Samuel was considered a young master of magic, not spell casting, the old style of magic, and a little bit of the new stuff too, what with the portal spewing magic into the world when he was growing up, but hey, nothing is perfect. What this all meant however, was that ever since he was young he had loved the classic masters of sleight of hand, of misdirection, of mystery, such as Harry Houdini, and the like. The real question was what does that have to do with a young twenty something man with close shaved hair on the sides with a more... spiky, shall we say, hairstyle on top, it wasn't spiky in the way of anime, hair gel, or anything of the kind. no... his hair was just kinda short cut so it naturally stood up a bit, the kind that was often rubbed until it looked like he lost a fight with a rag on the end of an eggbeater, or noogied by an uncle seven thousand times too many. Yes, this was the young man who was stood in a magicians outfit, trim build, hiding his muscles because he still helped haul all the random crap he needed for a magic show even as he was considered some young and up and coming magician who should be in Las Vegas...

No, he was not in Las Vegas right now, oh heavens no, he might actually be SAFE if he were in Las Vegas. instead he was stuck back stage, in some fifty year old theatre, tables and storage containers stuffed up as a barricade against the doors as thumping and growling could be heard from the otherside, as some two hundred people were milling about in the audience worrying about goblins, orcs, wolves, wargs, weavers, whiners. zombies, vampires, or whatever else their far too active imagination was considering could be amassed outside the bloody theatre. What was ACTUALLY outside of the theatre was a small hoard of random beastial monsters. Giant Ants, massive Beetles, various insects of a disproportionate size really. Honestly most people complained heavily about how unfair it was that a massive seven foot tall common garden variety ant was NOT crushed under the weight of its own carapace, but sometimes we don't always get what we want, and physics majors everywhere could bitch and whine to entymologists and such all they wanted while the latter dissected a massive bug too large for their little pin boards.

These thoughts and many more flew behind the eyes of our... hero is too optimistic a word, but sure. lets call him a "hero" for now.

...

...

...

Done calling him a hero? good, cause our magician was known as Samuel, how did you forget? Sammy who hated to be called Sammy, or Samson to his friends when they wanted to annoy him, was currently sitting on a large footboard storage chest, sure it was large enough to hide a body, but it was just a big prop chest, and watching as a fat man in a blue shirt who looked like he was three degrees off from Danny Devito argued with someone else. it was like saying he was not quite as short as Danny, and nowhere near as handsome or charismatic, Gods only knew this manager of the theatre needed to work on his people skills, because he did NOT have the face for showbiz like some people. Meanwhile, as this short goblin of a man, and no he was NOT an actual goblin, kept arguing with a much taller, much slimmer, business woman that Samuel would rather dive off the roof of a building than actually claim to know in any capacity, much less as his manager of shows Salina, Samuel wondered if he kept getting gigs at this place purely because the man was so short, he literally did not get a choice in staring at her boobs, held tight by her blouse and suitcoat, as he 'looked her in the eyes'.

Actually tuning in for five seconds let him realize they were discussing how to face the monsters outside, and that HE was the center of their topic.

"Woah, woah, woah, I'm a magician, as in 'look at this hand, the card was in the other!', not 'bing, bang, boom, i got a fireball of doom', magician. why was i brought into this nonsense anyways? i only know prestidigitation, which... i typically use to be lazy at home." Samuel said as they both stared at him like he was both an idiot, but also an idiot with the deus ex machina stuck in his back pocket. Actually, just to be sure, he checked his back pocket, and only found his phone. Which, in this situation was useless. the manager had already called the police about this and a leveling team was on their way shortly anyway. To be fair, he probably should do something. He needed more levels and skills anyway.

Jerking back to the present, man his attention was shit, he did it again! Always off topic.

"Samuel, we know you have more than one skill. not everyone can just power level the skill set of something ancillary like 'physical magician' and not get some bonuses. grab your 'wand' make it a big spear, shut up Louie, that was not an in for a dick joke, we have bugs to squish!" Salina was mildly fuming as the manager held up his hands as if he was accused of his most detestable of wrongs, which... knowing Louie, may well be something like paying for a meal instead of scamming it out of someone. a notorious cheapskate, buuuuuut, he did pay me regularly, and fairly... though most of the time that was because of Salina. Honestly when he looked offended, he not only acted like, but also looked like he was related to Ebeneezer Scrooge.

