Niles

  Niles had a troubled night’s sleep. He thought he’d been getting used to the whole fantasy world familiar thing, and he’d enjoyed the ball more than he expected. Even if all those women had probably only wanted to try his magic, the attention had been nice. But that contract negotiation had really gotten to him. He must have been repressing more than he thought. Now, after some time to cool down, he felt bad about playing hardball with Birgit on the contract. The cot wasn’t that uncomfortable, and he had no idea what he would do with his day off a week, but those had at least been fairly reasonable demands. The sixty percent, though, had just been a petty power play. He really didn’t need the money, with Birgit covering his room and board. Maybe he should tell her to change it back. No, it was too late now. He’d already signed the thing, or at least he thought he had. Once again, the spell’s magic started fading as soon as he’d touched it, and he really didn’t feel any different.

  Hopefully, the first couple of rounds of the tournament would let him work off some stress today. This was the first day of the tournament, and they had an early match in a preliminary round where the bottom 60 of the 286 fifth-year students would compete for the bottom 30 slots in a 256-slot, eight round, single elimination tournament. This morning, they had to win a single match to make it into the real tournament, but since it would be against someone of low rank from Birgit’s Combat Casting class, Niles was not worried. He just wished he had more to do in the matches than hold on to Birgit so that she could pull on his magic.

  The sun was just coming up on the practice fields when the matches started. Six fields all held matches at once as they tried to get this preliminary round out of the way quickly. Aside from the participants and referees, there were only a few spectators. Birgit had told him to expect the crowd to increase as the tournament went on. According to her, the final rounds would be held in the academy’s huge stadium and usually had a full crowd. The king himself might even be there.

  It turned out their first match was even more boring than usual. Their opponent, a naga, barely even made a token effort before slithering off his circle. Niles thought Birgit probably could have won without him.

  As they walked off the field, Bonzo greeted them with a big smile. “Congratulations, I knew you would do great.”

  Birgit returned his smile. “I do not think our opponent was really even trying.”

  Bonzo laughed. “You are probably right, but can you blame him? You already showed that you could beat everyone in our Combat Casting class, and he was far from the best among us. On top of that, you were battling for the 255th slot in the tournament. That means your next match is going to be against the second-ranked student in our class.”

  “How does that work?” Niles asked.

  “The bracket is set up so that the best students will not end up pitted against each other until the final rounds, assuming there are no upsets,” Bonzo explained. “So, in the first round, the top 128 are pitted against the bottom 128, which will cut the field down to 128. In the next round, the top 64 face the bottom 64, and so on. In theory, the top two ranked students would meet in the finals, as long as they both win all of their matches. So, the good thing is that when you win your next match, all the rest of your matches should be easier until the finals.”

  Birgit laughed, “Do you think we will beat the second-ranked student?”

  “Yes,” Bonzo said confidently. “I know what a brilliant spellcaster you are, and with Niles to give you power. I think you could win it all.”

  “Just who is the second-ranked student?” Niles asked.

  “Yarl Nightfall,” an unfamiliar voice answered from behind him.

  Niles turned to see a familiar, bronze-skinned elf. “Sinja, you’re up early this morning.”

  “I love sunrise,” the elf replied with a dazzling smile. “It is my favorite time of the day. And I wanted to watch your match. It is too bad your opponent was not more challenging. Still, your spellwork was impressive, Birgit. I trust your next match will be much more entertaining. I may even be able to give you some useful insight into your next opponent.”

  Niles raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? What can you tell us about this Yarl Nightfall?”

  Sinja held out her hand. “Take my hand, walk with me, let me have a little taste of your wonderful magic, and I will tell you everything you need to know to defeat Yarl.”

  Niles didn’t need much enticement to hold the elf’s hand. She was gorgeous, with flawless, sun-kissed bronze skin, long blond hair, big blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a slim, athletic build. She was also the closest thing to human Niles had seen since his arrival. If you discounted her ears, she could probably have passed for human, albeit an exotically beautiful one. Niles thought Birgit would be pleased that one of the contacts he’d made at the ball was already paying off for them, but when he glanced over, he saw her almost scowling.

  Sinja led them to a path that wound through colorful flower gardens, where she began sharing her information. “Yarl is a vain, arrogant fool with tremendous power, but little subtly or intellect. Like many lunar elves, Yarl’s primary element is ice, but he is also strong in lightning and death magic. So, be sure to include plenty of fire, earth, and life magic in your defenses to counter it. His defense familiar is an extremely powerful ice elemental spirit that takes the form of a great white bear. It can greatly enhance his ice magic if he keeps it with him. However, after seeing you fight that fomori at the ball, Niles, I think he will keep it outside his defenses, hoping to get you to fight the bear. I would not recommend that, since you will be limited to blunt weapons.”

