The Unbidden: The First Tome (Side Stories 1)

The Elf and Tragedy (Part 1)

"Partum ortalius le'vonteros me volaniche astral arcum que'la sofr'it incipiunt!" A semi-translucent bow with flanged tips materialized in my hand as an arrow in similar appearance formed in the other.

I leapt off the large rock I stood on as a static-like cone of dark green energy reached it, dematerializing the rock into tiny particles. As I flew through the weightless realm, I contorted my body enough to land on another boulder which I used to propel myself to another, larger rock.

Once my feet touched down, I quickly nocked the arrow and drew the bow, ready to fire. Our party's resident martial expert, Garin, was in a fisticuff duel with a twisted, inside-out fleshy version of himself. The two were floating in the middle of the battlefield trading blow for blow as though in a choreographed dance of death.

Without hesitation, I let the astral arrow fly. It traveled at an incredible speed as it struck the distorted clone with impeccable accuracy. The two had just struck a blow to each other's face sending them spiraling away from one another. Garin twisted himself and landed on a rock just before smashing face-first into it and launched himself back at the clone.

His enemy tried to do the same, but as the arrow slammed into his neck, it sliced his head almost clean off. The near dismemberment didn't seem to affect the creature much, but it was enough that when it mimicked Garin's movements, it instead slammed against the rock it flew toward.

"A great shot as always!" Garin shouted as his fist, coated in martial essence, slammed into the clone's nose.

Its head exploded like a watermelon that had been struck with a hammer. The remaining energy behind the punch struck the rock the clone slammed into, fracturing it into several large pieces and sending out a shockwave. By this point I already had another arrow nocked and ready to fire, but as I searched for another target, the static energy was in front of me. I had no time to react. I closed my eyes waiting for the inevitable, but the moment it was to reach me never came.

"Chalk it up to another save by me!" our party's gnomish wizard, Arnnen, laughed.

The sickly green energy slammed into a transparent black shield that materialized feet in front of me, sending the energy scattering upward. Unfortunately, the energy itself was some kind of creature, as it rotated and turned back downward toward me. I leapt off the rock as it devoured it, once again turning my platform into particles.

"How do we beat that!?" I shouted in exasperation while firing another arrow into the energy cloud.

"Have you tried asking politely?" Reana's voice rang out from nearby.

Reana was another magic caster, much like myself and Arnnen, but she was much more resilient than either him and I. I fired three more arrows into the cloud as it raced toward me in the weightlessness. With a grunt, I twisted myself around so that my back now faced it.

"Obtestor provari celeritate incremento mavo'sari pedibus ry'balovaeri partum!" A loud crack echoed around from the speed boost as I was launched toward a massive boulder in the distance.

"Your smart remarks do not help me," I yelled back to her.

For some reason, this specific creature was intent on following me. Then again, Garin, Arnnen, and Raena all had their own enemies to deal with at the same time. The constant running around, or rather, leaping around, made me think the magic item we came here for wasn't worth it. Arnnen never steered us wrong, though, so I had faith somewhere inside.

"Then how about this?" I glanced in her direction to see a massive ball of fire be hurdled at the creature.

It twisted itself while also opening up a gap in the middle of its fluid form. The fireball flew through without any effect, instead slamming into another rock and exploding against it.