Gastropé took a large breath, and twiddled his hands some more, suddenly from his hands sprung a long cone of brilliant light that sprung between the ships, hitting the weaker wizard directly. With that, Gastropé dropped to the deck, panting. His singed and smoking clothing causing him to cough from his own smoke. Jenn too was looking a bit bedraggled; the mast had apparently sapped her strength.
Things were not good, Maelen decided. He extended his vision a bit more to see what was happening on the enemy ship. The younger wizard, for so the weaker one was, had collapsed to the deck, but was not dead. The older wizard finally seemed to be taking an active role. “Jenn,” Maelen shouted, “the stronger wizard is getting ready to cast something!”
Jenn looked at him blankly for a moment. “Stronger... wizard?” She closed her eyes and began mumbling something. Maelen returned his eyes to the other ship. As he did so, he saw a giant bolt of lightning almost majestically arc between the enemy ship and his own. Almost as if time had slowed, as it does in those moments when adrenaline starts pumping through one’s system in large quantities, he watched it head for the forecastle.
The ship lurched forward suddenly, as Jenn’s spell apparently tried to move the ship out of the way. Jenn collapsed, exhausted by the effort. At the same time-slowed instant, the bolt streaking across the water struck the ship on the stern castle. Maelen watching it, almost hypnotically, saw it strike one of the seemingly frail humans on the sterncastle.
Suddenly, time started to speed up as Maelen realized it was Edwyrd that the bolt had hit! The young man’s entire body arched as this incredibly protracted lightning bolt, with easily five times the electricity of the younger wizard’s bolts released its energy into his body. The electrical discharge was immense, to say the least. The very air around Edwyrd seemed to glow. His body leaping into the air and crashing back on the far side of the deck. Maelen shook his head in sorrow. He’d seen wizard’s lightning bolts like that before. The man was a true master of the art. No one unprotected could have survived that. Maelen wouldn’t have enough left to heal by the time he got there.
Jenn saw this, even as she was collapsing. “Edwyrd! No!” she cried. Maelen began hurrying over to the body, even though there was nothing he could do. As he hurried over, he heard Jenn yelling at no one in particular, “What the everlasting goddess have we gotten into? That maniac wizard’s got to be nearly as powerful as Trisfelt or Hortwell! Whoever heard of pirates with that kind of firepower?”
Even as he reached the main deck from the forecastle, he was doing a double take. Edwyrd was staggering to his feet. Maelen had to blink. The young man was totally naked, his clothes apparently disintegrated by the lightning. The startling thing however was what Maelen’s enhanced eyesight could see, the lad wasn’t even burned! He had literally seen the electrical discharge arcing all over the boy’s body, yet not a burn on him!
As Edwyrd staggered to his feet, he snarled and began to rush to the railing closest to the enemy ship. Even as Edwyrd reached the railing, Maelen noted that the big wizard was preparing another spell. Edwyrd reached the railing and raised his right hand, making a fist and pointing it towards the wizard on the other ship. Maelen had halted in his tracks, amazed by what he’d seen.
However, any doubt about what he’d earlier seen when he’d Looked at Edwyrd vanished in a moment. Even as he watched he saw Edwyrd’s naked body shimmer. Flames danced along the boy’s body, running up and down his calves and thighs, spreading up and over his waist and chest. Along his arms and finally engulfing his head. For the first second, Maelen thought it was another spell of the enemy wizard, but then he realized that Edwyrd was not being consumed in the normal way.
Edwyrd was being consumed, his body dissipating beneath the flame, but not by burning. It was as if his body were being systematically superimposed upon by, or replaced by, orange and yellow flames. Piece by piece, from the outside in, flame roared and lashed over Edwyrd’s naked frame. Within moments, Maelen couldn’t even see the pink flesh beneath the flame. Only fire was present.
Fire in human form. Edwyrd’s shape was perfectly formed out of flame. Here and there small bursts and rolls of flame coruscated up and down his body, but in all it was as if there was a man made out of fire on the deck. “The Living Flame!” Maelen whispered to himself. He was literally shocked.
He hadn’t seen the Living Flame performed in ten years. It was at the Conclave in Rasparta. The Living Flame was the final test for an animage wishing to earn the title of Pyromaster. The aspirant proved his or her worthiness for the title by literally transmogrifying themselves into elemental flame. True union, the Living Flame was the ultimate joining of Anima and the Element of Fire. Maelen really hadn’t expected this.
The enemy wizard was once again releasing a spell however. This time a large jagged bolt or spear of ice was flying across the water like a javelin. This time, however, Gastropé was back on his feet. Jenn was at his side, madly they were shouting something in unison. Suddenly from their two outstretched hands came a blast of lightning, bigger than any the two had achieved separately. The bolt streaked across to the ice javelin, even as it reached the midpoint of its arc of flight.
Crash... Boom!
The bolt exploded into thousands of tiny shards, some of which pelted people on the decks of both ships. Gastropé and Jenn, however, had apparently used the last of their energy in a desperate attempt to stop the bolt. Both seemed to collapse unconscious, together in a heap on the deck. Maelen sent a quick probe out to them to assure himself that it was only normal mana reserve depletion from spell casting and not anything that required his assistance.
Maelen quickly began to attend to the few sailors wounded by the ice shrapnel. As he did so, he returned his ever more divided attention to Edwyrd. He had to admit once again that he was impressed by these youngsters. That last bit of spellmanship from Gastropé and Jenn was highly unexpected, and surprisingly effective. Further, even if pyromastery was the only discipline Edwyrd, this student, who “just managed to get by”, knew, he was still an animage worthy of the name. However, even so, Maelen wasn’t sure what good the Living Flame would do. While his body was now flame and could do damage to whatever it touched, there was still several hundred feet of water between Edwyrd and the wizard.
Maelen didn’t have to wait for the answer, even as the question formed, Edwyrd proceeded to answer it. Edwyrd’s flames grew brighter and brighter, racing up and down his flame body. Almost majestically his outstretched arm of flame began to lengthen. In cycling jets, the flames of his arm shot outward farther and farther. First racing out, then retreating slightly, but not completely. Seemingly slowly, but in reality, quite quickly Maelen was sure, Edwyrd’s flame bridged the distance between the two ships.
As Edwyrd’s flames began to lick the edges of the ship, causing a worried scurrying among the crew, the big wizard quickly aborted whatever spell he’d been casting and switched. Suddenly white flames dashed out from the wizard’s hand, blocking the progress of Edwyrd’s arm. As Edwyrd’s flame broke upon the white-cold flames of the wizard, they began to mushroom out and around. The wizard’s cold shield expanded horizontally and vertically to cover it.
Maelen was once again more than impressed. Most aspirants to the title of pyromastery could never do what Edwyrd had just done. While it took great skill to assume the Living Flame, extending it that far across water, its diametrically opposed element, would take almost half again the training and skill.
Edwyrd’s flames continued to beat upon the cold shield. The cold shield, though, remained firm. Edwyrd began to pulse harder, sending ever increasing waves of flame, soaring in a continuous stream across the water. Maelen blinked suddenly realizing the problem. Edwyrd had so far contained his flame so that he did no damage to the deck or rail beneath and beside him. As he escalated his flame, that was no longer the case. Maelen shouted.