When I activated Mana Vision, I could see red mana rush through Jak’lo’s arms into a red sphere that was floating between his two hands. At first glance, the mana looked like a diffuse substance, comparable to stringy foam rushing down a river. But when I looked closer, I could make out a system of complicated runes that danced around each other in an eye-contorting pattern, too fast, really, for me to understand.

But I got the gist of what was going on. The runes floating in the blood, lighting up like a whole bunch of firecrackers, served as mana collectors. Channels made out of strings of runes were then guiding the mana toward its destination. And the fact that the mana was cycling in the sphere kept the construct stable, even while ever more energy was fed into it from all over the body.

Then, a few runes on one side of the ball of fire lit up, and the sphere began to speed toward the other side of the room, only to explode in a relatively small globe of flames, which caused a wave of heat to wash over us.

Jak’lo chuckled while looking at the smoldering carpet. “Oops.”

“Maybe the other one outside?” I asked hesitantly while wiping some sweat off my forehead.

But Jak’lo already had begun to cast a second fireball, so I just stepped a couple of steps back, while carefully watching what he was doing. And indeed, the process was a lot less… refined. If I looked carefully, there were runes there as well, but they were much less structured, and the difference in the effectiveness was noticeable. The process took a lot longer, and the amount of energy guided into the sphere seemed smaller, even though the sheer quantity of mana used was comparable, resulting in a much tinier explosion of flames than in the previous case.

If either one could be called an explosion.

Frankly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the impact of the fireball. Did it have flames? Check. Heat? Check. Explosion? Not so much. I mean, the flames spread out, but it was more like the fireball expanded for a moment, and then the effect was gone. So it probably was good for lighting stuff on fire, but less so for blowing things up.

Before I could express my disappointment, Jak’lo looked at me with a grin and said: “So there you have it. Not sure if you could make out the difference, but the second fireball was slower and weaker than the rune-driven one. And that will happen for every single spell unless you have like monstrous skills and spell levels.”

That was interesting…

“How so?”

“Well,” Jak’lo said. “You saw the power difference between the two. And I have the fireball spell in the low teens, high intelligence and willpower, external mana manipulation in the thirties, fire affinity at level 2, and a silver level mana channel.”

“Pretty good levels overall, I’d say,” he grinned proudly at me, clearly expecting me to be impressed.

Fuck him.

“That’s not half bad,” I said in a somewhat condescending tone. “But how come your affinity level is so low and the mana channel is only silver? Don’t you, like, live for magic?”

Jak’lo obviously had not expected that type of response, as his face grew slightly red. “You ignorant little shit. Get out of here, before I burn your hair off.”

It was my turn to cackle. Until I realized that Jak’lo actually seemed to be serious about it. And when Jak’lo created a little sphere of red mana in his hand that radiated palpable heat, I decided that it was an excellent time to beat a hasty retreat. I wasn’t sure if he was going to follow through with his threat… but he did seem rather volatile.

As I exited the building, I heard him giggle again and almost turned around to confront him. But then I figured that I had gotten enough out of the exchange to give me some food for thoughts, and, more importantly, a good idea on how to create my own fireball, without relying on those prefabricated runes. Based on Jak’lo’s stats, I wasn’t like way behind, it seemed, and I’d be able to get some serious firepower if I put my mind to it, especially since I had a lot of unspent spell and skill points available.

And the money… well, that was a lot of gold for not that much in return. But, in the worst case, I’d sneak into the Best Western at some point with Shadow Skin, and steal some of it back. The way Jak’lo had treated me, I had no compunction of trying to get even that way.

See who’d laugh then.

But the exchange had still left a sour taste in my mouth, and I needed to get rid of some of that negative emotion. I decided that this evening it was time to make a move on some of the bikers, sow some fear into them. Or, at least, pick off an easy target or two.

Until then… more physical training? Or try my hands on the fireball? Either one might pay dividends soon… but given the nature of the fireball with its impact mostly restricted to heat and fire, rather than explosive force, I figured that for now, it was more important to further raise my physical stats so that I could start spending those extra points I had.

And probably, I should also take the opportunity to further increase my mental stats in between.

Talking to Jak’lo had made it clear that some of those were also relevant for spell casting, so I certainly shouldn’t neglect them.

Munching on another few cereal bars, I went to the local gym to find some dumbbells and machines for heavy compound exercises. The previous day I had worked more on leg muscles, chest, and abs. Today was the time to work on shoulders and arms.

