Chapter 12

I left the bar, and I was not surprised to find there were a couple of people following behind me on my way back to Demira’s manor. I didn’t know if the manor was called Demira manor but that’s what I called it. It may have a proper name. Something I will have to ask her next time I see her.

The two followers were doing a decent job of trying to hide in shadows as I walked but not good enough for my high perception. They likely weren’t very high levels I imagine. Likely, these were thieves or trained to hide in shadows even during daylight hours and not assassins as most assassins preferred to work by themselves.

The two thieves maintained enough distance where even if they were not in shadows, they would just seem to blend in the crowd. I felt that there were a few other people following further behind. I had picked up the metal beads from the smithy already and they were perfect and ready to be used. each was about half the size of a penny. I had not tried them out yet and I hoped they maintained the same force and damage as the pebble. I grabbed a handful and readied my short sword which was in the sheath. I came to a corner, and I made a quick right into the alleyway and then sprinted.

The two thieves were cautiously following behind me while trying to stay hidden. When they saw me turn and speed up, they followed behind me at a vigilant pace. They couldn’t spot me when I had turned into the alleyway. They knew though that this was a dead end so there was nowhere else I could have gone unless I had climbed up.

They both approached slowly checking out all possible areas that could be used for hiding. Both had pulled out a short sword at this point and by the way they held it, it was obvious they had made plenty use of it in the past. They kept a distance of ten feet from each other with one guy checking out the right and high and the other looking over at left and low.

The first one turned due to some disturbance but suddenly, he was hit by several Magic projectiles. I could use ten projectiles per spell with each doing more than 85 points of damage. I sent the projectiles in a spread burst pattern. Pretty much a sawed off shot gun effect. There was a chance they could pick up on them and may try to dodge if they had high perception and speed. Even if the first rogue couldn’t dodge, the second one likely would be able to. The burst pattern made it where the spell would hit them both. The first one would get the most damage and the second one much less. The damage should be enough to kill one or both but even if it wasn’t they would be caught in enough surprise where I would be able to get another spell off before they recovered.

The first one in the front was hit by 6 projectiles and died immediately, whereas the second was hit by two but I got lucky and one of them hit him in the eye and the other in the chest. Though the damage was not significant, it was a critical hit and the rogue in the back, fell back onto the ground.

I quickly went to him and held my sword up to his throat, “How many of you are there and why are you following me?”

The second one hit was in no condition to answer, and I could hear the rest of them approaching from around the block and turning into the alley. I pushed the sword through the neck of the rogue and sprinted further into the alley. I needed to make a stand, but I wanted to do it where I had some advantage.

The alley became narrower the further in I got. Though it was daytime, the shadows created by the tall building and the crevices created some areas which were darker than others.

I sheathed my sword and brought out my wand and dagger, crouching in an area a little darker than others. It wasn’t enough to hide me from people looking right in my direction or standing close but from far away, I should bd able to blend into the shadow just enough. The group approached the dead bodies of the two rogues. The leader seemed very obviously pissed.

“Stay alert you idiots, no one do anything stupid. I want this asshole to suffer. No body fucks with me crew and gets away with it.” the leader told his group. With that, they all had their weapons out.

“These guys mean business. How we gonna get out of this broski?” Jimmy’s voice spoke out in my mind.

“Not sure. Got any ideas,” I whispered back.

“The sleep spell?” Jimmy suggested.

“Yea that will need to happen but that won’t do it by itself. There are too many of them and I think their levels will make it difficult. I’m not sure how high levels there are but I don’t imagine more than half will fall to the sleep spell,” I said softly, “But I do have another trick up my sleeve.”

The group was slowly approaching. Besides the leader, there were about seven more of them and at least one of them was a caster.

“Just a little closer,” I whispered to himself.

“Oh, I see what you’re gonna do now broksi. I like it!”

“Come out little piggy! Come out, come out, wherever you are,” The leader said snarkly, “I promise I will let you live if you just hand over all your things like a nice little piggy.”

