Sacrifice Mage

I finished up my booth responsibilities pretty quickly. It took me aback that there wasn’t much of a hue and cry when I said I was pausing it for the day. There were still a few people in line, waiting to get on the rides. They should have been disappointed to not get their turn.

Ascelkos smoothed it all over with his effortless pleasantry and affability. Guy was the smoothest of smooth-talkers I had ever known.

It helped that he mentioned I was forgoing the booth in favour of duels. That got just about everybody fired up, so much so that a lot of them started following me straight to the site of the mock-fighting. What was it with these people and their eagerness when it came to magical combat?

Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t feel something of what they were experiencing. It was kind of exciting to think about how I’d fare against all the other mages in the Mage Guild and beyond.

The duelling fields covered probably the widest swathe of the magic festival. Attendants were carrying little stone fenceposts I had seen when I had practiced on the Mage Guild grounds before, the ones that created a Warded bounding field to prevent Aspects from spraying outside safe boundaries. In this case, that helped contain every duel inside its own little bubble.

“Mage Aninta,” Ascelkos said with all the flair of a ringside announcer. “Since you were the first to challenge Mage Moreland, would you like to go up first?”

I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to them. My sight was a little arrested by just how many people were coming over to watch my impending fight against a fellow mage. And it wasn’t just regular festivalgoers. I spotted several other mages slowly making their way over here, as well as some adventurers I recalled seeing at the Adventurer’s Guild. There was even Casvat among them, which had me raising my eyebrow.

“What’s got everyone so interested in duelling?” I asked. I couldn’t help the frown I sent at Ascelkos. “Did you somehow infect everybody’s mind to make them love play-fighting too?”

“Play fighting?” he asked, clutching his chest like I had wounded him. “I won’t ever live down the shame…”

“Ascelkos.”

He laughed shortly. “Pull your head out of the ground, Ross. Don’t you see that what they’re really interested in is you?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it without saying anything. Right, of course. I should have figured. The way I had stood against the Guildmaster, the way my reputation had been growing over the past several months, the way I had returned successfully from the Nether Vein not once but twice. And no doubt lots of people were interested in the person making others fly.

“Right.” I snorted. “I’m hot property.”

Ascelkos grinned. It felt so odd saying that, and there was a decently sized part of me that wanted to shrivel up at the sudden realization of how much attention I was pulling to myself.

I was once again reminded of Se-Vigilance warning me about my apparently growing godliness making me a target for others. Could that somehow be playing a part here? A subtle external influence that even I was unaware of affecting others around me?

It wasn’t like I didn’t have proof of auras having a strong effect on others. Was this how it felt for the people like Councillor Lasshkhio? Where even their normal actions and intentions were affected by their auras in a way they couldn’t even directly sense, much less control?

I decided against worrying about that for the time being. Especially when my opponent was stepping up to start the duel.

There was a lot of buildup and hubbub going around I hadn’t paid much mind to. People were commenting and clapping, Aninta’s kids were cheering her on rather adorably, and Ascelkos was introducing us for the benefit of others like we were wrestlers entering ringside.

One of the mages in charge of carrying the Warding fenceposts had started putting down a circle of them but was stopped by Ascelkos nudging his chin in my direction. The man looked at me for a good long while, then sighed and started setting down the fenceposts farther off, creating an even wider battlefield.

I nodded my thanks at Ascelkos.

“Ready, Mage Moreland?” Aninta asked.

“I was waiting for the bell,” I said.

“The bell? Do you think this is dinner?”

I blinked. Well, I suppose I should have guessed that my cultural reference from Earth could have a very different cultural connotation here on Ephemeroth. “Uh, never mind. I’m ready, Mage Aninta.”

“Good. Then let us begin.”

Her last words had a higher volume than anything else she had said so far, which made everyone else shut up and pay more attention. Even Ascelkos got in on it.

“And now, dear festivalgoers,” he said. In another life, he had probably been the best showman in the world. “We will begin the most hotly anticipated bout in the entirety of the magic festival’s duels!”

I wanted to shoot him another little glare for hyping it up that much, but it was kind of amusing. Besides, I didn’t dare take my eyes off my opponent.

Aninta was channelling her Aspect. White, grey, and yellow strands of mana revolved around her hand, several threads falling like hair to the ground. The earth cracked before starting to lift itself, like a strange facsimile of my own abilities.

Right. Aninta would have performed my moving job if I hadn’t “stolen” it. And to do so, she’d need a requisite Aspect. Something like Locomotion or Telekinesis.

A storm of floating debris shot straight at me at the same time as a cheer went up.

Belatedly, I realized I had multiple ways of dealing with projectiles now. My latest Fervour Augmentation, then the combination of Gravity and Sacrifice’s recent Affixes, and of course, trusty old Field Manipulation to mess with the arc of the projectiles’ flight.

