There's a song that sings of salty seas and a poem that rhymes of talking rats. Somewhere in the east was a whirlwind of sand that locked away a hidden clan. The green men of Grendill held a meeting once a month to discuss in the open how they will destroy the world. Coil and Annabell were old enough to have had children by now, and Dondan would have probably found a wife of his own.
These were all interesting things, some of them were sweet things, but none of them were things Murphy let pass through his mind as he stepped from his mount.
He faced the smirking giant, and urged the bird to run away.
In the long and arduous week of riding, Murphy had done more than enough thinking of the things he'd never get to see.
He kept himself awake and alert thanks to the box he'd gotten from May. It held three tiny vials labelled as healing potions. By now there was only one left, since he'd sipped on one over the week, and given the other to his mount. He felt at his best while he stared ahead, prepared to meet his fate.
"Why would you follow me? Little Warlock," the dragon questioned, clearly bemused.
The Warlock spat on the ground, and summoned a spaceball to float in his hand.
The dragon tilted its head, frowning.
"Enough of that now," it said, waving its hand.
"That spell of yours is terribly annoying."
Once the beast finished speaking, Murphy’s spaceball snuffed into nothingness. To his credit, the Warlock never flinched. Gritting his teeth, he summoned another.
"I'm going to rip off your horns and use them to drink your blood while I cook you alive, you ugly fucking lizard," he threatened, trying to sound as brave as he could.
The dragon studied him for a moment longer, then burst into laughter. The pressure of it washed over Murphy like a wind, extinguishing the colourful flames a second time.
It looked at him again, and cleared its throat.
"Do you know what your name means, Murphy?" It asked with a joyful cadence.
Murphy responded by throwing a spaceball, only for it to vanish mid flight.
"I don't care, frankly" Murphy growled.
"It depends on who you ask really," the beast continued, sounding far more refined than the week prior.
"To some humans, it means the warrior of the oceans, once you look back far enough. Would you stop that already!?" It snapped suddenly, snuffing another spell from the Warlock's hand.
It was then that Murphy realised he was still standing in the same place. It hadn't once crossed his mind to seek cover since he left his mount. Even the idea to sling spells at the thing was an afterthought. He looked around the clearing, searching frantically for a sign of whatever aspect had him stuck. He could move with complete freedom, but still struggled to fathom the idea that he might leave that spot. He slowly looked up at the dragon, with an ice cold hatred in his eyes.
"The Demai have a different meaning though," the beast continued. "In old Dolmic, it means 'Courage of the Moon', which sounds nice."
It started walking towards him slowly.
"Most clans back then believed a moon was a symbol of madness. Many Demai still believe it."
It stopped walking, and stood a few feet from him. "A moon can be a powerful omen, to the right person," it said, pointing at the sky.
Above them, the clouds parted in a massive circle, revealing two of the world's countless moons looming high above in the night sky.
"And what does all of that have to do with me chopping off your head," the little Warlock snapped, searching his mind frantically for a solution.
"The Demai of old cared little about vanity," it continued, unconcerned. "A warrior's name was always supposed to mean something. Are you a warrior, Murphy?"
"Up until I leave your body out for the other beasts at least," Murphy quipped. He thought for a moment he could feel the things power over him. It was similar to the shimmer he'd seen when it changed its shape, though it wasn't something he could see. A sense of surrealism overwhelmed him the deeper he searched. Whatever magic the dragon commanded was so foreign to the sensations of aspect, that he doubted the magic he knew was involved at all.
He sent an unspoken question to Uundah in an attempt to get the O'jin’s advice, though Uundah responded with utter perplexity. The O'jin had no sense of the dragon's power at all.
The beast laughed, interrupting his hurried introspection.
"There's no fighting what you can't comprehend boy," it said, waving its hand. "Better mages have tried, and you can't hold a candle to them, no matter how special you think you are."
It began a slow pace around the stuck Warlock, taking slow and deliberate steps as it studied him further.
"So you’re hardly a mage, and you're not a warrior…"
As it spoke, Murphy felt his freedoms tightening. He already couldn't move from his spot, so he assumed the display was just a ploy to intimidate him further, and it was working.
He felt a shift in his staff hand, and glanced sideways to see an increasingly familiar shimmer overtake his companion.
He tried to speak, to swear and curse at the monster, but he couldn't find any words.
