“Evony, technically,” the cat-like beast announced, albeit in its master’s voice. “But the same difference in this instance.”
She lowered her weapon and studied the shadowy animal. “You can possess your familiars?”
“Don’t be so silly, dear cleric.” Dimitri chuckled. “I’m simply channeling through her. It’s a much easier process.”
“You can cross between the illusions?” Faro asked.
“My familiars can. I am currently trying to find a way to dispel it,” he explained as the panther settled comfortably beside them. “Evony stated that she could still smell all of you despite the fact that I couldn’t see you. I hoped to run across you to test my theory. You wouldn’t happen to have devised a way out of this yet have you?”
“Not at the moment. You kind of caught us in the middle of that, however,” Faro explained. “Tell me, do you think you can get a message to Rika?”
Rika released another wave of her disenchantment magic. Not much changed from the last time, however. For a brief moment, the barrier faded and revealed a slightly different alignment of trees and foliage, but she hadn’t caught sight of any of her comrades thus far. The whole process began to grow tiring and she couldn’t keep this up. If she continued to shoot randomly like this she would drain her magic too quickly.
“Rika?” Dimitri’s gentle voice called. She spun and almost set the forest ablaze when her gaze located a large black bird perched on one of the trees.
“What the hell?” She muttered and gaped at the massive ebony creature.
“Frightening, I’m sure, but I am a shadowcrafter, remember?” the bird cooed and twisted its head as it observed her. “I’ve already explained this to the others but long story short, I can travel through the illusions using my familiars, and it seems our dear alchemist may have a way to dispel them.”
“Illusions? Plural?” she asked.
“Indeed. It’s a pain, isn’t it?” He chuckled.
“I rather wish you could have chosen a nicer avatar to meet me with.” Rika sighed and let her flames die down.
“Sorry, but a unicorn or puppy is not available to me,” Dimitri replied rather dryly. “I do have a snake, a large spider, and a rather odd-looking chameleon if any of those are more your fancy. Quill—this bird—seemed the most pleasant.”
“I see. Yeah, uh…thanks, this was probably the better option,” she admitted and looked away for a brief moment. “So, what do you need from me? I’ve tried to break through but the illusion keeps reforming.”
“You may merely be jumping between different illusions,” he commented. “But that’s neither here nor there right now. We are separated, but that doesn’t mean we cannot interact. Come, follow me.”
The bird opened its massive wings and took flight with her in pursuit. It was able to fly with finesse despite its larger-than-average frame and remained low between the branches so she wouldn’t be separated from it. They arrived in a small clearing, a circle of reprieve amongst the encroaching and claustrophobic feeling the forest now gave off.
It landed close to the center, hopped toward her, and fixed her with a bright look. “Place your hands here,” Dimitri instructed as the bird pecked the ground,
Rika knelt quickly and complied. “Is this some kind of ritual or spell?”
“Of a sort,” he said and the bird nodded with his words. “Now then, release a small amount of your disenchantment magic, please, so we can see if this works.”
“Eh, all right.” Purple light flowed through her arms. “I’ve spent time trying to break through myself so I don’t have much to spare on experim—” The light streaked through her arms and into the soil, then cascaded around the area. When she looked up, Faro and Kendra stood near her and behind them, she could faintly see Chatan. To his far right was Nemo but both seemed transparent.
“Keep going!” Faro shouted. Rika snapped out of her confusion and added more magic. Another wave, slightly brighter, pushed through the forest. Chatan and Nemo became clearer as Quill disappeared and Dimitri walked out of the forest behind the shaman. After another pulse, she realized that her hands were placed on a rune etched into the ground. She looked up to where Faro held some kind of crystal on a string, and it pointed north. He stood, Kendra pointed her sword, and he lined it up with the crystal. “It’s there—go!”
A silver light poured from her blade and beamed into the forest. A cracking noise in the distance probably indicated a tree toppling in the forest, and Faro knelt quickly and told Rika she could stop. She raised her hands from the rune, let her magic cease, and glanced a little nervously to see if her companions had disappeared once again. They fortunately remained corporeal.
