Tripartite

Chapter Nine

  I followed immediately. The man launched bolts of lightning and dark at the monster. But it did nothing. “Lightning Rod” I roared.

  The black energy slammed into the huge monster, but all it did was annoy it. “The monster is a black demon! 9th ring! You have to kill it with holy lightning!” the man yelled.

  Bakar looked at him. He took out the knife I gave him. He chanted a blessing spell on the knife and tossed it.

  It flashed, and seconds later, it was behind the monster. The monster looked at is. Suddenly, its black armor fell down, cut into pieces. “You will pay for that. My name is Abel. Remember it.”  Abel slammed his hand on the ground. I flew back twenty feet and slammed through a tree.

  “Mmmph” I groaned. I slowly got up just in time to see Abel standing above the man. He raised his pitch black sword. “No!” he looked at me and smiled. Then the sword fell.

  We all sprinted at Abel. He laughed and shot out another shockwave. “We will finish this fight later weaklings. My master calls me.” He waved his hand, and a black mist surrounded him.

  When it faded away, he was gone. I groaned. I looked over to Cynthia and Bakar. “What just happened?” the man said, and groaned.

  “He’s still alive!” I yelled, elated.

  We jumped up and ran over to him. “Listen…you must find…Headmaster …. Wyat…Bring this…to…him” I took the staff he was holding out.

  “We will do it.” I said.

  He looked at me and smiled. “Good…Then my mission is…complete. Tell my brother …it is time for you to visit… the World.” The man closed his eyes.

  I shook him. “Wait! I have too many questions! Who are you? What is your name?” I cried.

  Cynthia looked at me, and sadly shook her head. “He is already dead.” She said quietly.

  We buried the man with the pieces of Abel’s armor on top of his grave. We walked quietly back to our campsite. I plopped down and looked at the staff he gave me. It was tall, engraved with pictures of roses. The staff appeared to be made out of a mixture of wood and metal. At the top there was a rose so black, it seemed to suck in all the light around it.

  We camped out in the woods, just sitting there quietly. The day passed slowly. I just sat there sadly. There was a flash, and Shadow appeared. “Whoa! I didn’t summon you! How are you here?” I thought to him.

  “I can appear whenever I want, I do not require your summons.” He thought back. “You are sad that you could not save the man?” He said, like a statement, not a question. “Yes, Shadow, I’m too weak! I need to get more powerful. None of the spells I found work.” I thought to him, sadly.

  Shadow looked at me. “I know one very potent one. You have all you need. Beware. Once done, it can never be undone. Will you do it for power?” He asked, but his tone was sad.

  I thought for a moment. “Very well, Shadow. I shall summon you tomorrow to do it, but only if I decide it is safe.” I said, hesitantly.

  When the day ended, we headed back to the school sadly. The other groups were already there, and we were the last. “Did you wusses get lost?” Brent asked, mockingly.

  “Shut up” Cynthia snapped.

  With a wave, Bakar trapped him against the wall with bands of light. We walked to the headmaster’s office without more interruption. I went inside and Bakar and Cynthia stayed outside. The headmaster was happily whistling at his desk. “Why, hello Lance! I’m glad you all survived!” He said in an upbeat tone.

  “I survived, but not all of us did.” I said, looking down.

  Wyat looked horrified. “Who was it? I was sure you all were ready for circle 3 monsters.” He said, his upbeat tone gone, and he was now pacing the room with wet eyes.

  “It wasn’t one of us Headmaster. And it was to a circle 9 monster.” I said, with a dark expression crossing my face as I thought back to the fight with “Abel”.

  He paled. “A level nine? Those woods shouldn’t have any of such! Well, Luckily, my brother is coming for a visit, and he is a strong mage. He has a place in the Mage Council. He can easily defeat some level nine monster. In fact, he is late. He should have been here yesterday.” He said, getting slightly happier.

  I felt like I had swallowed a rock. I started shaking a little. “Headmaster?” I asked, shaking.

  “Yes Lance”? Wyat answered, noticing my shaking, paled even more.

  “Did your brother have blond hair, deep blue eyes, and a staff with a pitch black rose on it?” I asked.

  Wyat paled. “In fact he did. The Rose staff was his prize possession. Nobody knows what it does. How do you know him?” He asked, but, he just wanted confirmation. He already knew. I started crying. I tried not to, but I couldn’t hold it in.

  “Headmaster…as I said, none of us died.” I said, through my tears, tears shed for the man I had never known. I held up the Rose staff. “But he did.”

  I thought back to his last moments.   “He also told me to tell you that it is time to show me the World.” I said, remembering his words.

  Wyat was stunned. He sat down numbly in his chair. He didn’t move for a few minutes. Finally, he got up. “Very well. You have a day to pack your stuff with your unit. I will be sending you to the World of Magic, or Terra, tomorrow.  You will stay there for some time, learning the ways of the Magic World.”

  I went back to my dorm to find Cynthia and Bakar waiting for me. I told them what was happening. “That means we will need all the magic items we can get. Modern technology does not work in the World. It’s still in medieval times. And the best part, no matter how long we are in the World, when we return here, and no time will have passed.” Bakar said, looking up from his book.

  We packed all the stuff we would need, including dry food and some books from the ancient library. Then we went to sleep. In the morning, I woke up, and went to wake up my roomies. After we had breakfast, we got into our leather armor/clothes and headed over to Wyat. When we got there, he didn’t say anything. He just waved his hand and the world swam.