And then, one of the men looked up to see an object falling towards him. He was not fast enough to dodge. The dagger fell straight into his open mouth and went through the bottom of his chin. Just then I released the sleep spell I had been casting. I had used the wand of telekinesis to hover the dagger about ten feet about the group. I had hoped that once I let go of the dagger, I would hit one of the men in the group as they were closer together because of the narrow alley. At the very least I figured it may create a distraction. I got more than I had hoped for and the dagger went through one of the men’s mouths. The man was still alive but cursing out loud while the blood from his wound squirted out on to the street.

That’s when the sleep spell hit. It got five of them and they all just slowly collapsed to the ground in slumber. The ones who were able to resist was the man impaled with the dagger, the mage and the leader.

The leader was already rushing forward, sword in hand ready to strike. Just as he got close to me, he met my ten projectiles. They hit him like little bullets at near point range. Some of the shots hit him in the gut and chest and a couple in the head.

The leader stumbled back from the unexpected hit. I felt something coming my way as my mana sight activated from a sudden burst of mana. I immediately raised my mana shield and was hit by a lightning bolt a second after the shield formed. The shield collapsed from the damage immediately but fortunately none of it got through to me.

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I tried to make some distance between myself and the two guys. Before I could move though, I felt the same burst of mana. I tried to leap to the side to avoid but I couldn’t. My vision went all white and I felt an agonizing pain course through my body. The caster had hit me with another lightning bolt and this one I had no shield for.

I looked down at myself. I was now on my knees on the ground with smoke coming off my body. My flesh smelled burnt. I felt a thrum of electricity coursing through my body.

My body ached. My muscles would not listen and move as I wanted them to. I pushed my will and with a grunt, moved towards the fighter using his body as a barrier against whatever the caster had planned next. just as I had done that, there were several blades that flew out towards me. They came at me at an arc and though the fighter’s body blocked some of it, I still got grazed with one of the blades and the side of my leg now was gushing blood.

I didn’t waste another second and let loose another projectile spell but this one aimed at the caster. Nine out of the ten projectiles hit the mage creating his body into Swiss cheese and he collapsed. He either did not have a defense or couldn’t raise it in time.

The sword slash came just as the mage collapsed from the projectiles. The slash cut open my gut and I was in agony.

Without my high constitution and Health points from the Titles, I would have died from the lightning bolt previously. Without my willpower being where it was, I likely also would not have been able to continue fighting after that first hit, I got. But I was not just anyone.

I was on the ground on my back trying not to die with my body having been electrocuted and bleeding from multiple areas with guts spilling out.

I knew I was going to die.

I will not let this be my end.

I WILL NOT let this be my end!!!

I groaned and kicked at the shin of the leader who was about to skewer me with his blade. The kick in the shin didn’t do much damage but it was enough to give me a breather. I was able to raise my shield for the next attack. Having his attack blocked the leader only infuriated him further and he took a big swing and charged his blade with a special skill. It took a few seconds for it to charge but it was a second too long as I pulled out some more beads and sent projectiles at the leader. He was in shock when it hit and took a step back and then he slumped to the ground. Another several seconds later, the leader had died.

I quickly grabbed the potion in my bag and downed it. The brew quickly restored some of my health. I was still bleeding but slower now and the gut wound had closed for the most part. I needed to take the second health potion I had. Unfortunately, potions also had a cooldown period, and I wouldn’t be able to for another hour due to potion poisoning. Potion poisoning occurred if you took more than one potion of the same type within the same hour. Not only did it not have the desired effect, but it made you feel sick to your stomach. And if you took another, the sickness just became worse. I stayed there for a bit to collect myself; I had decent natural healing and I hoped that, and the ring of healing would keep me from dying just yet.

I couldn’t wait to heal completely to do this as they would wake up soon. I walked my exhausted body up to the sleeping five and one by one, used my magic projectile to kill each one of them except one. Perhaps I should have let them live but there was no way I was going to take that chance. These guys had singled me out at the bar and came after me specifically. They had come in a large group that I would not normally have been able to take on. Someone had put them up to this.

