Following the ass-whupping I had given my team, I would have thought they would be annoyed, or maybe timid. Instead, they were all eyeing me with curiosity or lust, depending on the lady. A bit of both, mostly.

“Maybe,” Steph started, but then shook her head. “Nah, it’s stupid.”

“What?” I asked.

“I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if you could somehow use the Liahona without that awkward way you hold it?” She glanced around, noticing the remnants of a desk in the corner. “Like if you had it attached to a staff.”

“A true mage’s staff!” I exclaimed, loving the idea already. Kneeling beside the desk, I caused two legs to morph together and then twist until it looked like a proper staff, and this time when I summoned the Liahona, I made it so that the metal ball affixed to the end of the staff. The same amount of power surged through me, then a bit more.

“It’s helping you focus,” Aerona said, nodding at Steph with respect. “I should’ve thought of that.”

“It’s nothing,” Steph replied with a blush.

Wand waving, I created a circle of ice above my head, then let it burst out to slam into the walls like spears. This was going to be so epic. But for now, I released the Liahona, keeping the staff because it was fun to hold. Gave me a sense of mage-ness.

“That was… hot,” Kordelia admitted.

“We should rest,” Ebrill said, stepping close and then running her hand along my waist. “The enemy could fall into our trap at any minute.”

“I could watch,” Aerona said, then bit her lip, followed by a laugh. “I mean, keep watch. For the enemy.”

“You and Shisa,” Kordelia said.

My eyes snapped to Kordelia with a confused excitement. “You…?”

“You’ll join us?” Ebrill asked.

Steph eyed the large gargoyle, clearly as excited by the prospect of her joining as I was.

Kordelia tilted her head in consideration, then nodded. “It might be some effect from the magic, I don’t know. But… don’t try to talk me out of this. I’m ready.”

“No argument here,” Steph said, wrapping her arm through mine. “Should be… fun.”

“Fun,” Kordelia replied, eyeing the petite woman on my arm with a new hunger. “I want to watch him dominate you.”

Steph blinked, turned to me, and shrugged with a hint of a smile. I stood tall, not wanting to appear meek or any less of a man in front of Kordelia but having no idea what ‘dominating’ someone really meant. After a quick breath and knowing all eyes were on me, I cast my new staff to one side and stepped forward, kissing Steph passionately and grabbing her by the ass.

“Agh, too romantic,” Kordelia said, and then grabbed Ebrill by the wrists. The latter smiled wide, into it. Kordelia turned her around, pinning her hands to the wall, and said, “Like this, and then just… do it.”

I couldn’t help but notice the way Steph watched them excitedly, so I went full into the role. Steph and Kordelia had our fun, and soon Ebrill had joined in.

“It’s time.” Kordelia said. She hesitated with a glance at me, then chuckled. “Nice,” was all she said before charging back out of there, presumably toward the roof. It was as good a place as any to fight.

We threw on our clothes and I grabbed my staff as we made our way up.

Moving the house as I went, I turned our path into a direct route up onto the roof. We emerged moments later, me with my staff at the ready. I had to be cautious with how often I called upon the Liahona, but the weapon did help me focus, and I could use it as an elemental strike weapon when needed.

Sure enough, enemies were incoming or already on the roof, waiting. Those damn runes apparently weren’t strong enough. At least the power of the building was keeping them out. In order to amp up our defenses, I set up a few wards with the “Ddogelu” spell, then called out “Tarian” a couple times to direct more defensive boosts at our team.

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Three of those winged creatures from before lunged at me and I knocked them back with an ice claw at one’s throat, saying “Elfenol Streic” to shoot lightning from my staff to take down the next two—but they kept coming! Seeing another go up in flames at Steph’s attack, I went with the flow and called out “Elfenol Streic” again to use fire next. That did the trick. These fuckers weren’t fans of flames.

Kordelia was a powerhouse, tearing through them and even ripping off one head, at least, tossing it at another and dazing the latter. Ebrill focused on defenses but used her claws more than once, while Aerona had a barrage of magic working on those trying to reach us from above. My XP was rising by the second, to the point that it was coming damn close to another level increase.

