Battle Mage, The Caves of Time

by Donald Wigboldy

  Colors of their individual magic auras could be made out while the land around him looked more black and white. Moving ahead of them after a moment of watching the newer flyers adjust to the shift of vision, Sebastian led them about a hundred feet above the ground banking through the turns of the passage until Ponfies was once more in sight. Creatures still roamed along the ground, but none appeared to notice. Few held magic, but his sight noted dozens of warlocks manning the walls or circulating on the ground or in the towers reaching impressively towards the sky.

  There was nothing to do here, however, so Sebastian looked for other magic and noted more to the northeast. A powerful signature that might be a gate was beyond his natural vision and the flying mage began to lead his people there. He tried to be cautious, but in flight all he could really do was be vigilant while hoping that their stealth created by the invisibility would keep them from being spotted.

  The battle mage liked a good scrap like most of his kind, but he didn't want to risk the others fighting an entire army. Following the channel between mountains, he wondered what they would find there.

  Xander practically fell through the doorway onto the wizard he had pulled through as the black fire rained down on their position. His leg hurt and the cadet looked down to see burns on his pants' leg that even managed to seep through his leather boot.

  The wounded wizard had been giving him power. Shaylene had already been shoved through by the cadet worrying over her more than his own life, but Xander had managed to get everyone through it just in time in spite of a little bit of splash damage injuring him.

  He checked the male wizard as he picked himself up off of the man. Light blue robes covered his upper body to mid thigh. Brown pants and leather boots similar to the cadet's were marked by the black fire, but nothing had burned through to his skin. Only the broken shaft of an arrow protruding from his arm and the blood soaked sleeve revealed his main injury.

  "Where are we?" the sergeant called out angrily.

  "White Hall," he gasped and was surprised by the thinness of his voice. Thinking that he sounded winded, the cadet slowly noticed his body telling of his weakness.

  His eyes went to Shaylene again, who sat on the ground holding her left arm. Sleeveless, it was exposed pink skin freshly regrown and the true reason for the cadet's weakened state. Healing took a lot of power and Xander was only a battle mage, a being with much less power than a full wizard. Few of those could heal, but those who could were able to heal multiple wounds of a similar nature without needing to rest.

  As the world slowed down in the safety of White Hall's courtyard, the boy noted an ache in his stomach letting him know that his magic was getting low. Taking out his canteen, he drank quickly before reaching for his pouch holding food.

  "I told you to take us to the fort, not White Hall!" the sergeant complained grabbing his arm to prevent him from reaching for the food that would be needed to replenish his magic.

  Food wasn't a perfect way to regenerate power, but it was the quickest way to get at least something back. Xander frowned at the soldier and stated, "We have wounded. They can go to the healers and we can get more soldiers, if you want to go back."

  "If?" the man asked growing angry. "You left our people behind to fight without us."

  "Sergeant, enough," the wounded wizard ordered standing up. His forehead dripped with sweat from the use of his magic almost as much as from the pain caused by the arrow still in his shoulder. "You can get back to the fort soon enough. They won't reach the fort immediately and it isn't their goal anyway."

  Xander nodded to the taller air wizard. He sought his memory and realized that he knew the man's name was Frennel. He was older, a full wizard, about six foot and lean; though he was injured the man still held an air of authority that made the soldier back down immediately.

  The wizard waved to the others. "Quickly, let's get everyone out of the courtyard. If the battle turns, more will likely need to use the gate and it will get crowded very soon."

  While the others moved to help the wounded that could barely walk, Xander moved to help Shaylene. The girl could walk, but he wouldn't leave her side. She was someone whom he loved. They had been through other fights and been lucky enough to stay together in White Hall until the owl had come to ask them to join him. It was supposed to be for training, but Sebastian had taken them to Kardor where they had trained to open gates outside in the snow.

  Frennel patted his shoulder with his good arm and moved past heading towards the door leading into the school. A few uninjured men looked uncertain of where to go including the sergeant. They were ready for a fight, but it was hundreds of miles away now.

  Looking at the large doorway set in stone beneath the guard towers, Xander knew that he had done what he could to get everyone to safety. Three had died by the time he had made the gate, and two more hadn't made it through the opening in time. The cadet had left the door open for them, which was likely why the flames had burned him; but they had been too slow to come through the portal.

  "You tried," Shaylene said touching his face to stroke his cheek with affection. Her right hand was soft and warm. He noticed a couple flecks of blood and knew that she still nursed an injury that he hadn't had enough time or magic to fully heal.

  "It wasn't enough and you still got hurt."

  "It's not the first time," the girl said softly before her hand settled on the back of his neck. "You saved me again, so just be grateful for that."

  Pulling his face closer, the smaller girl kissed him on the lips ignoring the other eyes which might see them.

  "Come on. You need to eat and I can have a healer finish this. We need to get them back as soon as we can," Shaylene said with a kind smile as her right hand took his left pulling him towards the courtyard door and the interior of the school. "Haylee will be worried until we get back, so hurry up."

  "Do you see them?" Haylee asked worriedly from his side.

