Trying to appear romantic, the fire wizard he gave her a cheesy smile and asked, “Please tell me that it wasn’t just me, pretty lady. I am sure that there is something between us.”
With a roll of her eyes, Ashleen slid a wooden chair between them with her foot. “There is now,” she grinned and wiggled her eyebrows letting him know where he stood.
“If you are done using this tournament as a mixer,” a voice rang out from the front of the room, “then perhaps we should get to business, ladies and gentlemen.”
The head of the judges was an austere man, bald but with black eyebrows and beard with dark brown eyes. When he frowned, it seemed to be only the slightest change from his normal scowling appearance, the mage thought of the wizard who was the head of the wizards based in Hala.
“As you may have noticed, we are down to sixteen wizards,” he managed to only half glance at Sebastian as the judge probably felt like most that a mage was not a wizard, but the fact that the falcon had persevered without getting a pass from the judges still said something of his ability. “Sixteen left out of more than two hundred thirty who began this competition three days ago. That says a lot about you all, but you’re still only halfway there people.
“If you look at these people in this room, these are the ones who stand in your way. Friends, allies, or enemies, you will have to face off one on one for the rest of the tournament. There will be no more four player matches for those who might think they skated through the last round,” he gave a cold smile as he panned his gaze around the room. Sebastian thought that he felt a few wizards cringe with the statement and wondered why any of them could feel that they hadn’t earned their spots except for the one who had received the judgment for the last position.
“Now I would guess that you would all like to see just who you will be facing and where. The remaining rounds will be held in the arenas inside of the city known as the Ponds and Royal Garden. To try and be fair, we will have you draw numbers. One through eight will start with the Ponds and switch each round they succeed until there are just four left. Nine through sixteen will start with the gardens working the opposite routine.
“Again I will call your names because of where you stand now. From my left to right, you will come as I call you.”
Sebastian didn’t know if the choice to start had been predetermined, but his left meant that all of those from Southwall would go first. By the time they had all drawn, the numbers had set three in the Ponds and four in the Royal Gardens. Only Sebastian had drawn a match against a fellow Southwaller and she was the nature wizard from Liam’s village, Sharamar, of all the luck.
While the remainder of the competitors continued to draw positions, he tried to be friendly to the young woman, who despite being younger than Liam was still just a little older than Sebastian. “Did Liam ever find you, Wizard Sharamar?” the mage asked using her title as he didn’t know her well enough to be more familiar, though he felt like he knew her a bit thanks to Liam’s stories.
“Liam?” her brown eyes met the mages with a furrowed brow of wariness.
“The water wizard that you beat in the last round and he said that you two also come from the same home town?” he asked beginning to wonder if this was the correct woman after all. “Liam was hoping to catch up with you about your home this afternoon.”
“Liam Klaren?” her brown eyes picked up a faint warmth at the name. Sebastian knew now that this was the right wizard, though he could have assumed that there were few wizards with her name, if any others even existed. “Why would you think that I would take time to talk with him? If you think that you can lull me into thinking that we are friends to take it easy on you, battle mage, then you are mistaken. I didn’t hold back against Liam, an… old friend, so don’t expect any special treatment from me. I am here to win, not sit around chatting with wizards and a battle mage, who somehow managed to sneak into this competition.”
Blue eyes narrowing at the slight, Sebastian did what he could to hold his temper. This girl was a friend of a friend essentially and he didn’t want to hurt Liam by proxy. “I hardly snuck into anything. The ravens of Windmeer asked me to represent them in the competition because they knew that I could duel wizards in their own tournament.
“If you don’t want to speak to me, that is fine with me, but I would consider talking to Liam if he is your friend. Of course, you can wait ‘til after I beat you in our match or do it before so you aren’t so disappointed,” the mage said pushing the girl’s buttons in retaliation.
Her eyes revealed surprise. “You are pretty sure of yourself, mage.”
He laughed coldly as his blue eyes shone like steel. “Aren’t you? I would doubt that few wizards came here hoping to lose. Since I have trained with wizards and dueled my share of different schools, I guess that you can say that I am confident. Feel free to underestimate me because I am a simple battle mage though. That thinking has been working out well for me thus far.”
Taking a step back fearfully, Sharamar’s eyes revealed worry at his demeanor. “I apologize, falcon, but I stand by my wish to not speak with you at this point. Perhaps after I win, then we can sit together for dinner with Liam and become friends, but for now I would rather not become too familiar with my opponent.”
He nodded and was prepared to leave the woman, when she suddenly held onto his arm. “Could you give this to Liam? It’s the name of my inn and the street that it is on so he can find me. I will need to get my rest apparently, but I look forward to talking to him again.”
The lighting wasn’t the best, but Sebastian thought that the young woman was blushing as she handed him the note.
From the front of the room, the head judge spoke once more, “Oh, and by the way my friends, make sure that you are well rested for tomorrow. Round four will be in the morning and the winners will go on to fight again in the afternoon.”
There were groans as the wizards had to hope that they could win with minimal effort or they might be too worn down to fight in the afternoon. It was another twist, Sebastian thought before returning to his inn.
