The characters and plot in this story are copyrighted by the author.
All the characters in this story are purely products of my imagination and are not based on real people. Any resemblance is purely coincidental and is not intended.
If you are looking for just sex this is not the story for you. Most of the romance will take place in later chapters if I continue the story
This is my first attempt at a story and I hope that you like if you have any positive feedback I would love to here it. You can email me at BlackAdept@Hotmail.com
I am going to try to get one chapter a week out but I am a university student so sometimes I might not have time
I would like to give special thanks to Bobby who will be editing my work for me.
The Black Adept
Chapter 2: The Battle
By Matt
Demons are creatures of another plane who feed off life energy and use it to evolve. There are twenty-one stages of a demon's evolution but few ever make it to the top seven stages the demonlord stages. Only one has ever made it to the top stage the Demon Lord as it is often referred to. When a demon is "born" it is no bigger than large dog and is a part of a brood of thousands. To evolve to the next stage it must devour it peers into it has gathered enough energy to evolve to the next stage. After this stage they can no longer grow on the energy of other demons so this means they have to find another source. That is where demon mages come in. They sell their soul to the demon for the power to draw on the demons energy when needed but they also seek out and gather life energy to feed it.
Hence the hunt. Many demon mages have made this into a sport instead of just grabbing someone and stealing their energy they hunt them. They search out people with untapped magical potential are their primary targets. In rare cases, a demon may enter our plane to feed directly but not often, since it puts themselves at risk. Not that they feared being defeated, it was that they were incompatible with this plane - meaning it took a lot of energy just to stay in it. They could only return to their plane at the point they entered ours so, if they couldn't get back before their energy ran out, they were dead.
The hunt is what I am going to use to my advantage against this mage. I chose a stretch of land a little way out of the city and set wards all around it to alert me if anyone enters the area. Then chose a spot and drew a circle with my staff about a meter and a half in diameter. On the outside circumference of the circle I used the Marks to put a shield spell designed not to allow any energy out of the circle. On the inside, the Marks were for a spell that would release raw energy into the circle where the shield would not allow it to be released.
After the placing so much of my power into the Marks my energy was depleted so I had to return to the portal to the Academy to recharge my batteries. The next day I returned to the same spot drew another circle a little ways away from the first of about half a meter in diameter. On the inside, I put a strong shield to protect whoever was in the circle and, on the outside, I put attack spells that I could release at will. All the Marks were currently inactive but I could activate at anytime. Finally I stuck my staff into the ground in the center of that circle and cast a spell to keep it from being seen. If I was right I'd need it in the battle to come but wouldn't be able to carry with me while I set the trap. Again, I went back through the portal to renew my energies knowing the battle would happen soon.
The Marks are simply casting a spell onto a object, nothing all that revolutionary in magic. Regular mages have been doing it all through history but Void mages never could. When a Void mage cast a spell they write symbols in the air that represent what they are trying to cast while speaking its meaning. To cast a fireball you would write and speak the symbols meaning energy self, transmute, fire, and movement in order. Not a very sophisticated language. To turn that fireball into an exploding one you would add the symbols for air and chaos between fire and movement and presto. The Marks are just like casting a spell except instead of writing in air you do it on an object. The best example I can use is my staff it is made out of plain wood but I have carved spells across its entire length making it look pretty impressive. Once a spell is put on an object it can do one of two things. First, it can release that spell at will once, what I did in the two circles. The second takes more time and effort to create but is more useful. It can serve as a focus for the spell making it quicker and using less energy than it normally would, my staff. The other unintended use for the Marks is bypassing the natural barrier we all have against magic. If you are not a willing recipient of any alteration type magic it cannot affect you. This means you can't turn someone into a toad unless they want to be a toad. It also makes any type of healing magic hard to do, impossible if the patient is unconscious and can't submit themselves to it. By placing a Mark on the skin, on their skin, you can bypass this defense.
I knew that if this mage was as strong as I thought she would have at least twice as much energy as me to draw on. So my plan was to force her to waste as much energy as possible to equal things out. My plan was to act the part of a farm laborer traveling to and from the city everyday. I used my magic to give the appearance of a moderate amount of untapped potential since you can't detect a Void mage's potential. I got a job at a wealthy farm not to far from Hiron. The path between it and the city kept me close to my prepared battle ground. Three weeks had gone by and I was starting to fear that she wasn't going to fall for my trap. There had been five more attacks but there was nothing I could do without putting myself at a extreme disadvantage.
I was enjoying doing a little bit of honest work for a change after I got used to the early mornings and hard labor. Some of the other laborers were pretty cute but most weren't the brightest so my interest was only as eye candy. Unfortunately the farmers daughter took an interest in me which made me a little uncomfortable. Everyday she would try to corner me to talk and flirt and it was getting harder to avoid. Her name was Lolin and she was nice enough to talk to and beautiful if you were straight. She also had a weak potential, nothing worth mentioning but there. It had been a particularly tiring day and was looking forward to returning to my room at Filtsa's house, a clothing merchant. Then I heard Lolin call out to me.
