Swerving to the side of his bed, Logan threw a nearby feather pillow at a resting Marcus to rouse his ally. “Ah, what? Logan, something wrong?” Marcus asked in his bemused awoken state.

“Get up, I hear trouble downstairs”, Logan replied as he grabbed his gear and used Clean to prepare himself for combat, his hair was getting longer in his stay on Avanar and the mick helped to style it out of his eyes.

Using his System, Logan saw that the time was around 1am in the morning, closing in on 2am. Repreparing his spells for the day, he readied 1 cast of Flame, 1 of Gaia, and 2 of Infuse. Checking over his Infuse spell’s text he was able to calculate that it would last 2 minutes and 10 seconds. He resigned to using Infuse as any other spell would cause too much structural damage for his liking, though he had two just in case he needed them.

“Yeah, I hear it too. Think they are robbing the innkeeper? What do you want to do?” Marcus began to ask, preparing his own gear.

“Help him of course, we can’t let them do as they like to the owner, I saw no malicious intent in him or his details”, Logan answered adamantly.

“Got it, how will we handle the bandits? I doubt they will let us live through a fight, many just kill their foes.”

Logan stopped for a second, thinking about his next action. “I haven’t killed anyone since Vokka’s blessing left me… I don’t want to do it, but if needs must… Damnit why can’t people just leave each other the fuck alone.”

With their gear all in check, Logan opened up the window to the outside as the bed blocking the door would create too much noise to move. Motioning Marcus, the two jumped out of the window, a good eight or so feet to the floor below. The moon in the sky lit up the grassy plains rather well, a cloudless night painted the scene a beautiful dark blue. Clicking his fingers, Logan scanned the nearby area and was glad to see little in the way of creatures.

Continuing to use Echo Radar, the two approached the front door to the inn, the nearby closed windows letting out tiny beams of candlelight. With the use of Stealth, the door was opened silently, allowing the worried adventurers an easy entrance inside. Eventually, Logan and Marcus found themselves outside the door to the backroom, shuffling shadows within the side and bottom gaps of the door revealed that most if not all of the bandits were inside.

Placing an ear to the door, Logan listened intently. “He’s not talking Jaev, just empty his throat and let’s ransack the place”, one voice called out, seemingly younger than the man Logan had spoken to last night.

“He is a tough one, I’ll give him that, if he won’t talk he will bleed. Maybe his red rivers will flow to his stash”, the rougher voice replied, noting him as the leader.

“Fuck, they aim to kill the innkeeper”, Logan’s head was full of worry and his heart full of rage.

Waving Marcus over, Logan used his new spell, “Infuse Flame”, he spoke softly away from the door. Tiny sparks of fire emanated from his hand, dancing across to his fingers until he finally clasped around his dagger and then the quarterstaff of Marcus with the second casting. Both his blade and the staff ignited into a whirling blaze, heating and lighting the immediate vicinity.

Leading their charge, Logan stood tall and gave a swift front kick to the door, bashing it open as it slammed against the opposite wall on the inside. The loud bang of wood and buckling of the hinges alerted the five bandits inside, surrounding a beaten, bruised, and bleeding innkeeper whose face had gained many more scars from torture.

The bandits’ eyes all lit up in shock as well as against the flames that flowed across their new adversaries’ weapons, the leader stepped away from the hostage with open arms to Logan.

“Well, light sleepers are we?” the leader spoke.

With a quick Identification, Logan saw that the innkeeper was sitting on 8/76 HP and wasn’t in immediate danger but another hit could spell the worst.

“What are you doing with him?” Logan demanded, making room for Marcus to stand side-by-side.

“That’ll be information for our gang only, can’t be having you tattling on us. Since you’ve seen this much though, you got two choices. Join up with us and enjoy the spoils, or attempt to take on five at once and find that the above will be your new home.”

“Or you can all forget whatever you’re trying to get out of him and leave with all you’ve got right now”, Logan tried to intimidate, which seemingly also used his Haggle skill. He could see it had affected one of the fighters with lower HP.

“Two casters? I doubt you’d be able to take us all on. If you were able to cast level 2 spells I would bet you’d have put us to sleep or constricted us by now, so I put our odds pretty high. Your friend over there isn’t even out of beginners gear”, the leader retaliated, pointing at Marcus.

“Gotta be quick, I need to take them down in a fell swoop so they cannot gang-up on us”, Logan planned in his head. Giving another scan over the opponents, it seemed like they were all physically focused, a few throwing daggers and crossbows were seen in their gear to go along with their collection of shortswords, longswords, and bucklers.

