I look around myself, silently wondering how I got myself into this sort of thing. Men and women stood around me with varying degrees of armor. Some wore full plate from top to toe, while other wore simple leather. That leather wasn't to be estimated, though, as I felt safer wearing one of them, as opposed to wearing plate.

I down at myself, and look at it, with Mana-Sight. It brightly glowed in many different colors and patterns. Honestly, I wouldn't mind just stopping the march, to stare at it.

But, I couldn't do that. I made a promise, and I was going to keep it.

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Just before beginning Operation: Hidden Crit, we were going over the strategy, in the meeting room.

“So let's go over the basics”, Erik said, his voice serious, as ever.

“We are working with a single Company, it having five Platoons in total. In each of these Platoons, we have nine Squads, with each of them comprising of ten men.

Now, let's get a little more advanced. The placements of these Platoons.

Two of the Platoons will be known as The Absorbers. These two Platoons will be at the very front, taking most of the frontal attacks. Each man, in these Platoons, has been outfitted with heavily enchanted plate armor, making them very hard to kill.

One of the other Platoons know as The Unexpected Defence, will be getting the same armor as The Absorbers, but won't be positioned the same place. They will be placed in a tightly packed circle around the other two Platoons that I will now explain.

The last two Platoons will be known as The Atri-Cedas. These Platoons will mostly be filled by mages, with a few Warriors helping to keep them safe.

That's the basic group formations. Any questions?”

Erik finally finished his explanation, giving me a chance to finally ask a question I had been dying to ask.

“I have one”, I hurriedly say.

He motions for me to continue.

“How did you get that many mages? I heard that our kind was spread quite thin, around these parts”, I asked.

Erik smiled at that.

“Let's just say… Over many years, I have been gathering favors”

-------------------------------------------------------

Eros pokes me on my shoulder, bringing me back to reality.

“What´s up?”, I ask.

“The sky?”, Eros asked, beginning to look a little confused.

“No, I mean, what is the reason you poked me?”, I ask, again.

“I need you to stay focused. After all, we are almost within range, and it would be sad for you to die by a stray arrow”, Eros said, his voice bordering between serious and sarcastic.

“I know, I know. I'm just getting myself ready for this. It is going to my first time doing this”, I explained.

Eros looked at me with a knowing, grim smile.

“I know, buddy. The first time is always the first. That also includes other stuff”, he said, jokingly.

I smiled at.

Maybe this won't be too bad, after all.

-------------------------------------------------

Eros suddenly looked forward, with an intense stare.

“What's wrong?”, I say.

“Something wrong. Don't know what though”, Eros mumbled, beginning to look around.

I nodded at that and pulled out a small crystal. I tapped it three times before putting to my right ear. It takes a couple of seconds before I hear a voice coming from it.

“Yes?”, I hear Erik ask.

“Eros senses that something's wrong. Don't know what, though”, I quickly explain to him.

“I see… I will alert the others”, Erik says, after a second.

We continue walking, everybody beginning to tense up, slightly.

The next few minutes slowly goes by. I try and fail, to have a steady heartbeat. Everybody was ready to instantly fight for their life. The point of no return had been reached long ago.

All this time, I had been looking at Eros´s face, trying to figure out what he was thinking. He was constantly looking around, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

Another few minutes, and I begin thinking that it was just a false alarm.

Then, Eros´s eye opens again. He quickly pulls out a red crystal, instantly crushing it with his left hand. After a second, of his crushing the red crystal, everybody felt a small voice whisper in their here.

“They're here”

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Whatever I had stated earlier, about this being easy, I would like to take back.

When you would imagine a war in a fantasy world, what would you imagine? I, personally, imagined two mighty armies standing a couple hundred meters from each other. Every single soldier stares at the other army, not blinking even once. Then, one soldier would charge, with a mighty roar, the other soldiers quickly following suit.

It wasn't anything like that. We wouldn't even have seen it coming if Eros had not alerted us.

Somehow, they knew that we were coming. Maybe it was magic, maybe it was a spy. I didn't know.

The battle starts off, and I begin hearing wild roars coming from our enemies.

“Time to start the job”, Eros said to me.

“Yes. Yes, it is”

--------------------------------------------------

“Jack”, Erik said, with a serious voice.

He was directly looking into my eyes, his own full of seriousness.

“Yes?”, I asked.

“Do you think you can do it?”, he asked.

I lean back in my chair, thinking about it. Could I do it? Sure, if I had enough Mana, I theoretically could it. But, could I do it mentally? Having to continually chain-cast spells for a few minutes is exhausting. If I had to do it for hours? The mental strain would be enormous. But, what if…

After thinking over it for a minute more, I made a choice.

“I could probably do it if I had a lot of Mana-Potions. Though, do you any Focus-Potions?”, I ask.

Erik thinks about it for a few seconds, probably going through the mental catalog.

“I can get it in half an hour”, Erik said.

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My time to work begins. I quickly begin enhancing every warrior I can see with the Minor Strength Enhancement. While I originally wanted to do it with the upgraded version of it, I quickly realized the much-increased cost in it. After talking about it with Eros, and Erik, we decided that I should use the minor versions of the Enhancement spells.

After doing it to all the warriors I could see, I begin casting the Minor Speed Enhancement on certain mages. These are the ones who use, what they call, Ritualistic spells, what involve making certain hand gestures. With the speed boost they got from the enhancement, they could cast it, up to, seven percent faster, without increased chances of failure.

A giant wave of bandits charges at us from all sides. We had expected something like this and quickly defended against it.