"Korin!" That the name I was using here. I turned to see her running to catch up. "I have to go into the city so I figured I could walk with you if its ok."
"Sure." I said. We talked a little bit, she was pleasant company and I though we might be able to be friends. That when she hit me with statement that made me stare at her open mouthed.
"Are you gay?" It took me a few seconds to recompose myself. She didn't look angry or upset so I just nodded shyly. She said, "That's ok I was just wondering. Are you seeing anybody or single?"
"Single at the moment. How about you? Anybody you're interested in?"
She just smiled and said, "While you're out of the question now, not really. Anybody in the past?"
I nearly broke down crying as the fading memories rushed to the surface. She saw this and got concerned, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you sad, are you ok?"
Next thing I knew I was telling her everything I could without mentioning the Academy. I was so caught up in it that I didn't even notice that someone was trampling past my wards until it was almost too late.
"My what a cute couple we have here and both with potential it must be my lucky day."
Both Lolin and my heads shot toward the speaker. She had an atrocious accent that I almost didn't understand. If I didn't know better I would have taken her for a kindly grandmother but I could sense the demon's hunger in her. I also sensed she was more powerful than I thought, bonded to one of the fourth strongest evolution of demon. I was scared, not just for Lolin but for myself too. I had no apprentice if I fell so no one to guard the Academy. I had to succeed. Even Lolin noticed the hunger in her voice and was scared.
Then the deceptively sweet voice spoke again, "Run I will give you 30 seconds and then the hunt begins." Lolin made to head back towards her family's farm but I know that if the mage went after her she wouldn't make it, so I grabbed her arm and took off at a run dragging her behind me. It took a little bit of work to get the mage following us towards my trap at the right angle.
The area I had chosen used to be a wide path but a large tree had fallen down the center of it so it was now unused. That added to the thick bushes around it created the impression of a dead end. The perfect place to make a demon mage think they had caught their prey. It also made it virtually impossible to avoid walking through my trap. When we reached the smaller circle I told Lolin that everything would ok and not to move under any circumstance. My protective circle wasn't made for two people stand in. That's where the mage caught us, Lolin clinging to me for protection and me looking like a cornered rat with my hand around my still invisible staff.
"This game wasn't that interesting. Most of my other prey lasted longer than this. A pity really I was in the mood for a little sport."
She was walking towards us at a leisurely walk her hands crackling with energy to frighten us more. It was working well with Lolin but she still stayed within the circle holding me for protection. I pretended to be completely terrified which wasn't too hard sensing how powerful she was. I feared she would glance down and see the Marks and circle on the ground. They weren't obvious but if you looked you could see them. She had just entered into the circle and I prepared to activate the Marks. As soon as she reached the approximate center of the circle I activated the first to protect from her shield and any energy inside. Just as shock appeared on her face I activated the Marks that would hit with an immense amount of raw energy. Raw energy is hard to control so it is useless to try an use it in a battle but it is also extremely draining on whatever it comes in contact with. I was sort of hoping that the shock of this and the energy would break her shield and finish the battle but didn't expect it. The clash of her shields and the raw energy striking her was a force that every mage in hundreds of miles could probably feel. Meaning that the Academy knows and hopefully it shakes things up a bit. They are starting to become a little too confident.
While she was trying to dissipate the energy striking her I prepared my next round of attacks. As I mentioned earlier the sound of a Void mage chanting is disconcerting at least but usually terrifying. The only things keeping Lolin from running were from both the mage and the blast of energy around her, and my chanting was probably shock. As she succeeded in dispersing the energy I struck again with Void spell for weakening shields. It links a shield to the Void which would drain of its energy. She broke the link quickly but had to use more power than was probably necessary. That gave me the impression that she had never really had a challenge if she could throw away power on something that could be done with less. She launched a powerful attack at me not realizing that there was also a shield around her. It practically blew up in her face and hit her own shields. That caused her eyebrows to arch a bit realizing that she had fallen into a trap. She didn't seem worried in the least which I was hoping was from overconfidence.
She looked at me with a smirk and eyed me appraisingly then said, "You're pretty good for a Void mage but you're in over your head." I could here the words `Void mage' echoed behind me.
"You demon mages always think you are invincible right up until I destroy you. You are no different." I said trying to appear as confident as possible. Again I heard an echo behind this time of `demon mage'. I think she was beginning to see what was going on. It must look like a war between black magic to her.
"So it was you who had been killing our mages it makes more sense then those fools at the Academy doing it defeating one. We were actually beginning to think that the Academy was too strong for us but this brings it into a new light. Maybe we should just attack them now and get it over with. That doesn't answer the question of why a Void mage would be protecting them when they would gladly kill you."
"Not quite true I am an Academy trained Void mage. They recognize that we have our usefulness if not openly." It was almost true just enough to make her think the Academy had some hidden teeth if I failed and she reported back. It did seem to make her consider the situation a little.
"Then lets see how your `Academy training' stands against a true demon mage bonded to fourth highest level of demon possible."
