‘They catching up!’ Arzak shouted.

A breeze had picked up while we were fleeing the cult, whipping up the loose top layer of sands and forcing us to shield our eyes. Only Raelas and Tokas didn’t seem to bother, though whether this was due to a difference in tiefling biology, or because they thought they deserved to suffer a little to make up for past sins, I did not know.

Behind us, the cultists really were gaining on us. We’d been travelling for days by foot, under the heat of the desert sun, so we weren’t exactly rested. The cultists, however, had access to horses and carriages; perhaps Yusef had chosen those most rested for the job of springing this trap on us.

‘I know!’ Val shouted back to Arzak, then added to me, ‘Sure there’s no way to get those portals working?’ She summoned a gust of wind to cut a path in the light sandstorm.

‘Not while the spellwarper is still alive!’ I cried. Looking back once more at the group of pursuers, I searched for the woman in question. She was easily identifiable from the three purple glowing orbs hovering around her, and I soon spotted her towards the rear of the group. Protected by her fellow cultists. These cultists didn’t seem to just be protecting the spellwarper from us, but from Lillya too; they’d sensed that her loyalties were split somewhat, that she couldn’t be trusted.

I saw another familiar face near the spellwarper, shouting something into her ear. A face that I increasingly wanted to punch with every encounter we had.

‘Of course Ted’s still alive,’ I grumbled. I’d lost track of him in the confusion of the fight, but clearly he’d been standing back and letting his new friends do the heavylifting. Classic Ted. It occurred to me then that this was how the spellwarper had been so on it with us; Ted had been warning her what abilities we had. In particular, he already knew about the portals, and so cutting off our means of escape was easy.

I was conscious that I had a Knifework ability selection available to me, and though it seemed a long shot, there was a small chance that it could help. Keeping one eye on the shifting sands ahead of me, I opened up the notifications.

Ability selection unlocked

Select an ability from the list below:

Option 1: Dual Wield (Knifework) — Passive. You can now use a dagger in each hand with equal ability. Ability level is copied from dominant hand to non-dominant hand.

I’d had this option available just five levels ago, on my previous ability selection screen, and so it was probably no surprise that it wasn’t yet upgraded. At the time, I’d chosen to upgrade my Execution ability, which made sense considering the Stealth element to my build, but even at the time I’d been hard-pressed not to select this new passive.

Option 2: Parlour Tricks II (Knifework) — Impress others with a wide variety of knife-related parlour tricks, including five-finger fillet and blind throws. Has a very high chance of success, scaling further with [CHA].

Loose sand gave way beneath me and I stumbled towards the ground. Val slowed just enough to help me back to my feet.

‘Thanks.’

‘No problem,’ the witch said, sparing another glance for our pursuers.

I could quickly rule out the Parlour Tricks ability, even at this higher rank. I needed something for combat right about now, and I think even just generally, the time for parlour tricks was behind me; I had much bigger fish to fry these days than impressing women in taverns. There was only only more option.

Option 3: Throw III (Knifework) — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].

I couldn’t help but feel that my list of abilities was starting to get a little out of control. I’d intended to keep my build tall, rather than wide, this time around, and yet here I was with three new options in front of me, and no option to upgrade an existing ability.

Still, though, they were good options. Dual Wield was a solid option always, and I’d been missing Throw from my previous life. Sure, I could still throw knives even without an appropriate ability, but they missed far more often than they hit. With this, I could have a realistic expectation of throwing knives to actually do damage… and not just to disarm myself.

Considering that right now we were fleeing for our lives, I had to choose the ability that stood most chance of getting us out of this mess. Dual Wield might have been good if I’d had a second knife on hand, but as it was…

Ability unlocked — Throw III

Throw III (Knifework) — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].

I felt the innate knowledge and capability flow through me, and a big part of me wanted to try this out immediately. But, still, I only had the one blade at the moment, and I’d have to portal it back to me. Not something that was easy to do while running away.

‘What’re you grinning about?’ Val asked me. ‘I don’t see what’s so—’ She stopped herself. ‘Oh. New ability? Something to get us out of this?’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

‘Throwing knives,’ I said.

