Chapter 11:
Deckard Cain
They arrive at Tristram beside a river to their left and pile after pile of rubble and ash on their right.
It was so overcast that the world appeared as night despite the orb of the sun being just noticeable in the sky overhead, but save for its halo in the clouds no light reached the earth. Despite that, he could see every shattered lamp post, crumbling foundations to homes and other structures and piles of ash to the horizon.
The crimson beacon of a portal they just walked through and could surely be seen for miles as it provided most of the light with which he could see, though he could recognize the glow of red and orange flames in the distance. Likely bonfires of those who had ravaged this land.
Any chance of this turning out to be a stealth mission was long gone thanks to said portal.
"They surely know we are here, prepare for immediate battle." Flavie ordered.
Izuku placed his hands together and began channeling mana in preparation of a firebolt as they advanced forward along the river. He had actually been tempted to start the spell before passing through the portal, but decided having it blow up upon his arrival would be a poor start to the battle ahead.
It was an entire ten seconds before they passed a house that belched forth a horde of skeletons. Each carried a saber and steel buckler. It wasn't even enough time for him to prepare a firebolt before the action started, just as they had predicted.
And so he watched helplessly as Flavie and Isendra took them down one-by one, both somehow knowing which target the other wanted to focus on and hurling their one two combo of ice and fire. Isendra threw ice bolts and firebolts while Flavie shot ice arrows and fire arrows. Alternating between elements so as to capitalize on the devastating effect of superheating frozen enemies.
By the time Izuku finished preparing his firebolt a lone zombie shambled into the fray and he let loose the orb of magic directly at its chest, erasing the undead from existence and thoroughly as if Isendra had cast it.
Refusing to let himself relax or take pride in the achievement, he began readying another firebolt as another, larger horde of buckler-brandishing skeletons and disoriented zombies closed in on them from all sides. This time a few of the turquoise fallen pushed through the throngs of undead too.
"Izuku! Prepare a fire wall!" Isendra ordered.
Oh were they considering it an actual spell now? Okay then. Izuku switched gears and reabsorbed the mana in his spell as Isendra let loose the largest blizzard from her hands he had seen her perform yet.
She and Flavie backed away towards him as the swarm of enemies closed in on them and Izuku moved forward. Placing both palms flat on the ground at the edge of the area of earth covered in frost. Pushing his mana outward he discovered he barely had to add any mana, as Isendra had already soaked the ten square meters with her own. He merely had to add enough to ignite it, which was still a significant amount for him, and the entirety of the enemy forces went up in flames.
Every bone on the skeletons shattered and the flesh of the feted flesh of the zombies melted before his eyes.
The three or so fallen closest to them, on the other hand, advanced onward towards them at a snail's pace as they fought against the layer of ice covering their bodies. Their speed increased as the flames lapped at them and removed said ice.
Isendra and Flavie took out the last couple of fallen as Izuku retreated to recover from the immense exertion. Reaching into the side pockets of his pack he retrieved a flask of his watered-down mana potion and downed a few gulps as he tried to catch his breath.
The fire died just as quickly as the trio of surviving fallen and Isendra gave herself a moment's respite to drink from her own bottle of mana potion before motioning to continue.
"We can search the bodies and abodes later, right now our sole focus is finding Cane." She instructed between heavy breaths. "Assuming he is alive."
"Help!" A man's voice hollered from beyond the burning building to their right.
The trio looked between each other. That sure had been fast.
They marched onward, past the flaming wreckage and into what must have been the town square. There, in the center, was a raised cage with a filth-covered man of significant age wearing nothing but tattered robes.
As soon as they entered the wide open area three entities to the north spotted them and began charging. At first Izuku mistook them for minotaurs, but as they drew nearer he realized they more resembled feral satyrs with wicked looking axes.
"Save Cane! Use your scroll to get him back to Tristram!" Isendra ordered.
Izuku nodded as the two women charged forward to meet the satyrs head on. He made a beeline straight to the pole holding up Dechard's cage
A single, hefty kick at the latched lever for the chain which held up his cage was enough to bring it crashing down, with Cain still in it. The old man grunted in pain at the sudden force of his stop but didn't seem harmed.
Izuku rushed to him, only to discover the cage had broken so thoroughly from the fall that he was simply able to walk out of it, though he did so weakly.
"Are you able to walk, mister Cain?" Izuku asked.
The old man waved off his concerns and held out a hand.
Now that he was up close Izuku couldn't help the horror at the physical state he was in. The man was skin and bones, pale beyond belief and the pinkish red color of healthy skin was absent. He also smelled of his own waste and months of unwashed sweat. The smell was overpowering.
"The scroll, quickly!" He demanded.
