Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  “These aren’t just any monsters,” Daren says. “They are elite troops of the dragon who rules most of the monster races on this continent. It’s not going to be an easy fight.”

  “Bah!” Nolderan says. “You’ve said this before. Remember that time when we went to raid that cave full of ogres and trolls and we butchered them all within minutes? You were saying that it would be a hard fight back then too.”

  “That happened when I was barely twenty years old!” Daren says. “Gods, now I remember… I had only been training for several months, and that was already our third monster hunt. How the hell did you manage to convince me to remain your pupil for so long?”

  “Stop complaining,” Nolderan says. “My training worked, didn’t it? You can’t just do mock battles all the time and expect to magically become a seasoned warrior. Real battles are where you truly get to test your skills.”

  “Are the monsters getting closer?” Hadrik asks. “I can’t really tell with my magic sense.”

  “They are most definitely getting closer,” Kate says. “In fact, we should be seeing them any minute. It looks like they’ve given up on trying to flank us from all sides, because of the large area without trees in front of us that can’t provide them cover, so they’re now all trying to assemble in the woods behind us, and to the sides.”

  “At least that should keep them away from the tents when we fight,” Hadrik says. “The last thing we want is to get our tents damaged when we’re nowhere near a city to buy any replacements.”

  “Don’t forget the discussion that we had after our last battle!” Daren says. “We’re facing against a lot more enemies today, so we can’t afford to make any mistakes. Leila, no more rushing into the enemy lines, alright? Kate, do you remember what you need to focus on?”

  “Yes,” Kate says. “I remember.”

  She then shoots several icicles into the woods on our left side, and two of the ogres suddenly drop dead, from behind the trees. The three ogre warriors that were left alive are now all shouting loudly, and they’re advancing towards us at a rapid pace.

  Seeing that their formation has been broken, the orcs that were hiding behind the trees on our right side are now also revealing themselves and moving slowly towards us, while forming a line, with their shields raised in front of them and their maces in their right hands.

  Kate tries to attack the three ogres with another barrage of icicles, but this time, they use their huge clubs to defend themselves from her projectiles.

  “Flower,” Daren says. “Fly up into the air, and bombard the ogres with fireballs. They need to die before they reach us.”

  “I’m on it!” Flower says, as she jumps into the air and then propels herself upwards using her fire jets.

  “The rest of us need to deal with the orcs,” Daren says. “They all have anti-magic armor, so don’t bother to attack them if you’re an elementalist.”

  While Daren was talking, Flower started to shoot fireballs at the three ogres that were still heading towards us. The monsters tried to jump away from the explosions, but this left them defenseless against Kate’s icicles, which penetrated their skulls and killed them all on the spot.

  “Good,” Daren says. “The ogres are already dead. Let’s finish the orcs off quick, and then we’ll head for the mages.”

  While we were talking, the orcs have split into two groups, each of them forming a wall with their shields, and slowly advancing towards us from both sides. The orc captain from our last battle is, however, nowhere to be seen.

  “I’ll take the ones on the left,” Nolderan says, as he heads towards the monsters.

  “There are five orcs on the left,” Daren says, while he starts following his old master into battle. “I’m coming with you. Hadrik should be able to handle half of the warriors by himself without much trouble.”

  He then sees that Leila has remained behind, uncertain of what to do.

  “Leila, you should go help Hadrik,” Daren says. “Master Nolderan and I should be able to handle ourselves against five orcs.”

  Leila nods, and she goes towards the orcs on the right, along with Hadrik.

  “I’ll go find the mages,” Kate says.

  “No, wait,” Daren says. “We shouldn’t risk splitting up. There might be traps waiting for us in the woods. We’ll all go together, after we’re done with the warriors.”

  “Understood…” Kate says.

  Daren then heads into battle, along with his master, as Hadrik and Leila are getting ready to fight the monsters on the right side. The first one to engage the enemy is Hadrik. He punches right through the orcs’ shield wall on the right, putting a large dent into one of the monsters’ shields, while knocking its holder on his back. Then, he jumps high into the air, and he lands with his fist on a second orc, just as the monster raises his shield to protect himself.

