A stone guardian hit Stann and his health dropped almost by a third, even with his stone-body spell. Jack immediately started healing him.
“Break formation, don’t let any of them hit you, just keep moving and attacking.”
“Easier said than done,” Stann said, before charging one of the stone guardians.
Jack ducked under the attack of one stone guardian, only to be kicked by another. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been hit so hard.
Talia was running around in circles, weaving her way around the room. She was blasting away at one of the guardians. Each shot of magical fire didn’t do much, but there seemed to be a cumulative effect. The stone guardians were beatable, just extremely tough. Jack sent a solar burst at the guardian Talia was fighting, and it slowed the creature down, just enough for Talia to give it a full blast of power. The stone guardian crumbled to the ground.
Jack let out an excited cheer that was cut short by the blade of a stone sword. The blow caught him in the chest. His new armor held up to the blow, but Jack was sent flying back. His health dropped and he had to scramble to avoid being stepped on. He got to his feet and started following Talia’s lead. He ran.
The stone guardians were powerful and hard to hurt, but they were a little slow. Jack ran like a squirrel trying to dodge a pair of foxes. He ducked and weaved his way through the room. Running, not away from the guardians, but towards his friends. He’d hit Stann with a shot of healing energy, then Talia and Lana, before running back to Stann, who was taking more damage than anyone. Meanwhile, Lord Scratches was flying around the heads of two stone guardians, keeping them distracted as they tried to hit the little dragon with their stone swords. Lord Scratches would duck until they attacked, fly up and claw them across the face and then do the same to the second stone guardian.
Jack ran, healed and then drank mana potions, all on the run. The strategy was working, though. Stann had just caused another guardian to crumble, and Talia and Lana had another on the verge.
This continued until Jack made a fatal mistake. He forgot about the mysterious mage who’d snuck in and grabbed one of the treasures of Rahmann and awoken the stone guardians. The mage hit Jack in the back with a blast of magical energy.
Jack was slammed down to the ground.
The mage stepped forward as Jack rolled over to raise his energy shield.
Jack then fired a solar burst the mage blocked with his own energy shield. The mage fired another blast of energy that Jack stopped.
“You think a little energy shield is going to save you?” the mage said with a smirk. “Try stopping this with your little shield.” He cast another spell at Jack.
A wave of energy flowed from the mage and it hit Jack’s shield, but instead of bouncing off, it flowed over it like water and hammered into Jack.
Jack watched his mana start to decrease rapidly. The mage was sucking his mana dry.
In an attempt to regain mana, Jack tried to reach for one of his mana potions, but the mage fired another blast of power than Jack had to block with his shield. His mana was getting dangerously low. Once his mana was drained, Jack wouldn’t be able to use his shield and he’d be practically defenseless against the mage’s attacks.
Suddenly Lord Scratches was hovering above Jack. Jack heard a voice inside him say, Prepare yourself. The little dragon’s mouth opened up and it blew a blue flame at Jack. The dragon’s flame started increasing Jack’s mana.
“What? That isn’t possible,” said the mage as he pushed more of his mana-draining magic at Jack.
Despite the mage’s attempts to slow the recharging, Jack’s mana went back to full, and then it went higher. Jack’s magic identity spell triggered an alarm. He now had enough mana for a new spell. Solar flare.
Jack aimed his sword at the mage and fired the solar flare spell. A powerful ray of energy that looked like a combination of sunlight and fire flowed out of Jack’s sword and struck the mage in the chest.
The mage screamed in agony and then collapsed to the ground. He twitched as his chest smoldered.
Realizing the fight wasn’t over, Jack turned and aimed his sword at one of the guardians nearest him. He fired the spell, and it hit the stone guardian. The guardian collapsed.
Jack grabbed another mana potion and drank it as fast as he could; the solar flare spell drained his magic almost as fast as the mage’s spell.
While he waited to recharge, Jack watched Stann drive his axe into the neck of a guardian. It collapsed. Seconds later, Lana fired an energy bolt into another that sent it to the ground.
Then all three of them attacked the last guardian and it crumbled. Jack looked around. All of the guardians were down. He walked back to the mage.
He looked up at Jack. “What are you?” He then slumped back, dead.
“That was a crazy fight,” Stann said. “Was it just me or did I not see Lord Scratches hit you with blue flame?”
Jack shook his head. “You weren’t seeing things. I was almost a goner when he did it. Gave me even more mana, allowing me to use my solar flare spell. Lord Scratches saved my life.”
Before anyone else could comment, the dwarven spirit appeared in front of them.
“You destroyed the stone guardians. However, you also killed the mage who dared to try and steal one of the artifacts of Rahmann. For that, I thank you. You may consider the hearts of the fallen guardians to be your reward for respecting the wishes of Rahmann.” The spirit then disappeared.
“What did he mean by that?” Lana asked.
Talia went to the nearest pile of crumbled stones that had once been a guardian. She put her hand into the pile of rubble and searched around. She found something. She grinned at them as she pulled it out of the rubble.
