The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  I could barely spare a glance to the fight at the center of the island between attacking and dodging. Even with all of my defenses, I would still take damage briefly when a thorned vine struck me, and I knew that allowing a tree to fall on me was not a wise career move. What I saw when I could spare that brief glance, was the dragon breathing out a cone of green light at Halor, smothering him in vines that he struggled to pull off. The dragon’s head suddenly shot to the side, and I imagined Lilith kicking it to get its attention.

  Back to my own fight, we were starting to encounter some interesting things as well. Apparently, this forest had more than simply trees and shrubs. Vines had come together, writhing in place until a form took shape. Standing like a large hound, the green beast had three claws on each of its four feet. Its eyes were large berries, while its teeth were thorns. Above its head a name faded into view. Lesser Vine Beast.

  Around it, three more Vine Beasts, all with identical appearances, began to form. Once the four enemies were ready, they dashed towards us far faster than the vines had moved on their own earlier. It seemed that coming together like this countered the drain that the raining soulfire was causing. Or they simply had so much life force that it wasn’t making a dent.

  Either way, they ran serpentine patterns, moving out of the way of two of Denise’s flaming slashes before closing the distance. They first one struck at me with its plant claws, and I cried out when it dealt a full fifty damage. To a fighter that might be nothing, but my maximum health was less than three hundred. My aura scorched the claw of the beast, but it quickly regenerated it with more vines that crawled onto its body.

  Denise was faring much better than myself, her full speed being unleashed and surpassing the two hounds she fought by leaps and bounds -- literally. It was all they could do to get away with minor wounds, unable to land even a single hit on her. Still, any wounds she inflicted were quickly healed by more vines. Glancing down, I saw that I was down to just two of my nine rings now.

  Dariel, like Denise, was doing much better than myself. In fact, she had already dealt with her vine beast by causing it to wither away with her nature magic. Wow… I am the weakest person here. Wasn’t I supposed to be the cheat?

  Deciding I couldn’t do this with just my aura, I activated my Scan spell and manifested a scimitar. With this, the fight between myself and the vine beast became more even, with me being able to read its movements enough to dodge, and occasionally inflicting damage on it. Dariel, having used one massive spell already, was saving her energy.

  “Denise, I’m about to have to cancel your aura. Think you can make do with your speed alone?” I shouted towards Denise when my eighth ring faded.

  “Running out of juice already, I’m disappointed!” Denise grinned to me, showing that she was having quite a bit of fun. “Go ahead and take it down. These guys can’t catch up to me.” Releasing Omen, she let it fade back into her bracelet before grabbing the bow Nightshade, sending two arrows of darkness into her opponents. As the arrows hit, the vine beasts sagged, half of their bodies falling off to the ground and withering faster than more vines could come to replace them.

  Seeing that she was indeed handling the situation, I released her aura and used the remaining magic in my last ring to fire a hellfire bolt at my own hound, killing it with my first ranged attack tonight. With the last ring faded away, my mana was gradually decreasing. It’d take too long to cast the nine rings spell again, so I just focused on conserving energy while doing what I could to fight.

  Denise quickly took care of her enemies, but then we heard two large crashes. One was from the dragon in the distance being knocked to the ground, but another came from in front of us. This time, rather than vines, entire trees were twisting and coming together, snapping apart to form joints of eight massive limbs.

  “Tell me that isn’t…” I glanced up to the rapidly forming creature, which had a round body made from the tops of the eight trees, snapping fangs from protruding branches, and eight pinecone eyes. This one had a name in much larger print above its head. Greater Vine Beast.

  There is way too much difference between a lesser and a greater vine beast! That thing is practically a titan!

  “It’s a giant tree spider.” Denise shuddered next to me.

  “How.. do we take that thing out..” I grumbled to myself. Well, on the bright side, this thing was slow as hell since it had to lift legs made out of trees.

  “Oh, I actually think this’ll be easier than fighting the little ones. Even you can dodge this guy.” She smiled, shooting several dark arrows up into the tree spider, but unlike the hounds before, there was no apparent damage done to this one. With a sigh, she switched back to Omen, swinging a cut of hellfire when the monster turned to face her.

  Her slash easily connected with the spider’s body, but… maybe it shouldn’t have? Before the wound was sealed by vines and branches, a dozen lesser vine beasts fell to the ground like drops of blood. “Take it back, this will not be easier!” I groaned out, aiming my hand at the spider. Was hoping to avoid using this much mana…

  Since Dariel was draining the monsters to uselessness before they could attack her, I cancelled the Hellfire Blessing on her as well, the balance of my magic now allowing me to recover it even with my own aura still on. “As one who has formed a contract with the underworld, may my command be spoken and understood. Appear and rise, devour all, and crush the souls before me. Open Pit.” Red light shone out from below the vine beasts before the ground was ripped away in a burst of flames. “Rise from the legion, Tome Demons. Aid us in our battle.”

