A Relatively Powerful Mage

Zhaire smiled as they left their temporary base of operations. They continued to stay close to the base of the mountain, though they hadn’t been able to contact Celestia via radio as they had gotten further away. Each day they moved, not wanting the Chixel patrols to gain an exact location for them.

They had been skirmishing with various patrols for several days now. After completely dispatching several of them, the patrol size had doubled. They were easy to avoid in these large groups, they were slower and made more noise as they moved, they also had more area to cover due to the reduced number of patrols.

They had engaged the larger patrols twice, once each day. The fights had been more difficult, and the team was forced to use more of their limited supplies. The psionic twins had gone all out, with Veronica destroying any groups that stayed clumped up, sending them flying with a burst of force that was essentially an invisible explosive. Antonio was much more subtle but no less insidious, subverting the mind of a member and then dominating them, like a puppeteer pulling the strings. By the time the patrol realized one of their own had turned, several Chixel had already fallen, stabbed in the back by one of their own. Emelia contributed to the fight as well, using her handgun to protect the psionic twins from anyone who had slipped past the front-line fighters.

They wouldn’t have managed a victory if it weren’t for their seventh member. Orion, the bonded Starseeker, would hold down one of their flanks. The massive horse-like creature trampled and gored several Chixel each fight while escaping unscathed due to their barding-like natural plates while still moving with the speed and agility that no horse could have ever matched.

Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to come out of the battle unscathed. Teresa, whom everyone had underestimated, including Zhaire, was still the weakest link in the party. It wasn’t her fault, her style was ill-suited for being outnumbered so badly. She had sustained significant injuries in both the fights, forcing Zhaire to come to her rescue. She wasn’t the only one injured, virtually no one managed to come out unscathed, taxing Emelia's healing capabilities. She could no longer afford to treat superficial injuries, instead healing only wounds that reduced their capability to fight.

The larger patrols didn’t fight to the last like the previous patrols had. When they had sustained enough casualties that they were outnumbered they would disperse and retreat towards the main army. They might have been able to chase all of them down, the risk of running into another patrol while in an exhausted state was too high.

On this particular morning, the fifth day after having left Celestia, they hadn’t gone far before they had run into a patrol. They stood near a choke point in the trail, waiting for Zhaire and his team to approach, as if they had known they would come this way. Zhaire smiled as the group was smaller than the larger groups they had faced. He counted only ten of them, yet they approached with more confidence than any group had before. He used identify on each, noting that their average level was significantly higher than any patrol they had faced, with the majority around levels 8-10. They also had a different class than was typical, most were a class called blackguard, and they wore heavier armor and wielded heavier weapons than was typical among the Chixel rank-and-file soldiers. They were led by a strange Chixel wearing less armor, having various pieces of metal armor that protected his vitals, though much of his torso was unarmored, reminding Zhaire of the sorts of armor gladiators were depicted wearing in movies. In a gauntleted hand, they held a short sword that looked like it was made from a sturdy obsidian-like material that Zhaire could swear he had seen, but he couldn’t remember where. Zhaire’s Identify skill told him the leader was a level 16 Inquisitor.

Zhaire smiled, at last one of those lizards would give him a decent challenge. “The one with the black sword is mine,” Zhaire told his team as he hefted his glaive and charged.

The blackguard seemed content to allow the duel, instead, they focused on keeping the other members of the advanced team occupied. The two leaders clashed, with Zhaire opening with a wide sweep from his glaive. The inquisitor moved with lightning reflexes, easily dodging the blow as their entire body seemed to glow faintly. Zhaire quickly realized he had underestimated his opponent, his heavy blow allowing the inquisitor an opening to close and negate his reach. It closed faster than Zhaire thought possible, likely not needing such a wide and obvious opening. Zhaire barely managed to turn into the blow, allowing it to land on the Cliff Drake armor that protected his torso. The blow had a surprising amount of power, and the inquisitor managed to rend its blade through his armor and impervious skin. While the blow likely would have disemboweled him without the armor and his trait, because of his protection the cut only barely cut him, leaving a superficial wound. Despite only being superficial, Zhaire felt pain for the first time since gaining his tier 2 class. Thanks to his Feel No Pain trait, it wasn’t debilitating but it warned Zhaire that whatever he had just been cut with was no ordinary blade.

Zhaire recalled where he had seen a blade like that, the knife Imri had gotten from the soul priest. That insidious weapon was trying to suck in his soul.

Fortunately, the inquisitor was taken aback that their powerful strike had only managed a small cut. They had also likely thought Zhaire would recoil from the agony that accompanied even a minor soul wound. Zhaire did not recoil, instead, he stepped in, using his momentum to spin around. He brought the haft of his weapon towards the inquisitor’s head, producing a loud clang as the bone weapon impacted the helmet. The reverberation stunned the inquisitor and Zhaire spun his weapon, bringing the deadly end of his glaive down. However, the inquisitor recovered faster than Zhaire expected, leaping back before the blow could land.

