Jekkel laughed and laughed. The corpse, the last hope of the wizards to kill him, landed among the archers on the wall. Covering them in ash and charred viscera as it exploded into meaty chunks on impact. Still laughing, he turned his attention back towards the barbarian. He found him there, still fighting among the other mortal knights against the undead.
Before Jekkel could fly close enough to unleash his wrath, the blasted fae flitted up to the barbarian. The man removed himself from the line and walked back towards the tower where the archers and the orders other magic users gave him protection from reprisal. The knights filled the hole he left in the line with the most recently healed knights rejoining the fight. That was when Jekkel spotted him. The one who had vexed him for such a short time, but in such magnitudes as to outstrip even the humiliation the druid had caused him. The pyromancer led his group of partners away from the bridge. They walked over the river and into the wooded region opposite the city that was covered in deep, thick snow.
Jekkel smiled before dipping down on a cooler thermal and gliding over the battle line. One of the undead magi tried to contact him telepathically, but Jekkel rebuffed the invitation to speak. He had other places to be. Other people to kill. The squabble of knights vs undead was not his concern. Not until Rayid was dead, and he wore the druid on his arm as his plaything. If his ministrations on her as a living being were not enough to break her will, then perhaps she would bow to him as an undead. The vampire fangs in his pocket itched to be used on mortal flesh, and the flesh on her neck was pristine, porcelain, ready to be broken.
Chapter 32: One Last Desperate Fight
"The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." Bruce Lee
Along the Kings Road Outside Stone Bridge, 9th Novos, 2989 AoR
I took the left fork, going north along the river. We were all jogging, keeping a steady pace. The snow was thick all around us, but on the road it was only a couple of inches deep, allowing us to move relatively unimpaired. Whatever magic kept the roads clean of snow also kept ice from forming on the stones underfoot. I only slipped once.
“Is that the town the priest mentioned?” Pina asked, pointing out towards a small collection of homes. They were clustered around a large, well-constructed church building.
“Well, seeing as it has that big chapel right in the center of town, I’m going to guess yes.” I replied as I looked for a path that led to it. There were a few small crops of trees that dotted the nearly empty landscape between us and the town. I could see several large boulders that were placed as markers at the very far edges of town. But none of them marked a road to or from Old Hearth.
The snow crunched behind us and off to one side of the pathway. I raised my staff as we all turned and found a young man with a powerful looking short bow in hand. An arrow was knocked, but not pulled. “Uh, hello. Who are you?” he asked as he backed away. He had practically thrown himself onto the pathway, desperate to get out of the deep snow. He wore thick wool clothing with a heavy leather and fur cloak to keep the falling snow off him. “You’re not here to poach my kill, are you?”
“We have no quarrel with you, hunter. Be on your way.” Tol’geth said. The young man stared at us for another moment before removing the arrow from his bow. As I stepped off the path and up the snow bank heading towards Old Hearth, the hunter spoke up.
“You certainly do if you are headed to Old Hearth. My home is no place for strange folk looking for trouble. We’ve had our fair share of it already this year, we don’t need any of yours.”
“And who are you?” I asked, turning back to help Pina up the small wall of snow.
“I’m Trestin. Who are you? And why do you want to go to Old Hearth? Nothing there but a few smithies, a bakery, and the chapel.”
“We need to see the high priest.” Tol’geth explained. I offered my hand to help him up, but he simply walked up on his own, barely giving it a thought.
“Why is that?” Trestin asked, his voice severe. I noticed him pull the arrow back out of the small quiver he kept on his hip and place it along the bow’s length.
“Undead. Lots of them. We were hoping to get some help.” I said. I stared at him for a moment, but he didn’t answer. I rolled my eyes, turned, and started the long trudge through the deep snow.
“Wait, let me show you. There’s a quicker way. If it’s undead, you’re trying to fight I’m sure the priests would help.” I stopped and turned around, trying and failing to keep an annoyed grimace off my face. “Watch this.” The young man said with a smirk. He walked up to one of the snowbanks off to the side and shoved his hand inside and rooted around for something at waist height. Finally, he found whatever he was looking for and with a grunt of effort something clicked. Stone ground on stone.
