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If looking for a certain chapter, or the newest one just press CTRL + F and type in "Chapter" and the next button on your browser till you find the one you want.
Each Author has their own mana color, so if you see white mana you will be reading Ty's Chapter. Red mana will be Milly's.
We shall keep you updated.
:) Thank You!
Each Author has their own mana color, so if you see white mana you will be reading Ty's Chapter. Red mana will be Milly's.
We shall keep you updated.
:) Thank You!
Prologue
Things happen for the sake of the happening.
She donned herself with silver silk rags. Black eyes of burden looked up at the sky, seeing nothing but darkness. Sandstones litter the distance between her and the foothill of the aged rope bride and she advance to the edge – staring all the meanwhile up at the sky.
‘'There’s something there. I just know it; I see the light, I must be seeing it! It glimmers through glass, stone and close to the peak of that colossal steppe. It must be there.’'
'‘It must be there, but can it see me? Do they know I am here? What is it? It beckons me . .’'
Thick clouds of a dark entity that seemed to expand, breathe and walk across the sky enfolded itself around what the silver embodied girl had seen.
‘'Gasp! No… don’t go! I just saw you!’'
'please . . . don’t leave me here . . . it’s cold as is.’'
Pitch black eyes closed and hid within the unusual bleach skin.
‘'Maybe . . . . it was just a memory.’'
Chapter 1:
White Mana
I sat in my desk, tapping my pencil against my forehead in frustration. The clock is an evil device, I swear. It seems to slow down when I’m in a hurry. I looked over at Cru, my Alma, who was standing in the doorway of the classroom. Rubbing my forehead and ruffling my dark blond hair, making a mess of it and not caring, I tried to let my mind relax, to let it wander. Maybe time will go faster if I do. I think the other students in the class were feeling the same way.
Cru seems asleep in his armor, lucky guy. I wish I could sleep right now. His head was down and he was breathing slowly but surely. The guy is all muscle, standing at a good seven feet tall and wearing full armor, he would put Conan the Barbarian to shame. Of course there is his axe, standing just as tall as he is. It was intimidating.
“Ok everyone we’re done for the day.” the Professor said dryly. I had almost dozed off by then and I felt a nudge at my side and I just now noticed Cru was standing there. I left the classroom and walked out of the building onto a sunny day at campus. The birds were chirping and overall, despite it still being a cold January, it was nice.
Cru seems as chipper as ever, I mean with that scowl he loves to wear, I think he might have hemorrhoids or something, the guy just can’t smile. With that thought I checked my cellphone for what day it was. I’m not good at keeping up with that sort of thing, leave me alone. So, today is a Monday. As far as I was concerned Mondays were just as good of a day as any, but they always seemed to bring everyone down. Bummer.
The grass underneath my feet was wet, from the sleet and rain of the night before, and it soaked through my shoes. Still I felt more or less Zen as I walked through campus to my favorite building. The housing building of my home, the DnD clubroom.
Before I even got to the room, I could hear yelling, the same bickering one can often hear. I knew who it was immediately, since they were so loud. Zack and Josh, two of my friends, we’re arguing.
Zack is an older man, about mid twenties with short cut, almost bald, hair. I blame it on his military training. Josh is the total opposite, he’s the younger brother of the group. Always telling jokes and sometimes can be a bit too forward.
The two did have something in common though, they are both loud and opinionated. This led into disagreements between the two of them and could often result in yelling. Both guys are great in my mind, I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get along.
I walked into the club. An overall small room that was made to fit eight people at most. So with the sixteen people in there, all from the DnD club, it was crowded. I wouldn’t prefer it any other way.
As always Zack and Josh’s argument came down to a battle. No, I don’t mean a fight. A couple of weeks back the other club members and I had found something strange. A series of cards, how is that strange? Well these cards, which were mostly black with the exception of a picture of a different Magic the Gathering creature on each of them, had just been on the table. Each card had a different club member’s name on it. That’s when everything changed.
Anyway the battle I was referring two was actually the equivalent of a Magic game. I call them duels but Joe gives me an evil glare when I do.
You see these new cards, they bring our games to life. I mean, actually bring our games to life. Only we can see them though. Something about touching the cards allow us to see these games, or our alma. That means that noone at school can see Cru following me around all day.
So my alma Cru, is actually a Mirran Crusader, and it was his picture that was on my control card. I remember it like it was yesterday. I picked up my card, and out of nowhere this seven foot tall man with an axe was standing over me. I’m not the type to scare easily, but I did hear a girly scream from somewhere in the room. It wasn’t me I swear.
Cru tried to explain to me later that he had always been there, but I couldn’t see him until I touched the card. When I asked him how he had gotten there, or who had made these cards, he didn’t say anything. None of the Alma did. Not only was this frustrating, but it made me suspicious. I don’t think I was the only one who felt that way either.
