The Sword of Morrow - Ch. 14

The spear of Alexander’s ‘jack tore into the armor of T’mys’s own. The spear pierced through the worn metal easily as Alexander had apparently used her focus to add strength behind the blow. And while the blow had not been unforeseen, the damage it had done was. This battle was already going all wrong. Alexander leaping to attack with a ‘jack and T’mys could hear behind him Johnson’s two warjacks, moving in for the kill. The immediate problem wasn’t that he was being attacked, but the fact he was being ganged up upon. Something had changed on the battlefield, only the change had started a week ago.

As T’mys was busy Friday evening with Rymus, Johnson and Alexander had gone out. Only somehow the usual carousing had gone slightly awry when the two returned with each other. Somewhere in the evening their relationship had gone from sparring adversaries and friends to lovers. Not that there was anything wrong with that. All too often soldiers will find company for the night between the ranks, however in this case instead of being a mere nights diversion it looked as if something might be trying to blossom there.

At the start of the week T’mys had returned to his lessons with a renewed vigor. The first changes between his fellow classmates were easily noticed. In the classroom where normally all the students sit evenly spread out from one another, now Johnson was sitting directly next to Alexander. They had also started referring to each other on a perpetual first name basis. Johnson had become Brian, and Alexander had become Sabrina, which in turn had been whittled down to ‘Bree’. It was cute in a way, at least until today’s challenge.

One thing Capt. Willis had failed to notice was that they had put their strategies together this week, until it was already to late. Now as two Chargers moved in from behind, as his was literally nailed to another in front of it, T’mys had all of two seconds to think up a new strategy.

Alexander once again mentally ordered her warjack to retract the spear from inside Willis’s ‘jack. Again it failed. While the spear had easily enough pierced the old warjacks armor, it was now caught on the internals of the behemoth. She twirled her own staff in front of her defensively, not willing to apply her own attack until Johnson’s warjacks were in melee range with Willis’s. It was this hesitation that put her on her butt.

As Alexander’s warjack continued thrusting its caught spear in and out of the armor of T’mys warjack, T’mys ordered his own ‘jack to drop it’s weapon and shield. As Alexander’s ‘jack was on the forward thrust, T’mys ordered his Charger to lean forward and grab the arm of Johnson’s warjack. This caught Alexander off guard, and before she could react her warjack was spinning.

T’mys’s Charger used it’s opponents forward momentum as leverage. Grabbing its attackers arm, and pulling forward as it thrust the spear into its own undercarriage, T’mys ‘jack spun the opposing warjack around in a wide circle. Before Alexander’s eye she saw her Charger spin around and slammed into one of Johnson’s carefully positioned warjacks.

Johnson had moved his two warjacks into a classic strategic assault position. Alexander’s attack was a better success than should have been rightly hoped for. It kept T’mys pinned down and allowed more than ample time for Johnson to move his warjack into a standard dual attack maneuver. Johnson had just gotten his ‘jacks into position when the wide spinning Charger of Sabrina Alexander’s was spun into his own. The two titans met with such force it knocked them both over and sent T’mys own warjack spinning. The sound of metal bending and caving in on itself was so loud it could be heard outside the arena. The spear, which had penetrated T’mys Charger, hung limp from the wound in its armor, now dripping with the heavy flow of some black viscous fluid.

‘That can’t be good’ T’mys thought to himself as he mentally command the Charger to regain its composure, stop spinning around and face its other opponent.

It only took Sabrina a second to recover. The two-pronged attack was still viable if she pressed the advance on Capt. Willis, while Brian continued attacking the wounded Charger. She made a running assault at Capt. Willis, trying to be as quiet as possible until the moment of strike, her staff spinning around deftly in her hands. Her attack would have succeeded as well if it hadn’t been for her lover.

T’mys had faced Johnson now that Alexander’s ‘jack was out of the way. His own Charger had finally stopped spinning around like a schoolgirl, and had grabbed the new attacker’s spear. He had flashed a smile to Johnson as to say ‘Ha Ha!’ only to see Johnson look over his shoulder. T’mys began to turn and look. The first thing that he saw as he turned was the shadow. Alexander’s shadow was next to his feet, showing the silhouette of her, her staff raised above her head, a second away from the kill. T’mys killed his turn, and immediately tucked into a roll. Alexander began to scream the moment she saw T’mys starting his turn.

