60 - The Magic Ice Golems
After all the students got the keys and capes needed to participate in the contest, Nakutsck continued:
"As you know, the first test will be the last one for three of the competitors, one from each team. And the three who'll leave the competition will each win a parchment of fire. Will he be the best competitor of the event ... or the weakest participant in the competition? We don't know exactly. But what we know for sure is that after winning the magic he/she will leave this competition."
A brief pause, when Nakutsck saw a smaller group of four young spectator students not listening to what he said, so a magic of his pulled their sideburns one at a time or ripped their ears. There was silence again on the stadium.
"No one will be hurt in this challenge. But I don't guarantee for the second challenge. We don't know in which of the other eight possible locations it will take place," smiled the white wizard slightly. "Who'll be caught in this event by one of the golems, without having escape, will be automatically eliminated from the competition, without being seriously injured."
Nakutsck smiled because he thought he said a good joke, but as he saw them a bit bored, probably thinking the white wizard would give a long speech, decided to deceive their expectations.
"In the second challenge, other three competitors go home. And of the last three, only one, the best, will win the last event. And the 'Divine Parchment' the big prize, will go to the best one, only one. This is how the contest will take place. Good luck to all the competitors and let the Magic Contest of this Decade start! May the best ones win the 'Divine Parchment'!"
A wonderful firework display at least as fantastic and interesting as the aurora borealis phenomenon appeared again above the stadium.
The viewers who expected a much longer monologue were amazed when they saw Nakutsck finished the presentation.
"What happened to Nakutsck?" an older wizard asked, smiling. "He got me used to his extremely long lectures ... I thought I couldn't see this contest start."
"I think someone told him it's only a decade between competitions and he thought the time is too short to say everything he had to say. So he shortened his speech," smiled the other older professor.
"Anyway, I'm glad it was so short. I can't wait to see how our favourite will win ... Alexander," ended another, who was a professor at the Elmbridge School of Magic.
"I bet on the elves," another one ended the discussion.
…
Nakutsck was on a kind of stage set up right next to the entrance into the arena where the first challenge will take place:
"The first competitors who'll try to pass the first test are the ones from the 'Sacred Tree' School. May their wands help and protect them!"
The three elves entered the area where the dangerous quest was to take place with no fear. As they entered that huge, snowy field, two 30-cubit tall golems got up from that snow ... they had neither more nor less than the height of ten people sitting on top of each other.
The body of the elves got covered with all kinds of beautifully made and coloured tattoos, feeling the danger to which the competitors would be subjected. Even their face was full of tattoos as if they were little ... adult wizards.
"How many magic tricks!" exclaims a younger student. "I guess not even Knudlac knows as many magic tricks as these elf children."
"They'll surely make that golem become snow in just a few moments," said another of the same age.
"As far as I know, no team is allowed to use more than three magic tricks altogether," one of the prefects answered, unasked, disturbed by the fact that those children kept whispering.
As they showed up, the two ice golems became aggressive, so the elves had no time to waste.
"Celeritas!" shouted Fahria, using her magic for Ehm'il.
"Ignis!" shouted Pmyrie, and a circle of fire that melted everything around surrounded the dark-haired elf, but he didn't suffer any harm.
It was clear who was to fight to get and take in the Ice Parchment. So the young elf ran very fast to the cave where that parchment was found. One of the golems began to chase him while the other tried to catch the elf girls.
But the agility and speed the elves are endowed with since the first part of their lives were useful to them. When Pmyrie was attacked by the ice monster, the girl ran so fast, hitting the ground and slipping so easily between the legs of the golem, that it seemed like everything was just a game. Even as she reached behind him, she grabbed an icicle on his knee and jumped just on his back.
Anyone who saw so much agility in these children would surely wonder how it's possible to be so quick and accurate, though so young. But only a sceptic wouldn't get ... that not only the elf adults but also the children were skilful and sneaky.
Fahria, taking advantage of a moment when the golem wasn't careful, jumped on his knee and using an object like a hammer used for climbing, quickly reached the area of his back of the skull.
The golem obviously had problems. The elf girls easily avoided his arms as he tried to catch them, exasperating the monster. It was like a play for the two girls.
Ehm'il was followed by the other golem, but the speed Fahria gave him further amplified his speed. Beside agility, he had his innate ability to climb, which helped him. The golem, even though he reached Ehm'il, couldn't catch him. The ice monster's arms, though now transformed into a spear and ice mace, terrible weapons, they couldn't reach him. Although he quickly hit all the rocks the elf child climbed, destroying everything around, the frozen giant missed the target every time, which was Ehm'il, as he flew from one place to another with ease.
Everyone was amazed at the elf boy's qualities. Ehm'il jumped with the ease of a snow leopard on the high rock wall, clinging to any depth or prominence of the rocks, no matter how small and insignificant they were, thus managing to climb higher and higher.
Eventually he managed to reach the top, to the ice golem's fury, which now hit the rock wall trying to blow it away. But in vain. Even when the golem blew heavily towards the elf boy, freezing his cape in a blinking, with no fear, the boy removed it and let it fall from him.
When the cape now fully coated in ice touched the ground broke into thousands of pieces like a broken mirror. The thought he could become ice dust didn't scare Ehm'il at all.
When he finally reached the ice parchment, he approached his now flaming hand to the icy water surrounding the parchment. The ice melted at once, and the elf grabbed the Ice Parchment with his hand.
At that moment the two ice golems melted, disappearing completely.
"Congratulations! It's definitely the shortest ... test. The fastest… a formidable team," said confusedly about what happened the white wizard, astonished at the ease with which these three elves passed so easily the test he prepared for almost five years.
"I mean ... the best result so far. A record. And you didn't even use all the three spells that were allowed. They'll definitely be winni ..."
But Nakutsck stopped.
He saw how many of the other professors looked at him, suggesting him to avoid saying such a stupid thing, no matter how true it was. So, even though he wanted to say wholeheartedly that the elves were to be the winners, which was easy to get, Nakutsck didn't do that.
"The competition will be tough! The competitors will do their best fighting to win the contest."
Cheered by the audience, under the smiling eyes of the elves, the three little wizards of the Sacred Tree school left the arena triumphantly.
Several professors approached the winners to congratulate them. When they stopped in front of Lord Elf Tbylisium, he told Ehm'il:
"Learn the parchment content."
Ehm'il took the parchment, the wand and shouted in the eyes of all the spectators:
"Discite!"
At that moment the parchment became the usual fine dust and was taken by the wind, and a small tattoo appeared on one of Ehm'il's fingers.
"Omnes Tenebrae... A powerful magic that will leave everyone in total darkness. They'll act as if they were blind. Who knows this spell, who casts it, is the only one who can see everything as before using it," Nakutsck explained to Ehm'il.
"A very good magic, if used properly," Knudlac added.
Nakutsck sat down again at the entrance to the arena and shouted:
"Elizabeth, Johnny and Alexander will enter the arena."