Strength Based Wizard (Book 1 COMPLETE)

Echoes of a Dead World, Part IV

(In the Shadow of the Serpentine Lord - 2)

KRSSSSHHH!

A mountain of white erupts from the muck, shaking the air like a thunderclap. For a moment, I think a large, fleshy wall just exploded from the water, separating the space between me and Preston.

I quickly realize what I'm looking at is the roof of a mouth.

I then realize that I'm inside that mouth!

And there's a mouth inside that mouth. And another one after that.

I don't even get a second to react. There's just a flash of pale white scales, a rush of cold air, and—Chomp!

Everything goes dark.

Did something just swallow me? My brain does that thing where it throws a thousand thoughts at once and somehow none of them are useful. That's when the panic sets in.

OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!

The second set of jaws clamp shut around me like a collapsing car crusher. Teeth dig through my skin, slicing deep into my muscle. Pain flares across my chest and back as my Health bar slams into view in the corner of my HUD. It's plummeting faster than my credit score after college. Not good… Definitely not good!

"JOE!" Liv screams somewhere outside, but her voice sounds muffled and distant.

Something vibrates against my side. I glance down, noticing a faint, blue glow. Jelly Boy!

The slime's in my arms, squealing and pulsating in panic.

"Oh no you don't!" I yell—or try to yell, but it comes out as a half-choked gurgle in the gator's mouth. The inner-jaw of the beast chomps down again, but I throw my body around Jelly Boy, curling over him, trying to shield him from the rows of jagged ivory.

The teeth bite into me. It hurts. Like being chewed by a train made of knives. The teeth are each a long as my hand, and if it wasn't for the System I'd have already been chewed to ribbons of gore. Instead, I'm bloodied, mangled, but still alive. My Health bar is just about empty, which means my regeneration has been stymied to a snail's pace.

Ding!

A glowing message pops up in the middle of my vision.

"Really?... A message? Now?!" I growl.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

You have lost your Concentration on the [Levitate] Spell. Active Spell has been terminated.

The jaws shift again. A tooth digs into my rib.

Nope… Not today. I'm not dying today!

I growl, baring my teeth. I shift Jelly Boy, who's still in the nook of my left arm and flex my right arm as hard as I can, curling until my bicep pops like an overinflated dodgeball. Inside this thing's mouth it's difficult to strike any pose, but I manage half the pose for the only Spell I can think of casting.

[Wizard's Fist]!

"Let's go, Righty."

Whoosh! A spray of cold mist brushes my cheek as a glowing, translucent hand the size of my head appears, pulsing with ghostly veins of power. The magical construct hums like a power tool left running too long. It's hovering inside the monster's mouth with me, pressed up against the roof of its maw, hand pressed against the fleshy surface as though it's cramped for space. I can't blame it.

"Clear us a way outta here," I growl through clenched teeth.

Righty doesn't need a second invitation. It pulls back, then blasts upward like a pissed-off piston, punching the fleshy ceiling with a meaty splorch after meaty splorch. The beast's blood sprays downward in a hot, sticky rain.

I trigger the secondary effect of my cloak—Cape of the Arcane Student—and mentally activate my free cantrip, not requiring the requisite focus pose.

[Wizard's Fist].

"Lefty, you're up."

A second glowing hand appears, this one a mirror twin to Righty. Together, the two spectral bruisers start laying into the ceiling of the monster's mouth with reckless abandon.

Both my Health Bar and Stamina Bar pulse as they continue to drop. The teeth of the inner maw crunch down onto me again, and I feel some part of me break and give way to the attack.

I crank on [No Pain, No Gain], the dumbest, most reckless ability I have. It burns through most of my remaining Health and Stamina like a frat boy tearing through Fireball at a wedding, but it turbocharges the Wizard's Fists, pumping Lefty and Righty with even more strength. The spectral fists expand and their punches turn into a rapid onslaught of carnage.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Suddenly, they're just blurs. A one-two jackhammer combo of kinetic spite and arcane knuckles. The roof of the mouth tears as flesh rends. I see sinew, muscle, bone, more muscle, and finally: Light!

"Here we go!" I yell, and Jelly Boy buzzes in relief from where he's squished against my chest.

I cast one last Spell, targeting myself.

[Levitate].

My body shoots upward, lifted on the invisible wave of the Spell. Upwards, and straight through the hole Lefty and Righty just punched through the roof of the monster's mouth. My shoulders rub against exposed muscle and gore as we burst into the open air.

Floating above the creature, blood dripping from my wounds, Slime jiggling in my arms, cape flapping dramatically behind me, I finally get a look at the beast in full. Jelly Boy emits a loud, whirring sound at the sight of the creature.

It's an alligator. A gigantic, albino alligator. The monster must be the size of a city bus, scales gleaming like bone, eyes glowing milky gold. A halo of ghostly insects swarms around its head like it's some kind of unholy crown.

As I examine the monster, I'm greeted by a System message over the Joe-sized hole in the gator's upper jaw.

Monster Identified: Alabaster Claude, Harbinger of the Undead Waters

Level 30

Classification: Enchanted Reptilian (Large, Uncommon)

The giant gator's albino scales shimmer in the gray swamp light. Its tail alone could probably knock over sedans. On its back is a swarm of skeletons—tiny, sword-wielding undead gremlins stabbing and hacking away.

