Rance cast a levitation spell, rising above the lunging Scar. He floated to the opposite side of the headmaster and lowered himself. As Rance landed, Kemp, who was turning his head this way and that as he raced to escape the lightning and the demonic creature, rammed into the enchanter. Kemp and Rance fell to the ground just as Mazannanan reached the middle of the hillside.
“Get down from there, young rogue!” Mazannanan yelled.
Dagdron glanced to the east, but Wendahl and Elloriana were still only fetching lightning and blue mist, so he released the net, dropping to the ground.
“I already warned your companions,” Mazannanan said, smiling creepily. “We’ve worked so well together, don’t make me end your life when life with Avooblis is just beginning.”
“I want a reward for helping you,” Dagdron said, drawing his dagger.
“You have a reward,” Mazannanan replied. “I will allow you to join me as a true follower of Avooblis.”
“How do you get out of the arch crystal?” Dagdron asked.
“With ease.” Mazannanan grinned.
“How come the woman can’t come out?”
“She is not powerful enough, and if she has no knowledge of the arches or Avooblis, how can she find her way out? But why fret over a female?”
“She belongs to my dad.”
“I would have guessed you came from stronger stock than that,” Mazannanan said.
“Tell me how to free her.” Dagdron pointed his dagger at the wizard.
He grinned at the rogue before replying. “You’ll have to go in to guide her out. The lightning will take you in.”
Dagdron turned and ran.
“Beware, young rogue,” Mazannanan called. “The arches will only remain open until I release Avooblis from this cursed net.”
Dagdron didn’t look back, but he heard spells start to fly as the headmaster, Rance, and Mazannanan began to duel. Dagdron never slowed down as he sprinted toward the east arch. Wendahl and Elloriana were still casting fetch spells, and Dugan was standing at the ready. His father turned as he approached and his face broke fearfully as he watched his son run straight into the line of a lightning bolt fetched from the arch crystal.
“No!” Dugan yelled, but he was too late.
Dagdron felt the sting of lightning course through his body as he was dragged forward, and his vision was blurred by blue smoke swirling around him as he was sucked into the Arch of Avooblis.
Chapter 36: The Howl of Avooblis
Earl, Lita, and Grizzard gave Mazannanan a head start before following behind him. After seeing the power of his magic, they knew they would have to catch him by surprise if they were to have any chance of stopping him.
They paused a short distance from the center just as they saw Dagdron sprint away from Mazannanan toward the east arch crystal. Egon was still hanging from the right side of the net, using his warrior’s strength to keep Avooblis contained within the silky magenta strands. Scar was wrestling with Kas and Wally to the left of Mazannanan, and Rance now stood close to the headmaster, who had his arms raised as he gazed into Avooblis’s eyes. Kemp was seated on the ground, looking up at the demonic being with bewilderment.
“Avooblis, I have summoned thee!” Headmaster Gwauldron shouted.
“Blasphemer!” Mazannanan yelled.
The headmaster turned and cast blast-bolt spells at the ancient wizard, but Mazannanan retaliated, using his staff to absorb the spells and launch red lightning balls in return. Rance joined the headmaster in attacking Mazannanan, and, hearing the spells, Scar, Kas, and Wally gave up their battle. Kas and Wally cast blast-bolt and flame spells at Mazannanan’s back, but before Scar, his dagger in hand, could charge, Mazannanan lifted his staff and a red beam shot out behind him. Scar dove to the side; the spell hit the ground directly in front of Kas and Wally’s feet. The two enchanters turned to flee, but the beam spread, creating a square around them, and then bars sprouted upward before closing in at the top, forming a glowing cage.
Scar began to get to his feet, but the staff shot another beam, blasting him backward. Then Mazannanan cast spell after spell at the headmaster and Rance. They retaliated, and the hillside was ablaze with red spells from Mazannanan, lightning balls from Rance, and multicolored spells from the headmaster. Every once in a while, Mazannanan quickly angled his staff toward Avooblis, zapping the demon’s lower body with a red spell. In turn, Headmaster Gwauldron took the opportunity to yell, “Avooblis, I have summoned thee! You are bound to my control!”
