Chapter 18 - The Wind Mage
The situation was dire, the small ravine forced then to crouch, but still they were able cover against the arrows. The stones near the river were big but too far away from cover to risk, they could see nothing further than that, no other cover was in sight.
Seeing this, all of them understood that the enemy had played them, the ambush was set. The enemy force intentionally gave away their position and this way forced the prey into a convenient hiding spot… the enemy now was able to surround and force the group's back against the deep river, and they were completely trapped.
Carrick and Callan were observing the enemy movement, they were clearly covering their flanks so they couldn't escape. And to prevent any wild attempts, arrows were flying towards the trapped mercenaries, anyone who moved out of cover would be hit in instants.
Levi was near Riou who was besides Viktor, they both were looking around trying to figure out how to turn that situation. Judeau was between Carrick and Viktor, looking for enemies who would try to approach. Shooting arrows to keep them at bay, the enemy was cautious to never leave cover for long enough to get hit, and seemed to welcome Judeau's attempts.
At this rate he would run out of arrows soon, he already feared that they were just preparing something to flush them out of cover as soon as his arrows were gone.
Some time passed while they took cover there, few of Judeau's arrows were left by this time… The enemy were preparing to act soon.
Riou had considered his options, but still was uncertain on how to approach this… "I can't go and attack them head on… it would be too much to take if one guy took them all out… perhaps magic is a better approach here…" Thought Riou looking to his companions… "Now, should I go all out… or should I try a silent approach?" Conspired the boy against the enemy as he pondered between a direct assault spell of if he should use a more subtle approach.
"Necromancy? Yeah should be nice, I could get some undead minions to fight for me… but wait… Max never mentioned anything about necromancy…" Riou thought to himself, and realized something as he kept that line of thought "he never mentioned anything about arcane magic either… now that I think about it… all he talked about was elemental magic… Can it be possible they don't know other kind? Does it even exists here? Or could it be that it is just too rare…" Many questions raised that needed further discussion with the mage… "Better avoid them for now…"
He took another quick look at the enemies "Ok… plan B…" thought to himself almost ready to stand up and burn the assassins to ashes… when another idea popped up… "Unless…" Riou quickly turned to the mercenaries.
- "Stay behind and follow me closely." Said the boy confidently and readying himself to get out of the ravine
Viktor looked with squinted eyes showing his uncertainty in the boy's confidence… after a moment pondering he ended up in his usual smirk, as he was out of good options by that moment
- "I don't know what you gonna do boy, but I hope you know what you're doing…" Said the Mercenary leader…
Riou focused his mana, commanding the air surrounding him into a strong current against his body and then upwards, he stood up and climbed the ravine saying out loud
– "Wind Barrier"
When he finished his words the strong current became a violent wind storm, unseen to the eye but clearly shown by the arrows that came straight towards the boy, thrown upwards with a violent strength just a few palms from him… the barrier was just 3 palms of the boy and was very wide to protect the mercenaries as well.
Judeau squinted his eyes and smirked at the sight of the magical display, clearly suspecting of extent of the boy's abilities. Carrick, Callan and Levi looked astonished to Viktor as if asking for answers, who just shrugged amazed as well.
- "Don't look at me, I didn't know either…" Said the smiling mercenary – "Let's not waste our friend's magical power, come one!" – ordered the big man jumping up the ravine, quickly getting behind the boy followed by the others.
Riou walked towards the center of the enemy forces, they were about 15 steps away from the ravine at that moment, but covered by the terrain, trees and stones. As he approached he could see about 20 enemies divided into two groups, one to their right and the other slightly in front of them also covering the left exit of the ravine. Each group had 5 archers and 5 melee fighters, all using short swords.
The enemy force was clearly taken aback by the magical display, but as professionals they tried to adjust to the situation as quickly as possible.
As the main plan was not working anymore as arrows now were useless against the mage. They started to move towards each other, trying to group up improving their numbers to fight the mercenaries. Riou noticing their intention to join forces quickly moved to intercept their path.
Riou while maintaining the wind barrier, forced the wind to blow against both enemy groups, a strong enough wind to blow debris and dirt from the ground, so sudden and vicious that when the enemy noticed, was too late. Unable to guard against it, it forced them to cover their eyes and quickly trying to remove the dirt from it, providing a brief blindness cover to the mercenaries. Riou was now at the middle of the two enemy groups followed by the mercenaries.
