Wizard Tournament: Chapter 131 (Patreon)

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          One thing Alex hadn’t expected when he jumped out of the airship, was that the sickening feeling of falling didn’t actually go away just because he was lighter than normal. The feeling of impending doom merely stretched out and steadily increased in intensity the closer he got to the ground. It wasn’t his cook’s fault. Gwen hadn’t been doing magic for very long, and Alex had been too busy with preparations to practice jumping from such a height even once.

          Arthur and Brian floated in the air beside Alex as he fell. “You okay, boss?” Brian asked. “You look as bad as Arthur.”

          Arthur’s blond locks flapped in the wind as he stared wide-eyed at the ground. He still had one hand on his mouth and his skin actually had a slight green tinge to it. Alex didn’t appreciate the comparison. He didn’t look that pathetic, did he? “I’m fine,” he insisted. “Just focus on the task at hand.”

          “Pretty hard to do anything else, boss,” Brian said. He pointed down at the ground below. There was a veritable swarm of werebeasts crowding around their approaching landing zone eagerly trying to be the first to catch them. “You got a plan for those things?” Brian asked. “I can knock heads together with the best of ‘em… but those things’ll tear us apart quick as… uh, something quick, that’s for sure.”

          Ker-thump! Ker-thump! Projectiles of stone continued to rain down on the buildings within the compound. They were getting reduced to rubble in short order just like Alex had ordered. At the very least, the Eldesians wouldn’t be getting any reinforcements.

          Alex nodded. Brian was right about the werebeasts. The two muscles-heads he’d brought were only supposed to function as a last line of defense against eldrin after he’d removed their magic, not monstrous werebeasts. “Leave ‘em to me,” Alex said. He closed his eyes and focused his thoughts.

          Hatred. Rage. Injustice. Alex brought his knife down and made a single small incision. The feel of skin parting at his touch sent a symphony of pleasure down his spine. The elf beneath him screamed in agony to the beat of his heart. The blood splashed, the skin pulled back, fear shaped the man’s face as it finally dawned on him that he wasn’t going to escape. This was how he would die. Helpless.

          Yes. That look in their eyes. Watching the hope drain away. A taste of suffering and terror. Only a taste of what they deserved. Just the sight of it...

          Alex opened his eyes. He held onto that feeling of delightful animosity. He focused on the pack of werebeasts they were about to fall into. They weren’t his enemies. They were being controlled, just like so many of his brethren. With an effort of will Alex directed his unbridled hatred at the collars around their necks. He imagined slicing them open with his blade.

          A collar fell from one of the werebeast’s neck, then another, then all of them. Dozens of leather straps tumbled onto the manicured grass of the Eldesian embassy. He was getting closer to the ground now. Alex turned his attention to the beast tamers off to the side, who directed the beasts. He smiled wickedly in anticipation.

          “Uh… boss? You got a plan for those things or not?” Brian asked again.

          “Yeah, I just broke their collars,” Alex said. “Now they’ll tear apart the Eldesian defenses for us.”

          The crowd of werebeasts continued gnashing teeth and clambering over each other to be the first to attack once their group fell within range. As the three humans got closer to the ground the werebeasts clumped together in a tangle of dark fur. Some leapt off the others’ shoulders to try to grab at them. In only a few more seconds they would be within range. The beasts didn’t have their collars on anymore, why were they still attacking?

          “It doesn’t look like they care,” Brian pointed out. An edge of panic tinged his voice.

          “They’re free now,” Alex insisted. “Just give them a moment to realize it.”

          “We don’t have a moment!”

          Brian was right. They were going to be ripped apart any second. Free werebeasts or not, it wouldn’t matter. One of the more eager ones leapt into the air to take a swipe at them. Brian hit it on the head with his club and it fell back down. It was too late. The plan was a bust. The werebeasts were either too dumb or too bloodthirsty to realize they were free now.

          Alex lashed out with his magic in a panic. Darkness engulfed everything. The air was filled with the sounds of growling, snarling and barking. There was a cacophony of deadly sounds at Alex’s feet. He flailed with his legs and his foot hit upon a furry surface. He kicked off it with everything he had and went tumbling through unseen darkness.

          For a moment, up felt like down and down like up. With gravity as a mere suggestion and nothing to orient himself with, Alex couldn’t tell where his body was or which way he was facing. Cool grass struck him in the shoulder. The rest of his body hit the ground soon after. He reached around and felt the grass around him, then jumped to his feet. The world popped back into proper order. Feet down, head up, gnashing ball of furry death to the right. It was still dark, but at least he knew where he was.

