked around to make sure no one was nearby to hear her talking.
"What can I do for you?" she replied.
"Can your book tell us what we should expect from this 'reenactment' that's going to take place soon?"
"Hey, good call." Susan's eyes lit up. "We should probably put some spells together now, while we have the chance. No sense just standing around, we have a whole day until we get the vessel for the air spirit. Let's get to work."
"As it's happened many times, I'm sure there are some reports of what other wizards have gone though. Might as well take a look." Nita concentrated, glanced around, then said a word, making her book of wizardry drop into her hand. She sat down by the fence and started paging though it, and Susan got a curious look on her face.
"Actually, I might take a look myself. It's written down, obviously." Nita looked up at her, but she had already started casting Research, and five minutes later, her conjured mystical book appeared.
Between the two of them, and Nita was quite impressed with her Research spell, they learned the shape of Balor was one of a grotesque, misshapen human with an eye that could launch energy attacks (as Susan put it) against whatever got in front of him. He wasn't great on turning, apparently, his bulk was mostly fat, and it originally took several creatures with metal instruments to even raise his eyelid to begin the attack.
So as soon as you see him, open a Teleportal and lead everyone behind him. That should neutralize his only weapon in that form. Odd that The Darkness would choose something like that to inhabit, but then again, it's probably the first thing it found available that suited his needs. It doesn't want to hang around these other realities any more than I do, probably. But before it's been something impressive, like that dragon. Guess it has to take what it can get.
As well as the main threat of Balor himself, he commanded an army of creatures that would be throwing themselves at the group when they arrived in the parallel world these troubles were coming from.
"So a couple of casting of Magical Ally: Major to start, can't have too many of them running around when there's an army baring down on, right, Sparkle?"
She nodded. "True, with Spell Symbol there's nothing that says you can't have a dozen of them active at a time. They're just a spell. I wonder though." She put a paw out and her character sheet appeared on the ground. "I have enough XP, barely, for an Imbuing. I wonder if making a permanent Elemental Line would be worth it?"
"Nineteen XP," mused Susan. "That's a lot of spells, or... flip it over, will you? Yeah, threes, just like me. You could raise that skill group of the new skills, and have some left over for a new spell or two."
"But keep in mind, my energy isn't nearly as high as yours. I can't do more than thirty spells or so at once, and in a combat type situation like this one, it's a major concern."
"I agree, that's why I'm sticking with my sword lately. Plus my mass take down spells haven't been as useful lately. Like those wolves were right on us. Though I have to admit, I wanted to see how well Slash All would work out."
"You used to use Hypnotic Field all the time, too. It was your signature move, almost."
"Yeah, because I didn't want things dead at the time. I suppose I could still use it, but damaging someone knocks them out of it, and with my Slash All going that would be pointless to zone them out only to wake them up again."
"We need a spell to store up energy over time. Like stuff some into a crystal or something, that we can pull out later."
Susan laughed. "That would be so cheesy! Man, a month or two and I would have hundreds of energy to play with. I don't need any help becoming more dangerous you know. Still, you do come up with nice ideas." Her eyes sparkled with possibility.
"So back to my quandary here."
She shook herself. "Right. Up to you, but there are some things to consider."
"What's that?"
"You're going to be in a war zone, and that means armoring you up as well as I'm armored."
"True." She shivered. "I'm a minus three, something hits me and it's goodbye companion."
"So let's keep that from happening. You'll be Accelerated of course, but I'm going to make you your own Symbol with Avatar of War on it. And as a bonus you can be a minus two!"
Sparkle considered. "I can actually Shape-shift up two sizes, so that would get me up to human size. Throw Avatar on top of that, and my claws are considered weapons, that could actually work."
"Yeah. Plus with the STRength bonus from the spell you could do some decent damage just swatting things with your claws plus fire."
"I do have combat skills. Not at a very high rating of course, but enough to hunt with as a cat. No sense not having Augment Skill going as well, I guess."
"Yeah! In fact..." She looked Sparkle's collar over, removing it from around her neck. It presently had only a small tag that held her Ally Spell Symbol. "We could get a few more of these tags, heck I could make some in a pinch. And I have another idea. Wait here." She ran over to the trailer and looked around, finding what she wanted and heading back. She had a piece of paper and some scissors in hand, and cut a small strip of paper. "Imagine the Spell Symbol going in the center here, then we just fold it over like this, and wrap it around the collar like this. A dab of glue, and it'll stay, and you can fire off a bunch of symbols when you need to. Just make the trigger word end in a number, like 'line 1' and 'line 2' and remember which number you're on. You could have a dozen or more wrapped around here."
"That's almost as good as what I wanted, isn't it?"
"Sure thing. Now, it still isn't an unlimited number, but it only takes a couple of spells to pull off, rather than using up XP that's better spent elsewhere."