The alchemist uttered a satisfied chirp as Dimitri placed a hand on his shoulder. “Good work, young man,” he complimented him.
“What happened?” Rika asked as Nemo and Chatan joined the group.
Faro coughed to clear his throat. “There were several illusions going on at once, which caught us all in one unique plane each. When Kendra made her way into mine and Dimitri was able to cross over using his familiars, I realized they had to be tethered to a central rune. Otherwise, you and Kendra would simply be able to break through with no worries. Most mages would be with any simple dispel ability. So I quickly etched a rune that would allow you to amplify your disenchantment magic—which is easy considering the forest itself is an anchor—and used this dowsing crystal.” He held up the crystal on a string. “That revealed the area where there was any resistance to your magic. Kendra obviously took care of that.”
“Rather crafty.” Nemo chuckled and stroked his beard. “Nice work indeed.”
“And I feel no other disturbances,” Chatan said and gazed to the east. “Except for the obvious.”
The group regrouped quickly. Rika noticed a clearing and pushed quickly toward it. The others followed and forced themselves through between the trees and foliage and finally out of the forest. They were greeted by a calming night sky, a bright almost-full moon, and a large field of slowly swaying crops.
Finally, they had found the ritual site.
Chapter Eleven
“So, this is it then?” Faro asked and brushed the leaves off of his coat. “All in all, it didn’t seem like such a bad trip.”
Nemo snorted and turned to him. “You might want to wait until we finish this, Skippy.”
“It would be a bit much to assume we are in the clear,” Dimitri observed and studied the field and sky. “Something is here, and it would seem we have enjoyed this moment of peace more than we should have.”
The sky began to darken and the wind picked up. Wisps of something dark floated from the woods behind them and through the crops and gradually massed toward what seemed to be the center of the field. The clouds above swirled and almost blotted out the remaining light the moon provided.
Kendra grasped her sword and Faro frowned. “Well, that is ominous.”
A low, gurgling noise issued from somewhere within the crops, followed by rapid tapping that moved from near the front of the field to deeper in. After a long moment, silence settled around them once again.
“That as well.”
Chatan took a deep breath. “Let’s go. There are obviously still obstacles before us and we should meet them before they decide to come themselves.”
“Sounds good to me.” Nemo drew his shotgun and took the lead to push into the crops. He’d stepped a few yards in and, hearing nothing behind him, he sighed and turned. The group had vanished once again. “Are you shitting me?” he muttered and placed a hand on his waist. “How damn petty. We already broke through this trick once. Do you think throwing it at us again is going to—”
The tapping returned, along with ominous clicking and shuffling. Nemo’s necklace began to vibrate and the bones clunked against each other. He turned, his gun ready, and his gaze focused on a pair of dim white eyes through the growth. When he fired, the eyes darted away. His shots struck nothing as he fired twice m
ore in an effort to locate whatever was stalking around him. He slipped one of the crucifix explosives off his belt and lobbed it in front of whatever scuttled through the plants. An eruption of black and dark green mist stilled all movement and he smirked with satisfaction but didn’t aim his gun away.
He startled when something leapt from the mist and dispersed it as plummeted from the darkened sky to land on thin legs. Made of some kind of dark wood, its body was sinewy and haggard and covered by a thin cloth beneath which what appeared to be bones protruded. On closer inspection, they were too thin, he decided. It looked like…straw?
The creature turned and the dim eyes stared at him through a hood wound around its face above a stitched smile. It held its hands up to reveal bladed attachments on its fingers and arms. This was a golem, most likely—an artificial creation and in this case, took the form of a scarecrow.
“Well…you’re new,” Nemo stated and popped his shotgun open. The shells ejected as he slid his hand into his ammo case to reload it.
