Kruma slammed his fist on the table in frustration, “What do you mean ‘I’m a Hero’?”

“Kruma, mind your manners”, Advelt requested.

“No way. I don’t believe you. How can someone with a life like mine turn out to be a Hero? They’re guardians of all that’s right, hold amazing power, and are meant to have a great life!”

“It’s fine if you don’t believe me. This isn’t something easy to hide for long either, getting assessed at the G-Hall will reveal this since you missed the census. At that point, all guilds will be inviting you to join”, Logan informed.

“He’s right, son. Logan offered before he knew, who’s to say others won’t offer ‘because’ you’re a Hero?” Waerell added.

“What if he’s lying? It’s a lot of debt he removed, trying to put us in his pocket.”

“If that is your belief, you need not sign. The door is open if you change your mind”, Logan offered.

“Let… let me think about it.”

Kruma left with his family, though when one person left, another came to take their place and double. Six adventurers were standing at Logan’s front door, all fully equipped and looking for a conversation. Kruma’s absence was as cold as the weather with the chill in full season.

Entering his guild house at his allowance, the leader introduced the group.

Guildmaster Mr Cross, a level 20 Rogue, aged 28. A man standing at 5’10”, black hair down to his back and dangling over his forehead that wore a red bandana. His clothing was a mix of black and greys, dagger hidden within a cloak.

Sub-Leader Wyot, a level 19 Knight, aged 27. A man who was taller than their leader at 6’, though hair half as long at his shoulders. Glistening black-steel armour protected his body, while he had a tall spear and shield on his back.

Sub-Leader Riley, a level 18 Knight, aged 27. A woman in the centre of heights at 5’11”, hair tied into a bun at the back with a thin strip of it down her back. She had similar glistening black-steel armour but used a shortsword and shield.

Leo, a level 17 Rogue, aged 25. A shorter man at 5’7” who had a shaved bald head. His chestnut skin blended in well with his black and dark-red leather armour, and similarly coloured daggers and shortswords sheathed across his body.

Egbert, a level 16 Fighter, aged 23. A gashriek standing at 5’8” with glistening green eyes. He had short black hair ruffled backwards. A mix of leather and metal armour protected him with twin maces.

Kelton, a level 16 Fighter, aged 23. Another gashriek at 5’9” whose eyes glowed yellow. His medium-length brunette hair was rough and wild. His armour was also a mix of leather and metal, though he had a longsword in its sheath held over his shoulder.

“Logan. As the Guildmaster of Twain Dagger, I offer you a position on the raid to take down Thermodan”, Cross extended.

“This is quite sudden, I suppose his appearance was just the same?” Logan asked.

“Yes. His protections died off and a group of seers were able to track him. We have little time to act, we must move within the hour or risk another ritual hiding him away. We guess he’ll have several others in his employ if not golems and elementals. He is a strong caster, and without knowledge of what he has in his possession, we want every asset on hand.”

“You’d act fast with a teleportation expert too”, Marcus calculated.

“Correct. Logan is well-versed in Dimensional Jaunt, you can take us all at once and at a further distance than mages we could hire”, Wyot accepted.

“I believe you’ll have many personal qualms with the man, too”, Cross added.

“I would say there’s quite the advantage if there’s eight of us versus his one, but as you say, he has allies. Would we all be enough?” Logan asked.

“You’re rank 16 as far as your leaderboard posting states, that was over two months ago, however. At rank 18 you’d be a good match on your own with your specialisations matching Thermodan’s. We aren’t as magically versed, but we have many spell rings, as well as both Wyot and Riley being great at dampening magic casting”, Cross instructed.

“I won’t lie. I want even with that fucker.”

“Twain Dagger will offer an alliance with Vip as well. As fellow hunters, we have no issue being allied.”

“It’s going to be harder than usual, I’ve had a few fights today as it is. But I got plenty of potions to rally against that fact”, Logan admitted.

“Hopefully, we will take the brunt of the assault in your place. If you feel it necessary, you can pull back and let us deal with the traitor.”

A system quest appeared with the request, but instead, Logan looked at Marcus.

“I’m good to help. It will be nice to put this whole business to rest. Thermodan is one of the last missing pieces of the puzzle”, Marcus accepted.

