Overpowered Wizard

Wallenberg had to beg Princess Bianca to let him down from her shoulder to avoid the horror of emptying his stomach on her person.

Once back on his feet, he remained steady with the help of Princess Bianca. Someone else passed him a cup that could fit well in human hands instead of handing him another troll mug.

He smelled water and drained the entire cup to quench his ravaging thirst, then a smooth and red hand took the cup from him and refilled it with a waterskin.

Only then did Wallenberg recognize the hands belonging to Para. The living cloak helped hydrate him, which cleared his head with every draught.

As he drank cup after cup of water, he still couldn’t believe what had just transpired. Four humans had defeated four immense and hardy trolls in their own game, in which nobody should be able to do while drinking the foul troll beer.

And he’d ended up being one of those humans!

He’d survived when he should’ve died or fallen out. He avoided the fate of becoming a squishy, fun toy for some giant troll girl.

He’d ended up on the winners’ side, which was humanity’s side. And he had new notifications from the Star System waiting for him.

“Don’t check!” Princess Bianca shouted at him.

The power of her charm and compulsion hit him like a flying wall. Wallenberg froze like a prey animal who feared the coming of a predator.

“Chill, Bianca, or you’ll scare out all of his life energy,” Lord Zarian said, chuckling.

The black lord was leaning against Lady Naomi’s side, who seemed to not mind his untoward manner on her person. Lady Naomi still occupied herself with her psychic sword.

Lady Hannah had taken the point position, leading them toward their next catastrophe in waiting. They were on the main street that would take them to the Death Lord Mega Manor.

When Wallenberg felt it was okay to move again, he drew in a deep breath and found the Willpower to speak despite the quiver in his voice. “Why shouldn’t I check my notifications?”

Princess Bianca shot him an apologetic look, which surprised Wallenberg, before she answered his question. “It’s because you might gain more if you wait a little longer. We haven’t checked our notifications for weeks, so the Star System has our gains and rewards stocked up.”

“It’s compounding with a little extra interest, too,” Lord Zarian added. “Of course, there will come a point when the Star System is going to want us to check or it might reduce extra gains or stop delivering completely. So the best solution is to check before and after major events.”

“It shouldn’t matter too much for you, Wally,” Lady Hannah said. “You’re still at a level where every update and reward matters. But we’re further ahead and we need to take more extreme measures to maintain an aggressive growth plan.”

“Still, he can try it out with us before we part ways,” Princess Bianca said. “Especially after the ball!”

Wallenberg felt his heart drop into his stomach at the thought of parting ways with the foreigners. He was still under the influence of troll beer, so he wasn’t thinking as clearly as he should, but he suddenly found himself attached to them.

The foreign lords, foreign ladies, and their foreign princess had come into his life like a storm, uprooted everything, and now they were saying they would simply leave him to fend for himself in the end.

But how would he exist after everything that happened?

“Hey, don’t be sad.” Princess Bianca touched Wallenberg on the cheek, which made him freeze up again. “Everything is going to be a-okay, right, Zarian?” 𝙍

“Yup.”

Princess Bianca nodded before beaming a bright smile down at Wallenberg. “Come on, we’re going to have some last bit of fun. You have seen nothing crazy yet. You’re going to enjoy this.”

The princess gave him a wink and a soft pat on the shoulder.

Wallenberg tried not to feel smitten. But he was under the influence, quite weary, and emotionally drained.

He didn’t have enough Willpower to endure Princess Bianca’s charm, although he suspected she was playing softly with him or she would’ve easily turned him into a loyal dog. Instead, Wallenberg glanced down, only feeling a little shy while slightly under her spell.

“Wally! You’re blushing! That’s so cute.” Princess Bianca was both kind and cruel, as she patted him some more on the shoulder.

Yet, she didn’t separate herself from his person. Instead, she gently looped her arm around his and pulled him along at a quick, but manageable, pace.

Her longer strides required some work on his part to keep up with, so Wallenberg entered an awkward jog where he stepped twice for every one of her steps. To help distract himself from being bound by the arm with a literal princess, Wallenberg thought back to a new revelation about the Star System.

You could stock up and compound gains by not checking your notifications? And the Star System can become more involved with this? I didn’t know that was an option.

