Mark of the Fool

There were ambushes.

And then there were ambushes.

This one was the latter.

The earth exploded below Alex, unleashing clouds of stone, soil and dust like a bomb. Massive tunnels gaped open in the wilderness, belching out hundreds of Ravener-spawn.

The creatures roared, snarling at the young archwizard…and his small army of summoned monsters.

Hive-queens, behemoths, hives-as-one, rampart-crushers, blood-hydras made up the bulk of their numbers, but their commanders, however, were the dreaded spawn Alex had seen in his vision.

The enormous, scuttling beasts with their air-blasting carapaces. Ravener-spawn knights that rode on their backs. Enormous, titanic monsters taller than the tallest trees. Even burning clouds were rising from the earthen tunnels.

But, his eyes were quickly drawn to black orbs clasped in their clawed hands.

Claygon’s words returned.

Alex’s eyes narrowed.

The world slowed around him as he scanned the dusty ambush field below while breaking apart the streams of consciousness in his mind, focusing them on a single task: finding every dungeon core clasped in the hands of the Ravener-spawn knights looking up at him.

‘One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…’ he counted them quietly. ‘I think the best way to stop this is… I know.’

A stream of consciousness took control of the Traveller’s power within him.

Another took control of his body.

The others kept focus on where the dungeon cores were situated, marking each one’s location, analysing where they might travel to and how fast they might move when thrown.

‘Alright,’ he thought. ‘Let’s go.’

The world sped up again.

The General gripped his aeld sword-staff in both hands.

Then vanished.

The first Ravener-spawn knight shrieked when the Traveller’s sword slid through its spine, cutting through hard chitin like parchment. Enchanted metal slipped through its chest and into the dungeon core.

‘One,’ Alex thought.

The Traveller’s power surged.

Both the Ravener-spawn and the dungeon core were cut in half by his teleportation.

Alex vanished again.

The next Ravener-spawn knight was cocking its arm back, readying to throw its orb when the Traveller’s sword split both its head and dungeon core in the same push-cut.

‘Two,’ Alex thought, already vanishing.

The next monstrous knight was partway through its throw.

A sword-staff teleported them both apart.

‘Three.’

The fourth knight’s core had just left its clawed hand.

Magical metal and the teleportation split core, hand, and the creature’s face.

‘Four.’

The fifth knight had already released its orb; the core had launched, flying about a foot from its hand when Alex split it, the creature’s arm, and its head in two.

‘Five.’

The sixth knight had completed its throw and had followed through.

The core was travelling through the air, already expanding when Alex appeared, thrusting with the Traveller’s blade, piercing the core, teleporting it in parts thousands of feet in either direction.

He vanished.

The seventh core was growing, swelling, already reaching the size of a tall man. Its bulging eyes were forming…

…when the General of Thameland arrived, quickly carving up the orb, teleporting the many pieces away.

‘Seven.’

Alex reappeared among his army of summons in heartbeats.

Every dungeon core was destroyed.

Five of the seven knights were dead. The last two appeared dazed, baffled at what had just happened.

Alex’s jaw clenched. ‘I should’ve been faster. Still, not bad.’

He spoke to his army. “Get them.”

The lead astral engeli raised a flaming spear. “For our summoner!”

The rest echoed her words in unison and charged, the elder air elementals following a moment later, diving into the ranks of the stunned Ravener-spawn, surprising them before they could recover or strike back.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But, Alex knew their number would not be enough.

He considered his small army, eyes focused on the fire-clouds.

Then he nodded, an idea forming. ‘The Ravener had to put a lot of energy into this ambush. We should make sure none of these creatures escape. It’ll take a lot of mana…but the hell with it. I have a lot of mana.’

Raising his hands, the world slowed around him.

This time, he’d be using three spells in succession.

All ninth-tier.

All lethal.

Even more so if he used them in combination.

The world sped up again.

Mana poured from his mana pool, enough to buckle the knees of most wizards.

Three ancient symbols of power formed above him, enhanced with soul rending power.

The world began to shake.

“Scatter!” he directed his army.

As one, astral engeli and air elementals darted away in all directions, carried by the speed of celestial wings and gale-force winds. The Ravener-spawn kept shrieking at him.

Spawn, capable of flight, took to the air, coming straight at him.

Fire clouds roared, shooting forward, as giant, insectile beasts unleashed potent blasts of air at their target.

The young archwizard teleported higher, well out of range, all three burning symbols floating above him.

The first one instantly shattered.

The air suddenly turned humid, the salty tang of sea air filling his nostrils.

And, from down below, the earth rumbled and roared as summoning magic—enhanced by the Traveller’s power—reached across the planes to the…elemental plane of water.

Alex recalled a spell he’d taken from Brightfire.

Tidal Wave.

Summons a massive wave from the elemental plane of water, capable of washing away forests…and armies.

A vast gateway ripped open, revealing a world of pitch-black liquid.

Roiling waves roared free, expanding, building, swelling like the father of all tidal waves.

Curving forward like a scythe blade, casting a billowing shadow over the army of Ravener-spawn, the wave towered taller than even the Ravener-spawn titans. More than a thousand—or even two thousand—feet in height, and twice that in width, the water rushed forward as though it was alive, picking up speed with the inevitability of death.

Ravener-spawn froze, not knowing how to escape.

Some tried crawling away.

Some fled back to their tunnels.

The titans dug their heels in, bracing themselves.

