A Right Good Stone

The stunned silence continued for a few moments, before spontaneous cheers broke out from adventurers around the barricade. It seemed that the type of people attracted to a career in adventuring were also the type to enjoy explosions. Mike wasn't surprised.

James finally recovered enough to try and wrangle the rowdy crowd back into the semblance of a fighting force.

"Get your acts together you jumped up bastards! There are plenty more demons on their way." He walked over to Mike.

"That was an impressive display of magic, son, but I would appreciate it if you kept your explosions farther away from the rest of us. You got dangerously close to injuring some of the defenders."

"Sorry about that, wasn't expecting it to be quite that powerful." Mike answered sheepishly.

"No matter, that big one is still on its way," he said while shooting a glance over at the ponderously moving Gluttony Demon. "Do you anything that might be able to take it out? The small fries aren't much of an issue, but we would need siege weaponry to really hurt that thing."

"Not sure, that fireball spell seems effective, but I don't know if it will do much to a thing that size." He looked over at Victor, "Do you know any other chants that might be more effective against a single, large target?"

"How did you…..Why...." The older mage was still floored.

"What's the matter?" Mike asked, slightly concerned.

"Don't you understand what you just did?! You perfectly repeated a chant without a single error in pronunciation. That should be impossible. The majority of chant languages weren't even designed for the human tongue!" The mage looked like he was about to breakdown.

"What's the big deal? It's not like it is hard. I just have to repeat what you say. Although I will admit, you seemed to have a bit of an accent. I tried to mimic it, but I'm not sure if I quite got it right."

The mage stuttered for a few seconds. "Th-that..D-Do you...Do you actually understand the chant?"

Mike was starting to suspect he had made a mistake. "The words are a little flowery, but the meaning was more or less understandable."

"Understandable….." Victor clutched his head, as if the very foundations of his existence had been challenged.

"Have a breakdown later, we need to deal with that demon, and quickly." James said while shaking the distraught mage.

Victor spoke in a quiet and distracted voice, "I do know one for an earth spell, it creates spears of hardened rock. Ordinarily, it would not be sufficient to kill that kind of demon, but this guy," he shot a slightly depressed look at Mike, "could probably pull it off."

"Tell me the chant."

The mage cleared his throat, "From the depths of Eon, I call thee. Break the bonds of earthy shackles and fly true, [Stone Javelin}."

"Sounds easy enough," This elicited a pained whimper from the mage.

"I'll give it a try." He stepped up to the barricade and focused his gaze on the approaching demon.

The other adventurers made space for him. Mike felt a little bit of discomfort at the way they were looking at him. Expressions of mingled awe and fear were the most common, but many looked at him with a sort of child-like hope. He was starting to feel a great deal of pressure to perform.

[Alright, just take it nice and easy.]

He started building mana, feeding it into the spell. "From the depths of Eon, I call thee. Break the ancient bonds of earthly shackles and fly true, [Stone Javelin]."

[Wait, that didn't sound right. Did I add a word?]

He felt that mana drain from him as a long pointed stone formed in the air next to him. It was nearly 3m in length, with a glassy finish that shone dimly with reflected fire light. It stayed poised, hovering in mid-air, a menacing instrument of death. Mike felt an odd mental pressure, as if something was waiting for his permission to be released.

He focused on the Gluttony Demon, and with a thought, unleashed his spell.

The spear of stone started to vibrate slightly, a high-pitched whine sounded and quickly increased in volume. Mike thought it sounded a lot like a rocket about to take off.

With a loud 'THUMPF' the spear suddenly shot out, speeding across the intersection in less than a second. A squelching noise and a deep, rumbling roar of pain rent the night air as a small fountain of blood poured out from the massive demon.

The attack had proven devastating, as a basketball-sized hole had been formed, all the way through the demon.

Another round of cheering sounded from the nearby adventurers, but it swiftly died down. The wound of the Gluttony Demon closed almost as quickly as it formed. It scooped up another handful of lesser demons, threw them into its mouth, and resumed its ponderous travel.

"Well that didn't work." Mike muttered to himself.

