“Which one? The one made of lightning or the summoned one down there with the green eyes and antlers?”
“No, not down at the battlefield. Up in the sky. It was black, but I think I saw a bird. A huge one.”
“Like you could see anything up there.”
“Hey, I got the dark essence. Seeing through darkness is the reason I was put up here on lookout rather than join the rest of the gangs fighting down there.”
“Alright, alright. No need to get all testy.”
“There’s a battle going on out there, Fritz! One that just blew through our barrier. Excuse me for being a bit tense!”
“Alright, alright. Where did you see the bird? We might as well bring out the looking glass. Here.”
“Thanks. It was… Here somewhere. I-”
“... What?”
“Shh…”
“As if me talking would make you see worse.”
“It’s not that… It’s… Oh, shit! Fritz, sound the alarm!”
“What?”
“Did I fucking stutter? Sound the alarm. I’ll activate the skystrikes. We got incoming!”
“Finding myself rather unfazed by hurtling down through the night sky towards an active battlefield and a fortress full of enemies… There is probably a lesson about adapting to one’s circumstances in there somewhere,” Kite inwardly mused as the descending group was closing in the final distance, the discharging spells and special attacks below rapidly having gone from tiny specks of light to more identifiable streaks and bursts just a hundred meters away. Unfazed might have been a bit generous, as Kite’s gut was definitely clenching with tension, excitement and anticipation, but he at least wanted to give himself some credit. This kind of entrance was apparently not too uncommon when working within the Task Group, and they had performed many similar drops in the mirage chamber.
Below, Kite could see Ryker and Mtanga, the former’s cloak billowing out like a pair of wings while cloth tendrils wrapped themselves like a harness around the latter. Mtanga’s bow was out as he was held in a way that would allow the silver-ranked to fire without too much hindrance. If Kite’s estimations were correct, they had around one third of the distance left until touching down, the main defensive barrier still at least a few minutes away from reforming.
“All seems to go well, at least,” Kite thought, looking at the admittedly rather impressive distraction of the adventurer’s assault below. “Once we touch down, Christine should have plenty of time to-”
His thoughts were interrupted as several glowing magical circles lit up across the camouflaged top of the fortress, which when revealed looked like a solid, windowless complex built into the mountain. Dark figures were currently scrambling below to place some kind of floating brass cage in the center of each of the revealed circles.
“Oh sweet heavens,” he thought as the insides of each cage - five in total - started flickering with lightning; a roiling, crackling ball of steadily increasing intensity. “Amica. Get me down there!”
“Then steady yourselves!” the woman currently carrying him downwards called back, already having noticed what was surely magical defenses coming alive. Kite’s world lurched again as she started to actively push downwards at a greater speed, subjecting them all to forces that would definitely have killed a normal ranker.
Below, the shimmering string of Mtanga’s bow flashed, and one of the five cage-constructions was torn to pieces in a discharge of lightning and screaming metal. Apparently not wanting to risk more suffering the same fate, the defenders below chose to fire.
Kite could see the pulse going through them all as the four remaining defensive formations were activated. Each cage crackled as the energy within was directed upwards in a stream of small lightning spheres, each of the projectiles detonating when it came into the proximity of something. This was demonstrated by Mtanga and Ryker as arrows and conjured cloth streamers met the vanguard of crackling spheres, setting off a small chain of detonations below.
The emplacements, however, spat out more projectiles at too rapid a pace to be diverted by mere counterattacks. But fortunately for the two supervisors taking the lead, they had backup.
“Ward!”
Kite’s twin barriers appeared in front of the pair just as it looked like a pair of spheres were about to get past the defenses, the crackling detonation diverted by the curved discs just in time before angling out to protect their flanks and allowing them to focus their own disruptive fire straight ahead.
“Besides, it shouldn’t be long before-,” Kite thought, when Emilio made his expected appearance. He felt the moment when one of the marks of the elf’s hunt essence landed upon one of the figures below as soon as he came within range, and a moment later, Emilio was among them. Wand blasts started streaking out across the roof of the fort, scattering the sentient defenders and soon after breaking enough of a nearby emplacement to make it lose all of its precision; its stream of projectiles sent arcing far off to the north.
“Wall!”
Kite and the rest of the descending team had just come close enough for him to conjure a set of force walls around two more emplacements, layering the barriers as much as he could to cut off the streams of attacks for a little while longer. The insides of the impromptu cages immediately lit up with crackling lightning as the spheres detonated almost point blank, and Kite could feel his barriers crack and dissolve at a concerning speed.
But he did not wait for them to crumble, as his descending team just had a short final stretch to go. Immutable Echo appeared in his hand and Kite swung, projecting his strike the rest of the way while letting the staff return to his void sheath, only to project another attack downwards. There was a second of delay as the strikes traveled the distance, before small, rippling impacts struck the shuddering remains of Leyline Warding.
Both barriers cracked, one after the other, collapsing inwards as rippling, resonating force converged on the devices which even now struggled to continue unleashing lightning-shaped death up towards the aerial attackers. But those efforts ceased as the resonating force caused the cages of the construct to warp, the metal shrieking as the artifacts either collapsed or had their function so ruined that they were effectively out of the fight. And with only one of them left, the team touched down only slightly singed here and there as Emilio had either dispatched or driven off the handful of bronze-ranked defenders on the roof.
“Well, there goes the element of surprise,” Christine said with a casualness at odds with their circumstances.
“You know that most infiltrations fall apart anyway,” Mtanga agreed. Even though the pair remained cheerful, they were both already in motion to act according to what the group had planned, coordinating in drawing out a ritual diagram around the concealed metal hatch down which the fleeing defenders had disappeared
“Status? They will know we are coming now, so act accordingly,” Ryker said, crouching next to the group while Emilio scouted the perimeter and Amica was using her telekinesis to drag the scrap left behind the aerial defenses to intercept stray projectiles from the battle beneath the fortress.
“Spent a bit of mana and a bit singed. Nothing major,” Kite answered, the rest nodding in agreement.
“Gray Sky did not even need to exert himself,” the runic added.
“Me neither,” Sztyka agreed.
