Katie was also curious to see what kind of magic the ogre mage had. Hopefully, it would be something impressive. With the ogre mage still a reasonable distance away, she bent down and picked up a rock. She wasn’t very strong, especially when compared to an ogre, but a rock was still a rock. She took aim and threw it at the ogre as hard as she could. Would he be careless enough to use his magic to deflect it?
No.
The ogre mage simply swatted the rock aside with his staff and continued his advance. Well, that wasn’t good. If the ogre was smart enough to realise that concealing his magic was a good idea, then she might have more of a fight on her hands than she had thought. She’d have to attack with her magic then, but that didn’t mean that she had to give everything away. Her master had always taught her to be careful when attacking an unknown opponent. It was better to deceive them if possible. If one attack failed, she could always use another that they didn’t expect. Her master’s favourite version of this strategy was to send a small rockslide at his opponent. Most of his opponents dodged easily enough – only to be caught when he liquefied the ground beneath their feet to trap them in place.
She formed her shadows into a spear and readied her makeshift weapon. Her size meant that a normal spear wouldn’t be too dangerous, but her shadows changed things. She could propel the spear with her magic instead of only her muscles, and she’d sharpened it to the point that it could pierce through solid steel without difficulty. Her hand tightened around the shaft of the weapon before she lunged forward and hurled it as hard as she could.
There was a sound like thunder, and Katie barely had time to throw herself out of the way before the place where she’d been standing exploded. Clods of dirt rained down, and she used her shadows to shield herself from the debris. What had happened? Whatever it was, it had come so close to hitting her that her shadows had reflexively covered her entire body like a second skin. She glanced toward her master, but all he did was smile and shrug. That jerk! She knew that look. He’d already worked out what the ogre’s attack had been. He was smart that way even if she didn’t always like to admit it. She had to think.
There had been a loud sound, and then the ground had exploded. A quick glance at the crater the attack had left offered a few clues. It wasn’t a lightning-based attack. The attack would have hit before the sound reached her. It was most likely some kind of shockwave attack – perhaps something like highly compressed air fired like a cannon, which would explain the sound and the rush of air that had billowed out after the attack. The fact that she’d been able to dodge at all meant that there was a delay between the sound and the attack. There had also been a faint shimmer in the air before the loud sound. Perhaps the ogre compressed the air before firing it. The sound could have been caused by the ogre’s magic compressing the air. Oh well. She could study the ogre’s magic in more detail once she’d turned him into a zombie. Right now, it was time to get serious.
Katie scrambled back to her feet as another attack came her way. Her shadows rushed out to intercept it, and there was another boom as the shield she’d created trembled under the assault. To be safe, she prepared a second shield, but her first held firm. Good. Her shadows were strong enough to weather the attack although the ogre mage could well be capable of something more powerful. Her shadows had also told her a lot about the ogre’s magic when the attack had tried to rip through them.
Her guess had been close to the mark. The ogre’s magic was definitely some kind of air manipulation. Now, it was her turn to return the favour. Her arms snapped forward, and her shadows flowed toward the ogre like rivers of darkness. The shadows shot up in the form of dozens of razor-sharp spikes, but the ogre mage was surprisingly quick on his feet. He jumped out of the way and fired back with his own magic. Katie tossed herself up into the air with her shadows and took flight on spectral wings. She’d be much harder to hit in the air, and she’d cast a much larger shadow on the ground too.
It became a game of magical cat and mouse as the ogre mage continued to dodge her shadows with surprising agility while firing back with his own attacks. In the end, however, he was the one to make the first mistake. He became so focused on the shadows she used to attack that he forgot about all of the other shadows in the area that she could also manipulate – the shadows cast by the houses, the trees, and even the ogre mage himself. It was his own shadow that undid him, rising up to bind him in place, so she could form a scythe and cut off his heads. It was messy, but her dive carried her past the spray of blood, and she could always stitch his heads back on later.
