“What exactly happened?” I repeated the question again as I looked at Cornelia, this time with a much stronger tone, even as I put my hand on Helga’s body to send another wave of healing magic, the healing efficiency much stronger thanks to our physical contact. Not enough to actually cure her, of course, but enough to awaken her in a few seconds.
[-94 Mana]
Meanwhile, Cornelia managed to gather her wits enough to start speaking, enough to give a stammering report. “It was just another wave of monster attack,” Cornelia started even as she trembled, struggling to stay conscious, too exhausted by the latest spell she cast against the death knight before I managed to intervene. “Then, some of the experimental early-warning wards Helga had prepared triggered, alerting us for the undead assault, so we had a couple of minutes to erect some additional wards to keep them away.” She took a shaky breath.
“It was the only thing that saved the lives of the citizens. Iomene managed to create an elite force to cut through the undead defense, and most of the students defended the rears. I took command of the rear, with the strongest students supporting us. We knew that it would have been difficult to defend the rear, but...”
“But we didn’t expect a death knight waiting for us to commit on our strategy before launching,” Helga cut in, awake enough to take the discussion. Cornelia sent her an appreciative nod, and focused on her breathing, trying to stay conscious.
“Well, at least, there are some advantages,” I said.
“Like what?” Helga said, confused. Cornelia didn’t say anything, but her expression suggested that Helga was reflecting her emotions as well.
“Well, at least you girls stopped fighting,” I said with a wide smile. “Our next threesome is going to be so interesting.“
“Caesar,” they gasped simultaneously. “It’s not the time,” Helga continued even as she slapped my shoulder, but their resigned expression brightened. Not because it was an amazing joke, but the fact that I was confident enough to joke meant that I was confident in getting away safely.
I wasn’t really confident, but there was no harm in making them believe it.
“Their strategy doesn’t make sense,” Helga murmured even as she struggled to stand up. “With the forces they committed, they could have taken down every single man in the town much easier. All they needed was to use the death knight against the Iomene’s forces before they could create a breach.”
“Their strategy makes sense, you just need to know their true objective,” I said.
“True objective?” Cornelia interjected, shocked, like she was having trouble understanding the magnitude of the event. “You’re saying that the lives of tens of thousands of people are just bait for their true objective.”
“Not tens of thousands of people, just two people,” I said even as I pointed at them.
Helga gasped. “You’re the target.”
“Right in one,” I said even as I cast a subtle detection spell, expecting to be attacked immediately, wasting some more of my precious mana. Luckily, they didn’t attack immediately, giving me some time to recover. Barely half a minute, something they didn’t even factor in as useful, but my regeneration, even with what the last healing spell consumed, allowed me to more than double my available mana.
[-21 Mana]
[Mana: 1086 / 7595]
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Cornelia stammered. “A whole army, with a death knight,” she uttered even as she looked at me with widening eyes, a sense of worship dancing behind them as she reassessed my strength again, going up even more.
“Three death knights, actually,” I corrected her even as I used another detection spell, trying to understand their strategy based on the way their movements.
[-16 Mana]
The results of the second detection put a wide smile on my face. The hidden death knights still held their position, while the army was slowly shuffling, changing their direction inward, while the wounded one pulled back to join the rest of the army. The more interesting part was the rest of the army, surrounding us completely, which made me smile.
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 1898 / 6324 Mana: 1629 / 7595 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
Expert Craft [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 21/25]
[Helga - Level 17/21]