Demonic Magician

By far the strongest willpower I had ever exhibited, I had managed to not Shuffle away my restraints. The STAR on my left wrist illuminated in a soft golden color as the Party stretched out and groaned, making their way back to their audience of one.

Level Thirteen.

I was almost apprehensive. Well, no - I was literally at the edge of the seat. The System loved me and would labor me with impressive abilities that would have my allies rolling their eyes, and our enemies quake in their shallow graves. My first ascension since gaining my demonic strength, I wondered how ludicrous I could truly be.

[Level Up - 13]

[Stats Increased]

[New Passive: ]

[New Passive: ]

[New Ability: ]

My eyes scanned over the three abilities at great speed. The grin on my face caused my muscles to ache.

I looked up in joyous wonder to see the eyes of my whole Party watching me.

“Go on then, asshole.” Ren nudged me. “Show us what the Magnificent Max can now do.”

They were both eager and apprehensive to see it. I bit my lip before leaning over toward the elf to whisper in her ear what was about to happen. After all, I was on thin ice and didn’t want to earn any more ire than I needed to. She returned a stoic nod, a poker face that was unshakeable.

I stood and hopped atop my chair, chucking an apple out to Quinn, who caught it as deftly as expected. “Stand about twenty feet opposite,” I asked.

He did as such, some confusion on his face.

Feeling calm, I outstretched my arms in readiness. “Now throw it at me, as hard as you can.”

Quinn shrugged, while everyone else had moved slightly further away from where we both stood. Tanya held a grimace, while Roger had his arms crossed and a smug expression on his face. As if he already knew. Wolf just wanted the apple after whatever this was had concluded.

The fixer wound it back and pitched it. A perfect throw, considering it was a humble fruit. Cratered through the air directly for me.

It struck the middle of my chest, collapsing my ribcage with an audible crunch. Blood sprayed from my mouth as my internal organs ruptured from the force, and with little ceremony, my body went limp. The gathered audience present for my death gasped as I thudded to the dry ground amongst a spattering of crimson, twisting and gurgling blood from my face as my last breath left my body. A final fanfare indeed.

“Nice throw,” I complimented Quinn, now standing behind him.

He shifted and jumped. “By all that is holy, Max. Why?”

I’d earned scowls from Tanya and Wolf, while Ren was surprisingly hard to read. Not really annoyed, but also not willing to be impressed by the fact I could now fake my own death.

“It has a long cooldown.” I raised my hand to prevent the angry mob withdrawing any pitchforks. “However… other than causing you all some worry and giving me a brief out of a situation… it does something even more important.”

Tanya now crossed her arms and glared at me. “Out with it then, or I’m withholding your Token share.”

Unfair and totally against the rules of the Party. Judging from how the rest—aside from Roger—were staring at me, I might be out of luck in that complaint. “To fully facilitate the process of my faux death, it also removes any and all buffs and debuffs.”

I grinned widely. Trauma was gone.

The Fateweaver shook her head. “How is it you always get a free pass on all this?”

“Well, I am a trickster, of course.” I wagged my finger at her and turned to the elf before someone decided to stab me. “What about you Ren, anything awe inspiring before I dig through the rest of what I received?”

She rolled her eyes and stood from her chair, drawing out her bow. Without saying anything, she turned and pointed a finger towards the closest group of Hyenids. Four figures standing and minding their own business as if we weren’t currently in line of sight of them and nearly two dozen corpses of their brethren.

“Pick an element,” she requested of me.

“Ice.”

She whispered the word in elven, and a spark of white circled the arrow. Rather than aim straight for the pack of Monsters, she pointed it at a high angle. A pulse of air buffeted the ground, sending a wave of loose dust towards the rest of us as she released the attack.

At some point near the apex, Ren clicked her fingers and held her palm out toward the unaware Hyenids. Wolf readied himself to interject should she draw all the aggro. High in the air, the projectile burst into something resembling a cloud. Fluffy and white, with a shade of blue to the edges.

Then it rained.

Except, instead of droplets of water—or even hail—it was arrows made of sharp shards of ice. Dozens at a time, they pelted down upon the Monsters continuously. Most of them missed and just broke up on the ground, but those that hit pierced through the Hyenids, blood mixing and melting away at the gathering crushed ice.

When the last of them had dropped to the ground, she lowered her arm, and the cloud vanished. The last of the ice arrows struck the gathered debris alone.

“Drains mana like a motherfucker, though,” she complained, shaking out her bloodied hand.

My heart did a little flip. A few steps behind me on the bullshit-o-meter, but she could catch up in no time. “Impressive,” I said, if only because otherwise I was just staring at her with large hearts in my eyes. She gave me a bow, and I cursed for having such a long cooldown that I couldn’t die right there.

I shook away the pink clouds threatening to pelt my own brainwaves and settled in to go through my abilities proper.

