Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 84 –

Ava gulped at what she had just seen. Even after the bloody giant had disappeared, she was still frozen with a primal terror and a cold chill was lingering around her spine.

When Ava finally jolted out of her daze, she cursed at herself. Ava immediately channeled mana to teleport again.

However, before Ava could teleport, the space had been sealed.

Black shackles were binding her. Bone spears assaulted her from all sides.

A crystal on Ava’s necklace glowed brightly, and a white barrier blocked all attacks.

“Hmph.” Ava retrieved an item and then erased the spatial lock.

While Saul was preparing to renew the spatial lock around Ava, Ava had hurled the item away.

When the item hit the ground, a temporary dimensional gate opened with the paired item that was still with one of the commanders.

Immediately after the gate had opened, soldiers started pouring into Syn.

While Saul was thus occupied, Ava managed to escape.

***

“Crap,” cursed Terry and dodged the weird jaw-like projectile that shot at him from below.

Always the fourth one that is annoying. Just like the Alricks.

Terry glared at the soldier that he was currently pulling towards himself.

The woman’s skin had turned completely red, and she had some strange ability to shoot a jaw that seemed to be formed from lava.

With the first three soldiers, Terry’s approach had worked without a hitch. He picked a target that seemed incapable of teleportation and flight. He pulled them into the air, pinned them between transfixed items and then finished them off.

The third one had been skilled at long-range attacks, but Terry only had to avoid exposing a direct line of sight. Still workable.

The fourth one, however, posed a slight problem: The woman was not a pure channeler and capable of a disruption discharge.

Luckily, the woman had been impatient and disrupted the tertium slabs as soon as she was within range. If she had waited long enough to follow up with an attack on Terry…

No point dwelling on it— Wait, why was she so impatient?

“Ahh…” Terry put his right hand on his forehead. “I’m an idiot.”

No comment.

Terry started stepping further up into the air and dodged the woman’s projectiles whenever he had to.

When Terry judged the height high enough, he deactivated his glove and let the woman fall to her death.

That could have been a lot faster.

“Yeah yeah.” Terry grumbled and picked his next target. “Wait, what?”

Terry sensed the signature of one of Syn’s human guards up in the air. “Did he have a flying ability?”

If so, he is excellent at hiding it…

“Crap.” Terry was about to summon one of his roped rings.

Not fast enough from here, numbskull! RUN!

Terry burst his mana and rushed forward. Activating the extension layer with as little mana as possible. Jumping with as much strength as possible. Repeat.

Terry had trained the sequence until it had become second nature.

Somewhat.

Terry mistimed one foot by infusing slightly too much mana into the imprint activation, but he managed to correct the movement by delaying the activation for the second foot accordingly.

When Terry was close enough, he threw a roped ring into the air with his right hand and activated the Gravitational Attraction glove with his left hand.

Terry put his arm through the roped ring that was still in his hand and pushed the gymnastic ring up to his shoulder.

Terry pulled the man towards himself and thereby slowed down the man’s fall while increasing his own speed.

“Got you!” exclaimed Terry and grabbed the man with both hands.

The man had terror in his eyes and did not respond.

Terry let himself fall and relied on the roped rings to bring himself and the Guard back to earth.

“Are you okay?” asked Terry.

“Wha— Wastes, I thought I was dead for sure.” The man was extremely pale. “Thank you!”

“Happy to help!” For the first time since the battle had started, Terry managed a heartfelt smile.

Battle is still going on. Make yourself useful.

“Right,” muttered Terry to himself.

“What?” asked the guard.

“Uhh… nothing.”

Weirdo.

“Actually, what happened? How did you get up there?”

“Beats me.” The guard shrugged. “Dimensional mage, I guess.”

Try not to run into that one.

Terry cleared his throat. “I should go.”

“Yeah, me too.” The guard sighed. “Stay safe.”

Terry threw an octavum needle and pulled himself up into the air again.

“Okay…” Terry concentrated on his mana sense. “That one!”

Terry used his roped rings to swing towards his target. A man that was completely covered with colorful fish scales was running through Syn’s central park.

