Vanessa was living through a nightmare. Tears stained her cheeks and she didn’t know if they were from fear or despair. Her lover was killed by her own Skill. Lightning from the Heavens was her finisher. A pillar of lightning so thick and powerful that whatever it struck was annihilated. It was meant for the blond-haired mage but he had somehow redirected it into Carl. She’d been forced to watch as parts of his body rained down around them. It was impossible. The mission had stated the risks. The boy shouldn’t have been more than level fifty. Certainly it had said that he and the girl might be the holders of Legendary Classes. The very idea had seemed absurd to her. Having such would have put him and his partner on par with the Royals. But even though she had thought the idea ridiculous, the team had still been put together with that in mind. There was Gordon, over level one hundred and an Epic Classer like them, one of the five Platinum-tier combatants House Desmarais could field, to hold off the pair’s Platinum-tier guardian. Then another four to keep back any other support the targets had. Then three each to execute the mission and kill the targets. She had thought it was overkill. Now, she believed, it wasn’t going to be enough.
Unleashing the spell Questing Lightning, the forking arcs of yellow light sought out the Rune Mage across from her. He vanished, causing her to lose track of him for a moment. Her training kicked in and lightning coursed through her body, burning her from the inside out as she vastly boosted her speed and moved, dodging to the left to try and support Yarl. She had always loved her affinity and Classes. Most people didn’t focus on being a pure Lightning Mage, instead working towards something like Storm Mage. But she’d never seen anything as destructive as pure lightning, except for maybe Gordon’s lava. It was a weapon, but it was double-edged. Lightning had no powerful defensive skills or spells and as a Mage, she was weak in her physical Stats. That was why she had taken the Skill Fast as Lightning. It was a body-burner Skill, ripping her apart from the inside, but it was all she could do to stay ahead of the boy's attacks.
Yarl, their archer, had been harassed the entire fight by whatever in the Nine Hells that shadow monster was. His Skills took time to charge and build and he’d effectively been hamstrung from doing more than irritating the Rune Mage. It was all just so…impossible. He should have been around twenty levels below them. He should lack the power of an Embodiment. He was outnumbered. His teleportation skill was supposed to have a cooldown. And he wasn’t supposed to be able to summon whatever the hell that shadow monster was. They were losing. If something didn’t change, she was going to die. They all were. Gordon couldn’t beat the Eternal Grove alone, and if she failed to defeat the Rune Mage here, the tides would turn against them.
The sound of metal boots pounding the ground was like music to her ears as Mikael joined them, making it three against one once more. Surely the boy was running out of mana. Now they just needed to finish this! A sliver of hope crept into her heart to nestle there alongside her pain.
*************
Evindal didn’t move. He didn’t need to. He was a pure Mage. More importantly, he was a Lord of Life. So when he needed to move, his trees did it for him. The branch he was on snaked higher into the canopy, avoiding the hail of lava bolts chasing him. A month ago it might have been mildly challenging to avoid such an attack, but that was before his newest Legendary Skill. The Time Between was mana intensive, but with quick application it gave Evindal all the time in the world to assess trajectories, sense mana and even looked like it could synergise with his ‘Flourishing’ Skills that grew his seeds into mammoth trees in moments.
He couldn’t see Gordon, but he could sense him, the man’s lifeforce brighter than the trees that surrounded him. His senses told him more than that though. They told him that Gordon’s body was trying to fight off the poisons he had already inhaled. The man had figured it out quickly, using some simplistic wind spell to cleanse the air around him. Most didn’t notice until it was too late. It wasn’t the ideal outcome, but it would only slow Evindal down a little. Between maintaining the wind spell, whatever Skill or Spell Gordon was using to cleanse himself and the swirling shield of lava the man was maintaining, he was leaking mana like a sieve. He’d probably have mana gems on him, to replenish himself, but then, so did Evindal. And this was the least of Lord of Life’s tricks.
Dropping another set of seeds, he activated A Time To Flourish, growing them into short shrub-like bushes in seconds, before the thorny vines on them started snaking towards the Lava Mage. The vines would blacken and smoke, but it would take time for them to actually burn, as they had been altered to be resistant to fire and heat. A more liberal injection of poison should see the end of this battle hastened to the expected conclusion. Because Evindal knew one thing, above all else. None of their attackers could be allowed to live. Nate and Kiri would not be able to hold back against such opponents, and the revelations of the true extent of their skills would be enough to bring the Nobility down on their heads. He couldn’t allow that to happen to the mentees his wife had selected. Drawing one last seed out of his spatial storage, he prepared to eat it and activate Life Finds A Way. There was no holding back when lives were on the line.
