Wild Wastes 5 -Ch25- (Patreon)

Rolling forward, Vince managed to get out of the way of the net. Hitting the ground and rolling forward a short distance. Landing flat on his stomach.

The grass the lightning hit burst into flames and smoke began pouring out from everywhere the magic touched. Spewing it out as fast as it could.

Holy shit.

Scrambling to his feet, Vince looked up and began scanning the sky. Looking around to find his opponent.

There was no mage to be seen. She wasn’t above him, nor was she visible.

Vince realized he needed to force her into an action that he wanted, rather than reacting to her. The longer he played into her wishes, the worse this would be.

Turning, he didn’t wait any longer.

Shuffling off with as fast a gait as he could manage, Vince started moving away toward the west. Away from the encounter and away from this situation. He could come back to collect Elizabeth’s corpse and call her back into her body later.

He had to be alive for that to actually happen, however. If he was dead, there’d be no one to call her back, as he couldn’t be called back himself.

Moving at a decent pace, Vince felt like he could make some good headway. Enough that he’d force the mage to engage, or retreat. In either situation he’d have better odds than just standing around.

Glancing over his shoulder as he went, Vince spotted the mage. She was scrambling over Elizabeth to come after him. His plan had worked to get her moving. Now he just needed to re-engage her.

Pivoting, Vince snapped up his pistol in front of himself, put the sights on the mage, and started firing. After only two rounds, the slide racked back and stuck there.

Fuck, I wasn’t keeping track.

Slamming the sword into its sheath, Vince took up his pistol and bumped the magazine release. Stuffing it into its position in his armor, he pulled the next and popped it in.

Even as he racked the slide, the Mage was only now letting her very visible magic shield start to fade. Having held it up in front of herself, expecting more rounds.

By the time he racked the slide and chambered the next round, the mage was watching him again.

Her face was scrunched up and she was sweating. There was also a slightly tired look to her.

Vince had no way of knowing but he suspected that perhaps her mana reserves, her power, was starting to run low, or was empty. That even though she’d kept him on his toes, pushing him about, she was starting to tire and wear down.

Before Vince could reach her, the mage had lifted her left hand, summoned a spell, and flung it at him. As far as he could tell, it looked a lot like molten lava. The magical force of the spell causing a “poomf” noise as it was then activated.

Shit.

As fast as he could, Vince triggered his Nullifier shield.

A large portion of the lava was stripped away by the shield, though a good portion of it passed right through. Not all of it was still being maintained through magic.

What got thru was splattered across his chestplate, and Vince knew that he needed to ditch it and do it right now. He couldn’t be wearing something that literally had lava chewing at it.

Reaching to his side, Vince stuffed his gauntlet-covered fingers into the quick release which was hidden under an armor plate. Hitting the bracket and then pulling, the whole thing detached, clacked, then fell away from him. Hitting the ground and hissing as the lava began to burn the ground.

Vince started moving forward again, he needed to get hold of the mage.

He only had one idea left and he wasn’t going to have much in the way of wriggle room to make it happen. If he failed, he’d just end up getting a fireball to the face and become a human-candle.

With a grunt, the mage flicked her hands up and started to move them about.

Once again, Vince raised his pistol and began firing at the mage, with the first shot slamming into the shield right in front of the mage’s eyes.

She flinched backward, her shield solidifying and starting to twist her body away. She was going to bolt away again.

Pushing a great deal of the power of his grove, from inside him into his legs, Vince sprinted forward. It took several seconds but he got up to a full and flat-out sprint. His boots pounding across the turf as the mage flashed away.

Zipping off into the distance.

Aiming his pistol, Vince fired thrice at her. Trying to make sure her shield would stay up for a bit longer and that she wouldn’t see he was now moving much faster.

Far faster than hopefully she was expecting.

The power in his grove was rapidly fading away. He couldn’t pinpoint it, but he suspected he’d lost much of his power in his body’s need to be repaired.

That it had all been spent already on repairing the damage done to him. Which of course was needed, but now he was just out of gas.

Vince was finally closing in on the mage who was still hiding behind her shield. She’d completely lost sight of him and had no idea of his position.

Vince didn’t bother to try and slash at the mage, or even keep firing. Instead, he dropped both weapons. Letting them fall to the ground and behind him, Vince met the mage’s eyes as the shield ended.

