Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 01:28:55 -0400
From: Matthew Amos <stu363@nb.sympatico.ca>
Subject: Black Adept 3

The characters and plot in this story are copyrighted by the author.

All the characters in this story are purely products of my imagination
and are not based on real people. Any resemblance is purely coincidental
and is not intended.

If you are looking for just sex this is not the story for you. Most of
the romance will take place in later chapters if I continue the story

This is my first attempt at a story and I hope that you like if you have
any positive feedback I would love to here it. You can email me at
BlackAdept@Hotmail.com

I am going to try to get one chapter a week out but I am a university
student so sometimes I might not have time

I would like to give special thanks to Bobby who will be editing my work
for me.

The Black Adept

Chapter 2: The Battle

By Matt

Demons are creatures of another plane who feed off life energy and use it
to evolve. There are twenty-one stages of a demon's evolution but few
ever make it to the top seven stages the demonlord stages. Only one has
ever made it to the top stage the Demon Lord as it is often referred to.
When a demon is "born" it is no bigger than large dog and is a part of a
brood of thousands. To evolve to the next stage it must devour it peers
into it has gathered enough energy to evolve to the next stage. After
this stage they can no longer grow on the energy of other demons so this
means they have to find another source. That is where demon mages come
in. They sell their soul to the demon for the power to draw on the demons
energy when needed but they also seek out and gather life energy to feed
it.

Hence the hunt. Many demon mages have made this into a sport instead of
just grabbing someone and stealing their energy they hunt them. They
search out people with untapped magical potential are their primary
targets. In rare cases, a demon may enter our plane to feed directly but
not often, since it puts themselves at risk. Not that they feared being
defeated, it was that they were incompatible with this plane - meaning it
took a lot of energy just to stay in it. They could only return to their
plane at the point they entered ours so, if they couldn't get back
before their energy ran out, they were dead.

The hunt is what I am going to use to my advantage against this mage. I
chose a stretch of land a little way out of the city and set wards all
around it to alert me if anyone enters the area. Then chose a spot and
drew a circle with my staff about a meter and a half in diameter. On the
outside circumference of the circle I used the Marks to put a shield
spell designed not to allow any energy out of the circle. On the inside,
the Marks were for a spell that would release raw energy into the circle
where the shield would not allow it to be released.

After the placing so much of my power into the Marks my energy was
depleted so I had to return to the portal to the Academy to recharge my
batteries. The next day I returned to the same spot drew another circle a
little ways away from the first of about half a meter in diameter. On the
inside, I put a strong shield to protect whoever was in the circle and,
on the outside, I put attack spells that I could release at will. All the
Marks were currently inactive but I could activate at anytime. Finally I
stuck my staff into the ground in the center of that circle and cast a
spell to keep it from being seen. If I was right I'd need it in the
battle to come but wouldn't be able to carry with me while I set the
trap. Again, I went back through the portal to renew my energies knowing
the battle would happen soon.

The Marks are simply casting a spell onto a object, nothing all that
revolutionary in magic. Regular mages have been doing it all through
history but Void mages never could. When a Void mage cast a spell they
write symbols in the air that represent what they are trying to cast
while speaking its meaning. To cast a fireball you would write and speak
the symbols meaning energy self, transmute, fire, and movement in order.
Not a very sophisticated language. To turn that fireball into an
exploding one you would add the symbols for air and chaos between fire
and movement and presto. The Marks are just like casting a spell except
instead of writing in air you do it on an object. The best example I can
use is my staff it is made out of plain wood but I have carved spells
across its entire length making it look pretty impressive. Once a spell
is put on an object it can do one of two things. First, it can release
that spell at will once, what I did in the two circles. The second takes
more time and effort to create but is more useful. It can serve as a
focus for the spell making it quicker and using less energy than it
normally would, my staff. The other unintended use for the Marks is
bypassing the natural barrier we all have against magic. If you are not a
willing recipient of any alteration type magic it cannot affect you. This
means you can't turn someone into a toad unless they want to be a toad.
It also makes any type of healing magic hard to do, impossible if the
patient is unconscious and can't submit themselves to it. By placing a
Mark on the skin, on their skin, you can bypass this defense.

