Legend of the Spellthief

Absorbing a quick spell from Celsius and Spark both, Logan moved to the corner of the wall his party were hiding against. Spying ten of the brutes in the room, the Spellthief envisioned a claustrophobic fight ahead of him. Planning ahead with his team he charged around the corner.

The ten guardians darted their heads to the oncoming foe, their surroundings nothing more than a large chamber with food and bones littering the floor. Picking up their tridents they braced to skewer the charger, yet Logan slid to the centre of the room as he motioned his arms frontwards at his sides.

“Flame Wall, Lightning Wall”, he chanted. Large columns of fire erupting on his left and dazzling electrical displays on his right. Catching a handful of the naegren in the walls of pain, Celsius charged through the barrier of fire while Spark darted into the wall of bolts. Throwing his hands towards the two guardians outside of the walls, Logan chanted again, “Force”, to pelt them with further magic.

From the back, Marcus shot his crossbow, both the bolts and Logan’s Force micks dealing what seemed to be three damage less than normal against the burlier fishy fiends. With the reduced damage, the duo of naegren got close enough to Logan to stab out with their tridents, Logan ducking and dodging side to side to avoid the sharp assault.

Drawing up two ashin blades from his cloak, Logan moved to parry the attacks of his foes, sparks filling the air alongside the clanking of metal. Running up from behind him was a confident Marcus, crossbow swapped out for his staff. Ducking under Logan’s outstretched arm, Marcus swept his staff upwards to unsteady the stance of the right guardian’s trident to continue his own attack.

Relieved of one nuisance, Logan quickly parried and jumped to the side of his single quarry to fell them with a following slash. Spinning around he threw one dagger at the one engaged with Marcus, landing a solid hit into the creature’s arm before getting knocked on the head by Marcus. Crashing to the floor, the corpses announced the end of the Wall spells as they died just like the fish.

Revealing half of the foes dead on both sides, the elementals retreated as Logan saw their health getting quite low from the onslaught. Two guardians charged from the left while three came from the right.

“Celsius”, Logan called out. In response, the elemental shot a ball of fire towards Logan which he grasped in midair to absorb. Blocking a strike from one of his foes and sliding to a ducked position with one outstretched leg to dodge another, Logan flowed his hand near the feet of the naegren. “Flame Wall”, he incanted, a burst of flames shooting upwards and finishing off the two facing him.

Turning around he saw Marcus parrying several blows with his staff, but against three he was showing difficulties landing any retaliation. Tossing the dagger still in his hand, Logan planted it into the chest of one of the naegren, which proceeded to plant itself on the floor as it fell. Drawing up another and another after that, Logan threw two more daggers at the last foes to finish them off as well.

Circling around to retrieve his daggers, Logan saw several marks across Marcus who had been dealt a few attacks in return. His friend was down to 28/64 HP and it showed in the blood that was soaking into his robes and the visible cuts across his skin through tears in his clothing.

“You alright, Marcus?” Logan asked.

Nodding, Marcus replied in a joking tone, “Yeah, this is good training. I was getting too used to swords and practice gear.”

“You’ve only been learning for a week, don’t push yourself”, Logan instructed as he dragged out his weapons to sheath them back into his rib holsters.

“I knew you’d have my back, even so, I was going to backstep to get a Heal in if I took another hit”, Marcus explained as he sat down to tend to his wounds.

Logan was about to continue as he noticed something, or rather realised there was nothing to notice. The experience numbers weren’t appearing.

Clicking his fingers and drawing an ashin dagger, his map pinged a foe behind him. Spinning around he wasn’t quick enough to avoid a knife stab into his lower back, digging deep and dealing a heavy 24 damage.

Yelling out in pain, Logan kicked back to make some distance between himself and his stealthy foe. Landing a solid kick, Logan twisted around to look at his opponent but saw no such thing. His mini-map blurred around as it found it hard to track an invisible foe, though it used sound waves, how could it not find an invisible foe?

Marcus jumped up and quickly used a quickcasted Heal Grasp on himself and then Logan, bringing both back to full health. Logan darted his eyes around the room as he tried to scan for the sneak attacker, but neither his eyes nor his skill picked them back up. Using his own spell slot, he threw his hand across the floor, “Lightning Wall”, he incanted as he drew up another barrier of bolts.

