Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 122: Battle of the Lightning Element

The shuttle touches down on the overlook on the hill that provides an excellent view of the lake spreading out far below and ahead of them.

As the Dragon Empresses, Roeta, Aoloan, and Wenlianna disembark, Geirahoel drags Daniel off of the shuttle briefly.

“Y-You have to follow your own orders, Mukori.”

“I'll be careful,” replies Daniel.

“If we lose connection to you, we're rushing to you,” adds Reignleif. “You'll be putting us in danger, too, if you aren't careful.”

“I got it, I got it,” replies the Earthling gently.

“I have learned my lesson, Mukori,” states Ryuogriar bluntly. “I will not let you go without a farewell kiss.” She smirks at him as several women gasp, and Geirahoel immediately takes a step closer, closing off a retreat.

Daniel takes a breath to steady himself, and he puts on a smile. It's a little awkward, but he let himself end up in this situation, and it's a simple request.

Daniel spends another moment being hugged and giving out the requested kisses before boarding the shuttle to more expectant stares, not least of which is Hekate.

He sighs with an amused smile.

Doephluev is the only one to refuse him. “I'll collect my reward later, my Love. A true empress can wait.” This earns her a few scowls, but she pays them no mind.

Ucahote has been piloting the shuttle during the love-in, and Senn, Veiranoei, and Gwenesphia’s family minus her mother are all doing their best to endure the flight with ginger to help settle their stomachs. It’s likely thanks to this that Daniel didn’t catch any flak for demonstrating affection to virtually his entire harem all at their own request.

The shuttle closes the distance from the overlook to the drop zone quite quickly, and the golem pilot cautions, “My Emperor, please take caution. There are mana corrupted beasts present near the drop zone.”

“Should we take them out from the air?” asks Treia, who also wanted to participate for the honor of her family.

“That would be wise,” replies Neith. “Though, if they scatter into the trees, it may be too difficult to pick them off.”

“Let’s get to the ground first so we can recover our incapacitated comrades,” replies Daniel. “Doephluev, Neith, Hekate, Vaergraes; I’ll be counting on you to protect us while we disembark.”

The four confirm, with Hekate replying proudly, “Leave it to me!”

Daniel and Neith ready at the ramp, and the human mechanic orders, “Ucahote, go ahead and take us down.”

“Understood, your Grace. Commencing landing. Prepare to disembark.”

The shuttle noticeably lowers from how gravity shifts, and the two at the rear brace for the rapid touchdown. If they waste too much time, the monsters in the area could spring an attack. And, if they don’t move quickly to attack, they could end up surrounded.

The shuttle lurches as the landing gear absorbs the shock, and Ucahote’s voice calls out, “Green light, your Grace.”

“We’re going!” calls out Daniel. He holds down the button to cycle the ramp down, and the sunlight fills the troop bay. Neith shifts to the center, a heavy revolver in his right hand, and a magic-infused sword in his left, ready to fight.

As soon as he can, the grey dragon steps out onto the walkway even as it continues to lower, and he quickly scans around them looking for hostile beasts or monsters.

He hops to the ground and continues his checks, and Hekate bounds out behind him, cheering as she lands on the ground. “Ha!” She looks around, aiming her ice blaster. “Where are they at? Let me at ‘em!”

Doephluev walks alongside Daniel as they both disembark the moment the ramp reaches the ground, and she retorts to Hekate, “Your Greatness, I look forward to our competition.”

The feldrok girl twitches, flicking her tail as her ears point up rigid. She faces Daniel and the archoneldwyn with a sheepish expression indicating she had forgotten something.

Daniel asks, “Competition?”

“Yes, my Beloved. Her Greatness challenged me to a sort of duel. Whoever slays the most monsters on this hunt shall be granted a most worthy reward.”

“It doesn’t matter!” boasts Hekate. “I won’t lose to you!”

“My reward is to be far too great. There is no way I can allow myself to be defeated, your Greatness.”

“Heh heh heh,” cackles the raven-haired empress. “We’ll see about that. Doephluev, I order you not to kill even a single monster!”

The archoneldwyn servent turns pale with a horrified grimace. Her eyes start to water a bit, and her ego seems to have burst like a bubble.

