Magic Multiverse 45 (Patreon)

"Absolutely not," said Faith.

"Come on, I need someone to keep me alive in case we face a bigger threat."

“Ask Buffy.”

“We both know that Buffy will worry too much, and not give me a chance to truly engage if the situation gets too dangerous. Using a crossbow is fine, but attacking vampires with my fists will be too much for her.”

“Instead, you want me to stand in the back and watch while you do the fun part. Sounds like a terrible deal," she complained. He smirked, and explained some of the rewards he had in mind. It actually made her blush. “On second thought, a night is not too much,” she decided. “But, just one night.”

He nodded. “One night is enough.”

She grumbled. “You’re lucky that Buffy is busy cramming for tomorrow’s midterm. Fine,” she said, fixing the mask that covered the upper half of her face. A precaution that seemed unnecessary, as the police had already stopped looking for her.

In Sunnydale, deaths were far too common for an escaped murder suspect to remain a priority for long.

“I still don’t understand why Buffy has to waste her time with college. It’s not like she’s going to have a use for it,” she said.

“It’s a way for her to cope with the weight of being a Slayer,” he responded.

“That’s stupid,” Faith scoffed. He didn’t say anything, and just looked at her with a smirk, reminding her that she had committed quite a few ‘stupid mistakes’ of her own while dealing with that weight. “Don’t smirk, or I might accidentally shoot you in the ass rather than the vampires.”

“Fine, truce,” he responded. “Just remember the signals we agreed on. I don’t want you to interrupt a fight if I give you the signal, alright.”

“Fine,” she said, then frowned. “I would be more comfortable if we sparred properly before you tested it on the vampires,” she added.

“At this point, testing it on vampires is easier. Magic is tricky for a spar.”

“Sounds stupid,” Faith said, dismissive. He had seen the same dismissiveness in Buffy toward magic as well, and he wondered whether it was just their general experience, or something to do with their Slayer instincts.

Frankly, both were possible.

They chatted as they moved, but once he saw a group of vampires near a graveyard, he gave her the signal. “Are you sure?” she asked, tense. “They are not fledglings.”

“I’m sure,” he said. He could see that as well. The way they moved revealed that they were older, and experienced. “I need a real fight. That’s a real fight,” he said. “Just stay concealed until I give you a signal, please. I want them to believe I am alone.”

“Fine,” Faith said, but he could see she was worried. She blushed, then leaned for a quick peck. “If you get killed by those idiots, I will find a way to resurrect you, and kill you again.”

“Deal,” he said, smiling softly at her sudden worry. Being cared for was always fun. Then, Faith hid, and he moved toward the vampires.

“Look at it, boys, we have food delivering himself to us,” one of the vampires declared happily. “They weren’t exaggerating just how amazing Sunnydale was.”

He hummed, their words revealing their origin. He sighed. This was why, even with Buffy and Faith doing their best, the vampire population barely experienced a dent. There were always more vampires due to the Hellmouth.

He kept walking. He had a few tricks, including a bracelet that would explode in life energy if broken, damaging the vampires worse than holy water, but the point was different. “Well, you’re half right, bloodsuckers,” he said as he took his unique fighting stance, and held the stake in his right hand, and as he focused, a shimmering shield appeared on his left.

“We have a warlock with us,” one of the vampires laughed. “A terrible one, though.”

With that, he rushed forward, all teeth and fury. Sam focused, aware that even with all the advantages he stacked up, he was fighting an older vampire without any weapon other than a stake.

He parried the vampire’s attacks with his left, the shield making it surprisingly easy. Instead of feeling the rattle, he tapped the vampire’s both hands, which granting a perfect angle for his counter, especially with Vampire moving too fast to stop.

A straight right to the chest, and the first vampire turned to dust.

“No, Georg!” one of them shouted, and immediately rushed for revenge even as the others warned. The vampire closest to him managed to join before he could take Georg down, but he had the advantage. Especially the other two were too slow to join properly, the first two turning to dust before they could join.

He had underestimated how devastating the shield would be combined with his Master Boxing. Previously, the fight against the vampires had been balanced. They had the strength and the speed, and he had the skill. With both sides having major weaknesses, the fights were always on a razor’s edge.

Shield removed his biggest weakness, the ability to take even glancing hits; allowing him to not only parry and dodge, but also block their attacks. The change was incredible.

The last two staggered, but he didn’t let them recover, covering the distance and taking down one, leaving only the leader.