Izuku handed him the scroll and the man whipped it open like a roll of carpet. It obliterated itself in a flash of white light and a familiar blue portal appeared beside him.
"Thank you, young one. For coming to my aid. Return safely to wherever this portal takes me, with your companions in tow. We have much work to do." He said with a sad, weary expression.
He then limped through the portal and it faded behind him into nothing.
Izuku turned around to charge into the fray with Isendra and Flavie only to see that it was over and the two women were walking towards him.
"Mission accomplished, mistress." Izuku said with a full body sigh.
"No time to relax. We are not returning just yet." Isendra told him.
He straightened back up and re-tensed for more fighting.
"What are your orders?" He asked.
"Let us cleanse this place of evil. Let us tear down what little of the structures remain and put this city to rest once and for all." Isendra declared.
No sooner did the words escape her lips than did the sound of feet trampling earth echo from every corner of the ruined city. The screeching of fallen followed soon after.
Izuku placed his sack on the ground, unzipping the compartment of mana potions, and held his newly acquired staff with both hands. The desire to burn welled up in his being through his hands, up his arms and into his chest and he channeled as much mana as he dared into the staff.
He backed up towards where Isendra and Flavie stood back-to-back, and together the three covered every entrance to the town square as it filled with hordes of the blue, screeching demons.
They let loose everything they had. Or at least he did, paying no mind to the actions of his companions and trusting in them fully to cover him as he did for them.
Izuku flung a firebolt through the tip of his staff as easily as swinging it and it flew true to the shaman leading a horde from the south. It took his head off and continued through him into the chest of a fallen behind him, exploding with such force as to send the three around it diving to the ground.
The drain on his mana was instant, but not such that it tired him, so he followed it up with a one, two, swing that unleashed a pair of firebolts the the left and right most fallen charging forth. It achieved the crowd control he had been aiming for. Killing two fallen was a good start, sending eight backwards and to the ground was better, especially as it opened up the number of others behind them to a pair of firebolts all their own.
He was mowing them down like the trash they were and after the horrors he had personally witnessed the aftermath too it felt good to inflict a fraction of the pain they so enjoyed causing others back unto them.
By now he was beginning to feel the drain on his mana and the staff grew heavy in his arms. He took the small moment of respite as the fallen picked themselves off the ground to retrieve a mana potion from his sack and down as much as he could tolerate, before readying for another onslaught. The bastards mobilized quickly though, and the next fireball he flung exploded close enough for him to feel the heat and air pressure from the explosion. If they got any closer he would risk injuring himself and his ladies with the next firebolt.
"Prepare for nova!" Isendra called out from behind him.
Izuku recognized nova as that large wave of lightning she had used to clear out the cave what felt like forever ago.
"I'll follow it up with a fire wall!" He called back.
When neither voiced an objection he prepared the spell. As he had before, he placed the palms of both hands on the ground, setting the staff aside for now. He didn't have to wait long as a single, hair-raising wave of electricity passed through him harmlessly and towards the fallen not three meters away from him.
For the fallen, it was not so harmless. It stunned them in place like Parkinson's-inflicted marionettes. As did the second wave, and third which followed it. By now the electric current passing through them was visibly cooking their flesh from the inside.
Isendra must have run out of juice, pun intended, after the third nova spell so Izuku pushed every last ounce of his newly refilled mana pools into the fading spell and, like flicking a switch, ignited it.
Every inch of the town square was engulfed by his flames. As they rose Izuku focused his mind entirely on the idea of not harming Isendra and Flavie, hoping such intentions would be sufficient to spare them the searing heat and rising winds from his co-opted spell.
He couldn't see the effects of his efforts on the fallen, as the heat, wind and brightness of the flames forced him to clamp his eyes shut. But he did hear their screams for the short moment they lasted. He kept his concentration up even after he was sure they'd died out. Partly just to be safe, but mostly to retain control of the flames until they faded on their own. When they eventually did he felt himself collapse to the ground from the effort.
He was still fully conscious and felt no sign of it slipping, but every muscle felt tight and worn out.
That sure had been something.
He had the presence of mind to hear the releasing of a bow and several firebolts behind hin fired in his dazed state, but most of his focus was on the still open bottle of mana potion next to him. It took some teeth gritting but he managed to force his arms and hands to reach out and grasp the bottle. Bringing it shakily to his lips he drank as deeply as he could, draining it completely.
Silence reigned supreme in the burned ruins of Tristrams town square during the minute or so it took for the potion to work its magic. When he picked himself up from the ground it was to see Isendra and Flavie appraising him, and positively so by the looks on their faces.
"That is one hell of an apprentice you've gotten yourself, Isendra." Flavie said.