  “He is conceited enough that he will not expect you to present any kind of challenge. However, should the battle begin turning against him, he will not hesitate to use pre-cast spell items, and I am sure he has some very powerful ones. Your best chance to beat him will be to hold off his initial attacks and chip away at his defenses in as subtle a manner as you can. Let him believe he is winning, and he will happily prolong the match to demonstrate his prowess to all. Do not take his defenses down completely until you have a series of attacks chained up that can knock him from his circle before he can resort to his pre-cast spells. If you have the means, I recommend preparing a few pre-cast spell items of your own.”

  “Thank you for your insight,” Birgit said with a polite nod that was almost a bow.

  “Yes, thank you,” Niles agreed, and he let a little extra magic flow out to her as an extra show of gratitude.

  She staggered a little as the additional magic hit her and turned to look at Niles, with eyebrows raised. “Well, thank you for the magic. Nothing would make me happier than to see that arrogant fool brought down a peg. Well, almost nothing. Perhaps this evening, after you beat him, we can find a way to celebrate your victory.”

  Once again, she rose on her tiptoes and gave Niles a kiss on the cheek. This time it was a little more than a peck, and Niles wasn’t quite as surprised. Turning, she sashayed away without another word.

  “So, do you think we can trust her?” Niles asked once she was out of earshot.

  Birgit raised an eyebrow. “You mean you do not trust her after that?”

  Niles rolled his eyes. “Give me some credit. I know better than to blindly trust a pretty woman who comes on that strong and obviously wants something.”

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  Birgit nodded. “The lunar and solar elves have been at war as far back as history records. So, I do not doubt she would love to see us beat Yarl. You are right not to trust her too far, though. Both groups of elves are notoriously devious and always have their own agendas.”

  Niles sighed, watching the pretty elf pass out of sight. “Too bad.”

  The rest of the morning was rather boring for Niles. All he did was hold on to Birgit while she practiced altering her normal spells to take advantage of Sinja’s information. She also prepared a new shortcut spell using the best life, earth, and fire crystals they’d found in their recent hunts. It would put up a defensive shield quickly if her regular one were to fail. She had been hesitant to use the crystals since they were in the stockpile of ones to potentially be used to send Niles home, but he encouraged her to use them. He knew this tournament was important to her, and it made him feel a little better after yesterday’s negotiations.

  In the afternoon, the main tournament started, with the first 118 matches run on the six practice fields used for the morning’s preliminary rounds. Niles followed Birgit as she went to watch the matches of people she knew, letting her feed on his magic all the while to make sure she’d be at her peak for the tournament. Bonzo, Uma, and Hilaria watched with them for most of the afternoon.

  Bonzo had already been knocked out of the tournament in the preliminary rounds, and Birgit’s other two friends were both knocked out of the tournament in the first round against much higher-ranked students. A couple matches in, Farah and Pam joined them as well, and Niles let them both top off with magic to get ready for their match. Ranked 91st, Pam was matched against a lower-ranked student and won with little difficulty.

  Some matches were rather interesting. Usually, this was when competitors of similar rank went up against each other, and there were even a few upsets. But the matches where there was a sizable gap in rank were usually one-sided, and very few of those ended in upsets. When the last of the 118 matches ended, a break was called for a picnic dinner near the fields. With their match coming right up after the break, Birgit hardly ate anything, and even Niles ate more sparingly than usual, which meant he only ate about twice as much as everyone else, not three or four times as much. He really thought that when people took magic from him, they took calories as well, or maybe the process just burned more, because he was eating way more than he ever had before, and he was certainly not getting fat. If anything, his muscle definition was even becoming more pronounced.

  Pam and Farah ate with them, but for once Farah did not try feeding off him, though she kept giving him hungry looks. While they were eating, Princess Vedika stopped to wish them good luck, as did Sinja. And as soon as they finished, they made their way to the academy’s stadium, where the final eight matches of the first round were to be held.

  Niles was quite impressed by his first view of the stadium. Made entirely of stone, it reminded him of arenas he’d seen in various gladiator movies over the years. Birgit said it could seat five thousand people, but it was only about half full, mostly with students from the lower years. The king was not present in the royal box, but the headmistress of the academy delivered a long speech that gave Niles plenty of time for his food to settle.

  When the final ten matches began, Prince Snozlepop, the 10th-ranked student, went up against the 247th-ranked student first. The prince’s familiar, a huge, lightning-spewing figure encased in armor, pretty much won the match for him, first taking out his opponent’s earth elemental familiar, and then smashing through their defenses. His opponent was quick to hop off their circle once that happened.

  Princess Vedika, at 9th rank, had the next match and easily won. Watching the magic both competitors put out, Niles could tell the princess was using much more complicated patterns, involving multiple elements, but the amount of power she was putting out was little more than her lower-ranked opponent used.

  “I think she’s like you,” Nile noted to Birgit. “Her spell patterns are really complex, but she wasn’t using nearly as much power as some of the other students we’ve seen today.”

  Niles meant the comment to reassure Birgit, showing her that skill was more important than raw power, but, for some reason, his comment seemed to make her look worried.

