Ends of Magic
Chapter 9: Preemptive Siege Breaking

Nathan thought that the best description of the Agmon camp was professional. They’d set up on a hill a little ways off the road, in a clearing that had a faint path leading towards it - though the grass had been beaten down recently by many feet. A set of upraised stones decorated the top of the hill, looking like a spiky crown atop the low peak.

The Agmon legionaries had built a three-foot wall of fallen logs and low dirt around the base of the hill to delineate their camp. Inside were loose rows of tents, guarded by a dozen sentries stationed at the base of the hill.

The clearing was fairly large, with a few hundred feet between the trees and the outer edge of the camp. Farist swore as soon as he saw the gap, clenching his jaw and looking back at the two teams hiding in the darkness on the edge of the forest.

They hadn’t approached from the road, circling around as soon as Byns spotted the lights of the camp through the trees. The Agmon legionaries had brightly glowing magical crystals encased in shiny metal cases that directed broad arcs of light outwards like floodlights. Some of them were even pointed upwards.

Selnoa whispered through the gloom. “Those are magical. If a person moves through the light it flashes and sounds an alarm.” Nathan couldn’t see the Forest Rangers very well, but they were definitely exchanging worried looks with one another.

Farist took a slow step backwards, remaining crouched low. “They came prepared. Maybe we should harass them on the journey to the bridge and call for reinforcements. We’ll be able to keep them from doing more than ransacking Bridgeguard.”

Stella looked at Nathan and teeth flashed in the darkness. She used a phrase she’d learned from him. “Go big or go home. Let’s do this.”

Sarah had pulled out her rifle and aimed down it. “I can shoot at this range. I see a guard on top of the hill, I’m pretty sure he’s guarding the siege-spike.”

The Forest Rangers looked at the Heirs with an air of uncertainty. Zanwin spoke for them. “This seems foolish.”

Nathan turned to look over their allies, speaking slightly louder. “It is not foolish. We have a good plan, and the abilities necessary to pull this off. We can take a risk once, now, and have a good chance to turn back this force for good. I do not know that repeated harassing will be less dangerous, only less successful. This will prevent them from hurting the people of Bridgeguard, and means that there won’t be any more raids in the future. I will be taking the greatest risk, and I judge this worthwhile. Will you help me?”

High-tier Earnestness 3 achieved!

Farist nodded and sighed. “We’re with you. How does this plan change if we can’t get close to help you escape?”

Nathan looked over the clearing again. “Not much. Byns and Sarah split up and find hiding places where they can see and cover different angles of the camp. I’ll need Sarah to take out the guard on the siege-spike. Can you do that?”

Sarah looked, focused on the top of the hill. It was about a hundred yards away, and Nathan could only make out a faint silhouette in the uncertain lighting. After a moment, she nodded decisively.

So Nathan continued. “Everybody else, group up. The moment the alarm is raised, come in to cover my escape. I’ll try to get out without fighting, then join up with you and retreat.”

Zanwin spoke up. “I’m going to set some traps along this escape route. Tripwires and some nasty caltrops. A few spike-traps in the trees. Won’t take long.”

“Do it while Sarah and Byns get into position. Selnoa, can you handle the coordination?” Farist spoke with resolve, and at Selnoa’s affirmation they got started on the final preparations.

Sarah and Byns went back into the trees to circle around the camp. Zanwin started pointing out the places he would trap. He’d set his nastiest traps in the treeline, and snuck a ways into the clearing to plant tripwires and caltrops to foul the footing of any pursuers. He made sure the Adventurers knew the safe path he was leaving, pointing out bushes that marked a clear path.

With a look to Selnoa, Nathan explained an important detail. “I’m immune to magic. If I’m in the middle of a group of enemies, don’t worry about hitting me with anything. It will help me out.”

The Knuld mage looked shocked, but Stella whispered an affirmation. “It’s true. Nathan can eat one of my fireballs and be fine.” She grinned at the double meaning as she grabbed his hand with hers, channeling faintly sparking lightning until he nodded that his Stamina was full.

Then she started compacting a platform from the earth to throw him with.

Khachi clapped Nathan on the shoulder softly. “Hear me, but I hope Algoa’s luck rides with you tonight. Don’t die.”

Aarl merely nodded solemnly at Nathan, his hands twitching near his pouches.

