Chapter 7 (Bard)

Thanks to Coward’s Brand, I didn’t dare pick up the sling despite my new Dexterity score of three. On the other hand, I couldn’t keep my hands off the sceptre. What’s the point of getting transported to a magical world if you don’t dabble in the arcane? The crystal atop it glowed with a pink-purple hue, and the weapon vibrated when I curled my hand around the haft.

“How does it work?” I asked, testing the sceptre’s weight. It felt heavy, but I could carry it in just one hand.

“I don’t know,” the goblin mage replied, his narrowed eyes, studying the brush behind the cart. “I’m a spirit caller and attuned to Covenant magic. The mana crystal’s colours suggest that it’s attuned to Mind. The rune scripts look like spells, though. So you might just have to channel the mana through them for it to activate.”

The instructions felt clear, but I couldn’t fathom how to sense, let alone channel mana. The risks of the scripts containing attack spells concerned me too. Having my attributes halved while under attack wasn’t the best of ideas.

“You got the fact that I’m a bard-in-training, right? My job involved learning my master’s music and stories, cooking for him, and cleaning his clothes. I was more a pack mule than a fighter.”

“I got that.” My words got a nervous chuckle out of the goblin. “In-training is another fancy way of saying apprenticeship, and I finished mine two lunar cycles ago,” he said. “So, I get it. Just do your best, lad. These kobolds are vicious. Do you know how to sense Mana?”

Unfortunately, before the goblin could start his explanation, our pursuers burst out of the surrounding foliage. On hearing the word kobold, I expected bipedal alligators carrying some semblance to crocodiles. Instead, the creatures we encountered looked more like hunched over bipedal lizards with the colouration of tree fogs. Besides their brightly coloured scales, they also had horns growing out of their head.

The latter feature refused to follow a set pattern, too, adding to their oddity. The number of horns per skull was inconsistent, and they grew out of different parts of the head too. A blue and pink-spotted kobold’s horn stuck out of its forehead like a cone, giving it a unicorn-like appearance. Another’s horns curled out of the side of its head, making it look like a ram. One specimen’s horn distribution resembled that of a triceratops.

“Stay down!” the goblin riding to our right exclaimed. “Avoid their spit and arrows. They’re often poisoned.”

Then all hell broke loose. The flanking goblins swung around in their saddles and pointed their crossbows at the pursuers. They shot at the closest kobolds, but due to our now jerky ascent, I failed to see whether they hit or not. However, an annoyed screech reached my ears, suggesting at least one of the attacks hit.

Unlike the goblin party, the kobold’s rode a variety of mounts. A couple of them rode what I could best describe as oversized chickens. Perhaps they were what Jurassic Park’s velociraptors should’ve looked like. Another sat atop a monstrous boar, while the rest followed on giant iguanas.

The goblin spirit caller raised his staff, and the bone ornaments jangled. A crimson aura surrounded the weapon, and similar light leaked from his eyes. I held my breath, waiting for all hell to break loose. But, unlike the goblin shaman I intended to take down, he didn’t create giants or release a grand pulse. Instead, fiery red bats burst from the weapon’s crystal and dove at our pursuers.

The ethereal creatures didn’t persist like the shaman’s summons either. Instead, they flew up into their air before divebombing the kobolds. Three out of five missed, but the two that did hit their targets exploded with enough concussive force to shred rider and mount while the rest found themselves bathed in flames.

“Quick,” the spirit caller told me. “There’s too many of them.”

The goblins at our rear had their long axes and blade-tipped shields out. They slashed at the kobolds, chopping them down or slicing their mounts enough to slow them down. However, for every reptile they put down, another appeared out of the brush. It almost felt like a game tutorial where the monster waves refused to cease until the player figured out the lesson. I doubted it was the same, but my reputation with the goblins relied on my performance.

“Tell me how to use this thing, and I’ll help in whatever way I can,” I responded.

The spirit caller looked back at me with his jaw clenched. He rolled his eyes before mumbling below his breath and summoning another swarm of bats. They attacked once again, but the kobolds now knew what to expect. Two of them spat green fluid from their mouth, extinguishing four. One missed the targeted rider but bathed the mount in flames.

