Supermage

by Aaron Oster

  He quickly dismissed his wind blades and stood with his fists raised, waiting for his tailwind timer to run out. The foxes weren’t about to wait for him, though, and they both lunged forward at once, each aiming for a different spot on his body.

  He dodged one and brought his fist in a short hook, slamming it into its side. He heard the satisfying crack of bone as the beast’s ribs buckled under the blow. Then he hissed in pain as he felt something sharp break the skin on his leg.

  Looking down, he could see that the fox had bitten through his mage shield, all his protective layers of clothing, and right into his leg.

  He could feel that the bite wasn’t deep, but the fact that the fox had even made it through said more about the danger this Beast Zone posed than anything Gold may have told him before. It also meant that his mage shield and his armored clothes would do little to stop an injury here.

  He used wind blade once again and brought it down on the back to the fox’s head. He felt some resistance again, but after a second or two, the blade sunk into its skull and he felt the jaws clamped around his leg relax.

  He then dismissed his wind blade and let his mage shield go out.

  It would do him little good here, so he may as well.

  Bending down, he pried the fox’s jaws apart and examined the wound.

  He could see a few tiny pinpricks of blood through the holes in the pants, but nothing that looked too serious.

  He then straightened and rushed toward where he saw Sarah fighting, passing Gold as he ran.

  The man was, as usual, doing nothing to help, just standing there with an impassive expression and watching the fight.

  As she came into view, Morgan could see that Sarah wasn’t fighting a group of foxes. Instead, she was fighting one large, furry creature with gray and white fur. It had a face shaped somewhere between a bear and a wolf, with small black eyes and a short snout.

  While the foxes had come up to around knee height, this creature came up to around mid-thigh and looked a whole lot more intimidating. It had four pairs of very sharp looking claws and a blue glow was currently surrounding them.

  Sarah was breathing very hard and Morgan could see several places where the animal had scored hits on her shield.

  He was amazed that she’d lasted this long on her own, especially since her shield had held out, when his hadn’t.

  The creature wasn’t undamaged, however. Two broken off icicle spears jutted out of one side, matting the fur red with its blood. One if its paws also looked as if it had been crushed and the creature was moving more slowly than he though it should be.

  “Good to see you finally made it,” she panted, forming another icicle spear and hurling it at the beast.

  Morgan watched in amazement as the beast’s front paw shot up and neatly sliced it out of the air.

  “Any idea what it is?” he asked, as she launched another attack at it.

  “No clue, but it’s got some sort of mage ability.”

  She pointed to section of ground which had turned to solid ice.

  “Those claws did that, so watch out for them.”

  The beast roared then and lumbered toward them at a fast trot, its teeth bared, and puffs of steam rising from is nostrils.

  “Wish me luck,” he said, running off to the side and allowing the beast to focus only on Sarah.

  His tailwind timer had run out some time ago, so he used his heavy handed skill and rushed it from the side.

  To its credit, the beast did manage to twist its body out of the way as Morgan threw a punch at its side. He wasn’t sure how the beast had done it, seeing as he’d been coming in from a blind spot. However, that momentary distraction was all that Sarah needed to finish it off.

  Now they both stood trying to catch their breaths as they stared at the dead beast. Sarah had aimed well and a long, jagged spear of ice protruded from one of its eyes.

  “That wasn’t half bad.”

  They both turned to see Gold walking up to them, slowly clapping his hands.

  “I half expected to have to intervene during your first fight. You surprised me.”

  “You get the core from this one. I’ll go back and get the other ones. Don’t hand them over to Gold yet, I want to see what kind of beasts we’ll be dealing with,” Morgan said, completely ignoring him.

  Sarah nodded and bent down near the beast, pulling out her slim rod to fetch the core.

  Morgan turned and walked straight passed Gold, who looked both indignant and hurt at the same time.

  He wasn’t buying it.

  Pulling a rod from his waist, Morgan quickly extracted the cores from the three foxes, noting that they were a good deal larger than those of the sheep. He decided not to check them there and instead walked back to Sarah, who had by now retrieved the other core.

  “So, what kind of beast are those from?” she asked, nodding to the three cores clutched in his hand.

  “Check for yourself,” he said, tossing one of them to her and opening his status so he could see as well.

  Name: Frost-fox core

  Rank - 5

  Total available energy - 192/192

  This core was taken from a frost-fox and has no special properties.

  He closed his status, happy that the amount of available energy was so much higher than that of the sheep.

  The fight may have been harder, but if every beast gave just as much, or more, then it was well worth it.

  He handed the core over to Gold, who pocketed it, grumbling about ungrateful students.

  Then Sarah handed him the core from the beast she’d killed and he opened his status once more.

  Name: Ice-clawed wolverine core

  Rank - 6

  Total available energy - 377/377

  This core was taken from an ice-clawed wolverine and has no special properties.

  So the beast was called a wolverine. He’d never heard of a creature like that before.

  “Do you know what a wolverine is?” he asked Gold, as he handed over the core.

