Nate stood in his room, checking himself over one last time. Five days had passed in a rush and the hour of their planned attack was fast approaching. Five days had felt like forever, and yet, it was still not enough. Not enough to be as prepared as he would have liked, at least. But he had finished the three projects he had planned with the help of Frick, of course. Kiri, Britt and Null all now possessed Legendary skeletons with affinities for Durability and Reinforcement. As for his own, he’d gotten it to Epic quality but would need another day to finish raising it to Legendary. That was simply because the Physical Stats mattered less to him than completing his other projects. Kiri had joked in private that the improvements might make it more challenging for her to achieve her own Embodiment, but that she would find a way. He took a second to look at the changes.

  While his was still Epic, Kiri had confirmed her Legendary-tier Augmented Skeleton gave her a twenty-one percent increase to all Physical Stats. That was before he even started looking into organ improvement. They’d come so far, but they still had a long way to go. He just needed to make sure that once everything had settled down he spent some time focusing on their quality of life. Comfort was still one of his key goals.

  Britt chose that moment to walk into his room, Champions’ Armour fitted to her sleek form. He thought she looked like a Blackguard, except for her eyes. The armour was dark. It encased her in overlapping plates of Epic material that protected the runic structure in the layer beneath. He hadn’t changed the appearance of the armour, mostly since he didn’t know how to make armours in such a way that they fit together and didn’t inhibit movement too much. Instead, he and Frick had just shrunk it down to fit Britt and then remodelled the internals to use runes instead of the enchanted mana pathways. The result was a short, blonde-haired girl with bright blue eyes, looking up at him from the kind of armour he would’ve expected to see on a fantasy movie villain.

  “Everyone’s ready,” she told him and when he nodded in response she turned to head into the main room.

  He followed and sensed everyone decked out and ready though his Sphere of Awareness. Aisling, tall and fierce, the air crackling around her as she held her spear. Evindal, calm as a breeze through the forest, amber eyes firm as he supported his wife. Luc, in his studded leather armour that he used to levitate himself with his control of magnetism, trying to elicit a laugh from Deverell. The stoic Dagger Dancer not giving an inch, his straight cut black hair barely moving as he kept his attention on everyone else present. Jorge, black-beard combed and looking less rugged than usual, being fussed over by Rania as he tried to reassure the woman that he would be fine. His bow held in his hand, tighter than usual if Nate judged him correctly. The cause of Jorge’s consternation was standing next to the man. His sister doing her very best not to draw her mother’s ire or attention and failing miserably as Rania turned to her. Null stood alone, until Britt joined him. The swordsman had a hard look in his eyes and Nate suspected he intended to find out what happened to his Father this night. Prefect Raoult was still missing, and without a communication tome linked to the Guild, they had no idea if he was dead or alive. Everyone was ready.

  “Let’s do this, Boss!” sent Frick. “It’s time to go goblin-mode!”

  Nate smiled. His Familiar wasn’t wrong. Tonight, they would retake the Etruan Branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. He just hoped that the cost wouldn’t be higher than he was willing to pay.

  “You all know the plan,” stated Aisling, grabbing everyone's attention. “I will deal with Allais. Evindal, Null and Kiri will focus on the Jamisons, backed up by Nate. That leaves the dozen or so Golds to Britt and Luc since they are the least likely of our Golds to be overwhelmed by numbers. Jorge and Deverell will both be on overwatch, assisting as needed. Our goal is the Platinums. If we can defeat them, then we can suppress the Golds. I would prefer if the Golds were left alive, but do what you have to do to protect yourselves. Your lives are more important to me than Golds who are supporting Allais. Even if they have been misled. Any questions?”

  They‘d had five days to ask questions. There were none left. With some final goodbyes to Rania, Jacque, and the apprentices, they strode towards the teleportation room. The storm was about to break.

