Sparkle found himself with an overwhelming need for distractions, for something to occupy himself with. As heartwarming as watching his Bond cuddle her partner was, he wasn't the type to sit still and just be. He needed action, and if not that, then something interesting to satisfy his curiosity.
That was how he found himself sneaking around the building, eavesdropping on conversations, playing a few pranks on people here and there, exercising a bit to test the limits of his body in a material realm, and so on.
Thus far, the longest he’d spent in a material realm — you know, a place where physics wasn’t just a suggestion like it was in the Spirit Realm — was a day or two, if that. So all this was new to him, so new and interesting, which he could finally begin exploring now that his first-ever Bond wasn’t under the constant threat of death. The Raid was over, done and destroyed, which left Mia doing mage-y things when she wasn’t busy catching her breath and relaxing. Meaning, Sparkle could indulge himself a bit … a lot.
He giggled as a well-placed block of solidified mana tripped a young human man, causing him to fall, taking the unfortunate girl he’d been flirting with down with him as he grabbed her arm in his panic.
Sparkle was making the absolute most of the fact that most people couldn’t see mana, making him practically invisible to their senses. Even if someone sensed him when he got too close, he could always take a half-step sideways into the Spirit Realm, which would muddy his presence beyond anything Rank 0 and 1 people could sense, much less pinpoint.
So many of the humans, or ex-humans, were copulating, or in the process of trying to find a partner for doing so. It made sense, he supposed, with the current mess, they might not live long enough to regret any decision they made here. It was grim, but on the other hand, they were the most fun to prank.
One man jumped so high he bounced off the ceiling when Sparkle made a ‘knock’ sound come out of his closet, then landed atop his very displeased paramour on the way down. It was hilarious.
Still, even Sparkle wasn’t heartless, and after a handful of interrupted trysts, he turned his eyes upon a new group of unsuspecting targets: the guards.
It was his duty to make sure his Bond was as safe as possible, after all, so it was only natural that he put some effort into keeping the soldiers guarding the building she slept in on their toes. It wouldn’t do if they grew lax, or sleepy, or fell asleep entirely. It would not do at all!
Sparkle wasn’t all that talented in the subtler forms of Arcanism, those being Divination and Illusions, but he could use the latter just fine to mimic sounds and noises. The spell for that was called Minor Auditory Illusion, but he was doing it manually through pure mana manipulation. It wasn’t too hard when he had already used the mana in his body to hear by feeling the vibrations sound caused in the air. It was instinctive to him and took little effort to reverse and use to make sounds he’d heard before.
Which is how the guards patrolling the dark streets came to suffer having to hear anything from yowling kittens and screaming maidens to Goblin war-cries and screeching monster birds. He kept at it only for so long that every one of them was alert, almost jumpy as they glared at the darkness.
He didn’t want to cause them accidents or make them numb to strange noises. That would be rather counterproductive to protecting his Bond. No, he would need to find some other playmates now, as sad as it wa- Huh?
What do we have here? Sparkle hummed, having chanced upon a group shrouded in some supernatural darkness. Who are these sneaky snakes? Hmm.
They were using Darkness magic … no, Shadow magic, a derivative element of Dark, perhaps the best element for stealth out of all the ones Sparkle knew of. It was a shame it couldn't measure up to Sparkle’s Spirit Sense with its user being at Rank 0. At best, it hid them from sight and muffled any noise they made, but their mana signatures shone bright through the cloudy Shadow mana covering them. They couldn’t hide from Sparkle … but the guards? Oh, the guards wouldn’t notice them until it was far too late, and as luck would have it, the sneaky snakes were heading right towards the building Sparkle’s Bond slept in.
What did they want? What were they plotting and scheming in that slippery, snake-y head of theirs? Sparkle was curious, curious and suspicious. Well, he found his next set of playmates either way, but if it turned out they were here to cause trouble for his Bond, well, then they would go from playmates to victims, and then to corpses as swiftly as he could manage.
