Bog Standard Isekai

Brin raced through the cavern network and his mind raced ahead of him. What was his plan? What could he do? There had to be something. He screamed internally at [Battle Sense], trying to force some solution to present itself, but every scenario he dreamed up ended the same way: with all of them dead.

Use illusions to escape? Zaff was undead. He had Heat Vision. Brin’s armor had been built to overcome that so that he could hide from undead while invisible, but none of the rest of the Lance had it. He could leave them and save himself, but he never would. Not ever.

Could they fight and win? It should be possible. Getting to level 70 was orders of magnitude harder than getting to level 40, but that didn’t mean you’d become orders of magnitude stronger. Progression was linear while difficulty was exponential, which was why everyone stalled out at some point. Without counting Skills and Achievements, Zaff should only be about twice as strong as him. He didn’t even know if Zaff even got Achievements; undeads had a different levelling system entirely and he wasn’t sure what that meant at the higher levels.

He knew Wights were like a stronger version of the [Scarred One]. Brin had been terrifyingly strong as a [Scarred One], and a Wight’s self-healing powers would put him to shame. How did you fight someone who was immune to wounds?

Brin’s heart clenched as every path he could see led to their doom. There had to be a way. Right now, he couldn’t think of one. Zaff had moved faster than he’d been able to follow with his eyes when he’d assassinated Galan. Was that really unexpected, though? Most high level fighters moved that fast. Lyssa had moved that fast. Brin’s own body moved faster than his brain could keep up with; he relied on training and reflexes when he was really in the thick of it. He couldn’t call this impossible yet–he needed to see Zaff fight again. He needed more data.

Up above, Cid didn’t waste a single second underestimating his opponent. He gave the orders through the communication spells in their helmets, and the men were ready.

They all used [Knight’s Charge], and for a brief moment, it looked like they had a chance. Cowl’s juggernaut weight barreled straight through the spot where Zaff had been; the Wight dodged straight into Anwir’s path. [Power Shot] combined with [Knight’s Charge] gave him that extra bit of speed, and Anwir carved his metal arrow straight through Zaff’s torso and out the other side.

Cid hit next, and his sword drove into Zaff’s blocking forearm, cutting down to the bone. Hedrek landed and chopped one leg off at the knee. Meredydd, Aeron, Govannon and Brych all hit together, stabbing him through his chest, neck, and eye. Follow current novᴇls on NoveI(F)ire.net

Zaff jumped, using the one leg he had remaining, and flew into the air, wresting the weapons still in his body out of the men’s grips. He spun in the air and threw the swords back down at them, where they cracked against their armor with great sparks of magical damage.

No longer surrounded, he jumped back in, and now that their positioning was shot, Zaff could take them one at a time. He was stronger than Hedrek, matching him blow for blow and driving him to the dirt. He was more slippery than Govannon, out-maneuvering him as if Govannon had only picked up a sword for the first time yesterday. Cid, still on the worst step of [Path of the Blade] was barely a distraction. He swung his blacksteel sword like a battering ram and sent both Aeron and Meredydd flailing into the air with one blow. For Anwir, he grinned and used the stub of his severed leg to kick Anwir’s wounded knee. Anwir screamed in pain and fell to the ground, but Zaff aborted a finishing blow when he had to jump away from Cowl, who’d arrived just in time. Cowl was still panting from the exhaustion of using a [Knight’s Charge], and swung his maul down.

Zaff reached up and caught it. Then Zaff’s eyes widened, and he released the maul with a hiss of pain. He swung his blacksteel sword up, but the space between them exploded with concussive force. Zaff jumped back into a handspring and then flipped further backwards through the air, his clothes trailing smoke.

When he landed, he patted off the spots of fire in his hair and smiled again. “Say farewell to an easy death. I’m going to eat your teeth for that.”

By the tone of his voice, Zaff acted like he was only mildly offended, and that threatening to eat someone’s teeth was only a moderate reaction. He was altogether too normal, like a guy you’d find in a public house or bump into at the market. His grin was cocksure and arrogant, but in a mundane, handsome way, not the way you’d expect a terrifying prince of evil to smile.