Wallenberg found the information shocking and intriguing.

It makes little sense to do such a thing when you need every advantage to survive. Well, at my level, I suppose we can’t afford to skip notifications much. But I imagine for those higher in the levels they need every edge they can get for growth.

Wallenberg was still struggling to come to terms with such a tactic.

How did anyone have the self-discipline to not check their gains when they freely could?

Such discipline was beyond most people. Such discipline required an elite or powerful mindset. Or it required a mindset that was so crazily determined, nobody should ever wrong the people who came equipped with such determination.

Still, wouldn’t such major events they speak about happen every year or couple of years? How often do they face such monumental events where they can avoid upsetting the Star System with their hoarding of notifications and rewards?

“How much longer will you wait?” Wallenberg mumbled.

“Hm? Oh? Do you mean when we will check our stuff?” Princess Bianca asked. “Before we take down the Prime Archbishop and the Grimrock Warlock. Oh, and a bad, bad adventurer who’s a big hater. Maybe the biggest hater.”

“Nah! No way! I’m the biggest hater,” Lord Zarian grouched. “But I suppose that bad, bad adventurer has some decent hatred that might be second to mine.”

Wallenberg tripped over his own feet.

The princess was kind enough to help him stay upright instead of letting him fall flat on his face. Continuing his jog beside her long strides, Wallenberg’s sluggish mind pushed harder to consider what he’d just learned.

He wanted to say such ambitions were foolish.

Despite being a goblin, the Grimrock Warlock was under Shadowfell’s protection, and nobody had ever come close to defeating her. The current Prime Archbishop was said to be the strongest the Stalwart Paladin Kingdom ever had to lead their regime.

Then there were the rumors Wallenberg had heard from passing travelers and adventurers of a murderous and furious man of unstoppable power. A man who used his good aligned abilities over starlight to hunt other men, beast, and monsters in equal measure and annihilate them without mercy.

This man was so murderous that even evil aligned adventurers found his actions heinous and extreme!

The Grimrock Warlock, the Prime Archbishop, and the furious man were three powerhouses said to be the equivalent of the Death Lords, and that it was by the grace of higher divine powers they hadn’t come down from Grimrock and attacked Crossdeath just yet. Or the resulting battles would be so terrific and tragic that nothing in the long and dark history of Crossdeath would ever compare.

Wallenberg tried to explain this to the foreigners as best he could despite his drunkenness.

“Mm, nah, you got it wrong,” Lord Zarian said.

“What do you mean?” Wallenberg asked.

“The Death Lords are far weaker,” the black lord said. “This city is mostly reliant on their connection to Carrowmore. Or I would’ve been more concerned about Crossdeath prior to reaching it. It is still a useful city, even if a little too cartoonishly evil for my taste. I bet it would get much better once it gets spruced up and made more modern with some freedom.”

Wallenberg decided there was nothing much he could say anymore. There was no convincing a man who would call the Death Lords ‘far weaker’ in any capacity and talk about some fantastical thing called ‘freedom.’

The black lord was truly mad.

Instead of arguing with Lord Zarian, Wallenberg took a risk and leaned into the princess. He still felt shameful and doubtful of his position, but instead of getting thrown aside like a dirty rag, Princess Bianca entertained him.

She accepted his leaning as if they were … a pair!

She giggled, of course, which made Wallenberg’s embarrassment feel nearly unbearable. But he wasn’t one who would normally be arm-in-arm with a princess every day.

So if a little ribbing was the sacrifice he had to accept to enjoy the ultimate attention a young man like him could have from a woman of absolute royalty, then so be it.

Besides, the road leading to the mega manor was a beautiful sight despite taking them to the last stop on their tour and in life. The vast wealth of the nobles was on full display.

The streets were made of checker patterned cobblestone of black metal and solid gold. Magical lamp posts of sophisticated designs ran on each side of the street and lit up the area with a bright whitish violet glow.

Metallic gardens with obsidian and fossilized plants situated themselves every few blocks. Between the gardens rose massive cottage-style homes made of hard stone and even harder wood sourced from high-quality trees far north.

Manors of all sorts sat on man-made hills, some with tall stone walls or tall thorny hedges surrounding their grounds.

