Cross was the first to slice out at Thermodan, twin daggers hitting against a barrier produced by the mage’s hand. A flick of the wrist sent Cross backflipping away.

Wyot was next, the spear failing to penetrate the Barrier spell that the mage was apt at using. Another hand went towards the Knight as dancing lightning hit his shield and sent him sliding backwards in the mud.

Egbert and Kelton arrived together, smashing and slashing at Thermodan’s sides but were also blocked by both hands holding Barriers aloft. In the rebound, Thermodan let loose two Force micks, pushing them both away.

Logan pulled back as he chanted, “Necromantic Second Skystrike”, causing tendrils to appear behind Thermodan, but the mage simply warped away from the attack and behind Marcus.

Marcus warped away similarly as he avoided an eruption of earth spikes from below.

“He’s just one mage! How the hell is he blocking all of this”, Cross cursed.

“He can’t totally concentrate on blocking our teleportation though”, Logan thought in his head, noticing Marcus could warp still.

“Ten-Point Barrage”, Cross called as he stabbed out at Thermodan several times

“Come Forth!” Wyot, Egbert and Kelton ordered.

“Chain Guard!” Marcus chanted, creating multiple chains of light to wrap around Thermodan.

Dodging a few attacks, Thermodan eventually teleported from his spot again to avoid the rest.

Seeing his opening, Logan finished his movements as blood poured from his thumb he had bit, “Demon-Clan Spell: Warping Censure”, causing the blood to blacken and ring around Thermodan.

“When did—” Thermodan cursed as the others moved to attack him again.

Egbert and Kelton both Rushed Thermodan, but his hair began to fly up as he chanted, “Blood Spike Purge!”

Thermodan’s body bubbled and had numerous red spikes explode from his veins, piercing the two Fighters severely.

A muddled sound of crying in pain could be heard outside of the barrier, it wasn’t stopping his living-sacrifice rituals.

The spikes pulled inwards as the bodies of the two Fighters fell at Thermodan’s feet.

“Ring Chaos”, he chanted, the rings on his fingers cracking and exploding. The remains circled in Thermodan’s hand as a pool of azure energy was contained within fragments of silver and gold.

Shooting this at Wyot had the energy orb completely destroy the Knight’s shield, with only the handle left in his hand. Wyot twisted his arm as a replacement shield formed over his old one.

Marcus formed up more golden chains, but Thermodan erupted wind into the floor to blast himself away from their grasp.

Warping behind the man, Logan slashed at his back but was met by another barrier to block the blow.

Grappling Logan’s arm behind him, Thermodan twisted around to grasp out at the Spellthief, instead, Thermodan’s hand was hit by a shield coated in a yellow aura, having been thrown by Wyot.

“Fine!” Thermodan accepted, grasping the shield and exploding it with both wind and water, shattering the metal apart as Logan escaped the mage’s grip to the floor.

Landing solidly, metal scraps falling at his sides, Thermodan narrowly dodged a piercing spear from Wyot who charged at the mage.

Cross spun around horizontally to meet Thermodan’s front and let loose more dagger swipes. Thermodan waved open palms around, blocking each blow with more Barriers.

Muffled cries continued to soar outside the barrier the mages were keeping up. Just how many lives was Thermodan ready to sacrifice?

Cross’s daggers split apart from his hurried attacks, as he pulled out more, Thermodan grasped both of the leader’s elbows and ignited the man in fire and lightning. The charred body hit the floor as Wyot slammed Thermodan away with his shield.

“Boss!” Wyot yelled as he drained a vial into Cross’s mouth, healing the barely living Rogue back to consciousness.

“Fuck, there’s no end to this”, Logan cursed in his head. “Marcus, Entrapment!” he ordered his ally.

Marcus nodded, “Right.”

The pair ran close to one another, then both warped away.

Appearing at Thermodan’s side, Logan and Marcus both ran their hands across the floor chanting, “Gaia Wall”, together. Two earthen walls erupted and blocked two avenues for Thermodan.

Logan and Marcus warped again, doing the same, making an open-top box.

Flipping inside, Logan and Marcus let loose daggers and staff at the foe, each one blocked by a Barrier spell in Thermodan’s hands.

Logan tossed a dagger in his hand and let it lay floating in one barrier and grappled it, “Spell Absorb”, a whirlpool of magic formed in Logan’s hand as the hexagons of the blue Barrier were vortexed into the Spellthief’s palm.

“Spell Absorption successful. Barrier charge stored, you have learned the spell.”

Thermodan scowled as he aimed a palm to the floor, Logan threw a hand above Thermodan and chanted, “Barrier.”

