"Shouldn't you be dealing with the real attack instead of trying to kill your own ally?"
"Ally? You killed Richard!"
Which one was Richard? I hadn't been bothering to appraise them, but perceive presence told
everyone I'd hit was still alive. "No I didn't; he's fine." Well, if Richard was the one in the moat, 'fine' was pushing things a bit, but they probably had healers. I'm sure that arm could be reattached with no problem. "Besides, you're trying to kill , and I gave repeated warnings I would fight back if you didn't stop."
I dodged another spear thrust, not wanting to take back to the air and give the mages a clean shot at . "And are still trying to kill ," I added.
Didn't those mages from before get so sort of divine punishnt for attacking ? That should give these guys a clue that they were attacking the wrong person. Or was it only because they'd successfully killed ? In that case, I would be better off letting them kill
than committing suicide. The curse should give them a clue sothing was up. So, fly in, find the altar or statue or shrine or whatever it may be, activate the respawn point, leave the letter sowhere safe, let them kill
and get themselves cursed, and by the ti I respawned they might be willing to listen.
The only slight issue with that plan was that no-one in the castle knew I'd respawned, and no-one was paying any attention to anything I said. They all thought I'd survived the spell. There wouldn't be anything in the letter about it, the commander would think that his garrison had killed humanity's last hope, and by the ti I respawned, shit would probably have long since hit the fan.
Why was nothing ever easy? I was immortal. I had bloody dragon breath! Yet I still couldn't walk from one end of the continent to the other? What sort of bullshit was that supposed to be? Then again, random invisible walls are often a thing in RPGs. The number of protagonists completely unable to climb over a fallen tree trunk or an upturned cart was amazing. Or even not being able to jump at all. If I ever started a protagonist school, it would definitely feature jumping as a mandatory class.
Holy magic tolerance advanced to level 3
I was pulled from my thoughts back to the real world by a wave of burning light washing over the wall. I saw my health bar drop a fraction, but it wasn't serious. The soldiers weren't hard at all, holy magic seemingly being immune to friendly fire. Holy magic being one of the few things that still posed a danger to , I replied with a burst of fla of my own, lting the legs off the offending mage.
Again, I was sure they had healers. If I'd aid a little higher, I could have lted his head off. They'd give
credit for not doing that, right?
"She can use dragon breath!" shouted soone.
"You've been yelling dragon, dragon, dragon for ages, so why act surprised when I breathe fire?" I yelled back, deciding to make a break for the shrine during the brief interruption. I had a good idea of where the centre point of the fortress was, and there were unfortunately several presences around it far stronger than the mage I'd just incapacitated, but I didn't need to beat them. Activating the respawn point would be enough. Assuming there was one. If there turned out not to be, humanity was probably screwed.
I jumped from the wall to the inside, spreading my wings and catching myself a tre above the ground, pulling off a ninety degree change of direction and zooming towards the camp centre.
There ca yells of, "Stop her," and "Kill it," along with one particularly observant individual shouting, "She's going for the barrier emitter! Defend it!"
At least that reassured
I was heading in the right direction, but the powerful mages went into action, and by the ti the structure I was aiming for ca into sight it had been enclosed in an earthen do, mages flying around it and launching lances of holy magic at .
I ignored them, throwing my own fla at the do instead, which wilted under the heat. Diving through the hole put the shield between
and the attacking mages, giving
ti to locate a window and enter the structure.
New respawn point activated
Success! There was actually a statue there, but the stance differed from the dungeon. The Goddess looked down over an altar, hands by her side. I didn't have ti for sightseeing, though.
I took out my letter, left it on the altar, stepped well away from it, item boxed my equipnt and switched back to my nightie, waiting for the idiots to co rushing in. Sure enough, they arrived within seconds.
"Co on then, kill . I won't resist, but I'll be back in one hour. In the anti, read the damn letter. I left it on the altar."
Holy magic tolerance advanced to level 4
No-one bothered replying with words, but one of the stronger mages launched a burst of holy magic at , knocking off half my health bar. That was followed up by a couple of spear strikes, which did nothing but snap the shafts of the spears. It took another blast of holy magic to finish the job.
Holy magic tolerance advanced to level 5
When I woke up, I was feeling strangely lethargic. It was a struggle to even open my eyes. That was alarming; was my respawn cheat starting to break down, now that I'd left the dungeon? Did I have limited lives now?
As I gradually ca back to my senses, I noticed the other things that were wrong. The feeling of cold tal wrapped around my neck, wrists and ankles. I couldn't move. I was restrained in a semi-lying position, legs slightly apart, arms by my side a short distance from my body. There was a strange sucking sensation on my stomach, and as my vision unblurred, I could make out tubes running from
to the ceiling.
Mana drain resistance advanced to level 17
My mana bar was empty. They were doing sothing to drain
of mana? And I'd gained seventeen levels?! This wasn't a respawn; I must have been unconscious for ages! Drat, why hadn't I activated trigger respawn?
Because I hadn't even considered the possibility that they'd go for a capture instead of a kill. Besides, trusting idiot that I was, I'd assud that once they read the letter, they'd start treating
like a hero. Maybe they hadn't even bothered looking at it. Since they hadn't killed , presumably no-one got cursed.
