The Elite Wizard Games (Elite Wizards Chronicles Book 1)

by Gina A. Watson

  When the sonic boom hit, it crashed into Joren’s hands and pushed him back a few feet. He lowered his arms, his face sporting a giant grin. I was stunned. The sonic boom was powerful enough to demolish the ground but did nothing to a simple smoke wizard. From up in the stands, not only was Joren smiling, it looked like he was laughing.

  He took in a deep breath, and as a grey magic circle appeared below his feet, he released a smoky breath attack that raced towards Alto at lightning speed. Alto had no time to block or dodge the attack. It hit him full force, causing him to fall to the ground and be pushed to the end of the arena. It looked like the battle was over with one attack from Joren, but Alto picked himself up off the broken ground and sent off his return attack. With three spins, Alto sent three shockwaves of sound, each one more powerful than the one before it. Joren blocked the first two with ease but miscalculated the third. He lost his balance and allowed for Alto to attack again.

  He sent another three of the shockwaves followed by another sonic boom. With each one hitting their mark, it knocked the wind out of Joren and pushed him further back until he hit the arena wall right before another sonic boom hit. He fell to the ground, fisted his hand, and smashed a hole in the dirt. His light grey eyes glowed in the dust cloud that formed around his body, making him look dangerous.

  Joren slowly pulled himself up off the floor and let out a roar that echoed through the whole stadium. He took a deep breath and sent another breath attack towards Alto, followed by smoke slices that came from stretching out his arms. Alto quickly blocked both attacks, which made Joren angry and it showed in his fighting. His advances became sloppy, giving Alto more openings.

  Alto attacked again with another sonic boom with a higher wattage. It hit Joren in the chest and pushed him back into the arena wall again. Joren let out another roar as his body became surrounded in smoke. He clenched his fists and roared again, his eyes glowing more as the smoke around him moved and shifted. A few seconds later, he moved. Joren sent out another set of smoke slices towards Alto, and when he blocked it, Joren became enraged.

  Something changed within him, and he acted unstable. Joren’s body shook, causing his muscles to spasm. His eyes grew dark and his jaw clenched like he was fighting something. The smoke around him expanded until we could no longer see him. A light came from where Joren stood but when the smoke disappeared, we were all stunned to see what was in his place.

  A large dragon, about two times the size of a human wizard, now stood in the arena. Its scales were smoky grey, and its large eyes were a bright yellow. As it breathed, smoke poured from its mouth and nose. The crowd screamed. The sight of the dragon was astonishing— even though we had magic in the world, no one had ever seen a dragon before. They went extinct hundreds of years back and the only record of them being alive was in history books.

  Alto faltered, stumbling backwards, his jaw dropped like the rest of the crowd. The dragon looked down at him and huffed in his direction.

  The only thing Alto could do was attack it. He sent a barrage of sonic booms aimed directly at the beast’s chest, but it did nothing. The dragon didn’t even flinch. It huffed again and swiped Alto away with its arm. It wanted nothing to do with the sound wizard. Alto attacked again, this time aiming for the dragon’s head. The sound attack moved the beast’s head but did nothing more except make the dragon angry. It took a deep breath and attacked with its smoky dragon breath. The force pushed Alto into the arena wall, hitting his head on the floor as he fell. He was unconscious.

  The beast looked over at the fallen wizard, huffed, and as another smoky cloud covered his body, he fell to the floor.

  This time we saw what happened. The dragon turned back into the body of Joren and left him standing in the centre of the arena surrounded by a smoky aura.

  Elijah appeared on a screen above him.

  “What a battle! That was incredible. The winner of the second battle is Joren the smoke DRAGON!” he screamed and as he did, so did the crowd. “There you have it, folks, the first dragon ever seen in the magic world, and it was here at the Elite Wizard Games. Let’s see what the next battle will hold.”

  By the stunned look on Joren’s face at the word ‘dragon,’ he had no idea happened in his fight. Since no one had seen a dragon in hundreds of years, it was surprising to everyone. Joren was transported back into the stadium stands. The other wizards surrounded him, asking him questions about turning into a dragon.

  “Guys, allow him to breathe. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t bother him with it,” I said as I placed an arm around his shoulder and led him away from the others.

  “Thanks, Melanie, I don’t know what happened to me.” He looked up at me and his eyes said it all— tears had pooled and he looked terrified. All the colour had drained from his face. “Please, after the games today, will you help me understand this? I can’t do it alone.”

  Something in Joren had changed. He held his eyes low and his voice quivered. He wasn’t just shocked by his transformation, he was scared. Every ounce of his smug, egotistic attitude gone. I needed to help him.

  “Sure, after my fight.”

  “Thank you, and good luck.”

  There was a legend that said some of the dragons turned themselves into humans before they became extinct, so this spell was ancient magic that no one had ever seen done before and no one really knew if it was true or not. Having a wizard turn into a dragon mid-battle proved it. It was the first time we had a dragon wizard in the games and in the world. Joren Starrik was that dragon.

