“What's wrong with us?” Maline said with a glint in her eyes. “Oh darling, if you knew how much money was being thrown around you wouldn’t ask that question. Besides, the boy was living on borrowed time, he had a handful of weeks remaining as best before his body gave out and my toxins finished him off. If anything, it was a mercy to give his life value one last time.”
“You’re monologuing, love.” Kurt said, the grey skinned man glaring impassively down at the puddle that had once been a person. He worked his jaw, the two mounds jutting from his cheekbones shifting back and forth.
Dozens of people fanned out behind him, many had rough appearances, scars and old wounds lining their bodies. Leif’s amber gaze flicked quickly between each one, his analysis skill confirming their ages and relatively lacking fighting experience. They weren’t a real threat, thugs, gangsters and sell-swords they may be, combined they simply didn’t have the numerical strength to do the scion any real harm. But he wasn’t alone.
“Go.” He telepathically sent to Lucia, unshouldering the two packs he had been holding and tossing them down beside her. “Run for the forest. I’ll be right after you once I’ve dealt with this.”
The girl knelt in the dirt, wiping her mouth with a trembling hand. Leif could sense the shock, disgust and fear at what she had just seen, and while his own thoughts were relatively restrained, there were cracks slowly forming. It took an unspeakable amount of cruelty to murder somebody who had barely become an adult in such a vile way. Leif would show no mercy to either perpetrator, if they gave him the chance, he would end them.
Wordlessly Lucia gathered her belongings, then sprinted away as fast as she could. Without looking away from Kurt and Maline, Leif sensed as she reached the edge of his awareness, then vanished into the night. He felt the intent of a few of the weaker humans moving to surround him shift after Lucia, but they quickly returned to him as he flared his aura warningly. In the city another horn was blown, and the distant sound of ringing bells roused the settlement to wakefulness. Leif saw small points of fire moving along the walls towards them, and down in the low lying farmland to the west of Luriem torches were being lit among the imperial encampment.
“Hey!” One of the criminals barked. “We gotta bag the catch and get moving. I don’t want the guard or army to fall down on my head.”
“The ugly fellow who’s name I can’t recall makes a good point.” Maline said, earning a scowl from the speaker. “How do you feel about giving in and coming into our custody? You’ll be more than safe until those guilders show up and take you, I promise.”
“Forgive me, but I doubt the value of your word.” Leif said, nodding down at the puddle of viscera and melted bones. “In fact, you disgust me.”
Maline raised her hand of venom over her mouth, though the motion failed to hide the fact that her eyes sparkled with amusement. Kurt ran his tongue over his upper teeth, then grinned, cracking his knuckles.
“A fight it is. What a shame.” The mercenary said, his grin turning mocking. “Our… employers are going to be so… displeased with this turn of events. Too bad for them. Well then! You lot know what's at stake, whichever team contributes the most will get a double split!”
Weapons were raised, and intent locked onto Leif from all directions. Some were eager, others nervous. There was a glint of greed induced madness in one man’s eyes, a grim determination in the tense stance of a woman. There were a thousand stories in the lives that surrounded Leif, a hundred reasons for them to attack him, to try and take control of his life. They didn’t know who he was, had no idea about his true nature. Many didn’t care, wouldn’t care even if he told them.
“You’re making a mistake. All of you.” Leif said, projecting so much sincere honesty into his words that this aura all but solidified them into the air around him.
“Grab 'em!” Kurt bellowed.
Before the mass of thugs could so much as take a single step in their mad rush to capture him, Leif conjured a dozen golden arms, immediately plunging his fingertips into the dirt, grass and mud that made up the path leading to the northern gatehouse. With a flex of incredible physical strength he uprooted the world, flipping it up into the faces of Luriem’s finest. Men yelled in surprise, their charge cut immediately short as a spray of earth washed over them, dust lingering in the air to block line of sight.
In place of a press of bodies, what reached Leif first was a flurry of skills, elemental bursts of energy and the phantom outlines of projected weapons flashing through the obscuring haze of soil and mud. The scion sensed their attacks building in the minds of their sources before they were complete, felt the intent in their creation, and was moving to evade before the dust had begun to settle. He leapt, his conjured limbs slamming down as he did so to propel him skywards. Aerial mobility was by no means one of Leif’s strong suits. Well, mobility in general was something he was lacking in. Regardless, he surged upwards, breaking out of the cloud of dust, shedding the excess weight of his golden arms, the skill constructs dissolving into amber essence that trailed up after his ascent.
He hung, almost ten metres above the ground, [Benevolent Actions] accelerating his perception as he focused on [Intelligence]. His mind raced to process everything he was seeing as the world slowed. Leif twisted as another gildwood javelin appeared in his hand, called from his spatial ring. He supercharged it with vitality as he reached the peak of his arc, the weapon’s shaft flashing with gold as its form tried to warp in his palm. An effort of will forced it to maintain its shape, then Leif threw, propelling the projectile with a burst of strength combined with [Wood Manipulation].
