21. Dwellers Of The Deep

“Was that a smart use of magic, boss?” El-One asked, keeping his volume barely over a whisper. “Do we need the extra light or are we trying to impress the hot sorceress?”

“Impress? Yes. Because she’s hot? No.”

“When did you get so boring and holier than thou.” The clone sighed.

“We need her to teach us, genius,” Lukas said, trying to focus magic around his eyes. What El-One and the sorcerer didn’t know was that the spell hadn’t done what Lukas intended. The sphere was an unintended result. He had pictured his eyeballs and magic drawing more light into them. Instead, he had let his mind stray, thinking about all the other things Esther and he had practiced. The most basic version of the light spell had manifested instead. “Esther can only teach us so much. As incredible wizardry is it will take us far too many clones and years of study before we’re competent enough to get where we need to go.”

“Sounds like they’re mostly preparation casters anyway,” El-One said. “It doesn’t sound fun at all.”

“Or suited to us. Especially given our target specialization.”

“The lightning thing?”

Lukas nodded. “Once I can make more of you, I'll try to get us a job with another blacksmith. Maybe on the opposite end of the city. The faster we get good and the more money we have, the sooner we can start. It should be a hell of a lot faster than spending decades on arcane study and research only for our wizardry aspirations to never manifest.”

“We could save, steal, and splurge, and get that blacksmithing shard and get there even faster. The Heart and Mind abilities would make getting where we need to go much faster. Mold Metal might prove decent in combat too.”

“You’re not wrong, but what if the pillar is better saved for lightning?”

He wasn’t sure how he was going to do it or whether it was even possible.  Lukas had fallen victim to lightning magic one too many times in his former life and always wanted to wield it. Now that Earth knowledge had returned to his mind with clarity, he wished for it even more. The Realm of Greater Beings limited technology. There was something in the native magic preventing progress but the same didn't seem the case on Fracture. It was the perfect arena for attempted fusions of magic and the science he understood.

Shard ability. Essence-born upgrade. Magic. Lukas hoped one of the three would eventually give him what he wanted.

“Potent but limited,” Esther had said when Lukas casually broached the subject. “Lightning might be fast and devastating but it's nigh impossible to aim. Even the most talented wizards with the most detailed spellscripts struggle to control it. Lightning has a will of its own and almost never follows the intended path. Metal around? The spell will find it. Sometimes the air might be funny and will draw it off course. I’ve seen an archwizard’s fifth-tier spell useless strike the ground, avoid all targets despite abundance, and do absolutely nothing.”

Lukas didn’t care. He knew what he wanted and trusted himself to find a workaround. Sure. Countless had tried before him and failed. It didn’t mean he would too. Penelope claimed Intent and Understanding weren’t enough to overcome the issue but she hadn’t almost completed a degree in electronic and electrical engineering. Thanks to the clones, Lukas had the time and manpower to figure things out. He just needed more of them.

“Over there,” El-One said, pointing with his spear at a dark corner far in the direction he was facing.

It looked like nothing at first. Lukas saw another black patch among several other black patches. “What are you—” The darkness was darker than the other dark patches. While light from the fungi and crystals didn’t reach the other areas, it seemed to disappear into the corner. Lukas focused his arcane senses, trying to get a feel of the anomaly, but he lacked the range and ability.

The dark patch moved. Lukas couldn’t be sure of it at first. Then, just as he started to look away it moved again. The first time it was lateral. The second was toward them. Lukas immediately started to gather ambient magic, using the time he had to minimize the drain on his personal magic supply and the sword’s stores.

“What is it?” Lukas whispered. “Did you get a decent look?”

El-One shook his head. “I wasn’t even sure I was looking at something. You’re my confirmation. I’ll bet our right nut it’s not friendly.”

“Don’t start.” Lukas sighed. “It’s not our right nut.”

“Yes. Yes. It’s your right nut. But if something happens to the prime right nut, all future clone right nuts suffer the same fate.” El-One grinned, casually standing next to Lukas but eyes not leaving the anomaly. “Hence, our right nut.”

“I hate you so much,” Lukas mumbled. 

“Self-loathing is a bad look, El-Prime.” The clone sighed shaking his head. “It’s why you're never happy.”

“Easy with the prime and clone talk. Our sorcerer’s kitty probably has enhanced hearing.”

“I did a few tests. It's not as keen as he wants us to think. Especially when he’s focused on other things.” 

“Or that's what he wants you to think,” Lukas whispered, struggling to condense ambient magic around himself. Penelope made the act seem far too easy. “You're not happy either. You're distracting yourself with an innocent girl who's going to be left heartbroken when we move on or don't commit.”

