Anti-Mage

Brandon tumbled through the concrete into the air with the bigfoot-type creature wrapped around his body. The wall of the building he’d been on had looked like concrete but had given way when they slammed through it. In fact, as he thought about it, the wall had crumbled as he’d come into contact with it like it was tissue paper. Was that an effect of his Aura, his Physical Damage Resistance, or both?

Even as those thoughts crossed his mind, Brandon realized it was taking a really long time to fall toward the ground and realized that everything had slowed down, or his perception was perceiving the world as slowed down. He wasn’t sure. He could still move normally, though, and did. He pushed the bigfoot-type creature off of him and turned so that his feet were on the creature as it fell beneath him in one smooth movement. With his feet planted on the creature's back, he rode the beast headfirst toward the ground.

Everything was still moving slowly as the creature's head touched the pavement in the middle of the street, and Brandon stepped off the creature and onto the ground like Bugs Bunny stepping off of a plane that had just run out of gas right before it crashed. He wasn’t jarred at all as he stepped to the ground and moved toward the entrance to the Treasury Building.

No one near him had time to react as he passed through and around military, police, and others fighting the invaders. Everyone he passed paused for a moment as his Aura washed over them. He didn’t have time to study the effect, but it was helpful. His Aura caused everyone who came into contact with it to stagger, which allowed him to pass through the chaotic combat without interruption until he was inside the Treasury Building.

Once inside, he activated his Basic Map. He’d never been in the building before, but the map showed the hallways and everyone in that he could see. Brandon moved away from everyone and found a place that was out of sight to pause and consider a few things.

The first thing he needed to do was get his Aura under control. He didn’t need it staggering his allies at the wrong moment. He thought about condensing or turning off his aura so he wouldn’t affect others. When he thought he was successful He slowly moved toward the entrance he’d just entered. When he realized his Aura was still affecting others, he backed off and tried again.

It only took him a few moments to figure out how to extend and retract his Aura. Brandon practiced until he could fully retract or extend his Aura at will. His high willpower, wisdom, and intelligence must have helped him because he didn’t have to practice for more than a minute before he had a good feeling about how to control his aura and either extend aura out completely or retract it with a thought.

Once he felt comfortable, Brandon kept his aura retracted and made his way back to the east side of the Treasury. No one froze up as he looked out on the small group of invaders that were left after the ones he’d frozen had been killed and left to lay in the street. There were more coming in from the North and the South, but right now, there was a lull in the tide of attackers.

Brandon turned from the East Entrance to the Treasury Building and headed west through the building, down a long hall to the West Entrance that was opposite the East Entrance to the White House. As he moved closer, Brandon could see men and women defending the entrance from the invaders that were trying to make their way inside.

Brandon was still at least 50 feet away from the entrance, when he saw a mass of invaders moving toward the White House and overwhelming guards there. A moment later, he heard an explosion. Someone was either using grenades, mortars, or rockets. It was quickly becoming a clusterfuck outside.

Brandon moved up to a column that was about 30 feet from the entrance when he received a Combat Message as everyone within 30 feet of the entrance dropped to the ground unconscious.

Level 10 Spell “Sleep” has been successfully resisted.

Brandon looked around frantically for the individual who had cast the spell. Most people casting spells had darts of energy flying from them toward their targets. Some even seemed to throw balls of fire or ice. He looked around quickly, but didn’t see anyone that looked like they’d just cast a spell. A moment later, a black rectangular panel of darkness opened 20 feet behind the defenders keeping the invaders out of the building in the hallway 10 feet in front of where he was positioned.

Two men with the not-quite-right firearms he had seen on the invaders stepped through, followed by someone in a black robe with gold trimmings. Both men began to scan the area as the third man in robes stepped through the portal, and it closed. The two men with guns took up a defensive position, but held their fire as the man in robes turned toward the wall and began to cast a spell. Brandon flashed forward in a single motion and struck the robed man at the base of his skull along the back of his neck.

