The Heroic Villain 2

by Charles Dean

  “Viola,” Lucas said, looking over at her. “I’m glad you’re here.” He didn’t feel the need to be as cheesy with his straightforwardness as he had been with Bonnie, but he felt the need to say it all the same. “It’s been nice having you guys with me.”

  “Even Nick?” She pursed her lips, stopping another laugh from escaping.

  “Yes, even Nick,” Lucas said. “Especially Nick. Someone has to take the beatings, both physically and verbally. If it weren’t for him, you guys would pick on me instead.”

  “We would not,” Viola said. “You wouldn’t put up with it.”

  Lucas’s eyes zeroed in on the door he had been searching for. He felt like something would pop out of it and try to attack them at any minute, but the hall remained eerily silent.

  “So, not to ask something like this out of the blue, but what do--”

  Lucas held up a finger, shushing her before she could finish. “Shh. You can ask me later. I promise,” he said in a hushed whisper. “Let’s focus for a second.”

  Viola nodded, replying in an even quieter voice than Lucas’s. “Oh, okay . . .”

  I don’t know why I’m being paranoid, he thought as he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

  The headmistress was sitting at a table, having a cup of tea and looking as non-threatening as any person he had ever seen.

  “I assume you’re here to kill me,” she said before taking another sip. “Judging from the fight that’s going on outside.”

  “That would be the gist of it,” Lucas answered flatly. How do you know a fight is going on outside? I can’t even tell whether or not that’s the case. He briefly wondered if she had access to the same type of dungeon map he did and if she was just watching through the HUD. It wouldn’t surprise him at the moment even if he found out that she, like Dray, was also a player--or, more specifically, a GM, not that he’d ever find out.

  “No chance I can talk you out of it?” she asked. “I’ve been told those opposing you are currently at a disadvantage, and you’re much better looking and more reasonable than they are.”

  “Probably not,” Lucas answered. He knew he probably couldn’t trust her, so letting her switch sides wasn’t logical, and even if recruiting her were actually the smart move, he didn’t care. After the fiasco with Viola and Bonnie, he really did want her dead. That hadn’t been just a mere talking point that he had used to try and impress the NPCs and a few of the players who were actually into role-playing.

  “That is such a shame. Can’t even talk to you about it over tea?”

  Lucas looked at the cup that had been set aside for him. “I kind of have a thing about drinking beverages and eating foods offered by enemies before fights. Just feels like bad taste.”

  “Oh, it’s not poison I’ll try to kill you with. I promise. The tea is perfectly safe,” she said, seeming entirely unfazed by everything. “And, honestly, I think I could please you much better than the girl you brought with you. Are you sure that I can’t get you to hear me out? I won’t bite--unless you want me to.” She adjusted her dress, which was the same one she wore earlier, by pulling it down to show even more skin and cleavage.

  “Lucas, is she wearing perfume?” Viola asked quietly from behind. “It smells weird.”

  “Huh?” Lucas took a big sniff. Is she . . .? Is she trying to mind control me? Lucas thought, looking around the room. He was all too familiar with the fact that mental manipulation was a part of this game, and given her seductive appearance and smooth and sultry voice, he had every right to be on guard against the possibility she had a class that used it as a primary attack method. “I thought you said you weren’t going to poison me! What is this?” Lucas asked, noticing that the smell was getting even stronger.

  “Oh, but I’m not going to poison you,” she said, raising a hand. She was wearing a large red ring that contained a gem so big the piece of jewelry required two fingers, both the middle and ring finger, to be worn, and as she lifted her hand, the ring glowed brightly. “I thought you would have realized it by now, the fact that I always try to make sure people think I’m absolutely . . . hot.” She punctuated the last word by creating Fire from her ring. It was the focal point of her casting, much like Lucas’s old necklace had been, and when it went off, a string of flames sizzled directly toward the space between Lucas and Viola. But the attack never reached them. The boss-sized room ignited with an incredibly powerful flame that engulfed everything from the doorway to within just a few feet of the headmistress. Every bit of space, from the ceiling to the floor, was consumed in the conflagration.

