Battle Mage: Winter's Edge

by Donald Wigboldy

  Others called the idea unfair as well. The wizard patted the air with a sympathetic gesture as he spoke over their raised voices calming the room, “We have been working to either separate those from Southwall or grouping all four together. We also will not have any that have fought in those arenas before getting an advantage. If you fought in one of those three arenas, you already know that it will be one of the other two for round three.

  “There will even be changes to those three arenas such as the Two Hills now have four. The Colonnades central pool has been separated into four near each circle and even the hedges will have extra stone in addition to the pools of water for any earth wizard to use.

  “With the larger battles, there will be three held in the morning at each arena with the remaining two in the afternoon. Tomorrow evening, the winners will assemble here to learn about round four. Enjoy the rest of your day and you can find tomorrow’s assignments on the board outside before the evening meal.”

  The man stepped down and quickly moved to a door in the rear of the room to escape the voices raised in confusion.

  “Four in a duel?” Collin asked aloud as Sebastian led the others out into the street. “That’s not even a real duel then.”

  Liam and Serrena agreed looking unhappy with the idea. Ashleen grabbed Sebastian’s arm looking surprisingly happy. “Well, they are certainly making this event different,” the girl said with a grin. “I did not see a four way match coming that is for sure.”

  He nodded thinking about the tactics required for such a match. There were bound to be those that would start out helping one another. As the only battle mage in the event, that could either work to his advantage or against him. Either way, the mage was pretty sure that he would have to use Bairh’loore to keep up with such a duel.

  “It should be interesting,” Sebastian admitted. “With three opponents, everyone is going to have to keep an eye on three directions and potentially three different kinds of spells. On the bright side for me, I don’t think anyone has prepared for it, so for once I am on the same learning curve as the rest.”

  Ashleen giggled at the idea. “That’s true. I don’t think anyone practices fighting three wizards at once. No one wizard can harm three, which is why they use three to protect us in a match. I wonder how many wizards they will have there for these matches?”

  Thinking that she had an interesting point, the battle mage wondered about the safety of so many wizards waging battle. If three wizards united against one, could three protectors even be enough to save them? The chaos of battle left everyone in danger sometimes; perhaps this was the newest risk to make the tournament even more exciting for the fans.

  Chapter 31- A Change of Plan

  Plans changed. Whether the flow of combat dictated it or new conditions were introduced, a battle mage had to be ready and adaptable. Entire classes had been created for the cadets just to help them as falcons to remember to be ready to think on their feet.

  For Rilena and the rest of the Windmeer army, it was such a time.

  “Nico, Sercea,” Elzen directed a pair of mages already on foot to his left. “Rilena, Zerra cover our wizards on the right.”

  Rilena would have taken the time to stare at the falcon that had seemed like such a boy only a day ago, but now took charge like a veteran leader. Dolfeen, another friend and water wizard had their backs with two other wizards now that their plan of assisting Falcon’s Keep had turned into a pure mess. It was the polite wording for it, the girl thought, as a mass of wolves and lions seemed to swirl around the darker, slower, upright forms of goblins and orcs in their armor.

  While she couldn’t say that she liked Falconi Ralto’s personality from her dealings with him, the falcon barely knew him, and he had always seemed a little too full of himself. If he was a Falconi, however, Rilena also knew that he must be an excellent commander no matter what her opinion, since it wasn’t a position buyable by some rich lord’s family. At this point in his choice of plans, the falcon had little love for his blunt and audacious approach to the joining up with their allies. The enemy had simply waited for a better place to attack and the assault sprang up as a trap all around them.

  The enemy’s assault had been perfectly planned. After the front of their column had entered into a passage between the trees that narrowed their numbers once more, a group of wolves had attacked the rear. The cries of men and horses gave warning to the rest, but Rilena with her friends had been in the center and still the enemy was upon them before much of a defense could be raised.

