“Tell me about it,” I sighed. “The Power of Ten system actually works because there’s so much magic, and it’s so ill-defined. The rigid framework of Matrix-Casting has almost no resistance from the local Manafield.

“You’ve got information about defenses and how they work here? Dish!” I agreed eagerly.

Sama nodded once, sighing deeply. “The power of the Magical Beasts here is crazy, as you’ve seen. It’s a good thing most of them get their power and energy from soaking in the Manafield, because there’s no way the ecology can actually sustain them. It results in a constant need to kill one another or find new living territory. This world is always in conflict, and Humanity is just one more species here.”

“Granted, we’re the most ‘naturally’ intelligent species, but Ruler-Class and up Beasts are as smart as any Human, so it’s not a sustainable advantage,” Briggs agreed soberly. “Then, the Magical Beasts have tons of default defenses that Humans don’t get naturally, but mages do acquire as they get more powerful.”

“The universal ones are their armor, their damage reduction, and the tiering process of energy resistance.” Sama frowned. “All Magical Beasts have Damage Reduction. Even something as simple as those Ants you fought would have at least 5/Magic. If you don’t have access to magic, or you aren’t a Beast yourself, you are at a huge disadvantage right off.”

“You’d’ve thought that would mean they’d develop magical weaponry, but no. They just use spells,” Briggs added in some irritation. “The only magical Weapons you see are either very special use for insane nutjobs who get in close to fight, or ones created by a mage’s spells.

“Their base Damage Reduction is important because the amount of damage they take from attacks against their Natural Armor is halved at every tier, and tenthed at every Class. It means they can withstand a fantastic amount of non-magical damage. I’ve hit pig-sized Dust Rats with the equivalent of dropping a van on them, and seen them survive the hit. Dropping buildings and hillsides on some creatures just annoys the tougher ones, and might trap them for a time, but it rarely kills anything of Commander-Class or above.” Briggs didn’t bother to hide his exasperation.

“It’s the ability to bypass Damage Reduction which makes the tougher Beasts so dangerous to the smaller ones. They have to overcome the fractionalizing of their own damage, while the bigger, tougher, and stronger higher-Class Beasts plow right through the smaller ones. Likewise, lower-Class magic has to go through the Nat Armor and gets reduced in effect, so you need to either pile on immense amounts of it...”

“Or get through the Armor, which Lightning does by default to a degree, making it so effective,” I nodded understanding. “You’re saying that tiering defense comes from their Natural Armor?” I frowned despite myself as they nodded. “I’m pretty sure that Spell Penetration applied directly against the effect, but it was difficult to measure given the variability of Natural Armor and the wild variance within and between Classes.”

“Oh? Interesting. We couldn’t test that, but we did verify one thing. Ever seen the Archmagic Sword of Light in play?” Sama asked me.

“There was an Archmage who dropped it against the Queen Sidewinder down there in Texas. Kinda hard to miss multi-story blades of Light visible from the horizon and all.”

“It’s the single most damaging Archmagick, as agreed on by most Mages,” Briggs informed me. “Can you think of why?”

I furrowed my brow, going through everything I knew of the local uses of Light Magic, and especially how it related to the two of them, and why they would bring it up.

My eyes narrowed. Sama held up two fingers; Briggs sighed and passed over a ten.

“It’s a Weaponized spell, not an area effect or touch attack,” I said, and Sama grinned dangerously, nodding as she tucked her winnings away. “It descends really fast, so it hits most often... is it effectively Brilliant?” I had to ask.

“No, but there’s definitely a bonus both to hit and to carve through Natural Armor. The reason it does so much damage is because you’re basically rolling to see how much Natural Armor it ignores when the spell falls,” Sama told me.

“Huh.” Well, given the size of some of the creatures, that was a LOT of Natural Armor. Even if they couldn’t get through it all, getting rid of just a chunk of it would really increase the amount of damage that got through with the spell. “So, in reality, it doesn’t do any more damage than most of the spells, and perhaps even less, but because it chews through their magical defenses, it gets the most impressive results.”

Sama held up her hand, and Briggs passed over another ten-spot to his smug Hag. I just smirked.

“That’s what we think. Using it against Humans is moot, as Humans have so much less physical toughness than Beasts that if it gets through magical defenses, it’s basically lethal regardless, so you have to dodge it or withstand the Light energy directly. The Natural Armor is tougher than the flesh beneath it, so if you can chew all the way through the Armor, you can do horrific damage to the flesh beneath. If you Weaponize it, you carve through part of it for less damage, and if you are lucky, you punch through all of it for major damage,” Sama told me.

“Huh.” I frowned slightly. “That means that using Shards in Weapon damage mode might actually be more effective, versus Split Rays?” Which were naturally a Touch Attack.

“Yes. How is your Weaponized bonus to hit?” Sama asked with interest.

“It starts at +46.” They both blinked. “Up to +6 more. My Spell Penetration adds up to +19 against non-Good opponents.” They both blinked again. “I’m not sure how much of that is effective against Natural Armor, however. It seems to me that there’d be a touch attack and an armor-punching component, and they’d be separate.” Lightning being a fine example of that.

Sama held up her hand, and Briggs passed over another ten. I was on a roll.