Blue hexagons formed over Thermodan’s head, causing the mage to crash into it and causing quite the headache as he failed to Air Blast through it.

A shadow then formed overhead as Cross began to spin, “Death and Decay!”, his body shrouded in devilish red shadows and coated his blades.

Thermodan began to raise his hands, but Logan stabbed one of Thermodan’s elbows, Marcus the other, and they pulled his arms down, leaving the foe’s head wide open to attack from the leader.

“Repulse!” Thermodan shouted, a wave of invisible energy pushing away Logan, Marcus, Cross, and the earthen walls that housed them.

Thermodan wretched and spat out blood and bile in a single glob. He had run out of sacrifices.

Vibrating his body three times over, the foe failed to warp away. “Damn this all to the below. They offered me a demon’s cowl, why am I to lose here!” he screamed in a hushed tone.

Logan warped back to grab at Thermodan, the enemy’s hand raising as wind pooled in it. Logan slapped his adversary’s hand as he mentally commanded, “Status Disturbance”, the wind spluttering and falling away.

Thermodan tried to kick away, but Logan was quick thereafter, swiping out with his dagger. The mage only barely bent backwards to dodge, but had the tip of his nose severed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Flipping backwards, Thermodan slid across the mud as Cross came to his side with dangerous daggers. He just barely dodged another but was met by a spear in the back as Wyot caught up.

Logan then apparated atop Thermodan’s upper body, his feet standing atop the man’s hips, and sliced at the mage’s throat.

The trio pulled back as their attacks pulled further insides from their foe.

Thermodan was bent back almost to a ninety-degree angle but held up two fingers as he tensed his body. His blood stopped flowing as his chest went up and down horrendously in haggard breaths.

Blood seeped through gritted teeth as Thermodan could only curse his situation, “Condemned by foes and allies alike. It’s their fault I failed!”

“Give it up, Thermodan. Revive our friends, or die in this stance”, Cross insulted with a vial of liquid dripping down his chin.

“You’ve no more pawns to break apart”, Wyot teased as he approached the bent assailant who was halted in time.

During the meeting to attack Thermodan.

“What about the last form of rituals you mentioned, self-sacrifice?” Marcus asked.

“Self-sacrifice is self-explanatory. You give up your own lifeforce to fuel the casting of a spell or to create an effect. The more you give, the more powerful the effect.”

“That’s what that vampire did when they halted my movement”, Marcus surmised.

“Is it stronger than living-sacrifice rituals?” Logan asked.

“It’ll depend on the power of the user and how many sacrifices you’re comparing to, but, potentially.”

Back in the assault on Thermodan.

Logan muttered, “Spellforce Detection”, his vision showing an increasing volume of spellforce bubbling within Thermodan, and two invisible balls of energy slowly flying together. “Get back!” he ordered as he shot a Wind Blast at Wyot. “Spend a skill point to—” he began to command in his head

“Thermo—”, Thermodan began to mutter.

“—change Signature Spell to Barrier”, Logan ended his thought as he ran in front of Marcus, “Barrier!” he screamed in his head over and over.

“—nuclear!”

Thermodan’s body cracked and formed red lines all over, Wyot and Cross running for dear life. The mage then erupted massively, waves of flames and destructive force going wide and far. Trees were disintegrated by the blast while the Knight tried to protect his fallen allies with his shields.

Logan’s azure barriers were shattered one after another as he formed them, the fires singeing his face and arms.

The explosion lasted only a few seconds, but its effects were devastating. Logan fell to his hands and knees as he ran out the rest of his MP casting the third-level spell over and over. Wyot barely survived after several shields were destroyed, while Cross was able to Dash around to the back of the Knight in time.

All was quiet until the sputtering and static noise of the barrier containing the area dissipated and fell apart, having contained the blast but barely operating beyond that. It was bound to dispel after Thermodan was destroyed nonetheless.

The quiet was replaced with the sound of several bodies slumping to the floor, the undead losing their connection to their creator, or having their powers used to fuel his magic. A rush of cold wind crackled as the heat from the spell fought back the low temperatures of the chill.

Logan had to make such a quick decision. If he had failed to absorb the spell, or if Thermodan’s strange ability to live on death’s door lingered, then that final attack from the caster would have certainly destroyed him without a trace. It was safer, if only a little, to instead throw up protection to survive the onslaught.

“Logan, are you ok?” Marcus asked as he started to use Healer’s Caress on his ally.

“Yeah”, Logan replied through deep breaths, “much better than that guy.”

“Riley! Leo!” Cross yelled at his unconscious allies protected by barriers. Even at the demolition of the caster, his spell was still active.

“Egbert? Kelton!” Wyot yelled at the impaled Fighters, who were protected by shields, who didn’t respond to healing either.

