I barely got a good look at my would-be attackers before I was blinded by a cacophony of spells. Fire balls, air blasts, spires of earth and ice all collided with my shield. The drain in Ether was so large that it brought me to my knees.

Still my shield held.

While I was being bombarded, I refreshed the radiant carapace and considered my options. My mind raced through every spell I knew. Only a handful had the range to counterattack, but continual bombardment made it impossible. The five attackers were at least 500 feet away, so I needed a spell powerful enough and with sufficient range.

After a handful of seconds, the bombardment lessened as the attackers seemed to be moving away from me. Their fire and air spells did not have the range to strike my shield.

Were they out of stamina?

I had to take out at least a few of them with a single spell so Earth Barrage it is. From the safety of my shield the ground broke apart around me and compressed into a single boulder about 4 feet wide. Then it broke apart into hundreds of smaller fist sized rocks. Draining at least half of my stamina in the process. I had little time to carefully consider any other options.

I waited for the faintest break in the earth and ice spires that constantly collided with my shield. I would have to trust in the carapace to hold if one got through.

Finally, there was a break, and I could see the five of them clearly. Only one looked to be casting a spell if I had to guess it had to be a radiant shield. I dropped the shield and fired the spell almost at the same instant hoping that the speed of the attack was faster than their casting. It was deafening as all around me the rocks accelerated to the speed of sound and , with the sound of a hundred whips cracking, rocketed towards my attackers.

With my off hand I started to recast the radiant shield. In the same instant there was a pulse from my right I turned my head just in time to see a figure standing not 100 feet away, releasing a fireball. We were fighting on a flat grassy plane. There was no chance I would not have noticed them. I wasn't fast enough, and the spell detonated not two feet in front of me.

The world went white as my vision was consumed with fire. The concussive force of the spell sent me flying a dozen feet through the air. The heat burned my armor and exposed my skin. As I fell to the earth; I tasted blood in my mouth. Forcing myself through the haze of pain and no doubt cracked ribs I recast my radiant shield as the rest of the mages restarted the bombardment.

The carapace was destroyed in the explosion, but it lasted just enough to keep me from dying. They renewed their efforts determined to bring down my shield. I laid there on my back gasping for air and wrangling my panicking thoughts to focus on a solution. This amount of magic was not normal for a mage. Either they were masters, or they were using amplifiers.

The volume of spells did not decrease so it is likely that the light mage managed to raise a shield in time. So, that momentary break was likely on purpose, baiting me into the illusion that I had a chance to counterattack, allowing the concealed fire mage to surprise me. Without my radiant carapace that blast would have killed me.

I had to admit it. I was out of my depth here even as I struggled to my feet, they bombarded my shield. Through the haze of spells, I could see the 5 of them had widened their formation into an arc around me with roughly 30 feet between them. That begged the question as to how that fire mage snuck up on me. Shadow magic maybe? I knew they could perform illusions so that had to be it.

With them spread apart like this even if I managed to take one out the rest would seize the opportunity and kill me. They remained outside of the range of the radiant lance. No doubt they would simply move backward if I tried to close the distance. It was the perfect way to deal with a mage like me.

This attack was not random.

I tried to think how exactly I could escape. I was on a flat plane with my back to the cliffs. I couldn't run and if this conflict lasted until I was forced to use Invigorate then all they had to do was wait until the spell ran its course as I would be a sitting duck.

Winning is impossible. They were far too prepared to fight me. I had to assume that killing mages was their specialty. And if they were using amplifiers and had a light mage that knew invigorate, I couldn't beat them in a contest of stamina.

There was a massive pulse in the ether as the rest stopped casting and a singular earth mage charged a circuit. I was desperate to conserve my stamina, so I reduced my shield until it was just large enough to protect me. I poured ether to make it as strong as possible. He released the spell and a massive pillar of earth erupted from the ground, the same spell the earth mage used that nearly ended our company used. I was more powerful now so I had the confidence I could defend against it.

To my utter bewilderment the spire passed right through my shield and for an instant I thought I was going to die. Then the spire vanished as if it never existed. More shadow magic?

I didn't even know a thing like this was possible.

But then what was that pulse in the ether?

I got my answer as the wind around me started to spiral, its speed increasing until it felt like I was in the middle of a tornado. But this force didn't compare to the drake. My confidence that I could withstand the spell evaporated as the fire mage started casting. The mage was feeding fire in a great stream into the swirling air until it created a literal flaming tornado with me at the center. The grass around me burned and turned to ash. I had no other choice but to make my shield airtight.

