William's demo (Click to Show)
The world lay still in the aftermath of the energy burst, the sword still sticking out of the shattered remnants of a rather unfortunate tree. Blackened from the fiery release of energy, and with large chunks missing from its core, it stood as a testament to the failure of the enchantment. Most remarkable about the whole picture though, was the sword sticking out from the bark at the epicenter of the damage…a blade which also happened to belong to me.
I sighed at the sight, more concerned about the interaction between my enchantments and Devokh’s magic than anything else. Of course, this wasn’t the first time there had been a mishap, but the circumstances of it made it particularly alarming: we were about to enter a town for the first time in several months, and this could pose a serious problem. Standing up from my position under a smaller tree across from the burnt out husk, I walked forward and grasped the hilt, pulling at it in an attempt to pull the sword free of the old tree. A task which I realized I may need help with after nearly tearing something in my shoulder with the third fruitless tug.
I looked around the small clearing, my right hand starting to move to the tattoos around my eye before I caught myself, remembering the recent events making those tattoos nearly useless. Instead, uttering a curse under my breath while doing so, I looked for the telltale shifting of the air around the nearly formless creature that was my companion, finding it hovering above the very same tree I was sitting below just moments before, a smug glimmer in its multiple eyes.
, spoke a rumbling, echoing voice in my mind: Devokh's voice, courtesy of our pact.
“I’m no novice, mist-walker,” I snapped. Devokh had been a decent companion thus far, but the damn creature seemed to take some kind of perverse joy out of reminding me of how little I actually know about magic. I let out a deep sigh, staring back at its six hazy eyes, “That said, I could still use some help. I think the sap must have fused to the blade from the residual heat, but another [smaller] burst should free it.”
We stared silently at each other for a moment before I piped in, breaking the silence with a reminder.
“Which means that I could use your help, seeing as how I can’t do that myself…” I lifted my left arm up for emphasis, grunting as the action caused a twinge of pain in the limb. I let it fall after a moment, noticing that there were a few droplets of dried blood welling up around the edge of the bandage. Not letting the shade see my surprise, I quickly turned my back and moved towards the blade as if to try to tug it again.
I stopped moving, slowly turning around like a small child that had been caught with something they shouldn’t have…and that analogy would probably have been correct, given our respective ages. I made to speak, but Devokh cut me off.
I worked at the glove, edging my fingers out of it before shaking my hand off after it was free. Small flecks of still flowing blood spattered the ground at my feet as I did so, the bandages clearly soaked through with crimson. I let out a deep sigh, knowing that the containment spell wouldn’t last much longer, not with the flow being this strong.
“A couple days since the first signs.”
Devokh almost teleported to the wound, flexing it’s jaws as a soundless hiss echoed through my mind before it turned it eyes to me, voice booming in my mind.
“Our pact was that you would assist me in keeping the containment spells active and functioning, and in return I would provide you with ample energy to sustain and build yourself. I would appreciate it if you didn’t patronize me with my own contract, Devokh.” I grit my teeth as I reflexively clenched my fists, the pain from the still burning muscle damage forcing a whimper out as well. I watched as Devokh nearly flinched back before quickly moving to my pack and phased through it before pushing out the top with the last set of bandages I had.
It lay them on my lap, then lanced a tendril of energy into the wound to repair the enchantments, the bandage itself glowing faintly before the last remnants of magic died out. For my part, I could only scream silently as the demon forced the flesh back into position as it re-bound the delicate spellwork that we had crafted to keep the curse at bay. I screwed my eyes shut and shakily unbound the soaked bandage, quickly reapplying the new set as it felt like my arm would tear itself apart…something which was entirely possible at the moment.
Within a few agonizing moments, it was over: the spell had been reworked, the bandage re-applied and empowered, and my forearm worryingly numb. I rubbed at it, trying to coax some kind of sensation out of the offending limb before carefully tucking the newly bandaged injury underneath the protective enchantments of my gauntlet, trying to regain my composure as I did so.
It had been a bad month.
It had been a really bad month.
Wordlessly, I stood and turned back towards the tree, breathing deeply and trying to stretch a distracting ache in my back. “Yeah. And you expected better? I’m no novice, but I’m not a master either; take solace in the fact that I’m the first living wizard to successfully bind lycanthropy and call it a day.”
Spinning on my heel, I hid a grimace of vertigo behind a smug smirk as I leaned against the burnt husk of the tree at my back. “Now, while I would so love to continue this engaging discussion…could we get back to the problem at hand?”
