Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (33 page)

“Grow,” he ordered the pieces of wood now embedded in the earth. Though the dust obscured his newest spell, the mage new what he had begun.

The crowd had felt the impacts and gasps of surprise had sprung up from many mouths. Cheers came as Collin’s latest spell ignored Sebastian’s dust and explosions. A large wheel of stone roared towards his shield walls to crush them beneath a few tons of sculpted stone.

“Shield,” Sebastian managed to set a new wall on an angle. Like using a ramp, the stone circle shot up the shield to fly over his main wall. A large splash as it crashed into the water beyond the statue and a thump as it fell onto its side signaled the wheel’s inauspicious landing twenty feet beyond his statue.

A rumble in the ground proved Collin was still quite active on his side of the field. Sebastian’s eyes caught the movement in a wave headed towards the shields once again.

“Air lance, air lance, air lance,” the spears intercepted the wave in an explosive fashion. Some of the wave staggered through cracking the large shield proving the strength in the spell to do such damage even from a disrupted attack.

“Gust,” Sebastian called on the wind to push the dust on the field towards Collin. An ensuing cacophony of coughing from the earth wizard caused the mage to smile even as his goal was revealed. Small trees grew from the bulwark making the defense look even more substantial at first glance, but the mizard knew that the trees weren’t the threat.

“Lightning, dance!” he commanded and pointed at the trees across the clearing. A grand stream of electricity danced away from the mizard lighting the battle fields in a brilliant flash. The rumble of thunder nearly deafened all those nearby, Sebastian included, and it was followed by an explosion as his trees received the bolts of lightning transferring the power of his spell down through their roots. The bulwark wasn’t the only thing to be destroyed by the powerful spell as the roots had wiggled through the dirt to wrap the base of the statue as well.

Caught in the fury of his lightning, the statue turned to a cloud of dust and shards.

Sebastian looked on the destructive results of his spells and nodded. He could do this.

Chapter 18- Adaptive Thinking

When the sound of thunder and the spots from from their eyes began to fade enough to see the destruction caused by a battle mage in a wizard’s duel, onlookers began to clap and cheer.

Dust was in the air for several minutes trying to settle and out of the main cloud came the coughing form of the earth wizard Collin. At first, Sebastian thought the sounds were only coughs until the man’s smiling, dirt covered face came into view and he realized that he was also laughing.

“You set me up. Gods, that was brilliant the way you really set me up,” the man continued his mix of laughter and coughing.

“It was a good match then?” Sebastian grinned back at the wizard.

“Brilliant. In fact, I am still seeing spots from your lightning. I didn’t even know a battle mage could cast lightning… and it was such a strong bolt besides.

“I thought I wasn’t underestimating you, Falcon Trillon, but you had me fooled from the start. Were those fireballs meant to do anything other than distract me?”

“Not really, and just call me, Sebastian. We’re not on duty here. I was impressed by your work too by the way. You managed to keep attacking even when you were coughing in all that dust.”

The earth wizard shrugged, “I’m an earth wizard. Some people refer to us as dirt mages. If I can’t handle a little dust, I’m probably in the wrong guild,” he finished with another laugh, “but that was a lot of dust.”

Laughing with the defeated wizard, Sebastian decided to test the waters of his new friendship. “You know, Collin, I learned a bit from this duel as well. The ravens want me to go to Winter’s Edge, but I could really use some training partners. Whoever joins me gets a free trip to Hala and can join the tournament if they want.”

Turning a shrewd eye on the battle mage, Collin retorted, “Ah, so this was a recruiting tool? You know I thought I had a good chance at going to the tournament on my own, until I ran into you. If a battle mage can do this to me, even if he’s an exceptional one like you, then I’m not sure that I’d stand a chance in the real tournament.”

“I could teach you how to beat me I bet,” Sebastian answered with a shrug, “but I need good wizards to train with and like you said, you’re good. Metal sharpens metal, Collin. What do you think?”

