I opened my mouth to keep trying to talk some sense into the moron when I saw he had a vial in his hands. His grin was manic, insane. More so than I think I had ever seen on anyone except that crazy child eating necromancer. “Dude, I don’t want to kill you. Put the vial down and lets talk this out.” Worry gnawed at me. I had heard of jinn before, somewhere. I couldn’t exactly remember where. But I knew they were bad news. Whatever that vial was in his hands had something to do with one, and it was tier four. Marking it as it more powerful than most of the people in the entire duchy. “Banishment isn’t all ba —” he uncorked the vial and purple mist seeped out.
Jekkel’s maniacal laughter filled the air as more and more of the smoke poured over the earth. I backed up trying to stay out of whatever it was, but it moved too quickly. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to hurt me. At least, not as far as I could tell. A deep rumbling noise filled the cold air around us, and it quickly solidified into actual words. “WHAT DO YOU SEEK, SPEAK AND IT SHALL BE SO.”
“Ailsa?”
“Yeah?”
“We should run.” And we did. I was pleased to find both Pina and Tol’geth overtaking me as we ran around the sorcerer and towards the small town. Fear tried to take over, but I forced it down. I decided then. To have faith that something, some way, would open to us. That we could defeat whatever god-like power Jekkel was about to throw around. It was a choice. Though I knew, I really didn’t have any other option.
Chapter 33: The Jinn
"Better to die standing than to live on your knees." - Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Old Hearth, 9th Novos, 2989 AoR
We came to the first set of buildings in town before I realized this was a bad idea. “Wait! We can’t take the fighting in there. We’ll endanger everyone that lives in the town.” My friends stopped and each of them gave some form of agreement. We turned, leaving the town square at our backs. It was a small town, with a rather large chapel and several buildings that connected to it. The complex was almost as large as the rest of the town combined, which wasn’t saying much.
Jekkel was not far behind us, smiling as he approached. The strange smoke-like Jinn followed next to him. “Running away? But the fun has only just started!”
“Wait, why is he nearly naked?” Pina asked.
“Yeah, what happened to the black and purple goth-emo motif?”
“I do not know my fairy friend, but this man is not suited for combat.” Tol’geth sounded almost concerned for Jekkel. I shot my friend a glare, but he didn’t notice, his gaze firmly fixed on the half naked sorcerer.
“Shut up!”
“We will, but let me just tell them,” I said, fighting back laughter. “I burned it all, turned it to ash. Zed taught me that little anti-magic trick of his, and I picked up another Knowledge skill which is pretty cool.” My friends all gave little exclamations of support. ‘Nice’, and ‘well done’ intermixed as I smirked at the childish sorcerer.
“I said shut up!” The Jin responded to his scream, floating forward and letting loose a tiny trickle of power. Suddenly, I couldn’t speak. I looked to my companions, and it was clear from the look in their eyes that neither could they.
You have been affected by ‘Silence 2’ a spell of Force magic. Effect: you can not speak or cast spells with verbal components or triggers for the next 30 seconds.
“That’s more like it!” The Jinn retreated next to its master and whispered something in his ear. “Wait, how much longer? What? But I just summoned you.” Panic filled Jekkel’s eyes, and he looked into the vial. The liquid was slowly evaporating into the smoke. “Fine! Keep them busy and I’ll fix this.”
The mist like Jinn reached out what looked like a hand made of fog. A moment later, two disks appeared in the air between us. Tol’geth and Pina stepped forward, lifting their weapons. I brandished my staff and pulled my sword. But I wouldn’t be much help against most enemies. Ailsa’s spear appeared out of nowhere, but she was in the same boat. Melee was not our forte.
The smell of ash and brimstone hit me in a wave as two pony sized hellhounds leapt through the portals. I saw Tol’geth’s shoulders slump slightly. I could almost hear the ‘not again’ from him. Pina hurled herself forward, clubbing the largest of the two dangerous dogs in the head. The creature whimpered and backed up, baring its teeth in pain and confusion.
