A Werewolf In Under-Town

Levy kept an eye on Delores as the Earth Mage walked around the edge of the vault. She was pretending to send her magic into the walls and floor of the building. She clearly expected Levy to be too busy transferring power to Wynn to notice. No power emanated from Delores. No hint of magic or psychic vibration. She was merely going through the motions and Levy, even with her eyes closed, could tell.

The academy in Queen Korrigan's dimension had been ruthless and expensive. But oh, so worth it. Levy had gotten a crash course in magic that most of the common NPC could only dream of. She let the power of her staff feed into Wynn as she used her own power to keep an eye on the traitorous Delores. Levy knew Ephemara should be in the room as well, but even with her magical senses, she couldn't see the invisible werewolf. She had turned it into a little game when she felt Wynn tense up under her hands.

Bringing her focus back to the Protection Witch, Levy checked the younger girl's work. The golden flow of Wynn's magic was wrapped around the vault door. Levy could see several inscriptions and runes written large across it. Clearly, Wynn was making decent headway. But something had tripped her up. Levy wanted to ask but feared distracting the poor girl. So instead, she added her own power to the flow of magic being sent. Combined with the mana stored in her staff, Wynn's power was practically tripled.

The short woman gasped in shock before Levy felt a burst of magic shoot from Wynn toward the door. Levy feared that the cocky young mage had just tried to brute force the door with a powerful blast of magic. But when the power was two inches away from the vault door, it spread out like a net and then formed into an intricate set of gears. Levy caught glimpses of the magic before it faded away and Wynn sighed dramatically.

Levy checked her reserves of power and noted that her staff was almost empty. She would have to focus on filling its reserves when they got back. Her own MP was rapidly rising now in the magic infused room. She cast a glance at Delores and saw the Earth Mage biting her lower lip in thought. Clearly she had planned for Levy to be more drained from helping Wynn. Levy assumed Delores would call off her plan now, but she was dropping her guard.

A loud screeching sound grabbed the three Mage's attention, and they all turned to regard the vault. It was opening by itself now, a golden glow shining off the large vault handle. A glance down showed Levy that Wynn was just as confused at what was going on. So she stepped in front of the younger girl and prepared herself. The magic in the room was vibrating with excitement and Levy felt herself grinning like a madwoman. Something was happening, and it was going to be good.

The vault door swung open slowly, its hinges creaking. Dust fell from the immovable door and the scent of stale air filled the room. Delores was nearly vibrating out of her robes as she glanced into the vault room. Levy was a bit more cagey as, beneath the torrent of magic, she felt something darker. When the door finished its slow opening, a light came on from within the vault, revealing its contents to all of them. A small, white pedestal sat in the middle of the vault and on top of it, placed with no real reverence, was a black, stone oil lamp.

As Levy eyes flashed over the lamp, she felt a surge of power crash into her. A psychic shock hit her mind and her passive defenses came up in response. A hollow voiced shouted in her mind, but her defenses blunted their force. But only on her.

Wynn and Delores both bolted for the vault at the same time. A manic look was in the Earth Mage's eyes. But Levy was busy dealing with Wynn as the short woman clawed her way around Levy and tried to push her aside. Whirling her staff around, Levy pulled on her magic and shoved the shorter Mage back with it. Wynn was flung out of the room and Levy used a touch of magic to shut the door. Behind her, Levy heard Delores cheer in triumph and turned around.

Delores was standing in the vault now, both hands clasped around the black lamp. She was in the middle of raising it up when blood exploded out of her mouth. Delores' eyes rolled up into her head, and she quickly crumpled to her knees. Levy felt another surge of power come from the lamp as it dropped from the Earth Mage's hands. Delores crumpled face first into the lamp. Levy grimaced as she saw some of Delores' blood get on the lamp. In Magical circles, blood could be a powerful conduit.

True to her expectations, another pulse of power surged from the lamp as Delores heaved her last breaths. A hollow scream echoed across the small room as smoke began billowing out of the stone lamp's nozzle. Levy slammed the butt of her staff into the tiled floor and summon a shield spell in front of her. A purple wall grew in front of her as Levy watched the smoke coalesce into a monstrous being. Its body looked to be made of solid smoke as it bulged with muscles while its lower body was still attached to the stone lamp. Atop its head were two large horns that scrapped the vault door. When it was fully formed, the creature leaned its head back and roared, revealing sharp white teeth. The roar echoed in the small room, and Levy felt like the entire building was shaking. When it was done, the creature stretched its massive arms out to Levy.

