Sam was muttering a stream of swears as she tried to navigate her way through the mess. She’d managed to make a retreat with some people and gotten them farther back to relative safety. But halfway through, she noticed that at some point she’d lost track of Alex’s whereabouts.
It was also at the same time that Sam realized the three Chosen Few had disappeared from their spot amongst the treeline. Then another fireball blasted through the air and landed with a fiery explosion.
“Oh, son of a bitch!” Sam loudly cursed. It’d been closer to the barricade and avoided the bulk of the retreating defenders. But that fact alone had given her a bad feeling for why it hadn’t been aimed to hit the most people.
Sam was close to being practically tapped for her Mana supply. But while each Point in Will only brought a small increase to its regeneration rate, her Will being on the higher end had added up. That alongside the Minor Restoration Ability’s effect was basically doing work to keep her Mana right above being fully empty. So as long as she got at least a little bit of breathing room between spell casts, she could keep coming back into the fight with another attack.
That was why Sam chose to turn around and head back. Even if she was closer to relative safety, she just couldn’t leave Alex and his team behind like that. Not as long as she could still use even one Ability to help them.
But then as an air-shattering roar bellowed through camp, Sam’s heart sped up with fear. Was that some kind of new monster? Or was it even the Minotaur, the powerful Demidemon she’s only heard of until now?
With a wave of her wand, Sam shot out a shower of magical bolts. They decimated a group of Skeletons that were in her way. Yet after she cleared a path, the Mage froze at what she saw.
Several members of Alex’s team were lying around, already dead. Alex was on the ground, bleeding. Not far from him were two of the Chosen Few, with the third not anywhere she could see. Yet standing in the middle of it all was another pair, a man and woman. And one of them was someone she instantly recognized.
“Jaco…” Sam whispered under her breath. How was he even here? Shouldn’t Jaco still be somewhere in the city on a quest to gain strength? Had he somehow realized what was happening in order to come to their aid.
She almost couldn’t even believe what she was seeing. But Sam knew that it wasn’t just a trick of the heavy smoke or anything like that. No, there was only one person she knew that went around in wooden armor, even if there was a cloak draped over it now.
It had to be him. And after a golden screen then appeared in front of her, Sam realized one more thing. It was shocking, but also lit a spark of hope. That despite how dour things were, things might still work out in the end.
Because even after all this time and things that's changed, Jaco still had the highest Level of anyone she’s known.
—--
Steven's grip was tight around his twin dagger. The blood of the last teen he’d kill was staining his shoes, but he hardly cared for that at the moment. He was still reeling as the impossible had played out right before his eyes.
Standing in front of him was a man he recognized. The Druid that had narrowly escaped them by the slimmest of margins. And then despite their best attempts to hunt their escaped prey down, had seemingly just disappeared into thin air.
Accompanying the Druid had been a woman. She’d been wearing a hood over her that obscured most of their face. The only notable features were the locks of red hair that had spilled out the hood and the chainmail armor that covered the rest of her body. The woman had then almost immediately left her companion’s side to grab one of the still living teens, before disappearing into the chaos.
But Steven hadn’t cared for her beyond just a short glance. He had not even bothered to check her Level. Not when his mind was still trying to process the fact that the Druid was Level 40. They’d been close to each other in Level during their last encounter. In the time since, they had worked hard to kill and grow in power.
Of their trio, Dick was now the strongest at Level 32. Steven himself had only just reached 30 and had fallen a bit behind as a result. While Mark was only at 29, that still meant that he was at the cusp of his own Class Evolution. Yet the Druid made all their efforts feel like it was almost just a complete waste of time. He'd somehow sped past the three of them and left them far behind.
Steven dismissed the golden screen. He glanced at where Mark was, and saw how he was still making their way through the undead. Those mindless things didn’t care if the ones they attacked were leagues stronger and just attacked anyway.
While the weaker ones were easy to kill, it still made for annoying hassle. But it meant that he hadn’t quite caught up on what was happening. As far as Mark still knew, a large bear had just charged through but hadn’t seen the transformation after that.
Dick, meanwhile, was still staring with his mouth wide open. He was likely too shocked to react even if a fly flew in at that moment. Idiots, both of them.
Steven gritted his teeth as he got over his own surprise and feelings of inadequacy. Someone among the three of them had to be first to regain a sense of control. And it looked like that it would have to be him.