I needed to stop getting off track, and Salina made a good point. I could always do a bit more spear practice, though to be honest, insects were probably a bit beyond me, even at a lower level, those carapaces had some mean defense. The beetles were worse, because the best time to hit them was when they were about to fly, so you had to get behind them, and they rarely let anything intentionally get behind them. meanwhile, stabbing an ant was as easy as losing an arm. Sadly thats not entirely a joke, because the best spot to stab them was between the mandibles. without a spear level in the low twenties, or a reaction speed skill to boost you, well... you'd end up like the man who stuck a sword down a spiders throat, and lost his arm. He did survive the fight, but he was very unhappy with the sudden amputation. Thankfully we have better hospitals now than before, so he got his arm back... after a year of regular healing, and large meals, followed by a couple months of physical therapy and regular excercise.

Yeah, easy. Real easy.

With a sigh of defeat, Samuel pulled his tophat off, and without hesitation, reached into what should have only reached his forearm, all the way up to his shoulder, reaching into his Prop Box, a variant on the Item Box skill, which, really just had the caveat that it worked better with a persons outfit, as opposed to the Item Box which just opened a hole in the air. Thankfully, no matter what was shoved towards it, into it, or pulled out, it magically made the mouth of the portal holding outfit expand for whatever was needed, and typically, was only used during the show between scenes for easy setup. It also would keep a living creature, though the larger it was, and if it was unBound, would significantly shorten any amount of time in the dimension before being spewed out, at random, from any possible seem of clothing. He learned that the hard way when he walked on stage and spewed out pidgeons and rabbits he had stored hours early out of nervousness on his first show.

Without flourish, he pulled a small redwood wand about one foot and four inches long from his hat, with a metal cap on both ends, and one being slightly pointed, it looked nice with the polished silver tips. It was even more useful when he placed his hat back on his head, and began to pull on either end of his wand, and it stretched out into a full size spear, still capped with silver, but one end was significantly more pointy and mildly barbed than it was prior. Now properly armed, he swished his cape from his shoulders and headed to the roof. Best to take out the ones on top first so they couldn't box in his ceiling, he could escape it yes, but why waste the stamina on an escape skill when he could brute force the beasts, as well as use other tricks for a better effect?

As he stood behind the door, he rubbed the back of his neck as he stretched, a faint crackle and pop coming from the joints in his neck, his Audience Abounds sensory skill showed him several ants, and across the street, a few people in their offices. The way it worked was, any being within auditory range was picked up, as well as any who were, or would, be within visual range as well, powerful, but it was easily circumvented at range by simply being hidden. so the visual range portion was a bit spottier, but if they were within the area he could or would hear, say, thirty to forty feet, they were dead to rights known position.

Taking a deep breath, he slammed the door open as his Exemplar Entrance went off. This was a bit of a mixed bag, as it worked well with Audience Abounds, so to say that, if there was an audience, and ANYONE could be an audience so long as they were present, mentally not included, he drew all attention of anyone who couldn't make the resistance checks, but he could also tailor it with a second skill, Stage Hands, effectively this skill was a buff and shield, but since there was no other human combatants up here, and it didn't work on anyone outside the range of thirty or forty feet anyway, the people in offices had their attention drawn not by magic, but by the magical effects secondary effect of Exemplar Entrance. That is to say, the door smashed open, and firework fountains worth of flames and sparks lit up around him, and under various insects crawling upon the roof.

Hands in the air as if awaiting applause, spear in one hand, he performed his first trick, the simple bread and butter skill of Physical Magician... Misdirection Malediction, with a wave of his hand, the focus of numerous compound eyes made heads swivel towards a white gloved hand that suddenly held a VERY sharp edged deck of metal framed throwing cards, and as the spear wand flashed forward to the maw open in awe of the nearest giant ant, no insect even noticed as a compatriot died as the deck in hand spread out like a fan, and with a wave of his hand, cards were flung out, slicing across his rapt audience of insectile foes. Unfortunately for Samuel the Swift, there was a Beetle just climbing up the wall which screeched with an insectile hiss, and the spell was broken, along with many antennae, and one ant lay crumpled and curled up, the spark in it's eyes gone dark.

