Chapter 499: Hindsight

“I’ve got twenty-three arrows left,” Kerr announced as her fingers brushed through the fletched ends sticking out of her last quiver. “Still have my Lustful Arrow as well, so that’s twenty-four. I can do Colossus Slayer one more time, maybe twice if my stamina regenerates enough in the next few minutes. Probably twice, thanks to Sorcha.”

“What if we get you some arrows from the soldiers?” Jay asked as she took the two hand axes Dys kept on her belt. “It wouldn’t take long to—”

“Imperials don’t use bows, they use crossbows, and those don’t work with my skills,” Kerr shook her head. Jay noticed a flicker of hesitation in her lover’s green eyes, but the archer seemed to mentally shake it off and pushed on. “There was a mercenary group back at the four-way. Bunch of therions. They’d have arrows, or another bow I can use since most arrows won’t fit well with my big ass twanger.”

“Right,” Jay nodded, looking to the south. “Might be worth rushing over for the resupply. I might even be able to steer Teg and the others this way. Depends on how far they pushed on their end.”

“Time is limited,” Aila nodded, her gaze unwavering as she stared in the direction of the Demon Prince. “The Demons are on the backfoot right now. Trying to kill you cost them momentum. But if we rush in before we’re ready, we’ll lose any advantage that we’ve gained.”

Jay agreed with Aila’s assessment. The tide of the demonic assault had definitely shifted in their favor, with many of the biggest enemy threats dead and the invading force pushed back significantly. However, the biggest threat by far was Vinea, who was still spewing forth a horde of mire hounds and other Demons. The Dead Head Matriarch was still alive, and at least two more Greater Demons were still on the field as well, one being the injured centipede, the other being a long-range attacker guarding the Demon Prince’s back. There was also the possibility of another matriarch on the other side of the river, which was a situation that could easily change once they launched their assault directly on Vinea. And of course, there could be other surprises they had no forewarning of at all waiting for them.

Running in headfirst without thinking was, ultimately, a bad idea. At the same time, the longer they waited, the greater the likelihood the Demons made some moves of their own. Or, almost as bad, the Demon Prince could retreat, and they lost their chance at taking out a major player in the enemy’s forces.

That consideration was why Jay and Dys were still on the roof, having a hasty discussion with Aila, Eir, Kerr, Sorcha, Alex and Meli about what they should do next. Dys had just come to her senses thanks to Eir’s healing, while Syd had leapt down into the fray to give Noll some relief. The old wolf looked injured and could use a boost, Jadis was sure, and she also wanted his opinion before they settled as well.

“My magic reserves are a little under one third at the moment,” Eir said as the last of her healing coursed through Dys, restoring Jadis to full capacity. “I have no more magic replenishment potions.”

“Here, take mine,” Sorcha said as she pulled a vial from her belt pouch. “I don’t need it as much as you.”

Taking the potion with a stressed smile, Eir downed the liquid in one gulp before continuing.

“I also used up the charge on my robes. I won’t be able to repulse attackers again unless I spend fifty magic points on it, which I hesitate to do considering my limited supply.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Dys said as she finished wiping her face clean of the majority of the muck that had caked it. “We’re going to need a lot more healing, I think. Also, Noll’s coming. I’m going down there now.”

As Dys jumped over the side of the building, giant axe in hand, Noll appeared on the roof. The second he landed, Eir was on him, pouring magic healing into the roughed-up old vet. He still looked mostly intact, but now that she had a closer view, Jay could see that his left eye was still squeezed shut and the fur around it looked like it had been gouged away. When he didn’t open the eye after a few seconds of Eir’s powerful healing, Jadis guessed that the ocular orb was completely gone and that Noll would need a true organ regeneration to get his missing eye back.

“I have eighty-five magic points at the moment, but I should have enough in a few more seconds to cast another Spectral Armor,” Aila said while Noll received his healing. “I think I should use it on you, Jay, since you don’t have your armor.”

“You have that much already?” Jay asked, surprised that the arcanist had recovered so much so quickly. “How?”

Aila’s reserves had been basically depleted at the time of the centipede’s ambush, thanks to her liberal use of magic bolts and arcane explosions earlier. She had taken the magic replenishment potion from Eir, which should allow her to recover one hundred magic points over the course of five minutes, but that wasn’t anywhere near enough for Aila to have so much magic back in her pool so fast. And unless the spectral lance or whatever it was had been ridiculously cheap to cast, Aila shouldn’t have so much left over after having recently cast the new spell.

