Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  Lulu conjured up water from the spilled liquid on the ground. Vinata cast spells on the vine monsters, causing them to grow longer and larger. Imogen picked up a gravel ghoul and made for Uzax, swinging the giant around like a ragdoll, while the frenzied Pyromancer dodged and threw fire at her. Imogen kept her distance, as the heat appeared to be too great for her.

  Melody cast lightning bolts at Lexi, giving Pearl enough breathing space to retreat and rejoin her mother and brother.

  Uzax glared at Ben in between dodging blows from Imogen. “Traitor!” he yelled.

  “You have entered the domain of Benzhameen, the Forgotten Ruler!” Ben announced. “You have threatened the welfare of my women. For that you will all die!”

  Lexi and Uzax scoffed in disbelief.

  “Forgotten Ruler?” Uzax echoed incredulously. “He’s out of his mind if he expects us to believe that’s who he is.”

  Ben prepared to prove him wrong, stretching out his hands and gathering his magical energy to cast Drain. Strands of energy appeared in chaotic webs all over the room. Physical energy from his own monsters filled the air with green strands, while the mental and emotional energy of the mages and his women provided only a splash of blue and red.

  It was the purple energy coming from the mages that really caught his eye though. He recalled having seen purple strands when he first used Drain on Melody, but the strands he could now see inside these mages was a much more vibrant purple. It was magical energy, the source and power of their incredibly potent spells. If he could drain them of their spells, the others could easily overwhelm them.

  When Ben tried to sap this purple energy however, nothing happened. The energy simply wouldn’t respond to his efforts to draw it out. It was like he was being blocked.

  “Are you going to dance for us?” Uzax taunted as he dodged another swing from Imogen’s giant stone ragdoll.

  Ben had never encountered this resistance before. He suspected he was being blocked by some sort of magical immunity the mages had, but there was no time to speculate on that. He needed to get the null locks around those mages so that their magic would be nullified. Once that happened, he could drain their energy.

  But how to get closer? Uzax was throwing out too much heat even for Imogen to come close, and Lexi was fighting Melody and Pearl and Nipper with such ferocity, they were being driven back against the wall.

  Sir Gallant the Elder was keeping Adremor engaged, but Ben didn’t like his chances against the Force Wizard when he was unarmed.

  Ben’s only power was Drain. He realized he needed to think laterally again, to come up with a solution that no one would have expected. He remembered how he had used his ability to defeat gravel ghouls and vine monsters in the dungeon.

  That was it. He turned his gaze away from the purple energy of the mages and focused on the green physical energy of the vine monsters.

  He picked out a couple of the monsters growing down from the ceiling. Those would be burnt by the conflagration on the table soon anyway. He’d need to have a word with Sir Gallant the Younger about placement next time.

  He drained all the physical energy from those vine monsters, causing them to shrivel up and filling his own body with super speed. Moving in a blur, Ben shot up to Vinata and relieved her of the null lock she was carrying. Then he darted toward Uzax. He came up short though, as the wall of heat emanating from the mage grew too much to bear.

  Ben was forced back at a distance of ten feet. There was no way he could get close enough to snap on a null lock. His own flesh would melt off his bones before that.

  He made for Lexi instead. She saw him coming and whipped her spear around to face him. Ben skidded sideways. The spear tip glanced across his stomach, tearing the splendid robes he’d found in his wardrobe, and scratching the skin, deeper than he would have liked. Blood began to well up in the wound.

  Ben dived to the ground like a footballer making a touchdown, and clasped the null lock around the hawkwoman’s ankle. While the null lock prevented Lexi from using her magic, it did nothing to remove her physical power. Ben glanced up and saw her spear coming straight down toward his face.

  Then there was a loud crash, and a shadow passed over Ben’s face. A gravel ghoul smashed into Lexi, knocking her sprawling to the ground. She lay there stunned, a trickle of blood trailing down her cheek.

  Ben got to his feet and saw Imogen on the other side of the ashen remains of the dining table, grinning at him. She’d just hurled that ghoul like it was a bowling ball.

