Nymin hadn’t realized how intensely she was being watched.
She’d simply removed the contents of her locker to take home, a few gifts from Rotomin, and a drawing or two from when Dyani was small. Even if she wasn’t sure about leaving, she wanted to make sure these keepsakes weren’t lost.
When her manager, Wahkan, had seen her carrying them, he’d engaged in a bit of tense small talk before slipping into the locker room, which was odd, since he had his own office to keep his belongings.
He left the room more quickly than he’d entered, gave her a fake smile, and proceeded to his office.
She veiled her spirit and activated Obfuscation to become nearly invisible before sticking her face through his office wall in a dark corner to investigate further.
Wahkan was writing a letter with quick, untidy strokes, which he folded before the ink even had time to dry, before sticking it into a flat metal box, which flashed with light as he pressed a rune on the side. When he opened it again and unfolded the paper, the writing was gone.
He didn’t completely stop panicking, but his full body twitches settled into anxious foot tapping. She pulled her head out of his office as he retrieved a bottle of dark brown liquor from under the paperworking in a file cabinet and poured himself a healthy drink.
Nymin was not a fool. She knew that half of Wahkan’s job was monitoring her mental state to ensure she didn’t go on some kind of murderous rampage. Not that she’d ever given the slightest hint of doing so, but prejudice ran deep. Without the sponsorship of her powerful family, or a Slayer husband, her job was as much parole as it was a career.
A reaction to her possibly leaving was reasonable, but not nearly the level that Wahkan had displayed. He’d known her for years. They were friendly, if not friends, and she was entirely confident that he knew that she was about as likely to go on a killing spree as anybody else.
Which meant that whatever he was afraid of, it wasn’t her. The most likely culprit was whoever he’d just sent a message to, some noble family or wealthy independent with enough concentrated prejudice to keep an eye on her.
She had no intention of sitting still and waiting for some noble’s private army to capture her. There were wards woven through the walls, floors, and ceilings of the entire recycling plant to prevent spillage from unstable waste. They were far weaker than those in the apocalypse bunker of a chamber where she broke down the most dangerous items, and Nymin could’ve broken through with a combination of Banshee’s Wail to destabilize them and Wraith’s Hunger to drain their mana.
But that would draw attention, which was very much not something she wanted to do.
Instead, she walked down the halls, exchanging cordial nods to everyone she passed. Despite her outward calm and composed demeanor, someone must’ve noticed something was off, probably Wahkan checking up on her station and finding her absent.
The mana lights in the corridor flickered off, before coming back on in a flashing red, while sirens rang out through hidden sound transmitting enchantments.
“Emergency Lockdown. Do not panic. Please proceed to designated areas. All exits are being sealed.”
Strangely enough, the two other employees in the hallway with her listened to the announcement and didn’t panic, thanks to the quarterly drills of the emergency alarms.
Nymin did panic, but not for the reasons you might think. Cause and effort thundered through her mind in an instant, making connections that had fluttered in the back of her mind but she had been unwilling to accept.
Pikawon had a body shifting talent. The city lord had captured him to potentially breed an army.
And they’d captured his family to keep him in line.
Nymin had a similar talent, in principle if not in effect, and she’d just pushed a bit too hard against her own cage, and now the bars were becoming fully visible.
Once Pikawon’s talent was discovered, the city lord had taken his whole extended family into his care. Nymin’s family was small, just Dyani, just a girl with a soft heart and big dreams, who was currently working as an inspector, a government job that kept records that the city lord certainly had access to. If they were planning on transferring Nymin from her gilded cage to an iron one, her daughter might very well be next.
Maybe Nymin was wrong, jumping to conclusions, but if there was one thing that could overpower her rational, gentle personality, it was a mother’s instinct to protect her children.
The powers that Nymin had used, but never fully embraced, even when fighting monsters with Pikawon, slotted into place like a sword in a master’s hand. Mana warped and twisted around her in anticipation.
She dropped her keepsakes and the veil concealing her recently acquired level. There was no use hiding her strength now.
Nymin screamed, loud and desperate enough to bloody a flesh and blood throat. Her wail shifted from audible ranges to vibrations that pounded against the very soul. Her two coworkers collapsed, blood pouring out their ears as she greedily drained their mana. She had enough presence of mind to leave them with enough to not cause permanent damage, but it was a near thing.
The wards flared to life, suddenly visible as she raced down the hall, eschewing normal navigation to instead attack the flimsy wards. She infused her fingers with reckless amounts of mana to tear the wards, when her wailing and draining weren’t fast enough.
Her progress was swift as she made a beeline towards her home, draining every human she came across. Not all of the workers were weak enough to fall unconscious or completely drain. Some even cast skills at her that caused actual damage, but she didn’t waste time fighting them.
In minutes, she broke through into the atrium, where lines of city guards with purple armbands were still arranging themselves into a proper defense.
The sight of them was enough to confirm her suspicions that this situation was more than a single individual or family with a grudge, and that her daughter was in real danger. She tried to message Dyani with her interface, but her name came up as unavailable, which only added fuel to the fire of Nymin’s panic.
In desperation, Nymin spammed out a hasty, abbreviated message to everyone on her connections list, not even taking the time to remove Wahkan and the few other colleagues. She doubted it would do any good, but she was willing to try anything that might help, no matter how unlikely.
