Blair started the assault by lobbing a couple of fireballs in Hunter’s direction. The teenager frowned and watched them arc toward him. He wasn’t hesitating to defend himself. He was considering the effect the projectiles would have on the ritual. Would the resulting explosions disrupt the Keeper’s carefully laid candles?

I don’t care. Serves the bastard right.

Hunter used his Black Wind Evasion to dodge the projectiles. He flowed like a breeze around the various impediments scattered across the ground. The young warrior felt the fireballs explode around him. He looked over his shoulder but saw that none of the ritual had been affected. The Keeper stood there with a slight smirk on its maw. Hunter frowned and then turned his attention back to the battle.

Hank had sprinted toward Hunter and swung his glittering greatsword in a downward arc toward the young warrior. Hunter sidestepped the blow with little effort. The blade clanged against the stone ground, and Hunter smirked as the reverb made his grandfather hiss in pain. Hunter still made no move to attack the tieflings back. Instead, he kept Hank between his grandmother’s spells and himself.

“You don’t have to do this, Grandpa Hank.”

The tiefling sneered at Hunter. There was no compassion hiding in the man’s eyes. There was only malice and avarice in his gaze. Hank’s pupils dilated as he spat at Hunter.

“I don’t have to, boy. I want to. You’ve been nothing but a pain in the ass. You and your sister have always been a weight hanging around the neck of my daughter.”

Hunter recoiled at the barb.

“Say what you want about me, old man, but leave Summer out of this”

Hank straightened and laughed as he pointed the tip of his sword at Hunter’s chest.

“Leave your sister out of it? I wish I could. It’s you brat’s fault things are the way they are. Both of you have Perniger blood. You aren’t a true Gold. You’re the reason my daughter is working as a common bank teller rather than being by my side. I wish you had never been born.”

Hunter snarled at the hateful demon in front of him. He flicked the tip of his staff upward and caught the man in the chin. There was enough force behind the strike that Hank was thrown from his feet. As he fell, Blair launched a fireball in Hunter’s direction. Without hesitating, Hunter summoned Black Wind to his staff and twirled it into a circle.

The emerald flames were sucked in by the staff and dispersed without incident. His power had grown since his first days in the Rift. Now, a typical fireball wasn’t enough to debilitate him. Hell, it wasn’t dangerous enough to give him pause.

He stalked toward his fallen grandfather while spinning his staff. Blair continued to lob projectiles that Hunter dispersed effortlessly. He glared at the woman.

“Cut it out. I’m trying to keep you alive.”

“I guess I’ll have to try something else, boy,” she snarled.

Hunter ignored her and turned his focus toward his grandfather. He was trying to rise to his feet while hefting a comically large sword. He had the strength to use the weapon, but none of the skill. Hunter lashed out with his staff and struck the delicate bones in the man’s wrist. He heard the sickening crack that signaled broken bones.

The tiefling roared out in anger and dropped his sword. Hank rose to his feet and swung at Hunter with his unbroken limb. Hunter smoothly stored his staff within his storage ring and caught the punch within a palm.

“I’m trying to save you, idiot.”

“You’re the idiot, boy,” Hank grunted as he tried to escape Hunter’s grip.

“You’re worthless. You don’t even die when you’re supposed to.”

Hunter was growing really tired of his grandparent’s attitude. He was doing everything he could to save their lives, and yet they still wanted to give in to their greed. They weren’t even powerful enough to kill him, but they were trying their best. He was at a standstill. It would be easy enough to incapacitate his grandfather. Blair would probably be even easier. Why couldn’t he kill them?

They had undoubtedly given him enough reason to do so. They hated him. Maybe not as much as they appeared to while under the influence of greed. However, his entire life, they had insulted and marginalized his family. They spoke poorly of their own daughter, resented their grandchildren, and trio live every moment of every day as if they couldn’t be bothered with their daughter’s decisions.

In comparison, Hunter’s mom was everything to him. She had kept her children instead of putting them up for adoption. She had raised them while going to school and holding down a job. She had never asked for anything. She had provided the best that she could, and Hunter understood that.