I tapped the hilt still jutting out of the bark beside my right shoulder for emphasis, my two tired eyes against six unreadable ones in a wordless stand-off. Wisps of ephemeral smoke hung in the air for a moment as Devokh slowly inched soundlessly through the air before darting through my face and curling around the trunk to my left. I sneezed, shuddering at the sudden unnatural cold before throwing a sharp look at three pairs of eyes that I would swear were hiding a smirk.
I smiled to myself at the quip, shaking my head as I turned back towards the tree trunk, grinding the palms of my gloves together before laying them on the hilt, nodding toward Devokh as I let out a choked laugh. “Now come on Dev! I very much doubt you could have landed on your…smoke…tendril…body?...thing in the same situation. I at least managed to land flat on my a** in a very comfortable position across the way, and I’m fairly certain you don’t have one of those.”
Devokh slipped several tendrils of magic through my fingers and into the hilt of the sword, forcing me to hold my tongue as a low hum began to resonate in my ears. I rolled my eyes, and focused on the correct phrasing for the activation spell.
I took a deep breath, and spoke the activation phrase for the enchantment that would release the energy build-up in a forward blast, the thought that this could end badly lingering in the back of my mind.
“Va’al Kroll Rakh’lan!”
In an instant, the blast wave knocked the breath out of me and threw my body up and back as the mid-line of the tree seemed to disintegrate into countless fragments of bark and heartwood. I heard a distant whistling as the blade was flung out of my hand, and I curled my arms close to my chest and face before landing heavily on my side and rolling to a sudden, painful stop in a small copse of saplings. I felt some smaller fragments of wood land on my back and head before a loud thump signaled that the rest of the tree had followed me to the ground, letting me know that it was over.
As I groaned and coughed from the dust, I pushed myself off the ground, checking to make sure there were no broken bones or lasting injuries once I had sat up. I heaved a sigh of relief as I came to the realization that I would just be sore for a few days, and I would have a nasty bruise on my right side and gingerly pushed myself to my feet to inspect the damage.
The tree had been leveled, the explosion ripping through the latter half of it trunk before the backlash threw the sword into the ground some few feet away. The rest of the tree lay broken and smoking across half the clearing, some particularly large fragments of hardened bark making my flinch at the thought of narrowly avoided impalement. Most of the damage seemed contained to the tree itself, however, and while the bark was currently charred and hardened a good rain would wash away most of the ash and ensure that the surrounding plant life would have something to grow from. After checking to make sure that there were no fires, and ensuring that none would likely pop up, I moved over to claim my sword and slide it quickly into its sheath after confirming its safety.
Looking towards the path towards town, I threw my pack across my shoulder as I headed on my way towards town in the hopes of finding an old friend…reminding myself not to tell the scaly b****** about any of this when I found him.
I sighed at the sight, more concerned about the interaction between my enchantments and Devokh’s magic than anything else. Of course, this wasn’t the first time there had been a mishap, but the circumstances of it made it particularly alarming: we were about to enter a town for the first time in several months, and this could pose a serious problem. Standing up from my position under a smaller tree across from the burnt out husk, I walked forward and grasped the hilt, pulling at it in an attempt to pull the sword free of the old tree. A task which I realized I may need help with after nearly tearing something in my shoulder with the third fruitless tug.
“I’m no novice, mist-walker,” I snapped. Devokh had been a decent companion thus far, but the damn creature seemed to take some kind of perverse joy out of reminding me of how little I actually know about magic. I let out a deep sigh, staring back at its six hazy eyes, “That said, I could still use some help. I think the sap must have fused to the blade from the residual heat, but another [smaller] burst should free it.”
We stared silently at each other for a moment before I piped in, breaking the silence with a reminder.
“Which means that I could use your help, seeing as how I can’t do that myself…” I lifted my left arm up for emphasis, grunting as the action caused a twinge of pain in the limb. I let it fall after a moment, noticing that there were a few droplets of dried blood welling up around the edge of the bandage. Not letting the shade see my surprise, I quickly turned my back and moved towards the blade as if to try to tug it again.
I stopped moving, slowly turning around like a small child that had been caught with something they shouldn’t have…and that analogy would probably have been correct, given our respective ages. I made to speak, but Devokh cut me off.
I worked at the glove, edging my fingers out of it before shaking my hand off after it was free. Small flecks of still flowing blood spattered the ground at my feet as I did so, the bandages clearly soaked through with crimson. I let out a deep sigh, knowing that the containment spell wouldn’t last much longer, not with the flow being this strong.
