Humans Don't Make Good Familiars- Part 90

Jake’s POV

There he.. I.. was. Illuminated by the flickering violet glow of my spell. On his shoulder was perched the identical copy of Two as well. Both perfect down to the freckle, metaphorically speaking; I don’t actually have any freckles. “Good work,” I said examining them.

“Let’s… hope they… do the job,” Two panted out.

“Was it that hard?” I asked.

“Yes, but the real question is: will it be worth it?”

“Only one way to find out.” I said and picked Two up, putting him on my shoulder just like our copies. “Ready?”

“I believe so, but these copies will not last long, so we need to be quick.” He instructed. “I will control them and make them run in the opposite direction of us, but that is still no guarantee of success.”

“Let’s make them run out of the cave at the same time as us, that way they won’t know which is which and will have to split up to chase us.” I suggested.

“Agreed.” I started casting the spell to unseal the cave, but I needed to let the fire spell go out first, so we stood in darkness for just a moment before we all shot out of the tunnel.

“I’m making the copies mimic our movements.” Two said as he clung tightly to my shoulder, causing a bit of pain actually as his claws dug in. “It seems to be working, their team is splitting up.” I glanced over my shoulder and saw the copies running away from us quickly, already a quarter mile away in the twenty or so seconds since we left the cave.

“Can you see the crest?” I asked.

“Yes, if we continue to move at this pace, we will be there soo… why are they doing that?” Two said confused.

“What are they doing?” I asked.

“They are reforming, going back to the crest.” He told me.

“Is something wrong with the spell?” I asked worried.

“No, the spell is fine. I have no answer for this.” He sounded as worried as I was.

“Okay, we might need to change the plan.”

“Why?”

“If I’m right, they probably figured out our plan and decided to just wait for us to either run out of mana maintaining the spell, or figured that since both us and the copies are heading for them, they could just wait for us to come to them.” I explained.

“A wise strategy,” Two remarked.

“Yeah, so let’s give them a reason to meet us.” I said. “Two, will the copies automatically do what I do, or do you have to control them?”

“I can give them specific commands, but otherwise they will mimic us.”

“Good, change of plan, we’re going to smoke them out.”

“I don’t understand, how?”

“Have them mimic us okay,” I said. Two disbanded the copy’s earlier commands and made them mimic us again, and I slowed down to a stop.

“Sir Sentinel, what are we doing?”

“Can Neame sense mana or spells from this far? Suma mentioned once that you guys could, but she didn’t from how far that worked.”

“From this distance? I should think not. What spell do you… oh.” Two said as I pulled out several steel ball-bearings from my pouch. I started the spell, and since we weren’t in a rush, I did it the slow but strong way. I wanted to make sure it hit its target, and when I use the new way of picturing spells, sometimes it misses the mark a bit. Never by more than an inch, but from this distance, that would be bad. I started casting the spell, and Two confirmed that the copies were doing the same, then he looked over to the other team’s crest. “They are raising a barrier of some kind around their crest, one made of interlocked vines and large stones.”

“It won’t help them,” I said picturing the last of the spell, “RAILGUN!” That thunderous crack rattled out and I saw an explosion in the distance.

“By the dragons!” Two shouted and flapped about trying to regain his lost balance. “A bit of warning would have been appreciated, Sir Sentinel!”

“Sorry,” I yelled with the ringing from the spell still filling my ears. “Did it work?”

“Yes, I believe so. Correction, definitely so. Two of them are leaving their crest, one is staying behind. One of the two that left are heading towards us.” There was a moment of silence before he continued. “Sir Sentinel, it seems you have done some serious damage to their crest, but it wasn’t destroyed. Do you have the ability to cast that spell again?”

“You saw how long it takes; do you think we have the time?” There was another moment of silence.

“No, never mind, the mage will be here before you are ready to execute that spell again.”

“Aright then,” I said and resumed running towards their crest’s location.

“If we can get within range though,” I said picking up speed to meet the mage heading towards us, “I can perform a smaller version of it.”

“Sir Sentinel, I will distract the mage, you focus on getting within your spell’s range.” Two said and spread his wings to catch air and fly up.

“Jericho!” I said and summoned my armor. Speed is good, not getting hit in the back by a spell I didn’t see coming is better.