Crashing Thunder

My vision swimming I looked up at the sound like roar and crashing thunder to the West. The setting sun was edging towards the cliff edge there, and I saw an impossible sight emerge from it. At the very top of the mountain, two hundred feet up on a steep slope there were a dozen riders silhouetted and I saw banners flickering in the sunlight as they came down the slope at speed. The toads behind me seemed to be stuck in syrup in comparison to the break-neck approach of the horsemen, and I saw them lower their lances even as I felt two tongues stick to my back and robes.

I was only not immediately swallowed because both of the toads (I was really starting to suspect they were frogs what with their jumping) hit me at once, and tried to pull me into their mouths and swallow at the same time. I only had to suffer the pain and indignity of being pulled to and fro by the two amphibians for a few seconds, as the thundering of hooves came close enough to be deafening and the blowing of the horn filled my heart with… something. I suspect it was a magical effect of some sort, because much of my fatigue and dizziness left me in an instant once I heard it from only a few dozen feet away. That instantly redoubled the pain from my joints being pulled apart, but by then I'd learned to take what I could get.

I cast one of the few spells I comfortably knew by heart- that's right, the conjured icicle- in rapid succession against the tongues, but I didn't have time to cause any real damage, before the lancers impacted the toads, and several things happened all at once.

First, there was a thunder-strike sound of twelve sturdy lances shattering to splinters. They still transferred the force of nearly ten tons of horse, human, armor and weapon racing down a 45° incline at impossible speed. There was an actual blast wave, as the toads flew back and crashed into the cliffs opposite the mountain. Their tongues went limp at impact, but not before yanking me toward the wall at alarming speed. Not for the first time in the last few days I thought 'this is it. Surely I cannot make it out of this one alive,' as the rock wall approached, when a firm, gauntleted hand grabbed me by the collar, and slowed me down gently. When I realized what was going on, I was being held up by the scruff of my neck against the side of a warhorse, and when I looked up I saw a man in steel plate polished to chrome, reflecting sunlight behind him with such intensity that he seemed near haloed by it.

Will flipped his visor up and said: "You're late." "A wizard is never late," I was forced to respond in a tired, shaky voice.

Will leaped off his high horse then and gave me a hug that probably would have dealt me several points of damage if not for my own invisible armor. I returned it, and within ten seconds the both of us were tackled in a hug by Anna as well.

"Thank god you're alive," Anna said. "I cannot die. I have family waiting for me to come back home," Will said.

At that we came apart, and looked properly at one another. Will looked like the shining knight on the cover of a particularly cheap 90s fantasy novel. Anna looked like a haunted gothic witch. And I looked like I was on a wizard themed vacation on a Pacific island. I guess we cannot all be the protagonist archetypes.

"Boss, we've got incoming," Chum interrupted the reunion. "A devil?" Will said. "My devil. Hope you all have more lances or something," I said, as I was once again calling my book to me and raising my staff with magically restored vigor. He riders gathered around us, and each of them dismounted, each finding a two-hander or a sidearm and a shield in their saddlebags. After the display with the dead charge down what was basically a cliff I already knew that these were no normal Earth horses, but some of them pulled out warhammers of the size and heft I'd only seen in video games before, and I realized that these horses must have as many levels as their riders.

"A good charge requires a terrain advantage, or an open flank. We're on foot from here," Will said as the croaking grew louder.

Then the toads came across the ridge. I kept count, until there were seven and the nearest in leaping distance.

"Shield wall! Protect the casters!" Will shouted and those among the riders with shields- which was eight of them- stood in front of me and Anna in an interlocked shield wall.

I realized that this was one of the firs times I'd ever fought like a wizard in a video game or on the tabletop. We had our tanks ahead, and support scouting from above and the sides. The enemy would have to go through my allies to get to me. And I was free to cast at leisure, not counting how many syllables I could squeeze into the air before whatever was charging me would start clawing my throat out.

"Anna, we should really show them what we're capable of," I said. "Let loose?" Anna said. "Like we never have before," I said.

Before describing what happened next I should say that I am a generalist. I have many specialized tools for many specific situations. It would have been unreasonable to expect me to be able to deal more damage that a spellcaster specialized specifically in destructive combat magic. I was not bitter or emasculated at all.

As giant toads filled the valley, and first of them began yanking shields out of the hands of the riders protecting us, I cast my second-tier, second-rank Greasefire spell, spreading dozens of square feet of blazing oil across the ground. The toads caught in it croaked in pain and jumped away at random, and each were seriously hurt according to the HUD spell.

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And Anna was still chanting.

I boxed a pair of toads into a wedge of invisible barriers, cast another greasefire directly atop them, and poured more grease into it, slowly but surely frying them alive.

And Anna was still chanting.

The first of the toads impacted the shield wall. It held, and in holding it was an amazing sight of humans who looked like they should be easily swept away by the giant toads standing their ground and even pushing back.

And Anna was still chanting.

And then she was done.

The air buzzed with heat and electricity. Then, threads of molten flame materialized underneath the packed dozens of toads. It took a moment to realize that the lines were coming together in a sigil of interlocking symbols far more complex than anything I had ever cast, dozens of circles filled with a notebook worth of runes. Its radius was easily 50 feet.