After Mazannanan had hit Avooblis with ten spells, the demonic body began flashing beneath the net. The headmaster looked toward the flashes and gave one last yell to force Avooblis to submit to his control.
Mazannanan cackled evilly. “You think you can control Avooblis?” he said. “I helped create the Shrine of Avooblis, I alone discovered how to create the Arches of Avooblis, and I alone am able to invoke the Howl of Avooblis and bind him to my control.”
Mazannanan turned away from the headmaster and Rance, ignoring the spells they cast at him. The ancient wizard lifted his staff horizontally, grasping it above his head with both hands.
“Oh, Avooblis, I welcome thee,
To this land where thou whilst live free.
First is first to loosen thy jowl,
And I, Mazannanan, command thee to howl!”
“No!” Headmaster Gwauldron yelled.
Earl, Lita, and Grizzard watched in horror as Avooblis’s mouth opened, exposing a void of darkness before a howl shattered the night and shook the hillside with the force of an earthquake.
Earl and Lita grabbed hold of Grizzard as the ground trembled, and they watched Avooblis’s head split the top of the net, which fell, draping over the creature’s shoulders.
“Shoot,” Earl said.
“Yep, rich sonny,” Grizzard said. “We’re in trouble.”
* * *
Dagdron was flung forward, barely landing on his feet. He found himself in a stuffy chamber with a thin blue mist floating about. He felt restrained as he lifted his arms to remove his cloak because the air felt so thick, only allowing him to move in slow motion. He took his ragged cloak in his hands, using all his effort to wave it around and clear the haze from in front of him. In the few moments the path was clear, he saw an archway on the far wall. He put his cloak back on, lowered his head, and pumped his arms and legs as if he were swimming, slowly moving across the chamber to the archway.
He looked through the arch and saw a vast, rocky terrain with streaks of lava. Dagdron felt a scowl drift across his face. There was no way he wanted to venture into Avooblis’s homeland. Dagdron glanced to the left, where he saw another archway, leading into a neighboring room that appeared to be filled with blue mist as well.
As Dagdron pulled his dagger with great effort, mulling over which archway to go through, he heard a muffled sob to the right. Sitting on the ground with her arms pulling her knees to her chest and her head buried between her knees was the woman he had seen in the right archway in the Shrine of Avooblis. His dad’s wife.
Dagdron remained motionless, letting the heaviness of the air smother him. After finding out the truth of the Arches of Avooblis, Dagdron had felt bad that his dad had lived without his wife for so many years. But he had never thought about what his dad’s wife must be going through. He hadn’t cared. Had she just had to sit here in her bright-yellow, ragged dress?
Dagdron shook the thoughts from his mind, stashed his dagger away, and trudged toward the woman. An expression of utter fear crossed her face when she looked up at Dagdron, but the young rogue bent down, grabbed her arms, and pulled her upward. His dad’s wife resisted, so Dagdron tried to tell her that he was here to save her, but his mouth moved so slowly that no audible sound came out. He pulled with all his might, backing up to head back across the chamber.
When he reached the wall on the other side of the room, he found it bare. He pictured the archway in his mind, willing it to appear, but nothing happened. Keeping
Twyla’s arms locked with his own, Dagdron stretched open his mouth and yelled, “Avooblis!” He heard a deep monotone sound emit from his mouth, and then the outline of an archway appeared, followed by lightning crashing, and then the mist began clearing out of the room as fresh air rushed in.
Two fetch rings zoomed toward them, a light blue one hitting Dagdron in the chest and a magenta one latching on to his dad’s wife. They were pulled forward in slow motion until they reached the archway, where they were flung forward, and then were suddenly skidding across the grass on Central Crossing Hill. They only came to a stop when they crashed into Wendahl’s and Elloriana’s legs, being buried by the enchanter and enchantress.
“Dagdron!” Elloriana exclaimed. “Oh my goodness! I can’t believe you made it back.” She rose to her knees and hugged him, not caring when he didn’t reciprocate.
Dugan sprinted over, his face etched with fear and his breathing audible, but then he saw his son and wife.
“Twyla,” he said softly.
The ragged woman shifted her eyes toward him but made no reply.
