Varketh

“I don’t like how you smell,” Varketh tightens his grip on my neck.
Black spots start appearing in the corners of my eyes. I can barely get a wisp of breath into my lungs.
“Now,” I manage to choke out, throwing a vial of Holy water at his face.
“Sanctuary,” Priestess casts, banging her staff against the ground.
A large glowing rune appears on the ground under all of us.
“What?” Varketh spits, before being forced out of the circle, his arm around my neck being torn clean off.
Sanctuary. A high level emergency Priestess spell. It creates an impenetrable safe area for as long as the caster has mana to sustain it. And against a demon, it’s even more effective.
I pull his arm off my throat, the fingers still trying their hardest to keep hold.
Sweet oxygen fills my lungs, as I slowly pick myself up, gasping for air.
“Just… in… time.” The words hurt as they come out, my throat bruised.
“Drink.” Retainer rushes over and hands me a health potion.
The liquid hurts for just a moment, before the healing kicks in, mending my damaged neck.
“Oh, what a neat little party trick.” Varketh muses, walking around the sanctuary. “But, all I need to do is wait for my present to unwrap itself.”
I make my way over to Priestess and press a mana potion against her lips. She’s animation locked while casting, so while normally her limit would be her max mana, I can extend it by helping her drink.
“This is nice and all, but we’re now trapped,” Captain says, taking over mana duty.
“Better than being dead,” Ranger adds.
“What will we do? Can we just leave?” Retainer asks, handing me another health potion.
She tries the door, which ended up in the sanctuary along with us, and unsurprisingly it’s locked.
“It’s going to stay locked until that thing is dealt with.” I cough, my throat slowly getting better.
“Then what are we going to do?”

“So, how are you cheating like this?” I stand at the edge of the sanctuary and pose my question to Varketh. “You broke the contract, yet no punishment.”
“You think I’m bound by such petty rules that the others have to follow?” He laughs, “I’m royalty after all.”
“Yeah, a royal cheat.” Retainer yells from behind me.
“I’m going to kill you first.” His response is almost instant. “Is what I would say if I didn’t like how this Paladin smells.”
Smells? He doesn’t like how I smell? What is he talking about?
He doesn’t even blink as he swings his spear, blowing away one of Captain’s soldiers.
“I’m getting rather bored of these games,” He sighs, “Good thing that girl seems like she won’t be able to last much longer.”
I don’t even have to turn around to know he’s telling the truth. We’ve already run out of mana potions, and the ingredients to craft them. Priestess is almost at her limit, I can see her status, and it’s not good. We’ve got about a minute of sanctuary left, maybe two.
Everyone knows it as well, we’re almost out of time. About to become a buffet for this cheat.
But we’re not going down without a fight.

“Hey, Demon of Cheating.” Retainer jabs.
“What did you call me brat?” A weakness of his, pride.
He swings towards her, spear at the ready, only to be met face to face with a large vial.
“Huh?”
It explodes in a blinding flash. Brighter than the one I used to blind a Guardian earlier. Most likely because I packed this one with triple the amount of ingredients.
The sanctuary drops, and I’m instantly on the defensive. He might be blind, but his swings still pack an inaccurate punch.
“Holy Rebuke.” I have to counter the hits, otherwise the chip damage will drop me before I can do anything. Does it still count as chip damage if it’s chunking me?
Every single hit I have to reply with a Holy Rebuke.
“Be gone,” A strong hit slams into my shield, launching me back. “And I was going to kill you all painlessly.”
“Yeah, like I'd believe that.” I spit back, quickly downing a health potion to top myself back up.
“Before I get taken back, you will all…” he trails off, his anger changing to confusion. “Where did the rest of you go?”
“Who knows? It’s like I’m a dad to a bunch of unruly children.” I smirk, deflecting another of his stabs.
“I’ll hunt them down slowly once I’m done with you.”
He draws back, the muscles in his arm bulging as he goes for a huge thrust.
An arrow flies from nowhere and slams into the side of his head, causing his thrust to go wide. Then another, and another. But it barely slows him down. He just reaches up and roughly plucks each arrow out before tossing them to the ground.
“I hope that wasn’t the extent of your plan.” He scowls, the wounds already starting to heal.
“It could be worse.”

