Apprentice: Page 6

I woke up that morning to the feeling of being violently thrown across the room. I groaned as I collided with the wall. I looked up at my attacker.

Like a ninja from cheesey 80s movies, they were wrapped in black cloth, and a thick dark smoke seemed to emanate from them.

I scrambled out of the way as their foot stomped down where my head had been. I sent a blast of fire their way, but it only managed to slow them down for a second. Their next punch went across my jaw, nearly knocking me off my feet. I cast telekinesis, throwing them out of my room through a window.

I opened my door, in time to see Lexi raining ice at an identical attacker. The smoky ninja was soon entirely encased in ice.

I ran up to her, tapping her shoulder to get her attention. She tried to punch me, but lucky I had my hands up.

"Lexi, stop, it's me."

"Evan, what the fucking is happening?!"

"I don't know, but we're under attack. We need to get the others."

We ran down the hall, finding Durak trading blows with another ninja.

Lexi helped him, so I went farther down the hall. In her room, Emma was being held by the neck by yet another ninja. Grabbed his arm and cast Charged Touch.

The black fabric burned away, and I felt warm metal beneath it. As the electric pulse travelled through them, they collapsed, dropping Emma.

"Emma we gotta go." In the hall. The others had gathered. Now fighting off 4 golems, Jake, Mika, Lexi, and Durak were struggling in the close quarters space. We needed to get the ranged advantage. But Blink only works on the caster.

I felt a slight pain in my head, and heard a voice speak to me.

"Don't get used to this."

A spell popped into my mind. A spell I'd never cast before.

Teleportation.

But with teleportation learned, I could now use Greater Teleportation. I closed my eyes, focusing. With a yell, I targeted everyone in the house, teleporting us all into the backyard.

Immediately, I felt a pair of hands wrap around my throat. In the early morning light, my peers looked around, confused.

I tried to grab their hands, to use Charged Touch, but they shook me around violently, and I could never manage. Between the strain of casting Greater Teleportation, and the lack of air, my vision was going dim.

Suddenly the hands dropped me, and stepped back. I turned to look at the ninja. No one made them drop me, they just did. They swung their fist at me, but I dodged it, throwing up a shield. Their second hit broke through the shield. My muscles ached, my head was swimming, and my ears were ringing. I was thoroughly done with this.

I extended my palm towards them, and a blast of fire poured out, quickly burning their ninja clothes away.

When the fire and smoke cleared, in front of me was a glowing red, metal golem. It's red orange face looked at me, menacingly.

Conjure Golem.

It punched me, knocking my to the ground. It's foot lifted over my head, and I knew I didn't have the strength to stop it. I closed my eyes, wondering if Samara would be pissed that I had accomplished so little in her name.

But the foot never connected. I looked up to see Lexi using Telekinesis to hold the golem's foot.

"Move, Evan!"

I scrambled up and grabbed it's chest, zapping it. I turned back to Lexi, who was looking at me quizzically. Suddenly, there was a booming voice from the shaded porch.

"CEASE."

Immediately, the 3 remaining golems collapsed. I turned to face Forester, dressed in slippers and a bathrobe. He was clapping.

"Well done, mages. You all performed excellently. I'm glad to say, you have all passed your first test."

My blood roared in my ears.

"THIS WAS A TEST?! I NEARLY FUCKING DIED!"

"Nonsense, they were all made specifically to hurt, but never kill you."

So that's why it had dropped me.

We all trudged back inside, sore, tired, and angry.

I opened my door, looking into my room. It was littered with broken glass, and had a strong breeze from the recent lack of a window. I sat on a chair, and began lifting the individual shards up from the floor, dropping them into the trash. After about an hour of that, I was almost willing to just ask Jake to borrow his room. I needed a break. Lucky, someone chose then to knock on my door.