Saturday, December 9, 2017

Master of Strings Ch16: A Prepared Wizard

The four wounded heroes stare down with the hobgoblin wizard, who looks over his fallen men. he quickly reaches down for his book and shouts

"Haste!"

Suddenly the Hobgoblin's reactions and muscles seem to tense and all his motions move at twice the speed of what should be possible. With his new speed he quickly turns the page and before Zilo and friends can respond he is casting another spell.

"Greater Invisibility!"

Suddenly the caster vanishes and instinctively the Party looks around for him and crowds in back to back looking around.

"Where did he go?" Asks Cruxis.

As May turns around to remark they suddenly hear the same word repeated twice.

"Fireball, Fireball!"

Two balls of intense heat suddenly come from two angles and engulf the party. As the flames cease the wizard appears again as the heroes begin standing again after crumbling to the ground and Zilo holds them repeating his healing spells.

"A bard archer, a drunk swordsman, a armored paladin, and a sneaky cleric." Remarks the hobgoblin as he thumbs around his spellbook. he smiles and snaps closed his book.

"Nothing I haven't expected."

The team charges, but the Wizard's speed is much too fast as he suddenly rushes up to May and places his hand on her chest.

"Arcane Mark! Try to hide from the fight now!"

Suddenly a target appears on her chest and the word 'loser' below it. the mark glows very brightly and is quite noticeable to all around. May's teeth grit as she swipes at the wizard who is already throwing out another spell with his speed.

"Mage Armor"

With that, the scythe deflects off of the glowing skin around the wizard, who quickly jukes away and laughs at her.

Alaroc  manages to leap forward and close the distance to the wizard, but just as he swings down his sword the wizard flicks to his book and shouts.

"Burning Disarm! A warrior without a blade is nothing!

Suddenly Alaroc yells in pain as his blade glows, but the runes remain dormant. From the pain Alaroc's swing isn't on course and as he strikes the ground the wizard followed up with another spell.

"Air Geyser!"

Alaroc is suddenly shot into the air and his sword is flung from his grip and embeds itself into the house's front door and sets the dry wood a blaze.

Alaroc lands in the barn's roof and collapses it inward.

As the wizard smiles at his work he feels a prick on his neck's back. Rather than panic the wizard just smiles.

"Do you plan to waste time fighting me? Or..."

The wizard tilts his head toward the house that is burning faster and faster as the grass about the building begins to catch fire as well. Cruxis' arm shakes before he takes off toward the house as The wizard turns back to Zilo and May.

May looks over to Zilo and says, "Well Zilo, care to see you're Kryponite?"

Zilo looks to May and says, "What's a Kryptonite?"

May opens her mouth to respond but then she clams up, "I don't know... why did I say that?"

Before May and Zilo can get to the bottom of this phenomenon the wizard pops in again.

"Force Punch"

May then is blasted back into the cliff surface over looking the farm before she face plants into the ground. Zilo turns back to the matter at hand and fires an arrow at the seemingly unprotected wizard's head. the wizard doesn't even bat an eye as he speaks.

"Protection from Arrows"

The arrow plinks right off the hobgoblin's head without even leaving a mark. Zilo lowers his bow with a slack jawed look on his face.

"Don't feel bad human, you aren't the first group to be killed by my spells."

Zilo raises his bow again and shouts, "Shut up! We are not going to die here today!"

"Mage Hand"

The wizard sends a knife along with his spell that in one swift motion cuts Zilo's bow string. Zilo looks at his arrow in his hand, no longer supported by the string and he just stares back at the wizard who is smirking.

"Now then, go ahead and string up your bow so I can show you my next counter, I want to have fun with last opponent of mine."

Zilo's cheeks go red and he stammers, "I a... don't have another string, I've never really thought I would need one."

The wizard lets out an intense laugh before stating, "Idiot."

With that one statement, something in the foolish bard snaps and he reaches to his side for a new weapon.

"Acid Arrow"

A greenish streak propels itself across the battlefield, but just as the arrow is inches from it's target Zilo's grey eyes open and look to be replaces by a blue glow.

A huge dust cloud and crackling of acid encompasses the area around Zilo, the wizard snaps shut his book and turns to return to his work in the barn. but then a pulse of power hits him from behind and knocks him down to all fours. He spins as he comes to his knees.

In Zilo's place stands an armor clad warrior with an air of death around him. Zilo has once agin made the change into the Lich King. and from the look on the wizard's face it isn't his first time seeing a Lich.

The wizard takes out his spellbook again and flips through the entire book only to close it and give a worried look.

"Lich... Uh oh."

The wizard shoots off a lightning bolt out of his wand he kept at his side that impacts the newly undead Zilo to leave no discernible effect and out of fear he drops the wand to the ground.

"My Turn"

Zilo slowly walks forward toward the Wizard he raises his sword which glows an ominous black.

"Enervation"

The wizard has black glowing power leave his body and he shakes as he sees his life force leave his body.

"Now that you are tenderized, lets get to cooking the main course."

The wizard shakes, as Zilo places both hands onto his sword and a terrifying glow shows from his mouth. The Wizard Quickly flips to a new page in his spell book before settling on a page.

"Banshee Blast!"

"Teleport!"

The Wizard vanishes out of thin air and a giant blast of undead energy explodes out of Zilo's mouth directly toward the house, for a faint second something is shouted and the house is totally leveled.

May and Alaroc approach the undead Zilo and look at the destroyed house that Cruxis and the family had been in.

May looks at the undead tyrant who had been her friend and said, "Zilo, what did you do?"

Zilo gives her a side long look that terrifies her to her core before he sends his attention to the house. The moment he realizes the armored Man raises his hands to his face and shouts in his ominous voice with a familiar tone.

"Oh Sweet Morta, did I do that!?"

As soon as Alaroc and May saw the visual of the armored figure miming Zilo's body language they lowered their weapons, now put at ease that despite his appearance, it was still the bard who was in control.

As May lets out a sigh of relief, Alaroc points to the house.

Alaroc belts out, "Cruxis is alright!"

Cruxis is holding his sword and shield downward in a praying formation and him and the whole family look to be glowing in radiant energy.

Cruxis rises from his position and the family looks around at their destroyed house, beginning to tear up. Cruxis flicks out his sword and begins to charge at Zilo as he shouts out for a smite at the idiotic dark lord, but as he is just about to impact him a familiar voice can be heard from the cliff.

"Hold Person"

Cruxis is stood still before tipping over from the position he was placed in, as Maldrek descends from the cliff with a casting of Feather Fall.

"Cruxis, you know that Zilo didn't intend for this destruction, the one to blame was that wizard, the current issue may in fact be much more dire."

Maldrek side long looks at Zilo and says, "Zilo, tell me can you revert back?"

Zilo's eyes close for a moment then they open again and the man shudders in his armor.

"Apparently I 'Accepted' the power, the Spirit says that I am now truly the King of the Liches."

The tall standing Zilo paces back and forth as Maldrek releases Cruxis from the spell.

"What do I do!? I just didn't want us to die!, I didn't want this!?

Maldrek stops Zilo and says, "Now isn't the time Zilo, you may retain your mind for now, but power like that may corrupt you, we may need to find a solution to your condition sooner than we thought."

Cruxis dusts himself off and says, "From the legends on this form, I would think that the only thing could revert Zilo would be a being that could cast Wish."

May raises her hands in disgust and says, "So we just need to use the most power spell in the world!, Where in Necros' name will we find something that can do that!?"

"Actually..."

Everyone turns to Alaroc.

"I think I know a place."


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