The Angel Express, Chicago, Illinois - 9:40 AM

I stood in the middle of the long, open platform that was the training car. The walls and ceiling had shifted to become part of the floor, giving us a large arena to fight on. At the four corners surrounding me were the fighters of Sol Ligatus.

Jamie stood ahead of me with Mercury across from her. Their gear had changed the least since I saw them last, but that was to be expected. Her plastic armor and his ninja outfit were both big ticket growth items. With as many bosses as they would have taken out together, I knew they were much stronger than they had been the last time I saw them.

As a Weapon Master, Jamie’s arsenal was basically a revolving door of whatever powerful items she could get her hands on. Her golden shield had been fixed with dragon scales and sat on her back along with a spear. In addition, her scimitars, Firefly and Silhouette, hung from her hips and a Desert Eagle was holstered to one thigh with daggers on the other.

Mercury had his hand on the black and pink wakizashi hanging from his left side. The Princess, the intelligent spirit that inhabited the blade, was likely here as well. While she couldn’t do much on her own yet, she was instrumental in teaching her wielder how to fight. Not only did she help him make split second decisions, but her passives shored up both his offensive and defensive talent.

Without turning around, I focused on Jeff. His outfit had been modified, if only slightly. He still wore his Stinging Yellow Jacket, Goggles of the Trojan Prince, Cincture of the Complete Body, Sure-Step Sandals, Crusader’s Wrath, and the safety vest from Atlanta. He no longer wore the goofy looking Duelist’s Trousers, having been replaced by a pair of dark pants too generic to guess what enchantments came on them.

While Jamie’s weapons were the most powerful, Jeff’s was the one I was most wary of. Not only did Killer Queen come with debilitating effects on its own, but the Knight had a few choice debuffs in his own kit. His arsenal of poison, honey clots, and curses were all meant to slow me down for the kill, which added something spicy to the fight.

My attention shifted to my last opponent. Kayla’s outfit had changed the most, though I attributed that to her role. She was the only fighter in Sol Ligatus that was less focused on combat, instead leaning towards charisma and guile with her specialty stats, Credibility and Moxie. While costly, I expected her to have an outfit for infiltration and an outfit for monster slaying. The only things I recognized from Pittsburgh were her glasses and thick Egyptian-style necklace.

Today she wore navy blue leather that encased everything except her head, with combat boots, gloves, and a silver tiara. I noticed the distinct lack of Heelies, but didn’t ask.

The armor came from Doneralego the Lich and, as gear made for a spellcaster, would have helped boost at least one of her specialty stats. It also had a corruptive aspect, but the twin effects of Moxie and Mercurial Mind working together to protect her psyche meant that it would be safe for her to wear for long lengths of time.

In her hand, she held her weapon of choice. The polished Drakefang Dagger was one of the items she had picked out from the Pharaoh’s treasure hoard. It didn’t have any passive effects or skills, but instead increased her three physical stats by a large number. It had been a good choice for her.

Once I was done with my assessment, I cracked my knuckles. “So, let me get this straight,” I started slowly. “Not only did Jeff and Jamie want a rematch, but Ares has placed a bet with Sara?”

“Yes,” Jamie answered with a nod. “I’ve got a quest and everything. He’s familiar with your fights from the Chaos Cup and, as much as I’d rather not say it, quite enjoyed your performance as the Warmonger.”

“Makes sense for the God of War,” Kayla said.

I grinned. “So Ares likes the Warmonger. Alright, cool. How are you feeling about this, Mercury?”

The ninja scratched the back of his head. “I think it’s a good thing I went to the bathroom before this,” he admitted before flinching like someone who had just gotten hit. A second later he dodged as if someone tried to swipe him again. “Cut that out! I’m not going to stand here and act like I’m ready for this, Princess. This is the Warmonger!”

“Come on, Merc, we’ve practiced this,” Jeff said. “Just stick to the plan.”

“There’s a plan?” I laughed, setting my hands on my hips. “Man, y’all are serious about this rematch, huh?”

“I did my best to make sure they were ready,” Kayla said, raising her dagger. “If I was going to get dragged into this, then I wanted to make sure we maximized our odds. Plus, it made for good training as a teamwork exercise. Both my husband and Jamie agreed that fighting you was more nerve wracking than that last scenario boss, and now Mercury gets to feel some of that despair.”

“Don’t tell him I said that,” the Weapon Master scoffed.

“That’s some high praise,” I whistled. “Not you, though?”

The Double Agent shrugged. “If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose. Everyone promised to be good sports about it,” she said before looking at Jamie. “Everyone.”

