Alejandro Martelli froze when he heard the alarm. His eyes darted to the mechanical clock, then to the window to check the sunlight. The constant hum of Waterlow's falls was a soothing melody that most people got used to, then ignored, but he had always kept his awareness of every little thing in his perception. Even at his rank in the guild, and even while he spent most of his days behind a desk buried in paperwork, he never let the edge grow dull because he knew that the moment he did, death would follow. Not soon, perhaps, but with the crushing thread of inevitability.
The pile of papers on his desk were quickly weighed down to keep them from flying from the breeze when he opened the window. His long ears twitched as he caught the sound of flapping wings. Hundreds of them. His mixed heritage between two beastkin tribes, A'sungit wolf and Khuni hare, had elevated his sense of hearing and smell, though he had to wear corrective glasses to fix his blurry vision. Arcana Weaving the proper spell could have done that, but who had the fortitude to continue casting every moment of their lives?
Still, he needed farsight now, if only to ascertain the particulars of the flyers. That wasn't one of his innate, inscribed spells, so he curled his fingers into the proper shape, then moved them around into the somatic component of the cast. Farsight only had a single word as a verbal component, and that was spoken at the end of the pattern. He could barely feel the elemental energies converge around him, but that was because he wasn't using his natural affinity. About ten seconds later, a nearly transparent set of lenses appeared over his eyes, behind his spectacles, which he promptly removed lest they interfere with the spell's calibration.
He focused his sight up in the air, and he saw them just below the clouds. They were too far to be visible as more than specks, but the spell revealed their true size to him. Each of the winged reptiles was nearly five paces long, ten paces if the long, dangerous tail was to be accounted for. The wingspan was just as wide at ten paces, and they had relatively shorter necks topped with crocodilian heads. The distinctive pattern of their scales identified the variant easily enough, and the rest of them were of the same kind, which was the norm. No Greenwind Wyvern tolerated their lesser kind to fly at the same height.
"By the Lord of Metal…" Alejandro cursed. There was more than one flight, and the Greenwind Wyverns weren't the strongest. Above them, he focused on the Redtails, beasts that were just a bit smaller than Greenwinds, but whose vicious stinger tails gave them the edge over the other. Below the Greenwinds, and farther back, were the Bluewing Wyverns. A little bit bigger than even Greenwinds, but far slower and clumsier. All three variants of the Floating Rock Chaos Fount had emerged from their homes to rampage in Bresian lands.
But wait, they were too far away to have tripped the alarms. There were more raiders!
His left ear swivelled towards the south. Growls and shouts? Heavy thuds, and pained squeals.
"Don't tell me…"
He scrambled out of his office and jumped up to the roof without using a spell. Admittedly, his physical gifts helped him, even if the distance was only a few paces. The Adventurer's Guild building had a tiled and sloped roof. Long familiarity allowed him to avoid the cracked or slippery tiles and he arrived at the peak in short order. The roof was just a bit higher than the Lower District's wall, just enough that he could see a bit of the open ground beyond. And as he feared, it was filled with Quiller Wolves from Iron Forest Chaos Fount.
"Guildmaster!"
A high-pitched voice yelled from his office window, and it didn't take long for his assistant guild master to pop up to the roof. Amanda Nunez had fiery red hair, and crimson eyes, and was a Fire Elemental Magus too. But contrary to most Fire Magi, or redheads for that matter, there was not a hint of panic or fear in her face.
"Your orders? There are two quick response teams on call, but since it's early, most of our members are either already on their jobs or hung over."
Alejandro's mind churned as he considered as many variables as he could. The walls and the guards could hold off the Quiller Wolves, but it couldn't stop the Wyverns from just flying over. The alarm already had the civilians rushing indoors, though it being midmorning, most were either at work already, or in the case of errand boys and messengers, plying their routes. It was the children playing at the parks and out in the streets that were in the most danger. So, he had to focus the guild's efforts on preventing their deaths, even at the cost of their own. He pointed to the skies and saw Amanda's eyes widen as she caught sight of the flying lizards.
"We need to stop them. Send the QR teams to the towers. Send a guild-wide notice to do the same effect and Amanda…" He turned to look her straight in the eye. "Don't hold back."
The woman's impassive face widened into a feral grin, "I won't."
The guildhouse wasn't the tallest building around, but it should be enough. Also, he was sure that Wyverns would target the Upper District too, but that's where the garrison building is. Commander Jafra was more than competent enough to safeguard the place. Alejandro needed to fend off the monsters attacking here.
Sure enough, a large fraction of the Wyverns were attracted to the Upper District simply due to the fact that there were more Elemental Cores utilized in the infrastructure there. But most of the Bluewings swooped down here.
