This ring of mountains was not complete however. While no one knows why they began so early, the dwarves—led by the Hardune—prepared Basin for the coming Flood. Decades before the Avatar even escaped, they began their work of filling the low points along the circular mountain range.
-A Brief History of the Flood by Albert Moonsuckle
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“Are you nervous?” Zale asked Kole as he moved his food around his plate at lunch while Amara did the same with food on the table using her prototype auto broom.
Her blasts of air had become more controlled, and she no longer sent plates or silverware off the table, though napkins were another story entirely.
“I guess?” Kole said. “If I could turn invisible, it would be easier.”
In the past week, he’d made definite progress on improving his spells. Radiant Bolt had been reduced from 8 Will to 7, while Thunderwave had gone from 10 to 8.
“I know I have the offensive power to overpower my opponents. But if I cast Shield once, that’s nearly half my Will. The Barrier cantrip Buckler will only cost 10, but that effect is hardly worth the cost.” Kole explained.
“Don’t all your opponents have, like, 30 Will max?” Zale asked.
“Yeah, but their spells are also way cheaper,” Kole said, bordering on whining. “The standard cost of a first-tier spell with modern wizardry is 3 to 4 Will. My cheapest spell is 8.”
“Can’t you just use your blasting rod?” Zale suggested.
“No...” Kole began. “Maybe? I wish I had one of those shield artifacts Amara made.”
“Oh, you want a new device?” Amara said, joining the conversation as soon as runes came up.
Kole, who hadn’t really considered it as an option until voicing the desire thought it through. From his research, he knew Radiant Bolt and Thunderwave could each cost less than 4 Will. At which point, a Shield would serve him much better than a weaker Force blast from a runic device.
“You’d do that?” Kole asked.
Amara looked from Kole to her broom project, an internal battle going on behind her eyes.
“Ow!” Amara said, looking down at Gus who’d nibbled lightly on her wrist.
The rat was looking up at the girl with what could only be described as a glare of disappointment.
“Of course!” Amara said, with less enthusiasm than Kole would have expected from a potential new project, “I have spares but... I should really rethink the design for you. I’ll have it tomorrow. I’ll bring the gem to the study group so you can learn it.”
Feeling better about his prospects, Kole ran to class early to see if his rod would be allowed.
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“Sure,” Underbrook said, after considering for a moment. “You don’t have a gem in it, so I don’t see the problem. It's actually harder to use that than to just cast a spell.”
Relieved—slightly—Kole sat and waited for his turn.
“Kole Teak and Peer Forester,” Underbrook called to the front shortly after class began.
Kole and Peer, a taller human boy who was at least a year older than Kole, both headed to the front.
“As a reminder,” Underbrook explained as they walked down. “This room is part of the Dahn. Don’t worry about hurting each other, there are magical precautions in place that put the hardball circuit’s safety record to shame.”
“The hardball circuit has a poor safety rating?!” Kole asked, turning to Underbrook in horror. “I could have killed someone?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, it hardly ever happens,” Underbrook said, dismissing Kole’s concerns. “But I like that your head went to hurting others, and not you yourself getting hurt.”
“So, the duel goes until both of you are out of Will or one of you is deemed incapacitated by the Dahn. If you run out of Will but still have an active offensive spell effect you are not out until that fails. I have no interest to see two lanky teenagers slapping each other. That’s Tigereye’s thing.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Underbrook paused for a reaction, but when none laughed at his much more imposing colleague, he gave his “you all are zero fun” sigh and carried on.
“You will feel the pain of the hits you take, but that will be all in your mind. But... since your mind is where the concept of pain originates, I guess it is real. Have fun!”
Kole stood thirty feet across from Peer, waiting for the match to be called. He drew his blasting rod out of his sheath, and the other boy’s eyes grew wide.
“That's cheating!” he shouted, pointing.
“It's not!” Underbrook said, but when seeing that his answer wasn’t sufficient, he sighed.
“It’s a blasting rod, not a wand, and it doesn’t even have a reservoir gem. Kole here has the rune intent in his mind and is using it—essentially—as a crutch. It’s basically a single Magic Missile bolt that can miss, you can knock out of his hand, and you can see exactly where It's going to go because he has to point the damned thing.”
