Amelia’s refraction spell coalesced! The fastest way to get out of it was simply to charge through it, but Abomination seemed worried about the possibility of an ambush waiting on the other side of the distortion, so he balked and took the long way around.
Alaina took the lead as she incanted, “Foggul!” More flame-dampening mist swirled around us.
Immediately after came Tessius’s voice—“Airplosion!” Whoom! There was a sudden burst in the air. The shockwave it produced rolled over us, but it didn’t hurt. That spell wasn’t an attack so much as it was an attempt to clear the air and find us. It accordingly thinned the mist, although not enough to unobscure our vision entirely.
Our foe was on high alert for attacks from Gourry through the fog, but he couldn’t afford to lose sight of us. After all, Abomination—or rather Spider Lukoria—had forcibly merged with Cyclops, Horns, and Wings. He couldn’t possibly remain active for long like that, and he’d surely have to eat or shit eventually. He’d have to take off the armor at some point or other. Once he did and Tessius and Sagan were freed, the only remotely passable excuse for his behavior would be if he’d successfully finished us off before then. If all he had to say for himself was “Teehee, they got away! Sorry...” Yeah, his friends would have his head on a platter.
Meanwhile, victory for us meant more than just shaking Lukoria off our tail. If we ditched him, he’d feel compelled to attack Atessa instead to make this all worth his while. In other words, we had to defeat him.
My call to withdraw before had actually been the signal to enact a little strategy we’d arranged ahead of time. I’d discussed it with everyone except Amelia, who hadn’t been with us when we’d cooked it up, but she seemed to twig it nonetheless.
The swarm attacks from Cyclops’s drones had ceased. Our opponent was focused on tracking us so as to keep us on his radar. We kept running, occasionally firing a blast behind us or renewing the smoke screen spell. And then...
“Everyone! Listen up!” I began to lay out the plan in a voice low enough that our pursuer, Lukoria, couldn’t hear.
Atessa, city of blacksmiths, was fueled by the Celcelas Forest, but its people had long abided by a pact of sowing a new tree for every one they cut down. Anyone who ignored this had to pay a fine. But wherever you have rules, you always have rulebreakers too.
I didn’t know the exact story behind it, but tucked away some distance from the city, there was an area where trees had been harvested without being replanted, resulting in a wide-open clearing. This was where we’d lured Abomination.
We’d had to run quite a ways to get here, but thanks to Alaina repeatedly casting her dampening mist, we’d been able to stay shrouded the whole way. Abomination had fired off a few attack spells en route, but perhaps thanks to the thick tree cover, we’d luckily avoided taking any direct hits. Gourry had struck out with his sword here and there too, probably responding to drones or incoming astral attacks.
“Alaina!”
Nodding slightly in response to my signal, Alaina threw a knife with a topaz on its hilt. It stuck deep into a nearby rotten stump. She gave another small nod... and we were ready to roll!
“Zel! Amelia!” At my call, my old traveling companions began to chant in accordance with the plan we’d gone over.
Then our group split up in four directions. When we did... Abomination appeared, barreling through the fog around us!
In that instant, Zel and Amelia unleashed their spells! “Freeze Arrow!”
Close to a hundred frigid bolts flew at Abomination! It dipped to the side with unthinkable speed, but the volley was too great and too dense to escape entirely. About a dozen arrows hit Abomination directly, and these puppies were designed to freeze anything they hit! They’d encase whatever they struck with a thin coating of ice that caused frostbite and hindered movement. The hitch was that we were dealing with a Zanaffar. The worst they could do was cause a cold chill... But the counter-hitch was that that was all we needed right now!
I took some distance from our opponent and incanted, “Sight Frang!”
Bwoosh! Responding to my words of power, a thick mist expanded so rapidly that you could hear it. This was different from the extinguishing spell Alaina used in that it simply summoned a mist without any special properties.
“A smoke screen?!” Lukoria hissed, and then...
“Algwin.” Vwoosh! Tessius’s voice boomed and a powerful wind picked up. I just managed to keep my footing to avoid being blown away.
The gust was probably to clear the mist and improve visibility. As intended, the mist thinned, but Alaina’s white fog remained. She then cast a spell like a winter storm—“Crystal Blizzard.”
Zel followed her lead, targeting Abomination again. “Freeze Arrow!”
