Level One God

My body was tight as I stood, waiting and watching the three men with apprehension. I kept trying to stop feeling so damn confident. I had no right to be. These weren't predictable monsters I'd learned to fight like the nightmaws back in Beastden. These were humans with unique class corestones. They would be full of nasty surprises, and I needed to keep that in mind.

"Remember," I whispered. "Hold our ground. Let them come to us." We were still behind the pile of crates. If nothing else, the narrow passage would slow them down and make it harder for them to surround us.

I felt Pebble vibrating nervously in my pocket. "It's okay, buddy," I whispered, patting my pocket. "Just stay put for now."

"Are you talking to your rock right now?" Lyria hissed between her teeth.

"Sorry, buddy. She's right. It's about to get too dangerous for you." I unsummoned my little friend, then took a deep, calming breath.

Once the chaos peaked, I would summon Deborah and a Forge Echo of my dagger in the middle of the fight and let them go to work. Instead of striking first, I'd let our enemies show their hand and hope my defensive abilities could help us endure the first wave. After that, I could catch them with a properly calculated counter-attack.

That was the plan, at least.

I felt Lyria calling on mana and saw her begin the weave for a Wind Wall in front of the choke point.

It wasn't exactly ideal strategy. Her wall would block projectiles from both directions. But I supposed it reduced the number of ways they could kill us unexpectedly. At least this way, they'd have to get up close and personal.

The Wood with the mustaches clapped his hands and slowly spread them apart, revealing a red ball of flame. He cupped it like a bowling ball, then looked over his shoulder as if waiting for something.

The Iron lifted his wand, and a blinding flash of white light exploded in the alley, washing everything out of view for a split second. Without a warning from Mana Sense, I had to assume the spell wasn't hostile.

When my vision cleared, there were three versions of the swordsman and three of the man with the ball of fire. They were fanning out as much as the narrow alley allowed, approaching the choke point with slow, careful steps.

Lyria took a step back in surprise.

"Illusions?" I asked.

"Looks like it," she said through her teeth.

Mana Sense lit up with warning as one of the red-haired men swung his arm back and flung the ball of fire at us, rolling it beneath the mist in our direction.

I lifted a Mana Shield in front of Lyria's shield to block his attack, smearing the ball into a spray of napalm-like fluid that splattered upward and rained down all over the alley.

Each drop of fire ignited trash, wood, and debris, burning away the neon-tinged fog and seemingly causing more damage than if I hadn't blocked it at all.

I let the second ball of fire roll into Lyria's Wind Wall, which made it roll upward and arc back toward the attackers. Another flash of white from the Iron's wand erased the ball before it landed.

Whoops.

What was that? Some kind of nullification magic?

The third ball missed Lyria's Wind Wall, smashing into the wood crates forming our defensive choke point instead. The resulting fire looked too white and flickered in a way that somehow didn't look right or entirely real.

"I think that one is an illusion," I said, mentally marking the "man" who had thrown it.

Thank God. Maybe that meant the illusionary copies of the Woods wouldn't do real damage. They'd only be distractions.

The Iron stalked forward, wand held high. He swiped it down, and I turned as I sensed something behind us.

A growling, snarling thing was pulling itself from the ground like a nightmare. Eyestalks waved, claws scraped beneath the mist, and a mouth full of sharp teeth gaped, dripping saliva.

"Oh, Gods," Lyria said, spinning with her shield held high.

"Illusion," I said, even though my own heart was pounding with fear. "Has to be."

But just to be safe, I decided to test something. I summoned a Forge Echo of my dagger behind the beast and told it to start stabbing. Then, almost as an afterthought, I used Awaken Mana and willed it to form based on a Shield corestone.

The familiar form of Shieldy Guy AKA Gregory the beetle appeared, clutching his oversized chitin shield.

"Defend!" I commanded, pointing at the beast.

Gregory saluted with one tiny arm, then charged forward with all the grace of a drunk toddler. He made it about three steps before tripping over debris hidden in the fog and face-planting, small arms and legs kicking as he tried to right himself.

"Really?" I muttered.

Behind us, the swordsmen and the other Woods were pummeling Lyria's Wind Wall.

Lyria looked at the Wind Wall and seemed to decide it could hold up for the moment. She lifted her sword and shield, then charged toward the illusory beast.

A tentacle tipped with a barbed talon rose from the mist and swiped at her. She blocked the first as her Basilisk's Shield expanded. She slashed a second attack, slicing away a chunk of tentacle that leaked light like blood. A third tentacle rose up behind her and slashed at the back of her thigh.