After that description, Kole suddenly felt a lot worse about the blasting rod that had once been such a lifesaver. He was very glad he’d already decided to replace it before coming here and hearing that.
Across from Kole, Peer’s expression grew more confident. He’d likely heard stories about Kole and his team, but like many students had sought reasons to discredit them. As Kole had long since known, teenagers don’t like it when others are better than them and are always looking for confirmation that they really aren’t. Shalin was likely busy giving reasons to everyone far and wide, and Underbrook’s statement had only reinforced the beliefs Peer had desired to be proven true.
“Go!” Underbrook shouted, and they both broke into motion.
Both students thrust their hands forward at the call, Kole with his blasting rod in hand, while Peer’s palm was facing up, fingers forked with his ring and pinkie finger together pointing to the side while his index and middle finger pointed at Kole
Peer spat out the verbal component of his spell in a quick staccato, “Roh-Ta-Kee.”
The translucent force darts shooting at Kole a moment after Kole’s single dart shot out of his rod.
Peer’s eyes grew wide at the incoming projectile, and instinctively he cast Shield, while in Kole’s opinion he could have just stepped to the side.
“Bo-Rak!” Peer spat, a little too forcibly in Kole’s opinion.
Why am I being so critical? Kole reflected.
Kole’s blast hit the barrier, causing the faintly white dome to glow purple as his magic diffused through it. While Peer could have side stepped the bolt, Kole wasn’t so fortunate.
“Bo,” Kole said, his reluctance to spend 18 Will on the spell evident in his tone.
Peer’s Magic Missiles crashed into Kole’s shield, and Kole made an executive decision. Sitting back and trading Shields would not be in his best interests.
So, he pointed his rod at Peer, sent another blast at the boy, and charged.
Peer panicked. He cast another Shield as soon as the first failed, intercepting the next two bolts Kole sent his way. He tried to cast another spell in the time between castings of Shield—something Kole was certain he himself could manage if he was wasteful enough to cast two shields back to back—but Peer lacked the confidence to time it precisely and his shield effects overlapped each other.
Kole ran at Peer, screaming a battle cry while not even realizing it and keeping up his barrage of bolts. He covered the distance, sending two more blasts at Peer while he did so. And, as he got near, it looked to all as if Kole was going to tackle the other student.
Instead, Kole dropped his rod, and brought both of his hands together, clapping in front of him and then opening them up as he sent the construct for Thunderwave out into the Arcane Realm.
The room erupted with a roar of thunder, and Peer, who had begun to backpedal as Kole got close, cast his fourth Shield of the duel.
The wave of sonic energy rippled out from Kole, and around the Shield, finding Peer behind the barrier and sending him flying backwards. Peer slid across the floor, letting out a cry of pain.
The boy clutched his ears where he landed but didn't get up. Kole looked uncertainly from his opponent to Professor Underbrook.
“Did I win?” he asked, genuinely unsure if the Dahn had deemed him the winner or not.
“Not yet,” Underbrook said, examining Peer. “He’s not completely incapacitated, but he does seem to be in more pain than he can bear. You can shoot him again if you want.”
Kole simply stood, watching the other boy, finding no desire to fire at him while he was down.
Peer, whose hearing had been damaged from the spell finally looked up, surprised that the duel was still going on. Seeing Kole looking down over him, he lifted his hands in surrender, and the duel ended.
“Kole is the victor,” Underbrook announced. “As a reminder, the Dahn will let you fight until you would be physically incapacitated from your injuries,” Underbrook explained, “But, simple pain is not enough to pull you from the match. If Mr. Forester had knocked his head during that fall it would have ended, but if you can push through your pain, you can recover a victory after a bad blow.”
Kole walked up to Peer, who was still on the ground, and offered him a hand up. Peer hesitated only a moment before taking it.
“Good job,” he said, rubbing at the phantom pain in his ears. “I thought you were going to tackle me.”
Kole looked to Underbrook, “Would that be allowed?”
Underbrook shrugged, “Sure, Gray got to use his sword, but something tells me wrestling is not a part of your planned skill set.”
It hadn’t occurred to Kole until that moment that wrestling might be a valuable skill to learn, but he could definitely see the benefits.
I should ask Zale to teach me though, before immediately thinking better of the idea.
He returned to his seat, inexplicably blushing to all those watching him, vowing to ask Rakin instead.