The Mistakes Of Misfits

Journal of Varrin Stormviel page 185

We traveled for almost a week. Each night training with Otah, to be honest mostly just getting our asses kicked by the old orc. He found new exercises and changed his fighting style to counter each of us. I couldn't argue with the results. I felt much, much stronger.

I spent my nights on watch with Sumi. She helped me learn to channel the rage that powered my red aura. I was so close to being able to activate it at will. No sign on what could activate the yellow one yet but I hoped to crack it as well soon. Sumi and I had become... close. The orc had a lot more in common with me than I ever would admit to her. I liked our little talks by the fire every night. It gave me something to look forward to.

We traveled once again in our little cart. At least today it wasn't scorching. A nice rainfall had met my skin as we rode. Sumi and I sat in the front of the cart with Otah choosing the inside of the vehicle. Kasious on the other hand couldn't be more than a few minutes without conversation so he sat on top of the cart so he could join us. I looked over a map of the area, looking for towns for a proper stop. I used magic to keep the map dry but I wanted to feel that rain on my own skin after the days of heat.

Kasious looked over me, at the map. "So... where are we gonna stop?" He asked me. He seemed eager to sleep anywhere other than the tents tonight. Hadn't shut up about it all day.

Sumi scoffed. "We do not need to stop. We have plenty of rations and even if we do need more we can always hunt." She coated each word in a heavy layer of spite. Even after the week of travel her hatred of the prince has not calmed at all.

Kasious let out a sigh at Sumi's hatred. "Come on. Don't tell me you want to sleep in this damn rain. Even you want a nice warm bed orc." Sumi turned to shut down the prince's argument.

I spoke before she could tell him no. "As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Kasious." I told them. Sumi and Kasious both looked at me in surprise. I sighed. "We all could use a warm bath and a soft bed." I didn't hear Otah object from inside the cart so I assumed that meant he was on my side.

Sumi and I exchanged a look and she seemed to give in to my request but she still crossed her arms in disapproval. I smirked at her before looking back down at the map. There were a few places that were close to the road we took. Dairo was the first. It was a small farming village that was less than twenty minutes away from us right now. The second was Haven. Haven was a large city known for thieves and prostitutes. The third was Vivek. It was a mining town known mostly for its large steel and coal mines.

I relayed the information to my comrades. Kasious smiled. "See, Dairo is right there. We could easily reach it by nightfall. Get us out of this damned rain."

Sumi sighed. She unwrapped her arms and put her finger on the map where Dairo was. "If we're going to stop, not that I want to... Dairo would be my choice. The mines are miserable and I don't want to deal with the thieves in Haven."

I nodded. Well if we head down that road to our left we should reach Dairo in..." I pointed my hand in the direction of the town and a large tornado of green fire exploded from the valley below. I was stunned. Before I could figure out if I somehow caused the magic another smaller green explosion came from the small town.

Several large blasts of magical energy went through a small town in the valley below us. Sumi put her arm on my shoulder. "Varrin... don't tell me that's" she couldn't finish the sentence.

I nodded to them both. "That's Dairo." I told them. I grabbed the reins. "Whatever it is, we have to help." I looked at the two of them. Sumi and Kasious both reached for their weapons, clearly ready for whatever conflict we were going to rush into. I smiled as I snapped the reins and rushed to the small town.

The town was already wrecked by the time we got there. Probably an entire third of the city had been destroyed in the attack. It at the very least made for an easy approach. We parked our cart on the outside of the city and moved through the rubble. The things I saw while I moved through the buildings were... horrifying. Whoever these people were, they were sick.

We approached the town square and chanting started to fill my ears. I didn't know the spell by the magical words they spoke but I could feel the magic even from a distance. It was strong, but it didn't feel right. It was... tainted. The feeling sent chills up my spine.

We ducked into a small building that looked like what used to be a shop. It was on the town square and would give us a good view of our enemy. I ducked by the window and dared to look outside. There must have been at least thirty figures in black robes standing around a large group of tied up civilians. There seemed to be about ten other figures wearing armor and carrying large swords, clearly some kind of mercenaries.

I turned to Otah and Kasious who had taken up positions on the wall beside the window. "Is this the cult you were talking about?" I whispered to them.

Kasious nodded grimly. "I've never seen them this far out." He explained while looking through the cult members. "They have to be expanding their influence more than our spies let on." His face straightened as he lost himself in thought.

