The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) 📕

no time to invoke a shield, I threw the staff up into its path. As the fireball collided into it, I squinted my eyes closed to the flames that would inevitably break past it and burn my face. But the fireball just … stopped. It was as though the staff had sucked it right out of the air.

I was bringing the staff around to examine it when two more fireballs flew from Chicory’s wand. More confident now, I slashed the staff high and low, batting them out of existence.

When I saw Chicory preparing to cast again, I ran at him. “Protezione,” I called.

Light swelled from the staff’s opal. Enhanced by the runes, the light crackled into a formidable shield around me. A succession of fireballs broke against it, each one vanishing into harmless wisps of smoke. When I was mere feet from Chicory, he unleashed a firestorm.

I waited patiently for the flames gushing around me to expire, then touched the tip of my blade to his paunch.

“Got you,” I said.

Chicory cocked a bushy eyebrow. “Oh?”

A low moan sounded behind me. I wheeled to find a pair of earth elementals pushing themselves up from the ground using fists the size of wrecking balls. Powerful magic wavered around them.

“Oh, c’mon,” I complained.

“No shields this time,” Chicory said, snatching my staff away.

“Wha—?” When I turned to reclaim the staff, Chicory was already gone.

Oh, no he didn’t.

But he had, and I was on my own. The ground shook as the elementals, fully formed, plodded toward me.

“Vigore!” I shouted, aiming my sword at the nearer one.

The force that erupted from the blade broke around the elemental’s protection, barely slowing it. Its partner came around my other side, blocking the stairwell as an escape route. I backed away, sword held out. I considered invoking a stronger force blast, but it would only deplete my power. I feinted right and attempted to dart left, but they herded me into a corner. When I tried to split them, the closer elemental planted a leg in front of me. The other one raised a giant fist.

“Chicory?” I called shakily. “A little help?”

This was part of my training, I got it. But without my staff, and these guys encased in powerful defensive magic, I couldn’t do a blasted thing. I expected Chicory to suspend the session, show me what I’d done wrong, and then run it again so I could apply what he’d taught me.

Instead, the elemental’s arm descended like a falling tree.

“Whoa!” I shouted, raising my sword in an attempt to parry the heavy blow.

I felt almost nothing as the blade cleaved the elemental’s arm in two. The magic holding the creature together dispersed with a shudder, its decaying fist raining chunks of earth over me. The rest of its body collapsed into a mound. The other elemental looked at its fallen partner and backed away.

“Not so big and moany now, are you?” I said, advancing on it.

When the elemental turned to run, I launched the sword like a javelin. The blade pierced the center of its back. The elemental fell forward and, under its own momentum, scattered across the floor.

“Booya!” I shouted.

I looked around to make sure Chicory wasn’t throwing anything else at me before kneeling to unearth the sword. When I stood again, my mentor was in front of me, handing me back my staff.

“Do you still doubt me?” he asked.

I held the sword and staff out at arm’s length and examined them. “What in the hell did you do to these?”

“To the staff, I added an absorption charm. Like a sponge, it will soak up any offensive magic that hits it.”

“Any magic?” I asked, examining the runes more closely now.

“Well, up to a point. But it’s a powerful charm. Those weren’t first-level fire balls I was slinging at you. Even better, the magic it absorbs will bolster the staff’s defensive capabilities.”

I remembered the strength of my shield and nodded. “What about the sword?”

“That was easier, actually.” His eyes shifted with mine to the blade. “Your grandfather had imbued it with an enchantment that can cleave through magic. You’d just yet to channel enough of your energy through it to access it. The enchantment is very powerful, and it works just as well on magical defenses as on magical beings. Again, to a point.”

I moved the sword and staff through the air, my anger at Chicory almost forgotten as I considered their enhanced power. Throw in the robe of John the Baptist, and I was beginning to feel like I had a chance.

“So if I get close enough to Marlow to strike…” I started.

“The blade could destroy him, yes,” Chicory said. “But we’d rather you use it to destroy Lich’s book.”

I slotted the blade back into the staff. “Why?”

“Because the book is the source of Marlow’s power, and it’s safer.”

I thought of the man who had set fire to my mother and then watched as the flames consumed her. I imagined him smiling behind the gold mask, reveling in the power he held over a woman he’d rendered defenseless, a woman who had birthed his child. The anger inside me rose up more fiercely than the remembered flames. I grunted as I imagined myself driving the blade through Marlow’s chest, giving it a hard twist. Surprise, you piece of—

“Everson,” Chicory said sharply, bringing me back. “You talked about your fear of being ill prepared? It’s much worse to be fully prepared only to be subverted by revenge. Find and destroy the book. Depriving the mage of his power will be justice enough. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“And if he tries to stop me?” I said, my knuckles still white around the sword’s hilt.

“Just don’t go looking for a fight, is what I’m saying.” Chicory’s eyes seemed to waver.

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“I’m getting there,” he said irritably. “When you asked earlier, I said the blade could destroy him.”

“What, now you’re saying it can’t?”

“Would you stop and listen? It could if he gives you a chance