-Odysseus' POV-
"Garden of illusory flowers"
The name of this spell was unknown to me, but as soon as his magic started to work and beautiful flowers bloomed all around us I understood the name of the spell.
This flowers were otherworldly, nothing I could even imagine compared to them.
As if the beauty of this flowers wasn't enough to hypnotize everyone present, all the wounds, the soldiers' and mine alike started healing at impressive speed and i could also feel my mana being recovered.
A huge sense of peace and vitality engulfed the area and while Dimitris himself was visibly getting more an more tired by the second he still exuded an air of almost divinity.
Of course such a spell would come with a cost… should i stop him?
But I was afraid of interrupting such a spell, any kind of rebound could happen, so i gritted my teeth keeping watch on Dimitris while being showered with a spell no one had ever seen before.
He seems more like a god than gods themselves sometimes.
The area of the spell started to recede and i took it as my chance to catch the man before he fell to the ground. Meanwhile, all around us, our comrades started to thank Dim profusely. Men he sent away easily as if his feat was nothing to even mention.
"If you have time to thank me, you have time to get ready to fight, my mana is basically 0 now, get going."
Then looking my way as if i had cursed his entire family he shooed me away saying how the boss should work the hardest of them all.
I couldn't refute anyway, if the Queen of spiders Arachne was half as strong as i supposed it was, we were in big troubles.
But even in the midst of these realisations I couldn't help but be afraid for Dimitris.
That spell can't not have repercussion.
[The Eternal Owl advises you to let go of useless thoughts and focus in the battle ahead, that spell was clearly gifted from his Master]
I guess Merlin or how he called him wouldn't really want to harm him, especially since he even ordered me to protect him before.
Tucking my thoughts in the back of my head I started to look around the arena and make plans on how to use the terrain or whatnot when a certain fragrance intruded my senses.
What is this fragrance?
Following the unknown odour I arrived in front of a corpse with a single wound in the forehead. I had heard from the others how whenever Dimitris appeared somewhere a strange fragrance and a corpse with a single wound would appear, but seeing it firsthand was a different story.
The smell was magnificent, nothing you'd ever expect on the battlefield, and the stab was so clean you'd never think an amateur could ever perform something like that.
His body clearly remembers, maybe that's why he was so confident saying he was a warrior his whole life and a magician for less then a couple of weeks, can't blame his talent.
Then I noticed 2 different kind of thorns on the body. The first looked like a totally normal thorns, but that was where the fragrance was the strongest, while the second thorn was like the thorn of a rose, but extremely slippery, i couldn't even remove it without using magic myself.
If these thorns were really fruits of Dimitris magic, how fast could he already cast? Or were his mental abilities always this strong?
[the mage of flowers suggests you to ask his disciple if you are curious of his spell or abilities]
"Of course I'll ask him, I was just curious."
This nosy constellation, i wish my Patron could have taken him first…
Bringing the flowers back to Dimitris, i found him seemingly sleeping, but from how he was exercising his mana breathing it was clear he just wanted to be left alone, still… i needed answers.
"Dim, did you make these thorns? Can you tell me what they do?"
"Can you stop calling me an idiot? You don't see me using a curse to call you Captain."
"Old habits die hard…"
"I don't care, and yes of course i can make more, just not now… But why would you need them? It'll be useless in front of Arachne"
"Well tell me what they do and I'll think about it, i am the strategist after all."
He didn't believe me one bit, it was clear how he was doubtful of my performance seeing how he had to step in before, but if there was something i was confident in war, was strategy.
"Sure, I'll explain. The rose thorns are just that, i only influenced the surface of the torn with another flower secretion and took advantage of the shape to make the spiders slip, the second thornes are actually knowledge given me by Merlin… that fragrance is a great repellant for spiders, I just made it concentrated, but as I said, it'll be useless against Arachne."
"How can a spider repellant be useless against a spider?"
Dimitris was shocked, sure the queen of spiders may have been the strongest of their kin, but at the end of the day it was still a spider. But after a second of silently looking for something in my eye, he let out a soft chuckle.
"Eh, I guess you don't know, it also seems I've been forbidden to tell the details, BUT, I honestly don't give a fuck"
"Arachne, my dear Odysseus, was never a spider and although it's not my place to judge, since I'm mortal and all that shit, ask you homegirl brainiac who wove the prettiest tapestry and what happened to the young lady who dared offend her. Now leave before I make you."
Leaving Dimitris continue his rest i couldn't help but hear how he was mumbling about the fact that the majority of evil in the world was fruit of the arrogance of gods. I couldn't hold my curiosity anymore and asking Athena I immediately got the answer I didn't really want to know.
[Arachne was a princess who only got what she deserved after trying to defy my authority]
I was suddenly terrified of my own patron.
Should i try and find out how Dimitris cancelled his contract with that Boar?
