Samual by Greg Curtis Page B

Concentrating furiously on holding all that raging energy coursing through his hands together while trying to shape the final form, Sam brought his hands ever so slowly and smoothly together. His timing was perfect.
     
    When the closest of the rats was less than fifty yards from him, his palms touched, and a screaming fire breathing monster broke free within him. Suddenly he had to hang on for dear life as something more powerful and wild than he had ever imagined possible ripped loose from his body and coalesced just over his head and all around him.
     
    The forces involved – the heat and the light – were almost unbearable as the fire ring screamed its way free of him. It started to spin violently and briefly Sam had to shut his eyes to keep from going blind. He panicked a little. But only for an instant. It was far too important to keep his concentration so that the flow of magic into the spell was smooth and even. To give in to fear was to die. He could not give up his own life fire in the process. And to allow himself to give in to the spectacle or the pain was to do just that. That was the true danger in wizardry. That in giving of his essence to bind the magic to him, the wizard would release his life force with the spell. More than a few spell casters had died trying to use a spell far too powerful for them.
     
    But not this wizard. And not this day. Sam held on for dear life and felt the magic leave him cleanly.
     
    A heart beat or a thousand hours later his battle with the spell was over and Sam watched with immense relief and awe as a living circle of fire spread out from him in all directions, as fast as an arrow could fly. It was like a ripple in a pond spreading out after a stone had been cast. But this ripple came from the very depths of the underworld itself; an inferno of rage as it ripped away from him like a demon released.
     
    The rats didn't stand a chance, but neither did they care. Even through the rapidly departing fire wall he could see their steel faces and red eyes as they continued to charge at him, stupidly running directly into the oncoming fire. But only until the two touched. Then the rats exploded. Hundreds of glorious explosions that looked like cannon fire.
     
    In mere heartbeats the battle was over, the rat army had been completely vanquished without a single survivor, and Sam knew a moment of complete triumph. But only a moment as that feeling quickly turned to one of shock and horror. The fire ring was even more powerful than he'd guessed, and more than it needed to be; far more. Sam watched with horror and awe as it reached the end of the clearing and then just kept advancing on through the forest. A raging juggernaut of savage and yet strangely beautiful destruction.
     
    The effect as it hit the nearby still frozen trees was staggering, as they too exploded with enough force to make the ground shake, before raining smouldering sap and bark everywhere. But at least they didn't catch fire. Further on out most of the trees did, exploding into fifty or a hundred foot high fire balls that turned the sky orange, and unleashed thunderclaps that shook the ground in all directions. And all the while the wall of fire that was the ring's edge just kept travelling further and further away from him.
     
    Finally, perhaps only a dozen beats of a frightened heart after it had begun its insane rampage, Sam watched the fire ring disintegrate, turning into brief flashes of glorious light and thunder before disappearing up into the sky like ascending angels streaking for heaven itself. But they were no angels. Nor were they demons either. They were the remnants of something far more powerful. In that short span of time the fire ring had done more damage than any dozen hurricanes.
     
    Left behind in the clearing where he stood and for half a league of forest in every direction lay a scene of utter destruction. In the distance trees, pines, oaks and even great redwoods stood broken. Many had been