Chapter 70

Michel Vitaly Alexeev
Level 20 Fighter
<Practicus>
553/986 HP
RP: +5
Effects: Herculean Body, Hardened Hide, Blessing From A Trickster

John's feet were barely kicking when he heard Taylor load his rifle. What little strength the Gamer had left was literally measured and written down in mere seconds. A simple, visible timer floated in front of his very eyes as Michel held him there, but even with what time he had left... John's body barely moved enough to match the strength he was supposed to have. His vision grew so dark that it was like he couldn't even see anymore. He couldn't attack, couldn't pry Michel's fingers away from his throat. He was **** to hang there and listen as a scream and one more gunshot rang out across the street.

All he could do was spam his abilities.

Observe. Even if he could see to use it, it told him nothing more than he already knew.

Augment Body. It used up too much Mana, and he didn't have enough to even consider trying to make Michel weak enough to let him go. It wasn't an option.

Infused Strike. It dealt damage... but not enough. He had already used it more than a dozen times to almost no effect. He needed something else.

Fighter's Eyes. Useless.

Theft.
Daemon has been added to your Inventory.

Daemon
Ring Of The Trickster - Legendary Artifact
This thick, crystallic band was created as a gift for its last wearer, the Practicus known as Michel. In its spawning, the ring was made through three different processes. The first involved inscribing it with runes. The etchings and sigils of various spellwords and glyphs were infused into its very being and can often be seen in the shapes of some of the bubbles that remain permanently frozen inside the crystal band itself. The second part was a piece made for Arcane conduction, a Mithril frame to fit around the wearer's finger comfortably. Thief. The last piece lies in the form of a large, green emerald, within which a soul of greed has been permanently trapped and used to power this ring. This ring is no simple item.
This ring has a name.
+Gives use of the ability 'Step.'
Step allows the user to physically move from one place to another once at the cost of a small portion of Mana (20 MP). Stepping does not require additional Mana depending on distance, but does gain an increased cooldown timer depending on how far the user has moved. Thief. To step somewhere, you must be able to at least either see the target location or have seen it at least once. Stepping cannot be used to escape a barrie- ERROR, This ring will not allow you to make use of its other abilities or see them.
-Cursed: This ring has one true owner. For any other wearer to use this ring, aside from Michel, they must sacrifice power at a true cost. Mana will not work for powering this ring. To use an ability of the ring, a person other than the true owner must power the ring at the cost of their own soul. If the user's soul is used completely at the expense of these abilities, the user's soul joins the soul of greed inside it for all eternity, and is also thereafter used to help power it. This ring cannot be taken off unless it allows you to remove it.
RP: -200

Thief. The thought rung through John's head and stabbed at the front of his mind like a lance. He didn't even try reading the ring's description yet; he just noticed the Step ability and felt something acquiesce when he tried to use it. He opened his mouth to gasp out... and, before the thought had even fully formed, air rushed in to meet his lungs as John moved out of Michel's grasp. He barely even tried to pick a location to go to before he was gone. His body started to burn as soon as Michel disappeared... or at least when his hands disappeared from John's neck, and the Gamer fell to his knees, coughing and wheezing. His vision thrummed and throbbed with each hacking breath, slowly registering color and light again as he heard Michel cry out in surprise from across the street.

John didn't run. He had to get to Grace; there was no more running. At very least, he was here to fight.

The lack of air in his system burned behind John's eyes like a dull headache. Each cough shook John's body from head to toe, and with each heavy lurch, the stabbing behind his eyes felt as if it had been buried ever deeper... but none of it was as bad as the tearing he felt at his hand. All feeling on one side of his body ran numb as John struggled to catch his breath again, and every movement, every pulse of blood that ran back to the hand with the glowing, green ring on it, shocked him like someone had opened a current of raw lightning in his limbs. He tried to scream, and he would have if he had had the air for it, but screaming didn't help. Coughing didn't help; he had to breathe.

When he could finally see enough to gasp at the spinning form of Michel, he idly noted the change in his status screen. His Mana bar had dropped after using the ring, not the amount of mana he had, but the whole bar itself had weakened and shortened by twenty points. The max amount of Mana that John could get now was only 41 points... and the amount that he had left to use after casting Theft... only went up to seven measly points.

He could see Taylor standing frozen out of the corner of his eyes, his finger still shaking hesitantly over the trigger of his weapon as it smoked from the barrel. Across from him... Grace stumbled and clutched at her own stomach before she fell to the ground. Michel continued to stomp towards him.

"L-let me save her." John coughed again. Michel didn't even hesitate when John spoke this time. He just kept walking. "You don't want to do this! Let me save her!"

He said nothing. He didn't even look to the side at their friend, and when Taylor saw that, he took aim again, even after Grace had already stopped trying to crawl away.

"Stop it!" John didn't even feel the tears running down his cheeks, he only noticed them when his vision started to get blurry and wet. He struggled to climb to his feet while Taylor clumsily fired into her gut again and again. Her body jerked horribly with each shot, wrenching and jumping on the floor like a person scared. She didn't even seem to breathe after a moment...

...and then his eyes fell on the large, sharp Katana that Cassandra had dropped into the middle of the street, and Michel froze. The place John had stepped to, or perhaps the place that the ring had selected for him... had set him right into position so that the sword was lying right at his feet.

He had to take it.

"Stop!" John screamed, and the gunfire came to a close. John was holding the sword; it was in his hand before he even knew he had picked it up and found that it was cold to the touch. Holding it for so long left his hand feeling raw and achy, like his bones had been frozen in place around its hilt, and then eventually, the cold felt like it began to burn. Simple clouds of mist drifted from its blade; a blade that glimmered at first... and then froze solid before John's very eyes. On both sides of the blade sat intricate runes and sigils that burned and disappeared as John lowered the sword back down. The sheer power of the spell it had been imbued with had sent a layer of frost back down his hand. He could feel it thrumming weakly in his grasp after being used... and the ring thrummed back.