  *************

  The street that led to the Guild compound was deserted. Small mercies, Nate decided. Maybe Allais had the forethought to tell them to evacuate. Or maybe they had just fled due to the looting by the guards. Who knew, but he was thankful that there wouldn’t be civilians caught in the crossfire. The gate itself stood unguarded. The light that normally shone out of the windows of the two inns that served the Guild members was completely absent. Allais had known they were coming. Not surprising considering the storm that rumbled overhead threatening to unleash its fury upon the Capital. Using his farsight sphere of awareness, he found them. The practise grounds, the place where he had fought in a tournament to gain access to the Etruan University, held the remaining forces of the Guild. At his word, they continued to march around the Guildhouse and onto the practise grounds. When he had first fought here, he had thought the grounds far too large. With so many combatants present, he worried it wouldn’t be enough.

  He sensed Kiri tense nearby as she spotted them, or more specifically, her. Coralie, petite as ever and unwilling to look at anyone besides Kiri, stood next to her taller mother. Arrayed around Allais, with two in front and one on her other side, stood the Jamison siblings. Portos already had his blade out and a serious look in his brown eyes. The Blood Blademaster’s look was the opposite of his sister Kartier, who sneered at them, hand resting on her own shorter blade, buckler strapped to her other forearm. Only Helen Jamison in the back seemed worried. So she should be, Nate thought.

  Around the core of Platinums and Coralie were fourteen Golds. He held off on breaking their veils for now. He’d let Aisling speak first, but if she was unable to convince Allais to surrender, or her supporters of her duplicity and traitorous actions, then he would shatter their veils like the paper they were.

  “I wondered if you would really come, or it was all just an empty threat,” commented Allais, her eyes drifting up to the storm above for a moment. “You have thrown your support behind a contender for the crown, without Guild approval or a Guild job to support your behaviour. Surrender yourself and perhaps you’ll only be censured, Aisling. The alternative is I will take you by force, along with your foolish supporters, and accidents may happen.”

  Null opened his mouth to shout something but found it covered by Deverell’s hand. The Dagger Dancer shook his head and Null closed his mouth, clearly seething.

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  “Can’t even control your people, Aisling. This is why you were never elevated to Prefect. You lack the necessary attributes of a leader,” said Allais with a smirk.

  He sensed as Aisling gave up on trying to convince the Golds of Allais’s duplicity, her posture shifting as she went on the attack with one last warning salvo.

  “I suppose I do lack your serpent tongue, Allais. Upon the mountain's slopes, honesty is the most important quality. If you cannot trust the people next to you, then you have nothing at all. Because those who lie, those who betray, find themselves alone and death follows shortly after. So, I never learned how to do it. But then, actions have always spoken louder than words. It is with actions I will demonstrate how you betrayed the Guild to further your own desires. How you killed a Prefect with the aid of your sycophants. I liked Porter. We all did. But it’s not for his death that I am going to punish you. It’s for trying to kill my mentee. Come, let’s decide this.”

  With those words the wind picked up and Aisling rose into the sky, thunder following as Nate sensed the temperature drop and rain began to fall.

  Allais watched Aisling go before smiling and beginning to float into the sky herself.

  “Kill them all,” she remarked as she drifted into the sky, and all hell broke loose.

  Nate teleported himself backwards as a thin whip of blood carved a line in the sand where he had been standing. To his left, Null charged towards Kartier. Portos tried to intercept him but was immediately countered by Evindal as a tree grew from the sand somehow, trying to wrap the Blood Swordsman up in whirling branches. Nate’s sphere of awareness let him sense everything happening around him. Britt charged into the mass of Golds, almost three metres tall, rushing with a speed he hadn’t expected. The Stalwart Defender was still slow compared to Kiri and Deverell, but much faster than when Nate had fought her in the tournament. Like a rolling tide, she bowled over the few Golds foolish enough to try and block her charge. Nate expected her to hunker down at that point and draw their attention so Luc could slip needles into their midst, but instead her projected armour shrunk until she was only a little taller than Nate. The change in shape also seemed to influence her enhancements as her speed improved a second time and Nate got the sense that she had sacrificed defense for offense. Ignoring his girlfriend—or ex-girlfriend, he still wasn’t sure—he focused on the ground below them.

  “What’s the hold up?” he sent to Frick.

  “Someone’s contesting my control of the earth down here, Boss,” Frick replied.

  Nate ground his teeth a little in annoyance. He should have expected that Allais would be wise to his tricks, having witnessed him use that exact setup once before. Frick could, of course, force the issue, just overpowering any opposition. But that would cost mana, and since Frick was using Nate’s own mana, it just wasn’t worth the effort.

