Private Is This the Krusty Krab?

Thump, thump, thump

The beating of her feet on the soft earth fall in time with each beat of her heart. Her cardio was good, but she’d been slacking in the past year, and it was starting to show. Her lungs burned in protest, screaming for her to stop, but on the wizard went, her stalf in one hand, the other tightly clutching a book to her chest.

Behind her, there was shouting, and more footsteps. No matter what she did, she couldn’t shake these warlocks, and she was running out of tricks. She’d tried teleportation, but they were able to track her, and all it ended up doing was waste a spell. She tried to stand and fight, but there were just too many, and she only had so many fireballs. Her last ditch had been to try and lose them in the forbidden forest, where nobody in their right mind dared to tread, but unfortunately they were just as stupid as she was.

It wasn’t just their footsteps trailing her, though. Farther behind them, and a bit ahead and to the right, more presences stirred, and her senses told her that there was some seriously bad magical juju in either direction. As if to punctuate the thought, a silvery ball of pure force surged past her head, striking a nearby tree and cracking it in two, knocking it into her path and nearly crushing her. She stumbled under it, desperate to keep her footing, and by the skin of her teeth managed to keep up her pace. She couldn’t keep this up forever. This wasn’t the first time she’d inadvertently clashed with magical foes, but it was the first time that she seemed to have reached a dead end. Cornered by multiple foes and unable to run any longer, she had only one ace up her sleeve.

Thankfully, that ace was The Devourer himself, so she hadn’t quite lost hope. Her conjuration had improved greatly in the weeks following that initial endeavour, and she could now confidently summon an entity without preparing a circle ahead of time. That said, to do so would ensure a much stronger bind on the sumonee, but she wasn’t trying to bind Alt.

She stopped in a clearing within the grove, where she had a bit of open space to work with, turning so that both incoming threats were within her field of vision, and backed up to a rocky outcropping that would serve as a good wall to ensure nothing could flank her. Gasping for breath, she attempted to collect her thoughts, and took inventory of what she had left in store.

Three spells, her blasting rod, her staff, two potions, and a few enchanted items. Her jacket was badly singed but the protection spell looked like it could take one more hit. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably. Her escape bracelet would probably need a minute or two more to fully recharge. Her hat was long gone, she’d lost it during the chase, and her blonde, braided hair was exposed, an unusual sight. After today, she was strongly considering chopping it off. Running was not very wizardly, but for as much of it as she amended up doing, it would probably pay to have less baggage.

”’Zounds, I hope this works.” She said, tucking the book under her right arm to free up a hand. With her now free left hand, she conjured an unearthly rune, twenty five feet in diameter, which burned bright green and seared the ground where it manifested. ”Altizica! Come forth!”

The rune immediately surged with light. Her eyes flashed victoriously. Her summons had been answered! As she brought forth The Devourer, the clearing was bathed in the blinding green light of her new and improved summoning sigil, and she felt immense power emerge from the circle. Shielding her eyes with a hand, she peered towards it, curious what form he’d take. Before, he’d been just a dude, not incredibly remarkable. A dude who could unhinge his jaw and swallow a pig whole, but still. She was hoping he’d appear in his terrifying glory, and she would find no small satisfaction in setting him upon her enemies.

Perhaps she shouldn’t have been shocked. She didn’t have the greatest track record with conjuration, as it were. Technically, she’d never successfully summoned anything. She’d always either mucked up the ritual, called the wrong number, or both. But she’d been so sure of herself this time.

And yet, when the brilliant green light diminished to naught but a dull glow, the being in the circle was neither the unassuming human male form of Altizica, nor the horrifying monstrous form she’d hoped to glimpse. No, the one in the circle was smaller even compared to Alt’s human form, a kid that looked to be a freshman at most, with baggy clothes and fluffy black hair, and a face adorned with scars that bore a striking resemblance to the human form that Alt had assumed in their first meeting.

At first, she thought this might have just been another face he wore, but then the kid began to stutter and sob. She assumed Alt would have been a bit more excited for a fight, which meant for the second time in her life she’d called for a god and ended up phoning their kid instead. The resemblance was uncanny, now that she had a good look at him.

”...Thunderation!” She groaned, stepping towards him hastily. ”Uh, hi, I’m Tilly-”

‘Zounds, why would you name yourself, you idiot?

”-I am so sorry, I was trying to call Altizica, I’m not sure how this happened uh- Her stammering was cut off by a ball of fire surging towards the two of them, nearly the size of a minivan. She transferred her staff to her left hand as she stepped forward, past the boy, and drew back her sleeve, revealing a silvery chain wrapped about her right hand, which began to radiate power. Just in time, a barrier of pure, silvery energy surged around them in a half-sphere. The fireball struck it and exploded, the flames surging past them, scorching the earthen wall behind them and setting ablaze the trees that dotted the grove.

