Broken Mage (18 page)

While the dwarf made his plans, Thad
began making plans of his own. He had trained in warfare tactics
but he had never had to do so in a maze of tunnels where he was as
lost as a blind man trying to find a lone apple tree in an open
plain. Thad had other strengths though; he had his magic, and
enchanting skill. From what the creature had said it wouldn’t just
be normal soldiers they would face but other mages as well and that
meant he had a lot of things to figure out.

Thad wasn’t sure what would be handy
other than his sword that cut through magic but he had a few ideas.
Pulling the pack over that was filled with gems for either his work
or for Avalanche to snack on and a bar of the ultra-light metal
from the wall Thad set to work.

The first thing on his mind was a
shield. So far his magical shield was only designed to block
physical attacks and from his own experiments it had too many
weaknesses that could be exploited by a magic user. He had never
had a reason before to worry about such a fact but now a lot of
things had changed.

It wasn’t easy to devise a
shield to block against other magic users since magic wasn’t cut
and dry. If one was skilled enough one could cast a spell inside
his shield so he had to find a way to block out magical energies
but if he did that he wouldn’t have accesses to any source of magic
himself. From what he had seen most of the magic that the
Vathari used was that of the darkness element. He
could make a shield that only blocked out a specific elemental
source but it would have to be as strong as the element being used
and that would have to be earth magic in his current
environment.

Earth magic was good for many things
and could be bent and twisted to perform great feats but it wasn’t
the best source to use for a shield. His rings could use any form
of stored magical energy but they had a limit and the more they
were taxed the quicker they would run out. An unchallenged shield
could be sustained for hours while one that was constantly in use
would only last for a quarter of that time.

It was a plausible idea but it still
didn’t completely solve the problem. There was no guarantee that he
would never face another mage. He had just taken for granted that
no other mages had been announced in the past thousand years and
from what he learned that didn’t mean they had completely vanished.
There were other lands and other creatures hidden away from sight.
How many more were there out there. Thad didn’t have an inflated
ego enough to believe he had seen everything the world had to
offer, in truth he would be surprised if he had witnessed even one
percent of what was out there.

Thad continued to think through his
options as Crusher continued his frantic pacing. Avalanche thinking
it was a game jumped around the dwarf. There had to be a way to
block out magic. In all the history of magic there had to be mages
who dueled against each other and if there was no way to block an
attack the first one to strike would almost always win.

Thad began to look at the problem in a
different light. What was magic? It was a being forcing his will on
the already present magical flow of energies that made up the world
surrounding them. The flows differed greatly depending on where one
was at. The more a person was attuned to the natural flows in the
area the better that person could draw and use those energies. If
he could disrupt those flows and make them mimic something he was
more attuned to he could lessen his foes ability while
strengthening his own. But how could he do that? He knew that to
perform a spell of that magnitude would leave him desolate so an
enchantment was the only way. The only real problem was how an
enchantment would need to work in order to perform what he
wanted.

It would be simple enough for him to
create a hotspot of magical energy of whatever element he needed.
He already had that hanging around his neck, but it didn’t change
the overall flow of magical energies natural to the environment
around them. On the other hand Avalanche did. He remembered when he
had first studied the amazing creature. She not only bent the earth
energy to her she put off a vast amount of it herself effectively
changing the natural flow of energy. Wherever the lines for that
energy flowed it altered its course to run parallel to
hers.

Now while he was sure that would throw
off any casters ability to draw on the earth energy effectively, as
he knew it did his until he had learned to compensate for her, it
didn’t affect the other major source of magic in the subterranean
the darkness element.

If he could mimic the effect Avalanche
created naturally he could weaken any mage he came up against. He
had already studied the rock animal thoroughly during their time
together and understood how she created the effect, but he didn’t
know how to reproduce it. He would not only have to draw in a
massive amount of magical energy into one place it would also have
to radiate the same amount of force. If he made such an enchantment
the gem that worked as the core wouldn’t last for more than a
quarter of an hour before it ruptured. It would simply be too much
force coursing through it, but he didn’t really need it to last
longer and if he made sure to get it closer to the enemy mage when
it did go it could double as a weapon.

With no other idea Thad started making
one out of a small gem to test. It had to be big enough to make a
change in the magical forces but not so large it risked destroying
anything within their small living area. It was a hard thing to
pull off but he had it finished long before Crusher had figured out
their next move.

Not wanting to disturb his friend Thad
moved into the small section he had claimed for his room.
Triggering the enchantment Thad put up a shield around the second
half of the room. While magic was hard to block the direct effects
of it still worked in the physical realm.

Watching the gem with magical sense
Thad could see that even though it was small and the amount of
magic it pulled in and pushed out was minimal it still changed the
general flow of elemental energies. It wasn’t a massive change but
even a small one could hamper how well a mage could access the
magic around him.

Within a few heartbeats the small gem
had stressed itself too much and began to glow like a piece of
metal straight from the forge. In the span of a few heartbeats the
gem ruptured, sending small bits of itself flying through the room.
The explosion itself was much smaller than Thad had expected but
still watching with his magical sight the backlash from the gem
exploding caused a magical ripple within the elemental energies
nearly making his own shield spell falter for a brief moment before
he readjusted.

Even ready for the change Thad still
had trouble keeping a steady flow of magic. It was both good and
bad if the fight lasted long enough for the larger version of the
enchantment to go then there was a good chance that everyone’s
magic would simply fail them until the elemental flows fixed
themselves. That would mean he would have to rely on his rings,
rune necklace, and staff that had stored magical energy.

