The Traitor

  The battle raged on, even as zombies crawled over their fallen allies and in through the gap in the wall. I was out of stored spells that would have been of any use, and so I cast the invisible barrier spell with the full incantation, which still let dozens of them rush into the town unopposed. The rest pressed against the invisible barrier with enough force that five seconds later I began taking a little damage. I felt pressure on every part of my body, as if I was being squeezed to death by a pillow. That said, with them not attacking me directly and the various abilities reducing the damage I took to eight percent of the initial attack, it was negligible so long as they did not know that attacking the wall would hurt me. And since their necromancer was bound and gagged over the back of a horse somewhere behind the lines, there was little chance that the mindless horde would do that.

  “Chum, find who cast that fucking spell and keep on them,” I said.

  “Got it, boss,” Chum said, and flew off. I had had just about enough of the traitor. Perhaps assuming it was the Silver Emperor once more was taking a leap, but I just did not see a reason for anyone to work against Checkpoint and the Guild if it was not for the traitor ability. It was just too important for our survival. I supposed several people could have it, but chose to believe that was a secondary possibility.

  I felt Chum through my Familiar Bond skill, which was increased enough that I could feel nudges. I could not tell specific emotions or thoughts, but I could sense when he was particularly excited or satisfied, or, well, actually I did not know. All I knew was that I could sometimes feel something like a ping from the direction of the imp. I felt that ping now, and assumed it meant that he had found the traitor. Which meant I had to get through the zombies and past the wall.

  For a moment I thought I had no choice but to look for help. I had no mobility abilities to speak of, and I certainly could not take on the horde of monsters breaking into Checkpoint. But I did have ol’ reliable, the Invisible Barrier spell. I began running toward the wall. The undead horde was focusing entirely on the town, but I had no doubt they would turn on me if I got too close, too loud, or started attacking them. Instead, I chanted the Invisible Barrier spell once, quickly ordering the panels of the improved rank variant I had that allowed me to shape and place the wall as I wanted, and I made a quick geometric calculation to be able to run all the way up to the wall with only a few castings of the barrier. Even with this cautious use, I was aware that for one of the first times for me in the Tower, mana management would be an issue. I was already half empty when the battle started, and I was casting relatively big spells rapidly.

  All of those concerns melted away as the zombies turned toward me as I got close and began trundling toward me. I ran, and felt my speed pick up as I ran toward the enemy. The zombies got to the wall first, running head first into the inclined wall, knocking themselves over, and then I was running over their fallen bodies on what appeared to be empty air. The groaning and dead faces and hands reaching up to me through the perfectly transparent air was a terrifying and surreal ordeal, but I kept running, and even pulled out my Journal to warn Artemis about the broken wall piece. The invisible barrier holding the horde back was both much lower than the proper walls and would only last around twenty minutes.

  I looked up just in time to reach the wall, and on it there were members of the wizard council casting spells down on the hordes. I nodded a greeting to Mrs. Hoxley, who was the only one I recognized and was pouring some black liquid out of a hand held cauldron over the wall, and steam, hissing, and screams of the damned followed, but I had other priorities. I felt for Chum and sensed him moving quickly below and toward the center of Checkpoint. I turned, dropped my staff, hung off the wall, and let go. I still fell over when I landed, but since I did not sprain or break anything, I got back up, grabbed my staff, called my spellbook to me, and got to following.

  I turned a corner into an alley, and since when did Checkpoint have alleys, plural, and began rushing through. I saw the forms of three adventurers, clearly Earthlings based on their baseball caps and cargo shorts, so I went to run past them. I was within striking distance when I realized that they were turned undead and the nearest punched me in the face hard enough to shatter the helm of my mage armor and knock me down to the ground.

  I covered the space between me and them in Shield spells even as I was falling, so the thrown knives by the second dead hero did not hit me, and the third actually hit one of the shields with her forehead and stumbled back in mock pain. It bought me only an instant, but that was enough for me to drop, roll, and get on my feet while directing the spellbook to open up to the page for Conjure Icicle. Even with the near instant first tier spell, they were on me before I could cast it thrice. But most of my armor still held, and they were mostly unarmed, which meant that they only smashed me against the wall and shattered the armor pieces on my legs and chest before the ice elementals got to work on them. Against near base humans they were terrifying, quickly cutting through their Achilles tendons and climbing up their backs with their razor sharp icicle claws. The three turned immediately to deal with the ice elementals, giving me enough space to cast both the fire resistance spell and then drown us all in greasefire.