"What are you? Are you the slayer? I thought the slayer was a woman," the vampire said, still tense.

“Nope, just the lackey of the slayer,” he responded, knowing Faith would enjoy it, and attacked. Their leader was better than he had expected in terms of skills, and watching the others gave him a better idea of how to fight.

But, that meant he managed to resist barely a minute before he was able to deliver the attack, and that was with him deliberately extending the fight. It was the best way to confirm the usefulness of his technique —

[Skill Synthesis Successful - (Rare) Mana Fist]

[Deadly Fight, Victory, +98 Mana Fist]

[Mana Fist Uninitiated -> Basic]

He paused, surprised by the sudden reward. He had been hopeful about the evening, but his best hope was to somehow customize it to a degree, not gain a new skill.

Certainly not one that had been identified as Rare. Though, he wondered why it was merely basic rather than Intermediate, so he checked it.

[(Rare) Mana Fist - Basic 48/250]

“Wow, that’s expensive,” he muttered, realizing it required five times the skill points to reach the next stage. No wonder it was that good.

“What’s expensive?” Faith asked, already on his side, not hiding the fascination in her gaze, clearly tempted to push him down and have her way with him.

“The magical shield trick,” he said. “It’s expensive in terms of mana.”

Faith shrugged, utterly uninterested in the magical details. “Can you teach me that? It was incredible.”

He shrugged. “Honestly, I have absolutely no idea,” he said. “The magic expertise it requires is significant, and I have no idea how it meshes with your slayer powers. But, we can check.”

“I’ll do anything,” she said, her naughty smile promising a lot of fun.

“Including meditating for days and weeks so you can actually mobilize mana,” he responded with a teasing smile.

That was enough to make her stop. “Well, almost anything,” she corrected.

He chuckled. “I’m sure I can figure out how to craft an artifact that can copy the shield effect. It’s easier than teaching you magic from scratch.”

That made her smile once more, but she also blushed. “You would do that for me?”

He took a step to remove the distance, grabbed her hair and kissed her harshly. “I will do anything for what’s mine, Faith,” he whispered. “Tell me, are you mine?”

“I’m yours,” she whispered back, her tone filled with desire.

“Magnificent,” he said, and kissed her again. “Now, we have a patrol to finish.“

“I thought I was the evil one,” she responded, breathing hard with arousal. He chuckled, and focused on the patrol.

In the next fight, he properly tested his new skill. It was an interesting technique. At its core, it was a combination of his Boxing, Acrobatics, and Wiccan Magic, though it had some serious overlap with Magical Combat and Charms as well.

But, ultimately, he felt like it existed because his new technique had been sufficiently far away from any single of those techniques, initiating a new function called synthesis.

Against a gang of seven fledgings, and he didn’t even use a stake. One hand, he had conjured a shield, and for his right hand, he conjured a flame field, which was as effective as a weapon.

The only problem was the reward.

[Casual Fight, Victory, +22 Mana Fist]

Previously, using Bojutsu while it was still Basic, he would have received almost eighty points. Right now, from seven vampires, he merely got twenty-two. A huge drop, but it was more about Mana Fist removing the threat of the fight effectively.

Vampires were easily damaged by magical fire, and Mana Fist allowed him to maintain a shield in one hand, and flames in the other. That, and it allowed him to create the effects almost instantly.

It didn’t suddenly make him a perfect mage. The expertise it offered was very directed, only on his hands, and only melee abilities; which had something to do with using his own body as a focus.

He could also feel that keeping two spells active drained him significantly even during a relatively quick fight.

Altogether, it was a surprisingly gimmicky and limited skill, but considering its limits were firmly focused on shoring his biggest weakness, he wasn’t complaining.

Curious, the next time he fought a solo vampire, he actually used a pure magical ritual and hit him with a fireball he conjured using Charm.

[Difficult Fight, Victory, +12 Charms]

He was happy with the reward, because it confirmed two things. First, he had other ways to improve his magic skills. It was good, because while Susan had been fun, he didn’t want to nag Hermione to bring her around just to get a few extra points.

It also confirmed that as long as he didn’t use Mana Fist, the threat of the battle was treated lower.

Of course, it was very dangerous to actually pull, and only worked because the solo vampire rushed toward him recklessly. Still, it was better than nothing.

It took three hours for them to finish the patrol, and in the process, he had slain vampires of various strengths, which allowed him to improve his new skill significantly. Though, five times as much points requirements meant that even the extra points weren’t enough to push it to the next level.

