The scene above looked like a natural disaster in action. All the shelves in the warehouse had fallen, crates were shattered and splintered, and debris lined the floor. Part of the roof had collapsed and there was a mighty gale of wind sending sharp shards of wood and gravel hurling through the air. Demarsus was at the center of the storm.
Lito’s uniform was ragged and torn. Blood covered his face and I saw more than a couple places where Demarsus’ axes had hit ho. He leapt from a pile of rubble, throwing his burning chain at the massive Tanker, who brought an ax up to catch it.
The chain wrapped around the ax and Demarsus heaved back, pulling Lito toward him through the air. He brought his second ax up to cleave down on Lito as he drew close. Myria appeared from nowhere, a deep crimson stain on her uniform from the wound at her side, and drove her rapier into Demarsus’ armpit. The big man shouted and dropped the ax, then drove his fist downward at Myria, who danced away from the attack, though she stumbled under the tempest.
Demarsus hadn’t escaped unscathed either. His armor was cracked and dented, and blood ran down his legs from Myria’s countless sneak attacks. Still, the big man moved as though uninjured and I wasn’t confident that the pair would take him down before one, or both of them, were killed.
“Is he gold too?” Xim asked, shouting a bit over the wind.
“Yeah! Tanker!”
“We’re way underleveled for this!” she said.
“That’s why I said evacuate!”
“Sobody’s going to die, though!”
“You want it to be us?”
“I have a new skill I can use from range! I can even charge it!”
Nuralie crawled next to on all fours, then stood and leaned very close to .
“He’s behind all this, yes?” she said.
“No, he’s a middleman!”
“Then we must speak with him.”
I squinted at her, then waved at the room.
“That’s what they’re trying to do! He’s not feeling talkative!”
Nuralie froze, then pulled a massive frog the size of a house cat from her inventory. The wind gusting around her split and swirled, leaving her untouched by the artificial storm. She pulled out two more frogs for Xim and I. I realized I still held the flower she’d handed to , which continued to drip, and put it away into my inventory before taking the amphibian. The wind died all around us and we suddenly no longer needed to shout.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Mountain wind-frog,” said Nuralie. “A most holy creature.”
She placed her own frog on her shoulder, where it gripped her tightly with its sticky, padded toes. Xim and I copied the move.
Even the lethal debris was swept aside by the mighty frog’s power.
“What’s the plan of attack?” asked Xim.
“There is no plan!” I said. “What can we even do to that guy?”
“Distract him,” said Nuralie. “Insult his clan-mates. Pray for the gods to smite him.”
“I’ll focus on that last one,” said Xim. She knelt and gripped her scepter, then began to mutter under her breath. Gold light began to cover her body.
“What do you think his lowest stat is?” Nuralie asked.
I pondered it for a second.
“Luck.”
“Not useful. Other than that.”
I gave it deeper consideration, and thoughts sped through my mind faster than I’d ever experienced.
Demarsus was a level thirty gold, which gave him one-hundred-and-thirty-eight stat points to distribute. He was a Tanker, at least according to Lito and Myria, which made his two highest stats Strength and Fortitude. Many of his moves didn’t trigger my Magical Thinker perk, which ant they were stamina based, but several of his skills had triggered it.
That, on top of this persistent hurricane, indicated that he was at least sowhat built into ntal stats. So, Wisdom for sure, and maybe Intelligence to so degree. He was a high level Delver leading a second life as a cri lord, and his battle shout at the beginning of the fight had a strong ntal effect on his goons. That led to believe he’d also focused on Charisma.
He moved quickly, but not inhumanly so, unlike his strength which looked to be at the level of a Greek demi-god. His strikes were precise and he had decent footwork, but was nowhere near the level of Myria. So, Strength and Fort as his mains, with Wisdom and Charisma as his secondaries. Likely so Intelligence, and given his combat performance and raw number of stats available, he probably got Speed and Agility to ten to augnt his primary ans of combat and claim the first superhuman trait they offered along with the level ten evolution.
“Speed or Agility,” I said.
“Sticky-juice, then,” said Nuralie, producing two liter-sized glass jars from her inventory. She thrust one into my hands.
“What do I do with this?”
“Throw it at him. It’s sticky."
“That’s it?”
“It’s also flammable.”
