The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (61 page)

Through the tops of the
trees, I could see dark clouds circling above the island, as if
several tornadoes were about to form all at once. Instead, however,
dark pillars shot down from the clouds, each one landing at a
different point on the island. From where I was, the only one that I
could see must have been Halor, the one to fight with Lilith.

He arrived kneeling, but
still his form was over fifty feet tall. His skin was covered in
metal rings circling around his limbs, his torso, even his neck. On
his face he had a single large, black eye, while his hands each only
had three fingers and a thumb. Once he stood, he began growing even
more, not stopping until he was half the size of the mountain he was
fighting. It was hard to tell at this distance, but it looked like
another figure jumped up and landed on his shoulder.
Probably
Lilith.

When the four generals of
Hell arrived, the forest trembled. No, literally, every tree, shrub,
and vine began shaking from either fear or anticipation. These four
beings could either be the meal that fuels the dragon’s growth,
or the cause of its destruction.

Realizing it was time for
the battle, I began my own preparations as well. “Spirits of
the second world, demons of the deepest pit. Grant me knowledge,
grant me wisdom, grant me power. Bestow upon me that which may help
those I hold dear.” My hands pressed against the shoulders of
my companions, and they became wrapped in the black and red flames
that we knew worked against this enemy. My second spell, Hellfire’s
Blessing, allowing me to extend my Hellfire Aura to friendly targets.

“
Guardians of the
eternal gates, wandering souls trapped in the abyss. I summon you
before me and request aid for one who is to do battle on my behalf.
Grant them your protection, and devour those unworthy.” This
time, the spell I cast was on Dariel alone, and didn’t have an
immediate effect. Finally, I activated my own aura. “We’ve
got to do this quick, so don’t hold anything back.”

Seeming to notice our
preparations, or perhaps reacting to the other battles in the forest,
roots and vines began reaching out at us. Thanks to the auras I
placed on the three of us, any vines that touched us would be turned
to ash within seconds. Sadly, the mana consumption for keeping three
auras activated like this was enormous, and the first of the nine
rings had already faded away. “Dariel, use your widest area
spell. It doesn’t matter if it deals damage or not.”

She glanced at me
suddenly, but then nodded. “Okay, cover me.” Denise and I
moved to opposite sides of her, slashing and burning any plants that
got near. “I am the voice of the wind and falling rain. I am
the herald of the thunder, the bringer of destruction. I am the storm
that feeds, the storm that devours.”

Lightning began arcing
amongst the clouds overhead, and the forest seemed to realize it
wasn’t getting anywhere with the small attacks. But really? Did
they have to try to start falling on us? After traveling with me,
Denise knew that you can’t allow a spell to be interrupted, so
she was the first to act. “Demon blade, hellfire slash!”
The thin wave of flames struck the falling tree head on, cutting it
in two and diverting it just enough to avoid falling on us while it
burned.

“
I call on the storm
of kings, let your thunder be the march that heralds the end! Emperor
Storm!” Dariel’s posture fell slightly as she activated
what had to be her biggest spell. A bright white light shot out from
her and up into the clouds above, and then the clouds themselves
appeared to be lit with a white flame. This flame was further
extended to the falling rain, crashing against friend and foe alike.

The true purpose of her
spell, though, was likely the wave of lightning that struck several
parts of the island at once. That wasn’t what I was after
though. The rain was enough for me. When the white flame came into
contact with the trees, they visibly slowed down, starting to wither.
This was the effect of my final spell, Soulfire Blessing. This spell
can only be used on another mage, and costs a large amount of soul
energy to cast, but it adds a life draining effect to the target’s
spells, selectively affecting perceived enemies.

Already, the second and
third rings on my hands were gone, and I had to hope this would be
over before I was completely out of energy. I heard a large crash in
the distance behind me, and turned to see that Halor had shattered
the mountain with his fists. Finally, I was able to see what was
behind all of this.

Emerging from its ‘egg’,
a mass of vines and trees shaped like a single gigantic animal
appeared. Even in this early stage of its life, the immense Halor
could not be compared to it in size. Its eyes were like two green
bulbs, its fangs and claws trees. When it extended its wings, they
could be seen above me even at this distance. But its roar, that
could truly be said to belong to the king of dragons, the volume of
it knocking the three of us off our feet.

Thanks to the Emperor
Storm, we didn’t have much problem with the rest of the trees
in our area, walking slowly towards the next position. I was using
the claws from my aura to attack with, afraid to cast any other
spells and accelerate the mana consumption. I was down to just five
rings, now. And the battle was only just beginning.

I could barely spare a
glance to the fight at the center of the island between attacking and
dodging. Even with all of my defenses, I would still take damage
briefly when a thorned vine struck me, and I knew that allowing a
tree to fall on me was not a wise career move. What I saw when I
could spare that brief glance, was the dragon breathing out a cone of
green light at Halor, smothering him in vines that he struggled to
pull off. The dragon’s head suddenly shot to the side, and I
imagined Lilith kicking it to get its attention.

Back to my own fight, we
were starting to encounter some interesting things as well.
Apparently, this forest had more than simply trees and shrubs. Vines
had come together, writhing in place until a form took shape.
Standing like a large hound, the green beast had three claws on each
of its four feet. Its eyes were large berries, while its teeth were
thorns. Above its head a name faded into view.
Lesser
Vine Beast
.

Around it, three more Vine
Beasts, all with identical appearances, began to form. Once the four
enemies were ready, they dashed towards us far faster than the vines
had moved on their own earlier. It seemed that coming together like
this countered the drain that the raining soulfire was causing. Or
they simply had so much life force that it wasn’t making a
dent.