  I opened my eyes to see I was standing in a medieval village with my friends. “What now?” Bakar asked.

  “Well, I should think that we should look for a place to stay.” I said.

  “Why don’t we go ask around and see if there is a mayor?” we walked over to a man who seemed to know what he was doing.

  “Excuse me sir, do you know where we can find the mayor?” I asked.

  “Of course sonny. He’s in the big building on your left.” The man said, turned and walked away.   

  We went off in the buildings direction. I turned to thank the man, but when I turned around, he was gone. I frowned, be we kept going.

  I knocked on the mayor’s door. After a minute a short man opened it. “Who are you? Do you have an appointment with the mayor?” The short man asked.

  Thinking quickly, I replied “Yes. We recently came here, via friend’s request, and we are required to see him.” I said, and crossed my fingers.

  The little man frowned, but took us into the house.

  We entered the mayor’s room. “Who are you?” the mayor asked, suspiciously.

  “We need lodging.” I said.

  “We are mages, and we can earn our keep.” I continued.

  “Do you have money?” he asked.

  “No but…” I said, feeling the situation slipping out of hand.

  “Then get out.” He said.

  “Isn’t there any way we can work to earn our keep?” Bakar asked.

  He thought for a moment. “Our village is constantly raided by bandits. If you get rid of them, you can stay. Deal?” he asked, with a devilish look.

  I smiled. No problem. “Deal.”

  We went to the small hut that we had been given. “Gee, I would think that the mayor would give us a house big enough for three people.” Bakar said.

  “After all, we are killing off some bandits. I frowned. “Speaking about the bandits, doesn’t it seem a little weird? I saw the village??
?s barracks, and they are full. So what is it with these bandits that they need 3 mages’ help with?” I said, thoughtfully.

  We decided to ask a normal villager about it. We walked up to a blond lady carrying a baby. “Excuse me?” Cynthia asked.

  She turned around. “We heard some gossip about bandits. We are rather new here and don’t know much about what’s going on. Could you tell us a little about them?” Bakar continued.

  “The bandits are pure evil! She cried. “They use their dark magic armor and weapons and wreak havoc upon our village! They have no mercy!” She screamed.

  She continued rambling on about how evil they were.

  We slowly backed off and returned to our hut. “I knew it! The bandits are mages!” I snapped. “That mayor is trying to get us killed!” Bakar cried.

  We stayed in the small cabin for a few days, thinking of strategies to beat the bandits. We decided on a surprise attack. We had the soldiers train to do as we said. We also had the patrol alert us every time something fishy was spotted.  The night came, and with it the cry of “The bandits are coming! Get to the underground cellars!”

  “There is the signal!” Cynthia whispered.

  Bakar teleported us a few hundred feet behind the bandits. I summoned my robot into armor mode. But this time, I had my sword and shield. Bakar cloaked himself with a shielding light which reflected any damage he took onto enemies. (He learned the spell from ancient libraries. Cynthia summoned skull armor around herself. And then, we charged.

  I headed for the nearest one, while Bakar went to my left and Cynthia went to the right. I jumped on his back. I slammed the sword down. There was a shriek as metal grated on metal, and as it launched off his chest gear with a wash of sparks. It barely dented his armor. “Enemies coming from the back!” the man yelled.

  The bandits turned around and started running towards us. The man slowly stood up. He turned to look at me. I noticed his brightly shining white armor. “That’s weird… that lady said they had black armor, not white armor” I thought.

   I raised my weapon and infused it with lightning. I looked for weak spots in his armor. The armor was well made, though and I only saw weak spots in his under arms, and neck. I went for the ones under his arms.

  My sword whistled upwards towards the gap. But suddenly, there was a sword in the way of mine. It shone brightly, like a star. I jumped back and shed my armor. I couldn’t win this fight with a sword. I raised my hand, and summoned a volley of fireballs. I launched them at the bandit. He easily batted them away. I sighed. With another wave, a wall of thorns erupted from under him. He laughed “That isn’t very effective young one. Now why don’t you put me down so we can talk?” He asked, in a kind, deep voice.

  I frowned. His voice was kind. He didn’t seem evil. Suddenly, the rose vines erupted in long thorns, about 3 inches in length. If not for his armor he would be dead. The rest of the bandits finally reached us.

  “Stop” one of them cried.

  “We are not who you think we are!” He yelled.

  “That village follows an evil pact. We are the holy paladins of this land; do not force us to fight you! We answer to only God, our lord almighty.  Please, release our warriors. Then we shall talk.” The man said.

  I looked to Bakar and Cynthia.  They shrugged. “Why not? The town said they had black armor, but these guys wear white.” Cynthia said.

  I summoned back my thorns.

  The man they had been holding stumbled and fell. One of his companions came and took him back to the crowd of paladins. The man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward. “My name is Myron. I am the leader of the paladins.” He said.

  “Our order has vowed to help protect those who need protection and to cleanse as much evil as possible from this land. That village is a cover. In truth, that is a monster stronghold we have been trying to terminate for months.” Myron said.

  “Really?” I asked, feeling stupid.

  I waved my hand with a dispel illusion and the small village faded away. In its place was a massive gray castle. It was covered with moss and seemed quite run down. But, you could see tiny forms on it. And they were not human.

  Over the night, the paladins and my unit planned on how we would take down the monster town. We decided that the paladins would distract the castle while we sneaked into it while the monsters’ attention was on the paladins.