Zak Turner - A Twist In Time

by Noel Pogson

  “At Adept level the stunning spells are more powerful, and you’d be unlikely to recover quickly enough to beat the next spell. They come much faster too - every four seconds. Your spell work must be completely reflexive, and you’ll need to start anticipating your opponents to succeed at Adept level.”

  “At Magus, you’ll face combination spells, and will need to cast combinations back in order to overcome your opponents. It is seriously difficult, especially if you have an opponent out of sight. You need to be able to successfully take on five opponents at Adept level before you even think about trying Magus level.”

  “The duels only end when you’ve either disabled all your opponents, or been disabled yourself. The magic that supervises the duel can tell if you’re paralysed or defeated, although you’ll usually fall over if that happens! All clear?”

  9. Dual Duels

  Tallion’s eyes were alight in a way Zak had never seen before, except maybe during numerology, and he could feel his keen determination to master this sport. It was infectious.

  “Right, Tallion, I can see you want a go, so just stand in the centre Sigil, say Exercebat Pugnae, and answer the questions.”

  The blond-haired wizard nodded, moved swiftly to the centre sigil, and turned to face Zak and Barty as he spoke the incantation.

  “How many opponents?” asked the voice from behind the teacher’s desk.

  “Two,” answered Tallion with a smile.

  “Level?”

  “Apprentice.”

  “On my mark, three, two, one, MARK!”

  Two cloaked and hooded wizard puppets materialised on sigils to the front and side of Tallion, and drew their wands. Before they got chance to cast though, Tallion sent a Firmus spell whizzing straight at the first wizard puppet, who neatly deflected it. Almost immediately the other puppet launched a stinging spell towards the eager eleven-year-old. Tallion almost missed it, but managed to get a Deflecto out just in time, and sent the spell whizzing off to the side of the circle where Zak noticed that it dissipated, rather than flying across the room and hitting the wall.

  The first puppet also cast a stinging spell, and Tallion deflected that one too before sending Firmus spells quickly at both targets, who both neatly deflected them. A second later, they both cast at Tallion in quick succession, and he managed to deflect one spell, but the second hit home with a powerful jolt.

  “Oww!” he called out, turning his attention to the wizard puppet who’d cast it and unleashing a blistering Firmus straight back at him. The spell travelled so fast that the puppet had no time to cast a Deflecto, and exploded in a shower of sparks as the Firmus hit home! The second wizard had cast a debilitating spell at Tallion, but his mind was in duelling mode now, and his response was lightning fast. He cast a Revertur, which hurled the incoming Infirmo spell straight back at the wizard puppet, and followed it up with two Firmus spells back to back.

  It was unclear what finished the wizard puppet, whether it was the rebounded Infirmo or the first of the two ferocious Firmus spells, but he too vanished with a bang and a shower of sparks. Tallion stood grinning in the centre of the duelling ring, adrenalin rushing through him, spoiling for another fight.

  “Addictive, isn’t it,” smiled Barty. “However, if it’s easy, then it’s not doing you much good. That match didn’t do anything to sharpen your reflexes, and only gave you chance to throw your magical weight around. Stick with Apprentice, but start the duel with Exercebat Pugnae Apto and ask for three opponents.”

  Tallion nodded and closed his eyes for a moment as he focussed his mind again.

  “Exercebat Pugnae Apto,” he said firmly.

  Zak could hear Barty’s thoughts and glanced at their tutor in time to see the corners of his mouth twitching as he clearly thought, This will keep him on his toes!

  Tallion went through the start-up questions and three wizard puppets materialised on sigils in front of him. Quick as a flash he cast full-power Firmus spells at two of them, but then had to deflect an incoming Infirmo. One of the wizard puppets exploded as the second dodged, and the voice from behind the teacher’s desk spoke.

  “Adapting level. New level is Initiate.”

  Before Tallion could react, spells came at him from both remaining wizards. He managed to deflect the first, but the second, which was a stinging spell, caught him on the arm as he tried to dodge it.

  “Oww!” he called out, just as the third wizard regenerated on its original Sigil and the voice spoke again.

  “Adaptation complete, duel restarted.”

  Tallion was already casting a Firmus, and Zak could feel some annoyance from his soul mate, but it only served to make him more determined. He was about to cast another Firmus when he had to turn and deflect an incoming stunning spell. No sooner was that dealt with than another stinging spell was coming at him from the other direction. He rebounded that one too, without adding his own power to it, and turned to deal with another stunning spell from the second wizard puppet!

  This was definitely more challenging! The third puppet deflected the rebound and immediately cast a stunning spell in return. Tallion was now concentrating on rebounding and deflecting the incoming spells, which were coming at him more frequently, but it wasn’t long before he managed to send out a few offensive spells too. The puppets were easily deflecting them, though, now that he’d progressed to Initiate level. As his frustration mounted, so did the power he put into his spells, and eventually he ferociously rebounded a stunning spell and instantly followed it with a full power Firmus!

  As before, it was unclear which spell hit the puppet first, but it disappeared with a bang and a shower of sparks, leaving just two opponents. The blond wizard whirled his wand viciously towards them, and succeeded in rebounding a stunning spell, which got rid of another puppet.

