The leather-clad Lightning Mage, her back to the wall on the other side of the plaza, summoned another lightning bolt from behind the Beast and struck it in the back, but the Beast didn’t even respond this time. It seemed to know that we were the real threat.
I looked at the pattern on the Beast’s hide, scorched brown on one side, and frozen blue on the other, where our attacks had landed. I had an idea.
I waited a moment. The Beast focused on us with narrowed eyes, gleaming in the gloom. After another moment, it hissed again, shooting out more lightning at the two of us, which we again successfully dodged.
“Amelia, come closer to me and summon another ice spear,” I said. “Hurry, we don’t have much more time before it can attack us again.”
Amelia raced to my side, her arm held aloft as the ice crystalized in her hand. I summoned a fireball in my left hand.
“Aim for the middle of the Beast’s neck” I said. “And make sure you cast at the same time as me.”
We had to be perfectly accurate. We’d practiced this move on the road, and we couldn’t afford to mistime it. If we could blind the Beast with a large enough cloud of steam, we could run in and stab it before it could cast again.
I waited until our spells were both ready. “Now!” I shouted and hurled the fireball forward. Amelia launched her spear. I held my breath as the projectiles flew toward the monster’s neck.
They collided with a boom. A flash of light erupted, and steam exploded against the monster. Chunks of the creature’s head splattered the stones of the plaza, and it crashed to the ground, stone dead. The monster’s head had been completely vaporized by our combined spell.
“We did it!” Amelia cried, and she jumped forward and gave me a quick squeeze before standing at my side.
“Well done, Amelia; you were great,” I said. Both Amelia and I were looking across the gore-spattered plaza at the tall, leather-clad Mage who was making her way a little unsteadily toward us.
I looked at her. She was very beautiful, with finely sculpted lips and cheekbones, and eyes like amethyst gems. They were a strange color, but I figured they had something to do with her affinity for Lightning magic.
“And you,” I said as she stopped, facing us, “you were amazing.”
Her eyes were wide as she stared from Amelia and I to the corpse of the lizard-snake and back again. “So were you,” she said. “I’ve never seen an attack like that.” Her voice was melodious and clear, though she was a little out of breath from the exertion of the battle.
I laughed. “We’ve never seen an attack like that either,” I explained to the Lightning Mage. “That was the first time we managed to combine our attacks.”
Amelia beamed at me.
The storm clouds started to dissipate, and the sun peeped through the clouds, shining on the spot where the Lightning Mage stood.
“May I ask what your name is?” I asked her.
“My name is Veronica,” the woman said. “I’m a Lightning Mage. As you can see.”
“Of course,” I said. “My name is William, and this is Amelia.”
“We’re traveling Mages, heading north.” I continued. “We heard the sound of the battle and decided to come help.” It wasn’t that far from the truth; I was an Ink Mage after all. I didn’t think telling the whole truth, that I was an Ink Mage following a prophecy revealed by a magic book, was a good idea to lead with. Better to get to know this woman first.
Veronica raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Well, I thank you both for your help. The boars and the bears I could probably have handled, but that Lightning drake at the end, well, that would have been a challenge for me.”
She ran a critical eye up and down our clothing and our gear.
“If you don’t mind me saying so,” she said, “you don’t look like Mages. Those swords don’t look like great vectors. And your clothing doesn’t appear to have runes.”
“Our swords work well enough as vectors for self-defense,” Amelia answered.
Then Veronica’s gaze fell on my arms. Her eyes widened, and she glanced at Amelia’s arms as well.
“And you have tattoos?” Veronica said, with apprehension in her voice. “You say you’re Mages, and I’ve seen your magic, but what is the meaning of this? Are you sure you’re not just common vagabonds?”
Damn. I hadn’t thought to hide the tattoos before the fight. I’d forgotten what a stranger would think when she saw them.
“They’re symbols of our order,” I improvised. “We’re part of a secret organization from the capital.” That wasn’t totally a lie.
Then Amelia spoke up. “But what are you doing out here all alone?” she asked Veronica. “It’s not common for a Mage to be fighting alone.”
“I might ask you the same thing.” Veronica crossed her arms. “Neither of you look well equipped to be taking on packs of monsters.”
“We had no intention of fighting such large packs,” Amelia said. I was happy to let her handle the cover story. She knew a lot more about the politics going on here than I did.
“We’re only here to investigate the presence of monsters in these woods,” she continued, “not to fight them.”
Veronica’s expression softened. She didn’t look completely satisfied, but she seemed content to let the issue of who we were rest for the moment.
“Well, thank you again for coming to help,” she said. “As I said, that Lightning drake would have taken me a while on my own.”
I thought it probably would have killed her on her own, but I kept that thought to myself. The sun shone brightly now, bathing the ruins in light. There was no sign of the dramatic cloud vortex which had been above the tower during the battle.
“Did you summon
