Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 15 [Adrian]

As far back as he could remember, Adrian had known he wasn't quite the same as other children. As he understood it, most babies were supposed to be groggy-eyed sleepy things that hardly did more than cry, eat, and poop.

And truthfully, Adrian had done all that for a few days. But after that, fuzzy thoughts started taking shape in his mind. Walking and talking felt less like learning a skill for the first time and more like dragging fuzzy memories out of the depths of his mind and breathing life into them.

Language came to him easier than his peers. Walking too. When most of his peers could barely sit flat on their stomachs, he could sculpt castles out of sand or climb the lengthy sets of stairs all the way to Mamma Myrina's room of swords.

He wasn't entirely sure what his parents did, but he was pretty sure he was lucky enough to be born wealthy. His mother indulged his curiosity to a far more than his peers. If he read a book on magic, his mother could usually arrange for him to meet the wizard who wrote it, assuming they were a member of the Dragon Lodge.

Adrian still wasn't quite sure what his family did. The other kids had dads who worked as guards or mothers who went adventuring. Some of his many mommas seemed to do something along those lines, but Adrian could never quite pin down what his father did. He suspected his other mommas worked enough that his father didn't need to have an actual job at all. He'd been quite evasive when asked. From listening in on adult conversations, Adrian realized that usually meant unemployed.

Regardless of how his father did what he did, the important thing was that the Dragon Lodge thought highly of him, so by extension Adrian was given access to classes that should have been far beyond any child.

"Hey, are you sure this is the Applied Monster Slaying field trip? That kid in the front is like six years old!" said a young student around thirteen years old.

Truthfully, Adrian wasn't even two yet. His mother said he was advanced for his age, so being mistaken for a six year old was quite a compliment. The classes he'd originally been attending had involved more daycare than learning, and his mother thought he was playing with magical glowing blocks with other kids his age.

Thankfully, some of Adrian's tutors had seen his interest in higher forms of learning, and one in particular recommended he attend this student excursion. So Adrian was skipping daycare to attend classes.

"Shush. I heard he's related to some bigshot," said another young teen in reply to the first.

"I heard he learned to cast Dragon Bolt... without a skill book!"

"Apparently he's the star pupil of one of the sword instructors. He's tiny, but deadly!"

"No way, I have stuffed animals bigger than him."

Adrian ignored their whispering, though he could hear them just fine.

"Don't mind them, young master Adrian. Your skill vastly outstrips your peers." His tutor, a woman named Yamilla said.

She'd originally been quite warm to him. Her smile was welcoming, as was her large soft chest. Much like his father, Adrian appreciated a woman with the potential to produce a lot of milk.

But something had changed with her recently, though Adrian couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. She'd started calling him 'young master Adrian' suddenly. Adrian would have thought it stranger if Mamma Mimiko hadn't used the same form of address when he was back at their castle home.

That was a mystery he'd solve later though. When she'd offered to get him on a field trip that would let him see a monster and potentially gain some experience points, he jumped at the opportunity. He was still learning to interpret his System menus, but he had the distinct impression he was very close to an important milestone, and if he crossed it his power would skyrocket.

He could capture that big bug he and his father found. He could practice swordfighting with Mamma Myrina, train longer with Mamma Cyra, and even join his father for whatever fun things he was doing when he wasn't with them and everyone else was working. All it would take is dealing with one little monster.

There was more whispering and more than a little pointing at him, thanks to his age. Eventually though, the professor appeared and quieted the class down. He was an old man with a white beard and robes Adrian learned indicated someone was a full member of the Dragon Lodge.

"Alright, students. I see a few familiar faces. We'll be leaving for Glacia today and visiting one of the mana farms today. For many of you, this will be your first time ever seeing a monster. Make sure to stay behind me and the other chaperones, because while these things might be caged, they're still dangerous," the professor said.

They quietly left Mucaria's mystic realm and took several teleportation arrays to get there. Adrian in particular was stopped several times, but his tutor was one of the chaperones and provided the proper paperwork he needed to briefly leave the mystic realm without his mother. Looking older than he was helped.

Soon, their group passed through checkpoints, over the magical bridge, and from there through a teleportation array to one of the more provincial worlds near Glacia.

There, Adrian and the others were gathered around a pen of knee-high bug creatures, though to Adrian they stood up to his chest and were more massive than he was. They were behind a fence and were about level fifteen. Despite their level they were fairly slow and didn't look too strong. Adrian was confident he could take one.