Lyria shouted in pain, falling back as blood and pressurized air sprayed from her leg.

Shit. So the illusions could do real damage? I reached my senses into her and used some of her mana to heal the worst damage. She already felt low on mana, though, even after just one spell. Was she feeding mana into that Wind Wall to keep it active?

I also felt a small portion of my concentration slip into Lyria as Leeching Surge kicked in. The blow from the illusion must have counted as a "mana fueled" attack, triggering my passive fusion skill, which would give her a portion of my mana recovery for the next minute.

Good. She'd need it.

"Don't worry about the wall," I said. "You're burning your mana too fast."

"I know what I'm doing," Lyria countered.

There was no time to argue, so I let the issue drop.

Shieldy Guy had gotten back up and was now trying to bash the beast's tentacles with his face—which was also his body. It wasn't very effective, but points for enthusiasm. I unsummoned him and called out Deborah instead, who appeared in a flash of vibrant green light.

Deborah appeared as the illusory beast was snapping and whipping tentacles at my Forge Echo, which tried to bob and weave but was still getting smashed away before it could land any real hits.

Deborah was a four-foot-tall praying mantis with serrated green metal blades for limbs. She threw her head back, her blonde hair trailing as she screeched with wide eyes, clashed her blades, and pounced.

She swung in mid-air, cutting away a tentacle that bled white light and seemed to leak energy. The Forge Echo laced with Frost Finger potion landed a few blows, flooding the creature with ice and opening up more wounds.

Lyria took the opportunity to rush in and join them. This time, she used her Basilisk's Shield to petrify the horror, opening it to a brutal series of slashes, stabs, and strikes from the trio.

I turned toward the Wind Wall, which was about to shatter under the strain of combined assault. I kept half my mind on Lyria, checking her for wounds and monitoring her mana usage.

Behind me, Lyria, my Forge Echo, and Deborah, were noisily fighting the illusionary beast. Keeping all the summons active, plus a portion of my concentration inside Lyria both to monitor for damage and to maintain the mana transfer, was already taxing me. I could feel the strain building like a pressure headache forming behind my eyes.

In front of me, a pile of burning wood and a fading Wind Wall stood between me and what "looked" like seven people. I assumed the illusions of the Woods would bleed light and do little to no real damage, but distractions posed a danger of their own. It wouldn't matter how many powerful abilities I had if the real swordsman caught me in the neck when I was distracted.

I readied myself as I watched the last threads of Lyria's Wind Wall fade. A tiny part of me whispered that I could end this quickly with dark mana—one surge of corrupted power and they'd all be ash. I pushed the thought away firmly. That wasn't me thinking. That was the corruption talking, maybe even the Burned Man's influence.

No. I'd win this the right way. My way.

The wall fell, and a swordsman rushed forward, holding the blade to one side with a two-handed grip.

I held my ground, keeping myself as close to the burning pile of wood as I could so they couldn't get a numbers advantage on me.

I hadn't equipped any of my Shield class' active abilities, but I did have both blocking passives. I raised my left arm with the leather strap of my bucklet.

The man stepped forward, faked a horizontal strike, then spun and jabbed straight for my chest.

The combination was as elegant as it was deadly, and I flooded my Mana Bender's Raiment with mana at the last moment.

Glowing blue armor exploded across my chest just in time to absorb some of the impact.

His blade still punched through the leather as I stepped back, cutting an inch or two into my chest.

I gasped in surprise, barely raising my arm as I let the armor fade to save my mana. It looked like the illusionary horror was mostly under control, so I dismissed Deborah and brought Gregory back out, hoping he could help defend against the swordsman. He seemed to understand we were under attack and headbutted the swordsman's knee, which did absolutely nothing except make him stumble slightly in confusion.

I bashed away the second strike with my buckler. The successful block made a fuzzy shield of blue activate around my body as Reverberating Aegis kicked in, creating a temporary barrier that would absorb part of the next hit.

I stumbled backward, blocking attacks with a combination of Mana Shields, my buckler, and my Elemental Spike. Shieldy Guy was trying his best, occasionally deflecting blows by accident rather than design.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The barrage of furious attacks nearly disrupted my focus on all my summons, but I clung to concentration like a drowning man to driftwood, making sure they didn't fade.

I was barely holding my ground, keeping him in the choke point and preventing the others from rushing through to join him. There was too much chaos going on for me to think clearly about how I could be making better use of my abilities.