“Details later, but one of the skills I took triples the amount of magic I recover,” Aila explained in brief. “Once the potion has run its course, I should have a total of one hundred and eighty points, not counting the small amount I recover naturally from my Will.”

“That’s assuming you use Spectral Armor on Jadis,” Sorcha said as she fiddled with her paralyzing wand in her hands. “Maybe it should be saved for more explosions?”

“No,” Aila shook her head. “Jadis needs the defenses since she’s missing armor, especially if she is going to be getting in melee range of the Demon Prince. Besides, it should affect all three of her bodies, not just her Jay body. The magic is better spent on her.”

Aila made a good point, one that Jadis saw no reason to disagree with. However, her thoughts weren’t on the redhead’s plan so much as they were on the power of the skill Aila had picked up mid-fight. Tripling the amount of magic she recovered was a massively useful skill, something that wasn’t only useful in the moment, but would make it so that Aila could cast far, far more spells in future encounters. She’d effectively have three times the pool to work with, using just one magical canteen of Jadis’ “magic potion” to replenish her.

If Aila had gotten such a powerful skill, Jadis could have as well. The temptation for her to check her levels and see if she had received something that could change the tide was too much. She had to check her notifications, at least what she had earned for her Mirror Knight class. She could skip her Ritualist and Progenitor classes, since they were less likely to have a skill that would be immediately usable without some kind of time-consuming ritual requirement. A new skill or spell from Mirror Knight, however, could make the difference between success and failure.

“She’s right,” Noll inserted his input as Eir pulled her hands away from his arm. The conversation continued around her, even if Jay was distracted with her own thoughts. “We need to keep up the attack on our side. I need you with me, Jadis. We go straight at the prince.”

“Then that’s settled. I’ll cast on Jadis as soon as I can,” Aila stated resolutely. “We need a better plan than just you two running straight at the Demon Prince, though. The way south is looking clear from here now that the Demons aren’t pouring through. We might be able to lead more soldiers this way if we send someone to inform them.”

“I’ll go,” Meli said before Jay could tell them that she would handle the run. “I’m fastest. Other than Jadis and Noll. They need to keep fighting, so I’ll go.”

“There are still Demons on the road,” Aila frowned at the Dryad. “Including that piece of scum centipede. It’ll be dangerous.”

“I will go,” Meli reiterated. “I won’t let them catch me.”

Jadis wanted to argue against letting Meli play the messenger, but even while distracted she could see the reasoning. Jadis’ link to her bodies likely wouldn’t stretch far enough for her to send just one self south down the road, and if all three of her left, then the others ran the risk of being overrun while she was gone. If Severina was there, she would have been the better option since she could fly, but the paladin was still attacking Vinea with the other Seraphim. Meli was the next best choice for message delivery.

“Okay,” Jay nodded at the Dryad. “Get Tegwyn, his team, and also see if you can bring those therions from the intersection we saw before. Or at least grab a bow and some arrows form them. Bring anyone who can push up to this point.”

Meli nodded once, then dashed off in a blur as she wasted no time in performing her mission.

“Now, do we have an actual plan of attack on hitting the Demon Prince, or are we just going at it full force?” Jay asked everyone else.

“Fuck if I know,” Kerr grumbled as she shot one of her few remaining arrows at a higher value target. “Twenty-two. Get me close, and I can put this empowered arrow right up that motherfucker’s nose. I bet that’ll sting.”

“We might be able to manage that,” Aila said, her thoughts clearly racing through her head. “What if we—”

Jadis only paid half-attention to the plan that Aila outlined, not because it wasn’t important, but because she had resolved herself to filter through her notifications and find any level ups she might have for her Mirror Knight class. With her Dys and Syd self in the middle of combat, it meant Jay’s attention was split between listening to the others talk and reading the many, many messages that were built up in her brain. There was no sorting feature, which was an absolute travesty so far as Jadis was concerned. Next time she had a conversation with D, she’d be bringing the lack of efficiency up as an official complaint.

