Nathan dove towards the ground, headed for the group of mages. The arrow already in flight curved to strike him regardless, but he had so many movement skills it was trivial to bounce around the projectile. It attempted one last skill-guided course-correction but it wasn’t enough.
The four mages cast spells, with one sending a spray of flaming liquid, another a gust of cutting wind and two summoning rocks the size of bowling balls to fire up at him. The slave-elites deployed amongst them in anticipation of Nathan's attack. They weren't expecting him to ignore the spells entirely, though the spray of sticky flame blocked his vision for a moment and set the buildings to either side alight. He hit the ground a dozen feet away from the mages, bare feet cratering the hard-packed dirt. His aura swept outwards, extinguishing the magical flames in a wave.
The mages drew back as one as their spells were snuffed out like mosquitos flying into a campfire. But the slave elites didn’t hesitate, and three of the five charged at Nathan with excellent coordination. He’d been expecting that, and jumped up and then sideways, ricocheting off the walls to bypass the warriors and get to the mages. Their [Mage Armor] spells popped from Nathan’s proximity, and he moved faster than they could react, zipping through the group at head-height to crush skulls and mangle throats. He routed around the two slave-elites remaining in the group, intending to remove the mages before he freed the elites.
I don’t want a repeat of the fight in Fireface pass, where I freed the elites and the mages promptly torched them all.
The archer was able to get a shot off, sending an arrow into Nathan’s path as he barreled down on the last of the four mages.
[Fireba-
Nathan didn’t deviate course, accepting an arrow through the torso to slam his knuckles into the last mage’s throat hard enough to throw him into the wall of the nearby building. Only then did he settle to the ground, the bodies of the mages hitting the ground moments before he did.
Parkour 7 achieved!
Spellslayer has leveled to 396! You have slain Kalman dho Chokiz, Ravs dho Gras, Sigs dho Gras and Arleta dha Olyz within moments of them noticing you!
The elites weren't put off by the display in the slightest. But Nathan didn't attack them, merely dodging their weapons for the seconds it took him to unravel their enslavement enchantments. It took him slightly longer than it otherwise would because he was trying not to disenchant their arms and armor at the same time.
One by one they stopped attacking, shaking their heads in confusion. Nathan stepped aside from one last arrow, not moving quite fast enough to prevent it grazing his arm. Then he addressed the suddenly freed elites, using his skills to draw their attention and project his voice clearly. “You have been slaves of Giantsrest all of your lives, bound to serve the will of mages. But the Ascendent Academy is gone!” He gestured at the newly empty patch of sky. “You are free, and your will is what matters.”
He paused to grab the arrow that was working its way out of his torso, pulling it out the rest of the way before using it to gesture around. “You are trained to protect mages, to defend your enslavers. But now, the slaves of Giantsrest need protection, from monsters and mages alike! I will free every slave of Giantsrest I can, but I cannot protect them. Will you help your fellows, instead of defending your masters from the fates they have earned?”
The archer looked at Nathan, and spoke in a rusty voice. “I’ll fight with you, mage-breaker. By the Giant’s fist, and to the Giant's end.”
Inspiration 4 achieved!
Void of Magic has leveled to 528! You have killed four mages and freed their slave-soldiers from enslavement magic!
The other elites all nodded, and Nathan let out a relieved breath that they all seemed to be genuinely on his side. “Great. Start getting the slaves hidden in the buildings out into the streets, so I can break their enchantments all together instead of seeking them out individually. The square over there will work,” he pointed off towards an open area he’d noticed from above. “Keep your weapons close, I can’t be everywhere and there are still enemies around. Have you seen the golems yet?”
They all nodded as one, and the archer spoke again. “One broke into the estate. We lost Benim and Sarkal to it.”
Nathan grimaced. “I can kill them pretty easily, so try to delay them instead of taking risks to kill them. I’ll be patrolling around, and will focus on keeping the area safe. Are there more elites in the area I can free to help you out?”
One of the other elites spoke up. “Segril and Trun were left at the estate, along with the household slaves. The masters are planning to flee. They were going to take the most skilled craftsmen with them.”
Nathan nodded back. “I’ll go get them. Stay in this area, it's a good base of operations. Before I go, can I get your names?”
“Gasc. May you have the strength of the Giant, mage-slayer.” The archer held out his hand, and Nathan clasped it with the hand holding the arrow the man had shot him with, leaving it behind in the elite's hand. The archer looked down at the bloody arrow in amusement, then tucked it away into his quiver. The rest of the newly freed elites gave Nathan their names, then scattered into the surrounding buildings to corral people into the central square of the district.
