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really in the mind, and Iridan’s body would still function if he had the
will to endure through it.
    Brannis had taken advantage of the blinding light to
cut down most of the goblins facing him. His back had been to the blast and his
adversaries had seen it directly, blinding them temporarily and giving Brannis
an easy time of dispatching them. With the quick respite in the battle, Brannis
took stock of his army and was dismayed. Both sides had been ravaged during the
fight. Fewer than half of his troops were still standing and goblin bodies
littered the battlefield. Even as he pondered this, a plume of fire erupted
from nearby and engulfed several more of his men.
    Brannis spotted a goblin sorcerer—one of two that he
had figured remained in the battle—at the source of the fire. Distractedly
slashing through a goblin that had thought to catch him in an unguarded moment,
Brannis charged across the battlefield toward the deadly goblin sorcerer.
    The goblin spotted him as well and began another
spell. Brannis understood nothing of goblin speech or how they used magic. Not
the fleetest of runners, he could only hope he was fast enough to close the
distance in time. He saw the goblin cup his hands together as something grew
between them. It began as a tiny puff of golden light and expanded as Brannis
watched, his eyes intent on nothing else. The energy grew into a globe the size
of Brannis's fist. The goblin sorcerer was struggling to hold it in check,
squeezing it between its bony hands. He tried to slow himself as he saw the
goblin bringing its hands around behind the globe, realizing he was not going
to be able to close the distance in time. His momentum was too great to dodge
to the side. The goblin let his spell loose straight at Brannis's chest.
    Brannis saw the blast coming and did the only thing he
could think to do. He brought his sword up in front of him, tip pointing down,
into line with the oncoming missile. With his left arm, he tried to shield his
face from the blast.
    He felt a wrenching pain in his right shoulder, and
the sword was torn from his grasp. There was an impact on his breastplate that
felt like someone had just slung a sack of flour into his chest but he managed
to keep his balance and hardly break stride.
    When he brought his other arm away from his face,
Brannis caught sight of one particularly astonished goblin who stood gaping at
him. The little creature turned to run but Brannis was running full out, and
dove onto the sorcerer before he could get more than two steps away. Pinning
the goblin was child’s play as Brannis easily outweighed the sorcerer five
times over. The goblin tried casting one last spell, but two heavy blows from
Brannis’s gauntleted fist were more than the creature’s frail body could
endure.
    *
* * * * * * *
    Iridan and the last remaining goblin sorcerer had torn
into each other’s forces in a fury of magical power while not directly
encountering each other. The goblin sorcerer had seen too much of the human’s
magic to want to test himself against Iridan directly, but now he had a much
better chance. Having snuck around the fallen left flank of the human army, he
crouched low by the brook and, quietly as he could, timed a spell for when
Iridan was most vulnerable.
    Iridan had just cast another aether blast spell,
figuring that his own body was a price he was willing to pay to save the rest
of the army. He was beginning to feel nauseous with the pain of his last
casting, once more having pushed himself too far, when he heard a crackling
sound to his left. Turning, he saw a ball of lightning heading toward him and
panicked.
    Iridan raised his hands out in front of him and
reflexively drew in all the aether he could muster. Without a word of arcane or
a conscious thought, a translucent barrier formed in the air between his body
and the balled lightning, bowl-shaped and facing his enemy. When the two forces
collided, Iridan felt the impact in his shoulders, as if his