There were twenty of them, plus the Shadow Elementalist themselves. An effect that could cover an entire group this well at lowly Rank 0 had to be a Skill, so likely not a Mage then. That was good. Shadow Mages were always super annoying, if his Sire could be believed.
He followed them as they skulked about, slipping through shadowed alleys and abandoned buildings. Their path was not direct, but their destination was obvious, and so Sparkle started his ‘assault’.
Nothing much, just mimicked footsteps, soft and almost silent as if the one making them attempted to be sneaky, badly. The slimy snake contingent stalled at once, pressing themselves further into the shadows of an alley, which further enhanced their shroud of Shadow magic.
Sparkle doubted any Skill or Spell below Rank 2 would have sensed them, but too bad, Bloodline Traits didn’t play by the rules, and Spirit Sense was one of the most powerful sensory Traits known to the Astral Court.
Seeing them tense up so much from a single errant footstep would have been the beginning of something amusing for Sparkle, had they not reacted with such cohesion and discipline? It rubbed him the wrong way. It was also much less fun than if they shrieked and tripped over each other.
Seconds went by, then a minute and then two, each draining more of Sparkle’s patience than the last. Oh, well, these sneaky snakes clearly had more patience than him, but he was quite certain he had them beat in both wit and magical might.
He faked muffled footsteps travelling away to another alley, where he enacted a little bit of theatre, acting out both parts of a late-night rendezvous. The people around were doing that anyway; it shouldn’t be too surprising. Sure enough, the sneaky snakes started to move again in another minute, slower now, more careful, and yet it was all for nought. Sparkle had their tail now, and he wasn’t about to let go.
Sparkle followed them for now. He wasn’t weak, certainly stronger than any single one of them, maybe strong enough to win against five of them, perhaps as much as ten. But there were twenty. Sure, he could play the hit-and-run tactic, but then the last few would probably scatter and escape. No, Sparkle was a cunning sprite. He would strike when it was most opportune. When he had the sneaky snakes up against the guards, he would strike them from behind.
He raced ahead when they closed in on the building, growing annoyed when he found the last patrol to have just passed the alley the sneaky snakes would be coming from. Oh well, he could adapt.
Considering that the Shadow Elementalist and their accomplices were likely beastkin, using auditory illusions was out. The guards would have a harder time hearing noises right next to them than the beastkin had from a street away. Thus, Sparkle resorted to the oldest trick up his sleeve: poking.
It was fun. He’d used said trick much in his first few months of life, annoying the living hell out of the children of the Astral Court with it. The little menaces couldn’t wield magic yet, and so they had no way to get revenge on him for poking them.
“Wha-“ the rightmost guard startled, a hand snapping up against his ear and rubbing it right where Sparkle had flicked it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He reeled around, suspicious eyes roaming across the dark street, and his three squad mates — already alert from Sparkle’s earlier pranks — reacted in an instant, their weapons and flashlights swinging about to illuminate the darkness.
Sparkle grinned as he forced himself into being a visual illusion near the alley. The beastkin were slowly sneaking closer in. The thing he made wouldn’t have fooled a blind man from up close, but it was humanoid enough that the soldiers subconsciously recognised it as a person. Making it move was even further from Sparkle’s expertise, but it was dark, and he was an arcane sprite. Thus, he managed just fine, even if the illusion’s movements looked a little wobbly and unnatural if you squinted. It disappeared behind the alley’s corner before anyone could make note of it, then Sparkle dismissed it fully before any of the sneaky snakes could spot it.
Four against twenty-one were not good odds, even if Sparkle joined in on the side of the guards. It was made worse by the fact that the Shadow shroud would make ambushing the not-even-Level-10 guards laughably easy.
Sparkle considered waking his Bond. It wouldn’t take much, just a sharp tug at the ephemeral thread that bound them together, and Mia would go snapping awake like someone had just poured a bucket of ice-cold water over her head. But no, not yet, the silly girl had exhausted herself, and Sparkle knew she — having such a thing as an organic body — needed her rest.
