Slayer Magic
Chapter Five

by Jared Ornstead
aka Skysaber
aka Perfect Lionheart

OoOoO

Over the next two weeks the attacks continued to come hard and fierce. Cosmic horrors descended upon them, hags and nightmares, mixed in with more usual demons, vampires and other creatures of the night.

And that wasn't the worst of what hit them.

After a while, things more or less blended together, although the horde demon roaches was an interesting stand-out. As were the terrors that were so horrible no one even dared stand up against them to fight.

Amy explained that as the Fear ability. Only machines, or creatures out of horror movies themselves could stand to block them. And it turned out Black had a large number of dark and nasty critters with either Fear or Protection From White they were willing to attack with. Even a few invisible ones made the attempt, although those thankfully could be stopped by his very potent walls.

Still, he'd taken quite a battering.

So it was with great relief, that on the twenty-eight day since his last turn, Xander woke up knowing that he had his mana back on tap.

It was his turn today.

"Eleven attacks got through, each doing slightly more than twenty points of damage to poor Xander, on average," Amy announced sorrowfully from Xander's bedside, which had come to more resemble a hospital room with all of the machines and wires plugged into Xander himself, as well as the bandages covering his chest and general antiseptic smell. "Another round like that, and he's a goner."

Willow was hovering, concerned, by Xander's bedside. "What I want to know is: Why didn't Xander's Protection From Black protect him?"

The young redhead had, in the last twenty eight days, become an *expert* on the Magic game, studying it so that she could help out Xander. And it was confusing her that she did not understand what was happening.

"Ok, let's see if I can explain my theory," Sophie proffered her suggestion, breaking into the tumult of opinion, finally showing off that wisdom she was named for. "We've all read the For Dummies books for Business and Economics by now. So let's say, by way of example, that Xander were to start a corporation, of which, for whatever reason, he was the only member. Now from that point forward according to our law Xander would then be two separate legal entities. The Xander Corporation would have different rules and regulations apply to it than Xander, The Underage Boy. They would be taxed differently, and treated as different under the law - even though, we know, really, they are the exact same person."

Sophie offered them all a kind and intelligent glance. "I believe, with Amy, the same thing is happening here magically. The rules of the style of magic by which Xander draws his power apply differently to creatures than they do to players. Xander is both, but there are ways to make creatures irrelevant. So, under those circumstances, creature powers are unavailable to him. It's just like under our law that Xander, The Underage Boy could get a speeding ticket, even though The Xander Corporation could not, because different rules apply."

"So, in short," Willow summed up, "What you're saying is there are some things 'Creature Xander' can't fight, and against those, he is left on his own as 'Player Xander'."

"And all players are is punching bags if an enemy creature get through your blockers." Amy amended, nodding her head, as it made a twisted sort of sense. "He didn't even have any spells he could cast, as we'd already had him use nearly everything in his hand, and what little was left wasn't appropriate and he didn't have mana for anyway, as we'd had him use that up too."

"So?"

"Player Xander was helpless. No fuel, no ammo."

"Okay," Harmony breathed out. "So, just to make sure I understand this: There are creatures that can shut down Xander's creature abilities just like an anti-magic shell shuts down a D&D wizard?"

"Yes." Amy replied. "There are monsters a white creature simply cannot fight, so against those his abilities as a white creature just sort of shut down. So, yes, comparing it to an anti-magic shell is a good example."

"Okay, that's all I wanted to know." Harmony nodded.

Willow's head had shot up. "I want to know one thing more: How do we stop it?"

Amy spread her hands helplessly. "We'll know what our options are once Xander draws more cards."

That was something they'd all been eager for, since he hadn't been able to draw another card until it was his turn again.

"Shower first," the young man groaned, peeling bloody bandages off his body and unplugging wires from the medical machines they'd had monitoring him. Willow was eager to help him. All the rest stood silent in respect to his suffering.

"How is he even alive?" Cordelia asked, once they had disappeared into the bathroom. Willow had been washing him for days. They'd all seen him gnashed by jaws that had bitten a tank in half.

Now if only that had been an isolated event!

"Short answer?" Amy groaned and stood up, walking out to the balcony where dawn's early light was just starting to shine over the horizon. "He packed on lots of life."

