Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9)

by Donald Wigboldy

  Tossing his reins and those of Sebastian’s horse to Ashleen quickly, Elzen was joined by Rilena and Olan. Looking at the hollow sword in his hand, he offered it to the dark haired woman.

  “But Bas gave it you to use,” she balked as large, dark, vaguely humanoid forms lunged through the doorway only fifty feet away.

  “You’re better with a sword. I’ll test out these new runes he gave me instead,” the mage stated tossing the weapon to the pretty girl. While Rilena was good looking, she was also as good in a fight as she was pretty; he thought.

  The air rippled around the first monsters to step onto the plain. Heat was pouring from their rocklike skin. Rough and broken up like the texture of some tree bark from the northern trees, Elzen thought that in the cracks between the dark brown, outer layer they began to glow like molten metal. Their eyes were yellow and seemed to have no distinction of pupils from the rest of the eyes making it hard to determine which way they truly focused their attention until they moved towards the defensive circle formed by the platoon and a dozen hunters of the tribe.

  A spread of fireballs flew over their heads striking the creatures with no affect. They didn’t even flinch as the fire lapped across their skin.

  “These are made of fire, idiot! Try something else!” a woman’s voice complained from behind him as Ahtreh’s efforts ended abysmally.

  It mattered little as the mage raised blue shields over his left hand and boots. An air lance was called to his right hand and flung into the nearest beast. So far they didn’t appear very fast and were perhaps slightly disoriented from exiting the portal. It was the one flaw of using portals for most people. The gates announced the incoming enemy and the users of the portals needed a moment to grasp the scene before them.

  A roar of anger as the creature took a step back signaled that the spell was more effective than the fire had been, but only just.

  “Air lance,” the mage ordered a second weapon and moved forward ahead of the line to test the creature. While he was sure the nomads were good fighters, it was a fact to his mind that they were no match for a well trained battle mage.

  Moving with surprising speed, the fire beast lunged for the mage and he felt the heat as more flame rose with the movement. Dodging its attack, Elzen stabbed with the air lance at its stone armored torso. Shards of the stone broke with the hit even as the mage spun to use his left hand and the blue shield over it to strike behind the knee, or what Elzen thought was a knee.

  Hoping to cut through to tendons to incapacitate the leg, more stone cracked but did not give. The creature cried out like a troll or armored vile might, but it turned without appearance of damage trying to crush the man with a heavy right arm. Elzen danced back inside of the reach striking at the underbelly again trying to hit the same point as before.

  The monster eclipsed the mage in size by a few feet and appeared heavy as stone. Each footfall could be felt in the ground, though his attention was mostly diverted by the creature’s attacks. His shielded hand tried to cut across the attacking limb as the mage felt himself begin to sweat just from the heat of the monster.

  Runes once hidden on his skin began to glow trying to protect him from the fire and stone. Elzen wished that he had more time to learn more of the new magic, but Sebastian had shown what he knew so far. Unfortunately that was limited as well.

  Pushing his aura into the runes of his legs, the mage swung his doubly protected right leg against the side of the monster’s leg. The impact jarred him so hard that he felt his teeth rattle even as the blue shield broke under the abuse. Rolling aside, the mage tried to grit through the pain and wondered if the rune shielding would hold up for another strike or if he even wanted to try.

  “Light,” he ordered as the fire beast tried to catch him between its arms. It reared back blinded momentarily and opened the creature up for a strike from the air lance. As its head lowered again to attack, the spear aimed by Elzen accurately found the left eye of the beast.

  As the creature screamed in agony orange liquid gushed from the destroyed eye; Elzen focused the strength of the air lance at the spot on the abdomen that he had been trying to weaken. Sebastian had pierced a boulder with a single cast of a properly focused lance according to the stories. Hoping to achieve a similar result, the mage struck with the air lance releasing it from just a couple feet away.

  Stone skin shattered and more orange goo escaped from the wound even as the spear cleared the back of the beast in a spray of orange blood. Where it struck the ground; the grass and earth burned.

