“If you prefer, your student can fight me.” A man stepped out of the cell behind the four dressed in burgundy. He looked similar, except that his robes were white with reddish trim the same shade as the others’ robes. “But I doubt you want that.”

He grinned and his robes started to glow with magic, which quickly spread to his sword. Serenity could tell that the man himself wasn’t controlling it; calling for it, probably, but not controlling it. It was “holy” magic, the magic of a deity granted to a follower. Exactly what it would do depended a great deal on the deity, but the fact that it took the form of white light told Serenity that it would probably be some combination of light, fire, and healing or life magic; those were by far the most common to be represented by white holy light. It would probably be very good against undead and the magic of Death and Darkness.

It was a good thing that Serenity wasn’t limited to those Affinities.

The man let his aura spread out as part of his open intimidation. It felt similar to Tirmanak’s; probably Tier Six. Serenity wouldn’t be confident in his ability to fight the man on his own, but he wasn’t alone. Even with four people who technically out-Tiered him in addition to Tirmanak’s Tier-match, Serenity was relatively confident in the fight. He might prefer to fight monsters, but he’d trained against humans for years in the Tutorial. Tirmanak was almost certainly trained to fight people as well; Order’s Guild wasn’t full of delvers, it was full of people who dealt with the problems people caused.

Serenity glanced at Tirmanak to find Tirmanak looking at him.

“Bottoms up?” Serenity offered. If they took out the lower-Tier people, he could let Tirmanak and the other man fight while he took the time to build a spell. It would also be far easier if they handled the four first. It wouldn’t be that simple, surely, but it was worth a try.

Tirmanak nodded sharply. “Go!”

They both sprang into action. It seemed to surprise their opponents, who had clearly expected the late arrival’s intimidation to have an effect other than pushing the Hands into an all-out assault.

It was almost as good as an ambush. Even though the four in red and black already had their swords out, Serenity and Tirmanak faced effectively no resistance to their first strike. Tirmanak didn’t move, while Serenity charged towards the enemy, closing the distance before they could react. Serenity’s first opponent took an ax in his neck, while both of the men Tirmanak handled during the same time were hit by a stream of Light-Affinity magic to the face.

It was clear that Tirmanak’s Concept of Light included heat or energy, because they weren’t simply blinded; serenity could see that the skin on one’s face had blackened and seemed somewhat charred; he fell down clutching his head and whimpering. Serenity was confident that Tirmanak hadn’t used a full-power attack; an undefended attack from a Tier Six against a Tier Three or Four would kill, not wound. Still, the man was out of the fight, and that was enough.

The other man must have gotten a lighter attack or been more resistant, because he wasn’t visibly harmed. The fact that he was stabbing viciously at thin air meant he was technically a threat, but only if Serenity got in his way.

Serenity turned to the last of the low-Tier opponents, but this time the man was prepared for him and managed to deflect the ax-blow with his sword.

Neither of them was prepared for the massive blast of “holy” light that hit them immediately afterwards, knocking them back towards Tirmanak. Serenity was shocked that anyone would use such a nasty attack so indiscriminately; he’d hit not only Serenity but all four of the men in red as well.

Serenity was flash-blinded, but he knew that wouldn’t last long. More importantly, his manasight and Eyeless Sight weren’t impacted at all. He felt a little singed, but otherwise uninjured, which showed just how impressive his Resistances were; they’d reduced an attack from someone double his Tier down to little more than a mild sunburn and momentary flash.

The spot on the floor where Serenity landed was quickly blanketed in a protective darkness; he wasn’t certain what the spell was, but it seemed to be some sort of concealment. He doubted it would hold against the enemy’s holy light, but it was probably all Tirmanak could do quickly. Serenity suspected that Tirmanak thought he was out of the fight and simply planned to see if he was salvageable later; Serenity looked forward to surprising him.

Serenity took advantage of the concealment to check the others who’d been hit by the blast; being hit from behind because one of them survived and he didn’t know it would be embarrassing. The first one Serenity found had landed wrong, hitting one of the cell bars head-first, snapping his neck. The second one was the one Serenity had killed.

Just past him was the man Serenity had been fighting, the one who hadn’t been injured before his ally’s indiscriminate blast. He had a broken arm and seemed to be breathing but was unconscious. Serenity pulled his pack out of his Rift and found some cord to tie the man up anyway, just in case. He was no healer to accurately judge how long someone with a knock on his head would be unconscious, or even to be certain if that was why he was unconscious.

Whimpering led Serenity to the man with a burned face. He didn’t seem to have picked up any other injuries, though Serenity was certain he had some bumps and bruises, but he was still curled up, covering his head. Serenity got a better look at his face this time, and knew that he could leave this one alone. Barring a Skill like Serenity’s Eyeless Sight or some very skilled healing, the man would never see again. He’d keep a little attention around himself in case the whimpering man managed to get himself together or the restrained man woke and freed himself, but for now he was safe enough.

