Last Seen Blogs
Text
Chronicles of Drex
I looked ahead of me at the oncoming horde of bandits. They were all swords, rifles and leather. So much leather... The sun gleamed off the polished brown of their vests and wraps and I caught myself wondering how many cows it must have taken to produce such a volume of the stuff. For an instant I imagined a ghostly moo pleading for vengeance amidst the cries and shouts and snickered to myself as they charged toward me.
They had certainly taken a great deal of livestock from the village along with all the other loot they could plunder during their previous raids. And now they were going to pay for it.
I smote my staff down directly in front of me with both hands and began to gather my will as I drew energy from the ley line that ran beneath my feet.
Under normal circumstances I had enough magic within me to roast a swine, light a candle and conjure an illusory dame to dine with. Stars willing enough energy leftover to bed said dame, AKA my hand and pretend-land... I certainly didn't have the amount of magical spunk capable of taking on the hundreds of men approaching. Lucky for me we were about to have it out right above the biggest line in the entire Litheran Forest. Suckers.
I felt the energy coursing through my staff and into the spell I was crafting. The staff was slightly taller than I, made of rich dark wood with a horned dragon head carved into the end of it. Within the wooden eye sockets two red gems began to radiate a crimson light. My muscles twitched as the electric sensation of the energy hummed through me. I imagined the emptiness of it, the cold vastness of space and the crystalline plains of the place within the void, the place I'd only seen in my dreams, and I prepared to perform one of the most daring magical feats I'd ever attempted.
They were only about 35 feet away and closing fast. Several members of their DeadEye marksman squad crouched down and leveled their rifles at me. The lead gunner (in noticeably finer leathers) whistled a signal to fire and an explosion of sound answered him as the group unleashed a barrage of bullets at me. Surely they expected to find nothing left of me but bloody scraps of meat, fortunately for me the glyphs I'd made on the ground earlier in the day worked in my favor. The first of the bullets hammered into the air about 1 foot from my face and exploded against the barrier surrounding me. Up until this point the shield was only slightly visible from up close as a wispy transparent bubble but now it glowed orange and then red as more bullets exploded against the same area of it which happened to be directly in front of my face. Assholes weren't called Deadeye for nothing I guess. Without the glyphs I'd prepared there was no way I could have held a shield against so much force. I strained slightly to keep the barrier inplace, but my main focus stayed on the working I was about to unleash on these animals. I waited until they got close enough for me to see the burns I'd added to Rograk's already ugly mug. The arrogant asshat leader of this bunch of two-bit thugs. His iconic redsteel greataxe was raised high and he looked eager to chop a little off my top. I could hear his hoarse roar over the sounds of other war-cries. Though of course there were about several dozen bandit guards positioned to serve as a safety cushion between him and I. Pussy. I waited for him to get close enough that I could see his eyes. And then I did it. "INANIS PATENTIBUS!!!" I shouted as I raised my staff and smote the earth again. Thunder sounded from above as my staff drove into the earth and I unleashed all the energy I'd gathered, focused on the space right behind Rograk's ass.
Time seemed to slow down as the nearest bandit closed and I felt the spell begin to take effect. There was a tiny popping noise followed by a current of air pulling towards the center of the horde. It began as a breeze that quickly grew to hurricane speed which pulled from all directions towards my focal point. Rograk was the closest and he let out a startled cry as he was forced directly back into the small center of the rift behind him. He appeared to be squatting oddly, off his feet in the air. As if sitting on an invisible floating toilet. His eyes opened widely showing the white of his eyes. And he started screaming. The sounds of suction were very audible, but not more so than his cries.
He trembled and shook and struggled helplessly, held in place by the suction behind him. The bandits nearest me ceased their charge when they heard the ear piercing shriek of their leader shitting out his guts into the portal behind him. Serves him right, rapist-murderer. His shriek ceased abruptly as the portal pulled his torso into his legs and his spine cracked and broke then he was swallowed by the blackness entirely. With the portal no longer clogged by their leader's fat ass the void began pulling hungrily at air. The nearest bandits stumbled from the force of the winds and began tripping over one another. The look of fury and rage on their faces vanished and was replaced with utter horror as they realized how thoroughly they had underestimated “that magical asshole”as they had referred to me previously. I marveled at the working I'd accomplished, a sizeable tear in the fabric of space and time. It looked like a large wavering sphere of darkness. I could glimpse stars and odd crystalline structures on the other side. It swelled and grew, and as it did so too did the pressure in the air. The men nearest were whipped and dragged screaming into it, warbled distorted screams coming from their mouths Then everything and everyone in the vicinity began flying towards it. The wind swirled around me, my black duster flapping wildly within the confines of the shield I had prepared as I worked to protect myself from my own magic. The entire mass of the horde, hundreds of men were squeezed and crammed together towards the portal. There were unmistakable cracking sounds as many necks and limbs were broken from the pressure of so many bodies being forced into the dark opening. I saw an unfortunate man wearing a horned lizard skull soaring across the air into an even more unfortunate man at the receiving end of an accidental headbutt that disemboweled him and broke the neck of the man wearing the skull. The portal continued to grow larger, viciously swallowing everyone into it. It happened so quickly. And then they were gone, hundreds of men pulled into the X-Zone never to return.
I wavered and had to use my staff to keep my balance, it may have been borrowed energy but the amount of will it took to channel and shape it had taxed me, I felt like I was going to faint and if I did I'd simply be ripped towards my death like the others. I fought against the oppressive urge to lie down and take a dirt nap as I focused again on the ley line. I struggled and concentrated in an attempt to grasp onto the magical current for the energy I needed to close the gate, but with my will waning I only caught strands of the mystic energy. It felt as if I was trying to cup water into my hands as it dribbled between my fingers wastefully into the dirt. I felt the shield around me weakening and it became harder to resist the pull in the air. The gate was growing larger still, I watched as an entire flock of birds overhead was briskly pulled and engulfed into the portal. Dirt, rocks and shrubbery nearby was torn from the ground. I was suddenly terrified. I'd prefer a sword through the neck over a trip to the X-Zone any day. What waited on the other side was far worse than death. For one I'd have to deal with any bandits who didn't die in the process of being crammed into the other dimension, and I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy to see me again. My secondary concern would be happening upon any of the denizens of the foreign plane. Without a line to tap into I'd be nearly defenseless, and the kind of death they would grant would certainly be neither quick nor painless. My third concern was how much devastation the portal would cause in my absence. It wouldn't grow indefinitely, but I'd poured enough power into it that it would likely last several moments, and at this rate that could mean a quarter of the town would be consumed, at least several buildings full of the people I was supposed to be helping.
I redoubled my efforts and reached out to the fear within me, used it, infused my will with it. just as the final threads of my shield were unraveling I reached out and grabbed onto the line with my will, wrangling it. I drew in a great big gulp of magical energy just as I felt the subtle burst of my shield collapsing around me and saw myself lifting off my feet, flying head first towards the gate. I screamed, panic evident in my voice. "PROPE! INANIS PROPE!!!" I pushed my palms out toward the oncoming void and released everything I had left in me...
Evidently it worked. I became aware of that fact as I groaned and rolled myself onto my back what must have been several moments later. I was covered in dirt and sat in a sizable crater staring up at the darkening sky. I heard voices nearby and saw a frightened old farmer in coveralls defensively holding a pitchfork out in front of him as he stared down at me. "I'll take my payment in coin, a bed, and one of your fine ass daughters to join me in it." I slurred. Then everything went nice and quiet and black as I passed out from exhaustion.
3 notes
·
View notes