“We’re like fifty feet away and if you haven’t noticed it’s fuckin’ windy out there.”
Pause.
“We get closer.”
The battle before us was hardly stationary. Lito and Demarsus leapt twenty feet at a ti as they barreled into one another and traded blows. How was I supposed to get close to that?
There was also the risk of Demarsus throwing an ax at one of us like a buzzsaw and cleaving us in twain in an instant. I might have the Fortitude to take a hit, but I doubted Xim or Nuralie did.
Nuralie got low to the ground and started crawling closer to the fight, cradling the jar in one arm. Her movent on three limbs was surprisingly quick, and she made her way into the thick of it in a handful of seconds. I bit my lip and tried to figure out my approach, when Myria went down.
She appeared just behind Demarsus, preparing for another thrust between the plates of his armor, but Demarsus was ready. He quickly pivoted and thrust a kick at her, connecting center mass with his armored foot. Myria was thrown away from him like a bottlerocket, her rapier flying from her hand. She crashed into a pile of broken shelves, boxes, and spilled goods fifteen feet away and her body went limp amongst the detritus.
She didn’t get back up.
“Fuck ,” I said, then cast what was quickly becoming my favorite spell: Shortcut. I used my signature move and appeared slightly above Demarsus, then hurled the jar down onto the back of his shoulders.
It smashed open and the liquid inside poured out like water, before quickly becoming thick and sticky when exposed to the air. He parried an attack from Lito, tossing the smaller man away, then spun to face .
“Hello there,” I said.
Demarsus rushed at , unhindered by the goo, ax raised.
I cast Shortcut again and appeared behind him.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He turned and hurled an ax at .
To which I cast Shortcut again. I’d have loved to keep that ga up for a lot longer, but my next attempt failed to send anywhere.
Your mana is too low to cast Shortcut!
I may have forgotten to pay attention to my mana bar.
He snarled and fixed back onto once more, ax returning to his hand. He raised it to throw another attack, when Nuralie’s jar of sticky-juice smashed into his helt. That was a much better throw than mine, since it got into his eyes.
The man may have legendary strength, but how strong did that make his eyelids?
As soon as Demarsus blinked to try and clear the sli from his vision, his eyes were glued shut. He dropped an ax and reached up to pry them open manually, but that gave Lito ti to recover and lay a vicious blow onto the man’s helm with his hamr. His head bent sideways then snapped back upright like a training dummy. Demarsus scread in rage and swung his ax wildly in Lito’s direction, but it was poorly aid and the Guardian easily dodged it.
Demarsus wiped at his eyes, then was caught on the backfoot when Lito went in for another series of blows. The sticky-juice sizzled where Lito’s glowing hamr hit, and a fla popped up here and there, but it wasn’t fully catching. Demarsus was beginning to recover and managed to shove Lito away to wipe at his eyes again. Then the light of heaven descended upon Demarsus.
If heaven’s light was the color of fiery blood, that is.
A pillar of crimson light shone down on Demarsus, heat pouring out of it. It narrowed into a fine beam and a bright pulse of energy shot down, crashing into him and lighting up the two liters of sticky magic napalm he’d been coated with.
Demarsus beca an inferno, flas consuming his body and flaring up nearly to the ceiling. The wave of heat coming off of him was strong enough to cause to shield my face, and Nuralie skittered away from the fight. The frog on my shoulder let out a distressed ribbit and I began putting distance between myself and the burning man for my new pet’s safety. There was a deadly, twisting bonfire where Demarsus once stood, and the man gave zero fucks.
Demarsus’ pair of axes spun out of the flaming vortex, moving around him in a spiral. The attack was a simple arc, however, not aid at anyone in particular. That and the wind dying off signaled that the Tanker was struggling within the flas, even though he continued to move and fight without slowing. I backed off even further, stopping near Myria and briefly checking up on her.
The mont I reached to check for a pulse, a dagger was at my throat. She peeked one eye open and grinned.
“You’re not Demarsus,” she said, the words strained. “Pity.”
“You were playing dead?”
“You’d be amazed how often it works.” She let her arm drop back down on top of the pile of wreckage she laid in. “Though it wasn’t much of an act.” She groaned and held her side.
I turned to find Xim, who was already closing the distance between us. She knelt next to Myria and imdiately began casting a series of healing spells.
