This chapter also has anti-climactic fights.

Chapter 33 – From Apprentice to Sorcerer

Ravi thinks he’s doing a really good job of appearing calm but Hongbin is eyeing his jiggling leg and knows that the potion maker is just as nervous as he is.

Sanghyuk had been waiting around near the front door when they’d gotten back and demanded to know everything. After only a little bit of hesitation – afraid Sanghyuk might freak out or demand in – do they tell him. He takes it okay and eventually settles himself down in an armchair to anxiously wait for news from Hakyeon and Leo.

They’re all sort of blanking out when the front of the house explodes. Hongbin only just manages to cast a protection spell before bits of glass and brick and wood are pelting them.

Before they have time to recover they’re hit by an impact spell. Hongbin is too shocked this time to even try casting a cushioning spell and both he and Ravi crash into furniture. Sanghyuk’s intuitive magic stops him from hitting the ground and he finally gets to see who was attacking them. He freezes instantly, locked in place by fear.

“Oh, it’s my Anyegi!” Yeongsik yells. “I’ll be taking you back! Dead! So you can’t escape again!”

The spell he throws at Sanghyuk never hits the boy. Instead it hits Ravi. He’d reacted without thought, scrambling to his feet and placing himself between the frozen Sanghyuk and Yeongsik. The spell hits his left shoulder and the force of it knocks both him and Sanghyuk to the floor.

Hongbin is only just getting to his feet when he sees Ravi get hit. “Ravi!” he cries.

For a second he can’t move, feeling tears form in his eyes and trying to figure out what spell it could have been. He doesn’t get time to work it out, barely blocking the attack that comes for him.

His block isn’t strong enough and he finds himself face down on the floor, winded and with shards of glass and wood splinters now imbedded into one of his arms.

“Good to see you again, Hongbin,” Yeongsik smiles. “I’m really surprised that you’re alive.”

Hongbin coughs but forces himself up onto his feet. “What are you doing here?” he manages to ask.

“King’s orders,” Yeongsik grins. “Don’t take it personally.”

“You hate the king,” Hongbin states.

“I do,” the sorcerer agrees. “Unfortunately he has the best ingredients and frankly, with all the other sorcerers gone because of Hakyeon, with the king is the safest place.”

This time Hongbin blocks the attack fully, surprising both himself and Yeongsik. He then counterattacks. The most effective attack spell he knows is easy to block. He remembers Hakyeon telling him that in a fight most sorcerers simply resort to throwing magic at each other and hoping something hits and Hongbin can totally understand why.

Instead of doing that however, he casts a fire-ball spell as a distraction and then turns himself invisible. In Yeongsik’s scramble to block the fire Hongbin moves as far from his original spot as he can. From his new positon he catches a glimpse of Ravi and Sanghyuk.

The potion maker is unconscious, face down with his arm in a weird position. Sanghyuk is awake but he’s curled in on himself, staring wide-eyed at Ravi, frozen where he sits.

Hongbin wants nothing more than to run over to them but he knows that doing so will just get all three of them killed. From his new spot he casts another fire-ball spell and then moves again.

He continues this, watching Yeongsik get more and more frustrated until he finally turns to face Sanghyuk and Ravi. As Yeongsik lifts his hand to cast a spell at them, Hongbin drops the invisibility spell and gathers as much deliberate magic as he can.

When the word for an impact spell leaves his mouth it’s barely more than a whisper but he feels like he’d yelled it. The bigger the action, the more powerful the spell and Hongbin doesn’t hesitate to jump. Yeongsik feels the spell coming before it hits him and he’s smacked into the wall on the other side of the room.

Hongbin barely has enough time to cast a cushioning spell on Ravi and Sanghyuk before they too collide with the wall.

The surprise is enough to shock Sanghyuk out of his panic and he catches Ravi before they hit the ground. This time it’s his own magic that stops them from having a rough landing. They crumple to the floor but Sanghyuk does his best to make sure at least Ravi has a soft landing.

“Are you okay?” Hongbin pants.

He feels shaky and for the first time he understands what Hakyeon must go through. It’s his mind that feels exhausted but his body he can’t control.

“I’m fine,” Sanghyuk answer, looking up at Hongbin with wet eyes. “I don’t know about Ravi.”

