Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  Just as I was hoping, it looks like the dwarf brought more than a few bottles of ale with him, to keep him company. He likely tried to convince his teammates to drink with him before the battle, but it doesn’t look like he’s had much luck.

  “Congratulations on winning your first round, Barry!” Hadrik says. “Did you come to make a toast, before your next battle?”

  “Not exactly,” I say. “But I did come here to ask you for one of your dwarven ale bottles, if it’s not too much trouble.”

  “Not at all,” Hadrik says. “I did say that I owed you a beer, after all. Well, dwarven ale isn’t really anything like beer, but you get the idea! Take whichever bottle you like. I’ve got plenty!”

  “Perfect!” I tell him, as I pick one of the dwarven ale bottles from the ground.

  I then head towards the fighting area, through the hole in the wall where the iron gate used to be before Hadrik blew it out of its hinges.

  “See you around!” I tell him, as I wave at him and walk out of his division area.

  “Uh, see you, I guess…” Hadrik says, looking a bit confused.

  As I slowly make my way towards the troll, with the bottle of ale in my hand, the announcer starts shouting at me, from his elevated platform above.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he says. “The round hasn’t begun yet! Get back to your own division area right now! Do you hear me? Get back! Hey, are you listening to me?”

  I ignore the announcer, and I look directly at the troll, while walking casually towards him. When he sees me, Velgos stops waving at the crowds, and he begins to grin maliciously at me.

  “Did you come here to beg for your life, human?” the troll shouts at me. “It will do you no good! Your fate has already been sealed!”

  I don’t say anything and I keep walking forward.

  “Damn it!” the announcer says. “Open the gates. Open them now!”

  I hear a horn signaling the beginning of the second round, and the gate to my division starts to slowly get raised. As I keep walking, I make sure that I advance slowly enough to give Leila the time to catch up to me.

  The troll is still taunting me. He must be thinking that I came here to offer him a drink. I don’t think he’s ever had the privilege of tasting dwarven ale before. Judging by the burning sensation that I got in my throat when I drank my first bottle with Hadrik, I’d wager that this is the strongest alcoholic beverage that money can buy. Maybe Velgos would be a little more worried if he knew what I had in this bottle.

  “Are you trying to bribe me, human?” Velgos says, with a laugh. “It’s going to take more than a bottle of ale to convince me to spare your life. How about you start by kneeling before me? I want every spectator in the crowd to see how pathetic you are, before I kill you!”

  I stop right in front of the troll, and I smile at him, while raising my bottle. Leila is now only a few dozen feet behind me, and she’s closing in, with the other members of my division not far behind her. She is holding the torch behind her back, making sure that the troll doesn’t notice it.

  “Cheers!” I say to the troll, while I have my bottle raised in the air.

  “What are you trying to—” Velgos starts to say, but I don’t let him finish his sentence.

  I quickly grab the bottle by its neck, and I smash it into the troll’s skull, covering him in dwarven ale from head to toe. The troll seems shocked, unable to understand what is going on.

  “Leila, now!” I shout, as I jump back from the troll.

  As soon as I give the signal, Leila throws her torch at the troll, igniting the flammable liquid, and causing the troll to light up in flames. Velgos starts screaming loudly, as he attempts to extinguish the fire from his head with his bare hands. Leila makes full use of this opportunity, and she quickly dashes towards her enemy, slicing one of his shoulder pads right off his armor, with one of her enchanted daggers. The troll grabs both of his scimitars in his hands, and he tries to cut Leila in half, but she jumps back in time, avoiding his strike.

  “I am going to destroy you,” the troll shouts at us. “I will cut you into pieces so small that they won’t even find enough of you to give you a proper burial!”

  His eyes are red with rage, as the fire covering him is slowly dying out. The marks left from the burning flames are already starting to regenerate. I suppose I should have expected that regular fire would not be enough against an enemy with such high regenerative powers.

