Runic apprentice, p.20
Runic Apprentice, page 20
part #1 of The Rune Mystic Series
The earth mages were back up to seven, he could sense them to the northeast, no doubt teaming up with the remaining two earth mages that had still been alive in the forest. This competition was also heavily team oriented, more so than the others had been. Perhaps a result of all of the masters being gone to war.
There were an equal amount of water mages to the northwest, three fire mages farther north, and six air mages extremely close to where they’d entered to the west. That was it, unless there were more outside of his detection spell’s reach, which was more than possible, there were only twenty-five mages left in the competition, including him and Lia.
Lia immediately went west toward the air mages, and he let her get a few yards ahead as he moved slight north, to stay out of her fight and put himself between the other groups and her.
Predictably, the fire mages started south immediately, directly toward him. He suspected the fire mages at the inn were also hunting him, they’d just stupidly decided to go through the life mages to get to him. It was what they did in the last few competitions, the fire and death mages hunted him. It was why Lia had been so vindictive today, on his behalf.
The water mages and earth mages immediately vectored in toward the fire mages from their two flanks, but the fire mages didn’t abort. Apparently, they were fine with the idea of dying in earth and water attacks, if they got to kill him first. The logical thing for the fire team to do in that situation would’ve been to rush the earth mages, then defend against water with whatever they had left.
He guessed they hated him that much, on behalf of their insanely ambitious tower mage who seemed to blame him for everything except man’s fall from grace, and perhaps even that.
He laughed, “Seems our presence broke the stalemate, things are about to get very messy, my love.”
Then Lia surprised him.
Lia called out, “Hey, Carolynn, this place is about to be very busy, want to team up, we can kill each other last.”
Carolynn snorted, “Last time we tried that, you betrayed me mid-battle.”
Lia giggled, “And this time it was just a distraction, sorry old friend,” she said, as she released an earth enhanced death spell, a fire enhanced air spell, and a water enhanced death spell. Three of the six air mages died, as Lia triple casted three enhanced spells at once.”
Carolynn’s three living buddies responded quickly, but Lia leapt straight up and then off a branch twenty feet into the air, fouling the aim of their counterattack.
Lia triple casted the same three enhanced spells, and took out the last three mid-air, just a moment before she landed on a high branch in another tree.
He figured it was time to die, so he charged the three fire mages which had just entered visual range in the relatively small but thick forest, which at the moment were being sandwiched by the seven-person water and earth teams. Normally, he’d have probably run in that situation, but his job was to pull their focus away from Lia.
Besides, if he was those earth and water teams, he’d want to watch, then ambush the loser. That would buy him a few seconds.
He did a similar leapfrog into a tree, then pushed off a branch and landed in melee range of the fire mages. They all blasted him with a fireball at point blank range, but his water and earth shields easily absorbed their attacks.
The flat of his sword imbued with earth and water reached out and slammed into the chest of the fire mage next to him, while he powered a rune spell of earth enhanced water at the one in front of him. It really was almost unfair, rune mages weren’t vulnerable to any of the elements, and they could take advantage of all the elements vulnerabilities in elemental mages. Only the fact there were so few of them prevented them from dominating in the games.
His earth and water, plus the sword, cut right through their shields. It wouldn’t work on a master mage, they had enough power to compensate for that strength of spell that he could cast, but for regular mages despite his much weaker magic pool both the spell and his sword were quite deadly.
In his opinion, the advantages to being a rune mage far outweighed the downside of needing physical runes inscribed on their stuff, and the possibility of being so easily disarmed of their magic. He was also of the solid opinion that if there were as many rune mages as the other towers, they’d dominate the competitions. Just him and Lia teaming up was devastating, it was a shame Sam was on a mission.
A split second later, he spun his body and the edge of his sword slashed across his last opponent’s torso mid-cast, and he heard the crunch of breaking ribs. He had to admit, there was some satisfaction in it, considering how they’d been hunting him lately.
All three fire mages glared at him. He’d be dead if looks could kill, but he just smiled back. Their unreasoning hatred of him was their problem, not his.
Lia hadn’t been idle during his brief encounter. He felt Lia finish circling toward the earth team of seven, so he angled his body that most of his attention was on the nearby water team. It was a desperate bluff, but he had to play protect the damsel while she wreaked her havoc on the other team.
He also wasn’t worried about the Earth team attacking his back, they’d be stupid not to fully place their attention onto Lia, who started her attack in that moment.
Earth was a good sphere against physical dangers, perhaps the best, but not so much against the more ethereal magic, so Lia attacked with various combinations of life, death, and fire magic.
He realized then that the system was flawed. This whole keeping the towers away from each other thing. In the field, the mages would team up and cooperate, compensating for their weaknesses, they should be doing the same in their practice. He’d had the thought before of course, but until then it’d never seemed so ridiculously stupid to him.
Earth spells flew at Lia as well, but she was fast, and dodged more than half of them, or rather the earth mages simply missed. Her own shields of earth were more than enough to deflect those spells, but he felt her getting weaker as well.
