Ebony was a little hurt when he saw Ning Xin retract her hands. He managed to protect himself at the last moment and only suffered tiny cracks in his skeletal structure that would heal up in minutes. He had been hit by an epiphany when he was hidden in the air preparing his take on barrage spells.
When the operation started, he was hidden by Ayla while she stood on a platform he made for her. Under her spell, his vision only darkened a little but the people beside them couldn't see them. He sped up till his camouflage expert told him to slow down or they would be spotted. They avoided the centre with the intimidating auras and tipped along the edges of the walls before reaching the other side of the town-sized base.
The Trolls below them didn't even know they were under attack or they didn't act as if they knew. Since they weren't flying that high, he also couldn't see the militia's supposedly ongoing assault from this distance. He recalled the first time he saw Tuffock cast a spray of rock shards. Relatively poor accuracy, low power and compared to his current desired effect, small area of effect. Thus, it wasn't a spell Journeymen mage typically spends time training.
His new petal spell isn't a barrage-type spell but nothing he couldn't repurpose. Sadly, it was far slower since they were condensed flames that stuck together and acted almost like physical petals that float with the wind. Magically. However, he didn't see how that was a problem if he wanted to hit a densely populated city of giants that have nowhere to run. That threw the issue of accuracy out of the window. The temperature will drop even if it hits the ground.
The low level of the skill meant weak power but nothing mana compression couldn't fix. The spell might not kill but if a single petal lands on a Troll, they might not have a way to stop the frost from digging into them for long. Their life force based enhancement should protect them so he didn't have any real hope to kill anything with the spell when it wasn't even level 100. It begs the next question that should be the least of his worries. Mana cost.
He couldn't recall the effective area of effect Tuffock's spell had but a couple of dozen metres wasn't going to cut it. He needed to fill his entire mental reach with tens of thousands of condensed flames that would last for as long as possible and hit as many targets as possible. A small petal didn't take much mana, compress it and multiply that by thousands and that would be a problem for his current mana pool.
There was also the issue of conjuring the entire barrage and releasing it at the same time. It needed to catch his targets off guard or a single swing of a strong Troll might blow them all away. With his current control of 'Will,' he didn't think it was so hard to form them all at the same time. The number of casts he can control didn't matter much in the conjuration of barrage spells.
The power could drop, no need for maximum compression. But tens of thousands of petals appeared too weak an attempt for his impromptu idiotic plan that popped into his mind when he should've kept his move shut. Ning Xin was obviously the first person that came to mind when he was thinking of someone strong to copy but she wasn't much of a spellcaster.
She can gather life force and strengthen herself, he wondered if he can gather all his wits together to use more mana than he has. It wasn't impossible, mana potions overexert a person's mind to generate more mana within a short period of time. This 'will' thing that he had started gaining proficiency over was pretty interesting. Could he force himself to dip even further into an empty pool of mana?
His mind shut off there and began to do its thing.
Ayla had patience but she started to get worried when a few sets of eyes looked up.
Ebony's Will flooded his mental reach and firmly rooted themselves but he didn't cast his domain. Once his visualisation of a sky filled with burning blue petals was solidified, his head throbbed in pain. Seemingly strained by the amount of effort. Was 'Will' related to mental stamina? It was very likely. But the aching spread throughout his body from every pore, his entire Chassis. Yet, his visualisation count only reached over seven thousand of those tiny petals and Mental Arithmetic was telling him that would consume every drop of mana he had and was regenerating. If he had to cast this silly spell in an instant he wouldn't have time to wait and form more.
Not enough!
He visualised his mana chassis as a plastic bottle that had been emptied and he twisted it all at once. It actually worked, more than a thousand more petals showed up in his mind. Unfortunately, in his trance, his 'will' thought it was insufficient and collapsed his conception of mana chassis inwards. His body caved in in multiple areas, but only his face and head were visible. Ebony didn't notice that Ayla almost released her spell in shock.
The mental counter hit 5 digits and there wasn't a moment's delay before the sky lit up. The petals might not have been made of compressed mana but no normal human could survive if they touched one. Ayla expected something to happen and had enough presence of mind to stay silent but she hardly felt a change in temperature. Ebony had unknowingly 'willed' the petals to contain all their energy to have the greatest effect since they weren't compressed.
They fell dramatically slowly but none of their enemy noticed until it was too late. Not being able to sense the drastic drop in temperature made them watch the falling blue flowers without much wariness. Multiple individuals swatted those about to touch them only to see the petals go through their thick skin.
In these parts, there seemed to be women folk and other non-combatants as well. None were spared.
The roars and screams of pain resound throughout the base. Light petals flowed under gaps in cloth or windows. Many landed on their structures and froze doors and exits shut. Those that hit the ground didn't seep under but burst and spread their chill to the surroundings.
