Battle Mage: Winter's Edge

by Donald Wigboldy

  A laugh followed immediately as the man considered the notion, “I didn’t know the falcons admitted suicidal types.”

  With a strong air of sarcasm, Sebastian retorted good naturedly, “I don’t think they take any but the suicidal. They arm men to go into battle with a quarter of the power of a full wizard and expect them to come back somehow. That said, then maybe you have someone hoping for an easy match so here I am.”

  Good humor remained in the wizard as he shrugged and looked at the list. “Well, we have three without partners. They’ve all fought each other this week, so we try to find new challengers to pair them up with but if no one else shows soon we will have to pair them up again.” Turning to to face some of the closest onlookers, the man asked, “One of you three interested in fighting a falcon for a round?”

  Three faces all looked intently first at the wizard and then the mage who dared to try a wizard’s duel. One was the fire wizard that had failed in her fight against the nature wizard. She was apparently none the worse for her battle, despite having lost the challenge, but her face twisted in disdain momentarily as she shook her head at such an idea. The second was a water wizard, who looked a bit thoughtful on the idea, but his indecision left him looking at the third man.

  Wearing the brown of earth, the man smiled. “He’s not just your average mage, Talmus. This is the mizard. If he knows the rules, I’ll fight him.”

  “I do,” Sebastian nodded to the man as he looked at his eyes. He had not seen this wizard fight, but Sebastian recalled the face from last summer.

  “There you go, Collin,” Talmus replied, “and I guess that means you two are up.”

  Sebastian looked to the battle fields and realized that one had indeed opened up. There were pieces of wood, a pool of water, stone, snow and ice set to either side of the field ready for the elements hardest to find and necessary to certain casters. Looking back to Collin, Sebastian nodded and gestured toward the field, “If you are ready?”

  Collin smiled, “I hope you are ready. If you aren’t, this match may not even work up an appetite for lunch. You never tried this I take it.”

  Returning the smile, Sebastian freely admitted, “This will be my first time fighting using a the wizard’s duel rules at least. Fighting wizards and other creatures in the field, which I have plenty of experience with, but I assume this will take a little practice to master.”

  His opponent’s eyes held the look of one peering at a child ready to play at being an adult. “If you ever actually master it, that is, since you are still just the strength of a battle mage. I have heard of what you’ve done and I can say that I do respect your achievements, falcon, and I would certainly never have a problem fighting at your side in the field. This, however, is not an easy challenge that you are taking on here. Even full wizards find out quickly if dueling is beyond their abilities.”

  “Thank you for your words, Wizard Collin. Truth to tell I have the same worries that you’re mentioning, but it is probably better to find out now rather than later, isn’t it?”

  The man chuckled, “True I suppose. You don’t want me to hold back I suppose?”

  “It wouldn’t be a good test then would it?”

  “Another good point. All right then, Falcon Sebastian, let’s be at this already,” the man smiled as he shook the mage’s hand and walked to his side of the field.

  As he walked to the other side of the field, the further of the two walks in fact, Sebastian looked at his resources thinking on what he knew of magic and what he might face with an earth wizard. His corps had a few spells using the earth, but he had never fought against this kind of wizard before though he had worked with a few the previous summer.

  Like fire wizards, earth magic was good in a fight. The very nature of their spells meant they would know how to defend. Stone and earth bent to their wills to form walls. The battle mage’s stone skin spell was an offshoot of such magic in fact. Hardened stone and even metals like steel fell under their school and weapons could be made from both. Also as he had seen in the earlier battle, they could move the very earth under your feet. Without good footing, most soldiers would be incapacitated quickly enough by such a wizard.

  He had tricks of his own though and Sebastian began to lay out a plan in his mind even as he picked up several shafts of wood most likely intended for nature wizards to use in a trial. They were straight and anywhere from four to five feet long. He took stock of his statue only ten feet from him. It felt both too close and very far away. When spells were crashing into your defenses, it would certainly feel too close, but battle mages used their magic close to themselves for the most part. Their defenses were shields and stone skin, so his very first skill to learn would be finding a way to shield something so very far away.

