Chapter 26: Reapers of Noobtown

  The market was just as eerie and quiet as the rest of the city had been. NPCs continued about their days as if nothing was wrong, but with no people around to interact with them, their patterns were more obvious. A sword vendor cleaning the same weapon over and over, the food vendor continuing to cook items that never seemed to burn, and the alchemist adding the same three ingredients to a vial that never overfilled.

  They had enough gold to go on a spending spree, but they didn’t want to attract undue attention if someone was watching them, and Sasha had pegged almost immediately that they had several people watching.

  Nicholas gathered some basic gear together and stashed it in his inventory while Benjamin went across the alley to check out the spell books for sale.

  Sasha’s attention focused on a pair of basic steel hair sticks lying amongst the weapons. She picked them up, a glimmer shining in her eyes.

  “Those would suit you well, Sasha.” Nicholas spoke softly, paying the merchant for them before Sasha could protest. He stepped behind her, taking her ponytail out. His hands worked with a nimbleness that belied their size as he wrapped her hair into a bun, then held out his hand to take them from her.

  “You’re good at that,” she whispered, handing over the sticks. “Especially for a man with a shaved head.”

  She relaxed into him a little, letting the familiarity of having her hair worked on ease her tension

  “I should be; I have five sisters.”

  He was turning to call out to Benjamin when the first strike came. An arrow caught in his shoulder blade, sending white-hot searing pain through his arm and chest. His shield came out of his inventory on reflex, catching the remaining two arrows that went for Sasha.

  Fifty feet away stood three masked individuals. The Reaper masks obscured their identities and levels, but based upon the minimal damage the arrow had done, Nicholas could guess the archer wasn’t even level ten yet. The other two, one holding a staff and the other brandishing a five-bladed urumi, could be any level, and they wouldn’t know it until they met them in combat.

  There were sounds behind him as he readied himself for combat. Bo and Sasha would get into place behind him. “Sasha, mid. Ben, rear,” he commanded just loud enough for them to hear. These three assailants were likely not the only ones coming for them. It was better to have Sasha in the center, to protect her against an attack from the rear.

  “Dangit Nic. How do you always find trouble, even when we just go shopping?” Benjamin chuckled as he got into position.

  “Says the one who sent Roderick flying off the rooftop the last time we went out.” Sasha laughed; her voice was shaky with the stress of the situation, even as she tried to brush it off with humor. She’d already been moving into position, anticipating Nicholas’ call.

  “Enough!” The woman holding the urumi stepped forward. “You’ve given our leader quite a bit of trouble recently. He wants to have a word with you and your group.”

  She turned her head towards the archer. “Go. Find the other two.”

  He nodded and faded into the shadows. A rogue type class, if Nicholas had to make a guess. That gave Sasha’s Babysitting Service the edge in numbers, but he figured the enemy had the levels to compensate if she was so willing to send someone away from the battle. Surely they knew that his party had taken out Arturus, or more specifically, Elijah had done so.

  “What’s done is done. We have no quarrel with you or with Arturus.” Nicholas reached up with his sword arm and pulled the arrow from his shoulder. Sasha, thankfully, hit him with a healing spell. He’d only lost a few points, but the more important thing was the warmth that spread through his body, stitching together torn muscles and staunching the bleeding.

  Urumi, a good enough name for her at the moment, laughed at him. “You really think it’s that easy? That Arturus is so willing to forgive?” She clicked her tongue against her teeth a few times. “No, he’s activated and burned all his assets from here to Eastgate. You will not get away from this.”

  Her blade wove through the air, snapping like a whip as she flourished the dangerous weapon. On the third crack of the whip-sword, she rushed forward.

  The muscles in his legs tensed, and he leaned forward. He considered for a second how activating his skills was intrinsically different from the skills and spells of mages. They just had to think really hard about a spell and it would cast; for a physical skill user, it was all about the way their muscles moved.

  ‘Furious Strike’ was a specific combination of his bicep and tricep, as well as his pectoral. ‘Swinging Blade’ was the same, but used distinct movements, and included his hips.