Chapter 33- Sweet Sixteen
A gray sky covering the city of Hala made Sebastian yawn. He had come early to see the first match, since as long as he won the mage would have to fight the winner in the afternoon. Shirama, a water wizard from Windmeer, had drawn one of the men from Gray Hall.
It was a hard fought match and the woman dressed in blue put up a good fight, but Sebastian could see very early on that Gray Hall’s darkness shields gave him an edge. They were quickly drawn and strong against every element that he had seen used against them. As the mage continued to watch, he began to feel like he understood the magic behind the darkness.
Early on in the tournament when the first matches of Gray Hall revealed these shields, opponents complained that they were unfair. The spells weren’t natural and were almost perfect at nullifying fire especially, but the mage thought of his own shields. Blue magical shields weren’t natural either, but no one complained because they could be destroyed like any other construct. By the time Shirama finally lost, Sebastian came to understand that the two shields were essentially from opposite sides of magic.
A mage shield was a defense, but could be changed to an offensive tool as well given the right mage and circumstances. Thinking of the blue shields as a force for life and energy, there was potential to act and react as a mage saw fit.
The darkness shield was for defense, but only because it was more the absence of energy. Hungering to devour energy like fire made them strong only because they stole the life and energy of the magic used against them. Fire and lightning would be extremely weak against them since the very energy of their strikes fed the hunger and built the shield with even more power.
Keeping his eyes on the wizards from Gray Hall over the past few days, the mage began to see how he could use the spell if it ever came to a match with one of them. If he won his next match, Sebastian would have to fight the same wizard that had just beaten Sh
irama and that would be this afternoon. Nodding his head to the two as they moved out of the arena to the provisions kept in the base of the outer tower, Sebastian knew that worrying over his second match was worthless if he couldn’t beat the nature wizard who had already defeated his training partner.
“Bas try to not make Shara look bad,” Liam pleaded with him only half joking. The man had gone out to find the girl from his village after Sebastian had handed him the note. A smile had crossed his face when the note was shown to him and the mage thought that perhaps Liam really did have a crush on her despite several years in age difference.
Sharamar or Shara as the wizard had begun calling her since he had returned late in the evening, was a pretty woman and apparently had opened up to Liam. Unlike the mage she was about to fight, Sharamar had no reason to hate or at least find a way to dislike her fellow villager. Wishing that she would be less cold to him as well, Sebastian hoped that maybe after the match they could be at least friendly if not friends for Liam’s sake.
“I keep telling you, that I am the one that you’re supposed to think needs these wizards to take it easy on since I am just a weak little mage. Taking it easy on a wizard in a duel would be kind of suicidal for me, wouldn’t it?”
Shrugging with a grin plastered on his face, Liam replied, “I can’t help asking. Anything I can do to get her to like me more, I have to try.”
It was Yara who countered, “Like you? If she didn’t like you, then why were you gone all evening? Did she kick you out and leave you to wander the city until you could come back late enough to make it look like you two hit it off?”
“Ow,” the blond wizard clapped his hands to his blue jacket over his heart. “I admit that would have been a good way to save face, but still Yara… from you? I thought that a healer would be more sensitive to my pain.”
Giggling, the pretty girl in yellow replied, “You know, I get that a lot.”
Ignoring the two wizards as they teased each other, Sebastian spotted one of the wizards in charge of the duel field motioning him toward the tower door leading to the arena. “Well, it looks like it’s time to go,” he said even as Sharamar started walking to the doorway.
His friends wished him good luck as they raced to get to their seats being held by the others in their group.
Settling himself in the ring, Sebastian noted the pond to his right. Sharamar’s circle had a corresponding pond of her own, which made up the original arena’s set up as he had seen from the Heights above which split the Ponds and Royal Gardens. The Winter’s Edge officials had also added four large trees on either side of the center part of the field. Added to that, the nature wizard had a large pile of wood set just behind her in the ring ready to use.
Sebastian came to the ring with a half a dozen rods of iron and Bairh’loore. His wooden shaft spell was more likely to give the nature wizard a chance of using them against him, and it was hardly worth the risk when the mage had other ideas that he wanted to try anyway. From training with Nara, he knew that dealing with nature wizards could be a tricky thing since “nature” encompassed so many components of the world around them. While he knew how one nature wizard might duel, there could be a lot of variance between those of the school and that was where he had to keep his eyes open for a style difference.
“In this match we have Sharamar Blackwood representing Fort Maridith,” he waited for a large round of applause, “versus Falcon Sebastian Trillon representing Windmeer.” The judge hadn’t even finished the mage’s full name before cheering began. Cheering for an under dog that had defeated some powerful foes already, seemed to be a popular thing as the matches continued, he thought.
The nature wizard stared at her opponent intently, and he wondered if that was the way she worked herself up for a match. When she suddenly said, “You know I’m not going to take it easy on you even if you are Liam’s friend?”
Chuckling as he realized that the water wizard had probably played both of them equally, Sebastian replied, “He asked me to go easy on you also, but I don’t think either of us got to here by taking it easy. Bring me your best because I’m not going away easily.”