  “Come up. Goblin-mode. Back up Deverell and Britt.”

  “Oh fuck yeah! GOBLIN-MODE!”

  Nate tried not to smile when Frick launched out of the ground like a blue bullet, shooting into the sky before growing in size till he was as wide as four men abreast, before falling with the aid of gravity on the Golds below. It was mayhem and Nate was confident that it was exactly the kind of environment that Frick would thrive in. The small horde of Golds was already showing cracks in their fighting and Nate sensed more than one needle appear from nowhere and spear a Gold, injecting whatever toxin Luc had coated them in.

  Turning his attention back to the fight, he watched as Null was driven back by Kartier only to have Kiri appear for one second, deflect the Blood Duelist’s sword with two Tethered Arms, then vanish again. On the other side of the wall of brambles, Evindal continued to try to tie up Portos while the Blood Swordsman shredded wood with every swing of his sword. A dark shape flashed like a bolt of lightning through Nate’s sphere and he watched as Portos dodged enough to take the arrow in the shoulder instead of the chest. Jorge was somewhere off behind them, hidden and likely preparing another shot. That meant it was time for Nate to get involved. Nate’s job was simple, at least on the face of it. He would function in a similar role to Helen Jamison, only inverse. Helen would try to enhance, empower and heal her siblings using their connection and the Concept of Blood. Conversely, Nate intended to interfere with her spells and Skills, suppressing them, cutting her off from her two siblings.

  Between Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist and Conceptual Insight he sensed the spell Helen was forming. In fact, with his knowledge, he could even tell that it utilised the Concepts of Life and Blood. A healing spell Nate guessed. It didn’t matter. Nate extracted the small shimmering red blob that had once been a piece of wood. With his Skills active, the identification went off despite him already knowing what he had created.

  Runecrafted Blob of Blood Control (Epic)

  Stats: N/A

  Features: Blood Control (Epic)

  Blood Control: This item has been runecrafted to allow the user to control blood within their vicinity. Blood control will work on physical blood, Blood-based Spells or Skills once manifested, and beings made from Blood. Blood inside of living beings will naturally resist control due to the presence of the beings' mana.

  Nate looked at the manifesting spell and activated his third Skill. Conceptual Automated Existence turned the blob into a rippling sphere of blood about as big as Nate’s torso. It hovered before him under its own power and Nate sent his Intent into his creation: suppress Helen Jamison. Then, for good measure, he pulled out two more Runecrafted Blobs of Blood Control and animated them, directing one at Kartier and one at Portos. Activating so many in quick succession had put a dent in his Mana Reserve and he let a part of his mind start drawing from the mana gems in his Runic Gallery to refill what he had spent. Nate took in the battlefield and realised their initial charge had been stymied.

  While Luc was still hard at work, it seemed that many of the Golds weren’t showing signs of poisoning despite Nate sensing multiple needles in some of them. Luc must’ve sensed his view as the Arcane Riftwalker appeared next to him a moment later.

  “I think they drank some alchemicals to make them resistant to poisons before the battle even started. Trade spots? I’ll work on the Jamisons.”

  Nate nodded and vanished, preparing to throw his support behind Britt and Frick to deal with the mass of Golds. His Blood Automatons were already floating around the Jamisons, and interestingly, not engaging, though he did sense the Blood Concept in the air so thick he could taste iron in the back of his throat. Whatever they were doing, however, seemed to be keeping the Jamisons from getting the upper hand, which was the best they could hope for since Evindal, Null and Kiri were all at a disadvantage.

  As Britt was beaten backwards, he spun up a Reinforcement rune to empower her Projected Armour Skill further while Frick took a beating, basically trading blows with three Golds. What had started out as looking like a more favourable fight than expected was quickly turning into a slow defeat as they lost ground on all fronts.

  Nate prepared to throw himself into the fight beside Britt when the sky lit up. The fighting paused for the barest of seconds, but that was long enough for them all to witness three serpents made of light snake their way across the sky towards a growing tree of lightning. Rain fell around them but he couldn’t hear the pitter patter of the droplets hitting sand because they were drowned out by the laughter of Allais in the sky above. Then the three serpents struck as one and the tree of lightning exploded.

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