Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11)

by Donald Wigboldy

  He felt the warmth of two new runes along his collar bone and had hope, however. The first of the owl's attempts at creating original runes, the mage prepared to use them to continue the fight. Holding magic siphoned away when he didn't need it, Sebastian had horded more power in the runes in case he should need more than the folded steel of his mage magic held inside his body normally.

  "You're getting tired, aren't you?" Palose asked, but seemed to be hoping as well. His eyes revealed that the dark mage might have magic left over, but his stamina was faltering. Sebastian's body was slightly better, though he had fought longer in the field; drawing upon the power of the runes, the owl felt his power grow to nearly half of his normal strength. He hadn't had enough time to fill the runes completely, but it was nearly a full charge. His mind would have to figure out if he could create more than these two. There was probably a limit to what his magic could be extended to house in a battle mage's form. It was a problem for later, however.

  Palose noted the change in Sebastian's body and wanted to curse the man. How could he have found a second wind like that? Magic didn't act like that, but he felt his renewed magic following the channels within the mage.

  Desperation made the dark mage try a new combo. Darkness lashed out catching Sebastian's defenses, but instead of striking the rune the night seemed to splash and wrap around the mage. The runes could tighten up, but the spell had managed to reach his skin where it could no longer be pushed away for a moment. Stone wrapped around him growing from the island beneath his feet. Heaving Sebastian over the side of the island, Palose hoped the cocoon would keep his enemy trapped forever. Without access to food and drink, floating in the silver void, the mizard would have to die wouldn't he?

  Palose watched as Sebastian disappeared over the edge and walked to the side of the floating island. The dark stone appeared to have fallen for miles. There were no islands beneath them to land on, so the mage would fall forever, he thought.

  With a grim smile, Palos opened a portal back to the battlefield and his force of wraith men.

  Magnus had felt the change on the battlefield. He had managed to approach the enemy's siege weapons with the power of the Hollow Sword driving his attack. Embrell and Wellas destroyed the weapons in the center of the enemy's formation nearly uncontested.

  Feeling good about his efforts, the fire wizard suddenly felt the most powerful aura he had ever seen approaching them.

  Lord Liev crested the hill with his sword drawn. Twenty Wizard Hunter warlocks of great power followed their leader and the man in his black armor smiled.

  Magnus stopped realizing that this enemy had wanted him to reach the weapons. Many Sileoth soldiers and wizards had followed them as the enemy had seemed to falter beneath their assault. His head turned back and forth as a battle cry erupted from both sides. The enemy had pulled them in and let their thrust thin out the line. Now caught from both sides, only greater strength would keep them from being crushed.

  Magic and weapons fought back, but Magnus and his two companions were forced to stand up to this new threat virtually alone.

  "Embrell, punch a hole through to the defensive line for our troops to follow and pull back. They'll be destroyed, if we don't move now!" he ordered with his eyes on the powerful warlocks approaching them casually as if his power didn't matter. He was a child drawn into a trap, or so they believed.

  "What about you two?" the fire wizard questioned.

  Magnus knew the man's magic was redundant here. He was a better fire wizard than Embrell and held the Hollow Sword. This enemy would find out that he wasn't some weakling walking into a trap, however.

  "Just go. We'll buy you time here. We can always take to the air when we need to," Magnus stated quickly.

  Embrell's magic surged. The man had been conserving his power letting Magnus and the sword do much of the work. They knew that he needed his strength to use the sword when Magnus tired or for something like this.

  A powerful light spell cut across the man's right. The enemy attacking from that side were struck by the spell and those with night armor were stunned as their gear cracked.

  He ran forward sending a second blast of light along the other side of their ragged line. Waving the men of Sileoth back, Embrell hurried away from his friends gathering everyone that he could before it was too late.

  As Embrell revealed his true power to the enemy, the other two wizards were struck by the power of the score of warlocks approaching from the low hill. Dragon shields were erected catching crystals and the new blood tendrils. Before the might of twenty powerful warlocks and Lord Liev, their shields began to break making the two step back calling up new shields just as the first fell.

  Wanting to fight back, Magnus gritted his teeth finding that he could do little but retreat. It was a begrudging step each time, but the wizard could see that these were the elite warlocks trained to kill wizards as the name of their division implied.

  "Go now!" he ordered Wellas quickly. The sword dropped its tip to the earth readying to draw its power as Magnus grew desperate.

  "Dragon wings," the other man ordered dropping behind Magnus shield for the time to call up even the quick spell. He flew low and fast for a hundred feet before disappearing into the crowd of retreating troops.

  "You are either brave or stupid, wizard," Lord Liev stated in a lull created by the man raising his hand. He merely wanted to let Magnus hear his voice. Playing with the last defender, the lord mocked him without concern. He had gauged the strength of the fire wizard and believed that there was no way for him to even scratch him through his plate armor.

  Magnus smiled back at the man and replied, "There is always another option. I could just be confident, so I chose to send my friends' away before I truly unleash my power on you."

  "Well, I guess that answers that. You are very stupid," the Wizard Hunter stated mockingly.

