A Darker Shade of Sorcery - - (leveled readers .txt) 📗

troll.

The creature pounced, one of its spikes inches from Evan's shoulder as it pinned his coat to the ground.

As Evan stared into those gigantic green eyes he saw only horror.

“You're weak, childling,” the monstrosity hissed.

Evan didn’t know how, he didn’t know why. His mind should have collapsed in madness. He should’ve been paralysed with mind numbing fear, but somehow, something erupted within him.

He felt a force, a rising tidal wave of energy that burst out of him. Faced with such absolute evil and the threat of imminent death, his power awoke. Bright emerald flames shot forth from Evan’s outstretched hands.

The creature roared as the fire blasted into him, throwing him back to land in a sprawl of spidery limbs. The stench of roasting flesh filled Evan’s nose as he staggered to his feet, staring at his unblemished hands in disbelief.

His hands had vibrated and pulsed when the flames shot out, but Evan hadn’t felt any heat.

19

The fear was there, undeniably, but so was the power surging through him. Evan didn’t understand. Nothing like this had ever happened before, it was impossible.

Before Evan had time to work out exactly how he’d caused fire to burst from his fingertips, the monster charged.

All eight of its arms wrapped around him, thrusting Evan into its hairy, slime-ridden chest. The monster clutched tight, as if intending to crush Evan to pulp. As Evan kicked wildly, he accidentally punted Ollie’s disembodied head. It sailed off the monster’s leg and landed on the park’s slide.

He was spun round in its arms as the creature used one of its limbs to pull out an object that’d been sheathed inside its very skin. The object glowed scarlet, transforming into a portal that swirled and crackled like lightning.

None of this could be real; Ollie's death, a giant spider monster, flames bursting from his hands. Evan would've tried to pinch himself and awake from this nightmare if he wasn't so horrified by everything around him.

The monster stepped into the portal, taking Evan with it.

The portal took hold and Evan was hurled into the whirling mass. The world disappeared in an instant, only to be replaced by another.

The great beast landed on solid ground, holding Evan in its two lower arms.

Screaming and thrashing, Evan tried to escape, but the creature had him locked in an iron embrace.

“I didn't realise how powerful you are,” his captor mused. “I was going to feast on you myself, but you have great sorcery. I will gift you to my queen instead. Yes,” he muttered rapidly. “Yes, yes, my lovely queen will surely forgive me if I present her with a gift meant for Lord Kurrlan.”

20

They stood on a narrow cliff face that jutted out above a sea of lava. Beyond the narrow ridge stood volcanic mountains and a ruined red landscape swathed in a mist of ash. Many of the volcanoes were tinged green or blue. One volcano floated high above the sea of fire, as if by magic. The sky was strewn with stars of black fire and painted a vicious magma to rival the sea below.

This wasn't Earth. This wasn't anywhere that should be, or could be, real.

Evan continued to struggle feverishly against his captor, but the demon only laughed. Roaring in pain, fury and fear, Evan aimed a punch at the beast’s head. To his astonishment a green blaze lurched from his hand again.

The demon's laugh curdled to a yell of agony and Evan fell from his grasp to the ground.

As the monster staggered, Evan crawled across the ruined red earth, making for the edge of the cliff. He'd rather throw himself into the volcanic sea than be eaten alive.

He scrambled to his feet, but before he could take another step the demon plunged a black spike into Evan's stomach.

21

Chapter 2- Blood Eyes

Although Arantay loathed his monstrous side, he knew it was useful when battling demons.

He moved with the inhuman speed he'd been cursed with, uncorking the monster's beak from its body amidst a welter of ichors. Blood splattered over his unnaturally pale face and scarlet hair.

After many missions in a plethora of peculiar realms, he’d managed to keep the fear of monsters locked away, but his own evil terrified him more than any demon.

Snow fell hard. Bodies fell harder.

The snow was blue here, a shade lighter than the crystalline trees surrounding them. They were in the ice jungle of Eltika, where the undergrowth was littered with countless shards of ice and the trees emitted vapour cold enough to cause frostbite.

Arantay took time to survey the battle before his next opponent. His fellow demon hunters Lok and Tyrell fought on either side of him.

Lok looked like an angel, with his bright blond hair and kind face, whilst Tyrell resembled the devil, darkly handsome and hair black as night. Ironically Lok was the most devilish of the three.

“So,” said Lok as he hewed another demon in half. “We're missing out on the mission with those sexy alien girls, for this?”

22

Arantay dodged a yeti-demon's claws and hacked off its head with his enchanted blade. The monster's head was promptly lost in a whirlwind of snow. “We've also got a recruitment mission next,” Arantay replied.

“Damn it.” Lok took his anger out on a centipede-like monster, causing its innards to spill out like spaghetti. “That mission sounded awesome. Why do we get stuck with a boring one? We can go to Earth anytime.”

Beside him Tyrell used fire magic to burn another fiend to smoking embers.

