Chapter 22

Loren jumped forward with his glaive, plunging towards the alpha. The kobald alpha stepped aside letting the spear pass by him, while simultaneously bringing his two-meter uprooted tree as a club to bear. Osgur murmured words to himself, an orange light glowed and settled on his body, becoming one with him. He swung his lucerne hammer with all his might at the two-and-a-half-meter alpha.

Boom! Osgur’s lucerne hammer nailed the club away from Lorenn. The shockwave, the energy from the collision disturbed the forest floor, kicking up dust and leaves; as Lorenn retreated a few steps to prepare another attack. Amy’s ears were ringing from the sound. Meanwhile Veve spread out her hands, they glowed with a green light that competed with the noon suns. The ground started rumbling, grumbling, as roots snaked through the earth like a fabled sea monster in the ocean. She had disrupted the ground in front of her to isolate the fight with the alpha from the other kobald’s; who were desperate to protect their alpha. Even though there was not a sliver of kindness, and malice had consumed them thoroughly, in the cold beast’s bones were instincts that they could not resist. Shatira who was nimble as an elf in the forests due to her pixie lineage, darted from root to root as they were moving. She leapt, with a green aura around her feet, and fired a green mana arrow at the alpha. It hurriedly shifted its body, avoiding being impaled, her arrow still managed to graze the creatures exposed rippling pectoral muscles. Black blood splashed on Osgur’s face as he grimaced from the disgusting feeling.

With Veve keeping from one o’clock to five o’clock clear by constantly shifting the roots. Bang bang! The shots of Sean and his magic gun rang out piercing fur, bone, and flesh. Amy watched him line up a shot and a kobald’s head exploded. The sound of a head being split open was still awful to her, and she grimaced. While Minerva and Satriana were taking a rear guard around her she watched the alpha defend and counterattack three trained fighters. Indeed, an alpha was different than the others. Their strength was unmatched in their species. Amy still remained calm, ‘a calm mind in battle is the fundamental strength of a mage’, Liam had told her.

She watched waiting, an opportunity would come, sure she could explode the alpha, or render it to ash, or impale it at any time, but this wasn’t a game, she could kill her friends if she wasn’t careful; especially as the frenzied dance became clustered and close. There was no system like in games that disallowed friendly fire automatically. Amy watched Sean as he pressed the kobald’s sliding and firing on his own grease app.

A light flashed in her eyes. Once again Osgur and the alpha had entangled themselves in a battle of strength. Osgur’s specialty was body enhancing charms and proper spells. He was a magician, but he was also an orc, it would be foolish to not utilize his body’s natural strength. Or at least that was what he had shared with Amy. Osgur gritted his teeth and roared pushing the alpha back a step, a mighty deed for any draegun.

Amy’s eyes opened and she calmy said one word, “Grease”.

As the alpha stepped his foot back it slipped, an under Osgur’s great strength the creature fell. Shatira and Lorenn nimbly jumped. Thud, Thud! Shatira’s green arrows pierced its shoulders staking it to the ground as she shot from above Lorenn over his shoulders. Lorenn dived at the alpha with his spear impaling its torso. Still the hide was tough and the spear did not go through, but still it was enough. The force of the strike caused the ground to cave.

It was Amy’s turn, the alpha staggered as it stood up, it was a sturdier creature than most and fawned its helplessness. It looked confused, expectant of a finishing rush, even the alpha was keen for an ambush. But the damage dealers did not entertain such crude stratagems. They quickly retreated and the path that Satriana and Minerva had ccarved gave Amy a clear line of sight. As she closed her eyes, the water in the air, and the moisture in the dirt began to congregate and pool together.

“Do re Falin Duntu”, Amy said with clarity in her opened eyes, and purpose in her heart, the most sublime state for a mage.

Her body felt the chill, as the magic ran its course from her heart to her wand. The translation was Magic Ice Thicket. Liam thought it was a good offensive spell. It was especially reminiscent of his earth magic, but ice which was frail alone but sturdy together, suited her personality. The alpha cried out in surprise as a thicket of long sharp ice spikes spontaneously erupted like a geyser from beneath its feet. A diameter of ten meters around it was nothing but ice, that reached up, up with the alpha run through. The rays of sunlight that infiltrated the forest canopy rained, refracted down in the clear ice, making the whole structure like a grizzly shining trophy, with the alpha raised as the crowning piece.

Amy watched coldly as its limbs sunk, black blood desecrating the pure clear ice spires. The other kobald’s howled in the air. It was a call to arms, a call to vanquish and snuff out the intruder with their numbers. Soon, as they had discussed, the whole pack would come; soon the real arduous fight would begin.

The party reformed their formation.

“Hey, hey”, Shatira said with her fingers resting on her bowstring, “How many did they say there were?!”.

“The elves were not sure as they couldn’t confront their intruding malicious neighbors”, Osgur said with a grim expression as he looked out at the army forming, licking their lips ready for a delicious buffet.

Keeping their formation, the party moved back up against the massive tree they had hid under just moments ago.

“Do Re Ra Bun Da Rum”, Amy said sternly: the opening salvo.

It was a modification of the fireball spell; Da Rum was to explode. The fire roared as it left a trail in the air. And just like the name it exploded in a massive fireball, consuming the hide, hair, and bones of the group it had struck. Howls and whimpers drifted in the wind. It would have smelled like a barbecue if the bodies of the creatures weren’t polluted, defiled like they were.

“Purify”, Veve said as she cleared the air around ridding it of the stifling stench.

The kobalds rushed, and even more trickled in from their posts, and joined the charge. The ground shook as they charged. Clubs and crude spears were waved wildly as they pressed down upon the party.

