Overpowered Wizard

Before Zarian exited the void to reach his destination, he noticed something was weird on the other side. The journey was already a long one, having required multiple stops in and out of the void up to this point, but he hadn’t felt something this troubling before.

Zarian’s excitement turned into sharpened wariness. Free evil +4 merged with his paranoia. He exited the void and dropped into a baseball slide, landing on his back as the sharp crimson grass of the Blood Prairies folded under him.

A split second later, a crimson energy bolt that was the size of a grain silo flew over him. The bolt struck the ground a hundred feet behind him with immense explosive force.

Zarian rolled with the shockwave. Smoky clods of dirt and grass covered in crimson flames rained down from everywhere. He located Naomi’s exact position and was about to use the Void Waltz spell again, but a heavy field of warp energy slammed down on him and disrupted his spell.

Zarian switched focuses, hand signing and chanting quickly. His battle kilt slipped into his body. Threads of the Parasite Cloak +2 pushed out of his flesh from all over. As Zarian worked his sealing style technique, Para covered his body quickly, fusing with his skin, the wizard hat, the shadow leggings, and his dark boots.

He became an armored juggernaut as more giant crimson projectiles rained down on him. It was a bombardment of an epic degree, a great effort of annihilation that blasted him down. The assault kept him pinned and rattled while he couldn’t escape through the void.

Then everything changed when Zarian ended his cultivation and finished locking up Overwhelming Darkness despite the duress.

From there, Zarian and Para unleashed the full might of Aura Mastery.

Zarian reinforced his parasite armor with enhanced darkness. Then he applied his Void Authority and Void Layer spells to enhance his dark parasite armor even more. Now the crimson bombardment had less of an effect, destroying the nearby area around him while Zarian stood to his feet and shrugged off the wrathful attacks.

Zarian had more nuanced control of the functionality and power output of his spells because of Aura Mastery. He could use the exact amount of aura that was necessary and empower his spells more efficiently.

Additionally, he had an easier time keeping the spells going with Aura Mastery. His broadened sense of magic lessened the burden on his mind while using spells, even while in the middle of heated action.

Thus, his High Rune Mindframe skill and Unraveled Mind trait had an easier time observing what was happening during the chaos. The two mental abilities gave him more battlefield awareness while enhancing his creative thinking.

This was further augmented by the heightened intelligence of free evil +4. He could quickly predict Naomi’s actions before she took them. She would want to run out of cover and help him like any fellow Marine would.

He sent her a strong impression through the spider network for her to stay put.

He hadn’t meant to miss the mark and land further ahead of her, but mastery over the void was more of an art than an exact science. Nonetheless, he would soon come to her after Para finished with her part.

Para was turning her ravenous hunger against the warp field itself by using her version of Aura Mastery. Tendrils of dark and hungry aura snapped out and carved into the warp field, eating at the strange and eerie magic in the air.

She also formed a ferocious fanged mouth on the chest pieces of the parasite armor before casting the Void Shout spell. Para emitted an ear-piercing scream that hindered enemy magic.

The warp field weakened, letting Zarian cast the Void Waltz spell at last. They moved through the void and ended up in a freshly made trench where Naomi sat with her legs crossed.

“Only you?” Zarian asked, his voice deepened behind the armor and darkness.

He lightened up once he stopped channeling his spells. The parasite armor peeled away from around his face.

“Ezda’s still alive, is she?” he asked, with a hint of concern.

“Am I not enough?” Naomi asked teasingly. Before he could respond, she continued. “Ezda’s alive. She’s escorting the others out of the lair since things became a little too hot for them. You should’ve seen the waves of minions we killed just for us to be here.”

She smiled at him. That smile, along with the rest of her appearance, spoke a thousand worlds.

Zarian could see that she was happy. Her happiness was deep and cemented. Nothing could shake that right now.

Yeah, there was a powerful antagonist bombarding the area where their trench hid behind some fortress hillocks. They blasted up such a mess that they had a constant pitter patter of raining debris falling on their heads. But Zarian could tell Naomi wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here.