Some of the bandits would slam against the shields of The Absorbers, trying to get through, so they could get a chance at The Atri-Cedas. The Absorbers wouldn't let that happen though. When their bandit got their head just barely through, The Absorbers would stick a little closer together, making the bandits head pop like a cork. Quite gruesome to look at.

The wave giant wave was quickly being dismantled, with almost no casualties.

Really, it just felt too easy.

I hear Erik shout through the crystal. “Their Elites are attacking!”

That because it was.

---------------------------------------------------

Every single bandit we had been fighting before was just common trash. Not a single person with any talent to any magic.

Now though, the real fight had begun.

Five people stood before us. Each of them, almost glowing when you looked at them with Mana-Sight. I couldn't recognize four of the people's talent. The last one, I could recognize, though.

Enhancement.

Seemed that the giant brute was the enhancer, himself.

“One of them is the enhancer”, I tell Eros.

“I've realized”, he said back.

Nobody attacks each other for the first few seconds. That is until some archer tried to kill them with an arrow. That didn't end so well. Nobody really saw what happened, but that Archer was dead before anyone realized the arrow did not hit.

“Charge”

One of the mages shout, his voice enhanced by his magic. Let's call him the Enhancer.

The enemy mages quickly jump into action. One creates a blue barrier around himself, making it hard to focus my eyes on him. Let's call him The Unfocused. The second began cloning himself, his clones looking like they just jump out of his original body. Let's call him The Cloner. The third begins… summoning(?)... creatures, making portals that they come out of. Let's call him The Summoner. The fourth was the earlier mention Enhancer, so let's just call him The Enhancer. He enhanced himself, making all his muscles bulge out. The fifth.... wait… where is the fifth? I was pretty sure I saw five.

“How many do you see?”, I ask Eros.

“Four. Why?”, Eros quickly answers.

“Thought I saw five”, I answer.

“No matter. Let's get our heads into the game”, Eros said, beginning to focus on the battlefield, yet again.

The Cloner had given The Absorbers quite a large amount of work. Clones upon clones were throwing themselves at them, this time, actually making some leeway. These clones were not just normal people, after all. They were enhanced, making them just a tad stronger than the normal person. I received a certain buzzing coming from the crystal.

Time to upgrade these Enhancements.

The officers have seen the need, authorized me to begin enhancing with the normal enhancement, from now on. It took a lot out of me, but I could hold for a while before having to drink the first Mana-Potion.

While enhancing, I quickly glanced over to my right.

The Summoner´s summoned creatures had begun fighting a giant Silver-Wolf. Erik´s, I presumed. Had to be. While The Summoner had a big plus in quantity, Erik had a gigantic plus in quality. While at first glance, it looked like the Silver-Wolf was being overwhelmed, its Aura was simply cutting through everything that neared it. While it looked like The Summoner was simply outclassed, the Silver-Wolf was slowly beginning to look more and more tired.

He can't keep up for long.

My Mana-Reserves were almost empty, forcing me to drink one of the Mana-Potions if I want to continue.

Have to save them for as long as possible.

I look around, trying to see where The Unfocused was but had a hard time finding him. That is until I heard a way too loud grunt. I look over to its origins, and discover the old mage, from the shop, in battle with The Unfocused. When I tried to focus on what was happening, my vision became distorted, giving me a large headache.

Now, where is the last one?

He wasn't hard to find at all. He was currently fighting off Monty, the servant from the mansion. Both of them move fast and hit hard. Faster and Harder than I could even dream of. Every time their fists connected, it could be felt in the air, for just a second.

I wanted to help, by enhancing Monty, but decided not to. It maybe would have proven to be a distraction.

After scanning the battlefield, it seemed that we slowly gaining the upper advantage. While a few of us needed some support, we were gaining ground. Slowly but definitely.

That didn't last though.

------------------------------------------------

Upon the hill, where the elites came from, stood a single man. Why nobody had noticed him before was because of his talents. Or, well, one of them.

He had been so sure of the victory. Those crystals took each of their powers and gave them back twofold.

But I gained much more than that.

The man on the hill had two different talents. He had a dual affinity. One of them was the illusion talent. Not the petty illusions that little elf could, though. REAL illusions, that could fool even the mightiest mages. He had stayed hidden with this talent during the battle, overlooking it, with his keen eyes. He would sometimes send an order down to his mages, but that wasn't the purpose of staying hidden.

That leads to his second talent. Absorption.

While, before, the only thing he could do with it took a little bit of the power of a mage, for a short while. Now, though, it was much more powerful. He could take not only one, but multiple mages full power, and keep them as long as he desired.

Or until the crystals wore off.

While the crystals had definite advantages to them, they also had several drawbacks. But, there wasn't time to think about that.

It was time for some action.

He took out one of the communication crystals and talked into it.

“Prepare for absorption”, he said into it, with a raspy voice.

He looked onto the battlefield, yet again. Every mage of his stopped what they were doing, and put up a barrier. They costed a fortune, but they could hold for a few seconds.

“Ready”, the mages spoke in sync.

“Commencing absorption”, he said.

At first, the power came in with a slow trickle. That wouldn't do, though. He slowly widened the hole, and the floodgates were opening. Power streamed into him, with no chance of stopping. In almost an instant, he had gone from a one to a million.

He could take anything on now.

-------------------------------------------

It happened in a single second, yet, it felt like an hour. I never knew a time where I had said this, without lying, but now I think I could speak it as if it was the truth.

“Game over, man! Game over!”

Every single person gulped at that.