Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (37 page)

Giving up without much of a fight, the falcon nodded to his superior officer. The morning was meant to be his time to work with the other mages on his new spells and meant that the attention on him never fully disappeared. For those who didn't know him, it was like they were thinking it would be a story to tell others, that they were with the Owl Mage on his twenty-first birthday.

Before starting the scheduled training with the local mages, including many cadets, though some of the falcons had originally balked believing the cadets needed to progress further before learning new magic, Sebastian needed to pull Elzen aside. Watching the mages, he could see that the cadets' teachers would be stuck in the same position as their students and many thought it would be awkward. He could understand their position. The falcons might not learn some things which might lessen their ability to command for those cadets who might learn something that they couldn't.

"Elzen, I need you begin teaching Helmar and his apprentices basic close quarters fighting. I am thinking hand to hand using the defensive runes I passed on to them would be the best start," the mage said to his friend. Elzen hadn't seemed as disappointed in losing the mermaids as Olan had been, but Sebastian still worried that his friend might be angry with him.

To his surprise it was Helmar that complained, "I thought that we would learn from you, Falcon Sebastian. We followed you hoping to learn more of these runes spells and how to defend ourselves to see if it is possible to avoid the consequences of combat."

His apprentices looked unhappy as well. Looking at the girl, Ilira, wearing a white skirt and slippers, however, the mage wasn't sure that they all understood what they were asking of him. Sebastian put on a calm smile informing the wizard, "If you want someone who can teach you to defend yourselves, there is no one better than Falcon Elzen. Do you plan to try using a sword?"

"Of course not!" Helmar retorted in shock. They were healers and Sebastian understood taking on the concept of combat in anyway was pushing their beliefs, but using a weapon meant to cut and kill was certainly not something they would be comfortable with at all.

"I am decent at hand to hand combat, but my preference is the sword and staff. Elzen is an expert, even compared to the falconi and ravens. He also knows a lot about the runes and can heal. If you wish to begin to understand whether you can do this, he is the better teacher to start with for now."

Elzen had noted the same thing as he had, however, and commented with a smirk, "Well, I bet the apprentice has nice legs, but I am not sure if she planned on showing them to us today. That skirt isn't the best color or type of clothing for being thrown onto the ground with any dignity, I would think."

Katya had followed with Cheleya. Apparently with his birthday party being planned, the girl had managed to worm her way out of morning classes as well. Her general classes which taught the elemental magic of the other guilds was meant to broaden a wizard's abilities and diplomat wizards in particular were believed best trained in everything else, since their spells were considered unreliable in combat.

"Cheleya can use her magic to help, if you don't want to see if you can find a pair of pants to borrow," his little sister offered making Cheleya glance at her in surprise. Her alteration magic wasn't well known, but the dragoness hadn't kept it completely secret either. Some of the teachers knew including High Wizard Herrol.

Ilira looked unsure, but said, "I suppose that it would be easier than trying to find a female battle mage wearing my size."

"Or worse, finding a boy," Katya giggled lightening the apprentice's mood. At least these two girls trying to help her appeared to be wizards. Ilira could sense their auras, even if she couldn't tell by Katya's white novice dress.

"That would be rather humiliating," the apprentice acknowledged already starting to color at the thought. "What do we need for her to use her magic? Is this something new?"

Cheleya knelt in the rough looking grass on the ground in front of Ilira making the girl look uncomfortable and unsure of what was happening. "We call it alteration," Cheleya informed the girl and simply touched the skirt just beneath her crotch. The cloth began to separate like a knife was cutting through the material like it had no more substance than butter in the summer heat.

The little blonde stepped around behind the apprentice who was holding the upper uncut portion to prevent revealing more. With Elzen and the other men around watching curiously, Ilira reddened with unabashed mortification. Feeling air rushing through the cut being created in the back of the skirt made her look to the sky hoping for some kind of miraculous intervention. When Cheleya took the separated lengths near her left ankle pulling the back to the front touching the base of the cloth together, the girl didn't look any less worried. She wasn't afraid that a boy would see her calves after all.

"It can be used for other things, but I'm afraid that making clothing has been my most common use of the magic," Cheleya confessed as Ilira wondered when the pretty, little, blonde haired girl would move her hands to start mending the skirt in some way. To her surprise, Ilira felt the material around her left leg begin to shift pulling together as the two sides of the cloth began knitting together magically.

The dragoness released the cloth and the movement stopped until she held the right side together similarly. Feeling the remnant of her skirt shifting strangely, Ilira stated curiously, "You are mending it without using your hands."

The cloth was shifting from top to bottom. The length shifted and the light material thickened and strengthened. Ilira could have removed her hands where they had tried to protect her dignity, but the apprentice left them to feel the shifting cloth more accurately than the skin on her legs could. It didn't take long before the shifting stopped, however, and Cheleya finally began to move her hands.

Brushing the apprentice's hands away, each movement of the dragoness' hands now changed the color to brown. The white disappeared even quicker than the skirt had become pants touching the base of her calves. It appeared professionally fitted giving the girl room to move while showing off her figure at the same time.

"There that should be better and the brown won't show the dirt as much," Cheleya determined with a nod. Ilira looked at the girl admiringly.

Elzen cleared his throat having been as mesmerized as the rest watching the display of foreign magic and said, "Well, that takes care of her clothes. I suppose if her shoes don't cooperate, she can just go barefoot. She wouldn't be the first to learn without boots."

Returning her attention to Elzen, the girl looked at the mage dubiously. He seemed to have enjoyed the show a little too much. Noting the same thing as he readied to lead the other mages in the scheduled display of spells, Sebastian wondered how heartbroken his friend was that Naoromi was leaving after all.

