Congrats everyone! I'm able to put up another chapter, of course I'm not sure if I can post another one soon, considering I'm back in school. Anyway, less like a let's play in this one, and more in-depth conversation. I'm not sure how I feel with how long the story chapter lasts, taking in the course of an entire day, but I'll let you guys be the judges! Also, this chapter may seem a bit quick paced, of course they're in a rush to get things done. I won't spoil anything else: Enjoy the Chapter!
[First Person, Genevieve]
I CAN'T BELIEVE WE PUT SOMETHING AS IMPORTANT AS THIS OFF FOR A DAY!
"I can't believe we even put this off for even a day," I vented to Emily. "We should never have taken a break!"
"We were tired, it was late," Emily reasoned. "I'm also admitting I was a bit scared about facing future challenges after the Screamers were hard to handle. I wanted to be more prepared."
LIKE THAT MEANS ANYTHING! I COULD HAVE COVERED FOR THE MISTEPS! WE COULDN'T JUST ABANDON THE SITUATION AFTER BEING SO GONE ALREADY!
"What we suggested we do was completely unlike you," I pointed out.
"What? What do you mean?"
"For the two months we've been here you've wanted to help out in any way you could, and then you decided out of the blue to take a day off!"
"HEY! For your information… if you haven't noticed already, me studying up on my skills to better myself is like me! Why do you think I selected every secondary class despite the implied workload? I don't want to be helpless when I go to help or I would need saving!"
Uh…Um...what?
"Don't you know that I would be there if you were ever in trouble?"
"We're not always together, you know. We both know your spells pack a punch on their own, while mine is overtime. I need to compensate power with skill, and to do that I need to study.
Okay…but…THAT STILL DOESN'T EXPLAIN WHY SHE WASN'T IN A HURRY TO HELP OUT THE DAY BEFORE!
"Why'd you take the day off? Why didn't you just study and go back to Triton Avenue to help? That's unlike you!"
"I didn't plan that! I didn't expect to be so shaken up by what I had to do that day! You suggested I relax!"
"For the rest of the school day, not for the entire day!"
"We had to do something for the headmaster! I didn't expect us to get a pet!" She gestured to Baby Lexi, who had hidden under her bed and squealing.
"You could have said 'no' to Ambrose, and you could have said 'no' to Mr. Barker. You could have said, 'we're busy, we can't do that right now,' or 'we're too busy to take care of a pet.'"
"Not all the time," argued Emily.
"No, you're right; it's just when duty calls."
"What'd you want me to do? Turn down a home for Baby Lexi?"
"That's what you would've done back at home; we're not pet-people!"
"We're not at home!" So, she expects me to believe that her personality COMPLETELY CHANGES WITH THE SCENERY! "I have the chance to own a dragon here, and you didn't think I'd want one."
"This isn't a dragon! Why didn't you swap this piggle for a dragon?"
"I didn't have the money to buy a dragon! Besides, we've already bonded with her; it'd be cruel to just give her up!"
"Okay! So now we have to deal with a frightened piglet that won't stop squealing!"
"That's because we're fighting!"
"That's because you refused to return to Triton Avenue when it was in trouble!"
"You could've gone at any time! You've already proven you're capable, despite the limitations!"
"Apparently I can't! It doesn't feel right without you there, I feel like I can get hurt!"
"With your magic!?"
"Who cares about my power?! I'm just not in the same scale as you! It's not like I saw a vision in the Fire of Destiny, I just made a stupid Leyden jar!" There was silence as the lights flickered.
"Next to you, Em, I feel insignificant. You have a huge heart, taking in a piggle with no home, wanting to help all these people you barely know; all I really care about is you and not making a fool of myself."
"Still, you want to help out your street, now that's unlike you."
"Just because of what's going on right now," I said. "Look at what it's doing to the power in basic spells, and my Storm magic. Perhaps I'll be lucky, it'll be stronger on Triton Avenue and I'll be able to fix this."
"What about Susie and Artur?"
"I'm worried about that too," I admitted. "Not because they're fellow Storm students or anything, but because they're another group of siblings. If that were us I'd be asking for help as well; that's why I don't want to abandon them."
"We'll help them," said Emily. "I'm sorry for putting this off. You're right, it's not like me."
"I'm sorry for not understanding your situation and your anxiety. I keep forgetting this is hard for you too." We hugged; we then noticed the lights flickering and returned our focus to the situation. We discussed it as we were changing.
"So, how do you think the situation on Triton Avenue got worse?"
"We lowered the amount of dead on the street two days ago. Since we took a day off, the amount of dead got a chance raise again. It should start to be reaching overwhelming amounts."
"What's that got to do with the power flux?"
"The dead are after the mill. If they find a chance to over-run or worse destroy it, Wizard City's magic and power will be disabled in the most part."
"Once that happens, the dead will be able to overwhelm Wizard City."
"And no doubt they'll be exploiting the power they gathered from the street."
"That's bad," said Emily, starting to tend to her hair quickly.
"Yeah, that's not the worst part," I told her. "If the dead get what they're aiming for, they won't have a need to hold hostages anymore."
"Artur…you're saying…"
"I don't know," I admitted. "It's possible though, where else do you think he could be?"
"Good point," said Emily, finishing her touch-ups.
"Shall we get going?"
"Wait," said Emily. "What about Baby Lexi?"
"What about her?"
"Are we going to just leave her here, with the lights flickering and the magic acting wonky and everything?"
"She's not a fast flyer yet, she wouldn't be able to keep up. So, unless you want to carry her the entire way."
"Oh," said Emily, looking back at Baby Lexi. She pulled her out from under the bed, and stroked her to calm her. "I guess since she's not a fast flyer she can't do much damage here."
So after leaving out some Firecat gummies and more harvest corn for her to eat later, we headed to Triton Avenue.
