It was a bad plan.

Not mine, of course—walking to the edge of the platform, saving my Moment of Mastery instead of expending it when the bolas came my way.

Theirs; grab the caster, drag him into range, and lay into him with all the damage we’ve got. They had no way of knowing it was a bad plan, of course. They thought I was a level 9 Mage.

There were four more attackers at the entrance to the mine, and I made out little in the way of details as I spun backward in the air, my feet still pointed downward but my torso aimed toward the cavernous opening. I saw the attacks coming toward me and triggered my Moment of Mastery, slowing time to my perceptions so that I could choose how best to proceed.

First, I read the buff I’d just placed on myself and declined to read because I hadn’t had time:

Gift of Resistance

Increases all your resistances by 6.

Then I took stock of the attacks coming my way.

One, there was a massive two-handed axe wreathed in lightning, turning end-over-end as it flew through the air. Two, a fiery arrow, trailing sparks, glowing with an intensity that indicated the use of some ability. Three, the Hex of Chains spell, sailing toward me as a wad of tangled, conjured chains.

It was the last of these that I chose to dodge as a guarantee—its instantaneous deployment indicated a Psychic—their name was Morlethiar, a level 8 dwarf—throwing it through the use of Fragmented Spell. Their own Moment of Mastery had been used, I was sure, because that projectile was leading the flock—they’d loosed first of all their allies, likely in the moment of slowed perception.

I twisted in the air and dodged the chains, and the buff for my Defensive Psychic Intuition appeared, granting my bonus to my Defense Rating that—fortuitously—helped me to avoid the fiery arrow, which was next.

As I did this, I loosed my Supercharged Fragmented Implosive Missile at the target I’d picked out in my moment of slowed time—Therana, the caster we’d almost killed earlier, who was at only four-fifths total HP still and had started casting a spell as soon as I’d come into range.

Then the fiery axe slammed into my chest, knocking away… about three quarters of my Mana Shield as it triggered my Reactive Armor and gave me a further bonus to my Defense Rating.

And this was why their plan was a bad one: I was, unbeknownst to them, the worst target they could have chosen to focus. My human stats meant I had high resistances in all the basic elemental attunements… and my Supercharged Elemental Aegis, along with the Potion of Primeval Resistance, along with the Boon of Resistance, along with my dual-classed HP, along with my triggered defenses, all of which were benefiting from overbalanced secondary stats and a higher effective level, just made me too damn hard to kill.

Implosive Missile struck Therana and did around three-quarters of her max HP… bringing her down to a pittance. A moment later, much to my surprise, Cuby’s knife flew through the air and finished it, dropping Therana dead.

I looked up and my mouth fell open. Somehow Cuby had dangled from the edge of the overhang with her grapple gun, despite the fact that she shouldn’t have been able to equip it so quickly and there was nothing in range to grapple. Nonetheless, there she was: pulling herself up now that she saw I was fine and had taken the killshot.

A spell struck me, cast by the player next to Iriet, but it did shock damage, and still didn’t pierce my Mana Shield. Iriet drove down at me with an acid-wreathed trident, but it bounced harmlessly off my hardened flesh, the attack negated by my heavily-enhanced Defense Rating. Another arrow sailed at me through the air but met a similar fate… and then I leapt back up onto the overhand just as Cuby clambored back up herself. We both spun to face the only two players we could attack, now: Iriet and her ally, the caster named Vuli.

Vuli! Cuby said cheerfully, as if she were shouting out the name of a toy she’d just opened on her birthday. I noticed where she’d stuck the grapnel, then—in the mostly-nude body of the dead rogue.

Well that was clever.

I started casting a Supercharged Fragmented Hex of Chains. Cuby threw her daggers. For a moment it looked like the two below would stick around to fight us—then they began to sprint for the entrance to get out of our line of sight. But Cuby tossed another concussive bomb, damaging both and knocking them backwards, and while Iriet got to her feet quickly, Vuli did not: low resistance, probably. I finished my Hex of Chains and had laid a Magic Arrow into her by the time she’d risen… at which point the Supercharged Hex of Chains bound her up.

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They had no healer. Or perhaps Vuli was the healer. But my spell, normally a 6 second cast time with the Supercharged Spell Augment attached, now reduced to 4.4, bound her and kept her bound—was effective, I thought, for the first time since I’d got it. We just… dealt damage until she was dead, Cuby with her thrown attacks and me with 2.2 second cast Magic Arrows. It only took three, and the chains were still on her when she died.

And my Mana Shield was recharging its Hit Points, not needing to be recast because their team hadn’t broken through it. Let’s change tactics, I said to Cuby, beginning to store a Supercharged Fragmented Hex of Chains. I draw their fire, you rip them to pieces once I toss you a Haste.

