I chuckled to myself as I was leaving the tiny settlement and heading towards the forest while donning the face of a common guard.
The infiltration had been easy, too easy for a shapeshifter. The Drow did not expect such an attack, so, combined with my ability to change my projected energy signature at will, nobody questioned my identity even once. That allowed me to smuggle my target away without issue.
A large sack appeared on my shoulder as I neared the camp, the woman I kidnapped still unconscious inside. As I rounded the corner to the campsite, a grisly sight met my gaze. Blood, corpses, and some of my team members who looked anything but well.
A pile of Drow was pushed to the side, all of them dead.
[The Hell happened here?]
I tossed the sack on the ground and dusted off my hands. I shifted back to my human form, looking to the nearest person for an explanation.
“Drow patrol.” The man said and winced, his chest torn open to the bone. The wound was quite large, but he would survive. He wasn’t even bleeding anymore. “Your golem helped quite a bit.”
I looked at Onyx who was standing still like a statue by the side. I had left him to watch over the camp from some distance away. Seemed like that was a good idea. He turned, looking at me, and then shrugged.
“I came late. A few of them managed to slip away.” He said.
“The bastards accidentally stumbled into our camp. The illusory barrier you set up didn’t stop their blind luck. Fuck.” Another cursed.
[Wow…] I shook my head. [I leave you for a few hours and you- Ah, damn it.] It just occurred to me that by killing the Drow, they basically exposed our presence. If Onyx said some of them escaped, then... It must have happened just a short time ago or we would have been swarmed by the Drow already.
I quickly jumped into the sky to look around, and to no surprise, I saw units being gathered beneath the floating mountain. Soon after they took off, moving in our direction.
[Move! Get up, all of you. Our position has been compromised.] I ordered after landing back on the ground a moment later. A few guys groaned, but they nonetheless got back on their feet. I sent a bit of healing magic into them to take the edge off, but we didn’t have time for a proper healing session.
[Where’s… the woman? Where’s Thalza?] I asked, looking around the camp. I had assumed they killed her, but her body was missing.
“Oh, shit… She must have escaped in the chaos. No wonder it was so quiet…”
[Useless!] I shouted at the men, but they didn’t seem to care. I clicked my tongue in annoyance and lifted my hand. [Whatever. Good thing I was prepared.]
A burst of Qi escaped my palm, and suddenly we felt a massive surge of energy coming from the east. A moment later a metal object smashed into my outstretched hand, my fingers closing around it. It was the Agony Collar, covered in blood.
A few people gulped at the sight, but I just took the relic and snapped it around the other woman’s neck. I then stuffed her back in the sack and threw it over to Onyx to carry.
[Let’s go!] I ordered, and that time we quickly began running back the way we came from. Unlike before, we didn’t care about being sneaky or attracting attention. Our mission was compromised and we just had to get the fuck out of dodge as soon as possible.
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A bunch of stasis pods burst open and out stumbled shaken Drow warriors.
“Humans! The humans are attacking!” One of them shouted while he stumbled towards a locker with his reserve gear.
“What? What is going on?” A guardian said, jumping from his seat. He rarely had to do anything except keep the bodies alive, so the sudden awakening of so many startled him.
The first Drow male stumbled towards the console naked and without explanation, quickly triggering the alarm. Instantly he got connected with other hidden bastions, transferring the coordination of his death. After quickly shouting a short few orders into the console, he broke off the connection and ran to arm himself.
“Let’s go! Those bastards are way too close to the fortress! We need to stop them!” He shouted, unaware they were already too late.
He and the group of Drow who just died quickly climbed the teleportation platform and disappeared in a flash of light.
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In another secret chamber, far away from the source of conflict, Thalza took a sudden deep breath as her new body opened its eyes.
She gripped the edges of her pod and climbed out, coughing and shaking with anger.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“That bastard!” She smashed her fist into the stone floor as she struggled to stand. She just barely managed to escape her captors when the damn collar exploded, taking her head with it. The core shattered, the anchor of her Soul gone. Obviously, she couldn’t survive that.”Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
She came to like that body, having it for nearly a century. During that time she did so many things to enhance her strength and durability, yet she was back to square one.
Full of fury, she threw on a robe and quickly made her way out of the resurrection chamber, going straight for the main hall of her boss. She didn’t care if he didn’t want to see her, or that her punishment was not yet over. She had important knowledge that she just had to share.
The grand doors of the hall swung open with a bang as she used too much force, but she didn’t care. Many eyes turned to her.
“Ranger Thalza, what is the meaning of this?!” One of the guards shouted as the High Priest looked at her from up high on his seat.
Not bothering to answer, Thalza ran forward and threw herself on the ground, kowtowing before the High Priest.
“Master, please avenge this useless servant. A human army stalks our lands!”
The High Priest Antasaghar lifted an eyebrow. “I do not know what you speak of, Ranger. Explain yourself!”
