Zeal of the Mind and Flesh: A Cultivating Gamelit Harem Adventure (Spellheart Book 1)

by Marvin Whiteknight

  The true mage did nothing except lazily glance at each of her opponents. She held up a hand and beckoned them forward, daring them to attack her.

  The three chiefs each exchanged a glance. Each of them drew on the power of their spellhearts, which had been embedded in their bodies once they broke into the mage acolyte ranks. A shoulder was glowing on one, and a hand on the other. I assumed that the third had put her spellheart somewhere covered by clothes, and that was why I couldn’t see the distinctive glow of its power under magesight.

  Yulli, in the center of the arena, sank to her knees. She closed her eyes, seemingly deep in meditation. If I had been blind to zeal the way I was when I first arrived here, I would have thought she had gone to sleep in the middle of the arena. Now though, I was able to tell she was more alert than ever. With her eyes closed, she was able to devote her full attention to her mage sight, something far more powerful than ordinary vision. She was likely studying each of her opponents, analyzing their techniques and the flow of zeal throughout their bodies. Yulli didn’t become a true mage without a voracious desire to improve. Even now, in the middle of a duel, she was trying to craft new techniques for herself to defeat her opponents as efficiently as possible.

  As for the three chiefs, each of them used the magic of their cultivation bases to prepare themselves for a life or death burst of power. From their techniques alone, I would have been able to guess what tribe they came from, as each chief was marked with the distinctive magic of the organization they governed.

  Chief Antgut, of the Ironwood tribe, pulled out what looked to be a metal baton. In her hands, the wood began to glow and shape itself into something that resembled a wooden blade. The Ironwood chieftain took up a defensive posture that made me certain that she had practiced with it extensively, and maybe even had a formal style of swordsmanship.

  The Chief of the Myriad Hues of Flame tribe, Chief Conadur, immediately began waving her hands about to and fro. She pulled a combination of flakes and particles with her right hand from a variety of pouches on her belt to feed into a small multi-colored flame sitting in the palm of her left hand.

  The skin on Chief Wisdom, of the Waterbeetle tribe, started glowing blue and began to develop a sense of rigidity to it, probably after their tribe’s namesake.

  And then the preparations were over. All three of them struck at Yulli simultaneously, using what were likely their strongest spells and techniques.

  Except when their blows landed Yulli wasn’t there.

  She had gotten to her feet so fast it was like a blur, barely perceptible to these mage acolyte rank chieftains, let alone us heart wielders.

  She appeared behind Chief Conadur. Her flame was fizzling from being slammed into the ground without finding flesh to serve as new tinder, but it was still throwing off motes of light across the color spectrum. Chief Conadur turned as quickly as she could, holding the flame in her hand as if it were a ball she was about to throw.

  By the time the Myriad Hues of Flame chief was halfway turned, Yulli had already slipped out of her reach, hand red with blood. Chief Conadur grasped at her torso, which was bleeding heavily. She fell to one knee with a thud.

  Chief Antgut was able to close the distance between her and Yulli first, thanks to the additional reach of her sword. She slashed with it, and as she did so her blade extended.

  Despite the fearsome swiftness of the blade, Yulli caught it with her bare hand. The sword quickly started smoking.

  Antgut leaned into the blow, but surprise shook her face when she realized that Yulli was able to hold a rock steady grip on it.

  The Ironwood chief blinked in surprise. “How?”

  “Sunlight barrier,” Yulli answered simply. And then she tore the blade out of Antgut’s hands and tossed it aside. What followed was the first true use of Yulli’s specialty that I’d seen up close and personal without having to worry about my own skin.

  Antgut simply burst into flames. Moments later, the Ironwood Chief was a pile of ash on the ground. A small, fist-sized ball of light rose from the pile of ash and floated slowly in the air. The soul of a dead elf.

  Yulli turned around again to finish off Chief Conadur, who was slowly getting to her feet. Chief Wisdom jumped in front of her though, with her blue skin covering her head to toe. She made no effort to attack, and instead simply crossed both arms in front of herself, as if they were a shield. Considering the magical blue light her forearms were emitting, they probably were.

