A crushing end

In the cultists camp, over twenty people kept running around, checking the vicinity and alarming their companions.

The Cultist had been alarmed of intruders and hastily left their tents.

The camp held eight spacious, purple tents with endorsements and one even bigger tent centered in the back. Next to it stood a couple of cages with his targets, the captured people inside.

Behind the camp was a small hill with a path upwards and on top of it, Jay could see a stone cairn.

The tall obelisks and carved runes were visible from his distant point of view.

The first cultists didn't take long to spot Jay as he neared the camp pretty open.

Analyzing them had informed him of only two close combatants in all the inspected people until then. The rest was casters that could hopefully teach Jay a spell or two.

That was pretty much what his plan consisted of: lure the cultists out, away from the captives and reflect their spells.

That was all that was to it.

And the fight went as Jay expected.

While the first casters formed their spells, which was again two shadow bolts, the two only melees rushed in.

The two burly men arrived a meter away from Jay, just as the volley their companions had casted onto Jay bounced off and ended them.

Magic defense was weak on most fighters, but those two were exceptional.

More and more spells flew towards Jay as all of the camp had located him.

The spells that flew through the camp finally had a wide variety within.

From the all to well known shadow bolts, and fireballs to new ominous green fireballs and purplish energy beams, even some invisible spells were mixed within.

Those were the ones to catch Jay's eyes.

As he was in combat, Jay received no notifications and his vision was sealed by lights and explosions in different colors.

He was glad he could see the lines of cultists thinning out and sometimes their reaction when they got hit.

Some of the invisible spells seemed to induce enormous pain, while other just made the targets movement sluggish or slow.

Without a chance to find out more in this situation Jay went to the closer opponents to break some bones and necks.

But not one spell broke through his reflection.

Even as more than half of the cultists had been defeated and the whole camp got wrecked, their leader never showed his face.

From in front of the big tent a tall cultist, accompanied by a small creature that threw green fireballs, shot a beam spell onto Jay the moment he appeared.

Next to him stood a smaller cultist that was chanting spells in succession, only to revel in pain afterwards.

Suddenly the curtains on the big tent flew open and a old man with a purple robe walked out.

The cultist leader was a level sixteen Conjurer, called Radison.

Shoving the tall cultist to the side and stopping his still ongoing beam-spell, Radison channeled his magic into a rune on the ground.

As the light on the rune faded, a shadowy figure rose from the runic circle that had formed.

It's hunching back towered at least 7 feet over the ground where it floated. Long sharp looking claws were to be seen at its long arms and a head without anything else than glowing eyes.

Next the Conjurer threw a new colored beam-spell onto Jay while he ordered his summon to attack.

But even as Radison joined the fray, Jay's reflection kept up and the summon didn't even come close to him.

With most of the cultists dead by the time jay had reached the center of the camp, only Radison and the two cultists next to him were relatively well off.

The rest had either passed away or was barely holding on.

Jay had tried to spare the few female cultists he had spotted by positioning himself in a way, his reflected spells would hit obstacles.

This was of course for later... study.

This only went so so as some of the invisible spells still affected their original casters.

But to Jay's surprise his mana reserves took a heavy toll as the numerous spells had sipped away nearly thirty percent of his mana.

With not a single spell cast by himself, he now was sure that spells, at least spells from higher leveled individuals, cost him mana to reflect.

It may have had to do with his magic resistance as well, but considering his absurd status, his bet went for level based or spell dependent cost.

With only seven other people alive and only two of them still able to fight, Jay decided to lure them in, fearing they could take the captured people as hostages.

He went to his right knee and bent slightly down as the last shadow bolt got reflected, secretively taking out his dagger.

While the old man eyed him with suspicion, the tall cultist instantly attacked with his purple beam he was so fond of.

The second it got reflected and hit its origin, the beam ceased.

At the same time the tall cultist fell backwards with a hilt sticking out of his hood.

Jay had thrown his dagger as the spell hit back, hiding it within.

To this, Radison turned around an fled inside his tent.

Jay was wondering what this would help him as he saw the old cultist running uphill towards the stone cairn.

He had exited the tent to the other side and tried to flee.