“Grog’s Taint!” The spirit caller sore. Sweat covered his brow, and his breathing had hastened. One of the rear guards had already fallen, and another had turned greener than he was before. Blood streamed from a bite mark on his muscled upper arm. “It’s not the time to do this, but magic might be our only way to repel these beasts.” He exhaled loudly. “Close your eyes, try to block everything out and think of nothing but the energy in the crystal.”

I did as instructed and imagined the purple and pink lights dancing within the crystal. I pictured how they danced and moved but didn’t feel anything. Unfortunately, my senses kept reminding me of our current situation. The smell of burning flesh and unbathed skin filled my nostrils.

“This isn’t working,” I complained, furrowing my brows and trying harder.

Angry alien words escaped the goblin as heat bathed my surroundings. Distant screams followed a loud whoosh. The temperature dropped soon after. “You’re a bard, right? Perhaps visualisation isn’t a good first step. Try to listen to the flow of the mana first. It’s like the water in a violent stream—”

A violent scream escaped his lips, and my eyes shot open. Blood poured from the spirit caller’s temple, and a sling carrying kobold whooped not far behind us. “I don’t have time for this!” The goblin held his staff both hands and dove into an intense incantation. I left him alone and focused on what he’d told me.

Perhaps the spirit caller’s mana lived a violent existence because what I heard sounded like water sloshing around in a much-too large pot. On second thought, the container had a crack in it. As a result, the liquid was on its way out. As I focused on it more, a mental image formed. I saw a cracked sphere with pink and purple fluids sloshing around inside. When I opened my eyes, the visualisation remained. I could feel the energies too. The pink felt active and weak. While the purple guided its path, moving slower but with more power.

Congratulations!
You’ve unlocked the Mana Wielding mastery!
You’ve taught yourself the Mana Sense skill!
Mana Wielding: Novice Rank 1
—Mana Sense: Novice Rank 1

“I got it!” I exclaimed. “I can feel the mana!”

“Good. Now use that feeling to take control of the mana and guide it into one of the rune scripts. It should make the spell activate.” Annoyance marked the spirit caller’s voice. I couldn’t tell whether the stretched veins pressing against his temple resulted from the fiery bats’ heat or mana usage. “Hurry,” the goblin said. “I can’t keep this up much longer.”

My ability to sense mana weakened with every passing second. The feeling waned, and the lights dimmed. So, I reached for the sensation again. It felt like holding water in a cupped hand, though. No matter how much I tried, the mana seemed determined to flow out and escape. My fingers traced the runes lining the sceptre’s shaft. There were three separate rune scripts. Under normal circumstances, I’d take a moment to figure out what each of them did. Unfortunately, I didn’t have such luxuries in our current situation. So, I went for the first one hoping it would act as a deterrent or a summoned construct instead of an attack or defensive spell.

After a couple of tries, I realised that the energy leaking out through the crystal’s cracks were easier to grasp. So, I guided it into the first rune script. The pink mana flowed with less prompting but was quicker to evaporate. I had to hurry the slower purple along to contain in it, and then the sceptre hummed in my hand.

A boar-mounted kobold had gotten past the rear guard and was on our tail. Our flanking goblins were busy keeping attackers away from the cart and goats. Meanwhile, the lead had fallen. As a result, there was no one to defend us but the spirit caller. Unless he had more spells at his disposal, we were out of luck. At such close range, his exploding bats wouldn’t just hurt the attacker, but the goats and us too.

Since I was our only hope, I pointed the sceptre’s now vibrating crystal at the goblin and let the contained mana free. The energies merged in front of the weapon, solidifying into an arm-long spike before shooting forward. It flew in a spiral before striking the chasing kobold’s skull. The projectile didn’t pierce through it or draw blood but disappeared into the creature’s head. My heart thumped in my chest, thinking I had wasted all the time and effort for nothing. Then the beast’s eyes rolled up into his head, and his body went limp, sliding off the boar. The goat’s trampled it not long after.

You have attacked a living creature with an attack spell.
Coward’s Brand activated.
Your weapons stability is reduced.
All your attributes are halved for the next hour.
Tread carefully!

“Good job,” the spirit caller said, breathing heavily. “Now that you’ve got the hang of it, you can help me clean up the ranged fighters.”