image [https://i.imgur.com/yFu9mOD.png]

XII

Sorcerer Battle

This time, I was prepared.

My narrowed eyes hooded themselves against the light, allowing me a glimpse of the lightning discharge coming straight at me. Caster cast a barrier. The thunderstrike blew through the shield, but it slowed down enough for me to jump out of the way before it slammed into the earth, sending debris flying everywhere.

Landing from my jump, I rushed to find cover behind a larch. I was in such a rush I forgot to command my undead, yet when I peeked from my hiding spot, they were already in motion. Durak was controlling them.

Good black orc, I smiled.

I searched for the shaman. He wasn’t far from where I’d last seen him because of his injury, but he was getting away. My tongue clicked. Could the others chase him? The ones I’d left with Jaeger gave the distinct sensation of being in combat. The one with Malakai was running towards me but he was far—

I leapt out of the way of a lance of pure fire that penetrated through the trunk I was hiding behind and slung a shard as I got out of my roll. The sorceress blasted it out of the air with a trifling spell.

I cursed. Her magic was truly in another class.

No matter. Casting this many potent spells will tire her. I just need to survive until then.

In front, Durak started a mad dash. He and the two other melee undead devoured the distance towards the sorceress while Caster provided cover fire. A simple plan. But a smart one. She couldn’t strike them all down at once and only one of them had to reach her…

So then why was she lazily watching the charge happen?

‘Idiots.’ Her voice roiled over the space between us, clear despite the distance and chaos of battle. She pointed her staff at Caster. The undead shaman had erected a barrier in front of him that he used as cover while casting. He tried to fire a bolt,

When an implosion whistled from the staff.

Flames shot out in a concentrated beam that pierced his barrier, chest, and the ground, digging to an unknown level in the earth’s crust.

My breathing turned uneven. Though it had missed the heart, the smouldering hole in Caster’s chest was big enough you could clearly see the environment on the other side.

Horrifying, I thought. But—

The sorceress minutely shook her head. She languidly glanced from Caster to Durak, who was halfway up the mound.

And was forced to erect a hasty barrier when Caster’s spell still fired.

—fortunately not enough.

‘What?’ she said.

Durak was there, caring not one bit about her surprise. His axe whined, and the blade aimed to cleave her at the midsection. The sorceress’s hand pulsed a bright blue at the last moment. An invisible force pushed against my captain’s weapon, making him strain as he tried to bisect her, but the weapon couldn’t move closer.

Now, the human and orc undead were in range. The human’s profile and blade went low, going for her abdomen, while the orc tried to smash in her skull with an overhead blow.

The sorceress grunted. Her staff, which was holding up the barrier keeping Caster’s spells at bay, slammed straight into the floor, freeing up her other hand. She swept her arm. The human flew into a nearby tree before she brought her arm back and froze the orc in mid-air with the same invisible force she used to block Durak’s axe.

Her wide motions had blown the hood of her cloak back, leaving silver light to reflect off golden hair, beautifying her smooth, pale skin. With her hands outstretched, the woman was like titan holding up the world.

But she was a stationary titan. And I was already running.

My human undead got to his feet. Caster requested more miasma, which I gave to him easily. Anything to keep her pinned; if either the human or I reached her, this battle was over.

Of course, the sorceress understood that, too. She yelled, and her high-pitched voice shrieked past the treetops as a pulse of brown light travelled down her staff.

A moment of pause, then the mound exploded.

My arms shielded my face from the launched earth, and I backpedalled until I hit a tree to hide behind. The rumbling underneath my feet and the ringing in my ears didn’t vanish until seconds later. My undead frantically tugging on our bond replaced the noise.

What was happening to them? I peeked the corner just as a frostbolt pierced through the dust cloud obstructing my vision. The sorceress was standing on the broken mound, chest heaving up and down. Around her, trees and roots lay mixed with a mass of earth.

My heart sank. My undead were underneath the debris, unable to move.

‘What is that?’ the woman said. She wiped her mouth and glared at Caster. ‘Why is he not dead?’

Though I would love to gloat, speaking would reveal my position. My mind raced. Those were most of my forces incapacitated. Who remained? The ones with Jaeger gave the distinct sensation of being in combat. The orc I’d left with Malakai was closer but still too far. That meant I had Caster and the lvl. 1 human with the broken legs.