Steam started rising off the snowbank. “I don’t recommend walking on it while the fire elementals do their thing.” Trestin said. “It might upset them enough to burn your shoes off your feet.
“Elementals?” I asked.
“Yeah, elementals. The priests bound them to the walking stones so they can stay as long as they keep feeding the enchantment that feeds them with mana. I don’t know the specific spells for it, so don’t ask. But if you’re curious, and you turn out to be who you say you are, I’m sure the High Priest can answer your questions.” I was curious, and it was just another thing I would eventually need to learn about. “If not, well. There’s always the gallows.” Tol’geth laughed and pina joined me in rolling our eyes.
“How old are you, hunter?” Pina asked.
Why would she want to know what? I wondered, but the young man chuckled lightly.
“Fourteen summers old as of two days ago.” My jaw nearly hit the floor. No way this kid was that young. He was almost as tall as me and was well-muscled for a skinny kid.
“Impressive one as young as you hunt alone, at this time of year. In the deep snow. In an area known for large, evolved animals.” Pina was smirking, but I didn’t know where she was going with it.
“Oh, look at that. The path cleared up enough I think.” The hunter motioned for us to go on ahead of him. I made to do just that, but Pina stayed for an extra heartbeat, just staring at the kid. Like a crazy person.
“Pina? You’re staring.” I was trying to make it sound like a joke rather than an actual accusation. From her glare, I had failed.
“I know what I am about, wizard. This one is hiding something, but I do not sense malice about him. Yes, let us go.” Tol’geth and the teenager took up the rear as we moved. The snow on either side of the walkway was almost over my head, and more than once it felt more like walking through a canyon than an open field.
“Yeesh. The city magic does a lot to keep the snow down doesn’t it.”
“Yeah, settlement control is one of the few magical schools that humans have really mastered. Honestly, some of the stuff your people’s greatest cities can do out strips even what the court queens can. It’s rather impressive. There was this one time a spring court faerie tried to tell me her queen had that kind of control over the weather in her domain. Total lie. Turns out it was a spell with a continent wide area of effect. Psssh, freaking springlits. Never know when to stop boasting. ‘Best of both worlds’ my pretty pink bonnet.”
“You do not have a pink bonnet. Though I am sure if you did it would be beautiful.” Tol’geth said from behind us.
“That’s sweet, but no, I don’t have one. It’s just an expression.”
“Been watching Little House on the Prairie again?” I asked, grinning from ear to ear.
“No!” she folded her arms as she sat on my shoulder. “Okay, maybe a little. I like the characters. There’s some real drama in those episodes, I love it.” I snickered as she continued to tell me all about the drama that unfolded in pioneer days on the great prairie. I had seen an episode or two during history class when a substitute had taken over during high school. It was an old, old tv show shot just after the invention of color tv or something.
; We arrived in a big open field surrounding the town. Nearly a quarter mile in every direction was clear of snow. Just on the opposite side of the line was where the large stones that marked the edges of the town’s domain sat. I had seen them before in several of the small villages that the Orders protected. But none of those towns had this many.
“Come, I’ll introduce you to the High Priest. He’s a friend of mine. A good man who will know what to do about the undead. I need to get some help with my latest kill anyway, so this wasn’t too far out of my—” Tristan was engulfed in black fire. My eyes followed the streaking attack towards the sky.
“Jekkel you coward! Come and face me! I’m not crippled like a child born without eyes!” Pina screamed her rage to the sky as a black shadow descended on us.
I raised a shield around all of us, cutting off Jekkel’s stream of fire. The boy was left alive, but clearly injured. I grabbed him by his still burning cloths and threw him into the heaping snow, leaving him with a brief Cure Minor Wounds spell still glowing around him. The snow extinguished the fire. But I didn’t have time to see what happened to him. Turning around, I launched Force Bolt after Force Bolt at the bastard as he tried to land. Every time he got close I would ping him somewhere on his body, forcing him to dodge away higher into the air.
