“Yes, I am,” I say. “Because now I know that you’re not invincible. If you needed to learn all these tricks, then it means that your power alone was not enough to help you win all of your battles. It means that you have weaknesses. And if you have weaknesses, you can be defeated.”
Eiden laughs.
“So, you aim not only to achieve what I couldn’t accomplish in a lifetime,” he says, “but also to eventually defeat me in an actual battle. And here I was, thinking that I wouldn’t have anything interesting to do until the end of this tournament.”
He pauses.
“Very well!” Eiden says. “In that case, I’ll be looking forward to your progress. And I will also be monitoring your activity within the cities, as I said earlier. Now then, would you happen to have any more questions, before I take my leave?”
“Just one,” I say. “What is the Magium?”
Eiden grins.
“You weren’t seriously expecting to get an answer to that question so easily, were you?” he says.
“No,” I say, “but it was worth a shot.”
Eiden gives me one last smile with his eyes closed, and then he teleports out of my sight. As soon as he disappears, the time-freezing spell gets cancelled, and my friends begin to look around them confused, trying to figure out where Eiden went.
“So, Eiden is gone…” Daren says, after a while. “And Barry is the only one that doesn’t seem surprised by this sudden turn of events. Is there anything that you might want to tell us, Barry?”
“Daren…” I say. “I’m certain that you have many questions, and I’ll be sure to answer them in a bit, but first I’m going to need you to do something for me.”
“What’s that?” Daren asks.
“Pull out a pen and some paper from your backpack,” I say, “and write down all of the protection spells that you had cast on yourself on our second day in Varathia. We’ve got work to do.”
Chapter 7
“Barry, how long are you planning to stare at that piece of paper?” Daren says. “I told you, there are no conflicts between my protection spells. No matter how many times you check, you can’t find something that is not there.”
I ignore Daren, and I continue to look at the piece of paper lying on the ground in front of me, while I cross-check the information on it with what I have written in my notebook. The paper has all of Daren’s protections written on it, and I was able to find detailed information for most of these spells in my notebook, but I still haven’t managed to find the loophole that Eiden used to put Daren to sleep. Hadrik is also sitting on the ground, beside me, looking at the list of spells and throwing wild guesses, but it’s clear that he doesn’t really know enough about white magic to be able to make any reasonable assessments.
Flower has also tried to look at the paper and at my notebook a few times, but she eventually gave up, after saying that she was getting a headache. Illuna, on the other hand, announced from the very beginning that she wouldn’t participate in our brainstorming session, because her knowledge of white mage protection spells was too limited to be able to contribute in any meaningful way.
“Hey,” Hadrik tells me. “Doesn’t this protection from illusions have a similar chant to that protection from sleep over there? Couldn’t that be what’s causing the conflict?”
“No,” I say. “There are plenty of spells with similar sounding chants, and that’s never caused a conflict, as far as I know. It has to be something else. Something obvious I’m missing. I’m going to start again, from the beginning, to see if I didn’t skip an important detail somewhere, or something.”
“Oh, come on!” Daren says, exasperated. “Hasn’t it crossed your mind that maybe Eiden was just pulling your leg back there? Why would he even tell you his weakness? What possible reason could he have to do such a thing?”
“Aren’t you the one who told me your greatest weakness a few minutes after we met?” I ask him, while raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, but that’s different!” Daren says. “Anyone could tell that my shield spell is weak against enchanted weapons after seeing me fight for a while!”
“Wait, you were weak against enchanted weapons?” Hadrik says.
“Ugh…” Daren says.
“No, I’m serious,” Hadrik says. “I never noticed. But, why enchanted weapons, specifically? Shouldn’t the shield spell automatically defend you from most types of damage? What, are you cursed or something? And besides, why would it even matter? The shield spell is just a spell that they teach to beginner mages. Nobody really uses it in actual combat. It consumes too much energy, and it barely even absorbs enough damage to prevent you from dying, most of the time. The protections against specific types of damage should be much more effective. Not that I really bothered to learn any of those, what with my very durable giant skin and all.”
“White mages have advanced versions of the shield spell,” Daren says. “They are a lot more cost effective. And I’m not weak against enchanted weapons, specifically. I’m vulnerable against all types of physical damage. Remember that time when the captain from the ogre fort hit me with a club and threw me into a wall? I’ve tried many kinds of protection spells against physical damage, but none of them seem to work for me. The only one that kind of works is the shield spell, but it’s barely even working against regular weapons, let alone enchanted ones. Enchanting my armor to be as durable as possible was the only way I found to give me some measure of protection against these types of attacks.”
“Huh,” Hadrik says. “That’s odd. Do you suppose it could have anything to do with the spirit from the magical plane that Arraka said you are linked with? Like, maybe the spirit is allergic to earth matter, or something? Barry, what do you think?”
“I don’t know what to say,” I tell Hadrik, without raising my eyes from my notebook. “Honestly, I’d be more inclined to think that he linked himself to the spirit incorrectly.”
