A new story I had in my head. I haven't seen a story where magic is based off the game Magicka yet and I wanted to try my hand at it.

I yawn as I slowly get up from my straw bed, these Inns may not be the most comfortable, but at least they're affordable.

Getting up slowly, I stretch my limbs and get my blood flowing again. I check my belongings to see if it's all still here, can't be too careful in places like this.

My iron longsword and yew wood stave are still at the foot of the bed, my half-plate armour is still there as well. I put my armour back on which consists of an iron chest-plate with small pauldrons, iron boots and iron gauntlets, black leather leggings with three pouches down each side of my thighs, and a black leather hood. I strap the sword to my left hip and use the stave as a walking stick.

My coin pouch still has what I arrived with, five gold, thirty silver and twenty-two copper coins. I also have a few gems in my top right pouch I found during my travels, my lock-picks are in my left middle pouch and my few salted meats are in my bottom left pouch, I have a flask of water in my bottom right pouch while the other pouches are empty.

I put my camping gear on my back which contains a small two person tent, a small cooking pot with utensils, a bed roll, a small shovel and a hatchet.

Once all equipped, I head down into the bar area of the Inn, I look around at some of the people drinking and eating; I notice two of them looking at me with scowls, I'm going to have to keep an eye on them, one of them is wearing torn studded leather armour and the other is wearing frayed robes with a splintered staff next to him.

I sit at an empty table and order a light breakfast. Halfway through my meal, a stranger in a brown cloak and grey hood sits across from me. His face seems longer than most, with a long white goatee and bushy long eyebrows. Two mismatched horns seemed to be attached to his hood as well.

But it's his eyes that disturb me, they're yellow with red irises.

"Greetings my friend, I could not help but notice your stave, are you by chance a mage?" he asks.

I swallow the eggs I'm chewing on. "Battle-mage, still training but I know the basics," I reply.

"Close enough, I have a book here you might be interested in," he says and places a thick leather tome on the table, by the looks of the book, it's old, very old.

"What is it?" I ask warily.

"A very unique spell book, it teaches how to cast spells and it even teaches a few elements forgotten to time," he tells me.

I raise an eyebrow sceptically. "Oh? And why offer such a book to me? Wouldn't you get more for it at the Academy?" I ask him.

"I don't want money, I've learnt all this book has to offer, I'm just passing it on so somepo... one else who can learn from it," he replies.

I was about to open the book but he places a hand on it. "Read it alone, only those worthy of such knowledge may read its contents," he tells me seriously.

I frown and look down at the book. "And what makes me worthy of such a book? I'm still an apprentice, I can only combine two elements," I tell him.

"I see potential in you my lad, I see great things in your future," he tells me. "A word of advice though, when you leave, watch your back," he says. He then snaps his fingers and is gone in a puff of... pink smoke.

The other patrons are also staring in confusion at the spot the man was sitting at, I then pick up the book and place it in my camping pack on the floor beside me. The others continue to stare for a while before going back to their meals or conversations. I finish my own meal and put my pack back on, I then pay the Innkeeper twenty silver and make my way out.

I follow the road towards the Capital City Elysium, I guess it will be another three days on foot to get there. After a few hours of walking, I hear some rustling in the bushes behind me, I turn around and don't spot anything out of the ordinary, an animal perhaps?

I turn back around and keep walking. About ten minutes later, the rustling returns and I draw my sword and ready my stave. I hear a few creepy chuckles as those two men who were scowling at me from the Inn step out from the tree line.

"Hehehe, hello boy. We'll be taking anything you have, as well as that book that old geezer gave ya," he says holding a rusty looking sword, the other is pointing his staff at me.

I point my stave at the bandit holding the staff and channel my mana through my stave, two small orbs of light coloured arcane red and fire orange circle the small focal gem on the tip.

After a few seconds of tense staring, I release the magic and the two elements meld together, a thin beam of fire bursts out from the gem and hits the staff bandit in the shoulder making him cry out in pain before healing himself, I really need to work on my aim.

