He Who Fights With Monsters 7

4

The journey was proving immensely valuable to Jason. The tiny bubble of his spirit realm was a projection of his soul being cast through the infinity of the deep astral. Only the world link it clung to saved him from drifting helplessly forever. His soul was immersed in magic at its most pure and powerful; even simple meditation accelerated his insights into the most fundamental aspects of cosmic power.

His most common meditative technique was the dance of the sword fairy that Rufus had taught him. Jason was trying to get a better grasp of entering the combat trance state, which he was still struggling to master fully. More than just a simple battle trance, he sought oneness with the cosmos that he was closer to now than he was likely to ever be again.

“You're not Luke Skywalker,” Farrah called out from her lounger.

“Shut up,” he said, continuing his sword dance uninterrupted.

“Anakin, maybe. Prequels, not Clone Wars.”

Jason stumbled.

“That’s just low,” he muttered as she laughed.

Farrah was less enamoured than Jason of the journey. For her, it was more waiting, which she'd done plenty of while Jason was in the two transformation zones. She became increasingly agitated as her home, family and friends grew closer, yet felt so far away. Days turned into weeks as they continued their passage through the astral.

Jason went back to his meditative dance as she was listening to music on a recording crystal, lounging in a deck chair made of clouds.

“This is not traditional meditative music,” Jason commented.

“If you don’t like Laura Branigan, that’s not my problem.”

Jason stopped his sword dance again.

“I’m the one who… you didn’t give her essences as well, did you?”

“I wouldn’t do that without telling you.”

“No? Do we need to discuss Pat Benatar?”

“Who told…? I mean, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I should have worked harder to get you back home,” Jason said, shaking his head. He tilted back to look helplessly at the rainbow sky. “I think you’ve gone native.”

His eyes narrowed, still looking up.

“Was that a tree?”

WHAT A MONSTER SURGE FEELS LIKE

Gary, Jory and Jason’s team—minus Jason himself—were on the open deck of a skyship headed for Vitesse, the city of flowers.

“Is everyone feeling that?” Humphrey asked as something pricked at his magical senses. The others nodded their agreement as they felt a tremulation in the ambient magic, as if the world itself was shivering. It started small but grew rapidly in strength, soon shaking the airship with turbulence.

“What is this?” Sophie asked. “Is this what a monster surge feels like?”

“No,” Clive said. “This is something else.”

The rainbow light over Jason’s spirit realm slowly faded to be replaced with a blank grey. As it did, escalating levels of plant debris were blasting past, as if a hurricane was blowing over his protected realm. Foliage, branches and even whole trees were flung past like a swarm of insects caught in a gale. Their number only increased as the grey light faded to darkness. By the time the light was entirely gone, there was a constant stream of debris passing overhead, only visible in the light coming from Jason’s shielded spirit realm. The violent display was eerily silent as the debris was ripped through the air by devastating winds.

“What’s going on?” Farrah asked.

“We’ve arrived,” Jason said. “In the middle of a storm, in the middle of the night. A cyclone, from the looks of it. There goes my plan to step out and take in a lungful of clean, fresh air.”

“We don’t breathe.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Belinda and Clive had already rushed below decks to see if they could help the engineers right the skyship as it moved from poorly controlled flight towards poorly controlled fall. Neil and Gary were ushering other passengers below decks while Sophie and Humphrey had jumped overboard, using flight, teleport and other movement powers to retrieve the few already bucked off by violent turbulence.

There were other adventurers amongst the passengers who likewise stepped in to stem the chaos. Eventually, the ship righted itself and Clive and Belinda came back up, accompanied by the chief engineer.

“…I didn’t even know you could do that with resonating cascade rods,” the frazzled engineer praised Belinda.

“Improvisation is a specialty of hers,” Clive said. “If you ever need to take her prisoner, I’d just have a guard hit her on the head every time she regains consciousness. And sometimes when she hasn’t to make sure.”

“Hey…” Belinda complained.

“I once saw her take down a trap barrier from the inside with a broken wand and a device for checking the freshness of fish,” Clive continued.

The team regrouped on the top deck, along with key members of the crew and some other adventurers who had helped out.

“Any idea what’s happening?” the captain asked the chief engineer.

“It’s not a problem with the ship,” the chief engineer said. “Ship sensors are reading massive disruptions in the ambient magic as far as they’ll reach. We’ve managed to cobble together an adaptation to compensate, but it won’t hold. We need to get on the ground slow before we hit it fast.”

“It’s the monster surge,” Clive said. “It’s starting.”

“I’ve lived through three monster surges,” the captain said. “Monster surges don’t do this.”

“This one does,” Clive said.

“We picked something up on the ship’s sensors,” the chief engineer said. “Something big and strange, somewhere off to starboard.”

They all looked but saw only clear skies.

“I think your sensors are wrong,” one of the adventurers said.

“No,” Clive said. “You don’t see it because it doesn’t exist yet.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” the adventurer asked. “You’re talking out of your…”

He trailed off as a rainbow light erupted in the sky, above and starboard of the ship. It was the rainbow light of a magic manifestation, but the size was almost incomprehensibly vast.

“I don't suppose there's any chance that's a really, really big awakening stone,” Neil said.

“It has to be a diamond-rank monster, right?” one of the adventurers said. “That’s too big even for gold rank.”

“I saw a diamond-rank manifestation, two monster surges back,” the captain said. “Even that wasn’t this big.”

“Captain,” the chief engineer said. “I take back what I said about getting onto the ground slowly. Let’s get out of here as fast as we can.”

The captain and engineer ran off towards their stations.

“This is what Dawn warned us about, isn’t it?” Belinda asked.

“I think so,” Clive said. “I don’t think being nearby is a good idea. We should go help the engineer keep this thing afloat while we get out of here.”

“Normal manifestations take a while, right?” Jory asked. “Especially the big ones?”

“Yes,” Clive said. “Hopefully, we’re well away before something comes out of that light.”