Jennings sat in his comfy chair, sipping an iced tea. He was currently maintaining two holographic screens on the wall. One showed Nero’s party setting up their campsite, while the other followed the hunters who had been contracted for the assassination. He had to admit, he was impressed with their coordination.

Without taking his eyes from the screen, he said, “You know, this was actually a really good plan. They accurately predicted the area their target would make camp, while leaving plenty of adaptability in their plan. Then, their mage did a masterful job handling the misdirection ward. And most importantly, they chose their initial targets well. If they can get close enough without being detected, their plan might actually work.”

Mage-adept Newbanks was standing behind Jennings, watching the screens from over his shoulder with a serene expression on her face. She calmly asked, “Aren’t you going to do something? I thought you came to Dorchester to watch over the young man?”

Jennings just shrugged, then took another sip of his iced tea. He threw his legs up onto his desk, and leaned back into his chair. The show would be starting soon.

He said, “It’s important not to interfere in the little lord’s development. This experience has been good for him. He’s been a little too casual with his life. Maybe losing some people close to him will be just what he needs. Not to mention, I also really want to see how he handles it.”

Newbanks gently scoffed, then said, “His enemies had his route, time to plan, a detailed dossier on the entire team, and a mage relaying his team’s position in real time. I’m not sure he’s going to survive this without your intervention. You may have let this go too far.”

Jennings shook his head, as though the very thought of Nero dying was impossible. “I’m not too worried. He’s spent the last week learning how to rebuild his body. If his center holds out, he should be fine. It’s not easy to kill a healer.”

As Jennings finished his thought, the archer on one of the screens fired an arrow. Moments later, they watched it pierce Ms. Averett’s head on the other screen. Both Newbanks and Jennings showed surprise, as abilities which could allow arrows to de-materalize, then re-materialize were rare. The arrow had passed through trees like they weren’t there, then solidified right before it struck its target.

Jennings hadn’t expected that, and muttered, “Huh. Well that might be a problem.”

As they watched the little lord’s party being taken out, one by one, Newbanks responded, “Has anyone told you that thinking you know everything is a character flaw?”

Jennings face took on a frown, but he didn’t bother to respond. He just sat in silence and watched the fight play out.

-----

Nero’s senses clamped down on the ambient essence, almost ripping the control away from whomever was projecting the illusion. Even though the visual overlay stayed, Nero managed to pierce the illusion with his psychic field, and he felt the empty spaces which most likely contained the soon-to-be dead men.

He felt an arrow enter his field when it ripped through his control. Somehow, the arrow was disrupting his psychic field, and he threw himself to the side to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately, the arrow seemed to slightly curve, and it struck him near his shoulder. Nero didn’t even flinch, he had felt worse pain in the training fields of Dorchester.

Coming up from a roll, he summoned ‘the wall’ and hid behind the shield. His senses couldn’t find the archer, but he could track the other two. Not wasting a second, he ripped the arrow out and stamped a healing spell. As the seconds passed, he figured the archer was repositioning while the man who had killed Sergeant Wesker started creeping forward.

Nero peeked around the shield, and saw that the man was still being hidden by the mage who was hiding among the trees. They must not realize that Nero could see through the illusion. Returning behind the shield, Nero tried to make a plan.

He didn’t have much time before his companions were really dead. If he could end this quickly, there was a chance he could save them. The spell-form for resuscitation was complicated, but he was relatively sure he could do it. Pushing aside his worries, he forced himself to focus on the fight.

As the seconds passed, he watched the man approach slowly, probably trying not to make any noise. Nero felt the pressure building and debated how he wanted to handle this. Deciding that the man with the swords was the bigger threat, he started carving a spell-form he was particularly fond of. Nero had a lot of practice casting in front of his shield, and now he put that practice into use. But, he’d have to be careful to release the spell while seizing the center. He couldn’t allow the other mage to interfere.

