“Are you okay?!” Azure sent Sammy suddenly in worry, her Blueberry's mental voice quite muddled. “Who… the fuck cut you?! I wasn’t looking — I can’t see!”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Sammy replied. “I’m fine. Tiny nick. Just focus on getting your feet under you.”

  “That hook bitch. That’s who it was. I’ll fucking kill him!”

  Sammy rolled her eyes but spared no more time on the matter.

  With Wandy delayed by his wall-canceling spellcraft and Orb Dummy already acting, Sammy had otherwise seized the initiative. She knew she had too many things to do and not enough time to do them, so she planned on double-casting. Meanwhile, she handed off keeping Mr. Scimitar busy to automation, while moving decoy phantasms to grapple and distract Orb Dummy to aid eventual theft, and more decoy phantasms to attack and distract Hook Guy, presumably to soften him up for whoever else.

  She had to deal more decisively with Wandy — who was surely incredibly dangerous — and further overwhelm Orb Dummy. She had the perfect new thing for a flying ornery wraith she needed to disable for a few rounds — Fire Funnel. It was not so great for her other target, however, as she needed to snatch the key from him. Spinning in a torrent of fire would make that a bit of an issue.

  So, as the other part of her Doubled spell, she cast Malignant Slowness. Unlike the simpler, lower-level AoE effect, the level 9 spell was single target and very difficult to resist at +6 to the contest of wills, nearly guaranteeing a ‘lesser’ debuff that was hard to remove without a specific measure. A [Slow] effect was also seldom something on a supernatural entity’s ‘immunity list,’ as it were. Curses on a wraith were otherwise dubious. Having a [Haste] effect up was some protection, but even then it would get negated. It was an ‘old reliable’ for journeyman wizards, essentially.

  In addition to Double, she added Intensify from [Tweak Spell] to Fire Funnel, inclined to maximize the chances of it working with another +3 to caster levels, on top of Pneumamancer 20, Magineer +4 for multiclass, and +1 for the fire element. Thanks to Pneumamancer, covering required levels for [Tweak Spell] purposes was child’s play. Mana was her main limiter in a spirit realm.

  And all for the bargain price of 106 MP. Ugh! I need to cool it.

  The spinning little cone of fire shot from her hand at Wandy, who, as Sammy expected, tried to rely on swift, dodgy flight to avoid it, but this was all but useless against the spell with her total levels. It arced with Wandy’s movements and slammed into him.

  That attack might’ve incinerated even heroic-level threats, but the wraiths were far tougher than they had any right to be — then again, she was in their realm. Nonetheless, he was scorched, wounded to some degree, thrown, and tumbled through the air, on a collision course for the wall, howling in offense the whole while. He staunchly kept hold of his wands, but he wouldn’t be doing much for at least ten seconds, probably fifteen, as getting slammed into the wall would require recovery time even if the spell slipped at that point.

  Sammy tossed out a use of [The Unseen Animus] on Orb Dummy before unleashing Malignant Slowness. He failed it by an extensive margin, as the ‘success by 3+’ confirmation pinged in her head. This also guaranteed the curse would work barring obscene bonuses or immunities to [Slow]. In fact, it was probably overkill.

  Better safe than sorry. I wonder if Mirror Maze would work on them? They have souls, technically. Still feels a bit experimental. The hold their god-king has on them might protect, or — even worse — he might notice and take offense. Better to try some other [Hold] effect if necessary. Will vs. Will, he’s boned.

  The slow spell took hold, showing as a vague ripple in the air around him that impeded his every motion. He snarled in offense, and that too came slower, making it altogether a rather comical picture. “Hhhhrrrrrrraaarrrrggh…”

  Each spell allowed her to cast Common Ward, so she dropped the minor buff on both Azure and Orswyth.

  All the while, her phantom decoys were attacking. Hook Guy completely ignored them, his eyes burning hot for Sammy alone as a target, with a growing, fanatical focus. He didn’t pay for that, either — when one tried to hit him with a staff, it passed right through like it wasn’t there. Which, in reality, it wasn’t.

  His insanity, perhaps. Little room to believe in something false externally when you’re stuck in your own lies.

  Surprisingly, Mr. Scimitar had no such protection, fighting against the big hand around him in full and complete acceptance. He was making a noble effort, producing a dagger and stabbing it viciously, but Sammy was pretty content to let him go after it.

  Her decoys found Orb Dummy something of a middle ground comparatively. Two of them got a hand on him, further burdening him with grapples, and one went for the key, but in this respect, they appeared incapable. The double’s hand seemed to pass through the metal material.

  Figures.

  Hands still out directing spells as her eyes scanned the combat, Sammy turned her head and whispered behind her, “Linguist, can you go for the key? Azure could do it, but I think she’s stunned.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I will make an educated try,” Linguist replied, and quickly zipped around, headed for the slowed-down and beleaguered wraith in the air.

  Michael charged Hook Guy, forcing his significant size in between his goddess and her assailant, largely forcing him to shift his focus. A sword came spinning for the wraith, who dodged dismissively, apparently trying to fly upward to keep line of sight on Samantha. But Michael was ready for this and was flying himself. His great winged figure blocked any hope of targeting her.