  She turned and grabbed another one, shielding herself from Uzax’s continued attacks.

  Uzax pulled a potion out of his belt to drink. Imogen tried to knock it out of his hands, but he was too quick. Ben realized Uzax must have been low on mana. He would need to distract the Pyromancer and see if he could give the nymphs a chance to attack him like Imogen had attacked Lexi.

  Melody and their two children were heading toward Uzax as well, but Uzax ignited a ring of fire around himself, keeping everyone at bay. Lulu cast spheres of water at Uzax, but they evaporated before they could reach him. She started accumulating the water in an ever-growing sphere.

  Ben activated Drain again and sapped Lexi’s magical energy, hoping it might give him something to use against Uzax. He’d expended a fair bit of mana draining the vine monsters already. He pushed his supply to the limit, taking all of Lexi’s magic.

  The hawkwoman passed out as he sapped all her magical energy. The magic swirled inside Ben’s body, filling him with a sensation of power he’d never felt before. His veins throbbed, and his skin tingled with the new energy.

  A message appeared in front of his eyes.

  You have acquired a new spell: Healing Touch

  Ben wasn’t sure what that would do, but he could make a pretty good guess. He touched the wound on his stomach that Lexi had given him, and channeled his mana into his fingers. He activated the Healing Touch spell in his mind and focused on the wound.

  The skin quickly began knitting itself back together. Blood was slurped back up into the closing seam, and tendrils of flesh and muscle grew toward one another. Within moments, there wasn’t even a scar.

  Ben looked up and saw the fighting continuing to rage between Adremor and Sir Gallant the Elder, on one side of the room. The advantage of being an animated suit of armor appeared to be that Sir Gallant would never tire. He still fought with the same energy as when they’d started. Adremor was holding his own, however, and showed no sign of wavering.

  Uzax fought the nymphs on the other side of the room. The Pyromancer was still hurling fireballs at anything that moved, while Imogen used a gravel ghoul like a shield to defend herself and the others.

  Vinata was using whatever plant magic she had as a dryad to heal the vine monsters as they were getting burned. Together, they were keeping Uzax off-balance, but neither side could gain the upper hand.

  Seeing Vinata healing the vine monsters gave Ben an idea, possibly his craziest so far. He stepped over the ashen remains of the dining table and took the null lock from Lulu, who was busy trying to gather more water from the few puddles remaining on the floor, while not getting hit by fireballs.

  Then Ben began to march toward Uzax, null lock in one hand. The heat emanating from the Pyromancer was intense. Ben could feel himself burning, his skin drying out until it was like sandpaper, then flaking off in huge strips. The pain was like nothing he’d felt before, but he gritted his teeth and bore it.

  He used his mana to heal himself, using the spell he’d acquired from Lexi. He held his hand out and applied the magic over his whole body, but it didn’t mitigate the pain.

  The sensation was like wading through mud made of lemon juice and dirt, filled with razor blades. The air was thick with heat. Ben could feel his eyeballs being scorched out of his skull. Uzax was facing him now, casting fireball after fireball straight for Ben’s head.

  Ben ducked and weaved, avoiding any direct impacts, but he could feel his hair catching on fire, and
the skin being scorched off his scalp. He was only five feet away now, but he could hardly take another step. Every muscle in his body tried to turn him around to escape the heat.

  Suddenly, the fire stopped. There was a loud hiss and a cloud of steam enveloped Uzax. Ben almost collapsed forward with the relief as the heat disappeared. He looked to his right, and saw Lulu, her hands held out, manipulating a stream of water, which she was still pouring onto Uzax’s body.

  Ben lunged forward with the null lock in his hand, not wanting to wait to see if Uzax would recover. The Pyromancer was vainly trying to summon another fireball in his hand, but every spark was extinguished by the water.

  Imogen ran forward and delivered a kick to Uzax’s stomach, bringing the man to his knees. She whacked him over the head with a gravel ghoul fist, knocking him unconscious. Ben snapped the null lock around his ankle.

