Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  “Maybe you’re losing your touch,” said Uzax with a sneer.

  Adremor whipped around on his feet. “Care to say that again to my face?”

  Uzax, not appearing to be bothered in the slightest by Adremor’s threat, rose slowly from his chair.

  “I said, maybe you’re not as powerful as you think you are?”

  Adremor narrowed his eyes. “You’d better be careful with your words, fire-flinger.”

  Uzax ignored his comment as he approached the door. He looked it up and down then nodded, as if he’d figured something out.

  “Let a real wizard try,” he said, his deep voice bellowing.

  “You fool,” said Adremor. “If my magic can’t ope—“

  Uzax cut him off, raising his hands in front of him with a quick gesture. He then formed his fingers into claws, swirling his hands around as if stirring something in a great pot. Crackles of spark and flame began appearing, growing larger and larger by the second.

  Adremor started, “If this fire blows back the way my force spell did, we—“

  “Silence!” called out Uzax before turning his attention back to the growing flames at his fingers.

  The fire grew and grew until it was a large, smoldering orb in front of him, the sight appearing to Ben as if the wizard had somehow summoned a small sun of his own. Then, a massive jet of molten heat burst forth out of the orb, rushing toward the door. A deep orange glowed around the flames as they connected, dripping molten lava falling onto the ground before it.

  Ben watched with wide eyes, certain the flames would be powerful enough to destroy the door.

  But they weren’t. When the flames vanished, the door remained standing.

  “How the hell is that possible?” asked Ben. “He blasted the door with a solid jet of molten lava!”

  “Perhaps some kind of magical barrier?” offered Sir Gallant the Younger, clearly just as surprised as Ben was. “No doubt the Forgotten Ruler would’ve taken care to ensure the interior of the tower was just as fortified as the exterior.”

  Back on the screen, the wizards clearly weren’t taking the news well.

  “You idiot!” shouted Adremor. “You did nothing, and now the room is a furnace!”

  Ben narrowed his eyes to see that the foreheads of the wizards were slicked with sweat. Lexi, still at the table, washed her face with water from a cup to cool herself down.

  “Be careful with your words, cur,” snarled Uzax. “It simply needs another blast.”

  “Are you a halfwit?” asked Adremor, his eyes wide. “Your spell heated the air in the room, not to mention that if this space is sealed you’ll burn up all the air!”

  But Uzax paid him no mind. He swirled his hands in front of him once more, preparing to blast another jet of flame.

  “You do that again, and you’ll kill us!” shouted Adremor.

  Ben watched the events carefully.

  Maybe they’ll solve this problem for me.

  Uzax persisted, and moments later, another jet of fire blasted from his fingers.

  Adremor didn’t stand around to watch this time. “You give me no choice!” He lifted his hand toward the fire mage and crooked his thumb and index finger. Uzax’s eyes went wide, his head snapping back as if he’d just been grabbed by the throat. The flames stopped, a few drops of molten falling onto the ground and landing with smokey hisses.

  Telekinesis, thought Ben. He’s giving him the Darth Vader treatment.

  Adremor touched the tips of his index finger and thumb together, tightening the invisible grip around Uzax’s throat. Ben watched with great interest, wondering if the Force Wizard would simply kill the other on the spot.

  “Stop this insanity!” shouted Lexi, jumping up from her chair and rushing over. “Whatever’s happening here, reducing our numbers won’t help matters!”

  Adremor held his fingers together for a few beats longer, raising his hand and bringing Uzax off the ground and into the air, his feet hanging limply.

  “Adremor!” shouted Lexi.

  Adremor then let out an annoyed grunt before letting his hand drop. Uzax fell to the ground at the same time, landing in a heap. His chest rose and fell slowly. Then he placed his hands on the ground and pushed himself up to his feet.

  “You’re…you’re going to regret that.” Uzax spoke between breaths, still recovering.

  Then he raised his hands in front of him, preparing to channel another blast of fire.

  “You summon so much as a single spark, and I’ll snap your spine like a branch,” shouted Adremor.

