With slight panic setting in for everyone, I enter into Meditation and Pranic Breathing to restore as much MP as possible before this encounter.

The guard steps out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him as he does. Becky’s legs are quivering as Colt and Adreanell try to comfort her.

My curiosity and concern peaks, but I figure she has enough help and me not having enough MP won’t be good for anyone.

About 10 minutes later, the door opens once more and a tall, muscular blond man steps through. Immediately I notice that his arms and legs are coated in crystal growths pointing out of his skin.

Following him through the door is a group of three women. One woman is a short but shapely brunette whose gaze never leaves the man who just entered.

Another of the women has long black hair that reaches to her mid-thigh of her slender body. This girl is staring at the man who I assume is the king with the same level of reverie.

The last of the women in his… entourage is a short, curvaceous red-haired woman whose eyes never leave the ground.

All of these women are very apparently attractive but to my dismay, each of them is dressed in skimpy pieces of cloth undeserving to be called clothes. The king also has a leash leading to a collar on each of these women.

“Cassandra!” Adreanell runs up to the bars, stopping just short of them as she feels the hum of energy through them.

The red-haired woman looks up, her frown shifting to shock. “Adri?”

A quick jerk of the collar on the woman pulls her back and the king grins, adjusting a crown of crystal that sits atop his head. “Oh, so you two know each other, huh?”

“Leave her alone!” Adreanell screams as she puts her hands on the bars without thinking and is sent flying back. Colt rushes over to check on her and Cassandra cries out but is pulled back by her leash.

His gaze shifts further back in the cell, eyes locking with Becky, who has slowly shifted into the corner of the shell. “Hey there baby girl, glad you came back to me.”

“Brandon.” Her voice is barely a whisper, pure fear apparent in her eyes.

Shifting in front of her, I glare at Brandon. Colt joins me, standing next to me with his arms crossed.

Brandon’s eyes darken at this, a possessive look taking over his face. “So you leave for a little while and think you can date other guys!?” Strong, vile energy fills the air.

Her eyes simply meet the ground after her voice catches in her throat, unable to make a response.

“Well, I came down for a reason after all. Punishment. Normally, my sentence would be lighter. But because my girlfriend is a cheating bitch, it’s death for the rest of you.” His grin widens as he goes to open the door.

Immediately, I take out everyone’s weapons and hand them to them. A quick swap of my equipment loadout and Argo reappears in my hands.

“Lucas! It happened again! I went somewhere!” The anchor’s voice is tinged with fear and confusion.

“I’m sorry Argo, but not now, I’ll explain later.” My grip on the anchor tightens as the door to the cell opens up.

Becky’s scissors lay on the ground around her feet. Her eyes are filled with tears as she repeats a near-inaudible “no” over and over.

Taking the opportunity, I dash toward Brandon, Argo humming with power as my mana flows into the anchor.

“Devastating Impact!” My blow connects with a crystal wall that wasn’t there moments earlier. Vines travel around me and pull me back as the wall elongates into spikes.

“Keep your Mage’s Eyes on Lucas.” Colt’s expression is hard as he looks at Brandon.

The crystal-coated man makes his way over to Becky, but Colt and I move to intervene. A sudden buzzing in our ears brings us to our knees. I quickly rip the earring out, taking a piece of my ear with it.

The pain makes my head spin, but I force Promethean into overdrive to stymie the bleeding. Colt repeats my action and quickly spins around to do the same for Adreanell, apologizing as he does.

A spire of crystal slams into me as I turn back to Brandon, piercing into my stomach. Coughing up blood, Adreanell screams and Colt bellows in rage at the king.

Vicious roots and vines break through the floor, traveling quickly into a point aimed at the man before us. A storm of small crystal shards spins around, slicing up the vines before they can even reach him.

Pulling myself off the spire, I collapse to the ground before taking out a healing potion and downing it quickly while my head is obscured from view with the spire.

