The Dao of Magic: Book II

by Andries Louws

Absolute silence reigns as everyone regains their baring. A lot of mages secretly hide wet patches on their robes while standing back up. Faint voices travel over the sound of waves lapping against the quay.

  “You idiot, don’t shout so hard!”

  “You wanted me to roar.”

  “Yeah, but not hard enough to make me lose control of the water, you fat dumbass! That was half of my qi in there!”

  A shrill female voice starts to argue with a young male voice. Tonn casts his eyes around but sees nothing amiss. His eyes glide over a patch of sea right in front of the entrance without focus, but the mage does not react.

  Tonn feels something slimy against his calf, so he looks down. He does not expect the wet, green piece of seaweed that is wrapping itself around his feet at all. A single thought combined with a hand motion causes shards of stone to fly from the floor, shredding the intruding plant.

  He looks around and sees the same happening to all the other mages. Just when he is about to say something, the plants all give a simultaneous pull, launching half of the mages on guard into the sea.

  “That’s how you do it!”

  This time a gruff female voice glides across the water. Just when it dawns on the mage that they might be under attack, a metal ball knocks against his head.

  ⁂

  Splashing sounds everywhere, Ket gives a signal. Tess is holding a rather pale Ares as she sinks into the shadows. “Distract them.”

  Angeta becomes covered by a green sheen as she waves her hands about. The surging strands of seaweed entangle more mages, but most of them manage to avoid the barrage of aquatic plant life. Fireballs, leaves with razor-sharp edges, jets of air, and rock fragments start to litter the sea as the mages start reacting.

  The boat positioned a couple of dozen metres in front of the dark ornamental entrance gets hit a few times. Bord slaps at the air, shattering a beam of darkness. Selis darts away, avoiding a thin stream of fire as she lands and dances across the water with pounding steps. The stub of mast gets further abused as a blast of high-speed brown dust shatters the last standing splinters.

  Tess pops back up on deck, pulling Angeta with her this time. Bord breathes in deeply as his chest rounds even further. A powerful exhale causes a gust of wind to scatter some of the random attacks.

  Both the suddenly appearing Selis and the gust of wind causes some mages to point towards the source of both. The barrage starts to intensify as the mages see their projectiles vanish into thin air. Metal balls whizz back and forth, knocking robed figures unconscious at a rapid pace.

  Another flash of black and Tess is back. “Sel, come back on deck.”

  After that shout, she pulls Vox - who was hiding behind the ship’s balustrade - with her. Bord moves faster than a normal human eye can follow, blonde hair fluttering as he blocks bolts of lightning streaking towards Ket. The black-haired boy gives a short nod of thanks. He waves his hands through the air, directing the metal projectiles as they wreak havoc among the mages on the pier.

  ⁂

  Tonn wakes with a start, the cacophony of sounds around him loud enough to wake the dead. He’s still in his comfortable chair, a throbbing lump on his forehead. He sees the few mages still left conscious around him casting a myriad of techniques into the sea. Following these mana arts with his eyes, he sees them disappear into a patch of sea no different from the rest.

  That is what it looks like at first, but narrowing his eyes, it’s like there is a shape there. He looks at it via the corner of his eye, and he sees a dark form bobbing on the waves. Looking directly at it causes his eyes to scream ‘Normal sea, nothing suspicious here.’

  A flash of spray catches his attention, and he barely sees a short, blue-haired figure flit into the ‘normal sea’ zone. He coughs a single time. The rock around him moves in a ripple in response to his cough, countless stone shards separating from the dark floor. A single wave of his hand and a single change of expression later those stone shards jump towards the suspicious spot.

  A sudden boom of wind coming from the invisible zone scatters a large amount of the projectiles. Tonn’s hair gets ruffles from the strong gust of wind as a metal ingot coming from a tricky angle knocks him unconscious again.

  ⁂

  “That punch took a lot. We got to go.”

  “Nearly got them all,” Ket replies through gritted teeth.

