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Backlash

Being a tiny weasel descendant, a Shehk, he stood well under a foot tall on his hind legs, which he only ever did to eat or cast spells. This made him easy to trample underfoot, or at least it would have if he weren't the type to cast defensive spells preemptively. All spells had a cost, however, and setting a defensive spell that would reflect a foot would give most casters a headache that would last almost half an hour, the spell itself lasting about a day.

Jin was a master, however, and he knew that practice would often lead to decreased backlash from spellcasting. It appeared that the negative effect was often related to tiny mistakes made in the casting which if you paid attention to, you could perfect. For him, casting most spells meant almost nothing as a result. Preventing getting stepped on for him was like a soft poke of his nose. While his nose was very sensitive, he barely felt physical pain anymore, he knew of worse. Still, he was in no hurry to die and he felt his best chance at that was not being stepped on by the many larger creatures in the crowded camp.

Though well respected, he didn't have many friends, likely from the depressing nature of his demeanor. The fact that if not careful you could find your foot suddenly kicking up with quite a bit of force from his spells, causing you to fall, definitely didn't help. When the camp needed his help, however, he was quick to respond, often without being asked. His minor spells could make food taste better, purify water, and ease pain. Sometimes he'd forage fresh fruit for the children or train mages in whatever they could pick up. When asked why he did so much for the camp, he'd usually say "I want them to have good, long lives" but he'd always answer in a very melancholy tone, as if he suspected they would not. This tended to gain him weird looks and people would shy away from him a bit, but they appreciated his help nonetheless.

Most nights for him were restless and this night was no exception. He was startled awake, as was often the case, panting heavily as his heart raced from a dream he wished he could not recall. "Another night terror," he thought to himself, wishing he could figure out any magic that could help him sleep undisturbed. It was clearly still day, which he often tried to sleep through but rarely managed more than a few hours at a time. His short tan fur was disheveled, likely from tossing and turning in his sleep again. No one knew why he never slept and he always refused to talk about it when asked, like he clearly knew what it was. This time, however, he was not awakened by the screaming in his head, but by the screaming south of his tent

This was weird to him as the south was not in the direction of the war front and they were quite some distance from that as well. It was not unheard of for attacks to come from different directions but it seemed odd regardless. Still, without hesitating, he was already on his feet and running out of his tent. He started on his hind legs, quickly casting his reflection spell before getting on all fours to increase his speed significantly. His haste caused his head to sting more than he liked but by the time he had reached the disturbance it had faded away. He stopped as he reached what was a quickly massing group of fighters, wearing light armor or improperly wearing heavier armor, as if they reacted quickly and didn't have the time to properly dress.

It was hard to see what was happening through the growing crowd and most did not notice his presence on the ground below. Remembering a technique he'd employed before, he caught a nearby taller creature, a feline of some sort, and climbed his clothes. The random spotted cat wiggled, as if trying to catch him until he yelled "hold still!" at him and what was apparently a cheetah descendant mostly complied, letting Jin climb him quicker. He settled atop the other's head, a round yellow ear on either side of him. Luckily, this Nar, he forgot the exact name for the cheetah breed, was taller than the fox-like creatures that mostly made up the crowd.

From this Nar's head he could see a very large humanoid creature, at least in rough shape. It was, however, made entirely of stone and at least fifteen feet tall. It wasn't very fast, which was to the Silth's advantage as the descendants of foxes tended to have very fast reactions and be light on their feet, much like him. However, he could see three Silth on the ground near the creature's feet, all covered in blood and only one moving at all.

Several Silth were striking at it with blades and several archers had fired arrows at the thing, bouncing off and at most leaving tiny scratches or pits in the stone body. It swung its massive arm forward, causing five Silth to dodge by either jumping back or even over the arm, one unfortunate swordsman being swiped by an arm the size of his entire body and being launched a dozen feet into the air, flailing wildly before hitting a nearby rock and looking very much not okay.

A few more seconds of melee fighters doing nothing to it and a voice came from behind the Nar he was stationed on. "Pull back!" a familiar voice said in Silth before reiterating it in several other languages, including his own as well as Narin, the language of the felines. The exact mispronunciation of it told him it was one of the commanders of the army he was with, a red colored Silth he'd met only a few times before. She was a spellcaster, as most of the commanders were from what he had been told, and the instant most of the others parted ways, himself included as the Nar below him jerked to the side, nearly dropping him, a bolt of electricity flew from her forepaws and instantly crashed into the creature's head.

It pulled back just a hair, as if surprised by the attack before continuing to move forward, this time undisturbed by the sword fighters as it sprinted towards the commander. "Move!" she yelled as the creature ignored everything in its path, lumbering in what would've surely been too fast a gait to avoid if it were not so inherently slow. Still, it was fast enough for her to have to dive sideways and roll on the ground to avoid being hit.

"Lightning does nothing!" she yelled, "Try something else!" She was clearly not moving very quickly, likely from the backlash of her previous spell, and she had rolled onto her back to avoid an attack, with the creature raising its arms together as if to smash her into the ground.

"Hold still!" Jin yelled at the Nar below him, his Narin rusty at best, but his perch seemed to understand as he steadied his head. Jin focused on the area above the giant's arms, and quickly shoved his forepaws forward, barely balancing on his hind paws as they slid easily on the Nar's short fur. Pulling them apart slowly while focusing on the space where its arms had just been, he created an area of negative pressure, pulling the creature's arms upward as the Silth below scrambled to her feet and jumped away. He released his focus and the arms fell with force, smashing the empty ground below with such force he doubted they would've noticed a Silth below them.