She had hundreds of little scars that covered her dark skin, which was mostly bare except for a savage leather top and loin cloth that covered the essentials. But no matter where those scars appeared on her dynamic body, Zarian found them fitting on her, like part of an illustration that made the depths of Naomi’s person all the greater. Р

Beyond that, there was an immensity of power that was raw and physical being held in check. There was also a consistent flow of force that was directed inward, locking her down like she was wearing a psychokinetic straight jacket.

It took Zarian a few seconds and some help from free evil +4 to realize Naomi’s psychic coating wasn’t for her protection. She had turned her psychic power against herself to strap herself down, like wearing a weighted straightjacket placed all over her body.

“How long have you been doing that?” Zarian asked.

“Since the day I left with Ezda and Reiki’s core. On that day, when you called me out like that, I went a little insane,” Naomi said, still smiling.

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Zarian noticed tiny scars across her full lips that seemed to look very good on her. They wouldn’t stay there for long once Gilbert applied his Healing Force +2, but for now, they remained.

“You only went a little crazy?” Zarian looked up as a boulder covered in crimson flames and smoke fell toward him after getting blasted up and down from the bombardment. He raised his hand and caught it before throwing it far out of the trench.

Naomi chuckled softly. “Maybe more than a little. I changed up a few things. I made my training even harder. I even got killed one time.”

Zarian nodded, acting unfazed even though he was quite affected to hear that. It was easy to assume the first copy of the Divine Revival Charm had served Naomi well. He still didn’t like hearing how she’d gotten herself killed while far away from him and their friends.

He asked the only question that mattered. “Was it worth it?”

“Want to hear about how much I’ve grown?” Naomi asked.

Zarian shook his head as more flaming debris bounced off him and Naomi. “No, not yet. As long as it’s nothing radical that’ll change our tactics, I’ll notice it as we fight together.”

“Mm, there’s nothing too radical. I’m just way better at what I do. And I can tell that you’re different, too.” Naomi glanced left and right shiftily. “It’s in the surrounding air. The way it – the aura – is responding. I can’t sense it or feel it as well because of how low my Wonder and Mysticism is compared to everyone else at our level. But I know there’s something different.”

She’s probably using her psionic abilities and the spider network to sense Aura Mastery at work, Zarian thought. If she can’t sense it directly, she can sense it through me even by accident.

“Your mind is more structured, too,” Naomi added. “It’s interesting. It’s still a whirlwind of chaos, but way more focused. You’ve really grown a lot, huh?”

“You’ll see the changes,” Zarian said. “There are a couple radical things. But I’m mostly better at what I do, too.”

“Mm. Well, while I have you here, I might as well burst your bubble.”

“Can I brace myself?”

“Nah, I want to give it to you raw. Ekri the Tailor has been here and there and everywhere while I’ve been out and about in the Blood Prairies. I figure I might as well tell you now instead of later.”

Zarian felt angry.

He didn’t let his anger override his senses. But the emotion caught him off guard and required some internal studying. He felt various parts of his mind and sharpened intellect hold a heated argument with each other.

His Unraveled Mind trait wanted to feed into his anger. His High Rune Mindframe wanted to remain structured and objective. His free evil +4 wanted to know what Ekri the Tailor wanted.

Why pester Naomi? Was this because Zarian had rudely turned his back on the infamous drider and kept Ekri out of Ride-or-Die Village?

Para was no help here. She allowed her host to feel, think, and decide.

Consequently, he realized the best approach was to go kill the Lesser World Boss and continue with his plans. He would deal with Ekri the Tailor eventually.

“Let’s go,” Zarian grunted.

“Yes, sir,” Naomi said with a giggle.

“You wanted to piss me off, didn’t you?” Zarian asked as they walked out of the trench.

“I like it when you’re angry.” She sauntered barefoot through patches of razor-sharp blood grass with most of her body exposed. “You’re going to go harder this way. I want to go hard with you.”

