Arcane Transmogrification

by Robert Harper

  “Do you think the elves are setting fire to the goblin walls and huts outside?” Jade whispered.

  Danny shrugged, asking, “I wonder if the druids did this. Can you sense anything through your air affinity?”

  “No, just the smoke and it’s building,” Jade replied.

  *Think that counts as something?* Danny asked Cranny.

  Danny’s vision changed, and he watched a bubble of white expand outward from him in every direction. As the bubble passed objects and things, Danny could see them like an overexposure from looking into a bright light for too long. The goblins were still racing outward toward where Danny assumed most of the elves were hiding in the trees. While his Air Scan reached that far, his ability to separate objects was limited. He did notice that there were a few goblins who were running out in various directions into the forest. Danny figured, they were either scouts or were the cause of the smoke.

  Dark billowing smoke was soon flowing over the top of the fortress walls. Danny knew that they would have to stay low to keep away from the worst of the smoke. Hoping the smoke would limit the elves’ vision, Danny risked a quick glance over the wall.

  Thousands of goblins still raced toward the forest that was now being consumed in flame and black smoke. Many goblins were trying to back away from the growing inferno, but those behind them only pushed them back toward the forest. Arrows still flew from some of the untouched trees, but there weren’t as many as he expected. Danny kept his head above the wall a few more seconds as he watched the wave of goblins pushing back against those still pushing forward. The goblins seemed to turn as one, like a flock of birds, first a few then all the rest rushed toward the mountain. Some jumped down into their holes, while others headed straight for the fortress. It slowly dawned on Danny that when the wave of retreating goblins reached those running in front of the fortress, they would just immediately turn and come inside.

  Danny tapped Jade’s shoulder, saying, “We gotta get back inside now!”

  Without waiting for her to reply, Danny grabbed her hand and started leading her toward the great hall. That was until she quickly rushed ahead of him and jumped down the rest of the distance, effortlessly dispatching two goblins that had been hiding near the bottom of the makeshift ramp.

  Danny reached the bottom of the ramp just as the goblins immediately outside turned as one and rushed inside the fortress, *Cranny, we need that miracle you have been working on, now! Otherwise I am overriding the sacred tree and getting us somewhere safe underground.*

  Cranny complained, *But it still needs a couple more hours… Don’t you think you all could hold out that long?*

  Danny almost decided right then and there to go with plan B, Cranny be damned. Instead, for now, he focused on putting one foot in front of the other and not tripping over some random decaying goblin.

  *All right, fine. I need to check, but I think I can cut it short and it still work. It just won’t be the deluxe model I was going for,* Cranny pouted.

  Danny rushed inside the remains of the courtyard to see Ivy sitting up with Brooke’s assistance. Dain was fidgeting around, trying to wear a trench in the ground with his pacing. Phantom had offered her side as a place for Ivy to rest against. The cat’s healing aura would leak out every now and then to check on the recovering girl.

  Danny realized that he needed all of his options and took the bait, *Deluxe model what, Cranny?*

  Cranny laughed maniacally, *Ohhh, you are going to love this, Danny my boy!*

  ***

  The two-thirds of the fortress’s great hall that remained was slowly filling with dark smoke. From outside, the sounds of thousands of feet racing across the stone of the courtyard reminded Danny of rain during a heavy storm. The only other sounds that filtered in from the outside were the occasional coughing or even retching of those succumbing to the smoke.

  Danny had gotten Brooke to carry Ivy over to where the sacred tree root stuck out of the ground. Danny didn’t really need to be in contact with the root directly, but Cranny made him to understand that it would help speed things along. Dain and Ivy watched the approaching wall of goblin flesh reach the remains of the great hall’s wall as they raced inside. Phantom had managed to do her disappearing act, but Danny knew she wouldn’t have gone too far.