  Bord looks back to the mess of dark stone buildings surrounding the dark entranceway. He sways on his feet, seemingly unsteady, but Ket just saw him pour all that motion into a focused punch. It seemed to crack the air as the wind blast shattered the incoming hail of stone shards.

  Another dark flash and a tired looking Tess appears.

  “Take Ket.”

  “One sec.” Ket starts waving his hands around and a storm of metal objects flies towards him. He holds up his ring bearing hand and the stream of projectiles disappear on contact. “Done.”

  Tess nods and pulls Ket into a shadow. Bord jumps upwards, rocking the boat, as he spins around. His foot kicks out, turning all the rotational force into a single direction. The last mages immediately change their aim, the round shape of Bord clearly visible in the last rays of the evening sun.

  A lighting mage must have been saving his power for this opportunity as a large streak of thunder hits the fatty. He spins away wildly as the bright beam hits his shoulder. More projectiles come towards him, but he uses his spinning to launch a sweeping kick, shattering the brunt of the attack.

  Bord lands and the mages lose him as he enters the stealth field of the ship once again. His fat figure starts bouncing around the deck as he dodges the last few elemental spells. He jumps towards the dark shape of Tess appearing behind the mast and fades into the shadows. Spells continue pelting the deck for a long time after it has been abandoned. A small formation of grey qi on the steering mast causes it to drift away slowly.

  ⁂

  “I still don’t see…” Tess takes deep gulps of air as she regains her breath. “…why all that was necessary.”

  Seven shapes are gathered inside a stone room. The only light comes from the end of a long tunnel. At the end of the tunnel are two doorways, swirling dark mist visible in one, stairs leading down in the other.

  “This entire tunnel is one large death-trap. We had to wait for nightfall because nobody is crazy enough to dungeon delve at night.” Ket grins widely again. “Except for us. We had to distract the mages enough to prevent them from activating the countermeasures. They can flood the tunnel and dungeon entrance with all sorts of nasty stuff. There are too many redundant mechanisms for me to safely disarm them all.”

  Tess has dark circles under her eyes. “Well, I am not taking so many people with me in this short of a timespan again. I feel like I’m dying.”

  Selis is slapping Bord on the arm as she gets ignored. She is using her other hand to scratch a shoulder-mounted rabbit under the chin. “That dragon took me a lot of effort and qi to create. Why did you shout so hard?”

  Vox is pestering Angeta. “That seaweed trick was genius! Did you create those plants or did you pull them up fro-”

  The pumped-up atmosphere is rudely interrupted by retching sounds. More sloshing and wet squelching noises follow as Ares empties her stomach. Vox is by her side the next second, pinpricks of light flashing over both their figures.

  “Sis, what’s wrong?”

  “Ubuuuugh HURK” Another stream of vomit comes from her mouth followed by many dry heaves.

  “Healing is not working, what’s wrong with her?” The pinpricks of light grow in intensity as Vox holds Ares up.

  Then an alarm and a loud voice echo between the stone walls. “ALARM, THEY WERE AFTER THE MANA MINE!”

  Mechanical sounds are suddenly everywhere.

  “Shit, we got to enter the dungeon.” Ket’s panicked tone causes them all to barrel towards the stairs. Vox hauls his sister over his shoulder as Bord pulls a half sleeping Tess along.

  Arrows barely miss the descending
figure of Bord and Tess as green mist pours from the walls. Blades extend from the narrow slits, making the dungeon entrance and preceding tunnel into a death-trap.

  “Don’t breathe in, there is poison behind us.”

  The group stumbles to a halt at the end of the stairs.

  “Don’t stop yet, get away from the entrance!” Ket’s second comment causes the group to keep moving. Green trails of liquid trickle down the stairs as blades and arrows clatter down the steps. Colourful trails make their way into the first dungeon floor as the group runs through the first tunnel.

  ⁂

  She just left! I hopelessly stare at the three dots that are growing smaller. This scenario was not inside my calculations. But then again, this always happens. My mind is still too busy with, ahum, processing the memories after such encounters that I tend to forget the big picture.

