Dalric couldn't sense it, at all. He couldn't even feel it in his head, but his hand definitely just hit something.

He immediately plucked it out.

The difference was subtle, but instant. He couldn’t quite say his mind was clouded before, but certain emotions were clearly more distant than they were now. His blood lust, for one, no longer dimmed in the face of the slavers. Blood Hunter was clearer too. Much clearer. He could actually feel its presence within his own thoughts rather than just touching the edges.

He stared down into his hand, but even though he knew a thin object sat in his palm none of his senses picked it up. He could only stare at the inside of his gauntlet.

What are you? Are you still clouding my mind?

He had drawn his lightning away from it, unsure of what the consequence of their meeting would be, but if it was still somehow messing with him then the black streaks were the best counter he had at the moment.

Blackness flooded his palm. For the briefest of moments, whatever was in his hand attempted to disform and distort the surging streaks. It didn't work. Instead, the shard lost its protections and came into Dalric’s view.

He blinked. It was a Jester’s Shard.

The thin, iridescent, frame would have been recognizable on its own, but now that it was no longer shrouded from his senses he could feel its function. Jester’s Shards were potent tools. They not only adjusted brain chemistry to heavily amplify or weaken certain emotions, they also manipulated ahjer to refine that process and guarantee they worked on whoever they were used on, regardless of their personal power.

They were never dangerous though. Placing a shard in someone’s head was not enough to gain access to their ahjer. That access had to be given. Even if one was tricked into giving it, the way they distorted and mangled ahjer was as subtle as quadruple amputation. They would easily be noticed and removed.

Jester’s Shards’ name spoke to their use, party pieces. More often used as a substitute for alcohol or as an aphrodisiac, they were far from anything that could be considered a weapon.

Someone had changed that.

Someone had made their weaknesses moot. Someone had made them near impossible to detect. Someone had made them dangerous. Dalric looked over his shoulder. He had indeed stumbled upon a person, a potential someone, who knew how to make himself impossible to sense. That person also happened to be the first person he came in contact with.

"Well. Well. Well."

This would explain the presence of lucyberries, but what of the drug...

The Jester’s Shard opened the doors to a number of new questions, but it also answered the most important one he had right now. He may have been tired, sore, and running out of ahjer, but he hadn’t lost his mind. It had just been tampered with.

Just.

There was no just about that, but he framed it as such to not lose focus. Now that his mind was clear, he could finally finish off this unnecessarily long dance. Then, then there would be answers.

He coiled some lightning around the shard and attached it to the back of his hand. There were no pockets in or on his armor and he didn’t feel like carrying it in his palm.

Once he made sure it was secure he turned his attention back to the four in front of him, this time with murder firmly on his mind. Blood Hunter howled with glee. In theory, without the strange sword in play, Thunderfield was freed to be an offensive option. He could use a spell instead of the halberd, but he had maybe two more uses before he depleted his ahjer. That was a needlessly dicey trade considering it was his only real defence at the moment.

He charged instead.

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A large blazewurm burst through the ground to meet him. The conjurer had apparently completed their spell while he debated. Smaller than the whale’s mouth, it appeared ceiling to floor, but not quite cell to cell. In any case, its mouth was still large enough to swallow him whole. It also spat liquid fire. The stream of burning liquid sizzled through the air as it spread across the hall.

Blood Hunter swung across his upper body, once more leaving a trail of static. The section of the stream that rushed toward his head passed through it and splashed his face like a refreshing bath. The rest of the red water burned away against his lightning covering, immediately proving his decision wise.

It continued to spray him, repeatedly dousing him in what amounted to tepid showers, but doing little else. The true nuisance of a powerful blazewurm came from the oil-like coating on their skin. When they set it ablaze, it acted much like the lighting that covered Dalric now. It ‘burned’ ahjer. This one couldn’t do that though.

Dalric didn’t bother getting close enough to it to disintegrate it. He hurled his halberd at the source of the stream. It managed to shut its mouth before it reached it, but its outer skin was no more protective than its insides. Blood Hunter pierced through its entire body regardless, breaking its form. The weapon hastily flew back into his grip as he ran past the diffusing ahjer, unsatisfied with killing a mere conjuration. It called for real blood.

