Klaus hissed as a cloud of Choking Haze washed over him, his hulking frame stumbling to one knee. He clawed his throat, each hacking cough summoning up a wave of bloodied spittle. Riley seized the opening and swung his axe with whatever strength he had, the edge biting into Klaus’s gorget. Just enough to break through the damaged steel and wound the flesh beneath, blood oozing from the freshly cut gap.
Riley jumped away to avoid the inevitable counter, the floor rumbling violently under his feet from the force of his movements. “Vile strumpet serving cur!” Klaus snarled, his breathing slowly returning to normal. His entire chin was smeared with blood.
“I keep telling you, I don’t serve anyone!” Riley shouted. He raised his staff, preparing to summon forth more Choking Haze. Already a faint pain was building in his muscles.
He had quickly found that the more spells he cast, particularly in quick succession, the more winded he became. Supposedly, Capacity was the stat that dictated his reserves of magical power. A higher Capacity would let him cast more and more spells. But, for now at least, he could probably cast up to ten spells in a single fight before the fatigue became too strong.
Klaus rushed him before he could summon another cloud, sweeping his head toward the wizard in an attempt to gore him on his antlers. The blow grazed Riley’s shoulder as he tried to dodge, sending him skidding across the damaged floor.
Riley groaned and rolled onto his feet. His right sleeve was torn, the flesh beneath bloodied and already starting to bruise. It was a miracle the bones in his arm hadn’t been fractured.
Already the giant was rushing him again, the floor shuddering with greater intensity as he drew nearer. His axe was raised high, set to crush Riley into a fine smear.
He narrowly dodged the strike, the edge of Klaus’ axe digging deep into the floor. Riley countered quickly, throwing caution to the wind and landing two swift strikes to Klaus’ ribs. He deliberately aimed for a dented part of his breastplate, the metal splitting to reveal blackened flesh. The second strike carved into one of Klaus’ tumours, splitting it open and releasing a spray of bilious black blood.
The lord of Fort Bane threw his head back, a pained howl rising in his throat. It shook the very chamber around them, sounding more like the cry of a beast than any sound a human could make.
Undaunted, Riley swung a third time, burying half of his hatchet into the damaged skin. Another howl, louder this time, echoed through fort. He thought, perhaps, he’d found a weak point. And that if he kept hitting it, Klaus would have no chance to get back to his feet.
Klaus swung his ironclad fist back, knuckles aimed squarely at Riley’s temple.
DEATH.
Riley blinked repeatedly, swiftly scanning his surroundings. The courtyard, again. This time it was the dead of night. A moon hung high above them, luminous ivory. Great scars dotted the lunar surface, a chunk of it having broken off. A trail of shattered fragments followed behind it.
“What even happened that time?!” Riley shouted.
“You were decapitated by a single punch,” Arubis simply told him.
He sighed. “You know what? At least the instantaneous deaths hurt a whole lot less.” He reached up with his left hand, groping his chest. The mental image of being impaled by a spear loomed large in his mind.
“But I actually hurt him that time. Those growths, perhaps unsurprisingly, seem very sensitive to harm. Striking them can buy me some breathing room. But I gotta make sure not to fixate on them or get greedy. Otherwise I run the risk of getting mulched by a wild hit.”
Riley paced around as he spoke, doing a few quick laps around the glowing Lodestone.
He only he stopped when he realised he was being watched. Riley glanced to the bushes off to the side of the courtyard, where a coterie of rats had gathered to watch him. Five in total.
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“I have faith in you, Warden. Alas, faith is all I can offer you at present. You have no more essence to forge strength with, and it is doubtful more could be scrounged from the fort.”
“Seems that way. We did check every room we could get to,” Riley replied, reluctantly pulling his eyes from the rats. It was doubtful there was any worthwhile Essence in such small creatures anyway.
“Round three.”
Klaus was already waiting for him by the time he entered the entrance hall. He stood to attention, clutching the shaft of his axe in both hands.
“Again you haunt me, vile spectre,” Klaus snarled, his eyes burning with hatred. “Yet I shan’t waiver. I shall kill you as many times as I must. All in the service of his lordship.”
“Your emperor, right?” Riley asked, taking a few hesitant steps into the room. “L-look around you! Everyone here is dead! Your fort is a ruin! You’ve been abandoned, and your emperor doesn’t give a shit! You’re wasting your life, rotting out here!”
“More lies! Filth born from the mouth of your gutter goddess!”
