Chapter 40 Battle’s Ending (Patreon)

A few more mages cast [Teleport] to follow their leaders to safety. The remaining mages stood in stunned silence. They huddled together in a group, looking hopelessly around at the devastated valley.

Just minutes ago there had been a proud camp here, luxurious tents of many colors housing hundreds of mages as they marched on Halsmet. They’d been escorted by thousands of slave-soldiers and legions of golems. A Questor had led them, accompanied by six archmages. It had been an army fit to level a forest.

Now the Questor and archmages were gone. Their camp had been flattened by a lake’s worth of water, and fewer than sixty mages had survived the deluge. A good portion of the slaves and golems had escaped the raging waters and the electricity that had followed by climbing the hills around. But now they were without mage support, fighting Gemore Adventurers in rough terrain that broke up their formations. It was the kind of fight where Gemore held every advantage.

The water sloshing across the bottom of the valley was only knee-high by now, since most of the volume of the lake Nathan had dropped on them had washed down the valley in both directions. But they were far from safe.

The mages flinched as attacks rained on what was left of the archmage-cast bubble that had protected them thus far. The barrier shivered and peeled back from where Nathan had punched a giant hole in it.

Four slave-elites attacked Nathan, trying to leap up to where he stood a dozen feet in the air. One threw a knife that he dodged without trouble. He unraveled the mind magic enslaving them with the ease of practice before speaking in a commanding voice. “Giantsrest is defeated, and they are your masters no longer. Halsmet will welcome you as people worthy of love and care. Recognize your true enemies.”

{Leadership 7 achieved!}

The elites splashed to their knees and dropped their weapons, looking around with confusion. His skills ensured that they would hear and believe him, but it still took time for the very concept of freedom to sink in.

The mages watched the entire process like deer in the headlights, seemingly unwilling to attack and make themselves targets. He thought they were about to shatter and flee in all directions, and he started picking out the war mages. They would be his first targets.

If I just attack then I’ll start the stampede. There are more than fifty people here.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a cloud of glowing specks pop over the mountains from the direction of Halsmet, beelining towards him.

Ah, my reinforcements. I wonder if they’ll be happy that they’re just in time to clean up the mess.

“We are graduates of the Ascendent Academy! Our magic can kill dragons! If we die, we take many of these monsters with us. Use your water magics.” A swarthy war mage stepped forward, his voice boosted by some skill or magic.

I think somebody just volunteered to be my next target.

[Water lash]

The red-robed man raised a tendril of muddy water from the liquid at his feet and it cracked forwards like a whip sized for a giant.

Nathan’s aura broke the spell, and his skills helped him retain his momentum when he blasted through the suddenly limp body of water. He aimed directly at the red-robed man as the water crashed to the ground behind him.

The war mage’s face fell in the second it took Nathan to cross the gap. His man’s hands came up in a useless effort to ward off a blow. They accomplished as much as his [Mage Armor] in blocking the spine-breaking fist that slammed into his neck.

{Magekiller has leveled to 117! You have slain war mage Nil Glick in battle.}

The mages backed away, forming a fearful semicircle around Nathan. A few cast [Fly] and tried to escape, but Nathan swept his aura overhead, breaking the spells and causing them to splash back into the water. His eyes darted over the crowd, noting that one of the mages towards the back wore a pink mask.

Oh good. Faline survived. I bet Sudraiel warned her about the plan.

A fully armored Kia slammed into the ground next to Nathan, water spraying up from her feet as she slid to a stop. The full-armored woman glowed with intimidating golden light, and her greatsword was a forty-foot long construct of divine mana that gave off an aura of overwhelming power.

She could kill all of them in just a couple of strikes.

“Surrender!” The divine warrior’s voice boomed out across the valley, heavy with the weight of divinity. She leapt up into the air to stand above the mages, her presence pressing down with a  feeling of overwhelming confidence.

I guess she’s not killing them all. How is taking them prisoner going to work?

A few mages swore quietly and looked around to gauge each other’s mood. The situation balanced on a knife’s edge, and a war mage on the edge of the crowd raised his hand towards Kia.

