Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  “Quit it!” Melindra shouts at the orc. “Fight them, not me! What are you, stupid?”

  The orc ignores her completely, and he tries to hit her again, this time with his shield.

  “I said, cut it out!” Melindra shouts at him, as she makes another jump backwards.

  She then props herself into the ground with her feet, assuming a rather peculiar stance, as she bends her knees and keeps her elbows close to her body, while she faces her palms towards her attacker.

  A very powerful burst of air then comes out of her hands, as the orc gets blown away, and thrown directly towards Kate, who was just about to launch an ice cone at one of Leila’s opponents. Seeing the orc flying in her direction, Kate is forced to cancel her spell and to jump out of the way, in order to avoid getting knocked off her feet.

  “Are you trying to get us all killed?!” Kate shouts furiously at Melindra, as she gets back up from the ground.

  “Hey, it wasn’t my fault!” Melindra says. “That orc attacked me out of nowhere, when I was just minding my own business!”

  “This is the middle of a battlefield, you fool!” Kate says. “If you want to mind your own business, then fly away from here and stop sabotaging us at every step!”

  “Well, there’s no need to be so rude about it,” Melindra says, as she casts a spell, and she flies high into the air, out of the orcs’ reach, while the orc that she blew away earlier goes back to fighting Leila.

  “Flower! Illuna!” I say. “I want to go check why the two goblin mages haven’t attacked us yet. Could you come with me? We should be able to find where they’re hiding, with a little help from Arraka.”

  “Oh, right, the goblins!” Flower says. “I completely forgot about them. I think I may have actually sensed one of them cast a spell when the orcs attacked us. Follow me, it’s this way!”

  She then heads into the woods, and I rush to follow her, leaving the others behind, for now. After about twenty seconds of running, for some reason, I’m feeling that we aren’t making a lot of progress, and some of the trees we are passing look oddly familiar.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Arraka asks us, after a while. “Are you completely incapable of running in a straight line for more than five seconds? How many times are you going to keep circling around this area before you decide to finally head towards those goblins?”

  “What are you talking about?” I say. “We’ve been heading in the same direction this whole time.”

  “You’ve been running in circles, you moron!” Arraka says. “Do I need to draw you a map? Hold on, let me show you.”

  She then conjures one of her map holograms into the air, and she starts drawing a line on it, showing us the direction in which we’ve been going since we began heading for the goblins. The line goes into one direction for a while, but after that, the trajectory changes completely, going through the same area over and over again.

  “See?” Arraka says. “This is you. This is how stupid you looked. And do you see those two dots over there? That’s where the goblins are. Now stop wasting time and get going. I’m getting second-hand embarrassment just from watching you people.”

  I try to head into the exact direction where the goblins are drawn on Arraka’s map, but for some reason, I simply can’t advance further than a few steps. Every time I get too close to the goblins, I instinctively turn away from them, without realizing, and then I see myself going in the opposite direction on the map. Even worse than that is the fact that my mind gets almost completely clouded every time this happens, and it feels as if the only thing that I can think of is how I need to get away from that area, even if I don’t have any actual reason to do it.

  “There is a suggestion spell cast on this area,” Illuna says, as she studies the area in front of us closely. “Arraka is probably not as affected by it as we are because she’s inside the amulet, but the spell seems to have a similar effect to the one that Kate is using to protect our camp.”

  “Wow…” I say. “I guess you weren’t kidding when you said that your protection from dizziness would make me vulnerable to suggestion spells. The spell’s effect on me was so strong that I could barely manage to think of anything other than getting away from that area, until I was at a far enough distance from it.”

  “Yes,” Illuna says. “But sleep spells and dizziness spells are far more widely used than suggestion spells, so it’s not that bad of a trade. Either way, we’re not going to get past this area unless we get a very detailed description of the environment that those two goblins are situated in, so we can imagine that location as we move forward. Arraka, what can you tell us about the area around these goblins?”