As Jay had secured the boats and was on an island, his priority lay with the cultists that were close to death.

Walking over to the closest two, he found one relatively young woman and a middle aged man who clung on her, doing his best to keep her alive.

But his efforts were for naught as she took her last breath when Jay was still some steps away.

She would have been a nice source for his growth, but with her being only of level twelve it wasn't that much of a loss to him.

Now that he saw her, she also was no beauty.

The man whom she had equally clung to was in his mid thirties and wouldn't have to live much longer as well.

He still used his remaining strength to try and keep her alive.

When Jay had reached their location, he relieved the man from his misery with a swift slash of his Wingblade.

Turning back around, Jay walked towards the other side of the camp.

There he had spared two other cultists.

One of them was rolling around in agony behind the remains of a tent, while the other one vanished.

As he scanned the camp for the last cultist, Jay saw her running up to the stone cairn, where the old leader had vanished to.

Crossing the remaining distance to the cultist still rolling around, Jay bent down and revealed what was covered by the black hood on her robe.

The woman he saw had silver eyes and a piercing glare.

Her slightly square face was partially covered by straight, raven black hair and her full lips stood out on her pale skin.

Grabbing the hood of her robe, he pulled the woman with a pain torn face towards the big tent.

As he arrived there, he simply laid her over the other cultist who had by then passed out.

Jay took back his dagger as he had walked over to the tall cultist.

Some steps further he arrived at the metal cages with captured people inside.

Analyzing the three women he found out McBride's daughter was not with them.

A small girl, about ten years old, and a teen only some years older were caged together while the middle aged woman next to them was in a separate cage.

Jay soothed the small girls and promised to find the key to their cages locks.

'A lock picking skill would have come in handy in this situation' was all Jay thought as the older woman stated to have no idea who held the keys.

No one could blame her when those damn cultists wore all the same robe though.

When he ran over to the other side of the big tent, Jay was slightly downhearted.

Inside were only two male captives.

One was a young boy, analyzing him told Jay it was Brian, the fifteen year old stable boy who got missing.

The other one was a skinny man in his early twenties.

As Jay got closer the boy reacted and stepped forwards.

"Were the girls on the other side alright?" B.

"Don't worry, at least none of them died during the attack.

I need to find the key for the damn lock though." J.

"Oh, easy! I don't know who else has one, but the tallest cultist has one key as well.

...at least he had one as he took the last boy from here.

W-was there a girl my age called Kallah with the captured?"B.

"Lucky boy... she's there.

Get ready and when you are free, run to the south and take a boat from the pier there."J.

Turning around, Jay rushed to the tall cultist. The boy was right as the man still had a bundle of keys on him.

As he freed the woman and girls they thanked him, Kallah the most when he told her Brian was worried for her in the other cages, and rushed over to free the men.

Their speed wasn't much as they had been held captive for some time, but soon the people were out of sight and the cages empty.

A loud swish, followed by a bright explosion high up in the sky got Jay's attention back on the cultists.

The last who fled, had long since arrived at the top of the hill and the old man had cast a alarm spell.

As Jay had looked around on the island on his way to the camp and not seen any cultists patrolling, the spell had to alarm either the patrol off the island, or a outside force.

Either way it would mean more experience points for him when the support arrived.

His only fear was the captives getting caught again, but the reinforcements setting over here by boat would take enough time for the five people to flee.

Rushing to the top of the hill, it only took Jay half a minute to arrive at the stone cairn.

Just at this moment the old man plunged down a strange dagger, piercing the heart of the last fled, female cultist.

What happened afterwards creeped the hell out of Jay.

Purple and green runes on the ground began to glow and runic patterns ran towards the altar the woman was lying on.

The woman was supposed to be dead but her back ached up while Radison held onto the dagger.

His eyes never left the woman whose face Jay had yet to see.

Suddenly her robe burst open as her torso did the same.

Blood sprayed everywhere, just to halt midair and fall down.

As the woman, who was no longer possible to analyze what Jay tried, went limp again and the old man let go of the ceremonial dagger, a green shine came from under her.

At the same time the blood on the ground flowed back to her along with the runes.

When the runic circle on the ground could barely enclose her, the woman's body was completely concealed by her blood.

