As the team ambled back into the inn to the applause of those who’d been cowering inside, I—naturally—turned my attention to the ability screen. It was one of those great days, where you get to choose a new one. Was there ever anything better than that feeling? And that it was Stealth too was excellent, because I’d really been focusing on levelling up that skill of late.

Ability selection unlocked

Select an ability from the list below:

Option 1: Identify Traps (Stealth) — Search for traps in area—

Shouting erupting around me distracted me from the ability selection notifications, and I was forced to minimise them once more. It was Lore—a typically unfrazzled man—who was shouting, his hands on his head in distress.

‘He’s gone! He’s gone!’ he cried.

‘Who’s…’ I started, and then my eyes darting to the spot on the bar where the depth raider’s cage had been.

‘Where is it?’ Corminar demanded. He turned his attention to Urlwan. ‘Who took it? You must have seen.’

‘I… I… My attention was on you. My attention was on the fight. Whoever stole your creature…’

‘They must’ve taken advantage of the distraction,’ the barkeep said. ‘We was all watching you.’

Arzak stepped forward, into the centre of the room. ‘Who?’ she shouted. ‘Tell now and we not kill.’ Even under her snarl, the culprit didn’t reveal themselves, and the inn went quieter than it had been even with the merfolk on the doorstep.

And in that quietness, we heard a gentle whimpering noise. A noise emerging from Arnold Orellan’s robe. Countless faces turned to him.

The sorcerer held up his hands to protest his innocence. ‘Don’t look at me, chaps, I…’ he started, but trailed off when he realised the jig was up. ‘Aw, hells,’ he muttered, and then he flung his hands to the wall behind him and summoned a huge blast of fire magicks to blow a hole in it.

‘You,’ Val spat, stepping forward as the dust settled, finding Arnold halfway out the new exit he’d created. ‘You would sink so low as to steal?’

I thought about protesting that particular question; I’d made a decent career out of stealing, in a previous life.

‘Is it stealing to take from you that which does not belong to you?’ the professor of Managlass responded. ‘You should not have such a rare creature. It belongs with me—with the Academy. We must study it, for the benefit of future students, and future generations. That is what matters, not the schemes of a witch and her depraved friends.’

‘You never had any intentions of making amends, did you?’ Val asked. ‘You lied, just so you could figure out a way to steal the—’

‘At last she catches up.’ The professor smiled, or smirked, rather. ‘It takes a particular brand of naivete to have been convinced of my intentions so quickly. Did you really think that I, a high sorcerer at the great Managlass Academy, would lower myself to socialise with a witch? To forgive her of her sins? I could barely bring myself to speak with you, woman.’

I took an unconscious step forward. ‘Oh yeah? And what sins are they?’ I put a hand to my dagger, and prepared to fling the other forward to open a portal behind him.

The professor took one look at me, and at my knife, then raised an eyebrow. ‘Please. Don’t tell me you intend to fight me. What was it I saw, Worldbending magicks? And you intend to use those up against a Sorcerer? Do you really think you would stand a chance?’

‘It ain’t just Worldbending though, is it?’ Lore said, unsheathing his only recently sheathed great sword.

‘Oh, and a sword. Whatever will I do?’

Arzak stepped forward, raising her weapons. ‘Three sword.’

Finally, it was Corminar’s turn. ‘And a—’ he started, but was cut off by Arnold suddenly raising a hand and sending a ball of ice magicks blasting into Corminar’s chest. He flew across the room and landed hard on top of a table, with Urlwan and the other elves rushing to his aid.

Arnold Orellan turned and ran.

I opened a portal through which Val and I—and later the other three members of the Slayers—jumped onto the cold, hard mud of the desolate, deforested plains outside. Ahead, I saw Arnold summon a sheet of ice which floated ahead of him and slightly to one side, positioned so that the reflect gave him a clear view of his pursuers. Of us.

Glancing back—having no handy summoned ice sheet of my own—to check that we were all through the portal, I opted to close it, then opened another pair that would land us just in front of the sorcerer.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

But as it opened, Arnold Orellan cast a spell with an elaborate flourish of his hands—a glowing light blue ball, floating in the air, which immediately charged towards my portal. I’d thought for a moment that it meant to blast through it, hitting anyone who tried to use the portal, but instead it suddenly sprouted long, squid-like tendrils, which wrapped around the edges of the portal. Once latched on, it suddenly slammed the portal shut, and it looked like—if any of the team had reached the portal—it might have sliced through them, not obeying by the usual rules.

We had no choice, then, but to sprint faster, though with our enemy’s advanced age, we closed on him easily. At least, we would have done, if he hadn’t started lobbing orbs of dark green liquid over his shoulder. Where these spells hit the ground, the remaining foliage and tree stumps fizzled, the magicks eating away at them. Though none of the spells hit us—it almost seemed like the high sorcerer didn’t want to hit us, considering he was aiming so low—they did mean that we had to twist and turn in our pursuit, to avoid our flesh being eaten away.

Still, we grew steadily closer, Arzak and Lore closing the gap out ahead of Corminar, Val and me. I opened another portal to try and grow closer, hoping that Arnold Orellan wouldn’t realise, but the moment I cast my spell, another glowing orb sprung from the sorcerer, wrapping its tendrils around the portal before I—or anyone—had a chance to hop through. It was almost as though the sorcerer’s spell automatically triggered when my magicks were used nearby—I wasn’t going to be able to portal any time soon. It was time to change up my strategy.

Portals might have been out, but I had a whole array of Worldbending magicks in my arsenal, ones that I really didn’t get enough use out of. Some of them really weren’t useful right now—there was nothing non-sentient, non-magick-reinforced to Portal Slice through, and Arnold was hardly using enough fire magicks that Ash Husk was relevant, but then… there were other abilities that maybe just seemed irrelevant.

Like Shrill Perimeter.

I already knew there was an enemy nearby—the alarm itself wasn’t exactly useful right now—but the noise was. I flung both hands forward and summon a 20-foot glowing circle around Arnold. Being adept in magicks, this circle would have been visible for him, but in this circumstance it didn’t matter. Because the sorcerer had ill intent, the system immediately recognised him as an enemy, and the spell immediately triggered.

The shriek of a banshee echoed across this desolate plain of wood stumps and low hills, but nowhere would it have been louder than in its very centre. Where Arnold Orellan was.

In surprise, he whipped his hands to his ears, covering them, shielding them from the noise, and he stopped his casting in the process. This allowed the charging Arzak and Lore to grow closer to him without risk of being hit by spells, but it had another consequence that I hadn’t intended.

The depth raider—apparently incensed by the noise—hopped from the pocket of Arnold’s robe, landing on the hard, cool mud, and began to bounce away from him. Or rather, it bounced towards Lore.

I released the spell—it had done its job, and I got the impression that I needed to save mana, as this could be a long fight.

‘No!’ the high sorcerer shouted, turning to reach down and scoop the creature up once more. It squealed—an eerie, bone-shaking, spine-crawling noise. Arnold Orellan stopped, spinning on the spot, and the intensity of the rage of his face was enough to encourage Arzak and Lore to a halt, as though fearful of what he’d release next.

And, it would turn out, they were right to.

‘Enough of this,’ the high sorcerer spat. ‘I fled so that I would not need to harm innocents, but I think we’re well past that.’ The man pushed the depth raider back into his coat’s pocket, then raised both hands at his sides.

As he began to float in the air, balls of magick appearing from nothing, spinning around him, I began to wonder if we hadn’t bitten off more than we could chew.

And then the pain began.

"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%