Aster Fall, Ch 44: Moonlight Blades (Patreon)

Moonlight streamed down the walls of the buildings as Sam ghosted away from the plaza and the trap enchantment. In his hand, there was a chunk of glowing, green crystal with a moon rune engraved into the side. It was the final part he needed to activate his plan.

The question was if it would be enough.

Halfway there, he paused and examined one of the bone shards from the Iceblood Shaman that he’d collected at the Ice Sylph village, but the markings on it told him nothing about what they were up to. Whatever spells they’d used near the staircase, he wasn’t sure what they would do.

He had the feeling that their true strength was in alchemy or these talismans, rather than straight forward battle. Perhaps that was why they stayed in the background. He was going to have to take his chances with that to get closer and lure them here.

He glanced down at the recharged Ring of Crystal Shield and his Amulet of Swirling Winds, plans flickering through his mind. There were twenty-three monsters and six Icebloods. It was a contest between whoever could get their enemy into a trap first.

He gripped the chunk of crystal in his hand as he ducked into a building and accessed the star’s map. They were laid out in a half circle and strange bone spears with talismans looped around them marked out the points in a formation that connected them all. Without the map, he would have run right into it.

The monsters were a mix of Hoarfrost Serpents, Diamondfang Ice Vipers, Arctic Cave Trolls, and two Ice Wyverns. Near the Grand Flaw, there were more of the Icesoul Wraiths and other Outsiders, but the Icebloods had only chosen monsters for this group. Perhaps they were easier to control.

He spent a little while examining their pattern before he chose his target. He wanted to disrupt their formation and draw them out, and for that he planned to rely on the monsters’ basic instincts for battle...and he knew exactly how to do it.

He’d had plenty of practice on the way to Highfold.

A wry grin flashed across his face as he thought of his sister and what she would make of this. Knowing her, she’d be right there trying to attack them and he’d have to hold her back.

He pulled a vial of wyvern blood from his dimensional pouch and studied it. Then, he sat down and retrieved his stylus and a few strips of wyvern leather. His hands flickered with crystal flame as he began to inscribe a series of runes related to illusions.

The runes were for image, color, and sound, as well as monster, nature, and enhance. He placed them into a six-pointed star formation, inscribing them onto the leather with the wyvern blood as a medium. Then he surrounded that with a binding pattern to intensify the nature of the base material.

Time blurred as he worked, but his previous efforts with illusions and the basic runes from the amulet ensured that he was adept with the concept. Making all of those toys for his sister had become something that might keep him alive now.

A little while later, he had half a dozen thin scrolls in his hands.

Scroll of Illusion: Ice Wyvern (Advanced, Special).

He’d sacrificed the last of his wyvern cores to infuse the scrolls with the right aura, but it was worth it. With that help, the materials from the ice wyverns had come together around the concept of ‘wyvern’ that was already present.

That was also why the scroll’s quality had ended up as ‘Special.’ This illusion was closer to the Expert level. For a few minutes, these scrolls would bring to life an image of the wyverns he had fought before.

The effort resulted in around 12,000 experience, but Enchanting was at the First Cliff and it would take another 180,000 to push it to Level 34. Studying the core enchantment and the ruins would be a good source for that.

He darted back outside, pulling the snow close around him as he held a scroll in his hand. He moved to the point he’d chosen, just on the edge of the Iceblood formation, and scanned the map for the closest wyvern.

When he found it, he spent a few more minutes planning out his escape route and the path back to his trap, making sure that it was clear. Then he looked up into the night sky, tracking the position of Caelus as the moon rose toward its zenith. It was almost midnight now.

All through the ruins, strands of moonlight lanced between buildings and along the streets, illuminating the world in a triple aurora. The snow gleamed with the resonant Ice energy floating up from the stones below.

The wyvern was about four hundred feet from him, most of its body buried in a snow drift behind a fallen pillar. Only its head was visible as it kept watch on the area. He could just barely make out the spikes on its skull and a few green scales of its snout that were dusted with falling snow.

Without knowing that it was there, it would have been very difficult to spot.

He took up a position behind a broken wall that blocked the wyvern’s view of him. The runes on the scroll shimmered in his hand, essence flowing from symbol to symbol as it activated. The lines turned bright green as the wyvern blood ignited, burning with a strange, rippling flame.

The runes burned brighter, their colors changing to shades of darker green and grey-white as their surfaces became pebbled and transformed into scales. Then the scroll dissolved into flickering motes as the scales continued to expand, surrounded by a swirling green mist.

Without hesitating any longer, he threw the spell out in front of him, letting it expand into a life-size ice wyvern.

As the illusory mist continued to spread, the monster towered into the air over him, its wings unfurling. The large, bat-like wings flapped at the air as the monster arched its neck, tilting its head back as its jaws opened to reveal rows of saber-like fangs.

RoooaaAAAArrrrr!

The wyvern’s roar echoed out across the area, an exact copy of what it had been in life.

