I stood, hiding in the bathroom of the guard outpost, listening to Bon speak to a man—presumably the leader of the five that’d just walked in—named Jon Mourn.

“We don’t know too much,” Jannin said, “don’t keep any, uh, detailed logs, or anything.”

“Really?” the voice of the man asked. “I don’t mean to assume, but another outpost we visited did have an entire book logging everyone who came in and out, everything they’d seen, and any abnormality they observed. Though, I’ll admit I’m somewhat ignorant of the topic; I’m new to this country.”

Index, I thought, are they safe to engage? What are their Levels? Classes? You said something about their limbs, what’s up with that?

“U-um, okay, so,” Index responded, seeming slightly overwhelmed by all of my questions, ”I can’t tell you their exact Levels or Classes, but that main leader guy Jon, he’s a Magic-Type—well, he still has high Health and defensive abilities, so you probably won’t be able to rush him down like you normally would a Magic-Type. But he’s the highest Level out of the five, definitely the most dangerous. As for the other four…”

“Anyway,” Jon said, “we’re looking for a man named Arlan Nota. We’ve learned that he may have come through this area. Have you seen him?”

“W-what’re you gonna do to him?”

“So I’ll assume your answer is yes.”

“I’m sorry,” Poppins spoke up, “but who are you? Why are you here?”

Are they safe to engage? I repeated my question to Index, cutting off its very wordy attempt to get around its censors and explain the abilities of our enemies to me.

“Oh, uh…I’m not sure. You outnumber them, so I think that evens out the playing field pretty well, though I’m still not sure what those magic items they have as limbs are for. Their functions are so strange, it’s difficult to understand completely at a glance. If you fought, chances are it wouldn’t be without fatality. At the very least, a couple of those border guards would basically be guaranteed to die. Maybe Sylvie, too; she has pretty low Health, and fighting in an enclosed space like this will be to her detriment.”

I pursed my lips, unsure what to do here. I’d been doing my best to send everything Index told me to Ainash and Erani, but of course, neither Ripley nor Sylvie could get any information I was being told. Sylvie would most likely wait until a move was made before she came out to attack, but I had no trust that Ripley would wait for my command.

Honestly, I had no idea why she hadn’t already leapt out and started the bloodshed. My impression of her wasn’t one where I expected her to listen to what her enemies had to say before slaughtering them. So I was prepared for her to spring her ambush and start the fight any moment now.

What do you think, then? Is it best for us to let them leave without engaging? Hope they don’t see us on their way out?

“Maybe,” Index said. “I guess that’d work. You could follow them and ambush them at a better time, when you have more favorable combat conditions. A-also, it’d give me more time to think about this. And explain what I’m seeing. These limbs, they’re complex magical items.”

The limbs themselves are Enchanted? I thought they were just wearing Enchanted gear.

“No, no. Their arms and legs, they’ve been severed from their body and replaced with these things. A mix of force Enchantments, light, divination, communication…”

So what do they do? Why have they replaced their limbs with these things?

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

“All you need to know about me,” Jon said, “is that I want to find Arlan Nota.”

“A-and, what are you going to do when you find him?” Poppins asked.

“Kill him.”

“Oh.”

After a lengthy silence, Jon spoke up again. “Well. It seems like you don’t want to tell me. That’s fine, really. I’ll just take my leave.”

I could practically hear the three border guards blink in surprise. Hells, I was pretty baffled as well. I’d been sure we were seconds away from this Jon guy ordering his soldiers to attack. But as I listened, his boots thudded against the stone floor as he walked to the exit.

“Oh, one more thing,” he said. “Take this silver. As payment for troubling you.”

“Uh, we’re not in Koinkar,” Jannin said. “We use eyt, not copper and silver.”

Jon grunted. “Well, take it anyway. This coin’s a lucky one.”

He flicked the coin from his finger and I heard it clatter against the wooden table, then him and the other four people walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

So, I asked Index, we follow them? Now that we have some time, can you explain what these guys can do?

