"You're not sending me back?"

"Definitely not! Not yet. I couldn't sleep at all when I thought of some uses for your temporal trick."

Will grimaced. It was a fourth-level spell, and casting it was a hassle.

"I really should be practicing my combat magic, though," he tried.

"I seem to recall there was someone who was lying about their academy background..."

Will narrowed his eyes.

"I don't seem to recall hearing about an explosive hazard before you were forced to confess it to me."

"What hazard? I'm an accomplished mage, and I wouldn't commit such a blunder."

Will stared back quietly, realizing that the man had a point. There was no proof. The tower was still in one piece.

"You did help me," the older man continued. "So it wouldn't be right if you had to suffer for it. I can pay you one gold per day."

Will tried to resist the urge to raise his eyebrows high.

"Well, it's not like I need to hurry back right now..."

---

A watchman spied a group of people in the east. He took a quick head count using a rare and expensive pair of binoculars belonging to the tower's master. A few dozen seconds after the sighting, he had already descended to Magister Albrecht's floor to report on it.

"Will, get ready. We're going out," the magister ordered.

"Huh. Why?"

"A small raiding force was spotted; too incompetent to steer clear from us. We're going out to punish them for their mistake."

"Uhh. What kind of hostiles are we looking at, exactly?"

"It's just eight men. We have ten at the ready plus us two mages. Just do it like you would with the main garrison."

Will sighed. "Alright."

The group of ten fighters plus ten mages departed the small palisade, leaving behind just a few servants and two watchmen.

The trek through the forest was somewhat arduous. They moved at a quick pace on foot, following narrow paths that only the scout was familiar with.

Finally, the scout leading them raised a hand to signal a halt. Everyone stopped to breathe easily for a while and make sure their armor was secure. Will wore just the chain shirt he had come with, so there was little to do in that regard.

But since he had perhaps a couple of minutes to spare...

Arrow Ward (II) triggered.

He felt the spell settle upon him and immediately began quietly chanting the preparation sequence.

Arrow Ward (II) stored in a spell slot.

In just over a minute, the spell was slotted once more. The preparation time had gone drastically down from the original ten minutes. He didn't feel like a real 14th-level wizard yet, but he was getting there.

Will had practiced a lot with the spell, and he knew that the protection would last for ten hours with how proficient he was at it, so there was no reason not to buff himself immediately.

Next, he considered Cat's Agility (II), which would only buff him for some five to six minutes due to how little he had trained it, but he abandoned the thought when Albrecht raised a finger to signal for one minute.

Will didn't have the spell slotted, and he would likely need three minutes to cast it from scratch.

Well, it's just a small squad. This should be easy, he thought.

He was still a bit nervous, but with five missions in the fast-response unit, four of which had gone without a hitch, Will was becoming used to fighting, killing, and watching people die gruesomely.

When Albrecht gave the signal, the scout in the lead waved his arm ahead. Their little progression moved forward slowly and quietly, until one of the hostiles spotted them.

The man dressed in a shoddy brown cloak shouted a warning to his own companions, six of whom turned as one to face Albrecht's men, forming a semicircle around two others in similar brown cloaks.

Three of the six drew out two-handed swords, while the others used a shorter weapon with a shield in the off-hand. This struck Will odd. The hostiles he had encountered used spears and wooden shields. The shields he was looking at were metal-plated.

Albrecht's men roared battle cries and rushed the enemy as per the simple plan discussed earlier. They wanted to avoid letting too many of the raiders scatter and escape.

Meanwhile, Will took the ten seconds required to cast a Magic Arrow, scoring a guaranteed hit at one of the shieldless fighters.

The man spun around and crouched before the glowing arrow struck, managing to intercept it with his shoulder. When the victim of his spell straightened up again, his expression was stern but contained no hint of fear or pain. Will began to feel really uneasy.

"These raiders could be good," he pointed out to Albrecht, who stood next to him.

The older man didn't answer as he was in the middle of an incantation of his own.

A long spear of ice flew out, striking one of their enemies down while the five others met with the incoming ten fighters from Will's side.

"That's fine. We will take them out one by one," Albrecht finally answered.

The man downed with the icy spear climbed up and dusted ice shrapnel off his chest.

A piece of his damaged cloak came off with the movement and revealed what looked like scale mail. It was a lot fancier than the cheap and simple chest plates Will was used to seeing.

One of the fighters on Will's side was struck down at the same moment. He screamed as he fell, and he kept screaming also while he writhed on the ground.

Albrecht's face fell.

"Retreat!" he shouted.

His men obeyed the command and slowly backtracked, but their assailants kept advancing in turn.

"Stop!" One of the two enemies at the back shouted.

The enemy fighters ceased their advance, while the speaker took off his shoddy, hooded cloak, dropping it on the ground.

