The excitement was running through Aiden’s spine. He couldn’t help it as the man levitating outside hovered just beyond the entrance. A level two hundred and four [Mage] was a supposed to be a rarity on this side of Nastild.
He caught Rometo’s slight glance at his hand, the one holding the sword. Aiden wasn’t sure what the man was thinking, but the sword in his hand would definitely not be strong enough to handle what needed to be done to face the [Mage].
You can’t face him, Aiden scolded himself, trying to contain his excitement. Not now.
Normally, he would’ve been confident in taking the [Mage] right now. With Ted and Valdan alone, he was more than certain he could give a [Mage] of that level a run for their money. The problem was that this was not merely a [Mage] of that level. It was in the man’s outward appearance.
It took a lot to find a [Mage] so seriously marred. For a [Mage] to possess such a visage at that level, it meant the person had grown through personal experience. Usually, the class was powerful but they fought with more calculation than instincts. In simple terms there were [Mage]s who were powerful because they were taught their powers, shown their spells and came to a fight with prep time and knowledge. They were dangerous enough, but compared to someone like Aiden, they were not sharp.
The man outside was different. Anything he had learned as a [Mage], Aiden would bet good money that it had come from trial and error, from time in constant battle. It showed not only in the scars and his bad eye, but in his one good eye. It showed in the way he watched them.
Aiden did not see the arrogance of a [Mage].
And that was more worrying than a [Mage] who had the arrogance.
“Ted,” he called. “Please tell me you need less than a minute.”
“Working as fast as I can, brother,” Ted replied, which meant that he needed more than a minute.
“Do you want to take him?” Rometo asked.
Aiden opened his mouth to answer but the [Mage] spoke before he could. “You are aware that I can hear you, are you not?”
The sound of his voice was grating right next to Aiden’s ear. That was a well practiced sound spell. The problem was that Aiden could not sense any mage-staff outside the crevice.
Rometo frowned slightly. It was not a good sign. If the [Mage] worried Rometo when Rometo was supposed to be of a higher level, then Aiden wasn’t sure what to expect of a fight.
“I have not come for violence,” the man outside said.
Then Aiden felt the uncomfortable slither of the [Detect] skill being used on him. He kept the feeling from his expression, keeping his face neutral. Perhaps the time had come for Fjord to put the light out.
“Kind of hard to believe you with the people lying at our feet,” Aiden answered.
The man tilted his head slightly to the side, curious. “A [Weaver],” he mused. “Why would a [Weaver] be leading the charge.”
“There’s no charge,” Aiden answered immediately. “Just a group of people just trying to do what they are trying to do.”
“We have no quarrel with your tribe,” Rometo added. “This is not our conflict.”
“And yet,” the man hovered closer to the entrance. “Here you are.”
Aiden relaxed his grip on his sword, made sure that his wrist was flexible. He watched the man’s eyes, good and bad, searching, trying to decipher what he would do.
The man sighed. “The one who was in charge of this level of stupidity has been taken care of. It is not my tribe’s wish to kill you all or lose more men to you.”
Rometo looked at Aiden. “You believe him?”
“Does it matter?” Aiden asked.
“If you’ve made up your mind to fight him, then I guess it does not.”
Aiden fought to spare a glance behind him. “Ted?”
“Almost,” Ted replied.
“I’m coming in,” the [Mage] said at the same time. “If you will not come willingly, then you will come unwillingly.”
“So much for not wanting to make enemies of us,” Rometo sighed, then took a combat stance.
Aiden’s eyes widened a little, he couldn’t help it. Rometo only took a combat stance when he felt the fight he was about to embark on would take a lot out of him. And he was taking the stance even with the allies he had.
Without hesitation, Aiden took his own stance, hands ready to weave whatever enchantment he needed.
“What do you think?” he asked. “Specialized or versatile?”
“Sound and levitation,” Rometo answered. “Safe to say versatile.”
Aiden shook his head in dismay; they just had to run into the most problematic of [Mage]s. For all their spell knowledge, the class had its weaknesses. One of such weakness was the casting time to use spells. Even the weakest spell still took more time to cast than the activation of a skill. But when a [Mage] truly dedicated themselves to their craft, their spells inevitably began to change. They started to gain their spells as their skills. It made them dangerous.
The [Mage] held his hands out and pointed.
“Here it comes,” Aiden said, his excitement still growing where it was supposed to be worry.
The man disappeared and Aiden’s eyes widened. That was a blink spell. The spell the enchantment needed a dagger to pull off.
Rometo turned, moving faster than Aiden. His hand shot out and slammed right on the man’s shoulder as he appeared behind them, almost grabbing on to Fjord. Rometo pulled him back immediately.
The man fell back, pulled by Rometo’s physical strength. Then Rometo snatched his hand away as the man swung his hand casually and a piece of the wall shot out in a spike to impale his hand.
Aiden moved immediately to cover. His finger moved along the length of the sword, and he activated [Unarmed Engrave].
The moment he was done with the engraving, he enchanted it.
[You have used Enchantment of Sharpness]
The sword thrummed with the power, the blade somehow vibrating. He moved through the first sword stance and cut the spike at the base, then slipped forward to stab the [Mage], knowing that it would not work.
The tip of his sword slammed into the air as if striking a powerful shield. Aiden frowned, then spun like a basketballer trying to slip past an opponent. The aim was to reposition himself between the man and the others.
Rometo slipped immediately to the right while Aiden’s spin carried him left. The man’s one good eye tracked Rometo, Aiden slipping into the blind spot that was supposed to be created by his bad eye.
The man’s hand shot out to grab Aiden instead of going for Rometo, and Rometo’s hand slammed into his shoulder while Aiden bumped into an invisible wall.
