The magical light consumed but a small trickle of Tenebres’s mystical well, so he kept the spell going as he descended into the depths of Undercrawl. He knew only what Allana and Geoffrey had told him about the place, having never been into the subterranean complex before, but they had emphasized the darkness as one of its most pervasive dangers. Torches and lamps were rare in the lightless tunnels, and many of the monsters native to the shadows had some way to navigate through the stifling darkness.

His light spell would be an important counter to those shadows, as it couldn’t be knocked out of his hand or extinguished like a conventional torch. He simply had to hope that its minor cost wouldn’t prove the difference between success and failure.

Tenebres paused periodically as he descended the stairs, examining them. The walls were rough and natural-looking, while the stairs were crude and uneven, forcing him to be careful as he descended them. If he had to guess, they were the result of one or two fairly untrained gifted using the gift of earth to carve a new way into Undercrawl. Tenebres judged it to have been made some time ago too, based on the weathering of the stairs, clearly eroded by time and run-off.

The stairway wasn’t straight, instead winding back and forth, either due to the ineptitude of its creators or the need to navigate obstacles–maybe even another building’s basement, considering the depths the stairs were reaching.

Each time he paused, Tenebres listened intently for any sound of movement, be it a warning of the monster they were searching for approaching or a small reminder that Allana was still nearby. The previous night had strengthened his trust in her, and he had no doubt she was still following him, but that knowledge was only a small comfort in the claustrophobic confines of the subterranean stairway.

A similar stairway had been carved into the deepest levels of Kellen’s compound. It was that route Tenebres had been carried down, tied and helpless, that fateful night…

As if sensing his hesitancy, Tenebres felt the delicate brush of Allana’s hand along his upper arm, the gentle touch made even more subtle by her veil, but it was enough reassurance for him to continue on his way.

Tenebres estimated he had been moving downwards steadily for more than ten minutes, and was starting to wonder just how deep this place went, when a cavern suddenly opened up before him. It was as rough and natural looking as the staircases, as if an existing cave had been widened by the same earth bearers that made the staircase.

Smugglers? Tenbres wondered idly. Does this city even need smugglers? That would require something to actually be contraband.

Smiling at the thought, Tenebres turned his attention to the cavern itself. It was crooked, full of dancing shadows from the wavering of his blood-soaked hand, with occasional juts from the walls and even some jagged stalagmites along the ceiling. The Novice mage had just enough time to think those would be the perfect place for the monster to hide before a shape hurtled out from behind one of them, his light glinting off dirty yellow fangs and hard black carapace as it dove at him.

It had all happened too fast. Despite his anxiety as he descended the staircase, the apparent lack of threats had lulled Tenebres into a false sense of security, and he had been busy wondering about the nature of the room as the monster drew closer to him. He had no time to react, or even to cast a defensive spell, as the monster all but fell on him.

Fortunately, Allana had not been as distracted. There was an odd flicker through the air in front of him, and suddenly the taller girl was standing before him, her body already set to catch the monster, as if she practiced it a thousand times before. Even as the dark shape landed on Allana’s blades, her brass dagger sinking a handspan into its rib cage while her iron weapon stabbed into its stomach, the girl was moving in a single perfect, fluid motion to throw the monster to the ground.

Tenebres blinked. It was over before he could even move. But to his astonishment, despite Allana’s counter attack, despite the poisons that coated her blades, despite the punishing slam onto the unyielding stone floor, the monster still moved. It twitched a couple times, then jerked in an unsettling, sinuous fashion, and it was back on its feet. Only then did Tenebres get a chance to really see what had attacked him.

The two lesser monsters they had been sent to kill were far from exotic. Darkmaws were simply overgrown dire rats, known to show some uncanny human-like proportions on bodies that were often five feet from snout to the base of their tail, which could be as much as another three feet. Orbwefts were even more mundane, by monster standards, simply a giant, long-legged spider, with a central body about the same size as a human’s torso.

