Jade was halfway across the room before anyone even noticed her. She covered the distance in seconds, sprinting with her daggers poised to strike, tagging the closest of the creepy humans with 'Vital Sight'. The system labelled him as 'Tharrezen Cultist’ and gave his level as 12. He was the first to spot her and froze in momentary surprise at the sight of a knife weilding demon charging towards him out of the shadows.
His shock cost him his life.
Jade lunged, burying one blade in the man's unarmored chest and the other in his throat, and then ripped them free in a spray of blood, already slashing at the next closest cultist before his body even hit even hit the floor.
"Get out of here!" Jade shouted to the prisoners, who were just as stunned as their captors. "Run!"
Her next target recovered in time to avoid a killing blow, jumping away from Jade's savage slash. She caught her in the arm, carving a jagged wound into her flesh. The cultist snarled in pain, turning her dagger on Jade and advancing.
"No!" The tallest of the cultists snapped. "Start the ritual!"
Their undead minions were moving in to surround them. Jade couldn't defeat them all, but she didn't need to. She lunged towards one of the shambling creatures, cutting it down with a wild flurry of slashes and blunt pommel strikes before it could bring its sword to bear on her. With that one down, there was an opening for the prisoners to escape through.
"Go!" she shouted, raising her voice to ensure her allies would hear the commotion.
The elves bolted. Two of them made it past Jade and out of the cordon of enemies, but one of the women and the boy weren't so lucky. The tall cultist grabbed the woman by the shoulder, thrusting her towards his companion as she withdrew towards the passage the procession had been heading towards before Jade's surprise attack. She was about to follow, when the other cultist grabbed the boy.
No!
"Let him go!" She commanded, locking eyes with the man and infusing the words with all the enchanting power she could muster while dodging between another two undead, trying to get to him. There were too many of them, and they were closing in. The sallow-faced man's eyes glazed over as the charm magic took hold, and he released the boy with a jerk.
"Fight for m-!" Jade started to command, then gasped as a sword slammed into her back. One of the skeletons had stepped behind her, unseen in the chaos. Her armor protected her, the ward shattering but absorbing the brunt of the attack. Jade lurched forward, disoriented, but managed to swipe a hand across the chest of another one of the monsters. She choked out an incantation, pouring mana through the newest of her mental pathways.
"Sequiles!"
* Spell: Charm Creature
* Rating: C Level spell
* Cost: Medium mana
* Duration: (Intelligence score) minutes.
* Cooldown: 5 minutes.
* Effect: Enchant a non-sapient creature or monster you touch to view you and your allies as friendly for the duration. The affected target will be hostile towards any creatures that are hostile to you, although you cannot give it direct commands. Damage has a chance to end this effect early. Casting this spell again ends the effect on the current target. This is a charm effect.
The skeleton stiffened. Then it turned, striking a heavy slash into the one that had just attacked Jade. She rolled away from the melee, surging to her feet beside another of the monsters and quickly dispatching it. A quick glance confirmed the boy had used her distraction to escape the cluster of monsters. The woman hadn't been so lucky. Too late, Jade spotted the female cultist drag her into the passageway and slam her palm against a button set into the wall. With a grinding crash, a stone door slammed down to block the entrance, sealing them away.
Jade cursed, furious both at the enemy and her own failure. There was nothing else she could do; it was time to get away and regroup. The cultist and skeleton she had charmed were sowing confusion amongst the enemies, but not all of them had forgotten her. She ducked another swing from a skeleton, kicked a second, and then warped through the gap between them, breaking free of the melee and leaving an illusion behind to further increase the chaos.
Just when she thought that she had miraculously escaped unscathed, a form emerged from her very own shadow. It coalesced in front of her, resolving into the form of the cultist who had been shouting commands. She barely avoided slamming headlong into him and was too surprised to block the dark knife that he plunged into her side.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
White hot pain exploded through Jade as the blade bit deep into her flesh. It seemed to sizzle and burn at her insides, an even worse sensation than the wound itself. She jerked free of his blade with a feral snarl, the pain eating away at the foundation of her focused mind, revealing the bloodlust that lay beneath the surface. She slashed back at him, pivoting around his follow up stroke and nicking him in the shoulder. She pulled away, splatters of blood coating the floor between them. The searing pain in her side intensified for a moment, and then began to fade.
