Jeremy had been working as a go-between with the city's leadership, House Rhodes, and the Guild. He was exhausted, but the people needed help. He had begun hearing screams in the city not that long ago, and constables bustling back and forth. The mindrot infections had begun progressing to critical levels.
As he worked his way back to house Rhodes accompanied by a capable constable, he thought back to that day he had met Olivander. The mindrotted goblins that Olivander and Gregory had put to rest had been so much different. They had become aware of the spreading infection on their own, and relocated to an out of the way abandoned mine before they were too far gone.
Jeremy didn't know that much about the disease, but it seemed to affect humans much more quickly. There didn't even seem to be a period where someone knew they were infected. They just quickly transformed into mindless monsters. He was curious about it, but he was no scholar.
They entered the middle area of the city, where large manors and parks surrounded the lake at the center. As Jeremy and his constable companion approached the Rhodes manor, the two High Magi he had seen throughout the evening exited the building. One of them drew out a quick spell, and conjured floating disks, which they stepped onto and zipped around the back of the manor, towards the lake.
Jeremy had been coming back to inform Lady Rhodes and High Magus Develie about the Guild's current assets in the city, and where they were being deployed, but the hasty movement of the two magician's pulled at his natural curiosity.
As he was rounding the building, Leviana Rhodes exited a side entrance and joined him.
"Lady Rhodes, what's happening?"
"I'm not sure, we were in the middle of a discussion when the High Magi both ran out of the manor."
"They headed towards the lake! Should we take a look?"
"I don't think we can do much else without their input right now. The constables and city guard are taking care of most of the containment work right now. I definitely want to see what's happening."
They hurried down the path leading to the lake.
They arrived a minute later, where it seemed like a battle was about to take place.
The two High Magi floated on disks high in the air. Across from them, but farther away was a third figure floating. Jeremy couldn't quite make out the last figure, but it was clearly hostile in the eyes of the Magi.
Four orbs of lightning rotated around Lucindre's head, and her grimoire was glowing with a green light that made Jeremy feel nauseous.
Giles was farther back, finishing a ritual diagram.
"Heart of the ocean, guardian of the sea, come forth! Summon Water Tyrant!"
The lake below them started to churn, and then a gigantic water elemental was drawn forth from the water. It was massive, easily forty feet tall, and had long arms of water that ended in swirling globes. As it came together, a face of glowing blue light manifested on the elemental's head. It roared and readied itself to fight.
Giles then conjured massive spears of ice all around him.
All was still for a moment, save the water churning at the base of the massive elemental.
Then there was a pulse of power.
It came from the other figure at the end of the lake.
As the pulse passed over the water, the elemental wavered, and then fell apart. The two Magi, with their summoned magic, dipped in the air, trying to fight off some effect. Giles' ice spears melted into nothing, and Lucindre's grimoire stopped glowing, but her lightning orbs stayed intact.
The pulse continued, it passed over Jeremy in a moment, and he felt his powers, all of them, just vanish.
"What happened?" Lady Rhodes said.
"My powers are gone!" Jeremy said. "What is that thing?"
They looked on as the water in the lake began churning again. Another massive water elemental drew itself up from the lake, but this time it was facing towards the High Magi, not their enemy.
"Oh dear gods."
* * *
Olivander waited a few more agonizing minutes, until he had just enough mana to pull out one more significant portal. Portaling out of a domain directly wasn't cheap, but he could just barely manage. He would be drained well beyond his normal point of recovery, but he needed to tell someone about the Master Mimic.
He channeled the mana, and opened a portal.
When he arrived back in the house Rhodes' manor, it was empty.
"What else could be going wrong?"
He felt the pulse of the Master Mimic's magic suppression field pass over him.
"I really need to start keeping my mouth shut."
Olivander could sense the monster was out over the lake, and was facing off against both Giles and Lucindre. They would be stronger than the creature, but neither of them had much experience with the mimics. They could be dangerous foes, especially to pure magic wielders like the two High Magi.
He hurried outside as fast as his tired body would allow.
He spotted Jeremy and Leviana near the edge of the lake, and high in the sky, Lucindre and Giles fought off a Water Elemental Tyrant and the Master Mimic.
"Olivander, thank the gods you're here. Do you know what that thing is?"
"Unfortunately. I was just fighting it a couple minutes ago."
"Did you lose?" Jeremy asked.
"It's no longer inside the domain, so yes."
The two stared at him as he watched the battle unfold.