"Release me fully, child."

The being's voice was like silk, and Levy felt the compulsion in its words. She snapped her staff up into a fighting position and sneered.

"Not on your life, chief. How about you just spend the rest of your power and leave the Artifact?"

"HERETIC! RELEASE ME!"

Levy smirked as she felt the thing's power shake the room again. Each time the beast used its power, the weaker it would become. She was now in a waiting game. All she had to do was survive and the Artifact would be hers. The thing was putting out a lot of juice, though.

"The first of you to release me and kill the other shall be granted unlimited power!" said the beast.

Levy raised an eyebrow in confusion until she remembered Ephemara. The dark-haired woman phased into being near the vault door and turned toward Levy, a feral grin on her face. Ephemara's normally dark eyes were almost solid black now and dark veins were spread out around her eyes. Her teeth were practically sharpened points as Levy saw tendrils of power traveling from the beast in the lamp to Ephemara.

"Shit." Levy muttered before Ephemara burst forth like a demon.

The werewolf woman hit Levy's shield like a cannonball. A crack appeared in Levy's magical shield and she slid backward as she held her staff up to maintain it. Ephemara shifted sideways and blurred from sight, but Levy was ready. She extended her shield around her whole body and set her staff to keep looping power into it. While that held, she tried to remember what she learned about Mind Spells. Ephe slammed her fists into the barrier as Levy focused inward on her mental library. She pulled up all sorts of magical runes and inscriptions as she searched for something.

A creaking sound brought Levy out of her mind palace to see her bubble shield breaking again. Her staff was out of power and the shimmering purple shield was about done. With another curse, Levy dismissed her staff and leapt to the side. Ephemara's fists fell through the disappearing shield and missed Levy by inches, crashing into the tiled floor and cracking it.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Levy rolled to her knees and kept her hands in contact with the floor. As Ephemara shook herself and looked around, Levy sucked in some of the ambient mana before shoving it into the floor. It didn't take long to find what she was looking for and when her magical sense touched it, Levy used her own magic to pull it from the ground. Ephemara charged again, her fist raised to punch Levy's face in.

Levy jerked her hands up and summoned two large skeleton hands from the tiled floor. Bodies weren't hard to find in the ground surrounding Austin. The tricky part was grafting them together magically to create something that could hold the werewolf in place. The two hands clasped Ephemara by the leg and shoulder and tried to hold her in place. Ephemara roared incoherently as the beast cackled in the vault.

Levy ignored the thing as she went back to searching her memories. Mind magic was tricky because one misstep could fry the subject's brain. She didn't think Shaggy would be happy if she had to lobotomize his second in command. But that was only if what she was seeing was a compulsion like she suspected. For all she knew, Ephemara was seeing some kind of illusion. Sounds of bones creaking snapped Levy's attention back to Ephemara. The werewolf was bleeding from her arm and leg as she tried to pull free. The bony fingers would pull the skin apart only for Ephemara to heal it back up again. Levy winced and was about to continue her search when the mana in the room vibrated again.

She turned to see the beast raise its smokey arms and burn a sigil in the air. The magic of it hummed beautifully to Levy, which made her nervous. The Beast was magically gifted and seemed to have plenty to spare.

"Such a unique creature." The beast hummed. "I shall make her my Champion when she has killed you."

Levy snorted and flipped the beast the bird. But Ephemara's screams brought her back around to watch as the werewolf burst out of her clothes. For a moment, Levy feared that Ephe had wolfed out. But it was so much worse than that. Ephemara's small body grew two feet taller and her arms and legs extended into furry approximations of human limbs. Levy had seen Shaggy do it several times, but so far none of the rest of his pack had managed. None till now.

Ephemara flexed her new limbs and yanked them free of their bony prison. A shower of bones spread across the floor as Ephemara, in the half-human/half-wolf form, howled into the ceiling. Then she vanished and Levy, on instinct, threw herself to the floor. A burst of air above her head was the only signal that she had narrowly avoided death. Throwing herself away from the deadly werewolf, Levy popped up to her feet and tried a different spell.

She formed magical chains out of the surrounding mana and threw them at Ephe. The werewolf spun and dodged as the chains crisscrossed the room. Levy backed up to the door and continued to summon chains as the beast in the vault laughed. Finally, two of Levy's chains wrapped around Wolf-Ephe's feet and stalled her movement. Levy seized her chance and increased the chains weight and size as she buried her friend in purple chains.

