Tristan paused for a moment, not sure of what to say. Eventually, he went with, “ Everyone here really is an idiot.”
He did not know how strong the kerns of the four acolytes were. He suspected they were all tier zero or one. Tier twos were not that common and tier threes were a military resource. Could there be a tier two, yes. But it was a one in ten chance, out of four people it just didn’t seem too likely.
They were all dressed in the standard robes of the priests. White with the borders and seams being sewn from a tri-colored thread. The newcomers lacked the three pointed hat, but it would not be the best thing to wear while arresting someone.
They brandished their weapons, staves with hoops screwed onto the end. The male acolyte who had blue eyes stepped forward, “Your opinions matter little, we will judge you,” his eyes fell to the daggers at Tristan’s waist, “Give up the creations of the demon lord, and we can lighten your punishment.”
Tristan did not hear what the stupid man said. He was too focused on the staves. In the center of each hoop hung an essence reservoir suspended by wires every ninety degrees around the hoop. These acolytes all had artifacts with essence reservoirs attached.
Now he wasn’t going to attack somebody and rob them. However, if they attacked him, he had no qualms about taking their stuff. The Caldera might not see it that way, but they would side against him regardless of the reason.
Tristan chuckled, “Why would I do that? You know what, give me your weapons.”
These people had really lightened his mood. He had come here for reservoirs and he could get them, they even brought to them. As a fight was imminent he inspected the four opponents closely. The janitor looked to have an air kern. Not only were his eyes green, but he had gone for help, the only other kern with common green eyes was earth, and he was not direct enough for that. Just to his left were the two larger men, both had blue eyes, but he actually suspected they had a flame kern. Quick judgments and assumptions were hallmarks of the fire kerns. The woman had purple eyes which was a dead giveaway for dark.
Tristan nodded to himself. Even if they were tier two and could move their essence in their own body, none had abilities that countered his. The only one he had to even worry about, was the woman, if she had a dark kern, then she should be good at utilizing distractions.
“Do you take us for fools,” The other man said. Tristan mentally dubbed them as thug one and thug two.
Tristan paused. The next words that he said would determine the reaction of the Caldera. Regardless of what he did, they would not like him. However, dislike was a far cry from the anger that assaulting a religious figure would cause. There were two ways to go forward, one run from these thugs, or two cause such a commotion that the civil protector was sent out.
Shadow Fist stepped out and said, “Don’t do anything to them, I’ll get us out of this.”
That made Tristan’s mind. Was it petty, yes, but he was fine with that. He sneered at the acolytes, “At least you are smarter than your gods. Maybe if they had brought four people to fight the silver devil, we wouldn’t only be hearing about them in stories.”
“Tristan,” Shadow Fist said warningly.
Tristan glared at his father, “Do you want to know something strange?” He did not wait for his father to answer, “You deleted me from existence with your little stunt. The next time my name was officially recorded was when I was noted for heroic services rendered. The record called me Sage.” Shadow Fist took a step back under Tristan’s glare.
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The acolytes decided that was the perfect time to move. Thug one and janitor moved forward together, while thug two tried to get Shadow Fist out of the way. Tristan could only chuckle coldly, they believed Shadow Fist was an innocent bystander. Janitor and thug one were shocked when Tristan grabbed Shadow Fist by his shirt and threw him at them.
Shadow Fist was not heavy, but he was still at the top of half a dozen steps. He was carrying enough momentum to drive the two men back down the steps, though not enough to knock them on their butts. Thug Two ended up reaching Tristan first, but his objective was gone. Instead, he found a silver devil waiting for him.
Thug two frantically swung his staff, but when it bounced ineffectively off of Tristan's shoulder, he panicked. Understandable, the man was tier one. Tristan grabbed the staff before the man could retrieve it, then kicked the man off the top of the steps. For a moment Tristan was confused. Why would a tier one be performing security for the Forest Caldera’s religious organization?
Elder Forest must not have excluded priests from his tier two call to arms. He grabbed the reservoir and tore it off its wire frame. It was burning hot, though not to the point of something like an open flame. So, the temple was using this as a flame artifact. He hoped they could be repurposed in the future.
The janitor and thug one were coming back up the stairs. Tristan grabbed the staff he was holding by one end and swung it like a club. Both of the acolytes staggered back but forgot they weren’t on level ground, toppling back down the steps. Tristan was starting to feel bad about this. These people were around his age, which barely made them adults.
Most people lacked Tristan’s advantages, he had been lucky enough to have not one but two tier fours giving him two on one attention. In addition to that, he got access to archaic training techniques from Luke and Hadrid had reluctantly taught him how to literally bend reality to his whims. To top it all off, he had been taught theoretical things, which he was able to immediately put into practice against elemental, ghost crabs, and humans.
Tristan shook his head, he did not want to be a bully, “Hey, we don’t have to do this.”
The grin from thug one was all Tristan needed. He stepped to the left and watched a hand gripping a knife thrust past him. Reinforcing the palm of his hand, Tristan grabbed the blade. He could sense that the metal of the knife was mundane and had no essence running through it. So he was able to grip it hard enough to jerk the dark kern girl down the steps as well. In the end, he was left holding the blade and had four tier one acolytes on the ground in front of him.
Tristan felt weary so he sat down on the top step. He was tired of all this stupid posturing from the people around him. Most of it was done to impress people they did not like or demonstrate dominance to someone they thought of as lesser. Kerri had done it, Shadow Fist had done it, and Lesly had done it. The only thing these people had in common was that they got offended if you did not march to their orders.
Shadow Fist’s face was scrunched in anger, “You spoiled child, If-“
“Shut the Hell up,” Tristan barked, “You were the one responsible for raising me, so you don’t get to complain about what happens when you abandon your job.”
All the acolytes flinched at Tristan’s volume. When his golden eyes fell back on them he sighed, “You can go, run along. I try not to hurt people weaker than me.”
Evidentially, that was the wrong thing to say. The one thing you never do, if you want to make a peaceful resolution, is tie the surrender to pride. Many people are willing to die for their pride. Thug one was on his feet in an instant, his staff lighting on fire. Janitor and the dark kern girl rose as well, though with more hesitance.
“We are acolytes of the three gods, we will never surrender before the enemy,” He brandished his flaming staff above his head.
This was mostly theatrics to impress the growing crowd. The people kept a safe distance, but there was no mistaking their curious gazes and excitement of flashy artifacts being used. Tristan could only roll his eyes at thug one. The other two stepped up beside him but were less flashy. They still let their staves light up with their elemental effects. Lightning for the janitor and a black miasma for the girl.
Tristan inspected the black fog. He could not be sure, but it looked like the same material that the gelatinous elemental had spewed out. It had drained essence when spread over a large area, but this girl had a much smaller amount. Tristan got into a ready stance as he prepared for round two.