One of the bloody blades walked forward, a self-satisfied smirk on his face as he looked down at Andius. Something about him looked familiar to Andius, he wasn’t sure where, but he was sure he had seen this person before. The man walked over to Andius’ severed arm and picked it up as if it were the most normal thing in the world, “You look like you could use a hand.” As he waved about the limb, evoking several laughs from the others who were gathered around.

Andius scowled at him, his entire body still throbbing with pain from the burn and injury, “Yeah, real funny ass hole,” he all but snarled back, “Lemme guess, gonna kill us all and take our gear? How original of you.” Andius was in no mood to deal with these guys right now, all he wanted to do was get his arm back and stop the agony that losing it was causing him.

The man click his tongue and started walking around Andius like a predator stalking it’s prey, “Kill you? How boring do you think we are?” He asked with a mock offended expression, leaning in real close to Andius. “No, no. See, you killed not just one, but two of our officers in as many days. Just killing one is reason enough to join without an apprenticeship, but two? Hell, boss might just make you an officer right off the bat!” The man’s grin was almost feral as he looked down at the crippled man in front of him.

Andius made the most disgusted face possible, something between a snarl and looking like he was about to puke. “Join you? God you people are so fucking delusional! Why in the world would I join a group of murderhobos like you? I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t get a kick out of ruining other people’s fu-” A strong backhand to the face shut him up. The pain wasn’t bad, but the sheer force of the slap made his head turn harshly.

“Seems you don’t understand. Words already out about you, Mr. Demon, and your bounty is almost twice the size of our entire guilds! Folk around here are real jumpy about demons, didn’t you hear?” The group chuckled some more and the one holding Herald pressed his blade a little harder against his throat. “So if you don’t join, we’ll just have to kill your NPC friend here and turn you in. Fun fact, jail times here are preeetty long!”

Andius’ eyes went wide as he realized just how serious this situation was. There was no way in hell he was going to join the Bloody Blades, but he didn’t want to go to jail for god knows how long. The cherry on top was that his actions could result in Herald’s death. That may not bother some players, but the NPCs here were so lifelike that they may as well be real. Could he do anything to get out of this situation?

Raizus spit over at one of the other four members, “Like any of us would actually join you killers!” He was still sitting on the ground, face twisted in agony from the loss of his leg. Andius had never been more thankful for his pain resistance skill. All five of the bloody blades turned to scowl at Raizus, which was just the distraction Andius needed to think. He was in no shape to fight physically, so his magic would have to do in this situation… if he had any offensive spells.

Andius looked at his notification about his specialization and winced as he realized he did have one option available to him, one he might regret in the long term. The Umbral-Blade specialization was the one he wanted, but with how injured he was it would just do more harm than good. Mana-Channeler would get the job done in a second too, but he wasn’t willing to risk the loss in his sanity just for power. That left the Shadow-Caller, the summoner.

With an internal sigh, Andius selected the Shadow-Caller specialization and a slew of notifications tried to pop up, but he forced them to the side. At first it didn’t seem like there was any change, but anyone paying close attention would have seen Andius’ shadow grow darker and more bold, almost pure darkness.

The Bloody Blade who had been talking to Andius kicked Raizus in the ribs, doing little more than denting his armor, “Don’t think we were talking to you. Goodie Two-Shoes white-knights like you got no place in this world. Only that one,” He jabbed a finger at Andius, “is invited. Maybe if he joins, we’ll let you go.” The cocky grin on his face made Andius sick to his stomach. People were like this deep down, malicious and spiteful. The real world kept people like them in check, but in a fantasy setting like this there wasn’t anything to keep them from beating down the weak.

Andius touched his good hand down to the ground while looking at his mana; 78 mana had regenerated since the players had shown up, and if his math was right, that was enough for his summon. “Tell you what…” Andius said slowly while he focused his will, a thin tendril of his shadow stretching into the woods, “Let them both go, right now, and I’ll join you. Sounds fair, right?” As soon as his shadow touched the darkness of the woods 49 mana turned gray in Andius’ bar, and he felt some kind of connection form with whatever he had summoned.

“You’ve got no room to negotiate after you stabbed me in the back!” The other player said, face tinting red in anger. “You’re lucky we don’t just torture you here and now! You know how much it cost me to get my armor fixed!?” He was furious, a vein bulging in his forehead as he leaned down and got right in Andius’ face. “Whether you join or not, I’m gonna make sure you life is a living hell from now on, bitch.”

