“Why head toward the river and the harbor though? Why not south towards Atlanta or some other cities?” Derek asked.

“Well, we can check out how technology’s faring in this new regime, but also, if need be, a short boat ride will get us to South Carolina where we can start exploring to see if they were affected the same way.” Dalton had thought about this long and hard, if it's as widespread as he figured, staying in motion and getting stronger was his vote, but he kept this to himself for now.

As they left the thick woods, they all breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the interstate in the distance across open fields. The powerlines adjoining the road were all but annihilated, the poles had been destroyed and dead lengths of wire lay dormant all over the road. Cars were crashed in ditches and there was an overturned truck a few hundred feet down the opposite direction which had been clearly wrecked into numerous other cars.

They approached the road slowly, everyone looking every which way, Cece had drawn her bow and had an arrow knocked whilst Peyton was stealthily leading the way, jumping from shadows whenever he could, he otherwise just slowly slinked his way forward, his new black daggers in each hand.

Edgar fell to the rear, but Dalton could sense him now through his keen magic and perception abilities, his aura was a lurking presence of righteous and bottled-up anger. He could likewise sense Zeta too, but she felt earthen and focused, faint greenish wisps emanated from her staff and hands, so she must be on the cusp of conjuring a spell.

Dalton thought he should probably do the same and summoned his Jolt which he could hold at the ready indefinitely at barely any cost now that he had maxed out its skill level.

Leo brought his golden sword out and proceeded to walk out in front of him swinging the blade as if stretching his muscles and loosening his wrists, Derek was watching and began mimicking his stretch moves with his hammer, bending over comically and twisting his torso from side to side with the hammer held behind his head; all the while making excessive, over-the-top grunts and great gasps of air. Leo looked unenthused but everyone else released a nervous chuckle.

Only a few dozen feet away from the closest crashed vehicles and the side of the huge road, they heard a scattering of loud noises and caws, the sound of great flapping wings came paired with clouds of dust and dirt flung into the air obscuring their vision. The flapping was coming from amongst the cars though, multiple directions all at once, and Dalton tried to Inspect the area but was turning up short without a better visual.

“It’s a trap, This is an AMBUSH,” he could hear Peyton shouting but the dervishes of sand were increasingly getting bigger and denser, the flapping continued unabated and he began to see faint traces of yellow mana floating through gusts of air.

These looked more like Celtic knots and rounded runes rather than the usual sharp mandalas of his ice and electricity magic.

“They are using wind magic, at least one of them is a spellcaster,” Dalton managed to shout into the now howling gales, grit and detritus were flying into his nose and mouth and he had to lower himself to the ground to avoid getting blown away.

Pulling his sword, Chiyoko, from her sheath he apologized in his mind and stabbed her into the ground to brace himself, he lost all visual of everything within a foot of his face, and the caws of the terrible monster birds got louder and more exultant.

He suddenly felt weight and pressure on his back as Leo helped pin him down with his bulky mass and strength, he stabbed his blade next to Chiyoko on his far right and used both swords with his supra-Olympian strength, he easily held them steady against the small tornado that had started to form around them.

Cars began groaning and shifting slightly in the gales.

The flapping continued and the bright swirls of yellow energy and Celtic knots and swirling runes had deepened in shade and vibrancy, they grew, clearly building in strength as the magic ascended into the heavens.

Shit, their magic was stacking, the tornado was like my lightning and thunderstorm spells, they kept building upon one another’s energies. They’re doing this with air magic.

These things weren’t looking to hurt them, they weren’t trying to take them alive, they wanted them dead.

Dalton remembered the Vulture King on their way out of the city.

An instinctual ding from his inner Plan let him know he was most certainly right.

Mutant Vulture King. Uncommon Boss

Affinity: Air

This spell-wielding Boss creature feeds on carrion, and if none is prevalent, he’ll make it.

He often will have a pack of minions at his disposal anywhere from 10-15.

Wielding sharp and toxic talons with steel-like beaks and feathers, they are very dangerous.

The King will have a host of air and poison spells and skills at his disposal, he is cruel and vindictive by nature.

Weaknesses: Electricity, Stone.

Territorial carrion eaters? Check.

Mutated monsters with intelligence? Check.

Ability to cast Epic level spells and set up an ambush for seven fairly strong adventurers? Damn, Check.

Thanks to Leo, Dalton felt safe letting go of his death grip on Chiyoko, before he did, he whisper-thought:

“Please don’t hurt him, I give him permission to hold onto you, you are not being taken from me. He is helping us. Ok? I might love him a little.”

Where did that come from?

He sensed a giggle/sigh of acquiescence from the ancient spirit.