Lito took advantage of Demarsus’ blindness and wrapped another set of burning chains around him. The cri lord struggled against the bonds, though was unable to casually break out of them as he had done earlier. The flas consuming him began getting sucked into Lito’s chains, causing them to grow thicker and glow more brightly. Before long, most of the fire around Demarsus was gone, leaving the chains enlarged enough to cover most of his torso.
“Aw,” said Xim, “after we worked so hard to set him on fire.”
“It’s ok,” said Myria, patting Xim on the arm. “What he’s got coming is much worse.”
“Can’t ask questions if he’s dead,” said Nuralie.
I jumped at the Loson’s sudden presence, having appeared just behind .
“Why are you so stealthy?”
“Many terrors stalk the night swamp,” she said, then failed to elaborate any further.
The wind frog on her shoulder let out a ribbit, followed by responses from the other two carried by Xim and I.
“Yes,” Nuralie said, nodding at the frogs, “the gogatron is a fierce foe.”
Demarsus continued to struggle, unable to break free of the enormous, burning chain links. His axes still flew back to his hands, but without free range of movent or the ability to create montum, it looked like his ability to send them spiraling through the air was lost. His armor was blackened, and the electric crackling around the wings of his helt had ceased. Myria managed to climb to her feet, made ambulatory by Xim’s heals, and she reached out a hand.
“I really don’t like to use this one,” she said, “but it’s the only one he hasn’t resisted yet.”
Violet light flowed from her arm toward Demarsus’ head.
You have observed the spell Dominate.
Dominate
School: Spiritual
Duration: Channeled
Cost: 10 plus 1 mana per minute.
Cooldown: Variable.
Requirent: 30 Charisma, 10 Wisdom
You dominate the mind of the target, giving you total control over their actions. A dominated target cannot act of their own free will and is unable to take willful actions without your express command. If given an instruction, a dominated target will act to the best of its ability to carry out the instruction, but will otherwise behave in a docile and passive manner. A dominated target’s personality is suppressed, and is incapable of acting ‘naturally’, even when instructed to do so.
Demarsus was attempting to bullrush Lito despite his bindings and the Guardian had his shield up to catch the attack. When Myria’s spell hit Demarsus, the man stopped in his tracks.
“Drop your weapons,” Myria commanded, and the axes fell from the Tanker’s hands. “Dispel all your skills, spells, and other magical effects.”
The runes on Demarsus’ armor disappeared and he deflated, growing slightly smaller. He slouched heavily, as though exhausted.
“Take a big nap.”
Demarsus slumped over and passed out.
Lito dropped his shield and studied the big guy on the ground. He pulled out his cigarette case, miraculously unhard, and pulled out a smoke. After lighting it and taking a drag he looked around the destroyed facility, surveying the disaster and the dozen dead or unconscious thugs I’d left in my own wake. The kid who’d led us in and the receptionist were nowhere to be seen.
“Could have gone worse,” he said.
****
A whole crew of mundane and Delver authorities were on the scene in minutes. A familiar level ninety Delver showed up to take Demarsus into custody monts before Myria’s mana ran out. Bright blue hair, skin whiter than even the palest Hiwardian I’d seen so far. It was the sa woman who’d nearly burnt out my eyeballs while I was people-watching during my first day in Formation. Her presence was still overwhelming, and I was again forced to reduce the strength of my soul-sight.
She grumbled about ‘unwarranted ergency summons’ until she saw her charge, where her attitude changed from irritated to outright pissed. She glared at us, then noticed the devastated surroundings for the first ti and sighed.
“This is gonna be a hassle,” she said in a lodic voice, then summoned her massive alabaster hand. It scooped her and Demarsus up, then flew away through the destroyed roof with the pair of them in its palm.
You have observed the spell Helping Hand.
I scanned the spell text, which looked useful–I definitely needed a flight skill–but I disregarded it when I noticed it was Divine.
One of the things I’d discovered during my studies was that the magic in this world consisted of five main schools. The schools that were available for you to learn and cast were determined by your attunent. The schools were organized into a wheel, and a person was able to utilize spells from three of these schools. First, and most effectively, the school that matches their own attunent. Then, the schools on either side of their attunent.
Reviews
All reviews (0)