Country of Champions 36

Captain Rogers looked at Orison in amused horror. "Because Triumvir LeStrange was going to make it hard for you to earn a living, you were going to turn entire families, Mainly Dr Odd's family, into merit-less paupers using his own ruling!? My god! After he left office or died, his own family would suffer the same fate and no one would want that artifact anymore."

Orison shook his head. "Let's get real. That wouldn't happen but what WOULD happen is that Jacques would become a joke by the hands of the student that he had 'thrown away'. Doubt and suspicion would be planted into the minds of every citizen that the Triumvir chosen by that artifact could steal anything they wanted from anyone, anytime. The rest is a hellish snowball of bad.

"Getting back to me, Mr Firebrand wouldn't take his theft being stolen back, lying down. He would come after me and he's so used to getting his way, that I'd have no trouble getting into a conflict with him and killing him in self defense. Make no mistake. I would gladly kill him if he gave me a reason to."

As if speaking the devil's name had summoned him, there was a pounding at the door and a bellow of rage fueled words that weren't easy to understand. Captain Rogers attempted to have Orison go into his private quarters before answering but Mr Firebrand had taken matters out of the captain's hand. He blew the door off with his primary ability, a kinetic charge of some kind that made imbued items explode.

The irate man instantly changed his focus from Adam to Orison. To buy himself a second, the young mage used the spark of Herne's hound resting in his ring to summon an impression. A shadowy mastiff sprang into being and with mindless aggression, threw itself towards Firebrand's throat.

The canine impression didn't put on a very good show before it was loaded with a charge and blew to shadowy bits. Captain Rogers had already imposed himself between the two but the angry man had built up enough charge to blow him across the room. The broad spectrum B-class captain wouldn't be harmed by it but he would be dazed for a moment.

In the next moment, Orison had smacked Firebrand with a Lesser Disjunction. Not aware of any effect, the angry man finished barreling his way to the young mage. For all he was worth, Orison made an augmented sliding step to the right and delivered a haymaker from a southpaw stance. Every ounce of stored force he could load into it, was. With a snapping sound, Firebrand's jaw dislocated.

As the man's head snapped back, he instinctively attempted to counter by injecting a large amount of kinetic energy into Orison's fist that would have violently blown the young mage's hand off, leaving him crippled. Aside from a small amount that split a knuckle and opened lesions on Orison's hand, the rest was pulled apart and neutralized by the remnants of disjunction hanging in the air.

Following with a heel stomp to the inside of Firebrand's knee, earning him a blown apart boot heel but a gratifying crunch, Orison went with the repelling force and tried to get some distance. As he worked on two more magic models, he was joined by Gan. Heavy teaser suit activated and compound bow in hand, Firebrand's glassy eyes were drawn to the reflected light off the razor tip of an arrow in full draw Gan had pointing at him.

"Twitch for me so I have a reason to give your skull some ventilation," the scout said menacingly.

While Adam called personnel as he threw a pair of pants on, Orison cast another Lesser Disjunction to diffuse the charges the unconvinced Firebrand was covertly trying to spread around him. Within moments of their arrival, one person had a dampener equipment activated as they stripped Firebrand of all clothing and personal affects before rolling him up in plastic wrap, of all things.

"That was the only non-lethal method I have of taking you down. That's your one shot for a brawl. From here on out, I assume any other action is an attempt to kill me and I'll respond decisively in that manner. Consider yourself fortunate that I just got off communication with Jacques who specifically asked me not to kill you or that would have been the end of it, Mr Firebrand," Orison said as he healed his hand and mended his boot simultaneously.

One of the personnel asked, "Sir, since you're capable of healing magic, would you mind healing the broken jaw and damaged knee cartilage?"

Orison walked over and healed Firebrand's knee while he said, "This, sure. His mouth? You really don't want me to because he'll start flapping his gums and I'll finish what I started by ripping the damn thing off his face."

With some instruction to the field medic on hand, Orison had the plastic opened up to the man's groin and told Mr Firebrand. "I can use magic to pull your tendon down and reconnect it or I can use a scalpel. The choice is yours."

Unrelenting death glares still shooting his way, Orison felt the man's volatile aura stop fighting against the combination of lock/unlock and heal to grab the tendon that had pulled up into the man's crotch. Covertly, Orison released a drop of vital water directly on the man's slightly revealed, plastic wrapped package before finishing the process of healing the knee.

He thought to himself. "Bet you're feeling really good right now but wait for a couple of days and enjoy the ball cancer, you human shaped filth."

Dazed on the pain medication drip they were giving him for his broken jaw, the man was only vaguely aware of a sudden additional euphoria before it quickly faded into the background. As soon as all the personnel were out of the office, Adam's eye's, dilated pupils quickly reversing to pin pricks, were locked onto Orison's finger where the faintest trace of vital water vapor lingered on his uniform's glove. The young mage mentally cursed for forgetting how sensitive Rogers family members were to it.