Her pupils widened a moment before he blasted into her at full speed.

Wrapping his arms around her torso, Vince took her right off her feet. Holding tight to her, he activated the Nullifier shield. Deliberately trying to force it to come into being right through the mage.

He wanted to drain her directly.

To pull all the mana inside her, out, and dump it back into his grove.

Landing on the ground atop the mage, Vince was staring down into her face. The shield had snapped into place as soon as they hit the ground together, at the same time her hands came up and she clearly activated two spells.

Both failed, amounting to nothing more than her just placing her hands on his tunic.

“Gotcha,” Vince hissed, feeling all of her mana pooling into his grove. “Finally gotcha. Fuck.”

Just laying there atop the goddess, Vince didn’t know what to really do.

Now that he’d caught her, he didn’t have much of a thought on what to do next, other than to kill her.

Panting, the mage-deity stared at him, her breath coming out so hard that his hair was fluttering.

“Do it then,” grunted the mage, going limp beneath him. She had an odd accent to her English that he couldn’t identify, nor had he heard it before. He liked the sound of it if he was being honest. “Pull out my heart and eat it. At least we killed your Dragon. You can’t stop us, you monster.”

“Oh, I’ll bring her back. It’ll just take a little time and effort. Have her back in an hour or two if I can get a chance to rest. That and eat your heart,” Vince grunted with a chuckle. He could feel his Nullifier shield still stuck inside the woman. It was draining away something from her and it was enough to keep the shield going as well as trickling some into his grove. “What are you by the way? You look human but… you don’t feel like it.”

Shrugging her shoulders, the woman just gazed at him with a defeated and depressed look.

“Does it even matter? Get it over with,” she grumbled.

Vince nodded his head and realized that’d be best.

Shifting up atop her he sat down on her waist. Without her powers, she was just a mortal with average physical strength. She did try to throw him off briefly, then went limp again.

A Nullifier blast passed through him at that moment, washing over him and his captive equally.

It gave him a brief feeling of vertigo as well as causing his Nullifier shield to ripple wildly, but that was about it. Nullifier spellwork really didn’t faze him much anymore.

The mage beneath him reacted quite violently, however. Her entire body locked-up underneath him and she turned her head to one side. A second after that and she began retching into the grass.

She was throwing up uncontrollably as her body convulsed with each.

Vince got to his feet and off the woman before she could throw up on him.

Looking in the direction where the Nullifier attack had come from, he saw that two of them had come out of the forest. It wasn’t the team he’d seen that morning, but the other set.

At some point they’d swapped out, he supposed.

Standing there, he held his arms out and gestured at the Nullifiers.

“That it?” he asked and then began walking over to where his sword and pistol were laying in the grass. He’d need them to deal with the mage anyways. Reaching down, he snatched up his sword and sheathed it, then grabbed his pistol.

Straightening up, he found three Nullifiers now. Off to the north-east he saw an army of Francia pushing along. Moving quickly and with determination toward the Prussany forces.

Huh.

Looks like they came from somewhere to try and reinforce the border but… shouldn’t they be going west to Toulouse? Would taking the border help them at all if they lose their cities? They’d just have to turn around and send half their forces west.

Oh well, not my issue. Petra will be moving in and taking care of all this.

A significant portion of the Francia army started coming their way, moving to join the Nullifiers.

“Damn,” grumbled Vince. He didn’t want to leave Elizabeth behind. There was no telling what they’d do to her body. He wasn’t like Felix that could just do whatever he needed with just a body part. Vince needed her corpse, realistically. Or most of it.

Walking over to the mage who was wiping at her mouth, he hesitated for a moment.

“If I don’t kill you and eat you, can you put up an invisibility shield around us?” Vince demanded. “I don’t want to leave my Dragon’s corpse behind if I don’t have to.

“If we can get out of sight that’d be best. Use your illusion stuff to make it look like I ran off with you under an arm and we’re just… being invisible.”

“Unnngh, I don’t have any power for that,” groaned the mage, laying on her side and looking like she wanted to throw up more.

“If you had power?” he prompted, there was no time for this.

“I could do it.”