The girl finally cracked a bit of a smile and nodded. When their time began, Sebastian put up his basic defense shields. Raising two earth banks to his right and left, his mage shields would take the main assault from straight ahead. With the trees so near, he had to fear a possible attack from the sides as well, but most wizards went for a frontal attack so he played to that with his defenses.
Looking up at his opponent, Shara had utilized much of the wood pile behind her constructing a combination of a thick hedge and lattice work wall. The hedges ran to either side while the lattice wall left holes to see him through to try and counter the mage’s spells. The wizard barely finished her defenses by the time the real test began.
Sebastian knew that the wood and hedges were spelled to resist fire, but released several fireballs in quick succession hammering the line of lattice and hedge. As suspected, her magic resisted any burning and the lattice sealed the holes and reopened once the initial attack was finished. The wizard sent vines to attack him while her defenses resisted his first advance.
Summoning several mage shields to cut them off from their source, the threat of the vines was quickly ended, but the mage knew this was just her testing his defenses in the same way. The vines were never meant to do more than distract and slow him down.
“Lightning dance,” the mage ordered sending multiple tendrils into her defenses. The lightning seemed to do excellent damage at first, but then the true strength of her defenses revealed itself as the plants regenerated to grow back sealing the large holes once more.
The trees on his right shifted and suddenly lifted their roots from the soil to take a step sending dirt flying from their roots. Like giant puppets, the nature wizard controlled two trees at a time making them stalk the mage. Once in range, the first tree bent over slamming into the earth bank.
“Shield, shield,” the mage ordered calmly unsurprised but impressed by the display of power. The blue shields cut the trees at the bend resulting in a large thump and an array of cracking noise as the top two thirds of each tree fell onto his defense. Placing a third shield between himself and the nearest part of the treetop, the mage returned his main focus on the wizard.
“Flood,” he spelled the pond beside him half covered by the outer tree. The water in the pond expanded and rose up heading towards the wizard’s defenses lifting the two trees like boats lifted by a giant ocean wave. Riding the crest, both trees struck the hedge on his right crashing through it like it was paper. Only the nature wizard’s use of a counter spell prevented her from being swept away in the torrent.
The two trees found themselves planted just outside her ring creating a tall new hedge of their own, though it was far less dense at the base. Standing in a few inches of water, the nature wizard quickly erected a wooden base to lift her from the water. News of his tricks with lightning and water had obviously made it to her ears.
Launching air spears with iron inside made the woman actually smile. When vines reached out catching the shafts only to fling them aside in the act, the crowd cheered. Even covered in the sheath of air, the vines were able to stop his attack, but that didn’t deter Sebastian as he planted Bairh’loore in the ground. “Flood,” he commanded and the great power of the earth grasped the water in the far pond beside the wizard. Nearly, washing out the hedge on the left, Shara’s wooden base managed to keep her feet from being plunged into the lake she now stood within though the hedge was in tatters.
“Rise,” the mage spelled the far off water. Shara’s hedge was beginning to repair itself, but it no longer mattered. The mage had already set his end game in motion and the nature wizard had yet to realize his ploy. As the water shot up around her, Shara’s next spell caught in her mouth as surprise caught up with her. “Freeze,” Sebastian nodded using his expanded power once more.
“No!” the girl cried out as the
spout changed to ice around her binding the wizard inside. Her clothes were still wet and turned to ice on her preventing anymore movement, while the frozen vortex of water penned her in strengthening his hold immobilizing her completely.
The crowd gasped at his new show of power. Sebastian waited for the judge to pronounce his win before releasing the girl by returning the ice back to water. Releasing the flow of energy from the earth left him feeling empty and tired, but he managed to smile and wave to the crowd. Walking back to the food table, Sebastian began devouring a large amount just to try and restore his energy after such a major use of magic.
He wondered if he had tapped the power sooner if he would be less weakened or more. This was one of the penalties of using a power greater than his own. Compared to the earth’s power, he was just a candle flame in a storm. Was that what Darius had been trying to tell him earlier?
“Unbelievable,” Sharamar’s voice as she walked up to the table sounded incredulous, “I didn’t think that a battle mage could use such powerful spells, but it looks like they took a lot out of you to do it. Am I correct?”
Nodding as he finished another mouthful of food that he no longer even tasted as he nearly swallowed it all whole. His stomach demanded food like never before and the mage wondered just how much harder he could push himself before harming his body. “I’m starving, but you look like you used up a lot also,” he noted as the brown haired wizard in green leathers started on a large sandwich.
“It would have been worse if you hadn’t beaten me so soon.” The match had gone on for several minutes as they had traded shots. It was rare to end a duel in one or two strikes, to do so either required overwhelming power and speed or incredible tactics. Sebastian knew that only speed and tactics would keep these duels short enough for him to still win. With superior natural strength, a wizard could probably outlast him if it was just a spell casting contest, but duels required offense and defense and that was where a mage’s speed countered a lot of what a wizard could do successfully.
Battle Mage: Winter's Edge Page 44