If you’re sure! She said, ripping the grapnel out of the corpse of the rogue and changing the power cell as I got ready. Let’s not wait for their cooldowns, though—they’re mostly martials in there, now.

I finished storing the Supercharged Hex of Chains and started on a Supercharged Haste. A psychic, too—Morlethiar.

Ooh, she said. That one, then.

My haste finished, buffing Cuby. I jumped off the edge while casting Glide, popping out my arms to slow my fall, then ending the spell to drop down to the ground among the many bodies. The four of them had clustered just under the overhang—Iriet in the front with another armored figure wielding a bow, a human man named Kelm, and Morlethiar in the rear with an elf woman named Naraya—the wielder of the fiery axe.

As I landed, Cuby dropped down, stepping backward off the overhang so that she was facing their group as she spread her arm-wings to glide, diving forward and tossing another concussive grenade between Morlethiar and Naraya, knocking them both back. I started casting a Hex of Chains as I saw the fiery axe, the acidic trident, and a lightning arrow move toward me—but all of these were preceded by a warbled missile of psychic energy that struck me first: Morlethiar’s spell.

Then… it was like I had just woken up from a dream. I didn’t really understand why there were stings and prickles all over my body, and when I tried to remember what was happening as I walked toward the nearest group of people I could see.

They were all dressed up. Were we at a party? I looked at the people around me on the ground.

A sleepover party?

Then it was over, the spell I’d guessed was Unnatural Confusion. I was just over 80% Health—and Morlethiar….

I didn’t know how long I’d been out. I didn’t know how many cooldowns Cuby had used. After all, she’d said she had a strike that dealt extra to targets of a crowd-control effect, and she’d landed on Morlethiar when he was still on the ground… and she had a Supercharged Haste, and a Supercharged Elemental Weapon.

Morlethiar was falling to the ground, dead, as my eyes snapped open. Cuby moved between his corpse and her next target, Kelm, and her flaming kukris made solid, glowing arcs in the air, her blows furiously fast.

I cast a Magic Arrow as Iriet and Naraya charged me, throwing it past them at Kelm, who shouted out to his allies in a panicked voice. As he did this, he drew a small hammer and struck at Cuby with a light-wreathed blow… but she simply used her dodge to flip over it, her attacks uninterrupted.

Naraya spun and saw this, and as Kelm’s HP dropped below half she leapt through the air with a familiar ability, then knocked Cuby to the ground with another ability I recognized… so I used my Rousing Command to cut the duration down by almost three-quarters, and Cuby bounced to her feet, struck Naraya with her Blinding Strike, and resumed her butchery of their archer just as Haste wore off.

I loosed my Magic Arrow as Iriet, the massive elephant-folk, jabbed at me with the trident—now a completely unthreatening gesture as she was alone and I was almost full. It struck Kelm, and a moment later Naraya came out of her blind… so I loosed my Supercharged Fragmented Hex of Chains to keep her off my rogue while Cuby finished sawing away the rest of Kelm’s HP, lopping off both his arms just as he reached 0.

It was two against two and my Hit Points were down to 70%. Cuby had opened up on Naraya, of course, and so that was who I started directing Magic Arrows toward, finishing one and getting halfway through the next before the axe-fighter finally broke free from the chains.

At that point, both of them panicked.

Naraya called out Iriet’s name for help, and Iriet—Iriet the attacker—turned and began to run. Naraya called out again—shrill, panicked.

And I was… deeply satisfied. They were murderers among murderers, attacking this town in an effort to kill its lower-level citizenry. Why not liquidate them all into experience and items? They had chosen their contest: how could they object to their loss?

Naraya died without much fanfare, falling a few seconds later—or two Magic Arrows, as I measured it. Haste had finished its cooldown, and I began to cast it, Supercharged Spell included, on Cuby as she started sprinting by me, then shot her grapple gun at the thatched roof of one of the houses that bordered the entrance to the square. The buff got her as she flew past me, and I followed her with my Might Leap, both of us gliding off the roof toward the fleeing elephantfolk, who had run into the town square.

There were people in the square—no combatants, just a few people standing in doorways, watching, and a few hurrying through the streets, perhaps fleeing in anticipation of a loss. They watched us—watched Cuby cut Iriet down as I landed in front of them to head her off and threw an Hex of Chains at our enemy. It was over fast, and the potion Cuby had given me—the one that had made me an unfeeling killer, made it easy to start talking strategy with her even as I began to replenish my spells, was clearly still doing its job.

What’s next? I asked.