Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Four massive eyes opened over the courtyard. A face began to take shape. The eyes moved into a vertical column as a mouth appeared beneath them. The face was black with gills in place of the ears.

"GILDEN!" The mouth spoke, its voice reverberating through the courtyard. "YOU HAVE BETRAYED THE PLANESHIFTER RACE AND BROUGHT HARM TO THE ETHEREAL REALM. I WILL RELAY YOUR ACTIONS TO THE OTHER GAURDIANS." The face turned to the Ghost King. "I WILL RESTORE YOUR ABILITIES. YOU MAY RECLAIM YOUR THRONE!"

The face of the guardian started to dissipate, but not before its top eye turned green and launched a beam of ethereal energy into the Ghost King.

The shackles binding the ghost shattered as he regained the power he had once lost.

"Ha, ha, ha! GIlden, your time has come."

"Hmpf, did you forget you are greatly out numbered. Being cast aside by the guardians means nothing to me. My men are unwavering in their loyalty. KILL THEM ALL!!!!"

Three planeshifters burst into the room where Lucan and Silent were watching from. With swords and spears drawn, they charged towards the two.

Getting a good look at them, the situation wasn't ideal, but it wasn't hopeless. The planeshifters were mostly around level 130. They had 15 levels on Lucan and only a few on Silent.

Lucan launched telekinetic slashes from his scepter as his wand transformed into Night's Whisper.

He took a fencing stance and moved forward while arrows flew over his shoulders towards the intruders.

Making a copy of himself, Lucan split and dove away as all three struck at him together. He was tempted to use shadow form to slip behind them, but then that would place Silent against the wall with the three enemies in between her and Lucan.

The warlock swirled his blade clumsily and lunged forward, thrusting it towards his first victim. The blade pierced the planeshifter stomach but before Lucan could stab again, he was disoriented. He found himself floating in the air above a deserted field.

"AHH." An invisible spear stabbed him in the back. Lucan had felt a tickling sensation a moment before it happened, but he didn't know what it was.

Lucan turned to try and run but smacked into an invisible wall.

'Quick, jump!' Silent said, telepathically to him.

He did so and felt a blade scrape the bottom of his boots.

'Your eyes are green.' She said.

Lucan quickly tried to make sense of what was going on. The only thing he could think of, was that he was still in the room with Silent, but his vision was seeing into a different realm.

Lucan closed his eyes and strengthened his connection with Adrestia. He could now see into the room, but it wasn't from his own perspective. He quickly rolled backwards, avoiding the spear.

He wasn't capable enough to fight while using someone else's vision. Lucan forced his eyes shut and activated his thermal vision, peering through his eyelid. He could at least make out their body masses this way.

Dismissing the dagger, he summoned his shadow beast and started firing telekinetic slashes towards the lumps of heat. Adrestia was able to help him distinguish which was Silent. The small drake was tired of only being a passive helper. She concentrated and let out a mighty…. Chirp.

A devilish energy was spread through the room. The three attackers faltered and took a step back. The sensation of fear caused the user of the ethereal ability to lose control over his manipulation. Lucan's sight returned to normal.

The warlock met the eyes of the spear wielder who corrupted his sight. Intimidation stopped him from moving away. Activating Escape, Lucan turned invisible, he appeared behind the man with sword and dagger in hand.

Backstab, concussive blow, slash, stab, slash. When his combo points built high enough, he activated lacerate, while cutting the back of the spearman's knee, sending blood spaying across the floor. Telekinetic slam, sent the man flying into the wall. Lucan turned to the others. He would let the corruption from his shortsword and the bleeding damage from lacerate finish the spearman off.

One of the men looked like a pin cushion, Silent had focused most of her attacks on him. Giving him the final push, Lucan's dagger cut his throat and took his life.

Silent moved in with her daggers as she, Lucan and the shadow beast surrounded the last one, not letting him retaliate as they slashed and stabbed, shredding his armor and taking his life.

"Go." Silent said, pointing to the window. "I will work from up here."

"Stay safe." Lucan said as he stepped into the windowsill.

She summoned Queeny. The queen of the carnivorous butterflies to watch her back.

Lucan fell to the ground and transformed into a shadow as he hit. As he rose back up in his natural form, he unleashed illusionary shadows rolling out from him.

The Ghost King was fighting GIlden inside of the formation ring and his followers were eagerly trying to harm the younger half-brother. That is until they found themselves lost in the shadows.

Lucan's shadow beast jumped from the window, into the darkness and moved like a fish through water.

"Ahh!"

There was a scream on the far side of the courtyard.

"He is over here." Came a scream from the opposite side.

"Damn, this darkness. Hodalio, get rid of it."

There was a flash of green and the illusions were sent to a different realm. Lucan was on one side of the courtyard while his shadow beast was on the other.

'Switch to a new target once you get them to half health.' Lucan said to Silent.

She didn't answer but her arrows proved she heard him. A moment later a cloud of blue descended to help. Wanting to be useful and the star of the show, Adrestia flew to where Gilden and the Ghost king were fighting. Even though one was a planeshifter and the other was a ghost, neither was having difficulty doing damage to the other.

Gilden currently had the upper hand, but he had also lost a good amount of health, just not as much as the Ghost King. The ghost was weaponless, but his hands were covered with green energy capable of slicing through realms. He slashed out towards his half-brothers chest.

Gilden pushed back and was barely grazed. He used a staff, not to cast spells but as a melee weapon and thrusted at the ghost while covering the tip of it with a blackish red energy. The thrust removed a chunk of the ghost shape. Each attack destroyed a small portion of his form.

Adrestia swooped down and caught Gilden by surprise. She attached to his face and started to scratch and bite. When he dropped his staff to reach from the small drake, hellfire gushed from her mouth, burning straight into his eyes.

"AHHHHH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!"

Adretia was ripped off and thrown to the side. With her now higher health pool she bounced off the ground, taking damage, but she survived.

"He, he, he. This is the end."

The Ghost King plunged his hands into Gilden's chest and ripped him apart from the inside. Silencing his screams of agony.

The several planeshifters who had just watched their leader die, took a step back. They now were in a bad situation, they had aided someone who betrayed the realm, and lost their leader. It was time to leave.

"Where do you think your going?" Lucan said as his shadow domain activated.

His shadow summons started to rise from the black ground. He dismissed the skeletons in hope of claiming new prizes. His shadow beast, death knight, zombie and flaming skull attacked. Silent and the Ghost King didn't hold back either.

A few minutes later and the courtyard was littered with bodies, all of them planeshifters.

[Alternative Step 4: Complete.]

[Seek out a guardian of the planeshifters to finish your race change.]

"Ha, ha, yes!" Lucan cheered. He suddenly felt a tingling sensation on the back of his head. He quickly jerked to the side as an arrow encrusted in ice tore past him.

Quickly spinning around he saw a blue goblin pointing a bow at him.

The goblin scratched his head with a stupid apologetic expression. "Sorry Lujan, I thought you someone else."

"I am gonna kill you, you little shit." Lucan said running towards the goblin.

Silent jumped down and appeared in front of him.

"It's alright Lucan, it was an accident. He said sorry, just let it go." She said.

Lucan grumbled and stomped away while Silent turned to the goblin.

"You can't shoot arrows at Lucan. Be more careful next time."

"I sorry Food lady." Said the goblin, looking at his feet.

She couldn't see his face, but if she could, Silent would see that the goblin was upset. He wasn't upset because he almost hurt Lucan, he was upset because he missed. He didn't know why Food lady traveled with Lucan, but he knew that if the food was split between two people instead of three, that meant more for him.