Faris awoke, for some reason he couldn't open his eyes. And while everything hurt, his left arm felt completely fine, weightless even.
"Am I…?"
"Dying? No." Tartarus replied. "But fuck you anyways."
Mustering up everything he could, Faris forced himself to move, ignoring the pain of his skin tearing, he began to claw his way through whatever substance trapped him. Eventually his arm felt no resistance, and he flailed it until he could find purchase to drag himself out of the abyssal sludge he found himself entrapped in. Eventually, he pulled himself out, he could finally look at himself.
"Oh…" His right arm was gone, burned away up to the midpoint between his elbow and shoulder, his legs weren't in much better condition, burned so badly that the parts so destroyed they revealed bone showed black flaking bones. His armor that survived melted and stuck to his skin, the pain came from his inflamed skin being torn as he moved and twisted the broken melted thing. "Oh god…" Faris felt like he'd puke. But more than horror, he felt rage, ever since Rembrant, ever since Dr. Mandel, ever since Alpha, his life had been twisted.
"You moron, you stupid moron, you were so excited to test out your new ability! You could have left that second damn deer well enough alone! Do you know how many mages could cast a spell of similar effect to what just happened to you?! Hundreds! If not more. You dumbass! You absolute idiot! I'm going to die here because you're a fucking child!"
"And what does that make you?!" Faris retorted. Wincing as he turned his head. The ash began to shift, revealing three shade wolves. Their fur was burned to cinders, revealing gaunt, wounded hairless dogs like the stuff of nightmares. They growled at Faris with hunger, fear and pain. Faris couldn't help but smile bitterly. "Those two abandoned you didn't they." It was more statement than question. Before the shades could attack Faris struck first, even crippled his mind was strong. They fought hard, and began limping towards him, hoping to destroy him before he could them. The first wolf bit down on his shoulder, and collapsed. Faris turned to the other two, they attempted to run. They didn't get far.
Faris lay under the first shade wolf. "It's body didn't disperse."
"That's because you drained it of energy, besides, it will get back up eventually."
"No it won't." Faris began to spread his mind out, the world around him began to glow, he turned to his body, the flow of blood and life was disrupted, and he saw two large distinct chunks of energy, he turned to the wolves, it was faint, but a snippet of light shined through, he reached in, forgoing all other sensation and reached into them. 10 lights within the first wolf, 8 lights in the second, the one that dealt a blow contained 15 lights. "Spirits…" Faris forced the beast's hearts to rupture, allowing the tiny lights the ability to leave, the body didn't tear apart however, it had no energy to do so.
"I thought you'd kill it?" Tartarus was confused. "You're feeling an extremely violent amount of anger."
"Just because I'm angry doesn't mean I've lost all hold of myself... YET." Faris began to put the energy he absorbed to work, bringing the corpses closer to him.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Tartarus called out in surprise and disgust. Faris ignored him, and began to sing in the ancient language…
The shade wolves plodded along the path of burnt carnage. From the start of their wretched lives as tortured pups bred for war to their fate as abominations of life, these creatures suffered. They made their way along the path towards the gigantic crater that still burned, testament to Alpha's power. They were intelligent enough to learn human language, and to fully internalize orders in that and in the ancient language.
Vector, the oldest and strongest of the shade wolves and Dr. Mandel's favorite subject of experimentation chewed on a femur. It vaguely remembered the child the femur came from, the sweet taste of young flesh, humans were to it delicious in a way that animals just couldn't match. It growled warnings towards its lessers, 6 more strong shade wolves, the strongest in their brood and the litter mates of it's mortal, beastial past. It turned towards the doctor, snapping on the femur and listening in to the conversation he was having with the two white haired youth that entered the laboratory.
"You lost one wolf shade and burned the other three? What is wrong with you!" Mandel had an inflamed look on his face as he stared at Alpha, she looked sullen and stubborn, Beta wore a rather exasperated look on his face. Vector despised both of them, they were his master's oldest experiments, and the most powerful, and very often those two especially would slay his brethren. He cared little for his brethren personally, but it irked him that they would be slain so easily. Even he would be injured in their fights, and if not for Mandel's constant experimentation, would have likely have been slain.
"They're just stupid dogs_AAAAHHHH!" Alpha screamed in pain as Mandel frowned down at her, he walked forward, and smacked her, knocking her to the ground. She continued to writhe in excruciating pain. Beta stood stock still, eyes shut tight, and fear etched deep on his face.
"These stupid dogs follow orders better than you do. Their job is to collect specimens for experimentation and or conversion, and they've been taught obedience to the highest degree, so much so that even after the spirits merged with them to become shades, their excessively submissive and fearful spirits created the perfect beastial servants." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Spirits don't just come and go, and as many of them as there are, they are increasingly becoming more and more weary of our methods of location and capture. These 'stupid dogs' are integral to sniffing the ones that dare to roam the countryside! And you let four die?!" He turned towards Beta, who flinched. "And you did nothing to stop her?!"
Beta stammered, "Well sir… they are shades, they've likely survived…" Dr. Mandel paused, and smiled.
"Fine… I'll believe you for now, take Vector, Acceleration, Ray, and Parallel with you." He pressed a button, opening the cages as the four respective shade wolves streamed out of the entrance, the others simply lying in wait, eating their meals. As Alpha and Beta left, he called out once more, "Oh, and if these ones are lost…."
