Isolde and Giselle along with the disciples ran rampant through the bowels of the large ship, facing down the guards of the baron, disciples all in ranks and led by a single adept who wielded two large blades. Itching for a fight for a long time, the moment Giselle saw the female adept who wielded two whips of flames, she took her chance, hammer imbued with hardening Ethra.
Throwing herself at the adept who cut through her own forces without care, tearing into flesh as they immediately combusted, Giselle tucked herself into a roll, activating her imbuement technique. The adamantine guard technique hardened both her skin and aura, allowing her another skin of defense, a shield of rock-hard flesh to weather the lashes of the flames that stung whenever they touched her.
She shut it out, watching as the adept conjured over a dozen flaming whips, her maniacal eyes wide open from within the hood of the dirty brown robes she wore, the attack twisting through the air towards her. Giselle switched to her projection technique, the shattered steel blow, her aura hardened right in front of her, giving her punches stronger and farther range, the first slamming into the female adept who crumpled to the side with surprising ease.
Hammer gripped in one hand, Giselle blinked in confusion, wondering why the adept refused to stand up.
“you killed her” Isolde’s disapproving voice came from behind.
“no, I didn’t, it was just one touch!” Giselle protested.
Isolde was about to reply when the adept sprang to her feet with surprising speed, flames coating her hands even as she attempted to conjure more whips again, revealing her face as the hood pulled backward. Giselle reacted, imbuing her hammer and swinging it with surprising ease, the weapon whistling through the air despite its apparent weight.
Isolde’s wind blade technique had activated a second earlier, cutting off the head of the adept before Giselle’s hammer smashed into the head, exploding it in a shower of gore and blood that painted the room.
“This is why I dislike taking you out on missions,” Isolde said.
“This is our first time together!” Giselle protested as she stuttered.
“and hopefully our last, you enjoy this too much”
“you’re the one who cut off her head” Giselle grumbled.
“coming from the adept who proceeded to leave it a mess of blood, flesh, and bits of bones”
Giselle strapped her hammer to her back with a sigh, moving closer to the body as she stared at the robed remains, drawing it back before sucking in a breath.
“by the hegemons” she whispered, horrified.
Isolde came closer, staring at the body as she made a sucking sound.
“she was dead before we met her” she whispered.
An emaciated body lay on the ground, looking more or less like a starved human with nothing but bones on flesh.
“I heard the rich families of the heartlands practiced many sordid things for fun,” Giselle said.
“she wanted us to kill her, my guess was, she was under oath to protect the ship” Isolde muttered.
Giselle said nothing, removing her eyes from the body with disgust as she stared at the interior of the ship she hadn’t taken in earlier, whistling in surprise.
“he’s rich alright,” she said.
“The Bright Bow Consortium is owned by the Ramu family, one of the top five merchant clans of the empire, they even own an entire city within the heartlands, Radiant Summit, heard it’s a never ending party there for the rich to splurge their lumens” Isolde explained.
Giselle saw a set of golden goblets and bows, casually swiping her hand across the table, swallowing them into her void ring.
“What was that?” Isolde asked.
“what was what” Giselle asked.
“I could have sworn there were some golden items on that table”
“here?, no such thing, you sure all these gold around aren’t getting to you?” Giselle asked innocently.
Isolde stared at her suspiciously with one eye, disciples rushing into the room as one bowed hastily in her front.
“We have confirmed the supplies venerable adept,” the female disciple said.
“how much is it?” Isolde asked.
The disciple shuffled her feet nervously.
“begging your forgiveness, esteemed adept” she started.
“But our ship simply cannot take it all” she completed.
Giselle found herself lost for words, exchanging a look with Isolde whose eyes were wide.
“lead me to it,” she said softly.
Making her way towards the insides of the ship, leaving Giselle alone in what looked to the the quarters of the baron. Rich in splendor, exotic animal skin now coated with blood draped all over the furniture, Giselle went about the business of searching for anything ‘hidden’ or kept away for privacy. The odds of her finding anything important that wasn’t kept in the ring of the baron were slim, but she decided to take her chances.
