"Your mother, she loved that picture of her with your father. He had just been recognized formally as Silverhand after absorbing his gauntlet," Said Nicodemus from behind her. Abby turned and looked, seeing that he had changed into the sparing white outfit. Loose-fitting white pants and a matching sleeveless shirt.
Abby’s cheeks flushed red in embarrassment that he had to come to fetch her. Realizing that she had lost track of time, the mage light starting to dim. "I’m sorry I didn’t mean to leave you waiting. I just got well."
Nicodemus shook his head. "You got distracted, and it is on me for thinking anything otherwise would happen. Why wouldn’t an orphan get distracted in a place like this? I know I could sit here and stare at the old memories for hours. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss my daughter, but I still had her whole life to know her. But you, you’ve had to live your entire life without her, and without him for that matter, and I’m sorry about that."
"But that’s not what I meant though about me knowing better." Admitted Nicodemus as the mood grew somber. "I sent you in here to find her old sparring uniform and put it on, but you can’t get it without the key. Everything in this room was your mother’s. I haven’t been in here for a long time, but I’m sure she would be proud knowing you’ll be putting it to could use." Reaching around his neck, Nicodemus pulled out a key that had been hanging and inserted into the lock on the wardrobe.
As Nicodemus opened the door, Abby saw a few moths fly away. Or maybe they were some other kind of insect, she wasn’t sure, this was all new to her. Ignoring them, Nicodemus shifting the clothes around before reaching into a stacked pile on the second shelf that was built into one half of the wardrobe. Pulling out as he did a white outfit similar to the one he was wearing.
With a sheepish look, Nicodemus apologized. "This should fit well enough. You’re actually quite a bit taller then she was. It should be ok, though. I’ll give you your space. Just come out when ready so we can start the training. I need to know how much Porthos hasn’t taught you.
"Alright, thanks. I’ll be out as soon as I get changed." Said Abby as Nicodemus handed her the sparring outfit that had belonged to her mother. With a nod, he left the room, closing the door behind him. The entire time, Abby unable or unwilling to look away from the youthful picture of her parents happy together.
“No one can live in the past, Abby”. She told herself as she began to put on the outfit, preparing for what she knew would be a fight with Nicodemus.
Chapter 20: First Duel. The Engineers Labyrinth
Nicodemus was right. The outfit didn’t fit her quite right. The outfit was just a little too short, only reaching the mid-shin instead of her ankles. Overall though, it was comfortable and easy enough to maneuver in. Abby could see why it was used for sparring. Setting the satchel she had been carrying down on the table of the room she was going to be staying in, she opened the door.
Leaving her mother's old room, Abby saw that Nicodemus was waiting for her in the middle of the sparring arena. Standing with his eyes closed, his hands behind his back in a resting position, Nicodemus looked every bit the part of an aged master. For a moment, Abby thought this was a window to how he must have been in his prime when he was still the head of the Adventurers Guild. The man opened his eyes as he heard Abby step out of the room and smiled, not an ounce of drowsiness or sluggishness could be seen on him.
The man was ready for a fight, and to an extent, Abby was too. If her grandfather Porthos had thought Nicodemus could train her better then he could, Abby had no choice but to assume he was strong. A strength Abby wanted to see first hand. She had heard the rumor that he was one of the strongest mages in the entire Empire affiliated with the school of the Arcane. Abby knew she could learn a lot from him, just be observing him in action. She would be a sponge and learn from him whatever she could.
"Abby," Said Nicodemus as he looked her dead in the eye, his tone serious. "I know you haven’t done anything quite like this before at the Academy, so let me go over the basic rules. The scoring will be the best of three spread out over three different duels. I’ll explain the rules of each event before we begin."
"These duels fell out of favor a long time ago, but I assure you, they are helpful to gauge skill and foster the gaining of skill. The first contest is called Defender." Nicodemus pointed at two red stones he had set into the ground at different locations near him. He then led to a flag set up at the end of the sparring arena near the door that led into Abby’s mother’s room.
"Defender is played to a miniaturized scale, so neither participants can be directly involved. As both an Arcane mage and an affiliate of the schools of the Earth and of the Wind, I will be the attacker and send my minions from these red stones, which act as a starting point to seize your flag. It is up to you to put your talents to use to prevent my minions from seizing the flag.” Nicodemus explained the excitement in his face evident. Abby could tell the man was enjoying himself. This is a game, isn’t it?
Nodding her head just as excited to start as he was, Abby interjected. "Is there anything else I need to know?" She asked bluntly, ignoring the brief anger that passed over Nicodemus’s face.
Scrunching his face in annoyance, Nicodemus responded dryly. "This is your time to show off what you can do as an Engineer. I’m hoping they’ve taught you enough at the Academy that you’ll be able to benefit from this exercise. This sparring pit is deep enough with sand that it’s practically inexhaustible, so use what you need. I’ve also taken the liberty of placing water barrels around the pit to use. You might not be able to bind them to your constructs, but you should be able to still use them as an ingredient if you're smart."