Fire-clouds tried to scatter.

But it was too late.

The wave crashed down on every last monster, tons of liquid crushing them like the fist of an angry god.

All many could do was drown.

Hive-queens, hives-as-one, rampart-crushers and blood-hydras were crushed by enormous weight and sudden pressure. Some tougher behemoths survived the initial impact—but barely—they were washed away, carried by the current, only to drown when the air was blasted from them.

The titans held their ground though the powerful spell had pushed them back, their clawed feet dug huge trenches in the earth, gripping it. Enormous, air-blasting spawn had dug their legs into their tunnels and unleashed blasts of air, trying to push against the endless wave of water.

Still, Alex could only smile as the water poured into tunnels abandoned by the army of monsters, pushing both living Ravener-spawn—and the many corpses back down into their tunnels.

‘Those tunnels are going to flood,’ the young wizard thought. ‘What will you do next, Ravener? And here’s a little something else for you to worry about.’

The second of three symbols shattered.

The spell was called: Tempest.

A spell that conjures a concentrated swarm of lightning in even a clear sky, capable of burying vast areas in lightning bolts.

The sky suddenly darkened. A swirling vortex of thunderclouds was born, raging above the battlefield, lightning playing through the dark nimbus as the clouds growled in warning.

Below, the Ravener-spawn had no time to recover.

Thunderclouds unleashed torrents of punishing rain, hammering the creatures, drenching them further.

Clouds ruptured.

And lightning came.

Following an echoing crack of thunder, lightning streaked down in sheets, filling every bit of air with blazing bolts, crackling, arcing, reaching for each other.

Ravener-spawn spasmed as bolts passed through the wave, dancing along their bodies, bringing death and agony. Many lay in smoking heaps by the time the lightning eased…

…or when it seemed to ease.

Bolts of electricity repeated, all striking the same point in space, forming a massive lightning ball that glared with brightness, drenching the air with the stink of ozone.

Thunder sounded, cracking stone, followed by an explosion. The lightning ball burst, striking everything around it: ending Ravener-spawn with its intense heat and light.

Fire clouds vanished.

Air-blasting monsters shuddered, collapsing on themselves.

Only a few of the toughest Ravener-spawn titans remained, their breathing laboured—bodies scorched, breath wheezing, trembling from electric shocks, but trying to stand, still wanting to serve their master.

Their determination was almost admirable to Alex.

Almost.

It felt a little futile, since he still had one more spell waiting.

The third symbol exploded above him.

Once again, the air growled.

This time, the temperature plummeted.

Air that had been comfortable a moment earlier, now rapidly turned chilly.

Then freezing.

In the centre of the group of surviving Ravener-spawn, a point of light materialised, making a sound like a barrel-chested giant taking a deep breath. A revolving vortex formed around that point, sucking frost into the singular point of light.

The whirling mass of frost stopped spinning.

Residual water from the Tidal Wave spell began crystallising, producing great flakes of snow—each larger than Alex was tall—slowly drifting toward the battlefield.

Everything fell quiet.

No crackle of lightning.

No boom of thunder.

No roar of a tidal wave.

Just an eerie silence.

The wounded titans looked around nervously. The silence was unnatural. Unnerving.

Hungry.

And unsurprisingly, the first of the giant snowflakes touched the water.

The point of light and more flakes detonated.

Without a single sound.

Nor flash of light.

Nothing.

Nothing, but the sudden deep freezing of everything on the battlefield.

Water from the Tidal Wave spell stilled, icing over. Ravener-spawn corpses stopped drifting, now protruding above the thick layer of ice.

And the titans?

The titans’ nervous pausing now formed their final poses: Ravener-spawn were frozen like massive statues.

There was no longer movement.

No sign of life in dead eyes.

The silence was finally broken by a loud cracking.

A limb split from a titanic body, now unable to bear its own mass, and fell to the earth with a crash that shook the other towering bodies. As one, frozen titans toppled, striking the ground, shattering in thousands of pieces.

When the last shard of their bodies had come to rest on the battlefield, all was silent for a time.

No sign of life remained among the hordes of Ravener-spawn.

Sound now began returning; the sound of Alex’s own breathing, the wing beats of the astral engeli as they rejoined him, and the low hum of the elder air elementals was heard.

“They are all dead, archwizard,” the engeli said. “A grand display.”

“Good. It was necessary,” Alex said. “Let’s hope it lowers their numbers enough to make a difference when we actually get into the tunnels. Come on, let’s start moving before more show up. An ambush with such powerful monsters, and with so many, means we have to be close. We’ve got to be.’

“Very well, archwizard,” the astral engeli said. “Follow me.”

He nodded, and she led her summoner and the rest of his army along the trail. They passed above the ruins of the battlefield, looking down on Ravener-spawn encased in the remains of Alex’s tidal wave before leaving the icy hell behind.

They travelled further into the wilderness for many more minutes, while, in the distance, the sounds of explosions rocked Och Fir Nog.

At last the astral engeli paused mid-flight, hovering in place.

“Did it stop?” Alex asked. “Did the trail end?”

She cocked her head. “No, archwizard. It does not end here.”

“Then why did we stop?” he asked.

The engeli pointed down. “Because it no longer travels across the wilderness. The trail now leads down into earth.”

Alex’s heart began racing.

“Then…” he swallowed. “That means we’re probably…” he could barely let himself utter the words after so many months of searching.

“…we’ve probably found the Ravener’s lair.”