From behind the group, Andius saw a large wolf made of inky black darkness step from the woods, the tendrils of shadow lashing out wildly in the afternoon sun. Andius grinned and leaned in close to the other player. “Fun fact,” He said, a mad grin growing on his face as he called his mana into his system once more, “I’m not an assassin.” All of the color faded from Andius’ skin and his veins once again turned a horrifying black color. “I’m your personal hell.”

The look on the players face was priceless as he watched Andius’ eyes turn a vivid violet color. Shadows burst from Andius’ body, lashing out like living tendrils as he leaned forward and drove his dagger into the players stomach, just as the summoned wolf snarled and pounced on the one holding Herald. All of the players screamed in a panic as they saw the monstrous creature that just attacked them, a five-foot tall wolf made of pure darkness that seemed to stutter in and out of existence, it’s four eyes bleeding a violent purple smoke.

The wolf snapped it’s jaws down on the first players throat, ripping it out and swallow it, tinging some of the shadows of it’s body red before it let out a blood-curling howl that made even Andius flinch. Herald got to his feet and took off at a dead sprint into the woods, leaving Andius free to fight without worrying too much. Andius stood as quickly as he could and kicked the dagger embedded in the leader, sending him down to the ground screaming before running off into the woods himself.

The shadow wolf was a thing of horror, it moved unnaturally and seemed to glide around the battlefield. It leapt at one of the other players, but they dodged out of the way only to take an arrow to the chest from the other side of the woods. The wolf leapt onto that players back and took their entire head into it’s mouth and crunching down hard, sending blood and brain matter splattering from it’s jaws.

One of the players rushed the wolf and swiped it with their sword. The sword passed right through it as if the wolf wasn’t even there, but Andius could tell the attack had hurt his summon. The player who he had stabbed slowly got up and yanked the obsidian blade from his stomach, “Kill them all, the boss can go fuck themselves!” the other players cheered and they all rushed the wolf, one breaking off to go for Raizus and the leader went into the woods to look for Andius.

The wolf was strong, but that many opponents was a problem since it really had no defense against their attacks. For every slash that the players got off on it’s shadowy body, blood flew from bites of scratches, but it looked like the wolf was going to drop before it finished the fight. Andius looked over to Raizus to see him lifting a hand towards the group and player that was running towards him, his palm lighting up an unnatural orange color.

On pure instinct, Andius dismissed his wolf just as a torrent of flame engulfed the area it had once been, the agonized screams and smell of burning flesh replacing it. Raizus rolled over in agony, if he had pain resistance levels, they obviously weren't as high as Andius’ were, because he was simply gritting his teeth and doing his best to ignore the pain. It wasn’t easy of course, the feeling of missing a limb and running around hurt like crazy, but it was either defend himself now, or regret it for a long time.

Andius checked his mana as he saw their leader coming after him, he only had 30 mana, not enough for a summon just yet, so he would have to deal with this himself. Andius stopped running and drew his dagger with his one good hand, turning to look at the leader as he ran up. “Could surrender you know. Gonna lose a lot of experience if you keep throwing yourselves at us like this.” Andius said, his face completely deadpan as he crouched low with his dagger in a reverse grip.

The other player held his short sword out with both hands, walking slowly in a circle around Andius, “Yeah right, we got you outnumbered and out-geared, so what if you have a little bit of magic? Still gonna cut off your other three limbs and drag you back to the boss.” The other player said, sweat dripping down his brow. This guy was serious, he was still going to come after Andius even if he beat them here, he would have to do something to keep that from happening.

“Then come get me.” Andius replied, crouching down even lower to the point both legs were straining. The other player rushed forwards at him, but his movements looked slow, the combination of his mana-form and increased movement speed made this guy look like he was moving through mud. Before the player reached him, Andius dipped his dagger into the poison on his hip again, before sidestepping the slow downward swing and lashing out at the players side to make a shallow cut.

Surprisingly, the player jumped to the side in time to avoid the blow and swung his blade sideways at Andius, who barely managed to dodge in time to avoid losing his head. “You can use magic but you fight like an assassin, weird build you got there kid.” The player spat out before charging at Andius again with a diagonal swipe. Andius could see his movements before he even made them, but avoiding them was another issue entirely since his mind worked far faster than his body. The blade cut into his leather armor shallowly and knocked him off balance enough that the player took another swing in the other direction.

This time Andius didn’t try to dodge back, instead he moved forwards into the blade and took the pommel straight to the shoulder. Pain flared in his body again, his one good arm cramping up from the harsh blow, but he had managed to make a long gash on the players arm and jump back out of his reach again. “And you fight like a normal soldier. How boring.” Came Andius’ reply as he watched and waited for the poison to take effect. Andius just dropped his guard and started to pace casually, as if he wasn’t in a life or death situation right now, “You could do to have some odd skills, some throwing maybe, or even acrobatics. The way you fight now is so dull and unsophisticated, it was like I was fighting a child.”

