Flame roared out of the mage’s hands in a deadly stream toward Tasar’s and Bryn’s bunker. She didn’t notice the glistening surge of translucent slime that swarmed over her foot and climbed up her body in a rapid wave until it was too late. She didn’t have time for more than a surprised squawk before Whisk engulfed her hands, pinching out the spell like taking care of a small candle before bed.
A half second later, Whisk enveloped her head, the horror in her eyes glistening through the slime before she fell back in a frantic spasming to get free. The spells from the mages to either side of her sputtered as they stared in fear at the fate of their friend.
It was just the distraction Tasar and Bryn needed. Ignoring the smoking bunker walls, they launched an unopposed counter attack, hurling their spears into the face of the now-crumbling attack.
Pax’s eyes widened in admiration when Tasar’s throw pierced the oncoming formation like a lightning strike, driving straight through the shoulder of a lead warrior to slam into the chest of the mage behind him. Both of them flew backward with cries of pain and surprise. Tasar’s Retaliate ability had leveled enough to boost a spear attack significantly against anyone who’d attacked his allies.
Pax expected the two warriors would follow the plan and abandon the forward bunker through the tunnels while Amil executed his finale. Powered by Neptid’s ability to turn an attack into an area spell, Amil created an enormous wave of molten heat in front of their enemies. It rose over them an instant before crashing down in a fiery flood that covered almost the entire attacking force.
Air, water and earth spells rose immediately to combat it. The air, however, splattered the spreading flame everywhere. The other spells didn’t have the coverage to stop everything in time. Hair caught on fire. Armor smoked. Yells rang out, and the already slowing charge halted completely.
Pax threw out a last series of Bulwarks to prevent them getting any closer, but they weren’t needed. With sharp cries, their leaders ordered a hasty withdrawal to chase after the retreating caravan. Pax laughed at the colorful curses thrown their way and made a note of some for the future.
We did it! Pax pounded a victorious fist on the earthen wall before turning to give Rin a happy smile. Everyone want to join me, Rin and Dahni behind bunker 4?
Rin returned his smile before slumping back in her chair. With weary moves, she exchanged her bow for a walking stick to lever herself up. Pax held out a hand, brows raised in question. She shook her head.
“Give Dahni a hand. He’s more wiped out than I am.”
Seeing the sheen of sweat on Dahni’s pale face, Pax nodded, moving quickly to pull out a mana potion for him.
Dahni sucked it down greedily, letting out a relieved sigh afterward. Pax helped him out of the bunker, moving behind it after a cautious glance to make sure the caravan fighters had truly moved on.
The rest of the squad arrived piecemeal, looking chewed up by the fight but relatively intact and happy.
“And that’s how you execute an ambush!” Amil’s exuberance was tempered by pale skin and shakiness similar to Dahni’s. “Make sure to tell Neptid thanks for the Splash Buff. I love how that works. If only it weren’t so expensive to use together with my Molten Storm.”
“He says thanks.” Dahni sent a weak clap to Amil’s shoulder. “It’s an awesome finishing combination.”
“That it is,” Pax said, peering around the bunker to check on the disappearing caravan. They’d just reached the distant forest. When they didn’t turn back, he straightened and turned to the others. “Anyone ready for another run?”
That got a chorus of groans before everyone plopped down to meditate and push their internal healing to recover quickly. Pax knew they couldn’t make the start of the last fight, but didn’t want to miss the entire thing. Still, with the leg injuries and mana exhaustion, they wouldn’t be of any use in the coming fight if they didn’t pause to heal and recover their mana.
Despite hurrying, they could hear cheering replacing the din of battle when they finally made it to the large clearing before the end of the road.
“Well, at least our guys are the happy ones, not theirs,” Rin said as they stepped out of the forest to a scene of weary ambushers pumping weapons in the air while the surviving defenders sat on the ground in surrender.
“Hey, Beast Squad. Welcome to the party.” A water mage had noticed them and waved them over with a big grin. “Thanks for softening them up for us. When they limped in here, they were almost too easy to beat with all of us together.”
“Yeah.” A warrior walked up, slinging her ax over her shoulder as she gave them a nod of acknowledgement. “Whatever you did messed them up. And they were so busy being angry and blaming each other that they barely mustered a decent defense.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Our ambush clinched the victory, not theirs.” A gruff, arrogant voice spoke up from the side. “Too bad we have to share the war games points with the latecomers.”
Pax knew before he turned, it would be the air mage who’d objected to his leadership at the start.
“Quit the attitude, Voss,” the warrior student said. “It was obvious to everyone that the caravan was on its last legs before it rolled into the clearing. And since I ran the third ambush and know we didn’t do as much damage as we’d have liked, it’s obvious the Beast kids hit the hardest of all of us. And by the condition they’re in, they paid for it. Now buzz off.”
Voss turned all of his anger on the woman with the ax, but she completely ignored him as she tipped her head in respect toward Pax and his squad. “Thanks for giving us the win. I’m Kaelin Wren, third-year warrior student, and I favor the ax.”
