by D. S. Craig
Arvis and his men turned to stare at us, eyes wide with shock. Not wanting to give them time to recover, I immediately activated Power Cat and Speed Boost and leapt into action. Using the mobility of my smaller form, I darted about the room, slipping between the legs of the knights while avoiding their awkward attempts to cut me down. Whenever I got the chance, I would knock the vial out of their hands or trip them up, anything I could do to keep them from drinking.
“Earth Tomb!”
Behind me, Lesti began disabling the guards using her earth spells. It was a rare display of restraint from her. Usually, she would have started firing off fireballs despite the tight quarters.
Meanwhile, Rose fired a barrage of simple wind-based spells at the knights. They didn’t do much damage, thanks to the knights’ armor, but it was enough to slow them down. Finally, Elliot stood in front of the pair, taking on any knights that managed to approach. With his enhancement magic, he was more than a match for them despite the age difference.
With their ranks thrown into chaos by our surprise attack, most of the knights abandoned drinking their potions, instead focusing on trying to take us down. However, just as soon as I thought I could relax, the cloaked man next to Arvis made his move. His magical energy swelled and moved as he formed his spell, muttering the incantation under his breath. I tried to use spell jamming to cancel it, but I couldn’t focus on the task while dodging the knights’ attacks.
The spell finished, and the ground beneath my feet began to shake. A moment later, huge spikes of earth exploded from the ground. To dodge them, I was forced to leap back into the corner, but that seemed to be part of the man’s plan. Several spikes shot up and slammed into the wall forming a cage around me. Yet, the rumbling in the ground didn’t stop there.
Time seemed to slow down as I looked around desperately for a way out of my stone prison. Unfortunately, there were no gaps large enough for me to squeeze through. I thought about shrinking myself down for a split second, but knew it would be too slow. I didn’t have enough practice with that form. So, I decided to take the only option left open to me. Crouching down, I gathered up as much power as I could in my legs and threw up a magic barrier in front of me.
Right as I felt the ground burst beneath my feet, I leapt forward, smashing into the stone cage. With the extreme speed I was traveling at, I crashed through the barrier in an instant. I felt a large chunk of my magical energy drain as my defenses absorbed the impact, but at least I was free. Looking around the room, I saw similar traps had been laid for the others, as well as Elliot’s father. Although, in his case, it looked like he had simply used a spell to blast his way out, similar to me.
As I was taking all this in, Lesti’s voice rang out from behind the wall that hemmed them in. “Hail of Stone!”
A second later, the stone spikes blocking the secret entrance we had come through broke into hundreds of stone shards. Those shards were launched across the room, pummeling nearly everyone within. Thankfully, I still had my magical barrier up and avoided taking any damage. The hooded man next to Arvis threw up his own defense in the form of a stone wall and pulled a vial from his cloak, thinking he was safe.
But just as he moved to undo the stopper on the vial, I reached out with my magical energy to manipulate the projectiles Lesti was firing. I altered the course of several, curving them around the stone wall the man had set up in every direction I possibly could. He tried to throw up more defenses, but couldn’t block them all. The rough-edged stones slammed into him from multiple directions. Since he wasn’t protected by heavy armor like the knights, his body was turned into a massive pincushion full of stone needles.
The vial in his hand fell to the ground with a clatter, and the room finally fell silent. As the dust settled, Lesti stepped through the doorway of the secret passage, a grim expression on her face. “Looks like that did the trick.”
Behind her, Elliot had an arm slung over Rose’s shoulder, a deep gash in his side. It looked severe but not life-threatening. Rose seemed fine, but there was a pained look on her face. Most likely, Elliot was injured covering for her. That was about the only way I could see him getting hit by that spell, with as much room as they had to maneuver in the tunnel.
But I could worry about that later. For now, we needed to finish things up. Turning my attention back to Arvis, I prepared to finish him off, but just as I did, Lord Gambriel spoke. “Surrender Arvis! You can’t win.”