There was a crack as his brainstem was severed from his skull, and the head and body fell forward and slid toward the West Entrance. The two guards, with both of their backs to Brandon, automatically moved their weapons to track the mage as he slid away from them. They quickly realized their mistake, but it was already too late. Brandon pivoted to the right and chopped down on the back of the invader's neck with the heel of his left hand as he summoned his Glock from his inventory and came around in front of the now-dead invader, aimed and fired. His aim was accurate, and the shot he fired from his silenced Glock went through the forehead of the other invader. In less than 3 seconds, the three men that had portaled into the building were dead.

That isn’t to say that Brandon's actions went unnoticed. One of the American Soldiers at the window outside the range of the Sleep spell had seen the soldiers appear and had brought up his pistol and fired. While Brandon was incredibly lucky, some abilities and skills could negate or overcome someone’s natural luck. The soldier in question had one of those abilities. Brandon would never know the man who had shot him because he would die in the ensuing battle for Washington, D.C., later that day.

Whatever that skill or ability was, it bypassed his luck and incredible speed. As Brandon shot the last of the three invaders that had portaled into the hallway, a bullet struck him directly over his heart. His vision filled with his combat log.

Combat Log

Struck by Firearm round

Base damage: 1

Critical strike: x2

Total damage: 2

Physical Damage Resistance: 2

Net Damage: 0

End Combat Log

Brandon looked at the man that had shot him and their eyes locked. Then Brandon gave him a look that he hopped conveyed the very clear message, “What the Fuck,” Man?” Simultaneously, he thought, I’m bulletproof.

Of course, that wasn’t the only person that fired at him. He caught a muzzle flash out of the corner of his vision from the other side of the hall and was turning and ducking as multiple bullets struck him before he was able to get behind the cover. Unlike the bullet from the handgun, the multiple bullets that hit him hurt. Not as much as he’d expect bullets to hurt. But they did hurt.

The bullet hits hurt worse than a wasp sting but not as bad as the one time he broke his left leg when he was a teenager. He found himself dodging a stream of bullets. As he dodged, Brandon moved away from the entrance and down a side hall until he found a shadowed corner and took up refuge there.

Brandon felt the shadows wrap around him from his Cloak of Shadows spell and help conceal him in the shadow. He quickly ran his hands over his body as he looked for wounds that were still bleeding. His hands came away damp with blood. Even so, he didn’t seem to be bleeding too badly. He cast Earth’s Embrace and then pulled up his Combat Log. Brandon switched the information to a summary mode and read the results.

Combat Log (Summary)

144 bullets Dodged.

Hit by 16 bullets

Base Damage: 5

Damage after PDR reduction: 2

Total Damage: 32 (16 x 2) Hit Points

Earth’s Embrace: 10 Hit Points Healed

Current Hit Points: 1,387 of 1,409

Brandon paused. The last time he checked, he hadn’t had 1,409 hit points. Then he remembered that he’d set his class to level and distribute his attributes automatically. He quickly opened his Personal Status and saw that he was now Level 8. The invaders he was fighting were giving out a lot of XP. Then he realized that his physical damage resistance had gone up by another point, which indicated that his Physical Damage Resistance was tied his class level or attributes. As he considered his PDR, an information Note appeared.

Physical Damage Resistance (PDR): Equal to one-tenth the Natural Defense of a creature.

Natural Defense: Equal to the Natural Armor of a creature plus their Constitution Attribute Bonus

Brandon read the notes and realized that as his Constitution increased, his Physical Damage Resistance would also increase. The other thing he realized was that he was not immune to all bullets. While the pistol that he’d been hit by hadn’t done anything, the bullets from the submachine gun or assault rifle that had fired at him had affected him. So, if he was going to move back out into the combat area, he needed to keep moving and watch for attacks from both sides, especially from higher caliber weapons.

Brandon quickly checked his notifications and found the Leveling messages. There were no new abilities, skills, or spells. He closed his notifications and returned his attention to the hallway. Brandon moved so he could look down the corridor to the west. No one had come after him. He considered extending his aura, but that would leave his fellow Americans vulnerable, so he decided to embrace his new high attributes and rely on his Perception and Luck to make his way to the White House. If he could take out a couple more of those magic users, that might out his allies.