How in the world can I counter a tornado of fire? The heat kept increasing until the ground around my shield started to glow a soft orange. Either I ran out of oxygen, or I would be cooked inside the twister. That's probably why they feinted with the illusion first. They knew I would try to conserve stamina and reduce the size of the shield. Now it was a contest to see if they could sustain the spell before I ran out of air.

Combining different attenuations of ether with each other to create new spell effects, I knew it would work in theory. But it was dangerous unless the two casters had a perfect understanding of each other’s abilities. This was again made to counter me. Now I couldn’t even counterattack. The instant I dropped my shield I would be swept away by the wind and incinerated.

I began to feel despair crawl up my spine. I wracked my brain to see if there was some spell that I could use to get out of this but could find none. Any spell I could think of using, I could also think of a way they could counter. Their demonstration thus far was enough to tell me they were professionals. I was clearly outclassed. Despair started to set in until I got an idea. It was desperate, stupid and would likely result in my death. But these mages were far too skilled in magical combat. So, with victory not being an option. I had to do something even they couldn’t predict.

First, I had to disrupt the tornado without dropping my shield. I couldn't come up with anything else other than making the shield so massive that it disrupted the air currents. But if I did that, I couldn't keep the shield airtight, as I would create a vacuum. So, I had to allow air to get in and therefore heat.

This is going to hurt.

It required a large amount of ether to block out the heat, so I had no choice but to cast Invigorate. I spiked myself with energy, held my breath, covered my eyes with my other hand and the shield began expanding. Immediately, it felt like I was inside an oven.

My skin burned and I could feel the tips of my ears singe. It was agony, but I remained resolute. Tears fell from my eyes and evaporated and fought through the pain. 100 feet across 200, 300 how large did they make the tornado? 400, 500, 600 then the spell broke apart and within a few moments the twister of fire dissipated. As soon as the drain from the shield fell off due to the broken spell, I opened my eyes, turned around and made a beeline for the edge of the cliff.

The pain at the sudden movement was so intense I lost focus on the circuit and the shield fell. I barely got a second shield up before more spells started to fire at me. Their mages seemed to have endless reserves. I made my way to the edge of the ridgeline. Time seemed to slow as I admired the vast forest beneath.

The terrain was too rough for horse travel, so I crossed the ridge to avoid it. I looked down, took note of the thick thicket of trees, and leapt. I had considered using air spells to give me some kind of thrust to halt my fall, but they all had safety features built into the circuit to prevent the spells from applying force to my body. Without an anchor to anything the radiant shied destabilsed and vanished.

I lacked the knowledge or experience to modify the sigils to remove the safety features. For 900 feet I fell through the air in freefall before I breached the canopy. Then I slammed into branch after branch feeling bones break as the tall trees slowed my fall. I broke through the rest of the canopy before falling another few feet to the ground, landing on my back.

I didn't even have the will to groan in pain. My vision was blurred as I reeled from the impacts. I slowly began to lose consciousness until a loud crash and fresh agony from my right arm jolted me awake. I looked at its horror as it was crushed by a boulder, realizing what was happening, I cast a radiant shield. I barely expanded it larger than my torso before hundreds more started to fall. Another boulder a few feet across landed on my left knee. I got my shield up before hundreds more damage could be done. There were thunderous booms as the boulders destroyed the forests around me. This continued for the next few minutes the earth mage firing blindly until it finally ended.

There was eerie silence as I laid there on the ground, shield activated staring up at the thick canopy expecting more spells. I hoped beyond hope that they didn’t have some kind of magic to follow me down or were not crazy enought to jump.10 minutes later I dropped the shield. And breathed a sigh of relief. That reminded me of the agony I was in. With a small amount of hesitation, I used the life ether to examine my body.

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I had a mass of broken bones. My left lung was punctured and 4 of my ribs were cracked. From what I could see my left leg and right arm were mostly destroyed. Their bones were crushed practically to dust and damage to the tissue was so severe that trying to heal it was pointless. My left hand was horribly burnt with cracked black skin. The amount of healing I would need would take weeks if not months. It was a wonder I was still alive, probably another benefit of my overexposure to life Ether.

It would take weeks to repair my destroyed limbs to the point that they would be functional. But the exhaustion that will occur from the invigoration spell would leave me too weak to prevent infection. I took a deep painful breath before I was led to the conclusion that amputation would be necessary. I tried to think of another solution to my problem but there was none. I had to repair myself as much as possible before the exhaustion and these two limbs would be a liability.

I raised my left hand and charged a radiant lance. Pointed at my right arm. I screamed it cleanly cut through my arm, a few inches below the shoulder joint. I poured a large amount of ether into the healing spell, repairing the wound enough so the blood flow ended, and skin grew over sealing it closed. Next was the left leg.

