Corax’s POV
You have your orders MOVE OUT! (The Master)
Yes Master (???)
We all left the room instantly. As I headed out of the room I was waved down by one of my fellow Crows. All of the Crows belong to an Order called Corvus. We are all given a codename as soon as we enter the Order. There are only seven of us at any given time. If we are to perish in battle we are instantly replaced. We exist for one purpose and that is to be our master’s hands and feet. My codename is Corax and the woman rapidly approaching me is called Enca.
Heya Corax whatcha been up toooo? (Enca)
What do you want Enca? (Corax)
Yikes! So rude. I just wanted to know if you’d be needin’ help with your mission? Mine’s pretty easy so i figured being the good older sister type I’d offer to help you out. (Enca)
Fuck off, you know I don’t like to work with others. (Corax)
I walked off away from her and headed out of the Master’s mansion. I began walking down the streets of Arcadia. That’s the name of the city in which my lord governs. As I walk past storefronts, parks and shrines I see statues of crows everywhere. Here we are worshipped as the seven protectors of Arcadia. They know not our names or faces only that for as long as Arcadia has stood so has its Order of Corvus. It fills me with great pride to see an actual difference in people’s lives based on what I do. After walking for what seemed like an hour I arrive at the edge of Arcadia. There is a gate in front of me. One more step and I will leave the safe and secure Arcadia and enter the outside world. I take a step and I’m instantly teleported through space.
After going through the gate I have arrived in the center of the city of Oasis, one of the last free cities in Terra Grandius. While most countries have fallen to the human empire of Ralazar. They're quite vocal about their opinions on other races and it’s not what you’d call friendly. I decided to see if any news involving my mission could be found at the local pub The Friendly Farmer.
I pulled up the hood on my cloak so it would cover my face. One of the core staples of my order is to maintain anonymity. I walked over to the counter and ordered the house ale. I paid in exact change, not trying to be seen as cheap or extravagant. Remember I’m not meant to be remembered by people. He passed me the ale and I took a seat at one of the many tables. I leaned against the wall and began to focus. I activated the spell Enhance Senses and focused it on my ears. A wave of sound rushed over me, threatening to deafen me. But this wasn’t my first rodeo. Soon enough I was able to quiet down the ambient noise like people eating and drinking, glasses clinking together and the roar of the kitchen out back. I filtered out all of that noise and started to scan all the nearby conversations.
I’m telling you man, I shagged me a proper beast last night (???)
This food is fantastic and this ale is so sweet (???)
ANOTHER ROUND BARKEEP (???)
I’m telling you man she’s been spotted near the city of Voitress in the kingdom of Oliresh (???)
Who? Wait you don’t mean the famous thief Golden Viper? (???)
Bingo. I then focused on that conversation to gleam as much information on my target as I could.
Hush yourself. Do you know who's looking for her; The Crows and that means that Golden Viper is in some deep shit. (???)
Bullshit man. The crows don’t exist, they are an urban legend used to scare people straight from fucking with Arcadia. No one’s ever even seen them (???)
Dude that’s the point. It’s said if you happen to meet a Crow it means your time has come. (???)
I got up from my table. They didn’t seem to know too much about my target other than a general location. I will never get tired of hearing how non-Arcadians perceive us. In Arcadia we are the celebrated silent guardians. Out here we are seen as bloodthirsty boogeyman. I then left the pub and headed for the outskirts of Oasis.
As I neared the edge of Oasis the giant fortress like walls that have kept Oasis both neutral and safe, towered above me. They must be 80 feet tall and 20 feet deep. I looked around and silently activated the spell Greater Detect Life, which allows me to sense all life essences within 50 feet from myself. It also works through solid objects and barriers. It’s quite handy for a tier 3 spell, and it only costs me 200 MP. After not sensing any life within my immediate area I activated one of the enchantments on my cloak. It’s called Polymorph: Crow and it turns its wearer into a crow. I transformed and flew into the night sky.
If I flew straight there it should take me about a week of flying to get to the Oliresh Kingdom, luckily for me Voitress was on the edge of the country bordering the Devouring Woods. On my way there I went over the mission I had been given. An object was stolen from my Master from his mansion in Arcadia by a woman known only as the Golden Viper. This was unforgivable. How dare such trash invade his home. My mission was to relocate the object and neutralize the target. Easy enough.
