Lord Sorcerer: Singularity Online: Book 3 Read online

Aranos shook his head. “The Spell on us is still active, so its caster, at least, is still alive. If it was alone, or it only had a few survivors with it, I would imagine it would have tried to get back to the citadel, and we would have met it on the road. In fact, I’ll bet that’s what that last patrol was: a group heading to Cendarta to request reinforcements, which means that however they were communicating with the citadel, they can’t do it anymore. No, something’s still alive in there, we just don’t know what.”

  “What, then, are you planning?” Geltheriel replied. “Nothing is so dangerous as the unknown, Oathbinder.”

  “Yeah, I agree,” he nodded. “We can’t just go walking up to investigate, but we need to take that tower. I think that whatever trap had planned was sprung already, and now they’re in there, licking their wounds. If they’re already weakened, our best bet is a straight, frontal assault.”

  “Why not repeat what we did yesterday?” Rhys asked curiously. “That worked well enough.”

  “I don’t know if it would work here,” Aranos admitted. “That kerruk we fought had lots of death mana, and it directed the dabruks right to me. I’m guessing it was able to use magic to sense me through the Diadem’s invisibility. We’re just going to have to clear it floor by floor. The stairs are our advantage, here, since they limit how many can attack us at once, so we’ll need to be careful of the open areas.”

  He quickly buffed the Warriors, focusing on Strength and Endurance since, once more, Agility would be less useful in the confined space. They dropped back into Stealth and made their careful way toward the tower door, with Saphielle wearing the Diadem. Her Stealth was by far the worst of the group, and they couldn’t afford to be spotted and attacked out here in the open. The entrance loomed emptily, whatever door had once sealed it no doubt long ago decayed into dust, and before they neared, Aranos reached out with his Sense Mana Skill, testing the portal.

  A thin, almost gauzy weave of mana cloaked the doorway, and he quickly signaled the others to halt as he investigated it. It’s an alarm, he realized as he examined the relatively simple spell-form. It will just alert the caster to anyone’s entrance, nothing more. That doesn’t make a lot of sense, though; surely, there’s a caster in there who could ward the door to keep people out or, at least, hurt them if they tried to enter?

  He easily redirected the power flows within the Spell, allowing the energy to flow up and around the edges of the doorframe so they could pass beneath undetected. As he did, he felt a second Spell hanging behind the first, hidden beneath its weave. And there’s the deadly warding Spell, he thought darkly as he examined the construct. It was a skein of death magic, designed to emit a wave of death mana if anyone crossed the tower threshold. It wasn’t really powerful enough to kill any of them, but it would certainly do plenty of damage and would probably make it nearly impossible for them to successfully take the tower.

  He began redirecting the second Spell, rather than alerting the caster to his presence by disjoining it, when he was struck with a flash of inspiration. He reexamined the spell-form, starting from the initiation point and calling up his new Spell Sculpting Skill. He adjusted the triggering mechanism and redirected the energy output, boosting the outflow a bit with his own SP. Now that will be a fun little trap, he thought a bit evilly, gesturing for the warriors to start moving forward again.

  The first room, the one Aranos thought of as a guard room, was empty. Aranos’ Tracking Skill, though, easily interpreted the bloodstains on the floor and the drag marks leading up the stairs. They were using this room to hold wounded, he realized. If they didn’t reinforce it when the creature went away, they might have even fewer warriors left than I thought.

  As they neared the first landing, the sound of harsh, guttural voices halted their advance. Whatever words, if any, the voices were speaking were lost on Aranos, but he could still make out the tone of an argument. A pair of voices were raised in some sort of disagreement, with a handful of other, quieter voices speaking in muttered tones that were only audible when the primary speakers were silent. Aranos glanced curiously at Geltheriel, but the elf shrugged her shoulders and raised her hands to the sides questioningly.

