Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)

by Dakota Krout

  While he had another few quiet moments, Joe's eyes lit up as he remembered that he had eight unused free skill points. He plotted out the skills that would be getting a sudden boost in efficiency… then paused. He remembered that when he had gained the Rituarchitect class, he had been informed that he could not put any more skill points into his Ritual Magic skill. But now that he had subskills… would he be able to place the skill points in those? He was excited to give it a try, and as soon as he respawned and stepped back into the temple, then made sure no one was around, he opened his skill sheet and placed a single point into Magical Matrices.

  Skill increase: Magical Matrices (Apprentice 0). Your understanding of the higher mathematics behind spell theory would make you the envy of any comic book convention you attended! Unfortunately, it would not stop the other attendees from arguing with you over the nuances. Bonus: basic calculus formulas are as simple for you to solve as standard addition and subtraction!

  “Nice!” Joe was excited to test that out, since he had never gotten a bonus quite like it before, and was looking forward to seeing how it worked. Next came the real test. He placed a skill point into Ritual Circles, and it increased to Expert three! His Ritual Magic category did not increase, oddly enough, but still Joe pumped his fist into the air and whooped. “We are back in business, baby!”

  He had six more free skill points to spend, but decided to hold off for now. No, wait. After scanning his skill list again, Joe realized that there was one skill that could use the boost. Knowledge. Right now, all of his lore skills would stagnate without dedication. If he didn’t rank up the skill, he would need to learn more lore skills so that he could use it on them.

  Skill increase: Knowledge (Beginner 0). This skill can now be used on lore skills at the Beginner tier. If used on lore skills at the novice tier, the cooldown is reduced by 20%.

  “Only have five free skill points remaining, but it was totally worth it!” Most of Joe’s other skills were low enough that he should have no issue training them up, but Ritual Circles was still far enough from the next tier that he did not want to devote his points there right at that moment. Still, the information that he had just gained had given him an idea that he wanted to test out. Staying within the building, he walked down to the Grand Ritual Hall and started sketching out his thoughts.

  “If I can take two of the ritual circles and combine them into a single, smaller one… will it still count as a beginner Circle, or will it be a novice Circle again?” He selected a simple ritual diagram that he had been working on recently, his attempt at creating long distance communication. “If I take this circle out… I can replace both the inner and the first of the outer rings with a combination of ‘y equals cosecant x’, ‘y equals secant x’, and ‘y equals cotangent x’.”

  When he was done, he no longer had a circle in front of him. He had what looked like a fancy, triple repeating and connecting, curvy ‘X’ that had the top left and bottom right legs connected with an ‘S’. Joe had linked them, so it was kind of a circle. Did that still count? As far as he could tell, it should. He had a thought, and had to voice it aloud, “You know, this almost looks like a radio antenna fractal. Funny!”

  Joe poured mana into the small ritual, and was pleased when it lit up and a notification appeared.

  You have activated Ritual of Communication (Basic)! Range of communication: 50-mile radius centered on the ritual. This ritual is toggleable. By pausing it, the amount of active time remaining will not decrease. When this is activated, it will automatically activate the linked ritual of communication. Caution: this ritual is not linked with another. Active time remaining: 11:59.

  If he had not understood that he needed to enchant the ritual circles to work together, he may have tried to simply activate two of them at the same time and hope for the best. Still, he did not yet know how to do that. It seems that he would be taking the offer from Terra's Master after all. The other good part was that the activation did not require a double ring’s worth of mana like a Beginner ring would have. For the first time in his life, Joe was exceptionally grateful for higher mathematics.

  He left the Grand Ritual Hall and walked outside to let his team know where he was going to be for the next few days. He sniffed at the air. What was that? Joe’s eyes narrowed when he realized that he was smelling smoke. That was not campfire smoke; it was the greasy, meaty smell of a building on fire. He sped up, running toward the sound of raised voices and shouted orders.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Welcome to the party, Joe!” a guard shouted at him. It took a moment for Joe to place the man’s name; he was completely coated in blood and soot, making him almost unrecognizable.

