Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  I searched for my center again. Nothing. Where did my mana come from? I asked myself. That, I knew. I could feel it tingling just below my belly button. I focused on that sensation and did everything I could to block everything else out.

  I pulled my mana up into my hand. I couldn’t move enough to cast. I pulled my mana into my head. Maybe if I could flood my head with mana, I could break Andrew’s control. There, I’d finally found it. A little black cloud sat at the front of my mind, covering everything. I poured as much mana into that area as I could. I felt like I needed to push the blackness back. Pulling my mana out of my center as fast as I could, I covered the black cloud.

  All of a sudden, I found I could move. I started to cast my new spell, Anti-Illusion, before Andrew noticed I was free.

  As my fingers finished moving on their own, I could instantly see tendrils of black mist coming out of Andrew and going into each of us. There, on the front of everyone’s head, was where each tendril entered and pooled slightly. That was how he was controlling us. As I watched, I could see a pale blue mist coming off my right hand and moving to sit between the black tendrils and the person’s head.

  Wake up! I sent as a party message. I need to help Allion.

  Andrew still hadn’t noticed I was free. I thanked everything I could think of that he was busy watching Mikael and Soter.

  Going to rez Allion I told Soter, and promptly started casting Resurrect. Thankfully, I didn’t need to touch the body, so I stood motionless, as if I were still frozen, in the hope that Andrew would continue to be unaware I was no longer under his control.

  Allion’s body turned transparent, with a misty, white copy of him floating above his body. Pulling on the cord between them, I forced the white mist back into his body. I watched as the little golden lights surrounded his body and created the grid that I knew defined the outside of each of us. His body started to vibrate so I quickly cast Wound Seal in an effort to bring him back to full health as quickly as possible. Followed by a Healing Mist that covered Saris as well as Allion.

  At that moment, the ice that had trapped Joe vanished, depositing him unceremoniously onto the floor, soaked to the skin in ice water, with a two-minute frost debuff. I guess he must have been hit with multiple Freezing Bombs, and by some miracle, the timer had stacked, causing it to last ten minutes instead of just the usual two. With luck, the frost debuff would do the same.

  After that, everything seemed to happen at once.

  Saris launched herself at Joe since he was now open to attack. Allion sat up, causing Andrew to drop the food he was eating in shock. Finally, Mikael also broke out of the mind control and threw himself at Andrew.

  Saris attacked Joe relentlessly, daggers pounding into him as fast as she could manage. He was still too slow from the frost debuff to be able to Dodge. Soter joined in, biting and clawing at Joe, whose health was now down to 10% HP.

  I pulled my mana into my right hand and formed a Fireball, which I directed at Joe, having to move it around Saris and Soter so I didn’t hit them as well. Two Fireballs later, and Joe finally died.

  We turned as a team toward Andrew and Mikael, just as Allion managed to get himself upright. A quick Inspect showed Mikael had just 20% HP left, while Andrew was down to 10% HP.

  I instantly cast Healing Mist, watching Mikael’s health increase to 45%. Needing every advantage I could get, I willed the Infinity Charm Arik had given me to let me see two seconds ahead.

  Sure enough, a second, slightly blurred version of Andrew rapidly thrust his hand toward a blurred version of Mikael, who promptly collapsed.

  Unsure of exactly what was about to happen, but knowing it wasn’t good, I recast Healing Mist, hoping it would buffer Mikael’s health enough.

  Suddenly, just like in my vision, Andrew cast something so quickly that none of us had the time to interrupt him. Mikael seemed to collapse in on himself, falling to the ground like a sack of bones. I looked at their HP bars. Mikael was dead, and Andrew was back up to 60% health.

  “No!” I yelled, rushing toward Mikael’s body, berating myself for not having saved him even though I’d seen he was in trouble. “You traitor!” shouted Allion, half running, half stumbling toward Andrew as I pulled Mikael’s body as far away from the fighting as I could.

  “Why did you have me killed?” Allion yelled at Andrew. “I thought we were supposed to be on the same side?”

  Wait. What?

