[This feels so familiar.]

The flow of mana?

[Yes!]

You are a mage after all. You've used magic all your life and know it intimately.

[But you made me forget.]

Yes, I had to.

[Why?]

Someone or something has altered your memories. I had to make you forget so that I could rearrange your memories to how they should be.

[What? How strange. Is it an easy task to alter memories?]

No. We can't speak more about it. Stop asking questions and focus on the spell because we are about to have an army fall upon us right now.

The news of their dire situation was calmly delivered by the sage.

[Are we taking on the entire army?! I was saving Levia for this.]

Unnecessary. These are mere trifles compared to the enemies I had to face back in my days.

The sage started boasting even though he had told Syryn to pay attention to the spell.

I tamed Levia with my powers. What I am about to show you is but a fraction of we are capable of, Syryn Nigh'hart. Watch and learn.

The mer King had given his signal. The army of mers began surrounding the humans so that there was no route for their escape. There were armoured mers circling around and above them. The trident was back in the mer King's hand. The satisfied look on his face though was turning into something less confident.

He could see that Syryn's little thread of water had grown into a thick rope in less than a minute since the mage had started channelling.

On the other hand, Rowan was completely fascinated by what the mage was doing. He wanted to make a move but he could feel it inside him that Syryn was about to do something amazing. Internally, the anti mage was getting antsy, urging the mage to hurry up because Rowan would be forced to do something about the enclosing mers who were out for blood. He would rather see what damage Syryn was going to pull off.

There we go.

The water around Syryn started spinning violently.

[Don't hit Rowan!]

I had forgotten about him. 

"You," the sage pointed to Rowan. He beckoned for the anti mage to come to him. A lull in the spinning allowed Rowan to swiftly move and join Syryn within his zone of safety.

The mers were now very close to the duo. They could sense the danger that the humans posed to them. A spear was flung with great force and it came through the water wall, straight at Syryn.

Rowan deftly caught the spear an inch away from Syryn's face. The water sped up again and though more spears were thrown at them, the weapons were destroyed by the wall of now violent tornado of water.

To the dismay of the king, Syryn didn't just stop at creating a tornadic water spout, there were tiny shards of ice forming in the water. The danger level had suddenly spiked.

"RUN!" He shouted to the mers, "GET AWAY FROM THE HUMANS!"

But they couldn't hear him.

The King rapidly backed away and mounted his shark. As soon as he turned in the opposite direction with his mount, he heard a thundering sound and then screams of his damned soldiers.

The King did not look behind him. He knew he would see carnage.

The other mers ahead of him were also madly scrambling away from whatever was coming behind the fleeing mer king. There was a loud roar in his ears and then a flash of searing pain. The mer king was flung from his mount and the skin was torn off of his flesh by Syryn's brutal attack.

[Pull back, there might be innocent young mers mixed in with the fleeing nobles.]

You should have told me before I released the spell. It is too late now to retract the magic.

Syryn hoped that there were no children or young mers in the crowd. He hoped their parents were sensible enough to protect the young ones with their own bodies.

The violent water spout with suspended bits of ice in them travelled out across a wide area, engulfing all the mers that hadn't escaped fast enough. When it dissipated, the ocean floor was littered with the bodies of mers still alive but injured to such a degree that they lay unmoving on the ocean floor. The water had a tint of red from all the blood that was getting mixed in. Sand pulled up the water spout was very slowly falling back to the ocean floor and clouding the already murky water. Detritus from the ocean floor along with broken pieces of rocks, corals, and weapons floated through the tinted water.

Syryn could hear the painful moans and groans being let out by the injured mers.

[Neat trick, old man.]

Syryn didn't receive a reply. The sage had gone back to being a silent spectator.

"Who taught you that, Ryn?" Rowan asked from beside the mage. He sounded fairly impressed. This was his first time seeing Syryn perform water magic and it had been quite the show.

"An old man," the mage replied. He smiled while surveying the damage that had been wrought upon the army of mers. It was astounding just how many of them were prone and laid out like a carpet for Syryn.

"You'll tell me about this later. I want to know everything."

"How bossy," Syryn replied. "Sure I'll tell you."

The blond had saved his skin twice. Syryn's trust in Rowan had grown rapidly. He considered the blond a trustworthy ally. Rather than words, the blond's actions had moved the mage.

"What do you wish to do now, Ryn? If there's nothing else, let's leave."

"I have to pass on a few words to the king. We can leave after that." The mage looked at the seemingly neverending carpet of bodies littered before them. "But how am I supposed to find him among all these bodies?"

"I saw the direction he was thrown towards by your attack. Come with me," Rowan said to Syryn as he held out his hand for the mage to take.