He touched Wersa, on the ankle, with the barest tip of his finger, and launched Dominate Mind. A bright purple light burst out from the necklace around Wersa’s neck as his spell touched her mind, and then.. nothing. No mental battles took place. Nothing. His spell had just fizzled. He began to ready another spell as her eyes burst open. Her whole body moving to a standing position almost immediately. His fingers still touching her ankle, he used his next spell Dominate Will, only to have it too to do nothing. It was like casting his spell into a void. Once again her necklaced burst out with light, and she looked down at him, having fallen to his ass as she leapt up. He looked up frozen.

She spoke in booming tones, “Why are you still alive? Dice? Why is he still alive?”

He spoke quickly, “I-I made-up with Karmis, I was able to do.. what she asked of me. See, she she is over there.” He said pointing behind himself. He had made a critical error though. He had forgotten what Karmis looked like in her present state.

She peered behind, taking stock of Dice and then of Karmis, before she began to quake.

“What have you done to my MOTHER!?” She roared at him, but he was already rolling away from her.

Her Divine-Damned mother? How old was Karmis? His mind reeling with the fact he was about to die and with sudden questions about Karmis’s age.

Dice protect me, Karmis use your spell on Wersa!

Wersa stepped towards him while drawing her sword, casting a buff on herself as she moved, but as she raised her arm to strike at him, a dozen blades sprouted along the length of her sword arm in quick succession. Wersa screamed in rage and pain, as a spell hit her in the face. This was the same spell Karmis had used on the rubber-rhino. Wersa’s eyes seemed to unfocus and she began blinking rapidly. Her sword swung in every direction but kept her face covered with good arm. He didn’t how long the spell would last.

Karmis, prepared another spell and use it on her as soon as you are able.

How was Wersa able to totally negate his spells? The purple light? The purple light burst out at the same time he used his spells, but not when Karmis used hers. The necklace. It was the weirdest piece of gear she wore. Like nothing a Warrior would ware. It was clearly a trinket, spelled in some way. Had it prevented his mental spells in some way? He had nothing to go on, and it was unlikely, even with a four-on-one battle, that he would live through it.

Dice continue to attack her and protect me!

“Ina, see if you can get that necklace off her, the one that glowed purple. Wait until she is distracted.”

As he tossed out his commands, Wersa slowed down her sword sweeps and was starting to focus again.Dice continued to toss more blades at Wersa, but Wersa was blocking her face, thankfully ignoring him. Blades sprout in a number of unprotected spots on Wersa, but none that would do more than slow her down. A Classed Warrior was meant to take punishment and Dice’s blades would mostly just lodge in Wersa’s muscles. Eventually Dice would run out of blades, but for the moment they waited on Karmis’ next spell. He began to buff Ina and himself, able to cast a few quick cantrips before another spell flew from Karmis towards Wersa. This spell had no visual effect, but he could sense its movement. He hoped it would be something good.

***

The spell hit Wersa, but against all expectation the situation actually became worse for him. This wasn’t an offensive spell, this was a buff. Wersa began to grow larger slightly, her eyes now totally bloodshot. He looked back at Karmis, his heart sinking, wondering if she had regained consciousness somehow. She had the same drooling look on her face as before. Beastdung, He didn’t know her spells, so couldn’t command her to cast one specifically, and even if he did, she seemed barely able to cast spells on demand anyway.

Karmis, use anything offensive. Attack Wersa, do something! Protect me! Protect Ina!

Wersa screamed in rage, the blades stuck in her arm, and everywhere else on her body, popped with significant force, flying in all directions. One blade even sliced his arm as it flew by. This was some sort of Berserk spell, truly powerful, but eventually very damaging to Wersa. It would be impossible to kill Wersa outright now, even if they all attacked together.

He expected Wersa to go after Dice, but she had the surprising clarity to keep moving towards him. Wersa was slower now, her steps slamming into the ground with an inevitable, hulking force. She did not bother to block Dice’s blades except for the ones to her face. What blades did strike her, barely cut into her before falling away. He was at a loss for what to do. Then another spell from Karmis hit Wersa, this one thankfully not a buff.

A a very thin, bright bar of fiery light shot from Karmis’ hands towards Wersa. This was a much weaker version of the spell she had used on the mist-fist. The fire burned Wersa’s chest for a moment, but Wersa’s blade began to block it almost immediately. She kept her blade between herself and the fire, making sure it still covered her face. This spell at least stopped her movement for a moment.

