Demonic Magician

One of the impressive things about fighting other Players was how slow they seemed to use their abilities. For the longest time, it perplexed me - as if they had some manner of a mental block like Wolf and could only use things innately and didn’t have a proper grasp of their class or how to interact with the System. Could it also be that they were inferior classes and had worse ability options? Maybe. It sounded cruel of the System to put others on unequal footing, but even by now I had established that the System - or whoever had built it - just didn’t care.

As the knight continued to stand waiting for my attack to land, I didn’t even send the cards to him - he was starting to suspect they wouldn’t do a lot of damage and he could just empower some ability to skewer me with little damage to himself instead. So I pulled them toward him and let them vanish, instead I threw one of the blankets over him.

He slashed about wildly, getting it out of his way just as Roger slammed a rock into the side of his helmet.

“Knock, knock, fucker!” The demon grinned as the knight fell to the ground, before leaping atop him. The puppet-body of the woman I had slain now sporting two purple ears from her skull.

I turned to the last of the group as my pact summon tried his best to be a can opener, just as the fourth member ran my hound through. He gave a look to the carnage, and then back to the camp - weighing up his options. He didn't look like the type to think he could take on the man who had just destroyed the rest of his group. Sweaty and pale, going to get reinforcements was his ultimate decision. He turned from me and ran toward the main camp.

Poor choice.

From my hand, I split my cards and sent them through the air. The magic one cut into his lower leg, causing him to stumble. An Imp one struck the ground just behind him. Wagons, I commanded. The escapee didn’t get much further as an arrow appeared out through his back, his route clearly taking him straight toward the elf. I grinned, but immediately regretted the action as a surge of electricity pulsed through the left of the camp, light flickering against all the wooden objects obscuring my vision of the other two.

“Don’t take too long,” I yelled back at Roger as I ran. An increasing tempo of repeated clangs from behind me was the only response I received as he plied his rock against the armor to get at the meaty part inside.

Another explosion bloomed in pale green light from between the wagons and spiked defenses. I swore under my breath. Despite her arrow coming over from there, I couldn’t see where she was. A fireball head off from my Imp to the right side of the camp where the grill fire was still burning away at some wooden crates. It struck a wagon and flames stuck to it, lapping around and growing in ferocity by the second.

I slid into the camp to see Ren leaning up against one of the wagons, breathing heavily. The left sleeve of her blouse had been charred off and etchings of red ran all the way up her arm. Wolf looked equally as injured. Patches of fur had been burned off, and a limp, robed figure lay bloodied in his mouth.

“Lightning spell,” Ren hissed, healing herself with radiant light. “Spellcasters are motherfuckers.”

“Mfmff,” Wolf agreed, before spitting the corpse to the ground. “Taste weirder, too.”

Probably not the right time to remind them I was some form of spellcaster. Whatever classes the other three here were, they didn’t have the necessary defenses to stop Wolf crumpling them like cardboard. One lay several feet away from a severed right arm. The other had a crushed skull, a sight that sent a twinge of pain through my own head.

“You two get healed up and let’s pick the camp clean and move on?” I rubbed at my temples. Something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t think what. Adrenaline was draining away, and I felt unaccomplished, barely a handful of Dazzles in that brief fight. Didn't get to pop the . Did that mean things weren't over yet, or was I holding the wrong end of the stick? I caught the eye of the elf.

“Max, you need healing too.” Ren scowled at me as the redness on her arm faded away.

I looked down, briefly surprised to see how much of my front was soaked with blood. There was some pain there, but I hadn’t really focused on it.

“Use some bandages? And probably next time, don’t just stand in front of people attacking you.” She rolled her eyes. “Even if it did look badass.”

“Careful.” I grinned. “Shouldn’t encourage me with compliments.” My eyes turned away from her glare as Roger stumbled over in a suit of dented crimson armor.

“Hey, boss… and witch, and big dog, I guess.”

“Wolf,” the bear corrected, as the elf narrowed her eyes.

“Roger.” I nodded. “Thanks for your help. How have you been?”

He awkwardly moved over and leaned on one of the spiked walls, the sharpened wood scraping against his metal side. “Can’t complain. It’s nice to get away from the wives and kids every so often, though, you know?"