I knew that if this mage was as strong as I thought she would have at
least twice as much energy as me to draw on. So my plan was to force her
to waste as much energy as possible to equal things out. My plan was to
act the part of a farm laborer traveling to and from the city everyday. I
used my magic to give the appearance of a moderate amount of untapped
potential since you can't detect a Void mage's potential. I got a job
at a wealthy farm not to far from Hiron. The path between it and the city
kept me close to my prepared battle ground. Three weeks had gone by and I
was starting to fear that she wasn't going to fall for my trap. There
had been five more attacks but there was nothing I could do without
putting myself at a extreme disadvantage.

I was enjoying doing a little bit of honest work for a change after I got
used to the early mornings and hard labor. Some of the other laborers
were pretty cute but most weren't the brightest so my interest was only
as eye candy. Unfortunately the farmers daughter took an interest in me
which made me a little uncomfortable. Everyday she would try to corner me
to talk and flirt and it was getting harder to avoid. Her name was Lolin
and she was nice enough to talk to and beautiful if you were straight.
She also had a weak potential, nothing worth mentioning but there. It had
been a particularly tiring day and was looking forward to returning to my
room at Filtsa's house, a clothing merchant. Then I heard Lolin call out
to me.

"Korin!" That the name I was using here. I turned to see her running to
catch up. "I have to go into the city so I figured I could walk with you
if its ok."

"Sure." I said. We talked a little bit, she was pleasant company and I
though we might be able to be friends. That when she hit me with
statement that made me stare at her open mouthed.

"Are you gay?" It took me a few seconds to recompose myself. She didn't
look angry or upset so I just nodded shyly. She said, "That's ok I was
just wondering. Are you seeing anybody or single?"

"Single at the moment. How about you? Anybody you're interested in?"

She just smiled and said, "While you're out of the question now, not
really. Anybody in the past?"

I nearly broke down crying as the fading memories rushed to the surface.
She saw this and got concerned, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you
sad, are you ok?"

Next thing I knew I was telling her everything I could without mentioning
the Academy. I was so caught up in it that I didn't even notice that
someone was trampling past my wards until it was almost too late.

"My what a cute couple we have here and both with potential it must be my
lucky day."

Both Lolin and my heads shot toward the speaker. She had an atrocious
accent that I almost didn't understand. If I didn't know better I would
have taken her for a kindly grandmother but I could sense the demon's
hunger in her. I also sensed she was more powerful than I thought, bonded
to one of the fourth strongest evolution of demon. I was scared, not just
for Lolin but for myself too. I had no apprentice if I fell so no one to
guard the Academy. I had to succeed. Even Lolin noticed the hunger in her
voice and was scared.

Then the deceptively sweet voice spoke again, "Run I will give you 30
seconds and then the hunt begins." Lolin made to head back towards her
family's farm but I know that if the mage went after her she wouldn't
make it, so I grabbed her arm and took off at a run dragging her behind
me. It took a little bit of work to get the mage following us towards my
trap at the right angle.

The area I had chosen used to be a wide path but a large tree had fallen
down the center of it so it was now unused. That added to the thick
bushes around it created the impression of a dead end. The perfect place
to make a demon mage think they had caught their prey. It also made it
virtually impossible to avoid walking through my trap. When we reached
the smaller circle I told Lolin that everything would ok and not to move
under any circumstance. My protective circle wasn't made for two people
stand in. That's where the mage caught us, Lolin clinging to me for
protection and me looking like a cornered rat with my hand around my
still invisible staff.

"This game wasn't that interesting. Most of my other prey lasted longer
than this. A pity really I was in the mood for a little sport."

