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Chapter 18 - Battle Amongst the Trees
🕑 Added 2021-06-08 10:53:30 +0000 UTCSpellbook
Shield
Description: Create a wall of essence.
Classification: Battle Magic
School: Warding
Spell Tier: 1
Ability Rank:
1 – Project a wall of essence from a point of your body.
2 – Project a wall of essence within a short radius.
Notes:
The most important spell for any wizard to have. Infinitely versatile, and forever useful, master this spell and become impervious to all that might harm you. Like essence blast, this is an exercise in controlling one’s essence and giving it direction.
As Hump stood there amongst the tainted trees, staring at the scaledbrutes, all he could think was that it could have been worse. They had the cavern wall at their backs, trees providing cover from the kobold archers, and plenty of rock that he could use to smash in some face.
Though the situation was a far cry from good.
There was no time to formulate a plan. The scaledbrutes dropped to all fours. They bared their teeth, long slivers of drool dribbling out from between thumb sized teeth. The right one of them was obviously the smaller of the two, with a reddish tint to its under-scales rather than the deep, rich red of the left. The larger one let loose a snarl, deep and rumbling, and Hump felt his insides rumble with it. He shivered—he couldn’t help it. They were predators, and he felt like prey.
Vamir raised his bow and shot without a pause. The scaledbrutes reacted immediately, darting apart from each other. The arrow passed harmlessly between them as they sprinted into the trees. They moved fast—faster than anything bigger than a bear should be capable of—disappearing into the shadows to either side of them. In the dim light of the trees and fruit, the creature’s might as well have been invisible.
“I can’t see shit,” Hump shouted. The vines and thick tree trunks created a wall that made even spotting shadows on the blue grass impossible.
“One’s circling around to the left, the other to the right,” Celaine said.
“Bud, Hump, keep the big red one on the left busy,” Vamir ordered. “Celaine, handle their archers. I’ll deal with the scaledbrute on the right. Think you can do that?”
“Sure,” Hump said, already feeling out of breath. His heart pounded. “We’ll just sit it down and ask it to wait. Because evil monsters are always so cooperative.”
“I’m not joking around,” Vamir said. “Either you tell me you can do it, or you tell me you can’t. I’m not strong enough to fight them both alone, so I’ll start by targeting the smaller of the two.”
“We can do it,” Bud said. “We’ll hold it off at the very least.”
Vamir nodded. “I’m counting on you. You don’t need to kill it.” Hump heard the snap of a bowstring as he let loose an arrow. “Just don’t die.”
There was a thump to the left, and Hump saw the canopy of one of the trees rustle as if an avalanche had just slammed into it. Feet thumped, and Hump knew that the scaledbrute was out there, and it was getting closer.
Few wizards had the budget and the backing to be true masters of the craft, let alone the talent required to master such complex evocations. But every good hedge wizard had a few spells up their sleeves. A little showering of stones wasn’t going to do it this time. The scaledbrute was big, so Hump was going to need to bring the artillery.
Hump extended his left hand toward the ground, clutching at it with his will and power. He took a deep breath, and then let it go, releasing all the essence from his core with it. He felt the earth stir. Tendrils of bronze light crept out from his fingertips and staff, burying itself into the ground. The surface of the earth churned, dirt and pebbles rising into the air around him, suspended by his will. Still he dug deeper, forcing out more and more of his essence, ignoring the icy chill that washed through him. The tendrils turned into vibrant streams of bronze, pulling at the earth around him.
And then he felt it. The timeless, churning power beneath him. A glimpse at an endless expanse of incomprehensible magnitude. All he needed was a piece of it.
The crystal focus of his staff was glowing brightly now, blazing with bronze light. With a thought, he dragged the earth into the air and gathered it into clumps. Clenching his fist, he compressed it, hardening it with his power. An uneven fragment floated before him, bound to him by trails of essence. He held it in place, focused, his essence roiled through his body filling him with heat that felt as if it would burst free of his skin. The stone hovered there above his hand, as big as a head, and enough to make even a beast like this faulter.
A heartbeat later, the scaledbrute appeared from amongst the trees, just not where Hump had been expecting. It dashed out from the right, barging out from between vines and branches with a tearing crash. Its feet thundered across the ground, tearing up clumps of grass and dirt. In his peripheral, Hump spotted the other of the beasts mirroring its movements. They were coming at them from both sides.
Focus on your job, Hump told himself. Vamir had entrusted one of the scaledbrutes to them, and he had to trust Vamir to handle the other. There was no time to be distracted.
Bud took up a position in front of Hump, careful to leave him a clear line-of-sight. “Hold your fire as long as you can,” Bud said. “I won’t let it pass.”
Ten paces.
Hump licked his lips nervously. Against every instinct, he let the scaledbrute get closer.
Eight paces. The ground was trembling.
Five paces. It was now or never. He threw his hand forward and shouted, “Rockshot!”
Hump’s staff flared bronze as all the power he had stored up was released at once. The stone shot forward. It missed the beast’s eye but struck it under its chin, just below the ear. The creature jerked from the blow, stumbling and nearly tripping onto its face. Bud didn’t give it a moment to recover. He rushed forward, sword streaming frostfire as he swung it down at the beast’s neck.
It didn’t dodge. It raised its good shoulder, taking the blow on its scaled hide. Bud’s sword rang out as if it had struck metal, glancing off and leaving little more than a dent. The scaledbrute let out a splattering snarl and tried to snap its jaws shut on Bud’s leg.