I sat upright and cast a radiant lance one more time. The pain seemed to be worse, and the smell of charred flesh made me want to vomit. But just like the arm it was cleanly cut through about mid thigh. 5 minutes later the wound was healed just enough that I was sure there would be no infection. For the next hour I moved on to my ribs and lung and the open burn wounds on my other hand and face.

I laid back down on the ground sure that at the very least I wouldn't die from infection. Looked at the boulders that trapped my severed limbs with numbness. My left hand was terribly scared but mostly functional. Looking around I found a random branch and used the radiant lance to cut it so that I could use it as a walking stick. I brought the map up in my mind. The shortest path to get to my location would have them heading back south and heading to the forest. Thats a 60-mile trip. I had to get as far as possible from this location and somehow find somewhere I could lay low for a few months while I repaired my body. Awkwardly I hopped on my right leg and balanced myself with the stick. Then I headed north.

I continued the clumsy travel for hours every few minutes I would fall. Having only one leg and a single arm in this rough terrain is difficult. Every time some animal made a sound, or a tree would creak in the wind, I imagined it was my assassins catching up to me. Slowly the invigorate began to wear off and the exhaustion began to set in. I fell again, my face hitting the ground.

“I’m going to fucking die in this forest.”I said in frustration. They were the first English words I had spoken in almost a year. Just when I was getting excited at my new start in life everything came crashing down.I got up again and continued

“Who the hell were they? And who sent them?” I asked myself images of people who could have sent them flashed in my mind. The Baron? Elves? The Baroness? Suncrest?Caan?

The baron seemed the most likely, but would he really invest in sending an entire company of mages to kill me. The cost must have been enormous and he’s in the middle of stabilizing Suncrest and rebuilding his army.

I don't doubt he would kill me, but the timeline seems too quick. For that matter, how did they find me? I tried to wear a cloak every time I went into a village. But if someone talked to Dent, they would know the color of my horse and the fact that I planned to travel a far distance. Referencing that with the villages I traveled through, and you could get a rough estimate that I was traveling north. So, it was possible to track me.

Either way it was speculation and I have no interest in running into those mages again. I began to pick up the sound of rushing water. Thinking back to the map would mean that I had traveled 5 miles north from my location and nearing Grey Rock River. A quarter hour later I saw said river. It was a large fast flowing river that flowed east and eventually turned north. I stood at the bank to get a drink of water from the river. It was then that I saw my face.

Gone was the delicate beauty that I was used to. My skin was tight and scarred, making my face asymmetrical. The tips of my ears were burnt horribly and after healing they were an angry red and misshapen. Much of my lovely white hair was burned off and I had no eyebrows.

“Now that is a face only a mother would love.” I said as I looked down at myself.

I didn't consider myself a vain man until I seriously considered spending hours fixing my face. I started laughing. It was loud and slightly crazed. I'm not even sure what I found funny, but for a few minutes I couldn't stop.

I clumsily stood up and considered how to cross the river. Then another stupid idea popped into my head. I needed to put as much distance between my pursuers as possible. How far would it take me? I'm pretty sure I knew how to swim. If they were in fact assassins sent just for me then confirming the kill would be appropriate. So, I dove into the deep river.

I was swept along in its strong current. It was a constant battle to keep my head above the water but oddly enough the icy chill eased the pain I felt in my limbs. I continued struggling for over an hour. Thankfully the river slowed down as it started to widen. Taking this opportunity, I struggled to the bank and dragged myself out of the water. I slowly recovered, breathing heavily, and shaking from the cold.

There were no convenient sticks, so I began to crawl in what my addled brain guessed to be north. I barely made it half an hour before the invigorate spell ran its course and I collapsed from exhaustion. I managed to drag myself to a tree before the lethargy began to take over. My thoughts began to slow, and my limbs struggled to respond to me.

Slowly my mind began to drift, my eyes closed and for the first time in months I fell asleep. My dreams were a twisting nightmare of death and violence. I was caught in the middle of a war, each side numbered in the hundreds of thousands there I stood in the center of it all. Raining down spell after spell killing thousands every passing moment. I cackled madly, enjoying the slaughter. Every time my reserves began to dwindle, I grabbed one of my own men by the throat and ripped the life from him. Savoring the delicious death before I continued on with my mindless slaughter.

I jolted awake and looked around my surroundings. It was a night with no moon, so the forest was pitch black. At some point it started raining. I still sat with my back to a tree. Hypothermia and the effects of the invigorate spell sapped all the strength from me. My thoughts were slippery as I bounced in and out of consciousness. In my delirium I started to hear voices. But looking around there was no one to be seen. Sometimes I would see soldiers storming through the tree towards me. In desperation I would throw a spell at them wasting precious energy before they would disappear. Other times I could hear the Bronze Spears laughing and talking around the campfire. There was a rather strange hallucination of a brown haired man in a strange white coat running towards me. After seeing Clarissa seductively asking me to join her in bed then darted behind a tree. I resolved to ignore my hallucinations.

