My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 245 (Patreon)

Damien Warp Stepped out of his room, sticking to the shadows as he quickly traced Xil’s steps. He didn’t want to show up swinging in case the girl wasn’t actually in any danger, but something told him he was just being optimistic.

It only took a few seconds for him to spot a small group. Xil stood with her back to the wall. Three girls had cornered her, and one of them had the rough letter Damien had drawn in her hands. She let out a cruel laugh and a spark of flame consumed the paper. Damien’s eye twitched at being interrupted while he was training.

I think we might need to make an example of these people. If I keep getting bothered, I’m going to get pretty annoyed. Do you think that would take things too far, Henry?

“If you’re using me as a moral compass, you’re long gone,” Henry cackled. “Make no mistake, I don’t care about you killing a few worthless mortals. The problem is if you lose yourself in the process. As long as you can keep things separate, kill away.”

Not exactly the response I was hoping for. Maybe I’ll temper things a little. I’d rather not kill people that aren’t Corrupted.

“This is a new low, Xil,” the girl that had destroyed Damein’s letter said with a leer. “You were always at the bottom of the pack, but now you aren’t even a student.”

“Get out of my way, Sarah,” Xil said, ice traveling down her arms and forming into claws. “You’re right. I’m not a student, so there’s no reason to bother with me.”

“I have to beg to differ. You made a mockery of Mountain Hall, letting that Blackmist kid kick you around. We all know you’re weak, so you even daring to show yourself under our name to someone that we all know would beat you… you’re besmirching our name.”

“Your name,” Xil corrected. “You said it yourself. I’ve been punished for my failures by getting removed from Mountain Hall. Please get out of my way.”

“There aren’t any rules about non-students that aren’t employed by the college,” another girl said. A crackling blade of lightning grew in her palm. “And Professor Hawk said we’d get extra resources for getting rid of you. Imagine that? You’ve finally become useful.”

Damien stepped out of the mountain’s shadow, trying to look as meek as possible as he walked toward the group.

“Um, excuse me?” he asked in a high-pitched voice. “Could you not bother my servant? It’s delaying my work.”

The girls spun toward him. Sarah’s eyebrows rose and she laughed when Damien flinched back from her.

“This? You lost to this?”

“I’m a transfer student for the month,” Damien continued, gathering Ether from his core and bringing it to his palms. “I don’t really know all the rules here yet, but Professor Hawk said she would be okay as long as she had a task. I believe I gave her a piece of paper showing that.”

Xil stared at him in confusion, clearly trying to match the mellow student she saw now to the monster that had taken out her entire group.

“Oops,” Sarah said, two flaming wings sprouting from behind her back. “I might have burnt that up. But, since you’re new to Mountain Hall, I’d be happy to give you a few pointers about the rules. You know that transfer students get an allotment of resources for the month they stay here, right?”

“I didn’t actually,” Damien said, wringing his hands. “How convenient.”

“Quite,” Sarah said with a malicious grin. “And, if you get challenged and lose, anything you own is forfeit to the winner. That’s how Mountain Hall ensures the strongest students come up on top, and the rubbish gets pushed down.”

She sent a pointed glance at Xil, who flushed in shame. Her groupies laughed and Damien repressed a shudder. If they got any more cliché, they’d probably end up to be working for the Corruption as well.

“Professor Hawk said that deaths weren’t uncommon in challenges,” Damien said. Well, the professor hadn’t said that, but Xil had implied it. “I’d rather just practice my magic and stay out of the way. Do you think you could let Xil go, please? We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“The professor should have told you one more thing. You can’t refuse a challenge in Mountain Hall,” Sarah said, her grin growing wider. The flaming sword in her hand grew denser, the fire forming jagged edges as if it were made out of metal rather than energy. It twisted back along her arm, creating molten colored armor that covered the upper half of her body.

Battle manifestation? Or a full one?

“Doesn’t look strong enough to be a full one,” Henry said. “Your act worked. She isn’t taking you very seriously.”

Sarah raised the blade and mockingly saluted Damien. “Consider yourself challenged, Blackmist kid. By the rules of the challenge, this goes until one of us is either dead, or surrenders. Of course, surrendering means you give up everything you’ve got.”

“That’s a scary sword,” Damien hedged, shifting back a foot. “Are you a swordswoman or something? There were a lot of people at Blackmist that used swords too.”

