Tenebres managed to ignore how dry his mouth was, the anxiety fluttering in his stomach like a hundred dire bats, the sweat coating his palms, and the pounding of his heart. He couldn’t quite do the same for the throbbing hunger of the gift of the void, but he accepted that as an unfortunate necessity. The formulae of his prepared spells danced through his mind, distracting him from his disturbed emotions with their cold, solid logic.
The staircase that led into the fishmonger’s basement was dark enough that Tenebres considered casting a light, but short enough that he didn’t have time to actually do so. He was thankful for that, sure as he was that he’d need every scrap of mystical energy he could get for the fight to come.
The basement of Sloan’s Fishery proved to be a cold, damp cellar. The stone lining the walls and floor were wet with accumulated moisture, enough so that moss had begun to grow in a slick green coating. The cold air was rancid with salt and mildew and dead meat, thanks to what looked like hundreds of pounds of discarded fish entrails. Carcasses lay everywhere, some hanging on massive hooks dangling from the ceiling, others mounted on chilltops apparently insufficient to keep them from rotting. Over all, the cold, the stink, and the darkness left Tenebres with the disturbing sense that this is what drowning in the bay would feel like.
“Hmmm? Who’s this then?” a voice rumbled in an absent question, even as a shape at the far end of the basement turned to face them.
Sloan proved to be a corpulent mound of a man. Easily six feet tall, the necromancer’s pocked gray skin, bald head, and bloated gut left him looking more like a drowned corpse than a living person. Rather than look disturbed at the sight of two assassins entering his sanctum, the necromancer smiled, revealing a mouth with far too few yellowing, crooked teeth, and he simply moved a meaty hand. Two of the massive shark carcasses behind Sloan seemed to explode outwards in a storm of blood and chum as a hail of bone struck Geoffrey.
Or rather they struck where Geoffrey was. The assassin had reacted faster than Tenebres would’ve thought possible and dove to the side before the attack could hit him. Even as he slid across the mildewed floor, the assassin was turning, orienting himself back towards Sloan. But before he could attack the necromancer again, another nearby pile of carcasses stirred–and then a massive crab claw, larger than Tenebres’s whole body, shot out of the mess to clamp around Geoffrey’s body at the waist.
Tenebres threw up a hand, and he felt the runes carved into his arm begin to weep blood once more as he sent an enhanced force missile at the oversized pincer. His aim proved true, and the bolt of crimson energy struck the joint of the claw just before it completely closed. The impact forced the claw back open a scant inch, but that was all Geoffrey needed, and in a fluid motion Tenebres’s eyes couldn’t quite follow, the assassin pulled himself free to crouch atop the bright red mandible itself.
The pile began to shift and move, revealing the shape within: a horrifying combination of fish, man, and crab that emerged from the mound of rotting fish, but Tenebres was too distracted to examine it any more closely as Sloan turned towards him.
Acting purely on instinct, Tenebres threw up his kinetic barrier. The normally invisible disc of energy lit up, turning force to light and sound as more bone projectiles thudded into it. After a moment, the attacks paused and Tenebres dropped the shield even as he hurled another force missile. Remembering Allana’s advice to conserve his own energy, Tenebres didn’t use his blood magic to enhance the next bolt of force he threw at the necromancer, leaving it a pale blue. Sloan lifted a slab of an arm to block it, but still rocked back for a moment under the impact.
That was the moment Allana struck.
#
Allana’s patience paid off. Hiding under her veil, she had crept across the cellar in perfect silence as Geoffrey drew Sloan’s attention. She had to dodge just as much as he did when the necromancer turned two of the dangling shark corpses into explosive attacks, and when the horror had seized Geoffrey, she nearly broke the veil to save him. But Tenebres reacted quickly enough, buying the assassin precious moments even as he drew Sloan’s ire. As the fishmonger hurled another carcass worth of fish bones at Tenebres, she crept closer, and when the mage responded with his own projectile, she seized the chance her friend had given her.
Sneak Attack–Active, Attack–Make a special attack with potency increased by two tiers. Can only be used on targets unaware of your location. Lesser stamina cost.
A single lunge carried her into striking distance of the corpulent man, and her veil fell to tatters even as her daggers struck out. Her brass dagger dug a long furrow in his bicep while her iron dagger pierced his chest through his blood-stained apron–and then stopped, not even a full inch into his chest.
Allana’s eyes went wide as the man whirled on her. A butcher’s cleaver in one hand swung at her, and she couldn’t reverse momentum in time to dodge the attack. A jolt of pain exploded in her abdomen as his filthy blade parted her skin. It hit at a bad angle, the only reason it left a bloody gash in her side and sent her flying rather than carving into her guts themselves.
