"I said, shut up!"
I hear someone scream, then what sounds like a slap, and someone complaining in pain.
They are beating someone up!
And Kathrina is running like a maniac with the sword in her hands towards the sound!
She is fast, holy shit! I have problems keeping up with her!
"Malkhor’s Eagle to the rescue!" She screams out of her lungs.
We got into the forest once more, and I am running (barely) behind her. Whatever her CON and DEX stats are, they are definitely higher than mine.
"W-wait!" I try to say.
Then she stops.
"Huff..." I can barely breathe when I reach her and I have to recover.
And she was ready with her sword.
What we find is a group of three thieves, beating someone up and holding a woman. The man is visibly beaten up, bleeding from injuries in his face.
"Shit! One of the Eagles!" Said one of the thieves.
The one holding the woman takes out a knife and presses it against her neck.
The one beating the man pulls his sword out and aims it at his victim’s neck.
The third one is holding a bow and arrow and aims directly at Kathrina.
"Leave! None of your damn business!" Said the one holding the woman.
"When there is a victim, it is our business!" She keeps her sword in front and gets into position. "I, Kathrina von Bellwright, will not tolerate a criminal!"
She is crazy.
But what will she do? If she goes for any of the thugs, one of the two victims dies.
I am trying to think... Heck, I prepared mentally for these kinds of situations in real life!
And in my save I have rescued hostages in harder situations!
But one thing is thinking about it, and the other is executing it in reality.
I wanted to try my spells, but trial by fire might be too much.
"I said, leave!" Speaks the same thief. "Or they both get it!"
"None of you are coming out of this one if you hurt them both!" She explains and takes a step forward.
No! They are going to kill the couple! I commend her for her sense of justice, but if we do anything without thinking they die!
Think, think... Think!
Shit! Fuck it!
I try to think about magic! What did someone in the game say about how it worked? Focus on the sigils, on the words engraved in your brain, and the hand movement that the manual indicates and follow them...
I see her take another step. The thugs take a step back.
"He said go!" Yells the one holding the bow, tensing it more.
Shit! I know what spell to use! [Sound Bolt] or [Fire bolt]. What do I...?
A screen appears.
[Sound Bolt LV: 34 MP: 1600 Charges: 215]
[Normal Spell. A bolt made of sound, capable of stunning. Normal damage]
And, under the explanation, it showed the words and the sigils I had to think about!
Kathrina is holding her sword with both hands...
"Use Rush towards the one with the sword," I whisper.
She looks back at me over her shoulder, and I nod. I look at the one with the dagger on the woman. "I cover you," I whisper once more.
"Hey! What are you whispering about?! Don’t do anything stupid!" Said the one with the dagger.
I start to prepare the spell in my head.
[Feat: Silent casting Lv3 MAX]
[Allows casting Mystic Spells or lower without the need to use words. This nullifies silence status]
I have no idea how long it took me to get that feat on my character... And it is as broken as it sounds.
My build is a pure spellcaster, one that is advanced already. I was just a bit into the final quarter to reach endgame level content, and I was preparing by gathering the materials and items required to enter it.
There are 3 elements to Inns of Ellen: Core Stats. Skills and Feats. Equipment counts, but your build is defined by those three and gear gets the juice out of them.
With Amber, I trained Spell Weaving to Level 50 and Magic Control to Level 40. They increase magic damage and reduce Magic Points use. There are other effects, like Casting Chance, but they mostly do that. That is a high level for the point I was on in the game.
And using broken feats was useful to grow fast.
I hold the sigils in my mind, waiting for Kathrina...
Then, throwing a gust of wind behind her, she launched herself through the snow against the thief with the sword.
She breaks the distance in an instant and swings at him.
The thief is sent flying with a cut in his chest.
[Thief is mortally wounded! It draws its final breath!]
The notifications work similar to the game...
[Rush] is a skill that is commonly used in melee combat, and is more commonly obtained with a two handed weapon. It makes you break distance in one moment and cause massive damage.
"Shit!" Yelled the one with the bow.
Then, when the one holding the woman prepared to stab her, I used my spell.
[Sound Bolt] is invisible and is very fast. Damage is normal, probably not mortal even with high level skills like I do. But I can see the way the air distorts on its way.
It strikes!
[Thief was critically wounded (-2430)! It gets stunned! It can barely hear!]
Those are low numbers... for what I know Amber can do.
"Agh!" The dagger one yelled the moment the soundwave reached him.
His first instinct was to drop the dagger and cover his ears. It normally causes the victim to get stunned... And I see how it does that, it seems it destroyed his ear drums.
The woman runs from him and runs out of the small battlefield. The other victim was unconscious on the ground.
The one with the bow turns towards Kathrina and shoots his arrow.
I react when I saw him turn towards her and use [Magic Shield]. It creates a barrier of mana around the objective, absorbing damage based on how potent the spell was.
Because I travel alone, it is level 46. I used it a lot.
[Kathrina feels protected by a magic field! Her defense and protection increases!!]
[Thief’s arrow bounces against an invisible field! The field weakens slightly...]
Before he can prepare his next arrow, I cast [Sound Bolt] at him. The projectile hits him and causes the same effect, and he drops to his knee.
[Thief was mortally wounded (-6420)! It falls dead!]
Low level spells can be very swingy at max level. The max damage increases, but the minimum stays low, even when it does go up.
With the last one dead then-
"I told you to stay out of this!"
The one that I blasted first was barely holding himself. Blood lines are coming from his ears.
With my spell level, I am impressed he still can stand.
But what calls my attention is that he is holding a wand in his hand.
"Don’t do it!" I yell.
"I cannot hear you!" He screams, and flicks his wrist to cast the spell within it.