Meta Gamer in Equestria: Champion's Folly

by reflective vagrant

The Brave. (Pain, Part 3)

The griffin trio and Wild Storm all faltered at the sudden shock. The entirety of their magic was cut off the same as the majority of mine. I saw Wild Storm pull off one of his two belts lined with potion gourds. I was barely able to see him toss it to the young dragon Slate that accompanied him and begin a gesture that looked like an order before the battle went wild.

I did what I could, but being a designated healer with the majority of my magic gone, I had little to contribute myself. I still hadn't learned Equestrian enough to read a spell scroll fluently in battle, so I just ran up and tried to be a distraction for the others, hoping they would think of something.

Dalock then simply smirked and grappled with me for a moment as I came close before I managed to get any spells off. He raspberried in my face and then smacked me good and hard on the foot, making me reel. He then hopped back with a giggle and called out. "Believe it or not, bitch, I'm actually not here for you today!"

I saw the unicorn guards that accompanied Tempest cast their counterspell scrolls instead of the princesses. With the griffins out of commission as healers, the princesses had pulled back and shifted to fill in the gap as best they could.

With this, many ponies managed to rush him, but his excessively strong armor made it difficult for them to land any blows. What blows struck knocked flesh off but he seemed unphased otherwise.

And then despite having three unicorns trying to counteract him, Dalock managed to get off a fireball through all three base level counters.

That's when things went bad. Instead of targeting the ponies in front of him, he hit the unicorns casting all of the counterspells.

Upon being freed up from the restriction of the scrolls, Dalock smacked the snout of the earth pony that tried to grapple him with his staff, breaking the jaw. A few seconds later, he flung a fireball at the elite troops charging him again, frying them hard.

This forced our main hitters to come in again, but there was a problem. In addition to teleporting he was also running. Combined with what looked similar to haste, but only seemed to hasten his feet he made more distance than the remainder of the center group could keep up with. He shot many of the guards at the outer circle that attempted to engage him four at a time, blasting them far and wide with a basic eldritch blast.

But then oddly, he stopped as soon as he got enough distance from us and turned around, flinging another fireball from a great distance. It didn't hurt anybody, but it did stop the pursuers in their tracks.

With a rapid motion of turning, he shot fireballs and eldritch blasts out in a circle, making a perimeter of scorched land.

A perimeter too far out to allow the use of counterspell, and too far to allow the use of even my wand on the changeling general's horn without being struck back.

He expended too many spell slots for a normal spell caster to use and still be able to fight, but that was the point. He was boasting.

Nay, flexing.

Waving his shield and staff in a form suggesting they come at him now that the biggest source of our nullification was gone, he egged us on.

Throwing insult after insult, I didn't bother translating.

"His pool does indeed seem nigh limitless compared to your own, Moss." Princess Celestia quietly spoke to me as she looked around at the injured soldiers.

Seeing many of the soldiers being treated by simpler potions, but many still needing quick treatment, she shook her head and spoke. "It can't be helped."

With a glow of her horn, she built her energy up for a few seconds then let out a wave of light that initially reminded me of a solar flare.

Immediately, the wave moved out and dove into the bodies of different soldiers with severe injuries, healing them.

I briefly looked at Celestia, "Mass healing word? There's no way you could have adapted the spell that fast. You already knew of healing. But I'll ask questions later."

I just turned back to our foe that, oddly, didn't seem impatient now. He was reveling in us pulling ourselves back together. Once again expecting us to just surrender.

"We need to get close." Listens in Anger spoke as we tried to regroup.

Searches for Stars corrected him, "No, we need to counteract his magic somehow, and getting close would have helped. But the spell scrolls are all burned up and the princesses would be prime targets even if they all flew at him at once."

The group threw ideas back and forth as Dalock started T bagging one of the fallen soldiers that we couldn't get to in time to save.

I meanwhile, did what I could and reflected on my knowledge of the spells he had been using. 'Eldrich blast... basic but always there. Expedient retreat, I'm surprised he even has a retreat spell like that in his arsenal. Fireball, overpowered even at base levels and overcharged by at least two levels... We can't silence him to knock out his verbal components, nobody knows that spell because hardly any mage here normally has to speak to cast spells. What else could we...'

I looked up at him riding his staff in a rude fashion.

"His staff!" I called out to the group.

Turning to me, every creature went silent.

Fighting through the desire to shrink away, I saved my portent trick for whatever we were going to plan based off what I was about to tell them. I knew we were going to need it. Placing my hand on the pouch at my side, I explained.

"Most high power spells require some material component and he doesn't have a component pouch. Get that staff away from him and at the very least he can't use that fireball anymore! Probably most of his arsenal too!"

"But we'd still have to..."

"I can do it."

Every creature looked to Speaks with Talons.

"I can do it. I can get that staff from him. I know how to survive those fire blasts. I've done it before and I am tougher now than I was then. He may hit hard but the Beast kin has explained to me before that is likely simply a trick of his magic on that staff. Wrestling the staff from him will not be difficult for one with my strength."

Starlight looked at him worried and did a few calculations as she did the distance in her head. "But the sheer time it will take you to get to him is still a problem. You can survive one and keep going with how tough you are, sure, but you won't survive that many blasts. It would still take too much time to close the distance and he would keep knocking you back and slowing you down on top of that."

"I will back you, Speaks with Talons," Wild Storm spoke as he came up, "I will do what I can to distract him and buy you time. I am weak for a dragon despite my age, but I am still resistant to the fire. I can draw at least one of his blasts from you before having to retreat, and I can do it from the air, brother in servitude."

