Chapter 84: To Cast A Spell! (Part 2!)

“Wait, so who is Ani Arma again?” Sitting a far distance from Krimm, Florato raised her hand.

“Alright, let me start again!” Not discouraged by them not following her lesson, Vega raised her talking stick back to the chalkboard.

Having turned the workplace into a school house, there were a great many chairs and desks arranged for each person. Despite there only technically being three students, Vega had filled the empty seats with plushies of her friends.

“Ani Arma, the Patriarch of Clan Adildaque, is our opponent.” Pointing out to a fierce yet childish doodle of him, Vega sought to illustrate his history. Using magnets to pin the papers up, she provided sources confirming what they knew.

“Right.” Florato underlined a few of her notes, tapping her lips with a pencil. “And he’s a-”

“An asshole?” Sorbet stood up in her seat, enthusiastically.

“Yes, but wait your turn.” Tapping her head with the stick, Vega made Sorbet bow her head.

“Uh, Ani Arma is a sorcerer?” Florato kept most of sight on her notes, only glancing at Vega for confirmation.

“Not only that, he is the sorcerer! As in, the only non magical being that has been-been shown to use magic without the aid of celestial beings.” Much of Vega’s knowledge of him was based on the encrypted notes Kaliber had left behind. And much of it was just scathing insults.

At times, Vega had to take a grain of salt when translating them, since she was sure at least half were exaggerations. Although she hated the guy, Kaliber absolutely fucking loathed Ani Arma.

“The only human able to do that?” Florato thought it through for a bit, before realizing Krimm and Sorbet were staring at her. “Oh! Sorry, I mean sentient being.”

“That’s better.” Krimm closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

“What else can he do?” Sorbet asked Krimm who only lifted an eye open and shrugged.

“Neat… and he is able to invade dreams?” Backing away from her notes, Florato got a much clearer picture of who they were up against.

“And also your thoughts! Thoughts too!” Sorbet gleefully added on.

“And is responsible for the destruction of numerous cities, all of the Snake Skins, as well as Operation Stomach Breaker. All that stuff.” Listed off all of his accomplishments like they were groceries, Krimm flipped up her fingers to number them out.

Not liking how Krimm was treating this, Florato scoffed and glared meanly at her. Seeing this, Vega laughed nervously before moving on to her next drawing.

A much larger, but equally as silly doodle of Ani, was what Vega pointed to next.

“Hehehe…anyway! From what we’ve learn-learned from the papers along with my dream-dreams, we know that Ani Arma is… heavily armored… super smart… adept of magical arts… has no soul-soul… has no ass…” Vega wrote down each with arrows pointing to the doodle.

Multiple arrows pointed to Ani’s lack of ass and cheeks.

Giggling, Florato put her hand on her mouth so Vega wouldn’t notice. She was surprised to see Krimm was doing the same. The moment the two saw each other, they both went stone faced.

While making progress, they weren’t going to make up that easily. Noticing this, Vega smiled and grew larger for a moment before relaxing back down.

“Now, this is part where you guys help-help me! What are some things we can do to combat him-him?” Vega lent out her hand, offering the talking stick to each of them. Sparing only a couple seconds, Sorbet grabbed with fast diligence.

“We can set him on fire!”

“Good! Fire bypasses armor. Good.” Vega wrote down the idea under a column named ‘Stuff to kill Ani’. “Who’s next?”

Slowly pulling the stick out of Sorbet’s hands, Krimm held it for a little bit before offering any insight.

“Draw him into a trap. Ani usually isn’t without guards or Assassins, so if we separate him or trap him, it will be a hell of a lot easier.” Krimm slapped her palm with her stick, giddy about the idea.

“Traps? Nice. Traps are gay. I mean-mean good. Good-good!” Vega stuttered out, adding it to the list.

“Can I have it?” Florato asked Krimm, who then threw the stick into her lap. “Okay, my answer is… Krimm.”

“Hmm?” The Fairy turned to the actress, putting out her hand asking for clarification.

“Krimm! Her! She’s the one who’s actually met the guy, why can’t she kill him?” Florato waved her stick in Krimm’s direction, who squinted at her in annoyance.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Yeah. Why can’t you kill him?” Sorbet added on. Wishing to step in front of them, Vega took a step but hesitating on the thought that Krimm could explain, she didn’t continue.

“You weren’t here for this, but I have a contract.” Taking in a short breath, Krimm sat back up and cleared her voice.

“A legally binding one?” Sorbet lifted her notes as an example. All she had were a couple doodles and images, which made Krimm groan.

“A legally and soul binding one. Yes.” The fairy did not speak with great happiness about the situation.

“So that means…” Florato tapped her lips, realizing how Krimm wasn’t an option.

“I can’t kill Ani even if I wanted to. Which I do, but that shit would literally drive me nuts. Also kill me.” Shrugging, Krimm dropped her head on the desk and rested.

“You should kill yourself, now!” Sorbet offered as a solution.

“Bro. Is this fucker serious? Krimm shook her head and spoke mainly to Florato and Vega.

“Uhh, Krimm is off the table! What, uh, else-else?” Vega sheepish held her hands to her lap.

“I think it would be better if we didn't have doodles to work with.” Krimm got up from her chair and approached the chalkboard.

“Ah! That’s a good idea!” Vega threw the talking stick overhead, happy to do something creative and less academic.

