Chapter 7
A month has passed by swiftly enough, Aurelius having spent his days organizing his workshop and studying the effects of loosing their alpha on the local frost wolf population. It turns out that the barrghests interference created a power vacuum and two frost wolves were slain before a new alpha took over.
Aurelius is currently working in the storage room dedicated to housing specimens. He is tending to the few magical beasts that are locked away there, each of these little more than a magical animal in terms of intelligence.
Ever since his conversation with the barrghest, he has been giving quite a bit of extra thought to how he has been keeping the living creatures that he uses to assist in his experiments. While he may need the venom or feathers from these beasts, he did not need to house them in cages as he had for quite some time.
He has just finished converting the room to have numerous smaller habitats, each enchanted to have more space internally than what they take up inside the lab. With this method, each creature can wander around as the barrghest does, and he need not worry his conscience.
In the main room, the barrghest is just stirring from its hibernation. It barely sheds the grogginess from its slumber and feels a great dread flow over it, its gaze turning towards the roof of the lab and it letting loose a deafening howl to echo through the entire shrouded lab.
Aurelius storms out from the side room to find out whats going on when his magical sensors trigger and a massive spell formation goes off high in the sky. Before he has time to react, the barriers around the lab are destroyed and a beam of concentrated magic tears apart the upper two stories of the lab to break through into the main room and crash through into the habitat, disintegrating everything in its path.
The barrghest barely has enough time to teleport out of the habitat and appear next to Aurelius. Instinctively fading away from sight using its innate magic. Whatever has just caused the blast is far beyond his capabilities, but he would assist Aurelius if that was the only means of escape.
Aurelius places a flurry of defensive spells upon himself in a split second as three figures garbed in magical attire float down through the hole in the ceiling. At the center of their formation stands a massive hydra with seven heads wreathed in flame.
"Aurelius! Your day of reckoning is at hand!" One of the mages shouts aloud, projecting his voice with magic to carry throughout the entire facility. "You will submit yourself before the council and answer for your crimes!" The mage sounds out once more.
Aurelius swears at his luck under his breath, not at all pleased that the lackeys of the association have found him. With the bounty that is currently on his head, this interaction will not end peacefully, and he will most definitely need to establish a new safe house.
"Do you really think that three of you will be enough to take me in!?" Aurelius shouts as four large meteors spawns in front of him, streaking towards the group of mages. In reaction they conjur three large force bubbles in an attempt to block the spell.
The first meteor strikes the barrier, shattering the outermost section. The second rips through the second barrier before dissipating, and the third meteor punches through the last barrier, giving the fourth meteor an opening to strike true. Only the Hydra launches itself at the meteor and is sent flying from central area.
One of the mages begins casting dozens of chain lightning bolts at Aurelius, though many of the bolts are routed through his defensive formation to strike at the space around him, and the remaining few striking Aurelius only to fizzle out due to his overpowering magical aura. The other two mages begin reinforcing the defensive spells that they have in place around themselves, realizing just how powerful of a foe they have been sent after.
"You should have been trained out of underestimating your targets by now." Aurelius' voice begins in one location and then quickly multiplies as his form duplicates eight-fold until he is standing around the three invaders. The moment he finishes speaking, he unleashes another high tier spell, causing waves of sound that distort the very fabric of space around them, to rush towards the intruders.
One of the mages in the center of the offensive formation produces a small relic, activating it to create a bubble around the three no more than ten feet in diameter. The waves of sound instantly cut off as they reach this point. As this occurs, the second and third mage produce small firearms and shoot at two of the images of Aurelius.
The firearms discharge and the bullets make it through the field, exploding the moment the pellets exit the nullifying field. The resulting explosion shakes the foundation of the research lab and sends all of the Aurelius images flying out into the lab, scattering them.
Soon the dust settles and the three mages scan the area with enchanted sight. The lab has suffered drastic structural damage, and numerous walls have crumbled. Between the offensive formation that destroyed the roof and the amount of magical discharge generated from the high tier spells, the central room is almost completely erased.
In a corner of the room, covered in rubble, an image of Aurelius can be seen attempting to shift itself from the rubble. Its form fading in and out as the magic sustaining it fades. One of the attacking mages fires a beam of red light through the image, causing it to dissolve away.
"We do not need any more trouble than he has already caused. If possible take him alive. If not, then all we need to recover are his research projects. Spread out and locate the specimen, do not engage Aurelius alone if you locate him." The most senior of the group relays to the others. The three then split up and begin searching the lab for Aurelius or anything they can get there hands on.