  “I do,” Gold said, taking the core and putting it away in a pouch. “We’d better keep moving. It’s not getting any warmer and if you want a crack at the Matriarch we’ll have to pick up the pace.”

  As he walked passed them, Morgan and Sarah shared a look.

  Of course he wouldn’t tell them!

  30

  They trekked on for another two and a half hours, running into a few more packs of foxes and two more wolverines. The silhouette of the mountain had grown larger all the while and now he could clearly make it out, though only a bit of the mountain was visible, as the rest was covered in clouds of whirling snow.

  Morgan noticed that the longer they walked, the more worried Gold appeared to become. Finally, he just had to ask.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Gold started as he spoke and gestured to the surrounding landscape.

  “We should be running into a lot more beasts than we have been. Something doesn’t feel right.”

  “Do you think we should go back?” Sarah asked, moving closer to the two of them.

  “No,” Gold said after another moment of silence. “Besides, the portal will only open once we reach the end of the stage. Just be on guard. We’ll be coming up on the Matriarch’s territory in a few minutes.”

  “About time, too,” Sarah said. “It’s getting so cold, I can hardly feel my fingers! How is it that you look so comfortable?”

  This question was directed at Gold, who had actually taken off his coat and had tied it around his waist.

  “Benefits of a high constitution,” he answered distractedly, not even trying to be vague and unhelpful.

  This more than anything, highlighted just how serious the situation was.

  “There’s the Matriarch’s territory,” Gold said, pointing to a large tunnel made of ice at the base of the mountain.

  The ground started to slowly slope upward as they approached, making the walk just a bit more difficult.

  T
he air became noticeably warmer as they entered the shelter of the tunnel. The sound of the howling wind echoed off the walls as they walked, and he and Sarah looked around in wonder as they headed deeper in.

  After another minute of walking, the tunnel abruptly ended and opened up into a massive icy cavern. Morgan heard a sigh of relief and turned to see Gold looking at the beast lying asleep in the center of the cavern.

  It was a wolf, but a wolf unlike anything he’d ever seen before. It was massive.; larger even than the bear they’d fought on their way to the Central Kingdom, and was covered in bristly blue and white fur. Its paws were larger than his torso and he could see the gleam of long white fangs as it growled in its slumber.

  “Is that thing the Matriarch?” Sarah asked in a lowered tone, not wanting to wake the beast.

  “No, the Matriarch is a rank 8 ice-clawed wolverine alpha. That is an ice-bristle wolf. They range from rank 9 to 11 and normally roam in packs on stage 3 of the Zone.”

  “So what’s it doing down here? And where is the Matriarch?” Morgan asked.

  “Every once in a while, beasts will wander down from higher stages. It’s uncommon, but not completely unheard of. And as for the Matriarch…” Gold gestured to the far wall, where the corpse of some animal was just visible behind the tunnel exit.

  “I’m just glad that it’s only an ice-bristle wolf and not something worse,” Gold said, reaching into his pocket and fetching the portal key.

  “I’ll report this to the Beast Zone management and they’ll send someone in here to take care of this.”

  “So we’re just going to leave without fighting that thing?” Sarah asked.

  “Like I said; it’s ranked between 9 and 11. The two of you wouldn’t stand a chance against it and it’s not my job to kill beasts that wander down by accident,” Gold answered, already fiddling with the key.

  “It’s only a rank or two above Sarah; three at the most,” Morgan said, coming to her defense. “I bet we can take it without too much difficulty.”

  After all, the core from a rank 9 to 11 beast probably had a ton of energy and he didn’t want it to go to waste.

  “This is an evolved beast. Have you both completely forgotten what I told you about those ranked 9 and above?” Gold asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “You said we wouldn’t stand a chance,” Sarah said, now getting into it as well. “But that beast doesn’t look much tougher than the bear we fought and we were both lower ranked back then.”

  Gold turned back to Morgan, a grave expression on his face.

  “Do you think I’m over exaggerating as well?”

  Morgan hesitated for a moment.

  He knew that despite his quirks and tendencies towards sadism, Gold was a very good teacher. If he said this beast was out of their league, it most likely was. That wasn’t going to stop him from trying, though.

  “I do believe you, but I’d still like to try and take this thing on. I haven’t had a real challenge in a Beast Zone yet, so I’d like to test myself to see how I’ve progressed.”

  Gold was silent for a moment as he contemplated this. He was silent for so long that they both began to fear he would shoot them down.

  “Very well,” he finally said. “I will let you fight the ice-bristle wolf, but on one condition. If I have to intervene, we’ll be starting our morning sessions at six instead of eight for the next month. If you agree to this, then we have a deal.”

  Gold folded his arms and smiled smugly, sure that neither of them would be willing to take that sort of risk.

  “You’ve got a deal,” Morgan said excitedly.

  “He does?!” Sarah asked, staring at him wide eyed. “I agree that fighting the beast would be a good challenge, but do you really want to take the risk of losing?”

  Morgan nodded, grinning madly as he thought of the upcoming challenge.

  Now he’d be able to test himself against a beast that had ready broken through rank 8 and evolved. This would be an excellent way to both gage how powerful he could become after a breakthrough, and how he currently stacked up.