Before the second hellhound could strike, Tol’geth’s blade came crashing into it, cutting deep into one shoulder. Blood sprayed on the ground and sizzled as if it were living fire. The wounded hound growled deep and menacing and launched itself at Tol’geth. It clamped its jaws down around his upper thigh and pulled. As Tol’geth was pulled to the ground, he pummeled the creature with yellow glowing fists. The sound of the blows nearly hurt my ears as they landed in rapid succession. The pain only made the creature angrier as it pulled him further back towards its pack mate.
Pina’s cudgel again struck down, this time on the hound attacking Tol’geth. The crack of the wood on bone filled the air, even as Tol’geth’s staccato assault never let up. The dog shook off the attack, pulling itself and its downed prey away from the angry red headed Druid.
Ailsa and I looked at each other and then realized we had a perfect opportunity. Ailsa darted forward, her wings sounding like the buzzing of an angry hummingbird, her spear cut deep into the creature’s left eye. It had been so focused on dodging Pina’s next attack while keeping its prey downed that it missed Ailsa’s spear.
I took three quick strides forward and struck at the creature’s neck. I had not really paid much attention to the weapon; it had been Traser’s family sword. Other than what he had told me about it having a mild anti-magic effect, I didn’t know that much about it. I hadn’t bothered to look up its stats, which I knew was a careless oversight on my part.
Ice spread from where my weapon struck. It wasn’t a lot, but it hurt the hellhound enough that it released Tol’geth and fixed its hateful gaze square on me. “Oh crap,” I said reflexively. “Wait, I can speak!” My heart leapt slightly at the realization I could use most of my spells again. The world spun before I realized long fangs had dug deep into my hip. Pain exploded through my body like fire through dry grass. When I came to my senses enough to realize what was happening, I was nearly five feet from my friends with two massive fire breathing dogs standing over me.
The two hellhounds opened their jaws and let loose sticky fiery flame that coated every part of me. As the stuff washed over me, I felt the heat try to consume me. But honestly, it felt more like getting sprayed with warm water. I looked at my health bar; it was around 50%. The fire from the two bad doggo’s had cauterized the wounds they had caused, but other than that it didn’t hurt me. I felt at the bite mark with light fingers; it was pretty bad. But thankfully my new robe had protected me from the worst of the serrated teeth. The bad part was the two large canine teeth had, I was sure, nicked my pelvic bone.
A couple of heartbeats later the second hellhound finished using its breath weapon, and I found myself covered in rapidly cooling lava. Well, that’s going to be annoying, I thought as I started pushing against the hot sticky stuff, forcing my way out of the mound. When I emerged, I gasped for air. My lungs burned for it, but I had kept my cool. I had always hated those ‘hold your breath underwater’ contests at the swimming pool as a kid, but the lesson I had learned in beating my older brother when I was five paid off. Keep a cool head, don’t panic, and stand up when the burning gets too much.
I stood, but could barely keep my balance as the pain in my hip exploded. I did my best to ignore it, shoving the pain into the back of my mind. I glared at the two Hellhounds meeting their eyes. The larger of the two, the one that had dragged me here, whined and bowed its head. Shoving its ears back in fear. Its fellow joined it a moment later. “I’m a pyromancer. Stupid move to use fire against me. Bad dogs!” I wagged my finger, and the two backed away a few steps, ears back.
Tol’geth’s sword cut the larger hellhound’s head clean from its s
houlders, sending its essence back through a portal to its home. Pina and Ailsa brained the other from the opposite side, cracking its skull and stabbing it through the eye and into whatever served for a brain. A moment after its pack mate, the second hellhound went home. I felt a pang if guilt, as the two reminded me of the Warg Puppy I had left with Lisander. She had promised me she could take care of it, that she knew how to train it. She had promised me that when I returned it would be a happy, healthy, and well-trained warg ready for anything my adventuring life style could throw at it. Still, I had adopted the pup only to leave it while I went gallivanting off to work. It made my heart sick a little. Then I realized I was in the middle of a fight for my life, and that was probably the worst possible time to feel guilty about a dog.
I forced my attention back to Jekkel. He was only a few feet from where we stood. We locked eyes for a moment and he grinned, activating a spell he had been shaping. A second later he breathed in far more than any human should have been able to, and the Jinn filled his lounges. Entering through his mouth and nostrils.
