I could feel the searing heat as it passed by, but for some reason, it didn’t actually touch me directly. I opened my eyes, not realizing until that very moment that I’d closed them in the first place. With the flames rushing at me far too fast to avoid, I’d assumed that I was dead. Again.
When I looked around, I realized that I’d somehow sunken into some kind of pit and that stone had formed into a half-dome overhead, diverting the flames up and away while sheltering me and Turtle beneath. However, that stone dome was glowing red and beginning to melt.
“That heat,” I whispered in stunned disbelief.
Turtle was practically on top of me, covering my body with his own and acting as a human shield. However, I knew that even with his armor and his ability activated, he had no chance of surviving a direct hit with those flames. They should have killed him and me both.
“We’re…not dead,” Turtle gasped as he moved back.
“No,” I responded, just noticing that were weren’t just in a pit, we were at the end of a trench. I looked down the trench and saw someone standing there, someone who was one of the last people I would have expected. “Godiva.”
Turtle saw the enemy shaper and tensed up, raising his sword, though there wasn’t enough room to properly swing it while we were in the trench. I put a hand on his chest to stop him.
“She saved our lives,” I told him, not taking my eyes off the woman. “But why?”
“Because,” Godiva answered bitterly, “Raze killed Jace and Wolf, and he made it clear that he’ll kill me too the moment I’m not useful anymore.” She looked up, out of the trench and added, “Since I’ve just made that a certainty, you’d damn well better kill him before then, Warden.”
“He’s a psycho,” Turtle stated.
Godiva didn’t disagree. “Ever since he found that damn dragon helmet, he’s gotten even worse.”
With that, Godiva turned and ran down the trench, trying to get as much distance as she could before Raze realized what had just happened. I immediately followed her example.
At the end of the trench, there were a couple of steps which led us back to the surface. We emerged behind a nearby stone shelter, one of the ones that Mad Mike had previously been using as cover. Godiva took one glance back towards Raze, who was looking down into the trench besides were we’d gone down, then she turned and ran in the other direction.
“Doesn’t look like she’s going to help us any more,” Turtle said.
“She saved our lives,” I pointed out. “That’s enough help for me.”
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Raze howled in rage as he realized what had happened. “GODIVA!”
“It looks like you’re all out of allies,” I called out to the berserker.
Raze tensed and looked like he was about to charge at me again. I tensed up as well, ready to react the instant he moved. Suddenly, a crossbow bolt slammed into his collarbone and probably would have hit him right in the neck if he hadn’t moved.
I looked over at Jimenez, who was ducking back down behind one of the barriers that Godiva had made. I smiled faintly at the hit and run tactics that he’d been employing. They worked well against most players, especially when you could stay well out of their reach. And from what I could see, Jimenez had taken note of how far Raze’s fire breath could reach, and was doing just that.
Raze didn’t bother even trying to breath fire at the local Warden. Instead, he bent over and grabbed the half dome that had covered my protective pit, and tore it free. A moment later, he flung the chunk of stone right at the shelter that Jimenez was hiding behind. It hit with an almost explosive impact that sent shrapnel flying. Jimenez flew back with multiple wounds from the stone shrapnel and an arm that was bent at a bad angle.
Turtle ran for his shield, though it had already proven to be no match for Raze. Still, I supposed that it was better than nothing.
The berserker snapped around and shifted his axe, clearly ready to charge at Turtle. But before he could move more than two steps, a massive brown figure shot out of nowhere and slammed into Raze, knocking him to the ground.
A giant, brown furred rabbit, which was the size of a Clydesdale horse, now stood on top of Raze’s body. It wore a leather saddle, which was currently occupied by my favorite summoner, Bunny.
“Good job, Bunzilla,” Bunny cried out with an excited grin.
The rabbit, Bunzilla, began to kick at Raze with its back legs, smacking him a good dozen times before he could recover. Then as the giant rabbit moved away, Bunny shot at the downed berserker with her scepter, snaring him with her ghostly chains.
“I like big buns and I cannot lie,” Bunny joked as they raced away from Raze.
Olivia opened fire with an arcane blast, one that she’d obviously charged up as much as she could. The powerful blast hit Raze and sent him flying back, breaking the ghostly shackles in the process. The berserker hit the ground hard and remained motionless with smoke coming from his body.
