“I mean,” he says, “I don’t think I’ve even read a children’s book where the main villain gloats to such an extent. It’s embarrassing, really.”
“Where have you been hiding all this time?” I say.
“Now, now, Barry, is this any way to talk to your savior?” Eiden says. “To answer your question, I’ve been following this dragon for a while now. I’ve been masking my presence so that he couldn’t find me by using his sight, smell, hearing or magical sense. I’ve been watching your battle since it began and I must say, I am not very impressed.”
“Are you kidding me?” I say. “What do you expect me to do against a dragon?”
“How about using that device you’re holding in your hand?” Eiden says.
“Yeah?” I say. “And what would you have me do? Max my strength and punch him to death?”
“Um… excuse me… sir…” we hear a voice coming from behind us.
Eiden and I both turn around at the same time and see that Rose is standing up and looking at Eiden, confused.
“Um… Hi… My name is Rose,” she says. “Are you a friend of Barry?”
Eiden furrows his brows and makes a hand gesture towards Rose.
“W-What are you doing?” Rose asks him.
“Interesting,” Eiden says. “Rose, I’ve cast a spell that is supposed to freeze time for everyone except me and Barry. Have you by any chance studied time magic in your lifetime?”
“Uh… no,” Rose says, “I can’t cast any magic at all. I’m not a mage.”
Eiden’s smile widens.
“Then I offer you my sincerest congratulations,” he says. “As of this moment, you are officially a time weaver!”
“A… what?” Rose says.
Eiden turns to me.
“Barry, I must admit,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such diversity in a team before. A time weaver, a healer in armor, a survivor from the Beacon of Hope and a stat device wielder. I think I’m starting to root for you!”
“What’s a time weaver?” I ask.
“I could tell you,” Eiden says, “but, wouldn’t you rather find out by yourself? Would you not rather live the thrill of unraveling this mystery on your own?
“No, thanks,” I say. “I’m the kind of guy that always spoils the ending for himself before finishing a book.”
“Fair enough,” Eiden says. “You see, Barry, a time weaver is a person with a natural talent for manipulating time. They are immune to all time affecting spells, they can freeze time, slow down time and even reverse it with enough practice. They also have a gift of seeing into the future, although it’s more blurred visions than anything else. Time weavers are extremely rare, and are said to only appear at the dawn of a new age. They usually lead normal lives until their powers awaken suddenly. The last known appearance of a time weaver occurred some six hundred years ago.”
For a moment, it seemed like time was starting to resume its course again. I could hear Daren’s shouting, the dragon’s roar, the wind blowing in my ear, and I could see the grass start moving. Then everything froze back again, as if nothing had happened.
“Time is running out, Barry,” Eiden says. “The time freezing spell won’t last much longer.”
Eiden snaps his fingers and my stat device flies out of my hand and into his. The device then suddenly starts glowing and it looks like it’s accumulating a massive amount of energy in a very short amount of time.
“Hey!” I shout.
“I realize this must all be very confusing for you, Barry,” Eiden says, “so I’m going to provide you with a little bit of context. The beast that just attacked you is Tyrath, the self-proclaimed king of all dragons. The reason why he’s looking for me is because I wrote a message in the stars last night in an ancient language used primarily by dragon hunters. The message’s purpose was to let all dragon hunters who entered this contest know that a dragon exists on this island, and to give them all a little extra incentive to hunt him down. I very much doubt that any of them will pose a realistic threat to him, but it will be fun to watch.”
He finishes charging up my stat device and then hands it back to me. As I hold it in my hand, I can feel a powerful surge of magical energy run through me and flow through all of my body.
“I believe your ultimate goal was to win this tournament and become a mage, was it not?” Eiden says. “Well, Barry, I am now giving you a taste of that power. For about five minutes, you will have magical powers comparable to mine. More than enough to drive off the dragon, I’d wager. All of the information you need in order to use your powers should have been transferred into your mind by the stat device. I’m looking forward to watching your battle!”
Eiden then starts to fade into thin air. When only his outline is visible anymore, he says:
“Oh, and I’d recommend starting with a magical barrier. Your friends don’t seem to be doing very well.”
As Eiden vanishes completely, time is slowly starting to resume its course. I take the stillwater’s advice and quickly conjure a protective barrier around Kate and Daren. It’s amazing how natural this is feeling. It’s as if I’ve been casting spells my entire life. Is this really the true power of my stat device?
Just as I finish casting my spell, time unfreezes itself and the dragon’s fire hits my magical barrier head on. The flames then disperse into the air, while Kate looks around her, shocked at the discovery of the newly formed barrier protecting her.
“Daren, did you…” she says.
“No, it wasn’t me,” Daren says. “This barrier is leagues stronger than anything I could ever conjure. I don’t know who did this.”
“You!” the dragon Tyrath shouts from high above in the sky, while pointing at me. “You did this! It does not matter. All you’ve managed to achieve is to make yourself my next target. Prepare to die!”
I conjure another protective barrier around me and Rose just in time to defend us from the incoming flames. My barrier is holding up much better than Daren’s. There’s no sign of it breaking any time soon, and I’m barely even feeling the heat outside of it.
