Jaune hit Jain's head from his position of clinging to the swordsman's torso, much like a monkey, causing the swordsman to throw himself in a forward roll. This caused Jaune's stomach to almost rebel. Again. While in the air, he aimed another arcane bolt at their pursuers, more specifically the slower one of the two swordsmen.
The man was actually fat. Absolutely revolting for an adventurer, he watched mockingly as the arcane bolt hit his knee causing him to stumble once again. The Rogue, Archer and other Swordsman not bothering to pick him up this time.
They had probably realised it would only lengthen the chase. And what a chase it was.
After resting sufficiently in the pyramid, Jaune had found several traps at the entrance-slash-exit of the building, mostly tripwires bound to rocks and oddly shaped bells. There to alarm the enemy that they were exiting the pyramid.
Thankfully his dimensional comprehension had helped him sense them all, allowing the two a head start in this race.
Jaune had been clinging to Jain's front at the time, so that he could throw some magic at the eventual pursuers, which had given him a prime view of the half asleep Rogue, who was holding watch, to startle from his weariness and call out his comrades yelling at them that their targets were escaping.
The first pursuer they'd lost had, as planned, been the warrior with the mace that he had scouted out the night before. His heavy armour, heavy weaponry, and lack of agility had caused him to fall behind fairly quickly, cursing all the way.
The second had been the fat swordsman Jaune tripped up moments ago. Just goes to show that being older (and most likely higher levelled,) didn't necessarily mean one was more useful in a fight.
The only ones left chasing them now were the trio of; Swordsman, Rogue and Archer. The Archer would occasionally jump into the air, transform into an eagle, transform back and fire an arrow at them midair.
The Swordsman seemed like he was the leader of the group, taking point, dodging any and all arcane bolts with apparent ease.
He also had a striking resemblance to the person who had jeered at Jain in the adventurer's guild.
What a coincidence.
The mage fired another arcane bolt at the Rogue who somehow simply blurred over it, the magic missile not even causing him to slow his pace.
Jaune muttered into Jain's ear, "They all dodge my magic, they will catch up soon." The only reason they hadn't caught up already was due to the fact they had subconsciously slowed themselves down to stay in line with the recently dropped fatty.
Humans were pack animals after all. Especially petty criminals. As planned beforehand, Jain started decelerating once they came into sight of the next oasis. Finally coming to a stop sword raised, mage still clinging to his torso.
The lead swordsman halted as well, causing the rest of his goon squad to settle themselves standing behind him and trying to look menacing. "So you finally decided to stop running heh," he leered at them. "Well after all the trouble you put me through, I definitely won't let you leave alive." He gained a mockingly thoughtful expression to his face," But if you hand over everything willingly I can give you a swift death."
His words gave Jaune enough time to crawl down from his perch and start beating the blood back into his numb legs. He didn't know why the man was even trying, if you told people you would kill them no matter what, every sense of negotiations would be thrown out the window immediately.
Jain started speaking and Jaune spread his arms disarmingly to provide the fitting hand gesture, Jain couldn't after all, he was holding his sword, "I'm sorry to disappoint but we didn't really find anything in the pyramid, I hope you understand, it has been here for quite a while and it gave a pretty well looted impressio-"
Before he stopped his words he darted forward at the Rogue standing behind The Swordsman, Jaune refused to refer to them by their names. They didn't deserve it. The Swordsman had however at no point in the conversation let down his guard, so he was able to parry the attack. His glowing sword apparently a defence against Jain's acidic properties.
The Rogue went into stealth, and the Archer knocked an arrow, Jaune meanwhile lifted his hand holding the arcane bolt that he had briefly held into the sand letting it explode upwards covering everyone with a fine layer of sand.
The stealthed Rogue included, well the not so stealthed Rogue anymore, He had been maneuvering into a position behind the now madly clashing Jain who was exchanging sword strikes at a pace almost to fast to see. Jaune not being the only one to think so by the look of constipation on the enemy swordsman who was steadily being driven back and was clenching his teeth violently.
