Grand Adventures of the Witch King

First Spirit Guard

Moving in the forest while cloaked in stealth and shuttling about like a phantom from tree to tree was amazing. Ezekiel had to admit that with his experiences added to those of Ullo, he had become a being on another level.

Though it felt very bad and uncomfortable to be weak once again, that was just a matter of time.

The Bridging stage was a special level, like a seed in the ground no matter how mighty and tall it would become or how sweet the fruit that it would bear, it still has to pass this stage no matter what. And this current body was something never seen before in the tome, the ultimate perfect body with unlimited potential if used at its best, so he had to be careful to make sure he had to keep it that way until it was time to enter the next stage; the Witchfiend realm.

And that meant he had to protect his ass especially in a god-forsaken place like this, if not for Ullo’s memories and experiences he was sure that he would have been hard-pressed that he wouldn’t be as at ease as he is right now.

But that wouldn’t do as there were always unexpected situations like that plant that bit Ullo and later was the cause of his death. No, he needed extra arsenal as even some of Ullo’s abilities were sealed like his boost and forbidden technique.

This is where the loopholes he was talking about before would come into play! Back at the village, he was able to create charms and talismans to hide as well as activate a forbidden technique against the remnant powers in that claw, honestly that technique could have killed him if not cripple had not have had the backup plan of using just seconds before his rebirth was not there, that was his backup on that backup plan.

Now there were three Spirit abilities in this stage available to him, the Affinity that he used before after that was Communication and lastly Manipulation.

There were the mental ones such as telekinesis and observation. And the only physical one was the night vision.

All these abilities in the hands of an inexperienced practitioner in this place would just mean death, but in Ezekiel’s grasp, he knew how to make them work splendidly.

Most if not all witchcraft practitioners, even if they didn’t have his tome had some way of being able to communicate with spirits, be they dead or living.

And all the three spirit abilities have placed him above many who claimed to speak with spirits back then and let him dabble in the arts of dark magic and necromancy, and most of them began with the spirit manipulation, meaning he could mold a spirit into whatever he wants as long as there were materials around.

With that, he could turn them into talismans and charms.

And at this moment he had stopped above a tree and was looking at the main material for his first charm created using a spirit, it was a large boar-like beast that would put the wild boars back on earth look like pigs raised on a farm.

Thick legs that rippled with pure power with each step of its hooves, a large and tough back. It was dark grey thick and rough skin with a few patches of green algae-like substance. It had 4 large tusks each as thick as a 500ml plastic bottle but as long as about 40cm. Its hide was littered with scars that it wore proud as a testament to its ability and experiences of being able to survive in this forest.

This beast was a mid-level Fierce beast along with that crazy-looking deer, the only difference being that it had no armor but a very thick hide and a berserker mode that amplified its strength to an unknown level when it was enraged.

So the best thing to do was to one-shot it or else deal with blood raged pig that can topple an SUV like a cardboard box with a single charge.

Standing on the tree as the beast got closer Ezekiel had to use all his abilities to reduce his presence as he gripped the spear tightly and adjusted his position and hid his will to kill as to not alert it as he waited for the beast to enter his range from an angle.

As it snorted, ate, and sniffed about with his large snout in a leisure mood since it was daytime and there were very few predators that can threaten it, even then it was ever vigilant, a habit that it had ingrained within its being since it was young and had to always hide back then.

But now, it dared any creature that was stupid enough to attack it!

This was the last thought in its mind as saw a green blur suddenly fly towards its eye and after that, there was nothing but white-hot pain and then it went still as it fell to the side with a thud, not even a single thought on its demise.

Ezekiel’s heart was calm and steady as a lake at this when he leaped off the tree and landed lightly he with barely a sound, he reached for the spear shaft as the spearhead was logged deeply into the skull of the beast.

From what he knew about the beast he decided to one-shot it and so took a position that enabled him to pierce it directly into the brain from the eye, the spearhead was also covered with his green flames, cooking its tender brains from the inside.

Pulling out the spear, there was no blood on the head, not a single drop was even spilled as the fire cauterized the wound. The kill was clean and there was an important purpose for that.

For this next talisman, he had to make sure that there was no blood spilled no matter the wound or how he killed it, else it was going to be complications that would lead to failure of the finished product.

Crazy as well as strange? Yes, but such were the things that involved witchcraft.

Just as he was about to get ready to move this beast that stood as tall as the average cow from Earth and take it to his hideout and work from there, he suddenly got a warning from his sensory ability that he was being watched, this was not the same gaze he got when he met Gianna, this was a murderous gaze.

But he didn’t change in expression and only gripped the spear tightly as he turned towards the direction of this gaze, it was foolish to give your back to a beast in these parts or anywhere especially against a predator.

And so he saw a pair of slightly glowing green eyes staring at him in the undergrowth about 10m away from him, completely hiding its form from view. Had it not have been for his ability, he wouldn’t have even sensed it until it was close enough to probably pounce on him.

This made him furrow his brows slightly as he shifted slowly in an attacking position when he recognized the pair of eyes from the memories.