“The breaching ritual is ready,” Christine called, placing down the last stack of silver spirit coins gleaming as they caught flashes of light below.
“Then we move as planned. Christine, Kite, take the lead. Emilio, you’re next. Go scout what you can as soon as the situation is under control. Amica and Gray Sky, you’re the rearguard.”
His words were punctuated by the ritual circle lighting up all at once in a brief, intense flash followed by a loud *pop*. Ryker did not hesitate, limbs of twined cloth reaching out and grabbing a hold in the hatch before yanking up both it and a bit of the surrounding stone of the fortress, the edges of the chunk of stone perfectly smooth where the ritual lines had been drawn.
Christine and Kite immediately started towards the opening, the elf woman taking the lead as she cast a spell.
“Glean the uncountable geodes.”
From below, a crackling, glass-like sound was heard and Kite knew that whatever space was beneath was suddenly facing clusters of rapidly growing purple and black crystals which emitted blinding flashes of light before detonating in bursts of shrapnel and resonating force.
Taking on the role of vanguard, Kite leapt down just after the rippling detonation had echoed up through the hole, and he was readying his own spell even as he dropped the three meters to the corridor below.
“Dissolve the patterns of power”
Kite had barely had the time to take in the corridor in front of him, consisting of bleak and unadorned and windowless stone-shaped walls, and the chaos caused by Christine's initial spell as Ripple of Cancellation surged out ahead of him. It snuffed out a trio of hasty projectiles and some boons as it washed over the gathered attempt at a defensive position by what was no doubt the reserves of the local crime syndicates. Kite sensed only two silver-rankers present as well as a dozen bronze, the former trying to whip their subordinates into something akin to order. The silvers were also the only ones whose auras did not give off the tinge of monster cores, which probably meant that they were ex-adventurers or mercenaries who had always operated outside the society’s system.
Even as he saw Christine touch down behind him, Kite was already in motion. The arms of his mantle came alive as a trio of special attacks were projected towards one of the silver-rankers who was raising a glowing hand to no doubt fire some kind of projectile. She was instead sent staggering back as Kite’s attack tore into her magic and mana, flashing with transcendent light. Being off balance, she had even less time to dodge the restraining sphere of water which suddenly manifested around her, courtesy of Glint who was peeking out from her bottle at Kite’s hip.
The other silver was sent ducking back behind a corner as Sage, floating just behind Kite’s back as usual, had taken the opportunity to fire a beam of resonating force. This bought the team another few precious seconds, Christine joining the barrage with spells of her own.
Both were forced to a halt though as the second silver-ranker, the one who had only had to dive for cover, popped back out through some kind of flaring movement power while stretching both of his palms towards the advancing adventurer.
“Breath of the scarlet dragon!”
A moment later, a jet of flame filling the whole width of the corridor came rushing down towards the advancing pair, meeting the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding further strengthened as Christine caused crystals to start growing out of the wall, the faceted blue minerals providing a substantial boost to Kite’s conjured ward.
“We’ll have to taste some flames soon to keep the initiative, senior sister,” Kite noted, teeth clenched as he pumped what mana he could into the barriers to keep the intense fires at bay.
“They say ‘no pain, no gain’,” she answered casually. “I can strike first. That should-”
Then they both felt Emilio’s mark appear ahead of them, somewhere beyond the obscuring jet of fire, and knew that their attempted distractions would not be necessary.
Throughout their training, Kite had become increasingly impressed with the teleporting scout’s ability to appear when and where his enemies really did not want him to, proving that while he was full of posturing and bluster, there was at least a lot of skill there to back it up. Kite was confident in taking the elf down one on one in most situations, but found himself really glad that Emilio was his ally as soon as the setting and sides were both more numerous and more complicated.
As expected, the jet of fire soon winked out and Kite and Christine joined Emilio in taking on the gathered defenders. To say that it was chaos felt like an understatement, with the close confines and undisciplined foes causing quite the mess. The two silver-rankers seemed to only need a few seconds to see where the winds were turning, and both made to escape as soon as they caught a glimpse of Ryker, Mtanga, Sztyka and Gray Sky making their way down the hatch.
Unfortunately for one of the fire-wielding ones, he found his legs suddenly caught in a pair of vices as Christine manipulated the stone floor to immobilize him, leading to a brutal struggle of fire vs stone where the latter seemed to be winning handily. Kite was just about to start conjuring a wall to hinder the other retreating foe when Emilio poked his aura rather forcefully. Turning towards the elf with a questioning look, Emilio only nodded smugly as Kite felt one of his marks appear on the fleeing woman just before she turned a corner.
“It would be a lot easier to find their command center if we had something to follow, no?” he noted before flickering away just as the rest of the team reached them.
Subduing a pack of bronze-rankers and a partially immobilized silver when there were seven remaining silvers on their side proved to be more challenging in not hurting one another in the tight confines of the stone corridor rather than hurting the enemy. Unfortunately for their foes, none were any of the listed priority targets, and leaving prisoners in their wake, even collared ones, was too much of a risk.
“Emilio will scout ahead, but we’ll follow his marks,” Ryker said as Sztyka’s ominous spells had devoured the last of the foes. “Weapons out and spells at the ready, people. Getting inside was just the first step, after all. Let’s see what will await us when we kick in the door.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Sir, we’ve got more breaches in the western wings. The Shattered Crowns are holding for now, but they will need to activate the defenses soon to not be overwhelmed.”
“Sir! The Runners are ready to get back into it. Where should they be deployed?”
“Sir, the instruments are indicating that we have successfully sealed another twenty percent of the tunnels. How much further should we go?
“Sir! The tea you asked for is ready.”
At the moment, caught between multiple voices all vying for his attention while surveying the parts of the battle map still functional, Kurtz Bogoria was thankful for his silver rank. It allowed him to keep everything in mind easily enough, but what actually made him able to excel and hold surprisingly steady against the adventurer assault was his sovereign confluence. Having essence powers to excel at coordinating groups and larger scale operations had been decent as an adventurer, but it turned out that using said talents to effectively rule the criminal underworld of a nation paid a lot better, with the added bonus of having honest to gods minions at his beck and call. And with the addition of ‘Alina’, things had gone even smoother lately.