  Lucas screamed in extreme agony as over 50% of his massive health pool was instantly stripped from him. It felt like his very skin was being melted away.

  “It’s a shame you noticed before the concentration of gas in this room got a little denser,” the headmistress said, putting down her teacup and standing up. “Given a few more minutes, the entire place would have been completely flooded. I really went through a lot of trouble setting up that trap, and I do hate wasting well-laid traps.”

  Viola! Lucas quickly turned to make sure she was okay. He had a lot of health, but she didn’t. Fortunately, she was perfectly fine. She had erected a bubble around herself in the form of a small magical field that encircled her and protected her from the scorching heat. The barrier wasn’t nearly as thick or as solid-looking as a regular Force Shield, but Lucas could only assume the omnidirectional aspect made it better.

  “I’m okay,” she said, holding her staff in front of her. “I’ll heal you up in a second.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” Lucas wheezed. He suddenly realized how hard it was just to draw in enough breath to gasp out those few words due to the pain he was experiencing. Now that he knew she was okay and that heals were on the way, he began concentrating on an attack. The headmistress didn’t show any sign of moving, so he guessed that Reap the Unworthy was the best choice.

  “You think you can finish that?” the headmistress laughed, and a dozen flaming tendrils shot out of her ring and spiraled toward Lucas. Just as they were about to hit, a Force Shield appeared in front of him, blocking them in their path.

  “It’s not happening,” Viola said, beginning to cast her healing on Lucas.

  Lucas was relieved when he began casting the spell, and the Arcane Energy and necessary life simply moved into the staff without prompting the agonizing hunger that typically came with it. The information accompanying his class change hadn’t mentioned it at all, and he was silently thrilled that aspect of vampirism seemed to be missing now. The health sacrifice also wasn’t much, and it only began moving his life bar down a little. Given the headmistress was still only walking calmly over to the smoke- and soot-covered side of the room she had just exploded, Lucas was certain the spell would hit her.

  “Here you go!” Viola’s heal finished as Lucas was channeling.

  The glow that accompanied healing appeared, but instead of the warm, pleasant, and wonderful sensation that accompanied a healing spell, Lucas felt a horrible agony tear through his body, one that made being blown up and burned alive feel like nothing more than a dull throb.

  Lucas screamed unintelligibly as the heal wrecked not only his body but also interrupted his casting. The Arcane Energy that should have been used up in the spell to attack the headmistress backlashed and roiled through his body.

  “What’s going on?” Viola asked.

  “The heal!” Lucas shouted, unable to lower his volume as he tried to control himself. “Don’t do it again!” He hadn’t even managed to cast a spell yet, and already this fight was going horribly wrong. First, he had fallen in her trap, and now, he was down to barely over 20% of his total health.

  Lucas looked down at his staff as a realization struck him. Even if his spell hit, it wouldn’t kill her. Even if he unloaded every skill in his arsenal, she’d still be alive. There was no way for him to kill her without dedicating the remainder of his health pool to casting spells. Even if she were not t
o land a single blow on him again, he wouldn’t even come close to outlasting the life requirement on his skills. The only possible method would be to bludgeon her to death with his staff and use it like a melee weapon rather than an instrument for casting, and that just wasn’t feasible.

  “Don’t run!” the headmistress called out to him as if reading his thoughts. “The lecture isn’t over yet!” She cast another spell, and five python-sized Fire snakes exploded out from her, headed in all directions. One came flying directly at him, one began slithering its way across the floor, two moved along the walls, and one flew up to the ceiling before making its way in his direction.

