Legend of the Spellthief

Sincollo’s body started to shimmer slightly in the darkness, an aura of yellow radiating around his fur and form. A wave of air whooshed from his centre, pushing away dust and pebbles, Sincollo’s mane floating upwards as energy surged through his entire being.

Following this display of power, cracks of bones and morphing of flesh quietly filled the corridor the party were waiting within. Sincollo’s body was breaking and reforming itself as he grew almost a foot in size, his hind legs engoring into more enormous paws and more firmly planted on the floor as he rose to a bipedal stance.

Lightning sparked across the saeben, causing smoke to billow from his body. A low rumbling roar within his throat was the only sound that Sincollo made during the transformation.

With a final rush of grey smoke and lightning arcs, Sincollo flourished his newly changed arms and elongated claws. The saeben’s maw was open to reveal his fangs larger than ever as saliva dripped from them to the floor.

In a more gravelly force than before he spoke, “Let us dispatch these vermin.”

Logan was taken aback, both at the new look of his saeber companion as well as his shift in tone of voice. The party settings were limited so he couldn’t peek at his ally’s attributes, but the man’s HP did rise with the transformation so it was a good guess that they also increased.

“Marcus, heal us when needed, but if you see someone trying to cast spells, counter them with Gaia Skystrike”, Gaemo instructed as he started to move forward.

Keeping pace, Logan darted his eyes around to spot the dots of his mini-map. The team reached the archway of the hallway, the door exploded inwards totally from this bandit group’s assault. It led to a grand staircase downwards.

At the bottom of the staircase was a large chamber lit with braziers holding purple flames, their crackling filled the room with chaotic tunes, accompanying the discussion of the bandits ahead. It seemed this chamber was built within a natural cave, the floor ending off into chasms all around its perimeter. A good 200-foot radius platform held on it the final 15 bandits and captured Evén.

Tied up to a fallen and destroyed statue, the hunter was stripped of her gear except for her mundane clothing underneath. A pile of bags and miscellaneous items closer to the base of the stairs more than likely held her effects within.

Looking across the bandits, Logan counted three level 10s and several of levels 5 through 9. A few of them had their details hidden away due to trinkets, but Logan was sure his team could take on this final group.

Gaemo gripped onto Logan’s shoulder, as Sincollo’s grasped similarly but more painfully on Logan’s other shoulder.

Wincing at the pressure, Logan stared at the space to the side of Evén. “Dimensional Jaunt”, he commanded in his head. All three warped into their centres and exploded into the arena below.

The bandits veered their heads around at the wind explosion near their captive, but Logan had already dropped to a knee and placed a hand on Evén. “Dimensional Jaunt”, he mentally commanded again as he cranked his head to the top of the stairs.

Warping to safety, Logan dropped the captive at Marcus’s feet, the Devout quickly ducking to provide healing to their ally.

Whipping his head around once more, Logan used his third of four rings to return to the fray, Sincollo letting loose on the bandits with his heightened strength. His ferocity reminded Logan of the yetis, the saeben tearing into flesh with reckless abandon and biting so harshly into necks that he decapitated some of them.

Gaemo wasn’t too far behind in his ferocious display, his colourful sword swings brought with them large lines of blood into the air and the floor. Though in retaliation the bandits also glowed several hues of the rainbow or blurred their movements with hasted effects.

Landing behind one of the level 10s, Logan wrapped an arm around the bandit’s sword arm to halt an attack, placing his other hand on the man’s back as he chanted, “Flame Grasp”, igniting the bandit to a degree that it was magic that kept him alive.

One of the further back bandits then rose up his arm, within it was grasped a five-pointed star pointed downwards. It began to spark with black lightning alongside a purple glow, but his arm was punctured by a large spike of earth from the sky, Marcus having used a Skystrike spell as instructed.

With a yell of pain alerting Logan to the event, and the dropping of the star, he threw the unconscious body in his hand to the side as he darted to a slide next to the new target. Scooping up the star, Logan moved it behind his back and sneakily put it in his inventory.

“You fucker! Give that back!” the bandit yelled as his body began to vibrate.

Rushing forwards, the bandit swiped upwards with his curved sword that glowed red. Logan just barely leant back enough to have the blade nick his chin. Bringing the sword down on the Spellthief, the yellow-hued slash was again barely blocked by Logan two-handing his Bowen dagger.