It was then her body started to change shape.

Her limbs shortened and got bulgier while her upper body grew and her slim waist thinned out even more.

The creature before him rolled around and curled up as suddenly two long, tentacle like appendages grew from its back.

As the head shot back up, Jay was sure this was no longer the woman who got sacrificed.

The head elongated until the blood crept back an revealed a bone like surface that looked like a conical reptilian skull without eyes. Sharp teeth lined along the wide mouth that separated the bone like top from the red, scaly skinned lower half.

What was once hair had now formed to dread-lock like tentacles. They grew from behind the skull along the whole back.

At their end, a scaled tail had grown about four feet long.

Each limb ended in bony claws and as the creature rose to its feet, is slowly started to grow until its torso was at least six feet long.

While it moved it's head, the tips of the two tentacles on its back split open like a three petaled flower and revealed rugged teeth inside.

"Get him, my sweet daughter!" the old man shouted suddenly.

But to everyone's surprise, the monstrous creature turned its head in his direction and leaped forward.

Under anguished screams Jay saw limbs and body-parts fly from behind the altar where Radison had stood and was now getting dismembered by his own summon.

As the screams died down, Jay had readied himself for the coming attack.

The creature before him was the strongest encounter he had so far.

__________

Felslayer [lvl. 22]

(Demon)

HP 1200/1200 Mana 350/350

[Mana burn lvl.2]

__________

With only some yards between them, Jay took out his Wingblade and the dagger to intercept the monster that rushed towards him.

Dodging a leap by sidestepping, he slashed a deep cut into its flank.

The monster looked horrendous but wasn't as tough as he thought.

The reptilian looking skin got pierced without that much resistance and the flesh beneath was similar.

But the next moment Jay had to block an attack with his dagger, as the monster whipped its tail for him.

The impact was hard and pushed him two yards backwards.

Not giving him any time to retaliate a beam like attack came from the two tentacles while the Felslayer dashed forward.

If it wasn't for Jay's magic reflection, this would have concluded the fight.

The monster stopped its wild charge as the beam got reflected and circled around Jay.

It's intellect was high enough to test out the refection.

And as the beam still got reflected towards it, the Felslayer stopped its skill.

The monster he was facing was at least more intelligent than any of the cultists he had defeated before.

While it circled around Jay, he had seen its mana resources deplete with a frightening speed.

It now had only twenty percent mana left.

With only its physical attacks available it closed in for another try.

This time though it wasn't dashing straight for him but went in a zigzag.

Coming in with a biting attack and slashing with the big claws on its forelegs, Jay had his hands full blocking the monster.

But as his legs were still free, he went for his signature move.

Stepping back a little and taking a swing, Jay kicked forward his right leg.

If the monster had eyes, they would have opened wide in shock as the creature hurled up from its hips.

The momentum loosened the pressure it put on Jay's weapons and allowed jay to throw his dagger.

It missed by a margin and only grazed the monsters skin, but with his now free hand, Jay grabbed one of the tentacles.

Pulling on the sleek appendage until it got slightly stretched, the creatures momentum ceased until it turned the other way.

Together with the gravitational force the monster raced to the ground, pulled by Jay's overwhelming strength.

With a loud crash it collided head first with the paved floor and fell over to its back. The cracks on it's bone plated skull looked the same as the crushed ground beneath it.

Not wasting any chance, Jay stabbed his sword into the monsters chest, ending its life.

With the notification of the Felstalker's death, Jay had finished the battle with the cultists.

Taking a peek behind the altar he instantly regretted his decision.

Radison, or what was left of him, had splattered over a area of about four yards square. The only thing in this red mess that identified him was his head that lay even two yards further away.

Picking it up as proof of defeat, Jay did the same with the monster though he stored it whole.

The question of when he got this case-hardened got to his mind but it had helped him in quite some situations until now. Questions like those would be answered when he learned more about his past.

Other than that, there was nothing to find at the stone cairn, so Jay walked back down to the remains of the camp and his knocked out captives.

It was in a really sorry state, seeing it from this higher position. Not one tent except the big one was left standing and fires were burning at more than a few places.

The corpses littered everywhere finished the look of total devastation on the camp.