*************
Kiri danced out of the way of the spear stabbing at her back and continued to slam eight out of her ten daggers at the bubble around the Barrier Mage. The woman was staring out from inside of her magical shield, fear plain in her eyes and sweat pouring down her face. With only two opponents, and To Slay A Soul enhancing her with the powers of Koriolos, Kiri was able to stay a step ahead of the Spear-wielder, all but ignoring her as she wore the Barrier Mage down. It wouldn’t be long now and she was thankful for that, because she was approaching the dregs. She had been Reborn, living up to the name of her Classes, her future Embodiment. But it hadn’t been without cost. Her Twin Soul had meant she lost nothing. She remembered being sliced apart, the seconds between as she watched her body from the Spiritual Realm, and then its restoration. But the Twin Soul was just a container to store those experiences, those memories, the thing which made her who she was. It didn’t fix the destruction to her body. That had come from her soul energy. Now she was almost down to the dregs. Dregs which were being eroded by her ongoing imbuement and soul tethers. She couldn’t even afford to use Effective Soul Shift any more for fear of running down what remained.
If she was like Nate, she might have had another option. In the corner of her vision notifications were flashing and she knew she had at least two Skill evolutions ready to go. Maybe three. Not to mention at least one level from killing the Water Mage. But even though she had started investing in her Intellect so that her mind could keep up with her speed and to a lesser extent, her perception, she was still on the lower end. She wasn’t at a point where she could split her attention like Nate could. Without that there was no way she could make smart decisions mid-battle while fighting two opponents of this calibre. She’d end up skewered on a spear and her soul energy couldn’t afford any more wounds like that.
Finally, after another fifteen seconds of uninterrupted strikes, her Runecrafted Dagger of Soulrending shattered one of the barriers, plunging into the barrier mage’s chest. The look of shock on the woman's face vanished in a few seconds as Kiri drained her dry, using Soul Drain to top up her flagging reserves slightly. It wasn’t enough to put her anywhere near normal but it was more than enough to keep going. Enough to finish this fight.
Turning to face the Spear-wielder, Kiri’s face transformed from victorious to furious, as the sound of Britt’s scream echoed across the battlefield. Her friends needed her and they needed her now. She leaped forward, forgoing any plans for a proper defence!
*************
Nate heard the sound of Britt’s scream and saw his girlfriend impact the ground so hard she left a crater. There was no sign of her mana armour and a quick flex of his Farsight Sphere of Awareness told him how bad it was. She was dying, her internal organs failing and many of her bones shattered. She didn’t have long. Frick stood over her defensively, shielding her from a follow-up attack, but his Familiar looked beaten too. My Will My Way wasn’t purely a mana skill. It required Frick’s own soul energy as well, and it looked like he was running low.
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Nate could see why. Three of their attackers were moving to join the Archer and Lightning Mage facing him. Two of them had finished off Null’s Gold-tier bodyguards, the two Guildies lying dead in the grass. It broke his heart a little. They had seemed like good people. But it was nothing compared to the fury building in him at the sight of his broken girlfriend. Britt was a beautiful soul. Caring and generous. Loyal and bright. She had shown more patience with him than he had ever expected, even if he felt he wasn’t the best of boyfriends. And now she lay broken on the grassy plains, just for being associated with him. He almost choked, he was so angry.
He had already been winning, but he hadn’t truly been pushing himself. Certainly, the fight hadn’t been easy, but compared to some of his other battles, he hadn’t been pressured. He hadn’t been forced to make desperate decisions just to survive. A thought in the back of his mind whispered to him that even with five of them, he could win without taking risks. But that was a luxury he couldn’t afford, not if he wanted to save Britt.
His plans for his future had been threefold, each represented by one of his Classes. Runic Artist, the core of who he was, an artist that used runes to create his interpretation of reality. Realmwalker, a Spatial Mage, which represented what he had done. He had travelled, between Realms and across the multiverse. The future of that path was intrinsically linked to his art. Space was the most important aspect of reality that he needed to manipulate to create art. It would be his gallery and his medium. Finally, Lord of Life, the representation of his future. Living art, used to make life better for himself, his friends and those who he brought into his confidences. A whole designed to let him create a better reality.
He pulled a small piece of purple metal out of his spatial storage. It was no bigger than his hand, and as it touched reality, it shifted and changed before his eyes. Each movement was sharp angles, one moment it was a perfect rectangle, then it had five sides, then eight, then back down to four. The only reason he had held off on using it so far was because it was actually a lower tier than his Shadow affinity wood. He hadn’t had the time to raise it to more than Rare, the cost in time and mana higher due to the strength of the affinity contained within. The piece of purple metal contained his only Grandmaster-tier Sigil, Space. Even with processed mana powering it he wasn’t certain it would be enough to defeat his opponents. But there was something else he could do to fix that. His newest Skill, Spatial Empowerment, enhanced spells and skills that utilised space. Not runes though. Not yet.