The Weapon Master rolled her eyes, but nodded.

“Not only that, but Sara even pitched in,” Jeff added. “She really wanted you to be challenged. Thought it would be a nice coming home present.”

“Oh, really?” I asked, arching an eyebrow as I looked towards the depot’s ceiling.

<<<>>>

[[Patron Quest: Defeat your Teammates!]]

Yes, really.

Don’t look at me like that; you’re the one who’s bored.

Anyway, I think this will be a fun, challenging fight for you. At the very least, you won’t get out of it unscathed. Try your best. I believe in you!

Objective: Take out all of your team members.

Reward: 8,000 points.

<<<>>>

“Well, looks like I have a quest now, too,” I chuckled. “But, since the Warmonger seems to be so popular, the Warmonger’s what you’ll get. Send the duel request.”

When Kayla started typing away at the air in front of her, I pulled the Kingtin’s Foil off of my finger. It had been in the shape of a ring since we left Atlanta, but there was a more iconic and intimidating shape that it could take.

<<<>>>

[[Item]]

The Kingtin’s Foil

(Malleable Item [Accessory Slot]; +5 Willpower)

<<<>>>

It was one of my oldest items, and it served me well during my time as the Warmonger. I pressed it into a flat shape before I began to mold it, making it larger until it became wide and tall enough to be a mask. While the original had holes for my eyes, I left them out this time. I no longer needed them. The only feature on the metallic mask were three rectangular holes under my right eye, each one slightly shorter than the one above it.

I locked my gaze on Jamie as I raised it to my face, no doubt stirring up some memories. She wrinkled her nose and grabbed her spear from her back. Nobody said anything, but the atmosphere changed the moment I put the mask on.

“Just as a general warning… this will hurt, and I will not feel sorry for you afterwards,” I said, sad that the Voice Change Party Trick had worn off. “If you think me using the Writhing Belt Whip on Jeff was bad, then I won’t hold it against anyone wanting to back out now.”

They said nothing, though the excitement in their auras waned slightly as they readied themselves.

<<<>>>

[[Duel Request]]

Players [Kayla Mills, Leonard Langston, Jeffry Mills, and Jamie Summers] are issuing you a challenge.

Win condition: First team to cause the other to drop below 0 hit points or surrender will achieve victory.

Additional rules: All hit points and resources will be restored, and cooldowns are reset for the duration of the match. Pain will be dulled to 50%.

Would you like to partake in this challenge?

Yes

No

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

<<<>>>

Everyone else tapped Yes, and I followed suit before swiping away the countdown. Jeff and Mercury drew their weapons and waited.

No one said anything as I put my hands behind my back, standing still and waiting for the match to start. I watched their auras carefully. Jeff and Jamie’s were the most calm and Mercury’s was the most turbulent. He likely wanted to make a good impression on me since I had been gone so long. Kayla’s was surprisingly even, which I appreciated, though her hesitation to get dragged into this was clear.

Anticipation welled up inside me as I was forced to wait, mentally counting down in my head. I was excited to see their plans in action.

The moment I counted to zero, everyone moved. Time seemed to slow down as they operated in sync, no cog out of place, and I flicked my wrist. I had thought about letting them get the first attack, but changed my mind.

Turning around, I retrieved the Scalpel of Healing from In The Palm’s extradimensional space. It wasn’t a very good weapon without the Demon Slayer skill, but I only needed the bladed edge to activate my attack and this was the fastest option.

<<<>>>

[[Skill]]

Distant Slice

Attack with a slashing weapon when you activate this skill. A beam of light following the arc of your attack will be fired in a straight line for a distance up to a number of feet equal to half your Dexterity stat. If Distant Slice lands, deal damage as if you had hit them physically. You can use this skill once every minute, or once every five seconds if your hit points are full.

<<<>>>

A beam of light shot out of the scalpel and headed right for Kayla. Jeff’s weapon might have been the ones I was most wary of, but Kayla was probably their designated buffer. Getting rid of the support was the best thing to do right out of the gate. Flicking my wrist again, I sent the blade back to its extradimensional space.

I was proud to see that they had already anticipated that.

Mercury could use his abilities to switch places with something roughly his size. In this case, Kayla. She was much shorter than he, but not so much as to cause a problem. He appeared where she had been, his eyes widening as he saw Distant Slice flying towards him. The Princess jerked upwards, and the skill was canceled when it touched her blade. Relief flooded him as he took his stance.

Behind me, Jamie wasn’t idle. She bounded in front of Kayla, grabbing her golden shield off of her back to defend the Double Agent. I attempted to Lift the gun out of her holster, but the moment she either felt or heard it move she pushed it back down with the hand holding her spear.