[Disint -

Nathan’s aura speared through his mage armor and banished the forming spell a bare moment before Kia’s sword bisected the war mage from crown to groin with the hissing of cauterized flesh.

“I s-surrender!” The voice came from the pink-masked figure, who ripped off the mask to reveal a nervous young man. Faline’s disguised form swallowed nervously, a prominent adam's apple bobbing. She made a gesture and fell to her knees in the shallow water. “I just dispelled my [Mage Armor]. Don’t kill me!”

Kia’s sword made a whirring noise as it whistled overhead, free of any bloodstain from the man she’d just killed. Her glare was a tangible thing as it pressed down upon the mages, but many of them stared back with fragile arrogance.

“Kneel or die.” Nathan said in the most threatening voice he could muster, jumping up to stand in the air next to Kia.

The mages knelt in a sweeping wave, dispelling barriers and [Mage Armor] as they did. A few projectiles continued to rain down from the nearby hills, but Kia swept them from the air with her sword. She addressed Nathan, but keeping her eyes on the mages below. “I find this success beyond prophecy. The Questors?”

“Brox is dead, vaporized by some kind of divine magic. Badud teleported out with a cursed sword in his gut.” Nathan watched their captives, seeing a few look around furtively. One of them was surreptitiously holding something to his mouth and speaking into it. Nathan swiped his aura through the enchanted item, disrupting the enchanted [Message] device and shattering the [Mage Armor] that hadn’t been deactivated. The man flinched and looked up in sudden terror.

Adventurers and freed elites splashed into the water all around as Guardians of Gemore arrived and dropped their passengers onto the battlefield among the kneeling mages. The gathered Adventurers held their weapons ready above the kneeling mages.

Faline stood up with flair, throwing off the robe she’d been wearing to reveal her familiar figure and black leather outfit underneath it. She’d transformed in the last few seconds and seemed to have appeared from nowhere. “True aim! Now slay them all.”

“Hold!” Kia’s shout blasted across the valley, catching blades before they could descend. “Hear me - if you kill them, then you earn my wrath. They are prisoners, not enemies.”

“Will you hold them yourself? They will break any oath and kill any guard.” Faline sneered. “Would you take their eyes and tongues? One healing spell and then they can cast deadly magic once more.”

Kia reached up and removed her helmet, red-blonde hair spilling down her armor as she pulled it roughly free. Her blue eyes glowed with righteous anger, and they locked onto Faline’s green gaze. It had the delightful ambiance of two battleships sighting in on each other.

“Have you ever attempted to awaken them from evil?” Kia’s voice was soft, but it carried clearly across the gurgling sound of draining water. “You kill, for that is your Path. Your blaze would be brighter if you turned your foes from the Paths you hate so much.”

More and more of the Adventurers, as well as the captive mages, were looking back and forth between the two elite Adventurers as they argued.

This really doesn’t seem like the time for this.

Faline started chuckling, and seemed like she was about to ramp up into a full-fledged cackle when an exasperated voice cracked through the dawn like a whip.

“Truly, you two leave me muckgrabber shit.” Sudraiel descended upon a pair of enchanted metallic wings that emerged from a harness on her back. She carried her enchanted spear and frowned down at the kneeling mages.

She sent Nathan a deep nod of acknowledgement before turning an unfriendly gaze towards Kia. “If we follow your light, how shall these prisoners be kept? War and enslavement mages cannot be imprisoned. That’s a truth set in stone.”

Kia’s head swiveled to where Nathan stood on thin air. “How deep does your antimagic go, mage-breaker?”

Wait. What?

{Implacable Antimage has leveled to 243! You have won a battle against an army of mages attacking your home, and killed two archmages! Please choose a developed class from the following list to continue leveling, as you have unlocked a higher level than 243!}

Antiwizard: Your Path is to counter the deepest magic. This class will make all parts of your antimagic directly apply to Wizardry, and will give you Insight into the secrets of this reality-bending magic. This class may further Develop to stabilize reality around you or begin to shape the Wizardry around you. This class will let you effectively fight the most powerful magic-users on Davrar.

