As I make my way through Kruzser to the place Yvonne invited me to, I put my helmet back on and prepare my constructs with the two hundred portions I've stored.
I pour flow into my armor's defensive runes and shape a perception construct that I keep on standby with my sundering construct. As I engage into a small street, I find two carriages that turned over due to a collision and frown at this unlikely event.
I turn to take another path only to run into three squads of imperial guards pulling apart a brawl between a dozen Noble house soldiers. As loud as they are in insulting each other, they have few injuries which means they started the fight near several patrols.
Going through there isn't going to work as they'll try to draw me in or the imperial guards will stop me themselves so I glimpse to the map but find that I'll need to take a large detour with no guarantee there won't be other 'coincidences' hindering me.
It may be idiotic to do so much to stop me as it confirms my dark premonition but the truth is I may not make it in time because of it, or it's already too late to make it.
If subtlety is out the window, then three can play this game. I memorize the street configuration of my destination and put away the map as I gather flow around myself, drawing much attention with the intense golden glow formed by twenty portions.
I look up to the sky and propel my body with kinetic force I redirect from my surroundings, guiding myself by hardening the air. I cruise through the sky with my cloak flapping behind my back.
I know, almost for a fact by the actions he took in Izla Meria, that Wraith would be looking for an opportunity to kill those closest to us and cause friction between us so Yvonne organizing a dinner is a perfect opening for him.
Not only is he preventing our reconciliation but it's also a window during which Leomi's sword-sworn is isolated for hours, perhaps causing us to blame each other for her demise while trying to help us.
I don't know what the effect they think this would have on Elizabeth Vil's relationship to Leomi Lance and Jessica Freepath but it wouldn't be positive. With these fears in mind, I invest another ten portions to redirect the kinetic force caused by gravity's pull and go faster.
A weapon with two blades joined by a circular handle at the middle and covered in intense golden flow is suddenly thrown at me from an avenue beneath me.
I offhandedly wave at the spinning projectile to send a few portions of unstructured energy that launch it back at the sender. The man, likely part of lower Nobility, is wearing a quality hard leather armor with a good-looking tabard.
He screams as he tries to run but my flow guides the weapon which quickly tears into him like a bone-saw, cutting the cry short. I roll my eyes at this incompetence which results in a gory spectacle of splashing blood in the middle of an avenue.
I know, as people scamper from the scene, that there will be an aftermath to this but I do not fear it. I'm too furious at Roskal acting so blatantly and afraid for Yvonne to care.
I encounter a few more half-assed ambush attempts that prove they are improvising and didn't expect me to fly straight to my best-friend's rescue, or even go there right away upon receiving the invitation.
When I arrive, I find a three-story building built of natural rocks with ivy growing on its facade from long and deep pots filled with soil which the roof's gutter spill into.
The small sign depicting a bed with covers makes this a discreet and cozy inn perfect for Leomi and I to spend time alone out of sight without distractions. The area is suspiciously deserted and all the flaps are suspiciously closed.
This looks and feels like a trap, especially since the message I received could have been a fake. I would destroy the entire structure since the staff was likely murdered but it isn't certain. Yvonne may also be injured if she isn't already dead.
I descend towards the roof with a sick feeling in my stomach and use flow to disperse the kinetic force of my landing into the air to avoid making noise. There is every chance those inside know I'm coming but there is no reason to land in the street to be seen or tell them where I am.
I find a hatch into the attic and create a shroud of energy around myself before dropping inside. The room is plunged in darkness but appears merely dark gray to me so the two thugs each wielding a spiked mace don't surprise me.
They must've heard me walk on the roof because they launch at me as soon as they spot the vague cloud of flow. I step back to avoid their weapons, leaving my energy behind, and seize a portion to split it into two air-needles I directly launch at their throats.
The thugs vainly swing another time at the vague golden shape before they... survive my air-needles with the thin layer of flow that blocks them. Fuck. I swear under my breath while drawing my short broadsword to fight inside.
I could overwhelm their defenses but this little Wraith likely has more energy than I do by virtue of working for titled Nobles so I must pace myself in more than one way.
My opponents, after suffering two failures because they can't see clearly in the dark or through the cloud of flow, try to seize the energy by attacking my link to it. I retrieve it and slash at their weapons with my sundering construct.
My sword cuts straight through the handles but the sundering construct consumes a handful of portions doing so, proving they were reinforced with a defensive construct.
Crack. The spiked heads of the maces split the floorboards where they hit, creating large holes by turning the wood into splinters. I purse my lips in dissatisfaction because I had hoped to end this without revealing my presence.
“Shit!” One of the thugs swears as he realizes their loss and hesitates on whether to fight or run.
