Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 216, Season of the Setting Moon, Day 3 –

“Can we go above?” asked Calam.

“Not without a fight,” said Siling. “From Terry’s and Miguel’s description, the signatures on the left are likely to be flaming geese.”

“Sounds like a dish,” remarked Miguel. “What can they do?”

“Spit fire, mostly,” said Siling. “Aside from that, their wings are supposed to be quite hard and sharp. Furthermore, the teeth-like projections lining their tongue can inject some kind of fire-aspected venom.”

“Did you just say ‘teeth’ on their tongue?” Calam looked horrified.

“Never seen a goose up close before?” interjected Miguel with a raised eyebrow. “That’s normal.”

“Not really teeth, but teeth-like projections,” said Siling. “But yes, basically.”

“It’s also worth mentioning that most geese are assholes,” said Miguel. “I doubt the mana corruption has changed that aspect.”

“The flaming geese are known to be very aggressive.” Siling pointed out.

“Then why don’t they attack the other mana corrupted next to them?” asked Calam.

“Different aspects,” said Terry while observing the surroundings. “The wildebeests are primarily nature-aspected. The oversized hares are pure darkness corruptions.”

“Yeah, most likely not the same food chain,” said Siling. “And the flaming geese can fly faster than they can run, so they feel more threatened by something blocking the sky. They defend their escape route.”

“Can we use the cloaking rings from the bandits?” asked Lori. “They’ve been quite useful so far.”

“We can try, but the rings are obviously targeted at countering people.” Siling shook her head. “The flaming geese have thermal sight. And among the other creatures, they have an excellent sense of smell and even better sense of hearing. Especially with the nightmare hares. The rings don’t help us there.”

“I have an idea,” said Terry. He looked at Calam and Siling. “If the geese are our main concern, we can use a few empowered Kinetic Push spells to hurl the others above them. No matter if they are deciding to flee or attack the other mana corrupted, it would take care of our problem.”

Terry glanced at Miguel. “And if things don’t work out, we can take them out.” He moved his gaze over the horizon. “But in either case, we need to get some distance afterwards. Any battle is a risk to attract further trouble, especially if it’s loud and bloody.”

***

Terry tensed when Calam and Siling threw their empowered Kinetic Push spells. The mana-corrupted creatures were hurled through the air and right into the group of flaming geese.

“Hmph.” Terry gestured to his companions.

Their plan had worked partly. The flaming geese had attacked the other mana corrupted and the wildebeests fled as soon as they were able to.

The nightmare hares, by contrast, decided to fight back and the surrounding hares all joined in on the fight.

Terry and the others used the chaos to pass by the creatures and regroup.

“Wait…” Terry moved his head. “The wildebeests are changing direction and circling back here in a collective stampede.”

“Not as peaceful as we hoped,” remarked Miguel. “Attack or redirect?”

“Neither,” said Terry pensively. “Better for the wildebeest to do as much damage as they can.” He glanced back to the fight among the mana corrupted. “The flaming geese should be distracted enough. Let’s go above the wildebeests while staying as low as possible.”

Peekaboo grabbed onto Miguel and then Calam used his jump spells to propel himself and the floating group that consisted of Peekaboo, Miguel, and Siling. Meanwhile, Terry carried Lori on his back and stepped into the air. The group passed over the stomping mana-corrupted wildebeests and then returned to ground level.

“That was an impressive improbability,” exclaimed Siling with a glance behind her shoulder.

“What?” asked Calam. “Is it improbable for wildebeests to retaliate in that manner?”

Miguel narrowed his eyes at Siling. “I know that tone. That’s the tone that Gellath has when he thinks he’s being funny.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Siling maintained a deadpan expression.

“Dodge to the sides!” shouted Terry while hurriedly throwing a tertium slab to the ground before jumping himself. Without understanding why, everyone followed Terry’s order on reflex.

*TANG* *Rumble*

Something collided from below with the transfixed slab and the earth quaked.

“Earth-aspected signature below,” shouted Terry. “Big and fast. It seems to take a long run-up.”

Siling and the others all nodded. They were now able to sense it as well.

“Back into the air,” shouted Siling. She floated up and had her jumpscare cuttlefish soul spirit carry Miguel.

In the air, Miguel transfixed one of Terry’s imprinted tertium slabs. This slab had a slit for Miguel to shoot his arrows through. Terry prepared another transfixed tertium slab for Lori to stand on.

“I’ll bait it out,” shouted Terry.

“I’ll follow-up,” shouted Lori.

