Niamh pulled her bow from her shoulder, though she still snarled down at her broken traps. ‘A rare treat, I suppose, to be able to indulge in the more primitive skill trees.’

Before she could draw her bow, the four of us charged across the deck, bringing the fight once more. I opened a portal beneath Lore, as the slowest of us, to close the gap between him and the enemy—which also meant that the person able to withstand the most damage was at the front. As Lore began to swing the Bane Sword at the enemy, Elandor loosed arrow after arrow at Niamh, while Val preemptively started her Healing magicks.

Niamh blocked the swipes of Lore’s sword not just with ease, but using her bow, of all things—though the glowing wood was another giveaway that something magick was at play here. The limbs of her bow blocked the Bane Sword’s strikes without suffering any chips to the wood, and not only that, but the bow seemed to push back against the sheer force of Lore’s attacks, meaning that Niamh didn’t need to put her body weight behind the blocks.

Sigils shattered in the air around her as Niamh’s enchanted traps blocked shot after shot of Elandor’s arrow, these being the only traps left that Val’s roots couldn’t destroy. But she surely had to have a limited supply, right? Either she had manually made them all, or they were powered by mana—either way, there had to be an end to them.

We just had to live that long.

I leaped into the air, knife raised above my head in two hands, and I moved to Stab down with it—but Niamh batted me out of the way with the swipe of her hand. I landed on the hard wooden deck, tumbling head over heels.

‘Don’t you see?’ Niamh said through clenched teeth, the fight apparently not quite as simple as she’d maybe imagined. ‘You are mice to me. Rodents. Vermin. Barely worth the effort it takes to kill you. I offered you mercy before out of the kindness of my own heart—but I treat such creature with respect only while they do not stand in the way of progress.’

‘Oh yeah?’ I said, stumbling back to my feet. ‘And just what is this “progress”, then?’

‘You think I would divulge the Council’s plans so easily? Perhaps you are a fool after all.’

‘He is,’ Val said, ‘but I’m not.’ At that moment, she leaped over Lore’s shoulder, putting a foot on his back to get purchase as she jumped into the air. She landed on the Player’s back, grasping on to the woman’s neck for dear life, and she screamed with fury as she sent lightning magicks into the real Niamh, this time.

Another sigil activated, sending Val’s magicks shooting back through the witch’s body. She screamed her head off, but still she hanged on for dear life, pushing the magicks back into the enemy. Niamh screamed too, then, and this was just the opening that Lore needed to land a swipe of his blade.

Lore nicked Niamh, a spray of blood whipping across the deck. Niamh screeched further, ripping Val from her back with her bare hand and throwing her away. The damage didn’t last long, because one of Niamh’s sigils activated, and a glowing yellow-white light encompassed the wound in her side. But it was evidence that she could be hurt. And if she could be hurt, she could be killed.

It was the morale boost we needed.

As Val, Lore and I charged once more, Niamh fired an arrow towards the barbarian. In mid-air, the arrow split into ten, and the arrows’ trajectories changed to tear off towards each of the Slayers—honorary or otherwise. And if that wasn’t enough, they suddenly erupted with magicks of all kinds, shapes and colours.

Lore was hit first, taking the arrows to his chiselled torso, flame encompassing his left side while a dark corruption took his right. Val leaped to heal him, and in doing so avoided the two arrows sent her way, just about. Meanwhile, I opened a portal beneath me and allowed myself to drop through it and out of danger—but Elandor wasn’t so lucky.

The leader of the Tundran Red Thorn took three hits—one arrow that dealt frost damage to his legs, another which made his eyes glow with the red of Illusion magicks, and one more: a plain old arrow crafted from the finest of metals. This one hit him in the neck.

Elandor staggered backwards, eyes bulging, clasping his wound to stop the blood flowing as best he could.

‘Val!’ I shouted, but she was busy Healing Lore’s wounds, so instead I portalled myself to the elf’s side. I yanked my one and only remaining health potion from my pocket, pulled the cork free, and forced it down Elandor’s throat, closing the man’s jaw with my hands. He coughed and gulped, but it did the work. At least, enough to ensure the damage from the arrows only knocked him out, rather than kill him outright.

We were down to three.

Val had Lore standing back up, the worst of the enchanted arrows’ effected now faded, though he was still looking a little worse for wear.

‘How do we beat this?’ I shouted to her. ‘We don’t know what’s coming next!’

‘Indeed you don’t,’ Niamh agreed, and fired another three arrows at once. Again, these arrows changed direction in mid-air—one of them shooting towards each of us. I opened another portal to avoid the shot, but too late I realised that the arrow wasn’t aiming directly for me. As I was about to fall through the portal, the arrow exploded in a blaze of blue, forming a pillar of light from which…

I couldn’t move out.

I glanced around at my two remaining friends, and saw that they, too, were caught by Niamh’s latest trick up her sleeve. I tried to pull myself free, but the magick pulled back, meeting any force I used with an even greater force. I tried to cut through the pillar of light with my knife, but it made no difference. I tried to Portal Slice my way out of it, and then simply open a portal to get out… but neither worked. Looking across the deck, I saw Niamh, her eyes on Val, taking her time as she approached the witch, as though savouring the moment. I saw Val, struggling against the trap, but having about as much luck as me.