Nathan took a moment to refill his Stamina by draining the disembodied mana pools left over from the dead mages. It was simpler than cutting a mage off from magic had been, and he spared a moment of thought for the fire elemental that had shown him the trick.
It’s a bit ghoulish, but it's not like they'll miss the mana.
As soon as he was done he ascended back into the air, heading back towards the abundant greenery of the Chokiz manor and the surrounding grounds. This time he used his stealth skills to make himself less noticeable. He had a destination now, and wasn’t trying to draw the attention of any potential threats in the area. He ran towards the sculpted parkland, noticing a few burnt trees from the time he'd carried Faline out of here while mages blasted spells at them.
I’m already getting too involved. I need to get moving, get out of Giantsrest, find the Heirs and start heading towards the Questors.
Then he looked back towards the elites and the small but growing crowd of slaves awaiting his antimagic.
But I can quickly make such a huge difference here. Is there anybody else who could fight the golems, the mages, and free all of the slaves? I can stay here a few days, maybe a week or two. That's not too much.
Nathan descended towards the familiar mansion, noting the relative lack of guards. There were a few slave-soldiers on each door, but not many. He landed lightly on the roof, avoiding tripping the alarm spell and sweeping his magical perception through the building.
Only two more mages. I think there’s just the two elites too, but it’s harder to pick out the slave enchantments from here.
The magical lock on a window wilted before him, and Nathan entered the mansion for the second time. He padded quickly through empty hallways, prioritizing speed over stealth as he beelined towards the mages. He peeked around a corner to find two enslavement mages emptying a vault that had been hidden beneath a rug on the ground floor, pulling dimensional storage pouches from the recessed nook and squabbling over them as two slave-elites looked on.
“No, by the Giant’s will, the enchantment materials are mine. You can have the alchemy ingredients.” Said the woman, grabbing at a bag a heavyset man was holding.
He protested with a whiny voice. “But neither of us are alchemists! You can take the second and third food storage, that should be enough for a long time.” They both bore a strong family resemblance to the late Nol dho Chokiz.
Food? That’s something we’re going to need.
Nathan stepped out from hiding, unraveling the slavery enchantments on the two elites and settling cloaks of antimagic over the mages, careful not to disrupt the magic on the dimensional pouches they held.
“Stop. Your slaves are free and your magic will do nothing. Tell me about the forces inside the city.” Nathan said, making his voice loud and intimidating as he popped their mage armors with tendrils of antimagic.
The two mages spun towards him, attempting to cast spells that achieved precisely nothing. Then they gaped at him for a moment, seemingly unable to process the changed circumstances.
The stretched moment ended when one of the elites drew a blade and stabbed both mages through the heart in quick, economical movements. They fell quickly, only a small amount of blood staining their robes. The elite turned to Nathan, putting the bloody blade into a high salute and speaking in a gleeful voice. “Hail the mage-breaker. I thank you for breaking our chains. What occurs?”
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Void of Magic has leveled to 530! You have freed slaves and enabled the deaths of their masters!
Nathan blinked, then shrugged and quickly explained the situation. It wasn’t like he could get upset about the freed slaves killing their masters the moment they had a chance. And he was pretty sure he could get better intelligence from the elites than the mages. He spent a few minutes running around the estate to free the remaining slave soldiers and household slaves, before sending them to join the others carrying everything useful from the house.
As he moved on, Nathan once more considered what he was doing. Following up on Badud’s warning was more important than saving people here, but it was also less certain. In about ten minutes of effort he’d freed a few dozen people from slavery and claimed a large amount of wealth and supplies for the new community of freed slaves. He could do an enormous amount of good here in Giantsrest, very quickly. But would it all come to naught if Badud fulfilled his promise to start the Ending of History?
I can't stay here indefinitely. My priority needs to be making them self-sufficient, able to operate without me. That means putting them in touch with Halsmet. I could probably run there in half a day, but I don’t think I can leave them alone that long right now. Some mage or golem would come along and wipe them out. But somebody will have noticed the fact that the Academy’s gone, and will come to check it out. I just need to be on the lookout for them, and hope they have [Message]. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the Heirs see it and beeline straight here.
He wondered if this was a similar problem that Questors faced - being pulled in a dozen directions, and trying to help without making a society dependent on them.
I think Badud did a better job than Brox at building a functioning society. Though he was pretty quick to burn it all down once I broke his control of the dungeon.
—
The next few hours were a blur of activity. Nathan tried to spend every moment aloft, keeping watch for wandering golems or mages who tried to investigate or attack. The city seemed to be calming down, with the population hunkering down and the golems starting to move more methodically.
Spellslayer has leveled to 401! You have slain the last remnant of an ancient Giant!
Void of Magic has leveled to 535! You have destroyed a rogue golem!