  The sound made by Hadrik’s fist hitting the metal shield resounded throughout the whole clearing, and immediately afterwards, we could hear the ogre’s scream, as his arm broke from all the pressure. While the warrior is still struggling to recover, Hadrik quickly grabs him by his feet, and he throws him into two of his comrades, which sends them all crashing to the ground.

  Meanwhile, Daren and Nolderan have both reached the orcs on the left, and now they’re flanking them from two sides, forcing the monsters to give up on their shield wall and to focus on the adversaries in front of them. As Nolderan begins to fight, I can definitely see the resemblance between his fighting style, and the one that Daren is using. However, Nolderan’s style seems to focus a lot more on not getting hit at all, while Daren often likes to parry blows, and to block them with his shield, while he fights.

  One other thing I’m noticing is the incredible synchronization between the two of them. Even if they’ve been apart for more than ten years, you can clearly see that they know each other’s moves by heart, and that they don’t need to communicate their actions through words, in the heat of battle, because one will always know what the other is planning to do next. More than this, it seems that neither of them is hesitant in leaving their guard down, while the other is watching their back. It’s clear that such a level of teamwork can only be achieved by warriors who have spent many years fighting together, side by side.

  “Just like old times, eh, Daren?” Nolderan says, after he slices the head of an orc clean off his shoulders.

  “Yes, I see that you’re still as reckless as ever!” Daren says, as he blocks one of the monsters’ maces with his shield. “I can’t believe that you’re still alive after all this time!”

  “You may be saying this, but you are clearly enjoying the fight,” Nolderan says, with a grin, as he dances away from one enemy, and prepares to engage another. “Here’s another reckless move for you, boy. Get ready!”

  He then runs full speed ahead, towards an orc that is too busy fighting Daren to pay attention to Nolderan, and he makes a horizontal jump, rotating himself to the side in mid-air, and propelling his feet into the monster’s back. As the orc gets knocked off-balance, the ex-sage falls to the ground, on his left shoulder. Daren immediately seizes the opportunity, and he drives his sword through the monster’s head, while Nolderan quickly rolls to the side, in order to avoid getting bludgeoned by another orc’s mace. As soon as the ex-sage gets up, he feints an attack with one of his swords, pretending to do a full swing from the left side, and just as the orc raises his shield to defend himself, Nolderan’s second sword comes swinging for the monster’s neck from the right, cutting his head off in one move.

  While I haven’t really recovered from my state of alcohol-induced dizziness yet, I can’t just stand here and do nothing for the rest of the fight, either. I decide that it’s time for me to join the battle as well, so I aim my crossbow at one of the orcs that Leila is fighting.

  It’s a bit difficult to aim from this distance, while the orc is moving, but thanks to my newly invested points in the combat technique stat, I manage to accurately predict how the monster
will move, after only a few seconds of watching him. The bolt from my crossbow hits the orc straight through the slit of his helmet, and it kills him instantly.

  As I look to see how the others are doing, I notice that the rest of the monsters are already dead, and that my teammates are now assembling near the woods, so we can go and fight the orc mages and their captain together.

  “We sure made short work of these so-called ‘elite’ warriors, didn’t we?” Nolderan says, and then he laughs.

  “Not yet,” Daren says. “There are still five mages waiting in the woods. And their captain’s fighting skill is far superior to that of his subordinates. Let’s just hurry up and get to them before they—”

  Daren suddenly gets interrupted by the sound of a loud horn, coming from the direction of the orc captain, which makes us all cover our ears, to dampen some of the noise.

  “Crap!” Arraka says, as soon as the orc captain stops blowing in the horn. “I forgot to check above us. Wyvern riders incoming. Wyvern riders incoming!”

