The men advancing towards me suddenly found themselves blocked by a wave of men that emerged from all around me. Though it would seem that it was only sudden for me, tvd uld presume so by their apparent hostility towards each other. But how did I figure into this?
As soon as I had revealed my identity, one of the factions had attacked and the other had defended me. That made it seem like I belonged to the defending faction, especially since I was called a royal brat.
Was this an illusory world where Arlfords were royals? And fighting in a war? And I was supposed to help them...that actually sounded like a perfectly good way to conduct a Trial of War
What could test the takers better on war than having them wage one? Or at last fight in one. Time to give some assistance! Even if I was wrong I was merely killing people that had already declared that they wanted to kill me.
I summoned the rest of my Mana, not dropping my defenses. I knew that charging headfirst into the battle was a bad idea, there was no way I could beat a bunch of grown men in a straight up fight. Being a baby was too big of a disadvantage.
No, I was going to use Magic! I scanned the battlefield with my mana sense, setting a formation that I knew of from my old world. It was called the Sensory Distraction Formation, it was a largely Mana efficient formation that made non-lethal attacks and defenses that were distractions.
One may wonder if that would be any useful at all, in fact the Emperor at the time had wondered too, but he had trusted his Court Mage’s judgement and was rewarded for it. The Court Mage was merely a single mage and could do little to affect an entire battlefield, there were only so many people his Magic could kill before he ran out of Mana.
What he could do however, was give the soldiers a chance to attack. The Formation allowed him to sneak attack the enemy soldiers or suddenly form an extra level of defenses around ally soldiers. It wouldn’t kill them but it would give the allies a chance to attack and kill them.
I was going to emulate him now. I let my mana twirl over the battlefield, suddenly tripping a soldier that was about to land a death blow, forming another layer of space defense around a soldier, suddenly causing a burst of fire to appear on the soldier's helmet.
It didn’t really kill anyone, it allowed for killing however. The soldier that tripped never rose up as he was pierced by the sword of the soldier he was going to kill, the space layer, causing the sword to be trapped within. A nearby soldier was kind enough to kill its wieler. The fire forced the soldier to remove the helmet, rendering him defenseless. By the time the helmet was removed, the soldier’s body had been cut in two.
Like that, protected by what seemed to be my allies, I ‘distracted’ the enemy soldiers, Mana tendrils sneaking across the battlefield, delivering death in the form of annoyances. For the first few hours it was fun, the act of coming up with new ways to trouble people was surprisingly entertaining in and of itself.
But that changed when the enemy caught on to what I was doing. Soon enough, the pressure on my guard increased, forcing me to focus my tendrils on those around me. I didn't want to die after all.
It was still not easy in any manner, but the reduction of length actually granted me greater power. Where before the fire could perhaps be ignored, there was no such option now. Earth would pierce the soldiers feet and cripple them rather than irritate. It would seem that perhaps I should have taken the distance into account as well.
Like that, the battle continued. It wasn’t always one sided. Many times the enemy came close to breaking the guard that my allies kept on me, but somehow they preserved. It was quite shocking that I still felt sad to see them die. I had over millenia seen the death of literally millions of people, witnessed the fall of entire dynasties and even the extinction of a few races.
Logically, the meaningful death of a few should not have any effect on me, yet it did. Was this due to them dying while protecting me?...perhaps. Anyway, back to distracting people.
Fireball! Slope the earth! Dust in the face! I let loose all the tricks that I could think of, letting none remain in my arsenal. The battle lasted for three hours. If it wasn’t for my high Endurance, I was sure that I would be dead by now. Thankfully, that stat would likely increase after this. Quite a nice thing isn’t it? A high stat makes you want to use it and thus increase that stat.
No wonder people with high Intelligence almost always ended Mages or with other Intelligence focused classes. The temptation was too great. As I continued to ruminate, I noticed that the battle had mostly ended. Few of the enemy remained, their energy exhausted, making them easy to kill.
