Climbing up, Eller called forth her trusty sai - a pair of pronged spikes of star iron banded in the Royal vermillion. The wards on the floor exit still held admirably. A bunch of humanoids were pressed against the incorporeal barrier. They clawed, and stabbed, and pushed, everything for a taste of freedom that lay beyond.
She had left the two deadweights behind. They had expected to actually be fighting. The gall. Any situtation where an experience mage teaching at the Academy needed support with, was way beyond the capacity of even a hundred magicians to handle.
No, she had needed them to stand guard outside the two neighboring floors, one above and one below, since she was being led away from the Ring. She didn't expect much. That Sick Boy had barely made it up a floor, exhausting himself in the process. She had done what she could, on the off chance that Vitaly or someone else had indeed been diverting resources away.
Which wasn't the case at all. There was a wall packed with monsters here. She started stabbing, her hands a blur. No mana could cross the barrier, but she and anything she was connected to, could.
She targeted vital locations, each stab a killing blow. Each time a sai connected, her intent flared, pulling the dead body across the threshold. The killing blow connected them physically, allowing her to instruct the wards to let it through. Some didn't die. And hence would not pass. An ingenious design, distinguishing living creatures from the dead. Or rather, sentient ones.
The humanoids, Incubi, would be terrible foe if she were surrounded. Their split tail and long forked tongue could trap and paralyze within moments, their claws strong enough to split steel. Worst of all, their natural mental aspected mana would cloud her judgement. Incubi made great pets and slaves, and horrible enemies specially in groups.
Bodies kept falling, eventually thinning out. Incubi were enraged, wailing endlessly, but they were smart. Realizing the futility of their actions and the scene of slaughter, they retreated. Eller followed, a trail of bodies marking her swift passage, connected by a sprays of red droplets.
She looked at the last message again
***
Facing Incubi, likely from a super-saturated Mirror. Capture if possible. Supressing other Mirrors.
- Vitaly Butler
***
***
East Quadrant clear. Northbound.
- Vitaly Butler
***
***
West quadrant by the stairs clear. Regroup in North. Could have shared how impossibly loud these buggers are.
- Royal Constable Eller Kim
***
The Gate barrier had protected her from the awful shrieks, so much that she had to frequently check herself for mental manipulation. The sharp metallic grating hurt worse than the measly claws could. They were specially loud running away, which made no sense. Atleast, it made them easy to spot and kill. She was not taking captives. Following the last survivor, a particularly fast one, she turned a corner, to see her quarry shot dead by its own kind.
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A crowd of Incubi stood ahead, truly mesmerizing when not shouting their heads odd, and one human amidst them. The hunched professor stood out. He leaned on his cane, eyes tracing behind Eller for a moment, then settling back on her.
"I'm grateful for the support, Professor Kim."
"Are you going to take care of those?" she pointed to the Incubi dumbly surrounding him.
"Of course. I always take good care of the Academy property. Sorry about the noise, I forget not everyone reads the protocol"
He uttered a guttural phrase, and the Incubi all fell into neat rows, four abreast. No shrieking.
"I see. Is this also protocol?" She gestured.
"No, no. Only the sound. Incubi can be quite charming, but they are assassins by nature. My assistants had quite a few scares and it would be a bother if let loose, like now. So I took it upon myself to modify them a bit. I even sent a memo."
"Preposterous. How can a newbie like you control Mirrors?"
"A Mirror, technically. It is but a trick, really. You see, if the environment consistently undermines the quiet ones, they learn to be loud. I'm glad the conditioning worked. "
"..."
Her gaze didn't waver. What he said made sense, such minor adjustment was novel but of little significance. Moreover, she pondered the underlying question - was this intentional? Could this unassuming young man be a nefarious villain.
"What of the breach? And these monsters are your servants, I assume."
"Shall we talk as we clean up?" he said as he headed to a nearby fork, signaling the monsters to follow, "And you are correct. I have formed temporary contract with the Incubi Commanders, these four fine fellows at the front. I only needed to find them. Imagine my relief that the super-saturation caused the numbers to multiply but not their Tier. Nor did any other Mirrors break. We are quite lucky, I'd say."
"So why kill them?"
"Ah, the squads are at their limits. We could add more, only they may not stay quiet, or follow orders well. Or we find more commanders first."
An army of murderous incubi swept the floor while the two professors chatted amidst them. Vitaly didn't let them leave his sight.
...
"... you know, they truly enjoy that sound. Like music. The tales of human tort- Watch out!"
Clonk. Clang... Thud. Thud. Thud... Crack...
Ellen saw the man disappear from the spot. Next, his knees hit the floor five meters away. In the distance, a long javelin bounced of the left wall, now rolling on the cracked floor. Yes, the imposibly hard stone had been cracked at two spots - where the man had stood, and where he now knelt.
Her brain took in the scene, piecing together a near death experience. There lay three dead Incubi commanders. She stood directly between the only survivor and the fallen professor. The javelin. She would have been gravely injured, if not dead. Without a doubt.
'Update : Vitaly Butler
Threat level : Crimson
Betrayal Likelihood : Low'
The incubi had started to wail again.