His body, though, moving freely even with all the injuries, was profane. He could see muscles grinding against each other, organs dangling through open wounds. It didn’t last long, though. Even as they watched, Zaff’s injuries healed themself. The wounds in his chest and neck had already sealed and he blinked at the gaping hole in his eye socket. On the third blink, there was a freshly regrown eye. He made a grunt of effort, and his leg and foot grew the rest of the way out.

His clothes quickly repaired themselves as well, stitching themselves back up. So they weren’t ordinary. They didn’t have any defensive properties, but they’d repair themselves almost as quickly as the body underneath. Not an enchantment Brin would choose for himself, but a necessity if your name was Zaff the Wight.

“Care to try that again?” he asked.

Cowl didn’t answer him, but sent a message in their helmet chat. I used some of your consumables, Brin. I put Mana poison on my maul and then hit him with an exploding potion.

It was remarkable quick-thinking on Cowl’s part. Wights were probably like [Scarred Ones] in that they’d stop healing when they ran out of Mana. It always surprised him when he remembered that he wasn’t the only one on the Lance with a brain.

Just hold out until I get there! Brin answered back, but he didn’t know what he was going to do when he did. Even holding that long looked like a longshot.

The men got to their feet and pressed in again, but this time they were wearier and more cautious. Zaff moved through them, relentless and systematic. He didn’t fight with the wild ferocity of desperation, but like someone who knew with absolute certainty that he was going to kill them all. It was just a matter of time. The only thing that kept Brin’s men alive was the fact that Zaff didn’t have any reason to hurry. He didn’t take any risks. He never again put himself in a position where they’d all be able to [Knight’s Charge] him all at once. Any time he was near to finishing off one of the [Knights], a comrade would rush in to prevent it, and Zaff let himself be pushed back. With every moment, the [Knights] became more tired, their armor took more damage. Zaff took wounds, too, but nothing ever stuck. Most cuts were healed by the time the [Knight] finished the swing.

It’s possible that Zaff was going easy on them. He wouldn’t want to wipe them out, not when Brin was still running to save them. He’d wait to kill them until they were all together and he could do it all at once, rather than needing to chase down the stragglers.

Brin was running out of time. He, Rhun, and Gerin were almost to the surface. Plan. He needed a plan. [Battle Sense] didn’t give him anything more than a way to slow the inevitable, but he had to assume that this was possible, that they could win. Or even if they couldn’t win, he had to believe there was a way out. Escape. They could flee back in this direction. Underground. They’d enter the tunnel, and then unload as many exploding potions as necessary to collapse the tunnel behind them…

Brin’s Invisible Eye, the one that was still exploring the depths of the caverns beneath them, heard something. Running feet. Armor on stone. A large group of soldiers running in eerie silence, without even the sound of hard breathing. He knew that sound. A group of undead were coming up from the tunnels below. As if this couldn’t get any worse.

Escape underground was out. Escape on horseback? Zaff was faster than any horse, by a lot. Brin could use the trick Hogg had shown him way back when and heat the air with light. He could make the outline of human figures that might fool Zaff for a bit. He could make dozens of them, split them up in all different directions… But that had only kind of worked against regular undead soldiers. Zaff was smarter. He’d figure out the trick, catch up, and kill them. If Brin split the Lance some of them might make it.

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No. They wouldn’t want that. They’d want to stand or fall together.

Then what could he do? Undead were weak to fire. His best weapons were lasers here. Meaty had integrated two Fire Jelly cores into his armor, one into each hand. Brin had them charged and ready for an emergency. If he hit Zaff with both of them, brain and heart, it might deal a blow that even a Wight couldn’t overcome.

He realized he hadn’t explained the situation to Rhun and Gerin yet. “There’s a level 70 up there, but I have a plan. I’ll send orders straight to your interface. Gerin, did you find anything at the shrine that might give us an edge here? Because at this point, it’s not looking good.”

“Here,” said Gerin, and tossed Brin a black device, sort of reminding him of an Earth calculator. “Only option 3 is still functional, and it will only have one use.”

“Once we get to the top, start running. We’ll hold him off. With your speed, there’s a chance you’ll get away,” Brin said.

Gerin set his jaw. “I’m not going to do that.”

