I continued to defend against endless rain of spells, blood continuing to stem down my nose as the challenge of containing the mana I stole started to get overwhelming. I had both the mana and the skill necessary to cure myself, but I couldn’t spare the attention.
Not when the squad was still approaching steadily, close enough for the distance to be measured in feet, the warriors standing in a formation to protect the mages. Ordinarily, the presence of the warriors would mean little in a mage battle — courtesy of area-effect or other indirect spells.
But things were different with their weapons more than capable of destroying spells, and their incredible HP reserves made it impossible to take down with stray spells and ordinary tricks.
And then, they arrived at the border, one of them, armed with a long spear — its heft once again studded with enough eternal gems to trigger a world war, supporting the weapon with enough mana to rival my regeneration — probed forward.
The floating orbs ignored him, still busy trying to block the spells of the mages that were raining without a pause. The tip of the spear hit the ward, but that was the extent of his probing, pulling immediately, trying to protect themselves against a possible trap.
Yet, even that casual probing was enough to damage the ward that required hundreds of mana to fix. I did so, making it look like it cost me a dangerous portion of my reserves, while I just used some of the mana I stole from their spells, actually reducing the pressure I was feeling.
But, the mysterious enemy still didn’t act, nor he acted in a way that would kill me. The spells that the mages were throwing around were extremely strong, but at this point, it was clear that they were not working.
I could come up with a hundred better formations to actually kill me, but the current pattern was perfect for increasing the pressure I was feeling.
Especially that, rather than attacking directly, the warriors surrounded me in a circle, with the mages behind them, creating incredible pressure…
The mysterious enemy still stayed hidden, letting me feel the pressure of his deadly tactics, yet to reveal his true objective, content in keeping me in deadly danger.
Whatever he wanted to see, he was yet to see it, which meant it was not about my magical capabilities. That aspect didn’t surprise me much, as even the ward they used to trap me showed that they had resources and capabilities that could easily eclipse me.
I decided to lean on it more to anger him, in a way that would pull his attention away from Silver Spires. Luckily, I had an excellent scapegoat for this, one that had already gone through a lot of trouble to avoid the attention of the Eternals.
Zokras, the unlucky lich.
“Enough. I can’t believe I have to abandon this identity because of a bunch of rabid dogs,” I shouted as I reached to my own mana, and used my own mana to replicate the undead energy, letting it dance over my skin, even as I cast an illusion.
[-1306 Mana]
[-481 HP]
The pain was bad, but not impossible to resist. The important part was to make the trick look convincing, and I was aware that my mysterious enemy was simple. I let the necrotic energy infuse my body.
Yet, the enemy stayed silent.
So be it, I thought even as I reached one of the four nodes, and transformed into necrotic energy, followed by a smirk.
I finally felt a movement in the Northeast direction. Necrotic energy was truly the bane of living creatures, and HP was not a good barrier. That much necrotic energy was enough to cause a threat.
And the reaction was intense, coming in the form of a huge spell, one of familiar energy.
It was a spear of light, with an intensity that Titania couldn’t hope to match even in her wildest dreams. Even Mariel would fail to match that despite the recent help I had given her to assimilate her Divine Spark.
The spell was enough to give me a good guess of what had triggered the sudden ambush. They were clearly observing her more closely than I had been expecting, enough that her sublimation of Divine Spark was enough to trigger a great trap.
Yet, I was clearly just a suspect, and they weren’t sure whether I was responsible for it. If they knew for certain, they wouldn’t have worked so hard to bait me.
The instant spell was enough to show me that the enemy was strong. Far stronger than me, and not just in pure power — as it would hardly be something new, every single enemy I was fighting against had enough raw power to eclipse me — but also in control and application.
It was time to retreat, I decided, preparing myself to teleport. But, I needed a ward to protect myself first, and my enemy was kind enough to give me the necessary tools to do so.
His spell was fast, and under normal conditions, it would have arrived to me before I could cast a spell. Transforming the nature of more than ten thousand points of mana was not a quick affair even when that mana was in my reserves, ready to be used. Outside, it was even slower.
But I had Tantric, which helped me to transform nature much more easily by increasing the malleability of mana, and the mysterious enemy was sufficiently away that even a spear of light was not instantaneous.
Their attempts to stay hidden were not without their cost.
The necrotic energy exploded, delivering a dangerous amount of damage to every single one. Since it was not a targeted spell but an intense flood of energy, their ability to block didn’t work as well, especially since the mages didn’t react in time.
Yet, against them, even that was not enough to kill them, or even wound them seriously.
But it was enough to give me an opportunity as they pulled back. I focused on the warriors even as I directed the now empty rotating mana toward the spear of light, using it to block it, sacrificing the node in the process, triggering a great explosion.
I didn’t even try absorbing it, as it was a trick that was only possible because of the ineptitude of the other mages, using extremely simple spells, their structure obvious for my gaze, allowing me to identify the correct point to destabilize it.
Against the spear, even destabilizing it enough that it self-destructed was a great achievement, though the cost was equally steep.
An eternal gem.
Just like the mysterious enemy was mocking my achievement, he cast another spell, this time sending fourteen spears of light at the same time, with the same ease, showing that he was yet to show his true capabilities.
Luckily, the thirteen eternal gems in my possession were not the only ones I could get. After all, they weren’t the only ones that were hiding their capabilities, and I wasn’t stupid enough to let them surround me without an ulterior motive.
I reached for the second orb, transforming the mana into necrotic energy as well, but this time targeting the hands of the mages, who were too distracted to resist.
The mages weren’t weak, but they also didn’t have the endless HP of the warriors. And, with the warriors still distracted by the pain of the necrotic energy. Especially I directed some of it to their soul space, the conflict against the barrier that protected their soul space strong enough to disable them in pain for a second.
A second without their protection was all I needed to deal with the mages, their HP was nothing against necrotic energy, once again reminding me that it was not without reason necromancers were hunted the moment they were detected.
The protection of HP was nothing against it.
“No!” came a monstrous shout, one that reminded me of a monster, though distinctly male, though what scared me was the energy that accompanied it. It was a fiery energy, hard to describe, destroying everything in its path.
It reminded me of light, and fire, but even at a distance, I could feel that it was only a superficial similarity, not something true.
Yet, his anger was unmistakable. It was not anger that come from a loss, but came of warning. He wasn’t in despair because I killed ten of his soldiers, but what would follow.
At this point, I wasn’t interested in his threats. His strength was enough that I had to run away from Silver Spires for a long time, and my show of necrotic energy was hopefully enough to mark me as a spy rather than a member.
I could only hope that it would be enough to keep him away from targeting the school in revenge — especially since he was hesitant for some reason.
I ignored the threat in his tone as I tapped into the ball of energy once more, once again using the external energy for my objectives.
Enough to target ten weapons at the same time, disassembling them in an instant. With hundreds of eternal gems under my control, sacrificing thirteen of them was not a big deal. Especially since I still had exactly twenty-three untouched weapons, each promising me at least ten eternal gems.
The angry shout of my enemy was beautiful, I thought, but the satisfaction didn’t last long.
This time, it didn’t come in the form of a distant attack, but a familiar distortion.
Teleportation.
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 63
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 6982 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]
SKILLS
Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Master Craft [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (0/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Titania - Level 35/38]
[Cornelia - Level 22/26]
[Helga - Level 22/26]
[Marianne - Level 21/29]