“Ladies, there’s really no need for this,” I said to the two oversized elves. They had the look of the Waterbeetle tribe on them, but their hair was as blood red as I expected from elves of the Crimson Dragon Clan. Perhaps they were converts? Or Waterbeetle elves killed and then reincarnated into the Crimson Dragon Clan?
“Matriarch Crimson Dragon orders your presence in her tent,” one of large elves said.
“So she’s calling in that favor? Very well. Lead the way!” I walked out at high speed, leaving the two large elves hurrying to catch up. I looked back. “Ah, see that bottle of alcohol on my bed rest there? Grab it for me. It’s rude to not bring a gift when visiting someone as august as Matriarch Crimson Dragon.”
One of the large elves ducked through my room and snatched the bottle I pointed to before hustling over to get in front of me and lead the way.
We wandered through the large encampment. Things had transformed over the last few days. Like a tentacled monster, the Crimson Dragon Clan had spread tendrils further and further throughout Queenshold and away from their main encampment. Red Serpent must have spread out her subordinates to exert her new authority.
Before long, we made our way to an imposing tent, behind which there was a large construction site. Enslaved Riverweed tribe elves were working with a dozen saplings waving spellhearts and encouraging them to grow in a winding pattern. Based on the scale of the construction, it looked like they were building a mansion. Matriarch Crimson Dragon must have been planning on moving into a more permanent residence in Queenshold.
My eyes darted left and right, trying to glimpse Illiel or Yorik. I couldn’t spot the former, but I saw a shadow of the latter darting behind a building. Good, they’d seen what was going on and were following, just as planned.
Just to the side of the construction site, there was an ornate tent dyed crimson red, with a large golden dragon woven into the side. This was no worker’s hut. The tent was far too luxurious to belong to anyone besides Red Serpent herself. The large elf carrying the alcohol bottle confirmed my suspicions when she cleared her throat before the flap leading into the tent.
“Spear Captain Brigila, reporting with Theo of the Riverweed tribe, as ordered,” the large elf announced, slamming a fist to her chest.
“Enter,” came a stern and commanding voice.
Brigila stepped into the tent while the other elf gave me a bump from behind to push me inside.
“Matriarch Crimson Dragon,” both the elves took a knee as a long-legged female elf came into view. Though she was only half Brigila’s weight, she exuded a far more powerful pressure beyond physical intimidation. She didn’t look physically imposing, but there was a weight that latched onto my spellhearts like it was trying to pull them to the ground. This was ire of a true mage, and my magic recoiled in fear.
Red Serpent had hair the color of hot embers, but here and there I could see little bits of deep purple. As I watched, she unconsciously combed those hairs back and covered them. Her hair alone wasn’t enough to conceal her resemblance to Eltiana though. She was more wiry than bulky, with the lean and proud demeanor of a fox that had killed a wolf and taken its hunting grounds for her own. She’d fastened buttons of silver and copper all over her body, adorning herself in a self-made outfit that was trying to look both wealthy and war-like. She sat on a throne elevated by three shallow wooden steps and glared down at me imperiously.
I bowed. “Red Serpent, matriarch of the Crimson Dragon Clan, I brought a housewarming gift,” I gestured to the bottle of wine Brigila was holding, who presented it while still on one knee.
Red Serpent accepted the bottle and took one look at it. She immediately pulled the cork and took a sniff before making a face and tossing the bottle on the ground behind her. Its contents gurgled out onto the woven reed mat lining the floor.
So much for that plan.
“Now seize him,” matriarch Crimson Dragon waved her hand dismissively.
My sense of impending doom shot to the forefront of my mind as the two goons who brought me here grabbed hold of my arms. One of the two large elves kicked my feet out from under me, knocking me to the floor. When I tried to stand up, I got a boot to the back, forcing me to my hands and knees. I gazed up at Matriarch Crimson Dragon’s malevolent sneer.
I scrambled for my earth spellheart hung around my neck. I channeled earth magic as quickly as I could, preparing a deadly shaft of hardened dirt that would spring from the earth and skewer these elves holding me back. The spell never took shape though. With a glance, Matriarch Crimson Dragon flooded the area with her own zeal, wiping away the earth zeal in the area with her own fire-aspect zeal.