[+82 Mana Fist]

Frustrating. He hoped that the improvement once he reached the next stage would be worth it.

Faith didn’t say for the second half of the patrol, watching him fight, her arousal clear. It was not a surprise. She already respected his general fighting skills, but what he had displayed today had been something far more interesting.

Her arousal was clear, so he wasn’t surprised that, the moment they entered the gym, she kissed him hard. Though, he was surprised when she pushed him back. “Alright,” she said as she raised her fists. “We’re finally going to a spar where I’m not holding back,” she declared.

He couldn’t help but shake his head. He hadn’t misread her aroused smirk wrong. He had just forgotten that Faith loved a good fight just as much, and letting her watch for three hours while he ‘hogged’ all the fights while he continued to pull some very impressive tricks wasn’t exactly the smartest idea. “Fine. You can use your full strength and speed, but only under boxing rules. No hits to head, for both of us, and the first hit to the torso is an automatic win. That way, we both simulate vampires.”

The contest system allowed restrictive conditions as long as both parties operated under the same conditions. “Fine,” she said, her smirk wide. She believed she would win.

He took his stance, smirking just as confidently. “Winner has the command for the rest of the night,” he said, putting up stakes. He had a good chance of winning, and the stakes would give him more points.

After all, his newly developed Mana Fist wasn’t his only trick. Faith still had no idea that his boxing skills had been transformed. Though, even with all the advantages, he didn’t believe he could defeat Buffy, not yet.

Luckily, Faith wasn’t Buffy.

It wasn't an insult, even though Faith would take it as one. Faith was still the second most dangerous fighter he had ever seen by a wide margin, including all the demons and vampires he had encountered. However, Faith’s style, even after working on it for some time, was the exact opposite of what she needed.

She came forward, but her reckless direct charge didn’t mean he could take her any less seriously. Not holding back on speed changed everything. Shields appeared in both hands, and he parried every attack, stretching his fighting to the limit.

He put his mobility to maximum effect, always pulling back in unpredictable angles, doing his best to counter-attack, but it was challenging. Her full-power blows were difficult to parry even with the shields, and her reflexes meant his counter-attacks were easy to block.

He gave ground, circling and slipping, waiting for her patience to snap. It was difficult. Most battles against vampires actually ended pretty quickly, none of them ever lasting more than half a minute.

Now that he passed the minute mark, he could feel the impact of the magical drain significantly. In his mind, he made a note to start researching ways to improve his reserves properly, and focused back on the fight.

The opportunity appeared about two minutes after they started. She got too excited, giving him a chance to parry her attack hard enough to create a gap even she couldn’t cover, and his hand landed on her chest.

[Serious Spar, Victory, +18 Mana Fist]

[Secondary Special Character Defeated, Faith Lehane]

[+5 Bojutsu]

Faith stumbled back. Not because he hit hard, as the shield didn’t amplify the offensive power, but from shock. Getting defeated while holding back was one thing, but it was different while she fought at full power, albeit under boxing rules.

“I win,” he said, fascinated by his own achievement. And, the point bonus was welcome, though not that surprising.

Faith didn’t answer, merely jumping to kiss him hard, slamming him to the floor. It surprised him somewhat. He expected her to take her defeat badly, because whenever she lost one to Buffy, she acted frustrated.

Never one to refuse an unexpected gift, he kissed her. Technically, he could insist on another spar, and see if he could push Mana Fist to intermediate, but he didn’t insist. Stats were fun, but not at the risk of ruining his relationships.

He let her stay on top for a while, but then he flipped. “Don’t tell me you have forgotten the bet,” he whispered. “Winner has the command.”

Her eyes widened, but her excitement only got more intense. “You have a point,” she said.

He pulled back. “On all fours,” he said. “Hands on the mat. You don’t flip us unless I say.”

Faith’s eyes flashed, excited. “Bossy for a guy who needed magic to defeat a girl.”

He chuckled at her playful sarcasm, then spanked her. “It looks like someone needs to be punished,” he teased her. She moaned, more than happy with his path. She always enjoyed spanking.

It was why he was giving it to her. After all, she had spent the whole night playing the role of the guardian angel. She deserved a proper reward. After a few spanks, he pulled her pants down, repeating the same spanks on her naked ass even as he slipped inside.

“Yes, harder,” she moaned.

He hummed as she tightened around him. Considering everything that had happened, he could say that he had a nice patrol.

A very nice patrol indeed…

[+25 Tantric]

[+25 Bojutsu]