  Looking back, throwing her at her kin might have been a bad idea. It worked with Lola though… But that was a rabbit and a dragon, not a dragon and a dragon. It seemed such a great idea moments before I did it.

  She rotated in the air with the agility of a clumsy cat, landed on the brown dragon and clung to his scales. I sensed a dense wave of qi explode from her and wrap around the trio of dragons. I make a note to teach her the finer points of qi control, if I ever see her again, that is. If she starts giving that mass of qi mental commands… Let’s just say that brainwashing would seem like a petty trick in comparison.

  Now be strong, don’t let her see me…

  I give in and form the air in front of my face into a lens. Her half-naked figure appears, riding the earth dragon, shirt fluttering in the wind. Why is she sitting backwards, though? Ah, she is looking my way.

  So, we stare at each other as she flies away. Typical, I need to go that way too, but now it looks like I’m going to follow her. So, I just look at her as she flies off.

  An alarm goes off in my mind, a predictive process concerning my disciples. Potential casualty? Time limit? Three days until guaranteed lethal. Did those idiot disciples forget to expunge qi from food given to Ares? Vox might be pissed if I let his sister die.

  With a deep sigh, I wave a single time to the disappearing dots and jump of the Tower. Focussing on my core, I feel a slight pull straight north. Rhea went north-east. I don’t like destiny and fate, so let’s not leave it up to them.

  Her braincore should be kicking in over the coming week. The mind is a fragile yet sturdy thing, a sudden influx of qi like she just received takes some time to settle in. She has a heartcore and a braincore, so she should be extremely well coordinated. She was tripping over herself quite a bit just now. It seems like the supernatural coordination that comes with a heartcore also needs some time to kick in.

  I don’t really know how to feel about this entire thing. I just lost over half of my power and she just gained the strength of a hundred humans. I consider going after her for a bit while trying to get some perspective over the past few days.

  She had obviously never done something like that before, and my new cultivation was also still wet behind the ears. No way in hell could something like this ever have happened if that wasn’t the case with both of us. We basically both had to be virgins in order for such a connection to form. And she has a rather shoddily put-together but powerful body.

  There were some precedents though. Dao companions always converge their power bases. It will become less effective with each new pairing, but the power difference between two parties does even out during sex. It’s just that… why would a mighty expert ever allow half of his power base to be stolen? Why indeed.

  I pull a piece of jade from my ring and fill it with braincore cultivation basics. Her mind will adapt to her new power base over the coming weeks, so she will end up crazy in a month or two. Let’s not risk it.

  A thin metal chain appears in my hand and I sink it into the green stone with some atom manipulation. I implant a near-infinite small circle too. While falling, I cock my arms back and release. The boom caused by the qi structure guiding it should draw some attention, so I cover myself in a stealth field.

  I fall down the tower once again, moving my body to skydive perfectly north. I gather all the rosy feelings I had going on over the last few days and pack them away safely.

  There.

  All better.

  I’m totally fine.

  Let’s go exploring again!

  Chapter eighteen

  Autonomy

  F inally, some peace.

  Sitting on Fe-Taak, an earth dragon much, much older than herself, Re-Haan breathes in slowly. The last few weeks were just too much. Thinking back on her behaviour, she barely recognises herself. The cold wind calms her down as she follows the turbulence trails and swirls of wind rushing by with her eyes.

  SMACK

  Ow, what? A green stone with a metal chain drops in her lap. How did this get there? A few hundred possibilities flit through her mind this time. She sees a small, black dot falling from the tower. Then her sight just loses him. Another one of his tricks.

  She takes another deep breath. These last few days were way too much. At this point, she just wants to curl up in a cave and sleep a few centuries. Why did he get to her like that? Dragons are badly made, he said. Someone has had his fingers in the very makeup of her being.

