This is not what I wanted to deal with right now. I wanted to work out like this for at least another week, relax, and see just how far I could push my magic. Flesh sorcery has so many possibilities to explore, but nooooo. People just don’t wanna leave me alone. A week would be nice, a month would be ideal; but as the mana grew denser from the Ripples continuously weakening the remnants of the Dimensional Seal, things that ate humans would grow more numerous. Still laying on my back, I held my hand up, summoning Gungnir from where it was propped up on the porch. It went from spear to mace as the base whipped into my hand, which I promptly stabbed it into the ground. “Protect me,” I said, letting go of the mystical weapon. The mace turned back into a spear, its crystal blade glowing and projecting a shield over me. I rolled over and got to my hands and knees, then sat on my legs. Deep shadows flickered across the street, darting from tree to house to tree, moving ever closer. Taking the first pocket generator, I turned it on, keeping the gravity enchantment turned off, and connected myself to the flow of mana, turning it to max power. Mana filled me and I directed it into my hands, conjuring a small stone crystal and implanting a bright glow enchantment on it, and then pumping that bitch full, I tossed it twenty feet in front of me. “Lux!” I yelled, while covering my eyes, the bright light washing over the surrounding area.

Hideous screams of pain let me know somebody wasn’t happy. I tried to add an element of UV in there, betting sunlight would deter the hidden monsters. “That’s right, fuck you!” I said to the threats I couldn’t see, channeling a ton of energy into Gungnir. Pulling myself to my feet, I closed my eyes and felt the aura of my house wards and the fledgling, yet still dense, aura of the World Tree covering that. Back when I planted the tree on top of my house, I added ground up sage and lemongrass to the soil; each of those herbs is associated with purity and cleansing, and I was seriously hoping that they were ingrained into the World Tree’s aura. If so, it may be protected from creatures of disease and darkness, and maybe, possibly, hopefully extend that aura to me and the house right now. Picking up Gungnir, I slowly walked backwards till my back was at the door of my house, staring out into the creeping darkness, the deep shadows twisting and moving at the edges of my sight, frothing in anger. “Nope, not fucking with this tonight,” Rath said, hopping of the porch swing and knocking me aside to get into the house, “My wings are too small and they don’t taste good.”

“What doesn’t taste good?” I asked, pumping mana into Gungnir and following him in, shutting the door firmly behind me. “Can’t leave me hanging like that man, what doesn’t taste good? What’s out there?”

“Nightmares, nightwalkers, nosferatu, a couple bukavacs, and even you could definitely smell the ghouls. Ya know, all kinds of hungry things that love the taste of tiny dragons and mana-rich humans,” he snorted, curling up on the couch. “The night is not your friend young sorcerer. You could threaten them if you had light or fire, but I haven’t seen you use those yet outside of weak enchantments, so I’m guessing you don’t have either.”

I didn’t want to confirm his suspicions as I didn’t completely trust the dragon yet. I really didn't know his motivations outside wanting to be big again. Thinking back to the short amount of time we've spent together, he hasn't actually done anything except be near me and chill. The only questionable thing I could think of was being too friendly to the Centauri Elder humans. A loud collision from the other side rang out, reminding me that I had no combat gear on. “This shit is getting old,” I mumbled, pulling my gear on from where I had draped it on Sarah. “Any ideas on what it’s gonna take to keep these assholes away permanently?!” I yelled.

“Light and fire, I just told you! What’s the matter human, fear made ya deaf?”

I mean, I knew that. He did just say it. My problem is that I don't have sorcery over light and fire. I have to build my inner understanding of those like a wizard, which would take tons of time. But, I could build some things to work with those elements for me. Gungnir is completely different as it has shards of pure Chaos that do the work and thinking for me. So, creations of fire and light. I could do that. How would a druid handle this problem, or better yet, how would a sorcery-soaked druid handle this problem? I need to play to my strengths, warp what I can with what I have. I noticed during my run earlier that the neighbor’s front yard had a little garden, with azaleas and sunflowers and some weird little blue flower as well. Totally bet I could alter the sunflowers to actually emit UV light, or maybe a UV aura. Strategic planting of mutated SUNflowers could keep all the freaks away from me, and maybe I could also plant the thorny vampiric rose vines combined with essense of garlic along with sage and lemongrass all around the house too. That would deal with the unclean fuckers and make the area smell nice. The only problem would be that my house would smell like an Italian kitchen 24/7. I really didn't want to be constantly hungry.