Frowning at the Interruption, Samuel kept flashing cards flinging across the rooftop as he began to make steady but confusing steps across the roof, his leather shoes slapping dully due to rubber soles to the staccato rhythm of his Sorcerous Stepping, less a skill, more of a technique, it threw all sorts of false signs, more misdirection across his entire body as muscles twitched and the body moved in a way that was NOT at all expected, the waving, weaving, wandering of his footsteps made ants snap at thin air as they targeted his flesh, and found nothing, not even a colored handkerchief. A self assured smile found it's way to Samuels roguish lips, brim was pulled low as he ran out of cards, and with a single move, darted forward even as more fireworks flashy fire magic flashed and pulsed right above where he had been, leaving nothing but a burning image in the retina of anyone unlucky enough to have been facing his direction.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

As combat truly began to kick off, his upgraded skill of Phantasmagoric Phenom set a bumping beat of 'i got a feeling' as background music, complete with ethereal lights that, while not blinding, and not even with an actual source, managed to paint the rooftop with reds, blues, greens, and every mixture there in, becoming a disctracting discoteque demolition as Samuel practically skated between ants and beetles, his spear flashing out for compound eyes, joints between the carapace, and vulnerable flesh between mandibles. His smile only grew as Side Show activated, and small explosions rocked the rooftop, singing insects, knocking others off balance, and generally creating a chaos of showmanship known by any decent magician since the Flooding. Prestidigitation on his fingertips just as much as his tophat, he began to spew out his summons of Heavenly Hares, and an entire unkindess of Razorwing Ravens.

He reveled in the fact that by having a contract with a conspiracy, he was truly a dangerous theorist. Sadly this was not a joke enjoyed by most of his audience, though whether that was due to the pun, or because of how truly menacing his ravens seemed, he was never sure, after all, he thought they looked lovely, he was more offput by how his hares seemed fluffy, but relatively untouchable. It made for difficult times when he first started wtih kids parties. How to control the otherworldly fluffiness of a rabbit that refused to be held by a twelve year old girl with too much sugar, and not enough self control. But he was past that at this time... Except for his sisters daughters birthday next week, he needed to remember to show up and bring out Mary, she enjoyed cuddles well enough.

The squish and crunch of carapace drew Samuel back to the present as his Hares and Ravens tore through the insects all across the roof. Big fluffy ghostly feet were certainly a lot less lucky for these insects than the rabbits that were sending said foot through their thorax. Meanwhile, the ravens were having a ball, somewhat literally as they swirled and danced to the music, slicing through shell as if it wasn't there, beaks diving through the hard exterior to sample the bugmeat beneath as if a waiter has passed by with finger food samples during a ballroom dance. He never quite understood how they could turn a pop song with such a penchant towards chaotic moshing on a dance floor into a graceful dance awing, and even in the middle of a battle of all things, but they did, and it even worked with his footwork as he went back to sending a spear into another beetle as he slipped between two razor sharp sets of those trademark 'so blue it's black' raven feathers as two pairs of ravens waltzed around slicing and stabbing into various insects in a menagerie of carnage.

As the song slowly came to it's end the rooftop was clear, and with a bow, the choreography between bouncing bunnies landing in a circle around him, with ravens twirling in small circles above them dissapeared in a cloud of smoke along with the music and lights, the rooftop none the worse for wear in spite of the pyrotechniques, which seemed to only have dealt any kind of structural damage via the sudden collapse of massive insects on the roof, and various bits of bug guts and ichor possibly staining the roof soon enough as well.

The smile upon his face wiped away like putting on a drama mask as Samuel came out of his bow, the glamor that was a passive benefit of The Show Must Go On, which provided an in battle buff the more he was a center of attention, which worked very well with basically the ENTIRE BLOODY BUILD OF HIS, he did very well in one vs. many fights, but effectively lost out when it came to duels without any kind of audience to watch. But this was covered by other skills that he typically used for utility backstage, like his summon skill Phantoms Of The Opera, if he didn't have an audience, he could MAKE one, and they could also help in and out of battle, so it made setup a breeze.

