Chapter 81 - Rhott and Shazi

“Are you certain that’s what they said?” Mason asked for the third time.

“Yes! There were two of them, and they definitely referred to Ganehfrel as home.”

While he had never felt stronger, he wasn’t quite up for jumping head-first into another fight; if he was smart about it, maybe he could gather some info from the two. Besides, he was mentally exhausted, and physically, he didn’t feel great either. With this new surge of power, he was sure he would win the fight but was worried that in his current state, he might make a mistake that would get one of his friends killed. It had happened time and time again, almost like it happened every time he fought. Mayry had come so close to death so many times, and now he was endangering Nina. If he thought it would work, he would have told Mayry to leave him and go back to Sparksford ages ago. He knew she would refuse, but he hoped Nina might not.

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Mayry got there first. “Nina, If there really are Others around, then I think you should go back to Sparksford…”

He chanced a look at her, but where he expected shock, all he saw on her face was a forced smile he could tell was covering up hurt. “Of course!” She said cheerfully, “Now the tree thingy has been killed; I guess I’ll just go collect the bounty. See you guys later then.”

Mason put an arm on her shoulder as she turned to leave. “Nina, It isn’t like that. We just don’t want you getting hurt. We’ve fought people like this before, and while we’d appreciate your help, it just wouldn’t be worth the danger we’d be putting you in.”

She turned back and opened her mouth, but Mason raised a finger to his lips as he enhanced sensing and started picking up voices. “They’re coming now. Look, Nina, I’m really sorry. I wish I had more time to explain, but once we sort this out, I promise we’ll come to find you in Sparksford, and we can talk properly, but right now, I need you to go.”

The hurt broke through her mask, and without a word, she turned and walked off. He wished he had the time to help her up her ability so she could fly back, but he could hear two sets of footsteps getting closer.

He wanted to avoid a confrontation, so he took out his trunk and motioned for Mayry to get in. Then he took it and teleported to a secure-looking branch high up in a tree. Even if the branch broke the trunk, Mayry would most likely be fine inside, but he didn’t want to risk damaging his very expensive trunk, so he checked its stability before teleporting back down and turning invisible.

Not a moment later, a rustling of leaves signalled the arrival of the two Others. A man and a woman stepped out and looked around.

The woman’s jaw dropped as she surveyed the scene of broken trees, blood sap and the pile of dust that used to be a nature spirit. “Damn… What in the name of the All Great happened here?!” She was tall and thin and looked like she had been living in the wilderness for the past decade. She was covered in dirt, and all of her clothes had various tears and stains in them.

“This has to be where all that energy was coming from.” The man said, with an equal look of shock on his face. Compared to the woman, he looked like he was born to live out in the wild. He was shorter and more muscular than the woman and far cleaner. Where she looked like she would rather be anywhere but here, he looked like he was walking from the car park towards Disneyland.

“Rhott! Please! Whatever was putting out that sort of energy is obviously far strong than we can handle. What’s the point of going out of our way to find something that is definitely going to kill us?” The woman whined. The man turned to her and sighed. “The point, Shazi, is if something gave off that much energy, then surely it’s now weakened, probably not to the point where one of us could take it down, but together, we probably had a decent chance.”

Mason couldn’t fault his logic. He was definitely wrong; Mason was probably stronger than he had ever been. The only reason he didn’t kill them right now was he wanted to see if he could gather some info, maybe even find out where the gate between worlds was.

The woman harumphed and shrugged, not willing to agree but not going so far as to disagree with the man. “Whatever, let’s just hurry this up so we can try and get through that door. I just know there is some good stuff in that place.” For the first time, Mason saw something other than a look of anxiety and disgust on the woman’s face. She looked as if she was one number away from winning the lottery.

The two looked around for a while; they tapped away at instruments. Mason couldn’t make heads or tails, but from the way they pointed them at what was left of the Shizen, he assumed they were some sort of scanners. Interestingly, the woman, Shazi, pocketed a handful of the dust when the man wasn’t looking, patting her pocket and allowing herself a quick smile.

After a couple more minutes of growing more and more annoyed, Shazi confronted her partner and, as if scolding a young child, spat. “I really hope you are getting more from this than I am, Rhott because I’ve still not got the foggiest idea of what happened here or what was giving off so much energy.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

He took her verbal abuse with a shit-eating grin that even Mason would be proud of and replied cooly, “It’s obvious, ain’t it?” he paused and took a long, slow drink from the water skin that had been hanging from his side, one eye cracked open a tiny bit so he could watch his companion grow even more irritated. The man, Rhott, walked forward, pointing to various things around him. “Judging by the destruction, the blood and the pile of ash, I’d say there was a pretty hectic fight here. Very recently, I’d say.”

Shazi raised her palm to her face in frustration. “I got that much, you numbskull. But who was fighting, and with what?”