A week later I landed in a forest near Voitress. I deactivated the Polymorph: Crow enchantment and turned back into my human form. This cloak given to me by the Master is so helpful. I gave it a once over with Appraisal and boy does it never fail to make me let out a chuckle.
Cloak Of Corvus:
HP:1000/1000
INT REQ: 100
Enchantments:
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Polymorph: Crow
Shroud Of Darkness
Phasewalk
Regenerate
Shroud Of Darkness covers the wearer in pure darkness, I mostly use it to terrify my targets and cover my face so my identity is never known. Phasewalk allows the caster to walk through non magical solid objects, and Regenerate just slowly regenerates the health of the cloak so that its basically indestructible. As long as one piece of fabric remains my cloak will regenerate. It honestly doesn’t provide much in terms of armor but that’s not what the cloak’s purpose is.
I wandered towards the city of Voitress with my hood up. Luckily unless your perception is above 250, the cloak appears as just a plain black cloak. When in reality it’s comprised of hundreds of raven feathers. I walked towards the gates of the city and saw some city guards doing inspections on travelers. Voitress has always been a thriving city with impregnable walls even bigger than Oasis, you aren't getting into this city unless they let you. I couldn’t just fly over into the city either. They have magical barrier which acts as a dome around the sky of Voitress. The dome doesn’t let anything in or out of it, be it animal or human.
I walked towards the checkpoint and the two guards. They basically just pat you down for any dangerous materials and check your registration. I pulled my hood back so as not to appear to frightening or dangerous.
Hello traveler. Do you have your registration? Also are you carrying any dangerous artifacts or contraband on you today? (Guard 1)
Yes sir, and no I’m not carrying any contraband. (Corax)
The second guard patted me down and I handed him my registration.
Says your name here is David and you’re a B rank adventurer? Whoa so you must be pretty strong right? (Guard 2)
Cut it Donny, you're dishonoring the City Guard. Just let the poor boy go. (Guard 1)
Yeah sorry about that, you’re good to go sir. (Donny)
*Chuckles* Thanks gentlemen, have a great day. (Corax)
I strolled past the gate and the guards and headed into the city. Boy was it bustling, granted it’s not as big as Oasis but still Voitress was impressive. People were lining the streets hawking their wares. Prostitutes were hanging around alleyways propositioning young men and women. And the smells, you could smell street vendors and open air restaurants all around you. This place was an assault on the senses. This is why I hated big cities, there’s just too much going on. Didn’t matter though I had a mission to accomplish..
First thing I had to do was find her. So I looked around for a quiet place to think and found a cafe up ahead. I went there, ordered a coffee and sat down. Time to get to work. I sipped at my coffee and then closed my eyes. Next I activated Greater Mana Sense another tier 3 spell which allows the caster to sense the mana of all creatures within a 100 foot radius. Then I combined it with Enhance Senses another tier 3 spell to broaden my mana sensing capabilities to around a mile in each direction. These two spells combined cost me a total of 450 MP. I figured she was using a glamour to disguise herself and she’s supposed to be pretty high leveled, so I needed to search for someone with a large mana pool that was fluctuating while keeping the spell active. I found three possible targets and marked where they were in my head.
I left the cafe as it was getting dark. I walked into an alleyway to get onto the roofs to follow my leads. As I entered the alleyway I saw six men follow me into it. They were staring me down, things were about to get interesting.
Hey buddy give us all the money you got on you. (Head thug)
And if I don’t? (Corax)
Then we gut you like a fish and leave your entrails out to dry! (Thug 2)
HAHAHA God I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Thank you truly. (Corax)
I used the spell Scan on them and found that of the 6 of them the highest LVL out of them was 16 and that was the guy I assumed was in charge. I then cast Dome Of Darkness on the alleyway so that passerbyers couldn't see anything. I activated Shroud Of Darkness cloaking my body in shadow. Couldn’t have people remembering my face after all, not that these guys were going to live to tell the tale.
