Chapter Thirty

John

John was busy today, just not in the way he wanted to be. Instead of going on a dungeon dive or training he was helping with the expansion of the settlement. They were taking an old fashioned approach of getting everyone in town to work on it in the hopes that the construction would be finished in just a day or two. John had just finished carrying what felt like his hundredth load of planks when he saw Olivia hammering the boards into place.

“What are you doing here Olivia? Don’t you have paperwork or some administration you’re supposed to be doing?”

Olivia finished the board she was working on before responding

“I always do, but a lot of people were upset about being shanghaied into helping out. I find that If I’m out here working as well they have less to complain about, so here I am.”

John reached down and helped her up from the ground “In that case would you like to work together? I’m sure that pleasant company will make the day go faster.”

Olivia dusted herself off “I think I would. I was getting a little bit bored over here all on my own.”

They kept working as a duo until it got too dark to work effectively. From there they decided to go back to the main settlement. On the way back they ran into Sam and Camille who had also been working as a pair. John greeted them

“Hey guys, we're going back to the main settlement to celebrate and relax after a long boring day of building. Do you guys want to join us?”

Sam and Camille looked at each other before nodding in agreement. Then the four of them went back to Olivia’s office to start the celebration. Camille left to get food for everyone and Olivia disappeared into a side room. She quickly came back holding a bottle

“As a reward for helping out today I figure I’ll break out the good stuff. Hope you all appreciated a good brandy”

Soon they were all eating, drinking, and laughing. It was well past midnight when John stood up and said

“As much as I enjoy your company, I think it's time for bed. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

John was cut off by screams from the outside. He dashed out to see what was causing it and the other three jumped up and followed him. Once they got outside they saw three men going through the town and killing everyone they encountered. John, Sam, and Camille were about to rush into the fight and try and save civilians when Olivia hissed behind them

“Wait. If you just dash in you’ll die like everybody else. Follow me.”

She rushed back into her office and the rest of them followed behind her. When they got in she was already kneeling on the ground opening her safe. After a few moments she pulled out a bag of blood river flowers and stuffed one into each of their hands.

“I’m pretty sure those people out there are blood mages. If you eat the flower then they won’t be able to control your blood and you’ll have a chance in a fight. Be careful though, it also stops your blood from clotting so even tiny wounds will bleed like a bitch.”

“Fuck.” John cursed “If those guys are trained mages no way we’ll be any good if we just rush in. Let’s try and sneak back to our cabins to get our gear and then regroup for a fight. If we ambush them with our gear we should be able to take them down even if they’re tough.”

All three rushed out to get their gear and managed to return after a few minutes fully armed. Then they started to head out when Olivia said

“Wait, I’m coming too. I may not be as experienced as you guys but I can use a water rune well enough to help.”

John was a little worried, but didn’t have time to argue so the four of them set off. They followed the screams towards the mages and once they got close they stopped running and started to sneak. They managed to get behind invaders and all of them readied their best abilities. John drew his sword and strengthened himself as much as possible with an earth rune. Sam nocked an arrow in her bow and stuck a few more in the ground at her feet for easy access. Olivia created a big ball of water, and Camille was gripping her light rune ready to blind the invaders.

Camille went first. The whole party closed their eyes and turned away as the village briefly got brighter than when it was lit by the midday sun. Next Sam and Olivia attacked. Sam’s arrow went into the throat of the nearest mage and then Olivia’s water blast knocked him to the ground. John was last. He dashed forward and took a large swing at one of the attackers. The man managed to get his arm up in time to try and deflect the blow, but with John channeling his rune and swinging at full strength the sword went straight through his arm before becoming lodged in the armor on his chest. John raised his foot and kicked the man in the gut while pulling on his sword in order to retrieve the blade and then retreated till he was closer to the rest of the party.

While he was doing that the others hadn't been idle. He looked up and saw that the third mage was soaking wet and riddled with arrows. John started to relax thinking that the fight was just about over when the man whose arm he cut off stood up. The wound wasn’t bleeding at all and he was clutching a rune in his good hand. John glanced to the other mage and saw that being riddled with arrows wasn't stopping him from doing the same. The only one that appeared to be down for the count was the mage who had been hit by Sam’s arrow and Olivia’s water at the same time.

While John was observing all that the mages finished their preparations. John raised his shield just before they struck. Dark streams of liquid streamed towards the party at high speeds. One of the streams was interrupted by a blast of water from Olivia, but the other was heading straight for the women in the back. John jumped between them and braced his shield. When the stream struck him it had enough momentum to nearly knock him off his feet.On top of that, the parts that were deflected by Johns shield were still dangerous. The deflected liquid that was hitting his arms felt like a stream of tiny knives.

Once the stream had stopped John looked up to see the mages stuck with even more arrows. He yelled

“Flesh wounds aren't going to bring them down, they are able to stop themselves from bleeding. We need to either aim for their heads or try and cause massive damage.”

John heard Sam from behind him.

“We’ll create an opening. You get in there and create massive damage.”

As soon as she finished saying that they struck. Camille conjured a massive gust of wind to put them off balance. Then Sam shot arrows at the less injured mage while Olivia shot the water she had prepared. While that was happening John dashed in once again and took another big swing at the more injured mage. He swung at the mage’s neck, but the mage managed to get his arm in the way once again. The blade sheared through flesh and bone once again. As soon as the arm was fully amputated and the mage dropped to the ground bleeding profusely from every single wound he had.

John kicked the rune in the amputated hand away from the downed mage and then rounded on the last enemy. He swung at the neck to try and decapitate the man and missed. His blade ended up lodged in the enemy's shoulder instead. John was trying to retrieve his sword when he saw the mage was preparing another spell. He tried to back up but the man followed him. He raised his shield to try and block whatever the attack was when the mage fucking exploded. It was like the stream that John had blocked earlier but coming from every part of his body. John was blasted off his feet and cut all over his body.

Camille immediately started to heal him and Olivia dashed back to her office to get a healing potion. He was bleeding from hundreds of tiny cuts while Camille tried her best to heal them. She was doing a fairly good job, but he was still losing a lot of blood. In just a minute or two Olivia was back. She poured half of the potion over John’s entire body and then poured the rest down his throat. That combined with Camille’s help was enough to get John back on his feet. He wasn’t in any shape to fight. He was still dizzy from hitting his head on the ground when he fell and from the blood loss.

While Camille and Olivia had been tending to John Sam had been checking out the bodies. She returned with three runes in hand and said

“ I checked to see if they had orders or a communication stone but not luck. They only have these runes and daggers on them. We should probably get in contact with the other adventurers and see if we can figure out what they are doing here. There is no way three guys attacking the town was the entirety of their plan.”

Camille, who was kneeling at John’s side, shook her head.

“You’re right that there’s no way this was part of their plan, but there is not much we can do about it now. John needs to eat a ton, the potion is going to eat up his muscle to heal his wounds, and the rest of us need sleep. If we hadn’t caught those guys by surprise then there is no way we would have beaten them. We need to get back to top shape before we go off fighting a war. For now we just need to make sure the town is safe and get some rest.”

Olivia nodded

“Camille is right. I want all of us to go over to the adventurer’s guild and see what the situation is over there. If the fighting has stopped then you three should go to bed. We’ll need you in top shape when we figure out what they’re trying to do.”

With that decided the quartet went straight to the adventurer's guild. When they got there they saw Lou leaning over nearly ten dead bodies. They went over to him and he told them that the fighting here was over, so John, Camille, and Sam raided the dining hall for food and then let Olivia handle things while they slept.