There was a brief pause as his opponent expressed his opinion of him in a rather crude manner and Sam took the time to take in the situation. The guy was several levels above him, just based on the amount of mana he was leaking, so he would have to be extra careful.
“JAGGED WOUND OF THE NIGHT SKY!” the guy exclaimed and true to his words, jagged two-dimensional wounds appeared in the air that showed the dark night behind the wounds. Ignoring how edgy the name was, Sam stepped forward and launched a barrage of wind blades at his enemy.
The moment the wind blades materialized, the jagged wounds in the air glowed with mysterious dark light and unleashed their own magic. Dark light without shape spilled forth and soaked up the blades. Within a second, the light retreated as if nothing happened.
The other guy just laughed. “Hah! What a scrub! Did you try to overcome my ultimate defense with your puny spell?” He chortled a little, not even moving or doing anything, probably confident in his defense and, in turn, in his victory. He took another good look at Sam and smirked. “What are you, Level 50? It can’t be more than that… And even so, you have a pitiful amount of mana!”
Sam raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer. Instead, he spent a few precious seconds observing the ‘ultimate defense’. It pretty obviously used the caster’s mana to counter incoming magic, and thanks to the almost random placement of the wounds, he couldn’t even try for an attack from an odd angle. His only options were to overpower it, which was blatantly impossible with the level difference, or… disrupt it.
Meanwhile, his opponent, like any good villain, continued to monologue, raising his hands dramatically in front of his face. “I’m already over Level 70! Soon, I’ll be breaking into the top ten list with my power! You don’t stand a chance, assassin!”
‘Around twenty levels of difference…ehh workable,’ he mused as he continued to probe the magic the other person conjured up, knowing full well he would only have one chance. As soon as the monologuing bastard realized that Sam was an actual threat, they would obliterate him. Confined to this place, he wouldn’t have much chance to provide any resistance.
“But enough talking! Let me show you the true power of darkness!” the guy called out, raising his voice. “Rise darkness! Rise and capture my foe!”
Instantly, black miasma began to leak from under his robe, blanketing the floor. Before it could reach Sam, he simply created small platforms out of wind magic and casually stepped onto them, standing just barely above the miasma roiling over the floor.
“Fool! If you think that will be enough to avoid my encroaching darkness, then you’re even stupider than I thought!” came the somewhat unhinged answer to his actions. In response, Sam cast his own Shadow Cloud, creating a cloud of shadow around him, obscuring him slightly from the mage’s vision. It wouldn’t give him full cover, but that was never the goal.
He directed some part of the shadow upwards to cover several spots, while he arranged the rest haphazardly around.
The dark mage just snorted and made a motion with their hand and the so far placid black miasma suddenly rose into the air, as if it was a tidal wave rushing to swallow Sam.
Fortunately, this took Sam out of the view of his enemy for a second. Which was enough to create a shadow clone, and jump aside, shrouded in shadows, as his clone began jumping back, dodging the wave of miasma that wanted to swallow him.
Knowing he had only a fraction of a second, he focused all of his attention on the jagged wounds in the air and cast his own spell.
‘Mana Disruption!’ unleashing his own spell he strained against the mana making up his enemy’s spell. However, he had a distinct advantage. While his opponent was clearly more powerful stat-wise, even with his mana amount, he had piss-poor control. To his Mage Sight, the spell looked slapdash and inefficient as hell. It was pretty easy to find a hold on it.
Glancing back at the heterochromatic mage as he laughed with his demented laugh and played with Sam’s shadow clone as it dodged and weaved between waves of miasma.
“See?! SEE?! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU EXIST BECAUSE I ALLOW IT!” the crazy guy yelled. Sam held back a snort and gave his spell a last push. It cost him a great amount of his mana, but the jagged edges blurred until they turned oval before simply vanishing.
“What?” came from the mage, but Sam was already in motion. His sword blurred, surrounded by deadly wind, his jump propelled by the same wind, coated in shadows, and enveloped by his mana shields.
A fraction of a second later, Sam’s sword was directly over the guy’s heart, only to skitter away from a dark shield, only causing the mage to stumble backward.
“Hah! You can’t do any- “ His enemy was interrupted, as Sam, still sped up by all the buffs on him, simply punched forward, Mana Disruption on his fist.
This time, the shield didn’t hold, shattering under his admittedly weak punch. ‘Probably a last resort shield…’ he thought as he watched the mage stumble once again, clutching his nose.
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“You hid my nuse!” came the muffled cry from him.
Still not saying anything, Sam raised his sword, still clad in buzzing wind, ready to cut the guy’s head off, but the moment the sword was a hair breath away from his opponent’s neck, the sword was stopped.
Looking up from his target, Sam saw the mage’s master standing behind the guy, one hand gently extended and one finger stopping his blade. Their face was still covered, but Sam had the distinct feeling that the guy was grinning.
