It was strange bringing Savia to the mess hall. First it was too early for food but he was given some breakfast once he asked nicely, explaining that it was for his familiar.
Given that she was quite small, it didn’t take much food at all, they were fine with it. At the same time it seemed like they didn’t actually care that much about the rules for that, if there were rules. The people working with the food just fed you if you’re hungry anyway.
Bringing the few small pieces of meat outside he handed them to Savia. The cuts were the size of the whole of her so a bit much, however her expression was practically glowing. If she had a survival-like life before just being handed food like this must be like magic in itself.
Not waiting longer than needed she squatted down in Gilliam’s hand and used her wing-fingers as hands to hold onto the meat as she ate. Gilliam ended up enjoying this to a weird level. Firstly there was the ‘a cute pet is eating something’ moment, but there was also this oddly satisfying sensation. Was this also part of the familiar bond?
It was strange, they had not even known each other for a day, but he felt towards her as he would a friend of years and years. Even though he didn’t even know what she was.
She ate her first meal since coming to... this part of the world. Gilliam realised that he needed to read up on Savia’s species. She could answer things for herself but should something happen he wanted to know.
From what he read, healing magic works based on understanding, so should this be needed he needs to know how she’s different on the inside. Skin and bone wounds he can handle but what if she has other organs? If nothing else she has venom and those spine spikes, so...
This was just a momentary thought, the tour continued after Savia had completed her meal. There was still plenty left of the day but all recommendations are to take the weekend to do things together. So why not do just that.
“So, Savia, what do you do for fun?” Gilliam asked, starting a conversation to get to know her better.
“For... fun?” She didn’t exactly seem to understand exactly what this fun was.
“What do you enjoy doing, like if you have a day where you don’t need to get food or hide, what do you do?”
He realised that explaining this concept of not having to hunt or flee to a creature that had lived its whole life doing just that, was oddly problematic.
Looking at the sky Savia slowly waved her wingarms as her tail flopped back and forth a few times, her face deep in thought.
“Savia doesn’t know. Savia has never had a day like that.”
That was a surprisingly depressing answer, but it made a lot of sense. Food in the wild is rarely something you can store long-term, you eat it then and there, and tomorrow you need to find new food.
“Oh.. Well... Then we need to find you a hobby.” He smiled in return, lifting the tone of the conversation. “I have found that I like to learn magic. What things do you think you might like?”
It was hard to fish for information when the one you’re talking to has never really done most of the things now available.
“Help Master!” She shouted from her sitting position in his hand. Seeming happy with just that idea.
Gilliam chuckled a few times. “I guess we’ll find out as time goes.” She was helpful and happy at least, so that was a good thing. Though he did want her to have at least somewhat of her own thing going on. When he planned for the Familiar ritual he was fine with the pet logic to the master and servant. But since she was sentient this felt a bit different. For now she was enjoying herself so that was fine.
Walking around the school, showing her other students training certain magic, mock battles, the melee fighting training and basically anywhere he was allowed to walk. It was surprisingly fun giving someone a tour like that, even though he had only been here a few days himself.
“Now, the last thing I suppose is my room, you’ll see that later anyway but I suppose we can have a go right awa*” Gilliam stopped himself mid-sentence, there was something weird, an odd feeling roughly ‘that way’.
Based on what he saw around himself he was not the only one that reacted, this felt just... weird.. Like feeling the heat from something at a distance he could sense ‘something’ in a specific direction.
He was not far from the main south exit of the academy, so running through it he quickly found himself outside the walls. There were plenty of people having met up there already, Aeris from the other way was bringing people out, disappearing and coming back with other people. She landed many mages here, including Ledels, Detia and others. She even brought the melee instructor out. All students were brought back into the walls instead, landing a teacher outside she brought students in. The poor girl looked exhausted.
Gilliam was one of the first there, but it didn’t even take a minute for the place to fill up with people. Everyone looked in the same direction, though currently there seemed to be nothing there but an odd feeling. Several mages were shouting commands at others, looking for those who are good at sensing things or could scry in any form.
Gilliam was useless here.