Daniel takes his lecturing tone, warning, “I don't know what you two are competing over, but Hekate, you can’t cheat and tie your opponent's hands behind their back.”

The young feldrok girl’s triangular fox-like ears fold down to the sides in disappointment, and she pouts, “But…”

“A victory with your own skill will always taste sweeter than one of trickery. And, a hard-fought defeat against a worthy opponent can be a valuable lesson for next time.”

The young teen won’t look directly at him or Doephluev as the others unload from the shuttle. She finally murmurs, “Doephluev, I cancel my order to not kill any monsters.”

The former assassin sighs in relief. She murmurs, “Thank you,... your Greatness.” Daniel can see the glow on the archoneldwyn’s chest dim, indicating the glyph is no longer compelling her into action -or rather, inaction, in this case-.

Hekate nods without looking at her. Daniel pets Hekate’s helmet. “Thank you, Sweetpea. Whatever you win, you’ll be able to gloat more.”

Her ears perk up finally, and she finally smiles sheepishly. “Y-yeah… You’re right!” She grins. “Say your prayers, Doephluev! Hahahahaha!” She takes off towards the tree line, and Doephluev whines, “Hey!” She smiles at Daniel with a happy smile, and she takes off after the feldrok.

“My Liege, should I…?” questions Neith.

Knowing the grey dragon is asking if he should stop the two, Daniel replies, “Don’t worry about it. Let them clear out the weaklings.” Immediately, the group can hear the ice blaster discharge, as well as the pops and booms of Doephluev using magic attacks.

Vaergraes steps up beside Daniel, teasing, “Daniel, we should borrow the shuttle for a moment, you and me. This is a beautiful place. Great scenery.”

Daniel subtly confirms the location of everyone; Gwenesphia and her family are focused on the direction Doephluev and Hekate ran off to, Treia and Neith are surveying the area around the shuttle, Veiranoei isn’t paying attention, but is near Daniel and Vaergraes, and Kera’tai seems to be scribbling a sketch of the scenery around them.

The human mechanic sneaks his hand down behind the Uhl’tall Archpriestess, and he pinches a part of her clothing near her left side and under the light armor she’s wearing, causing her to flinch. She blushes and looks up at him.

The mischievous human simply smirks without looking at her. “If you want, you can call me ‘Dan’ or ‘Danny’, Vae.”

She is surprised, and he explains, “There were several ‘Dan’ in my workplace alone, so everyone always called me Daniel. But, I don’t mind…”

She blushes and smiles. “And, I’m the first?”

“Heyyyy…” warns Kera’tai as she notices a secret conversation.

“Let’s move, everyone.” Daniel pretends nothing was happening, and Vaergraes chuckles, following him.

“Your Grace, I’ll be taking the shuttle and returning to the overlook with the Dragon Empresses. I’ll be monitoring all connected armor and rush to the scene if need be,” reports Ucahote, before the shuttle lifts into the air.

“Please do,” replies Daniel. He then says, “Alright, everyone. We’ll work our way to the lakeshore and establish the engagement zone. Any last minute questions?”

Kuboen, Gwenesphia’s second eldest brother, asks a bit bitterly, “Did I miss the part of the plan where those two run ahead, ‘your Grace’?”

Gwenesphia sighs. “Kuboen…”

Daniel takes it in stride, though, replying, “You can disobey the plan if you want. But, when you die, it’ll be me who has to console your youngest sister.”

The gatonine snarls as he storms towards Daniel, and the human doesn’t flinch. Goelselmo tries to call him back, as well as Gwenesphia, but Daniel isn’t afraid.

“My sister deserves far better than you, you disgusting human whoremonger. You’ve gathered quite the harem of beautiful wenches, but Gwenesphia isn’t just a thing to be collected.”

“Kuboen, stop!” exclaims the young gatonine woman in question. “I chose Daniel!”

“He obviously preyed on your innocence, Gwen! This man is a lecher! Even now, he’s flirting with a demon!”

Vaergraes frowns, but she also remains under control of her emotions.

A bellow of a monster approaching from behind and clearing the forest, and Treia shouts, “Enemy rear!”

Goelselmo calls out, “Defensive formation!”