While Kurtz wasn’t the only syndicate leader in the room, the others equally busy directing their people, no one had any doubts that he was the most important. It was he that had kept this whole thing together for so long, after all, which meant that it would be him that got first pickings and a bigger share of any spoils, and that he would be the first one out the escape tunnel when the need arose.
Because unfortunately for Kurtz and the others, the need would arise. Even if they managed to beat back the adventurers, their stronghold was compromised. Kurtz would need to take everything he could and start over somewhere else.
“If there is even anything other than dregs left to claim that is,” he thought, twirling his rather impressive blonde mustaches while ordering the powering up of some rather costly defensive formations. “Still, we’ll lose more unless we collapse enough of the tunnels and get as much of the archives out as possible. Better not compromise more of the operations than needed.”
A few more minutes passed, with a runner reporting that the defenses had indeed given the attacking adventurers pause on the western flank. Kurtz was just about to confer with Lady Shattered Crown, his second in command and, gods willing, future fiancée, when a side door to the command center was flung open with enough force to cause a loud clang to echo throughout the room. Most looked up at the silver-ranker - one of the Shade Needles stationed as a reserve near the upper reaches of the fortress - and the woman spared no time in whirling around on a jet of fire to kick the door shut again and engage the locks.
Sensing her harried state through her aura, Kurtz waved off one of the other runners to go meet her.
“Well, out with it!” he snapped, sensing that he was about to receive bad news.
“S-sir, silvers. Coming in from above. Fast. Really fast.”
“How many?” Kurtz asked, already calculating a response.
“Seven or eight, sir.”
“Gods above. Such a headache,” he thought, looking around to Lady Shattered Crown. “Prepare to activate the upper defenses as well, we need-”
But for once, the regal human woman was not listening attentively to him. Instead, her eyes had thinned as she hurriedly walked closer to the flustered silver-ranker-turned-messenger.
“You fool! You let them mark you and then came directly to us? Imbecile!” she all but shrieked, her voice causing Kurtz’ stomach to drop. His prospective fiancée had the eye essence, and there were no magical effects of her rank that she could not detect with a little scrutiny, concealed or not. And if there was some kind of mark…
“Ready the inner defenses NOW!” he bellowed, turning to the main controls of the fortress which also helped his essence powers reach where one needed them to. “We need to increase the pace of our extraction. Send the western reserves to the tunnels and half of those in the east to the archives.”
“Sir! It’s.. They’re not…”
“What? Speak!”
“The inner defenses are active, but I don’t see any readings of them consuming any mana.”
“That is good then, right?” Another of the formation experts asked. “Then we raised them in time.”
Kurtz nodded at his words, but his gut still wouldn’t let the matter rest. Because there was one other possibility too.
“Fortune, please be kind,” he inwardly prayed as he asked. “And what if they are already inside the defenses?”
“But sir.. The inner defenses… If they were inside them, that would mean that they are already-”
“Gods, please do not finish that sentence,” Kurtz inwardly begged. Too late.
“-here.”
As if Kurtz life had just become some kind of vicious comedy at his expense, the same door from which the reporting silver ranker had come exploded inwards along with parts of the wall; the detonation some kind of epic punctuation to the foolish man’s statement.
Unlike most in the room, Kurtz did not hesitate as he let the close-ranged boons and enhancements of his confluence start rolling out to empower all those nearby. A bronze-ranked ritualist was knocked bleeding to the floor by a chunk of stone the size of his head while the others started acting as well to mount what defenses he could.
A wall of stone covered in glittering crystal rose from the floor just inside the door, and what could have been one of Kurtz’ underlings conjuring a defense quickly proved to be just a hopeful dream as the crystals then exploded, magical blasts and ricocheting shrapnel further wreaking havoc in the room. But while many were stunned, the defensive boons Kurtz had led with kept his silvers from suffering anything but minor damage.
“Royal guard formation!”
Kurtz had always pretended that he found the chant a bit pretentious, but had inwardly always loved giving such a command as he let power flow into his allies. But just afterwards, his silver-ranked hearing allowed him to hear another spell chant from the other side of the remnants of the detonating stone wall.
“Dissolve the patterns of power.”
One moment ago, his people had been powering up, ready to beat back whatever the adventure society had decided to throw at them. Now, they faltered, and Kurtz felt a few of his own magical effects winking out as well.
“Shit!” he thought, readying his breaching axe while he thought what boons to spread next through the network awarded by his Radiant Commanding Presence to claw back some of the initiative. It was only his experience that let him react to the subtle danger which his instincts suddenly screamed was about to hit him. Kurtz ducked to the side as a ripple in the air much like a slash could be seen where he had just been standing, his arcing saber intercepting another.
But a third attack, launched almost simultaneously with the other two, raked one of his shoulders. Or at least, it should have. Instead of an open wound, Kurtz saw the glimpse of a blue flash before mana left him. A substantial amount for such a weak attack, too. However, that was by far the least of Kurtz problems. Because Radiant Commanding Presence, the passive special ability that was the lynchpin of efficiency for his sovereign powers, was suddenly not there anymore; thoroughly smothered and suppressed.
Feeling his command falter as the adventurers made their entrance into the room, a young man with dark hair, glowing tattoos and four additional spectral arms taking the lead along with a stone and crystal-clad elf, Kurtz was forced to realize that his day had just gone from worse… To absolute shit.
“The mark is definitely in there,” Emilio breathed as the group gathered at the door after a short pursuit along nondescript hallways and stairs, lit in the pale light of the glow stones set in the walls.
Things had gotten tense at one point as they sensed various defenses hum to life around them, but a short burst of speed and Kite performing an opportunistic disruption of a detection array later, they had managed to push through the killing zone around what Kite suspected was the heart of the fortress. The three bronze-ranked guards they had happened upon had not been enough to cause any further alert, now just piles of dust in their wake as Sztyka’s powers had devoured them.
“Braid would have a thing or two to say about the arrays here too. Leaving such a part of the framework isolated was just inviting someone to bypass it,” Kite thought as the others were preparing yet another one of the breaching rituals used above, this time splurging a bit on the materials to make sure that they made it through in one go to keep what little element of surprise they may have managed to reclaim.