His mana was full and with Leo adequately holding him down safely, he could use his hands to summon a spell. Judging the distance from where the sounds were coming from, they had moved within range. Deciding to try out one of his new spells, he began conjuring blueish-white energies to his hands, mumbling his arcane spell under his breath trying not to inhale a rock, the winds were now howling, and mandalas and cold wisps of vapor formed around his hands and head.

His eyes burst into cyan-colored coronas.

Finishing the last words and crunching the icy energies together, he blasted his Permafrost spell forward into hopefully the center of the vulture pack.

The effect was immediate….and not great for everyone.

The cyclonic currents of air mana ceased and the power lessened noticeably, crackling cold energy was followed by swaths of ice radiating out from the epicenter of his spell. The ground froze and blew outward in a perfect circle for about 30 feet. Unfortunately for Dalton, he was pinned to the ground as a sheet of ice rushed at his head.

He lifted his arm to block his face as best as he could, only to be grabbed and flipped over like a turtle onto its back.

He could still feel the wave of cold under him but not like Leo did.

At the last nanosecond, Leo had grabbed him and flipped them both over, taking the brunt of the spell on his back while Dalton’s back was encased safely on his torso.

Leo groaned loudly but was alive, the tornado still swirled aggressively but each passing second it lost much of its velocity as it died down.

Dalton stood up on the icy ground and witnessed the effects of his spell.

Now in plain sight were a dozen vultures, with the King Vulture toward the back, still wearing his homemade Crown of Bones. They were loudly making screeching bird noises and caws, whilst the Vulture King glared in his direction, with his height he easily overlooked the cars, making eye contact, it stared at Dalton malevolently.

Looking at the pack of man-sized vultures, their wing spans must have been about seven or eight feet long, their feathers looked hard and shiny in the mid-afternoon sun. With necks that were scaled, topped by heads all crested with bony protrusions that did not exist pre-Plan, the hide looked thick and scaled, all of their beaks were massive, and hooked into wicked scythes. Dalton couldn’t see their feet from his vantage point, but he imagined they possessed sharp talons. They looked like disgusting killing machines.

He could see better without so much dust in the air and the center of his spell was triangulated between three of the vultures and they took the full force of the spell, having frozen solid into monstrous bird statues with their wings outstretched into various poses of pain and surprise.

Dalton Side Note: It really was splendid Art, almost like they were dancing with one another, frozen in a moment of time forgotten. I think deep down that Vulture King was extra pissed because he could see the beauty too.

The surrounding vultures all were in various arrays of immobility with their talons having frozen to the ground. Dalton knew he had only a few moments to think quickly.

Help Leo? Find the Party? Attack on his own?

What the shit should he do?

Edgar helped settle this by running up, luckily having been out of the spell’s Area of Effect range, having already formulated his own spell, the purple-yellowish wings of energy coalesced into his throat and he blasted out a ‘Roar’ similar to our dead, doggy friend.

Dalton could see the concussive waves corruscating with vague purple rings of vibrating sonic air shooting through the air hitting the pack of vultures within range.

The closest vulture’s head popped.

Yup. Just popped.

Bits of skull, brains and those mutated bone weapons shot outwards as the body fell to the ground.

Another vulture screeched and attempted to fly away quickly, tearing its legs from its frozen talons to only screech louder and hit the ground a few feet away.

The majority of the other vultures were ‘cawing’ frantically and trying to dislodge themselves.

Well, almost all of them.

The Vulture King was unaffected by Edgar’s Roar, and followed with a pulsating ‘Chirp’ (he knew chirp sounded silly, but he couldn't think of any better onomatopoeia for it). This spell looked similar to Edgar’s ‘Roar’ but had cascades of black in it too.

The dark violet and black spirals resonated over the other vultures and they all stopped moving and calmed down.

The pack turned their heads as one to stare at the two, tall spellcasters.

Damn. Why was it always them?

Looking over at Edgar, Edgar looked back, for the first time since having met, he looked genuinely worried.

Leo struggled against trying to stand up, his armor took the majority of the spell’s power but based on the rictus of pain on his face, his flesh was frozen to the ground too.

“Heal him. NOW!” Dalton demanded quickly and very forcefully.

“I tried already, I can’t unfreeze him. I can only heal his body and mind,” Edgar stuttered quickly with his hands up, “besides you unfreeze him, melt the ice, use fire magic or something.”

“MMMHiidonthaveeefiiirepowerss.” He mumbled turning away a bit.

“Squeeze me?” Edgar put his hand to his ear.

What an ass.

“I. Do. Not. Have. Fire. Powers…….yet” Dalton clarified, eyeing the Vulture King over their quick exchange. What were they going to do?