"Relax boy," the dragon chuckled from behind him, resting a hand on the trembling mage's shoulder. "I only mean to see who you are. There has to be a reason for all of this interest, after all."
Uundah finished shimmering, revealing a crystalline spear with a blackened metal blade in place of the comfortable wooden shaft they both knew well. A panicked thought to Uundah revealed that the O'jin was seemingly unharmed, aside from the feeling of a violated pride.
The dragon strode around to Murphy’s front, running his yellowed claws over the tattered fabric of what was left of the Warlock's tunic.
"This won't do," it mumbled to itself, taking a long step back.
With the wave of its hand, Murphy too began to shimmer. Without worrying about the dragon's intentions, he focused his mind on understanding the thing's magic. As he shimmered, he felt two foreign forces collide. With an effort of will, he locked onto the feeling, finding the source of whatever it was he searched for. His shimmer faded moments later, leaving him still in the cool air. Where his dirt covered and rain worn clothes had wrapped him, now existed some of the finest leather armouring that he'd ever laid his eyes on. The grey leather was tinted green in all the right places to embellish the garments with a sense of elegance, and it fit better than he thought any battle ready gear had the right to. It was thin and light, though the rigidity of its pieces against his ribs were a quick assurance of the skin's toughness.
"That's more like it," the dragon said, clapping its hands together. "How can I test your worth if…" it began to speak, but was cut to an instant silence. Looking down, it saw the tip of a crystalline staff buried into its gut, thrust forward by a pale young wizard. It looked into Murphy’s eyes, and smirked.
"That's more like it!" The beast shouted again through a wide grin, this time in obvious excitement, right before Murphy released an immense ball of force into the things innards.
There was a wet pop, but he had no time to see the effect as he was launched backwards. He bounced along the hard ground, and slammed into a sharp pillar of stone behind them.
No stranger to a nearly broken spine, Murphy scurried to his feet and retrieved Uundah. His injuries were light enough for him to heal them with the aspect he'd learned from May's potions. The power it took to heal anything beyond a sprain was exhausting, he'd learned that the hard way in the past week when he fell from his mount and tried to heal the wound with his own magic. The last vial of the invaluable potion was strung around his neck, and he intended to save that for the most dire of circumstances.
He healed his bruised back just in time to dive away from the offending pillar, as it took on a life of its own and attempted to crush him. He rolled away from two more crashing pillars before he realised what was happening.
Two of the many scattered pillars had taken on the shape of men. They loomed taller than a Demai warrior, but moved with little grace.
A rocky hand swept towards him, swatting him away like a fly, and he felt the ground's harsh embrace once again.
"How in the hell am I going to fight a damned stone," he grumbled bitterly to Uundah.
"Try hitting it with your thick head," Uundah chuckled back.
"Really? You want to be smart with me right now?" Murphy scoffed, then rolled away from another blow.
"Right now is what we've got!" Uundah growled with vindictive excitement. The staff pulsed in a bright purple light, followed immediately by a violent burst of power coming from the O'jin. The aspects that formed the spaceball spell erupted from the spears tip, drowning one of the stone men in a flood of chaotic potential. Murphy helped by empowering the mass with his own power, and lunged immediately away from the effect.
The spell caught its casters with little effort, though their momentum was enough to keep them from the epicentre. Instead, they skimmed above the first pop, and were launched spectacularly high by the spell's second pulse.
Not one to waste an opportunity, Murphy used his air time to blast off a few more explosive spells towards their scattered enemies below.
The dragon dodged deftly, remaining at the outer edge of what had become the battlefield. The stone warriors on the other hand, received a brutal downsizing in a shrapnel of small boulders. The one Uundah had caught in a chaotic wild spell came up the worse of the two. The combined forces of the explosions served to tear the rocky monster in two at the waist.
His upward trend came to an end, leaving him hanging in the air for a sweet moment. The moment bittered quickly as he started to fall, and he began to search his mind desperately for a way to survive it. A bad idea struck him, and he felt Uundah’s apprehension at the thought a moment later.
Quickly, he shrouded himself in his chaotic slow falling aspect, and empowered it until he felt the effects. They slowed to a more steady pace, still descending at speed.
"What now great Muunfir?" Uundah barked in his mind.
"Shut up and let me think a minute,"
"We don't have a minute!"
Murphy considered throwing the obnoxious spear for a moment, but decided that'd be unproductive.
