Chapter 89

Reflexive Battle Auras

“That, that was…” Trigon began, but then just pointed at the targeting dummy.

“My girl!” Mallory screamed as she charged forward and hugged me excitedly.

What she failed to notice, what even I failed to notice was the sudden shift in temper of the Magical Duelist. I mean sure, having a class that all but demands you battle people day in and out will likely lower your threshold for what is traditionally deemed to be acceptable behavior. That said, what happened next could only be reported in the annals of Darwin Award Winners.

“GAH!” Trigon the Duelist hissed out, as a flurry of emotions crossed his face. First and foremost was shocked, then came anger. Likely at being out dueled and having his class unique skills stolen from him, thereby making his class seemingly obsolete. Also, there might have been the fact that I could have probably handled this whole situation better. But I think the real reason why Trigon lost his ever-loving mind was highlighted by the system message that popped up in my mind with a giant red warning box.

WARNING: Quest IN-Completed: Sparring with the Duelist: You sparred with Trigon BiFrost in a magical sparring contest. You competed in a single round of a magical duel, where any spell was allowed, and you were the first person to land a strike on the opponent’s body. Rewards for winning: Experience, New Class Unique Skill (Unavailable). WARNING: Trigon BiFrost is unable to complete his end of the quest as he has no Unique Class Skills to teach you. As such, divine judgement is being rendered.

Now one could argue that his demonstrating the skills in question was enough to qualify for this and hopefully avoid divine arbitration. This was something I was more than willing to attest to, that his showy demonstrations were more than enough for me to learn his Class Unique Skills, and I was already planning to tell any divine arbiter this exact wording, should any come. Unfortunately, Trigon was a hot head, and took matters into his own hands.

“You, you witch!” The Magical Duelist began, as he used his Quick Cast skill to send a blast directly towards me. This is when all hell broke loose, literally.

First, I should probably explain a few things. The first and most important detail was that Mallory had her back to Trigon, and that she was currently embracing me. Also, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Mallory is really powerful, like world breakingly powerfully. She had been handicapped by her Blighted condition which slowly debilitated her to the point of near death, until I came up with a cure to the condition. Now that she is free of her condition that has consumed her and basically made her almost accept her fate, she has seemingly taken me under her wing. That said, in this case I was literally under her wing, in that she had her arms wrapped around me in a joyous hug, as apparently, she disliked Trigon more than I did, and that was just from her meeting the guy once.

Also, this is probably a good time to talk about Auras. After a certain point, like level 250 or so, you start to get what are called Auras. These generally provide a sense of danger to lower-level creatures and make it so animals that would normally attack everything will avoid high level players and not annoy them. Now there are also Tier ratings to Auras that happen every subsequent 250 levels, so the first one is just a concept and generally creates an aura of unease that forces lower-level monsters away. At level 500, there is generally an elemental feel to the aura that generates a field around the bearer and makes it so their chosen fields of magic are easier to cast outward and also helps deter attacks coming inward. At the third Tier Rating Auras become battle Auras and can cause automatic retaliatory damage to any creature that is dumb enough to avoid the two warning auras, and still for whatever reason try to attack the extremely high-level player, or NPC. Basically, this is a freebie given by the system stating, you won’t lose Karma or action points for killing someone who was dumb enough to attack you first. Meaning the aura only causes what are considered retaliatory, or essentially self-inflicted, wounds.

As a Valkyrie, Mallory is exceptional at Spirit and Death magic, the two fields of magic that I had been given as my starter elements. Well, technically my second specialty was Shadow, a subset of Death magic, but that is beside the point. What is the point is that most people would normally be held back from Mallory, first by her class, then her magical specialties, then her auras. Fortunately for me, since I was also a Spirit and Shadow Magic wielder, I felt no discomfort from being near Mallory. Also, I am pretty sure that my Void Healer class Merit of Death Shroud essentially made me immune to most of the negative emotions or damage that would be caused by her auras. Looking at it, this might also be why she likes hanging out with me, as I don’t invariably get creeped out by being near her. Though, I am probably one who sets most people on edge due to my own nature, and the fact that I am perfectly content with hanging around in the spirit realm for months at a time, but that is beside the point. What is the point is that there are a few things that will cause a lower-level character to lose their mind and assault someone who is clearly more powerful than they are. The first is they feel threatened, which I might or might not have done by basically proving that anyone can do what a Magical Duelist can, while also beating him in a mock duel that should have no ramifications. The second is when they feel that they were stolen from, which again might or might not apply here as they might consider me to have stolen their class related skills. The third, and largest factor was when they were already considered to be a hot head and thus pushing them slightly would result in them causing physical violence to someone. This would be the equivalent of going up to a berserker and taunting their ability to adequately shine-wax their chest, it has happened before. In this particular case, Trigon might have fallen under all three conditions, well maybe not the shine-waxing of the chest, but the underlying push as he did attack me a second time by just winning my little sparring match to begin with, which caused me to knock him out. Remembering that was the normal state for this hot head, then him striking back should not have been unexpected.