My instinct landed on the middle option. I didn’t even need to move thanks to Manifestation. A pulse of repulsive force echoed out in the air in front of me, slowing down all the rocks from Aninta it caught. An instant later, threads of Sacrifice flashed out and burned them to nothing, reducing them to motes of fading white.

As everyone cheered at the exchange of powers, I checked the Sacrifice reward.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Opposing Cast of 1 Silver-ranked Aspect. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Damage of next opposing cast is reduced by 1.5x. Essence of cast element now easily obtainable. ]

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The barebones reward wasn’t surprising. This was exactly what I had received when I had used Overclaim this way before. I did note that the reduction boost was lower this time, though I assumed that was because the rank of the opposing Aspect was lower too. It wasn’t like I’d need a ton of help to naturally resist anything thrown at me that was below Gold.

Essence of cast element, though…

I didn’t know what that was supposed to give me when something like telekinesis was involved. Or was it going to prioritize the physical element of whatever Aninta flung at me?

A shrill cry pierced the air. “Don’t hold back, ma!”

Aninta smiled. Then raised her arms. If the ground had cracked and splintered before, it now rose like a landslide achieving liftoff. That wasn’t all, either. Wind swirled, faster and faster until a small storm had risen around her, creating a tornado that had slowly started rebuffing me backwards.

I was almost tempted to point out how I could do the same thing with Orbit. Honestly, it was more impressive she could perform all that while still Silver-ranked.

“Surrender?” Aninta asked hopefully.

I just laughed. “In your dreams.”

She flung it all at me. I had been wondering how exactly she was going to use that tornado of ripping air and broken debris. Rather than trying to throw parts of it like I had in the Blight Swarm battle, she had thrown the entire mad twister at me.

Made sense. This wasn’t something my combination of Repulsion Burst and Overclaim could work effectively against.

Good thing I had a different kind of defence ready.

I stood my ground, and I could sense everyone getting excited at seeing the contact. Ideally, at seeing an attack of that nature, most people would have chosen to dodge. And failing that, they’d have tried countering it directly with their own magic. Instead, all I did was remain steady and ready.

When the powerful tornado was finally close enough, I focused on Reverence Everlife.

Just like last time, streams of intense energy seeped into me from every possible direction. I supposed that proved that I didn’t need proximity to the people believing in me for it to be effective, because the shield that quickly materialized over me, a light coating of shimmering, translucent golden power, was just as strong as the one I had used against the Scarthralls.

With it came all those other strange sensations I couldn’t quite place. And just as with the shielding energy, the sensations were terribly intense too.

The strange thirst for blood, the jitteriness in every limb like I needed to be moving or exercising or something, the growing feeling of belonging and togetherness. It all combined into a hodgepodge of sensations where I couldn’t really pick one from the other, apart from just understanding they were there.

I didn’t pay it any attention. The glowing armour worked to perfection.

Despite the overwhelming power that Aninta had used, Reverence Everlife blocked it all. I wasn’t even budged from where I stood with the broken earth bouncing off the armour and wind feeling like nothing more than a light breath against my clothes.

With the attack’s effect tremendously dampened, I used Sacrifice to end things. Overclaim rippled out to reduce all the rocks and stones to white motes of energy.

In mere moments, everything Aninta had flung was gone.

Silence reigned for a while. One second, the impact between me and Aninta’s attack had been imminent. The next, it had been eradicated completely.

The cheering started a moment later. Huge whoops and hurrahs at seeing the play of fantastic magic. I thought I heard some of them cheering for me specifically, familiar voices calling out my name with no less enthusiasm and verve than that of Aninta’s son.

But I couldn’t pay them any attention in the middle of the fight.

“My turn,” I said.

Aninta stiffened ever so slightly. I wasn’t sure what she was expecting me to do or use. Probably Gravity of some fashion. I didn’t disappoint her.

Field Manipulation went up in mere seconds, a football-field-sized pool of void-purple energy flickering at our feet. I kept myself upright with Siphon, but the sheer intensity with which I immediately unleashed Infusion had the whole area trembling for a second or two before everything stabilized.

Aninta had fallen to her knees, sweat beading her brow even as she tried to maintain a composed expression. “I hadn’t expected this much intensity from the get-go.”

I thought about telling her that it felt to me like she had thrown the match on purpose. That the way she had used her Aspect of Telekinesis or whatever it was suggested she had a lot more tricks up her sleeve. Pits, when I had been Silver, I had been capable of a lot more too.

But she had never been aiming to win this duel. That was obvious from before it began. No, she had a couple different things in mind beyond winning or losing.