Hongbin rushes over, ripping Ravi’s shirt from the neck so he can inspect his shoulder. It looks normal but Ravi wouldn’t be unconscious if it was. At least he’s breathing normally. Hongbin only knows one health spell but he feels like it won’t be enough.

“He’s going to need a health potion. There might be a few in the potions’ lab. If not you’ll have to go to Ravi’s shop.”

Sanghyuk nods, standing up and casting a look on Yeongsik’s direction. “What are you going to do with him?” he asks.

“I’ll do what I’m supposed to, I guess.”

Is this what Hakyeon had trained him for? To get rid of Yeongsik?

Hongbin stands up. “Go get the potion and then get back here.”

“Okay.”

“Also check the mailbox.”

Sanghyuk is still nodding when he leaves to face the ever-changing hallways and Hongbin comes to stand in front of Yeongsik. It takes him a while to gather enough deliberate magic to cast the no-magic spell. The no-magic spell contained elements of the impact spell but Hongbin still didn’t expect it to fling Yeongsik back with so much force.

He scrambles to cast a cushioning spell and barely makes it before the older sorcerer collides with the wall again. While he knows Yeongsik probably wouldn’t survive hitting the wall again – and that’s why he’d done the cushioning spell – he’s still really tempted to give the older man a good kick in the ribs.

Luckily Sanghyuk appears then with four different types of health potion and a look of pure confusion.

“Which one?” he asks, stumbling into the room while trying not to drop the bottles.

“The purple one,” Hongbin answers instantly.

He and Sanghyuk sit down next to Ravi and Hongbin lifts the potion maker’s head so they can tip the potion down his throat without killing him. Despite their attempt Ravi still chokes but he pushes them away, regaining consciousness as he splutters.

“Why are you trying to kill me?” he gasps, coughing.

“Save your life, you mean,” Sanghyuk corrects.

“How do you feel?” Hongbin asks, ignoring the Anyegi.

“Sore,” Ravi replies.

Sanghyuk frowns. “But you took the potion.”

“That one doesn’t have pain relief,” Hongbin explains.

He helps Ravi to his feet and into the kitchen before depositing him on a stool at the bench. Hongbin can’t help glaring at the remnants of Sanghyuk’s breakfast.

“You couldn’t clean up?”

Sanghyuk shrugs. “I could do it now, if you want.”

“Do it now,” Hongbin replies. “Can’t believe Hakyeon lets you get away with this.”

The Anyegi pouts and starts cleaning up his mess. He’s halfway to the bin when he remembers the other half of what he’d been told to do before.

“I checked the mailbox!” he shouts suddenly, startling both Ravi and Hongbin. “There was a note!”

“Inside voice,” Ravi grumbles as Hongbin takes the note.

All taken care of here. Be home soon. Any problems? H.

“Does that mean he won?” Hongbin wonders.

“I’d assume so.”

“Oh, man,” Sanghyuk whimpers. “He’s gonna be so mad when he gets home and sees all this mess.”

Sanghyuk still remembers Hakyeon’s expression when he’d accidentally put his elbow through the wall. He’d never been scared of Hakyeon until that moment.

Hongbin grins. “Well, why don’t you start cleaning it up while I take Ravi home so he can rest, hmm?”

Ravi’s torn between telling the sorcerer off for being mean and going along with it because he thinks it’s kind of funny. In the end Hongbin gives in and casts the few cleaning spells he knows.

“Stop overusing it,” Ravi tells him, worried.

“I’m fine,” Hongbin answers but he does as Ravi says.

“I can clean the rest,” Sanghyuk volunteers now that most of it has been done for him.

The hole in the front of the house is kind of huge so they’ll have to leave that for Hakyeon to fix, but at least they cleaned up the glass and wood and brick. The only thing that needed to be done is clean up the knocked over furniture.

“Thank you, Sanghyuk,” Hongbin smiles. “We’ll get going. I’ll be home later, okay?”

“Okay.”

Sanghyuk sighs as he picks the furniture up. Once it’s all in the right spot he hauls Yeongsik off the ground and into an armchair. For a second Sanghyuk wonders how he’s supposed to keep Yeongsik restrained but he then remembers the rope he’d seen in the back yard. That would have to do until Hakyeon comes home to take the ex-sorcerer away.