Unfortunately, neither “simple” nor “mundane” described the being in front of them. Tenebres could only guess the two monsters had already attempted to kill each other before he and Allana showed up, and apparently the darkmaw had won. The essential shape of the monstrous rat was still apparent, after all, but it was now so much more than that. Most noticeably, four long, razor-tipped spider legs had burst from its ribcage, and more sections of slick, oily black carapace pushed through its mottley fur seemingly at random. Venom, turned black in the dim red light, dripped from the rat’s fangs, and disturbingly, its skull seemed to be splitting down the middle, making room for additional eyes to peer out.

“Well. That’s fucked.”

Tenebres snorted a small laugh at Allana’s comment, then the spider-rat was on them again.

This time, Tenebres was ready for it. He twitched a hand, and a force projectile thudded into the monstrosity’s side, sending it sprawling. Allana was on it before it could recover, daggers flashing, but the monster simply had too many limbs. Its waving tail and nimble legs kept her from getting too close while it regained its balance, and then the fight was on. Allana’s blades wove complex patterns in the air, but each was met by one of the monster’s numerous limbs.

At that moment, it was hard to remember that neither of Allana’s gifts gave direct combat abilities, and neither veils nor her poisons availed her in her current fight. The girl’s natural skill and hard won experience simply proved more than a match for the monster’s unnatural savagery. Still, Tenebres knew that the fight teetered on a knife’s edge, and a single mistake could see Allana’s dead.

He kept one hand raised, keeping the room illuminated for Allana, and began to add his own spells to the mix, force missiles thudding into the spider-rat from every angle. Each hit was nearly insignificant, the already limited threat of his spells further blunted by the clearly magical carapace the rat had gained, but damage wasn’t the goal. Each hit threw off the monstrosity’s balance by a tiny bit, an ultimately minor advantage–but Allana had spent her life surviving off minor advantages, and each time Tenebres used a spell, Allana got closer to landing a definitive hit.

The gifts given by the Mage, including Tenebres’s own gift of the evoker, were different from most gifts. Where the average combat-oriented gift at Novice level gave two simple abilities, generally one offensive and one either defensive or utility, the gift of the evoker gave but a single ability.

[Novice Evocations] - Spell - Gain access to Novice level evocations, utilizing your mystical well as a resource. Spells require study in order to learn.

Unlike normal gift abilities, which were often instinctive and straight-forward, the spells granted by the Mage’s blessings required study and mastery to use. In exchange, bearers of magic gifts had a far more flexible store of tricks than most bearers of the same level.

The kinetic energy equations that Novice evocations were built on were fairly simple to Tenebres, and after only a couple months, he had mastered four of the half-dozen cantrips available to Novice evokers. His first and most traditional evocation was the force missile, a simple projectile of nearly invisible kinetic energy that hit with about as much force as a well-thrown rock. It was further limited by both its range and the fact that he needed a straight line on his target. His favorite spell was similar, but allowed the projectile to originate anywhere within twenty feet or so around him. Directing the attack from a different origin point was significantly less efficient than the normal missile, though his mastery of the associated equations helped keep it fairly close, but the ability to help Allana without needing to find a clear shot through her bobbing, weaving form was worth it.

Desperate to turn the fight back in their favor, Tenebres turned to his augment to strengthen his next spell.

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[Blood Magic] - Void, Evoker - Passive - You may take damage in order to enhance the power of your evocation spells.

A searing pain suddenly shot up his arm, which had already been pretty carved up in their previous fights, but Tenebres ignored the agony to focus on his spell. His next force missile appeared with a faint red glow, and it slammed home perfectly, the enhanced attack slamming into the wound Allana had left in the spider-rat’s gut.

The monster shrieked in pain and its own barrage of attacks slowed for a moment. Allana didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the monster’s faltering, sweeping both of her blades in a sudden pair of broad slashes. One of the monster’s spider legs went spinning away into the darkness, while Allana’s iron blade cut straight down its chest.