As soon as we made it to the street we rushed the Haunted minions, not even assessing how many there were. The battle was so intense we were pulling out treasure cards and I even tried out the new spell I learned. Luckily my hunch was correct; my Storm magic was stronger on this street.
"Mystic Divine, make it thine, from Storm to Myth, now it's fine!"
From all our fighting, we cleared all but one section of the street, at least from that area. I also saw from the aftermath that maybe Emily had a point when she said we needed a day to brush up on our skills. Our strategy had improved, and Emily wasn't as drained as before. As for me, I replaced my flawed opal ring with a simple one, so I could be better protected. After all that was over, we headed over to Susie.
"Where were you guys yesterday? I expected you to show up but you never did."
"About that," said Emily. "We're sorry, it's just a lot of things happened yesterday."
"Well, I can understand if things come up, but we need to find my brother and I don't know how much I can handle this by myself."
"About that," I said. "Duncan asked us the day before to clear out some of the undead and instead we cleared out nearly the entire side of this street."
"That's awesome," said Susie. "Thank you so much! This will be much easier for me!"
"Hopefully this will help make up for us being gone yesterday," said Emily. "We'll double the effort as long as we're here and make sure you can take the street back."
"You guys are the best," said Susie.
"We have to be," I reminded. "This is my street as well, and I don't want anything happening to it, for my sake."
"Well, I guess we should fill in Duncan on how Haunted minions fight," said Emily.
"Like he'll need that information; there's only a few left. Still, if we must…you can do it Em, for you have more patience than I do."
"Gee thanks," said Emily blankly. I shouldn't keep volen-telling her to do these things, but what can you do about it, I can't stand the guy.
"I'll meet you on the other side of the street."
Once on the other side, I waited for Emily to show up, occupying my time by picking Cattails. As soon as she joined me, we went up the stairs to confront Blad.
"Where were you two yesterday," he questioned. "The number of the Undead on the street has gone up exponentially. I'm doing everything to keep the crows from attacking the crops."
"Is that why the mill isn't working right?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for starters the light keeps flickering in our room," Emily explained. "The voice that wakes us up is all static-y and Gen's Storm magic is on the fritz anywhere but here."
"Oh phew, I thought the power is on the fritz, but it turns out to just be the magic."
"So anyone who doesn't have magic is fine?" I questioned. Were we freaking out for nothing?
"It's another part of Triton Avenue that handles the power for Wizard City, and it's safe. Of course, the mill not working is a problem for Storm magic. Of course, I haven't had time to focus on it with all the crows!"
"Sorry Blad," said Emily. "Some things happened yesterday."
"Well then you are excused." That seems to be a very easy excuse; people are forgiving that like it's nothing. I wonder if I can say that anytime else and I'll be forgiven.
"We'll just lower the number of Rotting Fodders for starters," I said.
"Then maybe we can break for lunch," said Emily holding her stomach. My stomach growled; we did only have a muffin this morning.
"Yes, then we can break for lunch."
We took out most of the Rotting Fodders, leaving only two sections of the street with them. Surprisingly, Emily didn't really break a sweat, and these guys were using a lot of Storm magic. I even got to hear her say her new spell; I still didn't know how she could say it so quickly. "Fire feeds fire, that isn't so, thus fire's bite I send to go; trap my foe, and make it last, so that when my flame doth pass, it not burn but chill to morning ash!" That training really paid off for her. As for me, I wished I had paid more attention to my lesson yesterday; fighting the Rotting Fodders was a struggle and it was draining my mana. At least I got to see my new spell work in the way it was supposed to.
After we were done, to congratulate us, Blad served us some lunch: grilled perch and peas.
"Thanks again for lunch, Blad," I said as I ate.
"Don't mention it," said Blad. "With most of the Undead cleared, most of the crows went away. Those crows won't go away though; I need to finish those scarecrows so I can get back to tending the mill."
"You know what, since we need to inform Duncan on how Rotting Fodders fight, Emily can do that while I go fight the Field Guards." Emily started choking on her food.
"Why do you keep volunteering me for that! You think I have some miraculous patience with him?!"
"I said I didn't want to be left alone with him again, and I want the Mill working as soon as possible; plus this will be a good way to finish those notes that Penny gave us. Do you have them?" She pulled them out of her bag and handed them to me. "Thank you."
After Lunch, we parted ways; Emily to see Duncan, and me towards the Haunted cave to fight Field Guards. Here's what I can say about them: there's about four in a cluster, they use mainly Storm magic and you can beat them in about five turns, maybe more. These guys were incredibly smart too; gave me a run for my money. They certainly were not like Jack. Of course, I managed to gather up enough hay for the scarecrows and filled out the reports for Penny.
On my way back to Blad, I ran into Emily making her way down the street. I informed her about the Field Guards in-case she were to run into them in the future. She also informed me about what she found out.
"Rotting Fodders are not…He was surprised when I told him the Rotting Fodders mainly attacked us with storm magic."
"So Rotting Fodders are not supposed to be able to use Storm Magic?"
"Yeah," said Emily. "At least that's what Duncan said. The good news is that he is helping in the search for Artur. He told me to tell Susie he's still trying to figure out what happened to him."
"Well that's good to hear." I thought about this. "So they are taking the magic here and using it for themselves."
"In a way, yeah," said Emily. "I talked to Susie about it. She said they are wearing Storm medallions of some sort."
"I noticed that as well; I just figured they were supposed to have them." I have never seen a Rotting Fodder before recently; of course I wouldn't notice anything strange about them.
"Anyways," said Emily. "I'm supposed to somehow get one of the Storm medallions from them so Duncan can have a closer look at it."
"Doesn't sound fun; as for me, I'm going to give this hay to Blad and then go return the reports to Penny."
"I think I'll join you," said Emily, changing directions. "Those Rotting Fodders aren't going anywhere."
