The smell of blood felt like a bad sign; when the door closed behind me, I heard an automatic lock click into place and the buzz of enchantments. My attention was drawn to strange runes etched into the walls covered in flaking dried blood. An arm lay on the ground with strands of torn muscle frayed at its end and desiccated like a dried fruit. Statues of various deities of sex and fertility covered the surrounding shelves, lining the walls as if they were watching the proceedings. Out of a corridor, a man ran for the door.
With the runes covering the door, I couldn’t imagine an escape. The second he touched it, a jolt ran through his body, knocking him into a nearby pillar. Something stepped through the darkness, lumbering in its gate.
“No, I won’t go back; you can’t take me back there.” The man yelled. “Run while you can; don’t let them take you to the chamber.” A heavy pounding and a squelch silenced the man.
Angelica giggled. “Those are some strong drugs, am I right? I bet you can see all sorts of crazy shit. Don’t worry, homeboy, this is just theatre; we have bitchen indie movies back here. Kimie loves to act.” Angelica said.
“He has to be out of his mind; we can save the big summons for someone more aware. Let’s save the mana and summon a goblin.” Suzie said.
“You know, girl, I wasn’t covering his ears, and Kimmie is in her cult leader mode. This can still go sideways. I don’t care how strong the drugs are when something starts biting into him; he’s going to squirm.” Angelica said.
They hadn’t addressed me, so I didn’t bother grunting. Instead, I used the system to record the images on the walls and the events around me.
Angelica brushed back a strand of blonde hair and looked up at me. Her green eyes and freckled face were cute; if she wasn’t some kind of cultist, I might have liked her. Her ruby necklace buzzed softly with magic between her breasts. I was half tempted to reach down and pluck it.
I gave the pillars a look and judged them sturdy enough to survive missing one. Going into their ritual room was a risk I didn’t feel like taking. My fingers lightly probed the nearest pillar, and the girls stopped.
“Tell me if you feel the need to puke. We have bags for it.” Angelica said.
After feeling up the pillar, I shifted my stance and felt the concrete around my feet crack.
“Wammy him,” Suzie yelled.
I moved ripping the pillar out of the ground, snapping it from the ceiling, and tossed it into the steel door. The enchantments erupted as the pillar crumbled, blocking the exit. Heat singed the hairs on my arm as a fireball slammed into me and exploded.
“Fuck! That’s going to take forever to move. What if someone calls the cops?”
“Soundproof white girl, that means none of those tweakers heard shit.”
“Confirm kill,” Kimmie said.
Playing dead was useful for assessing damage and taking stock of my situation. The flames licking at my body melted the polyester in my suit and singed my eyebrows. I was sure soon enough, I would be completely naked. The explosion blinded me for a second, and I let the force throw me off my feet. Another fireball slammed into me, doing more damage to my pants than the one before. The polyester boiled on my skin before flaking off.
I stood up as another fireball came my way, followed by an ice spear. My knees bent, and I dodged the fireball by a hair’s breadth and slapped the ice spear out of the air. The cold felt more comfortable to my hand than painfully cold. A forked bolt of green lightning took me in the chest, recharging my Battery Cell skill and fully energizing me. It was a new morning for me.
The magic they were tossing at me felt hollow.
“He has to be fed; we let one of Weston’s federal agents down here. We need to talk with our patron and get a portal out of here.” Angelica said.
“We don’t have enough sacrifices,” Kimmie said.
I stretched, cracking my back, feeling really good about myself. With minimal use of words and actions, I have basically destroyed them already. The way they were talking, these girls were definitely on the other side. So, they didn’t deserve any mercy. Well, that wasn’t true.
If they were men, they would already be dead. I was too nice for my own good.
“Surrender,” I said.
Wasting a word on them was more than they deserved. If they surrendered, I would investigate and then decide what to do with them. My benevolence was truly unmatched.
“For Eisheth and the pleasure throne,” Kimmie yelled.
I charged forward, weaving between fireballs and ice spears; an invisible blade cut a small line on my chest. My eyes locked with Kimmie’s brown as she became my target. Zigzagging limited the wind blades to hit me to 1 in 4. The girls hadn’t managed to retreat, and I closed the distance.
Blood leaked from the various cuts on my chest, dripping down. I towered over them in indecision. There were so many options I couldn’t decide. My hands darted out, and I snatched their amulets and tossed them in my inventory. They stepped away from me in shock at my sudden movements and their loss of power.
The mana that once flowed around them was gone. It seemed their power was in their amulets. “We might have lost, but others will rise. Mundane lives matter.”
“Shut up, Angelica, we’re done.”
A purple light shone from deeper in the backrooms. Kimmie started chuckling.
“What did you do?” Suzie asked.
A pink tentacle rose from the stairs and wrapped around Suzie’s leg. The black woman shrieked as she was lifted off her feet and yanked into presumably the sacrifice room.
Angelica looked between Kimmie, the stairs, and me. “You have to get me out of here.”
“That sounds difficult; what’s in it for me?” I said.
“I will suck your dick,” Angelica said.
“Don’t save her, and I will give you all of my holes,” Kimmie said.
Angelica looked between Kimmie and me. “I can only match that.”
Danger was a transitory thing; the second they were out of danger, all bets were off.
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