“And an actual attacker would play by the rules, hmm?” Xvim asked him. “You don’t think they would just teleport to the edge of the ward and
get rid of it?”
“If you gave me time to prepare, the ward would be anchored to something and be nigh impossible to dispel like that,” Zorian said.
“And if you gave me time to prepare I’d bring a couple of mana siphons to starve the ward into collapse,” Xvim said pitilessly.
“Ugh. Fine. Can I have another try?” Zorian asked.
“Of course,” Xvim nodded. “You can have as many tries as you want.”
Two hours and five ward refinements later, Zorian had a warding scheme that Xvim couldn’t just casually dispel whenever he wished. He had to extend the ward far outside the limits of the area indicated by Xvim’s glowing orbs, but apparently that wasn’t cheati