“Surprise surprise. You have everything else you could want, but nothing useful for the rest of us.” Edgar seemed heated and this was by far the wrong moment.

About to give Edgar a piece of his mind, he was interrupted when the Vulture King flapped his massive black and gray wings a few times, Edgar and him threw their arms up to protect their faces from the superheated gusts of air, as the yellow and red spirals and mandalas tumbled through the air, they bounced off the ground, swimming between the legs of the vultures and finishing at Edgar and Dalton’s feet.

“Look Dalt, he knows more and better magic than you.” Edgar pointed whilst still ducking further down and throwing another ‘Heal’ at Leo.

The brutish Cleric had a point. The Vulture King was a high-level spellcaster, and he was melting all the ice, any second those unfrozen vultures would be attacking and able to fly.

“We have to kill them now before they all unfreeze. Come on, Edgar, LET’S GO.” He grabbed Chiyoko’s black hilt and pommel and pulled her from the frozen ground like it was melted butter. The wakizashi purred in his hand and he felt tingly and his muscles twitched with unbound energy. He felt lithe and dangerous and swore he heard the faintest whisper…you are.

Dalton Side Note: I wanted Edgar to follow me, so I never turned around to see if he was coming, if I had though, I would have seen him try and yank out Leo’s sword from the ground in a similar fashion, but as he tried to turn and run, it didn’t budge an inch and he was yanked back onto his ass. Hahahaha. I would have paid to see that.

He charged towards the frozen pack as they began cawing loudly, some were flapping their wings from side to side and slowly easing their way free from the quickly melting ice. The Vulture King was preoccupied keeping his spell going by flapping his mammoth wings but glared lasers into Dalton as he yelled and held Chiyoko aloft, dragging the blade behind him like a samurai running in a video game.

Chiyoko disapproved and as Dalton jumped at the first vulture, screaming like a banshee, its wings flapped in terror and it cawed loudly watching death descend on it. Chiyoko hit the wing and barely made a ding.

Dalton was surprised, having expected to have sliced it clean off with his enchanted blade.

The vulture was equally surprised as it stared at its own wing too. With an aggressive flap of both wings, Dalton was flung back on his ass by a gust of wind full of yellow wind magic.

What the shit, Chiyoko?

She ‘tssked’ in the back of his head but said nothing, instead, Dalton felt an imbued, deeper sense of the sword. She wasn’t a blunt, cutting instrument, but a weapon of finesse, technique, and form, and his unwieldy attempt at using her was childish at best.

The closest vulture was almost free and the other seven were all rocking aggressively now, the Vulture King was letting the spell die down, and he wondered where everyone else was, probably frozen to the ground face down, and he killed the only friends he had left in the world. Well, he still had Leo.

He was such an idiot and he knew it. His anger suffused him with new energy and he kipped up deftly, flicking the sword in a cross-sectional arc, it whistled through the air and Dalton felt like he’d been astral projecting, watching New Dalton show him how to use the ancient sword. The whole few seconds were surreal. The vulture tore one of its legs free, the talon was intact and the sharp claws were indeed curved scythes, three of them with a back one for good measure.

Samurai Dalton walked up with his sword in a two-handed grip, feinting to one side, the bird attempted to bite him, beak clacking together with a resounding snap where he had been previously standing, he juked and brought the sword up in a swift arc utilizing his movement and body weight, he turned the wakizashi ever so deftly and it sliced through the elongated neck of the vulture in one ‘swish’. The head fell to the ground and the vulture’s neck stump gouted red blood in a violent spray.

Wow, that's better.

Dalton felt back in control, but the underlying martial art technique behind the sword remained enigmatic. Chiyoko had imbued him with some swordplay knowledge, but he felt vastly undereducated and inexperienced to use it properly.

[Chiyoko nodded emphatically in agreement internally.]

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Shut it you.”

Chiyoko appreciated a joke and giggled, fading into his back consciousness .

Six left including the big ole’ boy.

The next vulture was on the fringe of the pack towards the left of the Vulture King, Dalton tried to circle around it, but it ripped one of its talons free from the frozen terrain as he was trying to flank it, so he rushed in, without hesitation or foresight. In hindsight, stupid.

He lifted the blade for a downward strike on its shoulder but it flapped its wing, backhanding him toward the next vulture who had also broken free one of its talons. Now within aggro range, the vulture brought its talon down on his head and he was barely able to bring Chiyoko up in time for a block. The curved blade caught the talon inches from his face and he had to use his other hand to brace the tip of the sword on the non-sharp backside of the blade just to keep it aloft. His arms began shaking instantly.

The mutant was tremendously strong, and it was all he could do to prevent the talons from raking his face, puffs of exhaled exertions rung in his ear, the sound of more cracking ice and vultures cawing in freedom accompanied it.