I gritted my teeth, blocking another blow that clanged against my dagger so hard it made my arm numb. I flared my Mana Bender's Raiment, deflecting a glancing blow to my shoulder. Another slammed into my helmet, but Reverberating Aegis absorbed it completely before fading. Abyssal Step saved me from a slash to my neck, but I couldn't use it to get behind him without putting my back to the others, so it only bought me a few seconds.

Do something, Brynn.

I urged myself forward. This asshole was just a Wood. I could handle him, but I realized I was hesitating to use truly dealy force like I would against a monster. Attacker or not, I was battling a natural resistance to killing another person.

I started to pick up on a pattern in his attacks. He liked to feint to get my guard up, then use the opening to swing into large, powerful attacks to the opposite side.

I saw him go in for a strike that seemed a little too obvious. I gritted my teeth and prepared to let it through, jabbing straight for him instead of blocking.

He pulled the attack as I expected, but just before my dagger would punch into his side, his body flickered with white light, and he appeared on the other side of the choke point.

I fell forward as my dagger met open air instead of man. My foot came down on something small and spikey—damn it, Gregory—and I windmilled my arms as I fought for balance.

What the hell?

I spotted the illusionist with a smug look on his face as he stood behind the group.

Make that four abilities, then. He can teleport them somehow? Or maybe it just looked like he did.

Another swordsman rushed through the opening. This time, I was ready.

He came in with an overhead attack. I surprised him by summoning a Mana Shield in front of both his arms before he could swing. Surprised, he stumbled and fell forward. I let his momentum carry his body straight into my extended Elemental Spike, which punched through his stomach like he was made of paper.

His body was ripped in two, split by glowing white cracks before he broke apart into sparks.

Illusion, then. I tried not to feel too relieved about that.

I barely lifted my Elemental Spike in time to block as another swordsman sprinted into view. It was another sword blow, and it felt real. It clattered against the ice of my dagger with enough force to numb my arm again.

I hurried backward, and raised my hand to block another strike, but white light enveloped the man as he seemed to teleport a foot to the side. Before I could process what was happening, he slammed his sword edge directly into my hip.

I gasped with the shock of pain as the icy cold bit into me. Thanks to my Pain Tolerance boon, it only hurt like hell. It didn't reach the point of distracting or slowing me down, but it certainly wasn't fun, and I could already feel warm blood soaking my pants.

"Brynn!" Lyria shouted.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, limping back and pressing a palm to the wound as I flooded myself with mana to heal it. Shieldy Guy was now attached to the swordsman's leg, gnawing ineffectively at his boot as the swordsman tried to kick him off.

Fucking illusionist. These guys were just Woods, but they were getting heavily buffed and augmented by the Iron. He was a support-themed class, and he was making them both punch above their weight class.

"Nah, nah," the swordsman said, freeing himself of Gregory and stalking toward me. "You're not fine."

"Not fine," another said in a watery, almost robotic voice as it followed him through the gap.

Illusion. I made sure to keep track of which was real.

I had fallen back too far and lost the advantage of the choke point. Dammit.

The three fire bowlers came just behind him.

Five targets… And that wasn't including the illusionist at the back who was going to keep buffing these guys. I needed to get to him somehow.

There was one move I had practiced… It might be exactly what I needed to reach the illusionist and take him out of the equation. But without knowing what other abilities these two Woods had, it would be a risk.

Standing my ground would be a risk, too. Probably a bigger one.

I dismissed Shieldy Guy before he could get himself killed, watching him pop out of existence with a flash.

I took a deep breath and tried to visualize the entire plan. Back in my personal space, I had schemed up a few uses for my Mana Shields that I hadn't had time to think of in Beastden. As much as I had hoped I could stand on one and ride it like a flying surfboard, the mental strain of moving it with that much weight proved too much for my current capabilities.

But there was a trick I'd practiced. A trick that might work perfectly here.

I summoned my Silver Scream Bow from my slip space. I already had the quiver on my back, so I plucked an arrow with Clinging Shadows from my back. The potion inside wasn't particularly deadly, but it should be enough to distract the illusionist while I handled the Woods.

I risked a glance over my shoulder. Lyria was standing on top of the beast and stabbing it repeatedly in its head. My Forge Echo gleefully stabbed it again and again, causing frozen jets of ice to blast out of the wounds.

They've almost got it. I canceled my Forge Echo, reclaiming a little bit of mental flexibility since it looked like Lyria was fine on her own.

