Catching Professor Alrik up on what happened since he passed out didn’t take very long. In fact, once Gabe mentioned that the wyvern used Psysonic magic, the older gnome pieced the rest together on his own.
“That would explain the reaction to my Sentient Echo spell. Since the creature uses mind magic of its own, it sensed the spell and used the connection formed to counterattack. I had not been anticipating such a response and as such I did not have any form of mental protection up. A mistake I will not make again. Drevock, I assume your defenses are sufficient?”
After receiving a nod from the man, Professor Alrik chanted a spell three times in quick succession. The only noticeable effect of the spell was a brief pulse of deep purple light and sudden pop in Gabe’s ear. All at once there was a strange sensation just on the outskirts of his awareness. It was difficult to interact with it directly, but its presence was constant, a slight pressure that felt reassuring rather than confining.
“This will protect us from the mental aspects of the wyvern’s magic, however we are still vulnerable to the sonic components, to say nothing about its talons and venom. We will need to come up with a plan to face it. I doubt that it will be likely to leave its nest again now that it knows we are so close. Simon, have you recovered enough mana to form a hole through the dome so that we may see what our foe is doing?”
When Professor Alrik had first woken up, Simon had let Gabe handle the explanation so that he could meditate and regain some of his mana. Without getting up from his seated position, or even opening his eyes, the apprentice earth mage made a quick gesture with his left hand and a circle of stone two feet in diameter melted into the surrounding rock, leaving behind a sheet of crystal clear enough to see through.
The window was placed on the side of the dome where they’d last seen the wyvern, but looking through it now all they could see was their campsite. Gabe realized that even the faint echoes of the wyverns screech had long since died down. He walked up to the window to try to see more of the surrounding area but was unable to locate the beast.
“I think it might be gone,” he said while still pressing his face against the window. “It had difficulty flying after Drevock hit its wing with his ax. Maybe it flew back to its nest?”
“Perhaps, though wyverns are not known to flee once they have engaged their prey. It is possible that once I cast Thoughtward on the three of us, it was no longer able to sense our minds and assumed we died under the dome. Simon, could you expand the window all around the dome. I want to be sure it has left before we take down our protection.”
Another series of gestures from Simon led to a band of stone encircling the entire dome sliding away to reveal more crystal that gave them a 360° view. The three of them, Simon was still recovering his mana, walked around the edge of the dome trying to see if they could spot any evidence of the wyvern. After they’d each circled the structure twice, they all agreed that there was no trace of the creature.
Gabe was relieved at this. Dealing with a surprise wyvern attack as soon as he woke up was not something he’d ever want to go through again. Though he did feel a bit of pride at how he’d responded this morning compared to with the prowlers. Now that the immediate danger had passed and the adrenaline coursing through his veins diminished, he actually let out a short laugh.
This was exactly the type of danger that he’d wanted to avoid by not joining an adventuring team, but now that he’d lived through it he found that the experience wasn’t all that bad. Living through it had been terrifying of course and it certainly wasn’t something he’d want to do on a regular basis, but he had to admit there was an intoxicating thrill to surviving in face of such adversity. He could see why adventurers repeatedly threw themselves into dangerous situations, and that wasn’t even factoring in the rewards. If this was the price for magical knowledge and gold, well Gabe was starting to see why it was worth it.
“Well that was certainly an interesting start to our morning,” Gabe said as he turned to face the others. “Since it flew away injured, it’ll probably be nursing its wounds in its nest so we should be pretty safe here. I think we all deserve a big breakfast after that ordeal, what do you think?”
The promise of food was enough to stir Simon from his meditation. Standing up, he stretched his arms out before rubbing his stomach.
“I concur with the junior apprentice. Food, and lots of it. Who wants to bet whether or not those berries on the trees are poisonous or not? First things first though, let’s get out of this hovel.”
With a short gesture from Simon, a hole formed in the center of the dome and expanded outward as the stone and crystal sank back into the ground. Gabe tilted his head up, waiting to feel the warmth of the sunlight against his face. Instead, as the hole in the ceiling grew and their shelter diminished, a dark shadow fell over them. Even worse, the shadow was growing larger.
Drevock reacted first. Still suffused in an orange light, he dove towards the others. Luckily they were close enough together that the large man was able to grab all three before turning slightly and crashing back-first through the remnants of Simon’s spell. Barely a second later, the wyvern’s powerful hind legs impacted right where they’d just been, its large wings sending out a spray of stone and crystal as it tore down the rest of the dome. Its haunting screeched pierced the air once more as it turned towards its prey.
