Mob Sorcery 5 - Ch25

Vince’s molten beam of searing flame blew through two of the undead. The corpses barely flinched, even as fist-sized holes opened up in their chests. Those behind screeched and barreled forward, crushing against each other in a grotesque and comedic display as they struggled to get through the door.

“Trave,” Fia snapped, firing off a similar flame laser to Vince.

A lance of light blasted through one door, sending the elves charging through it flying backward. Gaby’s fists knocked another elf into a wall. The undead snarled and bounced back, unharmed.

Just like the undead foxes from the other day, the elves shined with an unholy black light from within their very bodies. The holes Vince and Fia punched through them emanated necromantic magic. Rather than jewelry bearing strange black sigils, numerous smaller brands had been carved into the elves’ skin. The sigils appeared to be responsible for reanimating the corpses.

The makeshift crypt lit up like a furnace as Vince conjured a pair of massive fireballs. He hurled them into the closest undead, then spun and pointed his sword at a shadowy figure forming near him.

His flame laser blasted the phantom apart the moment it appeared. More began to form from the black mist pouring into the small corridor.

“Phantoms,” he called out. “We need to get out. They shrug off initiate-tier magic.”

“So do the elves,” Fia snarled.

She kicked an elf into a wall before vaporizing its head with a flame laser. Another elf grabbed her, its worn-down fingers acting like claws as it scratched at Fia’s barrier.

Vince’s sword snapped toward it, before one of the elves he’d incinerated burst out of the darkness and tackled him. His barrier shrugged it off, but the elf clung to him. Slowly, its claws sank through his barrier.

“Fuck!” he swore.

He slammed his free hand onto the undead’s scalp, angling his palm through the center of its body. A beam of flames shot through the elf. Rotting skin charred and blackened, and the flame laser burst out of its thigh. Even though that unholy light surged from the newly made holes, the elf collapsed on the ground while twitching and trying to move its undead limbs.

Beams of light lit up the corridor. Not Gaby’s work, but the phantoms. They shattered on their barriers, but he saw Fia wince when one struck her.

Amber light shined from the concrete. Dozens of spikes of earth skewered almost everything in the room. Phantoms exploded into mist and the undead elves hung, flailing.

Nina stood by the exit, which remained covered by a barrier. She held an elf up with her gauntlet while pumping earth magic into the wall.

Yet the instant she let the earth spikes collapse, most of the elves shot back up with a screech. Only the most heavily damaged remained down.

“Nina, blow up the door,” Vince yelled before she could try to cast another spell. “We’ll cover you. We need to get the fuck out.”

Another elf slammed into him, but a streak of light blasted it into the far wall of the corridor. Gaby spun and kicked an elf through the doorway. Chunks of concrete rained down as she clipped the wall.

“I’ll keep them off you and Fia,” Gaby said, eyes nearly solid gold. Her breath escaped her in visible puffs. “Your flames can actually keep them down.”

That confirmed a long-held suspicion that a lot of Gaby’s magic was initiate-tier magic, and she relied on her immense well of power to take out her enemies. Usually a smart tactic, Hamelin’s undead hard countered it.

“Don’t use your explosion spell,” Vince told Fia as they pulled back to stand beside Nina. “Even if our barriers can withstand it, it’s too risky in a confined space.”

“Got it,” Fia said.

Nina held a stance beside them, as if about to punch through the concrete door that blocked the exit, barrier and all. Her gauntlet glowed like an orange sun. Looking at it nearly blinded Vince, thanks to the darkness surrounding him.

Curiously, her breath also escaped her in visible puffs. Like when they went out early, given it was currently winter. But both her and Gaby were bundled up, and Vince felt nothing.

His eyes widened as he realized the temperature must have dropped rapidly. Fire barriers protected the wielder from temperature, for obvious reasons. He couldn’t do much to help Nina and Gaby. Not with their barriers up and blocking foreign spells.

Gaby’s lance flew down the corridor, blasting apart several phantoms and briefly impaling a pair of elves. But it left a relatively small hole in them. Evidently it only exploded upon contact with powerful magic.

Vince concentrated for a second and threw up a fire cage around the undead she’d hurled away. Flaming bars sprung up around both elves and several phantoms. The phantoms exploded on contact with the prison, and stupidly hurled themselves into it. Whereas the elves railed against it, burning their bodies. But the eerie necromantic magic inside them bit into the flames that comprised the cage, causing them to rapidly dwindle.

“Flagellum,” Fia said.

