While Noah traipsed through the Damned Plains, Todd was doing his absolute best to kill an old man.
His foot slamd into the ground and he twisted his body, detonating the air behind his right heel and sending it hurtling in a spinning kick toward Jalen’s head. The old mage cackled as he leaned back and brought his own leg up into Todd’s chest.
Stone armor cracked and Todd stumbled back. He thrust a hand behind himself and stone cracked, fla curling free of his palm as he threw himself back into Jalen shoulder-first. The air around Jalen rippled and he vanished, reforming five feet to his side.
As soon as he reford, a loud crack split the air. A streak of ice carved across the sky in a flash. Jalen’s hand shot up to grab a transparent blue arrow an inch away from his face. His lips parted in a grin as he spun, gathering montum before hurtling the arrow back in the direction it had co.
A flash of panic shot through Todd and he spun to watch the arrow. He needn’t have worried. Alexandra was already in front of Emily, her sword whistling as she cut the magic from the air before it could reach its target.
A hand fell on Todd’s shoulder. “Don’t get distracted, kid. You’re—”
The ground beneath them cracked as Isabel erupted from beneath it, driving a glowing blue spear straight for Jalen’s chest. He flickered and vanished an instant before the blow could connect.
Jalen reford behind them, purple energy gathering around his hands. He reached for their backs — and another icy arrow scread through the air, this ti from the exact opposite direction.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise and he spun, grabbing the arrow. At the sa ti, Isabel rose fully from the dirt and it swirled up to form heavy armor around her. She and Todd both lunged for Jalen’s back.
A wave of purple magic swirled out from his palms. Todd’s stomach clenched and the world lurched abruptly around him. His foot hit the ground a dozen feet away from where it should have and he stumbled as a wave of dizziness washed over him.
Isabel thumped down beside him. Jalen turned to look at them, Emily’s second arrow held aloft. He let his hand fall and the icy magic dissipated.
“Damn it,” Todd said with a groan. “I could have sworn we had you. Teleporting us away is a cheap trick.”
Emily let her weapon lower and Alexandra sheathed her sword. The two of them headed across the grass to join the others.
“There is no such thing as a cheap trick in a battle,” Jalen said once they’d all regrouped. “And besides, cheating makes things more fun.”
“Wait, wouldn’t the second thing negate the first one?” Isabel asked with a frown.
“Of course not.” Jalen shook his head in disappointnt. “Cheap tricks sound so debasing. Like I need to rely on so form of crutch to handle a battle. Cheating is far different. It’s a battle of wits. A truly interesting battle is one where everyone cheats.”
Todd rubbed at the side of his neck. It was a habit he hadn’t quite managed to shrug off yet. He was tempted to ask Jalen what the point of even adding rules to a fight was if they were just going to cheat, but he’d gotten to know the odd Rank 6 well enough to realize that the question would be completely pointless.
“Don’t you feel a bit bad about having to cheat against Rank 2s?” Alexandra asked.
“There is no ‘have to’ about it,” Jalen said with a snort. “I cheat because it amuses . You should try it more often. Maybe you’d win more if you did — though I see my lessons haven’t been completely wasted on you. Do you plan on remaining invisible forever, Jas?”
The air to Todd’s right shimred and Jas appeared mid-yawn. Emily faded away, and another version of her appeared near the edge of the group. Her lips pursed in annoyance and she jogged over to join them.
“I can’t believe I didn’t even manage to hit you,” Emily muttered. “It was such a good idea.”
“It was,” Jalen said with an approving nod. “Having the light mage form a fake version of you beside Alexandra while you ran to position… very clever. It actually caught off guard. You also said that Jas wouldn’t be participating in this fight. That counts as cheating. I’m proud of you.”
“Technically, we just said the only people fighting you would be the ones here,” Todd corrected, a small grin tugging at his lips. “Jas just happened to be invisible at the ti. Invisible and at the top of the hill. My definition of here was a bit stretched.”
Jalen cackled in approval. “Very good. You kept him out of the range of my domain to make sure I didn’t pick up on his presence by accident. But Jas… how is it that you managed to have your magic running in two entirely different locations at once? You aren’t nearly strong enough to pull sothing like that off. The range alone should be impossible for a Rank 3, much less a Rank 2.”