This was why the wolves had raced ahead, they would find their brethren and return back to the doctor without Alpha and Beta. Vector's mouth watered in excitement at the punishment the master would subject those two to, perhaps he'd deign to allow Vector a pound of their flesh, he always thought that Alpha, for all her hostility and dangerousness, would likely taste delicious. They came across the burning crater, and sniffed around, three holes representing their three brethren. They wagged their tails in excitement, they had survived! Following the trail they came across the corpses, half eaten, in the center, still bleeding, lay a boy. The boy was missing one arm and both his legs, and was covered head to toe in melted, warped iron that melted into his flesh, muscle, bone, and the ground, that he was still alive was testament to his will power. The shade's raised their hackles and growled fiercely.
This wasn't one of those enhanced children! No! It didn't have the energy to be! They didn't recognize it! And it wasn't and elf! They slew an elf before, the smell and presence was completely different! A normal child killed their brethren?! Even if they were the weaker ones, this could not stand!
Vector prepared the few words it knew in the ancient language to burn the boy to death as the ground beneath it began to shake, the corpses of their brethren seemed to disintegrate as the ground erupted, sinewy tendrils snaked out, entrapping them and cutting into their pelts, a violent electric shock blasted through, and they immediately began feeling their energy being drained. They looked at the bleeding boy, who opened his pale eyes, looking at them not with rage or fear, or even triumph, but with indifference. The beastial instincts within them took over, a simple cornered animal left and ready to die…
"Dammit! Why did they rush ahead! The doctor's going to kill us if they're hurt!" Beta groaned as he sprinted through the forest, bulldozing through everything in his path. Alpha was a tad bit faster, and said no words as she followed the slight trail back towards the crater she burned. She arrived, and saw to her rage and horror four bloody tails, and just tails, no bodies, not even the corpses of the first three. She screamed in rage and fear, and began to run forward.
"At the least! At the least!" At least they had to find the one responsible for the deaths, if not, the punishment would be almost too much for either to bear. As Alpha ran forward she felt a distinct drop in pressure, and a distinctly green powder floating through the air. She felt a cold pit in her stomach, looking down to see a bed of purple soldier powder, lined up just for her. Before she could put the words through her mouth the area exploded.
Faris hobbled along the path, he used a makeshift staff made of wolf bones, fused from end to end. Stumbling forward here and there on unsteady feet. He wore a temporary cloak made of the wolf pelts, dirty and musty as they were he needed clothes, he skinned them before extraction this time around. As Faris made his way through he smiled in grim satisfaction as the energy used to keep the trap set was released, signifying that they had fallen for it. He knew it wouldn't kill them, but he also knew Alpha would immediately recognize the style of magic and utilization of purple soldier powder. Faris began to feel people approaching, he continued on his path, even as he felt their intentions. Eventually a group of 15 men entered the clearing.
"Surrender your valuables and die old man." The leader said, smirking. He stroked his chin. Hunter types often had little but a few gold coins on them at a time, but they often lived alone and had no one to look for them, or to look after, a relatively victimless crime, except for the primary victim.
Faris sighed. "I'm only going to say this once, I really, really want to kill you, not because of you all in particular, but for an entirely different reason. Even though I want to kill you, I know I shouldn't, you all probably have a few people you need to take care of, maybe families to feed, friends, lovers, a pet maybe? I honestly won't take the time to figure that out right now. So I'm going to ask you this once, get the hell aw-"
A bandit bashed Faris's head in with a mace, and laughed as the boy fell to the floor. The other bandits chuckled as the mace wielder reached down to take off the hooded cloak. They screamed in horror at Faris's tortured form.
"I told you…" Rods of flesh, muscle, blood and bone jettisoned from Faris's body, piercing the bandits. All but two of them were stabbed. The ones attacked were dragged towards Faris's body as theirs began to wither. They died once they entered 5 feet of him. The two who the body weapons missed began running into the forest.
"Oh my gods! What in blazes was that?" The first one, a young man who just got into the gang began to burst into tears. He had heard monster stories before, of travelers being taken over by evil demons who preyed on the wicked and good alike.
"Shut up and run!" The older man, Hecote, a grizzled veteran and second in command of the now destroyed bandit troup ran with all his life, he readied his mace, still slick with the monster's blood. If need be, he turned to the new recruit, mace at the ready.
They began to hear singing, as if behind their ears. They screamed and turned, seeing nothing and no one. Chilling laughter echoed throughout the forest, followed by a voice.
"You're the types who like bullying the weak, aren't you? Old men, women, children, prissy nobles who think they have the mettle to travel these forests with an entourage of four or less."
They began to cry out in fear, the younger one collapsed, soaked by his tears and urine. The voice continued.
"Let's play a game, you both have weapons don't you?"
Before the young man could say anything he was struck by the grizzled one, his blood spilling on the floor.
"There! I killed him!"
The voice began to laugh.
"Did I tell you to kill him? Tsk tsk Hecote, you really are trigger happy."
"How do you kno-"
"Your name? The boy said it himself. I'm a demon remember, monster, the stuff of nightmares, punisher of evildoers, hahahahaha!" Giggling laughter began to echo through the forest. Hecote covered his ears, but it did nothing to help him. "Honestly I was just going to say the two of you were to fight me, I'd give you both the first blows, if you landed three hits on me in total, I'd let you go. Sad really, now you have to hit me twice instead of once after that freebie." Faris materialized behind the man, pushing him to the floor. "You still have one free hit, three total and I'll let you go." Faris looked at his reflection in the man's eyes. "Oh… I don't look like that at all." He began to sing softly, eliciting more fear in the man's eyes as his head began to reform, skull filling out and face returning to normal. The man trembled before the child, maybe twelve or eleven, who stared at him with large eyes. Faris extended his arms. "Free hit old man."