  Though Sammy couldn’t see much, there was a howl of protest, and those hooks came for Michael, one wrapping around his sword, another embedding into his shield, and two more bouncing off his armor. Michael was jerked and thrown off-balance. Though Angels were good at stalling, he was likely overall outmatched one-on-one.

  Fortunately, though, he wasn’t alone. Waytaker moved in, and serious gong-like impacts of metal-on-metal could be heard on the other side of Michael’s bulk. The hook in his shield came free.

  Stargazer’s slow spell finally materialized. Innumerable pinpoints of sharp light blossomed and surrounded ally and foe alike like glitter, coating them in some sort of aura. They seemed to ‘flow’ with one’s movements around Samantha and allies, supporting and reinforcing. Against the enemy wraiths was the opposite, as they vibrated and pushed back, inhibiting them.

  At the same time, the light concentrated and made a glow around Sammy’s shoulder, sealing the wound and healing her.

  Hey, that’s a pretty great AoE aura! Seems to do a little bit of everything.

  Orswyth made a focused prayer, gestured with his staff, and unleashed a Pneumanic Ray spell — a dial-an-element single-target specialty — on Orb Dummy. The ray came out like a line of blue frost, and the wraith was both not fast enough and too bogged down with attackers to avoid it. He took the blast in the chest, which did not seem to hurt him overly much, but the typical cold-based debuff [Chilled] appeared to take hold, inhibiting him further.

  “How was it you put such things, Your Majesty?” Orswyth asked with a disappointed frown. “He’s ‘above my pay grade’?”

  “More like above your pray grade, am I right?!” Sammy replied.

  Orswyth groaned. “Uuugh. So cringe.”

  Sometimes I regret the phrases I’ve taught them.

  Orb Dummy, despite his many hanger-on phantasms and his incredibly debuffed state, nonetheless managed to shake them off, though he wasted his initiative doing so. Sammy’s programming on them was to remain believable and try not to get ignored, so they took apparent hits, but obviously, they would keep on coming whatever he did.

  On the plus side, it created an opening for Linguist to slip in under the wraith’s guard. Though hardly a combat specialist, the scholarly wraith was not a slouch by any means, and his opponent’s vulnerability spelled the difference. He grabbed the key, touched a wand to the chain, and spoke a quick spell that made a sharp cracking sound. The chain vibrated in response, and — likely as a near thing — broke in two places with another snap.

  Linguist had the key in hand!

  Unfortunately, the chain was more lively than expected. Rather than simply slipping free from the big key ring, it suddenly jerked. With a cry, Linguist was pulled up into the air, just barely hanging on… that was until the other half of the chain whipped itself around him like a vise and squeezed, eliciting a grunt of pain.

  The key pulled free, but such was it under pressure by Linguist’s studious grip before doing so, it flung off of the chain by the ring, soaring through the air and clattering onto the floor.

  Orb Dummy made a quite perturbed face as he screamed in partial slow motion. “Hhhhrrrrrnnnnnnngggh…”

  The others also screamed — even Wandy, still spinning in a wild circle as the Fire Funnel spell knocked him. “Hrr-rrr-rrr-nnngh!”

  The key landed closest to Mr. Scimitar. The only other anywhere close was Azure, on her hands and knees after being stun-blinded.

  Mr. Scimitar was not doing much ‘scimitaring’ at all. He’d stabbed the telekinetic hand Sammy had put on automation repeatedly with a dagger and forced a relative draw, the rest of his body trying to wriggle free. As such, his weapon of greater reach was abandoned so his free hand could try and break the grapple.

  Somewhat free, he tried to jerk and throw himself at the key on the floor, the grip of the hand on his legs slipping…

  “Azure!” Sammy sent to her lover at the speed of thought — about the only speed of any use right then. “The key! On the floor!”

  “What?!” she returned, as her quasi-physical self squinted and grimaced, eyes watered-over and nigh senseless. “Where?! Wait, what key-”

  “No time for that! Grab it!” If it had not been for a time not long ago, when the two had routinely — as a matter of survival — leveraged communications of such nature, Sammy might’ve been out of luck. But she knew precisely how to direct the near-perfect spacial senses of Azure, half-blind, blind, or not. All she needed was a point, a coordinate, a heading, and she would unerringly find it.

  Translating simply, quasi-visually, she forwarded where the key was to Azure’s mind, highlighting it, all in a split second by rote of familiarity. Azure rose and threw herself toward it immediately, perhaps equally by familiarity with obeying Samantha’s headings.

  Just before Mr. Scimitar’s hand reached it, Azure wrapped her hands around it. “It’s a key! I got it!”

  Mr. Scimitar stared incredulously, rendered speechless for once.

  “Back, back, back!” Sammy sent Azure in a rush.

  As Azure stumbled up and back toward her allies, Mr. Scimitar very silently and soberly thrashed, twisted, and positioned himself so as to fling his dagger at Azure’s retreating back.

  The Goddess of Fate had her strings well-wound within the reality around her, like nerves making her hyper-aware. She was ready on a dime to utilize [Alter Fate] to force a failure, hoping she wouldn’t need it in the challenges to come, and knowing the plan required keeping at least one use free…

  We got it! Let's hope this key fits the door, amirite?!

  Next Chapter...

  Cue 'The Eye of the Tiger' or something.

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