Rhott stretched his arms up in a yawn and replied. “Well, now, hear me out. I could be wrong, but I’d bet my left nut that the winner of the fight is the guy standing over there under an invisibility skill.”

It took Mason a moment to process the man’s words, but when he did, he acted immediately and tried to teleport away, but nothing happened; he tried to move, but he found he was paralysed.

The man smirked and walked closer to him, arms still raised to the sky as if in some sort of perpetual stretch.

The woman gasped, “Holy shit! How did you know he was there?!”

Looking back for a second, he answered, “I’m just that good.“ He turned back and was confronted with a fast-moving fist that was inches away from his face.

The impact knocked the man so far back that Mason had lost sight of him. He pulled back and stared in awe at his fist; he had had no idea that a single punch would be so effective. The ability the man had used had covered his body in a layer of invisible restraints. It had been a cool attack, even somehow stopping him from using his own abilities, but it had only worked on him for a few seconds before he managed to brute force his way out of it.

Once he was somewhere safer, he really needed to take a look at all the notifications he had gotten; if he kept gaining power at this rate, maybe he really could fight a god. He looked up from his musings to find the woman Other had run after her companion. Mason let them go. He wasn’t going to kill them just yet; something the woman had said had piqued his interest.

“Let’s just hurry this up so we can try and get through that door. I just know there is some good stuff in that place.”

That was what she had said, and while he wasn’t currently wanting for money or even for stuff, he had a gut feeling that wherever those two were trying to get into, it would be worth following them, getting into wherever it was first… and then killing them. He was slightly surprised at how bloodthirsty he had become towards Others. They were still people, after all, but he reasoned they would have killed him if they had the chance. Besides, he wanted their sweet, sweet essence.

He stuck his head into his trunk and, for the second time, found Mayry fast asleep, snoring like a wild boar. He was worried for a moment that something was wrong or that she was going through another transformation, but no, she had just gotten bored waiting and had fallen asleep. Did they have an understanding of narcolepsy in this world, he wondered.

He was so mentally drained that he could understand how she had fallen asleep. His exhaustion was bad enough that he resisted the urge to tickle the sleeping woman and instead settled for poking her until she woke up.

She spluttered awake, flailing her limbs as if she was being attacked. “What was that for?!” she asked him crossly once she had oriented herself.

With a mock, stern look, he answered, “I could have been out there fighting for my life, all while you were in here fast asleep, snoring so loudly I’m amazed the sound-muffling runes still work!”

With a yawn, a stretch and a shrug, “Were you in a fight for your life?”

“I mean… no. But it’s the principle!” he whined.

“Eh, I was pretty sure you could handle it… plus, I was sleepy, so… how about I make it up to you? We could celebrate two more dead others?” She grinned at him and pulled him into a kiss.

Exerting all of his considerable Willpower stat, he pulled away from her. “Actually, about that. I let them get away.”

“Mason! How the heck did you manage that? I could sense them coming, and there is no way they could have beaten you! Why’d you let them get away?!”

“Well…” He explained everything that happened as they exited the trunk and started to head in the direction the two Others had gone.

Mayry had frowned right up until he mentioned what the woman had said. “Do you think it’s another one on those hideouts? Like the one Aiden was in?”

He nodded at her, “That was my hope. I’m thinking we follow them there, take them out, maybe leave one alive and see what they know.”

“Oo, do you think they’ll know how to open those glass money boxes? If we ever get into that box of gold, we’d be the richest people ever.” She said excitedly.

She turned sharply and headed in another direction; he followed her, depending on her magic sense to track them.

“Honestly, I’m not too bothered about the money, Trilil was great, but your world kinda sucks with how little there is to buy once you get over the magic trinkets. I’m more hoping they know where ‘The gate’ is.”

She glared at him as they walked and pointed, “Hey, screw you, this world has loaded; you’ve never even been to a really big city! With my share, I’m gonna get a pet dragon! Bet they don’t have those in your world.”

He stopped so suddenly that Mayry was a good dozen feet in front of him before she noticed his absence and turned around.

“Can you really buy pet dragons?!” He asked, completely shocked. How was he only finding out about this now? If he could have his own pet dragon, he would have sold his kidney to Viv in his first week here to be able to afford one!

The look on Mayry’s face as she walked back to him broke his heart and crushed his short-lived dreams. She grabbed his hand and pulled him along while trying to control her laughter. “You’re an idiot. Of course, you can’t buy a bloody dragon. Firstly, dragons are super, super rare, and secondly, I don’t care how powerful you get, if you went up to a mother dragon and asked to buy one of her eggs, you’d be dead before you even finished the sentence.”

“But you said…” he started, but she cut him off.

“I was joking!” her laughter subsided, and she added, “Plus, they’re sentient! I don’t know about your world, but here, we don’t keep sentient beings as pets.”

At this, he thought he better keep quiet, and not get into the more nefarious parts of Earth’s history.