Vegenrage: The Magic User (18 page)

“Is there nothing you can do to protect me from her magic?”

“I can try.” He puts his hands on her arms, just below her shoulders, and concentrates. He holds out his staff and releases it, and it stays motionless, hovering until he regains it with his hand. Farrah takes a deep breath, like her stomach is falling out, and opens her eyes wide, breathing deeply through her mouth. Her eyes start to glow deep blue, and he releases his hold on her. She puts her hands to her face, shaking like she just got a blast of the chills.

“What did you do?”

“I did the best I can to protect you from magical charms and offensive magic. This is very tricky because I want the Diamond Skin to be very strong for you, so the magical defense is weaker. If she tries to charm you, you have to use the strength of your mind the best you can to fight against her charm, OK?”

“Well, let’s go find that bitch and kill her.”

Vegenrage turns with his back facing Farrah. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

“OK, here we go.”

Farrah is lifted off the ground and slowly brought to Vegenrage’s back. “Put your arms around my shoulders.”

She does and they fly up and over the trees. It is still pitch-black here, and the light from Vegenrage’s staff creates a twenty-yard sphere of beautiful, soft white and blue light around them as they move. Farrah has her arms and legs wrapped around him tight. She has a wonderful smile on her face as she looks at the trees passing under them. For the first time in her life, she is free. She has her own thoughts and her own mind working for her. She is so happy to see the outside world, even if it is the Mindsunk Bog. She holds Vegenrage tight, growing happily dependent on her savior.

“Where are we going?”

“Fortunately, Alisluxkana has left a very easy trail for us to follow.”

“I don’t see anything.”

“Well, it’s a magical trail, and it is an evil one, very easy to follow.”

“Can you teach me magic?”

“Well, I don’t know. For right now, let’s worry about getting Alisluxkana and making sure she is dealt with properly. We are close.”

He settles to the ground, and Farrah steps to his side. He holds his staff above his head in his right hand and starts to walk through the forest. Farrah grabs his free hand with her right hand and walks beside him. He is concentrating his vision on their surroundings and turning his head to all the sounds of the night. It is pitch-black outside the ball of light produced by his staff, and the forest is dark and damp. The ground is black earth with no vegetation, and the trees have thick bark with no leaves. There are fallen logs and thick vines growing all around, making travel difficult but not impossible. There are small animals in the trees and on the ground that quickly run out of the light as it hits them.

After a short walk, they come to a clearing that has an old, worn down–looking house. It looks tattered and rises in the middle, forming an upside down
V
slanting to both sides of the one door in the middle of the house. To the left of the door is one very dirty window, and they can see a light in the house, most likely a candlelight.

“Is this where she lives?”

“Yes, and she is here.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel her. She is near.”

The door opens, and they hear Alisluxkana laugh. “Come on in. I have been waiting for you.”

Vegenrage steps toward the house, and Farrah steps close to Vegenrage, squeezing his hand with both of hers. He looks to Farrah. “It is time to get serious and be ready to do whatever you have to do.”

Alisluxkana walks out from the door and immediately throws a ball of blue light hitting Farrah. The ball of light shatters like it is a piece of glass, and before the pieces hit the ground, they vanish. Farrah is unharmed and unaffected by Alisluxkana’s charm.

“Alluradaloni, come to me, my baby.”

“That is not my name, and it is time for you to die, you witch.”

“I see. So, magic man, you have protected her from my control for now. In that case, you both must die. Come on in.” Alisluxkana walks into her house. She turns to close the door. “But before you come in, meet my pet, Drase.” She slams the door shut.

The ground starts to shake, and a massive head rises from the dirt in front of Vegenrage and Farrah. It is solid black with emerald-green eyes. The head rises, lifted by a long, sturdy neck rising some twenty feet in the air. Up walk two large front legs followed by two hind legs.

This is a very large animal, looks like a dragon, a ferret, and a sea serpent all in one. It has a large dragon head with a long neck that slopes downward and then up in a
U
form, growing into the large midsection of its body, and its back hunches in an upside down
U
, so its front legs are very close to its hind legs, but it is very large with a reptilian black skin. It is tightly compacted, but it can expand its neck and body, giving it a much greater range than would appear.

