Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2), B.T. Narro [digital book reader txt] 📗

everything I had into my next casting of Expel, this one aimed at Cason’s hideous face. It toppled Cason hard as his feet swept into the air.

I was finally free.

I watched Leon take another blow from the staff, this one to his chin. It staggered him as he lost his footing and started to fall. The swordsman was screaming, his shirt on fire, but the staff-wielder was free to strike Leon on his unprotected head.

I screamed as I charged the man. He gaped at me for just a moment before I shouldered him into the air.

He still had hold of his weapon, which meant I would still be weaponless. I knelt down and healed Leon’s face. He stopped groaning as his eyes came back into focus.

“Thanks,” he muttered as I helped him up.

The swordsman then dropped his sword to take off his burning shirt. I made a run for the weapon, but the staff mage struck me with a spell of Dislodge, and it did exactly what it was intended to do.

Disoriented at first, I realized too late that I was soaring toward the wall of a bakery and struck it hard.

I didn’t bother healing myself. Nothing was broken, though my shoulder hurt like hell. The swordsman, more interested in making sure he wasn’t still on fire than in the sword on the ground, didn’t see me coming as I slammed into his body and knocked him off his feet.

I grabbed up the sword and held it out as the staff mage started to come for me. He stopped.

“Heard of me, have you?” I taunted, feeling confident for the first time during this whole debacle.

He had a glower as he tried to find a safe way in, slowly circling. There was no point in either of us casting. It was too draining. This had to end with a weapon.

I could hear Leon fighting with Cason, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my enemy as he came at me with a thrust of his long staff.

It was damn quick, nearly breaking my nose as I leaned back. I tried to counterattack with my own lurch, but my sword didn’t reach him as he backed off too fast.

I cursed inwardly. He was skilled, and I had never fought someone with a long staff before.

A quick check to the side showed the swordsman coming toward me with a look of concentration. I didn’t know where he would aim his spell, but I tensed my body and my mana as he pushed out his hand toward me.

The clear energy of dteria sped at my ankles too fast for me to jump over. Knowing it would knock me down, I readied myself to fall, did so gracefully, then jumped up quickly enough to impale the staff mage as he went for a powerful overhead strike at my back.

He gasped as my sword caught him the stomach, his weapon falling. I pulled out my sword because I had to finish him before Cason could heal the man, but his weak spell of dteria forced me to stumble away.

The staff mage fell and tried to call out but couldn’t speak. I had a pang of guilt as I rushed him while he struggled to breathe. I didn’t want to kill any of these men, but they obviously wanted us dead and wouldn’t stop until we were.

I realized just before reaching him that if Cason was killed first, the others could be captured. I left the mage on the ground and turned to help Leon. My instructor was nearly flung into me as I looked his way. I thought for a moment to catch him, but ducking seemed like a better idea. Leon was not small.

He spiraled over me, leaving me to face Cason, but now I had a sword.

Cason looked like a wild animal who had fought himself to exhaustion as he collapsed to one knee. Leon had definitely burned him again, Cason’s tattered shirt loosely hanging around his stomach. He had fresh streaks of black and red across his neck and face. All his hair was gone.

He had underestimated us greatly.

I charged.

I felt an immense force of dteria surround Cason, but I didn’t see him preparing the spell with his hands. Before I could get to him, Cason shot into the air faster than a bird taking flight. Looking up at him soaring streets away, I saw someone else hovering above, just a silhouette with the sun behind him.

The man cast his hand down at me and a strong plate of dteria pressed me against the ground, but not before flipping me onto my stomach. I couldn’t get up, the spell too powerful. I couldn’t see what was happening.

Then, suddenly, it was gone, and so was the silhouette in the sky. Cason was far, I didn’t know exactly where. He had flown so high that a fall would’ve killed anyone else, but he could slow his fall whenever he needed. He would heal himself as soon as he was safe.

Given his injuries, Cason couldn’t have lifted himself to safety. Who was it I had seen?

The swordsman who Leon had burned fled from us, and we let him go. We had a prisoner, this dying mage at our feet.

“I can heal you,” I told him. “But only if you talk. Somebody just helped Cason, someone more powerful than him. Who was it?”

He could only seem to make a sound of pain for some time, but then a single word came out.

“Heal.”

“We’re taking him to the castle,” Leon said as he pulled the man up by his arms. “Keep an eye out for illusions, Jon.”

There was no one around us, but I did see a group of guards running toward us a street away. I didn’t think this dying man would make it to the castle, though. He would bleed out first.

The mage screamed and pulled his arms out of Leon’s hold, the pain obviously too much. “Heal…me!” he uttered.

“Just heal him enough so he can walk