Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 161 - To Learn

If Seyen needed a couple hours, it was just as well. Just as she needed time, they were at the end of their time. So they got off.

The next day...

They separated into two groups, Lumi’s idea.

Seyen took Lumi to the prison. In the meanwhile, Seyen’s lieutenants would educate Lena about pixie fighting tactics, spells, and specifically how the queen and her direct subordinates worked.

Once alone, the two lieutenants examined Lena closer. A human... weaker than them. Regardless, they had their jobs, and they would perform. The smaller one approached first, hovering at eye level.

"I’m Juik." She said flatly.

The other pixie, slightly larger, nodded. "Koim."

Lena gave them a cheerful wave. "Hi hi~! You’re here to teach me stuff, right?" Her eyes held a bright gaze, an unusually bright gaze as she stared up at them. Eyes that were simultaneously blank and excited.

She used to fear conversation with people.

She still did. But that was with those who she cared about the approval of. Here, she was nothing more than a hired hitman to these pixies. What they thought about her wasn’t her concern.

Not to mention... it was shaping up to be rather fun to act as a psychopathic murderer. Or was it even acting? Maybe she just was one.

Well, if it made saving the world easier...

The smile on her face got wider. She then suddenly blinked, scaring herself. "What am I thinking...?"

Juik got straight to the point. "We’re going to explain how pixies fight. Pay attention."

Lena straightened up, her expression shifting to focus. "Okay. I’m listening."

Koim began. "First, you need to understand how we move. You fought one of ours recently, so you saw some of it. As with any magician, we rely on teleport. However, in addition, we move our bodies. Tilt, spin, shift angles mid-air. It’s faster and doesn’t cost mana."

Juik continued. "Teleport is for repositioning or escaping traps. We use it when we need distance or when physical dodging won’t work. But in close combat, we fly and we move."

Lena nodded. "That makes sense." Honestly, she didn’t see why every magician didn’t operate that way. You had to at least dodge what you could, no? If you only used teleport, you’d get overwhelmed. "Your bodies are good at dodging."

"Exactly." Koim said. "We’re small, we’re fast, and we use that. Most magicians stand still and cast. We don’t. We’re always moving."

Juik added. "And because we’re always moving, we’re hard to pin down. You can’t just spam spells at us and expect them to land. You have to predict where we’ll be."

Lena nodded slowly. "That makes sense. Kise was like that. Her teleports were hard to punish."

Koim continued. "Now, spells. Most pixies focus on manifestation magic."

"Manifestation?" Lena asked.

"The ability to manifest phenomena." Koim explained. "It’s similar to what elementalists do. They manifest the elements. Fire, water, lightning, ice. We manifest other things too. Light, sickness, poison, shadows, even concepts."

Lena blinked. "Concepts?"

"Rules imposed on reality." Juik said. "Environmental effects. Curses that change how the battlefield works. Things that benefit us and hurt our enemies."

Lena thought back to Kise. The anti-heal curse. The darkness that covered the area. The poison mist. "Yeah. I’ve seen that."

Koim nodded. "Now, the queen, along with her direct subordinates, specializes in curse-style magic. Debuffs, environmental changes, control. They don’t focus on raw damage. They focus on making you weak, making you slow, making you unable to fight back. Then they finish you while you’re helpless."

Juik began listing examples. "Weakness curses that drain your energy. Silence effects that prevent you from casting. Slowing effects that make you move like you’re stuck in mud. Blindness. Confusion that makes you attack your allies instead of enemies."

Lena’s expression grew more serious. "And the queen can do all of that?"

"She can layer them." Koim said. "Stack multiple curses on you at once. By the time you realize how many you’re under, you’re already finished."

Juik added. "Her subordinates work the same way. They’re not about overpowering you with damage. They’re about controlling you, disabling you, and then killing you when you can’t defend yourself." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Lena processed that. "So the key is not letting them land the curses in the first place."

"Easier said than done." Koim replied. "The queen is strong. Very strong. She’s been ruling for years. She didn’t get there by being weak."

Lena blinked. Years?

Years?

Surely they merely used the wrong word, no? Perhaps they meant decades. Just a few years was nothing impressive, after all. Or perhaps, among pixies, it was.

