What followed was a terribly cruel fight. As soon as the few dozen soldiers came streaming towards us, a barrage of magic spells began to descend from behind them. A row of mages casted all sorts of low level magic spells and instantly burned massive quantities of mana. Balls of lightning exploded, tornados arose from thin air and fire roared all around us. I had to use all the skill I had just to avoid being struck by the dozens of magic abilities that headed towards me, rolling around and creating shields of mana while retreating towards Maira, Riina, Enri and Ignatius.

Of course, my divine eyes were also triggered, and dozens of lines of text appeared in my vision, making it even more difficult to evade the shit ton of magic that was basically just thrown onto us.

Low level magic Incarnation detected

Due to low level the magic can be copied completely

…

Low level magic…

…

Due to low level the magic can…

Within only a few seconds I had somehow acquired at least a dozen different low-level spells. Normally I would have been extremely happy but the fact that all of these might lead to my premature dead kind of numbed the feeling of happiness I could express.

Scrambling over the ground I managed to reach the others and immediately began to chant the only mid-tier incantation that I knew. A storm of fire began to burn around us, obscuring the vision of the magicians while keeping the hordes of normal soldiers at distance. After all these ordinary trained soldiers were barely level 20 and individually none of them would be any threat to us.

The problem was that there were over 50 of them and that they had been trained in a way that allowed them to perfectly use their numerical advantage against more powerful enemies. Even worse they had at least a dozen mages supporting them with the firepower of modern artillery!

Magic spells continued to rain down, but now that the enemy mages’ vision was obscured, they had become far less of a threat allowing us a brief moment of rest and to reorganize ourselves.

“Ignatius, you protect Maira. Riina, Enri, FOLLOW ME!”, there was no time to make up elaborate plans, so I went for the most feasible option. We had to engage them in close combat to avoid the AOE of the mages!

Right now, we had to face both the ongoing hail of magic attacks while running from the wall of advancing soldiers and he couple of knights. If we engaged into close combat and fought within their own ranks at least the mages would become useless. Sure, we would have to fight in an encirclement, but hey, you can’t have everything, right?

It was a desperate plan, but it was better than the other option. As such Riina and Enri immediately agreed, following me as we dashed out of the firestorm surprising the enemy in crashing right into their tightly packed ranks.

There was a brief resistance, but then I managed to get my fingers into the eyesockets of one soldier, killing him and creating a gap that allowed me to further infiltrate the formation. Panicked shouts rang out as three killing machines began to kill everything that came into their way. Three more soldiers were quickly felled as my hands were tainted in crimson color. Then, the ranks closed again, and the military men showed their rigorous training.

From one moment to the other I found myself stuck in a prison of steel plating and swords that descended upon me from all sides. The space I had was minimal and I could only rely on fast movements and mana shields to protect myself from the all-encompassing strikes that were heading towards me.

Some time during the whole on slaughter I managed to get ahold of the sword of one of the soldiers that I killed which dramatically improved my situation as I could now actually block and parry the strikes.

Occasionally a wave of mana and a good old spell took down one of the soldiers, but that didn’t change the fact that I was slowly being exhausted to death by the overwhelming numbers.

Then I heard the sweet sound of salvation. A ring that announced my level up after killing the sixth or seventh soldier. My body suddenly felt invigorated and my mana reserves were rapidly refilled. Using this sudden burst of power, I gathered my mana and forcefully pushed myself through the ranks of men while building up momentum.

Once again, the mid-tier spell appeared on my lips as I ran out of the formation and towards the row of mages that were positioned behind them. These poor guys didn’t know how to react when suddenly a bloodied maniac came for them. After all, even though they were trained to defend against assailants, they hadn’t expected me to suddenly and almost effortlessly break through the ranks of the soldiers before them.

I finished the spell and once again the whirling storm of fire began churning around me as I crushed into the nearest mage. Cries rang out as the physically weak mages began to burn, their clothes and oversized heads turning them into human torches. Of course, many of them reacted in time, creating shields that protected them from the flames, but at least three or four mages just died from the initial impact of the flames.

Then I was greeted by a hail of magic spells that came from all sides and would easily suffice to kill even a full-blown dragon. How the heck did they even keep up that mana expenditure? They have literally been throwing their mana on us ever since they arrived!!!

Faced with the overwhelming firepower I quickly retreated back into the ranks of the soldiers, causing some of these spells to hit their own allies and taking down some unfortunate soldiers who fell victim to their own mages.

Despite this small success I couldn’t feel happy about it. The level up had bought me some time and saved me from being killed within the next few minutes but leveling up again would be nearly impossible and I was still encircled by a whole squad of soldiers. My mana was burning up at an insane rate and my movements became more and more sluggish as my body couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced exchanges.