Zack and Josh began, both still in the DnD club room and standing very close. Their eyes met with a fiery glare as they spun the circle on their control cards with one swipe of the hand. Their almae appeared behind their masters and introduced mana into the petite playing field.
Zack’s Alloy Myr’s arms rubbed together and seemed to be pulling a grey swirl from its control card. “Don’t think this will be an easy win for you, the lands are on my side,” Zack sneered as the collection of grey light grew in size.
Josh’s expression did change slightly as he had noticed the difference between the sizes of their mana generation. His Blackleave Goblin did its best to open the flow of mana but the black light diminished in size, barely a thin trail at best.
“I’ll bring you down with the withering power of infect,” Josh stated with a cackle. Zack took three steps back, his myr stopped gathering mana and a smaller myr duplicate formed from the light between its artificial hands.
With the control cards our creatures generate mana allowing us to play our spells. The upper hand is only given to the one who can generate mana they need and can maintain their assault. Zack commanded his Alloy Myr to summon myr tokens but its time and mana consuming. Josh’s ability, on the other hand, can instantaneously sacrifice creatures to defend himself or use spells he knows to counteract. Josh bent down and placed a hand on his Blackleave Goblin, grasping the mana to use for his own memory stored spells.
Rule number one: The link between Master, Alma, and the control card is crucial for mana flow.
The battle grew tense as Zack swarmed the room with Myr tokens, all spread out. Some of the tokens were on the counters, others coming forth between the two contestants and fighting off Josh’s withering spells. Josh panted, beads of sweat trickled down his face, the fight could only be pointless now. “Just end this Zack, I don’t know why you keep going.”
Zack opponent raised his hand, calling forth the last of the lazy myr tokens onto the attack, “Not till I prove that when your life goes to zero it will only reset to 20.”
In casual games of paper thin cards, we can always play again and again and without a worry. We have realised when our life points diminish so does the will power of our soul, our bodies become weak, our minds wishing the power against us would stop and our hunger arises to restore ourselves.
“Zack, we have told you many of times that we don’t want to hit zero. You’ve won this fight, leave Josh alone.” Our vice president Nick interfered with his Merfolk Alma and she swept up to Zack staring him down.
Annoyed, Zack turned his control card face up, cutting off the sources of mana completely. “I will find out for myself, and you will see we will reset.”
Josh, with his life points at five, fell to his knees to catch his breath. The alma behind him crawled over and swiped its claw over the control card, flipping it too.
In response to end of the duel, Nick’s Coral Trickster swatted its extremely long tail in both players faces and spat at their Almae. “I swear she has dominance issues,” Nick murmured and walked out of the DnD room with his Coral behind him.
Oh, one more thing. Ever since we touched these control cards something else happened to us. Our life, it is actually our life now. None of us have played a game where we reached zero life, because quite frankly none of us want to. But when playing, every time we’re hit, we feel the pain of the hit and our energy fades away.
I checked the clock. It was after twelve. Wait, I’m late for class! I gotta wrap this up quickly.
In short, our magic games are real. None of us yet know where we got our cards, who made them, or why our alma won’t tell us anything about them. It’s been about a month since we got them and I already trust Cru with my life. I’m surprised he still hasn’t told me yet. Either way, college just became a lot more interesting.
Inclusion
Somewhere on the edge of the multiverse exists what perhaps could be a single plane - wrought in clouds of darkness that almost never lets a drop of rain befall the conspired lands below them. This plane does not have a name, not even its phasing cohabitants can tell you where they are. Well, if you can even call them inhabitants - they never seem to stay in the same place - or the same existence.
Crea held a bleached hand over her mouth as she felt the thunder roll beneath the cliff. Her nose crinkled to the dust devils rising from beneath the stampedes’ feet.
"Food. . . I can smell their fear. . .’"
Blackened grooves worked up sweat amongst the damned Yoked Plowbeasts as they rushed through the sharp red canyon. Their noses too flared by the dirt and its carrier, the rebellious wind, which did not help their escape from the terror that called out from behind them.
She couldn'’t see what had frightened the herd, but her ears recognized the shrills the enemies were bellowing in unison. No, there weren’t many of them compared to the numbers ahead, but their speed struck down several as they passed under Crea’s hiding spot.
The terrible wind current swept up one of the light bodies of the predators and slammed it against the terracotta red earth. It’s lungs refused it’s desire to whelp in pain and it collapsed on top of a larger brethren. Bloodthirsty teeth brought the fainted Skinrender to its merciless death.
Crea’s pitch black eyes stared widened in horror, ‘"This isn’t right! It just . . . died . . . like that.’"
Conclusion came to her cry, for a pitch black enormous cloud made its way into the canyon. The creatures were swallowed by its darkness - the noises ceased. Seconds later the cloud rose to its hearth, in the sky. Her gaze met nothing. Not even the rebellious wind. Not even the scared herd of Plowbeasts and not even the crazed Skinrenders. Even the canyon no longer existed as a canyon. Flat ground stretched beyond Crea.
