Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  We spent the next few hours eating, drinking, and celebrating our long-awaited release from the arena. The food provided to us by the cooks actually did turn out to be on par with Flower’s magically conceived delicacies, if not better. There were so many dishes on that table of which I’d never heard before, that it looked almost as if I were participating in a royal banquet of some kind. The cooks were initially all standing up in a line, in front of the table, waiting for us to order refills, but after a whole hour of Hadrik insisting that they join us for a drink, they eventually gave in, and began to slowly loosen up, as the effect of the dwarven ale was starting to set in. Towards the end of the celebration, Enrique made sure to supply us all with Rose’s special herbs, so we could start fresh in the morning, without fear of any hangovers.

  Since we needed to get up before sunrise the next day, we had to end the celebration early, in order to get at least a few hours of sleep, but the hours that we spent at that table were exactly what we needed, after what we’d been through in the past few days. The next morning, while it was still dark outside, we all lined up in the yard, to give Enrique our farewells.

  “Well, I’ve only had the pleasure of talking to you for a few hours in total,” Enrique says, “but they were hours well spent. I will never forget you, my friends. I hope you will all get to accomplish your goals, whether they be winning the tournament, or whatever else your hearts may desire!”

  “Goodbye, Enrique,” Daren says. “Remember to keep that transceiver that I gave you earlier with you at all times. You never know when we may need to contact each other again, especially while the tournament is still in progress.”

  We all wave goodbye to Enrique and we set out to find the northern gate. After losing our way a few times, and having to ask the locals for directions on numerous occasions, we finally manage to reach our destination, just as the sun rises, and as we get a good look at the city gates, we see that Melindra was already waiting for us there, with her back leaning against a wall.

  As she waves at us, to make sure that we’ve spotted her, we quicken our pace, and we get ready to finally take our first step towards our original goal. After so much sidetracking, and so many delays, at long last, we can get back to what we came here to do. Participating in the Magium Tournament.

  Chapter 8

  “There you are!” Melindra says, once we all get within hearing range of her. “Just in time. Tell me, are you all ready to begin our adventure?”

  “If by adventure, you mean waiting in line for an hour, then yes,” Daren says, as he points towards the city’s northern gate.

  There seem to be at least a few dozen groups of people currently lined up on the main road leading to the northern gate. Some of them are just travellers, like us, but most of them appear to be merchants, with carts full of wares that need to be inspected one by one by the guards at the city’s exit, before they are allowed to pass through the gate. Judging by how long it’s taking the guards to inspect each cart, I’d say that Daren’s estimation might actually be a bit optimistic. We’re probably going to be stuck here for a lot longer than one hour.

  “Ah, yes,” Melindra says, as she takes a glance towards the very long line of carts in front of her. “I forgot that the northern gate is primarily used by merchants in this city. It would have been so much nicer if they actually made more than one gate on their northern wall, to solve their traffic problems.”

  “More gates means more vulnerable areas that need to be protected,” Daren says. “It would not be a good idea in times such as these, when monster attacks are rampant. Let’s just line up like all the others. The sun is barely up, so we’ll have plenty of time to travel even if we waste another hour in this city.”

  “Actually, I have a better idea,” Melindra says. “We’ll be taking a shortcut!”

  “A shortcut?” Hadrik asks, confused. “You mean, like an underground tunnel, or…”

  “Oh, no, no…” Melindra says, with a smile. “I wasn’t talking about a tunnel.”

  She then snaps her fingers, and we all begin to slowly get raised into the air, higher and higher, as I feel several currents of air moving around me, in a similar fashion to how they used to move when I was using air magic to fly, during my battle with the skeleton stillwaters.

  “No way…” Daren says, as we keep getting raised higher into the air. “You’re not seriously considering doing this, are you?”

  “Doing what?” Melindra says, with a coy smile.

  “Don’t play dumb with me!” Daren says. “You’re going to fly us over that whole damn wall! Are you out of your mind? This is against the law! Those guards stationed on the wall are going to start shooting at us the moment we go over them!”

  “So, what?” Melindra says. “You’re a white mage and an enchanter, aren’t you? You can just use that shield of yours to create a barrier around us, and we’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t have any barrier spells that deflect regular arrows!” Daren shouts.

  “Wait, seriously?” Melindra says, while raising an eyebrow.

  “And besides, that’s not the point!” Daren says. “We don’t want to make this whole city into our enemy just because we were too lazy to wait in line!”

  “You don’t?” Melindra asks. “Why not? Are you planning to come back to this city afterwards?”

  “Yes!” Daren shouts. “I mean, I think… I don’t know!”

  “Well, it’s too late to go back now, anyway,” Melindra says. “Look below us. We’re already passing over their wall. And those archers are getting ready to attack us. I hope at least someone in this group can defend against arrows, because lifting so many people at once using only air magic requires a great deal of concentration, and I don’t want to risk dropping any of you while trying to deflect incoming projectiles.”

  “Attention, to all the mages that are now flying over our wall,” we hear a guard shouting through a magical voice magnifier, from the top of the city’s wall. “You are to descend at once! I repeat. You are to descend at once! If you ignore this warning, we will treat you as an enemy of the kingdom, and we will open fire! I will not repeat this again!”