The old bandit trembled, crying and begging, his words were lost on Faris, as were the words of Tartarus, who simply sat in silence, observing Faris's rampage. Finally, the bandit lost his nerve, turning to run. He didn't get far.
"Uhg!"
He collapsed as a sword went through his abdomen, as he fell he craned his head to look. The new recruit, brain still crushed and half his face missing had stabbed him. He began to scream in terror until the blood filled his lungs, choking him. Faris extended his arm, and Hecote could only watch as the young man's body seemed to vaporize, and the dust and such began to be absorbed within Faris's body. Faris smiled.
"Carbon may be the basic building block… but..."
He turned to the man, who could only watch dumbly as his arms and legs seemed to disintegrate into dust.
"Oxygen, 65%" The man exploded into flames, the last of his energy taken before he died.
The smell of death lingered ever slightly, Faris separated the ashes, and began to repair his broken body.
"I always thought you'd eventually use the song of shaping and growing."
"If you utter one more word you're next Tartarus…" This elicited silence. Faris breathed out cooly, attempting to detach himself from what he just did. He opened his eyes bitterly. He contemplated using his recently reclaimed magic. "No… not magic, not really, I have a limited tank that I need to constantly fill…" He decided against wiping his memory of the day's events, he made his way to the clearing, his body finally fixed. He stood a few inches taller, and several upon several pounds heavier, but looked almost the same. He inspected his body, inspecting every nook and cranny to make sure things were the same.
"You!" Faris snapped his head to the sound, turning to see the voice, even then he knew, he smiled as he spoke.
"Lovely as ever, and as sloppy as ever… by the way, did you remember that oxygen comprised of-"
Alpha launched a barrage of flames at Faris, turning the patch of forest he resided in into a burning wasteland. "Yeah, 65%, I never forgot."
Faris laughed, "You'll find it a bit harder to burn me, bitch." Alpha didn't answer, instead she simply charged towards him, Faris met her actions with his own head long charge. They rushed into each other, Alpha getting the first hit, and passing through Faris. As she looked around in disbelief she felt a massive blow to her shoulder, dislocating it. "I never did thank you for destroying my bow, and my sword, I spent months on that thing." Alpha doesn't answer, turning to strike at him. He catches her fist with his open palm, and digs into it, she begins to scream in pain, bleeding as his claws dig in. "But you know what, with things as hot as they were, and with that molten metal I so meticulously crafted mostly ruined, I thought to try and put it into good use. She winces as he digs his blackened claws deeper into her fist, and recoils in pain as he drags them out of her hand, leaving deep furrowed gouges in her flesh and scarring the bone. It immediately begins to heal as Alpha backs away. Faris retracted the claws, which acted almost like a second, outer layer of nails, extending past his fingertips almost two inches.. He inspected his hand. "I had ample biomass and resources, and man… shade's are really, really tough, the experimentations Dr. Mandel put those wolf shades through, my god, that's some amazing stuff." He smirked, "amazing stuff, to learn and utilize."
"I'll kill you!" Alpha charged Faris, who sidestepped her wild attack, Alpha twisted her body in the air, punching at him, only to go through him again. From the opposite side he elbowed her in the neck, dislocating it.
"Those should be my words!" He screamed as he slammed his fists down. "You took my magic! You took my freedom! You took my life! My friends fear me! I've been so! So! AAAAARGH!" He continually bashed down on her, again and again and again. He stopped for a moment, catching his breath. Alpha looked at him from below haughtily.
"Are you done?"
"No" Faris's claws extended and he brought them down to slice her open. A blow faster than he could catch knocked him away. He looked down in surprise and shock, Alpha's hair glowed red as her eyes shined white, she charged towards him.
"Boost! Now!" Faris roared mentally as he met Alpha's speed, they began to exchange fists and spells. The thirteen words of death escaped both their lips in quick succession, followed by spells to slow, blind and weaken the enemy. A spell to fall asleep almost worked on Alpha, but her quick spell casting dispelled the energy. They rapidly hurtled towards each other.
Alpha struck the first blow, even with the boost, Faris was slower and weaker than whatever Alpha was at the moment. She aimed at him, scowling as he began to assault her mentally. They fought, back and forth on both ends. Faris was the more skilled fighter and mental duelist, but whatever experimentation the doctor performed had made Alpha astoundingly stronger than she had been before.
The trees withered before being set aflame, and the water collected from the plant and animal life in the area rapidly evaporated as it met the flames, only to condense once more before evaporating again and again, the ground growing hotter and hotter as their fight continued, turning into a swirling sea of fire and molten earth. Faris raised multiple large boulders into the air, using the updraft caused by blistering heat to aid their rise just slightly, and leapt, knocking the lightest ones towards Alpha, who simply melted everything on her warpath to Faris.
"Come on, just fire?" Faris laughed, "Is that the best you can do?" He laughed, "In fact, is that really fire?"
Alpha roared in anger, "It seemed real when it burned you Epsilon!"
Faris frowned, his right hand exploded and reformed. A white rocklike substance enwrapped in water floated on the palm of his hand, he spread the white rock until it became a paste, and charged Alpha. "Phosphorus makes up just 1% of the human body in element composition, it's important for the making and upkeep of our bones, and helps in the processing of fat and proteins, as well as in building new cells." Alpha stabbed through him, expecting another illusion she was shocked to see this time he was real. He spit blood in her face, distracting her for an instant.
More than enough time.
