by Eric Vall
The crowd of students let out a murmur of awe, but I didn’t let that distract me. As Nia stumbled back from my blow, I charged and tackled her around the waist. We tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs, but I wasn’t able to get a good grip on her. She was slippery, fast, and far stronger than she looked. She used the momentum of our roll to throw me off with ease.
I bounced to my feet just as she was attacking with fists and knees. I blocked them, but a knee did catch my ribs, making my breath hitch. The pain was terrible, but it didn’t feel like my rib was broken.
She tried to kick again, but I sidestepped her and back handed, my knuckles dragging across her face. She flailed away with a yelp. I would have felt bad for that since I wasn’t used to fighting women, but the pain in my ribs took away all my sympathy.
We backed away from each other and panted as we nursed our injuries. The throbbing in my ribs lessened, though it would hinder me a lot more than the small cut my knuckle had caused on her cheek.
Nia glared at me, her teeth bared. “What kind of fighting style is that?” she demanded. “It’s so sloppy and all over the place.”
I offered a smirk. “It’s called bar fighting, Lady Kenefick, and it’s much more applicable to the real world than your uptight boxing.”
She grunted, not at all amused. She charged me and swung, and I ducked it, but she had a second blow much faster than the first. It connected with my jaw and spun me around. The pain was jarring, like a jolt that locked my limbs up momentarily. Yeah, she was certainly stronger than she looked.
Nia came at me again as I recovered, but I looked more hurt than I was, and she left herself too open. She cocked back to swing, but I kicked her in the hip. It wasn’t enough to hurt her but enough to make her rethink her angry assault. She retreated and paced around me. Good, I needed a breather too. Blood spilled down my lip, I must have bitten my tongue but I’d been too caught up in the moment to notice.
I was tired from all the training under the heat of the sun. My body ached all over, so I knew I needed to end this. I barreled at her like an enraged bull. She probably thought that was clumsy, but I was smarter and faster than she gave me credit for. I faked a swing that she didn’t bite on, then feigned to the left. She took the bait that time, shifting her defenses and leaving her wide open to my real attack. I tackled her low around the waist, picked her up, and drove her into the ground.
She gasped as the wind was knocked out of her. I pinned her beneath me and tried to wrestle her into submission, but she managed to put her arms up to block. I got her in the ribs, payback from earlier, but I didn’t put all my force into it because, at the end of the day, we were just training, after all. I connected with her collar and shoulder, which elicited some groans of pain, but she didn’t give in, not that I really expected her to.
“Give up, you’ve lost, Lady Kenefick.”
She seethed, but beneath it was a subtle grin, “Not bad, farm boy, but I have not lost yet, and I will certainly not concede to the likes of you.”
I rolled my eyes and kept up my assault. She really needed to relax sometimes.
I was going to win though, I wouldn’t let her take the advantage. I didn’t want to seriously hurt her, but I wouldn’t take a loss here. I managed to pin her arms, but then, oddly enough, her face contorted in confusion and she stopped struggling.
I felt a shift in the air. The crowd of students quieted and stared all around them with uncertainty. A few of them lifted their noses and sniffed, which was odd, but then I smelled a stench so acrid and foul that it made me want to gag. Nia smelt it too, for she turned up her nose and tried to cover it with her palm, the fight momentarily forgotten.
“What the hell?” I asked.
I got my answer a moment later when the ring shook and split. Then the air seemed to tear as a portal opened up like a gaping wound in the afternoon, a black void to the monstrous hell that was the Shadowscape. A portal, here, inside of the magically sealed city and Academy. How was that possible?
Nia threw me off of her. “Move.” Then she was on her feet, her hands crackling with electricity, ready to fight. The strange ethereal border that lined the edge of the portal, that lined every portal, was a blazing deep red, meaning that a monster would come out any second. The students scattered, and Mister Jareck, who was a military officer and not a mage of any sort, escorted them away.
But it was clear to me that Nia had no intention of moving. She would face whatever the hell came out of there, and she did exactly that.
Nia turned back to me, her gaze stern and determined. “Get out of here. I’ll hold off whatever comes out before a banisher can come and close it.”
“No way,” I shot back with a frown, “I won’t leave you to fight alone.”
She growled. “What help would you be, summoner? You’ll just be in my way.”
No, I wouldn’t. I ran from her and out of the ring, just as she said, but I wasn’t running from that fight. I gathered up my bandoliers and belts from where I’d lain them by my bag and books. I didn’t even have time for a shirt as I slipped them on. The leather was hot to the touch, and they felt too loose without a shirt or coat, but it would have to do. I returned to Nia’s side, who gave me a glare.
A moment later, a triceblite emerged from the portal, like an elephant from the west, but it stood upright and had a third tusk that protruded from its forehead. Its skin was a gross yellow. It stamped its massive foot down and made the arena floor beneath it crack. Nia didn’t waste any time. She sent a volley of fireballs at it. They hit the mark, but the monster seemed more annoyed than anything. So with a flourish of her hands, she summoned a bolt of lightning that seemed to rival the sun and destroy my ears as she directed it at the beast. It arched through its body with a convulsing jolt before the triceblite exploded in a wave of blood. It showered over the both of us, but I was too stunned to care about the warmth and stickiness of it.
