CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

FAILURE AND SUCCESS

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Rio

A burst of white light blasted out from the hallway, enveloping all of us, even as I watched Tessa’s fist smash into the demon’s head. The teargas clogging my vision and filling my head evaporated, leaving only the lingering effects of what felt like a bad cold.

“Rio!?” came a shocked voice that I recognized immediately.

“Chester! You’re both alive!” I exclaimed, watching the teenager appear from around the corner. I could still barely get to my feet.

“Sure, worry about the kids, but I’m chopped liver…” came Jody’s petulant voice as a tide of skeletons began to rise up wherever the Necromancer pointed. I decided not to question how they came from wraiths who didn’t originally have skeletons.

Tears welled up in my eyes that weren’t at all caused by the poison gas.

“H-how? I was sure you’d all died…” I breathed as Chester reached us. He looked beaten and worn. His clothes were torn in ways that were no longer mosaic. He’d been fighting. Bloody gashes marred his cheeks and arms, and he looked like he’d gotten stronger.

The demon was preoccupied as it scrambled to avoid Tessa’s glowing fists while Chester set about healing us. I blinked as I watched the girl fight the demon who’d been kicking all of our asses alone. What the fuck was Tessa?

Theo was human once more. The damage had been enough to revert him back, but the burst healing from Chester had done a lot to help him recover. He probably couldn't fight if he felt anything like I did, though.

“Long story short, the demon has been power-leveling us. The others… they… they didn’t make it,” Chester said somberly. “When whatever he was trying to do failed, he started making us stronger.”

My heart fell. Sebastien… Carla, Emily, Olivia, Cole, Todd… I struggled to remember all the names I’d learned that day. Tessa, Chester, and Jody. Three out of… of eighteen.

I tried to be optimistic. That was three more than I’d expected before.

“I can’t fucking believe you came back down here for us. And brought the feds?” Jody exclaimed, pointing at the fallen team as his minions began converging on the fight between Tessa and Cimigda. The girl was certainly more powerful than even Theo and I, but I refused to believe she was strong enough to solo the demon for long. Still, I wasn’t sure what I could do to help at this point.

“These the people we came for?” Theo asked as he stumbled over. “I’ve still got two portal stones. I say we get the hell out of here…”

I nodded emphatically. “It's... what's left of them anyway. While Tessa has it distracted, throw a portal stone. Try to see if any of the new prisoners survived. Where’s McCarthy?”

I searched the battlefield and found him gasping, grabbing his throat where the demon had choked him. Chester had already healed him but it seemed he was still stunned. Aaron… where was Aaron? Had he run away? I didn’t see the other Necromancer anywhere. Nico…

I felt my gorge rise as I saw the bloody Cleric’s head.

The prisoners were all in various states of shock, gun wounds having been suddenly healed but not perfectly. Chester’s wide area healing wasn’t nearly as effective as the single target stuff Nico had been doing. I wasn’t complaining, though.

“Ch-Chester,” I asked, looking sharply at Nico's corpse. “Do you have the resurrection skill?”

Chester shook his head. “Sorry… I didn’t see much need for it. Would’ve rather kept everyone alive, and I didn’t really believe…”

He trailed off into a muted silence. I nodded. If he had a level right now, I'd ask him to take it.

“We gotta go,” Jody interrupted. “Tessy over there is tough, but she’s flagging, and that thing is going to tear through my skeletons like tissue paper. Let’s blow this joint. What was it you said about portals, tubby?”

Theo growled, and my hackles rose at the sound. He wasn’t even shapeshifted, but it seemed a bit of the bear form lingered even so.

Jody, completely undeterred, grinned before turning to me. “Who’sis, Rio?”

“The guy saving your life,” Theo said.

“Looks the other way around to me,” Jody barked.

Right. I’d almost forgotten how much of a pain in the ass Jody could be.

“Jody, shut the fuck up. Theo, don’t kill the Necromancer he’ll probably haunt you as a Lich or something.”

“Heh. Reminds me of boot camp,” Jody said.

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A familiar yellow light suddenly appeared just below the arrogant Necromancer. I moved to warn him, but Theo was faster, pushing the jackass out of the way just before he would have been skewered.

Instead, the spike sliced straight through a good chunk of Theo’s arm, but adrenaline or something kept him from so much as flinching. The gruesome wound began healing on its own, but Theo glared down at the surprised Necromancer, otherwise ignoring it.

Theo didn’t say anything. None of us were feeling very good, but Jody flinched as he met the Druid’s eyes.

“We… may have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Jody said, holding out a hand. “I’m Jody! Nice to meet ya, pal!”

Theo rolled his eyes before turning back to me. Chester began healing Theo’s arm without a word.

“How long can she hold out?” I asked as Theo helped me back to my feet.

“Don’t know. I don’t know how the fuck she does half of what she does, but I regret not taking Monk every time I see it,” Jody said as he stood, too.

Theo didn’t wait any longer. He took out a portal stone and threw it at the ground as close to the center of all of the fallen victims as he could.

“Everyone! Get to the portal!” He called as weary people realized that they weren’t going to die from the bullet wounds. Some of them, anyway. At least two of them hadn't been so lucky, along with Nico. I tried my best not to look at their faces.

