Ends of Magic

Once more, Nathan was surrounded by a dozen muscular men who wanted nothing more than to stick their weapons into him.

This seems to happen with surprising regularity.

He continued his forward charge, stepping over the archmage’s body and dodging a few hasty strikes to continue moving. His aura blanketed the elites and unraveled their enslavement enchantments as he passed through their formation. They all paused at the sudden lack of mental shackles, and the hesitation allowed Nathan to escape the encirclement.

He gained a bit of height and looked over the rest of the battlefield. It took only a glance to see that the Heirs had routed their enemies. A few mages still lived and fought, but they all struggled to protect themselves from Stella and Aarl’s furious advance, to say nothing of Khachi and Sarah. One mage tried to [Blink] away, but a bullet from Sarah caught him mid-cast, dropping a headless body to the ground.

Another war mage had figured out that Stella was avoiding blasting the groups of slaves and brought a cordon of slave-soldiers tight around herself. Khachi bulled through the living shields with sheer physical strength, tossing them aside as his shield deflecting a hasty bolt of ice up into the sky. His hammer came down atop the mage in a blow crackling with divine energy. It blasted through [Mage Armor] to leave a bloody crater in the street.

I believe the proper term there is ‘smite’.

Nathan hurried to dispel the magic on the remaining slaves before the basic logic within the enchantments decided that the battle was lost and it was time to kill their hosts. His aura had grown enormously in the past days and he let it out to its fullest extent, blanketing the street and ripping out the mental magic from everyone present.

Then he opened his mouth to speak, to repeat the same inspiring words that had awoken so many freed slaves from their stupor.

Khachi beat him to it. The wolfman’s rich voice rolled over the street, powerful but calm. “Victory!” His aura spread behind the words, pushing insistently against Nathan’s own.

Nathan retracted his influence, closing his mouth and ceding attention to his friend. Stella gestured and the stone under Khachi rose, giving him an impromptu stage.

The golden aura spread across the entire street, flaring with light as every eye turned towards the wolfman in warmly glowing plate armor. He spoke again, his voice gaining the reverb effect that accompanied invocation of the divine. “Victory over the slavers of Giantsrest!

Void of Magic has leveled to 580! You have killed the archmage Dennar dho Ozor and broken his household guard before freeing every single slave soldier he possessed!

Khachi looked like a hero from a storybook, clad in immaculate gilded armor and haloed by a golden glow. The barest tinge of the aura bled past Nathan’s antimagic, and he felt hope surge within him at the sight.

It’s a magical promise that things will get better. That a better way is possible. It’s also healing the injuries of anybody who can see him.

“Your captors are slain, and the magic on you is broken.” Khachi didn’t yell, speaking in a deep voice that rumbled across the cracked street that had so recently been a battlefield. “Your life begins anew on this day, free of the tyranny of slavers. Come, join others like you. You will be cared for, so you may care for others.”

I’ll give it a six out of ten. But then again, he has some pretty potent magic to help his case.

The recently freed slaves seemed dazzled by his appearance, but when Khachi stepped off the stage and walked down the street they turned to follow. He broke into a jog towards the Chokiz estate, and the crowd broke into an unsteady run after him.

Nathan took to the air, garnering worshipful looks from the crowd below before he caught up to Khachi. Aarl joined him, and Sarah hopped off her rooftop as they passed to fall in with the other Heirs.

“What of the Giantraiders? Did you find them?” Sarah asked her brother, holstering her rifle into a dimensional pouch as she ran.

Stella swooped down from above to float along overhead. “We found them, but got spotted by that archmage and his army. We split up to draw the archmage away and gave them instructions on how to find us." She smirked. “Then I made a big explosion to draw your attention. Hear me, I’m glad that worked. An archmage and three war mages are a blasphemous foe.”

Khachi grunted in response, speaking over the clanking of his armor. “I am glad the Giantraiders are relieving us once again. It will be a weight lifted to have other Adventurers helping.”

“They know it’s worth being bold.” Aarl spoke shortly. “I’m worried they won’t be able to kill these targets. These are not easy foes.”

Sarah shrugged. “They’ll be better than we are at organizing the elites. Vhala’s been fighting Giantest with trickery for decades, she’ll know how to guide the elites to defend themselves.” She gestured around to indicate the Heirs. “We fight these foes directly, but they can't and shouldn't try.”

There was a snort from above, and a quick glance up showed Stella was wearing a smug grin. “An archmage and his entire household guard. Thirty-eight mages, and they were goats to our castlebear.”