It looked confused for a few seconds, looking around itself as if somebody had pulled on it and he couldn't figure out where they went. A different Nar showed up, this one with striped red orange fur and a much more muscular build. He was massive, roughly half the height of the creature everyone was trying to prevent from moving further into the camp. His voice roared and while he spoke in Narin, Jin caught a few words, mainly focusing on "elemental."

"He's not covered in rock, he is rock. We need something that can crack it or wear it out of energy!" the commander yelled. The huge Nar yelled something and reached his right forepaw out. It seemed some other Nar had taken notice, as well as the creature. His paw suddenly held what appeared to be a large metal sledge, two other similarly massive Nar walking up beside him with a similar long hammer each. This was very uncommon as Nar typically preferred to fight with their claws, but it seemed they knew how to fight with these are well.

The three Nar charged as the rock elemental saw and charged them as well, the felines having faster reactions and jumping past it, striking it from behind and causing it to stumble forward. The advantage didn't last, however, as their hammers seemingly did little damage to the stones that made up its body and soon it had struck one bodily, causing him to crawl away from the fight as a healer waved for soldiers to pull him away. The two remaining were struggling and the crowd was almost entirely powerless, watching in horror as the elemental knocked over another large cat, clearly breaking his arm as he could no longer hold the hammer.

"He's not slowing down, we need something stronger!" the commander yelled, looking around at the nearby casters.

"We don't have anything stronger!" a voice came from the crowd. Jin couldn't make out what species the voice had come from but he recognized a heavy leather cloak, a form of protective clothes some mages wore.

"Catch me," Jin said to the Narin who raised his forepaws, clearly understanding him. Jin raised his paws and poured his energy into an incredibly rare form of magic, creating a small black sphere between them. Its edges were evaporating into the air around the sphere as if it were made of smoke he was fighting to hold together with his mind. He stretched it and continued to pour his energy into it, slowly growing the sphere as his peripheral caught several more fighters going into the fight, heavy mauls doing almost nothing to the elemental as it continued to try and strike them.

Jin concentrated heavily on the sphere and began to close his paws together, the energy in the sphere fighting back against him and sapping what little strength he hadn't poured into the spell. He quickly looked up and located the exact position of the creature as he said to the Nar below him, "this is not for you." He then yelled as loud as he could in Silth, "Down!"

Most of the crowd looked back and saw he was holding a black spark in his paws then dove out of its assumed path. The creature briefly looked at him before starting to take another downward swing at the various people below it, not knowing any of their languages. Jin flattened his palms, giving the spark an escape point as it launched from his paws toward the rock elemental's chest. It moved so quickly that it looked like a long line of pure darkness, starting between his paws and continuing through the creature as if it didn't even exist, slowly increasing in size the further it got from its caster.

He clapped his paws together once he saw it had struck the elemental, ending the spell before it carried too far. When he did so, everything disappeared as his body went completely limp, falling forward off the Nar who skillfully caught him. A couple tense seconds passed as the elemental collapsed into a pile of loose rocks, the largest one in the middle with an only slightly smaller cylindrical hole in it as if it had been skillfully carved over hundreds of years. Then, all eyes turned to the source of the spell, a small pile of weasel in the paws of a Nar.

The Nar looked Jin over as if trying to figure out why he'd fallen asleep but quickly realized the caster was not breathing. "Healer!" he yelled in Silth, knowing most healers were Silth in the camp. Several ran to him, along with the commander, as he took to his knees and put him down in front of them. Everyone stared, confused, while the healers studied him intently.

The smallest of the Silth present, one with tan fur to match Jin's but with massive ears for her body, laid her hands on him and concentrated, looking into his body to search for damage. "He's not injured..." she said as she pulled away. "He's just... dead..."

"What?" the commander asked, a slight bit of anger in her voice as if the healers weren't doing their jobs.

"He's already cold but he's completely unhurt," the diminutive Silth replied.

Suddenly Jin's eyes shot open as he gasped for air, causing everyone to jump back several feet in surprise. He was still on his side and his eyes were looking straight forward, but clearly looking straight through the crowd. After a couple breaths his entire body curled up and he began sobbing uncontrollably, completely unresponsive to anyone's voice or even touch.

Several minutes of this passed as he slowly calmed, uncurling slightly and clearly trying to steady his emotions. By then, the commander had waved away almost everyone but the healers and a couple of his few friends.

"Jin?" one of his friends asked, a particularly talented Shihn caster, a red squirrel descendant. "Are you okay?"

"No..." he replied, saying nothing for several more seconds as everyone wondered if they should offer help. The healers had looked him over after he'd awakened and he still was unhurt and slowly warming up again.

"Jin..." one of the healers spoke up. "You were dead just moments ago."

"How long?" he asked between heavy panting.

"A few seconds... maybe ten?" she replied.

His breathing had almost stabilized and now seemed as though he'd been for a run rather than having just survived being mauled by a bear. "Six days..." he whispered.

"What?" the commander asked, just as confused as the rest of the group.

"I was there six days," he said before slowly curling up again, looking as if he were about to break into tears again.

"Where?"

"Elsewhere..." he said before devolving back into weeping uncontrollably. It would be several more minutes before he calmed again, slowly getting up and apologizing to those around him, embarrassed. Days later he confided in Litha, the Shihn mage he was friends with, telling her of what happened when he cast that spell.

"It creates a beam that erases from existence anything it crosses. In return, it takes me away from existence as well. The longer, or larger, the beam is allowed to be, the longer I am gone. I can sense time but nothing else, all my senses are gone. I don't see black, I see nothing. I don't feel myself being anywhere, I don't smell or taste anything, there is not so much a lack of sound as there is a lack of hearing. It is... oblivion. What I fear comes to us when we die. Those ten seconds were the second longest I've been there and it is... beyond... excruciating. It is a spell I wish I'd never learned."

Written August 4th, 2023 by Pedro "Reynard" Loustaunau