I felt a tingle run down my spine at those words. It seemed so cliche that I couldn’t help but see it as a bad omen. Unable to brush off that sense of foreboding, I began to slowly creep closer to the baron, just in case. As I did, Arvis started to look around the area, clearly panicked, until his eyes fell on several vials of the purple potion lying nearby. Practically throwing himself onto the ground, he swept them up.
“This isn’t over!” He held the potions up with a mad look in his eye. “Once I drink these, I’ll be unstoppable!”
“And what makes you think that I’m just going to let you drink them?” I asked.
Arvis froze at my words. While he had been distracted by Lord Gambriel, I had walked right up behind him. There wasn’t a chance in the world he could drink the potions before I knocked him out cold. However, before I could make my move, a loud explosion echoed from above, and the ceiling came crashing down where we were standing. I leapt back to avoid getting crushed by the debris, but Arvis wasn’t fast enough. I watched as a giant slab of stone fell directly on top of him, sending a massive cloud of dirt into the air.
As the dust settled, a familiar voice called out from above. “Looks like I made it just in time.”
Looking up through the hole in the ceiling, I found Malkael’s brother, Ulrich, staring down at me with a satisfied expression. On either side of him stood two demons unlike any I had seen before. They had the same leathery grey skin and pitch-black eyes as their brethren. However, their bodies had much more human proportions, and large jet black horns protruded from their heads.
The most significant difference, though, was the amount of fouled up magical energy they were both putting off. It still wasn’t nearly as much as Thel’al himself but was far greater than anything that transformed assassins or imp-type demons put out. I knew I couldn’t let my guard down around them, so I crouched low, preparing to pounce at a moment’s notice.
“Hey, you’re that guy that was leading the beasts when they attacked the academy!” Lesti pointed an accusing finger up at Ulrich. “Perfect timing! I’ve got a score to settle with you.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, little girl, but I don’t have time to play with you this evening. I’m simply here to make sure that our experiment is complete.”
“Experiment? You mean those people that turned into demons?” Lesti swept her arm across the room in front of her. “Too bad for you. It looks like you took out the last person you could use when you caved in the ceiling.”
“Ah, you mean Baron Arvis?” Ulrich smiled knowingly down at the pile of rubble. “I assure you, he is quite alright.”
Ulrich glanced at one of the nearby demons and nodded. When he did, I felt the creature’s magic begin to swell. A moment later, the pile of stone that had fallen on top of Arvis floated into the air, turning into stone spears that launched themselves at me. With not much room to move, I used my magic barrier to deflect some of the spears and created a gap to break through the barrage.
All in all, it was a rather half-hearted attack with no follow-up. However, when I finally broke free, I was stunned to find Arvis standing there, a small magical barrier protecting him as he looked around in confusion. The rubble cleared, he looked toward the hole in the ceiling and spotted Ulrich. A look of relief washed over his face as if he had already been rescued from his fate.
“Ulrich! Where have you been? The men you sent me were completely useless, I’ll have you know. Not only did they fail in their mission, but they let these brats escape and ruin my plans. Don’t worry, though. I’ll forgive yo
u.” Arvis swept his arm about, gesturing toward the rest of the room. “Just clean up this mess for me, and all will be forgotten.”
Ulrich glared down at him, the disdain clear to see on his face. “Baron Arvis, you seem to be sorely mistaken about your position here. I’m not here to help you. I’m simply here to ensure that our experiment goes as planned.”
“What do you mean, you’re not going to help me?!” Arvis shouted, turning red in the face. “After everything I’ve done for you, all the funding I’ve provided, you’re just going to abandon me here!?”
“Well, I suppose I could offer you one last chance to get out of this mess on your own.” Reaching under his cloak, Ulrich pulled out a fresh vial of the purple potion and tossed it down toward Arvis. As it tumbled through the air, I noticed there was something different about this batch. It was packed with so much foul magical energy that I could feel it, unlike the others.
