Mage Among Superheroes

Squad C-4 was gearing up to take out Handface within the next couple of days. All we needed was an opportunity where Swarm was away and we'd take our chance. For that purpose we kept our training to the minimum. Enough to keep in shape and in practice but not enough to exhaust ourselves.

Keeping busy had resulted in me crossing the threshold to level 19 without any sort of exciting circumstances attached. That was good, but now I had 20 points I was staring at trying to decide what to do with them.

The easy choice was Stoneskin. I'd been wanting it for a while and various factors that were making it a bad idea had faded away. Diamonds were significantly cheaper than I had imagined, and I was leveling up regularly enough that I wasn't terribly concerned about spending the points. The remaining factor was simply that it was a bit too high compared to my level. Level 9, which meant it would take 9 of my 24 mana to cast. It lasted around an hour which meant that half of the cost could be recouped if I had enough warning to cast it far ahead of a conflict, but that had some risks associated with it.

But if I needed it, it was hard to say it would be a waste of mana. Sure I could use Sonic Lance twice for the same mana cost, quite a bit of destruction, but sometimes you needed offense and sometimes you needed defense. I also had a low-cost option for additional defense in Shield, though it had its own weaknesses. I'd also been neglecting upgrading spells, and some efficiency in my most valuable spells could really help.

Except I was also planning to go up against Handface, and he had a sniper rifle. I touched my hand to the chest, still recalling the pain I had felt. Ironically enough, it had mostly come after I passed out and woke up in the hospital as my body hadn't been able to process it in the moment. Shield might help but only if I knew which direction he would shoot from. And really, having another layer of defense so I could be alive wasn't a terrible idea. I knew he would be most interested in shooting me, so it really benefited the whole squad even if I could only cast it on myself… and Midnight, through Familiar Bond. I could technically cast it twice but then I'd basically be out of mana. I finalized that choice, and I had just enough points to improve Shield as well.