Legend of the Spellthief

The new arrival to the battlefield stood tall, their presence dominating from both their aesthetics and their actions. Logan and Marcus shook all over from the impact of the monster’s attacks, even unarmed strikes were deathly.

As the pair stood tall, they got a better eye on their aggressor. Two arms that ended in claws with thumbs, and two familiar talons that appeared under their normal arms, below the armpits. A long tongue whipped around, down to her shins, ending in a point and displaying several barbs that pointed to the tip.

Her face was demonic and jagged, an almost bone-like faceplate or skull that housed two glowing green eyes without irises. A jagged maw opened so wide it looked dislocated, and her grin extended past where ears would normally appear, though the skull didn’t show much in that design, aside from horns and spikes.

The creature’s whole body was seemingly coated in a bone exoskeleton, protecting the muscular dark-red underneath, a weird ooze of black dripping all across her body as if it were sick or sleek by nature.

Standing at 6’7”, she wasn’t huge in comparison to the snallygasters, but she looked down on Logan and Marcus. Two sharp and smooth bone swords with red veins were held in her grasp, almost the same colour as the creature’s exoskeleton, her talons jagged and bloody, as if she had just come from another murder scene.

“You boys have been a pain in my muscles. Far too skittery”, the monster claimed, her voice full of spite and bile as her tongue continued to twirl around.

“Another monster with speech?” Marcus asked.

“What do you know about PCs?” Logan demanded as he took a defensive stance. He tried to use Identification, but it returned no result.

“That you’re the troublemakers of this land. Coming here to stir the pot and fuck our natural progression”, she spat in reply.

Marcus side-eyed Logan as he tried to comprehend the situation.

“How’d you find us?”

The creature laughed maniacally, “We’ve known about you for ages. Sadly, all offensive attempts up to now have failed. Incarceration would be too good for you anyway.”

“So you were controlling Quayvan?”

She laughed even harder, her mouth opening like it was a mimic chest, “Control implies what you’re commanding has any other choice or chance of resistance.”

“Fine, whatever you want to call it”, Logan spat.

“He was one of mine. Thermodan was a far better tool with his reach and knowledge. But like my plans, it all blew up”, she cackled.

“Is she trying to run out our buff timers? Or is she egotistical?” Logan thought to himself, not having any resemblance to this sort of conversation with his foes. “What is it you want then? You’ve applied at least a two-fold teleportation blocker, so you at least want us to stay put.”

The prism keeping the trio in place had static flow over it, cracking a bit in the air as it continued its purpose.

The creature looked up to admire her work, “We’ve time. The prism will last for a good two-hour.”

“So, time for tea and snacks?” Marcus teased.

“I do like to play with my food”, the creature teased back as she licked her lips with the upper half of her tongue. “But no. I just like to see how you’d react, I know most of your tricks. Those Enhance spells of yours would be lovely to avoid.”

“Can’t make this unfair now, can we?” Logan chuckled, “Fine then. Is there anyone else above you we need to worry about?”

“What’s there to worry about when you're dead?”

“You said ‘we’ so it isn’t just you.”

“Whilst they are cowards. I am no traitor to my kind”, she replied quickly, “Now. I offer a bargain.”

Logan raised an eyebrow as his lost eye reformed properly, “What? You don’t just want to eat us?”

“While enticing, I have a better idea. Bring me Ahren, and I shall forget this whole PC business.”

“This thing wants Ahren? Why? Did it know the Below PC Ahren killed?” Logan thought to himself. “Even if we did, why would we trust a monster’s word?”

“Tille.”

“Till what?”

“No, my name, Tille. Use it while conversing with me.”

“Fine. Tille.”

Tille then titled her head, “Isn’t formality nicer? Sir Logan? As to assurances, I, Lady Tille, shall engage in a life-bound contract.”

“So. You’d die if you break it, while we’re out of it after bringing you whoever this ‘Ahren’ is”, Marcus both explained and asked.

“Correct. Going against the GP has already weakened me. Cutting ties completely is only a benefit.”

“GP?” Logan asked, bemused.

“It matters not. Do we have an agreement?”

Logan thought over it for a moment, “She went against something, and she’s weaker because of it? Is that why she is… leaking?”