  Only one mage was left. The nymphs and Melody, and their two monster children, all gathered around.

  Ben looked at them. “Lulu, you keep an eye on Uzax, douse him if he moves. Imogen, give me that null lock, I’ll try and disable Adremor.”

  Imogen handed Ben the null lock, and they all took up defensive positions.

  Ben watched as Sir Gallant the Elder continued to fight Adremor. Sir Gallant’s prowess with the giant blade he wielded was astonishing. He parried both of Adremor’s enchanted blades effortlessly. Ben was grateful they hadn’t faced Sir Gallant as an enemy in the dungeon. A tireless suit of armor with such formidable skill might have been the death of them.

  Ben didn’t want to approach Adremor without caution, however. He didn’t know if the Force Wizard had the mental capacity to throw something at his head while still engaged in combat. He wondered if he could get Imogen to hold up a gravel ghoul and shield him.

  Just as he was about to ask, however, Adremor slipped up. One of his swings went wide, and Sir Gallant lost no time taking advantage.

  The giant longsword swung down clean and true, and sliced off the Force Wizard’s right hand. Adremor cried out, his voice filled with pain and rage as the stump spurted blood.

  The knight spun Adremor around, getting him in a chokehold. One plated gauntlet held the Force Wizard’s neck in place, the other held the sword blade to his throat. The knight inclined his head toward Ben, waiting for instructions.

  Ben was just about to step forward to cuff the mage with a null lock, when Adremor screamed in rage. “I will not be defeated by an empty suit of armor!”

  The Force Wizard’s blue eyes turned yellow, beginning to glow brighter and brighter, until they were like mini suns. The floor of the tower began to shake, and burnt furniture and smashed dishes rattled.

  With Adremor’s waves of magic rolling off him, Ben could not draw near enough to place a null lock around the Force Wizard’s ankle. With that option now impossible, there was no way to prevent Adremor’s magic or disable him.

  “It’s a death curse!” Melody cried out. “If Adremor finishes casting it, the whole tower will come down!”

  Ben looked around him to see what he could do. He couldn’t use Drain on Adremor while his magic was blocking the spell. He could use Drain on Uzax, however.

  He took a step back on the trembling floor and held out his hands toward the unconscious Pyromancer, draining his magical power. The energy flooded into his body, filling him with power until it felt like he could take no more.

  “Ben, you can’t do that,” Melody called to him. “Taking that much power at once will kill you.”

  “I have no choice,” he yelled back. “It’s him or us. All of you have to get out of here now.”

  He kept draining Uzax’s energy. His vision started to darken, and his body heated up. At last, a message appeared in his vision.

  You have acquired a new spell: Fireball

  Ben glanced to the side and saw the women all still rooted to the spot, watching him and watching Adremor, as they both began to glow like nuclear bombs.

  “Sir Gallant the Younger,” Ben yelled at the ceiling. “Get them out of here. Take Uzax and Lexi too. This place is going to turn into an oven.”

  A couple of gravel ghouls emerged from the floor. Ben didn’t know how Sir Gallant the Younger still had the mana to summon the ghouls, but he was too grateful to ask questions just now. The ghouls picked up the prone mages, then moved toward Melody and the nymphs and forcefully escorted them to the dining hall doors. The women screamed and sobbed as they were driven out, but Ben had no choice. The doors opened, and the stone giants shooed everyone out, before the doors closed again behind them. There was the sound of the door locks clicking as Sir Gallant the Younger sealed off the dining hall.

  Ben turned to Adremor again, wondering how he could destroy the mage without harming Sir Gallant the Elder. This mage was clearly evil and needed to die, but he didn’t want to sacrifice his most loyal servant in the process.

  Adremor flexed his arms, and energy burst from his torso, sending a force wave across the room. Ben was nearly knocked on his back. Sir Gallant the Elder was smashed to pieces. Armor went flying in all directions.

  “No!” Sir Gallant the Younger’s voice sobbed through the intercom.