She brought the staff down hard against the spot Capt. Willis had been the second before. He had rolled directly to his right and was now on his haunches. Not missing a beat she brought the staff back up in a twirl and brought it down hard on top of Capt. Willis again. Only this time Willis had his full attention on her.

Johnson’s Charger stilled had both its spear and shield, and while its spear was now caught between it’s opponents hands, its shield was still free. Johnson command mentally and verbally, “Bash the hell out of it!”

The Charger started smashing its shield forward into it’s leaking opponent. After three or four surges forward it had not only destroyed the part of the spear that was still hanging out of Capt. Willis’s Charger but had also moved it around enough to where it could now bring its shield down in swinging strokes.

Sabrina Alexander bought her staff down once, twice, three times, and each time she just narrowly missed her half elf opponent by a hair’s width. A loud attack scream still bellowing from her lungs. This was getting them nowhere. She brought her staff back around in a flashy twirl, her skill with the weapon was quite amazing. Her thought was that if she gave the rolling idiot a chance, he’d roll away to confront her, at which point she could easily take him in melee combat.

As Alexander twirled her staff back into a defensive position, T’mys decide to try to seize an opportunity for himself. T’mys could hear his ‘jack getting pummeled in the close distance, and he could easily imagine a wide grin on Lt. Johnson’s face as he felt he was winning. Instead of rolling away, T’mys brought his legs over and gave a low roundhouse kick and swept the legs of Alexander out from under her. She came down hard, not expecting the sweep attack at all.

T’mys spun up on his haunches, drawing the wooden sword his was given as a practice weapon for the arena. He brought the dull end of the mock blade down on the center of her breastplate with both hands. The attack simulated T’mys piercing the armor of his opponent. Alexander screamed out a sling of curses as a weighted red flag was flung down from above on the observatory catwalk landing next to the fallen woman.

Johnson drew his wooden sword in response to his ally’s ‘death’. T’mys took a look at his Charger, who was currently on the wrong end of a beat down. Johnson’s other Charger was finally recovering from it’s fall and would momentarily be viable again, all-be-it with a huge dent in it’s armor from where Alexander’s Charger had been unceremoniously thrown into it. The two novice warcasters were on equal territory for the moment, but only the moment. Two seconds from now Lt. Johnson would have the upper hand, as he would be in control of two warjacks and Capt. Willis would soon have none.

T’mys decided to pull a play from Johnson’s own playbook. T’mys sheathed his practice sword and put one hand on his head. With his other he redrew his magelock and aimed it at the closest non-controlled warjack. His body partially turned, and keeping his voice low he began to chant the magical incantation. Johnson reacted as desired.

Seeing that the captain was about to summon another warjack, Johnson dumped all his focus into his to ‘jacks. With the one attacking Capt. Willis’s Charger he sped up it’s attacks forcing strength into each blow, with his freshly recovered titan, he sent it charging in the direction of the fresh warjack Capt. Willis was aiming at with that fancy pistol.

The charging Charger hurled itself into the stationary ‘jack, sending them both into the arena wall with such force that the arena itself shook. Judges and spectators in the catwalks above clung onto the safety rails for dear life as they shook back and forth. While they didn’t quite break through the arena wall, a large section was caved in upon impact, leaving cracks and rubble outside the large dent/chunk now taken out of the stone.

The bait swallowed, T’mys turned towards Lt. Johnson his voice now rising as he continued the incantation. His magelock now pointed towards his adversary. With each word his voice grew louder, and Johnson began to hear exactly what spell T’mys was casting.

“Oh Sh….” Johnson began but never finished, for T’mys’s sleep spell shot out like a bullet at Lt. Johnson. He was asleep before he hit the ground.

A whistle blew from above. The judges looked down nervously upon their contestants as they all swayed back and forth on the upper catwalks. The head judge, one of their senior professors, declared Journeyman Willis this weeks winner, as the other instructors nervously made there way to the stairs down.

