The Duel Part II

Alex was about to cast Haste on himself but his chant was cut short by The Curse of Silence. He was surprised because Van had just silent cast that spell. Alex didn't think that his opponent would be that skilled in magic.

Alex had been schooled in magic from a young age. His family had instructed him on everything he would feel and how to manipulate magic in order to give him a large advantage once he turned ten. This was one of the reasons he felt superior to his classmates.

Immediately Alex started to move. A stationary target was a dead target. What confused him though was Van stayed motionless. 'Fine I guess I have to show my true power... may thee heavens grant me thy power to defeat thine enemies, may they know thy power of thee gods... Smite'

~~{Stone armor.}

~Devine shield.

A golden lightning bolt a foot wide fell from the heavens and landed on Van. The holy lightning bolt temporarily blinded everyone that was looking at Van. When they opened their eyes they saw Van standing firm. The ground around him was scorched black and smoking.

~Fireball

~~{Ice spike}

'May thee heavens protect me from harm, Divine Shield.'

The Fireball and Ice spike struck Alex's divine shield causing huge cracks to form.

~~ {Curse of Confusion}

~Stone Wall

~~ {Ice Sheet}

'Please grant me thy power to ....'

Alex was sprinting around the area chanting another spell when he forgot his words when he lost his footing and slid across the sheet of glare ice directly into the stone wall, knocking him out cold.

Alex had taken a total of ten steps before the stone wall abruptly halted his progress. There were even people that had yet to recover from the Smite spell. When their eyes finally refocused they saw Van standing in this same spot as before with his left-hand outstretched. Alex was about 12 yards from where he started.

"End of Match, Dispell all of your spells," Natasha announced. She then walked up to Van and asked, "How did you handle the Smite spell?"

Van did as he was told. He then turned to Natasha, "Well ma'am, I had cast stone armor on myself. The armor was almost formed when the spell hit. I was still connected to the ground so the power went through the armor and into the ground. I was safe inside the armor. I only felt the slightest tingle."

Van wasn't about to say that smite is literally just overpowered lighting, and that electricity follows the path of least resistance to the ground. He really wasn't in the mood to give a physics lesson on electrical conductivity.

When he thought about the physics behind what happened he had an idea. There was going to be a lot of research involved so he started to formulate a Hypothesis.

After the teachers went and healed Alex he was informed of the results of the duel and everyone was sent away to continue their days. Van headed back to his room to start working.

Van's popularity skyrocketed after the duel, mainly because of his ability to cast silently and his ability to switch his spells affinity so fast. People couldn't get over the fact that an Ice spike followed a Fireball so close they looked attached. Spells required a chant, whether it be said out loud or silently there was still the time requirement of the chant.

Sitting in his room Van had his normal mana condensing tornado conjured, but this time it was above his head. this allowed him to concentrate on what he was writing and drawing. He had summoned a drafting table and drafting paper. For backlighting, he had a soft light bulb held between his toes. Alice controlled the power output of a simple lighting spell.

Van sat up all night trying to figure out how to explain a battery when the world didn't have electricity. He then remembered the arrow that almost killed him and the array that shot it. It had been powered by a power crystal.

~I wonder if I can get a crystal and imbue it with lighting magic. I will ask Ms. Natasha in the morning.

~~ {It is morning, you have a half-hour before homeroom.}

~~ Ugh, not again. Would you please remind me to stop working if it gets too late?

~~ {I was not paying attention either.}

Van got up and dispersed his magic and stored everything in his inventory. He then prepared for today's lessons.

**********

A man wearing a dark cloak that covered his entire body and face walked through the capitol keeping to the shadows. He was following a woman in a yellow robe that he had observed using a pencil.

The woman had a weird feeling she was being followed so she was trying to head back to a populated area, she made a turn into an alleyway that led to the local market. She saw a couple of guards and was about to call out to them when a portal opened up in front of her.