A quick glance at Abby’s gauntlet reminded him of an important fact he needed to bring up. "Ah, yes. Let’s see, as a newly appointed Copper Builder, you should be pretty limited in what you can manage. In the spirit of fairness, I’ll limit my minion count to 10 slots.".
With a glow of yellow from his fingertips, Nicodemus raised his hands in front of him, saying, "You’ve got 5 minutes, then it starts. Do what you need to, but remember, you cannot completely cover up the flag. This is supposed to be a training exercise. The flag represents a soft target you must defend. Today it’s a flag, but tomorrow or a year from now, ten years from now, it might be a town hall filled with scared villagers or a mountain outpost that’s the last stand against orcs or goblins." When he finished talking, a sand curtain was raised all around him, sealing him away from her vision and him from hers. It was time to begin.
Alright. Think about what you need to do. If this is a contest where I can show off what I can do as a builder by defending this flag, I need to make the most of it." Stretching out her arm over the sand, Abby’s gauntlet began to glow as she imagined the entire arena around her. The purple glow of the arcane spreading her sphere of influence, casting a colored hue over the sand. Connecting from her flag all the way to the red stones on the other side.
With a thought, she reformed the sand, mixing it partially with the water to harden and condense it, creating walls all around the tower. Leaving an opening on the backside of the flag in a kind of bowl shape. Not yet content, she reinforced the walls around the flag, making it two and then three times the thickness she thought necessary. "With that out of the way, now to start on the maze."
Maze building was made easy through the gauntlet she wore, otherwise she’d lack time to do so. This was where the power of the gauntlet stood out as a weapon and a tool to be envied. Granting the ability to the Engineer so long as they had the plans to quickly construct complex structures or systems. Luckily Abby had been given some. Willing her power through the glowing gauntlet, she connected the three points; the flag and the two red stones denoting starting points.
With a heavy rumbling sound, the floor of the arena began to rise up into the air. Moving and swirling in a storm as tons of metric feet of sand fell back to the ground as what remained twisted and turned in on itself, coming together. The whole
area filled with the dust of a sandstorm. Abby had to stifle a coughing fit from exposure to it. The air heavy with dust from all the movements. "I’ll need to remember this and protect myself from it." She coughed again. Abby realized in a non-training environment, this would be to her detriment. She needed to make herself a true asset of the Empire and figure out a way to turn it to her advantage if she could figure it out.
When the dust cleared, Abby could see a series of twists and turns of hardened sand walls leading away from the red spawning stones towards the flag. Reminiscent of the tight corridors of desert cities. Not all of the paths lead to the flag, though. Some ran and extended for quite a length before running into dead ends. "Now, to make it treacherous." Abby looked out over the newly constructed maze with a competitive grin.
Grabbing at the barrels of water through the use of her expanded influence, Abby added the water to some of the sand pathing. Creating quicksand and quagmires to sink any of the minions that Nicodemus sent while creating spots in places to act as pitfalls and adding collapsing floors to some of the dead ends. Abby knew the goal was to destroy or disable his minions before they could reach the flag.
Reading to move on to other details, Abby was interrupted before her preparations where complete. The sand curtain covering Nicodemus dropped. "Times up." He said with a knowing smile as he looked at what she had done so far. It was not enough, but it would be a start he could build a good teaching foundation on.
From Nicodemus’s perspective, he was proud of what he could see she had done so far but refuse to show her any sort of handicap. If there was one lesson he had learned in training people over the years, it was the importance of not allowing people to confuse pedigree for prodigy. He wouldn’t make that mistake with her. He wouldn’t let it. It would be a disservice to her. Nicodemus knew from personal experience that tempered pride went a long way to gaining real strength.
"Ready?" Called out Nicodemus, teasing her.
"I’m ready," Abby responded, hoping to see all of his minions bogged down.
"On three, then, one, two, three. Begin!" Shouted Nicodemus.
Abby tensed, watching as Nicodemus revealed his minions. Golems made of sand, each of the golems, was a small masculine figure with a large body and a mouth with fat jowls. She looked in irritation at the little effort he had made in trying to seize her flag. With some difficulty, she decided to ignore her raised blood pressure, knowing he was just trying to get a rise out of her. Self-control was just as important as anything else.
One by one, each of the figures began to do a half-run down the sand corridors of her maze. Each spaced out to avoid being taken out by the same set of traps. Abby watched anxiously, waiting for the first of the golems to reach her first set of traps. It didn’t take long before the front minion fell waist-deep into quicksand. With a smile on her face, Abby looked at Nicodemus in victory and saw an even wider smile on his face.
"Look again!" He yelled as the remaining golems sprouting wings of sand, glowing with the magic of the school of Wind. Each of the golems began to fly straight towards Abby’s flag. No amount of screaming in frustration could change the outcome. Abby had lost the first round. "
" You cheated." She yelled in anger, pointing an angry finger at Nicodemus.