“Yeah,” Daren says. “Easy for you to say. You’re not a mage. And the only way you’ve cast magic so far was through that trinket of yours. Even after hearing Arraka’s explanation, I still don’t have any idea how to see this connection between me and my spirit. I’ve tried every way I could think of to analyze my magical aura for traces of a link to the magical plane, but I don’t even know what to look for.”
“That armor of yours is probably better than a shield spell in most cases, anyway,” I say. “It doesn’t eat away at your energy, and you don’t need to worry about it conflicting with all of your other— Hold on… did you just imply earlier that you are actually using a shield spell right now?”
“Well, yeah,” Daren says. “It’s the only protection spell I’ve got that offers me some measure of defense against physical attacks. I’d have to be a fool not to use it.”
“Then why didn’t you write it on this paper?!” I say. “Didn’t I tell you to write all the protection spells that you had cast on yourself on our second day of the tournament, without exceptions?”
“I already told you on our first day that I was using a shield spell,” Daren says. “And besides, why would it even matter? What does the shield spell have to do with conflicts between protection spells?”
“It has everything to do with them!” I say. “What the hell, man? Haven’t you read any of the books in the ‘Advanced Theory of Magic’ series, written by Azarius?”
“Hey,” Daren says, “some of us didn’t spend the entirety of our lives nerding it up in libraries. Everything that I’ve learned about magic, I’ve learned from my teachers.”
“Well, in that case, your teachers are all a bunch of idiots!” I say.
“You take that back!” Daren says. “My white magic teacher was an ex-sage. Do you have any idea how hard it is to become a sage when you only specialize in white magic, without any sort of combat training?”
“Not hard enough, apparently,” I tell him.
“Gods be damned!” Daren says. “Do you have no respect at all for the work it takes
to—”
“What’s going on, here?” Kate asks us, as her and Leila are slowly approaching us, with some shopping bags in their hands. “What are you two arguing about again?”
“Barry is refusing to acknowledge the effort that is required to—” Daren starts to say, but I interrupt him.
“Never mind, that!” I say. “Daren, can you tell me which kind of shield spell you are using, exactly? Is it the newer one that gives an advantage against physical attacks?”
“What?…” Daren says. “Oh… Yeah, yeah, that’s the one…”
“What’s Barry doing?” Kate asks the others, when she sees me flipping my notebook’s pages like crazy.
“He says he found out how Eiden managed to put Daren to sleep, despite his protections,” Hadrik says. “Apparently, it’s because of protection overload, and now he’s trying to find the two protection spells that are conflicting with each other.”
“Protection overload?” Kate says. “That does sound like something Daren would do…”
“I found it!” I say. “The sleep protection from Daren’s shield spell has an almost identical aura flow to one of his individual sleep protection spells. Look at these two diagrams!”
I then show them my notebook, flipping the pages between the two diagrams, so they can see the resemblance.
“Are you sure that’s not just because you suck at drawing?” Daren says. “If your ugly handwriting is anything to go by, I’m not sure how much I would trust your ability to accurately copy a diagram from a book.”
I frown at Daren.
“Well, why don’t we have a test, then?” I say. “Does anyone here know any sleep spells?”
“I know a sleep spell,” Illuna says. “It takes a while to cast, and I need to touch him while I do it, but it should be more than enough for what we need.”
“Perfect!” I say. “Here are the diagrams. You need to make sure to time your sleep spell just right, and to aim it at the exact point where the two aura flows intersect.”
“Yes, I know how it works,” Illuna says, as she takes one quick look at the diagrams, and then she heads towards Daren.
“Oh, this should be good,” Daren says.
Once Illuna reaches Daren, she places the palm of her hand on his right arm, and she closes her eyes, trying to visualize the flows of the auras.
“See?” Daren says, after about five seconds of waiting for Illuna to cast her spell. “I told you that you’re wasting your time by—”
Daren does not get to finish what he was saying, because his eyes suddenly roll to the back of his head, and he falls to the ground, like a log.
“That settles it,” Illuna says. “The oaf was using conflicting protection spells.”
“Well, what do you know!” Hadrik says. “Barry was right. I think someone should wake Daren up, though. That does not look like a comfortable position to be sleeping in.”
“Allow me,” Illuna says.
She then conjures a bucket’s worth of water above Daren’s head, which she immediately drops on his face.
“What the—” Daren says, as he quickly gets up from the ground, and then he coughs some water out of his lungs. “How did I end up on the ground?”
“Take a wild guess,” Kate says.
“No…” Daren says. “It can’t be…”
“Well, Daren,” I say. “I guess this means that you will now officially be losing your last bit of protection against physical damage. Welcome to the club!”
“No!” Daren says. “I’m not letting go of the shield! I’ve worked too hard to learn it! I’d rather give up that other protection spell than stop using the shield.”
“Suit yourself,” I say. “The sleep protection from your shield is a little weaker than the individual one, though.”
“I don’t care!” Daren says.
“Well, as long as you make sure that there are no more conflicts…” I say.
I pause for a few seconds.
