We walk in silence for about another minute, and once we reach Daren, we find him leaning against an oak tree, with his arms crossed and a displeased expression on his face.
“Took you long enough,” he says.
“My apologies,” Kate tells him coldly. “I promise I will play hopscotch every day from now on, so I won’t be a burden to you the next time you stab me in the leg.”
Daren ignores her snarky retort and he turns to me.
“So?” he says. “What did she tell you, then? This better be good.”
Before I get the chance to answer him, I hear a woman’s gasp coming from our right. Rose, who came to check up on us, is now looking at Kate’s leg wound and covering her mouth with both hands.
“By the gods, who did this to you?” Rose asks her.
“Just some lowly thugs,” Kate says. “No need to worry, I already took care of them, and the wound isn’t very deep. I’m sure Daren can fix this up in a jiffy. Isn’t that right, Daren?”
“Of course,” he answers, frowning.
Daren starts casting his healing spell on Kate, and as her wound closes, I can see him hesitate for a few moments. He then joins his fingers together and hits her leg with them, in three separate places. As he finishes, I can sense Kate’s magical aura go back to its normal flow. Daren must have cancelled the effect of his spell disrupting maneuver from earlier.
“We’ll continue our earlier discussion at a later date,” Daren says, as he gets up and grabs his backpack from the ground.
The four of us resume our journey, but it doesn’t take long before we are interrupted again, this time by a violent earth tremor.
“What is this, an earthquake?” Daren says.
“Please don’t be a dragon, please don’t be a dragon, please don’t be a dragon,” Rose says, starting to panic.
As the earthquake intensifies, we start seeing a human figure in the distance, getting bigger and bigger, until it reaches a height of fifty feet. The giant man is dressed in leather armor, he has a black beard that reaches down to his chest, and he has a big grin on his face. As he starts to speak, his voice is so loud that it completely drowns out any other sounds in a five mile radius. It doesn’t really help that he’s shouting, either.
“Now that I have everyone’s attention,” the giant man says. “I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Hadrik, but my friends call me ‘the dwarf’. I came to this tournament for only one reason: to test my strength against the strongest mages in the world! So, what do you all say? Shall we have a fun little practice bout before we get our objectives? I’ll be waiting right here for any challengers! I’ll try to hold back as much as I can, but I can’t make any promises. Ahahahahahaha!”
His laugh is loud and jolly, kind of like the laughter you hear from friendly bartenders and innkeepers. What’s wrong with this guy? Doesn’t he realize what kind of place this is?
The giant starts to shrink slowly as he’s laughing, and eventually he disappears behind the trees.
“Damn!” Daren says. “That is some impressive shapeshifting. He must have a lot of magical power to be able to turn into something this big!”
“Do you have no knowledge of even the basics of shapeshifting magic?” Kate asks him. “You can’t just turn into something ten times bigger than your normal size, no matter how powerful you are. It violates the fundamental principles of shapeshifting. This was obviously an illusion.”
“Oh, yeah?” Daren says. “Since you’re so sure it was an illusion, could you perhaps care to explain how he managed to make such a realistic earth tremor while he was busy maintaining the illusion spell?”
“How am I supposed to know that?” Kate says. “Maybe he has an ally that specializes in earth magic. How is that even relevant?”
Something isn’t right here. Although the fundamental principles Kate speaks of should indeed prohibit the use of shapeshifting in such a manner, an illusion isn’t that much more probable, either. There’s no way any illusion could reach this far out, no matter how powerful the mage is. There must be something we’re missing. Or perhaps the man who calls himself Hadrik managed to find a way to temporarily circumvent the laws of magic as we know them?
“I’m sorry to say that I don’t really agree with any of you,” I tell them.
Both Daren and Kate simultaneously turn towards me.
“Kate is right about the fundamental laws of shapeshifting,” I continue. “But an illusion spell would be just as improbable. There are no illusion spells that can reach this far, no matter how powerful or skilled you are as a mage. There must be something we’re missing here.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter either way,” Kate says. “This is obviously a trap. I honestly can’t imagine how anyone could be stupid enough to fall for something so—”
Suddenly, the bodies of me, Kate and Daren all start to vibrate loudly, as we get enveloped in a white light.
“Oh, no…” Kate says.
“What? What’s happening?” Rose asks us.
“Rose, catch!” Daren shouts, as he throws her his transceiver.
As soon as she catches it, the three of us get teleported away at the same time. The sensation I’m getting is the same as the one I got when I was first transported to this continent. It feels almost as if every fiber in my body is being decomposed and then slowly reassembled, while I maintain full awareness of myself throughout the entire process. When I regain all of my senses, I find myself surrounded by a few dozen mages, with Daren and Kate standing right beside me. The mages are looking all around themselves, confused.
It seems we weren’t the only ones that were teleported here all of a sudden. I recognize one of the mages as being the giant that challenged us. He is surprisingly smaller than I expected him to be. I don’t think he’s much taller than four feet. That explains why they call him ‘the dwarf’. Judging by the position of a very tall tree I had chosen as a landmark when we left, I’d say we’ve been teleported right in the middle of the clearing where Hadrik first made his appearance a few moments ago. Is this the dwarf’s doing?