The spear all but vanished from his hand, a blur of gold and white screaming through the night to land at the feet of the largest cluster of thugs with a crack that shook the ground. Then the javelin detonated in a hail of a thousand razor sharp splinters, cutting, lacerating and stabbing indiscriminately. Some died instantly as wood punctured vital organs, many were incapacitated, all in the detonation’s vicinity were harmed. Over half of Leif’s assailants were out of the fight instantly. But it wasn’t over.
He fell down into the cloud of dust, and a flame and ash wreathed sword plunged through the detritus to sever his legs from the thighs with a single violent motion. The blade carved through the golden barrier Leif manifested to protect his lower body, slicing effortlessly through the fabric of his robes only to imbed itself an inch deep into his left leg. Heat blazed and flames ignited the nearby cloth, singing Leif’s body, though only superficially. Kurt tried to wrench his sword out of Leif, but the scion clamped down onto the weapon as he rapidly reshaped his body with [Wood Manipulation]. The demikin cursed, a blast of heat and ash exploding from his body as he let go of the hilt of his sword to jump back. Leif’s fist caught the retreating man in the shoulder, sending him rheeling out of sight.
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A whip-like lash of acidic, emerald energy slithered through the now dispersing cloud of displaced earth like a snake attempting to constrict its victim. Maline’s attack was not something Leif wanted to risk tanking directly, the woman had already proven she was able to hide her afflictions from his senses, and while the same likely wouldn’t be true for his own body, there was little reason to risk it. So instead of blocking or evading, he stepped forward, appearing behind her in a streak of amber light. Maline jerked away in shock, already spinning to face him, a ball of venom congealing in her skill-created arm. Too slow, a sword of gilded wood impaled her through the stomach.
But the murderer and abilities to prevent her own demise, for the instant Leif’s sword touched her bare skin she dissolved into a cloud of noxious gas. Still, the vitality infusing Leif’s weapon wreaked havoc on her intangible form, and even as Maline rapidly flew away, a chunk of her gaseous body dispersed into the night. With a mental command Leif stowed the blade back into his storage ring, ignoring an arrow that bounced harmlessly off his back. Heat built below him, and Leif glanced down to see another gout of intense flames erupting from the sword still stuck in his leg. He released it, but in the fraction of a second he was distracted Kurt blasted out of the cloud of ash and dirt.
Leif blocked a punch with a raised forearm made of golden energy, sidestepped a flame wreathed kick, deflected a spear of summoned ash with [Amber Aegis], then endured a slash from Kurt’s sword that carved into his chest, the demikin having somehow retrieved his weapon in the handful of seconds the exchange had taken. The man’s eyes blazed with an infernal fury, his muscles bulging as if trying to burst free from his skin.
An amber finger brushed against Kurt’s cheek as the man dodged backwards, Leif’s touch syphoning away a sliver of life-force, leaving behind an invisible thrum of energy that mixed with the vibrations caused by the initial blow to his shoulder. Kurt gestured, and a wave of ash blocked Leif’s line of sight as he retreated. It didn’t matter, using [Create Gilded Wood] Leif summoned a shard of sharpened wood, his throw tracking the man’s vitality signature without needing to see him. The attack landed, though he didn’t get the pleasure of witnessing how much damage he had done, though the scream of pain gave him an idea. Regardless, the man lived, and with a burst of heat he retreated out of Leif’s awareness.
Leif stepped forward again, rematerializing where he had started the fight. He punched out, [Fist Projection] carrying a fraction of the blow’s force to send a hulking man with a wickedly curved sickle flying backwards. Two more goons charged him, and a second later they hit the ground, their ribs broken and bodies limp. The scion bounded off the road, landing in an empty field that had once grown, according to the information that trickled into his mind about its recent past from [Sympathy From Experience], some sort of fast growing squash.
He glanced west, and saw the approaching torches from what were almost certainly imperial soldiers roused into action by the events at the gatehouse. According to Slayde, the Fracture agents who had orchestrated this idiotic manhunt hadn’t wanted to get the authorities involved. Too late for that. Leif thought. If they wanted subtlety they shouldn’t have gotten Luriem’s underbelly embroiled in their scheme.
It didn’t seem like any members of the human supremacist organisation were nearby, or if they were, they had been wise enough to not get close to the fight. Though some of the people that had attacked Leif had died, he had largely restrained himself. If someone wearing Fracture’s colours had shown themselves, he likely would have detonated a gilded wood bomb in their face and not worried about the collateral damage. Leif sought out Maline and Kurt, but the duo were nowhere to be seen. He supposed they, and the city, were lucky. Maybe he should have done the world a favour and gone out of his way to kill them both. Well, if they were foolish enough to try him again, he would generously reciprocate their deathwish. With that grim thought he turned and ran in the direction Lucia had fled.