With the monster dead, she turned her fury back to me. “I told you to leave!”
“And you’re not the one in charge here.”
“You frustrating idiot! Can’t you see what’s happening?”
“Yes! And we need to keep the monsters in there from crossing over, where they’ll be much stronger. So either come with me, or go get help.”
With that, I did probably the most reckless thing I’d ever done in my life. I leapt into the portal and crossed into the Shadowscape.
Chapter 10
I’d heard all the stories, all the rumors about what the Shadowscape was like. I’d listened to witnesses tell their stories and heard liars tell their tall tales. But as I stood here now, I found that none of those stories did it justice. I had crossed into the realm of death and monsters, and it was beyond anything I could have imagined.
The stories said that the Shadowscape was a twisted shadow of our world, but that only scratched the surface.
I stood in the sparring ring, but the stone was cracked and broken beneath me. The grass of the fields was black, burnt, and ruined. Around me was all the same and not the same. The Academy walls still stood but were torn asunder. So too were the dorms, the bathhouse, and the summoner training arena, all in similar states of decay and ruin. I turned completely and faced the central school building. Gaping holes littered the once pristine walls. The grand towers that ringed the structure were shallow husks, some cleaved completely off, and the roof of the headmaster’s office tower was torn free.
The sky was a dark gray, with hints of blue and green. Thunder roared in the distance, though I never caught a glimpse of lightning. There were no stars nor was there a moon. It was equal parts chilly and unbearably humid, the oxymoronic nature of the feeling enough to drive a man mad. Oddly enough, despite the darkness, I could see perfectly well. Everything about this place was wrong.
Above all, the smell threatened to overwhelm me. Under it all like a foundation was the familiar acrid odor of the rifts, but amplified by a million other things, all of the worst things our
world could muster thrown into one stench. It was death—rancid, like wet earth and decaying flesh. It was pain, like hot blood and a festering wound. It was sadness, dark and depthless. Hopelessness, misery, anger, more, all combined into a stench that could kill. I wanted to gag and retch, but I had to stay strong.
The tales of men driven to madness from prolonged exposure to this place made sense now. They were true, and they were terrifying.
What had I gotten myself into?
Something ripped behind me, like a fabric being shorn in two. The rift. It sagged and waved and suddenly Nia came through the black void of it and stood before me. Her eyes were aflame with rage as she looked at me, but they quickly dimmed as she took in her surroundings. She did a complete turnaround as I had. I didn’t blame her, the scene was a lot to take in.
Once she processed the situation, her brow furrowed, and her lips curled into a frown. I was about to get yelled at.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she asked, her words like venom. She spat a little by accident. “You just jumped into a portal.”
“It seems that you did too.”
“Yeah, to get you!”
I crossed my arms. “I didn’t ask you to do that, Miss Kenefick.”
“Yes, you did!”
“Eh, I think my wording was a tad more ambiguous than that. I was giving you options.”
She threw up her hands. “I should incinerate you right now.”
“I reckon that would defeat the purpose you comin’ in here after me.”
She grunted and growled, her eyes enraged. It would have been amusing to poke fun at her some more, but we weren’t really in the right setting for friendly barbs. We were in a type of hell, after all. For that same reason, I found it odd that there weren’t any monsters around, none that I could see anyway. After the one that had come through moments ago, I assumed there would be a gaggle more behind it, but we seemed to be alone.
“Where are the monsters at?” I asked.
Nia scoffed. “They’re around, summoner. The real question is, how did a portal get opened up in the middle of Academy grounds?”
“That’s also a good question.” The Academy walls, as well as the Enclave walls and many other buildings, were made of xanyarstone, so it was supposed to be impossible for portals to open within their perimeter. Yet, here we were.
Nia looked me up and down, her cool gaze calculating. She pursed her lips. “You won’t go back, will you?”
“Not a chance.”
She sighed. “Fine, summoner. Just try not to get in my way and keep a lookout. We can’t let any monsters get through this portal before a trained banisher can come close it.”
As Arwyn had taught us in our class yesterday, banishers were the mages who could close portals and, on occasions, open them. They were in high demand and exceedingly rare. Every team of mages dispatched to deal with a monster threat was supposed to have one. That being said, I worried if there were any at the Academy. If they were all out on missions, then Nia and I might be in for a long vigil over this gate. Arwyn had made no mention of there being any on staff.
Of course, if a banisher was to close the rift, they would need to find the Catalyst within it first. The glowing stone that acted as the anchor for Shadowscape rifts had to be nearby, but we simply couldn’t just leave the gate unguarded to look for it.
Before I could think to offer a solution, the ground rumbled, followed by a roar and loud stomping. We turned in the direction of the sound as a section of wall from the dining hall burst open in a spray of debris. A shadow loomed through the cloud of destruction that followed, and what came out of it was horrifying.