It would have its wish. He’d crossed into the conjurer's cocoon again.

They had made themselves some new tools while they waited for him. The fire one wielded a long spear and small shield while the one armed one had a single massive shield that covered their entire body up to their nose. They both realized running with swords wouldn’t cut it. The spear and shield routine wouldn’t cut it either.

Dalric met the spear first. The tip of it thrusted toward his eye. He scoffed as he purposely shifted his forehead into its path, headbutting it. Even without any lightning covering his face, all it took was some light strengthening of the skin to render a poorly conjured weapon completely harmless.

Stunned by the move, the man wasn't prepared for Dalric to swiftly grab the shaft of the spear and yank it. He wisely let go this time, but not before being pulled slightly off balance.

Dalric quickly empowered the simple spear he’d stolen and swung for the head. The swordsman turned spearman turned shieldbearer scrambled to raise said shield as the back side of his own spear barreled towards him. It batted him into the bars once more, cracking his mask further. The shield dissipated from the impact, but the spear didn’t. Dalric batted him again.

The second impact gave off a satisfying thwop sound as the man's head flew to the side and his body went limp. He unceremoniously crashed to the floor thereafter. If he died from the hit, oh well. If he lived, Dalric had a number of questions about his weapon. He wasn’t perturbed either way. The rest of them wouldn’t be left to chance though.

The one armed one hadn’t moved. Whether by design, slow reflexes, or fear, they held their position while Dalric easily dealt with their companion. They were now all that stood between him and the two summoners who seemed to be getting close to completing their summoning spell. They had upped the amount of ahjer the poured into it, likely a result of witnessing Dalric’s strength, but the difference wouldn’t do much help.

In a similar vein, their one armed protector wouldn’t do much to help them either. Though their shield covered most of their body, Dalric was three feet taller than them. His angle of attack was alway going to be the head.

Blood Hunter slashed towards their eyes. He kept his speed brisk without being too fast to react to. They did so comfortably, deftly repositioning their massive shield to block him. In the end however, there was nothing to block. Millimeters before colliding, Dalric changed trajectory and raised the halberd up. With their eyes covered they only just glimpsed its tip over the edge of their shield. By that point, it was too late.

The halberd fell right over the top, effortlessly splitting their head down the middle. Their helmet offered no protection. The long blade of Blood Hunter sliced through it with ease on its way into their skull. It revelled in all the blood it found, cackling as it reaped another life.

Dalric ignored its glee and calmly removed it from the brain matter. He almost preferred it when the shard subdued his connection to it. Almost.

Done with the ones sent to delay him, he eyed the summoners who looked back at him in terror. If they weren’t so close to completion they’d likely have given up on the summoning and fought another way, but at this point they’d put so much ahjer into it even if they cancelled it they’d be severely weakened. Whichever path they chose, they’d be sitting ducks right now either way.

Dalric played around with the idea of letting them complete it, just to see their face when their final hope was dashed by a simple swing of his halberd. He decided against it though, no need sowing despair in people he’d just kill anyway.

So he killed them, simply and cleanly. They didn’t do much to resist. Removing their heads from their bodies proved the simplest part of his dash over. As a nice bonus at the end it, he managed to absorb a good amount of the ahjer they poured into the summoning spell. It didn’t come close to making up for the amount he wasted, but it was a nice little bump.

Finally done with the reinforcements, he picked up the possibly dead swordsman-conjurer and walked back to the original two. He unsummoned Blood Hunter along the way, it was beginning to crave the slaves’ blood as well, and replaced it with the enchanted blade he confiscated. The Jester’s Shard spun between his fingers as he guessed which emotions it heightened and which it dampened. It clearly dampened his desire to kill, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it heightened.

By the time he reached the dark skin man he’d first spoken to, the man was cowering in the corner.

“Please! I swear it! I swear on my life I’m just security!”

Dalric tilted his head, “Well, that could be true. But.” He showed the man the Jester’s Shard, “How would you explain this part?”