"If my Photographic Memory serves, and it does, the spell description doesn't list any actual size the Symbol has to be, right? So really it could be even smaller than this paper."
"I guess. What were you thinking of using?"
"Pins. Put the symbol on the head of a pin."
"Huh. Hard to tell which you used up in that case. I suppose if you always started using them from the center where the tag is-"
"No, no, I'm talking about you using something like that. Make a bunch of pins, then just stick them to your pant leg. You can make them all the same trigger, just grab one, expend it, toss it, grab the next one."
"I could probably do that in a single action. Maybe grab with the left, 'off hand' action with the right, if I made them Elemental Blast. Yeah, that could work. I'm glad I came with you!"
Sparkle snorted. "We have the day, I suggest we get started. Pull Nita's energy, and find some Ley Lines to hook into, if there's some we can use and be undisturbed. Make all the stuff you can, wait while your energy comes back, and repeat. Your father's staff could actually drain energy out of Ley Lines and recharge him. We don't have that luxury so we'll just have to make do."
"There's one thing we do have around here, though. Animals. I bet I could swipe ten or fifteen energy from each horse and such when no one is looking. And they can't tell on me."
Sparkle nodded. "Good idea. It's for a good cause, so I'll allow it. The better we prepare now, the less danger we'll be in later."
"Not to worry, I'll be sure and write myself a note to save before we leave." She chuckled. "We really will be pulling out all the stops huh?"
"Saving, yeah. That would really come in handy if things go badly. What else can we think of that might help?"
"I have a bunch of Avatar Papers made, I can make some more. Others will be coming, after all, and the more armored we are, the better I'll- Wait, my pant leg becomes armor, that might not work for your pin idea."
"Your bracelet is incorporated, right? Why would the pins work any differently?"
"I guess you're right. Huh, I could stick them straight in, they might hold just enough when I'm armored that I can grab them, but not knock them out when I'm swinging my sword around. I'll see, but I do think something small, easily grabbed, would work best."
"Let's have the book, see there's something really useful I should learn in the meantime. And I can make you some Elemental Line if you want them."
"Better to have it all. I'll want Acceleration as well. Let's go in fully buffed, but not under any penalties."
"Sounds like a plan."
And so the group went to go find a good spot to work, and Susan made her Spirit Sense checks to find some Ley Lines. She then got a twenty one on her LUCk check to see how far away the nearest ones were, and then a twelve to see how many there were. "Score!" she said, moving off. Sparkle did a Spirit Sense, getting an eight, which was enough to tell there was a bunch of energy in the area, at least. Susan got an eleven.
"This is perfect!" chortled Susan, rubbing her hands together.
"Uh, what makes this spot any better than another?" asked Nita, looking around confused.
"Energy, by dear, energy. For one thing, this is a farm so there's lot of life around here. That means lots of Ley Lines, in other words, spiritual conduits for the life energy of the planet. Right here there's a bunch of them, so we can sit here and get some nice benefits from hooking into them. For example, let's say I spend six energy on whatever it is I'm doing while connected to the line. I can then put six free energy into that, which comes from the Line itself. Then I roll my Energy Boost skill (best skill ever) and get back up to half, in other words three. So I've spent a total of three energy to make a Spell Paper but I've gotten an effective eleven boost to my rating, making it at least a fifteen, if not more. The other energy one goes into casting the spell, in case you were keeping count? Anyway, that's why we were looking around, and what we've been talking about."
"Do you think you could teach me to sense and hook into this energy?" Nita asked, trying to hide her excitement.
"Don't know. I had to take a special background, Spirit Mage, in order to do it. But non-Paragon people don't even have Backgrounds that I can tell. I mean you must, but you didn't spend points for them or anything. So I have no idea how you guys balance out. Even with these Lines and taking your energy and the animal's, I'm going to be wiped out by lunch time. At that point I'll talk you through what I think someone who is not a Paragon would do and see if you can feel anything. I mean I just make checks in the skill, but that still sort of means something outside being who I am. It's tough to explain."
To someone who isn't genre savvy... finished Sparkle silently.
"Thanks."
"Sure thing."
And so the two started work. Susan changed her charm bracelet to include these spells:
Acceleration
Flight
Magical Ally: Major
Augment Skill: Sword
Augment Stat: STR
She had Nita scrounge up some suitably flat pieces of metal which she attached to Sparkle's collar, giving her Acceleration and Avatar of War in addition to her normal Ally: Major. Also some glue, to stick the new Spell Papers onto Sparkle's collar. She then worked with her to make some Spell Papers with Elemental Line for her and Elemental Blast for herself. When Sparkle was out of energy she started looking through the book for something to learn as Susan continued working.
"Hey, remember that green haired lady in Louise's world?" she asked, looking up from the book when Susan was between castings.
"She worked for the principal but turned out to be a thief?"
"Right. Well, you remember her 'weapon' right? That huge construct made of stone?"