Nathan thought over the battle they’d just fought as he ran. The Heirs had dumpstered the mages, as soon as everybody had gathered together. But that was the problem. They’d split the party, and then had differences in mobility that meant they’d needed to split it again. “We’re fine in a straight-up fight.” He said, speaking over Aarl’s snarky response to Stella’s gloating. “But we have problems with mobility.” Nathan pointed at Sarah and Khachi. “It was a problem that you two couldn’t fly. The rest of us needed to retreat to give you a chance to catch up.”

And to spread the levels a bit. I could probably have taken out more mages than just the archmage, but killing is the most reliable way to gain levels. I bet each of the Heirs picked up at least thirty or forty levels from that fight.

He continued, glancing around to gauge his teammate’s reactions. “It also limits our choice of battlefield. Flying is faster and bypasses terrain.”

Stella was nodding along. “You speak the same words as my parents. ‘To fly is to choose when and where you fight, and to ignore anybody below you.’ That’s what they say.”

“Then I will learn how to use the [Fly] spell.” Sarah said with a sigh. “Though I might borrow Aarl’s armor to learn it.”

Nathan nodded. “I learned some Insights inside the Academy that might help Stella with the spell.” But his eyes were on Khachi, the wolfman in deep in thought as they turned the final corner before the Chokiz district.

They ran on in silence for a moment longer before Nathan prompted for an answer. “Khachi, will you practice with [Fly] too?”

His teammate responded hesitantly, not out of breath from the jog at all. “I would prefer to fly with my own magic. Kia’s books say it is possible. But if I fly with another’s magic, I may never learn how.”

Nathan wasn’t entirely happy with that, but he wasn’t going to tell Khachi how to walk his own path. If he could fly under his own power, that would definitely be better in the long run. “Alright, let me know if I can help.”

Stella spoke up. “I can’t cast four [Fly] spells, that’s too much air mana to channel all at once. But if I learn [Mass Fly] then I can move everybody. Except you, Nathan.”

He shrugged. He was always going to have to manage his own movement. “Can I get some mana? My Stamina is getting a little low.”

With a snort Stella shot a beam of intense light mana at Nathan, and he greedily absorbed it to fuel his Stamina. He could replenish his Focus on his own, but Stamina required either food and rest or external magic. He had enormous resource pools now, but it was preferable to keep them topped off.

Up ahead was the main gate into the Chokiz industrial district, and Nathan saw the Giantraiders talking to some of the freed elites outside. He grinned at seeing the three familiar figures, though they seemed to have picked up a fourth somewhere, a vaguely familiar squat man in heavy armor. Emerald had already noticed them and raised a hand in greeting. Nathan raised his voice to call out. “Hey Vhala!”

The broad dark-skinned woman turned away from talking to Gasc and the other elites, a smile on her face. The expression morphed to amused disbelief as she saw the crowd following the Heirs but she laughed and called back a response. “Hail to the Giantslayer!”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The elites guarding the gate cheered at the Heirs approach, hurriedly opening the gates to welcome the new arrivals inside. Khachi gave a few instructions in his booming voice and the freed slaves funneled inside to be integrated into the growing community of free Giantsrest, Gasc going to manage it all. Nathan and his friends stepped off to the side to chat with the Giantraiders, each team sizing the other up.

Vhala was much the same as before, short and broad with dark dreadlocks draping down her back. She was armed with an enchanted bow and axes, though she’d added a revolver to her belt that made Nathan’s eyebrows go up. Emerald was dressed the same as they had always been, the thin figure’s face hidden behind a full-face helmet. Wiam’s beak clattered in excitement as he looked over the Heirs, his eyes flicking over each of them in turn.

“Good to see you all.” Nathan said with a wistful smile. The presence of the other Giantraiders made him remember Artha, the elk-centaur who’d been Nathan’s first mentor on Giantsrest. The big Treeborn had set Nathan’s feet on the Path of Rage, and he would have been thrilled beyond words at what his student had accomplished.

Vhala’s smile turned a bit sad, her mind clearly going in a similar direction. “Hear me, but I thought Halsmet was a prophecy of victory. But now the Academy itself is a pile of rubble.” She shook her head, then turned towards the fourth member of their group, the replacement for Artha. “This is Honsk, you may remember him from Halsmet.”

Nathan clapped the squat man on the shoulder. He was one of the elites Nathan had freed so long ago, as part of the plan to liberate Exea's city. “Of course! I remember when you guarded me in Halsmet. Good to see you again.”

The wide elite nodded and spoke in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. “Mage-breaker. I’m pleased beyond prophecies’ hold to be here. It’s good to see more people freed. I should speak with the newly freed elites, tell them lessons we learned in Halsmet.”

“You don’t need my permission.” Nathan replied casually, turning back to Vhala as Honsk bustled off. “We’re glad you’re here. We were going to go hunting in the city and free more people, but don’t want to abandon these folks. Now that you’re here we’ll be a lot more comfortable leaving them alone.”

