"Wheeew! Now that's the stuff!" Raven shouted aloud as he felt pure power flooding into his body.

Feeling cold, hot, or even pain was very real in this world he had felt them all. Now, however, he felt what power was like to have charging through his veins. He always knew Magi were powerful in the game because of lore and certain NPCs, but if this was how a simple level 30 Magi felt he was beyond curious at how it would really feel if he were level 300 again.

He shook his head as his eyes took on a glowing blue hue and his mind raced with all the new information being forced into it. Luckily enough for him, he had been a Magi before, and was very familiar with their spells and abilities.

It took him a few moments to get over the exhilaration of the magical energy he could now control, which gave De’rune plenty of time to stand up and release another loud growl. Raven’s eyes filtered through many screens at once, looking for a specific combination of spells that he found rather quickly.

“Perfect. With the power I have, I should be able to just barely pull the combo off.” he said to himself before shooting his eyes to Tristan. “Can you keep him busy for forty seconds?” he asked with confidence.

Tristan tilted his head lightly at how quickly Raven adjusted to the dagger, however, he was a seasoned warrior and didnt let it keep him distracted for too long. He gripped his sword in a two handed grip and took in a slow breath before replying with a firm nod.

“I can give you forty seconds yeah, but make sure you get him. It cost me a small fortune to get that dagger.” Tristan replied with a gentle smirk spreading across his face. It had been awhile since he fought with someone so confident, and they were just a guard in a small town. How curious..

“I won’t let you two plot anymore!!” De’rune screamed, and finally reached Raven, swinging down their massive fist in hopes of crushing the weak human in one fell swoop. Their fist was stopped short by the flaming blade of Tristan, which then counter slashed towards the face of the Ent, forcing it to retreat backwards a few steps.

“You’re fighting me right now, tinder scraps.” Tristan shouted with a playful grin as flames began to build around him. De’rune was certainly powerful and could keep up with the knight now after all of his more powerful skills had been used up, the fight they held between themselves was fierce.

Tristan spent most of his time now on being defensive and occasionally throwing a slash to keep the big tree from getting too close to Raven, who was chanting quietly to himself. Runes of blue and gold began to swim around him, evidence of the spellcasting he was attempting to execute which could easily be noticed by the boss they were fighting. Tristan was very good at his job though and continued to push the figure back repeatedly.

There was a reason that, back in the normal game, the Magi class had another name that had been given to them by the majority of the player base after a few months of play time. They were dubbed the Boss Nuker, and became an essential piece in any raiding party as long as they could be protected. The reason for all this was due to the low cooldown on a lot of their spells that could be chained together very quickly to deal a lot of single target damage. The combo he was about to try was a very common one from back then, but was useful even long after level 160 due to it’s pure destructive power.

The combo utilized two spells: Meteor Shield, and Moon Beam. Meteor Shield was a special spell in the way it cost no Mana, and that it did not have a cooldown in the way most other spells and skills did. Instead it held an amount of charges that could be used up, and it regained a charge every 50 seconds. When used it would make a strong immovable shield of golden light that could not be broken until it was hit 4 times, usually good for a few quick saves but since they couldn't move that was usually all they were good for. Moon Beam was a low damaging move with a 1 second cool down, but it only took 10 Mana to cast, a level 1 Magi usually had about 100 or so Mana, so it could be used often. Moon Beam deals 20-30 damage plus a percentage of the casters Willpower Attribute. However, Moon Beam had another effect that could happen. It had about a 5% chance to stun a target for 2 seconds when it hit them, but that chance increased by 5% for every time Moon Beam hit the target while the target was in the same position. So if they didn't move from their spot, Moon Beam could get all the way to a 60% stun chance. Moon Beam was abused a lot in the game with a wide array of lockdown spells to keep dangerous targets out of fights.

The combo he was about to execute was an early one found by a pro player, all you had to do was do a tactic called Spell Prep. Magi can prepare an amount of spells in a row equal to their Concentrated Power, which allows them to cast the spells very quickly after one another in exchange for all the Mana and Concentrated Power they would use up all at once. The only problem was when you did so you had to wait about 10 seconds to prep each spell regardless of normal casting time, then you have to deal with the normal casting time of the spell anyway. So usually Spell Prep was used to do a whole bunch of instant cast buff spells on yourself before entering a fight, or to do a bunch of low to mid damaging spells that had no cast time. For this combo though…

“Done!” Raven shouted as the last second ticked by after he finished his spell prep, it was pretty convenient too as Tristan was starting to get pretty worn down.

Spell Preparation Complete: Casting Meteor Shield

De’rune slammed their fist forward hoping to finally land a solid blow against this elusive knight that continued to evade him. Then, just as Tristan thought he was gonna have to take a hit, a giant shield appeared before them. It cracked slightly under the force of De’rune who growled lowly at its appearance.

“You think this can stop me!” the Ent screamed in frustration…

Casting Meteor Shield

Another shield slammed down next to De’rune, who faltered as they brought their fist back once again, going to slam through the weak shield that stood in their way. A feeling of confusion washed over them as they suddenly turned to just walk around the shields now..