A solid white flaming whip sizzled as she brought it down through multiple phantoms with a crack. Embers rose off it and lit up the room. With a flick of her wrist, Fia snapped it through more phantoms, before it curled around an undead elf and began burning deep into its rotten flesh.

“They’re built like magic tanks,” she growled. “I tested this thing on hunks of meat and it cut through them, bone included.”

But between the three of them, they pushed the undead back just enough to give themselves breathing room.

“Gaby, throw up a barrier,” Vince said.

The unicorn nodded and held her hands out. A solid wall of golden light rippled into existence, cutting off most of the corridor. Phantoms pummeled it with their beams of light, while more attempted to form from the mist around them. The elves slammed themselves into the barrier. Just like with the fire cage, the necromantic magic within them ate away at the barrier.

“That’s not going to hold.” Gaby’s face had gone pale but she prepared for the undead to break through at any moment.

Vince produced a fireball in one hand and let its heat wash over them. Gaby stepped as close to it as she reasonably could and shot him a small smile. He was about to ask her to drop her barrier so he could heat her up directly, when Nina finally acted.

The entire underground structure shook as a thunderous boom rattled their ears. Amber light glowed from within the walls, seeping through the cracks.

Behind them, the entire concrete wall by the exit, including the door that had descended, had exploded into rubble. The purple barrier flickered out of existence without anything to hold it together. Creaking and cracking sounds from above swiftly followed. Sunlight filled the entrance again.

“Let’s fucking go,” Nina growled. “I might have blown up a load-bearing wall.”

Gaby and Nina shot up the stairs, two or three at a time. Vince and Fia followed, firing flame lasers at the undead elves who had already broken through Gaby’s barrier.

He hung back the longest, easily able to blast apart the few elves and phantoms that followed. The mist vanished within seconds of the entrance opening.

Within twenty seconds, all sounds of combat and shrieking undead ceased. Vince stood halfway up the stairs with his cane pointed down the corridor. His and Fia’s fire spells still lit up the interior of Hamelin’s trapped corridor. No undead or phantoms appeared to be visible, apart from the blasted apart remains of a few elves.

The skull lit up with black flames. He pointed his cane at it, ready to fire another flame laser.

“What. The. Fuck,” a vaguely familiar, petulant voice shouted from the skull. “I take a shower and come back to this fucking disaster? Have you assholes heard of knocking?”

Gaby’s hand came down on Vince’s shoulder as she leaned over him. “Bitch, you tried to kill us before we even got a chance. You better have a better trap inside this concrete coffin of yours, Hamelin.”

The skull almost appeared to pivot to face them. Vince expected more shouting and screaming, based on his experience with Juliet.

Instead, Hamelin’s voice lost its petulant fury and became excited. “Oh, he’s with you. Look, the trap’s an automatic one if magic-users show up uninvited. It’ll be a bitch to set up again.” Her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. “And I guess I need stronger undead and better defenses if you got out that fast.” Then she spoke normally again. “You should have messaged me.”

Grumbling, Gaby wandered back into the corridor. She rubbed her arms, and Vince tapped her barrier. After she dropped it, he placed a heat spell on her and she gave him a peck on the cheek.

“Wow, I thought that was illegal for unicorns,” Hamelin said.

“Shut up. I still want to rip your arms off and beat you with them,” Gaby said. “I did try messaging you, but you never answered.”

“Uhhhh…” The skull turned motionless.

Nina and Fia joined them outside the steel security door. A wall of blackness nearly obscured its features and had since the trap activated.

“How would knocking have helped?” Nina asked. “If you didn’t notice the trap being triggered while showering, of all things, knocking wouldn’t do jack.”

“She wasn’t showering,” Gaby muttered. “This is why I wanted to contact her first.”

Vince got the distinct impression that while Gaby might not know Hamelin well, she knew enough. What kind of person were they meeting here?

“So what?” Hamelin snapped through the skull. “Maybe I was sneaking a nap after masturbating. Sue me.”

Fia and Nina looked at each other, then Vince. Their expressions suggested they were at a complete loss.

“Yeah, she’s shameless,” Gaby said. “Haven’t you met her before, reina?”

It took Nina a moment to realize Gaby was referring to her. “Professionally, and she seemed normal enough, if secretive. Gave off real ‘don’t talk about politics with them’ vibes, though. But man, I really should have brushed up on my Spanish. How come Fia’s chica?”