He turned out to be an old man wearing a fine red tunic under a shiny piece of thin chainmail. His trousers were a slightly darker red, and they also looked new and perfectly well-made.

"Magister Albrecht! Fancy seeing you here!" he spoke in a cheerful voice.

The master of the tower frowned.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Mihatake. What are you doing here?"

"Meeting with you, of course! You have made a nuisance of yourself, and our esteemed Duke approved of a removal operation."

Well, shit! Thought Will with a sinking feeling. He started to look around at the terrain while thinking of his escape options.

"Hmph. I don't think you're strong enough to kill me, Mihatake."

"Oh, I think I am. Just in case, I also brought a friend to assist me. You'll be helping us both earn our promotions, hehe!"

The other man at the back had also removed his cloak, revealing a similar, red attire.

"Enough talk. It's time you two learned your place," Albrecht said and pulled a hand out of his cloak. It was holding on to what looked like a light-blue piece of crystal.

Will recognized the substance from his very first task at the power, although this particular piece was smaller than what the mage had been concocting back then.

Spellstone!

Albrecht crushed the stone. A golden, somewhat translucent bracer appeared around his arm.

"Kill them!" the man named Mihatake screamed, and the enemy fighters advanced again.

Albrecht pointed his arm, and the bracer pulsed with light.

A golden beam struck one of the nearby hostiles in the face. The man's eyes glazed over and he slumped down.

The bracer, in turn, burst in motes of golden light and disappeared.

The five remaining armored men were promptly accosted by nine defiantly roaring soldiers on Albrecht's side.

Will decided to cast a Magic Arrow at the well-dressed man who had remained quiet during the trash talk. He hoped he would be the softer target out of the two.

The man was currently waving a short, silvery wand in his right hand, while his left arm was casually extended in front of him, palm up, making it look like he was asking for money.

Just as Will's spell was about to hit him, a red, glowing sphere detached from the upturned palm in a flash. It intercepted the Magic Arrow, which dissipated in a faint puff of white smoke.

The man glanced briefly in Will's direction before ignoring him again.

What the hell was that? Will wondered even as he began weaving another spell. A level-two one, for a change.

The unnamed mage finished his own spell. It was some kind of fire spell, and it was shortly sent flying toward Albrecht. A similar spell was flung by Mihatake.

Albrecht crushed another spellstone and was surrounded by a shimmering, blue light shortly before the enemy mages finished their spells. When they hit him, flames licked the magister's form, but the man remained unharmed under his shielding magics.

The burst of flames looked relatively unpleasant, but it was nothing compared to Will's 3rd-level Fireball.

The shimmering shield around Albrecht's form was still clearly active when the last sparks of the fires died out.

The magister was already casting a spell of his own. Shortly, a two-foot-long spear of ice shot forth from his palm, racing toward the same mage Will had chosen to target.

The defensive palm activated again, and the icy spear was intercepted by another red flash.

The old mage wasn't discouraged, and another spear soon followed, only to be struck down in a similar fashion.

Twenty feet ahead of them, the melee fight went on. Spears and short swords on Will's side tried to find openings to pry through, but they didn't seem to accomplish much. Sometimes they scored glancing blows against scale mail, but usually they just banged against a shield or a parrying sword.

Despite facing almost two for each one of their own, the enemy fighters fought defensively with calm efficiency. Sometimes, they managed to sneak a quick hit in, eliciting occasional grunts of pain.

Will finished his spell, and a small bolt of lightning raced forth from his hand. He had practiced the level-two spell a lot since signing his contract with the army, and the casting time had gone down to thirty seconds.

Lightning-fast, it struck the previous mage in the chest, thankfully before his automatic defense could react. The man yelped in pain before grinning ferociously at Will.

"Nice punch!" He shouted, then addressed his partner in a slightly less loud yell over the din of the melee battle. "We can't ignore the boy!"

Will grimaced. Minor Lightning was by no means a very strong spell, but it was still supposed to be a respectable damage-dealer against targets who were weak to lightning. That didn't seem to include this mage in red. Or perhaps Will hadn't mastered the spell sufficiently yet.

The mage started weaving something, and Will was certain it would be meant for him this time. He'd been ignored until now, while Albrecht had been able to shield himself against the bombardment of fire spells by crushing another spellstone.

Fuck it! Will thought. There was no way he would face-tank a fire spell.

Absorb Elements (II) triggered.

Once again, accompanied by a few sparkles, Will felt a protective layer form above himself.

As expected, a small sphere of fire sprung forth from the wand the enemy mage carried. From how they'd been pelting the older mage and ended with just small splashes of fire, Will doubted they were super strong, but they seemed hot and nasty enough to take seriously.

The spell raced quickly toward Will. He tried to sidestep, but the little fireball gently curved to hit him anyway.

