Demonic Magician

Things felt good when you were on a roll. And roll we did. In a different timeline where the Crimson Shadow weren’t a constant threat, we would have easily run circles around everything in the first area and sucked every mote of good loot from any Quest offered. Our time there was shorter than necessary, and we would fall into the habit of scraping by with the bare minimum power needed. Bad habits died hard.

I sunk into the thick grass, itching as it tried to prod me in the nostril. Ren slunk up beside me and we peered over the ridge. A small encampment a good three to four dozen feet below. Some wooden structures, including a basic shack. Dozen or so people idling around. One of them looked less generic and more like the mugshot on the wanted poster.

“Reckon we could just pop him from here and be done with it?” I murmured.

“If he stopped twitching around, looks like he’s on something.”

He was rather… energetic, to say the least. As if he had forgotten where he left five different things around the camp and switched which one he wanted to go find every three seconds. Erratic and unpredictable. A missed shot could potentially draw the whole camp up to our position—which we could handle, I didn't doubt—but that sounded very tiring. A direct killshot would save us a lot of headache.

“I bet I could kill him in one hit from here.” My eyes narrowed.

“Oh yeah, what do you bet?”

“If I'm successful, then you owe me…” I turned my head to her to see that she was laying a lot closer than I had realized. “…something.”

“Deal,” she whispered. “If you balls it up, then you owe me… something.”

I looked away from her blue eyes and back to the target, letting the building steam flow out of my ears. Couldn’t have just said something simple, could I? With a deep breath, I cooled myself and focused. Pushed myself up a little so that I wasn’t so buried in the grass, and let a card appear in my hand.

Held it, the mana pooling from me and empowering it, and it grew brighter. Hit the exhaustion and my health started to drop, blood running from my hand and down my sleeve - which was rather unpleasant. A quick glance at Ren showed she had a dim view of my casual attitude about harming myself for more power. The System let me do it, although that sounded like a poor excuse.

I hit my limit, the card pure white and crackling with pale electricity. Exhaling through my nose, I took aim and let it fly through the air. The man moved.. so I turned the trajectory, my hand shaking at trying to control the amount of power as it flew further away. It was just about there, and he turned again. The card narrowly missed lopping off an ear as it went past his head towards the ground.

Ren exhaled and pushed herself up to see better, perhaps more in surprise than celebrating her win.

But it wasn’t over.

“What the-“ his voice came out from below.

My fingers clenched into my palms and pain radiated through my head, but I brought it back like a boomerang. A struggle with how much power was soaked into it, like a lead weight on the end of a fishing line. As he looked down at the slim card of white light, it then appeared from the back of his head and vanished into nothing. His body toppled over, to a lot less concern from his group than I had expected.

I dropped back down into the grass with a gasp before holding my breath as I let the pain wash away. Probably shouldn’t push myself so hard just yet, but I wanted to see how well my new headband worked. I rolled onto my back and exhaled, finally letting the air out as my senses calmed. No shouts or sounds of pursuit from below, so I counted that as a win.

Ren loomed over me. Her face, way too close, was shadowed against the day-lit canopy above. “Looks like I owe you something, trickster.”

“Have mercy,” I groaned and waved her away, before clarifying. “The mercy isn't the something, just a normal request.”

She snorted and moved away to stand, while I took a few seconds to compose myself. My brain just need to refresh and reboot since my blood was all the way… across my hands. With a sigh, I sat up and brought out a linen sheet to wipe them on. Not the most hygienic, but it beat using my suit. I stood and walked over to her, where she was now watching Wolf roll around in the dry dirt on his back.

“Fascinating how his hat stays on,” she noted.

The gears in my head were still spinning without the teeth engaging, so I didn’t have anything to say to add to the conversation. Nothing that didn’t taste like a foot, at least. Other than crushing me with awkwardness, Ren seemed to be in a better mood this afternoon. Two Quests down and a couple of Power Tokens each - that should put a smile on anyone’s face.

I enjoyed the moment for what it was. The humor in her eyes as she watched the bear wriggle around and get all dusty. A little snapshot for the future when times were difficult. This seemed like one of those cliche moments where I could turn and open my emotional hatch. Shower Ren with everything going on within me. But I didn’t. Not yet. There were things still guarded that I was… scared to reveal in case the Crimson Shadow came and took everything away. When they were gone, I could breathe easy.

“What are you thinking about, Max?”

Thoughts popped like bubbles, and I watched the bear right himself and shake off the dust from his fur like a dog out of a bath. I raised an eyebrow at the elf. “Nothing.”

“Bullshitter.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Let’s go kill some Elks?”

They weren’t too far away, and before I knew it, we were doing exactly that. It felt too strange to try to Dazzle the wild beasts, so we played it straight. Wolf mauled them, while Ren and I did damage from range. No need for Roger or other demons, really. Once we got into a routine, the first Quest was completed and we handed it in to repeat it.

[80 Gold]

[Regeneration Potion]

Slow healing over five minutes. Could be useful if it didn't taste like alcohol and vomit. I knew now that part of my aversion to the stuff was due to the other Max. While I wasn't a drinker in my normal life due to the negative effect it had on my work, the pact my other half was bound with restricted him from imbibing the stuff. Still, I could hold my nose if it meant not dying. Currently, I was thankful I'd been able to get by mostly on bandages and Ren's healing.

“Hey Max,” Ren stretched out her back as we took a breather. “If I asked you a direct question, you’d answer honestly, right?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “It might depend on what you ask.”

“What kind of answer is that?” She frowned and crossed her arms.

“Alright, alright. I would be honest with you.”

“Then… I have a question for you.” She shuffled her feet on the floor, some eagerness mixed with apprehension.

My right eye twitched. “Okay, go for it.”

“Do you have any Sweet Cakes left?”

