Chapter 5

At this time in the Urals.

The departure of the expedition, in which Ivan's parents were to go to Siberia, was delayed. In the Urals, there was a particularly large attack by a wave of monsters from Siberia, so the leadership of the expedition decided to help deal with the wave.

All the space to the horizon was filled with monsters of various levels: from Servants to Generals, including in the crowd of monsters there were two supreme Generals. Every second, various magic fell on the hordes of beasts: magicians of the highest level, for the most part, hovered over the battlefield and concentrated their attacks on the Generals, magicians of the initial, middle and high level formed formations, unleashing their combined magic on all monsters from the Servant to the Commanders-in-Chief. The purpose of the half-spell mages and the spell mage's defense commander was to prevent the high commanders from attacking the rest of the mages, since it was not known how many of the top Generals were in the wave, and whether the wave was headed by the Emperor, the spell mage could not spend all his strength at once. Mages defended in three shifts, tk. the waves could last for many weeks, and the energy of the sorcerers is not infinite. Each shift was led by a spell mage, and the shift itself lasted 24 hours.

Ivan's parents were in a group of top-level magicians, whose current task was to assassinate the senior commander. The giant wolf, 40 meters high at the withers, was a dangerous opponent, but he was killed too.

- Yes, there have not been such big waves for a long time. It even seemed to me that the monsters grew wiser and stopped committing mass suicide in these mountains. There are at least four top generals in this wave. Usually, after killing high commanders, new monsters stop going to their deaths, and we have already killed two. This means that the wave is most likely led by the Emperor, this has not happened for twenty years. - said the head of the group, in which Ivan's parents participated in the defense.

- If the Emperor, then it explains a lot. In all the years of my hunting practice, I have never seen an Emperor. - Victor answered.

- Once every few decades, some young Emperor, apparently wanting to quickly expand his territory, tries to cross the Urals, apparently not knowing why his smarter relatives have not yet achieved success in this field. I saw the past attack of the wave led by the Emperor, then I just reached the Highest level and did not understand what power magical beasts can have. - said the head of the group.

Suddenly it became noticeable that at the horizon the monsters were moving faster than those in front of the crowd - after a while the silhouette of a giant monster became visible at the horizon - it was about a kilometer high at the withers, it was noticeable that it was driving the rest of the magical beasts.

- So this is the Emperor - Victor said, trying to suppress the sudden feeling of fear.

When the Emperor covered half the way to the line of defense of the magicians, a tiny, in comparison with the giant monster, a dark green three-headed dragon flew in from the side of the mountains - it was only 7 meters in length from the tip of its tail to its heads. The three-headed dragon stopped and hovered just a few hundred meters from the Emperor. Suddenly, three streams of flame poured from the three heads of the dragon on the Emperor, all monsters that were not far enough from this fire instantly turned to ash, regardless of whether they were Servants or Generals. The emperor, who just a few minutes ago seemed formidable and invincible, caught fire, burns began to appear on his body, and just a couple of minutes later, he died, crushing many monsters with his huge carcass.

- This is the difference in strength between the higher and the younger Emperor - said the Head of the group, looking at the stunned comrades - We are lucky that the Urals are guarded by the Serpent-Gorynych, his mere presence discourages the smart Emperors from crossing the Urals. But it would be better if he killed the highest commanders, it costs him nothing ...

The commander of the defense flew up to the Serpent-Gorynych, the spell mage, from the distance separating them, could only see that the spell mage was trying to say something to Gorynych and showed his hand at the crowd of monsters. The heads of the Serpent-Gorynych began to move and, apparently, argue with each other. After the argument, the left head seemed to sigh, the left "hand" of Gorynych rose, for a moment the left head of the dragon shone with a silver light, and after clicking the fingers of the left "hand" of Gorynych, all the monsters, from Servants to true Generals, exploded from within in Victor's field of view, leaving after them the bloody seas, and the heads of the highest Generals were blown off.

- Was it the magic of space? How? - Ivan's father said in amazement, looking at how the inexhaustible crowd of monsters dried up in the blink of an eye.

- As far as I know, Serpent-Gorynych owns human magic or its analogue somewhere at the level of the peak of the spell, if any. And, as I heard, each head, besides the ability to breathe out fire, has its own element. The left head has this space, I don't know about the rest - The head of the group explained to the amazed comrades - So, this time the head of defense was able to somehow convince our Guardian Beast, we can help with the monsters below the Emperor, last time twenty years ago, the magician who was then the head of the defense did not succeed, and the battle lasted for several more days.