He smacked the white rock into Alpha's face, rubbing it into her eyes, nose, and mouth. The heat of her flames cause the water to rapidly evaporate. "White Phosphorus, also known as Phosphorus Four or yellow phosphorus, it is an extremely reactive mineral." He backed away from Alpha's screams and winced a bit as his own hand burned. "It burns in contact with the air, and it's an extremely sticky flame".
Alpha began to call down water vapor, condensing it and dousing her face, the flames died down for a bit. As she reached to wipe off her face, the flames cropped up again, eliciting more screams.
"Oh yeah, since it reacts in oxygen, you can't really snuff it out, gotta let it continue to burn you know?" He laughed, charging forward and kicking her, hard. She flew back into some burning trees. Faris rushed forward, two clear liquids circling around his hands. "Phosphorus is also an important part of two non-organic acids, Hydrofluoric Acid, and Sulfuric Acid, both extremely corrosive, and very deadly." Already having bypassed her wards, he splashed her with both liquids, making sure they soaked into her skin and entered her body. Her screams redoubled. "How's this for real fire?!" He screamed, punching her, ignoring the flames that caught on his hand. "How's this for a real burn?!" He roared, striking her hard in the gut. She collapsed, writhing on the ground, if anything, Faris could commend her for keeping her mind strong, she proved difficult to overwhelm, but he had almost burrowed in. He had finally done so when he teleported away, just as a blue streak rushed into the area.
The flames died down as Beta enwrapped Alpha in water, he began the long, slow task of extracting the last of the white residue from Alpha's face, slowly, her magic began to catch up, healing her. She destroyed the bubble of water, and looked around, enraged.
"Don't bother, he teleported away."
"But!"
"Alpha…" Beta began slowly, "This entire expedition is my fault, the wolves ate their brethren, and attacked you, I killed them, you did nothing. That is the story. You also found these chemicals off a random merchant, killing him."
Alpha shook her head, "He'll…!"
"Alpha, I've resented you since you were born, I would have been the Alpha had you not developed your power and killed my younger brother." Beta laughed, "I've had to clean up your stupid shit all this time." He sighed, kissing her slightly. Instead of pushing him away, she kissed him back, a bit surprised at herself. "But I also know that whatever that boy is right now? You're probably the only one amongst us able to kill him, we have to fight smarter. And you can't afford the doctor's punishment, not again."
Alpha looked down, more angry with herself than even with Faris. "I… I understand..." The two turned to head back, their footsteps heavier than normal…
Faris clutched his right arm in pain. Hypophosphatemia is a condition in which the phosphorus level in the blood is lower than expected. It leads to muscle pain, bone pain and easy bone fractures, weakness of the limbs, and coma leading to death if the deficiency is high enough. Faris couldn't have afforded to fight Beta as well. As it were he'd have to be satisfied with today's victory. He entered the clearing were he had downed the deer, and saw flies and some vultures making short work of the last of the deer carcass. Faris sighed.
"Poultry tonight..."
…
Surmon grinned over the pearl initiates, "Tsk tsk, you ignored direct orders to not engage, each and every casualty within the village is your responsibility."
"What?! But we saved them! Hell the casualties occured when we weren't here!" Nya walked up to Surmon, only to be held back by Katya.
"There must be some mistake…" Katya continued, "First of all, we fought hard to protect the village, and we didn't receive the orders to cease and await orders until after we completed the objective we set of saving the village."
Surmon smiles haughtily, "The objective you set… yes, instead of following your orders, you realize an entire city, if not the entire north western area of the kingdom, is in danger, and you risk yourselves in a village?"
Katya piped down, she felt almost foolish.
"So we're supposed to trade lives now?" Venka muttered, annoyed. Surmon flinched slightly, of the students, Venka was the one he was least comfortable with, as she was the only one he unfairly wronged. "I'm sorry sir, but we can't just abandon people to be killed, or worse, especially when you interrogate the captive and find out what he did." Surmon hesitated for a bit, as much as he hated Jaya and Seya, he wanted to be a fair man.
The village had a mayor's office, a two story house that doubled as the mayor's home and as a meeting space for the small town, this space was packed to the brim with villagers not busy checking the perimeter for intruders and wild beasts. The recently built walls were comprised of thick logs packed with mud and rock in between the gaps, with short stone towers at each corner of the town. Large bells were in the tower, ready to warn the people of impending danger. As the rest of the villagers sat, Surmon nodded to one of the mage escorts, who walked up to removed the skull mask.
A middle aged man with beady eyes and greasy black hair stared at the crowd sullenly. Surmon cleared his throat.
"What is your name? Why did you come to this village? How did you control the shades?"
The greasy man remained silent, smirking. Surmon narrowed his eyes, then smiled. "Yeah I understand, you think you are someone amazing, it was all the staff wasn't it, my men and I already analyzed it, you're just a guinea pig in all of this, aren't you? With no power at all."
"If you think this great one has no power, why don't you untie the chains! Cowards!" The greasy captive yelled angrily.
"Of course, so you can escape, are you sure you'd want to do that? Without the staff you'd be useless."
"Who needs that staff! The Golden Horde would simply give me another!" He boasted, "Their leader told me I was extremely useful to his plans! I can't die here! Release me this instant! The great Zendor can't be held here!"
Surmon laughed, "So the staff was made by the Golden Horde, they may have more in stock, and your name is Zendor, probably… oooh, Zendor Filigree, I remember you, the moron who couldn't pass the apprenticeship phase even into his thirties, you poisoned your master and he cursed you to remain in this fat and greasy phase all your life, wow you're uglier in person."
Zendor's eyes seemed to bug out and he began to yell out, "Why you! Ho-" A large knife struck him in the throat, he began choking, the mages rushed to heal him, but by the time they removed and tossed aside the green chains, he was dead.