From vats of wine that gave off the smell of liquid steeped in life aura and Ethra, to exotic cooked meat, covered in large bowls lined with scripts that retained the life and rich blood aura within them. She set about the job of consuming them on the spot, it wasn’t like the baron would be needing them anytime soon if Tunde had a say in it.
She had seen him in battle over the course of their journey, and she hungered for that level of strength. Perhaps it was his training with the Highlord, or perhaps it was his inherent strength, but she had never seen a lord hit that hard in her entire existence. Granted, the number of lords she had seen in battle was limited to two, the dead merciless spear of Verdan, Lirien, and that had been one time, making Tunde the other time.
Still, Giselle knew for a fact that Lirien hadn’t hit that hard the one time she had seen the deceased lord battle one of the creatures of the forests. She knew she had a long way to go, and gaining a second affinity, one to complement her hardening affinity was the next step in attaining the next stage. Gaining what was known as an esoteric or rare affinity had been something akin to joy for her parents at birth.
Attributing it to both her father and mother initiates who had the steel and earth affinities respectively, she was meant to be the shining light that took them out of their poor destitute state at the bottom of the ladder of the cultivation world and into the somewhat arguable opulence of the disciple rank, maybe adept if the heavens decided to smile on them.
They hadn’t lived long enough to see it happen, dead during an attack from a rival family over something petty she hadn’t been old enough to understand then. Giselle was saved by Lady Ryka, the disciple ranked cultivator even then, stepping in to save her from the bloodshed, laying waste to the opposite family. She found it gut-wrenching that she couldn’t even remember the faces of her parents.
Here she was, adept rank, stronger than the wildest imaginations of her parents, and yet, it wasn’t enough for her, not in the slightest bit. The stages of advancement grew steeper and heavier the higher one climbed, and while adepts were treated as royalty in these parts of the continent, in the wider world they were nothing but trash. Lord stage was where the true advancement began, even children of the nobles in the heartlands were adepts from a very young age.
Still, she had seen Tunde breeze past three advancement stages in less than half a year since his coming to jade peak and its subsequent destruction. Treating the same bottlenecks they all had as nothing but stepping stones, she envied him, and it was for that reason she would put her life on the line to advance, take risks, no matter the costs. Sighing with pleasure as she drank from the vat of wine, feeling it enriching her body along with the hefty meal she had eaten earlier, she made her way out of the room, picking it clean.
The walkway of the ship was filled with bustling cultivators, disciples hurriedly packing things to the exit, prepared to leave. She spotted Isolde staring at the stacked crates and boxes, a scroll in the hand of the disciple next to her as she moved closer.
“don’t you think we’re making too much noise?” she asked.
“With the battle going outside, I doubt the baron has time for us, besides, the captain of the vessel is dead, shame though” Isolde replied.
“the noise absorbing device we placed over the ship should help lessen your worry, plus Hajan informs me that Tunde” Isolde said as the disciple beside her sputtered.
“the lord” Isolde continued, rolling her eyes.
“has everything on hand, the baron is on his last legs by the apparent look of things”
“so you’re saying he went through four lords in the space of a day with nothing more than flesh wounds?” Giselle asked, folding her hands.
“if you put it that way, yes” Isolde replied lightly.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t become some made up story of him taking on four lords at the same time and coming out the better, we don’t want unnecessary attention on Black Rock, do we, disciple?” she added, turning to the disciple who shook her head vehemently.
“good, separate the elixirs from pills, stack the Ethereum crates on each other, and inform the other disciples to strip the entire ship clean, everyone will submit their rings for inspection the moment we return to the settlement” she ordered.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“yes, every disciple and initiate” Giselle added.
“including you Giselle”
“What?” she sputtered.
Isolde was about to say something when an aura unlike any other settled on the ship, the disciples passing out immediately. Giselle found herself crashing to her knees in shock, eyes wide as her spirit felt heavy, her heart painful with every cycle of Ethra she took.