“Wives and kids,” I repeated, slowly looking back at Ren.

“Yeah.” His head shuffled like a nod, purple ears atop the helmet waving. “Seven wives, twenty-three kids. Couple more on the way. The gals always dote on me more after some time in this plane, and the kids love the stories.”

My imagination was working overtime, but couldn’t keep up. “The stories of you murdering people?”

“In a way.” He leaned over and creaked further against the spikes. “They see me as an adventurer. Being summoned by you is an honor.”

I bowed, not really knowing how else to process all that information. “Always a pleasure to have you assist us, Roger.”

“Well, I’ll be going now, boss. Florentine is cooking today, and her caramelized mash is to die for.” With that said, his body slunk lax as his energy faded away.

All of that was pretty unexpected, and hard to accept. For a variety of reasons. There was a brief moment of awkward silence before I turned back to my Party. “Is it bad I wanted to ask him to bring us some of the mash?”

“Get looting, trickster,” Ren said with a sigh, hoping to move on from that odd conversation. “This place already gives me enough of a bad vibe.”

Glad that it wasn’t just me that felt it, I nodded and began looking around as she healed up the bear. As much as it tempted me to take everything not nailed down, the more I cluttered my Inventory the longer it would take me to cycle to what I wanted - even with the speed I could currently do it.

I whistled. “This wizard was stacked. Rare equipment with Intelligence and Spell Crit Chance, some with Elemental Damage too. You’ll probably want the ring with that on?” I turned and spun it in the air. She easily caught it and turned away from us.

Wolf watched her walk off to the corpses back in the woods before looking up at me. “You’ve both exchanged rings now.”

“Huh?” My brain froze for a second. “Oh. No, that’s not…”

“You share the same sleeping quarters and dress the same.” His amber eyes bore into me.

For some reason, my brain felt like mud. “I think you are reading too much into it, Wolf.” Technically speaking, we had all shared sleeping arrangements at some point - and he too now wore a hat denoting his place in our troupe. No need to grasp for anything further.

He stretched out and looked idly over to the woods where the elf had gone. “The details do not concern me. I only wish to ask that you do not leave me behind wherever the path leads.”

I kneeled down on one knee to look him in the eyes. “You have my word, Wolf. Whatever happens, you are part of this team.”

With a grunt, he nodded. “I’m glad I didn’t eat you before.”

“Me too.” I stood back to my feet and grinned, before picking the wizard clean of what I wanted.

[Mad Mage Hat] [+2 Int, +5% Spell Crit Chance]

[White Magic Gloves] [+3 Int]

[Slippers of Magic] [+2 Int, +5% Magic Damage]

[Belt of Magic] [+2 Int, +5% Magic Damage]

Ten percent more damage already, even without the extra Intelligence. Seems like it didn't do the wizard much good, though. He had gotten a few spells off and damaged the Party. Probably holding the barrier up during most of the start of the battle weakened his effectiveness. Then, once you had a bear in your face, your options were limited. I went through the other bodies as Wolf yawned and lay down. Some gold and consumables, but no gear that was worth upgrading what I had. A couple Strength and Constitution things for Wolf to go through later.

The smell of burning caught in my nose, distracting me from ruminating any further. Imp had departed, but not before setting some tents on fire. My eyes moved around the campground, looking for the most prime sources of loot before everything was consumed by flame. A journal lay sprawled on the worn dirt, pages gently moving about in the slight breeze.

I relented to checking it out, despite time being a precious resource. Information was perhaps more valuable than the new equipment I now sported, if it could keep us alive. The pages flicked across in front of my eyes as I leaned against a crate. Thankfully, this hadn’t ended up on the currently-burning side of the camp.

My brow furrowed. Nice of them to document things. Recruitment attempts. Oddly enough, it sounded like they were all... willingly joining this charade. The process of how all this had been brought forth... the dead wizard and the red knight appeared to be in charge of…

As Ren approached, I turned around and kicked over the crate I had been leaning against. The clatter of glass was accompanied by the lid popping off, dozens of bottles pouring out into a pile on the ground. Most empty, but some full.