"Ah you returned with the Straw we need. Excellent," said Blad as we approached. "The last thing we need are some sticks for support. The best sticks to get are from the trees around Stormdrain Tower at the end of the Haunted Cave. You should collect them from there."
"But we have plenty of Mistwood," I said.
"That won't do. These need to be firm, thin, sticks. I'll start wrapping up the straw while you go and get the sticks." I turned to Emily.
"I really want the Storm Mill to be in order again, so I should probably get those sticks as soon as possible."
"What do you want me to do?" she asked. I handed her Penny's reports.
"Just bring these to Penny and come back, you know, if you can find her."
So I went back to the Haunted Cave, travelling along the cave's sidewalks. I questioned why the dead didn't attack me there; there were no water or unicorns. I guessed that maybe the dead just didn't want to go near the home entryways. I made it to Stormdrain Tower, gathered the estimated amount of sticks I needed, and headed back to Blad.
"Very good work," he said after I gave him the Sticks. "These will work just fine. Now I'll get to finishing them up and shipping them out immediately." He then started to put the finishing touches on the scarecrows and there were a lot of them. "Hoo-ha! I really do appreciate you helping me with these scarecrows, but as you might have guessed, something else has been bothering me lately."
"Is it about the mill?"
"Yes it's about the mill. I'm worried about our mill foreman, Sohomer Sunblade. I haven't seen him since the mill quit running and one of those ghosts made off with the Keystone to the teleporter here." He pointed to the teleportation pad near us.
"How long has the mill been not working?"
"Ever since five days ago."
"And now it's starting to affect us?"
"The city has been working on stored power."
"Oh…I can believe that."
"Anyway, if you could, defeat Haunted Minions until you recover the Keystone. Then we can check on old Sohomer." I chuckled a little.
"This should be easy, seeing as there are hardly any left it really narrows it down. I'll go get the Keystone."
While I was heading out to do the task, I ran into Emily again.
"Worksheets delivered," she said astutely. "She also told me to deliver a letter to her parents in Marleybone telling them she's fine. Considering everything is nothing as they told her, that she'd enjoy Malistere's classes but now he's evil and the death school is floating rubble, I bet they'd be worried."
"How'd you pull that off? I know we got a letter, but I didn't think this place had a postal system."
"I just gave it to Prospector Zeke. He's always traveling the Spiral anyway."
"Good for Penny," I said. "It kind of makes me want to write to our parents."
"It's too complicated, also we wouldn't be able to tell them the truth," said Emily.
"I know, it's just a thought." I perked myself up.
"Well thanks for doing that Em, now I need to knock around some Haunted Minions so I can recover a Keystone to a teleporter so I can go see the foreman."
"Okay, I guess I can help you with that, considering that I'm already here. It'll be twice as fast."
With Emily's help it was twice as fast. In fact, we managed to clear the last of the haunted minions off of the street. Once they were all gone, the Keystone was ours for the taking.
"No more Haunted Minions," I noted excitedly.
"The street seems to be safe to walk now," added Emily.
"This is great! Things are definitely moving in the right direction! You can go tell Susie that she can start moving people back onto the street while I bring the Keystone to Blad." No annoyed retorts this time. She didn't have to talk to Duncan and she knew how much I wanted the mill to work again. She went to go talk to Susie and I dashed to Blad.
"Thank you for getting the Keystone!" said Blad, taking it from me. He fit the Keystone into the teleporter and it began to glow and hum with life. "The teleporter is fixed! I'm glad some things are going right around here."
"You have no idea," I said. I then told him about the other half of the street.
"It's great that things are starting to go back to normal. Before that can that happen though, we need to get the mill going again."
"Right," I agreed. Blad agreed to make me and Emily dinner if we were to succeed in starting the mill again. Of course, we had to deliver on that. Since Blad would be busy with dinner, he wanted me to go check on Sohomer for him. I was just hoping that Sohomer was fine on his own for the past five days; Blad told me he lived secluded on a cliff face. By the time I went to step on the teleporter; Emily had caught up with me.
"Susie says she's going to wait until her brother's back before she starts doing that," she said upon arrival.
"Hey Em, I'm going to go check on the mill foreman, see if he's alright. Blad will have dinner ready for us around six."
"Okay, I'm going to go fight some Rotting Fodders, get some Storm medallions. Blad save me a plate, I'll be late."
"Alright, will do," said Blad. We separated once more.
As soon as I came through the teleporter, I saw the man I was looking for right next to it.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Genevieve," I told him. "I was sent to check to see if you were okay."
"I'm fine, you whippersnapper! But we have to get the Storm Mill working again!" I had a feeling he did not know who I was; that would make sense, but it was a new feeling for me in a while. "This mill here is one of the main sources of magical energy for all of Wizard City. The Undead sabotaged it!"
"I knew it!" I proclaimed. "I knew we shouldn't have taken that day off."
"What?"
"Nothing," I backtracked.
"Anyway, we need to get the mill running again, or we'll all be in serious trouble. Professor Balestrom helped design the Storm Mill, so he might know how to fix it."
"Hey he's my Professor," I pointed out.
"Good, he'll have time for you then. Go to Professor Balestrom and ask his advice. Go quickly!"
"Quickly? You do know Ravenwood is on the other side of the city, right?"
"You're a wizard, aren't ya? Can't you teleport there?"
"Yeah, but it's a bit uncomfortable; feels like I have static-"
"Magic is at stake here!"
"Fine, I'll do it."
Teleportation was never fun for me. Whenever I teleported, I felt like I had just been rubbing my feet on the carpet and I touched some metal. According to my teacher, whenever Storm students teleport they get struck with Storm magic like lightning and disappear in a blaze of light, turning into a cloud briefly, they arrive at their destination with burst of light like a lightning strike. All I experience is having the Storm magic envelope me, clouds clouding my vision, them parting towards the same light as before in a new location. It takes about thirty seconds to teleport, but I don't feel time difference.