“Christine, splinterwall. Kite, dispelling wave. Everyone; Focus Emilo’s mark, then engage as you deem fitting. And keep an eye out for Alina. Objections?” Ryker asked, giving each a stern nod in return.
“Breach ready,” Mtanga hissed, the smile clear in his voice. Then, without further ado, he engaged the primed ritual. Like the last time, the sigils and diagrams flashed intensely as the door, surrounding wall as well as the protective arrays were seared through in a moment.
Kite had learned that this particular ritual was something the adventure society kept as a closely guarded secret among the different Task Groups, as the less information about it that leaked meant that their targets were less able to adapt their arrays enough to withstand it.
“Fractured bones of the earth!”
Rykers multiple arms of braided cloth had barely pushed the slab of wall and door inward before Christine’s spell cut off the tiny glimpse Kite was able to get of the room beyond; some kind of comfortable command center with at least nine silver-rankers, some core-users and some not, and around twenty bronze and iron rankers working as different kinds of assistants. A huge man with an impressive blonde mustache had just started channeling enhancing magic out into the room while some had recovered from the initial burst of the breach enough to start a counterattack.
Then the crystalline layer of Christine’s wall detonated, and from the later part of their training in the mirage chambers when their supervisors had joined the simulations as ‘foes’, Kite knew just how potent the stunning and disorienting effect of that spell was. A moment after, his own chant followed hers as he stepped through the door.
“Dissolve the patterns of power.”
As Christine stepped up to his side while clad in her conjured armor, throwing more area spells to scatter the lower-rankers, Kite took a chance to send a trio of Disrupting Strikes towards the man with the blonde mustache, obviously the one in charge as authority infused all of his magic which in turn snaked out to enhance his subordinates.
He proved surprisingly swift in his reactions, defending against the first two projected strikes, but the third landed and Kite felt not a small amount of satisfaction at seeing the man’s shock when his special ability was suppressed. But then, the rest of the team entered. Emilio appeared among their foes while an almost sentient swarm of arrows flew past Kite, some close enough that they brushed against his armor or hair. Sztyka, Gray Sky, Ryker and Amica followed, all unleashing as much area damage as they could to further the chaos.
The room swiftly became a mess of clashing auras, but a flare from Ryker’s told them that it was time. Just before the opposing silver-rankers had found their proverbial feet again, all of the adventurers present acted almost as one, sending their swiftest offensive spells and attacks towards the same goal; the formerly retreating silver ranker who still bore Emilio’s mark.
Silver rankers were notoriously durable, their enhanced bodies able to withstand an entirely different scope of damage than that of a bronze or lower. But eight adventurers targeting the same woman at the same time when some of her defensive means had just been canceled? It turned out that the silver-ranked constitution indeed had its limits.
The woman barely had the time to scream before she was slashed, sundered, torn, pierced and otherwise brutalized by the incoming attacks, her aura winking out almost instantly. Knowing that such a coordination would only be possible during a moment where most of their enemies were reeling or otherwise on the back foot, the group had practiced quite a lot in the mirage chamber to make that initial strike count.
Then the attacks started coming in, and with an even number of silvers, the would-be members of Task Group Gauntlet entered the fray. While facing monsters, adventurers could often adapt formations around their different roles. When facing other people, such a thing became a lot more… complicated. Each essence user above the earliest iron-rankers meant facing twenty powers directed by a sentient mind, meaning that the skilled opponents could think a lot more cunningly and punish too rigid tactics. A classical defender would have trouble cornering most opponents unless they had restraining or controlling powers of their own, such as the prison confluence.
Kite was indeed the closest thing the group had to such a role, but the way he aided his allies defensively was by no means the classic.
“Ward! Wall!”
A pair of barriers appeared to shield Christine’s side from a swirling drill of dark oblivion which was fired from one of the enemy silver-rankers before other segments of force walls appeared throughout the room to form cages, turning Ryker’s and Amica’s engagements into temporary duels. Emilio was likewise encircled, but only used that to his advantage as he quickly started teleporting in and out of the enclosed barriers to blast his foes from unexpected angles.
Mtanga, Gray Sky, Christine and Sztyka were all left to unleash their area attacks at the opponents outside the sudden enclosures, allowing them to focus their attention on a smaller area as petrification and stone vices made sure that Mtanga’s grasping arrow clusters or Sztyka’s channeled spells became as efficient as possible.
Still, their opponent’s proved their worth as the leader with the mighty mustache started using other essence powers to coordinate his people, first to form a small localized redoubt of layered defensive powers before trying to engage in a unified fighting retreat towards one of the other doors. This was made harder by Kite’s barriers as Christine added some of her own clusters of detonating crystals, and the room was being torn asunder all around them.
And in the middle of this, Kite held onto his combat meditation for dear life as all three sets of his arms were in motion. A conjured weapon halfway across the room was sundered just before blocking while two projectiles in flight were struck down. Two more barriers appeared to shore up Amica’s telekinetic defense as her foe went for an all-out attack. Another three strikes were projected to simply knock limbs out of balance and foes out of rhythm. It was straining his mind to his utmost as Kite literally wanted to be everywhere at once, near or far, laying his hand upon the scales of each conflict.
Meanwhile, a small part of his mind noticed Emilio achieving one of their goals. A blonde younger woman had scrambled out from where she had been hiding behind a flipped recliner. She was a silver-ranker, but clearly a core-user, and the glimpses Kite caught made him certain that this was indeed Alina, the high magistrate's daughter. She froze as Emilio appeared in front of her, glowing wand pressed to her forehead. Kite did not hear what he said to her, but from her stiff, shallow nod and him starting to escort her back through the chaos of the fight towards their breach while keeping her at wand point, it felt safe to assume that she had agreed to cooperate.
Then, feeling a surge of mana, Kite had to bring his full focus towards the smaller group of retreating enemies, their leader chanting a spell while another of the silver-rankers - a striking woman - was gathering a great deal of roiling darkness above her head.
“Loyal hero, ascend for your sovereign!” he chanted, as the intensity of her spell rose to concerning heights.