  Yulli punched her, and surprisingly, Chief Wisdom didn’t explode into a fountain of goo. Instead, she merely grunted and was pushed back several feet. Conadur scrambled to get out of the way while still clutching her wound.

  Yulli made an appreciative noise. “Rumors of the defensive abilities of the Waterbeetle tribe aren’t entirely unfounded. The way you’re using water zeal... I’ll have to see if I can incorporate that into my own defensive techniques.”

  The true mages’s hands lit up with a fiery glow, she closed them and the flickers of deep crimson flame traveled up her forearms. The fire shrouded her arms like fists of flame.

  Chief Wisdom grit her teeth as Yulli pounded away on her crossed arms. Slowly, cracks began to appear on her skin. There wasn’t a moment for retreat or to go on the offensive.

  Chief Conadur was able to stabilize her dwindling flame as Chief Wisdom absorbed the blows of their opponent. She was just barely able to climb to her feet, and when she did, she stretched out her hand from her position behind Wisdom’s back and destabilized the multicolored flame in her left palm, which shot out in a cone of destruction.

  The Waterbeetle tribe chief’s defenses were entirely concentrated on resisting the fire fists of Yulli in front of her, and she was entirely unprepared to deal with an attack from behind. She glanced back at Chief Conadur, her eyes registering the betrayal for the one moment before they burned to ash.

  Chief Conadur had sacrificed her only remaining ally in the dim hope that she could deal a powerful blow against a surprised opponent.

  From the sidelines, Assyrus screamed in anger at the unexpected betrayal, and several of her tribe members had to hold her back from marching over to the Myriad Hues of Flame tribe’s stands.

  The cone of fire was tremendous in scale, and only grew in power as the moments passed. Some members of the Songstone Clan, off to my left, were too close and were burned, even from this distance. Three of them had stepped over the line to get a closer look at the fight, and they took the heat of the fire worst of all. Three dots of glowing light sprang up from where the clan members had been standing. These souls were much smaller than that of the mage acolyte sitting out in the field, but they were still souls. Several other clan members cried out as three tribe members were lost in the blink of an eye, and the souls were quickly collected and taken away. Everyone else in the arena scrambled back another hundred paces.

  Sava and I decided we should pull further back to watch the rest of the duel like everyone else, but we needn’t have bothered. Yulli was burned by the gout of fire, but still standing. There was more fury than pain in her eyes, and everyone knew the fight was as good as over.

  “I admit, the multicolored flame your clan produces carries the strangest sensations as it burns. I can tell you infused much of your own life force into that attack. It might have actually harmed me if I wasn’t a cultivator of heat and light.”

  Conadur fell to her knees, thoroughly exhausted by her last attack. “Do it. With so little vitality left I will die today one way or another,” She said with a bowed head.

  Yulli nodded and snapped her fingers, still encased in a shell of fire. A small spark of deep crimson shot into Conadur, burying itself in her abdomen. Then Yulli lifted her other hand and snapped her fingers once more. In an instant, Conadur exploded, leaving nothing but an elven soul and a thin red mist.

  The arbiter stepped onto the field once again. “The victor is matriarch Yulli, of the Riverweed... sorry, the New Songstone Clan! The kin of the fallen culti
vators may now retrieve the souls and remains of their departed.”

  The representatives of the three tribes walked forward, trying to hide vicious glares behind somber faces. Yulli did not deign to meet their gazes and turned her back to them, knowing that these lesser tribe members weren’t even the slightest threat to her.

  “Hold, arbiter!” A powerful female voice commanded.

  There was power in that voice. Power that I could feel like a physical prickling on my skin. It felt like it was on the same level as Yulli’s. I could feel Illiel stiffen beside me. The representatives of the three tribes also froze. Even Yulli reacted.

  “So, the rumors are true, the Crimson Dragonfly tribe has created a true mage rank cultivator.” Yulli turned slowly.

  The figure she was speaking to came into view. She was tall and lean, carrying an assortment of weapons and armor. She exuded the same feeling that Yulli did, but was far better armed.

