From the Perspective of Rynadria

  My hand rose slowly into the air — everything about my movements carefully controlled for dramatic effect. I was going to do this with as much style as I possibly could, because it wasn’t just about saving the university from the robots. It was about sending a message to my enemies within Avonside. This was me, Rynadria, with the gloves off.

  Multiple spell tattoos flickered up my arms as power began to pour out of me in barely visible lines of flickering force. It rose into the sky, twisting the air into knots, contorting it like a trusting lover tied up in artful shibari. Clouds swirled into being, their depths lit with a magenta sunset.

  The hairs on the arms of everyone with a pulse rose in reaction to the power I was pouring into the sky. The clouds I summoned didn't move according to idle whim, however, and they began to form into a tall, pilr-like construct.

  It was a technique I had kept close to my chest, not even telling Catherine or Esra. With my mind and magical body so much more in sync than the average mage, I had discovered new ways to construct a spell. Much as a rge satellite might unfurl after reaching orbit, this spell was opening like a flower, unpacking itself high above us.

  Technically, it was actually a multitude of spells, but on their own they were useless. When they functioned together, though?

  Within my grove, magical energy rushed into the garden below my tree. The many different species of rose I'd created were lit from within by more power than should've been possible. In moments, they began to smoke, but they didn't burn — their siblings beside them did. Specially designed pnts took the destructive effects of the overcharging onto themselves, so that the spell pnts could remain functional. In my garden, the martyr pnts began to burst and fracture, dying by the dozen.

  The energy moved from the roses and up into the clouds above — a torrent of power that all blinded my magical senses. In the corner of my eye, I saw Kitcat make a vain attempt to shield her eyes from the maelstrom as it developed.

  It was time to thin the herd, to make this a situation that could end in our favour.

  White heat began to build at the apex of the pilr. A second sun forming in the sky, it condensed and grew in brightness, until it reached a dizzying apex.

  It happened in an instant, a moment of power that shook me to the core of both bodies. The second sun broke and cut down in a single, impossibly straight line of white-hot fire to impale one of the kingbanes. A circle of metal on its chassis, about a foot in diameter, was instantly vaporised, releasing a massive concussive bst as it expanded. Inside my grove, the st of the martyr pnts burned out, but the spell pnts remained, damaged but not dead.

  Staggering under the unexpectedly powerful bst, I was just able to get a shield up before shrapnel had the chance to turn me into so much minced meat. Secondary explosions did further damage to my ears, and I cmped my hands over them with a cry of pain. Something inside the kingbane was going up like a warehouse full of fireworks.

  It colpsed like a dying titan, spraying dirt in all directions, along with one of the armourcsts that had been too close underfoot. The moment hung motionless, until the second hand ticked onwards and every one of the robots focused its attention on me.

  Oh fuck. Time to start the battle.

  A call to the pnts of my grove and space warped around me, pcing me out of the way as a barrage of weapons fire scoured the spot I had just occupied. Distantly, I heard Troy shouting orders.

  Nearby, a crawler took a hit from one of the obrec crossbows, the minor explosion causing it to stagger. I summoned my magenta bdes and sent one out to hack a leg off the thing before I engaged my true next target — another of the armourcsts. I had a score to settle, considering the st time I’d encountered one of these things.

  It tried to swivel and train one of its huge cannons on me, but I summoned a cascade of razor sharp energy that tore into the limb and knocked it off course. A stream of dark purple fme smashed into it a moment ter, warping the limb further and rendering it useless.

  Out of nowhere, a bst of bright fiery energy spped into the armourcst’s sensor cluster, smashing it into pieces. I whirled to see Grace waving at me from behind a rock and grinned. My girl had my back! Yes!

  Another shot from her hit the robot square in the center of its chassis, weakening the armour there, and I took my chance. A pulse of concentrated magic unleashed from my outstretched hand burned a hole through its compromised hull. The blow didn’t finish it, though, these things were way too tough for that, but the cloud of swarming razor bdes I threw through the hole did. Advanced alien machinery and computational systems were sliced and diced like it had all been thrown into a blender.

  Two down, fourteen still to go. God, we had a big day ahead of us.

  I shouldn’t have taken the moment to celebrate, because I was unprepared to stop the screaming hail of missiles that spewed forth from the remaining kingbane. Thinking as fast as my poor pnty brain could handle, I flicked bst after bst of my magenta magic up at the missiles. Several detonated in midair, while still more were taken out by Catherine. It wasn’t enough.

  The missiles smmed into several of the enhanced boulders our people were using as cover, and although they held firm, they didn’t protect from the shockwaves of the explosions. People and body parts were thrown through the air in grisly clouds of confetti.

  Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I had nothing to take out the big one with any speed, and in the meantime, more would get hit. Still, I had to try.

  First, I needed to grab its attention. I did this by spping it right in the center of its massive body with a powerful bolt of lightning. The attack caused it to freeze and hunker down slightly as it tried to pinpoint where the strike had come from.