The elf called Brigila roughly grabbed my spellheart, electing to tear it free from my neck instead of pulling it over and off. The tearing of the cheap copper chain bruised my neck as it came off under the big elf’s tremendous strength.
Matriarch Crimson Dragon concentrated, closing her eyes and concentrating on a ring in her hands as she steadied her breathing. Activating the ring appeared to take quite a bit of concentration. After a moment, she placed the ring on her finger and reached out to touch me with it.
Slowly and contemptuously, she brought her hand down to touch my forehead. Her fingers felt as cold as ice. When she touched me, I sensed an immense chill, like all the heat was being channeled out of my body into Matriarch Crimson Dragon’s fingertip.
But it was so much more than heat leaving my body. It was zeal! All the zeal I’d worked so hard to obtain and secure was being seeped out of me by the strange technique Matriarch Crimson Dragon was using. It reminded me of the blood-memory needle Eltiana had poked me with, but far more powerful. That had been a quick prick, but this was a constant drain, like a leech sucking my life away by the moment.
Was this a spell, or an item? I glanced between my eyes as the finger that was sucking my life away and saw the ring she’d just activated had a set of shimmering, shifting runes engraved on it. They weren’t illuminated before, I was sure of that. She must have activated the rings ability just now. Power was flowing from me, through the matriarch’s finger, and into the ring.
“It’s a parasite ring,” matriarch Crimson Dragon supplied. “Troublesome to keep fed. This one is useless to most elves, since it was built specifically to take the innate zeal of a chaka, such as yourself. You chaka are special, having come from a place beyond the Thousand Worlds. Many elves would think it a complete waste to discard a chaka simply to empower a parasite ring. I feel that this ring will serve me more faithfully than you ever would though, so this is what I must do. Potentially, there may even be enough power in you for me to reach the next level and become a wizard! Then the Crimson Dragon forest would finally be a place of note!”
As good as it had felt to absorb zeal, it felt far, far worse to lose it. Especially to have it forcibly taken away.
Her guards had taken my earth spellheart, and now Matriarch Crimson Dragon thought I was helpless.
But I wasn’t helpless. I still had one trick left up my sleeve. The mind aspect spellheart. I knew I would need it when I came here, though I thought it would merely be an enhancement for the enchanted wine. Regardless, I came prepared to cast magic with it and had surreptitiously placed it inside my left sock, touching my ankle. It wasn’t an ideal place to draw power from, but I’d practiced this and knew I could unleash a sudden burst of mind zeal. I’d get only one surprise attack though, so I had to make this blow count. I could only hope Red Serpent hadn’t trained to see mind zeal.
I rallied all the mind magic I had at my disposal. I pulled on my spellheart so hard I felt more than heard a crack shoot through the middle of the stone as the sudden drain strained it beyond its capabilities to sustain. That was a problem for another time. In the back of my mind I hoped that such a sudden draft of mind magic would alert both Illiel and Yorik to my life-or-death plight, but the forefront of my mind was occupied with weaving magic.
I had invested a lot of mind magic into that bottle
of alcohol. Though its contents lay splashed against the ground, the magic was still there, and I could draw on it for mind zeal. As the mind cultivator who created it, I was intimately familiar with my own thoughts woven into the zeal, and could pull on the liquid instantly.
With a thought, I pulled on all the mind zeal I could gather, drawing it up into action. Red Serpent’s brow furrowed as she continued to drain me of life, but she ignored the strange sensation her magical senses were feeding her. I had been counting on that. Mind zeal was difficult to feel, even to those who had felt its touch before.
Now!
I struck with every ounce of ferocity I had in my body. The mind magic hit her like a wave. As it washed over her, her mind receded into itself. Her eyes grew distant as a war waged between the inner zeal of her body and the onslaught of mind zeal I was pouring against those defenses.
With all my might, I pushed against her defenses. Maybe, just maybe, if I could hit her hard enough before she rallied I could overwhelm and subdue her, despite the gap in magical power between the two of us.