Faltering slightly under the weight of the attack, Logan could feel his arm shaking from the power as well as see a crack form over his blade. Pushing back, Logan was able to deflect the blow, but the bandit took the momentum into a spin, lashing out with a blue aura assault.

Bracing his left forearm on the blunt side of his dagger, Logan blocked the attack, having his dagger suffer further damage in place of himself.

The bandit then had his blade glow purple, but before he could begin to let loose on Logan a large claw grabbed him from behind and pulled back. The bandit was taken off his feet as a fist planted itself in his stomach as he was horizontal in the air, pushing him into the platform beneath and cracking it.

With an open mouth, a rush of saliva and blood spewed from the foe as Sincollo most likely cracked bones and punctured organs. A second punch landed into the bandit’s face as Sincollo caved it against the floor, his retreating paw bringing up blood and sinew with it.

Looking at Logan, Sincollo opened his ferocious maw, “Are you fine, Logan?”

Logan gave a shaky nod, the saeben jumping away to deal with the other bandits. “Don’t get on his bad side”, Logan acknowledged in his head.

Errant spells went off in all directions, though Logan spotted no real caster amongst the bandits before so he guessed that these had even more spell rings. Throwing his damaged dagger at one of the bandits, Logan was able to collide with a burst of Flame, exploding the spell in midair and wasting the ring’s charge, destroying his dagger in the process.

Running to the back of another bandit engaged with Gaemo, Logan planted his hand on her back and engulfed her with another, “Flame Grasp”, to aid in the speedy defeat of the final bandit group.

As her body fell to the floor, another massive crush was heard as Sincollo planted the last bandit into the rocky platform. The heavy breathing of the sabertoothed monstrosity was all that was heard in the newly cleared chamber, Logan glanced over the bodies before giving a thumbs up to his allies, signalling the end of the confrontation.

“Level up! Gain: 8 HP, +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Con, +1 Int. You have 1 attribute point to spend.”

Logan wiped the sweat from his brow, his arm still aching and stiff from his accruing scars. His allies similarly cooled off from their confrontation, Sincollo emanating slow steam from his body as he began to come out of his transformation.

The sight of blood covering the floor and the halved bodies’ death stares flashed a vision of the ice cavern in Logan’s mind. Squinting his eyes he looked away, trying to put the image out of his head.

“I was not expecting a rescue mission, let alone so soon, you have my thanks”, a womanly voice spoke.

Turning his head further to the stairs Logan saw Evén descending it with Marcus not too far behind.

“We don’t leave a hunter, besides, our mission wasn’t complete”, Gaemo responded as he walked over to the recovered ally.

“From the sight of things, you didn’t get teleported with us”, Evén continued as she looked at the other party members.

“No, it seems I may have been out of range or the artefact could only take so many at once.”

“As best an outcome as any I suppose, it allowed you reinforcements”, Evén spoke as she dug through the bags for her gear.

“Gaemo… is that all the bandits?” Sincollo asked as he was now standing back on all fours.

“Seems right to my count, what about you, Logan?”

“Yeah, can’t scan any other threats.”

“What of the artefact? It was part of our original goal so it is best we make sure it was not stolen away”, Evén asked as she looked around.

Logan quickly checked this inventory screen to assess the 5-pointed star, however, just like the kaevock it lacked any details. Putting his hand into his pack he pulled it out and showed it to the team, “I snagged it when Marcus hit it out of one of the bandit’s hands.”

“Was it Oretessu?” Gaemo asked as he looked at the bodies.

Logan looked back and pondered for a while… “Wait, where is he?”

“What? The leader isn’t here?” Gaemo’s voice got louder as he darted between the faces on the floor. “Fuck, how’d the artefact land in these lot’s hands?”

“I didn’t notice him either when we arrived”, Evén added.

“Logan, did you notice him amongst the previous groups?”

Logan thought hard about his recent confrontations, his System even alerted in his head a, “No”. “Sorry, I don’t think we’ve fought him yet.”

“A general without an army shall build another”, Sincollo recounted.

“It couldn’t have been simple, could it?” Gaemo spoke with a sigh.

“So what next? We explore all corridors until we find Oretessu?” Logan asked.

“We can’t very well let the man escape, who knows what other items he may be holding, let alone our quest requiring him dead or alive.”

“This chamber is a dead end, it’s your call Gaemo. Where is Oretessu? In the corr-” Logan began but was cut off as he felt a vibration in his hand from the star. “Wait… Where is Oretessu?” he repeated, and the vibration repeated with him.

