Ends of Magic
Chapter 39: A Battle of Giants

Water exploded out from the broken artifact in Nathan’s hands, and he was blasted into the air. The forces involved in so much water exiting from such a small space were immense, and his hands were wrenched sideways at high speed, ligaments in his shoulders tearing even as the force cracked ribs and blasted his head back. It would have killed him without his multiple durability enhancements, and even so there was a lot of damage for [Perfected Body] to fix.

Some of the water ended up in Nathan’s mouth, and it was foul. He wretched for a moment and struggled to orient himself, finding that he’d been blown even higher into the sky and was now a good ways east of the Giantsrest army.

He had a great view of the lake-sized mass of water falling towards the the camp, which looked like an ant hive that was about to get hit by a sledgehammer. A few shields sprung up to last-ditch attempt at protection, but they were too few and too late.

Between Nathan and the camp, and a good deal lower, he saw Badud. The Questor had his back to Nathan and stretched out a hand to cast a spell that thundered across the valley. Space started to twist in anticipation of his words.

[Shield of -

The golden blur of Brox slammed into the Giantsrest Questor, slashing. Nathan caught the barest glimpse of the the blonde man viciously swiping at Badud’s head with both blades. The reality-tearing swords deflected from a protective spell that warped space, but Brox just kept attacking, striking dozens of times in a single second. The flurry of attacks tore through into the dimensional defense until a lucky strike cut Badud cleanly from his left shoulder to his right hip. Blood sprayed as the Giantsrest Questor fell in two unequally sized pieces.

Meanwhile, the archmages in the center of the camp blazed with magical energies. Hexagons of bright force shimmered into existence before the crushing downfall, but they only managed to cover the assembly area in the center of the camp before the cascading waters slammed to the ground with a world-shaking roar.

Was that it? Do we just win now? Badud's dead and with Brox we can take them apart.

Brox took off towards the Giantsrest camp, making for the place where the archmages had stood before the waters descended. Nathan sprinted after him in midair, wanting to get back into the fight. Hopefully they could catch the archmages before they teleported out.

The roar went on and on as the giant sphere of water crashed to the ground, shattering the Giantsrest camp. A flare of green magic brought Nathan’s attention back to Badud’s tumbling body. Something around his neck shone blindingly, and a new body coalesced beneath the tumbling upper torso. The green light struggled to seal the wound caused by Brox’s black sword, and seemed to be winning.

Oh come on. Just die!

Nathan adjusted course towards the Questor, trying to reach him before the healing finished. He opened his mouth and shouted over the roar of the water, trying to get Brox to hear him.

“Badud is healing!”

Mid-tier Battle Cry 5 achieved!

Brox looked backwards even as the green light overcame the black and the necklace that had saved Badud’s life shattered into loose magic whose stray particles radiated the most intense life mana Nathan had ever felt. Even from here it felt overwhelming, like the magic of the Kalis conclave. The Gemore Questor’s expression twisted with fury as he reversed direction, readying his swords to stab Badud a third time.

[Quenfi’s Hatred]

A flaming tentacle the size of a tree lashed out from a ring on Badud's finger. It moved with shocking speed, wrapping itself around Brox in the blink of an eye with the roar of a vengeful god. The appendage was black-cored, with deep red flames licking around the edges.

Nathan felt overpowering divine mana from the spell, but it was unlike any other variant of that power he’d felt before. While Khachi’s magic was imbued with inspiration and righteousness, this mana was destruction and hatred made manifest. All of the emotion of the spell focused on Brox, and it felt like the mana was more than willing to torch the world to kill the Questor it was targeted at.

Enchantments in Brox’s armor flared to life and formed a web of protective light as the tentacle tightened around his captured form. Nathan saw the man’s lips moving, but couldn’t make out the words through the visceral noise and flame. But Brox’s expression looked content as he snapped his arm forward, hurling a sword at Badud’s center of mass.