Invincible: Your Path is to stand against your enemies, no matter how they attack you. This class will dramatically enhance your toughness, as well as allowing you to heal from complete destruction so long as you have Stamina. It will also enhance your airborne speed and maneuverability. This class may further develop towards being able to reincarnate even after total defeat, or becoming invulnerable to outside forces. This class will let you survive any disaster and carry your knowledge into the future.

Magebane: Your Path is to kill mages. This class will enhance your speed, as well as enhance the reach and weight of your aura to allow it to harm mages directly. This Class may further Develop your aura to be a physically tangible effect or to kill mages from a distance. This class will make you into an absolute counter to those who wield mana.

Thief of Sorcery: Your Path is to steal magic from those who wield it to use for your own purposes. This class will allow you to manipulate magic cast in your presence and temporarily drain mana you understand. You will be able to shape this mana into spells for a short time before it is fully absorbed. This class may further Develop towards absorbing and storing others’ magic to use on demand or combining stolen magic together into new forms. This class will allow you to use every kind of magic - so long as you can steal it.

Void of Magic: Your Path is to deny the magic of Davrar. This class will dramatically expand your aura and allow it to effectively resist wizardry through deep understanding. It will also allow you to render a target forever anathema to mana, unable to ever again use or cast magic. This class may further Develop towards banishing magic and wizardry over a wide area, or denying the subtle effects of magic and wizardry over an entire region. This class will allow you to contest magical might across an entire battlefield.

Zealot: Your Path is to Rage against your enemies. This class will dramatically enhance your speed and strength, and intensify your Rage to match your antipathy against your foe. This class may further develop to allow you to move faster than the eye can track, or enhance your strength beyond the merely physical. This class will make you an unstoppable fighting machine.

}

Nathan blinked at the sudden class choices, the knowledge imparted directly to his brain. His jaw dropped open as he parsed the options.

That’s a lot to consider. I only just learned of Wizardry and now it’s in two of my class choices. Well, I’ve seen wizardry before. I’m pretty sure the spatial roads of Old Gemore are Wizardry, and I copied the fire elemental’s Wizardry to drain mages. Being able to counter it seems important, especially with Badud’s proficiency That [Reverse Time] spell…

“Nathan?” Sudraiel’s voice was worried. “Can you kill this problem?” She winced and looked down at the cowering mages where they knelt in the water. “Those are words I regret.”

“I… maybe, I need to think.” He responded, holding up his index finger to tell them to give him a moment as he frantically parsed through the opportunities available.

Do I take my class choice now? This is a monumental decision, and Kia’s pushing me into it intentionally or not. I could refuse to pick this moment, and push this responsibility back onto her. She chose to demand their surrender, though I do think she wanted  to force me into considering nonlethal options.

Nathan shook his head to dismiss that line of thought. He was pretty sure that the divinity within the holy warrior wouldn’t let her kill captives. She had taken a shard of the god of righteous battle within her, and it demanded she try to take captives when appropriate and guarantee their proper treatment. That was part of why the Guardians mostly fought monsters, and not people.

Faline brushed her hair back in an exaggerated gesture and spoke in a sarcastic tone. “As your flame calls, mage-breaker. The mages who would enslave you and your friends can wait all day for their salvation.” She pulled out a wicked dagger and began innocently cleaning her fingernails.

Nathan considered what she’d said, brow furrowing. These mages had been part of an army that had tried to kill his friends without compunction. They’d marched to conquer Halsmet and enslave its citizens just as they got their first taste of freedom. Nathan had come here to kill them, plain and simple.

But that no longer applies. They’re captives of war, and have surrendered. It’s different to kill them now. They’re in my power fully and completely, and if I can’t find mercy now then I never will. Is death the only path? No, it’s not, my classes mean another way is possible.