The Weapon Master made for a good defensive wall, but that wasn’t their whole plan. Five bolts of fire erupted from Jeff’s hand. Crusader’s Wrath, the purified gauntlet I had given him, could only hold that many shots at once and he had blown them all. The spread was tight, but I was already on the move. I had to block two with Force Field but managed to duck the rest.

Now that the shots had been expended, he flicked his wrist in Kayla’s direction and the gauntlet flew off of his hand to protect her.

Crusader’s Wrath had been an unique item that I had never seen before Sara became my Patron, but I remembered its passive clearly. Not only that, but I knew exactly what it absorbed thanks to how it moved: the Shield of the Qer’iu. I had given it to Jamie as an apology for breaking her golden shield, and it had a pretty relevant skill for the situation.

<<<>>>

[[Passive]]

Shield Hand

Crusader’s Wrath may absorb a shield, gaining the skills and passive of the item. You can then use the palm of the gauntlet to block attacks.

[[Skill]]

Guardian Shield

While this skill is active, the Shield of the Qer’iu will automatically float around the person you want to protect. The effect lasts for a number of seconds equal to your Constitution/2 or until it blocks damage equal to the bearer’s hit points, and can be activated twice per day. The shield will automatically attempt to intercept attacks made against the target of this skill.

<<<>>>

This way, Jeff could protect Kayla without needing to be next to her. With his high Constitution, something he had been building for in Pittsburgh, it would likely stay in the fight for a while whether I attacked it or simply left it be.

In the same movement he tossed his gauntlet, Jeff shot towards me with his rapier extended. His speed increased substantially mid-step as his aura grew brighter. Kayla’s diminished slightly, and I knew it was the work of Noble Sacrifice, a skill that let her expend hit points to boost the stats of others.

And Jeff’s aura barely faltered at the thought of his wife losing hit points. I was happy for his growth; that had been something he struggled with before.

Mercury’s aura was dim, likely from stealth. I knew that he would have been invisible if I were using my eyes. It wasn’t enough to hide from me and wouldn’t be for a long time yet, but I was entertained by his effort. He approached with Jeff, coming at me from Kayla’s corner in a pincer attack. Even with the buff, the Queen’s Knight barely matched the ninja’s speed.

Getting back into a fighting stance, I spun to lash my foot out at Mercury and raised my hand towards Jeff. The ninja jumped into the air to avoid it, the Princess raised above his head, and he slashed downwards. My Vambrace of Wires sparked from metal on metal as I blocked the attack, aware of the thick gouge his blade left.

I let him be as he sailed behind me. My focus was on Killer Queen, and I summoned My Golden Bowling Ball from my inventory. I held it so that the finger holes were facing away from me, towards the Knight.

A slight adjustment later and Jeff’s rapier slotted into one of them. The impact was jarring, and if it weren’t for the Strength boosting properties the bowling ball imparted on me I would have been pushed back thanks to my awkward stance. That seemed like it was what they were expecting. Mercury summoned a board mid-air and bounced off of it, heading back towards me. I leaned forward, and his attack cut some of my hair before he switched directions again.

Using Drop on my shoe, I returned to solid ground more quickly than they anticipated. I briefly wondered if the reason Jeff had picked me up when he hugged me was to see how hard it would be to move me. Sneaky, but I wouldn’t put it past my team; it was smart.

The Queen’s Knight attempted to pull the rapier back and I followed him, keeping his weapon inside the small sheathe. He danced backwards, and I matched his footwork exactly. I followed every twist and flick of his sword until he tried to lift it so that he could get close to me. That was when I let the bowling ball go.

It fell to the ground, taking the tip of the rapier with it. The 30 pound ball wasn’t really heavy to anyone here anymore, but the fact that only I was authorized to wield it made it impossible for Jeff to pick up. When he tried to pull it free, I Lifted the ball to keep it peace bonded, affecting his weapon with Lift, Drop, and Orbit as necessary to keep him occupied.

An ounce of my attention remained on keeping Killer Queen shackled as I turned and ducked. Jamie’s spear grazed the top of my head, drawing blood before striking the invisible wall preventing anything from leaving the training car. It hit the ground, but I knew it would disappear back into her inventory in a few seconds. Her hand smoothly transitioned from throwing to drawing the Desert Eagle holstered on her leg as Mercury landed on the ground.

