The origami flock swooped at us again. I would have thought them to be completely harmless, but apparently, the power of an animator made them more dangerous. If nothing else, the paper birds had the power of weaponized paper cuts.
Giles activated his shield and most of the paper birds flew straight into the wall of magic and were smashed flat from the impact. Even as they started to fall, Grayson lashed out with his sword, slicing through as many of them as he could. One of the birds got inside and hit Lenore, leaving a thin line of blood along her cheek before she smacked it to the ground.
While this was going on, our enemies were trying to use the distraction to their advantage. Frank and Jag knew about Gile’s shield, so they didn’t charge straight in. Instead, they moved to surround us so that they were better positioned when the shield collapsed.
Jag and Frank marched straight towards us, and they were close enough together that I couldn’t resist dropping a ‘Cursed Ground’ right beneath them. I felt a surge of triumph for a moment, until Frank and Jag both vanished.
“An illusion,” I spat out bitterly, realizing that Jag had just tricked me into wasting that ability.
Jag was a tricky one, being both fast and good with illusions. I wanted to blast her with a ‘Hex’, but after what had just happened, I didn’t want to risk wasting it. Because of that, I turned my attention to Frank and hit her with a ‘Hex’ instead.
“Damn it,” Frank cursed, grimacing as she did so. She stood still and shook her head. “Annoying, but nothing I can’t deal with.”
Frank took a step forward and almost promptly staggered. Then she paused, took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders, and adjusted her axe. A moment later, she charged forward again, this time moving in a burst of speed. Her axe slammed into Gile’s shield and the whole thing popped.
“Shit,” Lenore snarled as the three puppets all rushed at us.
I hesitated for a moment. ‘Cursed Object’ was up and ready for use again, but I needed a target. My first thought was Frank’s axe, but then, I realized that she’d get rid of it right away. That meant she’d probably only get one dose of the bane and the rest would be wasted. Then I had a better idea.
I placed a ‘Cursed Object’ on my staff, then swung it at one of the puppets. I smacked the puppet in the side, not doing any damage at all. However, that contact was enough to release a dose of the bane, a dose which transferred to Maestro through his connection to the puppet.
Maestro yelped and dropped his staff, then glared at me before bending down to pick the artifact back up. He seemed to struggle a little with that, as though his staff had suddenly become very heavy.
Lenore and Riel opened fire, sending arrow and crossbow bolts at our enemies. However, they weren’t content to just stand back and take it. Michaelangelo shot back with his scepter, hitting Riel in the arm and causing him to drop his weapon.
Frank was suddenly in the middle of our group, swinging her axe at Lenore. Lenore scrambled back and avoided the axe blade, but her bow didn’t. The compound bow was sliced in half.
“MY BOW,” Lenore cried out angrily. “I liked that bow.”
Grayson was suddenly there in front of Frank, using his shield to ram her. Frank was only knocked back a single step, though the other enchanter had stopped her momentum.
I saw an opportunity and took it, swinging my staff at Frank while she was busy with Grayson. She shifted position and I only grazed her arm, but it was enough. She was hit with a random bane as well as a second copy of ‘Hex’, which threw her completely off balance.
“What did you do to her?” Grayson asked as he immediately took advantage of the distraction. “I see more enchantments…” His eyes quickly darted to my staff.
“A new trick,” I responded with a faint smirk.
“I don’t like having to fight former allies,” Giles said with a grimace.
Giles was using his halberd to keep Jag at a distance, and for a moment, they seemed to be at a stalemate. However, I suspected that it wouldn’t be long before one of Jag’s abilities recharged and she was able to use some illusion to slip past his guard.
A couple of the last remaining origami birds came at me, swooping in as if going for my eyes. I swung my staff at them, trying to take them out before they could hit me, but I missed. They kept darting around, staying just out of reach. Then I realized that Maestro was trying to distract me while one of his puppets rushed at me from behind.
“No fucking way,” I said, abruptly swinging at the puppet instead. If I could hit Maestro with another dose, then he’d really be in trouble.
But just then, the puppet suddenly leapt to the side, moving faster than I’d seen any of the puppets move before. An instant later, the puppet was gone and Jag was standing there instead. My eyes darted to where Jag had been fighting against Giles, and I saw a puppet there instead.
“Shit,” I spat out, realizing that Jag had been using another illusion to hide her real position.
“Drop the staff and come with us willingly,” Jag told me with a sneer. “That will make this whole fucking thing easier on everyone.”
“Fuck that,” I responded, taking a step back and then firing a ‘Hex’ at her.
Jag tried to avoid the ‘Hex’ but wasn’t able to do so. She staggered back, cursed, then glared at me with a hateful expression.
“That’s it,” Jag snarled, pausing to spit on the ground before raising her knives. “Mike needs you alive, but that still leaves a lot of room to work.”