Petty Lords of high social and economic standings laughed, danced, and listened to bardic music openly. They held delightful events on their manicured lawns or within their home-built ballrooms with their windows open.

They had their lavish and rich holdings on full display, having nothing to fear from those who were barred from such enlightenment.

Even the street elevation rose gradually toward the mega manor, placing them above the districts that were lower and considered less valuable. The district where nobles and rulers lived and lorded their power over everyone else stood the highest in the city.

Wallenberg looked back occasionally and could spot the dark, patchy, and haphazardly clustered district where he had to share a small shack with three other young men around his age.

His living space was a dingy shanty place near the wall. It was a place that didn’t stick out to nobles of high esteem who lived grand lives close to the mega manor.

Wallenberg remembered the lean months where the fort farms surrounding the central city had failed to produce adequate food. He’d remembered young boys trying to find scraps to eat and risking their lives by crossing an invisible line between the haves and the have-nots.

It was during those times the highest ranking officers of the Crossdeath Militia would strike. Many of those hungry and desperate urchins hadn’t returned alive.

“Oh, would you look at that? They’ve finally caught a clue,” Lord Zarian said.

Wallenberg looked ahead. His soul would’ve left his body if it wasn’t for Princess Bianca’s undaunted confidence.

Barring the way to the mega manor, fifty men and women stood. All of them had the purple plumes on their helmets, marking them as officers. Worse yet, these plume-wearing officers had gold and black crosses on their breastplates.

These fifty were the Crossdeath Knights, placing them in a higher echelon above the captains. They were some of the strongest martial human fighters who would sometimes benefit from the personal tutelage of the Berserk Death Lord.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“The militia had done nothing up to this point,” Wallenberg said shakily. “Why now? Is it for the ball? Maybe they’re just a show of force.”

“No, they’re looking directly at us. Oh, now they’re heading straight to us with swords and axes drawn. And they look like they really mean business, as in the murdering and blood-shedding business,” Lord Zarian narrated with a smile.

“We’re dead,” Wallenberg said.

“Nah, we’re Floridian,” the black lord replied. “Now go on ahead, Hannah. Go release some steam.”

Wallenberg’s eyes grew wide.

They couldn’t be serious!

Lord Gilbert should be the one leading the charge, even if it was a foolhardy one. But the trolls had taken Lord Gilbert away for further merriment that would kill most mortal men, leaving the foreigners without their most obvious upfront warrior.

How could the smallest of the foreigners lead the way?

She was an intellectual, wasn’t she? A woman of the craft!

This was far outside of her element!

Yet Lady Hannah didn’t seem to share Wallenberg’s opinions. She twisted about as if to relieve some kink in her neck and prepare for battle.

“Finally.” Lady Hannah stalked forward like a demented warrior. “I saw that look on your face, Wally. I know what you’re thinking. But I didn’t use to be like this.”

Lady Hannah shook her head as she closed the distance. “I had to be this way. All for the sake of more power.”

“More power!” Lord Zarian cheered.

“Go, Hannah, go!” Princess Bianca cheered.

“It’s almost ready,” Lady Naomi said cryptically from the back while still focused on her psychic sword forging and not on anything else. “The greatest sword to ever sword. A sword that’ll go Even Further Beyond! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Wallenberg wanted to call out this madness, but in the next few moments, he saw such violence that was so shocking his evil alignment was not nearly high enough to help him understand the barbarity Lady Hannah could dish out.

The Crossdeath Knight at the front of the formation demanded for the surrender of the foreigners. Or they would face a most painful death instead of a quick death.

Ignoring those orders, Lady Hannah jogged forward, whirling her arm back, and then slinging her arm forward. An oblong object that was as long as she was tall somehow appeared in her hand.

To Wallenberg, it materialized from almost nowhere and whirled forward faster than a crossbow bolt.

Then the fighting truly began when an immense explosion blasted the black and gold cobblestones at the front of the Crossdeath Knights.

The explosion would’ve sent Wallenberg falling backward if Princess Bianca hadn’t wrapped him up in her arms and stood to his defense by placing herself in front of him.

Instead of feeling embarrassed or emasculated, Wallenberg looked around Princess Bianca and watched Lady Hannah persist with her direct and explosive attack.