Terry activated his Gravitational Attraction glove.

“Hurgh.” Terry felt as if he had caught one of his boulders and he immediately had to deactivate the glove.

The soldier with fish scales stopped running and turned towards Terry. He displayed a derisive sneer.

Uh-oh.

A moment later, Terry met the boulder again – only this time, it had come to rest on Terry’s shoulders.

Terry was forced to deactivate his boot imprints to avoid being crushed against immovable layers. He plunged towards the ground.

Terry activated the extension pearls in his bracers one by one. Whenever a pearl deactivated and returned to its position at the bracer, Terry activated it again.

This way, Terry gradually slowed his fall despite the increased pressure on himself. He arrived safely on the ground.

The boulder had vanished again.

The soldier was rushing towards Terry.

“Crap.”

How does this ability work? Increase in gravity? Increase in weight? Pressure manipulation? Some kind of force magic?

“Screw it.” Terry ran away.

In the time it takes to deal with the rainbow fishie, I could go after several others…

“Hurgh.” Terry fell to his knees. The boulder was back.

I think rainbow fishie has taken a liking to you, you little charmer.

“Cowards get crushed,” snarled the soldier. He had stopped more than a dozen meters away from Terry.

Terry quickly retrieved a tertium slab with handles and transfixed it in front of himself. Afterwards, he peeked at the soldier from behind the slab.

Why isn’t he doing anything?

No long-range attacks?

Why isn’t he coming closer?

Terry narrowed his eyes.

Maybe he’s shy?

“Not helping.” Terry forcefully shook his head. “Focus.”

“Haah…” Terry exhaled a breath of air when the feeling of pressure was finally gone.

Immediately after the pressure had been lifted, the scaled soldier dashed forward until he was only three meters away from Terry.

Terry continued to hide behind the slab.

“No escape,” said the soldier and clapped his hands.

Terry could sense a mana distortion.

Seems somewhat familiar?

Go at him with the mana sublimator?

But then what about ethereal assailants I might meet later?

Take a quick trip into a dungeon to collect more cores?

“Yeah, right.” Terry exclaimed sarcastically.

Do something!

Terry summoned a throwing needle. He dashed away from his shielding slab, hurled the needle at the soldier, and dashed back behind the slab.

“Tak.”

Terry saw the needle colliding with something invisible between himself and the soldier.

I don’t even see anything in mana sight…

“You can die now,” said the soldier and clapped his hands twice in quick succession.

The air around Terry turned freezing and snow appeared and piled up.

Terry shivered, but paid close attention to how the snow flew and fell around him.

Invisible cage? More like a barrier. No gaps… But also no noticeable mana signature. Only a distortion…

Terry backed away from the tertium slab and summoned his fire-aspected spear. He attacked the strange barrier.

Unfortunately, the strange barrier showed no reaction.

At least the fire-aspected spear tip can warm you up a bit. Doubt that will work for long, though.

Terry summoned his war hammer and smashed it into the obstruction… Still no success. It was as if he attacked an immovable wall.

Strange twist of fate? Karma?

“Hmph.” Terry could see his own breath.

“No use, just accept your death quietly.” The soldier smirked from outside.

Terry burst his mana and swung the hammer again.

However, the barrier did not budge.

“Haah…” Terry stopped bursting his mana and examined the strange barrier more closely.

The war hammer showed no result, but it was also not damaged. Terry took this to mean that the strange barrier did not inflict damage.

Terry moved his fingertips over the strange layer that trapped him inside.

No choice but to put more oomph into it.

Terry burst his mana while he still had his hand on the strange barrier. The sound of something shattering entered his ears and, unexpectedly, Terry’s hand felt no resistance anymore.

“What?” The soldier was dumbstruck. “How did you…?!”

Don’t ask me.

More importantly, RUN, YOU IDIOT!

Terry abandoned the tertium slab and dashed away.

“OH NO, YOU DON’T!” shouted the soldier.

Terry fell to one knee again and gritted his teeth at the feeling of being crushed.