Isolde shivered as she croaked a word that drove icy chills up her spine.
“Highlord,” she said.
********************************
Tunde stood over the charred body of the baron, nothing but smoking bones lying on the ground, the large shield, cannon, and golden sword at his side. He swallowed them up in his void space immediately, iceless weapons like that could be useful in the long run, plus they looked expensive, especially the sword.
Five golden void rings sat on the skeletal hands of the baron, Tunde calmly crouching as he plucked them off the fingers that snapped easily due to being brittle. He frowned in alarm, it could have been him on the ground, such powerful weapons turning a lord into nothing, was this how they fought within the empire?. Pocketing the rings, he was about to get to his feet when a voice spoke out.
“you’re either brave, have serious backing, or just plain out foolish for killing a member of clan Ramu”
Tunde had his last blade in his hand, imbuing his body as he twisted through the air, throwing the blade infused with void touch at the figure who stood a good distance away. The blade tore through the air with accuracy towards the male figure with a blank grey mask, the man slapping it away leisurely even as it exploded.
Tunde stared at the figure, aware that he was on his last legs, his heart straining to pump out Ethra, his body strained from all the fighting.
“a friend of the baron I presume?” Tunde asked.
Ethra sight came on, Tunde staring at the form of the man as he came to a startling realization. He had no Ethra, not a single drop in his body. Confused at the sight, all he could see was an overabundance of grey aura, bland, interwoven throughout his body.
“oh no, I’m nothing of such to the greedy idiot” the man replied casually.
“then what are you?” he asked.
“an interesting choice of words, lord Tunde, I presume?” the figure asked.
Tunde itched to draw the relic despite the strain it would put on his body, careful around the figure who stared at the body.
“you have no Ethra,” Tunde said bluntly.
The figure froze as if shocked before speaking.
“I’ve killed cultivators for saying less, but true” he replied.
The man’s presence was like a looming threat at the back of his mind, his instincts warning him that this was not a fight he wanted anytime soon. Instead, he calmly assessed the man.
“what do you want then?” Tunde asked.
“you should be dead, if any of the killers that just came after you were worth their reputations” he replied.
“Instead, here we are, an important member of the Ramu clan dead, three dead lords, their bodies rotting away within the sands of these desolate areas I believe, and a target still very much alive” he completed with a sigh.
“you’re here to complete the job?” Tunde asked.
“oh no, if I wanted you dead, I’d have simply cut off your head while you were busy fawning over the possessions of the now-dead baron” the figure replied.
Tunde felt a chill run through him as the figure seemed to relax before continuing.
“I see you don’t believe me, well, how’s this?” he asked.
The moment the masked man dropped his aura, Tunde crashed to his knees, puking blood as his spirit screamed and his sight grew dizzy. Fighting for control of his limbs, he found his ears were ringing, the figure simply watching, Tunde unable to tell his expression behind the mask.
“yes, Highlord, or what passes for it anyways” the figure started, drawing a bland looking sword out of nowhere.
“Now, the people I represent want you dead, but you’re proving yourself more capable than we initially thought, and we absolutely can not disappoint our clients, bad for business”
“so, let’s make this simple, and perhaps we might come to a conclusion, who is the adept named Joran, what was he to you and where is he?” the figure asked.
Tunde’s eyes widened, dragging his body as he managed to stare at the man.
“ah, I see, you recognize that name,” he said.
“Speak quickly, the pressure is not as heavy here as it is in the ship your companions are looting, but a few minutes more and they’ll be dead,” the figure said.
Rage burned within Tunde as he began to push back with his aura, gathering his will into that one task, feeling the pressure lighten slightly before the man snapped his fingers. Tunde crashed back into the ground, the pressure heavier.
“interesting, you really are something, aren’t you?” the man said, amusement in his eyes.
“teacher, student, he’s dead!” Tunde managed to croak out.
The pressure disappeared in a blink, Tunde taking a deep breath, coughing in hacks of violent fits as his heart hammered in his chest.
