Knowing the coming training wouldn’t be easy, but relishing the challenge, Pax pulled his clubs from his inventory, bent his knees and shifted his weight to his toes. Around him, the other students scrambled to do something similar, though many didn’t have any weapons besides their spells. The sounds and feel of air mana activating filled the training ground with a sudden vitality.
“Begin.” Warwick stepped back out of the way, her eyes missing none of their preparations and just as obviously deciding they wouldn’t be enough.
At her sharp word, the three assistants leapt forward, fading from view again and moving too fast to follow. Following his instincts, Pax immediately dove sideways into a roll, using all the Agility he could summon. Knowing their attackers were likely to take them all down quickly, Pax activated his Wind Walker armor perk, giving him a fifty percent boost to movement speed and jump height for a minute. Hopefully, there’d be at least a five-minute recovery break between sessions for the perk to reset. Pax suspected he’d be desperate for speed boosts for the rest of the class.
He came out of the roll faster than he went into it. A rush of air just behind him let him know how close he’d come to taking one of the first blows of the exercise. Cries of pain came in a staggered rush around him.
Pax saw a familiar head of brown hair and in an instant decided having an ally would be critical to lasting longer. He ran toward Sonas, who held both hands raised, full of mana and ready to cast as he frantically looked for the invisible attackers. They’d paired up during the last training session Graybrew held before the Purge, the one using the specialized artifacts to create a safe training area where the students wouldn’t actually get hurt.
Pax scoffed as he sprinted toward Sonas. He didn’t think Mage Warwick would ever use that kind of training. Realistic battle and actual injuries seemed much more her style.
“Sonas! Pax here. Fight back to back with me.” Not waiting for an answer, Pax turned and planted his back foot next to Sonas’ and switched out his left club for his shield.
Just in time. The slightest flare of warning had him raising his shield and ducking his head to take a blow that felt much too powerful to come from a padded club. Without his armor’s boost, he’d have taken a brutal blow to the head. Pax still staggered back from the force, doing his best not to fall back into Sonas.
“Nice one, kid.” The three words and a fierce grin were all Pax got before the space in front of him was empty again.
“These guys are crazy fast!” Sonas said, his voice raised to be heard above the yells and spell sounds.
“Stick with me and let’s head to that wall.” Pax flicked his club to his right. “It’ll protect our rear, and we’ll each have a smaller area to watch.”
Sonas didn’t bother answering, already in motion. Pax hurried to stay close, not wanting to give their attackers even a small opening.
Pax caught sight of an incoming attacker just before the glimmer of a club rushed toward Sonas’ legs from low on the left and to the side. Pax acted on instinct, whipping his club through the air so fast it hummed. He aimed for the attacker’s club, hoping to knock it into the ground before it took out Sonas’ legs.
He was still too slow. At least, his rapid response let him finally glimpse the attacker, club stretched out and a black leather-clad torso sweeping in with a harsh grin on her face.
Her? Pax didn’t let the surprise interfere with his counter, pushing his muscles to move even faster. He wasn’t able to knock her attack aside, but with a hard thud that was gratifying, he slammed his club into her forearm.
So many things happened at once that Pax wished he could use his Haste and Sphere to keep track. Sonas yelled out in pain as the attacker smashed his legs out from under him, sending his body flipping to the ground. Jerking her arm away from Pax’s blow, she gave him a glance of surprise that was gone, along with her, in the next blink. Then, the side of his head exploded with pain in the following blink. His thoughts spun out of control as his legs buckled.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Pax fell forward toward Sonas’ tangled limbs, only some survival instinct enabling him to turn just before hitting the ground and bring his shield up to cover both of them. Mind struggling to regain control over his body, Pax felt two more rapid thumps into his shield that made the pain in his head surge with each impact.
He sagged back, desperately tapping into his Meditation skill. He grabbed every nearby strand of mana and shoved it toward his head. Disoriented, he did his best to regain his senses and keep his shield above both of them, while Sonas struggled halfway underneath him.
Something grabbed his shoulder, and he whipped his shield that direction, knowing he was too late.
“Stop it. I’m getting us to the wall like you said. Remember?”