"Not . . . again.’"
Chapter 2:
Red Mana
“Is the thought of existence what drives us mad?” I couldn’t think of anything else, as my roommate continued to speak of morals, fear and human things as though it was a trivial matter that could be simply solved by discussing it.
Sharp disgusting teeth chewed his meal intensively next to me – Ib must have been hungry. Feeding my Alma hasn’t been too much trouble, I mean they don’t eat human food (thank goodness >< my food bill is high enough) but he likes to pull energy from my connection to his plane. Basically imagine a stream of red wispy light being pulled by his grubby goblin hands out of my control card and my mind.
Back to the conversation, “Yes, in some ways because we must think about death in one point or another in our lives. And death can be a scary thought,” Blake paced the room – coffee cup in hand. My own cup was currently empty, due to the extensive binge drinking and support for my caffeine levels. (Connecting to a magic plane is hard work T.T)
"But, you cannot generalize that every human to have the same thoughts about death, which concludes that existence can only drive those who do mad," Ty argues back - himself sitting at our tall magic/coffee table, behind a computer screen and an uneven pile of books.
"How can we make a statement based off one word that each of us could have a different meaning to?" I respond quickly, as Blake was trying to find every possible way to concur or negate Ty's reasoning. Mornings, nights, meals, games, almost every chance they get Ty and Blake love to pursue intellect arguments and broaden their logic by going back and forth. I do say I enjoy most of these conversations, however some could become quite long and encircling and what I refer to as useless bidding of each other's time. This, was definitely one of them.
I care not to recognize logic as a natural reflex to all things in life, rather my thing is to be emotional, characteristically hotheaded and with a touch of understanding. These personality traits are recognizable in the magic world as red energy, and a small figment of green energy; though most of the time my friends will claim me as mono red.
Ib HalfHeart, Goblin Tactician is my Alma. He's become my pokemon, my pet, my companion, my close friend that never leaves my side and a burden at times. He's a goblin, obviously, that's the same height as my waist line - about 3 feet off the ground. (making me short as well, 5'4" to be exact T.T) The largest part of his body has to be his head, mouth taking up 85% of it too. What makes him different from other goblins is that he has a natural tendency to be an insufferable leader. Thus, whenever he comes up with one of his bright ideas, he must commence to pursue it; like a time where he had led a mission to mine for pork. (He dragged Cru and blue man with him and they came back with his head and legs in a ball tied with blue magic)
The two other Almas are also present in the room, who is Ty’s Mirran Crusader, nicknamed Cru and Blake’s Shadowmage Infiltrator. We haven’t given him a proper nickname; we usually refer to him as Blue-man or that guy.
Cru can be described as a tall human knight, clad in rich gold armor, face of brutality - eyes sunken from battle and white hair aged with time. Though his skin is young and well kept, the Alma's age is much older than all three of us earthly humans combined. He carries a dual handed curved blade, that essentially negates the use of black or green spells upon him.
Now Blue-man is a naturally evil wizard, however he doesn't care to disrupt others lives or cause a drastic big evil event. Instead, he prefers the simple life of self-gain and modesty with a slight evil grin. Blue-man is overall allot smaller than Cru and his short hair is black as cold coals. He is garbed heavily in a whit-washed blue wizard cloak and his coiled scepter appears bronze-crafted.
At the moment Cru is pretending to read a Dresden book of Ty’s, but he’s actually intently watching Blue-man, their colors don’t mix very well. Anyways mesa finishing up my bowl of oatmeal, compliments to Blake for making me breakfast every morning!
I glance down at my phone and it’s about time to go to school; excuse me for a moment, need to rush my roommates out of the house.
- - - - - - -
While I am riding shotgun, I guess I can give a brief explanation to what I meant earlier about Cru and Blue-man’s colors not mixing. Within the magic realm, as every magic player should know – there are five colors of magic/energy/mana.
These colors are suggested as: Red, Green, White, Blue and Black; if you follow this list respectively and create a 5 point star you will see that some colors are much closer than others. Cru’s energy is from a white mana source, he is clearly almost opposite of Blue-man’s energy which is a mix between black and blue.
Though it may be negotiable, most Almas derived from magic lead personalities, principles and lives that are very much related to their dominate energy source; specifically white being about law, order and structure vs. a blue black perception of knowledge, manipulation and self-gain.
The only thing keeping Cru and Blue-man from killing each other is the relationship their masters have. I’d like to continue this conversation however we have just arrived at school, and I’m excited to see my club mates again!
- - - - - - -
"Oh! Cute girl! Cute girl over there!" I hide my red cheeks as I try to discreetly point at a shorter, pink long hair girl. Ty grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me away, "If you can't go guy hunting, then you certainly can't go girl hunting." (Ugh T.T But girls are much much much prettier and cuter to look at and have BOOBS!)