‘So… no, then.’ I would have been annoyed, but she smiled, gently, as she said it.

‘They catching up more!’ Arzak reiterated, her voice straining. ‘Now time for plan.’ She glanced at me.

‘Not sure I have one.’

‘You not have one then we die.’

I nodded. ‘I’ll think.’ I really had become the “man with a plan”.

What could we do? We couldn’t portal away, that much was clear. And if we kept running, it was only a matter of time before the charging cultists caught up. By then, we’d also be weaker, and less able to withstand a fight. It felt like we were trapped, like we—

I roared with pain and sank to the ground. An arrow had pierced my shoulder, entering at the back and its head sticking halfway out at the front. Again, Val stopped to pull me up to my feet again, this time her eyes wide with concern… and on the arrowhead.

‘I—’ I started.

‘Keep running!’ she shouted, practically pulling me with her.

I did my best, but as the blood poured from the fresh wound, I felt my legs growing weaker, my vision beginning to darken around the edges. ‘Val, I…’

The witch glanced at me, and from that look, she understood the rest of the sentence. ‘Keep running!’ she cried, though she kept her own eyes fixed on the arrow. ‘I’m going to have to pull it through. Ready?’

Before I could answer, she yanked.

The pain erupted something fierce, and I stumbled to the ground once more. Val quickly yanked me back up to my feet for a third time before beginning to work her healing magicks. ‘Poisoned…’ she mumbled.

‘You can’t fix it?’

‘I can. It’ll just take longer.’

‘I don’t think we have longer.’ I didn’t need to risk a glance back over my shoulder to know that this was true. Another couple of arrows had soared passed us since the first, but they were getting closer with every moment. Val said nothing, continuing to heal my wound as best she could as we ran.

Behind, I heard Lillya shouting to her fellow cultists, her voice strained and desperate. ‘Stop!’ she roared. ‘Stop arrow! He spawn of Player!’

I think we all knew by that point that this line of negotiation had lost its power. Her fellow cultists didn’t believe her. Not one but two Players had ordered the deaths of me and the other Slayers, and why would they want one of their own dead? To those in the Cult of Ascendancy, who thought in such black and white terms, it didn’t make sense. Nothing would convince them of it now.

And at that moment, Arzak’s much-requested plan came to me. I didn’t know that it would work, but I had to try it. So these cultists didn’t believe that I had the blood of the gods flowing through me? Fine. Why don’t I prove it?

I halted mid-stride, Val’s eyes bulging, the rest of the Slayers continuing to run. I grabbed the octahedron that was hanging around my neck, thrust it into the air, and turned to face down our pursuers.

‘Do you know what this is?’ I roared.

This was the riskiest part of the plan; if I didn’t pique their curiosities then they’d probably just kill me right then and there. As it was, though, the two dozen cultists stumbled to a halt… but didn’t lower their weapons.

‘Styk, I…’ Val started, but I hushed her with a glance. Up ahead, my friends had just started realising they’d left Val and I behind. To their credit, they stopped pretty quickly.

‘Artifact of ancients,’ Lillya said, more to her fellow cultists than to me. ‘Sisyphus Artifact.’ She sought out a woman in the crowd. ‘Hualya, you remember? Months ago, Yusef mention it? Say it belong with Council? Say it meant for Players?’

One of the cultists—thankfully one that we hadn’t already killed—stepped forth from the crowd. ‘I… remember. Yes. Sure.’

Lillya turned back to me, pointing desperately towards the device I held in the air. I tried not to let the pain in my shoulder show, gritting my teeth through it. ‘That is Sisyphus Artifact! He use it to come back to life.’

‘Twice,’ I mumbled.

‘Two and a half,’ Val corrected me, thinking of the corruption.

‘You not see?’ Lillya said. ‘He is spawn of Player.’

At that, some of the cultists lowered their weapons.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 52

Intelligence — 227

Dexterity — 137

Strength — 82

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 50

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 61

Knifework — Level 45

Stealth — Level 26

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

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 III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% 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].

Throw III — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

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.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% 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].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

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

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

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%