Then the tentacle constricted, crushing Brox and burning him to ash in a single instant. The giant magical limb seemed to shiver with pleasure. Then it faded out of existence along with the ring that had summoned it.

The thrown sword spun once before stabbing into Badud’s stomach, sinking up to the hilt in the Questor’s naked torso.

Nathan pushed harder as he ran, accelerating towards his target with every bit of speed he could coax from his legs.

High-tier Sprinting 10 achieved!

Insight time. I need to kill a Questor. I’m not running on ground. I can generate force in any direction I can kick off from. I shouldn’t think of it like running over easy terrain. I should pick a vector and generate the most force I can along that vector.

Nathan kicked his legs faster and faster as he focused more and more of his Rage and Stamina into his feet. He leaned farther and farther forward, directing the normally upwards momentum that running generated into forward movement. Gravity was just another force vector to calculate and align into the direction he wanted to go.

Congratulations, you have developed the [High-Tier Sprinting] utility skill into [Velocity]

Utility skill: [Velocity]

This skill will help you accelerate very rapidly in your desired direction, and decrease the Stamina cost of doing so. Cannot be used to move in directions you could not without this skill.

Badud’s eyes widened at Nathan’s sudden burst of speed, and he gasped out another spell, coughing up blood as he grasped for the hilt of the sword sticking out of his stomach.

[Slow Shell]

The bubble of distorted space that Nathan had seen before the [Reverse Time] spread around the Questor. Another ring blazed to green light on Badud's hand, battling against the growing blackness of the wound. But this time the sword was still in him, and the ring shattered as it lost the fight. But even as the black infection started to grow, Badud managed to grasp the weapon. He yanked out the black-bladed sword before ripping off his remaining sleeve to staunch the wound.

Nathan drew his aura in tight as he slammed into the shield. The magic wasn’t a hard barrier, but a zone of slowed time and expanded space. Nathan partially resisted the effect, but it went deeper than just mana. He truly had to cross hundreds of feet of distance at restricted speed to pass through the shield. He stretched his senses around to understand this new kind of magic.

It’s got mana in it, but there’s clearly more going on here. It’s like there’s another dimension to the magic, one that rewrites the rules of reality in a local space. I can’t detect it, but the mana here is arranged around bones of something deeper. Is it related to that weird dimensional layer that protects people’s mana barriers? Or the dimensional magic of the transit roads of Old Gemore?

He focused on one of the blank spots in the shield where there had to be structure, spinning his aura in a vortex like he’d learned from the fire elemental. There was a sudden pop and something broke, draining into his antimagic without adding to his Stamina.

Aura of Antimagic 9 achieved!

The energy that drained into his aura had additional depth, feeling like the raw material of magic. But it wasn't mana.

Congratulations, you have developed the [Magical Perception] utility skill into [Wizard Senses]

Utility skill: [Wizard Senses]

This skill lets you sense the mana and Wizardry around you, and understand its purpose.

Oh, so this kind of magic is called Wizardry? Is Badud a Wizard?

The missing spots in the spell that entrapped Nathan filled in with a buzzing energy that had evaded him before. The structure was weird, and it was clear that the spell worked by different rules than any mana. He couldn’t figure them all out, but it only took a moment to understand what parts of the spell were integral to the spatial barrier that protected Badud.

Magical Intuition 10 achieved!

It took a while to drill his antimagic through the barrier and siphon out the Wizardry. The delay made the spell break in pieces instead of shattering all at once.

This method won’t work on an attack spell with wizardry. I need my antimagic to apply to it directly, either through my next antimagic Talent Development or my next class Development. That's my top priority right now, or else my biggest advantage doesn't apply.

The extra time was enough for Badud to notice that his protections were fracturing. He looked up from his impromptu bandage to stare incredulously as Nathan surged towards him in fits and starts. The spell started fracturing faster and faster, and the Questor made a split second decision.

[Teleport]

The spatial spell popped like a bubble and Nathan stumbled into the space Badud had so recently left. He roared his rage across the battlefield, the sound audible above the crashing waves below.

