Magic Vs. Aliens: Hybrid Sorcerer: Book One - Return of Magic: Book Five

by D. R. Rosier

The best they could do was stone walls with a limited sized entrance, not nearly as good as sturdy building with a roof. There were also limits on how tall and thick they could make it, if they didn’t want to blow all their magic on it and have nothing left for the aliens.

  He snorted, “Maybe that armor’s hot, because several of them are stripping it off, they have on some uniform underneath. Looks like coveralls.”

  Katie said, “Maybe that means they have a plan and are about to move, let’s go.”

  She kicked the flanks of her horse, and they moved into a trot. Without a trail any faster would’ve been reckless, it’d still take them almost thirty more minutes to get there. He watched with his hawks.

  It was maybe five minutes later, when there was more activity, which made sense seen from their point of view.

  He said, “They just sent out four scout groups of twenty in four different directions. Probably looking for water, food, and weapons. They must not have seen McKinney on their way down. One group is coming our way at a good clip.”

  Katie nodded, “Well take them quickly as soon as they’re in range, don’t bother trying to communicate.”

  He sighed faux long-sufferingly, which made her giggle.

  The aliens were seven to eight feet tall in general, and they had four arms and very crinkly faces. They were rather fierce looking, stronger and faster than humans, but not invincible. When the scout group entered within a mile radius, he tried to taste their life force and read their lives, mostly out of curiosity and to see if his life magic would be effective.

  It wasn’t, it felt like reaching out and expecting to feel silk but finding steel wool instead. That seemed to suggest to him human food native to the planet wouldn’t be all that nutritious for them. If they were that alien. He’d always thought life was life, but maybe it was more complicated than that. He could feel their life force, he just couldn’t affect it.

  That meant he wouldn’t be able to increase his life force pool and given the numbers he’d probably be blowing a lot of what he had built up to stop them. On the good side, life force and magic were inextricably linked on Earth, which meant none of the aliens would have the potential for magic. Since he could feel it, he’d also be able to use it for targeting he thought.

  He could feel them with his magic senses as well, but they were more like null spots, further evidence they didn’t belong on their world. At least to the forces of life and magic. Still, it was clear his life magic side would be mostly worthless against the aliens, except to boost his own power reserves.

  He explained his thoughts to the group.

  Katie said, “I agree, they’re too alien for our world. They must’ve had plans to plant their own crops and foods, perhaps even some terraforming. Without their tech, and with their ships blown up, they may already be walking dead. But we can’t count on that. They might subsist on our food just fine on the purely physical level, and we know they can last for quite a long time and do a lot of damage first.”

  “We should see them any second.”

  The area was far too open. There were trees but not enough for cover, not for four riders and their horses anyway. He needn’t have worried however, as soon as they came into view of one another the aliens adjusted their course slightly and came right for them. He was pretty sure they could outrun a galloping horse.

  They were running incredibly fast, but he held his magic until they were around a hundred yards away.

  He said, “Lightning,” while focusing on the forces of nature and picturing a lightning bolt leaping from his hand and into the lead runner’s head.

  Lightning leapt from his hand at the same time Cassie fired a compact white-hot fireball. Both of the aliens hit went down hard, Katie’s spell igniting its head in a powerful and contained small explosion of fire. His own lightning cooked the alien’s brain and blackened the oddly colored greenish blue skin. Both of their life forces dissipated quickly.

  That’d been a test more than anything else, to make sure lightning worked before he wasted a lot of magic on an unworkable idea. It’d also told him exactly how much power a lightning strike needed to put out to kill them, which would save him further magic.

  He barked, “Ball lightning, strike the void.”

  A soccer ball sized sphere of coruscating energy shot at the last eighteen who were entirely too close for his comfort. At the same time a much larger ball of white-hot fire launched into the air from Katie’s hand over their heads.

  His ball lightning started to send out bolts as it flew through the group, expending the exact amount of energy needed to fry their brains, lashing out unerringly at the magical voids the aliens seemed to be.

  At the same time, Katie’s large ball of fire exploded into eighteen similar to the first small compact ball of fire, and then each one slammed down into all the enemies like the first ball, creating a compact explosion of fire which half blew up and half melted their heads. They were dead twice over.

  Compact explosion, meaning part of the spell was used to contain the intense energy, otherwise the explosions would’ve been much bigger, and a lot of the energy wasted. He imagined he could figure out how to do it if he put his mind to it, but the lightning worked well too.

  Katie cleared her throat, and then laughed, “Right, so that worked. I guess we both had the same idea, test and execute.”

  He laughed, and said casually, “We’ll have to split our efforts better. I’ll take the three thousand on the right, unless you want them?”

  He’d also blown the rest of his remaining magic in the bracers for that test, so he activated the enchantment to fill them. He’d be able to do it one more time today. It just took a spark, and both bracers turned into sucking black holes as the ambient magic around it started to swirl around them and fill them up.

  Katie looked at him curiously, perhaps checking out his enchantments.

  Bria snorted, and said, “Great plan, let’s wrap this up before lunch.”