“Okay, so the Jon guy’s got…Let’s see…So the main combat-related Spells he has to his disposal are…Oh, shit. Oh, shit! Arlan, take that coin and throw it out the window!”

Wait, what?

“Do it now!”

Before I could even step out of the bathroom, I heard something burst from within the room. The outpouring of so much water, it was as though someone had placed a portal to the bottom of the ocean in the middle of the floor. I rushed out into the living room to see the tiny silver coin the source of the water, all pouring out of it so quickly that it’d already covered the floor of the entire building, touching our ankles.

The three guards leapt to their feet, and Bon shouted out “Shit!” as he tried to grab the coin, but the water spraying out pushed so hard that he couldn’t physically put the thing in his hands.

Ripley, Erani, Ainash, and Sylvie also ran out of their hiding places. Ripley tried to open the door, but couldn’t. It’d been locked somehow.

As she tugged harder and harder, placing her foot on the wall for additional leverage, Sylvie ran over to me, shouting over the sound of the rushing water, “What in the hells is going on?!”

“Fuck if I know!” I yelled back. The water was at our shins now.

“Father, there is too much! Will drown in here if cannot get out!”

“The door’s been sealed shut!” Ripley shouted back at us. She put her eye to the crack between the door and the wall. “They’ve melted the fucking stone together!”

Erani ran over to one of the windows, trying to slide the stone shutter aside and failing. “They’ve done the same thing here!”

“Well,” Ripley grunted, hefting her axe, “if you can’t go around, you go through!”

With a yell of exertion, she swung her battleaxe into the stone door in an attempt to break it apart. It left a shallow slice in the rock, but wasn’t near enough to let us out—or even allow some of the quickly-rising water to escape from our tomb.

“These bunkers were meant to withstand a Dragon’s attacks!” Poppins said. “Cutting it apart will take too long.”

“Can you stop the water from coming out of the coin somehow?” I asked, partially to the people in the room, but mainly to Index.

“Uh, I don’t think you can stop it from spraying water like that. Not without a Spell like Disenchant.”

“Fuck!” I shouted. “We need to break through this wall.”

“How?!” Sylvie asked.

“Which wall is the thinnest?” I asked.

“How in flames would I know?!” Sylvie responded.

“To your left,” Index said. “It’s still pretty thick, but the window there helps weaken it, even if the window itself has been sealed shut.”

“Erani, blow up that wall!” I yelled to her. The water was at our waists, now.

“Sounds like a bad idea in an enclosed space like this!”

“Not like we’ve got a better one!”

“Blowing up the building sounds like a pretty nice plan, if you ask me,” Ripley said. “Do it!”

“We’re going to blow up the flamin’ building we are currently in?!” Sylvie demanded.

Before she could get a reply, Erani blew up the building.

The first Firebolt rocked the place to its foundation, throwing all the water that’d pooled up in the room in our direction and sending us all flying back into the pool. The currents and waves caused by the explosion forced me underwater, and I hastily pulled myself back to my feet, gasping for air in the now chest-height liquid. Soon enough, I’d have to tread water just to stay afloat.

Looking at the wall, cracks had webbed across it.

Before I could even say anything, Erani, already on her feet again, launched another blast. It collided with the wall, once again throwing everyone back not only with its own force, but with the force of the water that was pushed away from the blast zone, creating miniature tsunamis that threatened to drown us under their power. This time, to pull myself to the surface, I had to stand on the tips of my toes, breathing heavily and looking straight up, the water at my chin and threatening to start pouring into my mouth.

Erani shot off one more Firebolt, traveling through the water and illuminating the room with its light inexplicably burning bright beneath the surface, magic the only thing keeping it alight. It collided with the wall, resulting in the largest force I felt from the water yet by its explosion, the rush of water pushing me off my feet as the currents pulled me toward the wall.