It was the opportunity they needed to attack, Riou turned himself and his barrier to the enemies to the right, giving free passage to his companions to the enemies on the front and left side, he intended to guard them from the enemies of the right, preventing them from overwhelm the mercenaries with their increased numbers.
It was 10 against 5 now, Riou held the other 10 to the right side.
Viktor mercenaries were veterans, dogs of war… as they saw the opportunity emerge before them, they grabbed it without hesitation. The assault was swift to the enemies at the front, with weapons in hand they quickly went for the enemies who were still trying to recover their sight. Judeau now having a clear view from their flanks, shot 3 arrows, each pointed to one enemy. The arrows hit them between the eyes, 2 archers and a melee fighter where down in an instant.
Every foe in that group fell quickly as the mercenaries reached them, the strikes were certain and deadly, aimed at the head, neck and heart. The dogs of war moved as a pack of wolves cornering and attacking the prey in a silent but coordinated attack. Some enemies tried to fight back but with the vision affected it was too much of a handicap to overcome against the elite mercenaries.
Meanwhile on the right side group, Riou noticed they were closer together as they tried to converge with the left group, and at an open terrain… it was a perfect fit for an area of effect magic. "It's too good of a chance to let it pass…" thought the boy as he decided to indulge himself a little. Commanding his mana he began a small swirl effect targeting the center of the enemy group. And agitating his right arm in a circular movement pushing it up in the second rotation, picturing a vortex of wind, controlling his power to a controlled test, he created a sudden whirlwind, two man high and right at their location, strong enough to launch them to the air, not high enough to kill but certain to keep them down for a while. The whirlwind right after appearing vanished instantly in a burst.
As they went down, Riou walked towards the nearest opponent that were still conscious.
- "Who sent you?" Asked the boy to the dark green hooded man.
- "…" Silence was the only answer Riou got.
- "Who sent you?!" asked again the boy, threatening the man's life, pointing his hand to him as if a violent spell would come of it at any moment.
The man was the common look of Allard, dark hair and eyes, light skin shade. Lot of scars on the face, but no runes… The man paid no mind to the threats, he kept silent, and his mind seemed absent, his eyes showed no interest as if he had already forfeited his life.
Viktor and the mercenaries where approaching him by this time as they finished their work on the other side…
- "Fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh" Viktor gave a low long whistle of surprise. – "A wind specialist huh? And this young…" Said him looking to Levi for a moment before continuing the talk to the boy– "I never saw a barrier soak up so many arrows at such close range… and that other thing you did… what was it?" Continued Viktor clearly excited – "You must be considered high tiered amongst the mages, are you not?" Kept going on enthusiastic as the others were also listening carefully. -"Now I understand why you said you could handle yourself… "
Riou looked confused to Viktor "High tiered? This is considered high tier wind magic?" Thought the boy before answering…
- "I'm still an apprentice, my master is the one who really knows magic" Said Riou diverging the attention from himself
- "This Max is your master right? I know that Syldis said he was your old man, but it seemed a bit too strange by the way you were reacting back there… so this is how it is…" Viktor started to ponder about the ramifications of this discovery and began thinking out loud… - "if you are this powerful and he is your master… he must be a Magus level at the very least…" Realized the mercenary continuing his vocalized thought process - "that's why Syldis said it was her kind of danger… Max… Maximilian! The great Magus! He is your master!" Said Viktor satisfied he was able to put the puzzle together as he looked to Riou face confirming his suspect.
All Mercenaries widened their eyes to the news… Levi as always was the first to speak
- "The great Magus!? Really? It is said he is over 200 years old… how long are you studying under him?" Asked her to Riou…
Riou smiled awkwardly… - "Yeah, it's going for a good time now, he don't want people to know I'm his apprentice… so I'd appreciate if you kept it a secret…" Riou tried to contain the information leak…
Viktor nodded, - "Very well, we will keep our mouths shut, don't worry" as he looked to the enemies at the ground…
- "But you should know by now boy" – Said Viktor approaching and looking at the man Riou was trying to interrogate – "this kind of assassins don't know who hired them, they are part of an underground organization… only the higher ups know the contractors name…" Explained Viktor – "That's why they are so expensive, they are good tacticians and deceivers, excellent fighters and above all… deadly loyal to their cause" - said the mercenary in a serious tone.
