The crowd of around four hundred combatants splits up into dozens of groups of four to ten people each and floods into the streets and alleys of Barad’s guild district. The infiltration of the Spacers Guild won’t be for about an hour, when most people are in the thick of battle. I follow Merrick and Morah, along with the rest of our side's leadership and about thirty other people, half of them water mages and the other half various members of small great houses that have aligned with us. Mordak is surprisingly the only necromancer with us right now. I think they might be planning something.
Daniel, Corvax, Stella, Clark, and Duncan also follow, and we form a small group together behind Merrick and Morah. I activate [Barrier] on my mana arm, creating a thick skin of defensive mana around it. It immediately feels more solid than I could make it before, and it could probably take a hit or two before dissipating now. I thicken and thin the barrier at certain points, trying to get used to the skill before I have to use it in a fight.
[You have leveled up an active skill]
[Barrier] lvl 2
After about five minutes of walking through empty streets, we round a corner onto the main street of the district and find a similarly sized group waiting for us already, about a hundred feet away. They have several space mages working together to create a single large spatial perception field around them. I push my field right up against theirs and try to push it back, but there is little to no give. Instead, the four space mages start to push back on my field.
I apply [Barrier] once again, but this time to my spatial perception field, specifically where the two fields are fighting for control. My field slowly stops losing ground over the next few seconds as we walk up, and I begin to feel how [Barrier] works. Instead of making a physical barrier like I did with my arm, I just try to make it so that magical perception is the only thing being blocked. It feels natural to use it this way. Like if I tried to create a physical barrier by piggybacking off of my spatial perception field, it would take a ridiculous amount of mana and control to manage.
[You have leveled up an active skill]
[Barrier] lvl 3 > [Barrier] lvl 5
Morah stops our group about fifty feet from the group in front of us, and we all get ready for what’s to come. Daniel, Stella, and Corvax are all wearing the same armor and wielding the same weapons as when we cleared the dungeon a few days ago, Duncan is in a set of the Necromancers Guild’s robes, and Clark is wearing a set of half plate that he got from somewhere and is wielding a shield and shortsword. I’m still in my dress clothes from the ball, as I don’t have any armor to wear. Hopefully [Barrier] solves that from here on out.
Loranor steps out from the middle of the enemy group, his left leg some kind of metal prosthetic from the thigh down. He clearly isn’t used to walking around with it yet based on how awkwardly he hobbles to the front of the group. He looks pissed, but even more than that, he looks stressed. I guess he wasn't expecting a war either. He starts shouting something at us, but before he finishes his sentence, Merrick takes a spear out of a spatial bag on his hip and throws it straight at Loranor.
Loranor, to his credit, manages to react just before the spear would probably kill him with a quick flick of his wrist, causing the spear to slightly change course and impale the guy next to him through the chest, killing him instantly. Loranor’s eyes go wide, and he quickly retreats back to the middle of the group before another spear can kill him.
“Let’s kill some fucking spacers!” Merrick shouts as he rushes towards the enemy.
My group is the first to follow, with Daniel and Corvax following just behind Morah and Merrick. I create a sword out of my mana and add a spatial edge to it while simultaneously creating about a half dozen mana projectiles packed with as much mana as I can put into them. Daniel steers our group toward a similarly sized group of what look like standard full plate knights, all equipped in clearly enchanted armor with weapons and shields to match. They see us and move to an open part of the street to meet us.
[Level 35 Shield Warden]
[Level 33 Axe Guardian]
[Level 38 Sword Sentinel]
[Level 37 Mace Warrior]
[Level 34 Brawler]
[Level 35 Lightning Swordsman]
As we rush up to them, I manage to get most of the area, including our six opponents, into my spatial perception field, which should give us a huge advantage in this fight. The enemy forms into a line with a few feet between each other, inviting us to fight six duels instead of one big mosh pit. When we get close, each of us chooses an enemy, and we split up to quickly begin our fights.