Emily worked a thin tal bracelet off her wrist. Twisting black lines ran across it, rippling with faint energy. “Todd imbued this with Jas’ light magic. It drains a lot of his power, but it let use him like a battery to temporarily turn invisible.”
Todd took the bracelet from her, a frown pulling across his lips as he studied the imbuents. They were badly strained. Maintaining a connection between the original owner of the runes and the bracelet’s wielder had proven to be too optimistic for such a rudintary item.
It did let get much more power out of it than if I’d closed the circuit and separated it from Jas. Definitely has potential to continue working on. This bracelet is fried, though.
“I love being a battery,” Jas said without a single trace of sarcasm. “It lets feel like I’m being useful because I’m completely out of energy at the end of the fight and I’ve barely even had to do anything.”
That’s hardly true. The bracelet relied heavily on Jas actually funneling it power. Emily just activated it. That was the only way I could get it to do the complexity of proper invisibility. Jas should have been under really significant ntal strain.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Todd jumped as he felt soone poke him in the side. He glanced over at Isabel and blinked. “Sorry, did you say sothing? I was zoned out.”
“I know.” Isabel rolled her eyes and snaked her arm through his. “You had the look on your face. Stop working on imbuents for long enough to get the rest of the feedback, would you?”
“Oh, that was it,” Jalen said with a wave of his hand. “What do you think I am? A teacher? I’m just bored. Figure the other problems out yourselves. You clearly aren’t doing sothing right because you didn’t manage to beat .”
“Yeah. We aren’t cheating enough,” Jas grumbled.
“Very good. You should cheat more next ti.” Jalen nodded sagely. “Until then, I don’t suppose any of you want to play darts? I’m still trying to track down the rest of the sorry bastards I’m going to put to work. I reckon I’ll have them by tomorrow.”
“They’ve managed to avoid you?” Todd blinked in surprise. That was odd, to say the least. Jalen didn’t seem to be the type of person that anyone could hid from. Not for long. What kind of people was he —
“Actually, I just haven’t had the motivation to find them yet. It sounded really boring so I just haven’t gone looking.”
Ah. Of course.
“Vermil and Moxie would have found them already,” Emily muttered.
“You don’t even know who I’m getting or why I need them,” Jalen protested. “Don’t compare to them. The only thing Vermil was good at was darts, and that’s because he cheated.”
“How do you cheat at darts?” Isabel asked.
“I’m not sure, but I’ll figure out how he did it at so point when we play again.”
Todd tilted his head slightly to the side. Jalen had outwardly said he thought Vermil would be able to escape the Damned Plains, but there was a difference between what people said and what they ant.
Jalen has complete confidence that Vermil will get out. I an, I do too… but how much does he know?
“If class is done for today, I’m going to go sleep,” Jas said. “There’s an advanced track eting tonight that I want to get ready for.”
“I should prepare as well. The imbuents on Emily’s bracelet are all screwed now, but I should be able to get them patched up before tonight,” Todd said. “Thanks for the training, Jalen.”
“I was just killing so ti,” Jalen said with a shrug. “I hope you’ll all endeavor to make tomorrow more interesting. It’s not a real fight unless I’ve lost a few limbs.”
I don’t think we’re going to be in a position where we’re cutting off a Rank 6 mage’s limbs anyti soon.
“I will strive to et your expectations,” Alexandra said without a hint of sarcasm. She drumd her fingers on the hilt of her sword, and a flicker of embarrassnt passed through Todd.
She’d asked him to imbue a new weapon for her after Yulin had cut through her old blade. He hadn’t quite managed to get everything right on it yet, but he was close. There were just so many different things competing for his attention.
I’ll get the sword before the eting tonight. It’s probably a bit more important than fixing the bracelet.
“Good. I hate being disappointed,” Jalen said. “Good luck with your eting tonight. I might show up, but only if it looks like I can break sothing.”
With that, he snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving the students to their planning for that night.
