His mind was spinning with ideas as to what he would tell his friends when they got here. What kind of story would he be able to spin to explain himself now? But he had no time to think on this, as at that instant a thunderous voice exploded not 50m away from him. In the same direction as the muffled footsteps had come from. And from around the corner he saw the origin of both of these disturbances. In the dim light of the overhead lanterns he could see the unmistakable image of a group of wizards. What worried him was that they all seemed to be bearing down on him at quite a pace, and those were not looks of delight at seeing him on their faces. This didn't look like a very good situation!

He quickly set about preparing himself and, more importantly, his spells, for the seemingly imminent assault. In a flash of blue light, he surrounded himself with four carbon copies of himself. This ought to keep them guessing for a while. While they spread out to his sides, creating a formation of Rowens, he continued to up his defences as the six figures ahead of him closed in. He uttered what sounded like gibberish words in quick succession to complete his array of protection spells. The first of these spells caused him to appear to fade away to no more than a shimmer in the air, while the second and third spells increased his magical and elemental resistance. And just in time too. No sooner had he completed the spells than the approaching wizards began to cast their own spells. Rowen braced himself as he awaited the first wave of the onslought.

Luck seemed to be with him though, as the first volley of energy was aimed at the illusions he had created around him. Three of his clones managed to dodge the magical missiles aimed at them, but the fourth was caught in an explosion of light and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He smiled. If this was all that he had to deal with, this would be a quick fight!

With a wave of his hands he levitated to a point four feet above where he had just been standing, and a further wave created a pulsating glow of red energy at his fingertips. Five seconds later the two globes that had formed in his hands shot out at his foes, catching both of his targets squarely in their chests. They were paralized on the spot. Two down, four more to go...

The opposing wizards, realizing that this was no small prey they were dealing with, decided that it was time to up their game. In what seemed to be a synchronized echo of voices, all four of the remaining wizards surrounded themselves in a bubble of arching bolts of electricity. As soon as they had completed this spell, they drew together into a tight circle and began to chant.

This couldn't be good, though Rowen. Whatever they were doing must be quite powerful, as they were taking some time in their careful chanting and synchronized movements. Rowen fired fireball after lightning bolt after fireball at the group, but nothing seemed to affect them. Eventually he decided that the only way he would get at them was to fight fire with fire, so to speak.

He slowly came back down to earth as he began his own series of incantations. If they wanted to play with big magic, fine. But if they weren't careful, they were going to be burnt!

This had better work, he though. And if it didn't, he hoped his friends would get here soon. Beyond this spell, their were only a limited number of options left to him, and he didn't know quite how strong these castle walls were!