While Sebastian led the mages through as many spells as he thought they could handle in a short time, Elzen worked with the three healers. Katya and Cheleya wound up sitting near them watching with amusement as the wizards tried to follow the mage's instruction. When he had a moment, Sebastian would look over at the four working on basic hand to hand techniques.

Helmar and Nefen hadn't always been trapped within the peaceful teachings of the healers. They had been boys who had been in mock battles with their friends. Few children chose to be the healer when they could be some heroic warrior. Few even chose to be wizards when their parents worried that their children would be taken away from them because of their magic.

Ilira, on the other hand, looked like a fish out of water. As a girl, she may have played house, but not war, Sebastian thought. The young woman got frustrated with the movements, getting dirty when she fell, and Elzen's occasional teasing. Her long dark hair had been pulled back into a tail by Katya and Cheleya early on as her hair had continually whipped into her face thanks to the breeze and mock fighting.

When Sebastian moved to trying to teach runes and how to use them to the mages, he interrupted their training to let the three wizards join him for what they had believed was the purpose of their trip. They had followed the mage to become healers that could protect themselves in a fight, but hadn't thought through the fact that combat meant getting dirty at times.

With Elzen able to assist him with transferring runes and capable of showing how to use them as well, Sebastian felt less overwhelmed by the teaching. He wasn't a natural teacher, or so he thought. Others saw him as a good teacher, but that was usually just one on one. Sebastian didn't enjoy being the center of attention and the larger classes meant more eyes on him.

As he walked through the mages gathered, the mage eventually came to the three healers and Helmar had the passion back in his eyes. "Finally, this is what I had hoped to see," the wizard stated with echoing nods from the apprentices.

Sebastian smiled patiently and said, "You told me that you wished to be able to defend yourselves so you would be less dependent on the soldiers and battle mages."

The muscular wizard nodded and agreed saying, "I had hoped that these runes would let us be able to fight if necessary."

"How do these runes make that possible if you have no idea how to fight at all?" Sebastian countered trying to be gentle as the mage made his point. "Fire wizards believed that they were war wizards because they can throw fire and kill from a distance. Many even have a basic understanding of the sword, but that doesn't make them capable in a fight.

"Like healers, they need a buffer of competent soldiers or battle mages.

"You wanted to be capable of defending yourselves and these runes can't do that for you by themselves. You need to understand how to fight, even if you plan to just defend and not attack."

Ilira complained, "Being taught how to throw a punch or being thrown into the dirt isn't going to help us either."

Sighing for effect, Sebastian called out to the mages and said, "Everyone take a break. Clear a circle. Elzen and I will give a demonstration of what can be done with the basic runes."

There were many other faces looking as excited by the idea of seeing a fight using the new magic besides Helmar and his apprentices.

"We have defensive armor runes," he stated slapping the runes on his left arm. "Weapons storage, a spear or harpoon, a rune to increase our speed beyond our reflex spell, a rune for increased strength, a rune to send lightning into a person close by or it can be sent along the harpoon, one can create ice or heat, another set can make magic spikes, and we have sense improving spells also. As battle mages, we can do much of this with our battle magic, so we might ignore them though our soldiers will benefit from them greatly.

"Our magic can do enough that many will wonder why we bother to place runes on ourselves at all. Elzen..." he gestured to his friend to prepare to fight.

They began simply enough with their hands. Blows were blocked by the rune armor causing the areas to glow. While placed on the left arm, a battle mage's magic could actually make the runes appear anywhere he was attacked. Strikes to the arms, legs and chest were ineffective leaving no impression on the fighters.

"Spikes," he suggested to his opponent to add to the show. Basic projections appeared on their hands, elbows, knees and feet. About six inches long and looking like dull iron due to the blue ink, the two men attacked showing how each area could add to their attack even as the defensive armor glowed with each glancing blow.

"Push your magic into them and the shield," Sebastian suggested as he moved out of arm's reach of Elzen to demonstrate. With his magic pushing into the two kinds of runes, the spikes glowed golden and grew to the length of sword blades. The rune shields grew around their left arms, a minor push of their power since the rune shields could also completely engulf the men, if they wished it.

Looking like gladiators with glowing weapons, the two mages struck each other's shields several times countering each other. Swordsmanship was more to Sebastian's advantage, but neither man was trying as hard as they could to harm the other. This was just a demonstration.

Sebastian jumped back and pushed more magic into the spike in his hand making it nearly the length of a spear. The range was just a matter of the strength of the mage's push.

"Spear and harpoon," he called out to Elzen as the men moved back even further.

The harpoon formed and could be held like a spear. They thrust from maximum range letting the shields block the magical weapons come to life. Sebastian jumped back increasing the distance to more than twenty feet and loosed the harpoon on its barbwire chain. Elzen countered similarly.

A small smile crossed Sebastian's lips as he pushed his magic into the harpoon rune. The spear and chain began to glow. While Elzen withdrew his harpoon to his hand again thinking the weapon could only be thrown, the owl knew better. A soldier could only throw the harpoon, but a mage or wizard could use their magic to control the entire length. Like a snake, the spear began to move lashing out at the raised shield. Again he wasn't trying to defeat or harm his friend, but the smaller mage gave a step before smiling back.

Elzen hadn't thought to use his magic in the same way. He was more linear in his thinking and a thrown spear was supposed to be just that. Before the mage could get too comfortable, Sebastian used his power to make the harpoon and chain split into three. The added weapons made the younger mage uncomfortable and he pushed his power into the shield retreating inside of a large dome as the three glowing spears writhed on their chains like some mythical hydra's heads.