Tempest chimed in, "I can speed you up, should cut the amount he can throw at you in half or so. But I can't hold it for long with how much I've expended blasting at his shield, so you will have to act quick."

Starlight shook her head. "I can upcast the body buffer spell to buy you maybe one hit, but then I'll be out too."

"Searches for Stars," I heard Princess Celestia call out. "Do you have some wrappings I could use?"

The griffin nodded, pulling a bit of cloth from his medical bag.

Celestia nodded in gratitude and looked to only Wild Storm. With her horn, she levitated the wrappings around Wild Storm zealously, while doing so discretely around Speaks with Talons. As this happened, some energy seemed to flow into them from the magic holding the cloth.

"This is not much, but it will add a small bit of resilience, and hopefully draw his eyes to Wild Storm."

I looked at Celestia and muttered, "Again, questions, but later."

With this, Wild Storm flew up into the air and circled just out of range of Dalock's reach.

Turning to his younger brother, Speaks with Talons spoke sadly, "Just in case I don't make it, I want you to know something. I have accepted I am not a healer. You were right back then and you may be at peace with this now. But that does not mean I am a bad servant, just a different kind of servant. Our master chose a different path for me, and today is the day I walk it. Not as the false shaman I pretended to be, but as a protector of my family. My family born..."

He turned to me and Tempest just as Starlight cast the modified false life spell on him and then fell over in the process.

"And my family found."

With this, Tempest and Speaks with Talons went to the edge of the crowd, just behind the soldiers standing at the edge of the scorched earth.

Wild Storm dove in with a roar, drawing Dalock's attention. As soon as his head was turned away, Tempest tapped Speaks with Talons with her hoof, enacting the haste spell. Immediately, he bolted off.

The ruse worked and Wild Storm bought Speaks with Talons one fireball's worth of distance.

But Dalock still saw him and threw four bolts of eldritch blast at him, knocking him backward a little and eating through most of the false life spell.

But Speaks with Talons regained that ground and then some.

He was almost on Dalock by the time he had another round of Eldritch blasts thrown at him. This time, it finished the false life protection and hurt him decently, then came the fireball.

Standing just out of range, Dalock was unharmed, but Speaks with Talons came out with only his feathers and fir singed off. Flames were still dancing around his talons as he had blocked the bulk of it with a solid dive and his absorb elements spell he had taught Scraps.

With this, he immediately called out in a great scream, almost like a battle cry!

"For family! C^us_to^s!"

His form immediately went weird, like a werewolf transformation but full of green and grey feathers. He grew in size and I could swear I saw his eyes dripping blood like tears.

Before Dalock could react, the extra speed boost brought Speaks with Talons in range. Immediately, he grabbed the staff and heaved, hard. He then ran as fast as he could away from dalock and towards the rocky outcrop at the edge of the circle.

Dalock ran after him, of course, but even with teleportation and his expedius retreat, he couldn't keep up with Speaks with Talons.

And the Griffin finally chucked the staff over the edge and into the rocks, out of sight, then turned and faced Dalock.

Dalock slowed down considerably, then finally backed up. Throwing up his now free hand, he called out to me.

"Alright, you have me! I surrender!"

I didn't like his tone, as something felt off, cocky even, but when the princess demanded to know what he said, I had to translate. He gave up too easily.

With this, we all came in and prepared to capture him, but he pulled one last stunt out of the hand holding his shield.

Speaks With Talons saw this and came towards him in a charge, sensing the same thing I did, only to stumble when Tempest's haste spell finally wore out and left him lethargic.

With a quick grab at the dust that had collected in his hair, Dalock shot his hand out at Speaks with Talons and screamed, "_cr^em_it^o!"

A thin green ray came from his hand and hit Speaks with Talons as he recovered. Instantly, Speaks with Talons was gone. No wound. No charred corpse. Just gone. Only a bit of dust in the wind and a pile where he was a moment before was all that was left.

"No! You bastard!" I screamed as I charged at him, unthinking. Going immediately to polar bear form, I ran up as hard as I could. Dalock simply removed his shield, tossed a small, smooth stone down along side it and threw his hands up in the air.

Before I could reach him, a blast from princess Cadence struck at his feet and he let himself become encased in a dense crystal that would prevent his verbal or somatic components of spell casting.

Before he was fully encased he called out to me, "And thanks for the rock," and then lost the ability to speak as the crystal encased him.

I slashed at the crystal until my borrowed arms lost their claws, and I kept swinging anyway. As I transformed back solely from self inflicted damage, I could see the smirk frozen on his face, and the flipping the bird gesture he had made towards me before his arm was encased.

I slammed both my fists onto the crystal and slid down, crying my eyes out.

Looking down, I saw a familiar lodestone. Flipping open my component pouch, I found its partner for my mending spell sitting in its compartment, right next to an empty one where the other should have been.

Grabbing the tiny magnet on the ground, I wrapped my hand around it and started slamming on the crystal again just as the princesses showed up to calm me down or pull me away or something.

Giving the crystal one last hand numbing pound, I screamed into the open sky, "Dalock! You fucking shit faced bastard!"

Comments

[Golden_Reflection]

What overall level is Dalock? Because from my calculations, either he is the full level 20 (wish so at least 17 of sorc, and pact of chain so at least 3 levels of warlock) or we don’t have the 20 level cap here.

[reflective vagrant]

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I think you just answered your own question. Kudos to you for paying attention.