Gaby pointed at Fia. “Girl on my level. Chica.” She pointed at Nina. “Hot queen I do not want to compete with over Vince. Reina.” Her arm went toward the wall, presumably to indicate outside. “The rich sisters are fun to tease. Chiquita. Maybe I’ll be nicer to them later.”

“Fascinating,” Hamelin drawled. “Why are you waiting out there, instead of coming in so I can see the hot piece of magic you’re all getting creamy injections from regularly?”

The necromancer had apparently decided to avoid answering why she never answered Gaby’s message.

“The barrier’s still up, genius,” Nina said.

A moment later, said barrier dissipated. Several loud thunks signaled the security door unlocking, before an ethereal hand pulled it open from the other side.

A phantom hovered on the other side, but one utterly unlike the gaseous ones Vince had been fighting for months. It possessed most of a skeleton and the black, misty form of Hamelin’s phantoms clung to the skeleton like a strange mixture of a cloak and a skinsuit.

After opening the door, the phantom hovered away without a second glance. Vince and the others stood there, foci raised and ready for another trap. Nothing happened.

Still wary, Gaby led the way while Nina took up the rearguard. They kept their barriers active.

Hamelin’s lair looked no better than the external corridor, except with furnishings and signs of activity. Dust covered everything. Vince knew where she’d been simply by following the footprints or marks on the steel table that stretched from one end of the room to the other. Far more magical catalysts than he could name covered the table. The bloodstain on the tablecloth suggested she’d conducted necromancy here.

The phantom led them through a door lit by blue flames. Another doorway exited the room, but Vince lacked the night vision to see through it.

Immediately upon entering the next room, Vince struggled to determine what to look at.

Multiple lanterns blazed with blue flames, each large enough to form a fire pit in this cavernous room. A rope cordon and transparent barrier surrounded one lantern, and it flickered orange sometimes.

A TV displaying hardcore porn tried to distract him. He couldn’t help but notice the dragon-woman with a fat, scaly tail and horns that glittered like gemstones. Almost certainly an illusion, as he doubted any dragon would degrade themselves by distributing porn of themselves being gangbanged by a bunch of eagle birdfolk. Vince couldn’t help but notice they were bald eagles.

Facing the TV stood a throne-like workshop chair that could double as a torture prop in a movie. The chair was almost comically small compared to the multi-tiered table, tool rack, and storage cabinets attached to it. Hamelin appeared to live in the chair, based on the empty chip packets, stains, and half-empty two-liter bottle of Dr Pepper. The soda appeared to be warm, too, as it lacked any visible condensation on the bottle.

“Welcome to Casa de Hamelin,” the necromancer said as she emerged from a dark doorway opposite the group. “I’d offer you a drink, but I think the minifridge only has illegal energy drinks, some horrible beer the dark elves sold me that tastes like they brewed it in a cave and then added vodka, and… uh…”

The mousegirl walked over to her minifridge and pulled out another bottle of Dr. Pepper. “I think I made this months ago by mixing catalysts, Dr Pepper, espresso, and some awful vodka I distilled using a cheap recipe from Reddit.” She stared at Vince. “I think it will probably kill you. Maybe even the pupper.”

For once, Fia didn’t protest to being called a dog.

Because, like Vince and Nina, she was too busy staring in horror at the horrific state Hamelin was in.

He’d seen her briefly during the assault on Lionetti Tower. She’d been short and dressed in black, with the huge mouse ears common to mousefolk. A tall male mousefolk might reach five feet in height. Hamelin was not tall, and the top of her head might barely reach his ribs.

That meant the baggy T-shirt she wore would normally be perfect housewear. It reached mid-thigh and covered everything of importance.

Save for the fact Hamelin’s skin appeared to be peeling away, with massive red blotches barely covering her veins and muscles. Even through the t-shirt, he saw that she possessed no body fat at all. Her previously glossy white hair now stuck to her mottled scalp like that of a cancer patient. Hell, Vince wondered if she had cancer at first.

“I think I’d rather skip immortality than live like this,” he said, grimacing and looking away.

He expected a witty rejoinder and insult, as he’d done this to her.

Instead, she scoffed. “Please. This is worse than usual, but I’ve been cremated before. Right after I came back to Aulfair in the 90s, crazed religious nutters were trying to get rid of Immanuel and the vampires. Being alive while my body melted kinda sucked. Made sure to have a contingency teleportation spell after that.” For some reason, she tapped her belly.

“You look like reheated shit,” Gaby grunted. “Bad enough that I stopped before punching your head off the other day.”