  Viola erected two more Force Shields that stopped the ones on the walls from reaching him, but the one on the ceiling passed over the first Force Shield without an issue and then slammed down on top of him. Lucas grimaced as the flaming coil burned through his robes, dropping his health down 11% almost instantly, and he swung his arms wildly, flinging the Fire snake off of him. The curse that came with his vampirification was no joke, and taking 35% more damage from an already-deadly spell was tough.

  “Run,” Lucas said through gritted teeth. “I can’t beat her here.” Then, before Viola could react, Lucas grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him as he turned and ran. While the vampirification had left him much more vulnerable to the headmistress’s attacks, it had also sped him up. His racial upgrade combined with the fact he had sunk some points into Athletics left him with a speed advantage over any other non-combat class.

  Viola erected a large Force Shield in the doorway as he dragged her away. “I can chain cast that,” she offered around a ragged breath. “Seal her inside the room.”

  “I don’t think it’ll help,” Lucas responded, thinking about how violent and deadly the Fire attacks she had thrown had been. It wasn’t more than a second later until his assumption was proven correct when the wall next to the door literally melted away under an intense ray of heat.

  “Never mind! Shields! Now!” Lucas urged. Thanks to the fact it was night, and he was a Vampire, he was able to easily put distance between himself and the headmistress as he was running for the door and lining up commands for when he got outside.

  Lucas turned down a hallway and bolted toward the back door. The burning snakes he had been struck by were an extremely fast channel for how much damage they had dealt, and every single person in his party was a Vampire. If he went out the front, he would be dragging her right in the middle of the fight there and exposing his entire group to her deadly flames. As each of them had all the same resistances and weakness to Fire, it would likely be a slaughter. There was no doubt more than enough blood there for him to heal himself, but it wasn’t worth risking everyone's lives to get to it.

  “I haven’t dismissed you yet!” the headmistress taunted as she flung out another one of the long snakes of flame in his direction.

  Viola erected a shield in time to block the snake, but just barely. “I can’t . . . I can’t cast--”

  “Can’t cast and run?” Lucas asked.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  Lucas planted his foot, turned, and scooped her up into a princess carry. “Now, don’t let me down.”

  “You got it!” she replied much more confidently. Then, just as Lucas had hoped, her casting speed practically quadrupled as Force Shields began appearing one after the other, blocking the headmistress and her infernal onslaught.

  Lucas kicked open the door and disappeared outside the next moment, turning to the left to break the headmistress’s line of sight.

  “When you get a shield blocking the door, add two to the walls flanking it as well,” Lucas ordered.

  “I’m running out of mana,” Viola said. “I’m not a battery, and I’ve already thrown up like thirty. You’re going to be on your own if I have to do that too.”

  “That’s fine. Throw them up and run,” Lucas said, setting her down. He glanced over at the four upgraded Blood Guards and the single Blood Mage he had stationed here to protect his flank and decided that he was going to get a chance to use them offensively after all. “I can handle the rest of this.”

  Viola normally would have been a godsend in most battles, but at the moment, her inability to heal him meant that her most useful skill was Force Shield--and if she was already reaching her limits casting those, she was soon going to be a liability more than an asset. She was better off pulling back and resting up enough to help those around front or withdrawing from the battle completely before she became totally helpless and unable to defend herself.

  “As for you five,” Lucas said to the blood men. “Cut yourself.”

  Like the good summons they were, they moved without hesitation and used their swords to cut into the gaps of their armor and began bleeding everywhere.

  “That’s enough,” Lucas said, casting Endless Thirst and absorbing the blood around him to begin restoring his health.”

  “Baron, where are you? You left without a hall pass,” the headmistress called out as several explosions slammed against the Force Shield that was blocking the doorway. Then, all three shields shattered at the same time as a massive hole was blown open in the side of the building.

  Lucas turned and ran away from the building. He didn’t think putting distance between them would give him much of an advantage, but he just wanted to make sure she was drawn toward him and away from the academy.