"Sorry for the interruption, I couldn't have that moron blab all of our secrets." They looked on as a young Surdan, a young teen or tween, lept down a window and into the building, the crowd he landed amongst whimpered in fear, but he paid them no mind. He wore a dark blue uniform of some sort, bandaged arms and legs and dark blue gloves and boots, shoulder pads of some dark metal and knee pads broke the uniform blue color.
"Who are you?!" Surmon asked angrily.
"Just a fellow trying to enjoy his life." He surveyed the crowd, then turned to look at some of the mage escorts and then to the Pearl Initiates. "Wow, we have some pretty ladies here today, makes it almost worth it to have bothered coming." He winks. "Just so you know ladies, I'm single."
The words of death fly from the women's mouths, alongside curses in the ancient language, from setting him on fire, to draining his bodily fluids, to breaking his bones. He stands there, yawning for a bit before finally taking out a crystal. "Geez louise you guys are feisty today aren't you?" He grins, putting away the crystal and taking out a glowing green staff of the same shade and metal as the chains.
He leaps from the booth and smacks a mage, bypassing his wards in an instant with the weapon, shock barely had time to register in his eyes before being struck hard in the back of the head.
"Don't worry! He's just knocked out!" The boy laughed, taking out his crystal. "Gotta pay winner's due though…." Even as he looked down he twirled the staff, snuffing out the ball of blue flame launched towards him. "You can't hit me with magi-" His face twisted as a rock hurtled into his hand, breaking a few fingers. He looked up to see Nya, smirking as she cocked her arm back for another shot. The boy tried to dodge, but he stumbled. Hit by an invisible wall, he was unable to dodge the rock hurtling into his shoulder. "Geez!" He laughed, "You're tough, and sexy." He put two fingers to his lower lip, then stuck his tongue out playfully.
"Get lost creep!" Nya threw another stone, this time hurtling for the intruder's face. She charged rapidly towards him. He smirked.
"Only if you come with, besides, I'm not a creep." He breathed deep in his nose, diaphragm extending, then opened his mouth, tongue still sticking out, turquoise flames blasted out, melting the stone before it reached him, the molten slag smoldered on the wooden floor, threatening to burn the building. Nya barely dodged out of the way, the hem of her pants burned, while still mid air she blocked off a stone throw. They looked on dumbfounded, the surdan merely winked. "I'm a hot creep."
"At least he's self aware…" Morgan muttered. The mages began taking moves against the intruder.
"Nah ah…" he wagged his fingers and shook his head no, "you wouldn't want these innocent villagers to burn right?" He looked down, snatching up the little girl whose arm Samara had broken and who katya healed. "Kids aren't my type at all, especially bratty ones, but a fiery makeover might do her right." He broke into a laugh, covering her mouth before she could scream.
"What the hell do you want?!" Surmon yelled, angry.
"Nothing, I just wanted to see the enemy of my tentative allies, frankly I'm more amused than threatened, but then again, people have to work hard to move during a hostage situation." The girl in his hands exploded in a corona of light. He and everyone looked about in shock until Seya rushed up and kicked him hard in the chest. Venka stood furthest back, holding the extremely confused girl in her arms as she conjured a strong gust of wind towards the Surdan. The wind began to blow him back, knocking him out onto the streets where there were no hostages.
"A whole lot of femme fatales." He chuckled, running his hand through his curly hair. The mages charged out of the manor, spells at the ready. The boy laughed, twirling his staff. "I haven't been this outnumbered since I was jumped back in the city…" He charged forward. Spells flew to intercept him, he bashed some away with his staff, dodged past others, and others he burned away with his fire breath. He neared them, only to be struck by a bolt of lightning. "Holy fucking shi-!" He collapsed.
"Fuuu…." Morgan rubbed the yellow crystal on the palm of his glove, breathing out calmly, he used about 45% of that crystal's current storage at the moment. "I'll have to divert the collected static there for a while…" He blinked in surprise as the surdan got up.
"Ouch, that hurt…" The Surdan laughed. "He winced as he stood, extending his hand." A bolt of electricity blasted out. Seya stood in front of the blast, eyes widening in shock as the lightning struck her. "Oh? Sorry, this is a real electrical discharge, just like the one that hit me. No magic in that blast at all actually." He blasted out another, Morgan stood ahead this time, blocking with his crystal, which absorbed and diverted the electricity into itself and the 7 other crystals he had on his person. The surdan raised an eyebrow, picking up his staff he discharged electricity into it, it began to spark every time it struck the ground and whirled in the air hard enough.
"Two can play that game." Morgan rushed towards him, his spear beginning to discharge blue sparks of lightning. He slammed his glaive into the boy's green staff, the sound of steel and lightning clashing sounded in the air, and the smell of ozone and burnt hair filled the area. Nya threw a punch towards the boy, who moved with the attack, spinning and catching her with a backhand smack to the head. Before he could follow up he had to block Morgan's flurry of stabs with his glaive, and released a huge electrical burst to divert the arrows away from his body. Instead of dispersing the collected electricity began to coalesce.
"Take this!" Morgan absorbed the electricity, combining it with his own to send a devastating blast towards the Surdan.
"Hahaha!" The boy's robes began to burn, revealing a body covered in dark blue scales and a pair of massive leathery wings that couldn't have hid in his small frame. With an excited look on his face he extends his hands, his own electrical pulse blasting out, it enwrapped the first blast.