Hamelin shrugged. “My own fault. Between Lionetti Tower’s wards and our own interference, I had to rely on my backup teleportation method. The fact it worked at all was a miracle. At least one of the mafioso would have known me and incinerated me. Would have lost months of memories if I had to start with a new body. Although…” She shot Vince a sly look, and smirked when she recognized his expression.

“Hold up.” Nina stepped between Vince and Hamelin. “I recognize that look.”

“You barely know me,” Hamelin protested. “Last time we met, you were still the hot lioness brawler that killed anyone that got close to you.”

“Not that bad,” Nina grumbled. “But I meant the general look. You look like shit, Vince feels bad, you try to manipulate him. This is business. You’ve tried to kill us four times now. Five, if you count just then. It might be against the rules to get revenge for enforcer work, but this feels way too personal.”

“Fucking Christ.” Hamelin threw her hands into the air. “It was basically one long job, and Hatoyama never even fulfilled his end of the deal.”

“You didn’t kill me. Why would you get paid?” Vince asked.

“Uh…” The mousegirl tilted her whole body to the side in an attempt to look around Nina. “You don’t do much dodgy assassination work, I guess. Jobs like that are supposed to pay even if you fail, so long as you can prove you actually attempted the job. Nobody talented is going to raid Lionetti Tower or pick a fight with someone like you if they can nearly die, or have their team wiped out, and get nothing.”

Vince’s face colored as he heard that. Quintus had definitely screwed him then.

Nina sighed. “That’s only for the highest risk jobs, Vince. The sort where the employer offers a million bucks, split between the team, and you assume you’ll get a double share because half the team carks it. I hated those jobs. Took one, and avoided them like the plague afterward. Either you’re dragging along people who don’t realize the danger, or everyone is a maverick who doesn’t care if you die so long as the job succeeds.”

“Guess that worked in our favor.” He grimaced, recalling how easily it had been to mop up Lionetti Tower when he arrived.

“Anyway, we can do business.” Hamelin rubbed her fingers together in the universal symbol for money. “This whole mess has spiraled out of control, and this feels like my chance to hit the eject button.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Gaby, but I want to know why we should trust her.” Vince crossed his arms. “Trying to kill me was her job, sure, but she’s bailing on her current one. Is it because they screwed you out of money again?”

Gaby shrugged. “You need to vet your enforcers, V.”

Both Nina and Fia nodded. Of the four of them, only Vince had zero experience hiring others.

Hamelin pulled a couple of energy drinks out of the fridge and shook one. Nobody took it, so she shoved it back in and began to guzzle down the one she’d cracked open.

“Oh, the pay is fine,” Hamelin said. “Although they wildly underestimated you. Again. So did I. Figured slapping the reanimation tools on the foxes would take care of any surprises, especially with that headhunter sorcerer to disable you. Nobody reckoned on Juliet getting distracted by a fox strong enough to tear apart the entire assault team, let alone one with an enchanted blade.”

“Her naginata,” Vince said. “It made Juliet bleed.”

“Yeah. I’m no expert on the weird magic used in the East, but it has the same color as foxfire. I’m betting that’s not a coincidence. I got paid but I’m still in the red after everything. I was only promised backpay for Hatoyama’s shit once you went down.”

“What happened to being paid in full even if you fail,” Fia said sardonically.

Hamelin sneered. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, bitch.” She sipped her energy drink and eyed Vince, ignoring the glares from the others. “Look, it’s not the money. It’s that this job stinks of political bullshit. Hell, if I told you who I met, it’d probably cause a ton of shit and I’d have to flee Aulfair. But if I do this job, I bet I’ll have to flee Aulfair. Your brain has to be full of rocks not to realize the conglomerates are fucking pissed. Quintus Hierum finally got handed the dictator role over Immanuel’s enforcers. The mayor won’t appear in public with Houou. The vampires are finally moving—”

“They are?” Fia blurted out. “Since when?”

“Uh…” The necromancer hunched her shoulders. “Forget I said that.”

“If the vampires hired you, that’s more concerning than either Houou or the Yakuza,” Vince said.

Because it meant a whole new conglomerate had taken a stand against the Lionettis. More importantly, they were interfering in the civil war on someone’s side.

“No, no, no.” Hamelin waved her hands in a panic. “Holy shit, do not take it that way. If I’m getting chased out of Aulfair, I’d like it to be for a real reason. Last time I fled the country I at least turned my hometown into zombies.”