The room was filled with light from the blue arcs as well as the sound of static and crackles. Following the spell cast, a shuffling of dust and dirt across the floor clued Logan in on the enemy’s location, to his left. Throwing a quick dagger in that direction he missed the invisible foe but was able to startle it into moving again.

Quick footsteps noted a retreat towards the hallway the group had used to get here. The elementals were barged through as their bodies singed the invisible foe. Not wanting to lose his enemy, Logan looked down the hall and thought, “Dimensional Jaunt”, his body warping inwards and then outwards with two shockwaves of wind.

Appearing down the hallway, facing towards the room, he motioned his arm forwards and shouted, “Necromantic Wall”, causing a necrotic black fog to appear in midair and dart to the floor and ceiling. Following it up with Force micks, Logan saw them hit a target within the wall before it fell to the floor.

With their corpse falling their invisibility ended, scales coated in black and red where it was singed and bled. A naegren that hadn’t been noted in the intel, its scales were a darker blue and was wrapped in scraps of black cloth and painted leaves. Experience numbers started to float upwards as it keyed Logan into the end of the confrontation.

Waiting for his spell to end, Logan identified the corpse further to see if he could find out any more.

“Naegren Stalker - Aquatic. Level 4: 36/36 HP, 0/0 MP. A rare variant of the naegren race that has drunk in the blood of classed beings to gain skills of their own. Gauged at a 1 in every 100 population, less is known about these more lithe foes that use knowledge of stealth to kill their targets before they are discovered.

Skills: Backstab, Shroud of Shadow…”

“Another monster that drinks humanoid blood? I better report this to the hall when I get back”, logan thought to himself.

As he returned to the group with his shadows disappearing he noticed that both Celsius and Spark had levelled up in the encounter. Looking over to Marcus he started to speak. “Hey, Marcus. Are monsters that drink humanoid blood common? Have you heard about them?”

“Like that fomin we fought at the capital? That’s the first I had heard of such a thing, though I have never asked about such a thing before that point. Why?” Marcus replied quite bemused.

“That invisible foe was another creature like the fomin, it drank classed blood and seemingly had Rogue skills, hence the invisibility and backstabbing.”

“It did remind me of Dena a bit. Though how did you know it drank our kind’s blood?”

“My skill revealed to me, same with the fomin.”

“I pray to the above there is no hero leading these naegren then, there was one with that classed-like fomin.”

“Tenn said that was because of blood mages or something though, right?”

“I can’t say much about that, not something I knew about before last night”, Marcus replied a bit defeated.

“We’re still good on our spells, though their invisibility made it hard to detect them. Any clue as to how much we have left to clear out?” Logan asked.

“If the hall didn’t have any cartography intel, it’s possible no previous group spent the time to make a map. That leads me to believe it’s quite vast, or due to the way the tunnels are, too annoying to draw out.”

“With my skills, I could probably scribble something down for them, might make some extra coin”, Logan verbalised his thoughts.

Spending a few minutes to collect themselves, as well as liberal use of Healer’s Caress, the party continued on through another adjoining corridor.

The next encounter looked to be a group of three guardians and two watercasters, all situated within a dead-end room full of leaf-wrapped pieces of meat. Absorbing two Lightning spells from Spark, Logan began the encounter like any other.

Charging into the room Logan threw up his hands, aiming at the guardians. “Lightning Shot”, he called out twice. Bursts of blue death danced around his limbs until violently shooting toward the large hunks of fish in front of him. A single spell each was enough to kill the guardians, dealing a hefty 69 and 70 damage. The final one jumped into action to defend his kin.

Behind Logan, he could hear his own allies getting assaulted. Marcus had been Backstabbed by two stalkers, bringing his healer low. “Protect Marcus”, Logan yelled to his elementals. His summons took the command immediately, letting loose their limbs and ranged attacks to try and find the invisible attackers.

Drawing a blade to block a trident, Logan had his own troubles to deal with. The final guardian forced his body onto his trident and pushed Logan’s dagger out of his hand to the floor. Disarmed, Logan backstepped to let loose a mick but saw the approaching spells of the background casters.

Hastily catching an orb of water Logan absorbed it, but was pelted in his shoulder and chest with two follow-ups for 8 and 11 damage. The spells put him off balance and was assaulted by the guardian’s trident, dodging all blows but one, taking another 8 damage.

