Collin shrugged again and waited to swallow a bite of fowl before replying, “I haven’t seen every match that she’s had, of course, but I’ve beaten her twice and Herraln did too today. As far as I’ve heard, we’re the only ones. Other fire wizards, water and nature wizards have all lost to her. She attacks hard but, if you can weather her first attacks, timing a few counters beats what little defenses she sets. It’s a common mistake of a lot of them. They think that they can simply roll over you with their power.”
“Like you with that stone wheel spell?” Sebastian laughed causing Collin to wince good naturedly.
“Ouch, really? You beat me and now you’re going to make fun of me? By the way, I was impressed with how you used you shields. I’ve never seen a battle mage cast his so far or so many in such a short time. Your kind always seemed like they could only augment their armor and bodies. That was the first time that I’d seen your shields used like that.”
Grinning, Sebastian replied, “It was the first time I’d ever tried it really. Last year during a battle, while with a team of battle mages we extended our shields to weather a fire storm. I kind of expanded upon the idea. I am quickly realizing that you are correct though. Battle mage magic is rather restricted. We have relatively few long distance attacks and placing our defenses any distance from our bodies is never really done. We think like a soldier not a wizard, which is why I need you and a few more to help me adapt my skills to compete in the duels.”
With a grunt as he finished a drink, Collin replied, “For someone whose magic is ‘limited’, you sure figured it out fast. I’ve never seen anyone send shafts of wood into a defense and grow them like that. Nature wizards love root attacks though, but where did you come up with that? Then there was that lightning to finish me off. Unbelievable.”
Only able to shrug in reply, Sebastian confessed, “I do read as many of the wizards’ texts that I can, though I learn most of what I do from seeing wizards use their magic. Then I adapt what I can and sometimes winging it I come across something new.”
The last part left the wizard with his mouth hanging open mid bite. Putting the fork down with its piece of meat, the wizard began to smile, “You asked me to help train you, but I have a feeling this relationship is going to be an interesting one, my friend. You’re creating magic and using it in new ways better than any wizard I know. It’s a shame that your power wasn’t high enough to become a true wizard.” Collin suddenly winced and started to apologize, “I didn’t mean it like that, sorry. Bad habit, I guess. I’m used to a battle mage being a mage and a wizard’s power being greater than theirs without a shadow of a doubt, but you kicked my butt, so obviously power isn’t everything.”
Waving the apology off, Sebastian replied, “It may have been for the best that I wasn’t born a wizard. A battle mage has to be able to adapt and use whatever is available. We’re trained that way, so I might never have been able to change tactics to defeat you without that training.”
Shaking his head, the wizard denied the mage’s idea, “If that’s true, then why are you the only mage that’s ever done this?”
“The first mage did it once. Maybe it’s just time to show the rest that we don’t have to be stuck as simple soldiers with simple weak magic.”
Leaving Collin to finish his lunch, Sebastian watched Serrena shadow him from the hall. She left him a good twenty paces, but always he was in her sight and he could often hear her smaller steps hitting between his longer strides. His destination was the practice fields, but before he could leave the castle’s interior, a voice called his name.
“Sebastian, I’m glad that I found you,” Yara exclaimed. She had thrown on a cloak of yellow and put her hood up besides. If not for her delicate slipper-like shoes, he would have guessed that she planned to go outside and most likely to the training fields.
“You were looking for me?”
She gave him a look that said she hoped that was a rhetorical question as Yara continued, “I don’t know what you said to Deyla, but she told me that I needed to be ready to leave for White Hall in two days. She said that I’d be traveling with you and some ambassador and that I would need to be ready to pass the tests for promotion with the teachers when I arrived there.”
“That’s great. We talked earlier and I had hoped to talk her into joining for the trip as well, but she felt that Windmeer wouldn’t let her leave.”
Yara’s eyes strayed past his shoulder noticing the fire wizard still waiting for the mage to move onward once more. Slowly straightening as she stopped staring at the woman in red, the girl asked, “Did you know that you have a fire wizard following you, Sebastian?”
He nodded, “Yes, she wants to go with to Hala and we’re going to the training fields so that I can see if I want her along. I have an earth wizard named Collin coming along as well. Maybe a couple more will want to come with to train, so I figured watching at the duelers’ field was a good way to find potential sparring partners.”
Frowning slightly and glancing around him once more to see the fire wizard still patiently waiting, Yara asked, “But why is she just standing there waiting? If I didn’t know better, I’d think that she was your apprentice. Isn’t that Serrena? She’s been a full wizard for like five years or more already.”
“So you know of her? Is she any good? Collin seemed to think that she was.”
Looking even more annoyed, the healer retorted, “I don’t know. I spend most of my time in the healing ward or studying my butt off so that I can become a full wizard myself and try to gain a little control of where I go, if you’ll remember why.
“I suppose that I’ve heard some people talking about her on occasion, but I hardly keep track. If they don’t wind up in the infirmary, I can’t say I really remember much of the other wizards in other guilds.”
