Kadin was asleep, he knew he was asleep, he knew he was uncomfortable but the bliss of sleep held him and that was enough for now. Hanging there between true deep sleep and the half awake state. He knew he was at the edge of a dream and if he pushed himself he could either fall back into his dream or push himself awake. He was aware that he needed to be awake and to make a move, but the strength of will to push himself to awaken was too much effort for now, he let his dreams take hold again wistfully remembering something about mirrors and reflections and oddly teeth… it felt like no time had past, then a sharp ping followed by a loud whirring noise brought him out of sleep, a trap had triggered.

A loud yelp helped bring him fully awake as he drew his blade and sprung to his feet. He looked around the perimeter of his camp site looking for the attack he expected. He did see a shape hunched and not moving but still quietly yelping, Kadin used some light flow of air and light magic to make a light orb a low tier spell that was one of the first things anyone learnt, and he used it to look around. His trap had caught a lone wolf its back left leg held in a binding of frozen air and ice, when the wolf seen Kadin it gave him a low warning growl as the fur on the back of its neck started to bunch up like a cats .. so a young wolf then. Kadin looked around for any signs of a pack but there was nothing around, and the young wolf seemed to be more afraid of Kadin than anything else, and Kadin doesn’t tent to kill animals unless they are trying to kill him first so he thought to free the animal. So he first mixed elements of earth, air, light and wind magic to cast a calming charm on the wolf which when he cast could see the beast relax and slump to the ground. He still didn’t want to approach to far as it was still a wild animal, so he got as close as he felt was safe then mixed fire earth and air elements to reverse the trap trigger after a few seconds the blue ice chill of the animals leg disappeared and dried off as this happened the wolf stood up and took a resident step finding itself free it started to bounce around the area almost triggering another trap so Kadin quickly dispersed all the traps around him and stood. As he did the wolf stopped bouncing around and was looking at Kadin it took a half step forwards then stopped, so Kadin spoke aloud to it saying.

“Well, stay safe young one .. and find a pack.”

To which the wolf just stared at him blankly before giving a quick “ruff” as a reply at that Kadin walked through the barrier.

It felt as if he had been dipped into an ice pool as if he was surrounded by freezing water but after another step he felt the blast of the heat. He checked himself over thinking he must have been soaked but he was dry and fine. The air around him however was choking it felt warm and dry there was a thickness to the air and a strong smell of sulphur and steel. A blast of hot air brought a swirling cloud of dust. The sky over head was full of clouds a deep grey almost black and the occasional flash of lightning, the flashes of lightning were different colours green, red, purple and blues every few seconds, the black clouds looked like they extended on endlessly in every direction including straight up, Kadin though ‘I wonder if these go as high as the barrier’ but then brought himself too, he had a person to find. He relaxed his mind and used his far sight spell to see what he could find around him and then he was hit with an overwhelming blast of everything his mind screamed in protest before the spell shattered. He felt a warmth trickle down his right ear, reaching up to check his fingers came away bloody. The sounds of the wind and thunder now sounding muffled. He cast a minor healing and regeneration spell on his ear, it would take a couple of hours but it should fully heal his now burst eardrum … or so he thought. A refreshing and light tingling sensation washed over him and after a few seconds receded leaving his healing fully repaired, his mind felt slightly clearer and fresher as well. Somewhat confused a thought struck him he channelled his energy to create a lightning bolt, the same as he used on the sabercat and he aimed for a rocky outcropping not to far away, as the electrical energy cracked and arced up his arm and the meeting arcs of his fingers a giant almost white bolt of energy blasted away from his hand, he could even fell the energy of it causing his arm to jolt back in recoil. There was a deafening boom and reverberating sound from the outcropping .. or more accurately where the outcropping use to be. As he looked he saw a still smoking creator in the ground and a light falling of rubble all around himself. Coming to the conclusion that the magical energies in the blasted lands must have increased the potency of his magical energies. Kadin could use up to and including sixth tier magic his most powerful spell being elemental shard cyclone, that caused a massive area of effect cyclone that would shine like a rainbow and randomly produce, converge and mix all forms of magic into jagged shards that would rip, cut and tear anything within it, the damage output was moderate but it would last for a good few hours. The down side being it would not distinguish between friend or foe so anyone inside would take damage.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

However with magic concentration in the air from the blasted lands Kadin decided to see if he could push himself to see if he could reach tier seven. Aurora taught him the basics of the seventh tier spell: duplicate – which did exactly that it, it would raise an exact duplicate of Kadin himself, it took a huge amount of magical energy and mental fortitude and would only last a few minutes but it was a gate way into tier seven. Remembering what she told him he tried to build a wall in his mind an empty blank space in his head, and into that he would need to build his copy, it was like he was trying to split his mind in two and he did feel it starting to form, his mind with parallel thoughts but both focused on the one thing it felt weird but he split his mind one half focusing on pouring energy into the other; the other half pulling energy and once he felt it solidify but he poured his magic into that half – that half absorbed his magic like a sponge on and on, he felt it start to drain him but just when he was about to cut it off it happened. A flash of lightning left a shadow in front of him a shadow that didn’t fade. Slowly it began to grow fill out and rom itself, as it was doing this the partition in Kadin’s mind felt like it was slipping on something, not slipping away from him, slipping towards the growing shadow and after a few second the shadow formed an exact copy of himself he could see himself through two set of eyes, it was the strangest feeling he ever had – but he went with it and tried to move his hand and both he and the clone moved the exact same motion – he tried again this time only focusing on the clone arm after a bit of trying he was able to do it, then tried to take a step. He felt he was just getting the hang of it the thoughts were more like moving the left arm then the right, he was about to try running when the wall came crashing down and the clone dissipated back into shadows.

As the shadow dissipated Kadin’s mind cleared and he realised what he had just done, then cursed himself for wasting time as he still had his contact. He tried again to use his long sense cast this time funnelling just a trickly of magical energy into it, this time he was not overwhelmed with all the information and he was able to see and feel around himself but of his target there was no sign, he was sure he must have crossed the barrier very close to where he was and he tried again looking for any tracks that he could follow, but after searching there was still nothing he could find, the heat and blasting wind would have covered any tracks. He walked slightly deeper into the lands past the barrier, and looking back he knew the necromancer was in a rush and heading in a pretty much straight line to the barrier .. he concluded that this was most likely going to continue so looking into the distance he dad see hills and mountains in the far distance that looked like it was in the right general direction, so he set off that way while still scanning around as much as he could to look for tracks.