The water mages of course, called his bluff, as they should’ve.
Guess it was really time to die. Water shields weren’t the best against physical or ethereal attacks, but at the same time that meant their shields were at least moderately effective against everything.
He charged again hoping to get in their midst, maybe they’d hesitate a moment afraid they’d hit one of their own. He took two spells against his shields on the way, and suddenly changed his mind. He hadn’t used all that much magic yet, outside of maintaining his shields.
And that moment seemed to very much fit the description of a desperate situation. He’d had a chance against three mages, but seven? Not with sword and basic spells.
He cast one of the two war spells he had enough magic for, and his magic ran out of him in a torrent. He actually had to struggle to maintain his channels and ensure no magic leaked into his body. Death and fire exploded up from the earth itself underneath their feet. Earth was part of the spell, it had to be to do that, but most of the damage was from death and fire magic.
Water magic was fairly strong against fire magic, dousing the flames so to speak, but it did weaken the shields, boil a part of them away, and the death magic finished the job. The arena responded before the life could be snuffed from six of the water mages, and the arena snuffed his spell and marked them dead.
Unfortunately, the seventh water mage had enough magic left to power their shield through the assault, and he was literally running on fumes.
He raced for her, his only chance was his sword, but she just smirked at him, waved her hand and barked the three words of a quick spell. He didn’t even have a chance to dodge, he’d instinctually released all his enhancement spells and clung to his shield spells, even if they were pitifully weak. He was so weak he could barely channel enough magic to maintain the spell, much less block anything with it.
Damn, he really hated drowning spells. He tried to stay calm, as he couldn’t breathe. The arena would kick in any second, he knew that, but he still hated the sensation.
Still, behind him he felt Lia was still fighting the last two earth mages, she’d taken out five.
That meant he’d just come in fifth in a competition, made the top ten. Of course, that was just literal, people were moved up and down from the literal death order based on difficulties faced, and kill counts, and other variables. Still, considering they’d killed almost a third of the mages on their own, he wasn’t worried about that at all. He mock died with a smile on his face…
Chapter Twenty-Six
He and Lia were in a buoyant mood during lunch and for the rest of that afternoon. So much so they instinctively kept their distance from each other. The sexual tension and temptation between them had never been higher, while they rode high on their emotions and the adrenaline crash, which all added up to revved up libidos with no outlet.
He’d not only placed fifth, his first time in the top then, but it was the first time Lia had ever won the competition. She’d taken down the last three shortly after he died. Their joy was slightly offset by the fact there’d been no master mages to face, they’d have never achieved it in such a case, but only very slightly. It’d been a hell of a good time. He knew real war wouldn’t be fun, but he’d come to enjoy the competitions, which were death free yet quite a visceral challenge in which to gain experience.
Their good mood lasted all the way to dinner, when Cassandra returned to the tower like a storm cloud.
He and Lia froze as Cassandra sat down with a grim visage.
Lia asked, “So…. no congratulations?”
Cassandra sighed, “Of course, you both did amazingly well today, and your tactics were brilliant.”
Lia cleared her throat, “So, what’s wrong, mistress,” she added at the end, a beat too late. It was obvious seeing Cassandra so upset wasn’t something Lia was used to.
He wasn’t either, but then he’d only been around seven and a half months.
Cassandra sighed, “I tried to fight it, say he rode your success, but that asshole Tanner managed to talk three other tower leaders into voting Olin in the top ten. I don’t know what the old bastard is up to, but he seemed far too delighted about Olin’s win.”
Lia gasped, and her face turned stormy.
He cleared his throat, “I think I’m missing something here.”
Cassandra looked at him sharply, then her eyes unfocused slightly, as if she was going through all her memories.
She sighed, “He doesn’t know, I never told him. Of course, I never imagined he would place in the top ten, not for another ten years at least, when it would be a moot point. In truth, I didn’t think you would either Lia, and you wouldn’t have without all the masters gone.”
To say he was confused, would be an understatement.
Lia explained, “To place in the top ten is to show your prowess, power, experience, and raw ability. Any apprentice ranking in the top ten is immediately promoted to mage. That’s not realistic at all, but it’s one of the additional things added to the rules to encourage apprentices to try their hardest.”
He shook his head, “I’m a mage? I mean, the rank, no longer an apprentice?”
Cassandra hissed, “Yes. And I can’t congratulate you for it, you’re not ready for normal missions, much less the honor of guarding the royal family over the next month, during a war. My hands are tied, I had no choice.”
He frowned, “So you think Tanner might be happy about it, because… it would make the royal family just that much more vulnerable?”
Cassandra goggled at him for a moment, then sighed, “I think you’re probably right. You need to be very careful. I was able to squeeze out one concession. You’re not ready, but you and Lia do make a great team, and work seamlessly together. Whichever family member you’ll be guarding, Lia will be on the same team. You will also be assigned as a team together when your guard mission is completed, until your magic is fully matured. Which I imagine will be right around the time your courting period is over, so that’s one bit of good news. At least you’ll be together, and can protect each other as well as the queen, or one of her children.
