"You ready to go?" asked Rose, coming back from her studies.
Lenny nodded.
On their journey, they were joined by Harry as well as the usual crowd. None of them had said so, but his weak earth ability was definitely something if the local thugs tried to mug them once again. Lenny had taken the mandible dagger too, managing to find a way to conceal it in the sleeve of an old coat.
However, the group were in low spirits today. There were no additional 10 credits from Rose to supplement the mere 30 provided by the Madonnas, and with Harry reluctantly eating the provisions for the last couple of days, they now had a dozen mouths to feed with less money to spend. Lenny's belly growled.
They had to take one of two routes to get to the local shop, one passing by a notorious patch of gang territory with a history of violence, the other passing under a bridge for the old railway that would sometimes be occupied by bored youths. Neither were great options, but there was no real choice here, and so they entered the long walkway without saying a word. Their footsteps seemed loud, echoing against the walls, and just as they had reached the halfway point, a voice spoke out.
"Who have we got here then?"
Someone seemed to appear behind them from nowhere. Was it an ability?
The youth made a sickly smile of yellow teeth, then whistled to his companions. More people entered the tunnel from both sides, roughly five from each side. The group were surrounded.
Lenny, Rose, Michael, Eva and now Harry. That made five of them.
"Please," said Rose, "leave us alone."
The young man laughed, and his cronies followed.
"You know, it takes real bravery for a group twice the size of another to take advantage of them. I bet you're used to people just giving you what you want," said Harry.
Even Lenny was stunned. He was usually the bold one.
"Who's this, then?" the youth asked, his yellow teeth showing. "Looks like… another orphan who hasn't learnt his place."
As strange as it seemed, Harry had never been called an orphan before. That was his present situation, but the memory of his recent tragedy was fresh in his mind, so when the subject had been thrown in his face so cavalier, he just reacted.
A thick pillar of earth had shot from the ground, striking the youth in the face. He had never summoned so much earth before and felt the energy drain from his body. The youth's head snapped back, and as the earth mound collapsed, he spat out a bloody tooth.
"He's an earth user," said one of the other boys from the group.
"Kill em!" shouted the first, through bloody teeth.
But no one moved.
"Don't worry about his ability, he's done. Probably doesn't have another strike like that in him."
Most of the others were not ability users, and those that were had only just begun to figure them out, not even able to use them yet in a real fight, so his words had replaced their hesitation with renewed confidence.
"Run!" shouted Rose. They all bolted, doing whatever they could to escape. They were all heading for the same exit to avoid splitting up, attempting to swerve the various hands reaching out from different angles. But if they were being honest with themselves, their chances of escaping without a fight were statistically negligible.
The leader disappeared again. The next thing they knew, Harry was keeled over, a fist planted in his stomach. Lenny had seen it from his periphery, and though the boy had not actually turned invisible, he had turned into shadows impossible to spot once merged with the dark spots of the tunnel. The effect had ended as soon as his fist made contact with soft flesh. It turned out he couldn't maintain the form through attacks, or that's what Lenny guessed anyway.
Lenny realised too late that he had made an oversight in stopping so long to observe and was now surrounded by two of the youths.
"Quest activated: defeat lackeys for 25 experience points each. Warning: avoid the leader. Progress to next level: 0 of 200 EXP."
The first swung for him, and though he managed to turn and duck underneath, he had left his back exposed to be grabbed by the other in a kind of shoulder lock that limited his movements. The young man restraining him was strong, probably stronger than Lenny, but it was also just difficult to build any kind of power from that angle.
Held firmly, a fist coming his way, he knew he needed to improve his situation. The fist made contact, smashing against his eye socket, and though it hurt and would surely give him a black eye, he was surprised it had not broken anything. The assailant screamed in pain. Of course, his spirit essence would provide some resistance against common physical attacks. The momentum of the punch had temporarily loosened the grip of the young man restraining him, and Lenny pushed in that direction, not quite breaking free, but gaining just enough space to reach inside the sleeve of his coat and pull out a sharp blade with a blue hilt.
He swung it wildly, slashing at the space between the shoulder and neck.
"Spirit core activated. Your adversary has been poisoned. Spirit: 3 of 5."
