“Hey you! Stop!” I continued to shout at the still, fast retreating form of Needletooth as I continued to chase after him in the alleyways and side streets behind the abandoned apartment complex we had just come from.

“Fuck you!” He shouted right back at me while seeming to try and increase his speed in an effort to get away from me.

We passed building after building in our mad dash through the side streets adjacent to the spike heads now former hideout. Deeper we went into the more industrial warehouse area, and thankfully, away from the more populated nearby suburbs.

It was an increasing strain to try and keep up with this Needletooth guy. He seemed to be a much, much better sprinter than I was, or maybe he was just that desperate. That in itself was a rather odd turnaround for me, emotionally.

One moment this guy was acting all creepy and sure of himself, more than ready to stick a knife in my gut with a broad smile on his face. In the next moment he’s fleeing for his life in abject terror of me or for whatever he believes I am. Unfortunately for him, I suppose, his guess is probably correct.

“Stop right now or else.” I shouted between panting breaths. “I won’t warn you again.”

“F-fuck you, super bitch!” Needletooth shouted back at me.

Well, I guess that decides things for me. While this guy did seem like he was getting slightly more tired, he, unlike me, seemed to still have a fair amount of energy left in the tank. I needed to do something to stop him now before he could move further ahead and lose me in another alleyway or someone’s yard.

I also needed to do my best to take him in alive, for questioning. While my life was at stake with him charging me, all I could think to do to stop was unload on him with the pistol in my hands. Now though, I had other options at my disposal.

After mentally activating my Eyes of Night skill, I focused inside of myself once more. I tried to feel around for the energy known as mana within me so that I might give my magic form and send it out into the world.

Despite sprinting at full speed, my hands shot out before me and began moving in a rhythmic pattern as my mind honed on the shape and effect I wanted the magic to take for the spell.

Grasp of Darkness

Shroud of Gloom

Let the veil of shadows descend

“Eye Fog!” I shouted while pointing my right hand at Needletooth’s increasingly distant back.

A small inky black cloud, slightly larger than a clenched fist, shot away from my outstretched hand and flew speedily towards Needletooth’s unprepared backside.

*Fwoomp*

“Ooph.” Needletooth grunted, stumbling on his feet a few steps before quickly righting himself. His rapid recovery wouldn’t last long for him, though.

“It’s over now. Give up.” I shouted at the now much slower greenish-yellow skinned man I had been chasing for the past five minutes.

“You g-goddamn magic bitch. You’ll take me in over my dead and well-rotted body.” He exclaimed desperately.

He was now stumbling more and more frequently with each step, and his speed continued to decrease rapidly until, inevitably, we came to another turn in the maze of back streets and alleyways we were navigating. Unfortunately for Needletooth, he could no longer judge or, more precisely, see when that turn was coming up.

*Whaaam*

Needletooth ran face-first into the concrete wall of a warehouse we had both just come upon. He, however, didn’t see the turn we would have to make and hadn’t even tried to slow down his sprint nearly enough to stop his painful and dramatic collision with the unyielding wall of stone.

After his embarrassing and no doubt painful collision, he slumped down onto the ground like a loose sack of potatoes as blood began to pour copiously from his very injured nose.

I was torn between cringing in sympathy and hysterically laughing at the sight of my once fearsome opponent now comically undone and beaten by a wall.

The sight of his face and the sound of his nose crunching audibly against the solid concrete surface were both shocking and somehow gratifying as well. It was a new and strange mixture of feelings for me.

Magic was incredible, and so was the ‘Eye Fog’ spell that I managed to learn from my book on magic. It was one of the few native shadow and darkness spells listed in the book's list of spells for beginner mages.

The Eye Fog spell more or less did what the name suggested. It created a small dark fog and attached it directly over the target’s eyes. The effect was still clearly visible on the now dazed and probably concussed face of Needletooth in front of me.

The spell was also only a lesser, beginner version of a stronger series of spells for those mages who had gained enough power to cast higher-level magics. The only other version mentioned in the book I was reading was a spell called ‘Eye Biter’.

The difference between that spell and the one I had cast was that the Eye Biter spell would permanently and painfully rob someone of their eyes and vision. In contrast, the Eye Fog spell would only temporarily impede and obscure someone’s sight. Given the slightly grotesque name and description for the Eye Biter spell, I was more than a little hesitant about learning it in the future, once I was even strong enough to do so.

