The Odd Shaman: Book 1 Complete

by QuiteSarcastic

Waking up on a beach and suddenly being assaulted by a creature with too much anger for its own good was one way to appear on Azeroth. - I ended up deleting this fic on Webnovel and decided to repost it here instead, once I have started to get further into book 2, I'll repost it there as well. -Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Activision Blizzard.

73. Chapter 74

' = Internal dialogue

¨= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 74-

—

—Jaina PoV—

—

After finally getting my MP and HP topped off, I stared into the distance, toward where I had managed to throw the bomb earlier.

I grimaced as I studied the area of impact; while I had effectively turned maybe 1/10th of the demonic forces into a flattened mush, I had also made a gigantic crater where nothing would ever grow again.

My magic instinctively told me that the area would forever be a scar, a place where life would never flourish again.

*ROOOOOOAR*

A distant roar made me aware that I still had a job to do. I turned around to see the battlefield, which was quite the sight itself as thousands of creatures fought one another with utter disregard for life or limb.

Medan seemed to have his side under control, though.

'Even now, I can see him not taking this situation too seriously...' I thought with a wry smile because if there was one thing I had noticed over these last few months, it was the fact that he treated most things with a neutral outlook, of course, unless it was his closest ones or the ones that managed to crawl into his heart.

Of course, others thought this when they saw how he dealt with the situations at hand, but I knew better.

Underneath that hard surface was a kind man trying to forget the horrors and guilt he had experienced and was dealing with them by diving into the fights and war in front of him in order to suppress his previously extreme hero complex.

It did not take much to guess that this was the case, as I was exactly the same before reaching Kalimdor, except that I enjoyed a warm bath more than a fight to the death should I be defeated.

'I need to make sure to get us a vacation after this...' I thought as my mind wandered.

I then gazed west, where another armada of enemy forces made their way up Mt. Hyjal.

These forces were fewer in numbers but seemed to make up for it in quality, though it had to be noted that the frontline of these forces was undead and not demons compared to Medan's side.

I was surprised when I saw roots stretch hundreds of meters and come to life as hundreds of night elves descended to meet the forces of undeath. Still, it was soon made clear as Cenarius roared with his arms connected to two tendrils of green roots coming up from the ground as the area around him trembled that this would be met by fierce resistance.

Dozens of druids rapidly shapeshifted into feline forms and lept to their adversaries after the undead monstrosities fell to the Demi-god as they lay utterly crushed by the roots that violently slammed into the ground wildly, somehow never coming close to hitting one of the night elves.

Several other druids transformed into varying shapes of bears as they stood before some kind of bear-like owls. Then suddenly, the owl's hands started to glow silver, and the moment after that, hundreds of demons were violently torn apart by pure astral magic.

Hundreds of raven-like birds flew across the battlefield while carrying blue-glowing vials, which were soon dropped directly on top of the demons and undead who ignored whatever these vials did, or that was until the ground underneath them rumbled before the grass and forest around them shot toward the forces and seemingly created what looked to be a spider-web made of plants that hindered their movements, and actions.

The very next moment, druids in feline form slit the demon's throats, with such efficiency that I was amazed for a moment.

In contrast, the bear-like druids smashed the skeletons and undead to pieces with pure might.

'Impressive...' I thought to myself momentarily as I gazed at the druids who quickly dispatched the demons with ease as they rushed up the mountain.

As impressive as the night elves were, they miscalculated one thing heading their way on top of an undead drake.

A tall humanoid figure, wearing a robe and hood, revealing only the white eyes within, stood motionless on top of the drake as he observed the battlefield, and just as he was done looking at Cenarius and his forces, his emotionless gaze met mine.

His gaze was even colder than my magic, to the point of me finally realizing that whoever this new Antonidas was, he was no longer the one I knew.

The warm and friendly Archmage was no more; what remained of his passing was just a husk, a remnant of the past wearing his skin.