“I’m the best in my group,” Sarah said, baring her teeth. “You can always surrender now, if you want. I won’t stop you.”

Damien Warp Stepped forward, releasing the Ether he’d gathered at the palm of his hand in a wide Tear. The spell sheared down Sarah’s shoulder, severing her arm in an instant. It thunked to the ground an instant before blood burst from her body like a macabre fountain.

Sarah staggered back, her eyes widening in horror. Damien’s fist caught her in the chin and she spun back, hitting the ground in a growing pool of blood.

“Not much better than Xil,” Damien drawled, his pathetic accent gone. He turned to the other two girls, who were staring at him with terror covering their features. Damien realized that Henry had taken control of his mage armor, and black tentacles were writhing in the air behind him. “Actually, I’m pretty sure Xil lasted longer.”

“You tricked her!” one of the girls yelled as the other rushed to Sarah’s side, acid sizzling at her fingertips as she cauterized the wound. Damien’s eyes narrowed, but the girl’s acid was different from what the Corruption used. “That wasn’t fair at all. She was going easy on you, and you went all out.”

“Fair? When has a fight ever been fair?” Damien asked. “And I didn’t even get close to going all out. You should be glad I didn’t just kill her – although I was considering it. You’ve annoyed me quite a bit.”

Xil looked like she couldn’t decide if she should be pleased that her tormenter was bleeding out on the ground before her or horrified about what Damien had done to her fellow student. Eventually, she settled for just looking in the other direction.

“Actually, she might still not survive,” Damien admitted. Despite the girls’ best attempts, Sarah was still bleeding pretty heavily. “You might want to find a teacher pretty quick. She could die.”

One of the girls spun on heel to take Damien’s advice. She suddenly found herself face to face with Damien as he teleported again, his features cold.

“Oh, hold on. Before you go, I’m issuing you a formal challenge,” Damien said, his grin growing.

To her credit, the girl reacted quickly. Acid burst from her hands, enveloping the spot where Damien had been standing. Unfortunately for her, he’d already Warp Stepped once more and was now standing to her side.

Damien drove his foot into the girl’s back, then shot a gravity sphere into her leg. He kept it small enough to only break a few bones, but her pained cry and the cracks that filled the air proved that it had still been more than effective.

His gaze slowly turned on the last girl, but she was sprinting away as fast as her legs could carry her. Damien shook his head in disappointment. He pretended not to notice as the girl that he’d crippled dragged herself away as fast as her desperate arms could move her.

“That was pretty sad too. Were these the top students you were telling me about, Xil?”

“No. They were Year Ones.”

Disgust welled in Damien’s chest, but he wasn’t sure if it was at himself or at Mountain Hall. He’d just beaten up a bunch of people younger than him. “Ah. Actually, that’s a little impressive then. She had her battle manifestation in Year One?”

“I told you. It works. For the people that are lucky enough to be chosen,” Xil said bitterly, looking down at Sarah.

“Don’t be jealous. Look how things turned out for Sarah,” Damien admonished, kneeling beside the fallen girl. She let out a weak groan. “Now… what should I do with her?”

“Are you going to make her your servant as well?” Xil asked nervously.

“Planes, no,” Damien said with a gag. “I already told you that I didn’t want to make you my servant either. I just didn’t feel like getting your blood on my hands. I’ll leave whether she lives or dies up to her friends. But how do I get that stuff she was talking about? I won the challenge, so I should get whatever it is she had.”

“It’ll be delivered to your room,” Xil said. “You got both Sarah and Elizabeth’s resources for the month. I’m sure they’ve used most of what they have up already so they wouldn’t have much to share in the occasion they did lose.”

“Wait, they prepared to lose?”

“Most challenges are done between the chosen students,” Xil said with a shrug. “They don’t kill each other when they can avoid it. There’s no reason to.”

“Huh. Makes sense. More resources if they leave each other alive and just take the winnings when they can,” Damien mused. “What about the whole servant thing?”

“Well, I didn’t really think you’d follow the rules, and the teachers look the other way when the strong do something,” Xil grumbled.

“Ah. Makes sense,” Damien said. He shook some of the blood off his boots and grimaced. Sarah was still breathing, but it as getting shallower.

Henry, can you keep her from kicking the bucket? I don’t think much of this chick, but I’d rather not kill her. Actually, if she dies, less people will be able to talk about how I destroyed her.