Emily's teleportation magic is a little different. She bursts into flame briefly, turning to smoke, only to arrive in an erupting flame at her new destination. She tells me all she can experience is feeling warm as a summer day when the flames come up, and when the flames dispersed she was in a new place. So apparently, to teleport she turns into flame.
I took my wand in both hands and focused. I was enveloped in a flash of light, the clouds entered my vision, they then dispersed and I was in the Commons. A better route would have been to teleport home, but I was still new to this.
I rushed to Ravenwood, and then the Storm School. I headed in to tell my teacher everything, whilst short of breath.
"Dire news indeed," said my teacher. "If the mill is not restored, Triton Avenue will lose magical power and the rest of Wizard City will follow."
"I knew it!" I cried. "Is that why my Storm magic is on the fritz?"
"You should be lucky it still works on Triton Avenue; but yes, Storm magic will be the first to go."
"But the dead are using it for themselves!"
"That's even worse; but don't worry, everything can be fixed! We must act right away!"
"Tell Sohmer he can summon a Kraken using Lumina Crystals. Then, he can siphon its power back into the Storm Mill and get it working again!"
"How am I supposed to deliver this quickly to the other side of the city; I can't exactly teleport there?"
"Did you checkmark your spot at least?" Checkmarking your spot: storing some of your mana in a certain location so you can fix onto it later when you teleport.
"No I did not," I said dejectedly. I do not like teleporting, so I did not think of it.
"We'll work on your teleportation skills later; for now though, I suggest you start running."
"Ha-ha-made it," I said out of breath as I reached Blad's again.
"You didn't say you were going to be late as well," said Blad.
"What? Oh right! Dinner, I forgot, it's probably cold isn't it?"
"Yes," said Blad. "I could heat it up for you if you'd like?"
"Did Emily already eat her dinner?"
"Actually, she hasn't made it back yet; of course, by the looks of it she'll be here soon." He was looking down the bridge. I looked down the bridge, there was Emily making her way back.
"I can eat when she gets here. I have to tell Sohomer something."
"Where did you go?"
"Oh, he wanted me to immediately talk to my teacher about something, so I teleported there."
"You didn't teleport back?"
"I don't know how to do that."
"Hey guys, is dinner ready," said Emily. Oh, now I could eat.
Emily heated up our cold chicken and potato dinners with her fire magic.
"So, how's the foreman," said Emily taking a bite of chicken.
"He's knows how to get the mill working again. Get this, the undead did sabotage it and if it goes down we lose our magic."
"Meanwhile, the dead will have all the Storm magic at their disposal because of these Storm medallions," she said placing them on the table. "It would not be a fair fight."
"You got them," I said grinning.
"Yeah, but it wasn't easy." I picked one up.
"So these have been giving the undead Storm magic." As I touched the engravings on it, I could feel the hum of an electrical storm pulsing within it. "This is some powerful stuff."
"Good news though," said Emily. "Only one section of the street has Rotting Fodders. The Scarlet Screamers are still a threat though."
"You still have been making everything easier for us," said Blad, cleaning up. "I managed to ship out all the Scarecrows to the fields. Those crows won't be disrupting our food supply anymore, that's for sure."
"Maybe that's why we have such good food," I said. We laughed.
"Anyway," said Emily. "After we're done eating, I need to get these Storm medallions to Duncan, see what he can make out from them and maybe the reason why the undead have got their hands on them."
"I'll pass if you're talking to Duncan. I need to get some information to Sohomer anyway."
"Okay, but I hope you're happy; sending me to tell him everything, he's very arrogant. He didn't think we would survive fighting all the undead and he sent us anyway!"
I jabbed my fork into the table. The guy really ticks me off; at least Emily was being a lot calmer about this.
After stepping through the portal, he immediately asked me what my teacher suggested.
"Do you have any Lumina crystals?" I asked.
"What? Of course I do, what kind of question is that? I mean the Storm Mill makes'em."
"It does? I didn't know that."
"The mill makes Storm magic, and that is stored in the crystals. Now why do I need'em?"
"He says you can summon a Kraken with them and then it can power the mill once you siphon it's power."
"By Gamma's Beak! Why didn't I think of that? He's a genius!"
"He certainly knows more than me; that's why he's my teacher." He wasn't exactly listening to me; he had gone back inside his house and was rummaging through his items. He then came out with a barrel.
"Here," he said giving the barrel to me. "I'll activate this teleporter. Take all the Lumina Crystals I have down to the arena. The Kraken will be drawn to them."
"This is all you have?"
"There's a lot in there; believe me. Just spill them out by the river, draw the Kraken onto land, and then defeat it with your magic."
"Defeat it with my magic? That's not going to be easy; storm doesn't affect storm too much, and I think Krakens are not that easy to beat."
"They're not," said Sohomer. "Use some other magic to defeat it. I do hope that you're up for this, because you will have to defeat the Kraken if Triton Avenue is going to survive. What am I saying; I know you can do it! You've come this far already."
"You know about that?"
"You're on Triton Avenue when everything is falling to bits, and plus I just feel you're someone important."
"Well, I'm not the only one; I'm going to need her help for this."
"Is Emily back yet?" I said, exiting the teleporter.
"Not quite yet," said Blad.
"I should go get her then, we have a plan to fix the mill!" I started running to the other teleporter, and I ran into Emily coming out of it. My sister sure has timing.
"What's the rush, Gen?" she asked, regaining her bearings.
"I was actually looking for you."
"You were?"
"Yeah, I need your help with something. I need to fight a Kraken, and I can't do it alone."
"Why do you need to fight a Kraken?"
"We need to defeat it to siphon its power into the mill."
"Sounds cruel," she said.
"Magic is at stake, Em!"
"Alright fine, I'll help," she said. "Of course I have something I need to do as well. I need some Lumina Crystals from the Storm Mill."
"Why do you need them?