“Wait…” Nina narrowed her eyes at her. “You mean a ‘town’ town?”

“Hicksville, USA. Can’t say I miss anyone I killed, even if I didn’t mean to do it.” The mousegirl smirked. “Growing up in rural America is rough as a demihuman. Especially orphans taken in by parents who thought their ears and tails could be prayed away.”

“Orphans. Plural,” Vince said.

“I had a sister.” Hamelin’s eyes turned hard. Her light-hearted attitude vanished as her fingers crushed the sides of her can. “Hence why I don’t regret what went down.”

Yeah, he wasn’t digging up that grave. Especially as something told him the necromancer already had, literally. The phantom that led them inside hadn’t appeared any shorter than usual, but he hadn’t looked too closely at its skeleton.

“Holy shit. You were responsible for the Georgia Panic, weren’t you?” Fia said, eyes wide. “Dad told me about it. Back in the 70s, when anti-magic fever was hitting its peak, the army and a bunch of sorcerers from Aulfair had to wipe out thousands of zombies in western Georgia. Then everyone flipped out, started their own Salem witch-hunts against anyone they thought used magic.”

Vince frowned. “Salome mentioned that once. Said it was the reason Immanuel ran their secret demon president.”

“A lot of things led to that,” Gaby said.

Hamelin ran a hand through her scraggly hair. “Look, I already said I didn’t mean to do it. I’m not taking responsibility for millions of hicks that were looking for an excuse to kill people they always wanted to while corrupt cops looked the other way. I just…” A ragged sigh escaped her lips and the necromancer stared through the dark doorway the phantom had vanished into. “I just wanted my sister back.”

If the porn wasn’t still playing, Vince might find the scene more touching and less comical.

“I figured it would be something like that,” he said, only half-lying. “I don’t think ancient history is our problem. The fact you’ve been hired to kill me is.”

“And I’d rather not do that, for a few reasons,” she said, turning back to face him. “The big one is politics, still. I’m making enemies I don’t want and can’t survive.”

“You survived being cremated and countless deaths as an enforcer. Why worry now?” Nina asked.

“Us. All of us?” Hamelin used both her hands to point at all five of them. “We’re small fries. Juliet will eventually become hot shit if somebody doesn’t bag and tag her first.”

Curious choice of words. Did Hamelin know of Juliet’s binding weakness?

“But Aulfair is full of old, powerful monsters that only act when they really want to,” she continued. “I’m a big, bad immortal necromancer, master of undeath, and probably a lich depending on your definition. Amazing. Big round of applause for me.” She gave herself that round of applause in a mocking fashion. “All those ancient, buried necromantic tomes and scraps of parchment I learned from were also written by immortal masters of undeath. Who are all very dead and aren’t coming back. No soul eggs. Just fucking dead.”

Gaby nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that. I thought I was the hottest shit, and that unicorns were the be all and end all. Then I met a vampire on a trip to Spain. Supposedly a scion of Count Estruch. Somehow, I don’t think his sire got killed by a random hermit.”

The way Gaby shuddered made Vince suspect this vampire towered over Juliet in the field of intimidation.

“Alright. So you want to stop trying to kill me,” he said. “I take it the people offering you the job wouldn’t accept that?”

“It’s fucked, yeah.” Hamelin leaned against the wall. “Technically, I only took the one job. But technicalities won’t stop one of those many-tailed mutts from breaking in here and incinerating me with foxfire. The rules mean a lot less to them than they should. Almost like they’re intentionally trying to shatter the system.”

Who else had Vince met that had been trying to intentionally ruin Aulfair’s corrupt but workable conventions?

“Are the police involved?” he asked, lowering his voice.

The necromancer stared at him. She groaned. “This is because the cops didn’t show up, isn’t it?”

“We blew up a street. Even if it’s Miura territory, there has to be a REAT team nearby.”

What truly worried him was that Kreesa wasn’t in charge of Houou’s territory. She’d been in command of Albion, then took over downtown when Frost went south. But if she’d been under Houou’s thumb, that meant the elemental in charge of their territory was probably corrupt as well.

“So you see the problem,” Hamelin said. “I figure we can make a deal. You pay me to leak info and sabotage the hits on you. Then you don’t die, the conglomerates sweep in and deal with this bullshit, and I avoid becoming someone else’s object lesson.”

“We pay you to keep trying to kill Vince,” Fia said in disbelief. “You have to be joking. When have you been a serious threat to him?”