He made frequent runs back to the central square to free batches of slaves. His expanded aura easily encompassed a crowd and excised the slavery enchantments of hundreds of people in moments. They kept asking him for instructions, but Nathan steadfastly refused to tell the freed slaves what to do, making them figure it out themselves.
That serves two purposes. It makes them less dependent on me, and it also gives me more time to keep watch. If I get too involved now I won’t be able to leave as easily later.
He picked a few nearby buildings and rotated between them, trying to reduce the Stamina drain by not spending all of his time aloft. He replenished his Stamina every time he got in a fight or freed a new group of slaves, but he needed to stay Stamina-positive. He descended back to where he’d seen Gasc organizing a barricade, greeting the bow-wielding elite before quickly quizzing him about the city. Nathan wanted to know where other elites and slave-soldiers were concentrated, and Gasc pointed him towards a few more noble estates that each housed a retinue of soldiers.
Got it. Fancy houses usually come with soldiers & elites. Time to hit the fancy houses and free them before they get sent against us or used as cannon-fodder against the golems. We can backfill freeing the civilians behind them.
Nathan embarked on a series of surgical strikes to the mansions of the city, each of them housed on their own small stretch of parkland. Half of the estates were already abandoned, with signs of rapid evacuation. But the others contained hunkered mages and their slaves, and Nathan snuck into each quickly to scope them out. He didn’t kill the mages out of hand, but they usually attacked him the moment he revealed himself. In those cases he cut them down without remorse.
High-tier Disguise 2 achieved!
None of the fights were especially hard. The mages couldn’t threaten Nathan, and the hardest challenge was killing the mages without them catching their own slaves in the crossfire. The golems he fought were harder to kill and could actually hurt Nathan, but they couldn’t catch him. He spent Focus freely to outmaneuver the big statues, the discount from [Mental Vault] meaning he didn’t have to be nearly as careful with the resource.
Mental Vault 2 Achieved!
Void of Magic has leveled to 548! You have killed seven mages and freed their slaves!
Spellslayer has leveled to 421! You have slain the mages Rogef dho Sodz, Gea dha Sodz, Todil dho Quam, Todril dho Quam, Silan dho Quam, Sozur dho Ruthi and Shia dha Ruthi!
Through his magical senses Nathan could feel mages in many of the more humble buildings all over the city - but they all seemed to be weaker mages trying to avoid attention. A few times he went inside to free groups of household slaves, but each time the mages stayed hidden and out of the way. He thought about hunting them down, but a memory of a handmade quilt on a bed flashed in his mind and he turned away each time.
I don’t know what to do about them, but I’m not going to go on a murder spree. Besides, we’re not at the stage of clearing the city house-by-house just yet.
Now, nightfall was approaching, and Nathan was considering how to safeguard the enclave overnight. He wouldn’t be able to see any attackers coming, and his first warning might be the sound of fighting.
I should also consider getting some sleep. I was busy murdering archmages last night, and I spent the nights before that exploring the Academy. I can go for a while without sleep, but I've been leaning on that pretty hard already, and I'm starting to feel the strain.
Then a series of explosions from one of the exterior gates of Giantsrest caught his attention. There’d been explosions before, usually from mages fighting golems - though Nathan was convinced a few of them had been from mages using the chaos as an opportunity to settle old grudges. But these detonations were different. For one thing, they seemed to be coming from outside the city, as if somebody was trying to blast their way in. For another, they weren’t the simple blasts of standard fireballs - each explosion carried a crackling undertone of lightning that made Nathan smile.
The Heirs. That didn’t take long.
Status of Nathan Lark:
Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 6
Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 4
Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7
Class: Void of Magic level 548
Deepened Stamina: 13227/16740
Void of Feeling
Antimagic Momentum
Raging Thrill
Implacable Inertia
Unarmored Resilience
Magic Anathema
Airborne Agility
Hand-to-hand Expertise
Voluminous Aura
Denial of Wizardry
Mana Severance
Class: Spellslayer level 421
Regenerative Focus: 4193/4310
Catastrophic Blows
Battle Stealth
Mage Infiltration
Forgettable
Sneaky Blow
Antimagic Stealth
Magical Manipulation
Lethal Index
Wizard Resistance
Magic Jammer
Controlled Failure
Utility skills:
Wizard’s Meditation 7
Inspiration 4
Acceleration 7
Wizard’s Detection 5
Alertness 8
Wizard’s Understanding 6
Effortless Dodge 6
Mental Vault 2
Tutoring 3
Parkour 7
Visibility Control 1
High-tier Disguise 2
Mid-tier Battle Cry 8
High-tier Aura Manipulation 6