“They’ve already given me extra sorcery training this month, like I need it,” Lok continued, proving his statement by shooting a bolt of lightning at the next demon in his path.

Demons pressed in all around, but Arantay moved like a phantom reaper, claiming his harvest of blood and brains.

“Who do we have to collect then?” Lok said, ducking as a demon swiped for his head, merely cutting off a strand of his hair instead.

Arantay shrugged. “Some American girl.”

“I thought there was a British boy too?”

“Tarensen said the boy is too important for us to collect,” replied Arantay.

Lok snorted. “Sure he is. They told me I was important when they found me too.”

Lok ducked the pincer of his foe again, before transforming his fingers to daggers and punching out the demon's eyeballs.

“Don't worry, there should be some good missions coming up soon,” said Tyrell, his vibrant blue eyes blazing and copper skin streaked with demonic remains.

“Orc armies are amassing in several worlds and more and more Dark-Venators are letting demons into peaceful realms.”

“When don't they?” Lok replied sarcastically, shearing off an ant-demon’s antenna.

23

Arantay listened to his companions talk as he darted left and right, dismantling monsters to mangled ruin. He leaped to the side as an elephant-headed monster charged at him, horns encrusted with green gore.

Tyrell conjured a ball of acid and threw it at the beast. The acid magic drenched the demon and burned the skin from its bones. Arantay grimaced as the flesh sloughed off and the monster crumpled.

“We just learned that spell in Extended Sorcery class,” Lok chuckled. “You nerd.”

Arantay finished off the last demon by stamping the fiend's head to pulp.

As the battle ended, Arantay took a deep breath. It had taken almost a century to control his other side and he still needed a moment to get himself under control.

“Always good to have a little clean up,” said Lok. “Let's go tell the snow-elves we've sorted their problem.”

“Any others in the area?” Arantay asked.

“Hold on.” Tyrell's body went slack and Arantay knew he had astral projected into one of the pterodactyls flying above them, temporarily borrowing its eyes.

A moment later Tyrell returned to his body. “One left, he's escaping.”

“No he isn't.” Lok sprinted up one of the sapphire snowdrifts.

Arantay followed in time to see a demon with a wolf's head and a gorilla’s body, conjuring a portal and jumping through it.

Arantay and his companions raced after the demon, leaping through the gateway half a second before it closed.

They emerged on a world with a sky smudged by purple-stained clouds and lime-coloured lightning that struck the orange marshland around them.

“There,” Arantay shouted.

24

The lupine monster was cunning, unlike most lesser demons. It was already flitting through a second portal as they arrived.

They threw themselves into the next gateway, Lok swearing in annoyance.

Arantay blinked as the colours were sucked from his surroundings. This new realm was sepia toned, making Arantay and his companions appear as if they were in a black and white movie. The demon was already on the move again, however.

This time the hunters were not only flung into a new realm, but into the middle of a battlefield.

An army of Iserhian aliens were being slaughtered by a horde of rocket launcher-wielding ogres. As they landed on the battlefield, a particularly grotesque ogre focused his firearm on them.

“Holy crap,” Lok yelled as they leaped out of the way of the blast.

“Get that damn demon,” Tyrell roared.

Arantay spotted their target amidst the chaos and raced after.

He dove headfirst through the newest portal, seizing the fiend as they soared through the realms.

Arantay landed on top of the monster as they fell onto a tiny spit of island amidst a transparent sea.

Blue fangs blossomed in the monster's maw and it attempted to clamp down on his arm. Arantay moved faster, shoving his hand down its gullet and yanking out its entrails.

“Finally,” Lok panted. “The Masters better give us extra credit for all this realm hopping.”

“You reckon he was the leader?” Tyrell asked, staring at the corpse.

Arantay nodded. “Had to be, probably trying to find his Dread Lord.”

25

“You two can break the good news to the elves,” Lok said. “I'll meet you on Earth.”

Arantay tore his eyes away from a kraken floating in the sea to Lok, who'd already taken out his pipe. He exhaled purple smoke as their eyes met.

“What's the rush?”

Lok shrugged, before turning to summon a new portal.

“Gonna scout the area, check no one else is after the same girl we are. Finish up quick. I wanna get back in time to see my goblin soap opera.” Lok winked and disappeared through the portal.

Arantay just hoped they could find the girl before demons, or somebody worse, got their hands on her.

*

“Who’s there?”

Brooke's voice rang unanswered.

Someone, or something, was watching her.

She was alone, but Brooke couldn’t shake the feeling of unease. A creeping shiver whispered across her skin and lifted the hairs on the back of her neck.

“Johnny, is that you?”

Silence.

Cold sweat trickled down her back, tickling her spine.

“Seriously, Johnny, if you’re doing some sort of prank again, I’ll kick you in the balls so hard…”

She jumped out of her skin when her phone beeped.

26

You’re such an idiot, Brooke. She opened her phone and saw a text from Kate.

You’re being paranoid, she told herself.

Usually she left school with a group of friends, but after a two-hour