“I like her and think she's cute,” El-One stated. “Which means that you do too even though you won't admit it. Kat is a consenting adult and likes me—I mean us. It's not like we’re taking advantage of her.” He adopted an almost mocking tone. “Your ‘I’d rather be with someone age-appropriate’ thing is stupid. You're never going to hook up with an eighty years old. ”

“I had no such plans.”

“Good. But if you want to become happy.”

“Will you please shut the fuck up!” Lukas hissed. 

“Don't get testy with me, El-Prime. I'm just your inner thoughts given physical form.”

“No. Shut up. That thing is speeding up.” Lukas took a step back, positioning himself behind El-One’s shield arm, and adopted a striking stance. “It's coming for us.”

Lukas struggled to identify the creature as it climbed a wall and crawled towards them along the underside of a bridge. Even when it passed through a luminous crystal’s beam, he failed to see it clearly. Light seemed to pass through it. Then, Lukas noticed a sudden change. A skinny quadripedal figure appeared for a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it, moment before everything around it darkened.

Creaks and cracks spread across the bridge as the blackness intensified. Dust, fragments, and fist-sized chunks rained from it. When the mass of darkness fell, the stone bridge almost seemed to flex. The ground trembled and fractured when it landed. The tremor almost knocked Lukas off his feet. Cracks spread through underfoot stone, reaching the duo and the stairs they guarded. Bits of it fell away but Penelope’s magic circle remained intact.

The creature’s first few steps were loud and thundering. Each added to the aftershocks of its landing and more stone chunks fell from above. The intense darkness faded. Lukas saw the long, spindly figure again. It was almost humanoid but the rear limbs bent the wrong way. All of its legs seemed to sit in ball and socket joints, given how they rotated with every step. Then, light once again seemed to pass through the creature, making it hard to see, and all of its sounds disappeared.

Mass and density alteration?

“Bryina,” Lukas whispered, pressing a hand against El-One’s round shield. Its edges thinned and the metal rim picked up a slight sheen. He did the same with his kite-shaped buckler, focusing magic around the narrow end that jutted out over his knuckles. Lukas didn’t know how much good it would do him but he felt more secure having weapons in both hands.

The creature covered more than a couple of hundred feet in less than five seconds. Only the way light behaved as it passed through illuminated patches allowed Lukas to keep track of it. Visibility changed the moment it struck, making contact with El-One’s shield. The attack or impact didn’t seem like the source of the change. Instead, the striking limb lit up with azure flames as soon as it crossed the magic circle’s threshold. 

A high-pitched growl sounded from the creature’s throat and transitioned to a deep rumble as it went from permeable to so dark that its carapace seemed to absorb all light. Both Lukas and El-One used the three-second window to strike. The three-stage spear failed to do much, rebounding off the shoulder it stuck. Meanwhile, the magically sharpened shortsword and Lukas’s right arm momentarily enhanced by a modified speed spell made a marginal difference. It bit into the still burning limb.

The creature retreated, pulling its arm free. Fluids that glowed with the same bioluminescence as the ambient fungi dripped from the wound. Its strides once again grew loud and heavy. 

When it struck again, the attack came much slower. Instead of blocking it outright, El-One angled his shield, attempting to deflect the blow. He succeeded but cracks sounded from the shield and all the way up his arm. While darkened, the monster wasn’t just heavier and tougher, but also proportionally strong.

“Get behind the circle,” Lukas said, retreating. 

The clone followed without question, keeping his now limp shield between himself and the creature. It attacked again, slowly swinging a heavy limb at them. It lit up like a blue firecracker, burning and sputtering. The swing went off course and the monster retreated again, roaring angrily as the fire spread up its limb. The limb rotated almost one-eighty degrees and bent under the creature before the heavy torso dropped on top of it. 

“It’s clever,” Lukas whispered, using the opportunity to dash forward. “Frar.” His entire body sped up and the sword’s magic stores dropped to just under half. It wasn’t the time to be conservative. He stabbed at the side of the creature’s slender neck. Much to his disappointment, the tip failed to penetrate. However, the edge successfully cut through the surface as the blade skated along the carapace, a thin fluorescent-green line on the metal.

The creature started to transition while retreating, becoming visible again. It looked reptilian for a moment as the scales and little feathery hairs on its limbs, back, and neck became visible. But then Lukas noticed the compound eyes and pincers. It sped up as light started to pass through its body, but the transition was slower than before and he took advantage of the opening. He swung at its head, putting his hips and shoulders into the blow. The monster threw up its already injured limb, blocking the attack.

Lukas’s shortsword bit in deeper, traveling almost all the way through the appendage before getting locked in place. His fatigued arms failed to pull it free. He drew the stolen knife with his off-hand and swiftly inserted it where his sword had entered. “Rifa Tar!” The carapace exploded around the point of contact. It looked like shredded black fabric, speckled with glowing green.

