My Second Life Is A Heroic Power Fantasy - Chapter 172

As the second tower collapsed, Jack turned his attention to the rest of the gnolls in combat with his allies. Once they were handled, their small band turned their attention back to the rest of the battle.

In the distance on the western side of the battle front, the other two arrow towers burned, sending columns of grey smoke skyward. The center was nearly to the bridge, and the gnoll skirmishers had fallen back, leaving an organized unit of dogmen with spears blocking the bridge entrance as the testudo marched ever so slowly towards them.

Watching the whole situation unfold, his confidence slowly started to build. They were winning, at least for the moment. The real telling point would be once they managed to get inside the defensive barricades. Well, IF they made it inside the defensive barricades, if he was honest. Nothing was a foregone conclusion, even if they did currently have the leg up over the defenders.

Maybe he could make things a little easier. He was magically gifted, after all. He’d never really tested just how far he could push a single spell. Maybe now was the time to test up just much power he could funnel out of himself in one go.

He took a deep breath, willing his mind clear, and envisioned a blast of fire far bigger than anything he’d created previous. No wait, better yet- a firestorm. He would evoke a storm of fire on the enemy camp. That should help the odds a bit.

He had no idea how his body was going to react to casting a spell that large. Come to think of it, he wasn’t fully sure what would happen if he pushed his body past its magical limit. Would he just pass out? Or would the effort actually seriously harm him? He wasn’t sure what to expect, and thought bot made him uneasy and weirdly excited him.

Oh well. When had ever been the type to take things cautiously or fully think them through?

He let the spellwords flow into his mind, picking out the pieces for “many”, “fire”, “large”, and “falling”. That should do the trick.

“Welp, here goes nothing”, he thought to himself as he shouted the spellphrase aloud and willed the energy out of him, pointing his outstretched hands in the direction of the enemy encampment.

“MANRACHCERERAK!”

No sooner had the last syllable left his lips before the overwhelming surge of the energy drain hit him like a truck. It felt as though he’d just spent his entire energy reservoir in one fell swoop. He tottered as his muscles turned to jelly, and he flopped down on the ground as he struggled to keep his vision from tunnelling into darkness.

This was stupid. This was a stupid idea. Way to go, Jack. You just had to go too far, didn’t you?

He looked up at the camp in front of him, the edges of his vision going fuzzy as numerous points of glowing light appeared in the sky. At least he was going to get to take a lot of them with him before he passed out. That was good, right?

[“You remember you have a Vigor Potion, right?”] Frumpkin said out of nowhere. [“Or are you just wanting to go into a coma for the kicks?”]

Jack startled when the deity’s voice popped into his mind. It didn’t seem her was ever going to get used to that. He went to speak, but found his mind struggling to put together the words.

[“Uhm, hello? Is this thing on?”] Frumpkin asked, his voice sounding suddenly uncomfortably loud. There was a sound in his head like someone slapping a microphone, followed by a high pitched squeal of feedback that made Jack’s eyes water.

“God! Yes, I can hear you! Jesus!” Jack said, instinctively covering his ears despite the sound being entirely in his head. Apparently his reaction to pain still worked fine.