  Before Arraka gets to answer, we hear the sound of a very loud horn, coming from the area where all of our friends were fighting, and only a few seconds afterwards, the two dots representing the goblins disappear from Arraka’s map, along with the auras of all the orcs and the ogres from the battlefield.

  “Well,” Illuna says, “at least now we know what the goblins were there for. One of them was maintaining the suggestion spell, while the other one laid in wait, in a secluded place where he could not be disturbed, in case he needed to concentrate on casting the teleportation spell, after receiving the signal to retreat.”

  “Let’s get back to the others,” I say. “Hopefully, everyone is alright.”

  As we get back to the area where all the fighting took place, we soon find out that not everyone had managed to walk out of the conflict completely unscathed. Leila is now lying on the ground, with her left ankle red and swollen, as Daren is kneeling beside her, while holding his hands slightly above her wound, with a bright white light coming out of them.

  “You just need to bear with this for a little longer,” Daren says, as he sees Leila grimacing from the pain, without making any sounds. “The healing spell is almost done.”

  “Gods, what happened here?” Flower says.

  “Leila managed to kill two of the orcs she was fighting by herself,” Daren says, “but the third one crushed her leg with his mace before she got the time to retreat. At least this gave Kate the opening she needed to aim one of her ice cones through the open slit in his helm, in order to finish him off, but the wound that Leila took was no joke. It looks much better now than it did before. Anyway, after the three orcs got killed, their captain jumped away from me and he blew in his horn, to sound the retreat. What happened to the goblins? Did they get away along with the other monsters?”

  “Yes,” Illuna says. “We didn’t manage to reach them in time because they had a suggestion spell that was keeping us away from them. They got the signal to retreat before we could find a way to get around the spell’s effects.”

  “But where did they go?” Hadrik says. “Are they planning to ambush us again?”

  “Nah,” Arraka says. “They’re gone. If I can’t sense them, then they’ve probably retreated back to their main headquarters. Wherever that is.”

  “There, it’s healed,” Daren says, as Leila’s ankle goes back to its normal color and size. “But not completely. You shouldn’t try any more acrobatic stunts for at least a day, until you fully recover. You should be able to walk without much trouble, though.”

  “Thank you…” Leila writes, as she gets up from the ground.

  “Man, those ogres that I fought earlier were quite something!” Hadrik says. “I had almost as much trouble with them as I had with that ogre captain from the fort. It’s a shame that they got away, though. That orc captain seemed to know his stuff too, judging by how long he could hold a stalemate with Daren.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “This is the first time when we ran into monsters that were so strong and so well-organized. Leila, you said earlier that these were one of Tyrath’s elite squads?”

  “Yes,” Leila writes. “He usually only dispatches these teams for special missions. I’m guessing that this particular group was sent here specifically to target you guys, since he could no longer kill you personally, due to his
pact with Eiden. He must have sent at least one elite group to guard each of the city’s exits, but they couldn’t stay too close to the city gates, without being detected, so they made their ambush here, in the forest.”

  “Does Tyrath have any teams that are stronger than these elite squads?” I say.

  “He used to,” Leila writes. “But I don’t think he has them anymore. I heard that there was a time when he actually had teams of dragons under his rule. But this was likely before he became unable to maintain his molten lava form at all times. From what I understand, the dragons in Varathia now live isolated, somewhere in the mountains, and they don’t want to have anything to do with Tyrath, despite his claims of being the ‘king of all dragons’.”

  “Regardless of what team Tyrath decides to send after us next,” Illuna says, “what is most important is that we detect them before they actually have us surrounded. Arraka, from now on, you will also let us know when there are groups of monsters trying to ambush us, not just invisible enemies. Do you understand?”

  “Hey, if you want my help, then how about you fight seriously, next time, huh?” Arraka says. “What was with that ridiculous performance of yours in the fight from earlier? Why didn’t you use that drowning technique that I taught you on them, like you did yesterday on the dragon? It’s not like their anti-magic helmets would have prevented them from breathing water into their lungs.”