The question is, what am I going to do now? Looking at my device, I can see that my stats have remained exactly the same and I have no extra available points, so then what did Eiden do to it? I’ll need to figure this out later.
At any rate, judging by the amount of extra energy I can sense in the stat device and the speed at which it’s getting consumed, I’d say that the estimate Eiden gave me is spot on. I have less than five minutes to finish this fight, but even with all this magical power, the dragon may well pulverize me in a one on one fight if I don’t do this right. Both Daren and Kate are too exhausted to assist me, so I’m on my own for the time being. Even as I’m standing here thinking, time is running out, but can I afford to just start fighting without any plan whatsoever?
No… I can’t. Going in without a plan would be suicidal. I’ll just have to use this time as efficiently as I can. I put my stat device back in my pocket, and I begin to formulate a strategy, for my fight against the dragon. First of all, I need to think about my defenses. I now have access to dozens of powerful protection spells, but it would take me three minutes to cast all of them.
Even if I use the time freezing spell Eiden cast just now, that would still only save me about two minutes, and I’ll become unable to use the spell for the remainder of the battle. Then again, the time stopping spell isn’t really suited for combat, since the spell breaks as soon as I move a few feet or interact with anyone who’s frozen, so this may well be the best time to use it. Or maybe I should try to limit casting to only what is absolutely necessary?
Let’s see… The one thing I’ll need the most is protection from fire. I can’t just spend my whole fight trapped inside this barrier, and this spell will grant me some immunity from flames. It’ll still feel like I’m in an oven, but at least I won’t be burnt to a crisp.
Aside from that, judging by how I’ve seen the dragon fight so far, I think I
could also use some protection from physical damage, to defend me from his claw attacks. It won’t be enough to stop him from killing me if he lands a strike, but maybe it’ll help me deflect some of his hits.
The strong wind he can generate with his wings might also be a problem. It felt like I was trying to fight a hurricane when the dragon first made his appearance, so I guess I could also use some spells that give me protection from wind.
Other than that, it’s anyone’s guess. It is said that some of the older dragons can cast magic, but I do not know if Tyrath is one of them. More than that, I have no way of knowing which kind of magic he’d be specialized in.
There’s no use in taking guesses. I’ll just focus on my protections from fire, wind and physical damage, and if I need anything else, I’ll cast it while I’m fighting the dragon.
While I’m busy thinking about my strategy, the dragon sees that his fire breath isn’t working, so he tries to dive in again. My barrier is too strong to be broken as easily as Daren’s though, so he’ll be busy for a while.
Now that I’ve established my defensive strategy, I need to think about the offensive. With the spells I have access to now, I have almost limitless choices, but I’ll have to think of a tactic that can defeat Tyrath in the few minutes I have left.
I’m going to definitely need to cast a flight spell on myself, since it will be too difficult to engage the dragon otherwise.
The thing I’m lacking the most here is information about my enemy. All I have to go on are legends and fairy tales, and I’m not sure how much I can rely on any of them in this situation. One thing that most legends agree on is that dragons have a high elemental resistance to fire and that they are immune to mind affecting spells and illusions. Other than that, I have no idea which spells would work best.
I already know that Kate’s ice didn’t really hurt the dragon, but maybe water would be a better choice? Water is after all the opposing element to fire. Actually, forget water, if I am to try elemental magic I may as well try them all, except fire of course.
Daren’s sword seemed to at least be able to get through the dragon’s tough scales but I do not know what enchantments he has on it. Maybe I could persuade him to give me his sword for the duration of this battle, and then I can fight Tyrath head on? No… That wouldn’t work. I don’t seem to have a strength enhancing spell in my repertoire, so the power of my swing would depend entirely on my strength stat, which I have not invested any points in.
Shapeshifting magic is pretty useless in this situation, because of two main reasons. First of all, these spells cannot be used to transform into something much bigger than my actual size, so it’s not like I can just turn into a dragon and fight Tyrath on equal footing. Secondly, you cannot cast spells while shapeshifted, so my mobility would be greatly reduced because I couldn’t teleport. It’s just not worth it any way I look at it.
Using summoning magic is out of the question as well, since none of these spells were designed to fight an enemy of this caliber. The most any of the summoned creatures could do is moderately inconvenience Tyrath or provide a distraction.
Maybe I’m thinking in too small of a scale, though. With the powers I have at my disposal right now, I could be doing a lot more damage. I could literally make a tornado out of thin air, or use earth magic to animate a rock giant that would dwarf the dragon and who could smash him between its hands. I could also make a blizzard, a lightning storm, a rain of acid and even a rain of meteorites.
The problem with all of these big spells, though, is that it’s almost impossible to prevent collateral damage, so I’d be forced to cast a lot of protections on Daren, Kate, Rose and even myself beforehand to make sure we’re all safe, which would take me too much time, and I would risk running out of energy before defeating the dragon.
After carefully considering all of my options, I decide to go with my original plan of trying out all of the elemental spells at my disposal, until I find one that works against the dragon. I start off by casting protection from fire, wind and physical damage on myself, as well as a flight spell.