As he gazed over the edge of the theatre he reached into his sleeve and began to pull out a rope, he kept the handkerchiefs for another occasion. Slowly it went down the wall before it touched the bottom, and with that, instead of an end to the rope, a wicker basket was pulled out of his sleeve, and was set upon the edge of the roof. With a tap of his spear wand, the rope perked up like a snake shaped puppy, as the end came all the way back up the wall and wrapped itself about Samuel's waist, before tying into a lovely butterfly knot that magically had two separate ends, despite the rope leading out from it's center to the basket. Stone cold expression upon his face, he took a step upon the edge of the roof, and directly over, spear in one hand, he snapped his fingers and Exemplar Entrance once more began.

The activation for it was really simple, but this also set it so there was no cooldown, as it was effectively an entrance only skill, and could be only used once in a battle unless you managed to evade detection long enough to appear from somewhere else, which, was a synergy Samuel was capable of, as he did have a short range teleport ready for entrance, exit, and positioning, though it was far more useful on a battlefield with more coverage, a flat wall, not so much. If you met all the requirements, it had a much shorter cooldown, but if forcibly activated, Curtain Call created the environment to make the user dissapear from view long enough to teleport somewhere else within twenty-five feet of the moment of activation. a secondary teleport skill, the Tricky Trapdoors, allowed for a more space bending version, as anything could become a trapdoor, even if it had been a solid object, it would be able to hinge open to a pitch black space, which would send the user out through another hole within a distance of sixty feet, but took a bit more set up, as one needed to find an object to be able to easily grasp as a sort of handle, or handhold. a flat surface could be done, but it was harder as you would still need to effectively pry the door open out of solid material, good luck getting enough traction on your fingers to open a seemless trapdoor.

The rope pulled taut, the basket sitting at the edge of the roof not even budging as Samuel detonated a circle of colorful sparks around himself, blowing insects off the wall, the number was much smaller on the roof than in this back alley parkinglot for employees. The barest hint of strain was on his face as he was bounced back up the wall a little ways, but with a twist of his torso, he began to spin, and once he lost momentum, he untwirled and came back down towards the aggroed insects like a swirling dervish, and boy howdy did he let it rip! His spear ripped a line straight through three ants, their corpses dropping upon beetles and ants as he used prestidigitation to start small explosions of light in front of lidless compound eyes, singing the fine hairs on many antennae, and generally causing a fearful distraction for various insects before he flung his hat out, the brim suddenly shimmering with the ethereal light of magic sharpening the brim.

His hat one way, his spear another, legs were slashed by a hat, and a few ants found out that spear does NOT taste good, in fact, it tasted like bug gore, before the hat made it's return trip, smashing aside a beetle with far more weight than a felt top hat should have, especially in flight, and even more especially in a flight at a 90 degree angle to gravity. As he grabbed the hat, the force was aborbed in another twirl up the rope, his feet spinning and dancing across the red bricks of his wallfloor, before coming back down, whirling away once more, centrifugal force being unleashed in a slash across numerous foes, the jerking motion of the rope trying to twist him the other way around instead being used with a pirouette as he ducked under the rope leading up, his leg coming up to help his balance and smashing into the face of a beetle, sending it hurtling to the ground.

A white gloved hand came to his mouth as he gave a piercing whistle to couple his piercing stab to another ant, and the rope jerked upwards for a moment, drawing him a little away from the encroaching hoard. Tiring of the swarm and the fight, he set loose Phantasmal Phenom, and as dark blue lights tinted everything in the alley from nowhere, and as cooler than me began to play, his hat was tilted down, the brim covering his eyes as his cape was devoured by the backside of the hat, showing his vest and white undershirt, his coat having practically unbuttoned all the way to the armpit to vomit him out, now looking more like a poolshark than a magician, his undershirt had rolled itself up as he was disgorged from his coat. With regularly snapping to the beat, blue flames of Will-O-Wisp, one of his few side class skills, began to burn into insects.