"Duncan needs them; he says it can help him figure out who gave the dead Storm medallions because they have storm magic inside them, and they will react to the medallions, and find the outlier."
"I didn't get that, but okay. Listen, Sohomer has lots of Lumina Crystals. You help me get the Storm Mill working again, and I bet he'll gladly give you some."
"I was originally going to ask Blad, but I'm sure that'll work too."
"Good, now let's go!"
Introductions were short as I introduced Emily to Sohomer Sunblade; I mainly focused on moving the barrel, which I also needed Emily's help for. We exited the other teleporter and arrived in an abandoned ruin on the river island. I popped open the lid to the barrel with a lightning blast, dragged the barrel into the middle of the island and spilled out the crystals, tossing away the barrel. I retreated back to the edge with Emily to wait for the Kraken to show up.
The Kraken arrived. I pulled out my wand, while Emily…did nothing.
"Why aren't you fighting with your wand?!" I asked.
"I decided not to use it for the time being," she said. "Lets me practice my hand magic, which is admittedly more fun."
"We're fighting a Kraken!" I cried in disbelief. The Kraken noticed us as the ones who summoned it and were ready for a fight. It was happy to oblige us.
"The sea's greatest wrath is about to come crashing down on you," it said. No chance in avoiding it now; wand or no wand, I would still need my sister's help. We entered the circle, with me in first position and Emily in second.
The battle only lasted ten minutes with both of us there. The first thing I did was cast a Scarab, which admittedly wasn't that smart. Emily cast a Firecat, which was more affective in the long run. The Kraken was so stunned it didn't make a move; but then it started to get angry so I moved on to my next move. I cast a Thundersnake and Emily cast a Fire prism; I didn't understand that choice of spell.
The Kraken unleashed its anger onto Emily, which nearly made me jump out of my skin. It moved right into the duel circle, and threw a direct bolt of lightning at her. Emily now looked a little dizzy after that strike. I was worried; she had no protection from that attack.
"Are you okay, Emily?" She shook her head, to clear it.
"I'm fine," she said. "I just feel a little funny."
It was most likely her magic was dampened. Both of our next spells fizzled, but why was Emily trying to cast an Ice spell? The Kraken then cast a spell at me, a Thundersnake. I wasn't that worried, I had protection. Luckily the dampening of magic doesn't last very long. Both our next spells hit their mark.
I cast a Thundersnake at the Kraken with limited success, while Emily cast a Firecat, finishing it off. I was confused; Emily fared really well in that battle, and she also seemed to know what she was doing. I asked her about it.
"Apparently, I learned that Ice magic is a dampener for Storm."
"Okay," I said, noting that for later. "You still fared pretty well in that battle. Fire magic seemed to have taken it down more, even though it should have been dampened."
"That's only if it strikes me, and that's only for a little bit."
"I still question how I was having a harder time."
"You're too confident in your abilities; it was mainly Storm magic affiliated, Storm would have little effect as it was, never mind your magic being on the fritz. Seriously, if you thought you could do it alone why'd you get me to help you?"
"Because I knew what you're saying is true. I just…seeing it personally…it doesn't make me feel good." I guess it was just my depression making me feel worthless again.
"I bet I would have had a tougher time if you weren't here."
"I doubt it; you only cast two Fire spells and it went down; it would have been a lot easier for you than me."
"You're still my big gun," she told me. "Don't let every setback get to you." If only it were that easy.
We turned from our conversation to notice the Storm magic from the defeated Kraken flowing into the air and up into the mill.
"I guess the mill will be working again," I said.
"That's good news," said Emily. "Your magic will be working better."
"Yeah that's the good news; of course, we may also have some bad news."
"And that would be?"
"If the mill is working again, that would put a wrench in the plans of the undead. They meant to sabotage it, and keep Storm magic for themselves. If they can't have that, they may not find a reason to keep whoever they're keeping anymore. They wouldn't just let them go either."
"Artur," said Emily in realization. "We may still have some time though. I just need to get some Lumina Crystals for Duncan." She looked around.
"Where did they go?" I saw what she was seeing: the Lumina Crystals we used as bait were gone.
"They have been swept away in the battle; and those were all of Sohomer's crystals."
"I guess I'm back to square one."
"I'll help you." She looked at me in surprise. "If the Storm Mill is working again, I have no reason not to."
"You defeated the Kraken and fixed the Mill! Now, Lumina Crystals will be produced again. The magic will flow once more!" said Sohomer as we exited the teleporter.
"Well that's always good news," said Emily.
"It's good to know Wizards like you, my friends! I hope you two will visit us again. Here's a gift of my gratitude." He handed us a long blue runner for our room. I hoped Baby Lexi wouldn't scuff it up.
"We might, who knows," I said. "Listen, Sohomer, are you sure you don't have any more Lumina Crystals on stock."
"Not with me, no; you might want to ask Blad Raveneye about that, I'm sure he has way more than me."
"It really is back to square one," said Emily.
"Well thanks anyway, Sohomer," I said as we entered the other teleporter, to begin our search for Lumina Crystals.
"Good news, Blad," I said as we exited. "The mill is working again!"
"I noticed," said Blad happily with a laugh. "Well done."
"Speaking of the mill," said Emily. "We need some Lumina Crystals to help out Duncan Grimwater with the Undead investigation. They should react with the medallions."
"You need Lumina Crystals for your investigation? Why, I'd give you some, but my entire inventory was taken by the Undead!"
"Of course it was," I said exasperated.
"If you can get over to the street and take back my barrels, I will gladly share them with you."
"Fine, which creature do we have to fight to get them?"
"Actually Gen, when I was out there last, I saw some barrels on the side walk," said Em.
"Really, huh, that will be easy. Why would the Undead leave barrels of Lumina Crystals on the sidewalk if they stole them in the first place?"
"Who cares, at least they're ours for the taking! Let's go!"