The monster looked like a giant goblin, but it had strange bulges and seams that ran all along its torso as if it had been haphazardly stitched together. Some of its skin looked rotted and burnt, and there were scars all over its limbs. Whatever it was, it shambled toward us at an alarming speed despite its awkward gait. It screamed the whole way, a wet and gargled sound that made my every one of the hairs on my body stand straight up.
Nia pushed me aside and clapped her hands together, which made the sky rumble with energy. A sudden bolt of lightning struck her, but it didn’t hurt her. Instead, she absorbed the energy and directed it out through her extended arm. The arching tendrils of electricity raced along her arm, through her wrist, then her hand, and finally shot out of her index finger. The stream of lightning jolted out from her and at the monster.
Right before it hit, the monster’s body bulged and divided.
As the attack went right through the space where the monster had been, I watched in horror as the seams and stitches of its body got torn away to reveal squirming creatures within. They crawled out of its stomach like little evil babies clawing their way out of their mother’s womb. Only, these weren’t babies, they were goblins.
I looked to Nia as they bounded to their feet and tested their limbs, very much like infants. Her eyes were wide as she looked just as horrified by the grotesque scene as I was.
Watching the monsters didn’t help us, so I clutched a handful of smaller crystals from my bandolier and threw them to meet the incoming enemies. As I did so, Nia let off a torrent of flame that incinerated one of the goblins. A moment later, two of my axe goblins appeared with speed slugs on their backs. The goblins spun at incredible speeds, like spinning tops with blades attached. They tore through the regular goblins in a spray of black blood and guts. As the monsters collapsed to the ground, their mangled bodies began to disintegrate and fade.
I looked at Nia for an answer. Thankfully, she had one. “Monsters cannot be killed permanently in here,” she began as she looked on at the monsters in disgust. “They regenerate and respawn, though where they will turn up is unknown.”
“Great.” I cracked my knuckles, ready for whatever came next.
Another rumble came. This time, the ruins of the bathhouse crumbled ahead of us, and out of the destruction came more or less what I’d expected. Dozens of monsters leapt out and charged at us, their excited, blood-lust fueled cries piercing the air. Goblins, trolls, box ogres, and imps were all among them, the standard assault forces of monster attacks.
I threw more of my monsters out there to intercept the onslaught. I must have sent more than a dozen of my pets. All four of my axe goblins, my two box ogres, six different speed slugs for each monster, a couple of daggerdillos, and fire imps to shoot flames and ignite the daggerdillo’s spikes. All in all, my monsters were outnumbered three to one, but they tore through the enemy hordes.
Nia swung her arms next to me like they were swords, and in their place came gusts of wind so strong that they were like visible blades. They flew around my monsters and struck the approaching ones, slicing them in two. Wind blades, impressive magic. Without missing a beat, she raised her fists together and fire danced around where her two hands met. It grew quickly until the fireball enveloped her whole arms, and Nia didn't seem hurt by it one bit. She sent the fireball out against the horde of monsters, and it continued to grow while it careened through them. Finally it exploded in the center of their ranks, and it must have taken down two dozen of them. Their screams almost made me deaf.
I stared in awe for that quick moment. I’d heard she could use more than one element, but it was a sight to see it firsthand.
I wouldn’t let her get all the glory though. I commanded my monsters to weave through the enemy, their attacks a furious wave, all claws, axes, and elemental blasts similar to Nia’s though not as strong.
Using that many monsters at once drained me, but that didn’t stop the smile that spread across my face when I saw the open jaw of Nia as she witnessed my handiwork firsthand. Her arms were aflame as she hurled fireball after fireball, but that didn’t mean she was blind to what I was doing. I wish I had one of those fancy and expensive photograph machines to immortalize her expression. If I died in here, I could die happy seeing that.
She was incredulous. “I… h-how… how are you doing this?” Her
flames died as she stomped the ground and launched a towering slab of earth that slammed into a couple of ogres.
Only a few monsters remained of the enemy’s attack. Mine finished them up. “It’s not hard. Maybe you had summoners all wrong.”
Her face scrunched into a scowl. “No, I haven’t. I certainly haven’t seen a summoner do that.”
“Well get used to it, ‘cause I aim to make this the new standard.”
She wanted to make a witty retort, but then a thunderous crash resounded as the Academy walls behind the bathhouse crumbled into a cloud of crushed stone. What emerged was, of course, more monsters, but dozens, no, maybe hundreds of them. Most were the grunts of the monster horde, but there were some trolls, a couple of cyclops, and even some massive beasts that I didn’t have a name for. My monsters that were the closest to them did their best, but a cyclops effortlessly stepped on a couple of my goblins.
“This is bad,” I muttered nervously.
Nia nodded. “Agreed. This isn’t a random rift. This is an invasion.”
I cursed. “Guess we’re the first line of defense.”
I held more of my crystals in hand, ready to throw all I had at the coming horde. My monsters were ready, and I knew they’d be able to cut a swath through this next assault, but they wouldn’t be enough. Only Nia and I working together could do this. I hoped she was on board to work with me.
I nudged her with my elbow, and she shot me a questioning glance. “I’m going to send my monsters right up the middle and cut their forces in two. Funnel them to each of us so it’s easier to manage. Think you can handle that?”