  Magnus began to chant a new spell before the warlock finished taunting him. He waited until it was nearly complete to pull on the power of the earth. Sebastian had told him to avoid using the power of the land unless there was an emergency. To save everyone's life, Magnus thought that this might count.

  Light lashed out as the fire wizard looked up at the sky averting his gaze as he closed his eyes. This wasn't focused just on the men before him. Like unleashing the power of the sun on Alus, Magnus let the light expand in all directions save through his body. The solid mass of his flesh shielded those running away behind him.

  Lord Liev and the other warlocks shielded their eyes while the sound of armor cracking before the night's antithesis tried to dissolve the armor. The enemy soldiers across the field to his right and left were often blinded as they were caught in the brilliance. Armor cracked that was treated with the night magic and, for those with standard armor, the blinding flash stopped any pursuit for those looking even slightly in the wizard's direction.

  "Dragon wings," the dragon mage ordered quieted while shouts and screams sounded across the plains and low hills beyond the village of Stone Bay's defenses. He lifted into the air retreating to the first line of defenses.

  To his surprise, Magnus didn't feel as drained as he had using the inferno spell. The light wasn't designed to kill. It had been used to save and disable the enemy only so far as their armor had cracked. Blinded eyes should heal, so the fire wizard could only assume that he had managed to stay within the conditions Sebastian had laid out for him after the previous day's battle.

  Looking at the enemy beyond the defenses, the wizard noted their lines had pulled back from the middle for a moment. With the retreat of those who had followed him, Lord Liev shouted for them to rejoin the attack. The ground he had fought so hard to take was quickly lost.

  From the air he had seen the others from the dragon mage units showing different degrees of success and loss. Only Falconi Martina's team seemed to be holding in the face of the new powerful warlocks and their dark magic. Frowning at his assessment, Magnus raised a new dragon shield and landed to s
tand on the remains of a low wall. Using the sword conservatively, the man did what he could to hold the line until all those following him had retreated safely.

  As the enemy surged forward, Magnus slowly gave ground in the face of a more powerful force. Embrell and Wellas rejoined him following their leader as he slowly retreated towards the village walls.

  The portal opened onto the hill near the center of the battlefield and Palose stepped free of Silver World once more. Cracking his shoulders releasing the tension locked away there, the man sighed. Defeating Sebastian should have lifted a weight off of his shoulders, but for some reason the dark mage didn't feel like his win over the mizard was quite as fulfilling as it should be. Sebastian wasn't officially dead, but there had been no way for him to follow the man once he had fallen from the island.

  He had been pushed, Palose clarified in his mind. Encased in stone to prevent him from using his magic, Sebastian was likely to fall through that void forever. The battle mage would die from thirst or hunger, but that stone would continue to fall distancing it and him from the islands as it did with no hope of his escape. That should have felt like the end of it, even if Palose hadn't killed the man with immediacy; yet there was that kernel of doubt.

  Sebastian shouldn't have been able to escape that island where Palose had imprisoned him months ago in the first place. He should have died there, but Bas had been stuck there with that girl and she was a powerful wizard. The girl must have discovered how to use the gates, which led them both from the void. This new trap left the mage without any friends, alone and unable to move.

  And yet...

  "Resurrection man!" a voice hollered as Lord Liev and a group of wizards strode up the hill.

  Palose noted the cracked and broken armor of the Wizard Hunters, even on the powerful lord. What had he missed that could harm one of the most powerful warlocks under Kolban's command? The man looked less harmed than his armor though, so they were probably caught in a light spell; but it must have been a tremendous thing to see.

  "Lord Liev," he nodded to the man, "the enemy continues to hold their ground?"

  Avoiding a straight answer, Liev replied, "We pushed them back here and the north seems to be in hand as well, but we could use the assistance of your dead men."

  Lifting an eyebrow in surprise, Palose allowed the calculated change in his expression even if it captured his true surprise and intrigue that the warlock would need something that he appeared to despise so much. "My dead men and wraiths are needed specifically? For what purpose that any other unit couldn't be used."

  Puffing out a breath of annoyance at being questioned, even if it was more a need for information than rebelling against the ranking leader on the field; Lord Liev stated quickly, "There seems to be a wizard capable of controlling minds with her voice to the south. Even though they have ears, your undead belong to you and your spell. As long as you remain beyond the range of the wizard's voice, they will follow your commands instead of this other magic.

  "Take your creatures there and push them back to remove this disruption of our plans. We will meet you at the village walls and finish off the enemy once this wizard falls."

  Palose wanted to mock the man for his inability to defeat their foes; but that would be an act of suicide. For all the damage to the man's armor, the dark mage looked worse yet. The mizard had given him a scrap worthy of a raven or wizard hunter. He was also verging on being exhausted after raising the soldiers he had and fighting Sebastian.

  Pulling some cheese from his pack, Palose appeared to be stalling, which he was to a point as he returned the lord's stare. The dark mage needed to renew what he could of his magical strength, however, or he would be unable to defend himself. The wraiths were self sufficient once raised, but there was a slight drain on his magic from the other soldiers. They weren't truly alive and a wizard's magic sustained them even if separated until he decided to release their spirits and bodies once more.

