Dan's Wheel of Magic Ch. 7

Dan almost lost the young Harpy off his lap when she started to scream that he was awake.

This, of course, had more than a few that started to check Dan. He groaned as he was lifted onto a softer bed.

"No," Dan croaked, "we have to leave, before the assassin and the dragon find us. I used that forbidden spell they will find us."

"We are safe Dan," En'tra said. "Did you forget that I know dark magic also?"

"No, but it is a fourth level spell. You aren't to the fourth level yet," Dan said.

En'tra kissed him as she leaned down close to his ear. "Dan, there's more than just using them to get them to level up. I reached Shadow Shield late last night. I confess it's not as strong as yours, though just using it on you helps greatly."

Huh, Dan thought, you learn something new every day. I wonder if she'll teach me this other technique.

En'tra smiled as Dan was staring at her. She'd have to get something together to help Dan. That was if he could even use the technique.

She'd have to test him to make sure if it was even possible. The problem was that, according to him, he'd had no magic before now.

Dan groaned as he tried to stand up, falling back just as quickly. "Even though you managed to shield me, I still think we need to go. I don't want to endanger the Harpies."

"That's not going to be possible, Dan," En'tra said. When you used Shadow Death, you didn't avert your sight. What you saw is never supposed to be. The fact that we were able to pull you back tells us that you are far stronger than we thought," En'tra said in a low voice.

"I hadn't thought that I was that strong just being at the fourth level of spells. Well, except for ice which is part of water," Dan said as a small amount of ice formed in his hand.

Almost immediately he got a message: {you have now earned the spell ice spear.} Dan tried to sit up a bit surprised.

En'tra noticed, "What's happened, Dan?" she asked.

"I was just flexing my ice part of my water aspect like this," Dan said as a ball of ice formed in his hand.

To Dan's surprise, he received another message: {you have now earned the spell iced tomb}

"What the hell!? I just got a second message, apparently, I just received ice spear and tomb," a shocked Dan said.

"Ah," En'tra said. "It appears that your water aspect is trying to equalize. As a dual aspect, that should be the only one that does."

Dan started to nod even if he wasn't completely understanding. "Also, since I haven't used it as much, it is the only one at the third level of spells."

En'tra nodded as she listened to Dan's explanation, it went along with what she knew.

They rested another day though the whole time Dan was afraid that they were going to be discovered.

They finally decided to move out, Dan thanking the Harpies for their hospitality. They had almost left the area of the Harpies trees, when they heard a shout behind them.

Dan had them stop as a familiar Harpy caught up to them. "Dan," said Shae'ten landing behind them. "I was tasked with accompanying you. It was said that a Harpy along with ten other magic users would aid the savior of our world."

The other four companions were nodding as Dan just groaned. Even the way she looked, Dan found her and all the others gorgeous.

Dan thought about it for a moment, not noticing that Shae'ten had a worried look on her face. Actually, the same look that the other four had when they joined Daqn.

"As of yet, I am not even sure what I am even supposed to do. I don't know what the danger to this world is. Neither am I sure how strong I will get. I guess I could use all the help I can get," Dan said, still not noticing the look of relief on Shae'ten's face.

His companions smiled as the Harpy took her place with the others. Dan decided that they should keep going to the East as the pull was again, coming from there.

A great distance back, Gre'ta and Kim'ta had lost most of the energy that they had been following.

Though she wasn't panicking, Kim'ta was starting to grow impatient. As fast as they were, the human and his party were getting further away each time they approached.

Perhaps, just perhaps, she might go about this differently. The human had indeed shown that it was powerful. One misstep on her part could surely lead to a painful death.

If, as she suspected, the human could do as she thought, then no, she would break her oath. After all, family was indeed far more important than anything. As she had been taught and believed more than anything, family WAS the most important thing.

A thought occurred to her as she and the Dragon were searching. She had to either convince the Dragon to her terms or somehow ditch the Dragon. That she knew was a near impossibility, especially with the Dragon airborne.