“Good shot,” Ace called out as he came over, wincing as he did so. He’d taken a bit of damage from his fight with Mike, and it didn’t look like he was in any shape to keep fighting. Not what we had much other choice until Raze was down for good. “Now hit him again, while he’s down.”
Ace held up one of his own scepters, though his arm was shaking as he did so. The way he was holding his other arm made me think that it might be broken. He fired a shot at Raze and missed.
Raze grunted then slowly began to get back to his feet. “I’m gonna kill every last one of you,” Raze promised. He looked around, looking terrifying with the one glowing red eye from within his helmet. “I’m gonna make it hurt.”
“And he still has that damn helmet,” I said with a snarl.
Ace blinked at that, then said, “It’s an artifact…”
“No shit,” Turtle responded.
“It’s a damn powerful artifact,” Ace conceded, “but it’s still an artifact.” He was beginning to grin.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, knowing the look of someone who had an idea. “You want to shatter it?”
Ace snorted at that. “It’s too powerful for my shatter.”
“Too bad,” Turtle grumbled. “But that probably would have be too easy.”
“Artifacts have a built-in battery,” Ace quickly explained. “That thing is powerful, but Raze has been using it a LOT. It must take forever to charge up something like that…”
My eyes widened in realization as I understood what he was trying to say. “Its battery can be drained. It can run out of power.”
I stared at Raze, then at our surroundings. Numerous buildings were still on fire, while the air above us was thick with black smoke. Raze had been blasting Taxco well before we’d even arrived, and he hadn’t been shy about using his new power since then either. I had no idea how much power he had left, but I hoped he was getting close to running out.
“Bunny,” I told the summoner, who still sat on the back of her new summoned creature. “Get Jimenez out of here and help evacuate anyone else who needs it.”
Most of the civilian population had already fled when the chaos started, though there seemed to be a few stragglers. I wondered if any of them were players, or if all the local players had either died or fled already. I couldn’t worry about that now. I had a monster to deal with.
“Keep your distance from him,” I warned my friends. “Hit him at range, when you can, but don’t let him get within firing distance.”
“Got it,” Turtle agreed.
“I see where you’re going with this,” Maya said as she appeared beside us. She gave me a faint smile and held up the spear that she’d recovered. “If we can get him to use up the rest of his power, then he’ll be easier to deal with.”
“Easier,” Olivia stated grimly. “But not easy.”
“Nothing worthwhile is ever easy,” I said. That was something I’d learned a long time ago.
Raze let out a roar of rage and charged towards us with his axe already swinging. Maya rushed forward and swept her spear, nearly making him trip over it. He reacted fast enough to leap over her attack, but it threw off his charge and gave everyone the chance to move. After he staggered, he snarled and then spat out a massive burst of fire, though Maya teleported away and then ran for cover.
“I bet Mike could have hit us with that,” I called out. “He’s got much better aim.”
The berserker snapped around and fired a blast of flames at me, proving that he could use that ability without much of a cooldown. I was immediately struck by how unfair it was that he had such a powerful ability that he could use again so quickly. For most players, the more powerful the ability, the longer it took to use it again.
“That just means he can run out of power sooner,” I told myself as I dove into the trench that Godiva had left behind. The flames passed overhead without touching me, though I still felt a lot of the heat.
I emerged from the trench behind the same stone cover as before, wondering what I should try next. My options were pretty limited as Raze had already shrugged off nearly everything I had. He already knew about my ‘Invocation of the Wisp’ and had simply ignored it the last time I’d used it.
“Ace must have told him about it,” I muttered, before remembering that he’d already seen that ability in use too, back in the maze. “Too bad. It’s a great trick.”
Then I paused for a moment, realizing that just because he knew about that ability, that didn’t mean it couldn’t still work on him. I just had to be a little more careful about how I used it.
With that, I crouched down and activated ‘Invocation of the Wisp’. A moment later, the illusion of me ran out from behind the cover, heading straight for the next mound of stone. The illusion only made it halfway before a burst of flame washed over it.
I immediately ran in the other direction, counting on Raze being too focused on my illusion to react to the real me until it was too late. My gamble worked as I dove behind cover, then quickly scrambled along behind more obstructions so that he couldn’t see where I was going.