  Can you slip up there and scout them out, girl? he mentally asked Silma. The fenrin didn’t even bother to reply before padding silently up the stairs, vanishing into Stealth. While she was gone, Aranos spent some time examining the tracks he could find on the staircase. His Tracking Skill told him that twelve creatures had walked up the stairs, dragging four more. Two of the creatures were much lighter and taller than the others – probably kerruks, he reasoned – while two more were much larger and heavier, far bigger than the dabruks they’d seen before. The remaining eight were likely a mix of uruks and dabruks, from their size and weight.

  What he couldn’t tell from the tracks was how many of the creatures were in the common room above, how many were in the higher floor at the top of the tower, and how many might be holed up in the smaller rooms. Even his Scent Ability only told him that his foes were above him, not precisely where they were. Without the kerruks, he reasoned, it probably wouldn’t matter. We could hold the stairwell and I could flood the room with an Acid Web or Deadly Vapors. That last kerruk could disjoin Spells, though, so I have to assume these two can, as well. Two of them might even be able to counter my magic.

  They waited silently for two long minutes before Silma reappeared. Only some of them are in sight, she sent to Aranos silently. I can’t tell where the rest are. I didn’t want to go higher into the tower in case you were right about the kerruks being able to sense me magically. An image of the open room below the top floor appeared in his mind. Two of the kerruks were standing in the room – probably the ones arguing, he guessed – and a half-dozen uruks were seated around them. The two larger creatures and the remainder of the uruks or dabruks couldn’t be seen; he assumed they were on the top level, perhaps watching the Road – although, he mused, probably not very well, considering how easily they’d slipped into the tower.

  Still, there were enough of the creatures present for the altered door ward to work – assuming, of course, that it actually worked the way he intended. Theoretically, the construct should do what he wanted, but theory and practice were often vastly different things. He shrugged internally; all he could do was try it and deal with the consequences.

  He motioned for the others to be ready to move up the stairs quickly before reaching out mentally to the hanging spell-form below. All he had done was reverse the energy flows of the Spell and change the trigger so that he could set it off whenever he wanted to. He’d also added some extra SP to the Spell; his hope was that when he triggered it, the Spell would send a much larger wave of death energy out…with the center of it being the original caster. With any luck, it might kill both casters and weaken the remaining warriors. Of course, it could also simply explode, which would probably do backlash damage to the caster and to Aranos, but the aleen’s Fortitude Skill should keep him from being too severely affected if that happened.

  He took a deep breath and crossed his mental fingers before triggering the Spell. He felt the rush of power gathering in the construct, sensed it surging up the channels connecting it to the original caster. The death mana churned past him, and he felt it connect somewhere above…too far above, he realized, as he heard a sudden roar of pain that was too muted to have come from the landing in front of them. The caster is on the top floor, he cursed inwardly. They must not have used the stairs to get up there, somehow. That means I probably didn’t hurt any of the uruks ahead of us…but maybe all that yelling will distract them enough for this to still work.

  He signaled the others to charge, and they rushed up the stairs into the main landing. The seated uruks were all staring fearfully up the stairs toward the next floor – they actually look terrified of whatever’s up there, he noted in passing as they burst into the space – and the two kerruks stood, frozen in apparent shock, staring blankly at the intruders.

  Geltheriel
and Silma split to the left and right, respectively, blade and teeth tearing into the stunned uruks, while Saphielle charged up the center with a shout. Three of the creatures had fallen before the rest even began struggling to their feet and grabbing weapons.

  Aranos’ gaze, though, stayed firmly on the two kerruks as he gathered power into his hands. One of the creatures broke from its stupor and began muttering and gesturing the incantations to a Spell, but before it could finish, Aranos unleashed a pair of Void Prisons on the casters, freezing them instantly. The casting kerruk shivered slightly as its incomplete Spell backfired, the energy frying its mana channels, but a moment later, the pair were still.

  Aranos had a feeling that wouldn’t last; already, he could feel SP gathering around the pair as they doubtlessly began trying to disjoin his Spell, but he didn’t plan on giving either of them a chance. He held up his hand and unleashed a Radiant Blast upon the pair, bathing them in white-hot flames. Despite their magical prowess – or, more likely, because of it – the kerruks didn’t seem to have a lot of LP, and after only five seconds, they both collapsed, their corpses little more than smoking husks.