Throwing himself to the ground to avoid a hail of arrows Jaune also drew his sword and rushed towards the Archer, gaining precious seconds as the robust but unshaven looking man stared at him confusedly. Jaune was wearing a hood after all, they couldn't see his class. He was sure that the man knew intellectually that he was a mage, that didn't stop him from being confused why a mage was running at him sword drawn though.
But you weren't able to be an adventurer if you were as incompetent as to simply let someone close the distance so easily, the man gathered himself reached into his pouch and threw a few serrated looking caltrops onto the ground. Immediately afterwards he was knocking an arrow that was emitting an ominous glow.
Jaune didn't particularly care, he had steel greaves on after all. Firing an arcane bolt at the Archer the man grinned and shot his arrow as well, the trajectory going right beside the bolt set to hit Jaune in the torso, what he hadn't taken into consideration though was the bolt swerving and colliding with the arrow causing it to use the skill it was embedded with prematurely causing a small explosion of wind knocking up sand. Creating a natural smokescreen.
Jaune immediately threw himself to the left hoping to avoid a follow up arrow only for the expected projectile to fly directly at him, as if the Archer was in no way impeded by the bad visibility, thankfully Jaune was able to deflect it and roll out of the way of the one coming after. And the one after that.
This wasn't working, running in circles around The Archer who was occasionally even shooting at the fight between Jain and the other two stooges, all Jaune could do was not get impaled.
Throwing a few arcane bolts at the crouching man he hoped to close the distance while he dodged but The Archer simply leaned out of the way and zoned him again. A stalemate. One he wouldn't win, Jain was outnumbered two to one with the occasional arrow headed his way. Crouching to the ground to dodge another arrow that would have penetrated his eye if he hadn't bent down to start crafting a sand filled arcane bolt with his left while launching another one at The Archer with his right.
By the condescending way the man was looking at the sand bolt he probably had a skill that let him see through such obstructions.
A loud curse escaped him though when Jaune turned around and hurled the bolt at the struggling Jain who was slowly being pushed into a corner by his two foes.
"Sand!" Being the only one familiar enough and used to Jaune's skillset Jain prematurely closed his eyes while his enemies were shortly blinded. Jaune used his entire concentration to sense what was happening in the sand cloud of his creation. He shouted out, "Hip, left elbow." His efforts were rewarded by the cry of the Rogue who had ducked right after being enshrouded by the sand, and who, after Jain had heard the mage's cry, had stabbed the man right into the gut.
Jaune's efforts were also rewarded with a dull thump, as an arrow penetrated his left wrist, which he had raised in the last second to defend his head. Once again focusing on the now incensed archer, he managed to block another three arrows with his magic before jarringly and suddenly he was made aware of the fact he had no mana left.
"I'm throwing you." The words almost didn't penetrate his pain addled mind, and he didn't understand their meaning until he felt a familiar hand wrap around his leg and lift him up, quite uncomfortably he might add. Jain struck aside a volley of five arrows and the sword slash of the other swordsman by the time it took Jaune to blink. Then he spun once and hurled the mage right at The Archer whose eyes were slowly widening in incredulity.
There was only one problem, Jaune had lost a hold of his weapons while being thrown, he wasn't done though. He had a new skill. Focusing on the thread connecting him to his dagger he pulled on it, the sword would be to cumbersome, the dagger appeared in his palm in a stabbing position. Almost like it knew what he wanted, no, had to do.
Flying through the air took less than a second, and he had the time to see the horrified wide eyed look of The Archer before his body collided with him, dagger first. The man had an arrow knocked, but Jaune managed to use his bleeding hand to push it away as to not get impaled, while his other hand, holding the dagger he somehow managed to keep a hold of while flying, lodged itself directly into The Archer's eye, causing them both to tumble over into the ground.
After he had managed to untangle himself, now not with only a pierced though wrist but also a broken ankle he managed to sweep his eyes towards Jain only to see him almost casually loop of the head of the last remaining bandit. Then the image was destroyed by Jain collapsing onto the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Jain!" by the time Jaune had managed to crawl over to his friend, the teen had already steadied himself into lying position, assuring Jaune that at least he wasn't dead. Arriving at his side he looked at him worryingly, "Are you ok." Jain's sweaty face grimaced and he spit out some sand before wheezing out.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, didn't even get scratched, just stamina is in the dumpster." Jaune gazed critically at his body, and upon finding no sign of wounds he relaxed.