What was unexpected was the way Mallory’s Tier 3 evolved battle aura quickly and decisively retaliated to the perceived threat of an errant spell passing near Mallory. Again, I was within Mallory’s arms, meaning any spell coming to me from Trigon would have to pierce through her battle aura and then must go completely through to attack me. I was ready to dispel the quick cast spell, and was already focusing on doing so, which was why I almost missed the retaliatory aura of the Master of all Valkyrie’s battle aura.

Before I could even connect with a Dispel, Mallory’s aura burst to life and incinerated the futile spell in midflight. Then her physical Shadow extended out from her and quickly covered Trigon BiFrost in its nearly impenetrable aura. If not for the fact that the shadow was clearly magical in nature, I too would have likely had a hard time seeing what happened. Unfortunately, my Angel’s Sight let me see what happened next. Inside that bubble of complete darkness, seven glowing scythes erupted out from the walls of the shadow and quickly sliced into and through Trigon. The retaliatory attack was quick, efficient, and absolutely brutal. One second there was a hot head who could easily be stopped, the next there were twenty-nine pieces of a hot head falling to the ground. I know, the numbers didn’t make much sense, but seven slashes all cutting through lots of the body, at different angles created twenty-nine unique pieces of flesh.

At first, I admit it, I paused as my mind tried to take in everything that had happened.

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Then once the dark retaliatory aura removed itself from Trigon, and the horror of what happened was apparent to the world, that is when I moved. I’d like to say that it was something about my preservation instincts kicking in, something telling me to avoid going into that aura lest I be considered a threat as well.

“Holy S!” I screamed as I twisted my way out from under Mallory’s arms. Then charging forward, I got to the pile of human shaped puzzle pieces. Then the true horror of the attack hit me. She hadn’t just cut through the spiritual shell holding the spirit in place, but her magically imbued scythes had gone one step further and destroyed the spirit of Trigon. Then came the announcement that would accompany such an event, which only went to further prove just how dead Trigon was.

Quest Complete: A New Magical Duelist Trainer: Would you like to take on the mantle of resurrecting the lost class Magical Duelist? Rewards: Class Title, Class evolution controller after level 50.

“No.” I said, dismissing the quest prompt, only to see the announcement that had been offered to me go out to the entire world.

WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: Trigon BiFrost, the last living Magical Duelist has died. The Class Magical Duelist is now considered to be a lost class. Will someone take up the mantle of resurrecting this lost class, or will its unique abilities be forever lost to time?

Shaking my head, I realized that I could in fact resurrect this lost class, by sheer will alone. Focusing on the different pieces of spirit, I realized that there was still magical energy left within each part. Working quickly, I used all my powers I could. First, I used Telekinesis to pick up the twenty-nine pieces and put them in some semblance of an order. From there, I began pumping my own mana into the dissected pieces, creating magical tubes that were used to keep most of the pieces alive and operational.

In the background I could hear people yelling, but I knew Mallory had my back. Also, I couldn’t just let this person die, losing classes was tough on the world. Losing magical classes was especially tough, as it meant fields of magic would forever be stopped, or at the very least stymied for a time and any halting of magical advancement was terrible, at least in my mind it was terrible, as such I decided to do everything I could to try to bring back this life.

Working with the pieces, and that’s what they were to me, they had to be, otherwise I might lose my nerve to continue operating, I slowly began welding the pieces together. In this case I didn’t dare to deviate, this was the soul we were dealing with. Not a body hosting the soul, but the actual living breathing, well not quite breathing as this had been a spirit body to begin with, but a soul, nonetheless.

I let the pieces of the body fade away, it was just a hollow shell anyways. What mattered the most was protecting the integrity of the soul itself, and that is what I focused on. Remembering the intense heat and frequency that the scythes radiated at, I focused on that memory when trying to find a way to piece the soul together. First, I started with an arm, I figured of everything, messing up on an arm was the least destructive option. And I was glad I did, not to say I messed up, this was a new form of surgery, piecing together a soul that had been obliterated by a Valkyrie.

First, I mentally brought up a construct of the death scythe, and then just tried to increase my Spirit resonance until I got the same basic heat, once that was achieved, I tried to use that as a means of welding the pieces of the soul together. Some mistakes might have been made, but it’s not like there was a manual on welding souls, even if there was, I didn’t have time to read the book and perform surgery at the same time. Maybe I could have gotten Mallory to turn the pages as I went on, but that was neither here nor there, all that mattered was the life. A terrible person of a life, but a life, nonetheless.

