Imri left the meeting with no small amount of trepidation. The plan hinged on a spell he didn’t even possess yet. He was confident in his theoretical understanding, but what if he didn’t have the mana? Or if the spell just didn’t work for some reason he wasn’t thinking of? If he failed the entire forward team would be wiped out, including Emelia. His plan had to work, he didn’t have any other options.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even have time to experiment and get the spell exactly right; The Chixel could attack at any moment and he needed to act. A small team had gathered for this mission, none of whom Imri knew all that well. There were no mages with flashy powers, or elite fighters who could hold their own while being vastly outnumbered. Sylvi had selected them for being competent, but all of Celestia’s elites were already committed to defending the pass or in the forward team.
The group of six looked at him expectantly. “Everyone is counting on us. If everything goes according to plan we’ll be in and out of the enemy camp with little resistance. We can do this,” Imri said, fumbling over his words as he spoke. Despite it being far from an eloquent speech or some profound words of wisdom, the team of six nodded, and Imri could see he had improved their confidence somewhat.
“What is the plan?” Someone asked.
“I’m going to create a portal and drop all of you off on a trail that leads straight to the enemy camp. It’s unguarded since there isn’t any way to reach it by conventional means. The forward team will be engaging the enemy from the opposite direction, so we should face minimal resistance.”
“You're not coming with us Lord Padar?” One of them asked. Imri blanched at the name but ignored it for now, there would be better opportunities to insist on less formality.
“Not all the way, I have something else I have to do,” Imri said with a wicked grin. “Once you reach the camp, fire this arrow as far into the camp as you can get it. Radio me when that’s done,” he said, passing an arrow to the soldier Sylvi had identified as the best shot among the six.
“I’m assuming this isn’t an ordinary arrow?” The man asked.
“There is a Spatial Beacon tethered to that arrow. I will know exactly where it is at all times,” Imri explained. He was about to explain more when the message went out on the walky-talky. The battle had started, and soon the forward team would begin their assault on the camp. Everything was happening too fast, he needed more time.
“Sir, what do we do now?” One of them asked.
“Get ready to move out. I won’t be able to keep the portal open long, so go through it as quickly as possible. It will open in the ground, so just jump through, it will be disorienting when you come up, but just move out of the way,” Imri explained. The six soldiers looked uncertain but nodded anyway.
Imri quickly marked out the spot where he would open the portal using some rocks. The six soldiers gathered around, quickly discussing the order they would go through. Imri ignored them and focused on his spell. He was confident this would work, based on the description of the Dimensional Tear spell. If he combined that with an effect that warped two distant points together, that should create a dimensional boundary that led between the two spaces. Fortunately, he had already been doing exactly that with his Boundless Step spell. He just needed to put those two spells together to create a new spell.
That’s exactly what he did, warping the space between the rock boundary and a spot three meters off the ground, far below their current location. After space was bent he tore an opening, creating the portal.
New Spell Learned Dimensional Portal (2E): Create a stable connection between two planes that you can see, connecting them as if they were no distance apart. Mana cost for creating the portal varies based on the dimensions of the portal and distance between the planes, and the distance from the caster to the two planes. Mana cost per second to maintain the portal depends on the dimensions of the portal.
Imri Padar has reached level 24 in Celestial Mage (2F) Imri Padar has reached level 24 in Primordial (1E) Primary Stats Strength 128 (+1) Intelligence 194 (+2) Willpower 162 (+1) Secondary Stats HP 163 (+2) MP 433 (+10) Mana Efficiency 421 (+11) Crafting Efficiency 456 (+11)
“Go, go, go,” Imri shouted, his mana dropping precipitously as he held open the manhole-cover-sized portal. The edge of the portal curled into the ground, hopefully preventing anyone from clipping the boundary and getting shorn to pieces. Fortunately, the soldiers didn’t need to be told, as soon as the portal opened they were jumping through. Within a few seconds they had all gone through and Imri followed after them as his mana pool neared empty.
Everyone staggered as they got to their feet, somewhat dizzy after the abrupt change in perspective. A few people had crashed into each other as they landed, resulting in a pile-up of humanity just past the landing point. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt and it didn’t take long to get everyone back on their feet. They took a moment to regain their composure, but every second was precious. Imri spent that moment chugging down the best mana potion Caroline had been able to produce, nearly doubling his mana regeneration for the next few hours. He also took out a charged Espeonite crystal and absorbed a small portion of it to get his mana back to a respectable level.
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Imri reiterated the plan one last time. Everyone nodded, and Imri was confident it had stuck. Imri also created another Spatial Beacon, tethered to the leader of the group. They went their separate ways, the main contingent heading to the enemy camp while Imri went off on his own.
