Chapter 229

Fight or flight, those were my hard-to-choose options, I found myself thinking even as I turned my attention to my closest enemy, a warrior decked in full armor, carrying an ax larger than himself, running toward me with a shocking speed.

A speed that was impossible for me to replicate even with my admittedly incredible stats.

Yet, as he got close enough to avoid the overwhelming presence of the wards, enough to get me a sense of his mana. It was still too far away to actually get a glimpse of his soul space, nor I wanted to spend the necessary mana to break through at such great distance — especially since I wasn’t confident in keeping that hidden — but the sensation of his mana left no doubt about the state of his soul space.

It was a raging disaster, almost like a beast. He was not berserk, like the other recruits I watched while I was saving Janelor, but he wasn’t too far away from getting that point either.

At a distance, I could see two other warriors, their status not particularly superior as they rushed forward, marginally slower.

Their rush was desperate, lacking any kind of coordination, which contrasted greatly with the excellent timing of the initial ward.

“Fight, it is,” I murmured as I watched their reckless assault. The ambush required a certain amount of planning, which was impossible to be delivered by the three I could see. I didn’t want to try to escape, only to be blocked completely.

There was always teleportation as the last resort, especially since I was confident enough to punch through the wards blocking it — but that was literally my last card. If they didn’t know I could teleport, I didn’t want to reveal it, and if they actually discovered it — as I used it against the undead — I didn’t want to use it before making sure they didn’t have a strategy against it.

Either way. I preferred to keep it hidden for now.

As soon as the first warrior moved within my effective casting range, I cast a wall of fire to block his path. Not the strongest or most damaging spell, but damaging enough as an opening spell, flashy enough to look impressive, without spending much mana.

[-181 Mana]

The warrior swung his ax, the resulting wind destroying the ward easily, resulting from the weapon he was carrying flaring with magic. His chaotic mana wasn’t enough to activate such a trick — as his stats were clearly focused on the physical side — but the handle of the ax was glistening with a shocking number of Eternal Gems, giving a good idea about the power source.

The Eternals were certainly rich, I noted, remembering how happy I was when I acquired a few, a treasure that I was yet to use.

I was impressed by their richness, but not enough to let the warrior approach freely. I responded with another elemental spell, this time a rain of icicles, rushing through the air.

[-130 Mana]

Another weak spell, but surprisingly damaging against a single target as the icicles were perfectly shaped thanks to my extraordinary control and constant practice — not to mention, replicating a rotating effect to enhance damage.

The disadvantage, it was easy to dodge, and even easier to block. All my attacker needed was to take a step back to avoid the trajectory. He certainly had the speed to do it.

Yet, the only thing he did was raise his ax to protect his face, letting the ice rain on his armor without skipping a step. “Maybe he misread the spell,” I wondered even as I waved my hand again, sending another, stronger wave of ice.

[-310 Mana]

Yet, he repeated the same move, ignoring the destruction of the armor and his own blood. His berserk status was not limited to his mana state.

Ironically, that reckless assault, which would have been an amazing development against a weaker candidate, made it harder to fight against them. It would have been easier fighting against a berserk warrior if he was alone, but the other two were about to join, and I could feel more than a dozen following.

And there were still nearer to the ward, but the interference of the ward prevented me from detecting it.

If they were perfectly rational, I could have controlled their attack by showing my ability to destroy the initial attackers, forcing the rest to consider it slowly. It would have given me the time I needed to regenerate mana.

Unfortunately, that strategy was ineffective against a bunch of berserkers.

Of course, their recklessness and their clear willingness to take damage opened many other ways to deal with them — but it would require me to both spend a lot of mana, and reveal a lot of my magical tricks.

Tricks that I needed against whoever would follow the first wave.

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7153 / 7334 Mana: 8284 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania - Level 35/38]

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]

[Marianne - Level 21/29]