One…

I mapped out where each Mana Shield would go and decided how high I needed to be to aim my shot.

Two… I pushed a thread of mana upward and began weaving Elemental Chain into a Cloudfall formation, preparing to feed it Frost Finger potion.

Three… I nocked an arrow and jumped.

A blue, floating staircase of Mana Shields rose in front of me just in time for me to land on the first step and bound upward.

Icy liquid rained down from my Cloudfall above the illusions and Woods, bathing them in freezing liquid that spawned heavy, dangerous spikes of icicles that crashed down with a glassy clatter.

One of the illusions slipped, losing its footing, and must have landed on sharp ice. It exploded in a rush of white.

I landed on the top step and aimed my shot, closing one eye. I considered snapping off the Mana Shields behind me, but I could hold them a while longer. If any of the Woods tried to follow, it would be at their own peril.

The illusionist had time to look up at me, eyes wide with surprise.

Got you, asshole.

I let the arrow loose with a satisfying twang.

The shot punched straight through the illusionist, whose whole body shimmered in a prism of colors.

The arrow struck the ground uselessly.

Fuck. Where is he?

I scanned my vision around the alley and finally noticed a slight disturbance in the fog—like someone was creeping slowly through it.

I nocked another arrow. This one was a Dragon's Tail arrow, which would fill the target with liquid flame. Brutal, but these guys wanted to kill us…

I aimed, led the target slightly, and released.

The arrow flew true, then punched into something invisible, seeming to float in mid air as it shuddered and shook. Blood appeared as from nothing around the shaft of the arrow, which wavered and seemed to fall a few inches. The next gush of blood was licked with flames.

The illusionist flickered into view as he kneeled, hands clutched around the arrow with his eyes squeezed shut in pain.

I heard the hollow sounds of boots on the lowest Mana Shield of my staircase.

The swordsman raced up my impromptu staircase. His body was crusted with barnacle-like clumps of ice that were slowing him down and drawing blood, but he wasn't letting up.

You should've asked yourself why I left the stairs behind me, dumbass…

I waited until he jumped, then unsummoned the shield he planned to land on.

The swordsman's eyes widened and his arms windmilled as he fell. He fell badly, landing on a burning pile of wood head-first.

Lyria had finished their work with the beast and closed in on the fire bowler and his one surviving illusionary copy. I cut off my Cloudfall with relief as my strained concentration was ready to give out. The headache behind my eyes was pounding now.

I stayed on the highest Mana Shield and assessed the situation. My mana was dangerously low, mostly just from flaring my Mana Bender's Raiment twice and maintaining all these shields. But I could already feel my regeneration kicking in, that familiar trickle becoming a stream. We only had two more fire bowlers to deal with, as one illusionary bowler and swordsman had fallen to the Cloudfall of Frost Finger potion. One illusionary swordsman was down from my knife and the real one was burning and wounded after his fall.

Most importantly, the Iron illusionist didn't seem to be handling the single Silver Scream arrow well. He was deadly as a support in the backline, but apparently lacking in defensive skills. I kicked myself for not trying to take him down earlier.

Either way, I thought this would be over soon enough.

One fire bowler cocked his arm back to roll a ball of fire at Lyria. Just before it left his hand, I created a Mana Shield in front of him.

The ball of fire slammed into the shield, backsplashing and bathing him in napalm. He screamed and flailed his arms, falling on his ass and slapping at himself in a futile effort to put out the flames.

Not an illusion, then.

The other fire bowler began to flicker and finally vanished into motes of light.

The real swordsman and bowler were both screaming in agony, and the illusionist was coughing up blood and fire, probably too distracted to keep up his spells.

I knew it would serve them right to let them die, but I wasn't afraid of them anymore. We had won. Easily. Now that I knew their tricks, I thought we could beat them four times over, even if they were at full strength.

I realized it was a critical lesson. When fighting other adventurers, knowledge was king. It also meant I needed to be smarter going forward. Only show the abilities and items I had tos how. If my enemies didn't know my full arsenal, they wouldn't be ready for it.

I cut off my remaining spells, feeling my regeneration kick up a notch once I wasn't actively draining my reserves.

I could maybe still sleep at night if I put these three out of their misery. But I wasn't ready to start dismissing murder as trivial, even if it was in self-defense. If I could afford to let people live without worrying that it would get me or people I cared about killed, then I was still going to make every effort to do it.