I pair up with the sword sentinel, a man with a sword in each hand and glowing yellow lines along his armor. I settle into as deep a state of [Concentration] as my mind can comfortably manage. We stand ten feet from each other, and a single nod is the only greeting we need before we both burst into action. He rushed towards me with a sudden burst of speed, his swords aimed at my vitals for a quick and clean kill.
Gravity suddenly weighs down on him while simultaneously making me lighter, all thanks to [Gravity Shift]. I manage to dodge out of the way and launch a mana projectile in response, aiming for his face and the small eye slits on his helmet. He blocks it with his swords and quickly moves to get into range again. I move backwards, towards an empty alley while keeping my eyes on my opponent, and part of my focus on my allies and their fights.
Once in the alley, I keep baiting the knight further and further in, dodging his attacks when I can, and teleporting out of the way when I can’t. He’s a much better melee fighter than me, so I know that if the fight ends up in that direction, I will lose, so instead I will do what I always do when fighting a tougher opponent: use the inherently annoying properties of fighting a space mage to my advantage.
Two portals open up at the same time, one behind my opponent and one behind me. Through them step two of Corvax’s family members, slightly surprised but familiar enough with my portals to recognize they were mine. Tralon and Helmir, if I remember their names right.
“Think I could get a little help here, fellas?” I ask as they take in the situation.
“For you, little brother? I guess we could help.” The one behind the knight, Tralon, says as the three of us close in on our opponent.
“Coward! Where is your honor?” The knight yells at me as soon as he sees my backup.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to fight them either.”
The knight manages to fend us off far better than I thought he would, often giving us each a wound for every one that he got, but despite his talent, our numbers overwhelm him shortly. I feign an attack to his belly, which causes him to move to parry it, allowing Helmir to get a clean strike on the back of his head with his hammer, sending him to the ground, helmet dented. I plunge my sword into a joint in the armor as two more hammers rain blows down on his neck and back, stopping only a moment later.
[You have slain a creature]
[Level 38 Sword Sentinel]
The three of us look at each other for a moment before nodding. I open up another portal to put them back where they were before and head back to my teammates. It’s only been about a minute since the duels started, but it looks like I’m nearly the last one to finish my fight. The rest of the group are catching their breath while Daniel finishes his fight against the lightning swordsman. He was struggling when we first started fighting, and I almost left my fight early to help him, but at some point the lightning stopped affecting him as much and just started flowing through his armor like a Faraday cage or something. The fight ends once Daniel grapples the man and uses [Metal Manipulation] to slowly lock the joints of his armor up until he can easily slip a dagger through the eye slit.
Duncan was surprisingly the first to end his fight, and I have no idea how he even did it. He launched some kind of spell that bound up the brawler in some kind of black cloud, leaving only the head exposed. After that, he’s just been sitting next to the struggling man, constantly casting some kind of spell through the binding cloud, targeting the head. A few seconds later, he stops casting the spell and looks towards the man with curiosity and expectation in his eyes.
The brawler stops struggling as soon as the final spell is cast and instead sits perfectly still, not even blinking. The black cloud then sucks itself into the man's head, turning his eyes completely black and his skin a sickly gray. Duncan puts the helmet back on the man and helps him stand up.
“What was that?” I ask him curiously, ready to put the brawler down if I need to.
“A new type of undead ritual I created,” Duncan says. “It should allow me to use the skills and abilities of a person to nearly the same potency that was possible in life, but I think I need to find a more compatible soul for the host body. The goblin soul I used didn’t handle the process very well. More testing is required.”
[Level 34 Undead Brawler]
Duncan gives the new undead a few commands, such as “punch,” “walk,” and “block,” but the undead looks like a toddler with how little control over the body it has. What the fuck? Did he really shove a goblin soul into that body? Is that why it will be able to use its skills to their full extent? The undead suddenly starts to move much better, and after a few seconds I realize that Duncan has taken direct control over it.
I give him a pat on the shoulder. “Are you going to push forward with us, or make use of these bodies?”
“I will build my horde, then crush our enemy.”
“Really playing into the necromancer role now, are we?” I joke, which gets a small smile from Duncan.
“Good luck, Ray. Call for me and my brother if you need help.”