  However, the voice behind the teacher’s desk spoke again!

  “Adapting level. New level is Adept.”

  Tallion had just cast a full power Firmus at the final wizard, when the other two reappeared and both instantly cast stunning spells at him!

  “Adaptation complete, duel restarted,” spoke the voice calmly from behind the desk.

  The rattled young wizard managed to deflect one incoming spell, but the second one hit him, just after his Firmus exploded the last wizard from the previous round. As the spell hit, Tallion experienced a complete whiteout! He lost sight of the duelling ring for a few moments, and all his limbs froze. The sensation passed quickly, but by the time he came round, the two remaining puppets were casting again. Tallion just had chance to get a powerful Revertur out to rebound one of the incoming spells before he was hit by a second stunning spell!

  Again, the paralysis and whiteout left him reeling, but he somehow stayed on his feet. He got his vision and movement back just in time to react to the next incoming spell with a Deflecto. As he gathered himself, he realised there was only one puppet left, and he quickly cast two increasingly powerful Firmus spells at it, hoping to finish the duel once and for all.

  Sure enough, the final puppet exploded and Tallion braced himself for the duel to be restarted yet again. However, the glowing graphics on the floor marking the circle faded, and the duel was over.

  “Are you okay?” asked Zak with a grin, as his soul mate lowered his wand and took a few deep breaths.

  “Yeah, although it hurts everywhere I was hit. I’ve never been hit with a stunning spell before either. That’s a weird sensation if ever there was one!”

  “I think that was a bit more useful as a training session though, wouldn’t you agree?” asked Barty with a lopsided smile.

  “Yes, definitely. What does Apto mean?” asked Tallion through narrowed eyes.

  “It’s a bit easy! It means adapt, or adjust. In other words the session will adjust to your level of magic, so if you start too easy it’ll make it more difficult, and if you start too difficult, it’ll make it easier, in theory!”

  “So it thinks I should be duelling at Adept level already?” a
sked Tallion in surprise.

  “Yes, I told you that you were both somewhere near fourth year level. That’s the maximum level fourth years are allowed to duel at in school, although most would still be at Initiate level. Your turn now Zak. I suggest you also start at Apprentice with two opponents to get the feel of how it works, and then for your second duel use the adaptive spell.”

  Zak nodded and stepped forward to the centre of the circle. He felt a bit nervous, but he was also looking forward to it, and he had a feeling he’d be spending an awful lot of time here with Tallion, practising! After a few seconds to clear his thoughts and focus on what he needed to do, he spoke the incantation and the duelling circle came to life.

  “How many opponents,” asked the voice from behind the desk.

  “Two.”

  “Level?”

  “Apprentice.”

  As with Tallion’s duel, two cloaked and hooded wizard puppets materialised on sigils in front of him and drew their wands. However, unlike Tallion, Zak waited to let them cast first. He actually wanted to spar with them a bit, not just defeat them as fast as possible. They both cast at the same time however, and although he managed to deflect one spell, the other Jolt hit him and made him cry out. He didn’t fight back though, but waited until they cast again. This time there was a gap between the spells, allowing him to deflect the first spell and rebound the second.

  He carried on in this manner for a couple of minutes, and then started adding his own power into the rebounds, letting himself warm up to the fight. Eventually he decided it was time to finish it, and poured all his considerable magical energy into a couple of Firmus spells directed one each at the wizard puppets. They exploded within a second of each other, and Zak stood there grinning at Tallion and Barty, feeling relieved, pleased, and not a little fired up!

  “Woh!” exclaimed Barty. “That was very nice Zak. It was a good move to spar with them for a while and get your eye in. Nice explosive finale too. Okay, time for round two, adaptive please.”

  Zak nodded, steadied himself for a second, and then spoke the incantation. However, he was determined to go one better than Tallion, so asked for four opponents. His plan was to test how certain spells would work, and so he felt as though he needed plenty targets. Barty smirked at the obvious competitiveness between the two boys. There was nothing like wanting to beat your friend to make you develop faster. He was sure that Zak would be a bit ragged, but there was plenty time to hone his skills.

  The four wizard puppets duly appeared, and this time Zak pounced on two of them straight away so that he didn’t end up with four spells heading towards him all at once. Both disappeared in explosions of sparks as he deflected the incoming spells from the other two, and the voice simultaneously announced that it was adapting the level to Initiate.

  Zak cast two reasonably low powered Revertur spells towards the two remaining puppets from the first round just as they cast at him, and threw a couple more powerful Firmus spells at the two regenerating puppets, both of whom exploded again before they’d even managed to cast!

  Once again the voice announced that it was adapting the level, this time to Adept, during which time Zak deflected a couple of incoming stinging and jolting spells from the other two wizards. He decided it was time to experiment a bit, and cast a Laxo at one of the puppets, which duly exploded into a shower of sparks. Zak was surprised; he’d wanted to spar with all four for a while, but now he’d have to make do with three.

  He deflected a couple more incoming spells, one of which he decided must have been a stunning spell, and then set to work rebounding the spells back at whichever puppet cast them. He was working hard and fast, but he didn’t feel out of control until two stunning spells came at him at the same moment. He viciously rebounded one, but the other hit him just as the third puppet cast an Infirmo at him.