  “Alright,” Sarah said, with a sigh of resignation. “But if we lose, I’m holding you responsible for all the extra pain I’ll be enduring over the next month!”

  They turned back to Gold, who was looking both astonished and pleased at the same time.

  “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said with a wide smile. “I’ll be looking forward to those extra two hours of training!”

  Morgan was about to step into the cavern when Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “Wait just a minute,” she said.

  She turned to look at Gold with a shrewd expression on her face. “What will you give us if we win?”

  “Why should I give you anything?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’m allowing you to fight the wolf. That is your reward.”

  “So if we fight and win, we get nothing; but if we fight and lose, we get a month of extra training? How is that a fair deal?”

  Morgan was about to protest.

  He thought fighting the wolf was a pretty good reward. Why did Sarah want more?

  “Alright, fine. I can see your point,” he conceded, after a moment of thought. “What do you want if you win? And before you ask, I won’t give you time off of training,” he quickly added in.

  “That’s fine,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “We need the training anyway. What we want is to not have to go back to fighting sheep after today. We know that we can’t come here every day, so on the other days, you will take us to a more challenging Beast Zone. Also, on the first run through that Zone you will be doing all the work, while we get to keep the cores.”

  “Fine,” he replied after a few seconds. “But you only get ten minutes to beat the wolf; after that I will intervene!”

  “Deal!” Sarah said quickly, and shook on it.

  Morgan, who had been staring in shock the entire time this was going on, had to wonder if his friend had taken leave of her sanity.

  “And I thought I was the crazy one,” he said, as Sarah walked back to him with a smug grin on her face.

  “Oh, you are,” she said, patting him lightly on the back. “But I just got us a great deal.”

  “You did,” he agreed, “but do you really think we can beat it in under ten minutes?”

  She shrugged.

  “The way I see it, is that if we can’t beat it in ten minutes, we’ll likely be either too wounded to fight; or too weak to hurt it.”

  “Alright. But if we lose now, you can’t blame me for any extra hours of training.”

  “Agreed. Now let’s go kill us a wolf!”

  31

  Morgan was amazed that the wolf hadn’t so much as twitched the entire time they’d been standing there.

  He wondered if they could sneak up on it and finish it off in its sleep.

  The second they left the shelter of the tunnel, however, the wolf sat bolt upright and turned to look at them; it’s muzzle bunched up in a snarl. It slowly uncurled itself from its position on the ground and rose to its full height.

  Morgan felt his heart rate increase as he beheld the ice-bristle wolf in all its glory. Over six feet at the shoulder and at least fifteen feet from snout to tail, the beast was not something to be trifled with.

  “So what’s the plan?” Sarah asked, as her mage shield outlined her body in a bright blue glow.

  “Same as always, I guess,” he answered, using his tailwind skill and activating wind blade twice in a row.

  “Slow it down using frostbite, then attack using your icicle spear. I’ll test out its defenses and see if any of my mage attacks get through. If not, I’ll have to switch to my super ability, so slowing it down will be even more crucial then.”

  She nodded her understanding and held her arm out to use her skill.

  “Your time begins now.” He heard Gold’s voice from behind him.

  He flashed Sarah a grin and dashed toward the massive wolf. The wolf,
seeing him approach, threw back its head and let out a howl that shook the cavern. He stumbled for a moment, as he felt his adrenaline spike and a sudden rush of fear hit him.

  Just what kind of attack had it used on him just now?!

  He shook himself, making a mental effort to keep going, and not turn tail and run. There was around a hundred feet between him and the wolf, and he covered it in an instant.

  With tailwind active, he had an effective agility of around 73, so there was no way the wolf could dodge his attack.

  He leapt to the side as the wolf swiped at him and stabbed forward with his wind blades, throwing six strikes in a matter of seconds, into the wolf’s unprotected side.

  He groaned in frustration as every single attack bounced off the wolf’s hide. without leaving so much as a scratch.

  So much for that plan.

  He jumped back as the wolf turned to snap at him and dismissed his blades. He then watched as four icicle spears slammed into the wolf’s skull; and shattered, leaving the wolf unharmed, if not a little dazed.

  “Oh, shit. That’s not good,” he heard Sarah say, from across the cavern.

  No kidding! If they couldn’t even manage to scratch it, there was no way they could win!

  “Sarah, my tailwind is about to run out! Slow it down so I can use my super skills!” Morgan called out.

  Even though his speed was more than doubled, he was still barely managing to avoid being hit and he didn’t dare let his tailwind run out until Sarah slowed it down.

  He felt an icy gust of wind wash over him and noticed the wolf slowing a bit, but not nearly as much as it should.

  Maybe the higher rank meant that the effects would be weakened? Or since it was a creature of ice, the slowing effect wasn’t as strong? Either way, it didn’t look like he’d be coming out of this fight uninjured. Oh well.

  Morgan felt his tailwind run out and jumped backwards just as it did. He sailed back a good thirty feet and landed in a crouch.

  The wolf whipped its head toward him and snarled, its icy blue eyes seeming to glow with malevolence.