Whatever Drevock’s aura was, it must be increasing his sturdiness and resilience as he barely seemed phased by what he’d just done. After diving through the wall and rolling with the other three tucked under his arm, Drevock released them and jumped right up in order to begin stalking towards the wyvern, ax at the ready.
Gabe on the other hand was hurting in a half dozen places and was disoriented from the movement. His aura had faded while they were looking for the wyvern through the crystal window and as such he didn’t have any magic boosting his ability to handle such a tumultuous experience. From the groans coming from Simon, it seemed he wasn't fairing much better. Luckily the Restorative Shield Gabe had cast earlier was still in effect, so Professor Alrik appeared mostly alright as he stood up shakily. His ward was protecting them from the psionic aspects of the wyvern’s screech, so the three of them were only having to deal with a sharp pain in their ears instead of the daggers to mind.
Rolling onto his knees, Gabe steadied himself to cast Aura of Vitality once more. It was still hard to focus with the wyvern’s attack blasting in his ear, but he’d been having a lot of practice casting this spell while distracted. Tracing the pattern of the spell in the dirt as he cast it, he again modified it to increase its range while keeping its strength the same. Seeing how much Restorative Shield was helping the professor, he wanted to make sure he had enough mana to cast it again for himself, Simon, and even Drevock.
Their bodyguard certainly had some potent magic of his own, but a shield that blocked attacks and increased health regeneration would be helpful to anyone, especially since he was down an ax. Drevock was currently circling the wyvern, who was still on the ground, its injured wing folded up awkwardly at its side. Its other wing and tail were stretched out, allowing it to balance its large frame. Realizing that its screech attack wasn’t having an effect against the glowing man, the wyvern abruptly cut it off and begin inhaling as a soft gray light coalesced around its gaping jaw.
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With his aura buffing them and the break in the creature’s attack, Gabe, Simon, and Professor Alrik were able to group up some 15 feet away from Drevock and wyvern faced off. Simon was the first to speak up, voicing what all three were thinking.
“Any guesses as to what it’s building up for? And whether or not our mighty friend will be able to handle it?”
“From the color of the gathering mana, I would presume it to be a wind-based attack,” stated Professor Alrik. “The rate at which it is collecting that mana is worrying. Whatever is about to come from its mouth is sure to be powerful. While I have complete faith in Drevock and his ability to overcome such a blast, it would not do for us to leave him without assistance. Simon, you and I will distract the creature while Gabriel runs toward Drevock.”
When Professor Alrik said that they should help out Drevock, Gabe was completely on board. There was no way they’d leave the man to deal with the wyvern by himself. However, he hadn’t expected that he’d be the one running into the battle. Hell, his only offensive spells were those in his ring. While he wanted to help, this didn’t seem like the smartest move. He was about to say as much when the wyvern unleashed its latest attack.
When Gabe was a small child, a bard came through Forlet singing tales of wondrous and far off places. One story that had always stuck in his mind was that of the Evajiomu Desert far to the southwest where the very air gathered together into a towering column of swirling wind. These columns, these tornadoes as the bard had called them, moved through the sands faster than a stallion in the prime of its life, causing untold devastation and leaving nothing but churned sand and ruin in its wake. What came out of the wyvern’s jaw reminded Gabe very much of that story.
A funnel of twisting air burst from between the creature's fangs, expanding in size the farther it got from the wyvern. Drevock was struck dead on and was sent flying along the ground. With a loud bellow, he slammed his remaining ax, which was now glowing with Drevock’s characteristic orange light, deep into the ground. The force of the wyvern’s breath attack was great enough to keep Drevock afloat as he tightened his grip on his ax’s handle
Fortunately for the others, they weren’t directly behind Drevock so they were only hit with a fraction of the attack’s power. Unfortunately for them however, was that even a portion of the creature's mighty attack was enough to send them flying off to the side where they impacted hard against their shelter from the previous night.
They impacted hard enough that Professor Alrik’s shield burst into green light, having already been weakened from their escape from the dome. Gabe heard a crack in his chest and found that he had a sharp pain on his left side when he tried to breath. His aura allowed him to push through the pain, but he was afraid that a broken rib could puncture his lung. As delicately as he could, he placed a hand over his side and cast the tier two version of Repair, hoping that it would work. Relief instantly flooded through him as his spell repaired his bones, something that it couldn’t do as a tier one spell.
Even though the shield broke in the process, it must have blunted most of the impact from Profesor Alrik as the old gnome seemed mostly alright, if a little dazed. Simon wasn’t faring so well as it looked like he’d cracked his head against the stone structure. He was unconscious with blood trailing down his face from a cut that ran along the side of his head just past his ear. Seeing him in such a state, Gabe immediately went to work.