“That might just be enough to give them a chance at escape,” Kite thought with gritted teeth as he abandoned his meditation of vigilance for a more singular focus.
“Tides of the evernight!”
“Void!”
Darkness met darkness as Gate of Nihility manifested at its most costly level, the two spells colliding with a strange kind of violent silence. Kite flooded the gate with what mana he could, idly blocking a stray attack with another barrier as the last of the potency of that dark wave was canceled. But just as he was about to start assisting in the attack, Kite noticed something.
Emilio and Alina, the high magistrate’s daughter and potential conspirator, had just reached the breach from where the team had entered. The elf was reaching into his spatial storage, and everything looked to be in order. But it wasn’t truly that which had caught Kite’s attention, but rather Amica, as she had suddenly jerked around to stare at the two. Or more specifically, at Alina.
And of all the members in the team, Amica’s aura senses were by far the most potent. Nothing had happened, not a thing seeming otherwise amiss. But in that split moment of noting the sharpness in her eyes, Kite decided to act.
The next second was a blur. A stray spell happened to flicker towards Emilio, who in turn was forced to use his lone wand to deflect the projectile as his other hand was still in the pocket dimension of his storage space. And just at that moment, Alina struck. Flesh shifted as her whole torso and upper body split into a wide, vertical maw with only a dark abyss inside, teeth gleaming with supreme sharpness. And she moved fast.
Even the nimble Emilio would have been hard pressed to dodge, distracted as he was, and whatever special attack the woman was using, it was a potent one. Maybe even enough to bite a stationary target in half.
But a split moment later, the grotesque thing about to make Emilio Cardenco a lot lighter, a faint ripple struck the side of its torso-turned-head. And another split moment later, the force of the blow was transferred. The beast howled as it was bashed into the edge of the opening where the team had entered, its fangs only raking across Emilio’s chest before snapping shut with a small shockwave, devouring only empty air. Kite had unleashed what stored power he had within Immutable Echo, the rarely used kinetic storage in the staff proving its worth as it was enough to shift the attack and allow Emilio to avoid what would at least have been a crippling blow.
Then came the rest of the reactions, both Emilio and Amica striking out. Alina, if that was truly her, was blasted by devastating wand-attacks while simultaneously being almost impaled by stray crystals which Amica had telekinetically turned into potent projectiles.
Disaster averted, Kite was forced on the defensive as the opponents that remained struck with yet another barrage. But for the briefest of moments, Emilio’s eyes met his. Nothing was said, nothing emoted or otherwise gestured. Still, Kite saw the moment of gratitude for what it was. And the battle in the heart of the fortress continued.
Character sheet:
Name: Kite Flown in on Winds of Fortune
Race: Human
Racial traits:
Forger of Bonds: Evolved from Human ambition
Essence abilities advance more quickly, with a further boost if used in conjunction with allies.
You may form a familiar bond, binding that familiar to you until either of you die. As you increase in ranks, your familiar will increase alongside you.
Cleave the Spirit: Evolved from special attack aptitude.
Special attacks have increased effect, with an additional boost to mana-draining effets.
When making a special attack, you may choose for any physical damage types to deal damage to an opponent’s mana instead of health. Attacks made this way will not leave marks or wounds on the physical body, unless they also deal other, non-converted types of damage.
All is Void before Intent: Gain a pocket dimension capable of storing weapons.
When drawn from the void, the first attack with a weapon will deal additional damage of the weapon’s type as well as increasing any added from special attacks or abilities.
The first attack may also be carried through the void by your intent, allowing it to be made at range even if it would normally be a melee attack. There is a small delay before the attack manifests, with the delay being longer the farther away the strike is carried through your intent.
Deflection master: Spells creating barriers and shields have a shortened casting time and can absorb more damage.
For the first few moments after creating a barrier, said barrier is impervious to damage of the same rank. Deflecting an attack during this time refunds the majority of the spell’s mana cost.
Especially devastating attacks may not have their whole damage canceled by this effect.
Essence gift (Resolute) - Steadfast channeler: Gain the ability to continuously channel mana into one nearby active ongoing spell to lengthen its duration. Mana cost varies with the spell in question.
Tempered Soul Resonance: You have increased resistance to aura suppression and soul attacks.
Your spells and effects that cancel magical effects or drain mana ignores resistance from rank disparity.
When striking an opponent, your attacks gradually erodes any increased effects of the opponent’s rank disparity against you or your allies, up to the point where all effects of rank disparity are negated. This effect lasts until the target has had the time to achieve a state of calm to center itself.
Rank: Silver 0 - Awakened essence abilities 20/20
Power - Barrier: Silver 0
- Heaven-and-Void Warding - “Ward”
Spell. Cost: Low to Moderate mana Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Form a temporary barrier around self or ally within range, absorbing damage for a medium duration or until released or shattered. Cost is increased to moderate mana if used on ally.
Effect - Bronze: May adjust size of barrier, increasing its strength by diminishing its size and vice versa.
Effect - Silver: May conjure a second barrier with the same casting.
- Spiritual reprisal (Karma) -
Special ability. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Any creature striking you or one of your barriers will suffer one instance of [Unstable flow].
[Unstable flow] (affliction, magic, stacking): Increases the effect of one of your special attacks, consuming one instance of this affliction
Effect - Bronze: You may choose to consume all available stacks of [Unstable flow] at once, increasing the effect of the attack further the more stacks that are consumed. Stacks above a certain amount start giving diminishing returns.
Effect - Silver: Each stack of [Unstable Flow] on a creature causes it to deal less damage to magical barriers, with diminishing returns after a certain limit.
- Leyline Warding (Wall) - “Wall”
Spell. Cost: Moderate mana Cooldown: 30s Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Create a solid, translucent barrier anchored to a surface. The length and height can be split among multiple sections. Only one casting of this spell can be active at a time. Strength of barrier increases with the [Power] attribute
Effect - Bronze: Barriers no longer need to be anchored to a surface.
Effect - Silver: This ability gains a separate, alternate mode of casting, which allows the user to continually create smaller segments of barrier around them without a chant, changing the cost to low mana per second.
These barriers have good carrying capacity, but will immediately disperse when attacked and can only be conjured very close to the caster.
