Something thanks to our entrapment in hell, and every time we had been ambushed by the Crimson Shadow. Live under the constant stress of imminent violence and you eventually became numb to it. Even with five times the current odds, it would just make us more resolute rather than spook us.
Tanya had set off a couple of her idols left near the gate entrance, slowing and poisoning the horde trying to assault us from the back. While Quinn was eager to bloody his rapier to defend his better half, my trio of Hell-hounds dropping straight into the middle of the attacking force had caused enough disarray to bog their approach down to a crawl.
Wolf had protected us from two of the arrow-shaped mortar rounds. His fur was singed and the terrain around him smoldered from the super-heated explosions. He could endure one or two more, but his defensive cooldowns could only last so long.
The abomination looming over us now sported a few extra holes courtesy of Ren’s sniper rifle. Unfortunately, a shot to the head and then the heart didn’t seem to be killing blows on the hulking creature. Instead, fresh goo spilled forth from the wounds, the acrid smell of burning wood and stone following in its wake.
As for my contribution? I’d handily admit I was only giving current proceedings only a small slice of my attention.
I was waiting for the coup de gras. Assailed from three angles, they had left one side of the street clear. This was the first very real attempt to snuff us out, and they wouldn’t be leaving an opening like that when the stakes were so high. Perhaps the barbarian and spellcaster who had frozen Wolf were meant to be part of it. Wolf’s sudden burst of speed might have caused them to show their hand early. It was pointless to speculate, but my mind was open and alert to the possibility that we had another attack coming our way.
No, what we needed to do was rotate acts.
“My cards can’t reach the cannon. Do you think you could shoot it?”
“Sure, if you keep this big bastard at bay.”
“I’ll clear the gate, brother.”
We circled around, and Tanya and Quinn fell back to support our new roles. The occasional arrow, bolt, or low-level spell came our way from the Monsters further into the city, but we had the defenses to dodge or weather them constantly. With the other two focused on keeping us alive, we buckled in for the next stage of our performance.
Wolf ran back down the cleared street, the fear in the eyes of the greenskins evident as they struggled to distance themselves from the hounds nipping and chewing on any who fell due to the poison aura. Ren hopped up to her own summoned chairs, crouching and looking down her scope. Three magic cards spun around my hand as I readied to strike out at the abomination.
[Fiona: East team down to 4, have pushed Players back into tower.]
[Fiona: West team making slow progress, suppressed.]
My eye twitched, but there was no Guild message to say that someone had died—so they’d probably teleported. Making Fiona my second-in-command for this venture was mostly to prevent too much clutter over communications. Leyla’s team would relay things to the fighter in a separate chat, and I’d be sent the important details only.
[Max: Almost halfway to the keep, they are trying to slow us.]
Due to the nature of how the city was built up, there was no way my cards could assist either of the groups from here. Even if Ren had the range, she wouldn’t have the angle to hit things on street level with so many buildings in the way.
My magic cards spiraled off, powering up as I sunk my mana reserved into them. As the creature swung their large arm down at us, I severed their hand off just below the wrist. The giant tentacled appendage crashed down on the roof beside them, crashing through into the upper floor. While the abomination screeched, viscous liquid gushed from the created wound, splashing over the main road near us. The stonework bubbled and steamed as the corrosive substance ate away at it.
Ren fired at the same time as Wolf collided with the orcs and goblins.
One end of the road bloomed with bright green light as the mortar overloaded and the magic ruptured, destroying the machine along with anyone within forty feet of it. The other road flashed with flickering amber as the bear tore the unprepared Monsters to shreds. Above us, the air hummed with light purple as my cards zig-zagged through the injured creature, until its head was severed clean off.
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I shook the blood from my hand as it collapsed. Senses burned from the overload of magical explosions, scoured debris, and fresh gore.
“Looks like their scheduling is fucked,” Ren murmured, turning her attention to the sky.
I turned to see what she was looking at. A cloud of light blue made its way toward us before I made out what they were. Some manner of flying imps, similar to those in hell, but these looked like frost variants. Each held a shortbow, and were readying to fire down on us.
Ren’s rifle cracked and burst one of the small Monsters, a dark energy bouncing between a dozen others. Each of them dropped their weapons, just as my demonic ace used [Slow Movement Scroll] amongst them. A rather weak speed debuff, but against Monsters that relied on wings for flight, it caused them to struggle to stay aloft.
I was about to send off a few cards to cut them down as they dropped, but I paused. There was a new debuff icon over me.