“Very well, let us be off.”

With a longer discussion of battle plans and environment, the larger group made their way to the exit of Gauntlet and directed Logan to where Thermodan was last spotted.

Apparating within a large clearing of a forest, Egbert and Kelton both threw their hands to the floor as blue hexagon barriers appeared beneath the party. Said protection blocked a huge explosion from the ground, torrents of fire and rock shooting around the party.

Next were countless shards of wood and rock from the trees that caused the party to separate into eight directions as they dodged the onslaught. Trees crashed in the distance while birds flew away before falling just the same as their bodies got shocked at higher altitudes.

Breathing heavily, Logan looked at the azure sky, clear, too clear, not even a sun.

During the meeting to attack Thermodan.

“Several mages were sent to Thermodan’s location immediately after his scrying protection faded. We are unsure if Thermodan knew of their approach, but they were able to set up a barrier to house him. Thirty mages, with others protecting them, are focusing on a time-ritual cast to halt teleportation or movement outside of the barrier. We can enter, but until Thermodan is dead, we cannot leave.”

“Can it be broken otherwise?” Logan asked.

“If the mages fall asleep, or have their concentration interrupted, the barrier will weaken. If ten are interrupted the barrier will falter. We’ll have a few days to do this, but I doubt we’d need that time. Or, if Thermodan is able to use another form of ritual casting, he could destroy a section of the barrier and leave it through that. Teleportation or movement.”

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“How likely is it that Thermodan can do that?”

“Middling. He is known to use time-ritual casting. If he can use either self-sacrifice rituals or living-sacrifice rituals, then we’ll be in trouble.”

Back in the assault on Thermodan.

The birds were dying due to the barrier, this at least let Logan know it was working on weaker foes. Now the hope was that it was still affecting Thermodan.

“Leo, report”, Cross ordered.

The Rogue jogged back to his leader as he looked around, his eyes coated in a green overlay. “Twenty-seven traps remain in my sight range.”

“Kelton, Egbert, release them”

“Got it”, the two responded as they took out bows and nocked arrows. “Arrow Rain”, they chanted as they aimed at the sky. Firing their bows, the arrows split into twelve and rained into the forest away from the party.

Several explosions of fire and ice, massive spikes of earth and shadow, and torrents of wind and water crashed around the forest as the traps were activated by the Fighters’ skills.

“Ten remain, but they are airborne… that direction”, Leo reported.

“Logan, can you hit those?”

Logan raised an arm and chanted, “Force”, ten times, sending out wave after wave of grey energy into the air near the midway point to the barrier’s height. Similar explosions echoed within the barrier as they were released.

Cross pulled out a chakram with a glass centre and held it to his face, turning with it, the glass shone several colours to onlookers, but for Cross, it changed to give him a view of far-off locations.

“Fuck, he has subordinates and captives here. They are rigged for sacrifices”, Cross explained.

“We’ll need to—”, Wyot began to speak as he looked at his leader, however, he was interrupted when he saw a visage of a large axe going for his leader’s head, forcing the Knight to yell, “Interject!”

Wyot’s body shimmered as he appeared at Cross’s side, blocking the axe with his shield. Shockwaves went wide as leaves flew into the air.

Rebounding the blade, Wyot pierced his spear at the attacker to meet a similar shield. A man whose body had shadows waving all over it, a deathly stare from hollow eyes. An undead adventurer controlled by Thermodan no doubt.

“Ambush, make a circle”, Cross ordered.

The team ran into the centre of the clearing as they turned to face the attackers. Countless yellow pinpricks in the skulls of undead foes came from the tree line, all shadowed, and geared as they once were.

Arrows, bolts, and flinging spells came at the team, causing Riley to shout, “Dome of Protection”, creating a small transparent green dome to encapsulate the party. All attacks pelted off the defensive skill.

Following the ranged barrage, the undead army charged at the team. “It’s not just Thermodan, there’s too many undead for that”, Logan thought to himself.

As the dome faded, the team took several steps to meet the oncoming foes. Deflections of blows, dodges to the side, and parries filled the combat with a scene of competent combatants.

Logan parried a spear joust of an undead, wrapped his right arm around its shaft and held an open left palm to the foe’s face, “Flame Second Shot”, incinerating its skull as it dropped to the floor.