I fought to open my eyes beneath the rushing water, finding that it was actually draining this time. Looking ahead, I found that the currents dragging me under weren’t from the explosion, they were from the liquid deluging out of the massive hole Erani had blown in the building! Light poured through, inviting us into the open air.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

As much as I’d have loved to jump to my feet and frolic out into the field, I was unfortunately still at the mercy of the waves, and it was clearly much more intent on roughly dragging me through the hole, banging my head on the floor a couple times in the process. The glimpses I caught of everyone else in the chaos showed that most of them were experiencing the same thing. Actually, it looked like the three border guards had been fully knocked unconscious already, their low physical Stats not enough to keep them safe.

That was a worry for another time, though, as I finally felt the grass beneath me, poured out onto the ground by the currents flowing through the wall. Water continued dumping out on me, lying on my back as the waterfall still made it impossible to breathe, but with solid ground beneath me, all it took was a push, and I was on my—

You have been crushed. 41 damage.

Your Health is 583.

Something heavy and metal slammed into my face, smacking me back into the ground. I coughed, the outpouring of water suddenly feeling much worse on my face. I tried to open my eyes, but—

You have been stabbed. 36 damage.

Your Health is 547.

You have been slammed into something. 23 damage.

Your Health is 524.

Something stabbed into my gut at the same time as something else—a boot?—kicked the side of my head. A scream of pain from someone lying beside me showed that apparently plenty of people were being attacked like this.

I raised my hand, blindly shooting off Rays of Frost into the air, if not to hit anyone, at least to scare them away for a second. But it didn’t work, and I was only hit more.

You have been crushed. 48 damage.

Your Health is 476.

You have been stabbed. 32 damage.

Your Health is 444.

I felt that last stab actually break the skin on my stomach, drawing a few droplets of blood into the outpouring of water in my face.

I shot again, swinging my hand in random directions as the Rays of Frost left my hand. This time, it seemed like I caught something.

You have struck Level 18 Paladin for 38 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 18 Paladin with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, his Dexterity score is lowered by 7.76.

25 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1658.

With the split-second of time the lucky hit bought me, I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up, at least getting out from under the waterfall and wiping my hair from my eyes as I got to one knee. I tried to get an idea of my surroundings, but all I could see and hear was the metal face of a war maul swinging toward me and the shout of an angry man.

You have been crushed. 47 damage.

Your Health is 397.

You have been slammed into something. 6 damage.

Your Health is 391.

My head was thrown back into the stone wall of the outpost, and all I could see were stars in that moment, the repeated head trauma of having a weapon like that thrown into my face clearly too much for my mind to bear.

As I groaned in pain, I raised my hand and shot off a half-dozen more Rays of Frost in a wide arc, throwing my hand around wildly and hoping to catch my attackers off-guard.

It seemed the strategy worked, and I was finally able to open my eyes to catch my surroundings.

Five men standing around a field of people lying on the ground. It looked like Bon, Jannin, Poppins, and Sylvie were all already dead, beaten and stabbed in too many places to count, while Erani and Ainash were still on the ground as a couple soldiers beat down on them any time they tried to get back up.

Two soldiers were on me too, of course. They were dressed in leather armor that covered their chests and heads, but strangely their arms and legs were left in simple commoner’s clothes, protected from nothing but the light of the sun. I couldn’t think about this much, though, as the man with the sword came charging at me once again, ready to thrust the blade into my heart.

This time, finally able to see the man, I was free to curse him however I saw fit, so I let him know the full wrath of my Mana capacity. Crippling Chill, Gravity Well, Curse of Echoes, and with the flick of my hand in his direction, a Ray of Frost all hit the man simultaneously and he fell to the ground, unable to take the physical and mental beating of being drained of his mobility while suddenly perceiving himself as being attacked on all sides.

“Help me!” he shouted to his companion, who looked at him in fear, unable to see the invisible Spells that wracked the man’s body.

I got to my feet, breathing heavily. The amount I hit the guy with was probably overkill—Crippling Chill and Gravity Well would have likely been enough to slow him down, and would have been much cheaper—but I wasn’t too worried about preserving my Mana right now.