Chester immediately ran to start helping the wounded. Theo looked like he wanted to join the goth kid, but he hesitated.

“Rio? I think it's time we go,” He was still wiping bleary eyes, but I was focused entirely on Tessa and the demon. Something was wrong. Something…!

“Oh shit, Tessa, don’t!” I screamed.

Too late.

The girl was like a whirlwind, bouncing between claw strikes, dodging the occasional burst of poison breath, and landing devastating blows, but I only had a brief moment to see him pull out the shining geode with crystal exposed.

Tessa was falling towards him, a haymaker that could shake the entire prison, aimed straight for the demon. Grinning, I watched the cockroach use the small rock as a shield.

Tessa screamed as her fist smashed into the crystal rock.

I watched in horror as it cracked and shattered. Crystals exploded everywhere, and lights of all the colors of the rainbow danced, shimmered, and flickered out.

Jody’s skeletons were converging on the fight, encircling the pair. They looked menacing and mighty compared to the ones he’d used before.

“No!” I screamed.

Tessa seemed undeterred, completely unaware as she continued trying to punch the gigantic cockroach with no idea what she'd just broken. Her fists were still light with hallowed fury.

“I’ve done it…!” Cimigda breathed as he smoothly slid out of the way of the Monk’s follow-up, and then disengaged. “I’ve done it! The seal is broken!”

Horrified, I tried to bring up my status screen. It came up as it always had. Skills? Still there. I took the opportunity to pick a skill while I had the chance. Chester was still healing. The skeletons were still there.

Lost in his reveling, the demon failed to dodge Tessa when she next approached. Her fist slammed into his carapace with a backbreaking blow that shocked the demon. Finally close enough to engage, the skeletons began battering at the fallen demon with all their might.

“What!? No! You should be powerless!” the demon screamed, enraged.

Fearful of him being right, I dashed forward myself and began dropping as many traps as I possibly could. Ice bolts began to pepper the demon.

“Rio! What are you doing!?” Theo shouted, following me.

“That was the seal! Our powers might be gone soon! This might be our only chance to kill this damn thing!” I screamed.

“What!?” Jody shouted, shocked.

United, the demon appeared to be no match for us. My ice bolts slowed him even further, and Theo reverted to his bear form once more, even as the wounded behind us slowly made their way through the open portal.

The demon couldn’t retaliate. I thought he was more shocked than injured. Even as all of us used our strongest abilities, it seemed more wounded by the fact that we still could than it was by any of our strikes.

Cimigda gave half-hearted attempts to use its spikes, but they were slow and easy to avoid. Tessa stopped its poison breath with her fucking fists somehow, before he could attempt it again, and its scorpion tail was severed by an enraged McCarthy, who finally managed to get the creature to show pain.

“This should not be!” It screamed, finally seeming to notice all of us. “It should not! The seal was the source of your power! I was sure! I was certain!”

“Dammit, just fucking die already!” I shouted. “The seal didn’t save you, and if any more of your kind come through, we’ll kill them too!”

The demon’s eyes narrowed. A claw suddenly whipped forward like a viper, using a speed that didn’t seem possible, stabbing Tessa straight through the chest. Another vicious sweep of its severed tail sent McCarthy flying while simultaneously destroying half of Jody’s skeletons. It reached out with its hand and somehow managed to grasp Theo around the throat, even as a bear, immobilizing him entirely, all while staring at me.

“Tessa!” Chester screamed in horror.

Could it still have been playing with us all this time?

Nick was suddenly there, throwing out a new type of trap as bolts of lightning began to ineffectually join my ice traps.

I held my pistol aimed at the gigantic demon while it held everyone else immobile. Tessa was hanging from the claw in midair skewered much like Nick had been before. Theo desperately tried to swipe at the demon with his short claws but could only meekly scratch at the inviolable arm that held his throat, choking the life out of him.

My fingers trembled.

“Shoot, human. Even your new weapons are no threat to me.”

“God, I hope this works…” I thought, layering the new skill in front of the bullet, similar to how I’d done with multishot.

“Piercing Shot,” I said and let the bullet fly.

The ability had a description. A simple one, but hopefully important.

Ignore Target’s Defense.

The bullet slammed straight into the demon’s heart and sliced out the back, only to smash into the wall.

Cimigda howled, dropping Theo and flinging Tessa off his claw so she bounced like a doll across the floor. Chester was there in an instant, already healing the fallen girl, even as the demon thrashed.

“Let’s go!” I screamed.

Theo took a few seconds to get back to his feet, but as soon as he did, he met my eyes, and we ran. If that hadn’t been enough to kill the demon, then we didn’t have anything else strong enough to try.

Chester was already carrying Tessa when we began running. I didn’t see any wounds on her, but she appeared to be dazed.

We dashed for the open portal while the demon screamed in agony.

It seemed we were the last. Everyone else had already fled, including Jody. McCarthy, stalwart guy that he was, took up the rear, making sure nothing else jumped out to attack us as we all fled.

Thankfully, Cimigda was too distracted to disrupt the portal like he had before, and within moments, all of us were through.

Back to the surface. Back to home.

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