*It’s a bright sunny day in a forest where a group of college students are studying some ruins just outside the kingdom of Brister. Watching over them were some knights who went deeper into the ruins and their teacher, Professor Morgan Lanchester. Morgan had developed a reputation as being a tough but fair teacher who knew what he was talking about and was able to teach his lessons in a way that all the students found interesting and easy to follow. He had a lean body with light blue hair, brown eyes, wore glasses, and was light skinned. He was wearing dark beige pants with a long sleeved blue collared shirt and a black tie. While students liked him a few of the male students despised him as a majority of the female students found him attractive for his cool, focused, and commanding personality. It was even rumored that some females would sneak into his lectures just to see him, leave notes outside of his office, and ask him questions they already knew the answer to just to talk to him. This didn’t even cover some of the more sexual advances some girls used to get his attention. Other professors were torn on their thoughts about him. Some liked him, particularly the female professors, but also a few male professors as well. The professors that didn’t like him acknowledged he was a very intelligent man who was an expert in his field, but could often come across as pretentious and often look down on professors he himself didn’t like or cared for. Not that it mattered as Morgan was a man focused on his work and research, and would often ignore such sexual advances and hate geared towards him. As Morgan was going around and keeping an eye on his students to make sure they were being careful, he checked his watch to see the time*
(Morgan): We’ll be breaking for lunch in about 10 minutes. Be sure to be mindful of your surroundings. There’s no telling what tricks the elves of these ruins left behind.
(Elf student): Oh come on professor. The knights investigated these ruins and cleared out all the traps not too long ago. I doubt any of these traps still work. Speaking as an elf, my kind was never that good at building traps in the first place.
*The elf student’s comment earned him a few chuckles from his classmates. Morgan not liking this, walked over to the elf, grabbed the hat he was wearing, and tosses it over to an area where it hits a string and activates a trap where a bunch of spears pop up from the ground impaling the hat. The elf along with his classmates stood there shocked at what they just saw while Morgan stood there analyzing the mechanics of the trap*
(Morgan): Hmm, they used the rays of the sunlight to hide the string and matched the floor with the rest of the area to make the enemies believe there were no traps. By the time they realize what’s going on the spears have impaled them. Impressive ingenuity. You would do well not to underestimate your ancestors Mr. Puck.
(Puck): How. . .how did you know that string was there?
*Morgan pointed to two pillars that were shorter and different than the other pillars*
(Morgan): Those two pillars had holes in them unlike the other pillars. Not to mention they’re shorter and have a rectangular top as opposed to the other pillars that had a pyramid top. It was a common trick used among elves back in the day to fool their enemies, but now it’s become a lot more complicated.
(Puck): Wow. You sure know your elf traps, Professor Morgan.
(Morgan): It’s nothing special. I know an elf who uses the same trick. Although, this trap seems like child’s play compared to his work.
*All of a sudden gunshots are heard deeper into the ruins. One female knight with brown rabbit ears and blue eyes came running up screaming and gasping for air where she trips and lands on the ground. Morgan rushes over to the knight followed by a few students to see that the knight is slightly injured and bleeding around the arm. Morgan calls for the emergency kit as well as a medical student as he knew a few of his students were medical majors. The kit gets brought over by a human male student. He wiped off the blood, and sprayed disinfectant on the wound before wrapping it up in bandages*
(Morgan): What happened down there?
(Female knight) Eclipses! Bastards came out of nowhere and swarmed all over us. Most of my team has been wiped out.
*More gunshots could be heard as 3 more knights who were human males come up firing their guns. One of the knights throws a grenade down at the Eclipses as the two other knights begin to make their way to Morgan, the students, and the injured female knight. As the third knight makes his way over, he gets tackled by an Eclipse from behind who looks like a monkey. The Eclipse tries to bite the head of the knight, but he blocks the attempt with his gun. The Eclipse gets pierced with a large ice shard through the chest courtesy of Morgan who took out a wand and conjured it. The knight under the Eclipse crawls away as it falls backwards and begins to dissolve away into dust. More monkey-like Eclipses begin to appear from deeper into the ruins and Morgan produces more ice shards to attack them. A glowing magic blue circle appears to form around Morgan’s wand as he concentrates, and he lifts his wand in the air as blue ice particles begin to hover over his head. The blue ice particles come together to create ten ice shards. Morgan fires off two ice shards where one of them pierces the chest of an Eclipse which pins him to a pillar before it dies. The other shard hits a leaping Eclipse in the head where it fell backwards hitting the ground hard before slowly dissolving*
(Morgan): Return back up top!