Giant scars banded the right arm together, it looked terrible and absolutely painful, but the arm was together and seemed to be able to retain some semblance of magical energy, meaning I could focus away from that and continue pumping my own mana into other portions of the body. I was losing mana at a rapid pace and felt a bit woozy for a second but continued to carry on. From the arm, I attached it to the shoulder, then to the chest, then the head to the chest, then the left arm, the torso, the right hip, and a few other pieces. By the end, like any good DIY bookshelf there were only one or two slivers of soul left. Looking at them, I was confused for a second, but then just looked at the body and saw a few places where the slivers could have gone but didn’t see any glaring holes. Also, the body had been hard to piece together to begin with, as the scars created by welding the different pieces together also took up far more space than these slivers did. Not that this was a justification for not adding them, but this is one of those times when I would have read the instruction manual on how to assemble the object. Especially as I probably just couldn’t put a few books on this and cover it with a blanket to cover up its deficiencies, like I did with my one bookshelf.

Next, once the spirit was together, and stripped of unnecessary parts, I began building the body that would eventually house this soul. Using the soul as the base blueprint I created an outline, then using my Void Healer class perk Reincarnation, which along with my class specific Trait of Omni-Heal, and my recently acquired title of Natures Friend VII, I was able to create an exact copy of the spirit, then quickly strip away the recently applied spiritual scars, and even fix a few defects the spirit might have. These were physical defects mind you, there is still no cure for stupidity, though thinking about it, I would want to be the one to find that cure as well.

The process was long, painful, and arduous. Fortunately, at this point Mallory helped, by holding down the spirit in place, so that I could seal it in the flesh suit of a living body. This was my gift to the Magical Duelist. There were a few personal reasons for this, the first and most important part of this new body was practice, I didn’t want to not know what I was doing when I finally resurrected my parents. While I had practiced on the gnome and others, this was a first life or death case, and I would like to say that I was doing quite well with this. There were no scars, no signs of this body belonging to Frankenstein’s monster, none of that, just a body with a slightly mangled spirit inside.

The minute I was done, I made sure to use my third spot of Death Shroud on this individual. Mainly because I didn’t want to have to keep healing the damage caused by the spirit realm to its body.

There was a long moment of tension, as I waited for something to happen. Then the hand twitched, followed by the spirit that looked like it was a little tight within the meat shell, but otherwise looked okay. Then finally, the body breathed.

Wheeze.

Cough, cough.

As one might expect, taking your first breath within the spirit realm can be a painful experience. Again, good things to know and remember in the future, but right now, all I could do was try to help heal him and make sure his pain was minor.

There was a wave of system messages, I am certain a few new spells were created, but the most important thing was he was alive.

“You, you dare touch me?” Trigon said, looking first to me, I was touching him as I had my hand on his arm, again touching makes any spell cast 20% more efficient with mana conversion. For something as taxing as Resurrection, you bet your afterlife I am going to use the cheat of touching my intended target. Then he looks over at Mallory, who is also still touching him, there is clearly a moment of realization as to whom he is talking to, for Mallory just raises one eyebrow, that was enough to send the fear of god into the man.

“Why, I must…” He began, as he began to squirm away. Whatever he might have said was quickly lost by the system message that came next.

WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: Trigon BiFrost, the last living Magical Duelist has been reincarnated. Rejoice as the Class Magical Duelist is now once again alive and roaming our world.

At the message, both Mallory and I nodded.

“Phew. Too easy.” I say, getting up, but stumbling in the process. That is when a strong but firm hand holds me down and in place. I look to see that it is Mallory, I am about to ask what, when she responds.

“Perhaps you should take a moment to breathe for a bit.”

Hearing that, I nod, and almost fall over from the sudden movement.

During this time Trigon has scrambled to his feet and is backing away, only to realize once he is a few feet away that his body has changed.

“Wait, my body? I’m alive?” He asked, suddenly putting the fact that his first act was to breathe, which prompted an intense coughing fit. Pretty smart on the uptake this old Trigon guy.

I nod. “Yep, and if you want, I can get you a portal to the real world.” I state.

“You, wait? You mean it? You resurrect me to a body, and then provide me a way back to the mortal realm?” He stands up surprised and seemingly flattered by the comment.

I want to say something about, ‘yeah, I would gladly send you to a different realm, so I could explore this one in peace.’ But I ultimately decided to just keep my mouth shut, and instead just create the Planar Shift, right then and there.

He pauses there for a moment as he stares off into the mortal realm and pauses.

Then I can almost see the moment he changes, as the tension in his shoulder and posture changes as he visibly relaxes. “Thank you.”

I nod, still too tired to say much more.

Then he exits, and I see a string of additional system messages, but the most important thing I do is remove him from the protection of my Death Shroud, and then lean back real quick to rest my head on the ground.

“You okay?” Mallory asks.

“Yeah, of course, just going to rest here for a second…” I say, before the world blurs white and I pass out completely.