Jenna inspected a sheet of steel and gave herself a satisfied nod.

  Switching the golems' tools mid-work resulted in a more uniform output. A cheap, big hammer for pounding out the slag; a better quality one for flattening the piece.

  For a week, she had performed the switch herself, but then the golems had started to do it on their own.

  It was pretty miraculous.

  Or, perhaps their stupidity was the only thing that was truly miraculous, and the fact that she was impressed at the development was a little sad.

  Later that day, she watched a few haulers who were loading a bunch of her product into a boat. The men would take the sheets along the river to the docks, where most of the steel would then be carried back to land to be sold to local blacksmiths.

  She tossed her payment of one gold coin plus a few silvers up and down for a while before returning to the workshop. The buyer had paid her one extra silver compared to the last haul, thanks to the higher quality of her product.

  Some passers-by had glanced at the coins, but Jenna wasn't worried. She had Doggy, and Doggy was already famous for having bitten through some common ruffian's ankle, crushing bone and everything.

  Nobody privy to the local rumor mill tried to steal from her anymore. Or, steal from the Owner, really. She wasn't taking what belonged to him either.

  Jenna deposited the coins into a lockbox in the back of the workshop. She decided to go to bed early, even though the sun had only just set.

  Life was good. Only an idiot would want anything more. She wouldn't risk her good master's ire by petty schemes. Trust is valuable.

  ---

  "Orders from the Crown!" General Kroft announced the reason he had gathered the mages.

  Will corrected his posture slightly. He was supposed to stand in proper attention when receiving orders from the king, but he couldn't be arsed to act so impeccably. Another magister next to him made a more commendable effort, even going as far as to click his heels together.

  On his other side, High Mage Holmstr?m didn't even get up from the chair he was sitting in.

  "Oh?" He simply interjected. "I'm all ears, then."

  "Mhm," the general glanced at the sorry display but didn't comment on it. "We are not to retreat permanently. His Majesty will be sending reinforcements to meet the offensive."

  "Such restless times we live in," the High Mage commented, and proceeded to take a sip of tea from his porcelain cup. "Any specifics you can share?"

  "I told them we need four more high mages. We'll be getting three, plus a bunch of recruits from the Academy."

  "Not ideal."

  "It isn't. His Majesty—or perhaps it's his advisors... They're tempting fate."

  "Does it truly look so bad for us?" the other magister asked curiously.

  "I expect you stronger mages to avoid gruesome fates easily enough. It's the young ones we're going to lose."

  "Leading to a bleaker future for us all," Holmstr?m added.

  "Indeed. But don't fret it too much. The Empire acts just as stupidly. They have mobilized some high mages, but besides that, it's mostly young nobodies on their side, too."

  "Compared to us, they have many more to waste," Holmstr?m pointed out again.

  Kroft only grunted in response.

  The spring grew a little warmer before the reinforcements arrived. Then, it was time to ride back to the hilly territories Anth-Komi had temporarily ceded to the unusually numerous enemy forces.

  Ten thousand soldiers marched ahead, and the mages followed them on horseback a day or two later.

  "Can any of you cast a shield?" Will asked his four charges.

  Four hands were raised.

  "Ahem. Let me amend that. Can any of you cast a shield during the five to ten seconds you're going to have in combat before it rains fire?"

  This time, no hands went up.

  Will sighed.

  "Alright. If you suspect a combat situation is imminent, come to me. I may be able to cast shields on you."

  He had tried to refuse the new recruits, but he didn't have a valid reason for doing so. The general insisted he use them as distractions, meat shields, or whatever was necessary to keep his own, more valuable ass alive.

  Will didn't need them for anything like that. Their deaths would serve nothing but to tarnish his own record.

  An unarmored rider arrived right next to Will and talked to the captain of the company who was riding alongside him.

  "Sir! Holmstr?m's forces are standing by two miles ahead."

  "Alright," the captain responded. "Men! Secure your gear; we're almost there!"

  "Will!" Holmstr?m greeted when their forces combined on a wide hilltop. "Good to have you here!"

  "Likewise, sir. Do you know if the enemy is near?"

  "Ah, the general was addressing that matter while I dined, but I believe we're going to have a fight within the hour."

  Will nodded. "Hear that?" he barked to his ducklings. "Don't stray far from me!"