*The students began to run back up top to the entrance of the ruins along with the injured knight that they helped up. Morgan and the other knights provided them cover to escape safely by firing their guns, shooting ice shards, and throwing grenades. They manage to kill a good number of the Eclipses before running up the stairs to the entrance of the ruins. They make it outside of the entrance to the ruins where there were medium-sized rectangular pillars on both sides of the entrance with elfan language written on them. Once Morgan confirmed that everyone was up top and accounted for, he began to concentrate and gathered up magic particles in his wand. He held his wand out straight at the entrance of the ruins as a blue circle formed right by it*
(Morgan): Frozen Gate!
*A wall made of ice began to lift up from the ground out of the magic blue circle to block the entrance. Once the entrance was completely blocked, Morgan lowered his wand*
(Morgan): This wall will only hold them for a short period of time. Get my students to safety while I take them on.
(Male knight #1): Sir, you can’t just order us-
(Female knight): Do what he says, that’s an order!
(Male knight #2): But captain, he’s a civilian.
(Female knight): Do you guys know who he is? He’s the Scholar of Ice. One of the greatest strategic minds to ever graduate from the knight’s academy. His strategies saved the lives of thousands in the past and won many battles along with his partner the Blazing Knight himself.
(Morgan): So you’ve heard of me. I can see now why you made captain.
(Male knight #3): I understand what you’re saying captain. But still, he’s a civilian. It’s our duty as knights to protect him and the others.
(Morgan): While I admire your bravery to fight, you have to remember what your mission is: to protect the students, not go off and get yourself killed. Now do your job and protect my students while I do my job as well.
*The knights nodded in agreement and began to escort the students to the cliff area overlooking the ruins. While Morgan readies himself to fight, the students look back at their professor worried if he would be okay. They knew that their professor was no stranger to combat, but could he really defeat the Eclipses by himself? Gathering magic once again, five blue circles form on the ground as Morgan summons 5 miniature ice knights that stood about 2 feet tall wearing blue helmets and armor with blue eyes and their bodies a light colored-blue. Each knight held various weapons such as a sword, axe, lance, bow and arrow, and iron claws. The sword, axe, and lance were larger than the bodies of the ice knights holding them, but they were able to lift them with ease. Morgan also takes out 3 ble crystals from his pocket and tosses them behind a nearby bush before the ice wall was destroyed by the Eclipses who saw Morgan waiting for them with his knights*
(Morgan): Attacking my students is one thing but desecrating the hallowed halls of this lost civilization is unforgivable.
*The Eclipses begin to scream like monkeys while Morgan looks to his knights to issue them commands*
(Morgan): You four attack, you provide support from afar, and I scatter them. Go!
*As if reading his mind, the ice knights knew exactly what to do and headed into battle against the Eclipses each performing their job. The ice knight with the bow and arrow got up on one of the pillars to attack from above and began firing ice arrows rapidly hitting the Eclipses with headshots and taking them down one by one. Morgan concentrated and began to create ice walls to scatter the Eclipses up into smaller groups so his ice knights could take them down. The ice knights with the sword and axe began to run toward a group of ten Eclipses where the sword ice knight leaps into the air and slashes off the head of one Eclipse. Once it lands, it runs toward four more Eclipses where it does a heavenly quick slash attack slicing through the four Eclipses and killing them. While this was going on, the axe ice knight dodged the punch of one Eclipse, chopped its arm off and slashed the chest of the Eclipse where it fell to the ground still alive and gasping for air. The other four Eclipses surround the knight and leapt into the air trying to bounce on it, but the knight countered by spinning around rapidly with its axe out slashing away at the Eclipses cutting their heads off. Once the axe ice knight stopped spinning he became dizzy and sat on the ground trying to refocus. Morgan provided more support by freezing the ground beneath twelve Eclipses causing them to get stuck in ice. The ice knights with the lance, iron claws, and bow and arrow took advantage of this and began attacking the stuck monsters to kill them. The lance ice knight drove its lance through the chest of three Eclipses to impale them on the lance and flung them into the air where they dissolved. The iron claws ice knight charged at five Eclipses slashing away at the air to cleave through the Eclipses. The body parts of the Eclipses go flying everywhere. The remaining four Eclipses get taken out by the archer ice knight who killed the Eclipses with headshots one at a time. The remaining seven Eclipses managed to jump past the ice knights and make it to Morgan where he’s forced to fight them himself. Not panicking in the least, Morgan blocked the attack of the first Eclipse by gathering blue magic particles in front of him and materializing a shield in midair. The Eclipse tries to attack again but the ice shield keeps blocking the attacks of the Eclipse before Morgan conjures up spikes on the shield and throws it at the Eclipse attacking him. The Eclipse goes flying through the air and slams back first into a pillar while the front part of the Eclipse gets pierced by the shield spikes. Two Eclipses charge at Morgan where he concentrates on the ground to create two magic ice circles which appear underneath the two charging Eclipses. The bright blue light distracts them long enough for ice pillars to emerge from the ground and pierce the two Eclipses through the chest to kill them instantly. The remaining four Eclipses were now afraid to attack after seeing what happened to the others, but Morgan wasn’t. Morgan telepathically tells his archer ice knight to shoot its water arrows at the Eclipses. The archer ice knight fires four arrows at the Eclipses splashing all of them with water and making them angry. With their bodies covered in water, Morgan points his wand at them and concentrates to freeze their bodies solid*
(Morgan): Okay, attack now!
