The Ancients

by Adam-Clay Webb

  “Anam Resal!” He commanded, holding both hands out toward the witch. There was a bright purple beam. It shot off toward Catherina at a pace close to mana’s top speed. Viknor squinted at the blinding explosion. What?! He looked up quickly. Coming down at him was an army of lightning bolts, stretching down from Catherina’s rod. He held a hand up. “Anam Garadan!” Viknor activated, and a purple shield ensphered him. There was a deafening bang and blinding explosion as the lightning struck the shield of high-grade mana. If bystanders were there, then there would have been a mass electrocution. As the shield tried its best to repel the cords of lightning, streaks of current flashed off in every direction from the purple sphere. Catherina’s head felt a little light. Her mana was already being dented after only a few seconds of using these weapons. Suddenly, Viknor’s shield crashed like glass and he uttered a cry of pain as lightning grabbed and shook him. The attack ended that second though, as Catherina could not press on.

  She looked down at the wizard who struggled to stand, sharp blue lights buzzing about him. Catherina could see her victory quite vividly. Faint purple wings gently dithered on her back. She looked like a goddess. Viknor slammed both hands on the ground and hissed. “Summoning! Snake Nest!” Viknor commanded, and from a black portal that sat on the ground around him, massive black snakes sprouted up at the witch in the air.

  “Pathetic!” Catherina mocked, sending strings of lightning down toward the approaching snakes. Unable to dodge the swift bright strings, the snakes were consumed by electricity which descended on Viknor quickly. The lightning dug up the earth as Viknor barely escaped in a shift. Viknor raised a hand up at Catherina. He got no chance to attack, though. A beam of glistening ice energy came down at him. He jumped back. The ice energy hit the earth gracefully and began to cover the ground. Viknor took a few more backward leaps, but the ice was spreading out faster than he could move back. He made yet another backward leap, trying to avoid shifting around too much. He looked up again as he heard a violent rustle approaching. More lightning was coming down at him. As he landed, his palms slammed the ground.

  “Metal Art! Argron Defense!” Viknor commanded. The earth shook a little as a dome of iron rose out of the ground around him and covered him. The lightning banged against it, destroying the thin surface of ice that tried to cover it.

  “You’re finished!” Catherina declared. She released the elemental weapons and they disappeared. She held her right hand down to Viknor, bracing on the back of it with her left palm. “Anam Resal Repus!” She shouted, and a flurry of intense, blinding mana beamed down to consume Viknor. As it struck and consumed the shield of pure iron, there was a beautiful pulse of mana and the earth trembled. Waves of purple force cleared the ice and grass off the entire mountainside.

  Catherina lowered her hand, a solemn look on her face. She panted lightly as the chaotic brightness cleared. “Wh—What?” she stuttered to herself, seeing a rich darkness revealing itself as the light dispersed and thinned. Viknor’s eyes were completely black. Black mana, the power of arcane sorcerers, revolved about him as he was a few feet off the ground. He looked up emotionlessly at Catherina. “This… This is impossible…” Catherina marvelled.

  Viknor… the wizard heard a slithering voice in his head. Refrain from fighting against my will. Your stubbornness is weakening us. I am wasting precious mana in trying to subdue your consciousness

  It seems the least I can do for now is to suppress you… Viknor answered in thought. He felt a panging pain in his head as his father, or the little of his existence within Viknor, became irate.

  Boy! He heard his father’s voice in his head, the shout triggering another waving headache. Viknor felt his consciousness slip even further from him.

  Catherina’s eyes widened as she saw two massive hands of black mana swiftly extend themselves from the sphere of darkness like hungry snakes, each finger long as a sword. Because of how much mana the elemental weapons stole from her, she knew she didn’t have many shifts left in her. She made a swift burst of flight, avoiding one of the hands that grabbed at her. She flew upwards, evading the other, a finger nearly scraping one of her wings. Several more of the giant shadowy hands extended themselves from the sphere of black mana. With desperate spaceshifting and attacks that were meaningless to manifestations of black magic, Catherina felt her mana reaching dangerous levels.

