Chapter 96: 49: Lit By a Flame – Part 1

There are four men and two women in two groups, both sprinting towards us. They are dressed in the same "ninja"-like black clothes as the invisible assassins that Darean hired.

"Get up! Something is happening!" I yell.

"Whaa… Wolf-…" Roxanne complains in her cutesy voice.

"GET UP!" I yell and no more complaints are raised. The girls immediately notice the seriousness of the situation.

We sleep in our leather armor, so we only have to make some minor adjustments and help Hana put on her metal armor.

While the others prepare themselves, I store the golems inside my "Items" and dart out of the tent.

"Someone's coming!" I yell.

I dart straight to Rande's carriage and burst it open. I see Osaria, Rande, Oura, and Nito all cuddling together naked in a sight very familiar to the one I wake up to everyday. I immediately turn around and yell, "Someone's coming! It's suspicious! Get ready for an ambush!"

I hear them all scramble and I close the door.

Next, I approach the nobles' carriage. There's a guard in front, but even without him, I wouldn't make the same mistake twice. I warn the guard, who turns around and knocks, then yells my information.

The girls start to come out of the tent, so I store it in my "Items."

The gigantic tree to the west of us has a double-helix pattern, just like DNA, which makes for a perfect overlook.

I cast [Telekinesis] on myself and jump. With a few adjustments, I land on the tree a good two dozen meters up. I pull out Ted, Suzy, the crossbows, bolts, and the rest of the rocks.

"Listen to this order. Use these weapons and attack anyone that does not belong to this caravan when I yell 'golems, attack!', understood?" They nod. "Also, try to focus your attacks on the person that I point at after I yell 'golems, focus!', understood?" They nod again.

"Remember: pretend to be normal, unmoving dolls in case someone tries to come up here." With this last point, I jump down from the tree and land in front of the girls.

Rande comes out of the carriage, Oura and Nito trailing behind and hurriedly putting his scale armor on him.

Lord Ricardo bursts out of his carriage with a servant behind him, desperately trying to tie his glossy wooden armor to his body.

"Ryder, report," Ricardo orders.

"Six people, fully clad in dark cloth, are silently sprinting towards us in complete darkness."

"How far?"

"A minute or so before they reach us."

"Then we meet them before they can do anything."

I nod in agreement, but then I freeze. The approaching ninjas suddenly stop and a familiar black circle appears in front of them. A dozen men in metal armor, mages in robes, and archers in leather emerge from each circle.

"Fuck! They just used [Gate] to teleport actual soldiers! From two sides!" I point to the two directions perpendicular to the road.

"Pincer?" Rande asks.

"Yes!"

"We have to split up."

"I can take care of a side on my own, so Rande, Anton, and the nobles can take care of the other side. Split the foot soldiers between us," I say.

"Weeper's nightmare, boy, can you really fight obviously trained soldiers on your own?" Lord Ricardo asks with a glare.

Rande turns to Ricardo and scowls. "He's reliable, I trust him."

Rande's opinion is regarded highly, because after a single glare towards Rande, Ricardo accepts our arrangement. "Fine," he grunts. "I'll send the horsemen away to attack them from behind."

He pulls out an Emergency Ring and approaches his two horsemen, who are getting ready to fight. He gives the Ring to one of them. Then they gallop west, down the road.

Coming towards us are ten spear/sword and shield soldiers, one greatsword user, five mages, four archers. On each side.

We have only ten foot soldiers and a few inexperienced Space mages for each side.

After I tell them the numbers, we all nod solemnly and continue our preparations.

I approach the girls and get close to Klein. "This is the first secret, don't ever tell anyone what I'm about to do," I whisper and she nods glumly.

"Become stronger," I say in the [Godly Language].

Her eyes bulge as her muscles get slightly bigger.

Gify turns on his "massage" and our minds are briefly linked, making each of our hearts burn bright with determination to protect one another.

"Wo-wo-wo-wow!" Klein staggers as she's also included in the link.