Before Zarian could reply, he noticed a significant shift from Naomi’s body. First, she removed the psychokinetic straightjacket off her body, freeing herself from under immense pressure and force.

Second, her entire body relaxed and moved with a fluidity and grace that was far from apparent moments prior. Zarian’s Unraveled Mind and free evil +4 figured out the puzzle quickly before they walked out from behind their mostly destroyed cover.

She’s been tensing her body while using her psychic abilities to weigh herself down. If it’s true that she went a little insane after leaving the village, then she’s been doing this for several weeks, even when it got her killed.

Zarian’s anger simmered down as he felt amazement. He had thought himself as crazy as any iconic Florida Man. He was now seeing how far Naomi would push to be an iconic Florida Woman.

There was only one problem that Zarian found a little too distracting.

It shouldn’t matter when engaging in a dangerous battle, especially when the once formidable hillocks of blackened fortresses were nearly all obliterated. Only some last few remnants remained as their cover, but he still acted on his whims while they still had some time.

Using Aura Mastery, he gathered a wall of hardened air in front of Naomi. Then he used the wall to pull Naomi back behind cover and toward him.

Naomi didn’t resist him. She looked around at the aura construct and let out a curious hum. She twirled around with a graceful flourish and looked at him with even more interest glinting in her brown eyes.

Zarian summoned some new spiders. The last ones had died from the bombardment, unfortunately.

The new ones turned around quickly and followed their summoner’s whim, spraying patterns of arcane webbing on Naomi’s chest, hips, and groin area.

They layered an intricate two-piece outfit on top of the ragged stuff she wore already. They also wrote out runes with their arcane webbing to reinforce and toughen up the new outfit.

“Well, that’s mighty nice of you to spray all of that on me,” Naomi said. “Did Bianca give you the idea for this?”

“We did have a conversation about fashion and wizardry,” Zarian said. “I figured you shouldn’t have to worry about a wardrobe malfunction. And if this fails later on, I’ll spray more on you as we go.”

“Mm, well, I wasn’t really worried too much about that. But I see where your mind’s at. I can dig it.”

Naomi bounced around, squatted up and down quickly, and flexed her body to get a feel for Zarian’s web clothing. She seemed satisfied by the work of his spiders before she turned back toward incoming trouble. Their cover was practically gone by this point.

“Do I need to explain anything?” she asked.

“No, I’ve been running some in-depth observations the whole time. I got the gist of what’s going on.”

When Zarian used the full capacity of his mental abilities, he could achieve a lot in little time. Using his Aura Mastery as a far-reaching bar, he’d kept up a three-sixty scanner that passed over a few miles of land and fed to him the most pivotal information.

He already knew a lot about the lair they were in after a portion of his mind concentrated on the expanded details.

<You’ve entered the Chimera Tyrant Lair (Legendary-Level 90).>

<There is no mini map for this lair. Concentrate for expanded details.>

<Chimera Tyrant Lair, Expanded Details (Legendary-Level 90): Toward the end of the Reset Era, the Sorceress Queen doomed the orcs and left none to survive her wrath, except for one. This one orc only survived because of his seclusion and dark magic research in the heart of the Blood Prairies, a place of wild magic and natural arcane phenomena that affect the weather and the creatures, beasts and monsters alike.>

<Many years later, the sole surviving orc has become nothing more than a shadow of his former self. But what a mighty and horrifically monstrous shadow that he has become. He resisted the natural evolution from Lair Boss to Dungeon Boss and remained mostly self-reliant as a tyrant of dark mystical means for the past 5000 years. It was about 1400 years ago when the former orc underwent a different evolution because of its persistent but profane advancements of dark, twisted, and bloody magic in the Blood Prairies.>

<This is the lair of a Lesser World Boss. Expect greater than normal challenges, many of which will be epic or legendary. You’ll face various monsters such as Chimera Ghouls, Godless Watchers, Warp Fey, Giant Serpents, Blood Simulacrums, Flesh Golems, a Deathless Warden, and the Lesser World Boss himself.>