The stick also bumped Sorbet’s head. It was funny.

“You good?” Florato helped Sorbet from her seat, who simply answered with a smile.

“How about this? Ya guys take the descriptions of Ani from the papers and me and Krimm make our own? It will be more fun-fun together!” Vega handed each person a sheet of translated lines from their most recent research. Nothing was different besides what doodles Vega made in the margins.

“Yeah. That’s not bad. Let’s do this!” Sorbet cheered and each team went to their respective sides.

Vega and Krimm, using a toppled over wall, began to graffiti two images of Ani. This was for a bit of fun, but to also put into proper perspective of what they were up against.

Choosing to use multiple chalkboards, Sorbet and Florato made multiple sketches before committing to two depictions. This was more of an effort to make Ani understandable to themselves, crafting him from words to art.

After an hour of effort, the teams finished their work and met back at the center. With an expected giddiness, Sorbet waved everyone over to hers.

A tiny sculpture, made up of glued together fragments of pottery and scrap. Compared to the Jantok Sky, it was much more random and disordered. Yet, there was a lot of fun in it, with Ani’s chainmail being made of red wires.

“Heh, that’s pretty neat. Though, he doesn’t look too intimidating.” Vega tapped the sculpture’s head, making it bob up and down.

“Yeah, but I know everyone else is treating him like a big monster. Better to make him seem like something we can beat, you know?” Sorbet spoke proudly of her art direction, even if it nearly toppled over a couple times.

“No-no.” Kaliba flew on Sorbet’s head and burped.

“I get it. But, I think mine does it a little better.” Gesturing everyone over to another corner, Florato led the way to her work.

Underveiling her piece with a pulling of a curtain, Florato had a grand and almost theatrical piece. Using various paints and tiles, Florato constructed a tall fresco of Ani, posing proudly.

Her’s had a musical bobiness, like Ani was dancing to enchanting songs. Although it didn’t fit the description, it kept in mind how unpredictable and odd he was. A man that always dressed in armor that looked alive.

Everyone gave approving grunts and nods, except for Sorbet.

“He looks…fruity?” Sorbet spoke unsurely.

“Like Skaldi?” Krimm said.

“Like Skaldi?” Florato said.

“Like Skaldi?” Kaliba said.

“Like me?” Vega pointed to herself, and everyone stared at her for a moment. Oh, like-like Skaldi?”

“No, like he’s full of juice…. That sounds weird now that I said it.” Covering her eyes in embarrassment, Sorbet regretted bringing up juice.

“Juicy… that’s not an inaccurate description. I’ll take it!” Florato threw her hair over her shoulder, happy with their reactions.

“Whatever, let’s just go to mine.” Krimm pulled Sorbet by the back of her dress and waved everyone over. She simply pointed hers out and moved out the way, not giving much presentation.

Krimm’s skill with drawing was a lot less sophisticated, but got a more realistic picture of who Ani was. She used individual bricks with parts painted over and swapped around, making Ani look like an upside down pyramid.

And for some reason, it didn’t look too silly and got what she saw across. A real ruler that valued results over showmanship. Proud, but not so much a performer.

“Yeah. I got this done pretty quickly, so I know it kind of sucks.” Krimm turned around and looked at everyone else’s art.

“Ya kidding? This is pretty cool. I like his shape-shape.” Vega stepped right beside the wall, seeing the craftsmanship on the placements.

“Aw, now I wish I did a wall painting instead. Still, pretty nice.” Sorbet joined right beside Vega.

Florato had to admit there was plenty of work put into it, even if it was a little messy. Regardless, she approached Krimm and gave her a soft pat on the shoulder.

“Not bad.” Florato commended her softly before following Vega. Krimm felt a little warmer and realized that the others actually liked it. A tiny smile came to her face and she walked over to Vega’s section.

“Alright folks, I worked real hard-hard on this. So I want ya to close ya eye-eyes. Kay?” Vega stopped everyone from turning the corner, for it had been a large sheet of paper on the adjacent wall.

“Gay?” Sorbet asked for clarification.

“Why does everyone say that?” Krimm shook her head in confusion, before closing her eyes.

“Probably because half the group is some type of gay.” Florato shrugged and then followed suit.

“Ya know, it's weird no one has yet to point that out-out yet-yet.” Vega rubbed her bandage nose, thinking how odd it sort of was. “But then again, we do have two elfs and a scarecrow, so that’s also weird-weird.”

“Really? I thought it was just a point of entry for being in the group.” Closing her eyes, Sorbet turned to the sound of Vega’s voice.

“Shush!” Grabbing their hands one at a time, Vega moved them over to the front of the drawing.

With a bated breath, everyone waited for Vega’s signal. A faint excited built up, ready to see her picture of Ani.

“Now.” A cold, deadly voice spoke. It was Vega’s, and so everyone opened them.

There he was. Ani Arma, rendered on paper and depicted. A hollow feeling came to everyone’s stomachs, as they saw him. Not a vague picture or doodle, but him on paper.

The drawing Vega surprisingly lacked a lot of color, only having grey and red, which made everyone feel off. Most of her drawings were vibrant and lively, but this was terrible and threatening.

Like a tree that’s too straight and sharp. Or a rock too soft and weak. Or a heart that beats too fast and too hard.

Or a hate that smiles.

Something that shouldn’t be so.