This was going to take some true underhandedness on her part. She wasn't about to tell the Dragon of her family's distress. As far as she knew, the Dragon race didn't aid any other.

She looked at Gre'ta, seeing the look of almost unparalleled concentration that was on the Dragon's face. No, like always, she would have to save her family herself, or die trying.

Right now, though, they had to find the human and its party.

Gre'ta watched Kim'ta while they were searching. The light elf obviously had na great deal on her mind though the assassin hid it extremely well.

She'd checked her network recently and had stories, little else about a powerful Elf that was held in check. No matter how much more her network had dug, they hadn't come up with anything else.

Gre'ta shook her head, she'd also heard stories about the Light Elf king. It was hard not to believe that one that had ruled as long as he had was considered to be insane.

Insane, at least when dealing with humans. It was well known that the Elf Queen and the present King's wife had disappeared. Molst said it was around the time right before the king had started to exile the humans.

It was also common knowledge that an archmage had dealt a great deal of damage to the elf king. Though, through all of this, no one knew if the three had died, been killed or vanished. Apparently only the humans knew, and they were all gone.

The simple fact that there was a human in the world was strange enough. Though the fact that he suddenly had four aspects of magic was a concern. They had to capture the human before a great many were destroyed.

Then again, Gre'ta had felt the sudden loss of light due to the forbidden spell Shadow Death. Apparently a great many had also, as most they passed seemed to be affected.

She knew that she had been, it had felt horrible when it happened. The way that the life had ended had been in a lot of pain and suffering.

Gre'ta shook her head, she would reserve judgement, but she was already against the human already in that respect.

Much further to the east, Dan was trying to get used to there now being five companions. Plus, there was the fact that they were all female wasn't sitting well with him.

It was bad enough that on earth he was a skinny nerd with no one, but his two female friends noticed him. That in itself had unsettled him quite a bit.

Now, here in this place, he was buffed with washboard abs, plus what was in his pants was huge. All the females with him had noticed too, as they were all gorgeous, making him not settle for long.

Another bad thing was he'd overextended himself so much that they were all worried about him. So much so, that none of them would leave him alone to try and relieve himself.

It had gotten to a point that they almost watched him when he pissed, which had really upset him. Even though they respected that, they were still nearby 'til he finished.

It was now to the point that his scrotum was starting to hurt. He shook his head as he assumed that was what blue balls was, he wasn't sure.

Though the worst of all was that he was still a virgin. He'd seen porn of how to, but he didn't know how to get to that point.

Here he thought that he'd die a virgin, though with recent events he wasn't so sure. All his female companions were staring at him a lot of the time. He felt like a piece of prime beef that all the females were starving for.

"Dan," Shae'ten said, tapping him on the shoulder. "I thought that you should know that we are passing near the Orc territory. We don't usually come this far east."

It was a few hours later when we all heard a multitude of grumbling voices. Dan had all of them stop as the voices started to grow closer.

Dan's hands were starting to glow, as were the twins and both the elves. Dan looked up to see Shae'ten as she started to motion a lot.

A moment later several short, green-skinned, hairless goblins came around the corner of a bank of thick trees. Dan let loose with a flame ve as did Ella.

En'tra hit those after with Shadow Blindness. Bell let loose water wave, with Tygan hit them with a light pulse.

Dan almost stopped his attack because of the high-pitched screaming that followed. He then noticed that they were about to be overrun as he changed to incinerate.

Then there were only a few yells, a great many were turned instantly to ash. The bad thing though was as many as they were killing, they continued to come.

They finally started to slow down when Shae'ten started to use Air Blast, then Air Razor. Finally, after a half hour, they stopped coming.

Dan pulled his sword and walked through the carnage, killing the very few that were still alive. With that chore done, they again started to head East toward the pull.

It was almost an hour later when both the twins and the elves alerted Dan. The two chasing them, had averted their course more in their direction.

Dan cursed as he brought his Shadow Shield up to full all around them. Still, the two behind them were advancing toward them.