The monster pushed forward, rising and taking advantage of Lukas’s overcommitment to the attack, and successfully got him off balance. The other forelimb came down at him, clawed digits first. 

El-One took the attack. He hadn’t stayed back while Lukas dashed forward. The clone attempted to raise his damaged arm but failed to do so in time. The claws pierced through the leather before the round shield’s sharpened edge struck. It cracked the carapace and splattered El-One with fluorescent green.

“Grab it!” Lukas yelled, dashing in. He dispelled the clone sitting at the inn and practicing arcane recovery exercises. Magic flooded him. It wasn’t just the magic encasing the soul fragment that returned to him but also everything El-Two had absorbed during his training. He summoned another clone, empowering it for toughness and strength, and they descended on the monster together.

El-One threw himself on top of the monster.

El-Two wrapped his arms around its head and right shoulder.

Lukas took the almost severed arm..

They heaved and pulled together, roaring, and pulling with all of their might, putting everything they had into into the group grapple. If it failed, they’d have no choice but to retreat and hope the magic circle held long enough for Bass and Penelope to return.

The combined strength of two and a half proved just enough. They dragged the monster toward the magic circle as it thrashed and fought to shake them off. Lukas jammed his shield into the damaged limb’s cut, drawing a high-pitched screech. He successfully pried the forearm off, leaving a weeping stump on the omnidirectional elbow joint. Lukas stabbed the stolen dagger into the opening and yelled, “Suga Eljan!” 

It came as no surprise when the creature started to transition again. Lukas struck the head with his shield but didn’t seem to do much. Their opponent grew heavier and tougher with every step. Fortunately, the injury and the enchanted knife slowed the change. Pincers snapped at Lukas forcing him to retreat. The clones did no such thing. They, somehow got under the monster just as it reached its completely visible state and lifted its rear half so only a lone injured leg remained in contact with the ground. They flipped the darkening creature, and most of its slender horse-sized frame landed in the magic circle.

A thunderous cry filled the darkness, its pitch oscillating wildly. Azure frames swiftly enveloped the beast as it thrashed, limbs rotating trying to get under it. Only the rear limbs found traction. The injured foreleg was far too damaged to carry its weight. It seemed the darker-than-black form only granted resistance to physical damage. Attempts at rolling and crawling out of the circle failed. 

Lukas and the clones didn’t relax. They waited just outside the inscribed spell’s perimeter, ready to strike if the beast escaped. El-One handed his weapons and the damaged shield to El-Two and was dispelled soon after. He had suffered several more wounds and breaks while wrestling the monster. El-Two had a few bruises and a couple of fractured fingers. Claw marks also ran across his chest. The injuries were enough to sell his participation in the fight. Being toughness-empowered, he also shared El-One’s wider frame.

It didn’t take long for the monster to fall silent but an eternity seemed to pass before the lanky body stilled. The carapace had mostly melted and the feathery hairs melted away but the glossy scales remained unharmed. Its egg-shaped skull cracked open and luminous gore spilled out. In the midst of it sat a glass sphere, its core a swirling mass of black. The edges were permeable much like the monster in its low-mass form while the center appeared the opposite.

Essence of Phasing

Lukas also inspected the monster’s corpse.

Mutated Phaser
Phasers are simple house-cat-sized predators that live in dark, underground, magic-rich environments. The insectoids hunt creatures and entities rich in magic but are very much a threat despite their size. Little is known about the creatures because of the rarity of their sightings.
Their high-mass forms seem to absorb light and grant them enhanced strength and toughness at the cost of speed. Light phases through them in their low-mass form when they’re fast but frail
This specimen has mutated after consuming draconic flesh. It doesn’t seem to have adjusted to its sudden growth and the control over phasing has weakened.

“They’re coming back,” the new Elvis announced, flumping on the floor next to the magic circle. His eyes scanned for more phasers.

Loud sloshing and splashing echoed from the tunnel at the bottom of the stairs. Their employer was on their way back.

“What are we telling them? That we took it out?”

“It’s the truth,” Lukas replied. 

“Are we telling her about the essence?”

“Yes. And we’re keeping it. She gave us our word.”

“We’re fucked if she reneges,” El-Two said.

“Given how weak we are and where we are, we’re alive because she wants us alive. Proving ourselves useful is how we get out of here and succeed.”

“I’ll take your word for it, El-Prime.” The clone sighed, worsening the damage on his leather armor to appear more convincing. “To be fair, there is no hiding or running if her inappropriate kitty comes after us. That thing is terrifying.”