Call of the Waylanders

VII. Isabel and Oric Be Pretty Cool

The Scorch Knights continued to speak. They spoke of how they had us surrounded, how there was no other option but to surrender and give them all the cores in the possession of the Wizarding Guild, but I didn't exactly believe them. I knew there was a way out. I scanned the hall, looking for possible ways to escape or defeat the army, but it was then that I realized they were telling the truth: we were surrounded.

Out of every balcony, every door, every staircase, there poured Scorch Knights. Some were armed with swords, and some were armed with bows; no matter what, they looked like they were set to kill. 

"Give up now, and no one will be hurt," the Scorch Knight in front finished. None of the magicians inside the hall moved, but instead simply looked around. They had no idea what to do, I could tell. I could almost relate, but I had been trained not to flip out in situations such as these. Suddenly, I got an idea.

I had fought enough Scorch Knights to know that their only weaknesses were ice and water--lots of it, little amounts would simply be evaporated away. The Wizarding Guild was a high-class estate, meaning that there was likely running water everywhere. Well, perhaps the presence of magicians made running water completely irrelevant; it was vital to my plan, so I edged over to Maddie.

"Does the Wizarding Guild have running water?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Yeah, it does. Why?" she whispered in response. If we let the Scorch Knights hear us, they would probably kill us.

"You can control water, right?"

"Yeah. No spells or anything, but I can control it just fine."

"Good. Excellent, in fact. Listen, I need you to bring all water in the area towards..." I quickly looked around for the point of equal distant from each group of Scorch Knights, the one that Maddie could draw all the water to and douse all the fire of the Scorch Knights. I found the point and jabbed a finger towards it. "...there."

"The point you're pointing to?" Maddie asked.

"No, the other one."

"That one. Got it." Maddie spread her arms out, and I heard the sound of rushing water. With great effort, she clapped her hands, and water sprang from each wall, staircase, balcony, ceiling, and floor, flooding the area with water for a split second. I closed my eyes to protect them from the water, and when I opened them, Maddie was spreading her arms back, letting the water back into their original places. The Scorch Knights were all lying on the floors, simply husks of armor. They were disabled for a while until their cores rekindled them and we were in trouble again.

"GO! ATTACK!" I cried out to everyone, drawing my lances and going to stab a few of the knights, crushing the cores on the insides. I had figured out the precise weak point of their armor that you could jab and crush their core, just as I had just done, but it only worked when they were doused, for the power of their fire protected them.

The magicians just sat there. They stared at me as I frantically jabbed a few Knights, tracing my Agility and Strength Marks to make my job easier. I heard a slight rushing as the fire of the Knights began to rekindle themselves, and I ran away. I may have defeated plenty of Scorch Knights, but they were of varying power and skill, some of them being able to use magic, so I didn't want to take any risks. The magicians had done nothing to help me, and instead just sat there. I sighed in exasperation.

"Notice anything different about the Knights?" Minnie asked.

"Yeah. Their armor is silver instead of black, and their fire is blue instead of red. They've been like that since Infernas absorbed the Draenix core. You must not fight these Knights often," I answered as the Scorch Knights stood up again, one by three by twenty.

I noticed Maddie was on the ground. Controlling the water must have been a little too much. I looked back at the other magicians, who had just now chosen to try and do something, but the fire of the Knights was fighting back the various magic that was being fired at them. I knew I wanted to help, so I looked at my Marks, which were still in power, and I ran back into battle.

I jabbed one with my lance, trying to knock off some of their armor. I was able to whack it helmet off, but that was completely useless, I needed to get at their core. I stabbed and jabbed, trying to pierce the plate. As I was doing so, another Knight leaped on top of my back, and the sudden change in gravity made me fall backwards. The now helmet-less Scorch Knight in front of me tackled me, and the two tussled with me as I rolled on the ground, trying to shake them off. 

As I fought, they pinned me down on my stomach and began to tie my arms together. I supposed they were going for the Torturous Death Approach, one of my least favorite of their hobbies. I tried to struggled them off, but my efforts were completely ineffective.

I looked around and saw that the same was happening to the magicians, which served them right, considering that they had done absolutely nothing while Maddie had sacrificed her consciousness to give them at least a fighting chance. Speaking of Maddie, I watched as the Knights trussed up her unconscious body and began to drag her off. Cheery.

I thought it was hopeless. Really, I did. My Marks had just run out, most of the magicians were either gagged or disarmed, and there wasn't any backup, like the Scorch Knights had.

"How did you even get in here?" I asked the Scorch Knight that was now binding my feet.

"Oh, we killed the patrols," the Knight responded nonchalantly. I snickered at their easygoing response. I relaxed myself so the Knight could tie tighter knots. I mean, if I knew I was losing, I might as well make escaping later a challenge.

"OH, PLEASE REGINALD, I CAN DO THIS JUST FINE!" a beautiful voice rang out from behind the door. My eyes widened, and I immediately began to struggle against the Scorch Knight, really wishing I hadn't relaxed.

The doors burst open, even though the Scorch Knights were holding it. A young woman stood in the poor doors' remains.

She was tall and a bit slender, with a golden chocolate kind of hair. Even from such a distance, I could see her glittering silver eyes. She wore a simple green shirt that hung almost to her knees and baggy brown pants, held by a potion belt. She had another potion belt slung diagonally across her torso, and both were full of colorful bottles. She had one shoulder pad on her left arm, and her skin was dancing with Runic script. I had never seen Runic before, as it was an art many magicians were too afraid to attempt. There was one that wasn't, though, and she held a staff with five elemental crystals.

"You may surrender now," Isabel, the Grand Wizardess, assured. With a single word, she commanded many pillars of ice to fly from every direction, encasing the Scorch Knights in frozen power. I couldn't believe my eyes. I had witnessed the disabling of the Scorch Knights with a single spoken word!

Isabel turned behind her. "Hey, Oric, what do you think? Do you wanna fight, or should I go all wolf on them? You do it? Alright, now's the best time," she muttered, stepping to the side. A stone soldier, a six-and-a-half-foot-tall man made of light and cracked stone, leaped from behind, and pulled glowing blue-green scimitars out of his knees. 

His knees.

When I had first seen Oric, I had been unsure about what he was. He didn't seem to be a gender at the time. However, now that I see him in a new appearance--he was sleeker, more human-like, with two eyes instead of just one visor, not to mention the increased articulation--he was clearly a he. 

Oric leaped into the air. Isabel had formed twelve pillars across the hall for him to slice into pieces. And slice into pieces is exactly what he did. One pillar, with a simple spin, was reduced to ash of both cores and ice. Such was the same with the other eleven, slice after dice after complete evisceration. It was awesome.

Oric landed effortlessly on the ground. The once-bound magicians all turned to him, and they all began to clap. I shrugged off the loose rope on me and joined them. Oric bowed a few times, then walked back towards Isabel.

"Thank you, everyone, thank you very much. Now, if you'l excuse me, I need to restart on counting all the circles in the pattern on my ceiling. I know it just can't be seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-eight. I'll see you all when you need me again." With that, she turned and began to walk away. 

I ran after her, knowing that now was my chance.