“Ekat mih!” the leader shouted, bemusing Logan as he saw the closest bandit lunge forwards. With a piercing stab with a shortsword in the right hand, a buckler close to the chest, Logan was just narrowly able to duck beneath the blade as it slid over his shoulder, cutting into him for 3 damage.

Bringing up his right arm, Logan was able to push into the underside of his foe’s left arm to reveal an exposed underarm, quickly drawing Fangtooth he dove it deep in the man’s lesser-protected armpit whilst commanding his System to not use Backstab, leaving the dagger in place. A flesh-wound 9 damage caused the bandit minor pain in comparison to the 60 he had in total, but Logan was not finished.

Whirling around to the back of his foe, Logan opened his left hand into a claw as he chanted, “Flame Grasp”, flames exploding in his palm and erupting forth onto the bandit’s back as Logan landed a solid magical Backstab that inflicted a monstrous 58 damage, taking the first attacker straight down to -7/60 HP. Logan’s was shocked to see how much it did, as he had yet to deal so much in one spell.

The now-blackened bandit fell to the floor as he started to radiate a burnt-meat smell into the backroom. Logan held back his guilt and sick piling in his stomach as there were still four foes left. Looking over the remaining adversaries he could see the worry in all their faces, the leader composing himself once more.

“A Grasp expert ey? No wonder you wield a dagger like that”, he began and then turned to his allies to shout out more orders, “Mlehwrevo mih, ekam erus eh stsacsim sih slleps, lla ta ecno won!” a weird language that Logan didn’t have time to decipher.

The bandits all darted forwards, one on the left throwing daggers at both Logan and Marcus first. Impaled by two daggers, Logan took 4 and 6 damage, Marcus taking 8, showing the damage reduction at play for the Spellthief. Following on from the dagger-thrower a dual-wielding shortswords-man lunged at Logan, the Spellthief parrying one strike but taking a major hit with the other for 11 damage.

Next was the third bandit, wielding a large longsword and charging towards Marcus. Logan pushed the shortsword out of him as he sidestepped to trip the charger, knocking him off balance and catching him the back with another yelled, “Gaia Grasp!” from which piles of rock and mud formed around his shoulder, darted down his arm, and jumped into the foe’s spine. Shards of rock and thorny roots dug into the bandit as he yelled out in pain. The Backstab text popped up once again as it confirmed a painfully high 57 damage to the man who had only 58 HP to his name.

Taking the initiative, Marcus swung his staff upwards to retaliate against the falling foe, a loud crack and thud were heard as fiery wood smashed into the bandit’s chin for 5 damage and 3 fire. The longsword-wielder flipped around as he fell onto his side, supplanting the quickly filling floor with another body at -7/58 HP.

Seeing his ally fall, the dual-wielder continued his flurry as he also called out, “Sequential Slash”, causing his form to become blurry yet hastened. Striking out at Logan he dealt five attacks, with only one missing, dealing Logan 12, 12, 14, and 16 damage, causing a now fainting Spellthief at -4/74 HP to fall to the floor.

A few seconds passed as he heard the end of a spell cast, “shot!”, his body recovering 15 HP with Marcus readying another Heal.

“Shit, not going good”, Logan had to act fast as the leader was now a leap away from Marcus. Pushing up with his right arm he swept his leg under that of the dual-wielder to knock him off balance, and then followed up with another kick to the stomach, sending him flying into the leader as they both tumbled to the floor.

Daggers continued to fly through the air, stabbing Logan for 4, 6, and 6 damage, taking him into another fainting event with -5/74 HP, however, this time he was still conscious enough to see the healing wave hit him for another 14 HP. “Fuck, too many enemies!” Logan’s mind raced, he activated his periapt to grant himself 2 MP which he used immediately, “Gaia Wall!” he screamed, waving his arm to cut off the dagger-thrower in the corner of the room, a mighty wall of earth crashing through the wooden floorboards and smashing into the ceiling.

Standing up fully, he saw the dual-wielder and the boss also standing to which he continued his tactic to split them up, “Gaia Wall!” he shouted, causing an earthen wall to soar upwards once again, this time picking up the leader and trapping him between the wall and the ceiling, pinning him in a delightful turn of events. The dual-wielder was quick enough to avoid the wall, however, and was on the same side as Logan, Marcus, and the rough hallway that was now formed in the backroom.