Lucindre had fought off the magical suppression, for the most part, and was blasting both the tyrant and the mimic with huge bolts of lightning. The water elemental ignored the lightning, effectively absorbing it, and the mimic tried dodging it with mixed success. The mimic took a direct hit and was blasted away. That gave Giles an opportunity to use his grimoire, summoning various elemental orbs with a tricky ritual.
"Looks like Giles wasn't able to fight off the suppression. He can still use his grimoire and the magic it can channel, but he's going to be much less effective. Lucindre fought it off, but she's more healer than fighter. We need strong physical fighters to have any chance."
"You're not going to help?" Leviana asked.
"I can't. I'm completely spent. If I draw any more power through my grimoire we'll be fighting something much, much worse than that thing."
"I was just returning with a guild report," Jeremy said. "There are two gold rank teams in the city right now, I can gather them, but it will take time."
"Leviana, are there any horses available?"
"I'm afraid they're all already in use."
"I expected as much. Go now, Jeremy! Leviana, you try to find any more strong silver rankers you know of. Leave pure spellcasters behind. They can't help here."
Leviana and Jeremy both hurried off, and Olivander turned back to watch the fight.
"GILES!" he bellowed. But the High Magus was too far away, unable to hear him.
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If he had a ranged weapon, maybe he could help a little. He checked his mana.
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Mana: 0/1305
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It wasn't recovering at all, and probably wouldn't without some sleep.
All he could do was watch and hope that the city could muster up some defense while the two High Magi stalled the monster.
Giles launched all of his elemental orbs at the Master Mimic. He largely ignored the water elemental. Water was Giles' specialty, and even suppressed, the summoned elemental would have a hard time damaging him.
The elemental orbs exploded when they came close to the mimic, so its attempts at dodging were futile. Electricity stunned it momentarily, and fire burned its flesh. It stiffened and was about to fall when a bolt of lightning from Lucindre hit it full on.
Olivander cheered from the shore.
"Maybe they can do it."
Then the elemental got a solid hit on Lucindre, who was hurled away from the lake.
"Stop talking, Olivander, just stop talking."
She landed somewhere in the city far to his left. He hoped she was ok. She was old, and his mother would be quite upset if he got one of her friends killed again.
Giles channeled another big spell through his grimoire, and Olivander felt something shift.
It was like the world was tilting sideways around him, and he was having trouble keeping his balance.
"Giles! Stop!" he yelled again, but it was no use.
They had been poking holes in the fabric of reality all night, and the strange magic that the Master Mimic called upon wasn't helping things. He could feel how unbalanced things were.
Ordinarily, this level of unbalance would trigger a dungeon spawn. Olivander expected it to happen.
Instead, nothing happened, and Giles cast a golden spear of brilliant light through the water elemental. Part of the elemental simply evaporated, and the other half exploded into a fountain of water.
Olivander still felt like the world was turning. The mimic howled at Giles, then began opening portals.
Olivander bent his will towards the portals, he didn't have any magic left, but he still had intent and willpower. Portals were delicate magical creations. If Giles did the same, they might be able to stop portals from working properly or opening at all.
He really didn't want the creature to escape again.
His vision went black around the edges again and Giles began casting another spell.
Do you need help, Olivander? You always were bad at asking for it.
Olivander gritted his teeth.
The portals stopped opening as he saw Giles glance in his direction.
A silvery power coalesced above the Master Mimic, forming into a series of nearly translucent bolts of force magic.
"Concussive Rain!"
The mimic was blasted over and over by the falling bolts. They drilled it down, into and then under the water. One bolt after another firing down into the water and detonating with a muffled thud from under the waves.
Giles took advantage of the break to fly closer to Olivander.
"Can you fight?" he asked.
"I'm completely spent. You need to stop. Can you feel the balance?"
"I can. Honestly, I have no idea why we don't already have a dungeon on top of us already."
"I think it's because there was already a dungeon boundary here, but it doesn't matter. Could you sense Lucindre? I lost track of her."
"She's alive, I'm not sure if she's awake though," Giles said, his expression grim. "If you can't fight and I can't keep using my grimoire, what are we supposed to do here?"
"It's not that strong. I could defeat it without magic, but not out in the open like this. I made a foolish mistake when I allowed it to escape the domain."
"So what, Olivander? We just wait for someone to save us?"
"There are two gold rank adventuring teams in the city. They should be able to put it down. We just need to stall a little longer. It has my portal ability, focus your intent on blocking them and I will do the same. That's all we have."
"Very well," Giles said, then he opened a personal storage space. "Can you use a bow? I don't keep many weapons on hand."
"Better than nothing."
The monster launched out of the water towards them as Olivander picked up the enchanted bow.