  Cranny’s voice cut through Danny’s thoughts and senses, *Alright, I changed the recipe, and it is done. Just try not to break them before they can get to work!*

  The first of the goblins was about to reach them when Jade activated her Storm Aspect and disappeared. A hobgoblin who stood out in the courtyard was beginning to cast a spell. The hobgoblin suddenly stopped and cried out as two blades pierced through its chest from behind. Then, Jade was suddenly in front of Danny again, her blades dripping with fresh blood. Lighting crashed down through the missing roof and hit the area where the hobgoblin had been. Those goblins just entering the hall either went flying into the air or collapsed to the ground. The noise, light, and sound was enough to cause the rest of the goblins to pause.

  Danny, used some of his sacred tree aided regenerated mana to summon earthen spikes all around them. Ivy hobbled forward, and Danny reached out to help her.

  Ivy held up a hand to ward off Danny’s help, “No, I have enough mana. I can do this.” With that, Ivy raised her hands and then collapsed to her knees, slapping her now crystalline arms on the ground.

  The glass-like nature left Ivy’s arms as ice shot forward to spread along the floor. It seemed to rush out in waves as more and more was consumed by the frozen water. The ground, debris, and even the goblins were quickly covered in a sheet of solid ice. Danny let out a nervous breath and was startled as it froze instantly in the cold air.

  Brooke was already behind Ivy, picking her up and carrying her back to lay her down somewhere safe behind them. The great hall was almost completely quiet, save for those noises in the distance. There was a strange beauty to the glassy surface of the ice and the swirling dense smoke that reflected off the ground and frozen goblins.

  Noises from outside grew in volume, as Danny could hear more goblins headed their way. A wolf howled from somewhere in the courtyard. Then there was a crash, followed by another. Wolf riders appeared over the heads of the frozen goblin statues that now filled the great hall. The riders had no qualms about shattering and ending the lives of their fellow goblins as they cleared a path inside. By the sounds now coming form outside, Danny figured there must be hundreds of them, and they were all trying to get inside.

  The smoke was getting worse, and Danny started to cough. He was still holding the sacred tree root when he felt a significant drain on his mana. *Cranny, what are you doing with my mana now?* There was no reply, and the root crumbled into dust in Danny’s hand. Danny reached out with his mana and could not find the sacred trees below him.

  The floor broke up, and the earth in front of Danny started to shift and rise up in almost a bubbling way. The wolf riders were getting closer as more filled the room and aided the others. Jade grabbed Danny’s arm and tugged him out of the way, just as a spear crashed into the debris behind him.

  One of the lead goblins raised a hand, and Danny realized it was a shaman on a particularly large wolf just before it let loose with a gout of flame. Using it like a flamethrower, the hobgoblin slowly swept it in front of itself and added more smoke to the air. The goblins in its way melted, and the riders following the shaman all laughed and cheered at the sight. The shaman looked up at Danny and his group with a self-satisfied sneer, but they were not paying him any attention at all.

  The looks on the faces of the humans and the dwarf ranged from confused, to cautious, to downright terrified.

  Danny’s voice rang out through the great hall in terror, “What the shit did you do to them, Cranny?”

  The shifting ground had parted to reveal seven red sparkling figures. While they were the same height as the had been before their transformation, they could no longer be considered ‘fluffy.’ Every single edge to them was a s
harp blade, and long spikes rose up at different points along their bodies.

  *Do you like what I did to them?* Cranny asked, excitedly.

  Danny took an unconsciousness step backwards, *They are… They’re soo….*

  At Danny’s mental block, Cranny ventured, *Horny?*

  Blinking, Danny shook his head like a wet dog, asking, *What?*

  Cranny could not hold back the pride in his voice at speaking about his creations. *It’s because of all the horns I put all over them. I call them my horny squirrels!*

  Danny groaned, *Have you seriously doomed me to die for something called a horny squirrel?*

  *No,* Cranny scoffed, *Just snap your fingers, and all your troubles will…be diced away.*

  The noise from the riders died down as they and the hobgoblin shaman all stared transfixed at the obstinite squirrels standing in front of Danny. The shaman’s eyes moved up to meet Danny’s in a wordless question.

  Danny shrugged, saying, “They’re horny,” in goblin. The shaman’s head tipped over in an almost comically impossible angle as it tried to process what it had just been told. Before the shaman could recover from its stupefied state, Danny went against his better judgment and twisted his fingers together.