It was starting to get dark; we had to be careful not to mis-step off the sidewalk, for the Undead like to romp around after dark. Emily and I split up, her taking one side of the street while I took the other, just like with the fairies. Luckily there were street lamps, that way I wasn't completely blind. It wasn't so easy for me to create my own light, unless I wanted the magic to continuously spark which wasn't comfortable for me. We searched the entirety of our side of the street, and we managed to find three barrels for each of us to carry back to Blad.
Once we got them back to Blad, he used a headlight to examine the barrel, probably to make sure they were all accounted for.
"I don't believe it!" he cried out.
"What is it?" said Emily.
"These Lumina Crystals you brought me have been drained of Magic!"
"What!" Emily and I cried at the same time.
"I'll bet those Undead have a way of stealing power from them!"
"They must have been dumping barrels of Lumina Crystals onto the sidewalks once they were done draining them," Emily realized.
"So this is how they've been taking the Storm magic for themselves," I said examining the drained crystals.
"The question is how are they doing it?" asked Emily. "Do you think this has to do with the medallions?"
"I'm not sure," said Blad. "You better take a crystal back to Duncan. I'm sure he'll want to see this."
"Most definitely," said Emily. "Come on, Gen!"
"Ugh," I groaned in protest.
"You've avoided him long enough, now come on!"
We rushed to Duncan as fast as we could, Emily lighting a path for us with a fireball. Once we reached him, he had snarky remark on hand.
"Oh, you found her," he said to Emily. He then turned to me, "Decided to help out after all?"
"Save it, Duncan," I said. "We have something for you." Emily presented him with the crystal.
"This looks different," he said upon examination.
"It's been drained of Storm magic," I told him. "After being stolen by the Undead."
"What! The Undead are able to steal magic from the Lumina Crystals? They are too dim-witted to know how to do this on their own. Someone must be helping them!"
"We could've guessed that," I told him flatly.
"Not the time," said Emily. "Duncan can you make something out from this?"
"Not quite," he said. "We still need a charged Lumina Crystal to find the source of the Storm Medallions."
"Well how are we supposed to get one?" I asked aggravated. "All the Lumina Crystals we found were drained."
"Well, the Undead might still be carrying some."
"I didn't pick any up from any Rotting Fodders," said Emily.
"Well then that would just leave the Scarlet Screamers. You should try fighting them until you find a charged Lumina Crystal, then return it to me so we can finish the investigation. You might have a problem, Genevieve, because Scarlet Screamers are conjurers."
"I'm well aware of that!" I yelled. "Em, it's getting very late, and I'm tired from fighting the Kraken."
"You were fighting a Kraken?"
"I had to get the mill working somehow! Listen, can't we continue this tomorrow? It's very dark out, we've got the mill working again, and we've already cleared enough of the Undead for today."
"That's just the thing, Gen," said Emily. "You said that now since the Storm Mill is working again, Artur may be in more danger."
"She does have a point," said Duncan. "The Undead are known to be relentless, but I figure this mastermind who's aiding them will know when he's beaten and cut all lose ends, including Artur."
"Exactly, and I can't go to bed knowing that someone's life hangs in the balance. It's better we find out where he is and who has him as soon as possible. Besides, we're not doing anything tomorrow; we can afford to stay up later."
"I am drained though," I argued.
"Not completely," said Emily glancing at the blue orb on my belt. She continued,
"You're the one who got upset with me for putting this off, we better finish it."
"Fine, I'll stick with you," I settled, "only because I don't want you getting hurt."
"Great, then we better get going."
It took a bit to actually find a crystal that was charged. I was almost not believing Duncan's theory on Scarlet Screamers possessing the crystals, and to boot I was being covered in Bloodbat slime. Still, it was helpful we were clearing them out. We managed to clear out three sections of the street before we found one. Man, I was starting to really feel exhausted; it amazed me of how Emily could keep going. I'm just thankful she decided to use her wand again after fighting them.
"Better to light the way," she told me.
I was running on fumes by the time we got back to Duncan.
"Duncan," said Emily. "We got the crystal." I was leaning against the bridge post, trying hard to stay awake.
"You got the crystal from the Scarlet Screamers? Great! Now we can figure out what is going on here! And especially who is behind this!" He waved his wand over the Lumina Crystal and the Storm Medallion. Magical electricity arced between them and an image of a Field Guard surrounded by fire appeared in the crystal!
"Of course!" said Duncan. Meanwhile, I had no idea what the picture meant.
"What?" asked Emily. He turned to her.
"Go tell Susie Gryphonbane that the Undead on Triton Avenue are being lead by the Harvest Lord, and he has captured her brother!"
"So he's the one behind all of this…who exactly is heee…" I couldn't finish my sentence, because at that moment I fell over, drifting in and out of consciousness.
"Gen," I heard Emily say, concerned. Duncan was saying something in the background, but I didn't hear him. Emily pulled off the crystal ball with blue fluid from my belt, placing it in my hand. She then reached in my bag and pulled out my potion flask. She uncorked it and poured it down my throat. Soon all my energy came back with the taste of grape soda.
"I would let you rest," said Emily. "Of course, I don't think I should be fighting the Harvest Lord by myself. After we save Artur, then we can sleep soundly."
"Of course now that you've given me this potion, I'll be up all night."
"Then play around with Baby Lexi a bit, that'll tire you out fast. Right now though, we should go tell Susie about Artur."
"Susie we were right about our hunch," I told her. "Your brother has been captured."
"Duncan managed to find out who did it," continued Emily. "It's the one leading all the Undead here, the Harvest Lord."
"My brother's been captured," said Susie panicked. "We have to save him." She paused as if realizing something. "Oh no! I'll bet that when Artur was scouting the Haunted Cave, the Undead kidnapped him. He's probably at the Harvest Lord's tower right now!"
"You don't say," I said sarcastically. Emily put a hand on me to be stern.
