Asura, the Revenger

A glow surrounded me. I felt refreshed, but I noticed my wounds were already healed.

“So this is leveling up, huh? Neat.”

Dabimen shot at me again, but I was faster. It wasn’t only because he was injured or old: I remembered he was a Counter Speller.

A Mage to cancel other Mages. That’s why he couldn’t take out Renzhar!

Melee fighting suited me. In a few steps, the old man was at my dagger's reach, yet it bounced from his skin, only leaving him in pain.

Magic shield? Cheating bastard.

“Useless villagers, do something while I recover!”

The dazed group of men dropped the women to the ground as they rushed to defend the old man. But their fearful attitude worked against them: it only took me two slashes to kill another one.

I glowed again.

But when I finished a third man’s throat, nothing happened. Except that the rest of the Red Army men fled in terror.

New level? It can’t work as a one-level per kill. Oh, that’s right, I’m so low-leveled that any killing works at first. So, at a higher level, I need more kills? This is truly the Madland.

When I turned around, Dabimen was finishing to drink from a dark red flask.

Potion. I don’t need an explanation for this one.

The man recovered almost in an instant.

“Ah! I feel like a youngster! It’s so sad that you can only drink one of these per month.”

Then he shot a stronger blue beam, which I luckily evaded.

“An Asura? You must be joking. That Blood Boon was extinguished so long ago. I recognize you are a brave woman. But because of it, a kidnapping won’t do.”

With a big leap, the old man interposed between Kalandra and me.

“But at least one will suffice, I think…UGH!”

Madego’s foil attacked from behind. The weapon didn’t pierce his magic shield, but accomplished its goal, and the man fell to the ground.

“Alicia, I don’t know how long I can hold out, so listen carefully: you need to…”

“Escaping it’s not an option for me. Not this time.”

Madego looked directly into my eyes.

Please understand. I can’t leave you here. Nor Kalandra. Nor Tookos’s body.

She understood.

Working, we surrounded the Counter Speller. It was clear that a simple raw power attack wouldn’t work. So I changed positions with Madego, and now he faced Dabimen. Despite her wounds, she was more experienced in combat.

“Lieutenant, are you serious? In that state? So many youngsters are dying for nothing. How sad.”

“You have committed crimes against the Court of Peace, the Second Raid Army, and Solid, your own Guild. No matter what, you won’t leave here unpunished.”

“Leave? Don’t make me laugh, lieutenant. I was born and raised here before your parents ever existed. ‘Crimes against the Court of Peace’? I was born even before their creation! You are just a puppet, and as a puppet you will die!”

Then he began shooting blue beams from both his hands. I managed to easily evade all of them, but Madego barely deflected the blast with her foil.

We ended up on the shoulder.

“He’s a Pict, he has a crazy amount of mana and mana regeneration. He can do this all night. I need you to throw me at the sky.”

Oh boy, now you don’t make any sense. Yet there’s no time for ironic responses.

It took me little effort to throw my friend into the air. With my augmented strength, I threw her 30 or 40 meters up.

Shit, I overdid it.

Or so I thought, because she didn’t fall. Or rather, she was falling, but slowly. Very slowly.

The caster didn’t react on time, so he had to deal with me on the ground and Madego in the sky. And the Esgrimidora had a trick up her sleeve: she could shoot little fireballs, combined with tiny knives. Dabimen destroyed some of them with his blue beams.

You don’t want to waste your shield? I can smell your fear.

Taking advantage of the diversion, I launched a new attack, this time to his face. It didn’t break his magic shield, but it annoyed him a lot—I was an expert at annoying people.

“Enough of these games! Silence!”

The old man's cry echoed throughout the area, and suddenly, all sounds fell silent. Madego couldn’t shoot more fireballs and was out of throwing weapons. She saw something that made her accelerate her fall.

The old man approached Kalandra again.

This time, I couldn’t hear my friend’s screams, nor could I scream myself. I was fastest, but he was closer, and propelled his steps with blue beams too. Anxiety filled my chest.

Legs, come on, just a bit more. A bit more power.

But the man turned around just when I thought I was about to stop him. It was a feint to catch me in the air. I got overconfident again, and this time it would prove fatal.

Time stood still, or perhaps it moved too quickly.

His hands charged the blue beams.

I tried to put the dagger in a defensive position.

In the background, Kalandra's desperate gaze.

And the worst occurred.

Madego fell between Dabimen and me, just in time to deflect one beam and to receive the other. She was launched to the ground, hopeless.

Please, not you too.

Sadness and anger took control of me, accompanied by pain in the veins and arteries throughout my body. My blood was boiling, and someone must suffer for it.

“This country and its cursed people, I’m sick of it!”

I threw my dagger at the old man’s face, and despite his shield, he instinctively reacted, raising his arms. Now with my hands free, I grabbed him by the neck. And I squeezed. I squeezed so hard. No matter his shield endurance, he was just a man. A man who needed to breathe.

But not anymore.

Everything became blurry. My anger, my helplessness, my tears. But I didn't need to see clearly. I just needed to squeeze. The old man was desperately suffocating and couldn't concentrate on preparing a new spell.

“Kill me now! Kill me now if you dare! Do it! Kill me!” I started to hear my own screams again. The effect of the Silence spell had ended.

Dabimen resisted my attempt to suffocate him and broke free from me. At that point in our confrontation, I wasn’t scared of anything. I had been a coward all my life. All my life until now.

“I won’t back down.”

He looked at me in terror. I smelled the fear again, literally. It felt good.

I growled.

That felt good too.

“Come on, regenerate your mana, old man. Why so silent?”

His gaze shifted from terror to utter desolation, and the old man fell to his knees on the ground. This time wasn’t for me, but because of the man behind.

Dreadoxprime, the Ice Wizard, arrived with a group of more than fifty Heroes.