"Longer form, please," Cordy requested without malice or annoyance.

Amy breathed deeply, smelling dew, still looking out over the early dawn. "Before you joined us, he played a card called Angelic Chorus that gives him extra life according to how many creatures he brings into play."

Sophie cocked her head. "So, what are the numbers?"

Amy turned her back on the still shadowed streets to come in out of the cold night air. "When he first picked up that deck he got twenty life, because that's what new players always start out with. Then he lost fifteen of that as the price he paid to get more land under his control quickly, leaving him with five life. Then he played four Angelic Chorus cards, so whenever a creature comes into play under his control, he gains life equal to its toughness - only that's FOUR TIMES that toughness in life because he had four Angelic Choruses."

She raised her eyes to look at them. "So rather than explain all of the details, he started out with twenty, lost fifteen, got eighty from summoning treefolk, got sixty four more when he made the first four of us angels, got another eighty again from summoning his walls, and then finally an extra sixty four from transforming you other four into angels. So he ended his first turn with a final tally of two hundred and ninety three life."

She sighed and flopped into a seat, facing all. "Which would have been great, except for twenty-seven days straight now we've been facing off attacks, Every One of Which, was set up to do, at minimum, a hundred points of damage!"

"We've blocked what we could, and endured what we must," she spoke as if to the ceiling. "And those things that broke through our defenses, the Urza's Armor did a great deal to minimize the damage of. Attacks that ought to have hit him for a hundred or more usually did only about twenty. So it's thanks to that, and our blocking everything we could, that he's alive today. But saying 'that was close' is an understatement!" she concluded firmly.

She found no disagreement from them.

"How much life has he still got?" Harmony asked softly.

"Seven," Amy told her ominously. "It would be in the negatives, and he would already be dead, if we hadn't set up our own little ICU for him here. That helped him recover a point or two after being savaged in the most recent attacks, and proved that cards aren't the only thing that can affect his health. Thank Heaven."

Really, it was amazing what you could do, slapping a few emergency room doctors in the face with wads of cash. Of course, it helped that, thanks to those For Dummies books, they all had equivalent to nursing degrees, as well as pre-medical studies. So those doctors they'd hired to sew him back together after the attacks had had plenty of assistants.

There came a long, low whistle out of one of the Cordettes.

"Yeah." Amy rubbed her eyes, wiping the tears out. "Against attacks that do over a hundred, seven isn't going to last very long. No matter how good our intentions at keeping him safe, something big has got to happen to help Xander out this round, or he isn't going to live to see a third."

Faces were pale.

"And last turn we had an Ancestral Recall, which he used to get twelve more cards," Sophie observed. "But there is no chance we'll draw another one of those. So, while our first turn got him seventeen cards, this turn is probably only going to be five - the one from a normal draw, plus four more from his libraries."

Concern was evident everywhere, as that didn't seem like nearly enough, considering how close everything had already been.

Nobody had to mention the shattered ruins of what used to be his treefolk, standing outside that tower, their trunks splintered, having been sacrificed to save Xander in one of the most recent attacks, sent out to combat creatures they could not possibly defeat, or even survive against, just to spare some of the last few remaining points of Xander's life.

One of the treefolk had been felled earlier, to an attack by something they didn't even have a name to that turned out to be surprisingly dangerous. And Xander had run out of mana to regenerate his loyal soldier.

The other three had fallen just last night. The corpses of three giants lay still cooling beside them. Just like those motorcycle knights that were the first attack to get through, evil magic had been used to increase their power. In this case, the cyclopses had been so hopped up on enchantments they had done nine damage apiece, any one of those getting through would have dropped Xander down to dead.

He had seven life now, but that was after recovering two from treatments last night.

When it had come down to a choice between either the treefolk living, or Xander, it had been an obvious choice - but not an easy one. Yet given the choice again every last one of those girls would do it the same way, if they had to.

"So, we just hope he gets lots of big creatures to summon for more health... right?"

"That would be a start," Amy admitted.