  Re-Haan’s hand finds the green stone and she takes a closer look. It’s just a stone. Thinking back to his story, she should put it on her forehead? Yeah, he did that earlier with the cell knowledge. Re-Haan finds it odd that this simple solution to her question took her some time to think of.

  A diagram appears in front of her mind’s eye. Start here, then read this and some optional parts. She takes a look at the data and finds the basics of cultivation with a braincore. Her face gains a wry cast as she looks at the stone. She already knows most of this. He told her himself. Thinking back, the amount of information indicates he must have talked for a very long time.

  Re-Haan tried to make compartments in her mind already, but thinking got really difficult and sluggish when she did that. She tries it again while clinging to the warm scales beneath her, and finds her mind is a little less slow this time. She releases the process and her thoughts speed back up.

  She drops the chain around her neck, pulling the simple piece of jewellery beneath her loose-fitting shirt. She looks down on herself and realises she will need to get some proper clothes. She usually just transforms a thin layer of her skin into some simple armour. Re-Haan decides to not experiment with her broken transformation skills just yet. That feeling of drowning in her own… melted organs was horrible. And he didn’t seem to care.

  That’s another reason why Re-Haan decided to flee. Selective caring. Re-Haan doesn’t really care about anything. She’ll just go to sleep when something is bothering her, waking up right as rain a couple decennia later. He doesn’t seem capable of that. If he does care, he’s great at hiding it.

  There is just an intense focus on whatever shiny thing catches his eye. Maybe she is judging him too harshly. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t mess with her mind and body like that.

  Phah, dragons are created. Next thing he will claim that she has some form of inbuilt drive to find the strongest mate possible. Like she is ever going to believe that.

  It’s fine though, she’ll just get more powerful. He was looking for large sources of mana, she recalls. Flight Mountain has heaps and heaps of mana crystals. Re-Haan makes a fist and feels the power inside her body. She never really liked her human form all that much, but now it seems she’ll be stuck like this for a while.

  Hah, Re-Haan wishes she was young still. She’s a couple of thousand years old, as far as she knows, but she does feel older sometimes. The vigour of her youth sapped away by years of boredom and napping among other sleeping dragons.

  ‘YOU SHALL LAND THERE!’

  A shudder runs through all three dragons as she mentally shouts at her qi that surrounds them. It’s weird and funny how similar to mana control wo
rking with qi is. It is also totally different though. Re-Haan can’t quite explain it.

  She holds onto the spikes jutting from her ride as they descend towards a field of grass. A village is nearby. She will dump the shirt there and get some new clothes.

  She bends sideways in order to get a better look at the ground. The spike she was holding onto snaps in half and the dragon beneath her butt rumbles in pain. Looking at the brown shard, she notices that she ripped it free by accident. Fe-Taak could fall from the sky onto solid rock, and his scales would not snap like this. They might crack and he would not survive it, but such a clean separation needs immense force.

  Re-Haan drops the shard and stares in the direction of Flight Mountain, clenching her fists and grinding the scale to powder.

  ⁂

  “So, this is qi poisoning?”

  “Seems like it. How did Teach form our cores?”

  “He slapped us, right? He punched Ket in the stomach.”

  “Me on the top of my head.”

  “No-one ever asked him why or how?”

  “Nope.”

  “No.”

  “Ooouuugggghhhhhhhhrrrrr.”

  Ares feels like she is dying. Her stomach is turning, her skin is reversing, and her brain is melting. She can only slowly flail about as she feels her body turning inside out. She pulls a clump of grass from the ground as she rolls around, clutching her stomach.

  The girl has had a pretty laid-back life so far. She was raised as a noble, with the sudden disappearance of her brother as the only major negative point, living a life of relative luxury. She got tested and her light affinity came to light. Light mages are the healers and medics of the mage factions. They never fight, they only get shipped around as rich people pay out of the ass for treatment.

  Losing total control of her life - thanks to meeting her brother again - and being inducted into this weird group of weirdos, is not something that she experienced before. So, she is getting angry. Really angry. She wants to curse but can only vomit and dry heave, further angering her.