William wondered about Amelia. She hadn’t shown up for two days, which wasn’t unprecedented, but was still a bit unusual. William wondered if it was related to what he had said about the connected disks, but he knew everything could also be a coincidence. The disks could be used in a way that was effectively a telegraph… which wasn’t particularly amazing to William, but was still quite useful compared to a rider carrying a message or even a bird. On the other hand, from what William had seen here they might already have some better form of communication, and he just didn’t know about it.
William briefly wondered if he could accidentally cause too much technological or magical advancement with his knowledge from Earth. After a short while, he realized it was a stupid thought. For one thing, he wasn’t sure if there really was “too fast” of a progression to any advancements. The only thing he was worried about was the possibility of the Demon King, or the demons in general, getting too much more knowledge than the humans. In fact, he would prefer if they were quite a bit behind, so that the Demon King would be easier to defeat once and for all. William also didn’t really believe he could influence things that much. After all, he really only had bits and pieces of knowledge. Did he know what computers were? Certainly. Did he know how they worked? To some degree, yes. Could he build one? Absolutely not. It was physically impossible to make the necessary parts, and he also didn’t have enough detailed knowledge. Technology was all interconnected, and this world seemed to be going down a path of magical advancements, which would mean all he would be able to provide was ideas… though that would be the case anyway. William casually thought about the fact that Amelia was not going to show up again today or was late, the immediately stood up to leave.
-----
Amelia hurried through an alleyway, in a somewhat hostile mood. She was late, and she didn’t like being late. However, she had too many thing to do, and she couldn’t just neglect any of them. She wasn’t paying too much attention, until two gruff looking men stepped out in front of her, blocking off the exit to the street. She just glared at them. She also noticed the sound of more walking up behind her. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out of the way.”
One of them, the one with the uglier face of the two, gave a half grin. “Oh, really? What are you gonna do?” Then, with a speed Amelia was completely unprepared for, he moved forward, and his hand grabbed onto her throat. The words she was just about to say got cut off, and a slight arc of electricity moved through her hair, as she had managed to start a magical chant with barely half a word, which was unfortunately also where it stopped. “You gonna use magic? Go on. Try.” Amelia just glared back at him. She looked angry… but she wasn’t afraid. Her hand came up, jabbing his wrist with her nails… she then looked slightly surprised as she was unable to penetrate the skin at all. She almost sighed, but she couldn’t really breathe properly. “Oh? Looks like you have some tricks, but people like us have to be tough.” Then Amelia’s knee came up toward his groin. It connected, but he barely grimaced. In response, he gripped her neck harder. Her expression started to show pain, but still no fear.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Then Amelia heard a loud *thwack* and saw something pass in front of her eyes. The grip on her throat was released, and Amelia was surprised to see Yu Hui’lam. He cursed, or at least it sounded like some form of expletive, but Amelia didn’t recognize the language. She thought it was probably something from Liaoyang. Then, Yu Hui’lam spoke. “What is this guy made out of? Iron?”
Amelia shrugged. “They obviously train in body techniques.” She looked around, seeing that this young man had managed to get himself trapped in the middle with her. She coughed once because of the pain in her throat, before finally sighing properly this time.
The ugly faced man, who was probably a leader of some sort, shook his arm, as if it were slightly numb. “Better be careful there son, you might hurt someone with that stick of yours.” Then he grinned. “We were planning to come for you later, but I suppose this will save us some time. Why don’t you just surrender real peaceful like and we can take you back to Ostana without too many bruises and broken bones.”
Yu Hui’lam just grinned for a moment, before he moved like a blur, even though Amelia had some training for combat. Amelia couldn’t see exactly, but he seemed even faster than the other man. Either way, all she saw was a brown blur from his staff swinging up, and a loud *crack*. From the results, he was either faster the other man or just faster than he expected… because his staff had come up directly into the jaw of the ugly man… knocking him backwards, and from the sound of it breaking something.
The next moment everyone was in motion. The three men, Amelia would have bet a large amount on them being bounty hunters, all drew swords, surrounding Yu Hui’lam. Amelia dashed past the single enemy, moving to a more advantageous position. Then, she began to chant. The battle before her seemed like it wouldn’t go in Yu Hui’Lam’s favor, since he was surrounded. However, his staff spun around him like he had eyes everywhere, parrying attacks from behind and in front… and even attacking where he couldn’t see sometimes. He didn’t seem to have the freedom of movement or time to get in a strong strike, but he could push someone away, giving him some breathing room. Then, Amelia shot a bolt of lightning into the alleyway. Normally, that would have been a dangerous proposition with an ally nearby, but Yu Hui’Lam was not wearing armor… and his staff surely wouldn’t be metal. Thus, the lightning was attracted to the iron sword of the intended target, after being controlled to arc overhead.
In that moment, Yu Hui’lam spun around and tripped the second enemy that had been behind him with a sweep of his staff, then swung it down on his head. Amelia could only watch as the remaining bounty hunter swung his sword down with two hands, seeming to want to chop his opponent in half. When Amelia saw Yu Hui’lam turn back, she expected him to deflect the attack, but was shocked when he held his staff firmly perpendicular to the attack, as if he was going to block it. She could imagine the staff splitting in half now, with the sword digging into his skull, but it was too late for her to act. Then, the weapons connected with a loud *clink* and a snapping sound. Amelia’s eyes grew wide at what she saw. That wasn’t the sound of a sword striking leather or wood, but rather the sound of metal on metal or stone. Instead of the staff splitting, the sword itself had broken from the collision. Then, the end of the staff was thrust into the belly of the last bounty hunter, knocking him into a nearby wall. Yu Hui’lam looked up at Amelia and flatly asked, “Are your bodyguards really this slow?” as he looked around, seemingly for those very same guards.