Abandoning Stealth, Alex sent mana to Battle Trance as he pulled the jagged release dagger from his inventory. More mana flew through his pathways towards his hands, Thorn’s Touch coating the blade in its sanguine sheen. Next, he flared Aura Control, making his presence known in an attempt to draw attention from the beast’s current target. Landing on the ground ten feet from the tiger, Alex activated Echo Relocation twice in quick succession, the skill closing the remaining distance as he threw all his momentum into an opening strike.
The attack landed heavy, piercing the tiger’s tough hide as it tried to react to the assassin’s sudden appearance. With the creature so severely weakened, Alex should have been good to take things a bit slower, but he didn’t risk it. Leveraging his foot against the creature's damaged flank, he withdrew the blade with a tug and spurt of blood. Pivoting so his backwards fall became a forward one, he teleported once more, his echo reaching the ground as he relocated above the beast. Stabbing down in a gravity aided blow, this time to the creature’s neck, he mentally counted off his second attack.
Swaying with the beast as it tried to remove him, the motion allowing Alex to retain his balance, he freed his blade along with his person, before teleporting once more. Strike already flying as he landed on the ground behind the beast, he brought his knife up and into its already mangled hind leg. The tiger fell with a weak roar, the pain too great to stay standing without all its limbs, teeth bared as it squirmed to get a bite out of Alex. Kicking the beast’s nose with his heel to fend it off, Alex ripped his blade out before immediately impaling the same spot once more.
Relocating a final time, he appeared directly in front of the beast, its head snapping around to face him with a speed that belied its battered state. Flipping his dagger so it pointed skyward, he pulled one of the hammers from his storage and stabbed the beast up through the soft flesh under the creature’s mouth. Following up the attack with a hammer strike to the weapon's hilt, he sent a mental command to activate the dagger's skill, the force wave it let out ending the beast instantly.
Breathing heavy as he received the partial experience from the kill, Alex deactivated Thorn’s Touch and Battle Trance, while leaving Aura Control active so he appeared around level forty. His portion of the fight had lasted less than twenty seconds, but he’d managed to burn through a significant chunk of his mana in that short time. He reasoned the constant teleportation was a bit overkill, but it hadn’t been for fun, well not purely for fun at least. Turning to the only other conscious person in the vicinity, he approached Ben as the last of his clones disappeared.
Alex had watched the man through Sixth Sense as he killed the creature, but Ben hadn’t moved, the man had barely even watched the fight from the looks of it, just remained on the ground cradling his dead companion. Now that he knew it was a bird, Alex felt a bit silly for his earlier panic, though in hindsight he was just glad to not have been spotted by the creature. Based on the half full flask of red liquid lying on the ground, Ben had tried feeding the creature a healing potion, but Alex figured it had been pointless. By his estimate, the bird had been dead before it hit the ground. He could relate to the man’s pain, he’d had a pet once and the dog had been like family, but Alex was a bit miffed the ranger hadn’t even tried checking on the woman yet.
Ready to divert course so he could do so himself, Ben finally raised his head to look at him, forcing Alex to refocus on the grieving man.
“Stay back,” Ben screamed, his voice choking on his sobs as he brought his crossbow up, one of the bolts having already auto-slotted into the chamber.
Alex didn’t know if the man actually planned to fire, but with the memory of the exploding ammunition fresh in his mind, he didn’t risk it. Relocating to the side of the man, he created another pair of clones, leaving the man to fluctuate his aim between the two.
“You monster, you’re just like the fucking beast,” he shouted, as he fired one of the arrows at a clone Alex; the bolt exploding against a tree a few meters away.
Suddenly feeling much less conflicted about what he planned to do next, Alex roundhouse kicked the man’s temple, leaving Ben to crumple like a puppet with his strings cut. Still not used to his own strength, he hoped the strike hadn’t killed the man, but knew better than to hold back in a moment like that. Seeing the young man was still breathing as he recovered the crossbow, Alex stored it before rising back to his feet and jogging over to the warrior’s body.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
She was in rough shape, though alive. Her helmet and armor were dented all over, speaking of severe damage across her entire body, and Alex reasoned at the current rate she didn’t have much time left. Not willing to expend one of his own potions just yet, he pulled out his mat and placed her on top. The maneuver was rougher than would be advised for someone in her condition, but he was trying to get everything done before Ben woke up and tried something else stupid.