It struck him in the side of his chest with so little inertia that Will couldn't even feel it. He saw a flash of light through his tightly closed eyelids. When he opened his eyes again... he still felt perfectly fine.

Will could sense that the protective spell had weakened a little, but there were at least three quarters of it left before it would fail.

"Hey! The boy has a shield, too!" the caster of the spell shouted out loud, looking surprised. "He's not an apprentice!"

"Good!" Mihatake responded. "His death will secure our promotions!"

Mihatake's response was high-spirited, but Will had seen the brief flash of honest hesitation on the man's face. It was obvious enough that they respected his elemental shield.

"Should we kill him first?"

"No. We're committed. Albrecht is almost done!"

Will glanced at the old magister, who was sweating visibly. He couldn't really help him directly, so he turned his attention back to the enemy.

Another fighter had been struck down on his side, and the eight that remained were beginning to have trouble against the enemy. They were slowing down visibly, while their opponents had been conserving their energy right from the start.

Daze (cantrip) triggered.

Will targeted one of the fighters, hoping to distract him fatally. The man's posture faltered slightly when he was struck, but he recovered instantly and went right back to fighting.

Dammit! They're probably too high-level. The target clearly hadn't become dazed for several seconds like he was ideally supposed to.

How about this then?, Will thought and started to cast again. The level-one spell took twenty seconds to launch due to the fact he hadn't trained a lot in it yet.

A brief flash of deep shadow heralded the activation of the necromancy spell called Frighten. It engulfed the target for just a fraction of a second.

The hostile fighter stepped back from the line. His companions were taken aback by his behavior and shouted demands at him. The man hesitated a few seconds before joining the fight again.

One of his allies got speared in the face due to the disturbance. However, he didn't go down but simply kept fighting on while blood flowed out of the gruesome wound.

Will was already casting another spell even as he observed the effect of Frighten. It had been something, but not quite what he had hoped for. His lack of training with the spell was the likely problem.

Eventually, another lightning bolt raced forth past the warrior-types, striking Mihatake, who yelled in surprise and pain. The enemy mage had been moving his hands and mouthing something again, and Will hoped he had managed to ruin whatever spell he'd been shaping.

"Fuck!" Mihatake cursed loudly after recovering from the brief shock. "Boy! You'd better start running already!"

"Me? Run?" Will talked back. "Why would I do that?" he asked, the puzzlement in his voice mostly genuine. He was beginning to feel like the two mages weren't too big of a threat after all.

Now, what else do I have? Will wondered. He remained reluctant to reveal his flashy emergency spells.

His spell slots were still nearly full up to the fourth level. None of those held the stasis spell he had already revealed. It would be useless anyway, given how the spell only affected lifeless objects and had to be cast right next to them.

Maybe that silly dagger spell? he decided and concentrated on casting again for some twenty plus seconds.

A small floating dagger appeared as far from Will as he was able to summon it, which was right behind the backs of the enemy warriors. It was a level-one spell called Horokainen's Dirk. It's notable feature was how shitty most players thought it was, as it never seemed to strike true.

The dagger headed for the unnamed enemy mage.

"What is that?" the man spoke, and his eyes were glued to the apparition.

The short, little knife stopped a few feet from him, floating at eye level. It performed a little feint toward the left before diving toward the mage's extended wrist. It wasn't particularly fast, and the man avoided the slash easily by taking a step back.

He then hit the dagger with his wand, which sent it flying into the ground a dozen feet away.

"What a pathetic display!"

The one good thing going for the dagger was the fact that it was autonomous. Will could do what he wanted while the dagger acted on its own until it got unsummoned, which should be pretty soon.

When the dagger flew back up from the shrubs and bushes, it threatened to strike the man again. Simultaneously, the Magic Arrow Will had just finished casting flashed forth, and the mage was forced to react.

He deflected the arrow with the usual red shielding trick. Meanwhile, the clumsily floating dagger accelerated forth, sinking into the man's side before withdrawing again.

Just a couple of inches of the blade had turned red with blood.

This time, his defensive magic responded to it, and a red flash from his upturned palm blasted the floating weapon into smithereens before it could make another clumsy attempt at him.

The stabbing victim hissed in pain and fumbled for his belt, pulling out a potion bottle.

He removed the stopper out with his teeth and took a little sip of the red liquid using the side of his mouth that wasn't occupied by a stopper.

When Will released his next Magic Arrow two seconds later, the defense responded once again in time, and the arrow accomplished seemingly nothing.

Will hoped that the defensive spell drained some finite resource from its user. Otherwise, Albrecht wouldn't be stubbornly flinging those ice spears of his even when they kept getting similarly intercepted.

At this point, a gruff shout rang out from Will's side.

"You've forced my hand!"