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| Zoushan By LLBane |
| As Zoushan sat reading the dusty tome he heard the messenger tapping at the door to the tower. It was one of the many towers built by the Raven Clan to study magic far away from the prying eyes of those less in tune with magic. Zoushan was no Raven but he was allowed full access to all the towers. He had as a youth passed all the tests that each of the Raven clan must pass before they were allowed to enter the towers of study. His mother had been a beautiful silverine dragon and his father was the brash and loud Howler Bane. The combination of elder lycan blood and dragon blood had created a hybrid much more attuned to magic at birth then even some senior wizards. For the first twenty years of his life he lived among the dragons learning magic and their ways, and secrets. During the war of the dead his body had been host to the undead soul of a powerful lich who used him to destroy half the empire. His father had saved him from the lich and with the spell broken Zoushan was left for a taste, no a thirst, for the darker magic. Zoushan had trained as a fighter and could use any melee weapon with equal deadly precision but he found he was more adept at using magic to defeat his foes now. Being in the western tower on the fringes of the empire along the badlands, he had a lot of opportunities at defending the tower against brigands, rival magic users and vampires. He was named protectorate of the tower by the High Mage Golen. Golen had used his powers to ward the areas surrounding the tower and Zoushan had attuned himself to Golens wards as if they were his own. It was one of the special hybrid gifts he had that he let none know about. The knocker on the door banged again and this broke Zoushans concentration as something else tugged at his senses. Something else was coming. Racing to the door Zoushan arrived just as a short and crippled lycan named Harzel opened the door. The messenger almost fell into the foyer. "I bring word from the East, Emani has fallen and Dragonwold has been destroyed. Lord Bane fell wounded in battle by the many bites and claw marks of some kind of demon that left silveron poison in his veins." The messenger fell to his knees winded. Harzel sent a telepathic message to Golen who arrived in a puff of smoke. "Is my father dead messenger?" Zoushan looked beyond the messenger. The urgency in his voice made the messenger look over his shoulder. Golen an Harzel both looked out beyond sight now. The ground began to shake and dust and small stones fell from the walls and ceiling. "He is alive. The elves have given him some strange potion that changed his appearance. It seemed to interact with the silveron and it is said that Lord Bane has gone insane and released the vampire king and has began killing lycans." The messenger looked back and screamed as the white shaft of light struck him in his face. The man flopped backwards and fell, his face was nothing but molten bone and bubbling flesh. Golen raised his staff and sent a huge wave of magic crashing into the oncoming horde. Dozens of demons were killed in the first blast but they were like a sea of maggots on a corpse. They were never ending. Harzel finished chanting and bent over and touched the ground. The ground shook and then opened up around the tower creating a deep chasm. The demons cursed and threw spears and shot arrows to no avail. They could not make it across. Harzel smiled and Zoushan looked at him with a little smile. "We must make to the top of the tower and join the others." Golen said as the trio disappeared in acrid black smoke. Looking over the wall Zoushan saw the silvery glint of silveron on the fangs and claws of the demons. Thousands of them. Not all had the silvery shine some were black. So, not all were silveron. Interesting he thought. The ten wizards and mages, not including Zoushan began preparing spells for battle. Zoushan sent a mental alert to Arundel. Arundel was his familiar and servant. Arundel as a being from the shadow realms and was incorporeal most of the time. Zoushan had given him some of his life essence stored in a gem hidden inside the body of Arundel. This allowed him to remain in this realm and it locked his loyalty to Zoushan. The mental alert told Arundel to prepare for battle. Arundel smiled. He liked battles. He could not be killed but he could kill. He readied the black sword Zoushan carried into battle and ran to meet his master at the top. Loud trumpets sounded and the booming sounds of a war drum was crashing down like thunder. Thoom, thoom, thoom, boom, boom, the drums went on and then fell silent. In the sky sat four demon wizards. Each riding what looked like small storm clouds. Zoushan knew they would use some kind of dark magic. He had not shown any at the tower