The hood of the Blue Mage was drawn back, revealing the head beneath. Under the hood was a Yomotsan man in his thirties. No, that wasn’t right. If the Blue Mage was a Transmigrator, that meant he was from Earth, so it would be more accurate to say he looked Korean. His physique was unusually muscular for a [Mage], and his eyes blazed with a sharp, cruel intelligence.

  For the first time, I was able to see his eyes. Almost automatically, I activated [Observe]. To my shock, it actually worked, and the Blue Mage’s character sheet appeared before my eyes.

  Name: Alexander Lee

  Class: Card Master

  Level: 61

  HP: 858

  MP: 250

  Fortitude: 26

  Strength: 23

  Agility: 25

  Intelligence: 24

  Willpower: 15

  Charisma: 18

  There it was, the Blue Mage’s name: Alexander Lee. Based on his name, age, appearance, and accent, he must have been an Asian-American who was in his early twenties when the Cagliostro collapsed. Other than his name, my use of [Observe] produced little new information. I didn’t know the specifics of what a [Card Master] was, but I remembered vaguely that players of [Ferrum Online] could unlock through a special event somewhere on the continent of Saxum.

  Alexander the Blue Mage slashed at King Theophrastus several times, though the King easily caught each blow on the flat of his blade. With the blade unsheathed, I recognized Alexander’s sword as Cloudrazor, the legendary sword wielded in the future by Merrick Feldrast. Where the Hell did he find that? In his other hand, Alexander held a ring of small relics linked together with thick beads like a Catholic rosary.

  There was a shining necklace on Alexander’s neck, blazing with the silver energy of magic. I could tell from the sigils around the necklace that it drew only a small amount of mana from the caster. On his arms, the Blue Mage wore two bracers that were inscribed with multiple lines of arcane script. These bracers were temporarily inert, but their position implied defensive significance.

  As I watched, the King’s sword flashed forward, faster than any normal man could hope to react. I expected to see Alexander attempt to block the attack or react at all, but he did nothing. The point of the King’s blade flew toward the Blue Mage’s heart, and something happened so fast that I had a hard time processing it.

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  It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try to break it down step-by-step. Just before, the King’s blade struck, one of Alexander’s bracers lit up, and the Blue Mage soundlessly popped out of existence. Less than half a second later, he reappeared a few centimeters to the right, and the attack missed him completely.

  As this happened, Cloudrazor buzzed through the air, and the King was struck in the chest. The blow was weakened by the King’s armor, but Alexander still drew blood.

  I grit my teeth as a dark realization caused my stomach to sink. Alexander was using an I-frame exploit, a glitch in the System of [Ferrum Online] that the developers decided to keep in the game because competitive players liked it. When someone cast the [Blink] spell, they would disappear immediately and reappear somewhere else 0.4 seconds later. If the caster then canceled the spell in those 400 milliseconds, they would reappear in the same place they started. Alexander hadn’t just played the game; he was an expert.

  Without warning, a crest of red rose up in front of me, and the horse underneath me began to buckle. I flicked my wand once, casting the [Fly] spell before I crashed to the ground. For a moment, I flew weighless through the air with my horse and the liters of blood that flowed out of its gaping neck wound. With a conjured gust of wind, I pushed myself away from the blood and viscera. The dead horse left my bubble of weightlessness, and it cartwheeled to the ground in a darkly comedic show of gore and death.

  “What!?” I uttered as I flew through the air.

  The stale light of stopped time gripped the world once more, and I looked around frantically. Alexander and Theophrastus continued fighting in the air, but everything else had been transformed into a chaotic painting that reminded me of antique Grecian urns.

  Behind me, the necks of Eadric and Miriam’s horses had been slashed, and my two allies had fallen to the ground. Eadric had lifted himself onto one knee, though Miriam was still flat on her back, covered in blood. David and Haydith’s horses were untouched, however.

  A blur of silver and white in the shape of a lunging soldier flew toward me. There was no time for me to evade, but I could still defend myself. I swung a Wind Knife at my attacker, drawing some blood but failing to halt the soldier’s momentum.

  The man was moving too fast for my Shield to stop the attack completely, so I reached out with the Ring of Etron and frantically started pulsing mana into its silver form.

  The attacker suddenly stopped, his momentum halted by ancient magic. With my attacker suddenly halted, I could determine his identity. Holding a blade pointed at my heart, Prince Erasmus Polaris floated a meter away from me.

  For the moment, both of us were held in place by the Ring of Etron. I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t move my lips. I couldn’t even move my chest enough to breathe. Neither of us could move, but I could still use my Talent. I summoned four sparks of Hellfire next to Prince Erasmus and commanded them to fill the space holding Erasmus and me with as much fire as possible. I couldn’t breathe anyway, so a little extra heat meant little to me.

  Just as the flame reached Erasmus, time resumed. I could only tell because the messy sound of horse guts crashing against cobblestone emanated from behind me. Even with time resumed, I continued holding Erasmus in place and dousing him with as much fire as possible.

  DAMAGE DEALT: 92

  The effect of the Ring of Etron ended as Erasmus managed to apply enough force to fill the ring’s battery. An instant later, I felt the feedback as Erasmus escaped from my ball of Hellfire.

  I commanded the flames to recede, and the figure of Erasmus standing with his sword raised appeared in front of me. He stood between us and the ongoing battle, making it clear that we would need to go through him if we wanted to reach the King.