"The problem with that," Hope surmised, "Is that in having done these attacks our enemies must have learned of the weak points in Xander's defenses. Lots of creatures, successful or not, survived to go back and report what they saw here, what we used to stop them, and how. And from attacks that got through even better information will filter back. Those players at least will know exactly what to attack with next time, to do a better job."

Hope gave a bouncy shrug. "All that said, I'm sure something will come up. Heaven does not abandon its own during their times of need."

Charity shivered and hugged herself. "I just wish Xander weren't so helpless in the face of so much of this!"

"Not entirely helpless," Xander spoke, standing in the bathroom door, dressed for the day, Willow still keeping close to his side as she assisted him into his bedchamber. "I've noticed that my magic will only allow my attackers to do me so much harm before it kicks in and makes them think I'm dead, or pops me to another location where they can't find me until they've gone, or whatever."

"Game rules," Amy nodded. "An attacking creature can only do damage equal to its power before it has to retreat. It looks like the magic that made you what you are is enforcing that. Otherwise, many of those attackers wouldn't have left without taking your head as a trophy, no matter how long it took them whacking on you to get it."

"Agreed," Xander whispered softly, groaning slightly from pain as he sat once more upon his bed, Willow lowering him there tenderly, with Hope and Charity joining her to assist.

Harmony made a "come here" motion with one finger and her copy machine floated into the room, to settle beside some of the medical equipment. Then Cordelia opened up the wall safe and reached in, hand emerging with a silver tray on which sat Xander's deck of cards.

It was time to draw.

Breaths were held in anticipation.

For the first time in nearly a month, a card came free of the deck into Xander's hand when he tried to draw. "Angel's Feather," he declared, reading aloud. "An artifact that lets me gain one life every time any player casts a white spell. Normally costs two colorless, but with my four Stone Calendars each reducing the colorless mana price of each spell I cast by one, it goes down to the minimum, which is zero."

"Copy first," Harmony commanded calmly, holding out her palm for the card, and Xander just as calmly handed it over.

When she returned four of it moments later, Xander placed them beside the three uncast Fastbond spells left over from the last round, and stated calmly, "Now I have seven cards in my hand, and choose to activate all of my Libraries of Alexandria for another card each."

The anticipation was tense. Angel's Feather, while nice, did nothing anywhere near the scale they needed to spare Xander's life until the next round. So whether he lived or died was up to these next few cards.

He read them in sequence. "Llanowar Elves, a one-one green creature that I can tap for green mana."

Amy tried to console herself that even a one toughness creature, if they summoned four of it, then between the four Angelic Chorus cards already in play, that would grant Xander an extra sixteen life.

It wasn't much on the scale they needed, but it was something.

"Sigil of the Empty Throne. An enchantment, that every time I cast an enchantment I get to put a four-four white angel token with flying into play."

Willow was already calculating. "He can cast that four times. The first won't trigger on itself because it wasn't in play before it was cast. But when he casts the second, the first will give him an extra angel. Then on the third, the first two will trigger, granting him two more, and on the fourth all of the previous three will grant him an angel apiece. One plus two plus three," she counted to confirm, then raised her eyes bright with joy to the others. "That's six angels and ninety six life he'll get just out of casting that card alone!"

"YES!" Amy, Cordelia, Hope and Charity cheered together, quickly hugging one another. It wasn't perfect, but more flying defenders meant almost as much as the life he would gain by his putting new toughness four creatures into play.

Now all they needed was a few more enchantments to play to fuel that card's ability.

"You forget, he's got those Angel Feathers, too," Amy instructed, still hugging her friends. "It won't help on the Llanowar Elves, because that's a green card, but that Sigil enchantment counts as a white spell, so casting four of it means an extra sixteen life for Xander just for having cast four white spells with four Angel's Feathers in play!" Paradoxically, the Angel's Feather itself did not count as a white spell, but the game could be odd like that.

"Cast it now!" Willow pleaded, tugging on Xander's shoulder.

"Not yet," Xander shook his head. "Let's wait until we have all the information. Order matters. There might be some combo that would make it even better, like those Angel's Feathers."

Harmony would have joined all of this celebrating. However, her attention had been caught by something else. "Hah!" she laughed, reaching to the shelf above Xander's bed. "Figures that today would be the day those lights stopped blinking."

