Rayne

by Blake Severson

  Mercenary (1) (Level 12) has dealt 30 damage to you with Basic Steel Shortsword.

  It was looking like a losing fight until someone came up beside him and took a swing at the man. Out of the corner of his eye, Rayne saw the long, dark hair that signified Rose had joined him. With him holding the attacks, it gave her a chance to strike for an opening. The man took one of her blades to his side and quickly jumped out of the way before it did too much damage. His movement had put him at a disadvantage for Rayne, though, and it gave Rayne a chance to get his stiletto dagger into the man’s opposite side.

  You have dealt 60 damage to Mercenary (1) (Level 12) with Iron Stiletto Dagger (Critical Hit).

  Rose took advantage of his reaction and drove her blade directly into the man’s throat and watched him fall. There was no time to waste, and both of them charged toward the other pair. Lucas was holding off the mercenary, and the other member of their group was holding back the guard, but neither was making any progress.

  Rayne ran up behind the mercenary with silent steps and used a burst of Air Magic to slam his weapon at incredible speed into the man’s neck. The blade sunk in, and the guard of the blade slammed into the man’s neck and caused his entire head to rock sideways. Rayne felt bones crunch, and the man fell to the ground.

  Mercenary (1) (Level 12) has died.

  You have dealt 200 damage to Mercenary (2) (Level 12) with Iron Stiletto Dagger (Critical Hit) (Fatal Blow).

  Mercenary (2) (Level 12) has died.

  Rose worked with the other man, to remove the other guard. Rayne took a quick look around. Rose, Lucas and himself, were in relatively good shape, but the other two men that had survived looked beaten up and battered.

  “Everyone good to go?” Lucas asked.

  Rose and Rayne nodded their agreement. The other two men looked tired and worn out, but after a moment of pause, they both nodded as well in grim determination. Lucas opened the door, and they continued down into the basement.

  Chapter 6

  Confrontation with Evil

  The five of them made their way down the stairs and into the room below. They crept quietly, although they were sure the battle upstairs was heard by all down here. There was always a chance they could get the upper hand on someone, though.

  They carefully made their way to the bottom of the stairs and rounded the corner into a large room. This room had two other rooms connected to it. Straight ahead of them and on the opposite side of the room was the treasure room. To their right was another door that led into a library that Lord Clearly also loved to brag about.

  Rayne spotted five people standing in the middle of the room. Lord Clearly was there, which wasn’t unexpected, but there were two more of the mercenary style fighters and another two people in flowing deep purple robes. Rayne had seen no one like those two before, and they were only armed with a small dagger at their sides. Their hoods were pulled over their heads to conceal their features.

  “It’s about time you show your true colors, Lucas.” Lord Samuel Clearly said.

  “As if you knew anything about me. Your little cult of evil is through.” Lucas spat back at him.

  Samuel laughed at that. “You fool, I have known about you for a while now. Why do you think I set this whole thing up? Making sure I got a powerful artifact was a guaranteed way for me to ensure you would attack me and finally show yourself. I just needed concrete proof to wipe your little group off the map finally. Isabell will be pleased with me when I take out another cult of the Firebrand legacy. You are nothing but a thorn in the side of the real Goddess of this world.”

  “It is irrelevant. Removing your arrogant ass from this world will be worth every bit of exposure I will get from this mission. Your Goddess will fall, and I plan to be there to laugh in Wailyn’s face when it happens.” Lucas responded harshly.

  Rayne saw the anger blossom on the face of Lord Samuel Clearly. This would be an ugly fight if those two guards were truly as talented as the ones outside had been. Rayne didn’t like the look of this group, so he used a skill he took for granted and scanned one of the fighters and one of the robed people.

  Name: Mercenary

  Level: 14

  Type: Human

  Rarity: Uncommon

  HP: 250/250

  Stamina: 250/250

  Strength: ?

  Agility: ?

  Intellect: ?

  Wisdom: ?

  Endurance: ?

  Charisma: ?

  Luck: ?

