Journey Through the Underdark - Eric EarthScorn Book 1 - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

The boys followed behind NorthSpear and into yet another new classroom, though this one seemed to be nothing more than a stone room with a shelf on one wall. At the smile of anticipation on NorthSpear’s face, Eric had a bad feeling about the coming training.

“Those of you with Shield Rat’s, place them on the shelf here,” NorthSpear said.

Glancing at a device that he pulled from his pocket, NorthSpear continued, “You will have the next half an hour to practice, use this time wisely. I will return shortly,”

While Eric was setting up at the shelf, he was approached by Terry, but the other boy moved away at Eric’s angry look. The boys with rats were being hovered over by those who had failed to collect them. Being the classes designated outcast had Eric being left alone at first. But to his surprise, Rick approached him to see if he would let him practice with his rat.

“I thought for sure you would have been able to get a rat. Your Knack is speed, right?” Eric asked.

The innocent question had Rick responding unexpectedly. With a face contorted in an ugly mix of anger and frustration, Rick practically snarled.

“Nathan and a few of the other boys took my rats. Both of them! Nathan took my first one, cage and all, then after I grabbed a second one, his buddies took that one as well. I just gave up after that,” Rick said while looking back to the group of boys.

Eric tried not to smirk. The last thing Rick would want to see is him smiling over the other boy’s misfortune. Still, Eric was proud that he had guessed the risk of being near the other’s and had avoided the problem. Though, his half-hidden smirk drifted into a frown as he stared at Nathan’s back. Eric hadn’t spent much time with Nathan, but he wouldn’t have guessed the other boy would do something like robbing others. Then again, he hadn’t imagined what Terry had been planning either.

Shaking his head, he turned back to the caged rat and told Rick to surprise the rat while he ‘practiced.’ In truth, he wanted to watch someone else trying to learn the shield spell. He was able to perform the shield spell with only a few minutes of practice. Literally, seeing the spell made it easy to repeat. At least, for such a simple spell cast so slowly, but that wouldn’t let him pretend to use it like everyone else.

While he watched, he tried to mimic the fumblings of the others. Some of them understood the flavor of tar correctly, but nothing resembling the little loop, others had the broad arc of magic but not the other features. Only Terry was able to reproduce the shield spell in its entirety, even if he could only pull it off intermittently.

Watching while Terry demonstrated his skill with the shield spell ate away at Eric. Terry didn’t have to hide his abilities, he was able to show off and prove his worth, but Eric had to hide in fear. While he was staring at the other boy, Terry caught his eye, and to Eric’s surprise, the boy’s proud smile shifted into a look of regret.

Before Eric could think further about Terry, NorthSpear rejoined the class.

“Line up over here. I will be testing your familiarity with the shield spell. Given that you have had almost no training and have only been wizards for little more than a day, this should be fairly entertaining.”

By NorthSpear’s tone, it was clear that he meant it would be entertaining for himself and not the boys he was teaching.

Eric and Rick found themselves on the far end of the line from Northspear, watching as the professor zapped each boy with his signature green lightning-like spell.

Corporal Tergus had once explained a few of the professors’ titles in a vain attempt to instill pride in the boys for their trainers. Instead, it had led to fear and disgust in Eric’s mind. EarthScorn was known for his prodigious earth shaping skills. Yet, the title was given to him for his ability to create barracks and fortresses quickly. He had never actually harmed the enemies of the kingdom directly. His building skills were too useful to be risked in that way. NorthSpear at least was known for his deadly green lightning, which was named after the lights which suffused the skies in the far north. While he was responsible for killing during times of war, he did so from an extreme range. His ability to instantly strike from the edge of his enhanced vision made him a deadly opponent.

Only WindScar was known for attacking large swaths of the enemies.

Seeing NorthSpear casting his spell at the boys had Eric trembling slightly in fear and frustration. While he knew that he wouldn’t be killed by the attack, knowing something and believing it was different. It was all so much worse in that he knew he could create a perfect shield and stop the attack. All it would take is risking his secret.

The first time NorthSpear hit him with the spell, Eric’s body convulsed in pain as the snap of the spell seemed to echo out after the impact. Frustratingly, not only did he almost cast the shield spell despite his plans. To his annoyance, he was also unable to see NorthSpear’s spell while staring directly at his hands. The magic seemed to form near-instantly, the magic shifting and flashing out without being shaped.

Eric was the only boy who failed to do anything in response to the attack. Each of the others had made some effort to defend. Surprisingly, to Eric’s untrained eye, their attempts had been significantly better then they had been when practicing with the rats. Still, none managed to defend against NorthSpear’s attack, even Terry was far too slow to be effective.

As NorthSpear began at the start of the line again, Eric couldn’t stop himself from flinching each time a boy was struck. All he could imagine was him being hit with the painful jolt that tried to pull his muscles from his bones. Even when he closed his eyes to avoid watching, images of the nobles teasing them as they were used for target practice moved through his mind. Only Terry was able to stop the attack this time. His success was short-lived as NorthSpear immediately shocked him after the dome dropped. This time, the spell was significantly more painful and left the charismatic boy gasping on the ground as he twitched.

“I didn’t tell you to release the spell. An enemy will often attack a second time just to catch such a lazy wizard,” NorthSpear said with a smile as he left the young wizard on the floor.

