Ethria 3: The Liberator

by Holloway, Aaron

  Jekkel’s’ lord crashed to the earth, crushing several of my fire elementals and roughly half of the earth variety who had charged in to help finish it off. As the golems did their work, my living forces got away. The gate had opened, and my legionnaires filed through their wounded first, followed by the archers, then the body of the legion followed lastly by the few remaining knights.

  “Oh gods above, look!” Dale pointed towards a cloud of imps that had scattered had reformed. It took only a few seconds before they started making a beeline for the still retreating legion. “The city watch is going to close the gates before we get through.”

  “No, they won’t, look they’re going to get through just fine before the imps get there.” Dale gave me a hard look. I thought for a long moment as Tol’geth put me down. I stood tall, the still fighting Lords and my golems doing their work to take out the larger of the two brutes in front of me. Jekkel’s tower long forgotten behind us. Then it clicked. “Oh. We’re not going to make it.” Dale frowned and nodded.

  “We can try for the south gate, but I doubt this is everything the sorcerer has in store for us. Be on your guard.” Tol’geth said as he shepherded us away from the fighting and towards the southern gate.

  What felt like an eternity later, the fighting of the brothers behind us, I felt the last of the weaker golems crumble away. Destroyed in a desperate skirmish with the remaining enemy berserkers, who had swarmed forward to relieve their lord. The laughter of the brothers still rose above us all as we ran. The imps eventually, almost painfully slow for creatures that could move so quickly, made it to the wall. The city’s defenders closed the gate and activated six automated magical crossbows mounted on that section of the wall. That, coupled with the crossbow bolts and arrows from the city guard and whatever my legion could get organized in time, the imps melted. The last of them scattering like rice before the rain of deadly projectiles.

  I threw away all the control rods but one. The one that connected to the three boxes that my forces had left behind half buried in snow. I had wanted to save it for the retreat if my level 1 golem army had been overwhelmed. Good fortune had seen that we had retreated without needing to use them but, I was still worried. The two lords of the shadow realm were tiring, their fight nearly done. But if one of them got loose, or decided that they had so much fun here on Ethria that they wanted to come back to finish the work they had started? Well, I thought it might be good to keep those weapons in my back pocket.

  “The sorcerer comes!” Pina shouted. “I feel it in my bones. They burn with his commandments.” I did not know what she was talking about, but clearly she was in some kind of distress. She had to stop and just stand there, her fists clenched against whatever force was working against her. She grunted and growled in anger and pain as, whatever it was, attacked her.

  “Ailsa, what’s wrong with her?” I asked and my fairy friend cast several quick diagnostic spells.

  “I can’t tell but, oh court of ice and shadow, her bones are burning! Something is in there burning her from the inside out.” Ailsa cast several healing and pain relief spells in rapid succession. Ailsa had to stop the torrent of magic as it brought her down to a quarter of her mana pool. It had an effect, though, as Pina’s shoulders sagged in relief and her eyes cleared from the pain.

  “Thank you, lady fae. But we must go. He is coming.” She pointed back towards the tower and I saw a black speck shoot from the roof. Wings made of shadow, carrying Jekkel the Sorcerer up and into the air.

  “Right, lets go!” I shouted and my friends moved faster. Before I took another step, I sent a pulse of my will through the last control rod. One command filled with rage and I’m not ashamed to admit hate.

  Destroy the sorcerer and his pets!

  Chapter 30: Reinforcements

  "Little by little, one travels far." - J.R.R. Tolkien

  Outskirts of the City of Sowers Vale, 9th Novos, 2989 AoR

  The southern gate to the city, with its looming statue of The Harvester aspect of Dominus, came into view when the speck that had been Jekkel loomed larger. He was getting closer. I was heaving deep breaths, not used to having to run so long or so far, and I was not the only one. Pina, who was still in recovery, and Dale were both nearly as winded as I was while Ailsa looked drained. She sagged on Tol’geths shoulder, struggling to stay awake, fighting away the mental fatigue that accompanied so many spells in such a short period.

