Ends of Magic

Nathan strode confidently out over the rubble of the Ascendent Academy. He stayed at least sixty feet in the air, well out of the jumping range of the golems below. There were about thirty of the giant stone statues busy digging into the rubble - presumably to free more golems that had been buried when the giant structure had collapsed. Each of the constructs was sculpted in the shape of a beautiful man or woman in the prime of their lives. They moved with smooth efficiency even under the burden of tons of stone.

As Nathan approached, a trio of the twenty-foot golems stopped digging and hefted pieces of rubble before whipping them at him in a coordinated volley. He’d dodged similar throws before and knew to expect the fastball speeds. But he had three dimensions to dodge in and could change direction in a moment, so it wasn’t a challenge to dodge the first salvo, all three rocks going wide.

That caused another three golems to break off and join in the next barrage. The rest of the golems definitely knew he was there, they’d just judged that he wasn’t worth their attention.

That’ll probably change once I start draining them. Let’s hold off on that until Khachi gets involved.

Nathan dodged another two salvos of rocks before Khachi announced his presence with a flash of golden light and a clang of metal. He was standing in one of the narrower streets that had once led to the Academy, banging his hammer on his shield and flashing like a photographer at a fashion show.

Another three golems broke off to head towards Khachi, and Nathan took that as his signal to get serious. He dipped slightly lower and reached out with his aura to sever the threads of wizardry that connected the golems together. Then he dug his aura into four of the stone-throwers and started the process of drilling into their mana pools.

The reaction was immediate. Every single golem looked up in apparent confusion as the magical network connecting them together was broken. Then they moved as one, and all of them reached for a giant metal bow or a piece of debris sized for throwing.

Uh oh. I don’t know if I can dodge that much rock. If they knock me to the ground then they can just stomp me until I stop moving.

Nathan used the bare seconds he had to gain another twenty feet of altitude, releasing his grip on two of the golems to maintain it on the other two. He also severed the strands of wizardry that attempted to reconnect all of the golems together and braced himself to dodge.

The volley of projectiles was staggered without the communication network. Nathan spent Focus as if he had an unlimited supply to speed up his perception and plot a path through the projectiles. He was still hit twice, both times by one of the giant arrows fired by the bow-wielding golems that had previously been stationed on the outside of the tower. At this distance their arrows moved so fast they were almost impossible to track. The only saving grace was that the projectiles overpenetrated, one removing his arm at the elbow while the other tore through his side in a spray of blood and vanished into the distance.

Effortless Dodge 8 achieved!

It’s been a while since I lost an arm. But Davrar rewards risk, and that’s a high bar for me these days.

The Stamina cost was irrelevant in the face of what Nathan drained from the two golems he was targeting, and both injuries healed quickly. His aura was stretched out like a pair of taut tethers to connect him to his targets, and he couldn’t gain any more distance without breaking the connections.

A series of gunshots sounded from the direction of the Heirs. Nathan didn’t look back, but he smiled. He knew that his teammates could handle three golems. Now they just had to attract more.

The next volley of projectiles was more coordinated. It almost formed a wall of stone flying up towards him. The three golems with bows were holding their shots, waiting for him to commit to a dodge before firing.

Nathan responded by intentionally leaping into the path of one of the smaller stones. It impacted across his legs, spinning him around like a baton and making the follow-on arrows miss entirely. They’d all been aimed at his head.

Parkour 8 achieved!

A bullet impacted against the head of one of the bow-wielding golems below, rocking its head back and shattering the feminine nose. Some of the statues turned towards the source of the attack to see Khachi standing in the street with three shattered golems lying around him. He banged his hammer against his shield one more time, and the golems flinched from the light that burst forth from the blow.

Without their communication network the crowd of statues split up piecemeal. Most of the golems turned back to Nathan, but seven of them had apparently decided that Khachi was worth their attention.

Nathan had to turn his focus away from his friends as the remaining golems prepared another salvo. One of the bow-wielding giants was directing them, giving the others precise hand signals. But Nathan had finally finished drilling into the mana pools of his two targets and both of the huge sculptures seized up and fell into the rubble of the academy with deafening crashes.

The destruction of their peers caught the existing golems off-guard. They all lowered their stones to turn and stare towards their fallen members. Nathan spent the time reconnecting his antimagic tethers to the two undamaged archer-golems. As soon as he started boring into their mana pools the one who’d been giving instructions chopped their hand down in a decisive motion. That was the signal for every single golem to start hurling projectiles as quickly as they could.