  What had happened to Falconi Ralto and Wizard Delfar and the rest of the lead group no longer mattered as the beasts and soldiers of the enemy came at their line from all sides. Flashing from the brush and deeper woods, the enemy had been among them too fast for many of the army to react.

  Elzen had been one of the quicker ones to respond. Calling out orders to cancel the disarray, soldiers, falcons and wizards began to fight back. The emperor’s armies had never been ones to play fair after all, so the men and women of Southwall were sadly used to it. Still the ambush had been unavoidable save to never have tried to get to their allies from Falcon’s Keep at all.

  Voices rose throughout the column as leaders arose to pull the army of Southwall together. Fire and other spells lashed out lighting the night as well as consuming the slowest of enemies. Rumbles in the earth heralded wizards fighting back and raising new defenses.

  Rilena slashed at one of the lions. Striking a front leg, the animal seemed to half shift between animal and human form. Claws on the unharmed arm slashed at the mage only to be blocked by a mage shield. So intense was the personal battle, the falcon missed a second attacker. Luckily, Elzen suddenly appeared at her shoulder warning her, “On your left.”

  The words only served to let her know that he was there to meet the attack of a second lion. They were quick and required constant shifting of lines and focus as the swift creatures moved in and out of range.

  Blooded splattered the lion she was fighting and the ground beside him. Elzen had scored a direct hit with a mage blade driven through the shoulder into its chest and out again on the far side. Pulling back to address the scene, the boy readied for another attack before throwing a dagger at her remaining attacker.

  With a scream of pain as the weapon struck a glancing blow on its side, the lion leaped back into the brush before it could take anymore damage.

  “You are a sorry shot with a dagger,” Rilena gasped as she tried to gather her breath. The blade had been thrown from five feet away and barely scratched the beast.

  Chuckling without sounding winded at all, Elzen replied, “I told you that I am good at hand to hand. I never said anything about range.”

  Water in a jet, lanced out from behind them sending a squad of goblins scattering into the brush.

  With a quick glance to check the condition of the rest of the column, Elzen added, “We need to get out of here. They’ll never have a full charge to try and finish us, but we can’t return the favor by attacking without chancing losing everyone in an even bigger trap.”

  Rilena nodded as he tried to work out a better plan than the defense they were mounting now. She wished that Sebastian was there. He always seemed to be able to figure out how to win. Her friend had gone into the belly of a mountain, injured, and still saved her. Why hadn’t she accepted his request to go with him to Hala?

  Hoping he was doing better than she was and hoping to live to see her friend again, Rilena watched and waited for the enemy to attack again.

  A lingering haze of fog held the arenas outside of the city and delayed the games nearly half an hour before the officials felt that visibility was good enough to proceed. It wouldn’t do to have the contestants with visibility issues and the audience needed to see them as well.

  Standing in the last of the haze, Sebastian stood in the southern ring of the Colonnades looking out over the arena. Stone columns littered the field. Though most were standing tall, a few lay on their sides for
both the look of battle and as a resource for any with the need for stone in their spells. In the center of the four rings, a large pool of water held in by a white stone ring waited for any water users. It was a fairly straightforward battlefield despite the addition of two extra circles.

  On the far side of the pool a man in the grey clothing of the mysterious men from Grey Hall, stood waiting similarly. Sebastian knew that all three opponents must be good to have gotten so far, but Grey Hall held many unknowns making him worry. One of the dragon men with his amulet set upon his chest seemed equally interested in the man in grey. As the mage watched the dragon, he never took his eyes from his enemy on the left.

  Sebastian eyed the last wizard, a man from Staron. A fire wizard, he used the same kinds of spells as any wizard of Southwall. He was at least a known quantity where the other two worked quite differently.

  The fire wizard noticed his interest and nodded with a slight smile. Despite the friendly gesture, Sebastian knew that this was going to be a match where no one could trust another. Perhaps if things went well, the two from allied countries could work together to help bring down the others, but then again the dragons could be considered allies as well since they had stood against the Dark Emperor from the start.