  One of the hands bashed her with a nasty force. Another connected into her before she could feel the pain of the first. The ground tore apart as she sunk into the hard soil, barely conscious enough to groan. The massive hands turned to black mist, and Viknor vanished in a cloud of black mana, reappearing just before the floored witch.

  “Are you ready to die, little girl?” Catherina heard the man ask. The darkness in his eyes disappeared though, and there was no black mana surrounding him. He heard Catherina titter lowly, even in her state of pain and perceptible defeat. She couldn’t even move. Viknor’s eyes looked curious now. He looked down at her. Catherina spat the drooling blood from her mouth, and it looked like she was trying to stand.

  She slowly moved her right arm. After seconds, she grabbed her left wrist tightly. “If you are not strong enough… to maintain seventh grade magic…” Catherina struggled to say, a cunning look on her face, “then you cannot win against us… I wanted to defeat you by myself… but I won’t let my foolish pride give you an escape…”

  Viknor wondered. He saw Catherina grip her wrist. “Councillors… Assemble!” She commanded.

  “What?!” There was the sound of spaceshifting and multiple clouds of redness appeared in a wide circle about the witch and wizard. Viknor spun and scanned. He was surrounded by six sorcerers, each of them clothed in red mana. They were all young, but that didn’t matter – they were fifth grade sorcerers, and were trained by Catherina, the woman who was now the leader of the Ogal Council. Present there were Quincy, Oromaru, Claybourne, Jadena, Ellisa, and Hawthorne, a prodigy of a teenager Catherina had discovered only months before.

  ***

  Hilda would not give Viknor a listening ear. With mighty swords and the skills of swordsmen, the two battled each other, each clash of their magical swords creating a pulse of mana that flung itself across the air. Zedra held out her hand and a red shield covered her as Azar sent, from one of the buzzing swords he was wielding, a streak of electricity. The bolt pushed Zedra and her shield back a few meters.

  Alright, this tactic should at least hold her off until my mana becomes more useful; I can feel it climbing through the second grade already. Azar was somewhat satisfied. He found that using his swords to channel and control his electric powers was far easier, and it somehow conserved his energy quite efficiently. Fortunately, the handles of his swords were made of some kind of metal, making the conduction pretty effortless. He didn’t give Zedra enough time to cast her spells. He rushed up to her continually and engaged in sword fighting, in which he was far superior to her, and by the time she managed to get some distance between, Azar’s lightning power would be recovered and ready to strike. The impossibility of spaceshifting was certainly in Azar’s favour.

  Viknor jumped back again, Hilda’s swords slicing across his chest. His wound healed even before he landed and skated back, but of course, this constant healing of his wounds was costing him quite a bit of mana. He couldn’t believe how fast Hilda was already upon him. Dammit! Seems I will need that sword, Viknor realized. “Hilda, won’t you listen to me for a second?!” the man pled. But the witch only rushed at him more fiercely, swinging to clean his head off. The man ducked, saving his head. As soon as the blade of mana swung over his head, burning his hair, he took a forceful backward jump. Viknor hissed at the thought of going for that blade. No, he told himself sternly.

  “Adamic Attack! Stone Fury!” Viknor commanded. The earth around him tore apart as massive boulders rose about him and shot off toward the witch. Charging toward him, Hilda sliced through the incoming boulders easily, dodging the rest. They didn’t even slow her down it s
eemed. She assaulted quickly as she reached. Viknor held his own with his own swords, and managed even to land a hefty kick on his enemy, the mana about his foot enhancing his power. Hilda flew back and landed almost gracefully. She released her swords, looking frustrated.

  “Anam Resal!” she attacked, sending a massive beam of deadly purple mana at Viknor. Dodging wasn’t an option, as Azar might have been in the beam’s path somewhere behind him. “Emas!” Viknor shouted, replicating the woman’s attack. A similar beam rushed out from his hands. The place shook with a blinding light as the two forces of magic clashed.

  ***

  Viknor’s eyes met Quincy’s quickly. Viknor… The no longer boyish sorcerer, as he saw Viknor, remembered that horrid day. He saw Viknor slice through his sister’s neck more clearly than his memory had ever shown him. He clenched the flaming red sword that had just appeared in his right hand. “Murderer… You dare show your face on this holy mount again…” Quincy said. Viknor said nothing. Quincy’s face was fixed, his will to kill Viknor as strong as Catherina’s, maybe even stronger. He was useless in the last fight against this wizard, and that would push him even more to do all he could to kill this horrible warlock who took his innocent little sis’ life.