  A third wizard dressed in a researcher’s colors stepped to the edge of their field. He obviously didn’t want to be caught in the path of destruction once the battle commenced so his tentative approach was not unexpected. The man raised his hand looking to both opponents and waited for a nod. Getting confirmation that they were ready, the man dropped his hand and shouted, “Ten seconds begins now!”

  An image of an hour glass was cast in the air showing sand disappearing quickly. It was a new spell that if he had time might have intrigued Sebastian’s curiosity to learn, but instead the mage called forth his standard defense. “Shield, shield, shield,” he ordered large ten foot by ten foot barriers in front of his statue. The first stood thick and tall set in defiance of anything that the earth wizard might throw at it. The second and third angled and came together at a point right behind the first and further protected the statue on either side.

  “Shield,” he added one last barrier beneath his feet. The challenge at Windmeer was designed to destroy the statue, but his precaution lay in the way an earth wizard fought. If his spells could disrupt the mage by unsettling his feet without actually attacking Sebastian then Collin could get away with it and help the earth wizard win in the process. The obscuring clouds and storms others had used as offense against the statues had often hidden second attacks and the mage hoped the shield would prevent at least that much.

  His defenses set, the mage looked up at the image momentarily to see time left before he could attack. Collin had drawn up a large mound of stone in a bulwark before his statue and half encircling it to either side. He was still chanting and Sebastian assumed with the limited time remaining that it would be his attack.

  The time ended and a horn sounded from their side. Collin matched the horn exactly unleashing a flurry of stone spears to test the mage shields.

  Sebastian met the spears with new shields appearing halfway between the wizard and his statue. The bold move of intercepting the stone early broke the smaller shields and slowed the shafts letting his main wall deflect the stone with little effect.

  “Fireballs,” Sebastian started with a variation on the standard mage spell. Instead of one ball of flame, the mizard launched a spread of eight projectiles which struck the bulwark or fell short kicking up clouds of dust as they exploded.

  He could hear laughter. Everyone knew that such small flames would never breach the earth wizard’s defensive wall.

  Sebastian used his foot to flick a five foot shaft of wood to his hand which he planted in the ground. “Heal,” he ordered and drew strength up the wooden shaft from the earth. The rush of power set his spell in order with a flurry. His magic flowed into the half dozen wooden shafts one by one to link his power with the wood. It was a new idea that had come to mind as he had watched the earth wizard fight with his strong defenses earlier.

  “Air lances,” the mizard encapsulated the half dozen shafts launching them within air spears. The impact with the magic hardened earth could be felt in the ground even through the shield at his feet.

  “Grow,” he ordered the pieces of wood now embedded in the earth. Though the dust obscured his newest spell, the mage new what he had begun.

  The crowd had felt the impacts and gasps of
surprise had sprung up from many mouths. Cheers came as Collin’s latest spell ignored Sebastian’s dust and explosions. A large wheel of stone roared towards his shield walls to crush them beneath a few tons of sculpted stone.

  “Shield,” Sebastian managed to set a new wall on an angle. Like using a ramp, the stone circle shot up the shield to fly over his main wall. A large splash as it crashed into the water beyond the statue and a thump as it fell onto its side signaled the wheel’s inauspicious landing twenty feet beyond his statue.

  A rumble in the ground proved Collin was still quite active on his side of the field. Sebastian’s eyes caught the movement in a wave headed towards the shields once again.

  “Air lance, air lance, air lance,” the spears intercepted the wave in an explosive fashion. Some of the wave staggered through cracking the large shield proving the strength in the spell to do such damage even from a disrupted attack.