And in this case, I figured there were two outcomes to choose from. One was letting them die and potentially making a permanent enemy of some noble house. After all, they'd know these guys were sent for me. If they wound up dead, it wouldn't be that hard to guess who was responsible. That was arguably more dangerous than the risk of them living and trying to get payback.

All these assholes just saw how easily we handled them, and I doubted they would be convinced try attacking me again.

On the other hand, if they survived because I had shown mercy, they would still be pissed and embarrassed, but at least I could argue I was only defending myself and Lyria. I also got to sleep soundly knowing I hadn't let three people die painful, terrible deaths.

Decision made, then.

I pushed my senses into all three men, subtly Devouring their mana just enough to help them stave off any mortal wounds, but not so much as to make them too dangerous to us, should they try to keep fighting today.

"Yield," I commanded.

"We yield," the illusionist coughed as he nodded, still clutching the burning arrow in his side.

Good. This was easier if they cooperated. Not wanting to die was also a pretty strong motivator, so I wasn't too surprised.

"Are you sure?" Lyria asked me.

"Yeah," I said. "They're too wounded to threaten us anymore. We don't need to lower ourselves to their level. Besides," I said, raising my voice. "Now these guys can tell their friends it would be wise to leave us alone in the future. We may not be so merciful next time."

I sprayed the two burning men with Frost Finger from my Elemental Chain, extinguishing the flames and covering them in more icy barbs at the same time. Small price for them to pay.

I approached the Illusionist, who flinched back at my approach as he coughed up burning liquid. His skin was peeling and raw in places where the flames had burned.

I tugged the arrow from him and threw it on the ground.

I could have healed them more, but I didn't. The bowler and swordsman limped toward the illusionist, who was shakily returning to his feet and trying to get as far from us as possible. They all cast a few terrified glances back our way as they limped and made an attempt at running. In a few seconds, they were gone from view.

"That could have gone a lot worse, right?" I said.

"People like us aren't supposed to do that to people like them. We just pissed off three noble-born. Dead or alive, I don't know if this is a good thing for us," Lyria said.

"Yeah… I kind of figured. But I think it's important to keep some kind of moral compass. If this all goes the way I'm hoping, I want to make sure I'm still a good person in the end. I think that's important. Too many compromises along the way and I may wind up a monster instead of a hero, right?"

Lyria considered me, then nodded slowly. "I'm glad it was you I ran into back in Riverwell. And I'm glad I decided to come with you."

"Thanks," I said. Lyria wasn't big on compliments, and I felt awkward getting one from her.

"As much as I wanted to see you get your ass kicked at the Aspirant's Guild, I think this may qualify as a valid excuse to postpone the sparring match."

"Huh?" I said. "No, I'm fine. Just…" I touched the gash in my hip that was still healing. Without my pain tolerance, I suspected it might have hampered me a little more. I needed to be careful with that. I had hardly noticed it during the fight, but I probably should have focused more on healing it. "I just need a couple minutes."

"Sit," Lyria commanded. "I'll keep an eye on you while you heal."

I groaned as I sat down and finally felt my body begin to tell me about the pain of my wounds. I rested my head against a wall, eyes lifted upward to the floating neon orbs above. I squinted, head tilted as the sense of intuition triggered from my Iron boon.

I looked closer and thought I sensed something among the slowly moving orbs of neon spores, like a sphere of distorted air.

I pushed my awareness into it and felt… intelligence.

"What the—"

The orb flickered and ceased to exist, but I couldn't shake the feeling of certainty I had felt. Somebody had been… in that orb? Or maybe they had been using it somehow.

Exhausted, I closed my eyes and put it from my thoughts for the moment.

"You need to stop pushing yourself so hard," Lyria said. She was kneeling beside me, concern written on her features.

"Nah," I said. "I think I need to do it more. Then I'll get used to it."

She gave me a disapproving look. "Sometimes, I think you would push yourself straight off a cliff if I wasn't keeping a leash on you."

"You want me on a leash?" I asked, chuckling a little. "Kinky."

"You're lucky you're injured. Otherwise, I'd punch you."

"Do you think Kalcus will send more noble goons for us after that?" I asked.

"I don't know," Lyria admitted. "But you seem to have a talent for making enemies. I have a feeling that's not the end of your saga with this Kalcus guy."

"Good," I said. "Because that was kind of fun."

"You know what would actually be fun? Some rest," Lyria said.

"Agree to disagree," I said, hopping to my feet and brushing the dirt off my self-repairing pants.