(Chapter 92)
“Hey! No fair, using people as weapons!” Dorin frowned at the medic.
“But in a real fight, isn’t this quite normal?” Mordecai replied with a smile. “The power over life is part of the 12 elements, and mind control, after all, is one of my skills.”
‘And these weak willed men are nothing but weapons to us strong mages.’
Dorin stared at Mordecai whose lips still showed a tight smile. The medic was talking to him telepathically!
“Then am I allowed to hurt the other students?” Dorin asked as two more students lounged at him.
‘It is up to you.’ Mordecai kept smiling. The rest of the onlookers moved away after hearing what Dorin said. ‘You can always do the same and control these weaklings to defeat me.’
“I’m afraid I don’t know how to do that, but I can do this instead.”
Dorin’s eyes widened. Mordecai braced himself as a small sonic boom emerged from where Dorin stood and spread out around him, knocking out the air from the lungs of the people Mordecai manipulated. They fell unconscious to the ground.
“Now, we continue.”
Dorin moved from where he stood and attacked the medic with a wide grin in his face.
Meanwhile, Johan and Xander stared at one another, waiting for the other to make the first move.
“You may attack first,” Xander smiled at him.
“After you,” the other replied.
“Well, I really want to watch Dorin fight, so let’s just get this over with...”
Xander clasped his hands together and created a fire ball which he sent hurling towards Johan who braced himself for the attack. It fell short, though, as it hit the ground before him, throwing rocks at all direction and raising a cloud of dust.
Johan covered his eyes and did his best to see which direction the Prince’s next attack would come from, when he noticed a flitting shadow from behind him. He quickly turned around to see a spike of earth rising from the ground.
“As expected of Prince Alexander!” the onlookers praised him. “He is a terra, as well as a very powerful fire mage! Now, that is what a true Ignacius is supposed to be.”
But Johan was too busy to listen to their taunts.
In fact, he was having some fun. It had been long since he had a duel against a powerful fire mage, a fellow earth mage, even. Quickly, he stepped aside and countered the spike with a ground attack of his own. An alcove of dark granite rose up to the air and blocked it, as well as several other earth attacks from the prince. As the dust cleared, the onlookers were surprised to see Johan still standing and unscathed.
“So, you’re an earth mage yourself?” he asked the prince with a frown. “Did you hold back on me on purpose when we last fought?”
“No, I was simply caught unprepared, since I underestimated you,” he replied. “Today, let us see how well we can defend ourselves from each other.”
The ground beneath Johan’s feet slightly shifted. As a child from the mines, he noticed this instantly and jumped aside as the ground turned to sand and almost swallowed him up!”
“Quagmire!” the prince shouted, as the ground around them turned into thick mud. Several students started sinking up to their shins, yet Johan landed on dry, compact, ground. He had called the bedrock to support him, and hit the solid stone with his fist, splitting the ground in two and rushing at Prince Xander who tried to stop it with his palms outstretched.
The cracked ground stopped about one foot away from him, while the overturned rocks rumbled and rushed back at Johan.
A wall of blue flame melted the rocks, sending trails of molten rock dripping on the quagmire and letting off steam. The rest of the students left their shoes in the sticky mud and quickly ran further away from the two mages.
“From the center of the earth, I call upon living rock!” called Prince Xander. “Magma whip!”
It was as he had called it.
A long strip of molten rock came out from beneath the earth and whipped across the field, towards Johan.
But it never reached him. It solidified before it got a meter from the other mage and fell broken on the ground.
Xander’s eyes widened. He decided to get close to Johan and try the whip again.
“Magma – “
The molten lava rose, then fell solid on the ground.
“Magma whi-“
Again, the attack was stopped.
“Why do you keep shouting what attack you’re about to do?”
Xander was surprised to see that Johan mas merely a meter away from him. The other fire mage had probably moved closer as he did, and now, they stood before each other, surrounded by the rocks they have called from beneath the earth.
He was about to move away, when the younger opponent reached out and grabbed his arm.
“You know, you’re doing the same thing those bastard soldiers were doing in our village. They kept using the same attacks over and over, and they kept shouting the attack before they actually do it. That’s how we always know what to expect!”
“It helps strengthen the magic when you call it out...” said Xander as he tried to pull away from Johan, but his hold was like a tight vice. “Besides, it is common curtsey to give a name to your attack.”
Johan snorted.
“That doesn’t make sense. I mean, a battle cry is enough to warn people that you’re attacking, but telling them exactly what you’re attacking with next? That’s stupid!”
“Well... it doesn’t sound half as intimidating without a proper name...” Xander tried pulling away from Johan again.
“Oh, so it’s just used to sound intimidating?” Johan looked thoughtful. “Okay then, ‘magma whip’!”
Several veins of magma appeared around the two fire mages.
Xander closed his eyes and braced himself from being burned, but he was surprised when his feet sunk into a muddy quagmire instead.
When he opened his eyes, he found Johan grinning at him, his arm free of the strong mage’s hold.
“You see? Shouting one attack and doing something else is much more useful!” said Johan. “Now, let’s go watch Dorin, their fight isn’t over yet!”
Xander watched as Johan walked away and went towards the remaining battle. He looked around and saw that the rest of the students have moved away from them. The area was half rock and half mud with several boots stuck in the grime. Venet was waving at him from the edge of the quagmire with Boulvar.
“What are you still standing there for?” Johan asked as he turned back and pulled Xander by the arm. The mud he was stuck in turned to sand and crumbled as he took a step. “I want to see Dorin beat up that stuck up medic of yours.” They walked upon dry ground.