BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 6

A pulling sensation was all I felt before I sat bolt right up, Petra flew across the room only to start screaming before they nearly hit the wall. Petra managed to pull up towards the ceiling before zooming back towards me.

“What the hell Moon?! I was having such a good dream.” Petra complained.

I reached up and patted the glowing light, “Sorry Petra, I had a nightmare.” I closed my eyes, I knew that my body back on earth had died. I felt it as I was being transported back into this body, the connection had snapped not long after I closed my eyes.

I stood up and walked out of the cabin and down to the river, I splashed cold water onto my face and looked up to the sky, the stars above were my new stars. Getting up from the side of the river I went back to the cabin and put a bit of firewood on the coals, and soon I had a decent fire going.

There was something about fire that offered a deep warmth to my soul, though I found that odd considering I was an earth spirit, Petra was already back to snoring away in the bedroll so I decided to try out a spell that was at the top of my list. Summoning.

I wanted to see what kind of creatures would be my servants for what would be the rest of my life, or forever if I managed to become immortal. Sitting by the fire I thought about the spell, it seemed that in this world witchcraft wasn't as reliant on materials as it was a common concept on earth. Though that kind of made sense, on earth there had been no mana, so powering a spell required rituals and objects to create the energy and direct it.

I stopped, “where did that come from?” I questioned myself. I hadn't had any knowledge about witchcraft a few days ago. I looked down at the grimoire, maybe it has something to do with this abrupt information dump. 

I thought about what I would need for the summoning spell and all the information I needed came instantly to mind. “Sweet.” I said under my breath.

All I needed to do was draw a complex circle on the ground with certain runes at specific intervals in my blood, the circle and runes guided the spell while my blood acted as the bridge between me and whatever I summoned.

The summoning circle didn't have to be very large, what mattered was that the runes were correctly placed, I took my lion tooth knife and was barely able to cut open my finger. My blood wasn't the usual red I had been expecting, it was a dark black with silver specks, not to mention it was incredibly thick almost like honey.

I got onto my knees close enough to the fire to see by and started drawing on the floor. Drawing the circle was like remembering the back of my hand, or riding a bike, the further along I got the easier it felt. Once the circle and runes were drawn out I wrapped a small bandage around my finger to stop the bleeding, I placed my hands at the edges of the circle and slowly infused mana into it.

As the mana passed into the summoning circle the blood began to glow a bright silver, as the spell reached its final stages the light coming from the circle started to peak. I focused the remainder of my mana into my vocal chords as I uttered the incantation, “Through all the realms to yours may we be connected, by our spirit and flesh I summon thee.” The circle brightened like a small sun for just a moment, making me shield my eyes.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked away the light spots, I heard my summon before I saw them, a tiny tinkling sound like soft silver instruments greeted my ears. I looked at the summoning circle to see three small figures, they stood just under a foot tall, with elf-like features; they were both beautiful and strange at the same time. Their skin tones varied from white to black but what they had in common were silver patterns on their skin, their eyes were also completely black except for their pupils being silver slits almost like a snakes.

They were adorable and yet I had a feeling that meeting these tiny creatures on a dark night would be nightmare inducing. 

I examined the three tiny creatures and they looked up at me, they seemed curious about not only me but about their surroundings. I wondered what the strange creatures were, I felt a vibration from beside me, I looked down to see my grimoire with a message written on the pages.

{Congratulations on summoning silver sprites as your servants. You have summoned three silver sprite flecks, silver sprites grow as they absorb silver essence; the three stages of their growth are flecks, nuggets, and veins. Flecks are less than a foot tall, Nuggets are between one foot and three feet tall, while Veins have a height between three and four feet tall. Silver sprites are extremely fast, like most sprites they are mischievous so it is best to have an eye on them.}

I wasn't sure how useful my little sprites were going to be but I wouldn't count them out right away, from their description they would essentially become the size of large goblins so long as they had silver essence. Whatever that is.

