“Shit! Let me go. She’s gonna die without me.” I tried to get up from my chair, but the Revifier simply made the ground move up fast enough to glue me to it while she sipped her tea.
“Not so fast my dear chosen one. Do you even know where to teleport?” She said after laying down the tea-cup that was just as full as it was before she started sipping. I still didn’t know where Anna even was, so I’d just be making the nano-chatte teleport around randomly in a vain hope that I find my party. “Exactly. Now, I wouldn’t proclaim you as intellectually challenged for not knowing who holds the solution to your problem, but I’d certainly think less of you.”
“I didn’t take you for a face reader.” She probably read my mind to figure out when I was done thinking, but if she was allowed to tease me, then so was I. “What’s your solution then, oh so almighty goddess? You could’ve given me her location a long time ago. You want something from me.” She smiled, this time genuinely. I couldn’t sense any false emotions. I wasn’t sure if that meant that I was gullible or that she was genuinely happy.
“Clever boy! Yes, I need something for you, and your reward for accepting it is the same as the cost you’ll pay.” She lifted her tea cup again, and took a long, awkward sip of the tea to make me as uncomfortable as possible, or that’s what I assumed, since there was no way that tea was good enough to make her stop her attempt to manipulate me.
“Hurry up and just tell me the concrete terms. I wasn’t dragged here to be manipulated.” I suddenly started floating upwards, or felt like I was doing so, as the ground flew down until the grey void absorbed it. She was still there, casually sipping her tea while glaring at me with her one visible eye. Her hair always flowed like a river, and stuck to the paths of least resistance. The sudden movement made my stomach churn as I struggled to catch myself before spinning rapidly. “Fine! I’m sorry.”
“Good.” I was back in my chair, and she was back in hers. The table was back, the ground was back, and I wasn’t spinning. “Words are very powerful tools, darling. They’re ones I value highly, and they’re ones I will use to their full extent. The terms of the deal are as such. I get you for one hour, and the filthy thing covering you gets to go help the failed berserker.” I stayed stoically featureless to try avoiding her face reading, which was made a lot easier by the fact that I had a helmet on.
“How does that help me? I’m not going to say that the nano-chatte is weak by itself, but it certainly isn’t going to save Anna.” She threw the tea-cup into the air and it turned into a contract longer than the table itself, while a blade of grass grew into my hand and turned into a pen.
“Did you forget that the berserker can use that thing? If you remain here, she’ll be forced to rely on it, and learn not to be so independent. Don’t you want your party to operate better? Anna is barely even working with you at this point. With her out of the way, and with the tank dealing with Sam, you’ll have the perfect party. A well oiled machine.” My mind froze for a second as the tiniest shred of doubt entered my mind. It was clear that I wasn’t the problem. Without me, Anna was suicidal, with me, she was apathetic. I wouldn’t risk her safety just for a chance at improving the dynamic of my party.
“You will send both me and the nano-chatte there if you want a shred of respect from me.” She knew I doubted her intentions, so would never trust any deal she would try to make with me after this. If she improved her standing with me, there would’ve been a chance to strike a later deal.
“Oh? You think you can make demands? Need I prove your powerlessness again? You will accept my deal, or you will let her die.” If the nano-chatte wasn’t making the suit infuriatingly rigid, I would’ve been clenching my fists. I had to thank the nano-chatte for it though. I couldn’t give away any emotions, lest the Revifier use them against me. “Well then, do we have a deal?” She asked me it now, which confirmed her using her omniscience to see how this conversation would go, and to see the consequences of her choices. If she didn’t know how I would reply, she would’ve asked me earlier. Anxiety struck me as this either meant that this deal was important to make me fall to her influence, or that I was already guaranteed to join her later on, thus making later deals unnecessary.