  I felt it too, but with my mana regen being worlds higher than hers, I had recovered much quicker. Ailsa’s actual strength was in her range and depth of spell casting, not so much in her endurance.

  Through the connection I had to the three ‘experiments’ I brought to the battle, I felt the first one emerge from its container. It rose to its full seven-foot height. Stretching its arms as wide as they would go as it unfurled its wings. The creature roared defiance at the sorcerer. I doubted Jekkel could hear it, but I am sure he felt the magical golem activate. It was by far the most powerful one I had ever created, and had taken most of my efforts once I had completed the experiments. The greater golem leapt into the air, its wings sending snow heavy laden with ash in whirlwinds.

  The second experiment that activated was Meaty, the happy dinosaur looking meat bag I had created and just didn’t have the heart to deconstruct. He was nearly half as tall as me, with all kinds of fat folds and meaty bits stuck on his body. His massive, bulbous arms were perfect for hugging things. I smiled as he ran forward and joined the melee between the two lords. He gripped the larger enemy summons right arm and hung on for dear life. The large brute slammed Meaty into the ground, sending fluid everywhere and nearly popping him like a balloon. My heart sank a bit as the poor happy dancing dude started singing one of the creepy songs I had given him the ability to mimic. The giant of an opponent brought him down in another mighty elbow slam to the ground and he finally dissipated. Sending his internal fluids scattering to freeze on the earth covering both of the darkling brothers.

  What is this liquid, wizard? It smells horrid! I do not need your pathetic creations to interfere with my conquest.

  Don’t worry, you’ll find out in just a second. I sent back through the connection before savagely cutting off the mental link we shared so I could focus on jogging. Trying to keep up with my vastly more athletic friends solidified in me one thing. I need to work on my cardio.

  By the time Jekkel was clearly visible in the sky overhead, my third golem ground its way out of its container. I have nicknamed this dude Zilla. His entire body was covered in iron like scales I had scavenged from the city dungeon on my second visit a few nights ago. It was a brief visit. I left two steaming plates-full of meat for the worker fribbits to take away and the toad people allowed me to use a net to gather up the scales. They still laughed at me when I left, my smelly harvest in my arms.

  Zilla was a massive hulk of meat and muscle on a metal skeleton I had made from the remains of Puff. This time I had just used whatever meat the Traser estate had on hand. But it had served well as a medium for the work. I had given Zilla two thick if somewhat short arms and two powerful legs, each tipped with Puffs blackened metal claws. The dragon-like Zilla also had Puffs skull and some of his scales. But the mighty zilla was a much more simple creature mentally than what Puff had been. Zilla knew what he was supposed to do, and he would do it. After that though, I wasn’t sure how much use the giant meat monster would be.

  The sky behind us glowed with a slight blue as Zilla’s powerful one time attack charged up. Half a heartbeat later, a powerful thrum filled the air. Through my nearly microscopic connection to the giant meaty beast, I saw through its eyes as the blue beam of fire slammed into the downed brothers. Igniting the refined and clear oil that had spilled from Meaty moments before. The attack itself burned a massive scar on the giant darklings shoulder and part of his head, but half a second later both brothers were consumed by fire as the true trick of Meaty’s existence was revealed. Sadly, Zilla had stood in a puddle of Meaty’s ‘b
lood’ and had been instantly consumed by the flames.

  Two black portals appeared, and the Lord’s essences returned to their home realm. I really hope those guys aren’t too pissed off at me, I thought as I put the control rod for my experiments back into my pocket.

  A black and purple spout of flame erupted to the side of our small group, consuming the earth and snow in the fire. I turned and found Jekkel was readying a second spell to launch at us. The sorcerer either didn’t see, or didn’t care that a missile the size of his ape with dark wings thicker and larger than his summoned shadows was barreling towards him as he let the blast loose directly in our path.

  I raised my staff and cast a large shield, expanding it to block any splash damage that might hit my friends. The spell hit my shield, and I poured more mana into it. Shoring up the cracks that were already forming on its surface. After just a moment, my mana almost bottomed out, and I had to release the shield.