Anyways, after being pulled away deliberately we walked into the dining portion of the cafeteria at our school. As usual the early birds are seated at the closest round table - playing card games. I'd like to take a second to show you what its like to have Almas with us at all times, noting their presence cannot be sensed by non-believers. (SHUN the non-believers!)
To start the line-up from the left of the cafeteria, we have a bald blue female Alma, known as Josh W's Guildmage. She is a white blue mana creature garbed in a cream colored leather revealing outfit; her staff carries a cylinder of blue lightning magic. Currently she is standing arms crossed behind her master, watching the games play out.
Next we have an Elvish Piper, a female elegant blonde elf with long golden curls and wears only a robe of red. She likes to prance and dance when she walks on her bare feet. This Alma belongs to our Dennis and her mana color is abundant green. As usual she's resting on the floor next to Dennis, practicing her flute. The only trait I've seen her show is timidness.
The largest of the Almas currently in the cafeteria is Coral Trickster - Nick's lovely Merfolk. Describe her otherwise and she'll give you spite and a half. Merfolk are fish like people, like mermaids but more fins and fish features than human. Coral's tail is curled up beneath her, very loosely as she likes to spread out and have earthly humans walk through her phasing image. I'm not sure if Almas can feel that or its just an unusual tickle of some sort - but I haven't bothered to ask. Her upper portion is poised perfectly to be much taller than Adam's Alma - they are currently caught up in a deep conflicting conversation; her mouth tendrils flaring as she's spitting out words that doesn't sound English.
Lastly the current closest Alma to myself is Adam's Shepard of Rot - a very disgusting distinguished zombie. Today Rot is wearing a unique flavor of clothing - reds, browns and greens seeing fit tightly around his green luster. I try to avoid this Alma at all times, he's just a bit weird for me with his perfectly scientifically evil looking white hair style as though he's stuck in the early 80's. His eyes shift from right to left periodically as though he has a stimulant problem, and his tone of voice is scraggy and high pitched. Rot's argument with Coral seemed as though he really didn't care how dominant she was trying to be and his ignorance just had her anger grow more so.
"Mesa back!" I boast my arms up in the air as they turned to look at us and I'm feeling quite good about their welcome. Then they noted Ib chewing on his fingers next to me and sighed with a knowing look of disaster to come. Blue-man casually walks by Ib and swatted him on the head with his staff and approached Guildmage starting a much higher intellectual conversation of their own. Ib clamped his helmet dumbfounded and growled, 'Stupid wizard needs watch feet.'
My roommates and I take up the next round table nearest to the occupied one and take hasty observations of the new school environment. It feels the same, as its the same place, but there's a ton of earthly humans that we haven't seen before. There are no new Almas either to be recognized.
"I bet Amadeus is hiding in the president suit at the moment, taking in the glory," Ty chuckled a little nodding towards the back of the cafeteria. Maybe he envied only being the treasurer this year? Hearing this, Dennis turned around in his seat, knocking little Piper's pipe out of her hands, "I'm sorry! And Amadeus actually is working in the book store right now. He got a job with Joe."
Promptly responding to Piper's dilemma, Cru bent down and picked up her pipe, pretended to wipe it off and handed it to her respectfully. Mouth open wide, Dennis smiled and thanked Cru responding with, "See, Almas can like each other, and they can date!"
"No Dennis, magic creatures with real life bodies can't mingle and mate to create more creatures," Nick interjected. "Shortly put, Almas can have sex. Didn't we state this before?" Adam's shortness had me laughing loudly. (Oh why do the conversations always end up like this?) I'm sure because hearing our conversation had caused Cru to slowly turn away hiding his magenta kissed cheeks.
No matter how we look odd speaking and interacting with our Almas, we just can't help it sometimes. They are like pets, best friends and comrades that have unique personalities and can interact with us and each other. Seems like allot of fun right? Seems like we have it nice, living the perfect anime story and going about our days like we are the most perfect club ever; but we don't in reality.
Right now is one of those times where we can sit, relax and talk to each other casually. I just love these moments, but recently they've become far and few within our real magic connected lives. We are always worried, no matter how calm we look, or happy we seem. Well, I am always worried particularly. What of? Our connection, that's what. Our connection to the magic world.
Mine . . . unfortunately is very weak. I hardly understand what Ib says, and he can never seem to tell me about where he is from. Asking Cru and Blue-man or any of the other Almas never seems to work - they just tell me they've never seen his kind before. Goblins can't be that rare, I mean Ib on some accounts have summoned one or two little hand sized goblins before. They were alive and kicking, talking, brawling and simply amusing my Alma. However, they dispersed shortly after he summoned them.
Everything is such a mystery. I hear stories of great mages who can cast spells from cards just like our own, and their Almas can also cast spells of immense power. Quiet Joe has mentioned once or twice that its the connection that gives them their powers. Our officers also have taken many attempts to shut themselves in the clubhouse, on the magic plane Zero, to converse the possibilities and to test our prowess in the magic realm.