"Roxanne, elixirs," I order.

She pulls out one for each of us and we all drink it.

I feel so strong that I believe that I could split a rock with a single slash. This overconfidence is a bad sign; maybe I should have used the [Godly Language] differently.

There's no time for regret. Fortune favors the bold. Fear is the mind-killer. Hesitation is the kiss of death.

I look at Ciel. "[Wind Shield]?"

She activates it for a moment and my view of her becomes blurry. "Ready."

"Good work, Lina."

The little dwarf nods with confidence.

"Aoi, with me, I have a plan." She gives me a toothy smile and jumps up onto my shoulder.

"Alissa, if you get me behind their shields, I can blow them all up," Roxanne says, her eyes have a special glint to them.

"Can't you use [Heart of Fire]?" Alissa asks.

"That would be dangerous to chant in front of the enemy, and I would also be left vulnerable when I land."

"Hop on," Alissa says and changes into a large fox. Roxanne awkwardly mounts Alissa, but maintains her resolve. They dart off to the east, dashing down the road.

We pull out a variety of barricades, which will allow our archers and mages to have some cover that they can switch between. Klein and Laertes stay on top of Rande's carriage, which is reinforced to last through a battle. A sacrificial wagon shields their backs so they won't get shot from the north.

The civilians and the rest of the wagons are taken to the inside of the double-helix tree. I think the elves make them hollow specifically for situations like this.

We face the north and a wagon covers our backs. Rande's carriage is south of that, with Klein and Laertes on top. Ricardo and the others are beyond the carriage to south. To the west, the gigantic tree covers our flank, but our eastern flank is left exposed.

I leave only two Hollys summoned; I need the mana for my spells.

Our magic growth seems to have slowed down as we trained with Kyros' MP training routine, but after we left Rabanara, it stagnated completely since we didn't have enough time to do it at all.

My MP increased by 480 (now 1650) and my "Magic Power" increased by 240 (now 680).

Alissa's MP increased by 405 (now 980) and her "Magic Power" increased by 210 (now 480). She trains the same amount as me, but her affinity with magic seems to be lower than mine.

Roxanne's MP increased by 720 (now 2630) and her "Magic Power" increased by 400 (now 1090). She is the only one of us who did some regular MP training after we left Rabanara.

Hana's MP increased by 310 (now 825) and her "Magic Power" increased by 180 (now 385). Even less growth than Alissa due to her focus on maintaining her sword skills for this job.

Ciel's MP increased by 505 (now 1685) and her "Magic Power" increased by 300 (now 700). She's had more opportunities to fully spend her mana with [Heal], so she experienced better growth.

Lina's MP increased by 430 (now 1100) and her "Magic Power" increased by 220 (now 495). She's working hard on her enchanting, so her MP grew more than normal.

My skills and the girls' are like this:

(There's a new section called "Extra Spells").

Everyone's [Earth Bullet] hits like a truck now.

Alissa prefers having more points in [Enhanced Reflexes] instead of [Bow Use] because it has better cost-effectiveness. Too much [Bow Use] is useless if you don't have the stats to use the increased skill with the bow.

Lina prefers [Enhanced Speed] so she can keep up with Hana's repositioning and support her better.

Flaming ghosts with cute round eyes appear floating beside the shoulders of the enemy mages.

"Fire mages! Get ready for Fire mages!" I yell.

Suddenly, all twenty men turn into balls of fire and rush towards us at frightening speeds.

"[HEART OF FIRE]! GET WATER MAGIC READY!" I bellow.

I split the ten nervous foot soldiers in two groups, five covering each of our sides. Four mages lower themselves behind the barricades and start to pray, erm, chant.

In the next moment, the balls of fire appear from behind the gigantic trees in the distance, from both the north and the south.

"[Inspire]!" Ciel casts the spell and we all feel courage filling our hearts and spreading through our blood.

That'll have to be enough. There's no time for speeches or calming the men. I barely even had enough time to fasten my armor.