Walter stands a short distance away, black suit flapping in the breeze, a glowing green scroll open in his skeletal hands. Floating symbols hover over the surface of the scroll, pulsing with dark magic and unreadable bureaucracy. A swirling green portal stands behind the skeleton accountant. Two more of the sword-wielding mini-skeletons emerge from the portal. As they do, a spectral punch clock forms just outside the opening to the portal. Cards appear in each skeleton's hands and they clock in, punching their cards into the clock before joining the fray.

Grush, the Frankensteinian hell-soldier, is laying down suppressive fire from what looks like a bolt-action rifle.

Meanwhile, Preston is standing between the monster and Liv, glowing with soft green light. I notice a shimmering light in the air around himself and Liv. Liv stands behind the goldfish, soaking wet and absolutely terrified.

"Fucking hell," I breathe.

Lefty and Righty emerge from the hole in the monster's top jaw, hovering to my side. Just as they're out, I watch as the hole in the gator's flesh begins to patch itself back together. Great, apparently the thing has regeneration too. The fists both twitch, waiting for orders. Eager for more violence.

"All right," I say. "Time to show this overgrown handbag what happens when you chomp the wrong wizard."

That's when I realize something feels… wrong. Like deeply, existentially wrong.

I glance down—just a casual, "Wait a second, where's my staff?" kind of glance—and freeze.

My brain blanks out. My stomach flips.

Because my right hand is gone. Gone gone. Missing. Hacked off. Torn away. Not fucking there!

A jagged piece of bone sticks out from the end of my forearm, white against red. Blood sprays in little rhythmic bursts with each heartbeat, painting the swamp water below in messy red circles.

For a split second, I don't feel it. There's just this weird, buzzing numbness. Then the pain comes crashing in. A hot, throbbing, electric shockwave of pain that blasts up my arm and through my chest.

"Oh shit—Well, that's not good!"

Jelly Boy glances at my arm and the surface of his ooze body ripples in alarm. Which definitely doesn't make me feel any better.

The edges of my vision go dark. The air feels too thick. I taste copper. My ears are ringing. My knees want to give out, except I'm still floating in the air and there's nowhere to fall to except straight on top of a gigantic gator.

I'm going to pass out. I'm definitely going to pass out. Is that gator's name Claude?

Then something squirms against my chest.

Jelly Boy.

He's been clutched tight against me this whole time, trembling, gooey, terrified. But now his eyes—those weird little black orbs suspended in his translucent body—narrow with purpose.

"Wait—wait, buddy—don't—" I manage.

Too late.

The little slime wriggles free from my arm and launches himself skyward in a shimmering arc, glowing from the inside like someone turned on a nightlight made of vengeance.

[Ally: Jelly Boy] has activated [Residual Casting].

Jelly Boy casts [Gravity Grenade]!

"What the hell is a—"

I'm cut off when four orbs of swirling purple energy rip free from Jelly Boy's gelatinous body, spinning in lazy circles for a heartbeat before dropping toward the ground.

They hit the gator like miniature black holes.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The swamp erupts.

Force ripples outward, warping the air and flattening reeds for a hundred feet in every direction. The water churns, swirling into a vortex around the beast as gravity itself seems to have a nervous breakdown.

The massive white alligator lets out a guttural roar that shakes my skull, then starts folding in on itself. Its body crumples, spine twisting as the purple implosions drag it down.

It rolls over, tail thrashing like a dying god, crushing several of the miniature skeletons that had been crashing over it a second ago, some of which were pulverized into bone dust by friendly fire from Jelly Boy's magical bombs.

"Go!" I shout.

I mentally command Lefty and Righty to catch Jelly Boy. The fists swoop down like two roided out hawks and snatch the blue Slime. They glide over the spinning gator as I'm greeted with another notification.

[Ally: Jelly Boy] has activated [Residual Casting].

Jelly Boy casts [Lesser Storm Dragon Breath]!

Small webs of lightning crackle from Jelly Boy's body, spraying across the alligator. The gigantic gator stops its death roll mid twist, getting pinned on its back in the shallower part of the muck.

That's all the invitation Walter's skeleton horde needs.

They swarm.

Dozens of bony figures leap onto the creature's pale underside, stabbing, hacking, carving. Tiny blades pierce the soft flesh again and again.

Grush unloads another rifle volley.

Walter mutters a prayer—or maybe a spell—while his glowing scroll spits sparks. A System-generated message pops into view over the skeleton's head. It reads: [Status: Tax Exemption].

And then… it's over.

The gator spasms one final time, then goes still. Its single open eye dulls from gold to gray. The swamp falls quiet again as the halo of glowing insects flutter into the air before dissolving into golden mist.

I'm still floating above the carnage, panting, covered in blood, dizzy as hell.

My right arm throbs. My head swims. My HUD keeps flickering warnings about critical condition.

As Lefty and Righty time-out, Jelly Boy lands on top of the gator corpse, wobbling proudly.

"Yeah," I manage weakly, grinning despite the pain. I mentally focus on my active [Levitate] Spell to slowly lower myself to the shallow waters below. "You're goddamn right, buddy!"

Then the world tilts sideways.

My Health bar flashes red.

And I start to freefall.