Morgan smirked, even if the boy could generate electricity naturally with his freakish body, Morgan knew lightning's truth, he could invoke its name, natural or magical. It was the boy's turn to smirk as he stuck out his staff, wiping out Morgan's magical control of the lightning. A titanic surge of electricity arced around him, surging through the staff, he launched the blast. Tinged in the green light of the staff, the lightning bypassed wards and magic.
"Stenr Skolr!" Venka's eyes shone red as the earth beneath her rumbled, rushing to intercept the blast. The explosion was blinding and deafening, knocking all involved to their feet, as the dust settled Morgan couldn't help but chuckles nervously. Earth enough to make a small hill, burned, Venka stood in front of him, fine except for a singed hand. In front of her a layer of diamond.
"Remember, this keeps anything from hurting you physically or through magic. As well as blocks any spells cast with the intent of affecting you negatively or doing something to you that you would not wish for, as well as a whole host of other things. It will even protect you from accidents." Faris's words that long year ago rang through her ears, she never removed the wards he coached her to learn to use.
"That's my cue to leave…" The Surdan turned, running out the village.
"No!" Seya charged at him, swinging down with a dagger. He turned to block her swing with his staff. "Not going to shoot lightning at me?" Seya smiled, "Or… are you too tired?!" She pressed down, only to fly backwards as she felt steel at her neck.
"You humans are fantastic at ganging up on the weak." A young voice called out angrily. They could only look on dumbfounded as they saw a humanoid they've never encountered before. An elven looking girl, skin the color of midnight, eyes that flickered a fiery gold and blue that seemed to live, and horns like the antlers of a deer. She was extremely beautiful, rivaling Alanna's supernatural beauty and radiance. She looked at the group with indifference, then turned to the Surdan. "You're stupidly reckless."
"I have a beautiful dark guardian angel on my shoulder, what guy wouldn't be reckless?" The antlered girl betrayed a smile before quickly becoming stern again.
"Ugh… you're juvenile. Come, we need to get to Ceunon and meet those allies." She muttered. Seya had her hand on her neck, covering the wound and tiny amount of seeping blood. She growled, charging forward, only to run through an explosion of dark blue light and fire. She looked around, angry.
"What the hell was that?!" Seya stamped the ground. "Just one brat was able to trounce us?!"
"He didn't really trounce us." Morgan began.
"He snuck past our noses, killed our captive, knocked out one of our mages and stole his crystal, then he escaped our fight relatively unscathed, the only ones taking any lasting damage is us, and we outnumbered him!" Seya turned to Surmon, "What kind of squad are you even running to be knocked out so easily?!"
Surmon bristled, "For starters, that weapon is unlike anything my men have encountered. Second of all, what was your squad doing that you couldn't capture an opponent!? You have no grounds to criticize me or my men if your team could not achieve the same!" Before Seya could retort he continued,"You're stupidly entitled you know! Not everyone was made into a powerhouse, I had to work hard to get to where I am, then a single order from your damn father nearly got me killed and forced me back a year! You think I wanted to lie to those kids?! I had no choice, they were his orders! And the Bastard Screwed me afterwards!" Seya smacked him, hard enough he bled.
"Seya don't!" Venka and Nya grabbed her, struggling to keep her from reaching him.
"Come at me you coward! You only have the balls to insult me because you're in charge of us! Let! Me!" She swings wildly, "GO!"
Surmon stands up. "You know what?" He wipes the blood from his mouth. "We're going to settle this right now… Venka, Nya, you can let her go." Seya charged him. "Gath Vekry!" (Share pain)
Seya struck Surmon hard, and yelled, concentration breaking as she stumbled over herself."What the hell did you do!?"
"I simply shared my pain with you Seya." Surmon smiled even as he bled from the lip. "We mere mortals feel pain on extreme levels compared to you. So it must be excruciating to experience."
Seya was on the verge of tears. "What the hell even is this!"
Surmon walked forward. "You know, you're a pearl initiate, and extremely immoral, so I forget you're barely a child." He easily dodged Seya's slowed strike, and retaliated with a kick to the small of her back, wincing and stumbling a bit himself as the pain feedbacked to him, without skipping a beat he dropped four crystals, tying down her arms and legs. "You think you're better than me, than everyone else for that matter. You don't really care about people. This… this facade of caring for your friends and allies? They may be fooled but I won't be, not anymore."
Seya's hair began to glow white, and her eyes sparked gold. "SHUT UP!"
Surmon nodded, "Yeah, fight me seriously monster, this time I don't trust you with my back." He aimed down, attempting to strike her hard enough to knock her out. He was surprised when she broke the magical bindings, cracking the crystals.
"SHUT UP!" Seya screamed, punching Surmon in the stomach, Surmon was knocked back several feet, crashing into a wall, he didn't get up. Seya angrily rushed towards his inert body. "Who do you think you are! You're just a gold initiate mage! You don't know what I've been through!"
Surmon's mage squad, who had been silent the whole time, walked towards their fallen leader. One of them, a woman, began to check his pulse, she breathed a sigh of relief, then began to heal him. She glanced at Seya once, who still looked inflamed.
"You killed his daughter..."
"What!?" Seya was dumbfounded, "When did I?!"
"You say he doesn't know what you've been through, do you know anything about Surmon?" The woman turned to look at Seya, eyes even and indifferent, "Surmon's wife died giving birth, and his daughter was sickly, Surmon manned the claims office simply because the small amount of money he earned allowed him to keep her in the hospital, not everyone is lucky enough for a high ranking healer to visit. His daughter had no magical ability and he wasn't a famous mage, he was about to finally arrange permanent treatment when you're father "promoted" him. It was a forceful promotion, he had no time to arrange anything."