Which made him able to concentrate in the arrow sticking out of his wrist, he didn't feel any pain oddly enough, only shock.
Muttering, "I hope he didn't poison his arrows." Jaune crawled over to his dropped bag and pulled out some bandages, when he caught the site of The Archer's corpse, lying there, with a dagger sticking out of the head. His thoughts abandoned the bandages immediately as he bent over and vomited on the ground.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Once that was out of the way he shakily noted that Jain was staring at him. Looking hopefully at his older partner he asked.
"Any advice," the words caused Jain to sigh before he grimaced.
"He wanted to kill us, try to come to terms with it," he chuckled and looked away, straight into the sun. "They cycle of life and death continues, we will live, they will die."
Jaune sat next to the oasis, occasionally dunking his non injured arm into the water to refresh himself. Waiting for Jain to finish looting. Thinking about life. And where to put his stats. After coming down from the emotional high of killing someone and the adrenaline crashing, he had noticed that he had gained two levels.
Two!
It was an amazing growth, only possible by killing someone much higher level than you. Which brought its own moral conundrum. He imagined there had been many before him who had considered becoming bounty hunters after experiencing, well the experience. But when you killed other humans for simple profit. What happened to you? What changes would one go through?
The mage couldn't imagine they would be good changes.
He was confused, mad, and sad, all at the same time. Why would anyone try to murder a fellow adventurer for loot? Jaune could justify sins such as omission, envy, and maybe even theft. But murder?
His turmoiled state of mind was not made better by the fact that his wrist was throbbing painfully.
"I think it's your lucky day." Jaune looked up, torn from his thoughts that were running in circles. Only capable of answering with a.
"Huh?"
Jain lifted a piece of chainmail. "One of them had this on him, it's an Artefact, I said I would give it to you if we chanced upon one."
Jaune hesitated for a second then took it into his hands mumbling a thank you and inspecting the thing. It was non reflecting reflecting, but that was it. Still good though. Might save his life one day. He hesitated, was it really okay to put on a dead man's equipment not even an hour after he was killed?
He put it on.
"I'll be gone for a sec Jaune, can't leave loose threads." Jain said, causing Jaune to stare at him for a moment, before he grasped his meaning. The man was standing next to the pile of loot that they had gotten and was checking all of his weapons again. He hesitated before asking.
"Can't we just let them be?" Jain shook his head, Jaune did too a few seconds later. The two remaining members of their ambushers would hold a grudge, it was better to, dispose of them now. It would not do to risk them coming again, this time with a few more friends.
Jaune looked at where they had run from, the path was most likely covered with arrows and footprints leading right to them. He wondered why The Swordsman who had been lagging behind had still not arrived. Maybe he'd gone back to get his warrior friend so as not to get ambushed alone.
He stared worriedly at Jain, would he be okay against two people? Jain had proven that he could outrun them, but. You could never be sure. In the previous fight he had also fought two at once. But it had looked like a losing stalemate, one he had had to resolve. He couldn't trust chance.
He stood up after adding two points to agility, being fast was important, and called out to Jain who had left him stew for a few moments and had started burying the three corpses. "I'm coming with you." Receiving a doubtful, and also weirdly proud, look he warily helped dig the shallow grave and started planning on how to take on their remaining foes with Jain.
As they trekked backwards, to the first arrow sticking in the ground, Jaune turned to the swordsman and asked, "So what's the plan exactly?"
Jain in turn gave him a sidelong glance, "What plan? When we find a suitable ambush position we sit down and wait, if we meet them beforehand we fight." The words earned a sceptical gaze from the mage, whose eyes then turned to the arrow standing proudly in the sand.
They had walked away from the scene of carnage so as to not scare the incoming enemy away, if they saw them semi unharmed. Well, Jain was unharmed, Jaune was hobbling due to the broken ankle and his left wrist was basically useless. If the enemy saw them, they might run. They didn't want the same situation to be sprung on them while chasing after all.
