I obeyed but had some seriously mutinous thoughts about this. I had already attacked them once this week. Wasn’t that enough, you asshat?!
James was wrapped in the spell again. “You will deal with this pain until you can learn what you need to do in order to escape it.” Zhavron snapped his fingers at Muu and me to resume our sets.
Every minute, I recast the spell. After fifteen minutes, I finished my chops, and I had to begin going through horizontal slashes. After five more castings, James roared in frustration just as the spell ended and I raised my hand to cast it again. As the spell released, James was gone, instead three feet to the right of his original position.
“Finally!” Zhavron clapped. “You are thick headed, son. That is what I was trying to teach you.”
“You weren’t teaching me shit!” James spat. “You said, ‘in order to escape’, and I couldn’t think of one.”
“And what is the best way to escape a trap?” Zhavron asked to no one in particular. When no one answered, he pointed at the spell reaching and grasping for anything to grasp. “It’s not to get caught in the first place!”
James looked as if he was about to start swinging in that moment.
“Practice the katas the monks taught you, and reflect on what it is you need to watch and listen for when fighting spell casters,” Zhavron ordered. James didn’t move fast enough, and the veteran Fighter barked, “Did I stutter?!”
“You keep treating us like boots, and I’ll hit you so hard you’ll fucking start to,” James barked right back. “Yeah, you may have seen some shit, but me, Zeke, and Yoh did our fucking time. We don’t have to be treated like shit anymore.”
“Yeah, I have to agree,” Yohsuke said. “I don’t like it. For a newb like Muu—no offense, man—” Muu gestured that it didn’t bother him. “But we didn’t sign up to be treated like shit. Zeke earned it, a little, but us? Nah. Chill the fuck out.”
“I am hard on you all because you will need it for what is to come.” Zhavron sighed. He motioned for us to stop. “Muu’s ability has truly improved. The rest of you can always use improvement, and I see a serious lack of motivation to do so. You’ve become complacent. Why?”
“Because we have to focus on this damned quest!” Jaken spoke up rather loudly. “And trying to get Muu caught up to us. He’s not a burden, he’s learning the same as us, but the longer it takes for him to catch up to us and for us to get stronger—the harder it feels like it’ll be to get Balmur back!”
The rest of us were stunned silent. So he continued to fill the void.
“So, we trust that whatever we are doing up here is going to give us some kind of clue as to how to get that powerful.” He spat, stood up, and advanced on Zhavron. “The Gods are working their asses off, and so have we. This is hard on us, draining and exhausting because we have to be the ones to fight this whole world's problems for them! But we wanted to do that together! What kind of thanks do we get? Our friend kidnapped and sent to the Hells because we killed some really powerful asshole. Then the children of the village that took us in were kidnapped so they could be used to blackmail said village.”
He clenched his fists and began to shake in rage. “It seems to be that everywhere we go, we end up costing someone their freedom or their life!” Tears began to fall from his eyes. “But we keep going because we have people counting on us at home. We get our shit pushed in constantly, but somehow, we keep pulling through. We took a big L on that last general, even if we won, and now one of our friends is paying the price. So yeah, we’re a little pissed off and down on ourselves. You want to paint the target on your ass for a good kicking? Cool—because we could all use the stress relief.”
I put Storm Caller away and stepped over to him. “Hey, come on, bud. You know we’re doing what we can. He doesn’t know any of this. That’s not his fault, and it isn’t ours. He’s just trying to help in his own way, ya know?”
Jaken ran a gloved hand under his eyes, then his nose angrily, then looked back to Zhavron. “We’re under a lot of pressure for shit we can’t really discuss. We aren’t at our best right now, but we will be. We just have to focus. Come on—let's eat then get some shut-eye. I’ll take first watch.”
We spent the rest of the night in quiet contemplation, a few of us—myself included—gave Jaken a comforting pat on the back. He just sat there, eyes on the horizon.
