“I can’t believe they left me alone for another 3 months.” Ebony was used to using the Elcrian time-scale and ignored the day and night cycle of Cinderash. The long nights were the best, it cooled down significantly and his clones had a lower upkeep cost.
Throughout his 4 month freedom, he kept growing his skills and Domain. Usage of Will was the main point. It was something the Guru didn’t know about since looking at his battle memories without conversation didn’t show his flexible use of Will.
The monsters on Cinderash were generally stronger than Elcra, a whole grade difference. However, he was near safe spots due to the vicinity of cities and Saints. If he matched level with level, this place was a little safer than Hoarfrost Glades but he never got deep into Hoarfrost Glades where monsters of Kings and Emperor ranks lived.
Fortunately, his cute pangolin protectors are quite feared in the area thanks to their toxic fumes. A sizable region was their territory and filled with these toxic fumes. Ebony had breathed some in when he felt safe, it contaminated his body after a few days of breathing but it finally increased his poison resistance by a single level. He tested it before but poison in his bloodstream could just be pinpointed with his perception, frozen and physically ejected.
Ning Xin could smell poison and burn it in her body. And that was it. Few poisons could survive the temperatures of her body.
They didn’t need to train poison resistance. But since all those methods require mana, he thought it wouldn't hurt to get his normal resistance up when he found a potent poison.
Ebony even gained a few class levels from this duration of freedom. The level difference with his prey weren’t as large as the time with the Tetramyths, but as he hypothesised, the level gap did not matter as much as the competence gap. Even with lower-level kills and hunts, his levelling speed didn’t take a large dip because his meals were stronger.
All his unallocated stats were concentrated between Wisdom and Perception. Wisdom not because of mana, but because the Guru was the most annoying opponent. He needed all the natural mental defences he could. Perception was for sensing things better, his base perception was falling behind.
“They have been making random searches in cities and towns for entries and exits. I’m not sure what the Guru is thinking. Maybe he thought we wouldn’t live outside the confines of a city?”
“If that’s the reason, he’s dumber than we took him for. I think he’s testing me, he knows about clones and he probably deduced the attack on his head was from you clones. He might be sniffing me out, trying to learn more about what I want.”
“From how he’s visited towns and cities the past few months to make sure no one heard of you by invading everyone’s mind, maybe he’s just tying up loose ends before he makes a move on us. That, or finding countermeasures for you is just too difficult. This is just a guess but, I think he can simultaneously invade hundreds of people’s minds at the same time. He is a scary fellow.”
“And he’s personally searching because he’ll find me the moment I’m within range. Like now.” Ebony replied to Fourteen.
The Guru was heading straight towards him with an entourage. None of which were people. They were like the leader of the Bellicose Savants back then. Just a cube hidden in a body, it might be a robot or an organic flesh body. He didn’t know.
“Ezekiel isn’t around, we don’t have to worry about directly teleporting into our cell. Unless that space user can shoot me from wherever he’s at.”
No matter how soothing or dense his mana was, it wasn’t calming his captors down. They were intent on locking him up.
“Hello, Ebony. How has your walk been?”
“Nice. You’re not welcome this time.” Ebony shut the Guru out at the battle section of his memories. He did not learn a mental defence technique but he did learn that the only effective defensive measure was Perpetual Tranquility Spring so he remained in a trance while the Guru’s physical body continued to ride towards him.
The Guru’s mental range was ridiculously wide. On their fast horses, it would take another 62 hours before they even reached his abandoned town.
Fourteen would have been out of range if they hadn’t discovered a method to vastly increase his range of Will connection.
During these 62 hours in real-time, the Guru never stopped trying to tear deeper into his mental defences. They fought for years and years and Ebony was fighting a losing battle the entire time. All he had was his natural defences along with mending the damages the Guru left behind.
“Amazing specimen, your mindspace is more vast than any Emperor! But you can’t hide everything from me.”
A mind mage that could impede his prowess in the physical world was truly his worst opponent. The Guru didn’t even need to find special units or equipment to tackle him. Just this Telepath alone was enough to harass Ebony such that any random Savant could trap him. But this scared or overly prepared Telepath brought along ten people, likely all with tier 5 mastery and a great set of matching, compounding skills.
Aegis could cast magic for him with no problem, so even a mental blackout from Ebony would not leave him defenceless as before.
The Guru had plenty of tricks up his sleeves. Painting his mindspace to make it ‘tangible’. Leaving marks in his mind that allowed the man to teleport. Blowing up portions of it. However, mental explosions seem to have temporary effects. Ebony didn’t lose any memories permanently.
Ebony didn’t hide any longer, he showed his ‘physical’ body in his mindspace to directly attack the Guru who was so shocked at first. They were in his mind, he had the advantage. But he didn’t know much about the weird techniques that the Guru was pulling out time after time.
Like how he had meditation defending his mind, the strong Telepath had methods of his own. In a battle of the minds, the Guru was unendingly confident. Even when Ebony had the ability to use every imaginable skill or magic he could pull off, the Guru wasn’t even flustered.
