Harvest Tournament
Edmund Hughes
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All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. All other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Edmund Hughes
Kindle Edition
Contents
Harvest Tournament
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
INTERLUDE
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 1
Hal stood at the edge of the training circle, sweaty and alert. His feet crunched over the charred grass and scorched earth beneath him. He listened to his surroundings, adjusting his grip on his short sword in one hand and his pistol in the other.
A flash of movement and light caught his attention on the edge of his vision. He spun, spotting the offending spell in time to aim and fire his own defensive magic in return. Cadrian’s Fireball flew across the small clearing, but Hal’s Flame Shield met it head on, diffusing the heat to the sides and below.
Cadrian was fast, and she followed with a charge, sweeping her longsword into an overhead strike. He deflected the blow and quickly cocked his pistol, leaping backward to give himself room to counter with a spell of his own.
The heartgem, hanging from the pendant around his neck, felt warm against his skin. Ruby light pulsed from deep within the stone as Hal pulled the trigger of his pistol. He felt the familiar flicker of hot, passionate emotion flow through him as Flame Shot, his first thesis spell, erupted out from the barrel. The small, pistol ball sized blast of flame crossed the distance to Cadrian in a blur of orange and red.
She dodged it with such ease that Hal almost couldn’t believe it. He watched as his master spun back up to her feet, spinning her sword in a quick flourish as her single eye focused back on her opponent.
Everything about Cadrian gave Hal the sense that she, herself, was a weapon, and a beautiful one, at that. Her face was a lean mix of sharp lines and pale skin. Her hair was long and jet black, usually kept in an intricate braid which hung across one shoulder. She wore a green warrior’s robe, belted at the waist and tight enough in the chest to hint at her generous bust underneath.
But Cadrian was much more than just a pretty woman. To assume otherwise, for even a second, was tantamount to turning one’s back on a jungle cat. Hal whipped his sword up as she closed the last few feet toward him, blocking her first attack and feeling the hilt jump from the heavy vibration of the impact.
Cadrian twisted her weapon into a side strike, and then another overhead slash, keeping Hal on the defensive. He’d only started to think of how best to retaliate when his master lunged into a powerful front kick, catching him in the chest and tossing him back half a dozen feet through the air. Hal landed on his back, winded, but smiling.
She’s the best teacher I could ask for.
“Stay focused, Halrin,” said Cadrian. “Your mistake was to allow me in so close. Your magic is your first line of defense. Letting your opponent draw you into a protracted sword fight will end badly for you.”
Hal nodded as he slowly rose back to his feet, accepting her critique and seeing the truth behind it. He wasn’t bad with a sword, but he was still learning. It would be a long time before he had the instincts and reactions that came with years of practice.
As Cadrian had said, his true advantage in a fight was his magic, and more specifically, the awesome versatility his heartgem provided him. Within the color changing gem was the power of all five of the elemental magics, though Hal had only learned out how to draw out the essence of ruby and sapphire in his short time with it.
He waved to Cadrian, signaling that he was ready to continue their sparring. She feinted forward, acting as though she was about to charge back into sword fighting distance. At the last second, she pushed her hand forward into open air and Hal felt the ground underneath his feet lurch violently.
Earth Tremor. She’s finally decided to use the magic of her topaz during sparring.
The unexpected spell threw Hal off balance, but he was capable at taking advantage of his falls. He tucked his chin and let his shoulder hit the ground first as he tumbled forward, performing one of the first acrobatic rolls he’d learned from his old tutor, Roth.
Cadrian was intentionally unpredictable when it came to her sparring patterns, and Hal loved it. In truth, practicing with her reminded him of training the ancient ogre martial dance, the flows of Kye Lornis, with his best friend Mauve.
He and Mauve had spent long afternoons competing against one another to see who could learn increasingly complicated and impressive flips, or who could maintain a longer chain of flows. They’d take turns, one of them drumming out a simple beat on the old softwood floor of their practice chamber while the other danced to the rhythm.
But Cadrian was not Mauve, and their sparring was a dance of a very different kind. Hal felt a rush of confusing emotions as he saw her striding toward him, her movements unguarded and slow. She was setting up a trap for him to charge into, but Hal knew better.
He squeezed his hand tighter around his pistol, considering whether to lead in with another Flame Shot. Before he could, Cadrian thrust one hand out to the side and stomped her foot down. Hal watched, amazed as always, as she began to radiate power.
Cadrian’s eyes shifted, turning from their normal emerald green to a bright, furious, crimson red. Her braid fluttered from the sudden rush of energy, as though she was standing in a heavy wind. Her posture stiffened, chin jutting upward, confidence dripping from every inch of her, as she entered a Ruby Trance.