Dan had them head back toward the north, hoping that it would throw them off.

A moment later Dan stopped as he received a message: {you have now earned the spell Shadow Storm}.

He looked at En'tra, "I just received Shadow Storm, I take it that is a strong spell?"

"Yes, that is a mid-level spell, it can be devastating, especially with control. I don't think that will be a problem for you," En'tra said.

"I hope that it doesn't act like as the Shadow Death spell does. Not sure if I can handle going through that again," Dan said.

There was a sudden scream from above as they saw that Shae'ten was under attack. Strange Dan thought as he launched an ice spear at one of the attackers. It screamed as it fell out of the sky near his feet.

One look told him it was a Harpy but a twisted, evil-looking version. "Shae'ten to me!" Dan yelled as she dived straight toward him.

He stretched a hand out, releasing a flame that caught the three that were diving after her. There were several screams as the three suddenly couldn't stay air-borne.

Shae'ten landed beside him as another ten of the twisted Harpies screamed at them. Suddenly, a deep voice sounded from the ten.

"This is not over! We of the Harpy clan will not forget," the voice was saying 'til Dan got tired of it and sent a strong flame wave toward them. A moment later there was a mass of screaming as seven of them fell from the sky on fire.

Each tried to put out the flames 'til Dan sliced through all of their throats. The remaining three flew away as fast as they could.

Dan was about to ask who they were when he was surprised by another message: {you have now earned the spell flame shield}

Dan could only shake his head, that was two spells in a short time.

Dan looked at Ella, "Well, I just got Flame Shield, that's pretty high, isn't it?"

Ella stared at Dan Flame Shield? She only knew of two or three that had that and they were old damn.

"Yes, I only know of a few that know that. They are substantially older than you," a shocked Ella said.

Dan turned his head as he felt the two following them slow down. Now what in the hell are they doing? He had a lot more power and better spells, but one of them was a Dragon.

Dan wasn't all that sure about going up against that. He'd seen it that one time, and it had slightly terrified him a bit. Yeah, he had power, yeah, but was it enough?

A long way back, Gre'ta and Kim'ta had stopped to examine the remains, what little there were of the goblins.

"I'm detecting five aspects. Though I am detecting six beings. One used fire and dark aspects at the mid-range. This was a lot of power. It felt they were here for a while. I estimate there was a large raiding party, close to eight hundred. The human has moved into the mid-range, powerful," Gre'ta said as she lowered her claw.

"This might be a problem, are your shields that strong?" Kim'ta asked.

"They are," Gre'ta said, "though against that much power they would fail after a time. We need to enter into talks with him. I count no less than five aspects: water, fire, light, dark and air. If he has a fifth, we might be in trouble. Especially if he has any mid-range spells."

Kim'ta was nodding her agreement, for the first time she was having doubts. Everything to do with this mission seemed to be becoming more and more dangerous as time went along.

"Even if we go in slowly, I'm not all that sure that they wouldn't disappear again. If he attacks then we might be in desperate trouble," Kim'ta said.

Gre'ta was nodding her head, she wasn't really wanting to be defeated. As the Queen had said they hadn't lost an agent in a very long time, she didn't want to break that streak.

"I think that that's the best thing that we can do. As you said, they will flee, though with them growing in power, I'm not sure if they will much longer, Gre'ta said.

They both reduced their pace greatly, which had Dan and the rest of them confused.

"What in the hell are they doing?" Dan asked. "I thought they were trying to kill us."

All of his companions were confused also. "You don't think they are trying to lure us into a trap, do you?" Bell asked.

"They might," Tygan said. "I have heard that Dragon kind are master strategists. It might be prudent to remain cautious."

"I'm still not that ready to try and face a dragon, even with the power I have. I'd rather go in with an advantage," Dan said.

They had kept going, though they hoped that the forest area they were in would limit the encounters. They would have an easier time if they didn't have to fight.