And with that announcement, she brought down the pokeballs, beaming at everyone. And they knew why. On the day those dragons had attacked so long ago, Xander had insisted they stop short of killing six of them, just knocked them unconscious then trapped them in these pokeballs that they'd found in Ethan's shop the first day.

And now those balls were reporting their contents had stopped struggling and were ready to serve him.

Harmony beamed. "Six new angels, with these six dragons... We have now doubled your defense force, my liege! Both in numbers, and in power."

It was in a considerably lighter mood that Xander drew his next card. "Spellbook, an artifact that costs zero to play, and removes any limit to number of cards I hold in my hand."

"A very good card to have in combination with the Ivory Towers you are now living in, which grant you extra life at the start of your turn equal to the number of cards in your hand, minus four, with a minimum of zero extra life. Not so bad a card under the normal hand limit of seven, but can quickly get potent without that limit," Sofia broke her silence to prove that she, too, had studied the rules and cards of this game during the past twenty eight days.

Others had dabbled, but Sofia and Willow had almost made a career out of it. Both for virtually the same reason, as well.

Helping out Xander was Sofia's primary priority, but it was Willow's only one.

And now for the last card. Xander drew and read it, then smiled, showing it off to the rest of them. "I think we just won. This is Verduran Enchantress."

Amy wracked her brain hard to figure out what he meant about winning. For all she recalled, the Verduran Enchantress was just a one-one green wizard card that...

Oh dear. He was right. That was victory!

"A zero-two green creature," Harmony read aloud to everyone else as she went to copy it, and proving Amy's guess about it being a one-one to have been a faulty memory. "With the special ability of 'whenever you play an enchantment, draw a card'."

Action stopped as everyone considered that.

"So, wait," Cordelia asked. "Let me make sure I've got this right. First Xander plays this enchantress, then the angel feather just for kicks, and when he plays that Sigil of The Empty Throne we're all so excited about..."

"He draws four more cards," Hope concluded gladly.

"Per Enchantress," Sofia corrected. "And since he has four of them, that's sixteen cards he draws for every enchantment he plays."

"And so far this deck has been *rich* with enchantments." Amy glowed with happiness. "The chance we won't find another in the next sixteen is slim at best."

"And that starts the cycle over again," Willow beamed, snuggled into Xander's side all this while, but cuddling him extra good now she was filled with hope and gladness.

"That's it," Cordelia stepped forward, presenting herself. "Xander, I've loved helping keep you alive. You brought me to life for the first time. Nobody ought to know better than I do how empty and hollow existence as a social predator can be. I wasn't even human until you made me an angel. Now I help those I once ridiculed, and am loved by everyone who once hated me. Some, I'm sure, would even die for me, if I asked them to, which I won't; and I never could have imagined, back when I thought I was making points by putting them down, how much better kindness to others would make me feel."

Cordelia wiped tears away from her eyes, yet smiled though them to him. "It has been a revelation, living this way, and I don't want to give that up. So I don't want you to lose. Your life has become precious to me, so... I'd like to be your first Enchantress. Please, as much as I've loved being your bodyguard, I want to help be responsible for your victory."

Sofia, Hope and Charity lined up with her, all had similar smiles on their faces.

Willow and Amy had dew running down their faces over the bravery of their friends.

Harmony beamed to him as she presented the newly copied cards.

Xander quickly charged up the Verduran Enchantress card, applying it in a flash of brilliant emerald light. Hugs and kisses got presented all around as Amy and Willow took turns completing the combinations of their friends.

The Angel's Feather came next, then it was time for the starring event.

Phones came out.

Calls were made.

"Hi, Verity? This is Cordelia. Yes, I know how early it is, but it is very important to me. I would take it as a personal favor if you would come to this address, as soon as you are able. Yes. Uh huh. I'll tell you what, come, and I'll make sure you ace all of your school subjects this year. No, no cheating involved. I'll study with you until you know them as well as I do. Yes, the offer is real. Alright, I'll see you here. Half an hour is good. Bye."

"Please," Willow begged into her phone. "It's really important. I wouldn't ask otherwise."

Others were, most of them, experiencing similar difficulties convincing their people to get out of bed at this early hour.