  I decide to take advantage of the opportunity Leila gave me, by making a dash towards the troll and pretending that I’m trying to drive my blade through his chest. As the troll tries to attack me, I quickly step to the side, and I swing my arm towards his neck, from the side where his shoulder pad had been shattered. My strike is not powerful enough to cut his head off in a single movement, however, so my knife only slices through half of his throat. As Velgos attempts to chop my arm off with one of his scimitars, I am forced to step back before finishing the job, and the wound from the troll’s neck heals itself back up in a matter of seconds.

  Luckily for me, my distraction was enough for Leila to sneak up behind the troll, and to cut his head off in one strike. Immediately afterwards, Leila grabs the head by the hair, she throws it on the ground, and then she stomps on it as hard as she can, crushing it underneath her sandal.

  The troll’s body jumps away from us, but the head on the ground does not seem to be regenerating. Instead, a new head is now forming itself, starting from Velgos’ neck. It only takes about five seconds until the head gets regenerated completely, although, judging by the expression on his face, this must have been a particularly painful process.

  “I’m going to take my time killing you,” Velgos says, looking as if he’s still trying to hold back some of the pain. “I’ll do it slowly, after I force you to watch all your friends die.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I say. “I’ve heard it all before.”

  “Watch out!” Bruce shouts at us, from behind.

  Not long after his warning, two very large ogres make their way out of the gate behind Velgos, and they attempt to hit us with their oversized clubs. Both Leila and I jump back, and we join our teammates, who have now all arrived at our location.

  “I knew it,” our mage teammate says. “I knew that they wouldn’t make it as easy for us as fighting a single troll. They just had to bring in the ogres too!”

  “Stop complaining,” Bruce says. “Ogres are easy to beat. They’re dumb, and they’re slow as snails. I can take them both on myself.”

  “I’d be careful, if I were you,” I tell Bruce. “I’ve seen my fair share of regular ogres this past week, and I can tell you without a doubt that these two are a cut above the rest.”

  “Bah!” Bruce says. “Their size does not impress me. Big or no, I’m willing to bet that they bleed all the same.”

  The ogres do not leave us the chance to continue our conversation, and they start running towards us, roaring at the top of their lungs, while swinging their clubs.

  “I’ll handle the ogres,” Bruce says, as we all dodge the ogres’ attack. “You deal with the troll. Now, go. Go!”

  As Leila goes to fight the troll, I take one long look at our enemy, trying to prepare a plan of attack. While I stand there, thinking, Leila manages to find an opening in the troll’s defenses, and she cuts the troll’s head off yet again. She then crushes Velgos’ head under her sandal, like before, while a new head begins to form itself, starting from his neck. This time, however, it seems to be taking him longer to fully create it, and it looks like he’s having a bit of trouble recreating the exact same facial features that he had before.

  As soon as his head grows back, Leila begins putting pressure on the troll again, making sure that his focus is on her the whole time.

  “Good gods,” the mage says, exasperated, as he watches Leila fight. “Stop aiming for the head! Can’t you see that it’s doing you no good?”

  “On the contrary!” I tell him. “I think that cutting hi
s head off is exactly what we should be doing. You could clearly see that the troll was struggling to regenerate his head when it got cut off the second time. Even with his insane regenerative ability, there still has to be some kind of limit to how many times he can regrow his head in such a short period of time. My guess is that one or two more beheadings should do the trick!”

  I take another look at Leila and the troll, while they are fighting, but they seem to be quite evenly matched. Even with Wilhelm helping her, Leila still can’t seem to find another weakness to exploit in Velgos’ defenses. It looks like we’re going to need a few more people to flank the troll, in order for Leila to get another shot at him. The thugs are most definitely not going to be of any help. But maybe I can convince the mage to join in on the attack… If I play my cards right.

  “So, anyway,” I tell the mage, “I have a plan on how to attack the troll, but I’m going to need your help with something.”

  “What do you mean?” the mage says.