  “Lucas, Lucas, Lucas. You know what your problem is? You’re a mage, but you don’t understand magical combat,” she taunted, stalking toward him through the burning mess she had created. “You really should come back and let me teach you.”

  Lucas hadn’t seen it earlier, but now it was clear as day. She wasn’t just avoiding the fire; she was completely ignoring it. With her ring, class, and abilities, she didn’t just have a little control over fire; she had dominance over it. The flames didn’t touch her, and the smoke blew away from her as if clearing a path ahead of her.

  “For instance,” she continued, “I’ve heard you have these long, drawn-out, complicated blood spells involving illusionary scythes like something only an idiot would use. Those like you can’t even grasp that Fire is, after all, the weakest element of the group. It takes too much of it to evaporate water, at best it can only melt rock not penetrate it, and air can suffocate it in seconds. Ice cancels it out rather quickly, and electricity goes right through it. Fire has no advantages at all against any of those elements. It’s weak. Incredibly so. But it’s still the most preferred by many combat mages. Do you know why that is?”

  “Nope,” Lucas responded, readying his staff as he began preparing his own spell. He didn’t want it to finish too soon, so he was channeling it very slowly, but he needed to have it ready, and like she had pointed out, his spells took a while.

  “It’s because it’s quick, precise, and deadly. Like an arrow can be deadlier than a steel maul in the right archer’s hand, even though it’s fragile and wooden, Fire is better for dealing death under the right circumstances.” She flung out her hand, and two more fiery pythons sprang forth at Lucas. He hated the fact that she had actually taken the time to shape their heads to look like those of a snake as if to assert her dominance once more over him as a caster.

  He had no choice but to take advantage of his Vampiric speed and dodge her attacks. He threw himself to the side and rolled out of the way, which he was easily able to do given how far away from him she was.

  “You know, here is where I’d say you can’t run forever,” she laughed, throwing out a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth attack.

  The snakes slithered toward him one after the other, and Lucas actually had to concentrate to dodge around all of the flaming serpents while holding his spell in check and waiting for the right time. He constantly danced back whenever he could, moving farther and farther away from the building.

  “But that’s not entirely true, is it? You’re very fast. I’m sure you could easily run forever, so why don’t you? Just scamper off. It’ll be my
second lesson: Since you can’t pick good allies, you should learn when to fold. When you’re beaten, cut tail and run.” She finally appeared out of the wreckage she had created when blowing open the side of the building and then continued toward him like a cat patiently stalking its prey.

  “You’re not wrong,” Lucas conceded. “If I thought that I was going to lose, I would run.” He finally cast the spell he had been holding on the edge of completion. Cruel Mien of the Black Death summoned the ghostlike apparition that sped out of Lucas’s chest and soared toward the headmistress, and its sinister laughter echoed around them as it locked onto its target.

  “You think that’s going to hit me?” She moved away from it, taking a step toward her right as she dodged the spell that was veering toward her left.

  “Not you,” Lucas laughed. “I wasn’t aiming for you.”

  Thus far, she had failed to notice his five summons, but his comment prompted her to turn and follow the ghost’s direction with her eyes. All five of his golems had gone into motion the moment she stepped out of the flames and charged directly toward her. The first to reach her swung with its weapon, forcing her to jump back out of the trajectory of its blade, and the second repeated the attack, forcing her to dodge in a different direction. They were fast, but Lucas had no illusions of their capabilities. By the time the third one was about to swing at her, she had already created a scorching inferno and turned one of his Blood Guards into ash.

  The plague ghost struck the fourth guard, bringing his attack to an abrupt halt. He slowed rapidly and then began stumbling forward, vomiting blood. Knowing exactly what Lucas wanted him to do, the summon cupped his hands out in front of him and caught as much of the sickness as he could stand and then turned and flung out in front of him in a diseased spray. The projectile sickness coated the other two Blood Guards and the headmistress, and then the two infected guards also turned to attack her with their foul blood-based oral ejections.