by Eric Vall
She scoffed, but there was the hint of a grin behind it. “Can you?” she asked.
I did grin. “Watch me.”
As the monster horde approached, I jogged farther away from Nia and directed my own monsters forward into a spear formation with the spinning axe goblins on point. They shot toward the enemy line like an arrow, and when they met the other monsters, they tore through the middle of their assault. The monsters nearest mine stopped to fight them, and the ones farther away kept on coming, but my strategy worked. They were split into two streams, some homing in on me, while the rest gunned for my elemental partner.
Several of my monsters were defeated and their crystals flew back to me like I was a magnet. I would have called the ones still fighting back, but there were so many of the enemy that I kept them where they were to thin the incoming waves as best they could. They didn’t need much direction from me once I told them to attack. Their monster instincts took care of the rest.
As for the ones about to attack me, I called forth a couple of my cementrolls and had them spew as much of their cement as they could. The wet cement drenched at least a dozen of the incoming monsters before hardening into immobile stone. Nia’s fire attacks crashed into them in an explosion of flame and debris and reduced them to rubble, but there were many more that followed.
We held them at bay, but dozens more kept coming, all teeth, claws, and fangs. The monsters streamed around and surrounded us. One charged me, but I ducked its blow and tumbled away. I resummoned my axe goblins and speed slugs to guard us. They spun around us, their blades an impenetrable wall. Nia didn’t need their help. As I sidestepped another monster that slipped through, I watched as Nia clapped her hands and directed a bolt of lightning that shot through her body and surged through the monsters around her. Thunder cracked with the blast and made my ears ring.
Nia held her own. Meanwhile, my axe-wielding bodyguards had a difficult time keeping the other monsters from getting to me. I managed to avoid any fatal blows, but I found myself covered in cuts in bruises before long. At one point, an ogre kicked me right in the ribs, and I hurled over and landed on the ground, all the breath knocked out of me. It raised its fists to knock me out of the fight, but then a torrent of flames from Nia blasted its face while my axe goblins chopped at its legs. I rolled away as the ogre disintegrated into nothing. I wished I could have captured some of these monsters, but it would be far too risky to try that here.
Nia covered me while I regained my breath, and the monsters made a quick advance toward our position while I recovered. I rose as soon as I could, my ribs screaming in pain, and summoned a bullet bass, which promptly hardened into its chrome-like state upon my command. I coupled it with a lightning imp that charged the bass, then directed the bass forward into the mass of beasts. The bullet bass shot through the monsters, and the electricity it’d gathered arced outwards from itself to electrocute every monster within fifteen feet of where it passed. Then, as the electricity dissipated from the bass, I sent the pair of monsters towards Nia, who didn’t hesitate to use them the same way, her electric attacks coursing through them and to the enemy.
Their ranks thinned with that and gave us some breathing room, but we weren’t done yet. Nia and I both breathed heavy, and I could see blood streaming from a cut on her left arm and another gash along her right shoulder, though I didn’t think there was anything serious. Ahead of us, I could still see the larger monsters coming. My horde of monsters slowed them, but I didn’t have many left. Each time one of mine fell, I could feel it like an itch. I could summon them again, but summoning the same monster more than once within minutes of each other required far more mana than the first summoning, even more so if the monster had been defeated in battle. So that would be a last resort.
Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. Nia was a force of nature. Even though I was sure to evenly funnel the monsters, many that attacked me broke off to swarm her, maybe sensing that she was the bigger threat, but she wasn’t fazed by all the bodies around her. Lightning and flame coursed around her like a tornado of destruction. The monsters were nothing next to her. They burned and cried and died as her terrifying magic consumed them. I had to admit, she was incredible, and I could see why everyone was so enamored with and in awe of her. Nia Kenefick had earned that respect.
Though the waves of monsters fell in droves at our feet, they kept coming. As the grunt monsters fell, the larger ones came in force. I threw daggerdillo-spiked wallerdons at a couple of trolls and froze another with a cementroll. My fire and ice imps combined to send a tremendous elemental blast that went right through the chest of a minotaur, its furry chest slick with blood and guts before it faded away.