He smelled burning flesh as Ina used this distraction and fell upon Wersa from above and behind. Ina’s claws even sharper than Dice’s blades, they sliced into Wersa’s unarmored back, though they weren’t making it past her muscled interior. Ina used her clawed tails to dig into her foe to steady herself for more attacks, but the fiery light from Karmis didn’t last nearly as long as when Karmis had last used it. As the spell waned, Wersa turned to delver backward chop toward Ina. The blade was moving fast, faster than even Ina could move, but just as he swore it would have bisected Ina across the middle, one of Dice’s blade stuck into Wersa’s unprotected cheek, just below her left eye. This caused Wersa to falter at the last second. Her blade going lower than she meant it. Ina had anticipated all of this and had begun hopping backward, but she wasn’t entirely out of the way. Two of her tails were sliced cleanly off as she shot backward. One tail flying in an arc, over Wersa’s head, to land near him. His eyes were glued to the action in front him, as his mind spun trying to find something useful to do, but something caught his eye. He could see something shiny wrapped around the claw of the tail that landed near him. It was Wersa’s necklace!

He could use a spell on her now, but he had burnt through his spells earlier. It would take time to refill their templates and even then there was usually some wait time on using the same spells again. So much had happened in this fight Wersa already, but in reality only a few moments had passed. It was not enough to time to recast his first two primary spells. What could he do now? Ina had sacrificed her tails to give him this chance. He needed to use it somehow.

He had one spell left, the last one the grimoire had offered him. He hadn’t thought to use it, but he had starting filling it's template earlier. He had only read its name, and didn’t know what it did exactly, but it was what he had left. He had no choice now. He began to finish filling the spell-template on this last spell. He would still need to touch her though, and that was virtually impossible without dying.

Wersa didn’t bother chasing Ina, Ina’s backward hop had taken her far away. Wersa turned back towards him.

“YOU DID THIS, THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” She screamed at him.

Her rage causing spittle to fly from her frothing mouth, as she took another step toward him. This step was incomparably full of power, and Wersa’s whole body moved in his direction. He noticed that Karmis had move towards him, in her oddly discoordinated walk, and was now nearly between him and Wersa. Wersa stopped her movement short, but still slammed into Karmis. He could only assumed Karmis had no spells left to cast, but was still trying to protect him with her body. She had been weak on power from her Path before this, it was unlikely she had much more to give. Karmis’ body flew off into the vegetation behind him and landed with a crunching thud. He had heard Karmis’ bones break.

Wersa screamed again, this time he couldn’t understand her. It was just rage. The pure red rage of a Classed Warrior, directed at him. His life was over now, death inevitable, but he still rushed his last spell. Perhaps as he was dying, he could use this spell and Ina could kill Wersa while she dealt with it’s effects, whatever those were.

The blades from Dice had stopped, clearly she had run out. Ina, had hurt herself in her emergency escape from Wersa, landing roughly, and was just now moving towards him, but she would be too late. A moment later, Wersa was now above him. He could see the whites of her clenched teeth. Her lips drawn back like a beast. Blood trickled down from the blade wound under her blood red eye.

Wersa drew back her arm only to have Dice jump onto her shoulders. Dice’s hands going for those wrathful red eyes that seemed locked on to him. Wersa dropped her blade, and reached up to take hold of Dice. He used this moment to close the gap and wrap himself around Wersa’s leg, holding on as best he could. Just as he got into position, his arms wrapping around Wersa’s thick leg, he felt something like rain begin to fall on his head, but when he looked up a droplet hit him in the eye. His vision had turned red in that eye, blinding it. His other eye though, it went wide as he saw Dice being pulled apart bodily above his head. Her blood flying everywhere in massive wet explosion.

With a great heave, Wersa tossed the two parts of Dice in opposite directions. He needed another moment for this overly complex spell to be cast, so he did what he could. He activated his Gaze one last time, draining himself nearly dry, except for what he needed to complete the spell. He was in luck because Wersa had looked away from him, to look up at the remnants of Dice for a split second as she had torn Dice asunder. Looking down, blood dripping down her face, she had to find him visually, looking first at where he had been on the ground, and then down at him wrapped around her leg. This brief extra moment bought him the time he needed to focus his influence, and he unleashed it as soon as their eyes met. Wersa’s head snapped back and she covered her face with her blood-soaked hands.

His Gaze provided him another vital moment to finish his spell. The spell-template glowed brightly in his mind, his consciousness had finally finished mapping it. It was finally ready by the time Wersa had cleared her vision. She begun drawing her leg back to kick him away, the force of which would splatter him, but he cast his spell just as he was about to be lifted off the ground. He had no words for Wersa as he cast this spell. He didn’t know what it would do exactly, but he knew it would cost them both something precious.

He cast Dominate Soul upon Wersa the Warrior, and someday he would be damned to the Land-Below for it.