The goading was clearly working, since the other player’s face went as red as a tomato, “Why you! What do you mean ‘was’? I’m still here and I’m gonna kick your-” He went silent as his arm started to shake, and he dropped his sword to grab at the wound on his arm before he started screaming, “What the hell did you do!?” He cried out as he fell to his knees, the veins in his arms bulging.

Andius let out a chuckle, watching this player in pain brought him far more pleasure than he would have thought, “Oh, just a mild poison. Course, I don’t think you’d describe it as mild, would you?” He said as he walked over to the player and kicked him in the face, the shadows surrounding him roiling and thrashing more violently. “Why don’t we just call it retribution for all the players you’ve killed?” He checked his mana to find it back up to 80, which was more than enough to summon another wolf. Andius kicked the players sword away and leaned down real close to his face as he let some of his mana drain away to form another one of his summons. The bond formed just as it did before, and the wolf padded over to Andius’ side, who started to slowly pet the shadowy form.

The player started to crawl backwards from the sight of Andius and his summon, the three pairs of glowing violet eyes in the shadowy forest more than enough to terrify him, “C-come one man, we’re just following orders! L-lets make a deal!” the player begged, making Andius’ grin spread even further than before.

“Kill the rest of his men. Bring their heads.” The wolf took off the second it heard Andius’ order, leaving the cloaked man to deal with his captive. “A deal huh? Sounds like a great idea. After all, those jail times are preeeetty long, remember?” He snickered and pressed his blade against the players throat, “Where’s all the ‘personality’ you had before, realized you’re gonna lose and turned into a coward?” For some reason Andius couldn’t help but laugh, was this the effects of his mana? He let his mana-form fade, leaving him reeling at his actions from before; how could he have so casually done something so terrifying?

The player’s face scrunched in anger but agony soon replaced it, which just made Andius remember his own injury. He had been toughing it out for a while now, but the pain from his arm was starting to form a migraine. A few moments later, Raizus and Herald found them in the woods, flanked by the shadow wolf who was carrying four heads in it’s mouth, two of which were charred. Raizus was leaning against Herald, who looked like he had taken a few blows himself judging by the blood running down his face. “Hey uh… nice wolf?” Raizus said, looking a bit scared of the beast himself.

Andius waved his hand and the beast vanished with his will, leaving only four heads rolling on the ground where it had been. Andius turned to the player and gave him a serious look. “You’re going to tell us where your base is, or we’re gonna cut all of your limbs off and drag you back to town. Your clearly an officer, wonder how the people would react to one of you being dropped off on their doorstep?”

The player paled and nodded rapidly, clearly wanting to avoid that fate, “We have this camp not far from town, just a bit south! one of the leaders is there, he’s the one who wanted to recruit you!” He looked around a few times at the three of them and swallowed hard, “That’s all I know, I swear!” Andius shook his head a few times and kicked the player in the head hard. His head bounced off the ground and he tried to get up, but Andius just kicked him again and knocked him out cold.

Raizus and Herald looked at Andius like he had lost his mind, both of their jaws hanging open. “What?” Andius asked, tilting his head to the side, “Not like we can just let him go. Herald, have any rope?” The marksman nodded and set Raizus down, pulling a long length of rope from his bag and setting about tying up the rogue player, giving Andius an odd look every now and again. “They have a camp not far south of the town, if we don’t take care of them there, they’re just going to keep coming and causing problems for this area. Either of you want to help me get rid of this problem?”

Herald spared a glance at Andius but didn’t say anything, just grimacing and continuing to tie up the unconscious player. “Don’t know about you man, but I’d like to get my leg back before I think about anything like that.” Raizus said, looking down at his severed leg with a frown. Andius looked down at his missing arm and nodded, he swore he could still feel the missing part of his arm, and it hurt.

“Charla can get you both sorted, just make sure to grab your missing bits before going to see her.” Herald said as he finished tying up the prisoner. “Andius, you help Raizus walk, I’ll carry this guy. Raizus, you carry the limbs… not sure what is the most grizzly task here…” For some reason, Andius couldn’t help but snicker at that, and just went to go collect his dagger and the lost appendages.

