Excerpts from: the wise dragon’s demonicon: the imp

The weakest of the true devils is the imp, imps are small goblinlike creatures with wings, horns a tail and a bloodred skintone, they are the most common devil that exists in hell where they serve as scouts, spies or as servants to higher ranked devils.

Imps posses an affinity for sky and fire magic, some have an affinity to the arcane but hide this so that their masters will not figure out and crush them, Imps are the servants of the higher ranked devils and are seen as little more than pests. This makes them verry easy to make a pact with, especially when a warlock has a pocket dimension were the imp can go instead of going back to hell after being summoned and fulfilling his contractors orders…….

……Imps can be good companions, they are less scheming than most fiends and are most likely to develop loyalty towards their summoner instead of possessing him. Imps can be thought complex spells of fire and sky magic making them versatile and mobile flying artillery in combat…….

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Once Iskander left the inn he strolled through the streets again, he admired the buildings, the people and the shops But suddenly he felt his hairs rise in his neck and on his arms, he had a feeling something was wrong, it was that foreboding feeling he always had when he was followed. Had they already found him? Was there a demonic cult in town?

Iskander did as if nothing was going on and simply walked further while sometimes stopping to check a shop or to look at a building, or so it seemed to onlookers. In fact iskander was keeping an eye out for whatever had caused him that feeling of uneasiness, he had learned to trust on that feeling, it was some kind of instinct that had never failed him, even that when a cultist suddenly had tried to stab him while under an invisibility spell this feeling had saved his hide and he was not going to ignore it now either!

And indeed, after a while Iskander saw them, a couple of man and women wearing normal clothes were following his every move, he did not recognize them, they could be soldiers, cultists or even dark mages for all he knew, Iskander began looking for a way to deal with them fast and silently. Soon he saw a small dark street, iskander went in and came out on a small dark square area that was behind one of the stores, he smiled, this was the perfect place to get rid of his pursuers.

He knew they were coming after him, hence Iskander lifted his arms and started weaving a soundproof barrier in this place, no one had to hear what was going on after all. Soon ten people entered the square are, Iskander was sitting against the wall, he had been expecting them obviously.

“You, one of them said, are you the one that got Helga to pay him in gold?” Iskander was taken aback for a moment, he had expected to be dealing with cultists, not with criminals, he had to refrain from using anny warlock magic unless he wanted to be found out!

“well, are you or are you not kid?” another crook yelled at him. “Maybe we should cut him a little, another one said, ya know to make him squeal?” Iskander smiled, he would show these guys what the son of an archmage could do. As they were squabbling Iskander lifted a hand, “KEranaou”, suddenly lightning arced from his hand and a twenty spears made of crackling lightning appeared above his head.

“Anny last words before you get shocked?” Iskander asked politely, “I have no reason to kill you all just because you want my money. To his surprise the crooks did not even flinch, two of them came forward and in their hands the held a staff, mages! “so you are a mage then huh, one of them said, the lightning spear spell is a good one but why did you lower the voltage?”

Iskander looked at the man, “I just wanted to immobilise you, do you take me for a mass murderer?” The mages seemed taken aback, “you lowered the voltage of an barrage spell meant to take down a cavalry charge?” Iskander shrugged, “you would be unconscious and I would be leaving afterwards without a scratch.”

Iskander sighed, he knew what was to come, these were mages meeting another mage and when that happened they would most likely start debating. It was not that he did not like the debating bit, even not when he was still an adventurer actually, but right now surrounded by criminals it felt really awkward. And indeed, Iskander was right because the mages loosened up and started talking to him.

“you are strong enough to alter the spell, the other mage asked, why did you not cast it nonverbally then?” again Iskander shrugged, “for the show of course, flashy spells tend to scare of most bandits.” The mages nodded, you are right but still to weaken the formula to….”

“You two are you going to take him down or what, an elderly man in mage robes that stood amongst the criminals yelled at them, while I appreciate the theoretic knowledge myself we are here to take this mans gold and belongings.” The mages nodded, “excuse us master Leon, we shall eliminate him.”

“leon!” that name was one iskander knew from a conversation he had overheard between people in willows creeck, Leon Demort, a magus, a stronger than average mage that had quite a reputation in the criminal underworld. Iskander looked at him, “are you Leon Demort, he asked, I never expected a magus to show up here, certainly not one such as you.” The man looked surprised, “you know my name mage?”

Iskander chuckled, it sounded weird combined with the crackling spears of lightning which still floated above his head, “once I went to willows creeck, you have quite the reputation if I may say so.” The man looked exactly as the rumours had depicted him, a tanned skin, stale grey eyes and a beard that was long and grey, he wore wizard robes and a staff but had only now summoned those, probably with a simple spell.

“I am happy you seem to have some sense of respect towards me youngling, Leon said, what brings you into my territory?” Iskander saw how the two mages and the crooks backed away respectfully as they were talking, he could see why, although he could do it as well they knew that Leon could wipe all of them out with one spell.

“well I wanted to take some time to rest after all the travelling I’ve been doing, Iskander answered, so this is where you now reside, if willows creeck they said you had gone on a vacation?” The magus laughed, “I would rather call it spreading my influence to the cities by placing my apprentices here, believe me soon this town will be run by us from the shadows.”

“Ehm master, one of his apprentices said hesitatingly, are you sure it is wise to tell him all of this, what if he……” The magus rolled with his eyes, “this youngster is not opposing me, he is showing respect and by the way I can see from the amount of control he has over that lightning spear spell he is about my level in the magical control field, you lot would be crushed by him.”

The two apprentices flinched as their master looked back at Iskander, “you are young but I can see in your eyes that you have not had a verry easy life, I was thinking about just getting that bag of gold from you after my apprentices had practiced their skills on you but now I think you could be of more use to me in another way.” Iskander snapped with his fingers and the spears of lightning vanished in thin air, “listen Leon, he said, I have heard about you and your deeds, I respect you for your skills, but I am not interested to join you.”