My magic closed in on her, pushing harder and harder. A grin formed at the corners of my strained lips. I was doing it!
And then Red Serpent stopped giving ground. Her defenses sprang into place and the distant look in her eyes faded as they came back into focus on me. Now it was my magic that was being pushed back, and with every passing second I lost ground faster. Red Serpent’s thoughts became clearer and as they did her control over her magic increased.
I had to hang on…
If I could just keep up the fight for a little while longer, Illiel and Yorik would run to my rescue. They’d join in, and together we could all…
Even then, we’d just hold out a little longer before we were all killed.
Just the three of us wouldn’t be enough to overpower the Red Serpent, who was an entire level of cultivation above us. If my conspiracy had a few more weeks to grow we might have just barely stood a chance. Now? Even if everyone who’d taken part in Eltiana’s ritual came together to fight in direct combat we’d lose every time. Without some trick or strategy, we just couldn’t overcome her monstrous power.
My concentration slipped and Red Serpent knocked me backwards. My magic faltered and crumbled.
Illiel and Yorik never came. I felt betrayed, but only for a moment. I hoped they had realized they would only throw their lives away if they ran in to help. I could only pray that they would warn my other companions so they could all flee the campsite together after they got news of my death.
“You,” Red Serpent wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, “are going to experience a great deal more pain before you die, thanks to that trick.”
The matriarch of the Crimson Dragon Clan pressed her parasite-ringed finger against my forehead again. I felt my body growing heavier as the zeal left me. It diminished me, even more so than before I’d ever had a taste of zeal. It felt like the life was leaving every cell in my body. I willed my muscles to move, but they responded slowly, only twitching. My body was heavy. My clothes were heavy.
I felt a weight in the front pocket of my tunic, pressing down on me harder than cloth should. My fingers twitched, reaching slowly for it.
The iron shard.
It was my only chance. If I could stab Red Serpent with it…
But that would never work. Even had I been healthy and fresh, a true mage’s reflexes were far too fast. She would see my strike long before it landed. My only chance would be a surprise attack, but it was too late for that.
My eyelids drooped until I could only hold them open the tiniest crack. Red Serpent leaned down, preparing to finish me. Something caught the shard of iron in my pocket and my waning strength wasn’t enough to pull it free. Red Serpent noticed the movement and glanced at my fingers in my pocket, preparing to disarm me of my last hope. I braced myself for the cold embrace of death.
But then she stopped, looking behind me. There was the sudden clang of ironwood hitting ironwood, followed by a bloody scream cutoff midway. Somebody was fighting out there.
“Blasted incompetent subordinates. What is it this time?” Red Serpent snarled to herself. She took a long glance at me, deciding whether she should finish me or deal with whatever was coming up. After a moment’s hesitation, she left.
“I’m going to take my time slowly draining you, when I return. Then I’ll return you to health, and drain you again. And again, and again.” Red Serpent threatened as she turned, curtain whooshing we the speed of her departure.
Time passed. It felt like hours, but it must have only been minutes. After far too much effort, I got the shard of iron out of my pocket and palmed it, concealing it within my hand.
Just when I finished, a familiar form scrambled into the room.
“By the ancestors…” Sava gasped. “Theo… are you alive?”
I put all my energy into an affirmative groan.
“The others won't last long,” she put her head under my arm and lifted me. My legs were too weak to walk, but Sava carried me with ease since she had already reached the tenth layer of zeal accumulation. Her body was far stronger than before.
“You will make it, Theo. You just have to hang on. After we escape, we can leave the Hearthwood forest and find somewhere to live… you just have to hang on.” I could feel tears dripping onto my thigh as we moved. Sava was crying. I tried to comfort her, but I didn’t have the energy.
Behind us I could hear the sounds of battle. My friends must have struck together to lure Red Serpent away from me long enough for Sava to sneak in and rescue me. It was a good plan, but could my friends hold off a true mage long enough for Sava and me to lose her trail?