She was walking towards us at a leisurely walk her hands crackling with
energy to frighten us more. It was working well with Lolin but she still
stayed within the circle holding me for protection. I pretended to be
completely terrified which wasn't too hard sensing how powerful she was.
I feared she would glance down and see the Marks and circle on the
ground. They weren't obvious but if you looked you could see them. She
had just entered into the circle and I prepared to activate the Marks. As
soon as she reached the approximate center of the circle I activated the
first to protect from her shield and any energy inside. Just as shock
appeared on her face I activated the Marks that would hit with an immense
amount of raw energy. Raw energy is hard to control so it is useless to
try an use it in a battle but it is also extremely draining on whatever
it comes in contact with. I was sort of hoping that the shock of this and
the energy would break her shield and finish the battle but didn't
expect it. The clash of her shields and the raw energy striking her was a
force that every mage in hundreds of miles could probably feel. Meaning
that the Academy knows and hopefully it shakes things up a bit. They are
starting to become a little too confident.

While she was trying to dissipate the energy striking her I prepared my
next round of attacks. As I mentioned earlier the sound of a Void mage
chanting is disconcerting at least but usually terrifying. The only
things keeping Lolin from running were from both the mage and the blast
of energy around her, and my chanting was probably shock. As she
succeeded in dispersing the energy I struck again with Void spell for
weakening shields. It links a shield to the Void which would drain of its
energy. She broke the link quickly but had to use more power than was
probably necessary. That gave me the impression that she had never really
had a challenge if she could throw away power on something that could be
done with less. She launched a powerful attack at me not realizing that
there was also a shield around her. It practically blew up in her face
and hit her own shields. That caused her eyebrows to arch a bit realizing
that she had fallen into a trap. She didn't seem worried in the least
which I was hoping was from overconfidence.

She looked at me with a smirk and eyed me appraisingly then said,
"You're pretty good for a Void mage but you're in over your head." I
could here the words `Void mage' echoed behind me.

"You demon mages always think you are invincible right up until I destroy
you. You are no different." I said trying to appear as confident as
possible. Again I heard an echo behind this time of `demon mage'. I
think she was beginning to see what was going on. It must look like a war
between black magic to her.

"So it was you who had been killing our mages it makes more sense then
those fools at the Academy doing it defeating one. We were actually
beginning to think that the Academy was too strong for us but this brings
it into a new light. Maybe we should just attack them now and get it over
with. That doesn't answer the question of why a Void mage would be
protecting them when they would gladly kill you."

"Not quite true I am an Academy trained Void mage. They recognize that we
have our usefulness if not openly." It was almost true just enough to
make her think the Academy had some hidden teeth if I failed and she
reported back. It did seem to make her consider the situation a little.

"Then lets see how your `Academy training' stands against a true demon
mage bonded to fourth highest level of demon possible."

With that she released a huge blast of energy that shattered the shield I
had around her. I almost gaped at the amount of energy she could draw on
so easily. I feared what the higher levels must be like since every level
is roughly twice as strong as the one before it. As long as she kept
wasting power I stood a chance but with that much power, if she started
playing it safe, I was done for. She sent a blast of sheer power at my
shield, probably just to prove that I wasn't the only one who could
throw around raw power. Lolin screamed into my ear as the energy collided
with the shield around us. My shield held easily. It was a negative
energy shield linked to the Void. Negative energy cannot be absorbed by
the Void and the link means that much of the energy of the attack
doesn't even affect the shield but is bled off into the Void. Raw energy
is more easily absorbed by the Void than more refined magic. I made a
show of having my shield look weaker which encouraged her to keep pelting
me with energy. It took her about a minute to realize that I was baiting
her to waste energy and she stopped. I returned my shield back to normal
only slightly weaken by the immense attack.