  By far, his favorite was the one he activated now. ‘Dash’ let him cross the battlefield at blinding speeds. Re-position, activate a few attacks, then ‘Dash’ again before the enemy could strike back. In the hands of most fighters, it was a powerful tool. Most fighters weren’t six-foot seven-inches with over two-hundred and fifty pounds of muscle behind their shield. For Nicholas, ‘Dash’ was a weapon in and of itself.

  Nicholas waited until Urumi was in range, too close to stop herself and, with a bit more of a lean, he activated his skill. He crossed thirty feet immediately, slamming hard into the woman and knocking her back. He felt the peach fuzz atop his head singe as a ‘Flame Bolt’ rocketed over his shoulder, catching the opposing caster square in the chest.

  Caster, easier to assign simple names when they were unknown, barely budged. Instead, his robes glowed with a blue-grey light, and the bolt of flame dissipated.

  Another ‘Flame Bolt’ went hurtling towards Caster. It may not have caused damage, but it at least stopped him from reacting offensively for the moment.

  “I really hate flame mages,” growled Caster as he sent flying icicles towards Benjamin, who barely dodged out of the way.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  “Yeah? Well, I’m not exactly a fan of you either.” Benjamin yelled back.

  “Focus, Ben.” Sasha’s voice was sisterly in its sternness.

  Nicholas leaned again, a short ‘Dash’ to take him to where Urumi was righting herself. His shield crashed into her, less powerful this time, causing her to stagger back. She brought her whip-sword to bear, snaking around Nicholas’ shield and slicing a deep gash in his arm.

  Twist.

  He activated ‘Swinging Blade’, bringing his sword down on her. He stumbled when her weapon caught around his ankles, knocking him off balance and causing his strike to miss.

  He lunged for her again, getting in close. Her chain-sword had a minimum range, and she had to get a good swing going to do damage. He would stay within her guard, pummeling her with his shield and trying to stab with his sword.

  Off to one side, Benjamin and Caster were having a mage duel. Spells flew out from each spell user, and Nicholas learned Caster had an affinity for ice magic. Likely an Ice Mage, or worse, a Cryomancer. A Legendary-tier class would definitely explain why they felt comfortable taking on this uneven fight.

  Urumi punched Nicholas several times in the face as she dodged out of the way of his sword. Blood dribbled from his lip as the soft skin shredded under her assault. It did minor damage, but it caught him off guard enough that she was able to wrap her weapon around his neck and pull.

  He stumbled, pushing the woman away as he fell. Rivers of blood flowed freely down his neck.

  Still more than half health. I’m okay. His mind was in a haze from the pain, but he forced himself to focus. The neck wasn’t required for fighting, Sasha would keep her spells in reserve until he got low on health, or took a wound that would make him less effective. She was good like that, able to triage the situation and provide support where it was necessary.

  “I gotta admit. I’m enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would,” Urumi snarled at Nicholas. There was amusement in her voice. The faintest twinge of actually enjoying herself while Nicholas was fighting for his life.

  A spear of ice lanced out and caught him in the stomach while Urumi’s taunt distracted him. Caster had willingly opened himself up to a bolt of fire from Benjamin in order to target Nicholas.

  Caster stumbled backwards, patting at his robe while Nicholas tried to break the lance loose from his innards. The cold seeped through him, unnatural and unnerving. His very blood seemed to transport the cold around his body, chilling his limbs and skin.

  Sasha finally hit him with a healing spell. The wound stitched itself up as the warmth of healing filled his body, but the ice lance was still there, and as soon as the warmth of the spell faded, Nicholas was cold again.

  Urumi laughed, vicious and cold, almost as cold as the ice spike in his gut. “You can’t win this one. My ice mage is stronger than your fire mage. He and I both have resistance to fire spells.”

  She made two mistakes.

  The first was pushing her assault on Nicholas while Caster was pulling a mana potion from his inventory.

  The second was that she thought Benjamin could only cast fire spells.