Shaking my head to refocus on the present, I made an effort to look down at the now bloody-faced and still unconscious figure of Needletooth.

Before I could make any plans about what to do about his limp, unmoving form, he seemed to sense my nearby presence as his body began to fidget and stir as his head started to rapidly and fruitlessly look around at his surroundings.

Too bad for him though, my Eye Fog spell was very juiced up from stacking multiple skills onto its casting. Eyes of Night, Incantation, Somatic Magic, and finally, the skill Shadow Affinity were all used and applied in the casting of the spell. I hadn’t run any detailed experiments to see precisely how long it should last. Still, my best guess, based on his inability to resist it, was at least a minimum of ten minutes or so.

That was ten minutes of effective blindness Needletooth would have to endure. He was more or less at my mercy now.

Slowly and awkwardly, the once intimidating thug, I had mentally dubbed Needletooth, stood back up and onto his feet. He continued then to fitfully look about himself in a desperate attempt to see past the blinding spell I had cast upon him.

“You ready to give up now?” I asked in a patient and calm voice.

“W-what, you’re still here?” The now clearly frightened voice of Needletooth asked. “Fuck!”

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With that, he drew out his long sharp knife from underneath his shirt and held it out before him in a defensive and threatening manner.

“S-stay away from me, you fucking mage. I’ll gut stem to stern if you come one step closer to me.” Needletooth threatened, putting on his most intimidating expression onto his face.

It might have worked to some degree, save for the visible little inky black clouds hovering in the space where his eyes should be. Seeing them in person, the little, itty bitty clouds my spell had created almost looked kind of cute in a way. Like little black cartoon cloud puffs happily moving around wherever this poor man moved face to.

The slightly comical-looking behavior of the Eye Fog spell clashed with the threatening expression and words of Needletooth, resulting in a lackluster effort at intimidation.

“How about we don’t do either of those things.” I told him casually. I reached behind myself to pull my own personal weapon out of my waistband.

It was the same matte black baton that Gunderson had given me earlier.

Flicking my wrist to extend it to its full length, I started to take my own slow and steady steps towards Needletooth.

Sensing my approach somehow, Needletooth’s body quickly turned and faced my direction.

“S-stay back, you bitch!” He shouted before making a pointless swipe at the empty air in front of me.

Smirking at the poor attempt at attacking me and feeling a bit full of myself, I activated the mana-field on the baton with an audible *Click*.

“I’m warning you, stay back. I’ll gut your stomach and rip out your entrails if you try me, girlie.” He yelled, the fear and desperation becoming more and more evident with each subsequent word out of his mouth.

Taking aim at the erratic but stationary target in front of me. I cocked my arm backwards, and swung with no small amount of force at the once fearsome man known only to me as Needletooth.

*Fwoomp*

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

After the baton had made an impact at the crouched and defensive form of Needletooth, the magic surrounding the baton quickly went to work and imparted onto the poor man’s body a substantial amount of kinetic force as he was flung backwards against the nearby wall, and then onto the ground, and then into a nearby dumpster, back into the wall, and then finally, mercifully, coming to a rest on the worn asphalt ground beside me.

“Ah, frick…” I mumble to myself. I may have had the setting on the baton set too high. That or I swung at him much too hard while he was more or less helpless.

Cautiously walking over, I first kicked his knife away before checking his neck for a pulse. I wasn’t actually sure if this worked for whatever species this guy was, but it was the best option I could manage. Thankfully, I could feel a slight heartbeat as my fingers made contact with the now very limp and unconscious body of Needletooth.

“Phew.” I said to myself out loud. As if on cue, the loud sound of a quickly approaching engine could be heard coming up the alleyway perpendicular to where I was currently crouching.

Swiftly getting up, I turned to see Gunderson, in his red convertible coming to a rapid halt just a few feet away from Needletooth and me.

His expression was at first slightly panicked looking. After a moment though, seeing that I was okay, and looking down at the very bruised and unconscious body beside me, his expression morphed into one with a broad and happy grin on it.

Stepping out of the car, he shouted over to me. “Well, seems like I was worried over nothing then.”

“Uh, yeah. It was a bit harrowing at first, but once he figured out what I am, he panicked and ran.” I explained, scratching the back of my head in a fit of awkwardness. “I, uh, may have gone a bit overboard with using the repulsor baton you gave to me.”

