Legend of the Spellthief

Smoke and steam arose from the hallway leading to Logan, his steps pushing away the atmosphere of decay around him. Placing his hand in front of him, Logan chanted, “Clean”, a wave of clean air caressing his body as all forms of dirt fell from his form. Even a modest area around him was made devoid of blood.

Stepping over bodies, Logan made his way to the entrance and clicked his fingers. Sporadic red dots showed themselves in a few nearby rooms that were empty previously, invisible foes.

Uncorking three more vials, Logan drank from them and tossed the empty vessels away. What were the invisible people waiting for? To take the prisoners away when they saw a chance? Their produce meant more than aiding the others in this den. Or, they were simply frightened at how many fell to the Spellthief’s spells.

No matter their reasons, they were all meant for the chopping block. It was hard to tell, as the dots jumped around and only appeared for half a second at a time, intervals around five to ten seconds apart, but Logan was sure there were at least three enemies left.

Chanting, “Haste”, Logan’s form whirred and heightened its speed, with a swing of his arm he painted the closest room as he continuously called out, “Force”, each word punctuated by the sound of air being parted by punches of pacifying power.

It didn’t take long before one hit their mark, an audible groan of pain as Logan heard the sliding of steps from the impact. Running towards the sound that was accompanied by another ping on his mini-map, the Spellthief drew two daggers and spun around with them several times.

On the third rotation, he hit skin, hit his target. Twisting the blade he made sure it stuck fast, leaving it to float in mid-air. Jousting forward he stabbed the foe again and again as he could only imagine the man backstepping to flee.

Footsteps could be heard behind Logan as the final attackers tried to surprise him in one final attempt. Wiping a hand over the appearing body that was slumping in front of him, Logan placed the hand behind him and chanted, “Air Blast”, causing the blood to rush from his palm in an outward spray of red wind.

Coating the unseen foes, they were now keenly seen in red silhouettes. Aiming a hand at the red splotches, Logan was about to cast a spell before he felt the sense of pollen hit his nose.

Realising they were trying to put him to sleep, and not wanting to risk failing to save against the effect, Logan twirled the other dagger in his hand and jabbed it into his leg. The pain it caused woke him up prematurely from the effect, as he knew there was a damage threshold to awaken the target.

Logan could hear murmurs from the attackers, drawing the dagger from his leg he cut out at the two hoping to land another hit. Failing to land a mark, he spun around and waved his hand over the floor and spoke, “Necromantic Wall”, causing a torrent of tendrils to burst from the floor and grab at the air.

The Spellthief felt himself heal slightly, hitting the foes but not revealing them just yet. More pollen reached his face as they continued to try and make him fall asleep. To make a longer-lasting defence against it, Logan aimed the blade between his fingers and severed his pinky alongside a used-up spell ring.

Blood gushed out as he caught and pocketed the finger. An audible, “He’s mad!”, came from the emptiness in front of him. However, with continued bleeding and pain he wouldn’t go to sleep anytime soon.

Jumping ahead with a spinning slash, Logan hit a target and followed through with a kick to what he assumed was their shoulder, hitting the invisible foe to the floor. Driving his blade into the prone target it appeared almost immediately as he defeated them.

The final foe appeared shortly after as their invisibility timer ran out. Logan twirled the dagger in his hand as he moved to strike again, stopping only a foot away from the man as he cowered and shouted the insulting plead, “Mercy.”

Outside of the usual meaning behind that word, Avanar had a sprinkling of something more when it was asked in such a manner. It meant the other party would be giving something up in return.

“Will you parrot?!” Logan yelled, in his still image pose and bile in his stomach.

The common term for this world’s version of a snitch, spy, or informant.

“Yes”, the man replied as he knelt and began sliding his rings off his fingers to the floor.

Logan removed himself from the stiff position as he spun the dagger in hand into its sheath, staring daggers at the man instead. With a click of his fingers, Logan knew there were no more threats, at least none so close. This was backed up by numerous numbers appearing in the distance and nearby.

Looking at the man quickly disarm himself, Logan couldn’t help but feel hatred towards him. He had been party to kidnap, torture, and most likely murder. He was going to be executed for what he did, and dead sooner if he hadn’t surrendered to Logan. Did he have good enough information to grant him safety from the noose?

“Are there any emergency exits I should know about, or ways the people working here could have left?” Logan demanded as he picked up the rings.

