Abuse Of Magic

The landscape was beautiful and lush. The trees that were torn up and thrown down, had sprouted roots, and the gra.s.s was already waist height. It looked like years had pa.s.sed.

"PLANT is having a "field" day," said Joe, making Joseph laugh.

Turning to Stella, he said, "I want to see how far this reaches."

It was a high mana area, after the storm, so the area around Joseph literally glowed without him even doing anything. As he walked, the gra.s.s grew even greener and more lush. It was like one of those G.o.ds they show in the movies.

He stopped for a few hours to study REJUVENATE PLANT in the area. REJUVENATE PLANT could revive a dead plant. It was powerful enough to make a wooden door grow roots, branches and leaves. It was a long shot if it would work on something the size of the world tree, but it was the best spell he had seen for the job.

After he was done, they started teleporting around the area. Everything was full of magic and life…until the seventh TELEPORT. There was a minor fluctuation. Only the smallest of disturbances. But when everything else was excessively vibrant, any small dark spot was noticeable.

"Stella, heads up. I don"t know what it is, but prepare to kill it."

She nodded, pulling out her blades.

TELEPORT.

"Ugh," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

The mana had the taint similar to the ice monster. Mana was being siphoned out of the area by something dark and twisted. Death and life were both natural. Even the undead running on magic didn"t completely break this law. But this was corrupted, like something was tortured but not allowed to die.

Joseph was able to resist throwing up, because he knew it wouldn"t help. Some of the corrupted mana made its way into his territory, but he couldn"t fix it immediately. He had experience with this kind of corruption before, when the arrow almost took his arm, but this was stronger.

Off in the distance he could see seven people in a circle around something.

"Stella, we may need to keep one of them alive for questioning," he said softly.

"Yes, Master Joseph," she replied in a whisper.

TELEPORT.

They closed in on them immediately, and Joseph was surprised to find a giant alligator between them. Transparent green crystals embedded in its hide lit up whenever one of them stabbed it. They were slowly extracting the mana out of it, and using the mana to help the other six maintain a circle that was also being powered from the fields behind them.

As rare as magical beasts were, these shavists were killing one to suck out its mana!

Joe was willing to help as he began to cast. These things weren"t human anymore. Their eyes were pure black and their skin was turning grey. The one who was stabbing the weakened beast had something wiggling under its skin.

STONE MISSILE. STONE MISSILE. STONE MISSILE. STONE MISSILE. STONE MISSILE. STONE MISSILE. STONE MISSILE.

All of them went down. One had his head crushed and putrid black slime oozed out. They all tried to stand up, but Stella was there to cut their throats and stab them in the chest. She was incredibly careful to avoid the magic circle, and Joseph was really proud of her, because he knew she didn"t fully understand magic.

Two of them with slit throats still attempted to stand, so she stabbed them in the eyes, and they went down to stay. As she went to stab the last guy, he managed to utter a single word, and she staggered back. Joseph felt his bile rise, and knew he was going to throw up.

As they watched, the skin sloughed off and the creature that stood up was easily seven foot tall. His skin was pitch black, with two huge black eyes, no nose, and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Black goo was dripping from his claws as he flexed them. His entire form seemed to be covered in a thick layer of oil.

BANISHMENT.

A black hole opened up and sucked the creature back through it. Its claws left deep trenches in the ground as it struggled, but finally lost to the spell. Joseph caught a glimpse of what was in the hole, and immediately fell to his knees, puking.

There had been a giant ball of those creatures, swarming over each other like black maggots, floating in a sea of what looked like clotting blood.

"Joseph?" asked Stella, quickly at his side, but afraid to touch him.

Shaking his head to clear away the awful sight, he quickly filed it away, just as he had with his memories, so that it would only surface if he searched for it. That was definitely not a memory he wanted to revisit while he slept.

(YOU HAVE RESISTED MADNESS, CONFUSION, HORROR, COMA, SHOCK, FEAR, DREAD, FRENZY, BERSERK, STUPIDITY, AND BLOODl.u.s.t.)

(YOU HAVE CAST BANISHMENT A SPELL FROM NECROMANCY FOR THE FIRST TIME. YOU ARE AWARDED 3 LIFE POINTS.)