I Tricked a God

The sun's rays warmed the valley more and more, while the beastfolk camp continued its steady bustle.

Beastfolk constantly hurried between the tents and temporary fortifications, carrying crates of supplies, bundles of weapons, and various metal structures.

A little farther away, several warriors were training on an open patch of ground, exchanging blows while their companions watched from the sidelines and discussed something among themselves.

However, none of the beastfolk even suspected that enemy scouts had been only a few dozen steps away from them for more than an hour.

Hidden within the concealing sphere, Kael and his companions tried not to move unnecessarily so as not to give themselves away.

For Norvin, the waiting was gradually becoming an ordeal of sheer boredom, but Elias had it much harder.

Maintaining the concealing sphere required a constant expenditure of mana, and the longer their observation dragged on, the more noticeable the strain became.

A bead of sweat slowly slid down his forehead, making the scout grimace slightly.

But for Kael, the most important part of the work was only now beginning.

After several more seconds, Elias finally couldn't take it anymore and murmured quietly, “Kael, how much longer?”

But when he noticed that Kael was still staring at the barrier, he added more seriously, “My mana is gradually running out. You've already been watching twice as long as you promised…”

Those words jolted Kael from his thoughts.

Flinching slightly, he said, “Sorry, Elias… I thought I'd be done sooner…”

Taking a deep breath, Kael finally looked away from the barrier and added, “All right, now we'll find out whether I overestimated my abilities…”

With those words, Kael crossed his legs beneath him, straightened his back, and slowly closed his eyes, sinking deep into his own consciousness…

✦ ✦ ✦

Kael seemed to fall into the depths of his own consciousness and, in the next instant, found himself in an entirely different space.

An endless dark void stretched around him, devoid of any landmarks. There was no ground, no sky, not even a source of light, yet none of that prevented Kael from seeing himself clearly.

Lowering his gaze to his palms, he clenched and unclenched his fingers several times, making sure he could still control this strange body just as freely as his real one.

“So… I need to divide what I saw into brief moments and arrange them in a sequence…”

The moment the words left his lips, his perfect memory immediately began carrying out the task.

In the next instant, a projection of the beastfolk's barrier appeared before Kael exactly as he had seen it midway through his observation.

But it didn't end there.

New copies almost immediately began appearing to its left and right, after which the process rapidly accelerated. One projection appeared after another, quickly forming a long line that continued expanding farther in both directions with every passing moment.

Several seconds later, an entire row containing hundreds of projections of the same barrier stretched before Kael.

“At first glance, they're identical…” Kael murmured. “But they're not.”

He began comparing neighboring projections, between which the differences were almost impossible to see. But once he shifted his gaze several dozen projections forward or backward, the changes became far more obvious.

Individual nodes within the barrier shifted, restructuring the distribution of mana throughout the entire construct.

In effect, what lay before Kael now wasn't a hundred different barriers, but a visual record of the barrier's changes over time, divided into individual moments and arranged in the exact sequence in which he had observed them.

Sweeping his gaze over the row of projections stretching away in both directions, Kael smiled in anticipation and murmured, “Excellent… I hope my idea works…”

With those words, Kael suddenly clapped his palms together before his chest.

In the next instant, all the projections seemed to answer his call and began to move.

Hundreds of copies of the barrier simultaneously began contracting toward the center, rapidly drawing closer to one another. The distance between them shrank faster and faster until neighboring projections began overlapping, gradually transforming into a single multilayered construct.

With each new overlap, the image became increasingly difficult to understand. Mana currents intertwined, energy lines layered over one another, while individual nodes turned into blurred clusters of light.

But Kael made no attempt to make sense of the image just yet.

Keeping his palms pressed together, he patiently continued the process, waiting for the final result.

And the moment the last projection settled into place, Kael's amber eyes gleamed with satisfaction. The construct suddenly made sense.

“This method really worked… Excellent…” he murmured with a grin.

What had previously looked like a hundred separate projections of the same barrier suddenly transformed into a single diagram.

However, after only a few seconds, Kael noticed a problem.

Although the overall picture had indeed begun to emerge, there were still far too many unnecessary details within it. Countless minor changes, random fluctuations in the currents, and insignificant shifts in the structure overlapped one another, creating an enormous amount of visual noise.

Frowning, Kael studied the projection carefully and murmured, “I need to filter out the excess and strip away the insignificant details…”

His face immediately tensed, and, as though responding to his will, the multilayered projection gradually began to change.

Minor branches began to fade away, while secondary currents dissolved one after another.

Individual fluctuations that had no significant effect on the overall structure also gradually disappeared from the image.