“Me first,” shouted Calam.

“We’ll do the rest,” muttered Miguel while aiming his bow. Next to him, Siling readied her arcane abilities and entangling root spell.

Terry intentionally stomped around the ground until he could sense the earth-aspected signature approaching again. He transfixed several throwing needles and stepped into the air.

A long, greenish spike protruded from the ground, followed by a massive earth-colored fish.

“Stonespear fish!” shouted Siling. “Liquify earth and stoneskin abilities.”

Despite its protective stoneskin, the stonespear fish’s large momentum caused the transfixed needles to pierce the mana corrupted creature. As soon as the stonespear fish came to a halt, Calam arrived from the side and threw his Kinetic Push into the creature’s flank while Terry’s throwing needles inside it were still transfixed.

Next, Lori jumped from her tertium slab and cast her spell combination of Harden Earth and Rockspall Touch on the ground where the stonespear fish emerged from. The unleashed rock projectiles damaged the creature further.

When Lori darted to the side, Miguel followed through with ice-aspected arrows while Siling simultaneously entangled the stonespear fish with roots and attacked with arcane bolts.

After Siling confirmed that the life signature had vanished, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

“That could have gotten ugly,” murmured Miguel.

Terry bit his lip before shaking his head. “We should get away from here. Let’s move.”

***

“Hold the position,” shouted Terry and glanced at their improvised fortifications.

Lori stood on one of her rock walls and punched out an earth-aspected discharge towards a fire spirit.

“I’d say it’s worth using the powder again,” said Calam. “There’s so many of them.”

Terry nodded. “Yes, we need to thin out the spirits and weaker elementals quickly.”

“I still have a few mana suction arrows,” said Miguel. “Should be enough for the weaker fire elementals that don’t have a protective crystal yet.”

Terry weighed his head from side to side slightly. “Keep a few in reserve, just in case.”

“Me and Muttonchops will stick with arcane bolts,” said Siling. “Keep the powder for emergencies.”

“The problem is the two elementals in the back,” said Lori. “They seem to be of a higher rank and while they don’t attack, they seem to be coordinating the rest somehow.”

“Why are they hanging back anyway?” asked Siling. “Seems odd. If they are so interested in that tunnel, why don’t they go in?”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” remarked Terry with a wary expression. “We need to get through that tunnel, after all.” Terry took a deep breath while examining everyone’s mana status. Afterwards, he clenched his fists. “I’ll take care of the high ranks in the back.”

“Then I’ll go with you,” said Lori.

“No,” said Terry while shaking his head. “I’m faster alone and if anything goes wrong, I’ll need a place to retreat to.” He looked at Lori. “And your abilities are better suited to defending our fortifications in this case.”

“I could push the coagulant powder from above to keep your path clear,” suggested Calam.

“No need.” Terry shook his head again. He looked resolutely towards his targets. “I got this.” He nodded to himself. “Focus on thinning them out back here.” Terry channeled mana into his helmet and a barrier visor covered his face. He looked at the incoming fire spells.

“Allow me at least,” said Siling and without waiting for a response, she channeled mana into one of the mana cores in her shield. A water-aspected barrier appeared in front and blocked the current barrage of fire-aspected spells.

Terry burst his mana and dashed forward into the group of aspect beings. He air-jumped above and continued towards the higher ranked elementals while nimbly dodging the incoming fire spells. He left his stunned companions behind in their fortifications.

“Calam, didn’t you want to do something?” asked Siling.

“Huh?” Calam was still staring at Terry’s back. “Oh! Right!” Calam used his Kinetic Acceleration spell to propel himself into the sky where he scattered a package of mana-coagulant powder and pushed it into the spirits with his Kinetic Push spell.

“Pheew,” uttered Miguel while carefully selecting the most suitable targets for his mana suction arrows. “Seems as if Terry is getting faster whenever I’m taking time to blink.”

Lori scowled angrily at an approaching fire elemental. She emitted a low growl and punched out a large earth-aspected discharge that even attracted bits of earth from the ground before breaking apart the fire elemental’s unprotected mana formation.

“Save some mana,” reminded Siling.

“Yeah, sorry,” grumbled Lori. She glanced at Terry’s figure in the distance and clenched her fist with a frustrated expression.

Terry dropped from the sky and right in front of the two higher-ranked fire elementals. As soon as Terry had landed, many fire arrows were flying at him. He took another deep breath and dashed forward unflinchingly.

