Lightning bolts were impossible to dodge. Kyle learned that from fighting the Wightwright another half-dozen times with other parties. All you could do was juke around and try to be somewhere other than where the caster pointed. And because Kyle had no warning, there was no way for that to happen. Kyle took the full brunt of the spell. His muscles seized and he just barely remained standing. His HP was down by a third. A lightning bolt from the other plateau hit Tobungus’ shoulder.

“Potions!” As fast as possible, Kyle opened his inventory and pulled out a potion. He chugged, finishing it right as another lightning bolt hit him.

This bolt did absolutely nothing.

“Gonna have to do better than that,” Kyle shouted. “We came prepared with potions of lightning immunity!” That was only half true. Dvorak’s elemental resistance potions could only absorb a certain amount of damage before the “immunity” disappeared, and that one bolt nearly depleted it. But Kyle was hoping the ambushers didn’t know much about the herbalism skill.

They seemed to fall for it. “Bows out!” the man shouted, and all eight people drew bows and nocked arrows. “You’re dead. We’ve already won. But if you drop your stuff on the ground, we’ll let you leave without turning you into a pincushion and sending you back to spawn.”

“Hah!” Kyle shouted. “We must be winning! They’re already resorting to ridiculous bluffs!”

“Wait what?” Tobungus whispered nervously.

“What bluffs?” the leader shouted. “We outnumber you four to one! We’re level six and you’re only level three! It’s over!”

“Yes, but bows? If you could actually shoot us through this wind, you’d have done that first instead of spending mana on lightning bolts! Or maybe you’d even be shooting right now instead of offering to let us go!”

Kyle waited for a moment as the leader spoke to the others on his plateau. Eventually, Kyle tapped Tobungus on the shoulder, then pointed towards the way down. Tobungus nodded, and they started walking.

With war cries, the people on one plateau leapt from the top and landed at the base of the plateau, about twenty feet from Kyle. The people on the other followed shortly after. They held weapons: an assortment of axes, swords, and spears. Even the Lagotherre caster held a halberd.

“We were going to let you go, mate,” the leader said as they spread to surround Kyle and Tobungus. “No reason to risk melee if we didn’t have to. But we’re not letting you leave with your equipment, one way or another!”

Tobungus started to open his menu to draw a weapon, and Kyle put up a hand to stop him. “Melee, huh? I’d advise against it.” Kyle pulled two pebbles from his inventory and dropped them on the ground, then hit a few more buttons. “Just a warning is all.” Casting complete, he put his arms behind his head in what he hoped looked like a relaxed way.

With the ambushers surrounding him, Kyle could do nothing but wait. He tried to look unconcerned. But Tobungus looked as on edge as Kyle felt.

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The men regarded him suspiciously. Their leader held up a hand.

He hesitated.

Then he thrust it forward.

With shouts and cries, the ten men rushed at Kyle. Only a few feet into their charge, conflagrations appeared around each one; dozens of puffs of flame appearing more or less at random over their bodies. Some fell back immediately. Others put up their hands to futilely shield themselves from the flames. One, with a huge axe, kept charging. Kyle stood still for a moment, and then stepped forward as he axe came down, dodging inside the reach of the weapon and thrusting a hand into the man’s face. With a bump-thrust of his hand, he cast a sleep spell, cringing as he burned HP for mana. The man kept his balance, mostly. The person must have ranked resilience to withstand both the fire and the sleep spell.

Tobungus, seizing the opportunity, crashed into the man, knocking him out of the area of Kyle’s spell. The man got back on his feet and yawned, watching Kyle warily.

“See?” Kyle said, as the group of attackers collected themselves. “Bad idea. Now, can we talk like reasonable people? I’m not interested in killing you all. I mean, killing people is rude.”

“What the —- was that?” the man said, tapping his menus. He pulled out a potion and downed it.

Kyle opened his skill menus to examine the man. “It’s this amulet,” he said as the bar began filling. Kyle pulled Dvorak’s Wightwright amulet from under his shirt and displayed it. “It burns enemies that come within nine feet of me. I just equipped it real fast before you charged.” The bar finished filling, and Kyle saw that the man was at about two-thirds HP. Also that he was level six, as he had claimed. Kyle opened his inventory, nervous. There were thirty-seven blue beads left. Another coordinated rush would deplete his spell entirely.

“You’re bluffing,” the man said. “An amulet like that would be OP. You cast some sort of AOE fire spell when we charged.”

“No, that just happens anytime anybody hostile gets within nine feet.” The man looked skeptical. “Don’t believe me? Anybody want to try me? Look, my hands are behind my head again. Like they were last time.”

Predictably, nobody moved. The men started navigating their interfaces. Some pulled out potions. Kyle prayed none were potions of fire resistance.

The Lagotherre that lightning bolted Kyle thrust the butt of his halberd into the ground. With a swirl of blue particles, a small wolf appeared from thin air where the halberd struck.

Neat trick.

The wolf looked back at the caster. The Lagotherre motioned forward, and the wolf, tail between his legs, loped towards Kyle. A few feet later, the wolf yipped as flames enveloped its face, and skittered back to the caster. The lagotherre sighed and tapped the wolf with his spear, and it dissolved into motes of blue light.

“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “Could be a spell. Could be the amulet. Could be an invisible friend casting spells, for all I know.” Kyle couldn’t place his accent. German? Norwegian?

“Adepts don’t get invisibility art,” the leader said. “Much less at grandmaster level.”

“Maybe invisibility spells exist,” the caster said, shrugging.

“They do,” Kyle said. “I just haven’t bothered inventing one yet. I’ve got too many other spells to spend my RP on.”

The brigands all stared at Kyle, variously in confusion, wonder, or anger. Kyle suddenly felt very awkward. He wasn’t used to being the most powerful person in the room. And technically, these people were twice his level.

“Well… I’m still interested in talking. But if you’re not, I guess we’re done here. Heads up, I’m going to walk slowly in that direction,” he said, pointing to the way down. “Please stay nine feet out of my way; I don’t want to hurt any of you if I can help it.” Kyle took a slow step forward.

“Wait!” said the Lagotherre, holding out a hand.

Kyle turned to look.

“You have spellcraft? You invent your own spells?”

Kyle nodded.

“May I… May I buy some?”