His entire life Hunter had drifted. The teenager had never stood up for anything, not even himself. Maybe that was why he kept falling in this war of immortals. He had accepted greed because of the power it promised him. He had accepted help from the Archives for the same reasons.

Despite that, here in the Rift, Hunter had been given the opportunity to become more than an aimless teenager. He had been gifted power and opportunity in a world that held little of either. For the first time, he wanted to make a decision. He was going to save his grandparents. Not because they were good people or even because he liked them. It was because it was what his mom would want him to do.

Not making a decision in his life was a decision in and of itself. It robbed him of his future. It robbed him of his autonomy. He would forever be the poor kid from a poor mother who wouldn’t amount to anything. He would be the guy who fell for anything because he stood for nothing.

Fuck that.

Hunter rabbit punched his grandfather in the face. He felt the man’s nose break as he released the grip on Hank’s fist. The tiefling dropped like a sack of potatoes, and his head cracked against the pavement. There was a sickening thud, and then the demon was silent. Hunter wondered if he had struck the man too hard. Fortunately, his senses caught the slight movement of the demon’s chest. Hank was alive. All Hunter needed to do was incapacitate Blair as well.

He looked up at his grandmother to see the sneer writ on her face.

“You think because you knocked him unconscious, you’re some kind of hero?”

“No,” Hunter answered.

Finish him, Hunter. You’re so close to ending this ritual. Kill the tainted humans and accept the Host’s gift. We can make you more powerful than ever before. These demons are no longer your family. Your family is out there—outside of the Rift. You’ll need your strength if you want to protect them from the war to come.

Hunter glanced over at the angel. Her voice was soothing and her face was filled with compassion. It was disgusting. He turned back to his grandmother.

“No, I’m not a hero. A hero is just a pawn for one side of the other. I’m Hunter Gold, and I’m not going to be forced into this.”

As the last syllable fell from Hunter’s mouth, he exploded into motion. He summoned his staff from his ring and sprinted toward his grandmother. He was moving so quickly that he left an afterimage in the air. Black wind carried his feet until he crashed into his grandmother.

He used the butt of his staff to crack against her skull. She dropped bonelessly to the ground, and her flames were extinguished. Hunter stared down at the woman. She had indeed been beautiful in her earlier years. Her transition to demon had brought out that beauty and magnified it. It was a shame that something so physically perfect could be so rotted inside.

Hunter turned from the fallen bodies of his family and glared at the Keeper.

“I’m not going to play your games. Let’s get on with the ritual.”

The Keeper studied Hunter with unflinching emerald eyes. The cat’s eye pupil in the center widened before narrowing in malicious anger.

“Fine,” it said. “I grow tired of the games as well.”

The demon waved its hand, and the bodies of his grandparents exploded. Hunter was thrown away from Blair as green fire billowed from her chest and turned the rest of her body to ash.

“No!” Hunter screamed.

He scrambled to his feet and picked up his fallen staff. He jerkily walked toward the crumbling corpse of his grandmother. He sank to his knees. He felt hot tears springing to his eyes, and he roughly rubbed them away. He wasn’t crying for them. They were awful people. He was crying for the look on his mother’s face when he would tell her they died. He cried for the lost opportunity and the lack of control. He cried for having finally making a decision and it being for naught.

It’s for the best, Hunter. You need their strength.

“Shut up,” Hunter said aloud.

“Stop being dramatic, human,” the Keeper hissed. Hunter looked back and glared at the demon. It waved its hand again and gray wisps of soul energy collected above the slain tieflings. It weaved itself together and then plunged into Hunter like being submerged in an icy stream.

Congratulations! You have absorbed the soul of two Lesser Greed Tieflings: Lvl 25. You have earned 766 experience and +10 attribute points from the souls’ highest attributes!

ERROR… You do not possess a Class and, therefore, cannot earn any experience. Please find the nearest Rift Sentinel and receive your Class.

Hunter felt claws grip his shoulder. They pierced through his flesh and scraped against the bone. He wanted to scream but couldn’t find the energy.

“There, now the ritual can begin,” the Keeper announced as it dragged Hunter toward the center of a second circle.