This was a Guen, back on earth it would be the equivalent of jaguar, however, if one noticed, these creatures seemed to be jacked up as well as possess a bunch of bizarre hybrids and fused forms that made one wonder if the creators of these creatures might just be very creative 10-year-olds.

This beast was known to be one of the rare few Fierce beasts that were very cunning and intelligent, indeed when it noticed that it had been spotted, it hesitated and it weights its options on whether the battle would be worth it or not.

And so it backed off having chosen to retreat instead, its eyes vanishing in the foliage leaving Ezekiel to see nothing but a dark shadow dart speedily deeper into the forest.

He didn’t move for a good 5 minutes as he pushed his sense to the limits as he remained vigilant and not be caught off guard at all. This beast was very powerful and very few survived its attacks due to its intelligence and strength.

Sensing that the coast was clear and that his green-eyed stalker had backed off, he decided that it was best to get to work right here and now.

For if he had a spirit guard he would have taken that beast on whether it wanted to or not, the feeling of always having to look behind his back was getting on his nerves, especially for a being that wondered wherever and did whatever he wanted back in his past life.

It was vexing and annoying to the extreme!

He then immediately cleared and calmed his thoughts as he quickly went towards the opened jaws of the boar beast, summoning his knife he began to pry out a tusk, it took him a good 5 minutes to remove it while making sure that there was no bleeding.

It was one of the smaller ones, as long as the index finger of a man but as thick as two fingers placed together. He lit the tip of his knife with his green flames.

He then started to draw symbols on the entire tusk, the symbols were strange and many looked like swirls giving them a slightly hypnotic effect if one gazed at them as they all glowed green for a moment before dying down. They looked thin and very precise as if they had been inscribed by a laser.

Each symbol was as big as a pinkie-sized nail if not smaller and it took around 3 minutes for him to stop inscribing them as he reached the satisfactory number that he could work on for this tusk. He felt a little disappointed at this progress but regressed that it was the first time in a long while and even then this charm is different from the ones he used to activate his Ancestral Form, for its role was to capture a spirit and those he had used previously where merely akin to batteries.

With that done, he inspected it for a moment to see if there was anything wrong. With a nod of satisfaction that it all was in order, he went near its head and plunged the tusk in the open wound where he dealt the killing blow.

Soon after that, he began his chants and his eyes turned completely emerald, so much so that not even the whites of his eyes were seen.

A frightening if not bizarre look that would raise hairs and the tusk in the empty eye socket of the beast began to glow a familiar green light on the symbols, the body of the boar began to tremble intensely as if it was about to get up and charge at him!

But that was to the regular eye, for it was a different matter in Ezekiel’s vision thanks to the change in his eyes as a result of his two abilities being activated at the same time; spirit communication and manipulation.

There within the skull of the beast was a pale blue ball the size of a tennis ball and it seemed like it wanted to escape from the body when the tusk was stabbed, thus making it shake so much. For it had felt the danger to its existence the moment that happened.

And for good reason too as the glowing symbols began to let out thin but numerous green tendrils towards this ball, which was the spirit of the beast.

The spirit was then cornered by the green tendrils and felt an instinctive fear that began to overwhelm it as they got closer no matter where it fled around the body, but could escape at there was if the entire body had been turned into a prison. The reason why Ezekiel had to make sure there was no blood spilled as the spirit would have used that to escape.

But this was the spirit of a beast that could charge at anything that threatened it, so it did just that perhaps with the hope this would be the only way to escape this danger like it always did for it had not even noticed that it was dead.  

But the tendrils were like piranha that had smelled fresh blood in of a wounded animal in a river the moment it got close and like that they immediately coiled around the spirit ball cocooning it and swiftly dragging it back into the tusk with a plop sound!

Ezekiel then closed his eyes for a second when he heard that, opening them up again they were back to normal and saw the tusk laying on the ground and let out a smile.

This symbolized success in the capture of the spirit and the creation of his first-ever Spirit Guard.

He went to retrieve it, feeling the strange warmth and resonance being emitted by it to his hand and his mind made him realize that things were looking up.

Just then he heard a sweet chirping sound of a bird, it was delicate, sweet, and pleasant to the ear.

‘Beautiful singing.’ He thought as he shifted his eyes towards it. Ezekiel beheld the owner of the voice and was a little baffled by what he saw.

It was a fat little bird that looked like a cotton ball that had the ugliest feathers glued to it, large black eyes looked about without care as small feet that could barely be seen landed on a branch on a tree not far from Ezekiel. It had two wings that look disproportionate due to its round and large body that had the size that of a soccer ball.

A smirked reached his lips as he whispered as if it could hear him while he looked at it calmly, “Friend, you have a lovely voice, but it seems like the gods envied it so much that they made you ugly. However, by my side, there is a chance for vengeance for what they have done to you.”

He then reached for a blow dart from his dimension pocket while he recalled the knife and aimed it at the bird. Marking the day of the birth of one of the many frightening bizarre abilities of Ezekiel in the form of a tune.