And with that, Nathan stepped onto Stella’s platform. “Can you throw me that far?”

Stella shrugged. “We’ve never practiced this far. I’m just going to throw you as hard as I can.”

“Sending the signal that we’re about to start. Sarah should be shooting.” Selnoa whispered, casting a spell to notify Sarah and Byns.

Nathan crouched down on the platform, closing his eyes and kindling his Rage as he waited for Stella’s countdown.

I don’t hate these imperialists with every fiber of my being. But they come to Gemore to ransack and pillage, to steal. To conquer if they find us weak. I will teach them that they have no right to what is ours. I will ensure they regret coming here, and think long and hard before returning.

Then Stella’s countdown reached zero, and Nathan leapt as the platform beneath him rocketed skywards. He heard a faint crack from Sarah’s rifle as he opened his eyes and watched the Agmon camp approaching. The throw had been a bit short, but as he reached the top of the arc Nathan started spending stamina to direct his flight towards the peak of the hill. The guard atop the hill was looking around, confused.

I think Sarah missed. Shit.

Nathan’s flight was slow, since he was falling at an angle much shallower than gravity would normally let him. It was draining his Stamina. He passed into the cone of light from the upwards-facing illumination constructs, and felt the tingle of magic on his skin.

Unsurprisingly, it was light mana, and was trying to bounce back from his skin to activate the alarm. Nathan didn’t let it, absorbing all of the mana that touched him from the spell.

However, that didn’t stop Nathan from being illuminated by the light itself. He’d passed over the heads of the exterior sentries, but the guard atop the hill was looking around - and up. He saw Nathan and paused for a moment, before pointing at him and opening his mouth to yell.

Another faint crack sounded from the edge of the woods, and the orc’s neck exploded. He fell over, nearly decapitated. It wasn’t particularly quiet, but it wasn’t louder than somebody dropping something or falling out of bed.

High-tier Slow Fall 4 achieved!

Stamina: 492/690

Nathan landed quietly on the top of the hill, suppressing his relieved laughter and trying to control his movements through the familiar flood of adrenaline. At this point it felt like an old friend. He crouched down behind one of the stone spikes crowning the hill, noticing interlocking runes carved into its surface. They’d been deliberately ruined at some point in the past and didn’t have so much as a trace of magic left in them.

He took a moment to look around, suppressing his desire to start bashing heads. The guards had heard the shots, and were calling out to each other to check in.

I don’t have long.

Luckily, the siege-spike was right there, lying on the ground just below the peak of the hill. Nathan had never seen one before, but it was hard to imagine what else the tree-trunk sized metal rod glowing faintly with enchantments was. It had three sets of handles for carrying, and emanated a faint hum that reminded Nathan of a transformer station.

Nathan didn’t hesitate to jump on the siege-spike, wrapping all of his arms and legs around it for increased surface area.

Leech mode returns! I will hug this magical artifact to death!

The enchantment didn’t try to attack him, which made it harder to interface with. But he could feel the enchantments in the cold metal, and he was slowly draining the mana from the item. There was a hell of a lot of force mana in there, as well as some electricity and shadow of all things.

I’m not draining this fast enough! Hardly making a dent. I think the metal is just an outer shell.

Nathan gritted his teeth, accepting he wasn’t going to be able to crush the pillar of steel with his bare hands and drain it dry. He closed his eyes, relying on [Focused Mind] to pierce through the skein of his rage and let him think of other options than pure physical violence.

His Rage fell away, and with a clearer mind Nathan crawled up the ram. He stayed low in case anybody looked in this direction. The front of the siege-spike was decorated with a complicated enchantment and inlaid with multiple magical gems. He slapped a palm over it and started to drain mana faster, but it still wasn't an incredible amount. What he did get was a better feeling of the spells laid into the device. The front was the trigger mechanism and emitter for a ludicrously powerful force spell.

Then a rough but florid voice sounded in front of Nathan. “Behold my brethren! Into the very heart of our camp comes an enemy, as a presage to our luminous assault!”

Nathan looked up, and saw an orc standing about ten feet in front of him, having just walked out of a tent that was a good deal fancier than the rest. The orc stood over seven feet tall, and was dressed in delicately enameled but sturdy armor and an engraved open-face helmet. He drew a gold-shining longsword from his hip, walking unhurriedly towards Nathan.