“Those assignments haven’t been made yet, and they’re in the hands of the queen. You’ll be working with four water and four earth mages. That was a fun conversation, you killed almost all the water mages with that war spell, they died simultaneously, so we had to figure out their order at the bottom of the top ten by other means. The last few months since her husband’s death, of the ten mage guards she’s been assigning three to her and her son, and four to the queen apparent, her daughter who is queen in truth even if without authority, while she is regent.
“In short, she’s putting her daughter first as is right, since Princess Vida is the future of the kingdom. If she’s smart, and I believe she is, you two will be guarding Vida, along with the strongest earth and water mage in the top ten. Their experience will offset both of your lack of it, and your power and flexibility will make that team much stronger.”
She measured his reaction to all this news, and then nodded, “You did well, and it’s not your fault you were caught up in politics. Save experience and raw magic power, you are ready, so depend on Lia and the others for those two lacks and follow their lead. At the same time, you have good instincts, don’t hesitate to share those sneaky ideas you come up with, but leave it up to them on if they’re implemented.
“Rules for guarding the royal family. Same rules you already know for royalty, talk only if spoken to directly, and asked a question. If you do that, I believe things will work out just fine. You eat when your charges eat. You’ll also get short breaks in the evening, when the family is together in the royal wing. In those times, half the team guards the royal family, the other half gets a short break, then they switch.
“At night, you’re back to guarding your specified charge, but the royal wing is more secure than most vaults. The royal suites are layered bedrooms. You’ll both sleep when your charge does, any attacker will have to get through you to get to their bedroom. The royal guard of course, is numerous enough that they’re stationed outside the suite, and in the receiving room, which is the room next to the first bedroom, so you can expect an alarm if something goes wrong.
“However, most assassination attempts happen during meals, or in the public parts of the castle. Still, no assumptions.”
He nodded, “I have my wards on all the time now. They’ll wake me, if the guard fails to give an outcry.”
She nodded, “Good. Lastly, your channeling practice. While on duty you won’t let your magic go below eleven twelfths, and you’re always on duty when on a mission and out of the towers. Instead of channeling for one full hour at night, I’d suggest practicing five minutes every hour during the day. You’ll get in a full hour’s practice after twelve hours, and your magic will never get below eleven twelfths of your power at any one time. The other fifty-five minutes will be more than enough time to recoup what you lost.
“This is critical, when your power stops developing so fast, channeling once a week will be enough to ensure the minimal growth of doubling every year, and to maintain your levels, but in your first apprentice year you can’t afford to take days off, or you could cripple your magic capacity and short circuit your initial fast growth period.”
He smiled, “You did tell me that before.”
She nodded, “It bared repeating, with the change to how you’re going to do it. It will be far too easy, if things get busy or hectic, to skip an hour. An hour before bed is easier to remember and stick with.”
Lia said, “I won’t let him forget. I don’t like this, but we do make a good team. There’s also a selfish part of me that’s glad we won’t be separated so much for the next six months,” she turned to him, “Was that your first war spell?”
He nodded, “I have just enough magic for the two weakest ones in the library. I didn’t plan on ever using it, at least not until my magic was strong enough to cast it two or three times, but I knew I was dead at that point and had nothing to lose.”
Lia sighed, “In real life, you should’ve called a retreat, and I’d have disengaged. None of them would’ve been able to keep up with our enhanced speed.”
“Good point,” he grinned unapologetically, “I’ll have to remember that.”
She added slyly, “On the other hand, I’m glad you sacrificed yourself for me, but only because it wasn’t real.”
He laughed, “Why’s that?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
She giggled, “So I didn’t have to turn on you, and kill you at the end.”
Cassandra set off into peals of laughter, and even he was caught up in it.
That’s what he’d figured she’d say.
He asked Cassandra, “So when does the mission start?”
She said, “You’ll relieve last month’s team in the morning, right after breakfast.”
Oh, holy crap. Time to sink or swim.
He really wasn’t ready for that, but he couldn’t deny he wasn’t glad about the same thing Lia mentioned, they wouldn’t have to be apart anymore. He supposed if they didn’t get tired of each other in six months of almost constantly being together, it’d be a good indication they could go the full distance.
Still, given Tanner’s apparent gloating about ending Olin’s apprenticeship early and assigning him to guard royalty, he had to admit that made him nervous.
The bastard was no doubt up to something, but he couldn’t imagine what. He didn’t think it would be a direct attack against the royal family, but he wasn’t sure what else his promotion effected politically speaking.
Sun of the death guild and Kaitlyn of the air guild was on his side as far as the mages gaining freedom and self-determination, instead of having jobs forced on them, paid or not, but even they were firmly against any plans of regicide and taking over the kingdom completely.
Still, what else did it leave? Unless Tanner was just hoping the enemy kingdoms would take care of that minor detail, and having him there added a weak link to their protection? He’d have to be on his toes, and at his best.
