A small excerpt...

  It had been a good day. The attack had gone perfectly. The miners had put up no resistance worth mentioning, and my plan had worked fine. With the distraction I’d easily broken into the secure area, and their vault and, using the key the dumb ass foreman had provided, opened the lock boxes inside, which had netted us an immense haul of precious stones. I’d managed to slip two of the biggest ones into my space too.

  “Den! Cheers!” Ron raised his tankard, and I copied him, drinking only a sip of the brown ale inside. I wanted to appear to be revelling with the others, but my real plan was to get out of the place in the middle of the night. I’d stored enough loot up, it was time to move on. Besides, I was tired of my fellow wizards. Even calling them that was almost an insult. Apart from Roberts no one was even close to my level. Even he was only a mid-rank B in water magic. The rest of them were weak rank Cs, at best, and a ragtag lot to boot.

  I sighed and took another sip of ale, and then the screaming started.

  Looking around, my eyes went wide. A dragon was attacking the lower area! A fucking dragon! Admittedly, it didn’t look fully grown, but it was silver, and even a small dragon is more than enough.

  “Shit!” I said, picking up my staff. “Ron, don’t just…”

  Ron’s head exploded.

  I blinked and wiped blood from my eyes, even as I instinctively cast a barrier around me. Just in time to, as something hit it. Something powerful hit it.

  Two more of my fellow wizards screamed and fell to the floor. The head of one of them rolled off.

  More cries. I looked to my right, to see the biggest man I’d ever seen decapitate two of our fighters with one swing. The warrior was enormous, his bright yellow hair contrasting with jet black skin. The sword he wielded, a huge weapon, simply dripped with dark magic.

  “Fuck this,” I said, and turned to go.

  “Hello there.”

  A young lad, maybe only about ten, stood in front of me. He was clad in rich clothes, and was leaning on a staff of incredible power. More critically, the mana coming off him was like nothing I’d seen in my life.

  “Who the hell are you?” I asked, desperately pulling in energy.

  He smiled, seemingly totally relaxed despite the carnage going on around us. One of the surviving mages, I didn’t see who, threw a fireball at him. It bounced off some shield. He didn’t even flinch, but there was a scream from the wizard who had attacked him. I didn’t look around, keeping my eyes on the real threat.

  “I’m Lord Helmage, and I’m here to have a little chat about some damage to one of my mine facilities,” he said.

  I went pale. I’d thought the rumours I’d heard had been exaggerated, but perhaps they hadn’t been far off the mark. This lad, young as he was, was on another level entirely.

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  Still, I was no slouch either. I stalled for time as I kept pulling in power. “How the hell did you get a dragon?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Just lucky I guess. Now, have you finished drawing in mana? You seem to be the only mage here worth paying any attention to.”

  I bowed, and smiled. “Den Rothman, Ard, at your service.” Then I threw a befuddlement spell at him, the strongest mental attack I had.

  Helmage flinched slightly, and then smiled. He. Fucking. Smiled.

  “That wasn’t half bad,” he said. “How about this though?”

  A mind attack hit me, shattering the barrier I’d erected earlier and impacting with almost physical force. I stepped back a pace and shook my head. Luckily my mind shield had held out, but it had been close. Time to get serious.

  “Golem!” I said, using the highest level spell that didn’t need a long incantation, throwing just about every bit of mana I’d stored up into it.

  The rock nearby splintered and cracked, and I was happy to see the young ard jerk with surprise, and leap back as the crude humanoid form pulled itself out of the ground.

  Unfortunately, his next reaction wasn’t what I’d hoped.

  He broke into a massive grin, like a child getting a present.

  “A golem?” he asked. “Wow! Amazing!” He held off for a few seconds, until my creation, now nearly twice as tall as a man, looked around and stepped towards him.

  Instead of casting a spell, as I had expected, he leaped forward and, ducking under the golem’s swing with incredibly dexterity, thrust his staff into its chest. “Degrade!”

  My golem, my top level spell, crumbled before my eyes.

  I looked at the kid, eyes wide. “What the hell are you?”

  Helmage didn’t reply, but glanced to one side, at a man who had been charging towards him, sword held high. The poor fellow screamed as he was punctured by red hot needles that rained down on him. He fell to the floor, blood mingling with melting flesh.

  Fuck this.

  I cast the spell I had been going to use to sneak away from the camp later on, Gating to my pre-prepared receiving circle. It was a good five hundred metres away, on a high and secluded ledge.

  “Shit!” I gasped. The kid was unbelievable. Maybe I could have put up a fight, had I been more prepared, but I was fairly certain even then I’d have come in a poor second.

  Time to move on. I turned around and stopped.

  “Did you think you were going somewhere?” Helmage asked. “Now, are you going to come quietly, or do I have to use a large amount of unnecessary force? I’m good either way, to be honest.” He raised his staff.

  “If I surrender you’ll have me executed anyway,” I countered, raising my own staff and pulling in more power.

  He made a face, and then nodded. “Good point.” Taking a deep breath, he looked me up and down. “You’re a mind mage, yes?”

  “Rank A mind and earth.”

  “I liked that golem earlier, and the spell you hit me with first of all was new to me. How many mind techniques do you know?”

  I sensed an opportunity. “I’ve been around a while. Graduated from lsover Mind College, and I’ve picked up a lot of tricks along the way.”

  “I see.” Helmage nodded to himself, as if making a decision. “Very well, here’s the deal. You tell me everything you know about your backers, as well as this organisation and their activities and plans. Then you come back and teach me every nasty mind trick you know, as well as any other spells. Once I’m happy, you fuck off out of my domain and don’t come back. And you better know some good tricks too, otherwise I’ll just change my mind and kill you where you stand. How’s that? Frankly I don’t care one way or another if you live or die, but I’m always eager to learn new stuff, especially mind.”

  I let my staff drop to the ground and raised my hands.

  “I surrender,” I said.

  “Sensible. Boring, but sensible. You shall return with me. Oh, wait a minute.” He stepped close to me and held onto my arm for a moment. I sensed a spell being cast. “There, now I know where you are. If you try to run I’ll hunt you down and you’ll regret it. Seriously regret it. Got that?”

  “Very much so.” I did believe him.

  He smiled. “Excellent. Right then, let’s see how many of your old comrades are still alive, shall we?”