My fist clenched to the point that it started to bleed, 'They... will pay for the atrocities they have done to you, Archmage Antonidas... That I promise you...'

As I breathed out and closed my eyes, my breath turned into a mist of pure cold as the area around me mid-air turned frigid.

I opened my eyes slowly as I felt the magic coming toward me; dozens of arcane missiles raced toward where I stood at an alarming speed, or that was until they entered the circular globe of cold air and slowed down considerably before striking thin walls of ice and exploding upon impact.

*CRASH* and the sound of glass shattering was heard as the first missile struck.

Then, the impacts of the missiles made a similar sound as hundreds of lightning bolts striking an object before I pushed my arms outward.

The remaining objects within my sphere of cold shot toward both sides as several undead drakes had been teleported in order to pin me in place to prevent any chance of escape.

Hundreds of ice lances shot toward the undead drakes.

Antonidas simply stood on the back of a larger drake and gazed emotionlessly at the lances of ice before conjuring a black-tinted mana barrier.

The undead version of Antonidas seemingly underestimated the power behind the ice lances as they penetrated the barrier and struck dozens of drakes, shattering wings of bone, flying into their skulls, and clearly striking something significant within the undead constructs as they momentarily swayed and nosedived toward the ground soon after when the blue glow in their eye sockets faded.

Antonidas had managed to put up a secondary layer to save himself and the drake he stood on top of at the last moment, but this was not the end of my assault as my magic flared up, resulting in a blizzard taking place hundreds of meters around me, then the globe expanded outward violently.

I felt the attempt to utilize spatial magic within the blizzard as Lich-Antonidas cast mass teleportation while maintaining an increasingly expanding black barrier around himself that worked against my domain of ice.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

The sound of glass shattering was heard as Antonidas apparently managed to get out of the domain.

However, the remaining drakes did not.

Their bone-like bodies quickly turned solid before I snapped my fingers in their direction.

*Clang* A horrible sound went through the air, almost like an unholy chime of a bell from the great beyond, as the drakes's bones turned brittle, and within a second, they turned into fine white powder as they descended toward the battlefield below as powder snow.

I took another deep breath and exhaled while a thick vapor flowed out of my lungs and into the domain when I saw Antonidas channel another spell as one of his hands turned green and the other purple soon after, 'So that is how he got out...' I thought as I gazed at the now visible necklace hanging from around his neck.

It was one of the old projects that he had yet to tell the council of its existence, as it would undoubtedly become a tool of war between factions if the information had become known.

The artifact in question was one to bypass anything related to spatial magic, like the one Dalaran had as its primary form of defense, but this was scaled down to fit a person perfectly unless your magic covered the entire area the item would be used, one would never notice the person wearing the item entering or exiting the premises.

It is the perfect item for a spy or hedge wizard for hire.

Luckily for the undead Antonidas, it was the fact that my area of control was, in fact, not entirely spatial in nature but was more focused on immobilization and consequent molecule breakdown due to the extreme cold all around me.

If he had been inside the area for a moment longer, he would break down to dust as his barrier was torn down only moments ago.

I couldn't help but smile a little; even with my previous anger directed toward the Burning Legion and whoever raised my mentor as an undead-lich-like abomination, I still felt grateful to be able to prove to myself and my mentor one last time that he was correct about one thing.

'I will surpass him.'

*Inhale* I took hold of the magic all around me as the blizzard intensified into a vortex of power that slowly but surely became smaller and smaller as I took it into myself.

Antonidas did not spend the time idle as he cast his next spell; his arm jerked as his palm flickered with blue light; this seemingly small projectile of black-ish blue rapidly blinked several times before it met the rapidly shrinking blizzard.

As it impacted the domain of frost, it flickered once more.

It suddenly appeared directly in front of me; on instinct, I blinked to the side as the seemingly harmless projectile expanded violently before it quickly shrank in on itself before a torrent of blue-black flames exploded outwards.