  Before he could revel in his success, thunder rocked the plains deafening the mage as light flashed brilliantly to his left.

  Ashleen dropped to the ground. Only Sebastian knew of the wilder’s link to the earth. If she remained on her horse, the flow of her power would harm the creature, the girl feared.

  She watched as Elzen drove ahead to confront one of the monsters. Fireballs flew past doing nothing to the burning rock skin. Once she had read of such creatures in a book. The book said that Alus had been tread upon by monsters that the gods had fought to kill or imprison depending on the story.

  The fire urchins, they had been called, were as she saw these creatures. Beasts made of fire and stone which could melt weapons or burn away flesh at a touch.

  “Air lance,” Rilena ordered focusing the spell into her sword before casting forward in an overhead strike. There was still twenty feet between her and the target, but the wind spell was amplified by the sword cutting through the air between them. The fire urchin staggered back as a line of stone flesh cracked under the attack from shoulder to groin. It wasn’t enough to kill in one blow, but Rilena quickly fed it a second air lance spell.

  The sword wasn’t as accurate from a distance, and more stone cracked without giving to the right of the first wound.

  “Rilena, let me touch the sword a moment,” Ashleen called and reared back in surprise as the metal tip flashed in front of her almost instantly. Lightning rushed from her hand filling the runes with greater strength than a battle mage could summon. As long as the blade didn’t fail under her power, Ashleen thought that it would do more damage in the battle mage’s hands.

  Lightning erupted with the next attack causing thunder which made the wilder’s ears ring much to her regret. A line seared into her vision from the bright light was a second pain to bear with the use of her multiplied magic. Worse, the fire urchin struck still stood. Orange blood flowed from broken flesh and the new wound, but it still stood. Wounded and stunned by the ferocity of the lightning and wind attacks, however, the beast turned away to retreat looking for the gateway it had used to come to the prairie with the fight gone out of it.

  “As powerful as that was, it resisted the magic,” Rilena stated to the wilder sounding distant with the ringing in her ears. “Maybe the stone skin helps to ground it against the lighting?”

  The wilder tested her lightning against the urchins only to see them shrug off her favored spell almost as easily as the fireballs.

  “I think you’re right. Maybe using one of the spells Sebastian learned from the Gray Wizards would be more helpful,” she suggested. First she cast a spell of light which struck the next closest urchin in the face. More blinded than harmed, Ashleen switched to the spell of night. Black light rained daggers on the blinded beast causing it to cry out in pain.

  “Do you know the spell?” Ashleen questioned having been away from Southwall for a time, she didn’t know how well Sebastian’s teachings spread from Hala after the wizards’ tournament.

  Nodding, Rilena channeled, “Night shield.”

  Surprised by the choice of words, the result was the same as any darkness spell as it charged the Hollow Sword. When she swung the blade towards the beast, the sunlight around them seemed to dim to the wilder’s sight. As if the dark light lancing from the sword absorbed the very light around them, the spell appeared to engulf the monster in an inky darkness. When the spell faded, the heat wafting from the fire urchin’s body l
ooked to have cooled. The heat no longer bent the light around it and the orange cracks in its skin had dulled to the brown of the outer stone skin. Even the yellow warmth of the creature’s eyes appeared to dull before it lids closed and toppled over.

  Ashleen couldn’t tell if the monster was dead, but the ability of the dark magic to steal the elements had neutralized the urchin’s fire.

  Rilena called out the others, “Use night magic. It steals their fire!”

  Nodding as the wilder began to call more of the night spells to mind, Ashleen thought that the battle would soon be over.

  Chapter 25- Raining Cats and Dogs

  Sebastian ran over to the hill to see a nightmarish scene. Monsters like angry rock golems lit on fire surrounded the platoon with the extra hunters trying to assist as best they could behind glowing shields. Battle mages made use of the new orange rune shields he had given them, though the standard blue magic of their old shields was used to try and hold back the monsters as well. Some mages used the blue light to attack rather than defend letting their magic strengthen the rune shields. The orange shields had proven stronger during their experiments over the last several days since he had given the runes to the platoon.