“Nice!” Amil said, pulling his ax back out and tipping it toward the woman.
“Hey. You’ve got good taste. Any mage that also carries a weapon is a lot smarter in my book. Let me know if you want to work together again. If we have a chance during these war games, I’d be happy to fight by your side again, even if you’re all first years.”
Before they could do more than nod, she’d turned and disappeared into the milling students, some of whom were goofing off now that the battle was over.
A blaring horn silenced everyone. Assistant mages and warriors emerged from out of the forests, quickly throwing out orders and organizing the cleanup. Crafter Bennet and his assistants hurried around collecting the specialized equipment and placing the force dampeners in their special cases with care. Healers made their way through the injured, using a mix of potions and healing spells to get everyone back on their feet.
At least a few mages had enough mana left to help move the broken wagons and smooth out the landscape again. It took less than a half hour before they were all back at the starting area, where another set of teams bounced around, eager to take their turn.
“I’m not sure what the difference between war points and academy points are, but I’m glad we’re starting off with a nice boost,” Rin said as they headed out of the arena organizing area with both tired and cheerful steps. “And I got a lot better gains on my spells and skills than I would during regular training. Not as much as fighting actual beasts, but still.”
As their steps slowed, Pax waved them to step off to the side and out of the way to check their notifications.
***
Companion Skill Boost: +13 to Talpa’s Share Senses Level 2 (Rare) - 52/200
Companion Skill Boost: +8 to Talpa’s In Plain Sight Level 2 (Uncommon) - 34/200
Companion Skill Boost: +22 to Talpa’s Phasing Passage Level 2 (Uncommon-evolved) - 76/200
Companion Skill Boost: +18 to Whisk’s Malleable Ambush Level 4 (Rare) - 234/400
Companion Skill Boost: +24 to Whisk’s Corrosive Grasp Level 5 (Epic-evolved) - 78/500
Companion Skill Boost: +5 to Whisk’s Aqueous Camouflage Level 5 (Elite-evolved) - 44/500
Congratulations! You have increased Agility from 13 to 14
Improvement to your Path of Understanding Air: +12 Level 4 - 42/400
Skill Boost: +4 to Shields Level 2 (Common) - 128/200
Skill Boost: +24 to Battle Strategist Level 3 (Uncommon) - 50/300
Skill Boost: +13 to Universal Beast Tamer Level 3 (Rare) - 257/300
Spell Boost: +16 to Chain Bulwark Level 2 (Elite-evolved) - 174/200
Spell Boost: +10 to Windscale Shroud Level 1 (Elite) - 47/100
War Game Points: 13 (+13)
***
Pax loved seeing all the gains, glad to see how his work with his companions had boosted his Taming. Spamming so many Bulwarks had given the spell a nice jump toward the next level and his Shroud was coming along nicely. He needed to decide if he wanted to evolve it soon. And Talpa and Whisk had done amazing.
Nice going, guys, Pax sent to his two companions. And dang, Whisk? How many people did you use your Corrosive Grasp on during the battle?
Lots and lots and lots! Whisk sounded so pleased with himself that Pax had to laugh.
“Yeah, I think we all did really well.” Amil had a matching smile on his face. “Using my Molten Storm as a splash spell gave it an amazing boost!”
“Plus, I got 13 war game points,” Dahni said. “What about you guys?”
“The same.” Bryn gave him a nod. “It is an excellent start on establishing how skilled we are.”
“I’m hoping the academy gathers a bunch of nice loot we can spend it on,” Amil said.
It’ll be worth it even if it just lets everyone know how valuable we are to the empire, Pax sent, already thinking ahead to their first day working as interns for the Steelshade Vanguard group.
The others nodded their agreement and got moving again. Just as they left the arena gates, a young messenger girl came running toward them down the path. They stepped aside to let her pass, but she did a double take before skidding to a halt and pulling out a folded piece of parchment from her pouch.
“Mage Student Pax Vipersworn? Please make your mark here to acknowledge receipt of this message.” In her other hand, she held out a clipboard.
A rush of worry shot through Pax. His first thought was it was one of the emergency team messages to evacuate. But then he looked down and saw his name inked next to a small blank box. He looked at his friends in question. He’d never had to sign for a message before. His friends shrugged, and he looked back at the girl, who waited impatiently.
“Who is it from?” he asked, his suspicions growing.
“I don’t know. It’s sealed.”
He narrowed his eyes at her.
“Sorry. I’m just paid to deliver them. This one has a proof of delivery request.” She hesitated and took in their worn look. “I can say that is the official academy stamp. Most of these are official business from the academy clerks. But I don’t know if it’s good or bad news. And there’s no point refusing. They’ll just track you down another way.”
This time, when she pushed the clipboard his way again, he inked his first name in the little box. A moment later, he held a folded piece of parchment sealed with blobs of stamped red wax that he’d have to break to read what was inside.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.