I worked my jaw and stared at her impassively. This is why it depended on what she asked. We held eye contact, but I didn't respond.

“Max… why aren’t you answering? You’re holding out on me, aren’t you? Dickbag!” She strode toward me.

“I never said I had any!” I started to back away.

“You aren’t denying it! I can’t wait till the next time you almost die to have another.”

I stopped and pulled a face, and she stood a couple of feet away to glare at me. Wolf was almost audibly rolling his eyes from a little distance away, and I saw his point of view on how this looked.

“Okay.” I raised up my hands in resignation. “I have one left. I was waiting until I had two to share. But since you’re so insistent…” It popped up into my hand and I moved it toward her.

She took it without hesitation, snapped it in half and pressed part of it back into my palm. “You make things too complicated when the answer is right in front of you.” The elf stared at me as she practically inhaled the pastry. The fact that she hadn't managed to find any when they went shopping the other day was perhaps in the top five worst things to happen this week.

“Guilty,” I managed, with a tied-up tongue. Her intensity today had been more disarming than usual, and I wasn’t sure if that was my fragile mind just being more malleable or… I stopped, realizing we had been staring at each other while my brain tried to hastily put matching shapes together. “Elks!” I said, unceremoniously shoving the cake into my mouth and walking away.

I approached Wolf and shook my hand at him as I exhaled. “I know. You don’t need to say anything.”

“She was smiling.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “I don’t understand your rituals, but it’s easier to be happier before you’re dead, rather than after.”

My mouth opened, but he turned around to get ready to charge the next monster. The greatest tragedy was the other Max being just as much of a dweeb with women as I was. A sigh drew away those thoughts. I should focus on the enemy before us, then gather the pieces. If there was actually something between us, I could deal with it once the dust had settled. Too much danger and the unknown in the way. So many things to plan, and so little-

“Are you ready, Max?” Ren called, arrow up to her bow as her default scowl was back.

“Almost.” I grinned slightly maniacally, dealing damage to my own mental fortitude.

And then we were back into it. The killing cooled me down, which was possibly not a good sign. I enjoyed the artistry of swirling the cards around, avoiding Wolf, as Ren peppered the beasts from slightly further back. Our team skills had been a little rusty from where we had mostly been focused on high-stakes Player combat. Now that we were grinding through System-created like nothing, there was a peace to it. A comfort that there wasn't much personal danger. The slightest hint of safety that I was loath to accept at more than face value.

Before long, we had finished off the Quest requirements a second time. Lots of meat to feed to Wolf, but no gold or useful equipment, which was disappointing after a couple of good spates of luck in that department.

[Quest Complete]

Same reward as before. I yawned and stretched out. Some of the meat I considered cooking later on, if we had the chance - which was a nice thought. My hands ached, but I kept things under control and hadn’t exerted myself. No more blood.

“Must be our lucky day,” Ren whistled as she looted through the last group. “Two more Tokens.”

I nodded and sat down on my conjured chair. Exhaustion seemed to be hitting me harder, even though the System said I was fine. “Give one to Wolf, save another for Hannah?”

“Shapeshifter can go without. I doubt she has a lot of information with the bridge being the last bastion of the shitbags.” She flicked one through the air toward me. “You and Wolf can have.”

I didn’t move. The Power Token just vanished once it got into my perimeter. “You sure?”

“Do I make mistakes?” She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. Narrowed them further as my mouth opened to respond.

It closed without objection. While I didn’t want to start getting greedy and getting all the power myself, I also didn’t want to argue with her. Back to looking at upgrade options, then.

Finale upgrade lowered the number of icon stacks for the greater effects, whereas Vanishing Act would allow me to hide two objects at once. There was also Mana Extension - having a greater mana pool meant more strength for my cards. Last time I went for the useful combat skill, so this time it was time for the pizzazz. Especially with the looming production, I wanted to really make it memorable for whoever's corpses remained afterward. Maybe my own.

[Finale+] [Decreases the Dazzle thresholds for certain effects.]

Somewhat vague, but I imagined it would just stun things for longer or let me do it with fewer icons in play. Let’s see if I could get it going before I died.

“What did you pick, Wolf?” I glanced toward the bear who had been laying down and licking his fur clean.

“Some sort of extra damage when I'm hurt.” He yawned, yapping his maw. “So many words annoy me.”

“And you, trickster?” Ren raised an eyebrow.

“Finale. If there’s a group we have to break, the area stun seemed useful.”

She nodded. “Let’s get moving to the town. We should get there by dusk if we don’t get distracted.”

I groaned and got back to my feet, waving my cloak over the chair as it went into my Inventory. There we go, getting some of it back. My eyes closed, and I focused on my breathing. Not enough practice recently. With a smile, I turned to the waiting elf and held a gold coin up.

“Call it for who gets the bath first?”

“I wasn’t born yesterday, Max. You can just change it to what you want.”

I ignored her and flicked it into the air, raising an expectant eyebrow.

“Heads,” she said with a sigh.

Caught it. Onto the back of my hand for the reveal. Heads it was.

Ren rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure what that was meant to prove, but I’ll take it. Let’s head out.”

I smiled as she walked away, Wolf following alongside her. I didn’t often do a setup to be called back on later, but it was there to draw on if the situation ever arose. A little pre-planning might go to waste ninety percent of the time... but when it hit, that's when magic could really dazzle.

Too caught up in living, I almost forgot what I was best at. Rest and violence had drawn a cover over the showman waiting to reemerge like a butterfly from a cocoon. There were things I needed to practice before the main event. I followed slowly behind them as we walked south, drawing and switching between things in my Inventory to prepare.

Our harshest critics lay in wait for the curtain to open and lights to come on. Eager for the best, and last, show of their lives.

I wouldn't leave them wanting.