The next day, they went to the Belthasar Amphitheatre to sign in for the Salamanka Grand Race. As they entered the gates of the theatre, they realised they were part of a massive crowd of mages not waiting to spectate, but all in line to join the race. Hundreds of mages made three chaotic rows towards the three dockets taking signups. They fell in line and listened to the race committee announcements.
“This year’s Salamanka Grand Race third prize is: three months free training at Demijia and 1000 golden suns!” There were a few whoops from the crowd, and scattered applause. “Second prize is: one year free ride privilege on all valkyrie routes and 2000 golden suns. The grand prize is one rare mysto of your choice and 3000 golden suns. All participants must pay 50 gold each to join.” He had expected that, but not quite the stiff competition. “The first part of the 1st obstacle is Key Mansion. The mansion is outside Belthasar, conjured by our imperator. All contestants have to acquire a key from the mansion. Every key is identical and there are 150 keys hidden. You only need one key to finish this obstacle. You may search for more than one key if you wish make things difficult for your competitors. If you collect a key and wish to finish the task, return to the amphitheatre. After you have earned your key and passed the 1st part of the obstacle, you may then proceed to the second part of the obstacle. The second part of the obstacle will be explained after you have passed the first. The Salamanka Grand Race will start in a short while. Good luck, everyone!”
After registering, Jael got number 156, Frekkis 157 and Vaan
158. They considered this and strategized. There were more people in the line behind them, and already over 150 entrants. “What will we do? We need to find three keys before we proceed to the second part of the obstacle,” Vaan said.
“Finding the keys might prove challenging, but I have an idea. While many people will take time to look through the objects inside, I’ll burn through areas of the mansion piece by piece and the red hot keys will be easy to spot in the ashes. I’ll keep the fire from spreading and we’ll be sure we’re not overlooking any keys,” he replied.
“Good thinking. All right, let’s make ready!”
The race committee officially started the race with a large aerial explosion of brightly coloured lights, and the mob of mages surged toward the mansion. “Frekkis! Full Swift!” Jael shouted. Frekkis cast Full Swift while Jael had Rokka, and Vaan followed on his own strength. When they reached the mansion, they were shocked to see the mansion enclosed in a sphere of sparkling ice.
“What happened here?” Jael wondered.
“I guess there are mages inside who enclosed the mansion to slow competition down. We need to break in!”
“Explosion!” Jael shouted and shattered the ice cage with an enormous blast of super-heated magickal flame. They entered the mansion and began to search. Frekkis easily found a key placed on the chandelier with her keen eyesight. After a few more minutes of hunting, Jael noticed the number of mages slowly, visibly decreasing.
“A lot of them have already found a key! We should hurry up!” Vaan exclaimed. Frekkis again found a key, this one at apex of the roof and she brought it to Jael. He stuck to his plan, searing his way through anything flammable in search of fiery hot keys. At least he came upon a key and they made haste, back to the amphitheatre.
There they surrendered the keys to one of the committee members, who congratulated them with a rote speech and genuine enthusiasm. He explained the second part of the obstacle. “The next part is called Labyrinth, a large hall of mazes. Your objective is to find the correct exit through this portal beside me. There are a lot of portals inside the labyrinth but only one portal leads back here. If you wish to quit the maze, you may use this mysto–” and here the referee passed three charged mystos to them “–to let us know and we will get you out, but you will be automatically eliminated. If you break the wall, floor or ceiling of the labyrinth, you will be disqualified. Once you enter the labyrinth there will be no second chances. If you are ready, please let me know and I will teleport you to the labyrinth’s starting point.”
“Jael, I think we should eat first,” Vaan said.
“Yeah. I think so too,” Jael replied. After all, there was no telling how long the next section would take. They hastened to a nearby food cart and ate as fast as they could. After the massive meal, they returned and immediately the committee member teleported them to the labyrinth.
The low ceiling inside the giant maze made the ensuing darkness even more oppressing, and Vaan instinctively hunched just a little, even though his head was not quite toughing. It was too dark to see anything clearly. “Jael, a little light please?”