{Mental Fortress 6 achieved!}

[Void of Magic] is the only class that will let me permanently cut people off from mana. It’s also one of the two classes that will let me protect myself from Wizardry. I’m like 90% sure it’s the right choice. But this is an important enough decision that I’d like to bump that closer up to 99%. Otherwise I’ll doubt this choice forever.

He heard whispers from below. “Does anybody know if the mage-breaker is merciful?” The mages shaded their eyes to watch him with expressions ranging from hope to terror as they whispered back and forth. They’d certainly figured out that their fate rested in his hands.

Nathan looked back at the three women who watched him impassively, waiting for his decision. He copped out. “I need to think through a Development. It won’t take long, and it might solve this problem. For now I’m going to drain their mana pools. It’ll be temporary, but if they’re out of mana then they’re not a threat.”

Faline’s face clouded with disapproval, but she merely spun the knife through her hands before the blade vanished. “Your target should be the slave-soldiers. They need your mercy, not this muckgrabber filth.” She faded from attention, slipping smoothly into the crowd of Adventurers.

Kia merely nodded at Nathan’s words, replacing her helmet on her head and launching herself back into the sky. She rejoined the Guardians and they zipped off into the hills under Dalo’s [Mass Fly] spell.

A few of the surviving war mages flashed a few quick hand gestures to each other as Nathan stepped down towards the gathering. They were subtle and quick, but Nathan caught the gestures and could tell that they were about to try something.

{Alertness 4 achieved!}

He slammed his aura down upon them, causing the building spells to wink out in their hands. The mages tensed, then relaxed in defeat as Faline appeared behind two of them and prodded their necks with her knives, drawing blood from shallow cuts.

Their expressions paled as Nathan started up the mana siphons, cracking into their mana pools and quickly draining every speck of the resource that allowed them to cast devastating spells. Without it they were just flabby men in wet robes.

Nathan closed his eyes and found he could feel more than just mana. His new [Wizard Sense] could detect the shell around each mage’s mana pool. It was like each mage had a tank floating around them, a container made of dark matter that held their power.

He expanded his mana siphoning efforts, draining five mages at a time. It took anywhere from ten to thirty seconds to drain each mage’s mana, depending on how much of it they had.

This would go faster with an expanded aura. I’ld love to take one of the classes that do that. A bigger aura would mean I could do more with it. Reach farther, cover a larger area, condense it down more when I need it dense.

An insane amount of energy flowed into Nathan as he drained all of the mages present over the course of a few minutes. The total mana supplies of five dozen mages was enough to vaporize a mountain. Luckily, he had just the thing ready to spend it on and avoid doing his best impression of what happened when you hooked the energizer bunny up to a nuclear power plant.

He had to spend all of the Focus that had regenerated to keep the process stable, but Nathan managed to replace all of the skin on his body with the improved version. The silk-inspired collagen fibers enhanced the tear strength of his skin without sacrificing flexibility or his sense of touch.

{Perfected Body 9 achieved!}

Not a very good exchange rate, is it?

He exhaled and opened his eyes, surveying the scene. The mages were wilted before him, hopeless and scared.

Sudraiel had landed nearby and started issuing orders and coordinating the teams hunting any portions of the Giantsrest army that had escaped. She frequently spoke into some kind of [Message] artifact that blurred her mouth and voice.

“They’re all drained of mana.” He called out, walking in her direction. “This war mage and those two enslavement mages have skills to regenerate mana quickly.” He pointed them out, and the Adventurers standing guard pivoted to keep close watch on the ones he’d marked. “The others shouldn’t be able to cast so much as a fireball for the next half-hour. Is there somewhere you need me?”

The guildmistress nodded quickly, looking up with furrowed brows. “The Seven Fools have trapped forty five slave elites in a maze of illusions. That way.”

Nathan nodded and leapt into the air. He spent the next twenty minutes sprinting around the valley, bouncing between groups of slave-soldiers to free them from Giantsrest’s mental control. He was fast, now that he didn’t have to care about terrain. His new skills meant his top speed was somewhere around fifty miles an hour, and he pushed that further to reach all of the groups that needed his attention.