  “I’ve already told you countless times,” Illuna says. “I never managed to fully control that technique. What I did yesterday was a gamble, and I only did it because we were running out of options. And even so, I had to time my spell perfectly, so I’d cast it exactly as the dragon inhaled, when he was preparing to breathe his fire. This way, Tyrath’s lungs were already full of water before he could react. If he had any air left in his lungs, he could have simply blown some air out of his mouth, and my water bubble would have dispersed into thin air. That’s how little control I have over this spell. And aside from this, I can only cast it on one person at a time, and if someone breaks my concentration while I cast it, the spell will be undone in an instant.”

  “Well then, why don’t you master it?” Arraka says. “Why did I waste my time teaching you such a useful technique if you’re not even going to practice using it? Do you really hate me so much that you are willing to limit your spell arsenal just to spite me?”

  “Fine!” Illuna says. “If it will make you shut up, then I will start practicing the spell! Now, will you agree to warn us about monster attacks, or not?”

  “Of course, of course…” Arraka says. “After all, it’s also in my best interest that you two remain alive… at least until I manage to take control of your body.”

  “Say, Daren…” I say, as I look at one of the dead orcs in front of me. “The armor that you’re wearing right now is anti-magic armor, correct?”

  “Among other things, yes,” Daren says.

  “So, why aren’t you also wearing a helmet to go with the set?” I say. “You saw how useful these anti-magic helmets were for the orcs just now. And if you’re already willing to wear full heavy armor, a helmet isn’t exactly going to weigh you down a lot more, is it?”

  “It’s not about the weight,” Daren says. “It’s about being aware of my surroundings. These mindless brutes might be okay with losing their peripheral vision over some extra defense, but when you’re on a battlefield with enemies coming from every side, limiting your vision is the last thing any sane person would want to do! And it’s not like there’s any way to properly enchant the types of helmets that don’t cover most of your face. The anti-magic barrier, for example, cannot be maintained unless the metal covers your head from all sides, and it’s the same for many other enchantments. Then there’s also the fact that this scar I have on my forehead makes me easily recognizable to most people nowadays, as long as I keep it visible, and when people recognize me, they usually tend to get intimidated, and not engage me in battle, which helps avoid some unnecessary bloodshed.”

  “How did you get that scar, anyway?” Hadrik says. “I’ve never asked. And why is it shaped like an ‘x’? Is there like a monster with an ‘x’ shaped tail that I don’t know about, or something?”

  “No,” Daren says. “The ‘x’ is actually formed from two separate scars that I got during the same battle.”

  “Oh?” Hadrik asks, suddenly getting more interested. “Someone was actually strong enough to scar the great hero Daren twice during the same battle? May I ask who this was?”

  “It was my martial arts and enchanting master,” Daren says. “An ex-sage from the Southern Continent. Well, he wasn’t a sage back when he was training me, but he became one afterwards, and he lost the title in the next year. He was an extremely harsh teacher, especially when it came to martial arts, and he was the type that always tried to make you learn lessons from your own experience, rather than just giving you the answer himself. As his final lesson, he told me to fight him with all my strength, by using everything he’s ever taught me. This is when I got my two scars. The first time he wounded me, I did not understand his lesson, so he decided to cut me a second time, in the exact same spot, from the opposite side, in order to properly get his point across. Only then, did I realize that the whole purpose of that battle was to show me a huge weakness in my fighting style that I’d ignored for years, without giving it much thought. The third time when he attacked me in the same spot, I was ready for him, and I quickly disarmed him, which concluded my last lesson. Now, every time I see my reflection in the water, it reminds me to always remain vigilant, and to always look out for even the tiniest of weaknesses, because in a real battle, they can mean the difference between life and death.”

  “Huh…” Hadrik says. “That’s actually oddly inspiring. I think I may also have some of these small weaknesses that I never really bothered to correct because I didn’t consider them to be that big of a problem, due to my durable giant skin, but after hearing your story, I’m thinking that maybe I should get off my arse and actually do something about it, before it’s too late. After all, you never know what might happen!”