As if in a fluid and cohesive unit with years of cooperation, the gatonines all draw their weapons and brandish their shields in front of them, forming a line that faces the monster.

Daniel groans, “Of course…”

He recognizes this monster on his own. It’s a thorusk hakkadel, or in Daniel’s simplified monster encyclopedia, the lightning bear. He has a finite number of polonium grenades on his person, so he has to use them conservatively.

He notices a flicker near his shoulder; the daytime version of the elemental Luceniel changes into a brightly-colored light reddish-purple fairy-like being with flickering root-like trails of light extending from her skin. “Hello again,” states Daniel.

The little pixie smiles and waves at him happily, and every motion creates illusions of her various parts as afterimages. It’s a little disorienting to look at, if Daniel is being honest.

“Keep your spears on the ground!” shouts Goelselmo. “Peiburi, fall back and circle to the right. Gwenesphia, go left. Kuboen, you and I will draw…”

BANG BANG BANG!

All seven gatonines present flinch as Daniel and Neith fire revolvers in alternation, and the hakkadel roars and flinches.

They both finish off their first cylinder of bullets, which have heavily wounded the monster, but not as much as Daniel had hoped. The specialized rounds Daniel requested be made use small pieces of the mined uranium ore from the mountains set as the core of the projectile with a shell of rubber inside of a sabot when fired. The sabot allows the rubber to survive the barrel of the pistol, and the rubber successfully prevented the bear-like monster’s static electrical field from intercepting the bullets. The uranium can then penetrate and hopefully reduce or negate the magic of the thorusk hakkadel.

Senn complains as she approaches, supporting her weight on her magic staff like a walking stick. “You could have warned the rest of us, Daniel.”

She’s still a little weary, even after taking ginger for the flight.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to give it a chance to discharge lightning. Can you f-”

krrrrRRRAKAKBOOOOOOOOM!

Daniel is instantly blinded before the thunderous boom of a massive discharge of lightning. His vision clears fairly quickly, and everyone else has hit the ground. Gwenesphia is screaming at Daniel, but she’s surprised just as quickly.

His eyeline is drawn to the little pixie-like elemental making taunting gestures off towards the left. A second thorusk hakkadel has emerged from the forest.

“{Daniel, be careful using so many devices and weapons that negate magic. Our allies rely on magic for defense, including detecting enemies.}”

Kaeralegier has a point. The sword she resides in is most suited to someone like Daniel precisely because he didn’t have magic, and what little he has now is too useless to rely on.

But, he has several of the most powerful names in the world as his allies, and he and Neith just unloaded magic-negating bullets on a monster without regard to the effects on those around them.

The second hakkadel bellows as it challenges them, sparking lightning. The other one, encouraged by receiving backup, also snarls and roars in spite of the injuries it received.

The second one glows as flickers of static flash and crackle through its fur.

It is glaring at Neith and casts lightning as it charges forward, causing the same tearing sound leading into a clap of thunder.

Though he can’t see it coming or prepare for him, this time, he isn’t blinded; that being Daniel as the lightningbolt connects directly to him. The human mechanic can’t help but recoil as his heart begins pounding in fear.

He was just struck by lightning, and yet, he can feel and hear his own pulse beating like a drum in his ears. His chest feels tight from the tension, but not from cardiac arrest.

He is still on his feet, and he can still feel the weight of his armor, the fabric of his clothes, and the warmth of his breath in his helmet.

Wha-What just…?

He’s not the only one wearing armor, and he’s not the closest to the hakkadel. Even the monster seems to not understand how its attack didn’t find its intended target; the dragon in human form moving into the vanguard to protect everyone else.

It bellows and roars in anger, beginning to barrel towards them. Neith looks at Daniel quickly, seeing that the human mechanic is still on his feet.

He tries to dive between the beast and Daniel when its fur flickers, but the third lightning bolt connects Daniel and the hakkadel for a moment, startling him once more, but less so than the second time. The bolt passed right by Neith, and Daniel notices Luceniel cackling wildly as she bounces around, making it look like there are three of her. He still needs to give her an element-specific second name.

It’s too noisy for that now, and the two bear-like monsters are charging into melee range. He’ll have to figure it out later.