“The artefact is resonating with the question?” Evén asked as he tilted his head over to the star.

“It might be why they used it without knowing”, Logan replied.

“So, it can be used more than once, it is a new day for them after all. Are we confident we can trust it?” Gaemo posed.

“From all accounts, the bandits had no idea about the artefact”, Sincollo said.

“Let’s ask these ones, someone here was going to use it right?”

“Yeah, that one”, Logan replied as he pointed out a body.

Moving over to the body, Gaemo began to strip it of gear and proceeded to tie the man up. “Marcus, heal this one awake.”

Marcus did as commanded and placed a hand on the bandit, recovering 8 HP for the unconscious target, though his face was still a bloody mess.

With a sharp movement, the bandit shot his head up, his eyes dancing around as he glanced at the corpses, finally landing on his betters. “Shit.”

“Shit indeed, you’d be in it deeper if you don’t answer my questions. Got it?” Gaemo threatened as he pulled his blade close.

“I’m heading for the gallows either way, fuck you!” the bandit spat at Gaemo.

The Fighter turned his head to Marcus and jolted his head as if to say, “Heal him again.”

Marcus placed his hand on the bandit's shoulder and began to heal the man and in that instant Gaemo sliced his blade through the left ear of the captive, severing it and having it fly through the air in a flourish of blood.

“Fuck!” the bandit exclaimed in pain, his body shifting as if he wanted to compress the wound.

“How many innocent lives fell to your weapons? You think I won’t make this painful for you!?” Gaemo raised his voice.

Logan was about to step up before Sincollo stopped him with a shake of his head.

“You’re insane if you think your hands are cleaner than mine, fucker!”

Gaemo brought up his blade, aimed it forward, and made a piercing jab towards the man’s right eye. The bandit shook all over as he went cross-eyed following the sword, only exclaiming, “Stop!” at the last second.

“Fine! I’ll talk, you crazy fuck!” the bandit yelled as he shook his head trying to get away from the sharp end of the sword.

“Where is Oretessu?” Gaemo asked.

“I don’t know, he didn’t appear with us, we assumed he got split like the rest!”

“How do you use this artefact?”

“The star? Fuck, I just held it and thought ‘I wanted to get the below away from here’ and it took us.”

“That’s it? Do you know anything else about it?”

“The boss took it from one of our hauls, a group of adventurers who raided a dungeon found it.”

Gaemo looked away in disgust, it was obvious this army of bandits most likely attacked the adventurers when they least expected it, probably when they were sleeping.

“So, you don’t know what this place is?”

“No. Never seen it before in my life, barely spent any time underground let alone in caves.”

A random teleportation, it was lucky the bandits arrived so close to the capital that Logan and co were able to reach them quickly.

“Why did you tie up Evén?”

“Hostage, we didn’t know who or what else came with us. At least if you were here we could use her against you.”

“Typical. Fine, that sorts out our destination. Tell me, is your gang still numbered at 87?”

“I don’t do the headcounts, how should I know?”

“Have you at least seen any new faces recently?”

“No, not that I recall.”

Without a further word, Gaemo dealt a solid punch into the bandit’s face, the force of it knocking him to his back unconscious.

“Fucking bandits”, Gaemo said under his breath.

“Are we heading after their leader with the artefact?” Sincollo asked as he circled around to his ally’s side.

“Yeah, hopefully, he is somewhere we can leave easy. If not, that artefact will be giving us a round trip. Six versus one should be fine.”

“Seven”, Evén added as she fastened her belt tight with newly donned daggers.

“You good? They didn’t hurt or drain you in any way?”

“Knocked me out and took my stuff, that’s all.”

“At least they had some courtesy”, Gaemo replied before turning his head back to Sincollo, “Yeah, seven is good odds. You up for it, Logan?”

“I don’t like leaving a job incomplete, so yeah. Marcus?”

“Count me in.”

“Any prep before we try and use this thing?” Logan asked as he looked over the star in his hand.

“Let’s take a half-hour rest here, get some skills in case Oretessu is packing more trinkets and artefacts”, Gaemo suggested as he looked over the team.

The party accepted the short break, harrowing fight after harrowing fight was taking its toll on their resources as well as setting in a sort of fatigue amongst the group. Evén and Gaemo spent some time talking with one another, discussing the time leading up to this point, while Sincollo took a short nap in the corner.

