13 Heroes

We waited a few minutes for the man to come back down, he didn't return. His party started getting worried. It looked like they're planning to check up on him as they prepare their weapons. It's been about 26 minutes since the scream was heard and since the man went up. The other adventurers started looking anxious.

"What's the deal with the group that wants the king dead anyways?" I ask

"It's a very dangerous group, from what I've heard not many adventurers that took the quest to hunt them down came back. Those that didn't come back, their bodies were never found" the bartender replied.

"What about their abilities?"

"I've not much knowledge on their capabilities. One thing for certain is that they use very powerful magic" she replies

"Do you know specifically what type of magic?" Seph asks

"Sorry, no. I've said all that I know" the bartender replies

The bartender goes back to doing her work. Wouldn't she have done something about the screaming? Like maybe call her boss or something. This raised my suspicions on her.

"I'm gonna go back around and take a closer look from the third floor" I say

"I'll accompany you" Domotraus tells me

"You guys got a plan?" Seph asks

"Obviously" I answer

"Why don't you let us on it?"

"It's pretty simple, I get up there, I drop a smoke bomb and a sneak attack and then I get out of there" I reply

"You have no plan" Ravenna comments

"That's all I got" I say

"Just do what you intended to do, I'll help you out" Seph says

"How exactly?" I ask

"You'll see" she replies

Domotraus and I left the tavern going around the back. We found the ladder leading to the third floor. I climbed up the ladder followed by Domotraus climbing up behind me. We reached at the top, and entered from the glass window which was unlocked. We're in a small room and there was a bed, a cupboard, table and pretty much the generic things you'd see in a room a person sleeps in. We found the trapdoor that the bartender was referring to. We opened it and we saw what was happening. There were corpses all around and a magic circle on the floor, it looks to have been made using the blood of the people. I can see a robed person looking at a scroll.

"What is this...?" I say in shock

"Ritual Magic Casting, before I became a rogue. I was told about this type of magic by my master. Ritual Magic is one of the most strongest magic to exist in this realm." Domotraus says

"Strongest? What do you mean?" I ask

"Magic can be ritual or non-ritual. Non-ritual magic gets its power from the caster, while ritual doesn't. Their source of power comes from the origins of magic. Once the ritual spell has been casted, only the caster can stop the spell. Not even dispel magic can stop it" he explains

"Then that robed person must be the caster, what do you think we should do?" I ask

"Maybe let's stick to the original plan you had thought of" he suggests

"Fair enough, we don't really have time to think about it" I reply

Before I could drop the smoke bomb, a man and a woman enter from the stairs, they're from the party of the guy that came up check. The girl held a longbow and shot an arrow. The arrow bursts into flames turning into crisps before it could reach the target. The man runs up to him with his long sword. He slashes it towards the robed man. The slash would be blocked by a table that flies in between. The robed man shoots out a beam from his hand towards the girl. She dodges it easily firing another arrow towards the man. The arrow avoids the spell caster. The swordsman kicks the table away trying to slash once again, but is blocked by the very same table that blocked the first strike. He kicks it away again only to be hit by another furniture on his side. The archer gets in close to the spell caster in hopes to have a close range combat with him. She would be pushed off by three medium sized tables. He stretches out his arm pointing his hand towards the archer and shoots out small flames that made the wooden tables and chairs on fire as they levitate from the ground.

"We have to do something Athel" Domotraus says

The table pushes back the swordsman to the wall. The chairs and other tables started moving around while on fire, the archer keeps moving away avoiding the objects being hurled. She shoots another arrow while doing so. With great accuracy she was able to catch the arrow on fire, but it burns again with intense flames as the trajectory of the arrow was altered back to her. She shoots another arrow to counter the flaming arrow. Both met each other and the arrows just fall to the ground. Before she knew it, the tables and chairs had surrounded her and with no escape she was pinned to the wall. The flames disappear.

"What magic is this?" I ask Domotraus

"I've never seen this. I think this is the spell called Animate Object" he replies

"Follow my lead" I say

I jump down and land with both of my feet on the ground. With no plan in mind, I threw a dagger at him. The dagger's trajectory looks like it was altered as it avoided the spell caster as he stood still. Wish I had more weapons. The spell caster shoots out a beam at me, with the help of my magic boots, the Boots of Speed, I barely dodge the beam burning my cheek a bit. I stumble down to the floor. I turn around to see the spell caster as he is ready to shoot another beam at me and knowing how good he is, most likely I will take full damage of the attack. Domotraus jumps down afterwards, and immediately dashes towards the enemy. He grapples him and pushes him to the ground, the tables and chairs fall to the floor and stop moving. He grabs the dagger that I threw and uses it to kill the spell caster.

"Nice one Dom" I comment, getting up

Knights would storm the second floor and point their weapons at us. Domotraus shows the dead spell caster and the knights take the body. They would avoid the corpses on the floor and the furniture on the floor. A knight without a helmet enters in and I can assume he is the captain.

"Sir, what shall we do with these?" a knight asks

"Take them as well" the captain replies

We were knocked out unconscious again.