The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

Anser decisively dropped Intellect Fortress and pointed at Stoll, casting an Extended Haste on him!

"Now this is more like it!"

Stoll's speed surged. He shot forward like he was flying just above the ground, charging straight ahead and kicking up a long plume of dust behind him.

He actually was flying, since Fly was still active, but he was using it purely to skim along the ground. Compared to him, everyone around him seemed as sluggish as eighty-year-old grandmothers.

Makaria, Adolf, and Giant Tail tacitly grouped together and followed from a distance, attacking the guards whose formation had already been shattered.

Earlier, the disparity in numbers had been too great, and the enemy had firearms. But things were different now.

A few dozen guards no longer amounted to much of a numerical advantage. So what if there were several high-level professionals among them? They had a spellcaster too.

Anser swept his gaze around at the corpses strewn across the ground, feeling equally exhilarated.

If he hadn't been wary of a possible legendary professional, he would have gone all out long ago.

Still, those few 8th-level spells had merely been the appetizer. The real targets were the enemy's higher-ups.

He looked to the other side. Stoll was single-handedly chasing down two peak-level professionals from House Cassalanter, swinging his sword at them with movements that looked as though someone had hit fast-forward, his momentum unstoppable.

One was a 17th-level Arcane Trickster, while the other was an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer who had multiclassed into Warlock. Both were effectively crippled classes.

The former had learned a little magic, with Spell Thief as his signature ability, only to lose most of his spellcasting ability.

The latter was a Sorcerer. He could still use Eldritch Blast and low-level spells, but high-level spells were out of the question.

Against a 17th-level warrior in peak condition, the two couldn't hit him or lock him down. If they slowed down for even a moment, they would face a terrifying chain of greatsword strikes. In just a few dozen seconds, they had already been driven into one dangerous situation after another.

Running really was their only option.

There had been nothing wrong with their earlier strategy of wearing him down. The Osprey Society wasn't an army, after all. A guard force of fewer than two hundred might look substantial, but if they wanted to drown a peak-level professional under sheer numbers, they could only dream.

By now, Makaria had engaged the wounded high-level barbarian, but she was weaker than he was and could only fight him on the move.

Anser couldn't cast any control spells. He could only maintain Fly and Haste simultaneously; anything more was beyond him.

But he had plenty of other options. After descending slightly, he raised a hand and fired off a Mind Sliver.

The high-level barbarian faltered for an instant, and Makaria seized the opportunity to drive her sword through his thigh.

He growled, eyes bloodshot, and glared resentfully at Anser.

Anser chuckled. They were fighting openly in formation, and he himself had never left the battle. This didn't count as a sneak attack, much less ganging up on someone.

Just moments ago, they had been the ones getting mobbed.

Without pausing, he fired several Mind Slivers in succession. The barbarian's head felt as though it were splitting apart, his eyes became bloodshot, and blood continuously seeped from the corners of his eyes and his nostrils.

Wounds large and small kept accumulating across his body until he was struggling even to fend off Makaria's attacks.

Seeing this, Anser decisively left the fight to her. Spreading his dragon wings, he flew toward Stoll.

Haste could only last four minutes. He had to deal with the enemy leadership first.

While he was still in the air, his heart suddenly tightened as a sense of danger struck without warning.

He Quickened Misty Step. Silver mist flashed, and his figure reappeared more than ten meters away.

At the same moment, a translucent arrow silently streaked through the spot where he had just been. Then its tip swung around and it flew toward him again at astonishing speed.

If Anser hadn't possessed Truesight, he probably wouldn't even have been able to see it clearly.

'Finally showed yourself!'

His figure vanished as he entered the Ethereal Plane directly.

The arrow lost its target. After streaking several dozen meters farther, it disappeared into the air.

Anser chased after the arrow at full speed. Looking up, he saw a blurry black figure high in the sky, silently overlooking the battle below.

The figure held a black shortbow, but his height and appearance were completely obscured.

'A tracking arrow? Could he be a legendary Ranger?'