“Their Natural Armor also gives them a level of absolute resistance to damage types, so they don’t have to worry about minor events, and can effectively no-sell all lower types of damage, especially non-magical damage. Magic is very prevalent out there in nature, however, so, for example, they can tank a petrol flamethrower like nobody’s business if they are stronger, but they can’t go wading in lava, which is usually swimming with some potent Fire Mana. If that’s some Energized Alchemist’s Fire, they aren’t going to be so lucky, either.” She paused significantly. “Naturally all this takes multiple levels to chew through with Weaponry.”

I nodded along. “And it’s likely you basically have to chew through ALL of their Natural Armor to damage them effectively, with that Tiering going on. That... must get really impressive with the bigger creatures...”

“Yes,” Briggs agreed. “We have the magic Weapons, so we can bypass their default, but the Tiering is a pain in the arse. Even with Penetrate Damage Reduction, we can only mitigate Servant-Level Tiering, or a divisor equal to our Penetration. The big thing is getting all the way through their hides into the meat and bone.”

“And you need adamantine for the bone,” I said thoughtfully, and watched another ten exchange hands. “Is Way of Water the major helper on the profound side?” I had to ask. “And what about Brilliant? Higher enhancement bonuses do nothing? Even Bane?”

“Their DR escalates from +I to +II, to +III to IV for Commanders, +V for Rulers, and we are assuming Emperors are +VI and higher, Eternal-grade stuff,” Briggs waved his big mitt. “Bonuses used against the Damage Reduction don’t seem to apply against the Natural Armor, either.”

“Mithar and his mighty Mutt,” I murmured in disbelief. “They really don’t want Humans fighting these things with Tools, do they?”

Briggs shook his thick head. “There is no grand martial tradition here, because it’s all trumped by magic. All the knifing and clubbing takes place between people without magic, and nobody pays attention to them, so none of it’s glorified. All the ‘real’ martial traditions are intermixed with magic.”

“What they call ‘swordplay’ is really just throwing cutting magic out with a sword,” Sama snorted in disdain. “I have yet to meet a single person who would qualify as a Melee fighter, other than Briggs.”

Despite myself, I had to smile grimly. “Just, wow. I imagine that is repeatedly a fatal surprise when you charge up on some of the blighters who piss you off.”

Both of them glanced at one another and chuckled. “Well, it shocks a lot of the Beasts, too,” Sama hinted strongly. “They don’t have any innate fear of Humans, unlike back home. They only fear the Aura of magic. So when something without magic charges up on them and cleaves their little skulls in two, they are indeed pretty shocked.”

“Brilliant changes a weapon attack to a Light-energy attack,” Briggs said, waving his hand. Sama pulled out the ‘dagger’ at her hip, which sprouted a couple more inches of grip, and whose Blade extended instantly to a full meter in length, limned in hard and sharp Gold. The blue-black of adamantine, gleaming with mithril and diamond Runes, was terribly beautiful and almost eye-searingly perfect in construction. It fit so well with the hand that held it that you knew the Sword was made for one person, and one person only.

“Tremble?” I asked calmly, lifting my left hand. The Ring there glowed with arcane light.

“I’m Zeben. Hello, Tremble!” my Ring chimed, sounding like a young man.

“Oh!” came the shocked voice of the Sword, the Runes pulsing in shock. It sounded like a young woman. “You’re the first other Intelligent item I’ve seen, other than big brother Endure! Hello, Zeben!”

“Of course you have a Ring. From Aelryinth.” Sama slapped her forehead, while Briggs just shook his head. “Brilliant, Trem.”

“Yes, Sama!” the Sword replied happily, probably excited just to be able to speak freely, and the whole length of her Blade turned from dark, dense metal to translucent golden light.

I frowned as I bent forward to look at her. “That’s not the Brilliant I recognize,” I said slowly. “But that’s definitely Light energy. Brilliant is called the Dragonslayer enchantment because it cuts right through natural armor.” I watched as Sama flipped the Sword over to let me inspect it from multiple angles, and then I saw something in the crystalline fracture lines, and leaned forward abruptly. “Oh, you must be shitting me.”

Sama held up her free hand, and received another ten with a sigh from Briggs.

“It conducts a spell past the natural armor!” I rolled my eyes as I sat back, looking back and forth between them. The ability was naturally mostly useless to them. “What else? Death to the undead?”

“It does ignore the Natural Armor of all the Dark Realm natives,” Sama confirmed, flicking Tremble back to normal mode and then letting go of the Sword, which promptly sank back to Dagger form. Zeben rose from my finger and tumbled around her, and they both went zipping around the room playfully. “And is basically worthless against anything that can wield Light Magic. It’s only a +III effect.”

A powerful effect to a Caster, if they could somehow chew past the Natural Armor. Probably double, triple, or quadruple damage.

“Could I provide the spell if you do the impaling?” I asked, interested in the teamwork applications.

“Probably, if I left it in the wound. We instead worked in maxed-out Delimited Energy Grasp II into Tremble and Endure, and feed them off our stored reserves if it is appropriate.” Briggs shook his big head slightly. “Still have to deal with default energy resistances, however.”

“Lightning Gauntlets? Phoenix Cloak?” I urged, remembering their standard layouts of Soul Tats.

“Also usable. The constant burn of the Phoenix Cloak is much more useful, although we have to focus it entirely on the weapon instead of around us,” Sama confirmed.

“Small loss. The flame from the Cloak can barely harm anything Warrior-class or above, any Fire Adept, or any Mage,” sniffed Briggs.