I smiled through my fatigue. We could do this.
Nia was sweating, slightly injured like me, and her hair was a mess, but she was in her element. She had to dodge a few more attacks from the monsters that advanced on her, but she was nimble and twirled between attacks from beasts big and small, her magic sizzling from her hands as she went. She laid waste to the surrounding monsters, and for a brief moment, it almost looked like she was having fun.
But then her smile faded as a deep, booming roar shook the air.
Behind the last of the monsters was another that I had never seen before. It was terrifying. Massive, near as tall as a cyclops, its body was like jagged stone, with sharp, spiky edges all over its limbs and torso. A strange glow moved through its body and shone through cracks in its skin, making its claws seem to radiant orange and blue, like fire. Its hollow eyes smoldered with the same color, and the jagged rock horns that jutted out of its head like a terrible crown seemed alight with the colors too.
The monster breathed and let out a low grumble, the bass of which made the air vibrate and my teeth rattle. The hairs all over my body stood on end again. The ground shook as the monster stepped toward us. It felt ancient and powerful, like no monster I’d ever experienced.
I turned to Nia. “What is that thing?” I asked shakily.
Her eyes were wide, and for the first time, I saw a crack in her confident exterior. She was afraid. “I—I don’t know.”
Nia wasn’t one to shy away though. She swallowed her fear and gathered all the electricity she could muster before unleashing on the hulking monster as I recalled all my creatures. The air clapped from the sound, and my ears even popped. My hair actually did stand straight up as her attack charged the air. It zapped in a flash and struck the beast.
To our horror, the beast did nothing. Worse, it looked like the monster absorbed the lightning. The electricity fizzled at the chest of the monster before dissipating along its body as the strange glow flashed a bright blue before dimming along with the lightning.
I worked in tandem with Nia, my monsters complimenting her attacks. She raised massive columns of rock out of the earth with a stomp of her foot. My bullet basses made them metal and made their jagged tips even sharper. She used her wind to launch wallerdons and daggerdillos and large globs of cement from the trolls. She channeled her electricity through my bullet basses as earlier, and absorbed the elemental attacks of my imps to add to her own.
Nia threw fire at the monster, a fireball so big it was like a meteor. It crashed into the beast with a booming explosion that caused a wave of hot hair to wash over us. I stumbled but maintained my balance. The blast knocked the monster back, but it recovered easily. She threw winds that could cut steel, but it shrugged off the attacks. My bullet basses, which were near immune to fire, acted as meteors of their own once Nia engulfed them, but they seemed to only bounce off the monster. We used her wind to toss my speed enhanced axe goblins, but they couldn’t scratch its skin. Then she made the earth erupt in columns of solid rock, but the creature broke them with ease. I threw all my monsters at it that I could without passing out from my growing lack of mana. Our attacks were a brilliant whirlwind of magic and destruction. Wind, fire, lightning, monsters, claws, steel, rock. Pure chaotic energy. We threw it all at this monster.
Desp
ite the danger and the exhaustion and the pain of our injuries, Nia and I were in awe of what we were doing. If what the Headmaster told me was true, then this was the first time this sort of attack had ever happened, and it was a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, this monster was in a class of its own.
Our attacks pushed the monster back and stalled it, but we were getting nowhere. It roared in pain and frustration, and at one point, a blast of Nia’s lightning that was amplified by my bullet bass tore a chunk out of the monster’s chest. It stumbled back, pained and angry, but then it kept coming. I didn’t know what else we could do. Maybe if we were stronger or more experienced, but we couldn’t hold up much longer, and the smell was starting to drive me mad, and my body ached from mana exertion. I was near my limit, but I couldn’t stop. We had to defeat this thing.
