Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

Fighting Fortress

He stood there for a moment seemingly doing nothing at all.

His eyes seemed cold and devoid of life and the enemy forces had no idea what to do.

Then he moved his right hand upwards to the clouds and his left hand downwards to the earth below. He inhaled a deep breath and an orb of fire emerged in both hands. It was getting bigger with each passing second. “Supreme Spell: Supernova: Variation…”

The world began to tremble ever so slightly. Hairs began to stand on end.

“Take him down! It’s just another illusion!”

The Vampire Queen’s barked commands forced her warriors to charge at Zelo with desperation and open mouths filled with sharp white fangs.

“Sword.” Zelo finished his chanting and swung his right hand down like the claws of a tiger and his left hand upwards like a dragon rising to the heavens. The spheres of flame stretched outwards to formed surging pillars of flame, shaping into massive blades of heat.

They snapped like the jaws of a crocodile on top of the floating fortress and all that was caught between fell as their bodies began to burn on contact.

Shooting stars of flesh collapsed to the ground one after another, charred black but with the light of life barely alive, though it could be easily extinguished with a blow of air from pursed lips.

Their bodies barely, just barely kept up with the damage the flames spreading over them were dishing out.

The castle in the sky had been protected on impact by a blue spherical barrier, however, it did not get away unscathed. Cracks formed on its surface much like an egg being hammered by a silver spoon held by an impatient and hungry child.

The world was struck dumb. It had been a real strike with real weight.

No one knew how to react to the raw power they witnessed. Then Zelo began to spew out a mess of words. “Ah! I’m out of MP! I’m so dumb! Gah, it had a barrier? Really!? It freaking flies? Darn it all! Ahhhhh! I can’t believe this! Does anyone have any mana potions? I need them, like now! Help me, help you! Quick!”

It seemed so completely out of character that the silence only grew as confusion reigned and brains tried to decipher what he was saying.

“Attack, now! He doesn’t have anything else!”

The Vampire Queen decided to push her advantage. The second wave of vampires flew towards a Zelo who was clutching his head, crying and moaning about his predicament. The moment they were about to get close Zelo smiled and gave off a calm and cool composure.

“Knew you’d take the bait.”

His teeth glimmered like silver as they were now in the blast zone.

“Magic Missile. Multiply 1000. Fire Element. Holy Element. Haste.”

The swarm were riddled with holes in seconds as the missiles went through their body like bullets and then once they safely went all the way through, exploded into balls of white flame that brought their victims down with them. Yet again the impressive-looking assault wasn’t enough to kill them but it was more than enough to break them.

They screamed as their figurative wings were pulled from their backs. They were mere insects and Zelo was a mischievous child with the power of the devil. Their eyes were focused on the sneering Demon Khan as they became not much more than bone, devolving quickly into dirt.

Speechless.

The audience just didn’t have the words for the sudden bite of the beast they thought was nothing but bark and schemes. This wasn’t a fluke. It had happened twice.

Zelo began to walk through the air, forming small petals of mana to act as footholds as he walked towards the castle, the vampires in his way were frozen in fear and didn’t move at all. He simply stepped past them as if he didn’t even realise they were there.

They all breathed a sigh of relief once they were all safely behind him. Then he laughed.

“Just kidding.” He snapped his fingers and they all exploded into balls of white flame-like their allies just a few moments before.

One would think the difference between 1 MAG and 50 MAG would not cause this much of a difference. Normally you’d be correct, it wouldn’t make sense for this much destruction with only 50 MAG. With 1 MAG, Corai could only damage the unique creatures with 0 MAG.

Usually, such monsters were incredibly weak or min-maxed into physical stats.

Even a newborn baby would have around 5 MAG and thus be immune to Corai’s magical attacks.

Now at 50, he could slay some C Rank monsters.

These were day-walking vampires, quite a grade ahead with a lot of variance in strength.

How could he possibly be doing this much damage?

The first thing to know is the concept of base damage.

In a lot of games, a spell’s damage is based on the MAG stat combined with the spells base damage. Some spells scale better with MAG or have good base damage but don’t get too much of a boost form MAG.

So with this logic, wouldn’t Corai be better off spamming efficient spells with high bases?

To force a battle of quantity vs quality for the most part? You’d be correct and right on the money.

This was what he was doing now. Each spell had a MAG requirement for base damage to apply.

Most mages don’t even have to think about this, the requirement for most spells are laughably low to the point the only people who deal with it are those who want to branch out from other disciplines or have good growths but bad bases.

He now filled the conditions for almost every decent spell available.

Some of the ridiculous stuff was still off-limits but now they would at least have some sort of effect. With his large MP stat, he could make the range and size of his attacks be anything he liked. Even if you were only taking a single point of damage from his attacks, right now it wouldn’t matter, because you’d be taking 1 multiplied by thousands over a short period of time.

The DPS would be too much for an average or even above average fighter to endure.

1:00

Just a bit more and most of his adversaries would be nothing but dust and ash in the wind.

