The Legend of Saironelloistya [COMPLETED]

Chapter 6: My Final Trial

  Upon my arrival into the next room, I was standing in front of an iron door, that was unlocked. I stepped forward and opened it, and was on a balcony, standing behind a man in studded leather armor, who was looking over the edge. Stealthily sneaking up, I covered his mouth with my hand, and with my sword stabbed him through the back of the heart, and stowed him into the closet I had come out of. As I looked over the railing, I saw what he was looking at, or more accurately, watching over. There was a group of 30 rows of 11 people, and one officer. That meant there were 360 total soldiers for me to fight, at least I assumed because it had to be an Evocation challenge. I began to meditate, in an attempt to store as much raw power as I could within any time restraints. I knew that I had to have the advantage of stealth, and take out at least fifty in my first assault, or else I would have no chance. I began to contemplate the structure of the room. It was an open room with three large sandstone and slate pillars in the center of the room, with four staircases, one in each corner, leading to a second layer balcony. on each side of the second story level, there were two doors, but I had no idea where they would lead. Finally, my magic was stored to a sufficient level, and I stood up and jumped over the railing.

On the way down, I shouted "Menelnar" meaning "The Heaven's Fire." As I landed, 70 tongues of fire struck down from the sky and hit an equal amount of soldiers, with 10 of them being officers, leaving 293 soldiers and officers left. 20 were officers, and the officers ordered their men to silence their comrades and turn towards me. However, when they looked I was gone. I had climbed back up a staircase, and onto the second layer. My power lost approximately, 47% but it would grow back slowly. As I looked back down, I picked out where all of the officers were, and said "Narsarn" literally meaning "Firestone," and launched 10 fireballs out before my magic level was too low to throw anymore. (4.5% each with 283 total left ten officers ) The issue now was that they knew where I was, and I had to think quickly. I ran into another door and waited. I knew that they knew I was on the second level, but I needed more time to store up my magic, which restored according to the equation minutes multiplied by (3%*60) or 3 percent per second. After 55 seconds, my power was at 99%, and I sneaked over to the stairs and down them, and stabbed a man from behind. As the army turned towards the sound, I exclaimed "Narrond" meaning "Fire dome." Around me, a 7-foot tall dome of fire with a 6-foot radius surrounded me, and cost ten power percent, plus 5 per second, this meant that with this dome I could last 18 seconds. Not wanting to waste any time, I ran right into the army blindly, and began to burn soldiers. They began to panic and break rank, trying in vain to avoid this veil of scorching heat, but began to trip over each other, and pile up in the path of the moving fire dome. In 15 seconds, I had killed 83 of them, maimed 6, and caused minor injury to 1, who tried to slice through fire with a piece of steel, but the blade missed me, and he just burned his hand. That left 201 soldiers left to defeat, but as my shield sputtered out, I was in an army of well trained, uninjured(minus the sellsword with the burned hand,) well-armed soldiers with no magic left, and they all knew where I was. My odds were not looking good, but I had one advantage. They did not know I was out of magic. I maneuvered my blade into bokken form 1 and waited. It was 12.5 seconds until the first soldier attacked, but I countered his blade high, then tripped him and put my sword through his chest. That put me down to 200 even, but they were attacking now, and more rapidly. Three attacked me at once, but I countered one low, elbowed him in the face, turned and avoided a thrust, cutting off the man's wrist, as a counter, and ducked under the third's swing. As the first and third attacked again, a fourth man came at me with a double-sided ax. This all happened in 38 seconds. My magic was full again and I shouted "lhach pelnen" meaning "leaping flame water encircle", filling the room with steam. I walked slowly back towards the back left staircase, and counted how many soldiers were left as soon as the steam had cleared. I turned out I had only killed one of the four, and the ten leftover officers were regrouping their platoons. They were organizing into two groups of two going up each staircase, leaving two platoons on the bottom level. I would soon be surrounded, so I had to move quickly. I jumped over the railing and grunted "Narhossë" meaning "fire army." I pirouetted forwards and towards the enemy platoons, as a group of twenty soldiers wreathed and created in flame, spawned and charged after me. As the enemies on the ground, and my small force clashed, chaos ensued elsewhere. The other soldiers broke squad when given a charging order, and began struggling and crashing down the stairs, attempting to save their fellow lower level soldiers, but they were two late. Some soldiers jumped over the railing, but most were dragged down by their armor and were soon trampled. I divided up my troop with 5 to each staircase, and held the position. The current count was 146 and dropping, due to the fire army and the trampling occurring. We held the position, killing 26 more before they had the idea to use milk, and sand on the troopers. The sand worked better than the milk, and killed, or more accurately extinguished, my fire squad, with the death of only ten more on their side, and then I was surrounded by 110 enemies, but I was not concerned because they had forgotten one very important thing. I had fully regenerated my magic. I relaxed, from form one, stood up straight and grinned. "Menelnar" I murmured, this time with no attempt at magic conservation. All around me, tongues of flame swept down from the sky, managing to kill 98 enemies. I collapsed to one knee, weakened from the spell, and watched as three of the twelve enemies left converged upon me. I waited until the got close then swung my arm weakly to force them back, and straightened up. I raised my sword to a position compatible with Capo Ferro, a sword mastery technique, and advanced. The three men countered with Thibault's defense, and attempted to counter, but then I switched to Agrippa and slaughtered them. This challenge had taken too long, and I wanted it over. the nine men looked at me, and three dropped their swords and ran, while the other six all converged as one all thrusting. I felt light headed, and started to fall to a knee again. I groaned "nársolmë" meaning "Flame wave", and stabbed my sword into the ground ducking under their sword and lighting them all on fire. Then I put them out of their misery. As I looked around, I hunted down the other three. the first waited for me, as I walked up and stabbed him in the chest. I honored his corpse, out of respect for the honor he had shown at his death, by not begging for his life. the second tried to trap me with a thrust, hiding behind a pillar, but I simply pushed his sword down and decapitated him. The third said, "spare me, and I will give you the candle." I cut off his head and showed him no honor, for he had begged for his life like a coward. I searched his corpse and found a candle, wrapped in a note written on parchment paper. The note said, "Check your pockets." Confused by the serendipitous manner of the challenge, I reached into my pocket and found a note of paper that said: Light only the candle. I set the candle down, lit it with a small fire. and watched as a portal appeared. I jumped through it and passed out.

. . .

When I awoke, I was in the infirmary, with Aranellevanima on my left, and Saironelloletoron on my right. When I sat up, it startled them both, but then Saironellotoron ran out of the room, shouting for Herulepilin, but Aranellevanima, first grasped my left hand in both of her hands, Then stood up and gave me a bearhug, but I saw there were tears running down her face. "Why do you weep?" I ventured, allowing my concern for my friend to be at a forefront on my mind.

"Because your trials were inconclusive" she wept "You completed it all differently than they had planned."

"Why is that an issue then, if I completed all of my trials?" I replied

"Because they are deciding whether or not to pass you tonight," My master said, as he entered the room. "And they are barring me from the vote."