Beads of sweat poured down my face as I recited the words to the spell. Lightning flashed from my hands, lighting the darkness as it travelled into the midst of the hordes below. My master would have congratulated me if he wasn’t reciting his own spell he roared the final words and pillars of fire sprung down from the heavens. He doubled over as he hacked up blood, his face contorted in pain. I began reciting another spell, hands trailing through the air as the runes sparkled silver in the night.
My fireball erupted from my spirit, tearing itself away from my soul, I gasped as the pain gripped me, I fell backwards as my fireball hurtled towards the opposing magician. My fireball splashed harmlessly against his magical barrier, I knew I was merely a nuisance for the man, but my master was incapacitated. I heard the magical words of the enemy magician and I strengthened my magical barrier. A red lightning bolt hurtled towards me from the man’s staff, his horse reared and slammed it’s hooves into another of my brothers in arms. I leapt to the side, my shield shattered and I was defenceless, yet more of my spirit depleted. I waved my hands and whispered in the magical tongue and another fireball leapt from my body, this time aimed at the opposing hordes bellow, my fireball smashed into a paladin and an archer and they screamed.
My lord’s force of eight and ten was no match for their force of eight and twelve, fortunately my master, the magician had depleted their forces severely, at the cost of most of his spirit.
My master stirred, and climbed to his feet. I put my hand to his shoulder and leant him my spirit power. He looked to me and I nodded, he and I both spoke the words that would obliterate the enemy mage, and I drew the runes with my good hand. A mass of energy sparked through my arm and shot out towards the enemy mage, it radiated dark energy and it transformed my body as my master’s power coursed through me.
The enemy mage put barrier after barrier up in a vain attempt to shield himself, but to no avail, the dark energy shattered every shield and slammed into his body, he was hurled from his mount, his wand fell uselessly to the side.
My master looked at me, astonished, “I will fix this!” He promised. I looked at my hand, it was covered in fur, I looked to him, and he looked frightened. Stars shun down on my new form and I howled in the moonlight, I leapt from the cliff where my master stood, and into the midst of the enemy, my claws rent, my teeth tore and my limbs lashed out, many fell before me, but it was all a blur. I remember few things, a frightened soldier, a blade arcing towards me, for hours I continued, killing friend and foe, both fled and I was glad that I followed my enemies. Many fled, but still they fell before my might, my instincts took over. Those who fled on horsed were much faster than me, and made good ground. But others weren’t so lucky.
I stopped for a while at a small lake, in a small wood, with no one around I tried to sleep.

We found the apprentice mage the next morning, asleep on the frass near a church, the church had been long inhabited by necromancers, so we almost missed the area completely. I and my fellow soldiers were glad the boy was asleep, his form scared us, half wolf, half human, reminiscent of the long lost neo-lupine race of old, or werewolves, as the ignorant called them.
We carried him back to camp, Stan wasn’t happy and refused to carry him without a cage, I told him it would be too heavy and degrading for the young mage, if he were locked up, but still he refused.
When we made camp, we were far from the old church, far enough to believe we were safe anyway.
We had two men take up two hourly watches, I slept well, considering our environment, until I was woken for my watch, from one till three in the morning.
Shadows plagued my senses, flickering around the fire, but I knew better than to look into the hypnotic flames, occasionally I heard a crunch of leaves, but nothing appeared, it wasn’t till near the end of my shift when I heard them, silent voices, chanting, I raced towards the camp, but too late, the other sentry was dead, sleeping at his post, and so were my fellows.
The boy mage was up, still in neo-lupine shape, his yellow eyes glaring at the necromancers. I hefted my crossbow and loaded it, a shot impaled two of the necromancers, the boy mage turned to face me, and nodded, I knew at that instant, that he was sane enough not to kill me if I came too close, I remembered my magical training from the citadel, I had a rare resistance to magic, and this was fortunate, else I would probably be dead. The boy mage howled and the necromancers began chanting again, the moon set and the boy’s shape began to change, once again he appeared as a boy, all clothes intact, as was his dignity, he began spellweaving immediately, and the necromancers still chatted amongst themselves, unaffected by the death of two of their companions. There were a score of necromancers remaining, but they were casually chatting between themselves. I realised it was an invisibility charm that protected me, one the boy mage had cast, he looked over his shoulder to me,, and I saw the runes he was drawing in the air. I jumped backwards, twisting, facing the ground, I pulled my hands over my eyes as the explosion came.
It was a massive bolt of molten earth that erupted from the boy, a level three spell, the necromancers screeched as they perished, few remained, but those who did saw us both. I leapt to my feet and drew my silver blade, a sign of my rank, it was meant only to be decorative, but I had a low level mage bless and bind it to me, it never grew dull and always stayed sharp, my blade whistled through the air and one necromancer fell, a lighting spell from the boy and another was down, two necromancers remained and they both put up barriers, physical and magical.
I loaded my crossbow and I swept it up to my eye level, I fired and leapt at the same time, towards the nearest necromancer, the iron bolt broke the physical shield, but stopped in mid air, falling to the ground, my sword swung around and I grunted as my sword slashed into the necromancer’s torso.
A magic missile leapt from the young mage’s hand, followed by three more, the first three smashed into the necromancer’s magical shield and the last broke through, smashing into the mage, I loaded and fired my crossbow, my intent to distract the enemy necromancer rather than kill, it shattered the physical barrier and I threw a knife at him, he put up a combination shield, physical and magical, but both his shield and my knife shattered upon impact, before the mage could even blink, the young mage’s magical attack hit home, red lightning leaping into the necromancer’s body, stopping his heart.
I looked over to the mage, as he fell back, unconscious.