A powerful spell in the Ratkin sorcerer’s arsenal is Infernal Explosion. By squeezing all their available mana into a rapidly shrinking core, they are able to dangerously destabilise the mana. The longer they charge up the spell, the brighter and more dreadful the explosion will be. A fully charged explosion can wipe out tens, if not hundreds, in a clustered army.

Suko Ryo - Interspecial Expert - Humanity and the Other Races

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His spear grooved the ratmonster’s side, spilling blood. It struck downward at his head, but he sidestepped and its claws swished past his hair. Although it was surprisingly agile for its size, he was no longer inexperienced against swift enemies and so decisively sprung back before it could follow through. Still, it didn’t let up as it chased with a flurry of blows, forcing him into the backseat. He managed several light attacks, but they did little more than nick its skin.

Despite this, as its pallid blood streamed down its chalky hide, clumping up its sparse tufts of hair, the ratmonster began to breathe heavily, its nostrils flaring. Instead of continuing its assault, it wisely withdrew and muttered something, causing its wounds to close up. Nonetheless, it wore a bewildered expression, and Silas guessed what was on its mind.

Each of his attacks had triggered Harrying Blows which caused the abomination to slow and tire. It had likely thought that by healing the wounds it could reverse this effect, but that had clearly not been the case. Still, he knew he couldn’t give it any longer to regain its bearings and work out a solution.

At first, the ratmonster tried to dodge his thrusts, but with Weakness Vision activated, nearly all of his attacks landed. Then, it went into a frenzy and forced him away, snarling like a rabid dog. Ultimately, he was a bad match-up for it as its strengths lay in spell-casting and speed, the first of which he refused to let it do, the second of which he had torn apart with his abilities.

Suddenly, the monster flinched forward with staggering speed and he leapt back, expecting a sneak attack. Instead, it used the opening to turn tail and flee. It had fooled him well. Flushing angrily, he positioned one foot in front and pulled his arm back, allowing his muscles to bunch, then spring as he hurled the spear forwards.

The weapon impaled the beast with a squelch and the ratmonster gasped loudly, wobbling on its feet, falling to its knees. Before it could cast another spell, Silas bolted toward it and recovered his spear. Performing a practised motion, he thrust it once, twice into its neck. It choked and thrashed, and he moved on, heading towards the other sorcerers.

Ish seemed fine as he danced around his foe’s attacks, slowly but surely whittling down its mana barrier, so Silas went to help the mages instead. Although they were four on one, it was clear the ratman held the advantage as its arcane barrier held strong while the mages desperately flitted about avoiding its ghastly green fireballs. Besides that, this ratman’s aura was the strongest of the sorcerers by quite a margin, so Silas figured this was the leader of the troop.

Just as he was a few strides away, one of the fireballs shattered Gerald’s ice shield and ruptured his head. Simultaneously, another fireball drew towards Krisa’s chest. Although she quickly cast something to shrink it, the force still threw her off her feet. She lay there groaning, her clothing singed, her blue skin scorched. Seeing that the sorcerer was distracted, Natalie shot icicles which crashed into the ratman’s golden barrier, causing it to shake and crack. Alice joined in on this barrage with her own red fireballs.

Although it wanted to stop them, the sorcerer clearly knew who was more dangerous as it turned to face the nearing Duellist. It extended its barrier to block Silas, but he decisively stabbed the spot lit up by his Weakness Vision. The blow shattered the barrier into pieces, allowing one of Natalie’s icicles to lance through the sorcerer’s shoulder.

Realising it had lost all chance of victory, the ratman suddenly flung out its arms and arched its back, facing the sky. A dangerous amount of mana rapidly drew into its chest, shredding its body in the process.