He was enough to beat these five enemies, even with their advantages, but he wasn’t enough to do it in the time he needed it done. In the past, he had used his Conceptual Intent to force Skills to synergise. But he wasn’t convinced that would work this time. Spatial Empowerment was his lowest tier Skill alongside Material Shaping. More importantly, he could sense where it was on his Class Core and it was almost on the opposite side to his Rune-related Skills. The damage for forcing a synergy would be extreme and he wasn’t convinced it would achieve the kind of result he wanted anyway. No, what he needed was to evolve the Skill. It had been levelling fast, in the Dungeon and now in this battle, but it was still five levels short. Using True Teleportation he backed away from his opponents, forcing them to give chase as he began to bear down on the Skill with his Conceptual Intent. As he did so, he used Conceptual Runic Artistry and Conceptual Runic Creation to surround his Class Core with a Powerful Space runic array. His intent latched onto the rune, directing the power and the idea, the concept itself, at the Spatial Empowerment skill. At the same time, he used his last Skill Enhancement Orb on the same skill. Some might have said it was a waste, but as far as he was concerned, anything that could help was worth the cost. Mana drained out of his reserve and into his Class Core, almost emptying him, but finally the Skill seemed to respond. The notification arrived a moment later and he glanced at the evolution options, his mind flicking through them in seconds.
Spatial Empowerment 15 > 21
Spatial Empowerment (E) is ready to evolve.
Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.
Skill Evolution Options:
Conceptual Spatial Empowerment (L)
All Mages need to empower their Skills and Spells beyond what their affinities can provide. Some turn to tools, enchantments, alchemy or even spirits. You have turned to sequestering mana to further empower your Skills by concentrating mana with your spatial affinity. This Skill empowers anything that utilises the Concept of Space, be they Spells, Skills, Runes or more esoteric applications. Empowerment is equal to Skill Level * 3 plus Magic Control / 50 percent.
Teleportation Empowerment (L)
All Mages need to empower their Skills and Spells beyond what their affinities can provide. Some turn to tools, enchantments, alchemy or even spirits. You have turned to sequestering mana to further empower your Skills by concentrating mana with your spatial affinity. This Skill empowers all Spatial Skills and Spells. Additionally this Skill has a multiplicative effect on any teleportation related Skills or Spells. Spatial Empowerment is equal to Skill Level * 3 plus Magic Control / 50 percent. Teleportation Empowerment is equal to Skill Level * 4.
Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.
While both Skills were good, only one truly aligned with his path and his desires. Selecting Conceptual Spatial Empowerment, he drew forth his second and final processed mana gem. Activating Conceptual Automated Existence, he funnelled the entire gem into the piece of metal containing an affinity for space. With Conceptual Intent, he flagged his enemies and gave it a single order. Expend everything as fast as it could to destroy them.
The form that appeared before him was like seeing geometric shapes stacked on top of each other as a humanoid purple body forced itself into existence. Nate suspected it was his intent giving it a humanoid appearance, his desire for living art. Without Farsight of the Runic Artist active, he wouldn’t have understood what happened next. Space broke, like seeing a glass window fracture. Each of those pieces stood out in his senses, containing fragments of reality. Of the myriad pieces of space, five contained the targets he had specified. One moment they were separated, coming at Nate from different angles. The next they were combined, all standing within inches of each other in front of his Space Construct. Then the spatial fractures shattered. If not for Nate’s fear for Britt, he would’ve vomited. In an instant each of the five tried to defend themselves and each was ruthlessly crushed. The archer tried to teleport only to find his enchanted ring's ability suppressed by something with greater control over space. The Lightning Mage, the Hammer-wielder that had faced Britt and a dagger user all tried to flee. But in fractured space, there was nowhere to go. The last was a blocky man in plate armour wielding a two-handed sword. Of the five, he was the only one to survive, his body too durable to be cut apart by the spatial magics. But whatever fight was left in him was gone, the man collapsing to the dirt bleeding from more cuts than Nate could count.
With its mana expended the Spatial Construct shattered like tinkling glass. The purple metal that had been the substrate upon which it had been built followed, splintering into small shards that sprinkled the ground in front of Nate.
As processed mana flooded the battlefield, Nate ignored it, teleporting toward Britt and his Familiar. Landing in the crater with her, he collapsed to his knees and looked her over more thoroughly. Her heart was still pumping blood, but it was slowing. There was bleeding inside of her skull and one of her lungs was punctured. That was ignoring the damage to the rest of her organs and the plethora of broken bones. She was on death's door and holding on by a thread. Stalwart, he reminded himself. She was stalwart. He knew his Common-tier healing spell was not going to be enough. He needed more. He reached for Conceptual Insight, realising in the back of his mind that he would sacrifice himself if that was what was required to save her. But there should be another option. A path forward. He just hoped it would be enough.
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