  A loud snap rang out, echoing off what few walls still remained in the great hall. Danny lowered his hand and slowly opened his eyes, as he had closed them tightly in fear. Looking down at his body, Danny sighed in relief when he found he was still in one piece, though Danny did do a double take when he realized the squirrels were no longer on the floor in front of him. Looking around the room, he only saw the shaman and goblin riders, who were also looking around for the missing tree rats. That is until the screaming started.

  ***

  *One moment the goblin rider’s head was on its shoulders, and the next moment… It. Was. GONE! In its place was one of the obstinite horny squirrels. Get this, the squirrel was now literally sitting where the goblin’s head used to be. Just sitting there, staring blankly into the watching crowd while the goblin’s headless corpse somehow stayed perfectly balanced on the back of the wolf. The squirrel’s tail wagged once, and everyone instantly noticed that the tail had this new wickedly cool flat serrated blade-like shape. Hahaha, Danny totally peed in his…*

  *Cranny! What are you doing?* Danny yelled, menacingly.

  *and in a high falsetto!*

  *Cranny,* Danny yelled in a noticeably deeper voice.

  *What?* Cranny asked, obviously upset and annoyed, *Why can’t I narrate every now and then?*

  *We already went over this. I handle the internal monologues, and you…,* Danny prompted.

  *Get princesses?*

  Danny growled, *No…you just need to… Wait, I already said we are not calling them horny squirrels!*

  ***

  The obstinite horny squirrel leapt of the decapitated goblin’s shoulders, and the room descended into utter chaos. Screams of pain and terror seemed to come from every which way. Goblin riders collided into one another in their attempts to get away from the red squirrels. Some of the goblins made it out of the great hall, but many got turned around in the ensuing smoke and chaos, heading further back in. The obstinite squirrels smashed, sliced, and tore their way through any goblin they could reach.

  Danny stood there with his legs slightly crossed, cursing the fact it was originally his ideas to bring the little demons with them. Danny could only watch as many wolves lost their riders only to get swept up in the excitement and start attacking anything nearby. Soon, Danny, Brooke, and Ivy were busy fending off attacks from frenzied riderless wolves.

  In a calm between attacks, Danny noticed the hobgoblin shaman had managed to stay seated on his large wolf. The shaman used its spear to cut down an approaching wolf. As if sensing his attention, the shaman’s head jerked over to met Danny’s eyes and glared menacingly at him from amidst the pandemonium. Bellowing in anger, the shaman spurred his wolf into a charge. Danny called earthen spikes from the ground, but the large wolf had some uncanny ability to sense the danger and easily avoided them. Danny switched to fire, and the shaman and wolf exploded into flames. Falling faint once again, Danny cursed his low mana and almost missed what happened next. Out of Danny’s fireball, the shaman emerged only slightly burned, but relatively unharmed. While the wolf he rode was now covered entirely in stone.

  “Beast variant,” Ivy shouted from where she sat, before firing her crossbow. Because of her position, her aim was off, and the bolt was deflected off the wolf’s hardened muzzle without doing any real damage.

  Jade charged one of her blades with Lighting Affinity and dashed toward the shaman. To her surprise, the shaman was prepared and deflected both blades with a tall wooden spear he carried, careful to keep the spear’s metal tip away from Jade’s swords. The girl dodged the shaman’s return strike and was forced to turn away as she was surrounded by riderless wolves.

  Brooke used the distraction of Jade’s attack to rush forward as her mace grew bright but not nearly as bright as when she had struck the boulder earlier. The mace plowed into the stone wolf’s open mouth, only for the stone wolf to prove itself stronger when it easily pushed Brooke back a few meters. With Brooke’s mace held firmly in the wolf’s jaws, the shaman took advantage of the moment to swing his spear around and strike Brooke across the head. As Brooke was knocked to the ground, the stone wolf’s head started to turn red, and the wolf started to buck and thrash around. The shaman was knocked off its back just before the stone wolf’s head exploded.