Logan and Marcus made their way to their allies, passing a black mark that was the only remains of Thermodan.

“We’ll have to get those two looked at by some magi”, Logan instructed.

“We can take Egbert and Kelton to get revived”, Marcus added.

“How’d a mage cause so much havoc? He knew three types of ritual casting. And what even was that final spell? It was way more than a sixth-level”, Cross thought aloud.

“You made a good call to ask Logan to assist, Boss”, Wyot comforted.

“Yeah”, Cross accepted, standing to face Logan, “we’d have all died if not for you, I wager. Thanks”, he spoke as he held out a hand.

“I’m just glad we saw it through. Hopefully, your allies will too”, Logan affirmed as he shook the hand.

“Mr Cross!” a mage shouted as he jogged towards the party. “Scans show no trace of Thermodan, has he been killed?”

“Yes. Killed himself in the end. He wanted us all to go with him if he was going to the below.”

“Above praise your skills. The undead that fell out of the barrier when we confined it all fell apart a few moments ago. What of his allies?”

“I would estimate that they are all dead, through living-sacrifice rituals. But double-check regardless”, Logan informed as he clicked his fingers.

“Right!” the mage accepted as he ran back to the other mages who had been holding the barrier up.

“Logan, can you take us back to Gauntlet? We can leave the cleanup to the backup”, Cross asked.

“Sure.”

As Logan saw experience numbers appear around Thermodan’s “ashes” he felt a surge of wind around him. Flowing from his feet to his hair, Logan was enveloped in power before it dissipated with a burst.

“Level up! Gain: 8 HP, +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Con, +1 Int. You have 1 attribute point to spend. Several class skills have become available. As you are now level 20, weaker creatures will start to feel the effects of your power when nearby.”

“Steal Status: Instead of removing a beneficial spell on a foe, grant it to yourself.

Stealth Drain: Absorb more MP via Stealth Attack.

Improved MP Thievery: Increase base MP Drain and max storage.

Detect Spells: See current active spells via interrupted Identification.

Devour Spellforce: Heal yourself with the MP you drain.“

Before warping away, Logan made sure to reassign his Signature Spell back to Dimensional Jaunt, as it was a free choice every time he levelled up. It was typically safer to teleport, and Barrier was quicker to say out loud.

It took some time to debrief after the fight, though it’d take a longer time for Riley and Leo to wake back up.

The spell called “Motions” was something no one had heard of, but it was very effective. Since it was new, there was little in the way of protections against it, and it certainly did not count as sleeping. The targets were in a sort of coma, a deep stasis where their body exerted very little. Countless Devouts were stumped at a cure, while casters of other varieties were wary of dispelling the technique.

A new attack that couldn’t be easily defended or removed. Logan counted his blessings that Leo had blocked this attack on him.

It wasn’t all bad, if you could rationalise it that way, as it seemed to take quite a bit of power to enact Motions. Thermodan had sacrificed around fifty people per cast of it, his helpers in the area near the fight only counted around one hundred and fifty. Others were used to living-sacrifice ritual cast other spells, while he ended his life in a self-sacrifice ritual cast.

Such a learned foe, with plenty of defences outside of those that hid him from scrying. The saddest part, is he wasn’t the strongest, or possibly the wisest, as he cursed out those who aided him. He was not the last link in the chain. Each death weakened these hidden forces but hidden they remained.

Egbert and Kelton were revived in any event. The numbers of Twain Dagger not being decimated. The retrieval of all of what was left of the location was documented, scanned, and resolved for the payment the hunters would receive.

Two Days Later.

Talking within one of the meeting rooms in the back of the VIP guild house, Logan was sat across from Mr Cross.

“We have two final leads for this organisation, but I doubt we’ll find much more than a hundred collaborators.”

“Will you need my help?” Logan asked.

Cross shook his head, “No, the reports state the traitors aren’t that strong, just numerous and experimenting. It could be the case that they just didn’t hear about the other locations or most recent events. These types of groups tend to have outliers who work tirelessly to get results and only come in contact on a blue moon.”

“Riley and Leo?”

“Still unresponsive. They are resting at the guild house now.”

“Sorry to hear.”

“Don’t be. It’s better than dead and gone. At least we have a chance of them waking up if the magic fades.”

“Well, thank you for the report”, Logan sighed.

“And to you for the support. I’ll say it again, you and Marcus turned the tide of combat. Thermodan was stronger than anticipated and far more prepared against an ambush”, Cross announced as he stood to shake Logan’s hand.

“If you do need any help, feel free to ask. Our guilds are aligned after all”, Logan replied as he accepted the handshake.

“Hopefully our further dealings with one another go smoother.”

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