  "As you wish, my lord," Palose finally acceded to the request. "If only my power can end this for you, then it will be as you ask."

  "I don't ask. This is an order that you will follow and as to needing you to end the threat; I could do it myself, but I am needed elsewhere on the field to make sure the enemy is beaten this day. Now get to work for the emperor."

  "For the emperor," the dark mage nodded and turned to walk away as if he was in no rush at all. His magic tightened the reins on his undead forces. Without a need to call to them, the men and monsters came to him from where they held their position to the north. They had driven Sebastian's comrades back, but let the remainder of the army continue the attack. Without Palose to drive them, the wraiths chose to hold a safe position for their leader to return. He had simply made their efforts moot this time.

  It didn't take long for the platoon of soldiers, led by the slow looking armored viles, to return to him.

  He looked to the wraiths and took a count of his remaining undead. They appeared to have taken no losses though a few were a bit tattered from the fight.

  "Lord Liev requests that we find and kill some wizard on the south side of the battlefield. Apparently he is using magic to control minds. I will not be able to get as close, but you all should be able to force them to retreat since your minds are guarded by my magic."

  The warlocks turned wraiths heard his words and had enough will to question his order as they looked for information as well. Nalack asked, "What kind of magic is this wizard using that it can hold back the warlocks of the Wizard Hunters? I have never heard of magic that makes multiple minds change to turn against their fellows."

  Giving the elder warlock a shrug, Palose answered, "I don't know. Lord Liev ordered it, so we will go and prove that our magic isn't something to look down upon. Come, we need to push the enemy back to the village walls to meet up with the rest of the army when they finish off the other defenders. We will simply deal with this wizard and move on as he ordered."

  Chapter 39- The Final Defense

  Falconi Martina stepped in front of Katya catching an arrow on her blue mage shield. The young girl continued to sing, but the mage could hear the early rasp in her voice as her vocal cords were beginning to strain with the magic of her song. She was impressed with the girl, who was supposed to just be a novice; but wielded powerful magic like she had been born to it.

  At thirteen, Katya wielded diplomacy magic on the battlefield in a way that the falconi had never witnessed before and had to admit that it rivaled what was being done with the Hollow Swords in its way. Maybe she was even more powerful, since the magic the swords could use was limited.

  Iris cast an air spell pushing at the enemy just beyond the limits of Katya's magic spell. Wind tore at the dark armored soldiers finding openings even in the armor designed to stop elemental attacks and absorb them. The apprentice was nearly as impressive as her younger friend and Martina realized that she had not been sent with the weakest wizards just to protect them. These children were as dangerous as any wizards she had seen.

  Martina's eyes caught a shift in the enemy. Those who were forced to continue falling back or risk falling under the girl's spell parted for a new enemy. Three armored viles led the way pushing aside any man too slow for them with more soldiers at their backs.

  "Be ready, girls, something is coming and they don't look concerned about Katya's magic," the falconi warned. There was no doubt that whatever was going on with these viles, and those following them; it was likely believed that they wouldn't fall to Katya's spell.

  The three viles came into contact with the men controlled by Katya's magic. Orcs, goblins and even trolls were brushed aside. Those not cut down by the long claws of the viles, were killed by those in their wake. They didn't seem to care what happened to the pawns of the diplomacy wizard. Perhaps they viewed them as failures insignificant enough to slay because they were already as good as dead.

  Martina placed the sword tip on the earth making sure that she was between Katya and the enemy.


  "Fire sword," she ordered as the power flowed into the blade from the ground changing her weak magic into a spell worthy of a powerful wizard. She wasn't as good at magic as a wizard would be and had to ration her power more, even using the earth; but Martina knew the Hollow Sword was deadly in her hands.

  The closest vile was her target. Flicking the blade in its direction, fire rushed forward taking out a pair of mind controlled soldiers in the process. A second more powerful use of fire made a roar as it held its integrity all the way to strike the vile with a torrent of flame driven by the sword and the mage's willpower.

  It stopped and the falconi waited a moment to see if the spell had eliminated this new enemy the same way it had just killed the two soldiers in front of the beast.

  Through the fire rushed several soldiers ignoring the flames. The vile crossed the fire on the field coming back into her vision as well. Flames burned fur, but the monster didn't seem to notice or care. It continued to stride forward. Martina had eliminated the last resistance between the women and these men, unfortunately, so she prepared to strike again when a strange chill went through her.

  She had felt this feeling only once before, long ago, when she was still just a falcon running missions north of the wall. Dead men raised by a necromancer had been used against her patrol. Few of her squad had survived, but the falconi had been one of those and knew that fire was the best weapon against such creatures. They wore the night armor, however, and she watched her next attack and those from Iris strike these undead soldiers to be absorbed into the blackness of the night.

  "If you can make your puppets attack these monsters, do it quickly, Katya!" she ordered frantically hoping the diplomacy novice had that sort of control.