Below, the broken stone man began to pull itself together, and the other was busy unburying a heavy boulder. The dragon, for his part, was keeping his distance while he watched on smiling.
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Stone may be simple, but the most simple things often tended towards incomprehensible stubbornness. He had nothing in his arsenal of cobbled together spells to affect the golems, aside from his decidedly ineffectual explosions. The ground was growing closer, and the golems boulder had begun its flight. In the last possible moment, he was struck with an idea. Levelling Uundah towards the soaring boulder, he released a stream of air aspect. As soon as the stone was surrounded, he focused on empowering the cloud. Instead of focusing on activating the aspects effects, he Instead focused on energising the particles that made the cloud. His aim was to reconstitute the aspects, and it was working. He watched closely as the colours changed, until he saw something he thought might work. With a shift of his focus, he activated the chaotic aspect moments before he and the boulder met. There was a hot flash of light, and Murphy felt the sting of countless grains of sand pelting his skin.
"That's the stuff!" Uundah cheered, as Murphy touched down gently onto the ground.
The stone beneath his feet turned to glass when he reconstituted his slow fall aspect in an attempt to avoid its negative side effects.
He looked across the explosion pocked clearing, and glared at the dragon while he shrouded himself in protection.
The dragon smirked, and gestured with his hand towards another pillar. The stone cracked, and another golem pulled itself from the crumbling granite.
"Let's make this more interesting," he said, waving his hand a second time.
the golems shimmered, and turned to metal.
One was gold, another silver, and the third was black.
"I can work with this," Murphy thought smugly to his companion as the golems started to close in.
Metal was something he knew well, and as a material, it was vibrant in aspect.
Each of the monsters plunged a hand into the ground, and pulled free a unique weapon. The gold one readied a glistening golden gun, the silver had a spear made of the same metal as itself. The onyx golem pulled out a heavy black greatsword, the blade of which was nearly twice Murphy’s height.
He gulped.
"That might make it a little harder," he thought to his spear.
A heavy cracking sound rang through the battlefield, and the ground next to him exploded in a golden light. He bounced from the ground as the bullet's impact threw him sideways.
"That one first then," he muttered to nobody in particular, pulling himself to his feet and staring down the golden golem.
He broke into a sprint, trying to close the distance as much as possible before the lethargic beast got off another shot. This time, when the gun flashed gold, Murphy dived sideways to avoid the zipping glob of golden power, and rolled back to his feet. The projectile moved faster than something the size of a cannon ball should be entitled to, thanks to the quality gold offered to most Spellcraft.
The metal's qualities of efficiency didn't seem to translate into the golems movement, giving him enough time to close the distance between the two of them while it sluggishly adjusted its aim. The window of time was short, since the agile silver golem had started a ground thumping sprint in his direction. He cast his poor attempt at a flight rune and felt his feet leave the ground. Holding his free hand out behind his back, he and Uundah summoned the aspect of wind, and unleashed a heavy jet of air behind them. They rocketed forward in the same way they'd seen Serril fly when they met the swordfish.
The silver golem quickly changed direction, but he was moving far too fast for it to catch him. The golden golem was getting closer quickly, so he started to form a rune structure. Running out of time, he got creative. He formed the structure of a boundary circle, and filled it with the aspect of sharpening. In the centre, he placed a force ball rune in its entirety. The structure came quickly to them by now, since they'd been using it so frequently of late. By the time he empowered the rune and shot it at the golden golem, he was only twenty feet from the thing.
The spell darted ahead of him, and met the golem's gun arm at its shoulder. The disc cleaved into the metal as if it wasn't even there, then the monster's arm exploded with a soft metallic bang, sending chunks of gold flying in every direction. The arm dropped heavy to the ground, missing the skating Warlock by a hair as he slid by the beast.
He deactivated his hover and slid in the mud, stopping just in time to scoop a fist sized nugget from the ground. His plan was to use a trick his grandfather had taught him so many years ago. With nothing to carve the glyph he wanted, he quickly imbued his thumb nail with the aspect of hardening. His nail tore from its base a little, and he bit his cheek to hold back a yelp, but the glyph was finished in record time. The golden beast started to run towards him, it's remaining arm held out for a grab. Before it managed to close the distance, he filled the glyph with fire aspect, and threw it with all of his might at the charging monster. The gold cleared the small distance quickly, turning to liquid rapidly as it flew. Once it made contact with the beast, the glyph took hold of all the gold it could find. It buckled at the knees and fell face first, the impact with the ground encouraged the rest of the thing to separate, and Murphy was washed with a wave of cold liquid gold.