Dalton decided to act quickly and in a feat of acrobatics, he rolled over his head, throwing his legs over the vulture's scrawny leg, and released the talon as his head cleared its downward strike zone. The talon dug into the frozen dirt. His blade dragged across the talons as he freed the sapient weapon, he continued his roll into a half stand, knee squat, and thrust the blade point first. The feathers were steel-hard and the hide under them was tough as a rhino’s, but the sword was so sharp it pushed forward slowly and finally penetrated the hide sliding in two-thirds of the blade deep, the grinding of ribs indicated he’d found a sweet spot in between the bones. The vulture let out a trumpeting howl and slumped flat, trapping the blade between its scrunched rib bones.

He yanked it free, followed by a spray of blood, feeling pretty bad-ass. Dalton looked around, ok five to go. He noticed Edgar had his own monster under control as smoky trails of purple mana dissipated around his head, he had his bat in one hand and stabbed aggressively behind Dalton with the other, pointing behind him, he couldn’t hear him but he had a bad feeling that….’SLAM! Shreddddd’!

The pain was blinding, lifted up slightly into the air, his back was raked with four-inch-long blades, the muscles parted like wet tissue, he dropped to the ground in a sodden heap of cloth and blood. His vision began to fade but he fought it, he couldn’t blackout, he had to wait for healing.

Chiyoko was still clutched in his hand, she’s whispering something, but he was unable to make out what she was saying. She sounded focused…and a bit worried. Blood slowly pooled around him.

His consciousness was like a periscope, the lens began shrinking closed and a fierce whisper from Chiyoko caused it to spasm open, but it began closing quickly again as she whisper-shouted another word it flexed open again, but smaller than it did before.

“What are you doing, Chi?”

Shut it, you.

Dalton smiled a little, it was the loudest she had ever addressed him, or maybe it was just because he was that close to death.

A wave of coolness washed over him, healing energies flooded his aura, white and gold circular mandalas, and intricate lace patterns fell on him like ever-expanding quilts of snow, and his appreciation and his ability to see, read and understand magic was growing exponentially.

Maybe he could start learning magic without spellbooks?

The PerTerm definitely gave him a nod of approval for his original mode of thinking.

Feeling the muscles knitting together in his back slowly, the bones clicked back into place, the ruptured organs sealed themselves, and the blood flow increased and doubled in volume, he felt rejuvenated. He thanked whatever gods sent them Edgar at that moment.

Rolling over, he quickly remembered they were on a battlefield, Edgar had moved on and held one hand to his head and another outstretched, a bright winged butterfly of purple psychic mana haloed around his head, and a corresponding flash of purple shot from his hand in the form of a long dagger, it struck the Vulture King who blocked it with an armored wing.

The ten-foot Vulture had a shield of crackling energy around its body and as it threw its wing up, the spell was nullified harmlessly to a loud snap. The Vulture King seemed preoccupied though.

He glanced over and Peyton was going toe to talon with a vulture on his own, tossing his daggers at the beast who attempted to block with its wings, the daggers occasionally found their way inside his winged guard hitting its body, the daggers sunk in, and immediately vaporized and returned to Peyton who obligingly threw it again, either hand flicking while the other caught, the onslaught was mesmerizing, the numerous small puncture wounds quickly added up to lethal damage.

Cece and Derek were nowhere to be seen, but Leo had joined the fight and was holding his own against two of the monstrosities. He stood between them, which should be flanking and bad for him, instead, he had turned his two-handed style of fighting to his advantage. Swinging his massive sword in controlled arcs, deflecting bites and scratches whilst scoring hits on both vultures as they tried to breach his sphere of might and Blade. His armor and sword all glowed golden in the light, and the reflected rays and luminescence were disturbing the vulture’s vision, clearly as they closed their eyes and couldn’t pin him down or strike a hit. He danced with his sword forcing the vultures to move to his whim as he deftly turned them about according to his desire.

That’s my boy.

Edgar was going for another psychic attack when the fourth vulture jumped him, literally. It landed on his shoulders, talons arced down in a nasty dive. Edgar caught the bird by the wings preventing a goring, but they both fell to the ground with the vulture on top, continually cawing and scratching with both of its weaponized feet. Edgar was trying to shout a spell, but the constant flapping and holding of the beast’s wings prevented him from doing anything other than trying to not get eviscerated.

Dalton flicked up Chiyoko going for the save when the Vulture King launched itself into the air, blocking out the sun briefly, the battlefield hushed momentarily, huge wings flapping in place, the giant vulture vomited a thick bile of spray over a twenty-foot area, covering Peyton, Leo, Edgar, and him, and all of his vultures, who were probably going to be immune anyway, right?

