Mel snapped her hand out, placing [Omen Mark] on Warren. She had been surprised earlier. Now she was ready.
If Mel couldn’t pierce that armor shell, she could eat away at it from the inside with afflictions. Though how she would do that when she couldn’t inflict bleed on metal skin was a problem.
The only option she had was [Decay], but that meant getting up close and personal. She didn’t like her odds of surviving that encounter. Otherwise, [Frostbite Toxin] might work.
Warren lunged out, far slower than he had been before, but with considerably more strength. Mel could see the power behind the move as she summoned her twinblade, dodged the strike by moving dangerously close to the lip of the ledge, and punished it with an upward slice.
A splash of blood from the leading edge of her Blood affinity blade gave her hope that she had broken through his armor.
It was a false hope.
The attack should have severed his arm at the elbow. At the very least, it should have cut through a seam in his armor. Instead, Mel nearly dropped her twinblade as the attack rebounded off the hardened skin. Her fingers were numb from the vibration traveling up and down her weapon.
Warren hissed and stepped back, clutching his elbow.
Mel forced a grin. Her [Frostbite Toxin] still went through. “You feelin’ a little cold there, champ?”
“You’ll pay for all the death you’ve caused!” Warren said, spittle seeping from the encasing helmet. Mel didn’t want to understand how that worked. She guessed it had to have some way of getting air to him.
He thrusted again with his sword in a pitifully mundane attack routine that Mel could have parried in her sleep.
Instead, she did one better. The combat art [Shinobi Parry] went out, nearly knocking the blade from his hands.
“This is all you’ve got?” Mel asked him. “I’ve been after your old ass for weeks, and this is all you can muster? How the hell have you managed to lead like this?”
Warren came on more aggressively, using a two-handed form with his sword. Mel batted his sword aside again with [Shinobi Parry] from below, a flash of mana forcing his weapon high.
Using her superior speed, Mel slashed twice across his metal-encased ribs. Icy poison splashed from the attack, sizzling and bubbling on the [Ironclad] armor. Warren grunted, bringing the weapon down onto her head, but she was already moving closer inside his reach.
The valuable seconds it took for him to dismiss his weapon and make a grab for her allowed Mel to press her hand to his armored shell. [Decay] stacks built up on Warren as the [Frostbite Toxin] worked to slow him down while simultaneously applying [Haste] to Mel.
The longer this went on, the greater her advantage became. Though her mana was steadily draining.
If I wasn’t Copper, I’d be empty already.
“This is almost too easy,” Mel laughed. “Are you seriously this dumb?” She danced around him on the narrow ledge and was out of his twisting reach well before he ever came close to touching her.
“You have no grounds to talk here, Magi !” he spat the word like it was some sort of curse. “The blood on your hands is more than my own! I only wanted to build something!” He summoned his sword again and slashed wildly at her. “You’ve killed countless men and women, and for what?”
Mel bobbed and weaved with ease, hardly bothering to parry the attacks. She kept her guard up though, sweeping her blade around as he switched up his attack and punched out with his fist suddenly.
“I told you what would happen,” Mel snarled. “I warned you. This is on your head. Not mine. What you did to your people is worse than anything I ever dreamed of!”
“They serve me!” He roared. “Even in death, they will serve! All I have to do is hold you here long enough for them to come and rip you limb from limb. You cannot defeat me.”
Mel laughed, a full-throated laugh that even startled Warren.
Considering the wolf howls she could hear in the distance, his vision didn’t seem likely.
Even without the viking helping her, likely getting more runes than she was, Mel didn’t buy his bluff. “You want me to embarrass you? Even more? Fine.”
Mel released her blade, letting it fall from her grasp in a flurry of ash. She adopted a low martial arts pose. “Come on, big man. You want to be disrespected that bad? Let me show you the difference between us.”
Though she couldn’t see his face, Mel was certain he was grinning with the certainty of victory. As far as Mel could tell, his [Ironclad] skill was a concentration skill like her [Tempest Heart].
