Page 86 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

He smiled when he saw Perian.

“How was the picnic?”

“Lovely,” Perian said. “How was the morning?”

“Good. The Queen is happy to loan you Prince Horsey while you’re here.”

“Oh, wonderful, thank you.” When he’d gotten permission from Renny and her brother, he’d considered the matter to be closed. He was glad that the two decisions aligned.

“Ready for the training?” Brannal asked cheerfully.

Perian eyed him. “I don’t know. Am I?”

Brannal just continued to look pleased, and Perian didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him with that expression.

Well, it wasn’t like there was any real harm if he ended up covered in mud again.

Brannal led Perian swiftly up to one of the largest training rooms in the Mage Warrior wing, which proved to be crowded with people, and explained the afternoon activity to everyone. There were two civilians—Perian and a non-binary staff member named Winnal—a whole bunch of Warriors, and finally, a group of Mage Warriors.

“You’re being split in two teams, and the goal is for each side to protect their civilian while trying to capture the person on the other side. You may use restraint force.”

Perian made a face. That meant they’d likely all wind up muddy by the end of this.

Brannal continued, “Hand-to-hand is permitted, no actual weapons, and no shields. The team that captures the other team’s civilian first wins.”

This was going to be a free-for-all, but Perian supposed it made sense as a training exercise. These people probably spent most of their time needing to protect someone who didn’t have any magic and might not have any ability to defend themselves. (Perian was thinking of Renny, but it applied to ordinary citizens too.)

Perian shrugged out of his coat and set it to the side by the door; he was sure he was going to be a mess in no time.

Brannal was going to supervise and call people out if things got totally out of hand, which Perian thought was great because Cormal was here and on the opposing team. But Perian had Molun and Arvus, as well as the whole rest of the team, protecting him.

Brannal gave a countdown.

“Three, two, one, go!”

Perian imagined it was rather a lot like watching a battle in days gone by, when someone yelled a war cry and the fighting suddenly commenced. People crashed together with a tremendous amount of noise, the air was suddenly filled with water and earth, and gusts of wind whipped this way and that. It was a lot fiercer than working with the training Mage Warriors had been.

Arvus and another Mage Warrior stationed themselves in front of Perian. Molun waded a bit further into the fray, clearly going with offense instead of defense.

It was almost impossible to follow, especially with the elements in the mix. Everyone was moving so fast, and then a stream of water or dirt would obliterate everything in sight. Periodically, Arvus would raise a wall of earth to block anything from reaching Perian.

After a moment’s indecision, Perian just tried to keep track of those three people, to move with them when they moved.

For not actually being able to do much of anything except hope his team outlasted the opposing one, it was remarkably stressful. While it hadn’t bothered him the first time, knowing that half the room of fiercely trained Warriors and Mage Warriors was after him made his stomach churn and his breath short.

Perian got startled a lot and ended up jumping, yelping, and gasping more than he would like to admit. His heart was in his throat, pulse thrumming louder than he expected. He yelled out warnings whenever he could—and occasionally yelled out things that were less polite.

It turned out that all Perianshouldhave been doing was tracking Cormal and making sure he didn’t get close. But Perian hadn’t been doing that, which meant that when Molun yelled out and Arvus turned to him, and the other Mage Warrior protecting Perian got buffeted by a strong gust of wind, it was a complete shock when Cormal appeared right in front of him and basically threw a ball of fire in his face.

Perian barely got his arm up to block it, the burst of incinerating heat shocking. A moment later, Perian and Cormal were suddenly drenched in water, and Brannal was yelling at everyone to stop. Perian threw a punch at Cormal’s face anyway.

A gust of wind pushed him back far enough that the punch fell short.

“Perian, I saidstop,” Brannal snapped.

Cormal smirked, redoubling Perian’s desire to punch him in the face.

Perian whirled on Brannal, heart still hammering in his throat. “He attacked me!”

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