11: If You're Staying, You're Obeying

"Okay, if you're staying, you're obeying." Liran said, with her hands and lute ready to play. Her blue eyes shimmered with lingxi, like the magic was leaching out the color.

"Then what're your orders?" Aiden soberly asked beside her.

The bandits swaggered into the courtyard, confident of their kill.

"Defend this courtyard. Don't let the danger enter into the building and reach the people of this house." She flashed him a cocky grin. "I'm sure you're good at cracking skulls."

"You can count on me." Aiden nodded.

"Bosnia-ko, be a good girl and crack a few skulls too." Liran asked the girl but could see she was going to do it anyway, based on her knuckle crunching.

"Easy as pie." The thought of savory meat pies stirred drool down Bosnia's mouth.  She wiped it off with a fist and gripped her daggers tight. "You morons better bring on a good fight!" She shouted to the oncoming enemy.

Boss Scarface grinned with smug confidence. "Look at you being the boss girl alfar. I'll try to be impressed." He raised a hand and gave a kill order.

Aiden rushed to deflect an oncoming mage attack with his shield. He activated normal magic on his shield to make it glow blue with an ice effect.

"Shield Magic: Ice Spikes." He cried out, making his eyes glow momentarily as his normal spellcasting created a spiked wall effect via his shield as a medium.

Cries and curses came out of a pair of bandits impaled on ice spikes before they were entombed within a solid ice block wall. 

Another pair of bandits whipped out pocket grimoires, activating them with their magic so the books hovered midair before them. They cast fireballs to melt the ice magic and release their entombed members.

"Check out my grimoire, sweet cheeks. Full laced refined iron and magic power shit." Boss Scarface whipped out his blackened, iron-orichalcum-layered spellbook. "You get all my tender care. This time I'll kill you good."

"They have grimoires!" Rat cursed when he crawled up to Liran's arm to sit on her shoulder. "How good are you at control spells?"

Liran shrugged. "The best a bard can do."

"How good is that?"

She flashed a ditsy smile. "Good for tavern brawls." She ducked to avoid a fireball, strumming her lute to cast sound waves that neutralized the flames.

A pair of bandits rushed for them with staves raised, charging up for an attack. Rat groaned, "Then watch and learn."

His eyes glowed as he cast his spell with a few squeaks. "Vermin Blood Code: Hamster Wheel."

Fierce whips of white air solidified around the rushing bandits, who panicked when their bodies got caught within the gusts. They were suddenly locked into a spinning white wheel. The spell kept them running like stupid hamsters.

"Whaaaat... theeee..." A bandit pitifully squealed as they found themselves unable to stop: it was impossible for them to grip their weapons, so they fell to the ground outside the area of effect.

Liran laughed as she switched her tune to be more upbeat and a comical swing, making the bandits squeal miserably from the fierce sprinting. Eventually the magic ran its course, and the bandits dropped to the ground unconscious.

A pair of bandit mages twirled a pair of dark silver-red rods and clicked them into place to form their mage staves. The top of one swelled with light and cast ice bolts. An open grimoire hovered midair before another mage bandit. Fireballs rained over heads and were dodged.

Clover dashed in and out of spots with blinding speeds, taking advantage of vulnerable openings Annoying Imp's up-close pulverizing created. She was able to coordinate well with him, as his fighting style was similar to Bosnia's. Her sister was laughing with glee as she dashed about the enemy with her dagger swings mixed in with punches and kicks.

The  magic was creating volatile changes within the air, so everyone was facing extreme heat and cold at once. Stamina drain was a real threat. Like Aiden, the bandits wore suppression metal within their armor to block the drain effects. He could see that Bosnia and the others were sweating far too much too soon in the fight.

Liran had noticed this too. She ducked and danced about blows, keeping her attackers at arm's length with sound magic. Her fingers plucked and strummed a swirling pattern of sound to draw upon air elements and stimulate a boost in stamina, enhancing her group's endurance. Thanks to Rat's control magic and the others' ability to coordinate surprisingly well, she was able to control her stamina use and slow down the burnout.

Aiden took on Boss Scarface directly, baiting him into a sword fight and blocking the man's greatsword with better agility.

"Kijen Blood Code: Shadow Paw!" Bosnia roared; her lingxi caused her body to darken with shadowy flames.

"What the?" A bandit squealed when he faced her maniacal expression and was punched into the air, but he didn't land. She had leapt up to continue kicking and punching his body midair before he slammed to the ground, dead.  