But that didn’t explain why he wasn’t slinging more fire or using that crystalline attack that nearly took her out. Something about [Ironclad] was forcing him to be parsimonious with his mana. Either it couldn’t work with other aspect skills due to some quirk, or it was so intensive that he couldn’t keep it up and use any other aspect skill.
Even with his aspect skills to back him up, he was just an old man with dreams of grandeur beyond his grasp.
Mel had dealt with his type before.
Predictably, he didn’t disarm himself. He lashed out with his sword and Mel ducked. She twisted to the side as his knee came up, aiming for her chin. She palm-struck the side of his knee to unbalance him, cupped her hands together and grabbed the underside of his boot as she came up with a surge of force courtesy of switching to [Firestorm].
Warren went down hard on his back like an overweight turtle. The ledge shook violently, but it held. Snarling with incomprehensible rage, Warren swung his sword like a child flailing at an imaginary enemy.
All Mel had to do was stay out of range until his rage had played itself out. She dropped down and slapped a hand to his ankle. He kicked and bucked, but couldn’t get the leverage needed to do much other than jerk her arm back and forth.
Stacks of [Decay] built up faster and faster, robbing him of vitality and the strength to continue resisting. Even if she stepped back and didn’t touch him, he couldn’t have gotten up. The stacks of [Decay] robbed him of stamina while they withered away his physical shell.
“You can’t…do this!” Warren wheezed. His sword fell from numb fingertips. The combination of [Frostbite Toxin] and [Decay] was too much even for his Defender’s stout body.
“Can and have,” Mel said, squeezing tighter on his ankle. The armored skin, which had been as resistant as stone, was now crumpling under her grasp like tinfoil. “Time to rest, old man.”
“They promised me I would rule!” Warren wailed like a child who had been told he would get ice cream and now realized that treat might never come. “This Convocation was mine, and mine alone! I won’t let you take everything that I’ve made!”
Mel stood up, dusting her hands together. She put a foot on his chest, watching the [Ironclad] armor crinkle and dent from the weight. “Who told you?”
Warren’s gasp told Mel that she had underestimated her own strength. That, or she overestimated his.
The iron skin of [Ironclad] vanished, taking the armor he was wearing with him, leaving him in a simple pair of trousers and a shirt.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The Magi part of her mind wondered how that worked. Did [Ironclad] consume the properties of the armor he wore to provide more defense, but with the clear downside before her eyes now?
Mel sublimated her curiosity when she realized that her foot was sinking into his chest. His ribs cracked as she removed her foot, but the damage was done.
The rage in his misty eyes was replaced by childlike terror.
“Who told you that you would rule the Convocation!” Mel shouted at him, afraid to touch him. He seemed so frail, so old.
Warren’s eyes widened with shock. His face went slack and a calm serenity settled over him.
Mel snarled and summoned her twinblade. “No!” she screamed. “You don’t get to go quietly!” She stabbed Warren through the middle, her weapon piercing into the stone under his back. “You don’t get to die peacefully. For all the harm you’ve caused, the last moments you experience will be filled with pain ,” Mel promised.
A Magi’s word was their bond. She had not broken a promise yet, and she did not break this one. Her title, [Vessel of Anguish], made sure of that.
You defeat [Warren Stolst (Stolst Gang) (Copper Rank)].
You gain extra runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, and Omen aspect experience.
You gain extra Battle Points.
Jaw working with unspent rage, Mel looked away from Warren’s body. What did he mean about the Convocation? There wasn’t much that she understood about the Convocation in general, nor the hierarchy of the greater multiverse.
She didn’t even know the damn name of the Shardrune they were on!
Quest Complete: Sunsetting Stolst
Objective: Defeat Warren Stolst (1/1).
Reward: [Empyrium Gem]
The gem appeared to Mel in a whorl of Blue tinged mana, floating and suspended in midair, waiting for her to take it.
Mel reached out and cupped the jewel in her hand.
[Empyrium Gem]
(Catalyst, Item)
(Legendary)
Throughout the multiverse, and Shardrunes both big and small, empyrium gems are accumulations of Order itself. Prized for their power to create system-recognized Orders, these gems are valuable beyond measure.
Imprint: Creates a Convocation-sanctioned Order. Cannot be used within a trial.