Klaus swept toward him in a blur of speed. Riley jumped away from another slash, arcing around him. A cloud of blinding mist flew from his staff, the purple mist gnawing at Klaus’ eyes. He hissed in pain, more blood staining his face.
But the giant man adapted quickly, gripping his axe with both hands and swinging his axe in a full 360 degree arc. Riley threw himself flat on his stomach, grimacing as the axe sliced a swathe through the wall as if it were made of butter.
He grit his teeth, waiting until the axe passed over him, and swung a blow of his own at the back of Klaus’ knee. Boiled leather and flesh gave way under the edge of Riley’s hatchet, blood spurting across the flat of his blade.
Klaus snarled and kicked back like a startled horse. This time Riley raised his arms to block, the blow clipping him and sending him rolling across the floor. A powerful ache rolled through his arms, his entire skeleton shuddering under the harsh blow.
Even a stray blow like that damn near killed him. Riley shuddered where he lay, his knuckles aching from how tightly he was gripping his hatchet and staff.
“I have had... enough of you!” Klaus roared. He spun around to face Riley, a cyclone of frosty wind erupting around him. Riley’s eyes widened, focused on the edge of his axe it sprouted a stream of ice crystals. “Wretched plaguebearer!”
He swung his axe from where he stood, unleashing a frosty gale toward Riley. The plague wizard scrambled to his feet and ran, avoiding the incoming wave as it uprooted a path in the floor. Spikes of ice exploded in the wake of the gale, glittering in the flickering light of the braziers.
Already Klaus was charging at him, a miasma of frost hissing from his mouth. Riley rolled away from more slashes, each swing of the beastly blade kicking up an explosion of ice crystals. Riley countered where he could, swooping in and landing strikes on any exposed flesh he could see. He even threw out more miasmas to blind and choke Klaus, yet he was powering through Riley’s magic with ferocious tenacity.
He swept his antlers at Riley again, but Riley found it easier to dodge while his foe was thrashing about in a rage. He sidestepped the horns and narrowed his eyes, adrenaline thrumming through his veins. He bit back any hesitation or fear he may have felt.
After all death was only a fleeting thing for him, right?
Riley’s hatchet hissed through the air, catching Klaus in the jaw while his head was lowered. And, to his shock, his blade cleaved a chunk of Klaus’ lower jaw clean off! Blood gushed up Riley’s sleeve, followed by a spray of frost that chilled him to the bone.
I-I did it! After a blow like that, there’s no way he ca-
Klaus’ axe swept upward, slicing Riley’s neck in twain.
DEATH.
“Uuuugh...” Riley came to, lying on his back in the courtyard. He reached up with trembling hands, clutching his neck just to make sure it was still in tact.
“I got carried away again.”
He sat upright to see Arubis staring down at him. She offered him a sympathetic smile. “But you are doing very well. I doubt he can endure much more.”
“I’d be terrified if he could...”
Riley moved to stand, his gaze shifting to the bushes again. The number of rats had grown significantly. Now he had an audience of twenty staring at him, as if expecting something.
A shiver raced down Riley’s back.
“Okay, I have to ask... what the hell is all this about?”
“You are a plague wizard, are you not? Your order shares kinship with all the verin of the world,” Arubis calmly explained.
Why did I get linked to a goddess of gross animals?
“Huh... now that you mention it, I did see a passive discussing something like that. Never gave it much thought but...” He inspected the small crowd of rats. He knew full well how dangerous a pack of rats could be. Vicious, relentless, and hungry.
Maybe he could get some use out of them?
His eyes fell on a rat who stood at the head of the pack. He was larger than the others, and further distinguished by a thin scar on his right side and a mohawk of ivory fur atop his head. He was cute, in an ugly sort of way, Riley thought.
“Er... hello?” he called out.
The emissary of Mother Aqar’Ghul speaks to us!
The response echoed in the back of his mind, making Riley wince in discomfort. “Er... y-yeah, I did. I was just... wondering of you would be interested in helping me out?”
The rats turned and seemed to communicate with each other, whiskers and ears twitching about. But they showed particular deference to the rat with the mohawk.
He skittered forward, looking Riley in the eye as if they were equals.
For a noble emissary of Mother Aqar’Ghul... we shall gladly use our claws and teeth to rend the flesh of any foe.
Riley smiled nervously under his mask. “G-good to know. Then... follow me. Round four, here we go!”