Before he could tell us anything a voice pierced through the rain. "Fear not dear peasants. Your lives will not be ending, you become part of something... beautiful." I turned my attention to the man speaking. A human man walked away from the large group of mercenaries and approached the townsfolk. He was the only person in the cult who didn't have his hood covering his face. He had long blond hair that fell on his shoulder. He had bright green eyes and a devilishly handsome smile. He carried a large staff that was adorned with a large green gem embedded in an animal skull of some sort.

The chanting became louder and a large circle of green energy formed around the villagers. I turned back to the others. "We need to stop this." I told them. I wasn't going to sit here and watch these people die. I didn't care how outnumbered we were.

Otah put up a hand to silently stop me. "Wait for an opening boy." He ordered. He was right of course, but every part of my body seemed to drag me toward the civilians.

The cult leader raised his staff in the air. "You will become one with our dark god. The god who will defy the earth and the heavens." The green circle started to glow brighter and I knew we didn't have long. I needed to move. I would not let them die. Sumi looked at me and I could see that defiant ere to her gaze. She was with me. We would save them even if Otah wouldn't.

Before we could make our move one of the buildings on the other side of the town square burst open. "That's enough death worshipers!" Screamed a male voice. A small group emerged from the building, being led by an orc man. He was quite small for an orc, being around my size in both height and build. He was younger and carried two ornate looking scimitars. The woman behind him had similar looking armor to Kasious, clearly a templar. She carried a large greatsword and kept her long brown hair in a bun.

The two of them led three other villagers that clearly were not prepared for battle. They carried no armor and the weapons they did have were old and dull. The group of five charged the cultists. Kasious smirked. "I feel like that's our opening." He said.

Otah nodded and jumped out of the broken window. "Sumi, with me. We distract the mercenaries and their leader. Kasious and Varrin focus on saving those civilians!" We all moved quickly without a moment of hesitation.

These cultists had no idea what was about to hit them. They were turned to the group of farmers when I launched the large bolt of lightning at the first cultist. The bolt fried him almost instantly. I felt a bit of satisfaction as the cultists turned to us in fear. I could hear Otah and Sumi clash with the mercenaries to our left. I kept focused on my task though. They could handle themselves.

I made a lasso of arcane energy and pulled one of the cultists into my body where I had a knife waiting for his heart. I saw Kasious clash with a large cultist carrying an ornate greatsword. Another cultist charged me with a blade made of arcane energy. I dropped the body of the other cultist and brought my arm up, forcing a pillar to rise.

The cultist went flying from the pillar but another rushed me from the side. The cultist was able to land a blow to my jaw sending me reeling back. I brought my hand down and scooped up a bit of earth and rocks. I spoke a few magic words and when I threw the dirt at the cultist. Sharp spikes of earth formed from the small bit of soil and pierced through the robes and body of my enemy.

Kasious sliced the head off of the cultist he had been fighting and rushed into the next. Another shot a bolt of fire at me and I quickly put up a ward shield. The shield absorbed the blast. I quickly stomped my foot and ice shot up from my leg and moved in a large trail to the cultist. The ice stabbed up from the ground and pierced his body.

There were already three more charging me. I could feel my magic wavering. Mages usually ended a fight by this point. There were a lot of cultists here. I would need to conserve a bit of energy. I spun my staff in a flourish to distract the cultists charging me. They faltered for just a moment. Long enough for me to encase the weapon in jagged ice. I charged the enemy before they had time to think.

The first one went down with one strike to his throat. I ignored the blood that splattered as I collided with the sword of the second cultist. The third attempted to shoot a bolt of fire at me but I easily deflected it with my free hand and a ward shield. It hit me then. These people had never trained with their power, at least not much. They welded magic but we're undisciplined children compared to a proper mage.

I swept out the leg of the second cultist and slammed my staff into him. The muddy ground sank with the impact. The third enemy hit me in the back with a shard of ice. It hurt like hell but I spun to meet him.

"You think you can stop this, mage? Our God will tear you apart till you are nothing but scattered dust!" He shot a torrent of fire at me. I had no choice but to put up a ward shield and endure the attack. The flame hit my shield and I could feel the heat surrounding me. I held strong but it took a lot out of me to hold back the attack. No matter the training, the magic they were given was powerful.