  4

  Fire in the Stars

  I was shocked that Joren asked me to help him discover why he turned into a dragon but I didn’t have time to think about it. The excitement from the second fight was still in the air when I was transported into the centre of the arena. My opponent was Stella the astral wizard. She wore a cream uniform and had white hair that was cut at shoulder length. Her hazel eyes pierced into mine as she gave me a sweet smile.

  Elijah’s screen appeared over our heads and we knew it was almost time.

  “The final battle for the day! Melanie Atax, the element wizard, versus Stella, Lady of the Stars. This will be a great battle.” He disappeared and the words lit up the now-pink sky.

  Stella now looked determined; she stayed in her place and spread her arms wide while looking to the sky. I took the chance to attack. I ignited my whip and flicked it towards her legs, wrapping around Stella’s ankle. With one small pull, I knocked her off-balance and stopped the spell she was casting. A silvery-white magic circle appeared in front of her hands. She smiled then sent a wave of glowing, white stars towards me.

  I had no idea what I was seeing or how to dodge it. The wave hit me full force and the stars cut into my arms and body. I wasn’t done. I extinguished my whip and ignited a ball of fire in each hand. I forced my arms out in front of me and hurled a wave of my own towards Stella. The flames burned with more heat than a normal fire and were harder to put out.

  Stella flinched just before the wave of flames hit her, but when the flames died out, she hadn’t been touched. A smile burst onto her face as she giggled.

  “I have been embodied by the stars and everything beyond, fire does nothing to me. I can withstand the heat of a meteor falling down to earth. Your flames are nothing.”

  I changed tactics. I crossed my arms over my chest then hurled my air slicers towards Stella. They cut her deep and ripped the bottom of her uniform. At least I knew my air magic would work on her. Stella looked up at the sky and incanted something I didn’t understand. Another magic circle appeared, this time under her feet, causing her feet to glow.

  When the circle disappeared, Stella took a step forward with incredible speed. The heavens had granted her a speed boost. Trying my air slicers again, Stella dodged it with ease and not wasting any movement, she sent an attack my way. She circled around me, hitting me in every direction and knocking me to the ground.

  Stella was strong and quick, something I ha
d never faced before in a fight, but I wasn’t about to lose. She stopped just in front of me and spread her arms wide again, calling out to the stars. The original magic circle appeared in front of her, and just as I pulled myself off the ground, the spell finished. Above me, a golden wave of stars rained down. I knew I couldn’t block it, so I decided to use my flames and try to knock the stars away.

  My own copper magic circle appeared at my feet as I used my flame boosters to soar into the air above me and towards the stars. When I got close enough, I called upon my plume of flames to burn hotter than the sun. It rose and covered the stars, causing them to stop and fall directly to the ground. Now heated from my flames, the burning stars fell upon Stella, singeing her skin with every hit. When I landed on the arena floor, I ignited my whip again and readied myself for the next attack.

  When the dust settled from the stars hitting the ground, I noticed something new with Stella. She, too, was holding a whip in her hands. Her whip was as long as mine but didn’t burn with flames. Instead, it was glowing white with stars flowing through it.

  “You see, you’re not the only one with a whip. My starry whip is one of my strongest weapons of the stars. Your flames will not hold a candle to this,” she said, a smile still on her face. She was having fun.

  “I’d like to see you try to beat my flame whip.”

  Stella flicked her whip towards me as I did the same. The tips tangled at the end, each of them pulling power from the other, trying to extinguish them. Using the full potential inside me, I urged my flames to burn hotter than before. As the flames grew in the whip, the tip of Stella’s melted away. It lost grip of mine, and as I did, I flicked it towards Stella. After multiple hits, I extinguished the whip and called upon my air magic. Using my slicers, I tore into Stella again.

  I began my strongest air attack. A white magic circle formed in front of my crossed hands. I drew in the air around me and focused it in the circle. After another moment, I let it loose, a tornado of air spun towards Stella. Caught up in the spin, the storm hit her again and again, knocking her energy from her core.

  When the tornado collapsed, it left Stella lying on the ground, unable to move. The fight was done.

  The crowd who had been silent for a while now burst into cheers. Elijah appeared on his screen and cheered as well.

  “The final fight for the day is over and the winner is Melanie Atax. What a fight that was! Well, that is it for day one of The Elite Wizard Games. Everyone return to your homes and inns safely, and we will see you tomorrow.”

  Even after I was transported away from the arena and back into my room at the inn, I still couldn’t believe I had won. I felt completely drained and I could barely move my body. It was still only early evening, so I shuffled over to the bed and fell onto its soft mattress. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

  Hours later, I was woken by a soft knocking on my room door. I wondered who would be bothering me then I remembered agreeing to help Joren. I quickly changed into regular clothes and opened the door to greet him. Although he didn’t speak, his face told me everything. He was still worried about what happened in his fight.

  Joren held his eyes low and rarely looked me in the face as we walked through Tolia. Even though he never said a word, I knew exactly where we were going— the magic library. It was the only one in existence and it was located on the outside of Tolia behind the royal castle.