The odd part about the zone of impact was the lack of magic, almost as if the explosion of the spell sucked the surrounding magic inside itself to fuel the explosion further. 'So that's his plan...' It was a simple plan but effective if it actually hit.

A magical implosion spell that feeds upon the concentrated mana within the being it is cast upon, would effectively be fatal for any mage... other than Medan and I.

The explosion itself was meaningless, considering it was not able to absorb much magic, and as soon as the flames broke down, I felt something from above.

This time, I recognized what was coming.

I kept absorbing the blizzard while directing my left arm upward as an enormous meteor of purple and black impacted the ice barrier above.

I could feel the meteor's weight as I held it on top of my barrier; several tons of pure force tried to make me fall from the sky, but I would not relent as the meteor quickly froze over the moment I managed to absorb my blizzard completely.

I gasped, my eyes shot open as tendrils of ice shot out of my back and met the meteor head-on; its death, arcane, and frost magics mixed into one diminished in record speed as the whole thing froze over in the blink of an eye, corroded by the extreme cold.

And when a second tendril impacted the meteor, it turned to dust and blew into the wind.

I was amazed by what was transpiring around me; my arms were blue, and I saw my eyes glow white and blue as frost magic raced underneath my skin as I gazed into a momentary reflection of myself.

My hair flailed in the wind with blue tips of ice covering it; I saw the water in the air turn into ice all around me as it apparently had turned into a liquid form the moment I gained this odd transformation.

[Picture In the comment.]

Suddenly, I saw a notification in the corner of my eye and mentally pressed it.

—

[Ice Form] Ultimate Spell Created.

-Description: This skill is made by yourself without the help of [ERROR] and has evolved to fit your very being, resulting in a classification: Ultimate. This rare classification will only be for one spell designed explicitly for the User.

-Your body turns into ice, reducing damage taken by 80% and increasing damage you deal with frost magic by 200% for 120 Seconds.

-This spell will become part passive once your Attunement: Water and Air reach Tier VII, and will become ? At Tier X.

-This spell's damage is based on your attunement to Water and Air and will scale accordingly:

—

Damage = Water.

Duration = Air.

Unique Condition = ? [Reach Tier VII for further information.]

—

Tier V = 200% for 120 Seconds.

Tier VI = 215% for 140 Seconds.

Tier VII = 230% for 160 Seconds. [?]

Tier VIII = 245% for 180 Seconds. [?]

Tier IX = 260% for 200 Seconds. [?]

Tier X = ? For ?[Redacted]

—

My magic suddenly exploded violently outward, creating a literal dead zone of magic around me.

I gasped as I felt the power flow through me and marveled at how easily I could call upon water and ice.

Still, I did not let that break my focus for too long as I gazed into the eyes of Antonidas, who I could have sworn that I saw some sort of recognition, albeit just a glimpse.

The next thing that happened within several miles around me mid-air was that it had begun snowing, and the sky above dimmed as dark clouds covered the previously moonlit skies.

I directed a helping hand into several battlefields below as snow slowly fell from high above the world tree; while it fell, however, I was conjuring a massive lance of ice that I threw in the direction of Antonidas, who suddenly shot into action as a black barrier and took shape around him, his eyes turned increasingly ghostly blue.

Antonidas's arms suddenly extended outward to both sides as he was surrounded by black mist; space suddenly shuddered as a crack appeared; seemingly, the crack in space started to absorb the air around it, which was, in fact, an attempt to drain the surroundings of mana. 'No... it's not draining mana or magic...' I thought that just as suddenly as the crack appeared, there were dozens of presences that wailed in agony before seemingly being absorbed by this anomaly mid-air.

I stilled when I realized what Lich Antonidas had just done; the wails were of young children like the ones inserted into the abominations I had encountered a short while ago.

'He is feeding whatever this is... souls?' I thought with a chilling realization.

He had fed whatever was coming with enough souls to power it up enough and give it access to our world.