“Fae Thorn!” Colt dashes towards Brandon, arm coated in a giant thorn of Wild Magick. A wall immediately comes up to guard, only to be shattered by the Fae Thorn. Colt roars and vines burst out from the impact point, stabbing at the king’s body.

Crystal growths appear over his skin, blocking each of the vines. Realizing the rest of the situation, I turn to Adreanell quickly.

“Adreanell! Get those girls out of here. This fight is way beyond your abilities, I’m sorry.”

She nods to me, determined. “Right. Good luck, Lucas.” She looks towards the redhead Cassandra, tears in her eyes, and sprints out while Colt and I keep Brandon busy.

Shifting to Brandon’s side, I swing my anchor while he’s distracted by Colt and catch him in the crook of it, pulling him away from Becky.

He slugs me in the face as we’re close, causing me to drop Argo and crash into a wall, shattering the crystal. Sitting up, I grin through the pain and tug.

The chain I kept hidden in my Personal Hold until that last strike tugs Argo back to me, causing Brandon to fall over. He pulls the anchor off of him, pulling me back to him by the chain. He delivers a kick to my gut while rising a wall of crystal to block an earthen assault from Colt.

Crashing into another further wall, that part of the building collapses over me. Colt screams out and takes a hit from a crystal spike while he’s distracted.

From under the rubble, I chug another healing potion, feeling my health reach dangerously low levels. Using Spellbound Physique, I convert MP into HP as fast as I can to restore myself to full.

Just then, the rubble over me rises up, shifting into sharp points. As they fly down towards me I activate Batten Down, the visage of a ship taking most of the impact for me.

Rolling to the side, I sling several Fireballs and set an Undertoe at his feet to keep him busy as I come back to a stand.

My Mage’s Eyes catch a shift in the mana below me. Jumping to the side, a field of spikes breaks out from where I was moments earlier. Colt finally recovers enough to stand back up and returns to my side.

Brandon has positioned himself between us and Becky once more during this exchange.

Dropping low, I add knots to my legs and activate Crashing Wake, bellowing as I rush towards the king at high speed. Slipping low on the water, I swing Argo at him, ballasting all of my weight into a Devastating Impact as Colt adds an assault of thorns from above.

He grunts but catches Argo in a crystal-coated hand as several darts of crystal break the thorns into pieces, causing Colt to have to pull up a stone defense against the return projectiles.

Not giving up, I activate Mooring seeing as he’s in contact with Argo. Spectral ropes tie down his body, anchoring him to Argo on the ground.

“This is for being a piece of shit!” My fist connects with his face during his shock as I empower it with ballasted weight and another Devastating Impact. My bones creak from the hit but send him flying backward into the opposite wall of the building, crashing it down.

He stands up from the rubble quickly, rubbing his face as I retrieve Argo once more. “Alright, it was fun toying with you two, but now I’m pissed off.”

My vision blurs as mana infuses every crystal around us, converting them all into deadly spikes aimed and Colt and me. “Batten Down!” Using Modular Mana, I pour mana into the shield, strengthening it as much as possible around both Colt and myself.

The crystals impact as a layer of stone and vines surrounds us as well. Some manage to pierce, however, stabbing into both of us all over our bodies.

With the crystals stuck inside us, each of our bodies slams to the floor as Brandon slowly approaches us, grinning again.

His eyes widen as four distinct thunks sound out from behind him. Becky is standing there, legs quivering, but the fear is gone from her eyes. Instead, it’s been replaced by anger and indignation.

“Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. My. Friends. Cutting Quartet!” The scissors stuck in Brandon’s back spiral around, cutting through his crystalized skin with ease.

He turns to Becky, rage and shock filling his face and he steps toward her.

Taking this moment of distraction, I stand up as fast as I can manage, pain wracking my body and blood pours from the wounds.

Bursting from my spot, Colt empowers my movement by controlling the winds around me, giving me an extra burst of speed. A Watery Grave appears around the king’s legs before he can turn around back towards us.