  He turned to help his party members, but none of them seemed to need it. After the initial three had fallen, the remaining uruks had gathered themselves and fanned out to meet their attackers one-on-one. Saphielle’s fell quickly, her spear buried in its chest, while Geltheriel danced past her opponent’s blade, sliding it almost delicately to the side before slashing it across the throat. She spun behind it and thrust, slipping her blade into the back of the uruk’s neck. The creature collapsed nerveless to the ground, where she easily finished it off. Silma simply crashed into hers, bearing it to the ground and burying her fangs in its throat. The creature gurgled and struggled, but after a few moments, it stilled.

  As the wolf finished her foe, though, Aranos’ attention was drawn to the sound of clanging metal and heavy footsteps coming from the stairs above. Quickly, he raised a wall of stone to block the stairway, but immediately he heard the sounds of heavy blows slamming into the barrier. Cracks began radiating across the wall, and Aranos knew it wouldn’t hold for much longer.

  Geltheriel hurried to his side, looking at the slowly crumbling barrier with a touch of concern. “I do not believe that dabruks could breach that stone with such ease,” she told him with concern.

  Aranos nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed, channeling more SP to repair the damage to the wall while Silma finished her foes. “The tracks showed a pair of creatures that are much larger – probably eight feet tall – and weigh at least double what the uruks do.”

  “Ogrins, in all likelihood,” Geltheriel said grimly. “They are very strong and quite difficult to kill, and they often serve the masters of the urukkai.”

  “There’s also at least one spellcaster up there,” Aranos added. “Plus, maybe another half-dozen dabruks or large uruks.” He glanced at Saphielle. “Can we hold the ogrins on the stairs?”

  The blue-haired woman looked grave for a moment. “It is unlikely,” she replied simply. “Despite my Strength, they are large and powerful enough to simply push past me into the larger room and hardy enough to endure any injuries they would gain in the process. We would then be caught between the ogrins and the uruks.”

  “Then we’ll have to hole up in one of these side rooms,” Aranos decided. “We can use the doorway to limit how many of them can hit us at once, and I can flood the room with some area attacks to whittle them down…depending on the spellcaster, that is.”

  They quickly chose a room and retreated into it. Saphielle and Geltheriel stood just inside the doorway, their shields ready, while Silma hung back; with her teleporting collar, she could get in and out of the room much more easily than the others and could use that to attack the creatures’ rear. Rhys filled the open space beyond the door with writhing, tangling roots, while Aranos spent some of his SP raising three-inch spikes of stone randomly around the main floor with his High Mastery Ability. The entire time, the booming strikes on the stone wall blocking the stairs continued relentlessly, until finally, the barrier collapsed with a loud crack of shattered rock.

  A pair of massive forms charged down the stairs into the main room. Aranos blinked in surprise at the giant figures, who stood easily nine feet tall; they moved with a strange, stilted gait that had fooled his Tracking Skill into thinking they were shorter than they actually were. The oddity of their walk was probably due to their hideous musculature, as they were so heavily muscled that they seemed almost deformed. The creatures were covered with coarse, brown fur and had bestial features, with tiny eyes, overlarge noses, and wide mouths with a pair of downward-pointing tusks jutting from them. One carried a large, stone club that had probably been great for smashing his wall but would be of little use in the confined space of the room, while the other was weaponless besides its massive fists.

  The creatures bellowed as they spotted the party ensconced in the room and charged, their eyes betraying very little sign of intelligence and vast amounts of rage. Rhys’ Entangle Spell grabbed futilely at their feet and ankles, but the monsters were simply too strong and heavy for the Spell to affect them. Geltheriel and Saphielle readied themselves to take that charge, but Aranos wasn’t certain the ogrins wouldn’t just be able to bull their way past the defenders and into the room, where the party would be at a severe disadvantage.

  Cursing silently, he swiftly called forth his mana and filled the room with an Acid Web, being sure to place the edge of the Spell a couple feet before the doorway so that none of his party members could accidentally get caught in it, instructing Silma to hold off on teleporting into the main room. The ogrins were far too large and powerful to be trapped by the Web, but their movements slowed instantly, and they howled in pain as the acidic tendrils grabbed at their limbs and burned into their flesh.