“A couple days since the first signs.”
Devokh almost teleported to the wound, flexing it’s jaws as a soundless hiss echoed through my mind before it turned it eyes to me, voice booming in my mind.
“Our pact was that you would assist me in keeping the containment spells active and functioning, and in return I would provide you with ample energy to sustain and build yourself. I would appreciate it if you didn’t patronize me with my own contract, Devokh.” I grit my teeth as I reflexively clenched my fists, the pain from the still burning muscle damage forcing a whimper out as well. I watched as Devokh nearly flinched back before quickly moving to my pack and phased through it before pushing out the top with the last set of bandages I had.
It lay them on my lap, then lanced a tendril of energy into the wound to repair the enchantments, the bandage itself glowing faintly before the last remnants of magic died out. For my part, I could only scream silently as the demon forced the flesh back into position as it re-bound the delicate spellwork that we had crafted to keep the curse at bay. I screwed my eyes shut and shakily unbound the soaked bandage, quickly reapplying the new set as it felt like my arm would tear itself apart…something which was entirely possible at the moment.
Within a few agonizing moments, it was over: the spell had been reworked, the bandage re-applied and empowered, and my forearm worryingly numb. I rubbed at it, trying to coax some kind of sensation out of the offending limb before carefully tucking the newly bandaged injury underneath the protective enchantments of my gauntlet, trying to regain my composure as I did so.
It had been a bad month.
It had been a really bad month.
Wordlessly, I stood and turned back towards the tree, breathing deeply and trying to stretch a distracting ache in my back. “Yeah. And you expected better? I’m no novice, but I’m not a master either; take solace in the fact that I’m the first living wizard to successfully bind lycanthropy and call it a day.”
Spinning on my heel, I hid a grimace of vertigo behind a smug smirk as I leaned against the burnt husk of the tree at my back. “Now, while I would so love to continue this engaging discussion…could we get back to the problem at hand?”
I tapped the hilt still jutting out of the bark beside my right shoulder for emphasis, my two tired eyes against six unreadable ones in a wordless stand-off. Wisps of ephemeral smoke hung in the air for a moment as Devokh slowly inched soundlessly through the air before darting through my face and curling around the trunk to my left. I sneezed, shuddering at the sudden unnatural cold before throwing a sharp look at three pairs of eyes that I would swear were hiding a smirk.
I smiled to myself at the quip, shaking my head as I turned back towards the tree trunk, grinding the palms of my gloves together before laying them on the hilt, nodding toward Devokh as I let out a choked laugh. “Now come on Dev! I very much doubt you could have landed on your…smoke…tendril…body?...thing in the same situation. I at least managed to land flat on my a** in a very comfortable position across the way, and I’m fairly certain you don’t have one of those.”
I took a deep breath, and spoke the activation phrase for the enchantment that would release the energy build-up in a forward blast, the thought that this could end badly lingering in the back of my mind.
“Va’al Kroll Rakh’lan!”
In an instant, the blast wave knocked the breath out of me and threw my body up and back as the mid-line of the tree seemed to disintegrate into countless fragments of bark and heartwood. I heard a distant whistling as the blade was flung out of my hand, and I curled my arms close to my chest and face before landing heavily on my side and rolling to a sudden, painful stop in a small copse of saplings. I felt some smaller fragments of wood land on my back and head before a loud thump signaled that the rest of the tree had followed me to the ground, letting me know that it was over.
As I groaned and coughed from the dust, I pushed myself off the ground, checking to make sure there were no broken bones or lasting injuries once I had sat up. I heaved a sigh of relief as I came to the realization that I would just be sore for a few days, and I would have a nasty bruise on my right side and gingerly pushed myself to my feet to inspect the damage.
The tree had been leveled, the explosion ripping through the latter half of it trunk before the backlash threw the sword into the ground some few feet away. The rest of the tree lay broken and smoking across half the clearing, some particularly large fragments of hardened bark making my flinch at the thought of narrowly avoided impalement. Most of the damage seemed contained to the tree itself, however, and while the bark was currently charred and hardened a good rain would wash away most of the ash and ensure that the surrounding plant life would have something to grow from. After checking to make sure that there were no fires, and ensuring that none would likely pop up, I moved over to claim my sword and slide it quickly into its sheath after confirming its safety.
Looking towards the path towards town, I threw my pack across my shoulder as I headed on my way towards town in the hopes of finding an old friend…reminding myself not to tell the scaly b****** about any of this when I found him.