That’s the fourth time that’s happened! I should scrub the Insight for Teleport from the face of Davrar. Kill anybody who can teach the spell.

He reoriented himself on the battlefield, jaw set. It was time to kill the mages he could. This time he wouldn't give his targets the opportunity to teleport out. Below him, dirty water foamed and crashed across the base of the valley. Surf rebounded from the slopes to either side and a wave flowed down the valley, carrying the detritus of the camp away. Nathan saw tents and trees, crates and bodies. A small ashblood cobra surfaced for a moment, swallowing down the corpse of a slave-soldier before diving underwater again.

Oh, they survived after all. Hooray?

But the army hadn’t been completely destroyed. Some mages floated in the water, protected from the swirling water by their [Mage Armor]. Others flew above the surface, swooping down to rescue their comrades and bring them to safety in the center of the camp, where the archmages stood. The previous assembly area had become an island of safety and light. The archmages were spaced evenly around the circumference of a wide dome of force. At least fifty other mages stood with them, recovering from the sudden attack.

Nathan watched as the archmages slowly walked outwards, their protection expanding with them. The shield pushed back the foaming waters and they used spells of earth and water to grab soldiers and mages and draw them into their protection. Powerful light spells illuminated the space around them, giving the other mages a beacon to head towards.

Adventurers were harassing the rescue effort, and arrows, spells and bullets sniped down the fliers and struck at survivors in the water. The return fire was desultory and weak because the Giantsrest mages had bigger problems right now. The water boiled here and there as ashblood cobras struck at targets and were killed in turn. The snakes were only ten or so feet long, but could still easily swallow a person. Some of them were succeeding at cracking through [Mage Armor] to feast on screaming mages.

Nathan started sprinting for the archmages, spending Focus to make himself less noticeable. He had stealth skills, but there was nothing to hide behind. He spread his aura out in front of him to absorb light mana before it could reflect off of his skin, building speed as he arrowed towards the shielded bubble.

High-tier Noticeability 2 achieved!

He turned his gaze to check on the Heirs, and blinked in surprise. The bubble of golden light that marked Khachi’s shield was high above, a small orb atop the nearest peak. But it was accompanied by dozens of other identical domes scattered across the mountains around the army. More of the shields popped into existence with every moment, and soon there were nearly a hundred decoy shields spread across the mountains.

Those have to be illusions cast by Gale Shullet and her students. The second wave of Adventurers must have gotten here. But why are they building decoys of the Heirs?

Then Nathan saw a flicker of lightning from the ridgeline behind the Heir’s position and remembered the second part of the plan. It was a simple idea, really.

Stella spent the last few minutes charging lightning capacitors.

The night lit up as lightning bolts stabbed down from every direction, crashing into the water all across the valley. One of the bolts passed close enough to Nathan’s headlong dash for him to feel the magic in it. It was made of light mana, not lightning mana. An illusion.

But one of the three dozen bolts of magic that stabbed into the water wasn’t an illusion, and it wasn’t easy to tell which one. About a third of the bolts weren’t great illusions, and it would only take a second of study to notice the irregularities. But they contributed to the overwhelming lightshow and distracted from the rest - which all looked nearly identical.

The water steamed and boiled as the lightning spell continued, sparks of electricity jumping from the foaming waves and occasionally reaching up to grasp a low-flying mage. People in the water convulsed as [Mage Armor] popped, their protections failing in the face of so much lightning mana. The electricity surged with power for a few seconds longer before all of the spells cut off together, leaving the valley in abrupt darkness.

The bubble around the archmages held firm against the arcing energy. The people inside had been stunned by the sudden attack but rallied with a vengeance, sending spells back at the golden bubbles. They hammered the decoys with fireballs, spears of ice, bolts of lightning and [disintegrate] spells. A few of the bubbles vanished and several flickered before reappearing, but most of seemed to shrug off the attacks without impact.