Wiam interrupted, cocking his head to the side. “Ya’got near fifty elites! That’s a lotta defense already!”

Sarah shrugged in response. “But they don’t fight mages, as you do. And you can communicate direct back to Halsmet, guide in more Adventurers, more antimages. Myrla’s coming too. Now you can talk to her, while we’re out killing problems.”

The birdfolk tried to think of a response to that, his feathers drooping. “Message bird, am I?”

“The fastest in Gemore.” Emerald said flatly. “Or the one always closest to trouble.”

Vhala chuckled, cutting through the bickering. “A good role for us. I’ll speak to Gasc. That one has stared the ghoul in the eye. Stand guard until we can get a strong reaction force organized, then you can go hunting.”

“Sounds good.” Nathan said, nodding and turning to Sarah. “Good time to practice [Fly]?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’d rather take up hydra farming.”

—

“This is too easy.” Aarl said, watching his sister bob through the air like a moderately spastic balloon.

Nathan twisted from where he stood to raise an eyebrow at his teammate. “It doesn’t look like she’s picking it up too easily.”

The dark-haired man shook his head, keeping his eyes on the streets below. “That too, though I think Stella’s control is stronger. I mean Giantsrest. We are here, in their city. We’re floating in plain view over a community of thousands of freed slaves, and nobody is attacking. Where are the armies? Where are the archmages?"

“Well.” Nathan replied. He thought about it for a moment. “I think there’s a few things going on there. First we killed a lot of the more adventurous mages and archmages in the mountains, with the ambush. Then Faline and I were encouraging tensions in the city. I don’t know how that went after I separated from Faline, but I can’t imagine that dead bodies inside the Academy soothed the tensions. The Academy was supposed to be invincible, after all.”

He bit his lip, remembering back to the way Faline had described the mood of Giantsrest. “That probably caused some mages to leave Giantsrest, to go to the cities that weren’t having an assassin problem. Then I had my fight with Badud, and the entire Academy collapsed. That probably killed more mages than everything else put together. As for the archmages, I got four of them on that last night, and Badud’s spell and the collapse of the Academy probably killed a few more. We just killed another one that was trying to establish order here. With the three from the battle and Cala dha Drex, that comes to nine confirmed dead archmages, and who knows how many dead in the Academy.”

Stella whistled in appreciation as she floated over to join the conversation. “Smoke and blood, you killed that many?”

“Yup.” Nathan said with a smirk. “Mostly from surprise.” He picked up his train of thought. “Then the golems invaded the city from the inside out. I bet a lot of the remaining mages either fled or are planning to flee soon, to get to the other Giantsrest cities. There are definitely some still in the city, but they’re hunkered down and don’t want to fight. As for the archmages, there might only be a couple of them left, and they might have decided to leave Giantsrest altogether. I killed the master of Skargess inside the Academy, and Sarah killed the master of Ardglass during the ambush.”

He gestured around the quiet city beneath them. “Giantsrest is done. Even if the remaining satellite cities survive, they won’t all work together without a coordinating authority. With the Academy gone they also won’t be able to train mages to maintain the status quo.”

“To repeat prophecy, we’re visiting those cities?” Aarl asked with raised eyebrows. “To ensure they don’t continue as normal.”

Nathan shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m worried about that. Without mages, how will those cities protect themselves? Maybe we need to organize evacuations back here. Especially for Ardglass, since they keep getting attacked by Sklian undead.”

“Or we could just destroy the undead.” Stella contributed, her expression innocent.

“We can’t solve every problem.” Nathan said bitterly. “We need to get moving to Litcliff and beyond, to Pamaris.”

“But…” Stella said, but she trailed off as Nathan raised a hand, focusing on one of the streets below.

He’d just caught a flicker of movement, and his skills were telling him it was one he should pay attention to. He focused for a moment on the street, spending Focus to peel back layers of deception and focus in on a figure walking down the street in this direction. It was a somewhat dumpy woman dressed as a household slave, looking around the street furtively as she crept along.

Mental Vault 3 achieved!

“It’s Faline.” He said to the unspoken question from his teammates, before he darted towards the gate she was approaching from.

This is going to be interesting.

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 580

Deepened Stamina: 11720/17700

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 437

Regenerative Focus: 3791/4470

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 4

Acceleration 8

Wizard’s Detection 5

Alertness 9

Wizard’s Understanding 6

Effortless Dodge 7

Mental Vault 3

Tutoring 3

Parkour 7

Visibility Control 2

High-tier Disguise 3

Mid-tier Battle Cry 10

High-tier Aura Manipulation 8