Rune mage

Chapter 30: chaos

The arena was so chaotic I couldn't keep up with everything going on. I lost sight of Frederic and Isa, their fights happened in a morass of others. It was probably as close to a battlefield as we would get, before being sent to a battle field.

I released those stuck in my web slowly, letting them absorb attacks with minimal harm. They glanced back at me but were clearly not interested in fighting me, at least not now.

I watched the fighting around me.

No one died, but I could see other students being pulled out of the dirt and to the healers, bloodied and beaten, sometimes singed.

I had one intrepid attacker get almost all the way to me, sword in hand. His magic must have been minimal because he didn't blink when I sucked his power down to minimal levels.

He raised his sword to attack and I activated my sound rune.

The resulting boom sent him flying, along with anyone else close to me. There was a clear circle left in the dirt from the sound wave, with me at the epicenter.

My attacker shook his head several times, then tried to stand, listing heavily.

I healed my own ears, hadn't figured out how to not be impacted by that attack, and waited.

It only took two more attempts at attacking me for others to figure out the boom was coming from me and was effective.

Defense was never a rune mage's weakness.

They just didn't know I could be offensive as well.  I picked targets based on their behavior. If they were attacking people much weaker than them, or being cowardly by attacking someone's back, I took their power abruptly away from them, or snagged them in the web, letting others attack them.

I was like a spider in the center of my silken web, able to direct power where I wanted it to go.

An arrow flew at me, clearly intended for me specifically. It could not pierce my rock protection. I picked the arrow up and broke the shaft.

The tip I used to draw runes in the dirt. They weren't useful runes... but would be showy. I sent power to them and enjoyed  their glow and warmth. I had so much power at that point I needed to do something with it. I wasn't sure what would happen if I overflowed myself, but I was pretty sure it would flatten the arena, risking even those wearing protection runes.

I was attacked again by air, once by water- not by Isa though, this was sloppy work. And once by a fire mage. Fredric was stronger than this man, and draining him took only a half a thought.

The poor guy sat smiling, uncaring for the threats around him.

So I sent a wave of power to him and cocooned him with a protective layer of magic. The next person to try to attack him sank to their knees the moment they touched the protection- their power gone. They stood and must have shouted and insulted the fire mage because he sent back a rude gesture.

But the fire mage kept smiling. I laughed to myself. I never saw any fire mages anything but intense or irritable until they didn't have their power. Then they were actually happy.

When the fire mage stood, he began to walk towards me. I let the protection travel with him.

"I don't understand," he said to me. "I attacked you. Why protect me?"

I smiled. "You looked happy. In all this," I gestured, "and there you were smiling, looking at peace. It felt wrong to leave you undefended."

He rubbed his face. "I need to have a strong showing. Fire mages are sent to the front lines unless they can show strength."