Malcolm Tent

Stronger Together chapter 92

I was still lying on the hard stone ground when I woke up. The others  were all crowded around me. Kara, Cinder,Barb and Harry were the  closest, staring worriedly down at me while the other's gave them space.  The tangible relief on the girls faces and even on Harry's was honestly  heart warming. I groaned as I sat up, looking around the temple cavern.  The whole place was empty, with only some craters and broken stone to  show evidence of our battle. Well...emp...

Stronger Together chapter 91

Strength of the River in his Shoulders is a badass. A who knows how  old member of a race of magical titans with life force so powerful a  juvenile non magic one can play battery to a baby succubus for a year  and not even notice, and a magical genius to boot. He'd stood up to  fucking Drakul in the books with some help and despite not actually  winning that fight by any stretch of the imagination had demonstrated  his chops as one of the toughest bullies on the ...

Stronger Together chapter 90

Making that big decision and committing to a plan felt like the  climactic moment, like we were about to join the battle and finally do  what we came here for. Unfortunately life is rarely so accommodating. We  were at the foot of the mountain now, which meant we were close enough  for the potion Harry had made, but we still had to use it and subvert  any of the Skinwalker's probably horrifying traps.

Knowing  how unpleasant the monster was I suspected thos...

Stronger Together chapter 89

Apparently, there was a ritual to contact a Genius Loci without doing  the whole sanctum invocation thing. I actually proposed we have Kara do  the invocation, since the spirit clearly liked her, but since she  didn't have any magic River and Joe nixed the idea. Apparently there was  a way to make a similar binding with faith energy but neither of them  were really aware how to do it. They both used magic in the way  traditional wizards did mostly, albeit with so...

Stronger Together chapter 88

Barb arrived a few hours later, we went over the plan just the four  of us as best I knew it and discussed battle tactics. Barb was in prime  fighting shape after her healing bath same as I was, and every one of us  went over the details of our new spells and tricks in preparation for  the big fight. We talked for a few hours and finally the sun started to  set. It was time to set out for one of the biggest battles we'd ever  faced. I faced the forest, staring ou...

Stronger Together chapter 87

The rest of the week flew by. Between training in Klurkor with Kara  and working on potions and improving my shield I was swamped. I trained  with my aspects and combining them with the shield or Aura or even just  normal casting, though I kept my word to River never to try too many of  those things at once. My Aura reserves grew incredibly quickly and my  strength soared with them. By the time the eighteenth rolled around my  Aura had basically doubled.

Ka...

Stronger Together chapter 86

I felt almost drunk on adrenaline as I stumbled out of that crater,  cackling like a madman. I threw my hands in the air and whooped with  joy. Destroying stuff is fine, but there's something intoxicating about  bodily smashing into a solid object so hard it explodes and just walking  away from it. Hell even flying through the air was amazing, I totally  got the whole human cannonball thing now. Kara was grinning like a  lunatic too and even Harry was clearly in ...

Stronger Together chapter 85

We took the potion outside behind the motel. We only scooped out a  single vial of the stuff from the giant pot, but Harry was insistent  that was plenty. "A pot like that will supply all of us no problem.  Potions aren't really a more is better kind of thing. As long as you get  at least three good swallows it'll last as long as the recipe will  work. This brew will probably give about an hour of stoneskin, but when  we get back we'll need to bottle the rest of ...

Stronger Together chapter 84

I grinned proudly as I walked into the room I shared with Barb, who  was just now waking up. My bewitching redhead was sitting up in bed with  her hair a mess staring at the wall and blinking rapidly. I recognized  the look as that thing that happens when you wake up and your brain  isn't really working yet. I sometimes sat around for five or ten minutes  just spaced out until things finally clicked, though it happened pretty  rarely.

I  closed the doo...

Stronger Together chapter 83

We all headed to bed after that, and sleep came oddly quickly. We had  all been on a hair trigger through the mess with the vampires. The next  morning came quickly and without dreams, I woke next to Barb, spooning  with the gorgeous redhead and sat up, refreshed. My Aura was back to  full, thrumming with power under my skin, and I knew today would be the  day I would get my defensive magic perfected. They had given us a week,  but then they had been surprised by...

Stronger Together chapter 82

We had Kara go get the wizards so they could come tell us what the  hell to do with these poor thralls. River tagged along and between him  and Joe we figured there was a solid chance of them being able to help  somehow. Luckily these weren't turned vampires or even Renfields. Joe  explained to us these were "Rough thralls" who had been ordered to go  berserk. Normally thralls like this were only compliant and stood there  dully but this was a bit deeper. They co...

Stronger Together chapter 81

My immediate reaction to the noticing our waiter was to jump and  crush him, but on reflection I decided the note was a better course of  action. The girls needed to know but saying it out loud would have  alerted him. Cinder looked momentarily confused and I realized remnant  hadn't had vampires that I'd seen, so I scrawled a quick explanation and  passed it to her. I looked at the other two intensely "Hey I forgot I  ordered that pizza at home, but since we're ...

Stronger Together chapter 80

I spent the next few hours sitting in Marcus watching the girls try  on clothes. Despite one might imagine it wasn't exactly thrilling since  they were trying on winter clothes. My hopes of gorgeous girls in skimpy  lingerie were met with thick ass jackets and cable knit sweaters, which  while very cute, didn't exactly show off their figures. I'm all for a  man waiting for his female friends shopping but as a man I see almost no  difference between any three red ...

