The bear moves to the intersection of two alleys, where it has more room to move. It surrounds itself with its armored undead and waits, as the alleys leading to our building are too narrow for it to walk through.
“So the bear is a necromancer, and it’s smart enough to set traps and bait us. It can control at least several dozen undead at once and has us completely surrounded.” Daniel says, going over the info we have, deducing what he can about the bear. “It can probably use the undead like some kind of network, seeing and hearing through them, unless it gives them some kind of instructions that they follow.” He continues to turn the gold coins I gave him into a single thin wire, pacing back and forth while he multitasks.
I keep scanning our surroundings, like I have been for the last hour, while Daniel tries to come up with a good plan. So far our best plan is Daniel shoots some metal projectiles through one of the spatial rifts I can make, letting us shoot them from the safety of the building. The problem with that plan is Daniel's small mana capacity. Well, small relative to mine. Just one of the perks of having a heart that produces enough mana to hurt. The solution to this problem is simple. I will turn the few small crystals we have into mana batteries and then sync them together into a larger battery.
It's a simple task, one of the ones my enchanting primer recommends to start with, just with the added difficulty of connecting them together. I wish I had some of the mana-metal alloys to make the wire from, but we left those back at the tower and haven't found any more on this trip. Gold should work fine, though. It has pretty good mana conductivity for a base metal.
“That should be enough wire,” I say, reducing my spatial senses so I can put my full focus into what comes next.
Daniel nods and hands the spool to me, commenting, “Good luck.”
I lay out my materials in front of me, making sure I have everything I need before I start working. Three small crystals, a spool of gold wire to transfer mana between them, and Daniel's left gauntlet, which will be the base that it is all set into. I take a deep breath and go over the steps one last time in my head. Carve the channels and nodes that allow the mana to move continuously, decreasing the overall dissipation and increasing mana transfer speed. Sync the batteries together and connect them with the gold wire. The final part is just having Daniel set it all into the gauntlet, which he says should be no problem.
I send a pulse of mana along with my spatial senses into the first crystal, mapping out its internal structure, finding where I should put the different nodes and channels to increase efficiency as much as I can. I visualize a rough layout in my head and start carving out a channel. I work slowly and steadily, making sure to go back and fix any mistakes I make as best as I can, knowing I only have a little bit of wiggle room to fuck up. I strain all of my skills. The focus required to work on details this fine is giving me a headache, but I just ignore it—I’m too focused on the task at hand.
After nearly an hour, I finish the first one. It’s rough, and some of the channels are too wide, leaking a bit of mana, but it works. If I work at the same pace I should finish the other two by noon, hopefully giving Daniel a few hours to fill it before night falls. I finish the last two batteries in about an hour and a half, making fewer and fewer mistakes as I go. I feel several skills level up, but ignore the notifications for now, preparing for the next step.
I take all of the freshly made batteries into my hands, mapping out how I will connect them and where they will be placed on the gauntlet. After showing Daniel where and what to modify, he alters the gauntlet to fit the new batteries and their connections. I take the batteries and start connecting them, node to node with the gold wire to ensure a faster mana transfer between them and the user. Each battery gets two wires that attach to each other, turning the three small batteries into a single larger one.
After I finish, I hand the battery off to Daniel, and he starts working it into the gauntlet, making sure it’s safe and secure. I let out a deep breath and loosen the control I have over my mana, relaxing after I realize my creation won’t explode. My mana is pretty low after carving out all those channels and nodes, so I decide to rest after doing a quick scan outside. Everything is as it was, except there are about ten more undead than before, all filling the alleys around the building we are hiding in. There are 87 undead outside, including the six armored ones next to the bear, blocking our escape, waiting to tear us apart.
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I reduce my spatial senses and lay down, using my bag as a pillow. It’s barely past noon, so we have about seven hours until nightfall, and the rest of the undead in the city come out. I let Daniel finish up the gauntlet and fill it with mana while I regenerate mana and check my notifications.
[You have leveled up multiple active skills]
[Space Control] lvl 10
[Mana Shaping] lvl 11
[You have leveled up a passive skill]
[Mana Sense] lvl 10
The next few hours pass as Daniel and I both focus on regenerating our mana and hammering out an escape plan.
“We could still use the communication amulet to ask Merrick for help.” Daniel says offhandedly, making small adjustments to his gauntlet. He’s added claws to each finger, spikes at the knuckles, and the extra gold wire all around it as decoration. It looks pretty badass if I do say so myself. Most of it is steel painted black with gold wire around the palm and running down the fingers. Three transparent crystals sit on the back of the palm, glowing slightly with the mana stored inside.
