BT - Book 1 - Chapter 93

“So,” Sarah’s arms were crossed, her right foot tapping the dirt as she stared at him, “do you care to explain what in the name of the Sixteen you thought you were doing?  Don’t try to pretend that stunt at the end of the ritual was something you planned.”

Micah simply stared at his arm in fascination, watching the golden sturgeon swim across his skin, leaving tingling wakes of yellowish energy as it moved in a broad figure eight.

“First of all,” Trevor shot Sarah a dirty look, “are you alright?  You were really screaming for a bit there.  Secondly, I would like to second Sarah’s question, just you know.  A bit nicer.  What in the hells was that?’

Jo simply grabbed him by the shoulder and shook.  Micah blinked, tearing his eyes away from his forearm to look at the rest of his party.

“It worked,” he grinned, “even better than I thought.  The enchantment around the lake should be strong enough to hold the daemon off for at least an hour on its own, but at the last minute I realized that enchanting our compound was just the beginning.  I was able to latch on to the sturgeon’s spirit before it died and-”

“Did you warp the laws of nature and create another abomination?”  Drekt asked, a frown on his face.

“No more so than I originally planned,” Micah waved a hand, dismissing him, “the ritual was always meant to use the essence of the sturgeon as the lynchpin for the enchantment.  Initially, my goal was to create a space inside the ritual circle where the spirit could be summoned to direct the flow of the energy invested in the wards.  Then, midway through finishing the casting, I realized that there isn’t any reason why I couldn’t link myself to the enchantment-”

“Did you bind yourself to a daemon?”  Drekt cut in.  “Yes or no.  No need for a lecture on  magical theory that none of us will understand.  We just need to know if you’ll start emitting toxic energy or something.”

“Nothing like that,” Micah closed his eyes, letting out a long slow breath in an effort to calm himself.  “The enchantment lets me channel my mana into summoning a captive spirit.  It’s much closer to summoning a normal spirit or an elemental.  There’s no corrupting outside force to worry about, everything comes directly from me.”

Before anyone could ask further questions, a dome of golden light flashed into being around them as the Luoca attempted to fly overhead once more, only to slam into the magical barrier surrounding their encampment and rebound.

It shrieked in rage, spinning in the air and ramming into the hemisphere of mana hard enough that the ground shook beneath their feet.  It glared down at them, rage and madness in its human eyes as it began to slam its insect legs into the barrier with piston-like speed and precision.

The stalemate was forgotten.  Whatever unspoken detente held the daemon back was thrown in the trash the minute it slammed into the glimmering dome of magic.  One look was all it took for Micah to confirm that this was it.  The Luoca wouldn’t be content stalking and terrorizing him any longer.  It wanted his head.

Even from almost three hundred paces away, Micah could hear the sizzle crack of the enchantment straining against the Luoca’s absurd body attribute as the daemon tried to force its torso through the shining barrier.  The muscles of his arm clenched, and a moment later a silhouette of the awakened sturgeon launched into the air.

“Hell of a birthday present, eh Micah?” Trevor asked tensely, staring at the enraged monster.  “I know you said that you needed to cast the ritual today, but it hardly seems fair to you.”

“It’s the way magic works,” Micah frowned, trying to estimate how much damage was being dealt to his enchantment with each earth-shaking blow from the daemon’s spike-like legs.  “Humans have internal rhythms and we peak at sixteen.  It’s how the gods bless us, using the beacon of our cresting mana signature to push their will onto Karell and imprint us with their power.  Theoretically, anything magically crafted by a sixteen year old would be significantly more potent.  It’s just that no one has tried before me.”

The daemon flew into the sky, gold and translucent as it undulated, swimming through the air toward the spot where the daemon struggled to burst through mana shell.  A low moan heralded the giant lake monster’s ascent, the bass note from the fish’s cry vibrating deep in Micah’s bones.

Jo’s hand on his shoulder brought Micah back from staring at the daemon as it strained against the barrier, face pressed against the glowing field of golden energy.

“What’s going on?”  She asked worriedly, eyes flicking from him to the monster.  “Can we defeat the Luoca or should we start evacuating to the teleportation formation?”

Micah paused, staring at the monster as it slashed its wings into the dome of mana, his mind whirling.  Already, he could see and feel the spell starting to weaken.

Escape might have been the best option, but as he watched the giant fish swim methodically through the air toward the daemon, an ember of rebellion sparked in Micah’s heart.

“It won’t hold,” he brushed her hand off his shoulder as he stood up, his eyes trained on the two gargantuan magical beasts, “but maybe that’s for the best.  It doesn’t know how much I’ve invested in the rituals around the camp.  This is our chance to bring it down once and for all before it runs off into the mountains and becomes a ghost, haunting us when we try to leave but disappearing when we’re ready for it.”

“So then we’re fighting it?”  Jo’s eyes sparked.  “Thank the Gods, I’m sick of being cooped up in here.  I’m not sure I could spend another week of talking with your younger sister about what her friends from school are up to.”

“Are you sure?”  Drekt frowned, flinching as a crackling tendril of yellow light sprang from the flying sturgeon’s mouth, flashing into the magical barrier.

The ground shuddered once more as the magical field brightened, drawing a scream of rage from the Luoca as its flesh hissed and sizzled.  The sturgeon flipped over in the air with a flick of its massive tail, circling around to make another pass at the shrieking daemon.

