Rival/Power

"Icleus"

Many swords appeared behind Ben and then he sent them toward a target, completely obliterating it. It had been a week since he had begun his training in the ice magic of the elves and hadn't once procrastinated any practice. "Congratulations Ben, now that you've mastered a combat spell how about a more defensive spell. This should be rather easy now as you have already perfected control of ice. So watch now."

Taredd moved his right hand below the waist and then quickly moved it up "Deiss".

A wall of ice appeared in front of him and then faded after around thirty seconds. "The idea of this is to allow you to regroup with your unit or to give you the chance to flee were you to be greeted by a huge front. You can adapt within your mind the shape of the wall so don't worry if you were to get surrounded."

Ben had been practicing the movement Taredd had made whilst he was explaining then perfectly replicated it, "Deiss".

A wall of ice then surrounded Ben, he had wanted to test out the feel of being surrounded by ice but it wasn't as cold as he thought it would be.

Suddenly, someone yelled "Icleus" and a sword of ice was sent into Ben's wall, yet at that second the wall faded and Ben dodged out of the way just in time, "What was that?" he thought.

Appearing in front of him however, was a well built male that Ben would've aged at 17, he wore similar attire to Ben with the one difference being the cloak featuring sun emblems on it. He had short brown hair - the opposite on the spectrum to Ben's dark hair.

"That is the flaw with the Deiss spell, if you trap yourself in like that you're utterly defenseless from aerial attacks" the person said.

"Oh, I'm David by the way, the Queen mentioned you so I thought I'd check you out."

"Ah Taredd also spoke of you, apparently we have similar abilities, I'm Ben if you weren't told."

"Well, you see I just wanted to test this combination of magic I've been taught."

Without movement and without incantation an array of swords appeared behind David, all shining with inner light, they started accelerating towards Ben who shouted "Deiss", this halted a few of David's swords but the rest simply shifted to go against gravity, up the side of the ice wall, then it seemed as David halted them.

"Don't you learn Ben, if you were to actually go against someone with a similar power on battle, Deiss is ineffective. I will tell you now as I experimented this on myself. When a unheld Icleus blade touches another unheld Icleus blade then they both fizzle out of existence, you can use this to defend yourself from this, let's try again."

David's swords resumed their movements but this time, "Icleus".

Ben created the same amount of swords that David and sent them as David had said to collide, blue and white sparks appeared as they crashed into each other.

"There we go mate that's better"

David came over to Ben and place his hand on Ben's shoulder, "It took me a month to master that, yet you only a week, I suppose you may surpass me in strength in the coming months."

Ben was unstartled at this point, since beginning his training he'd always been told he was way ahead of the normal training routine. Taredd then approached, having slipped away earlier during Ben and David's 'mock' battle.

"Thank you David for helping Ben with that, I highly appreciate it and Ben now is the time you will be moving up to a higher tier magic stone. So you will be able to build up larger ice magic power. This is required to continue on with the training program as spells get more difficult. The General of the regiment will present you with it later today, along with a few others."

"Okay" Ben replied, he was looking forward to being able to grow his power.

Later that day, after the evening meal, the regiment was called into the courtyard.

"Welcome mages of the 5-1 regiment, today we celebrate your growing magical power by supplying you with larger magic stones, could the following please rise and come to the front."

There was a long silence until the General began calling out names.

"Balsey, Hilon"

"Esler, Tella"

"Harsec, Benjamin"

"Sile, Orien"

Ben stood up and went to the front of the courtyard, along with three others who looked around early 20s.

"Firstly, place your old magic stones in this box."

The four did so in turn.

"Now, take a seat", four seats set in the shadows were brought forward by some maids. They sat down and the General went to a larger box and brought out 4 stones (about 3 times the size of the previous ones) chains attached and went to Hilon Balsey.

"Hilon Balsey, congratulations on showing great progress in your magic growth, now be adorned with this stone an prove your growth further".

This was repeated but for Tella Esler.

"Benjamin Harsec, a large congratulations for exceeding expectations of your magical growth, take this stone and continue to grow stronger".

A slightly larger stone than the others was given to Ben and the same speech as Hilon and Tella was given to Orien Sile.

"That is all for this evening, enjoy the rest of the day and don't forget to do any necessary practice"

The regiment slowly filtered out of the courtyard towards the dormitories, including Ben and unbeknownst to them the General puffed into a dark cloud of smoke which quickly dissipated.