3

Zack

Zack sits in an uncomfortable plane seat reading the note Shinji had left with his new gun

 

Zack

 

This new version of my weapon has all the changes you suggested. It is less powerful than the previous iteration but I managed to double the number of shots you can fire. The recharge time has also been much reduced, however the charging apparatus had to have its size increased to compensate hopefully this isn't too much of an issue and I'll hopefully have a smaller version available by the time you get back. As you predicted in doubling its charge count the stopping power of the weapon was reduced, however the good news is that I managed to keep the power equal to that of a full crossbow rather than just a hand crossbow this should make the weapon a massive force multiplier on the battlefield.

I look forward to your report on it, especially in a real battlefield situation. Thanks in advance

Shinji

 

Zack looks up from the note at a commotion further down the row of seats as two members of the squad he was attached to move down to try and talk to him. As an old school officer and an immortal on top of that he tends to instinctively distance himself from the members of any squad he gets attached to. He looks up and sees the two squad members, recruits just barely out of boot camp from the looks of them (at least to his old eyes all military personal he meets are recruits just out of boot camp) approaching him with the unearned swagger of youngsters while a third recruit sits further down with her palm to her face at least that one has some brains thinks Zack. He also notices that the NCO in charge of the squad, a warrant officer of some renown (apparently, Zack had stopped keeping up with the up and comers of the military years ago,) is distracted by whatever the pilot is saying on the intercom and hadn't noticed two of her young squad members being idiots while the last member of the squad, a seasoned veteran by his appearance and the grey in his hair and beard, had fallen asleep Another smart one, getting some sleep before a battle is a good idea thinks Zack the two idiots finally get to where Zack is sitting with one sitting next to him while the other sits across from him

“so your lordship, what's in the letter? Is it from that bombshell you're shacking up with?” asks the one in front of him. Zack suppresses the urge to throw the insolent young man out the door and instead answers him

“While I am technically a lord while we're on a military air craft and on a military exercise and even outwith either of those you will refer to me as “Captain” or I'll have you pulled up for disrespecting a superior, am I understood?” levelling a death glare at first one then the other youngster

“yes” replies the boy in front of him, Zack levels the death glare at him again

“yes, what?” he asks prompting the boy to answer him a second time

“yes sir!” the boy is clearly shitting himself as he says this under Zack's withering glare

“Better, the answer to your question is that it's none of your business. I'm the CO here and you don't need to know what's happening in my personal life” replies Zack, calling his power and incinerating Shinji's note, as the contents of any such notes are top secret as well as using the effortless display of power to cow the newer generation of fire mages who wouldn't even hold a candle to even the weakest mages of Zack's generation however the casual display of power also manages to attract the attention of the warrant officer who yells at them

“Private Ethan, Private Gareth stop annoying the Captain and get over here for the briefing” both privates hang their heads in shame, especially after seeing the disapproving look from the veteran who had just woken up. They obviously respect him thinks Zack on seeing this silent exchange the warrant officer then turns to Zack

“will you be joining in on the briefing captain?” she asks, Zack looks at his watch to check the time before shaking his head

“no I will not be warrant officer, my deployment area is just coming up and the sooner I deploy the sooner we can end this. Just deploy as your orders tell you and I'll see you when I see you. Hopefully your newbies won't get themselves killed” he replies before using the intercom to talk to the pilot “pilot we're near my deployment area, open the rear hatch so I can deploy”

“Can do, do you have a parachute?” replies the pilot

“I don't need one, and before you start arguing just open the damn hatch” says Zack before addressing everyone else in the plane “you might want to put your seatbelts on here, it's going to get a bit windy” before strapping on his gun in its new holster and moving to the deployment hatch at the rear of the aircraft which promptly begins to open at his approach. With a cheeky wink to the warrant officer Zack promptly performs a backflip as he jumps out the back of the aircraft.

As he begins to plummet towards the ground Zack instinctively accesses his wind magic using it to control his fall and not only to keep the stinging wind and bits of debris out of his eyes but also so he doesn't hit terminal velocity and hit the ground fast enough to kill himself. The fall is over quickly as he flips in order to right himself and utilise his wind magic to slow his fall enough that when he lands it's with the slight flexing of his knees as if he had just jumped off a short wall. As he lands he conjures two glowing orbs of light slaved to his area of control, a two meter radius around him, that will fire beams of light powerful enough to destroy any projectiles that might come near him.