One was what Ascelkos had mentioned. I was more or less someone of influence now, and by associating with me, Aninta was raising her own stocks. The second side of this whole thing was something she herself had mentioned—that of settling our little dispute. In fact, as she got to her feet after I reduced Gravity’s intensity, I didn’t sense any disappointment. Not from her or her family.

Ascelkos called the match for me loudly, which set up another set of cheers. Moments later, I was swarmed first by the cultists who had come to visit the magic festival, and then by Sreketh who had torn away from her academy group to meet up with me again.

I thought I saw her chaperone frowning, but they were too far away for me to be sure, and I was a little too busy handling everyone just then.

Honestly, I wanted to tell them to calm down and maybe not act like I had just won a lottery for a billion gold. But their exuberance was infectious. I was kind of grinning stupidly at them by the end of it too.

It took a minute or so before I realized the crowd wasn’t dispersing like I thought they would. Interest in me hadn’t cooled despite the end of the duel. If anything, it had intensified.

Which wasn’t helped by the new person coming over with a smile on his face.

While he wasn’t exactly the first new human being I had seen in a while, he was the richest one I had ever seen. The first noble human who looked and felt like a noble.

His long, dark hair fell sleek and gleaming, parted on either side of his head. Tiny trinkets gleamed under his ears and on his fingers. Like with the rich Plumefolk I had seen the other day with Ascelkos on Ring Two—and at the magic festival and the auction too—he was dressed in expensive robes of maroon and white silk. What looked like a cane sword hung at his side.

“Greetings,” he said affably. “I’ve been hearing a great deal about you, Mage Ross Moreland. Would you do the honours of gracing me with a duel?”

What was it with these people and their duels?

I shook my head. “Sorry, I’ve got no quarrel with you.”

“Ah, I was told you might be unfamiliar with customs and traditions.” He was still approaching, undaunted by my rejection. The others near me were all moving away.

“My Lord Yulien.” Ascelkos was suddenly beside me. I hadn’t even felt him move. “What a pleasure to meet you again.”

Yulien finally came to a stop. He didn’t frown. In fact, now that I paid attention, I noticed that his expressions were very carefully controlled. “Lord Ascelkos. I had heard that you were present here in Zairgon. What a coincidence to meet you here at this very specific location.”

I wasn’t exactly well-versed in the kind of political barbs and conversational fencing matches that nobles no doubt liked to play, but even I could tell he was trying to insinuate a lot.

“Quite,” Ascelkos said. “Regardless, my lord, would it not be poor form for an Opal-ranked such as yourself to challenge a mere Gold like Ross here.”

“Would it now?” Yulien turned to me. I was starting to dislike the oily look in his dark eyes. “Would it be wise, though? It would be a crying shame to disappoint not just me, but everyone attending this wonderful festival, by rejecting my heartfelt entreaty to showcase what the best of Zairgon and Claderov are capable of.”

I could tell I was being manipulated. There was no need for the flare of his aura.

He leaned towards me, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “We wouldn’t want to leave anyone disenchanted, after all. Else, we’d have to spread word that Zairgon’s magic festival… isn’t quite what it was cracked up to be. Attendance would fall, revenue would plummet, and your ticket prices… well, you understand, yes?”

By that point, my skin was prickling and I had to resist the urge to shove the guy back.

“Fine,” I said. All the murmuring around us as the lord had approached me now went quiet. “Let’s fight.”

“Excellent.”

The fenceposts were set even farther away this time. My opponent was Opal-ranked, so it stood to reason that we’d need a wider arena.

“Are you ready, Cultist Moreland?” Lord Yulien asked.

I frowned at the use of cultist. Wasn’t it mage just moments ago? What in the Pits was his angle? “Ascelkos already called to start. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

It was true. Mana was there at my fingertips. Tension rode along every muscle and tendon I possessed. This wasn’t going to be anything like facing Aninta, and not just because this guy was Opal-ranked.

“Then let us begin!” he said.

“Final—”

Rude of him not to even let me finish. His Aspect burgeoned to life around him with incredible speed. I blessed my Agility for letting me take things in faster, because I was able to note how threads of purplish red mana were flattening into plates all over his body, forming a strange shape. Strange, but identifiable.

He had cast an ethereal, translucent dragon’s head around his body. One that yawned open its jaw a second later before blasting out a literal beam of compressed heat.

It came in fast. My reaction was instinctive. Reverence Everlife came to my rescue. The dependable shielding armour formed over me just in time to block that beam of glowing magma.

For a few moments, I thought it would be enough. Even as an instinctive part was trying to send out Sacrifice threads to destroy at least some of Yulien’s beam with Overclaim, I thought I had it in the bag. That I was safe.

Then the shield shattered. The difference in Opal and an unbuffed Gold made itself felt. I was sent flying as obliterating heat tore through my very being.