And then I saw Lore. Big, lovely, strong Lore.

Lore was having much more luck. He strained against the pillar of light, pushing himself to one side, and then part way out of it. But as he strained, he was grunting, and any moment now he could grunt loud enough to attract the distracted Player’s attention.

So it was at this moment that I got to use my most recently acquired ability. I pushed an arm forward as much as I could, but couldn’t outstretch it within the confines of this trap. But when Val had taught me the basics of magicks, she’d told me to use my arms to control the aim of the magicks—she had said explicitly that they weren’t required.

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I twisted my hand to point roughly towards Lore, doing the best that I could, but then… I closed my eyes. I concentrated on where I wanted the magick to go in my mind’s eye, not with my outstretched hands. I imagined it—a bubble around Lore, one that prevented any sound from escaping—and as soon as I thought I could see it, I activated Silence III.

When I opened my eyes, it was there. I couldn’t see it—this particular ability not giving off a glow of any kind—but I knew it was there. Mostly because Lore was by this point shouting, his mouth wide open, as he forced his body through the portal.

With her eyes on Val, Niamh drew a bow from her quiver.

Lore looked from Val, to me, and then back to Val again, and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from shouting at him—and drawing the Player’s attention. Finally making a decision, Lore charged across the deck towards me, then threw himself into the pillar to tackle me from it. We came rolling out the other side just as Niamh drew her arrow. I immediately opened a portal below where Lore had fallen, catapulting him towards Val.

The great barbarian collided with the witch, knocking her from the pillar trap just in time for the arrow to breeze harmlessly past the both of them.

‘The mice flee, but they cannot hope to defeat the lion,’ Niamh proclaimed.

I skirted around the fight to join Lore and Val at their side. ‘Alright,’ I told them. ‘One big push. Everything we’ve got.’

‘Everything?’ Val repeated.

‘No. Not that.’ If she did that, then chances were that one of them would be dead long before Niamh was.

‘Ready?’ Lore asked, eyes bearing into Niamh, and then without waiting for a response, he rushed her.

Val and I had no choice but to follow suit. The witch blasted Niamh with waves of air, while I reached for the water below. We’d sunk a good way by this point, the flagship now sitting a lot lower in the sea, so I didn’t need to reach far to find water. As with the Knight of the Realm and the pyroknight before her, I opened a portal to empty the contents of the sea onto Niamh. From the force, she staggered backwards, but a moment later she’d wrenched her bow forwards to hover vertically before her, the limbs of the weapon splitting and parting the water attacks.

I closed the portal a half-second before Lore reached Niamh, and he swung his Bane Sword once more, this time again managing to bury it deep in the enemy’s side.

She screamed with a combination of pain and surprise, and this time—while Healing magicks engulfed the wound once more—she snarled at Lore. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and shot it immediately into Lore’s chest.

Lightning engulfed him.

Niamh pulled another arrow, and once again she concentrated her fire on Lore. This time, his right arm twisted inhumanly… and then snapped.

I opened a portal beneath my feet, launching myself into an attack of Niamh, activating Execution alongside Stab even though she had to know I was there. I buried the knife in between her shoulders, and she howled, shaking me and the dagger loose, but didn’t stop firing arrows at Lore.

The barbarian sank to his knees as the third hit him, and bright yellow ghost-like echoes of the depth-raider appeared before him. And then, giant ghostly pillars like those we’d seen in the witchfinder village, but a hundred times their size, their spectral images bursting from the water. Only at this did Niamh suddenly stop, eyes wide, and hesitate.

‘Then it’s true…’ she said. ‘It will work. Tana’s plan will work. But…’ she looked down at Lore. ‘You will need to be there to witness it?’

She hesitated, then pushed over to Lore while Val blasted her with magick attacks—whatever that was, whatever she’d seen… it was enough to distract her from literal attempt on her life. Niamh crouched down at Lore’s side, and wrapped her hands around his head.

‘No!’ I shouted.

But Niamh didn’t attack Lore. No, quite the opposite. Whatever she had seen… whatever she had conjured with her yellow Divination magicks… It had convinced her that Lore needed to survive. A white sigil appeared on her forehead, and then traversed down one of her arms to Lore’s own head, where it activated. She wasn’t hurting him, she was healing him. Lore closed his eyes, drifting not from life, but from consciousness.

We were down to two.

I turned to Val, and I told her something with my eyes, and my eyes alone.

The woman I loved responded with a nod. She understood. She knew what needed to be done—the one thing we could count on, when all else failed.

It was time to summon the bogspawn.

"Styk"

Level 16 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 44

Intelligence — 162

Dexterity — 101

Strength — 73

Wisdom — 57

Charisma — 33

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 46

Knifework — Level 36

Stealth — Level 19

Needlework — Level 12

Identification — Level 11

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

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.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

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.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Stealth Attack II — Passive. 80% 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%