Afflicting Haroshi with the Psychic Parasite was perhaps the strangest sensation I’d felt since entering the Colosseum.

Very suddenly, I felt Haroshi as if he were a part of myself—I felt his spike of confusion, then indignance as he looked up at the debuff and realized he’d been attacked. I knew that he would spin to look at me before he did it, knew when he saw us both that he felt a pang of self-satisfied glee: two more defenders to kill.

All this happened without interfering with my normal attention span, the information just filling my brain, knowledge that I didn’t even have to dwell on. I had begun casting a Supercharged Devour Magic as soon as I’d loosed the other spell, hoping to wipe away their psychic’s Moment of Mastery to give myself room to nuke him to death.

Haroshi spun, and Cuby threw a bomb that exploded into a cloud of orange gas into the midst of his group.

Then I felt a sudden pang of realization from Haroshi—he’d read the debuff on his character and realized, almost instantly—

“The mage!” he shouted even as Cuby’s thrown kukri came down to strike him for negligible damage—a distraction, I guessed. “The mage is not a mage!”

He was confused, I felt. He hadn’t wholly realized I was chosen—just that something was wrong, that I was using abilities I shouldn’t be.

My Devour Magic finished, reaping me almost 300 Hit Points for my Mana Shield and wiping even one of Haroshi’s buffs away—something that implied my spell had eaten everything it could off the psychic, who I had centered it on.

Haroshi saw his buff disappear. He felt… fear. Fear and realization.

I cracked my Moment of Mastery just as he came out of the orange cloud, our eyes meeting as time slowed. I read his buffs:

Blessing of Justice:

Your Precision is increased by 4.

You can sustain a total of 4 blessings at a time.

Blessing of Protection:

Your Defense Rating is increased by 4.

You can sustain a total of 4 blessings at a time.

And had only a moment to think: holy shit, those were strong. Most everyone had Precision equal to their level + 5, or thereabouts. Haroshi would be like me: high enough Precision that he never missed and had a decent crit chance. How often was he critting level 7s and 8s with those buffs? How often could they even hit him?

My Psychic Parasite, supercharged as it was, would reduce both of those stats by 8—but only against me. I’d have to eat those buffs once the psychic was dead. Speaking of….

I loosed my Fragmented Supercharged Implosive Missile, targeting Hasunin, the psychic….

And as the world resumed moving at normal speed, Haroshi barked out a command and, much to my horror, somehow reflected my spell back at me.

I had nothing to defend myself with. The missile struck me a moment after it left my hands, shattering my Mana Barrier and taking out… not a lot of my HP, about 10%. It hadn’t crit; it had likely been affected by the Psychic Parasite debuff, and maybe unaffected by my Moment of Mastery—it all depended on how the spell reflection ability worked.

But even as I started casting a Fragmented Devour Magic, I realized how bad it was that my spell had been reflected: if Haroshi was a healer and we couldn’t bring one of them down fast, they’d just outlast us.

“Chosen!” Haroshi cried, pointing at me. “Kill the rogue first! Watch the mage!”

The warrior threw a spear tied to a long chain through Cuby’s chest, a repeat of the ability we’d seen earlier…

Stop Haroshi from healing the psychic, Cuby said. And then she was yanked off the edge as the warrior dragged her forward.

My Devour Magic wiped the attack buff—which was the more fortunate choice—from Haroshi, whose eager rage I could feel as easily as my own anxiety. Cuby struck the ground, and Morene brought her acid-wreathed greatsword down… only for Cuby to spring out of the way, rolling to come up just before Hasunin, their buffless psychic.

I started casting a Fragmented, Supercharged Hex of Chains, readying it to use on Haroshi in order to stop him from healing…

Hasunin finished casting a spell, aimed it at Cuby—and as soon as I saw her vision go slack, I took a break from my spell to hit her with a Rousing Command, wiping most of what I expected was Unnatural Confusion’s effect time.

But no sooner did Cuby come back to us than Haroshi equipped two swords, each a bluish shaft of crackling energy, and began to attack her, striking twice and breaking the whole of my Mana Shield. Morene joined him a moment later, knocking Cuby to the ground, where both of them kept attacking her.

Don’t worry, Cuby said to me. We have to kill the psychic.

We have two heals, I said resolutely. It was this or nothing.

But she’d only hit Hasunin twice; the psychic was just below 90%.