Dugan knelt down and took Twyla in his arms, gently caressing her face and hair. “I never thought I’d see you again. I never thought I’d touch you again.”
“Help me up,” Wendahl said, motioning to Dagdron and Elloriana, who was still hugging the rogue. “They’re fine, but we still have to get Avooblis back in the arches.”
Dagdron jumped up and Wendahl held his hoe horizontally so the rogue could pull him to his feet. Elloriana got to her feet, and she, Dagdron, and Wendahl sprinted toward the center of the hillside.
“Mazannanan got loose,” Dagdron explained as they ran. Wendahl’s face creased with worry, and Elloriana looked horrified, but neither of them replied.
As they neared the center of the hillside, an earsplitting roar tore the night, and Wendahl’s weak leg gave way to the quaking ground. As Elloriana bent to help Wendahl up, Dagdron saw the net break, exposing Avooblis’s head.
“Avooblis is getting free,” Dagdron yelled, darting off without the other two.
Dagdron skirted to the north before dropping to the ground and crawling swiftly but stealthily forward. He passed Scar moaning on the ground and stopped next to the cage holding Kas and Wally. Dagdron saw Earl, Lita, and Grizzard watching and Headmaster Gwauldron and Rance firing spells at Mazannanan. The hunchbacked wizard kept his focus on Avooblis, swinging his staff to absorb the spells that zoomed toward him.
“Avooblis, you are under my control!” Mazannanan shouted, taking his staff horizontally with both hands and hoisting it above his head again. “I command you to heal my bones!”
Mazannanan shuddered violently, and Dagdron knew this was his chance. He bolted across the area between the cage and the wizard, coming up behind him. Dagdron leapt onto the hunched back of Mazannanan, whipping his dagger around and placing it against the wizard’s neck.
“I’ll slit your throat!” Dagdron yelled.
Dagdron felt Mazannanan shudder beneath him as he pressed his dagger into his gullet.
Crack!
Dagdron heard the sound beneath him, and then he was suddenly lifted in the air as Mazannanan’s bones straightened out, relieving him of his hunchback and aged form. Dagdron jabbed his dagger into the wizard’s throat, but then the staff flew backward, smashing Dagdron’s face and knocking him to the ground. Mazannanan turned, smiling as blood streamed from his neck. While his bones had been restored to their younger form, his face and skin had retained their agedness, and his bald, mottled head made his grin look as creepy as ever.
“Avooblis, I command you to heal me!” Mazannanan yelled.
Dagdron heard a sizzling sound as the blood coagulated on the wizard’s slit throat. A scar remained, but Mazannanan was unharmed.
“Young rogue, we could have ruled this land together with Avooblis. But I must end you for your treachery.”
Mazannanan lifted his staff, but a roar sounded over the hillside. And this time it wasn’t from Avooblis, it was from Earl and Lita as they charged. Mazannanan shifted his staff, but he wasn’t quick enough. Earl and Lita rammed into him, sprawling him backward toward Avooblis. Dagdron jumped up just in time to see Mazannanan turn a back somersault as nimbly as a young man and leap to his feet. He lifted his staff again, ready to cast spells at Dagdron, Earl, and Lita, but he was distracted by a humming behind him.
Wendahl and Elloriana were levitating until they reached the bottom of the net. They each grabbed hold of it, sending magic throughout the strands and causing it to pulse a brighter magenta.
“No!” Mazannanan seethed, lifting his staff above his head. “Avooblis, send forth thy howl to the wild! Call forth all the dark creatures that have lived in hiding for the past hundreds of years!”
Avooblis’s jaws opened again and a shattering howl blasted forth, shaking the hillside again.
“Pull with all your might, Egon!” Wendahl yelled.
“Avooblis!” Mazannanan shouted. “I command you to take control of earth, air, water, and fire!”
Avooblis opened his jaws, but this time he snarled as he struggled to lift his arms and throw the net off his body.
“Pull, Egon, pull!” Wendahl yelled.
On the opposite side of Avooblis, where Egon had been hanging since the net had first been placed on Avooblis, the warrior yanked as forcefully as he could in an effort to completely bind the body.