“there, that wasn’t so bad was it?” the figure said.
Sighing, the masked man dusted his hands, Tunde sighting a tattoo etched into his right shoulder as he turned away.
“I’d tell you to be safe” he started, Tunde breathing heavily watching him from where he lay.
“but even more killers would be coming after you, good luck” he added before he shot through the skies with his aura, disappearing into the distance.
******************************************
The masked man shot through the sies on his own aura, bringing out a communication construct as it powered to life, a voice coming from it.
“report,” it said.
“all the assassins are dead,” the Highlord guest said.
The voice at the other end didn’t reply for a few seconds, as if surprised.
“ah, I see, even the baron?” the voice replied after a few seconds.
“killed by his own weapon, quite hilarious if you ask me,” the guest said.
“and the target, were you able to find out anything?” the voice asked.
“a lot” the guest replied.
“such as?”
“he uses spatial affinity,” the guest said.
The voice at the other end spoke immediately, curiosity in his tone.
“rare, strange even, you saw him use it?”
“opened a spatial space right in front of me, a large one” the guest answered.
“that explains why someone wants him dead. I reckon the arcanists, they wouldn’t let any of their members if he’s indeed one to operate this far out in the middle of nowhere”
“My thoughts exactly,” the guest said.
“interesting, anything else?” the voice asked.
“he’s powerful, even for a lord,” the guest said.
“Because he killed four incapable lords?” the voice at the other end asked with a chuckle.
The guest stared at the hand he had used to slap away the exploding knife, the bruises already healed but still stinging.
“because he managed to bruise me” he replied softly.
“Whatever has been going on in the borders?” the voice at the other end asked rhetorically to himself.
“do I still contact the next batch?” the guest asked.
“Depends, what did you get from him?”
“he’s the student of Joran who’s dead by the way, I imagine our clients should be satisfied with that?” the guest asked.
“Depends on how much they want him dead, withdraw the bounty for now till I hear from them, we might just see what this Tunde can do soon enough,” the voice said.
“Understood” the guest replied, shutting off the construct before shooting on.
*******************************
It took Tunde a few minutes to get to his feet, his heart so painful that he didn’t bother cycling Ethra, allowing it to heal slowly. Blinking his blurry sight as he staggered towards the ship of the dead baron. Glancing up, the swan seemed dead silent, wincing as he activated Ethra sight, revealing the numerous figures within it, their auras dim but thankfully still alive but seemingly passed out.
No doubt, they’d need help recovering, but it would fade, few of them could boast of facing the aura and presence of a Highlord. He found his first time facing a null jarring, the raw strength of the Highlord’s aura had impacted him in ways he couldn’t explain, like a literal force of nature, one so in Tunde with it that Tunde hadn’t even sensed his presence at all.
The ship had its sides blown open as Tunde stepped through, staring at the bodies of the disciples that lay strewn on the ground. Making his way through the silent ship that had been stripped bare, he found himself in a large room that looked like where items were stored. Right at the door lay both Isolde and Giselle, Tunde opening his void space and grabbing two tier 3 healing elixirs, glad to have them still with him.
He had no use for the elixirs, but they came in handy for adepts. Pouring one bottle each down their throats, he watched them cough as they sputtered back awake, eyes wide and glancing around
“Tunde” Isolde croaked as Giselle held her head, no doubt fighting off a killer migraine.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Highlord, we don’t have time” Tunde urged.
It took a while to gather the bodies of the disciples who remained passed out, thankfully none dead. It seemed the Highlord had been saying the truth when he said the others were close to death, the disciples barely rousing after a few minutes with the initiates all but close to death, their bodies cold.
Making his way back to the swan where Captain Hajan looked deathly cold, his body shivering as he sat on a chair, cycling his Ethra. Tunde found it odd that he hadn’t even bothered finding out his affinity, something that hadn’t gone past his mind.
“What was that?” Hajan asked.
“a Highlord, or something close to it I assume” Tunde replied, taking a seat as he found himself totally exhausted.
