Chapter 47 Hero work
A knife whizzed past my face. “Woah there you almost touched me with that thing. It clearly hasn’t been sanitized.” I clock the goon with my newly grown hand. It still had the pinkish skin from scarring and I knew my regeneration was working to heal it but it would take a long time.
With me working with the Bat family I had to pull my punches and not kill anyone. I kick another grunt trying to get up in the ass and he falls back down on his friend. One pulls out a gun but I stop the hammer from falling so no bullet is fired. I run at him full speed and kick him hard in the stomach.
Ordinary mooks like this aren’t worth fighting but I viewed it as part of the date. I took out the few that looked like they had some experience fighting. Cassandra drew the short end of the lot as she only had one good fighter then her group broke and ran since most were young punks.
Another knife is thrown at me and I stop it before it clears half the distance. Really pulling my punches I don’t stab him with his own knife but throw the miniature crosses I made specifically for my hero costume. Or crosserangs, crossikens? I’ll have to figure a name out later. The piece of metal strikes the guy's hand drawing a yelp of pain from him.
These guys looked like normal bad guys but that doesn’t explain their numbers and lack of guns. If they were mafia they’d have guns if they were henchmen they’d have a costume but they all looked different. No, something was off with these guys who didn't run but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
It struck me at once. “Mind control! These guys are probably being mind controlled, don't hurt them too bad.” I thought about who could have possibly done this but only one made sense. Only one had the means in the area to do it with monetary gains as the goal. Someone who just lost a large sum of money. With my brain working overtime I ducked as the spray of tommy gun bullets ripped through where I was.
I smirked as I dodged the gunfire and used telekinesis to make it harder to control. I pointed the gun barrel up and right as he corrected and started pulling down hard. I shifted the pull downwards and he almost shot his feet as he stopped firing. As he looked up a metal cross caught him in the face.
Damn, how unlucky I found someone I would get decent psychiatrist skills from if I killed them when I’m with my girlfriends. I clicked my tongue at my unluckiness as I pulled out the White Rabbits umbrella sword/shotgun. I raise it above my head. “Recognize this?”
It takes him a few seconds to look up and the look of shock I expected wasn’t there on his face. It was only the glazed stare of someone who was under hypnosis. Fuck! “Hatter is mind controlled too.” He moves with the sluggish motion of someone not under complete control of his body and tries to point the gun at me again.
I close the distance before knocking him down while stripping the gun from his hands. I trade the tommy gun and umbrella for my staff and cane with magic before pointing the staff at him. “Egnahc sehtolc otni sgnidnib!” I feel my body shudder under the four word spell. I could shorten it but straining your magic circles is also good for them. I think I might have overstrained them as I struggle to catch my breath.
Both hands are placed on my knees as I breathe in and out. I didn’t expect it to be that draining. I did two change spells beforehand and teleported us close but that might have taken ten to twenty percent. I should have still had enough for a four word spell even without my staff as a conduit.
Nope I think I figured it out. Something in the surrounding area ate most of the mana in the area. Most casters including myself pull some of the mana from the surroundings to cast their spells and when there isn’t much in the area then you can have accidents like this.
It didn’t feel new either, possibly the area was the area of a huge magical battle hundreds of years ago. The land was magically scarred making the mana flow far less in the area. I started to meditate as we finished clearing the group. A deep breath in, wait a few seconds deep breath out. Meditating wasn’t necessary but it would actually help replenish the mana in the area.
I took in muted mana replenishing my own while expelling less but more pure mana that will work to spread throughout the area. The mana had been damaged and couldn’t spread naturally. Taking in the broken mana would let me recycle it while fixing the area. Another ten deep breaths and I felt much better.
As I opened my eyes the two heroes were blocking most of my view wondering what I was doing. “The area was the location of a huge magical battle. The mana was stunted so I had to correct it or it would stay that way.”
It would have taken a dozen mages several hours to do what I did in ten breaths. Also they wouldn’t have been able to find the problem in the first place. Doctor Strange had the New York sanctum here and this spot had gone unnoticed for his entire reign. I could come up with a spell to find other magical scars but it wasn’t my job so I just fixed what I found naturally.
As I put my hands on the Hatter I could feel an instant snap as my Diagnostic touch reached the second tier. It didn’t have that in between areas like telekinesis, biomatter control and regeneration. The changes were I could tell more intangible problems that people have… Also I think I could diagnose plants and animals to a lesser extent.
The intangible problem I picked up on was mind control… And also the delusions of grandeur from a psyche break, high grade psychopathy and lack of empathy for others. He only really cared for himself and saw everyone else as pawns or problems that needed to be solved. He also had OCD and several other mental problems.
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