“What’s that, man?” I asked curiously.
“It’s a new sword, duh,” he teased before pulling the blade from its home. The silvery sheen of it was almost physically painful even from a few feet away. “It’s called Righteous Brand. It bumps my healing and holy abilities up by twelve each, and it’s a bane weapon too, so if something is weak to silver or holy damage, they become poisoned.”
“Ho-Ly fuck,” I cursed. “That’s badass man, but let’s be careful using that around me.”
“Hell no.” James smacked my back. “That’s what he will use when we spar against each other. There’s only one way to learn to fight shit like that. By doing it. Play like we fight, fight like we play.”
I had to admit, the prospect of facing a weapon like that, even if it would be wielded by our Paladin, made me nervous.
Bokaj had a new bow already, but he pulled out one that had blades on the ends of the limbs with a mercurial string that tied on a rounded hook on both sides. “Blade Bow.” He grinned and moved it so fast it carved through the air with a whistle. “It’s not enchanted, so you can enchant it later for me.”
He also pulled out a few accessories and flashed them at me. “You’ll be put to work on all of this shit as well. We need to be up on our gear, and you’re going to make that happen.” He eyed my right hand, then raised his eyes to mine. “Without blowing your shit up this time.”
I flipped him the bird with the prosthetic hand he was just eyeing, and he just laughed back with the others. Maebe began to say something, then decided not to and just giggled with the others. I wasn’t really mad. Just irritated that I hadn’t seen it coming sooner.
Once all of us were dressed and readied, James in his new Djinn Bracers that raised his elemental resistance, Muu promising me he had work for me later, we were ready. Rather than walking anywhere, I Teleported us to the place where we had first met Coal.
The snow whipped around our feet, displaced by the sudden magical shift in masses in the immediate vicinity. The large fir trees towered above us, spaced almost evenly around us with a massive field of white behind us. The site of the carnage that had taken place here had likely long since been covered by the snow that was prevalent in the area.
All I could smell was the crisp scent of fir and snow, and that was all. Nothing else was in the area, and nothing floated to me on the wind either.
“We’re heading further northeast from here.” Bokaj panned his map so that the location was visible to us. “Looks like there’s some serious forest between us, at least a week of travel, and there’s no telling what’s in the area, except maybe those wolves that had helped Coal out.”
I nodded, and we set off, all of us carefully observing our surroundings. Both of the Dragons of the group wore their cold weather rings on top of their coats, which was good because the cold was terrible.
Everyone but Maebe and Bokaj shivered in the freezing eastbound wind, only sparingly broken by trees that we were loathed to leave to move on to the next.
The skies above us maintained a murky sort of white that I began to connect with bullshit weather.
There were no songbirds in this frozen waste, no plants other than the trees and other hearty shrubs that appeared to be dead. As we moved through the forest for the next couple hours, with only the sound of crunching snow for company, the temperature dropped even farther.
“Fuck this place.” Muu’s teeth chattered despite the ring and coat he wore.
“Seconded.” I muttered, and James nodded along vigorously.
There had to be a way for us to be comfortable when we stopped for the night, and as an enchanter—I could try to figure that out.
I brought out a ruby that I had taken from Riktolth’s hoard. This would do nicely, I thought to myself. It was about the size of a small stone, little more than an inch wide but maybe half an inch thick. Cut round, the many faces of it reflected the light well.
“Jaken, you have any copper on you?” I asked after I was finished inspecting the ruby.
The Paladin blinked, then checked his inventory, and shook his head. “A bunch of rings I thought might be gold. Any of you?”
The others checked their inventories, Muu pulling out a large sack of copper coins. “Will these work?”
I hadn’t thought of that. I looked at Jaken in question, and he took one out.
“This one is high-quality copper.” He began to sift through the sack and tossed the bad coins to Muu, who stuck them into his inventory.
After a while, I had more than two hundred copper coins in the sack at my disposal.