“Well boys, look who we have here! Quite the timing for a familiar Druid to show up now of all times, eh?! But it just means that he’s here to get in the way of our plan again! Isn’t that right, Mark?! Dick?! ” he yelled out.
His stressing of “plan” quickly seemed to snap them to attention. The two other Chosen cursed as they took their positions. The arrival of a previous opponent was an unexpected anomaly. But it didn’t change that their boss was still relatively close by. It’d be on their asses if they tried to avoid the Level 40 person here to run amok and potentially ruin their leader’s plan.
But in addition to that, their eyes glimmered with something even stronger than apprehension. Greed. If they could take him down now once and for all, just how much Experience could they reap?
The danger was high, but it made the reward all the sweeter. Plus even with the Level gap, they were a well oiled machine when it came to fighting as a trio. And with two of them having attained their Class Evolutions, the chance of their victory was still a very real one.
“So Mr. Druid, I can’t help but wonder something! Just how did you Level Up so much since we last saw you?! A man can only guess what kind of killing spree that must have taken! Or did you figure out something that we’re all missing!?” Steven continued. If he could just get the other man talking while his companions had time to get into their positions, that would be optimal.
“It’s already rare to ever find any monsters that are even Level 30! But he might have found a ton in some hidden area of the inner city! Maybe some underground offshoot of that fortress!?” Dick loudly added as he started moving to get just outside Jaco’s field of vision.
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Mark ducked behind some wreckage for cover. “I’m betting that he went even further than that! Maybe he even risked getting right up to that fortress and found some higher Level monster that only stays in there! Do I have the right idea, Druid?!”
But Jaco didn’t seem to be in the mood for enlightening them. Instead he glanced around at the corpses of those who’d fallen from the assault. And when his gaze returned to the Chosen, his expression was filled with pure disdain.
“All I’ll say is this. This time, you’ll be the ones that try to run,” Jaco said. He hadn’t bothered to raise his voice to be above the ambient noise of the chaos around them. So it was only by straining their ears that the three Chosen Few had barely been able to hear him at all.
Then as if a starting gun had silently fired, the Druid rushed at them. While mid-motion, his body rapidly grew in size as he turned back into the bear form he’d arrived with. But then there was a new addition, as a shell that seemed like some kind of turtle’s appeared on his back.
Steven blinked with surprise as he rushed at them with unexpected speed for his size. It was way faster than what he showed just earlier while running through the undead. The Phantom Rogue was quick to react, however, as he threw one of his blades off to the side. Then just a split-second later, he teleported over to a position that put him away from the charging Druid’s path.
Unfortunately, his companions hadn’t been quite as quick on the uptake. Dick had been raising his artifact in the hopes of getting in a surprise fireball. But now he was forced to quickly put the wand away and instead ready his blade to meet the incoming attack.
Dick raises his sword to block as a set of long claws swung right for him. Yet the wide difference in Strength was immediately put on full display. Despite managing to barely maintain the block itself, Dick’s legs buckled from the sheer force behind the attack. Yet while it took his entire body just to stay upright, Jaco still had a free arm.
Before the Chosen could react, the giant bear smacked him with a swipe of his other paw. Dick was sent flying through the air, before crashing straight into the side of a flipped RV. Gripping at his side while groaning, he was clearly hurt. But the damage couldn’t have been too bad as he had already started to slowly get back up to his feet.
At the same time, Steven tried to make use of the opportunity to get a strike in. While his opponent's attention elsewhere, the time had come to unleash his most powerful Ability. From the shadows around him, four dark copies of himself sprang out.
As a Phantom Rogue, his Abilities had already revolved around the use of shadows. He could use them to hop from shadow to shadow, temporarily shift a part of his body into a shadow state, and more. So out of his options when selecting a Class Evolution, he’d picked a path that further utilized the blur between real and shadow magic. It was from that he gained a new Ability, Ethereal Manifestation.
With it, he could effectively create dark clones of himself. And while they might appear to just be illusions, they were as real as real could be. While this Ability tore through his Mana like nothing else, it was more than worth it. Their strength and numbers was dependent on how much he spent. So for this battle, Steven spared no expense as he went all out on maximizing the power of all four.
The squad of clones rushed at the bear. But even though its back was turned, it noticed their approach and spun around to meet them. And while they charged, Mark fired arrow after arrow from the sideline. Some only glanced off its shell or barely seemed to even get past the fur. Yet once found its mark in the large bear’s snout.