He drew back, and an arrow manifested on the weapon. It blessedly had its own mana supply. He aimed at the beast's head and loosed the arrow.
The arrow slammed against the water thirty feet behind the monster, missing entirely.
"Worthless," Giles muttered as he flew to meet the creature with his own enchanted mace.
Like Olivander's skill with a bow, Giles was clumsy, slow, and all-around unskilled with the weapon.
The mimic conjured familiar-looking swords of ice and fire into each of its four clawed hands.
"Shit."
Giles took several hits in quick succession, unable to fight off the relentless barrage of strikes.
Olivander missed with two more shots.
"Should have given me the mace you buffoon."
The mimic dropped one of the swords and buried a fist in Giles' gut, launching the man back out over the water.
Once the High Magus plunged into the water, the monster turned on Olivander.
He backed away from the lake to give himself space, continuing to pepper the Master Mimic with arrows, only one or two of which actually hit.
"Pathetic…" the monster said in a raspy voice.
"Oh I'm pathetic? Me? The man who has fought thousands of enemies today? The person who conquered dozens of your brethren, and then nearly killed you before you ran away like a scared little mouse!"
"And…now? What are you now? Worthless."
"Do you honestly think you can defeat me? Come try."
Olivander wasn't a pious person. The only god he had met had been as much of an asshole as he was. Still, he said a little prayer. He wished his older sister was here. Lily would not have been putting up with this creature's nonsense. That would be a show to see.
Before the creature could charge at him, Olivander drew back and his bow conjured another arrow.
The mimic's head whipped back, struck dead center by a golden shaft of wood. Olivander looked at his own conjured arrow, confused. It was more silvery and made from glowing magic. It was also still nocked on his bow. He turned his head to see a man in sleek leather draw back another golden arrow on an equally golden bow.
"Keep shooting!" he shouted at Olivander.
Olivander shook himself out of his confusion, managing another hit. The mimic pulsed with power, but the man with the golden bow wasn't using any magic it could steal.
"MOVE!" Olivander shouted as power coalesced under the man.
His reaction speed was impressive, and he rolled away well before the inferno manifested from the ground where he had been standing. He had another arrow nocked as soon as he was back on his feet.
Olivander could tell, despite the man's skill, he wasn't very high leveled. His arrows certainly staggered and hurt the mimic, but they wouldn't be putting it down soon.
The mimic snapped up a ward. It had all of Olivander's stolen powers, but it wasn't granted the same proficiency and experience with them, so it hadn't considered using a ward until it explicitly needed one.
Now able to ignore the arrows, it charged Olivander. He was unable to dodge three swords and a clawed hand at once. He took a burning cut to a cheek and then ice crawled up his leg as the mimic's sword bit deep into his thigh. A final punch sent him flying back a dozen feet. He lost his bow before he rolled to a stop.
Dazed, but still conscious, he watched as the acrobatic archer danced around the mimic, avoiding strike after strike.
The mimic looked like a pincushion, but it finally got a hit in. The glancing blow was enough to stagger the archer, and a follow-up blow laid him out. Olivander just hoped it hadn't killed him.
Olivander tried to push himself to his feet, but his leg wasn't working. He could only watch as the mimic stalked up to the archer, preparing a sword for a final blow.
A flash lit up the sky, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the mimic. Its ward wasn't strong, and it bent, then shattered. The mimic was forced into the ground and then rebounded, spinning through the air back towards the water. It crunched into the ground with a satisfying sound.
Lucincre landed next to Olivander, touching him on the shoulder.
His leg re-knit and he felt his other superficial wounds fade away almost instantly.
"How about we finish this?" she asked him. Then she held out a sword. "Found this on my way back."
Olivander grinned at her, taking the sword.
The mimic growled at them.
Olivander stood, but his legs were unsteady. The healing had only drained him further. He wanted to curl up in the grass and sleep for a week. Still, he would strike this beast down if it killed him.
He tried to flank the beast while Lucindre continued to make small lightning based attacks. Olivander guessed she was low on mana, and wanted him to strike the fatal blow.
She moved the opposite direction, pulling the back of the creature directly in front of Olivander. Their eyes met for a moment in non-verbal signal, and she used a larger attack to give him an opening.
He lunged in, hoping this would be a killing blow.
Instead of his sword meeting blue flesh, it met another sword, then the unfortunately familiar feeling of a fist being buried in his gut came back.
He felt cold water on his face as he briefly regained his wits, but he couldn't pull himself together.
"Hurry! They're back here!" he heard someone yell in the distance as his eyes closed again, and he lost consciousness.