Shortly before the fire projectiles hit him, Terry unleashed his prepared disruption pulse and then began circulating his mana according to his resistance training exercises. The combination of the disruption, his fire-resistant armor and his own resistance allowed Terry to break through while examining the mana protective crystals.

For a breath’s time, Terry hesitated while mentally taking stock of his remaining mana cores. Afterwards, resolve flashed through Terry’s eyes. He channeled more mana into his helmet and accelerated his resistance circulation. He pulled his keen daggers and held his breath…

Terry charged right into the elemental’s body of raging fire. Time seemed to move very slowly for Terry until he began hacking the protective mana crystal into pieces. After the elemental’s mana dispersed, Terry inhaled deeply. The lingering heat burned his throat. He clenched his teeth, focused on his mana circulation, and charged at the second elemental.

Back at the fortifications, Miguel stared with mouth agape.

“Miguel!” shouted Lori.

“Huh?” Miguel blinked. “Oh.” He ignited the primer of his prepared spellwork and a coldfire-aspected variant of Burning Hands eliminated the approaching spirit in front of him.

“What is it?” Lori jumped to Miguel. She tried to follow his gaze and squinted. “Everything alright with Terry?”

“Uhh, yes, but uhh…” Miguel puffed his cheeks. “He’s just… I don’t know. Slightly insane? More slightly insane than usual.”

“What?” Lori furrowed her brows.

“Let me put it this way: Terry has found a way to deal with the stronger elementals without using up a monster core,” said Miguel with a deadpan expression. “That’s a good thing, right?” Miguel pulled another mana suction arrow from his enchanting quiver and shot it at a weaker fire elemental whose mana formation lay exposed.

***

Terry’s group was proceeding slowly through the tunnel.

“There’s dried blood here,” said Miguel while crouching down.

“Can you sense anything?” Siling asked Terry with a troubled expression.

“No,” replied Terry with an equally troubled expression. “There must be some kind of mana-osmotic ore in the rock around us.”

“Let me try something.” Terry retrieved a ring from his dimensional bag. He channeled mana into it and a slightly translucent, purple vampire bat appeared in the air with fluttering wings.

Terry closed his eyes and then shared his senses with the spirit projection. Afterwards, he guided the bat projection forward in the tunnel. Terry fought down the feeling of nausea and opened his own eyes while grimacing. “Ugh…”

“Are you sure you can keep this up?” asked Miguel.

“Better than walking blindly,” said Terry with a shrug.

“I’ll switch Peekaboo with Pricklybum,” said Siling. “Tremor sense should be helpful.”

They proceeded through the tunnel for half an hour when Terry motioned for everyone to stop.

“There’s something ahead,” said Terry. He glanced at Siling.

“Pricklybum doesn’t sense anything,” said Siling with creased brows.

Terry closed his eyes and focused on the sensory input from the bat projection. “The smell of blood gets stronger. Something is at the center.”

“Hmph.” Terry frowned and opened his eyes. “The spirit projection is gone.”

“Did ‘something’ get to it?” asked Lori while clenching her barrier spear more tightly.

“I’m not sure,” said Terry. “There was still some distance.”

“Did you get a look at the thing?” asked Siling.

“It was a bit blurry, but…” Terry tried to recall the different sensory inputs. “I would say it resembled a large bear and it definitely had blood running through its veins.”

“Perhaps just a cave bear?” Miguel wondered out loud.

“If it was just that, then why would the fire elementals be so antsy outside the tunnel?” reminded Siling.

“Wait…” Terry sensed a flicker of something in his mana sense and closed his eyes. After several breaths, Terry opened his eyes again. “I believe I might know what’s going on.” He turned to the others. “I think I sensed an earth spirit. Together with what we know, it’s possible that there’s a demon in there. Possessed bear of some kind.”

“Did the bat sense any corporeal elementals?” asked Lori.

“No, but it’s just a vampire bat, so best not to rely on its senses too much,” said Terry. “Better for you to stay above ground-level before we have gotten a good look ourselves.”

Lori nodded. She had already been wearing her darkvision goggles and now, she moved her mask above her nose and mouth as well.

“Any idea of the area?” asked Miguel while nocking a plain arrow.

“An open cavern,” said Terry. He glanced at Calam. “Large enough for aerial movement.”

Calam nodded and grabbed his barrier spear tightly.

“Let’s go with the usual,” suggested Terry and the others nodded.

Siling unsummoned the wiremoss tarantula soul spirit. Terry and Lori moved to the front, followed by Calam, and Siling hung back with Miguel and her purplemist lynx soul spirit. They cautiously proceeded through the tunnel.

