Febrona lay tied up in a ritual circle as a huge, pale white human man stood above her with a crazed look in his eyes and a ritual dagger in his hands. Around him were a few cultists who chanted a spell.
She let herself be captured but hadn’t expected them to have someone capable of paralyzing her. Her movements were sluggish, and she couldn’t risk a fight in this condition. Never split the party, adventuring rule number one. And she broke it, oh she wasn’t going to live that down.
“Feast Bellnoden! Our dark lord!” The blade came down swiftly only to stop as a flying sword intercepted the strike.
Varys entered the chamber with two swords in hand as he dashed towards the cult leader, around twice his level. “You!!!”
Michale stayed behind at the doorway, his expression stony as he cradled an unconscious Tearis.
“Me? You interrupt my ritual and have the gall to yell at me? I’m the one who should be angry.” The cultist casually turned towards Varys.
The cult leader took their dagger back and began to approach Varys with a longsword in hand, not noticing as the sword left behind twirled and cut Febrona free.
“Of course. I remember you. I have wanted to kill you for years. And now I can finally pay you back.” Varys’ expression wasn’t his usual off-happy face; no, his expression could chill stars. Bloodlust leaked toward the other cultist, causing them to freeze.
“I’ve hurt tons of peopin my lifetime. What makes you different from them? Aside from me tying up a loose end.”
“Nothing. Aside from the fact that I’m here right now.” Varys vanished from his spot and reappeared before the taller man, whiling like a dervish as two thin blades appeared in his hands, cutting flesh and knocking his opponent off balance.
The cultist attempted to counter with a kick, only for it to go wide as a blade hit him in the chest, but he couldn’t pierce his heart.
The cult leader grabbed the arm holding the sword, and squeezed. Unfortunately, a loud wet pop of a wrist bending the wrong way reverberated across the chamber, and Varys lost the ability to use his left hand for the remainder of the fight.
“Rain of blades.” Varys severed an artery in the arm that held him aloft, rapidly causing blood to coat the room. From there, he slipped loose, tossed his other sword to the side, and began to throw scalpels at his opponent like daggers. Those that hit drew blood, while those that missed clattered unceremoniously on the ground.
“Mosquito bites.” The large man chased Varys around the chamber, throwing blades but staying as distant as possible.
Febrona got to her feet and began unloading bolts into the watching cult members, who were stunned into inaction.
As the fight continued, swords began falling from the ceiling, and Varys returned to being offensive. He moved into his opponent’s personal space and drove a scalpel into his opponent’s hamstring, severing it while leaving the blade in a while rolling through the opening between legs.
The pale man brought his sword down to cleave but found that their movement had been slowed considerably as their blow missed. The blood loss and pain started to get to him. So he roared, the wounds closing and the ends of the scalpel falling apart as the skin became harder than steel.
The giant jumped upward, attempting to crush Varys, not thinking as the raining blades locked onto and pierced his body, turning them into a pin cushion.
The figure landed in front of Varys and attempted to grab him. Stumbling as the metal in his leg moved. Gouts of pain shoot through his leg.
Varys evaded the bulky hand, and with a mana-empowered strike, he managed to cut off his opponent’s hand past the wrist; the wound was sealed with skin moments later, but he didn’t regrow a new hand.
“Limited regeneration,” Febrona muttered as she put down the last cultist. Their chanting ritual began to go wild as raw magic filled the chamber.
The cult leader enraged, attempted to trample Varys, the blind boy moving to the side with the amputated hand.
Sadly the cultist was ready and used the stump to bash him in the head hard enough to send him rolling across the ground.
The cultist slowly approached the blind boy and hefted his longsword in preparation to kill him.
“Oi! Captain Stupid! Over here! Let me cut of your other hand for you! That way me and my buddy will have a matching pair!” Michale began to use his taunt skill. An ability that didn’t usually work on intelligent creatures. Intelligence either had to be lower than ten, or they had to be using a feature that gave them the enraged status. Michale was betting on the enraged status.
Tearis had been placed on the ground behind Michael as the light slowly flickered in his eyes.