Sabrina who had gotten up after her ‘death’ had moved aside to the far wall to watch the rest of the competition. She now had moved over to the unconscious lieutenant in the snow. She knelt down and gingerly started waking him up. As T’mys moved over to help his classmates he heard Sabrina.

“Brian. Brian wake up.” She shook her lover lightly, “C’mon wake up.”

“C’mon let’s sit him up.” Suggested T’mys, as he knelt down on the other side of Johnson. The two sat up their companion up into a sitting position. Sabrina brushed her hand through Brain’s hair shaking his head lightly, Brian’s eyes started to flutter a bit as he began to come around.

“C’mon Baby, wake up.” She cooed again.

T’mys smirked, he wasn’t used to the familiarity between the two, at least not openly. One week and already they had ‘pet names’. “Yeah wake up ‘Baby’” T’mys mockingly cooed.

Alexander shot him a look that said ‘don’t do that again!’ T’mys put his hands up in defense but still had the smirk upon his face. As Johnson began to finally come around they stood him up. With one arm over each of their shoulders they began moving him towards the exit. Already mechaniks and bodgers were entering the arena to see how much damage the Journeyman students had caused. Curses in both human and goblin came as they began to examine the skewered Charger.

As they left the arena T’mys asked,” So, can I expect this two to one scenario every time we go in there?” He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder towards the arena.

“No.” Sabrina answered a little to emphatically, drawing the word out a bit. “We just happen to work on a strategy together this week. Besides, it looks like you handled everything in there just fine.”

“Man,” Brian Johnson chimed in, his brain now starting to wake up, “I can’t believe you put me to sleep.”

“I learned from the pro.” T’mys jokingly replied.

Johnson stood up under his own power now, although he still had a bit of a wobble in his walk. He retracted his arm from T’mys shoulder, but cupped Alexander’s far shoulder in his palm as he stood up. With his now free hand Johnson rubbed his head to clear the grogginess. “Dirty play Thomas. Using my own trick against me.”

“I needed something Brian, I was on the short end of that fight from the beginning.” T’mys confessed.

Brian and Sabrina looked at each other grinning evil little grins, “Yeah, well, you may have been the target from the start, but it was going to get interesting when Bree and I got into it.” Johnson let out.

“Uh huh.” That would have been interesting T’mys thought. Glad he wasn’t testing those waters in a new relationship. “So what you guys want to do tonight?” T’mys asked.

T’mys had gone back every night this week to work with Rymus on the magelock cannon. He knew he could harness enough magic to bond to another magelock, but found the process of bonding with the magelock cannon to be extremely difficult. Unlike his handheld model where the bond is made easier by the tactile sense of touch, he was not afforded this luxury with the magelock cannon.

Instead they had connected the cannon arm onto the right side shoulder assembly and had implanted the special cortex. First he had to familiarize himself with the new cortex. It felt completely different from the ones he worked with in practice in regular Cygnar warjacks, nor did it feel anything like the one he’d broken the connection to with the Protectorate’s warjack. There were no words that could rightly explain it; just that it was different, and surprisingly comfortable. The magic worked well, and it was disheartening looking at the Centurion’s armored head sitting on the wheeled cart as his mind weaved and mapped the controls of the new cortex. Once that was complete his mind could easily flow to the magelock cannon. But that had only been the first step in bonding with the largest magelock in history. Even Sebastian Nemo’s expertise had been enlisted in the creation of the experimental construct. Finally last night T’mys started forming the bond with the weapon. There was more to do to be sure, but it was now the weekend and he needed a little liberty.

“Sorry Thomas, but I was planning on taking Bree out to a romantic evening tonight. Maybe we can all get together tomorrow night for drinks and some music.” Johnson told him as Alexander laid her head back on Johnson’s shoulder.

“That’s cool,” T’mys answered, he should have known better, “you two have a good time. Just stop by tomorrow if you guys want to do something.”

Brian and Bree walked off happily, even if it was in defeat, to change for dinner. T’mys watched them go and laughed at himself, “So now what do I do.”