Harmony's call was a great deal more perfunctory, having set it up in advance. "Mercy? It's time. No, I hadn't forgotten. Get yourself here in the next half hour, and you'll be a Xander-ette just like the rest of us. Actually, no, I don't see that mattering. So what if you can't slip out? I wouldn't dream of stopping you from bringing all of the girls of your sleepover. The more, the merrier. Do you need help transporting them? No? Alright, see you then."

Sophie's call was similarly short. "Sis? Hi. Today's the day. Can you make it? Fine, see you in twenty. Don't forget anyone." She closed the phone, announcing, "My four sisters are on their way."

"My book club," came the agreement.

"The girls from the band."

"Half a dozen of my former wanna-be Cordettes," Cordelia chimed in.

"And it sounds like the entire girls swim team."

Willow did a quick tally. "It sounds like we are getting close to a hundred people."

Hope huffed in the aftereffect of hard work, smiling for the rest as she posed, "Hopefully that will be enough."

It had not escaped anyone's notice that, if Xander were to summon more creatures, then he would need more people to serve as vessels for the powers he was about to give them. So, among other things, their making friends at school had laid an effective groundwork for this day.

It was a trifle early to call most people. However, if you are genuinely loved by someone, they'll get up in the early Am for you, even if they are high school students. They may grumble about it, and they won't want to make a habit of it, but they'll do it all the same.

Dishes clinked as a breakfast cart got brought in. Angels leap to help distribute dishes.

During one of those dark days recently past, they had put the animated plushy of Barney, The Purple Dinosaur into the Playboy Bunny costume as a joke to help cheer up Xander, only it hadn't worked out like anyone had expected.

Now they had Bianca, the purple-haired bunny-girl.

They'd hired her as a maid because, well, the poor dear wasn't very bright, and looking like a girl out of Japanese anime, all curvy and with obviously nonhuman rabbit ears and tail, as well as having no records or modern skills. It was just kinder to keep her around the place, helping out with the cooking and things, even if brainless bimbo was the only job she'd really been suited for before they'd began reading aloud those For Dummies books to her.

Poor dear still couldn't read by herself. But now she was like everyone's ditzy younger cousin. She helped out mostly by her bright and bubbly and cheerful attitude.

Oh, and bringing Xander breakfast in bed, and oftentimes lunch and dinner too. The rest of the girls may have been qualified nurses, but they also had day schedules, and with the explosion of professional assassins crawling all over town since the Watcher's council had made their play, entering a small army, plus extra new Slayer into town a couple of days ago, it wasn't wise to take too many days off of school, as people willing to hire professional killers usually had folks who excelled at picking up on clues like that.

Xander had a certified medical excuse. Everybody thought he was a circumstantial victim, having been too close to one of the recent attacks (which was a true, if misleading, way to put things. Being the target of an attack put him much too close to it).

But the rest of them did not.

Thankfully, they had Bianca to cover for them in the meantime. Thanks to the books, she'd become a decent cook, and they didn't need help with the cleaning. Pop the Lamp of Mr. Clean once or twice a day (depending, largely, on if that day's fight got indoors), and they were good.

Sure they were about to have an interesting morning, the boy and his girls settled into their shared breakfast experience largely in silence, but with ever brightening hope.

OoOoO

As she grumbled, completing her early morning patrol, Buffy was learning just how easy she'd had life as The Slayer.

She kicked a stone out of her path, feeling rebellious.

The way she'd always seen it, being the mystically empowered one with all of the super-strength and stuff put her in charge. That's the way it always was with the Justice League. The ones with the biggest superpowers ran the show, and if anyone without superpowers was around, they did fetch and carry for the real heroes.

She'd been important. She'd been the one in charge. She'd been the leader.

Then THEY came!

And now she was learning the Watchers did not see things that way at all. No, not one bit.

Giles was a big softy. She'd had it easy with him. He was, like, this indulgent father figure, even when he tried for stern more often than not he hit silly with those funky British quirks of his, and it really wasn't hard to get him to let her do whatever she wanted.

The new guys in charge meant business. They gave orders, and expected to be obeyed. And the one time she'd tried to blow them off and reassert her independence...