“Go all out!” Zhaire shouted. He then followed his own advice, activating the Time Dilation necklace and his Frenzy skill. Zhaire felt the surge of speed and power from the combination of powerful buffs. Despite this, he still wasn’t sure if he would have enough speed to hit his elusive target, so he tossed his glaive aside and drew a short sword similar to the ones Teresa wielded.

Despite the improvements Imri had made to his time dilation items, they still were quite limited in duration. Because of this, Zhaire couldn’t afford to be cautious, so he charged the inquisitor with reckless abandon, trusting his myriad defenses to stave off any counterattack that might come his way. Again the inquisitor was caught off guard, as Zhaire moved with incredible speed and aggression. The creature took several deep gashes as it moved to defend itself from Zhaire’s unrelenting assault. Zhaire knew those wounds should have incapacitated the Chixel, or at the very least inhibited its mobility. It did neither, and as the surprise wore off, the Chixel turned the tide, landing several blows of his own.

Zhaire couldn’t think clearly as the effect of the frenzy continued, preventing him from thinking of anything but pressing the attack. It had been his last and only gambit, if he couldn’t overtake the powerful warrior with all his buffs, then there was nothing he could do. The effects of the Time Dilation ended, and Zhaire’s timing was thrown off, causing him to stumble slightly. To the enhanced Chixel, this was a massive opening that it easily took advantage of. Its blade stabbed into Zhaire, and even though he had the feel no pain skill the agony was almost unbearable.

Zhaire collapsed to the ground, clutching at the wound. It still looked far from the worst wound he had taken, but the agony was worse than anything he could remember, he certainly would’ve been unconscious if it hadn’t been for his traits. The inquisitor stood over him, sword raised with the intent to stab him again while he was down. As the sword descended something changed and the Chixel stopped mid-stab. It stared off into space, eyes blank as if no one was home. It absently discarded its weapon and just stood there vacantly.

Zhaire didn’t hesitate, he grabbed his short sword as he got to his feet. He impaled his sword into the chest of the creature, facing no resistance. Being stabbed seemed to break it out of whatever weird trance it had been in, it screamed and attempted to attack Zhaire with its clawed hands. Fortunately, this injury finally seemed to impair it, though by all rights it should have been dead. Zhaire easily dodged the clumsy blow and kicked it to wrench his sword free. Blood gushed from the massive wound, and slowly the creature stumbled back, blood loss quickly inhibiting it. Zhaire moved to finish it, but his own body was becoming sluggish from his injuries. The world spun as he began to feel faint, his hand covered in his blood as he felt his wound. He collapsed to the ground and then everything was black.

He awoke with a start, looking around rapidly in panic. He was on a cot, blood-soaked bandages, and gauze covered his wounded chest. The sky was dark, meaning he had been out for the better part of a day, at least. Teresa was at his side, a relieved expression on her face. The three mages slept while Jenson had his back to him, keeping watch.

“What happened?” Zhaire asked dumbly.

“You were stabbed by a soul-stealing blade. Emelia said it would take a lot longer to heal from something like that. You're only alive because she poured all her mana into healing you,” Teresa said before emphatically saying, “Again.”

“And the inquisitor?” Zhaire asked.

“Dead. Jenson went and found a spot where we could get a signal from Celestia. Apparently, there are more of those fuckers, and they have their hands full with one of them. They're using souls to power that enchantment, that’s how they are so strong.”

“How did we beat it? It had me and then just stopped?”

“You have him to thank,” Teresa said, motioning to the diminutive Antonio. “He managed to get into the creature’s head and fucked with its mind. He gained two full levels from that fight.”

“They’ve also stopped sending patrols. Killing the inquisitor has them terrified of us, so we’re safe for now,” Jenson added, though he continued keeping watch.

“We have to press our advantage, keep hitting them while they're scared,” Zhaire said, trying to sit up.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Teresa said, preventing him from sitting up, though the restraint was hardly necessary. “We’re in bad shape, none of us are fully capable right now. Everyone used their enchantments during the fight and the mages are completely spent. I’ve got a pretty bad cut making my left hand weak and Jenson has a cut on his thigh. Neither of which Emelia can heal because she needed to save you, again.”

“How bad is Celestia?”

“Not good,” Jenson said after hesitating as if considering lying or not telling Zhaire anything. “They keep blowing passes up, but their engineers have been able to build a makeshift bridge in a couple of days. It slows them down, but it's not as effective as Sylvi had hoped. Those inquisitors show up, preventing them from harassing the engineers or destroying the bridges. They just blew the third and final choke point. After this, they’ll be on the plateau. Sylvi thinks they have two more days.”

“We rest for one day, then we attack. Even if we’re not fully effective,” Zhaire declared. They all nodded in agreement, no one wanted to be sitting on their hands while the invaders poured into their home.