There was a moment of shocked silence as the sound echoed outward. In that pause, Sam sent the illusion racing out from behind the wall, right through the line of sight of the wyvern that was hiding.

Another scream roared out from its jaws, its wings mantling against the night sky. There was a subtle green glow of magic all around it, but otherwise it looked incredibly realistic, as if a living wyvern were chasing something across the area.

The wyvern had been told to wait there quietly in ambush, but it was still a monster. As soon as it saw the competitor racing through the area, its instincts to defend its territory and the command from the Icebloods to hunt prey in this area joined together. another monster was chasing its prey!

It had no more patience! The prey had to be in front of it!

It would not lose out to another!

The wyvern exploded upward out of the snow, its scales vibrating as its muscles contracted like steel cables. Its head reared back and its wings snapped open, flaring outward to cover the stars.

RoooAAAAooORRR!

Its jaws opened and it lunged forward, letting out a roar that was even louder than the illusion’s as it raced after it, its claws tearing at the snow in an explosion of flakes that flew in every direction.

Screams, roars, and explosive hisses echoed out in a cascade of fury as other monsters in the area saw what was happening and leapt up from where they were hiding. Now that one of them had moved, it was a beacon calling to all of them.

There was no hiding the disruption. The Icebloods had arranged everything so that the trap would spring shut in an instant, and now that worked against them as all of the serpents, vipers, trolls, and the other wyvern reacted. As far as they knew, the trap had been triggered.

Snow and small stones cascaded through the air as monsters surged toward Sam’s location, their roars deafening the area. The Guardian Star helped him to track their position as he raced for his escape route, his attention fixed on the illusion.

He had to keep the fake wyvern ahead of the monsters.

Fortunately, it wasn’t constrained by simple things like traction in the snow or fatigue. The illusion charged ahead of the wyvern and the approaching wave of monsters, sprinting down the road.

Sam struggled to keep pace with it, his attention split between the illusion and his own speed. He pulled the snow close around him in a concealing cloak, using the traction from Initiate of Ice to keep his footing as he raced along on the next street over.

After a moment, he threw caution to the wind as he realized he was falling behind. The illusion wouldn’t be able to stay ahead of the real monsters if he didn't move faster.

Crystal flame surged around him as he poured essence into his evasion skill, using it to hurl himself forward like an arrow from a bow.

Even behind the buildings, his aura was a flaring beacon in the night. The monsters saw it in an instant. Some of them split off, heading for him.

His breath burned in his lungs as he pushed himself faster, his heart pounding. His essence-enhanced muscles pulled on his Constitution, drawing stamina and energy from his blood.

Roars echoed on every side, threatening explosions of sound and shrieks of anger.

He’d planned to use the other scrolls if the first one didn’t get enough attention, but it wasn't necessary. The green crystal with the moon rune was clenched in his hand as he pushed himself harder, trying to reach his trap before the monsters did.

The only thing that let him get there first was his crystal flame and that the monsters hadn’t been that close to start. Even with all of his speed, they gained ground with every second.

At the edge of the plaza, the illusion let out another scream as if it had seen its prey and then it sped forward to the center of the trap. A moment later, Sam blasted through the area himself, the cloak of dark blue flames around him burning like a teardrop against the snow.

Then he was past it, skidding to a halt as flame billowed out around him. He spun in place to look at the monsters, the rune shining in his hand. All around the plaza, streaks of moonlight surged from the corner of each building to the next.

His essence poured out of him and into the enchantment formation all around the area as his nerves pulled tight. His blood was thundering in his veins, but his mind was crystal clear.

He raised his hand with the runestone in it, pouring his essence into it as he reached out to the moonlight running through the streets.

The monsters poured into the plaza in a wave, chasing the prey that they knew was just ahead of them. The flare of his crystal flame and the roars of the wyvern drew them on, their impatience increasing.

The front ranks surged through the plaza, racing over the inscriptions and the chunks of crystal on the ground, but the others weren’t there yet.

Sam shouted, reaching out with streaks of crystal flame as he slammed energy into three scrolls that he’d planted in the snow. Brilliant eruptions of aura-infused crystal flame gouted from beneath the snow, twisting upward into a shape that hardened into a half dome.

In an arc around the plaza in front of him, a giant, crystal blue Ice Shield infused with Auras of Enduring Stone and Frozen Blades flared into existence. The shield’s geometric patterns were tinged with dark grey. Near the bottom were jagged blue arcs that reached out like a wall of thorns.

Roars and hisses tore across the plaza. An instant later, the front ranks of the monsters slammed into the shield, impaling themselves on the blades before they could halt their charge. Shrieks accompanied the splatter of green, white, and pale blue blood across the plaza.

Seconds later, the rest of the monsters surged into view in a tangle of writhing scales and claws. Diamond-patterned heads darted above the pack and then swept downwards again like the fang-capped peaks of a rolling wave.