The large figure turned their daze, still in effect, as they slowly walked towards Michael.
They were unable to run as the metal in their leg seemed to shift. The brute eventually arrived before Michael and began hammering away at him.
“Shield of Des.” Michale chanted his shield, glowing and expanding blow after blow.
Febrona began to fire shot after shot into the giant, most of the bolts bouncing ineffective as their target seemed to grow tougher as the fight continued.
In the middle of the raining swords, a toy happier came down and bonked the giant on the forehead ineffectually as the storm soon subsided, and the blades filled the ground.
This slowed the giant slightly as they were briefly confused. Moments later, they returned and slammed a sundering blow into his target’s shield.
“Sorry Tearis, I couldn’t hold em off long.” Michale said as his shield cracked and shattered the blow tossing him across the room and leaving Tearis alone with the giant.
And so there was Mr. Cuddles, who hopped out of Tearis’ bag and into the shitless giant’s sword arm and started biting. All that was bitten seemed to carry deep burns as the wounds were cauterized at the same time,
The giant dropped their blade and began to slam their stump into the puppy in an attempt to kill it.
「 Wake up master! Need you!」
Tearis rose and muttered in a daze. “Skill fusion successful, Ultimate skill gained, Soul Prison?”
Tearis muttered in confusion as all of his mana and something else left his body and flowed into the brute in front of Michale, freezing him in place.
Purple chains wrapped across something profound, something primal. A force that shouldn’t have been able to be touched directly.
Tearis’ mind was in a strange dark place. A place of blood, hedonism, and filth. A small figure lay curled up in a ball, scared, as a woman approached him. She had familiar brown hair and basic features. It was his stepmother. She promised him power and strength so long as he followed her. And so he did; now he lay here again, older yet not wiser, alone and abandoned.
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Tearis had stepped into his enemy’s soul, a power that seemed almost instinctual. He felt power in his hands.
“This is the end.” As Tearis said those words, a purple blade appeared in his left hand. And with a swift motion, Tearis cut his opponent’s head off from within their soul.
Back on the outside, Michale thrust his sword forward, stabbing it through the cult leader’s heart. While Febrona fired a bolt through the cult leader’s head, adding an assassinate, just in case. The arrow ripped the head from the shoulders and was soon pinned to the wall next to Varys.
Neither knew that the cult leader was already dead. Now they were gone in the literal sense.
A blue orb flowed into Tearis’ body, and he was filled with power and energy.
The following skills are available to be added to your compendium. (Pick Three)
-Leadership rank 5
-Cultist rage rank 4
-Sword Mastery rank 3
-Dark magic rank 3
-Ritual magic rank 5
-Brute strength Rank 5
-Unstoppable Rank 3
-Summon Demon Rank 3
-Lie Rank 7
-Persuade Rank 3
-Imbue Skills Rank 3
“Wait… I can take skills from those I use this on? That’s so nice…Status.” Tearis looked at the list, passing out from the strain of mana loss from gaining a new skill and then using it.
Health 16/61
Mana 0/9
Stamina -2/52
Condition Soul Drained, your soul has been moved into another body. As a result, Stamina will be consumed along with Health should Stamina fall below zero
Skills chosen at random, Imbue Skill, Ritual Magic, Dark Magic. 11 Vp gained. Total Vp: 13
“Well that sucks, if only he was a monster. We could have gained some nice experience. For a normal humanto slip so low churns my stomach,” Varys pouted as he pulled the eyes out of the man that broke his wrist, among other things.
“Yeah… Did you know him?”
“Partially. To be honest I lied about why I came here. I was searching for him and heard about my cousin on the way. Good thing I went there because I clearly couldn’t beat him alone. Michale can you cross out the name, Etorian, in my journal?” Varys handed Michale a pink notebook covered in glitter. To Kill List was written on the cover.
Michale looked for a table of contents. There was one at the bottom. It read the following; if found, please bring it to Varys Maldain at the following address. 2410 South Balam St.