Regardless of how many notifications there were, Jadis was still sorting through them at the speed of thought, and with her thinking speed enhanced by her extremely high Agility stat, she was able to start picking out the level-up notifications from amidst the many “Demon Defeated” messages. She noticed there were quite a few for her tertiary class since when she had come into the battle, Progenitor of the Succubi was only level six. Other than a cursory glance, she skipped those announcements in favor of finding any notifications for her solitary battle-oriented class, Mirror Knight. When she found the first one, she saw that it was the expected jump from level thirty-five to thirty-six.

Jadis immediately put the two attribute points into her Eldritch stat. While the little boosts were nice since they affected most of her stats and improved the main attributes of her lovers, they weren’t what she was looking for. She didn’t ignore the free points, but she wasted not a second of consideration since her brain power was best put towards absorbing the discussion between Aila and Noll, while also reading through some actual skills.

Skimming through the descriptions of the two new skills made available to her, Jadis immediately discarded them. Both were stat-related, which meant they weren’t the make-or-break sorts of skills she was looking for.

Knight’s Font of Power was a straight boost to stats she made regular use of, and it came with a nice bonus effect for whenever she got badly hurt. However, considering her already huge stat pool, she really wasn’t hurting for those attribute points. She could see someone with a more regular Knight class taking the option, but for her, there were better choices available to her.

The same could be said for Mirror Knight’s Changing Facets, though Jadis recognized that it was a powerful skill, even with her limited time for consideration. Being able to switch her Strength out to Fortitude for a short duration could turn her already impressive tanking abilities into something truly impenetrable. Still, it wasn’t a better option that a previous skill made available to her. With only a couple of seconds to review her decision, Jadis made her choice.

Jadis had skipped Break the Bulwark previously in favor of Cursed Reflection, which was a decision that she didn’t regret. While she hadn’t needed to use the spell yet, having a means to fight back against a powerful spell caster was insurance she was happy to buy. That said, Jadis dearly wished she had had access to Break the Bulwark during her fight against the possessed karkinos. As costly as the skill was on her stamina, Jadis was sure that she could have ended the fight against the giant crab much sooner and taken far less damage to herself in the process, if she had possessed the powerful anti-defenses skill. She wouldn’t be able to spam the attack, not with how much stamina it needed to activate, but with Sorcha’s spell coursing through her veins, Jadis was pretty sure she could have taken on the possessed crab and blasted through some of the Dead Head Matriarch’s shields too. The whole fight might have gone drastically different if she’d been able to use Break the Bulwark.

Of course, hindsight would always be twenty-twenty. Jadis didn’t have the time or inclination to linger on what could have been. Instead, she took the previously overlooked skill and moved on, checking to see if she had accrued enough levels in Mirror Knight to get one more.

Jadis distributed the next couple of attribute points into her Eldritch stat once more, paying little attention to the effects it had on her overall status sheet. Instead, she focused on sifting through more notification, hoping to find that Mirror Knight had gained at least one more level.

“Are you leveling up right now?” Aila asked, catching Jay’s attention. “I felt my attributes change.”

“Yes,” Jay quickly admitted, her eyes unfocused as she read through the next new skill made available to her. “I’m still listening, though. You’re right, we need get Severina and at least one more Seraphim over here to help with some aerial support.”

“Right,” Aila nodded, a slight look of surprise on her face to see that Jadis could multitask so well despite just one of her bodies being present.

“I can get their attention,” Noll said, pushing past the moment as he directed their attention back to the conversation at hand. “What about—”

Jadis resumed her consideration of the skill she had been presented, letting Noll and the others sort out what they were going to do about the possibility of one or more greater foes moving in to defend the Demon Prince.

While Jadis’ first instinct was to dismiss the skill, the same as she had all previous weapon-based mastery skills, she paused for just a moment. Multi-Armament Mastery was a skill that seemed to be tailor made for her. Not many other people would be wielding more than one weapon of varying types at a time the way she did. If she took the skill, there was a good chance she could progress it further at higher levels, greatly increasing the damage she did no matter what weapons she happened to have at hand, so long as at least two were in different categories. Considering how her mentor was able to slice through things with his blades that she couldn’t, despite her massive Strength stat, she guessed that Noll had a weapon mastery skill, which probably made a big difference. Skipping over Multi-Armament Mastery was no longer a given when Jadis thought of it that way.

Despite her attempt at prudence and forward thinking, all thought of taking the weapon-centric skill went right out the window as soon as Jadis read her next option.

“Okay. I think I have a new spell that can help us fight the Demon Prince…”

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