  We all turn our heads upwards, and we see ten black wyverns quickly diving down from the clouds in which they’d been hiding until now. Each of the creatures is ridden by an orc wearing regular leather armor, and holding either a long spear or a crossbow in their hands. Wyverns are smaller versions of dragons that have a body length of fifteen feet, with their wings spanning around twenty feet. They are far less intelligent than dragons, their scales are a lot less durable, and they cannot breathe fire, but other than that, their appearance is rather similar. Once the wyvern riders realize that we’ve already spotted them, they slow down their descent, and they begin to circle around the skies, waiting for the right moment to strike.

  “Flower, Illuna and I will take care of the wyverns,” Kate says. “The rest of you can’t fly, so you won’t be able to help us. I think you should all go and deal with the mages, before they call for more reinforcements.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Daren says. “At least we’ve forced them to reveal the ace up their sleeve, so they shouldn’t be able to surprise us with any more— Damn it!”

  As Daren was finishing his sentence, a very large blue circle appeared on the ground, in the area surrounding us, and a dim blue light is now slowly starting to envelop us.

  “Get out of the summoning circle!” Daren shouts. “Get out, now!”

  We all rush out as fast as we can, and when we look back, we see that the blue light has filled the whole area above the circle, up to a height of nearly thirty feet, and it has gotten ten times brighter than before. Soon afterwards, the earth starts to tremble, and a very large creature gradually materializes itself from thin air, within the area that we just left, as the circle and the bright light fade away.

  Once we get a clear look at it, we realize that the creature which has been summoned by the dragon’s mages is without a doubt, a red-eyed mammoth. Towering above us, at an impressive thirty feet of height, the creature is now staring at us, with its bright red eyes, as if it’s still trying to decide whether it should attack us or not. Red-eyed mammoths are generally not known for their aggressive behavior, despite their menacing looks, but a summoned creature is forced to obey any order given by its masters, so it most likely won’t be long until this creature will try to trample us all to death.

  Mammoths, in general, are only slightly larger than elephants, and the only major difference between the two species, in terms of appearance, is the fact that mammoths have much larger tusks, and their skin is typically covered with wool. Red-eyed mammoths, on the other hand, are much larger, they can only be found on the Northern Continent, and they are notorious for their fierceness in battle, when they fight to protect their territory. Their skins are completely armored, being far more durable than elven steel, and when they fight, they use their trunks like huge mallets, to smash their enemies, while they use their tusks as spears, to impale any remaining survivors of their onslaught.

  As the mammoth roars loudly, I can suddenly feel the presence of the orcs and ogres disappearing from the forest, due to them teleporting out of the area, just like last time.

  “The mages and the captain are gone, by the way,” Arraka says. “Just thought I’d let you know.”

  “Yes, Arraka, we all know that,” Illuna says. “It’s not like they took any effort to hide their auras anymore for the past minute. The mages were probably only brought here to summon this beast, and nothing else. Let’s go deal with the wyverns, before anyone else shows up.”

  Flower then jumps into the air, and she propels herself upwards with her fire jets, as Kate jumps on a flying platform made of ice, while she creates an ice cage around herself, in order to make sure that she won’t fall off.

  “You’re going to have to deal with the mammoth yourselves, while we fight the wyverns,” Kate says. “Don’t take any stupid risks.”

  “Easier said than done,” Daren says.

  “We’ll manage, don’t worry,” Nolderan says. “There hasn’t been a monster yet that Daren and I failed to defeat, while fighting together. You just go follow your banshee friend, and do what you need to do.”

  Kate nods, curtly, and then she lifts her cage into the air, following Illuna towards the wyvern riders. As Kate heads for the skies, the rest of us stand our ground, and we look at the mammoth, which has been notably silent since its roar from earlier. The creature is not moving at all, and it’s simply staring at us, waiting for our move.

