Willow
First appearance: Happy, chapter 38
Last appearance: Crucible, chapter 51
Appears in: Happy, Armageddon, Timeless, CrucibleLatest status
killed in the Death Ball arena during Eliza’s blackout attack
Willow, known by the handle Blaze, is an older fire mage recruited into Dom’s Death and Taxes guild after losing a fight to him. A former businesswoman carrying deep resentment toward the family who institutionalized her, she channels her anger into pragmatic leadership, mentoring younger teammates and applying hard-won business instincts to the guild’s structure. Her devastating fire magic, built on a dangerous overcharge technique, makes her one of the guild’s most powerful combatants even as she grapples with fatigue and sensitivity about her age.
Abilities
- Overcharge (fire spell enhancement) — Book 5.5
- Fire Nova — Book 5.5
- fire-damage/health-regeneration synergy — Book 5.5
- evolved high-power fireball technique — Book 5.5
- Water-mana concealment disguise (gifted by Queen) — Book 6
- Meteor spell — Book 6
- Overcharged Fire Nova — Book 6
Book 5.5: Happy
Willow is an older fire mage who joins Dom’s Death and Taxes guild after being defeated by him, accepting the loss gracefully and immediately applying a business background to the guild’s structure, arguing for mutually-assured-destruction contract clauses that protect members from the kind of betrayal she has lived through. She tells Vanessa that after her husband died and her business collapsed, her own children had her placed under guardianship in a retirement home; the shared story of systemic betrayal bonds the two women and marks Willow’s shift from isolation into the group. She is candid that part of her wants “to burn the whole damn thing down,” but channels that anger into mentoring younger teammates rather than destruction, and becomes a steady, no-nonsense voice during the guild’s tactical planning against The Jackals.
Her fire magic centers on a dangerous Overcharge technique and a fire-damage/health-regeneration synergy that took hundreds of deaths to master; initially fearful of the technique’s risk of self-harm, she works through that fear during Dom’s training, framing her willingness to endure pain as pragmatic acceptance rather than bravado. During the fight for Boomtown and the later assault on Aislen she takes the field name Blaze, fighting with theatrical flair on equal footing with Vanessa, holding the gate with sustained Fire Nova and aerial control, and eventually channeling her power past any previous limit to create her most powerful fireball yet while falling into battle, discovering new spell potential and trusting Dom’s plan despite the personal risk. During the guild’s 40-hour graveyard-camping siege of the Jackals’ spawn point she holds the main entrance, and in the final assault she serves as disciplined but barely-restrained firepower, melting metal and controlling doorways to secure the team’s escape.
Status: Alive — recently defeated by Dom, newly recruited to Death and Taxes → Alive — seasoned Death and Taxes combatant, disciplined but barely-restrained fire power
Vanessa: Bonds with Vanessa over their shared experience of betrayal, becoming a mentoring, competitive-but-respectful teammate rather than a stranger.
Dom: Moves from a defeated opponent to a trusted guild member who follows Dom’s battle plans despite the personal risk they carry.
Key quote: “maybe a part of me just wants to burn the whole damn thing down”
Book 6: Armageddon
Willow serves in the mercenary guild Death and Taxes under the handle Blaze, an older fire mage whose battlefield reputation for devastating incineration magic is matched by her open fatigue with a decades-long mercenary career. She takes on an informal leadership role early on, ordering her teammates to behave professionally in front of a new client and clearing a courtyard of hundreds of kobolds with a single massive fire display; later, operating with Dom’s masked group, she bluntly calls out a teammate for spending real money on virtual clothing, and during a profitable but morally murky mission she reasons that her own violence is at least honest, unlike outright deception.
During the guild’s siege of Barrow’s guild hall, Blaze disguises herself using a water-mana concealment gift from Queen before revealing her true flame-wreathed form to destroy the sensor array; taunted about her age, she loses her composure, screaming obscenities about “pudding and bingo” as her tactical focus gives way to what reads as displaced personal grievance. She goes on to breach Alexion’s barrier and push Julia to her limits with overcharged Fire Nova attacks, then later duels Jason and Alexion directly, asserting sole claim to the fight while Smokes and Pewpew back her up. Attacking Eliza with her signature Meteor spell, she is killed when Finn’s crystalline arm redirects her own fire magic back at her as a beam — but she reappears afterward hunting Jason again, grimly determined to make up for an earlier failed capture attempt, and later provides atmospheric fire effects for Bard’s staged battle before deliberately burning herself for tactical effect while defending the excavation site, treating the self-inflicted pain as a release for pent-up frustration.
Status: Alive — veteran fire mage, weary from a long mercenary career → Alive — active combatant at the excavation site, eager for further action
Queen: Queen gives her a water-mana concealment disguise used to infiltrate the guild-hall siege.
Bard: Their professional partnership frays as Bard’s performance priorities clash with her mission urgency during the siege.
Smokes: The two become a working combat pair, coordinating attacks against Jason and Alexion and later operating together on a hunt for Jason.
Finn: Finn kills her by redirecting her own Meteor spell back at her while she attacks Eliza.
Key quote: “Fuck your pudding and fuck bingo!”
Book 7: Timeless
During the battle, Blaze unleashes massive fire spells, including a meteor strike, accepting the risk of friendly fire to a teammate for tactical advantage, and pushes her abilities until her mana is fully depleted.
Status: battle-ready → mana-depleted, recovering
Book 8: Crucible
Blaze appears as one of Death and Taxes’ leaders during a negotiation over a championship match, framing the meeting in terms of profits, betting markets, and sponsorships rather than game mechanics. She argues that Finn and Eliza’s team is winning too much and destabilizing business interests, while repeatedly correcting and managing her teammate Bard’s behavior. Her fire magic flares visibly when she grows frustrated, and mana fluctuations suggest she is reluctant and being pressured into holding the meeting, though the source of that pressure is not stated. Later, during the Death Ball match against Fluffy Rules, she serves as a firepower specialist tasked with countering Finn’s metal manipulation, using heat to prevent him from hardening metal and coordinating with her teammate Smokes. She is killed during Eliza’s blackout attack.
Status: Death and Taxes leader negotiating a championship match under apparent external pressure → killed in the Death Ball arena during Eliza’s blackout attack
Bard: She spends the negotiation correcting and managing his behavior, showing visible strain from the effort.
Finn: She acts as his professional rival in the negotiation and later as his direct magical counter in the arena match, where she is killed.
Key quote: “The problem is that you’re winning too much. It’s bad for business.”
Appears in
- Happy — 8 chapters
- Armageddon — 11 chapters
- Timeless — 1 chapters
- Crucible — 2 chapters