"That's insane! For half your population to be mages that is way too overpowered. Is this the case in all oases?"
"Not quite. The human residents often pull down the average but even in the larger oases, every third person should be a mage."
"How is that possible? What about the elderly population?"
"A rather brutal practice in my eyes. Once warriors feel that age is starting to eat away at their strength they will form a group and first hunt down all undead around their oasis. Should they survive that, they will bring back all loot and begin to dive into the necropoleis (this is the plural of necropolis).
"Inside a necropolis is a near-endless number of skeletons. If enough of them are killed the desert area around that necropolis won't be plagued by any undead for a while. So those old warriors will keep diving and bringing back the skeletons' remains until they die."
Indeed a rather brutal measure to take but it did help with population control. This way only a small part of the elderly would survive and they would generally be those who had skills that wouldn't deteriorate along with their bodies.
"Can we hire some of them as guards?"
Aurelia was obviously interested now that she knew the military potential of this oasis. Guards from here would be much more loyal than local guards and they would also be less easily bribed. Red didn't seem to mind Aurelia's request. After all, when it came to fighting gods I was way more useful than a dozen mages. Then, Aurelia left with Puri to discuss the buying and selling of various things.
Rose also quickly excused herself to go tend to her flowers and herbs. Red, Kesh and I were left behind and soon we got bored.
"What do you say we have a little spar, Abel? Kesh could use some practice against someone other than me. Want to give it a go?"
Red had his usual battle crazed look on his face. He was a maniac when it came to fighting so nothing new there. Kesh also looked eager albeit in a more fool-hearted manner.
"Who am I to say no to such an enticing offer."
We left the treehouse and headed to a training field. A whole bunch of bunny people was already there training but seeing Red and Kesh approach they cleared the field. Red took the position of referee and Kesh stood opposite of me.
"Let the fun begin!"
Upon Red's signal Kesh advanced with blinding speed. He was using short blasts of fire to propel himself forward faster. A commonly seen strategy against mages deemed physically weaker or unsuited to close combat.
He had definitely sparred with Red many times and adopted many of his tricks. Pity for him. I might have looked like I was one of those glass cannon type mages during the fight with those gods but I was an all-rounder.
Kesh had already arrived right before me and thrown a punch at my face. But why the face? Mages should always be punched in the gut when fighting seriously. A gut-punch will break their focus and slow down their casting speed.
To illustrate my point to Kesh I duck below his punch and return with one of mine to his gut. I held back so he wouldn't die but he still got knocked back a dozen meters. He coughed a few times and seemed disoriented so I chucked a simple fireball at him.
Kesh managed to rally enough focus to look up but couldn't react in time anymore. The fireball engulfed him and that should have been the end of the match. Except things didn't quite go as I had planned.
The fireball impacted and lost its shape only to be immediately absorbed by the black tattoos on Kesh's body. After absorbing the flames the tattoos gained a slight red glint that faded quickly.
"I am not that easily beat lord Abel. Fire is my element!"
"I knew that but I wasn't prepared for you to have the ability to absorb it. Looks like this will take longer than expected."
"Indeed it will. Sky flame above us with thy divine embers enlighten this world and set it ablaze with your greatness. Burn up the surface life, scorch the earth and bring thy unending energy to a crescendo! Sun flare!"
Chanting a full incantation...
What a waste of breath. Above Kesh, a blazing, glaringly hot flame had come into existence. His black tattoos had turned an orange-red and were spewing red-hot flames into the spell to increase its power beyond what a high mage could cast.
From what I could tell those tattoos not only had the capabilities to absorb flames they could also passively absorb sunlight that shone onto them. Furthermore, they were capable of extracting a trace of an innate understanding of fire from the sunlight and imbue it into a spell.
The power of the spell that Kesh had cast was comparable to that of a rank 2 archmage with an innate understanding of fire. If caught unaware a rank 1 archmage might be done in by such an attack.
While I was still evaluating the spell it already descended upon me turning the hardened sand beneath me into glass. The flames formed tongues that licked at me in wild burning fervor and the air around was quickly consumed.
The flames burned, scorched, and sizzled as they liked but to no avail. My innate understanding of fire was one of the strongest ever observed and makeshift creation inside these flames was no match for it. As for the lack of oxygen. Once you reached a certain point in strengthening your body oxygen was no longer need and breathing became a formality.
Kesh looked on with unbelieving eyes as I walked out of the flames completely unharmed. Not even my clothes had been singed. Behind me, his spell coughed out the last embers of heat it could muster and dissipated.
Only the sand turned glass floor reminded of what had just happened.