The Ruby Magician

Wyn readied his sword. Corbyn, that monster, had hurt his guild mates and nearly killed his sister. Adam and Penny were still moving, at least, as well as the others who were attacked by Jane's spell, but Wyn didn't know the full extent. He couldn't afford to check on them when he noticed there was fighting outside the guild, instead choosing to run as fast as possible and teleported at the last second to move Arabelle out of the way.

He desperately wished his team was there, but they were out around the city. The only ones nearby were Faye and Nigel, who came with him back to the guild after the meeting with the Tower Master. Both of whom weren't far behind him but didn't have the same means to cover as much as ground.

Bursting forward, Wyn was heightened by both his boot's ability and his speed skill. He reached Corbyn in a moment, slashing at the back of his legs with his sword while casting Web. The man grunted as Wyn's sword grazed his skin, and Wyn was surprised to find the depth at the skin's density. He remembered the mask's ability that gave him improved toughness, but even with his sword being magical and empowered with Silence Attack, it still barely left a mark.

Knowing it would be mostly ineffective, Wyn changed the weapon to a hammer and cast Siphon over the Web. He hoped to try and subdue the man if possible, and knew it would take an extreme amount of effort with only him fighting. As the glyph was forming, Corbyn grunted in frustration as he desparately tried to yank his leg out of the ground, trying and failing after two attempts.

Taking those precious few seconds, Wyn yelled as he smashed his hammer down onto the man's free leg. The first hit felt like he was hitting a stone wall, but the second gave a bit more. Hitting it one more time before the brute could react, Wyn felt flesh give way as Corbyn cried and collapsed.

Wyn cast Frostsnap over him, not caring about the implications that he was magically attacking another person. Blue frost pulsed out of Wyn, coating the large man with specks of ice and snow. He visibly slowed as he finally pulled his leg free, but was too slow to retaliate.

Not wanting to let up, Wyn bashed with his hammer at Corbyn's leg, aiming for the same location repeatedly. He didn't hit the spot perfectly, but was slowly crushing the man's knee as he could swing the hammer several times in a single breath.

Wyn had his hammer high when he noticed a light out of the corner of his eye. He paused in time to see Jane standing and pointing at him while a beam of purple and black light flew out from her hand.

Tucking and rolling, Wyn dodged the magical beam, but then left Corbyn alone to instead fight her. The beam was dense and large, nearly twice the size of Tasha's white and yellow magical beam, but still not as fast as Wyn. He kept running in an arc to close the distance while avoiding the attack, ready to attack her the moment he was close enough.

Instead, Wyn was thrown to the ground as a sword smashed into his side. His jacket and armor took the brunt of the blow, but the hit was strong enough that he still felt the impact on his ribs. Rolling and looking up, Wyn narrowed his eyes as a new opponent emerged.

Landon stood with a short sword outstretched in front of him, then carefully drew another at his side. "I've been curious to see how you fight. I guess if you won't help us, we'll just take the tablets from your dead guild!"

Wyn cast Frostnap again, hitting both Jane, Landon, and nearly connecting with Octavius. The pulse caused Jane to stumble but Landon somehow cut through the frost wave with his swords, completely separating the magic in front of him as though he was cutting through paper. He then aimed his swords at Wyn as he lunged forward.

But then his advance was halted by a sea of grasping vines and ropes of grass, completely tangling his feet and legs and causing the front lawn of the guild to erupt into a dense forest. He tugged on his legs to no avail, then started hacking at them with his swords, cutting the grassy tendrils to free himself.

He didn't make it far as Nigel appeared at his side, slamming into him with his shield with enough force that should have easily knocked the mask off of his face. Instead, Landon twisted his body and caught himself on the ground, somehow swiping through the grass around him with his hands with even better efficiency as his swords were lost to the overgrown grass.

"Stop this madness!" Nigel yelled, still holding his shield in front of him.

Faye ran across the courtyard, ignoring Wyn to move to the others. Wyn eyed the other Faceless Four members, noting that they were hesitating. Corbyn was still stuck in Wyn's traps, while both Jane and Octavius seemed to be moving to back up Landon. Sparing a glance at the guild, he saw Arabelle healing the ones who had been attacked by Jane's blast and Faye rushing to Adam and Penny. They were both still on the ground, slowly trying to get up but obviously in no condition to fight.