  Everyone stood still, unsure of what to do.

  “You’re an NPC,” Andrew looked down his nose at Allion.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Allion demanded, all pretense at being highly refined having now disappeared. “We had a pact. If I tracked Orianna’s movements and kept you informed, I could become your spymaster and build up my network. You also agreed you wouldn’t kill me.”

  “Hmmph,” snorted Andrew.

  “That was the deal,” Allion was in Andrew’s face now, poking him in the chest. “I was the one who arranged to release Baynor when your stupid protection sigil activation failed. I very nearly managed to take Kira out of the fight at the same time. I organized the harpy and beetle attacks and I even did my best to stop her getting the Solomon’s Seal root. Hah, I would have succeeded, too, if your stupid guild members had followed the plan I’d given them.”

  I could feel the color draining from my face.

  “She was so trusting she didn’t even notice I’d planted myself in her party by letting her rescue me. Everything I did went perfectly,” Allion screamed, spittle starting to fleck around the edges of his mouth.

  Well that explained the difference in Karma I got for rescuing the two groups of people from Andrew’s prison, the sane part of my mind thought idly, as the rest of it was reeling.

  “And what thanks do I get?” he shouted. “None! You simply had Mikael kill me like some worthless piece of trash.”

  “You’re all alike,” smirked Andrew. “Disposable. You served your purpose, so you had no further use. Well, except to get Orianna to use her Resurrect spell so it was on countdown when I killed him.”

  Andrew pointed at Mikael’s body and laughed.

  “So good job with that,” he said.

  “Arrrgh,” Allion screamed, punching Andrew in the face. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into double-crossing the only person who cared enough to Resurrect me. You’re going to pay for that.”

  63

  Dismantled

  I grabbed the vial of Gorgon blood out of my inventory. I knew it had the power to resurrect someone, I just wasn’t entirely sure how to use it.

  While Allion occupied Andrew, I focused on the vial in the hope that it would tell me what to do.

  To resurrect someone using Gorgon blood, pour the vial over their heart.

  I tipped the contents over Mikael’s chest. Nothing happened. I started to panic. Then, slowly, Mikael began to twitch. Initially, it was just his fingers, then it spread to his arms and legs, and finally, he opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

  I frantically cast Healing Mist, but his health was already at 100% HP, with no death debuffs.

  Looking up, I found that Allion was still trying to kill Andrew, keeping him on his toes and only allowing him to react and deflect. Unfortunately, before we could join in, Andrew recovered and remembered what he could do. For the second time, I found myself frozen in place, along with everyone else. I couldn’t even move enough to cast Anti-Illusion, which made it an annoyingly useless spell.

  “Finally,” Andrew said, brushing imaginary dirt off his robes. “All that fighting is so tiresome. You must know I can’t let you go through the Dragon Gate, right?”

  Andrew walked over to me at the edge of the stone circle, pulling out a dagger.

  Soter managed to free himself of the compulsion in half the time it had taken him before. Andrew was now right in front of me and had no idea that Soter was behind him. Soter pounced on him, bringing him down to the floor to my left.

  The lapse in Andrew’
s concentration weakened the spell just enough to let me break out of it as well. I hurriedly cast Anti-Illusion to help the others get free, then started launching Fireballs at Andrew as fast as I could.

  The first one hit his chest, singeing his embroidered robes, which seemed to upset him more than the loss of 5% of his health. He was now down to 55% HP. I was still at 100%.

  I saw his hands move to cast something. Before I could try and interrupt him, Soter jumped up and bit his hand.

  “Arrrgh,” yelled Andrew. “It’s time for you to go.” The last word was spoken in a very strange tone, and I watched as another compulsion fell over Soter and he calmly turned and started to trot away.

  I threw another two Fireballs at Andrew in quick succession before he could turn back to me, taking him down to 45% HP. Once again, he started to cast something. I grabbed a small rock from the ground to throw at him because he hadn’t even flinched from the previous Fireballs. However, before I could throw it, he found himself back on the floor, face down, with Soter on top of him.