Nia stopped her assault suddenly and dropped to a knee. Her breathing was labored and heavy, as was mine. My monsters did their best to halt the huge beast, but it swatted them aside with ease. My mana dwindled, and without Nia’s help, there wasn’t much more I could do. I looked at Nia. Blood streamed from her nose, a sign that her mana was virtually gone. Complete mana depletion could kill a person, but it was a rare occurrence as most never got near that point. I felt a warm trickle down my face and put a hand to my nose. Blood. Well, shit. We were both near that dangerous line.
Not that it mattered. This monster was about to make quick work of us. It bore down on us, with quaking steps that cracked the earth beneath it. The light within it dimmed and became an ominous red before it faded to an orange again. I gulped. We were done for.
Just then the whole sky, no, the entire Shadowscape, lit up in a brilliant display of lightning, a mosaic of wild, forking electricity. The thunder that followed shook the hellscape. That couldn’t have been Nia, and it wasn’t, for as I looked at her, I could see the shock in her eyes. Then we heard the footsteps behind us and saw the answer.
Marangur Sleet, the Storm Wizard.
Lightning engulfed him as if he was made of it. He unleashed it all at the monster with a crack of thunder so great that my ears screamed with white noise. The bolt of his attack struck the huge terror and sent it flying into the Academy wall.
Just like that, we were momentarily out of danger. Behind the headmaster was the rest of the team come to close the portal, including Arwyn. She looked at me with concern, but it was the Headmaster’s eyes that drew me, for they were furious.
“Out. Now,” he said, his voice like fire.
That wasn’t good.
I was able to stand and hobble for the portal, but Nia was too drained. I helped Arwyn lift her and together we hauled her and myself to our feet and through the portal. It felt like hopping through a pool of water, but then we were back in our world, safe and whole. Knowing that, I let go of Arwyn and Nia and fell to the ground, exhausted and on the verge of unconsciousness, but I battled the blackness of my mind and stayed awake.
We’d done it. Safe and sound … until the Headmaster got back.
Chapter 11
It was dark when we returned to our world, and the humidity and the clean air were such a relief that I gulped it in like I’d been holding my breath for hours. It was such a pleasant thing after the terrible, all-consuming smell of the Shadowscape. The very air felt refreshing compared to the unnatural rot of the cold, humid hell.
I wouldn’t take breathing regular air for granted again.
The fact that it was dark was concerning, as it was near sunset when we entered, but full darkness had been a couple of hours away at least.
“How is it dark already?” I asked as my head swiveled around. “It was barely sunset when we entered the portal.”
“Time is different in the Shadowscape,” Arwyn explained, “What felt like maybe fifteen minutes for you was about two hours out here.”
I nodded like I understood, but it was a maddening thought. “Is that how it always is?”
Arwyn shook her head. “No, sometimes it’s closer to our own sense of time, other times it can be much worse. The longest I’d heard of was from a decade ago, when a team of mages went to close a portal, were in there for an hour, and came back to find a week had gone by.”
My eyes widened. “That sounds … problematic.”
Arwyn strained against Nia’s weight and nodded. The concern was plain in her eyes. “It is,” she murmured in a huff.
Nia was silent the whole time. I assumed she knew these things, but the fact that she was too exhausted to insert her knowledge was alarming. Her nose still bled, and her eyes looked glazed over. They focused for a moment when they met my gaze, which prompted her to frown.
“I feel… h-heavy, Gryff,” was all she managed to say, her teeth chattering as she shivered. Her condition had deteriorated fast since we came back through the rift.
“She doesn’t look too good,” I commented, my voice tinged with worry.
“Was she injured by a monster?” Arwyn asked as her brows furrowed in concern.
“No, I think she depleted her mana,” I replied, then shook my head, “she was like a force of nature in there.”
Arwyn frowned. “We need to hurry then.”
I helped her carry Nia to the medical wing of the Academy on the southern end of the campus, opposite from where my dorm was, not too far from the practice fields. It was there for good reason, because people got hurt during training all the time. Nia’s condition was a little more serious than most cases, I wagered.