Lenny had not needed the system to tell him that. He had felt the essence leaving his body and knew that, this time, if he took another punch to the face like that, something would break.
The young man previously holding him had let go, then crumpled to the floor in a heap. His face looked a pale green.
"Enemy defeated. 25 of 200 EXP."
"You're not the only one with a knife," said the other youth. His hand was swollen from the punch and it began to shake.
Whether he wanted the EXP or not, Lenny had to respect the facts: he could have sentenced the first boy to death, if he were not to receive some kind of attention—though it was likely this would happen, he didn't like the idea it might not; secondly, he only had enough strength to use this ability one more time; and finally, doing so would make him significantly more vulnerable to attacks.
"This is a spirit weapon… you know what that means?"
The boy nodded.
"Go get your friend some help, he's poisoned."
His blade still shaking, the youth circled Lenny till reaching his friend, then bent down to help him, all while facing his blade towards Lenny. They scampered off with some difficulty.
The others in Lenny's group had fared less well: Rose was healing Michael. They were surrounded by five of the gang, who kept attacking him. She looked exhausted, and they seemed to find it amusing draining her of her essence. It would certainly make her easier to deal with when the time came.
Eva had disappeared, being the fastest of the group, and it seemed like a couple had tried to follow her out of the tunnel. Who knew if they had caught up with her? With the two Lenny had taken out of the fight and the others surrounding Rose and Michael, that just left their leader and one other boy, who were dealing with Harry. At first, Harry had been able to defend, summoning smaller columns of earth to appear in front of the strikes. However, after a few, his spirit essence was spent. It hadn't taken long for him to fall after that.
It seemed like the smaller boy was just observing now, ensuring that no one jumped their leader from behind. He spotted Lenny. Running over, the boy did not know what to do, till finally, he simply shouted: "Watch out!"
The boy stopped punching the downed opponent in his face for a moment and turned to face Lenny.
"You again?" he smiled but then spotted the weapon in Lenny's hand. "I want that weapon. Give it to me and your friends can leave."
It seemed that the other fighting had stopped and now everyone was paying attention to the developing situation between the leader and himself.
"If I give you this blade, it'll end up in my back."
The boy laughed, then said: "Fine, I'll just take it anyway." He disappeared into the shadows again.
Harry felt the weight lift from his body. He was beaten black and blue and struggling to remain conscious. "He's…", he coughed, spluttering blood.
"I know," said Lenny. He knew he was about to be attacked and made a calculated move. He stepped back and off to one side, moving into a small sliver of light, one which had no shadows. Although in the end, it hadn't been enough to avoid the attack. Still, he had spotted the dark arm just as it entered the light and managed to raise his arms, covering his face just in time.
Crack. And just like that, he felt immense pain. His forearm was broken, and the black shadows materialised as a fleshy arm holding a strange looking hammer. It was another spirit weapon. Likely some kind of strength enhancement based on the damage it had caused. He winced in pain, realising it was a full thickness break; his left arm was now practically useless. Things had gone from bad to terrible in only a few short moments and now he had to seriously consider if doing a runner was his best course of action.
The other boy smiled. "So, you worked out my trick? Fat lot of good it's done."
"Analysing… your opponent has a combat-aligned ability and more spirit essence than you. You are severely injured. Survival chance: Low. Do not engage. Run."
Lenny grimaced, then looked around. He could see the fear on his companions' faces: they looked exhausted and hopeless. Michael had several unhealed wounds and his clothes were torn. Rose was on the floor, her spirit essence finally drained. And yet, Harry looked calm. He gave Lenny a small wink.
Their leader, thinking Lenny was distracted, lunged towards him, but as he did, he tripped on a large mound of earth that had suddenly materialised at his feet.
Lenny stepped forward holding the mandible dagger in one hand, and, pushing his other palm against the hilt, drove it up into the body falling on top of him. The tang of the blade snapped inside his opponent's chest, and he fell to the ground, twitching.
"Spirit core activated. Your enemy has been poisoned. Spirit 1 of 5."
A moment later, he was dead. The blade had sunk deep into his chest; the spirit weapon had allowed it to pass through the ability user's more resilient flesh and found its way into his heart.