Summoner School 7: A Reverse Portal Fantasy, page 20
“Where are the shadow creatures?” I asked as I looked around the battlefield.
Bane bounded across my path with an ogre in his mouth that he shook like a ragdoll, and the green-skinned creature let out one last angry shout before the banehound snapped him in two. It was hard not to watch the moose-sized creature as he ran around Sarya and I to pick off anyone that dared to get too close, but there hadn’t been one shadow creature on the battlefield yet, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Jason had held them back intentionally.
“I haven’t seen any yet,” Mike panted. “But we all have light bombs when they--”
Mike’s words were cut-off as a cloud of black burst out of the main building like something out of a horror movie. A steady stream of shadow creatures lifted into the air to branch out above us like a deadly dome. There were so many of the mana-stealing monsters that I couldn’t tell them apart, and every muscle in my body tensed as they started to swoop down and pick off our soldiers.
“Release the light bombs!” I shouted and grabbed my bag.
The cloud of shadow creatures blocked out the sunlight to cast the entire battlefield in darkness as black as midnight, and a few of the nymphs screamed as Jason’s favorite monsters began to consume mana without targeting anyone specifically. If the fire mage was willing to attack his own allies, then there would be nothing to stop him from killing every one of our people. There were too many of the mana-stealing creatures to fight all at once, but the gnomes shot a few of the light bringer shotgun shells into the sky to create mini suns.
I looked down in time so that I wasn’t blinded, and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of another battalion of ogres and elves that poured out of newly opened portals. We were completely outnumbered as more and more soldiers joined the fray, and the shadow creatures had started to attack the gnomes before they could release any more of the light. I reached into my pocket for the dragon scale that Lord Paranth had given me.
One of the shadow creatures spun toward me as if it could feel the magic that pulsed through the black scale, and Bane raced between us to take the direct hit. My banehound released his fear spell so that the mana-stealing monster would pause for a second, but it wasn’t enough, and soon my moose-sized pet had dissolved into dust just like Wisp had.
“Not today, you little bastard,” I said and reloaded the laser gun.
There was just enough time to load it, but not enough to aim it, so I just pointed toward the black mass of shadowy cloud and released one of the blue laser bolts. It tore through the mana-stealing monster’s shifting form to hit its tiny body, and a high-pitched screech pierced the air to join the sounds of other dying shadow creatures.
I gripped the black scale tightly and forced my own mana into it. The dragons were supposed to come as soon as they felt the magic, but seconds passed with no sign of them. I cursed under my breath and quickly reached for another light grenade as every possible scenario went through my mind at once.
Lady Ofrunbelle had made it clear that we couldn’t win this battle without the dragons, but it didn’t seem like they were coming. They’d betrayed us just like they had during the battle against Morgana, but I’d figure out a way to save us. The scaly immortals would have to pay for it after I saved the magical council, though a quick look around the valley showed that we were hopelessly outnumbered, even with the light bringer bullets from the gnomes.
“Andrew,” Sarya panted and pointed toward the horizon. “Look.”
I shot a charging ogre in the heart and then peered through the inky blackness to see a burst of flames cut through the canopy of shadow creatures. The sound of flapping wings echoed through the valley like the sound of thunder, and I shouted for joy. I grinned from ear to ear as a victory cheer went up among my soldiers and renewed energy raced through our ranks.
The dragons had finally arrived.
And we were going to win.
Chapter 14
“Hey, Mike, you there?” I asked as I turned toward the west side of the battlefield.
It was hard to see anything through the throngs of elven soldiers and ogres, but I did catch sight of the elven archers that had taken up positions higher in the valley. A volley of arrows flew into the air, but it wasn’t the dragons that they were after, and fear raced through me as I saw the attack arch down toward my best friend. The arrows were just about to strike when a blast of bright red flames turned them into nothing but ash, followed moments later by a giant black dragon that swooped overhead.
It circled around and turned to face the elven archers right as they released another volley of arrows. The sky seemed to be filled with nothing but the elfs’ arrows, and I watched as Lord Parinth took a deep breath like it was a slow-motion scene in a movie, but then time raced forward again as the dragon king scorched the traitors until there were only charred bones where they’d once stood.
“Mike?” I asked again as the headset crackled.
“I think there’s something wrong with his comm,” Stacy said.
“Mike, if you can hear me… then I want you to tell the other tree-people to fall back,” I said and looked around for higher ground.
There was an overturned hay cart nearby that I climbed on so that I could see over the ogres. A sea of tree-people moved in front of me with either branches or vines in their hands. It was as if they’d turned their own forests into clubs or whips, and one of the thorny vines tore flesh from a nearby ogre like a weed eater.
My roommate’s voice barely made it over the din, but the call to retreat finally went out, and I sighed with relief as the tree-people headed back toward Franny. The last thing that we needed was for them to be caught in the dragons’ barrage, and there were too many mages and elven archers in the west that needed to be taken out. Mike’s head was on a swivel until I waved and caught his attention, and he gave me one nod before the oak-like man took off toward the main building.
“Let’s do this!” I shouted to the others on the battlefield. “We will be the victors of the day, and when this war ends, we will be free again.”
