“Can someone explain to me why we think this is a good idea?” said Mewi. We were on the way to a position well away from the city or other settlements for the “half-spar.”

“Because usually it’s almost impossible to get on Ilsandre’s good side,” said Bruzigan.

“Because it’ll take two days for the monster tide to arrive, and we’re putting a time limit of 10 minutes on this,” said Ri’legh.

“And because I know what I’m doing, Mewi. I have a plan to win, please trust me.” I ignored Ilsandre’s snort when I mentioned having a plan to win.

“All right,” said Mewi, “but you’d better really win after saying something like that.”

We came to a clearing, and Ilsandre stopped and turned around. “This should do, I think. All right...Lheticus, was it? Ready to show me what you can do?”

I nodded, and the others quickly got out of our way. Before anything else, I activated Enemy Scan:

5th Floor Denizen

Class: Windwarp Magus

Race: Human

Health: 102,024/102,024

Mana: 49,992/49,992

Stamina: 99,820/99,820

Holy crap. No wonder Ilsandre was considered to have surpassed human limits. Every single one of his attributes surpassed 200, and yet his Health, Mana, and Stamina figures seemed too outrageous even for those numbers.

“Oh?” said Ilsandre, looking more alert now, “you have a good analysis skill, looks like. Now that you have a better idea what you’re dealing with, I’ll give you one last chance to back out.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

Ilsandre’s eyebrows raised. “You still think you can do it? Interesting. All right, let’s see whatcha got.”

The very first thing I did was engage the two Greater buffs. Then, I started off with a Lesser Fireball, the spell that was, for practical purposes, my basic attack at this point. I wasn’t expecting to damage him that way, rather I was testing something.

As I thought, Ilsandre didn’t bother to dodge, or even move. “I know I said I would dodge, before, but...I’m intrigued that you’re so confident even after seeing my attributes. I really wanna know if you can actually do it.”

“In that case, I graciously accept.” And I went straight to casting Flame Javelins. With rather high damage on top of stackable reduction of defense, it was already one of the best Fire spells in Area 1. And by now, it was one of the few spells I had leveled all the way to 10, upon which it went from great to broken by dint of a very unique special bonus:

[Defense reduction is applied on a target even if all damage is nullified or reflected.]

“Hmm...maybe you really are getting at something,” said Ilsandre after I’d stacked nearly the maximum the spell allowed, “I’m still not damaged, but something does feel strange. You’re affecting me.”

That made me worried that he’d go back on not dodging if I tried to stack even more, so instead, I started to cast a relatively new spell. Relatively new as in, I hadn’t had much chance to level it up much, but it was still the strongest single attack damaging spell I had.

Level 3

Searing flames form directly on the target, dealing (583 + 3% Magic Power) damage. The flames persist after casting, dealing (60 + 3% Magic Power) damage/s.

Casting Time: 6 seconds

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 20 seconds

Mana Cost: 472

It had started out at 512 Mana for 512 damage and 50 DOT per second. It wouldn’t be good enough to be cost effective, I felt, without at least 5 more levels. But for overcoming an otherwise insurmountable defense, it was the best bet I had.

But as Ilsandre waved smoke away from him, I could tell I had failed. Maybe the attack had technically reduced his HP a little, but his Regeneration was perverse enough that it had done so for barely an instant, even with the DOT. “Hmm, too bad,” he said, sounding genuinely disappointed, “I felt a tingle for a moment, but that was it. Got anything else?”

“I have an ability that can double my damage for a period of time, but it’s got a long cooldown...I need to save it for defending the kingdom.”

“I see. Well, I shouldn’t cripple you from defending the kingdom. I really only said what I did about taking one of my attacks to motivate you, and you clearly were motivated, so forget that part—”

“Hold on,” I said, “there’s one other thing as well.”

Mewi’s eyes widened. “You’re going to do THAT?!”

“I am.” I could tell, as outrageously and perversely strong as Ilsandre was, he was still no Otto. But he was as close to the next best thing as I could hope for outside of his teammates. I still felt as though my use of Power of Imagination was very undeveloped—for one thing, it was still stuck at Level 2 of I presumed a possible 10.

But I had to test it. If I could damage Ilsandre to the point he felt pain by using it, then I could see a small glimmer of hope of one day using it to match the Rainbow Mage.

I had to know.

“What the—you're increasing your power even more? What is this ability you’re using?”

This time, instead of imagining myself becoming stronger, faster, enhancing all my attributes overall, I envisioned my magic becoming stronger, and stronger, and stronger. Then, in a sudden burst of inspiration, I imagined the flames themselves of the attack I was about to again perform becoming more magical in nature.

That had always been the great limitation of Circle 1 spells—they only used up to 10% of my Magic Power. I hoped with this, I could increase that percentage. By how much I didn’t know, but though it was draining me a lot even just during the cast, I could tell it was having an effect. The Fire mana in me seemed to come more alive during this casting than I’d felt in others.

“Gaaaah?!” As I panted, getting my breath back after the massive Imagination effort I’d put into the second casting of Lesser Immolate, Ilsandre gave a startled yelp. He frantically swatted at the flames on his body, but they did not extinguish until the 3 seconds were up.

“Sounds like...I win...eh, Ilsandre?”

He gave me a long look. “...You win. What exactly did you do? That spell...it was nothing like the first time you cast it, and I’m not just talking about its strength.”

I tapped my forehead. “That’s for me to know. It isn’t something anyone should be able to replicate, whether they’ve broken human limits or not, if that’s what you were hoping.”

“I see,” he said, in a tone that more than suggested that what he saw went well beyond my explanation. In the next moment, he snapped back to his normal, irreverent tone. “Well, I now owe you a favor. But I have to lay it on the line that I won’t let you use it on asking me to help exterminate the monster tide.

No one else in Cradine is alive to remember it anymore, but I tried being as helpful as possible before, and it didn’t work out so hot. You guys must know what powerful people are like. You do even a small, simple thing without expectation of reward or compensation, they start thinking they got license to walk all over ya and make outrageous demands. To control you. Not only does that kind of thing offend the heck outta me, Cradine relying on me too much is no way for it to survive this world.

Just for a moment, Ilsandre’s eyes went downcast. “Just because I’ve ‘surpassed human limits’ doesn’t mean I can be everywhere at once. It also doesn’t mean that I’m not a shit-for-brains when it comes to leading people. I can’t take sole responsibility for the lives of everyone in the kingdom. They gotta keep toughening up if they want it to really survive out here.

So I only ever intervene when there’s something there’s no way they could handle without me. Like a Monster Lord. Being a self-admitted, self-aggrandizing jackass is handy because it means people accept the way I do things without me having to explain this crap 500 times a day.

So I can’t have you asking me to ease your way in the days ahead, even if I do owe you a favor. You’ll just have to think of something else.”