The swordsman seemed to sense the spell forming, and rushed forward, abandoning his attempts at stealth. Nero fired his spell, and a large burst of marble sized iron balls shot out at knee-height. As the spell went off, he clamped down as hard as he could, fighting for control over the ambient essence. Nero felt the mage respond by firming his mental grip, and it only took him a moment to reach equilibrium again. Yet, that moment spelled doom for the swordsman. Nero psychically watched the man’s legs get ripped to shreds, and he heard the man scream in pain. Fifty marbles shot out in a cone-like shotgun blast must have hurt. Nero snorted, and muttered, “What a little bitch.”

Figuring that the archer would soon be a problem, Nero pulled ‘the wall’ back into his personal space and ran directly toward the mage. He reinforced his mage armor, while reaching forward mentally. The mage was carving a spell-form Nero had never seen before, and Nero wasn’t about to let him finish it. Covering the distance quickly, Nero felt more arrows ripping through his field. Instead of trying to dodge them, he decided to be clever.

He summoned one of his little bucklers from his personal space and tried to throw it toward where he sensed the arrows coming. Instead of trusting his aim, his plan was to mentally hold the shield and place it in front of the arrows. It was barely out of his hands when the first arrow hit the shield. Immediately, his control was disrupted and the shield was knocked out of the air. Grimacing at his failed gambit, he felt the second arrow slam into his left lung through his chest. He felt his mage armor ripple and try to reform. His mage-armor had done nothing to stop the arrow.

‘Well, that didn’t work,’ he thought, but he still did his best to stumble forward intending to close the distance with the mage.

Unfortunately, the arrow had slowed him enough for the mage to finish the spell-form. Nero’s eyes widened as he felt an ice spike launch toward him like a javelin shot from a cannon. He was too close to do anything, and the spike connected with his gut. Nero’s forward momentum was completely reversed and he flew back toward where he started from.

‘This is not going well,’ he thought.

He was no stranger to pain, and he could still function, albeit poorly. When he finally stopped rolling, he summoned ‘the wall’ again. He needed to regroup. Sitting up, he tried to get his legs in behind the shield, but he didn’t make it in time. His calf sprouted an arrow and Nero grimaced in pain. He had a 3 foot long ice spike in his gut, an arrow in his chest, and now he had been hobbled.

He felt the mage trying to circle around, while the swordsman was crawling off toward the trees. He still couldn’t locate the archer, but he knew they were still out there. Coughing up blood, he ripped out the arrow in his chest, and tried to cast a heal to close the wound. His spell-form worked fine, but the ice-spike in his belly seemed to disrupt the healing energies. It looked like he’d have to deal with the ice-spike before anything else.

His hands were trembling, and he was starting to feel weak, but he managed to take hold of the spike. Fighting through the pain and dizziness, he tried to pull it out. But it had pierced him through the stomach, and there was almost no leverage. It was like his body was clamping down on the construct. ‘It’s a CONSTRUCT,’ he angrily thought to himself.

Changing tactics, his mentally reached out to the spike and ripped the control away from the mage who cast it. As it was inside him at the time, he had no trouble taking it over, and then promptly dismissed it. When the spike vanished into the ether, his body nearly emptied through the hole it left in his stomach. Nero felt a lurch, and he nearly passed out. Forcing himself to hold on, he cast the healing spell that had become second nature by this point.

Feeling his body re-knitting itself back into place, Nero focused everything on pulling in as much essence into the spell-form as possible. It normally took some time to fix basic injuries, but rebuilding organs wasn’t what it was meant for. Nero felt the chest wound close along with his abdomen muscles and the skin. He knew it wouldn’t be enough. So, he redoubled his efforts and tried to carve a second spell-form which was meant to heal internal injuries. He lost focus on the mage, but he managed to finish the spell.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He felt the wounds heal, and he reveled in the bliss associated with the absence of pain. Keeping hold of the spells, he reached down and ripped out the arrow from his calf. In real time, he watched the wound seal itself. Releasing the standard heal spell, he kept the internal healing spell running while spreading out his senses to find where the mage had gone.

‘Uh, oh,’ he thought, as his head whipped toward where the mage was standing.