He closed his hand a little so Savia would not get knocked off, but made sure that he wouldn’t crush her and leave her a way out of his fist if needed.
As everyone was trying to find out what was going on, there was a glowing red spot that formed in the air in front of them some 10metres (~32ft) off the ground, it was just hovering there, hissing in a weird water-in-pan sound. As it did the pressure that built up around it grew denser and heavier, the light flickered with various shades of purple, red and deep orange.
Some mages decided to try to cast spells at it but the spells only seemed to hit an invisible barrier, at the moment of impact it seemed like a sphere barely came into view for a few moments before fading into nothing. The glowing sphere kept gathering energy as some of the teachers decided to throw some gems at it, which didn’t do much as they hit and exploded against the same barrier.
Then suddenly a large ring of energy grew out from the sphere rapidly, all sound stopped, all the mages froze in the moment. For a few long seconds there was nothing happening, the glowing ring of energy, the size of a building, stood still in the air around the sphere. The mages were trying to prepare themselves as several of them had various magic circles already drawn in the air, ready to be activated at a moment's notice.
A deep bass rumbling sound extended from the ring as it started to vibrate, doing this for a few seconds before it suddenly contracted into the center sphere setting of a huge explosion. The pressure wave was filled with fire, smoke, mana and debris as it had torn up the ground where it originally was. Many mages had shields to protect them but not all of them, some were hit by flying rocks and... It was not good.
Suddenly all the debris, smoke, fire and pressure just stopped, frozen in time for a whole second before it pulled back into the center point where the orb was.
It all imploded into another explosion but this time there was no debris flying out, there was a pressure wave that knocked over a lot of people, Gilliam being one of them, but in the center point where the orb was now stood a large stone arch made of debris, fire and the gore of the fallen mages.
Inside this arch was what looked like a burning puddle standing upright, it reminded Gilliam of a few choice titles of popular media back home, this looked like, felt like and everything hinted to it being a portal.
The red glowing sphere from before was still where it was, but it seemed to have solidified into a bright red gem at the top of the arch.
In the few following seconds the mages started setting up fortified positions, earth mages made thick shields and platforms of dirt and rocks, Fire mages set up danger zones outside of the portal, certain mages tried to aim some attacks for the portal itself, the arch or even the gem at the top. But every single spell hit the same magical barrier as before.
Gilliam didn’t know what to do, all of this was very new to him, chaotic and all things considered; he was still a newbie mage.
During the preparation and attempts on damaging the gate the puddle flickered and waved for a moment before a large creature stepped out.
It was a humanoid shape, easily 3 metres (~10ft) tall, almost as wide and built like someone who had trained his whole life. His feet were hooves and had double-jointed legs, bulky and strong body partly covered in fur, mouth filled with sharp teeth, glowing yellow eyes and topped off with large and intimidating horns. Its back had magnificently large wings that were currently furled together and in its right hand was a large one edged sword seemingly made from some dark colored metal.
It let out a massive roar, enough that it made Gilliam’s ears ring. A moment later a collection of more demonic creatures came flooding through the gate. All from lesser imp-like flying to various spikes and protrusions.
Spells started flying from both sides, the mages of the academy sent out a barrage of elemental spells. The spells crashed into the horde of demonic invaders, burning, piercing, exploding and tearing them to shreds. Demons screaming in pain, for aid and cursing the various races defending the academy.
The demons finally reached the very prepared humans, most hit shields, walls or were stopped by concentrated magic aimed at the incoming attackers, however some came through. Claws, teeth, weapons and spells of their own tore some of the teachers apart. Spears, spikes and other objects rained both ways, impaling both the demons and the mage defenders.
Gilliam was paralysed in shock, he had never seen someone die directly nor had he seen this much destruction and gore. The grass and dirt along the road turned to bloody mud, the green vibrant grass had turned red, there was nobody clean left, even Gilliam was splattered from a vibrant green beam coming from the large demon creature that came out first, it impacted a young man next to him which tore him in two. The sounds, the smell, the sight of his fellow men literally being torn into pieces, being killed, being eaten.