Every gemstone had several different levels of magical power. Baseline was the default state, from which most basic spells could be cast and controlled for only an instant or two at a time. The Trance was the next stage, a distinct state of focused elemental magic power often accompanied by a change in eye color and a rush of emotion specific to the type of gem being used to enter it. It allowed a gem holder to use more powerful spells for longer amounts of time, while simultaneously using the gem’s emotional essence more efficiently.
Hal knew from what Cadrian had told him previously, that she could reach only a Ruby Trance. She could cast the
simplest Baseline earth spells with her topaz, but nothing that required more than a few seconds of manipulation.
It took years for a gem mage to get to the point where they were capable of using multiple varieties of gems, in some cases a lifetime of training. Achieving a trance in any one gem took a similar amount of time. Hal had achieved both feats in a matter of days with his heartgem, the powerful artifact enabling his potential to run nearly unchecked.
Cadrian charged forward at him, her face like that of a demon, red eyes boring into Hal with deliberate focus. He watched as she cast a spell that he hadn’t seen before, wrapping the space in front of her with a pointed triangle of flame focused directly at him.
Hal decided on a counter spell. He slipped his pistol back into its holster and took hold of his heartgem, focusing on its sapphire essence. Rather than trying to counter a ruby spell with another ruby spell, Hal licked one of his fingers and concentrated on channeling tiny bit of moisture to pull water from the humid air.
It all happened in under a second. Hal formed the water into his newest thesis spell, Wave Blast, and pushed his hand forward, feeling the flicker of sadness and despair on his emotions as he drew from his sapphire essence. The heartgem pulsed with deep, blue light, and a thick wave of water rushed into existence from the air, dousing Cadrian’s flames and continuing forward to sweep her off her feet and carry her into the trees.
Hal grinned. His victories over his teacher were few and far between. Cadrian would be wise to the spell, now that he’d shown it to her, and it was unlikely to work again, but he was satisfied that he’d managed to catch her off guard for once. After a few seconds, she emerged from the forest soaking wet, her eyes back to their normal color, and her lips turned up into a small, approving smile.
“I expected you to push into a Ruby Trance for your counter,” said Cadrian.
Hal shrugged.
“If I’d done that, I would have locked my heartgem to a single element,” he said.
It was one of the first things he’d learned through training with his heartgem after reaching a Ruby Trance. While a trance was more powerful in terms of efficiency and spell strength than being at Baseline, it was also had limitations. Entering a Ruby Trance kept him from being able to use any of his sapphire spells, and presumably any spells from other gem types, which would have rendered his surprise attack impossible.
He knew that technically, the heartgem could take on the state of any of the five gems. Fire, water, wind, earth, and nature were all potentially available to him, though he still hadn’t figured out how to focus his emotions properly to cast any spells of the latter three.
“It was a good move,” said Cadrian.
Hal beamed at the rare words of praise. He was still smiling when Cadrian turned her back to him, slowly undid the belt of her robe, and let the garment fall to her feet. She was naked underneath, and Hal felt a sudden rush of emotion that had nothing to do with his heartgem.
CHAPTER 2
“We’re done sparring for the day, I assume?” Hal grinned as he fumbled out of his clothing, tossing it into a pile on a section of dry grass nearby.
“You assume wrong,” said Cadrian. She crossed her arms over her breasts as she turned to face him, much to Hal’s disappointment. She was smiling, and the ruby on the ring around her finger flashed with crimson as she focused her magic and reentered a Ruby Trance.
Hal hesitated for a moment before doing the same, channeling the heartgem hanging from the cord around his neck to enter the same powerful state. It was a very distinct sensation. Red hues overtook his vision, though he only ever noticed it for the first few seconds after entering a Ruby Trance.
More prominent was the way his emotions flared from the intensity of channeling so much of the gem’s essence. Hal felt passion, pride, and above all else, lust surging through every inch of him. Cadrian’s nudity was no longer merely eye catching and enticing. It was all he could focus on or think about. He realized that he was already walking toward her, his legs moving with a will of their own.
He could see the barest hint of one of her areolas poking out from under the cover of her arms. Cadrian had a small patch of neatly trimmed black hair between her thighs, and the way she stood with her feet together emphasized her lean, luscious legs.
She was a gorgeous woman, and even with her injury and eyepatch drawing attention away from the features of her face, she could have just about any man she wanted. Hal was aroused beyond words by the sight of her nude form, which made it all the more exciting when she dropped into a combat stance as he came within reach.
She didn’t say anything, and she didn’t have to. Cadrian was a natural instructor, always finding ways to turn their interactions into compelling lessons. Hal lifted his hands up into one of the simple wrestling stances she’d taught him, trying to focus through his own desires to see her as an opponent, rather than a lover.