{Silver essence is a minute energy that radiates from raw silver, depending on the purity of the product forged silver will have silver essence as well.} I watched the words form on the page and soon fade away. 

I felt the tiny eyes staring up at me still, I looked at the tiny creatures, a thought came to mind and I took out my money pouch and pulled out three silver cubes. I watched their tiny mouths make an “O” which made me chuckle.

I held out my hand to them and offered the silver, they looked between me and the silver before the one in the front gently lifted the silver from my palm and hugged it to their body. I saw the markings on their skin light up as they held the silver, the other two sprites walked forward next and claimed the offering.

They all laughed in their mysterious language, they chittered at me, which I understood as “Thank you master.” They performed a little bow before they did something highly unexpected. 

They bolted towards the table and with speed and athleticism that would make olympians call the gods unfair. They easily hopped onto the table, off the back of a chair, onto the mantelpiece before scaling the wall and making it up onto the large beam of wood that supported the cabin's roof. There was a rather large nook next to the chimney which they sat together while examining their silver.

I was amused by their antics and I studied them for a while. They started to play with their silver, before I knew it the silver became like putty in their hands, they each made themselves a dagger made of silver which they tucked into their little belts.

The sprites continued to play amongst themselves so I decided to get ready for my day. I unpacked everything from my large bag and prepared to go out hunting. I would hunt one or two beasts a day and deliver the corpses to town, apparently most of the hunters were either moving on or were retiring. Meaning that there was a shortage of leather and meat for a large portion of the citizens, but for me that was a good thing as the price for the goods was going up.

I slipped my boots on and as I was leaving the house Petra landed on my shoulder, “Before you start hunting you should work on manipulating the earth, you do not need conventional weapons, the entirety of the land around you is your spear and shield.” Petra said before letting out a big yawn.

Petra had a point, I had thought about buying weapons in town but when I looked at them I had a feeling of disdain. Maybe the reason why was like Petra said, I had a weapon already and subconsciously I looked down on the weapons in town.

I exited the cabin and marched towards the forest, about half an hour later I found myself in a small meadow next to a large boulder. “Any advice Petra?” 

“It is similar to how you rose from the earth, except this time you will focus on creating a weapon, is there anything in particular you were thinking of? Also this time watch how much mana you use, don't need that boulder exploding.”  Petra backed up a little bit when mentioning my first time using mana.

I coughed into my hand and prepared myself, though to be honest the majority of my mana had been consumed when summoning the sprites this morning. I thought about the weapon I wanted, I played plenty of games back on earth and though I had liked cold weapons I didn't think I would be a master of any of them overnight. Which meant I would want to use weapons that took advantage of my enhanced strength.

My first thought was of using a mace or even a morning star, but there was a weapon even better for taking advantage of my strength, a massive war club. I took my inspiration from earth's weapons and focused on the boulder.

I held the image in my mind of the war club and my mana flared to life, the boulder shifted and cracked, but that was all. I let go of the image in my mind and let the mana go, Petra was right this was going to take a lot of work.

Maybe I was trying to do too much all at once. Start small, work my way up. I looked at a smaller boulder and imagined it breaking into three sharp stone spikes. I used a burst of mana and the much smaller boulder shattered, only a single spike was there but one out three was still a small victory. 

Looking up I saw a large tree ahead of me, I imagined my earth spike shooting towards the tree, another small burst of mana was all it took and the spike flew across the meadow. A crunch came from the tree letting me know that I had hit my target.

“Nice shot. Though you will want to have a weapon eventually, keep practicing. Control over your element is paramount to your survival.” Petra had surprisingly gotten a serious tone. I nodded my head and got back to practicing.

I spent two more hours on practice until I felt nearly drained of mana, I sat down in the meadow and began meditating, an hour later Petra interrupted my meditation. “You shouldn't do that out in the open, it's fine because I'm with you to warn you but in the future you should be more cautious. It is easy to get lost in the flow of the mana, leaving you vulnerable to attack.” Once more Petra was using the more serious tone.

Petra was right, once again, I was glad for the advice. “What would I do without you Petra?”

