‘In front of… everyone?’ I repeated.

Val nodded. ‘I’ll need to draw on their life forces for the ritual to work. It’s one… I’ve only done it once or twice before.’

I met Val’s gaze, asking the inevitable question with my eyes.

‘Trust me,’ she said.

I nodded. ‘I do. The others, though… Do they have to let you draw on their…’

‘Life force,’ Val finished for me. ‘No. But anyone adept with magicks will know that it’s happening.’

I paused once more. ‘OK. Get ready. I’ll warn the others; if need be, we’ll protect you.’

Val nodded her thanks, then hurried off around the room collecting supplies: dirt from a plant pot, cupped in her hands; a fallen leaf from the same plant; and a drop of her blood, sliced from the back of her forearm. She rubbed the blood upon the leaf, and then took the pile of dirt and began scattering it in a loose circle around her.

‘Gaia,’ she whispered, sat in the middle of the circle, her eyes closed, ‘lend us your power. Gaia…’

By now, she’d started to draw the attention of others in the inn—making yourself bleed and rubbing mud around the floor generally had that result—but it wasn’t until the sorcerer saw what was going on that anyone said anything.

‘I recognise this,’ Arnold said. ‘This is precisely the kind of magicks that got you expelled from Managlass.’

‘Don’t say that like you didn’t have anything to do with it,’ Val muttered, her eyes fixed on the preparation of the ritual rather than the sorcerer. ‘You could have put a stop to it. You could have—’

‘You think I could forgive Witchcraft?’

‘I think you could forgive a young woman for just using the class bestowed upon her. And I think you could’ve made others forgive it, too. You had sway at the academy. You could’ve stepped in. At the very least, you could have not told my parents.’

Arnold Orellan frowned. ‘They had a right to know. They had a witch in their house.’

‘They had a daughter in their house!’ Val roared, snapping her attention away from the dirt lines and rising to meet his gaze. ‘You say you’ve changed. Do you really regret none of it?’

Arnold swallowed, his eyes shifting from the witch and scanning the room, lingering upon Lore and the depth raider. ‘Like many, I have regrets. But I had a position to uphold—can you imagine I would still be a professor if I’d acted in the way you wanted? If I’d chosen to ignore your… If someone had found out that I had known?’

Val raised her arms as though to attack, but I could see her hands trembling.

‘If you attack me, girl, there is only one way this will—’ Arnold started, but was interrupted by a knife being placed gently upon his throat. I was as surprised as him to discover that it was my knife.

‘Enough,’ I said in the man’s ear, my voice barely above a whisper.

‘Enough?’ Arnold repeated, loudly enough that it was clear my threat hadn’t landed. ‘I think everyone in this inn has the right to know what this is. It’s witchcraft—magicks that will pull on your…’

I opened a portal beneath the sorcerer’s feet and tossed him across the room, making sure to land him upside-down.

But the damage was done; the others in the inn were already murmuring, and the barkeep’s husband in particular was scowling like he might do something.

‘You wanna know what the situation is?’ I shouted, arms raised at my sides. ‘Alright, yeah: she’s doing witchcraft. But you know what else she’s doing? Saving all your bloody lives. So if any of you so much as step towards her, I’m going to have to do something about it.’

The murmuring fell to a silence.

Lore put down the depth raider atop the bar and stepped forward. ‘And so am I,’ he said.

Arzak and Corminar stepped forward, each of them recognising that they didn’t need to say anything; the message was clear.

‘Anyone gonna try it?’ I asked.

Nobody moved, and nobody said word.

‘Good,’ I said, then look back to Val, who seemed to be trying to repress a smile. ‘Over to you, then.’

Val nodded, then looked straight forwards and closed her eyes. ‘Gaia, lend us your power. Gaia, your daughter beckons. Gaia, lend us your…’ The prayer repeated over and over, Val’s words beginning to echo as though her voice was joined by an unseen choir. It took me a moment to realise that we were the choir—those from whom Val drew life—but only myself, Arnold, and two of the elven diplomats seemed conscious enough to realise.

‘She must stop,’ the sorcerer cried, but I whipped a hand up in front of him to stop him approaching. The older man looked at me, eyes wide. ‘She draws our souls! She will kill us all!’

‘No, she—’

A blinding green light suddenly exploded from Val, a glow hovering in the air above her. Within it, I swore I could see a figure—one that the witch was talking to—but I couldn’t focus enough to make her out.

* * *

I woke up on the inn’s floor, stirring at apparently roughly the same time as everyone else. Humans, elves and orcs alike murmured groggily as they stumbled back to their feet. Val grabbed me by the arm, helping me up. ‘How you feeling?’

‘Weak. What did you—’

‘It’ll pass. Give it a moment.’

I caught sight of my beer, still half-drunk, on the table next to me, and I took a swig.

‘Yes, that’ll help,’ Val said, and I had no idea if she was being sarcastic or not.

‘How long we were out?’

‘About thirty seconds,’ she said, and I turned to look at her. I was surprised—funnily enough—to find her eyes had turned bright green, and a vivid green flame burned around her forearms. The flames didn’t seem to hurt her, or me, for that matter.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

‘I take it it worked, then?’