The following morning, we had a large hot breakfast of sausages, eggs, and toast with warm tea. The food went a great way toward improving our dour mood. As we were getting ready to leave the site of our camp, Zhavron stopped us to say something.
“If you would like to pay me, I can be on my way,” he supplied. When no one moved, he spoke again, “I did not mean to insult you or make light of the things that you have done so far. Obviously, it has left you haunted and hurt. I thought it complacency, and for that, you have my apologies. I sense the potential in you all—and I wouldn’t see it squandered. If you’ll have me, I’ll join you for the next leg of your journey. If not, I would hope we could part ways as friends, and I could have your forgiveness.”
Jaken spoke for us, “Get on Norla and ride with us, man. Just take it easier on the rest of us.”
“You’re right, too.” I shrugged when the others eyed me. “We all need to toughen up. I’ll be joining you more often for training.”
Zhavron nodded assent to me.
James walked over to Zhavron and offered his hand. “I appreciate you being cool about last night. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”
“Don’t worry about it, James.” The veteran grinned. “I can be a bit of a Ruktoft.”
“What’s that mean?” Muu asked curiously.
“Well, it’s Orcish,” Zhavron explained. “It loosely translates to the hole of a man’s,” he pointed to his nether region, “you know.”
“Oh!” Muu’s eyes lit up. “We have a word for that too!”
“What’s that?” Zhavron queried.
Yohsuke laughed. “It’s ‘dickhead’ and believe me, we can all be dickheads.”
We all laughed harder and saddled up. I checked our path and felt the heat in my palm a little further west than it had been last night.
“Looks like the creature is on the move,” I informed the others. I looked at Thor and cast Nature’s Voice. “We need to haul ass today, bud.”
“I haul only you, Druid,” he replied smartly, “but if you mean that we should make haste—I can provide this.”
I grinned. “Let us make haste then, good friend.”
Thor reared, his forelegs clawing at the air, and as soon as his feet touched the ground we took off in a hurry. The snow was rough on his movement, but we seemed to be making good pace.
By the afternoon, we were in sight of a large line of fir trees, and my hand was boiling every time I held it forward.
“Closer to the trees,” Bokaj called. “You guys see that?”
I looked but couldn’t make anything out but snow and tree, but if he saw something—I believed him.
Call it out, brother, I spoke to him through our earrings. What do you see with your special eyes?
“Wolves and some huge thing that they look like they’re trying to bring down.” I looked over to see him begin standing in his saddle as we moved forward. “There are some other smaller figures coming up behind them.”
“Probably what we’re looking for. Get ready!” Jaken said. “I’ll take the front. Muu, you bring up the rear and try to snipe anything that looks like it’s casting a spell. James, beat wholesale ass on anything that has magic.”
“Got it!” Muu brought his short spear into hand and got it ready. “Onward, Nolorn! We have ass to kick!”
Nolorn, the Plague Wolf Muu was mounted on, brayed and howled one long note that Norla chorused into the distance.
“Fuck, there goes the surprise,” James cursed.
“They know we’re here. Something else is coming out of the snow!” Bokaj informed us. “Get ready!”
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“James, you beat caster ass,” Yohsuke ordered. “Zeke, let's kick some snowmen face in.”
I roared into the distance. The wolves had no idea what we were doing, but as we came closer, I saw what we were looking for. There was a smaller wolf that looked to be red and orange against the snow, and the other wolves, white with patches of gray along their pelts, fought to protect it from whatever that large white thing was.
As they came into view, I cast Nature’s Voice and yelled, “We’re here to help you!”
The alpha at the front of the pack looked at us and howled to us, “A welcome friend, Druid!”
I stood and leaped from the saddle into the air and shapeshifted into my owl form and flapped to a point above the snow creature. It was too distracted by the wolves baying at it to see me above it. The Mages, however, began to shout and curse. I shifted into my fox form and began to drop, then shifted into my hulking Ursolon form and dropped properly.
