The Disguised Caravan (Chapter 3: The Duel of Two Magicians)

"Master!" Baldin studied the black flesh around the arrow shaft tucked into Liutenant's calf. "The poison is blacking his flesh."

"It must be Leggest Flower. Use this medicine."

Orfus took out a small pouch and threw it at his student. Stinky smell burst out as Baldin untied the pouch, but he didn't cover his nose and grabbed the arrow shaft.

"You must endure the pain if you don't want your leg amputated," Baldin asserted. "Should I do it, Liutenant?"

"You can heal my leg, right?"

"There's a chance."

Liutenant frowned. "Do it!"

Without any hesitation, Baldin yanked the arrow in a single try. Red liquid sprayed all around followed by Liutenant's heavy grunt. Much of it splattered across Baldin face, but he worked right away by pouring the entire contents of the pouch unto the ever-flowing blood wound. The white powder dissolved into the blood to form clots of various sizes and covered the entire wound. Seconds later, there's a gray damp crust hugging Liutenant's wound. Never Deldon had saw this kind of treatment.

"Orea!"

A shock wave of moderate strong wind was created the moment Orfus cast a spell and had his staff thumped the rocky sand. The wind surged away from where Orfus was standing, blowing away any lingering dust particle in the air including the smoke rising from the blazing wreak wagon in front of Orfus or the another blazing wreck wagon not far away. The wind extinguished all the fire. Everything was clear. Deldon spotted two dozen enemies surrounded them as clear as they spotted him and the rest of his group. Neither of them dared to attack.

Then, there's a couple clap. The prominent figure descended the hill in a stroll way and continued his clap until he reached the foothill. Three feet away from the bald huge bandit corpse and one stone throw away from Orfus.

"Nice to meet a fellow magician in this foreign land." The man composed his stature. "May I have your name?"

"Why don't you introduce yourself first?"

"How rude of me," said the bandit leader, gesturing his hands. "My name is Sazar. A rogue magician."

"What a rogue magician do here?"

"I'll answer after you give me your name."

Orfus gazed Sazar. "My name is Orfus. Now answer my question!"

"Orfus Gallaid! I heard a lot about you from my master." Sazar startled his head a little bit. "You must know about your best friend."

"So, he really walks the path of darkness. I thought he was just joking."

"More of it I can say." Sazar smiled. "Though, I'm no longer an apprentice of his after some arguments."

"And what are you after from this caravan?"

"King Ragan."

The old magician stood silent. His eyes glanced sideways which Deldon guessed to see behind him, only a little bit, and landed supposedly on the man Captain had taken care since the ambush. Deldon was embarrassed, neither he nor the others had told him about the king.

"From your reaction, you know nothing about this king. They hide it from you, doesn't they?"

"I'll do the same if I were in their shoes." Orfus stroked his beard. "Whatever it is, they have kindly accepted me and my student on our journey."

"You mean that naive young man?"

Sazar pointed the young man in area around another wreak wagon. Deldon turned to the man Sazar was referring to, didn't realize he had left Liutenant's side. Baldin was stretching his hand and raying yellow glow onto the laceration on a soldier's forearm. His dedication was splendid.

"Like you used to be."

"I'm different in many ways," snorted Sazar. "Let's get straight to the point, shall we? Hand over the king or my boys here will do their job."

Deldon watched the bandits barely moved. They frowned and sweat ran down their face under the vigorously sun.

"Can they?"

"Why not?" Sazar shrugged. "Either they die struggling or die in my hand. I don't see any different."

"I can relieve them if I kill you."

"I dare you to do that, but I don't have much time. I'll let you and your student go if you step away from my business."

Orfus looked around. "I don't think so."

"Too bad," said Sazar. "How about a large sum of money, eh?"

"I must refuse." Orfus shook his head. "Why don't you just back off and never bother us again?"

Hearing those words, Sazar started laughing. His laughter grew louder and louder. Like someone laughed inside a dungeon where the laughter echoed and reverberated through the cold passageways among the dark cells. Suddenly Sazar stretched his hand forward and pushed a large fireball. The fiery ball got bigger the farther it traveled.