In short, I was being slowly grinded to death. Even worse I felt entirely powerless as the soldiers had adapted to my style of fighting and prohibited me from trying any more tricks. It felt like I as charging against a wall of steel, incapable of even leaving a dent in its unrelenting surface.

Desperation welled up inside me as bitterness glinted in my eyes. After all of this I was still to weak to protect myself. Enri and Riina who were only a few meters away from me were also slowly overwhelmed while Ignatius engaged into combat with the three knights who were trying to get to Maira.

We were going to die.

And I was still powerless.

Slowly I felt myself being overwhelmed with the same madness that I had been suppressing ever since Ilea’s death. My eyes turned red and an insane smile spread on my bloodied face. Finally, a crazy laughter rang out. I had nothing to lose, might as well just give in to the bloodlust!

“DIE!”, within moments my entire disposition changed, and I lost any reason. This immediately mirrored in my attacks. All of the sudden my previously careful and planned attacks turned into furious strikes that used brute force to strike right through the metal plating of the soldiers’ armor.

A boom resounded as my berserk body crashed into rows of soldiers, pushing them back and making me spit out a mouthful of blood. Mana began to explode all around me as my remaining reserves were channeled into an armor of white flames that even burned my own body.

Cries resounded as I turned into a maddened beast and pounced towards the closest soldier, punching right against his metal helmet and denting it in. His skull was crushed my the metal of his own helmet and he collapsed onto the ground. My hand was broken and waves of pain radiated through my arm, but I did not care sprinting towards the next enemy and stabbing the fingers of my left hand into the weak spot of the armor protecting his neck.

They also broke with a horrible sound and the madness on my wretched expression intensified.

“DIEEEEEE!!!”, my desperate voice howled through the gym. I had officially completely lost it, killing three more soldiers before pouncing towards the horrified mages. For the moment I completely overwhelmed them, killing at least five more mages before retreating, but even in my muddled state I knew that I was as good as dead.

What I did right now was nothing than the last, desperate struggle of a wounded beast. The last burst of power before it’s death.

My arms were broken, my legs shattered, and I had internal injuries that rapidly worsened my condition. Thirty to forty seconds and I would be dead. At least my intense but useless struggle diverted attention from Enri and Riina who had managed to struggle out of the formation and retreated back to Maira and Ignatius.

After my death they would be able to survive last for a at least a few more moments.

A sword descended towards my neck and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to evade this final strike. Feeling my death come I breathed out in relieve and my tensed muscles relaxed. At least I wouldn’t have to struggle any longer.

“CHRIS!”, I heard Maira’s panicked voice. She saw that I was about to die and was desperately trying to cast a magic spell to safe me. The spell failed and she suffered from the rebound, blood running down her nose.

My expression turned hard and I sighed.

“Guess I can’t simply give up.”, my voice was hoarse and weak, but it was filled with determination.

I used my last scrap of power and grabbed the blade of the sword of a random soldier, stabbing it right into the other soldier’s neck. Blood escaped his lips and I saw the life escape from his brown eyes. But even this had only postponed my death by a mere moment. Another soldier already came towards me followed by even more of his comrades.

This time I truly had no more power remaining within me and simply watched as three swords descended towards me.

But… I didn’t die.

Just as the swords came towards me… the roof exploded. To be more precise the entire guild building more or less disappeared from existence, leaving only the ground and some furniture of the ground floor. Some poor guy who had been sitting on the second floor came crushing towards the ground, breaking at least an arm as he landed on the wooden planks. A bunch of completely confused adventurers and guild clerks stared at the squads of soldiers and mages and the bloody battle that had been going on without them noticing

“Finally, I found you shameless bastard!”, a male voice echoed down from the sky and I lifted my tire neck up. A shabby looking, middle-aged man stood in the air and looked down on the chaotic battlefield beneath him. He smoked a cheap cigar and seemed aloof as he stared down unto me, but there was a faint tingle of confusion as he noticed my wretched condition and the identity of the people I was fighting.

“Foolish mortals. How do you dare to injure the hero that I have send to you?”, his voice rumbled across the entire town and intense pressure descended around me, forcing the soldiers to their knees. Something about his words seemed a little off, especially as he gave me a few angry looks that didn’t seem like he had come to save me. Instead he looked like he wanted nothing more but to lecture me and give me a good thrashing.

None the less my previously heroic but hopeless last-stand situation had turned into some absurd plot-armor scene.

As I thought I’m really a character in some badly written Isekai novel…