Chapter 34 — Checkers and Chess

  In the pitch black, I extended my aura hesitantly after the events earlier today. I could have opened my third eye and known right where Fren was, but it was much like a muscle, one I had neglected then severely overworked. That ability was more than fatigued from the day I’d had. Still, a wizard’s aura is a powerful tool in its own right. As mine flooded over the room I gained a perception of the hostile entity—Fren.

  I sensed movement all around me in the glen, so I dashed away, up onto the floorboards of the basement. Fren made noises with his branches around the building to throw off my senses. Drumming from plants and roots on the brickwork, shelving, and floors transformed the room dropped into darkness into an arena of plant life, eager to watch me be slaughtered.

  The magic infusing Fren’s many ‘parts’ threw them off even more. With my aura extended like it was, it gave me something akin to ‘spidy senses’ for spells and magical entities. I would have a few extra moments to respond to any threat as it approached or Fren willed his magically infused limbs to attack. That decision once made was something my aura would be able to pick up on.

  “Lumen,” I whispered, and a faint ball of energy began to glow in my outstretched hand. I tossed it up above me and with an effort of will be suggested that it stay above my head in that location. While it made the shadows fearsome, it was better than pitch blackness. I saw movement in multiple areas and plant life seemed to recoil from the light, vines twisted, shelving swayed. The climax was the basement door slamming shut. Fren had a flare for the dramatic and was trying to put me on edge, coax out my fear, and push me to make mistakes. It didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to retreat any further. I smiled despite myself, Fren’s display would be his undoing. He liked to push the ambiance to a crescendo before he attacked. The roots and noise began to increase in tempo, like a tribal beat around us. I knew the moment was almost ripe.

  Unfortunately, even though I knew it was only Fren, the tumult did affect me. I needed to practice honing my own emotions, both for my dreams and fighting prowess—which was why Fren was doing what he was, I realized. Despite my unhelpful realization, fear rose within me. With it my power swelled stronger but grew volatile, responding to my inner turmoil. The light I’d summoned above blazed, then sputtered causing the room to strobe randomly as the flames which made it up crackled with changing power.

  Cackling laughter circled around me, though it was from no human. Branches cracked and struck one another in the similitude of laughter but alien and horrific. Loud ‘thunks’ reverberated through the floor from various areas of the basement.

  “Let’s get started with this,” I whispered. “No reason to drag it out.”

  As if in answer a whip like tendril flashed towards me, and I ducked, rolling to the side. It was followed by a projectile; I wasn’t sure if it was a rock, or some implement from the basement, but I barely managed to avoid it. The worrying thing was it didn’t strike the wall on the other side of the room, something had caught it in the shadows.

  A twine like trip line slid across the ground at breakneck speeds. I felt it coming thanks to my aura and jumped, focusing as much as I could. A grin spread on my face. If I’d used my aura in the gym and not worried about breaking the electronics, I might have stood a chance against Lana.

  Four more came, sliding across the floor at various heights as I twisted and dropped, barely managing to escape each of them. I had to drop to the ground as the last whizzed past, back flat against the solid floor as the trap narrowly missed me. That was not a place I wanted to be. I jolted to sit up.

  The flying object came again, and I was too slow to avoid it this time. It wasn’t a rock—it was a brick. It slammed into my back, throwing me face down with its force. A corner or edge splitting the skin on my back with a loud whap.

  “Gah!” I yelled and focused my will into the energy I would need for a shield. My back ached and I knew I would have a wicked gash and bruise.

  I sensed the next coming and shaped my will, “Murus!”

  Power sprang into existence, my shield covering me from all directions as I regained my footing. Three bricks slammed into the shield, then to my surprise the other iron knuckle I’d left in my bag in Fren’s glen hurtled forward at speed.

  Iron has a nasty habit of repelling or disrupting magic. It’s why it can work so well to protect electronics and was the outer ring of my circle inlaid into the floorboards. It’s not a perfect science, at least not to me. That property was also why iron wreaked havoc on the bodies of the fae and daemons which were magical constructs. The mana that generally gave them strength and increased constitution was dispelled by the inherent properties of the forbidden metal to the fae. The tumbling iron struck my willed shield—and kept coming, ignoring it. The shield had been able to disrupt the angle of the throw, and it had lost momentum, but it managed to thump into my right shin with enough force to bite. Blood spirted and I cursed, remembering again why I didn’t like training with Fren.

