Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (53 page)

“Twahs noht ayr ohr fayr,” Cazwallan disputed as Sebastian released his spell of ensnaring.

It was Sebastian who answered simply, “We could use whatever magic at our disposal. I brought the wooden shafts from the armory as was allowed in the rules.”

Turning his back on the wizard, Sebastian moved to step out of the battle circle. A quick rise of magic behind him made the mage quickly turn to face Cazwallan once more. “Gust!” he ordered a powerful wind to strike the wizard. Flames roared across the wall at the unprotected mage only to strike the protection of the three wizards still guarding him.

Cazwallan was similarly protected from harm by his own trio, but the wind picked the man up enough to toss him over the side of the battle platform. Not even bothering to look back, Sebastian continued his walk to the outer wall’s tower.

Chapter 29- Dragon a Trench

“Big brother, that was amazing!” Katya cried out as she hurried into the tower trailed by Yara and the others. Almost all of his team was there. Only Collin, Nara and Serrena were away at the northern fields getting ready for their afternoon matches. He and most of the team would go to cheer on their teammates after a quick lunch. Being the last of the morning matches, the sun was already at its zenith and it had been awhile since anyone had breakfast.

Making a sandwich from the supplies kept in the tower for after the wizards’ matches to help replenish their energy. Sebastian was already getting a jump start on his next meal. With Bairh’loore leaning nearby along with the three staves remaining from his match, the mage returned his sister’s praise with a quiet smile. “Cazwallan had some talent, but he didn’t take me serious.”

“I bet your next opponent won’t make that mistake,” Wendle chuckled as he stood beside the snack table having stayed behind to watch the match. “In fact, maybe you can go a little easy on me?”

Pretending to be confused, Sebastian gestured towards himself and asked, “Me? You’re the wizard. Aren’t I supposed to be asking you to taking it easy on me?”

Giving a snort that dismissed his request as folly, the wizard replied, “No, thanks. I don’t want to wind up like Cazwallan, if I can help it.”

They had seen each other duel and had an idea of what each could bring to the circle. It should be a decent match, Sebastian thought as he smiled at his friend.

Ashleen and Wendle went to gather Deiclonus from his match at the Ponds separating from Sebastian’s team, but they decided to watch the other matches from the team after lunch. Luckily, the remaining three matches were spread over enough time that they could make each in turn. Nara would be at the Hedges first, followed by Collin in the Trench and last they would see Serrena fighting at the battle field known as Two Houses.

After eating at a diner recommended to them by the locals, they watched Nara duel one of the dark skinned wizards of Ch’Thal. Dressed in his strange animal skins and appearing a bit uncomfortable in the cold despite the slight rise in temperature as the day progressed, the foreign wizard started off well. His defenses were strongly constructed and he was fluid in his attacks. Unfortunately for him, he was up against Nara, a very good nature wizard on a field intended to give her school an advantage for more interesting battles. The Ch’Thal wizard was supposed to be a nature wizard among his people, so there was no mismatch thanks to the field of play, but the woman had trained with Sebastian and his battle mages for a few weeks.

With her ability to tap into several spells in the quick one word way of a battle mage, Nara began to beat the man to the punch. Going from attacker to defense only, the man was soon overwhelmed by her speed of casting. Once the woman managed to penetrate his defenses, a spell similar to Sebastian’s final trap in his match was used to entangle the man for the win.

They barely had a chance to congratulate Nara on her win, before she was looking ready to run.

“How soon is Collin’s match?” she asked as the wizard quickly ate a recovery meal. Treating the food as simple fuel, Nara ignored taste as she simply wanted to keep herself strong while quickly moving to the next match.

“We have time,” Yara assured her friend. The healer had steadily become fond of the nature wizard as she and Collin strengthened as a couple. The pair seemed to attach themselves to Sebastian and Yara as the other couple in the team. Couples tended to draw together amidst all the other singles in the group and their personalities were a close mesh as well.

Sebastian noted Nara’s near panic at needing to be there for Collin. The two had continually tried to say there was no relationship, but the entire team could see each day brought them closer. Whether the wizard’s rules on relationships with their own kind were as stringent as he had been led to believe, the mage wasn’t sure. If there was a way for the two to be together though, he had a feeling that they would figure it out eventually.

Half restraining the nature wizard with their casual pace, the group navigated the paths around the various battle fields and their accompanying viewer stands. The Trench wasn’t that far from the Hedges, so making their way through the crowd moving back and forth to the matches to see their favorites didn’t take that long. Though Nara acted like it was the longest walk in the world by the time they arrived, he thought.

Yara had been correct. Collin was waiting as another match raged on between an earth wizard from Green Hall and a short, stocky man from Tolmona one of the countries from Taltan, the continent said to be the origin of most of the people of the North continent. It was a heated event.

Joining the earth wizard in the stands overlooking a deep chasm with a dueler’s ring separated by about a hundred feet from each other, they greeted their friend as they began to watch the remainder of the match. The width of the battle field was limited to only about twenty feet and reminded Sebastian of his own battle field the Heights, except in reverse. A rather simply designed field, the two men were raging an earth magic based war inside of their rings.

Their skill with earth spells was apparent and the two men appeared nearly equal as they caused earthquakes or sent boulders flying at one another. As the match went on, Sebastian thought that it was becoming a war of attrition. Whoever could outlast his opponent on pure stamina, would be the winner. Sure enough, after almost twenty minutes of struggle, the younger wizard from Green Hall sagged to his knees in exhaustion as he watched the last of his defenses reduced to rubble before him.

The Tolmonan looked close to the same state and appeared relieved that the match was done. Shaking hands, the two men left the Trench with a healthy respect for each other.