"You need to take its head." Brenden's quiet voice startled him. He hadn't heard the beastman approach.

"What?!...I mean, what?"

"Its head. You need to kill it in one blow or it will just keep regenerating."

Mike looked at him. "You know something about these kinds of demons?"

He gave Mike a comradely smile. "Nah, but regeneration skills like yours are fairly common. I did some research in order to be able to defeat you. Every guide I read suggested that removing the head or destroying the heart is the best way to deal with regenerators."

Mike found himself very disturbed by the idea that his 'rival' had not only recognized the nature of his self-healing abilities, but had researched methods of overcoming them.

Brenden evidently noticed the look he was receiving, because he hastily replied. "That was a couple of days ago. I was in a bad place back then, so don't worry too much about it. I'm going to defeat you honestly next time, regeneration or no."

"Ha, good luck with that. As you can see from my earlier displays, I have already reached another level of potency in my magic. Do you think you stand a chance now?" Mike answered with his own grin.

"Some potency. You blew up a few minor demons, and barely made a scratch on the big one."

"You call punching a half meter hole through the things gut, a scratch?"

"Boys. Focus. Demon approaching." Tal interposed herself between them.

Mike noticed that the silver-haired woman had followed her over, but was hanging back, a little uncertainly.

He brought himself back to the task at hand. "You're right Tal. We need to focus."

After a few seconds of thinking, "I can try aiming for its head, but I'm not confident about it accurately from this distance. I haven't had much practice with this kind of magic, so I'll need to get closer to hit a target that small."

"We could hit it hard, keep it reeling, and leave you an opening to deliver the killing blow." Brenden suggested.

"Forgetting small demons." Tall pointed out.

"She's right again. If we leave this barricade, we'll have to deal with that swarm of lesser demons. I can clear them out with a few well-placed spells, but I'm not too confident about controlling the explosive radius, so we can't be close to the Gluttony Demon when I do."

Another voice broke in. "Why not let it get closer. The adventurers here on the barricade can keep the lesser demons busy, especially if you blast them a few times to keep their numbers low. Once the Gluttony Demon has reached the intersection, you can use earth magic to trap it in place and seal its movements."

The silver-haired woman moved to take a place in the circle, "From there, it should be a simple matter to kill it."

Mike sensed the stirrings of some unseen force, as if something was building, but the feeling was gone before he had a chance to really examine it.

"Like it. Can seal movements." Tal replied, breaking Mike out of his reverie.

"Alright we'll go with that plan." He started giving out orders without even realizing it. "Brenden, we'll need you to cover the casters while we concentrate. Make sure none of the lesser demons get close."

The beastman nodded in response, showing an easy and confident smile.

"Tal, I want you to wait until the Gluttony demon has reached the center of the intersection before you activate your magic. It's got to be fast. We can't give it a chance to get in close."

"Will do." The elf replied.

Mike turned to the silver-haired woman, and realized that he didn't know her name. He was trying to come up with a tactful way of asking when she saved him the trouble.

She grimaced as if fighting some inner battle, before sighing slightly. "My name is Seraphina, but you can call me Sera. Don't forget it."

"Michael," He said, gesturing to himself, "But I go by Mike. Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

He extended a hand to shake, hoping that his voice sounded at least neutral, if not friendly.

Sera looked at the hand curiously, as if she wasn't sure what to make of the gesture, before placing her own in his. Trying not to notice how soft it felt, he gripped her hand, gave it a single shake, and let it go.

"Good, now that we are acquainted, Sera, I would like you to stay behind and…"

"No." She said simply and arrogantly. "I'm staying right beside you until this is all over."

Mike felt his blood pressure rise, he was sure a vein was pulsing in his forehead. "Look, I'm just trying to make sure that you're safe."

"I know that, but I'm not going anywhere."

Mike sighed, deciding that it was not worth fighting over. "Fine, just try to stay close."

"I hadn't planned on doing otherwise." She answered haughtily.

He couldn't help but to sigh again, as he settled in to wait for the demons to get closer.

[That big one is really taking his time. We could probably get away from it by simply walking quickly in another direction.] He thought, while observing the ponderous steps of the creature.

[Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?]