Katie looked around and realised that while she had been fighting the ogre mage, the battle had come to an end. In fact, the others were watching her while seated on a bench her master had made out of rock with his magic. Her eye twitched. Really? If they’d already defeated their opponents, the least they could have done was help her. Even the villagers had been watching, and some of them gave her cheerful waves as she stomped toward her master and the others.
“You could have helped you know!” Katie glanced to one side. Rembrandt and the other rats had returned at some point during her battle with the ogre mage, and he hopped onto her shoulder to offer some praise. She wasn’t mad at him. The only reason he hadn’t gotten involved was because he’d been confident she could handle it. Her master was another story. Knowing him, he’d simply been too lazy to get involved. “I could have been killed!”
Her master waved her criticism off with a flick of his shovel. “Combat has its risks, and you were doing perfectly fine, my young apprentice. I had every confidence that you would win.” He drove his shovel into the ground and leaned on it, nodding sagely. “Yes, allowing you to face the ogre mage alone gave you some more valuable experience in fighting another mage. I might seem lazy, but by not helping you, I was actually furthering your development.”
Katie’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I’m sure that was your plan.”
“Oh, stop complaining, twerp.” Avraniel noticed that one of the ogres was still alive and was doing its best to crawl away without being noticed. The elf picked up a fence paling that had come loose during the battle and set it alight. With a spring in her step, she skipped over to the ogre and drove it down into the creature’s chest. The ogre struggled for a moment and then lay still. Avraniel hadn’t looked at it even once. Instead, she’d kept all of her attention on Katie. “It’s not like the ogre mage was going to kill you. I’ve seen you handle worse. Even if it had hit you, you wouldn’t have been killed. Your shadows reflexively protect you from any real danger. I’ve tested it. Why do you think I throw fire at you when you’re not looking? It’s not for fun – well, not just for fun – it’s to help improve your situational awareness and to test how your magic works.”
Katie hated to admit it, but Avraniel had a point. Her shadows did protect her from anything dangerous. It was almost like they were alive. Even if she didn’t notice an attack, her shadows would often move to intercept it. There were exceptions. If she were already using her shadows for other things, they wouldn’t move on their own. Her shadows also seemed to know when someone was really out to get her. For instance, they had never lashed out at her master, and they didn’t move on their own during training with the others, even if she was caught off guard. It was only in situations like with the ogre mage when death or serious injury was a real possibility that her shadows could move on their own.
Avraniel had occasionally ambushed her with fire, and on the occasions when Katie hadn’t noticed and responded accordingly, her shadows had moved to protect her. It made her wonder how much effort the elf was putting into her ambushes because her shadows wouldn’t move unless the threat was real. Then again, if Avraniel really wanted her dead, Katie was under no illusions about how much help her shadows would be. The elf could make fire as hot – if not hotter – than dragon fire when she put some effort into it.
Old Man decided to chip in with a few words of his own. “The flower that blooms in adversity, Little Miss, is
the most beautiful of all. Your master is correct in saying that the only way for you to grow as a mage and as a warrior is to face challenging opponents without our help.” He smiled gently. “If I thought you were truly in danger, then I would have pulled you out of harm’s way.”
“Right,” her master said. “Now that we’ve taken care of the ogres, here comes the fun part.” He turned and smiled sunnily at the villagers. “Technically, we’re here as mercenaries who simply happened to be passing by when we solved your ogre problem. Gerald, how about you explain our terms? Don’t worry. We’re not asking for too much, but we are hoping for a few things. Once you’ve done that, Gerald, do you think you could pack away the useable ogre corpses with your magic?”
In the end, the villagers didn’t put up a fuss. They came from a clan that prided itself on its ability to make a deal, and Katie got the feeling they would have been even more worried and suspicious of her master if he hadn’t asked for something in return. As a general rule, necromancers were not known for their generosity and altruism. They were known for their general malevolence and for being a tad – or more – insane.