I swiped and roared at the creature I landed on; its cold body hurt a little as I hit it, but the snow gave way to claw and tooth easily. Or so I thought. Its health bar began to refill steadily as I gnawed on its shoulder. I shoved it toward the trees and shifted back.
Upon closer inspection, I saw the snow beneath it begin to cascade up its body to seal the wounds I had made. Its level wasn’t visible to me either.
“The snow creatures heal!” I shouted to the others.
“See if you can melt it!” Muu replied from the rear.
I looked over and watched him launch his spear at one of the casters, a little man with a balding pate and brown robes on. It hit hard enough to pierce straight through him to the counterbalance and James appeared next to him almost instantly. James kicked the man in the throat and fell on him with clawed hands stabbing like blades covered in golden energy.
The snow creature tried to plow into me as I was distracted, but I leaped out of the way.
“Jaken, get in front of me,” I roared. “Zhavron, help the others with the casters.” I turned my head to the wolves behind me. “Friends, please keep them distracted while I charge this spell. When I give the word—run far.”
The alpha of the pack nodded his head. “Thren, Fear, Rilk, and Skyla—to the Druid. The rest of you, protect the flame.”
Four wolves, one larger than the alpha, stood in front of me protectively. They snarled at the snow creature. Jaken joined them and gave me a brief nod before I began to charge my spell. Kayda called overhead, and I heard the sound of lightning crashing into the snow and heartfelt cursing.
I could charge the spell for fifteen seconds and hoped it was enough. Just before the final pulse, I shouted, “MOVE!”
The wolves scattered and fled behind me, Jaken dropped to his knee and hid behind his shield.
The spell shot from my hand on the third pulse and hit the snow creature. The shot pierced the snowy chest a little, then an inferno burst from it that melted the snow within a sixty-foot radius. It was all just gone, and the only remains of the creature was a puddle.
Jaken, his shield slightly blackened from the blast, stood and shouted, “Nice shot!”
“Thanks.” I grinned.
“What?!” He looked confused. I shook my head and pointed to the next one and the other casters. There were four more of them, and they were lobbing spells at us now. They weren’t big ones, yet. A ball of flame, not to be confused with my spell, flew my way and a red and orange blur leaped in front of me. It was the fire wolf.
It took the spell in its jaws and shook it apart like a piece of meat in, well… a wolf’s mouth.
It seemed to grow a little, looked at me, and nodded. The pain in my hand was unbearable at this point.
I felt the heat reach toward my mind but ignored it. I looked over and watched as Yohsuke cast his Star Burst spell and blew the hell out of the other snow creature then began swinging his Astral Blade through it rapidly.
Kayda dipped close to one of the casters and tapped it with a wing. They froze with a stunned look before a blue ring appeared around them, and they moved once more. Fuck.
I heard one of my friends cry out and turned around in time to watch in horror as all four remaining casters turned on James and cast different elemental spells. One cast fire, another earth, water, and then the last cast some kind of wind blade at him. He wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way of all of them and got caught by three. The earth spell simply grazed his left foot as he fell and his HP bar fell dangerously low.
I got him! I growled at the others mentally.
I bolted forward, inside my sixty-foot range and hit him with Heal. 100 HP filled his bar, and some of his more serious wounds began to close.
He stood, and the rest of us got to work. The four of the Mages had backed closer to the wooded area and began to close in on themselves.
We surrounded them in a wide circle. Don’t get too close to each other, Yohsuke warned. That makes an easier target.
I looked at Muu who stood fifteen feet away and cleared my throat. He looked at me, and I made a sly throwing motion at my waist and waggled my eyebrows at him.
His reptilian features hardened and he looked at the people we were surrounding. There was an older man, a young one who looked to be in his early twenties. The two others were female and looked like they were in their mid-thirties. All of them had the same brown robes on, and their fingers and mouths moved as they began to cast a spell in unison.
Muu brought his arm up. Then he threw his spear. Where we were was a short way away, but it fell before it reached any of them. The two that had seen the throw looked at the weapon, then the thrower, who began to rotate his arm as if injured. They began to look toward the other threats, namely Jaken who began to pulse red like a beacon.