With his preparations done Zack begins to advance to the first line of defences only for a massive wall of fire to come roaring towards him, unperturbed Zack walks straight into it, the flames don't bother him as the ones within two meters of him come under his control and with barely a thought he causes them to dissipate. Seeing that this assault didn't work the defenders then send a barrage of projectiles at him from regular arrows to crossbow bolts to even a few ballista bolts, those projectiles that come within two meters of him are instantly destroyed by bolts of light that spit from the two orbs ensuring that Zack can advance on the first line of defences unharmed. As he closes in on the gates to the wall in front of him Zack draws his sword and pistol before sending a mighty hammer blow of wind at the gates, blasting them and the wall they were in into mere rubble killing several of the rebels that were cowering behind them. Calling on his winds Zack leaps the rubble in one bound, finding himself confronted by more defenders but before any of the defenders can react Zack fires on them, six pin point accurate shots killing six defenders with six headshots (he had been practising after all) but before he can fire again the rest of the defenders are on him and he needs to resort to melee combat, his speciality. Zack flows through the melee, dispatching his opponents with contemptuous ease, letting his Blessed talent overwhelm the un-Blessed opponents he fights, killing or incapacitating them with one or two attacks at most. Before long all that surrounds Zack are corpses or groaning wounded, seeing a few running away he fires six more shots at them killing another six as the bolts of pure Mana punch through their armour and even through their bodies to hit those in front of him. Holstering his pistol in order to recharge it Zack advances on the second line of defences.

As he approaches a horde of defenders charge him from the second line, with his pistol still charging and his orbs only able to intercept objects of a specific size and weight he takes a two handed grip on sword and grins before picking up the pace and charges at a breakneck speed towards the horde, the Mana in his body giving him strength, speed and endurance far beyond that of his fellow mages, as he hits the horde the first defender he encounters is flung out the way from his shoulder barge. As his momentum carries him into the midst of the horde his sword flashes out, severing extremities and heads as well as leaving massive, deep gashes in others. The ferocity of his assault stalls the horde and allows Zack to catch his breath and send out another hammer blow of wind, shattering bones and flinging bodies away from him. This assault causes the rest of the horde of defenders (what few of them are left) to break and run away, routed. A chiming noise alerts Zack to the fact his pistol is fully recharged, just in time for him to take on the second line of defences.

Conjuring two larger orbs of light, Zack sweeps two massive beams of light along the defences killing the majority of the defenders on the battlements as well as destroying the ballistas mounted on them as well. After this latest assault Zack sends yet another blow of wind at the now weakened battlements causing them to crumble. Drawing his pistol again Zack runs at the line of defence and again leaps over the rubble and lands in the midst of the now dazed defenders taking the opportunity to fire all twelve of his shots from his pistol felling even more defenders before slamming it back into its holster and whirling through the survivors with his sword in a two handed grip leaving none alive. After wiping the blood off his weapon (any blood that came near his clothes got incinerated by his flames) he walks up the hill towards the citadel another chime telling him that his pistol is fully charged wow Shinji wasn't kidding about how quickly this thing recharges thinks Zack as he walks up the hill as if on a leisurely stroll.

As he nears the gates to the citadel Zack spies a massive, armoured individual standing in front of the gates as he approaches Zack levels his pistol and pulls the trigger only for the bolt of Mana to dissipate as it nears his opponent. Realising he was fighting an un-awoken Blessed (one of the Blessed who still had their magic cut off) Zack holsters the pistol again before charging in with his sword hoping to catch the big man off guard only for a massive Dane axe to come swinging towards his head (the Blessed still had increased speed, strength, endurance and reflexes as well despite not being able to actively use magic) requiring him to roll out of the way. Taking his hand two handed he blocks yet another blow from the axe, the impact only being nullified by his own increased strength, the big man quickly recovers and swings his axe again causing Zack to jump backwards. Realising he won't be able to penetrate the armour normally Zack grips the sword by its blade and and when the big man attacks he aims a murder stroke into his opponent's side, the impact causes him to lose grip on his weapon. As he recoils Zack aims a mighty blow of wind at the gates behind him and he promptly leaps through them and hits out with another, final blow of wind at the defenders in the atrium, felling them. Zack picks up a scattered arming sword and gets ready as his opponent staggers in holding the gaping wound in his side adrenaline being the only thing keeping him standing. Upon seeing Zack the big Blessed lets out a mighty roar and charges him swinging his massive Dane axe, Zack takes the axe blow on his new arming sword only for the sword to shatter