They left the village with a decent amount of money, a lot of useable ogre corpses, and one dragon that was so full that Avraniel had to carry him since Spot was in no condition to walk, never mind fly. Katie sincerely hoped that the hatchling remembered this because it wouldn’t be long before he was too big for even Avraniel to carry comfortably. When that day came, it was entirely possible that the elf would badger her into carrying him since she could make something like a giant shadowy hand to carry him. However, Gerald and Old Man were easily the happiest members of their group. Gerald had managed to wrangle an invitation to the library in the capital of the Taliesin clan, courtesy of a villager whose brother was one of the librarians there, and Old Man had managed to secure a bonsai tree for a surprisingly reasonable price. Given the constant warfare in the area, the villagers didn’t have much use for a small tree that didn’t really do anything for at least a decade or two. Old Man was happy to spend some gold to add another quality bonsai tree to his collection.
“You did well today.” Rather than ruffle her hair like she expected, her master patted her on the shoulder. Perhaps he had decided to treat her more like an adult, or perhaps he was worried about making her mad since they were riding on a zombie wyvern, which would make dodging her shadows quite difficult for him. It was probably the latter.
Katie huffed. “Someone had to do the work. You weren’t exactly helping a lot.”
“I was busy whacking ogres with my shovel and impaling them with spikes of rock,” her master replied. He chuckled. “In fact, I killed more of them than you did. But I do mean it. The ogre mage was no slouch, and you handled him well. Of course, when I was your age, my master was making me fight skeleton mages and assassins because he couldn’t be bothered, and let me tell you, I had to fight a lot of assassins. My master was not a popular man. Well, he was, but not in a way that helped unless you consider assassins coming through the window at night on a regular basis helping.”
“Your master was a jerk, master.”
“Yes, he was. So, since you’re going to be making a zombie ogre mage, what are you going to call him? You do have a name for him, right?”
Katie grinned. She liked to name all of her more impressive zombies, and a zombie ogre mage would certainly be impressive. “I’m not sure yet, but I think… he looks like a Robbie to me.”
“Robbie?” Her master laughed, and this time he did ruffle her hair. “You’re still horrible at naming things. I don’t think that name makes sense at all.”
“It makes perfect sense, master.” Katie smirked. “You’re simply not smart enough to understand how great a name it is.”
“Is that so?” He glanced back to make sure Gerald was doing all right. He was – sort of. The bureaucrat had pulled out another paper bag, and it didn’t look like it would be long at all before he used it. “Hold on a bit longer, Gerald. We’ll be landing once we get back to where the horses are.”
Chapter Six
Timmy’s brows furrowed in concentration, and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. He could not afford to make a mistake. If he did, he could easily lose a finger, possibly even his arm. “Spot, keep your mouth open. If you bite off my arm, I am cutting off your food supply, understand? I may also have to introduce you to my shovel in a distinctly non-friendly way.”
The dragon made a noise of agreement and kept his mouth wide open, which was important since Timmy was in the middle of brushing his teeth. By the gods, it was disturbing how wide Spot could open his mouth. He should never have agreed to play scissors-paper-rock for toothbrush duty. He blamed Katie. The girl had teased him about how terrible he was at the game. Naturally, he’d disagreed, and he’d decided that it was time for his apprentice to feel his full power in a game of scissors-paper-rock.
Unfortunately, fate had not proven kind. There were seven days in the week. Spot got his teeth cleaned twice a day, which meant Spot got his teeth cleaned fourteen times a week. Timmy was now responsible for cleaning Spot’s teeth for the next fortnight. Katie had not been solely responsible for the carnage. Avraniel had wandered past when Timmy was only responsible for three consecutive days of cleaning, and things had rapidly gone downhill from there. He’d have accused Katie and Avraniel of somehow rigging the game, but he seriously doubted that they’d be able to work together for something like that. It was much more likely that they were stupidly lucky, especially Avraniel, who had won every game of chance Timmy had ever seen her play.