  “Melindra, you heard the guy,” I say. “Bring us down, so we can talk to them. Maybe we can still smooth things over with the guards, somehow.”

  “And wait three hours in some cell before they decide to let us go?” Melindra says. “No, thanks. I’d rather deal with the arrows.”

  “It’s not just the arrows, damn it!” I say. “I don’t want to become a lawbreaker in this city again, after we went through all that trouble to get absolved of our crimes!”

  “Well, tough luck, then,” Melindra says. “Because I’m not planning to stop, no matter what you say. But hey, if you think you can stop me yourself, then I invite you to try. I can’t wait to see what you’re planning to do against a stillwater of my caliber— AHAHAHA— Stop it! Stop it or I’ll— Ahahaha!”

  While Melindra was busy bragging, I decided I’d had enough, so I put both my hands to the sides of her waist, and began to tickle her from behind. As the girl laughs, I can feel the air currents around me become more unstable, and I start to wobble uncontrollably, in the air, along with everybody else.

  “Damn it!” Melindra says, while struggling to control her laughter. “I can’t— ahaha— I can’t move away from you while I’m concentrating on levitating everyone! Ahahaha! Stop… tickling me!”

  As Melindra is talking, the captain of the guards gives the order to attack, and now there are dozens of arrows heading in our direction, while our group is just floating in the air, not having moved an inch since I started tickling Melindra. As soon as she sees the arrows, Kate immediately conjures several shields made of ice, which begin to move in the air all around us, defending us from the enemy’s projectiles.

  “Barry, what the hell, man?” Daren asks, as he sees himself shaking up and down, while still floating. “Do you have a death wish?”

  “Relax!” I tell Daren. “
It’s not like she’s going to drop us.”

  “Yes, I will!” Melindra says, “I will drop you! Just you wait— Ahahaha! Quit it!”

  “Yeah, right,” I say. “You’re going to tell me that you went through all this trouble to find someone who could kill that king of yours, and now you’re just going to let us drop to our deaths? Just get us down, will you? Hopefully it’s not too late, and we can still talk things over with the guards.”

  “I’m going to remember this!” Melindra says, as I stop tickling her, so she can finally start bringing us down, towards the ground.

  When the captain of the guards sees us lowering our altitude, he signals his men to cease their fire, and then he hurries towards a ladder, in order to descend from the wall, on the outer side of the city. By the time we all make it to the ground, right outside the city walls, the captain of the guards is already waiting for us impatiently, with a few of the other guards accompanying him, as his escorts. The captain is a dwarf, of around the same size as Hadrik, wearing heavy armor, with a long brown beard covering the bottom half of his face, and a steel helmet covering much of the rest, aside from his eyes and his nose.

  As soon as we reach his position, Daren and I quickly begin to explain to him what happened, while repeatedly reassuring him that we were not looking to start a fight, when we flew over their walls.

  “Ugh…” the captain of the guards says with his eyes closed, as he rubs his forehead, while shaking his head in disapproval. “You know, if you really needed to leave the city in a hurry, you could have just asked one of the guards by the gate. We were all there when you people fought the dragon yesterday, together with king Golmyck, so it wouldn’t have been a problem to do you a small favor in return for your service. Listen, I’m going to try my best to keep this incident off the records, but please, for the love of all the gods, don’t do this kind of crap anymore. We guards are busy enough as it is. We don’t have time to deal with your shenanigans.”

  “Of course…” Daren says. “Thank you for your understanding! And I apologize again, in the name of our group. I hope that the next time we meet, it will be under better circumstances.”

  Daren and I then turn back towards the others, and we signal to them that we’re good to go. Melindra still has her pouting expression on her face after what happened earlier, but she doesn’t say any more on the subject for the time being, and she takes the lead, as we all move to follow her.

  “Why aren’t we taking the main road?” Kate asks Melindra, as she leads us towards the woods. “I saw a sign that said it was leading directly to Ollendor.”

  “Oh, that road takes longer than going through the forest,” Melindra says. “It’s because it takes a more roundabout way, through safer territories, so that the merchants can better avoid monster attacks. There’s no need for us to take such precautions, though. Most of you are powerful mages, right? Well, nowhere near as powerful as I am, but still…”

  “Can you stop with the condescending remarks?” I tell her. “It’s clear that your level of power cannot even compare to that of Eiden. And if we’re talking regular stillwaters, then we already beat five of them at once without much trouble. They weren’t anything special. Hell, I practically finished them all off by myself!”

  “Stop bragging, you idiot!” Arraka says. “If it weren’t for my advice, and your stupidly overpowered lessathi relic, those ‘regular’ stillwaters would have stomped you all into the ground!”

  “Okay, fine, I admit it!” I say. “We may have gotten a bit lucky there, but still, there were five of them, and they were a squad! She’s just one stillwater, and not a particularly impressive one, either. Judging by what spells I’ve seen her cast until now, I’d say she’s an air elementalist. Isn’t that right, Melindra?”