Remember how Ty nodded towards the back of the cafeteria? That's the doorway to Zero - the only plane in the magic realm we've ever been able to physically traverse in. I've only been to Zero once, and that was to receive my control card from the previous president, Mytee. She's moved on from the school, not sure doing what, but she was an outstanding leader and we miss her a bunch.
Zero was cold; it was gloomy and the few tall windows only showed shadows and heavy rain clouds. I hated it. The place made my skin crawl with gibbers; I felt an ominous presence there and I refused to linger much after I was introduced to magic and the club. I'm not sure why we call it Zero, but I'm sure its a fitting name to the only glimpse I saw of it.
Back to the cafeteria, with a few minutes pass, I take notice that my roommate is being slightly hermit like. "Blake, whats got you?" I ask him nicely, he seems to appreciate the thought that I do.
"Um, I don't know, just nervous I suppose." I can see his hands grab for his upper arms, tightening in a terrified grip. Though his face stood still like a perfect robotic sculpture.
"Nervous, about what?"
He intently licked his lips, trying to find the most specific answer to my question. "Well, I'm going through the ritual today and I thought about all the possibilities it might go wrong."
The ritual. A process which only the officers know in depth of; I haven't been through it yet.
"You shouldn't think negatively about it. Maybe you'll come back to us as a happy bunny?" Kidding as usual, but the idealism still shook me. The ritual. It sounds like a drawn gotchic star on the ground and people huddling over each other.
My attempt had Blake smiled a bit, "Yes, a happy bunny that will hop around and shout things like: Eat my carrot!"
Inclusion
Nothingness; absolute darkness and absolute light. Crea tried to reach out in front of her; she sees that there is no arm to reach out with.
“What . . . where am I?”
She is conscious; she is aware that she exists. But Crea fears that everything else doesn’t. Nothingness; absolute darkness and absolute light.
“Hello?” She tried to speak. She can’t feel her lips move. Her thoughts are speaking. No one hears her.
She has no answer for such a phenomenon.
“AHHH!” Pain devoured where she thought her forehead was. It penetrated like an inverted action of a nail driving through her skull and into her brain. Simply put – she felt her brain consuming her crimpling skull.
“Cki…it…cha.” Something called to her, called her name and pulled her desperately away from the unknown agony.
Appropriate dim light flooded her eyes and she blinked a few times. She curled up quickly from cold sensations in her lower body where the savage rag no longer blanketed her.
A faded blue thin hand reached for her.
“Go away!” Crea demanded; aught her fears to be left alone?
The figure dispersed into the same color dust as the ground she laid upon.
She reached up and touched her forehead, “The hole must be filled. The opening must be closed. It hurts me. . .” A tear found its way out of her right eye and dripped soundlessly onto her white skin.
Chapter 3
Red Mana II
“Slow down Ib! I can’t keep up with your little goblin legs!” The burn in my lungs stung like a painful heartbeat as I came to a halt on the dirt track. Cold stone fragments drew the heat from my bare feet as I bent down to catch my breath.
His goblin nose poked into my fuzzy view, “Master must be faster! Shock will hurt Master!” Grubby, mud caked fingers grabbed my face and turned it to look behind me. My friends, my allies were all trudging along at a slower, even pace around the last bend of the gloomy wrought road. However, out from behind them came red lighting urging the slowest to move faster – or they’d feel the shock of a lightning bolt.
“Whose crazy idea was this?!” Shouted Kayla, another beginner like myself; and rubbed her behind as she felt a hot tingling sensation. It hurt to laugh at my friend’s clumsiness, and I had Ib help me up just as the slower group joined me.
“Speed is not everything young one,” Ms. Guildmage strode in time with myself. Her clothes seemed like weightless porcelain feathers gently following her long blue legs and her companion kept his red puffed cheeks eyed on the ground ahead.
“If you run fast Milly, you’ll run out of stamina quick! That bolt will get you and you’ll be sorry!” His heavy breathing between words had me sympathize with the larger bulk of his cushy self; maybe this exercise shouldn’t be mandatory?
A cold moist wind washed our beaten faces and whistled between the Twin Peaks to our west. Though most of the rock beneath our feet is red or black clay that have apparent sediments from the long past volcanos, the ferocious wind picks up slate grey pebbles, sand and stone and drags temporary memoirs into our own peak. The running track hugs, in an ascending circle, around the mid floor of our clubhouse, where the building is lodged into the tier and the ground escalates in a spiraling twist around the middle column of our steel mantled tower. The track runs up the spiral all the way to the top and twists back down on the opposite adjoined peak (it was too small/thin to build more clubhouses onto.)
This trudge is a scary one, where we could fall off for any stupid mistake but our officers and fellow Almae were smart and built tall fences of metal and stone with small windows and a cake topper of a lighthouse on the topmost of the spiral. Two large light bulbs rotated at the highest of our main tower, feeding light into the constant cloudy sky.