“close to it?” the captain asked again.
Tunde scrunched his eyes together, flicking towards the still passed out highlords on the ground.
“I can’t explain, something about him seemed off,” he started.
“the absence of Ethra around him I guess”
“absence of Ethra, perhaps he shrouded it the same way he shrouded his presence” Hajan muttered.
“probably” Tunde muttered.
“everyone fine up here?” he asked again.
“the aura took the initiates by surprise, not that there was anything they could do about it, but at least they’re alive,” Hajan said with a sigh.
“Good, then we load the swan to its brim and get out of here” Tunde muttered.
It took four void rings as well as the entire hold of the swan to fit everything away, and even then, Hajan complained of how slow the journey would be due to the weight. Tunde said nothing, merely returning to his quarters and lying on the bed before subsequently passing out.
No dreams, no nightmares, nothing, simply a blank canvas that was irritably disturbed with a knock. Cracking his eyes open to see a hesitant disciple at his door, garbed in white robes, hai packed to the back, she spoke softly.
“begging your forgiveness venerable lord, but we have arrived black rock,” she said.
“What?” Tunde asked confused as he got to his feet.
Moving past the hastily retreating disciple, he made his way to the prow of the ship, seeing Isolde, Giselle and the captain all gathered there.
“took you long enough,” Isolde said as she sighted him.
He made his way to the edge, staring at the black crystal high walls of black rock in the distance.
“how long was I out?” he whispered.
“a day, more or less” Giselle replied.
“the battles took a toll on you I believe,” she added.
Tunde couldn’t lie that he wasn’t feeling better, having given his body time to recover from the battle without any elixir or pills. Staring at the walls in silence, he spoke.
“looks peaceful from here, doesn’t it?” he asked.
“let’s hope we can keep it that way” Isolde replied quietly.
The ship docked just immediately after the walls, landing softly on an elevated platform made just for that purpose. Tunde made his way out of the ship, greeted by lines of disciples who arranged themselves quietly, Tunde nodding to them as they bowed. He spotted Lady Ryka ahead of them, standing next to Miria, and then a figure he hadn’t imagined would take the time out of his seemingly busy schedule.
Varis Talahan had his hands within the folds of his black robes, eyes on Tunde. Making his way to the Highlord, he bowed at the waist.
“this lord greets the venerable Highlord,” he said.
“Seems like you had an interesting journey,” Varis said mildly, looking over at the ship as large wooden containers were being offloaded in their numbers.
“and a really profitable one at that” he added.
“the baron wanted me dead as well,” Tunde said as Varis raised one eyebrow at him in surprise.
“is that so?” he murmured.
“Well, keep the juicy bits for later, delicate matters cannot be spoken in the midst of outsiders” he added.
Tunde inclined his head, turning his gaze to Miria who stared at him with a bit of trepidation, Tunde frowned for a second before clearing the expression.
“Plus we were attacked by a Highlord” he added.
Varis’s head snapped to him.
“you could have started with that,” he said.
“apologies, but it happened after the baron came for me” Tunde replied.
“so what you’re telling me, is that in the space of two days, not only did three assassins come after you, but the son of the branch head of the Ramu clan also wanted you dead?” Varis asked.
“I believe so” Tunde replied.
Varis stared at him for a few seconds before nodding.
“I thought as much, just confirming, now, tell me about this Highlord,” he said, waving his hand at Tunde to follow him.
He bowed immediately.
“begging your pardon, venerable Highlord, but I would like to attend to some things before I dedicate the rest of my day to explaining what happened out there,” he said.
Varis paused, inclining his head before speaking.
“very well, not more than an hour, see to it” he ordered.
Tunde bowed again, watching as Varis turned away and back towards the stronghold itself, people clearing out of the way, prostrating themselves flat on the ground. He turned to Miria who made her way to his side, lady Ryka as well.
“he knows” Miria whispered.
Tunde said nothing, eyeing the highlord as he disappeared into the building.