She came back up to her feet a moment later and the fighting continued with a kind of raw desperation. Morene let out an interrupting shout, giving them another split second to beat on her, and Cuby healed herself with her Gift of Mercy.

I finished the powered-up Hex of Chains, started casting an ordinary Haste….

Then I felt a kind of glee, a real sense of anticipation, come over Haroshi as he glanced at Hasunin, who was looking at me….

I remembered the description of Invert Hostility.

Stop Morene! I cried suddenly, realizing that if I was turned, even for a moment, Cuby would eat the Hex of Chains I’d just stored.

Cuby used her second dodge, flinging herself to the other side of the three of them even as one of her kukris disappeared, and her hand tossed a small object—a bomb that fell to the ground a moment after she’d moved.

The detonation knocked all three of them to the ground… and then Cuby really got to work. I saw her kukris move with a speed that indicated her flurry ability, saw her strike down with what I presumed was the ability that granted her extra damage on a crowd control, saw Hasunin’s HP plummet to 60% as the others got to their feet.

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Now or never! Cuby cried. My Haste spell finished, hit her just at that moment, and I threw the Supercharged Hex of Chains at Haroshi before starting a Magic Arrow….

The chains took Haroshi, binding him as Cuby continued her lethal work, and I had only a moment to notice that my Psychic Parasite had worn off, that I had no sense of how he felt at this moment—before he was bathed in the silver light that I now knew was the marker of a miracle, and the chains vanished.

No! I thought.

And Cuby spun just as the chains faded, a flash of light emanating from one of her kukris as it lashed out, blinding Haroshi before she turned back to our prey.

My heart leapt. Haroshi stayed blind for one second, two… and then my Magic Arrow struck Hasunin in the very moment that the blind wore off, killing him.

Haroshi gave a shout of rage, swinging his swords, Morene joining him. Cuby lost most of her Hit Points in a second, but I spent my only Gift of Mercy charge to put her back up past 70%.

Grapple me! I almost shouted in thought speech, realizing that there was nothing around for the hook to catch onto.

But when she launched the grapnel, it sailed past me without sinking into my flesh.

Mana Shield! She said by way of explanation as I grabbed the cord with my free hand, already casting a Moment of Mastery even as the line went taut and Cuby began sailing away from the two remaining enemies.

Cuby clambered up onto the ledge and drank our last Healing Potion after moving out of sight behind me. I started to cast a Fragmented Psychic Parasite… and was stricken by an arrow for almost 100 damage a moment later. Both of them had pulled out bows.

Plan? I asked as their arrows collided with my Mana Barrier. My Psychic Parasite finished and I threw it on Haroshi again, satisfied to get a sense of his cool, driving rage. We’d offended him by killing his ally, but he was confident, still—I guessed he thought we’d spent too many resources, too many cooldowns.

He might have been right. Both he and the warrior would be absolute tanks in terms of survivability, and unless we could burst them down fast enough, Haroshi had both regular heals and, potentially, more miracles to bring them back up. And the damage they were currently dealing was more than enough to bring us down.

And yet… my next spell to finish was another Devour Magic, hoping to eat his last blessing… but I noticed that both his blessings were back on his character, Justice and Protection. They must have been instant cast—he’d thrown one back up as Cuby escaped, was my guess.

I don’t know, Cuby said. Shouldn’t you back up?

But I didn’t agree. I ate the blessing of Protection. Then the blessing of Justice. Then I started casting Devour Magic on Morene, confident that he’d cast them both on her, too—given that he had 4, max, according to their description.

I’m doing fine as long as they are, I said with a note of humor.

Haroshi noticed his buff’s disappearing with a smug satisfaction—he didn’t realize I wasn’t just dispelling them. He simply recast them, each taking only a little more than a second to reapply to both himself and Morene… but while he did this I cast a Fragmented Supercharged Devour Magic, and once he’d finished I loosed it to eat both his buffs again just as he took out his bow.

It was then that Haroshi had a horrifying realization, and I guessed that he’d figured out that my absorb shield wasn’t vanishing because I’d been powering it with his buffs. It was well-placed horror—my shield had almost 400 Hit Points, putting my total HP well over 1000.

Haroshi stopped casting his buffs, and I rather wished he’d had a Psychic Parasite on me for a moment, if only so he could sense my cruel satisfaction: after all, they were his class iconics. I was sure he’d rather get to, you know, use them in a fight for his life.