Not wanting to let Arvis get his hands on it, I leapt toward the vial as it fell. But before I could reach it, one of the demons jumped in my path at an astounding speed and landed a powerful kick, sending me flying back into the wall. I was able to throw up a magic barrier in the nick of time and absorbed most of the impact.
“Drink that potion, and you may still be able to escape from here with your life.”
“And if I refuse?” Arvis looked up at Ulrich, eyes full of suspicion.
Ulrich shrugged. “Then you can die here and now.”
“Don’t do it! That potion will turn you into a monster,” I called out to Arvis, hoping he didn’t know what the potions actually did.
He glanced over at me briefly before returning his gaze to Ulrich. “Is that true?”
“Some may consider the form that you’ll take that of a monster,” Ulrich replied, the wild madness I had seen in him before returning to his eyes. “However, I choose to view it as an ascension. The next step in moving mankind toward our ultimate destiny!”
“I see, so I’ll become one of them, huh?” Arvis glanced over at the demon blocking my path to him. “Well, I guess it’s better than being dead.”
“No!” I tried to force my way past the demon by transforming into my tiger form and running straight through it, but it managed to catch me. Putting me in a headlock, it forced me to the ground. I boosted my Power Cat spell to maximum output and threw the demon off, but it was too late. I watched in horror as the last drops of the potion passed through Arvis’s lips.
“Let the ascension begin!”
As Ulrich’s frenzied shout rang out from above, Arvis began to change. Almost immediately, I felt his magical energy become tainted and begin to swell, triggering the familiar sense of nausea that always came with it. His eyes turned pitch-black, and his body morphed, bloating like a misshapen balloon. Once it had grown to about five times the baron’s original size, it stopped and turned a familiar leathery gray color. Finally, a pair of jet black horns similar to those on the other demons burst from his head.
Before me now stood a thirty-foot tall monstrosity that could barely fit in the room. What was truly horrifying, though, was the insane amount of magical energy that flowed out from it. There was so much that it fouled the air, making me feel even sicker than I had when fighting Thel’al. If it kept pumping out magical energy at that rate, we were going to find ourselves in trouble pretty quickly.
“Gruaaaah!”
The massive demon let out a guttural roar, which grated on my ears, forcing me to flatten them against my head. Then, without warning, it swung its massive deformed arm in a wide arc. As it struck the walls, they crumbled, sending a shower of debris cascading down into the room. I dashed toward Lesti and the others, racing against the wave of debris raining down behind me. “Get back in the tunnel! Go!”
Hearing my cry, Lesti slipped under Elliot’s other arm and helped Rose carry him into the tunnel. Elliot’s father rushed in shortly after. Once he was inside, I felt magical energy begin to build within the tunnel as someone cast a spell. Worried they were going to seal me out, I ramped up my Speed Boost spell and flew into the tunnel. As soon as I passed through the opening, Lord Gambriel finished casting.
“Earth Wall!”
A wall of stone several feet thick sprung up at the tunnel entrance and slammed into the roof just as the demon’s arm swept overhead. The walls above the tunnel came crashing down, causing the ground around us to shake. The ceiling started to buckle in several places. Just as it looked like it was about to give, several stone pillars shot up from the ground and slammed into the weakened spots, reinforcing them.
Right after, the lights went out, causing the entire tunnel to go pitch-black. I quickly cast a Magic Light spell and checked to make sure everyone was okay. Lesti let out a relieved sigh as she lowered Elliot to the ground along with Rose; it didn’t look like he could keep fighting. Lord Gambriel, on the other hand, seemed to be just fine.
The ground rumbled and shook as the giant demon continued to rampage outside, causing dirt and dust to occasionally fall from the ceiling.
“We need to hurry up and get back out there.” Lesti looked worriedly toward the sealed entrance of the tunnel. “That thing is going to destroy the entire manor at this rate.”
“Don’t bother.” Elliot’s father walked over and picked his son up, throwing him carefully over his back. “I threw a few lightning bolts at the beast as I ran over here. They didn’t do a damn thing. We need to get out of here and call for reinforcements.”