Focusing on the battle to come I decided it didn't really matter at the moment. An enemy was an enemy, whichever her form was, all enemies needed to be felled. Now however I had crucial information to work with. Knowing my enemy was once human and had enmity with my patron I firstly understood why spiders seemed to hate me wherever I went, but I also begun forming a plan against a beast who not only had physical advsantage, but also the intelligence of a human.
This will be fun.
I may have been restricted to my 5th circle here, but I still had my core spells, moving around the arena I ordered my man to cut as many heads of these spiders as possible and slowly began impaling them with ice spikes to create mental pressure for the enemy. If she really was human, showing her kin in this state would surely ignite her fury. Then I told my men to stay on the sidelines of the arena and be ready to engage at any time. The enemy was about to come and I wanted her to focus on me to exploit her hatred for Athena.
Looking around and checking the fruits of my idea I was pleasantly surprised to see Dimitris coming my way.
"I see you're planning to use her human side against her."
How can he understand me so easily and at the same time refuse to dispose of his enemies…
"As I said before, I won't be alble to help much, but if fury is the emotion you are going to abuse, maybe her animal instincts will take a better hold of her… where do you want me to put the repelling thorns"
"Where would you put them?"
At this point I was just curious of how his brain would work.
"I'd personally put them in the eyes of her kin, but it'd be hard to pluck them and insert, so maybe make them small enough to not harm you all when moving and dispersing them all over the place, just to make the smell unbearable."
And he says I'm a psycho bastard. Who the fuck is able to speak of mental guerrilia this easily?
"It's distasteful, but our life are on the line… so i guess safety first"
He masks ruthlessness with security. This man. I can't have him leave me.
"Stop whatever delusional thoughts you're having and give the order or I'm just going to impale you."
So hot.
"Yes yes, disperse them all around and retreat, we don't want your master hunting us for neglecting his precious disciple"
After fake-puking, Dimitris started to work and finally I could get a hold of his magical prowess, but nothing could ready me to what I was about to see.
Dimitris was using 3 Circles at almost the same time, this couldn't be simple casting speed. This man, my man, became a magician less then 2 weeks ago and he's already able to multicast, not 2 but 3 spells!
"Dim you're already able to multicast?"
"And here I thought I was special, I guess I really am Dim-witted. Now shut up, I'm almost done."
In a few minutes the entire arena was filled with small, almost invisible thorns at an angle so small they almost felt like part of the terrain. But the fragrance of flowers was amazing. Never had I imagined I'd fight in this kind of atmosphere.
All around me, the heads of my enemies and the beautiful smell from Dimitris' spell created an eerie atmosphere that would make everyone shiver.
Life and death were dancing together, the cicle of nature in his entirety was blessing us.
All this thanks to Dimitris.
I'll need to reward him.
But my smile froze, thinking how he could refuse any kind of reward I'd give him scared me more then i thought.
Don't worry Odysseus. Everything will be fine, I just need to be patient. He was mine once, I can make him mine again.
Stopping myself from entering a never ending spiral of fantasies I focused on what was in front of me.
Soon the Queen of spiders would enter the battle and my men and I needed to be ready for everything.
The time came. An ear shattering screech invaded our ears, but we remained focused.
Arachne made her appearance.
The creature was looking around to find her prey, but what awaited her was her mutilated kin used as trophies around with a disgusting smell that awoke her most beastly instincts to destroy everything and run away. I could basically read the beasts thoughts.
She really was human once, this'll be great.
Exploiting the momentary chance to take action I casted a lightning spell on the ice all around the mister.
"Chained lightning!"
Lightning run from one ice spike to another until finally hitting its target.
This spell was not meant to harm, it was meant to destroy the mentality of the enemy.
Together with the ice spikes the heads of the enemy exploded in a show of horror clearly not meant for the weak of stomach. Arachne shrieked again. It almost seems like tears were welling into her eyes, exactly what i needed.
"Comrades! Strike now!"
As my voice reached my men, they immediately sprung in action throwing spears coated in aura at our enemy.
Some hit their mark, some not, but we were in this war for the long run. With my magic restricted I couldn't really instantly kill this creature, but with the right strategy everything could be achieved.
But I was naive, and failed to consider the nature of the spider herself. I was so focused on her human trait, I forgot she was still a spider.
Webs started flying around. A cobweb was forming. We were officially in enemy territory.
A territory extremely difficult for us to get through.
"Don't touch the webs, slow your pace and cut each web if you think you can't avoid them!"
We needed a change of plans.
[The Eternal Owl offers a solution for the spoiles of this battle]
[The mage of flowers tells everyone to shut up. His boy has decided to finally make his move]
Just as those messages reached my eyes, the loudest shriek yet erupted from Arachne. Everyone could see him.
My man was on Arachne's head.
Plunging his spear in her eyes like he was venting all the stress accumulated in his life and screaming at the top of his lungs.
"ODYSSEUS MOVE YOUR FUCKING BRAIN AND BURN THE WEBS, OR FREEZE THEM, JUST MOVE."
Fuck, why can't that man stay still a moment.