While the party did their own thing, Marcus was set to looting the corpses and noting the still living bodies. Leaving Logan with his own thoughts. With the star in his hand, he looked it over more closely. It was made of translucent green glass, shining slightly against the ambient light of the chamber. It was just shy of a foot tall, half a foot wide, and four inches thick.

Looking at his reflection, Logan spotted the scars across his face that was also covered in blood. Bags had started to develop under his eyes due to his sleepless nights filled with hunting activities.

“Where is Earth?” he spoke under his breath to the star.

It vibrated in his hand as he swore he could see a vision of a high-rise building within the glass. Logan’s eyes went wide, his heart stepping up in tempo. The Spellthief’s head was full of the thumping of his life engine, blood pumping around his body causing it to shake with excitement.

With a tremble, he opened his mouth, “Take-” he began before shutting his mouth. “If I used this now, it’d take the others with me. Hell, it took almost a hundred others”, he thought as he darted his eyes between his allies. “I’m not that kind of asshole, I’ll use it when we’re done and I can get far away.”

Logan felt like this rest was longer than any other, the key to his escape in his hands. He could have selfishly used it to take him home but doing so would take the others. He’d need a lot of distance to use it without worry, he wasn’t even sure about its carry range. Gaemo was lucky enough to be outside of it.

Marcus snapped his friend out of his daze, a pat on the Spellthief's shoulder having him jump up a bit. “We’re ready to go. You good?”

“Yeah, just thinking about stuff.”

“Keeping active has probably helped stop that, right?” Marcus asked with a knowing gaze.

“What-” Logan started as he looked at his friend. “He probably noticed that I haven’t been sleeping”, he thought. “Yeah, we’ve had a lot come to us to keep my mind from wandering.”

“A lot of variety. Helping those homeless, the goblins, hunts… Lightbeam is probably back, if not back by the time we get back to Gauntlet. How do you feel about that?”

Logan looked down as he stood, his mind whirling with potential answers to the question. “Like shit”, he replied succinctly. “Let’s… just get this done, we can deal with the aftermath of my failure when we get to it.”

“Our failure”, Marcus responded as he turned to return to the party.

“Yeah… ours.”

The pair grouped up with the rest, Gaemo downing what was left in his waterskin.

“Evén has informed us a little about Oretessu’s fighting style”, Sincollo announced as he jutted his head to the rescued ally.

“The gist of it all is that he’s a berserker. Dual sword style with plenty of skills to back him up. Outside of that, he has some enhancing spell rings, no doubt potions too. I’d love to say we have the same, but a lot of the potions from the bandits are required to be handed in”, Evén listed.

“We’d probably make more than 2 gold if we did use, keep, or sell the items. However, I am sure you know that bonuses are catered to the hunters, we’d be better off not using the supplies”, Gaemo added.

“Spell rings and the like are fine though, as they recharge daily”, Logan stated matter-of-factly.

“If only there were usable ones. I got some potions all my own, and found some that weren’t listed as ‘required’. We can use those if things get hectic”, Gaemo continued.

“He may be alone, but a well-trained and multi-skilled foe can easily take down those above their rank, or multiple equals at once”, Sincollo added.

Logan knew this well, his teleportation focus allowed him to make use of Grasp spells more easily than any mage of his level. Added to that, Logan was able to combine Backstab with Grasp, equalling much more damage than normal. From what he could tell it applied Grasp and then Backstab after that calculation. He knew this wouldn’t last forever, or be as easy as it was, enemies would eventually counter his teleportation.

“We need to overwhelm him with attacks and effects. Logan, Evén, Sincollo, and I will get into a melee with him. There won’t be room for the elementals. So those and Marcus will hold fire for any gaps, or just heal us.”

“Got it, I was expecting it to be quite clustered”, Marcus accepted quickly.

“Logan, can you throw out Gaia spells? If you can sicken him it’d help with the melee portion.”

“I can do two to four of those.”

“I guess we gotta accept that with a slotter. If you can do the upper number that’d be fine. He’s the leader, so he has probably dealt with many classed beings, anticipate dodges and parries galore.”

The team started to take out potion vials of varying colours and took a final look at Logan. The Spellthief took out the glass star, placed a Bowen dagger from his rib holster into the sheath at his lower back, and nodded to the team, who drank their potions.

“Take us to Oretessu.”

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