The lobby we were in was a blood bath. I lost count of the people we had killed to get to this point. None had been elites, or above level twelve. Still, they had numbers and we had to fight every inch.

Martin’s summoned creature had done the majority of the work until it poofed away in a cloud of haze, the spell spent. Then we had to get dirty.

I deflected a sword strike aimed at my neck, smashing my staff across the offender's face to the sound of shattering bone.

It was easy to see how my additional ten stat points - from levels alone - had me head and shoulders above anyone under level twenty. Even the level sixteen Blade Guardian I was currently fighting was hard-pressed. His skill with a blade was far superior to my skill but he couldn’t match my speed or strength.

My staff snapped out, tearing through the air with an audible crack as the warrior tried to deflect my strike with his buckler. Metal met metal and his buckler lost, caving in and snapping the man's arm. He cried out and tried to take a step back but I fired an Arcane Bolt right into his face.

That had been the tipping point as the man dropped his sword and tried to grab for a health injector. I jammed my staff forward, the sharp spike at the end tearing into his crotch. A spurt of blood flew out as the man let out a high-pitched squeak before collapsing to the ground. I had activated my staff’s enchantment on that last strike, really giving him something to think about. If the blood loss didn’t kill him I would come back or one of the others would do it for me.

I just needed him out of the fight, I spotted my quarry coming up a set of stairs with more reinforcements. I didn’t even have time to see what ability I had taken from the downed fighter. I whipped my staff back, flinging the blood off. I hadn’t used any Imbue on my staff because I wanted to see what worked the best against my main target. Not that it was needed beforehand.

Randy spotted me immediately. He yelled some orders at his underlings and they split into two groups, one heading my way and the other heading for Fiona.

“Heads up!” I yelled.

The others were engaged in their own fights but they would know what this meant. I had to trust them to take care of themselves, I couldn’t spare any concentration to heal or check on them.

Randy and his underling ran toward me and I spared a second to use Identify on the two.

Sebastian | Blade God/Six armed Tyrant | 21/14

Randy Cotton | Fate Spinner / Tempusmec | 22/17

My first thought was ‘what the hell is a six-armed tyrant’ but that was quickly squashed by the man growing four more limbs and the fact that Randy had lost a level. It had to be that damn skill of his, he had used it again to get me up here before I was ready. That explained the weird feelings I had been experiencing. Still, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight.

I started laughing and that seemed to only enrage the six-armed man as he rushed at me with some dash ability. Six deadly-looking blades appeared in his hands. I didn’t back away as I cast my Area of Denial, Blink Step, Unstoppable Force, Wings of the Falcon, and Reverberating Strike.

The man was large, world champion weightlifter large, and he seemed even larger, wearing full metal armor. But that meant nothing as I slammed into him at full speed, ignoring his swords, thanks to my shield spell. Reverberating Stike rendered all of his armor useless as I crashed into him at a ridiculous speed, thanks to my base twenty agility that was boosted by my buff, then tripled by the Blink Step spell.

There was a resounding crash of metal as the man’s armor caved in, the enchantments not being able to endure the abuse. I wasn’t even slowed down as I came out the other side, my shield coated in his blood and remaining organs.

I smiled as it was the first time I had seen doubt creep into Randy Cotton’s eyes. He had sent his man in to soften me up and waste my energy but I had dealt with him in under two seconds.

I didn’t waste the time as I blurred toward Randy. He threw out some item that popped up a magical barrier as he dodged to the side. The shield cracked like thin glass as I rocketed through it. He hadn’t been my target though as I continued my charge toward two people fighting Fiona.

I plowed into both of them, the effect not quite as spectacular. One had his arm torn off as he turned in my direction, just in time for me to impact him. The second had been shoved forward. Fiona cut them both down as they tried to recover and I turned my charge, sprinting back toward Randy.

I was still laughing, or I should say laughing again. I had to pop a mana injector but the cost was worth it. I could already see the effect Maddening Laugh was having on the enemies. They were getting sloppier and more reckless in their attacks, allowing the others to capitalize.