My little short legs wouldn’t stop screaming as the slope increased, but fear for the lightning drove me to push harder up that hill. A clad doorway came into my view, mostly ajar inwards and someone stood under its arc. He was a black tall figure, with gentle eyes concealed by a pair of dark shades.
No matter the awkwardness of the figure, Cru urged forward in the lead – pushing his dearly companion to strive stronger in a passionate race.
None of us realized why Deon just stood there and watched us go by until it was too late. A gasp from the white knight had us all hurdling back down the slope and ending up in one big heap on the second lowest ledge. Even though my head had smashed into a hard, pointy rock – I could hear laughter above the screams of my brethren.
“Deon! You bastard!” My fellow redhead, Kayla spat as she adjusted herself; her Alma, Gul Draaz, landed gracefully after back flipping over my somewhat hand standing goblin. The vampire, unreasonably, picked up Ib by his large toe and tossed him like a football towards the snickering Deon. An icy wall lifted from the ground shielding its master.
“Ib!” I shouted and outstretched my hands as Ib ricocheted off the wall and tumbled backwards into my arms, "Kayla control your girl!" I caught him but the unintentional force pushed me onto my back.
Kayla responded in surprise, “I can’t control her! She’s too controlling herself!”
Her vampire Alma grinned with pleasure as she stood over the mess with arms contently crossed, blades arched perfectly like a feeling of Vampiric grim despise for goblins.
Next to me Tyler came to, Cru looming over him with care. “Master, pain. Ok?” The white knight only knew a few words of English. Our treasurer shook his red cheeks, pounded his fists into the earth and shouted, “Everyone up! The bolts are coming back!” Our assigned leader was right; redness cackled up the fences – reaching out with its whips towards us.
A pair of strong hands heaved me onto my feet and pushed me to go, “Come on!” Max followed after me - his merfolk painfully resisting the burning sensation of its fishy hind fin tails.
I’m not sure if Deon was feeling guilty for his deed done, but he recalled his wall of frost to his finger and allowed us to hastily crowd into the doorway as the redness rushed by, “Sheeink!”
If myself and I were any closer to the outside of the arc, I would have felt a rush of pain . . . Thank goodness we were saved but by god that was close! Somehow I knew Ib agreed with me for his body shook with fear in my arms; the poor thing.
“Yeah I’m sorry guys, but I couldn’t help but to laugh,” Deon hid his face with a large hand.
“Aish!” Josh pretended to back hand his lowly member and Deon flinched with teasing fear.
Of course the doorway’s arc wasn’t big enough to crowd both us humans and our Almae so we pushed ourselves into the safety of our clubhouse where our club president was standing, tapping his foot repeatedly. The room could be described as an Irish cellar filled with round barrels, a table in the middle and an antique touch to it. Behind Amadeus, there stood our only escape from his annoyed glare.
“Well, gentlemen….” Amadeus looked over Kayla and I, “…and ladies. Who said you were to stop your training?”
“We almost died THERE!” Tyler held his thick manly arms around his abdomen, regaining his lost breath as he painfully watched Amadeus’ calm reaction to their distress. I kind of shrank back behind the guy to shield myself from Amadeus’ view . . .
“Well hold on now, as a fellow officer,” Josh jumped between his commander and the treasurer, “I gave the order for us to stop. We were unreasonably near death and I had to take action. Now silence eyebrows!”
I could not help but notice the leader’s ginormous eyebrows pinched together at the top of his nose as he spoke, “Near death? All you guys did was run away from little sprays of Shock . . . and no good sir! You cannot silence the eyebrows!”
“Sh…..ock? You mean tiny lightning bolts? Those were not tiny lightning bolts!” Kayla rubbed her numb buttocks.
“Wait…” Our leader put up a finger, “either you guys are exaggerating or our good friend Jessie has been sending lightning bolts instead of shocks up the spire . . .”
I could feel a simultaneous jaw drop amongst us. Jessie? No wonder . . . but why? Lightning bolts can severely injure us; he couldn’t have betrayed his orders. Maybe he just derped. Hopefully he derped hard. Otherwise I’m going to have to have more than just a word with him.
Amadeus’s Alma, Tel-Jilad Archer, bent over and whispered in his ear; our leader’s eyes narrowed with a slight glare not particularly at anyone in the room. “I understand, thank you.”
Uncomfortable with the look, Josh placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder, “What’s the problem boss?”
He stayed quiet for a moment – eyes staring oddly at nothing. Bewilderment? No, it had to be more serious than that, more of a negative thought to it. His lines grew dense on his forehead, and my own grew with worry.
Tyler, as usual, stepped closer to Amadeus and offered his support “Is there anything we can help with man?”
Amadeus’ face lit up with an excited expression; eyebrows almost jumping off his face. “Gentlemen,” nodding again towards Kayla and I, “Ladies, I must leave this matter for a later time. If you see Jessie tell him I’d like to see him in my office. And don’t forget,” his nimble arms swung in an upward motion, “FLIP!”