Sonas. Pax let his muscles slump again as he felt the ground sliding beneath him. If he didn’t get his thoughts cleared up, he’d be out of this battle completely. He let everything else go and focused. As soon as the soothing power of his light mana gained a foothold in his mind, his mind cleared enough to boost the speed of healing.
He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but Pax was back. He pushed himself to his feet, shield up and eyes scanning the battlefield and looking for the elusive attackers. Every student was down and groaning in pain.
Mage Deepwell leaned over a still figure on the ground. A boy sat in the chair, slumped against the back, with an empty potion bottle in his hand. His eyes were down, avoiding meeting anyone’s gaze.
Eyes constantly moving, Pax noticed the shimmers of black that came in and out of view beside Mage Warwick. At his movement, her head snapped toward him, and she gave him the barest of nods before smiling.
A sudden flash of dread hit him as the palpable attention of her assistants focused on him, too.
“Just one of you,” Warwick said with a flick of her hand to the three. “So, it’s not completely impossible.”
“Sonas. We’ve got incoming.” Pax braced himself back against the wall and rapidly cast a series of Bulwarks in a scattered semicircle in front of him.
“I’ll take low. You take high.”
A quick glance, and Pax realized Sonas wasn’t standing with him. Instead, he hunched on the ground, face twisted in pain as he tucked his injured legs out of the way. Pax didn’t have time now, but would thank the boy later for kicking along the ground despite his injured legs to drag both of them to the wall.
One of Pax’s Bulwarks to the left popped like a soap bubble. “Left. 10 o’clock. Attack now.”
Just above the ground, Pax felt the whoosh of Sonas’ Razor Wind lashing out in rapid pulses, one after the other. Pax threw out his hands, summoning a myriad of small Bulwarks in a burst between them and the invisible incoming attacker.
Pax felt a sudden solidarity with Sonas. Obviously, there was no way they could take out even one of the high-level attackers, but they refused to go down without doing their best.
Pax’s Bulwarks popped in a rapid sequence of lost mana. However, bursting through so many spells, their attacker flickered in and out of view. It was just the advantage they needed. Sonas quickly adjusted his aim, shoving a large pulse of mana at the incoming danger, only steps away now.
A surprised yelp rewarded them both, but didn’t delay the inevitable by much. Pax tensed, ready with one last surprise for an attacker that likely underestimated them. The instant his last Bulwark popped, he Aeroshifted directly to that space. Already spinning back to face his previous position, Pax whipped his club in a strike at shoulder height, praying to catch just a piece of their attacker.
Sonas had just taken a blow across both of his upraised arms that knocked him back into the wall. The barest hint of a head and torso appeared, spinning to find Pax. He barely managed to stop his instinctive use of Water Blades along his club. He pushed all his coiled power, snapping to the end of the blunt club.
A cry of effort and battle rage burst out of Pax as he felt his club slam into something solid.
The yelp from the attacker held genuine pain this time, and the full figure of the same woman popped into view. Her hand had moved to her neck as she finished spinning to find him. Her gaze narrowed. Too fast to track, both of her clubs whipped at him.
Expecting retaliation, he’d pulled his shield up immediately after his strike and already reinforced it with a Bulwark. It didn’t matter. Blows hit him so fast and hard that his body rumbled and vibrated with growing pain. The ones that hit his head knocked away whatever sense he’d recovered. His body flew to the side, and this time he stayed down, dazedly admiring how soft the grass felt against his aching cheek.
The barrage finally stopped. Pax turned his head, looking for Sonas. He, too, was flat on the ground. But when their gazes met, they both managed triumphant grins . . . until Mage Warwick spoke.
“You have five minutes before we go again.”
Pax jolted, his body and mind having already faded to the post-battle state. But they obviously weren’t done. He blinked hard, dragging on his reluctant Meditation to help him recover again.
“And no potions.”
A collective groan arose around Pax which he ignored, focusing on cycling both his Healing and mana recovery. Where were Dahni and Neptid when he needed a boost to his regeneration? He realized it wouldn’t take too many sessions before all of them were completely out of mana. Somehow, he knew Warwick did that on purpose.
Pax let out a long, painful breath, before sinking into his recovery. Spell class had just leveled up. . .by a lot.