She looked pissed that twice she was baited in a trap, first the circle
and now against my shield. I think she was finally started to look upon
me as a threat not just a weak mageling. That was the moment I chose to
strike hard. I had long ago discovered a trick to crack a shield open.
Most skilled mages had several layers of shielding. Some to protect
against specific things like physical, energy, draining spell, elemental,
etc., all on top of the standard regular shield. All layers of a shield
were linked together and to the one who cast them. The elemental shield
can be cracked easily if you know how, which then weakens the other
shields. Some of the energy of the shield is also thrown back into the
one who cast it, which does little damage but jolts them a little. Some
of the spells I had placed in Marks around my shield were elemental
based. I waited until she started what looked like a complicated spell
then attacked. I did what is usually a no-no in Void magic and cast
several spells simultaneously. The fear is that spells could
unintentionally combine and blow up in your face. This, on top of
activating my prepared elemental spells, I hit her elemental shield with
at the same time with all the elements in force. Her elemental shield
broke, weakening her other shield somewhat and interrupting her spell as
the energy of her shield rebounded into her. The energy of her spell,
without a clear target, flew out from her and into the inside of her
shield again weakening it.

That when I saw my opening and prayed it wasn't a trap as I struck. A
part of her shield was wavering from the attack and she had yet to notice
and reinforce it. She still had plenty of power so I gathered all my
power close to me. Everything I had in me was at my finger tips. I was
now visibly pulsing with power. More power than a Void mage should ever
be able to bear. More power than the Black Adept with the combined power
of several Void mages should be able to wield. I had discovered another
interesting trick that I could do with the Marks. For the first time I
saw doubt and fear enter her eyes knowing I was far stronger than she
believed possible. I created a storm above me and began to repeatedly
strike the weak points in her shield with lightning from the storm. If
you plan to throw one or two lightning bolts just do it, but if you plan
to throw a lot, it is more energy efficient to create a storm and just
guide the natural lightning that forms. My chanting was reaching a high
crescendo as I controlled the storm and lightning as well as beginning to
assault her with a full set offensive magics. She finally realized that
her shield was falling apart but couldn't do anything about it now but
watch in horror as it shattered. She closed her eyes probably waiting for
the next lightning bolt to hit her but it didn't.

I approached her now, leaving my defensive circle but strengthening my
own shield. I told Lolin to stay within the circle where she was safe.
The demon mage looked at me with horror, she still had so much power to
draw upon but building a shield can take hours. She began to strike
frantically but I still had power to spare too. She stumbled backwards
and fell but kept watching me as I approached her. I drew a small knife
with maybe only a inch and a half blade and kneeled beside her. It was
time to perform perhaps the greatest and darkest magic I had ever created
the true secret to my present power. I began to place the Marks into her
skin in two separate series of symbols. The first group of symbols was
the same as the ones I had used on the first demon mage I fought to slay
him and the demon he was bonded to. On that day after the Spell of
Passing I had thought of a new spell, one I would come to call the Spell
of Taking. It had taken me almost a hundred years to complete the spell
since I had few opportunities to test it. I wasn't about to experiment
on the people I was supposed to protect. That meant I had to wait for
demon mages or other mages that were a threat to the realm to practice
on. The second group of Marks were the Spell of Taking with both complete
I activated both sets. The first group of Marks killed her and the demon
she was bonded to. The second taking her natural potential and adding it
to mine. Her natural potential was strong, nothing compared to what she
could do bonded but still powerful.

That was the true secret of my power, stealing the potential of those I
slay. I just prayed that this silent war stayed that way because the
longer it did the stronger I was for the next battle. Now that the battle
was over, the pent up magical energies that had been gathering the whole
battle began to disperse. With that much power not only every mage in for
a few hundred miles would know something big happened but everyone with
potential would have felt something. Lolin was still scared and flinched
when I walked toward her. I convinced her I wasn't going to hurt her and
then escorted her back to her father's farm. I told her to tell that I
had to go and he could keep my wages to make up for the loss of a
laborer. I wished her luck and start walking back to the city. It was
time to return to the Academy and see what trouble this battle had
stirred up and prepare for whatever new challenge awaited the Black
Adept.

To be continued


This is my first attempt at a story and I hope that you like if you have
any positive feedback I would love to here it. Send me some feed back on
whether this story has the potential that I should continue it. You can
email me at BlackAdept@Hotmail.com