Brandon moved. He was down the hall and through the door and running north along the White House fence. At Pennsylvania Avenue NW, he turned west and made his way to the west side of the White House. He passed the West Entrance, which was across from the Eisenhower Executive Office building, and continued down to East Street NW before he turned east. He could have followed the rounded fence along the south side of the White House but decided to use the main roads. Halfway back to East Executive Avenue NW, the end of the turn registered, and his Stamina replenished.

He need not have worried about anyone on his side being affected by his Aura, they were all dead. While the Treasury Building had been able to hold off anyone trying to make their way inside, Brandon had realized as he ran around the White House that more than a couple thousand soldiers had focused on the White House and were currently breaking into the building. The few that were attacking the surrounding buildings were keeping those within the building occupied.

Brandon didn’t have anything that could take on a bunch of soldiers at once. Besides, they were tied up trying to make their way into the White House. What caught his attention was a man standing on a floating rug 30 feet off the ground who seemed to be directing everyone below him. He was issuing orders in a language he couldn’t understand while others talked into comm devices or glowing crystals they were carrying. Magical Comm devices?

Without hesitation, he hoped the south fence and moved north over the south lawn through where the soldiers were regrouping on the lawn. When he first jumped the fence he passed through an area where a few soldiers were moving through the wounded. They were applying bandages or casting spells to heal the more severely injured. Brandon ignored them as he moved toward the leader of these soldiers on the South Lawn, where he stood on the floating rug. As he moved into position, just below and behind the leader, Brandon focused his mind and struck with the full force of his Aura Strike.

Brandon’s initial plan was to stun the leader and cause him to fall to the ground, where he could take care of him quickly. As he moved into position, Brandon watched as the leader began to gesture and speak in what Brandon was starting to recognize as the casting of a spell. Brandon struck with Aura Strike. His Aura Strike had increased with his level. He was now able to invest 34 points of psychic energy into the attack.

Spell backlash was not something Brandon had witnessed yet. Of course, he’d read about it in the role-playing games he’d played, and he’d also seen the idea explored in some of the fantasy fiction he read, but he’d never thought of it as something he’d have to worry about. So, when he’d decided to utilize his Aura Strike to attack the spell-casting leader while he was casting a spell, he wasn’t expecting all that much to happen. He hoped to knock him unconscious. That didn’t happen. Instead, the spell didn’t just fail; it failed spectacularly.

***

One thing that none of the Earthlings had figured out yet was that the level of spell that could be cast was directly related to the current magical density of the immediate area. If the mages had been able to utilize their full spell grimoire, the takeover of Washington D.C., and possibly the world, would have already been over. At least, their leaders thought so. Unfortunately, the displaced forces that had resorted to the doctrine of “Might Makes Right” were about to discover that nothing was guaranteed when the SYSTEM was in flux. More specifically, there was always a possibility that someone more powerful could pop up when least expected.

Master Mage Verlyn led the invading forces trying to secure the White House. He stood on his flying carpet and watched as his troops took positions around the building, trying to whittle down the defenders, who were proving to be very proficient at defending their leader. The Supreme Commander was inside, attempting to subdue the leader of this country while he ensured that no one escaped. Though he hadn’t been in contact with her since the Go Code had been transmitted.

Their plan had gone off without a problem. When the Magical Density had reached 10%, their mages were once again able to cast teleport or open portals through which their troops could step. While they could have tried to take over the Middle East, an area much closer to their origin point on their Earth, they’d appeared on this side of the world. The Supreme Commander had felt that the United States would be an easier target. If they could subdue the leaders and take the Capital, spreading through the continent and then the world wouldn’t be an issue.

High Mage Verlyn had teleported in with the first wave and been present when the defensive forces proved to be a little stronger than they’d first thought. Their enemy's firearms had proved uncommonly effective, and many of his soldiers had been killed before they were able to establish their enclosure and prevent it from being reinforced. The Treasury to the east was a bit of a problem, but he’d just sent one of his best teams to end that standoff. He expected to hear back from them shortly.

