A Wizards Misadventures

~~Level Twenty Two~~

Some of my feelings must have leaked through to Taylor, though. 'I'm testing her defenses.' she mentally said, sounding annoyed.

'Just try to do the slightest bit of damage next time. Please? For me?' She let out a mental sigh and I sighed back at her, only irritating her more. I couldn't help it, she was too fun to annoy. I really did like her. Nobody else was quite so fun to mess with.

The battle slogged on. It was repetitive. The Simurgh kept screaming, the heroes kept pulling back wounded fighters and occasionally got a little volley off, which would be deflected by rubble easily. Every once and awhile somebody would die from a well placed shot but it didn't happen often. I could somewhat tell that the Simurgh wasn't trying. Some rubble would move a little too quickly here, a hero would have a convenient accident there, and nothing ever pierced her more than skin-deep except for Legend's lasers, which healed quickly. It all felt futile, even for me and I wasn't even there.

Thirty minutes into the charade I finally got tired of it all. 'Taylor, take a risk. Do something. I'm just sitting here watching and it's depressing as hell. Make some progress, drive her back, anything. You're supposed to let loose here. Look, I'll help you out and shape your spells a little but I need to focus on the bird soon. Trap her in ice. Just for like one minute. That's it.' She was quiet for a second as she thought that over.

"I'm going to let loose a little. It might be good to give me some space," she said out loud. People near her looked unimpressed until she began leaking affinity, something I quickly fixed to shape. Just letting it loose to make a blizzard? Dust, she was such a newbie. A small but more importantly efficient blizzard appeared around her, not out of place among the menagerie of capes flying through the skies. Then she started throwing icicles at the speed of sound, something I only marginally helped with, sculpting them to be dense to the point that steel would be jealous.

'I'm going to enhance the icicles. They should do actual damage to her now.' I made a little spatial enchantments on the tips of the icicles, making them so that they would pierce through dense pockets of space. They were the stuff I had designed to pierce pocket dimensions. With how the Endbringer's flesh grew progressively more dense until it warped physics (such bullshit) the icicles would be some of the few projectiles to do actual damage.

The booms weren't loud in comparison to the near constant explosions and yelling of the battlefield but it was enough to give her a little radius around her where people kept away. Then an icicle hit the Simurgh. It sunk halfway into her body.

The being's head slowly turned to look at Taylor. People began to notice the icicle lodged in the Endbringer. Her hand wrapped around the icicle and pulled it out of her, not a mark left.

"Shit," Taylor said out loud. The brave fighters around her got the hell away from her as the Simurgh charged, chunks of rubble flying at her opponent.

The battle focused on Taylor and the Simurgh, icicles tearing at the Endbringer's flesh but not doing any real damage. Taylor flew around as fast as she could to avoid her, kiting her with icicles and slowing her down with localised blizzards. Sheets of ice were put between her and the angel, which were shattered over and over by rubble. I did my part to keep dust from clouding the air and to put icicles in-between the Simurgh's orbit of debris.

While we fought Taylor occasionally took small injuries, a pebble at mach 2 here, a spear of rebar there, the occasional building when the Simurgh was feeling generous with her telekinesis, and the natural expenditures of mana as she used more magic than she was able to use before. I filled up her mana and aura as needed and did a little life magic here and there to keep her fit and alert. Combat was tiring. Who knew?