Sebastian was beginning to see just how disjointed the wizards’ guilds were. He had always supposed that all wizards were close to one another. It was beginning to sound like whatever relationships may have begun as novices and continued with some apprentices, they eventually dissolved into their guilds making friends with those who thought alike. While not every falcon could know one another as they spread over the various castles and halls, once they worked together, they had a bond that linked them while at that post and often beyond.
Musing on that point a moment, Sebastian simply had to shrug, “Well, I guess I can find out for myself. At least, I know that you’re coming along.”
“If I can past my tests,” the girl grumbled looking worried.
Waving off her worries, the young man joked, “My teacher is the best. If she can teach me how to heal, how can she not possibly pass any test they set before you?”
Smiling at her boyfriend, Yara nodded, “I do forget how good a teacher I must be to teach a battle mage how to heal.” Remembering Sebastian’s shadow and giving the woman another glance to check if she had moved, Yara added, “Thanks, Bas, I needed that.”
“Go check with Deyla to see what tips she might have. She told me that you were good enough to pass already and every wizard continues to learn even after they are raised, so don’t worry too much over what you still might need to learn. You know enough and can figure out whatever they throw at you I’m sure. We can always practice along the way if you want,” he finished with a grin knowing how their practices usually turned out.
Blushing, Yara replied, “Perhaps. Now why don’t you go take care of your shadow? We can talk some more later, yes?”
“Of course,” Sebastian answered with a wink.
Sebastian led Serrena to the far side of the dueling fields. There was a smaller practice field there and he hoped that he would like what the wizard had to bring. Like Yara had said, somehow the relationship had gone from training partners to almost that of an apprentice with her master. Though he had trained hundreds of battle mages on individual spells, Sebastian had never been a full time trainer. In fact, since they felt his ability to discover new magic was too valuable to wast
e, he assumed that he would never be put in such a position.
As they set up only about twenty feet from one another, Serrena began to look uncomfortable with the distance and openly questioned, “Are we going to have enough room here? A normal duel is more than twice this distance.”
“I know,” he answered, “and a battle circle can be half of this. Have you ever fought in a circle?”
Wrinkling her face up at the idea, Serrena quickly shook her head sending her curls into a frenzy. “I never could get used to a sword in my hand.”
“It’s not just about the sword, but the shield as well. There is a certain ebb and tide to a battle. With a circle, that flow is just simply tighter and there is less room for mistakes.
“Will you humor me and try this?”
The wizard nodded but continued to look unsure of herself and her new mentor.
“Shield,” he called forth the blue shield of his order. The size of a full shield, it was barely heavier than air but stronger than steel.
“I want you to attack me with you your fireballs and other attacks as hard as you want.”
Looking wary, Serrena asked, “Just attack you? You’re nearly close enough to attack me with a sword.”
Smiling comfortingly, “If this were a wizard’s duel, would you expect a counter to your attack?”
She nodded looking even more worried.
“I will not close the distance, but I do want you to watch for a counter to your attacks. Defend as you would in a duel.”
Forewarned, the wizard began chanting and set a barrier before her to protect against an easy attack. He had told her to think of this as a duel after all and she did know how those worked. Her first fireballs came singly as Serrena waited for the mage to turn the battle around on her, but several attacks later he still did not.
Becoming emboldened, the wizard began to release a fury of fire attacks. Fireballs both singles and small swarms were sent towards the falcon and his shield. When one shield wore down, Sebastian always brought up another in its place between her attacks to weather even more fire attacks.
Becoming little more than target practice for her, Serrena began to forget that the mage might return the favor. Her spells began to build in strength as she watched his shields continue to save him time and again. The wizard began to wonder just how many strikes it would take for her to make him raise a new barrier.
“Reflex.” The word came from behind his barrier, but the wizard ignored the change in commands from the mage. “Shield,” he added quickly after and the girl figured that she had weakened yet another until a large blue version clamped down on her protective wall snuffing it in an instant.
Worry dawned in her mind quickly realizing that he was done toying with her now. The wizard was swift to raise not just one barrier, but three. Two firewalls burned brightly with the closest of the three being solid magic like that of a battle mage but orange like her flames.
He was still in sight so the girl smiled and continued her attacks as he had asked of her. Sweat beaded on her brow and not just from the heat of her flames. She was tiring and the wizard figured that must have been why Sebastian had switched tactics. Surely after all the shields he had conjured he must be weakening.
“Shield, shield,” two new blue walls crushed her protective walls, but she knew that wouldn’t work on her closest protective wall. Sending a cluster of fireballs at him, Serrena’s jaw dropped as the mage dropped his shield and danced between the cluster of flames. She continued the assault figuring that if he wanted to be reckless, a single fireball was unlikely to kill him at least.
“Shield, shield, shield, shield, shield.” Fireballs were being met by smaller blue discs with exacting precision to meet and destroy her fiery projectiles. Sebastian called out a series of air lances impaling her last wall so fast that even her last defense was dissipated in an instant. It had all happened so fast from start to finish that Serrena wasn’t even able to get the first words of a new barrier spell out of her mouth before the mage stood beside her with his hand covering her mouth.