  Indeed five years have passed… So this is the new council. Viknor hissed. I probably shouldn’t have wasted so much mana on this witch…

  “This man, my council,” Catherina said, “is Viknor, son of Aredes…” There were gasps, and their bodies of mana were roused as Catherina said this. Besides Quincy, none of Catherina’s underlings had seen Viknor before. They had heard much of him though.

  So this man is Viknor… Hawthorne thought with a frozen face and a fluttering heart. This man… defeated even Lady Catherina… He defeated the entire council by himself… The more she recalled what she had learnt of Viknor from her classes and from Catherina, the more nervous she became, the weaker she realized herself to be before such a man.

  Still coughing up blood, Catherina brought herself up to stand. In a shift, her brother appeared at her side, glaring at Viknor.

  “Go get some rest, sister,” Quincy said, “I will lead the attack here and ensure that our sister, Lord Thimius and Lady Hilda are rightly avenged.” Catherina wanted to rebut, but she knew well enough that she had no energy left.

  “Hands of Oga!” Catherina said. Viknor’s arms were folded as he stood smugly. “Make a barrier and prevent his escape! I will return in a moment. Fight defensively until I return!”

  “Understood!” the councillors answered promptly, summoning their weapons.

  “Quincy, protect them and yourself till I return. I will use my potions to force my mana to recover so I won’t be long.” Before Quincy could nod his sister off, she disappeared with the last of her mana.

  “Shall we begin then?” Viknor asked coolly. Quincy shifted back into his barrier position; now the councillors were equally spaced in surrounding the enemy.

  “Ogal Barrier!” the council uttered, holding their arms out at their sides. Suddenly, curving cords of red mana were extended from their hands, forming a circle that connected the six of them. The circle evolved into a half sphere of red light. Viknor stood observing as the councillors channelled their energies into the barrier until it took on a purple tint. Finally, it had become a black, translucent spherical dome. Together, these six had performed an arcane technique. Viknor was impressed.

  The sphere then expanded beyond them and then morphed itself into a massive cube that spanned a cubic half mile. The councillors lowered their hands and summoned their weapons again, all but Quincy panting in tiredness.

  “Finally,” Viknor said to himself, “I will assemble the keys to the power of Oga.” Viknor snickered. The councillors had erected a barrier that restricted shifting to its outside. Once they did not get the chance to pull the barrier down, none of them could make an escape. Alright, they have trapped themselves. I will finish these six before Catherina reappears.

  “Attack!” Quincy ordered, rushing toward Viknor.

  ***

  Zedra’s body was wrapped in her fading red mana. Without her ability to shift around, Azar was keeping the pressure on her. She jumped back again, crying out as Azar’s sword grazed her and she felt a jerking shock. She could get no time to perform any magical technique. She and Azar battled in the blinding light that the mightier battle was emitting. Viknor and Hilda were still pressing all their strengths into what would probably be their final attacks of the battle, what could even be their final attacks altogether. They cried in strain and struggle, the force of the beams of purple power pushing them back and making the earth collapse beneath them.

  Azar glanced over to the where Viknor was struggling. He had never seen two beams of mana clash for so long without either subduing the other. Their power levels seemed on par. Even in my prime of sorcery, I was never near the level of these two! Azar thought, humbled and frustrated by how strong theses sorcerers were. Not even my mother or that half-sister of hers could have stood against them.

  Azar froze up for a moment, just remembering where he had seen the woman before. Early in his childhood, his father had visited an oracle that was claimed to be able to tell one’s future. The then newly crowned king had brought his infant child with him. Azar remembered nothing of what the woman told his father, or what his father said to her, but he now remembered clearly the creepy black dress patterned with skulls.