  “I noticed that Velgos can’t really keep up with Leila’s attacks,” I say, “and he keeps moving around, in order to compensate for his lack of skills at parrying her fast strikes. If the two of us close in from behind and attack him from both left and right, he won’t have any place left to retreat, and Leila will be able to cut his head off easily. Better yet, we wouldn’t even risk anything, since he’d be losing his head before he even gets the chance to strike back at us!”

  “I… suppose that I could help out,” the mage says. “If it’s risk-free…”

  “Perfect,” I say, not giving him any more time to think it over. “Let’s get going, then!”

  I then make a rush towards the troll, and the mage is forced to follow soon afterwards, so he can catch up to me. I knew that he’d jump on the opportunity to join the fight, as soon as I’d offer him a plan without any risks. He’s been acting with extreme caution ever since the first round started, but it’s clear that he doesn’t want to be seen as a coward. Of course he’d be more than happy to be able to prove his worth without endangering his life in any way. Let’s just hope that my plan is indeed as foolproof as I made it out to be.

  The mage and I both manage to get behind the troll, while Leila is keeping him busy, and when we are in attack range, I nod to the mage, as we each dash towards our enemy, from opposite sides. Just as we reach Velgos, we both stab him in his back, to which the troll instantly reacts by swinging his scimitars towards the two of us. Leila immediately takes advantage of the distraction, and she cuts the troll’s head off in the blink of an eye, but this does not cause Velgos’ attack to slow down at all. The mage and I are both forced to jump away from the troll, with superhuman speed, avoiding the fatal blow by mere inches.

  That was way too close… If I didn’t have such high levels in my speed and reflexes stats, I may well have been decapitated by that strike. But if the mage managed to get away as well, then does that mean he activated his own version of the stat device? That has to be it. I don’t see how else he could have escaped that fast.

  While the two of us were getting away, Leila crushed the troll’s head under her foot, just like the last time, and the troll started regrowing his head from the neck again, except only slower than the last time.

  Before the two of them start fighting again, a very loud high pitched noise begins to echo all around the arena, as the improvised stat device inside the mage’s right pocket starts to shine with a bright red light. The mage panics, and he tries to hide the light by putting his hand on top of his pocket, but the harm has already been done. I guess that he didn’t have the time to finish modifying his device, after all…

  “Please excuse the noise, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer says. “That is the sound of our magic detectors being set off. Will the person with the red light in his pocket please remain still? Our guards will come to pick you up shortly.”

  Several guards from the arena are now making their way into the fighting area, with their swords at the ready.

  “There’s no need for any of the other gladiators to be alarmed!” the announcer says. “Just ignore the guards and continue your fights in an orderly fashion!”

  Leila and the troll are standing still, looking at the mage intently, while they are also watching each other with the corner of their eyes, to make sure that neither one will try a surprise attack on the other, during this distraction. Meanwhile, Bruce and the ogres do not seem to be paying any attention to what’s happening around them, and they are continuing their fight unhindered.

  “No…” the mage says, in a scared voice, as he looks at the guards closing in on him.

  Once the guards surround him, one of them attempts to grab the mage by the arm.

  “You’re coming with us,” the guard says. “Come on, get moving!”

  “No!” the mage shouts, as he pulls his arm away from the guard. “Get away from me!”

  “There’s no use fighting it, gladiator,” the guard says, as he approaches him and tries to grab him again. “Your life is over, and you know it. Now you can either come with us peacefully, or we’ll do this the hard way.”

  “I said get away!” the mage shouts, louder, and a jet of flames erupts from his hands, engulfing the guard, and burning him to a crisp.

  All of the other guards quickly move to restrain the mage, but he raises both his arms in the air, blasting them all with a powerful wave of fire that leaves nothing but ashes in its wake.

  “Guards!” the announcer shouts, starting to panic a bit. “Leave your posts and come to the fighting area immediately. We have a rogue fire elementalist on a rampage! I repeat! A rogue fire elementalist on a rampage!”

  The mage looks around him, with a blank stare in his eyes, as if he were slowly starting to lose his sense of purpose. Then, as his eyes come in contact with mine, the look on his face changes, and he suddenly gains back his focus, while his eyes get filled with rage.