“So, I guess that now I am the only one left without proper protection against sleep spells, then…” I say.
“Well, technically, I don’t have any magical protection against them, either,” Hadrik says. “Giants are naturally immune to sleep spells.”
“Lessathi are also immune to sleep spells,” Kate says.
“They are?” I say. “What about half-lessathi?”
“No idea,” Kate says. “Maybe you are only half immune.”
“Half immune?” I say. “How would that even work? Hey, Illuna, could you try putting me to sleep too, so we can see what happens?”
Illuna sighs, and she approaches me, touching my arm with her right hand, just like she did with Daren. A few seconds later, I feel a strong dizziness, and everything around me is starting to get blurry.
“Damn it!” I say, as I feel the world spinning around me. “I may as well be put to sleep for all the difference this would make in a fight. I can’t even tell up from down anymore. What’s happening right now? Am I still standing up?”
“Nah,” Hadrik says. “You’re sitting with your arse on the ground, while grabbing your head with both your hands.”
All of a sudden, I feel my mind become clear again, and as I raise my head, I see Illuna standing in front of me, with her hand on my forehead.
“What did you do?” I ask her.
“I cast a spell to cure your dizziness,” Illuna says, as she takes her hand off my forehead. “I also have a ‘protection from dizziness’ spell that I can cast on you, if you want. Given your partial immunity to sleep spells, protection from dizziness should help you both against sleep spells and against spells that attempt to disorient you. There is also a downside, however. While you have this spell cast on yourself, you will be a lot more vulnerable to suggestion magic, since the clarity of your thoughts will make it easier for someone to magically insert ideas into your brain.”
“Well, it’s not like I had any protections against suggestion magic to begin with,” I say. “A little more vulnerability to it couldn’t do that much harm, right?… Besides, I think that it’s much more important to have protection against sleep spells, given how many mages can cast them. Go ahead and cast the protection spell on me. It’s probably safer that way.”
Illuna nods, and she begins to say an incantation, while she has both her palms pointed towards me. Once she’s done chanting, a white light surrounds me for a few seconds, which then disappears almost as quickly as it appeared.
“It’s done,” Illuna says. “The spell should last you for a few weeks, but there won’t be any problem in recasting it earlier than that, if you want to be on the safe side.”
“Great,” I say, as I get up from the ground. “Of course, it would have been even greater if our team’s white mage could actually cast any sort of protection spells on anyone but himself. You know, kind of like what every other white mage in existence is capable of doing?”
“Give me a break!” Daren says. “I already told you. Learning the versions of the spells that can only be cast on myself was easier. I was never planning to work in a team, during my travels, so it seemed like a waste of time to learn the more advanced versions of the spells, if I’d never get the chance to use them. The barrier that I can cast with my shield has always been more than enough to protect civilians from harm during monster attacks. And it’s not like I can just make a few adjustments and change the spells I already know so they can be cast on other people. I’d have to learn entirely different spells for this to work, and we’ve got no time for that. Just let it go, already.”
“Hey, I’m just saying,” I say, “If you had actually decided to specialize in only one type of magic like everyone else instead of going for both enchantment and white magic, this wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“Drop it,” Daren says.
“Fine, fine,” I say. “I guess we’re all done here, then? Should we get moving?”
“Not yet,” Kate says. “Leila still needs to get her new backpack enchanted. We can�
�t just walk with these bags in our hands, all the way to the palace.”
“Alright,” Daren says. “Give me the backpack. I’ll enchant it right away.”
As soon as Daren is done with the backpack and Leila puts all of her clothes inside it, we all leave the market area, and we make our way towards the castle of Thilias once more. As we walk, we begin to tell Kate and Leila about everything that happened with Eiden while they were shopping. I also take this opportunity to give everyone more details about my private discussion with Eiden, during his time-freezing spell.
“Eiden said he’d give you the power to stop the calamity threatening to destroy the cities?…” Daren says. “That doesn’t make any sense. Didn’t he tell us that he would be destroying the cities himself?”
“That’s not what he said,” I say. “His exact words were that the calamity would happen as a direct result of his own actions.”
“Isn’t that kind of the same thing, though?” Hadrik says.
“Not really,” I say. “The way he phrased it, it didn’t seem like the destruction of the cities would be his main purpose. More like a side effect of whatever he’s planning to do. Let’s say, for example, that Eiden knows for a fact that he will be forced to fight Tyrath personally before the end of this tournament. If the dragon is to be believed, then such a fight would completely raze the continent, which would most likely erase all of Varathia’s cities from the map.”
“Damn,” Daren says. “You might be right. With the dragon declaring war against all of the cities, and Eiden announcing his return as the ‘Creator’, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the two leaders of the armies ended up clashing before the end of the tournament.”
“That’s not all,” I say. “Eiden specifically told us that this calamity would only happen ‘shortly’ before the end of the tournament. This means that he is expecting the tournament to play a part in triggering this calamity, somehow.”
“Maybe the dragon will be waiting for most of the tournament participants to die out, before he begins his attack?” Hadrik says.
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