Jael conjured fire. “Now, what’s the plan?”
“I’m thinking that if we leave trails behind, we will know if we already crossed this path,” Vaan said.
“We can’t use your stones because other mages might pick them up and mess our trail. How about I burn the floor?”
“It might damage the floor and disqualify us. I know! Frekkis, can you scratch the floor as we go?”
While Frekkis had claws, they were not so sharp they could quickly mark up obsidian stone. “No… Vaan, it would be really exhausting for her to scratch all the way. Can you cast just tiny cracks on the floor? I think that would be the safest way. I don’t think this floor is a thin slab, just crack a little.”
Vaan experimentally cast a tiny crack of magick onto the floor and nodded approvingly. It did not echo like a thin tile might. As they moved, Vaan cast slight cracks on the floor. Left and right they turned, but they found no sign of the portal.
Agonising long minutes passed and at last Vaan spotted a portal. “There! Let’s go!” Vaan said. The portal passed them through to another side of the maze, a place they’d never seen before. A rosy-grey tint covered the walls, and there was more light here, though not enough to make a significant difference. Jael made to continue.
“Wait, the colour of the walls changed. I don’t think this is connected to the black stone from the first walls. I think this maze is another level. Don’t you think?” Vaan asked.
“Perhaps you’re right. But long as we leave trails we should be able to just advance and finish this obstacle,” Jael answered, and they advanced the labyrinth.
As Jael, Frekkis and Vaan tread on through the labyrinth, they heard shouting reverberating down a passage. They quickly ran toward the sound and were shocked to see a wounded man lying on the ground, his leg pierced straight through by a spear ejected from the wall.
“What happened?” Jael asked.
“There are traps in this maze! I got caught by one!” The man swore and gingerly touched his leg. He winced and gasped in pain.
“We can’t leave him here,” Jael said to Vaan.
“Well. He could use the mysto given by the committee.”
“I want to win this race! It means so much to me!” the man replied. Jael understood the urge to carry on at all costs. He too was driven by the desire to win.
“With a leg like that, you can’t. Give another shot next year,” Vaan said, and they urged the man to use the mysto. The man relented and smashed the mysto on his leg. Presumably it teleported him outside of the labyrinth and back to the amphitheatre. “Well, we should be cautious now. I knew it! This is a different maze from the previous.”
Along the way, the three of them encountered quite few mages considering how many had been at the start. They spoke to them, but no one wanted to cooperate. Everyone was occupied, driven and competitive. One man they encountered was tapping on every single wall with a wand, and he looked annoyed when Jael asked what he was doing. “Faugh. I can’t seem to find the portal to the next level. I am sure this labyrinth is made up of three levels.”
“Do you want to go with us? We can help each other to finish the labyrinth,” Jael said.
“No, I cannot trust you. There are many mages here who would use their fellow competitors to their advantage and then betray them. I'm sorry, I can't risk it.” He carried
on down another passage.
Eventually, they reached a dead end. They rebounded and chose a different path but still they reached another dead end. Wherever they passed, they left their trail, and after some time, Vaan came to this conclusion: “There must be no portal! Surveyed the whole maze and everywhere we go, we end up at a dead end.”
“Ahh! Why haven’t I thought of that?” Jael shouted. His voice echoed only a small way. “If there are traps in the maze, there are some that open to a new path. Frekkis, can you remember all the spots where there are levers on the wall and traps on the ground?” Frekkis nodded. She had sniffed her way through the maze before, and cast Full Swift, dashing through the entire maze until she reached the first entrapped area. It was a wooden lever on the wall and Frekkis wrapped her jaw around it, immediately casting Feather Form. Spikes rose from the ground. “That was close!” Jael said.
Frekkis led them to the next trap. It was a strange and luminescent orb, unusual in its craft with no clear indication to its purpose, attached to the ceiling. “I’ll handle this,” Vaan said. He conjured a pillar from the ground eventually breaking the orb. The floor beneath it caved in, sliding open in a controlled fashioned to reveal a cavernous pit below.
