The Arcane Archer - Chapter 51 Retreat Into Invasion

Author’s Note- Kept ya waiting huh? Sorry about being late on this chapter but blame school. Quarantine + school stuff is a horrible combination as I have to learn everything by myself without any help which takes a good majority of my time. Anyways, enjoy this chapter and a slightly out of character Leo because I wanted to write him that way today.

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Upon arriving in the center of a secret the rest of the group immediately started blasting like Danny DeVito. We could tell that we were in a secret Aetius because there was a bunch of people staring at us wearing gear covered in Aetius symbols. The room which was exactly the same size and dimensions as the room I tried teleporting to were also covered in Aetius symbols.

Teleporting in caused a gigantic blast of light to erupt from where we originated from which caused everyone to be temporarily blinded except us. Our Barbarian ran forwards, still covered in blood from the last fight and went for a person wearing robes.

He quickly decapitated them and immediately went for another person but was quickly tackled by a tall muscular human. The human was double the height of our Barbarian and just reached out and grabbed him. The barbarian flailed around trying to escape his grasp but was unable to because of the human’s strength and height.

The others while this was going on, were constantly casting spells and trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. I threw the helm of teleportation into my inventory while this was going on as to ensure that they wouldn’t get it. After that, I started offering support and fired arrows at the gigantic human that was holding our Barbarian.

A rough half minute occurred with multiple people rushing into the room and joining the fight. Sadly, none of them were on our side and were aiding the humans. More and more people grabbed and piled onto my team while making sure that they wouldn’t be able to attack. We were able to kill a few of them but that did nothing with how much were rushing into to the room.

At one point, I too was forced to the ground with my bow thrown across the room. With it being thrown across the room with such strength and speed, it broke upon hitting the stone wall.

With all of us useless and without weapons, things calmed down for the humans while we continued to struggle. Eventually, after a few minutes passed loud walking could be heard echoing from behind a door. As the footsteps got closer and closer, they gradually got louder and louder until they were right in front of the door and then stopped.

The door slowly opened up with a creak, revealing none other Marth, the human who was hunting me down in the Dwarven kingdom the night that it got attacked.

“Well hello there again Leo.” He said as he closed the door behind him and started walking towards me. “You must understand my confusion when I heard that the number one person being hunted has randomly appeared in my base. I was just doing some paperwork and then someone rushed into my room with this wonderful news.”

At this point he was in front of me and crouching down on the ground. I tried looking away from him as I didn’t want to talk but he just reached out with his hand and violently forced me to look in his direction.

“Have you finally learned the magnificence that is Aetius and decided to come join us with these offerings as a “sorry about what I did last time” gift?” He asked.

“Nah, I’m only here by accident. The usual stuff that happens with magic items where it never works the way you intend them to.”

“Hmmm.” He hummed and nodded in understanding before violently slamming my head into the ground, dealing 78 points of damage to my beautiful face. “Huh, still as resilient as ever. That would’ve killed a normal person eight times over. You however seem to be just fine.”

Marth stood up and brushed any dirt them might’ve gotten on him off. He then took a look at the others before waving a guard over to him and telling him to take everyone to their prison. The guard saluted before quickly giving everyone orders to pick everyone up off the ground and bring them to their prison cells.

As they were doing this, Marth stood to the side of the door and just watched. As we were picked up and then forced to the door, Marth put out his hand in front of it to indicate for them to stop.

“Where is that magic item that allowed you to teleport into here? You talked about it and from what I heard you appeared in a bright flash of light that would seem to indicate the use of one.”

“Turned to ash. Look on the floors and you’ll be able to find it.” I said while attempting to shrug.

He stared me down for a few seconds before telling the guards to get us out of his sight and quickly walking behind me to where we originally entered. Thankfully, the item was in my inventory, recharging quickly thanks to my ability to change time however I wanted in it.

As we walked down the hallway, I kept note of where everything was and tried to see if they had anything out in the open that I could steal later once I teleported out. Nothing really stood out as everything was behind closed doors that offered no hint to what was behind any of them.

A few minutes later we were shoved into individual cells without any of our weapons and gear. The others immediately went to the bars and grabbed hold of them and angrily yelled to be let out. I just shook my head because I know that they definitely wouldn’t let us out for any reason.

Cause after all, why would they? I’m currently their biggest target that they’ve been hunting for a few weeks and I’ve been able to escape their grasp multiple times. The best chance at escape would be teleporting into their cells and teleporting them all back to base, or someplace that I’ll be guaranteed to teleport to.

With the others banging on their cell bars, I took a quick look at my own cell and saw that it was exactly like the others. A simple bed in the corner and a bucket in the other corner.

Going to the bed, I layed down and decided that the best thing to do would probably just wait for the night. Then, when it is night, I can just use some spells to teleport to their cells and teleport all of us away. Easy as that.

Now if only I could just easily pass hours in a few seconds just like Skyrim or Fallout… Man I miss video games. I wonder if Elder Scrolls 6 is ever going to come out like they promised or if people will ever trust Bethesda after what happened with Fallout 76. Truly question of our ages that might never be answered.

And just like that, I stared at the ceiling for multiple hours on end. Thankfully I have the system and was able to download some movies and music after spending a few system points to buy them. Have I ever told the system I love it and thank it for everything it does for me? I don’t know if I did but I will now!

‘System!’

[How may I assist you Leo.]

‘I just want to let you know that I love and appreciate everything you do for me!’

[Aww, love you too Leo]

Anyways, when the clock struck midnight and the two guards that were left to guard us were barely awake, I decided that it was time to enact my plan. Getting out of bed, I saw that the others were sleeping and exhausted from screaming to be let out for the last few hours.

Stretching and cracking my kneck, I stared at the closest cell to me that had one of my companions inside of it which was the priest. Casting misty step, I expected to be teleported inside their cell but instead just watched as the mana disappeared and did nothing. A couple of seconds passed by with me standing there like an idiot just staring at the place I expected to teleport with nothing actually happening.

I tried once more…. Then twice more…. And then threw a sandwich I had in my inventory at the wall.

“DANGIT” I screamed into the empty abyss that was my prison cell.

Upon doing so, one of the guards walked over to my cell and hit it to cause some noise.

“Keep it down will ya, I’m trying to get some sleep!” She said before leaving and grumbling about unfair times and how someone else should’ve got todays shift.

I watched from within my cell as they slowly moved sluggishly to a chair that was propped up next to a small desk. Once they sat down, I turned away and sat back down on my bed. Testing a few more spells, I attempted to find out what was causing my inability to cast misty step.

Was it some sort of Anti-magic cell? A permanent stealing of mana through the cell? What was it?

First of all, I could tell it wasn’t the second one as I still had a full thing of Mana according to the system. The first one was the most probable but I could cast very very tiny spells. Which by that I mean I was able to make a small spark in hand which used 1 mana. Anything else I tried doing didn’t work.

There must be something special about being able to cast a spark spell worth literally 1 mana.