text: “There are heroes. This world wants to make you forget that. It wants you to believe that there is only darkness, only pain, and at best, shades of grey. It wants you to believe that those tales of incredible feats of masculinity and heroism are just that, tales. But the world is lying, for there are heroes, heroes like Hercules, like King Solomon, like Sinbad and Ant-Man. I, well I am living proof of that. I, my dear, am the Dinomancer”. Luca watched the progenitor of this speech with a bewildered expression. He looked to be in his middle ages, with stringy dark hair and a depressing hairline. His figure was than less herculean, and his blue eyes filled not with courage, but plain old stupidity. “Uhuh,” she said. He had magic, she could taste it in the air, but a little bit of power didn’t amount much when you were in her line of work, and an idiot with power would just make her apprehension of the dark sorcerer harder. “Okay Mr. Dinomancer, well I’m afraid that a hero isn’t necessary here, I think I have this under control, would you mind stepping aside?”. He gave her a knowing smile, at least he clearly thought it was knowing, but that was hard to give someone when you knew extraordinarily little. “Do not worry yourself, young lady, no job is too small for me. While the Dinomancer maybe a grand title, it is one I carry in service of the common man. When evil shows its ugly face, no matter how big or small, I will rise to face it”. She sighed. “I don’t have time for this shit,” she said quietly. “Fine, if you wanna come, come, but don’t get in my way, and don’t come crying to me if you get yourself killed,” she said. He grinned like a child for a moment before hiding it under his shabby bravado. “There will be no tears to shade tonight, for I will allow no harm to happen to either of us,” he said. “Ight then,” she said turning to the farmhouse. It was a recently new building and looked comfortable. The fact that this guy wasn’t camped out in some castle shaped like a skull labeled “Fortress of evil” or something like that showed he was smarter than your average goon tampering with dark powers better left untouched. The door was locked, but she got through with her subtle unlocking spell, a blast of pure force so powerful that it could liquefy a tank, then stepped through the remains doorway. The house certainly didn’t look like the liar of some warlock, but she could taste the evil in the air. Quite literally in fact. The Dinomancer stepped in after, coughing as he waved away the smoke. “Impressive,” he said. “You know, I’ve actually been looking for an apprentice, maybe if you prove yourself competent during this little quest, I might consider taking you under my wing” “Not happening,” Luca said quickly. The duo strolled through the mansion. Having experience dealing with practitioners of dark magic, Luca knew exactly how to follow the taste of dark magic to its source. The trail led them through the kitchen of the house (This man's dish pile was far more unforgivable than his dabbling with evil Luca thought), through the hall, into the master bedroom. She paused at the door that the taste was emanating from. Behind here, was a man capable of true evil. “Fear not, for the Dinomancer is at your side,” said the middle-aged man accompanying her. “Yep,” she said, not even listening. She causally wrapped her knuckles against the door, and moments later, a shaky snake-like voice replied “Come in?”. She swung the door open to find a hooded man, standing in a room light dimly by candles. Painted on the floor was a pentagram, in what looked to be blood. “That’s not goats’ blood is it,” she asked with a disappointed sigh. The hooded figure shrugged awkwardly. “It never really comes out right unless you use human blood. The Hell Fire smells more like cat piss than sulfur, you end up summoning an elf instead of a demon, you can’t half-ass this stuff ya know”. She nodded thoughtfully, and looked up from the pentagram to the hooded figure, and nodded thoughtfully. “And you’re cool with me just walking in on this?”. The figure shrugged again. “I mean, I really wasn’t expecting you to just knock. I was kinda thinking you’d blow down the door like you did with the one in the front, come in guns blazing with righteous fury and all that. You caught me off guard” He said, sounding a little embarrassed. Suddenly, the candles flickered out, and the darkness seemed to close in on them like a creepy guy with no binderies or deodorant. “But no matter, The Sacrament of Twilight has been complete, my dark power has reached new heights, no one can stop me now!”. There came a booming laugh. “No one you say? You clearly weren’t counting on the DINOMANCER!” shouted her companion, pointing at the man. There was a pause. “The wha-you know what, screw this,” said the hooded figure, before thrusting his hands towards the door. Crimson light glowed from the palms of his hands, before being expelled from them in the form of two orbs, flying right at Luca. “Balgo!” She shouted as she thrust her hands forward. Moments before she and the legendary Dinomancer would have been reduced to paste, a shield of solid blue formed in front of them. The red collided with the blue, and there was a horrible otherworldly whining sound as the shield shattered, the impact throwing Luca and her companion on their asses. *Damn* she thought. *This isn’t some snot for brains kid with an ounce of power trying to be the next Sauron, that was genuine, dark magic* She sat up, whipping the blood from her brow as the hooded asshole cackled in his raspy voice. “You fools, you should have never come here, now your souls will drown in my hate!” He snarled. “Fear not!” said her companion as he sat up *Jesus Christ, I should have just put a sleeping spell on him* “He’s no match for my Dinosaur magic!” he thrust his hand forward as if to cast a spell, but Luca shoved him down, and shouted “Flavos!” she snarled. Flames leaped from her outstretched hand at the hooded figure, but he simply flicked his wrist and a current of red disrupted the fire that would have hit him, the rest hitting the wall behind him, burning it to ash, letting the sunlight flood in. Luca held both hands in front of her, pulling her fingers back to her palms, then flicked them at the hooded figure, shouting. “Vos!”. There was a blast of force that violently flung everything in its way outside, everything but its target. Moments before the spell met the hooded figure, red energy surrounded him. It broke the blast with its own energy, while gently carrying him backward with whatever got caught in the blast, laying his feet softly on the grass. Luca took deep breaths. “Shit” she gasped. That spell was the most powerful thing in her arsenal, and that was saying something! And it didn’t even phase him. What the hell was she supposed to do. Confidently, the Dinomancer strode past her crouching form, an eager smile on his face. “Stop! You’ll just get yourself killed” she pleaded, but he ignored her. “Oh?” asked the hooded figure. “You think you can stop me? Then tell me, hero, what can you possibly do to defeat me?”. The man grinned wildly. “I will summon prehistoric forces to do my bidding and crush you for me” he boosted, making a tight fist in front of him “He” chuckled the hooded figure. “You’re going to summon dinosaurs to kill me? I’m afraid to say that’s rather impossible”. “Impossible you say?” said the man thrusting his hands forward. “Then behold Unprisca! Stegosaurus!” he boomed. The hooded figure looked around expectantly. “I don’t see any” There was a loud crash as something large, scaly, and very heavy landed right on top of the hooded figure. When the dust settled, Luca could see the plates emerging from the reptile's back, the spiked tail, and the unmistakable dinosauresk face. Just under the unmoving beast lay the hooded figure's arm, limp and equally unmoving. “Holy shit” hissed Luca. “Is that really?” “A Stegosaurus? Well yeah? I summoned it, what do you think would happen?” “Is it...dead?” she asked. The man looked up at the sky. “Well considering that I summoned it a few hundred feet above the guy’s head, yeah probably” “W-why didn’t you just summon it on the ground?” “Well then we’d have an out-of-control stegosaurus running around, and that would just be trading one problem for another,” he said. “You mean, you can’t control it?” she asked. “Well, not exactly” he admitted. She turned away from him, back to the dead giant ass lizard.