Senn is in the middle of chanting, generating a magic circle to fire a variety of elemental spells to overwhelm the lightning barrier a thorusk hakkadel can produce. Kera’tai and Vaergraes have recovered to their feet, and they quickly move to defend everyone, while the gatonines try to regroup and make sense of what’s going on.

Another lightning bolt hits Daniel, but again, he isn’t harmed, and even with Kera’tai and Vaergraes attempting to intercept it, it cuts a path directly to him.

There are now four of the little pixie-like copies of Luceniel bouncing around Daniel, and it’s then that he notices that his own armor is glowing. Or at least, it seems to be his armor.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

When the average human mechanic from Earth takes a step forward to get into a better firing position, a new phenomenon throws him completely off of his sense.

Everything blurs, and he only barely manages to somehow make sense of what has happened and come to a stop just before stumbling into and shoulder-checking the thorusk hakkadel that still has magic. Nausea grips Daniel. His brain can’t process that he -as far as his body believes- closed the distance to the hakkadel instantly with his own movement. He has bounced off of the hakkadel, too sick to his stomach suddenly to notice that the lightning barrier is now all but continuously discharging into him like a Tesla coil. He stumbles back, feeling his balance failing him, and a churning in his stomach threatening to erupt. He’s aware of the hakkadel as a monster, but he can’t focus on it, barely able to stop his head from spinning.

The thorusk hakkadel has also realized that Daniel is there, and its lightning is continuously trying to vaporize him, only for him to be unharmed. Instead, the elemental no longer appears to be bouncing, but rather peacefully relaxing… all one hundred iterations of her that are visible to Daniel.

And, on top of everything else, it doesn’t do wonders for his current nausea.

The sickened human mechanic, separated from his friends by his proximity to a predatory beast with an immense amount of mana, finally sees the hakkadel pivoting to swing a massive claw at him. A direct hit will likely shatter his bones, assuming he survives, and he somehow ended up in perfect killing range and incapacitated himself with sickness.

The best the novice Emperor can do is try to throw himself backwards and pray the hakkadel misses.

***

Everyone dove to the ground at the sound of a point-blank lightning bolt exploding the air.

Since then, every lightning bolt coming off of the thorusk hakkadel Daniel and Neith haven’t fired on have been hitting Daniel without fail, even when the monster tries to target its attacks towards anyone else.

And, to everyone’s surprise, including the human emperor, the lightning seems to have no effect on him. If anything, the lightning elemental spawned from the divine scarf the mechanic is wearing has become more powerful, exuding greater mana than before.

Neith tries to intercept one of the bolts, but they bypass him entirely.

It is a blessing that Daniel is unharmed, and upon realizing it, the human mechanic with almost no magic moves to fight.

It is then that Gwenesphia’s understanding of Daniel shatters once more.

With a single step forward, he vanishes in a flash of light, and Gwenesphia can’t even focus enough to cry out. The battle is still ongoing, but she’s worried. Magic is being fired by Senn, who is still struggling to get over mild nausea, and Veiranoei is fumbling to follow Goelselmo’s instructions.

Gwenesphia’s father has fought many monsters in his years, and there is a system to defeat each one. Hakkadels are vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, since their defensive lightning discharge is automatic, and if a spear can be brought close, ranged attacks will no longer be intercepted. It’s dangerous of course, because there’s still a chance that the spear-wielder will be hit by the lightning.

Gwenesphia does her best to run towards the flank she was instructed to engage, since her siblings are trying to help each other up as Kuboen moves to block the wounded hakkadel as it barrels towards them.

The gatonine empress gasps as she finds Daniel. He is stumbling back as the second monster is turning to attack him. He seems to have slammed into the bear-like beast’s side at high speed, and he’s dazed. The hakkadel’s lightning is discharging continuously with a demonic hum and crackle.

He’s going to die.

“D-Daniel-...!” screams Gwenesphia, all but drowned out by the hellish din caused by the lightning arc. A large volume of light fills the area from Daniel’s body, nearly blinding to look directly at. Tears find the gatonine’s eyes for more than one reason, not least of which is terror.

KRAKABOOOM!

The young feline woman stumbles back away from Daniel and the powered hakkadel as a small shockwave stirs the dust around them. The light has faded almost as quickly as it appeared, and Daniel is standing as if he never fell near where the beast’s head was.

