The label of 'System Attacker' tied him to the node of the network, the priest, so he could almost triangulate his location. It also worked the other way.

  "So if you can touch the priest you can send a message?" Taramo asked.

  "Maybe. I frightened him with a direct attack before so he should defend himself more than his connection to the system. If he valued it then he wouldn't have done most of his actions."

  The general location of the priest rose high into the air and the light of mana flowed over the city like that of daylight. Taramo had used some of his available mana to make better protection wards but he remained with half his mana for a direct attack. The wards burned on the cobblestones should also help once the ambush was made.

  The mana breathed in like a falling tide then a beam of fire swung and hit the buildings beside them. Heat exploded the stone bricks themselves and anything wood turned to ash before it could lose it's form, crumbling as the buildings collapsed. Taramo's basic shields could ward away the heated gravel but he still trotted away down the road. It was likely the other buildings would be attacked as well.

  Breathe in. Blast.

  The second hit came from a closer location. Only two blocks away. The bottom floor of the buildings wasn't blasted away though they still fell onto themselves.

  Both sides of the street were in ruins as a robed form hovered over the street, inspecting the damage.

  "Now how do I know if you're dead." The priest muttered to himself. The wards on the cobbles were partially damaged but should still work. He just needed to get closer ... NOW.

  A pillar of fire blasted up into the priest, doing some mild damage to his shields and little more than that. The priest turned his attention briefly to the trap and ripped the weave of magic apart at the root. It needed little attention to the details but Taramo's tricks had apparently been forgotten in the thousands of years.

  Little wasps of mana were intertwined in the warding and as it was uprooted they became enraged. They threw themselves at the priest, burning their bodies on his shields to make a dozen concentrated holes in the shield. The priest was able to easily swat away any of the wasps one at a time, but they came by dozens.

  Taramo approached as quietly as he could while the priest swore and eventually set off a burning fireball centered around himself. His beard smoldered afterwards but his clothing was unaffected.

  Vines curled around Taramo's arm as he readied to throw the pot. But first he hovered the six claws that he'd collected and sent them all at the shield. They hit the shield as soon as the priest noticed Taramo and forced him to deal with them since any one of them could have some curse or blood magic to subvert him.

  Four of them were burned away with an irresponsibly high amount of mana and two actually hit the shield and were stuck in there.

  Taramo threw the plant that he carried and activated the droplets of blood in the claws. They exploded and sent a greater number of much smaller fragments into the shield from the inside. A few pieces got stuck into the Priest but they were incidental. Not that he knew that.

  As the skin around each of the slivers of iron was charred wholly and dug out to be replaced by smooth unblemished skin Ariwyn concentrated the vines in the air, pointing them at one fracture and forcing a break that she fit through. Half the vines were severed from the root, sent like eels swimming through the air to circle around the target.

  The priest noticed Taramo and the flying pot. The pot and the center of the vines exploded and those vines still connected to the pot burned in an instant. Although the connection to the network that Ariwyn had was severed the vines still had the memory of their orders that they carried out. They coiled around the flesh of the priest that now glowed white hot with a spell that only didn't burn his flesh due to the high level of regeneration his body was undergoing. Attempted envenoming's were unsuccessful but three less conspicuous vines hadn't gone through the shield, remaining on Taramo's arm as he forced his legs with mana to leap with greater efficiency of a grasshopper. A large filament of mana connected the priest to the network of other priests and the archmage-god Adras.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Most of the time it would be very difficult to connect to it in any meaningful way since it required the mana of one of someone approved to send or receive any piece of correspondence. Even trying would label you with 'System Attacker' trait so few people would bother trying. Two of the three vines wrapped themselves around the priest's connection to the system and burrowed their way in while Taramo let himself fall towards the burning priest.

  The shield spun apart as Taramo peeled it like someone would crack a peanut in their hand. His hand with the vine wrapped around it lost its senses as frost built up on it, though the hand was opened in a C shape that let him grasp onto the priest's forearm. A burst of steam made both of them unable to see as the final vine, able to burrow into the arm of the priest, took a mere drop of the mana that he had filling him up.

  Taramo's frostbitten hand, his left, broke off as he fell past the priest and was caught by Spot. The three vines together managed to trick the system and slipped a message through.

  ---

  Adras was inquiring of the dozen priests that kept to the northern border and reviewing their reports of potential dangers when the second emergency report from Tarnox was received. He immediately ignored the reports as they went on to open the message. Included was the information from one of the system attackers.

  They had the system attacker curse though since they were dead it was unaffected. If he dealt with the issue why would he send an emergency message? He looked back into the previous events recorded.

  Another curse was on the person. Something that included mana drain. Enough to drain Adras himself if he'd been disconnected from the system.

  Attached to him near the time that he'd been initiated into the system.

  Almost at the exact same time.

  Slightly before. He was cursed even before he'd been added into the system. Technically permitted but it would need to be reported to him. Exceptions to the rules were a touchy subject and Adras, as a god who preferred the law, would need a very good reason to not follow his own rules.

  There was also something written in text. The style was truly ancient, something that only the oldest wizards, and his priests, were trained in. Millenia of time changed language a great deal.

  *"I have returned. I am willing to ignore past ... slights but I cannot ignore the current attack on my person by your representative. He applied a curse to me without any aggression from myself which I have heard was an illegal action. If you don't deal with this then my quarrel would be with you directly. I leave the choice to you.

  -Taramo"*

  Alive!? A dead man returned, but he'd suggested that there was some means for him to come back from the dead. But if it was active why wouldn't he have taken vengeance earlier?

  The presence of the priests still connected while he reviewed the report loomed over his mind. They could see what he was reviewing as well as he could. He closed the report and shuffled it away, but his priests had obviously peeked into it.

  His hands were tied, especially because of his use of the 'dead' man. If he ignored the *fallen hand of justice* with such behavior then his priests would push the boundaries. He would have rebellion if he tried to enforce law while letting it be broken elsewhere.

  He maintained the connection with the border priests as he began to retract the rebellious priest. It would be a good excuse to show them what would happen if they turned their power to personal use.

  ---

  Taramo, standing beneath the hovering priest, noticed an immediate freeze after he'd failed to retract the message or destroy it. As if not moving would hide him from the evident presence of his deity. Then he looked down at Taramo, a brief shadow of fear passing over his face before rage encompassed it.

  "You were toying with me. Undermining me this whole time." The old man with a burnt beard had the facial expression more suitable for a child who just learned that while he was following all the rules of the game, you broke them and won. The priest raised his fist and brought it down in an attempt to crush Taramo.

  The shield that Taramo threw together barely stopped him but the second shield he made was unnecessary. The priest froze again, but this time involuntarily. Muscles tensed against the invisible shackles keeping him from moving. Then the priest's lips moved and spoke with another voice.

  "This one does not embody my actions. He will be withdrawn. I hope no quarrel is between us." Then the body was flung into the air and pulled north as if a galactic fisherman had hooked onto him and started reeling in.

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