Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Lucan opened the door the rampart from the top level of the eastern gate tower. They need to clear the kobold archers from the top of the walls if Sturdy's troops were going to survive an extended fight in the area between the wall and fortress.

The warlock's phantom warrior rushed out first, expending its last two charges, using telekinetic slam to knock four kobolds off the fifty-foot-tall wall.

Silent took her position in the door frame and started to shoot arrows. Lucan only needed to keep her safe until back up arrived.

The kobolds on the wall reacted quickly and turned their attention to the gate tower.

With a flick of his wand Lucan sent telekinetic slashes at the wrist of any kobold who was taking aim. His attacks caused their arrows to fire prematurely or off course.

Within five minutes Silent and Lucan could hear players coming up the ladder. Three archers, a mage and a paladin to keep them safe and healthy entered the third floor. Silent stepped aside and let them take over.

"Looks like our work here is done." She said to Lucan.

He nodded and turned to look at the fortress in front of them.

A solid stone building with several towers housed the true enemies they would have to face. Putting their abilities to the use, Sturdy Willow had asked them to try and scout ahead and see what they would be against in the coming days.

A broom appeared in Lucan's hand. "Let's get going." He said to Silent.

She disappeared and took her position inside of his shadow.

Lucan sent a telepathic message to Shifty letting him know they were ready to depart while he waited for the opportune moment to enter the fortress unnoticed.

Shifty and his back up provided the distraction.

3 Willow mages on the west wall began to cast a group spell. Dark clouds started to form overhead as the winds began to stir.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

Thunder started to roll while the clouds flashed with light while arcs of electricity began to collect in the dark swirling mass. Lucan hid inside the gate tower and chose his target before closing his eyes.

*KABOOM*

The ground shook as a deafening clap of thunder shook the walls when a bolt of lighting stuck the center of the kobold reinforcements charging towards Sturdy. Even with his eyes closed, the flash of light caused discomfort to Lucan.

He opened his eyes and poured half his mana into the broom. Like a shooting star he flew out the window and into one of the upper levels on a tower in the fortress. After half a second he was inside the fortress and gone from sight.

Lucan had chosen the most dilapidated tower off to the side. He figured it would be less likely to contain enemies compared to the tower directly overlooking the fight between Sturdy and the kobolds.

Silent and Lucan were able to enter halfway up, 100 feet above ground level, and were thankful to find an empty room filled with dust, cobwebs and broken furniture.

'I think we should head up first to make sure there are no surprises to catch us off guard before we head down.' Silent said to Lucan telepathically.

'Sounds good.'

'Okay, I will watch your back.' She said while staying inside his shadow.

Before heading up the spiral staircase in the center of the room, Lucan conjured Little Brown and let the mouse work its way downward.

The pair slowly ascended several floors to find nothing of immediate interest. Each floor was only filled with more dust.

Arriving at the top they found a room with only half a roof and a telescope that had been partially dismantled leaving only the parts that held no value.

'This must be some sort of astronomy tower.' Silent guessed.

'That's probably why the kobolds have no interest in it.'

Lucan checked in with Crafty to get an update on how the fighting was going.

'The walls have been cleared on either side of the gate tower. Our shamans have set up some basic earthen fortification while Sturdy has been letting the kobolds funnel towards us. A contingent of 10 Willow players has just been dispatched to go clear and cleanse the nearest graveyard.'

'Good, we successfully entered the worn-down tower on the right side of the fortress and made our way to the top, so far it's empty and appears to have been an astronomy tower at some point.'

After a few seconds of silence, a request for telepathic communication came in from Sturdy Willow.

'Shifty let me know where you two are. Since you know formations, set up a defensive fall back point in case anyone gets separated or into a sticky situation inside the fortress in the coming days.'

'Alright, I am on it.'

After letting Silent know Sturdy's commands she decided to step out of the shadows and take a closer look at the rooms they had already passed through. Lucan sent Adrestia with her.

He then retrieved a set of intermediate flaps from his inventory and started to use magic to inlay them with different symbols. After reading a few of the books on formations symbols he realized how little he actually knew about formations previously.

He had not had any success with his using enhanced wand cores in his woodworking yet, so Lucan decided to use the last pair of pixie wings in this formation.

Over the next hour he planted flags across the room and inscribed several symbols along the perimeter while casting the support spells like he had done in the past.

When the last symbol was inscribed, the formation came to life. Telekinetic walls surrounded the area while illusions concealed the location. The normal mental manipulations would send any wandering monsters away while shadow magic would stop any noise from escaping.

A high-grade mana crystal the size of a coin and covered with symbols disappeared to reveal a pair of pixie wings underneath it. Through Mentas's eye, Lucan could see mana start to swirl around the wings before solidifying and taking shape.

A pixie appeared. Standing 6 inches tall and wearing a robe made from a leaf. The pixie's fluttered. The little flying man zoomed towards Lucan and stowed its wooden staff on his back before bowing deeply while floating in the air.

"Master, your orders."

"Protect this place if anyone tries to intrude on the formation and only open the telekinetic walls for those who bear my mark."

"Your will shall be law Master." The pixie bowed again.

Suddenly the pixie clutched his staff and readied into an offensive position as Silent entered the room. Lucan watched as mana filled his eyes as he looked towards the rouge who was nearing the perimeter of the formation.

Once he recognized that she was a warlock of Lucan's, the pixie waved his staff causing the illusion to part along with the telekinetic walls, giving her access.

At the sight of the pixie, Silent rushed forward.

"Who is this little guy?" She asked excitedly.

Before Lucan could answer the Pixie responded. "I am the guardian Master has entrusted this formation too." He said giving her a quarter bow.

"So cute, what can he do?" She said reaching out towards the flying creature.

The pixie flew back and retreated from her grasp.

"He can control all aspects of the formation and I also left him a good portion of mental mana. If I inscribed the symbols correctly, he should be able to use telekinetic slam, slash, and hand until the mana runs out. I didn't think shadow mana would mesh too well with a pixie, so I decided not to leave any. But he can still alter and use the illusion that are a part of the formation."

"That is correct Master, I am also cable of using my innate pixie ability to control plant life and can confuse your enemies if I disperse pixie dust."

"Good, good, good." Lucan said three times in excitement. He had not expected the pixie to be able to use some of its own abilities since he only incorporated a pair of dried wings into the formation.

"I have a few seeds from a couple of herbs I collected on our way here." Silent said with an outstretched hand. "Will they be able to help you?" She asked while trying to approach the pixie again.

It curiously flew over and to see what was in her palm. Nimbly, the pixie landed on her fingertips.

"Trash, dead, contaminated." He said while kicking a few seeds off her palm.

Silent was trying to contain herself from the pixies cuteness as he danced across her hand inspecting each seed.

"These two will work well." He said while tucking a pair of seeds into his tiny robes. Then he scowled. "I will let you give me one head pat but don't go overboard." The pixie said while failing to act domineering.

Silent slowly extended out a finger from her other hand and gently patted the pixies head before it flew off the side of the formation and placed the seeds into a patch of moss that was growing at the base of the stone wall.

'He so cute, you have to help me find a real pixie to fill my last pet slot.' She telepathically told Lucan.

"We will see." He said while shaking his head with a smile.