Was.

The monster’s head is now cocked at an unnatural angle high and nearly upside down as its muscles maintain some of their momentum.

As the powerless hakkadel is getting close to Gwenesphia’s family, Veiranoei, and Treia, Neith steps in front of it, intercepting its lower jaw with his hand. He, too, is noticeably shocked by Daniel defeating the hakkadel all but single-handedly, and seemingly with his bare hands.

The strange otherworlder human was always peculiar, but he always seems to have another mystery hidden beneath the surface.

The first hakkadel, made powerless by Daniel’s special bullets he and the grey dragon unloaded into it, is halted by the dragon. It is startled by such a small frame being able to bring it to a stop. It swings at Neith, trying to pull free of him, but he is unfazed. It batters his armor, doing no damage to the dragon. It roars and snarls, scraping the dirt helplessly.

Neith calls out, “Treia. Finish it.”

The gatonine flinches, but she replies, “Right!” She jogs to get a better angle, and she withdraws a high power rifle from the magic bag Daniel gave her. She also tilts her helmet so she can get to her ears and put earplugs in as well. She takes aim, having practiced with Daniel, and fires. With one final clap of thunder, the first hakkadel to attack and last one alive also ceases its movement in the dragon’s arm. He drops it aside, taking a breath.

Now having a moment to breathe, everyone looks at Daniel, who has his helmet off and is coughing. Luceniel is trying to comfort him, before she disappears, switching back to the light elemental version of herself, and she immediately tries to comfort Daniel once more.

Gwenesphia doesn’t understand what’s going on, but she immediately runs to Daniel, who has collapsed to his knees. The gatonine empress is followed by Treia, Kera’tai, Vaergraes, and Veiranoei. Neith checks on Senn and the others briefly before jogging over with them.

“Daniel!” cries out Gwenesphia as she tries to hug him, but he holds his arm up, covering his mouth. She asks quickly, “What’s wrong!? Are you hurt!”

He grumbles out, “S-Sick… Just… Just a second…”

Everyone from his group gathers around him to make sure he is safe, and he finally manages to settle his stomach.

“Sorry,” murmurs the human mechanic. “None of that… went as I expected…”

“What happened?” asks Treia. “How and why did you charge in like that?”

He shakes his head. “I… I’m not sure, but… I think it was the lightning-flavored Lucy… I’m fairly certain that’s why the lightning had no effect, and instead, powered her up.”

Daniel then proceeds to explain what happened from his perspective, including the final moments of the second thorusk hakkadel.

A monster that could be annoying to deal with for even a dragon.

***

Moments before, Daniel has just rammed into the thorusk hakkadel still possessing its powers, and now its attention is on him, bringing down a massive claw as big across as the human’s entire torso. He is already unbalanced from being dazed by the impact, and his stomach is twisting and turning tumultuously. It’s everything he can do just to try to throw himself backwards onto the ground and out of the way of the first strike, leaving himself vulnerable after that.

A flash flickers out, and Daniel braces for the worst. The colors around him are distorting, indicating his nausea is only getting worse -and, in feedback, making his nausea worse in a terrible loop-.

His back hits the ground and he coughs. The humble mechanic from Earth knows he has to defend desperately with anything he can, but he doubles over on his side retching. He desperately pries his helmet off, briefly expelling the contents of his stomach on the ground and the bottom of his helmet while helplessly waiting for the attack to resume.

But, it never does. When he looks, he flinches onto his back, twisting away. The hakkadel is there, terrifyingly bringing its claw…

In the midst of his scramble away from the monster, which is all but distorted in color to a strange and disorienting hue of colors as if everything is being red-shifted on the color spectrum.

Meanwhile, the number of lightning elemental clones around him seems to be dropping, while the pixie herself is relatively calm. She’s watching Daniel sympathetically, while her clones seem to be forming a defensive wall.