Despite everything going on, Simon lying unconscious before him with an open head wound, the tornado the wyvern summoned still bursting from its mouth, Gabe no longer felt any fear. Whether it was his aura or just the clarity that comes from being a medic with a patient in need, everything in front of came into sharp focus. Everything else was just a distraction and in his current state of mind, he had no room for distractions. With a speed that rivaled Simon, Gabe began to cast with both hands.
Before, when he’d only known Repair, Gabe had gotten so good at the spell that he could cast it multiple times in a row so quickly that many people had assumed he was casting them concurrently. Strictly speaking, that wasn’t exactly true as when he weaved the spellforms in his soul, he had to do them one at a time because there was only so much space. It was a hard concept to describe to someone who couldn’t access their mana, but his soul could only handle a certain amount of mana within it at a given time. The first time he’d cast Repair, he’d felt some resistance as he forced his soul to accommodate the formed mana. As he grew older and used his mana more regularly that resistance gradually lessened as his soul grew large enough that his spellforms no longer butted against the edges of it. Even when he cast his tier two spells he hadn’t felt that resistance. Even with large spellforms, his soul was more than capable of handling the complex patterns.
What Gabe felt now was less of a resistance and more of a ripping sensation. Within his soul, Gabe was guiding four strands of mana all at the same time. Two he controlled with just his will, a tight braid of mana weaving through a spellform that was as close to Gabe’s sense of self as his own name. The other two he used his hands to guide as he split his focus to simultaneously cast Restorative Shield. Everything else faded away as his attention was solely focused on his casting. The ripping sensation gave way to a pain that Gabe felt so deep, he had never experienced anything like it before. This caused him to almost lose his hold on the threads of mana, but with the last of his determination he powered through completing both spellforms.
All at once the pain in his soul lessened as a deep green energy pulsed from his hands into Simon. A dull throbbing sensation still lingered, but that was okay with Gabe as Simon woke with a start, a translucent shield a much darker shade of green than the one Professor Alrik had recently lost appearing in front of him. Gabe slumped to the ground next to him, giving Simon a cocky grin.
“I may only be a junior apprentice, but I can cast some impressive stuff too. You’re welcome.”
The wyvern’s breath attack finally died down and without the wind keeping him aloft, Drevock fell hard to the ground. The warrior was up in an instant, charging towards the wyvern with his glowing ax extended. He bent his knees and jumped nearly ten feet into the air to deliver a swipe across the beast’s neck but was interrupted by its tail which hit Drevock in the side and sent him tumbling through the air.
The wyvern turned to pounce on the armored man but much to its surprise found that one of its massive legs had sunk into the ground. This moment of distraction was enough to let Drevock roll to a stop and get back up and charge the beast once more. He closed the distance between them in a flash of orange light and was able to swing his ax right into the trapped leg. The blade bit through scale and muscle alike, only being stopped by the wyvern’s bone.
The creature roared in pain and attempted to remove its limb from the ground but found that it was unable to. The creature’s blood, deep red that was almost black, flowed freely from its wound and soon the ground around it was saturated. The wyvern tried to gather its mana for another breath attack but it lost its concentration as shards of rock flew at its face.
The small stones weren’t enough to damage the creature as they broke against its tough scales, but they were enough to distract it and prevent it from using its magic. Drevock, who had been attempting to sneak up on the creature to take another swipe at its leg, suddenly dropped to the ground to avoid another blow from its tail. He rolled away as the wyvern slammed its tail onto the ground, hopping back up onto his feet to make another attempt as he circled around the creature.
With its leg still stuck, the wyvern used its long serpentine neck to keep track of where Drevock was. Unfortunately for it, this meant that it didn’t notice when Professor Alrik finished chanting a spell. What it did notice was the bright band of light that now encircled its head. Blinded and trapped, the creature began to thrash about, whipping its tail and extending its wings to try to gain enough leverage to pull itself out and fly. It tried its psysonic screech again, but with everyone warded in one way or another, the attack lacked the same impact it did previously.
Being mindful of the tail, Drevock approached from the creature’s left side. As he bent his knees to jump, a large rock burst from the ground on the wyvern’s right side. Blinded but not deafened, it lashed out at the rock with its tail, creating an opening for Drevock to leap up and swing at its head. The blade bit deep into the wyvern’s neck but was stopped by one of the large spines that lined its neck and back. As it continued to thrash about in an attempt to dislodge Drevock, a shockwave of orange light pulsed out of the weapon straight through the wyvern’s neck. With a sickening squelch, the wyvern’s head fell to the ground and its body stilled.