  “You!” the mage shouts at me. “This is all your fault! You tricked me! You told me that there would be no risks… You traitorous son of a bitch, I’m going to kill you!”

  “Wait, wait, hold on!” I tell him, but the mage is no longer listening.

  He points his arms towards me, and a jet of flames comes out of his hands, making its way towards me at great speed. I manage to jump out of its way in time, but as soon as I land on the ground, I see a pillar of fire starting to form itself from beneath my feet. I dash out of the way just before the flames fill the area, but the mage does not allow me a moment’s respite, and he keeps aiming pillars below me, just as my feet touch the ground.

  “Crap, crap, crap!” I say, while I keep jumping between the columns of fire, looking as if I were performing some elaborate tribal dance.

  How do I get out of this? Do I attack him? Am I allowed to attack him? Is he still being considered as my teammate after he broke the rules? Will they execute me too if I try to kill him? Should I just knock him out? Gods be damned, I can’t think straight with all this jumping!

  While the mage is keeping me busy, several more guards are now rushing towards him, trying to run their blades through his back, while he’s not paying attention. The mage does not let himself get caught off guard, and he immediately begins to target his new attackers as well, while still making me dodge flame pillars.

  “Velgos, do something!” the announcer says, in desperation. “Kill him! Kill him now, before it gets worse!”

  The troll frowns at the announcer, and he starts walking slowly towards the mage, while still keeping Leila in his sight. The mage has already killed all of the guards, but when he sees the troll approach him, he forgets all about me, and he points both his hands at him, in an attempt to intimidate his new foe.

  “Don’t come closer!” the mage says, with a scared tone in his voice. “I’ll burn you to a crisp!”

  “Go ahead,” Velgos says, as he keeps advancing towards the mage, while looking at Leila with the corner of his eye. “I’d love to see you try.”


  As Velgos gets even closer, the mage lets out a whimper, and the troll suddenly gets swallowed up by a newly formed column of fire, much larger than those from before. Velgos walks out of the flames completely unharmed, with a malicious grin on his face, and he keeps advancing slowly towards his target.

  “Die, monster!” the mage shouts, when the troll reaches him, and he begins to stab him in the chest repeatedly with his dagger.

  Seeing that it’s not working, the mage attempts to go for the neck, like Leila, but Velgos easily blocks him with one of his scimitars, while bringing his other weapon down on the mage, slicing him in half. Almost immediately after the mage dies, Leila dashes behind the troll, giving him no time to react, and she cuts his head off in one strike, crushing it under her foot soon afterwards.

  After his head gets crushed once more, the troll begins regrowing a new one from his neck, but this time, something is definitely off. The grotesque form that is emerging from his neck can no longer be called anything close to a head. The face is missing half of its skin, the eyes are coming out of their orbits, and the shape of it is nothing like before. More importantly, it would seem that his head has not been well enough regenerated to allow him to breathe.

  The troll is now desperately trying to gasp for air, while looking at me and Leila with pure hatred in his eyes. He tries to speak, but he has no air left in his lungs. He only manages to make some unintelligible guttural sounds, while taking a few steps forward and stretching one of his arms towards us, in a futile attempt to reach us. Once he runs out of breath completely, he drops to his knees, and he starts clawing at his throat with his hands, as if he were trying to create a new pathway for the air to reach his lungs. Eventually, he stops moving altogether, and he drops face-first to the ground, lifeless.

  “Hey, Velgos!” the announcer says. “What are you doing? Stop fooling around and fight seriously! What do you think we’re paying you for?”

  The spectators seem to be unsure of how to react. Velgos appeared to be something of a crowd favorite, so seeing him die in front of their eyes must be giving them mixed feelings about this whole thing. They can’t really blame us for having killed him, but they don’t seem very eager to cheer for us either. What we get instead are a few moments of awkward silence, while the announcer is still struggling to come to terms with reality.