The glyph he used was designed to help with casting, and it worked on a few different metals. Once the glyph was destroyed however, the metal hardened again rapidly, making it more brittle than before. The result meant that the Gold coating Murphy and Uundah hardened the moment it touched him, giving him a painful and expensive prison to break free from. He shattered the last of the gold on his leg, and took a quick note of his surroundings.
The silver golem was nearing him in its charge, and the dragon stood at a distance, congratulating him with a mocking clap. As for the onyx golem, it remained still, and seemed to watch the fight with a little too much curiosity.
He didn't have time to think about it however, since he saw the silver golem ready its spear. It thrust the giant pike forward, sending it soaring in his direction at surprising speed. He dove away just in time to avoid an abrupt impaling.
The spear struck the ground behind him, burying itself a few feet deep into the stone. He gulped again. He didn't know any glyphs that worked on silver, otherwise this would be a great opportunity.
He fired a spaceball in its direction in an attempt to buy some time. The golem dodged the spell with a mid sprint spin, showing off its terrifying dexterity. It held its hand out, and its palm flashed red. The spear vanished from the stone, and appeared in the monster's hand in the same instant.
"Well isn't that just some fucking shit," Murphy cursed, finally shocked by the circumstances.
"I have an idea," Uundah thought to him with excitement. "Get some distance."
He cast his hover rune again, and listened to his O'jin's instructions without hesitation. They cleaned some ground in the same way as before. Once they had gained enough distance for Uundah to be satisfied, he deactivated his rune and turned to face the battle.
"Now piss it off," Uundah insisted.
Murphy smirked, happy to get a job he knew he was good at.
"Come and get me you second tier waste of pocket space," he yelled across the clearing.
He started firing off force balls as rapidly as he could. They were weak, but packed enough of a punch to push the thing around a little. It dodged as many as it could, but had its balance stumbled eventually.
"We need that spear," Uundah said. "You can be more annoying than that."
Murphy thought for a moment, then adjusted his strategy.
Being connected to Uundah like he was at that moment, afforded him the opportunity to alter their runes on his own. He added a component of containment to the forceball rune. Not knowing what symbols to use, he populated the rune structure with random Dolmic letters. He cast the rune, and threw it low. It clipped the golem's ankle, catching the charging beast for just a moment, causing it to stumble.
He barked an excited laugh, and began throwing the new spell as rapidly as he had the forceballs. The golem jolted as the spells hit it, bringing its sprint down to a struggling jog. Eventually, it stopped and stared him down.
Murphy smiled wide. "Is that all you've got," he shouted, mocking the monster by waving the spear in his own hand.
The golem took a stance, and reeled its spear arm back. It snapped forward, and the giant spear tore through the air. Once again, he jumped out of its path, only just making it free of the silver tip. It plunged into the ground with more force than before, and Murphy shivered at the implications. If this monster landed one hit, he was doomed for sure.
Uundah had already started into his plan by the time Murphy snapped out of his introspection. The O'jin was unleashing an incredible amount of the folded space aspect, attempting to imbue the spear with the magic. Murphy caught on quickly, and helped his friend by focusing the cloud towards the silver.
The golem had started approaching again soon after the irritating spells had worn off entirely.
Murphy empowered the cloud just in time to see the spear flash red. He turned his attention to the golem, and held his breath in hopes that Uundah’s plan had worked. Nothing happened for a second, but what followed after that delay was nothing short of spectacular.
Without any warning, the golem slammed into its own spear. With nothing to push against the beast's weight, it crashed into the ground a mangled mess. It spun quickly, then darted upwards. It slammed into the ground again, then proceeded to zip around the battlefield. While it flew and crashed through pillars and dead trees, the metal groaned as it was compressed into itself. There was a bang, and part of the beast flew off briefly, only to crash back into the spinning mass. The whole ordeal lasted less than ten seconds, but still caused an amazing amount of destruction. It finished when the metal screeched, and collapsed in on itself. With a bright flash of hot light, the golem and the spear seemed to disappear entirely.
He hurriedly surveyed the battlefield, taking note of where his last two opponents were. Neither of them had moved. The dragon stood with his arms folded, and the onyx golem stood with its hands resting on the pommel of its great blade.