  He didn’t pull his punches.

  Well, he did, but it didn’t feel like it. Even if I knew he would heal me after.

  Consumed by pain my shield wavered, and vines raced in to incapacitate me, noose like roots reached forward seeking my neck, arms, and legs.

  I cursed, if Fren wasn’t going to hold back, neither was I. I needed to grow up.

  I used fire.

  Offensively fire was great, but it was much harder to control than more inherently stable magics like earth. I knew Fren abhorred fire, and I generally refrained from using it.

  Not today.

  I shouted, “Ignis” as the tendril like vines began gaining purchase on my skin. The spell caused a blade of fire which I mentally summoned to race around me as I stood back up. The roots and branches were severed and cut clean through. The flame also had an unintentional side effect. It left a burning circle on the ground. Circles could assist in magic. A circle of iron, salt, or blood could cut off or pull in magical forces, depending on your desire. Any circle could suffice, but it would require more will, focus, and power to maintain. Fire made a wonderful circle but came with inherent dangers. It lent its own consuming power to spells, sometimes twisting them from a practitioner’s control like a wildfire or ramping up their power beyond the ability to control.

  I didn’t hesitate and used the fire, taking advantage of the circle I’d crafted around me. It would have been cooler If I’d thought to do this with my fire spell before casting it, but the truth was it was a lucky accident, one I would have to use and perfect in the future. I willed the flames to lessen to a small burning ring a few inches high, its diameter nearly four feet with me at the center.

  I focused on the circle being the end to all other external magics, and everything inside controlled absolutely by me, my power, and my will.

  Three more branch-like attacks struck, the loose loops of corded roots passed through the circle then fell inert, severed from Fren’s control and unable to actively tighten and wrap around my limbs. They also didn’t disrupt my control over the circle or break its power since Fren and beings like him didn’t have the direct agency to break magic constructs with ease like a human could. I had to be careful as a careless movement on my part would break the circle immediately.

  I’d ready many magical tomes which theorized why circles carried these properties. I was in a very small minority of opinion and ascribed it to biblical origins, God giving man choice and agency above all other life. It tied in nicely, at least to me. Holy ground around churches acted much the same and many creatures and evils were unable to tread them freely. I wasn’t sure what God thought of me or wizards in general, but if he made this rule, I was grateful for it. Fren could get through eventually, but it would take a lot of time, energy, and he would lose much of his strength in the battle of will to overcome it.

  Fren was smart and strong. We’d fought like this before. He could still pull on the external part of those now severed limbs and they could trip or entwine me if he got lucky, but his control was the same as anyone else would have been trying to lasso me. I kept a wary eye of where I stepped, and for any other attempts. If he caught me and dragged me from the circle it would be the end of the fight.

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  The room grew still. Roots began to gather about my circle, piling up. Fren was exerting himself aggressively. In moments I was in a bowl of wood, a few inches thick and about the height of my knee, then in the next moment it was up to my waist.

  It was then that I realized my mistake. I tried to use my earth magic to control the wood of the floor, making it move to free me, but I’d effectively trapped my control to the boundary of my circle! The flames burned within the wooden bowl, giving me more light as the reflected back. I could imagine Fren’s glee as he trapped me so completely, using my own spell which had stopped him against me. I’d also not realized that Fren had physically ‘permeated’ the floor below me and while it was severed from his being it was infused with life mana and had recently been ‘living’ which would make it sluggish to obey my earth magic which was better with stone and earth rather than living base material.

  I had to get out.

  I jumped, trying to leap out of the circle, but a wall the size of a washing machine raised up in an instant, and I struck it full on. My face burned and the air was pressed from my chest like I’d leapt at a concrete wall. My movement should have broken the circle, but Fren’s construct was right at its edge, trapping me within, unable to break its barrier by bodily action.

  I was trapped.