  It wasn’t going to be easy, but the mage noticed the fire wizard gave the other two more interest than him. Wondering if his opponents were still counting him out as the weakest of them all, Sebastian thought maybe he had a plan.

  As they waited, a man in the black strode out to the center of the battlefield and once more set to announcing the contestants. “Arronnon from the Dragon Spine Mountains holds the west, Geriman from Grey Hall holds the north, Brahvai Froe from Staron holds the east and our mage from Southwall, Falcon Sebastian Trillon of Windmeer will hold the south. The allowed schools of magic remain in affect as well as those disallowed gentlemen. Since we have twice as many competitors, we are giving you thirty seconds to prepare your defenses for this round. You may work together or apart, but at the end only one will win this match. If you make a particularly good showing, one losing contestant will be brought back for the next round, so do your best.

  “You may begin your defenses now!” the wizard finished after he was already walking to the outer edge of the arena once more.

  Sixteen wizards guarded the arena for this round. Four held protection spells for each man while all sixteen would help ensure the crowd’s safety in four sets of stands surrounding the arena. All the changes had been enacted by the wizards and extra help from volunteers from the city. Sebastian had heard that two more hills had been raised in the former Two Hills arena and all over about an eighteen hour period.

  Such momentous achievements in such a short time by the Winter’s Edge planners had to be set aside as Sebastian prepared his defenses. Taking Bairh’loore in hand, the mage raised an embankment of earth and stone in a semicircle around his ring. Raised to over three feet, they were just his first basic defense. The regular three mage shields wouldn’t due for a match with so many directions to cover.

  Three shields were set to face his three opponents, but all angled slightly back. Each was backed by another pair of shields pointed at each opponent should the first break. Lastly, Sebastian set his air shield completely encompassing him and set strong enough to deflect debris and some spells. He could add to his last line of defense should it come to that, but after he was done Sebastian returned to watching his opponents prepare.

  All three used stone embankments outside of their rings much like Sebastian had. The dragon created a parapet-like system similar to Isstmira’s with a secondary shield of energy within the ring that could be seen through. Using squared stone in a semicircle, the wizard of Grey Hall formed his first wave of defense. Solid fire shields took the second line of defense. With three individual walls for each direction he might be attacked from, the grey wizard left gaps between each that an opponent might take advantage of during the fight, the mage noticed. It was a bold defense that made Sebastian think the man meant for his offense to win the match more than the walls around him.

  When the wizard in black proclaimed, “Begin!” The dragon man Arronnon attacked the man from Grey Hall as if he had history with the wizard. Like a man possessing true hatred for the man, the dragon stomped his foot sending a tremor directed into the other Geriman’s stone wall shattering a portion of it. Before the wall’s shards were even hitting the ground, two of the tall columns broke apart sending spears at the wizard from above.

  Apparently Arronnon didn’t think that would be enough as he summoned water tendrils from the pool to batter Geriman from that front as well.

  Brahvai from Staron summoned a fire devil sending the spinning fire tornado towards Sebastian. It wasn’t really meant to defeat the mage. The wizard didn’t doubt his capabilities that much with him making it to round three. Sending the fire between them was simply meant to obscure the fire wizard from the mage. His hope was that Sebastian would ignore him or delay the mage while dealing with his construct as he also assaulted the grey mage with powerful fireballs.

  Taking three metal rods from the stash at his feet, the mage ignored the construct and let it obscure the field between them. Launching each in turn surrounded in air spears, Sebastian calmly seeded each opponent’s ring with an iron rod. As he set the first part of his trap, the mage remained all but forgotten by the other three men. His theory of how the match would go was already running much the way he had thought it would.

  Being powerful, full wizards; the other three were ignoring the one they figured was the weakest threat. Biding his time, Sebastian watched the other three waging their war.