  Urumi rushed Nicholas, urumi whipping viciously around her. She’d seen Benjamin moving to intercept, but in her arrogance had written him off completely. She didn’t expect the mage to drop to both knees in front of her and Nicholas.

  And then he clapped.

  ‘Thunder Clap’ echoed through the market.

  Benjamin’s low angle of attack mixed with Urumi’s proximity made for a stunning combination. Urumi went for a flight. All four of the remaining participants, as well as several of the NPCs, stopped what they were doing to watch the sight of the woman launching high into the air and over a nearby building.

  “Boom,” Benjamin chuckled, rubbing his hands together. “Didn’t expect her to go quite that far.”

  “Sometimes I have to wonder about the physics of this game,” Sasha snorted.

  Twelve experience points. Hardly worth it for the fight they’d endured, and so agonizingly close to level ten.

  The ice mage was distracted, so they had no time to waste. Nicholas turned towards him.

  Dash.

  The skill hit Caster while he watched his friend flying through the air. He slammed heavily into the brickwork of a building. Not dead yet, which told Nicholas all he needed to know about this mage.

  “Benjamin, teleport.” Nicholas commanded. Nethy was no longer a haven for them. He assumed their mansion was still safe, but that wasn’t a risk he was going to take. “Outside the city. Anywhere.”

  Benjamin reacted without a second’s hesitation. He pulled out a mana potion and chugged it quickly before casting the spell. Then they were through to a heavily forested area outside of the city. Teleporting always sucked, but Nicholas tried to shrug it off. He needed to be strong, the leader his team needed. One that was ready to support his teammates. He caught Sasha as she came through, followed by Benjamin, making sure their disorientation didn’t make them fall. The pain in his stomach was intensifying from the ice spike through it, but he pushed that pain aside.

  Benjamin groaned. “Remind me to punch Bo on principle for my most useful skill having such a nasty side effect.”

  Once they’d recovered, Benjamin looked at the frozen intrusion. “It’s more than just ice. It’s infused with mana to keep it frozen.”

  The warmth of Sasha’s healing hit him again, easing the pain for a moment. He gritted his teeth as he gripped the base of the lance and tried pulling it out. His health dropped quickly, and he had to stop. He wasn’t making progress.

  “Okay Benjamin. Burn it out,” he grunted.

  Several casts later, ‘Flame Bolt’ had finally finished the job of melting the magically reinforced ice. The pain was excruciating, a repeating cycle of incineration and rejuvenation. Nicholas had to control his breathing as Sasha hit him with another healing spell. The scent of burning flesh still filled his nostrils, his own burning flesh.

  Sasha helped him sit on a log in the clearing. Even through the haze of pain, he had to admit it was a funny sight. Sasha wasn’t a short woman by any normal metric, but compared to the towering frame of Nicholas, he had to admit the picture was rather amusing.

  “We have to assume they know that Bo and Elijah aren’t in the city anymore, so they’ll come looking for us at the dungeons nearby.” Nicholas was in recovery and planning mode. No emotions, just strategy.

  “We should send them a message. Let them know what happened,” suggested Benjamin, but Sasha shook her head.

  “Knowing those two, whatever it is they are doing is going to be dangerous and stupid. We can’t risk distracting them with a message if they’re in the middle of something.”

  Nicholas grunted. “We also can’t wait out in the open for them at the dungeon we picked out. We made it out of the last fight, but that doesn’t mean we’ll survive another.”

  “I might have a solution then, but we’ll need to act fast before the Reapers can mobilize out to the dungeons.” Benjamin produced a ragged-looking book from his inventory and held it out for Nicholas to inspect.

  [Item]

  Tome of Invisibility

  Type: Spell Tome

  Description: This tome will unlock the Spell: Invisibility

  Invisibility: Channelling this spell allows the user to fade from existence while this spell is in effect. At Beginner-tier, the user cannot move, and the mana cost is equal to the user’s mana recovery rate.

  Only usable by magic-based classes.

  Warning: You are unable to use this spell.

  Crafter: Himogawa, the Magus