===
Leif covered the distance between city and wilderness with ease, powerful steps carrying him over vadated farmland. He caught up to a winded and panting Lucia after a little over a minute of running, unceremoniously plucking her, and the belongings she was carrying up off the ground, slinging human and newly purchased possessions over either shoulder. Then he continued on, occasionally stopping to watch as a hundred torches descended onto the sight of the battle that had only just transpired.
Ten minutes later they reached the edge of the woodland, and Leif knelt, letting go of his burdens, both living and not. Lucia wobbled over to a nearby tree and collapsed, her eyes unfocused as she stared back at the distant city. Her fingers kept tightening around the pommel of her sword in an effort to stop her hands from shaking.
Leif walked slightly further into the forest, finding an older tree and syphoning enough lifeforce from it to fully top up his cultivated reserves. The quality wasn’t enough to advance his skill in any meaningful way, but the quantity of vitality within the nearby vegetation was nearly endless. He returned to where Lucia sat and crossed his arms, glaring back at Luriem with burning golden eyes.
“Did you kill them?” Lucia asked.
“No. They disengaged before I had the opportunity.”
“Pity. They’re bastards. They…” She swallowed, expression scrunching up at the return of a certain deeply unpleasant memory. “What do we do now? Should we run?”
Leif let the question hang in the still night air as he contemplated their options. He walked over to one of the discarded packs, rummaging through it for several moments before pulling out a wooden tube. Popping the lid without touching it, Leif procured a roll of vellum detailed with a drawing of the northern empire and its landmarks.
When he spoke, it wasn’t an answer. “The Kartinth province is split down the middle by large swaths of untamed wilderness. The great forest we’ve been skirting up until now is one of several large territories the empire has little to no control over. If we head east for another half a day we’ll reach its end and arrive at the northern highway. If we follow the road it’ll be an almost straight path north. We’ll have an almost uninterrupted journey until we reach Cerres, and the journey will take us past what few settlements are so far inland. Though they’re mostly farming communities and towns that exist solely because of a local dungeon or natural resource. Beyond the northmost province is the kingdom Epidor and the Varan mountains. Even though they’re named after my homeland nobody actually controls them. Well, other than local monsters and beasts.”
Lucia nodded, hopping to her feet to get a closer look at the map, Leif lowering the vellum so she didn’t have to stretch to see what was drawn. Her eyes quickly looked over what he had described, the distraction chasing away her worries, if only temporarily. “So we flee north via the highway? Is that… is that wise?”
The edges of the vellum crinkled slightly as Leif tightened his grip. He had run before, fleeing a wave of undead as they pursued him and the imperial expedition south. Ultimately they had been forced into a conflict that had come within an inch of claiming his life. He may not have been powerful enough to tackle the undead proactively back then, but the incident had taught him the importance of not allowing the enemy to dictate when and where engagements would take place.
“If we take the highway we’ll be hounded the entire way north. Fracture has people out here looking for me, and turbulence won’t dissuade them. I’m not sure how far reaching the organisation is, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they mobilised more resources.” Leif said, letting the map drop to his side and gazing back at the city. The human settlement was lit, almost every window visible from over the wall was alight with inner illumination. It was as if a thousand golden eyes were looking right back at him. “I don’t think we should run. Why bother? If they want to try and capture me inside a forest they’re more than welcome to make the attempt. Though, perhaps we should have cut through the bog immediately instead of seeking out civilization.”
“Is that my fault? We were avoiding the wilderness because it would have been too dangerous for me.” Lucia said. “Am I… Did all this happen because-”
“No. You are not at fault. We didn’t have the benefit of hindsight back when we chose our path. Besides, the bog, heavily forested as it was, would have been a pain for even me to traverse. We came here because a battle between powerhouses of unknown level lit up the western horizon. That, and we were completely unprepared for any sort of long journey…” Leif said, trailing off. “But I’m not running. If they want me so badly, I’ll teach them to regret that desicion. But this won’t be the end. They’ll send more, try something else. These lunatics prioritised trying to capture me over protecting the Academy and its students. Their obsession cost lives.”
Lucia looked up at him with wide, orange eyes. “Do you think you can win?”
The nearby trees groaned as their branches twisted, sharpened and pointed downwards, a dozen blades ready to fall. The forest seemed to hold its breath as energy pulsed through the ground at the scion’s feet. The grass quivered, its rate of growth almost perceptible and closed buds prepared to open.
“Yes.”