“Good evening, gentlemen!” we hear a voice coming from above.
We all look up at the same time and see a little brat floating casually in the air with his hands in his pockets and his eyes closed. Eiden. Of course it would be Eiden.
“I am deeply sorry for interrupting you all from your daily activities,” Eiden says, “but I thought this would be a splendid opportunity for all the participants of the tournament that were in the area to get to know each other better!”
He then raises his eyebrows and starts looking all around him, with his eyes still closed.
“Huh…” he says. “In all honesty, I was expecting this to be a trap of some sort, or at least a well thought-out ambush, but it seems I was mistaken. How disappointing.”
“Barry,” Daren whispers to me while Eiden is talking. “Take out your transceiver and tell Rose where we are. Tell her to come towards us, and we’ll meet her halfway, as soon as we manage to get out of here.”
“Rose can wait until we’re safely out of here,” I tell him. “I don’t want to attract any attention to ourselves.”
Daren doesn’t really seem to agree with me, but he doesn’t want to start an argument either, so he nods slowly.
“And who might you be, young stillwater?” an old mage calls out to Eiden.
Upon taking a closer look at the mage who just spoke, I suddenly realize that I know him all too well. It’s impossible to live in the Western Continent and to not have seen his face at least once in your life. His portrait appears almost every month in the newspapers after all. The man standing in front of me is none other than the fabled Azarius, the Sage of the West.
There are many strong mages in the world, but only four of them are officially recognized to be the elite among the elites. They call them the four sages, and each of them represents one of the four major continents in the world. The sage title is earned or main
tained through yearly contests that are held by the leading nations of each continent. Given that each of the four major continents is named after the cardinal point that represents its position on the world map, each sage title also carries the appropriate cardinal point in its name.
The Sage of the West looks exactly as I’ve seen him in the pictures. An old man, almost eighty years of age, with a long beard as white as snow, holding a long wooden staff in his right hand, and wearing traditional wizard robes, as well as a pointed hat. He is like a living example of what most people would imagine when thinking of a mage.
Eiden looks confused, and he quickly turns his head left and right as if making certain that there isn’t another stillwater floating beside him.
“Are you perhaps referring to me?” he says to the sage. “I am quite certain that I’m a fair bit older than you, Sage of the West.”
The dwarf named Hadrik suddenly laughs loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention.
“Hahahaha! When I called out to everyone earlier, I was hoping for a few strong challengers, but I never dared to dream that a stillwater would actually show up! How about it, then? Are you up for a short sparring session to warm ourselves up before the tournament?”
“Actually, I’m not participating in the tournament,” Eiden says, smiling. “However, it would be disrespectful of me to decline your challenge, after having teleported all the way here.”
He pauses.
“Very well, then!” Eiden says. “A sparring session it is. But I wouldn’t want to simply crush you with a flick of my fingers. That would be too boring. How about we both agree to use no magic for the duration of our battle?”
“Hah!” Hadrik says. “I like your style, stillwater. We are in agreement, then! No magic until the end of the battle! The fight ends either when one of us can no longer fight, or when one of us gives up!”
The stillwater smiles again, and he starts to slowly descend towards the dwarf. As he lands on the ground, there’s a loud murmur coming from the mages all around the clearing, and they all step aside to give the two combatants the space they need to begin their fight. The Sage of the West is watching the two of them intently, with his eyebrows furrowed.
“This is it!” Daren tells me. “This is our chance. Let’s get out of here while everyone else is watching the fight.”
“Actually, I think we should watch the fight too,” I say.
“Oh, yeah?” Daren says. “And why’s that? Give me one good reason.”
“Gathering intel,” I say. “Remember how Eiden easily dodged all of your attacks the first time we met him? Since he isn’t going to use any magic, this should give us some very valuable information regarding his martial arts training.”
“Valuable enough to risk our lives for it?” Daren says.
“Yes, actually,” I say. “You do realize we’ll likely have to fight him by the end of this tournament, don’t you? Shouldn’t we take advantage of every chance we get to try and find his weaknesses, even at the risk of our own safety?”
Daren grumbles, the way he always does when he can’t find a good enough counter-argument to throw in my face. Eventually, he calms down and steps forward, to get a better look at the battle that is about to begin. Kate, who has heard our discussion, is also stepping forward in order to see the fight better. She is wearing her hood and covering herself in her green cloak, in order to hide the fact that she is a woman.
The two combatants are now circling each other. Eiden is smiling as usual, and the dwarf has a big grin on his face. Neither of them are holding any weapons. Are they planning to fight barehanded?
The fight starts suddenly, without any warning. Both of the fighters lunge at each other at the same time, and Hadrik initiates by jumping into the air, raising his right leg as high as he can and bringing it down like an axe, in an attempt to smash the stillwater’s skull. Eiden steps casually to the side and the dwarf’s boot hits the ground, which makes a small crater and sends rubble flying all over the place. The stillwater wastes no time and hits Hadrik in the chest with his right palm, his strike sending a powerful blast of air all around him and pushing the dwarf back ten feet.