  Thirty minutes later, they were at the far end of the hill, looking down at the road. Three hundred yards away, a large contingent of men under a different flag was spreading out into the mossy terrain around the road as they advanced.

  "We seem to have the high ground," Will observed sagely.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "Good for the normal troops, but not all that relevant for us," Holmstr?m replied.

  The hills weren't high, and the incline of the ridge wasn't steep. Still, it would slow the opposing side slightly, which would give the friendly bowmen time to shoot a volley or two before the hostile bowmen got in range.

  "Alright, come to me!" Will ordered his four underlings. "I'll have you shielded."

  "Hm? Shielding others again?"

  "Yeah. We seem to have a few minutes. I can give you a shield, too," Will offered.

  "No need," Holmstr?m turned down the favor.

  "Captain?" Will asked the other officer.

  "Uh... yes, please. If it isn't too much trouble."

  At least the mundane warrior was happy to receive magical protection, while the ducklings seemed a little sour about all the babying.

  Some five minutes and six Absorb Elements castings later (one for himself), Will once again spoke in a normal human language.

  "Alright, it's going to dissipate on its own after two hours, but a few good hits from hostile spells will exhaust it well before the time runs out."

  "Two hours?!" Holmstr?m interjected in a shocked voice.

  "Give or take a little. Probably take, since I'm still lacking practice on that one."

  "That's exceptional. And to think that you're casually casting it on other people! It doesn't even matter that you do it so slowly!"

  "I know, right?" Will agreed with a smile.

  He knew the spell was handy enough that it didn't matter that there was a little caveat after the older mage's compliment. The locals simply disdained long casting times too much. Then again, they didn't have spell slots to mitigate the issue.

  The enemy had stopped just beyond the range of their bowmen, and Will started to get bored.

  "Did they give you any recruits?" He inquired of Holmstr?m. "I've still got a lot of juice in the battery… err, bottle."

  Fifteen minutes later, the enemy finally advanced again.

  Arrows rained on them, being mostly deflected by shields. Occasionally, one slipped through, eliciting cries of pain and forcing a wounded man to retreat.

  Few were unlucky enough to be killed immediately, although perhaps those who took gut wounds were the truly unfortunate ones, assuming they didn't receive magical healing in the back lines. Will didn't suppose average warriors did.

  Finally, the fronts clashed in melee, and the mages had also reached effective range.

  The recruits mostly concentrated on assisting the front, while Will and Holmstr?m had their sights set on the enemy backline.

  It was truly a big battle, with perhaps two thousand men on the enemy side and a thousand on Will's side. It was hard to tell who had the advantage, given how much the capabilities of the combatants could vary.

  The Anthians liked to think that they had the quality while the Empire had the numbers, but the last fight behind the enemy lines had made Will question that popular narrative. Back then, the enemy had fielded a respectable number of magister-level mages against Holmstr?m's unranked underlings.

  He'd seen some maps, too. The Tupan Empire was huge. Easily ten times the size of Anth-Komi. Even though that was all Will knew about the country, there was no way they didn't produce a considerable number of talents in addition to cheap cannon fodder.

  Will had dismounted his horse early and proceeded to harass the enemy mages with Magic Arrows.

  The spell had grown in power. Or rather, Will had perfected the way he cast it. He still couldn't rapid fire them, but few mages were able to fully intercept the projectiles anymore, and the spell often caused its recipients some actual pain.

  A few short minutes into the battle, Will walked back to Holmstr?m's side.

  "Those two people in the back are just watching, even though the man is definitely a mage," he commented.

  "I noticed. And the armor on that woman is the finest I've seen."

  "Yeah... It's so shiny she probably doesn't want to scratch it."

  The men didn't chat for any longer but went back to casting their spells.

  It was then that the strange pair finally moved.

  The mage-like man pointed his top-heavy staff forward, and a great flash of light sped forth from it.

  Will was startled by the effect and about to take a step aside, but the ray of light was too fast. Luckily, it wasn't aimed at him but at Holmstr?m.

  The High Mage roared in anger and pain when his shield failed, and when the ray attack ended, Will saw that his robes were blackened and smoldering.

  The old man fumbled clumsily with his blackened fingers to uncork a red potion. He took a sip before his fingers began to move more nimbly as he remade his protections.