"RELEASE WATER MAGIC!" I hear Lord Ricardo yell.

"[TORRENT]!" I yell the spell to aid me in controlling it.

My jet of water flies towards a ball of fire faster than any other. The ball jerks to the side and nearly gets completely snuffed out. A good chunk of that man's mana just evaporated along with part of his "fire body."

Unfortunately, that's not enough to kill him. He dismisses the spell and rolls along the ground, his metal armor clanking as he tumbles.

Another ball of fire lands in front of him and a metal soldier materializes as cover in front of his fallen comrade. I see the characteristic blurring of [Wind Shield] and try to aim a [Lightning Bolt] at them, but my "target" is being pushed away from the soldier.

"[WIND SHIELD] AND [DEAD ZONE]!" I scream and hear Ento yell the same.

The rest of the balls of fire dodge the [Torrent]s and land very close to us. Eight metal soldiers stand in a line with a good distance between one another, though I can see that there's no way to pass between them due to the enchantments on their shields. A man with a greatsword stands behind the front line. The two stragglers dash at frightening speeds to catch up.

The enemy mages and archers spread out, still completely shielded by the front line, but also blocked from attacking us.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" I bellow.

No response comes from them.

"Alissa, come back," I say through the [Bind].

"Understood."

I have to kill these mages.

Suddenly, the [Wind Shield] wall seems to lower and a barrage of spells and arrows from the enemy come whistling towards us.

The spells are blocked by our shields. A fireball harmlessly dissipates when it approaches my emellanat-lined shield, but the others defending us aren't so lucky, the simple wooden kite shields of the footmen take a battering and a few are already cracking from the explosion concept which was added to the [Fireball]s.

Then the arrows hit the shields. I notice how the arrowhead is barbed and there's a thick package wrapped around the shaft. In the next moment, they explode.

Three foot men are immediately taken out. One has shrapnel in his face and eyes, the other two had their shields crack apart completely and their arms were blown off.

I have to kill everyone!

"DODGE THE ARROWS! Hana…! BREAK THROUGH!" I order.

"Spread your legs! My spear is here to turn you into women!" Hana taunts. Then she summons her wings and charges towards the line of metal soldiers. They intensify their [Wind Shield]s and hold her off in the air, but that's also draining away their mana like water.

Lina casts [Earth Wall] under the feet of the female metal soldier in front of Hana. She rises up above Hana, but keeps control of the [Wind Shield] holding Hana back. Then she loses her balance when the enemy mages dispel Lina's control over the wall and it crumbles beneath her feet.

Hana's spear finds an opening beneath the right armpit of the soldier and she drives her elven spear into her. She yells in pain and they both crash into the greatsword user behind her.

Alissa comes into view and starts to circle northwards, around the spread out archers and mages. Roxanne points her staff at an archer that was aiming at her and his head suddenly explodes.

The two straggling metal soldiers notice Alissa and stop in their tracks, they turn towards her and start charging.

"CHAARGE! MAKE THEM WASTE MANA! GOLEMS ATTAAACK!" I order. I cast [Rush] and cross the opening in their line.

Ciel casts a [Wind Storm] on one of the metal soldiers. The spell doesn't touch him, but it does mess with his [Wind Shield], forcing him to use so much mana that it must be dropping like a waterfall.

Alissa finds a mage taking cover behind a barricade. Roxanne points her staff and the mage's head explodes like a watermelon.

The greatswordsman tries to skewer Hana, but she flies backwards instantly and dodges the attack.

The other metal soldiers try to converge on us, but the footmen, Lina, and Ciel prevent them from turning their backs to us.

Before the wounded metal soldier at the greatswordsman's feet can get up, Hana and I each fire a heavy [Earth Bullet] directly at her face, causing her helmet to cave in and she (seemingly) passes out.

I rush past them and move to the northwest, finding my first target.

A barrage of bolts and a few rocks lands on the enemy archers and mages, forcing them to take cover and ignore me.