It wasn’t a coordinated volley but rather a constant stream of missiles that flew towards Nathan. He utilized his Focus and Stamina to the maximum to dodge dozens of attacks, moving like a shadow in a hall of mirrors. All the while he kept his eyes on the archers and their blazing-fast arrows. He needed to change directions the instant they released the bowstrings.

Effortless Dodge 9 achieved!

He didn’t always succeed. He lost a foot, then took an arrow to the shoulder that nearly severed his arm. A rock the size of a motorcycle hit him in the hip, spinning him around and hurling him higher into the sky. One of his tethers broke and Nathan strained his aura to hold onto the other one from a hundred feet away. His aura didn’t want to stretch that far, especially while maintaining the spiraling motion that was necessary to drill into the Golem’s mana pool.

But he dug in, straining his antimagic to keep his grip on the archer-golem even as he juked once more to avoid the follow-up shots. Dodging was easier with this much distance, but the attention demanded by his aura spoiled his focus and Nathan took more hits.

High-tier Aura Manipulation 10 achieved!

The rank-up lessened the pressure on his aura, and Nathan was about halfway done draining the archer golem when the golems decided to change tactics. They’d managed to re-establish a basic communication network and all pivoted as one to charge towards the Heirs.

Nathan used the breather to glance towards his friends. Two of the other golems were still up, and one swatted at Aarl while the second whaled on Khachi. The wolfman blocked a heavy blow with a grunt and retaliated with a thunderous swing that the golem caught on its forearm with a crack of stone.

They won’t be able to handle twenty more golems. Where’s our ace in the hole?

As if reacting to Nathan’s words Stella floated over a roof. Her loose hair whipped wildly, illuminated from underneath by the actinic glare of caged lightning. One of the archer golems reacted instantly, sending a metal pillar through two layers of shielding before it was barely deflected by a third.

Then it was too late for their reactions to matter. A tendril of lightning thick as a tree arced over the building to ground itself in the middle of the swarm of golems. As soon as it touched down it brightened and thickened into a blazing cascade of energy. It was like standing next to a continuous explosion. The thundering roar went on and on, and Nathan was dazzled by the glare of unleashed energy as Stella panned the lightning from side to side.

He dove towards the maelstrom of electricity, trusting his aura and lack of contact with the ground to keep him safe. Stella’s magic might be partially real, but his antimagic made him a poor conductor for even slightly magical lightning. Just as he got close the lightning winked out to reveal a field of glass and scorched stone.

Nathan blinked against the sudden absence of light, the glare of the lightning leaving afterimages in his vision. But his magical senses weren’t so limited, and he counted the number of active golems left.

Eleven, some of which feel damaged. We can take that, especially if I keep them distracted.

Two of the archer-golems had survived but one of them was covered with blackened lichtenberg scars and was missing both an arm and the ballista-sized bow the arm had held. That was the one Nathan had been draining, and it fell apart as he finished severing the magic holding it together. He aimed for the only remaining archer as it drew back another arrow to loose at Stella. His heels impacted with the golem’s back before it fired, knocking it off balance and sending the arrow through an opulent townhome instead.

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The blow dropped the giant sculpture to its knees and Nathan proceeded to slam his elbows down against the top of the golem’s head repeatedly. The statue was sculpted in the shape of a woman with long and flowing locks, and the stone cracked and split under his strikes. It wasn’t so much a matter of him having the physical strength and power to crush stone as it was that each strike carried the full force of his antimagic. Concentrated on a small area, it was enough to disrupt the wizardry-derived material and stagger the giant construct.

Nathan kept his attention on the battle around him even as he focused on shattering the archer underneath him. Aarl was on the warpath, flickering around at the golem’s head height with enchanted swords whirling so quickly it looked like he had four arms. He took a glancing blow on his armor and flew backwards before returning to the fight by kicking off a nearby building like a swimmer kicking off a wall.

Khachi advanced more cautiously. His shield glowed with a steady light, deflecting a thrown rock the size of a refrigerator without a flicker. His hammer ramped up in intensity over time, each strike releasing a stone-shattering burst of power as it struck home.

Meanwhile bullets and lightning bolts rained down from the sky. Stella hadn’t completely drained her lightning capacitors, and each bolt struck with the resounding crack of a natural bolt of lightning. Sarah was also mixing enchanted rounds in with her normal ammunition, and a golem’s head exploded as three of them tried to overwhelm Khachi.

Through his magical senses Nathan felt a golem wind up to take a swing at him from behind. It was trying to knock him off the archer golem without hitting it. He flattened himself against the golem, feeling the breeze as the unseen blow flew by. Then he got back up and resumed slamming his elbows into the golem underneath him as a bullet staggered the one who’d taken a swing.