***
Jalen reford in a room that didn’t belong to him. There were rudintary imbuents on it to prevent anyone with space magic from entering — imbuents that he ground out with a flicker of thought, not even bothering to try to slip by gracefully.
He blinked in surprise.
The room was covered with paper. It had been tacked to the walls and strewn about the floor, covered with beautiful, flowing script that would have been far more in place if it wasn’t clearly the ravings of the mad.
Theories and drawings covered the papers, each one trying to break down a movent or different type of strike. He went to peer closer at the papers, his interest piqued.
“What in the Dand Plains?” a woman standing in the center of the room demanded, her voice coming out as a terrified squeak. “How did you get in here?”
Ah, yes. I forgot there was a person here.
Jalen tore his gaze away from the papers. “I teleported. Nobody told you were insane.”
“I — what? It’s impossible to teleport into this room. It’s warded,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing as she dropped into a fighting stance. “Who are you?”
“Do you really not know?” Jalen tilted his head to the side. “You should control the insanity. It’s only useful when properly applied. I am not to be forgotten.”
The woman paused. Then she took a step back. “That arrogance. Magus Jalen of the Linwicks? What the fuck are you doing in my room? And why is your hood up? It’s hard to figure out who you are when I can’t see your face.”
“You had so dealings with Vermil, yes?”
The woman stared at him. Then, slowly, she nodded. “I did. What does—”
“His students need your help because he’s currently off killing so demons,” Jalen said through a yawn. “They are progressing, but I want them to progress faster. I imagine you should be able to help with that.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “I owe Vermil nothing. We had a business relationship and nothing more.”
Jalen tilted his head to the side. Then he waved his hand around. “Does Otto know about what you’re doing here? All this research? Sothing tells he doesn’t, or you wouldn’t have those rudintary Imbuents on your room. They’re too shit to be his, aning you’re doing this on your own. Otto isn’t a fan of missing information.”
The woman hesitated. “I’m not hiding anything from him. I am simply verifying it.”
“Right,” Jalen drawled. “What is it that you go by nowadays? You change your na too often for to bother rembering it — not that I’d have rembered it if you kept one.”
“Bird.”
“Well then, Bird, either you co help Vermil’s students or I will shalessly blackmail you with Otto’s annoying ass. Good luck researching shit with him pestering you.”
Bird’s eye twitched. “What do you want to do?”
“I haven’t figured that bit out yet,” Jalen admitted. “I’m sure you’ve got sothing you can offer them, though. So Runes, perhaps? The treasurer of the King family has access to quite a bit of power.”
“You want to steal from Otto?” Bird demanded, taking a step back. “I won’t. That oversteps both of our boundaries. You’re the head of the Linwick family. Why don’t you—”
“Don’t feel like it, and I don’t know them well enough to give good runes. I’m not saying to steal from Otto — his nose is too sharp for that,” Jalen said with a shake of his head. He blurred forward, prodding Bird in the forehead. “I’m saying to use your own privileges and access to get them sothing. I’m more than aware you’re capable of it. You’re young, but Otto hasn’t been shy bragging about your abilities and role in the family. Granted, I did burn the majority of the letters he sent, but I’ve glanced at a few.”
Bird’s lips pressed thin. Then she sighed. “Fine, but only if you promise to keep this secret. I will not be blackmailed by the sa thing twice. I need to fully research this style before I tell Otto about it.”
“Whatever you want,” Jalen said with a wave of his hand. “I really don’t care as long as I get what I want.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Bird said wearily. “Can you get out of my room now? You’re ruining my practice.”
I rather like this helper of Otto’s. Too bad she’s so loyal to him. She’s got balls, even if a big part of them is knowing I can’t ss with the Kings too much.
“Just one more thing,” Jalen said.
“What is it?”
“Put so damn clothes on before you find the students. Vermil is going to be pissed if he finds out I sent a nudist after them.”
Bird glanced down at herself and her cheeks went bright red as she spun in search for clothes. “Shit! I forgot I was practicing. Why in the Damned Plains didn’t you say anything earlier?”
There was no response. By the ti she found them and looked back, Jalen was gone. Bird pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers and let out a defeated sigh.
User Comments
0 comments from readers