Alex knew the mat wasn’t likely to actually heal her much in the brief time period, which was one of the reason’s he’d placed her on top of it. He didn’t need her waking up, and as long as she remained still and didn’t die, it should give him enough time to figure this whole thing out. Using Sixth Sense to make sure Ben was still out, Alex quickly moved over to Jerry, but didn’t have to do more than give the man a glance to see he was never getting up. Deciding to leave the body there for the moment, he headed back over to the comatose young man, and kicked him in the head once more for good measure.
Bending down, Alex frisked him, removing all the spatial devices and weapons he could find, including a dagger strapped to the man’s ankle. Placing the stuff on the ground nearby, he dragged the body to a relatively small tree and wrapped some rope around the man, before tying it in what he hoped was a solid knot. He wanted to go retrieve the stuff from the cave now, in case he needed to suddenly cut and run, but wouldn’t risk leaving Ben, or his mat, so he instead pulled out a chair and took a seat. This whole event had given him an idea, and Alex was willing to risk a little so it panned out.
Opting to go for intimidation, he pulled out some water and splashed it on the man’s face. Surprised that it actually worked as Ben came sputtering back to life, Alex had to suppress a smile, he’d always wanted to try that. Knowing it was a bit odd to derive joy from the situation, he focused on Ben as the man brought his gaze up to meet his eyes.
“What do you want? Who are you? Where’s my stuff?” he questioned through a coughing fit. “My father will have you killed.”
For a moment Alex was stunned, the “my father” card right out the gate, real or not, this world was definitely a parody at times, though he supposed the trope must have started somewhere.
“Now, don’t you think you have bigger issues at the moment.” Alex tried, hoping to appeal to the login dormant inside the man. “One of your party, along with your bird, are dead, with the other severely injured. And here’s the worst part, it’s all your fault. Now would be a good time for some remorse, or maybe a thank you, since I saved your life. Instead, you took the opportunity to finish the only person nearby that was still on their feet.”
“Fuck you,” he spat. “I warned them, I told them to get back. I bet it’s your fucking fault, I saw you use that ability. Probably one of those awakened fucks.” Then Alex’s words seemed to hit him, and all the bluster left in an instant. “Paulie no. You killed Paulie.”
A bit dumbfounded at the direction the conversation had taken, Alex ruminated on what to say next. The man was a mess, flopping between sobbing, violently trying to escape and calling out either the name of his bird or someone Alex guessed to be in his family. After a few minutes of this, Alex got frustrated and slapped the man across the face. This caused him to start ugly crying, and Alex almost just ended it then and there. Knowing what had to be done, but feeling a bit disgusted with himself nonetheless, Alex pulled the mana restricting cuffs from his inventory and put them on the man’s wrists.
Ben had flailed to try to stop him, but it was clear most of the fight had left the man. Throwing a glance to make sure the woman was still out, Alex explained how the situation was about to proceed.
“There are a few things I need to know, and you’re going to tell me. If you don’t, I will be forced to hurt you until you do. I do not want to hurt you, so the quicker you answer, the quicker, and less painful this will be.”
The proclamation resulted in a supposedly fair torrent of expletives, and Alex was eventually forced to shove a cloth in the man’s mouth so he could finish speaking. What followed was an uncomfortable questioning session. He started with asking who everyone was, which after he calmed down, Ben answered willingly. The man seemed to expect Alex to cut and run, when he told him both he and the woman were from noble families, but suddenly got much less helpful when he didn’t. Alex also managed to learn Jerry had been their hired bodyguard/power-leveler for these excursions but that seemed the limit of what Ben would hand over willingly.
A dagger in one of the man’s hands got Alex information on most of what the man carried in his storage rings as well as all that he knew about the woman’s skills, but it took a few broken fingers to get most of the information on the man’s abilities. Having gotten what he wanted, Alex knocked out the man once more and pulled out his rare scroll of skill copy.
During a brief tangent he’d asked about the dead casters skills and Alex severely regretted that he couldn’t use the scroll on the deceased. Jerry had possessed more than a few skills that, if accurately described by Ben, sounded perfect for Alex. The man knew more about the woman’s abilities than his bodyguards, but most of her stuff turned out to be frontline based, which made sense to Alex. Besides, he didn’t know any of the rarities for the woman’s skills, so the Planestrider decided not to risk it unless something really stood out to him.
When Alex had asked about Ben’s skills, the man had initially claimed to only have common rarity abilities, but he managed to get the truth out after not too long. It had taken longer than necessary to get through them all, Alex was forced to threaten to move from breaking to slicing, but he managed to find one that stood out to him in the end. An uncommon skill the man possessed called Lord’s Confidence.