  “Uh… Jay! What’s happening?” Joe looked around and saw that there were various Mages blasting water at the burning barracks, and even more people were running toward the walls.

  “Under attack from, I don't know, some kinda collabor-” Jay coughed in pain as a blade erupted through his chest. Joe’s eyes shot wide-open as an assassin resolved out of the shadows for only an instant before vanishing again. For the first time, Joe started having serious doubts about losing his ability to see and interact with the shadows. Before, he had been able to somewhat see the rogues. With the loss of his shadowmancer skills, that extra defense was apparently gone.

  Almost before thinking of it consciously, Joe used Mend on Jay and brought his health back from the brink. He wasn't able to fully heal the critical backstab, but Jay didn't die instantly. “Dark Lightning Strike!”

  There was a clap of thunder as his skill impacted his shield and traveled across the ground. Two previously stealthed attackers appeared, and he pointed his staff at the one that was dripping blood from his blade. The man flinched back, but a moment passed and nothing happened. Joe cursed as he remembered that he had no idea how to call the shadows anymore. “Wither… Plant!”

  The spell fired off and hit the assassin, who looked at himself and found no wound; then started running at Joe with his daggers out and poised to strike. Joe turned and ran, cursing himself repeatedly. “I literally only have Acid Spray right now!”

  On the plus side, that was a spell that could be blind fired. He cast over his shoulder, using his staff so that it wasn't too awkward to keep running. He was aiming his sprint for the open doors of the Pathfinder’s Hall, and while running he promised, “I’m getting a weapon skill as soon as this is over!”

  Critical strike! You have been backstabbed! Exquisite Shell absorbs 822 damage! 42 damage taken due to defense penetration! Bleeding heavily due to damage being focused on kidneys! -15 health per second. Poisoned! -20 health and -50 mana per second! Mana regeneration halted. Poisoned: Mage Murder: 00:01:29

  Exquisite Shell: 878/1,700

  Health: 457/534

  “I hunt Mages like you for fun!” The assassin called at him, clearly furious about the face full of acid. “You’re already dead, you just don’t know it!”

  Joe put his full strength into a leap, shooting forward like a rocket and covering dozens of yards in an instant. The assassin called out in shock, but remained focused on ending him. He made the mistake Joe had been hoping for, following him into the building. “Juggernauts! Enemy attack, defend the building!”

  “Acknowledged.” Purple and silver raced up the suit of armor as it activated, and the assassin was cut in half by the third step he took. “Warning blow given. All future attacks will be instantly fatal. Enacting defensive protocols.”

  Joe healed himself, stopping the bleeding, but keeping an eye on the poison that was coursing through his body. His aura made it last forty-five seconds instead of the ninety it was supposed to, but the poison was draining him of mana at a huge rate. At the last second, he healed himself one more time, bringing his mana to zero. He gasped as his aura collapsed and the poison started vanishing at its normal rate.

  He did the math as quickly as possible, and sighed in relief as he saw that the poison would end in twenty-three seconds. That w
ould take four hundred and sixty health, but leave him with roughly forty. Joe was going to survive. “If I couldn’t heal myself, that single attack - one I mostly blocked - would have killed me…”

  “Hold up.” Joe looked at the Juggernaut. “Did you say that was a warning attack? The one where you sliced him in half?”

  “Affirmative. Deterrent protocols. First offenders are given a warning.”

  “But you cut him in half.”

  “He survived long enough to receive the warning.”

  Joe gulped, once again very pleased that these things were on his side. It did make him consider and discard his idle thoughts about stealing active temples from others; they would certainly have their own ability to defend themselves. “How in the world did I get into this building? I was running, and I jumped, but…”

  Since Joe could barely move, and didn't really want to crawl to the exit, he pulled up the information for his Jump skill; trying to determine if there was any information it could give him. After a moment, he closed it and sighed. He would need to search for answers elsewhere.

