Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Dinner was loud and fulfilling, reminding Brax of when he grew up with this family. Marie explained that Silent's mother joined the same country club that she belonged too, and Marie's group of friends held a welcome lunch for her today.

Marie promised she did not bring up anything about Brax. In fact, she was confident that she made a good impression on Silent's mother since she was the only who asked about Jenna, compared to everyone else who was more interested in Heaven's Kiss.

After dinner Brax walked out the back of the house and through the garden to guest house where he was staying. Sitting down at the computer in the game room he began to connect his account to the new capsule.

Lucan rose from bed and gathered his gear. Silent was at the table and she had gotten him breakfast again.

"Morning." He said.

"Want to try again?" She asked as he sat down.

"What do you mean?"

"Talking about things outside the game."

"Oh, sure, that's fine with me." Lucan answered.

"So what part of the world do you live in?" She asked.

"I have an apartment in Chip city, but yesterday I flew to the west cost to visit my aunt and uncle and their kids. They pretty much raised me from the time I was 3, they only moved away about a year ago so its nice seeing them again. How about you?"

"My family moved to Flower city not to long ago. My dad is an investor in a new project and wanted to oversee it personally. My mom decided that we should all just move out there since its so much nicer. Since I am not going to school anymore, I could not really say no. My sister was strongly against it but since we got here, I think she is the happiest out of everyone. It isn't as bad as I thought, but I still haven't made any friends there yet."

"I always have that problem, if I am talking video games or with my family, I have no issues, but meeting new people is always hard."

"It's the worst."

"So do you have any siblings besides your sister?"

"Nope, my parents had twins and were satisfied with that. We caused them plenty of stress when we were little. You?"

"I just have my two younger cousins. Derek is 17 while Chris is 14. I was living with them since the day they were born so it's more like I am their older brother compared to being cousins."

"I am sure they were glad to see you again."

"Oh yeah, I got tackled to the floor the minute I walked into the house."

"Ha, ha, ha, that's awesome." Said Silent while standing up. "Looks like everyone is moving outside, we better join them."

Lucan nodded and followed her into the command tent.

"It's good your back." Shifty said. "We made decent progress yesterday."

"How are you able to play everyday without logging out?" Lucan asked. He had been curious about this for a while now.

Sturdy answered before Shifty could respond. "While we are on contract, we log out at night and have only a few people stay to alert us incase anything happens. Source Creations only lets us work 16 hours a day, but they don't require you to have your 8-hour break all in one go. It makes for a messed-up schedule in the real world, but it lets us get more done in game."

Lucan nodded.

"While you were gone, we hit the main hall of the fortress and made some progress. Even the draconian got involved but he quickly escaped deeper once Sturdy made his move." Shifty said with a bragging smile. "But there have been some changes, today might be a little more difficult." He said leading them out of the tent and pointing to the fortress two miles away while handing a spyglass to Lucan.

The warlock passed the handheld telescope to Silent as he looked ahead. Mentas's eye made it unnecessary for him.

Flying around the top of the fortress were three drakes, each one was almost 20 feet long. Each drake was a different color. One was a light blue, another was black, and the last was a pale green.

"Hmm, I see. This will be difficult then."

"It's not all bad. I managed to cause a fairly significant wound to the draconian." Said Sturdy. "I doubt he will be able to return to full health and fitness today. We must take advantage of this opportunity and hit them hard."

"Don't worry, we have a plan, hopefully you can help us out with it."

"I will do my best."

An hour later Lucan, Silent and ten Willow players were hidden in the woods. The drakes needed to be dealt with or at least drawn away. Otherwise the rest of the Willow troops would be decimated before they got a chance to rush into the fortress.

Apparently, the Astronomy tower was heavily guarded after the raid a few nights ago so neither Shifty nor Sturdy were too keen on infiltrating the fortress from there.

Everyone in the woods had access to a flying mount. There was a knight on his griffin with a hunter sitting behind him. A shaman summoned a shock flacon that was able to carry himself, a paladin, and a ranger. A cleric stood on a cloud with a sorcerer and a rouge who specialized in crossbows. Then there was a mage who had a broom like Lucan and a druid who specialized in half transformations. She was able to give herself a large pair of wings while transforming her arms and legs into viscous claws.

Lucan stood on his broom while Silent placed a foot between his and her other foot at the back of the broom. He put his arm around her waist so she could lean back while their hips pressed against each other. She took out her bow and held it between both of them and tried to take aim.

"I will need a bit more room. Grab a little lower and let me lean back further." She quietly whispered to him. Lucan didn't immediately move his hands "It's alright." She said while blushing and moving Lucan's hands from her waist to her backside.

She tried out the new position and was able to easily nock an arrow and shouldn't have any issues firing.

Lucan firmly grabbed her as they began to rise into the air. Neither of the two looked at each other and kept their eyes forward as Lucan spoke.

"If you feel like you are going to fall-."

"I know, I will merge into your shadow."

Since they weren't fighting yet, Silent wasn't leaning out and instead was pressed tightly against Lucan. He didn't move back to holding her waist, instead he kept two handfuls of her backside while holding her close.

"Pervy warlock." Silent whispered while they flew towards the fortress.

Silent was blushing. Lucan didn't mind her comment since it was her suggestion. He couldn't see it, but she was smiling.

As they drew closer the griffin let out a screech which immediately attracted the level 120 drakes. The group of air fighters veered off course as the blue drake sent out a breath of ice crystals shooting towards the group.

The drakes quickly pursed their targets out over the forest, leaving the skies above the fortress empty.

Silent leaned back and started to fire her arrows. She hit the blue drake and Lucan peeled away from the others, separating the drake from its own kind. The mage and the druid joined him to fight against it.

Lucan and the mage were limited to how high they could fly but the druid was able to soar freely.

She went high and dove towards the drake. It screeched and rolled as she swiped along its side drawing blood. Even though Lucan and the mage couldn't gain tremendous altitude they both were able to accelerate to ridiculous speeds in an instant.

Holding an orb, the mage began to launch fireballs to try and contain the drake. The mage was firing wide forcing the drake to either be hit by Silent's arrows or dodge into his own fireballs.

After 5 minutes of flying the drake's health had dropped to 80%, it roared and opened its maw to unleash a spray of icy mist. The druid was hit and started to become covered in a layer of ice. Unable to flap her wings she began to fall. The mage dove to catch her.

As the mist came barreling towards Lucan, he performed a sudden turn and accelerated as fast as he could.

Even though he greatly enjoyed his handholds, he wasn't able to keep a tight enough grip on Silent. She slipped and started to fall before she even had a chance to merge with his shadow.

He pointed his broom straight down and dove the meet her. Even though Silent had her shadow form ability to break her fall, they were fighting over the top of a poisonous swamp with the hope of clipping the drake's wings and letting it fall in. If Silent landed inside she wouldn't be able to reach shore before her protection expired.