"They must've thought your brother was meddling too much," said Emily. "Of course, don't worry; we're planning on going right now to get him back."
"Oh thank you!" cried Susie. "Please, if you defeat the Harvest Lord, you'll not only save my brother, but you stop all the haunting on this street."
"That's the plan," I said.
"Right, we don't have any time to waste," said Emily. "Let's go.
"I'm just saying it's weird that the guy lives on the street, and no one even thought it could have been him," I told Emily on our way there.
"They probably thought he was too locked up to cause trouble."
"And I wonder who could have released him," I said sarcastically. It was pretty obvious at this point.
"Malistere," said Emily to herself.
"Anyway, let's go over battle tactics: what do we know about the Harvest Lord?"
"From what Duncan told me, he is a very powerful Field Guard who deals in fire magic. He was locked up because he kept trying to leave the Haunted Cave."
"So he's leading all the ones who have decided to leave," I said to myself. "One thing's for certain, we know you can't be the one to face him, Em."
"Why not?"
"Because he's a Pyromancer and a powerful one to boot; it's just like me with the Kraken earlier, you won't have much of an effect on him, and meanwhile, I just might."
"What about his minion?"
"The minion usually tends to be something from the street, and we haven't run into anything that can exploit your weakness; you'll be fine."
"I hope so." We had arrived to the place Emily's wand directed us. Another dungeon, one with its security broken; truth be told I was a little nervous, more nervous for Emily this time. I couldn't help it. Emily had worked past Storm's effect of dampening fire spells, so she had been fine all day; now the tables have turned, and she was at a disadvantage. With everything she faced yesterday, I didn't want her to be alone for this; it's another reason I wanted the mill fixed so badly, it was so I could be her big gun when she needed it.
We stepped onto the sigil. We said 'In please,' and the countdown started. When it stopped, we were teleported inside to face the foe.
As soon as we entered, we noticed a couple things: first thing was that the room didn't have anyone for us to fight; the second thing was a boy tied up in the back of the room.
"Where is the Harvest Lord?" I questioned.
"Artur Gryphonbane?" questioned Emily. The boy turned to us.
"Yes, I am here! Help me, please!" Emily was about to head over, but I stopped her. In an eruption of flame, appeared a Field Guard. Emily tensed up, sensing his power. Bursting out of the basement was a Rotting Fodder. I was a bit relieved; Emily was fighting those all day, so it should be easy for her.
"So, you two Wizards have also uncovered Malistere's plan. Too bad you'll have to remain here with the other Wizard! All of you will be powerless to stop us!" I had a feeling he didn't know what was going on.
"Do you not know who we are and what we've been doing?" I asked.
"What's that?" he was a bit surprised I spoke back to him.
"We already saved two parts of the city from Malistere and we've already fixed the Storm Mill you sabotaged."
"What!?" cried the Harvest Lord. "I guess that definitely means you're staying here. You will not get in the way of our plans. We will have to try again even harder!"
"We wiped out most of your Undead fleet," said Emily. "Good luck getting that back up."
"The Haunted Cave isn't called 'Haunted' for nothing! Once I regrow my forces and utterly destroy the Storm Mill, harboring all that Storm magic for my fleet, Wizard City will have nothing left to aid it! Soon after the Undead will drive out all the citizens and take over the rest of the city! And with the school in our hands, we will rule Wizard City! Ambrose will at last be crushed! Mwahahahaha!"
"Hang on there, buddy, you're threatening too many things we care about."
"You're also forgetting that we've been saving Wizard City so far without any slack, so what's making you think you can stop us," I added.
"Let's see how you deal with the better Pyromancer and Diviner duo." Artur realized who we were then.
"The Saviors of Wizard City!" he cried.
"What? Them?" The Harvest Lord looked at us. "So you're the ones Malistere warned me about. I won't hold back then." Emily tensed up at that; seeing as she nearly had a close encounter with Malistere, I could understand her terror.
"Em," I shook her out of her state. "Fight Harvest Lord now, freak out later!"
"Right," she said, slipping out of her daze.
We entered our respective spots, with me facing the Harvest Lord and Em facing the Rotting Fodder. The Harvest Lord went first, creating an Ice shield for the Rotting Fodder, probably so the magic wouldn't get dampened. The Rotting Fodder did nothing. I cast a Scarab at the Harvest Lord, while Em cast a Thundersnake (possibly remembering that Storm still packs a punch despite the resistance, or knowing the fact that these weren't true Diviners).
The Harvest Lord then turned up the heat, casting a Fire snake at me or whatever it was called. I was aching and was seriously burned, though I couldn't stop fighting yet. The Rotting Fodder then decided to react to the Harvest Lord's kindness by giving him a myth shield. I cast a Bloodbat spell at him; because I knew the only way to break that shield was to attack it. Admittedly, it would have been smarter to pick a spell that could do some damage; of course, I was just using wand magic, instead of the spells I knew. Emily cast a Firecat, wiping out the Rotting Fodder. Now all she had to face was the Harvest Lord; great, now I had to beat this guy fast.
The Harvest Lord was obviously getting nervous without his big gun to back him up. He tried to cast another Fire spell at me, but it fizzled in his fumbling. I decided to stop messing around and cast a Lightning Bats spell. That did a lot of damage, but it wasn't enough. Emily tried blasting a fireball at him, but that wasn't enough either.
The Harvest decided to change tactics and switched opponents. Knowing fire magic wouldn't work on her, he used Life magic instead summoning an Imp to attack her. That made me mad. I did what he did, casting an Imp, and it took him out in my cold fury. The duel circle disbanded, and I went to check on Emily, aching from my burn as I did.
"Emily, are you alright?" I asked with my voice cracking.
"I'm fine," she said. "You're in worse shape than I am."
"No, it's nothing," I said. Emily took out the two red Crystal balls, one in my hand and one in hers; hers had more fluid than mine.
"This says otherwise." She took out a pixie card, drew a symbol of a flower, summoning a pixie.