Wyn knew exactly what he was supposed to do. All he saw were enemies that threatened his home, his friends, his family. Enemies that needed to be dealt with once and for all.

With Nigel, maybe Wyn had enough leverage to put Landon down like the rabid animal he was.

Deciding to keep his weapon as a word for the inevitable clash, Wyn cast Drain on himself and ran to the two men. Whatever entangling spell Faye had cast on the area was already mostly gone, Landon having plowed through it with some kind of beast-like claw attack Wyn couldn't make out. He truly was like an animal, bent over at the waist tearing through the thigh-high foliage easily with feral, wide swipes.

When the masked man made it out of the grass, he lunged straight for Nigel at a speed that rivaled Wyn. The Knight raised his shield and blocked the first attack, which was Landon scratching at him. A ragged scraping sound off Nigel's shield shrieked through the courtyard as Landon lunged to the side and swiped with a new short sword that Nigel barely blocked.

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Nigel was too slow. Wyn could see that. Landon had several auras already surrounding him, a mixture of green, black, and purple, all unfamiliar. They had to be mostly, if not completely, from his mask.

Before Nigel could react, Landon struck out with a second sword. Except it met Wyn's forearm shield as he sprinted to intercept the blow.

The two men stared at each other for a only a moment without moving. Wyn felt hatred rise within him staring at the glowing but emotionless mask, hating each time he couldn't see the man's face. Not wanting to delay further, Wyn struck out with his sword but Landon easily parried it.

To Wyn's continued surprise, the masked man moved with a seemingly growing speed that was now equal to his own. Wyn was shocked as he was already enhanced twice, and his Sprint skill was as strong as though he was in the fourth tier due to his equipment set bonus, and even then the man matched him. Each of his long sword strikes were either dodged or parried, while Wyn was able to do the same with Landon's two short swords.

It was frustrating as he couldn't land a hit, but he didn't need to. As the seconds ticked away with countless speedy blows, he realized he was going to gain the upper hand eventually as his Drain spell was affecting Landon.

But then the masked man glowed a denser shade of green that extended over his weapons. He started twirling them at an even faster rate, moving with such intensity Wyn started to back away. Instinctively he knew getting hit by that unknown skill would be disastrous for him.

That was the moment Nigel tried to bash Landon from the side again. The masked man somehow anticipated the blow and leapt away, growling in anger.

Wyn felt emboldened when a familiar aura washed over him. It was similar to John's Saint Aura, covering him while extending to allies around him. Wyn felt the warm sensation of improved endurance and strength with his energy ramped up and his weapon suddenly feeling lighter. What he didn't expect was that he also had a healing aura around him, as his attention was brought to his side and thigh. Gashes in his clothes were blood-stained though the skin underneath was healed.

When did Landon cut him? Were his movements so fast he didn't even feel the attacks? Or was was he so engrossed in his anger his mind ignored the injuries?

Landon roared to the sky causing an orange aura to envelop the green already coating him. Wyn wondered what was coming next, but steadied his shield and readied his sword. Next to him, Nigel also had a long sword in his free hand that complimented his shield.

That was good. It was no longer a one on one fight. Now they definitely had the upper hand.

As Landon prepared himself to attack, he stopped and jerked his head to the side. He dismissed his swords in a quick flash of magic. "Aureus!" He yelled.

Wyn looked around but didn't see the Tower Master. Did Landon have some kind of advanced scouting ability or possibly an ability to see the future?

That was when Wyn heard the familiar sounds of magic. Turning around in a panic, he saw Jane and Octavius attacking and defending themselves respectively against the others in the guild. Faye led their charge, a large wooden staff held high in the air, and other Climbers surrounded her. The brutish masked member of their group was fighting Arabelle and two others, though he looked completely fine and recovered from Wyn's initial burst of attacks.

All three of the masked Climbers stopped and threw something onto the ground, completely obscuring the area in dense smoke.

"No!" Wyn yelled, not wanting them to escape. When he went to lunge at Landon, there was already a cloud of smoke surrounding the spot where he stood, and running through it proved the man had already disappeared.

