C5 THE MAGUS AND THE SCORPION

We traveled through a vast region of grassy plains, with occasional forests and farms, until we reached a desert.

This world wasn’t much different from Earth but there were some differences, since the days here weren’t illuminated by a Sun or many Suns, but by millions of stars in the skies which just turned its luminosity up during the day, and at night it became dark because the stars in the skies decided to turn down the lighting.

A day and night in Ouamua lasted about eighteen hours of my biological clock and a year in their calendar was made up of five hundred days so a year here was roughly the same as on Earth.

Sara observed the plants and trees here weren’t dependent on light for photosynthesis, but instead, it grew from an unknown source of energy.

There were surprising traces of Neutronium radiation in the air, so it seemed that it was a characteristic of this world which processed and refined Neutronium particles found abundant in the atmosphere.

Other than those observations, this world appeared quite like Earth and the people like humans.

Beyond the desert was a city, the only city Kay knows about, Magisandria which was the most advanced city in this world and perhaps a place where I could find some answers to the questions plaguing my mind since I arrived.

We walked for many days in the desert until Sara detected some humans in front of us who faced a large creature, so we moved closer to inspect, and found several people dressed in armor and colorful clothing who were up against a large scorpion.

The large scorpion was 20-meters in length and was a giant predatory arachnid, with armored bodies and had eight legs and a pair of large pincers, and sharp armored tails.

The large scorpion lunged toward the group of people as a warrior leaped and thrust a long sword into it, as the creature screeched and crushed the warrior with its pincers.

Then another person launched an unknown projectile at the scorpion which froze parts of it momentarily, while another threw a flaming ball at its head.

However, the freeze didn’t stop the scorpion, as it parried the fireball with its armored tail and leaped toward the woman who shot the ice projectile and bit her neck, which instantly killed her before it turned to face the fireball thrower.

As the scorpion rushed to the fireball thrower with its pincers opened and with a motive to kill, a speeding projectile hit the scorpion with great force, which pushed it 10-meters back, and nailed it to the ground with a long and heavy projectile, my Dragonslayer.

At this moment the guy who threw the fireball seized the moment and brought out a book and placed his hands on it as if in prayer.

After a minute or so of chanting, a circle of light appeared on top of the scorpion which rotated around some strange, illuminated calligraphy and unique hieroglyphs, and a column of fire suddenly rained down from the circle, which burnt and disintegrated the scorpion and melted my Dragonslayer with it.

The fire column should be at least 1000 degree-Celsius, Sara measured, and she observed huge levels of Neutronium radiation being released as the fire guy created the flame, while I wondered what kind of technology could create Neutronium chain-reaction which could produce such intense flame, all from reading a book. The proud flame maker was a young man no older than twenty, who wore a long red robe which was adorned with gems and stones, and had his hair tied to a bun.

Judged by his appearance and manner he was obviously a noble or aristocrat of this world and he was the leader of the group of people who fought the scorpion.

As I attempted to recover my deformed lance, the flame maker came over to make conversation and I took the opportunity to ask him what equipment he used to make the concentrated fire column.

“It is Magic cast from my Grimoire, and I am Cartelle, a Magus from Magisandria”, Cartelle proudly explained to me and introduced himself, as he showed me his thick-bound book.

“I would like to thank you for your help, and compensate you for your damaged weapon, my Barbarian friends”, the Magus added.

It seemed Cartelle concluded from his observation of us that we were natives by the way we dressed and the body paintings on Kay.

A Magus was a prestigious and respected profession in Ouamua, and they were specialists in the strange technology called Magic.