The scarecrow took a few hobbling steps forward. It tilted its head to the side at an unnatural angle and the fixed smile seemed to spread on its face.
“Damn creepy thing, aren’t ya?” he asked, slid the last round into place, and closed his gun. The creature lowered almost horizontal before it launched toward him with its arms wide. Darkened spots were visible along the blades. He fired twice and both shots struck home. They drilled through the scarecrow but didn’t slow it. The golem closed in, drew both arms back, and cast them forward as Nemo dove aside and fired another shot.
This one caused the scarecrow to spiral, which gave the necromancer time to regain his feet. He opened his gun, removed two of the rounds, and replaced them with red ones from his other box before he snapped it closed. His adversary spun its entire body on one leg.
“All right, you raggedy little fucker. Let’s see how you handle this!” He fired the two shots and both turned into flaming bats that soared in pursuit of his unlikely adversary as it tried to retreat. They impacted with the target and set it ablaze.
Nemo laughed as the golem caught fire, but that smile faltered once it turned again and stretched its now-fiery arms toward him as it advanced. “Well, shit.”
“I’m not detecting another illusionary rune,” Faro stated and stowed his divining crystal. “If it is a similar illusion, it’s working differently, at least.”
“Fortunately, we are not all split up this time,” Dimitri noted. He adjusted his hat as he tapped his cane on the ground and his panther familiar appeared. “Although we should still hurry and try to save the necromancer. I’m sure he would appreciate it.”
“Agreed,” Chatan said, his eyes closed while he channeled the wind once again. “Nemo is a formidable hunter, but I worry what final defenses are in place to stop anyone getting—” His eyes snapped open and he backed away and held his hands up. “Something is coming.”
Rika let her flames wind around her arms. Kendra drew her blade and frowned at a path that seemed to open among the crops on a direct trajectory toward them. Faro, Dimitri, and Chatan looked at the sky, then to where several figures bounded over the fields in rapid approach. Evony leapt up and snatched one of them in her jaws as Dimitri held a hand out and Quill appeared on his arm. The bird immediately took flight to attack another. Chatan blasted them with a furious gale, lobbed three small orbs into the current that burst into flames, and directed them using the wind to ensnare the remaining enemy.
Rika set fire to the fields in an attempt to intercept the oncoming danger that raced toward them. Three figures leapt up, two of them already partially on fire. She gaped at them and shook her head. They appeared to be scarecrows, all with various sharp weapons along their body. One launched toward her and almost became airborne as it aimed its legs with sharpened pikes at her head. It appeared to pose no real threat, though, and she simply jerked aside, absorbed her flames into her hands, and cast a large fireball to obliterate it before it could land.
She smiled with satisfaction as it burned. When it opened its maw, something glinted within the inferno and several small blades streaked out in retaliation. She ducked to the side quickly but couldn’t avoid small incisions on her left cheek and arm.
“Asshole!” she shouted as the scarecrow finally melted. The other one, still on fire, seemed to draw the relatively paltry flames into itself and cast them out of its mouth at her. Rika simply held a hand up and absorbed the attack into her fire. A small grin returned as her adversary’s head tilted, seemingly in confusion, and she delivered another fiery blast before it could respond.
Kendra clashed with one that wielded an actual weapon—a long stick with some kind of guillotine-like blade on the end. It kicked and managed to topple her, using its unnaturally long legs to its advantage. She landed hard and it immediately raced forward while a blade emerged from its leg as it swung it to finish her. The cleric rolled out of the way and the blade plunged into the ground, which gave her a moment to find her feet.
As she stood, her adversary freed its weapon and swiped it at her. Bright light surged over her blade as she struck in response and the scarecrow’s weapon shattered. As it hobbled back, she realized that her teammates intermittently appeared and disappeared. It seemed that depending on how close the scarecrows were to them, the more they would fade. The creatures themselves cast the illusions.
That required a simple solution, then.