When they reached the cavern, Terry dashed forward and unleashed an intense disruption discharge that evaporated many earth elementals.

Right behind him, Lori created walls of stone with several slits to shoot arrows and spells through. Once she was done with one layer, she shaped another batch of earth to increase the height and thickness of the fortifications.

Terry hurriedly moved his eyes and mana sight over the area while stepping into the air. He sensed Calam’s signature behind him.

The earth spirits began their counterattack and small rocks came flying.

Calam cast Kinetic Push and forced all the projectiles back.

“Crap,” muttered Terry with a frown. He shouted: “That bear carries mixed aspects separate from the earth-aspected elemental signature!” Terry unleashed another disruption discharge while making sure to try and reabsorb the mana.

Below, Siling peeked through one of the gaps in their fortifications.

Next to her, Miguel dipped his arrow first in water and then in the mana-coagulant powder. He aimed through an arrow slit and chose a path that would hit at least three approaching earth spirits. Then, Miguel loosened the arrow and moved his gaze to the main threat further back.

“Looks more like a grizzly to me,” said Miguel. He examined how his prepared arrow had performed. He retrieved an ice-aspected arrow to finish a stronger earth spirit that hadn’t been affected by the trace amounts of mana-coagulant powder.

Siling frowned and bit her lip. “The fur looks discolored and there is sand clinging everywhere. I don’t know if that’s from mana corruption or from elemental possession. I can’t sense any details with the elemental possession.”

“Let’s poke the bear,” said Miguel and pulled an arrow from his enchanting quiver for exploding arrow-heads. He shouted: “Exploding arrow outgoing!”

*Thwish* *Wram* “ROAR!”

“I believe you made it angry,” said Siling with a wry smile. “It did not trigger any defensive abilities though. Still not sure what it could be.”

The bear roared. It slashed its claws and three giant sand blades were rushing towards the fortifications.

Terry let himself drop in front of the fortifications while summoning a tertium slab which he transfixed to take the brunt of the incoming attack.

“Lori?” shouted Terry.

“No need to block that next time.” Lori shouted back. “At that level, the hardened rock is enough!”

Terry nodded and stepped into the air and closer to the bear to get a better sense of its mana.

Meanwhile, Miguel continued firing different arrows to probe and injure the possessed creature.

Unexpectedly, the bear had decided to meet Terry half-way. Cloud-like air pockets had appeared underneath its paws and it had rushed into the air. Terry hurled an octavum needle into the bear’s path while concentrating on his mana sight.

Inside the fortifications, Siling became pensive. “Air-walking grizzly…” She muttered to herself. Suddenly, her eyes opened widely.

Terry and Siling shouted at once. “Primarily air and poison aspects!” “Retreat!”

"Roar!" The bear had charged right into the transfixed throwing needle. It stopped its movement when the needle didn’t budge. Its eyes began glowing.

Before Terry and Calam could return to the fortifications, the demonic beast spat out a giant cloud of green gas.

Being taken off-guard by the sudden large-scale attack, both of them inhaled some of the gas. Calam directly lost consciousness while Terry felt himself getting slightly hazy.

Terry hurriedly retreated and hurled a heavy spray container towards the immobile bear. The container transfixed a short distance from the mana-corrupted creature. The inertia carried the heavy weight inside and a blast of acid was sprayed into the bear’s face, which caused the grizzly to howl in pain.

Near their fortifications, Lori had caught Calam and saved him from impacting on the ground.

“Shit,” cursed Siling. She unleashed one Kinetic Push to slow down the arrival of the gas somewhat. “Shit shit shit.” She hurriedly cast Cure Poison on Calam.

“Venom?” asked Terry with a worried expression. “How bad?”

Next to him, Miguel was pale and wheezing. “Damned thing.” He cursed and retrieved both an arrow and a bottle. “I’ll take you down with me.” He coated the arrow in the rotting nightshade and then shot it at the creature. Afterwards, Miguel, too, lost consciousness.

Lori pulled Miguel away from the arrow slit.

“Yes, venom,” said Siling. “My Cure Poison spell should be sufficient, but it will probably take time. I think that’s a windvenom grizzly. They’re mid-level corruptions and supposedly a nightmare in closed quarters.” She glanced at Terry. “How are you still fine? Are you still fine?”