Once I was in a good position, I came up for another look at the situation. Raze was struck by another crossbow bolt, this one having been shot by Maya. It seemed that she’d recovered Jimenez’ weapon and his quiver of bolts.
I felt a moment of regret over the fact that we’d lost that mounted double crossbow, because that thing looked like it would have packed quite a bunch. In fact, I bet that thing could have punched holes all the way through the bastard.
“Too bad I’ll never find out,” I muttered.
Ace popped up and fired a shot at Raze before ducking down again, followed by Olivia doing the same thing. Olivia’s arcane blast was pretty weak, especially compared to her last one. She’d already used up the energy stored in her staff, so it was lucky that she was able to do this much. But unfortunately, Raze saw it coming and was able to dodge the attack.
Raze howled in rage, his entire body now covered with a red glow. I grinned since this was exactly what I wanted. The angrier he got, the more likely he was to lash out without thinking. And since he was already prone to that anyway…
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU ALL!” Raze repeated, now sounding like a broken record.
I turned my attention to the spectral crow that was still flying around overhead. It wasn’t solid so there wasn’t much that it could do at the moment, but it wasn’t useless. It had distracted Raze during our previous fight, and this seemed like the perfect time for it to do that again.
The ghostly bird dove down and buzzed Raze’s head, getting close enough to surprise the berserker and make him jump, but not close enough that it could be hit by the axe. It swooped around, let out another silent ‘kaw’, and then divebombed the berserker again.
I carefully watched the crow fly past the glowing axe. Raze was channeling one of his own abilities through it, and as I’d seen before, that meant it would be able to interact with the crow. That was the last thing I wanted to happen again. I needed him to use his fire against the nuisance.
Maya and Ace both opened fire on Raze again, but he was so enraged that he didn’t even think of dodging those attacks, though he’d previously proven that he was more than capable. He was frustrated, too angry to think straight. Good.
This time, when the spectral crow dove towards Raze, he snapped around and spat out a blast of flame, one that completely engulfed the bird. It vanished instantly.
“Thank you for the help,” I said, speaking to the primal that truly controlled the crow. I felt a stirring of amusement and appreciation from our link. That primal was having a great time.
Once the crow was gone, Raze was suddenly attacked by Sir Fluff and a group of four freshly summoned horned rabbits. I looked around and spotted Bunny, still atop Bunzilla as she carried the injured Jimenez away from the battle.
Raze lashed out with his axe, hitting one of the horned rabbits and destroying it immediately. The others were too spread out to catch all at once, at least not without his using the flames. He must have realized that as well because a second later, he opened his mouth and spat out another blast of flames, one that caught the three remaining horned rabbits. Sir Fluff leapt aside and avoided the flames.
This time, Raze’s the blast of flames had been much smaller than every other time I’d seen it. This meant that the berserker was finally learning how to moderate his attacks, which seemed unlikely, or he was running low on power. I desperately hoped that it was the latter.
When Sir Fluff abruptly turned and lunged at Raze, leaping up with his rapier going straight for the berserker’s face, the response was an immediate blast of flames. This blast was small, absolutely tiny in comparison to all of the previous blasts, including the last one. It was enough to destroy Sir Fluff, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice.
“He’s nearly out,” I told Turtle, who nodded agreement.
I watched Raze for several long seconds, considering my options. Even with that artifact drained and his fire power neutralized, he was still a dangerous opponent. He was bigger than me, stronger than me, and he’d already seen all of my abilities.
“How will I beat him this time?” I muttered.
My thoughts immediately turned to the offer that Avexis had made me in that temple. She had offered to make me into her paladin, to give me even more power. That kind of power would be just what I needed to face Raze, just what I needed to crush him and make him pay.
A cold, cruel smile formed on my lips as I wondered how I could get that power. Did I have to go find another altar to Avexis, or could I just talk to her through the link we shared? Then I remembered what Avexis had wanted in exchange for that additional power and I scowled. Sure, it had been a simple matter, one that would have been easily accomplished then…but not now.
“Piss on someone else’s altar,” I mused with a shake of my head.
That would have been easy to do, but I still didn’t like the idea. It was so…petty. Sure, I had absolutely no problem being spiteful and petty to people who’d messed with me, but Araelys had never wronged me in the least. All she’d done was offer me power…and insulted Avexis in the process.