  I fell backwards and by the time I got up I was fully cocooned by magically reinforced wood. My circle still burned on. I nearly mentally extinguished it, but that would be admitting defeat. I would have done that in the past, but not today. If I got rid of the circle Fren’s enclosure might tighten in and I’d have to tap out, or he could make spikes of wood grow from the surface which could impale me… or any number of things. Best Fren or no, he was devious when he wanted to be and would push as hard as he needed to get me to admit defeat. Fren hated losing.

  This was a new strategy from him and frankly it was frightening. Circles were a defense to wizards which we could erect anywhere with relative ease. He had made it my tomb in moments. My overhead flame lit the cocoon as did the flame about its edge but despite it being well lit I felt fear creeping up. I felt like I was in the gullet of a plant like beast. There was no exit, no place to escape. We were in a stalemate or so I thought as my mind raced through ideas and strategies that might allow me to escape.

  I grimaced, unable to come up with a plan. Fren had turned my magically reinforced circle, the bastion of wizards everywhere, into a trap. That’s when I noticed the air beginning to thin and pollen of some sort drifting into the enclosure.

  Fren was a plant-based lifeform, pulling in carbon dioxide and making oxygen was his thing, but in a vacuum, he could play with the ambient air quality. I was playing checkers, and he was playing chess.

  My mind resolved. The only option was to throw over the board.

  Trapped in Fren’s cocoon of wood my oxygen continued to wane, and I felt my head beginning to swim. Fren’s would win the fight in moments if I didn’t do something. I summoned my will, sat, and assumed a meditative pose. I took one last large breath knowing the air wouldn’t remain for long and the pollen do any number of things too me if I let it build. I closed my mouth and eyes redirecting my focus to the spell of light above me. I didn’t want to waste breath uttering a new spell into existence to it would be my means of escape. The ceiling was high, and therefore the tube of wood I was in was as well. I began altering the light spell, changing, and modifying the flows of power on the fly. Modifications were easier and the consequences less likely to be deadly, compared to crafting an all-new spell. It was inherently more stable, but still far riskier than I wanted to be. I have to be stronger, I reminded myself and didn’t hesitate.

  For most of my spells, like the line of fire around me turned into a circle, I could ‘direct’ them by my will which was an inherent part of the construction of the spell. For example, I could change the course of a flying brick or rock I used as a projectile, those changes were well practiced and honed. I had to modify spells like that all the time, but the spells had parameters that allowed for it. Refining spells to use my particular blend of powers with high levels of efficiency was a lifetime of work for a wizard. Creating new or unique spells took even longer and greater understanding of magical theory and practice but they became works of art to the wizards that developed them.

  I was trying to do a mixture of each. Modifying an existing spell, shaping it to my specific powers, and creating something new. Even attempting this was would have been impossible the first two years I trained with Clair but by the end it was a skill I had a modicum of practice at. Now I used those same skills to enhance my spell above. I’d done similar works and knew what the risks where… usually I had protective wards and my true crafting circle to ensure safety, but today wasn’t a day for caution. I had threats to face and if I couldn’t defeat Fren in a spar… I had no hope of beating the creature hunting me.

  Using my fire affinity, I modified the lingering orb of light above. I shifted its crafting so it could feed on my mana directly and it wouldn’t sputter out as oxygen vanished in the enclosed space. The orb flared, and I felt the draw on my mana as it was fueled by my will.

  In a magical sense the changes I’d shaped on the spell were small. What I was going to do next was much more, akin to rebuilding a car while driving it. It could be done, but it was also reckless. It would be much simpler to have two cars prepared for different events and use cases. But I didn’t have two spells, or time to develop them.

  I distorted the flows of power in my familiar light spell, warping them to radiate heat rather than simple light. In moments the heat grew, a blistering ball of fire which hung overhead like a miniature sun. I broke out in sweat and felt my hair burning but there was nothing else for it. I flattened the ball of power, bringing its burning twisting edges to knife like points against the edges of the circle high above near the ceiling. I used flows of power rather than modifying the spell inherently, figuring it would be safer. The magic wouldn’t pass the circle I’d formed on the ground, but physics were still physics and the heat the orb was generating was something out of nightmares.