Axes. She really is fighting at the front with axes! Wallenberg was gobsmacked.

And Lady Hannah was mad.

Amid the smoke and raining debris from the first explosion, Lady Hannah bulldozed straight into the mess.

On her path, a female Crossdeath Knight screamed for help while crawling in the rubble, her legs blown off, blood pouring profusely down her face. The knighted woman reached up for help.

She found an axe blade lopping off the top half of her face and helmet.

Lady Hannah’s axe swing came down so hard it struck the demolished street and cleaved ever deeper past the dead female knight. But the mad woman didn’t even bother yanking it out to carry with her.

Instead, she flipped over the axe handle and left it behind. She careened toward the next Crossdeath Knight who was staggering to his feet.

Another axe materialized into Lady Hannah’s hand. Icy enchantments glowed brightly along the edges of the sharpened crescent blade. The mad woman swung down and hewed deep into her latest victim.

Wallenberg choked on the air as he watched the newly created axe disregard protective enchantments. The axe even disregarded hardy metal plates made from the enriched and heavy molten metal from the Slag River.

The only reason the Crossdeath Knight remained upright was because of his high vitality. But even that seemed like a trivial issue to Lady Hannah.

The axe glimmered with icy light while inside the demolished torso of the nearly hacked-in-half knight. The poor man staggered in horror before becoming the center of a large glacial mound of ice.

The timing of that icy magic was either tactically remarkable or pure luck, because the glacial mound blocked a thunderous volley of retaliation magic from the knights.

The knights who stayed further back or recovered themselves the fastest after the explosion used powerful ranged skills that added a deadly adaptability to their martial classes.

Wallenberg felt every massive impact as the street shook violently. It was like having shockwave after shockwave roll over him as the barrage persisted.

Through the noise, Wallenberg heard nobles cry out in alarm from within their homes. The violent bombardments and resulting quakes dislodged delicate wares from their placement around their lavish lodgings and sent them tumbling down, shattering in some cases.

Wallenberg felt the most shaken and dislodged from everything he knew. Princess Bianca continued to protect him with her body while they remained out on the street.

It was almost tempting to close his eyes and wait out the battle. But Wallenberg couldn’t bring himself to look away.

Lady Hannah’s madness only grew greater and angrier!

Before her temporary glacial cover disintegrated completely, Lady Hannah thrust her hands back down the street toward her fellow company. A twenty-foot long and rectangular ditch that was ten feet deep appeared suddenly along the cobblestone street between her and her companions.

Wallenberg gawked as dust-like particles swirled above the ditch and in front of Lady Hannah’s hands. The particles combined into an immense axe that was larger than the biggest troll.

Giant axe made, Lady Hannah wasted no time in turning toward the knights. But her glacial cover had met its end by then!

She took half a dozen aggressive steps forward and soaked numerous ranged attacks. Cruel black lightning, soul-ripping purple flames, flesh-ripping gray winds, orange-hot magma balls, and many, many more attacks battered the front of her person.

That should’ve been the end of her.

But with a war scream that was uncharacteristic of such a woman, Lady Hannah blitzed through the elemental barrage. Her charge remained undaunted. Her grit remained indomitable. She moved with such might, such toughness, and such speed that Wallenberg felt as if she was cheating somehow.

Then she topped off her unbreakable charge by chucking the giant axe sideways and sending it whirling parallel with the street with only three feet of clearance.

The Crossdeath Knights standing in the path of the spinning axe lunged into the air. That would’ve been a sound tactic on most occasions.

Somehow, Wallenberg knew that was a grave mistake before the enchantments on the axe head glowed with a powerful purple light. Just like that, the axe spelled doom for the aerial knights.

An uncanny force reached out with so much power, Wallenberg found himself nearly yanked away.

Princess Bianca’s grip on him remained unbroken. But nobody helped secure the aerial knights like the princess secured Wallenberg.

The mighty purple force yanked many of the knights straight onto the axe blade. The giant weapon had already chopped into the street at an angle, but the pull of its purple magic remained nearly undeniable.

Male and female knights screamed. They smashed together at full tilt speeds. Their armor clamored heavily. More and more smashed into each other and held fast, becoming a ball of plates, leather, and squirming limbs.