  “And what if I am?” Melindra says.

  “That’s like… the single weakest type of elementalist in existence,” I say. “Even if you take into account all the artificial mages with their non-traditional elements invented by the lessathi. Can you even cast anything other than wind spells?”

  “Of course I can!” Melindra says, visibly upset.

  “Oh, yeah?” I say. “Well, why don’t you teleport us all to the city of Ollendor right now, then? Eiden could have done it.”

  “I am not Eiden,” Melindra says.

  “Okay, okay, my mistake,” I say. “But surely, a powerful air elementalist such as yourself could easily fly us all the way there, right? Oh, wait… I just remembered that you could barely keep us afloat while we were going over that wall. So, I’m supposing that flying is off the table too, then? Huh… Well, I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but to me, stillwaters are beginning to sound less like legendary mages, and more like regular mages with a little extra power and energy! Funny how this works, eh?”

  Melindra is now furrowing her eyebrows and pursing her lips, making yet another pouting expression, as she looks at me.

  “That’s enough, Barry!” Daren says. “We only just began our journey. You don’t want us to be fighting all the way to Ollendor, do you?”

  “Hey, I’m just saying…” I say. “If she were to admit that she’s not as powerful as she thinks she is, and that we could easily beat her if we were to all team up against her, then it would be much easier for all of us.”

  “Well, what if I were to prove you wrong, then?” Melindra says, smirking, as she cracks her knuckles. “All we need is for your white mage to temporarily cancel the effects of his enchanter’s oath, and we can get down to business.”

  “Hey, now we’re talking!” Hadrik says, with a grin.

  “Sounds good to me,” I say.

  “Ahahaha!” Arraka says, as I see Kate smack herself hard in the face. “You’re all going to get obliterated! That girl doesn’t know how to hold back. Ahahahaha!”

  “Shut up!” Daren shouts. “Nobody is fighting anyone! I am not going to undo the oath just because you people want a sparring match! We are outside city limits! We could be getting attacked by enemy mages at any moment. We don’t have time to play games, here!”

  “Fine!” Melindra says, frowning.

  “What if we only ask her to demonstrate her powers, without fighting us?” I say.

  “Hmm…” Daren says. “Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to know what she’s capable of. Seeing as how we’ll be working together for a while…”

  “Perfect!” Melindra says, as her face lights up. “Hold on. Let me get really far away from you, because I wouldn’t want to end up burying you under a ton of rocks by accident!”

  “Uh…” Daren says. “What exactly are you planning to—”

  He doesn’t get to finish his sentence, because Melindra flies into the air right away, and she eventually gets far enough from us that we can barely even distinguish her shape anymore. She then stops very high up in the sky, and she appears to be raising her arms in the air, as she is channeling her spell. Not long afterwards, we feel a very powerful wind coming towards us, as we watch the air currents below Melindra spinning faster and faster, until they turn into a full-blown tornado.

  Dozens of trees are now getting pulled from their roots and being lifted into the air by the giant twister in the distance, and even large rocks underneath the soil are starting to break off from the ground. As a large cloud of dust covers the whole area between us and the tornado, the merchants from Thilias are beginning to stop by the side of the road, in order to gaze at the terrifying spectacle that is unraveling before their eyes.

  “Okay, Melindra, I think you’ve made your point!” Daren shouts, as loud as he can. “You should come down, now. You’re scaring the locals.”

  As soon as she hears Daren call out to her, Melindra begins to cancel her spell, and all of the air currents forming the tornado slowly come to a halt, over the next thirty seconds, while the trees and the rocks that were caught in the tornado fall to the ground, one by one. Once the twister has dissipated into the air, Melindra comes flying back, and she lands in front o
f us, with a victorious smile on her face.

  “How was that for a demonstration of my powers?” she says.

  “Okay, okay…” I say. “You win this round. Maybe the air element isn’t as weak as I made it out to be earlier.”

  “Of course it isn’t!” Melindra says. “Even wind by itself can do this much damage, but this is magic wind we’re talking about! You can sharpen it like any other element. You can reinforce it. Do you have any idea how many possibilities—”

  Melindra suddenly stops in the middle of her sentence, as she briefly falls from her feet, with her eyes closing, looking as if she were seconds away from fainting.

  “Are… you alright?” Daren says, while he helps her regain her balance.

  “I’m fine,” Melindra says, simply, as she rubs her forehead, with her eyes still closed.

  “Hah!” Arraka says. “I told you she doesn’t know when to hold back. She used up all of her energy to make that tornado, and now she’s so tired she can barely even stand up anymore!”

  “Wait, are you serious?” Daren says, while he is still holding Melindra, to make sure that she won’t faint again. “Should we take a break or something?”

  “I said I’m fine!” Melindra says, as she pulls herself away from Daren. “Let’s keep going.”

  We all exchange a few looks, but we don’t say anything else, and we follow her in silence for the next few minutes. At the beginning, it was pretty obvious for everyone that Melindra was making an effort to even walk straight, but her situation gradually improved as we advanced through the forest, probably as a result of her magical energy getting slowly restored as she walked.