Needless to say, it was grueling. I don’t know how many times I longed to just call it a day… but I pushed through the urge. If I wanted to have results, I needed to overcome those mental barriers, needed to go to my limits and beyond.

Which wasn’t to say that I didn’t take breaks. I did. I still had to eat as much as I could to fuel the changes taking place in my body, and I also needed to take some time in between to put a couple more points into my mental stats.

Hours later, when the sun began to set, I did my last set of deadlifts, and then made my way to the motel of the bikers. I wasn’t sure yet what I was going to do… but I wanted to do at least something. Even if it was only for psychological reasons.

The shadows got longer as I walked along the deserted street, and the light slowly disappeared. Soon, it was going to be the ideal time to camouflage myself in shadows and approach the biker compound unseen. When I was just a couple of blocks away, I pulled forth black mana and activated Shadow Skin.

And it turned out, just in time.

As I walked around the corner, I saw a group of four bikers walk toward me. Seconds before they surely would have noticed me, I slid into the shadow of a parked car and waited for them to pass.

This was it. The opportunity I had been looking for - a small group of bikers isolated from the rest, in the dark, unaware of my presence. I just had to follow them for a bit, to make sure that the inevitable screams wouldn’t be noticed by the rest of the bikers in the hotel.

The bikers wore the obligatory black leather vest, adorned with a combination of skulls, crosses, roses, and guns. And naked girls, of course, albeit silhouetted. One guy was at least 6’5” but real skinny. Another one, much shorter, but shoulders like a bull, had a nasty scar at the side of the face, that looked as if it had healed only very recently. The other two almost looked like twins, with huge bushy beards and bulbous noses, and both puffing on a spliff that they shared between each other.

Lanky had a baseball bat as a weapon, whereas the twins sported iron rebars, and scarface carried a wooden club with sawed-off nails as spikes. None of it looked professional, but I was sure it got the job done when paired with brute force.

With some difficulty, I pulled my sword out of the narrow opening of the bag of holding, and then followed them slowly, keeping to the shadows at the side of the road. And as I sneaked closer, I was beginning to be able to make out their conversation.

“… the boss? You heard him, right?” Lanky was saying as I got close enough.

“Yeah, not sure. I mean, have you seen Golgiat? That dude is crazy strong,” Twin one responded while taking another deep pull from his spliff.

Lanky chuckled with a nasal voice that I found profoundly unpleasant. “That’s not gonna help him if he has a knife through his heart.”

“True,” Twin two said. “But personally, I’d rather take on Jak’lo than Golgiat…”

“Dude, if I could pick, I’d take Bree-Ann,” Twin one dreamily said while taking another puff from his spliff. “She is hot. And with a knife against her throat, she wouldn’t be able to say no to what I want either.”

“Man, you are kinda sick, you know?” Squat said with a sleazy grin on his face.

“Speaking of… what are my tired eyes seeing over there?” Lanky pointed with his chin down the road. “Is that… nooo, can’t be true… a girl? Walking around after dark? Bad choice, bad choice.”

“Eddie, you know how Cobr-,“ Squat guy began to argue.

“Andy, listen, she has to learn that she shouldn’t do that. Don’t you think? And I know just how to teach her…”

The lanky guy, Eddie, grinned unpleasantly and sped up his steps, quickly approaching the girl who had just become aware of the men approaching and was cowering in a doorway.

I silently prayed that she would turn around and start running away, but she seemed petrified, like a deer caught in the headlights. And before she could snap out of it, Eddie was right on top of her, with twin one and twin two fanned out to cut off the escape routes.

Fuck.

I had hoped for some type of distraction, but this wasn’t what I had had in mind. Just watching the smirking guy lean over the hapless girl was making me sick to my stomach. And the eager grins of the twins, barely visible through their bushy beards, didn’t help.

“Well, hello there, darling,” Eddie crooned while bending down and putting a hand on the girls back. “You know that you shouldn’t be out at night, you know that, right? There are monsters around… who knows what might happen?”

“I… I know. I just needed to get some food, my dad and mom, they,-“

“Now, now,” Eddie interrupted her explanation. “The problem is that your dad and ma aren’t here, right? So I think that you need some help.”

“No,… I am fine, I-“

“No, you do! And my friends and I, we will make sure that nothing happens to you, but, you know, you gotta help us too.”

“Eddie, if this comes out …,” Andy said as he finally caught up to the other three, face slightly red from the exertion. Based on how he had been waddling over there, he certainly wasn’t a runner, and it had been easy enough for me to overtake him at the side of the road, always sticking to shadows and trusting the girl to occupy their attention.