          A scream cut through the air. Alex recognized the voice. It was Arthur. His screams reached a crescendo, then cut off very suddenly. Things were not going to plan. Alex drew in the darkness he had created. The dog-pile of werebeasts was only a few spans away. The creatures were a squirming mass of death covered in blood. In only a few moments they had begun to feed and fight and rip each other apart. Arthur’s remains were already unrecognizable.

          Brian was still tumbling through the air. It looked like he had managed to kick off something as well, but he fell back down on the outside edge of the pile of snapping and snarling werebeasts. His eyes were wide and he tried to kick with his legs as he fell back into the mass of bodies. A claw reached up out of the tangle of limbs and grabbed him by the ankle.

          Alex could only watch. Lunamancy was a magic that could destroy and Alex didn’t have the power to stop so many bodies with it. Brian was pulled into the tangle of limbs with his teeth bared and his club swinging.

          KABOOM!

          A comet crashed into the midst of the pile. An explosion threw bodies in every direction. At the heart of the blast emerged Alex’s cook, Gwen. She rose up with her ladle held high and shouted, “Soup’s on!”

          Bloody werebeasts started to rain down from the sky. Somewhere in the midst of the cloud of bodies was Brian. Rather than fly away like the others, Brian fell in a straight line towards Gwen’s outstretched ladle. Alex hurried over to the two of them.

          “You looked like you needed help,” Gwen said.

          “Yeah, that didn’t exactly go as planned,” Alex admitted. “I freed the werebeasts but they didn’t seem to notice.” He looked down at the shape of his remaining guard. Brian groaned and rolled over. He had a bloody gash on his thigh, but at least he was still alive.

          Alex took up a defensive posture, facing outward at the werebeasts on all sides. He pulled out the Boom Stick and held it at the ready. The creatures began to fight as soon as they hit the ground again. They fought anything and everything, whatever was closest to them. An eldrin beast tamer had time only to shout, “No! Heel!” before being set upon by two beasts at once.

          A beast landed right next to their group. Brian hobbled to his feet and swung his club at the creature with one arm while gripping his leg with his other. The beast batted his club away without any apparent effort, then batted him away. Alex tensed and pointed the Boom Stick at it. He hesitated. It was too close. If he used the weapon here he’d just kill them both. Gwen swung her ladle at the creature and sent it flying away at a diagonal angle. It sailed off into the horizon and kept going until it was a tiny blip on the horizon.

          “You gonna do something?” Gwen asked. She chugged a mana potion, then let go of the empty bottle. It flew off from her hand—accelerating as it did—then smashed into another approaching werebeast’s face at incredible speed. The beast dropped to the ground. “I can’t keep this up for too much longer.”

          A flash of light caught Alex’s eye. He looked over just in time to see an eldrin wizard on a nearby hill throw a lightning bolt at him. Alex brought his darkness to bear and erased the projectile a mere hair’s breadth from his face. The enemy wizard’s eyes went so wide with surprise Alex could see the difference even from a hundred or so strides distant. The wizard raised his hands and started a new sequence of precise hand motions. Alex judged the distance between them. It was probably safe. The wizard was standing next to two of those leather-clad beast tamers.

          Alex pointed the Boom Stick their way and fired off a blast.

          FOOM!

          He had to turn his eyes away as the hillside lit up in a flash of light. A moment later a blast of force shook his chest and very nearly dropped him to the ground. When he looked back, pieces of body were raining down around the field. The three eldrin that had been standing there moments ago were gone. Howls of pain came from the werebeasts nearby. Alex’s ears were ringing but he pointed the Boom Stick at another werebeast and waved it threateningly. Thankfully, the creature was smart enough to recognize the threat and slinked away with its tail between its legs.

          “That’s right! This is my Boom Stick. Get back or I’ll blast you, too!”

          Just like that, the line of werebeasts started to turn. First the one Alex directly threatened turned and ran, then another, then the rest of them decided to join their fellows. One of the beast tamers stepped up and shouted something at them, but whatever he said was no longer backed up by the magical compulsion of their collars. The werebeast nearest to him lashed out and ripped his throat out, then threw back its head and gave a howl of victory. One moment the beasts were merely fleeing, the next they were turning on their eldrin masters and ripping them to pieces. A contingent of brave wizards formed a circle and started hurling spells at their own beasts but they were overwhelmed in moments.

          Brian limped up to Alex. “I guess it worked after all,” he said over the screams of anger and fear from both sides. “But what are they going to do when they’re finished with their old masters?”

