Zack ducked and threw himself to the side, his sixth sense twinging like mad. The blade of a sword skimming silently past where his head had just been. The action jostled his newly broken arm, forcing the pain he had shoved aside to the forefront of his mind. A gasp of pain escaped his mouth, his feet pausing for a half-second while he got his bearings.
He saw the incoming spear too late, accepting the rushed attack as it plunged into his belly and out his back. An arcane bolt took the face-off of another of the attacking travelers, leaving them with only two mobile and actively attacking.
Zack coughed, thick bloody saliva drooling down from his lips, and looked down at the shaft protruding from his chest. All he could think was that he was glad it had missed his spine, even if it was getting harder to breathe. If the attack had been any less rushed, or just a little bit more strength had been used. It missing his spine wouldn’t matter, because that section of spine would be gone regardless. There would be a fist sized hole in his chest, instead of a shaft.
“Is that the best you got?” He asked the last two who had stopped in front of him, their weapons at the ready. The pain pulled at his attention, wanting to distract him with the delicious intricacies of his body’s current agony. He’d experienced far worse and was able to shove the mental effects aside without skipping a beat.
They tilted their masked heads in unison and then dared to look at their two fallen comrades and the one injured and currently crawling towards them. They turned back to him and pulled off their masks, revealing a pair of women. Neither was what he would call beautiful, but their eyes revealed a depth of strength that made such things unimportant.
“Impressive boy, if you were a little older, and hadn’t just killed my husband I think we might have gotten along.” The one on the left said before ripping the spear back through his chest. The hole widened and pieces of severed intestine poked through like bloody worms.
Zack gasped and collapsed to his knees, trying to draw in a breath. All the while desperately remembering everything he could about the healing session with Leigha. The knowledge would help to reinforce the intent behind his spell, making it more effective. He would need it for this to work properly.
He rarely messed with healing spells, preferring to let his ability work its proverbial magic. It was slower, sure, but it got everything. Healing spells were typically location-focused, and they didn’t work well on the damage that bled through from his astral body. He was fine with localized in this instance. It was plain to see where the damage was, after all.
He just hoped the energy cost would be bearable. There were still three more enemies they needed to eliminate.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” He ground out with all the air he could spare before beginning the spell. A deep purple glow surrounded the hole in his chest, causing them both to step back in surprise.
He had been able to shoot somewhere between twenty and thirty arcane bolts as a level one before the damage became too great. Granted, he was mostly a level four in name only, however, his class still added points to his magic power and intelligence. His mana pool had to at least be of a size where he could use one spell minimum. While it wasn’t that bad now, it was only a matter of time.
It was time to see what kind of difference that made to a spell he rarely tried to use. For that matter, it made him wonder how high their levels were to be able to shake off his magic attacks. Quinn had made it sound like anything above twenty in a stat was superhuman. Well, his magic was almost double that. So, it begged the question. What was going on?
He groaned as a solid quarter of his astral health was converted to energy for the healing spell. Hopefully, that was because of the severity of the wound and not the spell itself. Otherwise, healing would be off the table for a long time to come. His constitution would need to be improved a lot before this would be a viable spell in an emergency.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
His Life Burner ability may be level four, but with his current magic stat being so high, it was struggling to keep up. The Arcane Mystic class truly would have been a useless piece of trash without that ability to back him.
The tips of his toes began to tingle and grow cold, the astral-borne pain quickly spreading up his legs. The appendages felt heavy and weak, as though the life had been sucked out of them. The tingle spread to engulf both legs, a feeling similar to sleeping limb syndrome on steroids.
“What are your levels?” Zack gasped out. He bit his lower lip and took a moment to force his legs to obey his commands. Coming to a stand as his stomach knitted itself back together.
They gaped at the rapid pace of the healing magic.
“That isn’t the color of healing magic.” One of them said.
“No, it isn’t. Now answer my question.” Zack demanded, wiping the blood from his lips, already feeling better. “And for that matter, where are you even from? I’ve never heard of anyone having suits like yours.” His legs shook slightly from the strain of holding him upright. He wouldn’t be running anywhere for the moment.
Material from Aperra would never have stood up to his magic attack like that. The problem was, they couldn’t have made something like that on this side of the portal, either. The lines were too sleek, and the quality looked to be top-notch. It had to have been made by a professional, not a typical traveler constructing their armor on the go, as was normal.
The two women shared a look and then glanced again as his skin finished growing back together. Inside his chest, the magic was still working at a rapid pace to heal the damaged organs and tissues. As a side effect, it also fixed any scar tissue it found in the immediate area.
“What kind of a mage are you?” The one who had tried to cut his head off earlier asked.
Zack growled and raised both hands, his broken arm trembling at the abuse, pointing them at the chests of the two travelers. Where he couldn’t miss. “I won’t ask again, and trust me, these will hurt you more than they did your friend crawling on the ground.” Both hands began to glow with a dark purple light, as he began gathering the ethereal energy known as mana.
“We’re faster-“
Zack blasted the one on the left, who happened to be holding a spear dripping with his blood. His high elemental affinity came through once more, and the purple bolt was laced with black for the split second it was visible. The arcane bolt ate through the suit and her chest, leaving her with a gaping wound even worse than his had been.
“You were saying?” He asked, raising his glowing hand to point at the last one’s forehead. The inside of his chest cramped under an astral vise as more energy was pulled to fuel the spell. Thankfully, it wasn’t much.
Her dark eyes flickered with fear and anger as the realization that she was unlikely to leave the portal alive settled in. “We were all low-rank regular classes, between level fifteen and seventeen. None of us had any hope of ever getting to our specialist class, it’s why we were sent on this mission. Our slow leveling speed made us more expendable than the others, and we’re from the country of Shouvain.” She spilled everything in a rush.
“Never heard of it.”
“It doesn’t share a border with Albion.”
“Why come here then?” Zack raised his other hand again and shot the figure crawling towards them. He had begun gathering energy for the next bolt as soon as he had fired the last one, just in case. The bolt hit the previously injured traveler in the face, killing them instantly and sending pieces of their skull wherever the spell pleased. He would show no mercy to those who attacked him or his little sister. His broken arm went blessedly numb as its astral form fueled the spell.
The woman swallowed at the casual display of power and hurried to continue. “The portals in our kingdom have become unstable, as of late. We were chosen to spy on the surrounding countries and discover if any of them were the cause or experiencing the same issue.”
“And what did you learn?”
“Each of the three countries we visited before here was also experiencing problems with their portals.” She explained quietly.
“What about those suits then, and how did you get involved with Dorn?”
“I’m not sure about the suits either. They were a surprise given to us before we left, some sort of new magitech melding process they invented, I think. The most we were told about them is that they can only go through the portals a limited number of times.
“As for Dorn… he seemed like a good mark to get information from. His family was influential and obviously crooked. He himself had an undeserved ego larger than most and rarely thought his actions through. Normally he would have been the perfect target.” She dropped her sword and slowly knelt before Zack. “Please, just make it quick.” She pleaded with him in a defeated tone.