Grabbing onto the pole of the trident just below the head, Logan hit it with his palm and chanted, “Aqua Grasp”, exploding the weapon with bursts of water that shot out from cracks all across it.

Pulling away, the guardian looked at his damaged trident but it was still serviceable. Another volley of spells came towards Logan, but he was given a bit more heads up this time. Ducking low he was able to avoid one attack and grab the other two, though the second absorption failed as the spell cracked the bones in his hand for 12 damage.

Cursing, Logan darted towards the guardian shooting another Aqua spell at his foe’s weapon. This time the water came out like a wind scythe, cutting into the shaft of the trident and cutting it in two. The naegren looked at his weapon in surprise, holding only a wooden handle against a charging Spellthief.

Drawing up another dagger, Logan slashed out with one hand and shot out Force micks with the other. The guardian parried less than half the strikes, taking many to the chest, though his body kept being surrounded by healing lights from his caster allies. Jumping to the side, Logan circled around his foe to get a sightline on the casters.

Rolling with another slash to the guardian's leg, Logan noticed another Heal coming the way of the guardian and was able to intercept it. “Spell Absorb”, Logan mentally commanded, absorbing the spell into his palm like a vortex. Just like normal he didn’t learn the spell but could still cast it.

Landing a Backstab into the neck of the guardian put it down for good, Logan patting his chest and chanting, “Heal Grasp”, infusing his own body with a holy light that mended his bones and skin. Healing himself for 27, he knew his healing wasn’t going to be as good as Marcus’s, but it did the job enough for this.

A window appeared beside Logan as Spell Absorption increased in tier, though he quickly closed it to inspect later. Throwing a dagger at one it fell to the floor quickly, the other two barraging Logan with another volley of Aqua spells. With two hands free he was easily able to absorb them and return the favour with two blasts of Force to kill both.

Turning around he dashed back to his allies, who had dealt with one of the stalkers but the last had fled back into the corridor. Looking around Logan could only see the experience numbers starting to float upwards, leading him to believe the final foe had fled.

With the potential for the last stalker returning with buddies, the team decided to retreat to the larger chamber. At least there they could have more room to move, even if it opened up more directions for assault. It would allow them a straight shot, if a bit winding, to run outside the cave entirely if they got overwhelmed.

Logan decided to check his upgraded form of Spell Absorption along the way, hopeful it removed that chance of hurting himself further.

A major jump in his ability, first-level spells would no longer backfire when being absorbed, unless Logan’s charges were already maxed. Combined with his armour, Logan could now stock five charges of spells at a time, which would also feed into Charge Transference. However, thinking on his armour, it was below half its durability, so Logan would either need to find a way to repair it or prepare for a loss of several effects.

Getting back to the large chamber, Marcus was given the chance to use his skill to bring Logan back to full health with a Heal spell each for the rest of the team who had been assaulted by the invisible foe. Logan absorbed three Flame spells from Celsius in preparation for an army of fish, which was good foresight on his end.

As the party got to the centre of the first room Logan’s Echo Radar showed several dots approaching from all the hallways, some of them even phasing in and out to show more stalkers amongst the normal variants.

“We got incoming, Celsius, Spark, guard that hallway”, Logan ordered as he pointed out the corridor they had just come from.

Running around the circumference of the room Logan cast three Flame Walls to cut off the three other openings for the foes he saw approaching. “Marcus, fire down that hallway till they get too close”, Logan continued as he pointed at the hallway blocked by fire that had the most enemies behind it.

With all four hallways in mind, they left the final hallway that led outside free for them to flee if needed, thinking it to be empty of any opposition.

Yells and screeches echoed through the crackling of fire in all directions, some of the naegren falling in the Flame Walls as soon as they touched them. Jets of water shot through the walls, causing large portions of them to extinguish into hot steam, filling the room and turning it into a sauna.

Glinting eyes got closer and closer as all variants of naegren charged towards the party. The elementals were able to control their hallway easy enough, Marcus firing into a hallway that kept its flames alive. With hasty movements Logan tossed dagger after dagger into one of the extinguished hallways, a window popping up to confirm his skill increasing.

The daggers made quick work of the swashbucklers and watercasters, though swapping to Force and its lower damage caused the guardians and stalkers to take several more hits. Drawing up his final ashin dagger and Spellthief’s edge, Logan dual-wielded and cut into his foes with amazing speed and accuracy.