He continued his slow approach, his heart was beating a mile a minute but it didn’t show on his face at all. He had done the opposite of what he usually did. He looked weak when he was strong, usually, he pretended to be strong when he was weak. Mixing these together crafted the perfect cocktail of unrest. Anxiety was spreading like fear among the vampires and courage was burning in the hearts of the people of the city.

“Aaaaaayyyyyaaaarrrrggghhhhiiiiieeeeeeeeekkkk! No! I won’t be stopped here! I tried so hard! I got so far! I will win! I will win! Go! My finest creation! Finish him!”

Flying out of the castle like a launched rocket was a hulking bronze coloured minotaur, looking more muscle than anything else, it had huge bat wings spread out, its wingspan was at least twice as large as its actual body. It opened its mouth to reveal a mess of sharp and twisted canines and chipped teeth made for chomping flesh and drinking blood.

Zelo sighed as his worthy foe approached him… and he split into thirty different bodies.

He had cloned himself again and the bull roared in frustration as it started to swipe at them.

Some were ripped apart instantly, being nothing but fabrications. Yet sometimes he would hit one and… boom! It’d explode into a ball of white fire that would singe the outer skin of the beast of burden. This only infuriated it more and its body was beginning to turn a deep crimson as it raged onwards attacking at phantoms and bombs, frantically looking for the real thing.

“He’s a coward and a schemer! He’s hiding in the back! Blast him away!”

The queen barked and the beast followed. It opened its jaws with and a golden light began to emanate from within… and then burst out a bolt of lightning!

It moved its head from left to right and the electric wave acted like a beam, it cut right through the clones in the back and destroyed them with barely a touch.

Then a single figure appeared just below the chin of the vampire minotaur.

“Gotcha. Haste. Slow. Multiply… and delayed spells activate!”

“Time Stop.”

The world froze for three breaths yet with the delayed spells bursting forth it didn’t matter. Corai took out the knife that Olivia had pierced him with and threw it at his foe.

It stayed suspended in the frozen time and he snickered as he was about to rip off a deadly technique without even a shred of shame. “Multiply.” One dagger became many.

“Apply effects. Beast Slaughterer. Maneater. Undead Slayer. Divine Destroyer. Holy Element. Fire Element. Defence Break. Offence Up.” Corai turned his back to his enemy and then snapped his fingers as time resumed its normal pace.

SLICK. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

The undead minotaur had been penetrated by multiple knives designed to absolutely annihilate everything it was made of. It mooed like a cow in pain as it too began to fall from the skies, having been defeated by someone who didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

This angered the beast which was now in a prison made of piercing magical shrapnel.

It opened its jaws yet again to fire one last parting shot at the man disrespecting it.

The light began to build and just as its body was about to hit the floor it was ready to fire-!

Slick! A silver blade pierces its throat and the lightning was trapped where it came from.

Held in the right hand of the Saviour of Shadow was the same type of dagger that had devastated the bull. Except now its blade had stretched from heaven to earth and right through the back of the monster’s mouth. The blade slowly receded until it returned to its master but stopped so its length was about that of a longsword.

Zelo pointed it towards the castle with a cocky grin.

“Tick tock. Do you have any other pet projects for me to take apart?”

The vampire queen growled in frustration. Her veins were ready to pop.

She was sure… he must be at his limit! If she sent more soldiers his way then…!

Vampires began to fall out of the sky like flies exposed to a can of raid.

Their doom spells timers had hit 0 and their bodies turned into black ash as they suffered the power of final and absolute death. She had lost forces that had taken her a month to assemble.

What remained couldn’t be risked against this seemingly insurmountable enemy.

It seemed she only had one option left.

She placed her hand on the blue orb embedded on the right side of her white throne.

It glowed as she poured clumps of mana into it, feeding it with burst after burst of fury filled fear.

The gift of The Wanderer. The castle that defied imagination. She couldn’t lose with it.

The flying fortress began to release bursts of steam from the inside and the walls began to move and shift directions, placing and moving them to different places.

Corai’s jaw dropped as he watched the transformation occur right before his eyes.

The flying fortress had become a giant white mecha made of rock tied together with magic and machinery. It imposed as its form floated in the sky. A white devil coated in stone.

“A… giant robot? Really? Your castle turns into a super robot!? D-did you make this!?”

It was now Corai’s turn to be at a loss for words, he began to blabber as he saw the construction slowly make its way towards him.

“Behold the power of the Wanderer’s designs! He is my benefactor and had graced me with this invincible fighting fortress! I could always crush you with a single finger! I simply hadn’t thought you were worth the time, but it seems pests need to be squished and problems cut at the root!”

Corai gritted his teeth. He wasn’t sure if he had the firepower to take this thing on.

He couldn’t doom it either, it wasn’t a living thing. It seemed she had the helping hand of someone like it. Someone who didn’t belong in this world.

He began to break into a sweat. Soon this magical power he gained would fade away.

If that happened and the fight wasn’t over… he gulped. It was time to mix reality and illusion together. He had to find a way to break this bot.