Brin didn’t argue, and instead looked at the device. It had a screen with a menu, and all that he could sense was that the words weren’t printed with illusion magic; it must’ve been some kind of magical ink. He didn’t recognize a single word of Ancient Nhamanshalian, and had a directed thread quickly give him the translation.

1. Diagnostic

2. Language Repair

3. Recharge

4. Clear Logic Pathways

5. Interrupt

“It’ll recharge me? My artifacts?” asked Brin.

“Any magical artifacts, yes,” said Gerin.

So Plan A was going to be “Hit Zaff with lasers”. If it didn’t work, he could recharge and try again. But then again, if it didn’t work the first time, he wasn’t sure if another shot would actually matter. Still, it was better than nothing.

Brin split his mind in two.

Main: Your job is to come up with a Plan B.

Brin 2: On it.

Brin cast a Mirror Image of himself onto Rhun; he’d be the decoy. He cast a Mirror Image of Rhun onto Gerin, since there needed to be ten in a Lance. He cast Invisibility on himself.

Then the time was up and they burst into the light. Brin shut his eyes against the bright light of day, but his Invisible Eyes were more than enough to navigate by.

He had the Mirror Image of himself gesture dramatically, as if summoning terrible magics, holding a [Mage’s] staff rather than a spear or shield.

Main: Summon Laser Drone

Task Manager: Summoning

This was one of the battle programs he’d been toying with, an illusion to make it look like his lasers had a plausible glass explanation. It was a floating satellite, all magical and futuristic looking, and if you watched closely, you could see the exact pieces that collected sunlight, concentrated it, and then a focus to sharpen it. It was nonsense, of course, and not at all how lasers worked, but he thought it would be good enough for most people.

He lined up his arms with the Laser Drone, and pointed the embedded Fire Jelly cores at Zaff.

The Wight sensed an attack and disengaged from where he was pummeling Brych and Govannon. He dodged, no doubt guessing that Brin and Rhun would come out of the cave swinging. He was right about that, but he was wrong in thinking he could dodge. No matter how fast he was, light was faster.

“<Concentrated Burst of Burning Light. Energize. Grow with Hurtful Fire. Laser!>” Both beams fired, focused and amplified with Brin’s Mana and his knowledge of Wyrd and Language.

There was a single burst, two straight lines that burned straight through Zaff’s neck and heart. Brin was already running. Power coursed through his armor, pushing him to incredible speed, past every limit that his brain tried to impose.

He widened the blade on his spear and slashed, cutting through the remainder of Zaff’s neck. Zaff’s head started to fall to the ground, but still moving at top speed, Brin selected the best Fire Starter spell in his Lightmind and threw it at Zaff. His clothing began to burn.

Brin dropped the Fire Starter spell, seeing that Cowl had pulled something from his bag. A potion of flame. Cowl threw it, and Brin used glass magic to catch it out of the air and shatter it against Zaff’s chest. He was immediately doused in heavy, oily flame. Brin had to back away in order not let any of the sticky flame touch him. It was hot, even with his Heat Resistance.

Zaff, still headless, clapped his hands. Black energy burst from him, dousing the flame and knocking Brin off his feet. On reflex, Brin rolled and created a glass copy where he’d been standing.

Zaff stepped to the glass copy, so fast it looked like he’d teleported, and shattered it with a roundhouse kick. The hole in his chest sealed shut, and his neck grew up, forming the lower jaw, then the mouth and nose, until finally completing a bald head. A moment later, even the hair grew out. Zaff cracked his head side to side and grinned.

That really sucks.

Main: Tell me you have a plan B.

Brin 2: He has one weakness left. That necklace he’s wearing.

Brin peeked into the other mind to see what he meant. The amulet that Arcaena gave to all her most valuable servants. An Amulet of Perfect Escape. The other mind thought that they could trick Zaff into retreating.

The amulet was invisible, and maybe partially insubstantial, because removing Zaff’s head hadn’t touched it. Still it was there; their Wyrd conflict, magic against magic, had laid Zaff’s intentions and abilities bare. His intentions were simple: he’d known that Brin was here. Arcaena wanted him dead. His abilities were less simple; centuries of undeath had wrapped him up in so many complicated stories that it was impossible to untangle them all. The basic gist was that he could heal fast, he could move fast, and he could directly manipulate his own necromantic energy in a pinch–though that last was wasteful with Mana.