  Experience: N/A

  Skills

  Combat Skills: ?

  Name: Disciple of Isabell

  Level: 14

  Type: Human

  Rarity: Uncommon

  HP: 200/200

  Mana: 350/350

  Stamina: 200/200

  Strength: ?

  Agility: ?

  Intellect: ?

  Wisdom: ?

  Endurance: ?

  Charisma: ?

  Luck: ?

  Experience: N/A

  Skills

  Combat Skills: ?

  Shit, Rayne swore to himself. They were even stronger than the previous ones, and two of them were casters, based on their mana. They also appeared to be servants of the evil Goddess.

  Nothing could be done about the situation, and Lucas was to the point of no return. The man charged the mercenaries, and Rayne followed directly behind him. Rayne made for the man on the left while Lucas and Rose veered for the one on the right. He saw the other two men with them shoot past to get to the two disciples.

  As soon as he got close, the mercenary came at him with full force. The man was swinging his shortsword at Rayne with incredible speed, and it forced Rayne to burn Air Magic just to keep his limbs moving fast enough to keep up. They were both a blur as Rayne matched his motions, and they traded blows back and forth. Rayne had to be extra careful with his attacks since the man had a steel sword. If they met edge to edge, there was a good chance his weapon would utterly destroy Rayne’s dagger.

  The fight was a never-ending battle of blocking and parrying while Rayne tried to dance around and avoid the man to have time to attack. Two hits came in back to back on Rayne as he fumbled a block, and he received a shallow cut on his chest and another on his left leg.

  Mercenary (1) (Level 14) has inflicted 30 damage to you with Basic Steel Shortsword.

  Mercenary (1) (Level 14) has inflicted 30 damage to you with Basic Steel Shortsword.

  Rayne was quick enough to pull away from the hits after they connected, but it still left shallow cuts that stung like hell. They were also bleeding enough that it would eventually start slowing him down. Rayne had to take a chance and gamble a bit here.

  Both of his daggers were swung directly at the man from different directions. To Rayne’s complete surprise, the man caught his swordbreaker on his sword but then reached out and caught Rayne’s arm with his left hand. The man looked Rayne directly in his eyes and had an evil gleam to his eye.

  He slammed his head forward into the bridge of Rayne’s nose, and pain flared in his face as if on fire.

  Mercenary (1) (Level 14) has inflicted 50 damage to you with Head-butt.

  Mercenary (1) (Level 14) has inflicted disorient on you. Accuracy reduced by 5% for 30 seconds.

  Rayne stumbled backward as the man released him, and his head swam for a moment. He shook his vision clear and saw a sword coming for him. Jumping to the side, he avoided most of the hit, but the blade scored a cut along his ribcage as it passed. This battle would be over quickly if he didn’t do something.

  Mercenary (1) (Level 14) has inflicted 40 damage to you with Basic Steel Shortsword.

  Using his Air Magic, he augmented his speed and made a powerful leap backward to give them a bit of space. A quick glance showed Rose and Lucas still wearing down the other mercenary, but the man looked to be in bad shape. The other two fighters had attacked the disciples, and one of them was already dead. The other looked to be knocking on death’s door himself, an
d Rayne had no hope that the man would survive.

  It was time for something drastic. Rayne took off in a sprint toward the man in front of him and came at him with a high and overly exaggerated swing. The man fell for the bait and tried to complete a lunge directly into Rayne. Since Rayne had planned for this, he increased his speed as much as possible. He slid to the side of the man and slammed his dagger backward, directly into the mercenary’s heart. There was a gasp, and the man fell to the ground.

  You have dealt 250 HP damage to Mercenary (1) (Level 14) (Heart Strike).

  Mercenary (1) (Level 14) has died.

  Rayne had no time to waste and closed in on the disciple who had killed his teammate. Leaving someone with magic alone in the middle of a fight could be catastrophic. The distance melted away as he closed in, but the man had seen him coming.

  The disciple cast a spell in his direction, and Rayne had barely avoided the writhing trail of shadow that came flying by. Part of it brushed his shoulder, and he felt an intense cold from where it had hit.

