This was the fight that killed them. She’d watched these three die too many times in this fight, and with what had just happened, their deaths flashed in front of her eyes again. Before, she had told herself that there was nothing that she could have done to save them because they went in on their own. But this time, she had prepared them, she had joined them and...
It had almost not been enough.
Peopling was not one of her strengths. People made her uncomfortable, and dealing with their selfish, illogical, self-harming, chaotic impulses scared her.
And now she was responsible for seven lives.
“Actually–”
“Not now, Jeru.” Penelope pointed her wand at the Demon. “Light Bolt!”
The Shadow Poisoner stumbled back after taking the hit. It glared at her, but before it could cast anything, Oakley rammed into it with his shield, staggering it again.
The moment he started to step back, Penelope was ready.
“Light Bolt!”
Oakley started to charge again.
“BACK!” Penelope sidestepped to her left to give more of an opening. The Shadow Poisoner took six spells to kill, and by her estimation, that had been five.
“Except it can heal.”
Penelope threw herself to the side to avoid the spell.
“I forgot.” She clenched her jaw. “HIT IT AGAIN!”
She pointed her wand and waited until the Tank staggered it, then released a pair of
The Demon twisted so that the second spell only grazed its shoulder. A red glow covered the Demon as it moved to its left to try to put Oakley between itself and her.
“We need to get it away from the others!” Penelope ran to her right. She was blocking off her line of sight, but she needed to push the Demon away from Frederica and Judah.
“ARRRGG!!” Oakley roared and charged.
The Shadow Poisoner pivoted to its right to avoid the charging Tank and keep out of Penelope’s line of sight.
The longer it stayed away from her, the more spells Penelope was going to have to pump into it. She needed to burn it down, but to do that, she had to get close enough that she could cast uninterrupted. The Demon knew that too, which meant there was only one way she was going to win.
She ran at the Demon.
“Keep it off balance!” Penelope clenched her jaw as she lined up the spell.
“Light Bolt!”
“Shield Bash!” Oakley slammed into the Demon.
“Light Bolt!” Penelope rotated around the wall of walking metal. She aimed and readied her next shot when her stomach turned. It had been a long time since she’d felt the effects of poison. She focused on the Demon and aimed for its neck. “Light Bolt!”
“Shield Bash!” The Tank charged at the Shadow Poisoner.
The Demon cackled as it jumped around Oakley. The large man tried to skid to a stop, but he ended up yards away while the monster was close enough to Penelope to touch her.
Penelope danced backwards as the Demon slashed with its wicked dagger. She was too close to Oakley to use
“Light Orb!” Penelope created the spell in her left hand and pushed it in between the two of them. The Shadow Poisoner was mid-swing and couldn’t pull back fast enough. Demon flesh sizzled as the orb burned through its right arm.
CLANK
The dagger hit the stone floor, the hand that held it gone.
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Penelope pointed her wand at the Demon’s face as it howled.
“LIGHT BOLT!!!”
DING!
Experience +6
You are now Level Seven
Stats increased: Speed +1, Magic +1
You have learned: Light Beam
Penelope dropped to her hands and knees, then crawled on all fours over to the loot pile. She dug around until she found the potion sling, took out the Healing Potion, and downed the spicy liquid as she twisted to sit down. It didn’t cure poison, but it chased away most of the effects until her body dealt with it.
Oakley walked over and offered her his hand.
“How is she?” Penelope nodded towards where Frederica was still lying.
“I’ll check.” The young man trotted over and kneeled down next to the prone blonde. He turned and gave her a thumbs up, then turned back to talk to Judah.
“That was a mess.” Penelope grabbed the Red Shadow Pants out of the pile. The robe she was wearing covered her legs well enough that she didn’t feel too uncomfortable slipping out of her jeans and putting the Demon’s pants on. Or maybe it was because she’d done it a few dozen times that it had become a habit.
New Passive Unlocked!
Chaincast
Mana Sponge
It could have gone better. Penelope sighed as she reached over and plucked the sticky black goo off the floor and put it in the vial she’d just emptied. How close did I come to having to reset? She grabbed the dagger and stuck it through the torn belt around her waist.
Jeru snorted. “You don’t want me to answer that. What matters is that you survived.”
“Yeah, as long as I don’t have to do this fight again or one like it.” She looked over to see how close Ula’s group was.
The other team was in 2I. It had been a while since Penelope had been this far behind. She looked at the time.
“11:02.” She closed the menu. She’d gotten to ten points of Recovery, so now she had almost unlimited Mana as long as she was shooting at something.
“What do I do about them?” Penelope nodded at the other three.
Jeru appeared beside her. “Take the win.” He motioned over at 3E. “And do that one first.”
Penelope scrunched her brow. “I’ve never done that one. Why first?”
“Because they need to experience the moles firsthand, and there is only one in that room, so they won’t get killed right away.” He pinched his brow. “But you’re not going to like fighting the Shadow in there.”
“What’s this one do?” She looked over at the Shadow Buffer. It didn’t have a weapon, so while it wore Caster robes, she knew it didn’t have offensive magic.
“Counterspell.” Jeru shook his head. “And a defensive bubble. That thing is like the anti-Caster.”
“Great, so I have to use a melee weapon against a Demon while having my back watched by a pyromaniac with the accuracy of a Stormtrooper.” She shook her head. “How many Health Potions do we have?”
“Five, but you should have Oakley take one unless you want to wait for the poison to work its way out of his system naturally.”
“Ugh!” Penelope turned back to the group and marched over to the Tank. “Oakley! You’re poisoned. Take a potion.” She looked down at the blonde. “How’re you feeling?”
“Hideous.” The older woman sobbed. “I can’t believe he did this to me!”
“We’ll find a helmet you can wear, then something like this won’t happen again, and you can keep it on until your hair grows back.” Penelope tried to give the disheveled woman a reassuring smile. The look on the other woman’s face told her that the gesture had not translated well.
“I’m so sorry, I thought—.”
"No, you didn’t.” Frederica cut him off. “You knew you couldn’t hit the side of a house from the inside, but you threw the spell anyway. Penny told you not to use your magic because you’d need it in the next room. You weren’t thinking about anything but stealing the spotlight, and I almost died!” She slapped the younger man, then looked at Oakley. “I’m not going into any fight he’s part of.” The blonde sniffled. “I look like a monster now, thanks to him. I don’t trust him not to try to finish the job!”
She didn’t get my name right. Penelope shook her head. Why do I need to make sure people like this don’t die?
“Penny had to use TWO potions on me. TWO!” Frederica glared at the sulking young man. “What do you think—?”
“I think he’s had enough.” Oakley cut off her rant. “Why don’t we take a few minutes to calm down after that fight? How about that?" He turned to the other man. “Judah, come on, let’s go talk over here.”
Penelope watched the two men walk away. She became very aware that she was now alone with her second least favorite person at the moment.
“I think I’m going to go see if I can figure out what invisible monster is in the next column.” She turned to walk towards 3D.
“You mean you’re going to go clear a room by yourself so they can see what’s in there.” Jeru laughed. “Devious.”
A softer voice cut off her reply with the same word Penelope had been about to think. “Thanks.”
Penelope paused and slowly turned around. “What did you say?”
Frederica glared at the younger woman. “You heard me, so I’m not going to say it again.” She folded her arms in front of her chest.
“No problem.” Penelope waved at her, then resumed her walk.
“See? She’s not that bad.”
The blonde started yelling at the men about something.
Penelope shook her head. “I miss being alone.”
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