‘For now. I was granted the strength we need, but… we only have a few minutes.’

I turned to Lore and Corminar, the former helping the latter up. ‘You hear that? We—’

‘We hear,’ Arzak said, from another corner of the room. She took a deep breath, gathering and composing herself. ‘We ready.’ She moved over to the door and reached for her blades, which were still wedged in front of the upturned table.

‘Are we?’ I asked, still finding myself a tad weak, though it was fading with every moment that passed, as Val had said it would.

Corminar and Lore shuffled over to the door, taking deep breaths of their own, then looked to Val and me to join them.

‘Alright, I guess we are.’

‘You’re opening the door?’ the barkeep called out. ‘But they’ll—’

‘It’s now or never. We fight now, or we’re trapped in here for good.’

At Val’s words, and her stony expression, the woman put up no more protest.

‘Alright,’ I said, nodding to Arzak. ‘Do it.’

The orcish woman pulled her swords free of the floor, and then—with Lore’s help—picked up the table and tossed it into a corner.

Arzak turned next to Val, asking a question through the medium of raised eyebrows.

‘Do it,’ Val said, and the flames engulfing her arms roared brighter.

The orc flung the door open, revealing the group of merfolk standing evenly spaced apart, their dark eyes reflecting the low light spilling out from the inn.

There was a moment of silence as each side of the inevitable fight stared one another down, and then Val roared. She charged towards the group of merfolk and whipped her glowing arms out, blasting them with her granted magicks. The creatures hissed and squealed as water evaporated from their skin like in a pan over a hot flame, but it didn’t kill them. When Val’s borrowed magicks were exhausted—as evidenced by the flames dying—all twelve of the merfolk were still standing.

‘A little more than two each, by my count,’ Corminar said, and then he raised his bow. This time, when he fired, the arrow ripped flesh apart for good.

What followed was a web of chaos, and I could only just about follow my own role in this fight, let alone that of the other’s. But merfolk were dropping left, right and centre, and with the enemy in their weakened states, none of my friends seemed to be taking any meaningful damage.

When the first arrow hit, I hadn’t wasted any time in launching an attack of my own. I portaled myself and Arzak into the air, and we tumbled down onto the merfolk at the rear—Arzak using her strength, me using the broken line of sight to activate my Stealth Attack passive. I didn’t kill the first merfolk in one hit, but each Slice that followed did ample enough damage that I could kill it before it hurt me. And what with my Mana-Fueled ability, I was draining Mana instead of Stamina to do it.

I hopped through a portal as this enemy fell and landed behind another. Val blasted it with her wind magicks as I Stabbed it from behind, forcing my blade deeper than it would have gone otherwise. My knife got wedged in the creature’s flesh, and I gave it a yank but still it didn’t budge.

‘Styk,’ Val said, nodding to the ground. I opened a portal beneath her feet and its partner above the enemy’s head, and she landed with her feet on its shoulder. The force of the impact freed my blade and killed the creature in the same move, and I spun on the spot just in time to block the swipe of another enemy behind me.

I stumbled into Lore’s back, and the merman charged in for another attack. I couldn’t duck, because that would have made Lore vulnerable, so instead I portaled the both of us through the floor and three paces to one side. The two merfolk collided with one another, and turned, swinging his heavy blade to cleave through the both of them in one hit.

‘Styk!’ Corminar cried out, and I turned just in time to avoid one of his arrows, which whizzed past my ear and into the head of another enemy at my side. The creature hissed, but didn’t die at this damage, and I launched it into the air with another portal. Corminar fired another arrow which hit the creature in the air, and the fading cry indicated that it had been a fatal hit.

I turned to see Arzak surrounded by most of the remaining merfolk, and even with two blades, she couldn’t kill all of them. Two of them pressed into her, their snarling, toothy mouths snapping at her face, and she was unable to swipe at them with her blades. I charged towards her, Stabbing my knife into her back, and then at the last second activating my Closed Reach ability to make the blade pass through her. The creatures on the other side cried and hissed, stumbling backwards from my blade and giving Arzak enough room to attack them with hers.

As those two merfolk fell, the orc and I turned to see Val and Lore finish off the last of them. It was over.

6x merfolk defeated!

Knifework — +3,750xp

Knifework increased to level 28!

Base Points Gained — +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)

Level up!

You increased to level 14!

Worldbending — +5,200xp

Worldbending increased to level 32!

Base Points gained — +2 INT, +2 Free Points (INT/WIS/CHA)

Stealth — +950xp

Stealth increased to level 15!

Base Points gained — +1 DEX, +1 WIS, +2 Free Points (DEX/WIS)

Ability selection unlocked

…

‘Nice,’ I said.

"Styk"

Level 14 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 32

Intelligence — 130

Dexterity — 69

Strength — 63

Wisdom — 48

Charisma — 29

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 32

Knifework — Level 28

Stealth — Level 15

Needlework — Level 12

Identification — Level 10

Abilities:

Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Stab II — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 20%.

Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Stealth Attack — Passive. 50% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +900%