Chapter 7

"ENEMY AT THE GATES! ENEMY AT THE GATES!" The crier ran screaming through the halls of the monastery, bellowing out his message for all to hear.

Like clockwork, every Mancer trained for combat dropped what they were doing and made a run for their battle gear. The armory doors were thrown open and defenders of the monastery poured in, selecting their elements of choice from a huge arsenal of spellstones.

"What are we up against?!" came a shout from the frantic crowd.

The armory quartermaster pried open a crate of aquastones and addressed the crowd, raising his voice for everyone to hear.

"Listen up, everyone! We've got pyromancers! All aquamancers are to report to the front line stat! They're breaking down the gate! Take what you need! Remember your training! I want five of you to each mancer; do not underestimate their power!"

The aquamancers in their cyan robes had priority and made for the crates, stocking up with as many blue stones as they could carry. A massive explosion suddenly sounded, several cries of anguish echoing in its wake.

"THE FIRST LINE HAS BEEN BREACHED!" screeched the crier, his voice amplified through the use of an illusion stone. "MANCERS TO YOUR POSTS!"

Zaedra arrived on the scene looking just as frantic as the other consars who were preparing for battle. She spun left to right looking for someone of higher authority that she could pass on news of Neriah's deceit to. She was close to giving up when Kaligmar came rushing down the corridor, pushing against a hoard of battlemancers that were heading in the opposite direction. Her face lit up with relief when she spotted him.

"Kaligmar! Kaligmar!" she cried, attempting to grab his attention. The old conjuror came to a stop and took her by both shoulders.

"What is it, girl?" he said. "There are pyromancers at the gate! You should be joining the rest of them!"

Zaedra gave him a desperate look. "It's Neriah: she attacked me! I think she has an alliance with the Ceruleans! She can't be trusted!"

"I am already aware of it," Kaligmar said with surprising calm.

Zaedra was shocked. "W-what? How long have you known?"

"Just a short time ago: I caught her using a necromancy stone."

"A necromancy stone?! But that's-"

"Yes, I know. I'll take care of her Zaedra. Right now the frontline is in need of someone of your expertise. You must aid them! The monastery's protection is top priority!"

Zaedra gave him an uneasy look. "Be careful Kaligmar. There's no telling what she'll do — or what she's really capable of." Kaligmar only returned her with his meaningful old man gaze, and she nodded, understanding the silent message. She knew what she had to do.

The conjuror turned on his heel and proceeded down the corridor, dissolving into the sea of bustling mancers. Zaedra watched him leave in silence before turning to her next priority: the protection of the monastery.

Sprinting down the corridors, she followed the sounds of explosions and screams. She eventually arrived at a large flight of stairs and clambered up them, outside and to the top of the battlements that overlooked the front courtyard below.

Everything was in total chaos. The courtyard, once a grand spectacle, was now nothing more than a bleak and withered wasteland occupied by the faintly glowing embers of what had once been several extravagant sculpted hedges. Healers ran furiously about the scorched earth, attending to fallen mancers with restoration stones while continuous volleys of fireballs ripped all about them.

Several conjurors had summoned barricades for the consars to take cover behind but the Cerulean firepower was overwhelming them easily. She could see that the front gate had been completely blown apart, giant flames still alight in the burning debris, and the Ceruleans were pouring through into the courtyard.

"Where did they come from?!" cried Zaedra to a nearby healer. "How did nobody see this coming?"

"I don't know!" the healer yelled above the deafening clamor of battle. "They just seemed to have appeared out of thin air. These pyromancers must have been lurking near the outskirts of the monastery when that elemental pulse went off! It must have made them go completely mad!"

"So they just charged us in a power-hungry frenzy?"

"They're desperate for whatever caused that pulse," the healer said, wiping his sweaty face with the sleeve of his robe. "They're willing to kill themselves just to find it!"

Down below, an arch-consar had rallied several men together and was preparing to make an offensive push.

"Illusionists step forward!" the arch-consar roared at the top of his lung. "Shield wall on my mark!" Several consars leapt out from a trench dug by geomancers and readied their spellstones. The arch-consar thrust forward an arm and executed the command. "Engage!"

A giant wall of orange light sprang up before the five illusionists to protect them, and fearlessly, they pressed forward. The pyromantic fireballs ricocheted in all directions as they slammed harmlessly into the elemental shield, spiraling away and fizzing out into nothing.

"Aquamancers!" The Arch-consar said again. "Cover fire!"

Shards of ice rained from the sky like dozens of arrows, lobbing over the top of the illusion shield and falling right into the heart of the Cerulean forces. The pyromancers scattered. Some were impaled by the shards, but the majority managed to find cover behind rubble just as the wave of shards struck the ground to form a forest of crystalline needles.

Even though it appeared that the Azures were gaining the upper hand, Zaedra could tell that something was wrong. Through the billowing smoke that was clouding the sky, she could just make out the outlines of three pyromancers hiding off to the side, drawing very little attention to themselves. Three of the Ceruleans were weaving faint patterns in the air with their hands, channeling a spell that Zaedra assumed was to be the beginning of a mighty attack.

