The Unlikely Hero

Chapter 2. Who Needs a Savior

About three or so hours after my wondrous meeting with the mighty and slightly mental dragon, I decided to just put the whole ordeal into the back of my mind and continue on my way to Trarton. See, graduating from the Academy meant I had to serve the Kingdom of Amyron. There was no question in that. I just had to. I might have hated the idea at first, but then I decided it might be profitable, so why not? Needless to say, running away without doing your duty was punishable by death.

Thus, all graduates had to pass across the mountains to Trarton City and give the Academy Assessment Papers to the local General, who would then decide their fate. Some were sent to more remote places of the Kingdom and some served in Trarton. I, for once, hoped for the latter. After all, there was more profit to be made in the capital city than the little villages scattered across the country.

The trip itself was a dangerous one and served as a sort of a final examination. The graduates could and were heavily advised to form groups and travel together. Safety in numbers as they say. I made the not so regular decision to go alone. That, if not my papers, should serve as definite proof of my abilities. Bandits and local wildlife, which tended to have way too much teeth and claws for anyone's liking, were known to attack travelers.

As a recent graduate of the Magical Academy of Trarton, I was expected to be able to handle a certain level of danger coming my way. However, magicians were considered frail and were easy to defeat in close combat. Thus, the recommendation of traveling in groups. Being the outcast that I was, difficult as it may be to believe, I did not have much, if any, friends to rely on. I was a disappointment to my teachers and an object of disgust to my peers. Some even considered me a failure of a magician. Unlike all the others, the normal ones, I could not teleport or form reliable magical shields to defend myself. Air magic was unfathomable. Water and ice? Not a chance. Any rituals and blessings I gave were short-lived or back-fired spectacularly. For some reason, my capabilities of magic were limited to the ghastly element of fire and several advanced healing spells. So, to make up for that and actually survive to see another day, I had to keep my agility and speed top notch as well as gain some melee combat skills to always know where and when to strike. And so I did. I attended any and all lectures that I could get in and learned a range of skills and tricks. I mastered ranged dagger throwing techniques, several sword fighting stances and hand-to-hand combat to level out my lack of magical ability. I could only hope it would be enough to get a job placement within Trarton City.

Lost in my musings of the future I could have, it took me a few moments to recognize the sounds of a battle. I had already descended the mountains and was making my way across the rolling hills and grasslands of the outskirts of the capital city. I had not expected to encounter much trouble here. The several fights I had against pixies and wolves all happened up in the mountains. Nevertheless, I ran up a low hill to get a better view of the skirmish ahead. A small group of warriors were fighting off a band of imps. The humans were completely outnumbered and though they had three archers, only one of them was free for ranged attacks. The other two were surrounded by imp warriors and one of them looked badly hurt. He was bleeding and limping on one leg as he tried to fend off the imps. Meanwhile, one of the human warriors who looked even younger than me was in a similar position as the archer and I noted blood was oozing from his right side. The other warrior looked way more experienced and I thought he was in his early thirties or so. Had a handsome face too... Ack, this is not the time, really. Sadly, he was swarmed with the imp warriors and I counted six of them plus the two he had just slashed to death with his longsword. To make the matters even worse, the imps had a shaman and a healer with them and even though the remaining free archer tried to take out the shaman first, the healer just kept healing him and the other imps.

I sighed. Didn't anyone ever tell them they should kill the imp healer first? I shook my head and then reached out my hands as I chanted the spell silently. They'd better thank me properly later. In money. Gold coins, preferably.