Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

‘I could just wait for her to run out of mana before returning fire, but I don’t know when that might happen. It would be quicker and less dangerous to put forth my own precise strike, something that can pierce the gap between her armor plates so to speak.’ Despite the hail of attacks flying towards him he kept an eye on his opponent always, it was something that he still did that Hambel taught him in the depths of Dom Badaher.

‘I see no reason why I should do exactly as she is, such a straightforward approach had its benefits in an enclosed space but in an open area it could just go around.’ Arthur smiled as he conjured up a small ball of earth, the ball was no larger than his own hand but just small enough to pack a punch and be hard to see. With a small wave of his fingers the ball shot away in a clockwise rotation around the clutter that made up the hailstorm of earth and fire.

With a sudden and loud thump Arthur’s opponent fell to the ground along with all the earth he was controlling, what she had conjured disappeared like it had never even existed.

Lyra smiled at this display of tactical thinking, while it wasn’t something extraordinary it was enough to separate Arthur from the common fools that she normally dealt with. In a way this made him superior to Calavia who was a full rank ahead of him in the mages guild and spell tier, perhaps he would make a good apprentice as well, only time would tell her this answer.

“Incredible work Arthur, that was something I wasn’t expecting to see put on display here. Unfortunately miss Seia, you have lost the round. Though you did give an impressive display of your magical talents for all of us, that of course counts for something.” Seia of course wasn’t really paying any attention to what Lyra was saying, she was more preoccupied with the bruise she would be getting in a few hours. Thankfully Lyra could see this and quickly walked over to cast a restoration spell for both the pain and the bruise.

“Now that just leaves the two of you left, if you would like I can allow a short break to recover your mana but i would like to get this out of the way as quick as possible.” Once Lyra was done casting her spell she turned to both Arthur and Calavia who were standing looking a little surprised by her statement.

“What!? The two of you need to have a match now to see who is the most skilled mage in terms of combat capabilites. I will be doing the same with these two here once they are both on their feet, I do need to know if my candidates are up to standard before I invite them to join.” Arthur worriedly looked to Calavia hoping that she would object.

“Of course ma’am, we have no reason to interfere with the process. I am more than ready to start whenever you are ready Arthur.” Calavia looked to Arthur with a smile while Arthur gave her a look of betrayal. ‘She is more than happy to beat me up. Is this some sort of revenge for not wanting to include her in my initial plans?’

By the time Arthur was about to object to this Calavia was already standing in her position and looking on at Arthur expectantly. “Are you coming Arthur? I can’t wait here forever.”

Calavia smiled as she talked, she enjoyed pushing Arthur around like this. ‘Definitely some sort of revenge, but that raises the question of what for.’

Now with the expectant gaze of both Lyra and Calavia, Arthur reluctantly walked over to his side of the ‘arena’ and readied himself. Like with the previous two rounds they were given a few seconds to think before the match began, Arthur used this to look at Calavia and try and understand what she was doing. ‘She is doing the same thing she did with the last guy, that probably means she is going to go on the defensive before counterattacking and taking me out quickly. The only way I will stand a chance in this is if I quickly form up a shield wall and watch what she is doing.’ Suddenly Lyra snapped her fingers and the match started.

Surprised by the sudden start thinking that he would have had more time Arthur hastily and clumsily used the earth below his feet to build a thin wall to block any attacks from Calavia while she also did the same but much more efficiently and thicker. Arthur then moved to shape it so it would partly deflect the attacks it was struck with, Calavia on the other hand began winding up her attacks in the form of three balls of earth around the size of his own head.

With just a small gesture the three balls were fired towards Arthur with great force, enough so that several cracks were formed upon contact with the shield he created. Almost as soon as the balls struck they returned to Calavia’s side and she began creating three more.

‘Dam it, she is going to keep doing this until I run out of mana. For every attack she is creating three more balls that she will use against me, the only way for me to last against this long term is if I can either destroy those balls or if I improve my shield enough to prepare something else.’ Arthur’s eyes began darting around to see if there was even the slightest advantage he could get from this, but he couldn’t see anything that might be.

As the amount of earth balls Calavia had under her command increased from six to nine and from nine to twelve Arthur kept his eyes trained on her every move, but still he could find anything that he could exploit. The only this that he could do was reinforce and empower his shield wall to protect himself from the ever growing strength of Calavia’s attacks.

On the fifth attack Arthur’s shield finally fell from all but one of the earth balls striking at the same time, the final ball shot past through the collapsing shield and struck Arthur straight in the gut and knocked him into the ground. The force was so great that he could feel the air within his lungs being forced out from just how much speed was behind it.

Laying there on the ground Arthur half expected to suddenly feel the pain from the impact slowly start like a burn, but aside from a bit of soreness he didn’t really feel anything.

“Congratulations Calavia, you are the number one of this group. That makes Arthur number two.” Lyra smiled as she saw Arthur slowly standing up on his own. ‘I guess I should be thankful that he isn’t a glass cannon and can actually take a few hits before he goes down. Most mages aren't like that, though I do recall him using a sword and wearing armor when we first found him.’