The knight stepped back smoothly and aimed a thrust at its eyes. The beast ducked, the blade narrowly missing its eyes, but cutting a long bloody line across its brow. The air crackled as a line of ice crystalised over the left of its yellow snake eyes. It leapt back, landing on the ground with a frantic crash, scrambling away from the blade. It swiped at its eye, hissing and snarling in a panic, scraping the ice free. Scales went with it, leaving a gash twice as large and bloody as the one Bud had inflicted.
Bud planted his feet solidly on the ground and readied his sword once more. A steady stance as he faced down the beast.
The beast snarled at them again, breathing heavily. Suddenly, it dashed into the trees.
There wasn’t time to recuperate. An arrow struck the ground near Hump. He stepped back, searching the trees for a source, but they were too dark for him to see anything. He clenched his jaw in frustration and wiped away a droplet of sweat that ran down his forehead.
“Archers!” Hump called. He ducked behind the closest tree for cover, using its roots to get to a higher position and peeking out from behind where the trunk bulged. “I can’t see them! Damn it, I can’t see anything through all these trees.”
Bud ducked behind a nearby tree and pressed his back up against it, using it as cover. He clutched his sword to his chest, tucking in his arms and shoulders as much as he could. After a moment, he peeked his head out to get a better look at their attackers, only to duck back into cover when another flurry of arrows whizzed his way. “The brute’s circling around.”
An arrow struck the tree right beside Hump’s face, digging into the bark.
Hump ground his teeth. “Celaine, we need those kobolds taken care of!”
“What do you think I’m doing?” she yelled back. A bowstring twanged, and one of the creatures screamed in the distance.
“No need to be snarky,” Hump grumbled to himself.
Celaine dodged an arrow and huddled up against the tree at Hump’s side, pressing into his shoulder. “Feel free to help,” she hissed.
“I’m doing my best!” Hump peeked out from around the tree for a better look, then ducked back into cover. “If I could see the bastards it would help. I need to be closer.”
Celaine loosed another arrow and ducked back into cover. “It’s the scaledbrute we need to deal with. We had them running before, if we bring it down the rest will flee.”
Hump frowned. One scaledbrute was hiding in the trees, while Vamir had his hands tied with the other one. Steel rang out as he struck blow after blow on the beast’s scales. Blood trickled from a few spots where the blade had dug deeper, but for the most part the creature was unharmed.
They were on their own.
“Easier said than done,” Hump said.
“I can hurt it,” Bud said. “I just need an opportunity.”
Not far away, Hump heard the rumbling howl of the scaledbrute they were supposed to be stalling. The second scaled brute snarled loudly, and an instant later, the other kobolds joined in with their shrieks and chirps. He tried to spot them, but the canopy was too thick, and the glow of trees and fruit wasn’t bright enough for him to see more than the occasional moving shadow. He couldn’t see the scaledbrute, but its footsteps were like thick and heavy drums in the trees. Hump’s heart raced. It was heading the wrong direction.
“It’s not going for us,” Hump said as realisation set in. “It’s after Vamir. We can’t let it reach him. We’ve got no choice. Bud, go! Celaine, keep the kobolds off us.”
Hump caught another glimpse of the scaledbrute’s shadows just as it charged out of the trees on the right, flattening the vegetation. Bud charged to meet it, planting himself between the beast and where Vamir fought, thrusting at it with his blade.
It swatted the sword aside with a swing of its arm. Bud tried to retreat, but the beast whirled on him, lurching at him and backhanding him across the face, sending the knight sprawling to the ground. It stormed toward him on all fours, the rest of them forgotten, its eyes only for the prey at its feet.
Hump levelled his staff toward the creature. He reached out to the earth with all the will and power he could muster. Bronze light radiated from the crystal in dazzling strands, penetrating the dirt. The earth came to him, gathering in the air before his staff as if sucked in by a vortex. He condensed it into a ball as big as a head, binding it together with essence. Hardening it. He screamed as he did, the bronze light of his staff shining brighter still. Heat and strength seeped from him like the life was being sucked from him, but Hump ignored it. He’d deal with the tiredness later. He took aim at the scaledbrute and shouted, “Rockshot!”
A shockwave of bronze light flung the stone from the end of his staff. It caught the scaledbrute in the side, right along the rib cage underneath its massive arm. There was a resounding thump, and the creature let out a hissy, snarling sound as it was rocked from its feet.
Exhaustion swept over Hump from the effort of the spell. But the scaledbrute didn’t stop. It caught itself on its knees before it fully hit the ground and moved closer to Bud.
Hump stumbled out into the open, using his staff like a walking stick. “Hey!” he shouted, waving an arm over his head. “Ugly! Over here!” When the creature ignored him, Hump thought up a new plan.
He gritted his teeth as he called upon his power once more. His fingers throbbed with cold as if he’d been holding them under ice. His chest felt frozen solid, and each breath brought with it an agonising chill. He gathered up his will, then he stabbed his staff at the scaledbrute. “Blast!”
The beast was too far away for the blast to have any real effect, but it rocked the branches of the canopy above like a storm wind. Pulpy, rancid fruit rained down around the scaledbrute. One fell right on its face and bursted, covering it in a sticky red sludge.
It shook its head frantically, then wiped at it with the back of one hand. The beast’s head spun toward Hump, snake eyes narrow. Lines of fruit pulp running down its scales. Its face contorted into a snarl. All of a sudden Bud was ignored and the scaledbrute settled on a new prey.
Hump gulped. Perhaps he hadn’t thought this through.
It sprung to its feet and bound toward Hump on all fours, tearing up the ground as it ran.
“Well shit,” Hump said.
Comments
Alex Maher
thank you! fixed it
Pete
<…but it’s footsteps…>. its footsteps
