From the moment Hugo announced his intentions out loud, all of them knew that there was no turning back. Not that it bothered Miri for even a little bit; she was itching for a fight anyway.
“You really think you can take us down? Good luck with that,” Miri said with a confident scoff as she twirled her staff in front of her with a graceful flourish. “Just as a reminder, out of the two of us, only Anne and I were able to get away from the chimeragon relatively unscathed. Not to mention you’re outnumbered 3-to-1 and your body is still as weak as a limp noodle. Your chances of winning this fight aren't looking so good there, bud.”
“Sure, that may be so,” Hugo said with a chuckle. “But you have forgotten one advantage that I have over you: I’m the one holding all of the precious runes from this keep. And thanks to the notes my ancestor Archmage Victorstein had provided me, I know how to use them as well.” After taking several runes out of the bag, Hugo equipped them by placing them on his chest, causing each one to briefly glow a different color before vanishing into thin air as they bonded with his soul.
Since Miri now recognized Hugo as her enemy, she was able to see his stats and affinities displayed clearly in her vision.
Hugo Victorstein
Level: 5
HP: 57/57
Fire: 5
Air: 3
Water: 10
Earth: 12
Spirit: 15
He’s level 5, just like me. Compared to the chimeragon, this should be a piece of cake, Miri thought as she scanned those stats. Hmm, a heavy emphasis on Water, Earth, and Spirit affinities. Most likely a summoner archetype, using healing and defense to stay in the backlines while he lets his summons do all the work for him.
“Be careful about my father,” Isaiah warned. “Based on what I’ve read from the notes, those runes he’s using are quite powerful—with a main focus on healing, magical enhancement, and rearrangement of the biological anatomy.”
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“Right, got it,” Miri replied with a nod.
Hugo began his assault. With one of his palms extended outward, he cast Sundering Stalagmite—casuing a trail of sharp, rocky shards to protrude out of the ground from a glowing orange magical fissure, one that traveled towards Miri at a fairly decent speed. Miri and the others managed to dodge-roll away, evading the incoming trail of rocky spikes as it collided with the side of the room, sending small bits of rock flying everywhere.
“Anne! Take the kid and move father back!” Miri ordered with a shout.
“But—” Anne argued.
“Just do it! I don’t want you getting hurt again! I can handle this!” Miri reassured.
Seeing the determination in the mage’s eyes, Anne nodded with affirmation before taking Isaiah and moving further back, where Hugo’s spells would be less likely to injure them. Following up with that previous spell, Hugo casted Summon Wolf, summoning a pair of purple ethereal wolves to charge at Miri—their sharp, feral fangs wide open and ready to strike.
However, Miri was able to react quickly by casting a Crescent Arc at them, sending the two wolves flying backward with a wave of teal energy. Then, with a cast of two Flame Orbs—as they were slightly more effective against the summoned beasts than Starlight Bolt—she was able to quickly destroy them, rendering them into a mist of lavender particles.
As a quick follow-up, Miri fired several Starlight Bolts at Hugo—ones that he reactively blocked with a cast of Fortified Shield. This defensive spell was a variant of Anne’s Protective Ward—one in the shape of an orange hexagon instead of a blue circle and offered slightly better protection against physical attacks in exchange of slightly worse protection against elemental attacks.
When Miri felt that her Starlight Bolts weren’t getting past Hugo’s defenses, she then switched to casting Meteor Impact—summoning a descending meteor on top of him. Hugo was able to spot the meteor on time and quickly moved his shield above him to try to block it. His shield took the full brunt of the force, shattering on impact and leaving him staggered and injured while surrounding him with a cloud of gray smoke.
Normally, Miri would have expected an attack like that to be enough to finish him off. However, once the smoke had settled, she was shocked to see Hugo’s injuries healing at an extremely rapid rate. At the rate his injuries closed up, the healing he’d received must have been way more than Anne’s Vital Healing, which was already very good in terms of magical healing. Within just a few seconds, the wounds he’d received from the meteor had practically disappeared from his body, almost as if they were never there to begin with.
Hugo chuckled as he examined his own body. Even he himself was amazed at how quickly he healed. “Ooh, looks like Archmage Victorstein’s runes did its job. Such powerful runes, they are. No wonder so many people want a piece of them.”
Miri gritted her teeth in frustration. She’d never expected having her enemy be in possession of such runes to have that much of an effect. This was going to be a much tougher battle than she’d initially thought.