Riou looked towards the man on the ground, without a drop of fear, silently staring into the sky, showing an unwavering will. The boy understood what Viktor said… the boy couldn't help but wonder "Torture?" he pondered for a moment considering his time and options… but it would take too long and he needed to go to the city and check the last place.
- "So what do you suggest?" Asked Riou to the mercenary…
Viktor just nodded to the others, each of them began approaching the fallen enemies and proceeded to kill every one of the remaining foes.
Riou watched silently as that outcome favored him, this way they would not inform about him.
- "This way we lower their ranks and also buy some time until the organization realizes they had failed. Maybe we can even keep your powers hidden for a little longer… as doubt they knew you were even a mage apprentice… Or they would have brought at least one to ensure victory." Said Viktor looking at the last man alive in front of Riou…
Viktor approached the assassin… pointed his sword to the man's chest while looking into his unwavering eyes… and quickly stroke the man's chest. The foe smiled as blood poured out of his mouth, he was dead seconds after. "Indeed, loyal to the very end…" thought the boy seeing the man face.
The mercenary removed his blade and cleaned it, he began to wonder why the boy kept his powers a secret… and appearing to reach a conclusion put his thoughts into words...
- "I see..." Said the mercenary understanding the situation, - "That's why you kept your powers as a secret… to not bring unwanted attention to yourself… they would have brought their mages if they knew… If this situation was already bad, I don't even want to think how it would be if they got mages at their side as well."
Carrick spat on the ground - "That would have been bad…" Said the mercenary uncertain of the victory if that had happened.
Viktor signaled his mercenaries… - "Make sure all of them are dead and let's move, it will get dark soon and we still have a lot of ground to cover…" Said him looking into the sky calculating how long it would still get to be completely dark… He looked around while everyone began to move back to the river to follow it until the city…- "Let's hope the beast isn't hungry today…"
All enemies were killed…
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The group was walking by the river bank, the night was dark but luckily the cloud layer was not thick enough to prevent the big moon of that world to shine a bit through them… the group walked seeing only a few steps ahead of them but it was enough to keep them going in a steady pace.
They were silent, complete attention to their surroundings… Riou could feel their tension, their weapons where sheathed but their hands were eager to pull them out at any moment.
A sound in the distance…
-"CRACK!"
And every mercenary had weapons in hand, ready to defend themselves… they kept there for a few moments, until they could finally relax a bit and continue their way…
Judeau's was just a few steps ahead now, they clearly didn't want to separate the group that was following right after him.
Didn't take long for Riou to feel a gaze from the darkness… and eerie feeling took him as he stopped and stared in the direction…
Judeau was the first to notice the boy's actions as he heard someone stop… and quickly put his bow up in the direction where the boy was looking, at that sight all Mercenaries also readied themselves.
- "There is something there…" Said Riou slowly in a low tone, trying to make sense of what he was seeing… squinting his eyes and forcing his sight, he identified a feeble light amidst the black veil, it was a dark shade of yellow and resembled eyes in the darkness…
Judeau's bow fired a bolt in the direction and the eyes vanished. – "Dracar!" Shouted Judeau readying another arrow in a hurry.
The Mercenaries put their back to the river, taking position side by side to monitor the darkness in front of them and cover their flanks, leaving their backs to the river as no enemy would come from there.
The silence in front of them was abnormal, no insect or wind blowing to move trees branches… only behind they could hear the constant flow of the river… Riou was able to feel the beast presence, but not pin point its exact location.
Suddenly, they heard steps, the focus level raised as their attention was consumed in an attempt to locate its origin as it was slowly approaching their position, and the sound it made was deep as if something very large and very heavy was walking by. Together with the steps, the sound of something dragging on the ground… the sounds grew louder every passing moment.
Judeau shoot the remaining arrows at the direction of the sound trying to kill the beast before it could make a move… sounds of the metal arrows hitting something hard and bouncing off could be heard. To no effect, the steps kept coming in a slow, steady pace… out of arrows Judeau threw his bow to the side and readied his throwing knifes…
The brothers stepped up and got in front of the group… with no fear they stood strong in anticipation of the approaching enemy, the intention to be the first ones to fight was clear. Viktor also step ahead, getting a step back from the brothers and intended to support their attack. Judeau was a few steps behind and kept his place. Levi was behind Viktor and in front of Riou…
Viktor looked behind – "Boy… if you can do something about this thing, now is the moment!" As Viktor finished his sentence a figures began to appear from the darkness, appearing in their field of view. As shadow at first, massive in size, it was bigger than Viktor and much wider than a bull.