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  They moved even as they burned and stumbled toward me, but it was enough to slow and disorient them, so I smashed through, re casting mage armor on myself, even as my mana reserves were dropping to the final third.

  I sensed the direction of Chum, and now that I was inside the town and moving toward its center I could not mistake it for anything else. Chum was in the Adventuring Guild headquarters. I pulled my Journal out once more.

  Chat

  Artemis, traitor incoming to Guild HQ. Be careful. I’m coming. -Alex

  Any of the other groups back yet? -Artemis

  Will and my party are fighting at the walls. Can’t talk, running. -Alex

  Just as I finished writing that I tripped and fell face first. This impact was fully absorbed by the armor, so I came back to standing, but as I looked around for threats I saw them incoming from all sides. The Guild was killing multiple zombies each second, and as I looked around I saw warriors with greatswords, formations of spear wielders, and archers peppering the horde with magical arrows, but there were just too many of them, and all were engaged in a fighting retreat.

  That was fine. We just had to hold on. Anna on her own could fry half the horde. We just needed to wait for our best spellcasters to return from destroying the portals. So I ran ahead, toward Chum and the traitor.

  There was an explosion out of the second floor window, black smoke and fire blowing out in a plume. I did a quick assessment in my mind and knew it was Artemis’ office. I began sprinting as hard as I could. She could take a minor explosion, but that was a sign that a magical duel had begun, and Artemis, for all her strengths and powers, did not have any magic of her own. My rat skin boots slipped on the marble ground and I fought for purchase as I rushed toward the grand staircase. I ran full speed to where the sounds of battle could now clearly be heard. I got ready to rush in for a heroic rescue.

  Then I heard a long, unmistakable fart sound. What the fuck. The growing green and sulfurous cloud finally let me add two and two together. Chum was there, and one of his very few combat abilities was called Stinking Cloud, which I assumed he had just used. I ran ahead, but soon the smell was literally unbearable. Despite the harrowing experiences of the last few weeks and my artificially increased willpower, my limbs just refused to carry me any closer to the source of that dreadful smell that assaulted my nostrils. Even when I stopped breathing, I still could smell the bouquet in which the rotten egg stench was a pleasant reprieve from its other, worse ingredients.

  But it did its work, as first the man in the silver mask fell out of Artemis’ office on his knees. And then he threw up. In his mask. I could see it spray outward in a near perfect circle. For a second he took the mask off, and I felt a terrible sense of disconnection, as if the person I was looking at had disappeared and been replaced by someone completely different. But he did not want to risk it, and put the mask back on, just after letting its worst contents fall out.

  I was already casting Conjure Icicle at him, a near instant spell at my high arcana, but in his hand he had a black onyx rod and the spell he unleashed from that was actually instant. And I froze. I could not move a muscle. It was exactly like my Frozen Moment spell, except that the rest of the world kept moving as I stood frozen at the top of the stairs. Artemis came from behind him and tackled him to the floor. Her face was green and twisted in disgust, but she took the traitor to the floor, sliding across it toward the stairs and toward me.

  He still held desperately on to that black rod and twisted it behind him. He got Artemis with it too. Then he started laughing.

  “Oh. Oh my god. Oh my fucking god, I did it. I fucking actually did it. Oh god,” he said, crawling away from her frozen grip. He did a little jump, but then turned and got serious. “Sorry, you two. It’s nothing personal. With the reward from this quest I’m going to be able to solve this whole second challenge. Who knows, maybe more people will get out alive in the end. Sorry,” he said, as he drew a long, straight stiletto dagger out from among his robes.

  Chum, who had insisted that his contract not involve any fighting past level five, came at the traitor’s face, screeching and lashing with his hooves and claws, trying to get in past his mask. The traitor stumbled, but Chum was small and not made for combat. The traitor stabbed him in the back, trusting the mask to protect his own face. Chum screamed, and when the traitor flicked him off to the ground, he did not move.

  “Shit, this is going to run out in like twenty seconds. Sorry, Alex, I kind of liked you,” he said, and came toward me, dagger raised, as I could not move a muscle.

  In the windowed daylight of the Adventurer’s Guild he did not see the flash of green behind him. But I did. Artemis’ eye, the bad one with the branded hand of the hag, flashed venomous green. And I saw Artemis move. Except it was not her, but a creature that had lived inside her body for over a week now. One who seemed to have little regard for the laws of magic that the Tower imposed on its captives.

  “Now why would you go and turn your back on me, puke face,” the Hag said.