With each passing second, the image grew clearer.

Gradually, an enormous dome of mana began to take shape before him, covered in a network of distinct energy lines.

Kael continued watching the process without taking his eyes off the barrier.

“There it is…” he whispered.

Eleven primary currents became clearly visible across the entire surface of the barrier, each governed by its own control point. These lines marked the paths traveled by the barrier's main nodes, which moved along hidden but predetermined routes.

But what drew Kael's attention most was the largest point, which seemed to be surrounded by the other ten.

Kael's smile widened even further.

By now, it looked more like the smile of someone who had unexpectedly found the solution to an extremely difficult problem.

Without taking his eyes off the projection, he murmured thoughtfully, “The support points are clear… And I understand their movement paths…”

For several seconds, his gaze traveled along the lines, connecting dozens of observations that had previously seemed like unrelated details.

“Considering how much time I've spent thinking and the time needed to prepare the attack…”

Without finishing, Kael narrowed his eyes slightly, and the projection began moving once again.

Obeying his will, the eleven lines slowly shifted forward along their paths, as though displaying not the barrier's current state, but its projected configuration several minutes from now.

The ten outer points continued moving across the dome's surface, gradually changing their positions relative to one another, while the central node also shifted slightly, drawing some of the connected currents along with it.

Kael watched the changes carefully, occasionally adjusting individual lines.

Second by second, the projection continued to rearrange itself until it finally froze in its new configuration.

“I hope this works…” he said quietly.

Closing his eyes to return to reality, he added with greater confidence, “No. It has to work. I need MMP to begin training seriously. I have to prove my value to the squad…”

✦ ✦ ✦

The next moment, Kael opened his eyes.

Before him once again stretched the small purple forest, and with it returned the quiet voices of the beastfolk, the rustling of leaves, and the barely perceptible shimmer of the barrier in the distance.

Noticing the confident expression on his face, Elias raised an eyebrow skeptically and asked, “Kael, do you really believe this idea will work?”

Kael merely grinned and joked, “We won't know unless we try. Either way, the banquet's on Norvin.”

“Hey!” Norvin immediately protested.

But only a second later, his excitement overcame his displeasure, and he hurriedly leaned forward to ask, “But there is at least some chance, right?”

“Definitely not zero,” Kael said with a confident nod.

At those words, a grin returned to Norvin's face, and he chuckled quietly, already beginning to calculate something in his head.

“If we split the reward for capturing the camp three ways…” he murmured.

But Elias clearly didn't share Norvin's enthusiasm.

For several seconds, he silently studied Kael as though trying to determine how serious he was, then shook his head and sighed wearily.

“The Captain agreed, so I won't try to talk you out of it. What do we need to do? What's the plan?”

Hearing the question, Kael immediately dropped his joking tone.

“It's simple,” he began. “We'll climb the rock and take up a position above the barrier. Once we're ready, I'll throw explosive talismans at eleven points.”

Pointing toward the dome, Kael continued, “I'll hit the central point with three talismans at once, and the others with one each. You attack right after me, hitting those exact same points. Focus most of your power on the central one.”

Elias remained silent for a while, shifting his gaze from Kael to the barrier and back as though mentally running through what he'd just heard. Then he finally rose to his feet and, shaking his head once more, muttered, “You're insane.”

“They don't take normal people into our squad,” Kael replied calmly.

“True enough…” Elias murmured at once.

Norvin merely moved closer to his companions and whispered with obvious anticipation, “Then let's do it. I've already waited long enough.”

Elias responded with another heavy sigh, then raised the monocle to his eye once more and carefully surveyed the space ahead.

For several seconds, his gaze moved between the trees, rocks, and barely perceptible fluctuations of mana before he gave a short nod, indicating their route.

Without wasting any time, all three sprang into motion at once.

Clearing the first stretch of forest in a single leap, they almost immediately changed position again, then once more, rapidly closing the distance to the black rock beside the beastfolk camp.

Despite their high speed, they moved with utmost caution.

Each new dash came only after Elias had made sure there were no traps along the next stretch of their path.

At that pace, it took them only a few minutes to reach the base of the rock without incident. Immediately afterward, with several leaps, they climbed onto a narrow ledge hanging directly over the dome of the barrier.

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From here, the beastfolk camp lay open before them.

Elias carefully dropped to one knee near the edge of the ledge and, after checking the surroundings through his monocle once more, said quietly, “Tell me when you're ready, Kael. If no miracle happens, we run south immediately, understood?”

Kael silently nodded and shifted his gaze to the barrier dome spread out below.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he once again checked the model in his mind, running through the positions of the main nodes and their movement paths.