  The sound of more heavy feet sounded from the stairs, and a half-dozen dabruks charged into view, encased in heavy armor and gripping various weapons. Instantly, the vaporous strands of his Acid Web grabbed at their skin, entangling them and slowing their movements…but only for a few moments. Aranos felt a sudden stab of pain in his head as a surge of mana slammed into his Web, shredding the construct and dissipating the energy.

  He hissed in surprise at how easily his Spell had been disjoined – he hadn’t even had a chance to fight against the magic that tore his spell-form asunder – and gasped a second time in surprise as a final figure slunk down the stairs.

  The creature that stepped into the room was tall, standing at least a foot and a half taller than Aranos, if not two, and was slim and lithe like the kerruks. Its skin, though, was jet-black, and it had a pair of gray-black horns jutting from its head. Small, almost vestigial wings sprouted from its shoulders, and its hands and feet ended in thick, ebon talons. As it stepped into the room, it glanced at Aranos and his party, and its thin-lipped mouth pulled into a wide sneer.

  Freed of his Web, the ogrins charged forward. The club-wielding one arrived first, attempting to slam its weapon into Geltheriel but succeeding only in smashing the club against the edge of the door. The elf woman responded by darting out and slashing lightly at the hulking creature, her flickering blade and its shadowy copy opening up several long, shallow wounds that dripped deep red blood.

  The ogrin reared back with its club once more, but again the edge of the door caught the force of its blow. This time, Saphielle’s spear darted forward, punching into the creature’s unarmored stomach. The ogrin roared and swing a fist at the elven Avenger, but she deflected it with her shield and stabbed out again, this time puncturing the monster’s thigh.

  The second ogrin raged just behind the first, prevented from joining the fray by the narrow doorway. The dabruks stayed well back from the storming beast as it swung its fists wildly in what looked to Aranos like a full-blown temper tantrum. Past the dabruks, though, Aranos saw the spellcaster raise one taloned hand and unleash a blast of gray energy that the Sorcerer instantly identified as death mana
.

  Almost without thought, Aranos responded with a wall of glowing, golden life magic that stood as a barrier to the wave of death energy. The deadly Spell slammed into the barrier, tearing at it, but the pure life energy countered the death mana, and the construct unraveled as it was starved of power. The spellcaster growled in seeming frustration and hurled another wave of death, but Aranos again countered it with a shield of life mana.

  The Sorcerer fired a pair of Composite Bullets, but the enemy caster gestured, and a swirling, gray-black shield intercepted the bullets. Aranos’ projectiles struck the shield with a loud crack of energy, and the aegis flexed beneath the onslaught, but the bullets deflected off to the sides, slamming harmlessly into the walls of the room.

  Saphielle and Geltheriel worked together against the massive ogrin, slowly whittling it down. Whenever it struck at one, they would block or dodge the blow, while the other Warrior darted forward and sliced at the ogrin’s legs and stomach. The ogrin would, in turn, strike blindly at the second attacker, who would leap back out to the way, freeing the other combatant to slip forward and shed the ogrin’s blood. The ogrin could have countered the tactic easily by feinting at one and then directing its real attack at the other, but the beast didn’t seem intelligent enough to consider such a tactic. Instead, it fought without anything resembling strategy and tried to batter its opponents with brute force.

  The spellcaster raised both hands wide, and gray mists began pouring forth, swirling toward the party like vaporous serpents. Aranos again summoned a Life Wall, but the two tendrils of death mana slipped sinuously around the edges of the barrier and streaked toward Geltheriel and Saphielle. Aranos felt a touch of panic as he summoned a pair of Life Arrows and hurled them at the mists. The arrows buried themselves in the gray vapors and burst, the life energy shredding the attack but not completely dissipating it. Before Aranos could fire a second volley, the twin tendrils lashed out, striking his party members. Both cried out in pain as the death magic latched onto them, and Aranos watched their LP bars start to plummet.