  “Enough slaying children, fellow true mage,” The Crimson Dragonfly Chief announced. “It is time I settled affairs in the Hearthwood forest once and for all. You shall pay for your crimes.”

  Yulli blinked. “Oh? And what crimes do you speak of?”

  “Stirring insurrection in the territory of the Crimson Dragon Clan. This land belongs to my clan, and those cultivators you slew were subjects of the Crimson Dragon Clan, even if they hadn’t bent the knee yet.”

  “As far as I was aware, the Crimson Dragonflys were classified as a tribe. You don’t have the right to govern anything beyond your tribe’s own holdings.”

  The Crimson Dragonfly chief shook her head. “That is no longer the case. We have made suitable offerings to the queendom, and the moment we subdue the other tribes in this little forest, our status will rise to that of a clan, under a new name. A trifling dragonfly is no longer a sufficient symbol for us, thus we are now reforming under the new name of the Crimson Dragon Clan.”

  Yulli shrugged. “I suppose I needed to establish my true abilities in this place sooner or later. Arbiter, please oversee this duel between the two of us.”

  The Arbiter looked taken aback. She was an agent of the crown, and while she was qualified to oversee legal duels under the authority of the queen, her cultivation base was only at the mage acolyte rank. She was already stretching her authority by overseeing a duel between three mage acolytes and a true mage.

  “It would hardly be appropriate for me to oversee a duel between experts of your caliber, honored seniors. I would hardly be able to follow it…” The arbiter protested.

  The Chief of the Crimson Dragon Clan waved her hand, causing a scroll to shoot out from her sleeve into the arbiter’s hands. The arbiter grabbed the scroll, broke the seal, and scanned its contents.

  When she was finished reading, her face paled and anxiety was apparent on her face, but she nodded in affirmation. The duel would occur right here and now.

  Yulli glanced suspiciously at the Arbiter, but her gaze quickly turned to her opponent and she sank into a ready position.

  The members of the three defeated tribes had looks on their faces ranging from glee to confusion, and all of them hurried off the field the moment they had bottled their kinsman’s souls.

  “This battle shall be between Yulli of the Songstone Clan and Red Serpent of the Crimson Dragon Clan! As this is a battle between matriarchs, the fate of their clans hang in the balance. Begin!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  YULLI WAS ACTING entirely different for this fight than she did moments ago. There was a tenseness in her now, like a bow strung and drawn. It was obvious by comparing this version of her to how she acted moments ago that the previous fight was nothing but a joke.

  Matriarch Red Serpent had the same fierce demeanor about her, coiled like a cobra preparing to strike. I was curious to see what a fight between true mages would look like.

  Yulli struck first, wielding a golden orb in one hand like a fist strike. It was the same move I’d seen her use to overwhelm Gurthari in one blow. This time however, the primary strike was merely a distraction. As elegantly as a leaping cat, she jumped off the ground and flew five times her height into the air.

  Fire zeal blasted out in a cylinder of fire from her other hand, completely concealing Matriarch Red Serpent in a raging torrent of bright flame. Yulli shot another gout of flame out from her leg, letting her change direction in midair where she landed in another location behind her opponent. Before Matriarch Red Serpent could even move, Yulli fired off a smaller, more condensed beam of fire zeal.

  The fire faded away, revealing Matriarch Red Serpent, who was holding a bracelet in front of her, completely unharmed. A golden glow emanated from the bracelet, forming a dome around her. The way the surface of the item glimmered as the last tinges of Yulli’s flames curled around it I realized that it was some sort of shield.

  Aegis of Flame Shielding (Wizard).

  This item will completely protect the wielder from direct fire zeal attacks below its level and reduce the impact of fire zeal at ranks at or above its rank.

  Yulli cursed. “How did a backwoods cultivator tribe manage to get their hands on a wizard level protective treasure?”

  This was bad. Yulli’s primary method of attack was fire zeal. I’d never heard any mention of the wizard level before, but from Yulli’s reaction I guessed it was something above the true mage level.