He was just quick enough to turn his head away and held Chiyko up like a shield, a two or three-inch shield of thin metal, yup, that was gonna do the trick.

Naturally, he got covered in the gore as well, which smelled of death and sulfur. It began to burn any exposed pieces of skin quickly, and he tried to scrape off what he could, thanking his awesome tunic which covered almost his entire body, protecting the worst of it.

He looked around to survey the scene of battle, to his dismay Edgar and Peyton were both down and not moving, but thanking the assassin gods, Peyton’s vulture was dead now.

Looking over at Leo, Dalton’s heart dropped. His stomach dropped. Every organ fell out of his body.

Leo was covered in the black slime but hadn’t fallen to the ground, having only fallen to one knee and planting his sword into the ground, he leaned on it for support. His chest heaved in and out as his body fought the poison, his celestial-paladin nature most likely giving him a fighting chance against an evil toxin.

Unfortunately, Leo’s two vultures, although wounded, were not dead or immobilized. They gathered their courage and approached from either side, ready to rend the unwitting fighter asunder with dripping beak and claw.

The Vulture King was still mid-air and would probably cast another spell here soon.

He knew he should cast first, he would probably beat the King to a spell off due to the King’s most recent usage and Dalton’s lack of usage, but his heart would not let him, clutching Chiyoko tight he began sprinting his fastest toward the downed Leo. His tunic, his skills, everything he had earned and learned, he pumped into every one of those footfalls, and the shadow of the evil Vulture King fell over him like some ominous omen.

He could feel the gathering magical energy from the Vulture King; he did not look back and only at Leo, the two vultures, the pounding of his feet on the frozen hard ground providing a steady accompaniment to his heart’s pounding, and then time did that thing.

You know?

When Time slowed down dramatically at the right moment? His body lit with fast energy, allowing his Perception and Agility to work in harmony, so he didn't careen headfirst at his first misstep, the Plan again defied physics as the inertia meant nothing to him.

That happened. Pretty sure it actually happened, well, maybe not realistically, but with magic and the Plan all working together, you never know.

It frickin’ happened, I'm telling you.

He pelted across the road and dirt about fifteen feet away, Leo looked up, blearily, he saw Dalton and smiled widely, his white teeth were individually encased in blood and bile. The fool was probably concussed as well. The two beasts raised themselves tall on either side of Leo, a shadow passed over the whole lot of them, a massive shadow, the two vultures turned their heads and looked behind him as he continued pell-mell toward the trio, and he heard a clash of thunder and the snapping of bones and rustling of huge feathers, that second was all the time he needed to reach the group.

He brandished Chiyoko high and summoned Jolt at twenty percent, the purple-blue mandalas spiraled out from his hand and into the black blade, causing unseen runes to ignite in the same color along the length of the blade, he slid forward on both feet using his momentum and sliced the vulture in the gut before it had any time to react. The blade bit into its tough hide and as the feathers and flesh part, the runes flared up, and a huge arc of electric energy blasted through the blade and out of its end into the vulture's body, the vulture spasmed, muscles locked up while snakes of vibrant blue danced and bit along its bony frame, blood and guts splashed along the ground and the vulture gradually fell prone.

Dalton didn't let this brief victory slow him down as he spun on his knee and twirled around the kneeling Leo and the vulture who was turning backward ever so slowly. As it turned its torso toward Dalton and parted its wings ready to attack. ……

He cast ice into Chiyoko at twenty percent mana, and the familiar icy white-blue mandalas formed along his forearms and wrists, cascading down into the blade, causing the runes to light up in a brilliant icy blue pattern, he swung around to the tortuously slow vulture and stabbed it through the heart before its wings were halfway raised. The blade penetrated easily.

All the while he screamed Arcane magic words and intermittent curses at the evil beasts.

Thrusting the sword almost hilt deep, the spell released in a misty spray of white and blue icy particles. Pretty sure it was a critical hit from the get-go, but the spell was literally ‘icing’ on the cake.

Still got it.

[Sighhhh] (She literally said ‘sigh’).

The runes flared up and the ice spell spread from its chest amazingly fast, the head and beak froze in rigors of pain, the tendrils of flakey energy shot down its torso and through the wings, stopping their motion in place as the ice spell tinkled along its skeletal frame and feathered haunches, he pumped just a little…more juice. ‘BAMF’.

Solid statue.

Worth it. Every mana penny.

This time it's the Plan shaking its head.

With all these voices in his head, the whole ‘going mad theory’ was looking much more probable.

He yanked the blade out and the vulture ice sculpture shattered, making him look just that extra awesome. Chunks of frozen vulture tumbled about his feet in colors of white and red.