Even though I’ve never cast a spell before in my life, I seem to know exactly how to direct the energy that flows through me and how to control the magic in my aura in order to be able to cast the right spells. I know how I need to move my hands in order to ease the flow of magic through my body, and I know the exact frequency and intensity at which I need to send the magic waves out of my body in order to generate the effects I want. So this is what it feels like to be a mage…
The dragon is now breathing his fire at me from above yet again. I fly out of the barrier and right through the scorching flames, heading towards my enemy. It feels as if I were in an oven, but at least I’m not getting any visible burns. The dragon sees me fly through his fire and lets out an intimidating roar. I position myself at the same level of height as him, a few dozen feet from where he’s hovering, and I stop in mid-air.
Let’s try acid first. I make a ball of acid and send it flying towards the dragon. Tyrath claps his wings together, which generates a strong gust of wind that scatters the acid, but my protection from wind spells prevents me from being blown away.
For a moment, I could see the dragon appear in two places at the same time, as if he’d cloned himself, but then the clone disappeared. Wait a minute. I know this effect! That’s what happens when someone casts an illusion right in front of you. Was that gust of wind from before meant to disorient me so that I wouldn’t see this?
I cast a spell on myself that allows me to see through illusions. Sure enough, the dragon in front of me disappears as soon as I cast the spell, and I see the real Tyrath closing in on me from the right. I mimic his earlier move and clap my hands, which creates an incredibly strong blast of air in front of me, sending the dragon back about fifty feet.
“I don’t know how you were able to see through my illusion, human,” Tyrath says, “but I’m not going to take it easy on you anymore.”
After finishing his phrase, the dragon immediately appears in front of me and swings one of his claws at my chest. It was all I could do to teleport out of harm’s way in time, with a short range spell suited for combat.
The dragon and I spend the next few seconds teleporting one after the other and trying to take each other by surprise. This is getting me nowhere. I unleash a powerful explosion of fire all around me, which pushes the dragon back a few feet, although it does not do a lot of damage to him.
While the dragon is disoriented, I use my earth magic to break the rocky soil below me into pieces, and I make the big chunks of rock fly all the way to my position. I then get all the rocks to spin around me at great speed, using them as a shield against the dragon. If he tries any more surprise teleports, he’s going to get pummeled.
I pull more chunks of rock out of the ground and send them all flying at Tyrath. He tries to teleport out of their way, but there are too many of them, and he gets hit by a few. He roars furiously. Finally, I did some damage to him.
I take out even more rocks from the ground and make them all follow him, as he tries to fly out of their way. The rocks are only increasing in number, because he can’t take them out with his claws faster than I can make them.
After getting hit a few more times, Tyrath shoots out flames hotter than ever before, turning all of my rocks into molten lava. He then flies right through the lava and heads for me again. He breathes his fire towards me and turns all of the rocks rotating around me into lava as well. This is no good. Lava isn’t solid enough to inconvenience him, and he can simply shrug off the hotness of it given his resistance to fire.
I let go of the lava that’s rotating around me, and I shoot a beam of lightning out of my hands, big enough to engulf the whole dragon in it. This does not stop Tyrath from his flight, and I’m forced to again teleport out of his way when he reaches me. Lightning doesn’t work either. If he can melt rock that easily, then he’ll have no trouble against water. What the hell am I supposed to use agains
t him? Should I try acid again?
I surround the dragon with a sphere of acid, and I try to envelop him in it. Tyrath lets out a much more powerful roar than before. So powerful, in fact, that it creates an explosion of air all around him and sends my acid flying all over the place. His roar was so loud that I had to use a spell to avoid losing consciousness. I can only hope that Daren and the others have access to sonic protection as well.
“Insolent wretch!” the dragon screams. “There won’t be a single speck of dust left of you when I’m finished!”
Tyrath starts teleporting for me again, but this time he’s doing it faster. I can barely keep up with him anymore. What the hell am I doing? I am in control of more magical power than I ever dreamed would be possible, but I can’t hold off a single dragon?!
Now, I’m the one starting to get angry. I can feel my body starting to radiate heat. I can even see steam coming out of me. Suddenly, I can feel my speed increase by the tenfold. What kind of spell did I just cast? My stat device never told me I had access to anything like this. I feel like I can never lose to anyone ever again.
Everything seems to be moving much slower, all of a sudden. Or am I just the one moving faster? I can predict the dragon’s attack before he even teleports in front of me, but I don’t feel the need to dodge anymore. Instead, I simply block Tyrath’s next claw strike with my left hand.
“No…” the dragon says, dumbfounded.
While I keep a grip on him with my left hand, I punch him in the chest with my right fist. The impact of my strike was so strong that I could feel some of his armored scales shatter from the force of my blow, as the dragon got sent flying more than twenty feet backwards. Tyrath coughs up blood and starts to speak, but I do not let him. I instantly teleport next to him and grab him by the tail. I then throw him into the ground, and when he collides with the earth, he creates a huge crater and sends clouds of dust flying in all directions.
One more hit should settle this. As I prepare to dash towards Tyrath to deliver the finishing blow, I can feel my powers starting to leave me.
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 10