When NorthSpear reached him, Eric couldn’t keep himself from casting the protective shield spell. The green light skittered outside of the spherical shell of magic only for the wizard to strike it multiple times without stopping. In the end, there was a noticeable burnt smell to the room, and Eric was breathing in gasps of air, but his shield remained to protect him.

It wasn’t until he had held against the onslaught that he realized in a panic that his secret might be exposed. Taking his eyes off his shield, Eric looked up to NorthSpear’s face, which was held in a neutral look.

“It appears we now know where Eric’s talents lie,” NorthSpear said before his face contorted into a sneer, “While every wizard needs to be able to shield themselves, you will be useless if all you do is huddle in fear,”

Despite the rebuke, Eric couldn’t help feeling like NorthSpear had, in fact, been impressed by his ability to shield himself. Instead of discovering his secret, he had instead assumed that Eric was especially adroit at shielding. The same as EarthScorn was talented with earth shape, or NorthSpear was skilled with his own signature spell. The professor had just assumed that shielding would be Eric’s signature ability. While standing out like this would bite him, as it had any time anyone had stood out at the academy, it was a far better than if his secret had been discovered.

When Eric noticed Terry staring at him, the other boy had a look of consideration on his face. Whatever Terry was planning, Eric had no interested in it. He had dodged this danger once, but he had no wish to tempt fate. From here on out, Eric was planning to be solidly in the middle of the pack in casting spells. Trying to blend in was his best bet. He could practice his spells in the privacy of his room at night and get better without risking detection.

The rest of the class was a continuous repeat of NorthSpear’s attacks and the class shielding, or in most cases, failing to do so. While Eric was the stand out performer, never again being hit by NorthSpear’s attack, a few of the boys reached Terry’s level of performance. At some point, though, the other boys tended to plateau on improvement, and to Eric’s eyes, it was clear why. Some would never fully convert the color of their magic. Some made the direction arc too small. While others would fail to put enough magic into the intake loop. Their mistakes were small, but once a boy had reached a certain level of confidence with the spell, they just kept repeating the same mistakes.

Eric kept watching, but none of them seemed to grasp their errors. To Eric, the mistakes seemed clear. Yet, he knew it was because he was directly watching their performance and could literally see how their spells differed from the ideal.

When the class stopped improving, NorthSpear seemed to move into a more rote performance of his duties. He plainly did not expect any further breakthroughs in performance and was just going through the motions. Even his taunting and acidic tones had evened out as he moved from boy to boy. To Eric, this told a horrifying story - this was as good as was expected. If this was the most critical spell they were supposed to learn, and Eric thought a shield spell would be necessary for a War Wizard, then this level of skill was pitiful.

While waiting for his turn shielding against NorthSpear, Eric considered how bad things on the front lines must get if none of the other boys were trained better than this. Terry might have tried to manipulate him into taking the position of whipping boy for a noble, but he might actually be telling the truth about how dangerous things could get at the front.

When they stopped to head to dinner, the group was wrung out and stressed, all except for Eric. For Eric, it had become a matter of merely shielding when NorthSpear reached him, then watching how the others cast their spells. The differences and failings were fascinating, especially since those failings expressed themselves in a myriad of ways. Eric learned more from the one class watching how others failed to cast the shield spell then he had from casting it correctly a hundred times.

This had not endeared him to the others in his group. His considering and judging stares had not gone unnoticed. When Eric had realized his mistake, it was already too late to correct things. From then on, he had decided to ignore the angry looks and continue improving through observation. The others wouldn’t be any less angry, nor would he suffer any less abuse if he kept watching. Or so, his thinking went, but watching might allow him to better against violence. To a certain extent, he was correct. This boy cast slowly, this other was weak, this one was bad at converting his mana, etcetera. To each, Eric could find their weakness and, if need be, exploit it.

This was the first time Eric had thought to himself how he could act in opposition to the other boys. It was not a thought he was happy or comfortable with. The young wizard was well aware of how it lined up with the War Wizard training they were undergoing, but it also seemed necessary. None of the others were going to look out for him, as far as he could see, even the professors had it out for him and the others.

His distracted state left him trailing the group, which meant that when Terry was pulled out of the group by a soldier, Eric noticed it happening. More then once, a boy had been removed from the group to fulfill a professor’s demand. Mainly, this was providing power to some device a servant was using, but this time it was different. This time Terry was told to follow the soldier, and the soldier dipped his head to Terry. It was the movement of respect which had cemented the difference in Eric’s mind. He spent the rest of dinner thinking about that dip of the head. Something had happened to Terry’s status, and it had been a drastic change. The soldiers respected the professors, though the emotion was likely more fear than respect, but not the boys. The boys were seen as untried and untested, and rightfully so.

So why did that soldier bow in a nod of respect?

The rest of the day was a continuation of the routine shield practice. The professor never offered any further advice, and his students didn’t improve. The closest NorthSpear came to teaching was when he demonstrated his shield himself. To Eric, this was new evidence of the dangers of the front. NorthSpear’s shield spell had shards of red and brown flowing within it, it wasn’t the pure tar-like flavor of his or the Shield Rat’s. On the next pass, Eric tested a shield spell with a red, brown, and the familiar tar magic, only to be disappointed that the shield’s magic was noticeably weaker. The tar variant the Shield Rat used was clearly superior.

Though Eric was watching for him, Terry never returned, and when the boys were returned to the barracks to sleep, Terry’s room was sealed.