“Line up!” The drill instructor yelled at all of us. There were about fifteen Neame, and their familiars, currently present for today’s combat training, including myself and Jake. I was perched on Jake’s saddle, and he had for some reason begun standing incredibly straight. I do not know how he had the energy for it after we had spent all day climbing down Dragon’s Hoard. “Today’s exercise is to train your teamwork. Not between your fellow soldiers and medic, but between yourselves and your familiars.” The instructor loudly announced. “Look out onto today’s training area! You will see several metal dummies. Your goal today is to land three attacks on the dummies, to be clear, that is three for you and for your familiar as well. You may achieve these attacks as you see fit, but be warned,” he stopped talking. The dummy I was looking at suddenly started spinning and floating in the air, then it began to shoot flames from its center of mass. “These dummies like to hit back.” The instructor concluded his… rousing… speech by asking who wanted to go first.
“I will sir,” one Neame volunteered. I did not know his name, but it was the one with the Black Serpent familiar.
“A member of our last familiar training session’s winning team, step forward Lauric Isbala.” The instructor said. “Take whatever position on the field you’d like and begin on my order.” Lauric left his familiar’s saddle and flew to a boulder on the battlefield. His familiar went to the opposite end of the field and hid inside a pocket of tall grass. Then the black serpent did something I certainly had not expected… it disappeared.
“Now that is some good camouflage.” Jake mumbled.
“I knew Black Serpents could do such things, but I did not expect them to be so effective at it.” I said stunned. Seemingly, all of the recruits were impressed with Lauric’s familiar’s ability. So much so that we were all ordered to be silent by the instructor.
“Begin!” the instructor called out and Lauric and his familiar, which was now blending in almost perfectly with the tall yellow grass, went on the attack. Lauric flew high up and then dive bombed straight at the dummy, meanwhile his familiar snuck up behind it. As Lauric was falling, he launched a fire spell at the dummy, engulfing the creation in flames for a moment. Just as he neared impact, Lauric flared his wings, cutting his speed, and pulled up and to the right, narrowly missing one of the contraptions many segmented limbs that were splayed in all directions. Really it appeared more like a bush without any leaves rather than a training tool, but the fire that shot out of its limb and burned Lauric’s feathers told a different story.
“Reahhhhhhhiiiiisssss!” The serpent familiar cried out and launched itself through the air. Its body collided with the dummy and encircled it, then it unhinged its jaw and sprayed some kind of green liquid onto the dummy before releasing it and retreating back to the tall grass. It had bought its master enough time to escape, and Lauric was back in the sky preparing another attack. This time, he attempted to use the ground and the dirt by casting a spell to immobilize the device. Pillars of rock and dirt surrounded the dummy on all sides, then came crashing down on top of it, pinning it to the ground and preventing it from flying away. Lauric wasted no time diving down for another attack, forming another fire spell and slamming the flames into the dummy. His familiar once again came out of hiding, but this time it was not from the grass, but from one of the boulders Lauric had used earlier. It had changed its color from yellow to brown to blend in, but was now dropping its camouflage and landing the final blow on the dummy.
“Impressive,” the instructor called out to Lauric and his familiar as they approached and rejoined the group. “Now who would like to go next?”
“Jake, do you want to go next?” I asked him privately. He remained quiet for a moment, in thought.
“No, let’s let someone else go next and see what strategies work best against that thing.” He suggested. I agreed, and we decided to wait.
“No takers?” The instructor called out. “Well then I guess-” he started to say, but just as he did, a recruit flew up and landed with the rest of the recruits. “Recruit! Why are you late?!” The instructor yelled.
“Apologies sir,” The Neame replied, “I overslept and-” the poor recruit tried to explain, but as soon as he said overslept… the instructor had heard enough.
“OH! WERE YOU TIRED? Well… let’s help wake you up! Summon your familiar recruit, you’re next in today’s battle exercises.” The instructor ordered.
“Yes sir,” the Neame said meekly. With that, he raised his wings, and activated his summoning spell. It was an odd spell, as the magic circle did not form on the ground, but in the air, and we all soon saw why. His familiar flew out of the magic circle, which was floating sideways in the air, with surprising speed. However, its appearance was the real shock.
“Is that a flying fish?!” Jake asked stunned.
“It... appears so,” I acknowledged, equally amazed.
“How’s it floating like that?” He wondered. “It’s just… hanging in the air.”
“I have no idea; it does not make sense.” I stated.
“What is it called?” Jake wondered.
“I do not know,” I said, “I did not hear him call a name. He might not have given it one.”
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“No, I mean what is its species name?” He wondered.
“I do not know, I have never seen a creature like that before, at least not in the air.” I told him.
“Get to the field recruit,” the instructor ordered. The Neame and his familiar flew over to the training area and took a position together far away from the dummy. “BEGIN!” The instructor yelled. With that, the dummy began spinning and started to close in on the pair. This is where I realized something I had not before, just how widely varied a battle against an enemy could be. Where Lauric and his Black Serpent immediately began charging in and attacking the dummy, this Neame and his familiar chose to attack from a distance. The floating fish creature took a position between the dummy and its master, then immediately began attacking the dummy from a distance. It shot bolts of lightning from its mouth, which crashed into the dummy with frightening force. One… two… three times the creature shot its attacks and each time it hit with unyielding precision.