As soon as the magic faltered for even a moment I teleported behind the cultist and drove my knife through his heart. "Let your God come, never been a religious man anyway." I quipped as the body fell. I slumped a bit. I needed to catch my breath. Kasious ran to some of the townsfolk and started to untie them. The cultists were starting to scatter a bit. Their numbers depleted.

One of the mercenaries had made their way over to me. I brought up my staff to block a massive greatsword strike. The mercenary was strong, much stronger than me. He pressed down his blade and I could feel my arms starting to give to the weight.

A blade pierced through the massive chest of the mercenary. On the other side of him the blond templar woman who had led the charge with the small orc earlier stood with her sword ready. We stared at each other for a moment, neither being able to read the other's intent. The woman nodded. She looked back at Kasious. "Templar! Get these people out of here, we'll hold the line." She stood at my side. "Don't let them catch you off guard, these magics are quite powerful."

I let out a small chuckle. "Not as powerful as a real mage." I told her. Two more cultists charged her to our right and I decided to show her. I launched a massive ball of fire at their feet that lit them both up in flames.

The woman looked between me and the two now burnt cultists. "Glad you're on our side." She muttered. Two more mercenaries charged us. I let a smirk cross my face as I charged at the left mercenary. I clashed my icy staff with his blade. He carried a longsword very similar to Kasious's

I heard Kasious behind us yell to the villagers. "Move! If you value your damn lives, get out of here!" Following the order I heard an avalanche of footsteps running away from the battle. I pushed the mercenary away from me and attempted to freeze his feet to the ground.

The mercenary moved faster than I expected. He jumped up and slammed his knee into my face. I heard a small crunch as my nose most likely broke. I gritted my teeth and grabbed the mercenary by his arm. "I'll make you pay for that." I warned as I pumped a massive amount of electricity into his body. The mercenary shook for a moment but most likely died after the first bolts. I dropped the burnt corpse and performed a bit of healing magic on my nose.

I was wheezing hard. I had never fought this many people. Any fights I had gotten into were always one on one. This was... taxing. I moved back to the female templar's side just as she decapitated the mercenary she was fighting.

We killed cultist after cultist. My magic became so weak from overuse that I needed to follow up each spell with a slice of my knife. The cult was almost finished. We were going to win.

Every thought in my head went dead when I heard the scream of one old orc. I turned to see the leader of the cult toss Otah to the side as if he were a child's doll. My blood went cold. If he could beat Otah... oh gods what were we in for. Otah still breathed from what I could tell. He was just unconscious. Sumi let out a thunderous battlecry and attempted to cleave his head clean off.

The cult leader let a wicked smile cross his lips as he stopped Sumi with some kind of telekinesis. "You all are quite the specimens. Your corpses will serve me well in the weeks to come." The smaller orc man tried to attack the cult leader from the other side and he simply threw Sumi at the orc.

Sumi's body hit him and both of them tumbled to the ground in a mess of crossed limbs. The cult leader just simply raised his hand toward them. "Become one with me." He said. A green tether connected between the two bodies and the sorcerer.

My blood went still and I tried to think of something. I was much too weak to summon any kind of spell that could do damage to someone that strong. Even at full strength I didn't know if I could hurt him. But I had to figure it out. If I didn't do something, Sumi would...

Panic filled my blood. I... I didn't want to think right now about why their deaths, her death would have me so worried. My power rose. I felt my hair float in the air and my body soon followed. I moved upward, my body giving into the power.

I recognized the feeling. An all too familiar yellow aura surrounded me and I felt an overwhelming amount of power fill my veins... and I knew exactly where to aim it. I let the power flow into the clouds, and down on that fuckers head. A large bolt of lightning formed and struck the cult leader.

The cult leader put up a ward shield and before he could move I sent down another bolt, then another. I continued the assault feeling the cult leader's shield start to give. Each bolt caused my body to rise higher and higher, soon I was fifty feet above the ground.

The cult leader turned his attention to me and I could feel his magic piercing my mind. I tried to push him out the best I could but his voice entered my mind anyway. "Interesting... live for now mage. I wish to study you." It was an ominous warning. A small green circle formed under him and before I could react, he teleported away.

One of my bolts struck the bare dirt and I stopped the assault. He had retreated for a moment. I needed to find a... I started to feel tired and my body started to give out. I needed to get down, I couldn't fall from this height. I tried to float down but exhaustion claimed me as I plummeted to the ground, unconscious.