“Those alterations, you aren’t a second level caster?!” the dual-wielder demanded to know, as he began to assault Logan again. Another healing orb hit Logan for 12, taking him to an uneasy 21/74 HP. Leading with a Force into the bandit’s left arm Logan was able to delay his opponent’s barrage slightly, the right lashing out with a single strike for 10 damage. Quickly drawing up Tara’s dagger, Logan let out his own onslaught of three strikes, hitting the bandit for 15, 16, and 8 damage with Spellthief’s edge dealing the heavier blows.

Logan was barely standing at 11/74 HP, Marcus still at 26/34 HP, and the dual-wielder at a deathly 13/62 HP. With no slots or MP left, Logan had to rely totally on his martial prowess. Resorting to dirty tricks, Logan feinted with his left dagger whilst dropping his right, the Bandit moved to parry but was met by a heavy blow of Force into his chest for 12 damage, which sent him flying against the wall of dirt behind him, a follow-up dealing a further 12 to end his life.

With three foes down, only two remained behind two different walls of earth, Logan quickly scrambled for his other weapon, taking it from a now-dead bandit. Dual-wielding Spellthief’s edge and Fangtooth, Logan was treated to two more rounds of healing for 12 and 15, Marcus then used Healer’s Caress on himself for 3.

Since the walls were still active, Logan ran over to the tied-up innkeeper and made a quick slash over the rope bindings. “If you’re unable to help us here I’d suggest you back out of the room”, Logan spoke as he received yet another orb for 14 health.

With his bindings cut, the innkeeper ran to the doorway that led into the back room, with a tall jump he slammed his hands into the wall above the frame. Behind the wall, which was seemingly a false wall, the innkeeper brought out a sword made of black steel ending in a bat’s wing towards the hilt.

Landing with the blade in his hand he smashed a side panel of the door, pulling out two vials and downing their red liquids, Logan was able to identify him healing from such. “These bastards will know my sting too, I’ll back you up as you did me, sir mage”, he spoke, moving to Logan’s side.

“Name’s Logan, those walls won’t stay up much longer so be ready.”

“Tarka. Good, they could do with a beating.”

With quick introductions over, and Marcus speaking up for his name too, the furthest wall started to crumble away to release the dagger-thrower. Six daggers came sailing out from the last underling, hurtling towards the Spellthief and his innkeeper ally. With Tarka being added to the party hastily, Logan was just able to glance at a skill by the name of “Assailants Revoke” from the innkeeper, an almost invisible display of slashes in the air that deflected all but one of the daggers, which hit Logan in the shoulder for 6 damage.

Drawing up their own dagger and buckler, the thrower started to charge the two men, but Tarka had plenty of skills left to us, this one was called “Drainage Pierce” which demonstrated an icky aura of green-black around Tarka’s sword while he lunged forwards. Stabbing into the thrower, Tarka dealt an insidious 23 damage for which he healed 12.

Not wanting to stand around, Logan also got stuck into the fight with two slashes with his daggers, doing 17, 3 fire, and 12 damage to the thrower. Backing up from the brutal assault he was just victim to, the bandit started to dart his head around to look for an exit. Luck would have it for the enemies, as just at that moment the second wall of earth started to crumble and release the leader.

With a solid kick to the stomach from Logan, the thrower went unconscious from the combination of their wounds as they only had 1 HP to spare previously. Falling to the floor behind them was the leader, who darted his head around the room to see his allies all defeated, a few motionless on the floor.

“Fuck me, didn’t think we’d find a grasp expert this far out of town without a party. Guess this is it then”, the leader spoke, breathing in heavily as his chest was being crushed by the wall of earth earlier. Bringing up his hand he started to twist a ring on his finger, Tarka sprinted at the sight of this.

“Stop!” the innkeeper yelled, prompting Logan to do his own form of interruption.

Dropping the blade in his left hand, Logan thrust his arm out to unleash another Force with a yell. A shockwave of energy formed in his shoulder and shot across his limb until it blasted into the hand of the bandit, stopping the activation of his ring.

“Sever!” Tarka called out, the only skill so far he had actually spoken the name out loud. With his skill’s activation, Logan could see a red misty aura surround the innkeeper’s sword, as it cut through the air it made a haunting whoosh sound melded with the noise of a meat cleaver chopping into meat. Red liquid soared to the ceiling as a high-pressure wound created a rainfall of crimson, the bandit yelling out in pain as his forearm went flying from his body.