“I can't afford to make a mistake…” flashed through Kael's mind.

After confirming his calculations, Kael opened his eyes again and began pulling on his combat gauntlets.

“As soon as we jump, I'll begin,” he said calmly, pouring mana into the gauntlets and feeling them lock into place around his arms.

At those words, an eager smile appeared on Norvin's face.

It seemed the crazier the plan became, the more he liked it.

Elias reacted quite differently.

With a heavy sigh, Elias looked once more at the barrier dome spread out below and shook his head. Judging by his expression, he had absolutely no faith that they could break through the barrier this way, but he had no intention of arguing.

By then, Kael finally felt that his weapon was ready for battle.

Clenching and unclenching his fingers several times, he checked the fit, then looked at his companions and gave a short nod.

“Now.”

And as soon as the words left his lips, Kael stepped off the ledge without hesitation.

Almost simultaneously, his allies followed, all three still hidden within the concealing barrier.

But before they could even begin to fall, Kael swept his hands out in a sharp motion.

Fourteen paper talismans flew from his spatial rings, instantly filling with mana.

The Libero within Kael's heart immediately responded, drastically increasing the paper talismans' weight.

“Attack!” Kael roared, sweeping his hands down in a sharp motion.

All the talismans immediately shot downward with such speed that they looked more like hurled daggers than ordinary sheets of paper.

Three talismans streaked toward the central node, while the others spread out among the ten outer points exactly as Kael had planned several minutes earlier.

“Go, Norvin!” Elias commanded, immediately dispelling the barrier that had concealed them.

The air around the scouts trembled almost imperceptibly, while long purple crystals began rapidly forming behind Elias's back, growing one after another from concentrated mana.

Norvin wasted no time either.

Drawing his bowstring, he set the mana around him into motion, and a moment later silver arrows began appearing beside the archer. More and more emerged until an entire swarm of gleaming projectiles had formed behind him, all aligned with the drawn bow and waiting for only one thing: the moment of release.

The moment the surge of mana swept over the camp, the beastfolk reacted.

Many of the beastfolk jerked their heads up, finally noticing the figures falling from the sky straight toward the barrier.

The warriors stared up in open shock.

“Durmin!” was all one of the guards managed to shout, warning the others of the attack.

But it was already too late.

All fourteen talismans struck their targets simultaneously.

The roar of explosions rolled over the camp almost as a single blast, while the surface of the dome instantly vanished behind thick clouds of black smoke.

However, the attack did not end there.

Almost immediately after the explosions, the air shuddered again from a series of impacts.

Elias’s purple crystals and Norvin’s silver arrows crashed into the exact same points where Kael’s talismans had struck moments earlier, not giving the barrier a single second to recover.

Seeing this, one of the beastfolk with thick black fur instantly stepped forward.

Even through the smoke, it was obvious that he was the one commanding the others.

Barking something in his own language, he began rapidly issuing orders, his voice sounding surprisingly confident.

Judging by the reaction of those around him, the beastfolk was putting a stop to the chaos, explaining that the barrier was in no danger and that an attack like this was not enough to breach the camp’s defenses.

At their leader’s words, the chaos beneath the dome immediately subsided. Several beastfolk even exchanged mocking smiles, clearly not considering what was happening a serious threat.

Their thick-furred commander also looked completely unperturbed as he opened his mouth to say something else.

But at that exact moment, a strange cracking sound came from somewhere deep within the dome.

The commander’s voice cut off mid-sentence.

Cracks began rapidly spreading across the surface of the dome, as though the entire structure had suddenly lost its stability.

The beastfolk commander’s eyes widened in disbelief.

His mouth even fell slightly open, as though he couldn’t understand how such a thing was possible.

But there was no longer any time to comprehend what was happening.

Almost immediately afterward, a deafening crack thundered over the camp, and the entire barrier shattered into thousands of shards of mana. A powerful wave of energy swept through the area, instantly scattering the black smoke and giving everyone present a clear view of what was happening.

It was then that the beastfolk finally saw three humans falling from above, straight into the center of the camp.

But there was something very strange about the scene, something that made the situation even more surreal.

The attackers’ faces showed such genuine shock that it seemed they themselves had never fully believed the barrier would fall.

“Impossible!” Elias roared in utter shock, still staring at the vanished barrier.

Norvin, on the other hand, was practically howling with laughter.

“The bet paid off!” he shouted ecstatically. “We’re celebrating tonight!”

But while Norvin rejoiced at their success, the beastfolk leader had already recovered.