Seeing this, Silas immediately realised it was preparing something truly terrible: he had to stop it before it finished. He dashed forward for the killing blow when suddenly it burst into an explosion of fire and seared flesh. The force tossed him into a nearby wall, green tongues of fire dancing across his face and arms. He shrieked at the smarting pain, choking on the stench of burnt flesh even as he was cooked alive. Natalie rushed to him and cast ice over the infernal fire, putting it out while lightly covering his skin with frost. He lay there with his chest heaving up and down like a jackhammer, the cold numbing his mind and body. He could scarcely feel his scorched hands, let alone hold his spear anymore.

Unbeknownst to him, Alice edged closer with narrowed eyes alight with passion. Flames burst out from her hand, and she almost raised it to shoot him when someone suddenly seized her arm and jerked it down. Fury ignited inside her as she turned to look at who it was, prepared to blow them to bits as well.

However, her fury fizzled out just as quickly when she saw Ish beside her, his expression unreadable behind his dark mask. Although she lacked Silas’s perception, she could still knew there was something extremely odd and dangerous about the ryfin. Panicking, she yanked her arm out his grip, snorted, then walked off, praying that he wouldn’t follow.

Ish simply smirked at her display and crossed the street to pick up Krisa by her waist. Her legs trailed on the ground as he hauled her over to Natalie, whose aloof expression had been replaced with worry and fear. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill either of you,” Ish said, amused. He dumped Krisa at her feet. “Now ice up this fool’s wounds as well. Wouldn’t want her dying on me.”

Krisa moaned indecipherably, her face pinched in pain. Natalie gazed at her, then at Ish, before following his command, her hands shaking.

Ignoring her, Ish watched Alice’s shrinking profile in the distance. This was the second time he had saved Silas from the exact same situation; it was a curious case how so many of these humans wanted to use and abuse the Duellist. Then again, the Order was no different as Silas was their ideal leader over Riverside: he was unambitious and easy to control. Of course, if it came to a fight, Ish knew he would struggle against the Duellist, but that was unlikely to ever happen given how easily he could be pacified. All in all, he was the perfect puppet for them, and as such it was in their interests to keep him alive.

Once Natalie finished cooling Krisa’s burns, Ish picked her up and beckoned the Cryomancer to follow with Silas. He took them to a safehouse and kept guard for the rest of the battle. They had done their job by taking out the sorcerers, so now it was up to the others to do the rest.

****

The war was a bloody affair, and while the humans fought valiantly, the ratkin fought back just as fiercely. Although they had fallen into a trap, surrounded by advancing enemies on all sides, arrows barraging down on them, the ratkin were just the same a trained force who reacted to the situation by swiftly rotating into defensive positions.

While the humans had their powerhouses in the thick of the battle, the ratkin held on without retreating as they waited for their sorcerers to come and wipe up the battlefield. By the time they realised that would never come to pass, it was already too late as the Order’s army streamed through the streets, cleaning up the battered ratkin with ease. The giant seven-foot ogres crushed them, the nymphs and satyrs barraged them with arrows, darts, and potent magic, and the ryfin slipped between their lines and assassinated their officers. It was hardly a battle at that point but rather a massacre.

It was as such, two hours after the fighting had begun, that the war came to a close.

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There are significantly more human female casters than male casters, however, such a pattern is not present in the other races. For example, the Drakkar have evenly distributed magic users, and the Ratkin have a greater number of male casters than female. While there are many theories on why there is an arcane distribution disparity between the races, none of them holds significant strength as of writing this book. However, there is one theory more widely subscribed to than the others that I feel compelled to include.

This theory states that those who commonly experience intense emotions, particularly to do with helplessness, develop arcane talents quicker than others. It makes examples of the biological differences between our sexes and explains how these differences in our physicalities must have been highlighted during the Apocalypse, leading to a greater number of females feeling helpless than males.

However, one look at the other races is enough to show the cracks in this theory. For example, the aforementioned Ratkin have males stronger than females, similar to us, and yet they also have more male sorcerers than female.

Aside from this, many of the casters that I have personally interviewed have expressed that their first steps into the arcane weren’t, in fact, by their own accord due to internal emotions but rather simply because the System offered them an arcane class.

Suko Ryo - Interspeciel Expert - Humanity and the Other Races