The journey back to town was fairly uneventful, they passed a few caravans on the road and got a couple odd glances, but no one bothered them. It was an odd sight to be sure, three heavily wounded men carrying severed limbs and a hogtied body wasn’t what most people would expect on an afternoon stroll after-all. When the town came into view Herald called the party to a stop. “Andius, take off that cloak, I’m sure they’ll recognize you if you just walk in like that… As for Raizus… Come with me, I know a back way in where you wont be spotted immediately.” He turned and looked at Andius for a moment with a frown, “You’re taking this guy to the guards right? Think you can handle it on your own?”

Andius nodded and they traded bodies after he shoved his cloak into Herald’s bag. The player was heavy, there was no way that he would have been able to carry him the entire way, but this last distance towards the town shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. “I’ll meet you at the shop then, this shouldn’t take too long.” Herald nodded and stepped off the path with Raizus, and Andius made his way to the town.

He felt naked without his cloak, he’d had it for a while now and it felt like part of his identity. That was probably for the best though, because as he approached the town the gates were closed and four guards were stationed outside. One of the guards ran forward when they saw Andius. “Halt! What are you doing trying to carry a hostage into the town!?” He looked Andius up and down and recoiled when he saw his wounds, “By the gods, what happened to your arm!?”

Andius frowned and pointed at the man slung over his shoulder with his nub, “This guy, that's what. I was dealing with the goblins to the west and this guy jumped me with his goons. Wondering if he had a bounty?”

The guards all but recoiled when they heard that, looking back and forth between one-another. “Don’t listen to him! He’s the demon! He attacked and killed my entire party!” the player on his shoulder said, and Andius knocked him on the head. The guards looked back and forth at one another, unsure of what to do. One of the guards pulled out some kind of poster and looked at it, showing it to Andius. The poster showed a cloaked figure with claws and shadows rolling off of it.

Andius snickered at the drawing and looked down at himself, “Really? If I was a demon do you think I would have lost my arm? This guy’s an officer for the bloody blades, pretty sure he’d say anything to avoid jail time.” The guards all jumped at that, one of them immediately pushing open the gate to the town, “Get him to the barracks NOW! We’ve been trying to get these guys for a while now. Good job!” One of the guards clapped Andius on the shoulder, making him groan in pain. the guards all chuckled, and they guided him to the towns barracks.

The barracks weren’t incredibly impressive, just a large building next to the blacksmith that had been repurposed to hold soldiers. One of the guards took the man from Andius’ shoulder, who kicked and screamed the entire time until he was thrown into a cell. A massive man wearing dented and dirty armor approached Andius and looked him up and down. “So, you’re the guy who got the officer? Don’t look like much, but looks can be deceiving.” He grumbled for a second, which made his caterpillar mustache move around like it was alive. This man was absolutely massive and was covered in muscle. His armor was just a chest plate and leggings, his arms and head were completely bare, and the crossing of scars showed that this guy has had more than his fair share of combat.

His head was completely bald, save for the thick mustache that moves with every motion and the bushy eyebrows that make him look constantly brooding. His dark brown eyes settled on Andius with a knowing look that said he knew something he wasn’t saying. “U-uh… yeah, I mean I got pretty roughed up for my troubles, but I won at the end of the day, right?” He said with the best smile he could, which was actually really awkward and guilty looking.

“Come with me.” The man said, walking away and not even looking to see if Andius was following. The man lead Andius to a back room of the building where a desk covered in papers sat alone aside from a lantern and chair. “So, you managed to bring in one of their officers alive. You get part of the reward for that, but we’d like it if you could bring in the rest of them.” He turned and looked at Andius hard for a moment, “Look, I know your type, can see it in your eyes. You wanna bring in bounties, that’s fine. But don’t think for a second you can just go causing problems in my town.” The man goes into the desk while grumbling and pulls out a small pouch of coins. “Got enough problems as it is with this demon lurking about, not to mention those damned bandits.”

Andius took the gold with his good arm and looked down at his other one, the pain had faded already which proved that health recovered faster in this game than in real life, but he was still missing most of his arm. “Don’t think I’d even be able to with an arm and a half.” Andius said with a grim smile, which just made the guard captain tilt his head at Andius.

“You got all that fancy armor and not access to a healer? Damn shame, looks like your career came to an abrupt end.” The man chuckled darkly and motioned to the door. “Well, I got work to do, so unless there was something else you needed, see yourself out.” The man said as he sat back down at the desk.

Andius walked himself out and looked inside the coin pouch. There was a total of 10 gold coins in here, and a note that read ‘Keep your fancy magic to yourself in Woodsdale’. Andius laughed aloud when he read that, that man was a lot smarter than he looked, but apparently he wasn’t a bad guy. With nothing else to do, Andius turned and started to head for the Herbalist shop, “Guess it’s time to get my arm back.”