*Three ice ninjas wearing dark blue ninja outfits that cover their whole body except their eyes come jumping out of the bush that Morgan tossed those three blue crystals earlier. The three ice ninjas run toward the Eclipses with knives in their hands and chopped their heads off. Just as the ice ninjas finish up the Eclipses, Morgan and his ice knights/ninjas hear a loud roar coming from the ruins and heavy foot stomps approaching the entrance*
(Morgan): The king joins the battle.
*The Eclipse that emerges from the ruins is a large gorilla that stood about 11-feet tall with one of its arms being a hand cannon. The Eclipse points the cannon at Morgan and fires it off releasing a yellow ball of magic*
(Morgan): Oh shit.
*Morgan jumps out of the way landing on the ground. The Eclipse takes another shot at the defenseless Morgan where just when the blast is about to hit him, the ice ninjas use their bodies as shields to protect him and get destroyed. Morgan gets back up and hides behind a pillar while his ice knights fight against the Eclipse where their attacks don’t do much damage. The Eclipse tries to smash them with his hand, but they use their quickness to dodge his attacks.
(Morgan): *Heavy breathing* A gorilla with a hand cannon. Proof that the universe has a great sense of humor and that it enjoys pissing on me.
*Morgan peeks from behind the pillar to see his ice knights aren’t doing any harm to the Eclipse and are in danger of being smashed by the Eclipse. Gathering up the magic in his wand, a large blue magic circle forms in the open close to Morgan’s location. The magic circle begins to glow and a large ice knight begins to rise up from the magic circle. The ice knight was 11-feet tall and was carrying a shield in one hand and a club in the other. The giant ice knight begins running toward the Eclipse who fires the hand cannon where the ice knight deflects the shot with its shield. Once the giant ice knight reaches the Eclipse it bashes the Eclipse with its shield in the face to stagger it and then uses its club to smash the hand cannon of the Eclipse. The Eclipse screams out in pain but uses its other arm to punch the giant ice knight into a pillar causing it to fall over as well as the pillar. The Eclipse goes to grab the remains of the destroyed pillar to use as a weapon unaware that Morgan used this opportunity to jump onto its back and climbed up to its neck where he stabs it with his wand. The Eclipse flinches in pain and tries to grab Morgan but can’t reach him*
(Morgan): Go on! You’re freezing!
*The Eclipse was beginning to freeze over. Its body soon became completely frozen in ice with a petrified look on its face. The giant ice knight gets back up as Morgan pulls his wand out and jumps off the Eclipse where he gets caught by the smaller ice knights who carry him to safety. The giant knight lifts its club into the air and brings it down on the Eclipse completely destroying it and shattering it into tiny pieces. Once Morgan and his ice knights see that the Eclipses are all gone, the knights begin to disappear as Morgan thanks them for their help and hard work. Morgan loosens his tie around his collar and begins to make his way towards the knights and his students on the cliff above who saw the whole fight and were amazed. When Morgan arrived, they all cheered for him and asked him if he was okay*
(Morgan): Thank you. Thank you. I’m fine everyone. I’m glad you’re all okay as well. Just for the record this will be on a quiz later on.
*This comment got a good laugh out of the knights and students not knowing how serious he was*
SHADOW
Author’s Note: Well guys we finally finished the first word of my light novel and we get to meet our first mage fighter. I’ll admit, when it comes to RPGs mages aren’t my favorite classes so hopefully I did this class justice with Morgan. Morgan was the third character I came up for the light novel although his character and personality did go through a number of rewrites. I choose to make him a teacher because I’ve had a lot of teachers in my life and for a short while I too was a teacher when I became a basketball coach for a short while. Through this experienced I learned that it’s important to be tough on your students but also fair to them. Be someone they can trust but at the same time respect. For the summoned spirits, I based their appearance off the knight from The Witch and the Hundred Knight. I wanted to make them strong, but at the same time cute. I’ll be introducing more spirits more spirits in the novel so look forward to them. Once again, thank you all for checking out the preview and for your patience in me getting them out. The good news is you won’t have to wait long for the next preview as it’ll be out the day after Mother’s Day so look forward to it. Thanks reading and I’ll see you next time.