The campsite was large, but with Sava’s speed and endurance we made good time. A few Crimson Dragon Clan members tried to bar our way, but Sava sent them sprawling to the side with a kick without stopping her sprint for a moment. Before long, we passed the edge of camp and were under tree cover. Sava hopped over jutting roots and ducked under low branches with all the speed and grace of a deer down a well-traveled path. As we moved, Sava called out to the nature zeal around us, and that within her spellheart. Thorns and brambles grew behind us, obscuring our passage and making tracking us impossible.
But then something changed. I couldn’t place it at first, but eventually I realized that the distant and fading sound of fighting had stopped entirely. Sava must have sensed it too, because she sped up. I felt vibrations through the ground, and the rhythmic sounds of a single set of footfalls sprinting across the ground quickly followed. Except these were far too fast. If normal running was a steady drumbeat, this was an engine at full power.
Sava looked behind her, and I saw panic in her eyes. Before she even had the chance to turn around, Red Serpent had caught up to us.
With a vicious snarl, Red Serpent grabbed Sava by the back of her neck and hurled her backwards. Our forward momentum came to a dead stop and the force of the blow sent my green-haired elf tumbling to the ground, I couldn’t muster the strength to stand, so I tumbled and fell without Sava to stop me.
Red Serpent skidded to a stop, leaving deep tracks in the ground and giving off the scent of burnt leather. She must have been moving fast enough that the friction burned her shoes.
Sava scrambled to my side, withdrawing a potion from her belt. She whipped it at the true mage’s feet, only for the Crimson Dragon matriarch to sidestep with ease. Corrosive acid splashed on the ground, but Red Serpent elegantly avoided getting even a drop on her.
Red Serpent looked down at the two of us with a gaze of utter contempt. With a flick of her foot, she caught Sava under the chin with a casual kick and sent her sprawling on top of me. Then she placed a foot on Sava’s chest, pinning her to the ground.
“How adorable, your girls came to rescue you,” Red Serpent gave me a vicious grin. “Too bad they were just. Too. Weak!” She punctuated her words by driving her heel into Sava’s lower ribs. I heard her ribs snap as Sava cried out in pain.
She would kill Sava. I could see the intent in her eyes. I had to do something.
“Pathetic,” I wheezed out with the last of my strength.
That caught Red Serpent’s attention.
“You claim to have united the Hearthwood Forest, and yet here you are, fighting against us on your own? Where are your subordinates? You’ll never hold this clan of yours together that way. The moment you turn your back everything will fall apart.”
Red Serpent turned towards me, anger blossoming in her eyes. I must have struck a nerve.
“I am here because I am the strongest. I lead the Crimson Dragon Clan, and the Hearthwood Forest, because I am the strongest! My powers alone give me enough might to rule.”
“You’ll only ever rule through fear,” I spat. She was coming closer. Almost within arm's reach.
“That’s enough out of you. I think I’ll finish where I left off,” Red Serpent snarled.
She leaned over me, ready to press against my forehead with that same ring-bearing finger. It must have taken some concentration to activate, because just as before she closed her eyes to focus and activate the ring.
That was my moment. My one chance. I seized it for all I was worth, with every drop of strength remaining in me, I gripped the iron shard and shoved.
It felt like trying to hammer a nail into an oak tree at first, but as I contacted the skin just off center of her chest, I felt a sizzle. Like the iron was burning away at Red Serpent’s body. Now it wasn’t so much like an oak, but like a pillar of ice. And I had a hot iron poker. I pushed the iron shard at Red Serpent’s heart, slamming it in until there was nothing left to grip.
Red Serpent’s concentration broke. She slapped my hand aside in sudden fury, and I could feel the bones in my wrist snap under the force of the blow. Then she clutched at her chest, where her heart was. She stumbled trying to reach for the iron I’d impaled her with. Sickly lines of black and purple spread over her body, clawing their way up her face. She aged visibly before my eyes, going from a young beauty to an old hag in a matter of seconds. Her skin started flaking off, revealing hideous, corrupted skin.
Zeal of the Mind and Flesh: A Cultivating Gamelit Harem Adventure (Spellheart Book 1) Page 36