  ***

  The six fifth-graders were giving Viknor more challenge than he had expected. Their attacks were far more coordinated and complimentary than those of the council he was a part. The techniques weren’t extremely powerful or of high levels, but the teamwork made it that he had to be constantly fighting all six at once, and this was stressing his mana. Quincy rushed at him again with his red swords. He had gotten much better on close combat, and was conserving his mana for what he knew would not be a quick battle.

  “Dammit!” Viknor cursed, blocking Quincy’s heavy strikes. Ellisa was already upon him. He shifted to an escape. He glanced over at Jadena, who had just made an interesting summoning.

  “Flame Bow!” A fiery bow appeared in her hands. As she drew it back and aimed at Viknor, an arrow of unearthly fire materialized within it.

  So Catherina has trained even these children to use elemental weapons.

  “Niamer!” Hawthorne commanded, flashing red mana at Viknor. Ellisa didn’t hesitate to fire the arrow at Viknor. The wizard dodged the arrow narrowly, Hawthorne’s suspension spell barely slowing him a little. There was a hot explosion as the dart of magic fire blasted the wall of the barrier. Red heat rippled against the walls quickly.

  “Time to end this!” Viknor blasted, realizing that his mana was already at a pressing level and none of his enemies was dead or even seriously wounded. He spaceshifted in a cloud of black mana as his eyes blackened. Aredes’ power was now coming into play. He appeared beside one of the barrier walls and pressed a palm against it. A thick darkness spread across the walls in half a second, a darkness that the glow of ordinary mana could not penetrate. The six began panicking immediately.

  “Lumos!” Hawthorne spelled, but that level of light spell could not enable their visions.

  “Summoning!” Viknor commanded.

  “Edanerg Elit!” Catherina’s voice interrupted, and there was a blinding burst of light that tore the darkness apart faster than it had appeared. The burst of brightness had stirred up a wind. The six had shielded themselves in the dark. They held their shield still, their visions hazing back to normality. Catherina looked around, seeing everyone was alright.

  Viknor hissed, glaring at the woman before him, her dress flowing in a majestic breeze of dying light. “She has recovered already,” Viknor said to himself, now thinking of retreat, but then suddenly remembering the barrier that was erected. The six had held him off until his mana was depleted, and now he faced Catherina again. Viknor’s eyes lost their darkness, maybe to Catherina’s powerful light, or maybe as Ared
es’ power was completely drained. Or just maybe, Viknor’s will had finally suppressed Aredes’ enough.

  “Excellently done, Councillors!” the woman commended. “His mana is finished I can sense. You have proven to be even more efficient than the previous council.” Viknor became suddenly angry and offended at this statement. “Now strengthen the barrier and prepare for Ogal Spell 97!”

  “Understood!” With that, the seven Councillors shifted to the walls of the barrier, three of the walls anyway – none of them went too close to Viknor. They pressed against the walls. “Barrier Fortification!” they chorused, forcing into the walls strong amounts of mana that spread to make the barrier even stronger. Viknor could sense that escape was even less possible than before.

  He smiled. He felt his father’s will fading even more. “You finally give up, old man,” Viknor said. “You see, not even you can stand against Catherina and her council… She is a better leader than you could ever dream to be.” Viknor felt a slight pain in his head. He laughed, seeing how faint Aredes’ will had become, as his mana was all used up, or maybe as he saw that not even he could win against this team. Viknor slowly walked up to Catherina. The woman squinted a little, noticing a difference in the man’s eyes. She drifted off into thought, seeing the Viknor she knew years before.

  “Will you not order us to kill him?” Quincy’s voice cut through her daze. Being brought back to her senses, Catherina summoned the lightning rod. She held it out toward Viknor.

  “Lower your shields,” Catherina said, “our enemy is defeated.” With that, Catherina sent a bolt of lightning toward Viknor. He uttered a shriek of pain as the bolt struck him and pushed him quickly toward the black wall, shocking life out of him. He bashed against the wall of mana, the streak of lightning pinning him there to suffer. After a few seconds, the attack ended and he fell to his knees, electricity still buzzing about him, his clothes and flesh tattered and burnt. Catherina’s eyes widened as she saw on his face the boyish smile she was used to years ago. Then he fell flat on his face, looking dead. Her heart fluttered with mixed emotions and she released her weapon, making it disappear.