Page 31 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

Perian squeezed his arm. “Truly, thank you. But for once, I didn’t need rescuing.”

“You were standing there letting them throw things at you?”

Perian made a scoffing noise. “Did you even look at the scoreboard? I was running around frantically blocking with every object—and the occasional person—that I could come across.”

Brannal still looked doubtful, but Perian thought he’d done pretty well. It meant a lot to him that Brannal’s first reaction had been to protect Perian and to stop the others with non-fatal means.

“That was a shield?” Perian asked.

He had heard about them, but he’d never seen one, and he hadn’t imagined it would look so different from the elements.

Brannal hummed an agreement. “It’s one of the most complex aspects of elemental magic. We summon proximate elements most easily. Conjuring them takes more effort. Both require study and exertion to make them act as desired. A shield is still more difficult. It is made from the elements, and yet it is not simply an element, or not in any natural state.”

“What do you mean?” Perian asked.

“The elements themselves can always be countered. If you had a wall of fire, what would combat it?”

Perian’s lip twitched as he remembered yesterday morning. “A nice deluge of water?”

“If a nice deluge of water is called for,” Brannal agreed with a small smile. “But that’s for physical fire. Shields are no longer simply their element, or perhaps they are super compressed, we are unsure. At any rate, they are much stronger. Water could potentially work its way through a fire shield eventually, but it would take far more water and more effort than to douse a regular wall of fire.”

Perian considered this. “And would air make it stronger?”

“Actual fire, yes. With the shield, no. A strong enough wind might eventually be able to destroy it, in fact, depending on who tired first.”

“So, shields take a lot of energy?”

Brannal nodded. “Energy and concentration, yes. But they are also very effective at keeping everything out.”

“I noticed,” Perian said dryly.

Even sound had been a bit muted, though not completely cut off.

Brannal looked a bit sheepish but not entirely apologetic, and he shifted the conversation a little. “The more elements you combine in the shield, the stronger it is.”

“I assume that means you make the strongest shields?”

He nodded, but it seemed to be a simple fact more than a point of pride. “Yes.”

“So… if you left me in there, I’d starve to death?” Perian questioned.

Brannal laughed. “That’s where your mind went?”

“Well, you just told me it was really strong. If the other elements can’t get through it, I’m assuming I’d have no chance.”

“You got through rather effectively,” Brannal pointed out.

“What, by telling you to stop overreacting?”

Brannal shrugged, and Perian could only laugh, because he supposed it had worked.

“Can anyone else here make the full shield?” he wanted to know.

Brannal shook his head. “No, no one else has the mastery of all the elements. Molun can make one of water and air. We’re currently the only two who control more than one element.”

Perian nodded.

“And just to be clear,” Brannal went on, “I would not, in fact, be able to maintain a shield until you starved to death. It would take too long.”

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