  Lexi rushed between the two of them. “Both of you stop this right now!” she shouted.

  They did, realizing she was in the way of their spells.

  “Both of you, stop now! Remember the vow you made to one another back after the battle of Kenningbrook? To put aside your differences and work together? What a foolish end it would be to kill one another while our true enemy lifts not a single finger!”

  The two mages regarded each other with skepticism.

  “As much as I hate to admit it, the beastkin is right,” said Adremor. “We did swear to put bad blood behind us.”

  Uzax nodded as he finally regained his breath. “Yes. And no doubt the owner of this place would be pleased to know we’d done his work for him.”

  Lexi let out a sigh of relief, seeing that the situation had been diffused.

  “Now,” she said. “Let’s figure out a way to get out of here that doesn’t involve killing ourselves in the process.”

  “As soon as we get out of here, I’m going to roast this traitorous varmint who welcomed us into his tower.” Uzax’s eyes blazed, hungrily. “There will surely be a reward.”

  “Then we’ll get those nymphs back too,” Adremor muttered irritably.

  “And the tower,” Uzax added.

  “Adremor, Uzax,” Lexi called out.

  “What is it, woman?” Uzax asked.

  “I think his magic might be more powerful than you think,” she said, pointing at the ceiling.

  A row of large green plant heads were congealing and growing out of the high obsidian ceiling. As their stems grew longer, they twisted and drooped, lazily swinging closer and closer to the table beneath.

  Uzax hopped out of the way and cursed as a green head sprouted up beside his leg.

  The footsoldiers all assumed a panicked look on their faces and drew their weapons.

  “Ugh,” Adremor exclaimed in disgust as more plant heads sprouted out of the table.

  The mages and their soldiers watched in fear and wonder as the plants rapidly grew into full fledged monsters. The room was totally quiet.

  Then the silence was shattered by the simultaneous roars of a hundred vine monsters. The room erupted into chaos as the long-stemmed creatures snapped and slashed in all directions.

  The vine monsters attacked every which way, chomping at limbs, smashing chairs. A few even bit each other’s heads off.

  Maybe a hundred in a dining hall was just a touch overcrowded, thought Ben as he watched the chaos unfold.

  Several of the soldiers were wounded in the melee. But although the vine monsters were formidable, the mages and their attendants were evidently highly trained.

  The footsoldiers worked hard, decapitating monsters with every stroke. They kicked heads and stomped on stems.

  Adremor held out his hands and waved them, using similar motions to the ones Lulu had used to manipulate water. The silverware all rose from the sideboards and hung in midair, blades pointing at the flailing vine heads.

  Then he flicked his wrist, and the knives and forks all shot forward. Blades stuck in the melon sized snapping jaws, forks pinned vines to the table or the walls, and spinning knives severed necks.

  Uzax also attacked at range. He summoned balls of fire in his hands and hurled them indiscriminately, singeing vines straight through at the roots, or boiling their heads, causing them to explode, spraying juices all over the room.

  He set furniture on fire, as
well as the carpet beneath. Fortunately, the whole room was made of volcanic glass, or Ben might have had a proper fire on his hands to deal with.

  One stray fireball blasted the head right off one of the footsoldiers, the headless body standing still for a moment, the neck smoking before the hapless soldier dropped to his knees and then to the ground.

  Uzax glanced at him lazily and shrugged. “Oh, that was one of your soldiers, I’m afraid, Adremor. Never mind, I’ll buy you a new one with our reward money.”

  Adremor didn’t appear thrilled by the collateral damage, but he was too busy throwing plates with his mind, smashing all the dishes against vine heads to give the matter much attention.

  Ben hoped the tower could replace all the china. He had no idea where to buy kitchen supplies in this forest—not like he could swing by a nearby Bed, Bath & Beyond.

  Lexi was the only one who seemed to value the lives of the soldiers who fought for her. She stood in a ring with them. All five had their backs to each other, fighting hand to hand with the bobbing and snapping green heads. The soldier wielded short, cutting blades which proved ideal for the fight against the vine monsters, the short swords functioning like machetes chopping through brush.