I dive across the barricade in front of me and use [Telekinesis] to glide through. My sword slashes downwards, slicing through both fabric and leather like butter, but it doesn't reach the skin.

I use [Telekinesis] to force myself to land a meter behind the enemy mage.

A cute [Fire Spirit] stares at me and adorably coughs out a [Fireball]. It harmlessly dissipates close to my shield and I feel the emellanat get very hot.

"Aoi, crush," I order her with [Bind].

She grows herself into her larger form and both of her arms slam into the back of the mage's head, which then hits a wooden root on the ground and he immediately goes into a decerebrate posture. Aoi slices his throat and with her tail, she slams the Spirit, making it disappear in a puff of smoke. She reduces in size and glides towards my arm.

"GET HIM!" A man yells. I glance at him and see a metal soldier pointing at me.

No, I get you, Mr. Commander.

I feel "death" coming, so I dive again past the barricade and see arrows and [Fireball]s fly over my head.

Hana duels the greatswordsman, she has the advantage of reach, but he has the advantage of having nearly impenetrable armor. Her spear suddenly disappears with a *poof* and she draws her war hammer that was hanging at her waist.

Her arms turn into three and the man luckily parries the right one. A ghostly arm repeats the blow while she swings again and repeats the illusion. This time, the man feels the overwhelming strength of two attacks from a roided-out Hana and goes on the defensive. Hana repeats the combo and keeps pushing him back.

A lobbed arrow lands on top of Osaria's barricade and explodes near her face. She falls down and doesn't get back up.

Fuck!

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I turn to Mr. Commander and cast a large [Gravity Crush] so expanded that it even affects the air outside his [Wind Shield] and crushingly pressures down on him. I cast [Rush] and wince in pain as my brain struggles to maintain both spells at once.

Through Holly, I see Alissa get near an enemy archer while aiming for another mage. The archer fires an arrow.

"What? Dodge!" I yell through the [Bind].

"Huh?"

The barbed tips are slightly deflected due to Roxanne's [Wind Armor], but it still lodges itself in her neck, near her collarbone. Suddenly, her skin bursts into flame and a rainbow color flashes as [Rainbow Shield] activates. She shrieks and wheezes while desperately casting [Conjure Water] on herself to put out the flames. Alissa immediately stops in her tracks and doubles-back to help her.

I stop my spells, then I summon the Masked Aberrant. It's smaller than the original, but a murder machine is still a murder machine.

KILL THEM ALL!

I cast [Rush] again and cross the battlefield as fast as I can, aiming to reach Alissa.

Aoi jumps off my shoulder and lands on top of a mage, butchering him over a few seconds.

"RAAAH!" Hana yells in anger, wisps of fire escaping from her mouth. She fires an [Earth Bullet] after each [Double Image], pounding the greatswordsman into the ground while his very resistant armor finally begins to bend from the punishment.

Klein's leg is nearly blown off by an arrow that lands near her, but she continues lobbing arrows. Laertes is luckier and only gets singed.

Osaria is healed by Oura and wakes up, but yells in pain due to the burns on her face.

A mage is crushed instantly by the Aberrant, who turns around and fires another large block of stone at the last mage, then he aims for the straggler metal soldiers.

Alissa finds a safe area behind a large root and deposits Roxanne, who has finally managed to put out the fire, but she's still wheezing and struggling to breathe, with a large hole in her throat still preventing her from speaking.

Alissa desperately pulls out a bunch of HP potions and splashes them on Roxanne's wound, making her choke with the sudden influx of fluids down her airway. The arrow was just ripped out; there was no better way to go about it.

I finally reach Roxanne and immediately cast the strongest [Heal] I can on her neck. My world spins as the mana overuse starts affecting me. I look at her wound and see that it's still a gnarled mess of skin and muscle, continuing to bleed due to the unfinished heal.

Damn! Ciel! Help me!

Tears run down my face as I whimper and scramble through my thoughts, trying to remember how to [Heal] properly.