The grotesque necromancer’s lip twitched in a snarl, and he reached up to tug his stained apron off. Underneath was a thick pad of brown-ish blue carapace, curved around his body like a breastplate. There was a shallow nick right over his heart, where her dagger had landed but lacked the power to punch all the way through the armor. Given the potency of her Sneak Attack, the bizarre defense must have had some type of magical component to it.
“That was a mistake.” The man’s voice was as disgusting as the rest of him, thick and gurgling, like his lungs were filled with water. Allana recalled Algus’s sloughing skin and sunken eyes; the warping effects Geoffrey had described. Apparently, this man had his gift for much longer than the cadaverous Algus had, corrupting his body as much as his soul.
Allana’s entire right side of her body was ablaze with pain, but her gift of poison gave her a resilience boon, and she somehow managed to get to her feet and lift her daggers as the necromancer swung his cleaver once more. She parried the first blow, if only barely, but a shock ran through her. He was strong, and his attacks consistently targeted her wounded side. Allana was soon sure Sloan had both a strength and coordination boon, and with every moment of desperate defense, she was more and more convinced that the man was indeed an Initiate, with the enhanced attributes that came with that level.
Her only advantages were her natural speed and her own skill as she barely managed to keep the necromancer from fileting her. Just need to stay on the defensive, she reminded herself. I got him in the arm, that means my poison is working on him.
Already, she could see the edges of the wound begin to turn a sickly black and yellow as her most potent poison began to spread through Sloan’s body, but the toxin was attacking his resilience, not his more offensive attributes. Until it dragged his enhanced fortitude back to human levels, he would remain just as dangerous as ever.
A particularly brutal cut sent her thicker iron dagger, the one she had been relying on to meet his swings, flying away, and Allana knew she couldn’t afford the instant it would take to reconjure it. Her side continued to burn, sapping her strength as blood ran down her side. The cleaver rose high for another cut when a crimson bolt suddenly slammed into the man’s side, staggering him.
“GET AWAY FROM HER!”
#
Geoffrey quickly decided that things weren’t going according to plan. The skeletal horror was proving far more powerful than he had expected. The bones of the merrow servitor had been crudely attached at the waist to half a dozen long, tapered crustacean legs that matched its giant claw. And when Geoffrey did manage to close in on the horror’s main body, it turned out that the servitor’s remaining human-esque arm had been left unmodified, leaving it armed with long, jagged, dextrous claws.
Worse, the undead was clearly of moderate rank, and imbued with notable potency, judging by the way his sword seemed to slide off the bone and shell body of the monster. Geoffrey had been confident that the fishmonger had the gift of flesh, as Algus had. Not only would both his sword and Allana’s dagger be of more use against monsters with flesh and muscle, he had never considered that the exoskeletons of crabs and lobster would count as bones in the creation of a skeleton like this, expanding the capabilities of Sloan’s creations.
Geoffrey hadn’t had much chance to look back at Allana and Tenebres, but from the glimpses he had seen, it wasn’t going great for them. He needed to end this fight, and fast, but that was proving a difficult proposition.
As the giant claw hammered down on him, Geoffrey twirled to one side and struck, but he was unable to get close enough to the horror to bring his most lethal abilities. His sword struck out and snipped off another leg at the joint. That was the second limb he had managed to cripple, but it was on a different side from the first, and the hexapodal monster adapted quickly enough to the loss.
The horror quickly rotated around to face him again, and Geoffrey grimaced. He just needed to cripple the legs of one side.
The assassin frowned as he thought of something. It would take some set up, but if he could manage it…
#
“GET AWAY FROM HER!” Tenebres snarled. He lifted another hand in a harsh gesture, and sent another crimson bolt of kinetic energy at the necromancer, finally forcing the corpulent man to turn towards him and allowing Allana to vanish behind a veil.
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Tenebres felt a throb in his chest, and he was sure the fishmonger was about to use some other necromantic trick–so he didn’t give him the chance. He whirled his hand in a tight circle, and another missile of force suddenly struck Sloan on the shoulder from behind. Then another, from below him, and a third, at a right angle to the first. Then a fourth, from behind and above this time.
Formulae danced through Tenebres’s mind and blood ran in rivers down his arms as he threw more and more magic at the necromancer, never from the same place twice, always angled to avoid his thick chitinous breastplate. Each missile was little more effective than a thrown rock, but as long as he kept the barrage of magic up, the necromancer was unable to respond, unable to bring his own dark magic into the mix.
