The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 59

Part 11

"We'll cast more Xervian-style Wards, to absorb the power of such attacks." Povon decided. "The elven-style Wards are better against individual demons because of their deceptions and transducing-counter- attacks, but they're less efficient against big pure-energy attacks."

"That'll help, but not enough, not against something like we faced today." Mark noted. "I think casting more varieties of Wards might stop them from Translocating in, though. We should cast every variety of Wards that we know of, with every kind of power and every kind of casting style we have available. And we should try that trick you showed me for psionic Shields, where you cast one, and then cast another at a different frequency. I doubt anyone's ever tried to do that with other kinds of spells before. Shifting the frequency of complex spells is a tough task, but I bet we can figure out how to do it if we all work together. Actually, Yazadril did some basic work like that when he first figured out how to make wizard's spells work on me."

"And while you're working on all that to stop attacking Translocations," Valentia suggested, "You should give me that Xervian Wards spell and let us work on it for a while. I know it's a really, really old unicorn magician's spell. Since it's really old and was probably designed to be cast by a group of unicorns, I'm sure I can make a much more direct and efficient way of casting it. And all unicorn spells have a big psionic component, and I'm sure my brother and sister can come up with improvements in the psionics of the spell. I'd also like to check to see how casting it with pure warlock-power affects its power- absorption rate. I mean, the spell absorbs power as it's charged and as it's attacked. There's no limit to the power it can absorb slowly. It only gets overwhelmed when the power it's hit with suddenly is a lot more than the power it had charged up with before that. If we can get it to absorb power a lot more quickly, it might be enough to stop a big explosion like today's. Karzog can help us with it too." "Here." Povon said as she passed Valentia the Xervian spell.

"All right then, let's form up into teams and work on all that." Mark said.

"I'd like Nemia, Povon, and Alilia with me on the frequency shifting problem." Yazadril announced.

"We'll compile all the forms of Wards and Shielding spells we have among us all." Silaran announced, speaking for the unicorns.

"Talia and I will start translating spells into different techniques." Mark decided. "We'll want at least one unicorn and one dragon with us on this, so Kragorram and Equemev, you're with us. And we'll have Ria to help with magecraft. And Mandri and Nek for human wizardry.

"The rest of you magic users can join whichever team you think you can make a contribution to."

"All non-magic users, you're with me." Wittan announced as he raised a hand.

"What will you do?" Yazadril asked.

"Well, I figure you're likely to be successful in strengthening the Wards against the demons, for a while at least." Wittan grinned. "That means that come the next exercise, there's likely to be a lot of demons just outside the Wards tryin' to get in, and we wouldn't want 'em to get bored out there. Some will be standing on the ground just outside the wards, so we'll build some nice drop-traps for them. And a lot of 'em will be flying just above the dome of the Wards, so we'll build some hidden catapults just outside the dome and set 'em to fire in an arc just above the dome from one side clear to the other. We'll use crossbow- style catapults to get the right arc."

"That's good thinking." Yazadril nodded. "A lot of these young elves won't be very interested in the complex spell-work on the Wards. Take them with you, I'm sure you can put them to good use." "That I can." Wittan grinned, and led his team out as the magic teams all got to work.

For hours the spells went around from team to team; translated to different techniques by Mark's team, frequency-shifted by Yazadril's, simplified and improved by the children, then back around again. They ate lunch in the hall as they worked, and spent the last hour before supper consolidating their work. Finally they called the elves from the construction team to lend their power to the Command Link, and they all cast the improvements on the Wards with all the power they could muster, before going home to eat.

The next day was the same, and the next, and the next. Since everyone in the community had been 'killed' in the last exercise, they didn't mind putting in the effort to prevent it from happening again. They had six days to improve the Wards and pour their power into them, and to build traps and catapults with various magic improvements. Then came the next attack, late in the evening.

The Wards did indeed hold against a repeat of the last explosion, though it destroyed many of the newly-built catapults and a few of the traps, as well as two of the nearer sub-surface emplacements. The remainder of those took their toll on the thousands of demons who arrived a moment later, though it was a small fraction of them who were killed. They all appeared as flat black spheres, for their new Shielding was all that could be seen of them, and they were now protected from the Brain Bomb spell.

They immediately began attacking the Wards with everything they had, and they kept it up. Though the non-combatants didn't perceive it, to the rest the sky was full of fire and fury, and the air was filled with a physical cacophony of noise and a psionic din, all of which seemed impossible to block out completely.

None of them slept that night, and they met in the hall again after breakfast to meld their minds and their power, and continued to pour their power into the Wards, and occasionally make further improvements to them. Unfortunately, they had made so many changes to the Wards, and added so many layers to them, and woven the many layers together in so many ways, and the demons were subjecting them to such an incredible barrage of powers, that they could no longer be sure of the effect of Translocating out through the Wards, or of casting a spell through them. The Translocation might fail, the spell might reflect back, and either might disrupt the Wards themselves.

This left them unable to counter-attack the demons, and all they could do was continue to strengthen the Wards and their defenses, and be prepared to evacuate if they started to fail. Wittan and his engineering team began building more walls and fortifications on the top of the ridge around the valley, including great drop-gates for the passes to the valleys of the unicorns and Mark's back yard. They built rows of traps, walls and catapults just above the beach. It soon became obvious that the demons intended to keep attacking the Wards until they did fail, no matter how long it took, which inspired the community to put more of their magic and most of their physical effort into improving the physical defenses. The entire settlement rapidly became a fortress.

For thirteen days and fourteen nights the attack on their Wards continued, and the mood of the community steadily deteriorated.

Finally the twins sat up in bed just before dawn, deeply Linked and fuming with rage. "That is it!!!" they yelled in perfect unison as Valentia joined their Link.

"No, do it like this!" she told them as she saw what they were going to do, and showed them her alternative.

They had planned to simply Translocate outside the Wards and attack the enemy in their rage, but they immediately saw the wisdom and brilliance of what she was showing them.

They took her with them as they Translocated to just below the Wards and hovered in Flight. She was going to cast the spell with them, but their furious rage was so awesome and intimidating that she just gave them control of her power, then leaned back to watch.

They cast their power through the Wards and the demons' attacking spells, above the demons to the empty sky, and there their power suddenly became The FireStorm. They screamed their rage and their hate as the lightning-shot hurricane of fire formed, and the swirling, flaming mass full of fire-tornadoes dropped onto the demons.¶¶¶¶¶¶I

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