Kahli sat there in her canoe beside her putrid companion, Froufrou, staring out at the shore in the distance. The armed guards had their crossbows raised.
"Come on, now!" boomed the voice of a guard. Kahli wondered if the cone-shape instrument they were bellowing through used any [skills] in order to properly project over such large distances. "Put your hands up and paddle on over here towards us!"
Kahli wasn't entirely sure why these guards seemed so bent on arresting her. It must've either been because she'd stolen the canoe - or worse, it could have been due to the fact that she had the Harbinger of Doom with her and had [paired] with its system!
Kahli had to stop herself. It was definitely because she'd stolen the canoe. Nobody else even seemed to believe her about the prophecy, so the idea that people would actively try to pursue her due to the prophecy seemed less than likely... Then again, Kahli wondered, could it not have been that everyone was in cahoots, and they had simply been pretending to not believe her the entire time?
Kahli looked at Froufrou and expressed her thoughts. Froufrou squelched predictably.
"Oh, you're right, Froufrou. I'm being ridiculous."
"Last chance!" announced the guard from the wide distance, their voice echoing brilliantly. "Hands up, right away, or we're going to fire all these arrows at you in a brilliant barrage!" As the guard was saying barrage, their voice cracked terribly, and this specific cracking sound echoed so loudly and so far that a few clusters of birds scattered out of and away from trees in the far distance.
Kahli felt she had no choice. She raised both her hands as fast as possible.
"She put her hands up! Fire!"
Kahli gasped as the guards started firing their crossbows in rapid procession. She hit the deck of the canoe just in time. Arrows were raining down on her and rocking the boat fiercely.
Froufrou squelched in a nervous fear.
"By the pincers of Theseosus, I will make it off this stupid canoe in one piece!" Kahli proclaimed.
She peeked her head ever so slightly above the edge of the canoe to look at the guards. How had they not started running out of arrows? It was truly a torrent of ammunition they were unloading in her direction. Still, Kahli didn't want to just wait around to see how long that would take.
The canoe she was in was old, and weak, and with each battering of arrows, she worried that the hull might crack just a little too much. So, against her better judgment, Kahli resolved to do the only thing she felt she really could do in this situation. Her only real hope, of course, for a normal life after this would either be to leave no witnesses, somehow obscure her appearance, or indeed to terrify everyone so much that they'd never dare mess with her despite her clearly acting as a criminal and wiping out what looked to be a good fifth or so of the Gifflenberg Guard.
Kahli weighed those options, and liked absolutely none of them. She looked at Froufrou, and then she had an idea. She didn't love the idea, but it was better than nothing.
"Forgive me, Froufrou."
Froufrou squelched in confusion as Kahli grabbed her and slapped her on top of her head.
"Oh, great Theseosus, Froufrou, you smell wretched!" Kahli complained as she pulled some of Froufrou's tendrils down in order to cover and obscure her face. Kahli silently wondered just how she could've managed to get herself into such a mess as she noted a gap in the arrow fire and used that gap to glance down into the water at her reflection. Yes, she looked like some sort of bipedal monster now, and nothing like herself. Perfect. Now, Kahli figured, it was time to get a little mischievous.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Before she had a system, she never would've considered attacking authority figures, or really anyone, with anything other than words. But she had power now. She was level 15! And Kahli knew that she had the ability to fight, after all, she'd saved her dad's ghost from that mega dragon... Still, it was a daunting proposition.
Attacking the Gifflenberg Guard went against everything she innately believed in. Not that Kahli innately believed in or even respect the Gifflenberg Guard, in fact there was a large part of her that relished the thought of attacking them. Instead, the issue was one of Kahli's inner belief that, no matter how much someone might despise authority, that they should do their absolute best to never interact with authority and if they do indeed happen to be forced to interact with said authority that the only course of action is to bend over backwards to protect oneself. But Kahli couldn't employ such a brittle, some might say cowardly, personal policy at this time. No, there was no way she could speak across such a wide distance unless she, too, were in possession of some large, conical device capable of making sound travel wide distances. Plus, even if she did, would the guards understand her?
Would they even listen?
Kahli doubted it, they didn't really seem like they were that kind of crowd. Kahli resolved to think of this like just another fight, a fight like the one she'd just had. A fight that definitely didn't involve powerful authority figures that could arrest people for life and even execute her.
Kahli focused on her big, left foot and watched as a large boulder materialized beside it.
"Let's do this thing, Froufrou," said Kahli.
Froufrou squelched, which happened to sound even nastier to Kahli with the creature on her head. Kahli took a deep breath, and then immediately regretted it because of Froufrou's terrible odor. Still, she took a deep breath, and then she stood up and raised her left leg as far back as possible. Then, she kicked her rock as hard and with as much force as possible away from the guard, toward the other direction.
[You're taking damage]
Kahli sighed. She was glad to have a system, but wasn't it obvious enough that she was taking damage? Arrows were flying through the air at wretched speeds!
[Froufrou is taking damage]
"I'm sorry, Froufrou! Hold out for just a moment longer!" said Kahli as she watched her big boulder stop in midair and began hurling back toward them at a crescendoing speed.
Froufrou squelched in pain as an arrow struck one of her bigger tendrils.
Kahli was grinding her teeth in nervousness. This was taking too long, and there were too many arrows!
But then, gladly, the rock was almost back to the canoe. Now, with a knowing smile, Kahli ducked down to the floor of the canoe and watched as her beloved projectile soared towards the guards with a renewed vigor. Kahli kept her left foot low as possible, remembering that it was to this foot specifically that the stone was magnetized, as she cautiously peered over the canoe to watch the results of her work.
The boulder soared forth, catching a light flame as it sped through the torrent of arrows as if they were nothing but air. Soon enough, Kahli watched it approach the guards. They were just standing there, as if nothing was happening! What fools they were! The stone grew closer and closer, and the guards were lined up like bowling pins ready to topple.
Suddenly, Kahli flinched, and she looked away. After all, she might not have respected the Guard, and they were clearly trying to kill her, but they were also people. The only thing she'd tried to hurt with her new [skill] so far had been a big, boney dragon, which hadn't been difficult to turn off the empathy switch for. This still felt a little different. It felt wrong in a strange way, almost like stealing a croissant or committing graffiti in an outhouse.
Then, Kahli looked up. The majority of the guards had been decimated by her boulder as evidenced by the lack of a reliable stream of arrows. However, there were still three guards standing, and they looked as confident in their arrow-firing ability as ever, despite the fact that some of their brethren looked like they'd been flattened like pancakes.
"Oh wowie," said Kahli. "They're still going!"
"Give up now, foul cur!" bellowed another guard. Their voice was more high-pitched than the guard that had previously been yelling at Kahli, and their cone-shaped tool was smaller and dingier-looking, even from afar.
Still, Kahli couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. How was this guard so terribly confident after watching some of their fellow guards get absolutely destroyed by her boulder?
"Behold!" shouted the guard. A man in a long, dark cloak walked up. Even from the distance, Kahli could see that his hands were enclosed in long, hook-like growths of living wood.
Great Theseosus, Kahli thought to herself. The Guard had brought out a war mage, one of the most foreboding types of ranged warriors in Gifflenberg, to battle her. How was she going to make it out of this mess in one piece?
Froufrou squelched nervously.