Brushing at the dirt on his clothes, the wizard looked thoughtful a moment. With a shrug, he replied, “If I can get excused by my superiors, why not? If nothing else, it should be interesting training with a battle mage.”

The lunch bells sounded and, since Sebastian wasn’t under any particular orders to the contrary, the mage went to lunch without any worries of being delayed. He was surprised to find so many wizards in the hall at the same time and, as Sebastian sat down to eat; he could feel their eyes upon him more than he ever had before.

With only half his plate finished, the mage felt a presence moving toward him swiftly. In a rush of red robes, a young woman sat across from Sebastian and placed her palms on the table with a slap. “I’ve heard that you’re recruiting wizards to train and take with you to the tournament in Hala and I want in. You’ve got to take me with you, Falcon Trillon.”

The girl’s curly auburn hair flowed wildly around her equally feral looking green eyes. Though he had seen the girl on the duel’s field earlier, Sebastian had never actually met the young wizard. Taken slightly aback by her blunt approach, the mage started to defend himself by saying, “I’m not necessarily supposed to train them, but spar with a group of wizards to train for the tournament myself.”

With an exasperated sigh, the wizard waved him off, “I don’t care how you phrase it. I want to come and learn how you did that to Collin. He’s a solid dueler. He beat me the last two times, though I’ll get him yet, but maybe if you can teach me some of that stuff you did it’ll be sooner rather than later. Plus I want to be good enough to win the tournament. A fire wizard has to win or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Serrena, right?” She nodded and blushed as the woman realized that she hadn’t introduced herself. “While I do need a few wizards willing to train with me, why should I let you tag along? You said it yourself that Collin can beat you and I am pretty sure that he’s going to join me anyway.”

Startled by the thought that a mage would turn down her offer as a full blown fire wizard who was trained to duel, the girl looked uncertain of what to say. It was what Sebastian was looking for and her answer would determine his course of action. She was a fire wizard and he had hoped to gather a variety of skilled wizards from various guilds but, despite Serrena’s enthusiasm, the woman had yet to give him a reason to choose her. After opening and closing her mouth twice, the woman had slowed down as she replied, “You need to test yourself against as many types of duelers as you can, Falcon Trillon. My skills with fire are as good as anyone’s and I do win duels quite often. My luck with certain other wizards isn’t great, but that’s why I want to learn. I’m a wizard, but maybe you can teach me some of your battle mage techniques. I’ve never seen anyone fight like you. I mean you accessed fire, nature and lightning. How did you even do that? Almost no one channels lightning.”

Her eyes were still intense but her manner had changed. She was no longer forcing the issue, learning that might wasn’t always the best way just as she had tried to force her will on the nature wizard in her fight and failed. The raw power of fire wizards led them to push for offense and end fights quickly. When an opponent waited them out, many could burn out during a fight without tempering that nature with patience. Serrena’s willingness to change her approach proved to Sebastian that she might just be trainable though he wondered how he had gone from trainee to trainer in less than a day.

“Meet me at the duelers’ fields after lunch and we’ll see,” the mizard spoke quietly so that they were not overheard. “Now let me finish my lunch and I suggest you eat something as well.”

Looking humbled by the mage as he proceeded to ignore her and take a drink, Serrena sat for a moment longer before getting up to go get her food from the buffet set up near the kitchens. The girl proved her tenacity by returning to sit at the table across from Sebastian. Even as she ate, the wizard stared at the mage trying to figure him out with a nearly unblinking stare.

It was Sebastian’s turn to be surprised when Collin arrived at his table with a tray of food piled high enough for two or three. “I checked with my superiors and apparently word came down from the high wizard that they should allow some of us to help you prepare. Most of them seemed to have thought it was just at the duel fields, but I managed to convince them that I could learn from a battle mage.

“The added bonus that they could slip me in as a contestant without having to get past the other guilds was an added bonus, I think.”

