The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Ingela

I have to conserve my mana as much as possible. Damn it.

This will be a battle of attrition. It would've been one thing if we were up against just one vampire. But this is a whole colony.

Well, at least those guys are weak. The only problem is that there are too many of them. Oh, wait.

"Yaci, come closer to me. I'll try something."

"Right!"

As she comes near, I start chanting an aria. I do it loudly, as I haven't trained it enough to cast silently. It's a weird and unwieldy spell, with too many variables, especially with this many enemies.

As I chant, Yaci keeps poking and cutting any undead that dares approach us.

Until I finally finish it, unleashing the spell.

All the skeletons in the room break down, the energy that lets them stand up breaking against the increased weight of the bones, which then scatter around.

The zombies resist a bit longer, but soon their putrid flesh also falls as they are dismantled under heavy weight.

"I did it!!!"

"Ugh... yeah... I think that you can release it already..."

Yaci is also on her knees, struggling to keep up."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!!!"

I end the effect of the spell, easing her struggle.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. That was great, Ingela. Is it one of Aurea's spells?"

"Yeah, she taught it to me last week. I never managed to actually pull it off before. I'm sorry that I caught you in the area of effect as well; I still have a way to go with the fine-tuning of it."

"No, no. It's okay. I'm better than I would be if I had to kill all those guys one by one in melee. Now we need to find a way to regroup with Lovelace. How's your mana?"

"I'm good, for now. I can still take some fights."

"Perfect. Can you sense Lovelace's mana? Like when tracking the vampire or something?"

"Good idea, Yaci. Let me check."

I close my eyes and draw in some deep breaths, trying to calm myself and focus.

Let me see... the magic energy in this room is pretty chaotic, like trying to see something through a tornado.

Oh, I see. The undead. Even after being destroyed, their bodies are still exuding mana. That's what's clouding everything.

"I can't see anything from inside this place. We need to get out of here, then I'll try again."

"Roger that. That door looks like the place from where the guests to this throne room enter. Let's go in that direction, then."

"Right."

It's a lead as good as any, and in the worst case scenario it will lead us directly outside.

To imagine that a complex like this existed below the capital.

Some of the bodies of these undead look like they've been dead for a long time before being raised. If this is all the work of that vampire, then he probably started creating all this when that dungeon first appeared, a bit more than five years ago.

So he is probably using the bodies of the already deceased instead of simply killing a lot of people. That makes a lot of sense. Probably he's been only killing the people he's using for those macabre rituals.

"Ingela, do you think that here's a good spot?"

"I think so..."

We're in the antechamber of the throne room. It seems that any guards that might have been here were drawn to us when we landed there.

Okay, let's try again... closing my eyes, taking some deep breaths, calming my mind... there, a... no, that's the vampire. He's coming in this direction but is still a bit far.

I'll continue increasing the range of my perception... at this point all gets a bit fuzzy, but I think I'll notice something as big as Lovelace's... Oh.

They're straight above but very far away. I can only faintly detect two presences. They're probably Lovelace and the demon still fighting, for me to be able to sense from this far.

"Yaci, they are at least one kilometer above us. But that's not the worst part."

"Not the worst part? What is?"

"The vampire is coming for us."

"Oh. How far?"

"Three hundred meters, at least. But I can't sense the layout of this labyrinthine place, so I have no idea how long it will be until he arrives."

"Good, we have some time to prepare, then. Rest a bit so you recover your mana. I'll push this furniture from here to make it easier for me to move around during the fight."

"Do you think that we can defeat him?"

"Of course we can. That was our goal from the beginning, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but we were with Lovelace..."

Also, I don't know how much longer the effects of the strengthening aria will last. If the aria fail on us while we're fighting that guy, we're fucked.

But watching that gorgeous woman moving the furniture around in a frenzy as she prepares for the battle is really firing me up.

The way her tail moves when she fights... also the way her ears move as she switches the focus of her attention. So damn hypnotic.

I never had any interaction with beastkin before they joined Aurea's army. Of course, I've seen some slaves here and there in the city, though always from a distance, as the commoner I am.

And this is my very first time alone with one... and it's her.

But I can't. She seems to already be into Aurea, and Aurea into her. I should not put myself between them. So, better focus on the coming battle.

"Do you remember how to kill a true vampire, Yaci?"

"Cut the head off and burn it to ashes, right?"

"Exactly. He's arriving."

Yaci takes position in front of me, but a bit to the left so I can have a straight line to unleash spells unto him as soon as he appears in that doorway.

"So, it seems that you two survived, after all. What a shame. I thought that the thing above was the only strong one among the king's minions."

I don't answer his provocations, instead launching a fireball to his face, right as Yaci jumps on him with the spear.