Antelligent Design

100. Tussling with Mage Slaves

Each of my three brains screech with pain as I condense more Mana into the Gravity Bomb. The spell was already dense to the point it turned dark, and now it’s rotating ominously as I pour more and more Mana into it.

I grit my mandibles tight and focus. Much like exercising a muscle until it burns, straining my minds to this point hurts. Having one headache is bad enough, having three separate headaches at the same time is so much worse!

I won’t have to hold on for long though…

After a few more seconds of pushing Mana into the spell, just before my control begins to slip, I leap up from my hiding place and let it rip.

HOOOOOOOOOOOWL!

The mournful cry of the Gravity Bomb rings out as the sphere of condensed Gravity Mana blasts forth, exerting its terrible pull on the air around it. The monsters of the horde had grown accustomed to this sound, and they scramble to move away from the inevitable death that would soon find them.

Except it wasn’t inevitable any more.

No sooner had I unleashed the spell into the pre-dawn air than I leap to one side and scramble left and right. Good thing too, as a fireball impacts the hill not two metres behind my commercial zone, causing me to curse.

Those buggers are getting quicker!

Thanks to my wide field of vision, even as I dodge and hurl myself about, I can see my nemesis of the last few days approaching from within the horde. The slave attendants of the Ka’armodo wore long, pale robes with hoods concealing their faces. I haven’t had an opportunity to get a glimpse of their features, despite them chasing me around over the last twelve hours.

Two of the mages continue their attempts to crash my stocks with searing-hot Fire Magic whilst the others raise their hands and begin to perform the magic I was here to see. We’d been doing this little dance repeatedly throughout the night, and this bit right here is something I desperately want to understand.

The mages have only seconds before the Gravity Bomb impacts and expands, unleashing its full, terrible might. Despite their desperate flight to escape, quite a few monsters on the edge of the horde are still likely to get caught in the blast.

Come on then, you lizard lovers. Let’s see if you can handle this one!

I try to keep my eyes on the mages as I continue frantically dodging, my Mana Sense active and my aching minds sharpened to their limits.

The mages do two things at once. First, they raise a magical barrier between themselves and the bomb. A tactic I was prepared for.

POW! POW! POW!

Jets of acid arc out of my business district. Liquid justice sent to deliver my wroth to the enemy. The moment I fire, the two fire-flinging mages turn their attention to the acid and manage to catch two of my shots with fireballs.

As the last bomb crashes into the barrier, the magical shield bends to absorb the pressure, as if it were a giant elastic sheet being pressed into by a giant’s finger. The acid impacts not long after and eats through the shield, tearing apart the threads and allowing the bomb to push forward until the barrier shatters like glass.

I feel no triumph, however. I knew what was up, as I’d seen this interaction before. As the spell had been caught by the barrier for precious seconds, no less than four of the mage attendants had been hard at work. With my Mana Sense active, I’d been able to see it as they’d reached out with External Mana Manipulation and began to drain away the Mana contained within my spell.

They tear into it with desperate energy, trying to kick over my sand castle with fierce hammer blows. The combined efforts of the four mages rapidly unspool my Gravity Bomb. But this time, something is different. This is a condensed Gravity Bomb, with as much juice as I could pack in with my current abilities. The Mana contained within is far more potent than the spell they’d defeated last time!

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say this was the most potent Gravity Bomb I was capable of creating.

When the spell broke through the barrier, it still had plenty of oomph left, far more than the mages were anticipating. I could only imagine the look of shock on their faces as the spell flew forward, ready to impact in their midst—since their faces were still covered and all.

BOOM!

The bomb crashes into the ground and expands rapidly into a swirling vortex of doom that I’ve come to know and love. Due to the efforts of the mages, the spell lost half of its potency. This appears to be a coordinated technique they use to break down spells. I must master this application of External Mana Manipulation! With my multiple brains on the job, I could be defending and attacking with magic at the same time!

Sadly, for the slave mages, half of a condensed Gravity Bomb is still a heck of a thing to deal with.

Using surprisingly agile footwork, the six mages try to slip away. The speed and grace with which they’re able to move their bodies is strange. Perhaps it’s magical in some way? They don’t appear to shift their feet, but merely glide away at high speed.

All but one, that is.

A little too close to the blast, a little too slow to begin moving, the poor sap finds himself caught in the inexorable pull. The trapped creature shrieks and the high-pitched hiss pierces my ears even from a distance of near one hundred metres.

The other mages turn at the sound and reach out to save their comrade. But it’s too late. In another second, the mage is gone, sucked into the swirling heart of the Gravity Bomb and crushed by the potent forces inside.

[You have defeated a Level 46 Setsulah Bonded Mage Attendant.]

[You have gained XP.]

[You have reached Level 38. One Skill Point awarded.]

Yasss! Finally!

The Setsulah servant wasn’t the only creature to get caught in the blast. Plenty of monsters also suffered the wrath of my Gravity Magic.