The hunchback readied himself for his next spell. The lord of the other realm was

  coming to Earth. All he had to do now was tap that potential power to fix himself and

  arm himself to stand up to any magician who tried to duel him.

  His name would be feared as the man who destroyed the world. People would bow

  down at his passing. He could take anything he wanted. He would be the new master

  of the world.

  “Are you sure you want to keep on this course?” The entity that had arrived before

  the others stood in the Spring with him. “It can only end badly for you.”

  “How did you get in here?” The hunchback raised a hand.

  “You let me in.” He puffed on his pipe. “There’s still time to change your mind. A lot

  of people don’t get that when they’ve made a mistake.”

  The hunchback murmured words in the air. A lance of purple light appeared in his

  hand. He flung it at his gadfly. Destroying a construct should be easy for him to do.

  The javelin fell to the ground. The target had swept the air in front of him with a

  hand. That caused the weapon to change course and strike the ground. It shattered to

  nothingness on impact.

  The entity puffed on his pipe as he advanced. All he had to do was evict the

  summoner from his own spell work. That should be easy enough to do.

  The hunchback invoked protection from his enemy. He felt the grid of signs slide

  between them. One touch and he could use his power to steal the spirit in front of him

  and use him as a weapon against the others.

  That would be the quickest way for him to get what he wanted.

  “A spirit trap.” The smoker shook his head. “You know these can be used on their

  creators?”

  He tapped the grid with his pipe’s stem. The symbols reversed. A wind pulled on the

  hunchback’s body, pulling on his inner spirit.

  The hunchback murmured again, reversing the spirit trap while throwing another

  lance at his enemy. Let it counter that.

  A hand directed the lance into the spirit trap. The conjoined spells transformed into

  a small yellow and white dog. The dog growled at the hunchback.

  The dog charged with a snapping of its jaws. It snatched at his ankles with growling

  and the clacking of teeth. A kick sent it across the protective line with a yelp.

  “I’ve had enough of you.” The hunchback concentrated on unleashing a storm inside

  the pillars. He regretted unleashing all of his spirits to hold the magicians off while

  he tried to complete his plans. He murmured a call for a monster that should be able

  to handle this meddler. Then he could get back to his business.

  A swarm of black appeared out of a cloud. Yellow spots could have been eyes. It

  flung itself on the man with no name.

  “Time to fix my back and end this battle for good.” The hunchback raised his hands.

  A set of spells in the middle of the Spring should do what he wanted despite what the

  others wanted.

  A fist slammed against his protection. He flew over the line, thrown from his position.

  He murmured more protections before he hit the sand and rock and slid. The man

  with the green star floated in the ring of pillars.

  The summoned beast turned to glare at the flying man. He smashed it together with

  both hands as it leapt into the air to seize him.

  The hunchback climbed to his feet. He surveyed the battlefield. How was he going

  to turn this around?

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  The entity with no name and the flying man were in control of the Spring. His

  servants had been defeated and dispersed as far as he could tell. He might be able to

  recall them to action if he had more power. Some of the meddlers had been hurt by

  his minions. He counted that as partial success. He was going to have to kill them

  eventually if they got in his way. He had a small chance to do that now.

  The hand of the Destroyer grabbed the swordsman. The massive fingers closed and

  crushed the life out of the hero.

  The hunchback smiled as ash flew into the wind. That was one of his tormentors

  done. Now he had to kill the rest.

  An arc of lightning struck the dead man’s sword. It changed as the hunchback

  marshaled his own forces. The sword flew into the air, a thing of white bone and

  lightning.

  It never came back down.

  The hunchback murmured a spell. He had to get back in control of the Spring. That

  would give him the power to stop the others.

  Sand covered him in a cloud. He closed his eyes as the desert became his weapon. All

  he had to do was inflict as much damage as he could to the other magicians and

  reduce them to the same condition as the one who died.

  Two of the magicians turned as he approached. He gathered more sand as he ran at

  them. He would be a giant crushing gnats by the time he arrived to deal with them.

  Then he could take the Jinn from the Easterner and use it as a weapon against those

  in the pillars. He liked the simplicity of it.

  Twin beams of spells struck his sandy shell. He exploded out of his protection. He hit

  the ground again. He murmured a summons to provide a distraction. There was no

  way for him to win against both of the magicians. They knew what he could do, but

  he didn’t have any clue how to counter their spells at the moment.

  He needed to escape so he could try some other scheme to gather power. He couldn’t

  afford to be exposed with no power to fall back on. He hated that he had to abandon

  his scheme when he was so close, but if he didn’t, he would be at their mercy.

  His distraction arrived in a fog drifting away from the scene. He threw a screen over

  it with a few murmured words. Let them stop that.

  He limped in the opposite direction. There was no need to watch the battle. He had

  to get away before anyone thought to try to stop him.

  How long did he have before their magic reached out for him?

  He needed cover. He was as good as caught if he remained in the open.

  It was too bad about his guardians. They had been troublesome and frequently loud,

  but he was almost unarmed without them. He had developed them to be exemplars.

  Then he had lost them to a gang of motley idiots.

  At least one of the idiots had been killed by the Destroyer.

  That was a small victory considering what he had almost done. Killing one of the

  group was nothing. He wanted to kill them all.

  He looked over his shoulder. The group seemed to be having problems with his

  summons. He smiled. He might have the time to get away from this fiasco after all.

  The hand of the Destroyer started withdrawing back into the cloud between worlds.

  The entity in command of the Spring must have reversed the call. The overlord would

  not be striding across the world that day.

  The hunchback murmured and the ground split at his feet. He sank below the surface.

  He asked to be carried to the sea. That was the best he could do at the moment. He

  could hide among regular people until he planned his next chance at power.

  The Spring would move to some other place. He didn’t know where. He didn’t know

  when it would come back to the pillars. He could wait for another chance, or actively

  seek something out before his enemies caught up with him.

  His hovel was protected from detection. He could use that to build up his power to

  carry out another scheme. He didn’t know what that was yet, but he was sure he

  would come up with something. He had counted on calling on something with great

  power to get what he wanted.

  He had not counted on the other magicians getting in his way when he was so close.

  He still didn’t know how that one flying man had been able to cross the line. That

  should have been impossible.

  What kind of magic did he possess to do what he had done?

  He foresaw a huge amount of time researching his enemies before he could kill them

  in the most painful way they deserved for stopping him from harnessing the

  Destroyer’s godlike power.

  He rose out of the ground. He looked around. None of his enemies seemed close. He

  saw the water ahead. He had husbanded a great deal of personal power. That didn’t

  matter now.

  All that mattered was escaping to start over.

  He walked into the water, murmuring as he went. He sank beneath the waves. He felt

  for a current and stepped into it. It didn’t matter where he went as long as he escaped.

  Then he could plan his next move to gain the power he sought.

  The water pushed him away from the shore. As long as he did nothing more active

  than making sure he wouldn’t drown, the water should cover him until the other

  magicians gave up looking for him. Then he could try to get to his hovel.

  At least he didn’t have to worry about spending all of his power while riding the

  current. The sea carried him along at a rapid pace. He would not thought of moving

  so fast under the water.

  As soon as he was close enough to home, he would think about leaving his shield.