“What the,” I said as he then downed the remaining mixture in the bottle. A second later his body was engulfed in a mist of purple haze, and the sounds of bones snapping and skin ripping filled the air.
Tol’geth grunted as he collapsed to one knee. I wanted to join him, but leaned on my staff to keep me upright. I noticed then that the man’s leg was covered in crimson blood. Ailsa zipped over to him and cast several healing spells in rapid succession. But as always, they took time to do their work. Tol’geth face planted into the dirt, not moving as more blood than I thought was possible for one body to hold pooled around him.
“The hellhounds must have torn an artery. He’s out cold!” Ailsa shouted, genuine fear in her voice.
“Can you take him out of here?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You still have my massive backpack, right? The one I brought with me?” Ailsa nodded. “Can you take him there with you? You’re about out of mana yourself. All you’re going to do is get eaten by whatever comes out of that.” I pointed to the whirling ball of mist and meat. “Me and Pina can try to make for the chapel.” Ailsa looked at us, then back at Tol’geth. She had stabilized him, I think, but he was a sitting duck.
“I, I might not be able to come back if I do.”
“We don’t have a lot of time to debate this. Can you do it without killing you both or not?” She nodded sadly. “Then go. We’ll figure something out later if we need to.” I saw tears in Ailsa’s eyes as she nodded one last time. A second later, she and Tol’geth disappeared. “Now let’s get out of here,” I said as I pulled myself free from the mound of cooling rock.
Pina and I made it to the center of town when a loud crack and a boom filled the air. We both turned to meet whatever new evil the sorcerer had out for us. “Just so you know, I think what you did was kind. For both of them.” Pina said, her voice filled with emotion. “We will probably die here, but I thought you should know. I respect that decision. It takes a brave heart to do something like that.” I honestly didn’t quite know what she was talking about. Though a sinking feeling in my stomach made me think like Ailsa might be forced to take another assignment before I saw her again.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let’s focus on the dark, evil, Jinn sorcerer hybrid, shall we?”
“Jinn? That’s what that is? Oh, gods above be merciful.”
“So you have nothing that can just like, delete him, do you?” She gave me an incredulous look. “No, of course not.” I sighed and looked through my spell list. There was one spell I could cast that I thought might do something. I pulled out the last two high-level mana potions and tossed one to Pina before downing one myself. I looked back at the spell in question as my mana bar slowly refilled. The spell would probably work, but it would damage the surrounding buildings. I prepared it anyway. Shoving the mana and the construct into my staff as quickly as I could. I had no idea if it would really work, but maybe. Just maybe.
A few seconds later and the whirling ball of mist and creepy sounding bone crunching noises stopped. “Craaaaap!” I said, leaning on my staff. My robe was cut and bloodied where I had been bitten, and the pain in my hip throbbed as I tried to concentrate on the spell. A gigantic Earth Elemental ripped its self from the stone under neither the town, as Pina’s spell finished. It was an even height with the purple blob of merging essences and its thick rock like armor warded off both magical and mundane attack.
As the spell finished its work in a flurry of purple and black tendrils of mana and magic, the purple cloud and the sorcerer were both gone. The purple gaseous Jinn and the black clad sorcerer finished merging. The new hybrid took on a more solid-state then the Jinn, and its eyes grew more aware of its surroundings. No longer was the powerful Jinn, only weakly tethered to Ethria. Now it had a physical presence here in the hybrid form. And I guessed it would, for as long as the sorcerer’s spell maintained their connection.
The strange hybrid humanoid seemed confused at first, giving me time to take it in. From the waist up it was human, though its skin was the Jinn’s purple with swirls of ebony black. Below the waist, the creature dissipated into a thick fog that touched the ground like robes. Its size was so massive, with thick heavily muscled arms, it stood nearly twice the size of Tol’geth in his fully buffed form. The Jinn hybrid dominated the small towns one street, practically the size of the small one-story buildings.