“This place certainly is full of traps, huh?” Jael said and they continued on.
When Frekkis led them to the third trap, there was someone already there. A teenage girl, small for her age, wearing a brown fur skirt and tiny white jacket with copious wood buttoned pockets. “Osona!” The girl shouted. A large grizzly bear appeared from her will and rose up in calm cooperation before them. She commanded the bear to push the button on the wall. One partition slid suddenly, moving to crush the bear and the girl.
“Frekkis! Get her!” Jael shouted and Frekkis seized the girl’s waistband, dragging her out of the way of the rapidly enclosing wall.
The girl wailed in heartfelt agony as she saw the bear being crushed by the wall, and passed out. Jael and Vaan looked at each other in panic. She now lay motionless on the floor, still breathing, but no shaking roused her. “We should cast the mysto!” Jael said.
“No! It will teleport us outside! Not her,” Vaan said. “But we can’t leave her! We should take her with us.”
“Yes, of course. Frekkis, can you carry this girl?” Vaan said and Frekkis nodded. The girl’s dainty form was almost nothing to the enormous silvery wolf, who bore her weight silently without complaint. Once secure, she led them towards the next trap, another lever. Jael had a good feeling, a sense that it would work.
When Frekkis pulled the lever, the ceiling opened, and a portal appeared. They moved in, along with the unconscious girl, and found a path leading to the third level of the labyrinth. The stone walls here were blueish and a faint light emanated from deep within its crystalline structure.
Upon entering the third level of the labyrinth, they saw a group of four mages laying in exhaustion. They neared the group to inquire if they were all right. One of the mages raised his head in weary exhaustion. “There are doors blocking all the possible paths. We think that only one path is the right one.”
“We could help each other. We just need to choose which path we will take,” Vaan said.
“Do you have any mystos left?” Jael asked.
“Unfortunately, no. We already defeated two separate monsters, but both led to a portal and both portals led us back here to the entrance.” He sighed again.
“How many doors are left?” Jael asked. “There are five more.”
“So one of those five leads to the exit?” Vaan assumed. “Yes,” the mage replied. “I am Emil, by the way. I’m a Steel mage. We could share our knowledge and team up.”
“In that case, we could share with you our recovery mystos. The more mages we have, the less magick power we each need to put down the monster,” Vaan said, and he gave all the mages mystos. The group rose to their feet in better spirits.
“I am Gobbir. We will join up with you,” the heaviest set of the four said. He wore little clothing, nothing he deemed unnecessary, on the very edge of what society would reasonably allow him to walk about in public. His biceps appeared to have their own tiny muscles, each blood vein swollen and pumping with some physical magick might. Below his enormous chest, his hairless abs heaved for breath, fuelling his improbably mighty form. “Thank you,” said Emil, accepting one of the mystos.
He introduced the others. “This is Rakkar, a Thunder mage.” He stood up and straightened his dark robes, eyeing them suspiciously. “This here is Afirra, a Wind mage.” Afirra rose with grace and bowed politely. “And this is our Brute mage,” Emil added, and gestured towards Gobbir’s undulating chest.
The kindness of sharing mystos was enough to convince them to try for another door. Or they were simply too stubborn to refuse to quit after making it this far. “This may give us a chance to finish the labyrinth,” Afirra said.
“Oh and you should know… whenever we face those creatures, there is a large door that will close behind us. It prohibits other mages from interference with the fight. After we defeat the monster, there is another door behind it that leads to a portal. Only when all of us have crossed the door, it will be shut tight and the entry door will again open for a new team. Then the monster will appear again,” Rakkar said.
“So, every time a new team engages it resets. Only you and your team will know which path is right,” Afirra added. “You are lucky to meet us. It will save you two wrong guesses.”
Jael hopped up, hyped up and itching for a fight, and said. “So you’ve already defeated two. Let’s go and find the right door.” Jael and the others entered one of the five remaining doors.