Alertness 10 achieved!

Eventually, after dozens of blows, Nathan managed to crush the golem’s head at about the same time as Aarl cleanly de-limbed the last mobile golem. It probably would have been safer and more efficient for Nathan to stay at a distance and use his antimagic. But what he’d done had split the foe’s attention and let him see how his physical abilities stacked up.

I’m fine at punching, but my antimagic aura is a game-changer. I can drain a mana pool at over a hundred feet, even through walls. That’s pretty good.

Spellslayer has leveled to 466! You have destroyed the last vessels of four ancient giants, including a Matriarch of the Grave of All Giants!

He rose to his feet, brushing the dust from his hands and shoulders and looking around the battlefield. Nathan was standing on the edge of the zone where Stella’s lightning had blackened and fused the broken stone of the Academy. Small fires burned where various flammable debris had been ignited. He scanned around with his magical senses to make sure all of the golems were dead, then called out to his friends as they cautiously surveyed the battlefield. “All clear! Come on over.”

Stella zipped through the thin smoke before settling lightly on the ground next to Nathan. “Was that justified?” She asked, daring him to disagree.

He chuckled, looking around at the scene of devastation. “All this and more. The Academy’s already toast, and the golems need a lot of killing. Good job.” He eyed the places where the golems had been digging, seeing a heavy block shifting slightly where a buried golem struggled to escape. “In fact, the job’s not quite over yet. Look, there are more golems to deal with.”

The rest of the Heirs followed his pointing hand to the place where a golem was trapped just beneath the surface.

Aarl grimaced, his finger circling to indicate the giant pile of rubble. “Do we need to dig them all up and kill the problem piece by piece?”

Nathan shook his head. “No, I’ll take care of it. My aura can drain them without digging them up. In fact, I can probably get rid of a lot of the rubble too. It’s all conjured from wizardry.”

“Muckgrabber’s asshole, really?” Stella said, her jaw dropping open. “A permanent conjured material?”

Nathan picked up a piece of stone the size of his head and applied his aura. The stone melted away to nothing in seconds as if he’d pointed a blowtorch at a snowball. “Yup. This is how I got around the Academy. Easy to sneak around when you can dissolve holes in walls.”

He proceeded to tell Stella everything he knew about the Academy’s Wizardry as they hiked around the rubble. As he talked Nathan directed his magical senses downwards, feeling for the telltale signs of a functional golem. Whenever he found one he stretched his aura downwards to destroy the trapped golem, keeping it thin to avoid destabilizing the giant pile of rubble too much.

Wizard’s Detection 6 achieved!

On the few occasions that he had trouble reaching a deeply buried golem he used his aura to dissolve the rubble above it, starting from the top downwards. It was a strange experience to keep his balance atop the pile of stones as it evaporated.

Eventually, Nathan looked up and brushed sweat from his forehead. “That’s all of them. I think we’re done?” As if prompted by his words, a trio of notifications popped up.

Spellslayer has leveled to 472! You have destroyed the last conscious members of the Grave of All Giants!

Void of Magic has leveled to 620! The Grave of All Giants is ruined beyond any hope of restoration! It will never again emerge on Davrar.

Congratulations on Clearing a Grand Dungeon! There are 99 grand Dungeons left on this continent! Your future class Developments will be more powerful in recognition of this deed!

“The Grave of All Giants is no more.” Khachi said, speaking almost reverently as he read his own prompt. “We have eliminated an ancient evil from Davrar.”

Aarl snorted and spoke sarcastically. “One target killed. A hundred more to go.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and poked her brother in his unarmored forehead. “Don’t smother our fire. This is a win. I gained forty-five levels and a better Class development!”

Stella’s grin was wide. “Well I gained…” She cut off and frowned as something distracted her. “Ah, Myrla is here, along with Nathan’s students. Let’s get over there and drop the city on their shoulders.”

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 6

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 4

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: Void of Magic level 620

Deepened Stamina: 18011/18900

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Spellslayer level 472

Regenerative Focus: 3791/4820

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Wizard’s Meditation 7

Inspiration 6

Acceleration 9

Wizard’s Detection 6

Alertness 10

Wizard’s Understanding 7

Effortless Dodge 9

Mental Vault 3

Tutoring 4

Parkour 7

Visibility Control 2

High-tier Disguise 3

Mid-tier Battle Cry 10

High-tier Aura Manipulation 10