But Tenebres knew he couldn’t keep this up forever. He could feel scars opening on his shoulders and working their way down his chest as he pushed his Blood Magic farther than he ever had. But slowly, the barrage of attacks dwindled as Tenebres felt his mystical well nearing its bottom, finally giving Sloan a chance to respond. His face a rictus of hate and anger, the necromancer gestured with a closed fist, and the fish carcasses piled behind Tenebres began to move.
“Fuck!” Tenebres snarled as first one, then another skeletal arm pushed out of the pile. He was all but out of mystical energy, and his entire body seared from the pain his own magic had caused him. The boy tried to turn to face this new threat, but gasped as his body suddenly faltered. He fell to his knees, and knew that his body was too ravaged by his own magic to stand back up.
That was fine by him. His hand reached into the pouch at his waist, and he pulled out one of the vials Geoffrey had given him. The red potion within glittered with its own internal golden light. Tenebres knew it was powerful, expensive, as different from the normal healing potions he used as gloam whiskey was from watered-down swill. He smiled down at the potion, which could instantly make him whole again–then he slid it across the floor, towards the emptiest part of the cellar.
Unable to make it back to his feet, Tenebres watched as four more of the barnacle-encrusted skeletons, like those Geoffrey had dispatched upstairs, crawled free from the piles of rotting fish. The human bones were augmented by fish parts–a pair of shark jaws on one, a lobster claw on another, and so on.
There was no other choice.
Tenebres gave in to the yawning hunger in his chest.
#
Allana crawled away from the vicious necromancer as quickly as she could. Even with her enhanced resilience, the cut in her side dripped more and more blood with each passing moment, robbing of both the strength and will to keep fighting.
Slumped against the damp wall of the cellar, she watched her friends as they fought. Geoffrey danced in circles around the skeletal horror he fought, unable to land a decisive blow. Tenebres carved his body into a bleeding mess in a desperate effort to buy time. She watched both fights progress, and knew that neither would be enough. Sure enough, Tenebres’s strength soon began to flag, and Geoffrey was still unable to disengage from his own foe.
As more skeletons began to emerge, and Tenebres pulled out his futile healing potion, Allana grimaced and forced herself to her feet. The short reprieve Tenebres had given her hadn’t been enough. She was weaker than ever. Sloan would kill her within moments of her re-entering the fray. Even healed and aided by his imps, Tenebres couldn’t fight the necromancer and skeletons at the same time. Sloan and his creations had simply proven too powerful for them.
Allana knew her skillset well enough. Pain or no, she could still run. She had plenty of focus remaining for a veil, and Sloan probably wouldn’t chase her into the street. She had enough blood left in her to make it to an alchemist, she was sure. And there was every chance Geoffrey would still triumph here. But there was no chance Tenebres would survive if she ran.
Allana thought back to that alley, after she had killed Algus. She had been numb from overusing her focus, and Geoffrey had found them. But Tenebres hadn’t known who he was. He’d thought they had been caught, by the watch maybe, or by an ally of Algus they hadn’t known about. The boy could’ve run then–but he had stuck beside her, had decided to go down fighting rather than abandon her.
And for the first time in her life, Allana understood why he had done that. She knew what it was to have someone worth dying beside.
So she staggered to her feet, conjured her dagger, and prepared to go down fighting.
And then Tenebres slid his healing potion across the floor, as if he had somehow known exactly where she was.
Allana’s eyes went wide.
She had never considered that simple, even obvious, move. After a life living for herself, surviving on the streets of Lowrun, it had never once occurred to her that Tenebres could choose to ignore his pain, to bear the weight of his wounds so that she could be healed.
Allana lunged for the potion, and the fight continued around her.
#
Void Invocation activated
Stamina attribute sacrificed
Minor fiend Red Imp successfully invoked
Kill the skeletons, Tenebres ordered the imp as it appeared. He felt a surge of malicious glee from the diminutive fiend, and it howled with delight as it breathed a gout of flames at the skeletons. Tenebres turned to face Sloan briefly, and concentrated again.
Void Invocation activated
Coordination attribute sacrificed
Minor fiend Tentacular Fright successfully invoked
The small ball of writhing, knotted tentacles appeared in front of Sloan, and Tenebres didn’t need to give it any orders as it did what it did best. Tentacles shot out, coiling around the fishmonger’s arms and legs, binding him even as Allana’s wound healed.
Void Invocation activated
Strength attribute sacrificed
Minor fiend Green Imp successfully invoked
Void Invocation activated
Speed attribute sacrificed
Minor fiend Blue Imp successfully invoked
Break the bones, he ordered the two new imps. The undersized demons shouted their own cackles of hateful glee and lunged forward to help their red counterpart. Tenebres knew the imps couldn’t kill the skeletons alone, any more than the fright could occupy Sloan for more than a moment, but if there was one thing he had learned while training with Geoffrey and Allana, it was that a moment was everything to an assassin.