Even then it didn’t penetrate very deeply, but it still managed to draw blood. The transformed Druid snarled as he glanced between the clones and the direction of the arrows’ shooter. But then there was a glint in his eyes. Something that sent a shiver up Steven’s spine from a sudden sense of foreboding.
The bear then quickly shrunk back down into that of a man. Though it wasn’t a fully regular form, as there was still the shell on his back. Staff in hand, Jaco moved forward to meet the shadow clones as they rushed at him with their daggers. And now fully recovered from being knocked aside, Dick also charged in with his sword raised.
The Phantom Rogue watched with a calculating expression. Just keeping the clones up and manually controlling them took most of his focus, so he didn’t dare risk breaking concentration by also jumping in. Yet he couldn’t help but wonder something to himself.
Their opponent had clearly been empowered by his bear form and had the physical advantage. So why did he give it up? Did that transformation simply consume too much Mana to be sustainable, perhaps? That was a plausible explanation. Yet something felt off. There was still that bad feeling in his gut that he just couldn’t quite shake off.
Yet even in his human body, the difference in their Levels still made itself clear. Even while ganged up by Dick and Steven’s clones, Jaco was still holding his own without any obvious trouble.
Steven observed the melee as Jaco used his staff to block almost every attack that came his way. For the minority that he didn’t block, he allowed to simply hit him instead. But why was the Druid suddenly so focused on defense? And through purely blocking rather than dodge or even actively make use of that strong shell on his back?
It just wasn’t making any sense. More than just a bad feeling, Steven’s mind was now completely suspicious about the current turn of events. There was definitely something wrong here.
As the five versus one melee continued, Mark was still trying to support them with arrow fire. But with half a dozen figures moving around at once, his arrows were fewer and farther between. He likely just had to be more careful about his shots now that there was a higher risk of friendly fire.
Steven slightly tilted his head as he grimaced. At that moment, a low-frequency hum was hitting his ears. The Chosen glanced around, but couldn’t spot any obvious source for it. Yet as the seconds passed, the noise only grew in strength.
However, before he could think about it any further, there was a sudden shift in the balance of the melee. After blocking another attempted strike from Dick, Jaco swept the Warrior’s legs out from under him with a kick. He then rapidly leapt away from the attacking clones and began to charge toward the side.
Jaco put behind the others and ducked to dodge an arrow. Steven quickly figured out exactly who he was going for. In the direction he was running, Mark loudly swore as he tried to shoot as many arrows as he could. The Scout moved backward as he fired.
But even with the constant firing of arrows, the Druid still managed to swiftly begin closing the distance between them. As he ran, Jaco raised his staff. Steven’s eyes then widened from a sudden realization.
How did he not notice it before? That staff in the Druid’s hands was most definitely not the same one from before. He quickly tried to identify it to confirm his assumption.
Hell Staff (Infernal, Artifact)
Shit! That thing really is an artifact! Never seen one with an Infernal tag before, but that can’t mean anything good for whatever effect it has, Steven inwardly cursed. If he was a gambling man, he’d also bet that it was the source of the humming that’d come only after the staff was used for blocking many strikes in a row.
“Mark! Watch-” he tried to warn his companion, but it was already too late. Jaco had already reached Mark. And as an unevolved Scout, he simply lacked the extra power necessary to mount any sort of counter or defense.
Jaco’s staff flashed with a glint of light. Mark tried to block it with his bow in a last ditch effort. But that negligible defense was easily avoided as the staff swung under it and into his side at an upwards angle. Upon impact, a sonic boom that could be heard across the entire camp shook the air. Accompanying it was a spray made from a fine mix of blood, bones, and organs.
Steven blinked as a small object flew toward him. His hand flickered forward in a reflexive motion to catch whatever it was. When he looked down and opened his palm, Steven’s stomach lurched with horror. It was a singular tooth.
At the same time, there was a light thud as Mark’s body hit the ground. Or at least, what remained of him. All that was left was a pair of legs attached to part of the waist. While everything above where the staff hit was simply gone.
Steven dropped the tooth. The Chosen stumbled backwards by a few steps, his legs shaking. A primal terror grasped his heart as his eyes met those of the Druid’s. Of the man he had once almost killed and sent running for his life. There was a cold light in that gaze as he stepped over the half-gone corpse by his feet.
We- we can’t fight that fucking monster! There’s just no way! Steven’s instincts screamed at him that there was only thing he could do to survive this day. He had to escape and run as fast and far as he possibly could.