Kay pulled his sword out of the giant bird monsters neck with a loud squelching noise. He gathered the blood off of the blade and filled his canteen back up with it before sheathing the sword. He paused to stretch before he went to get the enchanted sled he’d rented.

The job he’d just technically finished had been to kill said giant bird monster. He wasn’t really sure what it was exactly, but it looked like a falcon and it had been big enough to pick him up and fly off with him if he’d let it. It wasn’t jumbo-jet sized like a roc, but he’d seen smaller hang gliders before. The monster had been attacking the livestock of a nearby village that provided Tumbling Rapids a lot of its regular, animal-sourced meat.

The village had sent in a request for someone to come kill it, and it’d been stupid enough to fall for the trap Kay had set. He felt a bit bad using the sheep he’d purchased from the village as bait, but it was an older sheep that was set to be butchered soon anyway, and since it hadn’t been wasted, things had mostly worked out.

When the bird had driven the sheep into the ground, killing it instantly with a broken neck, Kay had taken advantage of the bird’s hunting style. The villagers had told him that each time it had need to grab hold of it’s prey and then take off, so Kay had used that momentary pause to cut into the monster’s wing with his halberd. With it grounded it was a fairly easy fight, although it had managed to break the shaft of his polearm with it’s beak, and he’d had to go to his sword. In the end though, he won without getting hurt himself, which was what he always wanted to aim for.

The enchanted sled he’d rented from a merchant that set up shop near the Adventurer’s Guild guildhall was a less expensive version of the same sled he and Alice’s Harem had used when they’d hunted Hill Bison. It was enchanted to run along regular ground with ease, and to let the person dragging it haul much heavier weights than they’d be able to normally. It was very useful for Kay, who didn’t want to waste the monster’s body by leaving it out, and he wasn’t good enough at carving up dead monsters to make it worth even trying to harvest from the bird.

Plus, the village had asked for whoever killed it to bring back the body and show them for proof, which is why he was only technically done with the job. The guild didn’t make adventurer’s return to the person who posted the job with proof for every job, in most cases you could just bring back proof to the guild and they’d inform the poster. In a lot of cases though, getting the information to the person who posted the job took some time, and that would have left the villagers in a state of fear, waiting for another attack to come from the sky.

It didn’t hurt Kay to stop by and show them the monster was dead, and he was hoping someone might agree to butcher the dead sheep for him as well. Also, it didn’t hurt to try and cultivate a good reputation with people. Having people saying good things about him would hopefully combat the stupid rumors about him being in league with the roaming Blood Mage that were still going around. That, and he didn’t know how long he would stay in Tumbling Rapids. He planned to go with Eleniah when she eventually left, which he assumed she would one day, since this wasn’t her home. If they were here longer than he expected though, building a good reputation could only be helpful.

With some effort he got the huge bird of prey, his broken halberd, and the sheep loaded up on the sled, and he started dragging it back to the village.

As he got closer and closer, he began to get worried. It wasn’t weird for smoke to be coming from the area the village was, they had a baker and a few other reasons for there to be smoke going into the air. But the amount seemed too much. The village, the name of which he either hadn’t heard or had forgotten, was situated where the hilly plains mostly just became plains. The flat terrain was great for raising livestock, and it also let Kay see the town from quite a distance as he summited a hill. Thick plumes of black smoke rose up from several burning homes. As far as he was Kay couldn’t make out anything other than that. He took off down the hill at a run.

He started to get even more worried as he got closer. The watch tower at the edge of the village, maintained by the city guard and manned by a rotation of the same, was empty. Multiple fires would be the kind of emergency that drew everyone to help put it out, but what had caused it? An accident? An attack? Kay kept running towards the center of the village, where he thought he’d seen the fires.

As he made it to the wall, he drew himself up short. The gate in the small wall surrounding the village proper was open and abandoned. Kay wasn’t an expert in the procedures of the Tumbling Rapids Guard, but that felt like a bad sign. The wall itself was more of a palisade. It wouldn’t do much to hold off an actual attack, but it helped keep monsters out. The gate being abandoned and left open made Kay think there was a serious emergency. He dropped the lead to the sled and sprinted through the gate.

As he ran closer his unease grew. The further into the village he got, the more alarmed he became. He couldn’t figure out what was causing it. He came around a building, arriving in the center of the village, set around the well, and froze so quickly he almost fell over.

Every single villager was gathered, staring silently at the mayor’s house as it burned. No one moved, no one shouted or screamed. They all stood there, watching the flames consume the building.

A shrill laugh rang out.

“Hahahaha! Glorious! How does it feel? To see all your hard work building such a wonderful home wasted by your own hand!”

The high pitched voice drew Kay’s attention to the front of the crowd. Standing there was the mayor of the village, who had helped Kay get as much information about the bird monster as he could, holding a torch. Next to him was a skinny man wearing a ragged black robe. The mayor stared at the man, his face a mask of anguish, completely silent.

The strange man clicked his tongue. “Bah, dumb puppet. I’ll gain some levels here, and then I’ll be able to make you talk.” He turned to the crowd, brushing he long greasy brown hair out of his face as he started peering at the frozen people. “Let’s see, which one of you will I have fun with next? Ah, you!” He pointed at someone, and they started lurching towards the front, their movement strange and jerky.

It’s the Blood Mage. Kay thought, absolutely certain of his deduction. Fuck.

His thoughts raced as he tried to figure out the best thing to do. He could run for reinforcements? But how many terrible things would happen to the people here before he could get help? Could he attack the madman? Would he win? Would it just make things worse, damning him to the same fate as the villagers? To die at the hands of the very creature he had sworn not to become?

The person the Blood Mage had controlled made it out of the crowd, and he saw the mayor’s pretty young daughter freeze in front of the mage.

