by Sean Oswald
Dave didn’t stop though. His spell enhanced movement made him furious as he thrust and sliced each of his foes. Four of them were dead upon the ground before the other two even began to stumble to their feet. The closest of those was one whose weapon had been ripped free and so stood there snarling but unarmed. Dave’s skill double attack triggered, and with the extra attack from Fleeting Fury, he took both the ogres’ arms and then finally his head with a third blow. The beast was never able to even counter-attack.
The final ogre was the leader of the squad and had managed to keep his weapon. Not only that, but he was one of a rare breed of ogres who had some innate magical talent. Not a true shaman but still able to cast a couple of spells. The monster pointed its eight-foot long sword at Dave as he came in to finish his final foe. The blade seemed to ripple as a spell surged through it and jagged shards of metal flung forth from the tip of the blade straight into Dave.
Even though he was caught off guard, the spell was nothing but a Tier 2 nuisance to Dave, who felt the metal pieces imbed into the armor of his chest. Each piece would have originally done (57) points of damage, but that was first cut in half by the ablative armor, and then Dave’s new Toughness came into play and reduced it down further. Had he been wearing full armor, he might not have taken any damage. As it was, the small pieces of metal became shallowly stuck in his chest and caused barely over 20 damage each. Certainly not enough to stop Dave’s strike, which batted the crudely held great sword to the side before flashing back to cut a deep furrow through creatures reinforced leather breastplate, a furrow which was soon profusely bleeding.
In shock, the ogre fell back a step, which played right into Dave’s current overly aggressive style. Slash after slash cut the ogre up as Dave equally managed to block or deflect each blow. His free hand was used for casting quickened Lesser Repulsions, and thus, the ogre was never able to gain his footing. This was playing out exactly as Dave had intended. An ogre was an intimidating foe to almost anyone watching them, and so to see Dave so effortlessly handling them would have to instill confidence in them. They would know that he was worthy of following. Then, almost before it had begun, the fight was over and another headless ogre fell to its knees only to be pushed over by a thrusting kick from Dave.
He turned to face the wall and received what he felt was the well-deserved applause of his people. Dave couldn’t help but feel like he had been born for this. Being a noble truly was a grand thing. Walking out from the wall were Emily and Mira, both of whom he could see were scowling. Both so beautiful, but Mira became more like her mother every day. Behind them were Jaselm, Daichi, and even Eisuke. The last Dave took as good news since it likely meant that the attack had only been limited to this one spot. Likely, the enemy had underestimated them again and in due course had paid the price.
Dave really wasn’t in the mood to be lectured by Emily about his reckless actions. He just knew that was what was coming, but then he saw her eyes grow wide and fear appeared on her face as she called out, “Behind you!” Her words barely registered before he was turning, and even as he spun, he saw Mira’s outstretched hand conjuring magical missiles.
He was only halfway turned when a searing beam of emerald green light no thicker than his finger struck him. His entire Ablative Armor trembled and became visible as it resisted the dire energy. His new class skill, Arcane Backlash, activated in response to the surprise attack. Silver runes flared in the air around him, and the spell was absorbed in part and reflected back. As the blast of green energy rebounded back at a gray robed caster standing less than a hundred feet from Dave, he felt the attack destroy his most powerful defensive spell in one go and still take nearly half of his health.
For his part, the gray robed spell caster did not seem very fond of being hit by his own spell as silver runes flared around him, somewhat different from the ones which had signified Dave’s class skill. The emerald energy, instead of being reflected back, was diffused, and the gray robed figure and the ground immediately under him were bathed in the magical power. The ground exploded up and created a cloud of dust to hide his fate from sight for the moment.
Emily and Mira reached Dave’s side together. Emily stood next to his kneeling frame which, due to his enlargement, still made him taller than her. She reached out and quick cast her Lesser Healing Spell followed by Lesser Regeneration and began casting Life Salve on the portions of Dave where the spell had stripped flesh down to the bone.
“Thank you honey. Now get behind me. This guy is not one to mess around with,” Dave said with such a grave tone that Emily immediately complied.
“Surely he is down after getting hit like that.” Dave followed Emily’s eyes to the cloud of dust that was still settling. On one side of the cloud, Daichi was moving in like the dragon his style was named after while on the other side Eisuke was crouching with bow drawn and muscles tensed.
“I wish it was that easy, but he took down my best spell in one blast and still did hundreds of points of damage. If it wasn’t for your healing and my souped-up regeneration, I’d be at half-life. The only good thing is that burst of damage refilled almost all of the mana that I had used up. Either way, I want both you and Mira behind me. Neither of you would stand a chance against that attack.”
Hearing that must have worked because neither of them said anything further. Even Mira got behind him without complaining. He knew that they took him really seriously when Mira activated her staff’s shield effect and Emily activated her cloak’s effect to become mostly immaterial.