In her hand was a red gemstone the size of her fist. “I believe this is the heart of a guardian.”
Jack ran to the next pile and rummaged through it until he found a matching gemstone. He turned to tell the others to check a pile, but they were already checking them. Each time one of them grabbed a gemstone, he saw their mana increase by 50. The gemstones were powerful magical artifacts!
When they got them all, Jack went over to the dead mage. He took a couple magical rings off the dead mage, and an amulet. The mage’s robes were destroyed. Jack couldn’t find any identifying items, but it didn’t matter. He knew who the mage was, or at least who the mage was related to.
Talia came up beside him. “Doesn’t he look a lot like—”
“The Muckley twins,” Jack said, finishing her sentence. The mage looked exactly like the two members of Regan’s Ravagers that had tried to intimidate them. Was he there on his own, trying to scoop a treasure for himself? Or had he been part of the team trying to kill them on behalf of Isaac Dixon and his family? Jack couldn’t be sure.
“We should go, we don’t have much time before the day is over and we need to get the treasures we found to Chadwick Deeter before then or we are kicked out of the Academy,” Talia said.
“Do we have enough?” Stann asked.
Jack shrugged. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Talia looked at Jack. “I don’t have enough energy to take us back to the school in one shot. We’ll have to go back to Pailron and portal again from there. Hopefully there are no mages waiting.”
Jack shook his head. With the increase in magic he’d recently gotten from adding the new armor and the blue flame that Lord Scratches had hit him with, Jack had more mana. A lot more. “I can portal us back to the room.” He drank a mana potion to make sure he was at maximum potential.
Talia raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”
Jack nodded and opened the portal spell. It was a simple spell as long as you had enough mana to get to the desired location, and now he did.
They stepped through Jack’s portal and into the apartment.
Colin was sitting on one of the couches. He jumped up and looked at them. “Finally. You guys had me worried.” He paused and looked closer at them. “You all lo
ok awful. Is everyone OK?”
Jack glanced over at the others. They all were covered in dust and grime. There was blood and bruises that would heal with time or another healing spell. His mana was low from casting the portal spell. The healing spell would have to wait. “We’re fine.”
“In that case, let’s get moving. It is almost midnight!”
They ran through the building and burst into the antiquities room. Chadwick Deeter, Professor Cyr and Instructor Brazee were all standing there waiting for them.
“You made it back. And just in time,” Chadwick said.
“Do you have enough?” Professor Cyr asked. She looked worried.
Jack shrugged. He turned to Lana and Stann who had the magical satchels. “Start with the weapons and armor.”
They took out all the armor and weapons and placed them on one of the two tables that Chadwick had cleared for them. When all the gear had been counted. Chadwick looked at them and said. “24,000. A good amount, but not enough. What else do you have?”
Jack turned to the others and nodded. They started placing the magical gemstones on the table. “We have the hearts of stone guardians of Rahmann.”
Instructor Brazee turned and looked at them in astonishment. “You four defeated a dozen stone guardians?”
“And a sneaky mage,” Stann said.
“Incredible,” Professor Cyr said.
Jack looked at Chadwick. His response was the only one that mattered. What Chadwick said the gems were worth would dictate whether they stayed or had to leave Darkthorn Academy.
Chadwick inspected one of the gemstones. He smiled. “The heart of a stone guardian is a sacred thing. But even sacred things have a value. Each of your gemstones is worth 5000 gold. Congratulations. You’ve paid your academy fees, and then some.”
Jack let out a deep sigh of relief. Stann roared and the girls cheered. They’d done it.
Professor Cyr hugged Jack. “I’m proud of you, and your mother and Ramy would be just as proud.”
Instructor Brazee slapped Jack on the shoulder. “Good job, Jack. You’ve turned into a hell of a healer. Just like your mother.”
Talia looked at Jack with tears in her eyes. She mouthed the words “thank you” before turning to give Stann a kiss.
Jack looked at Lana. She’d just finished hugging Professor Cyr. She turned and hugged Jack. She kissed him on the lips. Jack felt his cheeks going red, but he didn’t shy away. She pulled her head back so she could look him in the eyes. “We did it, Jack. We made it to second year. I’m so happy!”
I’m delighted as well. Congratulations, Jack.
Jack spun around to try and find the voice he was hearing. Lord Scratches was sitting on the bench beside the gemstones.
Did you just talk to me? Jack said to Lord Scratches in his head.
Of course. Who else would be in your mind?
Jack laughed. They’d succeeded in making it to second year, and now Lord Scratches was talking to him in his head.
Second year was going to be interesting.
Author notes
Thank you for reading Menacing Misfits: book one of the Darkthorn Academy series. If you enjoyed it, I hope you consider leaving a review. Reviews are the lifeblood of indie authors.
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Menacing Misfits: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Darkthorn Academy Book 1) Page 45