Jaune narrowed his eyes at the arrow, it was telling him something, the shaft was oddly thick. Maybe the wood in Vacuo was too brittle so they had to make it larger as to not break on impact? The mage suddenly grinned and turned to Jain.
"You know, I think I have an idea."
What the hell was taking the pair long, every part of his body was itching due to the sand and he wasn't allowed to move, this could be a form of mild torture. Surely he had been waiting for at least an hour, the wood in his mouth was starting to feel soggy, preventing him from sucking in as much air through the slowly closing hole, as he did in the beginning.
Soon enough he would just have to get up and make another breathin-, there, the targets were in sight. Well in sense. The mage kept grumbling in his mind as the two people kept coming closer and closer to his position. They suddenly startled. They had probably caught sight of Jain who was laying on the ground, holding a sword in his armpit, which from a distance made it look as if he was stabbed through the chest.
They drew their weapons finally allowing Jaune to discern the slightly blurry signatures, he would go for the one with the sword, he was fairly certain that the mace wielder had full armour.
As expected they walked the most direct route towards Jain, right over the mage buried in the sand. The foot of the fat person landed on the sand covering Jaune's stomach almost making him cough. But he held on for just one second before he raised his right hand out of the ground, dagger at the ready and cut into the heel of The Swordsman's right leg. It was easier than expected.
Like most people traversing the desert he didn't have proper boots, instead he wore shoes that only reached to his ankle and the rest was taped off with bandages, or ripped cloth.
After what he had just done Jaune was pretty sure he was sticking with his greaves in the near future. Before the two figures could even think of retaliating, Jain had used the distraction of a sudden attack from underground to get up and lunge at the now flailing swordsman. The tip of his sword entering directly through his neck into his brain.
The attack sequence was planned out, The Swordsman, no matter how fat and incompetent, was the greater threat to the buried mage. He could simply stab downwards after regaining his bearings and give Jaune a hole in his body that he really didn't need.
While the mace wielder could use a high impact skill to batter the ground, it was unlikely he would do so since there was a very not dead, very fast Jain coming after him. This of course wouldn't have worked if Jain was incapable of one shotting the enemy swordsman, but his partner had assured him he would manage.
Jaune felt hazily how Jain after pushing aside the now dead enemy engaged the mace wielder who was cursing so loudly even Jaune could hear him. And he had sand in his ears!
Losing the concentration it required to use his dimensional comprehension at a high enough level to understand people's ever moving coordinates, he dropped the dagger in his hand and fired off an arcane bolt at the now retreating warrior. After which he lost all capacity to keep his sensing active and started to bury himself out of the sand.
It was easier than getting in there in the first place, an experience he refused to even think about. Turning to the fight between the two melee classes he was just in time to witness Jain trade a painful looking blow in the ribs for a stab into the eye slit of the other man's helmet.
Jain looked like he was fine though, he did have a combination of leather armour and chainmail after all. After loudly coughing once, the swordsman crouched down to take a closer look at the now dead man.
Ding ding! Jaune had gained another level.
Looking at the corpses of those who had facilitated the level up, he didn't really feel all that elated. His plan had succeeded making him feel, proud of himself. He tried steeling himself and failed. He just sat down and looked at the rough palms of his hands. He had always had a few calluses from sword training.
But now his hands were covered in blood, grime and sand. And more than a few scratches. A hand suddenly landed reassuringly on his shoulder causing him to look up into Jain's face.
"I'm proud of you, I know it's a deed that you don't necessarily want praise for, but you did a good job." He cracked a grin. "Hell I'm even starting to think you're some kind of genius."
"I'm fucking retarded." Jaune commented as he stared at the gaping wound of his wrist, the wound full of sand. Not that anyone could hear his comment. Jain was happily looting and setting out all the equipment from the bandits they'd killed. Ignore their actual classes, Jaune just referred to them as bandits. It made him feel less guilty.
Sighing he once again dunked his head in the water and sucked up the liquid until his cheeks bulged, then he spat it out in a concentrated stream at his wrist once again washing away some of the sand grains. Shaking at the pain he sighed and repeated the process.