“A flying fish… that shoots lighting.” Jake mumbled, probably as enthralled by the spectacle as I was.
“Now he only needs to land three attacks himself,” I noted. It was then I noticed something interesting, the Neame was preparing to use combo magic. “Jake, do you remember when I told you about combo magic?” I asked.
“Um, yes… why?” He wondered.
“I believe you are about to get a demonstration.” I said. I could tell what was going on, combo magic is a technique all mages learn if they plan on getting, or already have, a familiar. We learn it at the academy, and it has two telltale signs. First, a magic circle is cast around both the master and the familiar. Second, a wave of mana travels down the circle’s connection points from the familiar to the master. Both were occurring between the pair as we watched. The dummy was beaten down, parts were falling off, and it was only inches above the ground now. I could only imagine how much damage it must have sustained between this fight and Lauric’s.
“Oh forest, grow and spread at my command, heed my call and ensnare my enemies,” the Neame began to chant.
“It must be a complex spell if he needs to chant,” Jake theorized. In truth, it probably was not nearly as complex as some of the spells I had seen him do, but I doubt he realizes that.
“Lightning, flow and penetrate this forest, become whole and roar!” As soon as he finished his chant, vines erupted from the ground and entangled the broken remains of the dummy. Once it was immobilized, the vines began to explode. One-by-one they detonated and released bolts of energy in every direction. In moments, the fight was over, and the dummy was defeated.
“Now that was cool,” Jake smiled.
“Indeed, Combination Magic is a powerful tool.” I replied.
“Good job recruit,” the instructor complimented. “Now, who is next?”
“Suma, I think we should go next.” Jake stated.
“But I thought you wanted to wait and watch?” I questioned.
“I did, but now I want to give it a go.”
“Jake… remember… we cannot use magic like that. Our combination would-” I said, but he cut me off.
“I know… I remember what happened. But I don’t want to do that. I just think we can handle it.” He said confidently. I thought about it for a moment, and relented. If Jake thought it was a promising idea, I would trust him.
“Sir, my familiar and I would like to go next.” I announced.
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Jake’s POV
“Alright then, take your positions on the battlefield and begin on my command.” He acknowledged. Suma fluttered up to my shoulder and rested on the perch on my armor.
“So Jake, do you have a plan?” She asked as we approached the field.
“I do, this thing is weak to long range attacks, and I think I have just the thing to get my strikes in.” I told her as I made my plan.
“Care to enlighten me?” She asked. I reached into my bag and pulled out a handful of steel ball bearings I had purchased a few days ago after I had an idea for a spell.
“With these,” I told her. She stayed quiet for a moment, looking a bit concerned if her tilted head was anything to go by.
“Jake, I know you are strong… but you realize that training dummy is made of metal, right?” She asked. “How do you plan on throwing those hard enough to do damage?”
“I don’t,” I said. I explained my plan to her, she seemed warry, but agreed to go through with it. If everything goes as planned, then we will both get our hits in no problem. We took our positions, I was far away from the dummy, and she was covering me until my spell was done. It was a complex spell, like nothing I had ever tried before, but I was fairly sure it would work.
Once we were in our positions the instructor gave the call to start, “Begin!” As he said that, the new dummy that had been brought out lurched forward quickly… in fact, it was much faster now than in the other rounds. It rushed at Suma and started spinning its, comparatively, huge metal arms around. She flew straight up and began her half of the plan… meanwhile I began my half. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but she didn’t need to be, she just needed to buy me some time.
“Fly Crimson Bolt!” She yelled and cast her spell. A lance of fire, just like the one she used when that magistrate attacked us, flew at the dummy. I had expected it to slam into the dummy and score her one of her needed hits, but instead the thing suddenly leaned and narrowly avoided being hit. It was like some kind of spinning top of doom the way it was moving and twirling. “Fly Crimson Bolt!” She yelled again and launched another attack. Once again, the dummy dodged.
While this was happening, I was focusing on the balls and the spell. There are four fundamental forces of the universe: the Strong Force, the Weak Force, Gravity, and the Electro-Magnetic Force. Of these four, I was attempting to manipulate the final one. I had been preparing for this spell for a while now, studying military documentaries about the technology, and looking up videos on the internet to gain a better understanding. I started by envisioning the target becoming magnetized, and drawing the ball bearings closer at an ever increasing pace, then I used magic to create a kind of rail system along the path I wanted the ball to follow. As the ball would go, it would be pulled along by electro-magnetism through the air, and suspended with my mana. But that is where the documentaries and I began to split. Technology had its limits, pulling something with magnetism is easy, but switching the polarity at the halfway mark is nearly impossible… unless you have magic. While the spell was pulling the balls along with magnetism, it would also be generating a reversed polarity behind the ball, driving it forwards.
“Jake, how much longer?” Suma asked as she dodged a flame attack from the dummy.
“Now! Dodge!” I yelled and took aim. This spell was different, unique, and hard to imagine. I needed something solid to picture as I cast it. Suma had mentioned that her people did this occasionally too, so I thought I would try it out. “RAILGUN!” I proclaimed and activated the spell.