Unstoppable Force ran out a few seconds before I reached Randy. He was prepared, his sword jabbing out with lightning-quick speed. I didn’t try to block the attack, I flung my off-hand out with Orb of Darkness. He saw the attack but choose to stay the course. His sword popped my Area of Denial bubble and then went through my armor shield. He had aimed for the leather-clad area and the sword penetrated deep into my side, right before he yanked it out with a vicious grin.

I grinned back, activating Reflect.

He clutched his side and stumbled back as a gaping wound opened in his torso. I glanced at my notification to see what curse was activated.

Curse of Feeblemind applied

The man was quick to recover, his wound vanishing before my eyes. It didn’t heal, it simply went away, as if it had never existed in the first place.

I swore under my breath. I had hoped to use that as an opener to soften him up. But he was lunging at me less than a second later and it took all my attention to deflect his attacks. My agility was high but even with my buff, his was still higher. I now really wished that the curse had been on his agility. I could only hope that the negative five to his Intelligence and negative three to his Wisdom, swung the fight in my favor.

Our battle was one of silence, punctuated by brief moments of extreme violence. Ice now coated my staff along with lightning. We had each scored a few superficial wounds on the other but our ability to heal or negate the damage left us looking unharmed, save for the blood.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Randy was faster but not as strong as I was but he made up for that in his fighting skill, which was extremely refined. I had a hard time blocking his strikes as he weaved his damn skills into his attacks. When I thought I had a successful block, I would hit empty air, only for the sword to come darting in to tear at my body.

My armor was up to the challenge in most cases, the Mithril and leather doing their best to keep my insides… in. Randy had similar quality armor, only with a solid plate across his breast. It wasn’t shielded like mine but it was enchanted. Despite that enchantment, my staff left dents and long gouges in the protective metal. Randy knew enough not to try and block my strikes, not that he needed to, he was like a damn snake, dodging in and out before I could deal a solid blow. His enchanted armor seemed to nullify my magical effects as no ice or lightning got through when I hit those areas.

Any time we broke apart, Randy would send his sword bolts toward my jaw, trying to keep me from casting. I returned the attacks in kind, whipping out Shockwaves and Stunning Gusts. I had tried to use other spells but the man simply sidestepped my Earth-based attacks.

The man glowed a golden color and leaped towards me. I was forced to cast Blink Step to avoid a wall of strikes, all seeming to punch through the space I had recently occupied. I thought I was safe but a weird feeling overcame me as I found myself standing in that space once more, the attack already here.

I stumbled back, blood gushing from my mouth as I clutched one of the holes. I activated Healing Touch to stem the damage as Randy raced toward me, ready to finish me off. I grimaced but raised my hand, the three additional fingers snapping into place to activate the mana cannon.

I fired the weapon and the world blurred again, this time Randy was back and off to the side, out of the path of the concentrated beam of death. He snarled in outrage, rushing back in.

I used the hand in shield mode to fend off the attacks but his sword punched through the magical metal with ease, turning it into scrap in short order. I was still trying to heal the damage from his one attack, it was quite severe, when he sliced half the metal hand away. The remaining fingers went flying off.

“Now… you die!”

Randy readied for another attack to skewer me when something punched through his chest from behind.

***

Randy grunted from the cold radiating pain. But he had prepared for this. He activated a magical item… and frowned when the cold didn’t go away. He looked down, he expected to see a ghostly sword sticking through his ribs, not an actual metal sword. He gripped the end in a vice-like grip as he swung around, wrenching it out of his attacker's grasp. His hand was protected by his magical gauntlet.

His eyes blinked in confusion for a second as he saw the solid form of a woman, one he knew to be dead. He lashed out with his blade, intending to cut the bitch in half, but she faded into smoky mist and floated away. The blade, however, stayed stuck in his gut. He cast his last remaining heal spell, Reverse Fate. The sword vanished and his wound closed up. It wasn’t as good as his other spell Deny Time but it was just as effective. He whipped back around and his eyes went wide.

***

I hadn’t wasted the time Fiona bought me. I stored my broken prosthetic and replaced it with my new one. The enchantment made the lifelike facsimile blend perfectly with my skin. Only the additional weight would give it away.

