A magic circle appeared above a forest, nine bodies fell from out of it. Everyone managed to get to the ground safely, but their misfortune was far from over. They were surrounded but 20 more shadowy figures.
"Who are these guys anyway? Does anybody have a clue?" Heather asked.
"I've heard about them… they are shadow mages." Quincy replied. "Looks like we have no choice here."
Quincy drew out a magic staff from thin air. He was preparing to fight the shadow mages. Heather looked at Alexander and Katherine, by the looks of it she had a sinister idea in mind. She grabbed Quincy's shoulder and shook her head.
"Let these two handle them. I want to see them in action." Heather suggested.
"But there are outnumbered, do you think that's a good idea?" Quincy asked, looking at them.
"Alexander, Katherine… show us what you can do."
Alexander looked at Katherine as if he wanted to ask her about something.
"It seems we can't escape them our past. Fate is dead set on making our lives a living hell." Katherine said, as she pressed her hands together, a bust of mana flowed out and faded away.
"Oh well… nothing can be done now." Alexander drew out his sword.
"Shall we dance?"
Two shadow mages began their assault from behind, but they bounced off a barrier. Katherine activated an invisible barrier before they started, but in front of them two more shadow mages began to cast spells. Quincy was impressed by how fast she created the it, but then he noticed that Alexander disappeared. One of the shadow mage launched a wind spell, it looked like a tornado. Alexander swooped in and swung his sword, splitting the tornado in half. The other shadow mage fired of arrows made of fire. Without losing a step, Alexander shifted his body and focused his attention towards the flaming arrows. He swung his repeatedly destroying every arrow he cuts. Alexander disappeared again, he was too fast for the enemy. Suddenly the four shadow mages who attacked first fell to the ground. Alexander cut all four of them down.
Most of the shadow mages used the trees to hide their presence, but one of the shadow mages descended from above. They had their sights on Katherine. The mage unleashed a lighting spell, Heather tried to warn her, but Katherine simply raised her hand. Katherine created a magic circle of her, "MAGE CRAFT: REDITUS… MALUM." The lighting magic disappeared leaving only the shadow mage. The lighting magic shot back out with twice the power. She then proceeded to aim the lighting at some of the other mages. Most of them dodged the attack, but including the caster, she managed to take out 6 mages.
"Do you mind telling us who the hell are you?" Alexander asked pointing his sword at the leader.
He didn't respond, instead he raised his hand creating a huge fire ball, smiling at in the process. "There is no need for my name. You are going to die anyway." He replied as he threw the fire ball at Alexander.
Alexander retracted his sword back into his scabbard. He took a stance and waited for the spell to get in range. He charged forwards the fire ball, his feet breaking the ground as he increased his speed. He drew out his sword again, but this time the rose design on the sword was glowing red. Alexander went through the fire ball slicing it in half. Katherine manipulated the two half of the fire balls before it exploded and converted them into smaller fire balls. She then launched them towards the remaining enemies. Most of the shadow mages managed to block the attack, but four mages were unlucky and they were caught in the rain of fire.
"Heather, you have brought me some interesting mages." Quincy said with a surprised face. "It's like they are fighting as one being?"
"I told you they were interesting" Heather replied, before one of the shadow mages attempted a sneak attack. She created a water bubble capturing the mage and allowing them to drown.
Quincy looked at Heather. "WHY? That is just cruel!" he expressed.
10 shadow mages remained including the leader. "EARTH MAGIC: TERRA… MOTUS!" Katherine screamed as she slammed her fist on the ground. The ground began to shake and crumble all the remaining shadow mages regrouped in front of the leader.
"DAMN IT! HOW CAN TWO MAGES DEFEAT 15 MAGES?" the leader of the shadow mages shouted out.
"Care to tell us your name now?" Katherine asked.
Dark clouds began to form above the forest. Everybody notice it was getting darker but no one knew what was going on.
"WHAT IS THIS? WHAT'S HAPPENING?" the leader asked.
"A storm is coming." Katherine whispered to herself as she launched a huge boulder over the enemy. The boulder was way off course and the enemy saw that.
"LIGHTING MAGIC: TEMPESTAS--," Alexander shouted out, but nobody could see him, "TONITRUA!"
As the boulder rotated, Alexander was hiding behind it, but this time he had a lighting charge in his hand. As he was descending a bolt of lightning struck down from the dark clouds and chased Alexander. He was manipulating the lightning until he slammed into the ground. The lightning spell took out 8 shadow mages before they could react. Alexander still had some lightning on his hand. So he charged straight for the leader, but was intercepted by the last shadow mage. He managed to land a solid hit, but it was too weak to cause real damage.
After defeating 24 shadow mages the leader decided to retreat. He went from over whelming numbers to being outnumbered. As he was fleeing, he got trap and tree roots began to wrap around him. Katherine manipulated the roots from the trees with her magic. He struggled to free himself. He tried to cast a spell but Alexander slapped his hands with the flat side of his sword, canceling the spell.
Quincy and Heather approached the leader. "Well I'm impressed. Let's call that a test of your skills. You may have a chance after all."
'Now I see, Alexander doesn't have magic? No it's more like he lacks magic, his has the same magic capacity as a new born baby, which is not much. He can cast one or two spells, while others can us over 10 times more. First he used a small amount of magic to increase his speed, his patient enough to use that when he needs it. Secondly he used all his remaining magic on that lighting attack, it was so powerful. Well that all you need when you're a combat mage. His reckless but it got the job done.' Heather thought to herself looking at Alexander. 'With skills like that he may be a bigger threat then Katherine. The lack of magic my ass, he could hold his own against my son. Luna what did you bring me?'
Katherine wrapped the rest of the shadow mages with tree roots. Alexander looked at the leader of the shadow mages and could help but feel uncomfortable.
"Something is wrong. This was too easy." He told everyone.
Alexander sat down, trying to think of something. The attack was random, there was no motive at all. They just engaged in a battle without any reason. He couldn't help shake the feeling that they were being played. He asked himself why would the enemy teleport them to a different location. Heather tried to dismiss the Alexander's thought, suddenly he jumped up and yelled out "Shit". He felt that this was a diversion, and that the real target was the magic academy.
"Head master Quincy, do you have security at the academy? Do you have a way of contacting them?" Alexander asked him with a panic in his voice.
Quincy tried to make contact with the academy by using a bracelet he on, but nobody responded. As the second sunset finally hid beyond the horizon, the sky became darker. Suddenly a magic beam came charging in, Katherine erected a barrier but it was no use. It easily broke he spell and hit the ground creating a huge explosion.
Alexander and Katherine jumped away at the last second, but still got caught in the aftershock. Quincy and Heather were caught in the blast, but they were untouched. Somehow Quincy managed to create a barrier strong enough to save them. a second wave of the same attacks came flying towards them. The magic beams looked like arrows being shot from far away. Quincy managed to block the second wave, which left the forest in worse shape.
"Damn it. They stole the academy's treasure and they are using it against use." Quincy mumbled and he was short of breath.