Free Will Is a Weapon
_____
7
Everlasting Darkness didn’t fall. It detonated. Shadow erupted outward from Helena in a violent surge, swallowing walls, ceiling, and floor as if the room itself had been devoured. Light didn’t fade, it ceased to exist. The darkness was absolute, thick and crushing, layered with depth that made distance meaningless. Dorian staggered as the world vanished. His ears rang. His sense of direction twisted. The armory’s familiar geometry dissolved into something alien and hostile.
Sound warped inside the void, footsteps echoing from impossible angles, breathing magnified until it felt like the room itself was alive and panting. The room ceased to exist as a place. Walls vanished beneath writhing shadow, light snuffed out so completely that even the idea of direction felt like a lie. The darkness wasn’t empty, it was layered, thick with movement, sound folding back on itself until every breath felt too loud. Dorian staggered as the world collapsed into black. The Blackmark stirred. Not violently. Not yet.
Someone moved to his left. Dorian pivoted instantly, dagger up. A shape burst from the darkness, steel flashing. He ducked just in time as a sword passed inches above his head, the wind of it cutting his cheek. He rolled across the floor and came up low, heart hammering. Calvin’s Arcanist. Ice magic rippled through the void a heartbeat later. The temperature dropped sharply, breath crystallizing as frost raced along the floor. A spear of ice tore through the darkness, clipping Dorian’s shoulder and detonating against the far wall in a spray of frozen shrapnel. “Shit!” Lena shouted somewhere behind him.
Dorian didn’t answer. The ice mage was adapting. She wasn’t panicking. She was using the cold itself to map the room, freezing moisture in the air, forcing the darkness to reveal movement. Smart. Dangerous. Another blast came fast.Dorian tried to dodge. He was a fraction too slow. The ice slammed into his forearm and shoulder, freezing solid on impact. Pain exploded through him, bone-deep cold mixed with something worse as the curse beneath his skin reacted violently. His arm went numb instantly, fingers locking in place as frost crawled up his bicep. He snarled and forced himself forward anyway. The ice mage appeared out of the darkness a split second later, staff raised, eyes wide as she realized he was still coming.
He crashed into her, driving her back into a rack of empty weapon mounts. Metal shrieked as it collapsed. The curse reacted. Dark veins surged beneath the ice, pulsing violently as shadow and cold collided inside his flesh. Pain spiked so sharply his vision blurred. Move. Move now. Dorian snarled and charged. He burst through the darkness toward the cold source, boots slipping on frost-slick stone. The ice mage fired again, a jagged wall forming between them, but he threw himself through it, shards tearing at his face and chest. He hit her hard.
They slammed into a rack of empty weapon mounts, metal shrieking as it collapsed under their combined weight. The ice mage screamed as Dorian drove her backward, his frozen arm useless, pain screaming with every movement. She raised her staff point-blank. Too slow. Dorian smashed his forehead into her nose. Cartilage crunched. Blood sprayed warm against his face. She reeled, stunned, and he didn’t hesitate. His dagger slashed in a brutal evisceration. Ice surged around his feet.
The floor itself answered her dying spell, frost climbing his boots and legs in an instant, locking him in place up to the knees. He hacked downward with his dagger, chipping at the ice desperately, but it reformed faster than he could break it. “No!” He looked up. He slashed her throat in a single brutal motion. Blood poured out in a hot rush, steaming as it hit the frost-coated floor. The ice mage collapsed, hands clawing at her neck, eyes wide with disbelief as the life drained out of her. A healer screamed.
Dorian turned just in time to see one of Calvin’s healers sprinting toward the fallen Arcanist, staff glowing as she tried to channel a heal. Evan intercepted her. He came out of the darkness like a freight train, fists already glowing faintly as he unleashed a savage flurry.
The first punch shattered the healer’s casting focus. The second broke her jaw. The third sent her sprawling unconscious across the floor. Evan stood over her, chest heaving. “No more,” he growled. The darkness shifted violently. Metal cut through shadow. Calvin moved like a goddamn executioner. His broadsword carved through Everlasting Darkness as if it were smoke, each swing tearing open space, dispersing shadow spells mid-formation. Helena’s curses snapped apart under the blade, severed cleanly before they could fully take hold. Calvin advanced, relentless, methodical. Helena fought him head-on.
Shadow surged around her, tendrils lashing out, wrapping around Calvin’s legs and arms, sinking into his armor. His movements slowed visibly as the curse bit deep, draining momentum, dulling reflexes. She gritted her teeth and pushed harder, eyes blazing as she poured everything she had into the spell. Calvin roared and swung. The broadsword cleaved through the shadows in a brutal arc, ripping them apart like flesh. The backlash sent Helena stumbling as her magic snapped violently. He closed the distance in two steps. The knee strike hit her square in the stomach. Helena doubled over with a sharp cry, breath ripped from her lungs as she collapsed to one knee.
She tried to raise her wand, hands shaking, but Calvin was already towering over her. “Too slow,” he snarled. Maria screamed Helena’s name and ran. Dorian turned, shouting for her to stop, but she was already moving, panic overriding sense. Her hands glowed as she tried to reach Helena, desperation etched across her face. Calvin turned. His expression didn’t change. The broadsword came down. The impact was wet. Maria’s body split down the center, blood spraying across the stone as both halves collapsed bonelessly to the floor. The healing light died instantly, extinguished mid-cast.