Dalton smiled at the still crouching Leo and turned to witness the conclusion to the most epic aerial battle ever, but he decided to hand the reins over to Zeta to tell her side of things.

She was the one who summoned a Giant Eagle after all.

Chapter 24

Zeta

Well damn! How in the heck did she end up here?

She always knew things were gonna go tits up; but not like this. She thought she had lost everything and was on a suicide mission when she helped save the four adventurers.

Zeta saw Katie get killed but hadn’t been able to help. She didn’t really care but she knew the others did, and she had been seriously lacking in the friendship department. Zeta couldn’t help but think that this was her lot in life.

Just like everything else. A day late and a dollar short.

Dalton was proving himself an awesome fighter, he was quick witted and had an extra sensory perception to his magic. She was a little jealous but felt they balanced out with his direct magic style and her summoning abilities.

Cece and Derek were oblivious to what life was really like, they had each other and treated everything like a joke much to her annoyance. Meeting the rugby guys was a nice turn of luck though, Edgar was a healer and Peyton was useful. Leo was a great fighter but his emotions were troublin’ to say the least.

Zeta was happy for the company but she wished they were more cohesive or friendly. Her overtures of friendship seemed mostly disregarded, but she had been told she could be hard to approach or ‘icy’ which she just thought was nuts. People just didn’t get a chance to know her, she was fiercely loyal, loved animals, and wanted to be a veterinarian.

Guess she’s a whole new kind of vet now, with her summoning powers she figured the Plan had to have this crazy insider knowledge of who they all were before and who they wanted to be, maybe even their possible futures. Either. Way.

She was happy she could summon, being in front of a giant scorpion as it malevolently let you know it wanted to suck the juices out of your body, kind of made a girl glad she is in the background summoning her own monsters.

Yup, her new goal in life was to the best summoner Druid in the land, bringing forth krakens and riding dragons and answering riddles from Sphinx. .

Oh yes, she was ready.

My side of the story, right, well it goes a little something like this:

Upon approaching the empowered vulture pack, she chose to stray far to the wide left of the pack, away from Dalton and the others, assessing the situation the best she could, providing some flanking and additional angles of attack.

The Vultures clearly had magic though, huge gusts of wind and yellow swirls of mana began to surround her, she crept down behind the car closest to her, torrents of wind began to gather into maelstroms of destruction, seeking shelter and coverage she fought the tremors of fear that threatened to shake her senseless. The beat up Volvo station wagon is heavy enough to provide solid coverage. For now.

Damn, she wished she had any air magic.

Cece and Derek were in her visual range and did the same. Cece drew her bow and Derek’s hammer was glowing with gray and brown energy.

The winds began to buffet her movement, she laid flat on the ground, she could barely see Cece and Derek through the maelstrom of grit and sand, but they were both hugging the earth too.

Zeta felt a huge wave of energy form off to her right and knew it was Dalton casting something, his aura was supernaturally strong and his control of the elements was envy-inducing to say the least, she was also pretty sure she could recognize his mana signature anywhere, pick him out of a line up if you will.

She knew she could.

The spell finished and it landed ahead of them, but an intuitive sense of danger flooded her and she knew the spell had ricocheted or backfired somehow.

She thought quickly and cast her earth barricade spell around her and attempted to stretch it out to cover Cece and Derek, the powerful winds and blowing debris were so distracting though, she did not know how effective her spell was, the mound of earth over her head solidified into a wall and the ice spell smashed into it with just a second to spare.

The tinkling sounds of ice cracking surrounded Zeta as she curled up and the sub zero temperatures engulfed her.

Her back and side froze but luckily her armor took the vanguard of the spell, leaving her with the vestiges of a super chill.

She was trying to control her temperature and mana and could sense magical fighting close by. She imagined Dalton had begun his tirade and she wanted to help but her body was almost immobile.

Zeta managed to break the frosty chains and rolled over, the Vulture king was preparing a spell and Dalton was fighting one of the lesser mutated vultures, oblivious to the danger.

Summoning her ensnare with vine spell, she squared off with the Vulture King, and released the blast of energy at its taloned grip on the earth. Her Ensnaring spell was maxed out and she could cast the spell in less than a second, her fine motor control over the vines having exponentially increased with the leveling process allowed her superior handling of the botanical appendages.

The vines whipped up with their own wrath and constricted the Vulture King in a tight bundle, its talons were rooted to the ground but its wings broke free quickly.

Its strength was outstanding.

It ripped free from the vine trap with a few quick powerful flaps of its wing and began to rise into the air; it’s huge wings flap as it ascends into the air, it begins to cast a spell on Dalton as he tried to save Leo, after having felt the effects of the Vulture’s poisonous bile.