The high mage felt his defensive spells deflect another shot just before he heard the gunshot from the roof. He couldn’t see the sniper nest, but he knew it was up there. Unfortunately for the idiot up there who thought he was safe on the roof, the message stating that the Magical Density had just reached 15% had been issued by The SYSTEM. That was going to be very bad for them because, as an Air Master, he could now cast a spell that most mages wouldn’t be able to learn until they reached level 20. He checked his mana. He was a little lower than he’d like to be, so he’d need to drink a mana potion once he was done casting. Of his 1,330 mana, he’d already spent 210 of it on small things, and this spell was going to require 400. While he had earned the ability to cast Summon Major Air Elemental at level 15, it still had the base cost of 20 per level because it was still treated as a level 20 spell for everything except the level requirement to cast it.

High Mage Verlyn was not quite correct in his assumption. If he’d waited until the Magical Density had reached 20%, the magic required to open the portal to another dimension and bring the Air Elemental onto the Material Plane would have been spread out and shouldered by the magic saturated throughout the world. Instead, his body became a funnel for the magic required to stabilize and reach through the dimensional boundary. Funnel wasn’t quite the right word for the role the High Mage played in the process. It would be better to think of him as a fuse that magic had to pass through.

The process was quite painful and would have failed if not for his high willpower. High, in this case, was a relative term, as his effective willpower was only 83. Eighty-three points in willpower gave Verlyn a 73% chance to maintain the flow of energy required. His focus on air magic improved his chances by another 25%, which allowed for a 97% chance of success if magic had worked normally. With the Magical Density 5% below what was required, his chance was reduced by 25%, which returned him to an overall chance of 73%. To maintain the flow of energy while he concentrated on opening the portal, he had to endure the pain and focus entirely on not allowing the energy to divert anywhere but its intended purpose.

High Mage Verlyn was doing quite well on his casting and was just about to complete it when he was attacked. His mind wasn’t weak, nor was he undefended against an Aura attack. One of his defenses doubled his natural Aura Defense and raised it from a 9 to an 18. Unfortunately for the High Mage, the attack that struck had an Aura Strength of 34, which was 16 points more than his defense. At 10 points of Aura Strength, individuals could be frozen in place or intimidated to run away. Unfortunately for High Mage Verlyn, the attack broke his concentration as he channeled the final 20 points of mana into his spell.The fuse that was High Mage Verlyn vaporized.

***

Brandon was engulfed in a wave of magical energy, which, at its epicenter, caused 400 points of damage in a 1-foot radius, 200 points out to 2 feet, and 100 points out to 4 feet. 30 feet below the floating mage, Brandon was engulfed in an energy wave that did 25 points of damage to him and everyone around him. In the blink of an eye, the mage and floating rug were gone, and everyone with 64 feet of mage was dead. Those out to 128 feet were a little more lucky. Some died, some didn’t, but they were all blown away from the center.

Brandon was flash-blind and blinked his eyes rapidly as he tried to clear them. After a moment, he realized it was going to take him a bit longer to get his vision back, as the only thing he could see was a flashing gold star overlaying the white background that was his vision.

He continued to blink his eyes as he reviewed the Notifications and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were all level messages for levels 9 through 16. Brandon heard small arms fire and felt pressure against his skin, but nothing hurt him. He quickly pulled up his Physical Damage Resistance and saw that it had increased to 6. That was good news. That meant that guns like the one that hurt him in the Treasury building wouldn’t hurt him anymore. When he had more time, he’d need to look over his Combat Log and find out exactly what had happened to earn him eight levels. Right now, though, he had to move.

With his vision nullified, Brandon pulled up his Basic Map. He needed to retreat until he could see again because he was sure someone probably had a weapon or spell that could hurt him. If he stood still long enough, they’d be able to use them on him.

Using his Basic Map, Brandon headed southeast toward the entrance to the South Lawn, out of the White House grounds, and then south through the parking lot to East Street Northwest. His hearing and sense of touch were more than adequate to give him a feeling of what was near him. This feeling translated to information displayed on his Basic Map, which he used to navigate around people and objects in the street.

Once he was on East Street Northwest, he continued west until the street merged with Virginia Avenue Northwest, followed it for a block, and merged with East Street Northwest again. Wait what? His map clearly showed that two streets that ran east to west had the same label. Both roads were one block apart, which was weird.