  “Hey!” Melindra suddenly shouts, from high above us. “So… are you guys done with your secret strategy meeting, yet? You think maybe I can come back down so we can continue our trip? No pressure, though. Take as long as you like.”

  “What are you—” Daren starts to say, as he looks towards Melindra, but he interrupts himself. “Ugh… Yes, Melindra, you can come down, now.”

  “Splendid,” Melindra says, as she dives down towards us, reaching the ground level in a few seconds. “Just so you know, the battle you had just now with the monsters was far below my expectations. You’re going to have to clean up your act if you actually plan to be of any use to me when we get to Ollendor.”

  “Listen, Melindra…” Daren says. “You may have taken an oath to uphold your end of the bargain, but none of us took an oath to fulfill ours. You may have forgotten about this, but we can still cancel this deal at any time, if we don’t want to work with you anymore. And with the way you’ve been acting so far, you’ve given us some pretty good reasons to reconsider our arrangement. So, I’ll tell you what we’ll do. If you still want us to help you with Ollendor, then you can stop complaining and lead us to where we need to go. If you don’t, then I’m afraid you might have to go looking for some other group to do your dirty work.”

  “Fine!” Melindra says, frowning. “If that’s how it’s going to be, then you won’t hear another word from me.”

  She then storms in front of us, and we all begin to follow her, one by one, into the depths of the forest.

  “So, uh…” I say, as we all walk behind Melindra. “Illuna, do you think those two goblins might have been part of Fyron’s army? Could the goblin general be working with the dragon, now?”

  “I highly doubt it,” Illuna says. “The dragon already has plenty of goblins under his rule. He shouldn’t have any need for Fyron and his ‘free’ goblins. In fact, the only rea
son why Fyron and his group have survived for so long is most likely because the dragon doesn’t really care about them. There is no pact protecting goblins, so Tyrath could very well destroy their whole camp by himself if he deemed it worthy of his time, and nobody would be able to stop him.”

  “Did Fyron ever serve under the dragon, before he joined the free goblins?” I say.

  “Yes, he did,” Illuna says. “A long time ago. From what I understood, he left because of the very poor way in which the goblins were being treated by the dragon, and by the other monster races. They may be the most resourceful of the monster races, but physically, they are by far the weakest, and there aren’t many mages born in their race either. As such, the goblins were always being forced to perform menial tasks, they were ridiculed by the other monster races, and they were almost always on the verge of starvation. When Fyron left Tyrath’s army and took his goblins with him, the dragon never bothered to stop them, because they were mostly irrelevant to him, and so, the goblins formed a new faction, calling themselves the ‘free goblins’. Only a fraction of the goblins actually followed Fyron, though. Most of them preferred to stay behind, because at least the dragon would ensure their protection against animals and humans, and he would give them enough food to scrape by. Even some of the goblins that left with Fyron decided later to return to the dragon, due to the even poorer conditions that they were getting in Fyron’s camp. However, those who decided to stay, eventually managed to make a better life for themselves than they used to have, after a few long years of hard work and effort, and in time, they managed to get other goblins, and even other types of monsters to willingly join their camp.”

  “Speaking of other types of monsters,” I say, “do you know how many types Tyrath has under his rule?”

  “I do not know all the details,” Illuna says, “but as far as I’m aware, the monsters that are by far the most loyal to the dragon are the orcs. They are not as strong as the ogres, but they’re not dumb like them, either, and they are generally more powerful than most humans. The orcs are the main force of the dragon’s army, but he also has other monsters of the humanoid variety like ogres, trolls and goblins, alongside various creatures such as wyverns and hydras. While it would be pretty unlikely to meet an orc in Varathia that does not serve Tyrath, there are plenty of ogres that have nothing to do with the dragon, like the ones we fought in the fort, and the trolls are mostly a race of mercenaries, so their allegiance to the dragon is fickle. As far as the goblins go, I’d wager that most of the goblins in Varathia still follow Tyrath, although Fyron has also been getting some new recruits in his camp, lately.”