"No, I won. There is a difference. Besides, I didn’t cheat. I manipulated you. I shaped the battlefield before we even began. Sharping it in favor of my strengths. How many times did I mention or call attention to water? I know you would build a water trap and completely ignore the need to seal your labyrinth. I was a good sport though, full disclosure. I did tell you I could use the school of the Wind." He responded matter of factly, not gloating in his victory, but rather using it as a teaching experience.
"Again?" He asked. "We’ve still got the best two out of three."
"Yes. Again" She responded as she began to reset the maze.
Chapter 21: Legion Wall
"You’ve got sixty seconds to make whatever adjustments you can," Nicodemus called out to her. "Then, we go again."
"That’s not enough time," Abby responded, holding up her hands in the air in complaint. I can’t do anything in just 60 seconds.
"In a real-life situation, you’ll be lucky to have even sixty seconds." He responded as he turned his back and started working on his own adjustments. "Forty seconds left."
"This is a little extreme." Abby thought to herself as the time began to wind down. She had less than a minute to make the needed upgrades to her labyrinth to prevent his minions from waltzing straight through it to the exit.
There were two things Abby knew she needed to do. First, she needed to add a sturdy roof. Secondly, she needed to find a way to disable or destroy the flying minions that would likely still be able to dodge ground-based traps and environmental hazards.
Having reset the maze, Abby felt across the sphere of her influence. She had to be quick, having no time to make even the most minor of adjustments that she thought were needed. Abby had no intention of losing the next round by being unprepared.
Holding out her hands, Abby felt the sand move beneath her hear as she gathered up the components she needed. Using her abilities as an Engineer to construct sheets of thick hardened glass, placing them on top of the labyrinth, sealing it shut. Making sure to also envelop the two starting points, not wanting to lose to Nicodemus through another exploit. It would not do for him to simply order his minions to fly over the maze or walk around it, bypassing it entirely.
Nicodemus had already revealed to her that his minions could fly. With the limited resources and time that she had, Abby did the one thing that came to her mind to stop them that she had time to do. A rapid fix to cause the maze to collapse in self-detonation. The arrow tower she could build might sap her strength too much for the following contests. Nicodemus was already getting prepared to cut her off. She added a structural weakness to the roof she had made about midway through the maze, where the hallway thinned into a small funnel.
"Time’s up," Nicodemus announced as Abby groaned. Not yet as ready as she wanted to be to start the next round.
"Fine." She replied with a tone of apprehensiveness as Nicodemus nodded in response. "I’m going to win this one."
For this round, Nicodemus summoned something different. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of blades of grass and placed them on the ground. Each piece was growing on its own, spawning a group of ten greenish looking pixies that hovered over the ground with fast-beating wings.
With a good-natured mocking shrug, Nicodemus activated the two spawn points, and the pixies were instantly transported split into two groups. To the pixies, he gave only one command. "Fly and seize." Pointing at Abby’s flag.
Abby feigned a look of anxiousness as internally she screamed in delight, "Yes! I’ve got him now." She had been worried that Nicodemus would shift focus away from minions that could fly and introduce something much harder to deal with that she wasn’t ready for yet.
Even though she was sure her plan would work, Abby still had to make a good show of things. She cursed every time one of the pixies flew over a pitfall or quicksand, avoiding the trap, shooting dirty looks at a grinning Nicodemus. All ten of the pixies were able to get through the maze without being harmed, something Abby could see actually bothered Nicodemus.
The brief look of disappointment she saw on his face that his pixies were unharmed surprised her. It was a reminder that regardless of the contest or his competitive behavior, he wanted her to succeed. As much as she wanted to yell out to him that she had a plan, she didn’t. All things at the right time.
As the first of the pixies reached the halfway point, she tried to not smile and had to turn away when she saw the pixies land hesitantly on the ground, trying to figure out how to continue. Abby had created a funnel at the end of the tunnel at the halfway point to remove the advantage of flight. Not wanting to give away the secret. She had no regrets about what was going to happen.
To progress further,
each of the pixies would have to force their way forward using their hands and arms as the shape of the funnel in places made the use of wings meaningless. It was here that Abby had altered her maze to be unstable, and it was here that the wings of the pixies that tried to crawl through the tunnel would trip the fault that Abby had created.
It was just a matter of waiting, and as the first of the pixies attempted the crawl through the funnel, Abby knew that her trap was going to work as she saw a crack spread up through the glass and into the walls from the fault she had created. Splitting and fracturing the entire maze. The sand used for the walls and the glass for the ceiling cracked and collapsed, falling down and crushing many of the pixies outright and smothering the rest.
Smiling at her victory, Abby looked over at Nicodemus, trying to judge his reaction. Abby could see the ghost of a smile on his face, but if he directly approved of how she won this round, he didn’t say.
"It’s not cheating." Yelled Abby across the way to him, preemptively trying to defend herself.
"I know it’s not." He replied with a proud smile.
"But," He said as he rubbed his face in thought, "But what will you do now? It’s smart to have a last measure to use in case you have no other options. I can respect that. But how will you manage a win for this next round? You’ve got 60 seconds."
"What wait? What do you mean by 60 seconds? I have to repair my maze. It’s completely destroyed." She complained in reply.
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