Demonic Magician

We all sat with our bare feet in the grass and ate a good breakfast. Slightly toasted bread with fried tomato and bacon on top. I even convinced Ren to let me put the garlic I had on the grill to fashion up some garlic butter. A comforting silence followed suit. Enjoying the moment, knowing what I knew, even though we didn’t need to say it. Bad things were on the way.

“Bad news, Max.” Tanya wiped her mouth on a produced napkin. “None of the loot from last night is any good for you.”

“Really? I guess none of them were casters as such.” I pulled a face, clearly too used to getting a worthwhile bounty from Players.

“There’s three potions, however. Ten percent increase in Intelligence for an hour.”

I held my hands out eagerly. “And yet I will still continue to make poor decisions.” Better to get in there first before anyone else could get a jab in.

My eyes turned to the bear as I looted up the trio of drinkable boosts. He was exceptionally bright eyed this morning. Normally, food and sleep were his default non-fighting states of being. Yet since leaving the building, he seemed alert and ready for the day. Clearly, he got the rest he needed. I could only hope that it was something more permanent.

“Some stuff for Ren, however.” Tanya transferred something across to the elf.

Ren herself had also retained a brighter outlook for the day. Not quite smiling, but as relaxed and content as I’d ever seen her - certainly amongst company. A little hardship and our newest members had found some comfort in being a part of the jigsaw.

“Sixty-five Dex now,” the elf nodded to herself. “Not terrible.”

I raised my eyebrow. “And I thought I was doing well with my fifty-seven Int.”

“What’s the damage formula on your card attack, though? My attacks usually only do seventy or eighty percent of my Dex bonus.” She swung around in her chair and placed her feet up on my lap.

Having recently run through the house while they were still slightly oiled up, she now just had mud and blades of grass stuck to her. I knew better than to touch them - she was just airing them out after soaking in nature. “Oh, my cards are a full hundred percent Int damage.”

“Balls to that.” She wrinkled her nose up. “Why’s the System always kissing your ass?”

I shrugged. “Even better than that, when I get my Power meter high enough, I get some free white gloves.”

She didn’t seem convinced. “Where are they now?”

“Well, they vanished after-”

“Not free gloves then, were they?” Her eyes narrowed, but I could see that playful spark within them.

Tanya turned to the fixer, who was being quieter than normal. “Quinn, I have a sword with evasion increase and threat reduction. Interested?”

“Please, that would be appreciated.” He placed his coffee mug down to receive the weapon, holding it up to catch the light as he observed it with his one eye. “Delightful. I feel I haven’t been pulling my weight in combat lately, so-”

“Ah, ah.” I held my hand up and waved a finger. “You’ve been doing enough. Not everything has to be an all-out brawl.”

He smiled and gave me a nod. “Diplomatic as always, Max. I will continue to do my best.”

Although he could have nailed the stagecoach with his explosive boomerang, I preferred we kept that as an emergency option.

“Hey, Max,” Tanya tilted her head toward me. “What does Quinn’s accent remind you of?”

I furrowed my brow. “I’ve struggled to place it. The extra difficulty lies in not being able to remember the names of places back on Earth.”

“Right? He has like a musketeer look to him, don’t you think?”

“Yeah.” I rubbed my chin and narrowed my eyes at the bemused fixer. “But it’s not a baguette or pasta accent.”

“Oh, clever!” She nodded. “It’s more like a… kangaroo accent?”

“Yes.” I clicked my fingers. “Definitely kangaroo adjacent.”

Ren pulled a face. “Kangaroo?”

“They’re like a bipedal marsupial... you know, a mammal with a pouch,” Tanya offered. “Long feet that they hop around on like a rabbit.”

“Oh.” The elf nodded slowly. “We have something similar, but they are called kangaroos.”

I winced.

“I don’t sound like a kangaroo,” Quinn murmured.

“You’re saying kangaroo… well, we’re hearing kangaroo,” I began, “but the System must be translating it in some way.”

“I am not saying kangaroo.” Ren pouted.

It took a while for the group to try to decide who was really saying what. Any annoyance didn’t take hold, with how completely silly the whole conversation truly was. With little else left to do, we packed everything away and set off to where we’d be farming for the day. An hour or so walk, Tanya informed us. Judging by her map, we shouldn’t be close to any known Crimson Shadow - unless they had moved.

Ren sidled up to me and gave me puppy-dog eyes. “My feet feel so constrained and stifled in these boots now.”

I returned a dull glare. “You can walk barefoot, but if you hurt yourself or step in anything icky, then you’ll get no sympathy from me.”

She pouted and looked forward. “Mean.”

While I loved this woman more than breathing itself, if the day started to revolve her feet then I’d start to… oh. Was this how people thought about me and my tricks? My expression relaxed, and I nudged her. “You can feel it too, right?”

Her coy act melted away, and she gave a serious nod. “Something is happening today. Probably an ambush, knowing our fucking luck.”

I nodded. Glad we were on the same page. Not that I wanted to paint the courier attack as an easy win, but things had been calm since leaving the dungeon. Now we’d forced their hand in denying them the blood - they’d have to act. I had already made some contingency plans for the inevitable interruption to our leveling today. But still… there was something else.

A tingle that ran around my right arm. Placebo or coincidence? Or a portent of something even worse? My money was on the latter, and I had a lot of it. The looming possibility that there might be something more to my arm than just the ability to apparate gloves and cast my Domain was still on the horizon. The fact that the Crimson had worse and weirder than grubby assholes with swords was both surprising and worrying.