The man was carving another spell, standing not 10 ft from Nero with a clear sight-line to his position. The bastard wasn’t even hiding behind a tree, the man obviously thought Nero was already done for.

While it was true that Nero was injured, and that his mage-armor was down, and up until now he hadn’t really done much, Nero was still furious at the man’s disrespect. Reclaiming what he could from the internal healing spell, he focused all his mental energy on the mage. As the man was only 10ft away, he was within Nero’s control range.

Every bit of his control slammed into the ambient essence. Like a pissed off mother at a department store, he gripped the essence by the neck and forced it under his control. Then Nero watched the man stumble like he got hit in the head with a baseball.

Nero’s control over the area was absolute, and he stamped a simple ‘iron spike’ spell-form and fired. The spike flew true and buried itself in the mage’s head. The man’s essence shield hadn’t been enough to overcome Nero’s construct. He knew that he only had one shot, and Nero hadn’t taken any chances. He had made sure that his construct was chock-full of his center.

Before he could celebrate his victory, he felt another arrow ripping through his field. Rather than try anything fancy, he just let himself fall over. He saw the arrow fly above him and slam into the back of ‘the wall’, knocking it over. Nero knew that he was in trouble, and there didn’t seem to be any quick solutions.

Without any better options, he rolled toward ‘the wall’ and grabbed hold of the handle, then he kept rolling. As he flopped over, he took the shield with him. As he landed on his side, he felt two arrows slam into the shield, one after another. He could see the tips penetrate his shield and the arrow heads were inches from his face.

Eyes wide with panic, Nero pulled in his legs and tried to reposition. This archer was really pissing him off. Temporarily safe behind his favorite shield, he expanded his field as far as possible trying to find the son of a bitch that had been treating him like a pin-cushion. Not finding anything, Nero tried to think of what he could do.

He knew the archer had some way to imbue arrows with the ability to overcome essence-shields and disrupt his control over the ambient essence. At least he didn’t have the mage to worry about any more, so he wasn’t fighting anyone for control.

He felt another arrow coming in from his right, and he spun the shield to receive it. It slammed into the shield penetrating several inches, right below the handle. He had felt the trail it had made through his field. Could he use that somehow?

Staring at the arrows jutting out through his shield, Nero cocked his head. The archer must be imbuing their center into the arrows. It’s either an ability, or some spell, but they must be making a connection. Nero mentally probed the arrows, and felt a presence lingering on them. Smiling widely, he thought, ‘I got you now you son-of-a-bitch.’

Reaching out like he did with the sergeant’s magic eight-ball, he tried to follow the connection through the arrow. He did his best to narrow his focus, and just gently ride the essence trail. He felt part of his mind fly through the trees, chasing the archer. In seconds, he saw them. They were flitting through the trees, running in a wide circle, trying to get into a new firing position. Suddenly, they stopped, then fired another arrow. Nero felt it coming a second after it had left the bow. He spun the shield to receive it then he felt it pierce his shield. This time, it penetrated almost a full foot before it stopped. Either the archer was getting stronger, or ‘the wall’ was failing.

But Nero wasn’t worried, because he now ‘knew’ where they were. He kept the sense of direction, but let the image fade away. It was like he was holding the connection with two mental fingers rather than his whole hand. Narrowing his eyes, he prepared.

Reaching out, he pulled in all the essence he could and created an essence-shield that was stronger than any he had ever made. He felt it vibrating above his skin, and it nearly took all his concentration to keep hold of it. He waited for another arrow, and when he felt it enter his field, he release ‘the wall’ and rolled to the side.

As the arrow ripped through ‘the wall’, knocking it down, Nero was already rolling to his feet. He headed straight toward the archer, running as fast as he could. All he could see were trees, but he knew they were out there. He could still feel the connection he had made.

Narrowing his psychic field, he extended it in front of him like a sonar wave. Nearly a 60 ft cone of tightly controlled essence paved his way through the forest. He nudged branches out of his way, or just mentally ripped apart anything which would slow him down. The forest’s essence seemed to try and fight back, but Nero’s control was strong enough to act like a wedge.