“You’re this one’s daughter, aren’t you?” The Blood Mage cackled in a way that made Kay think he actually was insane, “Let’s start having fun!”

With a gesture from the mage, the mayor pulled his eating knife off his belt and stumbled towards his daughter. With slow, jerky movements, he cut his own daughter on the face. The cut was small, and barely bled. The mage motioned again and the mayor’s arm slowly came back up, even slower and with rougher jerks.

“Don’t fight me!” The mage snapped. “It’ll just make this take longer.”

That settled it. Kay started creeping around the edges of the crowd. If the mage was weak enough to have a random village mayor, who probably was only tier two, fight his control, there was no way he could have the crowd of frozen people alert him to Kay being there. Or so Kay hoped. In the end though, Kay just wasn’t the kind of person that was going to stand around and watch something so fucked up happen.

As he slowly sidled around the gathering of people, he saw some of them flick their eyes at him. They obviously saw him, their eyes filled with horror and despair, but they did nothing. Happy that the Blood Mage wasn’t able to use his controlled victims as some kind of alarm, Kay sped up his pace.

The mayor’s entire body shook as if he was having a seizure as he fought the Blood Mage’s control. The mage glared at him, making gestures and shouting as he tried to force the man to obey his will.

Kay moved up behind the mage, having made it around the crowd. He slowly inched forward, trying to get in range to strike.

“Do you know what my favorite part of this class is?” The mage asked as he glared at the mayor. “The more you struggle, the more my skill levels. Soon enough you won’t be able to struggle at all. No matter what you do, I’ll be able to make you dance like a good puppet. It’s just a matter of time.” The mage threw back his head and laughed. “My second favorite part is that I can sense people’s blood. It makes it quite difficult to sneak up on me!”

Kay lunged forward, the point of his sword angled to stab upward into the mage’s chest.

The Blood Mage spun, his hand flashed with red light and a floating barrier appeared between them. Mostly translucent and blood red, the barrier deflected Kay’s sword.

The mage cackled and threw his other hand out. Kay felt something inside of him seize up, like he had lost control of his muscles. Somehow, in the same instant, he shoved it aside. The barrier wasn’t that wide, so Kay dashed to the side, hoping to get around it before the mage could cast another?

“What!?” The mage screamed in surprise and threw up another barrier. The first one disappeared as the second one came up, so Kay jumped towards the now empty space.

It continued like that for a few moments, with Kay breaking the Blood Mage’s attempts to control him, and moving closer and closer as he thread through the gaps between the magical shields. He made it a few inches closer each time, and soon he’d be able to strike.

“How are you doing that!? My control is absolute!”

Kay snorted. Obviously it wasn’t, since the mayor was fighting it. This one was obviously a megalomaniac.

The mage snarled when Kay refused to respond. He raised both hands and cast two blood barriers simultaneously, blocking Kay again. With two barriers and the ability to cast them independently, the mage managed to keep Kay at bay. He was only two feet away, but he couldn’t get at the insane man. Kay glanced at the mayor and his daughter to see how they were fairing. The mayor was no longer moving at all, and the daughter only had a few small cuts on her face. Not immediately deadly and nothing that couldn’t heal.

Then Kay got an idea. He reached out towards the blood on the girl’s face and pulled it towards the mage, hoping to hit him in the back and distract him.

“What!?” The mage spun around and cupped one of his hands. The blood, shaped like a piercing needle, froze in mid-air.

Kay stepped forward as one of the shields vanished, and swung his sword down. The mage screamed in pain as Kay slashed through his shoulder.

A red glow burst from the Blood Mage and threw Kay back through the air. He rolled to his feet, blade at the ready, to see that mage once again behind two blood magic shields, glaring at him.

“Another Blood Mage!?” The actual Blood Mage shouted in rage, “The Greats Ones will notice me, not you! I shall rise above this base form with power of their holy blood!”

Kay didn’t correct the madman. He didn’t see the point in talking to people he was going to kill. As for the other bit, he chalked that up to the craziness. Kay dashed forward, his sword held in two hands.

One of the barriers suddenly flew forward and slammed Kay’s back into the building behind him, pinning him in place. He struggled to get free, but the magical shield pushed him back as he tried to push it back.

“Won’t it look good to the Great Ones if I come to them with another Blood Mage in tow, as my very best puppet? Oh, they’ll reward me greatly, won’t they?” The Blood Mage muttered to himself. He pointed back towards the crowd. “You, you, and you! Take his weapon away and hold him still!”

Three large men lurched out of the crowd. Kay struggled against the barrier as they approached. When it vanished, he stumbled forward. He steadied himself and prepared to attack, then froze. These were just regular people being controlled. He couldn’t attack them!

His indecision froze Kay long enough for one of the controlled villagers to wrench Kay’s sword out of his grasp. Then all three of the grabbed him and pushed him back up against the wall again.

The terror and horror in their eyes was palpable, but the arms of the three villagers were rock steady as they held him still. The mayor of the village must have been tier three, not tier two, because these three men were able to pin Kay down, but they couldn’t fight the Blood Mage’s control at all.

“Now, let’s start having some fun.” The crazed Blood Mage said as he walked closer. “The longer you struggle, the longer you suffer. You should just give in. I always win in the end.”

The mage’s hand came up and covered Kay’s eyes, and the same restricting force that Kay had managed to fight off before started pressing in on him. He threw it off, but it instantly came back.

“You can fight me better than the other puppets. Must be because you have the magic too.” The madman cackled. “But I have puppets to pull mana from, and you have none. Let’s see how long your mana lasts before you succumb.”

The Blood Mage’s Blood Puppetry skill pushed in again.