Insulator

1.5 Mages

I guess the mages didn't like what I did to one of their cities. Every once in a while, I would find myself attacked by a group of them. I just assumed that the mages knew it was me and that I was a wanted criminal in their eyes. They would always say a bunch of stuff about how horrible a person I was or why people shouldn't mess with mages, cliché and boring things like that. I just ignored most of it.

I didn't know where they were this time, until they attacked me with a fire magic spell. They didn't give any warning or anything before firing, and I let it knock me over because I was surprised and just naturally too lethargic to bother resisting. I had built up quite a large amount of fire and impact resistance, so it didn't really do anything to me, but it was still a pain to deal with these guys, so a part of me just hoped that they would leave.

They did not.

I was barely awake when it happened. I spend most of my time walking, always so mentally and emotionally drained that it would take a few seconds for me to even realise what happened, let alone bothering to deal with it. My body moved on its own though, my subconscious reaction to any event being to pull out a bottle and fill it with the only magic spell I could actually do. I then sealed it and continued to look around in my hazy state, deciding what to do about the situation.

It felt like the mages were all the same. They might as well be dumb brutes, as they seemed to all share the same few brain cells, getting arrogant from setting passive townsfolk on fire once, now thinking that they're strong against anyone that came their way. I'd never had much faith in magic, to be honest. It was so easily countered and felt like there was little variation to be had that would give it any real flexibility.

I looked up to see them slowly walking towards me, rambling on about something that I didn't care enough about to bother listening to. I lazily threw my bottle at them, and to my surprise one of them caught it, just making him even more arrogant. I reached into my bag to pull another one out, but he quickly reached me by then and stepped on me, pinning me down.

I just let it all happen. I couldn't really do much else, so I filtered out as much as I could and just waited for it all to be over. The group of them were gathered around me, all laughing and looking down on me, thinking I was helpless and at their mercy. It was a very ugly sight, as they were all so shallow and stupid that I tried to close my eyes as much as possible so I didn't have to witness most of it. The thought that we were technically part of the same class as me always hurt me a little inside. I hated the idea that I was even vaguely similar to the ugly archetype that these mages generally fit into.

The one holding the bottle seemed to be done ranting and threw the bottle down at me. I somehow managed to catch it, again, surprised. The bottle was stronger than they realised though, so it wouldn't have broken from any of it, but I guess it was still better to keep the illusion up.

"That's too cruel..." I quietly said. "To kill a guy with their own weapon..."

I just added more flame to the fire. It was intentional and manipulative, and I hated that I had to do it, but even I was afraid of death. I had to play it all as safe as possible, even if they were only mages.

They shot a few spells at me, thinking they were torturing me, or at the very least weakening me, as they stood around laughing in their ugly unaware states. They couldn't even tell how little effect fire magic had on me.

I worried my face would change from how much I was grimacing internally.

They seemed to plan on killing me with the bottled fire spell I made, again, too shallow and stupid to understand how it actually worked. Considering that these bottles were designed for magic users specifically, it never failed to surprise me how little they seemed to know about them.

They were stalling and taking their time with me, which was something that worked to my advantage, as I also had to wait. At least that part of things was easy, but it still hurt to have to spend so long in a position that looked beneath them. They seemed to get bored with using the basic fire spells that any mage could do, so the guy with the bottle wanted to try something different this time. He reached his palm to me, and started shooting a flow of electricity into my body.

For the first time in a while, I felt a surge of pain go through my body. I had practically no resistances to this kind of spell, so I could only lay there, taking the full brunt of the force. I didn't lose much health from it, but the pain was so sharp and different to usual that it felt like it was killing me. I was lucky that he was still quite new to using it, or things might have gotten quite dangerous for me.

The thing I hated the most about it was the grim reminder that mages had the potential to severely injure me. It was something I often forgot, considering how many of them only seemed to care about fire magic, something I may as well be immune to at this point. One day I might end up crossing paths with one that learnt other spells, where it wouldn't matter how stupid or shallow, they were, as they would have what it took to kill me regardless.

To die to a mage was truly the ugliest death imaginable.

But maybe that's the type of karma that I deserved. As I was far from innocent, no matter how you looked at it. The ugliness of the world tainted me in many ways, and I'd done many things I shouldn't have... I was a part of the world, just like them. Being aware of it didn't make it any less ugly.

I imagined I gave off the atmosphere of a dead fish, something laying there, with no strength or life within it. I wouldn't react or care about anything they did. I wouldn't say a word, or even open my eyes enough to bother seeing them properly. But when the electric spell went into my body, I couldn't help but cry out in pain and be reminded that I was technically alive. I was still so naturally unenergetic that my reaction might not have been much, but it was more than enough to fuel their confidence and hatred, their laughs and snickering increasing to new levels.

They were quite set-minded. Their leader didn't care about preserving his mana or strength, but just wanted to inflict pain upon me, so he continued to channel electrical spells into my body for as long as his body would let him. I lay there, helplessly flailing around in pain as the time slowly ticked by. It was taking much longer than it should have. I must not have sealed the bottle as well as I usually did.

Just end this already...

The damage was adding up too, which just made it so much more frustrating that I was helplessly waiting, everything currently beyond my control. My health dropped below half, which just hurt even more that I was starting to worry about dying to a mage. Perhaps it would happen one day, but this had to be one of the ugliest deaths possible, even from a mage.

I opened my eyes a little more, looking at the bottle next to me. At least there wasn't much time left. That was really the only upside of any of this. I absolutely hated dealing with mages, but at least it would soon be over.

My consciousness was starting to fade though. This time it wasn't lethargy or sleepiness, but the pain itself being too much for my weakened body. My senses slowly faded and I honestly didn't know what was happening or how much time went by. It wasn't uncommon for me to lose consciousness, but it was usually my lack of investment in the world around me, making me just want to sleep and not have to deal with it. It was the first time in a while that someone hurt me enough for this to happen. I've never had a very high pain tolerance, but still...

And like always, I awoke to the sound of a large explosion. I looked around me to see a spherical range of nothingness, from what got destroyed within the blast. There were still some remains of the people around me, but even the trees and ground were mostly destroyed from the blast.

Naturally, I was at the centre of it. I was the one that caused it. I was the one responsible for it. The death around me, the destruction of the landscape, it was all my doing.

My health was still very low. I had quite a resistance, being the only reason, I could really survive for this long, but resistances would only go so far. I was still at the centre of quite a powerful explosion. It was so dusty and smoky around me. I didn't want to deal with any of it.

So, I slept.