  "That one is strong!" He declared when he was ready and started to prepare a big ice spear.

  It was ready in around six seconds, only taking a little longer than his usual shot. When he whisked it at the strange enemy, the man finally moved again by pointing at the incoming spear aside with his staff, which briefly glowed in red.

  The spear impacted a sturdy barrier that had appeared, and icy fragments were sent flying everywhere.

  The red barrier disappeared just as quickly as it had come to be and revealed the foreign mage standing upright with his silky red robes as pristine as previously.

  Holmstr?m stared at his target, wearing a shocked expression. The man in question simply turned his back on him and walked back to the armored woman.

  "Did he give up?" Will wondered aloud.

  "I hope so, but I wouldn't count on it," Holmstr?m finally responded. He didn't begin casting his spells again until half a minute later.

  Ten minutes into the fight, it started to look like the friendlies indeed had the advantage.

  The enemy had nineteen mages to their fifteen, but eight had already retreated far back due to wounds they'd accumulated after running out of potions.

  Will noticed that the strange, idle mage on the opposing side was watching him intently. He put it out of his mind, sticking to his steady and simple work with Magic Arrows.

  That was only until he couldn't ignore the strange mage anymore.

  The man walked a few dozen yards forward again and leveled his staff toward Will.

  The flash of light was once again a very quick attack, and Will had barely registered it in the corner of his eye when the ray of heat struck him. He felt half of his absorptive elemental shield succumbing under the relatively decent damage output.

  Maybe I should have practiced more? he thought without feeling particularly nervous about the unwanted attention.

  Still, Absorb Elements was just a 2nd-level spell. If he planned to tank a lot of heavy attacks, perhaps he should concentrate his efforts on the 5th-level Elemental Authority or even suffer headaches by beginning to train at the 7th-level Elemental Immunity.

  While thinking, he simply frowned at the hostile mage. It might be for the best to ignore that dude for now...

  Perhaps it would be boring when the opponent played defensively.

  Alas, the foreign mage's mentality didn't conform to that line of thinking.

  Will had only shot a couple of Magic Arrows more at the lesser mages, when he was subjected to another beam of burning heat.

  This time, it was somewhat stronger than the previous one.

  For half a second, Will's absorption spell held. But the onslaught of heat was too much. His defensive spell simply failed, while the heat ray attack still continued for half a second more. Even with his fire-resistant armor supposedly helping him handle the heat, some of it got through.

  "Ow, ow, ow!" Will complained aloud when his exposed skin overheated instantly. The spell had caused some real and sharp pain, but not enough to stun or demoralize him like losing a limb. Rather, it was an alarming sort of pain, like when you splashed your hand with boiling water, making you withdraw your hand back quickly.

  First things first, Will still took a second to move his hurting fingers in order to activate a slotted spell he'd kept in reserve.

  Absorb Elements (II) triggered.

  Next, he quickly pulled out a red potion and took a tiny sip. The pain started to rapidly dwindle, although his skin now begun to itch annoyingly as it healed.

  Well, I'm not going to be a sitting duck for target practice!

  The injury hadn't been much, but the pain from being hit with fire spells really wasn't pleasant.

  Will stared at the foreign mage while he cast a 2nd-level spell, starting from its long preparation phase.

  It took nearly 50 seconds to finish, and by the time he did, three quarters of his re-applied protection had been burned away by another white ray. The foreigner stood pretty far away, but Will's half-elven eyes were relatively sharp, and they told him that the man seemed to be frowning.

  Soon, the Minor Pillar of Flame was ready to be set loose.

  Since the target was acting overconfidently by standing still, there was zero chance of missing.

  The rising fiery pillar wasn't as fast as the ray attack, but it was still pretty fast. The man immediately jumped out of its point of origin, but the fire shooting from the ground veered in his direction, managing to exact a little more punishment before its victim escaped its reach.

  The foreign mage now looked just as sooty and blackened as Holmstr?m had been. He proceeded to roll on the ground to extinguish his burning robes. It was fairly effective, given how the moorland was still pretty wet. The winter snows had melted only a week or two ago.

  Still, he was quick to quaff half a potion down his throat while still lying down, proving that Will had done some damage despite the foreigner's probable resistance against fire.

  The man scrambled up as quickly as he could.

  "You..." he bellowed. "You have chosen death!"