Read Vicious Magick for Free Online

enemies to
kill them. They were later refined by armies across the continent
to become the de facto non-magickal weapon of choice for the
discriminating soldier-about-town.

    They carry torches to light their way. The
walls are sheets of smooth, bluish rock, pocked here and there by
veins of shiny, violet stones.

    “Hey Nove, what are these shiny rocks? You
think they’re worth anything?”
    “I don’t know, they seem a little familiar,
but I don’t recognize them. You’d think if they were worth any
money they’d have been stripped when the tunnels were first
dug.”

    The tunnel suddenly widens into a very large
underground chamber. The walls are irregular, apparently the
natural features of a preexisting cavern.

    “Hey!” Zanther shouts, his greeting echoing
through what seems like miles of tunnels and caverns. A few seconds
later, they hear a reply.

    “Hey!” says an echo of Zanther’s voice as
Novanostrum gives himself a wizardly facepalm.

    “You realize,” Novanostrum says, “that if
there’s anything down here, it DEFINITELY knows we’re down here
with it?”

    “Good,” Zanther says, “it’d be nice to have
someone more interesting to talk to.”

    The air is thin, and Madra’s breath comes out
in puffs of steam. An aggressive goat charges her from behind a
rock, there’s an explosion as she squeezes the trigger of her
powderblast and fells the beast.

    “Nice shot,” D’Kassar says.

    “Thanks.”

    They plow forward and snow begins to fall,
limiting their visibility. Madra snaps her head toward a sharp
whooping sound as two yeti, seemingly identical twins, run out of a
cave and straight for them.

    “What the hell are those?” she asks.

    “Reload your weapon.”

    She does, and they both fire on the beasts,
to no effect.

    “It’s just pissing them off!” she shouts.

    “Forget it! Run!”

    They spend the next few minutes following the
tracks deeper, ever deeper into the mountain before they’re stopped
by a distant sound, the sound a thousand lizard-shaped footclaws
would make if they were running towards something. In the light of
their torches, they soon realize that the sound is, in fact, a
thousand lizard-shaped footclaws running towards something. The
footclaws are attached to feet, which are attached to lizard-shaped
people, which in turn are attached to rather large spears and
pickaxes.

    “I think,” Zander says, “that we’re going the
wrong way. If I recall, there was a fork in the tunnel a while
back. That other way seemed like the right way.”

    Novanostrum draws his staff and stands fast
against the oncoming horde. The lizard people stop in their tracks,
confused and awed by the sight of a pissed-off wizard.

    “You! Don’t take another step! I’ll blast you
right out the other end of this mountain!”

    “He’ll do it,” Zander says, “I saw him do it
just the other day.”

    One of the smaller lizard people daintily
puts his foot in front of him and takes a step. Novanostrum
responds by attempting to summon a huge fireball, but all that
happens is that the stones wedged into the walls glow a bright
green, which causes Novanostrum to have a revelation.

    “I remember now! We learned about these
stones at the Academy. They’re called Moonmight stones. They…absorb
magickal power…dammit.”

    “I think it’s time to go,” Zander says, to
nobody in particular. He can hear Novanostrum’s rapid footfalls
receding into the distance.

    Madra and D’Kassar run down the mountain with
the yeti in hot pursuit. They spot a cottage in the distance and
dash towards it. As they get closer, an old man walks out to meet
them.

    “Get inside grandpa,” Madra shouts, “they’re
coming!”

    “Hey!” he shouts at the yeti, stopping them
in their tracks, “They don’t want to play! Go home!”

    The twin yeti slink away, dejected.

    “Wow,” D’Kassar says, “that was some neat
trick.”

    The Pontiflex Minor
    The Pontiflex Minor is the