  I aimed my next volley of darkened magenta fme at the missile bay hatches, trying to weld them shut. It was a desperate ploy, but it looked to have paid off when there was a grinding, screeching sound from the massive robot. Then, one by one, they popped open again.

  “Fuck!” I swore, and smmed an immobile shield bubble down over myself.

  The ndscape around me was lit with the full fury of the enraged kingbane as every single missile crashed down towards me. Dirt and debris flew in all directions, except at me, protected as I was by my rapidly failing magical barrier. At least it was shooting at me and not the other defenders.

  At first, I was confident I could withstand the assault, but my blood slowly began to freeze in my veins when I saw cracks forming in my shield. Oh fudge, this wasn’t good.

  I did the only thing I could — I dropped through reality and into my grove, colpsing on the grass at the default entry point. Smoke drifted through the air — the results of my abtive martyr pnts. My head pulsed, pain spiking through me as my magical body made its displeasure known. Holy hell, the speed that my reserves were draining was terrifying. No wonder empires had fallen to those things.

  Staying in the grove just long enough for the headache to fade somewhat and my reserves to top up a little, I pressed my eyes closed and fought the incoming mental exhaustion. God, I needed to think. The big robot had armour that was resisting my heat-based attacks. What else was there, though? Did I have anything that would work?

  Fuck, I didn’t have time to think of something and then create a spell for it. I just needed to get back and re-engage the kingbane before it could turn its guns back on the defenders.

  When I dropped back into normal space, I felt a stray bullet almost immediately strike my personal shield. With an urgent flexing of my will, I blinked and appeared next to Grace where she sheltered behind a rge boulder.

  “Grace,” I rasped, leaning heavily on the rock. “I need a top up.”

  Her eyes flicked to me for a moment as she aimed down the sights of her hand cannon. A bst of brown and gold energy tore free from the barrel and into a crawler that had been making its way towards her position. The machine cartwheeled backwards and hit another of its kind, creating a miniature avanche.

  Eyes still on the battle, she leaned down and kissed my neck with an open mouth, like she was a vampire draining me of my blood. It was the reverse, though. Power flooded into me so fast I felt almost dizzy from the surge. I had to steady myself against her with a hand, armed by how fast she was pumping magic into me. Jesus, that was a rush.

  “Thanks, babe,” I gasped, once the transfer was complete.

  Her smile was tight, but loving. “No problem. Go take care of the big bastard before he kills us all.”

  I nodded, but didn’t immediately teleport. Instead, I just sort of gazed at my girlfriend, letting pride and love fill my heart. Then, I remembered something and threw a shield spell into the maginetic field that surrounded her. It took hold and expanded, creating an intensely powerful area of protection around her.

  “Whoa,” she blurted, staring at it. Her aim lowered, and she asked, “Can I shoot through it?”

  Looking over the shield to make sure, I said, “Yeah. Should be able to. Your maginetic field should also maintain it. If it breaks, it ends, though.”

  “Got it, thank you,” she said, then turned and called up the hill to Troy. “Safe area around me! Big shield!”

  He fshed a thumbs up.

  Morale boosted and power reserves replenished, I dove back into the fight — this time summoning six full swords of magical energy to fight with. I didn’t use my hands to hold them, however. I used a combination of gestures and my mind to send them spinning and dancing around me. They weren’t full lightsabers or anything, but they were sharper than any mundane material. Twirling, they hacked at the swarm of metal bodies like an old explorer forging a path through the jungle. A dancey explorer, though, with translucent magenta machetes that floated around all gracefully and shit. Almost as graceful as I was grace-full.

  I couldn’t get distracted by aesthetics. I needed to get up onto the kingbane where I could start cutting into its hull. Those missile unchers needed to go, like— shit.

  The missile nacelles were opening again, and I had about two seconds to do something. I acted, teleporting up right to the missiles as they unched, and swept my bdes through them. Light fshed — the votile armaments detonating in a series of frenzied explosions.

  My shield shattered, and I was thrown violently away. Smoke filled my lungs, pain wracked my body, and my ears rang like an entire forest of trees were screaming. I spun through the air, dizzy and in pain while my stomach told me that I was approaching the ground, fast. This was going to hurt.

  Suddenly, two soft, strong arms grasped me, one under my legs, the other under my back. H-huh?

  A smooth, teasing, and oh so warm voice spoke as we nded gently on the valley floor. “My, my, we’re making a habit of this, aren’t we?”

  My gaze snapped up to meet that of my savior, and I found myself staring into a pair of gorgeous, huge, golden eyes. Short, shining golden hair whipped in the wind, framing an angur face that was lit with a wide, twinkling smile.

  “Hello, Rynadria,” Eilian chuckled, her tongue peeking out to wet her bottom lip. “You are as beautiful as I remember.”