Unfortunately, they met another party of goblins along with a few Orcs that were driving them forward. All of them started with fire, water, shadow blindness and air razor.

Dan had watched as his hands had started to glow, then suddenly a wall of flame came up. It was between them and their attackers and moved forward as Dan started to push it.

Dan winced as the screams started in high-pitched voices. A good many tried to run, but were caught by the wall.

Dan dropped the Flame shield as he surveyed the scene, then quickly switched to water. A great many of the trees were on fire as he started to hit them with water wave.

He had just finished when he saw: {you have now earned the spell Water Shield}

Then saw: party member Ella has gained incinerate.

Dan shook his head, he guessed they were all getting stronger. Then another came up: party member Bell has gained ice.

OK, he thought, they were going to be kick ass after a while.

Dan walked to the twins, congratulating them. "I see that the both of you have got new spells, ice works well. Of course, you saw my incinerate Ella, be careful, it uses a lot of energy."

Both of them were staring at him with their mouths hanging open as he walked on. They both checked their stats and saw the new spells and squealed.

It was starting to get dark, but Dan was still afraid. The two after them might attack while they were asleep. He didn't want to die in his sleep before he even got started on whatever the quest was.

Dan decided that one needed to keep watch. Apparently the two that were out for them were now stalking them. After discussing it with the others, he and Ella decided to watch.

It might give the two of them a chance to talk. They sat beside the small tent like sleeping areas they had.

"You know," Dan started. "I have always wondered why the two of you showed an interest in me. I mean, I am not really that interesting, nor 'til lately even good-looking, so why?"

"Well, first off, you are interesting. Your beliefs in magic and the occult drew us to you. Really, you are better looking than you gave yourself credit for. Had you dressed better and taken better care of yourself? We'd have been all over you, remember we're twins, we share almost anything," Ella said.

Dan blushed as he had been completely unaware of this. He then sighed, "that would have been frightening at best."

"Why is that? Look at you, your confidence makes you that much more attractive," Ella said.

"That's now not then, then I tried not to be noticed. I felt that I would embarrass you or her. You do realize I have never," here Dan stopped, rather embarrassed to continue.

Ella shook her head, hardly able to believe her ears. Their best friend was a virgin? Then she stopped nodding her head, it might explain a few things.

"Maybe," Ellas started a bit shyly, "maybe we could help each other?"

"How so?" Dan asked, looking at her with curiosity.

"Well," Ella said hesitantly. "Perhaps we could teach each other?"

Dan jerked at this, "teach each other? Why are you wanting to do this? You who have a ton of," here he stopped as she shook her head no.

"Not a ton of experience, just twice and the first time was extremely painful," Ella said in a whisper with her head down. "I try not to think of it."

Dan pulled her to him and held her tight. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that. If I could, I'd punish the ass for what he did." A look of anger on his face. "Even if you two tried to kill me, I still consider you my only true friends."

Ella sniffed as she snuggled into Dan further. "Thank you, Dan that means a lot to," Ella's snapped up. She then looked around. "Get the others. I feel something, a lot of somethings," as her hands started to glow.

Dan quickly roused the others as a lot of screaming and grunting drew closer. Dan was in front of them, his hands an intense red color.

Another large group of Orc-driven Goblins were rapidly baring down on them. Dan's first wave as a shield took most of the front.

"It looks like this group is far larger," he said as he released an incinerate wave. The others were up and using their magic aspects.

Dan sent an ice spear through the nearest Orc. The goblins in front of it turned in terror and fled.

"Kill the Orcs! They are driving the Goblins forward," Dan yelled as several water, dark and fire bolts took out most of the Orcs.

The Goblins, seeing this, turned in mass and started to flee. They actually stomped over an Orc still trying to use its whip.

Down to the last two, Dan's hands went blue, then the last two were encased in a globe of ice. With that, the last of the Goblins turned and escaped.

Dan breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the last high tail it out of there. Dan went to each of his companions to make sure they were alright, then slumped down exhausted.