  Five figures rose up out of the pit, flying straight up. Clad in red robes, these black humanoids each had red eyes and two horns. When they encountered the lesser vine beasts, they simply waved their hands and the monsters flew into the flaming pit. Seeing the greater vine beast, they moved towards the edge of the pit, aiming their hands at its center of mass.

  Streams of flame shot from the Tome Demons and began incinerating the giant monster, causing hordes of flaming vine beasts to fall directly into the pit below it, until the monster’s legs gave way and it, too, fell into the pit. With their initial target dealt with, the five demons each gave me a nod and descended back from whence they came, the pit closing behind them.

  “That is such a cheat spell.” Denise smirked to me, shooting a stray vine beast that had run up towards her.

  “That cheat spell used half of my magic…” I grumbled as I focused on letting my mana recover for a bit. Then, we heard more cracking wood around us that grabbed our attention. Fearing that more greater beasts were about to appear, we readied ourselves for battle. What we saw wasn’t a monster appearing, though, a tree was simply withering away into nothing before our eyes.

  Knowing what this had to mean, I looked back to the battle at the center of the island. One of the feet of the dragon had been severed, but as more trees began to wither and die it was quickly being healed faster than more damage would appear. “Shit, this still isn’t fast enough.” I was tempted to use Magus Wrath to wipe out the rest of our area, but I couldn’t be certain that one of the generals hadn’t finished up their end and wouldn’t be where I targeted.

  Beside me, Dariel began casting simple Gust spells, but this too carried the white fire from the Soulfire Blessing. The result wasn’t so much that it pushed the plants back, but it caused many to wither away as the life force was sucked dry. “This is a really convenient spell..”

  “Stuff he makes usually is. That’s why I call him a cheat.” Dariel had moved to shooting her shadow arrows indiscriminately. The benefit of being surrounded to such a degree, you are guaranteed to hit no matter where you aim. While her arrows didn’t inflict wounds, the area they touched on a plant would soon begin to decay. Truly a demon bow’s power.

  “You two call me a cheat, yet I’ve only killed small fries so far..” I shook my head, taking a lesson from Denise and began firing off Hellfire Bolts towards any random tree, bush, or suspicious
vine. With the rapid use of spells, my mana once again was steadily falling. Unlike when we were scaring off the tribesmen, this time a forest fire was precisely what we wanted to do.

  During all of this, I learned an interesting combination. Hellfire, which fades on both the physical and the spirit, spreads greatly when it comes into contact with a spell enhanced by Soulfire. Like throwing water on a grease fire. It didn’t have so much an effect on my aura, but the soulfire rain and gusts were causing my bolts to run rampant through the forest. Now that I was contributing my own spells, and pulling off such combinations, we were quickly wiping out our area. It was hard to determine when a lesser vine beast appeared since it would be burnt immediately.

  Dariel seemed to realize the combination as well, because the next time a great vine beast formed, both Denise and I launched hellfire attacks, while she followed up with a soulfire gust. The three effects joined into one and formed a giant cone of flames that destroyed the vine beast in one go.

  It didn’t take much longer before we met up with Krath, who had been working his way towards us after finishing off his own area. “I see you three are still doing okay. Get everything taken care of?” He was wearing the same black armor I saw him in the first time I met him, and dual wielding black longswords that had spikes running along the back of their blades.

  I glanced back, just noticing the widespread destruction we had been causing, walking like flamethrowers through the island forest. What wasn’t ash was on its way to becoming so, and for the first time in a while I could see the coast. “Looks like it. We’re the last ones to finish?”

  “Yeah, but we weren’t really expecting you guys to do all that much. We just needed another distraction.” Krath grinned to me and started laughing. Then, turning his head, he looked towards the center of the island. “Up to those two now.”

  “You guys aren’t going to help her?” I asked, curious why they were letting her fight with just Halor.

  “She wouldn’t want us to. This is the first time we’ve fought in a while, so let’s let her enjoy it.”

  I nodded, turning my Scan spell towards the battle to help me watch it, now vaguely able to make out even Lilith at this distance.

  Chapter 29

  “Where are the other two? Dremor and… Belial, wasn’t it?” I asked Krath while watching the fight intently. Though, given the distance, I ended up recasting my Scan so that I could use Walking Vision and get a closer look.

  “They should be together on the northern end of the island, keeping position incase something troubling happened.” I could hear his response even as my vision soared closer to the battlefield. Finally, I could see what was actually going on.

  Fighting an opponent far larger than even he, Halor had received multiple injuries early on in the fight. Surprisingly, his role was mostly support. The tank and damage dealer of the duo was undoubtedly Lilith, who would vanish in front of an attack to let it strike nothing but air only to appear next to the dragon and swing her giant sword.