  His spell has less hold on animals.

  That gave me an idea.

  I quickly cast Transform, and my body liquefied itself. My legs started to shrink as my arms grew longer. Finally, it completely rearranged itself into a wolf, leaving me standing on four legs instead of two.

  Andrew pushed himself up from the ground and froze with a look of shock on his face as he probably assumed I’d disappeared and Soter had somehow managed to duplicate himself.

  “What…?” he trailed off.

  Soter and I took full advantage of his confusion and pounced, biting and clawing him, taking little chunks off his health as he desperately tried and failed to fight both of us. Each time he tried to cast, one of us managed to interrupt him. He grabbed a health potion out of his inventory, but before he could drink it, Soter jumped up and knocked it out of his hand.

  “Stop,” Andrew commanded, while casting his compulsion again.

  Soter and I both froze. This time, however, I broke out of it in less than two seconds, as my Fortitude stat, combined with my transformation, gave me an edge Andrew wasn’t expecting.

  I lunged and bit down hard on his leg. Screaming, he tried to push and kick me off. Soter broke the compulsion and started to join in, just as the timer on my transformation expired.

  My body lurched as my legs elongated and my arms shrank. Andrew looked horrified as I transformed back into a human again. Soter took advantage of his lapse and bit down hard on his other leg.

  Before he could cast his compulsion again, I cast Anti-Illusion to make sure this was going to be up continually. Andrew’s health was now down to 30%.

  Finally, Mikael, Allion and Saris broke out of the compulsion as well.

  “Quick! Help!” yelled Arik, grabbing everyone’s attention as he stumbled into the stone circle. “Someone else is here, and they’re fighting Kira, and she’s losing.”

  “I bet it’s Colt,” growled Saris.

  “Go. She needs help,” I shouted at Mikael, shoving him toward Arik before he could object. “Arik, stay with Saris.”

  I turned back to Andrew, who was still struggling with Soter, just as Mikael left. Andrew kicked Soter hard in the face, causing him to back off. He reached into his inventory and brought out an object. It looked like a collection of sticks held together with some dark mist.

  “It’s about time I showed you who’s boss,” Andrew snarled, activating the artifact.

  Instantly, the mist shot toward me and Arik.

  “It looks like someone has been meddling with sigils without knowing how to seal them away from a Mind Mage,” Andrew sneered. “Time to show you the error of your ways.”

  “What?” I asked, glancing briefly at Arik.

  A look of horror crossed his face as he realized the mistake we’d made.

  Andrew pushed a button on the side of the artifact. The mist tightened around my throat and started pulling both me and Arik toward Andrew.

  Saris and Allion both started running at Andrew, but once again, he simply compelled them to stop moving. Soter had slightly better luck and managed to bite and scratch him a little before the compulsion activated on him as well.

  Unlike with the compulsion, I could remember who I was, I just didn’t know how to stop the mist from pulling Arik and me toward Andrew. I cast Healing Mist, to no avail. I cast Minimizer, but again, nothing. I threw a Fireball at Andrew, which, instead of taking 5% of his health, ended up healing him for 5%, so he was now at 35% HP.

  “Any more attacks you’d like to try?” he sneered. “I could always use a little more health.”

  Arik, who’d been closer to Andrew than I had, finally arrived within reach. All of a sudden, the black mist evaporated, and Andrew grabbed Arik and brought his dagger to Arik’s throat.

  “Okay, that’s it. It’s time to end this,” he said. “I know you need to drink a Phoenix potion to go through the Dragon Gate. So, here’s the deal. Empty your inventory and pour out the phoenix potion, or I kill whoever this NPC is.”

  Andrew pulled a few health potions out of his inventory and downed them, bringing him back to 100% HP.

  “Is this like the deal you gave Allion?” I growled, desperately trying to sound tough and like I didn’t care about Arik.

  “No. This is a deal where it’s either you or him. You say you care about these NPCs,” he scoffed. “Personally, I think that’s a complete waste of time, but let’s see if you really mean what you say. If you care, pour out the potion and you get to die. If you don’t, then I’ll kill this one. Your choice.”