A slightly familiar scene played out to Ebony as the Trolls tore their clothing, their armour, and stabbed themselves to tear away the flesh that came in contact with his petals only to realise they had to chop bones to prevent the freezing from spreading. Those that cut their limbs off didn't cut far enough and the flames already dug deeper but their wounds were frozen shut and weren't regenerating.
❅❅❅
Ebony fell out of the sky as he lost the strength to hold his own weight. He wasn't heavy at the moment due to the empty mana chassis but it didn't matter. His eyes closed as he fell unconscious. Ayla grabbed his collar in time but she wasn't capable of flight either and Icicle was too heavy for her to shift Ebony around.
They landed with a bang but no one had the time to care. The initial surprise was over and the Trolls noticed that after sinking into their bones and spreading a few centimetres, the freezing stopped. Those quicker to react reinforced themselves in time and a tiny spot that got frozen was like a bruise to them. Unlucky ones had dozens of petals touching them at the same time.
They violently swung their weapons to blow the flower petals away. It helped to increase the range of Ebony's skill as the petals insisted to fall.
Ayla's spell was rendered ineffective the moment they landed and she hadn't been able to pull Ebony into a blindspot. She desperately looked for somewhere to hide but their location was spotted after the loud landing. The unconscious sound mage couldn't silence their fall.
Two tribeless already raised their weapons at them, she pushed Ebony's body behind her and leapt up and around one of their necks and slit them.
'Tch to shallow.' The Trolls already strengthened themselves and she had to jump off the neck before she got grabbed like a pet.
Ayla panicked a little when the other Troll's giant rock blade propelled downwards on Ebony. By some miracle, the unconscious body rolled to the left, stood up and drew his blade in one motion. Internally overjoyed that the young man woke up but she watched as the man got swatted around pathetically. His awe-inspiring strength wasn't present and neither did he use any sort of magic.
She hurried against her opponent to try to save the ragdoll but her opponents only increased. The ridiculous wide-range spell was already ending and those stuck within their building broke their frozen structures and come out completely unharmed. At best, they were annoyed and had some slightly stiffer motions from the low temperatures.
The barrage didn't hit her thanks to both the giant Trolls and the petals clearly swaying away from her if they got close.
Fighting in their sleep was not something she never heard of but it was the first time she had seen someone able to do so. Perhaps, it was his natural instinct that his body made an attempt to get back to her side but they were rudely interrupted.
Her spell was ready and she cloaked herself with her blend of darkness and shadow mana. A burst of speed was all it took for her to dismember the Trolls in between her and the ice mage.
A violent force tore through space and the ground couldn't slow down Commander Wil's forceful jump. Seawater from under the battlefield gushed upwards through the deep crater he made. It sent both her and Ebony into the air but she already caught the ice mage before using pieces of floating rubble to propel herself away from the base.
The King Classed Troll reacted the moment Commander Wil moved from the other side of their base but they couldn't move that forcefully without destroying their own territory.
Commander Wil raised his club and smashed it down with all his power. The Midnight Shepherd won't make a move, it was something they were quite sure of. A cone-shaped wreckage appeared as anything within the path of his club simply doesn't exist anymore. Sadly the biggest and baddest Troll appeared.
Ayla did her best to retreat as fast as possible. Commander Wil only remained to buy them for them to escape, but the Grandmaster old man and the King Class Troll only looked at each other without fighting. Her path was already blocked by elite squads from both the Benumbed and Vigiot Tribe.
At this time, the man who carried her here by flight opened his eyes.
"Bring us up!" She hurried.
"...I don't think I can." He said after getting his bearings. She noticed his face had regained its shape.
Ayla wasn't surprised and could only lament her eagerness to have come here with him without any backup plans.
Dozens of arrows exploded around them scaring her out of her wits before she realised that she wasn't the target. Walls of ice formed and facilitated their escape. She did not hear about allied floating bows that can fire themselves but she didn't care about the whys or hows.
They had to circle around but the fact that a relatively powerful ice mage caused them great losses made their pursuers more persistent than they should be.
"We could really use some gravity magic here!" She was desperate for any sort of help.
"I'm fresh out."
Ayla already knew that since there wasn't any time for him to regenerate mana. She didn't know the man well enough to understand how unnatural it was that he still didn't have any mana after a full minute.
"Let me try something. Hey!"
Ebony yelled out above them and waved at the sky. Ayla got another unusual experience by hearing the sound mage yell. She protected him from a glancing strike as the weak man would be flung away if he tried to parry. Her stamina and mana consumption was far higher than usual for facing these muscle heads directly. This wasn't how she was supposed to fight.
Two bows flew down towards them and she understood the plan. Who was controlling these bows?
Ayla and the weird man leapt to grab the bow handle before they were escorted out by flight. "Let go now." They didn't manage to get far before the ice mage kicked her hands off the bow grip. She felt the shockwaves right above their heads as they fell.