It uses this deceptive reach immediately and swings its left front paw at Vegenrage. He dodges the strike, but Farrah is hit with the full force of its strike, and she is thrown, crashing into the trees. Vegenrage stands and points his staff at the creature, shooting a lightning bolt, hitting it right in the head. The lightning bolt sends blue light spiderwebbing throughout its head, imitating the veins in its head, and the left side of its head erupts and explodes. The creature Alisluxkana called Drase falls to the ground.

Vegenrage looks to the woods where Farrah was thrown and heads in that direction, calling, “Farrah.” He looks to see the head of Drase reform itself, and it gets up, swinging its other paw at him, which he dodges as he did the first attack. He puts the staff in his left hand and swings his right hand from the ground up toward the standing monster, pointing his right index finger at it, casting a magical Blade of Sharpness, slicing it in half right through the middle of its stomach, right up through its neck and head. The creature starts to fall to either side, when at the base of its stomach it fused back together, and the entire creature reforms like nothing has happened. “Uh–oh, this is not good.”

Farrah comes running from the woods where she was thrown undamaged, thanks to the Diamond Skin Vegenrage cast on her. Drase watches Farrah as she runs to Vegenrage’s side. “You are the girl, the lover my master does not want me to hurt.”

Farrah boldly steps toward Drase. “You can leave now and live or face the wrath of Vegenrage.”

“Ahahahaha! Vegenrage, the puny magic man cowering behind a little girl.” Drase slithers his head down to the ground and up to Farrah in a flash, and a huge tongue comes out and licks her toe to head. “Um-mm, so sweet, such a yummy treat you are.” Drase talks in a very deep voice. “I cannot kill you, but my master did not say I could not eat you, and surely you are much more succulent than that stale, old magic man behind you.”

Vegenrage jumps in the air, and his right hand and arm grow to the size of his body. He comes down right on top of Drase’s head with a closed fist, smashing his head into the ground. Vegenrage’s left arm and fist grow the same way, and he gives an uppercut to the head of Drase with great power, sending his head and neck flying back and snapping against his backside. Vegenrage’s legs and midsection grow to match his arms, and he is now ten feet tall. He throws a straight punch into the body under Drase’s neck, sending him straight back into Alisluxkana’s home, crushing the entire structure as he falls backward on in.

Drase rolls to his right side and starts to stand up as Vegenrage pounces on him, grabbing the top of his head with his right hand and the bottom jaw with his left hand, and starts to pull the mouth apart like King Kong ripping apart the jaw of a
Tyrannosaurus
. Drase is very strong and whips his head side to side, but Vegenrage has wrapped and locked his legs around his neck, and with a death grip on Drase’s head with both hands, Drase cannot shake free of him. They are facing the back of Alisluxkana’s house, which has now been crushed to the ground and fragments of the home are crushed more and thrown off to the side, as Drase steps and stumbles around on it.

Vegenrage has gambled that whatever breath attack Drase has is most likely a charm attack since he is black, and he has Drase facing the back of the house so Farrah will not be struck if he launches a breath attack. Vegenrage is not messing around; he is serious looking and pulling Drase’s jaws apart with all his might. Drase knows he is in trouble and violently throws his head back and forth, biting as hard as he can to prevent Vegenrage from ripping his bottom jaw from his head.

Vegenrage quickly realizes Drase has been protected from magic. Now it’s time to see if hand-to-hand has a different effect. He pulls the jaws apart to have Drase snap them shut over and over, cutting Vegenrage’s hands and fingers very badly from his sharp teeth. Vegenrage ignores the pain, knowing that if Drase shakes him, he is vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. Vegenrage is wearing down the muscles in Drase’s jaw, which are incredibly strong, but they are getting tired, and Drase unleashes his breath attack, which is very surprising. Drase spews a thick stream of raunchy stagnant water, otherwise known as the Breath of Rot. It works like acid though not acid. If it were to hit a person and cover them, their skin would prune up, like sitting in a bath for hours, but the skin and flesh becomes very soft, so if you itched your nose, it would literally scrape off.

