Winter had long since set in, and the gray, overcast clouds had hung heavy in the sky for days, finally unleashing a storm one night.
It was as if the sky's reservoir had flung open its gates, with torrential rain plummeting straight to the ground. Fierce winds whipped the rain along, making the night storm cold and bleak. In the thick, inky blackness of the night, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face; all you could hear were countless raindrops pounding the ground, the eaves, the puddles...
The moon and stars hid behind the dark, heavy layers of clouds, unwilling to glimpse the stormy mortal world below.
Every now and then, a few bolts of branched lightning flickered and died in the clouds, briefly chasing away the darkness for a second or two. The lightning brought booming thunderclaps, blending with the steady drone of the rain into a deep, rumbling symphony.
The streets' drainage wasn't up to snuff, and the relentless downpour hit the ground, gathering into little streams.
Two sets of footsteps splashed side by side through the water flowing wildly across the street, pushing through the pitch-black veil of rain.
Amid the noisy patter of the rain, you could faintly make out two voices talking, their words broken up by the downpour. From the tones, one belonged to an old man, the other to a boy.
"Why'd you get detention again? Did you talk back to the teacher?" the old man asked.
"Mr. Laberge said the 3rd-tier spell Shadow Sneak can slip past a unicorn's celestial domain detection."
The boy's voice was sullen, laced with stubborn defiance. "But you told me before that only the divine magic Holy Shadow, which aligns with the celestial domain, can let you sneak right up to a unicorn."
"Yeah, your teacher's definitely got it wrong. Can't blame them—plenty of folks like that spend their whole lives holed up in a mage tower. How could they ever get the chance to hunt wild unicorns? So they just make guesses based on wild theories."
The old man agreed with the boy at first, but then turned to scold him.
"But you can't argue with your teachers. They're your elders, and they're the ones passing on knowledge to you. You've got to respect them, or else... you'll end up in detention, and I'll have to come pick you up myself."
"The teachers in practical combat and magical beast handling just spout nonsense, and they've got short fuses too," the boy grumbled. "If you went to teach at the mage academy, Uncle, I bet all the apprentices would flock to your classes. No one would bother with Mr. Laberge."
The old man shook his head with a chuckle. "Nah, forget it. Teaching you in my spare time wears me out enough as it is. If I had to handle a whole pack of rascals as cheeky as you, I couldn't take it."
"Besides the boys, there are plenty of girls too. Tissana from the potions class next door is really pretty, and Phoebe—she's the daughter of a marquis, I think..."
The boy chattered away without a filter, holding up a black umbrella, while the old man beside him held another. They walked side by side. Raindrops plummeted from the sky, smacking against the oiled fabric with a crackle. Water streamed down the umbrella's edges, weaving a curtain of rain.
"Mr. Korm likes to sing while mixing potions, and he sounds worse than a crow. So we gave him a nickname: 'Foul-Mouthed Raven.' Today, Benjamin muttered it under his breath, but 'Foul-Mouthed Raven' heard him and hit him with a Levitation spell—made him stand upside down as punishment all afternoon..."
The boy excitedly recounted the fun stuff that happened at the mage academy today, his young voice cutting through the rainy night, echoing far down the empty streets.
"Uncle?"
The boy stopped walking and turned to look back.
The old man had suddenly halted, standing quietly in the pouring rain with one hand holding his umbrella, as if lost in thought. The boy noticed that the old man's other hand was already gripping his wand.
"Uncle, what's wrong?" the boy asked again, puzzled.
"Eddie, get over here next to me. Drop the umbrella and watch out for dragons in the sky." Old Tony said, tossing aside his own rain umbrella. The black umbrella was quickly snatched up by the fierce wind and blown to the other side of the street.
Old Tony raised his wand, and the tumbling black umbrella in the darkness suddenly burst into flames.
Eddie startled in alarm. The fire from the burning umbrella fabric briefly lit up the dark, rain-soaked night. In the endless curtain of rain, a figure in a long robe stood like a drenched banner planted in the ground.
Eddie grew tense and uneasy. He ditched his black umbrella, rushed to Old Tony's side, and pulled his own wand from his bag of holding.