With a smile and a nod, Sebastian felt more at ease now that he knew the high wizard’s backing was made known to the guilds enough to allow him to select people that he got along with as he found them. It may not carry to other keeps or White Hall, so Sebastian wanted to have a few wizards before he left Windmeer. If Serrena worked out and Yara got her approval, his team now consisted of three.

Feeling heat on his shoulder from Serrena’s stare, Collin thumbed towards the girl using his chest to obscure the gesture from the wizard. “What did you do to get her pining after you like that?”

“How well do you know Serrena?” the mage asked quietly hoping the girl wasn’t using a spell to hear their conversation.

Shrugging, the earth wizard replied, “We don’t hang around or anything since we’re in different guilds. She’s a little younger than me and fights like a wild cat on the duel field.”

“Would you say that she’s a good fire wizard?”

“Sure. They’re all a little full of themselves, of course. They think just because they make all the flash with their fire that they’re the greatest of the wizards’ guilds, and she probably would have said that before this week’s practices.”

“How many have beaten her?”

Collin shrugged again and waited to swallow a bite of fowl before replying, “I haven’t seen every match that she’s had, of course, but I’ve beaten her twice and Herraln did too today. As far as I’ve heard, we’re the only ones. Other fire wizards, water and nature wizards have all lost to her. She attacks hard but, if you can weather her first attacks, timing a few counters beats what little defenses she sets. It’s a common mistake of a lot of them. They think that they can simply roll over you with their power.”

“Like you with that stone wheel spell?” Sebastian laughed causing Collin to wince good naturedly.

“Ouch, really? You beat me and now you’re going to make fun of me? By the way, I was impressed with how you used you shields. I’ve never seen a battle mage cast his so far or so many in such a short time. Your kind always seemed like they could only augment their armor and bodies. That was the first time that I’d seen your shields used like that.”

Grinning, Sebastian replied, “It was the first time I’d ever tried it really. Last year during a battle, while with a team of battle mages we extended our shields to weather a fire storm. I kind of expanded upon the idea. I am quickly realizing that you are correct though. Battle mage magic is rather restricted. We have relatively few long distance attacks and placing our defenses any distance from our bodies is never really done. We think like a soldier not a wizard, which is why I need you and a few more to help me adapt my skills to compete in the duels.”

With a grunt as he finished a drink, Collin replied, “For someone whose magic is ‘limited’, you sure figured it out fast. I’ve never seen anyone send shafts of wood into a defense and grow them like that. Nature wizards love root attacks though, but where did you come up with that? Then there was that lightning to finish me off. Unbelievable.”

Only able to shrug in reply, Sebastian confessed, “I do read as many of the wizards’ texts that I can, though I learn most of what I do from seeing wizards use their magic. Then I adapt what I can and sometimes winging it I come across something new.”

The last part left the wizard with his mouth hanging open mid bite. Putting the fork down with its piece of meat, the wizard began to smile, “You asked me to help train you, but I have a feeling this relationship is going to be an interesting one, my friend. You’re creating magic and using it in new ways better than any wizard I know. It’s a shame that your power wasn’t high enough to become a true wizard.” Collin suddenly winced and started to apologize, “I didn’t mean it like that, sorry. Bad habit, I
guess. I’m used to a battle mage being a mage and a wizard’s power being greater than theirs without a shadow of a doubt, but you kicked my butt, so obviously power isn’t everything.”

Waving the apology off, Sebastian replied, “It may have been for the best that I wasn’t born a wizard. A battle mage has to be able to adapt and use whatever is available. We’re trained that way, so I might never have been able to change tactics to defeat you without that training.”

Shaking his head, the wizard denied the mage’s idea, “If that’s true, then why are you the only mage that’s ever done this?”

“The first mage did it once. Maybe it’s just time to show the rest that we don’t have to be stuck as simple soldiers with simple weak magic.”