Sure, I was already getting close to passing below 1000, so I was already at a real threat of running myself out soon if I kept spending recklessly like that, but at this point, I knew I wouldn’t be winning the fight. Even if I could kill these guys and get out of here alive, with Sylvie, Bon, Jannin, and Poppins all likely dead, using Time Loop was practically a given. I just wanted to get some information before I left.

Stumbling forward, I ignored the Paladin as he approached me with his maul.

“What did you do to him?!” the man shouted as he raised the weapon above his head.

Just as he moved to swing it down on me, I hit him with Gravity Well. That should’ve been enough to mess up his swing and stance, knocking him off balance enough that I could dodge the strike. However, strangely enough, the man instantly collapsed to the ground, crumbling beneath himself just like the Swordsman I’d hit before him. But I’d only used Gravity Well on this man, nothing else. Was that all it took?

“It’s the limbs,” Index said. “They’re using magic items in place of limbs, remember? Those Stat-draining abilities you have don’t actually do much, since they don’t need to use Stats to move their bodies. But Gravity Well is much more effective, because of the ways the things work. They have to mentally go in and adjust the force applied by each one in accordance with their suddenly-heavier bodies—it isn’t an automatic process like it would be for someone using natural limbs they’ve lived with their whole lives.”

Wait, so Gravity Well can completely take them out of commission?

“Temporarily. But those limbs are easily powerful enough to exert the force necessary to pick them back up. So once the users reconfigure them to operate under the new weight, they’ll work just fine. Speaking of, look behind you.”

I turned around to see the Swordsman getting up as Index spoke. Now that I paid attention, I saw that his limbs did move in a completely unnatural way, bending smoothly like there were no bones in them at all, and his hands moved with a machine-like efficiency, traveling at a constant speed to their destination, then stopping perfectly in place as they awaited their next command. I had to imagine getting used to something like that would be a nightmare. What could even convince someone to undergo replacing their limbs like that?

“They weren’t convinced,” Index said. “At least, judging by the cut patterns on their limbs. And some of the other functions of those items replacing them. It seems like this was forced onto them.”

“What the fuck…” I muttered under my breath.

As the Swordsman approached me, I let up Gravity Well. As I suspected, the sudden removal of the effect had a similar result to that of enabling it, in that the man suddenly lost control of his limbs, stumbling forward as they pushed way too hard for his abruptly-lighter body. But this time, he quickly got control of himself, catching his weight before he even fell to the ground this time.

“Cheap tricks,” the man growled as he stood up straight once again. Still affected by Curse of Echoes, he was clearly losing track of me occasionally among all of the illusory copies, staring at random places in the air as he wielded his sword against them, blocking attacks that weren’t there.

“He reconfigured much more quickly that time,” Index said. “He was expecting it that time. Probably expecting it to be re-enabled even more, so be careful. Another activation might barely have an effect whatsoever if he’s quick to fix the issue.”

I sighed, slowly backing away from the two men—one too busy fighting illusions to see my leaving, and the other still trying to get his limbs to work. Good to know. Where’s the main guy? And where’s Ripley?

“Other side of the building. Go to the left. You’ll probably want to catch their conversation before you go back in time.”

Glancing over, I saw Erani and Ainash still in combat with the soldiers that were attacking them. Though, “combat” was a little too generous. With them on the ground and their enemies standing over them, it was clear that neither of them had found a chance to escape the constant barrage of strikes battering them down yet. Actually, it seemed like Ainash had been knocked unconscious, some fucker with a knife slamming his blade into her back over and over.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Index said. “You’re gonna go back in time and undo all of this anyway. Just ignore them and go see what Ripley and Jon are talking about. Ideally you can enter the conversation and try to get some valuable information out of—”

You go listen in on that for me. Jot down the details. Just gonna go take a detour. I don’t care if it’s gonna be undone, nobody treats my family like that.