The card flared white, and bolts of frost erupted around Daniel in a cyclone of arctic chill ten feet wide. Half a breath passed; the slavers only managed a step, and the entire field lit with pale streaks that raged past him to pepper the whole site in magic artillery.
Screams were swallowed in the surge of mist the bolts spread, frost exploding wherever they struck. Flesh stiffened and blackened with frostbite. Chains weaved out from the points of impact to spike into the mud, spreading plates of ice.
Cold rolled across the ground in waves as Daniel launched through the clouds, silver blade gleaming in the morning sun. He zig-zagged between shocked men and women, screaming while dealing with the blasts of ice and chains.
I only survive this if they think I’m supernatural.
Before anything, I need to deal with him…
Nich’s voice roared over the noise.
“Expanding Gale!”
Frigid wind rushed outward from Nich, whipping against Daniel’s jacket.
The mist cleared; Nich’s hand was moving toward his face.
“Rats. You crafty bird…”
Nich’s vision tilted to the side as his head fell to the earth, rolling to a stop. His body crumpled. All eyes went to the red dripping off his blade, chains inhibiting every other person.
“Undead! Skeletons at our rear!”
“How many?”
“Dozens!”
Carl’s snickers floated down as the [Pet] Card appeared in his free hand.
“I’d suggest going after the Cleric next. The elf in the revealing red dress.”
Daniel threw the card toward the back row, where the robed figures struggled, attempting to purify the bindings. It activated, releasing a snarling shadow.
[◈ Pet #22: Night Wolf &]
Clara floated higher, feathers like knives and her words just as sharp.
“As much as I hate Carl. He’s right. Kill that one, Night!”
“Look at that. Is that your angel taking my advice?”
“Shut up, slug. Oh. He can’t hear me. Shame.”
Daniel chuckled, two more cards flashing to his hand as his wife took command of the wolf. Night jumped on the screaming Cleric as she managed to purge the chains.
“Help!”
[⌖ Bind #2: Poison Ivy &]
[⟡ Server #1: Maid &]
He threw one at Marg’s feet to bind her, the other at Asper as he repelled a bandit who lunged at him. Daniel ignored their shouts, trying to regroup and recover.
“Asper, cover Alys and your sister’s escape. Maid, help them!”
A dark-haired teenage girl with a bored expression did a sweep of the field and curtsied.
“As you command, My King. Let’s go, losers.”
The girl dragged the stunned Cleric to her feet, pulling her away from the fight.
“H-Huh? No. I can— I can heal.”
“Not the king’s orders, loser. Move your fat butt before I kick it. You too, kitten.”
The older brother showed a strained smile as he slashed the freezing slaver’s ankle and kicked him away.
“You’re going to fight an army yourself? Are you insane?”
He sidestepped a beastfolk cat man who lunged at him, daggers sweeping. Edmund looked in shock at Nich’s headless body, the same as Marg and Ralph.
“I’ll win,” Daniel shouted back. “Just keep them safe. Maid will lead you to me when it’s over.”
“Light’s Eye, Telena is dead!”
“Skeletal Archers! Form up!”
“Skeletal Horned Rabbits from the east!”
Marg slammed her mace against the chains, shattering them. The itchy vines coiling up her legs to thread within her armor and clothes made her snarl a curse.
“Edmund, quit standing around with your—”
The ivy wove around her mouth, gagging her.
Edmund’s shield came off his back as the ivy climbed her.
“Marg, hold still—”
“Behind you!”
An arrow took Daniel through the throat.
He felt it go in and felt the shaft grate against something on its path. The world did not go dark, and there was no falling or white this time. Warmth spilled down his spine instead. Gold ran over his collar and stopped.
Above him, six wings spread wider, and his wife smiled down.
“What a lovely surprise. With me here, I can be your pocket healer!”
He yanked it out, the pain not nearly as bad as it had been in the labyrinth. It seemed he was growing a tolerance for punishment. His voice was raspy as silver light sealed it shut.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Thanks, My Queen. Now, let’s take out the trash…”
The elf who had loosed the arrow made a small sound and started fumbling for another as Daniel ran for him. The man dropped the bow, and the rapier came out of his belt. The elf parried his thrust and slid his steel below Daniel’s ribs, puncturing his lung.
Daniel’s smile only grew, coughing up gold and tackling him to the ground to straddle the man. The elf choked with Daniel’s bare hands squeezing his throat, crushing his windpipe. When he heard the crack, he rolled off him to evade a sword swipe, taking the abandoned crossbow.
Coming to one knee, he braced it against his shoulder and loosed it into a dog man, sticking him through the belly. The man howled, trying to slip into the shadows, only to stumble and fail his skill.
A spear went through his chest, and Daniel just turned to grin at the man, taking his own dagger out of his belt to bury it into his throat.
“He’s immortal!”
“What the Fae is he?”
Three more arrows hit him, two burning, one laced with electricity. It took a second to fight through the pulses it sent through his muscles to snap out of it.
Dazzling blood in his eyes, Daniel picked up a dropped bow and arrow, eyes scanning.
The zone was flooded with the sounds of combat, skeletal monsters surging out of the forest from all sides. Spells were cast, weapons swung, and arrows loosed.
Several hit him, eating away at his clothes.
Above it all, an invisible angel hovered, directing Night to ravage the spellcasters and archers. And scattered across the treetops, Carl laughed, directing his chaos.
“Kill it! Kill that thing!”
“Gods, he’s using Telena’s bow!”
He aimed, putting one into a beastfolk sawing at the ice around his boots, one into a woman with a mace who had just gotten free, and the last into the shoulder of a man running for the trees. None of them were killing shots. He wasn’t that good. But every one slowed them enough for his sword to find them.
