Codex

5 - Pest Extermination

A sly grin inched its way onto my lips, "Let's see, you guys took roughly a month or two to learn to summon lesser elementals. I could teach greater elementals, but, what's the point if you can't use them in combat, or when you're in a pinch? So today," I held up a request from the request board, "we're doing some extermination."

"No way!" Pyro ran up to my desk and grabbed the paper, "Guys! He's serious! This is freakin' awesome!" He was pretty excited, until he properly read the request. "Wait, this is to kill those sludge monsters near the lake. Dude, no way," he slammed the paper back onto the desk, "I've seen real strong mages pass up that job. How are we going to kill those monsters? There are thousands of them!"

"Oh Pyro, we're not going to do it, our elementals are. There are only two rules I'm enforcing. You can't use other spells while we exterminate them, and you can't move more than two metres away from your elemental."

"Isn't that rather reckless?" Aldis appeared from nowhere, removing his Invisibility spell, "In a real-world scenario, a mage won't just stand-by his elemental and do nothing. There would be a plethora of spells in exchange."

"Old man, if you don't know anything, you might as well eavesdrop on someone else. The objective of this isn't to foster synergy of mage and elemental, although, that will also be achieved–the objective is to learn how summoned elementals fight, their styles, strengths, weaknesses. And more importantly, teamwork." This will also let me know how well they work under pressure.

"Well," he cleared his throat, "as long as you ensure their safety," and quickly left, a little embarrassed.

About a week later, Dawn managed to convince her parents. Volt's fiancé asked me to take care of him. I wasn't sure if she was joking or not. Volt was the oldest in our little group. Maybe he had mentioned that I was a grand and powerful mage? I hoped so.

After breakfast, we packed our belongings onto a carriage and left Aquan to visit a town called Silverport. As its name suggested, it was built around a great port and a little north of the town was a huge silver mine. The sludge monsters made their way from the sea to the quarry where the mine was. We found lodgings quickly, packed our stuff away and headed out to scout the quarry. "Eric, I mean, this might be a little late to ask, but are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Yeah, it's a splendid idea. Don't worry, if things get dicey, I'll come to your rescue."

Pyro was clearly excited about it, and his brother Volt was a little more confused about what he wanted.

We all stood at the centre of the quarry, two large cranes towered above us and about half a dozen mine entrances around the quarry. "Remember, stay close to your elemental. Don't use any spells. You have full control over your elemental. You may choose to let it act as it sees fit, or override that with commands of your own. Good luck guys," I released two Phoenix Waves into the sky and they exploded a little, lightening up the quarry like fireworks.

I used Levitate and sped out of the quarry. The sludge monsters came running out, some slow, some fast. Immediately, they began firing off their elementals' powers. Walls of flame, fireballs, lightning bolts, and water everywhere. Inevitably, water doused fire and lightning was just about the only thing slightly effective. In no time, they were overburdened with dozens, maybe hundreds of sludge monsters. At this point they just screamed and resorted to spells of their own. I jumped down, and blasted a path open with Phoenix Wave, then cast Ice Wall to ensure we could walk out unhindered.

They wiped the black slime and sludge off, shaking in disgust. I didn't say anything, and waited about five minutes, watching them wipe themselves clean. Well, sort of. I was stooped down whilst I waited on them. I summoned Phoenix. No, this wasn't to be mistaken for Phoenix Wave. Phoenix himself was the king of the fire faction in the spirit realm. He was quite a hasty fellow, burning with passion and pride. The only reason he agreed to form a contract with me was because he liked my dry sense of humour.