While his thoughts were occupied with the obviously insane naming of the city streets in Washington D.C, he continued west on the North version of East Street Northwest until it merged with Interstate 66. He didn’t go very far past the merge point. Instead, he made his way down under the overpass and moved up under it where he was sure some shadows would be. Once in place, he slowly moved south to the opposite end of the road and allowed his Cloak of Shadows to do its best to hide him while he cast Earth’s Embrace to heal the damage he’d taken. After he cast the spell twice to heal 20 points of damage, he felt a lot better, and his eyesight had almost returned to normal.

He looked around, made sure he was in a relatively secure location, and noticed that he felt a little odd. He moved his hands over his body to see if he could figure out why he felt odd and realized he was naked. The explosion had vaporized his BDU’s. He opened his inventory, sorted through the items he had stored, and pulled out his second set of BDUs that had been in his go kit. Unfortunately, he didn’t have another set of boots, so he had to make do with the pair of tennis shoes that were in the go bag. At least they were black.

Putting on the uniform was simple; he put the items into his wardrobe slots in his Inventory, and they appeared on him. That function of his inventory was going to make this new magical world awesome. However, he’d need to pick up some more clothes to make sure he didn’t run out, especially since it now appeared that his body was much more durable than his clothing.

Brandon double-checked his surroundings again and then opened his Combat Log. The mage’s death had garnered him 406,250 XP. It also seemed that because he caused the explosion, the additional 196 people that had been killed had earned him another 588,000 XP, even though none of those killed by the explosion were above level 3.

Brandon opened his Personal Status and noted that his Attributes had been automatically distributed. All of his attributes were above 500, with Agility, Dexterity, and Luck being his highest attributes. That was probably why he’d been able to navigate so easily using his Basic Map. His reflexes had become truly superhuman.

When he was done reviewing the changes, he opened his Notifications, minimized the leveling notifications, and then stopped. He brought the leveling notification for Level 10 back to the forefront.

Congratulations! You have reached level 10. At Levels 10, 20, 30, and 40 in your first class, you unlock the ability to add another class; this is called multiclassing. If you decide to multiclass, all XP from that point forward will be divided between all of your classes. While you have unlocked the ability to learn a new class, you are not required to do so now. You may save class slots for later use.

Additionally, you have unlocked the following perk-based spell, “Invisibility.” The spell invisibility is cast just like any other spell. It requires somatic and verbal components as well as an installment of mana, which provides it with a duration. This perk-based spell is only available to very specialized classes. It does not require somatic or verbal components to activate.

While this invisibility is a perk, it is leveled as a spell. As such, Spell Points can be allocated to increase its level.

Invisibility.

You make yourself invisible to visible light. You will remain invisible until you take any action that interacts with your environment; this includes attacking another creature or individual. You may talk softly using no more than three words per combat turn. As this spell is leveled, other features are unlocked.

Mana per Turn: 10

Level 5: Reduce Mana Cost by 1. Invisibility now includes heat-based senses

Level 10: Reduce Mana cost by 1; Invisibility now includes sound-based senses. You may now speak in short sentences without breaking your invisibilty

Level 15: Reduce Mana cost by 1; Invisibility now mitigates air movement. Senses that rely on pressure changes can no longer detect the invisible individual.

Level 20: Reduce Mana cost by 1; Invisibility may now be chained. Attacks or actions that would typically break invisibility may now be ignored. Spend mana equal to the current upkeep cost each time you would break invisibility. You may now speak softly without breaking your invisibility.

Level 25 and Above: Reduce Mana cost by 1 every 5 levels to a minimum of 1 point of mana per combat turn or attack.

Level 30: Spells that automatically detect Invisibility no longer detect you. Instead, Spell Levels are compared, as is each spell's dedicated attribute in a Contest of Wills. Should you win, you will remain invisible. Should you lose, you will become visible to the caster of the Detect Invisibility spell.

NOTE: Divine-level detection spells will still automatically pierce your invisibility.

Level 40: Abilities and Spells that detect souls no longer detect you.