“Gah. Really? Wasting my talents on something like this?” Henry complained as he took over Damien’s body. Thin black tendrils emerged from Damien’s hand, coiling down and entering Sarah’s body.

They pulled the damaged flesh together, knitting it together over her shoulder. Henry didn’t bother reattaching her arm, and Damien wasn’t particularly troubled with that. She could always get a strong enough healer to fix it. If she’d been ready to kill someone just to annoy him, then she could deal with a missing arm.

Henry finished his work quickly and returned control of Damien’s body to its rightful owner.

“You’re… really scary. Has anyone ever told you that?” Xil asked.

Damien tilted his head. “Really? Why?”

“I’m not answering that question,” Xil said flatly. “Unless you make me. I’ll just go look into Quinlan’s location.”

“Fine. I better get you another piece of paper first, though,” Damien said with a sigh. He dug through his pack and pulled out a wrinkled sheaf, flatting it out as much as possible before rewriting his instructions on it. He handed it back to Xil, who took it with a nod.

“I’ll try to be fast,” she promised, turning and running off.

Damien just shook his head. He cast one more glance down at Sarah’s body, then flicked his hand and picked her up using her shirt and pants. Damien strolled a ways into campus, drawing the eyes of a small crowd, then tossed her into a fountain. Muttered whispers rose up from the Mountain Hall students. Without saying a word, he turned and headed back to his room. Nobody tried to stop him.

The next hour went by quickly. Henry flitted out to keep an eye on Xil while Damien worked on the basics of his Void magic, testing out rune patterns and very gently touching the Void before releasing it once more.

His staff continued to call to him, but Damien ignored it. The strange weapon didn’t feel right, and Damien was loathe to use it if he didn’t have to. At least, not until he really figured out how it worked.

Henry returned, warning him that Xil wasn’t far out. Damien smudged out the void runes he’d been drawing on the ground with chalk for practice and moved to sit on his bed and wait. There was a timid knock on the door and Damien opened it using telekinesis.

“I found Quinlan’s room number,” she said. “She’s got room 100 at the top of North Mountain, but she hasn’t been seen recently. People think she’s trying to push her core to evolve a second time.”

“A second time?” Damien asked, cocking his head. “I though it could only be done once.”

“Only if your first evolution was perfect,” Xil said, shaking her head. “There was some information about the top students that I was able to read through for you. Quinlan was apparently pretty weak when she started at Mountain Hall in Year One. She didn’t get resources to help her and her magical energy was really low, so she had to evolve her core too early. If you don’t properly evolve it, you’re held back until you can completely release its power.”

“The problem is,” Henry added, “If you don’t have enough Ether to evolve it the first time, it takes a huge amount of extra energy to do it the second time around. I didn’t notice Quinlan was that weak, so it’s a little impressive that she’s this strong with a partially evolved core – if that’s actually the case.”

“Interesting,” Damien said. “I suppose I’ll have to swing by and check on her, then.”

Xil swallowed. “She probably wouldn’t want to be disturbed if she’s evolving her core. Distractions could be disastrous.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be as quiet as a mouse if she’s actually working on something like that. Why do you care, though?”

Xil reddened and she shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. I didn’t know much about her, but I wish I’d read that document earlier. Maybe I could have done what she did. I didn’t realize people could even break out of the lower ranks just through their own power.”

“You’ll figure something out if you’re determined enough. Using cheap tactics like what you tried on me is just desperation. You’ll never become strong like that.”

“Well, it hardly matters now. I can’t continue learning here.”

“Mountain Hall isn’t the only mage college, and they all respect strength. If you’re powerful enough, I’m sure they’d make an exception,” Damien said with a shrug. “But for now, stay here and collect Sarah and her friend’s stuff whenever it arrives. I’m going to go check on Quinlan.”

Xil nodded, evidently pondering Damien’s words. “I’ll probably still need a note. I don’t want someone to come in here and kill me while you’re out.”

“If you want to survive the month, you should probably start working on getting strong enough to protect you,” Damien suggested, writing the note out for her. “I’ve got my own goals here, and I’m not going to be around to protect you forever. I’m not running a charity.”

“I understand,” Xil said.

Damien nodded and walked out the door. It was time to find Quinlan and figure out just what was going on with her.