The Wyrd had also shown him the amulet. It was the most complex and advanced working of Wyrd that Brin had ever sensed. It was more powerful and more present than most people; it wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say that it was sentient. He couldn’t fool it by attaching the argument “this will definitely kill Zaff” to one of his lasers. No, Zaff was actually the biggest weakness there. If at any moment the Wight thought he was going to lose, the necklace would whisk him away, regardless of what its personal feelings were.

Brin didn’t have time to think–he needed to distract Zaff for just a moment. He split off another part of his mind, and had it take full control of the Mirror Image over Rhun.

That Brin applauded. “Very good. I suppose I won’t be able to get out of this without taking you seriously. You should feel honored, Zaff the Wight. You will be the very first to whom I reveal my real Class.”

Zaff nodded knowingly. “[Illusionist].”

This was just getting worse and worse. His plan to fool Zaff into retreating depended on killing that idea in the cradle.

Brin’s Mirror Image crooked an eyebrow. “Is that what you think? Well, I suppose I can’t blame you. But before we get to that, I have one thing to take care of.”

Zaff actually waited to see what Brin would do. Perfect. He needed all the time he could get. To plan, but also to summon as much glass as he could. He drained his entire Mana pool, summoning loads of glass, and then downed his first Mana potion to fill it up again. Then he started shaping and charging the glass with Mana.

Meanwhile, the Mirror Image casually strolled over to Cowl, and took out an exploding potion. They didn’t have too many more of these, but this was important.

Zaff tensed when he saw what it was, but Brin’s Mirror Image casually threw it over his shoulder. Glass magic made the bottle go exactly where he wanted it to–the mouth of the cave. It exploded, caving it in. Hopefully that would stop the undead reinforcements coming from below.

“I can’t have you escaping underground, you understand,” said Brin.

Zaff grinned in delight. “You actually think I’m the one that needs to run away.”

“Oh no. Not at all. I’m sorry Zaff, but not anymore. Now, there’s nowhere you can run. Your legend dies today, and mine will finally begin. Behold!”

How many Split Minds did Hogg say was safe again? Six? Well, desperate times called for desperate measures. If he was going to sell this, he needed more illusions than he’d ever made in his life. He split his mind into ten.

The Mirror Image threw his arms wide, and rose into the air. Brin had to push Rhun up on a platform of glass so that his heat signature would match.

Then he summoned glass. In real life there was a limit to how much he could make, but for illusions the only limit was his concentration. He created cylinders the size of school buses, cubes the size of houses. He created literal swarms of floating glass spears, knives, swords and arrows. He created clouds of bullets.

Then ten giant transparent cylinders crashed down on the ground. The impact was real, they sounded with a loud thud and had that echoing feeling on the earth as the ground trembled with vibration. That was one of the first things that Hogg had taught him to do with sound.

“What are you doing?” cried Cid, the first to notice that Brin had left himself on the other side of the glass pillars. He pushed forward into the cylinder close to him. Brin had to quickly send a real piece of invisible glass over for Cid to press against so that his hand wouldn’t pass through.

“Don’t do that! You’re wasting my Mana! I have to sell this!” he said in the Silent Voice.

He had a reason for this. If Zaff was going to believe that Brin was a secret monster, then Brin had to protect his men. If they all fought together and some of the Lance members died, Zaff would know for sure that Brin wasn’t strong enough to protect them and his lies would be undone. No, he couldn’t let them help.

Finally, he revealed the last piece of his disguise. He changed his status.

Brin isu Yambul

Level: 70

Class: Archmage of Glass

“Let me solo him.”

Zaff eyed him, incredulous, but Brin would show him. This is real. This is me. I really am this strong. You cannot win! He’d made plans, prepared, dreamed, and hustled, all for this moment. Here it was, his true test. This was the first real trial of his [Illusionist] Class. He was lying about being an [Archmage], but he’d still told Zaff the truth. For the first time, Brin was going to fight with everything he had.