Elloriana grabbed the net and tugged at it. Wendahl clutched his hoe with both hands, hooked the blade through the net, and let himself hang free. A surge of magic shot from Wendahl’s hoe, coursing through the strands of the net upward and across Avooblis’s body, before gushing back down on the opposite side. Down below, Mazannanan fired a beam from his staff at the edge of the front section of the net. His red magic surged up the net, battling Wendahl’s. Headmaster Gwauldron and Rance joined the battle, casting their spells at the beam shooting from Mazannanan’s staff. The headmaster’s blast-bolt spell crashed into the staff, changing the angle so the red spell hit Avooblis’s lower body.
The demonic creature roared. Still unable to lift his arms, Avooblis spread them apart. His arms billowed outward beneath the net, searching the hillside. As his left hand closed on Kemp, who had still been sitting in a daze on the ground, and his right hand broke through the cage to clutch Wally and Kas around the waist, Wendahl, Egon, and Elloriana succeeded in yanking the net down, the jasper stones binding it in place against the demonic body. Avooblis growled again as the painful shock from the net forced him to retract his arms, pulling Kemp, Wally, and Kas into the net prison along with him.
Wendahl, Elloriana, and Egon dropped safely to the ground. Wendahl instantly lifted his hoe and cast magenta spells at Mazannanan as Egon charged from the south. As Wendahl’s spell and Egon converged on him, Mazannanan cast a levitation spell and zoomed into the air. He floated over until he could rest on Avooblis’s head.
“Hear my words!” Mazannanan yelled. “I will have my revenge on all on this hillside. Once I free Avooblis from this abhorrent net, you will receive your comeuppance. Avooblis, I command you to flee with me!”
Avooblis strained his neck and howled, but then the dark creature, net and all, shot upward, lifting Mazannanan with him, before heading northward with Kemp, Kas, and Wally still clutched in his billowing hands.
The hillside was thrust into darkness as the Arches of Avooblis were extinguished. Wendahl illuminated the blade of his hoe, shining light over the center of the hillside. The light fell directly on Headmaster Gwauldron, who had fallen to his knees and covered his face with his hands.
Wendahl strode over to him as the others slowly walked in that direction.
“What have I done? I unleashed Avooblis on the land,” Headmaster Gwauldron said as Wendahl tossed his hoe to the ground, knelt at his side, and put his arm around his shoulder. “I should’ve listened to you. I really thought I was going to bring peace to all the land.”
“I know, Gwidy,” Wendahl said.
“Your ideals were and are noble. You just lost sight of the fact that you always have been bringing peace to the land. You didn’t need Avooblis to do that. Your Adventurers’ Academy was already doing it.”
“I’m a fool,” Headmaster Gwauldron said. This time the headmaster leaned his head sideways and Wendahl held it against his chest.
Dagdron, in complete agreement and feeling inclined to reassure the headmaster that he was indeed a fool, restrained himself as he rubbed the bruise on his face that Mazannanan had given him with his staff. He had despised the headmaster from the very day he had arrived at the Adventurers’ Academy and after everything he had put them through over the past three years, but even he wasn’t so heartless as to say anything when Headmaster Gwauldron was such a crumpled mess.
Wendahl, seeing that everyone was watching, reached out and touched his hoe, extinguishing the magenta light and plunging the hillside back into darkness.
Chapter 37: Final Quests
Dagdron lounged back in his tree in the warm evening, tossing his dagger into the higher branches and catching it again. The leaves had bloomed nice and thick and, while that always made him feel more concealed in his hideout, they were also blocking out the blue glow coming from the back fence of the academy. He heard heavy footsteps crossing the lawn and tried to tune them out.
“We’re back from Bodaburg, Dagdron,” Earl called.
“I heard you,” Dagdron said.
“I’m coming up, Dagdron,” Elloriana said.
“We’re all coming up,” Earl added.
Dagdron didn’t even bother threatening them. He just ignored them. Earl and Lita hefted themselves up and Elloriana levitated. Once Earl shook the tree, cracked a thin branch, and was raked in the face by a group of leaves, all while trying to find a suitable sitting position, he turned toward Dagdron.
“Even though you won’t ask, I know you’re dying to know how your mom’s doing,” Earl said.
“No, I’m not. Did you tell them to go back to Coastdale?”
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