Despite the new changes taking place however, I still needed to exercise restraint. Swordplay and weapons’ casting were well enough, but Darren had warned me to focus on defense as well. And as much as I might regret to admit, his counsel was well warranted. Again.
At first, I tried shield-casting in the armory, but it was too hard to conjure a guard and an assault at the same time. I needed an opponent that wasn’t me. So I saved some of my reserve, and made it a point to find my friends to continue the training later on.
“What is it you want me to do again?” Clayton asked uncertainly.
“I want you to blast me with your magic.”
“Are you sure—”
“Yes.” Hands on my hips, I met my friends’ gawping stares defiantly. “You both saw how badly I performed at the mid-year duels. I’m never going to get better if all I do is practice with weapons. A mage isn’t going to come at me with a sword the entire time. You saw Priscilla. She went after me with magic. I need a better defense.”
“I understand what you are saying, Ry, but we don’t want to hurt you either,” Clayton pointed out. During Narhari’s drills, he was nowhere close to Priscilla or Darren, but Clay was still one of the stronger ones in combative casting. He was my best shot at learning a strong defense.
“I’ll be fine,” I told him, backing up, so we were about twenty feet apart, the same distance I had been when I dueled Priscilla.
“You ready?”
“Just do it!” I shouted. Immediately, I conjured up a shield similar to the one I had used during the tourney. This time, however, I angled it instead of holding it directly in front of my body.
It felt strange, being exposed. I tucked my left shield arm inward so that my wrist almost brushed my chest. I held my feet a shoulder-width apart: right foot forward, knees slightly bent.
Wham!
Clayton’s casting hit me at full-force, slamming into the shield with an almost bone-shattering intensity. I stumbled, arms shaking as the impact hit, his force flattening the thick wooden panel against my chest.
The armor cracked, and I was sent flying backward.
I’d failed to hold my defense.
“Ryiah!” Clayton cried, dropping his offensive stance to come racing forward. Ella stood back, trusting I was okay and raising a brow at our friend’s over-the-top reaction.
Wincing, I brushed off the splintered fragments and waved him away. “Do it again,” I choked, mouth full of dust.
“No I won’t—” Clayton protested, but Ella cut him off, exasperated.
“I’ll do it!” She grinned at me. “Ready to be pummeled, Ry?”
I returned to my starting stance. This time I widened my feet a bit more than the last, and I held my new shield at a greater angle, bracing myself.
“Now’s as good a time as any.”
Ella nodded and cast out her force, using both hands to launch it into the air as if she was thrusting a pile of bricks at my ribs.
I dug in my heels as her magic slammed my defense, gritting my teeth as I struggled to maintain my bearing. My shield arm roared from the sudden blow, but it was a much less terrible ache than the exchange with Priscilla or even Clayton moments before.
A loud, cracking noise rang out behind me, and I turned to see one of the beams in the fence had split open, causing a cloud of splinters to puff out into the air, settling moments later on the frostbitten ground.
I had done it! I had deflected Ella’s magic and sent it careening into the barrier behind me!
“You’ve got this, Ry!” Ella shouted. Clayton stood beside her, but said nothing, his disapproval obvious.
“Let’s try another,” I told her.
So she cast out her magic again. And again. And about ten more times until I was on the ground, vomiting the contents of my breakfast into the freshly fallen snow.
About a quarter of the time, I gripped my shield at just the right angle, and my defense held. The rest of Ella’s castings, I missed completely, and her force sent me staggering back with the broken fragments of a shield along the snow.
I now had a splitting pain in my head, and I knew with certainty it was not subsiding anytime soon. Every inch of me smarted, and I willingly sat out the rest of the practice to watch Clayton and Ella try their hand at defense.
Clayton grasped it easily, having a much better knowledge of technique than both of us. Ella struggled a bit more, but she wasn’t far off either.
By the time they had finished their own session, my friends were just as exhausted as myself.
“What made you decide to try this approach?” Ella asked abruptly, the three of us leaning against the frame of the fence, trying to catch our breath.
I laughed, despite the pain in my ribs. “You’d never guess.”
Clayton eyed me curiously. “Did someone tell you? It is a little out of the blue for you to come forward with the idea almost two months after your duel. It’s not as if it hasn’t been done before. It’s just strange for you to realize it now—”