I activated the mana cannon, the palm splitting open as the mana charged the gem. I didn’t wait on the focusing fields to stabilize as I ran toward Randy. I saw him turn as I lifted my hand toward his face. His eyes went wide as I released the stored energy. The blast was like a shotgun instead of a concentrated beam and the impact sent us both flying apart.

I groaned as I picked myself up. I spotted my target twenty feet away. Half his face and upper shoulder had been melted away by my attack, but still, the son of a bitch clung to life.

I saw him pull something from his ring, it looked like C4. He looked at me and went to cock his hand back to throw the explosive compound my way.

I thought that was a dumb choice of item to pull out as I cast Wall of Thorns on him. He gave a look of befuddlement as the explosive got stuck on one of the thorns. After that, I simply hit the area with an Arcane Bolt.

There was a loud boom as the baseball-sized explosive went off, turning Randy into spaghetti. My ears rang from being so close to the blast but other than a few points of damage from debris, I was ok. I was now extremely grateful that the curse had lowered his intelligence. I doubt he would have taken that action had he been at his full faculties. I got up and brushed myself off. There were still a few people left fighting.

The battle didn’t last much longer once I was freed up. I healed both Ska and Martin and helped them finish off their opponents. Fiona had risked a lot to stab Randy in the back, almost dying as she fled her fight. I saw what she had become and I was going to have to ask her about that, but not now.

Not everyone came out of the fight unscathed. Ska had lost an arm during the battle. He had enough presence of mind to stop the bleeding and I was able to reattach the limb with my healing. He would have to take it easy for a few days though to let the bone harden. Fiona was near death as well, due to her suicidal charge to try and distract Randy but if she stayed incorporeal her wounds would heal.

Martin had been the least injured out of all of us. His shield bubble kept the attacks at bay for most of the fighting and when it did finally fall, he was left fighting only two of the weaker opponents. It appeared that not many people had counters to his dark occult abilities.

I looked around the once-proud building, it was a wreck. Steel pillars were exposed, spells and attacks having whittled away large chunks of the surrounding concrete and marble.

We quickly looted the remains and left the building. But not before I set dwarven explosives on the pillars. I didn’t want anything left behind to be scavenged.

It took us the better part of two hours to clear the remaining forces from under the shield dome. I was tired but relieved. I looked at the two abilities I had stolen from Randy and his companion.

Charge: Charge across a forty-foot distance at double your movement speed. Cost 50 Stamina. Cooldown 10 min

Time Shudder: Rewind or fast forward time by one second. Time catches up to us all, but it will catch up to you much quicker. Cost 25 Stamina. Cooldown 30s

Charge was a simple skill but I could definitely fit it into my repertoire. More speed meant more damage. Time Shudder was probably the skill Randy had been using to throw off the timing of his attacks. The ability was powerful in its simplicity but I didn’t care for the flavor text. Did that mean every time I used it I was shaving away at my lifespan? How would I even know?

I decided to shelve that skill until I learned more. Maybe Victoria the pixie could shed some light on the subject. It would also be good to check in on Old Man Trumbo and Frathsar since we were in the general area. I looked at my level and notices, man wouldn’t they be surprised when they saw me next.

Congratulations, the Mana System has recognized your unique achievement and unlocked the second tier of your Strength attribute

Congratulations, the Mana System has recognized your unique achievement and unlocked the second tier of your Endurance attribute

Unfortunately, I had been busy at the time and didn’t know what achievement had unlocked the attributes. If I had to guess one, it would be the man-meat-tunnel I created. That sure seemed like something strength-based. Endurance had me stumped though.

Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter/Maw of the Void | Level 20/14

The extended fighting had rocketed my second class all the way to fourteen. I looked at the other three, everyone had gained a level. Martin was now eighteen as was Fiona. Ska had hit nineteen but I knew that last level to twenty was a slog.

I levered myself off the broken car I had used as a bench.

“Hey Fiona, Catch,” I said, tossing her sword and scabbard through the air toward her.

I watched her turn from her incorporeal form into a flesh and blood woman, similar to what she had been when she was alive. I raised my eyebrow and she gave me a sheepish grin.

“You and Martin need some alone time?”

Her face went red and I laughed. It felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulder after the battle.

“Come on, let's go visit some old friends,” I said, clapping her on the shoulder and giving her a much-deserved and overdue hug.