  Disciple of Isabell (1) (Level 14) has inflicted 15 damage to you with Shadow Bolt (Glancing).

  Rayne made it to the man and came in with a slash. His dagger was stopped by a barrier of shadow that flashed when they collided. Rayne couldn’t see the barrier until he had struck it, but it was clear the caster had a shield of some kind that set a few feet from his body.

  Rayne wasn’t sure what to do, so he just went to town, slashing at the shield. It had to have some kind of damage threshold where it would collapse. Rayne methodically slashed back and forth with both weapons while the disciple was moving his hands for another spell. The ground below Rayne started to change colors and, before anything bad happened, Rayne used his Air Magic to jump high and over the head of the disciple. He landed behind the man on clear ground and spun to continue slashing. The ground where he stood was a mass of roiling shadow, and he saw what looked like, hands of shadow reaching around in the murk. Rayne was sure the spell would have caught him, held him in place, and drained him of health and stamina.

  Rayne continued slashing some more, and eventually, the shield collapsed. On one of his swings, the expected resistance wasn’t met, so he knew he struck for real. He jumped into the disciple and plunged his dagger into the man’s shoulder in a downward stab. It dug deep, and the man fell to a knee. Rayne followed with another stab into the backside of their shoulder, and they hunched forward. For good measure, he sent one more stab into their back before they fell to the ground, dead.

  You have dealt 70 damage to Disciple of Isabell (1) (Level 14) with Iron Stiletto Dagger (Critical Hit).

  You have dealt 70 damage to Disciple of Isabell (1) (Level 14) with Iron Swordbreaker (Critical Hit).

  You have dealt 60 damage to Disciple of Isabell (1) (Level 14) with Iron Stiletto Dagger.

  Disciple of Isabell (1) (Level 14) has died.

  Rayne took a quick glance and saw that Rose and Lucas had taken the other mercenary out of the fight, but both were in poor shape. He was sure he didn’t look much better, but it had been a rough fight. The other Disciple had managed to kill their other companion, so it was up to the three of them. They all raced for the disciple and started frantically swinging at his shield.

  His health was dangerously low health after his last fight. He had recovered a bit of health between the initial fight outside to this one, but he still had only 50 HP left. The disciple’s shield fell, and Rayne dove in for the kill. To his dismay, the man turned his direction and sent a quick blast of shadow power into Rayne as his dagger caught the man in the neck.

  You have dealt 140 damage to Disciple of Isabell (2) (Level 14) with Iron Stiletto Dagger (Critical Hit) (Mortal Blow).

  Disciple of Isabell has inflicted 35 damage to you with Weak Shadow Strike.

  Rayne crumbled to the ground and shivered in cold. His body felt weak and partially numb. Rose leaned over to check on him.

  “Hang in there, Rayne. This is almost over, and we will find you help. You have done a marvelous job this evening. Lucas and I will handle Samuel.”

  Rayne watched as Lucas and Rose ran toward Samuel. To Rayne’s horror, the man pulled the Soul of the Shadows out of his bag and held it before him. Shadows swirled around the man, and his eyes became a deep purple. His gaze seemed to be fixed directly on the orb, but the surrounding shadows swirled out toward Rose and Lucas. One tendril caught Lucas around his neck and lifted the man off his feet. He kicked and struggled at the bond, but nothing seemed to help. Rose ducked and dodged around the tendrils of power that came her way. She managed to make it to Samuel, but her swing at him bounced off a layer of shadows that rose to meet the strike. She danced back and tried to come from a different angle but bounced off again.

  The struggle was a constant back and forth as Rose kept trying to attack from different angles, and the shadows kept rising to stop her. New tendrils of power kept shooting from the orb and trying to catch her, but she was too quick. She finally managed to get a hit on one of his hands. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it gave Rayne some hope she could stop Samuel.

  Lucas still hung from the shadow tendril and was looking worse while his face was turning blue. Out of nowhere, another tendril shot toward him and impaled him directly in the chest. Rose screamed at the sight, “No!” as it allowed his body to drop to the ground.