Suddenly, the spear was back in Muu’s hand, and he launched it like he had before. The black streak glowed a sickly green and hurtled toward the old man. Just as it was an inch away, it thudded against an opaque bubble that formed around the casters.
“Motherfuckers!” Muu grumbled angrily. He held his hand out, and his weapon returned.
“You have no hopes of harming us now,” the old man spoke smugly. His voice was wizened and a little light. His strong, bulbous nose and wrinkled features sagged, but he smiled a toothless smile. “Give us the elemental creature, and we will be gone. None of you will have to die for killing Horace. Just let us capture the creature, and his sacrifice would be worthwhile.”
“Not happening,” Jaken spoke aloud. In our minds he said, Is there any way we can get in there?
It took all four of them casting that thing together, man, Yohsuke answered. I highly doubt it.
I thought for a moment, then said, If you guys can keep them distracted, I can see about burrowing under?
Thing looks like it’s a bubble, man. I don’t know if you can do it. James put in.
I kicked the snow in frustration. We could always beat the shit out of the shield and see if it cracks?
I don’t think that’ll be bright, Zeke. They put enough mana into that thing to make it a pain in the ass to break down, for sure, Yohsuke explained. Especially if it stopped Muu’s fuckin’ Zeus canon. They’d nuke us if we got too close.
Think we could charm one of them? Bokaj asked. I can do that now.
It’s a spell. I doubt it would go through the shield, but if you want to try it, be careful. Yohsuke crossed his arms loosely.
I called to Kayda through our connection, Steer clear, dearest. Watch for an opportunity if you can, but keep an eye out for others.
She called once more and flew higher.
Bokaj stepped closer and began to speak with his arms to his sides in a non-threatening gesture, “You guys want the wolf, right? Let’s talk about it. What do you want it for?”
“Our birthright as Man,” the elder said. “We, the Order of the Prime, believe it is our duty to understand, restrain and control the elements, rather than leave them to their chaotic and unpredictable natures.”
&
nbsp; “Why would you want to do that?” Bokaj wondered.
“The order was founded by humans for the advancement of magic, and the betterment of mankind,” one of the women spoke. This one had red hair and hawkish features. “If we can bring the elemental realms to heel, we can grow that much more powerful. Think of all the different kinds of magic we could study and improve!”
I saw the others in my party grimace at what we were hearing. They wanted what I had currently, but they wanted to control all of it rather than allow the elementals to be separate beings with autonomy and choice.
“So, you want to bring the elements under your command.” Bokaj nodded. “What was that about mankind? Does that include my kind? As I understand it, the High Elves are already pretty magically dominant here.”
“They waste their time and squander their gifts,” the young man spat. “They were the ones who sought to end humans using magic. The lesser races? The beasts and other creatures? We did that! We created them, gave them life.”
“Introduced them to slavery,” Muu shouted as he began to step forward. “Hundreds of years, your wizards and sorcerers made and kept Beast-kin of all kinds and enslaved them. Zhavron told me all about it. How you made them your personal armies. It was when the Elves stepped in and showed us that the tethers you had over us were wrong that we were able to assert ourselves.”
“Shut up, filth!” the young man spat. “You do not get to speak ill of your betters.”
“Hey, hey, this is my conversation,” Bokaj said. He was close enough to touch the barrier now. “So, why, after all this time, have you gone looking for these things? These elemental beasts?”
“They are the key to understanding the elemental realms and how to control them,” the elder spoke again, motioning for the boy to be quiet. “The veil between these realms has been thinning in certain parts of the world where these creatures come through. We can track them, capture them, and study them.”
“I see, that doesn’t sound so bad.” Bokaj shrugged. “You guys seem to be doing this for what, purely academic purposes? Pursuing the advancement of magic, right?” The casters nodded, though the younger man looked pissed. “I can do a little magic too. Do you think I could join this order?”
Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2) Page 24