Infinite Mana - Chapter 174: The Wrong Kind of Hostage (Patreon)

Sieghart understood that the fight could not continue at the same pace much longer. Not because his mana was running low, but because the situation around them was beginning to change.

The elderly couple beside the wagon had started recovering from their initial attack. The old man pushed himself upright while his wife looked around nervously, finally understanding that several of their attackers were already dead.

Unfortunately, the remaining two bandits noticed the same thing. While their leader occupied Sieghart’s attention, both men began moving carefully toward the couple instead of trying to join the fight directly. Sieghart noticed them through the edge of his vision and almost sighed. Their intentions were obvious enough that he could practically hear Ronan making some sarcastic comment about predictable criminals.

Bandit tactic number one.

Get a hostage. Threaten the hostage. Demand that the dangerous person stop doing dangerous things. It was probably effective often enough that criminals kept repeating it, especially against people reluctant to risk innocent lives during a confrontation.

Sieghart was reluctant to risk them too.

That did not mean he intended to cooperate.

The Aura user lowered his body slightly, preparing another explosive charge. His rear foot shifted backward while his sword returned beside his hip, ready to convert twenty meters into nothing again.

Sieghart raised one hand first. His index finger pointed directly toward the swordsman. The man immediately tensed. Electricity snapped around Sieghart’s fingertip.

Spark fired.

The Aura user launched himself sideways before the streak of electricity reached him, avoiding the spell easily enough that the attack continued harmlessly through the space he had occupied.

At least, harmlessly for him. The Spark struck one of the bandits moving toward the elderly couple. The man convulsed violently. Before anyone understood what Sieghart had done, a second Spark followed from the same finger, passing beside the Aura user and striking the remaining bandit directly in the chest.

Both men froze in place as electricity spread through their bodies. Their muscles contracted uncontrollably, weapons slipped from stiffened fingers, and neither could complete the final steps toward their intended hostages.

Sieghart had never been aiming at the leader. The Aura user realized that a fraction too late. Two Fireballs appeared. Unlike Giant Fireball, these were compact, controlled, and easy enough for Sieghart to shape without sacrificing the speed required to exploit the opening.

The first crossed the road and struck one bandit directly in the face. The second followed almost simultaneously. Flame exploded across both heads. The elderly woman screamed and covered her face while the old man turned away, but Sieghart kept his attention entirely upon the targets until he knew neither could recover.

The bandits had no meaningful magical resistance. Their skin blackened almost immediately beneath the concentrated flames before the heat burned deeper through flesh that had already been unable to move.

Neither man even managed a proper scream. The Fireballs burned through their faces, collapsing features beneath flames until both bodies dropped beside the wagon in ugly smoking heaps.

The smell reached Sieghart several seconds later. He ignored it. The Aura user did not. The man stared toward the two newly fallen bodies, genuine surprise finally appearing across his face after spending most of the fight looking entertained by Sieghart’s resistance.

Six bandits had surrounded the wagon minutes earlier. Now only one remained. Sieghart lowered his pointing hand slightly and looked back toward him.

“Where were we?”

The Aura user did not answer immediately. That hesitation interested Sieghart more than anything else he had accomplished during their fight. Until now, the man had treated him like an unusually capable young mage. Dangerous, certainly, but still somebody whose reactions and limits could be tested through enough pressure.

That assumption had changed. Sieghart could almost see it happening. The man looked toward the burned corpses, then toward the three headless bodies farther down the road before finally returning his attention to the teenager standing between them.

Sieghart had killed five people without hesitation. Worse from the bandit’s perspective, none of those deaths had been clean accidents produced by uncontrolled magic. The first three had been stunned deliberately before losing their heads. The other two had been paralyzed with electricity before Fire Magic destroyed their faces.

Sieghart understood exactly what impression that created. Someone young enough to look harmless should not kill that efficiently. Someone inexperienced should hesitate. Someone frightened should become less controlled as bodies accumulated. Sieghart had done none of those things. His expression remained nearly unchanged. The Aura user’s eyes narrowed.

“You’ve done this before.”

Sieghart tilted his head.

“Killed people?”

The man remained silent.

“Yes.”

Sieghart had no reason to lie about that much. War had removed whatever illusion his reincarnation might have given him about never needing to kill another human being. Bandits, enemy soldiers, corrupted people, kidnappers, and Chimerians had reinforced the lesson afterward.

Killing was not something he enjoyed for its own sake. It was simply something he could do when he decided there was enough reason. That distinction apparently did little to reassure the swordsman. Sieghart noticed the change in his breathing. It remained controlled, but the man’s earlier amusement had disappeared completely.

Good. Fear changed decisions. Even powerful people became easier to predict once they started considering everything that might go wrong. Sieghart raised his hand again. Two fingers pointed toward the Aura user. Electricity crackled between them.

The man’s entire posture tightened. There it was. Sieghart almost smiled. His previous Sparks had not been dangerous enough to threaten someone moving at that speed directly, but their purpose had already changed.

Now the Aura user knew electricity could be aimed beyond him. He knew avoiding the obvious line did not necessarily mean escaping Sieghart’s intention. More importantly, he had just watched two companions die because he dodged.