Aiming her aquastone, she fired a frostbolt across the battlefield, but it fell short, missing the three pyromancers by a dozen yards. They were just out of range. Someone on the frontline had to go out and stop whatever mischievous plan they were hatching.

"Come with me," she told the healer and made a start for the stairs that lead down to the lower level. But just at that moment, the three pyromancers started cackling maniacally as their hands suddenly ignited with roaring fire, their laughter somehow rising above the sounds of battle for everyone to hear. Zaedra's stopped short, her heart lurching in her chest. She was too late.

"EVERYBODY DOWN!" screamed somebody from amongst the battlements.

The Azure defenders took cover behind stone walls as an enormous wave of flame shaped like the head of a dragon emitted from the three mancers, striking viciously into the wall of illusionists that had so far managed to maintain a secure foothold on the center terrain. The dragon's head completely tore them apart, purging the elemental shield almost instantly and incinerating all five of them before it continued on to tear at the wall of the monastery, spraying molten rock and fire in every direction.

The aquamancers ran screaming, encasing themselves in shields of water but it wasn't enough: the lava splashed straight through their protection and began to work on their flesh, reducing their bodies to little more than ash. The three pyromancers then began to pivot their structure, moving the wave of superheated energy slowly across the battlements, incinerating everything that got in its way.

"TAKE IT OUT!" cried the arch-consar. The lethal attack was going to tear the monastery apart!

Zaedra ducked, feeling the intense heat creep up on her, and it felt to her as though she was being cooked alive. She was running out of time and she had to think quickly. To take out the strength of all three mancers together she would need a large water source, something much more than what she could conjure from just one aquastone. There was a great fountain located in the center of the monastery that had been placed inside an open courtyard. But could she draw that water from such a distance?

The healer next to her was fuelled with fearsome determination and he stared at her with the light of battle shining in his eyes. "Show us what you've got, Milady. I'll keep you covered but I won't be able to hold for long."

Acknowledging him with a nod, Zaedra leapt to her feet and the scorching heat from the wave of fire immediately attacked her, roasting her skin. But the healer was immediately onto it, mending her body as quickly as it was being damaged through the use of two restoration stones. Zaedra focused hard, blocking the pain stubbornly from her mind, and she tapped into her aquamancy. What followed was a trembling within the earth, the magnitude of which caused several people to stagger, off-balanced.

The Ceruleans at the gate were the first to see it — a gigantic funnel of surging water, coiling over the roof of the monastery and into the courtyard like a winding typhoon. The head of the swirling vortex of liquid then began to morph, sprouting enormous muscular arms and forming a thick upper body of swirling water. Zaedra had her eyelids closed but the healer could see droplets of blood leaking from between them. He could tell that she was drawing too much power and being a conductor of such force might fry her brain!

The three Ceruleans channeling the dragon's head saw this new threat and struck out at it, sending their creation on a collision course. Zaedra's monstrous water elemental struck the dragon's head with a giant fist as it came close, causing a mesmerizing clash of water and flame in mid-air. The dragon's head recoiled slightly as the pyromancers at the other end were having the struggle of a lifetime. Zaedra's elemental then swung powerfully with its other fist, impacting the dragon's head solidly beneath the chin. With a spray of searing flames, the fiery figure was flung sideways and whipped about dangerously, the pyromancers struggling to maintain control over their creature.

By now, both sides had stopped fighting and were now watching the fierce battle rage between the two elemental titans. The Azures and Ceruleans had been stuck in stalemate moments before and now the battle for the courtyard seemed to rest upon the victor of this duel. The odds appeared to be in favor with the pyromancers and the Azure wizards doubted their success.

Zaedra was sobbing under all the pressure, her once pretty face now distorted by pain and hopelessness. She shrieked again as the dragon blasted her elemental with a jet of molten rock from its snout. The three pyromancers were focusing hard, channeling more power into their beast, and the dragon's head reared up for a final devastating attack.

"Back off, milady!" cried the healer desperately. "They're too strong for you! I can't hold you together!"

However Zaedra was in no state to hear this warning. The dragon struck lightning fast, launching its blazing body into the heart of her water elemental. The elemental's structure seemed to ripple for a moment before exploding in a spray of steam, scattering boiling water all over the Azure defenses. Zaedra's aquamantic power combusted, shattering her aquastone, and she gave an unearthly scream and fell limp, blood pouring from her eyes, ears and nose. The last thing she heard was the victory cries of the pyromancers as they advanced forward, bearing down upon the retreating consars.

The courtyard was lost. The monastery walls had been breached. She had failed.

The pyromancers were like a fiery plague as they marched through the front gates of the monastery. They numbered close to two dozen; each and every one of their bodies encased by searing flames. Their movement tainted the walls, turning everything to black or grey, their steps burning scorch marks into the marble flooring.

The Azures were unable to hold off the advance. The heat generated by the pyromancers was impossible to withstand. In such close quarters, no Azure consar could even look at them without being blinded from the ridiculous heat. This gave the Ceruleans a radical advantage as they picked off their targets one by one, reaching into their victims' bodies and leaving burning craters inside their chests.