  This distraction was all that was needed for Samuel’s power to grab onto Rose. A tendril wrapped around her waist and held her in place as Samuel turned his attention to her. She had been behind him, hoping to get another attack against him when she had been caught. The man turned to face her and smiled in malice.

  “Look what I have caught. The soul in here hungers for life, and yours will be a fitting tribute to it. I will be all-powerful with this artifact at my disposal. I can take the kingdom from that blowhard Wailyn.” His eyes flared at that statement. “The world shall be mine. I have sat in the shadows for too long while Wailyn has had the rule of the kingdom. His coup wouldn’t have succeeded without my help, to begin with. With this power, I can take my rightful place at the top.”

  Rayne struggled to get up as this was happening, but wasn’t having any luck. The cold had seeped into him, and, with his health flashing at 15, he was helpless. The shadows seemed to swirl faster around Samuel as he prepared to feed Rose’s soul to the orb when Rayne saw the most welcome notification ever.

  Disciple of Isabell (2) (Level 14) has died.

  Congratulations, you have reached level 15! You now have 5 available skill points. Take care of that menace!

  Since gaining a level completely restored your health, he was now back on his feet and headed for Lord Clearly. He would have leveled up earlier in the evening with the amount of enemies that had fallen but he wasn’t in a raid party and didn’t gain experience from all the kills. He only gained experience from those his direct party killed. Without a second thought, he dumped 2 points into Strength and 3 into Agility. Now that he was back to full health and mana, he burned mana at a furious pace to augment his speed with Air Magic.

  Based on Rose’s earlier attacks, there was only one thing he could do to end this fight. Instead of aiming for an attack at the man, Rayne made a diving jump for the orb itself. It didn’t seem capable of shielding near itself, and damaging Samuel’s hands wouldn’t do much good. He needed to remove the artifact from his grasp.

  Rayne’s hands clasped over the orb as his momentum carried him through the air. The orb was ripped from Samuel’s grasp, and the shadows started to subside from his control. Rose fell to the floor, drained and exhausted while Samuel turned his attention to Rayne in a fury.

  Rayne clutched the orb in his hand and was amazed at the item itself.

  Item:

  Soul of the Shadows

  Durability: 90/150

  Rarity: Unique

  Quality: Mastercraft

  Weight: 3.5 kg

  Traits: A crystal that harnesses the power of a soul infested with pure shadow. The metho
d of this item’s creation is a mythical secret.

  Call of Shadows: The user can manipulate the shadow energy from this item to their benefit.

  The item was incredible in its Rarity and Quality. Rayne had seen nothing near this level before, and it amazed him. Sadly, he had no time to contemplate this as Samuel closed on him with his newly drawn sword. The man’s weapon came down in a powerful strike directly for Rayne’s head, and Rayne did the only thing possible to survive. He put the Soul of Shadows up to take the blow instead of himself.

  Samuel’s sword crashed into the orb, and it let out a high pitched cracking noise. Before anyone knew what was happening, the orb shattered and sprayed out crystal shards directly at Samuel. The shadows swirled out of the orb and rose into the air. The power coalesced into the form of a skull.

  This skull turned its empty sockets to Rayne, and it darted directly for him. The power crashed into him and swirled around his body as the shadows tried to enter every part of him. Shadows entered his eyes, nose, and mouth as he tried to scream. When all the shadow had disappeared from the room, Rayne took in a deep breath and looked around. He couldn’t figure out exactly what had happened.

  Samuel Clearly (Level 18) has died.

  Rising to his feet, he ran to check on Lucas and saw the man was dead. There wasn’t anything he could do to help him, so he quickly continued to Rose. She was struggling to breathe and laying on the ground. Low and ragged breaths escaped from her lips as she lay prone, but she was smiling up at him.

  “We need to get out of here before anyone comes to investigate. It is a tragedy we had to lose Lucas to accomplish this,” She said regretfully.