I bit my lips. This was bad.

I ordered Caster to rush for cover while I began shaping ice shards, keeping my miasma tightly contained so to not leak energy and give myself away. She’s tired, I thought. Which meant her senses were weakened. That’s my chance. All we had to do was layer our abilities at the right moment.

That hopeful plan heated my chest.

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‘No matter.’

The cold voice swallowed the bubbling heat and sent a chill up my spine. The sorceress flipped her staff horizontally, and a bright, red sphere covered in runic letters appeared beneath Caster’s feet. ‘We’ll find out if he’s indestructible.’

Eyes going wide, I commanded Caster to drop his barrier and run faster—

The ground underneath the undead exploded as the shadow of a spell I had seen before lit up the night. Flames rose high into the sky. The warm hues contrasted with the dark, exuding a radiant, glistening, and comforting atmosphere. And at the peak of the pillar, I thought I saw the silhouetted face of a great avian.

It vanished with the flames. There was no thud of a body dropping to the floor, and I released my breath. Caster had survived the attack. But when I ordered him to keep moving, he didn’t respond. I tried again, forcing the command down our bond, which was when I noticed there was no bond. Lead sunk into my boots. There’s been no thud because there was nothing where the undead had previously been. Not his clothes or a patch of dead skin.

Caster had been destroyed.

‘So not unkillable.’ A chuckle came from above. The sorceress was floating in the air, robe utterly drenched, hair plastered to her skin. Yet her descent was controlled, as if she was a deity, descending. ‘Just hard to kill,’ she finished, then added: ‘But what about you?’

Her staff struck the air, and a wave of fire as sharper than a knife poured forth. The tree crashed to the floor. There was no blood, for I wasn’t there; I’d used Caster’s death as cover to change positions.

‘You love to hide,’ she observed. She landed from her semi-flight and tilted her head. ‘Where is your zeal? Weren’t you going to deal with me, Warden?’

Her words rung ominously in the now-turned-clearing of the woods. I suppose this was when a lesser person no longer saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

But not me.

You’ve been exposed to certain destruction many times before, Sepharin. A confident brat won’t be the last.

My eyelids closed. I regulated my breathing. Sounds in the outside world died, the thundering of my heart weakened, and all of my mental prowess poured into the spell I was crafting. This would work, I told myself, and my sight honed in like that of a hawk.

The sorceress turned this way and that, surveying her surroundings, spreading her exhausted senses to search for a magical trace. I picked my moment when she turned the opposite way of where I was hiding.

My blade flashed as I darted from cover, the dozen or so shards I had formed already in flight. The sorceress whirled around and a breath of flame spread in front of her like a wall. Some shards made it through, but not one hit.

I grimaced. Though I hadn’t hoped for a kill, I’d wanted at least one of them to damage and distract her. But now I was already running and abandoning my charge meant death.

The head of her staff snapped towards me. The flames forming at the tip were a lot less vibrant than they had first been, but they would kill me all the same.

‘You should’ve listened to me and left—’ she monologued.

I threw my blade.

She stepped back and flung the blade from its trajectory with a swipe of her entire body. ‘I hope,’ she wheezed, ‘you were as sorry a Warden as you are a magician. At least then your presence won’t be missed.’

Flames returned to her staff. I needed three more steps to close the gap, but those three steps may as well have been the distance between heaven and earth.

‘Die.’

…

The spell she built up didn’t fire. Instead the sorceress yelped as her feet were dragged out from under her, causing her vision to swim (it was just clear enough to see the crawling undead yanking on her legs), and she faceplanted.

She rolled onto her back and tried to whirl her staff at me but I was quicker. My boot smashed against her wrist, and she screamed as the staff flew out of her grip. Her eyes spun towards me. All bravado was gone, replaced with pure, unadulterated fear.

‘Wait—’

There was a sickening crack as my gauntlet dislocated her jaw. Her head snapped to the side, and she sprawled, whining. The angle was too awkward to repeatedly punch her face, so I dragged her by the scruff of the neck into a chokehold. I rolled us over so I was lying on my back and she was facing the sky.

She tried to pull on my arm which did nothing but break her nails on my gauntlets.

My mouth hovered beside her ear. I smiled. ‘Whose the sorry magician now?’

Her attempt to speak was nothing but sputters. She gave up on my arm and began to claw at my face. When that, too, didn’t show any sign of working, a warped wail exited her throat as tears streamed down her cheeks.