“Are you alright there Arthur? I know a few healing spells if you need them.”

“No, no. I'm alright. Just a little stiff from the impact.” Arthur walked back to where Calavia and Lyra were standing while touching his gut where he was struck, while it wasn’t particularly painful it was still a little sensitive.

“Very well. Now that we have our competition out of the way I have decided to offer the both of you an invitation to join my mercenary group for a short time. Since the both of you have shown that you possess excellent magical skills I think you would make excellent additions to the crew, the other two here I will need to be a little more thorough about before I decide.”

“Thank you Lyra, we would both be happy to join your mercenary group. But what is the name of the group? It would be a lot easier to talk about it if we didn’t need to speak using general statements.” Calavia has a habit of making decisions for other people as well as being a little rude, though Lyra didn’t notice even though Arthur did.

“Of course, of course. It is a bad habit of mine, my mercenary group is known as the Flock of War. My brother was actually the one to come up with the name, and even though I haven’t been to a war before I couldn’t think of anything better.”

“So will you tell us when the situation in question has happened or will we need to ask you every so often about it. We do have a few things going on in each of our respective lives and keeping up with all the politics might not be something we can do.” ‘We need to get away from things like the name of the mercenary group. I would like to know how we will learn about the impending war and what exactly will happen regarding it.’

Calavia looked at Arthur with a bit of annoyance, she definitely had a few more questions for Lyra that she probably wouldn’t be getting answers to. Lyra on the other hand was happy to move onto the more important reasons as to why they were there.

“Of course. We will be the ones to send you a letter informing you of when there is an official declaration. Since these things don’t just progress overnight you will have a day or two to get ready before you can come to us. When you do get our letter you should come to this same place, the staff will allow you inside and we will meet with you and explain everything important. That of course will include your pay and any other benefits.”

**********

Twelve days passed since the tryouts for the Flock of War mercenary group, the other two mages didn’t manage to be accepted by Lyra and instead were told to continue practicing and return at a later date. Neither stayed long enough to find out those who used physical weapons were accepted, instead they figured they would find out when or if they were called upon, and eventually that happened.

As Arthur was just finishing up a very basic fire dart talisman, one of the few directly offensive talismans he could create, a loud knock could be heard from his front door. Though a little annoyed by the sudden visitor Arthur stood up and walked over to the door regardless. Outside and waiting was a messenger carrying a letter.

“I am here to deliver a letter to a Mr. Arthur.” The messenger was wearing a set of clothes far too valuable and too new for someone who delivered packages and letters for the common folk year round. This was someone sent by someone wealthy directly, most likely Lyra.

“That would be me.” Arthur reached out his hand expectantly for whatever was being delivered. The messenger pulled a letter from a satchel he wore over his shoulder and handed it over before he turned to leave.

Arthur quickly removed the string binding the paper together and looked upon the well made parchment. To his confirmed worries it was indeed a letter from Lyra, and she was telling him it was time to prepare for war. Something about his letter just didn't feel real, for a moment everything just sort of slowed down as he started at the letter. When he eventually looked back up the messenger was nowhere to be found, likely already delivering something else.

‘I never really thought this would actually happen. I knew I was taking a risk in doing this, but it never really occurred to me that this would end up happening.’

Arthur slowly returned back inside his home and took a seat at the table. He didn’t have the motivation to continue with his talismans despite his improved skill in that regard.

Gaelin could still he heard brewing his potions and singing to himself in the alchemy room, Arthur wondered how he would break the news to him about how he wasn’t going to be around for the time being, several months or even a year.

Taking a small handful of the fire dart talismans he placed them to the side of the table, he was originally going to sell them but it might be a better idea to let Gaelin keep these just in case he needs them. It is springtime again and everyone is getting outside again, especially the criminal elements who might do something like they have been for the entire time he has lived in the city.

‘I guess the best thing I can do is prepare him for something bad to happen, other than that I don’t really know what else I can do.’ Arthur looked at the newest talisman he made, it was quite simple in its functionality but it had a significantly higher mana capacity and was more powerful, both in part due to a different material and Arthur’s improving skills. While the use of firewood was cheap it wasn't very good for storing mana, just about anything else was better for this, even a random tree that you cut down yourself. This was mostly because wood that is gathered for firewood isn’t needed for building things, just burning, and that along with how long it can just sit around absorbing moisture and all other things in their environment makes it not great.

Arthur instead started to use fresh wood that he himself would cut down from the nearby forest, though so far he had only needed a single tree which he spent two whole days cutting up into small five inch rods. He was so invested while thinking about the talisman in his hand that he didn’t even notice when Gaelin walked right up behind him and tapped him on his shoulder.

“Hello sir, look what I just made.” Gaelin presented a pale pinkish potion to Arthur, its very subtle glow gave away its magical properties. “Well well, a healing potion. I see you figured it out.” Arthur almost laughed as he took the potion in his hands. It was quite amateurish, but it was about the same quality as the first healing potion that he created himself.