The spider-rat’s shriek of pain echoed through the little cavern, and the monster suddenly flailed about with all of its limbs. Allana danced backward, but even so, her brass dagger got snared by spider-rat’s long, twisting tail. Apparently having inherited the adhesive properties of the orbweft’s webs, the writhing appendage snatched Allana’s dagger right out of her hand. Fortunately, what would’ve been a crippling disadvantage for another gifted was barely an inconvenience for Allana. The wraith girl twitched her empty hand twice, first making the weapon disappear, then conjuring it back into her hand.

The spider-rat quickly recovered from the pain and fixed a glare of wild fury on Allana. Blood, turned black in the dim light of Tenebres’s spell, dripped from the stump of its severed legs, while more ran down its chest from the messy wound on its chest. To Tenebres’s shock, he saw the monster’s eyes dart to him, behind Allana, and he was reminded of his original estimate of the monster’s intelligence. While not truly sentient, it apparently possessed enough cunning to identify Tenebres as the key to Allana’s success in their last exchange.

The monster arched its back and released a keening hiss that was noticeably different from the noises it had made up to that point, pitched at a tone that quickly raised above Tenebres’s ability to hear, but which he was sure would leave him with a headache when all of this was over.

Provided he was still alive to suffer through it.

As if summoned by the monster’s hiss, more shapes began to dart out of the shadowy corners of the cavern–another half dozen dire rats, and as many more dire spiders. The majority of them rushed Allana, who swore at the sudden attack, but a pair of rats and a single spider darted towards Tenebres instead.

Tenebres waved the hand that he wasn’t focusing his light through, sending out force missiles as quickly as he could. One caught the spider in midair, crushing it with a satisfying crunch, while another managed to catch one of the dire rats from the side, sending it rolling across the cave floor, badly injured, but the last made it to Tenebres before he could manage another spell, leaping on him with razor sharp teeth flashing.

Tenebres fumbled at his belt, feeling the burning pain as the oversized rat landed on his arm, putting him off-balance enough to send him tumbling to the ground. Its claws and teeth alike inflicted a dozen scratches on his arm and would’ve done the same to his chest if not for the quilted cloth of his shirt, which it still shredded promptly. Before it could get any deeper, Tenebres finally got his fingers around the handle of the knife secured at his belt and stabbed it into the vermin’s side, pushing the still flailing monster off of him, where he could stab it a couple more times, putting an end to its struggles.

The whole confrontation, from the appearance of the vermin to the last one’s bloody death, had taken mere seconds, but as Tenebres looked up, he realized that even that had been too long. With Allana distracted by the remaining minor monsters, the mutated spider-rat had rushed him, its movements swift despite its ungainly, lop-sided gait.

The lesser monster was on him before he could even fully turn. Its own long, razor-edged claws dug a long pair of furrows in his arm, and he heard the clatter as his knife fell from numb fingers. He couldn’t see anymore, as one of the equally-sharp spider legs had stabbed his other arm, and he had lost control of the spell keeping his light going. More spider legs quickly rent his quilted tunic to rags, and as the monster bore him back to the ground, Tenebres realized he was going to die if he didn’t do anything.

Ignoring the searing of the brand on his chest, Tenebres shoved a hand against the coarse fur of the monster’s chest and used a spell he hadn’t quite mastered yet. Ideally, it was supposed to release a pulse of force, a powerful but short-ranged way to push an attacker away, a last minute defense for just this sort of situation. Tenebres’s understanding of the equations involved in the brief burst of kinetic energy was sketchy at best, but he made up it by pumping his own blood into the spell.

The burning pain of the Blood Magic’s self-inflicted damage climbed to his shoulders, higher than it had ever had before, and Tenebres’s vision swam as the blood loss hit him–but the desperate spell did its job, sending the rat monster flying. Then, without thought, he turned on the floor, grabbed the limp body of the first dire rat, the one he had incapacitated before it could reach him, and used an ability he had never tried.