A roar sounded and the moon vanished. No, not vanished, but was blocked out by a large creature with a massive wing-span. A griffon!

The griffon charged right through the magic, seemingly impervious, and clawed at Kordelia. Next to that thing, she looked downright tiny. I struck with my elemental strike, but the magic attacks only seemed to fuel the beast. As Kordelia struggled to not be torn apart, Ebrill hit her with healing spells fast enough to at least keep her in one piece. Steph’s wraith knights charged the griffon, but they seemed to run right through it, vanishing on impact.

“What is that thing?” I shouted

Aerona turned to me with eyes full of worry. “Glitonea—one of the Nine.”

“Fuck,” I said, horrified as the griffon slammed Kordelia with a blow that sent her flying toward the edge of the roof, only to be attacked by a handful of those other winged creatures. A second later, the same happened to Ebrill.

I wasn’t about to let another strike land, so I summoned the Liahona, called every attack spell I knew that I thought would work, and aimed with all my power. As below, the barrage of ice claws and other attacks flowed out. This time, however, the target seemed to relish the attack! Even as the griffon grunted in pain, it seemed to grow and then… was laughing?

“No!” Aerona said as I prepared a second strike.

“I have to!”

“She’ll use the magic, target Avalon—you can’t!”

Damn. If she was right, of course I couldn’t. Instead, I turned and unleashed that power on some of the minions, frying a great many of them. That little outburst shot up my XP, bringing me to level eight. A popup screen read:

Level 8 MAGE

Statistics

Strength: 24

Speed: 20

Luck: 16

Charisma: 15

Mana: 720

New Spells

Gorffwys (sleep); Frost Footing; Ice Wall; Ice Claw; Frost Bite; Flurries; Frost Remnant

New Magic Type

Access to Avalon

“I have an idea,” I said, remembering that I wanted to try that Frost Remnant spell now that I’d unlocked it, but preferably when the enemy didn’t absorb magic. “Keep her off me.”

“You got it,” Steph said, summoning all of her wraith knights and sending out a barrage of fireballs while I knelt, my hand on the rooftop.

Before making my book move, I used another spell that I looked forward to trying. Using the Flurries spell, I watched with glee as a flash of snow shot out and became a snow storm that hit our enemies like a swarm of bees. Each little snowflake became active, attacking the enemy. Nothing too intense, but enough to distract the enemy long enough for my team to take the advantage and me to feel comfortable to make my move.

Hand on the stone of the roof, my attention moved down through the building, to the basement and below. Into the foundations where I’d left part of the building as a staircase. Finding a location based on feeling like this wasn’t the same as being there, but I managed to get a sense of where the rune was that had been blocked and repaired to fix the magic—now I wanted to do the opposite, though. Using the bit of the house that was acting as a stairwell, I maneuvered it over to the rune and created a blockage again.

A thud sounded and I looked up to see that Glitonea had crashed onto the rooftop. She was in human form, back arched in pain and eyes wild with confusion. She was an older, lanky woman with the sides of her otherwise purple hair shaved, the top long and pulled back into a braid. Her eyebrows arched in a fierce way that combined with the rune tattoos to give her an intimidating appearance. Purple moved along her in a way that resembled cloth rippling in the wind, only it was attached to her, almost part of her skin. Not much was left for the imagination.

My gargoyle team made quick work of the what little was left of the enemy, now turning to move in toward Glitonea. Apparently, it only took magic to wake the gargoyles, not keep them awake—since they were mobile, the blockade of magic didn’t put them back into stone. Steph didn’t have her magic or wraith knights at the moment, but the trade was clearly the right move.

Most of our magic was on pause, in exchange for Glitonea being helpless. She managed to get on all fours, then up to one knee, pointing a finger at me.

“It’s not going to work,” I said, and grinned. “You are ours now.”

Fear entered her eyes when, as I’d told her, the magic didn’t come. “H—How…?”

“My secret.” I strode over, catching her by the wrist as she sprang up and tried to strike me. “Now, we have some questions for you.”