I knew from living as long as I did that you don’t take unnecessary risks from unknown factors. And this group was an unknown factor. I had no idea what their motive was. It could have been something simple as they wanted my things, but I seriously doubted that. They were just too highly skilled to be just a bunch of thugs looking to rob people. They also would not have a mage as skilled as that one amongst them if they were.

It was possible that these guys were friends with that group, I stopped in the alley that was attacking Daniella. Maybe, they had found out and they wanted revenge. No matter what the reason, I was not going to take a stupid chance. I decided to let the one who appeared the weakest live so I could ask him some questions. I was still recovering when that guy woke up. In the meantime, I also gathered up whatever loot he could from the dead and sleeping bodies including the one I let live.

The sleeping thug woke. I had recovered nearly completely. I didn’t want to wait until the end of the spell and ended it prematurely. I could have waited for the spell to end but I didn’t want to stay in this alley any longer than I had to. I wasn’t sure if these people had others that would come after them. I would have liked to have meditated to recover quicker but I didn’t want to be distracted if there was another fight coming.

The waking man was clearly a melee fighter of some sort given the axe he had on him before I relieved him of it. I wasn’t sure if he knew hand to hand combat as well, so I stood at a distance and cancelled the sleep spell. I was ready with my projectiles to take his head off if he tried to do…well anything besides talk.

“Who are you? Who do you work for? Why were you coming after me?” I shot forth several questions at the man.

The man looked around and saw all the dead bodies and then me as I stood at a slight distance. He tried to reach for his weapons in their sheath but found them missing.

“I have your weapons. I will kill you as I have the rest of your group. If you answer all my questions honestly and to my satisfaction, I will allow you to live.”

The man was taken back at what was going on. He still didn’t know how I, a mage had managed to overcome all the men. Even a powerful mage would have had a difficult time with their squad.

I used my intimidation skill for the first time. It seemed to work better than I had hoped. My use of the bale batman voice could use a little work though.

“We are hired mercenaries. Look I just joined their clan recently and I don’t know all the details but it was Locueas that hired us.”

“Locueas?” Mason asked.

The man pointed to the face down in the dirt caster, “That’s Locueas!”

Upon further questioning, the man revealed that Locueas was a mage from the Order of Tarlus. The order would typically hire this mercenary group on a regular basis to eliminate any Mage not of their order and one that did not belong to any other powerful faction. Typically, they would start with offering the mage the option of joining them or joining the afterlife. If the mage joined, they were treated like the lowest in the order and sent on more and more dangerous missions until they ended up dying. Once they joined the order it was impossible for the mages to leave, though the man did not know why.

The order had found out that I had taken care of infestation in the town hall and that I was an unassociated caster. Which meant that he needed to be recruited or eliminated. The man further revealed that although they normally offered, most other unassociated Mages a choice to join, that was not going to be the case with me. They knew that I was friends with Demira and the Order had something against her for some reason. By killing me, they would not only get rid of a mage but also deal a blow to Demira. They were hoping to get two birds with one stone. They didn’t realize that I was more like a dragon than a little bird.

The Order had sent Locueas to personally take care of the matter along with the group. Locueas had an advanced ability to identify Individuals, their classes, and levels. He was also able to identify magical items on an individual. Their group had been planning on how they were going to get to me considering where I stayed and then I just conveniently walked into the tavern they were meeting to discuss how they were going to find me. Locueas was able to identify me and my levels easily and from that able to surmise that this would not be a difficult task given the force they had.

“So will you let me go now since I answered all your questions?” the man on the ground pleaded as his knees were bleeding with the broken patella bone.

“How long does is it before the Order checks to see if your group and Locueas have completed the job?” I wanted to know how long before they decided to send someone else after me or Demira.

“I’m not sure. I think Locueas had mentioned that we needed to take care of you before the next moon cycle, but I can’t be certain.”

Next moon cycle: so, I have about two weeks before they send out more people. Unless Locueas was to report back to them sooner than that.

“When does Locueas report back to the order typically?”

“I don’t think he does until the job is done. I can’t be sure. Like I said I have only been with them for a few months.”

I nodded and charged up some more projectiles.

“Wait!! You said you would let me go if I told you everything.” The man pleaded.

“I know. I lied!”