Whirling around, he pointed at the black crates and barked an order.

The instant Kael heard his words, he understood what they meant and warned his allies, “They want to blow everything up!”

Several beastfolk had already broken into a run, desperately rushing toward the nearby crates of explosives.

But Norvin was faster.

Without even losing his grin, he drew his bowstring in one sharp motion, and the silver arrows shot forward.

Not one of them made it.

The beastfolk only managed to cry out before their bodies were torn apart, bloody chunks scattering across the camp and spattering the crates.

At that moment, many of the camp’s defenders still could not comprehend what was happening.

Only a few seconds ago, order had reigned in the camp, and the barrier had seemed indestructible.

And now three human mages were already falling straight into the center of the camp, sweeping aside every attempt to organize resistance.

That brief hesitation was all they needed.

Before Kael’s feet even touched the ground, Norvin and Elias were already attacking.

Crystals, arrows, and flashes of mana struck the nearest beastfolk, tearing apart their formation and turning the first ranks of defenders into a bloody mess.

“Don’t let them send a message to their allies!” Elias roared, instantly identifying the greatest threat.

His mana surged into the ground.

And a moment later, purple crystals burst from the ground directly beneath the beastfolk commander.

He was already pulling out a communication talisman, preparing to activate it, but never got the chance.

Sharp crystalline spikes pierced his body in several places at once, tearing the beastfolk apart before he could activate the talisman.

“I’ll take care of the guards!” Kael called out, already launching himself forward.

While Elias and Norvin unleashed their spells on the main body of enemies, Kael rushed toward the two beastfolk standing closest to the camp’s outer perimeter.

They were still disoriented after the destruction of the barrier, but their combat instincts quickly took over.

One of the guards clapped his hands together, and the projection of a four-legged beast woven from mana rapidly began to form before him.

But he did not have time to complete the technique.

Kael was already there.

The Libero inside his heart flared, instantly increasing the weight of his combat gauntlet to the limit, while Kael put all the momentum of his dash into the blow.

His fist slammed into the beastfolk’s head with a wet crunch.

The enemy’s skull simply could not withstand such force, bursting apart in a spray of blood and fragments of bone.

Without stopping for even a moment, Kael shifted toward the second opponent.

The beastfolk had only enough time to realize that his comrade was dead and let out a frightened squeal before the heavy fist came crashing down from above.

The blow landed squarely on his chest.

The beastfolk was literally driven into the ground, and a web of cracks immediately spread beneath his body.

Without even checking the result, Kael was already turning toward the next opponents.

However, when he turned toward the camp, Kael stopped short.

The sight before him made him uneasy for a moment.

Elias and Norvin stood back-to-back in the middle of the battlefield, while dozens of mutilated bodies already lay around them. Some beastfolk had literally been pinned to the ground by crystals that had erupted beneath their feet, others had been torn apart by silver arrows, while still others had been reduced to bloody chunks of flesh by direct hits from spells.

The strangest thing was how quickly it had all ended.

Barely ten seconds ago, the camp had been full of warriors, and now only silence remained, broken by the occasional groans of the dying.

“Right…” Kael thought. “They’re both Golden Mages. And members of an elite squad, at that.”

Until this moment, he had understood the difference in their combat power only in theory, but now, for the first time, he saw it demonstrated so clearly.

While he had spent several seconds dealing with two guards, Elias and Norvin had managed to slaughter practically the entire camp on their own.

At that thought, Kael involuntarily clenched his fist.

“There are only a few mages in our squad at my level, and even they’re close to breaking through…” flashed through Kael’s mind.

Feeling the familiar thirst to grow stronger rising within him once again, he looked down at his palms and thought, “I’m only one step away from the Marked Mage stage…”

But with that thought, Kael immediately turned his attention to his next goal: “As soon as I break through, I need to push myself even harder. I need to catch up to Elias and Norvin by becoming a Soulbound Mage.”

But at that moment, Kael’s thoughts were unceremoniously interrupted.

“You’re a fucking lunatic, Kael! How the hell did you even do that?!” Norvin shouted in astonishment, looking from the destroyed barrier to Kael himself.

Then, bursting into laughter, he exclaimed, “I thought I was just getting a thrill out of betting on an impossible outcome! But you… You… Damn it, thank you!”

Still laughing, he began waving his arms around, as though he didn’t even know what to do with all his excitement.

“Do you even understand how many MMP we’re going to earn?!”

Without waiting for an answer, Norvin immediately continued, “The three of us destroyed the barrier and captured the camp! We seized all the enemy’s explosives and stopped them from contacting their allies! And if we set up an ambush here too…”

He abruptly turned toward Elias and slapped him on the back with all his strength.