I hadn't activated trigger respawn before, but there was no reason not to now. I hit the switch.
Nothing happened. Or rather, the switch was stuck. It wouldn't let
push it.
The obviousness of the problem hit
like a brick; trigger respawn consud mana. I knew item box required it, but given the poor UI that made it impossible to see the bars with clarity, that fact wasn't obvious unless I used it multiple tis in quick succession. With the boost from draconic power, I'd never seen item box shrink my mana bar. Trigger respawn wasn't sothing I'd ever used multiple tis within a few seconds, so I wouldn't have noticed a small mana drain, even with my original mana pool.
With friend of fear preventing
from descending into panic, I tried to get a better look around the room. The tal collar around my neck, fixing
to whatever contraption I was bound to, restricted my range of motion, but that made no difference; the room was pitch black, and I'd switched to 'looking' with olfactory perception without even noticing that I'd done so.
I was bound to a tilted tal table, my head slightly raised. As well as the thick irons, there were additional straps around my forehead, chest and upper arms and legs. My wings were pinned beneath , and wouldn't stretch freely. They must have been restrained by sothing too.
The room was small, not much bigger than was required to contain . There was no other furniture beyond a contraption above , fixed to the ceiling, into which the tubes ran. So magitek device to harvest mana? The room stank of urine. I was naked, and beyond rely missing my clothing, scales had been carefully harvested from my right leg, too, the raw, damaged skin beneath wrapped in bandages.
What was I supposed to do? I couldn't use trigger respawn or item box. Even my draconic might wasn't sufficient to tear myself free of my restraints. I couldn't use manipulate mana to boost my strength further. I could use my silk, since that consud stamina instead of mana, but I didn't have anything to do with it. With my hands restrained, I couldn't even use it to plug my mouth and suffocate myself.
In all my ti in the dungeon, had I ever been so helpless? I'd feared being in this position; captured, with no ans to commit suicide or use trigger respawn. But I'd assud strategies like putting
to sleep permanently. Draining my mana while leaving
conscious was an even worse horror.
And it was the humans who had summoned , not the demons, who were doing this. Or at least, so I assud. The humans being defeated while I was unconscious would be even worse.
There was a small window of hope there, though. Why was I conscious? Obviously, I'd been out for a long ti, given that I'd apparently pissed myself. Harvesting scales must have taken ti too, and I'd had ti to build up my mana drain resistance. That must be what had done it. The rest of my status hadn't changed, so my resistance must have reached the point of fighting back against the equipnt.
I could gain three more levels. Would that be enough to start regenerating my mana pool? What if I threw in manipulate mana to try to reverse what the equipnt was doing? I did my best to pull back on the mana that was leaving my body.
Mana drain resistance advanced to level 18
I felt a pang of hunger, which drew my attention to the fact that I hadn't eaten for a good few hours before arriving at the fortress. Given how long I'd been unconscious, I should have been seriously thirsty. It stood to reason that if they wanted to keep
long term, they'd need to feed . I must have had visitors from ti to ti. I'd need to escape before they turned up and noticed I'd woken up.
Mana drain resistance advanced to level 19
So of the lethargy left , the equipnt having a harder ti draining
dry. I made another attempt at actively clawing back my mana, but I still couldn't quite do it. There was one more level available. Could I make it?
There were noises outside. Nothing strong enough for perceive presence to pick up, but it was obvious I was about to have visitors. Dammit, I wasn't ready! Judging the chances of success of any sort of conversation to be slim to nil, I decided to feign sleep. Light spilt into the room as the door opened. Eyes closed, I used my olfactory perception to watch two soldiers walk inside, one carrying a small bucket of foul-slling slop.
"Why do we have to feed this demon?" complained the one holding the bucket.
"Because the mana it puts out is more than every other demon we've captured combined, as you should well know if you paid any attention in the debrief after the big attack."
"No, no. I know all that, that the only reason the barrier held was because of this thing. That it saved us, yadda, yadda. I an, why do we have to feed it? Us, specifically."
"Because anyone with the proper dical training is busy dealing with the casualties from the latest skirmish."
The second guard huffed, obviously not happy being lumped with Katie feeding duty. Well, the feeling was mutual. I was perfectly capable of feeding myself! Hell, I could probably live off the irony alone for the next week. I'd saved the fortress? It took everything I had to not burst into laughter and give away my wakefulness. It was also interesting that they seed to actively control their barriers, unlike in the dungeon, if they were deliberately feeding it mana to strengthen it. Was that similar to how I fed them mana crystals? Did mana crystals exist in this world too?
The first guard took out a thick tube with a funnel on the end, which soured my mood rather quickly. I suppose feeding a comatose person without choking them does require a little more effort than stuffing food into their mouth. No doubt they were about to shove that thing down my throat.
They did, which was horribly uncomfortable, and then they tipped the entire bucket into it, before pulling the tube back up and leaving
feeling stuffed and nauseous.
I repaid their kindness by waiting until one was standing downstream of , then urinating over him, being rewarded with a girly squeal for my troubles. Once again, I struggled not to laugh despite my predicant, watching as he fled from the room, the other guard in hysterics behind him.
Reviews
All reviews (0)