  This was just about my worst nightmare. However, if I let Arik die, living forever while knowing that I was alive because I’d let someone else die just wasn’t something I could deal with. I pulled the potion out of my inventory.

  “Here. It’s the only one I have,” I said, handing the potion bottle to Andrew. “Now let Arik go.”

  Andrew poured the sparkling potion out onto the ground.

  “I can’t believe you’re that stupid,” he laughed. “If it had been me, I’d have told you where to shove it.”

  He ran his dagger across Arik’s throat, slitting it, then pushed him toward me. Arik’s eyes were wide with fear as he clutched at his throat desperately, trying to stop the blood from spurting out.

  Before I could cast Wound Seal, Andrew froze me with his compulsion again.

  I struggled with everything I had, trying to get out of the compulsion. I could see Arik’s health dropping like a stone. 25%, 20%, 15%, decreasing with every heartbeat. He was now as white as a sheet and had fallen to his knees. I couldn’t watch, but I didn’t have a choice because I couldn’t move my eyes. 10%. Resurrect was on cooldown. If I couldn’t get out of this compulsion, Arik was gone. 5%.

  I strained against it. I wanted to scream and kill Andrew more than I’d ever wanted anything before. Arik went limp. 0%. I’d failed.

  Something snapped inside me. All of a sudden, the compulsion changed somehow. Andrew’s black mist was still connected to me, but this time, it was like I’d transformed it into something I could control. He’d become transparent to my sight, just like I’d cast Wound Seal on him, even though I hadn’t. I could see the gridlines that made up his body, and I could access them as if I were healing him.

  All at once, something Jace, the healer back in Milgate, had said to me came flooding back. ‘You should never upset a healer, because someone who knows how to put you back together knows the best way to take you apart.’

  With grim determination, I pulled at one of the threads in the grid around Andrew. The more I pulled, the tighter it got, until finally, it snapped.

  “Owww! What was that?” Andrew yelled, frantically looking around him.

  Inspecting him, I could see his health had dropped to 95%.

  You have discovered the spell: Dismantle

  Healers are the most efficient killers. Take your target apart piece by piece.

  Dismantle is part of the Spirit Mag
ic skills

  It is linked to the stats Intelligence and Wisdom.

  Increase your Intelligence to increase the amount of damage you cause with each cut thread.

  Increase your Wisdom to reduce your casting time.

  Increase your Spirit Magic level to increase the effectiveness of Dismantle.

  I coldly pulled another thread, snapping it and taking his health down to 90%.

  Andrew was starting to panic since he couldn’t see who was damaging him and he thought we were all under his control.

  I snapped another thread, then another, taking him down bit by bit, until he reached 5% health.

  At that point, several things happened at once. All the compulsions ended just as Kira and Mikael came running back into the stone circle.

  “We killed him, whoever he was,” said Mikael.

  Kira cried out upon seeing her twin’s dead body and threw herself at him, sobbing.

  I pulled the other undefined potion out of my inventory. It was the timer reset potion. I walked over to Andrew, whose eyes were getting wider by the second now that Mikael had his dagger to Andrew’s throat.

  “Arik was my friend,” I said in a cold, hard voice. “If it hadn’t been for Savrine, another NPC I know you had killed, you wouldn’t be here today. You would have died long ago. So, I’m going to take away what Savrine gave you because you don’t deserve it anymore.”

  Mikael pulled Andrew’s head back and held his nose as I poured the potion into Andrew’s mouth. Despite his efforts to spit it out, enough was obviously consumed.

  Success! You have discovered: Timer Reset Potion

  Starts the user’s timer back up again. The user now has 6 days to solve the riddle and progress.

  Andrew’s face held a look of utter horror and he started to struggle harder against Mikael.

  “And now it’s time to send you to respawn. I don’t know how long your death penalties are, but considering there’s only about an hour left until the end of the day, you might not have enough time to use one of your Timer Freeze potions before it’s too late,” I said coldly.