Redo the skin, the muscles, the bones, the nerves, the veins and arteries. Redo, redo, redo!

I cast another [Heal] and my sight goes completely dark as the overuse intensifies.

I suddenly feel mana coursing along my skin as Alissa casts [Ignorance] on both of us.

"Wha…?"

I suddenly notice through a Holly that the sneaky archer from before has crept his way towards us.

Alissa fires an arrow and dodges. Her arrow narrowly misses the archer while his lands where she just was. I feel a wild amount of mana escape the arrow so I immediately throw myself on top of Roxanne just before the arrow explodes.

Heat and pain hits the side of my face and flank, then my ears start buzzing from the explosion. I grunt as my skin burns and sticks to the padding of my armor.

"[Firestorm]," Roxanne mutters with a hoarse voice.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" The man shrieks in a chilling high-pitched voice. He doesn't die quickly and spends many long seconds screaming in pain.

I cast a small [Heal] on my ears.

"AH!" Alissa yells shortly in pain and grimaces.

I can see that Roxanne's wound is now healed, but she looks like she's in a stupor.

I try to rush over to Alissa but I trip since I can only see through the Hollys right now. Her tail is half-burned and her right leg is sizzling while the skin burns. [Rainbow Shield] flashes, reducing the damage to her skin.

I crawl my way towards her and try to grab her leg, only for her to bat my hand away.

"You can use your mana better!" She chastises me.

"I'm blind, overuse," I say weakly. The pain in the side of my body is starting to intensify.

"Shit…"

"I'll use [Redirect Mana]. You and Roxanne get out of here."

"What about the other enemies?"

"Aoi got them and the Aberrant is clearing out the line."

"Aberrant…" She grimaces, then grabs my hand and holds it on her burning skin. "Do it."

I cast another [Heal] and feel my mana drop to dangerously low levels.

"Roxanne?" I turn to her and ask.

"Okay…" She mutters weakly. "I can fight…"

"Go!" I yell to Alissa.

While grimacing heavily, she grabs Roxanne and gives her a piggy-back ride. Then she turns into a fox and dashes away with Roxanne sitting perfectly on her back.

"Ignore me and continue fighting," I tell Aoi through [Bind].

"What?!"

"Trust me."

"Okay!"

That was easy.

There's only three remaining metal soldiers on our side now, so I unsummon the Aberrant and cast [Heal] on myself. The growing pain in my side nearly disappears, but the overuse stacks up again and I lose my hearing.

Suddenly, a ball of fire impacts the overlook where Ted and Suzy are. The two dolls are playing dead while the mage searches the area for the pesky sharpshooter.

Frustrated at finding nothing, he throws a [Fireball] at the crossbows, blowing them all up and throwing Ted and Suzy off the overlook.

He turns around and starts chanting something I have never heard before. Something… evil.

Chants aren't supposed to be chilling, but "hellfire" is the least horrible word he's using.

The mana all over the battlefield goes wild. The soldiers on our side, who were doing a short cheer, suddenly stop. Even the side of the nobles, who are in a difficult battle, stop completely.

All of our mages desperately try to undo the spell, but we are all too far away and the mage is too powerful.

You know what? FUCK YOU!

I sit down and concentrate. I spread my soul far and reach towards the maelstrom of mana that's forming above our camp.

Redirecting mana to myself involves "willing" it to come to me, but what if I will it to do something else? Wait… isn't that like casting a spell? Instead of casting where my body is, I can try to cast it where a part of my soul is.

I have no time left to test this, so the brute-force method it is.

I completely wrap my soul over the maelstrom. I see Roxanne chanting [Heart of Fire], but she'll put herself in a dangerous position if she charges at that mage. Hana is catching her breath, I have to finish this before she tries to attack.

Stop this! I don't want you, I don't need you, you should go away! This mana is a tainted, filthy, disgusting piece of shit! I hate you, I wish you death, I wish you pestilence, I wish you chaos, I wish you pain, I wish you cold, I wish you darkness, I wish you to go to hell!