“What’s wrong with you, Andy? How would he find out?” Eddie grunted while he was trying with shaking hands to unzip his pants in front of the cowering girl.

Slowly, I raised my sword and got myself ready to make a move.

I needed to take out Andy first and hope that Eddie and the twins would stay fixated on the girl for a few extra seconds. Twin one might be easier to handle because he seemed somewhat high. That should slow his reactions down a bit. So he’d get to live the longest. Eddie… I had to wait until his pants were down. That would give me a precious, extra, few seconds.

So, Andy first, then Twin two and afterward play it by ear.

Shit, I just hoped that my sore muscles wouldn’t slow me down too much. I was totally beat. Not a good situation to get into a fight to the death.

As I was dithering, Andy stepped forward and put his meaty hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “Eddie, just leave it! You don’t want to cross Cobra or,” he shuddered, “Big Pete!”

“Get your fucking hands off me, Andy, or I’ll cut them off,” Eddie snarled, while he grabbed the girl by her hair to prevent her from scooting off. “I’m gonna fuck the girl, whether you join in or not. I guess I should have known that you’d just bitch about it. Now fuck off.”

With a shrug, Andy stepped back. “Alright, do what you have to, but I’ll have no part in it. But… better make sure that she doesn’t blab later if you know what I mean.”

Eddie just cackled while tossing the petrified girl to the ground, and then lowered his pants. And finally, the girl snapped out of it. With a terrified scream, she began to flail around with her arms and managed to land a lucky punch right into Eddie’s crotch. Groaning, Eddie bent over, cursing violently, while Twin two jumped in and smacked the girl with full force into her face.

With all the attention focused on the girl, it was time to make my move before things could escalate even more.

I dashed forward and rammed my sword into the back of Andy. With a chocked scream, he dropped his improvised morning star, fell to his knees, and pressed his hands at the gaping wound in his chest, trying futilely to stop the bleeding.

In the meantime, I was already moving toward Eddie, who was still on the ground, writhing and moaning while clutching his balls, and utterly oblivious of what just had happened.

“You should have listened to Andy,” I hissed as I was slashing a vicious cut through his side and back, at which point the twins finally realized that something was going on.

“Who, the fuck, are you?” Twin one snarled as his drug-addled mind tried to catch up to what had happened. And then he continued in a classic, almost comical, villain fashion: “Do you know who you are dealing with?”

Meanwhile, Twin two was swirling his rebar atop of his head in a poor imitation of some type of samurai bo-movement, before jumping straight at me, screaming gutturally. Almost instinctively, I activated Mana Vision and saw that green runes flared around his whole body, leading to… something. Not sure what. It seemed to be focused around the muscles, so perhaps some strengthening effect.

Instead of waiting for the strike to hit me, or, god forbid, block it with my sword, I simply sidestepped and sliced the razor-sharp edge of my sword along his arm, cutting him up badly. Twin one finally realized that he was in a fight to the death and, screaming like a berserk, attempted to bring up his own rebar. But by then, it was too late. I lunged forward and stabbed the tip of my sword right into his throat, which shut him up quite effectively.

Twin two attempted to use my momentary distraction to attack me from behind with a one-handed swing of his weapon, but he was telegraphing it so much, that I was ready for the strike before it even happened. Instead of ducking out of the way, which would have gotten us back to square one, I stepped back, right inside his swing, and used the pommel of my sword to break his nose with an audible crunch. Screaming like a little bitch, Twin two dropped his rebar, and, clutching his nose with his hand, stumbled away from me.

But there was no way I would let him escape.

Before he could recover his wits, I jumped forward and buried my sword to the hilt in his barrel-chest, and then stepped back, scanning the area for any other dangers.

The road was quiet, apart from the whimpering Eddie, and the gurgling noise and futile thrashing of Twin one. But I heard a few shouts in the distance. Clearly, people had heard the screaming and were getting ready to investigate.

I looked at Eddie, who was jerking around on the asphalt, like a fish on dry land. After a moment, I bent down, grabbed his greasy hair, and pulled up his head.

“You little piece of shit, you think you can just do whatever you want?”

But his eyes were glassy, and the moaning seemed mostly incoherent. I wasn’t going to get any response from him any longer. Which was too bad, because I had wanted to ask him about Annie. But unless I was willing to deal with other people, some of which might be more bikers, I needed to get out of here within the next couple of minutes.

And then there was the girl.