“Awesome, when we stop for lunch, I’ll work on this idea of mine. I’m going to try and make us a comfortable place to be, and I swear, the first one to mention blowing anything up is going to eat this ruby.”
“Early lunch?” Muu asked Yohsuke with hope in his voice, cautiously not mentioning what I knew he wanted to.
“Hell no. We march on. Watch the trees for signs of life, and you might not be so damned cold.” Yohsuke looked at me and nodded.
I understood what he meant. We needed to toughen up, but there was a limit to that. If we got sick, we would be useless. Better to try and help when I could.
While we moved on foot so that we could train and learn to work together more deeply, I began to gather the intent and necessary focus for the enchantment. What I would try to do. After that, the engraving came to mind easily.
We stopped to eat, and while everyone huddled close together, I began my work. First, I summoned a thick, hollow rod of stone with a claw at the end that looked like a weird back scratcher. I then channeled my flaming mana into the coins that I had Jaken pour into his bucket with my hands until they melted, and the liquid copper poured down into the hollow rod.
While I did that, Maebe used her shadows to dig a cooling trough for me and filled it with snow that I melted. I packed some cool dirt into the end of the rod when I had filled it to the point I wanted it to. Then I placed it in the cooling water until the water stopped bubbling to quench.
“May want to do that again with fresh water to be safe,” Jaken advised. “The water didn’t touch it after it cooled right away, so portions could still be either still hot or even molten.
He splashed the water out, and it froze almost as soon as it hit the snow, turning to ice. We used more snowmelt to quench again; then I let the spell dissipate.
In the water was a thinner replica of the stone rod, a foot and a half long, with the four claws coming up over it. The metal looked rough in places, but Jaken took the item from me and began to go over it with a file. A few minutes later, he handed it back, filed perfectly smooth.
“Thanks, brother.” He waved it away, and I began to work on my design. On the base of the rod, I put a symbol for flame—not the Flame Elemental’s crown—fuck that. Just a normal flame. Like a bonfire. From there, I put three lines that swirled from the bottom equally spaced apart until they reached the top where the ruby would sit in the setting. I dipped my finger into the setting and applied enough heat for Jaken to take a slim hammer and beat a dent into it for the gem to sit comfortably in.
Once it was set, I heated the claws, and we bent them until they held the ruby still and it didn’t budge. Once that was competed, I ran the engraving lines up seamlessly on to the gem and had them stop at the line of a circle on top of the ruby. The circle ran the whole of the top facet of the gem, and that was it!
I took a breath to clear my mind and got to work on the enchantment I envisioned, adding a small pinch of Fae Iron shavings as the component to lend the object strength, flexibility, and whatever else the item would take from the metal.
Mobile Spring Rod
The warmth of a new year has been packaged in such a small rod. Within this item’s range of effect, the weather is pleasant and warm with a sweet-smelling breeze.
For a small mana cost, the temperature can be increased and the breeze turned into a thermal gust. For a heftier cost, the area affected can be
increased for a short time.
Area of effect: 35 ft diameter.
Temperature increase: 50 MP
Thermal Gust: 100 MP
Additional AoE: 150 MP per 10 ft diameter per 30-minute increment.
Item created by Craftsmen Enchanter Zekiel Erebos.
The results were immediate. The temperature around us rose considerably to a comfortable level, and an aromatic breeze passed through the area that reminded me of a babbling brook.
“Nice dude!” Yohsuke smacked my shoulder. “That’s the shit I’m talking about! We just gotta refocus.”
Well, at least we were less at risk of catching a cold.
I felt Maebe’s hand on my shoulder. “May I?” I handed her the item, and she looked it over. “This is good craftsmanship. I think I may have you make things for me some time.”
I smiled at her and whispered, “Happily.” I cleaned my hand in some of the swiftly melting snow next to me and then ate a sandwich Yoh handed me. It was good and just what I needed to get up and walk for another five hours. This was going to be fun.