He jogged over a large crowd of normal slave-soldiers, dragging his aura like a cloak to tear out the mind magic enslaving them. It only took about half of Natha’s attention, and he diverted the rest to reconsidering his class choices.

Now I have some time to think without pressure, and to be sure I’m not being influenced. I respect and want to take input from all three of them, but they’ve all got agendas and espouse different Paths. Sudraiel is pragmatic, Faline is bloodthirsty and Kia is idealistic. What am I? Let’s go over these choices again, in order.

He built a little whiteboard in his memory, tallying up the pros and cons of each of his options. [Antiwizard] was a good choice. It would let him counter Badud’s most dangerous magic, and Nathan was pretty sure that understanding and messing with Wizardry would be important to dealing with the Endings. But it didn’t do anything except let him manipulate wizardry. It didn’t improve his capabilities against normal magic at all.

It doesn’t make my aura bigger or do anything except against Wizardry. I want to be able to cover a battlefield in antimagic, and that doesn’t get me there.

[Invincible] was next, and it was similar to the [Woundless Berserker] class he’d been offered at level 81. But better. It was clearly based off of the Insights he’d been brainstorming for [Perfected Body], and he’d love to stop worrying about a freak headshot threatening death.

I think I can get the same benefit from a Talent Development, though it’s not certain. The class doesn’t improve my antimagic at all, and has no protections from Wizardry. A smart enemy will figure out a way to deal with me. I don’t want to get locked into a stone box and dropped deep beneath the ground.

[Magebane] was too similar to [Magekiller]. The speed and aura improvements were tempting as heck, but it really made him worry about his two Paths becoming too similar. It also had no wizardry protections.

I should really just stop considering anything that doesn’t protect me from Wizardry. That [Reverse Time] spell was terrifying.

That left [Thief of Sorcery] out in the cold, which was a crying shame. Nathan loved the idea of the class, which would let him steal magic for his own purposes. He could absorb spells from Stella to cast himself. But it didn’t protect him from Wizardry at all.

I can probably Develop my antimagic Talent to deal with wizardry? Is that something I want to count on? [Thief of Sorcery] also doesn’t expand my aura at all, or really improve my antimagic beyond letting me grab spells.

Then there was the class he’d almost picked already, [Void of Magic]. It expanded his aura, gave him options against Wizardry and also let him permanently cut mages off from magic. It would let him spare the captured mages, and give him an alternative to killing every mage of Giantsrest he found.

That’s important. It means I have another option than killing my enemies. Sure, they might think being deprived of magic is a fate worse than death, but it gives them the opportunity to learn, to change.

What [Void of Magic] doesn’t do is give me ‘Insight into the secrets of this reality-bending magic’ like [Antiwizard] does, but that’s what [Wizard Senses] and [Magical Intuition] are for. It feels like the most efficient use of class skills.

His eyes widened slightly as Nathan connected some more dots.

[Void of Magic] would almost certainly help me make Antimages. If I cut somebody with a free Talent slot off from magic, they would probably get the Talent. Strangely enough, I think that’s the deciding factor. I want to teach my antimagic.

He spent just a moment considering [Zealot] for the sake of completion. It was a powerful class that would let him stand up to powerful melee fighters. But, he was leery of Rage enhancements and it didn’t enhance his antimagic at all or protect him from Wizardry.

Nathan approached the center of the valley again, looking down on the huddled mages and their guards. In making his own choice, he would grant them one of their own. They would be able to choose between their life or their magic.

{Overall Status:

{Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 9

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 3

Class: Implacable Antimage level 243+

Deepened Stamina: 7402/7410

Antimage’s Impassivity

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Improved Antimagic

Strenuous Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Class: Magekiller level 112

Regenerative Focus: 227/1220

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Leadership 7

Velocity 2

Wizard Senses 1

Alertness 4

Magical Intuition 10

Effortless Dodge 1

Mental Fortress 6

High-tier Lecturing 7

High-tier Tumbling 10

High-tier Noticeability 2

Low-tier Quiet Movement 4

Low-tier Disguise 4

Mid-tier Battle Cry 6}