Reaching down, Vince laid his hand to her shoulder and forced power into her. He could feel his Dragons and Dryads pushing energy into the grove as quickly as they could now. They’d clearly noticed something was going on and were trying to replenish his reserves.

The magician goddess let out a squeak a second before her body went rigid. Taking the magical power he was pushing into her.

Looking to the forces of Francia, Vince wasn’t sure how long they’d have before he’d have to act. They couldn’t remain here, and they’d need to get going sooner rather than later.

Only a short time had passed since he’d looked away, but they were now all looking elsewhere. Several of the soldiers who were rushing toward the Nullifiers lifted their rifles and started firing at nothing.

Aiming and tracking something that didn’t exist.

Holding onto the magician that was clearly a deity, Vince made sure he could take her life in a flash if he needed to. While she was helping him in this moment, there was no guarantee she would continue to do so.

Firing off blasts of their power, the Nullifiers and their soldiers chased after the phantoms the mage had created. Sending them off to the south-east and toward a far distant Prussany encampment.

“Good work,” Vince whispered, looking down to the woman. “Maybe I won’t be killing and eating you after all.”

Whimpering, the mage nodded her head fractionally, but didn’t respond.

Vince figured she was currently wrapped up in the spell she was working. Reaching down, he picked her up and began carrying her in front of himself. He’d once heard his father call it a “princess carry” but he had no idea how it was relevant.

Or even what it referred to.

Holding onto the woman, Vince began to slowly walk toward Elizabeth’s corpse. He could slowly start rebuilding her body and get her ready for resurrection. Then she just needed to play dead after the fact until they were ready to move again.

Glancing to the mage, Vince could see the woman’s eyes were now rolled back in her head. A thin line of drool was trailing down from the corner of her mouth.

She looked like she was drunk and passed out, if he had to somehow describe it.

He had no idea what was going on, but right now she was running some high-end magic that was giving them a chance to escape the Nullifiers and their forces. She was his enemy, but less so than Francia was.

At the moment, she was his only ally.

She’d also damn near killed him, so proficient were her abilities with combat. He’d never had someone keep him so close to the edge of constant death like that.

Even Yaris has difficulty with me.

Though… she doesn’t use magic in the same way this woman does.

In fact, Elven magic doesn’t have much of an effect on me. But I’ve been told several times what they use is a racial magic that isn’t quite the same.

Hm, something to consider.

For now… let’s just… start working on Elizabeth.

Sitting down next to Elizabeth’s corpse, Vince held onto the mage. Pressing his back up to the Dragon corpse, he stared off into the distant horizon.

He had no idea how long they’d have to wait, but it was far better than the alternatives that’d presented themselves. Of all the available possibilities that could have occurred, he didn’t for once expect something like this.

Cradling an enemy while pressed up to the corpse of my friend and companion. Waiting for the enemies to leave so I can bring a Dragon back to life.

Though… what do I do with her?

It’d be somewhat wrong to carve her heart out in the end. She did help me.

Even if it was to help herself, she didn’t hesitate and immediately did what was needed. During the fight she was quite proficient and rather impressive.

Something to consider.

***

Vince watched as the forces of Prussany and Francia ground each other down. Clashing for hours on end along the line.

The all-out slog was further extended as several groups of reinforcements from Francia showed up from other directions. All moving to push into the battle and join in the efforts to knock back the Prussany border-forces.

While he couldn’t see it, Vince would bet on forces coming to back up Prussany as well.

“Your countrymen seem unwilling to budge,” murmured Vince, the goddess magician sitting next to him against Elizabeth. His hand was wrapped around the front of her throat, with his arm resting against her back and shoulders.

They’d said nothing to each other this entire time. Even when she’d come out of her odd stupor and regained her senses, they didn’t speak to one another.

Now they sat side by side, Vince pushing just enough power into her so that they could keep up their invisibility. The rest of his power all constantly flowing into Elizabeth to repair the damage done to her.

“They… despise all of Francia. They want to conquer it. Completely,” said the woman. “Enslaving and slaughtering those who use magic as they do… they cannot be allowed to exist.

“One can fight the Unsatisfied One with magic. Just because the bastard gains more from magic users doesn’t make us all anathema. Ridiculous to call us That Which Feeds. It’s not like we have a choice.”