“What the hell is this?” shouts one of the mages. “They barely even started fighting and they’re already using strength enhancing magic?”
“They’re not using any magic,” says another mage. “I’ve been closely monitoring their magical auras since they started, and there have been no fluctuations so far.”
“What, you’re going to tell me they just did a lot of squats and pushups?” says the first mage. “You can’t get this powerful just through training.”
Yes, you can, in theory. There’s a kind of magic that helps with surpassing the limitations of the human body while doing physical training. The downside is that unless you have a lifespan of hundreds of years, you’d have to spend most of your life training in order to reach their levels of strength. Could they be using stat devices too?
The two contenders are now moving so fast that I can barely follow them anymore. Eiden is landing most of his hits, but the dwarf doesn’t seem to be having any trouble tanking them. Hadrik, however, hasn’t managed to hit the stillwater once. Whenever it looks like he’s got a decent chance, Eiden flows like water and effortlessly gets out of his way, subsequently using the dwarf’s momentum against him in order to make him lose balance.
“This bastard…” Daren whispers to me. “He was going easy on me the first time we fought. Hell, I’m not even sure if he’s being serious right now.”
Just as the two combatants prepare to lunge at each other again, there’s a very loud voice coming from my left pocket, which stops the two of them in their tracks.
“Hello? Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? Hello?” Rose shouts through the transceiver.
Crap. I had completely forgotten the fact that the device was set at its maximum volume. This is bad. This is really bad. Every single one of the mages is now looking at me, even the two that were fighting until recently.
I quickly tap the transceiver in order to talk to Rose, but before I get to say anything, it is Eiden that answers her question.
“Yes, Rose. We can all hear you,” he says, loudly.
“Is that… Is that Eiden?” Rose asks.
“Rose, listen to me,” I say as I grab the transceiver from my pocket. “We’ve all been teleported to where the giant appeared a few minutes ago. Do you remember where that was? Can you make your way to us?”
“Yes, I remember, but—”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any more time to talk,” I say. “I’ll fill you in on the details when you get here. Be careful!”
I turn off the transceiver and look all around myself. The mages are still staring at me. This is not going to end well, is it?
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… You’ve got to be kidding me. Another stillwater?” says one of the mages.
“No, this one’s just an ordinary human,” Azarius says. “You can tell by the look in his eyes.”
“What are you talking about?” Eiden asks, smiling. “Of course he’s a stillwater. Didn’t you all see him fight that dragon in the sky singlehandedly a few hours ago?”
There’s a loud murmur again, as many of the mages confirm having seen me duel the dragon. If I’m going to want to bluff my way through this tournament, then there will never be a better opportunity than this.
“He speaks the truth,” I tell them. “That dragon was in my way, so I had to get rid of him. But you don’t need to worry about that. Unless of course you plan to stand in my way, as well…”
The mages start talking amongst themselves, but they are hesitating to respond to my provocation.
“You’re all pathetic!” says a mage who is wearing red robes and has a particularly crazy look in his eyes. “There are dozens of you, and you’re still hesitating? If you lot are too craven to attack him, then I’ll do it myself.”
The mage in red robes steps out of the crowd and takes his battle stance
.
“I hope you will live up to my expectations, stillwater,” he says. “I intend to take your head as a trophy!”
“Not if I have something to say about it,” Daren says, as he steps in front of me, with his sword pointing towards the mage who was just talking.
“The healer in armor stands against me?” asks the mage in red robes. “This is getting better and better! At this rate, I’m going to win this tournament well before they announce the first objectives.”
He raises his hands in the air, and an enormous spinning column of fire starts forming around him.
“Behold, hero,” the mage says. “Behold, the power of Felran, the strongest fire elementalist on the Eastern Continent!”
The pillar of fire is getting bigger and bigger, and the other mages are starting to get out of its way, to avoid getting burnt to a crisp.
“I see you’ve both already accepted your fate,” Felran says. “You’re not even trying to raise magical barriers around yourselves. Don’t worry, I’ll make this quick. I can’t really guarantee you it will be painless, though. Yahahahahaha!”
His laugh is just as crazy as the look in his eyes. Daren does not say anything, but he’s watching the fire elementalist intently, with his sword in front of him.
“Die!” the mage screams, as he sends all of the fire towards us in the form of a beam. Just as the flames reach us, with one quick slash of his sword Daren sends all of the flames back to their owner, incinerating him on the spot and turning him into ashes.
“Did you see that?” shouts one of the mages. “His sword absorbed the flames and sent them right back at the other mage. They’re too strong! We can’t hope to beat them!”
“It doesn’t matter how strong they are,” says a mage in white robes and with long blond hair who appears to be some sort of a healer. “We came to this tournament to win. We knew what we were getting into. And besides, the stillwater hasn’t cast any sort of spell since we laid eyes on him. Do you think that’s a coincidence? Stillwater or no, you can’t possibly fully replenish your magical energy in just over two hours after a fight with a dragon. He must be in a vulnerable state. Now is the best time to strike!”
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 13
