Chapter 46 - Bored
Mason woke and immediately noticed the storm had stopped, he exited the Trunk and saw the suns had already risen.
He had recently been getting better at judging what time it was. As world clocks and watches had yet to be invented in this world, most people developed an Internal clock and always knew what time it was. As Mason had only been here for a few weeks he unfortunately lacked this skill. He had read that there was a very easy, quick ritual he could do to find out the exact time but he had yet to commit any time to learn it.
Judging from the suns position, he made a super rough guess that it was about 5 Am. If he was even slightly correct then he was going to be very late to his early morning torture session Lyvan liked to call training. His training usually started at 5:30, if he could run straight there it would only take him about 20 minutes to get back to town but he would need to navigate the forest and completely avoid any Monsters in order to make that time.
Apart from being a sadistic wookie wannabe, Lyvan was pretty decent and most likely wouldn’t mind if he was slightly late, so Mason wasn’t too bothered.
Mandatory Quest. Get to Town as fast as you can.
Objective: Your presence is needed in Town. Get there in the next 30 Minutes.
Reward: Experience Boost. The faster you get there, the more effective this reward will be.
Dammit, that was irritating. He was still absolutely knackered and didn’t particularly want to rush back to Town, but as always the system felt the need to call the shots. It seemed the System didn’t want him to miss training; that or it was just being an asshole. On the plus side, an experience boost sounded pretty decent. Mason, with a second read-through, noticed the quest was tagged as mandatory. That was strange. The other mandatory quests he had been issued were always life and death, whereas this was just a matter of him being slightly late. Weird.
After yesterday’s questionable results using his disk as a travel method, he had been planning on waiting a bit to try it again. However, he had a general idea as to which direction Sparksford was and the fastest way he could think of to get there was by Disk.
He currently had 335 Mana points. Yesterday when he used Ballistic Touch on the disk, it had cost him 50 Mana. Meaning he could use it 6 times in a row without needing to pause to recharge. If he had more time, he would have liked to experiment a bit more, find out how far the disk travelled per time he used the ability and if the ability cost more when used on things bigger, heavier or of a different material. Ah, well, experiments for another time. Right now, he needed to get a move on.
As he was going directly to training, he decided against wearing his armour and changed into his normal workout outfit, which consisted of this world’s version of joggers and a comfortable shirt.
Ready to leave, he launched himself several feet in the air. Once airborne, he landed on the disk, angled it slightly upwards so it was aimed above the trees and activated his ability.
He once again shot through the air at a tremendous speed. He remembered once watching a documentary back on Earth that mentioned most bullets moved at around 1800 miles an hour. Assuming the speed was reduced because of his added weight, he was still moving so fast that even with his enhanced Intelligence and Perception, he was finding it difficult to make sense of what he was seeing and judge whether he was going in the right direction.
His speed started to dwindle slowly almost immediately, as it did, he started to get used to moving to fast and was able to process the rush of information his senses were feeding him. Utilising his Perception stat seemed to almost slow down time and speed up his thoughts making the whole process far easier.
From up so high, he could see that he was moving towards the Town but needed to veer slightly to the right or risk zooming right passed it.
Unfortunately for Mason, the stone disk hadn’t come with a steering wheel. He waited until he felt himself start to slow enough to start to lose altitude, then used his Ballistic Touch again, this time willing it to move in the slightly altered direction. Apart from the sudden jolt that accompanied the change in bearing and the slight speed increase, it was far easier to handle than the initial burst going from a standstill to full speed.
After a few more uses of his ability, he approached the Town. He had gotten there far faster than he would have ever thought possible.
Seconds later, he finally saw what had caused the alarm. From his bird’s eyes view, he saw a dozen people all fighting a single seemingly unarmed combatant. All around them lay the bodies of the fallen. He started his descent, but just before he lost line of sight, he recognised the lone fighter.
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“Fuck.”
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Mayry was started to get worried about Mason.
She hadn’t been able to get much sleep, so before dawn had even arrived she had climbed up to his room. She was eager to wake him up in the most annoying way she could think of, but she saw the bed hadn’t been slept in at all. It was annoying but it wasn’t unheard of for Hunters to stay out over night while on a contract, Mason even had his magic Trunk. That wasn’t what worried her. The last time she had seen him she was sure that she had seen… something in him as he fought Lyvan. The Gnoll hadn’t noticed but she was certain Mason was doing all he could to kill the General. She had seen madness in his eyes and then it was gone so fast she thought he had imagined it.
He’d then left to complete a contract and said he had a lot to think about.’ He had said something after fighting the Trolls about foreign emotions taking over. She recognised what he had said as being a symptom of Chaos sickness but wanted to wait to see if it wore off or got worse before telling him. People tended not to react well when they found out.