  Soldiers survived hits that broke metal swords and threw them to the ground. While they felt some of the pain and risked broken bones, the runes were holding up even among those without magic to bolster them.

  He had heard thunder and seen the flash of light as the mage neared the top of the hill; but when Rilena used her night spell through the Hollow Sword, Sebastian knew that she had locked into the winning spell. Night spells suddenly speared out from the platoon. Wizards and battle mages alike began to draw away the fire urchins’ dangerous abilities.

  Thinking that they might actually win before the owl could even reach his people, a new portal opened in the sky ending such beliefs. It was between him and the platoon; but as new winged creatures spilled out of the glowing doorway, Sebastian saw that there wasn’t just one kind of winged beast but two kinds.

  Expecting more of the black, feathered shrikes; he wasn’t surprised as several lifted into the air taking stock of the battle beneath them.

  The second kind of creature was unlike anything he had ever seen. Cat like in shape down to the long snaking tails that rippled behind them, they were black as tar with bat wings. Their wings resembled those of the gargoyle people know as the Mar’goyn’lya, but that was as far as the similarity went.

  Unlike the birds, the strange creatures dropped from the air almost instantly as if they preferred the ground in spite of their wings. They moved in a feline way save for their strange tails which seemed to move of their own accord as if they had minds of their own.

  “Wind arrow,” the mage called pointing with his left arm as he drew back his right like he would to fire an arrow. Letting it loose, the arrow struck the first shrike in the neck spreading a red cloud of blood he could see even from a distance.

  “Why did you target that one in particular? It wasn’t even attacking them.” Nartreya asked as she crested the hill breathily. A wizard wasn’t trained to march or run long distances as the battle mages, once only viewed as soldiers with magic, were. The mages trained for battle to fight in close with the monsters of the Dark One and their conditioning was that of the most hardened soldiers in the army.

  Sebastian didn’t even look at the nature wizard as he watched the creature drop from the sky. He was pretty sure that the bird was dead and answered the wizard picking out the next shrike before the birds decided to attack the platoon from the sky. “If your guess is right that a warlock can use a shrike to bring his portals beyond his sight, then he was probably watching the battle through that one.

  “The night shields and attacks were about to turn the tide completely against the fire beasts. Now another portal suddenly opens to try and turn it around once more? I don’t think it is just a lucky guess from a warlock miles away.”

  Their fellow tracker stood unsure of what to do.

  Letting another arrow fly knocking another shrike from the sky, Sebastian said to the man, “Vrejna, would you stay here to protect Nartreya for me no matter what happens?”

  The powerful looking hunter was a warrior tattooed with the runes of his tribe on his light brown skin. Vrejna had remained cool towards them, especially Nartreya; but Sebastian hoped that he saw them as allies in this fight.

  “Your wizards aren’t much in battle. I will do as you ask, but where are you going?”

  “Wind arrow,” Sebastian ordered knocking another shrike from the growing flock circling like vultures over the platoon. The Southwallers spotted both the threat of the shrikes and the new winged, tar cats. Wizards cast fire towards both having been almost useless in the fight against the fire urchins. Serrena and Ahtreh in particular moved to the point of the new attack with only the mage, Uyltan, between them and the new threat.

  While the fire harmed the black felines, the creatures’ attacks were revealed quickly. Crying screams that could be heard for miles, those directly before the cats could be seen needing to cover their ears. The grass before three of the screaming tar cats moved with just the power of their cries.

  Uyltan and the wizards had his rune shield between them luckily and recovered quickly though a ringing would be in the ears of all exposed to the howling tar cats for quite awhile. One of the hunters leaped forward attempting to spear one of the wounded winged cats revealing another power of the beasts. The tail lashed out even as the main body dodged the attack. With the crack of electricity, the tail unleashed its charge on contact knocking the man to the ground where he continued to shake from the effects of the tail.

