Chapter 64: A Right Good Stone (1/2)
The stunned silence continued for a few moments, before spontaneous cheers broke out from adventurers around the barricade. It seemed that the type of people attracted to a career in adventuring were also the type to enjoy explosions. Mike wasn't surprised.
James finally recovered enough to try and wrangle the rowdy crowd back into the semblance of a fighting force.
”Get your acts together you jumped up bastards! There are plenty more demons on their way.” He walked over to Mike.
”That was an impressive display of magic, son, but I would appreciate it if you kept your explosions farther away from the rest of us. You got dangerously close to injuring some of the defenders.”
”Sorry about that, wasn't expecting it to be quite that powerful.” Mike answered sheepishly.
”No matter, that big one is still on its way,” he said while shooting a glance over at the ponderously moving Gluttony Demon. ”Do you anything that might be able to take it out? The small fries aren't much of an issue, but we would need siege weaponry to really hurt that thing.”
”Not sure, that fireball spell seems effective, but I don't know if it will do much to a thing that size.” He looked over at Victor, ”Do you know any other chants that might be more effective against a single, large target?”
”How did you…..Why....” The older mage was still floored.
”What's the matter?” Mike asked, slightly concerned.
”Don't you understand what you just did?! You perfectly repeated a chant without a single error in pronunciation. That should be impossible. The majority of chant languages weren't even designed for the human tongue!” The mage looked like he was about to breakdown.
”What's the big deal? It's not like it is hard. I just have to repeat what you say. Although I will admit, you seemed to have a bit of an accent. I tried to mimic it, but I'm not sure if I quite got it right.”
The mage stuttered for a few seconds. ”Th-that..D-Do you...Do you actually understand the chant?”
Mike was starting to suspect he had made a mistake. ”The words are a little flowery, but the meaning was more or less understandable.”
”Understandable…..” Victor clutched his head, as if the very foundations of his existence had been challenged.
”Have a breakdown later, we need to deal with that demon, and quickly.” James said while shaking the distraught mage.
Victor spoke in a quiet and distracted voice, ”I do know one for an earth spell, it creates spears of hardened rock. Ordinarily, it would not be sufficient to kill that kind of demon, but this guy,” he shot a slightly depressed look at Mike, ”could probably pull it off.”
”Tell me the chant.”
The mage cleared his throat, ”From the depths of Eon, I call thee. Break the bonds of earthy shackles and fly true, [Stone Javelin}.”
”Sounds easy enough,” This elicited a pained whimper from the mage.
”I'll give it a try.” He stepped up to the barricade and focused his gaze on the approaching demon.
The other adventurers made space for him. Mike felt a little bit of discomfort at the way they were looking at him. Expressions of mingled awe and fear were the most common, but many looked at him with a sort of child-like hope. He was starting to feel a great deal of pressure to perform.
[Alright, just take it nice and easy.]
He started building mana, feeding it into the spell. ”From the depths of Eon, I call thee. Break the ancient bonds of earthly shackles and fly true, [Stone Javelin].”
[Wait, that didn't sound right. Did I add a word?]
He felt that mana drain from him as a long pointed stone formed in the air next to him. It was nearly 3m in length, with a glassy finish that shone dimly with reflected fire light. It stayed poised, hovering in mid-air, a menacing instrument of death. Mike felt an odd mental pressure, as if something was waiting for his permission to be released.
He focused on the Gluttony Demon, and with a thought, unleashed his spell.
The spear of stone started to vibrate slightly, a high-pitched whine sounded and quickly increased in volume. Mike thought it sounded a lot like a rocket about to take off.
With a loud 'THUMPF' the spear suddenly shot out, speeding across the intersection in less than a second. A squelching noise and a deep, rumbling roar of pain rent the night air as a small fountain of blood poured out from the massive demon.
The attack had proven devastating, as a basketball-sized hole had been formed, all the way through the demon.
Another round of cheering sounded from the nearby adventurers, but it swiftly died down. The wound of the Gluttony Demon closed almost as quickly as it formed. It scooped up another handful of lesser demons, threw them into its mouth, and resumed its ponderous travel.
”Well that didn't work.” Mike muttered to himself.
”You need to take its head.” Brenden's quiet voice startled him. He hadn't heard the beastman approach.
”What?!...I mean, what?”
”Its head. You need to kill it in one blow or it will just keep regenerating.”
Mike looked at him. ”You know something about these kinds of demons?”