Broken Mage (24 page)

Having had his own room over the last
few days Thad had forgotten how loudly the dwarf snored. Usually as
tired as he was from working it wouldn’t have mattered how loud the
noise was, but tonight it seemed as if the dwarf was doing it right
next to his ear. Thad tried to position his arms over his ears and
while that worked for a time it was hard to sleep and hold the
position. Tossing and turning as he tried everything to block out
the noise Thad finally fell into a deep sleep.

Thad woke the next morning to Crusher
kicking him lightly in his back. Turning to face the dwarf Thad
gave him a sour look. He still felt tired much more so than when he
had first lay down to sleep and wanted nothing else than to
continue to rest. Turning back over Thad pulled his bedroll over
his head to block out even the sight of the burly dwarf but it was
to no avail as he was continuously prodded until he relented and
got up from his comfy bed.

After he cleared the sleepiness from
his mind he understood why Crusher was so insistent he wake.
Outside their protective wall there was an obvious plethora of
activity. Cursing himself for not placing one of his magical eyes
outside of their cubbyhole Thad moved over and placed his ear
against the cold metal wall.

From what he could hear a large number
of Vathari had massed outside and were nosily talking about
something. He wasn’t sure what it was for certain but he had a
suspicion it was the magical wall that wasn’t there the day before.
The last time they had put up the wall it had been made to look
like the walls around it. In his own error Thad had placed the wall
up without checking the heat patterns and matching them to the
existing ones. It was a huge oversight one it seems didn’t escape
the notice of the Vathari.

Thad turned to Crusher and motioned for
them to use the disguised shield and take down the wall and sneak
out but Crusher simply shook his head. Thad let out a heavy sigh he
doubted it would work either the only thing it would accomplish was
wasting the bracelets stores of magic. That only left one other
option. Pulling his sword from its scabbard Thad braced himself for
the coming battle.

Crusher had a large smile on his face
while Avalanche bounced around happily anticipating the coming fun.
Thad returned his friends smile as the wall shrunk back down into a
small ball revealing nearly fifteen Vathari warriors on the other
side.

It would have been easy to
hold the small tunnel for a long time where only one enemy could
get at them at a time. The only problem was that time wasn’t on
their side. Sooner or later they would tire and the enemies’
numbers were far beyond anything they could hope to match. Their
only real chance was to break through and hope they could distance
themselves from the
Vathari and disappear
into the darkness.

As soon as the wall vanished
Thad let loose a large bolt of lightning following right behind it
swinging at any of the
Vathari standing in
his way. The close quarters worked against the Vathari who had no
way to escape the magical attack or the brute force that followed
it. Within mere moments all of them lay dead, and Thad hoped that
would be the end. As soon as they broke into the open cavern
beyond, they found themselves surrounded by more soldiers than one
could easily count.

The companions stopped dead in their
tracks as they came to realize the situation they were in. Looking
over to Crusher Thad shrugged his shoulders and gave the dwarf a
strained smile, and then rushed toward the largest group of
enemies. Crusher and Avalanche followed his lead and each chose
their own target. Sometimes it was useful to fight as a group but
each of the three had their own fighting style and in their case it
usually got in the others way.

There were a little over twenty Vathari
in the group Thad had chosen. When he was only a dozen steeps away
Thad pointed his left hand at the creatures in front of him.
Wanting to try his new enchanted weapon he let loose with a magical
force wave that tore through the enemies. While the attack didn’t
do a lot of damage it did knock the Vathari from their feet giving
him a distinct starting advantage.

Thad ran by three of the downed Vathari
making quick cuts to their throat before they could regain their
footing. It didn’t really seem sporting but Thad couldn’t really
afford to let the chance slip by. Shortly after he finished off the
third of the downed warriors enough of the others had gotten to the
feet and began to engage him in close combat.

As he dodged a sword blow that cut too
close for comfort to his head Thad had the urge to trigger his
shield forcibly but he held himself back. He had designed the new
shield so it only activated when he was in danger but it was still
untested and that fact still tugged on his mind. If it didn’t work
he still had two of his shield rings on, but that would do him
little good if the first blow he took was a fatal one. Shaking his
worries from his mind Thad pressed his attack focusing on only his
enemies and his own attacks.

Thad found himself engaged by four of
the Vathari while the others held back waiting for their chance to
strike. They were pressing him hard and as soon as he blocked one
attack he had to reposition for another. Thad had little choice but
to use magic to help even the odds but even getting the time to use
a spell was difficult. He had never used one before while he was
also engaged in close combat but if any time was the right time to
try it was now.

Parrying a blow to his side
Thad slid his lead foot back dodging another strike Thad summoned
his staff to his hand quickly holding it over his head to block
a
Vathari sword that threatened to split
his skull. As soon as the sword struck the staff Thad sent a pulse
of magic through it and into the unfortunate warrior that held it,
tearing his arm from his body.

The magical attack only gave him a
brief window to act but Thad was waiting on it and quickly racked
the group of waiting Vathari with a massive stream of fire. The
warriors who escaped the fiery blaze rushed him, forcing him to
once again take a defensive position. Luckily, as they had before,
all the Vathari gave his staff a great deal of space whenever he
used it for an attack.

Swinging his staff Thad forced the
Vathari to step back then jumped in with a quick thrust to the
nearest enemy. The warriors quickly parried his blow but the
creature’s eyes were fixated with what Thad was doing with his
staff making it easy for Thad to let his sword slide down as he
pivoted his feet knocking the warrior off balance, gracing Thad
with a clear shot at his exposed side.