“Well, that was quite a match,” Liam stated impressed with their effort. “I hope that yours is a bit easier than that, Collin, though I do have to say that I am beginning to believe that whoever designed these duel fields knew what they were doing. I’ve seen quite a few matches turn into amazing duels so far today. The ones that benefit a type of wizard like an earth wizard inside this trench or the water of the North Sea seem to be making for quite intense battles.”

Nodding reluctantly as Collin tried to collect himself for his match, the wizard replied, “I am willing to agree that the matches seem to be on a larger scale than our usual battle rings. Now I just have to hope that I can beat my opponent. The wizards from the Dragon Spine Mountains are said to be from a race of dragons hiding up there and they are also supposed to be very powerful.”

“They have to be powerful,” Brenner stated as he watched a copper haired woman in a red dress cut above her knees. A dark brown leather cloak that had straps going over her shoulders and back under her arms with a crossing strap running across and beneath her breasts to keep the weight from strangling the wearer seemed more for appearances than to ward the cold. Short leather boots came above her ankles bearing the skin between cuff and skirt. Whether she was some dragon’s child or not, the woman seemed immune to the chill of the late winter’s day. Most northerners could not have worn the same without freezing.

A golden amulet hung from a necklace resting high on her chest to complete the wizard’s look. She was petite in size making her appear to be anything but a dragon to anyone looking. Sebastian noted a strange feeling to her amulet, but that was to be expected of a wizard, he supposed. Perhaps it enchanted
her in some way. It wouldn’t be against the rules and if the little wizard followed the tournament’s guidelines, then perhaps the petite girl needed the help.

“Beware her amulet,” the mage warned his friend just in case he may have overlooked it. “It may be a totem to assist in a spell.”

Collin nodded as the wizard had noted his opponent’s appearance also. In fact, he had been eyeing her since he had arrived. They had been at their own placement drawing the afternoon before and the man knew who he would be facing.

After being wished good luck, the wizard followed the woman from the Dragon Spine Mountains. They squared up in their circles, but as Collin watched the woman she took her eyes off of him and began removing her boots. Again, Sebastian doubted any northerner would dare remove their boots on a day that ran below freezing even though it was afternoon. The woman placed them delicately at the back of her circle and returned to the center once more giving Collin a pretty smile for his wait.

The man remained patient. He had a game plan worked out for the arena that he had been assigned. After checking the Trench out the previous afternoon and having all morning to consider his options, even the sight of the other wizard with her copper colored hair, red dress and cloak, standing bare foot in the cold could not change his plans. Just waiting for the six wizards and the judge for the event to announce them remained.

“Ladies and gentlemen, for the ninth match at the Trench today we have Isstmira Sselanus from the Dragon Spine Mountains versus Collin Delaman from Windmeer. Prepare your defenses contestants,” another man dressed in black announced the proceedings from the safety of a box resting at the edge of the Trench in front of the stands.

Created to be fifteen feet deep throughout most of the field, the view from the stands was a little more difficult for viewing than most, but Sebastian and his team could still see the wizards begin their defensive walls. Collin formed thick walls of stone following the circle with just a small window to see his opponent through. A clear, blue mage shield finished the window protecting the wizard from standard projectiles for the time at least.

Isstmira smiled before chanting a quick spell finishing it with a stomp. The stone of the Trench vibrated with her foot and a wall crenellated like a parapet rose up around her battle circle. Standing ready after a maneuver that had taken the amount of time that a battle mage might have raised a less impressive defense, the woman simply grinned at the earth wizard behind his defenses.

The fifteen seconds were gone in a blink and Isstmira was the one who struck first with another unusual technique. A few muttered words and a clap of her hands before throwing them wide caused a large gale of wind to be sent through the Trench towards the Earth wizard.

Collin calmly countered with a simple protection spell taken from Sebastian’s book of tricks. “Air shield,” he ordered simply to keep the dirt and dust from him as the wizard switched to a standard spell.

The stones of the Trench shook free and from all sides stone missiles assaulted the woman’s circle. A quickly worded spell and another stomp from Isstmira sent blocks of stone into the air to counter, but she had miscalculated the number of missiles and several crashed into her fancy defense.

Ignoring the shrapnel despite several cuts including one on her left cheek, Isstmira renewed her attack sending smaller blocks towards Collin. As they neared, the wizard clapped her hands and spread her fingers wide while pretending to cast something free. The blocks shattered into her own shrapnel striking the man’s defenses with little effect. If he had not set his walls thick and strong, Collin would most likely not have survived the thousands of little fragments.

The wizards continued to set the ground a rumble and stones struck with thunderous consequences. So loud was the noise that many of the audience had taken to covering their ears to muffle the cacophony, but Sebastian continued to watch the match carefully despite it all. He watched as Collin managed to turn the match with one simple spell.

Using a powerful version of the ground sweeping spell, the wizard caught the dragon between attacks. Like a wave of stone rumbling towards her, the attack swept aside her parapet defense and would have taken her feet out from under her if not for an ingenious spell of desperation of her own. Jumping into the air, a strong wind swept her up catching the cloak and lifting her nearly out of the Trench, but straight up like a prolonged jump. Had Isstmira played it safe and landed quickly, the match might have continued, but Collin had been ready for a follow up attack and launched several spikes up at the floating woman.

The spikes speared the cloak in several places, though she managed to deflect those aimed for her body as she cried out in alarm. With a scream, Isstmira toppled from the sky to the back end of her battle circle. As the crowd watched, her amulet was ripped from her neck and the woman’s appearance changed. She reached for the amulet, but her fingers changed to scaled fingers with claws at the end growing in size as the shape of the woman continued to change. Her body grew and metamorphosized into the shape of a wingless dragon.