Once Brandr had located the place where the Christmas Goblin Champion had spawned at, we decided to get serious and start working towards clearing it next. The candy creatures were mainly golem or zombie like, and quite stupid, so we decided they really didn’t pose a large threat if handled properly. For the next several days, Isabella focused on studying her new book while Brandr and me worked our way past the barricade and slowly cleared the goblin creatures.

Distance between party members doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to earning experience, and neither does any form of group contribution. Isabella was earning experience from the creatures we killed, even while sitting in the room or on the roof and reading her book. It was a nice feature in many ways, but one that had me worried in many others. What happens if someone dies? In my case, I’m still a part of the group even when dead. Does that mean that if, heaven forbid, Brandr was slain somehow, she’d still remain a part of the group and our experience would divined three ways instead of two for Isabella and me?

Death of a group member was a scary thing to think about in this new world!

Our morning routine was the same as usual with us waking, exercising, and practicing, followed by a meal together. After that, Little Buster was handed off to the goblins to play with while they cleaned and tended to the room and two girls, and Brandr and I worked our way past the barricade and into the rest of the school. Once in ‘hostile territory’, Brandr would hide herself in the shadows and look for a safe way to draw the creatures attention, and then she’d pull a minimal number of candy goblins back out and to the hallway where I was.

In small numbers, they weren’t a large threat to either of us, and as long as there was only a few goblins that chased her to my location, Brandr would stay behind me and let me do all the actual fighting while she simply gave instructions and advice to me mind to mind. With her guidance, and with the goblins to practice on, my fighting skills slowly improved. By using the shield repeatedly, I even developed a Skill: Shield Bash and a Skill: Shield Block with it over the next few days, which made me quite happy!

The Shield Bash skill allowed me to use my offhand as a secondary means of attacking an opponent, and could sometimes stun or knockback my enemy. The Shield Block helped me intercept the enemy’s blows better with my shield. I’d improved both offensively and defensively while holding a shield in my left hands, and that helped me deal with the creatures faster and more efficiently all the time. At first, the fights with the candy goblins were somewhat slow and drawn out, with me taking as many hits as I was giving, but over time that improved. I was starting to block more and hit more, so they creatures were going down quicker and I was taking less damage and needing less time to heal between the fights.

It was our third day of killing candy goblins – and the last one we could have before Jello blocked the way between our ‘home base’ and the barricade again with its slow patrolling -- when Isabella yelped in our minds scaring us half to death!

“Oh! Oh! Drake you’ve got to come here!” Isabella’s thoughts were loud and frantic, and Brandr leaped forward and quickly helped me put down the goblins I was training on.

“What is it? Are the goblins rebelling? Did Jello get in the room? What’s going on?” She was so loud and so excited, I didn’t have a clue what to expect.

Silence answered me, and I feared the worst. Getting back to the barricade, Brandr slid under it with a wistful grace, and was running far down the next hall; well before I managed to wiggle myself through the hole under the corner. Pumping my legs as rapidly as possible, I rushed to catch up.

Rounding the corner at the janitor’s closet, everything looked normal enough in the far hall where we’d been staying. The goblins didn’t seem overly excited or panicky and were going about their normal routines. Brandr dashed out of the teacher’s lounge as I got there and informed me, “She’s not in there. Must be on roof.” By her quickened, disjointed thoughts, Brandr was apparently as worried as me.

Without slowing my stride, I dashed past the goblins, rushed towards the corner, and stormed up the steps onto the roof. The sky was dark gray and cloudy, with an overcast look that reminded me of the gloom before a harsh storm. I quickly scanned the area all around looking for a minotaur respawn or similar creature, but all I saw was Isabella standing near the water tower.

When my eyes settled on her, and my brain focused a bit better, I lost my running step and tripped and tumbled end over end across the roof!

Lying there dazed, I glanced over to make certain that my mind hadn’t played tricks on me. Sure enough, there was Isabella, same as before – naked, like usual, except with a large set of blue-white leathery wings half stretched coming out of her back!! Two small little white horns grew out of her forehead, and arched gracefully skyward from a few inches above her eyes. Her hair had once again grown in length, and was now flowing down her back in long waves of curling strands that ended only a few inches from her feet. She seemed to have grown a little taller; longer of leg and curvier of body.

It was Isabella, but at the same time, it wasn’t Isabella. It was a demonic version of Isabella!

“Wha.. “ I couldn’t even get a full thought out, as the winged Isabella started running over in my direction – only to flap up, do a backwards summerset and then crash down onto the floor as well.

“My lord,” Brandr’s thoughts were shocked and intense in my head, “should I slay it? Is it my Lady? Is she dangerous?”

“No!” I shouted while struggling to get back up. “No, no, no! We’re not going to attack it!”

Of all the wild things my mind was imagining, I’d never imagined something like this! Slowly, I tucked my spike into my belt and walked over to it. To her. “Izzy? Is that you?” I checked the group icons to the side of my vision and her window was still there, though it too now displayed an image of her winged form in it.