Ranking-Up would dampen it some, but Sparkle doubted even the ever-distant Rank 5 would fully wipe the need for rest away fully.
Focus. Focus. Sparkle chanted in his head, willing it to be true. Now then, what to do? Clearly, he needed help to take care of these scoundrels, but the four guards present would not be enough. He needed more, so he had to convince these four to call their friends, preferably without also convincing the skulking scoundrels that they should retreat and try again another day.
“Captain, this is Squad Four,” one of the guards said, speaking into a small device he’d grabbed from his belt. “I think we just saw the thing that’d been messing with us all night; it disappeared into an alley on Lindenstra?e. Should we follow?”
Sparkle didn’t hear the answer from the other side, but he didn’t need to.
“Understood,” the man said. “Copy that, we stay here and keep watch. Red Four, out.”
Well, that neatly solved that issue. He was still worried that the beastkin would slaughter these four and that reinforcements would be too late to notice. Hmmm. The rifles they wielded were loud. If he could make them fire off a few shots, their superiors would have to check in with them soon enough, right? Right. They’ll know something is up if no answer comes.
The beastkin group emerged from the alley, their forms hidden from the naked eye by the cloying shadows. Flashlights passed over them, but the soldiers wielding them saw only the empty street, not the enemies slowly closing in on them. Their footsteps were audible to Sparkle, but he knew the soldiers were mere humans with atrocious hearing, so it wasn’t a surprise that while the four remained alert, they seemed entirely unaware of the danger creeping up on them.
Foolish. Why not sneak around the guards? Their Shadow shroud was good enough for it, so why risk it? Sparkle didn’t know, but it didn’t matter; he could practically taste their lust for blood.
So, problem. The Shadow shroud. It had to be the first to go so as to reveal the ambush to the guards so they could at least alert their friends. Easiest would be disrupting the Skill, but Sparkle was no Silver Sprite; his Dispel and Counterspells were as such … unavailable. Not that he wanted to be a Silver Spirit; they were hateful little busybodies going around messing with any magic and enchantments they stumbled upon. They had an impulsive need to unmake any active working of magic, in fact. Repulsive.
Still, that didn’t mean Sparkle had no options, just that the most elegant solution was not in play. He couldn’t unmake the shroud, but he could make its caster stop it. He could be quite persuasive when he needed to be.
No normal mage can maintain an active spell or skill while panicking. Good veteran combat mages might be able to maintain spells even while lethally wounded and delirious. These beastkin were far from that.
So Sparkle dropped, zipping up to the face of the Shadow Elementalist while practically invisible, then in a flash of movement, he conjured claws that would fit a lion out of his mana and raked them across his target’s face.
Admirably, the Elementalist only made a muffled noise as Sparkle clawed four deep gouges across their face. Or was that all that remained of their scream after the shroud did its best to muffle it? It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the shroud failed to drop.
Maybe it was a toggle-type skill that didn’t need focus from the user, or perhaps it was a passive skill, though Sparkle very much doubted the latter. Passive Skills of this power shouldn’t appear for another few Ranks at least.
His answer to it was all the same, anyway. He didn’t have the time, or the heart, for mercy, not when he could feel no less than six rather vicious magical reprisals heading his way. The Elementalist’s teammates apparently took exception to his mauling their friend, who would have thought? Oh well, he was going to do something much worse than mauling.
The arcane claw disappeared. In its place, he conjured a spike with a sharpened tip, and with a flick of his will, it went sailing right through the Elementalist’s head.
The shroud dropped in an instant, revealing a dark-haired woman with feline ears. Her head snapped back as parts of her brain and skull sailed through the air.
The six magical attacks seeking to avenge her hit nothing, Sparkle having zipped out of the way the moment he sent the spike flying. He imagined Mia would have hesitated, would have waited until these beastkin drew blood and made their intent to kill obvious; perhaps she wouldn’t have resorted to lethal force until they had wounded one of her friends or family.