Oh well, Timmy did need to keep in shape, and getting Spot’s teeth clean definitely gave him a workout. It also gave him a great chance to study Spot’s teeth from up close, which was not an opportunity to take lightly. Most people only ever saw a dragon’s teeth right before those teeth turned them into lunch. He’d also have been lying if he’d said that it wasn’t fun to have Spot around. The dragon was surprisingly cheerful and upbeat when he wasn’t devouring cows in record time and melting solid rock and metal into the dragon equivalent of orange juice.
“I’d ask how you manage to get so much stuff stuck in between you teeth, but I’ve seen you eat. Starving lions make less of a mess than you do.” Timmy reached for one of the metal tools beside him and used it to pry out some of the food trapped in between Spot’s teeth. Based on the adult dragon skulls he’d handled over the years, this would likely get easier as Spot’s skull and jaw grew bigger to better accommodate his overly large teeth. In the meantime, however, there were so many nooks and crannies for things to get stuck in. The ridiculous force that Spot could generate when biting only made things worse, all but driving bits of meat, bone, and half-melted metal and rock in between his teeth. It was no wonder dragons could regrow teeth. Tooth decay had to be a serious issue for them, and they’d all be toothless if they didn’t have an endless supply of teeth.
Tasty. Hungry. Spot waited patiently as Timmy put the metal tool aside and went back to the toothbrush to clean the area.
“Yes, yes. I know how tasty you think your food is and that you can’t be bothered eating more slowly because you’re very hungry. However, there’s no reason that you can’t learn to eat in a more civilised manner. Technically, you are a dragon. Devouring things with ravenous hunger is sort of your thing, but you need to eat more neatly if you want to eat with the rest of us. I ended up with a cow spleen on my pancake this morning because of you. For the record, I do not enjoy having a cow spleen on my pancake.”
Sorry. Spot sagged. Try harder.
“It’s okay.” Timmy rubbed Spot’s snout before hooking his arm under the dragon’s jaw for better leverage as he shoved his other arm into the dragon’s mouth to try to get at the teeth right at the back with the toothbrush. Because Spot’s teeth were made out of one of the hardest substances known to man, the toothbrush had to be tough. It wouldn’t have lasted more than a couple of uses otherwise. It was tough enough to scrape the skin right off
Timmy’s arm, but it was perfect for Spot’s teeth. Timmy did have to use a different toothbrush closer to Spot’s gums since those were more sensitive than his teeth, and he could only use either of the toothbrushes after he’d cleared out all of the bigger bits and pieces from between Spot’s teeth with the metal tools. He now understood why dentists were paid so much. This was hard work – and it might even be something he could pursue as a career at a later date. Yes, they would call him Timmy, Brusher of Teeth, and he would make his living cleaning the teeth of various scary creatures.
It would have been wonderful if he could get a zombie to do this, but only his finest zombies had the manual dexterity and intelligence for a task like this. Spot was also very young. He didn’t like being left on his own for long although he was getting better at handling separation from Avraniel as he continued to grow larger. The elf was often there to laugh at Timmy’s misfortune, but she sometimes had other matters to attend to. It wasn’t bad. Spot was fine company when he wasn’t eviscerating things and roasting them. Spot got a chance to practice communicating, and Timmy got a chance to talk because Spot was a very good listener, particularly when Timmy had his hand shoved in his mouth. It was also very important for Spot to become properly socialised. The last thing they needed was a psychotic dragon. That would have been funny right up until Spot grew big and scary enough to eat the lot of them.
“Don’t worry about it. Just try harder in the future. You could begin by carving your food up with your claws instead of using your head as a battering ram with teeth.”
Timmy strained to get to the very last of Spot’s teeth. The dragon was almost four feet long now, and it had only been about a month and a half since he’d hatched. About a quarter of his length was his head and another quarter was his tail. It made him look a bit comical since his short neck and short tail gave him a stubby appearance. Timmy assumed that would change given time since both corruption dragons and astral dragons had the long necks and long tails common to most dragons. Besides, Spot’s appearance did absolutely nothing to reduce his effectiveness in a fight. The dragon was a lean, not-particularly-mean killing machine.
Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire (The Unconventional Heroes Series Book 3) Page 11