Upon entering, they detected a strange man with a humanoid body but the tail of a reptile extending from his tailbone. The man said, “My name is Ultro, and you have to defeat me in order to pass.” He did not seem to be much of a monstrous threat, and Jael readied his spells. Suddenly Ultro began to sprout muscles, his humanoid body stretching and contorting with enormous grotesque growth until his mutated hulking body nearly scraped the domed ceiling.
“In this room, there are no rules,” Ultro said.
“Everyone, get ready!” Jael shouted and everyone started to cast their respective spells. But he remembered the girl and hurried to Frekkis’ side to defend her. This would give him an opportunity to stay back from the main action and see if there was any weakness to exploit in Ultro’s offence.
“Can you take every one of us at the same time?” Vaan taunted him.
“Hah! Come at me! I will smash you to pieces,” Ultro said. “Leave the cage to me.” Emil said and cast Steelda. Metal pillars rose from the ground, caging Ultro. Immediately Rakkar cast Thunderstrike directly to the metallic pillars and Ultro was electrified. The team had clear experience in group coordination. Simultaneously, Vaan cast Earth Shower at Ultro, and Jael patiently waited, watching for Ultro to move.
With a swift swish of his atrocious arm, Emil’s steel cage vanished into thin air. Ultro laughed maniacally, his tail whipping back and forth with barbaric energy. “Is that the best you can do? My body is made of Elementium. It is a substance which absorbs every magickal element. Are you ready to taste your own medicine?” Ultro said, and he conjured metal bars from his hands with lightning in it.
Vaan cast Revolut, stretching his spell thin to cover everyone with a protective barrier. Ultro’s steel bars powered his defence, eventually overthrowing everyone. “Come at me, you fools!”
“There has to be a catch!” Afirra said.
“Let me try,” Gobbir said. As a Brute mage, he fought not with a special element but by magickally increasing his own strength. He uttered “Higante!” in a guttural tone. Gobbir’s body too stretched and grew, his muscles boosted and his speed accelerated. He brazenly assaulted Ultro head on, charging up into one furious punch. He threw a massive blow to the mutant’s face. Ultro took no damage and Gobbir was left shaking his own wounded fist. “What? He didn’t even get scratched!”
“Now you see that you cannot defeat me. Use the mysto given by the committee and quit the race,” Ultro said.
Afirra tried her luck and cast tornado-strength gusts of wind toward him. Ultro deflected the whirlwind with a casual flick of his massive hand.
Jael, still watching to see the impact of the group’s different magickal strengths, made an observation of something smaller in the background. When the wind struck harmlessly against the wall, battering against futile structure, the door behind Ultro moved. Was it not locked? Ultro seemed to be all powerful. Maybe the test was not to bring their opponent down, but simply to escape! “We can never defeat this being, the solution here is not to defeat Ultro but to simply escape!” Jael told Vaan and together they concocted a plan under the nose of Ultro’s taunts.
While Ultro yammered on, hammering the other group, Jael cast his flames toward Ultro. “Hah! Don’t you ever learn?”
“Vaan, now!” Jael shouted and Vaan cast Golem Heart toward Ultro. “Everyone! Run toward the door! It was never locked. We simply have to escape this creature!” All of them bolted for the door, Jael flung it open, and Ultro vanished.
A portal swirled in the air before them. Just before everyone entered, a flickery light hologram of Ultro appeared before them. “Well done. You didn’t waste your energy in my room. Go ahead and enter the portal,” Ultro said and everyone entered the portal.
Everything went black. When Jael opened his eyes a second later, they were standing at the entrance.
“No! Not again!” Gobbir exclaimed.
“Well, we have to try another door,” Vaan replied.
Suddenly the girl who Jael was carrying woke up. “Ahhh!
Who are you?!” the girl gasped.
“We rescued you when you fainted because your bear disappeared. We didn’t have the heart to leave you behind so we carried you with us,” Jael said, and introduced everyone.
“Uhhhhh… I'm sorry to cause you much trouble,” the girl said, blushing. “My name is Izabelle.”
Teliko Mageia: Curse of the Frozen Flame Page 8