  “So…” Hadrik says. “Do you guys think that we should attack it, or?…”

  “I think that the creature is waiting to see what we’ll do, before it takes any action,” I say. “Typically, when you encounter a red-eyed mammoth, it should be enough to slowly back away from it, while maintaining eye-contact, and it would leave you alone, but I’m not sure what happens when it’s been specifically instructed to kill us by its summoner. Let’s try backing away, for now. With a little luck, maybe it won’t attack us.”

  “Well…” Hadrik says. “You’re the creature expert. Come on, everyone, let’s back up a little.”

  We all take a few steps back, slowly, while keeping our eyes on the monster, and we try to observe its reaction. The mammoth keeps standing there, looking at us, for a while, and then all of a sudden, it begins to run towards us, in an attempt to trample us under its feet.

  “So much for that plan,” Hadrik says. “Get ready to fight!”

  The dwarf then dashes towards the creature, and he jumps up in the air, trying to punch it in the head. The mammoth, however, sees him coming, and it stops in its tracks, raising its trunk, so it can defend itself. As soon as Hadrik gets into the monster’s range of attack, the mammoth swings its trunk at him from above, with incredible force, sending the dwarf crashing into the ground.

  “One hit from that trunk, and we’re goners,” Daren says, as he looks at the hole in the ground made by Hadrik when he fell. “I wouldn’t recommend attacking the mammoth unless you’re really confident in your evasion skills. Barry, none of your weapons would be able to get through this creature’s thick armored skin, so you’d better stay out of this. Leila, the enchantments on your daggers are a little better, so you could give it a shot, if you want to come with us.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Leila writes.

  “Good,” Daren says. “Let’s hurry. I’m not sure how long Hadrik can keep the mammoth busy on his own.”

  As Daren, Nolderan and Leila head towards the mammoth, I suddenly remember that I came upon a page detailing the weaknesses of red-eyed mammoths in my notebook, while I was reading through my notes, for the arena. Should I go get the notebook? I’m certainly not going to be of much use out here, at this rate. Okay, it’s settled. I’ll go get the notebook.

  I rush towards my tent, and once I reach it, I open up the zipper. On my way there, I couldn’t help but notice that Melindra’s tent had remained closed since the battle has started. There’s no way that she didn’t hear those loud horns from before, or the sounds from all the fighting.
Which means that she’s just pretending to still be asleep, so she doesn’t have to give away the fact that she can’t control the power of her wind magic.

  Whatever. I don’t have time to think about her. I have other things to do right now.

  I quickly step inside my tent, and I open my backpack. Then, I take out my notebook from it and I flip through the pages, until I reach the paragraphs about the mammoths. And finally, here is what I was looking for. The red-eyed mammoth section. But, what does it say under ‘Weaknesses’? Let’s see…

  Apparently, the mammoth’s main weakness is at the very base of its trunk, on the underside. Unlike regular mammoths, this is where this type of creature has its nostrils, so that part is basically lacking any sort of armor. One good stab in that area should do some serious damage to the creature’s airway, but I’m not sure how one would go about doing that, without getting smashed into the ground by the trunk.

  The mammoth’s eyes are also a weakness, but the eyelids are pretty thick, so it would take quite some effort to get through them. The creature only needs to close its eyes to protect itself, so as far as weaknesses go, this one isn’t all that useful.

  I can’t really find any other information that could help us in this situation, so I decide to place the notebook back inside my backpack, and then I exit the tent. Looking at the battleground, I see that the mammoth is still busy defending itself from Hadrik, while mostly ignoring the fact that Daren, Nolderan and Leila are all trying to cut through its thick skin, by slashing at its legs. There are a few more holes in the ground now than when I went inside my tent, but apparently this hasn’t stopped Hadrik from jumping at the monster some more, and then getting smashed into the ground over and over.

  What now, then?… Nobody except Hadrik would be able to reach high enough in order to attack the mammoth’s eyes or its nostrils, but the dwarf seems to have his hands full at the moment. Kate, Flower and Illuna are still fighting the wyvern riders in the sky, so they won’t be able to provide assistance. If only we had someone else who could fly in our team… Hold on, what am I saying? There is someone else.