  They had seen not only their terrace attacked but, as a large number of grayvens flew down, most of the others appeared to take damage from some strange black fire as well. These wizards, warlocks or whatever one might call them had at least one power that he had never seen before. The fire seemed thick and clingy, lingering beyond a normal flame.

  It didn't look like the night spells of the Dark One's warlocks either.

  "There was a gate just before they were attacked," he stated having watched for his cadet and the apprentice more than he technically should. While he knew many of the other defenders, Xander was technically his student, an apprentice of sorts, though they had both learned more from the owl recently. "I'm sure that they got away."

  Shaylene turned to run to the east side of the bridge crossing the gorge between the mountains where the wizards of Southwall had erected a fair size fort in a very short time. It was amazing what earth wizards could do, Kharrik thought absently.

  "I don't see them here either," the woman worried like a frantic mother waiting for her child to return home from school for the first time.

  A doorway formed and he heard her breath intake hopefully, but it was another portal wizard from the opposite side. Other than the female wizard in black and silver, a rare diplomat with the equally rare ability to use gate magic; only a handful of soldiers, a battle mage and a fire wizard remained from that terrace based on those he could see.

  There were more from the terraces already working their way to the fortress from where other portal wizards had brought their charges as the enemy overran their positions. Not every terrace had such wizards unfortunately, Kharrik knew.

  "We don't have time for this, Haylee," he said brusquely though the mage tried to be gentle with his words. The wizard was his partner, at least in magic though he was still uncertain where they stood outside of portal magic. Kharrik needed her to power his gate spell even if there were times where the woman made it apparent that she didn't always believe that she needed him as well. "Other terraces need help."

  Placing his
hand on her hip as he encircled his arm around her waist more intimately than he might any other wizard, Kharrik asked, "Are you ready?"

  She didn't push him away or dispute his touch. Sighing loudly, Haylee nodded and asked, "How do you plan to do this? The enemy is everywhere."

  Releasing his hold letting, his hand slide across the small of her back one last time, Kharrik ordered, "Shield."

  With the blue glow held before him, the mage answered, "Stay behind me, but close. I'll protect you, but you'll need to be close to power the doorways."

  Again she nodded sending the tail of blonde hair behind her flailing. Many of the other women with long hair had similar tails. They couldn't afford to let their hair get in the way as they fought. Losing sight of an enemy could be their death.

  The man beside her had short hair as most other battle mages tended to have also. Some of the female mages had hair in boyish cuts knowing that close quarters fighting made long hair a liability not just from sight, but it could be pulled and used as a weapon against them in a fight also.

  "Door," he called feeling her hand pressed flat against his back. Her power joined with his making the battle mage feel more powerful as the golden light formed in front of them.

  His vision blurred only a moment traveling such a short distance. Standing on one of the terraces, one of three officially under his supervision, Kharrik witnessed mostly destruction. There were two wounded soldiers leaning against each other with their backs against the wall. A battle mage with a large blue shield in front of him had an orange glow around his left arm also. Many of the mages had been given the runes which Sebastian had found by now. The owl had yet to tell him their source, but they were foreign magic, something old.

  A fire wizard crouched behind the mage with his hand pressed against his back feeding the other man his power. It was feeding the shield which protected them and the soldiers behind them as a griffon rider sized up the remaining defense.

  "Hurry to the door," Haylee called to them. The wounded man picked up the woman leaning against him. Her eyes were barely open, but her legs worked just enough to struggle to the gate. Her left arm covered a bloody shirt and a rag tied around her abdomen. It would be a mortal wound, if it wasn't looked at quickly.

  Kharrik released the gate to the top of the bridge and immediately recast one set to White Hall. "Go," he nodded. "This goes to White Hall call the healers immediately for her."

  The man nodded. Kharrik wasn't even certain if the woman knew what he had said.

  "We can still fight," the battle mage stated. "We can go with you to the others, if you want."

  "Get him a healer. He needs one too before he drops," Haylee said pointing at the wizard behind the mage.

  As if he had forgotten that the other man was wounded, the battle mage grabbed the wizard around the waist herding him to the golden light quickly.

  "Be ready to fight again, if called, mage," Kharrik stated to the man before he disappeared with a nod through the doorway.

  The gesture was barely noticed as his eyes surveyed the battlefield. There had been twelve terraces formed at various heights split between the two mountain sides to guard this pass. Below them the minos and koze, as the creatures had been codenamed, had begun to swarm through the open pass with dozens of the blue skinned hobgoblins swirling between the taller beasts. Several grayven flew above and many had riders with magic.

  One spotted the doorway.

  "Damn," he muttered, but his next word was, "Door."

  Formed between them, it served as a stronger shield than the blue mage conjuration. His hand reached back pulling Haylee after him.

  The other side of the doorway was set to the next terrace behind their attacker. As black fire rained down where they had stood, Kharrik closed the door and called up an air spear. Flinging it accurately at the blue skinned elf, he watched a barrier of ice formerly unseen shatter into fragments.