Stronger Together chapter 79

I groaned in agony as my eyes fluttered open. I wasn't in a hospital  bed, or even a bed at all I was just layingin the snowy ground with  Ebenezar grinning down at me. He looked up with a chuckle "He's fine" He  was addressing who I could only assume was the girls and the other  wizards. His eyes flicked back down to me with amusement and he held out  a hand "Get up boy, walk it off. You're fine...somehow." He pulled me  up to my feet with an easy heave and dust...

Stronger Together chapter 78

The next week went by much the same as the one before, only without  much supervision. I spent the entire time working on aspects and my new  spell. I couldn't use two aspects at the same time not matter what I  tried, but I learned over the course of the week to use an aspect fueled  by a normal spell while I had another in my aura. It took immense  amounts of concentration and control but my efforts paid off in the form  of a force aura, lightning speed combo. ...

Stronger Together chapter 77

I spent the next week or so working on force spells. I almost died  about eleven times doing it, Ebenezar hadn't been kidding about how easy  it was to overdo them, if my control slipped even a bit any frustration  or excitement I was feeling would ride the spell and tear the energy  right from my soul. At the same time I felt my soul growing, Yang told  us about how Aura grew over time, and more so with use, and I could tell  it was. I'd had at least six or seve...

Stronger Together chapter 76

The trek back to the hotel felt much faster than the journey there.  Part of that was distraction I assume, and part of it was that we were  heading downhill. Regardless we made it back in what felt like twenty  minutes as opposed to the grueling hour of our first journey. Everyone  seemed quiet on the walk back, knowing we would be here for weeks was  unfortunate. I already missed Raven, Yang, and the vampires and I  resolved to call my girlfriend later tonight ...

Stronger Together chapter 75

After my talk with Kara I stopped in to talk to Listens-to-Wind who  was talking with River, Mccoy, and Liberty in his room. We decided to  head to bed now, it was a bit earlier than we would normally go to bed,  but still early evening wasn't too far off and today had been pretty  damn exhausting. We agreed to get an early start the next morning,  figuring that going out after dark would be safer if it was just on the  edge of daylight rather than waiting a bit ...

Stronger Together chapter 74

Meeting the spirit shook us all up, but despite searching for a good  hour we couldn't find a single trace of her again. We figured the  Skinwalker would have the same problem even if it came back so we  reluctantly decided to head into town to get our room and board settled.  Luckily the Way had been chosen specifically because it was so close to  town, so our trip to Aspen, Colorado didn't take long at all. Well,  relative to heading somewhere else, because we ...

Stronger Together chapter 73

The condition of the bodies affected us all differently. Barb was  stoic, Cinder mainly unphased, Listens-to-Wind was sickened and sad,  River and Harry were angry, and Ebenezar and Liberty just  looked...tired. Like they had seen too much and come too far to feel the  shock anymore and that was the saddest thing of all. Kara was the one I  expected the biggest reaction from, but she just let silent tears trail  down her face as she took in the scene, it made me ...

Stronger Together chapter 72

If I'd expected a long drawn out preparation for us leaving for  Colorado, I'd have been disappointed. River and Harry had been on the  way to meet up with Listens-to-Wind before stopping over and we all had  to hurry and pack before leaving. Cinder, unfortunately, didn't really  have any things, her Aura changelings didn't take what they saw as her  abandoning their whole reason for living very well, and burned most of  her clothes. She said they probably would ...

Stronger Together chapter 71

Harry and River Shoulders showed up a few hours later. Barb, Raven,  and I finally dragged our happy asses out of bed and out to socialize  with the others before it happened. Sam's (she said Samantha was too  formal) crush on River had surprised Barb but not Raven, which I suppose  made sense given the whole empathic abilities thing. It was just  genuinely nice to spend time with new friends. Raven had been working a  bit with Morgan, her empathic healing and so...

Stronger Together chapter 70

The next morning was as peaceful as usual. Seeing both my girls here  with me after Barb's first time was pretty damn blissful and they looked  adorable all snuggled up against me. Barb had one blue eye sneakily  peaking open to stare at me and when she saw me open mine she snapped it  shut. I chuckled and reached down to tickle her ribs eliciting a  squealing giggle as her charade broke down. "Alright!" She gasped out  "Alright I give I'm up just stop."

Ra...

Stronger Together chapter 69

We were all exhausted after getting home and managed to push back the questions from Yang to a later date. She recognized Cinder, but since they'd both left before the Vytal Festival she had no issues with the girl and was actually excited to see a fellow Remnant native. I left her to talk to the brawler with a warning glance to behave but she seemed perfectly happy to just sit and chat.

It was crazy to see how full the house looked with so many new people in it, we'd been kind of cut o...

Stronger Together chapter 68

It was almost anticlimactic in a way. I mean, it actually wasn't, a  guy got vaporized by fire magic and Cinder was trapped in an obsidian  cage, but it felt that way. This had all been such a colossal mess and  it could have gone so much worse. Cinder's compulsion, which had driver  her so hard to defeat me, had ultimately been the only reason we avoided  a massive ritual showdown against a potential new goddess.

I  took in my new...roommate? Thrall? I did...

Stronger Together chapter 67

Morgan was easy enough to settle down with Kara around, gleefully engaging in the Kryptonians introductions to Barb and Lily and Harry. The big wizard took the change of teams surprisingly well, but then I knew that Harry had a weakness for women in trouble, and it had become clear that Morgan had been treated very badly. His eyes were soft as he looked at the tiny vampire and he smiled a bit at her enthusiasm for meeting him. Kara for her part glowed with pride at being able to save the girl...