A test of powers

I certainly could have gone to finish my food and tried to digest all this newfound knowledge, but I was still feeling invincible from my day of triumphs. So many memories and experiences that were not mine, I had to focus to differentiate between the two.

But that was easier done than said. My mind had... changed somehow. Whether it was from that explosion of magical power that took me here, or learning the collected fel powers of a whole coven of warlocks, my mind was no longer thinking in mundane ways.

It felt like walking, or flexing a muscle. It was strange now to think about how I did it, but I merely thought and one of the candles went out. A hair was nudged. A line of chalk was smudged. A piece of dust choked someone mid sentence.

And the circle began to falter.

Crowe looked around in alarm at his warlocks as they all seemed to falter.

"Keep casting, if we fail then the beast could very well wreak havoc upon the town!"

I smiled as they misinterpreted the source of their woes.

I took a closer look at Crowe as I hid at the bottom of the steps. He was chanting the loudest of them all, leading his coven in the ritual. If I wanted to try and bind this beast to my will, he was the one I had stop. I could feel the fear in their minds, the rest would break if Crowe did.

The felhound sensed their morale drop. Its alien face seemed to be carefully scanning the walls for any weak spot. Its spikes tested the walls, trying to find a spot where it could attack, but the ward was still too powerful.

My fingers traced burning green glyphs into the air as I prepared a spell, one that hopefully would stop Crowe from participating without realizing it.

"Keep up the spell, we must stabilize the wards before we can begin to bind it again!" Wind was beginning to pick up the warlocks channeled their fear into their spellcraft.

With a smile I released my own spell and felt it sink into Crowe as his shoulders sagged and his eyes fluttered in exhaustion. His chanting slowly lowered in volume until his eyes appeared almost glazed over... until he stumbled back against the wall. The other warlocks stared at their leader overcome with exhaustion as he sank to his knees, his lips barely moving.

And then the creature found its mark.

The warlocks had relaxed in their magic just enough for the felhound to dig its spike into a weak spot of the ward and shoot out towards the caster. Almost as soon as it found its mark, the man began to spasm as his form shriveled in on itself.

"The beast is loose, we must warn the adventurers upstairs!" shouted one warlock as they watched their friend die.

"No, they'll kill us, we NEED to stop it here!" cried another as she shot a bolt of purple energy at it.

However, the beast's other spike caught the bolt in the air and absorbed the energy into itself. The warlocks paused as they seemed to realize for the first time that their magic was useless against the fiend.

"Ok fine, RUN!" shouted the second warlock as she turned towards the stairs.

Towards me.

I had only a second before they saw me and had no clue how they would react to me, would they realize I was the one who sabotaged them? Attack for witnessing their failure? Ask questions I didn't have the answers to? Or perhaps I could control their minds to make them forget me as they saw me? Maybe I could simply stop them from seeing me, essentially becoming invisible in a very roundabout way.

Either way, I had worked hard to free this creature, I wanted to bind it to me.

So, I cast my mind out to them and quickly wormed my way in, careful not to touch the mind of the dying warlock as I was unsure of how that feel. Without a moment to spare, I felt them begin to see me before I simply stopped that image from entering their mind. Their eyes saw me, but the image of me at the foot of the stairs never made it to their brains as they ran upstairs to the tavern.

I heard the yelling and sounds of a brawl from above when they opened the door, before it was quickly muffled by its closing once more. The only sounds left were the warlock's last dying breaths and Crowe's semi-delirious whispers as he struggled against the curse I had laid upon him.

I held a memory before me as I approached the fiend, it was one of its own, a way it had died previously before one of many trips in the Twisting Nether had ended in rebirth. It was of a young man—no, an elf. His eyes were covered in a rag, but his body pulsed with fel magic. The fiend had attacked him, but the young elf had simply blocked its attack. He seemed to have reflected the fiend's own spell back on itself and instead drained its energy as opposed to the other way around.

Crowe's eyes looked at me as I stepped into the room, the fiend drinking the last of the magical energies from its victim. It looked at me too now, and I knew now that it sensed my mana deep within my consciousness. It dropped the now severely drained body and slowly stepped towards me as I began to cast the spell to block its attack. Countless mages had fallen to its deadly attacks, but I had managed to learn from one of the few who had defeated it.

Its spike shot out at me, but I was ready. My hand blocked the attack and reflected it back on the beast. I felt its power seep into me, felt what was the demon's and what was the warlock's. However, I was careful to only weaken it, not kill it. The beast tried to pull away as it experienced the fear of its own brand of **** for the first time in 10,000 years, but I did not let go until its movements were slow and sluggish.

As I did, it fell back into the circle of chalk and runes. I glanced at them, before I saw a few mistakes in the design, no wonder it had been taking them so long to bind it. However, runes aside, I needed more power to bind my first demon to me, and I knew just who to take it from.

Crowe was beginning to move, though with great effort.

"You...saved...me" he said through great halting breaths.

I knelt next to me and readied the spell in my mind.

"No Crowe, I did no such thing. But know that I greatly appreciate your sacrifice to protect the town above."

His eyes widened and I could feel the alarm in his brain before I placed my palm on his shoulder. Immediately he began to struggle, but it was in vain as he was already magically weakened by my curse. I looked away as his skin dried up and drew tight over his bones until I felt the last drop if energy leave his body.

I stood up and faced the demon. I raised my hands and the runes along the circle were lit in green flames. I felt magical tethers begin to bind the creature to me, to my being, I began my own chanting. Its form struggled to even find its feet, but it was still too weak from my spell to do anything. In fact, its lack of resistance only made it easier to bind it. I felt its soul begin to warp under my command as the ritual came close to finishing when the door banged open above.

"It's down there, but be careful, it can easily kill any spellcasters" came a timid voice from the door to the tavern. Luckily they were out of sight, but I knew I had moments and could not afford to bend their minds as before, especially when I knew not who would be coming down the stairs.

I bent my whole being towards the spell, felt the relit candles flickers as the eerie glow of the circle grew to a bright crescendo.

An armored paladin with a glowing sword appeared where I had been hiding earlier.

And I was next to the body of Crowe pretending to try and heal him.

"By the Light, what happened here?" the paladin demanded, their face covered by a thick helmet.

I let the light in my hands die as I slowly rocked back onto my heals.

"I heard the shouting from down here and saw some hooded figures run past screaming, so I came down." I took a great shuttering breath and hoped the my performance was as good as I thought it was. "Some demon had found its way into the cellar and killed that person over there, and then killed this person before I could stop it. I managed to banish it, but not in time to save anyone."

The paladin turned and grabbed the black cloak of the warlock who had led them down here.

"What in the blazes did you think would happen when you tried to summon a demon down here? No wonder your kind are always being watched, your fel magics must destroy your mind as much as your soul. Arrest this asshole and look for his friends."

The paladin turned back to me and knelt by my side.

"You did a brave thing friend, there aren't many who could have banished a demon in combat, much less a felhound."

I rolled my neck out, pretend or not this was stressful. I was lucky that I looked as roughed up by my day's travels as I was pretending to be by the demon.

"Thank you, but I would really prefer to just eat my meal up top then discuss it."

The paladin stood up and offered a hand. I grasped it and felt myself tumble upwards as I was pulled to my feet. The paladin removed their helmet to reveal a blue Draenei face, with horns that curled behind her face in such a way that they were hidden behind her helmet. Her pale hair was carefully bound on her head and her bright eyes looked at me carefully.

I felt her mind deciding how she felt about me, and with a slight nudge I made sure she felt good.