Sieghart gathered additional mana. The electricity grew brighter. Thin arcs crawled around his fingers and jumped between them while the air nearby developed the faint metallic smell associated with concentrated Lightning Magic.

The Aura user shifted one foot. Sieghart did not fire. The man waited. So did Sieghart. The electricity continued increasing. The swordsman finally moved sideways. Sieghart followed him with his fingers.

The man changed direction again. Still no attack. A small smile appeared on Sieghart’s face. He had found another weakness. Not in the man’s Aura. In his expectations.

The swordsman had become conditioned to respond the moment Sieghart pointed and electricity appeared, because allowing a lightning attack to finish gathering sounded considerably less appealing than dodging early.

That meant Sieghart no longer needed to cast anything. He only needed to make the man believe he would.

The Aura user sidestepped farther across the road while maintaining his strange sword stance, refusing to remain still long enough to become what he considered an easy magical target.

Sieghart turned his hand slowly, tracking him. Electricity crackled louder. Still nothing fired. The swordsman’s expression hardened.

“You’re playing with me.”

Sieghart shrugged.

“Guess again.”

The man immediately changed direction again. Sieghart tracked him. The entire fight had shifted. Earlier, Sieghart had been reacting to someone capable of covering twenty meters before his eyes processed the movement.

Now the Aura user was moving preemptively because he feared what might happen if he remained predictable for even a fraction too long. That difference mattered enormously. Speed remained terrifying when the swordsman chose exactly when to use it. Speed became less overwhelming when Sieghart could force him to waste movement before committing to an attack.

The Aura user seemed to understand that too. He stopped suddenly. Sieghart kept pointing. The man crouched slightly. Sieghart increased the electricity again. The swordsman moved before the attack existed. He launched sideways, landed, changed direction, and continued circling rather than charging directly toward Sieghart.

Sieghart watched carefully. That was exactly what he wanted. Every unnecessary movement consumed stamina. Aura might reinforce the body enormously, but it still relied upon vital energy produced by something fundamentally biological.

The man could not explode across the battlefield forever. Sieghart could keep producing sparks forever. At least magically. His own body remained the more immediate limitation, which made forcing the opponent to spend physical effort without requiring Sieghart to use Impulse particularly valuable.

The swordsman accelerated again. Sieghart pointed toward him. The man sidestepped automatically. Sieghart fired nothing. Another few meters wasted. The Aura user cursed quietly.

“Annoying little bastard.”

Sieghart nodded once.

“I’ve heard that before.”

The man stopped circling and stared at him from approximately fifteen meters away. His sword lowered slightly while he considered whatever approach might stop Sieghart from controlling his reactions so easily.

Sieghart used the pause to glance toward the elderly couple. The old man had managed to stand. His wife remained beside him. Now Sieghart no longer needed to divide his attention.

He looked back toward the Aura user and strengthened Focus. The man noticed the change immediately. Electricity still danced around Sieghart’s fingertips. Mana Sword remained ready in his opposite hand.

Glacial Fist, Telekinesis, Wind Magic, Impulse, Water Jet, Earth Bullet, and several other spells remained available without warning.

The swordsman had finally experienced what made Sieghart particularly irritating to fight. There was no obvious resource to exhaust. No comfortable casting rhythm to interrupt. No single spell that defined his entire approach. Every exchange simply gave him another piece of information.

Sieghart moved his fingers. The Aura user shifted immediately. Sieghart did not cast. The man’s jaw tightened.

“You think making me move around is enough to win?”

Sieghart glanced toward the corpses.

“It worked pretty well on your friends.”

The Aura user’s expression became cold. That was deliberate. Sieghart had already discovered how fear influenced the man’s decisions. Anger might reveal something else. The swordsman tightened his grip. His shoulders lowered. Then he stopped sidestepping.

Sieghart watched closely as the man abandoned the reactive movements entirely and returned to the strange one-handed stance from earlier.

Sword low on the right. Left hand forward. Rear leg loaded. This time, however, his posture looked different. There was more tension inside it. More commitment. The man had realized that waiting for Sieghart to launch something allowed the mage to dictate every exchange.

So he intended to stop waiting. Sieghart pointed directly between his eyes. Electricity gathered. The Aura user did not move. The amount of Lightning Mana increased.

Still nothing. Sieghart narrowed his eyes. The man was forcing himself not to react. He had understood the trick. That meant Sieghart had perhaps one more chance to exploit it before the psychological advantage disappeared completely.

He increased Spark beyond the previous amount. Arcs snapped violently around his entire hand. The Aura user remained still. For a moment, both stared at each other across the road while the air between them filled with tension neither needed magic to recognize.

Then the swordsman’s rear foot dug into the ground.

Sieghart saw the preparation. The man was about to charge anyway. This time, he intended to trust his speed rather than give Sieghart another opportunity to control where he moved.

Sieghart’s heart accelerated. He had wanted the man aggressive. The Spark around his fingers disappeared. The Aura user’s eyes widened slightly. Sieghart smiled.

Because lightning had never been the next attack.