He watched the Luoca rear back, slamming its wings once more into the defensive barrier.  A web of cracks erupted in the magical field, spreading like lighting as it bowed under the monster’s relentless abuse.  Micah knew it was taking damage.  There was no way that it could continue throwing its body against the sizzling energy raised by the ritual without suffering from any number of burns.

“Trevor,” Micah turned decisively toward his brother.  “Get Mom, Dad and Esther down into the underground chamber and come back with the silk wraps we've been practicing with.”

He got about two steps before stopping, swiveling his head to Micah with panic written all over his face.

“But I’m still practicing with those!” His voice trembled.  Above them, the Luoca slammed into the defensive shield once again, the chitin on its insect torso blackening and flaking as it rammed into the defensive enchantments.  “I can barely control them Micah, I’m not sure I’ll be able to actually-”

“You’ll do your best,” Micah closed his eyes, letting the network of golden runes that made up the enchantment spring into his consciousness.  Mentally he reached out, running his perception over the web of energy.  “I don’t want you to beat it on your own, just slow it down.”

“I-” Micah could feel Trevor hesitating a dozen or so paces from him.

“Go,” he brushed his mind’s eye over the runes, loosening some connections and redirecting others.  “Make sure our family is safe and get back here with the wraps.  They’re heavily enough enchanted that you should be able to use them from a distance, and I’m pretty sure they should be able to withstand the Luoca’s aura.”

He grunted, a hint of a smile on his face even as the sturgeon reared back, a glowing ball of energy appearing in its mouth.

“They’d better,” Micah muttered, “I spent long enough on their protective enchantments.”

Jo’s hand touched his upper arm, followed shortly by her voice.

“What’s going on Micah, talk to us.”

“Agreed,” Drekt rumbled.  “I’m still not sure it’s the best idea to fight the daemon.  I’ve seen that thing in action, and I’d like to have a couple dozen more levels under my belt before I take a crack at it.  Nevertheless, if we are insisting on battle, I would appreciate to be in on the plan.”

“Catch,” Micah threw the metal focus looted from the ritualist to Drekt.  A second later, he slipped a ring of greenish native copper off of his left hand and passed it to Jo.

The runes around him flickered and dimmed as a bolt of energy fired from the sturgeon’s gaping jaws, blasting into the defensive field and sending the Luoca reeling.

“You shouldn’t have,” Jo’s voice had its usual playful lilt, “buying me a ring won’t change the fact that you’re underage.  I’m not going to put out just because-”

“Focus,” Sarah grumbled, “any of us could die in the next five to ten minutes.  You can save your flirting and ribald comments for when we don’t have an abomination trying to murder all of us.”

Micah nodded at the archer gratefully, his eyes still screwed shut as he made final adjustments to the enchantment.

“In about twenty seconds,” he isolated the runes associated with the mana flow to the defensive field, “I’m about to take the shield down.  When I designed the enchantment, it had two major modes.  One to keep small predators out, and one for now, to enhance the fighting capacity of the people inside.”

“There will still be a suppressive field in place that will limit the daemon’s strength and regenerative capabilities.”  He put the finishing touches on the spellform leftover from the ritual, a webwork of gold and silver light reworking the original flow of mana through the massive circle.  “I will be redirecting as much of the enchantment’s power to the aura and the guardian spirit as possible.”

“As for the four of us?” Micah opened his eyes, his mental finger hovering over the switch that would lock.  “Drekt has the focus rod, I don’t think that it will be enough to stop the Luoca, but with any luck it will slow and confuse it.  Jo can take to the air, and the ring I gave her will let her cast Air Knife periodically.  Sarah?  Well your bow is enchanted.  I don’t think I need to spell out your portion of the plan.”

“Once it’s through the barrier,” Micah continued, “the three of you will need to harass and distract it.  The spirit will be able to do some real damage, but even with the daemon injured, I don’t think it will be enough to actually kill it.  That will be up to Trevor and I.”

“Trevor?” Sarah frowned, flinching as the daemon knocked even more cracks into the defensive barrier.  Slowly, they began to repair themselves.

“I’ve been working with my Father to enchant some of his finest bolts of cloth,” He glanced up at the battle between the titanic daemon and spirit above them.  “Unfortunately, other than me, Trevor is the only one with enough mana to actually control them.  If I can hit the Luoca with a strong enough spell to knock it out of the air, he should be able to immobilize it long enough for me to finish it off with my spear.”

“That’s an awful lot of ‘ifs’ Micah,” Drekt frowned, “what happens if the three of us can’t keep the daemon distracted, or if you can’t bring it to the ground?”

Mentally, Micah released his grip on the knot of energy that held the enchantment surrounding their encampment in its current shape.  With a blur of magic it shifted.  The barrier disappeared, replaced by a dark golden glow that seemed to illuminate every bush, tree, animal and person within the massive ritual’s range.

The hair on the bank of his neck stood on end as the Luoca erupted into an inhuman scream of triumph, diving through the air toward the giant flying sturgeon that rose up to meet it.

“In that case,” Micah took a deep breath to steady his racing pulse, “there are sixteen gods, pick your favorite and pray that I can hold the daemon off while the rest of you scatter.”

Drekt, stared at him a moment before nodding grimly and hefting the short metal baton.  When he replied, the concern was gone from his voice, instead replaced with an almost savage glee.

“For Ankros’ honor it is.”