The Owner

I push open the door to find a woman sitting at a desk. She has brown hair and a large scar across one of her cheeks. She’s wearing a brown leather jacket over a plain white top. She looks up at us, and her face is fairly plain, but hardened. Her eyes reflect her disinterest, as if bored already with the conversation before it’s even started.

“What do you want?” She asks, her voice reflecting a no nonsense attitude that indicates she expects this to be done within 30 seconds. “Are you Sarah?” I ask. “Mhm. Who’s asking?” “The Gamer. You’re going to shut down your operation immediately.” I state firmly, doing my best to take control of the situation.

“The Gamer, why does that name sound familiar….ah right! I have a bounty on you. Nice of you to bring yourself to me, I won’t have to pay anybody that way. Unless your friends are keen on handing you over?” A stab of anxiety goes through me as the possibility runs through my head. I don’t let the emotion show on my face. Beside me, Skylar speaks.

“Not happening. You’re done here.” “Ahh a shame. Here I was, hoping I wouldn’t have to pay somebody to get the bloodstains out of my office.” I take the lead once more. “Release your prisoners. Now.” “HAH! You must be really new here if you think that’s going to work. More powerful people than you have tried to stop me.”

“Besides, this factory is fairly small scale, in the scheme of things. The bigger ones are in the city, where a lot more people are. You seem like the do gooder type, if you want to make a difference, that’s where you’ll need to go.” I’m losing my patience by this point. “Here’s the deal: you release your prisoners now and shut down this factory, and nobody gets hurt.”

Sarah appears to consider the offer, before levelling her eyes straight into mine. “Here’s my counteroffer: you politely walk downstairs, sit on a bench and hook yourself up to one of my mana extraction machines. Or I kill your friends where they stand.” I hear Ivy’s sharp intake of breath beside me. My heart pounds. This isn’t somebody we can intimidate. I observe her to see what I’m dealing with.

Comparing our sheer stats, I’m stronger and faster than her, and a lot more intelligent. I’m not sure exactly how my intellect and wisdom stats compare with her intelligence stat, but mine is a lot higher than hers regardless. She has a lot more charisma than me, she’s tougher than me and probably has much stronger spells than me. In a one on one fight, on paper, it could go either way.

This isn’t one on one though.

“Skylar.” I say. As long as her guards don’t come in as reinforcements, I think we can win this fight. The longer we talk, the more opportunity she has to call in her guards. Skylar steps forward without a word and unleashes spears of shadows that rush towards Sarah. She leaps sideways out of her chair, having been ready for the attack the moment I opened my mouth.

One of the spears grazes her but doesn’t seem to faze her at all. I’m already on the move, sending a wave of frost magic at her and pulling my axe out of my inventory. She claps her hands together and moves them apart, purple energy crackling as she does so. Her mana takes shape in the form of a long whip, that she launches at me.

Ivy flings thorns at her, but they only seem to be a minor annoyance. The whip ensnares me, wrapping around the arm I’m holding my axe in. I cry out in pain, the sting of the crackling magic isn’t like anything I’ve felt before. Skylar throws a fist of shadows towards Sarah and with her other hand, she throws up a magical barrier that blocks the punch.

Sarah yanks the whip, attempting to make me drop my axe, but I’m too strong for her and hold my ground. I pull sharply on the whip and she stumbles forwards, with Skylar punching at her again. The punch connects and Sarah falls to the ground. A quick look at my HP tells me that I’m already down from 290 to 230. Ivy rushes over to heal me and I throw out some mana bolts.

Each of my spells hits Sarah and while they do burn her and she gasps in pain, they don’t do anywhere near the damage to her that they’ve done in the past to other people. Skylar keeps up the pressure, sending more spears flying towards Sarah. She blocks two of them, but one of them goes through her arm. She gasps again before launching another whip at Skylar.

The whip wraps around Skylar’s torso, pinning her arms to her sides. Skylar yelps and Sarah smiles at the sound. Not having the time to wait for Ivy to heal me fully, I move towards Sarah and raise my axe. She sees me coming and sends a whip towards me. I move to the side, dodging the whip, and bring my axe down hard on her arm.

A hastily erected barrier blocks the strike, centimetres from impact. She’s using both of her hands to support the barrier, and the whip binding Skylar dissolves. Ivy moves to help Skylar as I press down hard on the axe. Suddenly, the barrier disappears and Sarah rolls sideways. I stumble forwards from the release of the pressure.

A cracking sound echoes through the room and I feel a sting of pain on my leg. I fall on one knee instinctively from the strike, and I feel another stinging impact my back. I turn around, flinging another mana bolt at her. The spell leaves a very clear burn mark on her face and her eyes darken. At that moment, Skylar punches her again and sends her careening across the room, hitting a wall.

I stand up, shaking off the pain. Skylar and I advance towards the slaver together. Sarah stands up and spits out a mouthful of blood. I ready my axe and shadows coil in Skylar’s fists. In response, Sarah manifests a purple whip in each hand. I send another wave of freezing magic to slow her down more, before Skylar and I charge.

She lashes at me first and thanks to her slowed speed, I manage to dodge quite easily. She cracks the whip the other way and I duck, the weapon sailing over my head. Sarah goes for a strike against Skylar, who bats the whip aside with a small shield of shadows. I raise my axe and bring it down on her arm and this time, no barrier appears to stop me.

Sarah wrenches her arm backwards in an attempt to avoid my cut, but she only half succeeds as my axe slices a deep trench into her arm. Grunting in pain, she punches at me. I take the punch to measure the damage. In comparison to her painful whips, she can’t punch very hard and I only lose a couple of HP.

I swing my axe sideways at her shoulder, attempting to cripple her arm and end the fight. The axe bites deep and she gasps but her arm doesn’t seem to be affected. I pull the axe backwards and send a mana bolt, point blank into her chest. Skylar punches Sarah straight in the face and her head snaps back, her eyes looking dazed for a moment before she refocuses. She ducks out from under Skylar and I bearing over her, and whips Skylar in the back. My axe is already whistling through the air towards her.

What follows is a dance of magic and weapons, Sarah and her whips against Skylar and I with our combined shadow magic, frost magic, limited arcane magic on my part, and my axe. Both sides take hits and it’s a very evenly matched fight. Sarah is more than capable of taking on both of us. But with support from Ivy who heals our wounds as best she can, Sarah is slowly put on the back foot.

Finally, it happens. Sarah stumbles and messes up her footing. Her concentration is broken, and we take advantage of it immediately. Skylar moves to make room for me to swing my axe, which I do with all my strength. I manage to sever Sarah’s arm, and Skylar follows it up with a powerful punch to her face, knocking her back on her ass.

I hold my axe at her throat. “It’s over Sarah. You’re done. This mana factory is done. Your slaves will be released immediately.” Sarah smirks at us, despite her gritted teeth and obvious pain at her missing arm. “Oh honey. GUARDS!” She yells and my blood freezes. Shit. Sarah tries to take advantage of our sudden hesitation by manifesting another whip. I react quickly and without thinking.

1500xp

Sarah slumps to the ground and I stare at the scene in shock for a moment. Skylar nudges me. “Come on, we have other things to deal with.” She tells me, as the pounding of multiple sets of feet on the ground below can attest to. I shake my head to clear the shock and ready myself for another fight, this time against a group of enemies.