Anser climbed higher, only to realize that more than one gaze had fallen upon him. Even with the planar barrier between them, he was certain he wasn't imagining it.

'Two?!' His heart jolted.

Yet the next moment, the bow-wielding figure suddenly turned invisible, becoming a translucent shadow that flew off into the distance at tremendous speed.

Anser froze for a moment, then immediately returned to the Material Plane, his vision switching back to the broad, brightly lit natural world.

"Hello, Anser."

Anser spun around. At some point, a gentle-looking woman in white robes had appeared behind him. In her hand was a black staff taller than she was, intricately engraved with runes in fine silver filigree.

Something clicked in his mind, and he tentatively asked, "Lady Safahr?"

"That's me." Safahr's eyes were deep, as though they held an entire galaxy within them.

She was clearly standing right in front of him, yet Anser found her strangely unreal, as though she were something intangible he could never grasp.

When he closed his eyes, there was nothing there at all. Presumably, that gaze he had sensed earlier had only been detectable because she had deliberately allowed him to sense it.

"Greetings. Why... aren't you chasing him?" Anser asked, somewhat puzzled.

"He can't get away." Safahr winked at him playfully, then fixed her gaze on Anser and didn't look away for a long while.

Her stare made Anser's skin crawl. This woman was a legendary figure. After all these years, she had undoubtedly become a legendary archmage.

And she wielded the artifact known as the Blackstaff. Who wouldn't feel uneasy standing in front of her?

Besides, Anser had plenty of secrets of his own. Her temperament was still an unknown, and she certainly wasn't guaranteed to be a good person.

The first Blackstaff himself had been someone willing to resort to rather unscrupulous means to achieve his goals, and opinions of him had always been mixed.

At that moment, eagle-like cries rang out from the horizon.

Anser turned to look. A massive flock of griffons was racing toward them, more than a hundred strong.

The Griffon Cavalry had arrived!

"Lady—"

He turned back, only to discover that Vajra Safahr was already gone.

Anser breathed a sigh of relief and immediately flew down to help. All that experience was right there for the taking—he couldn't let the Griffon Cavalry steal it from him.

[Target killed. Gained 1,120 experience points.]

[Target killed. Gained 1,085 experience points.]

He had barely started moving when two experience notifications sounded. The high-level barbarian had died to Makaria's sword, and immediately afterward, Stoll had cut down the Osprey Society's Aberrant Mind Sorcerer.

'That was pathetic.' Anser couldn't help but complain.

Since his own participation had been limited, he'd only managed to scrape together a little over a thousand experience points from the buff spells he'd cast. Stoll had taken the lion's share.

Complaints aside, Anser knew Stoll had earned it.

A peak-level warrior given wings by magic really was absurdly powerful.

By the time he reached the battlefield, Stoll was playing cat and mouse with the Arcane Trickster inside a building.

The Arcane Trickster repeatedly turned invisible, but Stoll had Blindsight and plenty of experience "playing whack-a-mole." He could quickly pinpoint his target from the slightest clues, leaving the Arcane Trickster unable to escape even if he wanted to.

Anser joined the fight and fired two Prismatic Sprays in succession, blasting apart the invisible Arcane Trickster.

The Arcane Trickster had already been chased to the point where he had nothing left. He had used every trick at his disposal, and under the spells, he didn't even manage to struggle—or rather, he never got the chance.

It was even easier than killing the barbarian.

[Target killed. Gained 3,780 experience points.]

This time, Anser got the lion's share as he'd hoped. Today's experience harvest had been immensely satisfying, and even the Open Lord of Waterdeep would have nothing to say about it.

"Get some rest." Anser dropped Haste and headed outside to help.

Only after emerging did he discover that the remaining guards had already realized the situation was hopeless and fled. The fastest among them had even made it out of the estate.

He was just about to give chase when a tremendous boom erupted nearby, and even the ground trembled.

The building concealing secrets beneath it collapsed with a thunderous crash, leaving behind a massive crater shrouded in billowing black smoke.

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