His secondary class was actually Drama Fiend, and played further into his bachelors degree in fine arts that his interest in magic had. As he snapped his fingers further, Audience Abounds alerted him that only insects were anywhere of import, so he truly let loose.

most of the time most people assumed his secondary class was just some sort of theatrics related class to further strengthen his physical magician, but this was actually only half true, in fact, he had only claimed Phantoms Of The Opera as a part of his mainclass for it's utility, when in truth, it was a major mainstay of his Drama Fiend. As he snapped his fingers an eerily smiling drama mask formed upon his face, and his top hat was prestidigitated into a bowler hat, his white shirt was suddenly striped, and his formerly neat black pants and vest turned a bloody maroon color in the shadows of the alleyway. He disliked allowing anyone to see behind the curtains, and so he kept his main class and second class as secrets, like two separate personas, even as his joy in tragedy-esque Drama Fiend wasn't actually evil, it certainly gained a mild buff from not being in the spotlight, which was the exact opposite of his Physical Magician.

But that was his whole spiel, misdirection was the name of the game, though he was sure that maybe Salina might have an inkling that maybe he was not showing his everything, with another snap of his fingers his wand was back in the Prop Box, and out came his brutal bat. which was not magical, unless you consider a bat being all metal as magical, then yes, it was magically metal. The good news was it worked well with a second active ability, Prop Weapon, which, as a part of the acting based Drama Fiend, he could strike as hard as he wanted, and it could deal a dramatic amount of actual damage, or it could fall flat with no damage, and just send someone or something flying with a prat attack.

But these insects got the dramatic damage part of it... and gruesome was the only way to describe it as entire bugs shattered and splattered with a strike that was perpendicular to gravity blew straight through them. The downside of the ability was that afterwards, he would be feeling it in his muscles, as the skill caused muscles to twitch in just the right way to increase strength right at the moment of contact, it also used up stamina rather than mana, so that was another issue. But it wasn't a problem right now, and much less of a burden on the toned muscles of Samuel, and so he splattered beetles and ants up and down the alley, and all across the wall. Once they began to realize that going up to him was a bad idea, the insects stayed in the alley out of reach, and so with a simple whistle, the rope came undone, and he fell the remaining ten feet to the ground, super hero landing style, crushing an unlucky insect into the pavement before he stood, his bowler hat highlighting his white mask as he stood, back straight, bat across his shoulder, and a stance screaming confidence that may have a little to do with the unsettling smile upon his mask.

Wisps floated in the air, instead of giving off light, seeming to more absorb it, and somehow, painting the area around Samuel with a reddish bloodlust feeling as the light reflected off his maroon outfit, his shirt seeming a dinghy gray with offyellow stripes in the dim lighting, patting his hat, he rushed for the last of the insects in the alley.

a few minutes passed as the song wound down, and as it came to an end, the team of Levelers who had been called stopped as they swore they heard a pitiful dying screech of agony from an insect in a strangely dark alleyway. As they watched, it brightened, and a young stage magician walked out tugging on his sleeves, not a speck of ichor on his person, and a faint smile of satisfaction upon his face as he noticed their appearance.

"Ah, terribly sorry, I seem to have finished them all off, I'd allow you to check, but I'm afraid my familiars are currently dining on a meal and are taking care of cleanup already, so not much will be left within a few minutes, and what is... well, it's not pretty. but by all means, do go ahead." Samuel stated with mild cheer, before heading to a side door and unlocking with with a wave of his hands and a bit of prestidigitation, to show Salina on the other side with a clipboard.

"Ah, finally finished Samuel? Wonderful, we can charge for monstrous defense, as well as a late charge for delaying us on our preparations for the next venue."

Louie was slackjawed behind her, and the Levelers were wide eyed behind Samuel, and one unfortunate archer lass looked around the corner into the alley and vomited into a nearby trashcan.

"Seems she has a bit of distaste for bugs. Worry not, it's not the first, and likely not to be the last time this alley sees some poor visitor vomiting within it." Samuel said with a straight face. Salina merely rolled her eyes, and the jab at how often a drunk stumbles out of the theatre went over the bald head of the stupified louie.