The Serpent-Gorynych flew away, and those of the magicians who were not wounded went to the battlefield to collect resources from the corpses of monsters: the souls of magic beasts were already collected by vessels for souls specially installed on the line of defense. A quarter of the collected resources were distributed among the mages participating in the defense, and each received resources corresponding to their level of cultivation. The rest of the resources were sent to magical universities and colleges to train the future generation of the country's defenders.

Due to the abundance of monsters of the level of the General and the fact that attacks led by monsters of the level of the highest commander happened at least once a year, the goal of the universities was not to release as many magicians as possible, but to prepare magicians of the highest level, capable of reaching the levels of semi-spell and spell. Thus, the percentage of people who graduated from universities was very small, but everyone who could graduate from university was stronger than the average magician of their level.

Meanwhile, in the Leningrad region.

The day after the exam, Ivan, Pavel and Olga and their friend Marina went to Olga's dacha. The dacha was located on the edge of the village, guarded by magicians: in the village there was always a high-level magician and several mid-level magicians. When four students arrived, they entered the house, after which Paul said:

- Not a bad place, what are we going to do first? I took playing cards and a bottle of vodka with me.

- And I took parental powder for tracking monsters and two bottles of vodka, and you girls? - Ivan said, looking first at Olga, then at Marina. "Four students, two guys and two girls in a dacha with booze near a forest full of monsters, a good start for a horror ... or a porn movie. New life, new liver, this should be fun. "

- So I thought that you would take something stronger - Olga said and looked at Marina, after which she took out two bottles of wine from her backpack - Marina, unlike us, is an adult, but it seems that the lack of age did not prevent you in any way. I think we need to practice until evening, in the evening, hmm, have some fun, and tomorrow go to the forest to try to find animals of the level of a lower servant. Any objections?

Since there was no objection, the four college students went to the courtyard, which was roomy enough for the magical training of entry-level sorcerers.

Marina was of average height, a dark-haired pretty girl, less sharp-tongued than Olga, and with a softer character, at least so it seemed to Ivan. When everyone went out into the yard, Marina said:

- Since we are going to hunt magical beasts together, I need to know your abilities, Olga said it was a surprise, so I am intrigued about your abilities. But first, I'll start with myself: as you probably already know, I'm an entry-level second-stage fire mage - Marina turned towards a large stone located in the courtyard and released Ignite: Bone burn: a powerful ball of fire shot at the stone and, even partially melted it. - Now it's your turn.

Pavel stepped forward and demonstrated his first stage of earth magic, enhanced by a spiritual seed: the guy quickly moved, leaving behind a swampy ground. "I have an entry-level first-level earth element, reinforced with a swamp spirit seed. True, such a land can only, perhaps, slow down the lower servant a little, although it has one more function: to make barriers impassable for Olga. Olga glared at Pavel and laughed.

- An innate spiritual bog seed? Not bad, but you, Vanya, how will you surprise? - said Marina, casting a glance at Ivan.

Ivan silently, barely holding back a smile, summoned Kosolapy, and when Marina screamed and recoiled, Ivan, together with Pavel, neighed. Oddly enough, Olga supported them.

- A mage, an entry-level summon, whose summoning animal is the supreme servant? Yes, now it does not seem strange that you so easily agreed to this hunt - said the dumbfounded Marina - now let's practice and develop tactics for hunting monsters.

Tired of training, the guys went to get firewood for the fire - Clubfoot felled dry trees with his paw and crushed them into small logs, and Pavel moved the logs to the fire using the first stage of the initial level of earth magic. At this time, the girls took out pre-cooked meat for barbecue and began to string it on skewers. Marina lit the fire with the help of the first stage fire magic. Olga fried kebabs, not entrusting the guys with such a responsible business. After all the meat was fried, the students sat down by the fire, took out wine and vodka, poured it into plastic cups ...

Ivan woke up half-naked, in tattered clothes in the forest, there were several wounds on his body, his head was splitting, several torn corpses of monsters of the level of a lower Servant and one corpse of a younger Servant lay around, and the memories of the past stormy night did not go to his head.