You know, I’m just realizing that if they don’t sound a loud alarm then my backup won’t be coming to help me. And there’s a tent between this guy and Sarah.

Then everything seemed to line up in Nathan’s head. [Notice], [Enhanced Memory], [Identify] and [Spellsense] were all passive skills, but together they brought a single salient factor to Nathan’s attention. The trigger enchantment on the head of the siege-spike was nearly identical to that of a spear Herdin had given him to practice cursebreaking on before the Solstice. That weapon had come from Agmon, come to think of it.

And Nathan knew how the trigger mechanism worked. Specifically, he had a pretty good guess at which three separate inhibitory loops he needed to break in order to cause the trigger enchantment to continually activate.

So, he drained mana from three specific gems on the front of the siege-spike, trying to break those parts of the enchantment.

High-tier Spellsense 4 achieved!

High-tier Enhanced Memory 3 achieved!

Nathan’s hand was covering the front emitter of the siege-spike, and the appendage was immediately ripped off as a raging torrent of force, shadow and lightning mana ripped out of the central crystal. The orc, and the tent beyond him, and most of the hillside were blown away in a huge plume of dust.

I think that’ll signal the Heirs nicely. Also ouch.

The injury caused Nathan’s Rage to spike, and he surrendered to the thrill-seeking wrath as the siege-spike shot backwards, propelled by the torrent of destruction pouring from the front aperture. It had enchantments to prevent recoil, but Nathan had been sitting on them for a minute. Also, they definitely weren’t intended to compensate for the entire charge of the siege-spike being dumped at once. Nathan yelped and wrapped his knees around the handles, trying not to get tossed in front of the business end of the bucking bronco of a siege weapon.

He struggled to both hold on and to keep any part of his body from ending up in front of the emitter as the siege-spike tore its way down the hill. He had to curl his legs around the handles and brace his torso with his one good hand, unable to stop himself from laughing maniacally. The motions of the siege-spike were wild and unpredictable and Nathan was battered between the ground and the unyielding surface he was riding. His bones were crushed between metal and the rocks of the hill. It just caused Nathan’s rage to flare higher as his [Regeneration] repaired the damage.

Better than any rodeo ride. This bull’s got some horns!

His ersatz mount crushed a banked campfire and tore its way through a tent. The remnants of the tent and the blinking legionaries who had been sleeping within were promptly blasted backwards by the plume of force emitted from the front of the siege-spike.

Then the front of the siege-spike tilted skywards and the back embedded itself in the ground. Nathan quickly vaulted himself off the bucking metal pillar before it dragged him into the ground. He used the momentum of the gyrating rod to fling himself further away. The motion was pretty awkward, but Nathan turned a flop into a distance-eating roll to get away before the random jerking could aim the spell in his direction.

It threw me pretty hard, now I can keep that momentum going.

He kept rolling, pulling himself down the slope with his new Talent every time he went airborne. The movement grew wild as he prioritized distance and elevation loss over control. Nathan’s regrowing hand jarred uncomfortably into the ground and only his rage-enhanced durability prevented a sharp rock from drawing blood from his back. Nathan wasn’t watching the siege-spike, but he felt the edge of its discharge wash across him. The raging force magic buffeted his roll into even more of a headlong tumble. Nathan intentionally didn’t absorb as much as he could have, leveraging the additional momentum to give his rolls further distance.

Congratulations, you have developed the [Low-tier Tumbling] utility skill into [Mid-tier Tumbling].

Utility skill: [Mid-Tier Tumbling]

This skill will help you use unorthodox movements involving rolls and handsprings to take advantage of your momentum to avoid danger.

Nathan saw a braced figure loom in front of him and tried to regain some measure of control to dodge around the angry orc. Nathan was surprised when he smoothly transitioned to his feet and had the footing to spin away from a vicious spear thrust. The bones of his legs had been cracked, but he’d managed to patch them up to be able to bear his weight.

Mid-tier Dodging Footwork 5 achieved!

Oh yeah, that one does help me keep my balance.

Nathan soon had more problems, as the orc in front of him pressed the attack. He casually held a giant shield in one hand, covering most of his body. The only things visible past the clearly enchanted shield were a pair of intent brown eyes under a beefy helmet and a spear held in a plated gauntlet.

Nathan’s hand was rapidly regrowing, but it would take a minute and a bucket of Stamina to reach full functionality again. Luckily, he didn’t need to beat this guy, he just needed to run the hell away.