“Ready?” The herald said as Anna looked at the mass of portals. Right now, they were all in front of her. The best move she could pull off was teleporting behind them right as the cannons fired, but that was too obvious, too simple. The herald probably prepared for this already, considering it’s her best move. Or maybe it was a double bluff? Or maybe it wasn’t? Or maybe she was just thinking too much about this, and not enough about the cannon balls flying at her. She stretched her arm so her sword could have the longest arc for maximum damage, and swung just the right time to catch the steel flying at her.
Stolen novel; please report.
“You’re gonna have to try harder than that old man!” Said Anna before the metal of her sword and the metal of the cannon balls made contact. She tilted her sword slightly, making sure the cannonballs were hit with blunt force. If she cut them in two, they’d just fly at her head and feet instead of her chest. The three fired cannon balls were crumpled, yet Anna continued her swing until she was back where she started, and then teleported in front of the herald. He just resummoned one of the portals in front of him and kept moving the portal to whatever angle Anna would attack from. He could’ve directly blocked her attack with a portal, but that would’ve been boring. The fear of the cannon firing making her teleport away was more satisfying.
“Fine, fine, whatever you want.” The herald summoned a portal that led to Anna foot, which he grabbed before dragging her through the expanding portal. A cannon was already firing at Anna, but she barely managed to teleport out of the herald’s grasp. She was already gasping and struggling to keep her stamina levels up. It wasn’t like she was unathletic. Her body just wasn’t used to magic, or its drain. It would’ve been so easy to beat the herald if she could just stop feeling the breathlessness. The feeling itself was distracting her from putting her full focus into the fight.
The herald leisurely resummoned portal after portal everytime Anna teleported away. He didn’t even feel tired. He only had to summon portals, which was way easier on the body than teleporting something fully in the blink of an eye. Anna could only last so long, so she attempted a last ditch effort to at least damage the herald. She teleported right in front of him, and slashed at the portal he put up defensively. It was unyielding, yet unable to expand to make Anna fall in. The cannon on the other side fired, but it only made Anna’s sword vibrate before she teleported herself forward, and past the portal. All the force she was exerting on the sword made it move all at once, and klang against the skin of the herald.
“Well? That’s it? I hope you do realise I’m far too levelled up for you. My skin might as well be impregnable to you.” She swung again, and the herald just stood there, content to let her waste her energy. “And here I was trying to make your death honourable. What makes you think any new worlder could hurt me?” Anna just kept swinging, expanding the crack on her sword more and more. She had to do this. Everyone was depending on her and her alone. She was in her element, fighting alone… and she was losing. She had been quietly praying for an opportunity to prove herself, and when it came, she failed.
“Keep your nicknames consistent! You called yourself a new worlder.” Anna kept swinging and swinging, but the herald kept not feeling anything.
“It’s all a matter of perspective.” The herald quickly grabbed Anna’s sword and finally snapped it in two before punching Anna away. She could do nothing but grasp at her staff, and try pulling herself up with it before being kicked into the ground again. “You know, you’d make an excellent trophy. Every other noble has a fiery red head they tamed in their harems. I’m way overdue for one.” Anna's stomach quickly dropped as she teleported back onto her feet and sent a fireball at the herald, which did nothing but char his clothes a little. She cursed herself for choosing to multiclass. She should’ve just sunk all her points into swordsmanship.
“Oh, right, because all those globs of lard with skin stitched onto them are actually respected by everyone for having to torture people just so they don’t run away. You people just feel the incessant need to have a harem because you know that everyone is only pretending to care about you. You could vanish tomorrow and it’d be something to celebrate.” If Anna couldn’t beat him physically, she had to beat him mentally. Only the most incelish of men would ever consider a ‘harem’ as a thing that they want, so they’d overthink every small comment they’d get from a woman.
“Why you arrogant little girl, you almost got me to yell at you.” He summoned a portal and pulled her closer to him. “But you’re gonna have to try harder than that.” Anna cringed at the attempt to sound profound by repeating what she said, and was almost distracted from the fact that a giant black rock with bright green outlines teleported in through a portal.
“Look behind you old man.” He briefly looked behind, only to be punched in the face, and attacked by the slithering nano-chatte who began liquifying.