The bracelet felt hot on her wrist, and her shield fizzled out. Her gear was starting to fail her. She only had two spells left, but her rod and staff were pretty resilient. Her other gear wasn’t made to handle this kind of extended use.

Not only that, she now had the kid to worry about. She didn’t exactly have the time to send him back, not to mention that with her luck, he’d probably end up at the bottom of the atlantic instead of back in his bedroom or wherever he’d been. She didn’t want to find out what would happen if she harmed a hair on the child of The Devourer’s head.

The situation was beyond scary. Her life and maybe even her soul, now, were at risk. She didn’t really know how Alt’s feeding process worked. And yet, the adrenaline was getting to her. ”You call that a fireball?” She spat at the approaching warlocks, drawing her blasting rod from the holster at her side, and bringing it to bear. ”This is a fireball!” She cried, and a plume of orange light erupted from the tip of her rod, ever expanding, until a twenty foot tall rolling ball of death spun towards them, carving out a circular crater and igniting the forest ahead of them. The warlocks scattered, one threw up a shield, one dematerialized, and another screamed- had she got one?

Despite her success, this wasn’t good for her. That was her most devastating spell, and she’d need to wait five more minutes to use it again. Most of her gear was defensive, and even if she’d hit one of them, there were still at least two more, plus at least two monsters on their tail. Dread began to creep back into her system, and she began to feel weak as the adrenaline faded and began to crash.

”Am I- uh, am I correct in assuming you’re Alt’s kid?” She panted, glancing back at the sobbing boy. ”You wouldn’t happen to know how to call them, would you?” She asked, trying to be optimistic.

”Ye gods, what is it with me and the children of gods?” She lamented, slapping her hand against her forehead. Things were getting worse by the second. This kid didn’t seem any good to her, although she could sense immense power radiating off of him. Alas, some supernaturals were powerful in ways that didn’t equate to smashing action figures together.

”Okay, focus, Tilly.” She said, slapping herself lightly, as if to wake herself from a daze. She didn’t have long to plan for this. She knelt down towards the boy, extending her hand. ”Here, take this.” She said, slipping her escape bracelet over his wrist. She’d been planning to use it for herself, but it only worked on one person, and she couldn’t leave him high and dry after summoning him here. For one thing, that just wasn’t right, and for another, Alt would literally tear her to pieces for such a transgression. ”It’s warm right now, because I just used it. It should cool down in a minute or two. When it does, put your hand on it and concentrate on where you want to go. The bracelet will take you there and you’ll be safe. After that, I’d really appreciate if you could call your d-”

The rest of her instructions were cut off by a missile of pure force, which struck her square on the back. She probably should have expected this sort of retaliation. She should have tried to hold the barrier up longer, but she was so tired that she could barely keep it together. She flew a few feet towards the wall, rolling across the earth, her staff clattering across the stones.

She rolled to her feet, half-standing, half-kneeling, and grabbed a potion from her belt, shaking it until it grew warm and volatile, and tossing it towards the nearest warlock. The elixir exploded midair, its contents milky and black as night, drifting down to smother their assailants. It was a sleeping drought, and while the warlocks probably wouldn’t fall for the trap, it would force them to retreat for a moment, which gave her some much-needed breathing room.

To their left, quickly approaching, the sound of something with too many legs and too many mouths sent chills down her spine

”Of course.” She groaned, pulling herself to her feet and attempting to put herself between the boy and whatever the threat may be. In the distance, beyond the murky mist of her sleeping drought, another creature shrieked, and she could here the warlocks turning their attentions to it, so that was cool.

She glanced dubiously at Aluin as he stepped up beside her. She had a pretty good idea of what he was, and she was trying really hard not to pay attention to his aura, the same way she had to with Alt. She couldn’t turn off her senses, and if she looked too hard, the abyss would look back into her or something. Still, she got enough of a picture to know that he was a phobophage. She couldn’t really tell much about what he could do without risking her sanity, but he was probably getting a pretty good meal off of her right now, which meant he knew how afraid she was.

Was he this freaked out because he was feeding off of her own fear?

”Listen. I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but this isn’t your battle. That bracelet should be working soon, just stay behind me an-”

She was cut off by a great, furry beast crashing through the tree line. Its pelt was pitch black, which made it look like not much more than a particularly dark spot against a sea of other dark spots, but you could hear it, and it was huge. As it drew closer, she caught sight of its teeth. There were far too many to fit in a mouth even that large, but that wasn’t the most unsettling part. They were pearly white. Like, crest commercial white. They actually reflected the light of the moon.

”Nope, nopenopenope-” She stammered, taking a step forward and stretching out her hand. A hurricane-force wind appeared before her, blasting the creature back, the force so great that the ancient oaks began to bend under the force. And still, the creature was only slowed. It dug its massive claws into the ground, digging into the dirt, and began to crawl towards them on all fours, as if climbing a wall.

”Use the bracelet!” She cried.