“Yes! Your excellency, I was hunting in the wild days ago when I suddenly stumbled upon a human-“
The High Priest interrupted her and waved his hand. “Too slow. I’ll see it for myself.”
A sudden pain assaulted Thalza’s mind, not unlike what Gerald had done to her not long ago. However, unlike his technique which was rapidly improving to the point she couldn’t even feel it anymore, the High Priest’s mind-reading technique felt like someone was drilling into her skull.
She could do nothing but scream as she collapsed to the floor, begging for the pain to stop.
“Hmm, useless! To get captured + by a bunch of worthless humans even after gaining the upper hand, you truly are…” The High Priest’s eyes suddenly enlarged. “It’s him… It’s him! The shapeshifter!”
A sudden torrent of Qi swirled in the hall, forming the shape of a man. The High Priest ground his teeth in anger. “This bastard… He ruined my plans once, but-”
He suddenly turned silent as his eyes expanded. He took a jade tablet out of his pocket and saw a glowing pointer on it moving at a rapid pace.
“The… the fortress! They kidnapped…” He couldn’t even continue because of his anger. “Call them!” He roared, turning to the messenger. “Call everyone! Send them after them! Kill this animal, no matter what it takes!”
He bared his clenched teeth at the figure of Gerald. “This man… This beast… I will not be playing for the third time. Send the order, I will personally reward the one who kills this creature. Forced awakening!”
Everyone in the room swallowed, their bodies shivering despite the lack of cold. Forced awakening was an insanely expensive process, but it carried with it so much prestige. Who wouldn’t want to instantly cross the Sky Realm threshold? They would gain lifespan and power nearly on par with the High Priest himself.
The reward was truly tempting for everyone. Even trading their lives for it would be worth it for a slim chance of success.
“Go now!” The High Priest shouted and then hesitated for a moment. “And… awaken the Widowmaker. Send her after him as well. Spare no expense.” He then tossed the tablet to the man, and with a quick bow, the man ran out of the room, already calling upon the other military units to send them all after one man.
He didn’t dare disappoint the High Priest.
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“How… How are they finding us?!”
I gritted my teeth and just focused on running. The Drow were practically swarming us. No matter where we turned, they were there, rushing us like mad dogs. Heck, sometimes it even seemed like they knew exactly where we were going to be before we even knew it.
Do they have diviners or what? Shit, I didn’t even consider that option.
I knew it was theoretically possible to track us from a long distance if they had someone specialized in divination, and we weren’t exactly subtle, so that didn’t help either. I had killed so many Drow, leaving a trail of bodies behind us.
I couldn’t consume their Essence, being short on time as I was, but the Souls were something else entirely. The fools still hadn’t realized they were not going to resurrect this time and kept fighting without fear.
I didn’t have the time to thoroughly examine their memories, stuffing their outraged Souls into my Sea of Consciousness to be consumed later, but what I gathered from the surface was always the same. they received orders and coordinated from their commanders, as well as a detailed picture of what they were looking for.
They already figured out we kidnapped their head researcher, and they were positively pissed. I would have been too, if I was in their shoes. The woman was incredible. Awakening a long-lost artifact, a freaking flying mountain that could singlehandedly bring a nation to its knees.
Still, I was annoyed. I just stole possibly the most valuable member of your society. Did she really deserve the entire nation to go after her? Apparently, the answer was yes.
I spread my senses wide and then focused them down into a line in front of me, allowing them to stretch much further. It was a small trick I learned with Spirit Sense. It was good for looking far, but terrible for detecting danger in a 350° area around myself.
Instead of my detection area being that of a circle, it became a line. And that line allowed me to see yet another ambush waiting for us. They were deeply entrenched and I could see them powering up various relics.
I grumbled in annoyance and then looked back at my team. Apart from Onyx who was still at 100%, the rest of them didn’t look too good. I wasn’t the only one fighting, but unlike my inexhaustible pool of energy, the others were already desperately draining Spirit Stones as they ran to be able to keep going. Unfortunately, I could see that the energy expenditure was too great to be easily replaced by siphoning Qi from Spirit Stones.
We obviously tried to just fly away, but then the Drow immediately swarmed us, and I just barely gave us an opening by blasting apart a few dozen enemy warriors, allowing us to escape. For some reason they were having a slightly harder time tracking us on the ground. The dense forest was probably blocking whatever tracking devices they had. The difference was not large, but large enough that we could just barely avoid getting surrounded.
That’s why that ambush was so annoying. If we stopped just for a minute, it would be over. The entire army was on our heels, hundreds of Drow, many at the peak of Spirit Realm. We couldn’t afford it to stop for even a moment.
Having come to a decision, I shouted back to the rest. [There’s an ambush waiting for us straight ahead. I’m going to rush forward and try to clear it out. No matter what happens, keep going! That goes for you too, Onyx.]
“Yes, Master!” I heard him respond.
[Good…]
I narrowed my eyes and focused. It was time I showed those weaklings who they were dealing with.