The other knights who remained free of the purple force couldn’t dare help their colleagues. They placed their own wellbeing above the trapped ones, their weapons stabbed into the street as they rooted down for dear life.

Lady Hannah’s merciless approach only spelled further doom than this. She materialized and chucked more axes similar to the first.

Each one erupted at the end with a thunderous effect. The street rocked. Windows shattered. Limbs and debris flew far and hard.

The nearest noble homes had their walls, roofs, and ramparts tested and failed. Rooftops and foundations crumbled and collapsed. The nearest nobles screamed as they ended up under the falling deluge of stone and lavish holdings.

More and more debris rained up and down as Lady Hannah kept making and throwing explosive axes. She did so while walking forward, always pressing her advantage.

At some point, she turned her attention to the remaining knights who avoided the pull of the purple force magic. She attacked them like a miniature but deadly siege weapon and threw more explosive axes at them.

She struck some of them dead on, a few dying outright. Others had the misfortune of remaining alive, trying to overcome their egregious damage and attempt some measly counteroffensive.

A few more explosive axes completely crushed the hardiest survivors.

Then three Crossdeath Knights remained out of the fifty who had once stood as the cream of the crop of the city’s vanguards. One knight turned and fled. The other two used their heightened Agility to reposition out of Lady Hannah’s direct field of fire.

They attacked her from behind, one with a rapier and the other with a mace.

Lady Hannah held an axe above her head. The enchantment buzzed with the crackling, high whiny energy. A blast of lightning released in all directions with Lady Hannah at the center.

The lightning field caught the two ambushers and thwarted their attempt to put down Lady Hannah. They screamed in pain and fear, becoming paralyzed as they suffered a lengthy and unbreaking electrocution.

Wallenberg could only imagine their horror and hoped to never experience such suffering.

The mad woman turned about and refaced her remaining targets as they remained paralyzed and burnt up. She formed two new axes and inserted them with quick chops into their chests, nevermind the armor.

Despite everything, the knights still lived. Their vitality kept them going even with axe blades sheathed into their armored torsos.

But that stopped being the case as both axes exploded. The upper torsos of the remaining knights flew in meaty and smoke splatters. Then what remained turned out as kneeling flowers of torn flesh and metal in bloom.

“I used to listen to a lot of rock and metal growing up on the farm,” Lady Hannah said, placing a new axe on her shoulder. The blood, gore, and smoke that covered her person seemed fitting on her now. “I feel the old goth version of me rising from the depths again. It’s a little cringey, but I guess that’s just how it is.”

“Yes,” Lord Zarian hissed, strolling smoothly across the devastation and horror. “Let the edginess flow through you, Hannah. But not too much edginess. We only really have room for maybe one or two super edgy types in our party.”

Lady Hannah snorted. “You can’t just open Pandora’s Box and then expect to put all the evils back into it, Zarian. Look at what I’ve become. You and Naomi are at fault for a lot of this. You, especially.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll take the blame. Throw all the blame on me. I can handle it. But hey, riddle me this.” Lord Zarian placed his hand on Lady Hannah’s head and combed through her hair. “Why Pandora’s Box? Why not Pandora’s Home? Sometimes, we let our evils go home and get tucked into bed and let them sleep. And sometimes we let them come out and play. Yeah?”

“You are too ridiculous, you know that?” Lady Hannah huffed. “Did I at least get to be the POV Character for that?”

“No, I think our Wally was the better POV Character for that axe-crazy moment,” Lord Zarian answered. “You can’t just force it, you know? It has to happen when it makes sense.”

The berserk axe woman glanced away. “I wonder what Rhea would think about this. Maybe she will see something I’m missing.”

Wallenberg had no idea who this Rhea person was, but Lady Hannah must hold her in high regard to mention her. Still, Lady Hannah looked upset over this strange business about being a character despite her gruesome and one-sided success against the city’s best knights.

“Let’s go see what the hubbub is about with this ball,” Lady Hannah said.