  It was the largest library and held every book about magic that was ever created. Legend said that only wizards deemed worthy could enter the library for it contained hidden and forbidden magic spells. I didn’t know if the legend was true, but we were about to find out.

  As we approached the library, I felt something strange near the castle. It was a pulse of magic power, but it felt different than a normal wizard. I stopped in my tracks and stared at the castle, almost causing Joren to bump into me.

  “Why did you stop? We’re almost there,” he spoke.

  “I don’t know, something feels off.”

  Joren turned to look where I was staring. “I can’t feel a thing.”

  “It’s probably nothing then.”

  Vines covered the library and a thick grove of trees surrounded it. It looked as though no one looked after the place through the centuries. The building itself was stunning, a multi-story, light brown, brick building with towers on each of the corners. It almost looked like a castle. The doors were dark, golden wood and taller than I had ever seen before. We tried to push on them, but they wouldn’t budge.

  Joren stood in front of the doors in the centre and closed his eyes. A moment later, a small pulse of magic came from him and hit the door. He kept it going, but nothing was happening. I realised the library was judging us. I stood next to Joren and did the same thing; I closed my eyes and sent a small wave of my magic towards the doors.

  A few seconds later, a lock unbolted from the inside and one of the doors became slightly ajar. We stepped into the giant library and I was in awe. Stacks and stacks filled with every magical book that ever existed covered the entire library from wall to wall and on different floors. With no idea of where to start looking, we decided to split up and search for an area of books on dragons.

  With Joren taking the ground floor, I went up to the first floor to look. Hours went by without us finding any clue on where the dragon books were being held. With each section of books I searched, I realised the vast amount of magical powers there were in the world and the different variants of them all.

  I reached the fourth floor at the same time Joren reached the third, and as I stepped foot onto the floor, I felt a strange pulsing under my feet. Before I could call down to Joren and ask if he felt it, too, the pulsing directed me away from the stairs. Each wave went in a specific direction, urging me to follow it. The further I walked into the stacks, the stronger the pulse became. The stacks became darker the further I went, and I had no choice but to light a small flame in my hand to help me see. When I got to the end, I saw them— the dragon books.

  I called out to Joren that I found them and told him to bring a lamp with him. I waited, listening for his footsteps approaching so I knew when to extinguish my flame.

  “What did you find?” he asked as he made his way towards me.

  “The dragon books, and there are a lot of them, so I’ll need your help to read them.”

  He nodded and placed the lamp on the floor by the final stack, lighting up the area enough so that we could read without a problem. We skimmed through book after book, trying to find any reference to the changing of the dragons. It was near midnight and we still hadn’t found anything. I was starting to lose all hope at finding an answer for Joren. Our pile of read books was getting higher, and we had almost reached the end of the stacks. While flicking through a history of dragons, my eyes glanced over the word ‘transformation.’

  “Joren, I think I’ve found something.”

  He instantly dropped the book he was reading and focused all his attention on me. I read the pages in full detail until I found what I was looking for.

  “Dragons were always thought to have higher intelligence and have been known to foresee the future. It was documented hundreds of years ago that the dragons saw their own demise. Some dragons accepted that it was their time, but others decided they wanted to live longer,” I paused for a moment and briefly read ahead so I knew if anything bad was coming.

  “The dragons that wished to live longer called out to the heavens and pleaded with them to allow them to live. Their call was answered, and a spell was created to allow dragons to transform into humans.

  “However, this didn’t last long. After the extinction of dragons, the humans who were dragons had too much magic energy stored within themselves that they changed back into their dragon forms. Although they could keep changing back into humans, their dragon forms always returned.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” Joren said, staring at the floor between us.

  “There’s more
,” I waited until he was ready again. “Over the hundreds of years, each time the dragons took their human form, it made it harder and harder to transform back and, eventually, they forgot how and forgot they were even dragons. Their powers continued in their human forms, but they couldn’t become dragons again.”

  Joren remained quiet. I know I didn’t understand any of it, so I knew he would be feeling worse. I continued to read through the book and left him to his thoughts. The book mentioned everything to do with dragons before and after extinction but never said anything after three hundred years ago.

  “I know we are both learning this now, but there is one thing I don’t understand. How could you be hundreds of years old, yet look twenty-one?”

  Joren shook his head and looked me in the eyes. “I have no idea. My parents have pictures of me on the day I was born, how could it be possible that I am hundreds of years old,” he stopped and laughed for a moment. “Although, it did seem impossible that I would turn into a dragon mid-fight and yet, that happened.”

  “We can keep researching. Maybe there is another dragon out there like you. Maybe there are other accounts in other books that tell us what happened after three hundred years ago.”

  He stood from the floor and picked up the lamp. “Come on, we can always research more another day. We need to get some rest before the games. There are only a few more hours before sunlight.”

  We walked in silence again. The streets of Tolia were empty except for a few stray animals returning to their homes in the woods. While it felt good that we got some answers about the dragons, it opened more questions that would be a lot harder to get answers to. I quickly glanced at Joren as we walked back to our inn. His face showed no emotion, but he looked as though he was deep in thought.