The night passed restlessly. It was far too warm, and when I woke up, I pondered over what might happen the next day and could not quickly fall back asleep. As soon as I could see the ceiling above me again, I got up with relief.
Breakfast consisted of two glasses of water, the third I used to wash my face. That drove away the last drowsiness and I went to my observation post to see what was happening outside.
The people in camp were already on their feet, too. Both campfires were lit and large cauldrons hung over them. I couldn’t smell anything, but just the thought of food made my empty stomach rumble loudly. To distract myself, I got out “Magic in the World” and started reading.
Apparently, there were different types of mana after all, depending on the source, and they were better or worse for certain spells. For example, mana from a water source was excellent for water spells, but very poor for fire magic. The difference in efficiency could be as much as tenfold. Even though there was no mention of it in the book, I was pretty sure that the mana colors I could see indicated where the mana came from, and thus what it was good for. Wait, but if mages were usually tied to one type or color of mana, then my ability to change mana colors was a huge advantage!
I skimmed the next few pages and my hunch was confirmed. Mages usually specialized in a school of magic that matched their mana. An earth mage could theoretically cast air magic, but it would be so much weaker than that of an air mage that it made no sense. Schools such as Water and Ice were related, but the power was slightly reduced, and some mages had the ability to use two kinds of mana, yet were slightly weaker than the single-color mages. Wow, that was really good news!
I put the book away again and reached for the telescope to see if the foreign expedition had finished breakfast yet. Sure enough, the cooking pots were gone and the fires were out. Something was happening. Two uniformed men came out of the forest, carrying a thick branch on their shoulders with a deer tied to it with its legs up. The animal was still alive, moving its head back and forth in panic. The men took it to a sloping stone slab that had been erected next to the large tent. Was this supposed to be a sacrificial altar? The deer was tied to the corners of the slab with its head down by its legs.
All the uniformed men lined up in a formation in front of the altar. They formed two 3x3 squares, with one man standing in front of each. They had to be soldiers, or maybe mercenaries. Each of them carried three short spears on his back, a dagger sheath hung from his belt, and his left forearm was protected by a buckler.
The three differently dressed men came out of the big tent. One of them was gesticulating violently at the other two, probably trying to dissuade them, but not succeeding. He slumped his shoulders and stepped aside. The other two approached the altar.
Without thinking, I activated Magic Sight and found that it also worked through the telescope. One of the mages in front of the altar suddenly had a knife in his hand. With one swift movement, he slashed the poor animal and let its intestines fall out. A dark purple glow surrounded the knife as he cut the deer’s throat. Tentacle-like swaths of the same shade of purple spread out and were drawn into the man. Was this the Forbidden Magic? Well, I would definitely forbid something like that!
The mage turned around and pointed with both arms at the uniformed men standing in front of him. Each of them briefly glowed the purple color several times, then the formation broke up. Two groups of six went ahead, the three mages followed, accompanied by the rest of the uniformed men. They were moving towards the tower, they would arrive here in an hour at the latest.
I thought feverishly. What should I do? After what I had seen, I had little desire to confront these people, and if I stayed in the tower, that would probably be hard to avoid. Should I sneak out and hide in the forest until they were gone? But I still didn’t know how the fire salamanders would react to me, and there was only one narrow winding path that led through the lava lake. I would only be able to move slowly along it and be easily seen. How hot was it there? What if my clothes caught fire? There were too many imponderables, so I had to stay in the tower and wait to see what would happen.
This decision did not make me happy, but it was the lesser of two evils under the circumstances. With a sigh, I pulled out the book again; I had some time to kill.
The next chapter dealt with the strength of the mages. One of the criteria, but not the only one, was of course, the mana supply. Unfortunately, it was not described exactly how it could be measured and increased, it was only said that over time various techniques were developed for this. Apparently, special artifacts were used for the measurement. Interesting was the other parameter mentioned in the book Focus. At this point I immediately had to think of Aardhak’s staff, which also had a Focus. Besides such an external focus, there was also the mage’s own focus, which determined the efficiency of his magic, so to speak. So two mages could cast different amounts of magic with the same amount of mana. The native focus could probably also be strengthened, and the magic cores of the monsters played a role in this. Involuntarily, I fumbled for the magic core of the monster fish that was still bulging out my pants pocket. I was tempted to experiment with it, but in view of the imminent arrival of the strangers, it was not a good idea. Who knows what side effects would occur? It would be stupid to knock oneself out just before that.
At that moment, I suddenly felt a gust of cold wind that gave me goosebumps. I lifted my eyes from the book and was surprised to see some snowflakes swirling through the air. I let the book disappear into the storage ring and grabbed the telescope. The alien expedition was just leaving the forest and gathering on the burnt slope above the lava lake. Only a few hundred meters separated them from the tower. The mage who had rebelled against the sacrifice earlier was glowing the same aquamarine blue in Magical Sight as the refrigerator in the tower, so he cast an ice magic spell that provided cooling and snowfall.