Just as I noticed the symbols, the spell went off, and world went yellow as my vision was filled with intense light, completely covering my line of sight. The pillar of flame was the brightest thing in the valley, washing out the sunset completely. I looked to Anna in shock, and at least she had the decency to be collapsed to one knee, coughing up blood. There was no way she had enough mana to cast this spell safely, hell, even with blood magic it was a miracle she was still alive.

The blast of heat left me out of breath and stumbling back, and the riders protecting us dropped their weapons and straight up ran away from the fire, Will included. I smelled burning hair, and knew that my beard would be flame-styled before this was over. And then, with a flash the fire was gone, and we were left blinded by it, the sunlit afternoon seeming like deep twilight in comparison.

There came a scratching from my Journal and of hers.

Will stumbled towards us, armor steaming and coughing.

"Holy fuck, Anna, maybe warn us you're about to launch a nuke next time," Will said.

Anna threw up, it was mostly blood, as expected from a major blood magic casting. Her next few breaths were wheezing.

"Fuck, are you alright?" Will said. "Blood magic," I explained, "she needs healing, but if it didn't kill her outright she will be fine with a recovery ability or a health potion."

She spat blood on the ground the last time and managed to stand up straight.

"Sorry, didn't know exactly how it'd work. My only tier 5," Anna said. "Tier 5? Shit, where'd you get it? I don't even have any 3s," I said. "Same place I get most of my spells. Journal," Anna said. "Wait, so, you need healing?" Will said. "Just hold on a minute. Gotta get just a little mana back and I can start burning myself better," Anna said. "What the hell have you two been through?" Will said. "Same thing as you? Horrible nightmares in a cave underground?" I said. "That's… not exactly what happened with me. I mean, there was fighting and we lost people sure, but, you know, it wasn't blood magic," Will said. "Maybe your pal got the easy mode tutorial dungeon, eh, Boss?" Chum said. "It wasn't easy. Just- It's a long story, let's get somewhere a bit more comfortable," Will said. "Who are the winged hussars?" I said, pointing vaguely at his cavalry entourage. "Just volunteers, whoever we could gather on short notice with at least 15 levels under their belt. I don't know most of them, but they're reliable," Will said. "Cool. You know Anna. This is Chum, my imp familiar, and this is Adam, a flayed man I cut out of a sac of meat inside a room covered by veins," I said.

It took him a second, but he got that smile back on his face. He'd been shaving, and had his blond hair in a pony-tail under the helmet, and he looked like a rugged hero adventurer from a grimier fantasy TV show. He'd also clearly invested enough into physical attributes to have gained a few dozen pounds of muscle and lost every gram of flab. He stood straight, as he held out his hand to both of my companions with a smile on his face.

"Mary Sue bullshit," I said.

There was a round of introductions, and then Anna started casting fire spells on her wrist. Her recovery ability seemed particularly gruesome to me, especially as I could still see her flinch with pain even as it healed her, but we all had to learn to live with fucked up abilities here. I memorized the faces and names of Will's riders, as with my current Mind attributes that was trivial to do, but didn't pay them much heed. As we went down to the edge of the valley and began setting up against the cliff wall, our goblin friends re-appeared as well, were nearly attacked by Will and company, and the tensions were resolved just as quickly. But Anna and I had that hunger in our hearts. Both of us had heard the scratching from our Journals, and both of us knew that it could only mean one thing. We sat next to each other at a cliff, and flipped open our Journals.

Log

The battle of the Stone-Toad Valley won. Participation: 8%. Experience gained. Sufficient experience gained for a level up.

Level up! You have reached level 16. Attribute point gained. You have reached an even level. Choose a class ability.

Wizard 16 abilities:

Haemomancer: Upgrade level 10 ability Blood Mage. Further reduce damage you gain from casting spells from hit-points. Furthermore, gain access to spell-like ability Siphon Blood, which allows you to mark a target whose blood can be used in place of your own when performing blood magic. Further advancement in the Haemomancer ability tree will give you abilities allowing you to affect blood inside yourself and other creatures with blood

Contingency I: When using your recovery ability you may choose a tier 1 spell or a tier 2 spell in your specialization school and describe a condition. This condition can be anything that could happen, examples include 'when battle starts', 'when reduced to 1 hit-point', 'when casting specific spell'. The chosen spell will activate instantly at the nearest eligible target. Hostile spells will only target enemies. This ability can be used once and is recovered when using a recovery ability.

Gachapon: Gain a tier 4 spell at random. Any spell generated by the Tower is eligible as an option.

Now this was a significant level. Each of the options were immediately and obviously powerful. I was just a bit squicked out by the Haemomancer option, but even that was clearly powerful- even if it was just the health cost reduction it'd be significant. But it was just a little too macabre for me, so I looked at the other two. It was probably the hardest choice I'd made in leveling up, but eventually I decided to pick the Contingency option. Both of my Chronomancy specialization spells seemed tailor-made for it.

Then I paused, and almost without thinking put my first ever point in Self-Esteem, raising it from 0 to 1.

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