With that she released a huge blast of energy that shattered the shield I had around her. I almost gaped at the amount of energy she could draw on so easily. I feared what the higher levels must be like since every level is roughly twice as strong as the one before it. As long as she kept wasting power I stood a chance but with that much power, if she started playing it safe, I was done for. She sent a blast of sheer power at my shield, probably just to prove that I wasn't the only one who could throw around raw power. Lolin screamed into my ear as the energy collided with the shield around us. My shield held easily. It was a negative energy shield linked to the Void. Negative energy cannot be absorbed by the Void and the link means that much of the energy of the attack doesn't even affect the shield but is bled off into the Void. Raw energy is more easily absorbed by the Void than more refined magic. I made a show of having my shield look weaker which encouraged her to keep pelting me with energy. It took her about a minute to realize that I was baiting her to waste energy and she stopped. I returned my shield back to normal only slightly weaken by the immense attack.
She looked pissed that twice she was baited in a trap, first the circle and now against my shield. I think she was finally started to look upon me as a threat not just a weak mageling. That was the moment I chose to strike hard. I had long ago discovered a trick to crack a shield open. Most skilled mages had several layers of shielding. Some to protect against specific things like physical, energy, draining spell, elemental, etc., all on top of the standard regular shield. All layers of a shield were linked together and to the one who cast them. The elemental shield can be cracked easily if you know how, which then weakens the other shields. Some of the energy of the shield is also thrown back into the one who cast it, which does little damage but jolts them a little. Some of the spells I had placed in Marks around my shield were elemental based. I waited until she started what looked like a complicated spell then attacked. I did what is usually a no-no in Void magic and cast several spells simultaneously. The fear is that spells could unintentionally combine and blow up in your face. This, on top of activating my prepared elemental spells, I hit her elemental shield with at the same time with all the elements in force. Her elemental shield broke, weakening her other shield somewhat and interrupting her spell as the energy of her shield rebounded into her. The energy of her spell, without a clear target, flew out from her and into the inside of her shield again weakening it.
That when I saw my opening and prayed it wasn't a trap as I struck. A part of her shield was wavering from the attack and she had yet to notice and reinforce it. She still had plenty of power so I gathered all my power close to me. Everything I had in me was at my finger tips. I was now visibly pulsing with power. More power than a Void mage should ever be able to bear. More power than the Black Adept with the combined power of several Void mages should be able to wield. I had discovered another interesting trick that I could do with the Marks. For the first time I saw doubt and fear enter her eyes knowing I was far stronger than she believed possible. I created a storm above me and began to repeatedly strike the weak points in her shield with lightning from the storm. If you plan to throw one or two lightning bolts just do it, but if you plan to throw a lot, it is more energy efficient to create a storm and just guide the natural lightning that forms. My chanting was reaching a high crescendo as I controlled the storm and lightning as well as beginning to assault her with a full set offensive magics. She finally realized that her shield was falling apart but couldn't do anything about it now but watch in horror as it shattered. She closed her eyes probably waiting for the next lightning bolt to hit her but it didn't.
I approached her now, leaving my defensive circle but strengthening my own shield. I told Lolin to stay within the circle where she was safe. The demon mage looked at me with horror, she still had so much power to draw upon but building a shield can take hours. She began to strike frantically but I still had power to spare too. She stumbled backwards and fell but kept watching me as I approached her. I drew a small knife with maybe only a inch and a half blade and kneeled beside her. It was time to perform perhaps the greatest and darkest magic I had ever created the true secret to my present power. I began to place the Marks into her skin in two separate series of symbols. The first group of symbols was the same as the ones I had used on the first demon mage I fought to slay him and the demon he was bonded to. On that day after the Spell of Passing I had thought of a new spell, one I would come to call the Spell of Taking. It had taken me almost a hundred years to complete the spell since I had few opportunities to test it. I wasn't about to experiment on the people I was supposed to protect. That meant I had to wait for demon mages or other mages that were a threat to the realm to practice on. The second group of Marks were the Spell of Taking with both complete I activated both sets. The first group of Marks killed her and the demon she was bonded to. The second taking her natural potential and adding it to mine. Her natural potential was strong, nothing compared to what she could do bonded but still powerful.
That was the true secret of my power, stealing the potential of those I slay. I just prayed that this silent war stayed that way because the longer it did the stronger I was for the next battle. Now that the battle was over, the pent up magical energies that had been gathering the whole battle began to disperse. With that much power not only every mage in for a few hundred miles would know something big happened but everyone with potential would have felt something. Lolin was still scared and flinched when I walked toward her. I convinced her I wasn't going to hurt her and then escorted her back to her father's farm. I told her to tell that I had to go and he could keep my wages to make up for the loss of a laborer. I wished her luck and start walking back to the city. It was time to return to the Academy and see what trouble this battle had stirred up and prepare for whatever new challenge awaited the Black Adept.
To be continued
This is my first attempt at a story and I hope that you like if you have any positive feedback I would love to here it. Send me some feed back on whether this story has the potential that I should continue it. You can email me at BlackAdept@Hotmail.com