That meant that he should only use his
magical disruptor if he found himself in a dire situation. That
made it much easier on him in the long run, it wouldn’t be much
larger than the test model as it would have to fail quickly if he
was in dire straits but with more power than it currently
had.

Moving back to the common room of the
caves Thad found Crusher staring at the map tracing some of the
smaller tunnels with his chubby finger. When he would get to one of
their designated encounter sights he would stop and began tapping
on the open area. Thad wasn’t sure what he was doing but if he had
to make a guess the dwarf was playing out how the battle might play
out using different tactics. He had done the same thing during his
strategic tests back in the Slave Academy. It had worked well for
him but the instructors always threw something in at the last
moment that he had never planned for.

Sitting down with more of the gems and
metal Thad went to work knowing that soon anything could happen and
he wanted to be as prepared as he could make himself. It wasn’t
easy to do since he had no clue what would be coming at him. The
best he could do was to use his imagination to conjure up the worst
things he could imagine and try to plan for it.

Thad worked late into the night.
Avalanche had tired of her game of bouncing around the stout dwarf
and had long ago lay down next to him snorting every so often as
the dwarf stomped his foot in frustration. Thad’s stores of energy
were quickly draining and he knew that soon he would have to find
sleep or he would be less than useless in the next
battle.

With a heavy sigh Thad left Crusher to
his endless pondering and headed back to his own room to get what
sleep was left to him. The one bright side to living in the vast
darkness was that there was no sun to herald the coming of the day.
He only hoped the enemy left them alone long enough to prepare for
their next battle.

CHAPTER XV

The three companions stalked the halls
carefully making their way to their ambush site. It wasn’t as good
as the one they had used the day before but Crusher didn’t seem to
want to overuse the same place too often. Thad’s slugs had all
recharged, but the rings he used to call them back were only at
half strength. While he could fire all his slugs he could only call
half that number back to him. In a pinch they could work but having
to remake the slugs would be more trouble than it would be worth
unless absolutely necessary.

When they finally arrived at their
station Thad found that they were located in a small tunnel
entrance that melded well with the adjoining wall. It didn’t look
natural, the corners were too well shaped and looked as if they had
been cut. That wasn’t too surprising. Many of the tunnels that they
had been traveling in had looked as if they had been cut away
rather than natural occurrences.

The cavern that the tunnel led to was
fairly large easily large, easily enough to fit the queen’s
ballroom inside. The groups of soldiers were in smaller groups but
they were much more closely packed together. There was little
chance to simply attack and loot the bodies as they had been doing
before anyone came to investigate. That meant that they would have
to have an escape route picked in advance. From what Crusher had
indicated they would leave the same way they had arrived. It wasn’t
a bad idea but Thad wished they had a signal to dictate when they
would leave.

Only eight enemy soldiers were in the
cavern and they were separated into two groups of four each located
at the larger entrances. From what he had seen on their way to
their ambush site that meant that other groups were positioned
outside in the adjoining tunnels to quickly join the battle once it
was engaged.

There was still the small chance for
them to strike and run if they could take out all eight before they
could warn the others. It was a very small chance. Thad didn’t have
a spell that could take them all out at once. The best he could
accomplish was one group of four and that was only if everything
happened perfectly and that rarely happened with magic at least
where he was concerned.

They started the battle the same way as
the previous one with Thad using his magical slugs. The slug flew
from his hand whistling through the still air toward the tightly
packed enemies. Thad hoped it would catch more than one of the
beasts but his prayers went unanswered as it caught only one of the
creatures in the chest before lodging itself in the rock
beyond.

Unlike last time where the Vathari had
only searched for the offender this time one of the creatures
pulled a small horn from a pouch on his side. Thad had seen the
horn before as many of them now resided within the loot chamber
back at their base.

Once the small horn was lifted to the
Vathari’s lips a loud high-pitched whine rang throughout the
cavern. It was much louder than Thad would have figured for such a
small item. Shortly after the horn was blown many more horns went
off in the distance and Thad could hear the sound of heavy
footsteps moving in their direction. The sound was so loud it was
as if a mountain itself was falling down around their
ears.

Within moments the cavern was filled
with enemy soldiers. The sheer number of them made Thad’s legs go
weak. He was so mesmerized that he didn’t notice Crusher trying to
get his attention until the dwarf hit him hard on the shoulder with
his balled fist nearly knocking him into the wall.

Thad hit the dwarf back, but only
accomplished in hurting his own hand. After a few moments of
rubbing his hand he turned to the dwarf who was tensed against the
wall his axe in his hand. It was obvious the dwarf planned to take
out a few of the Vathari the old fashioned way before they made
their exit.

Thad pulled the darkness sword from its
scabbard and prepared for the coming fight. Looking at his friend
he knew what he wanted him to do and he had to agree. It was the
perfect time to use some of the traps that were laid around the
room. Calling his staff to his hand Thad focused and found the
three traps that were hidden within his mental reach.

Two of the traps were lightning based
while the other was based on light. All three had plenty of time to
gather magic and all three had been able to get fully charged. Thad
was amazed at how enchantments could use any magical source and
reform it to their own desire while he could only pull from what
was around him. With the help of his staff Thad could do much the
same as the enchantments but like a moneychanger it took more from
him than he got in return.