A few of the nearby dwarves immediately lifted their weapons into the air with a victory shout, and Atlesia’s voice quickly joined the cheer through the comms. I turned around to see that everyone seemed to have renewed energy now that the dragons had arrived, and that went double for my mate. Sarya came up behind one of the elves that had pinned a tired dwarf to the ground and lit the traitor on fire with one touch of her delicate finger to his neck.
“We need to get to the main building,” I said as I hopped down from the overturned cart. “Your parents are probably inside.”
“I’m right behind you,” she said and then helped the dwarf up, leaned forward, and smiled brightly. “Kill as many as you can. Lord Nadouk will be free soon, and I’m sure that he will reward you well.”
“Yes, m’lady,” the young dwarf said and then charged into a throng of imps.
“I’m almost done with the shields,” Stacy said over the sound of Tanner shouting obscenities. “It would be easier to focus if Tanner wasn’t so loud. I can hear him over Storm’s tornado.”
“That’s because you have your listening device in,” the old warrior said. “Hey! Watch where you’re aiming that fire, you scaly lizards.”
“I’m sure that they know what they’re doing,” I said and took off in a jog toward the main building.
Lord Thanak had managed to clear a nearly straight path up to the stairs of the building, but the shield still shimmered and blocked any chance for entry. I slowed down just in time to dodge a blast from a laser gun and looked up to the patio to see a platoon of technomages. The dwarven scout leader swore under his breath about faceless morons and then ordered his men to bring shields to protect us.
Every muscle in my body ached like I’d just run a marathon, and the cuts from the seashells stung as if someone had rubbed salt in them. I glanced down at myself as the dwarves formed a barrier between us and the technomages and saw that my clothes were covered in ogre and elf blood. It stank like roadkill left out in the summer heat, and it only seemed to get worse the longer that I stood still.
“Stacy, how much longer?” I asked. “We need to get in there, and we’re kind of sitting ducks right now.”
The ground behind me shook as a silver dragon landed right in the middle of the battlefield. Lord Ravis swept his long tail outwards to knock down twenty elves with a single swipe, while a beautiful female nymph hopped down from his back to start closing the portals that Jason’s reinforcements had come through. The pair acted in perfect harmony as the dragon king worked with the other dragons to incinerate the ogres, elves, and traitorous dwarves that were still in our midst as the nymph ensured there was no escape.
Atlesia stood near one of the portals and pulled the corpse flowers back under the earth so that the dragons would be able to chomp away at the remaining enemies without danger since they didn’t have the antidote, and I couldn’t help but notice how pale her green skin had become. It wasn’t a surprise that my girlfriend would push herself so hard, but I still raced over to put an arm around her waist while Sarya cleared the way back as the soldiers tried to stop us. The flower nymph actually let me take most of her weight and then gladly downed half the mana tea that I handed her.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked as we reached the dwarven shield.
“I’ll be fine,” she said with a tired smile. “Drink the rest of this.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I laughed and then chugged the rest of the noxious tea. “Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” she winked and stood on her own. “What exactly is happening here?”
“We’re taking a lot of shots from these faceless freaks,” Lord Thanak said over his shoulder.
“The shield won’t let us through, and none of our attacks can get to them,” I said. “We’re basically just waiting for Stacy to take them down.”
“I know, I know,” the former technomage huffed. “Alright. If my theory is correct, then this should be it.”
I heard the soft click of scissors, and the shield shimmered before it collapsed like a falling veil. A happy clap came over the comms as Stacy congratulated herself, and then the small tornado dispersed to let the blonde bombshell rejoin us. I nodded in respect to the tinkerer and then flashed a smile at Storm as she landed on my shoulder and sent a picture of a maze through our bond.
“Probably,” I said. “But first things first.”
The dwarves raced forward as one while the technomages surged toward us like a tidal wave. Individual shields managed to block a few blows even from the dwarven weapons, but the laser guns shot right through them, and I raced in between my allies to take down as many of the technomages as possible. Lord Thanak and his men must’ve been tired after an entire morning of battle, but the scout leader managed to slam his warhammer into the side of a helmet so hard that it splintered and sliced his enemy’s face like a cheese grater.
I was just distracted enough that one of the technomages managed to get close enough to punch me in the ribs. The blow knocked the wind out of me, but Storm quickly dove forward to slip into the opening between the guy’s helmet and suit. I managed to hop back before the spray of blood covered me, and since there were still plenty of others to fight through, I let the wind elemental continue her rampage while I focused on the next technomage.
I fired my laser gun at the guy in front of me but missed high, and the green indicator light had turned red to show the gun was out of charge.
He puffed out his chest like the battle was already over, but that quickly disappeared when my foot came down on the technomage’s right kneecap. A muffled scream came from the helmeted soldier but it was cut off when I grabbed his head and slammed it down onto my other knee. I heard the crunch of the guy’s nose as it bounced against the inside of the face shield, and one good slap with the butt of my gun left him completely immobile.
“We don’t have time to play around with these guys,” I called out to my friends. “Lord Thanak and his men can finish them off. We need to get to the council members. And stop Jason before he has a chance to escape.”
