Nick took a breath of fresh morning air, as he looked at the forest that expanded far and wide in front of his eyes. The air in the underground Werfur City, in his office, and in his room was not bad, but it could not compare to this clear air enveloping the forest.
Rabial walked ahead and related the details and information of their task to catch Nick up to speed.
“The place we are headed to is known as the Underbroom Cave. From what we understand, there is a necromancer there creating undead creatures using dark magic and other evil means. As he creates, he kills nature and humans, and if he is given the chance, he will attack the Werfurs too. We are tasked with clearing the entire cave of the undead creatures and the necromancer himself.”
Nick nodded. Nearly 10 minutes had passed before Rabial casually posed a question.
“That spell of yours, the one you call Energy Bullet I think, can you use it on that tree? I want to gauge its power. I imagine that the only spell you know so far is a basic Energy Bolt spell.”
Nick smiled and nodded. It was only natural that Rabial thought so. Nick did not mind demonstrating the Energy Bullet spell. He formed a gun shape with his hand and within 0.1 seconds, a Sonic Bullet shot towards the tree Rabial had pointed at.
“Boooffs”
The Sonic Bullet hit the tree at such a pace that even Rabial, who was considered an experienced and strong battle-mage, could not trace the spell or its movement. The tree was destroyed in a single shot, and it fell on the ground with a thud.
The noise jolted Rabial and only then he realized what just happened. Needless to say, that this one second was enough to leave him speechless. How can an amateur, who had become a mage less than a week ago, produce a potent spell like this? When considering that the power of this spell was Nick’s self-creation, it was even more difficult to fathom the potential of this genius.
“I don’t believe it! What kind of monster are you?!”
Rabial blurted this out as he looked at Nick. Nick smiled and started talking.
“This is my own creation and if I have time in the future, I intend to create many more such spells.”
In fact, Nick had also perfected the silent version of the ‘Sonic Bullet’ spell, making the spell ‘Sub-Sonic’. This was done so that the spell would not break the sound barrier and would be much quieter than the Sonic Bullet. For the time being, though, he did not show this to Rabial. It was better to not show all his cards at once.
Rabial kept walking, but his mind was still on Epsilon (Nick). In his lifetime, which was 85 years and counting in Werfur age, he was at par with a wise, old man in human terms. However, he had never seen something like this before. If given the time and resources, what kind of power and person would Epsilon become? Rabial did not dare to imagine an answer at the moment.
He did make a mental note immediately to inform the Council of Werfurs in the Anderium Forest about this once they were back. Given Epsilon’s power, chances are that the Werfurs would be nicer towards him and even befriend him further. Having a person like Epsilon as an enemy could bring disaster for the whole Werfur Race.
Nick’s show of power just now had confused Rabial’s mind. While he could not understand how strong Epsilon was, it gave him a sense of anticipation, nonetheless. As they continued further on their journey, Rabial noticed a crimson-grey energy shield surrounding Epsilon.
“Did you use a magic shield spell right now? I can see the energy around you.”
Nick smiled and nodded. He did not restrain his thoughts.
“Yes, it is my own creation. I felt a need for this after I was hit by the arrow and lost my arm. It was prudent to arm myself with a shield, so I created this passive magic shield spell. But this spell is mine and has nothing to do with the Werfur Race. The price that you are offering, of weekly 50 Ether Stones, is not enough for a spell such as this.”
Nick’s words stopped Rabial in his tracks. He was not offended. Instead, it would be right to say that he was scared. He asked in a trembling voice.
“Did you – did you created a magic shield spell and even a passive one at that yesterday?”
Nick appeared indifferent and answered.
“Yes, is that weird?”
Rabial was fighting an inner battle at this time. He knew that there were no words that could describe the kind of monster that he thought Nick was. In fact, the word ‘monster’ may not suffice what Nick was capable of. His accomplishments of one day alone were frightening. As a seasoned ‘elder’ however, Rabial set his mind to befriend Epsilon and never force him to do anything. His decision was not only for his own good but for the good of the Werfur Race itself.
After about an hour of walking, Rabial signaled to slow down, and pointed his finger to a big cave entrance. This entrance was guarded by undead warriors and archers. They had no skin or any other superficial matter. In comparison to being called undead, it would be better to just call them skeletons.
Rabial whispered to Nick.
“Would you want to engage in a fight, or do you have a spell that can completely kill them all?”
Nick thought a little bit; an idea had already formed in his mind.
“I do not exactly have a spell that could kill them all completely at once. But I do have a plan that will help me create a spell like that right now.”
Rabial gulped and decided not to think too much of what Epsilon said anymore. In any case, Nick’s words defied natural order so thinking about it just made him feel too bad about himself. He would much rather avoid this kind of feeling. The heart of the Werfur race was not as strong as the humans. They cannot handle pressure as humans do, so Rabial thought it was best to not think about what kind of genius or monster or whatever other descriptors that were in that category, Epsilon was.
If Nick knew that Rabial had thought this far in his mind, he probably would have had a good laugh. Because the idea Nick thought was simple. He shook his hand and created more than 10 Sonic Bullets. This did weaken him because it consumed more magical energy and power to create so many Sonic Bullets at once. He looked at the 10 undead stationed at the cave entrance and targeted their heads. Then, he whispered.
“Subsonic Magic and Energy Bullet — shoot”
The combined spell was cast, and the Energy Bullets Nick had created individually targeted each of the undead creatures, destroying their skeleton heads, killing them for real in the process this time.
Rabial’s face had a comic expression, but he did not utter a single sound.