Storm’s Rage activates as I feel Colt’s Wild Magick fill Argo alongside my own mana. “Devastating Maelstrom!” My body spirals with the winds as my anchor finally connects for the first time this fight.

Destructive force billows out from the strike, sending Brandon crashing across the landscape. Not giving up, I dash to him once more, pushing the limits of what my body can handle in terms of knots.

Appearing above him in moments, I push every ounce of mana I have into this strike, feeling Colt do close to the same with his Wild Magick through the winds around me.

Crystals rise up towards my strike, but I push through with every drop of energy I have left in me. From the mix of Wild Magick, a unique name calls to me for this attack “Devastation of Gaia!”

The world around us explodes from the sheer force, causing a massive crater to form in the ground below me. The force sends me flying backward.

The world around me begins to flicker, but I hold on to consciousness with all of my will. Pushing myself, I down several mana potions and use Spellbound Physique to convert some of that to health.

Colt looks pale and concerningly translucent, but he’s doing the same, barely able to sit up from the exhaustion of his Wild Magick.

Slowly, the pain that wracks my entire body recedes. Becky slumps to the ground, tears falling as her entire body trembles.

Moving over to her, I pull her into a hug, softly hushing her as I rub her back. Colt moves in close to comfort Becky as well. He keeps looking to me, but I gesture that I’m fine now.

Every crystal around us slowly begins to tremble, however.

“Oh no, I thought we won.” Colt looks over to the crater that contains Brandon’s body.

Level up! For combining your Talents of the anchor with the Talents and skills of your group, your Talent: Adept Anchorist has reached (10/50)!

For reaching your first Talent milestone in Adept Anchorist, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Willpower and + 30 XP. In addition, you have been awarded one Perk Point! Perk Points can be only spent on a Perk that came from the associated Talent.

For reaching your second Talent milestone in Adept Anchorist, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Willpower and + 60 XP. In addition, you have been granted the Perk: Amphibious Respiration

Level up! For clever use of your magic to distract, and manipulation of mana to empower attacks beyond normal limits, your Talent: Fledgling Mage has reached (32/50)!

Skill level ups have occurred! Check the Skills menu for further details!

You have gained the resistance: Piercing Resistance (1/100)!

Agent of Restruct: King Brandon defeated! 5036 xp awarded!

Agent of Restruct: King Brandon dropped: 2 Gleams, Corrupt Smoky Quartz Core.

Level up! You have achieved level 19, you are awarded 5 unallocated stat points, +80 MP, +0.8 HP regen, +2.7 MP regen, +32 Strength, +49 Endurance, +11 Dexterity, +30 Intelligence, +41 Attunement, +16 Willpower, +3 Charisma, and +19 Insight. 994/5572 remaining until level 20.

For reaching your second stat milestone in Intelligence, you have unlocked Dual Casting! You are now able to simultaneously activate two Skills of differing elements!

The sudden influx of power from a level up goes mostly ignored by me as I realize from those messages that I just killed a man. Sinking to my knees, my body shakes as I attempt to come to terms with what I’ve just done.

Around us, the entire city begins to shake. Cracks form in all of the crystal structures, breaking down further and further before disintegrating into dust completely within seconds.

Screams immediately sound out from around the city. Several roars and other vicious noises can be heard through the city as well.

“Oh fuck, Lucas, the monsters! They were using those crystals to control them.” Colt turns to see me shaking on the ground, having been distracted by the disintegrating city beforehand.

“Colt, we killed a man.” A sob catches in my throat.

He stops dead in his tracks, realizing exactly what we’ve done as well. “Oh shit.” He shakes his head and slaps his cheeks, however. He looks down at me with a pained expression.

“Unfortunately we don’t have time to worry about that right now Lucas. Adreanell probably needs our help, and there’s an entire city of people who seem to have little to no Talents, Perks, Skills, Levels, or Stats.”

That comment snaps me out of it and I shift to a standing position quickly. Becky still looks absolutely distraught, but she wipes away tears and her expression hardens.

“I’m good. Let’s go.” She runs off, letting us follow her.