  “I have friends in high places,” Matriarch Red Serpent replied.

  “So that’s the secret behind the Crimson Dragonfly’s recent expansion? You sold yourselves out to some powerful backers?” Yulli taunted.

  Matriarch Red Serpent didn’t take that well. Her face changed into a snarl, and she reached behind her. From a pouch at her side she withdrew an entire spear. Space warped around the opening of the bag, allowing a two-meter spear to fit into something no bigger than a purse.

  Another bag of holding!

  It was more ornate than Sava’s, and I shuddered at the thought of what other surprises could be lurking inside.

  Red Serpent lashed out with her spear, thrusting overhead in a powerful blow directed at Yulli’s heart. The speed was powered by the full strength of the Wizard level, and I was barely able to follow the point along its trajectory directly towards Yulli’s heart.

  A moment before it landed, Yulli reached around behind her into a pouch of her own. I’d never taken note of it before, but now that I was examining it I realized it was nearly identical to the bag Matriarch Red Serpent had strapped to her waist.

  From her own bag of holding, Yulli drew a fiery red sword. In one swing she drew it and batted Red Serpent’s spear to the side.

  “You’re not the only one with a powerful weapon!”

  Sword of the Sun (True mage)

  This blade is forged from zeal crystals of fire and light, giving it extra penetrating power and creating devastating wounds upon contact with flesh.

  Yulli concentrated for a moment and suddenly her sword got brighter, but radiated less heat. She was focusing her sword’s power into light zeal instead of fire zeal to compensate for her opponents defenses.

  She dove towards her opponent. Matriarch Red Serpent tried to pull back to put Yulli at range, but she was too slow. Now that she was inside of Matriarch Red Serpent’s guard, the spear would be of little use. If Yulli landed a deadly slash here, the fight might be over like that.

  Just when it looked like Yulli would land a blow, a pendant around Red Serpent’s neck glittered. A burst of light shot out and a stone sphere materialized in the air, crashing into Yulli’s sword and deflecting it away from her. Soon, dozens of stone spheres surrounded Red Serpent, orbiting her like tiny planets.

  Guardian Clay Pendant (Wizard)

  This pendant generates shape-able clay orbs that can be manipulated for defensive purposes.

  Yulli fell back just in the nick of time. Red Serpent cast aside her spear, which appeared to have no special properties, and replaced it with something far superior. The new spear was the same in size
and shape to her normal one, but that was where the similarities ended.

  Around the shaft were glowing lines, shaped like coiling dragons wrapped around the shaft. There was a blue dragon and a red dragon, and the jaws of each were wrapped around a deadly point of dark gray metal.

  Iron Spear of the Ancestor Dragon (Wizard)

  This spear contains the power of two wizard-level dragons who were killed and had their souls imprisoned in the spear. It is tipped with iron, which is especially effective in slaying elves.

  If Yulli had been a moment slower, she would have been skewered on that spear tip. I’d seen what iron did to elves, and while I’d only ever used it on zeal accumulation-level elves, it still had a powerful effect. I had no doubt that thing was very lethal.

  “How many wizard-level treasures do you have?” Yulli exclaimed, a bit of worry on her face. She knew she was the better fighter, but she hadn’t expected there to be such a gap in equipment between the two of them.

  “More than you can endure,” Matriarch Red Serpent said coolly. She bit her thumb, causing deep crimson blood to spill out, which she smeared on the back of the spear, causing it to glow with a deadly light. Wings sprouted on her back, glowing a deep crimson red. When Red Serpent took a step, afterimages shimmered around her as the wings shot her through the air at high speed.

  Yulli was forced backwards in a defensive stance. Red Serpent hovered in midair, swooping down to strike like a hawk with its eyes on a defiant rabbit.

  Yulli was on the defensive now. She couldn’t strike from a distance because of Red Serpent’s fire-repelling shield, so she could only battle with her sword. Except to fight with her sword, she would have to get inside the reach of that spear. That wasn’t possible with Matriarch Red Serpent hovering out of reach.