“What are those?” the elf asked with her own furrowed brow in full effect.

“Blood.”

Ren kneeled down to inspect one, not willing to touch it with her hands. I joined her by the side of the crate. She flared her nostrils and shook her head. “I suppose the two questions are whose, and why?”

I met her questioning gaze with nothing but a blank expression.

“Fuck,” she whispered. “She’s a blood mage or vampire or something?”

All I could do was nod slowly. The information was still trying to worm its way through my brain, and I’d need some quiet time to properly dig through the journal to get an accurate grasp on what it was all about. A rough formation of the bigger picture took shape, and I squinted to make it out.

Whatever her Level Five skill had been must have granted her this ability. Using her blood, she had somehow offered them power or an end goal that was too good for them to pass up. Either way, it had enabled her to gather up or kill the majority of Players in this area. It didn't read like hypnosis, possession, or corruption. But I hadn't the time to fully inhale the words into my head.

Ren sighed and stood again. “At least that gives a little more exposition to what we’re up against. Seems you’re not the only one bullshitting the System.” She moved past me, placing her hand briefly on my shoulder as she moved over to Wolf. “Let’s get moving. I hate the smell of burning wood.”

I wondered if she had found anything useful on the other figures. Something to go over somewhere safer. “Just have a couple more boxes to check and then we’re good.” My Inventory now had three bottles of blood, and five more empty within it, as I turned and stood. Again, not intending to be deceptive, but I had a knack for knowing what might be useful. Until we knew better, the Lady's blood could be used to our benefit.

“I doubt there’s anything else worthwhile.” She gave Wolf a pat on the head. “There’s some new gear for you. That’ll be great, huh?”

The bear nodded, but didn't seem too enthused. We had managed to get him into the bowler hat, which was the biggest win we were likely to have on that front.

Shame the Shadows weren't filled with unused Power Tokens. I was still sore that the Dungeon only gave us two. Ren was probably right, though. We had achieved our goal here and there was no sense getting greedy by trying to scour every last container for scraps of loot. If there was a treasure chest, maybe - but the boxes not on fire didn’t look like they’d be filled with anything important or valuable.

“Alright, you’ve won me over with your sound reasoning.” I walked over to join them. “Where should we head to next?”

“I was thinking north,” she replied. “Wait for the area to cool off and see if we can hit a couple Quests until we have more information on where we should strike next.”

That made sense to me. We were fast becoming the biggest thorn in the side of Crimson Shadow. They were not likely to give us this kind of chance again to act so unopposed, if there were any actually left in the area. Hadrian sure, but there couldn't be...

My mouth opened and closed to signal my agreement, but no words came out. Even as their eyes widened, a numbing pain flooded down my neck. As a radiant heal pulsed through me, the bloodied arrow fell from my neck. My eyes blurred briefly, death avoided by a sliver of luck.

From the woods, Hadrian, mounted atop his horse and followed by four others. Some spell had silenced their advance, I was sure of it. As I went to move, ethereal chains appeared around me, keeping me in place. Their archer fired a skill into the air, an arrow bursting into two dozen more, ready to pepper the area like a rain of projectiles.

If we took shelter from the spray, their melee fighters would be upon us before we recovered. Number advantage was theirs. Too risky for us to attempt to overcome, any hubris I once held melted away as my need to protect the others overrode it.

“Both of you run, now.” My eyes blazed with anger, and they didn’t hesitate. Around one of the wagons and through the barricades, an aura burst around Wolf as they sprinted back toward the woods. Was it the right call to make? I wasn't used to this kind of leadership, but I was willing to risk sinking with the ship if they made it away on the life rafts. What mattered most was that they heeded my word without hesitation. Something frightening, if I had the time to process it at present.

The lobbed arrows began clattering around the camp, and I crossed my arms. None of them struck me, more from luck than anything else - but my indifference had an effect on the approaching five. Slight confusion and amusement on the face of the wild-eyed man at their front.

I leveled a stern gaze at the mounted man. “Let them go, and I’ll join the Crimson Shadow.” Either he would buy it, or I was about to lose my head.

He grinned as his halberd glinted in the sunlight, his decision already made.