[Duel of Honor] [You have been challenged to a martial duel to the death. Mano-v-mano.]
My eyes left the status message to see a Player standing out down the road, a few barricades in. If there was a prize for looking like the generic pop-culture version of a samurai, this figure would take it handily. The weapon on their side they were waiting to draw was probably a katana. The mask on their face obscured their features, but naturally it had a crimson hand-print over it. They looked to be waiting for me to get in position.
Ren clacked the bolt of her rifle back and forth and raised it toward them. “I… can’t fire on him?” Her brow furrowed.
“Some kind of forced duel,” I murmured. “Clear everything else while I sort this.”
She nodded and twisted around to the others. I stepped forward, a grim smile on my face and hands in my pockets. My opponent remained unflinching.
“You know, it’s rude to ask for a private show without booking in advance,” I told him. It took a few moments to walk around the next two barricades, but he saw no need to fill that silence with a response.
I raised an eyebrow as I stopped. Now a good fifteen or so feet away from him. I wasn’t often a Player let me get this close to them without verbal or physical-
Any chance to finish that thought was cut short as the samurai clicked his sword up an inch from its scabbard. Then he was behind me, the rush of air from his movements hitting a second after he visually moved. The top of my body slid and slopped down onto the road, his blade having sliced me straight through the midsection.
I stepped out of
To my partial surprise, the man twisted on one foot to face me and then did the exact same move again. Perhaps he was always this fast, and it wasn’t a powerful long-cooldown skill. Even with all the abilities and boosts I had under my belt, I was still unable to see him move—which was rather impressive.
Instead of cutting me through again, there was a burst of sparks as he twirled away.
My patron demon hung in the air in front of me, having deflected the blow.
“A martial duel, you say?” I smiled, and the floating sword twisted in the air so that I could grip at the handle. “Go easy on me. This is outside my comfort zone.”
It was hard to tell if my opponent was angry or not with his face covered, but I considered the way in which his black ponytail bobbed about to signal some frustration. He moved, and so did I.
His speed had slowed, but he was still remarkably quick. Able to block any of my attacks—but my patron was able to deflect and parry most of the strikes of my opponent. I didn’t know if it was a limitation of the odd duel—or just my ego—but I felt I couldn’t use my magic against him. That didn’t mean this had to be honorable.
The samurai twisted, adjusting his footing as he slipped on some marbles. My patron guided me, breaking through the attempted parry and cutting in the shoulder of the man. He grunted and stepped back to bring his guard back up.
“Let’s make this quick,” I said, my smile widening. “Shouldn’t keep a Lady waiting.”
I let go of my patron and withdrew a shortsword into each of my hands, kicking forward a footstool summoned on the ground. He slashed it in half with ease and was only just able to bring up his guard to deflect the dash from my patron. I was in there too, flailing recklessly with both blades. Twirled away from his thrust. Crossed the blades to block. Flourished them around, turning them into daggers.
We had both taken a fair share of cuts. While I had been damaged more, I was also healing up from my demonic regeneration. My demon had a time limit on him that we were getting close to, and I wasn’t keen on trying my luck on my own again.
“Take a seat,” I said. “It’s going to be a long show.”
I then ejected a chair from my Inventory toward him. Again, easily slashed in half—but then he had to block my patron, before turning to another chair coming his way. I sent several at him, each severed in turn as he blocked my patron. In the midst of the chairs, I sent a small bag his way.
He cut through it, only realizing his mistake halfway through the act. As he braced himself for flash powder or some manner of blind, but instead gold coins clattered against the stone road. The brief confusion was enough to set him off guard. As he clashed with my patron, the sword forcing him into a test of strength; I spun toward him like a cyclone.
Far out of effective range with the daggers I held, I switched to Jokkar’s mace right as it was too late for the samurai to do anything. The studded end of the weapon snapped his arm and sent him rolling across the ground. Cinders and smoke from the rest of the battle washed over him as my shadow darkened his mask.
“This one’s for Roger,” I spat, bringing the heavy mace down onto the man’s head, crushing it like rotten fruit. The debuff on me vanished.
I looked around to see that everyone was gathered and ready. The gate was clear, if not pasted in bloody body parts. Ren had been picking off any City Guard or Monster foolish enough to stand around out of cover.
[Fiona: East team inside the tower. Heavily injured but disabling the beacon now.]
[Fiona: West team has broken the stalemate, pushing enemy back to this tower.]
I nodded to myself, turning my eyes to the keep.
My harshest critic was waiting for me.