Casting Meteor Shield

“Wh..huh..” De’rune backed up as another shield slammed down in front of them as they finally realized what was happening to them.

Casting Meteor Shield

“He’s casting so fast..” Tristan commented, rather impressed with the skill this random person had over spellcraft. “Should have been a magi” he said towards Raven with a small laugh, but Raven was too focused on his combo to really comprehend what he said.

“Moon Beam” Raven shouted, a small beam of milky white energy slamming down onto De’rune..

- 36 Health, Luck Trigger: Target Stunned.

“Moon Beam” he shouted again, another one slamming down onto the target, he was able to get two casts by the time De’rune was out of the stun. Due to his high luck and the higher stun chance because De’rune was in the same location the Ent was stunned again...and again… and again as Raven continued to rain down spell after spell of Moon Beam.

Tristan’s eyes went wide as he watched the display of magical prowess he had never seen before. Though NPC Magi were strong like player Magi, they had no concept of how to utilize their spells to do more complex combos like this one that were rather simple for players. So Tristan experienced a whole different kind of spell throwing that he would most likely never see again.

“I’m almost out of Mana! But they should be stunned long enough for you to finish them off!” Raven yelled over towards Tristan as he panted frantically. Though it was an amazing feeling to feel the power he held, he also had to experience how tiring it was to cast over and over again. He dropped the Meteor Shields for Tristan before falling to a knee in exhaustion.

“Got it!” Tristan shouted back, acting quickly as the spell was dropped, he shot forward and started to viciously slash at the creature as he completely ignored his defense. Though the creature was durable it could do nothing to stop Tristan's assault, and finally after about 24 seconds of non stop attacking the creature let out a roar as it finally began to crumble.

“There we go,” Tristan said with a nod as he let out a small breath of relief as he glanced towards Rave, “Are you okay? That was some really good spellcasting for someone who isn't a magi..” he added, leaning down to Raven who had just collapsed on the ground by now with a small laugh.

“Yeah...basically like cheating.” Raven agreed, quoting what people used to say about the Magi way back when he had first started the game. Though they needed to have people as backup, once they had it they were basically having a cheat code for single monster boss fights.

Tristan gave a confused look at the comment, but shrugged it off as he guessed the guard was just exhausted. Raven slowly turned around to lay on his back as his head ringed in pain, he managed a smile though and gave Tristan a small thumbs up.

“I’m Tristan Willow of the Ember Knights, what’s your name guard?” Tristan probed as he assisted Raven to sit up as best he could, but consciousness was something that was quickly fading for him.

“You can call me Raven Winter..” he managed before his body finally gave out, and he passed out there in the field.

***

Raven’s eyes slowly opened slowly and winced as he felt a sharp pain race through his head. He could feel that his muscles were sore but other than that he didn't seem to be hurt, just exhausted.

“Careful there Winters,” Captain Gerald’s gruff voice broke him from his dizzy haze as the inside of the guard barracks came into view as the haziness left his vision. “Some strong looking Knight brought you in here and said you helped them kill a giant monster. Impressive.” he added, trying to make it seem like he wasn't all that excited. Deep down, however, he was wildly impressed at the growth of this farmer boy who had shown up to join his guard less than a month ago. From hunting slimes to slaying monsters with the Knights of Ember.

“Yeah...Trinn? No Tristan” he recalled as he slowly sat up on the hard mattress that was his bunk. He was just coming to his senses so it was hard to remember all the events, but as it all came rushing back into his head he smiled lightly. It felt good to use magic again with a strong Swordsman backing up, just like old times.

‘Swordsman!’ he thought to himself suddenly as he threw his covers off and looked over at the captain, a frantic and excited look brimming in his eyes.

“Tristan, the swordsman, is he still here? In town?!” he asked, grabbing Gerald by the shoulders and shaking him lightly hoping for a quicker answer.

“Whoa hey! I think he might be! He stayed for a few hours here but left about twenty minutes ago saying he had places to be!” he said in between being shaken. Raven wasted no time in bolting out of the room, stumbling from lightheadedness as he moved out the door.

“I have to go ask him something!” Raven called back over his shoulder before running as best he could. It looked like Tristan was coming from the capital of Ember, which means he should be heading away from Rosewood towards the east. He resolved his choice with a firm nod, and started to run in that direction.

***

Raven ran up the hill just outside of town and caught sight of his target just ahead, he cupped his hands and took in a deep breath to shout as loud as he could.

“Tristaaaaan!!” he screamed, his voice carrying and echoing down the hill and Tristan perked up slightly as he heard his name.

The knight stopped his horse and turned in his saddle to see the guard that had helped him fight the Protector Ent spriting quite haphazardly down a steep hill towards him.

“Hello Guard Winters,” Tristan said, giving a small respectful nod towards Raven who huffed and puffed as he hunched over with his hands on his knees. Raven gave a small thumbs up as he caught his breath before he went down his knees suddenly and clasped his hands together towards the Knight.

“Tristan, Knight of Ember….will you teach me to be a Swordsman!” Raven asked looking up, hope shining in his eyes as he finally found a chance to grow stronger and was attempting to latch onto it.