The cleric flipped her blade so that it pointed toward the enemy and ran forward to thrust the weapon at the unnatural being. It rose to meet her and its chest opened to release tendrils of hay that tightened around her arms. She tried to break free but this was more than simply dried grass. It had been enchanted and her physical strength alone wasn’t enough to break it. She was lifted a few feet before being pounded into the earth, picked up once more, and flung at one of the trees. Unable to slow her momentum, she powered into it and uttered a pained grunt on impact as her blade dropped from her hands.
She landed on her knees and focused on the scarecrow, which now held a hand up, and a long blade protruded from its palm. The tendrils twined around her and began to drag her toward the creature. Her blade lay nearby, a faint glow still upon it. As she began to pick up speed, forced closer to the wicked blade, she stretched toward her weapon. It vanished when she was barely yards from her adversary and reappeared in her hands as she planted her feet to slow herself. She spun to slice the golem in two at the waist and severe her bindings as well in one clean slash. The scarecrow tried to reconnect itself, using hay to stitch the pieces of its body together. She gritted her teeth and drove her blade into its chest to let another blast of holy magic surge through and blow the creature apart.
One of the attackers leapt at Chatan, who knocked it away with a gust of wind. He focused on another scarecrow in front of him and placed his hand on the ground. The earth below his adversary loosened and began to pull it down. It used the blades along its arm to sever its legs and landed on its hands before it flipped while the hay in the remainder of its pants formed new legs and feet. The shaman drew an arm back, took hold of some of the remaining flames around him, and flung them toward the scarecrow, who nimbly dodged the assault and streaked toward him, waving its blades wildly. He held his other hand up and used a gust of wind to thrust the scarecrow back and carry it into the flames to incinerate it.
His glance slid quickly to the other attacker, which had already recovered and now focused on him. He didn’t let it advance but instead, summoned another gale and powered it toward the scarecrow. The golem tried to run through, but the wind only gathered more and more strength until it seemed like the creature could do little but try not to topple. It opened its mouth and fired dozens of needles from it, but they too were caught in the wind and blown to their source. The creature finally lost the battle and Chatan whirled it skyward, where he spun the winds to create a small vortex that began to shred it.
Faro’s enemy proved to be quite a bother. It used it
s sinewy form to maneuver around his orbs and flasks. He had another bottle of lightning but it seemed a waste to use it on a single opponent. The alchemist finally backed against a tree, but it gave him an idea. The scarecrow tapped the blades on its fingers together before it leaned forward and attacked. He waited until it thrust its arms forward to strike and slid underneath it, and its claws stuck firmly in the bark of the tree. The creature yanked in an effort to free itself. Its head rotated to look at him where he stood directly behind it, holding a white orb.
“Hold this, would you?” he asked politely, shoved the sphere into its mouth, and jogged away. It rolled into the scarecrow’s stomach before it erupted into a blast of shining sparks and destroyed his adversary in a rather spectacular fashion.
Dimitri watched casually while Quill and Evony took care of their respective enemies, but he noticed a third peer at him through the crops. He smiled as he tapped his cane and the scarecrow surged toward him, wielding two hatchets. It swung at his head but he ducked and vanished. The golem looked around, confused, and began to swing at empty air before a dark blade sliced its head off the body.
The shadowcaster reappeared with a dark chameleon on his back and holding onto his frame. “Much appreciated, Bink,” he said and tipped his hat at the creature as the blade vanished and he slipped the hilt onto his cane. He scowled when the scarecrow’s body fumbled to retrieve its head. The chameleon darted its tongue out, snatched the head away, and flung it into the forest while Demetri called to his other familiars, “Evony, Quill, seconds!”
Nemo glowered at the pile of scraps that was all that remained of the scarecrow and spat on it. Sounds of battle and flames and flashes of light toward the front of the field brought him back to reality and he sprinted out, his shotgun at the ready, as the rest of the team eliminated the last of a group of the scarecrows. He released a breath of relief when Chatan walked up to him.
Magic Hunters: The Operatives Page 6