“There is a hidden exit in the cell area, and a trap door in the room to the left of this one. Thermodan also has access to teleportation spells, but I did not see him amongst the bodies.”

“What can you tell me about Thermodan?”

“He’s the head of this operation, a rank 18 Sorcerer. He made deals with some parts of the MT to sell off some of the rings to the association as well as work out supply lines.”

Logan frowned harshly, “Explain your supply lines.”

“Beggar streets and low-security settlements for the casters we bring in, alongside those opposed to the MT. As for selling, we ran items through the under market and through the MT, as well as shipments north to Helm.”

“They are fucking people… Fine. Does Thermodan teleport anywhere in particular down here?” Logan asked, knowing about Thermodan ahead of time and somewhat glad he hadn’t faced him.

“The same room as the trap door, I can show you.”

Logan waved his hand as if to say “You first.”

Leaving the room they were in, the pair entered one a few feet away. The door was wide open, showing that people had come through this way to attack Logan together. Pulling on the floor, the man picked up a wood-coloured rug that hid the mismatched frame rather well.

A tall rectangular trap door easily opened at a pull of its handle, revealing steps going down and unlit sconces. Logan surveyed it quickly with his Light Ally and saw it hadn’t been used recently, so no one escaped this way. Whoever came from this room was merely guarding it.

The man pointed at a patch on the floor, “There is a magic circle there that helps Thermodan attune his teleportation spells.”

“He isn’t high-enough rank to use Teleport, this is a ritual spell aid?”

The man nodded. Ritual casting was a rare ability, even more with 8% of the populace being even able to cast spells. It was an educated guess to say less than a thousand casters could do it safely.

Identifying the circle, Logan saw the lines light up slightly in white. It wasn’t a perfect construct, but it was tended to regularly and strengthened to brush out the impurities in it. It was expensive. At an estimate, it probably had a couple of dozen gold invested into it.

“Check the hall for anyone coming”, Logan commanded.

The man looked as if he wanted to ask why, but quickly decided not to. With no eyes on him, Logan touched the circle and attempted to disturb it with his skills, however, since it wasn’t waning or being cast it seemed it was outside of his current capabilities.

“Fol, know of anything that will help me disable this?” Logan asked in his head.

The AI-like presence that had been with Logan since the start, that slowly became more life-like in time combined with the increase in Logan’s intelligence attribute, replied fondly, “Yes, Logan. Symbol Assimilation will work in this case. You can alter or absorb this circle with it. Further information would be revealed when you unlock the skill.”

Logan saw the window appear to his side with the relevant skill and information, it was advantageous that Logan had saved his skill points. Accepting the new skill he read its expanded details.

“No time for alteration, Symbol Assimilation”, Logan thought to himself as he placed a hand on the circle.

The circle shook, the very white lines that were only visible to magic eyes, before long they faded and waved towards Logan’s palm as if they were the crashing end of the ocean. A little lick of the tips whipped into Logan’s flesh as a window appeared to show it was successful, though no spell was learned, no doubt it was a fourth-level spell that had 70% of failing to be learnt.

It was hard to say if this was the best choice to make, altering the circle would take too long for the current operation, and leaving it be would open up a terrible backdoor to the guards cleaning up the place later. At least with it gone, they could feel safer that teleportation would be harder.

The other teams were bound to bring in more parrots, as well as the one Logan picked up. Thermodan wouldn’t be safe for long. What was important now was saving those in captivity and sorting out all the rest of the fallout that came with these raids.

Leaving the room, Logan tapped the man’s shoulder to motion him to follow, he hadn’t seen what the Spellthief had done but could have surmised he was able to remove the circle’s effects.

Eventually, they returned to the cells, Logan’s new skill wouldn’t affect a trap so easily as he needed other utensils to do so, and one false move could cause the prisoner an early death.

The secret door was part of the wall, pressing certain rocks caused it to shake and descended into the floor, revealing another corridor. At the end of the secret passage was a ladder up, as the man explained. It hadn’t been used for any retreat, or entrance, possibly in a day or so. Logan got to the cells first before a large ruckus was made.

Logan found peace in the fact he hadn’t missed anyone, or at least not through alternative exits. He still needed to check the proper entrance. Grabbing the man’s shoulder he pushed him ahead as both went to leave.

The entrance room had its door busted down, almost blocking the passage into the underground. Slashes, dents, and fire marks decorated the door as if several tried to get through.

The memory house had its soundscape replaced with whimpers here and there, showing the fear of the workers and customers. Though Logan did not see any higher-management types inside.

