A Relatively Powerful Mage

Sylvi pulled out her walkie as the acidic bombs continued to rain down. “HQ, we need eyes on their artillery,” she shouted frantically.

“Sorry, but we won’t be able to do that. We’ve started losing communication with the drones, including the one we had assigned to your unit,” Coleman said.

Sylvi cursed as another volley of acid landed nearby. She needed to do something fast. Unfortunately, with the day illuminated by their new star, she couldn’t hope to create enough Umbra to obscure their position. Fortunately, she didn’t have to do it alone; the entire unit was comprised of those with the Umbra Heritage.

She barked out the order, and a small cloud of pure darkness formed a moment later. It rapidly expanded until it completely engulfed them and the nearby surroundings. Sylvi felt her traits working as she was obscured from the light, gaining improved visual acuity, agility, and regeneration. The other wraiths were similarly at home in the dark, even though they didn’t benefit like she did. Only Baroness Horn was affected, letting out a shout of alarm as her sight was cut off.

“The umbra is our ability, and the rest of us can see past it. We’ll guide you through it,” Sylvi explained quickly.

Sylvi grabbed her arm before the baroness could object and led her forward. While she would have preferred to have the obscurement the entire way, it was already straining their unit's mana supply.

They sprinted out of the umbra, moving fast enough that whatever was guiding the artillery wouldn’t have time to adjust to their new trajectory. The tactic appeared to work as the acid splashed in a far more dispersed area. Unfortunately, it had only improved their odds, and several wraiths took minor wounds from small splashes of the incredibly potent liquid. Fortunately, none took any direct hits as they approached the taller building Sylvi had selected.

“Injuries?” Sylvi asked. When no one reported anything inhibiting their combat capabilities, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, that sucked,” Ashlyn said.

“Now what?” Baroness Horn asked.

“We need to get eyes on that artillery. Then we try to disable it,” Sylvi said.

She hadn’t selected the building they had fled into at random. Of the buildings adjacent to the convention center, it was the tallest. While not near the tallest building downtown, it should give them a decent view of the surrounding area.

Sylvi pushed her way through the gathered crowd of civilians, doing her best to ignore the strange looks they received, which seemed to express equal amounts of fear and awe. None of them seemed to recognize the baroness, and she got the least attention with her relatively normal attire.

She debated between the stairs and elevators when the lights flickered and died. A quick survey of the other nearby electronics also showed that they had lost all power. The Azala had likely shifted their attack to target critical infrastructure.

Fortunately, even dozens of flights of stairs were a relatively minor inconvenience for heritage-enhanced wraiths. Even the lowest level among them was a match for professional athletes before the integration. However, the same couldn’t be said for the baroness. A trait obscured her exact level, but she claimed to be level 17, though she hadn’t revealed exactly what her class was. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t physically oriented, and she gasped for air as they were nearing the end of their ascent.

Sylvi motioned for them to stop. They hadn’t reached the top floor, but going up the last couple wouldn’t improve their vantage much. The office space on the floor was eerie, with swathes of abandoned cubicles, and judging by the amount of dust, it hadn’t been used since the integration.

She crouched low, moving slowly as she approached a bank of windows facing the general direction from which the ordnance had been coming. She was once again thankful for the relative darkness of the area. She neared the glass and peered out, surveying the surrounding area. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the widespread destruction and monstrous creatures stomping through the once proud metropolis.

She did her best to ignore all the distractions, focusing on finding her target. It didn’t take her long to spot them. Each was a large cylindrical mass of flesh that contracted and spit out its ordnance. It was a living weapon made for a singular purpose.

Sylvi was distracted when she heard Ashlyn giggling from nearby. “It kind of looks like a…you know,” she said. Sylvi gave her best withering glare, even if the girl was right. Apart from that, she ignored the comment and continued surveying the area surrounding the definitely not phallic-shaped artillery.

A flash of motion caught her eye. At first, she thought it was one of Coleman’s drones, but as she looked closer, she quickly came to a different conclusion. The creature appeared humanoid in shape and size, with the notable exception of two pairs of translucent insect-like wings that beat dozens of times per second. Fortunately, they seemed to be focused on the ground below.

As she continued watching them, she noticed the ordnance flying in the general direction that the humanoid-insect hybrid had been focusing. She quickly realized that the flying monstrosities were acting as aerial spotters. The combination proved deadly wherever groups of humans had formed up, the powerful acid raining down with deadly precision. Fortunately, there didn’t appear to be a large number of either spotters or artillery. If they could take out even a couple of them, their capabilities would be significantly decreased.

She mentally mapped out where each living artillery emplacement was located, then withdrew a Dimensional Saber from her belt. She adjusted the length to only 10 centimeters, not wanting the void blade to give away their position. She carefully cut away a decent-sized section of the window, using duct tape to keep it from falling and alerting the Azala of their presence. With the glass removed, she now had an unobstructed firing range.