Cadrian lunged forward, testing his guard with a slap to one of her hands. Hal hopped back a step, his attention as much on her alluring, bouncing breasts as the fight. She took advantage of his loose concentration, spinning past him and levering him into a trip over one of her long legs.
Hal felt ridiculous as he hit the ground, naked, aroused, and on his back after only a few seconds of combat. He drew from the Kye Lornis as he rolled back over one of his shoulders and then rushed forward into a tackle, seizing Cadrian by the abdomen and trying in vain to twist her down to the ground.
She rose up onto her toes, her breasts sliding past Hal’s face as she easily pushed him and his momentum onto a different course. She brought one of her knees up into his stomach, pulling her attack, but leaving enough power in it to warn him against leaving himself open in such a way again.
Hal caught her leg before she could put it back down and twisted, finally managing to bring her down to the grass with him. He felt his heart rush with excitement as he reached over to spread her thighs apart and take her to him.
Cadrian’s focus never left the moment, and she easily wrestled him into a submission hold. Hal was flat on his stomach, unable to keep her from getting a grip on his arm with which to force a yield out of him.
This is her lesson. Entering the Ruby Trance leaves me vulnerable, and turns my emotions and desires into a distraction.
They were both somewhat sweaty, and it was only that fact that saved him. Hal managed to slip his arm loose, and he twisted in a way that Cadrian hadn’t been expecting. She let out a sharp gasp as she hit the ground, and Hal felt himself moving before he could think, his emotions surging and pulling him forward.
This time, her thighs were already apart, and even though Hal knew it was the wrong move, he couldn’t stop himself from thrusting forward and spearing into her with his cock. Cadrian must have been also been affected by the emotional pull of the Ruby Trance, as she was every bit as aroused as he was.
The rush of pleasure that accompanied Hal’s first lustful thrust was almost unbelievable. The Ruby Trance had enhanced his emotional sensitivity beyond what he thought possible. Hal plunged into her a second time and exhaled as his body tingled with erotic fire.
Cadrian’s breasts bounced in time with his movements. A hypnotic sight to Hal’s lust primed eyes. She was watching him, smiling slightly, her one eye still glowing as red as a ruby. She was assessing him, waiting to see if he would come back to his senses.
Hal was too far gone, deep in a state of primal, unthinking passion. He barely managed resistance as Cadrian wrapped her thighs around him and twisted to the side, taking control of the encounter as any master would reel in a student traveling off the course of a lesson.
“Your emotions are a trap, Halrin,” said Cadrian. “You must feel them without falling prey to them, or else you’ll become predictable, and easily controlled.”
She was on top of him, and though Hal’s shaft was still sheathed deep into her lane, the balance of power had shifted. Hal tried to sit up, but Cadrian pressed her thumb into a pressure point under
his armpit, warning him against it. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, she began to rock back and forth, riding his cock with gentle, teasing motions.
Hal reached up, his palms running across her breasts. Cadrian let him touch them for a moment, and then pulled his hands back, smiling at the control she had over him. She was older than him, a decade beyond Hal’s twenty years. But in moments like this, she seemed so wise and experienced that he felt like a horny young teenager, flirting with a woman who was more than he could handle.
Cadrian lifted her hips slightly and then rocked back down, sending a surge of pleasure through Hal’s body. He ran his hands across her waist, his eyes drinking in her nudity, almost in disbelief of his fortune to have her as his master in such an intimate capacity.
“Pleasure is easy and fleeting,” whispered Cadrian, her hips rocking back and forth. “Hold your focus through it. Don’t let yourself drown in emotion.”
She leaned forward, her beautiful breasts pressing into Hal’s face. He kissed one of her nipples, barely aware of the words she’d just said to him. His hands groped around for her buttocks. He began thrusting upward, pushing his shaft as deep into her as it would go, losing himself to the sensation.
“Focus, Halrin.” Cadrian cupped his cheek and made eye contact with him. Hal stared into her glowing red eye, knowing that his own eyes looked similar in appearance. He tried to pull back.
He kissed her. Cadrian’s lips moved against his, but only barely, her disappointment in his failure bleeding through into the intimate point of contact. Hal was too horny to notice or care. He let one of his hands paw at one of her breasts, his other hand still squeezing one of her buttocks and urging her to ride faster and chase down what awaited him.
Hal only lasted another few seconds, the pleasure overwhelming his senses as he found his release. He unloaded inside Cadrian, who made no move to dismount. She pressed her hands down on his shoulders, forcing him to stay where he was and look at her as a mind blowing orgasm swept over his body.
Harvest Tournament (Sexcraft Chronicles Book 2) Page 1