Either way, they ran
serpentine patterns, moving out of the way of two of Denise’s
flaming slashes before closing the distance. They first one struck at
me with its plant claws, and I cried out when it dealt a full fifty
damage. To a fighter that might be nothing, but my maximum health was
less than three hundred. My aura scorched the claw of the beast, but
it quickly regenerated it with more vines that crawled onto its body.

Denise was faring much
better than myself, her full speed being unleashed and surpassing the
two hounds she fought by leaps and bounds -- literally. It was all
they could do to get away with minor wounds, unable to land even a
single hit on her. Still, any wounds she inflicted were quickly
healed by more vines. Glancing down, I saw that I was down to just
two of my nine rings now.

Dariel, like Denise, was
doing much better than myself. In fact, she had already dealt with
her vine beast by causing it to wither away with her nature magic.
Wow… I am the weakest person here.
Wasn’t I supposed to be the cheat?

Deciding I couldn’t
do this with just my aura, I activated my Scan spell and manifested a
scimitar. With this, the fight between myself and the vine beast
became more even, with me being able to read its movements enough to
dodge, and occasionally inflicting damage on it. Dariel, having used
one massive spell already, was saving her energy.

“
Denise, I’m
about to have to cancel your aura. Think you can make do with your
speed alone?” I shouted towards Denise when my eighth ring
faded.

“
Running out of
juice already, I’m disappointed!” Denise grinned to me,
showing that she was having quite a bit of fun. “Go ahead and
take it down. These guys can’t catch up to me.” Releasing
Omen, she let it fade back into her bracelet before grabbing the bow
Nightshade, sending two arrows of darkness into her opponents. As the
arrows hit, the vine beasts sagged, half of their bodies falling off
to the ground and withering faster than more vines could come to
replace them.

Seeing that she was indeed
handling the situation, I released her aura and used the remaining
magic in my last ring to fire a hellfire bolt at my own hound,
killing it with my first ranged attack tonight. With the last ring
faded away, my mana was gradually decreasing. It’d take too
long to cast the nine rings spell again, so I just focused on
conserving energy while doing what I could to fight.

Denise quickly took care
of her enemies, but then we heard two large crashes. One was from the
dragon in the distance being knocked to the ground, but another came
from in front of us. This time, rather than vines, entire trees were
twisting and coming together, snapping apart to form joints of eight
massive limbs.

“
Tell me that
isn’t…” I glanced up to the rapidly forming
creature, which had a round body made from the tops of the eight
trees, snapping fangs from protruding branches, and eight pinecone
eyes. This one had a name in much larger print above its head.
Greater Vine Beast.

There is way too much
difference between a lesser and a greater vine beast! That thing is
practically a titan!

“
It’s a giant
tree spider.” Denise shuddered next to me.

“
How.. do we take
that thing out..” I grumbled to myself. Well, on the bright
side, this thing was slow as hell since it had to lift legs made out
of trees.

“
Oh, I actually
think this’ll be easier than fighting the little ones. Even you
can dodge this guy.” She smiled, shooting several dark arrows
up into the tree spider, but unlike the hounds before, there was no
apparent damage done to this one. With a sigh, she switched back to
Omen, swinging a cut of hellfire when the monster turned to face her.

Her slash easily connected
with the spider’s body, but… maybe it shouldn’t
have? Before the wound was sealed by vines and branches, a dozen
lesser vine beasts fell to the ground like drops of blood. “Take
it back, this will not be easier!” I groaned out, aiming my
hand at the spider.
Was hoping to avoid using
this much mana…

Since Dariel was draining
the monsters to uselessness before they could attack her, I cancelled
the Hellfire Blessing on her as well, the balance of my magic now
allowing me to recover it even with my own aura still on. “As
one who has formed a contract with the underworld, may my command be
spoken and understood. Appear and rise, devour all, and crush the
souls before me. Open Pit.” Red light shone out from below the
vine beasts before the ground was ripped away in a burst of flames.
“Rise from the legion, Tome Demons. Aid us in our battle.”

Five figures rose up out
of the pit, flying straight up. Clad in red robes, these black
humanoids each had red eyes and two horns. When they encountered the
lesser vine beasts, they simply waved their hands and the monsters
flew into the flaming pit. Seeing the greater vine beast, they moved
towards the edge of the pit, aiming their hands at its center of
mass.

Streams of flame shot from
the Tome Demons and began incinerating the giant monster, causing
hordes of flaming vine beasts to fall directly into the pit below it,
until the monster’s legs gave way and it, too, fell into the
pit. With their initial target dealt with, the five demons each gave
me a nod and descended back from whence they came, the pit closing
behind them.

“
That is such a
cheat spell.” Denise smirked to me, shooting a stray vine beast
that had run up towards her.

“
That cheat spell
used half of my magic…” I grumbled as I focused on
letting my mana recover for a bit. Then, we heard more cracking wood
around us that grabbed our attention. Fearing that more greater
beasts were about to appear, we readied ourselves for battle. What we
saw wasn’t a monster appearing, though, a tree was simply
withering away into nothing before our eyes.

Knowing what this had to
mean, I looked back to the battle at the center of the island. One of
the feet of the dragon had been severed, but as more trees began to
wither and die it was quickly being healed faster than more damage
would appear. “Shit, this still isn’t fast enough.”
I was tempted to use Magus Wrath to wipe out the rest of our area,
but I couldn’t be certain that one of the generals hadn’t
finished up their end and wouldn’t be where I targeted.

Beside me, Dariel began
casting simple Gust spells, but this too carried the white fire from
the Soulfire Blessing. The result wasn’t so much that it pushed
the plants back, but it caused many to wither away as the life force
was sucked dry. “This is a really convenient spell..”