"Don't I know it." Isendra sighed with a bemused shake of her head.
Despite everything, he blushed at the praise. But the moment passed and he surveyed the damage.
Aside from the black, charred mounds of what had once been fallen, there was a large mass on the northside of the square. A single figure that had been caught in the lightning and flame but was not destroyed by it.
"What is that?" He asked.
"A very well made zombie." Isendra told him. "One made properly, and from a powerful man."
Right. The tenderizing that Raven had tried to do to Alexis, Mary and the others at the burial ground. On closer look it seemed to be a single man, a large one with no shortage of muscle or fat. To think he had survived all of that magic and needed a few arrows and additional firebolts to take down.
"Stay here, we will go search the dead and ruins this time." Flavie said. "You have earned a rest. Although we will leave the courtyard to you."
The trio returned triumphant through a manually cast portal by Isendra a few hours later as it was nearing night time.
They had opted to load the over fifty pairs of swords, bucklers and other weapons onto a barely functional cart they found in the ruins of Tristram instead of trying to bag and organize it all. The jewelry, potions, scrolls, gold and wands they found were threatening to burst from his overfilled pack. Isendra had packed any of the more interesting items into her own sack for later examination.
He was almost as amazed that he could fit the bag through the portal as with the cart, but both arrived at the encampment whole.
There, Kashya was waiting for them.
"Our hope for winning this war is now stronger than it has ever been." She said, "Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.
"Is the old man okay?" Izuku asked.
She smiled kindly at him. A first.
"Akara is tending to him. Giving him a well-needed bath and proper meal as we speak." Kashya told him. "He will then be put to bed and treated." She informed them. "It will be a hard recovery, both from malnutrition and the adverse effects of cannibalism."
"Cannibalism?" Izuku asked.
Where had that come from?
He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his mistress looking at him sadly.
"What do you think they fed him to keep him alive there?" Isendra asked. "I'll tell you, it wasn't the long rotted cows we saw."
Izuku felt his stomach churn at yet another horrible revelation. All he could do was clench his teeth and fists, before excusing himself for an evening bath and bed.
A week later saw Izuku practicing his two mastered spells on a set of targets just outside of the encampment.
Each sported an assortment of holes where his spears of ice had embedded into them, but then again, so did the ground surrounding the targets. Several of said spears were still there.
Fire bolt. Ice bolt. Fire wall. His repertoire grew daily. He guessed flamethrower and drink chill could be added to the list if he was feeling generous to himself.
He took a break from wasting mana to sit on his rock and eat a bit of hard bread, looking over to the encampment to see if anything was amiss.
All seemed well. The freshly washed leather and padded armors from Tristram were hanging out to dry again beside the usual linen.
Ever since they'd returned with a mountain of gear, Charsi was hard at work repairing the many shields, swords and even a few sets of chain mail they had recovered. Meanwhile, Warriv's crew was working on the leather and padded armors. They were hard at work every morning cleaning and re-cleaning them to make them at all wearable, soaking them in perfumed charcoal and ash overnight to help the process of removing the stink further. They were close to ready for the basic tailoring to repair for rips and tears.
The only strange thing about the scene was Isendra, clad in the loose, white dress she always wore on washing days, approaching him.
Isendra comes to get him.
"Cain is awake and he wishes to see us." She informed him once he was within earshot.
He nodded, put his food things away, and joined her in the walk back to camp.
The mood had completely shifted since their return from Tristram. Their success in rescuing such a valuable sage, and the new armory they were in the process of building, felt like it changed the dynamics of the war completely.
Most difficult to adjust to was the change Izuku and Isendra's standing within said camp. Everyone smiled at them now. Everyone showed a similar respect to him as to Isendra. This came with the downside that they were less likely to ask him for help with the more menial tasks around camp, but he refused to stand aside and avoid pulling his own weight.
He did worry that people were getting annoyed with him badgering them for tasks to do, but there was never a shortage of such when he asked for them.
They arrived at Akara's tent to see her standing patiently outside for them.
"He is still weak, speak gently. And as respectfully as in the presence of god, young Midoriya." She said,
Addendum: Everyone aside from Akara treated him with respect. Geez, you burn a woman's home down and she never wants to let it go.
They entered the tent and Izuku couldn't stop the smile from erupting on his face at Cain's visibly improved health. He was still dangerously thin, sure, but pink had returned to his filth-free cheeks and his combed hair added some humanity back to his appearance.
"I wanted to personally thank you again for risking so much to save me." He began. "And even though your motivations weren't entirely selfless, the spirit of said motives were. As such my services are at your disposal should you ever need them. I have long made a living from charging for my ability to identify the magical properties of items without the need of an ancili, and now I shall do so for you at any time."