Liran kept dodging and playing to boost everyone's fighting abilities. Rat ensured she could keep supporting, using his control blood code spells to keep the enemy off her back.

"Bo...ss. Sheeee's making us work out! My legs... getting pumped, it's torture!" A bandit complained, unable to escape the air-based hamster-wheel run. He was soon exhausted to death.

Boss Scarface growled at seeing his new bandit crew get picked apart as a bunch of worthless weaklings. Again, he had underestimated the woman.

"Not this time." He slammed his greatsword down upon Aiden's sword, then cast a fire spell to push him back. 

 The corner of his eye saw Liran with a clear shot. Without hesitation, he tossed his greatsword with full force to make it spin toward her.

"Sol Blood Code: Impenetrable Block!" Aiden shouted, causing a surge of elemental energy to flare up around Liran. It countered the greatsword attack in time.

He then swung his sword at Boss Scarface, who blocked it with another sword he had picked off the ground: one of his dead subordinates.

"You kill me; others will take my place until she gives us what we want."

"Us?" Aiden frowned, pushing his attacks harder. "What do you want?"

Boss Scarface laughed, blood spilling from his mouth. "She gave the grimoire to the other woman; they'll come and take it."

Grimoire? Aiden's eyes betrayed concern when he realized Liran's friend and baby were in danger. "Not a chance!"

With all his strength, he pushed back and thrust his sword into Boss Scarface's chest.

The other bandits saw their boss defeated and turned to escape but found their heads and bodies smashed and slammed to the ground by Annoying Imp and Bosnia.

"What gives? They looked tough but ended up weaklings," Bosnia moaned when she couldn't see anyone else to fight.

Liran panted for breath as she rushed to check on Aiden and saw Boss Scarface laughing into his death. He cast a final spell to mark her with magic.

"You're marked. No matter... they'll find... you." He stopped breathing, dead this time.

Aiden's eyes bulged when he recognized the magic pattern on her forehead before it faded from view. The Royal Bind.

Liran's mind churned with concern for her friend. She raced into the lavish courtyard building, desperate to ensure Mirana and her baby were safe.

"Mirana-la, Rei-vai!" She cried out.

"We're fine," Rei answered with his curved, longsword unsheathed in his hand.

She sighed with relief at seeing it clean of blood. "The bandit threat is over for now, but they're after the grimoire I gave you."

"This?" Mirana stepped into view and pulled out the small book.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why they're after it.  I can't let you keep it if it's going to put you in danger."

Mirana nodded and reluctantly handed it back. "But Liran, they'll not stop even if they get it."

"All the more reason I'll take it back." Liran soberly took the grimoire and placed it in her dress pocket. Sweat trailed her neck. "I'm so sorry."

"You didn't know." Rei-vai reassured her. He frowned as he noticed her complexion drop to a deep pale and mottled color. Her eyes gradually turned white. "Blood leech!"

Eerie screeching and droning overwhelmed the courtyard. The temperature dropped to bone-chilling, with daylight fading into darkness.

Rat hopped off Liran's shoulder and sniffed the air. 

Liran felt her mind slipping out of consciousness. A black energy seeped out of her hip pocket and began draining her body's warmth. Tendrils flew out to linger within cloudy spaces around the courtyard.

"What's that?" Bosnia gulped as she saw the dead rising. Just like that time in the woods.

Rat glanced at the same discharged energy from her hip pocket and formulated a conclusion. "That magic is reanimating the dead!"

"Mirana, go back to our son and the others in the caverns. Lead them up the mountains." Rei ordered his wife.

She knew well enough not to argue and, besides, right now Rei was the only one who could save Liran.

Rei activated his blood code to place a suppression array over Liran, which slowed the spread of blood leech corruption going through her.

"I'll work to save her if you can handle the rest."

"Leave it to us." Clover nodded and returned to the courtyard to start up another round of fighting with corpse bandits this time.

Rat raced up Annoying Imp's arm to sit on his shoulder.

Clover passed fighting insight to Aiden, who nodded with thanks.

Bosnia, Clover, Rat, Aiden, and Annoying Imp braced themselves for a tough fight, where the cloudy energy was keeping the dead moving.

"Just like before, right, Annoying Imp?" Clover soberly commented.

"Yeah."

Everyone rushed to strike down the soulless.