“shit steel” growls Zack as he rolls out of the way, now effectively unarmed and needing to rely on his wits and experience to win. As the big man charges again Zack dodges to one side and hammers the pommel of the now useless arming sword into his opponent's wounded side causing him to double over in pain, breaking through the pain killing effects of the adrenaline and Mana, and drop his axe before falling to his knees. Zack picks up the axe and then, with no remorse, brings it down on his opponent's neck severing his head. He leaves the corpse where it is with the axe buried in the ground next to it, moving further into the citadel.

Balthazar looked at the crumbling lines of his rebel army from the window of his office in the citadel realising that it had been more than just one fire mage deployed and that the one who had deployed earlier had just acted to punch a hole in his army's defences while a squad of fire mages joined the greater army of the states and effectively nullified the only advantage his rebels had. The door to his office opens but rather than hearing the soft tone of speech of his aide he is instead greeted by the broad accent of a Altairan Highlander

“It seems that those youngsters are doing better than I expected” states Zack as he enters the office, Balthazar instantly whirls around and fires a bolt from his hand crossbow at the Highlander as he crosses the threshold only for the bolt to bounce off Zack's body armour. Before Balthazar can fire a second shot from his crossbow Zack fires back with his own weapon, aiming at his quarry's weapon, rendering it inoperable

“shit. You're wearing lunite body armour aren't you?” spits Balthazar cradling his hand, which was injured from Zack's shot

“yep a gift from my dearly departed dad, given to me when I joined the military. But enough about me. Balthazar Alonso I'm here to accept your surrender” replies Zack, keeping his pistol trained on Balthazar but continues before his target can reply

“and none of that 'I will never surrender!' crap, you can either surrender to me and be tried under international law which will most likely result in you getting sent to prison but very much still being alive or you can surrender to your home country and get executed. Your choice.” this time he gives Balthazar a chance to reply

“and what assurances do I have you won't just turn me over to the states?” asks Balthazar

“My well known hatred for the Alliance of Six States? Besides if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead already” replies Zack, with an evil grin “you really only have on choice here, you're hardly going to be held up as a martyr. I've stopped enough rebellions in this stupid country that I know how it works in regards to that”

Balthazar takes a moment to consider before nodding his head

“very well. I'll surrender myself to you, give me a moment to call my aide so I can get the message sent to my fellow comrades about the surrender” he replies. Zack nods and stands to one side of the door, still keeping his pistol trained on Balthazar in case he tried anything funny but all he does is press a button to the intercom

“Miguel I need you to get the flag bearers to raise the white flag, we're surrendering... No we cannot win, the opposition has fire mages protecting them... thank you Miguel, hopefully they're not too harsh on you and the others” Balthazar moves away from the intercom and faces Zack

“so what now? Are you going to march me through my own fortress to meet the victors?”

Zack ponders this for a moment before shaking his head

“nah screw that, I'm pretty tired after fighting my way up here so they can come to me” he states before unceremoniously throwing himself onto the couch in the office Balthazar cautiously edges round and sits on the chair in front of the sofa

“I'm surprised though, I would have thought Altair's infamous Lightning Hawk would have used his lightning in his assault on my humble abode” says Balthazar, eyeing Zack warily who just laughs at this

“well Balthy” begins Zack before being interrupted

“don't call me that” snaps Balthazar, he hadn't been called 'Balthy' in years Zack however ignores him and carries on

