The jade serpent coiled tight around Varek\u2019s wrist, its scales warm as it whispered power into his veins. The warlock ahead sneered, raising his staff, black fire swirling at its tip. <\/p>\n
Varek lunged. His curved blade flashed, slicing through the tendrils of shadow before they could ensnare him. The serpent hissed, its energy surging through his arm, fueling his next strike. Steel met bone as his sword buried into the warlock\u2019s side. <\/p>\n
The warlock gasped, but grinned. \u201cToo late.\u201d He slammed his staff into the ground. The cavern trembled. Sigils flared to life. The summoning circle ignited with abyssal light, and from within, a horned figure began to rise. <\/p>\n
Varek had seconds. He ripped the serpent free from his wrist, thrusting it onto the sigil. The jade pulsed, cracked\u2014then shattered. Energy exploded outward, collapsing the summoning, swallowing the figure in a vortex. The warlock screamed as he was pulled in, vanishing with his creation. <\/p>\n
Varek stood alone, chest heaving. The serpent was gone. He clenched his fist. Without its power, his next fight would be much harder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The serpent is gone. The war is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction"],"_wp_attached_file":null,"_wp_attachment_metadata":null,"_thumbnail_id":"1122","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyisinfinite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}