Despite what we had endured, the world didn’t seem to be that different this morning. If it weren’t for the muscle aches and occasional slideshow of horror in my head, I would be easily convinced that the fight against the undead had been a bad dream.
It had been a shame to leave the cottage once more. Our existence had been bouncing from one conflict to the next, so the idyllic and oddly peaceful area had become something of a home for our weary souls.
But time marches on, and so did we.
“There’s a Quest over here,” Tanya noted from the front.
As we stepped up closer to join her, a notification popped up in my vision. Kill a rampaging wolf. Simple enough, all things told. It was on the way, so I gave the nod that we should complete it.
While the Eternal Wardens were desperate for our assistance, we weren’t about to drop everything and rush over as quickly as possible. Could be a trap, after all. Plus, they hadn’t scratched our backs first - and our power dictated that we should be the itchiest.
My brow furrowed, and I looked over at the elf. I’d managed to extract out of her the fact that she had five of my skills to replace some of her own, thanks to the Guardian's power. Which five was something she was keeping secret - which I found remarkably unfair. That said, I had my share of annoying bullshit over the course of our journey, so I allowed her to keep it to herself.
Definitely
We moved off of the stone road and into the wilderness, pushing through some bushes until we were in more of a clearing. A field of wild grasses and patches of flowers stretched out ahead - an abandoned farmhouse sitting a few hundred feet away. From here, I could see a few packs of wolves roving in patrols through the area.
One of them happened to be a much darker shade of gray. Black almost. The glowing red eyes did little to deny the allegations that he was probably the rampaging wolf - although it didn’t look like he was doing any rampaging at present. Just… standing there, looking menacing.
“Dibs?” Ren asked, her arms crossed.
The way the Monsters were arranged, it looked as though attacking our target would draw the ire of all the other packs moving around. I raised an eyebrow at Tanya for final approval.
Our fateweaver nodded. “Get Wolf over to the right…”
“Which wolf?” Quinn asked.
“Our Wolf,” she replied, energy draining from her face by the second. “Then any bad wolf can go off to the side so…”
“I’m not bad,” Wolf grumbled.
Tanya sighed. “Fine, just do whatever then.”
With a smile, Ren flipped her hat from her head to have it land on the ground. Hand extended, her sniper rifle then rose up from within her headpiece slowly.
A mixture of different emotions ran through me. Pride, envy, attraction, and then envy again, as I wasn’t used to sharing the stage with someone who could be as insufferable as me. I threw two cards to the floor before drawing two more into my hand. Purple light bloomed from them as I powered them with magic.
From the pair dropped, two Imps stood from circles of arcane runes. Gray skin tone, the miniature humanoids with thin facial hair and small horns gave me nods of greeting. These were the Lightning variant.
Wolf stood off to the side of us, on our right as requested, so that he could draw in the aggro from any pack that Ren drew toward us. Quinn and Tanya remained near the back to offer any required support… but I had a feeling we had this covered.
Ren twirled the rifle in her hand before gripping it and going down on one knee. Eye up to the scope, a bead of radiant energy swirled down the barrel before she clicked the trigger. A crack and the skull of the evil-looking wolf burst open.
“Well, that makes this sort of thing easy,” Quinn murmured, before clocking all the eyes now turning to glare our way.
Close to twenty wolves - each of them larger than your standard fantasy fare… although not quite dire. Whatever that really meant. There was still an odd separation in my mind between the aggressive and almost unbelievable amount of brutal Player on Player violence, as well as the almost cardboard box full of cliche and flat video-game tropes we had to grind through on the side.
I flicked the two cards from my hand and had them zipping through the long grass while the elf was still working the bolt to load her next shot in. Some quick napkin math had her around 30% slower than her bow, for maybe twice the damage potential. A reasonable trade-off for a Legendary weapon. In saying that, any brain-puncturing damage killed a target whatever you used to do the deed.
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A point made with streaks of purple and red, as my cards arced into the first pair of wolves coming for us. Slit throats or gouged faces. I carried on the attack, weaving through the field to the next pair, embedding the cards into the skulls of our foes.
Another shot and Ren blew the foreleg of one attempting to dodge. They were fast.
Just before the gathering pack reached jaws of Wolf, my Imps finished charging their attack. Like lighting itself, two prongs of bright white arced from their hands with a sharp crackle. It struck the nearest wolves and then danced between the others back and forth - briefly stunning a swathe of them and allowing the rest of us an unhindered volley from our ranged weaponry. The smell of burned fur and charred skin washed across from the group.
Ren and I took down four of them before they had a chance to recover, her shot causing roots to grow up from the ground and restrain most of the force. I dismissed the Imps as Wolf powered forward and slammed into the group. His wide paws slashing through or crushing bones with each strike.
“Not great experience,” I complained, holding off on attacking further as it seemed that the bear was capable enough to pulp everything that remained. “At least it was simple.”
