We kept talking for a while, but Captain Bones didn‘t budge on the point of wanting to see the head of Barak Bloodbraid in reality. Without the most obvious exchange completed, all the others had to wait for the main one to be confirmed. The evening turned to a more...social event after that.
He did give me a set of coordinates and the divine promise to respect the peace of negotiations, and the Jester held up on his word, threatening the Captain to not dare go back on his.
The favor of the Moonlight Jester could have been worth a lot. Or very little. It was a gamble still, but I could see where he was coming from. He had given us a reason to work together. To see each other as allies, or kindred spirits, at the very least. What to make out of the situation would remain my problem to solve.
It all depended on what kind of man Bones was, deep down. But that was the point, wasn‘t it? What would be the benefit of strongarming a proud and treacherous man into an alliance? It would not hold, not for a precious second. If he turned out to be what I feared to be the norm among pirates, it was better to know early than to bet the life of my people on his cooperation.
And to get to learn that, I needed to meet the man. Honest negotiations. And that meant I had to offer him something. I knew he wanted one thing for certain: The secret for sailing the Shattered Sea. I could give him that secret without the means to actually do it. But was that in the spirit of our cooperation? Would that make him hunt my ships down so that he had enough Dragonamber for himself?
But I could not hand him the key to my settlement. I just could not.
I wandered aimlessly through the Fulcrum after our meeting, still tasting the sweet sensation of the nectar on my lips, browsing the wares on the marketplace with only half an eye.
I almost didn‘t notice that I had bumped into her.
”Excuse me...“ Thana began, then recognized me and laughed. ”Oh you! Is it chance that that let our paths cross again, or did you look for me?“
”I am sorry!“ I said, heat of embarrassment rising in my cheeks. I willed the mask away. It seemed to be laughable in her presence. ”I was absent-minded. I did not mean to interrupt.“
”No harm done. And I already have what I came here to get.“ She held up a book she had just bought from the Skillmonger behind her and stored it away in her bag. I could not make out what it read on the cover.
I took a heart and plunged into the cold water that awaited me. ”I would speak to you if you don’t mind. Errr...about the souls you mentioned. I will make it worth your while, I promise.“ Stupid. Why did I have to say that?
Her eyes narrowed a tiny bit, her beaming smile losing some of its splendor. ”Worth my while? That can mean a lot and little at the same time. But I like to give handsome strangers the benefit of the doubt.“ She grinned at me. ”I will let you know, Raven.“
This woman was coquettishly ignoring all the social customs I had been raised with. It would have been outrageous...In another life. And while I stood there flummoxed, I had to ask my proud and somewhat indignant (?) self one question...why was my heart beating faster, then?
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I returned to my Demesne shortly after, the image of a beaming smile firmly printed into my mind. I might have been a Twice-Born, and as such had died already, but I still was a young man born in a rigorous society that made me suppress the red hot blood coursing through my veins.
I needed a distraction. And because the Nightmare hunting of the night was still a couple of hours away, I sat down weaving instead.
In general, fighting the Nightmares with the warriors of Ravenport brought me little benefit. It kept me sharp and quick on my feet, but I did not take the Essence of the kill, so as to strengthen the others in the long run.
So I planned to weave something I could train while fighting the Nightmares. [Cutting Winds] was, if my estimate was correct, the perfect Skill to use in the nightly fights. If it was as effective as it had been in my battle with the seasonal avatars of the Mad King, it would not kill the Nightmares, but slow them down considerably, thus giving the close combat fighters a better opening of actually getting close to their mettle.
Overcoming their fear was a worthy endeavor, but it would be much better if they could actually test their steel against a dangerous foe. As the fights were now, they more or less killed a bound enemy.
I did not want the [Cutting Winds] to disrupt the comfort of my sanctuary, so I anchored the new Skill in the air above the prison of souls, sharp, cold gusts of wind that whirled the fog around, adding actual discomfort to a place that was mentally uncomfortable already.
When that was done, I went hunting with the others once more. I had to create a spectacle this night, for the benefit of the new arrivals. They needed to know the dangers of the Wyld, as they had most likely never heard of them before, and they needed to know the strength of the man who dared to call himself their Lord Protector.
The first Nightmare would be mine alone.
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I ran through the darkness with light steps, listening for the heavy drumming of chitin on smooth stone behind me, where the Nightmare was on my heels. I had to roam quite high up the Needle to find this one, apparently, their supply was not quite as endless as I had thought, and a good culling every now and again would make the surroundings safer for a while.