Gunderson looked down at the weapon still in my hands, and the bruised and bloody form lying motionless beside me and just shrugged. “You’re alive, so automatically, I’d say what you did was worth it. Besides, it looks like he still breathing, and he… what is that? Some kind of blindness spell?”

“Uh, yep. He was a lot faster than I was, so I had to do something to slow him down. Turns out running at full speed while blinded doesn’t work out too well.” I said with a wry smile.

“Ha, good.” Gunderson said with one congenial smile. “Let’s cuff his hands up real quick so we can wake him up for some quick questions.”

After pulling a pair of handcuffs from underneath his jacket and slapping them on the limp and unresisting body, he also pulled out what looked like a small eyedropper bottle.

Instead of putting it in his still obscured eyes though, he held Needletooth’s mouth open and deposited a couple of drops inside it. The effect was quick and immediate.

Needletooth’s body spasmed for half a second before he started speaking again. “W-what happened? Why can’t I still bloody see anything, for fucks sake.”

“Relax there, my friend.” Gunderson said in a friendly tone. “We’d be happy to give you your eyesight back if only you’d answer us just a few simple questions.”

“Agh, fuck me.” Needletooth said with a resigned groan. “I can’t tell you anything, you damn stupid suit. If I do, I’m a dead man.”

“Ah, come now, we have many programs and opportunities for individuals like yourself who help us.” Gunderson said warmly, in a manner, I was quickly coming to learn was not at all sincere. “If you tell us what we want to know, we can offer to relocate you and put you under our protection, so long as it's needed. But only if you are cooperative with us.”

“Gods damn it.” Needletooth mumbled.

He sat there for a long while, neither Gunderson nor I making any attempt at hurrying him along.

“Fuck it. Fine.” The handcuffed man said resolutely. “So long as you don’t come for my money and you’re offering me protection, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

“Deal.” Gunderson said happily. “I’d offer to shake your hand, but well…”

“Yeah, yeah, smart-ass, just ask your fucking questions then.” The increasingly irritable Needletooth told us.

“Well, first question then, who do you work for? Who is running the spike manufacturing operation in this area?” Gunderson asked in a strong, commanding voice.

“Hah, going right for the big fish, are you? Not smart, if you want my opinion.” Needletooth replied.

“I don’t, answer the question.” Gunderson said a bit more aggressively.

“Fine, fine, whatever. I don’t know the man’s actual name, but we all only just call him ‘The Doctor’... gaahhh…. fucking hells….” As Needletooth tried to answer the question asked of him, he started to double over in obviously excruciating pain.

“Woah there, what's happening?” Gunderson asked the unresponsive man.

“Gaahhhh….” Was all Needletooth could say in reply before his body suddenly became very, very still and unmoving. His head slowly looked back up at us, and as it did, the first thing I noticed was that his eyes were no longer obscured by the dark clouds from my spell. Instead, they opened very wide, unnervingly so, as he looked back and forth at each of our faces.

After just a few seconds of this, his mouth spread into a wide and playful smile as he said. “Naughty little kitties, far too curious for your own good.”

With these few creepy and cryptic words, the body of Needletooth started spasming once again, this time much more violently. After Gunderson and I both stood back up and stepped away from the increasingly spasming and erratic form in front of us, his now visible eyes both went *Pop* *Pop* in his head as a spray of blood and gore spread out in front of him.

A substantial amount of it landed on my and Gunderson’s clothes despite having moved almost a foot away already.

After his eyes burst, Needletooth’s body slumped lifelessly to the ground, and blood seemed to pour at an unnatural rate from every available hole in his body.

The site of that, plus the memory of seeing his eyes burst in his head, generated an unignorable feeling of nausea, rise up in my stomach. I moved in as much of a hurry as I could manage away from the increasingly bloody and horrific scene.

“Blaargh!” Was the loud sound I made as I evacuated the contents of my stomach all over the opposite wall.

Congratulations! - Quest Complete

Side Quest: Pulling Threads

Success: 250 Exp.

Congratulations!

Level Up!

Class: Magi 4 => 5

Dexterity +1

Mind: +1

Spirit: +1

Skills Updated!

Incantation 3 => 4

Somatic Magic 2 => 3

Eyes of Night 5 => 6

Shadow Affinity 5 => 6

Baton Mastery 0 => 1