There was a new demon on my roster that I could summon. A Shade, which seemed to be a singular friend that would trail a target and instill them with debuffs and drain their life. Probably look really spooky while he did so as well.

caused my attacks to give the target one stack of Dazzle when struck. Not a great deal in and of itself - considering how much damage my cards could do. It was just another way of getting those icons on my enemies, however.

Another thing the System probably thought was reasonable. In my Domain, Dazzle icons just did damage, so what would happen if I just sent cards out to strike the audience instead of performing? Strangely, I had a feeling for the answer already. My Domain would just fade away if I wasn’t keeping the Power gauge up. Against Syther, it had been part-fueled by my hatred for demons - but in a normal show, I’d receive terrible ratings for just assaulting the crowd.

I shook my head before realizing that Ren was standing right in front of me. Her blue eyes staring me down, she gave me another impromptu hug - if only to get close enough to whisper something in my ear.

“System gave me a really neat passive, trickster. I don’t want to say it out loud, however.”

“Oh?” My eyebrows raised in anticipation.

“Promise to keep a secret? Just between you… and me?”

I nodded slowly, gradually becoming more concerned about what the System had given her that could require us to withhold such information from the others. Nothing… salacious, surely?

“You and I… are immune to becoming Traumatized.”

It took a couple of seconds to sink in, and I shivered. Leaned a little further away to look her in the face. “Yeah?”

“On one very important condition.” She pressed her nose up against mine. “Check your Status now.”

Despite the fact that she was right up in my face, my eyes went to the side where my STAR menus tried to find a place to fit in my peripheral. There was something new there.

[Eternal Vow] [If within 20ft of the Oathwarden you are immune to Fear, Trauma, Delirium, and Terror.]

I gasped. “Never leave my side.”

Ren gave me a wide grin. “I won’t. That’s my Eternal Vow.”

Tanya cleared her throat. “Not that I like being the wet blanket to your admittedly very cute romance, but your… Roger is currently eating a corpse.”

I turned my eyes over to the side at the last pack they had slain, releasing my grip on the elf. The bloodied bipedal rabbit was hunched over one of the deceased Hyenids, currently scooping out their internal organs and chewing on them rather sloppily.

He paused, sensing our collective gaze upon him, and turned his head. “Ah. Sorry, is this a bit of a faux pas? One of you wanted to eat this tasty fucker first?”

“It’s not very healthy,” Wolf offered, not allowing my brain to decide whether we should be accepting of the demon eating the dead when the bear often did just that.

“It’s not?” Roger scrunched up his face and stood, wiping his hands off on his thighs. “I’m supposed to be more careful about who I eat.”

I assumed he meant what, but… no - who was I kidding?

“Max has me on a good diet now,” Wolf continued. “Perhaps you could join me?”

At present, I wasn’t too sure how I felt with Roger being a more permanent addition to reality. Watching the talking bear give the tall rabbit tips on dietary consumption had my mind looking for the back door. Escape with a little of my sanity. Shame Ren didn’t protect against that. I gave her a glance, and she looked pretty content now. Either knowing that there were fewer things to worry about in regards to my safety, or… there was something else.

I had promised to drag her into the next high-stakes bullshit encounter I inevitably found myself in. She was not only looking forward to it, but now had something to smooth our passage through such turmoil. Even if we emerged broken and bloody, we’d be stronger and rise above the odds together.

At that point, I had a moment of clarity. The selfish showman had always been eager to share the stage, but could never truly commit. Our romance wasn’t just built on the love and attraction to each other… but it preceded something even greater. A duo that could take the world by storm if I allowed her to live as close to the edge as I got. The others all had their part to play, but it was between us two. Our grudge against the Lady and eagerness to save the System.

“You alright there, trickster?” She gave me a wry smile as Wolf and Roger continued their conversation.

“Hmm? Oh. I just realized that the greatest bullshit the System ever gave me, was in allowing me to meet you.”

She shook her head, but her smile widened. “You couldn’t be more right, Max.”

I put my arm around her and caught Quinn and Tanya talking in my peripheral. Six was a lot of yapping mouths for this once-loner, but I had grown to feel comfort in their presence.

“Remember when I was sending you off to fight those goblins and put the arrow up against your neck?”

“How could I forget?”

She shuffled herself closer. “System also gave me a passive that makes my arrows do full damage no matter the range. So it would probably actually kill you if I tried that now.”

“How comforting.” I grinned as she snorted a brief laugh. “Just arrows or projectiles?”

“Arrows only.” She sighed. “You’re still the System’s favorite.”

“Well, you’re my favorite.” I removed her hat so I could give her a kiss on the head. Replacing it, I turned my gaze to the other two. “Let’s head to safety. Sunlight is waning and we will need the rest.”

Tanya nodded, and they started to gather their things. I let the warmth of our odd group wash away all that had been troubling me. Things could be okay for now - I’d drink deep of all that we had fought hard to cultivate.

For tomorrow, we marched against the necromancer.