Riou got mesmerized by the size of the beast.
As the shadow approached, it also faded, a beast that resembled a lizard in all fours could be seen, matt dark scales and a red line of spikes in the back, from the head to the tail, its head was long as a big man's arm, and two palms wide… a long slithering tongue could be seen coming out from its mouth, the teeth still remained hidden.
The legs were much longer than the lizards Riou was used to know, and it seemed a lot more flexible as well, his head and body movement were clearly distinct, it resembled a tiger movement instead of a lizard, a very fearsome sight. The monster was huge and had yellow eyes with vertical pupils, clearly built for night hunt.
It had three big claws as fingers in each of its lizard legs, two front and one smaller pointing to the back, they were curved, meant to slash and hold the prey, it had a big tail that allowed him balance support while moving in all fours. Standing up on the rear legs Riou estimated it would be at least twice as big as Viktor.
It moved slowly towards the brothers, Judeau tried to throw his knives at it, but the thick scales prevented any damage. It did not bother the beast as it kept approaching the brothers.
"No way they can handle this…" – Thought Riou preparing himself, focusing his mana to call into the whirlwind magic to destabilize the monster as he did previously, creating an opening to the mercenaries to attack… but before that, as instinctively perceiving danger the monster acted, and suddenly moved in a blink of an eye, rushing vigorously towards the three man in front of it, pouncing at them while slashing horizontally with his right sharp claw, the brothers in front took the hit as they barely could defend themselves due to the beast speed. Viktor only was spared for being a bit behind them.
The Dracar was so strong that both brothers were threw to the side, following the motion of the beast attack a good distance from their initial position…
- "Boy!!" Shouted Viktor without taking his eyes from the monster that was now upon him. The Dracar swung his tail in Viktor's direction, aware of the monster's movements he dodged by jumping back… Viktor knew it was risky to engage and try to strike the Dracar, the monster seemed as if he was always ready to retaliate, no openings for a melee approach…
The brothers were still down, slowly moving trying to recover, they were though as blood could be seen forming in their cloths they still wanted to keep going. But before they could be up and ready to fight again
As the monster eyes fixated at Viktor… Levi rushed forward to help the mercenary leader, he was in trouble but both of them were unable to get near…
Riou continued and called upon the air magic to form the whirlwind… the strong wind forming could be felt by the mercenaries… the whirlwind formed violently and tried to burst the Dracar up… but differently than the last time, it was just strong enough to stagger the beast that held its ground and its balance on all fours with the help of his long tail to the best of its instinct. The tail could clearly be seen now and was about one and a half times the length of its body.
"It's too heavy… need more power" thought the boy noticing the magic was not enough to drop the beast
The power wasn't enough and feared that if he used more the result could be a hurricane. "I need a more direct approach" thought the boy while the monster was still recovering from the whirlwind positioning itself to attack again. Riou rushed forward in a sprint… Concentrating some of his power to his closed hands compressing the air into them, he used a bit more mana than what it took to create the whirlwind just to be sure to improve the effects.
It formed a glowing sphere of pressurized air and mana around both his hands… The monster at this moment was well aware of the running boy and as if its instincts were screaming, Riou was all the monster cared about at that moment, clearly considering him to be extremely more dangerous than the two near it as his position changed from aggressive to a defensive stance
The Dracar seemed to have some sort of intelligence to be able to discern danger and detecting magical abilities.
As it was completely Ignoring Viktor and Levi, they used the opportunity to strike the focused monster. They stroke violently against both the rear legs with all almost simultaneously and quickly leaving the place in fear of a counter attack… the slash was strong enough to penetrate the thick scale armor and cause a light wound to the legs. It was enough to distract it, the sudden pain moved his focus from the boy to his leg for an instant in reflex.
Judeau also used the opportunity to capitalize on the monster lack of attention, throwing his knives aiming to the monster faces to force him take more time to fully recover attention.
It was enough to allow Riou to close in… he was about a step away from it. He pointed both his arms upwards, aiming at to the monsters chest, opening his palms releasing his concentrated magic power with the compressed air… it instantly burst out violently with a very loud but quick noise that resembled an explosion.