They had a Player that could manipulate System-created, so the choices for what could be sent our way were varied and uncountable. That wasn’t it, still. Something close to the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t chew on it just yet.

Tanya and Quinn were ahead of us in animated conversation. I’d even heard them laugh over something, which caused Ren and I to exchange glances. They’d been clear that nothing was going on between them, and for the most part, I trusted that. Certainly I didn’t see a reason Tanya wouldn’t be frank with me about it, unless she felt guilty. They could just be friends, and I wasn’t about to ship them until they came out with the truth themselves.

Wolf was behind us and still seemed as energetic as earlier. I widened the space between myself and the elf so he could move up between us.

“How you feeling today, big brother?” I shot him a wide smile.

He looked about ready to dispute me being the less senior of the two of us, but let it slide. “I feel unburdened. A weight has been lifted and I feel five years younger.”

“That’s great!” Gently, I gave him a few pats on the shoulder.

Ren leaned forward, so that she was a little closer to his large head. “Any reason for the change, big brother?”

He grunted. “I think the addition of fruit and vegetables to my diet played a key role.”

I wasn’t about to dispute that, or delve into any further details. As long as he was happy and healthy, I was content. “I want you to keep me updated when we’re fighting. We’ll take breaks whenever you need.”

“I will probably eat less of our foes,” he admitted. “I’m learning self control.”

He no longer had the Hungry debuff, so that probably helped with his endeavors. While we had taken his appetite at face value, it turned out he was over-engorging himself regularly. Exhausted from trying to process an overabundance of food while still being constantly ravenous. I felt guilty that we had been so blind to his well-being.

“We’re about here,” Tanya called from up front.

Time flew when you were eager to enact violence and hopeful to avoid a different violence.

We rounded a corner through a group of trees and were met by a village. Small stone and wooden huts, surrounded by humanoids going about their System-designated business. I had to stop and glare at them for a moment to make sure they weren’t real… as they were all human.

“Why are they hostile to Players?” I screwed up my face as I rolled out my shoulders. A little pre-show warm-up so that I didn’t pull anything. Like my own spine out.

“Some bullshit lore thing.” Tanya yawned and begun preparing idols for us all.

Quinn pointed out at the building further into the village. Slightly larger and more ornamental. “Leader resides in there, and is trying to secede from the Crown. For as well as that will do them.”

For several reasons, I was sure. “Well, as long as we can massacre them and steal their belongings without the ‘Crown’ being mad at us, I’m fine.”

“Not shying away from a little regicide, are you, trickster?”

I turned my head back to the elf as she drew her bow and prepared her quiver. “I have enough enemies at present. Plus, wouldn’t you rather perform for royalty?”

The face she pulled told me that perhaps not.

We prepared ourselves to engage in combat. The villagers were a mixture of melee, ranged, and casters. Wolf would tie up as many as he could while Ren and I picked off the more dangerous System-created at the back. Quinn would flexibly switch between sword to help the bear not get flanked, or move back to use his crossbow and pull further opponents. Tanya would set up dead zones that would poison our enemies when not debuffing the ones in combat with Wolf.

A sound plan that would surely go without a hitch. We had come to the agreement that I would not use Shuffle on a Party member—which included myself—after they witnessed that Shadow melt away to ashes. I had underestimated the risk that it carried, and knowing it could cause such destruction previously, we probably wouldn’t have used it for our Trauma.

I dropped down an Imp+ card - this one the Ice version. Instead of the reddish skin I was used to, he had a pale blue coloration with specs of frost in his beard. I’d get Roger up as soon as possible, and have him support Wolf and act as decoy, so we three at the back weren’t an easy target.

“Make sure you accept the repeatable Quest,” Tanya prompted, watching me pretend to kill our enemies with my glare alone.

“Oh, of course.”

[Kill dissenters (0/20)]

It was almost a shame this kind of fighting required no pizzazz. Simple-minded enough that we could just pelt them with damage and pick their corpses clean, repeating ad infinitum.

“Ready check?” I asked.

They each nodded or grunted their acceptance. Each tense and ready to fight.

I wasn’t, though.

At first, I tried to ignore it. Maybe just nerves or adrenaline. Perhaps even the anticipation was having a physical effect on my body? Pins and needles had started to prick at my right arm. A numb sensation that felt awkward.

“Max?” Ren stepped up closer to try to read my face.

“Oh? Sorry. No, my arm is just fuzzy. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

They were all watching me. Expecting it to explode again? Not really. Their glances were something more of a normal concern. I grasped at it, hoping some touch would shuffle the feeling away. Closed my eyes and leaned forward. Was holding my breath for some reason.

Ren’s arm went around me, and Tanya was already crouched down in front of me, hand against my forehead as if looking me in the eye could expel a diagnosis. Vision was spotty and their voices distant. Heartbeat pounded in my ears.

And then a voice, a simple sentence that scratched its way across my brain.

I gasped for air, my senses flooding back to me in a sudden rush. Despite the pair clamoring around me, I stood up straight and risked passing out from the burst of oxygen and elevation.

“Speak to us, Max, what’s wrong?” Ren’s face was a picture of panic.

My finger rose up. I needed a second to compose myself as my breathing returned to normal. The fuzzy feeling in my arm faded away over a few short seconds, leaving me feeling… normal. Just a little out of sorts.

The message reverberated around the back of my skull. A language I didn’t understand, but something instinctual knew it as clear as day.

“Well,” I took a deep breath and sighed. “Someone has just killed the fourth Guardian.”