I open my eyes and give him a skeptical look. “We can get ourselves out of this. It’s just more undead. We’ve killed dozens of them, and the alleyways are too small for the bear to approach us, unless it has some kind of shrinking magic.” I pause for a few moments before adding, “and Merrick would never let us live it down if he had to rescue us this early.”
“Can you draw me a map of the area? It’s time to make our getaway plan.”
I nod my head and sit up, grabbing a small piece of metal to scratch the floor with. I spend the next ten minutes recreating our surroundings as best as I can, drawing the buildings and alleyways to scale, the rough position of all the undead, and most importantly, where the bear is at.
“The situation could be worse, all things considered.” Daniel says, pointing out where the undead are thickest and thinnest. “We can clear out this alley with just a couple of my shots through your rifts, and make a break for it.”
I point to another alley, one with slightly fewer undead and in the direction of our tower. “Shouldn’t we leave through here? It’s a more direct route back, and we have to clear out less undead.”
He shakes his head, speaking in a tone like a father teaching his son something important. “We already underestimated the bear once. Let’s not do it again. I think going back the way we came is another trap. It’s what I would do.”
I stop for a second and think about what I would do in the bear's situation. I would set another trap, probably several, all in the direction we think is safest, while adding more and more pressure, forcing the people trapped to make a move.
“You’re right. The damn bear fully tricked us.”
“And we don’t have the manpower or resources for a prolonged fight. We have enough for a small but intense fight. If we play this smart and fast, we should be able to get by over here, and then we loop back around to the tower, hopefully avoiding the bear.” Daniel says while marking out a path on the floor map.
The plan is good enough for me. My part consists of just opening some rifts for Daniel to shoot through and then navigating us to the city wall using my spatial senses. I consent to the plan, and both of us sit back for the next few hours, letting our mana fill up as we wait for an opportune time.
Daniel lets me know that his internal stores are full, and so is the gauntlet. I let my mana regen enough to start putting pressure on my body, a feeling I’m slowly getting accustomed to. It hurts, but it’s also reassuring to know I have a wellspring of mana to rely on. I expand my spatial senses, noticing that not much has changed since I last checked, just a few more undead, but not enough to change our plan.
“You ready?” I ask, preparing the first rift.
“I have the easy part.” He smiles, taking out one of the tubes he has prepared on his bandolier. The tube is just a one-inch pipe filled with small steel balls, effectively making a shotgun. “You’re the one who has to rip a hole through space.”
I nod my head. “On my mark.”
I push mana into [Space Control], targeting a point in space right in front of Daniel and another at the end of the alley that holds the door to our building. I feel the rift form, and I send a bit more mana to stabilize it, hoping it will be enough to withstand Daniel's shot.
“Now.” I say as the rift finishes forming, already preparing for the next one as I cover my ears.
A loud bang echoes through the small stone room, and I feel something pass through the rift at high speed. Notifications pop up, but I ignore them. I close the rift as soon as it has served its purpose, opening a second one at the other end of that same alley.
“Now.”
The sound barrier breaks again as another scattering of pellets slams into the undead, my focus already on another rift. Five more rifts, and five more bangs go off before the two alleys we need to move through are clear, the whole event taking less than ten seconds.
“Both alleys are clear for the next few seconds.” I say, moving right behind Daniel, up to the door.
I focus on the bear with my spatial senses, seeing it stand up and tilt its head, like a curious dog. Daniel unlocks the door and bursts out, immediately running along our preplanned route. I peel my attention away from the bear, who is sending the rest of its undead after us, and focus on the alleys and buildings ahead of us.
I give Daniel directions as we run, harried by our pursuers in the labyrinthine paths and streets of the city. The hour and a half it takes us to get back to the gate is filled with fear and a little excitement as we have to fight our way through several alleys on our way back. The bear must have some kind of long-range sensory skill, as it moves groups of undead with the coordination needed to ambush us several times, requiring Daniel to use the last of his mana to clear an alley that we got trapped in. I push my spatial senses to their max, creating a spatial sense range of a hundred feet in all directions, allowing me to better bypass any ambushes.
By the time we reach the gate both of us are drained, both of mana and energy. I take the lead through the tunnels in the wall, guiding us through the dark passages and stairs back to the top. We enter the tower as the sun sets, only stopping once the door is locked behind us.