"Class, this is an experience farm." The professor waved an arm at the creatures. "You see, studying the intricacies of magic is a tedious project, and for our spellcasters to keep up with their more martial peers in levels, they need a little boost. Older students are given experience pearls like this regularly all the way through E-Grade and D-Grade. Normally, experience points from defeating a monster, beast, or person is delivered to the person or party who did the damage, and that's what will happen today. But there are some mechanisms here at the farm that concentrate experience points to physical objects. Now, the school has paid this farm so each of you can test your abilities and defeat one, gaining you some early levels and experience in a safe environment. Who'd like to go first?"

Adrian was among the first to raise his hand, but the professor seemed skeptical by his youth and pointed to several older kids first. Adrian didn't mind waiting though. He was certain he'd get his turn eventually.

The professor restrained the monsters one at a time with a binding spell, then moved a student to a wand on a fixed pedestal. There was a dozen safeties on the thing that prevented it from being so much as turned anywhere besides the intended target, and the wand did all the work. It was hardly the heart-pounding battle Adrian had expected fighting monsters to be from Momma Myrina's stories.

"Hey, what are you doing there? What spell are you casting?" the professor asked while looking at Adrian and his tutor. The man sounded angry suddenly.

Adrian turned to see Yamilla, his tutor, muttering under her breath as she withdrew items from a bag of holding one after another. Adrian recognized the components as part of a portable teleportation array. Suddenly, Adrian had a bad feeling about whatever was happening.

"Quiet," Yamilla said, in a voice that was stern and nothing like her usual self. She flicked her hand and a bolt of sinister crimson energy shot out at the professor.

He was hit by surprise and hit the ground smoking and smouldering.

"Ahhh!" one of the older kids screamed.

"The professor's dead!"

A sense of panic rapidly spread throughout the gathered children. Adrian felt his heart race suddenly and at first he wanted to scream and yell too, but he felt a calm reassurance like his father's hand on his shoulder telling him to focus, not panic.

He realized the professor's hand was moving. The man wasn't dead, just pretending. And his hands were moving down a blinking metal rod in his pocket. Adrian could only hope he was signalling for help.

With all the older kids panicking, it fell to him to cover for the professor. Adrian positioned himself between his tutor and the prone professor.

"Tutor Yamilla, what's going on?" Adrian asked.

"Hush child. I'm working," Tutor Yamilla replied.

That was a bad sign. In the past she'd been happy to explain what she was doing. It was part of what made her a good tutor. Something was very wrong.

Despite his growing fear, Adrian pressed on.

"Explain it to me please."

Tutor Yamilla ignored him.

"I'll help," Adrian said when she didn't respond. He suddenly started acting more like someone his age and pretended to trip and fall on the array's central node. He caught himself at the last moment by grabbing a handful of fine silver wire and yanking on it. The move snapped the wire and should permanently break the array. "Oops. Sorry."

Adrian flashed a handful of torn and broken silver with his best child-like smile.

"Stupid child!" Tutor Yamilla hissed, backhanding Adrian across the face. Adrian rolled with the blow and landed on the ground next to the fallen professor.

Now, Adrian was doubly certain that whoever this was, it wasn't his tutor. She would never have hit him, and even if she could, she wouldn't have had the levels for the blow to hurt him.

Thankfully, Adrian was made of tougher stuff than most kids. He landed on the ground dirty but alright. The professor finished messaging for help and was busy casting personal protection spells. He picked himself up off the ground. With mana flowing over him in the form of armor, the professor suddenly seemed a lot more confidant.

"I don't know who you are or how you got credentials with the school, but you'd best stop whatever you're doing this instant! The local security forces are on their way, along with a unit of Dragon Lodge enforcers!" the professor pointed a glowing wand at Tutor Yamilla.

Adrian sensed what was coming next and got clear. He could have run off on his own and gotten himself out of danger in short order, but fleeing like that wouldn't feel right.

He leaned over to one of the older kids, who was curled up in a ball and crying.

"Get up, we have to get out of here!" Adrian said.

He grabbed the older kid and hauled him to his feet, then did the same with a girl a moment later. Seeing a kid so much younger than them keeping himself together seemed to shake the other kids out of their terrified daze. Meanwhile, the professor and Tutor Yamilla exchanged spells. The professor was a C-Grade, but despite that Tutor Yamilla was holding him off while she worked on repairing the teleportation array.