“Yeah… I don’t know much about any of that,” admitted Vince. “As far as magic goes, last I saw, my Duke in Magi-Vale was holding out well enough. Knowing my general though, she’s probably already cleared a route up to them and has either evacuated them or reinforced them.

“Actually, never mind. She probably reinforced them. That city was well situated. She wouldn’t let it slip away for no reason.”

“You… what?” asked the mage, turning her head to look at him now.

“What, what?”

“Your duke?” clarified the mage.

“Yes. I made a duke for the area of Magi-Vale and enrolled them into Yosemite. I’ll need more magicians. All I have right now are Elven mages, and their magic is very different,” murmured Vince. “Their magic doesn’t affect me much at all if I’m being honest. Leila’s curse magic really doesn’t hold too strongly to me either. Probably the sheer number of Elves and Gnomes I ate if I had to bet.”

Vince nodded his head at his own words. It made more sense now that he said it aloud.

His mother had procured a great deal of meat from other races and had fed him it constantly. Pushing more on him and recording the results constantly.

“Your magic on the other hand definitely hits harder than expected. I’m going to have to eat a number of your hearts before I get immune to it, I think,” continued Vince. “Probably need to eat more than just the heart now that I think about it. Eating a mage head to toe at least once would probably help.”

“You’re… disgusting,” the woman complained with a shake of her head.

“It’s not like I want to, you know. Eating my own kind gives me a weird and sick feeling,” confessed Vince. “If I’m going to kick all your assholes back into your own lands though, that’s what I have to do.”

The woman frowned at that, her eyes turning to look at the battle in front of them.

“I’m Johanna. Goddess of general magic. Recently forced into a war portfolio,” said the deity, turning to look at him. “I’m only a lower-class deity but I’m strong despite that. You’re clearly a greater deity. What’s your portfolio? It seems… it seems very similar to the Unsatisfied One in many ways.”

“Uh… I dunno. Last I heard I was only a demi-god. Kinda married to three goddesses now though. Wouldn’t be surprised if that pushed me up. Though I have no idea about deity levels or any shit like that. I’m just a dirty human that was running messages between cities in my teens,” Vince explained.

“Oh? Oh. How curious. I’ve been alive for several hundred years. I came from a world much unlike this one and was brought over with the portal event,” Johanna explained, resting her head against Elizabeth.

“You don’t look a day over twenty,” Vince offered, nodding his head. “Never would have guessed you’re old enough to be my eight times great grandma.”

Johanna snorted at that and rolled her eyes, turning her head to the side and away from Vince.

“No children I’m afraid. I was forced into a pantheon not long after coming to this world. I’ve been a lesser deity partner since then. I’m not allowed partners, children, or otherwise,” Johanna grumbled.

“So you’re a slave?” Vince asked with some heat. Looking to her, he suddenly found he wanted to stomp his way over to Prussany and start kicking things over.

“I… ah… yes? Yes. I suppose I am at that. I couldn’t leave if I wanted to nor am I allowed to live as I’d wish,” muttered Johanna. “I’m effectively a slave.

“Why, would you free me? Not long ago you were saying you’d pull my heart out and eat it. Does it change that much for you?”

“Yes. Yes it does. If I freed you, what would you do?” asked Vince.

Johanna’s eyebrows came down and she scowled at the soldiers who were still busily killing one another. Her eyes slowly moving back and forth across the field of battle.

“What I’d want to do?” she asked.

“Yeah. If you were freed, what would you want to do?”

“Join your pantheon. If you didn’t treat those in your pantheon as slaves at least. Provided I could come and go as I pleased. Handle my portfolio in whatever fashion I see fit,” she said finally. “Then bring over my followers after that. Beyond that? See if I couldn’t talk you into freeing some other deities. I think quite a few would willingly join.”

Nodding his head to that, Vince had expected that answer.

It was what everyone else in Yosemite had answered with, after all.

Vince removed his hand from Johanna’s throat and patted her on the back. He needed to finish resurrecting Elizabeth. Time was flying by and they needed to get moving.

“We could talk about that. You’d have to swear obedience to me or my goddesses, but we could probably arrange something,” he murmured as he put his attention to Elizabeth.

For whatever reason, he no longer feared Johanna in any way.