Leon frowned, “are you sure young man?” Iskander heard the sharp undertone in his voice, Leon was not really happy about his answer, Iskander could tell that immediately, hence he did something stupid, he had heard the name of the tradition from his father back in the days. He had never thought he would need to use it in his life, but for once he was thankful for the torturous lessons his father gave him to explain him the culture of mages, magi, arch mages and wizards.

For a moment he debated on not doing it, but he had not much choice, joining him would ultimately lead to his discovery and him denying the offer would probably result in a fight with a lot collateral damage. “Leon Demort, Iskander said with an official tone, I challenge you to an Arcanum combat.” Leons eyes shot wide open, “an arcanum combat, do you realise what you say boy?”

Iskander nodded, “You know the rules and so do I, if you win I have to grant your request, if I win I get to make a request.” Leon was silent for a moment, then he burst out in laughter, it sounded lik he had just heard the best joke on the continent or something.

“I accept the challenge boy, he said eventually, but we can’t do this here now can we?” Iskander shook his head, “let us not demolish the city for a simple duel.” The magus smiled, indeed.”

“Arcanum combat.” One of the oldest traditions magic users of the arcane had, it was used for solving matters that had to be solved quickly yet of great importance, for example choosing between two possible apprentices or figuring out who the new leader of a magical council would be. An arcanum combat was a duel of strength, skill and magical prowess, once challenged a magic user could do two things, accept and win or lose with honour and keep his reputation intact or decline and forever shame himself and damage his prestige amongst fellow mages and wizards.

Iskander had heard about Leon Demort, a deadly magus for sure but also an arrogant one whose pride came close to that of a demon of pride, those were true narcicists and Iskander could know it since he had met them once, but still this magus was definitely not going to decline if it would damage his reputation.

Iskanders gamble had clearly paid off, even though he hated to admit it all the stuff he had learned during the time he had been running across the country like reading peoples face to discover their emotions came in handy now. Not many mages would have to learn to do so, but Iskander had of course needed to know it to survive.

The moment he said “Arcanum combat” he had seen leons eyes shine with a greedy light, the man was a magus and those were almost always arrogant people, they were mages who had now control of not only the mana in their bodies but also the mana in their surroundings, it was still far away from what an arch mage, wizard or even a arch wizard was capable of but it was the second step in the process of truly harnessing the arcane might that was magic.

Leon was also too prideful to think that his opponent could do anything to him otherwise he would have felt a powerful aura of magical energy. What Leon did not know was that Iskanders father had been an arch mage, one who had thought him and his brother some small tricks in those years before he discovered Iskander was a warlock, hiding ones aura was one of those.

But Iskander knew how this looked in the eyes of Leon, that was something else he had learned, to know who you had before you and to know how his mind worked. Iskander knew that the magus would not refuse it, Leon probably thought him asking for an Arcanum combat was a desperate move and yes to some extent it was, but Iskander did not care for his reputation, once he got out of this street he could use his magic freely and if necessary escape. But that was only if his real plan, the plan he hated did not work out.

Leon and his gang took him out of the quarter and led him across the town to a small house, as they went in Iskander was baffled by what he saw. The interior of this small house was enlarged massively with spatial magic, much like the pocket dimension in his book this house was actually the entrance to something completely different. Behind the rotten door of the house was a wall with a large and strong door, even a magicically strengthened battering ram would not have an easy time breaking through, when the doors opened he saw what lay behind.

An arsenal of weapons, a room in which people, mages and criminals were reading maps and could be heard plotting schemes, this was an entire headquarter of organized crime!

As soon as he entered the people in the room looked at him, at least twenty mages and even more bandits looked at him with inquisitive, curious eyes. “Leave him alone, Leon said as he came in behind Iskander, he is our honoured guest for today.”

The criminals started laughing, the mages looked at him with even more suspicion, Iskander saw their auras, each one of them was a capable mage, more powerful than the average adventurer mage and almost certainly trained by Leon himself. If he would have to fight all of them this could become a hassle, but he knew it would not come to that, besides fighting with so many mages at once in a pocket dimension would have verry bad effects for all of them.

Iskander looked at Leon, “you certainly know how to use spatial magic, did you use the enchantments of Kaliope?” Leon nodded, “indeed, her discoveries are revolutionary, the stones I used make this place a reliable stable pocket dimension.” Iskander nodded, he knew what this meant, this was a movable dimension linked to a stone, as long as the stone was not destroyed the pocket dimension kept in existence and could be moved if necessary.

“where will we duel?” Iskander asked. Leon grinned, “although this is a pocket dimension there is a real arena under this house, before we cleaned it up it was used by smugglers.”

Iskander nodded and followed the magus to a staircase that led them to a large underground room, it had clearly been for storing stuff but now it had been turned into a small arena, perfect for a combat Arcanum as long as they did not use too destructive magic.

The apprentices left the room and left Leon and Iskander in the arena, the room was lit by light stones but still it looked a bit dark and shady, like some underground fighting pit. Leon walked to the middle of the room, drew a line in the stone with his staff and walked to the wall on the other side. “We will use only low tier spells and not large area affecting spells, shield spells are allowed but the one who yields first or runs out of mana or is unable to cast loses this duel.”

Iskander nodded, it was tradition that the one who was challenged decided the rules, but this would not make this duel less dangerous, low tier simply meant that they were spells almost every mage could cast, but when stronger mages casted them these spells became far deadlier, a classic trick to make opponents think they were evenly matched in a duel. But Iskander already had a plan for if things went south, and the longer he thought about it the more he began to realise that that actually was what he would have to do.