Nr. i
?It?s not a safe place to begin with.? The Fat Bird said. ?So much mana gathered in one place is not good for the body, or mind.?
Mulling over what the other black mage said was something that he could do to distract him from the unease his body was feeling from the mana oversaturation. The air was thick and humid with the substance. If such an organization used such a facility, it would mean that they were very powerful indeed; either that or very foolhardy. The Black Mage could not imagine the fortitude these magic-users must possess as his body was still suffering from the effects of the two glyphs and the vibrating hum which he was certain came from the spire. That they could not only endure such exposure but weaponize it to the results the other mage spoke of gave the Black Mage pause. Either that of these malcontents were in way over their heads for what plans they had.
Whatever scenarios he could explore were brutally interrupted when a wayward plume of fire appeared in the Black Mage?s face and exploded before he could respond. His mask was scorched and his hat was smouldering; the former could be salvaged, but not the latter. The top of his head felt absent and cold by the air. The hat was removed before the pyres could damage him, and pulled out his wand.
He walked out ahead of the rest of the party, objective was to eliminate the foes no doubt approaching their position. A female Dragoon was the first that barrelled out of the corner, and was the first to intercept the Black Mage. She was also the first to be struck with a rain of ice, but the spell created side effects he did not anticipate. First, just as the blizzard spell hurt the Dragoon, he suffered the hoary frost as well; it was fortunate that he walked ahead of the group when he did this, otherwise they would?ve suffered the cold as well. Second, another target - a human knight - was frozen in his tracks, but he had just appeared from the corner. Finally, the stone walkway froze over due to the blizzard spell. It was the third consequence that rammed itself into the Black Mage?s skull.
One loose step caused the Black Mage to fall down the stairs, along with the Dragoon who crashed into the wall and fell a long ways. With no guardrail, he followed the Dragoon in his unintended plummet. His vision spun out as he fell down the shaft, body occasionally scraping against the wall and suffering jolts of mana from the runes. By luck, the fall ended much shorter than he expected, hitting the ground from a story below.
He landed on his back, and felt pain whisper across his nerves for a few seconds. He heard footsteps approaching from all around, either his comrades approaching or more foes closing in on his location. A cold metal object tapped his boot, causing him to look forward. He saw a human thief, with a pleased look on his face, like he saw a new score.
Thinking quickly, the Black Mage reached for his glyphs and with as much dexterity he could muster threw them at the thief. One missed, while the other hit him in the shoulder, making him hurt a little.... Not at all the results the Black Mage anticipated. He concluded that these glyphs from above were not power sources to exploit. But whatever answer he would get would be an academic point; the job would be finished afterwards and he'd wash his hands of these events.
The thief got out his knife and had it right to the Black Mage's chest before a Blizzard spell was loosed. The target was reduced to an icy statue while the caster was stuck in an icy cage; alive, but immobilized.