Then, before the dust even finished settling, he heard a slow deliberate clapping. Once, twice, three times the sound of chitinous palms slapping together rang out. The voice that spoke was creepy in a way that Dave couldn’t explain. It awoke something in his primeval self, a wariness of the prey before the predator.
“I will admit to being surprised. The Master said that you were good. He said that you would be more than I bargained for. After all this time, you would think that I would realize he is always right.” By the time he had finished speaking, his finger was visible within the mostly settled debris. His grey robes were torn and ripped, and while the cloak still covered his head and gloves covered his hands, the flesh that was underneath was a glossy black. Not the black of Rak’kar’s skin and fur or the black of Max heritage but rather a beastly black, almost like a black widow spider.
Eisuke didn’t hesitate but launched a stream of arrows in rapid succession. The figure in his tattered robe with an obvious limp and hunched posture made a small gesture with his hand as the arrows sprang forth, and each one was diverted from their course and sent hurtling at the charging Daichi. Dave heard Emily gasp when she realized what was happening, but she worried for nothing. The monk’s hands flashed, and he caught or snapped each arrow in midair.
The newcomer spoke out again. “Now, now. No more of that. I will just have to give you all something to play with.” So saying, he pulled out a small glass rod from a pouch on his belt and snapped it while saying two quick words of magic. An inky black smoke flew rapidly from the cracked glass rod into the corpse of the ogre’s leader which convulsed upon the ground and started to rise till it hovered three feet in the air.
Jaselm apparently sensed the dark nature of this magic for he placed himself in front of Dave and called upon his shield of faith ability. The golden barrier, which had saved him from Altracia’s breath during his last dungeon dive, appeared in front of him and the Nelsons and emanated from his shield.
The corpse ripped in half with the sickening sound of flesh being torn asunder. Out of the gap came first a pair of clawed hands. Each of the three long fingers and thumb ended in three-inch long razor-tipped nails. Then as if it were pulling itself out of the corpse, a nightmarish creature came out as if birthed, inch by inch. All of the seasoned warriors there found themselves helplessly captivated by it until its full six-foot frame was out and perched upon the still hovering ogre’s corpse. He was down on his haunches crouched like a fr
og and still covered in the ichor of its birth. The first sound to erupt from its mouth was a horrible cackling laughter which immediately put everyone’s nerves on edge.
“The master calls it a Gelio Daimonas. I simply prefer to say laughing demon. You can call him baby. Now be good children and play with the baby while daddy and I have a little chat.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than he flashed, disappearing and reappearing in a blink behind Jaselm’s magical barrier and right next to Dave. He outstretched his hand and touched Dave’s shoulder before pronouncing another magical word. Instantly, Dave felt himself being teleported. The twisting and warping of reality around him was unmistakable as the magic unleashed tunneled through space to a different place.
Mira reacted faster. She raised her hand but had no time for a spell, so she did only what she had been told she was not supposed to do. She seized on the spell form another caster was using and attempted to break it. The spell was powerful beyond her Tier 3 magic, although she had no idea what Tier it was. She only knew that her mind was being seared by the effort, but she wasn’t going to stand by and watch as this creature took her father from them.
For a second, she thought she had failed entirely as both the gray robed figure and Dave were gone. Then suddenly, they were there again as she started unraveling the spell form. The mage looked upon her and simply said, “Oh, how interesting,” before he slammed a mountain of magical energy into his spell, and he disappeared again with Dave in tow.
Emily looked around her. Her husband was gone, taken by a fiend who commanded deadly magic and creatures out of nightmares. Her daughter had done something, although she didn’t know what. She had simply seen Mira struggling for a couple of seconds while Dave and the weird creature flashed in and out of being. Then Mira had raised her hands to her forehead and cried out in pain, falling straight forward into her mother’s waiting arms.
Worried and uncertain what to do, Emily began to assess Mira’s condition even as she glanced at her closest friends, hoping that one of these mighty warriors might have some idea what to do about her husband’s disappearance. What she saw instead was that Daichi, Eisuke, and Jaselm were all engaged in a deadly dance with the cackling monster set to the tune of its horrendous laughter.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Worry never added a day to my life, but that doesn’t mean I gave it up. — Private journal of Emily Nelson
Eris’ Rise - Mira and Emily Nelson
Mira woke to find herself floating in a vast white emptiness. There was really no other way to describe it other than a void. She naturally orientated to an up and down but couldn’t really say that those concepts meant anything in this place. Wherever that was.
She started to replay in her mind how she had gotten here. First came the stabbing pain like a spike being driven through her temple, then as the pain faded, remembrance filtered back.
That mage. She didn’t know what he was only that he was no race that she had seen before. Yet he seemed familiar, and that annoyed her. To her magical sense, he practically glowed with magical power. There were a myriad of interwoven spells all set around him. After seeing dad’s new backlash skill in play and now the stranger’s defenses, she had to assume that most of the magic was an intricate series of contingencies meant to protect the caster. She couldn’t, however, rule out that some of them might also be magical attacks or buffs only waiting to be triggered. What she knew for certain was that not only in terms of skill but also in terms of raw power, this figure dwarfed anyone she had seen before.