This alternate mode may be used even while the original is in effect.
- Spiritual futility (Wisp) -
Special ability (Mana drain). Cost: None. Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Opponents who make a melee strike against or come into contact with your barriers have some of their mana drained. The drain is continual if the opponent remains in contact with the barrier.
Effect - Bronze: Mana drain ramps up when an enemy has extended contact with the barrier. The rate of drain is gradually reduced back toward initial values during moments not in contact with a barrier.
Effect - Silver: The mana drain triggers from ranged attacks as well, as long as they are made from within short enough range. Any magical attack striking your barriers without breaking it will have some of its magic absorbed, replenishing some of the barrier’s integrity over time.
- Gate of Nihility (Void) - “Void”
Spell. Cost: High mana Cooldown: 1h Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Bring forth a short-lived wall of nothingness, up to five meters wide and three meters high. You have some control over the overall shape of the barrier. Any projectile or spell effect striking the wall is absorbed into the void and negated. Any being that comes into contact with the wall suffers a high amount of damage as they are forcibly ejected from the barrier.
Attacks of higher rank may not be entirely negated.
The barrier cannot move once created and cannot be summoned into the space of any creature.
Effect - bronze: Gate exerts a pull on projectiles and other conjured or created magical effects in a wide area in front of it.
Effect - Silver: You may increase the cost of the gate to very high mana in order to increase the pull of the aperture. This will greatly increase its effects on enemy projectiles and effects, as well as their momentum, lowering the [Speed] attribute for nearby enemies while the power is in effect.
Additionally, any projectile or other effect absorbed will replenish some of your mana, proportionate to the power of the absorbed effect. This effect will allow you to temporarily exceed your maximum mana pool. Stored excess mana will bleed off for one hour unless spent.
Speed - Resolute: Silver 0
- Implacable motion -
Special ability. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Increased resistance to effects that hinder or impair movement. Effects that take hold will have significantly decreased duration, depending on the rank of the effect.
Effect - Bronze: Movement may break through inanimate objects up to a certain threshold of durability based on your rank and the rank of this ability. Mana may be paid to temporarily increase the threshold based on mana spent. Intent is needed for this ability to take effect, and it does not increase potency of attacks. This ability may not damage vehicles, equipment or similarly wielded objects.
Effect - Silver: The increased resistance is extended to additionally cover all effects that lower the [Speed] or [Spirit] attributes.
- Gaze of Adamance (Eyes) -
Special ability. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Provides perfect peripheral vision and increased ability to swiftly process visual stimuli.
Effect - bronze: Gives the ability to see magic and magical effect. May be activated for a cost of low mana per second to provide 360-degree vision.
Effect - silver: Gives the ability to perceive auras
Immortality (Phoenix) -
Special ability (healing, recovery). Cost: None Cooldown: 24 hours Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Instantly restore a large portion of health, mana, and stamina. Amount restored is based on how depleted health, mana, and stamina are when the ability is activated.
Effect - bronze: Gain ongoing health, mana, and stamina recovery effects. The strength of these effects is based on how depleted health, mana, and stamina are when the ability is activated.
Effect - silver: Gain a long cooldown purgation ability that removes all afflictions from the user ignoring any restrictions or immunities to purgation.
Unyielding (Solidity) -
Special ability. Cost: None/moderate mana Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Become highly resistant to all hostile effects that would move or displace you, including physical momentum. Any additional damage that would be dealt to you by the canceled momentum will instead be transferred to the environment.
Additionally, this ability may be activated for a cost of moderate mana to give increased damage reduction from external sources of damage for a short duration.
Effect - Bronze: Some of the damage and movement negated will be stored in a separate reservoir of potential, which you may release to add additional momentum to a leap or stride. Any excess will still be transferred to the environment.
Effect - Silver: This ability will take effect even if you are not in contact with a solid object. You may now use excess momentum to fuel the increased damage reduction of this ability to forego its mana cost.
Undeniable (Balance) -
Special ability. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Each time your effects are resisted or do not take effect, deal a small amount of transcendent damage to the target. Examples include an opponent being immune to one of your attacks or damage types, or one of your effects failing to dispel due to a lack of magical effects on the target.
Effect - Bronze: The damage is now also dealt when one of your attacks are blocked, such as by a shield, interposed weapon or magical barrier.
Effect - Silver: The damage is increased in proportion to the target’s missing stamina or mana, whichever is lower.
Spirit - Negation: Silver 0
- Disrupting strike -
Special attack. Cost: Low mana Cooldown: 2s Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Strike an opponent to attempt to cancel an ongoing magical effect and deal disruptive force damage. The latter is increased if an ability or effect was affected. Some ongoing or very powerful effects might not be able to be negated entirely, and will instead be suppressed or reduced for a short duration.
Effect - bronze: Dispelled effects suffer an increase in cooldown in proportion to their cost and original cooldown. The minimum cooldown for such an effect is 10s.
Effect - silver: This ability gains an alternate effect, with its own cost and cooldown separate from the original. May increase cost to moderate mana to instead target a special ability of the target, suppressing it for 30 seconds. This effect may not target aura or familiar abilities. Cooldown: 30 seconds. A target may have only one of its special abilities suppressed by this power, regardless of source.
- Pattern-Shattering counter (Shards) -
Special attack (Mana drain, stamina drain). Cost: Varies Cooldown: Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Strike an opponent’s active attack or magical effects in an attempt to negate it and drain an additional amount of mana and/or stamina, depending on which energy that was fueling the attack. Some ongoing or very powerful effects might not be able to be negated entirely, and will instead be suppressed or reduced for a short duration. Cost increases with the cost of negated attack.
Effect - bronze: Dispelled effects suffer an increase in cooldown in proportion to their cost and original cooldown. The minimum cooldown for such an effect is 10s.
Effect - silver: The target suffers transcendent damage proportional to the potency of the dispelled magical effect.
- Discarnate Erosion (Erosion)
Special ability, aura. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: All hostile magical effects affected by your aura start to erode, reducing the duration of ongoing effects and lessening the impact of spells and special attacks within the area. Effect increases the longer the hostile effect remains inside the aura.