“As I was saying, Balthy, whenever you're fighting someone or something far weaker than yourself you don't use your full strength now do you? Of course not! That wouldn't be very fun and considering the general weakness of mages with this current fluctuation my lightning is effectively sealed” Zack looks over to Balthazar before continuing “however I read up on you and your movement and I was sorely tempted to pull out all the stops to stop this little rebellion of yours.” Balthazar withers under the weight of Zack's look, which conveys his disgust quite adequately but the rebel decides to try and justify himself

“but surely you of all people should understand what we were trying to do? You hate the Alliance of the Six states!” He says only for Zack to snort derisively

“I do hate the states, it's a stupid system and too prone to rebellions” he replies, Balthazar smiles in triumph as if he had won the debate only for Zack to continue

“but what you wanted to do was somehow worse. Seriously euthanising the Blessed? You had a Blessed mercenary guarding the front gate for gods' sake! He's dead now by the way. On top of that you wanted some weird eugenics program to make sure only fire mages were born and the ones that aren't fire mages would become serfs to the fire mages. Heck me coming here and helping with the destruction of your rebellion saves those dickhead gods the trouble of smiting you themselves.”

Before Balthazar can formulate his reply there's the sound of stomping boots and the door to the office bursts open as the Altairan warrant officer whose squad Zack was attached to and several officials of the states storm in, they all stop and stare at the sight of Zack reclining on the couch with the leader of the rebels sat across from him, neither looking at all stressed at the situation they were in

“ahem it's nice to see you're enjoying yourself captain Kanderas” states one of the officials “especially since you didn't deign to grace us with your presence” before the officials can continue the warrant officer interjects directing her own question at Zack

“sir, have you managed to subdue the rebel leader?” she eyes Balthazar suspiciously “because to me it looks like all you're doing is relaxing” Zack just raises an eyebrow before getting up off the couch

“I had to do a lot of fighting, including against a fairly talented Blessed, to get up here I think I earned some rest” replies Zack “but anyway as you can see I have apprehended the rebel leader, therefore he will be tried under international law so no barbaric executions” he directs this last statement at the officials.

Zack, the officials and the warrant officer lead Balthazar and the other surrendered rebels out of the citadel, past the corpse of the Blessed Zack had killed, the group pauses so that the rebels and Zack can pay their respects, Zack toward an opponent capable of giving him a good fight and the rebels to a colleague and possibly a friend. Only Balthazar stands with the rest of the group, eyes wide in shock at the sight of the corpse of the big Blessed the Dane axe still buried in the floor where the corpse's neck would be, the head having rolled a few feet away from the rest of it

“by the gods, you weren't joking when you said you had managed to kill Bjorn” says Balthazar “you truly are a monster, Lightning Hawk” Zack turns to face Balthazar with a look of remorse and sorrow

“It's unfortunate that it had to come to that, he was easily one of the strongest Blessed I've fought. If he had Awoken I feel he would be on par with Cris in terms of magical strength, shit he was probably an un-Awoken chaos mage with the strength he had” says Zack, subconsciously rubbing his right shoulder where his old wound is before continuing “the last time I fought a Blessed that strong I could barely get away with my life, in fact I lost my arm in that fight. My CO at the time had to give his life to stop him” Zack snaps out of his reverie to see everyone looking at his right arm in puzzlement

“oh this? I got it back when I was made an immortal, can't be an effective tool of the dickheads' whims with one arm and one eye y'know” he grins at the look of affront on everyone's faces at his insult to the gods

“Oh come on, you'd all be just as bitter towards them as me if they took your dreams and held them hostage to some insane prophecy that not even they fully understand. But that's enough about the gods, we've got Prisoners to escort so get a move on” says Zack, whilst walking out of what is left of the front door. As he strides out of the fortress Zack catches the glint of metal shining in the sunlight bending down he picks up his sword where the Blessed he had killed had tossed it aside after prying it from his side, seeing that the weapon is mostly undamaged save for a slightly mangled guard he burns the blood off its blade and jams it back into its scabbard before turning back to the large group of prisoners and officials behind him

“can you hurry it up a bit? I'd like to get my cat fed and sleep in my own bed tonight” he yells before marching down the hill towards the lines of defences and the loyalist encampment beyond them, forcing the group behind him to hurry to catch up.