* * *
Travel had been uneventful so far, thankfully, which let us focus on building our communication, both verbal and telepathic. We would point things out to each other and try to pinpoint the information as exact as possible. It took some getting used to, and there were misunderstandings at first, but it got a little easier by the end of our trek that day.
The only truly interesting bit, to me at least, was watching Maebe create snow that would cover our path of melt left by the Mobile Spring Rod. She did it effortlessly.
When we set up camp, Maebe erected her shadow barrier but much larger than normal to accommodate our group sparring session.
Splitting us was a little hard due to the fact that our specialties were so different that it was almost impossible to make the teams fair. But that was okay.
First, I was split with Jaken and Yohsuke on my side. I summoned Coal as well, no point in him not getting some practice in. This was going to be interesting.
Rather than me charging the rod, Maebe did, and the sphere of influence grew until it covered about a hundred and eighty feet.
“No holds barred. Just don’t kill each other,” Yohsuke warned. “Let’s say that the first to ten percent health loses and the others carry on?”
The rest of us nodded.
In my head, I heard Yohsuke speaking once more, Bokaj is going to be the worst problem. He can pretty much fuck us up immediately.
I sent a mental command to Coal that he was to watch Tmont and not kill anyone. He understood, though he was eager to play and made no promises about the trees.
You guys know that they’re coming straight for the healer, right? Jaken focused on the group before us and watched as they were likely strategizing on their own.
They may, but they’re going to come hard and fast. First thing you need to do is make sure that you get that shield up. Muu is going to throw as soon as they say go.
“BEGIN!” Maebe barked once, and all hell broke loose.
Sure enough, Muu threw his spear but straight at Yohsuke, and before I had time to see what he did to counter it, I was tapped multiple places by sharp fingertips that left me stiff and sluggish. James had gotten to me.
I growled, the red haze filling the corners of my vision, and for once, I welcomed the rage. I was a lycanthrope—more specifically, an Alpha-and there were perks to that. I was going to make this fight my bitch.
As the fires of the change swept through my body, I felt the resistance of the pressure points loosen enough for me to break free of them. I stopped myself from changing and cast Aspect of the Ursolon.
While my form enlarged, I noted that James was now moving in on Jaken who was hiding behind his shield to avoid the arrows raining on his position.
I’m coming, buddy. Watch for James!
I bolted forward and just barely managed to grab James by his right wing and around the throat. With a great grunt of effort and a twist, I lifted and tossed the monk away from our Paladin and into the line of Bokaj’s fire.
Instead of crashing into the squirrelly Ranger, James spread his wings to buffer himself and slow his momentum. Still, he took several shots to his back, and his health dropped to about seventy-three percent. He flashed with golden energy just before a dark Astral Bolt slapped the side of his head and dropped him to the ground, dazed.
I heard a yowl of rage and turned to see Tmont batting at Coal as he scampered away from Bokaj.
I stepped toward them, hoping to put the panther to sleep with a solid whack to the dome when an arrow took me in the thigh. It put me down to eighty-two percent, and I looked over at Bokaj who was now safely in a tree somewhere, and Muu was nowhere to be seen.
The sky! I shouted telepathically to the others.
I jerked the arrow from my flesh and began healing my wound with Regrowth, shifted into my owl form, and lifted into the air, hoping to find Muu.
I heard a whistle, and the owl screeched, Bank! Left!
I dropped and banked left just in time to avoid Muu’s spear.
Fucker’s in the trees by Bokaj. We need air support, Yohsuke growled.
You got it! I flew further into the air until I was more than three hundred feet up outside of the dome and into the biting cold. Once I was there, I shifted back into my fox-man form and dropped as I charged Winter’s Blade.
Don’t be near that tree. I’m dropping some special mail on them.
The others took that to mean turn up the juice, and they did. Yohsuke sent his spells flying, and Jaken began glowing red. Two blue specs shone in the trees.