‘Sshh,’ I whispered. ‘Don’t be scared. It’ll be just like going to sleep.’

Only she would never sleep. Not a sorceress as formidable as her, who could be a candidate for becoming an Archon—

‘If you would be so kind as to release my apprentice.’

I stilled. The beginning of a brown boot and purple robe were at my side. I followed the clothes upwards and found a man standing over me, staff in hand and pointed at my face.

The girl sobbed and muttered in my arms.

‘Good to see you, too, dear,’ the man said with an easy smile. ‘Though I see you’ve got yourself in quite the pickle.’ His gaze fell on me. ‘Can you at least not choke her unconscious? Carrying her would be the most bothersome thing.’

The pressure I exerted on the girl’s throat let up. A little. She still had trouble breathing, but she wasn’t going under.

‘Thank you,’ he said. He stabbed the butt of his staff in the ground and linked his hands in front of him, clearly showing he was not casting anything. Though the girl had done the same and made the mound explode, I thought.

‘Before we speak of how we can resolve this unfortunate situation peacefully, I believe introductions are in order.’

‘Amusing.’ I chuckled despite myself, wondering where in the hell this man had come from. ‘She told me to sod off when I tried being diplomatic.’

‘Did she now?’ the robed-man asked, frowning.

The girl mumbled. The man frowned. His emerald eyes promised a lesson she wouldn’t forget when they returned home.

He sighed. ‘I apologise for her actions. I am willing to compensate you for any damage she has done to your person. How about it? We can let it all be in the past and move on—no one has to get hurt any further.’

My brow raised. ‘Move on? Your apprentice would’ve killed me if I didn’t outsmart her in that last exchange.’

I sensed for my undead. The ones near me were still immobile, but Malakai’s orc was close. Yet as I glanced at the newcomer, I couldn’t help but think the undead’s arrival wouldn’t change anything. Something danced and flickered within the deep green eyes of the man, and I recognised it for what it was.

Power. Power that lay twice as deep as his apprentice’s skill had ever dug.

The sorcerer—no, mage, I corrected myself—regarded me like he knew what was going through my mind. ‘And it was a masterful move,’ he said, ‘to disguise your construct as a mere ice shard. Most likely, it would’ve escaped even my notice. However, I cannot watch and allow you to take the life of my apprentice; I want her home, where she belongs. You must understand that.’

So he’d been watching the entire time and only stepped in when it got dangerous for his student. Amazing.

‘Oh, I understand,’ I said, puffing my chest with confidence I didn’t feel. ‘But your apprentice is not going anywhere. Not tonight. Not after interfering in a military operation that encapsulates the entire Duchy despite being warned. This is treason.’

A frown knotted tighter and tighter on the magus’s head as my words continued. ‘Sorry, may I have your name?’

‘My name is Sepharin K. Vrost—’

‘Daughter of Alvander Vrost, The Frost Warden, making you the current acting-Warden.’ His sigh was deeper this time around. ‘You told her who you were in advance?’

‘Did I?’ I rotated the girl around so she could better see her mentor.

She nodded.

‘Your punishment will not be light,’ the mage said to his student.

In the back of my head, I finally felt the orc arrive at the scene. He was followed by the sounding of hooves.

‘Warden! What—’

Malakai trailed off as he saw the extent of the damage that had been done to the surroundings. Molten frost and earth had mixed to create pools of sludge, embers raged and threatened to consume the remains of the larches they had latched onto, while the pervasive stench of ozone kicked the senses.

‘—what has happened here?!’

‘Sepharin, are you alright?!’ Levi had arrived as well. He sent me a worried look before confusion overtook him at the sight in my arms.

The mage smiled as he caught sight of my brother. ‘Ah, you must be Sir Levi Vrost. How wonderful to finally meet the heirs of the Vrost family!’ He gestured at the sky. ‘Considering the hour, I invite your party to my tower! There we can discuss tonight’s…unfortunate events in comfort. How about it?’

‘…and who might you be, Sir?’ Levi said.

‘Xunish Auvrytt, you may have heard of me.’

From the way Levi’s mouth disconnected from the rest of his face, the man was a big deal.

I huffed and released the girl despite my inner desire to kill and raise her. It had been a long night, but it looked like it would be a longer one yet.