Daniel retches again, still feeling dizzy and sick to his stomach, but time seems to have stopped, or at the very least, since the colors are still shifting, moving very slowly. It’s so slow, though, that he isn’t able to perceive the hakkadel’s movements, and even one of Senn’s light spells, fired at the other hakkadel, seems to have been momentarily paused. Unfortunately, he can clearly see it diffusing at the hakkadel, the power of her spell drastically reduced by the radioactive rounds Daniel and Neith used to disable its magic. The human mechanic has a few theories, thanks to his nuclear background and what he has observed here on Zenkon, and he believes that the half-lives of radioactive materials truly are drastically shortened in the presence of strong mana. It explains why it would still remain in the ground for a long time, where the world’s dispersed mana is relatively low by comparison, and it decays quickly in the presence of beings like monsters, dragons, archoneldwyn, and the most powerful mage’s spells.

In Daniel’s present situation, though, he has to make sense of what’s going on, since it almost certainly has something to do with Luceniel, and given the disappearance of a clone roughly every second, he has a little over a minute to figure out what to do.

He seems to be protected from his own momentum being greater than his body would ever be able to handle, given that he is moving so much faster than his surroundings. He confirms this by tapping one pinkie finger to the other, wincing for the potential to receive horrifying pain.

Neither finger vaporizes from moving what he can only assume is ‘near’ lightspeed, even if it’s only a sizable fraction. It’s still much too fast for the human body, but all of the human’s being seems to be under the effect, and he is protected from it.

He looks around to be sure, noticing that the number of clones has dropped to around forty remaining. Sure enough, every other person around him has come to a halt, as if placed on pause like a video game. Several are in action positions, like running or changing weapon posture. Neith is trying to close the distance to protect Daniel. The first hakkadel has fur and blood floating around it from where it was cast off of its body. The one attacking Daniel has dirt and debris seemingly floating around it as well. He’s truly in a different pocket of velocity -or maybe more accurately, energy-, which is allowing him to move and perceive everything faster than normal by magnitudes. It could also be why the light is distorted, since it does seem to recover if he’s still. And, when he moves forward, rather than red-shifting, everything seems to violet-shift, though to a different degree.

Whatever the case, Daniel needs to stop the thorusk hakkadel while he still has the ability to move. He’s not sure how projectiles will operate once they leave ‘his person’, and could be annihilated the moment they leave the barrel from the conflict of speeds. Likewise, the force could do devastating amounts of damage he’s not prepared for if it retains lightning-speed upon impact.

But, there’s another solution. At least while he’s under the effect of the lightning elemental’s magic, he is unharmed by his own velocity and the forces he can apply, since from his perspective, they are merely normal forces. But, if he can make even a small adjustment to the hakkadel, the difference in velocity should translate to a force that is enough to kill it.

Of course, that’s dipping into Daniel’s science fiction knowledge more than anything he has ever heard of in real life, other than the math that can go into something from science fiction to explain it in reality, but for now, he’ll have to trust his gut.

Even if it is tumbling all around.

But, if he’s really lucky, he’s the protagonist of his own story, meaning the author may not kill him off so easily. It’s another form of tragedy that he’ll have to watch out for.

And maybe, he has read too many light novels and manga himself, fantasizing about being a protagonist and doing things he thought he hated or feared, until he had people to protect and the power to do so for once in his life.

Daniel resolves himself to go for it. He climbs to his feet, leaving his soiled helmet behind for the moment. He’ll have to shield his face right away, so he keeps his left arm up. He’s down to his last fifteen pixies and counting, so he doesn’t waste any more time. He places his right palm on the hakkadel’s cheek, feeling the static tingle of its powerful lightning trying to defend it.

He gives the hakkadel’s cheek a gentle shove. It shouldn’t take too much, or it could explode in a violent spray of flesh and bone shrapnel, which could cause even more trouble for his party. And, if not, he’s on the outside of its attacking paw, buying him a few more seconds to survive before Neith manages something.

He watches closely, trying not to move, and he sees it. The hakkadel’s head is moving away from his hand. He succeeded.

The last pixie clone waves goodbye to Daniel and the original, and as soon as she vanishes, everything happens in an instant.

All colors return to normal, a thunderous clap booms out, and before Daniel can even blink, the hakkadel’s entire body is shifting, while its head is upside down and limply attached to its own body.

All that happens after is for it to collapse like a sack of gelatin as the last breath in its lungs drains out as if to give presence to its soul departing.