For a heartbeat, the room went silent. Then Helena screamed. Rage tore through the darkness. Lena stepped forward, trembling, tears streaking down her face as she raised her hands. “Get away from her! Dragon’s Breath!” Fire erupted. Dragon’s Breath exploded from Lena in a continuous torrent, a roaring wave of flame that consumed the darkness itself. The heat was overwhelming, air igniting as walls cracked and blackened. Shadows boiled away, screaming as they were incinerated. Calvin raised his shield and roared, “Shield wall!” A glowing barrier flared into existence around him, straining as the fire hammered against it. The blast lasted five agonizing seconds, flame washing over the barrier until the floor beneath him glowed red-hot.
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When the fire stopped, the barrier shattered. Calvin still stood. Burned. Smoking. Furious. He raised his blade and swung. A cutting wave of energy tore through the scorched air toward Lena. Evan moved without thinking. He stepped into the path of the attack, crossing his arms in front of him. The wave hit. Flesh split. Bone cracked. Evan screamed as he was driven to his knees, blood pouring down his arms as he collapsed forward, gasping. Calvin surged past him, eyes locked on Helena. The curse burned beneath Dorain’s skin, useless rage pounding against immovable cold.
He hacked at it again, dagger ringing uselessly, chips skittering across the floor as frost crept higher, locking his knees, biting into bone. His frozen arm throbbed, numb and dead weight, the curse beneath it screaming in rage as dark veins pulsed harder. Calvin stepped over Maria’s body. Casual. Unhurried. “Sentimental,” he said, voice echoing oddly through the darkness. “That’ll get you killed every time.” Helena staggered to her feet, fury blazing through the fear. She hurled another curse, shadows surging like chains toward Calvin’s legs and arms. They wrapped tight, slowing him, dragging at his armor.
He snarled and swung. The broadsword cleaved the shadow bindings apart in a single sweep. Helena cried out as backlash slammed into her, sending her skidding across the floor. She rolled, barely avoiding a follow-up strike that shattered the stone where her head had been. “Helena!” Dorian bellowed. Calvin turned toward her again, blade rising. Time stretched. Something inside Dorian snapped. The Blackmark burned. A System pane forced itself into his vision, red and pulsing.
[TITLE ABILITY AVAILABLE]
PACK LEADER
Invoke Dominance of the Alpha
ACTIVATE?
“Yes!” Dorian roared. The ice shattered. Lightning erupted around him, a violent coil of white and blue that ripped the frost apart and sent shards exploding outward. Power flooded his limbs, savage and feral, drowning pain beneath speed and command. He tore free of the frozen floor and surged forward, the world blurring as he crossed the distance in a heartbeat.
Calvin’s blade came down. Dorian met it head-on. Darkness answered his rage. Shadows ripped free from the floor and walls, gathering in his numb hand, condensing into something solid and wrong. A short sword of pure shadow formed, its edge rippling like liquid night, whispering as if it wanted blood. Steel screamed against shadow. The impact rocked Dorian to the bone, but he held. Lightning crawled across his arms as he shoved back, then slashed.
The shadow blade cut through Calvin’s shield like it was paper. The shield split in two, halves clattering to the floor. Calvin’s eyes widened. Dorian drove his dagger forward and buried it deep into Calvin’s upper chest, just beneath the collarbone. The shadow sword surged at the same time, extending unnaturally, impaling Calvin and hurling him backward into the darkness. Calvin hit the far wall with a thunderous crash and vanished into shadow and dust.
Helena raised her wand on shaking hands and fired a Dark Bolt into the darkness where he had disappeared. It struck only stone. Calvin was gone. His remaining healer fled with him, footsteps pounding away down the hall. Silence fell, broken only by ragged breathing and the distant hum of the System. A screen burned into existence above the carnage.
[PVP EVENT ONGOING]
OBJECTIVE:
ELIMINATE 25% OF REMAINING PLAYERS
CURRENT PROGRESS:
20%
Helena screamed, raw and broken. “Fuck this game!” Lena dropped to her knees beside Evan, as she tried to treat his wound with a bandage. Tears streaking her soot-stained face. “Stay with me. Stay with me, please.” Evan coughed, blood bubbling at his lips. He forced a grin that looked more like a grimace. “Guess… guess I should’ve dodged, huh?” He says as he drinks the elixir. “Don’t talk,” Lena sobbed. Dorian staggered, the lightning fading, exhaustion crashing down all at once. He dropped to one knee beside them, eyes flicking to Maria’s body. Split cleanly. Gone. No healing light. No miracle.
Helena knelt across the room, shoulders shaking, hands clenched white around her wand. “We can’t save everyone,” Lena whispered, voice hollow. “We can’t save anyone if we’re weak.” Dorian looked down at his arm. The ice had melted, but the curse had spread. Dark veins crept past his elbow now, pulsing slowly, possessively, like something staking a claim. His fingers tingled, sensation returning unevenly, wrong. Evan let out a shaky laugh. “Arms are fucked,” he said weakly. “But it’ll heal. Picked Quick Heal for my skill.” Dorian nodded, jaw tight. “We stay here,” he said. “Let our Regeneration do it’s job. I’ll watch the door for any other people. If you have points now would be the time to use them on your stats.” No one argued. Dorian puts 4 into Vitality, 4 into Agility and 2 into Strength.
[STAT ALLOCATION COMPLETE]
[DORIAN BLACK — STATUS]
Level: 5
Class: Rogue
Title: Slayer, Pack Leader
Affinities: Shadow (Blackmark), Lightning (Residual)
Health: Increased
Stamina: Increased
Mana: Minimal
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STATS
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Strength: 15
Agility: 17
Vitality: 13
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5
NOTICE:
CURSE PROGRESSION SLOWED
THE SYSTEM DOES NOT CONSIDER THIS A CURE. ADDING VITALITY TO SLOW CURE IS SUBJECT TO DIMINISHING RETURNS