Trying to kill Lyvan and now staying out all night on contract? She was going to have to talk to him about it soon. If he missed the training session, she decided she would go out and look for him. Knowing Mason, he was either out somewhere fighting an elder Dragon or talking shit to a tree.
Hoping to meet him at the training field, she left his room, using the door this time, making sure to wave at Nays on her way out.
She was halfway to the training grounds when she felt a powerful Magical energy approaching the Town. That was strange. Two Monster ACT’s this close together, it was almost unheard of. No, not a Monster. She had felt this Magical signature before. It had changed slightly, but, it was definitely the same person.
Panicking, she sprinted to the guard barracks. Lyvan exited the building as she got close.
“Ah, Mayry. I was just heading to-“
She cut him off, breathlessly she said. “No time, sound alarm. It’s bad. Really bad.”
Lyvan knew of her ability to sense Magic and so didn’t hesitate to turn around and run back inside. She flinched as the alarm started. A few moments later, Lyvan returned.
“I checked all the Monster detection instruments, they aren’t picking up any abnormal Monsters nearby-“
She cut him off again. As the Mayor’s daughter and a member of the family who owned the Town, she was one of the few people he would allow to get away with talking over him. “Not a Monster. Far far worse. I need you to get everyone off the street, I would say evacuate, but it’s too late for that. Gather every Hunter and guard you can.”
The Gnolls eyes were wide. He looked at her seriously, “Mayry, what is it? You look terrified. What is coming?”
She looked him in the eyes, and her whole demeanour changed into that of someone in charge, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Just trust me and do as I say. Gather all the guards and Hunter at the Town gate.”
Lyvan stared at her for a second longer, then turned to leave.
Before he could, there was an explosion. Part of the Town wall exploded.
“Fuck. She’s already.” She turned and shouted at Lyvan, “Go now!”
“Maaason… where aarree youu?” The chilling voice was being projected directly into her head. She looked around. Judging by the confused looks on people’s faces they too had heard the voice.
“Maaaason. Come out and plaaay.” When the smoke cleared, she saw exactly who she had feared she would see. Standing there was Gael, a maniacal smile on her face. The only difference from the last time MAyry had seen her was a scar that ran diagonally from the right corner of her forehead all the way down her face disappearing below her chin.
The woman’s black-as-night eyes looked from person to person, searching for her target. If Mason didn’t get here soon, they were absolutely fucked.
The insane woman casually waved her hand, and a tiny bolt of red energy shot out, causing another section of the wall to explode.
On second thoughts, even if Mason did get here, they were probably still fucked.
Gael pouted, shrugged then started pointing at people at random. Each person she pointed at died. Nothing seemed to happen, they just suddenly stopped living. This woman was what true insanity looked like.
Luckily most people who had been awake at this early hour had heard the ACT alarm and returned home. The few who had ignored the alarm were now fleeing the ‘Other’.
Summoning a strength she didn’t realise she had, she ran towards the woman and shouted. “He’s coming! Mason is coming, he’s on his way!”
Gael didn’t even bother looking at her. She just pointed her finger at her, intending to kill whatever worm had dared speak to her. Mayry flinched, expecting to die. Nothing happened.
Mayry tried her luck again, speaking calmly and slowly so as not to annoy the woman further. “Remember me? I’m the one you took a few weeks ago.”
Gael whipped her head around at the words. She frowned at Mayry, then inspected her finger. She used her other hand to tap the finger a few times as if to make sure it was working right. She once more pointed it at Mayry, but again nothing happened. She looked at her finger again and shrugged.
She disappeared, reappearing directly in front of Mayry. She leaned in close, staring at her face. “Oh yeah. I do remember you. You say Mason is coming?” She asked, her face still inches away from Mayry’s.
“Yeah, he’ll be here within the hour.” I hope, she mentally added.
Gael moved away from Mayry’s face and sighed dramatically. “Ugh, fine. You can entertain me while I wait, but if he isn’t here within an hour… I get to kill you and everyone else in this Town. Deal?
Mayry’s heart felt like it had stopped. She was going to kill… everyone?
She hesitated before asking, “Entertain you how?”
“Oh, relax! I was only joking, I’d definitely kill you, but I’d probably get bored before I killed everyone. Do you have anyone worth fighting? Bring them here, and you can all try and kill me while I wait for your boyfriend to get here.”
Reflexively she opened her mouth to say Mason wasn’t her boyfriend but just nodded, saying, “I’ll gather our fighters and bring them here,” She turned to leave but turned back to face Gael and added, “Please don’t kill anyone else while I’m gone.”
Gael rolled her eyes, “Ugh, no one here is any fun.” She made a shooing gesture, before saying, “Fine, no killing, but hurry up, or I’m gonna get bored.”