Having flung himself at the old mage, Luke wasn't about to squander the element of surprise and give up his edge. Several threads of mana entered his opponent’s mana channels as they both tumbled to the ground in a heap, rolling. As the threads dug deeper, heading for the old man's meta-heart, the mage formed the pattern of a spell even as he coughed and flailed. Mana flowed to the mage's head, and the weave formed right in front of his face. More fire.

  Luke denied the spell, cutting through the spellweave with Needle of Life as he reached the old man's meta-heart. There, he wrapped a thread around it and pulled while affixing yet another Needle of Life to a second thread. Just as he was about to start cutting, the meta-heart pulsed white, and his opponent's mana channels did something Luke had never experienced before. It was like they flexed and pushed. In that moment, Luke found himself rebuffed. The threads of mana fell apart, as if burned away from within the old man.

  Pain flared in Luke's side, and he tumbled through the air to land several feet farther into the field of barley. Another spell. This one, he'd missed. Groaning, Luke healed his side, not bothering to dampen the pain. A stab wound of all things.

  "Interesting abilities," the old man said, his voice low and confident. "I have seen nothing like them." Several mages and archers were readying attacks, aiming them at Luke, but the old mage held up a hand to stop them. "What is your name?"

  Off to the side, Curtis was fighting against the entire group of knights and soldiers, holding his own as darkness dripped from his sword. A cloak made of the same stuff, whatever it was, was forming at his back, and his movements were sharp and deadly. The old man didn't seem to care about his soldiers and knights being slaughtered, and neither did any of the other mages. Apparently, they were fine with Curtis cutting his way through them.

  Luke wasn't sure what to expect, but he stood back up and straightened. "I'm Luke. What's your name?"

  "Luke," the old man said, looking thoughtful, as if tasting the name. "I am Archmage Royce Kent. Why have you come to our world? Just to steal our traveling artifact? Are you working with the dwarves, perhaps?"

  "He's here, he's there, he's every-fucking-where, Royce Kent, Royce Kent," Luke muttered, shaking his head. "You know we're from another world?"

  "This is not the first time we have had the displeasure of hosting otherworldly forces."

  "So you have the system here?" Luke asked.

  Kent narrowed his eyes, and a look of confusion washed over him before he schooled his expression. "We have many systems of rule."

  Luke took that as a no. "How about you just let us leave?"

  "You have killed many of our people," Kent scoffed. "And you have something that belongs to us. Return the artifact to me, and I will see that your deaths will come without prolonged and needless suffering."

  Luke saw movement in the corner of his eye and grinned. "Nah."

  "You refuse? The artifact is ours, and without it, we can no longer explore the depths. After a generation’s worth of struggles, it is in our hands again."

  "It's in my hands," Luke corrected. "But thanks for the explanation. I'm no fan of the Deep Dweller, that's for sure."

  Kent's voice hardened. "My fellow magi will burn you and your friends to cinders as soon as I give the command."

  "We'll see," Luke said.

  He set off running again just as Mateo's spear appeared and slammed into a mage on the outskirts of the gathered group, before it disappeared and reappeared in the Lancer's hand as he thrust it into another mage. Both of them died in an instant. Mateo followed up the attack by throwing the spear again. This time, it headed straight toward Kent, who'd been forming the pattern of another spellweave. Forced to drop it and jump out of the way, he was unprepared for Luke's attack.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Again, they slammed together. This time, Luke didn't aim for the meta-heart. Using Threads of Mana and Needle of Life, he thrust a thread into Kent's head, but found some sort of metaphysical barrier stopping him. Rather than be deterred, he reached back to get some momentum and slammed his fist right into the mage's face. Pain shot up his hand, but Kent must've felt it more because he groaned and brought up his hands to protect himself as blood flowed from his broken nose.

  Spells formed in the palms of both his hands. Luke didn't have time to see what they were, but he sliced one spellweave apart before it formed. The second summoned a thin spear that pierced Luke through his chest, puncturing his lung before disappearing. This was the same attack that'd taken him by surprise last time. The pain was excruciating. Luke's vision blurred, but he did not stop the offensive. If Needle of Life couldn't pierce the metaphysical, the punch told him the physical was no longer as well protected.

  Luke sliced into Kent's thigh, opening up a deep wound. At the same time, he stitched himself back up and brute-force healed the collapsed lung at a staggering cost of mana. Head throbbing and vision spinning, he consumed a mana gem. Something about the gem drew his attention, but Luke ignored it. This was not the time. Kent attempted to cast another spell, but Luke didn't allow it to form, slapping both the spellweave and the old man's hand away to land another punch.

  Striking the old man was nothing more than a distraction from the thread of mana Luke followed up with, digging into Kent's chest with the intent of piercing his heart. To his surprise, Needle of Life struck a magic barrier when his fist had not.

  Taken aback, Luke raised his fist again to strike, and stopped. The hand. It was gone. His forearm was nothing more than a bloodied stump. Strips of flesh wriggled. Pain followed the shock, and it brought a powerful nausea with it, making Luke's eyes tear up.

  Rather than scream, Luke used The Healer's Moment, activating the skill in a daze. After he'd surrounded the stump with Threads of Mana, he activated Weaver’s Renewal. Amazed, and more than a little relieved, the whole damn arm appeared out of thin air. Time resumed, and Luke followed through with the punch, his new fist crunching into Kent's face.

  It was enough for the barrier around the man's chest to drop, and Luke didn't waste any time in piercing the archmagi's heart. Not satisfied, he pushed back in with Threads of Mana and severed the meta-heart. The mage leader was dead. Luke grabbed his staff and dumped out another dwarf corpse to fit Kent's into his inventory.

  Staff of the Magi: Increases mana regeneration and the strength of barrier spells.

  Using the staff to push himself to his feet, Luke looked around to find that the chaos of battle hadn't stopped. Killing their leaders wasn’t enough. Mateo was under heavy fire but kept getting healed by Milla, who still hid out amongst the trees. Arrows and bullets from Emma and Abraham were still cutting into the enemy troops, and from the look of things, the mages were struggling to keep their barriers going.

  Curtis stood over the corpses of his opponents, his chest heaving with ragged breaths. As Luke and he exchanged looks, the cloak of darkness that'd been growing while Curtis fought dissolved into thin air. Along with it, the several visible spots of darkness on Curtis's body disappeared as well. That darkness must've staunched his wounds, because as soon as it disappeared, blood began flowing.

  "You beat up an old man," Curtis noted.

  Luke shrugged and approached him. "I'm just a healer. Who else am I going to beat?"

  Just as he was about to put a hand on Curtis's shoulder and heal him, an arrow struck the ground between them, then another. Spells followed, but Luke cut through the spellweaves to destroy the spells just before they reached their target. With practice, defending against spells was becoming much simpler. Stretching the fingers of his new arm, Luke couldn't help but think about how powerful some of his abilities were. Not just in the state they were in now, but how much stronger they would become as he kept increasing his levels and control through practice.

  Taking another deep breath, Curtis turned and made as if to charge the archers, but Luke stopped him, shaking his head. "I think we can rest a little."

  Nymh and her people, 15 of them, were coming onto the field of battle. Better late than never. Once Luke and Curtis had created some distance between themselves and the enemies, and Luke had seen to their wounds, they watched as the remaining troops broke and fled.

  System Message: Quest Complete: The Gem of Communication has been retrieved.

  System Message: Dungeon closing in 60 minutes.

  Now, after all they'd been through down in this terrible dungeon, and all those they'd lost, it was time to return home and get some rest. With 60 minutes left, they had better hurry.