  Lexi had her chain spear in one hand, swishing it back and forth with lightning speed. Her other hand had grown talons, bigger than those of an eagle. She slashed her hand in perfectly synchronized time with the weapon in her other hand, tearing the monster heads inside out.

  Ben almost felt admiration for her as she fought. Seeing her taloned hand made him wonder what it would look like to see her transform into a hawk, as Adremor had said she could.

  She was totally calm during the battle. One of her soldiers had his arm nearly torn off by a vine monster, the limb hanging by a thread, the soldier’s shoulder reduced to messy gore. She hardly slowed her pace as she held out her left hand toward his savaged limb and cast an aura of glowing yellow light.

  The flesh knitted together again in seconds, and the soldier’s arm was perfectly restored.

  So healing is another one of her talents.

  Ben realized she would need to be taken out soon or the fighting might go on forever.

  With Uzax roasting the monsters and seemingly never running out of mana, it wasn’t long before the vine monsters were all dead.

  The mages looked about, their chests heaving with exertion.

  “Not exactly the meal I expected to be served,” Adremor muttered wryly.

  Ben put his hands out toward the controls again. “Then it’s time for the main course.”

  Sir Gallant chuckled in his ear. “That was a good one, your majesty.”

  Ben’s mana had only been drained by about a third when he summoned the vine monsters. He had enough to summon a full complement of gravel ghouls—thirty-three—with some mana to spare. The thirty-three gravel ghouls would take up his entire control limit of a hundred, since each of them were worth three points.

  Ben activated the control on the screen to absorb all the vine monster corpses. He wasn’t sure if anything could be absorbed from the corpses of the two dead footsoldiers, but there were no options on this screen, and he didn’t want to sidetrack Sir Gallant the Younger right now.

  “What sorcery is this?” Uzax hissed as the fleshy plant matter disappeared into the floor.

  “This is dark magic indeed,” Lexi exclaimed, her wide eyes betraying fear, despite her battle-ready stance.

  “This upstart will pay dearly if he ever lets us out of this room,” Adremor muttered.

  Ben watched as his control limit returned to one hundred. Time for round two.

  He placed all the gravel ghouls tightly around the room. Thirty-three stone giants was enough to fill the space between the table and the walls. He confirmed the locations. His mana dropped sharply, leaving him with a very low level. Gravel ghouls evidently cost a lot more.

  The obsidian floor rumbled as space was made for the colossal monsters to emerge. As the statues started to rise, they pushed aside the carpet, and the smashed remains of broken or smoldering chairs.

  The mages and their soldiers tensed, watching the stony forms rise out of the floor. This time they didn’t wait to be attacked. Lexi let out a battle cry and smashed her spear into the torso of the nearest statue. The foot soldiers followed her lead, battering the monsters with their swords.

  But the weapons bounced off the stone armor, just chipping off a few fragments. Evidently the Greater Stoneskin made them more resilient to weapons, much more so than the regular gravel ghouls Ben had fought inside the dungeons.

  Ben made a note to himself that these monsters were vulnerable while ascending out of the floor. In future, it would be best to have some diversion.

  Then the ghouls reached full height. As one, they awakened, their glowing red eyes opening, and their limbs crunching, stone on stone.

  The hall thundered as stone feet pounded on the obsidian floor. The ghouls marched menacingly toward their foes. Ben set them all to aggressive, which in such a small room meant they instantly attacked.

  Adremor set his face grimly and drew the two swords from his back. The curved blades gleamed in the dying sunlight, and the air shimmered around them. The blades reminded Ben of his own scimitar, but bigger and meaner. A small fang of steel protruded from the middle of the inner curve, the tips of the blades so sharp that Ben could almost feel how sharply they’d cut into flesh. The blades were inscribed with runes that glowed with a faint, blue light. The hilts curved downward around Adremor’s hands like elegant claws, the handles a deep gold and the pommel round, a gorgeous, azure gem seated in the center of it.