“Die tragically like an ignorant baby.” the little light said before landing on my head. I laughed and got up from the ground. It was time to make some money.

I stalked my way through the forest, it didn't take too long to find a large deer, I formed two earth spikes and sent them hurling towards my target. One spike caught the deer in the neck and the other missed piercing into a tree. I walked to the deer, it was dying, but it was still in pain.

I thanked the deer in my heart and swiftly ended its suffering. I hauled the deer up onto my shoulders and started off towards town.

This was my routine over the next few days, and I loved it. I would wake up early in the morning and summon a few more sprites. The sprites would celebrate new comrades and the new ones would be elated by the silver cubes I gave them. Then it was practice and meditation in the meadow, followed by a hunt which led me throughout the surrounding forest. The cabin I had been staying in was starting to get crowded with nine sprites. I had been searching for a cave and today seemed to be my lucky day.

Further up the river I found a cave, I was several miles up river, but that was fine with me. As it turned out I liked being deep in the woods, when I was in town I always felt like an outsider, but out here I felt at home.

I put down my bags and headed into the cave, the musky smell hit me like a ton of bricks, just before a massive paw hit me in the side. I was lifted off the ground and hit the cave wall. “Pay more attention to your surroundings, if you weren't built for taking damage you would be dead or dinner.” Petra scolded me.

Petra lit up the cave, two massive bears eyed me from a few meters away, I didn't hesitate to make several stone spikes and launch them at the bears. The bears charged me and tanked my spikes, the spikes did minimal damage and the bears kept coming. 

I could maybe take one on at a time but two of these bears would tear into me, I pushed my mana hard and an extra large spike thrust out of the ground and stabbed into the side of the bear in the back. The bear was pinned into a stone spear and roared in pain, the bear in the lead kept charging, I stepped forward and kicked up hitting the bear on the chin.

The bear lifted a few inches off the ground before catching itself and standing on its back legs and shaking its head, my foot hurt from hitting just the jawbone of the hulking bear. 

Mana poured from my hand into the ground, I needed a weapon otherwise I would have a much harder time taking down these bears, the earth responded to my mana and my club I had been practicing on grew from the ground.

I grabbed the stone handle and charged forward, the bear had recovered and swiped a massive paw down at me, I lifted my club and took the blow. 

A loud crack came from my club, my knees nearly buckled under the weight of the bear's paw, I shoved hard, destabilizing the bear. I swung my club right into the bear's leg, more cracking sound came but this time it wasn't just my club but the bear's hind leg. Another swipe from the bear raked across my exposed arm, the claws dug into me, I hadn't felt pain since I had gotten this new body until now. 

I screamed and swung my club hard, hitting the bear's other hind leg, the bear fell onto its butt roaring in pain. I lifted my club and brought it down onto the head that was now it reach, my club broke in half and the bear toppled over. 

I stood over the beast's corpse panting heavily, my left arm stung, looking down I saw the claw marks had opened up three large gashes on my bicep. My black blood slowly leaked out from the wound, the pinned bear roared and struggled against the spear, I could tell it would give any moment.

I pushed my mana hard, a stone spear stabbed up beneath the bear's head and up into its jaw, the beast still lived however. I ran forward and brought my broken club onto the beast's head, forcing it down onto the spear and killing the beast.

I reached behind my back and grabbed my water skin and took a long drink. Petra floated down from the ceiling, “That was pretty good, though your weapon shattered pretty easily, just keep practicing and eventually you will get there. Now BrightMoon this is where we part ways, there are other people who need a guide, good luck and don't die.” Petra said before turning into a little meteor and took off out of the cave before I could say anything.

Petra had been a great friend and guide, though they hadn't taught me much about hunting or any great secrets of the world, they made sure I was aware of the dangers out there and that I could survive on my own.

“I will miss you Petra.” I said aloud, hoping that they would hear me. I looked around the cave, it was incredibly rough, it was going to take a lot of work but I could already see how my home was going to look.