“You really think you can freeze me over?!” Lukoria’s mocking voice echoed. “Or do you think you can freeze the person inside the armor? Go ahead and try!”
Vwoosh! Another cleansing blast of wind blew, and I conjured more mist to make up for it.
“Enough!” Abomination howled as Amelia blasted it with yet more frigid magic. “Why... you...!”
Tessius’s monotone voice incanted, “Valtrain,” and there came a flash of light that, for an instant, permeated the misty world around us.
Is this... an indiscriminate area-of-effect lightning spell?! Dozens of tendrils of electricity coursed through the fog, scorching the ground from heaven above. I fortunately escaped being struck despite standing in the spell’s massive range, but given its ferocity, it was optimistic to think the rest of my party had been so lucky! I wanted to make sure everyone was okay, but...
Even though it had slowed down, I could still see Abomination moving through the fog. “Damn this infernal mist...” Lukoria cursed, and that told me it was showtime.
“Zel! Amelia! Now!” I shouted.
“Vu Vrima!” they incanted in unison. Instantly, buds of earth blossomed all around us. The ground surrounding Abomination yawned open. This was the same golem-making spell I’d used before. Zel and Amelia had summoned golems on either side of Abomination, swallowing it up as they took shape.
“What in the world?!” The reason for Lukoria’s shock was obvious: The golems rising out of the ground were massive! Abomination could have easily broken out of the golem I’d summoned before, but these were almost double its size. The roiling earth seized Abomination’s legs and waist as it continued to swell upward.
Lukoria must not have realized it, but we were within the giant magic amplification circle that Alaina had created.
To be more exact, a few days prior, we’d secretly set up a few not-quite-complete magic circles close to town. The finishing touch? The topaz on the knife that Alaina had thrown earlier. The circle we were in now was as large as a few city blocks, and these babies boosted magic in direct proportion to their size.
If Lukoria hadn’t been severed from the astral plane by his Zanaffar, he would have been able to “see” the circle. They’d probably supercharged Tessius’s lightning spell too, but even if Tessius had “seen” the circle when he’d opened up the armor to cast, he probably hadn’t had the wherewithal to communicate that while he was being controlled.
And after all that, Lukoria’s next move was...
“Don’t underestimate me!” He let out a howl and fired several beams of light at the not-yet-fully-formed golems.
Laser breath! The incomplete golems took damage enough to interrupt their formation. But then...
“Noct Coffin!” Alaina’s cold spell hit the golems that had come to encompass Abomination like a great earthen flower. The moisture in the ground froze solid, trapping Abomination in a sturdy cage!
“Gourry! Alaina!” I called.
“Right!”
“Right here!”
Both responses came from close by.
So everyone’s safe after all! Lukoria must have drawn a really bad hand with those lightning strikes. Or perhaps Tessius had resisted a little, reducing their accuracy.
The three of us reunited. Alaina took Gourry’s hand with her right and mine with her left. “Lei Wing!”
Lei Wing was a high-speed flight spell I used a fair bit myself. It was hard to control and was easy to max out weight-wise, but with elven magic power and the amplification field, Alaina could easily carry us all! From above, we could see Cyclops and Horns buried up to their necks in the half-formed golems, making Abomination look like a spider stuck at the bottom of a crater. As we approached said spider, I began my incantation!
Blade forged of the freezing black void,
Be released under heaven’s seal
I was working on a spell that conjured a blade of darkness—one that I couldn’t use without the magic amplification afforded me by Alaina’s circle. It was powerful beyond a doubt, but it also drained my magic power like nobody’s business. I figured I’d be able to cast it here, but I had no idea how long I could keep it up once I invoked it.
Abomination noticed our approach and turned its lone free leg toward me...
“Stay on track!” Gourry cried. Alaina kept charging forward without bothering to dodge! The laser breath Abomination fired from its leg just brushed the wind barrier around us!
All right! Just as I hoped, he can’t see us very well right now! We’d showered the Zanaffar with icy attacks knowing that, even if they didn’t damage it, they would greatly reduce its surface temperature. Moving around the fog like that had collected condensation across the armor—including the surface of Spider’s eyes. Lukoria had only perceived it as the fog growing thicker, and his compromised vision reduced his accuracy.