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The power of his magic to provide a drop in temperature over such a large area was remarkable. Was it more beneficial for ice magic when it was colder in the area? The biology of fire salamanders was a mystery to me, but at least normal lizards were cold-blooded and became slow and sluggish in the cold. Was this the intention behind the spell? It could be both.
One of the other mages, by all appearances the leader, pointed his arm forward and shouted something. One of the two groups of six uniformed men who formed the vanguard ran toward the lava lake. They approached at a run a smaller fire salamander lying motionless on the shore, each of them pulling a spear from his back. When they were only 20-30 paces away, the creature noticed them and began to stir. It didn’t look like the fire salamander wanted to attack the humans, rather it wanted to disappear into the lava lake, but it had no chance to do so. As soon as the attackers noticed the first signs of movement, they stopped and threw their spears at the lizard. Two projectiles missed their target, the other four impaled the poor thing. When it was hit, the fire salamander suddenly flared up, igniting the spear shafts, then the fire disappeared again and the dead body lay petrified.
The men split into two groups of three, one turned to the left, the other to the right. They pulled the nearest spear from their backs and followed the shore, but without going in close proximity to the lava.
From my post, I could see that the remaining lizards were diving into the lava lake, so none could be attacked directly. Were they giving up without a fight? Had they been harmless and my caution unnecessary?
The disappearance of the fire salamanders did not go unnoticed. The leader called his men back and the entire squad continued to move toward the tower. About ten paces from the lava lake, they stopped. The ice mage stepped forward, the blue glow surrounding him intensified, hoarfrost covered the ground in front of him, and crept towards the lava, regardless of the heat it gave off. The man really had amazing powers!
The magic didn’t stop in front of the lava either, the icy surface slid across the lake towards the tower, the molten rock solidified and was covered in glittering ice crystals. The cold zone was a good twenty feet wide and made a nice bridge across the lava lake. As the frost spread on the stones next to the tower, the ice mage finished his spell and proudly turned to his companions.
At that moment, several bubbles formed on the surface of the lava lake, from which lava bombs shot up and flew toward the group of people on the shore. The glowing projectiles were about a meter in diameter and moved through the air at great speed, igniting the surrounding flames. It looked quite impressive and very, very dangerous.
One of the uniformed men noticed the danger and shouted to the others. The people scattered, but the three mages remained standing, unimpressed. Again, the ice mage lit up and a dome of thick ice appeared above their heads. Walls of ice formed between the dome and the ground, completely sealing the three men off from the outside world. A short time later, the lava bombs hit.
Only a few soldiers managed to get to safety, most of them were killed by the glowing rocks or hit by splinters that flew in all directions when the lava bombs exploded on the ground. Two projectiles landed on the ice dome, creating billowing plumes of steam as they hissed and ate through the ice. After the bombardment was over, one of the ice walls trickled away and the mages hurriedly emerged to avoid being buried under the rocks that had melted through the roof.
They had escaped with the scare, while their men lay dead on the ground around them or writhing in pain. Some of the wounded had caught fire and were screaming for help. With a few curt gestures, the ice mage let down rainbows on the burning figures, extinguishing the flames. The leader shouted an order and the five soldiers, who had run far enough away to avoid being hit, gathered around the mages again. They were joined by three others whose wounds were apparently not critical. Four wounded lay on the ground, unable to get up, the rest were dead, slain, burned or torn to pieces.
The leader went from one severely wounded man to another, bent down to them and put his hand on them. In Magic Sight, I could see the purple glow spread from the hand to his body and then disappear. The soldiers didn’t move after that, apparently they were dead. Was he draining the life out of them? I shuddered. I didn’t want to have anything to do with guys like that.
But I would have to if I didn’t get out of here in a hurry. They only had to cross the bridge, and then they would be in front of the tower. Fortunately, the entrance was on the other side, so if I hurried, I might still be able to escape, but it would definitely be very close. I jumped up and took one last look outside. Too late! The mages surrounded by soldiers were already on the bridge. It was no longer possible, I had to resign myself to my fate.
As the squad reached the middle of the bridge, lava rose tsunami-like on both sides and crashed onto the bridge. Again, the ice mage saved himself by growing a column of ice under his feet, which quickly brought him and the leader up and out of reach of lava. The third mage could not hold his footing on the slippery ice and fell screeching into the lava. The lower part of the column quickly melted in the heat, the rising steam obscuring the scene from my eyes. I could still see, however, that the column was beginning to tilt and the mage was making an ice support appear to the tower. The two mages were already at the height of the upper floor of the tower, and now they were making their way over this support into the tower.
This was my chance to make a run for it! I quickly put the telescope into the storage ring and ran down the stairs. Seconds later, I was at the trapdoor above the first floor. There was no time for excessive caution, but I peeked through the crack to see if there were any fire salamanders in the entrance area. There were none to be seen, I left the tower and walked towards the narrow spit of land that connected the tower with the other shore of the lava lake. The steam cloud gave me some camouflage, but it wouldn’t last long.
I quickly conjured some water in the air above me and let it flow down onto my head and clothes to protect me from the heat of the lava, then sprinted as fast as I could across the connector to the other shore and scurried into the forest.