New Life As A Max Level Archmage
28 – Flight

Vivi let the adventurers who had defended the Convoy claim the spoils of war, but only after extracting a promise that the commoners affected would also be taken care of.

Sure, many of the adventurers present had only fought for their own sakes, but their efforts had delayed the monsters and prevented a worse disaster nonetheless. And it wasn’t like she needed the coin herself. Hopefully the tragedy could be mitigated, not that money solved all problems. Especially for those who hadn’t made it. But it was something.

While she waited for the engineers to confirm that the Convoy was operational, she stood on the central carriage and kept watch over the adventurers dashing from corpse to corpse to loot the sea of bodies. Golden spears impaled any monster that came so much as two thousand paces from the Convoy. Bloodthirsty and half-mad the creatures were, even they eventually learned their lesson when faced with a battlefield strewn with corpses.

In the meantime, Saffra sat next to her, legs dangling off the ledge of the Convoy’s hull. Her brow was furrowed as she worked through her next attempt at [Scorchlance]. She made a surprisingly diligent student, using her downtime even after an event like this to study. She was making good progress, too. She thought. It wasn’t like she had a standard to go off.

Jasper jogged up when the engineers had finished. “Didn’t find anything wrong,” he called. “Just waiting for you to get inside, and we’ll be off.”

She nodded and followed him back to the Lounge.

Striding in, she was met with something she’d forgotten about. Lord Caldimore and his entourage. A petty nobleman was hardly important on the scale of the catastrophe she’d been dealing with, so he had passed out of her mind entirely.

Not she from his, though. He seemed to be aware of what had transpired. That she had been the one to pick up the Convoy—with them inside—and repair the vehicle. As well as kill a Titled-rank monster. And all other monsters in thousands of meters.

Their eyes didn’t meet hers. They stalwartly pretended she didn’t exist, and not as a snub, but in the way a mouse might freeze underneath a cat, not sure what else to do besides remain small and quiet and hope the beast’s attention passed over it. Vivi liked to imagine they were sweating underneath their fancy coats. Lord Caldimore had certainly realized the magnitude of his mistake.

She snorted. Saffra also seemed pleased by the development, though she didn’t let herself make a show of it. The catgirl shot a number of smug looks toward the men, though, and especially the pushy Caldimore brat, who was palest of the bunch.

They took their seats secluded from the rest, and just like that, they were back on track. Literally and figuratively. The Convoy glided forward, with Vivi barely noticing the jerk of its launch thanks to the dampening enchantments.

***

She didn’t have such terrible luck that monsters attacked the Convoy twice. The rest of the trip—around ten hours—passed without issue.

She spent that time mentoring Saffra, sorting through her massive spell list, ruminating over the residual signature of the dimensional anomaly and other various problems—like what to do when they reached Meridian—and idly watching scenery fly by with an empty mind. She was only human, and a new world’s charm would take a while to wear off.

Er, demonic. She was only demonic. She was going to mess that up in conversation eventually, wasn’t she?

Evening had come and passed by the time the Convoy rolled into the station. The blanket of night had fallen over the city of Siroc. Vivi sent out a [Farsight] and saw a commotion developing outside—no doubt thanks to the delay created by the Convoy’s derailment. A smaller one-carriage car, filled with a rescue crew, had intercepted them an hour outside the city, then escorted them back. The City Guard, or some other authorities, had arrived to no doubt interrogate everyone aboard and form an understanding of what had happened.

In short, a complete debacle was brewing, one she would be dragged into if she didn’t excuse herself. She would not be repeating Prismarche.

“We’ll be taking our leave,” Vivi told Saffra, holding her hand out. “The next few hours will be extremely annoying, otherwise.”

Confused, Saffra put her hand in Vivi’s. She [Blinked] them onto a rooftop a safe distance away. Saffra staggered, but found her footing.

“W-whoa. That felt weird.”

Spatial transportation wasn’t pleasant, even for Vivi, so she sympathized. Not everyone was like Prismarche’s Guard Captain to handle it so easily.

“Let’s find an inn for the night. You know these cities better than I do. Lead?”

Saffra perked up, happy to be given a task she could help with. She stood on her toes to get an extra inch of perspective, gaze sweeping out across the city.

She pointed. “That way.”

Vivi [Blinked] them onto a new roof, and that process continued as Saffra took the lead.

The night closed after a quick search for a tavern and a resulting hearty meal. Vivi woke the next morning pleased that the City Guard hadn’t tracked her down and demanded a report. Safe for now, but maybe not for long, so she wouldn’t idle.

She met Saffra at the tavern bar, and the catgirl was already scarfing down her breakfast. Eggs, bread, ham, and a mug of the weak ale that served as a water replacement for this world. Vivi was still getting used to the taste of it all.

“We’ll be skipping the Convoy,” Vivi told her as she slid into the seat next to her.

 Saffra paused with her fork half-raised. Bits of egg clung to the side of her mouth, and Vivi repressed the urge to brush it away for her.

“Skipping?” Saffra asked through a mouthful of food.

Her manners, Vivi had noticed, weren’t the best. And not even because she didn’t know better—Saffra realized her breach of manners a second later and swallowed, blushing slightly. The egg remained, and Vivi’s hand twitched, but she fought the urge. She didn’t think Saffra was the kind of person who liked being touched without warning. Vivi sympathized. She was the same.

“What do you mean skipping?” Saffra asked. “We’re not going to Meridian?”

Vivi crushed the hopeful look in her eyes. Saffra clearly didn’t want to head back to the city that hosted the Institute, but it was a necessity.

“We are. Just more directly.”

“Oh.” She deflated, but shook it away. “Directly? What does that mean?”

“The Convoy is too slow, and I don’t want another incident. I’ll bring us there with flight and acceleration spells.”