Seya felt the color drain from her face.
"After you attacked him and left him for dead, he was found by bandits and sold to illegal slavers. It took him 5 months to make his way to a village that could help him, and even longer to get back to Ilrea. Because Jaya, in all his 'wisdom', demoted him to copper as soon as he disappeared."
Katya mumured, "Demoted students have to renew everything, including housing and medical stay for themselves and family."
"His daughter, with a father presumed dead and definitely disgraced, had no one to vouch for her. Who would protect the child of someone Jaya obviously attempted to get rid of?" The woman finally smiled, a bitter smile. "You ruined his reputation, but worse, you murdered a three year old girl whose only crime was being sick, if you can call that a crime."
"But she didn't-"
"No Katya, don't give me an excuse." Seya smiled coldly. "I'm evil after all." She turns to the others. "I'm the one who attacked him, that's true. And I led bandits over to kill him. But…" she giggles, which throws everyone off, "I didn't think he'd lose a kid!" She begins laughing. Venka clenches her fist.
"You bitch! What the hell!?"
The mages around Surmon get up, agitated.
"Hey, be careful, your boss is injured, you wouldn't want him waking up with more casualties huh?" Seya smiles. "He's already lost so much."
She turns to everyone else. "If you all forgot, those two said Ceunon, you know, our destination, if we don't get there, untold amounts of people may die, I'm certain you all care…"
The surdan boy smiled at the girl who helped him along, his skin was back to it's normal form, no longer covered in scales, and his wings dematerialized, like they never were. "You really came to my rescue there Nytheria."
"You're simply stupid, those were full fledged mages, you could kill maybe three of them before metal fatigue took you and they overwhelmed you. That boy could control your lightning. Three of their women had the capability to physically overwhelm you, and four of them surpassed you in magic capacity and collection."
"You sound worried for me, which is really touching." The boy said. He cheekily added. "So, did you and Methuselah finish your errand down in Surda?"
"Yes, though we had uninvited visitors, he told me not to worry."
"You probably shouldn't, the old man has quite a bit of sense." The boy laughed.
"Shut up, I heard you attempting to flirt with those girls." Her voice took on a venomous edge.
"First of all, yes and no, my actions were simply to goad them, which you saw worked, they didn't imagine my fire breath. Second of all, I'm not so loose that a simple pretty face would blind me. I only take action for world class beauties like yourself."
"Callan, don't patronize me." Nytheria looked away.
Callan laughed, "I never will…"
They arrived at the entrance to a small cottage.
"Let's see…" Callan began, "we have to knock on the door and say "Skolr ver-" He was interrupted by Nytheria, who opened the door.
"Geez, we're trying to make friends with these people." Callan winced. Following after her. They went down a winding hall. Callahan bowed an apology to each guard Nytheria knocked out. Thankful she didn't kill them, "again Nye, we want to make friends, not enemies."
"I don't understand Methuselah's wants, these… abominations aren't worthy of our time in my opinion. You included."
Cathan shrugged in response. Eventually, they enter a laboratory. In it, 6 white haired youth stand stock still as a man in white robes berates them.
"You know, you all really are useless, if you weren't the survivors I would have disposed of your useless corpses a long time ago. He clenches his fist angrily. "Those shade wolves took two years to fully develop! And I've lost over 50 spirits! Do you know how long it will take me to get that back!?"
Callan observed their faces, the three youngest, a girl, boy, and girl, triplets maybe, had faces of pure fear. Going down the line the purple eyed one looked like she'd been crying, curious, given the supposed claim they would become unflappable killing machines. The green eyed one seemed mostly tired, which amused him, but only the red eyed one betrayed an emotion really worth his attention, hatred. He pondered for a bit, remembering that there was supposed to be a seventh member.
Dr. Mandel turned suddenly, seeing his guests he smiled. "You must be the ones here to help me." His smile strained as he turned to Callan, "a human?"
Callan shrugged, "aren't you?"
"...true enough." Dr. Mandel's eyes lit up as a canister was tossed to him.
"103 of those… spirits." Callan shrugged. "Should replace the bit you lost."
Dr. Mandel smiled widely. "If I remember correctly, Lady Jahat ordered two to three of our enhanced children would accompany you two on your rendezvous to Ceunon, and that you would trade the methods of the creation of the soul control staff in exchange for my enhancement procedure."
"Do you have the procedure?" Callan began.
"Not on me, no."
"Haha, what a coincidence, I don't have the blueprints to the staff."
Dr. Mandel snapped his fingers, the children charged forward, Callan remained still. They crashed into a blue field and were knocked back, disorientated.
"Is this the extent of human honor?! Treachery?" Nytheria began, angrily, her hands shined a dark blue light.
"Just testing you, I need to make sure I'm not being tricked." Dr. Mandel smiled. "Pick your poison, each of them are stronger than any human you've ever met."
Callan doubted that slightly after his encounter in that village. "Let's see…" He pointed to the girl with red eyes, and to the girl with green eyes. As for the third… "Don't you have seven of them?"
The doctor's smile strained, "You're… well informed… the seventh is under punishment."
"Oh? Can I meet him?" Callan smiled back.
"How old are you?" Dr. Mandel asked.
Callan smiled, "Just 14 sir, how many spirits have you captured by yourself?"
"Don't-"
"Don't test your patience and good graces, yeah, I can see there's not a lot to go around lol." Callan paused, then chuckled, "Okay, the Red Eyes, Green Eyes, and I guess Violet Eyes."
Dr. Mandel looked like he was just about ready to kill. "You annoy me."
"Thank you, I try." Callan bowed.
