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The strategy was still infinitely cheaper than throwing a higher Tier mana stone into a rapidly converting mana stone, which usually had a near ninety percent loss rate. Those stones were only to be used in emergencies, or by the uber-wealthy. Even Matt used them sparingly. The standard, personal converting mana stones were more efficient, if you had the time. Even the ordinary fast converting mana stones that they commonly used were better, if you had at least a minute or two. The rapid type was only beneficial when near-instant conversion of rift mana to personal mana was necessary, or when you simply didn’t care about the cost.
The effect of having an extra mana pool was more pronounced with Emily, who didn’t have to ration her four spells as much. Consequently, she became a terror on the battlefield. Even now, as she rapid-fired [Fireball]’s alongside Matt, he was impressed at her speed and accuracy. She hit most of her shots, even on the evading fighters, which he routinely missed.
Together, they removed four of the Tier 6s. One of the Tier 7s flew to them, and the other led their five remaining Tier 6s to attack the melee fighters.
“I got him.”
Emily nodded at Matt’s AI voice command and retreated with the other group.
Matt readied himself to block the short sword swing with his staff and used his foot to brace the end of the staff on his flying sword. When the wooden staff met metal, it wasn’t destroyed as the melee Tier 7 expected.
The staff he was using had metal bands running up the sides to give it more sturdiness, and it was enchanted with durability. If the Tier 7’s weapon had been Tier 8, it might have done more damage, but with their weapons being equal, it was a stalemate.
The Tier 7 flew up and to the right slightly as he swung down at Matt’s lightly armored head, but Matt had already started moving as well.
To the melee fighter’s ever-growing surprise, Matt flew into him and started to grapple with his free hand. The man’s smirk quickly faded when he realized that Matt wasn’t the weak mage he had expected. He probably thought their first exchange was simply a difference in flying equipment, but he should have thought twice about a simple mage attempting to grapple him.
When Matt held his opponent’s sword arm at bay, it was already too late. He drove his dagger into the enemy Tier 7’s armpit and twisted the blade as he removed it. It wasn’t instantly fatal. The man had about a minute before he bled out enough to fall unconscious, and two before he died.
The Tier 7 could have fought through the pain and retaliated, but the wound was damaging and painful enough to force the man to clamp his arm down. It was a futile attempt to staunch the arterial bleeding.
The man’s instinctive movement left him open to a second attack. He was teleported out just before Matt moved to slice his throat in a backswing. As his blade neared the man’s neck, the shock on his face was evident. Even as he was teleported out, he still didn’t seem to believe what had happened.
The army watchers apparently decided enough was enough, removing the Tier 7 before more work was given to the healers.
Spinning with a flick of his hips, Matt faced the back of the melee and started launching [Fireball]s. In under a minute, the ambushers decided that their mission wasn’t worth it. As a unit, they disengaged and flew off.
None of the defenders flew after them. Matt and Emily decided to act after they heard from Annie. The encounter wasn’t exactly ideal; they hadn’t gotten the other Tier 7, who had a chance of seeing through her Talent. Still, he trusted her. After all, she had passed the assassination test of the army, killed Alyssa, and torched her closet. All without getting caught.
The Tier 7 woman, to their mild annoyance, had been more upset about her wardrobe than her death, as she had apparently expected it, and had already spent her points. She had mildly reprimanded Liz about it, saying that killing her was one thing, but destroying her clothes was a step too far. Although, in the next moment, she ended up thanking Liz for the excuse to buy new clothes. The next day, she showed up to headquarters looking brighter than ever. It seemed like nothing would keep her down for long.
Matt threw Alyssa out of his thoughts. The less he thought about her the better.
It was just a waiting game now. Annie would track the bandits to their lair, and they could hopefully take down a large central hub, earning enough points to set them back on top.
The five of them continued on with their mission, with one of the melee guards having been killed and removed from the fighting. Together, they flew the remaining distance to the city and dropped off their payload, earning a decent chunk of points. They hoped that the points for the delivery would be dwarfed by their taking down another secret base.
He and Emily didn’t dawdle to sight see, and immediately flew back out of the city toward the first ambush site. Liz, Aster, and Conor were waiting for them.
As they pulled up, Matt asked, “How was your ambush?”
Liz answered with a shrug. “Fine. They didn’t try to do much more than hold us back, just like the reports said. What about yours?”
“Everything went as we thought. The ambushers retreated once they took decent losses. Annie’s following them as we speak.”
They moved in a group to follow their rogue’s trail. As they did, Matt threw his Concept on at full blast. Everyone was full according to his AI, but he couldn’t see their reserves.
All of their mana dipped by about 200 before filling back up, with them having used some mana stones in their fights. Once they stopped emptying their mana after being restored, he cut off his Concept and fully concentrated on chasing after the retreating team.
To his surprise, they didn’t abruptly rush in. They dismounted and walked through two separate anti-flying fields, then another mile into queendom territory, before turning back around into kingdom controlled land. There, Matt’s squad walked through a few more anti-flying formations near a small fort. Finally, they found the hill that Annie was inside of.
They didn’t see an entrance despite their careful observation, but they sent a low priority message to Annie, who simply responded that she was handling it.
Two minutes later, she popped out of a grass-covered hatch and waved for them to come down.
“It’s all already taken care of. There were only three people inside besides the few who retreated. Easy enough to take them out one by one. They never even saw me.”
“Oh.”
Matt was incredibly disappointed. They went through all that trouble, only to not even get a good fight out of it.
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