Michale’s eyes made it up the list and saw that his name had been crossed out with hearts added to the end, along with Febrona’s. So both of their first and last names were there. He then looked back at the address on the page and found that it was quite close to where he lived, as hose Balam owned that area.
“Varys? Were you planning on killing us?”
“Meh, I thought you brought my dear cousin in here to kill him. That’s why you’re in the book. But as it turned out, we were all on the same side.”
Febrona sighed… “And you think just because you crossed them out we wouldn’t see it? It makes it seem like you already killed us off.”
Varys turned his head to the side. “We have company. Someone’s coming.”
Michale swiftly found Etorian and crossed it out. “Here, now get some rest, kid fighting isn’t going to be easy in your state.”
“I can fight.”
“May not even be a fight.” Febrona led the way forward with her crossbows drawn.
A figure clad in golden robes appeared in the room, their face one without features. “You have stopped the threat to my first stratum, had a demon of great power been summoned then it could have potentially destroyed my ecosystem. To you all I offer the choice of a boon, gold, Items, or power.”
Febrona stepped forward. “Gold would be most convenient for me as there is a stealth weave I’m saving for.”
“Gold will be granted.” A sack of gold coins appeared in Febrona’s hand.
“G… No… If possible could you give me a decent shield? My last one broke and I don’t know where to buy a new one yet.”
“The shield has been granted.”
Michale looked at his arm, noting how a shield just appeared there strapped. It would be enough to protect those close to him.
“Any you. Young one.”
“Can you give me sight?” Varys asked.
“I can give you a second sight skill but no I can’t give you normal sight.”
“Boo… Already have a second sight. Give me a skill but surprise me, also, give my cousin here a skill as well, he needs all the skills he can get and gold would do nothing for him.”
“I will give you both skill orbs then. May they be of use to your future.”
“Ooooo.” An orb appeared in Varys’ hand, and he eyed the ground suspiciously.
An orb appeared in Teari’s pocket before seemingly vanishing.
Skill gained, Magus Training. 1 Vp gained.
Tearis’ eyes fluttered, and he soon got back to his feet. “My head…”
“Looks like it’s time to go. You kiddies need to get some rest and I’ll need to report this to the guildmaster.” Febrona stated.
“Great. Lead the way out, and preferably to a healer. I need to get my wrist fixed.”
“Right… So you know we may get questioned for murder on leaving.” Febrona told them.
“No we won’t.” Varys said unabashedly.
“Are you going to skirt out of this?”
“Yes, we are. Do I seem like the kind of sociopath to recklessly kill cultists without making sure that I have legal backing? The Reavers should lose two guild ranks and be put on probation while Dark Horizon will be disbanded and its senior members executed. That guy was an executive in that guild. We are, however, going to have a lot of heat unless we lay low as their former members may seek retribution.”
“I see…” Febrona did not call out that Varys is skirting the line of a psychopath but not fully stepping in. If her wrist was broken at his age, she’d be whining more, even with her training. That boy isn’t right, and she had no intention of delving into that.
“Good for you.” Varys muttered as he followed them out of the dungeon into the late afternoon sky.
“Tearis, did you hit level five?” Febrona asked.
“No, why?”
“Violet cauldron is usually unlocked at level five. You shouldn’t have it yet as your body isn’t as ready to handle the strain. Don’t overuse it.”
“I will use it every chance I get on skills that have little use to me. Although I’ll need a steady supply of skills at my disposal first. Which may be at level five plus. How much experience will I gain at the academy?” Tearis muttered.
“Not much outside of midterms and final exams.”
“Blech.” Tearis scowled.
“Your skills should rank up a bit if that’s any consolation.”
“I guess… What’s an ultimate skill anyway.”
“One that can only be used once every twenty four hours when you first get it and uses a lot of mana. They are quite rare however and tend to have side effects. I have one but its side effects could put me out of a fight, if not leave me dead.”
“So they shouldn’t be abused lightly.”
“They shouldn’t be abused at all. Yours just put you out of commission.”
“Uh huh. I haven’t actually read what it does.”
“Get to that when you get back.”
“Right.” Tearis sighed.