Korin
Korin was finally getting somewhat used to the constant fighting when the creature arrived. One after another, he killed beasts left and right, his muscles ached and his stomach growled in hunger. Yet he fought. Right up until the world froze.
Yes, it froze. Perhaps it looked different from the sky, but on the ground it seemed as if the world had frozen. Icicles littered the trees and the ground was suddenly slippery ice. Every man and beast was shivering as they felt the heat being pulled from their bodies, helpless against the invasive force.
And then the attack came. The wait had felt like both an eternity and a time too short. For they all knew, something was coming. Something they would not like. Something that might kill them. And then it came.
In a burst of yellow, it threw Korin off his frozen feet, melted the soles off them and burned his face. And yet he survived. Others were not as lucky. All around him his men lay dead. None seemed to have survived. One thing was clear, the army was dead.
Korin turned his eyes upwards, to see what or who it was that had wrecked such destruction. And there, flying on its disgusting wings was a repellent creature. As Korin looked on, the creature seemed to look him in the eye. Stare at him for a second before turning to the only other floating predator around. The Prince.
----------------------------------------
Alforien.
I was meditating when the creature decided to make its presence known. A normal person would merely see it making a ball of fire. I on the other hand had the distinct displeasure of seeing the working behind it. And I did not like what I was seeing.
The working was not simple or primitive. It was complex and organised. Clearly made by an experienced mind. AN experienced mind that was here to kill me. Worse, the amount of mana the spell used was more than I had in my mana pool when it was full. And something told me the creature had yet to spend all of its mana.
Time to cast some defences. Hmm…maybe an ice shield that relies on- Suddenly a large burst of light appeared in my sight as the ball splashed downward. Yes, splashed. It was as if someone had thrown a ball in the lake and the ball had turned into the water that splashed outward.
Less than 70 men had survived the battle before this. Most if not all of them were now dead. Deader than dead. There were not even bodies left. The army was gone. And so were the beasts. The creature had killed them all. And now it was going to kill me.
I quickly summoned all the Fire I could in a dome to cover me as a wave of red passed around me. It crashed into the dome with a massive oomph, exploding into a mass of fire that splattered down below. But it thankfully didn’t fall on me.
Anticipating another attack I summoned yet another shield while also preparing an attack with Space. I would get only one chance at this and I had to take it. Wave after wave came up, one every second. I and the creature spent mana in prodigious amounts.At least prodigious for me.
For some reason I suspected that the creature had different measures for prodigiousness. And so the battle continued. At one point I even started to try to dodge it. Less mana spent even if it was more risky then hiding behind a shield.
Fire Shield, Fire shield, dodge, I and the creature fell into a rhythm as we danced a deadly dance. And all this while, not even two minutes had passed. Belatedly, I realised that I was passively pulling on my limited Time affinity to alter my perception of time and allow me to react.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
As I danced, I thought about how the creature clearly had a type, a species. It was too good at magic to be the first of its kind and too weak to be old enough to have advanced enough to be able to counter me.
It was clearly a fire affinity. But what creature? It was reptilian…a dragon? No. No dragon would disgrace itself and be so ugly. It was some kind of mutation…a Chimera? That was pretty much the broad term for creatures like this that couldn't be classified.
A Chimera then. One that was irritating to deal with. Time to dance some more before I could hopefully kill it with my counterattack. I was pretty much dead if I couldn’t.
----------------------------------------
Arlun
Arlun looked at the exchange between the Prince and the creature in shock. It was a marvellous scene. Fire spread across the sky, seemingly wanting to annihilate space itself. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
By instinct, Arlun knew that even if he somehow gathered the courage to interfere, he would die within seconds. No, it would be within a second. Because the waves of fire were spreading out too fast for him to even get close.
It was a better decision for him to concentrate on the army below. There were likely people that needed healing. Arlun gestured to Carmil to follow him down, keeping clear of the battle in the skies.
Down below, Arlun found the battlefield littered with bodies. Scrambled limbs, blood and insides abounded. It was not a sight for the weak willed. Arlun summoned his mana, sending it in search of survivors so he would know where to go.
A second…ten…twenty…twenty five and yet no answer, the mana should have scanned most of the battlefield by now. What had happened? Thirty…forty…fifty…finally just short of a minute, Arlun detected a life. I was Korin, one of the commanders. At least he should know where everyone was.
Gesturing to Carmil to remain, he went in search of Korin. It took a few minutes but he did find Korin finally, sitting on a boulder looking exhausted but otherwise okay.
“Commander Korin, where are the injured?” Arlun asked
Korin strangely enough, started laughing, it was a hollow sad laugh that lacked any life. “Injured my dear mage? You are asking me where the injured are? Then rejoice! There are none! The army came out uninjured! BECAUSE THEY ARE DEAD! YES DEAD! EVERYONE BUT ME IS DEAD!” Korin replied, practically shouting by the end.
Arlun suddenly looked around, noting the amount of bodies that he had somehow been ignoring. Dead. All of his fellow soldiers were dead. Now he was once more alone.
----------------------------------------
Alforien
Finally, the spell was ready. Just as I was starting to run out of mana I had the spell ready. Now to use it. When the next wave hit, I angled myself such that it avoided me and blinded the Chimera to what was coming.
Then I shot it out. A large bolt of space came forward heading straight for the Chimera. The Chimera’s maybe head stared at it for a second seemingly shocked at its existence and then it let out some kind of strange blue smoke from its body.
The smoke spread out, at first to my happiness doing nothing, but I was happy too early, for as I watched in horror, the bolt deviated slightly, the blue gas somehow even making the auto target system that was built in be ineffective.
And then the bolt performed its function, it split the space in the already damaged illusory realm, going to some sort of strange tall building. The bolt caused the building to crumble, pulling what seemed like a woman with it as it once again split space and headed into another world.
But that did nothing for me as the Chimera turned towards me, smoke coming out from its nostrils as it began to cast the wave of fire that would kill me. No, it wasn;t a wave, it was a ball I noted as the temperature dropped again.
It was a massive ball of fire that was heading right towards me as I rapidly descended in an attempt to hide. With what little was left of my senses, I could hear Arlun scream
“Noooooooooooooo!”