  The shaman looked over in shock at the remains of his mount. Turning to Danny, the shaman’s face was filled with only promises of pain and death. Lunging at Danny with his spear, the shaman’s attack was easily parried by Danny’s own spear. Once again, the shaman seemed one step ahead and brought out his hand from behind his back. A fireball the size of a watermelon careened toward Danny’s face when there was a sudden blur of fur and an explosion. Danny was knocked backwards onto the ground by the explosion but was surprisingly unhurt.

  Looking over, Danny discovered Phantom laying on the floor. Her side was horribly burned, and he could see some of her ribs exposed to the filthy air. The cat’s Magic Affinity was struggling to heal her body, as she must have used too much already keeping everyone in top form.

  There was movement near where Phantom laid, and the shaman stood up, obviously wobbly and using his spear for support. The hobgoblin was horribly burned, and half of his face was rendered unrecognizable. How the hobgoblin was able to stand, Danny had no clue. Shifting around, the shaman surprised Danny even further as he freed one of his hands enough to form another ball of fire. What this creature had gone through to be able to focus past that kind of pain, Danny never wanted to find out. Danny also tried to reach for his mana, but the rising faintness and nausea caused him to lose focus. His magic collapsing in on itself.

  Before the shaman could cast his spell, a pickaxe lodged deep within his skull, and the shaman collapsed in a heap onto the floor. Dain stood behind the corpse of the shaman, bloody pick shaking in his hand.

  Spitting on the remains, Dain looked up to see Danny’s look of surprise. With a expression of wounded pride, the dwarf laid his pickaxe over his shoulder and walked away. Dain moved over to sit down next to Ivy, grumbling, “Boy acts like he’s never seen a dwarf swing a pick before...”

  CHAPTER 33

  The blade of a spear tore through the air to lash out and slice deeply into the wolf’s throat, but then the tip struck bone. With the momentum of the wolf’s lunge, the creature buried the spear deeply within its own chest. The now dead wolf’s corpse continued forward to crash on top the spear’s owner.

  Pinned down under the dead weight of the wolf’s body, Danny struggled to take in a breath, only to cough violently at the lungful of smoke he had inhaled. The smoke was going away, but it was enough to irritate his lungs.

  *You don’t have to breath, and I don’t know why you keep insisting on doing that,* Cranny said in a bored tone.
>
  Danny sneered, asking, *I need mana and can’t focus right now. Can you attach us to the sacred tree? I can’t seem to find it anymore.*

  *No can do, Danny. I cannibalized it to make the modifications to the squirrels,* Cranny said apologetically.

  *We can do that?* Danny asked in awe.

  *Yes, and we could do that to your body as well, so be careful,* Cranny warned.

  Danny shuddered a little before trying to shift the wolf off of himself, but he didn’t have the strength. Looking around, he saw Dain working to bandage Brooke’s bleeding head and face. Danny hadn’t had time to stop and help heal her. Ivy was looking a little better, but the smoky air couldn’t be good for her. Phantom’s side was all flesh now, but it still looked horribly burned. Danny could hear Jade yell out as she attacked some unseen goblin or wolf.

  Then, the growling started from somewhere past the wolf that was now laying on top of Danny.

  “Danny, there are three wolves headed for you,” warned Dain.

  There was the sound of a crossbow from where Ivy was sitting and then the yelp of one of the wolves.

  “Two wolves,” Dain corrected.

  Danny pushed again on the wolf’s corpse, but it still wouldn’t budge off of him.

  “Jade, Danny needs help,” Ivy yelled out.

  *I got this, Danny; you just rest there with your new blankie,* Cranny interrupted.

  There was a drain in Danny’s mana, and his eyes lost a little of their focus. There were a couple of small explosions, and the two wolves yelped in pain. The wolf on top of Danny started to shift, then fell over and off his body. Sitting up, Danny thanked Dain for his help. Nodding his head tiredly was the dwarf’s only reply. Not a meter away from where Danny had been laying, two wolves were impaled and lifted in the air on two earthen spikes. Jade was not far off, and she lunged, separating a wolf’s leg from its body. Stabbing downward, Jade finished off the last wolf left in the remains of the great hall.