18: Who's Your Halfwizard Please?
1473 Words
Silence descended heavily around us, punctuated randomly by the activities going on at the other side of the pile; Victoria’s desperate cry for help, the sound of rebounding metal as Kendra’s sword hit the pile repeatedly and Stan’s... Well, who knew exactly what my ‘loving’ half-brother was doing right at that moment? With the collapse, the cave would have become eerily dark if not that the green light from Breather and the glowing purple smoke surrounding Trichloris illuminated it.
“What makes you think that we’re halfwizards?” I asked when I couldn’t stand the silence anymore- no better ice-breaker than that, don’t you think?
“Why ask what you already know?” was what he returned in a very bored manner as if the conversation was the very last thing on his mind. Well, of course, it was; he was Mr. I’ll-be-the-end-of-all-magic, remember.
But Trichloris’s nonchalant attitude quickly became the furthest thing from my mind when the true meaning of his response sank in. “You manipulated me into allowing you escape, didn’t you?” I suddenly realized. “You’ve been manipulating me for a year now.”
“Manipulating?” he said as if I had just made the world’s most slanderous statement. “Don’t tell me that everything you did wasn’t from your own mindset? You wanted to do those things.”
“It was manipulation!” I retorted and swung my sword at him in anger. Immediately, a green sharp light shot out of it and at him. But he was able to get out of the way just in the nick of time and the light hit the wall behind him instead; causing some of the rubble to fall down with a rumble.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Trichloris, suddenly seeming concerned. “I’ll be careful with that thing if I were you. You might end up burying us both down here forever.”
“Afraid of death, are we?” I taunted with a little smile; it was somewhat satisfying to see that Mr. I’m-as-tough-as-hell-reignited wasn’t so tough.
“Of course not, I’m not afraid,” he returned, getting back on his feet; he had bent down earlier when the light came at him. “But it’s just that the two of us halfwizards have a greater destiny to fulfill that being buried alive.”
“Stop calling me your halfwizard!” I shouted and ran at him; sword raised.
But it wasn’t until it was too late that I realized my error when he blasted me backwards with a gust of wind. Lesson: never charge at a thousand-year old creepy, all-powerful wizard with a knack for destruction with just your sword. I landed heavily on the ground and felt all the bones in my body scream about to break- why did pain never get easier to bear?
Before I could gather my bearings, I suddenly saw a flash of sword in the corner of my eye and rolled away just as it came crashing to the ground next to me. I didn’t even know when Trichloris had the time to conjure up one.
“Jeez!” I exclaimed as I rolled a safe distance away from him. “For someone who said we’re halfwizards, you seemed pretty driven to take my head off back there.”
"You were about to take mine off too, weren’t you?” he retorted. No lies there. But I was the good guy, I kinda had the right to do that, not him.
"You were the one who proposed the ‘halfwizard’ theory,” I returned at him. “I’m not supposed to give a damn about it but you should.”
He seemed to consider my point and while he did, I attacked again and tried to strike him in the abdominal region this time; but he jumped out of reach just as the sword slashed by. He tried for my head and I bent down; he missing me by a few inches. He tried to strike me in different places too but I easily deflected the attacks.
“You’re good, I’ll give you that,” he said eventually after we had gone a couple of rounds between us. “But you still need to go back to training.”
The fight continued with me on the defense although I tried many times to go on the offense; but the man just wouldn’t allow me. Who knew that a thousand year-old wizard could be handy with a sword? I didn’t know I was moving backwards until I had my back to the wall and Trichloris tried to turn my sword against me.
“Bow before me,” he said as he pressed his sword against mine with all his strength.
“Keep dreaming,” I replied.
Suddenly, I felt a wave of black light push me up and slam me violently against the hard ground. Could you believe that that crazy creep couldn’t resist the urge to cheat even when he had the upper hand? No, right? Yeah, me too.
Trichloris slammed me against the wall a couple of times before I finally let go of my sword. “I’ll make sure you bow,” he said and I saw a black vine-like thing slither across my body and force me to my knees.
“Let go of me, you delusional fool!” I shouted at him and commanded fire to appear, releasing me from the vine thingies. But it only helped me for a second as they returned again with a tighter grip than before.
“I own you,” said Trichloris.
“Never!” I returned.
“You and I are of one soul, Troy.”
“You're very mistaken.”
“Oh, how ‘mistaken’ do you think I’ll be when Kendra and Vic learn of the dark magic you used on Abigail?”
“You will tell them nothing!” I shouted and suddenly, I found myself in front of Trichloris, choking the life out of him. I saw the reflection of my eyes as it glowed in his mask. But it wasn’t the glow that caught my attention but rather the color; they were as nightmare black as Trichloris’ cloak.
But Trichloris was smiling even though as he was obviously being hurt by the choke- seriously, how demented could a person get?
“It’s good to see that your dark side is growing more dominant by the day,” he said with that evil smile of his still plastered on his face. “Soon, we’ll be completely united.”
Suddenly, all the rage I was feeling turned against me and I fell backwards. Before I could get myself to stand up, he vanished and the pile of rocks gave way and Francesca, Oliver and the other guys came in with a few Knights escorting them.
“Are you okay?” asked Victoria as she came to kneel by my side; I could tell from her face that she had been crying.
“I’m okay,” I replied and gave her a quick kiss just to show I was telling the truth.
“Trichloris was here, wasn’t he?” asked Francesca, looking around her as if she could still feel the evidence of his presence around. Who knews maybe she could.
“Yes,” I replied.
“What did he say?” she probed further.
“You know, same old, same old.”
“Care to elaborate?” she asked again.
Okay, was it just me or was this turning into an interrogation? “He wanted the world of magic to collapse, the usual,” I replied anyway. I deliberately left out the ‘We’re halfwizards’ part because she already seemed trouble enough even without that knowledge.
Unfortunately, she still asked, “Did he say anything else?”
“What else could he say?” I replied, giving her a ‘What exactly is going on here’ look.
“I think we should let Troy rest, Francesca,” Oliver intervened before the Dragon lady could let out another question.
Francesca’s incessant question was unexpected; but it wasn’t bugging me as much as the fact that even though I have a strong fighting spirit, the truth remained that I was broken. And if one thing was for sure, it was that broken men never win.
- Writer