  Sebastian noted the action taking notes if he could reach the others to help. Another wind arrow struck down his fifth shrike and the battle mage drew the ire of the entire flock. More than a dozen remained and turned to attack the battle mage. Making sure to distance himself from the other two, Sebastian drew out his Hollow Sword adding wind to it as he pushed his magic into creating a rune shield.

  They attacked leaving him amongst the swarm. His sword caught razor sharp wings. The shield could also stop the wings to a point as they threatened to cut him to pieces. A wing pierced the runes getting caught as Sebastian forced it to hold adding more of his power to the orange glow. The Hollow Sword holding the wind magic took the bird’s head as the battle mage twisted turning to dodge while adjusting to attack the three other shrikes which chose to land and fight.

  Threatening to overwhelm the mage, the black wings tried to surround the man; but he gave ground when we he needed to trying to keep the shrikes from surrounding him. The shield held his left, but the sword needed room to work to be effective.

  A squawk as roots reached up to snare the shrike on his left opened it up for a deathblow. He didn’t have any attention left to feel Nartreya’s spell, but Sebastian knew help when he saw it. His reflex spell was being pushed to the extreme and beginning to fail. Hoping that the runes could take over where his battle magic might give way with use, the mage fought seeking openings often given to him by the nature wizard.

  When only six remained to pull back as they winged away too fast for him to accurately shoot with his wind arrows, Sebastian spied a possible new threat. Near the base of the ill, the portal which had released the flying creatures had dropped to the ground. Giant creatures resembling trolls moved out in a circle to guard the warlocks who stepped from the portal next.

  A horn was in one’s hand and he blew it calling attention to the portal and the circle.

  Giving way or fleeing in a complete route, fire urchins, tar cats and deadly shrikes all raced to the single portal. Sebastian could see most of the trolls. Armored in an unusual way, they appeared to have body plates comparable to armored viles, but scale armor laced the brown hide plates as well. Chain mail covered their heads which appeared more like wolves or dogs than troll. Massive spiked maces and spiked shields seven feet tall and four feet wide added to their feroci
ty. The monsters were the largest trolls he had ever seen though the mage had crossed with beasts even larger in his travels.

  The platoon looked unsure if they should pursue as the enemy fled from them. Several bodies lay on the field, many of them were monsters, but wounded and dead numbered among them and their allies as well. The battle mages followed Falconi Neven’s lead and began to advance at a quick step holding their rune shields before them. Wizards unleashed fire and darkness spells hoping to take down more of the enemy with little regard to anyone else around them in the heat of the battle. They all wanted revenge and to end the threat to the tribes as well as Southwall.

  When two of the trolls dropped their shields and rolled into massive balls, Sebastian was stunned as their companions added speed to their movement creating two armored balls heading straight for those hoping to pursue the enemy.

  The battle mages halted and Sebastian could hear Neven’s voice ordered them to pool their shields together. Wizards ducked behind their allies creating powerful blue shields of battle mage magic and threw them out before the rune shields hoping to break the trolls’ momentum. The power of the trolls broke through two out of three blue shields almost as if they weren’t even there; but their speed did slow. Altering their course before touching the third powerful shield, the trolls rolled quickly back towards the portal gateway. Half the remaining creatures were already through while the diversion had stalled the platoon.

  Sebastian hurled himself down the hill watching the spectacle and was amazed by the power of these new trolls. His speed was increased by the runes on his legs, but his approach was noticed by one of the warlocks beside the portal. Fire rained down on the mage, but a quickly erected black shield absorbed the elemental power effortlessly. Light left the warlock destroying the shield, but the runes deflected the typically weak magic.

  Darkness reached out trying to snare the battle mage, but he knew the light spell and created a second shield. The night was dispelled and he could tell that the warlock was growing frustrated. Sebastian had barely slowed his run despite the man’s efforts.