          “That’s a good question…” Alex thought about it. He checked the gap in the fence across the field where their allies had drained the wards of mana. It looked like they’d already retreated back into the woods when the fighting started. “It’s just us. We need to get out of here before they realize this Boom Stick can only kill a few of them. Gwen? Can you get us back to the airship?”

          Gwen had a corner of fabric from her dress pulled out and was in the process of polishing her soup ladle. She looked up. “Who, me?”

          “Yes, you! You got us down here, didn’t you?”

          She nodded. “I guess I could, but I’ll need to recycle some of the mana from one of those boulders. Hold on.” She pointed her ladle toward one of the nearby destroyed buildings where a massive boulder was embedded in the rubble and made a scooping gesture with the ladle as though she were dishing up soup. A dull yellow glow of energy wafted off the boulder and towards Gwen’s ladle. She put her lips to it and made a slurping sound.

          “I gotta get me one of those things,” Brian said in awe as he watched her work.

          “Don’t bother,” Alex said, “it doesn’t actually do anyth—” His words cut off as the group of them started to fall upwards.

          “You were saying?” Gwen shouted through the roar of wind.

          “You don’t need that damn ladle to work your magic!” Alex shouted back. “You do know that, don’t you?”

          Gwen stuck her tongue out at him. “My lucky ladle just saved your butt!”

          Alex turned his head up to watch the airship as they rushed closer to it. “We’re not in the clear yet!”

          They slowed to a crawl right as they reached the railing of the airship. Alex reached out just as normal gravity started to take hold of him again. Eric’s men were ready and two of them grabbed each arm and pulled him aboard.

          “Wooo!” Eric shouted. “That went better than expected, huh, sir?”

          Alex brushed himself off and checked that he still had the Boom Stick. “Arthur didn’t think so,” he reminded him. The cheerful mood on the airship only slightly dampened at the reminder of their lost ally.

          Eric frowned. “His sacrifice will be remembered.”

          “Sure,” Alex agreed, “but later. For now I had an idea. How much ammunition you got left up here?” He turned back to the railing and leaned over it. Down below, the black dots of the werebeasts were still clumped around a single spot. That had to be where the last of the Eldesian wizards had made their stand. He was only too glad he didn’t have to stick around for that show. Not that the gore bothered him, he just didn’t want to be anywhere nearby when those creatures were finished.

          “Plenty enough,” Eric answered. “The original plan was to attack Caldenia, remember? These Eldesian buildings barely put up any resistance once their magic stopped working. What’s the plan?” He came up to the railing and followed Alex’s gaze.

          Alex pulled the spyglass out of his pocket and was pleased to find it hadn’t been damaged in all the excitement down below. “We’re going to find somewhere else to drop the rest of these rocks. We wouldn’t want Gwen’s efforts to be wasted, after all.” He scanned the horizon for the different embassies. All looked quiet at the Kreetish embassy. A few lizard-kin bodies were scattered about but for the most part there was nothing and nobody over there. The dragons and lizard-kin had all made their way over to the Kundreil embassy. The high-spired stone castle was currently surrounded in the air by dragons and on the ground with lizard-kin. Spells were getting thrown around by both sides but it looked like it was only a matter of time before the dragons busted a hole in one of their walls. It didn’t look like they needed any help, and an airship would probably only clog up their airspace.

          Next, Alex turned his spyglass to the Setsyan embassy. It looked quiet. The only movement he could make out were a few dryads digging holes in the dirt just outside the giant tree. The number of bodies laid out in the grove was more than Alex would have thought. He hoped the majority of those weren’t from his allies. The last of the action within the Protectorate was happening at the Caldenian embassy. Dryads were swarming the elvish castle. There was a ring of about a dozen squat towers surrounding the central castle and at present it looked like three of them were covered in vines. Fire, ice and lightning spells were being slung down on the dryads from both the central castle and the undamaged towers. At present, vines were growing up the side of the castle and wizards up on the parapets were burning them off.

          Alex pointed toward the Caldenian embassy. “That way,” he commanded. “The Setsyans are doing okay, but if we take out a few of those towers I think it’ll push the battle in their favor.”

          “You heard him, Prindy,” Eric repeated. “Take us West. Full speed!”

          “Aye, sir!” the pink-haired gnome piped out. The wooden frame of the airship creaked as hot steam shot out the back of the balloon. The craft whipped around and took off at a fast clip for the Caldenian embassy.

          “Listen,” Alex told Eric through the rush of wind that was starting to feel commonplace; “I think you can handle this next part without me.”

          “Without you?” Eric asked. “But you’re the strongest wizard we’ve got since Peter went missing.”

