The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Wandmaker Vol.2

WM [53] Sending a Message

The medical ward was filling up quickly with wendigo feeling the effect of the poison. Earlier the symptoms started out mild, nausea, dizziness and headaches. With only the normally stationed guards being hit with the effects while the enchantments on the royal knights armor held strong. Then there was a wave of power that Bjorn and everyone else could feel being carried throughout the air. It was like a trigger that caused the formerly mild symptoms to balloon into deadly extremes.

Only a few seconds after the trigger hit Bjorn could taste death in the air from guardsmen that weren't able to resist the now far deadlier poison. Tanisha and Jakob had to hurry and administer the antidote they concocted before more losses could pile up. They hurriedly went from guard to guard making sure they were given the correct dosage.

"Bjorn we are going to have company soon," Failsafe said in alarm. "I finally finished analyzing the strange magic you were picking up coming from the stone. It was geokinesis hidden under the blanket of the poison siege spell."

"Do you know where they are coming from?" Bjorn asked as he quickly looked around hissing loudly.

"No. There is too much interference, but it is getting stronger. So they are close."

"Gotcha, thanks!" Bjorn said as he ran over to Joha.

Druids are here. Digging underground. Bjorn scratched into the stone at Joha's feet.

Bjorn couldn't help but notice that carving a message was far easier than it had been before. Tasting the air he noticed that the enchantments on the stones were gone. When he had entered there were hundreds of different enchantments across the entire cavern system, but now he could barely pick up two. Before he could think further on it Joha had sprang to action.

"Everyone that can fight, get ready!" Joha roared. "The druids are digging through the mountain!"

There was a moment of shock as the guards that received the cleansing potion scrambled to their feet. Tanisha and Jakob never stopped helping those facing the worst of the poison's effects; two more people died before the cleansing potion could help them.

There was a quake like a distant explosion that rocked the fort. It threw the less coordinated guards to the ground. Mere moments after the initial wave a second then third also rocked the mountain. The sound of fighting echoed through the corridors and everyone realized this was the assault.

***

Kara strode toward the gatehouse with an air of unyielding purpose, her silhouette cutting a solitary figure against the gloom of the border fortress. Alone and uncontested, she moved with a calm, deliberate stride. The guards, who moments ago had stood vigil at their posts, now lay crumpled at her feet, their bodies convulsing violently as foam spilled from their mouths, the lethal toxin her men unleashed silently melting their insides. They hadn't even had the chance to scream.

Her lips moved in a hushed chant, each syllable a thread of raw power woven into the air. Tendrils of green lightning crackled and hissed from her outstretched hand, searing the air with a deadly glow. The portcullis before her, an ancient and fortified barrier imbued with powerful enchantments, should have withstood any assault. However, Kara's machinations had come to fruition and the enchantments eroded beyond repair.

With a deafening crack, the arcane bolts slammed into the gate. For a moment, the air shimmered as the protective wards fought to hold—only to shatter in a brilliant cascade of emerald sparks. The spell's energy surged forward, unstoppable. The iron gate groaned under the pressure before exploding outward, a burst of twisted metal and splintered wood.

Kara stepped forward, admiring her work with a satisfied smirk, when suddenly, two figures emerged from the shadows—a pair of knights clad in gleaming armor, their insignias marking them as Royal Knights. One raised his hand, summoning a wall of flame that rushed toward her in a roaring wave that melted stone to slag, while the other called forth gusts of slicing of wind that whipped the flames into a deadly vortex.