Daniel, Corvax, Stella, and I move on shortly after, heading towards another group of enemies currently engaged with a few water mages. We manage to take them out quickly enough with a sneak attack and the numbers advantage. Looking around, I see that Loranor and the space mages are standing behind their warriors, looking slightly frantic at the state of the battle. They still have the numbers advantage, but we are killing more of them than they are of us. Looking around, only a few mages from our side have died, and a few more are seriously injured, but they know who to ask and where to head for healing.
Merrick pops up next to us as we look for more targets, his hands covered in blood, but otherwise he is completely unscathed. He has his usual smug grin, like this is just another day of the week and not the start of a massive war.
“Do something cool,” Merrick tells me.
“What?” I respond back, exasperated.
“You’re the figurehead of this army. Do something cool in front of the leadership. Show them how powerful you are.” Merrick responds back like it’s the most obvious thing to do right now.
Ah, he wants me to farm aura. I think I can see the merit to that. The emperor only put me in this position because he thought I would be a powerful space mage the locals could rally behind. I guess it’s time to prove that.
I slowly rise into the air in a column of anti-gravity, stabilizing myself once I reach about thirty feet up. I start creating a mana javelin over my right shoulder, packing it with as much mana as I can using [Mana Shaping] and [Concentration]. I create a [Barrier] around the outside, allowing me to pack in more mana where I usually hit my limit. The color of the javelin shifts from a light green to dark before small white dots start appearing inside of it, and I reach my new limit.
[You have leveled up multiple skills]
[Mana Shaping] lvl 23
[Concentration] lvl 21
[Barrier] lvl 6
Next, I start creating the largest gravity burst I have attempted yet. I feel how [Gravity Shift] and [Gravity Sense] respond, and under the influence of [Concentration], I come to a conclusion that has evaded me thus far. My gravity skills suck compared to [Space Control]. It feels like I picked them up from the discount rack, while [Space Control] is name brand and top quality. It feels like my gravity skills are both one half to a greater whole, and if I’m going to show off, I can't half-ass it with weak skills.
As I build up the huge burst of gravity, I also start trying to ‘shove’ my two gravity skills together. I don’t even know if it’s possible to change skills in the way I want to, but I start to feel something give, causing me to push harder and harder. The mass of gravity building behind the javelin is starting to gain a good amount of attention from those below. Every time it starts to slip from my control, I redouble my efforts and manage to wrangle it back into submission. After about a minute of the skills grating against each other, they finally click together, and I get several new notifications.
[You have successfully combined two skills]
[Gravity Shift] lvl 9 and [Gravity Sense] lvl 5
[You have learned a new skill]
[Gravity Manipulation] lvl 1
[You have gained a new affinity]
[Gravity]
As soon as I feel the new power of [Gravity Manipulation], I use it to launch the javelin towards the middle of the enemy group, right for Loranor and his fellow space mages, after tweaking the [Barrier] on it slightly.
The javelin leaves my shoulder with a thunderous boom, heading on a direct path for the space mages. Everyone’s attention shifts to me for just a microsecond before going back to their own problems, everyone except the four space mages.
Loranor is the first to react, which makes me think he has some kind of early warning skill or something similar to [Danger Sense]. He pulls a nearby armored man between him and where the javelin is going to impact just in time. The javelin pierces straight through the chest of one of the space mages and continues until it hits the ground, at which point it explodes from the pressure of the mana filling it.
The [Barrier] around the javelin fractures just like I wanted it to and sends small shards of mana out like some kind of super-powered grenade, shredding everything it hits. I drop to the ground before somebody can retaliate and look at the notifications I just received.
[You have slain multiple creatures]
[Level 26 Astral Novice]
[Level 28 Space Scout]
[Level 26 Portal Technician]
[Level 31 Lancer Captain]
[Level 32 Wind Knight]
[You have leveled up to level 35]
[You have leveled up to level 36]
[You have leveled up an active skill]
[Gravity Manipulation] lvl 2 > [Gravity Manipulation] lvl 4
“Well, that was pretty cool.” Merrick says as I land next to him.