"Feel like abusing your powers as Captain to delay my trial for a day? The secret you're about to ask me to explain and it's accompanying benefit in exchange for your silence isn't a quick share like the toasts the last time I came to your office was," Orison said while mentally sighing and kicking himself.

Having Garret on hand to explain everything and verify it for the Captain saved a great deal of time. After handing Firebrand over and posting serious charges that were destined to be reduced to a heavy merit fine and a stern lecture, Adam did abuse his authority to delay the trial. The young mage spent his first full day in the Barrens reliving his experience with Garret but with far more helping hands.

Gurrut wasn't complaining, though. With some sincere pleading from Garret, the orc blooded young man was added to the deal. If it hadn't been for Stag's assistance, the young mage would have been haggard. The green haired man wasn't as skilled a healer but he had a superior method for removing the after effects.

The results for Adam hadn't been quite as dramatic but he was already fairly high up on the Rogers totem pole to begin with but Gurrut's was visually traumatizing. Orison spent most of the early morning explaining to Garret that the teen's run through hadn't been much better. When it was all said and done, the orc blooded young man could almost pass for a built human if not for the minty skin cast and slightly thicker jowls that sported a tusk framed under-bite.

Once Stag had gotten his sleep out, he switched with Orison. The two men's 'return of spring' happened during his trance and he could care less how they had handled it. With a day down, things were back on track, however.

Getting the whole team together after an uneventful evening and night, at least for Orison, it didn't escape the young mage's notice that Roy and Julia had become a lot closer during their day of mutual seclusion. "Mr Collier, I notice that on the checklist there's a missing alertness aid and a minor magic supplement meant to help with blood loss that could potentially be used for other purposes. Was your day out on the town with Stag not enough to get you by?"

Suddenly waylaid nearly a quarter of a day out and unprepared to defend, Roy flushed a crimson red and said, "Well, things kind of happened and, uh, I needed the boost BECAUSE of my day out. Did I strike a party foul or something?"

Orison chuckled and said, "No. They were a part of the non-essentials and I already told everyone that they could pull from that bag without asking permission. Just keep the checks accurate so I can replace as needed."

Roy let out a sigh of relief as the young mage added, "We better pick up the pace, though. There was a certain item that wasn't taken from the non-essentials bag that should have been and mixing magic with recklessness might... Well, let's just make sure we get to our destination soon."

Pale faced and a little panicked, Roy showed him a bottle of ointment the specialist nicknamed 'sonblock' which only caused Orison to laugh. "You do know how that works and how the medicine you took works, right?"

Chances were actually quite low that things would take a turn to 'too serious, too fast' but it wasn't out of the realm of reasonably possible either.

The young mage had an aside with Gan, "We need to make some extra buffer time. How much ground can we gain versus danger increase if we push for an extra half day over the next two?"

The scout said, "The first day out has turned into an avoidance zone for the wildlife and there's plenty of safe paths. Too bad neither of us has our horse tricks anymore or you could have it with no increase in danger. I wouldn't suggest speeding up anything on the last day. My map still doesn't register terrain issues as natural traps."

Orison thought it over and spoke to the Summit instructor. "I have a way to speed up travel for two to threefold I want to use for the first day due to a low but possible trial ending event."

He motioned with his eyes between Roy and Julia and continued, "Can you keep up or do I have to find a way to include you?"

The instructor laughed and said, "As a team lead, your biggest enemy will always be an internal one to keep your members in check... Do what you got to do. If I fall too far behind, I'll radio in a ride."

The young mage said, frowning, "You don't want to rely on that after today, sergeant. The last day won't be a place vehicles can go and the last half of the second day is a place where they shouldn't."

Scowling, the acting proctor said, "Son, I've been at this for almost as long as you've been alive. Handle your business."

Orison looked down at his uniform gloved hand and imagined the Celtic style knot work on his ring. On one side was a hound and the other was a horse. Within each was a spark stolen from Herne as the tricky huntsman had found yet one more way to survive.

Drawing on the spark from the horse side, Orison cast an impression and let the ring hold it. He gave that one to Gan because it would act like a real horse in all ways and the scout was the only one who actually knew how to handle the creature. Drawing on the spark as model, he cast the two he was capable of personally holding.

Gurrut had enough experience to keep himself and Garret seated, at least. Stag rode with Gan up front and Roy climbed on with Orison. For a moment, he had thought about riding with Gan one last time but it seemed like a bad idea. Not only emotionally but because Orison's spirit sight was what covered the back and flanks when Gan roved ahead.

With that change in logistics, they were covering ground quickly while Julia's ball rolled and bounced almost comically behind them. He was glad she didn't get motion sick and instead seemed like she was having a blast until she bit her tongue giggling and whooping after getting the hang of jumping mounds.