“Do you think he’d do that?” Mike asked as the tree-man stepped forward. “If we’re right about him being Joseph, then he’s been after these spells for almost a hundred years. Do you really think that he’d leave before he got it?”
“I do,” I said and led the way inside the stone building. “He’s so close now that he’s bound to stick with it, and he’s conceited enough to think that he can still win. But be careful. I have absolutely no doubt that this place is filled with booby traps like the underground maze was, and after the dream that I had last night… there’s definitely no doubt that Jason is actually Joseph with a really good face lift, so he’s had time to perfect fire magic and illusions.”
“We’ll be safe,” Sarya said from beside me.
The inside of the building was a tight squeeze like something out of an Egyptian pyramid, so we had to walk single file as I led the way. Wall sconces lined the gray stone walls to the left and right as we came to the first choice, and I took a deep breath as I tried to figure out which way to go. There definitely wasn’t enough room for Abby to fit, though that was probably by design after the tapir-boar had helped us to get through the last maze, but the corridors were just wide enough for Bane, so I pulled the black onyx from my pocket.
“I hope you’re rested enough, buddy,” I said and poured mana into the stone.
It took a few seconds longer than usual for Bane to form, but soon the moose-sized banehound stood at the entrance to the corridor on the left. His turquoise eyes glowed enough to be our lantern if the torches went out, and the wolf ancestor sneezed like there was too much dust in the air. He leaned down to boop my shoulder with his forehead, and I reached up to scratch behind the big guy’s ears.
“Sorry to call you out so soon,” I said and then motioned for Storm to hop onto his shoulders. “But we need your nose to get through this place. Can you sniff out Jason? Or maybe Joe?”
Bane lifted his head and sniffed a few times before a picture of Joe came through our bond. I hopped onto the wolf ancestor’s back when he bent down and then motioned for the others to follow after us. The banehound raced toward the right like there weren’t any booby traps, and I held on for dear life as he skidded to a halt right in front of a stone golem.
“We don’t have time for this,” Atlesia huffed as she lifted off of the ground.
The flower nymph had bright green vines around her ankles like they were stilts, and it gave my girlfriend a direct line of sight to the golem. A vine with sharp thorns the length of my forearm shot forward to wrap around the stone creature that blocked our path, and a sickening crunch echoed down the corridor as Atlesia crushed the monster into nothing but dust. Her brown eyes glittered with power as the mana tea did its job, and she turned to me with a proud smile while I applauded her.
“Well, that was fantastic,” I said and then turned back toward the path. “Alright, Bane, let’s keep going, but keep an eye out for any traps. Storm… I want you to go ahead and look for anything that could be a pressure plate.”
The wind elemental took off down the narrow hallway and alerted me to thin slits in the wall a few feet ahead of us. They activated the second that she passed them, and flames erupted like hungry hands that wanted to consume the air monster. Storm dodged out of the way while Sarya squeezed through and called the flames to her.
The fire flew toward my mate like a moth to flame and then sank within her skin as if it was water and she was dying of thirst. Bright red glittering mana flowed around Sarya for a few seconds before it joined the flames and entered her body. It reminded me of the spell that Ira had used to borrow our mana when we opened the portal to the purgatory realm, but my questions about illegal magic could wait until after we’d freed her parents and taken Jason for good.
“That was amazing,” Mike said.
“Definitely illegal,” I said. “But amazing. Let’s keep going.”
Atlesia and Sarya fell back again as Storm led the way, and I looked to the left and right as we reached another turning point. Bane didn’t seem to have a problem finding Joe’s scent, but that just meant that we were definitely about to walk into a trap. At least the girls and Mike were behind me, and I rummaged through my backpack until I found an extra laser gun.
“There’s a technomage trap up ahead,” Stacy said as silence fell on our group. “I’m getting some really nasty readings, but the magic in this place is interfering, so I can’t tell you exactly what it is, just that it’s using a lot of energy. They probably have one of my super-powered battery packs.”
“We’ll keep an eye out,” I said and patted Bane on the shoulder with my free hand.
A blue shimmer grabbed my attention as we turned to the right again, and I pulled the banehound short just as a laser grid lit up. Bright white and blue laser beams formed thin horizontal lines that raced down the corridor, turned, and then formed diamonds that were small enough that even Storm couldn’t fit through them. I told the wind elemental to come back before the wall could hit her, and it winked out to start over again from the end of the hallway.
There was no way to get past them without being sliced into a million pieces, but Bane sent a picture of Joe through our bond, so I knew that the technomage was on the other side of the blockade. I glanced over my shoulder in the other direction, and Storm raced down the corridor to confirm that there was an acid pool, a dead end, and what looked like a caged manticore. That was definitely not an option, so that meant that I had to figure out a way to stop the laser grid.
“Can you figure out where it’s being projected from?” I asked and turned to look at Stacy.
“I can,” the blonde bombshell said as she hoisted herself onto Bane’s back. “But we won’t be able to get to it. If I know Joe and Charles, then they’d put the power box directly in the center, and that laser grid is starting to move faster through its little show.”