Force your way through? But that would mean continuous bursting…

Terry shook his head and stopped bursting his mana. He gritted his teeth and withstood the soldier’s ability in his balanced mana consumption state.

Eventually, the pressure subsided.

A second later, the soldier clapped his hands.

“Let’s see if you can pull that off again,” sneered the soldier. “I don’t believe that a worm like you is a dimensional mage.”

He has a point there.

Terry stood up and stretched his limbs. He walked back to the tertium slab, which was barely inside the strange barrier. Terry collected the slab back into his storage bracelet.

If the soldier had no proper long-range attacks, then Terry had no need to hide.

The soldier clapped his hands twice, and another snowstorm started to rage inside the barrier.

Terry replayed in his mind what he had done before. The shattering sound stood out in his memory, because just like the mana distortion, it felt oddly familiar. Terry believed he had heard that exact sound before.

But what is the connection between this trap and Alrik’s secret dungeon?

Terry walked forward towards the soldier until he reached the invisible resistance. He retrieved his fire-aspected short spear again.

Terry placed his hand on the strange barrier. He stared at the soldier that stood not far from him. Without losing contact with the barrier, Terry took a stance, ready for sprinting forward.

What does…

“Don’t ask me,” said Terry. He burst his mana and a familiar shattering sound followed.

Terry charged at the soldier.

“What?!” The soldier was surprised but reacted on instinct. His forearms glowed in many colors and he blocked Terry’s spear attack.

Terry darted around the soldier and attacked from behind.

The soldier turned and as soon as his eyes were pointed back to Terry…

Terry activated the Blinding Flash imprint in his right glove.

The soldier moved his arms together and a rainbow-colored shield appeared in front of his arms. However, the expected impact did not follow.

A chill ran down the soldier’s spine, and he quickly turned on instinct.

Terry attacked him with his cold-fire aspected spear in one hand and a barrier spear in his other hand.

The soldier readied his glowing forearms to block both spears… which left his chest wide open.

Terry jumped slightly and transfixed the center pearls on his bracers in front of him. He swung with bent knees, transfixed his back armor, burst his mana, and then kicked the soldier with both legs.

The soldier was thrown back.

“ARRHG!” The soldier stared at Terry in shock. Then, he looked down at his stomach and saw the fire-aspected spear that had pierced through him.

Terry had transfixed the fire-aspected spear under the cover of the blinding flash.

Terry charged forward with his two short spears in hand.

The soldier moved his forearms to block again, but Terry simply darted around the soldier.

The soldier gritted his teeth and threw himself forward to avoid having Terry at his back. Unfortunately for the soldier, the fire-aspected spear remained immovable and the soldier’s movement tore his own stomach further apart.

Terry charged at the wounded soldier.

The soldier coughed up blood and grabbed Terry’s spears.

Terry rapidly switched his grip and held the spears near the end of their poles in reverse grip. He pushed them up and a moment later, the poles were placed above the soldier’s wrists. Without pause, Terry transfixed both spears and dashed between them towards the soldier’s chest.

The soldier saw Terry move a hand to the dagger at Terry’s hip. The soldier wanted to move, but the reflexes that training had ingrained into his body were blocked by immovable spears.

The last thing the soldier saw was an inscribed dagger rushing towards him.

“Haah…” Terry took deep breaths to calm down again.

What does bursting oscillating mana have to do with the shattering sound?

“Don’t know. Something, apparently. Seemed to shatter the trap from the rainbow fishie.”

The dungeon?

“Space was sealed there in some way. Otherwise, the Recall scroll would have worked.”

But didn’t you hear the sound before Gellath tried his scroll?

“I heard the sound multiple times. Maybe the trap recovered. Or maybe the effect is limited to me? Or maybe… Not the time.”

Right. Don’t take out your notebook. I know you want to.

Make yourself useful.

***

Terry glared at the annoying soldier that refused to die.

At first, everything had been going according to plan. However, when Terry tried to pin the woman with his spears against the immovable slab, things went sideways.

The soldier had an ability that allowed her to liquify parts of her body. She had liquified the parts that were blocked by the spears and escaped Terry’s trap with no trouble.