Tille then let out a pained groan as she shook her head, “Decline, below damn you”, she said under her breath.

“Alert”, a robotic voice played in Logan’s head, dissimilar from Fol’s. “You are facing—” it continued before getting cut off by static.

Fol then replaced the dying voice in Logan’s mind, “Logan. It seems this monster was a partnered NPC. If I am right, it might be holding a vestige of the PC’s power.”

“So, they are getting quests to kill me”, Logan surmised in reply.

“Choose now, Logan”, Tille shouted in anger, the ooze continuing to seep from her muscular underbody.

Logan quickly looked towards Marcus, “Enhance”, he commanded.

Tille let out a monstrous roar, her voice quaking the earth and shattering the terrain around her. Kicking off the floor, she left a massive crater where she once was.

Marcus quickly slapped his hand on Logan’s shoulder, Enhancing his Agility but having little time for anything else. A grey aura surrounded the two men as Logan drew two daggers to block a sword and talon on the left of the monster, Marcus blocking a sword with his staff and grappling the talon before it hit his side.

Tille’s muscles flexed and momentarily expanded under the exoskeleton, a dangerous power welling from her centre to her hands. The swords felt like a speeding train on the pair as Logan and Marcus kicked off the floor to avoid their blocks getting devastated, the bone swords cleaving the floor so deep that water spouted up.

Following her prey, Tille slashed out with horrendous speed. Logan chanted, “Haste”, increasing his speed but barely keeping up with the monster’s. Thuds and scrapes echoed in the forest as steel met bone.

Marcus had to spin his staff around desperately to block a sword and talon both. Cracks formed across it as he dropped his main weapon to pull out twin daggers to mirror Logan.

Logan tried to warp, but his body merely vibrated. His skills and items only really helped against miscasting or effects that stopped casting altogether, specific abilities that only targeted a single spell or type still stopped him. It was only a second-level spell, Dimensional Jaunt was easily countered.

“Invisibility”, Logan chanted in distress. His form blurred out of view, leaving Marcus to have the ire of the foe. He wasn’t alone for long, though, a second passed as two tendrils of darkness pierced Tille, from the front and back. This was shortly followed by two blocks of the left sword and talon as Logan protected Marcus.

Red and black blood splattered the battlefield as Tille didn’t stop her assault for a moment. Logan’s Necromantic 2nd spells did little to deter her.

As Logan blocked another two swipes, he spun the Bowen daggers in his hand and threw them at the monster. Their speed was nothing against her reactions, the daggers flying past her head as Logan drew up two more to block a retaliation.

Parrying four more blows, Logan threw a dagger, opened his palm, and set off an Air Blast to propel himself backwards. Moving his hand to the floor, Logan went up high, blasted over Tille, and then to her rear.

Pulling out another dagger, Logan started to attack at Tille’s back, but she merely turned to the side to assault Logan on her left, and Marcus on her right, but much more stretched out than focusing on a frontward assault.

Marcus had his daggers shattered, forcing him to draw up two more. Logan twirled a dagger, letting it spin in the air after parrying another strike. Forming a staff from his inventory, he threw it around Tille, the bottom tip impaling the floor beside Marcus who quickly kicked it into his right hand to go back to a staff and knife combo.

“Pesky pests”, Tille shouted before drawing her blades across her body, a black mist forming around them.

Logan quickly shot an Air Blast at Marcus to propel his upper body down while he also bent back till his head hit the floor.

Swiping outwards, Tille let out a massive circle of black that cut through countless trees all around. As the flora crashed around them, the two men rolled back to their feet having dodged a strike that was sure to have bisected them.

In unison with their distance, Logan and Marcus aimed at their foe and silentcasted a duo-volley of Gaia 2nd and a single.

Tille cut at the rocks, decimating them as they arced towards her. She then turned to Logan and darted after him, causing him to blast into the air to avoid her assault. However, she merely kicked off the floor to keep pace with the Spellthief, four limbs prized to cut him down.

“Chain Guard”, Marcus chanted, forming golden chains to follow after Tille and wrap around her legs, halting her upward momentum.

“Unlock Dagger Toss”, Logan commanded in his head as he brought both his daggers overhead and far back.

