You are Ophelia Verse, senior field agent in the employ of the Imperial Bureau for Multiverse Affairs and you just had an assignment start in the worst possible way: with an ambush waiting at the transfer point.

<span class="mu-b"><span class="mu-i">"!!!"</span></span> Tri's wordless warning echoes in your mind moments after your feet feel solid ground.

And then the night around you explodes into light and flame, a bevy of attacks both physical and magical colliding against the omni-shield Tri throws up a split second earlier.

Half your mana reserve, gone in an instant. But it buys you time enough to do the smart thing. To turn and run.

But the ones who set this ambush aren't novices. They anticipated that you might survive their alpha strike. They even predicted how you'd retreat - as a tall figure rises out of the tall grass in your path, a large axe in his hand.

But you doubt they could predict you simply...

>ducking the swing and breaking him with a single punch (Melee preference)
>searing him with a bolt of raw mana called up in an eyeblink (Offensive magic preference)
>passing right through him - or your illusion doing so, at least. The actual you, turned invisible, rushes past him a moment later (Subtle magic preference)