  The Force Wizard stepped toward the nearest gravel ghoul and swung both swords down in an arc, hitting the monster’s shoulders. The blades sliced the giant’s arms off with the clean singing of sharpened steel.

  Ben wondered if the blades were enchanted. His suspicion was confirmed when Adremor sliced the monster’s head off like he was cutting carrots.

  “Aim for the joints,” the Force Wizard cried.

  He had a point. Though the weapons of the other soldiers did not cut nearly so cleanly, and required repeated hacking, the soldiers were able to take down some of the gravel ghouls by slicing at the joints where limbs and heads met bodies.

  Uzax began throwing fireballs at the ghouls. Ben smiled to himself, suspecting how this would turn out.

  The fireballs splashed against the stone armor and dissipated, doing no noticeable damage to the monsters. Uzax’s face crinkled in confusion, then frustration.

  Sir Gallant the Younger jumped up and down on Ben’s shoulder in excitement. “You have no chance, snot-nosed fire-flinger!”

  “Hey, cut that out,” Ben said, halting the statue from bouncing his stony feet on his shoulder.

  “Oh sorry, does that hurt?”

  “A lesser man might experience pain from that. It distracts me from directing the monsters where I need to.”

  “I suppose I can refrain.” The stone homunculus sat impatiently on Ben’s shoulder again, avidly watching the screen.

  Uzax generated a more powerful fireball, holding it in his hands until it was the size of a basketball. He hurled it at the nearest ghoul in a rage.

  The fire splashed against the stone torso. Flames washed over the armor, splaying out the other side. One of Lexi’s men was fried by the flames. His left cheek was scorched, and he dropped to the ground, howling as he clutched at his face.

  Lexi erupted in rage, skewering the neck of the nearest ghoul. She put out a hand, casting healing at her foot soldier, and cut her way through ghouls to reach Uzax.

  She stomped a foot into the Pyromancer’s gut, causing him to crumple to the ground. “They’re immune to elemental magic, you fool. Grab a weapon and use your hands, and don’t ever cast your spells so carelessly again.”

  She speared another ghoul, as its foot nearly caved Uzax’s head in.

  Ben let out a groan of disappointment. He’d been hoping that mage
would be killed off.

  Uzax glared daggers at Lexi and spat as he got to his feet, but none of them had time for petty squabbles. There were still fifteen ghouls left. Uzax’s and Adremor’s footsoldiers were being killed off fast.

  The mages and the remaining soldiers fought madly. Ben could see desperation in their faces as they realized they were locked in a tight space with powerful monsters.

  Lexi fought with ferocity however, and took out several ghouls on her own. She was a powerful warrior. And she was cunning too. Ben almost lamented having to dispatch her in such a way.

  One of the gravel ghouls near her stepped in a puddle of spilled wine. Its leg buckled out from under it, and the foot crumbled to dust, exposing gelatinous flesh underneath. Lexi finished it off, a shrewd look on her face.

  She tried luring another ghoul into the same puddle. Again, the monster was weakened where it touched the liquid.

  “I think they’re vulnerable to water,” she shouted to her soldiers. “Throw any vessels of wine or other liquid you can find at them.”

  Her soldiers were well trained. As they warded off blows from the formidable stone giants, they seized every wine flask or water pitcher they could find on the sideboard and hurled them at the giants.

  The vessels smashed on their stony armor, causing huge chunks to crumble off. The monsters collapsed as they lost the support of their armor. The flesh underneath provided easy targets for swords and spears.

  Within moments, the fight was over once more. The gravel ghouls were all smashed to pieces. Lexi’s foot soldiers were alive. Lexi quickly brought them back to full health with her healing magic. The other soldiers were all dead, and beyond her help.

  “Maybe if you took better care of your men, we’d be in less of a mess right now,” she hissed at the other two mages. She was pragmatic, however, and still took care to heal both mages back as well.

  “You speak so little on the journey here. Now you choose to find your tongue, and you use it to scold us as though we were children?” Adremor glared at the avian-like woman as she used her magic on him. “You will pay for this, beastkin. When we have dealt with this traitor, you will answer for your insolence.”