It watched him closely, seeming to consider the fight it had just seen. They stared at each other for a long moment, then the golem eventually shifted. It didn’t charge him, or ready its blade. Instead, it calmly walked towards the centre of the battlefield. It stopped, and stood stoic again, waiting for the Warlock to meet its challenge.
"I don't like this," Uundah thought to him with hesitation.
Murphy sighed, and started to approach the thing. He stopped when he was still a good distance from his opponent, and cautiously readied his stance. From that distance, he could make out the shape of a face on the monster. The other two were featureless men, though this one had blackened eyes that seemed to watch him with curious intensity.
The golem didn't move at all, so Murphy resigned to making the first move. He summoned the cutting forceball he used on the golden beast, and gritted his teeth as he threw it as fast as he could manage. The spell tore through the cool night air, and met the golem less than a second later. It collided with the monster, and nothing happened. When it met the black metal, the spell seemed to dissipate, and flow into the golem.
"Of course it eats my magic," Murphy sighed.
The beast slowly readied its own blade, taking a stance that struck Murphy in the heart. He'd seen that particular stance before, when Serril had faced down the dragon just a week prior. Suddenly, the monster's face seemed all too familiar.
Rage bubbled inside of him at the sight of his former captain. This wasn't Serril, it couldn't be. This was a cruel joke, amusing only its teller.
He spat on the ground, and shifted his glare to the dragon nearby. The dragon smirked, and raised his proud chin.
"You’re a proper bastard, aren't you," Murphy declared.
The dragon just laughed, and gestured to the golem.
The onyx monster flashed forward, planting a fist into Murphy’s gut. His ribs caved inwards and he flew back. He hit the ground windless, immediately coughing blood and vomit onto his chest. Struggling against his armour, he tore at his collar for the vial he wore. His vision was fading and he struggled to swallow through his choking, but he managed to drink half the vial, wasting the rest on his own cheeks.
Pain surged through his whole body as his ribs pushed back into place and the magic mended his wounds. Soon enough, he was scurrying to his feet, gasping for air and wiping his eyes. A shadow above caught his attention, and he leaped out of the way to avoid the greatsword sweeping down. He blasted unchecked force in front of himself, sending him rolling away to gain some distance. He flooded the area with the aspect of protection, and launched himself a second time. The golem met the cloud, and the magic was drawn into it. Not knowing what else to do, he fired a spaceball at its feet. The wash of the spell was enough to keep the monster still, but it absorbed too much of the power to be properly affected.
"What the fuck is this thing made of?" He scoffed, turning to sprint away.
"I can't feel it's magic," Uundah offered.
That struck Murphy with a realisation. He stopped running, and turned to face the thing.
"It's made of melt," Murphy declared.
"Then we can't touch it. Why aren't you running?"
"Because you can't feel it's magic,"
Uundah thought about that for a moment.
"What?" He scoffed.
He shot another spaceball, keeping the monster still for a moment longer while he attempted what might be his last experiment.
He took a deep breath, and focused his mind to that strange place it had been when he was stuck under the dragon's control. He felt for a shimmer, and forced his senses outside of himself. There was no way to know if what he was doing was magic, or indulging in childish fantasies, but he focused nonetheless. He closed his eyes, and tried his best to drown out the stomping of the beast's heavy feet as it began its approach again. Uundah screamed for him to run, but he ignored that too. He felt himself drift from his reality, and searched the wild landscape of sensations laid before him. The ground shook, and the world muffled. At the point he felt completely lost, a familiar shimmer called out to him. He listened for it and looked for it with nothing but his mind, and grew in hope as the sensation grew in intensity. He focused for as long as it took to feel the shimmer surround him, then he opened his eyes.
The golem was above him, bringing its blade down with both hands. Uundah was cursing him with all the most creative words he could find, and the dragon still watched on smiling.
He shifted his mind, and willed the blade to stop falling. He believed with all of his mind that the golem wished him no harm, and that he commanded the beast as a captain would a soldier. He considered himself to be Serril, and the golem to be himself, and shared the belief with the monster before him.
The blade stopped dead in its arc, and the golem stood cold and still.
Uundah grew silent fast, expecting his last moment, but shuttered in relief when it didn't come.
Murphy gazed silently upon the face of his former captain, and gently reached up to place his hand on the blade.
"Not today old friend," he said calmly, guiding the blade gently away from his face. "Our enemy still stands."
He gestured to the dragon, and the golem turned to look at its new target.