She wanted to help but being airborne severely limited her earth spells, she remembered some of her new spells, and smiled a predatory grin.

She began to summon one of her conjurations that she just managed to catch up with on a skill level, her mana drained, she hoped it’ll do the job, but had all the faith in her new beast and it’s skill set.

The green, gold, and yellow mandalas slowly coalesced and she pumped them into the sky, unlike her treants which she utilized the earth for, this time she was using air.

The magic gathered above the cloud range, to be followed by the epic, awe-inducing screech of a massive mountain eagle, roughly gold and brown in color, sporting a fifteen-foot wingspan, gliding into battle, soaring from the clouds above where the mana had coagulated into a celestial summons and the avian tackles the Vulture King in a dogfight of talons and beaks. Her summoning spell had brought forth a Giant Celestial Eagle.

Dalton was finishing off the last of the vulture minions so she turned back to the King. She focused her concentration on the mountain eagle, manipulating its movements and direction, it shreds and tears feathers and gore, but the Vulture King was attempting to gain further altitude. She called upon another vine spell, pushing almost all her mana into the spell; a vine lashes out almost fifteen feet into the air and wraps around the Vulture king's skinny leg.

The Vulture King was dragged down and the celestial eagle continued slashing, unabating its taloned attack, screeching a ferocious lament all the while. Its huge wings constantly cause whirlwinds of sand and dirt to fling about the whole party, the Eagle’s talons sparkled gold in the light.

The death vulture tore free of its vine grip and blasted the eagle with a gust of Wind forcing it airborne about twenty feet, the eagle was barely hampered and dived afterward.

She commanded the eagle to finish it; the vulture king and eagle spiraled about in the air snapping and clawing at each other, the eagle utilized its weight and forced the vulture king to the ground, and the eagle tore into its vitals and heart region, the vulture king thrashed with the huge eagle ripping it to shreds.

The Giant carrion bird, covered in rents and dark blood, appeared ready to cast one last final spell on its deathbed but Zeta commanded the eagle to cast Divine Light (knowing intuitively that this was one of the Summoned creature’s spells). The Eagle opened its beak and golden mandalas and sparkling motes and silhouettes of what looked like leaves blasted onto the mutant bird, smothering it in golden magic and incandescent rays.

The spell stopped the vulture’s casting as it melted in the divine rays of magic emitting from the eagle’s soft brown feathering and beak. The Vulture King’s feathers were scorched, the flesh sloughed off its bones, and the skeleton was disintegrated.

The black, steel-like feathers sunk into the earth and the skeletal remains left nothing but a Circlet, two spellbooks, the Skull Crown, and a Vest left behind.

She turned to the huge Eagle who had remained on the ground, standing fifteen-feet tall, it’s very impressive. The feathers were all varying hues of golds, browns, rust, reds, and tawny beige, they are immaculately clean, and the eyes glow with a golden luminescence. The bird-of-prey pointedly looked off in Leo’s direction, and as the paladin sprinted up to the group wiping black bile off his neck and arms, they made meaningful eye contact for a few seconds.

She dismissed the eagle and it faded into so many minuscule patterns of gold and yellow.

Her mana was spent and she was exhausted but Cece and Derek were both in pain and visibly trying to free themselves from the frozen terrain, rocking back and forth and slowly peeling themselves from the frozen episurface.

Awww, that looked like it hurt.

She limped over to help them, and Dalton and Leo ran up looking very impressed. She noticed Dalton’s eyes glowed in the shrinking sunlight, coruscating irises of electric blue and white flitted around his pupil and irises. She noticed he had the frame of a fit tennis player or swimmer, and she tried to smother the burning flames of wanting she felt.

He was beautiful and kind and heroic. She yearned for him but he was oblivious.

He was with Leo, which was weird and a little unsettling, but she wasn’t a bigot, she could deal. With it??

She just didn’t understand it.

The Vulture pack was annihilated. Huge, feathered corpses were strewn about the battlefield like grotesque black burial mounds of putrid filth and feathers.

Quest Completed.

Defeat the Nomadic Vulture pack.

Defeat the Mutant Vulture King.

They had never accepted the quest but reaped the benefits anyway. More credits and experience flooded her window as they grew richer and stronger.

“Hey Derek, you wanna try eating one of these guys?” Edgar asked sarcastically whilst jogging up to the final battle scene.

The spell books were called Firehands and Stoneshape, Edgar and Dalton had one of their epic stare offs (boys being boys), but Dalton snatched the Firehands book and handed it to her.