"Yeah, that thing was annoying."
"It's in here."
"What?" Susan scrambled over to look at the book. "That must be one of the ones... uh, that guy gave us." She looked over at Nita, not sure if Silverstreak wanted his identity branded about. "Colossus, huh? Grade ten, hardly worth it for the use you would get out of it. Very specific circumstances it can be used under, I mean you would have to be outside, and have a lot of space for it to maneuver."
"Which is exactly what we'll have, right? And an opponent that's huge for it to fight, to boot. Perfect in this situation."
"True. We would lose our own actions to control it, you want it?"
"Probably best. You'll be swinging that blade around when we get close to him, keeping his forces off us. Yeah, see if you can-"
"Wait a second, I just had a thought!"
"What's that?"
"Why only use one? My Materia is all in my armor slot, rather than my weapon slots, at the moment. That would make it apply to any weapon I held. I have two swords, and two hands. I'll have Augment Skill going so the off hand penalty will be laughable. And I can make up an Augment Skill of Off Hand so my delay for that drops, so why not use both? Imagine two attacks, against all opponents in range, with my augmented STRength and fire damage factored in... for a total of three delay." She was almost drooling.
"You'd have to drop one to cast a spell."
"Eh, that's a free action. Don't plan on doing much of that anyway. Especially not with all the long range damage I'll be doing with two blades, both on fire. Plus if I do, my one sword will come back to me just by holding my hand out, I don't even have to bend over to pick it up."
"What about all those pins you're making?"
"I'll give them to Nita! Hey Nita, you want to shoot streams of fire out of your hands... with magic?"
"Do I?" she answered with a grin.
"Problem solved."
They all laughed. "As I was saying, see if you can understand this and make me one."
"You got it."
Susan looked the spell over, getting a nineteen on Magic Theory and a twenty two on Magic Scripture, both more than enough to understand the difficulty fifteen spell. Twenty minutes later Susan wrapped another paper around Sparkle's collar, this one with the spell of Colossus in it.
A bit later, Susan relaxed, leaning back on her elbows in the grass. She kept giggling, imagining having all her spell bracelet spells going at once, with no penalty, and wading across the battlefield, swords slashing up everything.
"Did doing that much magic break her brain?" asked Nita to Sparkle, somewhat concerned.
"I suppose it's possible," she admitted.
"Oh, come on, you're just as excited as I am to see what our magic can really do. Don't tell me the prospect of being a lion sized creature of fire and death isn't appealing. We can go all out- because whatever we're fighting doesn't actually exist! We won't be killing anything real, it's just a recording that we have to put down. We'll have several lions, dragons, my twenty five Legion solders, and when it comes to the boss, a huge construct made of stone rips out of the earth and starts pounding it. Can't you just see it now?" She stared dreamily off into space. "The Darkness isn't going to know what hit it in this world."
"Just don't get too used to it. You start to like it too much, and maybe the next time we face something alive you might want to take this same approach."
"Oh, don't worry. It's just because we have this time to prepare we can do this at all. Normally it would be whatever spells we knew and being clever. This situation just requires us to smash through to the boss as quickly as possible, take him out, and keep everyone that comes with us safe in the process."
"And here I was thinking we were going with them, not the other way around."
"You know what I mean."
"Do I?"
"Fine, we keep everyone we go with safe. Happy?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Now, I haven't used all my energy, I need some to cast my draining spell on the animals later. So let me put on Augment Skill: Teaching and I can see what I can teach you. After all, Louise and her friends learned Magic Sense, I can probably at least teach you that, and give you the basics for Imbuing and Fabrication, as they're also qusi-magic skills and you should be able to pick them up. Then we can try the more advanced stuff."
"Anything you can show me would be great. Imagine, skills from other realities! Now I'm getting excited!"
So Susan made some Teaching checks and told Nita about other things she could do that weren't strictly her magic, then the girls went to get lunch. Afterwards Susan drained the farm animals she could, then headed back to the secluded spot and once again burned through her energy making Spell Symbol stuff. She had several Magical Ally: Major that Nita could activate, along with extra copies of Avatar, Acceleration, and anything else Nita thought might be handy in their upcoming fight. They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get Nita to sense energy, magic, and even gave her some instruction in Ninjutsu.
"Don't let my sister near Ninjutsu though," she said, practicing a move. "We both took Ju-Jitsu lessons, and she really picked it up fast. A ninja wizard." She shuddered. "The world wouldn't survive."
Susan also explained what she thought Energy Boost was about, so she could teach that skill, and Nita made sure to copy all this information down into her wizard manual for later review.
Susan went to bed that night feeling a real sense of accomplishment. She felt she couldn't be more ready to attack The Darkness this time, and even had a couple more days, in case she thought of something else she wanted to add.
And all thanks to Spell Symbol. Best... Spell... Ever.