  “Clarity!” Pina shouted as a spell made from green and bright blue magic filled the air behind my shield moments before it cracked and broke apart. The spell consumed the purple and black flames before they could consume me. I knew this was a life or death situation, but curiosity got the better of me.

  “Why do you shout your spells before you cast them?” I asked. I turned and continued running with the group.

  “Why don’t you?!” Pina demanded, her annoyance and frustration with me clear.

  “What do you mean?!” Ailsa fluttered her wings and sighed. Leaning against Tol’geth’s head and hanging on to his hair for dear life. She turned and looked at the two of us.

  “She means meathead. I haven’t had the time to teach you proper team spell casting etiquette. Your team needs to know what spells you’re casting so they can take them into account. She’s trained, you’re not. Pina be nice to him, he’s ignorant not malevolent.”

  “Ignorance is no excuse for nearly frying your friends with your spells. And, had you told us you were summoning help, I would have been able to augment your summoning to be more powerful.”

  “What?! Wait, you can do that? Okay, if we’re going to keep fighting together we’ll need to chat.”

  “Untrained children! I’m surrounded by ignorant, untrained, powerful and power hungry children!” Pina screamed as she turned around and cast a spell of her own. “Summon hawks!” Three massive hawks, each the size of a person, appeared out of a green and blue swirling portal. They took off toward Jekkel who was still in hot pursuit. My Golem was slower than he was and was lagging his target. Both were faster than we were on foot. So no matter what the sorcerer did, he was going to have to deal with us and the golem at some point.

  “Rayid is not so bad,” Tol’geth said, turning around to face us. As he jogged backwards, he smiled at both of us fondly. “He stands in front of us so his spells do not hurt us.”

  “But wouldn’t that-”

  “Nearly get him killed every time he fights? Yup!” Ailsa said, turning back to face us.

  “Wow, you’re. You 're really good at these straight aways.” I said to Tol’geth, huffing as I redoubled my focus on my breathing.

  “There was this one time he stood in the middle of a cave’s intersection and threw balls of light down each path just to see what was down there without telling us what he was going to do. Nearly got overrun by goblins before the knights we were with could step in and save him. In fact, Tegan nearly broke his jaw, forcing his mouth open to pour a healing potion down his throat so he wouldn’t die. Because one of those goblins bit him with its teeth and exposed his intestines.” Dale whistled at Ailsa’s recitation of one of the more embarrassing moments of my time on Ethria.

  “Must have been one hell’of’a fight. Sad I missed it.”

  “Yeah! It was actually pretty cool, but numbskull over there almost got eaten by a Blood Kraken.” Dale scowled in disbelief. “What? It was real. Tell him Tol’geth”

  “It was real, but a baby kraken. I could have killed it, maybe. With help.”

  “And this dummy almost picked a fight with it. I stopped him.” Ailsa said with a self-satisfied smirk.

  “Can we talk about something other than me getting almost killed all the time? Like, say, what we’re going to do about that guy?” I asked pointing back towards where Jekkel. The sorcerer had been fighting the three hawks. He had killed two of the birds and held the third in his hands. After a moment he and ripped its wings off its body and dropped it into a portal to its home realm. Before the creature was even through the portal, the sorcerer was heading straight towards us.

  The main gate was open, and we ran towards it. The massive statue of Dominus straddled the gate in his farmer aspect, his normal ray of light replaced with a pitchfork, his shield replaced with a torch held high into the sky. That torch was lit in defiance of the storms that raged throughout winter. Now it was as clear a day as we could have asked for. Only light snow fell. Even so, what snow there was already on the ground hampered our movements. Jekkel caught up to us before we made it.

  Six portals of swirling red and black appeared in front of us as I felt massive amounts of mana being manipulated. Not nearly as much as had been spent in summoning the army of imps, but the air practically rippled with the energy that leaked from the spell.

  “Okay, I’m done with this crap.” I said. I forced my hand into the satchel. I reached into it to find something, something I had made for Ailsa to aid in her recovery. The ball of pure mana was hot to the touch, but my skin resisted the burns thanks to my Fire bonus. The thing was almost gone. Its core was depleted. The only mana left was in the enchantment's structure, but it would be enough. I hoped. I had wanted to save it for a dire emergency which, I suppose this was.