Level 50: Attacks by you no longer break your invisibility.

Level 60: Invisibility now affects Divine level detection spells. Like the change at Level 30, Divine level detection spells do not automatically detect you. A Contest of Wills is required.

Brandon finished reading the notification and decided that he needed that spell to be at least level 20. He looked at his Spell Slots and then dedicated 210 of his remaining 560 Spell Points. Then he checked his current Mana Regeneration. At 60 per Turn, he could more than support the 6 mana per turn. He activated Invisibility and deactivated Cloak of Shadows. Once invisible, he moved from where he had been to the underpass west of his position and settled in under a different underpass.

Another Notification about Magical Density appeared in his vision. 20% now. It seemed to be increasing by 1% every 5 minutes or so. To him that didn’t matter. Now that he was invisible, it was time to get back to work. He pulled up his Personal Status and double-checked a couple of things. He was currently regenerating 60 stamina and Mana per combat turn. Mana would fuel his Invisibility and allow him to make multiple attacks each Combat Turn. That wasn’t what was going to limit him, though. His current Stamina was 7,840. He could make up to 19 attacks if he went all out. If he wanted to pace himself, though, he could make two attacks per turn without tiring himself.

Taking both his mana and stamina into account, he could attack twice every 10 seconds without breaking his invisibility. Granted, he could still be detected by spells dedicated to doing so, but if he kept moving, he should be able to make a dent in the invading forces before he was forced to retreat. Now that he had that figured out, Brandon decided that it was time to teach these invaders a lesson that they never forget.

Ten seconds later, Brandon entered the White House grounds and looked for his first target. Men and women were still trying to clean up the mess of the leader’s explosion. One person was standing in the middle of the blast area, looking around. It looked like he was looking for something, but Brandon couldn’t figure out what it could be. Alone, in the middle of a crowd? It looked like he had his first target.

Brandon moved up behind the man and snapped the heel of his hand into his neck. There was a crack as he snapped his target's neck. Brandon was already 600 feet away before the body of the dead man fell to the ground. From behind a tree, he looked back as someone rushed up to check on the dead man.

Brandon pulled up and reviewed his Combat Log.

Combat Log

Unarmed Attack Successful

Damage: 588 (Base 2 + STR Attribute Bonus 586)

Target Hit Points reduced to – 568

Target has died.

XP Earned: 6,750

Treasure: 5 Copper

He was side-tracked by the mention of Treasure. Brandon quickly pulled up the information concerning his treasure.

Copper: 641

Silver: 103

Credits: 0

Gold: 36

Platinum: 0

It was good to know he was earning some treasure as he took out the trash. He guessed it was time to get to it then. Brandon moved and attacked, moved and attacked. He decided not to go after any more healers, at least not the ones that weren’t attacking anyone. He also left the wounded alone. Enough enemies were trying to enter the White House that going after the injured could wait. Besides, killing helpless foes just felt wrong. He’d do it, of course, but only as a last option.

He made sure that everyone he attacked was at least 100 feet from each other as he moved around the White House killing any soldiers that were firing or casting spells at its Defenders. Brandon moved over toward the Treasury Building to the east of the White House and then onto the North Law before he had his first problem. He’d been lucky that he was constantly moving when a rifle round, probably a sniper rifle round, slammed into his back. He glanced back and saw a healer casting spells on multiple individuals who were bringing their weapons up and pointing them in his direction. It looked like three people could now see him. He changed course and attacked all four.

Unfortunately for the healer or magic user, Brandon saw his ability to allow them to see him while he was invisible as a big No-No. Brandon killed the three soldiers with very clinical strikes and then snapped the caster's neck before they could respond. Brandon picked up the caster’s body and moved it to a safe location from which he could recover it later. If he’d been casting a spell that allowed him to Detect Invisibility, maybe he had something that would allow him to learn the spell. Brandon hid the body behind the bushes over by the Treasury Building.

Pausing for about a minute, Brandon looked out from the bushes and looked over to the White House. He was sure that there were thousands of invaders attacking the Capital of his home. This attack would end. It might take him a while to make that happen, but it would end.