  He didn’t see the first puppet explode because he was going through the shocking experience of being magically stunned for the first time in his life, but he did feel the second spell hit him and sap some of his energy, again a new experience.

  As his vision cleared, he realised there were only two puppets left, and he deflected their spells for a few seconds to get back in control, and then decided to experiment again.

  “Aqua Vi!” he called out, pointing his wand at one of the wizards. A jet of water blasted out of his wand and soaked the wizard puppet. It didn’t explode though, but simply seemed to be distracted for a few seconds before returning to the fray.

  Zak decided to finish the duel off. He cast a full power Firmus at one of the puppets immediately after rebounding an incoming stunning spell. The puppet vanished in an explosion of sparks, but before Zak could finish off the last one the voice spoke again, announcing that it was adapting the level to Magus!

  Zak swallowed hard; he hadn’t expected that! He quickly blasted the last wizard from the previous round with a Firmus, but it managed to deflect it because he hadn’t given it enough power. By the time he realised what had happened, he was facing four Magus puppets, three of whom simultaneously cast stunning spells at him!

  Zak somehow instinctively knew what was coming before the spells even left their wands, and he was determined not to be beaten! In desperation, he cast a full-power Laxo spell and swept his wand round all four puppets as the magic visibly hurtled out of its tip!

  In the same way that his Laxo had blasted everything in the greenhouse during the summer, it now blasted everything in the duelling classroom. That might not have caused too much trouble if Zak hadn’t been through a number of life-threatening experiences since the last time he’d used the spell. However, his ability to focus his magic had improved considerably, and his bond with Tallion was also much closer. The result therefore, was somewhat more devastating than in the greenhouse!

  Barty and Tallion saw the trail of multi-coloured light sweep round the duelling circuit and felt the hairs on their necks rising as the magical power it unleashed filled the room like electricity! They saw it simultaneously explode all four wizard puppets before it hit the protective charm that shielded the rest of the room from the duelling spells. The charm flared briefly and then exploded! The Laxo lost some of its power, but not much, and it now blasted across the rest of the room felling everything in its path, including the two spectators.

  Zak, however, didn’t see what happened. He’d followed his Laxo with a couple of hasty Deflectos, trying to protect himself from the incoming stunning spells. Two still made it through though, and hit him simultaneously. Getting a double stunning at Magus level is more or less enough to knock you unconsciousness, and Zak’s legs duly buckled underneath him, as he collapsed to the ground.

  As his consciousness, vision, and movement returned several seconds later, he realised that he was on the floor and defeated. The adrenalin that had been coursing through him ebbed away, and he slowly focussed his eyes expecting to see Tallion and Barty smirking at his misfortune. What he saw, however, was something totally unexpected.

  The duelling circle had shut down and was silent and empty, apart from himself. Barty and Tallion were also silent, and were laid out, apparently unconscious, on the floor near the teacher’s desk! Zak sat up slowly, his head still aching from the double stunning, plus the effects of too much adrenalin. He frowned. What had happened to them?

  Slowly he realised what he’d done. His Laxo must have floored them too, as well as getting rid of the wizard puppets.

  He allowed himself a wry smile, knowing that only he would be able to revive them, and slowly stood up. There didn’t seem to be any other impact from his overpowered spell, but then again, there was nothing else in the room that was alive! He didn’t realise that the walls of the room had failed to contain his gigantic, overpowered Laxo, or that its effect had spread out across the castle like a small atomic bomb!

  * * *

  Sir Philip Middleham had spent most of Saturday morning in London at the Wizard Council, returning shortly before lunch. He went to his study to writ
e some letters, and generally put his non-family life to one side so that he could spend the rest of the day with his wife and children.

  He was annoyed with himself for the way he’d been forced to leave Tallion and Zak to deal with the week’s events almost by themselves. The emotion and anxiety of nearly being killed was too much for a couple of eleven-year-olds to handle alone, and he knew he should have spent much more time with them to help them understand it and get over it. It was one thing encouraging your children to stand on their own two feet, but that didn’t usually include getting over a couple of assassination attempts!

  He skipped lunch, preferring to finish what he was doing, and was dropping his last letter into the portal post box outside his study door, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as a huge pulse of magic reverberated around the castle. He just had time to think that Tallion, or more likely Zak, had done something overpowering during their duelling lesson, when the Laxo spell hit him, and a debilitating lethargy overcame him.

  He reached out to steady himself against the wall as his vision blurred, and then gave in to his buckling knees and collapsed to the floor. Knowing instinctively that he had to stay awake, he forced himself to sit back against the wall and stay upright, hoping that the effect would pass. Several minutes later, when it didn’t, he realised he’d been hit by a Laxo spell. The only effective counter was a Resusipisco, but he barely had enough energy to move his wand arm, let alone cast a powerful spell on himself!

  * * *

  Lady Middleham had fared little better. She was slumped limply in the drawing room where she’d settled herself to read for the afternoon. Her head had lolled sideways, and the book she was reading had slipped from her hand and fallen to the floor.