The rusty sword wielding bandit charges at me and I parry his vertical swing with my sword, I then counter with a right horizontal slash from my left side at his stomach and cut open his gut, he screams and places his left hand over his wound and backs off.

The staff wielding bandit casts a healing beam at his friend and his wound starts closing but I quickly channel two cold elements and spray out a cone of frozen mist.

The staff wielder is covered in a light coating of ice and starts shivering, I quickly raise my sword and channel an earth and water element into my sword and swing down with an overhead strike, a line of rocky spikes burst up from the road and runs towards the rusty sword bandit, water blasts out of the cracks and hits him with decent force.

He's sent back a few metres and I charge at the staff wielder, his eyes widen as I plunge my sword through his throat, I then rip it back out and point my stave at the other bandit.

I channel two lightning elements and spray out a wide chain of electricity at him, since he was soaked from my previous attack, the electricity deals more damage and leaves him a crispy corpse. I hunch over with my hands on my knees panting hard, I'm still not used to casting so many spells in quick succession.

I walk over to a small boulder as I sheath my sword and sit down on it. I pull out my water flask and take a few gulps of the refreshing liquid, then I eat the last of my salted beef. I get the book out and give it a once over, cracked black leather binding with no text on the cover.

After a few seconds more of just looking at it, I open it up to the first page.

A bright flash of light blinds me momentarily making me drop the book and rub my eyes, I fall onto my back as the boulder I was sitting on disappeared.

I sit up and look around; I'm in some dark foreboding forest. I quickly get to my feet and put the book back into my pack, I'll look at it later once I know where I am. I draw my sword, pick up my stave and get into a stance, I stand still for a few minutes just listening for any movement.

A low growl to my left gets my attention, I turn towards it to see a large manticore, except it's missing its horns. Its rear end is comically small while its head and torso are huge, but the tail still looks as lethal as ever.

I slowly try to back away from it, it growls louder and advances on me. I slowly point my stave at it and channel a water and cold element through it, the beast gets closer and closer and leans close the the ground, ready to pounce.

I charge up the energy to narrow the spread of the ice bolts, I then release the spell and six shards of ice soar towards the Manticore where four of them dig into its hide.

It roars in pain or anger and then leaps at me, I swat its claw away with a swing of my sword and cut its paw. It roars again and thrusts it's stinger at me. "GAH!" I yell as it stabs my left thigh. I swing my sword down in anger and chop its stinger off.

It roars again and backs away, my leg begins to start burning as I channel two earth elements together, while it's writhing in pain I charge up the spell to increase the force of the rock the spell ripped out from the ground.

The manticore stops writhing and glares at me, until it sees the rock the size of my head floating with energy radiating from it. I release the spell and the rock impacts its skull with sickening force, a loud crunching sound of bone rings out as the manticore goes limp to the floor.

My mana is just about to run out and I'm pretty sure I'm poisoned. I pull out the stinger and attached it to my belt on my right hip, hopefully I can find a village or town nearby to make an antidote quickly. If the same logic applies, a manticore's poison takes twenty-four hours to kill. I apply what little mana I have left into healing the wound on my thigh a little, it's not closed, but it's better than bleeding out.

I start heading towards what looks like a dirt path and follow it for about ten minutes, the burning in my leg gets worse and starts spreading to my shin and waist. I see the forest's edge and walk out to see a large field with a town in the distance, the dirt path leads to the small town about ten minutes away.

I sheath my sword and use my stave like a walking stick as the pain is getting worse. Some time later I'm limping into town, to see something I'm sure I'm seeing right. Horses that stand upright with clothes on and come up to my chest in height are staring at me with mixed expressions, they kind of remind me of the Kitsune people.

They just stare at me with confusion, fear, curiosity, and even some worried expressions. I manage to take about twenty more steps before coughing up some blood and collapsing in the street.

"Oh my gosh! Quickly! We have to get it to the hospital!" says a female voice.

I cough again as I feel someone pick me up and wrap my right arm around their neck.

I try to stay awake but I end up passing out.