There was another reason that I’d turned down Avexis’ offer before, and the reasoning still held. If I became Avexis’ paladin, I would become beholden to her completely. That would give her way too much power and leverage over me. Avexis would be able to shut me down and take away my abilities whenever she wanted, and with a goddess of spite and petty revenge, it probably wouldn’t take much for that to happen.
And then, there was one more problem, one that I hadn’t even really considered until after meeting the Guide. If I became Avexis’ paladin, that would probably mean dedicating my life to upholding her principles. And while I desperately wanted revenge against Raze, I had absolutely no desire to spend my entire life focused on revenge. According to the Guide, I’d already done that once in a previous life, and while I didn’t remember being Magdalena Malice, I felt a strange certainty that it had been a lonely and unhappy one. I had been given a second…or third chance of life as Maggie, and I didn’t want this one to go to waste like that.
With that, I clenched my hammer tightly, shifted my stance and focused on Raze. I put thoughts of looking for additional power out of my mind, and especially of becoming a paladin to any deity. No matter how strong Raze was, I could handle him. I’d done it once, and I would damn well do it again.
A moment later, Maya came rushing towards Raze with her spear ready to impale him. He immediately lunged at her with his axe swinging, only to find her teleporting away in a swirl of shadow. An instant later, he opened his mouth and spat out another burst of flames...or tried to. All that came out was a small ball of fire, no bigger than a cantaloup, and it burned out almost immediately.
“He’s out,” I exclaimed.
Turtle and I rushed in towards Raze, no longer having to worry about being roasted alive. Now, we only needed to worry about Raze himself, and that would be challenge enough. The bulwark rammed into the berserker with his battered shield, trying to knock him off balance while I came in with a swing of my hammer.
Raze was knocked off balance but immediately recovered, shifting position in a blur and shoving Turtle into me before my strike could hit. I was knocked back while Turtle was forced to the ground, with an axe quickly descending towards him.
“I don’t think so,” I snarled, lashing out with my hammer and catching Raze in the arm. I wasn’t able to hit him hard enough to break anything, but he still yelped and instinctively yanked his arm back rather than continue his attack.
His glowing red eye locked onto me and I could feel the burning rage and the focused hatred. It was a startling reflection of my own feelings towards him, but where his anger was a blinding rage, mine was cold and controlled.
Raze kicked Turtle in the side, and my friend went flying with a loud grunt of pain. From the angle of the hit, I suspected that his ribs were probably bruised or even broken. It looked like Raze was about to charge at Turtle to try finishing the job, so I took advantage of the opening. I swung my hammer beak right at Raze’s exposed side, hoping I could finish him.
“Not this time,” Raze snarled as he abruptly shifted positions.
The berserker moved at a blinding speed. Instead of me hitting his exposed ribs, his axe came down and smashed into my hammer. There was a ‘crack’ as my hammer broke, with the head flying in one direction while the severed shaft fell to the ground. Then, he backhanded me with his other hand, catching me across the chest with a painful impact that sent me flying back. I hit the ground and tumbled several times before coming to a stop.
Maya rushed in, trying to drive her spear right into Raze’ back, but he snapped around and caught the spear with his free hand right before it could penetrate. He held the spear in his hand and gave Maya a cruel smile as he raised the axe to strike.
In her own blur of motion, Maya released her spear and drew her combat knife. Instead of trying to block Raze’s axe, she shifted sideways and attacked his arm, slamming her knife in, all the way to the hilt. Raze howled in pain as he dropped the axe.
“Good move,” I told Maya as I got back to my feet and drew my own dagger.
“I’m gonna kill you all,” Raze promised as he stepped back, pulling Maya’s knife from his arm and tossing it aside. “Every last one of you losers…”
“You’ve said that already,” I pointed out grimly.
“Several times,” Maya added.
I nodded sharply. “And its getting old.” A cruel smile formed on my lips as I added, “I’m starting to think that you’re all talk and no action.”
My words seemed to hit Raze even harder than my physical attacks had, because the look of rage and hatred on his face suddenly intensified. I took note of that, wondering if it was something I could exploit.
