Demonic Magician

I stood, arms folded as I glared forward, and sighed.

Our travels had taken us to the intended destination in no time at all. I didn’t care to check the Map to see if it really was a short distance, or my roving thoughts had made it seem as such.

I was mostly just annoyed.

The outpost was just as they described. A pathway led from the main road up to it - an opening in the wall guarded by four System-created. Behind them, the courtyard that seemed busy, although I couldn’t see most of it. The fort itself rose up; a tower of gray stone blocks and small slit windows.

But the thing that was grinding on my very soul was the decor. The Crimson Shadow had made no attempt to daub it with blood or furnish their own banners to replace the pale blue and silver ones that were currently present. Even the guards showed no sign of being corrupted or controlled. Glowing red eyes would have been nice. Or just a scowl or two.

For all intents and purposes, it looked like a nice, friendly place.

“I can see your apprehension,” Leyla said, tilting her head toward me. “That’s what caught us off-guard too.”

“They’re Crown guard,” Ren noted, clearly having read a little more world lore than I had, “but they’ll attack first if we get closer, I take it?”

The woman nodded.

Ren grunted and turned her eyes my way. “Plan of action, trickster?”

I smiled. All the possibilities had been blooming around inside my mind like fireworks. Once the brief annoyance of the stage being sub par had abated, an almost giddy excitement had started to bubble deep within. Even the worst stage and props could be fashioned into a dazzling show with enough pizzazz. And I was chock-full. Bursting.

“Yeah,” I eventually confirmed. “I have one.”

I stopped in the tree cover and removed my hat to fan some of the heat off of my face. Just a little pre-show nerves. Placing it back upon my head, I turned my eyes to the elf. While I was clearly tense about the looming performance, she had sharpened. A piercing glare from her bright blue eyes skewered straight through my chest. Well, slightly to the left.

Her eyebrow raised. “I assume you brought us back here alone for more than just fooling around together?”

My mouth opened and closed, the prospect not even touching my soft brain during the planning phase. The front door just seemed too obvious - we needed to make more of a surprise entrance. So I had dragged her along with me to the back of the fort where-

She pulled on my suit collar and brought me in for a deep kiss.

It might not have been part of my plan, but it seemed to be a workable addition. Ren pulled away and smiled, briefly blinding me to anything but her.

“Let’s go blow their fucking minds, Max.”

Well, I’d have to now, wouldn’t I? Wolf would be waiting for our signal. While the road in was too obvious, sometimes you needed to play to the expectations so that when you came along to subvert them, it was more effective. While eyes focused on the group of five, the real tricks were being done out of sight.

We made it to the back wall, the shadow of the fort obscuring our movements. My back against it, I placed down a chair in front of me and then held a plank across my arms. Ren hopped up both to peek over the wall. Face full of her knees, I was surprised at how easily I held her in place. Either I had more strength than the System Stats pretended I had, or maybe elves had hollow bones or something. She stepped back down, knocking my hat forward slightly.

“There’s about two dozen guards that I could see, maybe a handful more blocked by the building itself.” She tilted her own hat back and blew at her hair.

Chair and plank back into my Inventory for now, I adjusted my hat and pulled a face. “Not too bad. Players must all be inside then.”

“Seems that way.”

Most likely they would be notified as soon as the guards got into combat - if the sound of fighting alone didn’t alert them. I rolled my head back and forth. “No back entrances on the fort?”

She shook her head. “I can already tell you want to drop in to the roof and do some bullshit, but that’s too risky here.”

Correct on both accounts, but I just nodded in response. Things had worked out in the bridge fort due to most of it being destroyable… and a little overconfidence on our part. A solid building with five to seven Players—if they’d converted the captives—sounded like a good way to get trapped and not have the help of the Party.

My eyes cycled through my Inventory, arranging things to the first page of grid boxes for easy access. Never knew what could be used in a show, but I had a good amount of confidence in what was likely. Mostly multi-purpose things that were reliable, with a handful of wildcards.

“Alright.” I took a deep breath. “Are you ready for the show?”

Ren gave me a bow. “Born ready, trickster.”

Everything in order. The crowd quietened down as the lights dimmed. Cool energy flowed through me, mixing in with the explosive adrenaline waiting to escape. Suspense weighed down on me, and I couldn’t leave it any longer.

We landed on the inside of the wall together, back to back near enough. A bright card of white-hot power left my hand just as an entangling arrow went out in the opposite direction. Before we drew the ire of the whole area, Wolf howled out and burst into the opening from the road, shortly followed by Quinn and the three tag-alongs.

My card was out, the full power mixed with the new speed increase was difficult to control at first, but I quickly got used to it. Through three throats before it dissipated. Hellhound+ went out next, an arcane circle appearing on the wall beside a startled guard as the canine leaped out atop him. Next was Roger, emerging from within one of the fallen.

Ren had killed another two behind me and was drawing for a third.

“Roger, Ren, with me,” I commanded, striding my way to the main building. Wolf was too big for the door, and I wanted Quinn to pair with him - there weren’t many places safer than beside the bear. There was a chance our quarry would try to escape or the fight would spill out of the structure - so having them right there was a win condition.

Sneaking was never a true option, even though I was practically an assassin that could go invisible and teleport. They held too many cards and we weren’t even aware what game we were playing. The only option was to flip the table over.