  By the time my vision was able to capture the entire scene, the fighting appeared to be almost equal. While the dragon hadn’t been able to inflict any damage on Lilith, he was also recovering as fast as she could hurt him. Lilith flew at eye level with the dragon, easily a mile into the air, supported by black leathery wings that she never possessed before when I saw her.

  The dragon let out another ungodly roar before raising one of its claws with a speed something that size should never possess, the motion all but a blur. Even so, by the time it reaches the space where Lilith was flying, she was gone. At the same moment, she appeared below the dragon’s stomach, clenching her left fist and bringing it up in a punch that lifted the dragon several feet off the ground. Of course, she was gone again before it could crash into her.

  By now, the soulfire rain had stopped, and the storm above was simply a leftover effect from the spell Dariel had cast before. Rather than a magical construct, it had become a natural even instigated by magic. Maybe it was because of that, but the dragon never seemed to truly be hurt by Lilith’s powerful attacks.

  Once it failed to crush her with its weight, the giant creature aimed its mouth at her, firing a blue beam of energy. Wasn’t its breath weapon before green? As I watched, Lilith again avoided the attack of the dragon, and when the great breath struck the sea beyond the island, it created a path of ice that went into the distance. Don’t tell me it can use breath weapons of any natural element?

  I was reminded of my own Nature Magic bonuses, which gave me resistance to all elements, as well as darkness and light. This dragon definitely had a much greater version of that. No, if anything he either has total immunity or the ability to absorb such effects.

  “It’s okay, Jin. Mom won’t lose so easily..” An unexpected voice spoke next to me, and I felt a hand on my shoulder.

  “L-Levy? What are you doing here?” Krath must have been shocked to have Lilith’s daughter appear on the field as well.

  “I noticed that the fighting had stopped, so I decided to come watch too.”

  You’re watching this through my eyes or something, aren’t you?

  “Yup!” Levy let out a happy confirmation to my thoughts, and I shook my head. You’re supposed to be the one bonded to me. Isn’t this totally a one-sided connection?

  With the dragon distracted by Lilith, Halor appeared behind it, grabbing at its thorned tail and pulling it back. Even for someone named the Strong, such a feat had to be difficult, because the dragon did not allow itself to be dragged far. When the dragon turned around to face him, it brought back one of its claws and slashed across his chest, causing a deep gash that sent him tumbling backwards.

  Krath chuckled next to me, able to see most of these events on his own, likely. “He may be the Strong, but he’s not quite smart enough to use it. Looks like the fight is up to the Queen now.”

  Indeed, after receiving such a wound, Halor vanished into a black light. “Will it be alright by just herself? Didn’t Dremor said that she would need him for this fight?”

  “Dremor’s plan probably needed Halor until the forest was dealt with. Now, that fellow’s healing should be slower, and Queen Lilith can stop holding herself back.”

  “...This is still her holding back?” I could clearly see the fight, so I thought he must be joking. But sure enough, when Halor disappeared a cold smile spread over Lilith’s face. Along her sword, a series of runes began lighting up, and then it was like her sword absorbed all light around her. Where Lilith had been before, her figure was now distorted by a swirling darkness. “What are those weapons…”

  “Queen Lilith wields the two treasures of Hell’s armory. The greatsword Voidshaper, and the armor Nightmare Gauntlet.” Krath explained simply.

  “Okay..” I was wondering what the hell that meant, but decided to leave it at that.

  Sorry, I don’t know either.

  That’s right, you’ve probably never seen Lilith fighting, have you?

  Nope, but she’s really strong, isn’t she?

  While Levy and I exchanged these silent remarks, Lilith had vanished again, creating a deep black cut along the dragon’s neck. It seemed that when the Voidshaper was released, it caused those kinds of wounds, and the dragon wasn’t able to heal it as quickly.

  Noticing its sudden disadvantage, holes began opening up on the shoulders of the dragon, vines and trees ripping apart to form two additional mouths. That is so cheating. The creature lifted its head, and all three mouths shot different breath weapons. Its right shoulder launched a pure white light, the left launching a wave of darkness. Finally, the main mouth shot a green beam like it had used before against Halor.

  Seeing the attacks coming at her, Lilith simply remained hovering in the air, taking all three breath weapons at once. Darkness and light collided, forming a chaotic spiral that collided with her comparatively small form. Meanwhile the green light came in from a different path, overlapping the other two attacks.

  When the dust settle
d and the result could be seen, Lilith was still floating where she had been. To defeat those attacks, she had simply raised the shield from her gauntlet, and that had apparently been enough. After the green light hit, she was covered in a mass of vines, but those were immediately destroyed by a burst of hellfire.