ARGH! “Let me at him!” I shouted with all my might and charged after our leader’s fleeing flight. My anger didn’t get me far for Josh, Ty and Cru intervened in my assault. “Move you idiots! He will taste my revenge!” My thoughts flared at Amadeus’ constant immaturity quirks that had everyone follow in unison.
Arms crossed, faces perched on a perfect awning angle - my officers grinned. I hated that my smallness of a body couldn’t get me far … it’s not fair you know? Bah, it’s just a joke to have me angry; a joke that works very well at its task. Darn you Amadeus!
In unison the men in the room followed suit after Amadeus’ quirk, “FLIP!” Their Almae shook their heads except for mine, who was flipping his arms up and down in a very clown like manner. I wanted to smack him so hard that his goblin self would go flying and crash into each of the faces in Amadeus’ wake of annoyance.
“Milly calm down, we all know he’s just joking. By the way, I wonder what the oversized elf told him.” Josh rubbed two filthy fingers into his shortcoming of a beard.
News that Jessie was being controlled, I hoped. Or Sparky decided to be an ignorant fool again. Whichever would have been better than the thought of a close friend betraying me; sorry I meant us.
I’ve known Jessie for a long time, even dated the guy at one point. But that’s just ancient history. He’s a good guy most of the time. Though he can seem like a jerk allot, he does it for what seems to be all the right reasons. He’s told me once that he wanted people to realize the reality of things, but still enjoy life through all of the hardships it brings. But his everyday self is a diehard fool wearing an unfashionable jester hat.
His Alma, old man Sparky encourages it even more so; Sparky the Cunning Sparkmage of course!
Chapter 4
White Mana II
The lightning bolts hurt, that’s all I can say. I was hit by them once or twice on the uphill race. Jessie was supposed to make them soft little shocks. He also hasn’t come back since the incident. I’m a little bit worried.
After a few hours I decided to go and find him, taking a few people with me. Just outside the clubhouse, the plane is beautiful, levitating spires of earth all around, with a large continent below them. The clubhouse is on one of these spires, floating, with a nice view of the ground below. With the blue sky and some higher clouds around in all directions. The air was a bit thin up here but I think we had all already gotten used to it.
Though it was beautiful, it was also terrifying. One of my greatest fears is falling, and the clubhouse exists above the beautiful white clouds. Well they’re white from up here, down on the ground it’s always raining and storming.
Ben, Dennis, Leelee, Jordan, Keith, and Cassie all joined me to search for Jessie. To get down there is a series of rickety rope bridges. None of them have ever broke, not even when a two ton beast walked on them once. I trust them, apparently with my life since I’m risking it being on them. After about ten minutes we were on the lower end of the spire where Jessie is supposed to be. He wasn’t there. Instead there were signs of a struggle, torn up grass and recently shattered rocks. Crap. Jessie what happened to you?
“Wow, what happened here?” Dennis asked.
“Not sure,” said Keith. “It looks like there was a fight.” Jordan pointed out a piece of scorched earth, it looked like the places where sparky had bolted a missed before.
“Definitely a fight.” Said Jordan.
“I hope Jessie is ok!” Exclaimed Leelee, and Cassie agreed. Ben had been awkwardly quiet this whole time.
“You can tell whatever was up here it was fairly heavy.” I said. “It looks like the tracks are pretty easy to follow, I’m not an expert on these things but if we all keep our eyes opened we should be able to follow them.
“Should I go back and get some more help?” Cassie asked. I gave it some thought, it seemed the group was looking at me to answer the question. I did.
“I think there are enough of us, it would take even longer to wait for reinforcements, now that we know Jessie is in danger we should hurry.” I stated.
A couple of people nodded and we started making our way down the spires. At one point it became really foggy as we descended into the cloud-line. Another bridge later it became really dark as the clouds were above us now. I didn’t realize it was storming this heavily. The tracks were becoming increasingly harder to follow and mud was sloshing beneath us. Above us lightning struck. Never really hitting the spires though, lucky us.
Most of us used our magic in some form to create lights. Jordan and Ben both held similar fireballs in their hands, though Ben’s was a bright red, and Jordans a dark grey.. Leelee’s form began to radiate and glow like a large lantern. Dennis’s eyes glowed and I assumed he could now see in dim places. Some of our alma’s produced light as well. Especially Ben’s Kiln Feind and Cru, who brought up his own light.
After an hour the tracks were barely discernable. The mud getting a bit less sticky as the ground became less topsoil. Overall, the tracks moved in a straight line so that’s the way we continued. Lightning cracked and I think it hit a tree off in the distance. There was a bit of a warm glow now coming from that direction.
“I haven’t seen any tracks for a while!” Jordan exclaimed. “Are you sure we’re even going the right way?”
“No I’m no....” I began, before being interrupted by a loud road from almost directly in front of me.