“..Gilliam!” a voice shouted his name as he was being shook vigorously. Snapping out of whatever void his mind was in, he first now noticed Jial.
Jial was covered in gore like everyone else, he was wounded, blood running down his left arm and his robe was pierced along his right leg.
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“Gilliam, snap out of it!” A sharp snap of a slap landing on Gilliam properly woke his mind.
“Jial?!” he was confused still, but the shock managed to snap him out of the worst of it.
Getting a second to take in what was going on, he finally properly noticed Jial’s wounds as well as Savia in his hair grabbing onto it with her feet, trying to fly Gilliam away. She calmed down once Gilliam came to and started moving on his own again.
The priority seemed to be Jial’s wounds, they looked like normal damage, Gilliam knew how those worked and proceeded to do his best with healing them.
As the bleeding slowly stopped and the wounds ever so slowly started to knit themselves together in front of their very eyes, Jial continued.
“Gilliam. Can you damage that crystal?” he pointed at the gem, orb.. Thing, at the top of the arch that kept the portal stable.
“I... I don’t know.” Gillaim answered honestly as he was focusing on the wounds. “I have only cast one longer range spell and it.... It would most likely kill everyone here..”
He sounded distressed, which made sense as he absolutely was.
The comment about the spell was probably not wrong either, it made that massive crater in the rock of the mountain, so here in the open where it could hit everyone it, the shockwave alone was probably going to do some harm.
“I heard from Detia. But if you use a magic circle, concentrate the effect, pierce that gem, Gilliam!” This was a desperate order.
One could tell from his face that he absolutely didn’t want to do this, but at the same time there weren’t other choices.
“I’m healing you, can’t you do it while I do this?” Gilliam didn’t want to, this pressure, the situation, it was hard to even focus on healing which was surprisingly simple normally.
Jial grabbed Gilliam by the hair, crouched down a little and lifted Gilliam to his feet properly. Their eyes met and Jial’s piercing eyes were very, very different from normal. They had a pressure to them, something Gilliam didn’t recognize.
“Gilliam, people are dying-” he let go of his hair, it didn’t seem like this kind of attack was ever part of the plan, he just needed face to face.
“-You created a spell in seconds before my eyes, you can fucking read the magical runes. You can do this. Easily.”
There was an odd inspiration in his words, a weird rush of energy, Gilliam felt like Jial was right, he could actually do this.
He needed time, but as Jial mentioned he used only seconds to imagine a complex subject as a laser. He needed to piece the gem, the shield sphere protected against damage. In that case what he needed was something to actually pierce everything, something strong.
He had an idea.
Looking at Jial with an odd sense of determination, the look alone seemed to put Jial at ease a little bit.
“I need a little time.” Gilliam ordered.
Jial’s wounds had still not healed completely, but they weren’t bleeding anymore so progress had been made. He was in no good condition but he nodded in agreement to Gilliam’s orders nonetheless.
Wordlessly he turned around and in the matter of a few seconds three other mages came around them, Gilliam assumed there was some telepathy going on, he had seen similar reactions before when the general alert across the school faded at the same time.
Gilliam needed something strong, something that could hold an edge, a spear would be perfect, and there were plenty of those around.
Not taking the time to form a Magic circle, he tested with just his supersonic item throw.
Telekinetically picking up the spear he aimed it well, as well as he could, even if he missed it would at least prove if this could go through the barrier.
He focused a lot of energy, much more than he ever did when he threw the pebbles. Aimed again and let all of that energy go.
The spear cracked as it broke the sound barrier, soared towards its target and hit the shield. The impact caused the spear to crumble, bend and deform to an unusable blob of metal, the hilt shattered into splinters and spread itself across the shield. Everything fell to the ground like trash.
Fuck.
Gilliam noticed that the large boss demon took note of this and it didn’t seem to like it. Taking aim for Gilliam he threw one of the more eldritch looking creatures towards them shouting the order to “Kill that human!”.
Jial formed a circle in a split second and did a slamming motion, in the middle of the air the parabolic arch the incoming demon was in abruptly changed to a downwards thrust into the ground.