“Yes, I feel your fear now, wizard! Pyromancer, your meddling is through! I will rip you apart and devour the souls of every living being in this insignificant town. Starting with you!” The hybrid reached out a hand, and much like had been done to me before, the hybrid gripped me with powerful force magic. The spell lifted me from the ground and off my feet. The powerful earth elemental was picked up and slammed into the ground. Shattering it to pieces and turning its rock like body into slick mud underfoot. Panic took hold as the memories, the nightmares, all seemed to come alive again. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, trying to calm myself. In a panic I tried Zeds spell. As I breathed out, I slowly released my mana through my breath, as my hands were immobilized.
This can not happen again! I thought, before shoving the thought and rising panic away with a savage intensity fueled by my rage at this abomination. I focused on what I was doing, letting my mana infuse my will and flow out and into the force mana-construct that gripped me. This was the true essence of anti-magic that Zed had imparted to me. Destroying magic was one thing, but taking it over from the inside out was a close relative.
The spell holding Pina and I was a densely powerful construct of mixed manas. As they pulled me closer to the Jinn-hybrid, I let my mind fill with the dissolving static that Zed taught me was vital to weakening a construct. I then attached my will to those mana threads, but they rebuffed me. I forced the dissolving static into the construct and created an opening. Through that small window into the spell, I linked my will and started pumping the static in greater quantities into the heart of the tendrils that held me.
Congratulations! You have learned a new spell, Active Spell Break 1! Effects: Will remove one active curse, hex, debuff, or enchantment. Takes 1hr - 1d8+enchantment skill + intelligence modifier + (0.5*luck modifier) minutes to break a Tier 1 spell. Add 5 hours for Tier 2, 10 days for Tier 3, 20 months for Tier 4, etc. This is a Force Magic spell. Current time till “Force Hold Person” is dispelled: 37 minutes. Cost: 10 mana. Ongoing: 1 mana / minute.
Yes! I thought triumphantly. Then I saw the timer for how long the spell was going to take and it snuffed my hope out like a candle in a hurricane.
“Oh! Cute, you just learned that spell, did you? Let me show you what true will can do.” The sorcerer reached out with his tendrils of force and pried one of my eyelids open.
Not again, not again! I thought panic was finally taking me. My heart beat faster, my skin sweated, and I went cold all over as if I had just been dunked in a barrel of i
ce water. The sorcerer spoke a word of power, and thick tendrils of mana leaped from his fingers and into my eyes, in my mouth, up my nose, and all across my skin. I lost concentration on the spell. But before spell feedback hit me, I got a notification.
Jinn-Sorcerer Hybrid has activated ‘Mana Drain’ Ability. This is an Ability of all Jinn. Mana Drain is affected by Weak Active Spell Break 1. Mana Lock has been achieved. Prepare yourself, wizard, a battle of will is about to begin.
Oh come on! Was all I had time to think before I felt my mana pool being dragged out of me. Every ounce of my energy, my magic life’s blood being sucked dry as the sorcerer used the jinn’s ability and pulled. I was dead, and I knew it.
---
High Priest
The high priest of the temple of Pyrus watched as the magic users who had fought so hard to protect the small town lost. The nature caster, a druid the priest knew her kind as, was out of mana. Nearly completely drained, yet still she kept trying to cast, to call, to summon, to do anything and with every failed attempt she lost more and more health. The sorcerer from the city had defeated the young Fire Master, a holy pyromancer who knew some of the deeper lore of flame. The priest knew his people were next once the hybrid creature that the sorcerer had become was finished with the party of brave adventurers. He knew he had to do something.
His magic, the magic of Pyrus, was weak by comparison to what the pyromancer could do. If that holy flame caster couldn’t defeat the creature, then the priest’s meager control of flame was useless. Except there was one thing. Something that a great man had sacrificed and died to grant them just months ago. There was one chance to save the hero’s, to save the town, and to save his beloved goddess’s temple. The priest turned and ran for the temple chapel. When he got there, huffing and puffing from the exertion, he reached behind the altar and found what he was looking for wrapped in a cloth. One of the lesser members of his order had stored there for maintenance. Without giving the object another glance, the priest ran for all his aching bones were worth.
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