Cast from the same mold, the less autonomous horses seemed to fall in line with the one held by the ring, even taking subtle ques from it when rats the size of bulldogs started being attracted towards them. They barely paused more than to stomp a few times if one got close enough, moving in a synchronized 'V' shape with Gan's.

When two legged reptilian creatures started appearing, there was a shift to Gan firing arrows while Orison used a weak telekinesis model to retrieve them. The ones that got closer were picked off by 'caster guns' fired by Roy and Stag. Tactics changed once again when the local hostile fauna disappeared. Despite being vigilant, a quick and nearly silent threat descended down from a nearby ridge at bullet-like speeds catching Gan off guard.

With a rush of adrenaline fueled reflex, Gurrut pulled his brother off their horse right before a pterodactyl looking bird scratched enough damage into their horse's back to disintegrate the model. Because of the rough landing, Garret's wrist was fractured and he had a pretty nasty crack in his helmet from landing on a rock almost head first. Despite its speed, Gan put an arrow through the flying menace's neck on its second pass, severing its spine while Roy and Stag both only managed to put a couple holes in its leathery wings.

While Orison healed Garret's wrist and mended the helmet, Gan said, "I don't remember the ridge racers coming this far down."

The young mage said worriedly, "Neither do I. This isn't a good sign. Something's changed."

After a brief discussion, they got off the horses and proceeded on foot.

"Roy, start trail marking now. How far til our first rest stop, Gan?" Orison asked.

The scout said, "We passed it but this is going to keep us from making the next one before nightfall."

"How long past?" he asked.

Gan guessed, "At our current pace? Maybe around nine. It could be later depending on how much pace slows after twilight."

"We'll push on til that then. Roy, every five minutes put down another marker. The distance reader you have doesn't function properly out here. Neither will your compass," Orison said.

Gan set a light jog as pace but it became apparent that trying to reach the site sooner was a pipe dream. Roy wasn't as conditioned as they were. Julia wasn't as adept at switching between the low light monitor and real sight, causing her to get disoriented while directing the Gerbil Ball. The icing on the cake was that Stag seemed unluckily prone to stepping right where Julia would aim for with the ball. At one point she had even ran him over causing some light injuries.

When one of the leathery fliers was attracted to a dying ray of light glinting off of Julia's ball, it dive bombed towards her, putting a huge hole in it and even putting a hairline crack in the inner ballistics plastic layer. The decibel defying shriek she produced put them in a tough spot for awhile.

By the time they had driven off or killed everything that had come to investigate, Orison was doing more mending in a single go than he had ever done before. While he was busy with that, Stag picked up slack with healing and even a couple of shamanistic versions of 'Cure Disease'. An unusual amount of rats had responded to Julia's cry of distress but with a fresh pile of carrion behind them, Orison wasn't as stressed about rear guard.

In the Barrens, everything was hostile but they were first and foremost scavengers. With easier meals to be had, remaining threats would focus on that first. A point that Roy reported with zooming night goggles as a small swarm of rats chewed on their fallen brethren before ridge racers scared them off to have their turn.

As they shuffled into the rest site set by the first explorers of the area almost nine years prior, Roy clocked the time as eleven minutes to eleven. Julia had turned on the 'shade' not too long after the first scare and had only lifted it once during the fight because not knowing what was going on was worse than watching. She was already sleeping for the past two hours while her ball auto followed the beacon Roy's wrist implant emitted.

Orison was quick to squash a few disgruntled stares that had been leveled in the sleeping woman's direction. "Listen up. The scariest thing that Julia's ever had to face before today was a wolf spider in her bathtub and that left her traumatized for days. The fact that she agreed to come knowing that she would be seeing things that will possibly end up with the need for counseling makes her brave in my book. She's a school teacher for goodness sake."

Stag chuckled and said, "Don't mistake me. I'm just jealous and want to crawl in there with her."

"It just dawned on me that roughing it's not really your wheel house either. Sorry Stag. I'll try to get you a shiny ball to ride around all safe and cozy in next time okay?" Orison said in a lightly teasing voice.

A wizened and rough chuckle drew their attention to a camouflage shelter set up into the ridge. "What took you so long?"

In annoyance, the young mage said, "Far too many local wildlife in places they shouldn't be. Know anything about it?"

"You could ask the Eclipse maverick team. One of them in a powered suit dropped me off on the way to a corundum mining site they discovered about a day up," The Summit instructor said.

Orison started laughing before his face turned sad.

When the instructor asked what was funny about that, he responded. "It's not really funny at all. You'll see when we catch up with them tomorrow... Roy, radio back to the fort that Firebrand had his team reopen the corundum mine and they'll need emergency relief and a radiation sick ward prepared... Make a token effort to contact Eclipse to warn them."