  I pulled the ball of pure mana out of the satchel, not known exactly what would happen once I started unraveling it. It was a Tier 3 spell, powerful and dangerous to screw around with much. Which was exactly why I was going to screw around with it in the first place. I absorbed the dregs of mana that it had left, and then was met with the prompt about the matrix of the enchantment. I selected Yes, but midway through the process I stopped, cutting off the energy from entering my mana pool.

  Error catastrophic spell failure imminent. Results unknown. Seek cover.

  Filled my mind as I absorbed the message. Grinning, I pushed Tol’geth aside and threw the swiftly heating ball of Force and Fire magic at the base of the portals into another realm.

  Ten massive, snarling hounds smoking and giving off waves of heat from their fire like fur sniffed the air as they exited their summoning portals. Tol’geth and Dale moved in front of Pina and me, protecting us as best they could from the dangerous creatures. “Hellhounds, or their abyssal cousins, it matters not.” Pina said from next to me. Her voice was stoic, but I could tell she was worried. The hell dog things started circling us as Jekkel grew closer and closer.

  The tension in the air grew and just as the largest of the hounds lunged at Tol’geth’s legs, spitting a low stream of aerosolized fire from its mouth, the world exploded in light.

  You have taken 53 Force, and 37 Fire damage. Fire resistance applied, total damage taken: 53. Status Effects Applied: Prone, Stunned- 3 seconds, Blind - 10 seconds, Deaf - 10 seconds, Mana Disruption - All mana manipulation within a 200 ft radius of the explosion has been disrupted granting it a 98% spell failure chance for the next 120 seconds. All enchantments are temporarily disrupted for the duration. Passive enchantments still function normally.

  I groaned and felt at my ribs. Yup, some of those are definitely broken, I thought as I tried to take stock of everything else that hurt. Which was, in fact, everything. Though a few things, like the broken ribs, stood out through the dull miasma of pain. Thankfully, as I looked through my status updates, nothing really hampered me. Maybe they’re not broken, just bruised. I thought, and realized in many ways, like how long it would take to heal, that was worse.

  My vision returned, and I found an angry-looking Jekkel in my face. His eyes wer
e bloodshot with rage. “What have you done, wizard?! I, I can’t—” I barely dodged his falling head as the man passed out next to me. I forced my way to my feet and found a furrow of hibernating grass and snow carved a few inches deep, and Jekkel passed out at the end.

  He must have been diving to attack us when the blast hit, I thought as I fought my way to my feet, using my staff to support my weight. The air was filled with sparkling lights I could tell were expressions of the pent up mana that the explosion had caused.

  I tried to pull out my sword, but my fingers couldn’t where too numb. Sighting, I realized all I had to hurt Jekkel was harsh language and the ability to body slam into him as I passed out. So, instead of allowing the nearly overwhelming fuzz that filled the air to lull me to sleep as it numbed my body, I staggered over to my friends. Ailsa was the first one I found. My fingers didn’t work well, but I clumsily scooped her up and into my satchel.

  Next was Pina, but she had already started making her way to her feet on her own. So I moved on to Tol’geth. I found him awake and staring at me, clear-eyed and alert, just unmoving. “You okay, buddy?” The giant didn’t say a word. “Okay, I’m going to -”

  “Do nothing, let me see to him.” Pina demanded. She fell to her knees and put both hands on Tol’geth’s back, as if she were ready to cast a spell.

  “I don’t think casting spells right now is a good idea.”

  “I won’t be. I,” She hesitated for a moment. “I have other skills. Go see to the knight.” I did as ordered. Dale was knocked out cold. A few shakes followed by a light slap across the face had him inhaling sharply and sitting up in a start. He moved just fine, better than any of the rest of us.

  “Jekkel is right there,” I said, pointing at where the sorcerer was passed out. “Get him.” My vision swooned, and it forced me to take several deep, steadying breaths before I could speak again.