The flames were doused by the downpour, and the robed figure vanished back into the deep gloom.
Old Tony placed his palm on Eddie's shoulder. His wand trembled, magic pushing the rain away. The raindrops around them hung in the air for a split second before falling back to the ground, splashing up in sheets.
The short-range teleport spell failed.
Old Tony gripped his wand tightly, pointing it toward where the robed figure had vanished, and said loudly, "They've even used spatial lockdown. Looks like this ambush was well-prepared."
No one answered him, and Old Tony didn't expect anyone to respond.
He whispered to Eddie, "The real magic combat lesson starts now. Cast all the defensive spells you've learned on yourself!"
Eddie's body trembled slightly. He gripped his wand tightly just like Old Tony, muttering incantations under his breath:
"1st Tier blade ward."
"Low-level air shield."
"Mana deflection aura..."
In his panic, he messed up several syllables in a row and had to start over.
Old Tony drew a circle over Eddie's head with the tip of his wand. High-level magic immunity, mirror image shield, advanced blade ward... One high-level defensive spell after another enveloped him.
Old Tony didn't forget to teach. "Combat tip one: Always stay calm."
Several high- and low-level magic auras rotated around Eddie, wrapping him in a ball of various magical colors.
Eddie looked at Old Tony nervously. "Uncle, I can protect myself. You should cast defensive spells on yourself first."
They were standing in the pouring rain now, with cold wind whistling in their ears. Without the umbrellas' protection, the winter night's chill rain quickly soaked their clothes through, chilling them to the bone.
Eddie shivered and waved his wand, trying to cast a Water-repelling Air Shield for himself and his uncle to keep the rain off.
Old Tony stopped him. "A waterproof shield would create a rain curtain that blocks your view. Remember, combat tip two: Life is always more important than momentary comfort."
A point of yellow light lit up ahead on the street. The robed figure that had disappeared reappeared in the storm. He also wasn't using any rain-warding spells, letting the downpour drench him.
In his hand, he held a dark cyan wand, with a yellow glow emanating from its tip. He walked forward step by step through the rain, getting closer and closer to Old Tony and Eddie, about to enter the effective attack range of most spells.
"I don't get it," Old Tony said while preparing defensive spells for himself. "We're both mages—why are you coming after me?"
He didn't really care about the answer; the outcome would be the same anyway. He was just using the conversation to draw the other's attention and buy some time.
"You're too cozy with adventurers and too distant from mages. In the mage guild, plenty of folks have had it in for you for a while." The robed figure in the rain replied in a deep voice.
"So you became the nobles' lapdog to come bite me?" Old Tony sneered. He had good standing in mage circles and naturally didn't buy what this robed man was saying.
The robed man had already stepped into the effective attack range of most spells. The yellow glow at the tip of his wand suddenly brightened, but it still couldn't illuminate his face under the hood.
He spoke up, his raspy voice cutting through the rain curtain and carried by the wind. "Someone thinks you're in the way and wants you dead. If you play smart, maybe we don't have to duke it out in this lousy downpour..."
Old Tony was using talk to grab his attention, but the guy was doing the exact same thing to Old Tony.
CRACK! A sharp, bright bolt of lightning ripped through the darkness, piercing the rain curtain, lunging toward Old Tony from behind!
Old Tony had been facing the robed man, but it was like he had eyes in the back of his head. He spun around fast, blocking the lightning with a 4th-tier spell: Electric Field Deflection.
"Heh, parlor tricks." Old Tony sneered. He'd already figured someone would sneak attack from behind.
He was a high-level mage skilled in 4th-tier spells. To assassinate him, the robed man had to be a high-level mage too. Those archmages who could use 5th-tier spells held themselves too high to stoop to midnight ambushes like this.
One high-level mage like the robed guy wasn't enough; there had to be another one ready to strike from the shadows. And with this storm, mages' go-to fireball spells were weakened, so the ambusher would definitely start with lightning magic.
"Your reflexes aren't bad," a weathered voice came from behind.
An old man leaning on a staff stood on the other side of the street, the magic crystals embedded in his staff lighting up his aged face. It was him who'd just cast the 4th-tier spell: Spear of Thunder Punishment.