His arm felt weak and filled with lead as he reached back into his belt pouch. Every motion of movement was pure agony, but with his speed, stamina, strength, and coordination all drained, he couldn’t move any faster.
Note to self, Tenebres reflected, next time, take out the restoration potion before invoking.
#
Allana watched as Sloan forced his slab of an arm up despite the tentacle fiend’s interference, and an awkward cut severed the tentacles keeping him from swinging his cleaver cleanly. That done, he made short work of the minor fiend, but he wasted precious moments turning it to calamari. As the euphoric relief of the healing potion sang through Allana, she could feel the odd itching sensation of her flesh knitting itself back together. With each moment she felt stronger, as the potion worked to replenish her lost blood.
By the time Sloan finished with the tentacle ball, Allana was fully healed. The corpulent necromancer looked around, hate in his eyes as he hunted for her, but Allana had already refreshed her veil as she healed. In his confusion, it was simple enough to land another Sneak Attack–and this time, neither blow was wasted. Her daggers avoided his armor, and even as one blade carved into his meaty thigh, the other dug into his shoulder, on the same side she had cut him earlier. The fishmonger brought his cleaver to bear quickly enough, but this time, things were different.
Wounded and now with even more poison in his system, Sloan was growing weaker with every passing moment, while Allana was as healthy as she had been at the start, now able to leverage her superior skill against the lumbering Initiate. Sure, she had a rapidly swelling headache from her draining focus, and her second Sneak Attack had only delivered her weakest poison, as she had all but drained her quintessence pool, but she was in control now, and it was just a matter of waiting for the poison to do its work and the boys to finish their fights.
#
By the time Tenebres managed to drink the restoration potion, the blue imp had been torn apart and the red imp was on its last legs. Between them, they had managed to take down one of the mangled skeletons, but the green imp was now outnumbered three-to-one.
Still, they had done their job. The restoration potion went to work instantly, and while the pain of Tenebres’s wounds remained, he was once more able to use his body–even if every movement brought a fresh wave of agony with it. As Geoffrey had told him during their long wait together, he had bought a potion potent enough that it restored not just Tenebres’s attributes, but his mystical well too.
Gritting his teeth, the boy lifted a hand to loose more force missiles. The projectiles remained their default blue this time, as he had no wish nor need to further ruin his body with his Blood Magic. The kinetic projectiles still packed enough punch to easily smash through the skulls of the remaining skeletons.
Tenebres’s face turned in a rictus grin as the last undead minion fell, and hissing from the pain, he turned enough to see the rest of the cellar. Fully healed now, Allana had the necromancer on the back foot, Sloan’s seemingly impervious resilience finally fading under the touch of her poison. Geoffrey continued his dance with the horrifying mass of the servitor, but its body showed countless bloody cuts and nicks, attesting to the assassin’s progress against it.
With a surge of hate that matched his last imp’s emotion, Tenebres sent the heavily-clawed green imp at the skeletal horror.
#
Geoffrey had far more experience fighting powerful gifted than powerful monsters, and he felt himself becoming more and more frustrated as he was unable to make the perfect opening necessary to end the fight.
Until suddenly, the opening was made for him, as one of Tenebres’s minor fiends leaped at the skeletal horror, cackling with glee. It died instantly, of course, the undead’s giant crab claw cleanly snipping the imp in two, but it bought Geoffrey the precious moment he needed.
A pair of steps lined him up right, and the master assassin dashed forward in a single, lightning-fast strike.
Superior Lunge–Active, Attack–Make a special attack with potency increased by two tiers. Grants a brief major boost to speed. Moderate stamina cost.
His enhanced dash brought his sword cleanly through both of the remaining legs on the monster’s left side, as well as its long, clawed arm. Helpless, the undead teetered to one side, and Geoffrey stabbed upwards at the horror’s head.
Killing Strike–Make a special attack with potency increased by five tiers. Can only be used once per day, and only after five minutes studying your target. Major focus cost.
The most powerful attack granted by the gift of the assassin was more than enough to counter any natural magic in the horror’s bones, and its inhuman skull didn’t shatter so much as crumble, reduced to dust by the sheer potency of his attack.
“NOOO!”
Geoffrey whirled at the sound of the scream, just in time to see the stricken necromancer lift a hand towards the destroyed horror even as Allana’s slender copper dagger stabbed straight through his eye. There were limits to what even necromancy and an enhanced resilience attribute could accomplish, and Allana’s attack finally pushed Sloan over the edge. With a final shudder, the fishmonger’s bloated body collapsed to the ground, and the cellar fell silent.