‘Who are they?’ Samuel whispered to Eric Goodfellow.
‘Together with Grand Master Anthem, they are the Seven Lions, Eric replied. ‘Well…there’s only six now. They are all Grand Masters and fought in the last battle of the Imperial War.’ Samuel nodded in awe. ‘They say together they are the most powerful magicians in existence.’
Eric Goodfellow leaned over and whispered. ‘If not for them, we’d probably be speaking Garten right now-or so they say.’
A few others nearby began
‘Now, we will give a small demonstration,’ he stated simply. ‘Remember that we are quite experienced with all this, and I don’t want any of you trying what you may see here tonight. You’d probably knock your own fool heads off.’
With that, everyone began laughing. Grand Master Anthem stepped out into the centre of the hall and waited, while the first of the Seven Lions stepped out to face him.
‘Jurien,’ Goodfellow whispered, and Samuel nodded in understanding.
Grand Master Jurien did not look like much, for his posture was a little bent with age and his face littered with wrinkles. Indeed, if not for the burning radiance around him, Samuel could easily mistake him for any of the doddering old Masters that spent their days idly in the common room.
The two men bowed to each other and each formed a summoning stance to begin. They began gathering their power, breathing deeply and slowly changing between various stances. Anthem finally settled in a very low, half-sitting stance with his arms held out, palms up, as if he were carrying a great bowl. Samuel could see that Anthem was summoning a vast knot of energy that completely filled the space between his arms, and became greater and greater so that the old man’s hands were beginning to shake with the effort. It was such an immense amount of power to summon so quickly, already far greater than all of the Adept’s combined effort, as if the power was just dropping out of the air into his arms. As the power continued to grow, Anthem put other various spells to work, guiding and melding his magic, crafting it into a concentrated sphere of energy.
Grand Master Jurien was standing side-on, with one palm directed at Anthem, the other hand behind his back. It was an unusual stance that Samuel had never seen before, or even imagined for that matter, as it was unlike most of the traditional stances they had so far been taught. Magic manifested all around the magician’s body and began gathering towards his palm. It was impressive, but Samuel, with his
Just then, and unexpectedly, Jurien changed his stance, thrusting both hands as fists towards the Grand Master. Pure energy arced towards the Grand Master, carrying such force that it manifested into the physical realm and formed streams of intense blazing power that streaked Samuel’s vision. The crowd gasped in amazement. Samuel half-expected Anthem to be vaporised by such force, but the bolts struck the Grand Master’s magic sphere and vanished completely, sucked into it like a fly gulped down by a bullfrog. The crowd gasped again and began applauding loudly.
Anthem then retaliated with a sly grin. He drew just a fragment of the energy from between his hands and sent it flying towards Grand Master Jurien, who, taken by surprise, only now began putting up his magical defences. He was far too slow, and Anthem’s spell seized his body and threw him back against the wall with a tremendous cracking sound. The crowd gasped once more in disbelief as Jurien slumped to the ground.
Samuel was thinking the old man was surely dead, but Jurien rolled over with a groan and stood up on wobbly legs. Surprising everyone, the old Grand Master actually began laughing.
‘Ha ha ha, you old devil!’ he called out to Anthem. ‘I can’t believe you beat me so easily this time. Very well. Very well. I yield!’ And with that he strode gracefully to the side and resumed his seat by the others. It took the audience several moments to recover from the shock and then everyone began applauding as hard as they all could. Of course, many of the old Masters had seen this many times, and they merely sat and looked on, making the odd comment to each other. Some even chatted together idly and ignored the scene completely.
Grand Master Anthem bowed modestly to his defeated opponent, all the while keeping his sizzling ball of magic in his upturned palm.
The second of the Seven Lions then strode out confidently and took his place opposite Grand Master Anthem. His robes were long and splendid, having silver adorned hems. Samuel could already see magic bursting from the air all around him as he settled into Simple Stance, standing straight, palms together almost as if in prayer. Anthem did nothing, as his power was already at hand and waited patiently for his opponent to prepare himself.
‘Grand Master Orien,’ Goodfellow whispered.
Samuel was about to ask Goodfellow a question when some magical weaves sprang up right before him and Samuel almost leapt out of his seat with surprise. Then, he realised that some of the other Masters were creating a spell shield all around the audience, to protect them from any harm, should the duelling Grand Masters get carried away.
The air between the two men erupted into a web of weaves as the silver-hemmed Grand Master unleashed a spell. Magic bloomed around them, but was swallowed up just as quickly by Anthem’s magical sphere, saving him from any effect. To all who watched, the men had not moved a muscle, for only Samuel had the ability to see their spells at work. Anthem bore a great toothy grin towards his opponent.
‘Damn you, old man!’ Orien swore out loud and the crowd laughed in glee, for no one else would dare curse the Grand Master so openly. Samuel peered around the hall, for he could feel another spell at work somewhere in the great chamber, but it remained unseen.
‘I will teach you, upstart!’ Anthem declared playfully and began to laugh as he prepared to spell. His laughter, however, vanished as magic burst up from the ground beneath him. Orien’s first spell had been a ruse, while this second spell had been coursing deep beneath the floorboards.
‘Bah!’ Anthem called out as vines exploded around his feet and began entwining his legs. Losing balance, he toppled backwards onto the floor. The whole crowd gasped again and cheered at the amazing sight. Another spell formed and came at Anthem in a heartbeat, but the old man was not beaten yet. His power sphere still hung in the air and gobbled up the new spell as it came near. Anthem called out in the Old Tongue and a swathe of magic swept out from his sphere and turned the vines around his legs to a shower of shreds, bringing further sounds of excitement from the onlookers.
‘I’ll teach you!’ Anthem swore with some mirth, getting back on his feet and dusting off his robes. It was clear he was enjoying the competition.
With that, Orien changed stance and quickly set up a myriad of defensive spells all around, hanging like shields of lightning-white webbing all around him, and prepared himself for the counter-attack. Anthem raised a single finger and a jet of silver magic washed out from his power sphere and engulfed his opponent like a storm of sparks. Samuel gasped and had to shield his eyes as the fury of magic flashed and flickered before him. When he could lower his hands once more, the other students around him were all staring at him with amusement, for, of course, they could see nothing of the brilliant spells. Samuel shrugged and returned his attention to the centre of the room.
Orien was now sitting upon the floor, defeated. Samuel could see that his power had been completely extinguished.
‘Good job, old man,’ he spoke. ‘Maybe next time?’
‘Bah! I don’t think so,’ Anthem returned in good humour, his voice rich and deep. ‘Perhaps next time you will make me try a little harder.’
The crowd cheered as Grand Master Orien returned to his seat. It was a much less interesting affair for them, Samuel realised, for no one else could see what was actually going on. To them, the two men had faced each other, vines had grappled Anthem to the ground, which then fell apart, and then Anthem’s opponent had taken his turn to fall over, leaving him defeated. Samuel actually felt sorry for them for missing out on such a great display of magic. He was enjoying every moment.
The third Lion took his turn to face Anthem and he entered the makeshift arena with the aid of a short walking stick. Samuel sniggered to himself, for it was at once obvious to him that this man was, in fact, an illusion. The real old Grand Master had cloaked himself in spells of concealment and was tiptoeing around behind Anthem with a look of great amusement on his face. The entire crowd had their eyes on the illusion, which began touching its toes and limbering up quite comically. The crowd all laughed at the sight of this old man readying for battle. Samuel peered amongst the Masters in the audience to see if any were aware of the ruse, but all had their eyes set
