AN/ This is the link to the map I drew for this story. You have to take out the parentheses. http:/ryanasmith94(.)deviantart(.)com/art/Map-for-Zufli-A-Life-Of-Magic-198827511
Chapter Six: 'Aint Big Enough For The Two Of Us
Zufli woke one morning eager to get started on her magic. Her first practical spell that she had fashioned for her mana was a basic fireball that she could shoot at incredible speeds, but comparing it to "De Book's" spells is was analogous to a standard lightning attack. She knew that she could make more powerful fire spells by imitating other more advanced lightning spells from "De Book," and was so excited by the idea that she almost forgot to summon Nightfeather for his usual survey of the island.
As she rifled through the pages looking for a technique that was easily adaptable to her fire magic, she was abruptly interrupted by a feeling of panic from Nightfeather. Letting her mind go blank, she received a vague impression of many humans. As always, she could tell exactly where Nightfeather was, above the Human base, so to get a better picture of what was happening she summoned a sentry ward near the coast on the hill that obscured the Hut from the sea. Because of the high vantage point she could see over the trees on the nearby island to the settlement. The usually undermanned but heavily fortified outpost was filled with soldiers and more were arriving as she watched from several large ships. The force was so big, in fact, that a few of the ships hadn't even stopped at the base and were unloading onto the other nearby islands, bringing them much closer to the Hut than usual.
"Kavu'fon!" she yelled. Her practice field was behind the hut on the slope of the wooded hill that kept the Hut concealed, so it didn't take the aged troll long to arrive. She could feel a bit of mana being sucked from the air, a sign that he was drawing it to him in preparation of an attack.
"What is it, Zufli?"
"De human base. Dere be more of dem. Lots. Dey be comin' on ships, t'ousands o' dem."
"Ah, e'chuta! Dat not good. No, not good at all. Why are dey here? Der is not'ing on de Isles dey would want." He called a sentry ward and watched the spectacle for a few seconds, then said, "Ya got ta stop practicin' magic fo a while. A group dat big, dey got ta have at least one powerful mage who will be able ta sense any potent spells."
For the next few days everyone kept the magic use to a minimum, which resulted in extreme boredom for Zufli and Sha'alith as practicing magic was their main activity. For something to do they organized a constant watch of the human scouting parties that came anywhere near them. Zufli's sentry ward saw every person who left the encampments in their direction, and they set up a post at the small mouth of the cove in case anyone decided to go poking around near the hut. There were three heavily wooded islands that helped to screen the opening of the ravine from open water, and that helped everyone feel somewhat safe. Even so, with the number of patrols it was just a matter of time before they discovered the Hut.
The constant search and hunting parties sent out by the humans stirred up the inhabitants of the island, so about a week after they main force arrived a large swarm of hydra attacked. It had the typical planning of a hydra attack, with the organization of a semi-intelligent being and the lack of foresight of a wild animal. Because the attack was from all sides, at night and the wounds inflicted by the hydra were infected with magic-resistant poison, the human forces took a fair amount of casualties. Because of the horrendous difference in numbers, every hydra was slaughtered. The leader, an ancient hydra almost twenty feet long, was the last to fall after destroying one of the large ships the humans had arrived on with a spray of some sort of acid-poison. Her many enormous teeth were passed out as medals for surviving the battle.
The scouting parties slowed then but by no means stopped, and the group's luck ran out anyway. One night a few days after the battle, Zufli was watching the ravine when she saw a rowboat slip silently between two of the outer islands and head towards the cove. She sprang up and sprinted back to the hut, easily staying out of sight of the boat, and she got to the Hut just in time.
"Kavu'fon, Sha'alith!" she said urgently but quietly as she entered the Hut. "De humans are here!"
They were both in their beds and she heard them jumped up, throwing on clothes. Sha'alith had moved into the hut a while ago, forgoing the tent. Through the door to his room the old troll asked, "How many were dere? How long do we have?"
"Dere was a boatful, a dozen o' dem maybe. Dey be in de cove now!"
Kavu'fon emerged with his staff in hand. "Sha'alith! Hurry! Zufli, follow me." The younger male came out then, carrying a cloth sack of coins and the ornate short sword he had taken from his father. She had forgot he even had it until then, it hadn't left Sha'alith's room since he arrived apparently. Kavu'fon placed a stun ward just inside the door and they set off towards the woods, the scene eerily familiar to Zufli. Everyone stopped where there was a good view of the path leading to Hut. The group of humans were soon approaching the old structure, and it was large enough that it was probably the whole group, so there would be no scouts prowling the jungle that they might run into. The humans reached the Hut and stopped, then two went inside and suddenly all but three in the group went rigid and fell to the ground.
Taking this as the cue to attack, both Kavu'fon and Zufli summoned creatures and serpent wards around the group, then ran forward to cast Hex on any leaders. Sha'alith had an idea, however, and stayed in the trees. He focused on the area above the hut and, using methods that he had only read about before, caused a small cluster of clouds to form. As he did so he melded his consciousness with the energy he was creating. It was sort of like the bond between summoner and summoned, but more difficult to achieve. When he had done that he was able to spectrally 'see' down from the storm and, once there was enough energy, he attempted unleashing powerful bolts of lightning down on the humans.
Zufli didn't notice that Sha'alith wasn't bodily in the attack. She charged, joining the fight first with her basic fireball spell shot from the staff in her left hand and the spears from her back that she threw with her right. This permanently took down two of the swordsmen and wounded several, but the fireballs didn't do as much damage as she thought and were less accurate. The summoned creatures had made a large dent in the forces while they were paralyzed, but as soon as the humans started getting up they began coalescing into a unit. Spotting the female mage that was regrouping the fighters, Zufli turned her into a lizard. She had exhausted almost all of her 'normal' mana in the first wave of summoning, and her 'special' mana was about a quarter gone from the Hex and fireballs. Now out of spears and only about fifty percent accurate with her magic attacks, she closed in, drawing her axe and entering the melee. She came out of nowhere, or so it seemed to the humans, and cleaved into the helm of a footman. She blasted a fireball into the chest of another as he moved to attack, then sent another ball of flames through a hole in the fighting towards where the spell casters were and hit one in the shoulder. The organization was hampered with the leader unable to command, but the several heavily armored footmen and the three remaining mages were turning the tide on the smaller group of summoned animals and wards. The battle was taking a turn for the worse, so she quickly cut into a distracted soldier's arm with her axe before falling back. The injured enemy flinched and turned, but was then gutted by one of Kavu'fon's murlocs.
While Zufli backed away warily, three armored men finished off a nearby giant turtle and they all turned on her. They were still about ten feet away so she launched three fireballs in quick succession. At the close range they all hit the one in the center and he went down, though she wasn't sure if he was dead. Using the last of her mana, she turned the closer one into a crab and then the final one was on her. He swung his weapon, but she deflected it with the shield attached to her staff. The swordsman recovered from the overbalance and quickly snapped his blade up, catching her arm. Seeing he had the advantage, he smiled and brought his sword up for a final blow, when suddenly he was struck by an incredibly powerful bolt of lightning from the sky and exploded, sending bits of flesh and metal everywhere. The first shot must have extra forceful, because as flashes of electricity started falling all around her on the remaining humans none of them exploded.
Ten seconds later the lightning stopped. Her arm hurt immensely, easily the most pain she had ever felt, but it had a strange distance to it. She got up and looked around, spotting Kavu'fon as he limped toward her, leaning heavily on his staff.
AN/ I think I'm almost done with this story. There always a first time for everything...