Marigold ravenously tore into the bird Faris finished roasting on a fire. After consuming half of it she felt self conscious, looking at Ventus with some guilt, only to see him as enthusiastically tearing into a vulture thigh.
For the most part Atlas and Faris practiced restraint, eating their meals quietly and neatly. Faris turned to look at Atlas and Marigold, a large amount of color had returned to their skin, Marigold's hair returned to its golden look, her eyes to their soft blue, Atlas for his part had pure black hair and black eyes.
"Why didn't you teach me this spell before?" Atlas asked, turning to look at Faris.
"We never had the time, nor was I ever in a situation that could deem it appropriate." Atlas didn't press Faris further, he had returned in an extremely somber mood, and even now didn't use his right hand, they could tell he was in obvious pain. Marigold offered to heal him but he declined. She was adamant until he began roasting the vultures, adding spices and fragrant vegetables to flavor the meat. She really had been famished, two of the full birds going to her, and the other three split evenly amongst Faris, Atlas, and Ventus.
Faris nursed his right hand, it throbbed painfully every few seconds, but it was slowly feeling better. He looked for plants rich in minerals and nutrients to help offset the pain he felt.
"Can… can I talk again?"
Faris sighed. On their way back to Atlas and Marigold, he tried his best, they both tried their best, to use the magic to bring back Damien and the others, it failed quite spectacularly. Faris had been so filled with malic and self loathing he contemplated destroying and absorbing the rest of the forest, just to feel himself dying again and again. Tartarus talked him down, but he became the source of his frustration.
"You can talk again…"
Tartarus and Faris's relationship was an odd one, they felt each other the way a dragon would its rider, but they were not fully one heart and mind, far from it in fact. Even then though, Faris could trust Tartarus to not attempt takeover any longer.
"Don't worry Faris, you'll get your magic back, after this, it's the great games back in Ilrea. Ironically, the debacle with your attack on those men and then your subsequent arrest and Rembrant incident led to its delay. With your strength being in the top 10 isn't out of the book."
"I need to win to get that elixir." Faris began, he lay down, holding his ruined sword, half its metal was in his body, and the mangled remains were more akin to a lumpy heavy baton rather than a weapon of war. "Rest up you two… to Ceunon we go." He clenched his right fist, "I'll look for some calcium phosphorus in the area…"
Alpha admitted Callan was unlike anything she'd seen before, well, almost unlike anything she'd seen before, he flew through the air, flapping and gliding on dark blue wings, each twice his size. He was covered in scales and armed with claws as he flew.
"So, what exactly are you?" She asked.
"Human, or, mostly human." Callan laughed, gliding near. "Why? Jealous of these scales?"
Alpha rolled her eyes. "Whatever you're trying to do, stop. I don't want your girlfriend over there attacking me."
Callan laughed, "Please, like I'd want to do anything with a kid like you, what are you, 14?"
There it is, just like that bastard Epsilon! She thought, the way they acted was way too similar, it was infuriating.
"So… tell me more about this Epsilon fellow. Someone like you guys, but he escaped?"
"Was rescued actually." Gamma stated, yawning.
"Th-the doctor d-doesn't like us talking about him…"
"The Doctor isn't here Delta." Alpha barked. "But you don't need to know anything." She turned to Callan. "By the time you see him I'd have already burnt him to a crisp."
"Went well last time." Gamma muttered.
Alpha stopped dead in her tracks, backhand smacking Gamma deep enough into the ground to leave furrows. Before they could get into each other's throats Callan leapt down, arms extended, one open palm aiming at each of them.
"Calm down, what the hell happened?" Callan began.
"Beta's in trouble cause of Alpha's hot head, and Alpha's actually guilty for once." Gamma snorted. "She found Epsilon after he killed a bunch of the doctor's favorite new specimens, and she lost, badly, in fact, she lost by being burned." Gamma shook her head, "losing by fire is super embarrassing you know, especially for her."
"It wasn't a normal fire, he rubbed this sticky white stuff on my face and mouth!"
Callan snickered, they looked at him, confused, "See it's funny cause…" "well white sticky…" he paused, and considered his surroundings and company, "...continue."
"Then when all the water evaporated it started burning. I couldn't breathe or speak out words, then he hit me with two acidic liquids going on about this white fo-fo-fosferrous or something."
Gamma makes a face, "Fool's Faris? The only fool here is you."
Alpha started to heat up, "I-!"
"White phosphorus." Callan put his hand to his chin.
"What… yeah… yes! White phosphorus! That's what he said!" Alpha began excitedly.
"Damn… that's cruel." Callan frowned. "Where'd he pull it out from?"
"He hand exploded, and when his hand reformed, the stuff was in a rock like form and surrounded by water, he smeared it on my face and when the water evaporated it-"
"It turned into rather sticky flame. Did he name the acids he hit you with?"
"Hydrofluoric and Sulfuric." Alpha said. "That was definitely it."
"I see…"
Callan sent a message to Nytheria: "You heard that right?"
"Yes, given our exploration and intelligence gathering, there's little chance the Alagaesian people have developed a correct understanding of the elements yet, this knowledge isn't even available to my people, could this Epsilon be…"
"From Earth?"
Afterword:
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, things definitely took a sorta dark turn. Things are about to heat up like crazy in Ceunon.
Who is Nytheria, what is the Golden Horde, what relationship do they have with Spirits that they have a staff capable of controlling Shades and splitting their essence into shadelings? Who is this mysterious young man Callum?! Why does he know what White Phosphorus is?! Will things make sense!
FIND OUT, NEXT EPISODE