“For being our savior and beastmaster sorceress,” Dalton’s eyes sparkled, the last bits of electric mana faded from the lens, or maybe they just twinkled on their own. Zeta took it reverently. She activated the magic in the bindings and the runes flared up and she remembered how much she loved magic, the brief puff of magical smoke encircled her head and she inhaled deeply.

SPELL

Firehand* Element: Fire

Caster wreaths hands in magical fire that will burn hot for one minute per caster level

Spell does touch, fire damage.

Can be activated/deactivated by the caster's concentration and duration of spell does not have to be continuous.

Spell loses effect if any other spell is cast.

That was super useful, and could be like a miniature human torch weapon where you could just flame on and flame off whenever, downside, as soon as any other spell was cast, it was lost.

Zeta loved it though, after their recent experience, someone needed fire and they chose her. An odd combo but not one she was mad at, Dalton took lightning, ice, wind, and maybe water eventually if he wanted to be a Storm Ninja or whatever.

She had earth and fire.

The second Spellbook looked bound for Edgar or Dalton when Derek coughed loudly and spoke up, twirling his hammer, and looking uncertainly at the weapon while he spoke into it. .

“Umm, guys. So, me and Hildi were thinkin’, well she was sayin’, like me and she can totally cast stone magic, and she was tellin’ me I should stick up more for myself. So, if it’s cool with y’all, I thought maybe I could have the spell?” He finished his lament looking up and around at the intrepid band of warriors.

His weapon’s name was Hildi?

Silence reigned.

Then everyone emitted a sincere laugh, “yesss, of course buddy, welcome to the Caster’s club,” Dalton is like magic Santa, as he grabbed the leather bound book and handed it to Derek.

Having avoided a confrontation between the boys was an admirable outcome, she thought musingly, and spreading the magic amongst the group was an optimal tactic.

Derek ponderously opened the magic tome and inhaled. It’s similar to the skill books she had absorbed but infinitely more complex. The magic dust motes surrounded his smiling, bearded visage and his eyes watched the pixies of arcane knowledge flutter into his orifices. The spell was also directly absorbed into the Hammer which was unusual cause Dalton’s sword had never done that.

Obviously having read the results on his invisible personal interface, they wait expectantly for him to finish.

“Huh. Dope AF, Stoneshape. Bro, it allows me to manipulate ten feet of stone and resolidify it however I deem fit. I can remove it, shape it, move through it even,” his eyes lit up as he looked away from his PerTerm to make awestruck glanced with everyone. He continued, “the amount of stone that can be manipulated is a volume, so if it’s thick rock, that ten feet in length minimizes accordingly. Man, this was so useful in and out of combat,” one spell and Derek turned into a nerd at Christmas, but everyone seems genuinely happy for him, even Edgar who smiles and nods, ya magic is the bee’s knees.

Zeta concluded in her head, Derek’s hammer had an affinity with stone so that could be his element and Edgar was veering toward being psychic and healing. Dalton was storms and she was a summoner who now had fire. She was surprised Cece, Leo, and Peyton didn’t fight harder to get magic spells.

Zeta jotted it down in her mental Notebook of stuff to research or think about later.

The Circlet was an epic item with mana and perception bonuses, so we decided to replace Cece’s level one item, who suddenly looks like an elven princess. She can’t help feeling resentful, that people could be born that good looking, while she has wiry hair and her face looks like a chiseling stone, Cece was lustrous and had the features of a fertility goddess.

It wasn’t fair. She couldn’t help but be a little pissed off. At the System. At life. At Fate.

She turned back to the gear and loot drop, barely holding her contempt in.

The Bone Crown was not enchanted, so Derek wanted it as a trophy, we all obliged cause it seemed useless at this point and more than a little smelly. He hung it from his pack like a terrible hood ornament.

The Vest was one of vitality and an increase to mana usage. Dalton argued to get it because as a skirmisher he kept losing health in battles, a true glass cannon should be in the reserves. The party allowed Dalton to take it and he stripped down and made it underwear. Zeta thought he had been instrumental in almost every battle and he deserved it. She coveted the items, well all items in loot drops really, but Dalton could utilize them better, she knew it.

His body seemed more muscular, considering the amount of protein in their diets, their increased physical performances, and magical increases, it made sense. She herself had noticed increases to speed and dexterity. She stared at his physique and casual display of nudity and was impressed with the musculature. Dalton slowly replaced his magical tunic and armor and they all discussed what’s next on the agenda, Zeta was constantly stealing glances at his exposed body.

Get to the harbor. That’s the goal.

Yup, focus girl, focus….her eyes strayed over to Dalton who bent over at his waist, stiff legged with his kitana pinned between his knee caps, he grabbed his tunic from the ground and she noticed the lateral muscles forming long lines from his armpit to his waist, she exasperatedly sighed a little.