The man ran up behind the woman and shoved her through the portal and then followed her. As he stepped through he was in the dungeons of his home country. The woman was on the floor, her Grimoire was floating in front of her and she was chanting a spell.

The man opened another portal around the Grimoire and closed it, sending the Grimoire to some unknown location. The woman had to stop her chant because the spell could no longer be cast now that she had lost her Grimoire. She started to chant another spell and held her hands out in front of her aimed at the person standing above her.

Another portal opened and closed, taking the hands of the woman with it. The pain of the loss of her hands flooded her mind causing her to forgo her chant and scream. She screamed in pain and fear. She knew that she was dead, she couldn't cast her spells and she couldn't even defend herself with the daggers on her belt.

The man motioned to a couple of guards that were standing next to the entrance. They came over and grabbed the woman. One of the guards cast Heal in order to stop the bleeding as they lifted her to her feet. She was dragged into a cell and chained to the wall by her ankles and neck.

The woman was sobbing uncontrollably as she looked into the eyes of one of the guards. She thought she saw a hint of pity in his eyes. That look quickly faded away as the guards stripped her naked. She was now naked, handless, and chained to a wall in a dungeon.

This is not where she thought her life would lead her when she became an agent of The Arcane College. She had grown up in the City of Drosa and wanted to explore the world. Her parents begged her not to join the Adventurers Guild, and to join The Arcane College instead. it was supposed to be safer, and for the last 10 years, it had been.

The cloaked man then walked into the cell and asked, "Where did you get the pencils?"

"W-W-What?" she stuttered through the sobbing.

A portal opened up and engulfed one of her arms at her elbow.

"Where did you get the pencils?" he repeated in a cold voice.

She knew what would happen if she didn't answer, but the fear had gripped her and made her unable to answer. She watched in horror as her forearm disappeared with the portal. Blood began pouring out of the wound and the pain of the amputation rushed into her head again, almost putting her into shock.

A guard then came over and wrapped a leather strap tightly around her half of an arm and twisted it until the bleeding stopped. She wasn't sure if the pain from the strap was worse than the pain from the wound.

She gritted her teeth and looked up at the cloaked man just in time to see a new portal open up on her other arm.

"Where did you get the pencils?" He repeated for the third time.

"T-The City of-of Drosa, The City of Drosa!!" she exclaimed as she was staring at the portal which didn't take her arm.

"Where in the city of Drosa?"

"The Arcane College issued them to us." She wept.

"Where did they get them?"

"I-I-I don't know." she cried, she knew that she was about to lose her other arm. The familiar pain entered her mind as her other forearm disappeared. The guard again applied the leather strap.

"I DON'T KNOW!! I was given a box by the Quartermaster before my last assignment." She cried. "I don't know. Please stop"

"What is your Quartermaster's name?"

The questioning went on for another half hour. In that time she had lost her arms at her shoulders which were promptly cauterized with fire magic. Then she lost one of her legs to her hip, That wound was also promptly cauterized. When she lost her other leg to her knee and she was bout the pass out from being strangled by her neck restraint then a guard cast Greater Heal on her which caused her to regrow her limbs. This allowed the questioning to continue.

"I have gotten all the information I need from her. Heal her and then remove her tongue. Once you are done with that send her to the mines or the guard barracks I don't care which." The cloaked man ordered the guards as he opened a new portal and walked through.

Those words broke her farther than the torture she just experienced did. She looked up as one of the guards cast Greater Heal. The other guard immediately grabbed her jaw and with a pair of tongs and grabbed her tongue. When the knife passed in front of her face she lost all hope of ever going home.

The woman on the throne listened intently as the cloaked man whispered what he had learned in her ear. After about 10 minutes the man bowed down to one knee ending his explanation.

"Go to Drosa and bring the creator back to me, unharmed, if possible."

"Yes my queen".

He then opened up another portal and stepped through to the same spot in the mountains as before. He then turned south and started walking.