  Poison: ‘Mage Murder’ has worn off!

  After another ten seconds, Joe used Lay on Hands, then again until he was at full health. He waited for his mana to reach full, then activated his Exquisite Shell and Neutrality Aura once more, and waited longer to recover full mana. “That took… like three minutes. That’s pretty rough… I would have been nothing but a liability if I would have stayed in combat.”

  Now determined to help, Joe raced toward the fighting. He healed everyone along the way that didn't have a player killer aura, and avoided anyone who did. After searching through the chaos for a short while, he heard Bard’s voice chanting something and followed the sound to the source. He stepped through the choking black smoke and found Bard and Poppy with their backs to the burning barracks as they faced off with three attackers in hot pink armor.

  Since they were facing away from him, Joe felt comfortable with his next action. “Acid Spray!”

  The attackers screeched as their gear started melting, giving off a toxic odor. His teammates used the opportunity to take down two of them, then Poppy vanished with the third before coming back a moment later, standing over a corpse. “Whew, that skill is sure seeing a lot of use today!”

  Joe sent a heal to Poppy, who was bleeding freely from a cut that ran from his nose to his temple. “They catch you with your pants down?”

  “Basically.” Bard coughed as he pulled in too much smoke. “Ya see Alexis anywhere?”

  “No, I almost got killed by a mage-hunting assassin.” Joe’s aura finished off their smoke-inhalation debuff just as he asked, “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

  Poppy replied, too calm for the situation at hand. “It appears that we are under attack from the other three Noble Guilds. As far as I can tell, they are targeting buildings and attempting to sabotage our progress.”

  Quest update: The making of an Elder. Town rank has fallen to Rank One! Current progress: 1/5.

  “Oh, Celestial Feces! That’s not gonna fly! We need to put an end to this right now!” Joe’s entire bald head went red as fury coursed through him. He turned and ran toward the gate, trying to think through options to fend off three guilds’ worth of attackers, but honestly couldn't think of… Joe winced as one thing came to mind. He still had one more anti-personnel ritual ready to be activated, but if he just dropped it somewhere, it would impact his guild mates as well.

  “Bard, can you watch my back and help me get to the main gate?” Joe didn't wait for an answer, jogging toward the place where the smoke was most prevalent. It seemed that there was a huge amount of fire mages or something similar attacking over there, and he was never more pleased that the walls themselves were a combination of metal and stone; those wouldn't be burning anytime soon.

  “Want me to come too?” Poppy’s voice was so serious that it was clearly sarcasm.

  “Of course! I need someone to clear the way!” Joe kept his eyes forward, so he missed the smirk on Poppy’s face. The town was pretty small and compact, so it only took a few minutes to push through the smoke and devastation. The main gate had been forced open, and the Wanderer’s Guild was fighting in the chokepoint and trying to push the people back. There were clearly heavy losses on both sides, but there were so many more people attacking than defending that the tide was shifting drastically.

  “Aten! Mike!” Joe’s voice was barely heard over the din of battle, but between one moment and the next, Aten was in front of Joe.

  “What, Joe? I know this is important, because otherwise you wouldn’t be interrupting me in the middle of a siege!” Aten barked, his eyes glowing almost as brightly as his armor and weapon.

  “Guild Commander!” Joe returned with as much military discipline as he could muster. “I need to get to the gate, then I need all our people to move back! Area of effect coming. Friendly fire is a concern, but it should give us a serious reprieve!”

  “I’ll make it happen.” Aten didn’t ask for any more specifics, simply turning and barreling into the cluster at the gate. Joe and his current teammates followed as closely as possible, but Aten was fast. His sword was dancing through the air with flashes of light that seemed to capture too much attention. At one point, Joe was almost positive that he saw Aten punch people with both his hands while his sword cut down another foe at the same time.