[Sacrificial Victim] - Active, Final - Make a physical attack that does a small amount of dark damage on a hit. If this hit kills the target, receive a moderate boost to all physical or mental attributes for a lesser duration. Minor focus cost.

In the darkness, Tenebres didn’t see the effects of the ability, but he heard the dire rat’s pitiful squeal. The noise ended abruptly–and then Tenebres felt power flow into him.

[Sacrificial Victim] final effect triggered

Physical attributes boosted

Tenebres’s physical abilities had always been a weakness for him. He was slight by nature, and his gifts had both favored mental attribute boons over physical ones. But very suddenly, that was no longer the case. The moderate boosts weren’t overwhelming, but as they hit all of his attributes at once, Tenebres suddenly felt like a whole new person. Someone strong and tough, a natural fighter, like Allana.

He heard the spider-rat scurrying towards him again, but this time, it seemed simple to brace for it. He pulled his legs up until he could grab his leather boots, his knees touching his chest, and the moment the lesser monster hit him, he pushed off, the power of his strength attribute and timing of his coordination attribute allowing him to send it flying back through the air, propelled by mundane muscle rather than magical skill.

The moment the monster was off him, Tenebres scrambled to his feet. His arms and chest still burned, but the near-incapacitating pain had been lessened by his enhanced stamina and resilience. He was more than able to focus his thoughts and use his dwindling mystical well to fuel his light spell again.

Once again, the subterranean chamber was bathed in light that matched the crimson of his eyes. There was no longer any sign of Allana and the other monsters, just Tenebres and his foe. With casual grace, a product of his improved speed, Tenebres grabbed his little knife from where it had fallen and held it ready as the monster leaped at him again.

He didn’t have the skill and talent of Allana, and knew that even with his temporary boons, he couldn’t face the monster down the way Allana did.

But he didn’t have to. Even without enhancing his mental attributes, Tenebres had a mind like a razor, and he had noticed something very important when he threw the spider-rat off of him: it wasn’t as heavy as it looked. Some combination of the natural skinny rat monster and the oddly light-weight spider chitin allowed the monster its speed and the ability to crawl and hide amongst the stalactites on the ceiling, but that same advantage could be turned into a weakness.

Sacrificial Victim had boosted the scrawny boy’s physical abilities to something in line with an actual battle-gifted, but his most potent weapon was still his mind. Even if Tenebres didn’t have the energy to throw around any more force missiles, he still had the intuitive and carefully cultivated understanding of kinetic energy, momentum, and inertia that were necessary for an evoker.

As the spider-rat lunged at him yet again, Tenebres calmly stepped to one side of its charge, his coordination making it simple to judge their position. He chose to move to the side that was missing a leg from the monster’s earlier bout with Allana, and avoided the spare spider leg as he plunged his little knife into its side, using it as leverage to to turn the lightweight monster’s momentum against it and send it tumbling away from him once again. But this time, he wasn’t shoving it away blindly.

He had sent it in the direction he had last seen Allana.

Blades flashed as the wraith girl’s veil shattered, and the darkmaw’s unsettling head went spinning through the air as the monster’s body gave a final flail and collapsed.

[Gift of the Void] experienced gained

Experience: 33%

In the aftermath, both young assassins stood in place, panting and blood-soaked from the unexpectedly vicious fight.

“How… in the Rogue’s name… did you do that?” Allana asked between breaths.

“The gift I don’t like using…” Tenebres explained. He was less out of breath than Allana, but now that the fight was over, the full pain of his wounds, both self-inflicted and not, were hitting him, and he knew he had mere minutes until his boons ran out. “Lesser duration” wasn’t the most specific time limit, but like all gift abilities, Tenebres had an intuitive understanding of when the effects would end, and he knew that the shock of his wounds without the support of his current stamina and resilience could very well kill him.

“I think… I’ll take one of those potions now…” Tenebres told Allana. He took a step towards her–and he then found that even his boosts had limits.

The boy’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed bonelessly to the cave floor.