Mel heard a muffled curse from the cavern passage before the sound of boots scraping on stone alerted her to another presence. She twisted around and brought her twinblade up to bear on the newest threat.
A brass-banded treasure chest was pushed out of the exit before the viking Magi crawled out after it. Covered in blood, cuts and soot, the viking looked like she had fought an army in a burning building. There were deep gouges in her [Primal Mantle]. The right sleeve was entirely missing, along with a good third of the entire mantle.
She straightened, raising a curious eyebrow at Mel’s defensive posture.
Mel dismissed her twinblade when she saw who it was. “What’s that?”
The woman patted the treasure chest affectionately. “What was the Stolst gang’s stash. Seems they were something like an actual guild.”
As she spoke, Mel dropped to one knee and looted Warren.
(10) [Metal Aspect Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(10) [Mayhem Aspect Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(10) [Fire Aspect Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(10) [Rage Aspect Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(10) [Stone Aspect Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(40) [Copper Rune Coins] have been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Vile Contract] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Ring of Greater Water Breathing] has been stored in your inventory.
(1) [Bladed Weaponry Tome] has been stored in your inventory.
You earn the Title: [Eye for Talent]
[Eye for Talent]
(Title, Legendary)
Earned by slaying Warren Stolst, once a small-time enforcer in an organized crime family based on Earth. From a young age, Warren always had a skill for marking out people who would be more successful than he was. He used this to successfully navigate numerous blood feuds, always coming out on the winning side. Once he reached the Convocation, Warren was able to tell classes apart instantly, allowing him to pick priority targets. When recruiting, it allowed Warren to discover valuable members who would otherwise have passed themselves off as something else in order to avoid being taken against their will.
Whenever you examine a person, you can tell their exact class, even if it is normally hidden.
As a Legendary title, it is eligible for additional growth should you satisfy specific requirements. Additionally, should you be slain, this title will be transferred to the victor.
“So it would seem,” Mel said softly. She tilted her head to catch an odd sound echoing from the tunnel behind the viking. “What’s that noise?”
The viking glanced at the cavern. “More of those things. We need to go, Mel. There’s some Lormar fuckery going on.”
Mel had only a tangential knowledge of Lormar at best, but from what she saw on the mountainside and from the Bloodtide Covenant, Mel had enough context to know it was bad. “Then we need to get moving. You have a camp nearby?”
“One far enough to be safe, yes.” She dropped a heavy chain and ball to the floor.
The impact sent a crack through the ledge, joining with the others beneath Warren’s body. Mel coiled her legs with as much strength as she could and tackled the woman to the floor just as the ledge crumbled beneath Warren’s body where it had already been weakened.
Mel rolled off her, getting to her feet and watching as the ledge began to crumble further until there was nothing left but the small section they were standing on.
The same section that led back to the howling, screeching voices.
“You good?” Mel asked, dusting herself off. She studied the viking more closely. “There are a thousand better ways to secure a chest than that.”
The viking blushed. “Whoops.” She leaned over the edge, watching. A smile blossomed on her lean features.
Curious why the woman wasn’t cursing–she certainly seemed the sort to be upset about losing some loot–Mel leaned over the crumbled edge as well.
The chest was covered in a nimbus of glowing light, rising slowly as the rest of the rubble scattered and bounced along the mountainside. Mel followed the magic to its source.
On the other side of the broken ledge, a man stepped out of the tunnel that led deeper into the mountain. The path Warren intended to take.
I wonder what Warren would have done if he ran into him?
Mel thought she recognized him. With his wavy golden blonde hair and opulent Magi outfit that clung close to his lean dancer’s frame, he definitely looked the part of a Magi.
Kinda like a surfer Deklin who moonlights as a concert pianist.
Wriggling his nimble fingers, the man guided the chest up to his waiting hand.
He grasped the handle and pulled it into the tunnel on the other side, more than 50 feet away. Mel thought he looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember who he might be.
Sitting down on its lid, he crossed one leg over the other and, from his inventory, produced a chipped cup and saucer.
Mel stared at him, then at the viking. “Is he…drinking tea?”
The woman stared dreamily at the man. “Yeah…”