Effect - Bronze: Increases the casting times of hostile spells within the aura.
Effect - Silver: The eroding effect becomes greatly increased against hostile solid manifestations of magic, such as conjured matter, equipment and barriers. Higher rank effects will take longer time to be affected, and some powerful effects might not be entirely eroded, instead leaving them weakened.
- Ripple of Cancellation (Wave) - “Dissolve the patterns of power”
Spell. Cost: High mana Cooldown: 30s Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Release an expanding wave of magic-canceling energy. Creatures or objects hit by the wave will have one random beneficial magical effect canceled. If that effect came from a magical ability, the ability will be unavailable to activate again for a short duration. If multiple targets have the same kind of magical effect active, there is a higher chance that it will be the one which is canceled. Magical projectiles hit by the wave will be negated. Projectiles of a higher rank might not be entirely negated.
Effect - bronze: Attempt to dispel two additional beneficial magical effects.
Effect - silver: The spell may instead be released as a spherical burst with lower maximum range. When using this mode, the caster may pay additional mana to exclude an individual from its effect. The cost ramps up with each additional creature excluded.
- Potential of Stolen Power (Potency)
Special ability. Cost: None. Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 0
Effect - Iron: Gather charges each time an effect is dispelled or mana is drained. Use accumulated charges to give a potent boost to an ability, partially changing its scope and/or effect.
Effect - Bronze: Generate additional stacks when dispelling more powerful effects or draining more mana in a single instance.
Effect - Silver: If the boosted ability is a special attack or offensive spell, it receives the [Execute] trait, increasing damage dealt in proportion to the health already lost by the target. If the ability is a defensive or supportive spell or a special ability, it receives the [Counter-execute] trait, increasing its effect in proportion to health lost by the user.
Recovery - Void: Silver 1
- Spirit singularity -
Special ability (Mana drain). Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Create a small vortex hovering above your right shoulder, draining the mana of nearby hostile creatures. Gain a boost to mana regeneration depending on the number of creatures affected. The pace of both mana drain and the boost to mana regeneration is based on your [Recovery] attribute.
Effect - Bronze: Create an additional vortex, increasing the range and area of the ability. Spirit Vortex can now choose to focus its effect on a single target for greatly increased effect.
Effect - Silver: Create an additional vortex. Focusing all vortices at a single target will inflict it with [Inescapable] for as long as it remains within range of the ability.
[Inescapable] (Affliction, Magic): Subject cannot be affected by teleport or non-damaging dimension effects.
- Chakra implosion (Mana) -
Special attack (Combination, mana drain). Cost: Low mana Cooldown: 2s Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Strike an opponent to implode part of their mana reserve in addition to the physical effect of the strike. Applies an instance of [Broken flow]
Effect - Bronze: Applies an instance of [Broken form]
Effect - Silver: Applies the [Stunned] affliction, with effect increased proportionate to the amount of mana drained.
[Broken flow] (affliction, magic, stacking): Each instance of this affliction reduces mana recovery
[Broken form] (affliction, magic, stacking): Each instance of this affliction lowers damage resistances by a small amount.
[Stunned] (affliction, magic): Briefly be unable to move, use abilities or control already active abilities. Fully reactive abilities and effects can still be triggered. The duration cannot be refreshed by applying [Stunned] again and being affected multiple times in succession has diminishing returns.
- Something from Nothing (Fortune) -
Special ability. Cost: None Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Every time you defeat an enemy, a fragment of their essence is kept in a personal metaphysical space. When enough fragments have been gathered, they will manifest into a semi-random item. The item will be influenced by the fragments which have constituted it and the amount of fragments needed will vary.
Effect - bronze: Ability can produce bronze-rank items, and results are more in line with subconscious wishes. Gathering more fragments after the threshold for manifestation has been reached will increase the chance of higher rarity items, up to a certain limit.
Effect - silver: Ability can produce silver rank items. Gathered fragments may now instead be infused to grant a temporary boost to a piece of equipment, raising its power for a time depending on the amount of fragments consumed.
- Void-Sunders-Firmament (Sundering) -
Special attack. Cost: Moderate mana Cooldown: 3s Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Surround your melee weapon or unarmed attack with spatial tears, dealing high damage and resonating force damage. Can be used either as a wide, sweeping attack or as a more focused, directed attack.
Effect - Bronze: Cooldown reduced to 3s. Suffuse the target’s wounds with remnants of the void, inflicting the [Vitality-tear] affliction.
Effect - Silver: This attack partially bypasses areas of localized damage negation, turning complete negation into increased damage resistance, and inflicts the [Sundered meridians] affliction in that area. Very powerful effects or effects of a higher rank may not be entirely affected.
[Vitality tear] (Affliction, wounding, magic): Negates a certain among of healing before being consumed.
[Sundered meridians] (Affliction, wounding, magic): Local mana flow is disrupted, decreasing effects that affect the location of damage.
- Astral Gatherer (Gathering) -
Ritual (Familiar). Cost: Extreme stamina, Extreme mana Cooldown: None Current rank: Silver 1
Effect - Iron: Summon an astral gatherer to become your familiar. The astral gatherer is an incorporeal creature without physical substance.
While manifested, the astral gatherer accumulates small remnants of mana each time mana is spent in its vicinity, which is substantially increased if the skill in question drains or destroys mana. Amount of remnants gathered will vary in accordance with the amount of mana spent or drained.
When enough remnants have been gathered, it can unleash the stored power in one of the following ways:
- A destructive beam of energy, dealing resonating force damage or disruptive force damage.
- A burst of mana recovered for the summoner or a chosen ally within range
When subsumed into the wearer's body, the astral gatherer becomes an incorporeal vortex resting beneath the summoner’s sternum. As long as it remains subsumed, the gatherer exudes a subtle pull on the ambient mana in an extreme radius. This may trigger magical manifestations that were already on the brink of manifesting.
Effect - bronze: Familiar can store additional energy, enough for another unleashing of stored power.
Adds the following options when unleashing stored power:
- A potent, short lived boost to health regeneration
- Attempts to cleanse all hostile afflictions of the magical, curse, wounding, bleeding and poison categories from a target.
Effect - silver: Familiar can store additional energy, enough for a third unleashing of stored power.