“And you said I’d wasted my money! See? I don’t have a gambling problem!”

“That’s not how that works…” Elias said, glancing sidelong at Norvin.

A moment later, however, he waved a hand, clearly unwilling to waste time on yet another argument about gambling, then turned his gaze back to Kael.

This time, there was none of his usual irony.

Shock and outright disbelief still showed in his eyes.

Shaking his head, Elias said quietly, “No, seriously… How did you even do that?”

Meanwhile, Kael was already walking toward them, calmly stepping over the beastfolk bodies and paying no attention whatsoever to the blood slowly dripping from his gauntlets.

“I won’t lie,” he began thoughtfully, deliberately downplaying the truth. “It was very difficult, and there was a significant chance of failure.”

Kael fell silent for a few seconds, as though recalling his own calculations, then added without pretense, “More than that, this barrier was fairly weak. There’s no way I could destroy the defenses of some fort or a well-fortified camp this easily.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Elias swore at once, staring at Kael as though he had just said something utterly absurd.

Running a hand over his face, he spent several seconds gathering his thoughts, then, still not entirely recovered from the shock, continued, “No one is asking you to destroy the defenses of military camps!”

He gestured toward the fragments of the barrier scattered around them, which looked like shards of thin glass slowly dissolving into the air.

“Small barriers matter too! If you can repeat this, you’ll open up options for us in situations where we used to have to find a way around them!”

The longer Elias spoke, the more obvious his excitement became.

It seemed he was already mentally running through dozens of situations in which an ability like this could change the course of an operation.

Taking a step forward, he placed his hands on Kael’s shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Kael… This isn’t just some useful trick.”

Elias fell silent for a moment, clearly choosing the right words.

“This ability gives our squad an enormous tactical advantage. Do you even understand how many problems barriers like these cause during reconnaissance, sabotage, and raids?”

Without waiting for an answer, he shook his head.

“When the Captain finds out about this…”

The sentence remained unfinished as a strange expression suddenly appeared on Elias’s face.

Kael asked with interest, “Are we going to report to him right now?”

But Elias immediately shook his head, answering, “No. We were only issued one communication talisman for this mission.”

After answering, he turned toward the rows of black crates that still stood almost untouched and silently studied the captured supplies for several seconds.

“We’ll use our spatial storage and take as much as we can.”

Then he released Kael’s shoulders and continued in his usual commanding tone, “After that, we’ll retreat to our allies, report what happened, and they’ll immediately send a cleanup detachment here. In two days, we can put up our own barrier and set an ambush for whoever comes for this stockpile.”

As he spoke, Elias looked surprisingly composed, but Kael still noticed how his gaze kept returning to the shattered dome from time to time.

It was as though some part of the scout still could not believe that it had actually happened.

Still, no matter how much the situation defied the usual logic of war, Elias did not allow himself to dwell on it for long.

As befitted an experienced scout, he almost immediately switched to the next task.

“Enough standing around,” he said, clapping his hands. “Start gathering the crates. The faster we finish, the less chance there is that someone else will show up here.”

“Got it!” Norvin responded with obvious enthusiasm, already heading toward the nearest supplies.

And Kael, casting one last glance at the remains of the barrier, quickly followed them.

Running up to the first crate, Kael smiled with satisfaction, making sure his allies could not see.

“They’ll have to believe I’m sharp enough to identify the support points just by observing the barrier…” flashed through his mind.

The destroyed barrier and captured camp were far too obvious a proof of his success, so now, whether they liked it or not, everyone else would have to find some explanation for what had happened.

“No matter how astonishing it looks—you can’t argue with facts.”

Continuing to work alongside the others and periodically sending another crate into his spatial ring, he gradually shifted to more pleasant thoughts: “After this mission, I’ll have the starting capital I need for training. And I shouldn’t underestimate the standing I’ll gain within the squad…”

Realizing that the operation had gone far better than even his wildest expectations, Kael found himself recalling his conversation with the Shadow of the Throne.

“The Shadow of the Throne was right… Here I’ll be able to grow much faster than in the Capital…”

Looking over the captured camp, he felt a growing sense of anticipation for what was to come. “At last, the real training will begin.”

With these thoughts, Kael continued helping his allies gather the spoils, his mind already drifting to his upcoming meeting with Captain Morkroft. Given the personality of the Doomgrin Squad’s commander, predicting his reaction to the destroyed barrier, the captured camp, and the mountain of seized explosives was rather difficult. Still, for some reason, Kael was certain the conversation would be anything but boring.