Orfus pointed his staff at the fireball and released a large wind ball. They met together in the middle then exploded, creating a quite big sonic boom. Sazar did not stop there. He punched a series of small fireballs which swirled in the air and astonished everyone in sight, including Deldon. He remembered the dragon dance he saw in the eastern realms.

The small fireballs proved nothing to Orfus. They dissipated as soon as they collided with a thick wind wall created by Orfus in front of him, but the fireballs kept coming. A wind wall could only take so much of the fireballs that it grew thinner and eventually dissipated on its own. Another wind wall was created if the previous one destroyed, but the new one would take space behind the previous one. This continued until the last wind wall just an inch in front of Orfus then there's a boom.

Sazar released another fireball. This one was bigger than before and raised the temperature by a few degrees that Deldon fanned himself with his hand. Alike a small sun. When the last wind wall collapsed, this huge fireball flew straight at defenseless Orfus. The end was nigh. The huge fireball engulfed Orfus a whole and blasted, leaving only billowing smoke behind.

Captain's face was grim. His eyes focused on Orfus in disbelief because the only person capable of helping them had gone. No more hope. That's what Deldon interpreted from Captain's expression and the rest of the group.

"Master!" exclaimed Baldin from afar.

Sazar laughed again. "That's what happened when you challenge me!"

The bandit leader laughed even louder. His subordinates brought their weapons aloft and cheered, though most were half-hearted.

"Orea!

Orfus blew away the smoke surrounded him, revealing him inside a thick blue barriers. He looked normal.

"Impossible!"

"You almost got me there," said Orfus, wiping his shoulder from the dust. "Your master has taught you well. Partly because he and I have studied together for a long time."

"My timing must be right, but… how.."

Orfus explained no further, but stomped his staff down hard against the ground. Dozens of icicles appeared out of thin air in front of Orfus. They had the size of a fist with sharp tip and launched automatically toward Sazar. Several pairs at a time.

"W-Wait…" stammered Sazar, turning pale.

Sazar shrieked at the approaching projectiles. Deldon found he yanked something out from his pocket and put it on his finger. Some kind of ring. In a a swift motion, he raised up four stone walls to trap him inside for good.

The icicles rammed the walls only for being stuck there, but most following icicles rammed the stuck ones to penetrate deeper and reached their target. As a last resort, Orfus created a massive icicle and fired it at a tremendous speed which shattered the stone wall inward with its point stroke point blank to Sazar. There's no going back, he'd done for.

Just as Deldon thought they had prevailed, a sound of huge crack filled the air. The massive icicle stopped when it should have pierced Sazar and the other side of the wall along the way. It's stuck. Orfus stretched his right hand, pushing the icicle with some power naked to eyes, but it didn't budge at all.

"Orfus, he has used a ring before you attack him!" shouted Deldon, warning the old wizard. "The wal…"

An explosion occurred at once. Any stone nor ice around Sazar blew away at all directions in high speed. The sound deafened everyone on site that they had their hand covered their ears. Their eyes were closed. Unfortunately for the bandits, the debris instantly smashed them for dozens of feet away until out of sight. Some were crushed nearby and blood pooled around the shattered corpse under the rock slab. But the ones who died on the spot had the spotlight. Deldon watched in horror as the icicles and stone shards lodged their body from head to toe, leaving the bandit corpses unrecognizable while bleeding nonstop on the ground.

Thanks to the barrier, Orfus, Baldin, Deldon and the rest of the group stayed safe from the stray projectiles. Several bandits miraculously were spared from the chaos. They fell on their butt, eyes widened. Some peed their pants or cowered down.

One huge bandit turned back and stumbling in his run. "I-I don't want to die!"

The man suddenly brought up into the sky. He pedaled and his hand flailed in attempt to do anything. When he looked back, he saw his leader stretched a hand aloft on him with a grin. His face shrank.

Deldon didn't like what's he was about to witness, but deep down he awaited the man's fate. Sazar opened and clenched his palm in a slow motion. As the palm closed in, the huge bandit's body twisted in an abnormal manner causing the bones to crack and eventually crushed. Blood continued leaking the man's body like a waterfall before the body was dropped dead, crushed once again on the ground. Everyone shocked by what Sazar had done. In fact, they were more surprised with his new appearance, human-like but no more a human.