They heard the shrieks ahead of them, but in their rage the shrieks were the cries of their competitors reaching the prey. Their speed didn’t slow at all as they rushed forward, slamming into each other as scales flew from the impact.

The Icebloods were nowhere to be seen, but there was no time to wait. Sam’s hand rose as he poured more than a hundred points of essence into the moon crystal in his hand. At the same time, he reached down with a surge of crystal flame, activating the giant sigil in the plaza.

There was a sudden surge of mana in the area like a hurricane as mana slammed forward into the sigil. Energy in the area was pulled into the activation sequence and the tumult of sound followed it, leaving the plaza silent for a single instant.

A small green crystal flew upward from Sam’s hand, opalescent as it tumbled in the air...until it struck a beam of blue moonlight. The rune brightened, shining like a green moon in the night as it suddenly swelled in size.

All around the plaza, a high-pitched resonance hummed like a wild flute playing on the night breeze. Then the moonlight descended.

Beams of bright blue, soft green, and dusky purple fluttered like silk scarves as they twisted through the air, separating from the buildings and the streets as they changed their paths. They twined around one another, forming cutting spirals across the sky.

The moonlight took on a crystalline gleam, a razor line so thin that it could cut the dark. Strands swept downwards, flowing across the plaza with sweeping cuts in gigantic arcs from one side to the other.

The monsters in the plaza stood no chance. They were already pinned by the icy shield and the moonlight reached them in an instant. It was nothing that they’d ever imagined or planned for.

The only thoughts in the monsters’ minds were of blood and prey. Some roared in pain as they struck the spikes. Rage resonated through them, but the moonlight was there before they could register its existence.

Arcs of blood swept across the plaza. At first, it was thin, a light splatter striking the snow. The monsters froze, their expressions halting, and sound disappeared. Some of them were caught mid roar and others were raising claws or tails to attack.

The moonlight swept by, reaching the far end of the plaza in an instant as it swirled back up into the sky, dissolving into smaller strands again as it flowed back toward the buildings.

In the snow below, the sigil twisted, burning in lines of triple-colored fire as it exploded from the strain of the mana it had drawn. A wall of multi-colored flames blasted upwards, washing over the monsters in the center.

The heat sent Sam stumbling back, his hands and crystal flame forming a shield as the sigil twisted out of its lines, burning away the snow. The plaza turned to a superheated inferno in an instant.

Shards of green crystal and kitchen stones blasted outward, flying in every direction as the enchantments reacted to the overload. They tried to heat and cool the area in an instant, summon breezes, and create flames or boiling water.

Their reactions collided. The wind hit the boiling water and the flames, which then crashed into a cooling stone that tried to freeze them. The overstressed enchantments exploded, their sigils shattering from the strain.

Shards of stone and crystal ripped through the plaza in a second blast, not much smaller than then first. Sam’s shield screamed as the forces tore at it.

He was thrown backwards, tumbling across the ground in a flail of limbs until he slammed into a wall with a bonecracking thump. His head and neck whipped back and then forward again as his horns slammed into the stones of the plaza below him.

His head rang like a dull drum and his senses blurred as he lost track of what was going on. He was deafened. A moment later, a rumbling silence settled on the plaza as a haze of burnt stone, ash, and charred blood drifted through the air.

Everything tasted of flames and burnt crystal.

In that silence, there came a slow, soft chime. It was a dancing snowflake in the air, subtle until it was there, and it brought the touch of Ice.

It came again.

All around, a soft silver gleam began to shine up from the stones of the plaza that had been revealed by the explosion. The area was dark with charred flesh, rubble, streaks of burned limbs, and chunks of stone.

The silver light intensified as the chime came again.

Snowflakes began to drift down, forming in the air in response to the call like fairies summoned by a temple bell. They floated there, drifting idly in swirls as they began to fall.

The chime came again and the snowflakes were suddenly more, a soft blanket falling from the sky. In just a handful of instants, a light dusting formed across the plaza, settling on the debris.

Sam tried to push himself to his feet, but the world was spinning. His ears were filled with the sound of rumbling explosions and tinkling chimes. He put his hand beneath him to push up from the ground, but he only grabbed at the air and tumbled to the side again.

The sky spun above him as he looked up at the dark night, his eyes reflecting the moons. Drifts of snow fell downwards, settling with a gentle caress as the chimes continued.

Two minutes later, the plaza was covered over by a blanket of snow, the evidence of the battle hidden like a secret of winter, and the chiming stopped. The silver light of the relic dimmed, fading to its standard glow.

Into the silence, six Iceblood Shamans slowly stepped forward into the plaza, their faces twisted as they raised their hands to the sky. Their palms dripped a pale blue blood onto bone talismans held in their grasp.

A swirl of essence swept up from them, sinking into the talismans, and then they threw them outward into the plaza. They shot out like bloody darts, heading for the monsters’ tattered corpses.