His comrade has no such doubts and launches in my general direction to grapple me, he almost misses but still forces me to dodge. I can't be dragged into a messy fight with the risk of being hit at short range by a construct like the cubic torch that punches through armor.
“Hear this? The last of these dirty rubes you so love have been found and killed because you didn't abide by my simple request, Yvonne, whore of Shipwold.” A deep voice that seems to seep through the walls reaches my ears and is followed by a somber laugh.
I chase the literal dozen thoughts these words cause out of my mind to focus on smashing the flat of my sword in the back of my opponent, enhancing the blow with kinetic force.
The barrier construct once again flickers to block but it contains less energy this time so Wraith clearly didn't put much flow in these constructs before he gave it to them.
With my first opponent carried away by his momentum, I lion's step at the one filled with doubt and propel a backhanded blow at his face. He just barely manages to raise his arms to block and the barrier activates but instantly cracks under the weight of the kinetic force.
I pressure it some more and it shatters. The man, in panic, seizes my weapon with his bare hands and loses his fingers because I instantly activate my sundering construct.
“Aaaaaah!” His piercing scream, more anguish than pain at first, almost deafens me so I end it by flicking my blade at his throat to sever his head.
His comrade attacks me from behind to try to catch me off-guard but I both hear and detect the silver construct nested in the pit of his palm. I shift and spin on myself to dodge as I counter-attack, smashing my arm-guard into the man's nose.
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His barrier construct breaks and he's thrown peddling backward by the impact. Using Vikiana's method, it takes but a single thought to snap streams of my flow into the specific muscles I need to lion's step up to the thug and then cut his head off his shoulders with a lightning-fast lion strike.
Now that my immediate safety is assured, I pause and activate my perception construct to analyze the information I've gathered to decide on the next move to make to deal with Wraith.
The killer evidently knows I've entered the inn from the noise made by the floorboards breaking or the two dead sent a warning as they listened to me search for the hatch on the roof.
The declaration could have been to trick me into thinking my friend is still alive or stated to demoralize Yvonne who might have heard and thought that someone came to rescue her.
His voice was too clear for the distance it came from and that suspicious fact can't be hidden, if Yvonne is dead then Wraith may have said this to lead me to think she still lives and bait me into rushing to rescue her.
The insult is designed to enrage Yvonne into revealing herself somehow, which would be unnecessary to draw me in if he already dealt with her so that leads me to believe it is all true.
Most enraging is that the assumption he is trying to get Yvonne to reveal herself means I must let his lie stand because she may make noise that could lead to her death when she learns I'm here.
If she is dead then there is no point to announcing my presence but a disadvantage as it would inform my opponents of my precise location. We should hurry.
I deactivate my perception construct and look for the staircase but find another hatch with a ladder. I dismiss using this as it would be easy to ambush me as I descend and turn to the two holes in the floorboards.
I reach out and blow up the wood with my flow before jumping down. As I've already burnt fifty portions, I decide not to smooth my landing and directly use lion's steps to launch into a run on impact.
This floor is just as dark as the attic, if not more. It must be by design from the assassins who had time to get used to it, which in their minds means I theoretically wouldn't be able to see as well.
Unfortunately for them, and me, my sight isn't significantly hampered. My eyes mostly detect gray but blood is dark-red and a lot was spilled in the hallway and on the walls.
I'm categorically certain Roskal isn't insane enough to give the order to slaughter the workers and customers of the inn which means she's lost control over Wraith, if she ever had any.
Down the hall are two trembling thugs sitting before a side-door with their spiked maces held up. When they see me, they exchange a glance and instantly try to run away.
I throw myself feet first at the slowest. The barrier construct activates but doesn't negate the whole impact which causes the woman to trip and collide with the legs of the runner in front.
I land and stomp down on her, adding my enhanced strength to the power of a lion strike. My heel shatters the golden barrier and lands smack on her head.
“Iiihaarrrh!”
She screams like a pig at slaughter but I don't stop bringing my foot down until it stops while the other one tries to flee on all fours. I notice a pool of blood spreading out from under her and realize she fell atop her spiked mace which eviscerated her when the barrier construct broke.
The other one got back on his feet so I launch after him before he manages to sprint down the staircase and once again use my heel to break his skull. With the immediate threats dealt with, I quickly check inside the room to find a small pile of three bodies, including one in a servant's uniform.
I grit my teeth and make my way down the staircase, hoping Yvonne will hear the fighting. She's plenty smart enough to connect the dots herself and realize why I haven't announced myself.
After all I fear she isn't in a stable mental state which could lead her to betray her presence out of surprise and relief, something that wouldn't happen if she reaches this conclusion herself.