The guards around Gilliam did their best to hold things to their own, taking out incoming demons alongside the other men and women on the battle ground. Aeris seemed to have dropped in more people but the demons seemed endless. And the bossdemon had started to move towards them, attacking anything on the way.
Jial shouted a command for someone named Kintas to stall the demon. Gilliam didn’t see who or what this was but the attention of the boss changed suddenly to someone else.
He needed more energy, perhaps Jial was right, he didn’t have the time to fail a second shot, he needed to absolutely make it. Having seen videos back home about people shooting things the sentence ‘Speed penetrates armour’ proved that even a copper and lead projectile could penetrate most things, however if the target was just too hard to make a dent in, the energy would just spread. Immovable object problem.
Considering the destruction the fireball did, Jial might have had a good point. He needed to just ignore all logic altogether and overwhelm the whole thing.
He didn’t need a projectile, magic was its own projectile, he needed force, energy.
A magic circle’s internal structure was based on what needed to be connected to what. A rune connected to two runes would cause either a synergistic or problematic relationship. More force put into acceleration meant more speed, he didn’t have to consider speed just pure force in the throwing, this is why a stronger man can throw further than a faster man, momentum.
Air friction could tear anything apart if it moved fast enough, but a protection circuit could handle this.
Gilliam focused everything on this thought as he created a magical circle in the air, putting in runes, lines and shapes. Altering the lines, swapping the runes, making the circle smaller and placing it within a larger circle.
One of the guards around Gilliam had taken a serious hit, he looked alive but not combat worthy. He had to hurry and stop that portal.
He didn’t have time to quality check the magic circle he ended up with, the long seconds he used to create it had already hurt a lot of people, the next thing was to execute it.
Picking up another spear, this time with his hands, he channelled energy into the large magic circle. It had taken the form of three magic circles, the one closest to Gilliam was focused on protecting the spear, the second and third were just about adding throwing power at it, the second one had an aiming concept to go where he wanted as well.
Charging the circle took a while, one cannot just throw all the mana at it like a bucket, it had to be channelled into it, sometimes in specific areas to make sure the energy went where it needed to. He pumped all the energy he could into this, this had to work.
Demons tried to divebomb the circle more than once, throwing weapons, debris or just each other to interrupt the process. But Jial and his guards did a very good job at protecting it.
The circle glowed stronger and stronger until Gilliam put the spear’s tip into it, it looked like it was stuck in the circle for a second as the glowing energy around the first circle started enveloping it in yellow light. The two other circles started glowing a bright light and suddenly in a blink and you miss it moment, the spear was gone. The only thing remaining was a stream of light as its own magical jet-trail. The light stretched across the battlefield, through a demon, through the shield, through the gem and due to the angle it went straight through the clouds, the end was not seen.
Gilliam lost balance, fell and had to support himself with a knee in the ground and both his hands. He felt deep worry from Savia but he heard anything but worry from the defenders.
Looking up the gem above the arch it had a cracked hole straight through, the cracks spread across its surface to the point that small parts were falling off. The portal started flickering as it grew unstable, it looked like a fire storm, orange lighting across its surface and it seemed like it was going out at any moment.
All the demons on the field turned tail and headed for it, most got through, some were halfway through as the portal flickered and were cut in half. The boss started running, nobody strong enough to stop it at the moment, jumping through the flickering magical energy it got through, but not entirely. The lowest joint of its left foot remained as the rest of the gem fell apart, forcing the rest of the arch to fall apart like a house of cards. All the debris and gore that made it just fell straight down into a pile of rubble.
The battlefield was completely silent for a few solid seconds before everyone cheered, this was a victory!
Everyone that could heal changed their goal, there were more wounded than not. Most people got patch up healings, enough to make them stop bleeding out and not die. The critical people were focused on first and it just became a different kind of battlefield.
Gilliam was out of mana, the headache, the tunnel vision, it didn’t make it easier, but he halfway crawled over to the guard that took the most damage during his protection and channelled his healing spell on any wound he could see.
He was exhausted, the tunnel vision grew narrower and narrower until it simply closed.
Darkness.