his skills in the dark magics and death magics. He wanted to see their faces when he did. Four huge demons, taller then most oaks, lumbered into view. Each dragged a tree for a club. Zoushan remembered these from one of the tomes he had read. They were called Oggroths. Huge fangs dripping poison protruded from their mouths and their pig like eyes were like a reddish flame. Each had a whipmaster who lashed at their heels with a wickedly barbed whip. The behemoths each picked up a boulder and hurled it at the tower. Two of the boulders missed but two did hit. The first hit just above the first floor. The whole tower shook. One of the mages fell head first over the wall to his death below. The second to hit the tower crashed through the third floor wall. The sound of the boulder falling down through the tower echoed. The loud crash caused some to wince. As the Oggroths picked up more heavier looking boulders the wizards struck. Lightening and fire fell down into the Oggroths. One crashed to the ground with smoke pouring out of a ruined eye socket. The others fell back but seemed to grow angrier and hurled their boulders. This time all three struck the tower causing some of the outer wall to give way. The top of the tower shifted and seemed to sink several feet before stopping. The wizards struck again and this time none of the Oggroths were harmed. The wizards on the clouds were protecting them. Then the counter strike began. Zoushan watched as three of the mages were incinerated. Two of the remaining six fled in raven form to warn other towers and Golen staggered back. A fire dart had pierced his shoulder. Harzel was hurling rock shards down into the demon army. He was killing as many of the smaller demons as he could. Zoushan knew his energy would be depleted. The little man looked at Zoushan and watched in awe as Arundel handed Zoushan his sword. "Zoushan, what are you going to do?" Golen asked. Zoushan looked at him and the look made the wizard shrink back. Harzel stopped to rest and winked at Zoushan and gave him the thumbs up just as another wizard, a woman, was crushed by a boulder. Zoushan jumped off the edge of the tower with Arundel right behind him. The two seemed to float in the air and settled in front of the tower on the ground. On the opposite side of the chasm. "You will take this tower today foul vermin. Turn back and tell your master you have failed." Zoushan really didn't want them to turn back. He wanted them to fight. The ring of laughter, a hollow sound coming from those who were not accustomed to it, filled the area. Zoushan sent a mental note to Harzel. It was if he failed, take Golen to the East, to Emani and find Lord Erix. The four demon wizards hissed and pointed at Zoushan. Arundel was invisible to them in the sunlight. He readied a great bow and took aim. He was aiming for the what seemed to be the leader of the four demon wizards. The demons groaned and began running forward. Zoushan raised his sword and spoke a word of power that none had uttered in a thousand years. A huge pressure wave enveloped the demon army causing them to cry out in fear and pain. Then that pressure wave imploded. As it did Arundel let loose his arrow to sink deep into the throat of the wizard he aimed at. The entire world seemed to shake from the implosion and the tower shook and nearly fell. Golen cried and Harzel whistled. As the smoke cleared there was no forest to be seen. For hundreds of miles nothing lay there but empty land. The four thousand strong demon army had been wiped out in one blow. The three remaining demon wizards looked at Zoushan in fear and began to flee. Zoushan spoke another word of power. It was simply, death. The three demons fell to the earth scratching at the sores on their bodies and pulling their own eyeballs out. The horror Zoushan released onto them made them kill themselves. Harzel was scared. Golen's heart gave out and he fell into the arms of Harzel. The power back feed was too much for him to take. Zoushan had secretly at the request of Golen, tapped into Golen's magical power through his wards and used that to destroy the demon army. He felt the power coursing through him after the battle. It did not leave like it did before. The magic of Golen had found a new home in Zoushan. Harzel looked down upon the body of Golen. He thought the wound Golen suffered had did him in. Harzel shouted down to Zoushan. "What are you going to do now?" Zoushan thought a moment. And then shouted back up. "I shall take my fathers throne and lead the empire into war against the demons. I will show them how a master deals out death magic." Harzel shuddered as Zoushan vanished. He pulled the other surviving wizard to him and gave her a message to take to the Empress Jadell. It was short and to the point. Zoushan is coming and he scares me. LLBane |