She repeated the process, moving slowly but deliberately so as not to catch the attention of a watching Azala. After a brief discussion in hushed voices, Sylvi selected the second sniper, a man who had been an effective hunter before joining the wraiths. Sylvi pointed out his target, the closer of the two artillery that were within their potential range, leaving the more distant of them for herself.

They took their time, sighting down their targets. Her target was several city blocks away, about half a klick. It would have been a challenging shot before the integration, and that was with modern sniper rifles. The thought of taking out anything with a bow from this range would have been unfathomable. However, Sylvi smiled, confident in her abilities at this range.

When they were both ready, the arrows were loosed. Her fully empowered Devastation Shot flew with unerring precision, headed toward the base of the organic artillery where its ammunition was stored. She readied another shot and charged it fully, firing it before her first shot had arrived.

She was charging a third shot when it became apparent that it would not be needed. Her first shot had struck true and ruptured at least one of the creature's acidic payloads. Its body clearly hadn’t been designed to withstand its own acid, as the potent liquid wreaked havoc upon its internal structures. The amount of dissolved flesh produced a physical reaction as a cloud of vapors formed around the now-dead creature.

Sylvi called out her success and mentioned its weak point. A moment later, the second sniper confirmed their kill. With their targets eliminated, it was time to extricate themselves. However, before Sylvi could even shout the order, she saw something shooting towards them.

A humanoid-insectoid hybrid crashed through the glass without slowing. It moved with blinding speed, nearly too fast for Sylvi to follow. It raked out at her with a clawed hand. Not having time to switch weapons, she interposed her bow. Despite the enhanced wood, the creature carved deep gouges into the bow, though it didn’t completely cut through.

It continued attacking Sylvi with unfathomable speed and power, and she barely managed to dodge the next attack, a chunk of her armor gone from the incredibly sharp claws. Before Sylvi could draw her melee weapon, Ashlyn stepped in. Her short sword flashed in a blur, exceeding the speed of the attacking Azala. The blade bit into the humanoid-insect hybrid, severing its arm near the elbow joint. Brackish blood flowed as if a fire hydrant had been uncapped. Sylvi followed up with a kick, sending the stunned creature plummeting thirty stories down.

She spared a glance down, watching as it splattered on the ground below. However, during that quick glance, she saw something disturbing. Dozens of Azala below them were climbing up the side of the building at an alarming rate, seemingly unbothered by the smooth vertical surface. They moved quickly, assisted by an extra set of arms, each ending with clawed hands that dug into metal like a hot knife through butter.

Sylvi used her bow as a blunt weapon, smashing what remained of the glass. She reached into her belt and took out a ring, pressing it into the baroness’s hand.

“Put that on,” Sylvi ordered the confused noble. “We’re jumping to the building across the street…”

“Are you insane? There’s no way I can make that jump,” A panicked Baroness Horn interrupted her.

“That ring has a Low Gravity Enchantment. Put it on, tap it to activate it, twist it clockwise to reduce gravity, and counter-clockwise to increase it,” Sylvi explained.

She didn’t have time to reassure the scared woman. In the short time it had taken her to give the order, the Azala had climbed another dozen stories and were now more than halfway up the building. She drew and fired several arrows, hitting the approaching Azala and sending a pair of them plummeting back down. Unfortunately, there were too many to stop them completely, but it did buy the rest of her squad a moment to extricate themselves from the building.

Ashlyn was the first one out, making a joyous whooping noise as she lept across the expanse between buildings. Even with her enhanced physical abilities, she would have smashed into the side of the building, reminding Sylvi of an infamous movie poster. Fortunately, the enchantment made up the difference; Ashlyn was still propelled forward by her momentum while descending at a far reduced rate. The rest of the squad followed after her in a similar fashion.

Sylvi continued laying down suppressive fire, going through her arrows at a prodigious rate. With each enemy slain, another soon replaced it, and there seemed no end to them. Finally, the baroness jumped, letting out a terrified yelp. She had taken a tentative leap and wouldn’t have made it more than a few meters without the enchantment. She cranked the amplitude up, nearly eliminating gravity as she slowly drifted across the street. A moment later, Sylvi leapt. She didn’t get the same running start the others got, but she gained a respectable momentum thanks to her higher stats.

She soared past the slowly drifting Baroness, landing on the roof of the slightly shorter high rise with minimal adjustments to the gravity enchantment. The rest of the wraiths took the opportunity to take potshots at nearby Azala. A moment later, the baroness landed shakily on her feet.

“Never again,” the baroness declared, to which Sylvi just grinned.

“How do you think we’re getting to your Nexus?” Sylvi asked.

“Surely there is a better way?” the baroness asked, horror plainly written on her face.

Sylvi motioned for her to look down. The pursuing Azala dotted the streets below, solely focused on eliminating them.

“I suppose this method is passable,” she said with a resigned sigh.

“Just get a better jump; you wouldn’t want the enchantment to run out of mana mid-flight,” Sylvi warned her, sending off a new wave of panic in the woman.