Ebony did everything he could to keep the Guru away from his recent memories. Fortunately, with him battling the Guru, he had some control over where the Guru was trying to go.
When the Guru’s group finally arrived at the abandoned town and cut through the toxic fumes to look down on the pale-faced Ebony from his tall horse. Both the Guru and Ebony opened their physical eyes. Their battle hadn’t even begun and Ebony was in terrible condition.
He managed to hold out but his entire mind was riddled with scars. He was already losing more badly than he prepared for.
His inn was situated on slightly sunken ground. The Guru sat on a dark orange-furred mare on the ceiling of a neighbouring building. Surrounding him were 5 more people. He unceremoniously Appraised them.
[Gear Sniper King Lvl 670 | Ashforged Sharpshooter King Lvl 655]
[Steam Wright Lvl 682 | Volcanic Cogtrapper Lvl 678]
[Rail Mechanist King Lvl 649 | Lavaspire Sniper Lvl 647]
[Aether Cogtrapper King Lvl 612 | Volcanic Sulphur Plaguebringer Lvl 609]
[Machinist Cogtrapper King Lvl ??? | Wilderness Trailblazer Lvl ???]
“Mr Guru, nice to meet you again. Are you mocking me by sending just 5 Kings? With none of them being close-ranged fighters? Sniper is an actual class here…and you got them so close to me.” Ebony’s Appraise at level 21 allowed him to know the levels of people up to 210 levels above his own. The names of their Classes and Sub-classes did give him some idea of what they do. Since he realised that the name of a Class defined what one can and should do to evolve and level, he knew there was more power and information in class names than most assumed.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He was currently level 477 so he would be able to see up to 687. He didn’t care about the small differences, in any case, even the Machinist Cogtrapper was still just a King. The only subclass that stood out was the Wilderness Trailblazer. It might not be a direct combat sub-class. The Guru should know better than to send some random people so he didn’t take surface-level information for granted.
As for the other 5 that Ebony Fourteen had sensed, they were out of sight and keeping a bit of distance. Within his mind and years of fighting, he learned what kind of fighter the Guru was. The Guru was the indecisive and careful type who never showed everything he had up his sleeves, always testing out what Ebony could or would do. This time was no different, he was checking if Ebony could sense the other 5 people.
Only when the Guru was sure he would succeed at an endeavour would he place his bets. He was very unlike Ebony or Ning Xin in battle.
“You overestimate yourself. Merely a Grandmaster, be honoured I’m personally here to secure you.” The Guru might have gotten false confidence after beating him up within his mind for centuries. The Telepath could even speed up and slow down his perceived time at his discretion. When it came to his speciality, he truly was amazing. If it wasn’t for the nature of the mind being difficult to alter to begin with, Ebony wouldn’t have lasted.
“Merely an Emperor and you let me walk free for months.”
“Wild monsters are more tender than farm-grown cattle. Ebony, I was expecting more preparation from a mage. This is the place you’ve been living in? Ah, you regained meat on your bones. As expected from your savage upbringing.”
“Mr Guru, overconfidence kills. Since you want to see me up close, then stay here.”
Aegis got to work.
“How are you doing this! Your mind is sti-- indeed from that--. Resistance is futile, why fight me when we both know the result.” The Guru stood firm after jumping off his mare. Gravity mana slid off of him as well as everyone else. Ice and gravity repulsion equipment.
“Silly question Mr Guru, you are basically asking me why live if we’re all going to die one day. I--we fight because we want to.”
Ebony burst all the concentrated petals that were staying invisible throughout the town into frostblaze, setting the fiery region onto light blue flames for once.
His surprise wasn’t faked when he saw all the snipers and ranged fighters change into a different set of five people. Fourteen who had been watching these people saw the snipers and trappers appearing at their location, far and defensible for snipers.
‘What even was the point of showing up to me? A taunt?’
New opponents or not, he had already chopped down at where the snipers used to be. All five of them had a figure of Ebony above them and Icicle burning bright. Not clones, and just refraction of light after filling the area with ice mana and mist to make it easier. His familiarity with light refraction only improved.
Aegis didn’t allow those refractions of light to stay as refractions. All attacks turned real when Aegis followed up and made Perennial Everfrost Armaments and boosted their Stalactite Sunder with Torrent Path and Sonic Reverberation.
Ebony did not forget to cast the censored Pseudo-Imitation Roar as a soul attack and stun. He had been keeping this unused throughout the entire mind battle. The stun didn’t work on the Guru but Ebony did that on purpose, his main body went for the Guru while the rest faced ice blades.
It was then, when all his attacks fell onto the ground that he realised he had been duped.
“I am impressed, Mr Guru. I lost, fair and square.” Aegis informed him that he was aiming at the air the whole time, it assisted him in battle against air thinking Ebony was just training. Without Aegis, he might not have noticed at all.
Ebony was looking at illusions the entire time. Tricks of the mind.