“Oi, I—”

Vince waved a hand and the mousegirl shut up. A welcome surprise, to be honest.

“I didn’t come here to stop you from taking hits on me,” he said. “Well, not truly.”

Hamelin’s eyes narrowed and she quietly drank her energy drink.

“I have a job for you. The same one that Gaby would have mentioned,” he said.

“Huh. Huh?” She looked at Gaby. “Wait, your job was actually his?”

“I’m helping him with it. It’s fucking huge.” The unicorn grinned.

Which caused Hamelin to recoil and become suspicious. “Oh no. I’ve seen that expression on way too many battle junkies. This is insanely fucking dangerous, isn’t it?”

“You know Mei Suwa?” Vince asked.

“Oh balls. It is.” Hamelin groaned. “The Yakuza fox who is probably a reincarnated snake? She went missing after the mess you got involved in last week with Houou and…” She blinked. “Oh. Oh, shit. Then why the hell…” Her voice trailed into inaudible mumbles as she rubbed the sides of her head. “Fuck it. I give up on trying to understand the politics. Why do you want to kill her?”

“Because she’ll either kill us or escape and hold a grudge forever,” he said. “Originally, I wanted to take her out before anyone else did for… reasons. Now, I’m more worried about my ass.”

“I would be too.” Hamelin tried to leer at him, but couldn’t quite get the angle right to stare at his behind while standing in front of him. “Hey, I’ve been in enough fights to see his ass. Don’t look at me like that.”

“I don’t even think you count as competition,” Nina said. “Even if you weren’t a walking corpse, you’re the definition of ‘don’t stick your dick in crazy.’”

“Yeah, and you want my help to…” The necromancer screwed up her face. “Wait, why the fuck do you want my help? You have a ton of bruisers and can take her out? But then…”

Rather than wait to see if she could put the pieces together, Vince cut to the chase. “Mei is incredibly powerful, and is trying to gain more power. She’s not a kyuubi, but we need to treat her the same. That’s why we need all the help we can get. You’re one of the heaviest hitters we have, even if her purification magic is a counter to your necromancy.”

“You can say that again. I specialized my undead to fight mages, because France was full of assholes who hated me as much as the hicks back here. But they’d barely count as cannon fodder against a powerful fox.”

“Better to have a lot of undead cannon fodder than living,” Gaby said. “And you have to possess direct attack spells?”

“I don’t have to possess anything. Weirdos like me learn whatever they want.” Hamelin chewed the inside of her lip, which looked creepy as hell thanks to the state of her face. “How long do we have to plan and prep? This sounds like a terrible deal, and there’d be no hiding that I bailed on my current employer. But if I have a month or so, I might accept for the right price.”

“I take it market price isn’t enough.” Fia narrowed her eyes.

“Wow. You suck at ambit claims.” Hamelin grinned. “But you’re right. I’ll be giving up on a lot of cash if I accept and incurring big costs. At minimum, whatever I get up-front will need to cover what I intend to spend.”

“You’ll only get paid if you follow through,” Fia said.

“Normally, I’d chew you out for suggesting I’d bail, but I did just quake in my booties at the idea.” Hamelin’s eyes shot to Vince. “I reckon a half mil is fair. One hundred up front. Plus, I want—”

“Fuck off,” Gaby growled. “You’re trying to make up your losses from Houou.”

Vince listened while the girls argued with Hamelin. A large part of him thought paying her such a huge amount sounded insane. She wasn’t a vital member of the team, even if he needed more elite enforcers. What happened if Mei just vaporized whatever Hamelin prepared?

On the other hand, she sounded like she had something up her sleeve. Mei used a lot of barriers and even her own summons. Hamelin specialized as an anti-magic sorcerer, from the sounds of it and even the anti-magic abilities of the undead elves.

“Looks like you’re interested,” Hamelin said to Vince, grinning from ear-to-ear.

He shook his head, and she flinched in surprise. “We’re covering most of our own costs. Hatoyama’s fuckups definitely aren’t our problem. You said you wanted something on top of the payment? Then it sounds like the max will be 250k plus that.” He hesitated. “Plus costs, if you can convince Fia and Alessia they’re worth it.”

“Convince, you…” Then Hamelin’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’ll accept whatever I want?”

“He didn’t say that,” Nina said acidly. “Spit it out, rat. What do you want?”

The necromancer grinned toothily. “Simple. I want some of Vince’s blood for my own experiments. Long-term help would be great, too, but a few quarts would be perfect.”

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Commentary: The undead gremlin is back.