As it was so fast that the naked eye in this dark night was unable to track down what happened. It was so powerful that upper half body of the monster was blown to smithereens, it was too dark to see but its blood and pieces were scattered in a cone shape area from the initial burst for a long distance… if the sun was up, the terrain behind it would painted in red, meat and guts. And its pieces would be found hundreds of meters away from there. Its lower half had been blown a few steps behind, rolling in the ground before finally falling to the ground almost intact.
Viktor and Levi were unable to understand what happened and turned astonished to Riou…
It took a while for them to recover from the shock, but once they did, Levi and Viktor rushed to help the brothers, they had contusions all over their body and a slash through the armor where the claw was able to hit… The wound seemed deep but did not reach the organs. Still they needed attention.
Viktor and Levi ripped the brother shirts and their own in the bottom part to use the cloth as a bandage to stop the bleeding. While they were applying the first aid to them, Viktor looked at Riou
- "What was that? I have never seen air magic like that before… No way that's an apprentice spell" – Said Viktor while bandaging Carrick that was sit down feeling the pain of the cut.
- "Was it a secret spell? You don't seem to be a noble, are you part of a family branch perhaps or is this one of the great Magus spells?" – Intervened Levi clearly curious to the boy's past
Riou just went with the flow…
- "It's one of the magus air based spells… It's very difficult one that's why it's not common… as I'm his apprentice he is teaching me it" Answered Riou satisfactory…
- "I see, but you are a Mage already for sure, all it needs is to show them this and they will grant you the title." said
Viktor while Levi nodded in agreement, they seem to understand and agree with the boy's logic.
Judeua kept quiet,listening to the conversation... He also seemed to be putting a puzzle together, with the happenings of this day he couldn't help but wonder, if the boy had anything to do with the enemies in the house as well, as they seemed too easy to kill, as some invisible force was holding them.
Riou remembered his talks with Max about the magic systems used, as even the mercenaries seemed well aware of it.
The Ranking system was a simple one, Apprentices would able to use magic to a certain level and knowledge, Apprentices could be frequenting the academy in Allard, studying with a teacher at home and in rarer cases self-taught magic.
And their knowledge usually consisted to the basic use of Air, water, fire and earth magic.
Once able to use the basics, the apprentice need to learn at least one advanced spell to be considered a mage, this can be achieved by family based spells or, in more rare cases, by creating a spell on their own. Usually mages stick to one kind or element of magic to develop it further.
A high tiered mage can use advanced spells and combine them into other elements, like Lightning, Ice or healing, which requires the understanding and ability to use more than one kind of advanced spell.
A master can use advanced combined spells, and all elements spells, therefore it needs to master all elements at the very least.
And the title of Magus or Great Magus is awarded by the king to elate and honor master mages whose deeds of bravery and courage benefitted the kingdom to great extents, like a hero title. It was very rare but not unique.
With the first aid completed, Callan and Carrick were still not able to walk without opening their wounds… they needed a transport… and Viktor assessing the situation proposed in a commanding tone.
- "Levi, take Riou and go to the city, bring some of the boys with something to transport this two back safely, they can't walk like this… Judeau is out of arrows, we both will wait here with the injured while you go." Said the Mercenary leader.
Levi wondered for a moment, her wish is to keep together with the group but she quickly understood it was necessary. She nodded in agreement
- "I will be back quickly, please take care until I'm back…"
Riou noticing Viktor was much calmer now asked
- "Aren't you afraid another Dracar can show up?"
Viktor smiled… - "you see this blood and corpse here?" Said Viktor pointing to the half Dracar – "Dracars can smell and recognize their own kind, specially their blood. Now that there is one dead here they will avoid this place at all costs now… since there is something here that can kill one of them. Right now this is the safest place of the Dracar River." Said the mercenary sitting down… he intended to wait comfortably at that place until Levi was back.
Callan and Carrick were laid down side by side, now that the bandages were applied, they were very quiet as just breathing moved their chests, and the pain was keeping them in check.
She approached the body of the Dracar, touched the blood with her hand and cleaned it on her shirt, spreading some of the smell on her as there were still some distance to the city, she wanted to make sure no other surprises would come from the dark.
She signaled to Riou to follow her as she began to walk in the city direction, they were going in a fast pace. The danger now had passed, assassins and beasts would dealt with… Now they could rush once again to the city.