  “Prepare to die, traitor,” Adremor growled.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Ben growled back. “Now there’s nothing stopping me from incinerating you.”

  Ben poured all his energy into his outstretched hands and activated the Fireball spell. He poured every drop of mana he could muster into the spell and unleashed the fire in a gigantic blaze.

  Fire flared out from his body in all directions, boiling and seething, like an exploding star. The spell blinded Ben, filling the room with the light of a star for a fraction of a second.

  He heard the hiss of burning flesh and the crackle of flames, before the fireball finally dissipated. Ben looked around him as his vision returned.

  A huge black stain was left on the wall in front of him where the fireball had smashed against the obsidian surface. There was nothing left of Adremor but a stain where his flesh had been seared into the floor. Ben shuddered to think what it would take to restore this room to its original state.

  Then weariness took Ben. The adrenaline wore off, and he collapsed to his knees. His mana was exhausted, and he was scorched and bruised. He would need to ask Melody to refine some more mana crystal so he could heal himself and the others.

  Sir Gallant’s helmet lay in front of him. Ben’s stomach sank, feeling like lead. He didn’t think he’d be able to heal the valiant knight, as he had no body. The knight had sacrificed himself for the rest of them.

  It was the most unpleasant part of being a ruler. Watching others sacrifice their lives for you, and not being able to do a thing to bring them back.

  But then, Ben heard the old familiar voice, coming from the helmet in front of him.

  “Well, now that we’ve ascertained that our master is largely unharmed, can someone see about putting me back together again?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The doors to the dining hall opened, and the women filtered inside. They took one look at the charred remnants of Adremor and sprinted over to Ben. He hugged and kissed each in turn before Nipper leaped onto him, throwing him backward. The big cat nuzzled into Ben’s neck, and despite his soreness, he couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Love you, too, kiddo,” he said. Before he could push his son off him, there came Pearl. She offered him what looked like a smile. “Come here, Pearl.”

  The werecat approached Ben, almost bashfully, and he gave her a big hug. It felt strange to be embracing a large, cat-like creature like this, especially given that this same creature was also Ben’s daughter.

  It was a crazy thing, but he figured it wouldn’t be the craziest to happen to him for as long as he remained in this world. And, now that they had dealt with the mages, he hoped it would be a very long time.

  Recalling the mages, Ben addressed the women.

  “You watch those two.” Ben gestured at
Uzax and Lexi as he spoke to the nymphs. “Melody, I want you to help me put the Elder back together again.”

  Together, they waded through the destruction of the dining hall and located the various components of Sir Gallant the Elder’s suit of armor. It was no small task putting him back together, effectively a kind of jigsaw puzzle, but when Sir Gallant the Younger came racing into the Hall to help, it wasn’t long before the Elder was back in workable condition.

  Certain pieces of his armor had been damaged by the sheer heat of the Fireball spell. Unlike the living members of Benjamin’s party, the ensouled suit of armor could not be healed with the use of the stolen spell, Healing Touch. Ben was surprised to learn that he still had access to the spell, and not only this one, but also Fireball. He would keep an eye on them both, though, and see whether he eventually lost the ability to cast them.

  When Ben had regenerated a little mana, he used Healing Touch to mend any wounds his party had acquired during the fight. After this was completed, Ben addressed those gathered before him.

  “What we did here, this day, was pretty damn remarkable. You all fought bravely. I’m proud to have you part of my budding empire.”

  Everyone smiled at Ben.

  “And what of the prisoners, sire?” asked Sir Gallant the Elder.

  “Cut their heads off,” Vinata said, her eyes blazing.

  “Burn them!” Sir Gallant the Younger hopped about in excitement at the prospect. “I’ll help.”

  “For now, they are worth more alive to me than dead,” Ben announced.

  He saw the looks of fear and disappointment in the eyes of the nymphs.

  “I need to take what power and knowledge I can get from those mages before I execute them,” he explained, hoping to placate the worried monsterkin. “They will remain imprisoned and shackled in null locks. Don’t worry; I will see that they can’t harm you anymore.”