Chapter 45: This is Bat Country!

Chapter 45: This is Bat Country!

My evolution, Magical Thinker, required me to see a spell to gain an understanding of it. However, I hadn’t seen any obvious sign that someone had cast a spell before the feathered hand tore open a hole in the universe. My Magical Thinker ability still sent me a notification despite this, which meant that either the skill description was misleading, or I didn’t have to understand who cast the spell or how to still receive its benefit.

You have observed the spell: Dimensional Summon

Dimensional Summon

Cost: 30 Mana plus 30 Mana Tribute per Hour.

Cooldown: 24 Hours

Requirements: Dimensional Magic, Mystical Magic

You open a portal to another plane, summoning a creature to act as your guardian for as long as you pay the mana tribute, or until the creature dies or is dismissed. The strength of the creature summoned is based on the caster’s might and the type of creature summoned is based on personal affinity.

A seven-foot-tall monster wrenched itself out of the portal. It had a vaguely feminine shape, though it was tough to tell through all the plumage. It had an oversized head with two massive, golden eyes set in the center, and a sharp beak just below. Its head swiveled a hundred-and-eighty degrees to survey our group, then swept back over the Chovali.

“BATS!” it squawked. “DELICIOUS!” Then it leapt off the deck, shattering planks and sailing toward a Chovali holding a suspiciously empty crossbow.

While the bird thing had been crawling from its portal, Ember dismissed her ornate longbow, then shrugged off her thick traveler’s coat. The shirt beneath was sleeveless, exposing her arms and shoulders.

Ember was jacked. The reserved archer had a body that looked like it belonged in a World’s Strongest competition. It was definitely not the willowy elf body I was expecting, but the muscles made sense when she pulled out her next bow.

The thing was taller than she was, and she produced an arrow that was at least half my body in length. As she nocked it, and while the owl cannoned toward its target, the cliffside Chovali started firing their crossbows. Well, that wouldn’t do.

Time to pull the adds.

I threw my hand to the sky and began chanting at the top of my lungs as the battle finally kicked off.

“I beseech you, gods of volatile chemical reactions! Lords of potential energy and barely contained eruptive might! Empower me as your vessel and I shall make irresponsible use of your booming fury! Now! Behold! EXPLOSION!”

I snapped my fingers, having channeled fifty mana into the spell Explosion! My target was a Chovali at the center of its formation on the eastern cliff face, who was busying himself launching bolts at Ashe and Lito along with his buddies.

The boom wasn’t quite as big as Seinnador’s, despite pumping it full of juice, but the Chovali I targeted was turned to a meaty pulp, with several of its closest allies receiving surprise amputations and shattered spines. The rock and earth behind the beastmen detonated into flying shrapnel that pegged several more, and some of the smaller chunks made it all the way to the ship’s deck, landing with clatters and thuds. Then the cliff face began to collapse.

Everyone on the battlefield knew exactly who had cast the spell.

The Alpha charged toward me but slowed when Ember fired her fantasy equivalent of a fifty-cal at his center mass. The Alpha swiped at the arrow, shunting it aside where it rocketed into the cliff face, creating a miniature explosion of its own, blasting away dirt and rock. Ember fired three more times in less than a second and the Alpha swapped targets to her, barreling down at the archer while it knocked aside the massive projectiles.

When the Alpha was within striking distance, Ashe appeared from nowhere directly in front of the creature. The warrior twin caught the Alpha in mid-swipe, bashing its hand away with her shield. She then drove a sword thrust at its midsection, her blade wrapped in green light, but the weapon halted inches before making contact, arrested by some unseen force. The Alpha backhanded Ashe’s shield, sending the golden-armored woman skidding across the deck, though she never lost her footing.

Lito’s hammer ignited into its molten form and he slung a chain toward the Hammerhead. The massive bird screeched and launched off the clifftop, but Lito’s burning shackles extended outward to cover the multi-story distance in an instant, wrapping around the Hammerhead’s ankle. The Guardian launched off the deck, pulled by the avian’s ascent, and the pair disappeared into the night sky.

Yet another impressive technique that allowed a Delver to fly.

The chaff, as Lito had called them, had no other distractions, and a half dozen crossbow bolts pinged and clinked off my armor before a mass of flapping wings, claws, and teeth descended toward me. The closest Chovali collapsed from the air with an arrow through its throat, and I shot a quick look toward Nuralie. She dropped an onyx-colored shortbow as she pulled out a glass sphere filled with green liquid, then paused.

“Duck,” she said, and I hit the deck... literally.

She slung the orb at the mass of approaching bodies and it shattered in their midst, releasing a cloud of green gas that nearly gave me flashbacks. The Chovali that passed through it began coughing violently, a few dropping to their knees and clutching at their throats before vomiting with the enthusiasm of a college freshman at their first frat party. Whatever Nuralie had just used, I doubted it would have been approved by the Geneva Convention.

I drew my wand with my left hand and shot several bolts of piercing force at the ones still closing from the west. The shots created a transparent, shimmering spear that traveled at the speed of an arrow, leaving inch-wide holes through their targets.

“I haven’t seen him,” I said, still focused on the Alpha fight. “Should we help...or something?”

The owl creature had the Alpha in a full nelson and was biting at his neck, while the Chovali leader opened his mouth and shot out a blast of force, knocking Ashe and Ember off their feet. Myria darted in for another thrust, then stepped back and put a hand on her chin like a painter considering her work.

“Help? No. They’re stringing the Alpha along, letting him wear himself out. Cole would have helped that go a bit faster, though.”

“Trying to keep him alive?” I said.

He pointed at me.

“You got it. He wouldn’t answer my questions earlier, but maybe he’ll change his mind.”

Lito began yanking himself from the floor, and I continued to watch the four-versus-one fight. Nuralie stepped up next to me and watched as well while Lito went to find Cole.

“What was that chant for?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, when I beseeched the gods of blowing shit up? I was just trying to make it obvious who was casting the Explosion! spell. There’s also just something about the spell that makes me want to monologue while I charge it.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” Pause. “It was kind of a stupid chant, though.”

I sighed melodramatically.

“Guess I wasted my time at all those improv classes.”

Nuralie ran a hand over her blonde strip of hair and nodded thoughtfully.

The owl finally got a good chunk of the Alpha’s trapezius and tossed its head back to slurp it down.

“Is it weird that watching this makes me kind of hungry?” I said. “I know we ate like an hour ago, but still.”

“No. I want more of that meat from dinner.”

“Maybe we should go check on that bird in the river. Make sure it’s dead.”

“Yes.” Pause. “It’s already half cooked.”

“Have you had Hammerhead before?” I asked.

“No. But it’s supposed to be good.”

“Well, there’s a shit ton of it out there. Waste not, want not, right?”

“Indeed.”

We continued to watch the fight for a little while longer.

“BATS!”

“DELICIOUS!”