On the outside, he saw why. Around thirty guards had apprehended the managers of the memory house, taking statements as their hands were tied at their backs. A few corpses were visible in alleyways as they were moved out of the way.

A soft hit of boots to the pavement had Logan turn his head to see an approaching Evén, her boots painted red and splattering up her trousers and blades. Logan held up a hand at his side and tilted his head slightly, Evén nodded as she approached.

“Clean”, Logan chanted, removing the signs of battle from his ally.

As the blood peeled away, Evén spoke, “Took down about twenty people trying to leave, and a few who tried to enter. I let the first bunch head in, in case there was more at the back I didn’t spot.”

“I got those.”

“Alright. Is the inside clear?”

“Of adversaries, didn’t remove the bodies yet. Thermodan wasn’t there, and I removed his teleportation focus.”

“Good, we can have the guards clean up”, Evén replied as she waved over a guard in slightly better-looking armour.

Logan turned and informed the man of what was inside, as well as the traps.

The guard responded, “We have three trap specialists with us and the items for such, we’ll take care of it.”

Logan then pushed the man he had apprehended forward, “Got a parrot, take him to the interrogators in your team.”

The guard nodded and ferried the captive over.

“Heard a few explosions and yells in the distance, no doubt people getting out of the under market facilities”, Evén mentioned.

“Mind keeping an eye on this place while I go check the others?”

“Most of the danger has passed, should be fine.”

“Thanks”, Logan nodded as he looked to the sky to teleport away.

Reaching the closest under market, Logan saw the doors had similarly been beaten down and the muddy gardens hiding cellars dotted with craters. Conversing with a guard he found everything to be under control here.

Teleporting to another found the same result.

The next had a different sight, however. It was close enough to where Amalia had been working that she had to get out to defend the local area. Her normal armaments were coated in red and singed slightly from spell fire.

“Everything good here, Amalia?” Logan asked as he raised a hand as he did to Evén.

Amalia was still a bit quick of breath, “Yeah, had a—”, Amalia cut herself off, “You know what. Someone tipped them off to potential hostages in the nearby area to make it easier to get out.”

Logan nodded, “We can talk about that later. Want me to Clean you?”

Amalia looked at the hand and had a realisation, “Sure.”

Logan did so as the dirt faded away. “If any guard or hunter asks, show them this”, Logan added as he picked out a piece of parchment and drew a symbol on it, passing it to Amalia.

It was essentially a secret code that allowed her to aid in the attacks if she was nearby. Adventurers could do it anyway, but she hadn’t signed up just yet. This was just added security that she wouldn’t get questioned.

“I got others to look at, stay safe.”

“You too.”

Logan looked to the sky and teleported again.

The other raids seemingly all succeeded, with varying degrees of damage. The final place to check was Marcus’s.

Limbs had been lost amongst the guards, but none were dead. Marcus’s MP and skills had mostly been used up in his raid, no doubt a few potions to boot. Blood glossed his face and hair, a quick mick sorted that as he approached Logan.

A quick hug led to Marcus saying, “Good to see you safe, Logan. I take it you got finished up early and doing the rounds?”

“That I did. Did you gather your marks?”

“Yeah, even a few from the other places. Seems a big fight was happening in the pits here.”

“I see no casualties”, Logan spoke as he looked around.

“I stuck by most or took the brunt myself. We’ll get regeneration services sorted out afterwards. The items this place had will pay for that easily.”

“Same for the victims I rescued in my raid.”

“Get your mark?”

"Thermodan wasn’t there”, Logan replied instantly.

“Not a major loss then. Seers should pick him up, and enough parrots will speak his name that we can get him ousted from the MT.”

Looking down at the Spellthief’s hand, Marcus breathed in slightly, “Your hand alright?”

Logan brought it up to see his pinky had already regenerated into a nub at the first knuckle, “Better with time. Had to cause myself enough pain to keep me awake during Sleep spells.”

Marcus nodded as he understood.

Another guard came running from afar, dressed in soft leathers and sprinting boots. Between gasps of air, he spoke to the two, “Sirs. Message from the walls. Some of the offenders tried to escape but were quickly handled. However, some experimental rings were shot and shook the local monster population. Can you help with the eradication methods?”

Logan put a hand on the man’s shoulder as Marcus did the same to him, “You needing to go back there?”

“Yes.”

At the response, the trio warped away.

--- *** ---

Now is not the time to be checking my status.