“Ahhhhhwoooooooo!” The Isabella-demon looked up towards me with glowing blue eyes and howled some sort of intense primal screech. As her eyes focused on me, she opened her mouth in a snarl and I saw a set of sharp, long fangs glaring back at me. With another howling screech, the creature leaped across the distance separating us and threw itself into my arms. At first, I thought Isabella was going to kiss me as she normally did, in a wildly uncontrollable manner from head to toe, but she didn’t. Instead, her fangs bore down and ripped heavily into my neck and throat and she began to feed upon the blood that rushed out of my veins.

Pain shot up through my arteries and veins and it felt as if an anvil suddenly pressed down on my heart. “AAAARRRRGGGHHH!” Even with my high level of physical resistance, the pain was intense. Brandr came dashing forward, sword raised up high, but I stopped her. “Wait! We are not going to kill Isabella,” I told her firmly mind to mind.

“My Lord! She’s killing you,” came Brandr’s worried thoughts.

“Then she will kill me. We are not going to fight or harm Isabella.” Watching my life in the party windows, I could tell that the green line that represented my health was fading quickly. I probably had less than a minute to live at this rate. “Get the goblins back and lock everyone and yourself into the lounge. It’ll be cramped, but stay there. The only way you’re to fight her is if she breaks in there and attempts to harm you. I won’t trade you for her, or her for you.”

Brandr hesitated, so I repeated myself as firmly as I could mind to mind. “Don’t fail me, My Blade! Gather and protect those that need you. Go now! That’s my command!”

“I won’t fail you,” was the unshaking response she sent back to me as she ran full tilt back to the steps and out of sight.

For several long moments, the Isabella-demon fed on my life and my blood. My eyes got heavy, and I got too weak to stand anymore so I sank to my knees. The world was slowing fading away in a pool of red-black darkness.

DING!

Congratulations, your party has slain another Human!

Your party gains 25 Infamy!

You SPR decreases by 1!

Your total Human kills is: 3

You need 7 more kills to unlock the Mass Murderer achievement.

Shit! Isabella killed me! She eat me!

In fact, she was still eating me! There was constant little aches and pangs in my neck and shoulder where she kept biting and chewing chunks out of my flesh. Isabella was some sort of insane cannibal demon, at the moment!

Cloudme tried to throw itself at her, but I couldn’t do anything.

Sorry! You do not have sufficient aptitude to possess that target!

I couldn’t possess her, and I couldn’t force her to stop, so I tried getting through to her with the party chat. “Isabella! Can you hear me?” It seemed to me that she was currently out of her mind, and I didn’t want to issue any sort of direct order like “STOP THAT” to her. Isabella always had the choice to ignore a direct command from me; she just had to pay the price and accept the cost of ignoring it later with some form of punishment. In the state she was currently in, it didn’t seem as if she was capable of rationalization. She’d simply do whatever she wanted and the penalties would build up regardless. I didn’t want to add to her burden; I wanted to help her.

For the next hour, my spirit tried to possess her. I tried to talk to her. I tried to reach her, in any way I could imagine. All to no avail. My Spiritual Manipulation went up considerably; from twelve to twenty-one, but nothing I did affected Isabella.

Finally, the flames of rebirth erupted from my corpse and Isabella leapt back from it like a wild beast. Blood covered her ivory pale face and breasts, and her tiny hands were drenched in the dark reddish-black liquid. She howled like a wild beast as her prey went up in flames before her and she hurled flaming balls of blue fire in multiple directions. When the flames finally consumed Cloudme and I reformed again, she pounced immediately back upon me once again!

For the second time, she flung herself upon me and began to bite and suck at the blood flowing warm in the veins of my neck. Once again, I simply wrapped my arms around her and cried. I didn’t know how many times she was going to need to feed, but I wasn’t going to fight or harm her. As long as I was her only target, I’d let her feast on me as much as was required until we could find some way to return her back to herself.

Once again, my health drained rapidly at first, but then the loss started to slow once I’d fallen below half life. As my health dropped to about a quarter, Isabella finally stopped drinking and slumped in my arms. Her fangs were still stuck deep in my neck and shoulder, but her body had finally went limp and still against me. Together, we slid to the ground, wrapped in each other’s embrace. Even though she wasn’t feeding now, I was still losing blood rapidly from the gaping hole tore into my neck, and moments later there was another ding and another window appeared.

Congratulations, your party has slain another Human!

Your party gains 25 Infamy!

You SPR decreases by 1!

Your total Human kills is: 4

You need 6 more kills to unlock the Mass Murderer achievement.

Once more, the system counted it as if she had killed me. Dumbass system! Like I blamed her at all!

“Brandr,” Cloudme sent her a gentle thought, “I’m dead again, but I’m going to need your help this time. Izzy is contained, but she’s entwined with my corpse. You need to get her before I burn and harm her. Bring some rope or wire and be prepared to restrain her, and we’ll see what comes next. We’re not going to harm her, but I’ll be danged if I’m certain how we can help her while she’s like this. It seems like something awoke the demon inside Isabella, and we might have to figure out a way to put it back to sleep.”

“I’m coming,” was Brandr’s only response as Cloudme was left to float and hover helplessly over both our crumpled bodies.