Serenity turned his attention to the area beyond the concealment and was impressed at how well the ancient cells held up to the fight happening just outside them. Despite the Tier Six magic being thrown back and forth, they seemed to be as intact as when the fight started. It probably helped that both of the fighters were using a variation of Light affinity magic; while it often turned to heat, it wasn’t prone to cause huge explosions.

The opponent in white was definitely an exception to that rule of thumb. As Serenity watched, he could hear the boom whenever the other man threw a large Light blast. All Serenity could think was that he was deliberately superheating the air around where his attack hit; that could explain the sudden rush of air and why there weren’t massive burn marks on the others. He’d thought his Resistances protected him, but perhaps it was more his general resilience than anything else.

Serenity watched as he tried to figure out how to intervene helpfully. The two Tier Sixes seemed annoyingly equal; he’d have preferred if Tirmanak were openly superior, but he didn’t seem to be. In fact, if anything, Tirmanak was the one giving ground, if only slowly.

There had to be something Serenity could do to make a difference. Maybe something with gravity? No, his usual weight spell wouldn’t have a real effect on a Tier Six with even minor magical equipment. Even a magic-focused Tier Six should have equipment improving their body to the equivalent of a couple hundred in the physical attributes, and his gravity spell simply wasn’t that strong.

He might be able to trip the man, but he wasn’t moving much; both of the mages seemed to be relatively content to simply stand still and throw spells at each other. That was how mages were taught to cast when they could, so it made sense even if Serenity thought it was a poor use of a battlefield.

Empowering Tirmanak’s spells was out; that would require coordination or pre-planning. Trying to do that on the fly with a mage he’d never worked with before was a recipe for inefficient spells at the best. They might work very well, explode, or simply fizzle.

Perhaps he could interfere with the man in white’s spells? Interfering with an attack spell as it was cast was difficult, but if he had time, he could interfere with any of the continuous spells the man was using, possibly even the enchantments depending on how they were set up.

Serenity wondered if he could take down the man’s shield. If he could, even temporarily, it would turn the tide of the battle. It was worth a little risk for that, and the only real risk should be of getting noticed.

The first step was to figure out the spell. His persistent mana-sight from the Mana Elemental bloodline was somewhat helpful for that; he could see all of the details simply by looking. It wasn’t hugely different from his normal Mana Sight, except that he didn’t have to concentrate on it to keep it active, making it slightly faster and easier but no less accurate.

The shield was one of three continuously running spells the mage was managing; the other two were the ones that filled his robe and sword with light. Serenity didn’t understand why he was bothering to maintain the spell on the sword when he was clearly having a mage duel, so he started investigating the enchantment.

It was crude and simple, but still carried quite a bit of power; as far as he could tell, it provided an artificial boost to the man’s Light affinity. That made Serenity grumble; he knew the spell type, but didn’t consider them worthwhile. The mana spent on the spell was more than the mana saved by the higher efficiency of a higher Affinity, so it provided only a marginal benefit in spell power at an increased cost in both mana and concentration; simply pushing that mana into the original spell was generally enough to get a similar benefit. The only time it was worth it was when the secondary spell stretched an Affinity, and if you could do that, why didn’t you just stretch your Affinity?

Yet people used the spells, thinking they’d found a way to artificially increase their power. It was sad, because most of them never measured anything other than the baseline spell or Skill they were using it with, and thought they were getting a much larger benefit than they actually were.

The spell on the armor, on the other hand, was a solid defensive spell. It was also crudely built, but at least it was a good choice. It would serve as a decent backup even once the shield went down, so Serenity was glad he’d checked it. He’d need to have a counter for it available as well.

The shield was the most standard magic-only shield Serenity had ever seen. It was so standard that Serenity had to suppress laughter. Its spellform was also rough and unpolished, which made Serenity wonder if perhaps his standards were simply too high; it wasn’t like the man in white had been making shields for that long; they weren’t normally sustainable until about Tier Five, and he was only Tier Six. Maybe crude was to be expected.

There was no good way to get a message to Tirmanak; even if Serenity had said something, he probably wouldn’t have been understood over the near-constant noise made by the man in white’s spells. That meant he couldn’t tell Tirmanak to try something physical.

Serenity had a couple of options. The obvious way was to take care of it himself. Getting to the man in white might be difficult, but it was probably possible, and Serenity definitely had physical attacks that would manage an unshielded mage. The robe was a question, but he could deal with that and still attack. He’d probably have to pop the shield with his ax to get the robe-damaging spell through it, but that was doable. Unfortunately, stopping the spell on the robe wouldn’t be fast.

Alternatively, he could build two different spells; he’d need to take out the shield first, then the robe. That would give him time, and he wouldn’t have to dodge spells from both combatants. He’d need to juggle two similar spells at the same time, but he’d done that before. It would take a little longer to set up.