He finally landed on his third attempt, and I was out of Force Bolts in my staff. Still, I had a couple of spells left. A fireball engulfed the sorcerer, obscuring him for a few seconds. His batlike shadow wings sizzled, but ultimately put out the fire with a wave of air. I hit him with another and Jekkel growled in frustration as again his wings sizzled. I hit him a third and final time, using my last saved spell.
“ENOUGH!” Jekkel yelled, opening his wings to the air just as my fireball hit him square in the face. His entire body was consumed in dark magic as Dark Shield activated protecting him from the damage. I checked my mana reserves. They were near half again. I could fight, but my arms, back, chest, and legs were all screaming from the nearly constant running and fighting.
“Look at all of you, barely able to stand. Surrender to me. I am sure I can find a use for each of you in my new kingdom if you will bow. I need new servants after what you have done to mine. Pyromancer, I can protect you from the powers you have angered. Warrior, I can grant you power far beyond what honor can provide. Little fae, I am sure my master will have need of more than one contract in the future. Working together, we could find a way to bring your entire Court back to Ethria hundreds of years earlier than projected. My masters are powerful.” Ailsa harrumphed and fluttered her wings in a way I knew meant she was annoyed.
“And you, Pina. My dearest pet. I know you feel it in your bones. You want to obey me. It hurts you to resist. Just give in and I will ensure you live a life filled with the greatest pleasures. Ecstasy in every brea-aah!” the vines Pina had been growing out from her vestment had finally reached him. They grew went up the side of his leg, unseen by the sorcerer until suddenly they grew large, sharp thorns.
Jekkel screamed and fell to one knee. The hatred in his eyes was pure as he met mine for a heartbeat before fixating on Pina. “I WILL HAVE YOU!” Pina lifted her cudgel and ran forward half a dozen steps. I tried to join her but was outpaced by Tol’geth who barreled forward, sword raised with deadly intent. The vines wrapped around Jekkel’s lower torso, biting into him, ripping apart his robes and gear.
Tol’geth lifted his sword for a fatal blow, but before the blade could land, he was sent hurtling backwards by one of Jekkel’s summoned wings. Pina’s cudgel missed his head but struck his shoulder with a loud crack as wood met bone and bone broke. Jekkel’s second wing struck out repeating Tol’geths fate, sending Pina deep into the snow back. “Bitch! How dare you strike your master! Fine, you don’t want to be my slave? Then be my meal!”
I was exhausted, my brain foggy. I had options; I knew. My partially renewed mana pool gave me those. But while Jekkel had been monologuing, I was fighting through that fog. I knew there was no way Jekkel was much higher level than me. He was younger than me, clearly. Though his mana pool was massive compared to my own, and his agreements with Darkling Lords existed where I had none. Still, he had never cast a spell that I thought was beyond me. A person’s mana pool, or at least their available mana, could be augmented by items. As I looked at the pathetic man-child screaming in rage as Pina’s thorny vines carved bone deep furrows into his lower torso, I realized what I needed to do.
Smiling at the justice of it, I cast the spell I had learned from Zed earlier that morning. The one spell he had taught me through the master-apprentice bond the two of us technically shared. The spell was quick and easy, but as it was my first time casting it. I had done other things, like unraveling enchanted items for the mana that were similar before. But never cast this spell, which was far more complex than that process. So, I took my time to shape it perfectly, doing my best to negate the ‘first time casting a spell’ debuff I would have gotten had I just cast it automatically. Like I could with the other spells on my spell list. Intentionality, I had learned, was the counter for the problem of inexperience.
Jekkel pulled a knife that hummed with magical power from, somewhere. I didn’t really know where; I was busy. He started carving away at the vines that held him. “And you pyromancer, you could have taken my deal, but no! You did nothing but annoy me. Pester me, make my life more miserable and difficult. Why?! What did I ever do to you, you pest?!” I ignored him.