  Joe blinked, and Aten’s sword was in his hands. That had been a… mirage? With Aten leading with such momentum, they were able to shove the fighting back a few feet. That was enough. Joe took the metal plate the ritual was inscribed on, slapped it on the ground, covered it with bloody dirt to hide it as much as possible, then brought up the activation option.

  “Full retreat!” Joe bellowed, his odd dark charisma making people around him flinch. Aten echoed his order, and the Wanderer’s Guild fell back, losing all the ground they had just managed to take. Enemies started pouring through the breach, and Joe let loose a deep breath.

  Activate Ritual of Proximity (Wind Blades)? Yes / No.

  “Yes.”

  Defensive charges used: 0/500.

  Joe opened his eyes as the ritual powered up. Wind blades started sweeping through the area, faster and faster as the ritual realized that there was a plethora of targets. The screams of battle turned to pain and outrage as the gate area was turned into a charnel house. Only the people without defensive abilities or high constitution were killed or heavily damaged outright, which turned out to be a surprisingly small number of the players that were attacking them. Most were able to tank several hits before they took critical damage; but there was a secondary effect.

  Joe noticed another weakness: the ritual seemed to have no tracking ability. As soon as the target was determined, a blade flew out. Here, it didn't matter too much. There were so many people packed together that even if someone dodged, the blade still hit someone. On the plus side, the blades hit hard, which meant knockback came into effect. Thanks to that, enemies were sent onto the waiting blades of the Wanderer’s Guild or slapped back into the enemy lines.

  “Poppy, Bard!” Joe bellowed, over not only the combat, but also the rushing wind. “We are the only ones it won’t outright attack, we need to get over there and close the gate!”

  Joe and Poppy ran into the open space and started pulling the left gate door closed. This left them open to spells and archers, but most of them were at the back of the enemy lines and didn't have a clear shot. The attacks that got close were tanked by Bard, and he also worked to shove bodies out of the way as the gates were pulled.

  “Gah! Need ah heal, Joe!” Bard painfully called over as he pulled an arrow out of his clavicle. Joe wasted no time, slapping a hand on the Skald and pumping him full of healing energy. When the left gate was closed, they moved to the right one and started repeating the process.

  Defensive charges used: 431/500.

  “Aten!” Joe shouted into the town, “Five more seconds, and we could use a hand!”
/>
  “Charge! Close the gates!” Aten bellowed, charging forward. He took a wind blade, then two, and the ritual collapsed. More people grabbed onto the gate, while those that had been slightly slower cleared the fallen. The gate slammed closed, and a few bars were loaded onto the rungs.

  “Reinforce this!” Aten moved from fighter to Commander in an instant. “I need everyone in the first and second division working together to sweep the town! For anyone that doesn't know what I mean, that's all rangers and people that can spot stealthed players, paired up with a fighter to hold them off! Move, move, move!”

  Joe collapsed against the wall and heaved in a few breaths, his stamina hovering near empty. He watched Aten run to the top of the wall and shout at the people now trapped outside. He couldn't hear what was being said, but Aten came down with furious eyes almost ten minutes later. “Joe, top level meeting, right now. Come with me.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “They’re threatening to wipe out our base.” Aten began the meeting as soon as the last person had filtered in. “We’ve been number one for too long, and it's clearly attracted the notice of some unsavory people.”

  “They banded together to attack us? This was just a warning?” A sharply-dressed man that Joe hadn't seen in a long time cleared his throat and lazily spoke from the relaxed position of his chair. “So what do they want? I’m sure they demanded to be paid off or some such nonsense.”

  “Mr. Banks, they wanted only that we stop progressing until they have had a chance to ‘catch up’.” Aten’s eyes flashed. “They said that we had an ‘unfair advantage’, and that we were somehow cheating. They said that if we get back to town level two in the next six months, they are going to come after us with all of their allies and everyone they can think of that would participate in our destruction.”