First, there had been about fifty firearms pointed in her direction that first second. Then, it had been very calmly pointed out to her that they had wetworks assassination teams crawling all over this town, and it wouldn't be the work of a moment to divert them off of the sorcerer-hunting mission, to a Slayer-hunting one.

She shivered, recalling that occasion, and clapped her arms in her jacket for extra warmth, not even looking up to appreciate the glorious pre-dawn light.

When she'd been shocked at the sudden rifles, this new Watcher guy had even laughed in her face and declared the real reason behind the policy of never arming the Slayers with modern arms or armor was to make them easy to take out if they ever went rogue. Guns were their wooden stakes, holy water and crosses for taking her out, should they ever feel that was necessary.

They would have their slayer a proper, obedient servant, or they'd call one who would be.

The guy had been so matter-of-fact about killing her he'd actually terrified Buffy, who'd been staring down the barrels of about fifty assault rifles at the time. And, come to think of it, she didn't have any super powers that made her bullet proof.

She'd saluted and started taking orders promptly.

Two patrols, sometimes three a night. Catch a nap in the afternoon, then repeat. They'd made no secret about watching her carefully for signs of rebellion. She even had a few new houseguests, and wasn't *that* something hard to explain to her mom!

Vehicles kept her under surveillance during her walks through town, on patrols, or going to and from school. Nothing else was allowed, no friends, no dates, no social life. Not like that was much different, she felt, feeling sorry for herself, with the rest of the Scoobs so busy they barely talked to her now. And she hadn't seen Angel in nearly a month, since before Halloween, and was starting to give up on the hope he'd ever contact her. She'd started to wonder if he'd died that Halloween, when so many other vampires got destroyed.

She'd heard through the grapevine that Xander had gotten injured. That came as no surprise to her. Guy was always getting in the way and being injured. Perhaps now he'd learn how it felt to stay in the hospital and not get visited.

Partly she wanted to feel vindicated, putting him through something she'd suffered, but mostly she had to admit, she didn't have any choice. Her new schedule was running her ragged, and she couldn't even really see the point!

Hunting was rather slim. Come to think of it, it was not just Angel pulling another vanishing act, she hadn't seen ANY demons or vampires this past month! Going on patrols was like fishing in an empty swimming pool - there just wasn't anything there to catch!

Oh, there had been these major attacks going on nightly, only she hadn't been involved. If anything, those only reinforced her feelings of irrelevance. Those were like, The Clash of The Titans, Hollywood style battles between pagan gods, and the powers that had always made her feel so comfortable in her own superiority felt pretty insignificant by comparison.

Buffy had stopped by the aftermath of one, just a little earlier. And she'd seen one of those cyclopses that had died last night. Even standing on her feet in heels while the corpse lay on its back on the shattered and messed up street, she could not manage to reach up to touch the guy's nose, not unless she'd wanted to climb his ear to do it.

It had been a humbling realization. She wasn't as tall standing up as that giant was laying down. The club it had wielded had enough wood in it to probably build her house. And he may even well have more mass of armpit hair than she did to her whole body!

At this point, she really couldn't imagine killing such a thing, and it did not help her recapture her feelings of being the most the most super-awesome, important thing on the Hellmouth, seeing someone else had.

The confident self-assurance that she could handle anything... just wasn't there anymore.

Giles was no help, either. It hadn't taken these new guys a day to take soft and silly Giles off active duty and stuff him back among the library stacks as a full-time researcher, telling him quite clearly there would be no more pampering Slayers for him!

Buffy sighed, repeating the new mantra the Watchers had given her inside of her head: Her life was the mission, and the mission was her life. It was hunt supernatural predators or die, to be replaced by someone who would.

The strangest thing was this other Slayer, Kendra, seemed to thrive on it.

Buffy was too busy, focused on her growing depression, to notice an unusual amount of cars driving by for that hour, all going the same direction.

OoOoO

Author's Notes:

Originally, I was thinking that I could knock out their first turn in two chapters, with maybe a bit overflowing onto the top of three. Then I could handle the other turns in a chapter apiece, more or less. Obviously, it didn't happen that way.

Five chapters in, and I've only barely begun his second turn. But I still have both a very clear idea where this is going, and how it will end.