Illusions. I hope most of the trickery mages were far enough away to avoid getting caught by the attacks on their decoys.

Nathan had been watching the Heirs’ bubble. It had taken a direct hit from a huge fireball and came through entirely unscathed. The sound of detonating spells rolled across the valley like an artillery barrage, but faded away at Exea's amplified command.

Both sides seemed to pause and consider the state of the battlefield. The Gemore Adventurers were entrenched in the mountains, hidden behind illusions and layers of decoys. They’d pick off any Giantsrest mages that left the cover of the archmages’ shield bubble. But by the same token, the Adventurers couldn’t penetrate the barrier of the archmages, at least not without overwhelming power that revealed their positions and invited retaliation. No more of Kozar's shield-penetrating javelins were forthcoming, and the situation was a stand-off. The archmages looked around, trying to come up with a plan.

This is where I come in, to break the stalemate before our enemies figure out something clever. Don’t give them time to adapt, get inside their decision loop and keep hitting them.

Anticipation of the fight to come coursed through Nathan’s veins as he spun in midair, using his skills and Talents to guide his final approach and slowing only slightly from air resistance. He was coming down at a steep angle and at effectively terminal velocity. He meant to end this battle right here and now.

Velocity 2 achieved!

Airwalking 3 achieved

Nathan’s aura flared wide as he impacted the barrier feet first, punching through all four layers of the shield and ripping a huge hole in the protections. He barely slowed down before impacting his target.

Exea dha Humal didn’t see him coming. She was glaring up at the bubbles of light with a peeved expression when his feet collided with her neck and side. Bones shattered and skin tore as she was driven into the ground, torso pulped underneath him.

The body cushioned Nathan’s fall slightly, and his knees bent to absorb the impact. His ankles and knees cracked and his butt slammed into the ground painfully hard, but that was it. [Lethal Index] kicked in, and Nathan knew how badly Exea was injured.

That was a lethal wound, she’ll go unconscious in seconds and be dead in minutes. Her whole torso needs to be regenerated, but there’s magic that can do that. I just saw some of it.

A war mage to Nathan’s right acted immediately and darts of ice cracked towards Nathan at supersonic speeds. They evaporated in his aura as he stood and stomped on the archmage’s head.

Problem solved.

Magekiller has leveled to 102! You have slain Archmage Exea dha Humal from surprise in the midst of battle!

More mages recoiled in surprise from Nathan’s sudden appearance. Spells flew his way, but he was already moving. Water sloshed into the dome from the hole Nathan had left in the shield, but the hole he’d ripped was mostly overhead and the flow was slow.

He bounded past the war mage, crushing the man’s skull with an elbow and then kicking an enslavement mage hard enough to cave in their ribs.

Dead of punctured lungs in a few minutes.

There were a few slave-elites moving to block Nathan, but they felt so slow. He exulted in leaping right over them, completely unbound by gravity. He ricocheted between targets, striking down more mages and keeping the momentum going. He angled along the edge of the dome on his way to the next archmage, slicing the gap in the shield even wider. Nathan outran the gushing water, headed towards the next archmage.

Magekiller has leveled to 108! You have slain the mages Bazan dho Humal, Hest dha Medz, Vikris dho Khilo and Birgar dho Idraci in battle.

His target glared at Nathan with an expression of pure contempt, raising a hand to cast a spell that reverberated across the battlefield.

[Banishment]

The space around Nathan quivered at the focused power of annihilation channeled into it. With his new senses he could detect the hint of Wizardry in the spell, but it was undisciplined and badly focused. Regardless, its presence gave the spell an extra weight that mana alone couldn’t. This was a spell that would strike past normal defenses, destroying physical matter from the inside out. It tore at Nathan despite his antimagic. It was similar to how Exea’s [Disintegrate] back in Halsmet had fared better against his antimagic than it should have. The spell was imbued with authority that reached past mere mana. But his antimagic was boosted by Rage, and Nathan gritted bloody teeth as the skin across his body split and then healed, the magic of the spell crumbling away with the job undone.

