Reborn With a Magic System

As their small expedition was heading deeper into ruins, Mage Veers continued to ponder the power Damion had used in the last large cavern. It did not take him long to realize what the power was. Time magic. He had been aware that Mage Harris had passed on his repository to Mage Wells, but he had no idea that the young mage had the Time affinity in addition to his others. Which left him wondering what other affinities Mage Wells had?

Mage Veers did not ask any of the many questions that were popping up in his mind. Partly because he felt it was none of his business and partly because he now knew Damion was stronger than he was. But mostly because he was not sure if Mage Parivar, Knight Straus or Visault would keep such knowledge secret.

The three came along on arguably the most dangerous portion of the expedition, which spoke volumes of their courage. But that was not to say they did not have other masters to serve. Mage Parivar, for instance, he was nearly certain, was another attempt to honeytrap Mage Wells, though he seemed rather oblivious to it. Though, Mage Veers had yet to uncover any proof of her scheme or who had sent her, given her background appeared quite ordinary, with only her rare affinity standing out.

Former Justiciar Straus was another matter. On Nerotath he was considered dead. And if he ever decided to return there he would likely be arrested for numerous crimes, including the attempted murder of Mage Wells. The only way Mage Veers could see Straus avoiding a death penalty, or a lifetime sentence to the Crimson Order, was for him to turn over important information about the Mother World, or Mage Wells.

As for their Iblis escort, Mage Wells seemed to trust him, but Mage Veers was not so sure. As a high-ranking member of the Mage Association, he had seen many reports about the Iblis, the Alfar and the goblins. Right now, the Iblis needed humanity’s help, or more correctly Mage Wells’ help. That would no longer be the case if they succeeded. Once they no longer had interests that aligned, Mage Veers was not so sure their new friends would remain on their side.

Not until Mage Wells called a halt to their progress did Mage Veers snap out of his mental investigations of each member of their party. They had come to the next large cavern, but this one was not occupied by a group of S Rank Demonic Beasts, in fact there was only one creature inside.

“It’s at SS Rank,” Damion told them as True Sight fed him information about the creature.

The Demonic Beast was a serpent with the head of a woman. Damion considered the old Earth myths about naga’s, but this creature did not quite fit into them. This creature’s head was a good three meters in height, had a full head of long hair blonde hair, just like plenty of women he had seen in his life, but starting at the neck the scales began. Instead of a normal slender neck leading to the rest of a woman’s body, the Demonic Beast was all scaly neck that turned into a slithering body and ended in a slender tail.

“That is a Lamia,” Visault informed them. “They are very powerful and typically have Lightning, Water and Earth affinities.”

Damion had never encountered such a Demonic Beast before, and even without True Sight he would know the Lamia was powerful. With True Sight he could see Visault was correct about the Demonic Beast’s affinities and that its Magic Power was near 7,500,000, a bit higher than his own.

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“Stay behind cover,” Damion said as he began to cast Ice Domain and Ice Mastery.

Moving towards the center of the cavern where the Lamia was curled up with Ice Domain active caught the attention of the Demonic Beast. It might not have been able to perceive Damion’s magical presence, but it could sense his spell as it began to take over the ambient mana in the area.

Being an SS Rank Demonic Beast entailed more than just raw magic power, it also meant the Lamia was more intelligent than most Demonic Beasts. Realizing that if it lost access to the ambient mana in the area, it would likely lose any confrontation, the Lamia fought back immediately.

The Demonic Beast, while not capable of its own domain-style innate ability, could at least make use of the ambient mana before Damion locked it all down. From the Lamia’s eyes shot bolts of lightning that Damion casually Blinked away from. Next, it spat out a torrent of water that upon entering Ice Domain was frozen and used to feed the growth of the spell.

Seeing how its abilities were being easily countered, the Lamia decided to rely on its size. Whipping its tail around it slammed the last two meters of scaled flesh into Damion. Despite seeing the attack coming, and knowing he could avoid it, Damion cast Ice Shield and Ice Armor before the blow struck him.

Still hiding in the passageway, the three onlookers were shocked when the Lamia smacked Damion across the cavern. They were even more shocked when instead of impacting the wall, the ice-covered mage vanished just before impact and reappeared right where he had been before.

This action seemed to enrage the Lamia and the Demonic Beast rushed towards him, spewing another jet of water. Unfortunately for it, the water froze nearly as fast as it left the creature’s mouth and Damion, with the aid of Ice Mastery, turned the Lamia’s attack against it.

With a thought, the frozen attack refined itself into a spear aimed not at Damion, but at the Lamia. A second thought drove the spear at the Demonic Beast’s open mouth. The snake-like beast was able to avoid the blow, but while it was distracted by its own attack coming back at it in a new form, Damion smashed into the creature’s side. This time it was the Demonic Beast’s turn to go flying into the cavern wall.

The underground ruins shook from the impact and since Knight Straus was looking around afraid Damion would cause a cave in he almost missed the mage’s follow-up attack. While the walls were still reverberating from the impact, the Lamia was struck by dozens of Ice Shards.

Individually, the small ice crystals were not enough to seriously injure the Demonic Beast. However, Damion had cast the spell several times in the span of just a second, with each cast producing two dozen ice crystals. The Lamia might have been large, but with dozens of small projectiles ripping through its body it was quickly becoming seriously injured.

The Lamia let out a shout of pain as the attacks ate into its flesh and it lashed out at Damion again. The mage simply Blinked away and made use of Ice Mastery to recover his spent Ice Shards, ripping them back out of the Lamia’s body in process. The second stage of his attack caused nearly as much damage as the first.

Once Damion had recalled all the ice in area to a mass that formed between him and the Lamia, he commanded the ice mass to form into four ice spears. With another thought the four spears shot forward once after another.

The Lamia was able to narrowly dodge the first one, but as it passed by the Demonic Beast the ice spear exploded into dozens of ice crystals that peppered side of the beast. The shock of still being struck despite dodging distracted the Lamia and the remaining three ice spears struck home. One caught the Demonic Beast in the center of its body, another a half meter up while the third caught the beast in its left eye, finishing it off.