“You’re just going to run away?” Lesti looked over at him in disbelief. “What about all the people who were at the party? Don’t you have a responsibility to protect them?”
“You don’t need to worry about them. Reeve will make sure they’re evacuated, along with the staff.”
“Do you honestly think they’ll be able to get away from that thing!?”
I stepped between the two, cutting their argument short. “Lesti, let it go. We don’t have time to argue about this. Lord Gambriel, can we trust these two to you?”
“So, you really are going to try and fight it.” He looked between the pair of us, almost as if he were assessing us in some way.
“I told you they were interesting, didn’t I?” Elliot smiled weakly from his father’s back.
For the first time since we had arrived, Lord Gambriel smiled ever so slightly. “So you did. Alright, we’ll leave it to you then. I’ll take these two to safety and come back as quickly as I can with reinforcements.”
“Thank you.” I watched for a moment as they headed down the tunnel before turning back to Lesti. “This is going to be incredibly dangerous. That thing has even more magical energy than Thel’al did. Stay close to me, okay?”
“You’ve got it. You be my legs, and I’ll be your firepower.” Lesti smiled and thumped her chest. “That thing won’t know what hit it.”
I transformed into my tiger form, and Lesti hopped onto my back. “So, how are we going to get out of here anyway? If we’re not careful, we’ll just collapse this whole thing on our heads.”
“Don’t worry, I have an idea.” She patted me on the back. “I’m going to use an earth spell, and I want you to redirect my magical energy and make sure it uses the stone we want it to with spell jamming. That way, we can carve a tunnel out of here without bringing the whole thing down on our heads.”
“Wait, will that really work?” I asked as I looked back at her nervously.
“Only one way to find out! Hail of Stones!”
Without giving me a chance to object or even prepare, Lesti cast her spell. I watched as her magical energy began to reach out at a rapid rate and gather the stone. I panicked and started to reach out with my magic to redirect it, but quickly realized I didn’t need to. For some reason, the stone she was gathering was forming a perfect tunnel directly in front of us, as the spears she molded floated in the air nearby.
“Oh! Nice job, Astria. It’s exactly how I imagined it would work.” Lesti scratched behind my ears gratefully, despite me doi
ng nothing.
I stood there for a moment, pondering why her spell had acted in the way that it had, but before I could come to a conclusion, our escape path was complete. As soon as the end of the tunnel opened, the stone shards floating about flew outside and darted into the sky. Not wanting to be left behind, I raced after them, out into the ruined room.
Rose’s Resolve
Rose followed Lord Gambriel through the dark tunnels beneath the manor, glancing around nervously. The magic that had moved the walls of the underground maze had ceased to function; Some places had partially caved in as well. Still, Lord Gambriel navigated the labyrinth without any hesitation. Even Elliot seemed surprised by his father’s confidence.
Outside, the sounds of the demon’s rampaging echoed, causing the tunnels to shake and debris to fall on their heads. The idea that it could all come crashing down at any moment nearly caused Rose to panic. The only thing keeping her calm was Lord Gambriel’s steady stride. Still, she wanted nothing more than to exit the tunnel and get as far away from the massive demon as possible.
Just as she had that thought, Lord Gambriel came to a stop before a stone wall. Reaching out, he touched it with his hand, but it didn’t react. “No good, huh?” Turning, he walked past Rose and set Elliot on the ground, then looked Rose in the eye. “Wait here for just a moment.”
Without waiting for a response, he walked back toward the wall, stopping a few feet before it. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and muttered something. For a moment, Rose wondered what he was doing, then the image of Lesti sitting over her books scribbling onto parchment as she mumbled flashed through her mind. Lord Gambriel was creating an instruction-based spell on the fly.
The notion sent a chill down her spine. If something went wrong, he could seriously injure or kill them. It was incredibly dangerous. She was still amazed by how confidently Lesti could craft her spells. She would never have the courage to try something so reckless. Even in the academy’s controlled environment, she hadn’t tried the spell Lesti had made for her. She was simply too scared.