I felt it burning in me, the same sense of satisfaction I’d felt before. This was him. This was the monster. This was the man who deserved it.

I finished eating the last blessing under a hail of arrows, noting just how high Haroshi’s damage was—single attacks that dealt just under 100 to even me, with the occasional Magic Arrow flying forth from his bow as if they were being cast automatically.

I moved backwards, beginning to cast a Fragmented Supercharged Hardlight Construct. Below us, I felt Haroshi’s sudden frustration—and also his uncertainty. Plan, I said. I’m going to conjure a box around us and that warrior. Hopefully it works the way I want it to. That’s our opening.

You have… okay, nevermind. Let’s do it.

My Psychic Parasite faded from Haroshi, but the last sense I got from him was not one that suggested he was fleeing. Sure enough, moments later we saw them both sprinting for the slopes to come meet us atop the mountain. Their plan, I guessed, was straightforward: neither of us could heal, so they’d kill Cuby and then me.

I stored the Supercharged Hardlight Construct just as they came into range, mentally checking my abilities to see that Haste was cooled down and Rousing Command had only 6 seconds left before I could use it again.

I ran in front, casting a Supercharged Haste and trying to give off body language like it would be a threatening damage spell… but Haroshi and Morene both ignored me, not even bothering to attack me for the second or so that only I was in their range.

Then I saw Morene throw her impaling spear ability at Cuby, saw Haroshi notch an arrow that glowed with white lightning, saw Cuby getting dragged across the ground beside me, expediting her journey toward our target, my Haste not yet finished….

They hit her hard when she reached them, her HP dropping down to almost half in the two seconds it took me to reach the three-way melee.

Then my Supercharged Haste finished. Morene had been waiting for this, I guessed: she used her knockdown on Cuby as soon as the spell finished.

And so I used Rousing Command.

Blind Haroshi! I cried as Cuby threw her weight forward to spring to her feet. She didn’t hesitate—I saw the flash of her weapon, saw Haroshi stumble back… and then I conjured a blue-white hardlight box about the size of a squat bathroom stall around Cuby, Morene, and myself.

Cuby used her flurry.

Morene screamed, perhaps understandably. She lashed out at Cuby, clearly hoping to kill the rogue before she’d be killed herself, using her momentary interrupt shout to stop two of the blows raining down on her at a speed of six or seven attacks per second.

I hadn’t started casting another Hex of Chains to stall Haroshi once the Hardlight Construct was broken—instead I’d started a Supercharged Implosive Missile, ready to crack the Moment of Mastery that I’d cast just after we’d killed Hasunin.

The blind must have worn off on Haroshi, because I heard his lightning-swords crashing against the side of the box. “Morene!” he cried, his voice muffled. “The box!”

But Morene was trying to kill Cuby, who—as with before—had let the warrior get a few hits in to lead her on, then spent both her dodges to frustrate the warrior by staying at 40%.

Morene was only at 60%, however, and I had no idea how long the construct would last. She let out another shout, gaining a little HP, and I prayed that I’d finish my cast before Haroshi broke the wall of hardlight.

My cast finished and I expended my Moment of Mastery, the missile striking Morene with a roar, critting her and dropping her to 10%. Come on, I thought, watching Cuby’s weapons move, just a little more.

I started casting a Fragmented Hex of Chains, knowing it would only stall Haroshi for a moment, knowing that the cast might not be finished by the time he broke the Hardlight Construct…

I needed something, anything at all—but there were no bombs in my inventory, no more gifts from virtue ranks to save me.

The walls broke… but only just as Cuby’s kukris lopped off both of Morene’s arms, the warrior dropping to 0 and spasming as she fell to the ground behind us. Haroshi only stared as Cuby quickly followed this up by slashing the fallen warrior’s neck so deeply that she almost decapitated her.

“No,” Haroshi muttered, sounding as if he’d woken from a confusing dream. I threw my Hex of Chains at him, but it vanished in a flash of light a moment after it struck. I started casting a Supercharged Fragmented Implosive Missile. Cuby didn’t join me, backing away to protect her tender 40% HP… but Haroshi didn’t move toward her.

Instead he stared at me in shock. “Sariv Idal!” He cried.

Then he turned and began to run.