Nathan’s fist barreled towards the archmage’s face, but five heavy metal plates interposed themselves in front of his foe. The enchantments that animated the shields were crude but sturdy, and it looked like they’d been roughly forged in the last few days. There was a gap between the plates, just big enough for him to slip through.

Instead of falling for the obvious trap, Nathan juked up and sideways by pushing off the air with a knee and elbow. The shields rose to meet him, keeping themselves interposed between him and the archmage. He turned and pushed with his legs to shoot towards the mage’s feet, tucking into a ball to bounce past the plates as they slammed into the ground just behind him. Their sharpened edges and immense weight cracked the stone road as they impacted.

High-tier Tumbling 10 achieved!

But Nathan was already through. He smashed through [Mage Armor] like it wasn’t even there and cannonballed into the man’s legs, taking him down in a flailing tangle of limbs. A dozen powerful defensive enchantments activated to blast Nathan with ice, hurl him away with force, reestablish the shield and heal any injuries the archmage had suffered.

His aura ate them all, and Nathan rolled atop the archmage. The man’s eyes narrowed with hatred for a split second before Nathan’s fist went through his face and into the soft tissue behind.

Prognosis: dead.

Magekiller has leveled to 112! You have slain archmage Chennal dho Pelogi in battle.

The metal plates clattered to the ground as Nathan sprang into the air to avoid the knee-high wave sweeping across the bottom of the dome.

The remaining mages fled from him, gaining space while the elites waded through the water towards him. The four surviving archmages were grouped up to present a united front. They were all men, and they glared at Nathan with expressions ranging from fury to disgust.

The leftmost archmage’s head exploded as a penetration-enchanted bullet flew through the gap Nathan had torn in the dome and tore through his [Mage Armor]. Stella’s laser followed close behind, missing the archmages but nailing a trio of war mages who stood just behind. None of the three red robes survived the lightning that crackled down a split second later, blasting a crater into the ground and casting their smoking bodies aside as the blast knocked other mages off their feet.

Nathan’s focus ran out and he grimaced internally. He wouldn’t be able to move as precisely or perceive things as clearly until it regenerated some. But his Rage, the thrill for battle, pushed him forward and towards the foe. Nathan yelled wordlessly at and began to charge.

There’s only three archmages left, how hard can it be?

They all cast [Teleport] within the course of a single second, fleeing the battlefield just as the sun illuminated the ravaged valley from directly overhead.

Mid-tier Battle Cry 6 achieved!

Utility skill: [Magical Perception]

This skill lets you sense the mana around you, and understand its purpose.

Congratulations, you have developed the [Magical Perception] utility skill into [Wizard Senses]

Utility skill: [Wizard Senses] Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NʘvᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

This skill lets you sense the mana and Wizardry around you, and understand its purpose.

Pending utility skill: High-tier Sprinting

This skill will help you run very quickly in the future and decrease the stamina cost of doing so. Will not allow you to run in circumstances where you couldn’t otherwise. Congratulations, you have developed the [High-Tier Sprinting] utility skill into [Velocity]

Utility skill: [Velocity]

This skill will help you accelerate very rapidly in your desired direction, and decrease the Stamina cost of doing so. Cannot be used to move in directions you could not without this skill.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 8

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 3

Class: Implacable Antimage level237

Deepened Stamina: 6709/7410

Antimage’s Impassivity

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Improved Antimagic

Strenuous Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Class: Magekiller level 112

Regenerative Focus: 17/1220

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Leadership 6

Velocity 2

Wizard Senses 1

Alertness 3

Magical Intuition 10

Effortless Dodge 1

Mental Fortress 5

High-tier Lecturing 7

High-tier Tumbling 10

High-tier Noticeability 2

Low-tier Quiet Movement 4

Low-tier Disguise 4

Mid-tier Battle Cry 6

Sᴇarch the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.