Mod Superhero

Chapter 5.15 - Wrecking Ball

The alarm echoed from somewhere in the smithery. There was no point in disarming it—they'd lost the element of surprise. So Mod's group readied themselves to fight their way out. Mod gripped the pistol hidden in his robe and turned to face the nearby mage.

The mage on the ladder looked around in confusion before he glanced down at Mod and the others. "Oh, drat. You've gone and done it now."

Mod glared at the mage. "We're prepared to fight our way out."

Arsenal stood beside him, her thinsuit humming with anticipation. The front door was open, but the doorway was blocked with a magical barricade. Athena muttered to herself as she tried to find a way through.

"I'm just—" The old mage tried to hold up two hands but wobbled on the ladder. Finally, he held up a single hand in defeat. "I'm just a smith."

Athena groaned in frustration. "We don't have time for this."

Mod glanced back just in time to see the blue flash of Athena's powers. She sliced through the stone wall—each flash accompanied by a scraping sound, like metal on stone. She used one final barrier to push her way through. The whole sequence had barely taken her a second, and she'd carved a triangle-shaped doorway through solid rock.

Mod did a double-take. All the times that Mod and Athena had fought side-by-side, he'd never seen her use her powers as anything but forcefields and barriers. Arsenal must've been similarly dumbfounded because she glanced at Mod.

But Athena didn't pause. She stepped through the newly made doorway. As soon as she was through, the sounds of battle erupted on the other side.

"Here goes," Arsenal said before quickly following Athena.

Mod glared one last time at the mage on the ladder, but the old man hadn't moved. He still had one hand raised in surrender while holding perilously with the other.

Mod readied himself and followed after his teammates.

Outside, mages were already converging on the smithery. They filed out of nearby buildings with a mixture of zeal and anger. A barrage of spells came from all around the demiplane—icicles, boulders, streaks of fire, and bolts of lightning.

Athena had conjured barriers big enough to cover the entire smithery. Most spells splashed harmlessly against her forcefields—icicles and boulders shattered, and fire burst harmlessly against it. Only the lightning bolts seemed to actually hurt. Each time a bolt struck, Athena's barrier wavered.

Mod, Arsenal, and Athena had briefly discussed strategies for using the new nanite bullets. They'd settled on one in particular. So long as these mages weren't as good with barriers as Athena, it should work.

"Wrecking ball!"

Mod called out their plan and stepped forward with his pistol leveled. Athena leapt to his side. Athena looked over his shoulder and shuffled her barriers, giving Mod a narrow window through which to fire. Mod aimed at mage furthest to the right and opened fire.

A nanite bullet slammed into the mage's chest, sending them stumbling backward. Before they could recover, the swarm wrapped up his face and hands. Before he was completely immobilized, Arsenal rocketed across the gap. She slammed an armored fist into his stomach, and the mage collapsed.

Mod was already targeting the next closest mage. Athena was already readjusting her barriers to give him a shot. That was impressive enough, but Athena was also conjuring a barrier to keep Arsenal safe. Arsenal followed their targeting path, disabling foes almost as quickly as Mod shot them. Athena leapfrogged the secondary barrier in front of Arsenal as she went.