218 218 Arrows Have Advantages
Wolfe inspected his Inheritance runes, which would now mostly rearrange themselves to show him what he wanted to read, except for a few sections which were still incomplete.
[Familiar Witch Lv5] Ella Mariel
[Familiar Witch Lv5] Cassie Noxus
[Bound Familiar Lv5] Stephanie Isabel
[Blood Pact Lv2] Priya Lulabeth
[Blood Pact Lv5] Mary Morris
[Pentacle Complete]
ƥαṇdαηθνε|
[Age] 18
[Minimum Standards]
[Basic Body Augmentations] Incomplete
[Basic Defensive Magic] Learned
[Basic Attack Magic] Learned
[Basic Utility Magic] Learned
[Basic Array Creation] Incomplete
The basic body augmentations were in effect, according to the spellbook, they were only taking time to reform his body as much as they could, but he now had three of the other four basic categories for the first year of his practice learned.
He was doing fairly well with the basics of arrays, but he hadn’t had time to go through the whole spell book and see what he was missing for basic arrays and array theory.
The repulsion barrier that Katerina the Faerie had wanted to set up was not in the basic spells list, and Wolfe reluctantly gave up on making his own version for now. He would focus on the basics instead. He had gotten through the illusionary abilities and some of the defensive ones, but there was a barrier for each element on the list, and the [Gravity Barrier] looked particularly useful against the mundane army.
According to the description, it had both a hard and soft mode. The soft mode would use gravity to redirect objects, so he wouldn’t have to deal with the damage of the artillery exploding. He could let the array alter their trajectory to move them away from the Den and let them explode somewhere else.
That would save them a huge amount of mana while defending the base since most of the shells exploded on impact and not with timers or proximity triggers.
If he set that up around the Den, it could withstand a sustained tank barrage nearly indefinitely with their current numbers, so Wolfe set to work on his new [Whiteboard] to get the array just right.
It was more subtle and intricate than the hard mode, but it gave him great ideas for his [Gravity Armour] component of the five-layered armour spells. Subtle redirection, projected around the user like an aura, would give a Kung Fu master-level ability to redirect all incoming attacks with your bare hands.
You wouldn’t actually get hit, so the user could swipe aside blades, claws and even large monsters with a wave of their hand or send them flying with a simple kick since the aura would change gravity around them and throw them off balance.
The usages were just as hilarious as they were practical.
But that could wait until the next time he was in battle. One by one, Wolfe worked through the variety of barriers in the basic arrays section of his spellbook until he had managed to get each to activate and satisfy the training requirements for them.
He had already been doing well in the area of effect-increasing array arrangement, so the next portion was the concentration array. No, not the mental effect. This would increase the density of an array, giving an effect multiple times that of the original spell to a much smaller area.
Again Wolfe’s mind went to martial arts, and he chuckled at the thought of [Thousand Fist Punch], a killing move in one of his favourite fighting games.
Using the concentration array formations, he really could do it. Just stack gravity magic until a single punch could knock holes in the main armour of a tank.
Perhaps the helper spell was right. With this sort of combat power, it wouldn’t have taken many Magi to deal with a mundane army. How were they supposed to deal with a bulletproof monk who could body-slam a main battle tank and kick an APC over the horizon?
He was definitely going to try that at some point. Hiding was better, but on the day when he couldn’t shoot them from a safe spot, he was definitely going on a rampage through the armoured vehicles.
Wolfe went out to the storage area, where the Witches had thousands of arrows stored in case of attack, and grabbed a quiver full to practice on. He had been handing out enchanted bullets for the locals to use, but arrows were better in some ways.
They were shorter range but silent and large enough that he could actually stack enchantments on them. Even better, they were somewhat recoverable, so they could be energized and used again if the user was a Witch or Demon.
The first test he tried was seven stacks of [Wind Blades], the most basic of hunting spells. Using the Concentration Array, they would only make a tiny, fist-sized hole, but with the penetrating power of all seven spells.
That wouldn’t cut the target into bits and leave chunks in the snow, and it would work better than the bullets against targets with very thick hide or hardened scales.
He didn’t have anything to test it on and didn’t actually know how to use a bow, but Wolfe carefully enchanted and tested the entire quiver and then went looking for a patrol group.
He would send them hunting while they were out, and they could report back on the effectiveness of his special arrows. They would still need mana to use, but drawing the bow and firing took some time, so they should be able to channel fast enough without needing to hesitate for the spells to complete.
At least, they could if they were strong enough. This wouldn’t really be an option for a beginner witch who struggled to activate one instance of the spell at a time.
Priya was headed out with the next group, intending to go with them to investigate the news of a small human group moving quickly through the Frozen Wastes. It wasn’t a full army unit, so it was a lower priority, but a patrol group could take it out easily enough.
“Take this and a bow with you. They have a concentrated [Wind Blades] Array on them that I want you to test on a hard target, like a large monster.” Wolfe explained.
“Got it. I’m not sure we will come across anything, but if we do, I will let you know how your new toy works.” She told him with a wink.
If she took those arrows as an actual toy, she was in for a real shock.