Thankfully, the professor didn't have to win, just keep Tutor Yamilla in place until local law enforcement could arrive. Adrian and the other kids stayed well clear of the battle and made their way to the other side of the experience farm. There, Adrian saw the mounted wand for taking out the big bugs for experience.

"What are you doing? We're not supposed to touch that!" one of the older kids asked as Adrian pried at the device to free the wand.

"We might need this," Adrian replied.

The older kids were too nervous to protest as he yanked the wand out of its housing and slid it into his sleeve.

"Look! It's the guards. Guards! Over here!" the older kid Adrian rescued waved his hands. Several armed men in local uniforms had rushed over at high speed. As soon as they caught sight of the professor and Tutor Yamilla fighting and realized there was a battle between C-Grade wizards, they realized they were out of their depth and sent for reinforcements. The local guards arrived, and soon several powerful C-Grades from the Dragon Lodge joined them.

These were dressed in long robes just like the professor, but instead of looking like teachers these people looked like warriors. They were also C-Grades, and combat-focused ones at that.

"Halt! Tutor Yamilla, your behavior is highly irregular. Return to Mucaria for a full physical and psychological examination or you will be returned by force!" one of the new Dragon Lodge enforcers said.

Just when Adrian thought it would all be over soon, Tutor Yamilla's teleportation array lit up. The silver threads Adrian had broken had been patched over with pure glowing mana from the other side of the connection, and suddenly a powerful presence flooded the area.

The faces on the Dragon Lodge enforces fell and they immediately began casting offensive spells. But a powerful barrier sprung up around the teleportation array. Several figures emerged, led by a woman with bleeding gashes for eyes. Behind her were bone-white creatures with blades for limbs.

"B-Grade!" one enforcer said, suddenly every bit as panicked as the kid Adrian had rescued.

"Impossible... B-Grades? Here? Attacking a field trip for children!?" the professor laughed in confused despair. The probability of something like this happening was just so insignificant that there weren't even stories of it happening. B-Grades were living gods capable of destroying entire planets. Why would they attack a bunch of kids?

At just a glance, Adrian could tell he couldn't hope to fight any of them. Their power was far, far beyond him, the older children, the Dragon Lodge enforcers, and the professor.

"We have to run!" Adrian said, and he took off fleeing while the other kids scattered.

A terrible thought came to mind then. Tutor Yamilla had been looking at him strangely all day. She was after him, and these two were probably the same.

Was this what happened when he snuck out? It had just been one tiny trip! His mother wasn't ever supposed to know. Who knew how many people would die because of him.

"If I live through this, I'm never sneaking out again..." Adrian promised himself.

"There's the starchild," the eyeless woman said. She had a smooth and melodic voice that was ruined by her bloody face. When Adrian saw the professor and the two enforcers dead on the ground he couldn't stop himself from puking, which cost him valuable seconds.

Not that he had any hope of outrunning the two powerful people before him. Still, he'd wanted to buy the other kids time to run. And maybe time for more reinforcements to arrive. Now it looked like he'd be too late for that.

"Come with us, child. Don't be afraid, we're going to take very good care of you..." Tutor Yamilla said. Her body was blackened and burned from the wizard's battle she'd just survived, and a chunk of her throat was missing. Through the torn away flesh, Adrian could see an ugly worm curled around her spinal chord.

Adrian reached for the wand he'd stolen and held it between him, whatever was controlling Tutor Yamilla, the eyeless woman, and those bone-white monsters of hers.

"Child, that little trinket will not do you any good," Tutor Yamilla said with a derisive snort.

Adrian raised the wand and pointed off to his side, where several of the experience farm monsters were roaming free. The wand activated, firing a bolt of magic at one monster and killing it in a single blow, just as it was designed to.

"What was that about? Child, put down the wand, you might kill bugs with it... but..." Tutor Yamilla's voice trailed off as a bright glow surrounded Adrian. The experience had just barely been enough to push Adrian to D-Grade.

And with his break through, a seal deep within his soul shattered, and Adrian's mind went to sleep as something far older took the reigns.

<Note>

I may go back and extend this a bit if people really want to see more of this scene. It's getting a bit long though and I do want to cut back to Carter. Despite the length, I feel like we didn't get nearly as much time in Adrian's head as I wanted.