From our tiny dim lights, we could see what appeared to be the shape of a large jaw. There were teeth, black and blood-stained teeth, each bigger than my head. The enormous creature lowered it’s jaw again for another roar. I didn’t just hear it. I felt it. The vibrations, and the way it’s voice pushed my being back. I could smell it’s breath. Something like the smell of death, like an entire animal was still stuck in between it’s teeth.
The creature raised it’s head and shook it, pouring waterpark amounts of water on us, extinguishing some of our fires. I couldn’t see the creature anymore. Not until lightning came down and struck the great horn on the tip of its nose. The lightning even seemed small compared to this creature. Which now towered over us, larger that our clubhouse.
The creature’s horn glowed with heat as it bent it’s head down to look at us again. It was going to attack, the question is, what the heck were we going to do about it?
Keith exclaimed behind me, yelling to the group. “MOVE!”
We did, as quickly as we could, most of us scattering to our each chosen direction. We have to fight back. “Keith! Jordan! Take, Leelee, and Cassie, Move around the back and take out the creatures heels!” I exclaimed.
“What?” I heard back. I’m not sure if I was even ready to fight either. While we have had a lot of practice fighting each other with our spells, and even some of our summoned creatures, this was a whole new level. Still, there is no running from something this big.
“Just give it your best shot! I’ll distract him! Ben, Dennis you’re with me!” I exclaimed some more.
“Got it!” Ben and Dennis said. I saw the other guys take off somewhere,. I was hoping for the best. My plan was a lot like that that schoolyard prank where one kid gets on his hands and knees behind another kid who is pushed over and falls hard.
“Dennis, tangle up the creatures legs. Keep it in place!” I said. “Ben, Charge up your Mana, you’re going to be piccolo today!”
“What?” Ban asked. I think he missed what I meant.
“I mean charge up your mana, casts a lot of spells on your kiln fiend. Punp him up and tackle that creature on my command ok?”
“Got it! Piccolo!”
“Dennis, while tangling the creature, go find the others and tell them to move when my light goes out!”
Dennis took off, running faster than I expected.
My heart was pounding, racing even. Now for my part. I had been building up a lot of mana while giving orders. I was waiting for this.
I spent my mana, almost all of it. I focused it on the palm of my hand and looked at the creature. I hope he’s ready for this.
“Solar Flare!” I exclaimed as a shown a stupidly bright light at the creatures face, at it’s eyes. The creature roared, painfully loud. I kept the light shining on it though. It tried to lift his legs, but Dennis had done a great job binding it’s legs down, and it couldn’t move. Ben charged up more and more.
“Ben, don’t forget to make your kiln fiend indestructible!” I said
“Of course!” Ben said as focused on building his mana.
I see two bright flashes come from behind the struggling creature. It roared loudly, with obvious pain and sunk a little, trying to keeps it’s legs up. The two bright flashes happen again, and then a third time. The creature looked like it was going to drop.
“Ben! On three hit it!” I said. “One!” I began, the creature leaned down it’s massive jaws to bite me, but Cru shoved his axe in the way and somehow managed to stop the creature. “Two!” The creature shook its head savagely back and forth it’s legs seemed to be freeing from it’s binds. If it escapes or if Ben misses, we’re all in the deep end. “Three!” I exclaimed.
At three I let go of the Mana holding my bright light spell and it goes dark. I heard someone yell “Move!” again, and I assumed it was Keith telling the other guys it was time to go. Ben’s kiln fiend jumped at the creature and several surges of mana exploded from Ben into the fiend. The fiend grew in size and brightness as colors of red and green mana empowered it.
The collision from the kiln fiend and the great beast created a roar of thunder that sounded something like lightning missing you only by a few feet. The large creature went down, hard, shaking the earth with it’s fall. When it hit the ground you could hear the cracking of it’s bones as it’s heavy mass destroyed the parts that held it together. Before it even had completely stopped falling it was already dead.
Ben looked absolutely exausted, the rain continued pouring, as if it had no care for our little victory, and everyone else made their way back to us. I walked over to ben. “Hey you ok man?” I asked.
“Yea, but wow I can’t believe that worked.” He said.
“It was all you dude,” I replied. “Your creature was the only one that could be big enough under normal circumstances to take it out.”
“Is everyone alright” I hear Jordan call to us.
“Yea, we’re good.” Ben said. “How about you guys?”
“We’re all good over here.” Leelee replied.
“I can’t believe we just did that!” Dennis exclaimed.
“I know right!?” Cassie followed.
I smiled, as we all danced over our victory, tired as we were it was a big stepping point for all of us. It was probably mostly luck, but everyone did amazingly. My mood was only broken when Jordan walked over to me with a bit of a somber look on his face.
“Ty, we can’t find Jessie like this, we need to go back and get the others, maybe one of the guys who have some divination, or other form of seeing can find him. We can’t from here though.” He said. His face looking down. I knew he was right. With sadness beating down on our group, we trudge back to the clubhouse. I let out a small prayer for Jessie. I hope he’s alright.