I held it for thirty seconds, then shot the gigantic, twenty-foot sword at the tree where the two of them had been. Once it was fired, I went owl and flew down toward my friends.
Yohsuke had moved in on James and was blasting him in the head from close range with Astral Bolts to ensure he stayed dazed.
Jaken glowed red again to try and gather the hate for himself, but the spell struck the tree and exploded in a burst of icy shrapnel that pierced the trunks of the trees around them.
I thought I saw Muu go down, but I couldn’t be sure because it was that time that an arrow ripped through one of my wings, and the owl screeched as I did when we crashed to the ground.
Tmont was on top of me a second later, and it took all my focus to shift fox-man and slug her in the chest. She crumpled just long enough for Jaken to heal me, and then James was there to kick me in the face. The first one pissed me off, the Werewolf’s haze returning stronger than before.
The second one weakened my resolve to keep that rage in check. The third one, I caught in my clawed hand and used Predator’s Call. James’s left hand glowed with blue light as his ring lit up in warning, but the ability took, and he froze. I took his leg and threw him to Jaken with a roar, and Jaken caught him on his sword the same time as Yohsuke threw an Astral Bolt at him.
His health dropped to seven percent, and he was out of the game. Jaken cast a regen spell on him so he was out of danger, and Maebe called shadows to drag him away.
Time to start fighting like I meant it.
I reached out to the wolf inside me, slavering and baying at the walls of my will, and metaphorically took it by the throat.
I’m in charge. You work for me.
It looked me in the eyes, the black-furred left side and the white-furred right, one ice blue eye and one red. It stared back and answered.
We are one.
I felt the shift take me and stood in my hybrid form.
“Yo, Z, you good?” Jaken’s startled tone caught my attention.
“Always,” I growled back. And the power coursing through my veins right now? I would always feel the truth in that statement.
An arrow hit me, nicking my arm and healing almost instantly. I spied my prey and dropped to all fours to pursue him. I slapped Tmont out of the way as gently as I could, but she still spun away. I dipped beneath another arrow as Yohsuke’s
Star Burst took a good-sized chunk from the tree that Bokaj hid in.
I snorted at the air and found a scent trail that to me looked like it may as well have been a chemical trail in the sky to follow straight to Bokaj.
I dug my claws into the trunk of the large fir and launched myself at the branch my prey hid in. When he was close enough, I took a swipe and received a burning arrow in the gut.
“Roaaaaargh!” I howled as the burning spread. I clawed at the offending shaft, and a dull slam in my right shoulder sent me flying away from Jaken and Yohsuke and on to the other side of the tree.
I landed, and the shaft of the arrow snapped, leaving the burning sensation inside me. I cried out again, and Coal was there beside me, whimpering. The Werewolf wanted to lash out, but I knew he meant no harm. The worst part was that my health was plummeting fast, and the regen I had as a Werewolf was gone.
Silver? Fuck!
Yohsuke called to me through our earrings, We’re coming for you, man. Just give us a second.
I grunted, Don’t, it’s a trap!
Shut up, Jaken barked.
If they came over here, Muu and Bokaj would ambush them.
Coal, the flame wolf looked at me in worry, I’m going to pull the wound apart. Get the arrow out, okay?
He whimpered again, but I wouldn’t let him refuse. Gritting my teeth, I dug my claws into the wound and pulled it carefully apart until the broken part of the shaft was visible.
Now! I barked at Coal.
He dipped his head into the wound, the heat uncomfortable against the muscles and inner walls of my stomach, and gingerly gripped the arrow with his teeth. He pulled once, and I gasped. He stopped, and I told him to just keep going until it was out. He jerked his head back once, twice, and after I heard the squelch and tearing of flesh and muscle, the arrow was out.
Looking at it, all it had been was a silver coin tied to the head with string.
Crafty fucker. My Werewolf form dissipated, and the burning calmed a little but not by much. I cast Heal on myself, and two hundred health returned with a sigh of relief.
Into the Hells Page 29