Marcus finally swapped from his crossbow to his staff, parrying and retaliating with smashes into faces and stomachs. Circling with their backs against each other, the Spellthief and Devout kept their sides covered.

Supplanting his dagger into a new corpse, Logan caught a spell flung at him and absorbed it, quickly casting it across the floor to create a wall barrier against further attacks. Spinning under a trident he drew his blade back to block another attack and stab out with his edge.

“Celsius!” Logan yelled.

The elemental returned with a Flame towards Logan, catching it as he threw his dagger in the air and caught it afterwards. Kicking back a foe, Logan charged toward one of the holes and blocked it with a spell, “Gaia Wall, Sustained”, he chanted.

A large mess of stone shot upwards and filled in one avenue for flanking, using the charge of Flame to pay the cost of the meta alteration. Jumping onto the wall Logan kicked off to backflip behind three guardians who charged at him, lashing out with three Backstabs to bring them all down.

Logan’s Backstab was followed up by a foe’s, a knife digging deep into his back. Now that he was aware that could happen he dropped one of his daggers to the floor and hastily grabbed onto the invisible arm of his attacker. “Necromantic Grasp”, he chanted, letting loose a dark barrage from his arm into the stalker.

Black spikes impaled the air as the stalker came into view, taking a reduced 25 damage but still healing Logan enough to keep him going. Keeping ahold of the foe, Logan spun around and dove his edge into the stalker, dragging the blade out of its shoulder to continue with a stab into its head to bring it down fully.

“Gaia Grasp”, Marcus yelled in the background, grabbing onto a guardian who had been harassing him.

An explosion of mud and stone shot from the naegren’s body, along with a shower of blood as it fell to the floor. Not losing momentum, Marcus touched himself to use a further Heal and continued to attack the nearby naegren.

“Spark, three!” Logan shouted as he ran towards his elemental, sheathing his weapons.

The summon made of electricity shot three streams of Lightning to his master, Logan absorbing without any worry now that his skill had increased. Aiming his hands away from his summons, Logan shot three volleys of Lightning at some watercasters near the hallways. Their shocked forms fell easily due to their weakness.

Just as Logan did so, he noticed that the summons’ hallway had been cleared, ordering them to back up Marcus. The enemy numbers were falling quick, though another stab into Logan’s back reminded him of the unseeable threat. Grabbing onto the arm again Logan drew up his edge and stabbed behind him several times, letting go of the corpse as he finished.

Running towards the final watercasters that had been harassing with random Water Shots or keeping their allies alive with Heal spells, Logan absorbed another two Water spells. Returning a Force against one, Logan slashed at the final to finish off the ranged threat.

“Gaia Grasp”, Marcus yelled again as he slew the final guardian.

Yells of the swashbucklers echoed into the chamber as both Celsius and Spark had dogpiled their foe to death with their burning and shocking bodies.

“Group up! Celsius, four!” Logan shouted as he saw a larger enemy charging into the room, thinking it to be a new variant or even their leader. He quickly absorbed the new spells in preparation.

Marcus touched the team and cast Heal Grasp on them, bringing him to an empty tank of MP. Logan ordered the Devout to return to ranged tactics, thinking it easier to take on the final foe if both Marcus and Celsius attacked from afar.

The few moments given to them came to an end as a larger naegren emerged from one of the hallways amidst the corpses of his kin. Standing above Logan at 6’5”, this beefy naegren was definitely a threat with their golden inlaid trident and trinkets.

“Identify”, Logan commanded in his head. With a set of skull and crossbones topped with a golden crown, Logan saw it to be an elite.

“Naegren Lord - Aquatic. Level 10: 148/148 HP, 10/10 MP. The leader of a naegren clan, a lord holds within them amazing power considering the normal strength of their race. Guzzling down the blood of classed beings, the lord has gained several skills and unique access to magic at the same time.

Naegren lords were once a threat to any coastline settlements, but with the eradication of their caverns, they have become a rare sight.

Skills: Combo Pierce, Combo Slash, Combo Straight, Dash, Power Strike, Water Jet.

Spells: Heal.

Reduction: Damage ?. Resistance: Damage ?, Earth ?, Fire ?, Holy ?, Ice ?, Lightning -50%, Shadow ?, Water 150%, Wind ?”

“At least it isn’t a hero”, Logan chuckled.

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