“The day is young, trickster.” Ren stood and rested her rifle across the back of her shoulder. “Shouldn’t push too hard after yesterday.”
I wanted to ask ‘why not?’ but that might earn me some valid glares. I’d managed to escape her bad books and had no intention of annoying her. Especially after yesterday. Instead, I gave her a nod to show I agreed. “Mostly I’m just eager for a few more Power Tokens to increase some of my skills - or all of them, if we get lucky.”
“That will be our priority,” Tanya interjected, “once you both get to Level Fifteen and we’ve helped out the Wardens.”
“Any chance we can find Power Spheres in this area?” I asked, not really hoping for much. We had been pinned here, unable to travel to the third area - which had kept the Lady from taking the world by storm… but I felt like I was missing out. I craved that extra increase in strength for a few of my most-used skills.
The fateweaver sucked at her teeth. “Ah. It’s not likely - I’ll put it that way. It would be like finding a Legendary item. I’ve found one before, but that’s it.”
“I’ve never seen one,” Quinn added.
I pulled a face and turned to see Wolf walk over, licking his chops. Job done.
Our fixer had once said he didn’t like how we were tied to the System. Having to level with arbitrary numbers and thresholds to get skills or do things. I would have to agree. Despite being someone who regularly broke the alleged rules, part of me still squirmed to be free of the structure. Maybe there was something greater out there we could strive toward.
“Coming, Max?”
So distracted by my ambitions, I hadn’t noticed the others were making their way back to the road. I smiled at the elf and nodded. Used
“Wish I had chosen that one,” she grumbled.
“Do I get to make any guesses? It will kill me to not know until you use them.”
Ren shrugged, but had a sly grin on her face. “I’m not sure. I quite like having this hidden bullshit that you don’t know.”
Earned that. Segments of our history together had been building a karmic cannon that now finally hit. Would be hypocritical to start pouting about it… but I did want to know.
“Fine.” I waved my hand and let her have the victory. Five was a decent amount of skills, but there were several I didn’t think she’d take. Useless to speculate, but unless she started summoning cannons or going invisible, there wasn’t an easy way to know.
My surrender seemed to perk her mood up further, and she grinned. How strange that not so long ago she had nothing but a sour expression to show the world, no matter her mood. I wasn’t egotistical enough—which was saying something—to assume I was the cause of her change. But I was here for it and adored it.
“Given our power level,” Tanya began, blowing away the love-hearts floating between us two magicians, “we should have no issue with taking town the area Boss a little southwest of here.”
“Something else big sister could kill in one hit?” Wolf asked.
“Unlikely.” The fateweaver adjusted her collar to let some warmth out. “Although most things aren’t designed with high-caliber modern weaponry in mind, there’s a few mechanics that block damage or prevent certain damage thresholds. Rare, but an area Boss is likely to have such things.” She looked between Quinn and Ren. “Modern weaponry, as per my world, at least.”
During our time of rest I had explained some of what I knew about guns to the elf, and she had gone on to prod Tanya for more information since the latter had military experience. At first she was shocked to know that firearms were reasonably common on Earth. I suppose in the same way that orcs or magic would seem bizarre to me.
Or at least, they would if one half of me wasn’t a Demon Hunter, who did just that in literal Hell… on one version of Earth. Given that I was also a magician, the things that I saw as ‘normal’ didn’t pair well with most of society, nor reality. One of our party was a talking bear. The elf and fixer were from different versions of a fantasy world. I could summon a demonic cannon.
It all just washed out, eventually. Would go insane questioning everything. Suspension of disbelief was key, and I couldn’t even see my disbelief anymore. It was down a bottomless pit in constant free fall.
“Will miss the woodlands when we ultimately leave them,” Ren said, interrupting my thoughts.
“Maybe the whole world is like this? Would be nice to find, like… a small cottage by a lake.”
“Oh, that would be amazing.” She closed her eyes as she walked - imagining it as the scant sunlight that managed to pierce the verdant canopy passed over her face in small handfuls.
With a smile, I looked up ahead. Scenery was nice, I couldn’t deny that. Seemed as though we were coming up parallel to the rest of the abandoned town. Must be some Quests or points of interest in there.
My footsteps slowed before I paused in place.
I turned my head to the side and furrowed my brow. The rest of the Party came to a stop to see what had caught my attention.
Resting against part of a broken wall was a man who wasn’t there just a second ago.
Mid-thirties, maybe. Rough beard and shaven head. Leather armor that looked to be more sheathes and pouches than anything. Dark cloak that was a decent backdrop for the overt display of what type of Class he might be.
“Can we help you?” I asked, my fingers slowly curling into a fist.
No icon over his head to say he had taken the blood of the Lady.
“My name is Leon,” he said, a smile growing on his face. “I’m an assassin hired to kill you all.”