“My, my… what a talented rat…” came the mocking call while Sam’s eyes darted around, trying to figure out a solution to the problem. After all, the NPC probably had at least more than two IQ points.
“Mather!” cried out the dark mage. “I could had kithed them!” Sadly, his nose was still broken, so he sounded rather stupid.
“No,” came the merciless denial. “You’re still too weak. Return and await me for further training.” Sam watched as the player he was just fighting visibly flinched before the miasma on the ground gathered around him in an instant. The miasma covered his entire body between two blinks and a second later both vanished in a puff.
Using the momentary distraction, Sam jumped back, sword raised ready, and his mana churning. Though, he suspected the being in front of him let him do it.
They let out a sinister chuckle and fully turned toward Sam.
“You have been very naughty, my new friend,” they stated as Sam felt the mana gather around them, much more efficiently than their apprentice. “So naughty, indeed…. Going around, disrupting plans…”
Instead of answering, Sam pulled back his free hand and then pushed forward releasing the biggest gust of wind he could, laced with a swirling mass of chaotic wind blades. It rushed forward, but with a negligent wave of his new opponent’s hand, the destructive attack turned into a gentle wind with only enough strength to push the hood off the being’s head.
Dark skin, long and pale hair, and a look of superiority. A demon.
Raising his sword in a guard position, he moved his hand behind his back, as if taking up some kind of stance, while his fingers moved to carve immaterial runes into the air behind his back.
“Still no words for me? I’m heartbroken…” spoke the demonic man, affecting a disappointed air. “Alas, I have no time to wait for you to share your feelings…”
Sam estimated he needed around a minute to create something that would allow him to escape. Probably. Hopefully. He opened his mouth to keep the demon talking, but before a sound could leave his lips the demon continued.
“I have no time to waste on dregs the likes of you… Thus, take this as a warning. Stop, interfering!”
And before Sam could say or do anything, the man raised one of his glove-covered hands and pushed forward and Sam only saw darkness.
[You died!]
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[If you experience any psychological or physiological effects of the death, please don’t hesitate to call our emergency number, which is…]
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[You can respawn in 3:59:48…]
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Sam took off his helmet and shook his head in disgust. “Ugh, death by an overpowered NPC… so lame. I hate when games do that…” he mumbled as he stretched out his slightly aching body.
He knew that going deathless was impossible, but it still felt pretty nice that he hadn’t died yet.
“Oh well, it happened. No need to cry over spilled milk…” he finished.
Picking up his phone, he shot off a quick message to Lucy to update her about what he found, then walked out of his office. He needed a little rest.
Then he stopped and smelled himself. “First a shower, then I should touch some grass…”
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After a refreshing shower, he took stock of his kitchen and realized that he was running out of some stuff, so grabbed a lighter jacket, and headed for the grocery shop. True, this being a modern world, he could have ordered the groceries, but he wanted to leave the apartment for a while.
Leaving his home, he came face to face with his neighbor, a young woman, probably around his age, also coming out of her apartment. Over the time he lived there, he met her a few times; they said hi but overall, they didn’t interact with each other. He didn’t know her name.
“Hey!” he greeted her. “What’s up?”
She looked over at him and spoke up in a small voice. “Shopping.”
“Hmm. I’m also doing a grocery run. Wanna do it together?”
She considered him for a few seconds, then nodded. “Sure…”
Sam grinned and motioned her to go ahead. She smiled slightly and began walking toward the lift with Sam following her.
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He returned to his home with a bag full of food and a lighter mood. He still didn’t know the woman’s name, but they had a nice conversation about the weather and the latest elections. Just what he needed, an interaction with somebody without any stakes.
After putting away the majority of the food and whipping up a dinner for himself, he sat down on his couch and turned on the TV, starting a new movie. Ever since he arrived in the future, he made sure to regularly watch a new movie that he had never seen. New world, new entertainment.
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Returning to the game, he woke up at the nearest resurrection point in the capital. It was a mausoleum-style building with players milling around, waiting for their friends or just keeping an eye on people. Notably, there were no NPCs around.
Most NPCs knew that ‘special adventurers’ didn’t fully die, but they had no idea how it worked. And the mausoleum was shrouded by a memetic barrier that made the NPCs ignore it, maintained by the system. The in-story explanation was that the death god decided to try something different, but they didn’t want anybody to get too curious or try to emulate what they did.
Not that players didn’t try. It even turned into a worldwide event in the future memories he received. A guild far away from the other Sam, specializing in death magic and enchantments managed to decipher some percentage of the barrier and resurrection magic.
Naturally, they did this so well that the magic doing the resurrection spread to every cemetery, tomb, and grave in the world. Thus the zombie apocalypse event was started…
He sat up, and took stock of his items, happy that he didn’t drop anything after being annihilated by the powerful demon. Then he simply walked out of the dreary building.
Outside, he immediately walked away, until he reached the first alleyway. He ducked inside, and emerged later with a different face, holding his special compass.
Sam needed to make a report…