He felt an arrow breach his field, and he altered course accordingly. The arrow tried to bend, but Nero was moving too fast. Through his field, he saw it slam into a tree right next to him. Nero was closing the distance, and he was ready for this to end in blood.

Seconds later, he saw them through his field. They were close enough for Nero to pinpoint their exact location, and he smiled with anticipation. Another arrow fired, and Nero altered course again, this time to his right. The archer could apparently see Nero well enough to respond by running in the opposite direction.

Grimacing in annoyance, Nero realized he was running out of time. He felt like an invisible clock was running down and he needed to end this encounter before time ran out.

The archer was faster, but Nero didn’t have to dodge around bushes or low hanging branches, as he just used his psychic field to clear the way. Yet, he couldn’t close the distance. Every time he started to gain on them, they would just fire an arrow and then run the direction opposite from his dodge. Nero needed a plan.

With a mental chuckle, he decided to try his initial plan but with a twist. As he ran, he pulled out another small buckler, but this time, he imbued it with his center. He made a literal ‘essence-shield’. ‘Let’s see them shoot through this,’ he thought.

If he understood how their ability worked, then turning his shield into a solidified construct should counter it. He doubted an archer had better control over their center than he did.

Soon enough, another arrow was launched. This time Nero didn’t dodge, he just pushed his shield out and met it head on. He held his breath as the arrow slammed into his small buckler. The sound of wood shattering nearly made him stumble, but he kept moving forward.

Looking at the shield, he saw that it was perfectly fine. Smiling wickedly, Nero realized that it must have been the archer’s arrow that had exploded. Nero lowered his shoulders, pumped his legs, and closed the distance.

The archer fired more shots, but Nero could feel them coming and either hopped over them, or met them with his shield. Second later, he saw the archer with his actual eyes. Their black outfit didn’t hide them as well as they hoped. Like a freight train, Nero barreled forward, intent on ending this quickly.

Seeing that they had been discovered, and realizing that this was going to end in close combat, the archer put their bow in their personal space, and summoned two thin swords. While Nero was only 20 ft away, they dropped into a combat stance and prepared to meet his charge.

Nero had no intention of fighting with someone who could probably kick his ass, so he did what he always did. Without breaking stride, Nero stamped an ‘iron spike’ spell-form, while also carving a small ‘lightning-bolt’ form. Then, he slowed to a walk before he got too close.

The archer saw him approach, panting after the chase. They took a few steps forward and brandished their weapons. When they were only a few paces from Nero, they stopped.

Nero heard the archer, which turned out to be a woman, say, “Well, it seems that you were mo-”

Nero fired the ‘iron spike’ he had prepped. He wasn’t surprised to see them dodge to the side, gracefully avoiding the spike. But while they were in the air, committed to moving to their right, Nero fired his lightning bolt. Before she could even finish her dodge, his spell ripped through her essence field and slammed into her chest.

Nero didn’t waste any time and started stamping more ‘iron spikes’. The archer had taken the spell in her chest, but survived. She rolled to her feet and started to say, “Tha-” but she was interrupted by an iron spike to the face. Before she even hit the ground, Nero had hit her twice more.

Looking calmly at the body only 10ft away, Nero slowly walked up. He mentally checked to make sure the archer was really dead. Happy with what he found. He took a moment to enjoy his victory. Then the thought of his companions lying dead back at the camp doused his enthusiasm.

Turning on his heel, Nero left the archer’s body and sprinted back toward the camp. He wasn’t an idiot, and he had made sure he hadn’t gotten lost. In fact, the trail he had ripped open during the chase was easy to follow.

Only a minute or two later, he broke through the trees and saw what was left of the camp. The entire fight had taken maybe five minutes, and he was confident that he had made it back in time. But before he could start bringing back the dead, he had to deal with the swordsman who had propped himself up against a tree. Nero could see the man was currently applying a tourniquet to his legs.

The man looked up from behind his black mask, and Nero stared at him with an evil smile. ‘Well, what am I going to do with you?’ he wondered.