Game Master in Another World

Juliana navigated the gloom until we found a set of shoddy wooden stairs leading up. We followed them to a heavy door, bolted firmly from the other side.

Without hesitating, Juliana reached out and cast a druidic spell. The heavy wooden planks groaned and buckled violently, splintering into pieces with a deafening bang.

As the dust cleared, the unmistakable sounds and smells of a bustling tavern hit us—stale ale, unwashed bodies, and the sudden, shocked gasps of the patrons. It seemed we had come up through a cellar right into the main room.

Juliana stepped through the shattered frame, a deep frown marring her features. I was immensely glad she had ordered Toby and the guards to stay a safe distance behind us.

The barkeep stopped wiping down the counter. He looked at her, his initial shock melting into a slow, cruel smile.

“It seems Callum failed,” he mused, leaning against the bar. “How nice of you to bring yourself here and allow us to finish the job.”

Juliana glared at him. “Killing innocents is a crime I am unable to overlook. For your sins, you will meet justice.”

“I’d like to see you try,” the barkeep replied, his grin widening. “I doubt you are aware of the mess you have landed yourself in.”

All around the room, the 'patrons' began to stand up. Chairs scraped against the floorboards as cloaks were thrown back, revealing drawn daggers, shortswords, and loaded hand crossbows. This wasn't a tavern at all; it was a guildhouse.

“Do you have any last words, Juliana?” The barkeep was practically laughing now as he pulled a massive greataxe off the wall, swinging the heavy weapon around with terrifying ease.

“Pray to your gods for mercy,” Juliana responded coldly. “For I shall not be showing you any today.”

Several men charged at once. From the flanks, three rogues fired their hand crossbows in quick succession. Juliana dove gracefully out of the way, her physical form dissolving mid-roll as she Wild Shaped, erupting into a towering, living spirit of fire.

The transformation into something incorporeal was always a strange sensation, but it seemed Juliana’s righteous rage had fueled the flames, causing them to burn a blinding, furious white.

The assassins didn't flinch. They attacked in perfect synchronisation, using pack tactics to cover each other's blind spots. Juliana managed to weave around two flashing blades, but a third struck our arm.

A sharp jolt of pain shot through our ethereal body. I cursed internally. Magically enhanced weapons. It was the only way they could bypass our elemental resistances.

Juliana let out a roaring burst of flame toward one of the attackers. To my absolute shock, the rogue artfully backflipped through the blast, utilizing some high-level evasion to escape with only minor singes. The wooden furniture behind him, however, instantly caught alight.

Juliana roared as yet more crossbow bolts flew at us. Dodging the projectiles threw our balance off, leaving us unable to block another rapid strike from a shortsword. We whipped a lash of concentrated flame toward the retreating fighter. He ducked under it effortlessly. The heavy oak table behind him split in two and burst into flames.

Suddenly, the barkeep charged, bringing his greataxe crashing down toward us. We twisted away, dodging his swing, but stepped straight into the path of another rogue's blade. As we spun around to retaliate, the man had already retreated out of range using some sort of disengaging footwork.

This fight was proving incredibly frustrating. We were losing the action economy, we couldn't seem to land a solid hit on their ridiculous evasion stats, and we were steadily taking damage.

Juliana sent another searing burst of flame at one of the rogues. Once again, they nimbly dodged, but the fireball sailed past them and struck the main doorway, setting the heavy timber ablaze. The fire rapidly began to spread from the splintered tables, catching a set of thick drapes. Choking black smoke began to bank down from the ceiling, filling the room and causing several rogues to hack and cough as their lungs burned.

The barkeep charged again, executing a low, sweeping upward strike with his greataxe. We dodged the heavy blade, but our momentum carried us straight into the waiting shortsword of another rogue. The magical blade bit into our ethereal form. We lashed out in retaliation. This time, the rogue couldn’t rely on their evasion—the floorboards directly behind them were a blazing inferno. With nowhere to retreat, our fiery strike caught them squarely across the chest, the kinetic force knocking them hard to the ground with a sickening sizzle.

Sensing the situation rapidly deteriorating, several rogues near the exterior wall threw a heavy wooden bar stool through the nearest window to create an escape route. It was a fatal mistake. The sudden rush of fresh oxygen fed the starved flames, triggering a massive backdraft. A violent explosion of fire sent the rogues blasting out through the shattered window, their screams echoing into the street as they burned alive.

Total panic set in. The remaining assassins looked toward the main door, which was now a solid wall of fire, and desperately began searching for another exit. One rogue sprinted for the back door. Juliana casually flicked a concentrated blast of fire at the exit, catching the man just as he reached for the handle. He shrieked in agony, dropping to the floor to frantically roll out the flames.

The barkeep, however, was utterly unconcerned with the state of his tavern. He charged at us again, swinging his greataxe with a rapid, terrifying frenzy, as if the massive weapon weighed nothing at all. We continued to weave around his strikes, but this time, there were no flanking rogues waiting to catch us. We simply stepped backward into the heart of the fire, where the flesh-and-blood barkeep could not follow.

“Fuck you, Juliana! If I’m going down, you are coming with me!” the barkeep roared, his face blistered by the heat.

He pulled a parchment scroll from his coat and rapidly chanted an incantation. A concussive blast of magic shot from the paper and slammed into a central, load-bearing pillar, shattering the wood instantly. With its structural integrity already devastated by the fire, the ceiling gave a horrific groan.

The tavern began to crash down around us. We moved with blistering speed, weaving through the falling, flaming debris, and dove headfirst through the fire-engulfed window just as the roof completely caved in.

Landing on the cobblestones outside, we turned around. The remains of the tavern had collapsed into a raging, burning pile of rubble, the faint, muffled sounds of screaming slowly dying away within the inferno, leaving only the crackle of the inferno cutting through the dead of night.

Once the horrific screaming had finally stopped, we dropped our fiery elemental guise, shifting back into our tall, familiar Nhalyri form. We stood alone in the dark street, watching the blaze aggressively consume what remained of the building.

Not wanting the fire to spread to the adjacent city blocks, Juliana looked up to the night sky and murmured a druidic incantation. Dark rain clouds rapidly formed directly overhead, unleashing a sudden, torrential downpour onto the burning rubble. A loud, hissing crackle echoed through the empty street, thick white steam replacing the choking black smoke as the magical rain rapidly extinguished the inferno.

Not long after, heavy boots slapped against the wet cobblestones. Several city guards came sprinting around the corner, weapons drawn, before stopping dead in their tracks to stare at the smoking, soaked pile of rubble.

“What happened here?” one of the guards demanded, his eyes darting between the ruined tavern and Juliana.

“We took justice into our own hands and punished the wicked,” Juliana responded calmly.

The guard blinked, completely taken aback by the blunt, emotionless confession. “And how did you define that these people needed justice enough for you to take matters into your own hands?”

“Well, the bodies of a woman and child in their basement was enough evidence for me,” Juliana said with unwavering confidence, referencing the grim discovery we had made in the cellar just before breaching the tavern.

The guard swallowed hard, looking entirely out of his depth. “Well... I’ll have to take you under arrest. Taking the law into your own hands is not something you can do. We will investigate the truth of the matter to determine your punishment.”

The guard nervously motioned his men over. To my absolute disbelief, Juliana didn't resist. She willingly held out her wrists and accepted the heavy metal chains. I could have easily seized control, wild-shaped into a bear, and shattered the cuffs in seconds, but I held my tongue. As we were led away from the steaming scene, I realised that we would likely be released anyway based on our connections anyhow.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!