Seeing the hakkadel defeated, Daniel can no longer remain standing, and his legs give out. Everything about what just happened made him sick, and he coughs and stays doubled over on the ground for a long time. He hears a rifle shot, likely denoting the end of the first hakkadel. He can finally relax for a moment and try to settle his stomach. He only holds his hand up to stop Gwenesphia from getting too close while he’s in nauseous limbo.

Afterwards, everyone regroups. They collect the second hakkadel in a magic bag for later, but the first one will have to either be left behind, or they’ll have to use a ton of mana to try to ‘cleanse’ its contamination -by counteracting the radiation until it wears out-. And, really, Daniel isn’t keen on doing anything with a radioactive body anyways, since there’s no telling what kinds of poisons it’ll produce.

In fact, he hadn’t really thought of it too much, since the masonrahm’s fur is in containment until Daniel can verify it’s clean, but polonium alone is toxic. And, the lead it decays into when alpha particles are released is also highly poisonous to living beings. If either are accidentally ingested by things that end up in the food chain and eventually end up on a dinner table, Daniel would be responsible. The chances are low, especially in the time it’ll take to make the lake usable again even after they defeat Rohgattabor, but they aren’t zero.

Daniel picks up his helmet, reassuring Geirahoel, “Geira-Mukori, I’m alright. I just took my helmet off because I was nauseous. I’ll explain adequately when we meet up later.”

He’s not even wearing it yet, since he wants to clean it first, but all three of their voices snap loudly enough for most of everyone around to hear; “MUKORI! You said you would be safe! What were you doing!?”

Daniel chuckles. “Sorry, sorry. I was testing out the lightning elemental’s ability.”

“Return immediately!” snaps Geirahoel’s voice. “Let the others deal with the monsters!”

“I can’t do that, Mukori. It’s under control now. I’m not hurt.” Daniel holds the helmet up so he can smile at it. “I’ll be alright. Trust me a little. Neith was right there.”

There’s a pause, and the grey dragon twitches. He seems to be listening intensely to a voice only he can hear; he’s being lectured or given orders via telepathy.

He bows his head as he answers, unheard by anyone present.

“I have received clarified orders, my Liege.” He casts a brief spell, and Daniel can feel a static tingle as the armor he’s wearing begins to swirl and glow. The human mechanic looks at the dragon curiously, and Neith explains, “I’ll not allow harm to come to you again, my Liege.”

“Won’t that burn through your mana?” asks Kera’tai.

“I’ll make it through our mission, your Grace.”

“If you need to switch, let me know,” urges Vaergraes. “I am capable of defensive magic as well.”

Neith nods. “Of course. Thank you.”

Daniel sighs. “If it puts their minds at ease, I’ll accept. Thank you. Tell me to retreat if you need to fall back.”

The Emperor of the Fievegal then looks at the contaminated hakkadel again. They couldn’t store it in a bag now if they wanted anyways, since it’s not shielded and the radiation will disable the magic of the void bags. But, they can still get rid of the contamination more quickly.

“Neith, I have a favor to ask. We shouldn’t leave polonium behind too often if we can help it. So, can you use your fire breath to eliminate what’s here?”

“Of course. It would be best for the forest if I do it in the air, though.”

“Can you?”

“Leave it to me, my Liege.”

The leader of the Einherjars of the Fievegal approaches the contaminated monster’s body. He grips it with one hand, puffing a breath through his lips, which causes sparks to crackle. A moment later, flames are visible in his mouth. The dragon pivots and launching the thorusk hakkadel’s corpse up into the air, and it sails rather high and far quickly.

Neith takes a deep breath, focusing his magic. With a seemingly innocuous exhale, a blindingly bright lance of laser-like fire slices through the air. The remains of a bear-like lightning monster explodes in a puff of fire, and it evaporates. Even the smoke and vaporized materials are scattered by the intense heat of a full-powered dragon’s flame breath.

Neith exhales calmly, snuffing out the pilot flame in his mouth, emitting a long trail of smoke.

“Thank you, Neith,” replies Daniel, and the grey knight bows proudly.

No one objected to the method of disposal for the hakkadel and the polonium used to defeat it.

If they had given themselves pause, they might have reconsidered.

***