  Katie giggled, “He was obviously joking, though it’s a real point. We’ll go with that, and I’ll kill as many as I can on the left side of the crowd until we run too low on magic. Was that your second load?”

  He felt like a pervert at what came to mind when she said load, but he didn’t comment on it of course. Unfortunately, he didn’t need to, Bria was trying not to fall off her horse as she laughed and looked at him knowingly. He must’ve been blasting pheromones or something. He had himself under perfect control, but obviously his body’s reactions were betraying his lust for the sorceress.

  It was clear the dragon was amused by human mating rituals. He supposed it made sense for the dragons to be straight forward, they could smell even the slightest arousal, there’d be no point in trying to hide it or in being coy.

  “No, first of the day. I was working off yesterday’s.”

  Katie nodded, “I’ve got three quarters of my staff’s potential left, and I haven’t loaded it today.”

  That was pretty good, her staff was more powerful than his bracers, about twice as powerful. Conversely, she could only load hers once a day, but having three quarters left from last time meant he’d have to go through three and a half full charges to equal what she had in potential for the day.

  Bria asked, “So, how many can you kill, with what you just learned?”

  He frowned, each ball lightning would kill around twenty, and he suspected he could cast it about eight times, reload, and eight more.

  “Around three hundred twenty?”

  Katie nodded, “About five hundred for me, but then tomorrow I’ll be closer to his number. That means a week of hit and runs. Let’s take out the leader, and as many as we can, and retreat. We can see if we can find more allies to help us tomorrow. A week is a long time and seeing as how close they are I suspect McKinney is doomed.”

  He frowned, “I can do more, if I use my well of life force.”

  Katie said, “That’s your decision, just let me know when you’re out. Is there a hillt
op within range of them?”

  He nodded, “It’s not very high, maybe fifty feet, and the slope is minimal.”

  Katie smiled, “That’s just fine, I have an idea. I’ll only waste the magic on it if we can’t keep up with their charge long enough to empty our enchantments.”

  He nodded and kicked his horse’s flanks, and they moved forward again. He adjusted his course a bit to the right. The hill was to the group’s southwest, and they were going east. They had to go south a bit, so they could use the hill as a blind until they got to the top, and enemy wouldn’t see them coming.

  Chapter Three – Interlude

  Rohen said dryly, “I think we now have definitive proof that the sub-quantum field is highly malleable to conscious thought.”

  The science officer, Addock, replied, “Undoubtedly. I’ve added it to the report, should we send it?”

  Rohen frowned in consideration, then nodded, “Yes, the survival of our people on the surface is in their hands now. We need to let command know what’s happening, and about the field.”

  It’d been the most shocking thing Rohen ever saw. There might not have been technology on the planet, but the locals seemed to be taking advantage of that field, whether they were responsible for it or not. He’d just seen a twenty strong scout group get killed by nature’s forces cast by two of the humans, and that was the smallest thing he’d seen.

  He’d also seen his people at two other crash sites almost completely destroyed. The left coast on the right-side continent had some kind of plasma bomber, and a human army that was impossibly strong and fast. Not to mention unusually hardy, as if nothing could hurt them or stop them. Some of his people had escaped and fled, but it was only a matter of time before they were hunted down. He also saw on the right side of the left continent a similar powerful army, and some kind of machine that had blasted whole regiments with huge explosions of fire.

  It was only the ships in the middle of each continent that hadn’t been decimated and driven off. Maybe they had a chance.

  The one that had crashed in the vast ocean, the last crewman had just died. They’d drowned in very short order, despite the almost eight thousand that had been able to evacuate the ship. It was a big mess down there.

  He frowned, his instincts and anger had him tempted to start bombarding the planet with death and destruction, but he knew better. Some captains might’ve given into the urge, but it would be better if their scientists could come up with some kind of shielding. Then they could come back again and finally claim the world.

  Life bearing planets in the galaxy were too far and few in-between to waste one in a moment of bloodthirsty anger. If the scientists failed to create a shield that would protect from the sub-quantum field, well then he wouldn’t be surprised if the admiralty sent a fleet to destroy the whole world out of spite.

  He’d recommend against it if asked. It’d be a waste of resources considering the two-year trip. The humans on the planet would never expand into space without technology after all, and their sub-quantum field was too localized to use that energy instead. They simply weren’t a danger to the Mateeran empire and never would be. They might just do it out of spite however, that field wouldn’t protect them from an energy beam from a ship far out of orbit, or a simple kinetic bombardment. It’d take time, and resources, but they could tear the planet apart in the end if they put their minds to it.

  Addock said, “Sir… we just got a priority one recall order, and I’ve been ordered to purge our databanks of all planetary scans.”

  Rohen narrowed his eyes, that’d been an awfully fast response. The scan data must’ve tripped some flags, and some big flags if they were being recalled. Which meant… what? This wasn’t the first world where this sub-quantum phenomenon had been discovered?

  Addock added, “The planet has just been quarantined in the navigation database, and flagged for recheck in a thousand years, sir.”

  Rohen muttered, “Follow the orders and purge the scan database, our remaining people are on their own. What the hell is the admiralty hiding?”