"And I'm fee~ling good!"

The hit drops and the music gives me goosebumps.

"Ahahahah!" I laugh and fall on my ass.

A bright pink fairy slaps the baddie mage on the cheek with such strength that she rips his jaw off and twists his neck. Then he's sent flying off the overlook.

The wood turns to sand and a huge hole opens up in one side of the helix tree.

The fat man burps towards the sky and lights his own gas on fire. It shoots up fast and reaches the leaves of the trees. The fire quickly consumes the branches, making it rain flaming leaves, which then burn slower. But fire consumes everything, so the flaming rain changes midway into flaming snow.

The men down below yell in pain as the flaming snow lightly sears their skin and immediately fizzles out, leaving a wet welt on each spot. The commoners panic as the double helix tree creaks and buckles, but doesn't come crashing down. The children laugh as the leprechauns all come out of the holes in the tree to gasp and faint in surprise at what has been done to their home.

"Oh no! Don't laugh! Poor lepries!" I gasp and cover my mouth with my hand.

The adorable woodland creatures rush to the battlefield and swarm over the evil men. Their cute, serrated pincers inject venom into the blood of those who dare to struggle.

As fast as it came, the bent reality warps back into its normal shape and the battlefield turns to a standstill again.

"FUCK THAT! I STILL GOT DICKS TO CASTRATE!" Hana taunts while raging and flies towards the front line on the nobles' side. The battle quickly resumes after that.

Wait, what the fuck just happened?

Gih.

Fuck me, did I almost break reality?

Gih.

Raw mana manipulation is really dangerous…

Gih!

Okay, sorry, I…

Anger flares again as a Holly notices a group of fifteen horsemen galloping down the road from the east. They are carrying lances and seem to be armed for battle.

For fuck's sake!

I crawl out from my cover and tumble my way towards the road.

"Alissa, get Roxanne to pull out the flaming oil flasks and bring Lina with you. More enemies are coming from the east," I say through [Bind].

"Understood!"

"And come find me."

A horrible headache starts to pound in my skull. I grit my teeth and let the anger flow through me.

You are all still underestimating me, which is good, but still so damn frustrating.

Alissa appears beside me with Roxanne, who is recovering from her stupor, and Lina on top of her. Roxanne clinks the dangerous flasks and giggles evilly.

We hear the trotting of the horses and soon they appear down the road. The still living metal soldiers on the other side cheer at the sight of them.

Through Alissa's ears, I hear her ask, "What are you going to do?" She seems slightly nervous about my deteriorating mental state.

"Fuck them the only way they deserve."

I can't see, so I cast a very long and wide [Warp Space] where I think they are going to pass through and hold it there. I force the space to be very deep, which makes the rest of my mana rapidly empty out of my body.

Meh, I have enough left.

I unsummon one Holly and exactly what I wanted happens: the horses enter the area of my [Warp Space] and their hooves desperately try to find the ground, only to suddenly discover it when they finally accepted that they were falling into a hole. This makes the first horses immediately crash to the ground, which causes the ones behind them crash onto the first, and a domino effect ensues. Those who try to avoid it and move to the sides, also fall into the warped space and crash on the ground, too.

Once they are all down, I finally dispel the warped space.

"I can't see, so you'll have to do it, Lina."

Roxanne giggles evilly and gives the flasks to my adorable little girl. Mana courses through Lina's body and she hurls the flasks. They perfectly hit the horsemen and splash most of them with the sticky, highly flammable, oil.

After one last giggle, Roxanne casts a spell.

"[Fire Storm]."

Hall of Fame of Patrons.

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Oracle Maximillian Hübner.

Prince Bradly.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Hope.

Lord Samuel Lim.

Lord Cody Weigel.

Lord Bill.

Lord Novgarod.

Lord DJ.

Lord Ashadun.

Noble Salty Panda.

Nobleman Lassiter.

Noble D4rk Sheep.

Manasong

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