His mental damage had more effect on him than he imagined because this was the first time illusions of any type worked on him. He hadn’t been surrounded by 5 snipers and trappers, nor was the Guru standing in front of him.
He wasn’t sure how they tricked Fourteen but he could guess, with gravity repulsion equipment and possibly spatial equipment to dodge the creation of vibration during movement it was not impossible to trick his clones. He was still quite certain they did not have ice magic sensors but now he couldn’t even trust the information his clones gave him when it came to threats.
“Oh? I expected more resistance, giving up isn’t in your dictionary.”
“You’ve spent so much effort and money, making and buying these mana and stamina-draining equipment. Shooting me with explosive absorption bullets. What can I do now?” Ebony raised his hands. They were already locked up by planks and his fists were balled up. The illusion didn’t just make him attack air, he was attacking traps they’d already placed while his mind had been under attack. Long-range trap setters that were so skilled that Aegis couldn’t break them apart before they activated were beyond his preparation.
He literally walked into them and chained himself up. Although he expected traps, he didn’t think they could trap him while he had Aegis at the peak of his power. He found it funny, it was his mind that failed him this time. While Aegis had Will and didn’t act on his mind, just like his clones, it didn’t notice the targets or even the traps that were right under his feet.
“I know this after our years together but...you are really not going to see the light of day again, how are you not panicking? I can sense your defeat so where is your hope coming from? No matter, we have a lot of time together. I will find out and crush it. To return your words, overconfidence kills. We don’t need to send savants or some genius fighter.” Mr Guru saw him sit down and had his hidden soldiers show themselves before dragging him by the armpits.
“You just need a humble Emperor Telepath huh?” Ebony looked towards where he sensed Mr Guru pop up. His mind cleared up a little and Aegis helped him track every vibration.
“That’s right. Enjoy your last days of sunlight. You may perhaps make it easier for me to see what you’ve been up to during your short freedom.”
“Hahaha. Mr Guru, don’t speak as if you are going to have it easy the next few days. Why haven’t you caged me up? No Ezekiel? Can’t teleport me into your amazing new cage for me? Distracting me within my mindspace doesn’t mean my body will let your helpers move me so easily.”
Mr Guru shut up and invaded his mindspace again.
Exactly what Ebony had hoped for.
While the confident and talkative Telepath was distracted, his sleeping body fought off his captors. His body still had a small amount of mana thanks to coagulated mana being so hard to drain and absorb while his stamina was recovering faster than the absorption.
Not to mention, he didn’t want Mr Guru to see that Aegis was helping him. It would make him question why Ebony could still cast magic.
“Just lie down obediently already!” Mr Guru was a force of nature within his mind, doing whatever he could imagine.
“Taming requires a show of force or patience.” A battle of imagination wasn’t something he was unfamiliar with. He had Accelerated Corporeal-Illusory Battleforge running in parallel, fighting multiple Mr Guru’s to find a way to counter him while fighting him for real at the same time. It ate into his mental stamina but Ebony had no choice, he had been fighting a losing battle from the start and he needed the most efficient method to defend against the weird mental intrusion.
Outside, his trappers were shocked by a barrage of blue fire and his body Flickering in and out. Landing Quake Kicks on their heavy equipment and having his petals digging through deeper after every attack. Icicle angrily took their precise bullets and let them push him to gain momentum. Except for the Rail Mechanist who shot beams of energy and also high-pressure lava.
It seemed like the illusion Mr Guru showed him wasn’t all lies because the Classes matched so far.
“So it was harder to find defensive ice equipment than gravity? Is it because Cinderash cannot make anything like that? Did you trust that ice would melt from your heat-based techniques and equipment?” Ebony probed his longest-chating companion. He didn’t always want to be on the side that was questioned.
As draining as it was, he didn’t drag the battle into one of attrition. Not in his current state where the chains on him were not breaking even with Aegis’s help.
It took a lot longer for his body because there were 5 unknown fighters. 3 of them fought him while the trappers and snipers took shots at him. The last two were probably protecting Mr Guru’s body.
“Your body finally failed.” Mr Guru taunted with sweat dripping off his brows.
Ebony continued to attack and push Mr Guru deeper into his mind. They were not where any memories were. Rather, they were in his cognitive section. Mr Guru was trying to weaken his magic so badly and somehow pushed them both here. Shocking himself more and more because the damage in his cognitive section didn’t affect the battle outside where Aegis was doing the casting.
However, Ebony couldn’t fight as well within his mindspace. His mana regeneration dipped. He could run more simulations concurrently from shutting Mireloom off.
His body was forced onto the ground by the last two fighters, bodyguards of the Telepath. These people were as unexpressive as him. They tossed him over their horse and started to transport both him and the Guru.
The other 8 were sealed in ice down to the bones and brains. They would probably die if they didn’t get a boost of mana from him or have an aether healer present before they melt in this heat. Aegis kept them sealed while watching Ebony getting taken away.
It didn’t interfere and neither did any of his clones.
Ebony didn’t have any mana and should not cast any magic, so they would not act and show themselves.