The soldier had formed icy claws on her hands and pounced on Terry.

Terry had quickly backed off and tried to let her drop from up high. Unfortunately, the soldier had yet another annoying ability. Shortly before the impact, the woman had turned completely translucent, like a blue crystal.

The soldier had taken no damage whatsoever.

Look for a new target?

The soldier was glaring back at Terry from below.

Try asking her if she could pretend that nothing happened.

The soldier formed a circle with her hands and then a blue beam of light escaped from there to shoot at Terry.

Terry evaded by switching from his boot imprints to his mid-ankle pearls and letting himself fall backwards.

Afterwards, Terry somersaulted in the air to get back into a standing position before resuming his staring match with the soldier below.

“There must be a reason she did not liquify to avoid the gravitational attraction. Some kind of limitation to the ability.”

Terry took a deep breath and then used his glove to pull the soldier towards himself.

The soldier glared at Terry and did not move a muscle while being lifted into the air.

Terry threw an octavum needle into her path.

The soldier liquified around the transfixed needle without taking any damage.

With normal spellwork, it would require a high-level spell to liquify the equipment together with the body. Channelers are such cheats.

Terry retrieved a barrier spear and deactivated his boots. He and the soldier were now pulled towards each other.

The soldier equipped her icy claws again.

Terry deactivated his glove and used his boots to air-jump towards the soldier’s back.

The soldier rotated in the air with eyes fixed on Terry. Unfortunately for her, she could not stop her movement whenever she wanted.

Terry rapidly struck with his spear.

The soldier evaded the attack by liquifying parts of her body.

The woman fell and Terry moved around her while repeatedly striking at her from all sides.

Terry pulled her up again and then swung around with his imprinted pearls. Instead of striking out with his spear, Terry lightly touched the metal toe-cap on one of the woman’s boots.

The soldier’s toe-cap became immovable while the woman continued rotating sideways in the air.

Terry retrieved a septimum needle into his left hand and moved towards the back of the woman.

The woman screamed when her ankle sprained. She hurriedly liquified her leg.

“Huh,” uttered Terry and transfixed the septimum needle while continuing to move around the woman.

The toe-cap did not get liquified…

Before the woman’s leg solidified again, Terry struck out with his spear. He aimed for the woman’s head.

The woman liquified her head and glared at Terry, who was retrieving his coldfire-aspected spear.

“ARGH!” The soldier screamed when she fell on the transfixed septimum needle. The needle entered her flesh and prevented her from falling further.

Terry immediately activated the barrier in his spear and lunged at the soldier with both spears in hand.

To Terry’s chagrin, the woman liquified herself rapidly at whatever location he aimed at.

Terry activated his Blinding Flash glove.

The soldier immediately crystallized after losing her eyesight.

*Tak* Terry’s barrier spear harmlessly collided with the crystallized woman’s chest.

Seems as if she cannot move in that form.

Terry darted around the woman and exchanged his barrier spear with the spear that Tiana’s brother had aspected for him with lightning.

Terry placed the lightning-aspected spear-tip at the woman’s nape and the coldfire-aspected spear into the wound from the needle.

After transfixing the spears, Terry quickly returned to the woman’s front and retrieved the one-handed war hammer he had received from Damian, the Thanatos soldier.

Terry grabbed the war hammer with both hands and raised it up. He activated the Enlarge Metal Object imprint, followed by the Immovable Object imprints in his bracers. He sensed for mana fluctuations and glared down at the soldier with bated breath.

Now!

Terry deactivated his bracers and smashed the enlarged hammerhead into the soldier’s body that had become vulnerable again.

Terry could hear his own heartbeat while he watched the life disappear from the soldier’s eyes.

Dodge!

Terry deactivated all his immovable equipment and fell to dodge an ice spike that had been thrown at him from behind. During his fall, he returned the one-handed war hammer to his storage bracelet.

Terry transfixed an extension pearl on his bracer and rotated in the air to view the assailant.

“Crap.”

The enemy soldier had a pair of icy wings on her back.

Terry frowned. He had tried hard to avoid getting tangled up with an enemy capable of flight.