* Combat Log
* You have been afflicted with 'Necrotic Poison'.
* You have resisted 'Necrotic Poison'.
"Foolish girl." The cultist snarled. She could taste his fury at her interference. It was strangely… satisfying.
She wanted more of it.
"You haven't changed anything. We'll just use you instead. Your demon blood will be a potent offering."
She blinked away the combat log, clutching her side and opening the distance between them further. She was backing into a corner, but that was fine. His rage had awakened her hunger, and she no longer wanted to flee until it was sated.
Besides…
"I think…" She managed a grin through gritted teeth. "They'll have something to say about that."
A multicolored blur of flapping wings and slashing claws streaked into the back of the cultist's head as Mirella descended upon him, screeching. Her allies poured into the room, weapons at the ready.
----------------------------------------
Naomi rushed to keep up with the rest of the group as they ran down the passage. Jade had only been gone for a couple of minutes but, judging by the shouts and general clamor emanating from the room ahead of them, she'd already gotten into trouble.
So much for just taking a look…
Jade was a magnet for trouble. It took them about thirty seconds from hearing the initial commotion to reach its source. Naomi was the last to enter the larger chamber and she skidded to a stop just inside, taking in the situation at a glance. The scene unfolding around her was rapidly devolving into chaos. A group of undead were chasing a trio of elves around a sinister-looking statue rising from the center of the room, Jade was being backed into a dark corner by a creepy, knife-wielding man in a dark robe, and another group of the enemies appeared to be fighting… themselves? It was hard to tell, but she assumed that Jade had something to do with it.
You were only gone for three minutes!
Fenrin shouted for someone to help Jade as he and Vamir engaged the monsters chasing after the escaped prisoners, but his familiar was way ahead of him. Luis took off in her direction as well, preparing a spell. Nythis whooped upon seeing the main mass of confused undead, leaping towards them and blasting arcs of fire in their direction. Aylin joined her, supplementing her assault with earthen spikes that cracked through the stone floor, impaling the monsters and immobilizing them.
Naomi had doubts that staying 'quiet' was much of an option anymore and was about to sheath her sword and reach for her guitar when one of the skeletons caught sight of her. It hissed, although she wasn't quite sure how, and shambled towards her with its weapon raised. There was no time to swap her gear, it was already too close. Naomi dodged the attack, swinging her shortsword in a horizontal slash that caught the monster right in the chest. The impact of steel on bone jarred her hand, and she nearly dropped her weapon. The blow didn't seem to do any real damage to her opponent, but it did knock it back a step.
Unlike Jade and Luis, her class hadn't gifted her with any innate knowledge on how to hold or use any type of weapon, and she cursed herself for not spending more time practicing. Naomi gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to call for help. She was sick of needing to be protected, of letting fear get the better of her. Instead, the bard drew up her sword, channeling mana into her newly learned weapon talent. Red light pulsed along the length of her blade, coalescing at its tip. She unleashed her 'Spike Thrust', the magic of the sword talent guiding her body through the lunging motion. Her blade pierced the skeleton's spine, shattering it and sending its remains clattering to the floor.
"That's right." She said to herself. "I can take care of myself."
"Watch out!" Aylin called from the center of the room. Naomi followed her gesture and saw another small group of robed men and women rush into the chamber from one of the other passages, uncomfortably close to her. As far as Naomi was concerned, that settled the matter of stealth, and she slammed her sword back into its scabbard as she ran to regroup with Jade and Luis. The number of monsters was dropping rapidly, but another pair of undead cut her off before she could reach them.
Not good!
She had her guitar in hand now and blasted one of them apart with a jet of flame. Before she could do the same to the other, Naomi heard footsteps running up behind her. She didn't waste time turning to look at the new threat, spinning to the side with reflexes born from weeks of battle.
Whoosh!
A dagger flashed through the space she'd been standing in a moment before, slicing so close that it crackled against her protective ward. Naomi's heart leapt into her throat, and she backpedaled hard, fingers dancing across her instrument as she strummed out another spell, aiming at the cloaked man right in front of-
Click.
A tile shifted under her boot, sinking into the floor. Naomi tried to take another step, but the ground wasn't there anymore. The section of floor around her fell away, hinging down and dropping her, the robed cultist, and the remaining skeleton into a steeply sloping shaft that disappeared into darkness.