Nathan dodged the next spear thrust, but the soldier braced the spear against his side and tore the spearhead sideways in a motion Nathan hadn’t been expecting. He jerked his right arm - the one without a hand - to block the spear shaft and prevent the spearhead from carving out his throat.

The blow carried an incredible weight to it, both because of the enchantments on the spear and the immense strength of the soldier. It powered through his unbraced guard. The block deflected the spearhead upwards slightly, enough that the spear gouged a deep chunk out of Nathan’s cheek instead of his throat. The spearhead ripped off parts of his lips and sent a few teeth flying.

That’s a new sensation! And one I will repay.

Nathan leapt forward, planning on yanking the shield aside to get at the soldier behind it. His ambitions were frustrated when that shield rushed out to meet him, crunching into Nathan’s reaching left hand and impacting his shoulder with considerable force. He staggered back a few steps, and the soldier planted the spear in Nathan’s gut.

A foot of steel in the gut is even less pleasant. This guy’s better at this than I am. When did I decide to fight instead of running away?

The Soldier raised a sabaton to kick Nathan off the spear, but Nathan jerked himself off the sharp point and ran, holding the growing stump of his right hand over the wide puncture wound to prevent any guts from spilling out. The wound was healing automatically, but he directed his talent to focusing on closing the skin first, so Nathan wouldn’t be in danger of literally spilling his guts as he ran.

More soldiers were approaching from nearly every direction, all with various amounts of armor on. But they all carried those enormous shields and had spears at the ready. Another crack of Sarah’s rifle sounded, but Nathan didn’t see any effect.

Well shit. Time to get tricky!

Nathan sprinted at a pair of legionaries that were approaching from the side. He picked up speed rapidly and they quickly brought their spears into position. Right before he got to their position Nathan took three steps up the rock he’d really been aiming for, jumping as high as he could into the air to sail at their heads.

The soldiers merely angled their spears upwards and raised their shields, ready to spit Nathan as he came down from his jump. He used [Slow fall] to jerk himself down diagonally, and kicked out with his legs as he fell to knock the spearheads out of his path. The motion flipped Nathan over and he flung out his left hand, shoving off an upraised shield to vault over the legionaries. He slowed his fall slightly to complete the rotation and land on his feet behind them.

Mid Tier Tumbling 2 achieved!

Parkour!

Nathan staggered for a few steps after the landing, but then he took off in the direction that the other Adventurers were approaching from. They were only a third of the way across the field, but coming closer.

I think I’m in the clear. Just need to outrun them. And I've got [Sprinting] for that!

Bolts of magic impacted Nathan from various directions - some of his pursuers had drawn wands and were tagging him with a myriad of elemental spells. Almost a third of them had lightning wands, meant to be used against long-range targets.

Nice of them to provide some extra stamina. I’ve got a lot of wounds to heal. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NovᴇlFɪre .ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Then a familiarly florid voice carried over the hillside. “Cease fire! Company form up!” The command was a bit ragged and out of breath, but when Nathan darted a look over his shoulder he recognized the fancily armored orc whom he’d blown away with the siege-spike, just tossing aside a potion bottle. His armor was a bit crushed and his enchanted helmet was gone, with blood seeping down from his scalp, but he looked pretty much in one piece.

More significantly, the rest of the armed orcs quickly assembled into a tight block, approximately six across and three deep. The officer stood just behind them, and raised his glowing sword.

“Company, CHARGE!”

Skill text comparison:

Utility skill: Low-tier Tumbling

This skill will help you use unorthodox movements involving rolls and handsprings to avoid blows in the future.

Utility skill: Mid-Tier Tumbling

This skill will help you use unorthodox movements involving rolls and handsprings to take advantage of your momentum to avoid danger.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 7

Permanent Talent 2: High-tier Regeneration 9

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 4

Class: Spellbreaker Juggernaut level 59

Stamina: 3676/690

Juggernaut's Wrath

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Juggernaut's Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Utility skills:

High-tier Focused Mind 9

High-tier Earnestness 3

Mid-tier Sprinting 5

High-tier Spellsense 4

Mid-tier Notice 9

Mid-tier Identify 7

Mid-tier Dodging Footwork 5

High-tier Enhanced Memory 3

Mid-tier Lecturing 2

Mid-tier Tumbling 2

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