But there was no way he could have gotten far. Not unless they had some sort of powerful teleportation magic. And Octavius and Jane weren't that fast.

Running down the road in various directions as quickly as possible, Wyn tried desperately to see where the foursome went. Unfortunately there was no sign whatsoever of their escape.

That was when he saw a large group of people running towards them, led by the Tower Master himself. He was barreling towards the guild house with impressive speed for someone his age who wasn't an active Climber. Wyn knew he had some sort of magical abilities, but whether they were from a class or items he wasn't sure.

Knowing the Faceless Four escaped and the immediate threat was gone, Wyn turned back to his guild to check on everyone. He saw them all up on their feet, at least, and no one was scrambling around looking for help, which meant they weren't too seriously injured. There were some healers in the group still activating spells, but otherwise everyone looked more surprised at the turn of events than anything.

"What happened here?" Aureus said, immediately as he approached the guild's lawn.

Wyn stepped forward alone, waving off the others. Looking at the Tower Master, he was surprised to see a group of nearly a dozen guild officers behind him dressed like royal knights. They wore matching sets of chainmail with metal skull caps and greaves, and all carried either a sword or spear. They looked just like the royal guards and appointed officials Wyn used to interact with when on assignments with nobles, except for one clear difference.

All of their equipment was nearly blinding with blue and purple auras. If they weren't Climbers, they had powerful enough equipment to match a strong tier two Climber or possibly a tier three Climber. If they were trained, though, which Wyn assumed they likely were, there was a strong chance they could take on a full group by themselves if needed. If they were Climbers, well… they would be that much stronger.

But all of that didn't matter to Wyn. The first thought he had was how did they appear so fast? He practically ran out of the Tower Master's office back to the guild house, and then sprinted the last portion to defend his people. How could he and the entire force of guild officers cover that much ground so fast?

"The Faceless Four attacked my guild," Wyn said, pointing behind him. "I just told you that -"

"I know," Aureus said, cutting Wyn off. His hands were raised pleadingly. "Is your guild alright?"

Wyn looked back at his guild, then nodded his head. "I think so. Our healers seemed to have taken care of the injured."

Four of the guild officers trotted past Wyn to the others who were still spread out. Wyn moved to stop them but a hand on his shoulder made him pause.

"They're medics," Aureus said, his voice low. "If anyone is still hurt they'll take care of it."

Wyn didn't respond. He met his sister's gaze, who looked at him with concern. She was standing beside Adam, who looked far more shaken than she did.

Everyone there was in serious danger from being hurt or killed from the attack. Wyn thought he had saved them but then realized he, Nigel, and Faye were also in just as much danger. A dozen tier two and three Climbers fought against only three members of the Faceless Four, and Wyn wasn't sure they were at a standstill. Even he and Nigel were fighting blind against Landon. The man barely showed any of his abilities and still was fast, powerful, and lethal.

The real interference was Aureus. When Landon realized he was about to appear, he ordered his group to flee. What was it about the Tower Master that made him so afraid?

"I need a record of how this started," Aureus said, walking over to the guild.

Wyn followed him and checked on Arabelle. She was uninjured except for her fists, which were pink and raw, but embraced Wyn all the same when he approached.

"What happened?" Wyn whispered to her.

Arabelle pulled him in tighter. "They showed up looking for you, then when we said you weren't here they attacked us."

Wyn gritted his teeth but softened his embrace. "I'm glad you're safe."

"Me too."

"Can you tell the Tower Master exactly what happened?"

Arabelle separated from her brother and looked at him with worried eyes. "If you need me to, I can."

"Actually, I would prefer accounts from everyone," Aureus said. "If the Faceless Four attacked your guild unprovoked, then I'll have the authority to take drastic measures."

Wyn looked at the Tower Master. The man looked tired but resolute. "Are you saying what I hope you're saying?"

Aureus took a deep breath. "I had hoped they wouldn't be so bold but it does appear as though actions need to be taken. I still need an official report, but if they have done what I believe they did, then yes - they'll have an arrest or execute-on-sight order. And with us hunting them down, now, it won't be long before they're found again."