Not wanting to stop his action, the bandit plunged his other hand into his mouth, catching his ring between his teeth to turn it with his molars. Logan was close enough to follow up from Tarka’s blow, however, and dug his flaming dagger into the chest of the leader, the combination of all the attacks ending with this final strike causing the leader to go limp on the blade as his mouth went agape.

Retrieving his dagger from the body, the leader fell to the floor with the ring not having been activated. As the final body hit the floor, Logan felt the adrenaline subside and become replaced with cold shivers. The floating golden text did little to assuage the actions he just had to take, alongside the dread of how close he was to death himself if it were not for Marcus.

Shaking all over, Logan tried to compose himself for a few more minutes as he still had to deal with the aftermath of the fight. Using Identification he could see that two of the five bandits were alive but unconscious, two having died to their wounds. He hadn’t wanted to kill them, but the first foe took much more damage from his spell than anticipated and the other was just unlucky when it came to the numbers.

“You alright?” Tarkas asked, cleaning his blade with some cloth torn from the foes.

“Yeah, just need a breather. How about you? They did a number on you before”, Logan replied, keeping back the sick in his throat.

“It’s a teleport away from what they were going to do, you have my thanks, Logan. Tis a good thing we stopped their leader though, that ring of his is a teleportation item to go back to his thieves den”, Tarkas continued as he pointed at the leader’s hand.

“I’ve encountered similar items. What did they want with you”, Logan returned, thinking on the golden watches of the mages he had faced so far. Marcus made his way to the pair as he looked over their wounds.

“They knew I was a past adventurer, reckoned I had a fortune from my travels if I could set up an inn like this. Didn’t take no for an answer, though in that state they can’t take anything anymore.”

“What should we do with the bodies and the living?” Marcus popped in.

“Attempted murder, burglary, destruction of property, and connection to a thieves den. Only two of those crimes are needed for execution. Best we do so now and keep quiet about it, don’t want their buddies knowing about what happened here.”

“Certainly, we could bury them in the woods? Actually, Logan”, Marcus continued, remembering that Logan dealt with the body of Darius before.

“I… can deal with the bodies myself. Did you want any of their money to pay for-” Logan started, dreading his next course of action, but was cut off as Tarkas was already working on his compensation.

Picking out a pouch from the leader, Tarkas looked inside and fiddled with the coins. “This should cover their damage and yours included”, he spoke, looking at the holes in the floor from the Gaia Walls that Logan had summoned. “The rest is yours, I would be dead if not for your aid, so take as much as you can carry from them. To keep us both safe I say we all keep our tongues inside our mouths.”

Logan and Marcus nodded in agreement. “So, I guess it’s attempted murder and being in a thieves den that are the two crimes worthy of death here. Looks like I am already volunteered for the job… If not me, then they would do it”, Logan thought to himself.

“Don’t worry about killing them too much, they were about to kill me and from what I heard they’re all too used to it. Check their gear, you’re bound to find other people’s effects amongst them”, Tarkas gave a reassuring speech to Logan, noticing the Spellthief was feeling a bit uneasy.

“Right, I have some magic to remove the bodies but it takes a while, Marcus can you attend to Tarkas in the main room while I sort this all out?”

“I can, gotta make sure nothing is broken that those vials didn’t heal.”

“Thank you, Marcus, that’ll be greatly appreciated. I don’t want to wake and find blue patches over my skin.”

Marcus and Tarkas left the backroom, Tarkas limping slightly as he held onto his left arm, the sword being held by the Devout who was helping the man to a table in the main room. With Logan all alone, he began to look over the bodies and prepare for his next action.

“As they said, these bandits would be killed anyway. I’m just getting a benefit out of it. C'mon Logan, you can do this”, the Spellthief repeated to himself in his head, reconciling the murders piling on his soul record.

“Essence Absorption”, he commanded in his head five times, touching the two corpses and the three living bodies of the bandits.

“Absorption of foe complete. Calculating reward…”

“174, 188, 144 absorbed experience, target has no spells to absorb.”

The messages were all the same, the two corpses producing a warning of “target is dead, nothing absorbed” to Logan. The black and dark-green lines became a common sight for Logan as they invaded the bodies and minds of his foes before absorbing them through changing blue and purple lines, swirling into liquid vortexes of matter. Leaving behind only their gear, this was a quick way to deal with the cleanup.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Logan’s stomach started to settle though his worries only decreased a minor amount. Keeping his thoughts on work, he moved on to gathering up the effects of the past bandits.

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