  “Gust,” Sebastian called on the wind to push the dust on the field towards Collin. An ensuing cacophony of coughing from the earth wizard caused the mage to smile even as his goal was revealed. Small trees grew from the bulwark making the defense look even more substantial at first glance, but the mizard knew that the trees weren’t the threat.

  “Lightning, dance!” he commanded and pointed at the trees across the clearing. A grand stream of electricity danced away from the mizard lighting the battle fields in a brilliant flash. The rumble of thunder nearly deafened all those nearby, Sebastian included, and it was followed by an explosion as his trees received the bolts of lightning transferring the power of his spell down through their roots. The bulwark wasn’t the only thing to be destroyed by the powerful spell as the roots had wiggled through the dirt to wrap the base of the statue as well.

  Caught in the fury of his lightning, the statue turned to a cloud of dust and shards.

  Sebastian looked on the destructive results of his spells and nodded. He could do this.

  Chapter 18- Adaptive Thinking

  When the sound of thunder and the spots from from their eyes began to fade enough to see the destruction caused by a battle mage in a wizard’s duel, onlookers began to clap and cheer.

  Dust was in the air for several minutes trying to settle and out of the main cloud came the coughing form of the earth wizard Collin. At first, Sebastian thought the sounds were only coughs until the man’s smiling, dirt covered face came into view and he realized that he was also laughing.

  “You set me up. Gods, that was brilliant the way you really set me up,” the man continued his mix of laughter and coughing.

  “It was a good match then?” Sebastian grinned back at the wizard.

  “Brilliant. In fact, I am still seeing spots from your lightning. I didn’t even know a battle mage could cast lightning… and it was such a strong bolt besides.

  “I thought I wasn’t underestimating you, Falcon Trillon, but you had me fooled from the start. Were those fireballs meant to do anything other than distract me?”

  “Not really, and just call me, Sebastian. We’re not on duty here. I was impressed by your work too by the way. You managed to keep attacking even when you were coughing in all that dust.”

  The earth wizard shrugged, “I’m an earth wizard. Some people refer to us as dirt mages. If I can’t handle a little dust, I’m probably in the wrong guild,” he finished with another laugh, “but that was a lot of dust.”

  Laughing with the defeated wizard, Sebastian decided to test the waters of his new friendship. “You know, Collin, I learned a bit from this duel as well. The ravens want me to go to Winter’s Edge, but I could really use some training partners. Whoever joins me gets a free trip to Hala and can join the tournament if they want.”

  Turning a shrewd eye on the battle mage, Collin retorted, “Ah, so this was a recruiting tool? You know I thought I had a good chance at going to the tournament on my own, until I ran into you. If a battle mage can do this to me, even if he’s an exceptional one like you, then I’m not sure that I’d stand a chance in the real tournament.”

  “I could teach you how to beat me I bet,” Sebastian answered with a shrug, “but I need good wizards to train with and like you said, you’re good. Metal sharpens metal, Collin. What do you think?”

  Brushing at the dirt on his clothes, the wizard looked thoughtful a moment. With a shrug, he replied, “If I can get excused by my superiors, why not? If nothing else, it should be interesting training with a battle mage.”

  The lunch bells sounded and, since Sebastian wasn’t under any particular orders to the contrary, the mage went to lunch without any worries of being delayed. He was surprised to find so many wizards in the hall at the same time and, as Sebastian sat down to eat; he could feel their eyes upon him more than he ever had before.

  With only half his plate finished, the mage felt a presence moving toward him swiftly. In a rush of red robes, a young woman sat across from Sebastian and placed her palms on the table with a slap. “I’ve heard that you’re recruiting wizards to train and take with you to the tournament in Hala and I want in. You’ve got to take me with you, Falcon Trillon.”

  The girl’s curly auburn hair flowed wildly around her equally feral looking green eyes. Though he had seen the girl on the duel’s field earlier, Sebastian had never actually met the young wizard. Taken slightly aback by her blunt approach, the mage started to defend himself by saying, “I’m not necessarily supposed to train them, but spar with a group of wizards to train for the tournament myself.”