This poisonous water is getting on Vegenrage’s hands and causing him great pain as it seeps into the wounds already on his hands. Drase swings his head back and forth with rotten water spewing all over. Drase is getting tired, and Vegenrage seems to get stronger and stronger, more intense looking and straining as hard as he can, pulling the jaws of Drase apart. Vegenrage yells, knowing he is short on time. The rotten water is already taking a painful toll on him. He yells again, pulling with intense might, ripping the bottom jaw from Drase’s head. Drase’s body falls limp to the ground, and Vegenrage comes down with a closed fist on Drase’s skull, crushing it under his might. He stands over Drase’s head, looking to the black sky with closed eyes and his arms reached out to the sides of his body, screaming painfully into the sky.

Vegenrage dropped his Staff of Light when he first pounced on Drase, and Farrah is standing by it. She can see Vegenrage as he is just inside the sphere of light shining from the staff. He is screaming to the sky, and his hands are badly shredded and bleeding. She knows he is in pain and wants to pick up the staff and go to him, but for some reason, she is fixated on him, watching him as he looks to his hands and concentrates with pain in his eyes. He stares at his hands and slowly moves his fingers; his face relaxes, and his breathing calms down. He begins to shrink down to his normal size, and his hands slowly regain their natural form and heal, and Farrah is mesmerized.

He looks around, stretching his neck and hands, and looks to Farrah as he heads toward her. “Farrah, Alisluxkana is near. I can feel her.”

Just as he says that, the wicked laugh of Alisluxkana is heard, and she swoops down from Farrah’s right side, mostly invisible, her black clothing blending so well with the black of the Mindsunk Bog.

Farrah turns to see Alisluxkana grab her with her right arm and fly away.

“Farrah!” yells Vegenrage, and then he yells, “Cocoddlebrew!” Cocoddlebrew darts backward, dropping Alisluxkana and Farrah ten feet to the ground, and flies right into Vegenrage’s right hand. He runs at Alisluxkana, who stands up as Vegenrage takes a hop to his right foot and then from his left foot launches the broom full force, spear side first, at Alisluxkana. The spear hits her in the right cheek, exiting three feet out the back of her head as the broom flies back with her limp body until it hits a tree, shaking at the forked end with Alisluxkana dying staked through the head, hanging at the tree.

Vegenrage runs to her and puts his hands on her head. She shakes, unable to do anything. Her brain is broken, her thoughts are gone, her life is ending, but Vegenrage is concentrating hard, using all his magical gift to retrieve any information about the whereabouts of her treasure. He stands there for almost ten minutes, silently holding her grotesque head, which withers and gets worse looking as she falls deeper and deeper into death. Finally, her crackling breaths stop, and she withers like an animal on a desert. Her skin grows hard and leathery and shrinks to her bones. Alisluxkana is dead, and Vegenrage takes a step back. Farrah has walked back to the staff, where she feels safe by the light, and she can still see Vegenrage and Alisluxkana, who are still just inside the sphere of light. She watches as Alisluxkana die, and that same feeling of happiness of freedom she felt when she was flying on Vegenrage’s back takes her over, but better because now there are no lingering thoughts in the back of her mind, thinking Alisluxkana will come back and take her.

Alisluxkana is dead, and what Vegenrage does next puts her absolutely at ease. He points his palms at the witch and bends at his knees. A magnificent white light shines from his palms, and the witch with her broom begin to turn to ash and float, disintegrating within seconds from hitting the air until she is just gone.

“Vegenrage, you did it. She is gone forever.”

“She’s gone.” He walks to Farrah and picks up his staff. He walks toward the house that has been demolished, and Farrah follows him. He gets about five feet from the house and turns to her.

“OK. I need for you to sit down right here, OK?”

“Why?”

“Well, we need to clear this place out a little bit and give ourselves a safety net.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“You’re about to see. Sit down right here,” and she does. “I am going to clear a twenty-yard space for us with an incineration spell. Don’t look because it will burn your eyes, OK?”

“Won’t I get burned?”

“Nope, just sit right here. Keep your eyes closed and cover them with your hands, and you will be fine.”

“OK.”

Vegenrage casts an incineration spell like he has before, and the house, along with Drase, and all the trees within twenty yards have been incinerated. The trees along the outside of the circle are burning, giving plenty of light for them to see. He takes his staff and stakes it into the ground, and Farrah stands up. The staff grows forty feet into the air, and a blue dome falls to the ground just inside the flaming ring.