“What? A vampire?!”, Liam said as he shifted in his uncomfortable chair anxiously.

It was a report from the raid reconnaissance corps: dragons who patrolled the skies looking for bands of monsters. The party that was newly formed, was about to face a top tier threat. They could very well die.

Liam read the virtual paper; his brows furrowed. A vampire so far into their home territory, never had this occurred. ‘How?’, Liam thought to himself as he rose. He eyed the window, as his body told him to jump out right now and go to his students.

“Human who wields the wand”, the vampire said staring at Amy with voracious intent in its eyes.

The party was in shambles. All except Amy were wounded and incapacitated. They had faithfully protected her as best as they could, but their foe was too strong. Lorenn had abandoned his spear and joined Veve to use elven wood magic to delay the vampire’s approach. It was not a hindrance to such a creature. Vampires were indeed weak to wood. Amy had suspected they were elves that had once been twisted, polluted with an unknown power to make them bottomless pits, constantly yearning for blood. Nonetheless, at their level, the elven magic was not a match for this deadly foe.

Amy stood, still calm, her leather armor had been torn on her shoulder, and cuts and scrapes from the blood magic marred her delicate form. Hot red blood trickled down her left arm, her left shoulder was rendered useless. But she still had squeezed out all her training to protect, to preserve her right arm that wielded the wand.

The wand was agitated, Amy could read its mood. There was a tumultuous magical energy rampaging her right arm. Surely, without doubt she knew her wand and this creature were connected. She knew she was the target. As she looked over her comrades strewn on the ground barely alive, a fury she had never experienced poured into her heart.

With fiery eyes she looked at the vampire, “You, whatever you are, you will die today!”.

The vampire chuckled with a scorching laughter, its fangs bared, and its raspy stale voice said, “A lowly human wishes to confront me. Know your place little human. I will finish you now before you become annoying”.

‘I am a threat to them’, despite everything, Amy stayed true to her role as a mage her mind still moving. If she would be a threat, she must survive this, and protect her friends. She released all her mental restraints. She allowed her boiling magic to run free. A red burst shot at her, it was the magic of the blood it had consumed, and condensed into a piercing shot.

“Shield”, Amy said calmly.

It crashed against Amy’s shield magic, making a terrifying sound, but her shield didn’t break.

“Hoh, it seems my master was correct to drain your life”, it was amazed that she withstood his shot.

Amy’s hair was fluttering from the pressure of the wind around her.

“Magic Missile”, Amy shouted as a white ball shot from her wand.

The vampire had raised a curtain of red magic to defend against the blow.

“Magic Missile? Is this the extent of your skills, maybe you aren’t annoying after all. My master brought me out in the middle of the day for this?”, the vampire scoffed.

Amy was silent, she didn’t respond. She fired two more magic missiles. The vampire stepped forward to lunge. An alarm bell rang: it was the alarm charm Sean had downloaded for her. She had set it to trigger as soon as the vampire moved from its position. Through the leaves of the giant trees a streak of bright white light roared down as it struck with a loud cracking sound that echoed boisterously. The ground exploded flinging proper chunks of mangled dirt and root wood everywhere. Amy’s right eardrum had burst from the pressure. Still Amy had concocted this plan to catch the vampire unawares as it foolishly boasted about itself, with a condescending tone. Certainly, the elves and vampires were connected. She had counted on the nature of the prideful arrogant vampire.

The smoke cleared, and the black aristocratic garments were torn and burned. The vampire staggered, its skin blistered and blackened from the crown of its head to the soles of its feet. Its hair was all burned, as smoke escaped the still kindling flesh. Its cape was ragged, and still burning. Then like all the damage was a lie, its burnt skin turned white again unblemished, its black hair was restored; and its black suit was renewed. However, it could not regenerate itself from the areas the wooden shrapnel had pierced.

It stood up. The ground around it was blackened and scorched.

“I must report this, it’s beyond our expectations”, the vampire said as it arose, “We will meet again, and then I will feast on your blood, and devour your flesh!”.

It disappeared as its black garb enshrouded it, and it vanished out view in a hasty retreat.

“Nothing but talk”, Amy said softly, her energy spent.

She had poured out too much mana, and was on the verge of losing consciousness.

“Amy!, Amy!”, Amy could hear a familiar voice as her eyes closed, her body utterly spent.

Despite Radim’s words, Liam had jumped out the window to fly here. It was a short twenty-minute flight. He desperately hoped that he would arrive to find them alive. Unscathed was beyond his expectation. Words would be spread, headlines would hit the media, ‘an incident to drive the Arbellonddaryn master out of his comfortable chair’, only if the world knew his agony. But he pushed away such foolish thoughts. He entered the forest upon a hasty descent and landing, running as fast as his dragon legs were able. His wings folded he found his party, his precious students, his keen nose could smell their blood from the forest boundary.

“Amy!, Amy!”, he shouted, as he changed into human form.

He watched her collapse as he ran to her, catching Amy in his arms, he heard a tired moan, from a distance away, “I want you to hold me like that Liam”.

Her eyes held no mirth or playfulness, Glyn was too tired for such frivolity. Instead, Liam was unsettled, her eyes were serious. He had known Glyn as a hatchling, but still the true emotion in her eyes struck him.

Then Glyn’s face puffed as she pouted, “You didn’t call my name”.

Liam’s heart settled, yes, she was still just a young dragon, despite being eighty years old, “I’m glad you all are still alive”.

The kobalds had been massacred, the vampire was fought off. His heart warmed as he clutched Amy to his chest. He was proud of his students, as much as he was terrified of what could have happened. It was the birth of a new raid celebrity, as Amy slept blissfully unaware of the attention she would garner while she recovered.