Four doors are suddenly opened as I approach the stairs. Four killers step out before me. I check behind to see another four behind me. They wield bloody weapons, six have spiked maces while another two hold war-hammers with short handles.
I barely distinguish over a dozen silver shapes crossing through the walls from the rooms they hid in and immediately activate my perception construct. Sixteen golden cubes cross over into the hallway and burst into intense blue flames as they launch at me.
Meanwhile, four of my eight opponents charge me as they activate the constructs anchored to their weapons. Oddly enough, they are aiming at my limbs or waist as if trying not to kill me.
It could either be to torture me later or cripple me to destroy Jessica Freepath. I would bet on both considering the type of being Wraith is. I deploy thirty portions of energy and create an unstructured shell around me.
I register, through my flow, the impact of the constructs and weapons which are stopped dead. Yet, within a few seconds, I begin feeling intense heat on my face while the air imprisoned within begins shivering as it does in the dead of summer.
I would gather it is because my defense is stopping the burning air but it can't stop heat from spreading, which makes sense but is quite unfortunate considering the intensity and number of these constructs.
I reassign my energy to focus on blocking the sixteen cubical torches with small shields rather than a shell. I take stock of my four opponent's locations as they attack me once more.
At the last moment before I take a spiked mace into my shoulder from the killer, I crouch and lion's leap forward under the incoming weapon. I shift to dodge a swipe aimed at belly-level and focus on my unstructured defenses.
Instead of continuing to block the constructs still aimed at me, I burn more energy to imprison these cubes and forcefully launch them at the general location of the killers I left behind since these things had difficulty maneuvering last time.
A moment after I recall my unstructured flow, I hear shrieks as the constructs tears through them and sounds of broken wooden walls from the initial kinetic burst meant to pierce through armor.
The two facing me immediately switch from an offensive stance to a defensive one while squinting to track my weapon, quickly learning to fear me but not how to counter me.
I slash out wide with my broadsword directly at both their throats. My sundering construct goes through the handle of the first's war-hammer without much difficulty but is stopped upon contact with the barrier construct that appears.
My blade is stopped by the thin golden sheet protecting his neck but I loop the kinetic force behind my blow and create more through half-formed constructs. My broadsword stutters for a moment but it soon crushes through and slices through the neck.
The other one tries to attack, having apparently thought my attack would fail. I trigger a secondary lion strike to reach first, another of Vikiana's tricks, and the weapon continues onto its path to grant the killer a swift death.
I turn before the two bodies even fall and find six dead behind me with five holes in the walls. Red flames are flickering around the edges but they are having trouble eating through the lacquer so I decide to ignore it.
Even if a fire catches it'll be manageable and draw attention to the building so it's advantageous for me. That or I'll be deemed an arsonist on top of being the destroyer of masonry.
I go down the staircase to find that there is no one in the hallway of the inn's second floor, not even a body. There is only a forearm that was ripped off in the middle in a brutal killing. It isn't female.
I narrow my eyes and advance carefully to watch for ambushes but surprisingly encounter none. I swiftly check behind every door and whisper a call in each room in the hopes of finding Yvonne.
Behind the last door, I find a man with a tear on his face revealing it isn't his but a sordid chunk of flesh he cut off someone else. He smiles and the dead lips split to reveal the twisted curl on Wraith's.
He is sitting on a bed stained red from blood next to which is a dead body lying face down and missing a piece of its left arm. The shape of it triggers my memory but what makes me certain of his identity is the blunt sword on the floor.
“Idiots, these Shades, this one agreed to do real work for me yet couldn't cut it when push came to shove and betrayed himself after a mere few hours.” Wraith utters mockingly.
“He was a Brute after all, be on your guard for ballista bolts during what little lifespan you have left.” I utter between grit teeth. “Do not die before I rip you apart, I'll follow you to the Lake and take my time slaughtering you there for all who have ever lived to witness your end.” Liz straightforwardly threatens.
“Quaint.” The lowlife responds with a touch of amusement. “You're far more akin to Elizabeth Vil than I've been told, Roskal will be very disappointed or happy beyond her wildest hopes in the future.”
“Where is Yvonne?” I demand with a harsh tone.
“Ah, yes. It was unavoidable you would figure out she lives.” Wraith admits nonchalantly. He would try to torment me if he could prove her death, this isn't a lie but it doesn't mean she isn't inside this inn either. “Yet, it does place me in a conundrum as she was meant to be the appetizer for the main meal.” His fake face twists. I'm thankful I do not have to peer on his expression as it is sure to be repulsive.
“Come, we assure you it won't take long even though we'll make sure to extend your suffering some.” We challenge as we bring our broadsword back to fall into an aggressive stance.