I used my ring of holding to pull out my twin katanas, Ripper and Life Giver.
Where’d those swords come from? Wait is he a spatial magician? Fuck maybe we should leave boss. (Thug 3)
Stop being such a pansy, there’s six of us and only one of him. We’ve got this (Head Thug)
Before we begin let me tell you two fun facts. One this sword Life Bringer I've got here, well it’s going to make you wish I had used my other sword Ripper by the time I’m done with you. Alright gentlemen, any last words before we begin? (Corax)
Fuck you! Get em boys (Head Thug)
My two katanas are very special. They are both enchanted.
Life Bringer:
DMG: 150
STR REQ: 150
INT REQ: 75
Enchantment:
Major Heal. For every one point of damage done heals by 15 points of HP on target.
Ripper:
DMG: 100
STR REQ: 350
Enchantment:
Reverse Iron Maiden: Spikes shoot of sword in one foot radius like a porcupine dealing 100 points of damage.
The first thug rushes me from the front. I don’t bother dodging his punch, it’s not like he can hurt me. His arm collides with my chest and sickening crunch is heard as his hand is crushed against my chest. I kick him in the stomach sending him into the wall, rendering him unconscious.
Then three of them decide after that little show of strength to all attack me at once. One has a knife and is charging me the other two are casting spells at me to try and catch me off guard. The first man goes for my eyes. I grab his wrist and redirect his blade into his sternum, then pull the knife down. I open him up like a zipper, spilling his organs onto the street. He screams in pain before shortly dying. By this point only a second has passed and the two guys casting spells are terrified. I do not wait for them to finish off their spells. I charge the one on the left as he finishes his Earth Spike I jump above it and land right in front of him. I pull out Life Bringer and stab it into his outstretched palm and my sword sinks into his flesh all the way to his shoulder destroying all his veins, arteries, and tearing through skin and muscle tissue. He cries out in pain begging for mercy. Just as soon as it entered his arm I have pulled it out and there is no scar visible. The wound is completely healed. His health is still at full. He drops to the ground grabbing his arm and screaming.
FUCK AHHHHHHHHH (Thug)
Three down. I stare at my next victim a smile appearing on my face. They can’t see it though, all that's visible is shadows. I jump at the second man as his Fireball spell hits me square in the jaw. He burns away the little bit of stubble I had grown, he's going to pay for that. I grab his head and place Life Bringer to his throat. I slowly begin to saw at his throat, with blood spurting everywhere, it’s in my eyes and nose and I end up swallowing a bit of it. I keep sawing until I get to the bone and then I saw through his neck. He’s screaming for dear life and clutching his neck. I pull my sword back and once again there’s not a single mark on him. His neck still in one piece. He drops to his knees holding his neck and sobbing profusely.
All that’s left is the boss and his right hand man. They’re staring at me like I’m some kind of demon. The boss shoves his henchman at me and the guy is shaking uncontrollably. I dash forward and horizontally cleave the man in two. It instantly heal and he drops to the ground screeching in pain.
Now it’s me and the boss squaring off. He pulls a battleaxe off his back and aims it at me. His posture and figure is all wrong. You can tell he’s scared shitless. In a last ditch fight or flight moment he runs at me. Wielding the axe above his head he swings down. I unsheathe Ripper and parry his blow. I then stab him in his left shoulder and activate the enchantment of Ripper. Metal spikes shoot out of my sword in every direction exploding the man’s shoulder. His now mutilated appendage drops to the ground spewing blood onto the alleyway. He grabs at his now missing shoulder trying to stop the blood flow.
Cauterize Wound. (Head Thug)
He screams in pain as fire magic sears into his flesh closing his wound and leaving the scent of burnt flesh in the air. He falls to his knees and looks at me.
Who are you? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? (Head Thug)
Who I am is not important. What is important is the lesson you learned today. Beware the Crow’s Caw lest you need a reminder (Corax)
At this point the alleyway smells of piss, shit and sweat. Vomit and blood liter the walls and ground. All you can hear is crying and puking. I sheathe my blades and put them back into my ring of holding. I jump onto the rooftops and dispel the Dome Of Darkness, as I head into the night. I have much more to do before morning.