Ephemara roared in pain and annoyance as she snapped her wolf-like jaws in Levy's direction. Levy could feel the Beast still pushing his power into Ephe, so she met that power with her own. Making her chains denser and wrapping them tighter around Ephemara. As she did, her mind traveled back to her inner library and started the search again. She was close, and she knew it.

The connection established between Ephemara and the Beast was a clue and, using that, Levy thought she had the right spell. It was closer to puppetry than it was an actual compulsion. Which meant that when she would form a momentary connection when she broke the spell. It was dangerous, but not as dangerous as staying in a closed room with a werewolf.

She brought up the runic symbols and magical formula she would have to charge with magic. As she did, she search for the somatic component of the spell, but it was highly circumstantial. It was one where the power of the words would affect the power of the spell. So she better make them super powerful and something that resonated with her.

Levy grinned as the pile of magical chains in front of her surged closer and closer. Ephemara was clearly injuring herself in order to get near her. Levy prepped the spell in her mind and chose the words as the Beast and Ephemara howled in anger. Ephe's head pulled free of the chain pile and Levy pounced forward.

Placing her hand on her friend's furry head, Levy shouted. "BY THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!"

As she shouted, she forced her magic into the prepared spell and down into Ephemara. The werewolf's head snapped back as her magic hit it, and Levy was sure the Beast in the vault yelled in consternation. She felt the oily tendrils of the Beast's magic trying to claw at her own, but she put every ounce of magic she had left into Ephemara. The magic surged down through the werewolf and to the Beast itself. As her purple mana hit his black, the two colors engaged in a brief war before Levy's won out.

The tether tying Ephemara to the Beast collapsed as Levy's chains disappeared. Levy fell to the floor in exhaustion, as did Ephemara's naked body. The two women wheezed heavily as they tried to pick themselves up. The door to the room slammed open and Rita, Wynn, and Will rushed in. Rita immediately went to her pack sister as Wynn and Will approached Levy. She tiredly waved them away as she looked up toward the vault.

The Beast was growing smaller now, its demonic face a twisted mask of hate. Levy flipped him off again before she felt his magic disappear. Wynn and Will gulped audibly as the spirit, or whatever it was, vanished into the ether. Rita gave Ephemara her jacket before asking.

"Where's the grumpy one?"

"Delores? She's dead. She touched the Artifact, and it used her blood to revive itself."

"That was almost me." Wynn said quietly, Levy almost missing it.

She let the words pass as Rita asked another question. "Is it still dangerous?"

Levy laughed. "Hahaha! Probably. But give me a minute. My magic is done-zo. How's Ephemara?"

"She's still breathing, but I can't feel her through our link. The others are freaking out. What happened?"

"She got used as a puppet for the Artifacts will. We weren't ready for mental manipulation."

"Will she be okay?"

"Ephe? Yeah, she'll be fine. I just had to push the bastard out of her head."

Rita nodded as she cradled Ephemara's limp form. She got a far-0ff look in her eyes and Levy assumed she was informing the pack about what happened. Wynn was still shell-shocked by the entire ordeal, but Will was gazing into the vault curiously.

"Is it safe now?"

"Probably not. I imagine vestiges of the thing's power are still lingering in the lamp."

Will perked up at that. "The artifact is a lamp? Did you fight a Djinn?!"

Levy shook her head. "No way. Djinn are powerful, sure, but this thing was something else. Most Djinn are just a bit stronger than elementals."

"Unless it was a named Djinn."

Levy conceded the point as she picked herself up and sighed. Her bones hurt, and she was almost out of mana. She was gaining it back quickly now, but she wanted to be full when she went for the Artifact. A gasp from behind her made Levy whirl around. The gasp had come from Rita and it was because Ephemara was now fully awake and staring at her arm. A furry appendage now replaced her normal pale hand. Ephemara shifted her hand back to normal before turning it into its werewolf form again.

Ephemara grinned wearily at Levy. "Oh, I'm going to love this."

Levy scoffed as she smirked at the pale woman. Shaggy was going to have his hands full now that his number two could access the third form. Soon, the rest of his pack were going to be racing to do the same. Levy needed to finish her tower quick. With its library and power source in place, she would have access to her magic much faster. Not to mention certain Fae benefits. Levy unconsciously licked her lips as she looked back to the black stone lamp in the vault. Once that thing was truly free of the Beast's influence, they could really start the party.