His sword slid easily between the
Vathari’s ribs puncturing its heart. Thad knew the warrior was dead
long before it stopped moving. Kicking the dead body from his sword
Thad turned expecting to see another attacking advancing, instead
Thad found that they were all backing away slowing keeping their
eyes pinned on him.

Thad wasn’t sure what was going on
until two robed figures stepped from the shadows and calmly
approached him. They were taller than him by nearly a foot and
neither carried a weapon as far as Thad could tell but the long
robes they wore could easily hide something within its heavy
folds.

Taking a few deep breaths Thad readied
himself. He was sure that they were either mages like himself or
what Sae-Thae had called priests. All he really knew about their
magic was that it was limited to the use of the darkness element.
That didn’t mean there still wasn’t a lot they could do with it.
Their people had been around and training mages for centuries and
had most likely had spells that he couldn’t even fathom. All he
could really do was stand and wait to see what his counterparts did
and hope that he could match them blow for blow. It would have sat
better with him if it wasn’t already to his disadvantage, having to
fight two against one.

The air was tense as the three men
stared at each other no more than a handful of paces apart. Thad
watched as one of the Vathari lifted up his arm and held out a
closed fist toward him. Unsure of what to suspect Thad let his
magical sight take over. What he saw nearly made him turn and run.
A great blanket of magical energy was reaching toward him like a
ghostly hand.

Thad raised his staff using his own
magic to try and mimic what he saw in front of him. It was far from
perfect but it looked to be stalling the other mage’s efforts.
While he was focused on the one mage the other one sent another
stream of what looked like a large black fireball. With all his
magical efforts on the first mage Thad nearly panicked when the
large ball of black flame slammed into him. His shield activated
forcing the fireball to break around him though the sheer force of
it still forced him back a few steps.

Not wanting to stay on the
defensive Thad triggered his bracelet sending out a ball of force
toward the first
Vathari mage. When the
ball of force was only a few heartbeats away from striking the mage
let his attack dissipate and put up a shield of his own. Thad
didn’t relent now that he had a moment and sent lightning streaking
toward both of the mages. It struck against their shield filling
the cavern with multicolored lights.

As soon as his lightning attack
stopped, both mages working as one, sending dozens of small black
bolts of energy toward him. The magical bolts tore into Thad’s
shield hitting it hard. Thad tried to reinforce it but he was too
slow as one of the bolts struck him in the left shoulder blasting a
small hole and knocking him to the ground.

When Thad hit the ground his sword
skidded from his hand and flew to the far side of the room. His
first instinct was to race for the sword but he fought against it
as he jumped to his feet. He knew the blade was next to useless
against a mage but having it in his hand had been reassuring. He
was losing and badly against the mages one on one he might stand a
chance but it was only a matter of time before the two overpowered
him.

As soon as Thad got to his
feet he noticed that the mages were already busy casting their next
spell and from the amount of magical energies the two were
absorbing it was going to be a strong one. Thad tried to think of
anything that might work when he remember his other sword. He
wasn’t sure why he had forgotten about it in the first place.
Wasting no time Thad pulled the sword from its scabbard and took
his position awaiting whatever the
Vathari
were going to throw at him.

Thad didn’t have to wait long to find
out. From the ground a massive creature of shadow began to crawl up
from the ground. Examining it he found that it was more illusion
than real but he knew from his own experience that the mages could
add substance whenever they desired. It was a brilliant idea normal
spells would pass right through it as long as it was a base
illusion. He guessed that one of the mages was holding the illusion
while the other would make it more solid when and where it was
needed.

Thad pushed the pain from his injured
shoulder aside and charged toward the two mages. They were
obviously well trained as they didn’t even flinch as he rushed at
them instead their shadow monster moved to intercept him. The
shadow creature was easily twice his size but Thad figured that
would work to his advantage.

The shadow creature quickly caught up
to him and swept one of its massive arms at his back. Thad dived to
the side in a tight roll. When his shoulder hit the ground he cried
out in pain. Getting to his feet Thad found the creature had
already adjusted for his move and was swinging its giant fist
straight down toward his head.

Thad instinctively raised his sword to
block the blow. When the shadow creature’s fist made contact with
the blade of Thad’s sword, it dissipated as if the sword was a
light chasing away the darkness. The shadow creature stepped back
and Thad hear a scream from his side. Looking over he saw one of
the mages holding his head as blood ran from his nose. Thad had
been on the business end of that feeling before. It was never
pleasant when you were the subject of magical backlash when a spell
failed prematurely.

Knowing what to do Thad advanced on the
shadow creature dodging its attacks and striking at any target that
presented itself. Each time his blade met with the shadow he could
hear the satisfying scream of one of the mages behind him. He
continued to press the attack until the walking shadow dissipated
back into the surrounding darkness.

With the mages construct out of
commission Thad turned his attention back to its creators. Both of
the mages were wide eyed, the fear they felt plainly displayed on
their faces as Thad advanced on them. One of the mages turned and
tried to run but Thad wasn’t in the mood to let him escape and
hurled a massive fireball at the fleeing man. He must have been
weakened more than Thad had realized as the flaming ball overtook
the mage quickly engulfing him leaving only a charred husk
behind.

The remaining mage was visibly sweating
and looked as if he was on the verge of panic himself. The mage
began to throw more of the black blots toward him but what few got
past his shield dissipated when they reached him. Thad now
understood why the Brotherhood had such an easy time hunting down
mages of great power. With a sword that absorbed any direct effect
magic a small group of soldiers could be devastating at close
range.