As he walked he entered a walking meditation, though he kept his perception focused on where he was going. He took a moment to reflect on how his spell had worked. It was a unique spell in that it had two separate costs. The first was the bending of space to create the dimensional boundary. This was the most mana-intensive portion of the spell, which obviously varied based on the distance between himself and the two points of space he was bending. However, this was more of a one-time cost, once he created the portal the space temporarily stabilized as long as the portal was open. The second part of the cost was the plane of the portal itself, varying on the area it encompassed. While he kept the portal open his mana was constantly drained based on its size, and while that was a significant cost it was smaller when compared to the space-bending portion.
His musings abruptly stopped as he spotted what he had been looking for. A Cliff Drake basked in the midday light, greedily soaking in the sunlight. It shouldn’t take the rest of the team much longer to reach the camp, it was a fairly easy several-kilometer hike to the base of the mountain from where Imri had deposited everyone. He continued his meditation for several minutes, making sure he stayed out of view from the lazy Drake.
Finally, he got the go-ahead as his team radioed him that the arrow was in the Chixel camp. Imri stepped out from his cover, approaching the area below the basking Cliff Drake. He had fought them dozens of times now, and he knew exactly when the predictable creatures would attack. Imri smiled as his prediction proved true, the long powerful creature diving from its perch to attack its seemingly vulnerable prey.
Imri had only one chance to get this right, his mana already having been used heavily. There was only so much mana in the Espeonite crystal, and even if he had more it wouldn’t be long before he started to suffer from the overchannel debuff. Fortunately, he had enough mana to accomplish what he had set out to do.
As the Drake neared him he smiled, activating the Time Dilation effect from one of the rings. He had tuned this one to be a slightly stronger effect, giving him 10% more of a window to accomplish the next part of his plan. While Cliff Drakes were large creatures, they were analogous to flying crocodiles, far longer than they were wide.
At the last moment, when the Drake was only meters away, Imri activated his Dimensional Portal for a second time. He interposed the portal between himself and the diving Drake. He anchored the portal to a second point, a point he couldn’t see. He knew exactly where all of his Spatial Beacons were at all times, and it was even easier to bend space this time thanks to the beacons effect. While establishing the portal was easier, the dimensions were far larger this time, one of the reasons he needed to time things precisely. He also made it slightly wider than was strictly necessary, as he wasn’t entirely confident he could get the dimensions exactly right with the Drake diving at such high speeds.
Even with this precaution, his fear proved true. He had slightly misjudged the Drake's trajectory, and both its limbs on one side were severed as it went through the portal, landing on the ground beside Imri. He didn’t care, it had worked.
Imri could see through the portal to the Chixel camp, and he watched as a group of perplexed Chixel suddenly had a diving Drake appear out of nowhere, crashing into their ranks and grinding them into a paste, like a bug on a windshield. The Drake, being dumb instinctual creatures, didn’t question why it suddenly found itself among a horde of prey that it hadn’t seen a moment ago. It chomped down, eating a bewildered Chixel that had been too stunned to react. While the Drake was injured, Imri knew from experience that a losing a pair of limbs was a minor nuisance for the Drake, and he could already see it starting to regrow them at a visible pace.
Imri let the portal collapse down to a much smaller size, though he still left it open where he could see within the camp. Simultaneously, he was drawing in more mana from his dwindling supply within the Espeonite crystal. He waited a few seconds for the Drake to thoroughly busy itself hunting Chixel before he teleported into the camp using Boundless Step. Despite the portal being no larger than an airplane window, it was still large enough for him to teleport through, and this eliminated his risk of losing limbs as the Drake had.
He appeared in front of a Chixel who was still recovering from the shock of having a Drake dropped in the middle of camp. The poor Chixel was too stunned to even react, so Imri didn’t even need to waste mana, easily dispatching the creature with a chop of his Machete-like bone sword.
With all the pandemonium now enveloping the camp, Imri was easily able to make his way back towards the perimeter, largely ignored as he remained somewhat inconspicuous, at least relative to the Cliff Drake.
It didn’t take Imri long to regroup with the rest of his team, who were waiting just on the outskirts of the camp. He had known exactly where they were thanks to the second Spatial Beacon. He easily dispatched the few Chixel that remained between him and his team. Imri wasn’t sure if they had remained out of duty or had been too confused to act.
“What the hell is going on in there?” One of the men asked as Imri jogged up towards them.
“I dropped a Cliff Drake off in the middle of their camp. Between that and Zhaire they should have their hands full for a while,” Imri said with a shrug.
“Those poor bastards, I almost feel sorry for them,” one of the soldiers said with a grin that suggested he thought they were getting exactly what they deserved.
“Let’s go save our people and get their leader,” Imri said with a grin as the group nodded their agreement.