  Before he could feel good about the hit, ice seemed to strike him from nowhere. The dark elf shook his head from the hit, but was able to trace the direction of his attack with the retaliation of the strange ice armor. He wished that Sebastian was here to analyze the magic. It was another type that he had never seen before and appeared to first shield the elf like armor before rebounding some of his attack back on him as shards of ice.

  It should have been impossible, but then again with magic little ever truly was. Kharrik grit his teeth and knew that the impossible was only that until a wizard figured out the answer to the problem.

  "Are you alright?" Haylee asked feeling the battle mage pull back and the air chill for a second.

  "I'm fine," he stated and noticed the orange glow of the runes dulling once more on his skin. The attack had circumvented his mage shield, but the runes had absorbed most the ice even so. Perhaps it was because they were on his skin, that the dark elf's magic couldn't fully touch him.

  He looked for survivors on the field. This terrace was empty except for a couple dead bodies. There had been a gate wizard here though. He found another group fighting across the ravine.

  Ram men, nicknamed koze by their leaders, had virtually run up the steep slope to bring the fight to the men and women there. It hadn't gone as well as they had hoped though. Mages and soldiers held one side of the terrace, while wizards peppered the creatures with spells or held up a partial dome keeping those below from hitting them with arrows or magic.

  "Wind spear," he ordered letting a second summoned weapon fly. This one struck the grayven's wing sending mount and rider plummeting to the ground. "React to that," the mage muttered before calling on the next doorway.

  Dropping this doorway as well to create the next centered on the fortress, he called to the defenders, "Fall back to the fort!"

  His voice rose enough to carry through the noise of battle and one of the wizards looked at him nodding. A massive ball of fire wafted over the heads of the men and women of Southwall striking the mountainside burning many of the creatures alive. The impact also created a slide dropping stone onto a vacated terrace below them. It had been overrun already and Kharrik could only hope that a wizard had managed to get them away quickly.

  With a gap in the attack, those fighting on the terrace hurried towards the portal. The last of them slipped through when a grayven swept up suddenly from the blind spot formed by the edge of the wall. The wizard holding the dome let the barrier fall as he left the terrace and Kharrik's eyes went wide seeing another of those dangerous gouts of black fire coming towards them.

  Pushing Haylee back through the portal, the battle mage rolled the other way. With the lost contact, the glow of the door flickered twice before disappearing from sight.

  "Big mistake," Kharrik muttered under his breath as he picked himself up. Black flames tickled at his rune armor and the mage brushed it away as the orange glow swept outward protecting him for now.

  The sound of a sword leaving its sheath announced the drawing of his Hollow Sword. Sebastian had left one with him. Though he hadn't yet formally joined the owl, he had been trusted with this blade that could amplify his magic far beyond his own ability.

  "Light," he ordered casting the spell into the weapon. Growing brilliant even in daylight, the mage swung his weapon before the warlock could cast another spell. The grayven looked like it might wish to turn and fight him directly; but, as a swath of bright light flung forward striking the beast in the neck, the dark elf rider was left with a headless mount before it could even blink.

  The blue skinned rider rolled as the grayven collapsed on its side. Two swords appeared in its hands. Doubting that it was just a bluff, Kharrik called out, "Fire sword."

  It was another of the owl's tricks based off an older mage spell. Solid, yet made only of fire and magic, a blade shaped like the Hollow Sword formed in his left hand. Still glowing with light, the other weapon remained in his dominant hand.

  The dark elf didn't seem impressed and attacked hoping to catch him off guard. It muttered words that seemed famili
ar and Kharrik thought that its skin turned harder like stone. A second spell increased the elf's speed letting him block and avoid his attacks as if the mage was moving in slow motion.

  "Little bastard knows the reflex spell," Kharrik noted. His runes were already reacting making his arms and legs faster to try and keep up, but another spell caused the battle mage's perception of the battlefield seem to slow down.

  "Reflex," he called wishing that he didn't have to use it so soon. Most mages could only use the spell once an hour perhaps. Doing it too often a day, even with little rests, was dangerous to a mage's body as well. Your mind was on overload. It fired faster letting one slow down the world around them, but his arms and legs could only move so much quicker.

  To those fighting someone using the spell, it seemed like the enemy swordsman was unusually fast. His sword would block almost without effort. Openings would be found and leave gashes or be used for finishing blows in a life and death situation. Such a spell gave them an edge, even against wizards casting from a distance. Runes augmenting his actual speed meant that facing a mage without them, you were as fast to react, but your limbs and sword could actually achieve much greater speed making him faster still.

  The Hollow Sword, still enhanced with light, struck the enemy's weapon blocking it. Kharrik blinked letting the magic release without blinding his vision, though even then there was a purple looking sparkle in his sight as the battle mage hoped to advance his position.

  Two of the koze bounded onto the terrace with the two swordsmen. One tried to interfere, but the fire sword slashed its abdomen as the ram lifted its sword overhead in a clumsy maneuver that Kharrik would have punished whether his reflex spell was there or not. Not even the minor opening made by the extra attack helped the dark elf in front of him. With the runes, this fight wasn't even; but Kharrik knew that his magic reserves were already dwindling. Magic helped extend the length of the reflex spell. If the dark elf could maintain his longer, then the match would flip back once again.