“Yes, mostly. Might be the difference in mana pools,” surmised Terry while observing the conditions of the others. He retrieved the wand that Samuel had sent him in the past and used up one of the charges of Cure Poison for Siling. “Don’t forget that you’re the healer. You need to watch yourself first.” Afterwards, Terry placed the wand at his sheath belt so that it could gather mana to recharge the used primer.

“Yes yes.” Siling did not look at Terry and instead cast her Cure Poison spell on Miguel.

Lori finished her Nourishing Earth spell and everyone’s health regeneration received a boost. “I believe my enchanted breathing mask helps, but I do feel a bit woozy.”

The windvenom grizzly roared again and unleashed another barrage of sand blades. They cut into the rock walls but did not manage to get past them.

“Regeneration aside, its skin seems to be very tough,” muttered Terry. “Is that normal or related to the earth-elemental possession?” Terry grimly looked through one of the arrow slits when his mana sense picked up a new mana signature. He whirled his head around to the tunnel from which they had arrived.

Terry caught a glimpse of silver fur, not bigger than a fist. Terry’s eyes opened wide and he screamed internally. He bit down on his tongue. “Out, we need to get out.”

“What?” “Huh?” Siling and Lori, who were still conscious, were taken aback.

“Now!” insisted Terry. “There is something worse coming. Unsummon your soul spirit.”

Lori and Siling nodded.

Terry heaved Calam onto his shoulders. He picked up Miguel with one hand.

“Float and use your shield and barriers to hold that grizzly off for a while.” Terry spoke to Siling with a grave expression. He picked up Lori with his free arm. “Hold onto me and try to make sure that Calam doesn’t fall.”

Afterwards, Terry burst his mana and hurriedly stepped into the air while using his bidirectional attraction glove to pull Siling with him.

Siling channeled mana into all the cores in her shield and a strong mixed aspect barrier appeared to block the assault from the windvenom grizzly’s sand blades.

Terry rushed up until they had reached the ceiling. He hurriedly retrieved a few slices of a tree from his anklets and transfixed them right beneath his feet. He created footing for Lori and then summoned tertium slabs to transfix as well.

Terry placed Miguel and Calam on the tertium slabs and retrieved two foldable tertium cubes. He folded the cubes so that they could be combined into a larger protected area.

Once everyone was inside, Terry transfixed the cubes. “Continue with the treatment. We can’t go out right now. Even if we have to continue inhaling the venom, we can’t go out.”

“What exactly is coming?” asked Lori.

They were interrupted by a pained roar from the windvenom grizzly.

“Is it already there?” asked Siling while casting another round of Cure Poison. This time, she also included Lori.

“No, that was probably Miguel’s poisoned arrow taking effect,” said Terry. He looked at Lori. “I think I saw a small space-aspected signature. Silver fur. Size of a chicken egg.”

Lori blinked with mouth agape.

“Shit,” cursed Siling.

“We could try to make a run for it,” suggested Lori. “Only need to try and get past the grizzly.”

“We don’t know what’s behind the windvenom grizzly,” reminded Terry. “For all we know, there could be more of them in the tunnel.”

Terry peeked through the small gap he had left between the two cubes. Like this, they waited for several minutes.

“The airflow in here isn’t sufficient to disperse the poison,” said Siling worriedly. “If this continues for much longer, I’ll run out of mana.” She glanced at the transfixed tertium cubes. “Are you still fine?”

“Yes, I can keep the cubes transfixed, no worries,” replied Terry without moving his gaze away from what was happening outside.

“The grizzly seems to have calmed down,” said Lori. “Or the rotting nightshade has gotten to it. What do you—?”

“Shh!” Terry shushed her and moved his finger to his lips. He whispered: “It’s here.”

Lori and Siling squeezed next to Terry to peek through the small gap.

A little, silver-colored rodent scuttled into the cavern. It stopped for a moment and held its little nose into the air. It quickened its pace and approached the large windvenom grizzly.

The irritable grizzly roared when it detected the little critter.

The hamster stopped when it heard the roar. In the next moment, a large vortex appeared in front of the hamster’s little mouth. Space distorted and an enormous suction force pulled everything movable in front of it into its dimensional stomach. When the spatial vortex disappeared, no trace of the large windvenom grizzly remained.

The vortex hamster sniffed the air again and moved around the cavern happily. After several more minutes, it left by the same tunnel from which it had arrived.

Up in the air, Terry, Lori, and Siling exhaled a sharp breath. They waited for several minutes and then cautiously proceeded through the tunnel. Fortunately, they did not encounter anything dangerous before finding a place with fresh air where they could hunker down until everyone had recovered.

***