Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

A green portal opened, and Lucan stepped through with Adrestia perched on his shoulder.  He looked around and could see mountains and canyons surrounding him on every side.

He had come to the elemental plane, specifically, the earthen quadrant.  He was in the land of stone.  It was an oasis for miners and collectors of minerals.  But the place was deadly and dangerous.

It was home to powerful earth elementals and other creatures made from stone and those who lived off of them.

Lucan stepped onto his magic carpet and rose into the air before taking off into the distance.  Up ahead was a tall stone mountain with jagged cliffs and a peak that pierced through the clouds.

He flew for several minutes but the mountain still seemed to loom in the distance, not coming any closer.

It took several hours before he finally arrived.

By the time he did, Super had provided him with the information that he wanted.  Mr. Fort, the jeweler had sold the diamond to Raze's newest hand.  Sneaky had gotten the man to reveal that Lucan's name hadn't come up a single time.  It wasn't known if the actually buyer new that Lucan was the one who wanted the stone or not, but it seemed that the Hand didn't intentionally target Lucan.  The man had his eyes on the stone for a long time.

Lucan stopped thinking about the jeweler who had screwed him over and set his mind to a much more important task.  Finding a stone that was good enough to be the center piece for his wife's wedding ring.

"Screech!"  Adrestia let out a screech when and activated her devilish aura as several stone vultures flew from their perch on the mountain and came flying towards the magic carpet.  They were so petrified by fear that they froze mid flight and plummet down to the ground and shattered on impact.

Luan flew to where the vultures had taken flight from and found a large nest.  He put away his carpet because it would not allow him to fly any higher up the steep mountain side since technically, the carpet didn't fly.  It was only able to hover a certain distance of the ground.

Lucan peered into the nest and found three obsidian eggs.  If their parents were alive they may one day hatch, but they weren't suitable to be carved and placed into a ring.  But that didn't stop the warlock from placing them into his bag.

Portioning off a part of his mental mana, Lucan activated telekinetic cling.  He empowered his hands and feet so that they would be able to attach to the mountain side as if they were magnets.

When he originally bought this ability, it was to stay attached to the broom he no longer used.  He also envisioned himself running up walls like a ninja.  But reality proved much different.  Just because his feet stuck to the mountainside didn't mean he could run up the wall.  He simply didn't have the core strength in his abdomen to do such a thing.

But using both his hands and feet allowed him to easily climb the wall much like a spider would, and he had no risk of falling unless he was attacked by a strong force.

The side of the mountain was too steep for there to be a winding path that he could navigate towards the top, so he continued his climb.  He could see a landing up above through Adrestia's eyes as she flew above him.

He had heard about this mountain before.  It was called the Stone Spire.  There were no records of high it was because it was unsure if anybody had ever made it to the top.  If they had, they hadn't talked about it or wrote it down in anything that Lucan had ever found. Of course, there were many people who had tried.

One thing that was known about the Stone Spire was that the high you went, the rarer the stones became. The eternal luminary heart diamond that Lucan had want to purchase was said to have come from this very mountain.  Whether it was true or not, he didn't know.  But Mr. Fort, the lying piece of shit jeweler, had said it was found only a quarter of the way up.

But Lucan wasn't here because of the words of an untrustworthy, despicable, asshole. He was here because several legends, rumors, and texts corroborated the fact the good things were found on the mountain the higher one went. But with greater treasure comes greater danger.

Lucan's hand reached over the edge and grabbed a a handhold before he pulled with his might and sprung up onto the landing.

Adrestia had already given the all clear.  The landing on the side of the mountain was three hundred feet wide and a split in the mountain lead inward.

While Lucan was trying to decide if he should enter or venture higher, piles of lose stone on the landing began to vibrate.

He pulled out his scepter and scanned his surroundings.

The stones started vibrating harder and they began to bounce towards a location in the center of the landing.

Lucan began to activate his mana as the stone pressed together to create a makeshift form.

"Roar!!!!"

The stones piled together and took the form of a wolf that was over eight feet tall.

The wolf lunged before Lucan could make the first strike, but that didn't mean he was caught unprepared.

A Lucan went right, while another Lucan rolled left.  The Lucan that remained jumped to meet the beast formed from stone head on.

*Bang*

The wolf was launched backwards after its jaws snapped shut on a fist that was packed with a telekinetic slam.

A shadow bolt came firing from the left while a telekinetic slash struck from the right.  But like Lucan suspected, the bolt and slash did little damage.

The Lucan who had struck head on was sent flying of the landing.  As it fell, it dissipated into shadows.

The wolf landed on its back and quickly rolled over.  It snarled while turning towards the Lucan on its left.  When it felt another shadow bolt glance off its back, it ignored the puny spellcaster who thought that such weak magic would harm its stone body and it charged at the Lucan in front of it.

Lucan didn't back down.  He raised his scepter and unleashed a flash bang when the creature was less than a foot in front of him.  He then used ethereal step to pass directly through it.  Lucan dismissed the other phantom since it didn't seem like it would help at all and only divide his own attention.

The moment the beasts feet touched the ground again it turned and rushed straight for him as if the blind and deafening effect made no difference.

Adrestia was about to swoop down and help out when Lucan sent a telepathic message, asking her to stay out of it.  He didn't think her abilities would be of much help.

Lucan quickly thought while the wolf made of a collection of lose stone ran straight towards him with its mouth wide open.

The warlock spun so his back was to the mountainside and raised his left arm to block the viscous attack.

He felt great pressure as his small arm was trapped in the large jaws.  The beast jerked his head and ripped him off his feet.  Luckily the strength of his demonic arm was no joke, the damage was kept to a minimum, but he was being shaken back and forth like a ragdoll.

Lucan didn't try to slip from the wolf's grasp.  The scepter still clenched in his hand, transformed into a pitch-black short sword.  After a moment, he saw his opportunity.

The sword was plunged in between several rocks that made up one of the wolf's shoulder joints. With his hand on the back of the pommel he pushed while activating telekinetic slam.  The sword pierced trough the gaps in the rocks, separating the beasts leg from it's body.

The wolf howled and released his grasp from Lucan's arm.  Lucan smirked as he rolled towards his scepter which had released his transformation after he let go of it.  He turned around to find that what he hoped for had not come true.

The rocks the still remained attached to the wolf's body shifted to replace the lost limb.  The wolf was now only seven feet tall, but the pile that separate didn't remain still.  It vibrated before coming together to form a two foot tall spider that was made from stone.

The wolf growled while the spider jumped towards the mountain side.  It quickly climbed twenty feet up before turning around and rubbing two of its sharp pointing legs together.  All the while the whole growled while pacing around to the far side of the landing so that Lucan was trapped between the wolf and the spider.

"Looks like this won't be easy."  Lucan muttered to himself.

His scepter transformed back into a sword as the wolf and the spider sprang towards him at the same time.