Lena grinned and shrugged. "We’ll see about that. After all, we’re doing this, aren’t we?"

Juik stared at her. "You’re confident."

"I have to be." Lena said simply. "Otherwise, what’s the point?"

Koim studied her for a moment, then nodded. "Fair enough. You really do think like a pixie sometimes."

Lena’s eye lightly twitched. Her right arm trembled. Was she impatient? What was wrong with her emotions?

Juik continued the lesson. "The queen’s most common tactic is to open with a wide-area curse. Something that affects everyone in range. Then she follows up with targeted curses on anyone who poses a threat."

"What kind of wide-area curses?" Lena asked.

"Exhaustion." Koim said. "Makes you tired, drains your stamina. Weakness. Reduces your physical capability. Despair. Affects your mind, makes you want to give up."

Lena frowned. "That last one sounds dangerous."

"It is." Juik said. "Mental curses are the hardest to resist. You don’t even realize you’re under one until you’ve already stopped fighting."

Lena thought about that. "How do you resist them?"

"Pure mental fortitude." Koim said. "Or you dispel them, if you can."

Lena nodded. She didn’t have dispel yet. As for will... she honestly wasn’t sure she had it. She mentally noted down the mental curses as high risk.

She thought to herself. She really, really didn’t think of herself as having a strong will. She’s always felt bad for herself and escaped through various games.

She’s always been awkward and shy, unsure of herself.

Her family situation was messed up and she didn’t have the strength of mind to go and do something about it.

She fell in love with a guy she only knew for a few days.

Then she suddenly gained the knowledge that the world was being threatened by an evil god and they might all die. And SHE was somehow important to saving the world, by no other virtue than by knowing Lumi and knowing that Masteria was real.

So then she’s coped by willingly falling into her own insanity and bloodthirst.

"..." Lena felt extremely awkward all of a sudden, her chest tightening. She glanced down at the ground, trying to orient herself.

Regardless of what was going on in her mind, the pixies didn’t notice in the slightest. Nor would they have cared. They kept going. "Another thing. The queen has subordinates. Out of them all, there are three important ones to watch out for.. They’re all skilled in curse magic, just like her. If they coordinate, they can lock you down completely."

"What should I watch for?" Lena asked.

"Chains." Koim said. "Literal chains made of dark energy. They bind you in place. Once you’re bound, you can’t move, can’t teleport, can’t cast. You’re helpless."

Juik added. "And poison. Not just the powdered type that you slip to make someone die. I’m talking about poison that weakens your spells, poison that clouds your mind, poison that makes your body stop responding."

Lena grimaced. "Sounds fun."

"It’s not." Koim said flatly.

Juik continued. "The key is to stay mobile. Don’t let them pin you down. Don’t let them land the chains. And if they do, break them as fast as possible."

"How?" Lena asked.

"Three ways." Koim said. "One, overwhelm the curse with your own magic. Two, have someone else break it for you. Three, break out with physical strength."

Lena glanced in the direction Lumi had gone, still thinking about what she had previously been thinking about. Lumi...

She looked back to Koim. "We’re magicians."

Koim nodded. "Exactly. It’s made to bind magicians. Its fatal weakness is physical strength, it could never be used against a warrior. I don’t know what kind of foreign magic you humans have up your tricky sleeves. If you can buff your strength or something, just keep it in mind."

Lena wasn’t sure why, but she felt a pang of annoyance. She kept it down, only because she was learning important information. "Alright, then tell me more about..."

The lesson continued longer. Juik and Koim went over more specific tactics, more spells, more strategies. Lena listened carefully, asking questions and commenting.

By the time they finished, Lena had a much clearer picture of what they were walking into.

"Hehe..." Lena gripped her wand tighter. She raised it up, sideways, then stared into it. Her expression caused the two pixies to take a single step back in wariness. Had the woman gone crazy?

She watched their reaction with satisfaction. She didn’t need to be normal. She had to be scary.

She was scary.

She stared the pixies right in the eyes. "I’m going to kill. Everyone."

"...?" The pixies exchanged a glance. "Human?"

"Lena put the wand back down and a smile came back to her face. "I’ll contribute to the cause!"

The pixies exchanged looks once more. This human was somehow more unpredictable than their own kind.