The creature was a horrible fiend, revulsing, and repugnant to look at, and as luck would have it perfect for the demonstration I had in mind. The Nightmare screeched as we neared the fortress of light, which the Wreckage resembled in the night, pained or angered by the brightness that awaited us.
A few steps short I slid to a stop, turning and swinging Zero in one motion. The creature was almost upon me. An armored centipede, each leg a jagged blade, and the face armed with mandibles as large and sharp as swords. Sizzling, jerking back, lifting up its front legs...there! The vomited acid shot through the air, where I had been just a second prior, as I ducked and threw out Zero, who [Fettered] around the front legs, scratching the chitin with his spikes as he tightened his hold.
My new gained [Improved Strength] Level 4 was nothing to sneeze at, so I threw myself into the chain and heaved. The centipede had lost a lot of its own momentum by rearing up for its acid attack, but by doing so had lost a lot of its stability as well. It rocked forwards, sliding over the stone with a grating sounds, actually shaving off flakes of stone.
But I still was not strong enough to throw the thing, so put my back into it, and dragged it, thrashing and screeching, into the light. It was far from over. I had merely used a moment of instability to take advantage of, but now, in the light, the creature lost every last bit of restraining or cautious animal instincts, and just went for me in feral rage.
I lured it backwards, jumping back from the sharp legs it whirled after me until I had it comfortably surrounded by the light and I could use the full range of my mobility without risking entering the darkness again, and maybe get ambushed by a second Nightmare on the off chance I had missed it.
Zero let go of our prey, as I swung him around once more, the glittering chain cutting air and whistling in front of the many eyes of the Nightmare, distracting and threatening it, while I waited for the next attack. A couple of times the mandibles snapped after Zero as he whirled by, biting nothing but air until the centipede just ignored the chain and barrelled after its true target me.
Out of the idle spinning of the chain, I whipped Zero forward, he himself reinforcing the attack with [Chain Lash], and he slammed in the onrushing Nightmare, splitting chitin and spraying greenish ichor through the air, as his head, a spiked ball, completely disappeared in the body of the centipede.
Enraged it might be, but immune to pain it was not. It reared up and jumped for me, slamming the better half of its body after me, using itself as the hammer to smash me to paste.
”Zero! Grab something!“ I shouted, rolling to the side with impossible speed as the lags smacked the ground. I jumped, used [Airwalk] to gain even more height, so I soared above the rolling centipede, who tried to follow my movement with his bite, sliding across the smooth surface as it threw its body around.
[Cutting Winds] activated, and ten Mana rushed out of me. The Skill was quite curious as you needed an accompanying motion to evoke its powers. Depending on the motion the wind would change. You could blow a short and violent gust of wind out of your mouth for example, or a slow, less forceful wind of freezing cold and ice crystals, depending on how you used your own breath. It could also follow our hand, an item like my cloak or a sword, and so on. There were nuances there. And I had not discovered them yet.
I had no time, so the short burst of icy air slammed into the reeling head of the centipede, slamming it back down to the ground, as the ice in the air carved and ripped away from the armor. The force of the wind threw me back in equal measure, back higher above the ground.
I hoped that Zero had transformed into something that could anchor itself in the body, because I now pulled on the chain, changing my trajectory and flying toward the creature.
At the last second, I let go of Zero and willed Kingsbane out of its [Hidden Sheath], slamming into the opened and frozen mouth of the centipede, blade first. I immediately tumbled off, pain racing through my legs, but managed to keep a hold on the grip of Kingsbane, dragging the blade through half the head until my momentum was violently stopped by the stone of the ground.
The landing was far from graceful because I had to use so much force to break the sturdy carapace of the Nightmare, but at least I managed to land on my two feet, standing tall as the creature behind me curled up in the spasms of its death throes.
Half its head was cut away and the green liquid was flowing freely. It would end soon. I, slower than necessary, picked up Zero and rolled him back up, before making sure the thing was truly dead.
Then, I walked back towards the people who had watched the whole fight, which, from entering the circle of light to its end, had not taken more than 15 seconds. I tried to remain calm and collected as a thousand pairs of eyes or more watched me in silence, but there was a lot of adrenalin coursing through my veins. My legs were a little jittery and my hands began to tremble as if they had realized too late that a fight was happening.
The silence was almost palpable, the audience somehow stunned into silence, until a roaring cheer went through the people of Ravenport as I joined them once more.
[Nightmare defeated! Reward 12 Ep! Try not to be too smug about it. -L.]
"That is kind of the whole point, Lily.“ I whispered through my teeth, as I accepted the excited gratulations of the warriors who had waited in front of the ships, as they were up next.