  I could see the fire light of it through my eyelids, and I didn’t dare open them. The air would nearly be gone, if not absent entirely within the vacuum space. I fed the spell more energy to fuel it, my reserves dropping quickly as the flame relied on me for its support. The spell did its work, burning and blackening the wood by its edges as heat transferred outward, then I prepared to add the last few changes which were… highly unstable—but they should work.

  Once done, the new flows of power waiting to be activated, I used the last reserves of my energy and air in my lungs to speak the command phrase for my bubble shield. The shield was compressed and small due to the constraints of my circle still burned into the floor, conveniently it forced the shield to be stronger and less energy draining than normal enclosed into the confined space. I’d have to research that later and see what I could develop. Regardless, the smaller shield served me well by saving energy and mana.

  I overloaded the new flows of power about my fire spell and severed my connection to it after the final exchange of mana. I didn’t want the poorly formed spell to harm my mana core or send me magical backlash.

  As I’d hoped, the spell failed, cracking out in a moment like the burst of a grenade.

  Concussive force splintered out and the wooden cocoon I was trapped in shattered as the spell fell into chaotic uncontrolled motes of energy. The physical change in pressure overcame the strength of Fren’s grown wood. The burnt section functioned as a weak point which allowed cracks to extend from that point down to the floor around me, splinters blasting outwards to rain wood across the basement.

  I knew Fren had expended a lot of energy to make his trap, and it had nearly worked. I was exhausted but knew he would be too. I quickly leapt from the wooden hollow before Fren could close it again breaking the defense of my own forged circle as I dove into blackness. The space, filled with ambient mana felt wonderful and I extended out my aura now that it could go beyond the confining space. My senses were confused by the flying debris, and Fren’s magically infused wood blows across the basement. I could also sense his active control of vines, roots, and wooden constructs about the room that further blinded me like I’d stepped into a spotlight with my eyes open.

  Magically blinded, I rolled into a standing defensive position as Fren struck in truth. He stood ahead in his humanoid form but had a few extra ‘tentacles’ of wood which provided him more stability and movement. I struck with a fist, hardening energy around my hand with a word, “Indurare!” Flame energy surrounded my fist, enhancing the strike.

  My fist left a divot in Fren’s chest the spell energy protecting my hand so I didn’t shatter the bones. Even with that assistance it felt like I’d punched concrete.

  Fren moved. He was going easy on me, his multiple arms could have easily incapacitated me in my weakened state, but he attacked in ways that I could defend if I was fast enough.

  I wasn’t.

  For all my effort my body was soon covered in bruises and shallow cuts began to run the length of my arms and body. His attacking limbs were shrouded in thorn like protrusions which cut flesh or dug in.

  We had rarely gone at it this forcefully, but Fren had felt my panic and need for advancement and was meeting it with his own strength. Training like this would raise my body’s strength, endurance, and defenses. It would hone my mind for true battle. It forced me to fortify my abilities and combine my strategies in ways Rex’s gym simply couldn’t foster. I’d already devised a new spell I could improve upon with practice and a new way to make circles when I was in a hurry, need was the crux for invention.

  I flowed forward, striking his supports with a lancing strike of fire as I shouted my associated spell command word. The wood charred and burned, magical fire extending through each strike like electricity, scarring the wood until it turned to charcoal and flaked away.

  While Fren was distracted I readied my next surprise. I pulled out the iron knuckle I’d put in my pocket earlier. He’d used one and now I would too. I slipped it over one hand and punched out again, this time not bothering to reinforce my strike with magic. First because the iron would have messed up anything I tried and second because my magical tank was running on fumes.

  Fren roared in surprise as my strike landed on the side of his face. The iron burned and bluish flames burst out upon his bark-like skin like cold fire. Fren pushed me back instinctively with a slapping arm—full force—and I flew.

  Literally.

  I’d caught him by surprise, and he’d had an instinctive reaction. I hurtled through the air to slam into a metal shelving unit. The wooden boards that made up the shelves pushed free or broken by my impact. I crashed to the ground amidst them. Pain riddling my back and body. My last dazed through was the realization that Fren did indeed pull his punches.

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