  More importantly, were they destined to get a laser beam in the head as soon as they arrived back home, to suppress what was going on and complete the coverup?

  Addock frowned, “Sir, I’m not sure. But there are currently eighteen planets flagged as quarantined with a recheck scheduled. According to the database one such planet has been recently annexed into the empire when the recheck checked out and the fumigation was successful. The world is currently undergoing initial settling and terraforming efforts. Two others who were recently re-checked are still quarantined, and the records of what ship did the checking are redacted. Point is, there’s no stated reason for the quarantines, classified level red secret.”

  Rohen nodded, “The only real question is why hide it? If some planets have this field, and the field goes away sometimes, why hide that fact. And why not warn the fleet not to come out in orbit when leaving FTL?”

  The captain shook his head, since there were no answers, “Set course for home, and engage. See what you can figure out Addock, it’s going to be a long ride home. Just… don’t get caught investigating.”

  Addock replied, “Yes, sir!”

  Katie glanced at Ryan before looking forward again and checking their surroundings, even if she was sure there were no aliens near. She couldn’t miss them with her magical senses, but she had to do something with her eyes besides stare at him.

  She’d been shocked when Bria and her had left the mountain earlier, at her reaction to seeing Ryan again. In her mind, she’d still been expecting that awkward and skinny fifteen-year-old boy she’d thought had creeped on her. She hadn’t expected what he’d turned into, a very well-built man, with wide shoulders, an athletically muscular body, and big hands that made her wonder what they’d feel like on her body, and very much a full-grown man.

  He was also confident and very easy on the eyes. He obviously took after his mother, because he was just plain hot, while his father’s looks around the face were quite average. His light blue eyes were somehow both intense and all relaxed confidence at the same time. He had a chiseled face that was so handsome he was almost pretty, but all man.

  Even his sense of humor attracted her.

  She blushed, as she wondered what Cassie would think about her lusting over her son like a schoolgirl, instead of acting her age. A woman over twice his age despite only appearing eight years older than him. She was feeling like a creep herself a little bit. She’d also been very glad to learn the truth of that day, despite being over it for a while it’d been a wall of mistrust between them. There was no doubting his simple sincerity, and she regretted not trying to contact him sooner to learn the truth.

  She’d just… put him out of her mind, and then worked on her own projects and education.

  His magic was strong, and very controlled. The ball lightning had been impressive, and while heavy on magic cost he’d used as little as possible to achieve his ends. He also seemed to be taking her lead as a given, and he hadn’t argued with one of her decisions even once. His easy control of complicated spells and his ability to scout the enemy also tickled her a bit in addition to being damned useful.

  She shook her head, the whole idea of it actually growing into anything real was ridiculous. Sure, she was attracted and impressed, but even if he was too it just seemed weird to her. She was obviously nuts, and it’d just been far too long since she’d been laid. That was the only logical explanation for the powerful attraction she felt for a nineteen-year-old young man, no matter how powerful, confident, and easy going he seemed to be.

  She sternly told herself she would not be seducing Sean’s and Cassie’s son anytime soon, or ever. No matter how much natural chemistry and attraction she felt. She grimaced, and imagined it was one-way chemistry anyway, a young man wouldn’t be interested in a woman her age, anyway.

  Besides, he already had a gorgeous young woman at his side, Sadie was stunning. She’d be surprised if he wasn�
��t all over that, and she tried to push down the jealousy she felt at that idea.

  Not that she would begrudge it of him or her, just that she was so tired of being alone, and was clearly losing her mind because she hadn’t been laid in fifteen years. She’d even waffled over that time, but she wouldn’t spread her legs just for relief, she was emotionally incapable of it, she wanted a real relationship.

  Which was a point, she hardly knew Ryan at all. She’d just really liked what she’d seen so far.

  Of course, she did have it under control, she was a powerful disciplined woman. Still, between the instant chemistry and attraction she felt, and so far he seemed to have grown into the kind of man she’d actually need, he was more than a little distracting. But, it’d only been two hours and far too soon to truly know that, she was guilty of building it up in her head.

  Just because he hadn’t acted like an ass for two whole hours didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen. John had managed not to act like an ass for a whole five years. Granted, in between missions, and they were on a mission at that very moment.

  She decided the best way to deal with it would be to grow a friendship like he seemed to want to. She was already a family friend, but it would be good to have a closer friendship with the next generation to keep those ties strong. Not that Sean and Cassie would be growing old anytime soon, or ever, but it was a point.

  She almost blushed as Bria gave her another teasing look. She was a powerful disciplined woman in control, but she had no control over her bodily reactions or pheromones, only what she did about them. In short, her best friend knew she was turned on by their friends’ and ally’s son, and that was just embarrassing. So far Bria hadn’t said anything, hopefully she wouldn’t.

  She was sure it would fade, as she got to know him. He was just… far too attractive for her own comfort, and very much her type.

  She was also worried about the army of bloodthirsty aliens. A lot more worried actually, she did have her priorities straight even if she felt a little shocked and betrayed by her body and mind in the moment. She suspected they’d eventually hunt them all down, but it’d take close to a week, maybe longer if the aliens evaded, and they weren’t stupid.