The wall vanished almost immediately. Aiden watched the man cascade through the air like a ghost, translucent and pale. Just before he got to the entrance, his hand moved again. Aiden saw spell formations appear around him, circles within triangles and runes and sigils that alone could not make up an enchantment. The man took solid form and landed on his feet as if stopping himself from slipping outside.
Aiden was impressed. He didn’t know Rometo already had that skill.
The man’s eyes ignored Aiden completely to focus on Rometo. “Time magic.”
“Oh please,” Rometo rolled his eyes, returning to combat stance. “Not every powerful person is a [Mage].”
He darted forward, [Dash] carrying him across the distance. The man’s hand came up immediately. The ground came up around Rometo, trapping his hind leg. It pulled him to a jerky stop, but Rometo did not allow it to bother him. His hand slipped into his shirt and came out daggers flying. Aiden moved too, finger dragging an enchantment along the flat of his sword.
[You have used Enchantment of Lightning]
Lightning crackled through the blade and he darted forward just as the [Mage] waved Rometo’s daggers aside with a simple gesture. They flew to the side, clanging harmlessly against the wall as Aiden slipped past Rometo to confront the [Mage].
The man’s eye focused on him as if intrigued at being attacked by a domestic class. His eyes sharpened the moment Aiden’s sword came up at him in a diagonal slash. The man moved his hand and the wall came out in a spike. Aiden took the blow against his shoulder, hoping his jacket would be strong enough to protect him from most of the damage.
The jacket did not, instead, something popped to life and the wall shattered against something strong.
[You have used Class skill First Support]
Aiden eyes widened for a moment, considering the enchantment always hovered just out of sight and was new, he often forgot about its existence. The moment the wall slammed into it, the enchantment shattered like broken glass. The wall kept going, however, slamming straight into his shoulder. It caused him no damage, but the force sent him staggering to the side.
Rometo appeared behind the [Mage], stabbing him in the back with a knife. For a moment, the [Mage] froze, as if in pain, then he scattered into a crackle of lightning, appearing closer to the others once more.
Aiden brought his hands together immediately, fingers moving.
[You have used Class skill Walking Canvas]
…
[You have used Class skill Enchanted Weave]
…
[You have used Weave of Gravity]
With his mana spreading far, encompassing everyone in the crevice, Aiden felt the force of gravity increase. The [Mage] stopped just before his hand could grab whoever he was going after. Aiden saw the man’s leg tighten as he fought against his own weight. The man spared a moment to look back at Aiden before his hand came flashing out.
Zen took the moment of distraction and leapt into the man with his sword held out. The tip of the weapon slammed into the man and shattered on impact as his skin turned a deep grey.
[Stone Skin] was an interesting spell that Sam, in Aiden’s past life, had succeeded in creating an alchemical equivalent that turned every single part of the human body into stone, organs included. Creating it had come at great cost to others.
The [Mage] turned to spare Zen an intrigued glance before Rometo was on him again. Rometo swung his hand and a massive sword appeared in his grip. He slammed its sharp edge into the [Mage] with all the force he could muster. It struck the man in the side a fraction of a second before the man could move his arm and sent him flying straight into the wall on the other side. He made a crater in it bringing down dust and rubble and shaking the mountain.
Aiden’s eyes snapped above. The structural integrity of the crevice would hold.
“Got it!” Ted called out.
Aiden was about to ask what he’d gotten when one side of the wall behind them came crumbling down as if it had been nothing but sand packed together.
“Go!” Aiden barked.
Everyone obeyed, turning and running straight into the newly created path. Melvet went first while the [Mage] pulled himself out of the crater he had made in the wall.
“And you think I will not follow?” he asked, seemingly amused.
Aiden had to admit the man was strong. For his [Stone skin] spell to have survived the blow Rometo had dealt, he either had really powerful mana reserves or he was really, really…
Actually, Aiden could not see another explanation.
Rometo sighed and he appeared right next to the [Mage] swinging his empty hand once more. The [Mage]’s attention moved to him, and Aiden was already moving, heading for the [Mage] while Rometo remained standing away, paying attention.
The exact same weapon he had used on the [Mage] appeared in Rometo’s hand mid swing. He slammed it into the man once more, only to find the blow slamming into solid rock as the wall morphed once more.
Aiden was already getting the hang of it as he arrived there. The [Mage] had used dirt spells as if they were skills but they were not. He always made a gesture before they activated, the same with when he’d teleported into the crevice.
The only spell he had used so far without any actual gesture was the lightning illusion spell. Aiden could count that as a skill and not a spell.
Lightning spell affinity?
Usually, a [Mage]s skill told their opponent which types of spell they were more comfortable using.
[Walking Canvas] still active, Aiden pulled to a stop in front of the man and weaved a new enchantment into being.
[You have used Weave of Vapor]
The air grew damp, then his mana burst leaving the air filled with what looked like dew. The lightning from his sword crackled then streaked out a little, jumping from his blade and into the air.
The [Mage] frowned slightly at it, and Aiden was half reassured as the impression of Rometo that had tried to attack the [Mage] disappeared. The skill came to an end after its one attack.
The ground beneath Aiden’s feet shook as he swung his sword. It was timed well, he had to give the [Mage] that, as his swing went askew, missing the man entirely. Then Rometo was there again, appearing in the blink of an eye. The [Mage] held a hand out to him palm first. A magic circle appeared there, right in Rometo’s face, then another Rometo fazed out of himself, ducking to the side to avoid the circle. Then the spell activated, delayed intentionally.
An icicle appeared, striking out of the circle and impaling the head of the instance of Rometo that had veered out of himself. It tore flesh and sent blood flying.
It crushed skull and ruined brain matter.
With a frozen spike in his head and eyes rolled back in death, Rometo disappeared.