  Niles didn’t know anyone in the next two matches, though one of them used a greater void elemental, which was something Niles hadn’t seen before. It looked like a werewolf made of shadow and shrugged off every spell cast at it before tearing through the opponent’s defenses. After that, Sinja, at sixth rank, won her match, followed by Ingadrid Iceblade, at fifth rank, who also won. Both were easy wins. The fourth-ranked student was a gorgon Niles didn’t recognize, and he won. Third-ranked Jabari Brightlance, the other solar elf student in the class, won his match as well, meaning so far there had been no upsets in the top ten, but then it was Birgit’s turn.

  Niles walked out onto the sand of the stadium floor with Birgit, and the crowd cheered. Their opponent, Yarl Nightfall, was entering at the same time, so it was more likely he was the one being cheered, but Niles waved to the crowd anyway.

  Their opponent was a tall, thin elf with silver hair and skin almost as pale as milk. A massive polar bear walked out with him. Standing on its hind legs, the beast had to be at least eight feet tall and probably weighed a ton. Niles was very glad they planned to take Sinja’s advice to heart and not fight it up close. As the solar elf predicted, the beast stayed off the stone circle as Yarl began his spell preparations. Niles stayed off Birgit’s circle at first as well, to throw Yarl off, but the kappa signaled him just before she closed her magic circle, and he joined her.

  Watching the two competitors prepare their spells, Niles saw that Yarl was actually using more magic than Birgit was, even though she was drawing from Niles. That tempted Niles to push a little more power into her, but he didn’t want to throw her off. They would just have to hope Birgit’s skill outclassed him.

  As soon as the signal was given to start the match, the massive bear charged across the arena like a freight train. Nothing Niles had yet experienced in this wild world had frightened him as much as a ton of angry bear charging at him. He prepared to pull Birgit out of the way if her defense didn’t hold, but her spell stopped it cold. The beast staggered back, dazed, but then shook its head and moved off to the side where it began raking its claws across the barrier, trying to break through. Niles finally pulled his eyes away from the big white bear, only to be blinded as lightning splashed off Birgit’s shield. Ice shards came at them next, followed by death magic. It was just as Sinja predicted, and Birgit’s defenses held, but Niles could tell they were weakening, even though Birgit continued to power them with Niles’ magic.

  Birgit was not just playing defense, though. Niles saw a complex weave of void, space, and time magic attacking Yarl’s defenses, though it was probably invisible to everyone but Niles. She was also preparing three more spells, alternating which one she was actively working on while holding the rest steady. This was easily the most complicated spellwork Niles had seen all day. Birgit really was good.

  Finally, as Niles saw Yarl’s defenses start to flicker, Birgit cast the first of her chained spells. It slammed into Yarl’s barrier and shattered it. Niles saw Yarl’s eyes go wide. He had no defense. This was where he should have jumped off his circle, but he didn’t, and Birgit held back her two remaining spells, waiting. Suddenly, the massive bear lumbered in front of Birgit and stood on its hind legs, completely blocking their view of Yarl.

  Birgit thrust one hand forward, launching one of her remaining spells, and the creature exploded into a cloud of snowflakes. A fireball shot through the flurry and blasted into Birgit’s shield. It was a powerful blast that completely engulfed the dome of magical defense Birgit had set up. The dome held, but Niles saw it flicker. Across from them, Yarl dropped a wand and pulled out another. A new shield already surrounded him, not as strong as his first, but obviously put up by a pre-cast spell. The second wand spat out a beam of force magic even as Birgit cast her third spell. Both Birgit’s and Yarl’s shields shattered. Birgit began frantically casting, but Yarl pulled out another wand.

  Niles moved in front of Birgit just in time to take a lightning bolt. It wasn’t the first time he’d been hit by lightning, but this was the largest bolt he’d ever taken. As before, it felt like his body was trying to tear itself apart as every muscle in his body tensed up at once. Fortunately, the feeling passed quickly, leaving Niles with a full-body ache and an intense burning sensation in his chest. Unable to stand, Niles fell to his knees, only just keeping himself from falling on his face. Looking down, he saw that most of the front of his surcoat and the shirt beneath had all but disintegrated, and his chest was a charred mess.

  Birgit activated her newly made pre-cast spell, and a barrier sprang to life just in time to stop a bolt of death magic. Yarl emptied two more wands in unsuccessful attempts to bring down Birgit’s shield, but then Birgit struck back with a complicated beam of void, force, and vibration magic that screamed across the field. It shattered a third barrier Yarl had thrown up using another pe-cat spell and knocked the elf off his circle and back ten feet further.

  The match was called, and a medical team ran out to tend to the elf as the crowd erupted with cries of surprise that quickly turned to cheering as everyone realized the upset that had just happened.

  Niles turned to Birgit as he struggled back to his feet. “Congratulations, you won.”

  Brigit stared at Niles’ rapidly healing chest as it went from charred black to angry red and finally faded back to its normal pale tan.

  “You… I…,” Birgit finally squeaked out as tears filled her eyes.

  Niles reached out and pulled her into a hug.