Unlocking the skill he had seen ages ago, his Bowen daggers were coated in a grey aura before Logan threw them. Their speed was staggering, a sonic boom erupting from the handles as they pierced Tille’s exoskeleton and went through her shoulders, narrowly missing where the chains had appeared in the ground.

Like a dervish, Logan formed dagger after dagger from his inventory in the air and continually used Dagger Toss to railgun his knives at his foe.

Trapped in the air, Tille cut apart some of the daggers with her swords, the punitive weapons shattering into nothingness as she did so. Thankfully, a few got through and pierced Tille three times before the chains were broken from her kicking.

Placing her feet together, Tille let out a blast of pressure from the soles, making herself a rocket towards Logan.

Logan blasted diagonally down to avoid the skill of his foe, however, she just did it again. Casting another Air Blast, Logan used more charges to avoid his foe in the air. “She’s unrelenting”, Logan cursed in his head.

Careening towards Marcus, Logan blasted over the Devout’s head to allow Marcus to finish another cast of Chain Guard, the golden chains wrapping around Tille hastily though many broke in the process. “Chain Guard”, Marcus chanted over and over, adding more chains to the mess, it was like catching a shark in fish nets.

Logan spun around in the air and blasted back towards Tille, chanting, “Aqua Shot, Gaia Shot, Lightning Shot, Necromantic Shot, Wind Shot, Lightning Cascade”, letting loose a barrage of all his spell slots for the day. Water collided with earth and shattered with lightning sparks while darkness surrounded the wind, the whole colourful display ended in electricity cracking.

Tille flexed her muscles again, letting out a gargantuan roar. The sound of her voice shook the earth and cracked the floor up to thirty feet away. Marcus’s golden chains dissipated as the dazzling view of magic was blown far from the monster.

Standing tall, but bleeding, Tille placed her left talon in front of herself and severed it with her right sword. As the talon flew through the air and hit the floor, she chanted, “Carbon Imitation”, causing the talon to go haywire and spin. At the severed section, the muscle exploded outwards with more bone and meat, red and black ooze coating the battlefield.

As Logan and Marcus regrouped they were now standing opposite two Tilles, the original with only one talon, and the new one that looked like a new babe but swordless.

“Been some time since I used this”, Tille admitted as she looked her double.

“We can only handle so much of ourselves”, the copy replied with a smirk.

“Oh, stop”, the original teased.

“This isn’t good”, Marcus spoke under his breath.

“They can’t be at the same power”, Logan consoled.

The two Tilles then stared daggers at the two adventurers who quickly realigned their defensive stances.

“I’ll have to bring out my new style if this is the case”, Marcus revealed.

“You’ve been holding back?!” Logan argued without moving his gaze.

“Not necessarily. It’s untested in the field like this. Can you pull out my two bags?” Marcus asked in a whisper.

The two Tilles then started to approach the pair, Logan quickly summoning up two large bags for Marcus.

Blasting towards the two foes, Logan tried to keep their attention while Marcus prepared himself, however, the copy instead went wide and circled Logan.

Jumping up and then blasting downwards, the copy grappled Marcus as he picked up the bags, and the pair crashed through the floor out of sight.

“Marcus!” Logan called out as he turned his head.

“Here, boy!” Tille bemoaned as she slashed at Logan.

The Spelltheif blocked both swords with his dagger, barely kicking and landing his left leg on the right talon, using it as a weird pedestal. Wringing his right leg back, Logan kicked at Tille’s head to disrupt the grapple they found themselves in.

Landing solidly, Logan noticed something, “She is a bit slower and less hardy… she did split her power!”

Meanwhile, under the ground. Marcus found himself within a large cavern under the surface, light bleeding in from the hole he was dragged through. His bags at his side on the floor, Marcus grabbed them before seeing the copy Tille reorganise herself.

“Alone with a man, what am I to do”, the copy feigned weakness.

“Hey, I have no qualms with this. You just gave me free rein to show off my new moves. I really didn’t want Logan to get a leg up on me”, Marcus replied with a grin, pulling out a reflective metal from his bags.

“You’ll be the one to get pounded”, the copy replied with bile and confidence.

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