She had considered doing that from the start, but had wanted to explore, to take a leisurely trip through the world of Seven Cataclysms. But she reluctantly admitted that she needed to get a move on. Not only was there the dimensional anomaly, but dawdling by taking another Convoy ride might invite a second accident.

“Flight and acceleration spells,” Saffra repeated slowly. “Won’t that take even longer? The Convoy is really fast.” After a second, she grimaced. “Who am I kidding? It’s you. Okay. That’s fine. Is there anything you need from me?”

Vivi shook her head. “I was just letting you know.”

The tavern keeper slid a plate of food in front of her. The meal had been included in the coins she’d handed over last night. She took her breakfast with a thank you and dug in.

Thirty minutes later, she [Blinked] her and Saffra past the city walls and next to the Convoy track. While she’d memorized Seven Cataclysm’s map, without obvious indicators, she could easily get lost in the wilderness. Following the rail fixed that at the small cost of not making a straight line for Meridian. Hardly a major issue.

Vivi had mulled over the best combination of spells to use. Out of paranoia, she didn’t want to go at maximum speed—she had a passenger, and should something go wrong, slamming into the ground at whatever monstrous velocity her full effort could create might be bad even for Vivi, much less Saffra.

While she wouldn’t be taking a sedate pace, a speed five or ten times the Convoy would serve them well.

She pointed her staff at Saffra. She had gotten in the habit of masking her spell casting, but for her apprentice’s sake, she let the circle form without interference, runes etching in the air. Saffra’s wide eyes followed the developing design with fascination—she was a genuine appreciator of the arcane, which Vivi respected. Magic was amazing, and anyone who thought otherwise didn’t have their head screwed on straight.

This spell was monstrously complex, and she doubted many mages even at the appropriate level could cast it. Tier ten. A Titled-rank spell.

“[Fly].”

Gravity lost its hold on Saffra. Disoriented despite having prepared herself, the girl’s arms started cartwheeling, and she fell backwards—then kept falling backwards, and kept falling, doing a full head-over-heels in mid-air. Her arms, legs, and most amusingly, her tail flailed around wildly as she tumbled in zero-gravity.

“W-Wait!” Saffra cried. “You didn’t tell me it’d be like this!”

For the first time, Vivi felt even the stoic lips of this new body twitch with amusement. She covered her mouth with a hand, reflexively hiding the shameful display. Thankfully, the disoriented, spinning Saffra was too occupied with wrangling the mechanics of [Fly] to notice her dramatic display.

A minute later, they’d both gotten themselves under control.

“Okay. I guess it’s not that hard.” Saffra leaned forward, and, floating six feet above the grass, traveled in a straight line. She did the same backwards, then side to side, gliding effortlessly. “Just took a second to get the hang of. You—you didn’t see anything.” She glared at Vivi, daring her to contradict her.

“I saw nothing,” Vivi agreed.

Saffra eyed her for a second longer, still embarrassed, then huffed. She dived forward, darting past Vivi in a blur that made her start in surprise.

But of course Saffra was fast. This was Vivi’s own [Fly], so max speed even before haste modifiers would match the Convoy.

Saffra already had defensive spells on her, so she was in no danger of getting hurt, though Vivi’s protective instincts flared before she remembered that fact.

Saffra came zooming back, then started doing flips, followed by cartwheels and even less sensical maneuvers. She laughed, and there was a childish quality to her voice as she yelled, “This is so awesome!”

For a second time, Vivi hid a smile behind her hand.

Saffra indulged in the wonders of flight for a full minute before realizing she was acting her age. She stiffened, straightened out, and floated over to Vivi, plastering on an expression that tried too hard to be professional. She cleared her throat. “You can really maintain two [Flies]? I thought it’s super mana intensive, even for a tier ten spell.”

“It won’t be a problem.”

Casting [Fly] on herself, she joined Saffra in the air and floated high enough that she had a vantage point looking out at the railway snaking into the distance.

“We’ll start slow. I’ll apply haste when you’re more comfortable moving around.”

“I’m good. You can do it now.”

Vivi considered her. “Prove it.”

She zipped off without warning, but Saffra was quick on her feet—off her feet?—because she matched her with less than a second’s delay. She was an adventurer, Vivi reminded herself, no matter her age. Hard to catch those off guard.

When Saffra demonstrated that she really did have solid control of [Fly], Vivi slowed and pointed her staff at her.

“Take it easy to start with,” she warned. “This is going to be a big increase.”

Saffra bobbed her head rapidly, excited to test out super-velocity flight. Vivi couldn’t blame her.

“[Stride to the Horizon].”

“[Slipstream].”

“[Perfect Form].”

The last, a massive dexterity boost, ought to help with the mental processing needed for making adjustments. Not that Saffra would need fine control, seeing how they would be flying in a mostly straight line, but better to give it to her than not.

She would need one last ability for comfortable flight. “[Light Barrier].” A transparent, conical shield of white shimmered into existence in front of the girl. It would help part the air and keep wind from slapping into her face and throwing her hair around.

She cast the same spells on herself, then took off.

She moved…fast. Really fast. She hadn’t been going remotely close to max speed when taking her casual stroll back to the Convoy. Now that she pushed [Stride to the Horizon] and [Slipstream] to their near-maximum, though, she tore across the ground so quickly it shocked even her.

She came to a stop, and a quarter second later, Saffra slammed to a halt as well, arms cartwheeling.

“Whoa,” Saffra said. “That’s, um. Something.”

Vivi didn’t disagree. “We should be good. You ready?”

“Ready.”

Blasting forward in a rush of wind, their trip to Meridian began in earnest.

At this pace, they would be there just after noon. She wondered what awaited them.