Once my spell was shaped correctly, I infused it with nearly triple the mana required to fuel it according to its description. I hoped my little experiment and Overcharge would help resolve the problem that now faced us. To at least even the playing field a little. Jekkel forced his way to his feet, having finally freed himself. He began pulling power from his mana pool, shaping it into a familiar form. A summoning.
“I’ll carve the flesh from your bones and then give your soul to that witch when she returns! You know that’s what those cultists are going to do right? Revive her, sacrifice their own bloodline just to bring her back! Your little nightmares are nothing compared to what she will actually do to you!” Jekkel screamed. He pulled himself up straight, his legs buckled twice before he could force the muscles to work properly. Jekkel lifted one hand, revealing a set of three rings, and the mana still spinning in his hand. One of them glowed as he cast the spell. Before he was finished, I opened my hand and released a constellation of stars.
Congratulations! You have successfully cast ‘Dissolve Magic 1’ with the Overcharge augmentation! You have Overcharged and reshaped this spell to such a degree that it has increased by 1 Tier.
Congratulations! You have learned a new spell ‘Dissolve Magic 2’!
Congratulations! You have successfully cast ‘Dissolve Magic 2’! Effect: Removes all Tier 0-1 spells, enchantments, and magical abilities from equipment in possession of the target. Temporarily disables all active and passive enchantments and spells of Tier 2 for 30 minutes. Temporarily disables all active and passive enchantments and spells of Tier 3 for 30 seconds, with a 50% chance (improved by item quality and spell skill of enchanter or caster) of failure of this effect per affected spell/enchantment per item. This is a Force Magic spell in the Anti-magic School.
Items Affected:
Rings of Spell Storage x2 - Effect: crystals shattered
Rings of Enhanced Summoning Tier 1 and 2 - Effect: 1 disenchanted / 1 disabled, 29.32 min remaining
Staff of Dark Intent Tier 3 - Effect: Disabled, 29.32 second remaining
Rings of Elemental Augmentation x2 Tier 1 - Effect: Infernal, Disenchanted. Abyssal, Disenchanted
Robes of Darkling Summoning Tier 2 (Damage reduced to Tier 1) - Disenchanted
Vial of Jin’s Promise Tier 4 - Unaffected
Congratulations! You have gained 1 skill point in Knowledge: Anti-magic!
Congratulations! You have gained 1 skill point in Knowledge: Enchantment!
“NOOOOO!” Jekkel screamed as the ring he had just been
pointing at me dissolved in a frenzy of mana static, similar to what we had seen earlier. Ailsa and I both stumbled back, the wave of static feeling like a wet noodle smacking me in the face. “What, what have you done!” Jekkel screamed as he watched his enchanted items literally fall off him into dust on the ground. “I, I will kill you! I will kill ALL of you!” He threw his staff at me in a useless, petty gesture. I disabled it for the next thirty minutes with that spell. This fight wouldn’t last long enough for it to regain its usefulness. I caught it and handed it to Ailsa, who put it in her storage space.
“Yeah, you said that already! Give up, man, you got nothing else going for you. If I don’t kill you, Tol’geth will rip your head off the second he finds his way back out of the snowdrift.” Jekkels eyes were frenzied as the robe he was wearing dissolved into ashes and dust. He searched for something, anything, that he could use to strike back at me. “I’m serious man, if you give up and let us just take you in, I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Like what?!” He demanded as he pulled the small pack he had kept tied around his waist and began rummaging around in it. “Annulment of my powers, and banishment? Thats just a death sentence with more steps! Besides, I don’t need your charity. I have power still, and friends!”
“Friends? What friends dude, look, man! We killed all your ‘friends’, took your stuff, rescued the lady you were trying to turn into a willing sex slave, and beat you to a bloody pulp. You got nothing man.” A bolt of darkness struck out at me. But Ailsa whisked a shield to life between us and the bolt impacted on it, dealing no damage.
Ethria 3: The Liberator Page 34