He can’t even ready his spear before being swarmed by summoned soldiers. While Captain has a limit in boss rooms, since we’re not in one, she can use her full force.
I know they won’t be able to do any serious damage to him, but it at least gives me a breather.
“I tire of these tricks.” A spear sweeps through all the soldiers, dismissing them instantly.
“Assassinate,” A small figure drops behind him before he can fully stand, a large spray of blood shooting out.
It doesn't slow him down though, he stands back up like nothing happened, a furious look on his face.
“I’m going to kill all of you,” he breathes deeply. “Slowly, painfully.”
More soldiers keep appearing and rushing him, but they are little more than insects to him.
“There you are.” He turns sharply. “Trying to hide as one of your own soldiers. Creative.”
A quick swing from him slices into the soldier he’s locked onto, slicing its arm clean off.
It doesn’t fade away like the others though, the illusion breaks, and Captain is left kneeling on the ground, screaming and clutching a bleeding stump where her left arm used to be.
“Oh, I missed. Oops.” Varketh taunts.
“Crap. Priestess, cover her.” I yell.
A small flash of light envelops Captain and she vanishes as it fades, Priestess bringing her to safety. More arrows fly towards him, but without the added pressure of the soldiers, he easily knocks them away.
Retainer appears above him, and quickly slams a bag over his head. The contents shatter and slowly cover him in a thick liquid.
“Nothing but bugs.”
He catches Retainer with the shaft of his spear and launches her small body straight into me.
“Are you okay?” I ask, gently setting her down.
“It… it hurts.” She seems to be in shock from the pain.
“Priestess!” I yell again, Retainer getting taken away like Captain just was.
“And then there was one,” Varketh licks his lips, his smile growing larger.
“Bring it then.”

We both stare at each other for what feels like hours, fear, tension and adrenaline are all that’s keeping my body moving. One wrong move here and it’s not just me dead, but everyone else.
The instant he moves his arm back, I strike.
“Shield Rush.”
It catches him off guard, of course it did, why would a Paladin rush in recklessly like this. At this close distance he can only manage weak stabs and sweeps which I can easily deflect with Holy Rebuke.
It’s a reckless plan, I’m only doing this because everyone else has been taken out or is busy helping save them.
“Shield Meld.” I catch his next strike and, with the same movement, throw off my shield, taking his spear with it.
He reacts with pure rage, tackling me to the ground, impaling himself on my sword in the process.
“This is barely a scratch for me,” his hands one again finding my neck. “You all lose.”
“Cheat your way out of this,” I force out. “Holy Ignition.”
I channel as much Holy magic as I can into the Overload Stone in my sword, it starts glowing, before igniting not just the blade, but my entire body.
The flames are hot and they don’t discriminate between us. If I burn, he burns. That’s the point of Holy Ignition, a last resort, self sacrifice, Final Class level spell.
“You fool, you think these pathetic flames will kill me?” He laughs as they start to lap against him. “You’re going to die first.”
“You think so?” My lips are going dry, and my entire body is screaming out in pain. “How does that Holy Water taste?”
He realises too late what has happened. The bag Retainer dropped over his head contained all the bottles of Holy Water that Merchant gave us. And when it comes into contact with any kind of holy fire it…
“It burns!” Varketh screams as he gets engulfed in the flames with me, the Holy Water making it stick to his body.
His hands release my throat and he lifts himself off my sword, the wound refusing to heal because of the flames.
Panicking, he tries to put out the flames, but they only seem to intensify. The only way to make them stop is to get rid of the source, which is me. He seems to realise this and looks around for his spear, his movements frantic as we both continuously take damage.
The moment he moves for his spear is the moment I was waiting for.
Paladin has one last Final Class move. A devastating counter that was known to one shot bosses when used right. And one of those ways was by stacking damage against yourself.
The flames still burn me as I two hand my sword, bringing it above my head.
“Smite of Retribution.”
The blow nearly cleaves him in two. The shock of my sword hitting the ground springs it free from my grip, my burned hands no longer able to hold on.
“I can’t lose here,” Varketh’s choked voice rises from his body as it slowly turns to ash. “Not to him.”

I don't last much longer, hitting the ground just as I watch the last of his body float away.