  His respect for the wizard of Grey Hall rose quite quickly. Under the direct assault of two wizards, the man held his ground. A wall of wind pushed the stone spears towards the dragon man who had created them. A second swirl of wind spun the water snakes to shreds, while a strange wall of black rose up not only stopping Brahvai’s fireballs, but seemingly absorbed them into their night.

  The dragon roared in anger. There was something about the black shield that seemed to enrage the wizard even more. A column bent and moved like it was alive. Like a giant arm, the stone slapped at the grey wizard. The fire wall was shattered. As the arm rose to strike again, several black discs like round shields with a razor-like sharpness struck the column sweeping in and out changing direction to cut the thick column to pieces.

  Sebastian watched this unknown piece of magic warily.

  Fire continued to hammer at the wall of darkness between the wizard from Staron and Grey Hall. Again and again fireballs and streams of flame lashed out seeming to just drown in that blackness. Brahvai was completely ineffective against the defense and feeling that the wizard would probably try to at least take down the sole mage before losing himself, Sebastian sighed before summoning lightning from Bairh’loore.

  “Lightning dance,” he ordered and watched the lightning bounce away in a multitude of tendrils. Skipping along the ground the electricity passed through the flames continuing straight to the metal rod in Brahvai’s ring.

  The wizard cried out as the charge struck sending him flying from the battle circle. Sebastian heard a gasp from the crowd and watched as the fire spells died out on his right. It was a relief to the mage’s eyes just getting rid of the annoying distractions, he thought. Not wanting to get too cocky, Sebastian double checked the other two wizards locked in combat.

  Stone, fire, air and water spells raged back and forth. With the loss of the fire wizard, the man from Grey Hall dropped his black wall and concentrated more on the dragon man. Sebastian debated on who he should target next. They still ignored him even though he had just removed the fire wizard. Perhaps they hadn’t been impressed by him as well, but the mage assumed that the two figured they were the biggest threats.

  As he readied to strike, Sebastian watched as a tail lashed out from the back of the dragon man. Striking his metal rod, he had to change his assessment at least from Ar
ronnon. Whether he believed the mage was a lesser threat or not, the dragon had removed his tool for directing his lightning.

  Sebastian decided that perhaps his first choice was not the smartest after all. The dragon had seemed the best bet as he was turned to face the north more. Being distracted by the man from Grey Hall, the mage had thought to take him out first, but apparently he needed to prepare more.

  “Wave, wave,” he ordered summoning strength from the earth with Bairh’loore placed before him. The distance to the pool meant his normal abilities along with the size of the spell would have drained him too far. Two giant waves lashed out, one to the north and one to the west. They struck the defenses of both washing away much of the stone defenses already worn away by the continuous fighting.

  It served to distract the dragon more than Geriman. Summoning a wave of stone, Arronnon sent the attack towards the battle mage. His fresh defenses absorbed the attack easily, but in his distraction an attack from the north staggered the wizard as fire rained down on the final defense of the dragon, his green energy shield.

  Collapsing under the stress of the attack, only a last second spell stopped the fire from knocking Arronnon from the circle as he crouched under a concentrated sphere of his green fire.

  “Thank you, mage!” a voice chuckled from a distance. In the sudden silence of spells, Sebastian could hear every word.

  “Don’t thank me too soon,” the mage shouted back to be heard.

  The grey wizard held up a metal rod, the shaft that he had buried directly in front of his ring. “Well, if you thought this was going to help you beat me, then let me assure you that it will not. My wall of darkness can absorb fire and lightning. It’s a fun spell taken from nature if you were wondering if it’s legal. I know the dragon called foul several times in his own language,” Geriman finished with another chuckle as he tossed the metal shaft away.

  “Lightning,” the mage sent the spell in an arc through the air unerringly even without the iron rod. A black shield rose almost instinctively quick between them. As the man had said, the darkness swallowed up the lightning with ease.