Isendra stood up even straighter at this pronouncement and Izuku knew this must be an even bigger boon than he could have guessed. He chose not to write that question down at the moment.
"I insist on you resting for one more day before doing anything that laborious." Akara interrupted. "Tomorrow you may begin providing them such services."
"Hmm. In the meantime I do hope somebody will begin filling me in on what I missed during my months of captivity." He said. "Or am I not strong enough for that, young lady?"
It took Izuku a moment to realize he was speaking to Akara due to the use of "young lady" for describing her, and he had to bite his lips to hide his amusement.
"I will tell you everything today, so long as you remain in bed." Akara said patiently. "After all, tomorrow we need you to begin helping us plan and coordinate."
The two were dismissed after that and they exited to walk back out to the gate. Nobody interrupted them.
"How goes your ice bolt practice?" Isendra asked.
"Well," he said. "It's tougher to aim and propel that firebolts or arrows because of their weight, but I've got good timing on it and I hit more targets than I miss."
"Good. Then we shall move onto finishing the trifecta. It is time for you to learn the charged bolt, the most dangerous of the lowest tier of elemental magics." Isendra said.
Finally! Lightning really did seem like the most powerful of the magics, and the most fun seeing as he had some knowledge of electricity, and even that small amount outstripped the rest of the worlds.
They returned to his rock and Isendra put out a hand as if asking for a high five.
"Place your hand a few inches from mine." She instructed.
Izuku did so and was immediately zapped, as if by static shock, but strong enough to almost make his hand numb.
"Now you know what lightning feels like. Focus on that feeling and try to recreate it." She said, keeping her hand in place. "And shock me back."
Izuku did so.
"Owe! Damnit Izuku!" Isendra cried out as she backed away from him. "First try?! Really?!"
Izuku struggled to keep a straight face, but somehow pulled it off. Maybe it had been a smidgen of retaliatory anger at the unexpected shock she had given him, but when he had raised his hand back to hers the magic obeyed and bridged the gap between them in a vindictive arc of electricity with such ease it astounded him as much as her.
"I was expecting that to take all day." She groused. "That just isn't natural. Well the next step is to go practice on a steel sword in the ground, but I didn't come prepared with one."
That made sense. A grounded piece of metal to absorb the shocks safely.
"Am I just supposed to incrementally increase the amount of space between myself and the sword?" he asked.
She rubbed her eyes, fighting the obvious headache he always seemed to cause her when he seemed to know the training regimen before she shared it.
"That is correct." She sighed. "Come on. Let's go get you a sword.
"Hmmm." Deckard Cain hummed as he looked over the myriad of things they had placed on the table for him to examine. "The two rings are enchanted with magical protections. One for elemental resistance ot fire, and one for poison."
"To slow the progress of poison or reduce the chance of becoming infected in the first place?" Isendra asked.
"The latter." He said.
Isendra picked up the poison one and dawned it on her index finger, handing the one for fire to Izuku which barely fit on his thumb.
"This staff is far more interesting." He said. "It too provides elemental resistance to fire, much more extremely than the ring. With the two together you can almost walk through fire unharmed. But in addition to that it specifically amplifies power the fire bolt spell and aids the wielder in casting it more quickly. But wait, there's more. It can siphon overspent mana back to the user, if they overcharge the spell, and its biggest boon is an enchantment that amplifies a spells strength when targeting the undead. and has an added reservoir of mana"
Isnedra whistled.
"How did they fit so many enchantments onto a staff?" She asked. "It must have been made by a very skilled enchanter."
"Indeed," Said Cain. "But not quite a master enchanter. The enchantments are static. They do not grow or adapt to the user, as masterfully enchanted items will. All the same, it is an excellent choice in weaponry to your pyromaniac apprentice."
He handed Bane Ash back to Izuku and he marveled at it with a new perspective. It really did seem like providence that he would find such a weapon just before arriving at Tristram. He was sure he wouldn't have done half as well against those hordes without it and they would have had to flee through a rushed portal instead of being victorious.
"Oh! And this little ring here has what I call a laxative enchantment." He said, picking up a small silver one. "It loosens the mana pathways and allows the user to form spells more quickly, thus casting them more quickly."
Izuku chuckled at the humor and Isendra nodded for him to take it. It made sense for him to wear it with his much slower casting speed than her. This one fit on his index well enough.
"Now, I do believe Kashya and Warriv have called a meeting for the whole encampment. We have much to discuss." Cain said before standing up and walking towards the central bonfire.
Isendra and Izuku followed him.
This story was ghostwritten by NonsensicalRants as commissioned by MagikUser. You can hire NonsensicalRants to write your stories as well, all you have to do is provide him with a rough outline and contact him on his patron.
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