“Sure, sure, let’s just make sure the kid can catch his breath.” Lord Zarian turned to Wallenberg expectantly.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

As the lonesome son of late hunters and now a tag-along of the shockingly powerful foreigners, Wallenberg found himself unsure of what to say or how to react any further. He reasoned that the way he existed prior to this day had too much of a hold over him for his mind to adapt adequately to what was happening.

He was also drunk, and he was also being held closely by a beautiful and statuesque princess.

Wallenberg knew he was certainly in shock, but he was still aware enough to know he shouldn’t slow down the foreigners.

Or should he call them Floridians? Lord Zarian had mentioned that, hadn’t he?

“Please, go on,” Wallenberg said shakily. “Leave me, if you must.”

They didn’t leave him.

Instead, they continued to act in unforeseen ways.

Princess Bianca scooped Wallenberg up and held him like a maiden against her armored chest.

Wallenberg had never felt such shame until now. It was also kind of nice to be held this way.

He didn’t know what to make of this. He did know if he was to survive beyond the ball, he would forever be changed.

“Hm?” Princess Bianca stopped suddenly. “Are you going to deal with that or me, Zarian?”

“I got it.” Lord Zarian turned about sharply. His cloak snapping behind him with a loud flap.

Wallenberg focused as best he could despite his drunkenness, weariness, emotional distress, and shock. He focused with all of his Willpower, Wonder, and even Mysticism.

He noticed a thick, powerful, vibrant energy in the air surrounding him and the Floridians.

He first thought that Lord Zarian and Lady Para’s aura and traits would reveal themselves in truth. Instead, he realized the strangeness came from above. Far above.

Storm clouds twisted, forming from nowhere in the forever gloom that blocked out the celestial light of the natural night sky. Then, with the warning of thunder and calamity, a massive lightning bolt came crashing down with pinpoint accuracy aimed upon the Floridians and Wallenberg.

Held in Princess Bianca’s arms, the Bug Alchemist looked up in preparation to face death under a power so mighty it seemed divine. This must’ve been a godly reckoning.

Yet, the reckoning slowed.

The mighty lightning bolt became slower and slower.

Then it went as far as dwindling.

The stormy attack broke apart into scattered streams, each part still a destructive threat, but much less so than before.

Before impact, the separate lightning streams faded a little more. Then they landed in a spread volley around them.

The broken forks of lightning bolts crashed through the rooftops of noble homes that remained standing. They scattered the features of the obsidian gardens made for only noble children and ladies. Multiple noble structures smoldered and lit on fire.

But nothing struck Wallenberg and the Floridians.

“What happened?” Wallenberg mumbled.

“Aura Masters Zarian and Para happened,” the princess answered.

“Woo! Damn! This is a workout, isn’t it, Para?” The black lord whirled one arm around. “No wizard hat. No spells. Hell, we’re not even using our other helpful skills very much. Bianca’s so tough on us, isn’t she?”

“I don’t mind. It is quite satisfying to push ourselves in unique ways. I suppose the morsel who offers himself to us so boldly is of a kindred mind,” Lady Para said from the folds of the cloak. “Let us have our challenge and our cake.”

“When you say cake, you mean human cake? And when you say ‘our cake,’ you mean your human cake, right?” Lord Zarian asked.

“I said what I said and I mean what I mean,” Lady Para replied.

The black lord chuckled at his monstrous cloak. Then he looked up the street, ignoring the cries of horror and pain from the nobles caught in the crossfire.

“What says you, old man?” Lord Zarian asked. “Do you have any more powerful spells? Or are you a one-shot wizard?”

Wallenberg didn’t think he had enough Willpower to still be disagreeable. But he did, apparently, because the elderly man who walked out from the shadows of a side street on fire was unmistakable.

Wallenberg moaned aloud, wanting to cry, as he hung lamely in Princess Bianca’s arms.

“No, we can’t fight him,” Wallenberg warned in a hoarse voice. “That’s the only man in the city who is the Death Lords’ equal, known as both the Crossdeath Militia Commander and epic Destruction Wizard, War Lord Isaac Demantes!”

“You see, Hannah! That’s why Wallenberg gets to be the POV Character right now. He’s committed to his role. You gotta commit all the way if you want my ultra god bloodline giving you the stage,” the black lord claimed, speaking utter madness in the face of the unbeatable Destruction Wizard.