"Come little pixie, come little friend, lend me a hand and help me to mend."
"What have we here," said the pixie in a high pitched voice.
"She got burned," she said pointing to me. The pixie circled around me, the magic she left then enveloped me, erasing my burn.
"There we go," said the pixie. "Be more careful."
"We'll try." The pixie disappeared and Emily went to go help Artur. I would have followed, but I found a book knocked off a shelf. I couldn't resist a good book, so I went to look at it. It was called 'Battle Strategy: A Magic Lesson'. I figured I needed some pointers, so I took it with me. I then went and joined Emily.
"I can't believe you did all of that in one day," said Artur, Emily having filled him in and untied him. "And you just defeated the Harvest Lord."
"I didn't know if we could do it either," I said on approach. "How are you feeling, Artur?"
"Okay now that you're here. Thank you for freeing me, my friends! I feared no one was going to ever find me!"
"Yeah," said Emily a little guilty. "Sorry it took so long to save you. In fact, I'm the main reason it took so long, and we nearly lost you."
"Are you kidding," I told her. "Sure you may have held it off a day, but you definitely needed that day; I realize that now, you were on fire. I'm not sure how much of a help I was."
"Gen, it was because of you the Storm Mill was able to be fixed. It would have been hard to accomplish both in one day if there was only one of us."
"We definitely needed that Storm Mill fixed," said Artur. "It was giving an advantage over us."
"Yes, but because Genevieve stuck to it, we have our big guns back."
"Aww, gee," I said blushing. "You helped me beat the Kraken, Em."
"And you helped me beat the Harvest Lord."
"We need each other and we're both important."
"Yes, but we still need to keep ourselves in top form so we can better battle future enemies."
"You remind me of my sister," said Artur. "Speaking of I should go tell her I'm safe. I know I have worried her so."
"Don't strain yourself, Artur," said Emily. "We'll go tell her."
"Still, you should probably get out of here," I added.
"I will; may the winds of chance bring us together once again, Emily and Genevieve, Saviors of Wizard City, and my life."
"We'll see you around," said Emily, as we all went to leave.
Artur was embracing being outside again, while we went on ahead. I could tell it had gotten really late by the time we made it back to Susie.
"You're back!" cried Susie. Obviously, she wasn't going to bed until we saved him. "Did you save Artur?" She was concerned when he wasn't with us. We smiled.
"Yep, last time we saw him he was 'rolling in the riches all around him' and completely aware of what they're worth to him now that he's free."
"We defeated the Harvest Lord and saved your brother from him," said Emily.
"You saved Artur from the Harvest Lord?" It almost sounded like she didn't think we could do it; of course I was doubtful too, so who was I to judge. "Thank you! Emily, Genevieve, I don't know what I would have done if I had lost him."
"I couldn't imagine that either," I said putting an arm around Emily. Emily looked at me irritated, but then gave me a hug.
"Same with me," she said.
"As a token of thanks," said Susie. "I got these for you." She handed us two cloaks; a pink one for Em, and purple one for me, and ruby chain and amethyst belt shining on them respectively. Emily had a look on her face that said she wouldn't be keeping it.
"Susie, you didn't have to do this," I said.
"But I wanted to; you did something for me that I couldn't have done on my own." We took the cloaks.
"Oh you better tell the Headmaster what has happened here! He needs to be informed of what's happening in Wizard City!"
"Do we really need to tell him?" I asked. "Doesn't he know what's going on?"
"Even if he does, I don't think he knows about how much Malistere is getting himself involved. We should go tell him that," deduced Emily
"Alright, and after that we can go to bed; do you know how late it is?"
"If you really want his done and over with, we could just teleport there."
"I always feel weird after that."
"Alright," she said holding out her wand. "I'll meet you there." In a burst of flames she was gone.
"She really does frustrate me," I said. "I'll see you later Susie." I held out my wand.
"I hope to see you again too. My brother and I will work on removing the rest of the Undead, and then move people back into their homes again." With that, the flash of light came, my eyes clouded over and I reappeared in the commons next to Emily. We ran into Gamma's tower.
"What?!" cried Gamma. "What are you two doing up, it's the middle of the night?"
"We need to speak to the Headmaster, and it's better to do it now," said Emily.
"Can you wake him, please," I added.
"By Bartleby! You two defeated the Harvest Lord? Not many students can make a claim like that. Good work, you two." We beamed with pride. Emily continued telling the Headmaster what happened.
"Headmaster, the Harvest Lord told us that the Undead were planning to take over the city for Malistere."
"Yeah," I added. "He was hoping you'd be crushed."
"The Harvest Lord mentioned he was helping Malistere? We need to find out what Malistere's plans are if Wizard City is ever to return to the nice place it once was. It's hard to run a school with all the monsters running amuck!"
"Who knows what Malistere is trying to gain from this place," said Emily.
"Hey Em, didn't you have a theory a couple days ago on what Malistere was doing," I mentioned, "something about distracting everyone?"
"Umm…yeah; I thought he was distracting everyone while he was searching for something."
"That is a good theory," agreed Ambrose. "Of course what is he searching for?"
"Something to bring his wife back maybe," I suggested.
"That's preposterous; Malistere knows that there is no magic that powerful that still exists. Even if he is, he won't find anything to help him here."
"Maybe it's why he stole the eye of history," suggested Emily, "to help him search the past for something."
"Possibly; in the meantime, we'll have to keep our minds sharp and our eyes open. Many thanks to you two for straightening everything out on Triton Avenue. However, I fear the worst is not yet over…"
While playing this street, it was agonizing as my wizards gained levels and I couldn't do anything because it wasn't a school day for them. :( Anyway, seeing as what's going on right now, I believe the next chapter will have them learning a few new things, as well as Lost pages event for Triton Avenue. So you'll just have to stay tuned for what happens with those events. Until then!