A massive slam erupted after Egbert called, “Power Strike”, almost disintegrating the bones of another undead.

Bodies hit the floor, while more continued to come forth. In a gap of the attacks, Logan saw a shifting humanoid move between the foes, a long flowing black cloak to their boots and fiery red hair down to their lower back.

A hand outstretched to Logan as he felt his body vibrate against an interruption in his teleportations.

“Fuck”, Leo cursed as he Dashed to Logan’s front to block the approaching foe, however, it was not an attack to be blocked.

“Fall to them, Motions”, the red-head chanted. A full chant, a strong spell. It came with a harrowing explosion of flesh and blood in the distance accompanied by fearful screeches.

A wave of power hit Leo’s soul as he vibrated and had his eyes cloud over, falling to the floor unconscious.

Sliding their feet across the floor, the mage opened another hand to let loose an Air Blast, as they shot back into the forest insanely fast.

“Leo, wake up!” Logan ordered as he knelt quickly, dowsing his ally in water and having him drink a potion.

The Rogue did not wake, his breath was even thin as if his body just barely stopped working altogether.

Marcus spun his staff into a foe as he twirled into an Aqua Shot at another to protect Logan.

“Cross, I think that was Thermodan. He did something to Leo, he won’t get up”, Logan informed as he stood to protect the unconscious fellow.

“Damnit, there’s no end to the undead”, Cross replied as he looked at Logan.

“Boss!” Riley shouted as she shoulder-barged Cross to the side.

“Fall to them, Motions”, the red-haired foe chanted again, sending the Knight to sleep with a cacophony of death in the background.

“He’s using living-sacrifice rituals!” Cross shouted.

During the meeting to attack Thermodan.

“If Thermodan is able to use living-sacrifice rituals, we’ll need to hunt him down as fast as possible and kill him at the first chance.”

“Are they that strong?” Logan asked.

“Dangerously so. He can’t do it forever. A living-sacrifice ritual requires the user to take the life of a living creature, the stronger the creature is the better the effect will be. It must be a willing sacrifice, but I have heard of some sigils or spells that can force that choice on someone. This type of ritual cast strips out the normal downsides on the caster, the spell can be almost instantly done with the proper set-up. In short terms, he could be casting sixth-level or higher spells without any drawbacks outside of killing his allies.”

“With those, he could escape the barrier?”

“Potentially. He would still need to understand the type of barrier we’re using and prepare a proper counterattack. If he isn’t versed in barriers, it would take up to an hour to figure something out on the fly, defaulting to the former time limit I mentioned. If not, and he has enough sacrifices, he could just blast a hole in the barrier through force.”

Back in the assault on Thermodan.

“Group up!” Cross ordered, the party accepting the command immediately.

Cross picked up Riley’s body while Logan took Leo.

“That way”, Cross pointed.

Logan then warped the team away from the undead attack, appearing in front of a set of ruins, though recently destroyed. Stone structures told a tale of a larger facility being here, possibly a hideout for Thermodan and his team.

Cross then snapped a grey stick cylinder in his hand, “Condense, 200 feet”, he ordered.

The ground shook and cracked all over as a wide reverberating sound echoed inside the barrier. The extent of the protective prison started to close in until it only encompassed two hundred feet in radius.

Dulled sounds of sword slashes and explosions could be heard outside the barrier, the backup team that was protecting the magi was now dealing with the rest of the undead and Thermodan’s forces.

Leaving just the team, the ruins, a few trees, and the mage in front of them, blood dripping from his black cloak.

“Darn hunters, how’d you find me!” Thermodan ordered, his eyes blackened over totally.

“Your protections faded, your life will do the same soon enough if you don’t tell me what you did to my allies!”

“Oh, them. I did aim for you and Logan, but your allies are so selfless.”

“Tell me!”

“I put them under Motions, they will never wake.”

“The hell is Motions?” Logan thought.

“They are protected against sleep spells though”, Cross admitted through gritted teeth.

“The one reason why I used that spell, and not something that merely puts you to sleep”, Thermodan said as if he had the upper hand.

“So, you won’t wake them up, even if I offer imprisonment?” Cross double-checked.

“No.”

The team then charged at the caster.

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