Add the following options when unleashing stored power
- A stream of transcendent damage. Consumes three charges.
[Item] Immutable Echo
Combat Staff
Silver rank - [Growth] Legendary
Forged through unyielding reverberations of inner strength, this staff heralds an immovable path.
[Effect] Greatly increased striking power
[Effect] Echoes the effect of special attacks delivered through this weapon once. The echo deals only half the damage of the original attack, but any other effects are undiminished. Can occur once every five seconds.
[Effect] Absorbs a part of the physical force behind intercepted strikes, if any, lessening the remaining physical force to be endured by the wielder. After absorbing force in such a way, the next attack delivered will deal additional resonating force damage. The damage increases with the amount of physical force absorbed from the blow.
[Effect] Vastly increased durability
[Effect] - Bronze: Pay a cost of moderate mana to detonate one of your barriers struck by this weapon, creating a wave of resonating force. The damage of the wave scales with the mana cost of the barrier destroyed, and size of the wave increases with the size of the barrier. Remaining integrity of said barrier does not affect the potency of the damaging wave.
[Effect] - Silver: Add another echo to special attacks, dealing further reduced damage.
This item is bound to [Kite Flown in on Winds of Fortune] and cannot be used by anyone else.
[Item] Prescient Mantle of the Sage Asura
Magical tattoo
Silver rank - [Growth] Legendary
Soulbound
The Sage Asura sees all, each of its myriad arms reaching out to change fate. Through the forging, let its mantle be bestowed to the one whose path might one day do the same.
[Effect] For an ongoing mana cost, manifest a set of spiritual arms. These arms may draw weapons from the wearer's dimensional spaces, and are freely controlled by the wearer.
The manifested arms may also use the wearer's special attacks. Attacks delivered through the arms deal reduced damage, but each set of arms has their own cooldown for said special attack.
Destroyed arms may be manifested anew for a cost of moderate mana.
[Effect] Gain increased cognitive processing speed and capacity for simultaneous action.
[Effect] - Silver: Conjure an additional set of arms.
Once infused into the wearer and bound to their soul, this item cannot be removed or unfused. No other magical tattoos may be added to the wearer, but this item will persist across ranks and can be upgraded like any growth item through absorbing the right materials.
[Item] Veiled One’s Decree
Sword
Silver rank - (Growth) legendary
[Effect] Shrouded in enchantments to evade notice. Attacks and special attacks made with this weapon are significantly harder to notice and pinpoint for creatures of similar or lower rank, unless one possesses extraordinary aura senses.
[Effect] Enemies struck with this weapon are afflicted with [Veiled Mind’s Eye], a curse which makes it a lot more difficult to gauge one’s own internal reserves and cooldowns.
[Effect] Wielder’s aura is shrouded, making it more difficult for enemies to glean the wielder’s intent, especially in combat.
[Effect] Lowers the resource cost of illusions created by the wielder
[Effect] - Silver: ???
Matra, Mother of the Bladed Brood
Sword
Silver rank - Legendary
[Effect] When deposited into a wielder’s dimensional storage, the wielder may pay a cost of low mana to manifest a descendant of Matra in an empty hand. The descendants are identical to Matra in most ways, with the exception that they are magical conjurations and that they may not use any activated effects of the enhancements. A descendant blade will disappear if it leaves contact with the wielder for a few seconds, or if it gets too far away.
[Effect] Increases the effects of any special attack channeled through Matra or its descendants.
[Effect] Increases the duration of any afflictions delivered through Matra or its descendants.
[Effect] Each time a descendant blade is used to channel a special attack, Matra gains an instance of [Matriarch’s Legacy]. The wielder may pay mana to activate this enchantment consuming all instances of [Matriarch’s Legacy] to unleash an area attack of sword echoes. Cost and effect increases with the number of instances gathered, to a maximum of very high mana.
[Item] Sojourner’s Companion
Headwear
Bronze rank - epic
[Effect] Potent self-repair and self-maintenance
[Effect] Protects the wearer from non-extreme elements, such as heat, rain, cold and dampness. Does not protect against attacks.
[Effect] Slightly increases the wearer’s health, stamina and mana recovery. This effect increases when in motion, although the speed of the motion only impacts this effect to a limit.
[Effect] Pay an ongoing very low mana cost to feel the cardinal directions.
[Effect] Pay a high mana cost to transform this hat into a pavilion for ten hours, keeping all other enchantment effects as well as activating a basic concealing array. Cooldown: 12 hours
[Item] Earthen Realm Pathstriders
Boots
Bronze rank - epic
[Effect] Increased movement speed on foot
[Effect] Greatly reduced stamina cost of long-distance walking
[Effect] Self-repairs at a moderate pace
[Effect] For a cost of moderate mana, significantly increase movement speed for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
[Item] Mycelial Shroud of the Collective
Cloak
Bronze rank - Epic
[Effect] Upon the wearer’s command, the cloak will attempt to absorb afflictions from the wearer, cleansing them in the process. Afflictions from effects of higher-rank might not be affected. Cannot absorb elemental afflictions, such as burning.
The cloak will then shed most of its mass, separating and using the consumed afflictions to evolve into a bronze-ranked fungal growth, living on and attempting to drain the life of nearby opponents through ethereal tethers. These tethers are vulnerable to disrupting force damage and other effects which may affect incorporeal matter. Size and health of fungal growth will increase with the number of afflictions absorbed. Cooldown: 12 hours
[Effect] Potent self-repair
[Item] Dusk of Fortitude
Gauntlet
Bronze rank - epic
[Effect] Touch a creature and pay a cost of moderate mana to inflict them with a curse-type affliction which causes any mana-drain suffered by the target to also drain stamina. The stamina drained is in addition to the mana, but only a small portion compared to the original draining effect. This affliction is resistant to cleansing effects of bronze rank and below. Duration: 1 hour.
[Effect] Has an internal storage of mana and stamina, which is filled either through active channeling of the wearer’s reserves or through the wielder draining said resource in excess of their own maximum. Stored reserves can be used to fuel attacks or be channeled back into the wearer over time, but will start to slowly decay after an hour in storage.