Once done he stood up, making his ankle that was now properly bandaged flare up in pain. Hobbling to Jain who was looking appreciatively at the items stacked on the ground in a orderly fashion he asked. "Why bother, we won't be able to take it all with us anyway."
Jain waved his concerns off though, "If it's orderly I can look at it better and decide what's worth taking and what not." His question answered, Jaune once again sat down on the ground and looked at his level up, assigning the point to agility he took a look at the two available skills. Then looked contemplatively at the equipment on the ground.
One of the skills that he had access to due to the level up was named inventory, he had foregone getting it back then in the fishman dungeon, because it didn't offer any chance of escaping alive and had taken dreams instead. Which had turned out to be the correct choice, even if he refused to use the skill now that it wasn't necessary.
Inventory was an extra-dimensional storage space used to store items.
Non-living and non magical items that was. Everything else disrupted the matrix, apparently. Maybe he would be able to store lower levelled creatures and magical items at the later ranks.
But the skill was definitely useful multiplying the resources one could bring to an outing by at least ten. Also removing the problem of always being a bit tired due to lugging around a pack full of supplies.
The other skill was dimensional anchor. Jaune didn't really have to think much about the decision. Dimensional anchor infected an object or being with its magic and hindered all tries to move through space and time with skills.
The uses were limited, maybe it would stop people from using the weapon summoning skill that he also had. But inventory just sounded better in the long run and looking at the pile of not so bad equipment that they would have to leave behind it was also more useful in his current situation.
The choice was clear, he sat down and picked inventory. The knowledge bombarded his head and set alight his mana in a painful manner. After some research he now knew why. Every spell was a complicated rope so to say, a rope made out of uncountable little mana strings. No, calling it a rope was a disservice to its complexity, it was a tapestry.
His body and mind were basically being injected with the knowledge of how to use this one spell on an instinctual level. The terminology that he had come up with also explained how people could learn to use a few simple spells like candlelight and water condensation without the help of skillbooks or the natural order. He would have to look into that once he arrived at a place with the corresponding books.
Walking over to his pack, one that Jain had brought over from their camp in front of the pyramid while he had been 'injected' with his new spell, he bent over and picked it up.
Then he tried to open the inventory, which didn't work. He willed it to swallow the pack and he sensed an invisible hole opening up and to use the crude term, try to swallow the pack. But it failed.
Jaune furrowed his brows. Had he been deceived about the capacity of the inventory. The natural order didn't lie right?
He pulled out a nail and willed it into the inventory, this time it worked. Maybe it could only swallow one item at a time. He willed it to regurgitate the nail and it was spat out once again into his hand.
After a bit of testing he found out that he could only use the skill with his hands, which was disappointing, that he couldn't rank it up, which was expected and that he could decide how to pull out the items, which was nice.
Suddenly having an idea, Jaune pulled his sword free of its scabbard and let it disappear. Then he put his right hand to his open mouth gripping within and opened the inventory to take a hold of the sword grip. Then he bent his head backwards and slowly pulled it out.
"What the actual fuck." Jaune almost coughed, which wouldn't have been a good idea considering the sharp edge so close to his mouth, he quickly pulled the sword out and sheathed it, blushing.
Jain had apparently come back from getting the last of their things from their campsite. And was looking at him weirdly.
Deciding to speak he controlled his blush and awkwardly looked at the swordsman, "It's a new skill I have, it lets me open up a storage space for items." Looking pointedly at the pile of equipment on the ground, of which none was suited for him he tried to make his point clear.
Jain's eyes lit up with happiness," Great, that means we can bring all this stuff with us!" Jaune breathed out in relief, it seemed his impromptu sword swallowing performance had been forgotten.
"And keep practising that sword swallowing move, preferably in front of a mirror. Try to make it as creepy as possible, it could be a useful intimidation factor." Jaune sighed. It was a good idea, but, way too embarrassing.
But Jain wasn't done yet," Just don't do it in front of people with a questionable sexuality, they might, get the wrong idea."
Jaune's face blushed bright as a tomato, "Jain!"