My head swam from fatigue, and my body felt more drained than ever. I could taste the blood from my nose as it drifted over my lips, but I powered through. I had to keep going, get Nia inside so Arwyn could help her.
The medical ward had the same architecture as every other building, although there were far more windows, and the roof was shallower than the rest. It lacked the columns and overhangs of several other buildings and opted for a more practical design. I pulled open one of the double doors and helped Arwyn drag Nia inside.
The foyer was like the admissions office but with fewer books and more cabinets. Vials and jars full of samples of Maker knew what filled the shelves that lined the walls. Arranged on either side of the entrance near us were seats and small tables. A woman about Arwyn’s age with short red hair and plump cheeks sat at a metal desk in front of it all. As she read through some papers, she fidgeted and drummed her fingers along the desk, but when we came in, her eyes shot to us.
“Miss Hamner, has the portal been closed? And, oh, what happened with her?” She jumped from her seat and was by our side in an instant. I caught a faint whiff of roses on her.
“She has mana depletion,” Arwyn explained succinctly. “I can give you the details later, Meridan, but right now help us bring her to the infirmary.”
Meridan didn’t hesitate. We shifted Nia so that I grabbed her under the armpits and they each took a hold of one of her legs. Nia groaned at the sudden movement, but there was no helping that. We carried her down an adjoining hall filled with doors before we came to the set of double doors at the end of it. The ladies used their backs to push them open, and we proceeded inside.
The infirmary was long and tall, the walls lined with white-sheeted beds. Filling the spaces were more shelves stocked with medicine, elixirs, medical equipment, and paperwork. There seemed to be a window over every bed. I had no doubt that it got very bright in there during the day, which I bet was the idea.
We brought Nia to the nearest bed and laid her down. Her eyes were still open, but it was clear that they couldn’t focus on anything, her gaze distant and clouded. Blood dripped down her nose, from her mouth, and even from her ears. I wasn’t that far gone yet, but I found that I could barely stand.
“You lie down too,” Meriden ordered, and I didn’t argue. I hopped into the bed next to Nia to rest.
Miss Arwyn jogged for one of the shelves near us while Meriden checked Nia for any injuries. Arwyn returned only seconds later with a large glass vial filled with a cloudy blue liquid that looked
at least as thick as cement.
I furrowed my brows. “Can’t you just heal her?” I asked.
Arwyn shook her head as she popped the cork from the vial. “If she had a broken bone or an open wound, yes, but mana depletion is something altogether different. She needs to get to a healthy level of mana or her heart will stop.”
I didn’t question her knowledge. She gently opened Nia’s mouth and began to pour the contents of it down her throat. As soon as she got a good amount in, Nia started to gag, and that’s when Arwyn forced Nia’s mouth shut and massaged her neck to make the elixir go down. Nia struggled momentarily before her neck muscles strained and swallowed. Immediately she stopped struggling and let out a gasping sigh. Her eyes shut, then she drifted back onto the bed and passed out.
Arwyn sighed too, but hers was of pure relief. She swiveled to me, vial in hand, as Meriden used a wet rag to wipe the blood, sweat, and dirt from Nia.
“Your turn,” Arwyn said.
I gave the concoction a long look. “What is it?” I licked my lips and gulped.
She turned the vial in her hand so that I could get a better look at it under the light that Meriden had scrambled to turn on. “Liquified essence crystals. Expensive to buy, even harder to make, but it will save your life.”
I nodded. I knew about potions that could cure mana depletion and other ailments, though I hadn’t bothered to worry about what they were. But the fact that they were made from liquefied essence crystals? Strong magic must’ve been involved to create such a thing. I thought it was impossible to destroy them, but it seemed I was wrong.
Arwyn handed me the vial. “Your life isn’t in immediate danger as hers was, but you need to drink.” She sat back and gave me an encouraging smile. “Bottoms up.”
I doubted this would be a pleasant experience, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I gave the vial a sniff. Smooshed elderberries and … honey? It smelled delightful. I shrugged my shoulders and tossed it back. How bad could it taste?