  With an exasperated sigh, the wizard waved him off, “I don’t care how you phrase it. I want to come and learn how you did that to Collin. He’s a solid dueler. He beat me the last two times, though I’ll get him yet, but maybe if you can teach me some of that stuff you did it’ll be sooner rather than later. Plus I want to be good enough to win the tournament. A fire wizard has to win or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Serrena, right?” She nodded and blushed as the woman realized that she hadn’t introduced herself. “While I do need a few wizards willing to train with me, why should I let you tag along? You said it yourself that Collin can beat you and I am pretty sure that he’s going to join me anyway.”

  Startled by the thought that a mage would turn down her offer as a full blown fire wizard who was trained to duel, the girl looked uncertain of what to say. It was what Sebastian was looking for and her answer would determine his course of action. She was a fire wizard and he had hoped to gather a variety of skilled wizards from various guilds but, despite Serrena’s enthusiasm, the woman had yet to give him a reason to choose her. After opening and closing her mouth twice, the woman had slowed down as she replied, “You need to test yourself against as many types of duelers as you can, Falcon Trillon. My skills with fire are as good as anyone’s and I do win duels quite often. My luck with certain other wizards isn’t great, but that’s why I want to learn. I’m a wizard, but maybe you can teach me some of your battle mage techniques. I’ve never seen anyone fight like you. I mean you accessed fire, nature and lightning. How did you even do that? Almost no one channels lightning.”

  Her eyes were still intense but her manner had changed. She was no longer forcing the issue, learning that might wasn’t always the best way just as she had tried to force her will on the nature wizard in her fight and failed. The raw power of fire wizards led them to push for offense and end fights quickly. When an opponent waited them out, many could burn out during a fight without tempering that nature with patience. Serrena’s willingness to change her approach proved to Sebastian that she might just be trainable though he wondered how he had gone from trainee to trainer in less than a day.

  “Meet me at the duelers’ fields after lunch and we’ll see,” the mizard spoke quietly so that they were not overheard. “Now let me finish my lunch and I suggest you eat something as well.”

  Looking humbled by the mage as he proceeded to ignore her and take a drink, Serrena sat for a moment longer before getting up to go get her food from the buffe
t set up near the kitchens. The girl proved her tenacity by returning to sit at the table across from Sebastian. Even as she ate, the wizard stared at the mage trying to figure him out with a nearly unblinking stare.

  It was Sebastian’s turn to be surprised when Collin arrived at his table with a tray of food piled high enough for two or three. “I checked with my superiors and apparently word came down from the high wizard that they should allow some of us to help you prepare. Most of them seemed to have thought it was just at the duel fields, but I managed to convince them that I could learn from a battle mage.

  “The added bonus that they could slip me in as a contestant without having to get past the other guilds was an added bonus, I think.”

  With a smile and a nod, Sebastian felt more at ease now that he knew the high wizard’s backing was made known to the guilds enough to allow him to select people that he got along with as he found them. It may not carry to other keeps or White Hall, so Sebastian wanted to have a few wizards before he left Windmeer. If Serrena worked out and Yara got her approval, his team now consisted of three.

  Feeling heat on his shoulder from Serrena’s stare, Collin thumbed towards the girl using his chest to obscure the gesture from the wizard. “What did you do to get her pining after you like that?”

  “How well do you know Serrena?” the mage asked quietly hoping the girl wasn’t using a spell to hear their conversation.

  Shrugging, the earth wizard replied, “We don’t hang around or anything since we’re in different guilds. She’s a little younger than me and fights like a wild cat on the duel field.”

  “Would you say that she’s a good fire wizard?”

  “Sure. They’re all a little full of themselves, of course. They think just because they make all the flash with their fire that they’re the greatest of the wizards’ guilds, and she probably would have said that before this week’s practices.”

  “How many have beaten her?”