All this happened as my lance flew through the air, impacting the black mist.

With a screeching sound, the lance of ice was halted in the air for a moment before I saw the form of Antonidas get rag-dolled through the air by the continuation of the lance's newfound momentum as it penetrated the mist.

*SCREEEEECH*

An unholy cacophony of wails sounded out as the black mist started to disappear and the crack started to close itself.

In the last moment, I heard a *THUMP* as two enormous ghost-like limbs appeared through the crack and screeched loudly while it pulled the closing space up, little by little.

I got time to ponder 'What the...' as whatever creature this was tore space open and revealed itself as it floated through the crack before the crack in question collapsed in on itself soundlessly.

The being in question was a whisp-like elemental spirit who stood 20 meters tall with a dark metal vambrace on each arm. Its form had smoke-like apparitions of faces that screamed in agony all around it; its eyes were dead, cold, and held a promise of death; as its two white-green eyes looked around itself, it caught the form of Antonidas, who was making his way back after being thrown away, his torso had a football-sized hole through it, his robe torn to shreds was seen as he floated like a wraith.

[Picture of said creature in the comment.]

"What... Isss your tasssk for me, little lichhhh-ling...?" A raspy voice coming from all directions, asking with a hint of excitement.

Antonidas then looked toward me and pointed his decomposed finger at me, then paused before he said in a voice empty of all emotion, "Death."

"It...S-ssshall be done."

Then, without a moment to lose, I blinked backward as black-purple magic appeared underneath me; thousands of voices screeched their ethereal lungs out as the spell took hold in the air. The space the spell occupied now shuddered before tendrils-like hands shot toward my current location after my blink.

As they raced through the air directly at me, I clapped my hands together as the snow above shot down into the ghost-like appendages.

The vails of agony increased as the tendrils got cut apart and lost their dark luster before fading into the air and disipate like smoke.

'I can't let those things touch me... the magic within is... foul...' I thought and looked back at the spirit of death that seemed rather amused from what I understood from its visage; a slight grin was hidden behind the smokey substance it was made of.

I teleported high above and concentrated as I willed the ice and snow around me to aid me. The response was instantaneous as two figures appeared as if being conjured by mist.

Two different types of elemental now stood before me. One had a swirling form that sent torrents of water throughout its form while the outer layer was frozen solid, almost like it was acting like armor. I could feel a semblance of sentience connect to my magic as it took form, its shape looking quite muscular. 'Rime,' I thought; the name came naturally.

The second elemental was the same, except its form was more feminine while tendrils of what resembled hair swirled above her head.

I felt the connection form with my magic and could instinctively tell that her name was Tempra.

"Mistress, what do you require?"

"Mistress, what do you require?"

The two elementals replied in chorus.

I was momentarily set back as this was the first time I had ever gotten a verbal response from my summons, but I quickly caught myself as I looked toward the two beings some distance away.

"Act as my defense and offense as we take on whatever abomination our enemy has conjured," I commanded while conjuring hundreds of ice lances around us.

"As you command."

"As you command."

Both elementals replied in chorus. They willed the mana in the environment to follow their command. What followed was a barrier wrapped in ice and mana acting as a shield for Rime.

A scythe-like weapon appeared in Tempra's two hands with a tsunami contained within. As she swung her scythe, I shot the lances toward the elemental of death and Antonidas.

The result was a tidal wave of water taking shape in the sky that shot toward the two as it started spinning rapidly, turning itself into a vortex of water. It struck the two as they both put up an enormous barrier of black and blue.

*CRASH* *BOOOOM* The water collided with the barrier and audibly met significant resistance as it was stopped, but then came the enhanced ice lances from inside the vortex.

The lances of ice, now further amplified in speed and sharpness, collided with the barrier, which shattered like glass when it met the projectiles head-on.

But this did not stop the vengeful spirit-like elemental from casting a spell of his own directly behind me; this time, however, it was like I was being pulled toward the spell instead of it coming towards me.

