The ten mages were quietly joking with each other as Karl entered the arena space.
“A warrior? They think that a Royal Rank warrior can take the ten of us? We might as well have made a pair’s challenge.” One of the boys joked.
“He sure is confident for a little herbivore of a man.” The girl beside him added.
[Make that one a smashing post.] Thor insisted, offended by the insult to his food choices.
“Are we ready?” The Mage team leader asked. Karl had initially thought his name was Witry, but that was also the name of a country north of the Hill Giant Nation, next to the Drake Riders’ island. So, it was most likely addressing him by origin nation, not name.
Karl slung the maul over his shoulder and nodded. The mages began casting their spells as he brought up [Eternal Lightning] [Flaming Body] and [Circle of Protection] all at once, then cast [Blizzard] at Royal Rank, while Remi started a [Thunderstorm].
[Don’t use Totems, they will ask too many questions.] Karl insisted as he launched himself forward.
The closest mages were caught off guard, and the girl who had insulted Thor’s love of plants was sent flying with a sickening crunch as Karl’s shoulder slammed into her chest.
The Lightning shock from his barrier shattered her defensive spells, and her robes didn’t even slow his momentum. The maul, with only a coating of [Flaming Body], shattered the thigh of the boy beside her, and he crumpled to the ground as the caustic rain began to fall and thunder echoed through the arena.
Karl tossed out [Chain Lightning], stunning the mages closest to him, before he moved toward the back of the arena, where the majority of the mages had gathered.
He raised his hand to aim Chain Lightning, an unnecessary little mental trick, but Rae used it as a cue to be dramatic, and began firing bullet – sized stones from near the palm of Karl’s hand, spraying them into the remaining mages, who struggled to keep their barriers up.
A [Fireball] came flying at Karl, and Hawk blocked it with a [Wind Barrier], stopping it half a metre away.
“Shit, it’s not a warrior. He’s a Shaman with a hammer.” One of the mages was cursing.
Karl could see the frustration of his teammates. They all knew that already, but there was nothing they could do about it as Karl deactivated the spells on his maul and cricket swatted one of the mages who had hit the ground to avoid the rocks.
The hammer hit him in the stomach, broke his barrier, and sent him flying across the arena.
Karl put his head down and charged another mage, while Thor cheered in his mind. The mighty smash was the true best attack. Now, if only Karl had proper horns.
“Enough!” The leader of the mage team shouted, right as Karl found himself wrapped in a barrier.
Five stacks of [Flaming Body] surged from the maul as Karl moved the few centimetres he could, but the barrier only shimmered and fluctuated for a second before stabilizing.
Then it was gone, and Niall had a hand on his shoulder.
“That’s good enough, son. They got the message.” The Inquisitor insisted.
Karl ended the Blizzard and Remi ended her Thunderstorm, returning the area to a neutral state, though much more muddy than it had been.
Now the mage Overlord was no longer sneering at Karl, but staring at him with what looked like envy.
Even Johann looked impressed, going by how he was standing, as he had his helmet on now.
There must have been some tension during the fight, as they were all on edge and barrier spells were activated.
“What was that? What sort of barrier spell just shrugs off a half dozen barrages of Arcane Missile at once?” The mage demanded.
Everyone turned to Karl for answers.
“That would be an [Eternal Lightning] barrier with a [Circle of Protection] stacked over it. I didn’t even notice the Arcane Missiles. I saw the Fireball, though.” Karl replied.
The rest of Karl’s team had come out in the commotion, and they were giving him odd looks.
“What do you need beasts for if you can fight like that?” Overlord Kenichi asked.
“Beasts?” The Mage Overlord Demanded.
“He’s a Beast Master. The first report we had of him, he had a bird of some sort, and a Bloodbath Spider fighting on his side. Neither of them were called for this fight, as Johann banned summons. Not that I think a dozen Commander Rank Golems would have changed the situation all that much. A Royal Rank Bloodbath Spider would have annihilated them before they could touch him.”
Niall sighed in frustration as all of the combat power intelligence the Drake Riders had gathered on Karl was shared with another country, but the Golden Dragon Nation and the Drake Riders were not friends. They were just playing by the rules to avoid an Overlord Rank fight.
Something back in the arena area caught the attention of the Witry Mage, and he turned back, with his eyes wide in shock.
Karl couldn’t tell what he was looking at until he traced the man’s attention to the first woman he had shoulder checked. She had an empty potion bottle in her hand, but she was also casting some sort of spell that didn’t have a visible effect. A spell that was at the Royal Rank.
The pair of Drake Riders laughed. “What was it the Oracle said? A great opportunity today for the Commander Rank, right? Well, there you have it. That makes two, no three now, that have advanced to the Royal Rank after understanding the difference between Ranks and breaking the bottleneck.”
Karl had heard that sometimes losing a fight could be a greater learning experience than years of practice without a grave challenge, but he hadn’t expected that they would send Commanders so close to advancing that watching their friends get beat up would be enough to trigger their advancement.
They weren’t the only ones who were using the fight as a learning experience, though. The Magic Knights and Dana were comparing notes on the fight, and how it might have been improved or adapted to their skills.
They also used primarily magic and not physical strength, and while he used mostly magical attacks, Karl had gone for close combat to use the bodies as a shield instead of trying to dodge their attacks while throwing spells from a distance.
The Witry Overlord opened a portal, and silently gestured to his mages, who filed through, mostly limping or nursing injuries, with a few still unconscious and being carried by their teammates.
Nobody was going to die, so it was a win for everyone, in a way. He got to stretch his legs, the mages learned that the Royal Rank bottleneck wasn’t just a small step, and the civilians at the camp didn’t have to deal with a large-scale fight.
Politics were honestly a giant pain in the ass, but with all of the young Drake Riders coming back out now, Karl had some hope that the day’s drama was mostly over. Over for him, anyhow. The Overlords and the politicians behind the scenes would certainly be busy dealing with other nations finding out about their new dungeon instance.
There was a good chance that someone was in real trouble for whatever leak had brought people here only days after it stabilized, and before the locals could make good use of it, but that was also not his problem.