          Alex shook his head. “Gwen can handle it. All you’ve got to do is drop some rocks on a few of those towers and that should do the trick. And here.” Alex pulled out the Boom Stick and handed it over. “This doesn’t take magic to use. Just point and think about where you want your explosion to go. It takes a while to recharge to full strength, but it should be good for one or two more good blasts.”

          “You talkin’ about me over here?” Gwen asked. She sidled over along the railing. “What is it you’re saying I can handle?”

          Alex nodded his head in the direction of travel. “Caldenia. Don’t worry about it. You’re up far too high for any of their spells to reach you and they’ve got their hands full down there dealing with the Setsyans.” He pointed down below at the arena that was quickly passing beneath them. “I’ve got to get off here and see what’s taking Peter so long. He should have shown up by now.”

          “Oh right,” Gwen quickly agreed. “Tell that sweet boy ‘hi’ for me when you see him.”

          Alex hoisted himself back up on the railing. He thought to himself that he was probably getting too casual about throwing himself into the open sky a league off the ground. He looked back at Gwen. “You gonna…?”

          Her eyes went wide. “Oh, right!” She pulled her ladle from the belt at her hip and tapped him on the chest with it.

          Alex felt his weight drop away in a familiar manner and he dropped over the side of the ship with a final, “Good luck!” He’d promised Sean and Ben that he’d come back with more men, but at the moment he didn’t have any men to spare. The three of them would just have to hunker down and wait for the rest of their allies to establish military control over the remainder of the Protectorate. If Peter and his friends were still stuck inside that damn city he’d just have to wait until he was in a better position to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Maybe that dragon emperor could threaten them in other ways…

          Alex settled to the ground gently. The claw marks where Tarrish had taken off less than an hour ago were still in the dirt just outside the Guildhall. Nobody was around. Alex jogged inside and pulled a half-finished mana potion from his pocket. Just in case, he swigged the rest of it down. He made the few twists and turns down the building’s hallways until he reached the holding cell where he’d left his men. Just as he turned the corner the hackles on the back of his neck stood up. Something was wrong.

          Suspended in the air in front of the black metal door with a hole melted through it was a bright red ball of fire. When Alex approached to see what it could be, it winked out of existence. “Guys. You there?” Alex called out. Nobody answered. “It’s me. It’s Alex.” He took a few more steps towards the door before remembering the password. “Red! Don’t stab me. I’m coming in.”

          There was movement coming from the four-poster bed. Alex pulled a knife from a sheath at his belt and cautiously advanced into the room. He looked left to make sure Sean didn’t leap out and try to stab him. Sean was there, but he was on the ground. A slow trickle of blood was pulsing from a wound in his neck. His spear lay broken on the ground next to him.

          Alex immediately dropped to his knees and pressed a hand to the other man’s throat. It was still warm, but the spurts of blood were getting weak. The pool of blood around his body already looked like nearly the entire amount a body held. Alex knew well how much that was. He tried to slap the man’s face and wake him up. “Who did this to you, Sean? Who did this!”

          The slow release of breath was his only answer. The weak pulse of life beneath his hand stopped. He had to check on Ben! Alex left the dead man where he was and rushed across the room. He found Ben lying on the ground behind the divan that he’d knocked over to provide cover. He still had his bow in hand with an arrow notched in it. The arrow was made of plain brown wood. The shaft of an entirely different style of arrow—made of a shiny black metal—was sticking halfway out of his chest. It had taken him right in the heart.

          A rustling of fabric came from the direction of the bed. Maeve. Alex stumbled past his dead friend and approached the bed. He found Maeve struggling against the cloth bonds. It seemed one of his men had tied her to the bed post with some fabric from her dress and he saw that she was chewing on the knot. The rest of her body was still wrapped tight, but she’d managed to push the cloth covering her eyes just above her eyebrows. She looked up at him and paused. She spit out the cloth. “What did you expect me to do? Just sit here with your dead men and wait for you to come kill me?”

          “What. Happened. To. My. Men.” Alex asked in a frosty-cold voice. His grip on the knife tightened. He kept its edge sharp enough to shave with. She would tell him what he wanted to know.

          “She knew your passcode!” Maeve blurted out. She gave a significant look to Alex’s knife and then just started talking. “She shouted it out and they hesitated. The one with the bow peeked out to ask why you sent her and… well, you already saw the rest. You just missed them. They used a Hell rift.”

          Alex took a step closer and Maeve shrunk back. She tried to get further away from him, but her ankles were attached to the bedpost. “Who?” Alex demanded.

          “Who do you think? It was Caelnaste. She and that red lizard Korack came in. They killed your men, took Tel’Andrid, and left.”

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