The Jade Mage: The Becoming: Volume 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

so fast?”
    “I told you, don’t pay attention to the movements of my staff. That’s impossible. You need to pay attention to your opponent’s eyes, shoulders, and hips. Those will be the factors that will give you any hint of what my move will be.” Isidor said. He had told him this many times over the past two years. Tartum’s pride,or perhaps it was his fear, wouldn’t allow him to believe it.
    “Get up, let’s do it again.” Isidor said.
    Rubbing his shoulder, Tartum stood up to square off against his master. “This time it’ll be different. This time I will beat him. I refuse to lose!”, Tartum told himself, trying to boost his confidence.
    Not waiting for him to attack, Tartum threw himself at his mentor. They moved fast. Between them, they wove a lethal dance of martial death, each trying to knock out, or cripple, the other. This was not a forgiving sparring session. The loser would know he lost, immediately after he fell... or immediately after he woke up. They created two separate blurs. One of jade green, the other a dull grey. The clacking created by their multiple parries and counters sounded like hail on platemail.
    As impressive as this all was, Tartum wasn’t going to be happy, until he scored a winning blow against his master. A year ago, Isidor had given him an ultimatum after a particularly painful loss, “Tell you what kid.” he had said as he looked down at Tartum, who was holding his face when Isidor’s staff had just hit, “Since you seem to need some sort of incentive to actually give me a challenge, I offer you this. If you can strike me down, if you can land one telling blow against me, cause me to yield even once, we will resume your training in magic. Until you finally accomplish this, however, I will not teach you anything. Stand up, let’s see if that’s enough to finally make you good at this.”
    The ultimatum, and victory against his master, was all Tartum had thought about since. Trying harder and harder, he had come close, so very close, to winning. To landing the blow that would win Tartum, not only the victory he so desperately wanted, but let him resume his training in magic. A year had passed since he last practiced magic with his master, and he was worried he might have forgotten how.
    He still studied his magic book on his own and had unraveled the secret of one more page. He had learned the secret to a petrification spell, that would seize his target’s muscles, and cause them to lock up for a few minutes. They couldn’t move an inch, but they were still very aware of what was happening around them. Tartum had tried it out a couple times on a few stray dogs and once, on a person that was walking by the wagon. They had all frozen in place, with looks of terror in their eyes. In his excitement after seeing the spell work, Tartum would run off, leaving them to wait for the spell to wear off. He had tried to cast it on his master, during their sparring sessions, in an attempt, not only to win, but to impress him. The results were far from positive. His master, seeing Tartum attempting to cast a spell, threw his staff like a spear and caught Tartum square in the chest, knocking him to the ground. The pain had been unbelievable, and Tartum could still remember how acute it was to this day. Later, Tartum admitted to himself that trying to cast a spell in the middle of martial combat was a foolish thing to do, but he took comfort in the fact that he had learned to never try it again.
    Now, as before, he was being pushed back. His master’s skill and agility was still far to much for him to compete with. Just as Tartum was trying to think of a way to turn the fight around, he missed another feign and heard, more than felt, Isidor’s staff crack off the side of his skull. His world burst into stars, and then there was only blackness.
    Waking up in a mess of pillows, Tartum’s head was killing him.
    “ARGH!” he said, in response to the pain radiating in his head. “I