Jag leapt at me, moving faster than I could react. But before she hit me, something else hit her. A figure rushed in from the side and slammed her while she was still in the air, knocking her to the ground.
“What the hell is going on here?” Stine demanded, glaring down at his own teammate whom he’d just hit. He made a show of cracking his knuckles.
“Stine?” I blurted out in surprise and a little confusion.
“What the fuck do you think YOU’RE doing?” Jag demanded of him as she quickly got back to her feet.
“I’m not too surprised to see you acting like some kind of cheap punk,” Stone told her. “But Frank…? That surprises me. And what the hell is Maestro doing here?”
“What’s the matter?” Jag mocked him. “Don’t like seeing us break the rules?” Then her eyes narrowed and she smirked. “Or maybe, you just don’t want us messing with your girl?”
Stine spared me a quick glance, looking self-conscious for a moment before covering it up. “I just don’t like seeing my own team doing stupid shit that effects me.” Then he gestured towards Frank, who was still busy with Grayson. “And the fact that you two were doing this without letting me know… Well, that makes me pretty damn suspicious about what you’re all up to.”
“We have a job to do,” Frank told him, even as she struggled to deal with Grayson. “I don’t like it either, but its an investment in the future.”
“Invest this,” Grayson snarled as he slashed his sword at Frank, moving at an almost blinding speed.
Suddenly, Frank was gone. One second, Frank was standing in front of Grayson, and the next… Frank reappeared beside Maestro, looking a little worn out from my banes and Grayson’s attack.
“She teleported,” Grayson blurted out.
I stared at Frank, who took this opportunity to catch her breath and recover a little. I had no idea if this trick had been one of her abilities or something that her axe allowed her to do, and it looked like her own teammates were just as surprised by this as we were.
“If you help us bring Donna in,” Frank told Stine, “then I promise that once Michaelangelo is finished studying her armor, we will release her alive and unharmed.”
Michelangelo scowled at that, not looking happy about Frank’s promise. Maestro looked even more annoyed while Jag sneered at the very idea. However, none of them contradicted Frank.
Stine hesitated for a moment, looking as though he was actually considering it. Then he shook his head. “Taking paying idiots into the Labyrinth is one thing. Grabbing other players off the street… Well, that’s going too far.”
“We need the resources for our goal,” Frank reminded him grimly. “And Michaelangelo’s skills are a valuable resource.”
“Well, fuck that,” Lenore exclaimed with a snarl.
A moment later, a new bow suddenly appeared in Lenore’s hand, though this wasn’t the compound bow that she’d been using. Instead, it looked like it was made of silver and gold metal, with a similar style as her conjured armor and arrows.
“Good thing I keep a backup,” Lenore said, right before she conjured an arrow and shot it right at Frank.
Jag dodged around Stine and came at me again, but I saw her moving and was already preparing to swing my staff. She must have suspected the danger because she abruptly shifted direction and avoided my swing. That move opened her up for Stine to catch up.
“This is one hell of a cluster fuck,” I snarled as I looked around.
It suddenly reminded me of a large prison brawl between two gangs that I’d once seen. I hadn’t wanted to get involved back then, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be in the middle of it now.
One of Maestro’s puppets was down, courtesy of Giles. He was chopping at it with his halberd, though there were two more of the damn things still attacking. A moment later, Grayson took on one of those, slamming his shield into it and knocking it to the ground.
Frank looked like she’d recovered enough to keep fighting, in spite of the fact that she still had a couple banes on her. The original ‘Hex’ had already worn off, but the two from my ‘Cursed Object’ were still on her.
“We need to keep Miss Donna safe,” Giles told the others.
“Damn right,” Lenore agreed with a grin. “She might be a stray dog who followed us home, but she’s still ours now.”
“I don’t know whether to appreciate the sentiment,” I responded wryly, “or tell you to fuck off.”
“Why not both?” Giles asked me cheerfully.
“While I appreciate your camaraderie,” Stine said. “Now isn’t the time to get distracted.”
“No, it isn’t, Mister Stine,” Giles agreed with a grim expression.
Then, Giles abruptly froze for a second before his head snapped around and he stared off to the side, in the same direction as the Labyrinth entrance. His eyes went wide and his expression was even more grim than before.
“Oh, shit,” Giles exclaimed. “Our situation just got a lot worse.”
“What do you mean?” Grayson asked.
I looked in the same direction as Giles, and it only took me a second to spot the black smoke that was rising into the sky. I blinked in confusion, only to gasp in realization a moment later. A large smokey figure in the shape of a wolf had appeared and was coming straight towards us.
“Fenrir,” I whispered, my whole body shaking as I remembered that thing killing Pham. “It’s here…”