As the night wore on I couldn't muster the focus to cast spells and in the heavy torrent I could not make a fire. I knew the dangers of falling unconscious while in this state, so I forced myself to stay awake. After a few more minutes I managed to muster my will and continued crawling along the forest floor. In what I hoped was north. By my estimation I would be able to reach a village in a day or two.

“Poor child” a voice said next to my right.

I had fallen asleep on my face. For how long I didn't know but at least the rain had stopped. I got up and managed to lay my back against a tree. I kept my breathing steady and tried to stop the incessant shaking, while I examined the latest hallucination. It was a strange experience; my mind was betraying me and while I was perfectly aware of it, I could do nothing to stop it.

Not a few feet away from me sitting in a cross-legged position on the ground was what I assumed to be a royal elf. She was practically a mirror of me, white hair, purple eyes, and a face so delicately beautiful that it felt alien. Though there were a few differences like her ears being larger and her eyes having a less pronounced tilt. She wore simple white robes that hid most of her figure but for whatever reason I instinctively knew she was female. She was unquestionably the most stunning creature I had ever seen. The attraction I felt towards her came on strong, too strong for my liking. I fought away from the feelings and tried to refocus my mind.

“Well, this is new.” I said in a hoarse voice.

“It has been difficult to reach you, since you do not sleep nor embrace the ether.”

This hallucination seemed more vivid than the rest. Even more strange was that it was responding to me. But her clothing was perfectly white even though she sat on the forest floor and the wind didn't move her hair. I tried to guess who I was hallucinating before I remembered what elf Queen Lilian talked about.

“Assuming you aren't a hallucination you must be Queen Sianna, yes?”

“The same.”

“How are you speaking to me? Some kind of elven magic I assume. Since you aren't actually here.”

“You assume correctly. I wished to see you for myself. I did not expect that when my thoughts found you. You would be in this state.” Her eyes gave me a once over. I knew I looked rather horrid at the moment. Not exactly the best state to meet a queen.

“Well then. Now that you have seen me, what do you want now?” I said impetuously, disliking the almost clinical way her eyes examined me.

“You are as spirited as she says. My motives are my own young one, but perhaps when you are ready you will learn them.” he had a small amount of amusement in her voice.

“By she I assume you mean Lilian. Are elves to blame for my current predicament?”

“I do not know.”

So, at the very least it was a possibility. On the off chance that this was the actual queen then perhaps she has some ideas about me.

“What has Lilian told you about me?”

“Everything there is to know. Including the veil over your mind.”

“Can the elves actually cure it?” I asked but for some reason I wanted the answer to be no.

“It is possible, but you have not asked yourself the difficult questions.” she said with a bit of sympathy in her voice.

“Explain.”

“What if there is no veil on your mind and there is simply nothing to recover?”

I hadn't considered that. If that was the case, then what do I do with my life? Her eyes got a far-off look then refocused on me.

“My time is ending; continue north your pursuers have not yet given up the chase.”

“Wait, I have more questions.” I said.

“When you are ready, come and find me. You will have your answers.”

I jolted awake, my dreams slowly drifting away in a haze of forgetfulness.

“What a strange dream.” I said as I looked around. The sun had started to rise so at the very least I knew where the north was. My mind was at least functional, so I took the opportunity to do some more healing on myself. I was nowhere near healthy, but I had to ensure I stayed ahead of any damage I caused to myself while traveling. I couldn't just conjure flesh from nothingness, so I needed nutrition to rebuild what I had lost.

My stomach grumbled incessantly as the only thing I had eaten in over 30 hours were a few sticks of dried meat. At the very least I didn't need to worry about water. My magic could see to that. It was a wonder I was still functional. But my body was far more resilient than a normal human or for that matter. Still as the hours passed my strength was waning and it became harder and harder to pick myself up when I fell.

My limbs were as numb as when I overused the ether. My mind was consumed with exhaustion too severe to do any kind of magic. The only thing that kept me focused was the mostly faded memory of a dream. A voice that told me to keep going north. I fell again not from being clumsy or tripping on a root. I was at the end of my strength.

I willed my body to move but it did not respond. I tried to call the Ether, but it did not come. Was this death? I was so tired that I welcomed it. I don’t know how long I laid there as I kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Sometime later I got the distinct feeling of someone rolling me over. They looked at me for a few seconds before walking away. After minutes later they returned and threw me over their shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Hopefully this person had good intentions.