“Fireball!”
Daniel barely managed to turn before heat ate at his flesh and he was thrown into a tree.
Landing hard, he coughed, silver light replacing black with new flesh. He stood.
The ominous cries of dead ravens became a choir as he kept moving forward, body by body. Golden blood leaked out. Silver light mended him. And it went round and round again.
Daniel bent over a gurgling woman, knee pressed down on her chest as she sobbed.
“I’m s-sorry. I’m—”
“You know, I don’t enjoy this.”
“Why are you smiling?”
His silver sword flashed into his hands as he called it, and it slid through her neck.
“Well, isn’t that awkward?”
The second wave of skeletons hit the tree line. Twenty-two of them clawed for the remaining slavers. They crumbled with the slightest breeze, but it didn’t matter.
“This is genuinely the best I have,” Carl sighed. “Can you at least make Clara thank me? I am saving her angel, after all.”
The angel glared at the birds, and in the next second, Night was chomping down on one.
“Rude… You must really not like me.”
“One day, I’ll shatter your Core myself, worm. Putting those toxic thoughts into my husband’s mind. You’re just a wasp constantly stinging my rear.”
“She’s ranting, isn’t she?”
“Let’s try to play nice,” Daniel laughed, dispatching the man who had cast fireball on him. “And I’m naked again…”
He snatched the deck from the ground at his feet, rolling out of the way of Edmund’s charge. Night launched at the tank, only for Marg’s mace to fly out with an explosion of kinetic energy that splattered the wolf into ink.
“No!” Clara cried above them. “My little puppy. Come and rest up in the kingdom.”
Daniel held up his arm as the giant man barreled into him, shoving him to roll across the dead leaves. He breathed heavily as he forced himself to his feet, rolling around his neck.
The two former party members circled him, the sound of battle still happening in the background. Weak undead kept crawling into the camp, inching closer to the injured.
Only eight people were left from the carnage; most of the strangers were partially disabled, fending off the weak mob of half-rotting animals, crying about an immortal monster.
“Wendel!” Marg snarled, not taking her eyes off Daniel as she itched her arm. “Now would be lovely! Over half your team is dead.”
Something slapped between Daniel’s shoulder blades.
He felt the paper go instantly wet, and then every muscle he owned locked at once. The sword stayed in his hand because his hand would not open. His knee locked in place. He went over sideways into the leaves like a chair. The silver box was locked in his grip.
“No, my king!” Clara floated down to caress his face. “What have they done to you? And I’m fading. My time is up, Daniel.”
It’s fine, my love. I’ll figure something out.
The ravens settled above, Carl sounding intrigued.
“That’s an eastern magic item, from beyond the beastfolk lands. A talisman, they call it.”
“Sealing Script,” Wendel sighed, stepping back and shaking out his fingers. He was still quaking. “Eighty silver. Eighty, from a man in Halvers who swore it would hold a troll. It had better hold you. What a heavenly mess this has been.”
“Took you long enough.”
“I couldn’t find it in my bag! I’m having a tad bit of a bad morning, Marg, as you can imagine. This Contractor is nothing like a typical user. What are these cards?”
“Is he stuck?” Edmund’s voice was climbing. “Is he actually stuck? Because I hit him with everything I have. Marg. Marg, I hit him with everything I have, and his body just— it popped back into place. He got up smiling. He won’t die!”
“He’s stuck.”
“His eye came back without a healer!”
“Edmund.”
“His eye came back, Marg! I watched the spear come out of his—”
She slapped his face, making his head snap to the side.
“He’s paralyzed, boy!” Wendel said. “And not dead. Nobody said kill it. I’m kind of glad we couldn’t. Contract said alive.” He crouched to look at Daniel where he lay. “You may well be immortal, angel. Congratulations. You can still be tied up.”
Daniel tested the bonds. His mouth could move.
“Hmm. Not bad. A talisman attached to my back?”
They paused, and Wendel hurriedly touched something on the talisman.
His mouth locked shut.
“I forgot to trigger that…”
“Wendel, for Gods’ sake!” Marg snarled. “We have eight left. Eight of us left out of thirty. Edmund, go handle the rest of the undead and be useful. That’s most of the party gone.”
“That’s a bigger split,” Wendel shrugged. “We don’t need the elves or beastfolk contacts anyway now that we’re rich as barons.”
Daniel watched the greed light in their eyes at that.
“These creatures are disgusting,” Clara hissed. “Daniel, I’m scared.”
“It’s fine, Clara,” he mumbled.
He looked south and saw Asper. Injured, holding his side, but the man was scanning the field. The older brother pulled out something from his bag and ran it over the wound.
A grin split Daniel’s lips as Clara vanished.
Don’t be, sweetheart. I’ve thought of something rather clever.
Ralph made a sound from the mud.
He had come around at some point, and nobody had noticed. He was on his side with his bound hands in front of him and the ivy already at his waist. And ho-boy, was he scratching at it. In his pants, around his butt crack, at the small of his back he couldn’t quite reach.
“Grrahh!”
“Ralph, hold still,” Marg snapped. “It’s the worst. I know. It gets…everywhere.”
Her hands went to those hard-to-reach places, and she forced herself to stop.
“It itches. Marg. Marg, it itches, it’s inside my butt—”
“Hold still.”
They went around to help Ralph. Asper was getting ready to creep forward. And Daniel executed his brilliant plan. Willing the card behind his back, at the exact spot where the wet sensation was, he almost wanted to laugh.
[⬡ Vault #1: Treasure Chest &] Activated.