An idiot though he may be, I can't deny that Sung Li is a man of exceptional skill. I could tell from the way he cleanly dispatched the head of the Cyclops as well as from how quickly he healed from the pain caused by the dark magic on that book.
This is a big reason why I am not scared at all right now. As long as he thinks I am on his side, I have a great pawn to use against the likes of these wizards. Still, their numbers are pretty big and a swordsman as simple-minded as him is not really the best match against them.
Dark magic thrives on many deceitful spells. If they get into this idiot's head, they might be able to turn him against me somehow. That is why I need to get in his head before they have any chance.
"Do you think we can win?" I ask, trying to give my best nervous expression.
"I know we will." He says with a smile. As expected, he is the simple-minded optimistic idiot that won't back down even against these numbers.
"I see." I say, acting as if I am relieved to hear his confident answer. "Then I guess I'll put my faith in your abilities and leave the grunts to you."
"The grunts?" He questions, seemingly on-guard but also curious as to what I mean.
"Despite what they look like, all the guys here are not equally capable dark magicians." I say something that I cooked up a minute ago. "In fact, most of them are grunts who are only following the orders given by their bosses."
"I see." He says, impressed by my 'knowledge' about these thing. "So you are telling me that you are going to take out the boss while I keep the grunts occupied."
"Indeed." I say with a smile. "I do have enough knowledge and skill to find and overpower dark magicians on this level."
Because of the flow of the conversation, I can bet he believes me when I say that and is thinking that the numbers in front of us are the only problem for me. Therefore, he would gladly accept the job of keeping the grunts occupied.
Of course, in reality, I have no clue what kind of system these dark magicians follow. I really doubt it'd be the boss-grunt thing I ripped off from video games. But, to them, it would like a foolish and misguided human telling another foolish human something foolish that would end up benefitting them. So, they won't say anything. And that will give me the chance that I seek.
So far, the two sides have been in a stare-down. We know that their numbers are absolutely astounding and can overpower us. They know that we (or at least Sung Li) can take down a lot of them before going down. Therefore, neither of the side has risked making the first move, as it is very likely that the one who makes the first move will take more damage in the battle.
But since I am done relaying my plans, I bend down to the ground and start moving my eyes through the crowd of wizards. Sung Li, who immediately notices this, assumes that it is me trying to figure out who the boss is and so covers me from every end to make sure I don't get harmed while I am not fighting.
What I am really trying to do obviously has nothing to do with the bosses. I am just trying to figure out a good pattern to use to steal their abilities. And I think I found one. So,
"I'm heading out!" I say and start running is a tangent direction from where I was. Sung Li uses some pretty game-like skills to remove the dark magicians in front of me and clear a path. I flash him a thumbs-up as if to say that was helpful even though it doesn't really make much of a difference.
I run and run and then stop right next to a wizard who looks physically weaker than his peers. I immediately put my hand on his wrist and call forth in my mind my ability – Moral Dystopia.
I can hear the voices of Sung Li's blades massacring the wizards from behind but I try to focus as much as I can on the ability I am using.
Because I am right in the midst of the enemies, I don't have the luxury of draining this guy of everything he has. All I can do is getting what I can and then scram to some other wizard. Luckily for me, wizards aren't very powerful physically so in order to attack or defend against me, they would need to use spells. That buys me just a little bit more time to do what I am doing.
"Hey, how's it going?" Sung Li shouts out from behind. Instead of answering to him though, I use the distraction that his voice creates as an opening to run away from where I was and get to a different wizard and then start using Moral Dystopia on him.
Before I started with all this, I realized that it might be really hard to steal their spells and whatnot especially seeing that I have no potential for mage-craft of any kind. That is why I decided that I would steal their potential first, so I can later make use abilities I steal.
In gaming terms, instead of stealing their moves, I would be stealing their stat points.
And well, so far, it's working. While I didn't feel any immediate effect, the stolen stats are slowly taking effect and my body is starting to become ��� somewhat hotter.
Back when Danny, Grey and Jessica tried to find out my potential for magic, they told me that my body would heat up in proportion to the potential I have. Nothing happened back then since I didn't have any potential but the thing they talked about back then is definitely happening now.
Well, I guess that means I am starting to become a wizard myself. And on that occasion, Nietzsche's famous quote comes to mind.
"Battle not with the monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
*****