Of course, this still didn’t explain how she ended up here. So, not finding an answer either from her external senses or from her memory, she turned her thoughts inward towards her character sheet and notifications. This reminded her that she still had unassigned character and stat points from the levels she had gained in their dungeon raid. From that, she had gained almost 4 levels and was now level 24. This meant that she had also gained 12 stat points and enough character points to leave her with a bank of 156 unspent.
For the first time, she had not rushed to spend her available points. It was telling that her parents hadn’t even asked her how she had assigned the points. Mira knew that everyone had been busy with Jackson leaving and with the oath ceremony, but she couldn’t help but feel that the true reason they hadn’t asked her was that they both just assumed that she had placed all of her stat points into Intelligence. Certainly, there was a part of her that wanted to do that. Yet, the dungeon had awoken some realizations in her, and this last encounter with the stranger had done so even more.
Somehow, dad had passed her up as the most powerful caster. She didn’t feel the same jealousy like her dad had thought he hid during their early days in Eloria. It wasn’t that at all. She was happy for her dad. What she did feel though was a return of some of her teenage angst. If Mira wasn’t their mage so to speak, then her sense of purpose began to evaporate. For once in her life, she had felt like she knew exactly where she fit in. Dad was the guy who took the hits, mom was their healer, and she was the one who blasted the crap out of stuff. Mira had to admit that there was a certain rush to filling that role. With lightning bolt, her dad had started to threaten her supremacy in that role, but with whatever Tier 4 spell that monstrous ice storm was, he had proven that she couldn’t keep up with him, not as she was now.
Then, watching him get blasted by the slender emerald beam, which seemed so unassuming but packed more magical energy into it than any spell she had yet seen, she realized just how poor her own defenses were. Even with the health ring that her dad was insisting he wear instead of her wind ring, she still didn’t have 500 health. She definitely needed to slow down and conceive of some better magical defenses even if she had to create them herself.
The one truly interesting thing was what she had learned as the stranger teleported away with dad. She was truly terrified for him, but right now in this place, somehow the emotions seemed distant, and she was able to focus on the intellectual discovery she had made.
It related to her class quest: Meta-Mage Part 2- Two Sides of One Coin. That quest had updated when she started to wonder if there was a difference between skills and spells. Now she had yet another piece to the puzzle. She had developed the ability to pick apart another caster’s spell even though she had never seen such a skill or spent any skill points on it. She had the class skill: Shape Spell, yet this was something different.
Mira had been able to grab the spell form of the teleport spell as it was already active and for a moment had been able to reverse it. The spell was incredibly intricate in how it was formed but also shockingly fast. The surprise she heard in the stranger’s voice made her aware that he had not expected anyone to be able to do that, but then the almost contemptuous ease with which he had pushed away her interference showed her how much she still had to learn. Everyone told her that unraveling spell forms was a dangerous thing to do, yet she kept trying it, almost as though she were drawn to it.
The key observation was the way he had applied more mana to the spell form, shoring it up and crushing her interference. There was something there, and she was trying to get her mind around it. Maybe that was all there was to it. This first lesson might entail nothing more than understanding that there is a common thread of power that runs through all of the spells and skills. Yet, she wasn’t sure because some skills didn’t require power to use and some required energies other than mana.
Aha, there it was. The thought that made the first connection for her was understanding magical items. Magical items had both passive and active effects. Yet, even from her limited understanding of enchanting, she knew that it still required power to initially create those passive effects. Now, if she thought of herself as a magical item rather than a person, she could see how she had both passive and active effects. It took power to create those passive effects like her skill in stealth. Active effects were only different in that while they took power to create, they also took power to use.
Unlike
a magical item that was empowered by mana and focused through material components, for a person, the source that embedded passive effects within her was XP. XP was energy gained, most often from the life force of creatures slain and occasionally from quests in which Eloria itself channeled large amounts of energy into her. She knew her understanding was simplistic at best, but it was what she had come to.
The dirty little secret was that it all came down to power.
Congratulations! You have taken your next step forward, baby like though it may be, into understanding the world around you and your place in it.
* * *
You didn’t get here the normal way, but it still suffices to demonstrate a greater understanding as required.
* * *
Your class of Meta-Mage is updated to Tier 2.
* * *
Perk Gained: Spell Weaving - This just formalizes what you have been attempting to do on your own. Current skill level: 4. This is one of a very small handful of skills in Eloria which cannot be leveled up by character points. Use is the only way that this skill may be increased, which is another piece of the puzzle for you.
* * *
Spell Weaving: 4 - Learn what this skill can do by using it. Its potential is nearly as limitless as your imagination. At its most basic level, this allows you to see a spell form as woven tendrils of mana. You may tighten that weave, unravel that weave, or perhaps with practice, reshape or repurpose that weave. Mana costs are variable.
* * *
Danger: Risk of psychic damage whenever you lose control of a weave.