"Damn it!" She yelled in frustration. Benumbed tribe Grandmaster squads were on their tails. Without being able to fly high enough, the airspace wasn't safe with them around. Outside the walls with no structures around, her magic couldn't display its strengths unless she was willing to leave the ice mage alone.
"Hide yourself and go ahead, the bows will buy me time to recover some mana." She hesitated after his words.
She valued herself many times more over a fellow fighter she knew for a couple of hours but her spell wasn't setting off.
"I'll get killed by your woman if I go back without you."
Yet another unnatural phenomenon occurred as the man laughed out loud. The awkward laugh was jarring to her ears but a Troll interrupted it by sending the man deep into the ground. Her body tensed up at the speed of the attack. Experience helped fuel her body as she already sat atop the attacking Troll. Her blade chipped even with the mana she reinforced it with.
She cursed the fight with the masked Xeng, her weapons were damaged and her spares were poor-quality wares. Two arrows landed in the Troll's chest and exploded. Ebony had climbed out looking dirty but unharmed.
'How? Even if he guarded in time he doesn't have any body enhancement at the moment?'
She was far quicker on her feet compared to Ebony at the moment so it was up to her and a couple dozen bows supporting them to fend off their pursuers.
Minutes felt like hours but to her relief their transport was ready, "my mana is coming back, hop on."
❅❅❅
Ebony didn't expect a single attempt of what he did to give him a skill.
'Ting' 'Profession Skill Potent Mana Overdraft learned'
Potent Mana Overdraft - Instantly draw out up to 25% + 0.25% of your mana pool's capacity by partially crushing your mana chassis with your Will. Mana Chassis mends from overdraft 2.5% faster every level.
He overdid it again and discovered that his mana chassis can get injured in some manner. He tried to recall the notification he got after he regained consciousness.
'Ting' 'You have inflicted severe mana overdraft upon yourself. Unable to regenerate mana temporarily.'
It didn't tell him much at that time but he knew it was until his mana chassis mended almost completely before he could regenerate mana again.
'Ting' 'Damaged mana chassis reduces regenerative abilities.'
'Ting' 'Severe mental over exhaustion reduces mana regeneration by 300%'
Sheer Exhaustion resistance helped but a quick mental calculation told him that his mana regeneration dropped by at least 15 times or 1500%. The damaged mana chassis must be a bigger problem than he imagined. He ran out of mana mid-flight and crashed, his Core Skill was only partially working even though he was sure that it should be working at maximum output. Ayla already alighted further behind when she spotted her partner so she wasn't implicated.
During his fall, he regenerated just enough to enhance himself a tiny bit. Saving him from some pain from his hard landing. To think he would get to experience how other mages couldn't regenerate as they cast magic.
Even so, the unexpected new skill had been completely worth the silly plan.
"How long are you going to daydream?" Ning Xin pulled him by his ear.
They retreated till they got into the range of the Imperial base's magic towers. They were doing the same thing as the Midnight Shepherd. Recuperating.
Apparently, capable mages all had mana capacity-increasing skills somewhere in their mage-Class, Sub-class or Profession slot. Regardless if it was tier 1,2 or higher it meant that high-level mages took days and maybe weeks to regenerate to max capacity unless they had a relatively high-level meditation type skill as well.
Common knowledge suggests that only meditators had meditation-type skills as a non-generic skill. Those that have access to deeper knowledge know that one could push a generic skill into a relevant Class, Sub-Class or Profession if they had enough Natural Potential.
The Empire lacked the power sources to land an effective assault with their magical and ranged advantage. Ebony was certain that there were other meditators in the Imperial Army's employ. There had to be. Although he was interested in meeting some of them he didn't have any interest in asking about their skills. Not anymore.
"Rest up! We're launching the next attack in 3 hours!"
They were in the middle of walking back to their camp when Commander Wil showed up.
He didn't need to see Ning Xin's face to understand her building despair. "We..we'll be eating before that right?" She whispered.
Cap Dwarf, his fellow leaders together with the academies' leaders formed the group that was too injured to join the next attack together with those that wanted to quit fighting. They escort all of them to the Imperial's base. No one quit but they had the autonomy to quit whenever they wanted.
Everyone here had the same objective. Speed levelling. If they were patriotic, they had better chances of survival by joining the army. Equipment, healers, supplies and more would be at their disposal.
If the militia was lucky, the Imperial healers had mana to spare. If not, they might spare some medical supplies. If they were in a really bad spot, the militia wouldn't get anything and it was up to them whether or not to rejoin the fight but no one was going to escort them back to the mainland.
They got back to camp and set up their tents, deciding not to take their trailer out. There were no meals being cooked and people were eating their own rations or not eating at all. Every mage got to meditate or acted as if they had the skill.
Ebony hit the sack instantly.