As our attack went by, my elementals and I had to expand a significant amount of magic to counter-spell the black hole-like phenomenon.

Which was exhausting beyond belief as we had just spent a figurative ton of mana on our renewed offense.

Just as I thought the spell had come to pass, I saw a ray of death magic head directly toward my forehead faster than I could blink away, but just before it crashed into me, a large figure appeared with a large blue shield made of pure hardened magical ice and blocked the spell as the figure skidded backward and dragged me with it.

"I apologize for my tardiness, mistress." The voice of Rime sounded out as he took a stance after repairing the fractured shield.

Through our newfound bond, I felt that Rime was deeply ashamed for almost letting me be struck by such an attack shortly after being given true sentience.

Tempra, however, was angry and volatile, and it showed as her form became chaotic.

The tides she contained within started to expand, and her elemental body swelled with borrowed power.

Making me stumble briefly as I felt her pull on my resources.

I could have stopped it, but I let her willingly express her fury as she swung her scythe-like weapon in record speed, making two thin lines of high-pressurized water collide into both Antonidas and the death spirit.

The results of her wrath were apparent as an unholy wail resounded throughout the sky.

I felt Tempra's grim satisfaction and gratefulness to me for having let her express her wrath without holding her back.

As the mist covering the zone of impact cleared, Antonidas and the spirit had taken significant damage.

Antonidas's arm and leg were missing as dark ichor-like blood seeped from his wounds, while the elemental was missing half its face and entire right side as it writhed wildly within itself, seemingly trying to repair the damage.

"Amusing little mage, are you not?" Antonida's form quivered momentarily before saying with unnerving calm in a rough and aged voice. His eyes were now entirely white, and a fraction of amusement could be seen on his face.

No, this was not my mentor.

This was someone else entirely. "Who are you?" I asked as I kept conjuring lances.

The one occupying Antonidas's body chuckled as his eyes checked out the area below where the night elves fought before it stopped somewhere in the distance when I heard a resounding *BOOOOOOOOM*

"It seems the Deceiver has arrived," The one talking through Antonidas's body said. Then, after a brief pause, he gazed at me before continuing, "You have already exhausted the magic given to this body. It will no longer threaten you, little mage, as for who I am? Someone in the search of freedom is all you need to know." Then, his eyes started to lose that unnatural whiteness, and the heavy presence began to fade.

"Let it be said, your mentor is one of the strongest mages I have ever had the pleasure of possessing. Goodbye, and good luck, little mage." It said just as Antonidas's fingers snapped, and the elemental started to fade as it flailed about wildly while screeching.

As the presence faded completely, so did the elemental of death.

What was left behind was the undead body of Antonidas wearing rags that soon started to fall, but not before I caught the body by blinking towards it and then blinking back to the magical mount.

I slowly placed the body back onto the carpet and deactivated my [Ice form].

A sense of weakness went through my body, and as I was falling to my knees, I was met by a sizeable ice-like hand catching me before I did so.

"Are you well, mistress?" Rime said in an emotionless voice, but I felt the care from our connection as the elemental conveyed his worry both verbally and mentally.

"Yes... yes, I am. Thank you, Rime." I replied, grateful for his assistance as I managed to stand on my own two feet again.

Tempra stood at my side and gave me a short, worried glance before gazing down below and asking, "What is your next task, mistress?"

Before replying, I concentrated on my bond with Medan and got back that he was fine and preferred to deal with the so-called deceiver alone but would indicate if he needed help.

"Assist the elves with the demons and undead below. We need to ensure they will not reach the world tree." I explained and conveyed the information about all these subjects through my mental link with my two elementals.

Rime and Tempra gave me the mental equivalent of a nod as we descended toward Cenarius and his forces while pelting forces from a distance with sharp hail, ice lances, and slippery terrain that allies could step on without issue.

'I'll assist where I can... be safe, love...'

-Chapter 74 End-