Raze rushed me, but I was ready for him. I slipped to the side and attempted a sweep, one which only partially worked. I hit the back of his leg and knocked him off balance, but not enough to make him lose it entirely. He snapped around before I could take advantage of that momentary opening, and swung his fist at me. I shifted to the side and avoided the hit, noting a small detail in his reactions as I did so.
“Gotcha,” I whispered with a cruel chuckle. I knew how to beat that bastard.
Raze was missing an eye, which completely destroyed his peripheral vision on one side. And then there was his helmet, which interfered with his peripheral vision on the other side as well. Add those together, and the berserker had some pretty serious blind spots.
I came at Raze, attacking him as much as I could from the side where he was missing an eye. He was too fast to leave much of an opening, but that slight delay from not being able to see clearly until he turned his head gave me just the advantage I needed. I hit him in the side with my dagger, drawing a deep gash along his ribs.
Raze howled in rage and swung at me, but I used his blind spot again, this time to avoid his attack. When he followed up again, I repeated the process, this time slipping around to the side of his good eye, the one that his helmet still interfered with.
The berserker tore off his own helmet and tossed it aside, snarling, “Fucking useless…”
That had improved his peripheral vision a little on one side, but it still didn’t do anything for his missing eye. I smiled faintly, though I knew it wasn’t a pleasant smile. It was the smile of a predator that had finally cornered his prey, even if the prey hadn’t realized it.
When Raze came at me this time, I let him get a little closer than was safe, but only because it gave me the opening I needed. I drove my dagger into his stomach and then tore it sideways, leaving a deep gash. Some of his insides began to spill free.
I expected Raze to hesitate at the wound, to at least grab at his stomach and try to hold in his entrails. Instead, he attacked. In a flash, he had a hand around my neck and was lifting me off the ground. I had a sickening feeling of deja-vu.
“I’ve got you now,” Raze snarled with a menacing sneer. “This time, I’m gonna make it slow. REAL slow…” He chuckled evilly as he raised his other hand towards my face. “I’ll start with an eye for an eye…”
I just stared into his remaining eye, letting him see every ounce of my own rage and hatred. This wasn’t the way I’d intended to do things, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t ignore.
While I had Raze’s attention, I activated ‘Invocation of Spite’, calling up every ounce of power that Avexis would provide. I felt it surge through me, searing every nerve in my body with burning agony, stronger and more painful than ever before as the goddess seemed to approve of my action. And then, I emptied my own batteries, adding in every last drop of primal energy that I’d absorbed. It all emerged in my palm, a ball of roiling red and black energy.
“THIS IS FOR MARGARET,” I shouted as I slammed the ball of pure primal spite right into the side of Raze’s face, using the blind spot from his missing eye to make sure that he didn’t see it coming.
Raze immediately screamed in agony, dropping me as he did so and grabbing at his face. I hit the ground and staggered, unable to take my eyes off my enemy. Lines of black and glowing red energy spread over his body, almost as though his veins were all lighting up from within. His body burned and cracked while his shrieking only faded as his voice gave out.
He pulled his hands away from his face, letting me get a look at the charred ruin it had become. My attack had burned away flesh and muscle, leaving little more than bone behind. And where his good eye was…or had been…there was just another empty socket.
I drew my remaining knife, the combat knife that I’d taken from Owen Nash’s body, and in one determined move, drove it up beneath Raze’s jaw and into his brain. “And this is for Nash,” I spat out coldly, twisting the knife for good measure.
The large berserker collapsed to the ground, spasming several times before going both silent and motionless. It was over. He was finally dead.
I collapsed to my knees, feeling both physically and emotionally exhausted. My entire body ached like hell as I could finally afford to notice all the injuries from my fight.
From my link to Avexis, I felt a sense of satisfaction and even approval. After all, this was what she’d given me ability for in the first place. Revenge.
“Maggie,” Maya said as she crouched down beside me, putting a gentle arm over my shoulders. “Are… Are you all right?”
“Just tired,” I admitted with a sigh. “And hurting.” I chuckled weakly as I added, “I think my tits are bruised to hell.”
Maya burst out in a short laugh at that before whispering into my ear, “Do you want me to kiss them and make it better?”
I blinked in surprise at that question and the inappropriate timing before I smiled in response and admitted, “Yes I do.”