Gur falls back as a cascade of spells fall down on the greater god, but he just cuts through the weak constructs coming from Mack. Gur seems to run in five directions, as a set of illusions split off from him, but the Brute sends a wide sweep of energy that takes out three before they make it more than a dozen steps. The sound of metal clanging heralds him correctly guessing which one is real, before he gives a swift kick. Gur is sent rolling as a set of barriers pop up, but the Brute just runs headfirst into each shattering them, before grabbing a stone and tossing it at Mack. Mack dodges, but the spray of stone from the impact against the ceiling catches him…
And so on and so forth
The System avatar is in a quiet space watching three screens intently. One focused, on the gods battling above, the second on Mack and Gur distracting the Brute, and the third on a mortal agent of his sneaking into one of the Brute’s boltholes. The outcome of the first battle doesn’t really matter one way or the other, as long as some die. The second battle… the System watches as Mack and Gur try to create enough distance to flee, but the Brute is too powerful to allow any escape let alone a clean one. And he really hopes his agent on the third screen finds what the System is looking for. Because if it’s not there, then the System is running out of places where he thinks the Brute could plausibly have hid it.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The loss of these two as a resource would be worth it if the damn mortal can find it, but if he can’t, this is a damn expensive move. This better work, because they’ll never trust me again.
The agent is finally shuffling through the junk in the Brute’s bolthole. For such a minimalist, he sure acquired a lot of stuff.
The avatar glances back at the second screen.
Come on. Just a few more minutes… and then you can die.
Finally, he looks back at the command interface and the draft command typed there, but not executed.
sudo remove trait [Reincarnator] target=Amelia
The two heroes are battered and bruised. The agent is halfway through but hasn’t found it yet.
The avatar executes the command.
----------------------------------------