Comic for Monday, February 18th, 2019
I mean, Ila gave it a good shot, but as Nathan pointed out and Naomi discovered, part of the problem with stable ethereal constructs is destroying them with brute force is quite challenging. While they can be obliterated by enough input from physics as they interact with the real world enough that it goes both ways, without damaging the form, it just regenerates if has enough mana. We’ve seen the same thing with Kally’s dragon when it was fighting the null caster, as well as when Naomi was trying to punch on to pieces. Of course, Naomi did eventually succeed, but as Mione has noted, just because Naomi does something, one shouldn’t really take that as a good plan. We’ve also seen Mium shatter red constructs completely, but other characters have pointed out that he is somehow extremely efficient at nullifying magic.
I would note that Camilla probably knows she is somewhat out of her league against red construct of that size and apparent power, but she has a bad personality when it comes to always trying to put herself in front of other people when it comes to danger. She is also not wrong per se in her methodology, trying to handle both defense and offense would exhaust a normal mage extremely quickly, and it is probably clear to, well, anyone that Ila is far more suited to offense than defense.
A mage like Tyler or Marc, or even like Camilla and Kally, will tend to set up a defensive bastion, and then attempt to attack outward from it (when operating on their own). If they prefer to focus on defense (like Tyler) or on offense (like Kally) will vary, but in both cases defending is necessary as it’s just too easy to kill a human. Ila only bothered to block the attacks from the construct because she was supposed to save the humans, and does not typically fight like that, as she needs almost all of her calculations to attack most effectively, forcing her to drop her barriers to attack with her, well, pebbles.
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This is the first time that we are really shown that Atter is in a completely different league as most other mages (even of the high end of what we see in this story). We were kinda told that when MIUM said that blowing him up with an experimental explosive had a very low chance of working and when he mentioned how low his chances of being able to “terminate” Atter was, but that isn’t really the same as seeing his main power shrug off multiple railgun shots.
The main cast is about to get an education on how they aren’t nearly as big names as they all think they are, hopefully surviving till big brother (Kali’s big brother, that is) can come save them.
Remember Kally has already been called in to deal with this ‘problem’ so its not so out of Team Peter’s league. And a seriously doubt that Mium COULDN’T (with permission granted) deal with Atter here. This seems more a reality check for Ila then anyone else. Which isn’t bouncing.
Unless you are talking about the secondary cast, whom I’m pretty sure already knew they weren’t in Central’s big league.
How would you know? Well, Ila, you are part of Team Peter. Which means you’re kinda obligated to know … well … everything. I mean, not EVERYTHING everything, but still. So start with the answers, young lady!
I mean, she has the knowledge modifier “Extreme Ambivalence” for non-edible things. Sure, she could ask Mium, but she can’t eat it so…
While Ila is certainly powerful for her age (maybe even absurdly so) I suspect that we are going to finally see what everyone is so careful around Kally, and what the gulf that exists between her and basically everyone else actually is. If you look at all the moves so far in the game, they all tend to account for Kally. No one else, not even Peter*, tends to receive the same level of consideration. Even the do-nothings back on Central are wary of anything involving The Red Dragon Witch to the point here her presence is considered equalizing to the fact the Biana and Sophie have two large and militarized departments at their disposal.
I think this move was deliberate on the part of Sophie/Biana to draw Kally aware from the capital and the Consul. That seems by far the best reason to trigger a demon rampage on the boarder, as they know that nothing can really happen while Kally is there. Previously they tried to abduct her, not they are trying to lure her away.
That seems to have worked, but I cannot help but feel Atter is the sacrificial pawn in this. Kally is hates Atter for killing Emmi, and given that he is more or less confirmed to be an actual monster/demon… I do no think she is going to hold back. Maybe Sophie believes that Atter can recover from whatever Kally is about to do to him, but I suspect at very least it will involve being in very small ethereal pieces.
*I actually think Peter is probably more dangerous than Kally, just in a very different sense of the word.
Sophie may also have decided that continuing to anchor After is more expensive than his value, and sacrificing him is a win-win
Also since Atter is apparently a demon and Sophie has been described as a demon-summoning sorceress, we don’t know what’ll happen if Atter “dies” on this plane.
It’s entirely possible that dying on this plane just banishes him and the demon that he is cannot be killed. At that point Sophie could just re-summon him.
Granted, it hasn’t seemed like that’s the way it’s going to go, but with an extraplanar visitor that can hop bodies, it’s not outside the realm of reason here.
You know I never thought I’d see the day when, unbidden, Ila would mention that she isn’t up to the job.
Maybe she should learn how to deal with immortality/invulnerabilty/indesteructibility?
I don’t think that’s quite fair. Destroying this thing wasn’t her job, saving the humans was. She just thought saving the humans sounded like a pain in the ass, and destroying this thing would be easier. It wasn’t.
I’m confident that if she were in the mood to, she could try to just blow it up harder until it finally stops coming back.
Right now, though, she’s blown up enough stuff already, and just wants some food, and to kick back and relax for a while.
So by taking over defense, she gives Ila the freedom to really get destructive?
Aka, Ila’s primary attack method is glass cannon speedster. Sure, she can do barriers, but that’s not her thing. She’s more a hit and run kind of person. Which, given she can snipe from midair at over a mile away, seems to work pretty well most of the time.
Yeah, I don’t know that she would actually lose to this thing. It is defending the humans that is giving her trouble as I see it.