Eyes going wide, Serrena had never even seen the man cross the twenty feet in what seemed like an instant.
“All right,” he answered quietly, “I think this might be able to work.”
“How?” the woman started still trying to figure out how the mage had disabled all of her attacks and defenses in a matter of seconds. She felt completely defeated. Though the wizard hadn’t necessarily tried early on to win, she had certainly tried enough not to lose in the end.
As he backed away from her, she was even more annoyed that the battle mage looked barely winded despite their practice having lasted more than five minutes.
“If you still want to train with me,” Sebastian continued as he ignored her question, “we can work on expanding your game. If we can reduce the holes in your defenses and attacks, I think you might do pretty well at the tournament.
“Now why don’t we head back to the dining hall and see if we can pick up some more food. You look like you used up a lot of magic out there.”
Serrena took a single step and felt her legs buckle beneath her. She hadn’t even realized how exhausted she was and now that the adrenaline was dying down, the wizard realized that he was right. In the heat of the fight, she hadn’t realized how used up she had become, but he had known and ended the fight before she could harm herself.
“You’re a battle mage,” the girl stated before coughing from a suddenly dry mouth. “I should have been able to crush you. How can you still be standing?”
Sighing, Sebastian knelt down beside the wizard and explained her question even as he assessed her biggest weakness, “Each shield I cast takes very little energy as I lock the spell in place and feed it only a slight trickle on occasion to strengthen it. My reflex spell slows the world to my perceptions letting me block even a multitude of fireballs at once or avoid them. I’ve fought fire wizards before, but I never took the time to see how similar your fighting tactics are one on one.
“You attack and enjoy watching your fires to the point that you forget what each spell does to you. That’s why you couldn’t beat Collin or Herraln earlier. They simply let you exhaust yourself and then countered as you slowed down.
“Once you remember to better pace yourself and not let them goad you into wasting your energy, you could be nearly unstoppable. We’ll work on it.”
Giving the young woman a hand up, the wizard asked wearily, “Does that mean I need to start calling you master?”
He gave a short laugh, “Just call me Sebastian or Bas for short. Now come on let’s get some food. You’ve made me hungry again.”
Serrena smiled and replied, “At least, I managed that much.”
Chapter 19- The Final Pieces
After a second lunch, Sebastian returned to training fields alone. Serrena had her own duties to perform while at Windmeer and couldn’t spend all day training for Winter’s Edge. Her losses to Collin and Herraln also lowered her chances of being chosen to represent the keep at the tournament. Her guild would have less leniency on the woman for spending time away from her duties now, which made Serrena’s need to transfer to the battle mage’s team for another chance even more necessary.
Sebastian knew High Wizard Jeriah’s word had gone out to the various wizards guilds and Wizard Torin had been at the meeting besides. There was no doubt in his mind that she would be joining him on his trip to Hala, but that still left the battle mage looking for a few more wizards willing to join him. With both earth and fire schools covered, he hoped that maybe he could convince wizards from the other main elemental guilds to join as well. Water, nature and air still eluded him, but on the last he had an idea.
While he watched several more matches between some new wizards, none of whom drew the mage to seek them out, Sebastian spotted the air wizard that he had in mind. “Fala,” he called as the mage closed the distance between he and his friend.
“Sebastian?” the woman in her blue robes trimmed
with silver had to push back her hood covering her brown hair. He had actually managed to spot the woman by the apprentice at her side.
The little brunette in her apprentice jacket of blue and silver perked up quickly at the sight of the mage that had apparently been fictionalized into a hero for her. Violet eyes widened as he approached even as her smile grew.
“Good afternoon, Fala, Lodia,” he greeted making sure to greet both women in turn. The apprentice looked ready to jump out of her skin at the greeting. “I am a little surprised to see you out here. I would have thought you’d be making poor Lodia practice some air spell until she was ready to lose her mind.”
Fala knew Sebastian’s sense of humor and took it for what it was. “I would only do that to you, Sebastian, because you would deserve it.”
Glancing at her trainer, Lodia looked ready to say otherwise, but the girl managed to hold her tongue. Sebastian looked at the girl and wondered at how young she must be. As a battle mage, he had been nineteen before becoming a falcon. Lodia had let slip that she was merely fifteen and was already on her first trip to a keep of the large wall.
“I probably would deserve it,” the mage admitted to the two air wizards, “and you’ll probably still feel that way after I ask you for a favor.”
The woman began shaking her head before he could ask his question and answered his unasked question, “No, Sebastian, I can’t join you on the trip to Hala. You’ll have to find someone else to help train you for the tournament. I have commitments including having to train Lodia.”
“That and she’s rubbish at it,” the younger girl said with a grin that quickly faded as Fala glared at her.
The wizard’s glare faded pretty quickly and she sighed, “Annoying as the girl is, she’s probably right about me. I use my magic to scout and work with the winds. The more subtle spells are my favorite and I am just not that much for the kind of magic you will need for a duel.”
“You should ask, Brenner,” the younger girl spoke up again. “He’s the best dueler here, at least among the air wizards.”
Battle Mage: Winter's Edge Page 24