The girl was too kind, too soft. She had grown up in a soft world, but that world was dead, murdered with impunity by the advent of mana. Sparkle imagined she could have remained soft, had she been born in the Astral Court. She wouldn’t have advanced, couldn’t have earned any respect or acclaim, but she wouldn’t have died for it.
Here? No. Here, that girl would die, sooner or later, because she wasn’t willing to kill those who sought to kill her. Sparkle knew she’d learn; she had a strength to her that he’d seen, hidden beneath the surface and overlooked by those who dismissed her at a glance. She would learn, but Sparkle wouldn’t hurry her, and until she did, he would just have to make sure her first stumbling steps in the Realms didn’t end with some permanent consequences.
Just as he thought that, of course, Fate decided to laugh in his face and kick him in the butt. He heard a loud, blaring sound, a siren call of alarm. He froze stiff for just a moment, recognising it for what it was: Mia’s Alarm Ward.
Sparkle didn’t wonder what it could be, whether it was a misfire or perhaps a false alarm. He just acted, a step sideways followed up by a hop and bounce, then a step back into reality, and found himself up in the apartment just as Mia managed to extract herself from her bed.
To her credit, she had her wand in hand and a serious look upon her face, even if she was wearing only shorts and an oversized shirt. The vampire was hissing, crimson claws arched and fangs fully extended in a display that made Sparkle almost sorry for the fools on the other side of the door. Almost.
He felt it the moment he appeared: a squad of ten beastkin pressing into the living room, readying spells and brandishing weapons. They split up, two each per bedroom door.
The Dwarf was up and already armoured, having ripped apart the wall of his room to fashion himself an earthen armour from bricks and concrete. The Aeromancer had jumped out the window, using hardened air beneath her feet as platforms to run around the outside of the building and circle around. The Ki-Swordsman and the Sorceress were up, the latter calling on her power to blast whoever intruded upon her room while the former hurriedly grabbed his sword and artifacts. The Sorceress’s little Storm Sprite emerged from the ceiling, having been resting up on the building’s roof. The Ice Mage, however, was the one he was most impressed by. A spell of hers had already punched through her own door and struck the two beastkin heading her way, grievously wounding them.
“Sparkle, what’s going on?” His Bond asked, barely contained panic dripping from her words. Sparkle grimaced. This was what he’d been trying to avoid by taking care of the stupid, sneaky beastkin himself.
“Beastkin strike-force,” he said. “Probably here to kill you all.”
He felt a twitch of magic and saw Mia’s eyes widen, but she would be too slow, whatever she chose to do. She puffed into her Wisp Form, likely in a panic, forgetting that it wouldn’t protect her from magical effects nearly as much as it did from physical harm. Magically enhanced weapons were bad enough, but a pure mana-based attack like a spell might even kill her if it caught her Wisp in its entirety. Well, this was why he was here — to save her when a misstep might kill her otherwise.
So Sparkle acted, zipping over to interpose himself between the floating wisp and the spell zooming towards it. Mana roared through Sparkle, then exploded out into a barrier thick as a brick wall and at least thrice as durable. It was shoddy, but he was in a bit of a hurry.
Not that what turned out to be a spear of wood even made it to his barrier. The Vampire had interposed herself between the door and her lover, then slapped the spear aside when it came at her with little apparent effort and all due disdain.
The Vampire snarled anyway, apparently livid at the attempt to harm her partner, no matter how ineffectual it was. Sparkle understood; he felt much the same, though he decided he ought to stay by his Bond’s side instead of displaying just how displeased he was to their uninvited guests. He was pretty sure the vampire would do so in his stead, and he wasn’t proven wrong when the girl burst through the door like a mama bear protecting her cub.
It didn’t even take a second before her claws took the head of the closest beastkin right off his shoulder, and it was only the first of many more to come.
Click Here to check it Out!