Alejandro was an Adventurer, not a soldier, even though he was stuck behind a desk most times. That meant he, and most adventurers, did not use firearms as a main armament all that much, simply because carrying ammunition was extra weight. However, that didn't mean they were useless, far from it. A practised Magus uses firearms to supplement their Arcana Weaving. After all, casting spells took a toll on the mind, even innate spells.
Well, his rifle and shotgun were still in his office. He cast his innate spell, Manipulate Metal. It was one of the most basic spells known, but he devoted all of his free intrinsic circles, six out of seven, to it. The first circle inscribed the spell, while the second to the fifth…enhanced his control. The last circle was left empty to allow him to use Arcanatech.
The guns were in their holsters by his desk. He grasped the steel parts of the guns and moved them out the window and up to the roof. Manipulate Metal did not grant any kind of enhanced sensory capabilities and it was mostly long practice and familiarity that allowed Alejandro to use the spell without a line of sight. The guns settled next to his feet and propped up against the tiles. He took the rifle, checked the chamber and magazine, then aimed at the nearest Wyvern.
Bluewings, true to their namesake, had bright blue wings. Those were caused not by the colour of their scales but because of the ice encasing them, which also reflected the hue of the skies. The first Bluewings dove, and once they dropped to a hundred paces from the ground, they would reverse explosively and send dozens of ice spears towards their targets.
Alejandro aimed at the lead Wyvern and brought the bullet inside under his spell's control. He wasn't a crack shot, not without his spell, but the closer the bullet came to his intended target, the less strain altering the trajectory would be.
But waiting for the perfect shot was also foolish. He pulled the trigger as soon as the Wyvern crossed into the iron sights.
Whoosh!
Inscribed with Fire and Wind Elemental Energy, the casing blasted the bullet through the muzzle. Inscriptions along the barrel increased its velocity and stability, and by the time it shot out and hit the beast, less than a second had passed. He did not need to alter the flight path after all.
But one bullet wasn't enough, and even though the Bluewing was still nearly three hundred paces away, his connection to the metal was still there. Now he used that control and forced it to race within the creature's flesh, grinding and blending flesh and viscera in the process.
It was only when the creature fell from the skies after a few seconds did he take another shot. Thankfully, he wasn't the only shooter to aim at the flyers. Hundreds of muzzles flashed as they spewed their deadly munitions at the flight. Not all were as lethal as his spell and gun combo.
Still, it wasn't enough. Ice spears rained down from the infuriated beasts, and from the screams and gurgles, at least some of them hit home. The ice spears slammed against tiled roofs…and failed to break through. Well, some tiles chipped, and some broke, but there was more than one layer.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
After the magazine was empty, Alejandro paused to catch his breath. The strain of keeping an innate spell active wasn't that much, but it does make one weary after a while. He kept his gaze trained on the skies, watching for any beast coming close.
His guts screamed at him and he jumped out of the way, rolled down the sloped roof and caught himself at the edge before he could fall.
Crunch!
This time, the tiles broke. Parts of the roof gave way as the weight of a Greenwind Wyvern slammed down on it. Not its full weight, thankfully, or it wouldn't have been only the tiles shattering.
"Stupid lizard," Alejandro cursed.
He was no stranger to fighting these beasts, but in the Chaos Fount, a team would only face these things one or two at a time. The hundreds of monsters boggled the mind considering that the last time the Fount had been cleared had only been three days ago.
The Wyvern's foul maw snapped towards him, but Alejandro inherited both of his parents' agility. He managed to jump out of the way and call his shotgun to hand with his still active spell. The rifle was the lesser weapon in this case. He pointed the muzzle vaguely in the beast's direction and pulled the trigger.
Boom!
The bullet casing had a stronger inscription which actually made a louder noise and caused the gun to buck against his hand. If he had not held the weapon with his spell, it might have thrown itself out of his grip.
The solid slug slammed against the Greenwind's scales and caved it in. Almost immediately, Alejandro caused it to shred the thing's insides, going from the wound towards its heart and lungs. The beast shrieked and shuddered before it fell and rolled off the roof. Directly at him, but he managed to swing himself towards a window and escape the Fate of being crushed. Heh.
He wiped the sweat off his brow, took a deep breath and jumped from the window to the building across. The work wasn't done.
He had no close shaves the rest of the morning, but he had to stop after every hour to meditate. Even if he was a Magus that was supposedly close to becoming an Advanced Magus, just one inscribed circle short, really, that gap was much larger than was apparent.
His mental fortitude was still better than a fresh Magus, but that didn't mean he could keep casting for hours on end.
But despite his shooting, despite his adventurers fighting as best as they could, there were more Wyverns coming to replace the dead. Even worse, Waterfall Cave Chaos Fount had overflowed too and spewed out hundreds of Blue Slime.
Those he hated fight…ing?
The bunch of slimes crossing the river were struck by golden beams of light. There was nothing left of them but dark afterimages. Who did that?