I wondered why there were no reinforcements to either side. Usually a battle would have the powers involved call for reinforcements repeatedly. Perhaps the battle was just not important enough? I suppose I would find out when I asked someone.
First though, I should try to regain some of my mana. I had learned a special technique just for that. It came with its own skill [ Meditation]. I sat cross legged on the battlefield, calling out to the mana around me, one of the rumored disadvantages of meditation was that it lowered the sensitivity of a person to their surroundings.
In truth that was a lie, it instead heightened one’s sensitivity to the surroundings. What it did not do was make for quick reaction speed. To be more mathematical about it, it lowered the Combat stat by a set percentage while heightening the Intelligence, Wisdom and Perception stats.
Especially in high Grade mages who could use their Aura Force in synchrony with their Magic. I was looking forward to using it, I heard it actually allowed one to rend and change reality in their area of influence. It went perfectly with my Space affinity.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
As I drew mana in, I could feel my allies killing off the last of the enemy. They were rather respectful about it. That was good. Empires that did not respect their enemies often did not respect their people either. An Empire That respected enemies would surely be good, it would seem that I at least was equipped with a capable army.
I was approached by one of my allies who stood in front of me and cleared his throat loudly.
“Your highness” he said, “ I apologize for disturbing you, but I hope that you will inform us what you are doing here, perhaps we may assist you in your quest” the entire time he spoke, he was tripping over words. Clearly, he feared speaking to those of higher station. So, a highly stratified society. Finally, a sensible governing system. Not the convoluted mess that was so popular on Algrea.
“I am also unaware of how I arrived here, I was sleeping in my room within the estate and then suddenly found myself here” I replied, deciding to hide the truth of my situation. It would not be easily accepted by the inhabitants that this was merely an illusory world after all.
The man’s face grew grim. “I fear that it is an imperial plot, that dastardly otherworlder must have kidnapped your highness here for some nefarious purpose. All the communication attempts have been blocked and Mages have yet to discover any way to pierce the block.”
“Perhaps, which otherworlder in specific do you speak of? I remember there being more than one” I said, playing the prince.
“Why it must be that dastardly Meroun your highness. Who other than the self proclaimed first Emperor would dare do such a thing?” the man replied, sending my mind into a fritz.
Name
Alforien
Gender
Male
Species
Banmeru
Age
7 months
Titles
Heir candidate to the Earl of Cristanfor, Noble of the Kingdom of Mistrane,Count of Launeior ,Transmigrator
Class
[The Known]
Skills
[Otherworldly mana manipulation] [ Force of Will] [Conversion] [Meditation]
Stats
Strength[The amount of brute force one can use]
112
Endurance[The amount of time one can work continuously]
148
Flexibility[The range of movement of the body]
102
Precision[The accuracy of one’s movements]
106
Perception[The ability to notice nuances and advanced concepts]
133
Intelligence[The ability to comprehend the advanced concepts]
133
Wisdom[The ability to effectively use the concepts]
133
Aura Force[The ability to force your will on your surroundings]
119
Combat[The speed of one’s reactions, ability to process situations and other general combat abilities]
115
Magic Affinities
Fire[One of the greatest sources of Light and Heat in the universe, you have Greater Affinity for Fire]
97.14%
Earth[Essential for life, earth is what renders things solid, you have a Greater affinity for Earth]
99.87%
Mind[The consciousness and its relation to reality, you have Lesser affinity for Mind]
17.35%
Chaos[Everything shall be anything but what it should be, no thing shall remain as it should, you have a Lesser affinity for Chaos]
19.76%
Grandmist[The base substance that all subatomic particles are made off, you have Lesser affinity for Grandmist]
27.39%
Space [The building block of dimensions, you have an Outrageous affinity for Space
199.998%
Time[A mysterious force, you have a Minor affinity for Time]
01.15%
Will [The force that propels you through life, you have Minor affinity for Will]
9.81%
Force[The building block of Kinetic interactions, you have Minor affinity for Force
9.81%