Bolas? But there are many ice-based abilities that could cut the rope…

Close combat? Doesn’t look like she wants to get close. Use the glove?

While Terry was still trying to order his thoughts, the enemy soldier was hit by a death spear from a pair of death mages that had been chasing her through the sky.

The woman ignited in a cyan fire while falling. On the ground, a new skeletal warrior emerged and ran to the frontline.

You need a plan for flying enemies.

“Thank you!” shouted Terry. He did not know if the death mages had heard him.

Can’t always rely on others to save you.

“Yeah yeah.” Terry grumbled. “Maybe I should stay near the ground for now.”

***

I think you picked the wrong opponent.

“You think?” exclaimed Terry sarcastically while bolting through the streets of Syn.

How can the chubby chonker be so fast?

Terry had tried to ambush a soldier, only to find out that not all of the soldier’s body was made up of fat. The man wore some kind of tortoise shell underneath his loose clothes and Terry’s spear failed to inflict any real damage.

*WRAM!* The angry soldier created a shortcut by crashing through the wall of a house.

Was that my room? I hope not…

The soldier stood in front of Terry. Each of his hands was holding a large club.

Terry’s instincts told him to run.

Nope.

A foreign mana signature appeared behind Terry and cut off his path of retreat.

Felan?

“No, just hairy,” mumbled Terry to himself.

A woman stood there with a whip in hand. She was wearing studded leather armor. All exposed skin was covered in long hair.

Terry glanced up.

Nopety nope.

Right above Terry, several death mages were engaging enemy soldiers.

I hope the equipment from Aunt Sigille is effective.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” grumbled Terry.

Terry examined the mana signatures of the soldiers and their equipment.

“Let me try something.” Terry dashed towards the tortoise soldier. He had to jump left to evade a whip that had struck towards him from behind.

“Come, little pipsqueak!” sneered the enormous man.

Joke’s on him. I’m pretty tall for a dwarf.

Terry snorted and burst his mana.

A giant club swung at Terry from his left. The club collided with an immovable bracer. Terry quickly struck his right palm at the club and transfixed it in the air.

Next, Terry deactivated his left bracer and ducked beneath the man’s arm to avoid any potential attack from the second club.

Before the man could realize what was going on with his weapon, Terry touched the vambrace on the man’s right arm and transfixed it in the air.

The soldier’s skin became flushed and some kind of steam rose from his skin. His eyes turned completely red. Unfortunately for him, even the increase in strength did not allow him to move the immovable items.

Terry gave a quick glance towards the woman to make sure her path of attack was still blocked by the other soldier.

Terry jumped and leaned back to transfix his back plate, and then he kicked at the man’s elbow. The arm broke above the joint.

Terry deactivated his imprint and dashed towards the man’s back. In passing, he touched the soldier’s greaves and transfixed them in place.

“Hmph.” Terry frowned.

The woman had arrived next to her comrade.

Terry wanted to summon a spear and attack the man’s head while his movement was limited.

“Huh?” Terry blurted out.

The man had pulled his head and the remaining arm into his tortoise shell.

Meanwhile, Terry and the woman were playing catch around the man because Terry always tried to keep the immobilized soldier between himself and the woman until he saw a good opportunity.

While Terry was circling the soldier, he drew his inscribed dagger and cut at the man’s exposed wrist and thighs.

Shouldn’t he be dead by now? Why doesn’t he appear dead? You think he’s related to Alrick?

It’s a nice touch that the increasing pool of blood makes it harder for the woman to keep up.

Terry narrowed his eyes.

Is she out of breath? Already?

“Ahh…” Terry realized one of the fundamental differences between a pure channeler and a mana cultivator.

Yay for balance! Double-yay for mana regeneration training!

“What is her ability though?” Terry did not feel relaxed at all, despite his advantage.

“Tsk,” uttered the woman. She bit the wrist on her hand that was holding the whip and blood flowed onto the weapon. Then the woman flung her whip again.

As before, Terry ran to dodge. Unexpectedly, the whip suddenly developed a will of its own, and the bladed tip lunged at Terry like a snake.