Up against the main fort on a slightly raised stone walkway, the three of us stepped around to see Wolf mauling through a handful of guards. Quinn darted in toward the wounded, skewering them with his sword before stepping back into the cover of the bear. I could see a pairing building there - a bond to efficiently chew through enemies.

I sent the Hellhound+ away as we rounded the corner to the closed and barred wooden door. It looked thick, and designed to be able to take a battering without relenting. The others might be able to be spotted from the windows on the next floor up, but we would be unexpected… unless they had some magical form of detection, anyway.

From my Inventory, I withdrew Jokkar’s mace and handed it over to Roger. He nodded his thanks, but knew well enough to keep his mouth shut. Leyla had said that when they had escaped, a Player had stood up at the top and was using a crossbow to fire down upon them. These sorts of things had a way of repeating themselves.

Into my hands, the tin of yellow paint.

An empowered bolt of energy shot down from above, Ren’s shield absorbing it as it struck Wolf. That was my cue - time to do some magic.

I switched place with my dove almost directly above me. The breeze jostled my footing as I stood atop the battlements. Possibly the record for the highest peak of my career. It would have been nice to observe my surroundings - see the beauty of the forest and look out to the ocean… but other than trying not to fall from this precipice I had little time to work with the surprised individual.

A man with rusty hair and pale skin, the signature hand-print on his forehead. He looked up at me in shock, in seeing this purple-clad magician holding a metal tin in his hands. The tin vanished, and then so did I - to be replaced by my dove once more.

Ren raised her eyebrow as if to question my success.

I winked at her and then clicked my fingers. An unnecessary flourish, but painted the scene, much like the-

From atop the battlements, my cannon rang out. Summoned just behind the man and loaded with the tin, as I had been near enough to facilitate the process. I had only a brief glance at my new weapon, but it didn't appear to have horns. Only a slight purple sheen to the dark metal body. All eyes turned upward at the noise, as the shadowed figure of the man was flung over the lower wall of the upper floor and tumbled down onto the solid ground with a hard splat.

Yellow paint pattered around him as the remnants of the can bounced across the stone. Sure, it didn’t get us into the door, but…

I stepped in front of it, my brow furrowed. Bird and cannon unsummoned. Wolf might be able to break it in, but they would be expecting that. Roger could maybe to the same with the large mace, but that would be a slower process that they’d for sure to take advantage of.

Something blipped inside my head, and I brought up the Chat message.

[Quinn: I can use my skill to open up a new entrance?^]

[Max: Please.]

If his boomerang could open up the safe, it should be able to make a hole in the fort. The trouble I had with the plan was knowing where the captives were being held. More the fool us for not considering the possibility that the Crimson Shadow might have them tied up against the wall we intended to blast through, or would even use them as human shields if knowing our plan.

It was designed to not be breached, of course. Leyla’s Party even said there was a barrier that was summoned to keep them out. What this meant was… even blowing through the door - the ones inside were likely still able to keep us from getting in. We’d have to take the risk with Quinn. My initial acceptance was correct.

[Max. At the back if you can.]

From near the entrance still, he gave me a nod and his hand went to his side pouch. I prodded Roger and gestured for him to go inspect the dead body, hopefully to draw any eyes his way so Quinn’s skill wasn’t intercepted. Although, I wasn’t sure the demon could loot, so his acceptance of whatever he thought I may have meant was concerning - but a problem we’d cross when we got to it.

Ren was tense, and so was I. Standing outside the front just waiting and trying to not get caught… it wasn’t how we usually did things. Where was the pizzazz?

From one of the windows above us, a jolt of lightning shot out and struck Roger. He convulsed, the skin across the puppet's neck and face now charred and split to expose redness within. With a scowl up to where his assailant had attacked from, he flipped them the middle finger and growled.

“The fuck is that?” the voice came muffled.

An explosive blast rocked the back of the building, and with a quick nod, Ren and I skirted back in that direction. Looping past the corner, we could see a billowing cloud of powdered rock blowing away from the impact site. Hopefully it made it all the way through and wasn’t just superficial damage.

I hit the next corner first and turned to see that there was indeed a hole - not especially large, but good enough for us to head into if we ducked. Card out into my hand, I dropped it as went up to protect me. The blast knocked me back across the debris strewn path and onto the dirt ground.

Ren was there and fired an arrow off, but it just ricocheted off of a glowing amber barrier that went up across the wall.

“Trying to sneak up on us, huh?” the voice cackled from inside. “I’d like to see you blast through this wall, asshole.”

I righted myself back to my feet and brushed the dust from my purple slacks. Would need to clean up shortly. A smile crossed my face. They thought themselves impenetrable and safe - but hunkering down in one place just meant it was easier to surround them. Corner the beast and starve it out.

“The fuck is that?” A second voice from inside yelled out, right before the growls of my Hellhound+ vibrated through the space.

“Looks like there’s no door between ground and first floor,” I noted to the elf. A little practiced precision had my card circling to the side of the building with the slit windows, placing my canine friend on the floor above the two with foul mouths.

From the other side of the courtyard, Wolf roared and thundered towards the barred door. No escape for the Crimson now. We only had to hope that we’d get in there in time before they did something to those being held.

Ren could see that was my line of thought. “Go back to the roof, trickster. We can take the ground floor.”

I nodded. She didn’t need to say any more than that.

With one last brief bow, I ascended to be the star of the show once more.