Nobody except the Patrons could see it, but my eyes locked with Kayla’s. I was about to activate my Boneshake spell when I felt my attention get pulled back to Jeff, who was now behind me. The yellow stripes on his safety vest were glowing, forcefully directing my aggression towards him. I activated Shield on instinct as my Wisdom, my mental defense stat, did its job and fought back.

I was about to break free when Mercury slashed my stomach from his landing crouch. The Princess slid across my Shield. Nine more strikes followed up from various angles as the ninja seemed to teleport in place using an ability I knew was called Tenfold Slash. None of them were as strong as regular attacks, but the sheer number of hits made it very dangerous.

Partially through the ninja’s attack, I broke through the forced aggro. I Constructed a dagger with a protective hilt in my hand. The translucent weapon formed nearly immediately thanks to my years of practice. I took a breath and dropped my focus on everything else.

His eyes widened as I began to parry the Princess. His body and wakizashi flashed from teleportation point to teleportation point, and I anticipated them all. At this point in his development, Mercury was still easy to predict. There was nothing wrong with it; he was simply learning.

Despite that, some of his attacks still landed. I may have been fast and knowledgeable, but he was still teleporting. My Shield shimmered, about to break as I released the Construct, letting it fade away..

“How the hell did you do that?” Mercury asked incredulously as he retreated backwards.

I only had time to grin at him as I returned my attention to the rest of the room. My brief lapse could have been fatal.

Jeff put his foot on My Golden Bowling Ball. He pulled Killer Queen like he was pulling a sword from a stone, freeing it after a struggle. Kicking the ball, he sent it rolling into the corner furthest away from Kayla. Using Lift and Orbit, I made it swing around my body at him to keep him occupied while I dealt with something more pressing.

Jamie fired her pistol three times at my chest with expert precision. The first shot broke Shield, hitting my chest and knocking the wind out of me. The other two were deflected by a hastily erected Force Field. They probably would have broken through if I hadn’t angled it, letting the bullets slide away rather than stop them outright. I assessed the gun.

The first thing I noticed was that Jamie didn’t have a safety on the Desert Eagle. That had been my go to move during the Big Time Hoops event, and she had kept a finger on it during our second fight. Since I couldn’t flip that on, I used Drop on the gun’s hammer. The next time she pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Frustrated, she tossed it backwards for Kayla to catch.

While she did that, I created a Force Field right behind Mercury. He attempted to back away from me to reset to a neutral position, and ran into it. Lunging forward, I grabbed him by the scruff of his collar. He panicked and thrust the Princess at my chest. Retrieving the Staff of Raphael from my inventory with a thought, I pushed the blade away from me.

The ninja’s wrist twisted unnaturally, and the blade scraped across my shoulder. That was the Princess’s work. It left a shallow cut, but wasn’t something to worry about just yet.

Kayla began to shudder as I finally activated Boneshake and, in a moment of tension, she shot the ground with the pistol. She convulsed as her skeleton fought against her, but it was over a moment later. Much faster than I expected. If I had to guess, she had some kind of protection from spells or debuffs that I wasn’t aware of.

I felt my strength sap as the letter J appeared on my Ringmaster’s Hoodie. That had been a skill from Jeff’s old Duelist’s Trousers called Marked Target. The more I attacked his companions, the lower my stats would get. He had to have gained that with a Synthesis Page or Blank Skill Book since he ditched the flood pants.

Turning around, I lifted Mercury above my head. It was harder than it had been back when I first met him thanks to all the gear, points, and training he received from Sol Ligatus, but I was able to do so with help from Lift.

Once I was in motion with my back to her, I saw Kayla quietly activate a spell. Based on how her lips moved, I assumed it was something in Latin, and a circle of magic appeared around her feet. Everyone’s aura grew brighter.

I recognized it as a rare spell called Buffer’s Circle. It was something I usually passed on because it required the caster to be planted in one place and everyone in Sol Ligatus, in previous runs at least, were mobile fighters. Not only did it boost the efficacy of her Noble Sacrifice, but it also provided minor boosts to all stats to up to twelve other people. She hadn’t been attacking because of its long start-up time followed by a short chant.

I could have interrupted it with Crash Test, or perhaps one of the boards Mercury had left behind. I could have shoved her by the clothes with Push, or any multitude of options. She waited until I was moving away from her to activate it, which was stellar.

Before I could commit, she activated another skill so fluently that I had to assume she did it while casting. Roots appeared from her combat boots and dug into the floor, preventing her from being moved. Her aura became like steel.

That explains the lack of Heelies, I thought to myself.

In one smooth motion, I finished throwing Mercury towards Jeff. I followed after, using his body as cover.

Behind my mask, I grinned. Sara had been right; this was turning out to be a fun challenge.