Terry moved his head out of major harm’s way, but still received a graze.

A drop of blood ran down Terry’s cheek and a smirk appeared on the woman’s face. Her hair started moving upward even though there was no wind. Her pupils turned completely black.

“What?” Terry dodged as a shadowy figure attacked him with a dagger.

The figure’s shape resembled Terry’s. Two more such figures appeared around Terry.

You started with two. Now you’re at five. Or, well, four-and-a-half to be fair. Still, there is a trend. Good job, Terry!

Terry wanted to retort that it could be worse and that the shadows only had a dagger.

Use the mana sublimator? You should really learn to do discharges…

“Focus,” spat Terry while dodging the attacks from the shadows.

Terry felt a mana signature from above and jumped to the side. A fireball smashed into the ground and fire licked Terry’s body.

I would have expected fireballs to hurt much more. What’s going on?

Terry felt a mana layer around himself. The source of the barrier was the pendant that Sigille had given him.

Alright, you still have a fighting chance.

Terry clenched his fists and stared at the enemy above… A moment later, the sky above him changed.

“Huh?” Terry looked around to realize that he was in a completely different location. “What’s going on?”

In his previous location, Sigille used a light-aspected burst. Her whole body radiated an intense light-aspected mana signature, and she ripped the shadows apart.

Afterwards, Sigille’s aspected burst ended and the inscriptions on her equipment flared up. She whacked the fireball-throwing soldier out of the sky and cleaved the soldiers apart with her axe.

The whole process had barely taken three seconds.

Terry was still trying to get his bearings. He could see Matteo’s lightning to the left of him, which meant that Terry was not completely lost.

A soldier that had transformed into a horned monster charged at Terry. The soldier had the kind of intense mana signature that Terry had tried to avoid the whole time.

Before Terry could bolt away, his surroundings had changed again.

“What?” Terry looked around in confusion. He could sense Matteo’s signature to the right as well as…

Matteo is fighting the monstrous soldier…

Terry glanced at the silver rings on his hands. “So that’s what they’re doing.”

A moment later, Terry was back in his original location. He could see some familiar soldiers that had turned into bisected corpses.

You should get some of Gretchen’s cookies for your aunt.

Terry nodded to himself.

Makes your own contributions seem a bit insignificant, doesn’t it?

“Shut up.”

Right. Go make yourself useful. As little use as it might be...

Behind Terry, the corpses ignited in cyan flames and new skeletal warriors rose to fight for Syn City. Shortly thereafter, purple hands appeared out of nowhere and a group of death spirits joined them.

Terry turned around when he sensed the flickering mana of the skeletal warriors. He caught a reflection from the ground near one of them.

“Wait, isn’t that…?” Terry put a hand on his sheath belt. The place where his aspected throwing needle should have been was empty.

How did you manage to lose it again?

Terry picked up the aspected throwing needle from the ground and squinted at it.

***

“Captain!” shouted Devon, and ran over. He was wearing someone’s cloak wrapped around his waist like a towel. As so often, Devon was completely covered in blood.

Megumi furrowed her brows and descended to listen to what Devon had to say.

“What is it?” asked Megumi.

Devon explained what he had sensed, and Megumi’s eyes nearly popped out of her eye sockets. Cold sweat was gathering on her forehead.

“Is this because of your earlier…” The Captain stared at the horizon with clenched teeth and eyes wide open. “Wastes. Thanks, Devon. I’ll inform the others.”

The Captain soared into the sky. First, she flew to Saul.

Saul received the news in silence and then spoke in a somber tone. “Time to switch to the barrier.”

Afterwards, the Captain flew to Sigille, who was currently cleaning up around Terry.

“What?” Sigille frowned. “Well, shit.”

Sigille puffed her cheeks and then sighed. “Hah, I think my pa had a phrase for situations like this. From his time in the military.”

Megumi stared at the horizon with hollow eyes. “Charlie Foxtrot?”

A corner of Sigille’s lips curled upwards in reminiscence. “Yup, that’s the one.”

Megumi nodded. Her eyes were tinged with dread.

***