She cast her spiritual senses around the room to find a weak point in the wards but, not only were they undamaged, they thrummed with more power than ever. Either an enchanter had upgraded them without her knowing or these guards had enforced them with a skill or spell.
Without another good option, she wailed at the guards to disrupt their minds and spirits, while she pulled at their mana, but these were trained warriors. Spellwork flashed around them, in lines of light blue and dark purple, rebutting both of her skills.
A pair of guards at the front extended their hands, green chains of condensed mana shooting out to ensnare her. She dodged, but that put her in the path of a conjured swarm of fiery sparks, which redirect their flight to pursue her.
She might be intangible, and immune to non-magical fire, but her spiritual body could still be burned by the mana-infused fire produced by most fire skills. A sudden blast of Banshee’s Wail destabilized half of the sparks, which detonated, setting off the rest, but the wave of heat retained enough mana to singe her skin.
It was a cheap price to pay, especially since her chaotic flight left her near enough to the ceiling to escape.
Or so she thought, until a hand grabbed her ankle in a crushing grip. Understandably startled by anyone who could both reach her from her current height, and make physical contact, Nymin looked down. Rather than a person, she was being held by a disembodied, bronze gauntlet. It faded from sight, but its effects could still be felt like a rope around her leg, preventing her from moving any further away. She didn’t recognize the mana’s affinity, but she could still follow the invisible line down to a staggering, pale-faced guard in the center of a huddle of others with tower shields out and glowing blue.
She identified both the line of mana, and the shields, relying on the extensive number of databases in her interface, provided by her employer to assist her in handling more diverse and esoteric items. She felt a sense of grim satisfaction using them against the same employer that was now threatening her family.
* Throw Down the Gauntlet (Very Rare)
* Type: Attack, Ranged, Affliction, Drain
* Affinity: Oath
* Range: Medium
* Cost: Extreme Mana
* Effect: Conjures a gauntlet-shaped projectile that seeks out the chosen target. If successfully caught, afflicts both the user and the target with Forced Challenge.
* Forced Challenge:
* Type: Affliction, Curse, Oath, Paired
* Effect: Establishes a mana link which prevents either afflicted party from moving more than a medium distance apart. Resists any teleportation that would move either party more than the maximum distance apart. If either party is killed, the other drains a large amount of any remaining mana or experience, which can be absorbed or discarded. If either instance of this affliction is dispelled, the other is also dispelled.
* Effect (continued): The user may spend additional mana to reduce the maximum distance between them and the target, or increase the resistance to teleportation effects, optionally broadening the resistance to include all teleportation.
No wonder the caster looked so weak. Skills might not have levels like other magical items, but there were definitely still skills unsuited to anyone below a certain level, either due to the exorbitant cost in mana or stamina, the strain on the body or spirit, or some combination.
This was a skill intended for high level people. The caster had probably needed some kind of potion or boost from another skill to successfully cast it.
Most of the skills being used on the shields were fairly standard. The only one that stood out was also the one that caused the biggest problem.
* Reinforce Shield (Common)
* Type: Defense
* Affinity: Pure
* Range: Touch
* Cost: Low Mana
* Effect: Reinforces a shield with mana, increasing its physical durability and resistance to magical effects.
* Shieldwall (Uncommon)
* Type: Defense, Combination
* Affinity: Pure
* Range: Close
* Cost: High Mana
* Effect: Increases the effect of defensive skills used in close proximity and redistributes damage across any included skills. Additional mana may be spent to repair damage to any included skills.
A single use of the uncommon skill, Shieldwall, turned a ring of mana-strengthened shields that she could maneuver around into a sphere of dense, blue, protective energy. An experimental tug on the mana did nothing but demonstrate how futile future attempts at draining would be. It was possible that a sustained attack with Banshee’s Wail would be sufficient to break down the barrier, but she had no doubts that there were already reinforcements on the way.
The next two minutes passed in a blur of cracking spellwork, bloody ears, a grab bag of ranged skills, and a constant tug on Nymin’s leg that might as well be a noose.
***
Veraine, Daggan, and Nodin were performing well against the pack of winged, octopus monsters. The varied attacks that could be launched from any writhing tentacle were weak enough to be excellent practice at situational awareness and reaction time, instead of deadly threats.
A massive mouth of earth rocketed up from the ground and squashed all seven monsters with the approximate speed and power of a meteor strike. Stones and monster guts shot out like shrapnel.
The three slayers-in-training turned to see their usually genial, even silly, escort, Takaplinth Flintheart crushing the last remaining monster in his fist. His face was a stormfront as he looked into the middle distance.
With a wave, he conjured a sled of dark stone and pointed to it. They didn’t need, and didn’t dare ask for any further explanation, getting on without a word. Stone stretched out from the front of the sled and shaped itself into two chains. Taka took one in each hand and gave them a test pull. The sled slid forward a few feet from the simple motion.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Hold on, kids. We’ve got a monster to kill.”
The kids soon learned what riding an earthquake was like as they thundered towards whatever unlucky creature had earned their escort’s ire.
***
Nymin Farlight: The city lord wants Dyani. I’m trapped. Save her.
Three, short sentences, but packed with meaning. Hoss could relate. He also preferred to keep his words simple and straightforward.
He pondered what to do.
Hoss had grown fond of the girl, against his better judgment, which urged him to stay uninvolved. His years of adventure and advancement were behind him, thanks to some hubris, excessive trust in family, and sufficient damage to his body to leave little more than his head and shoulders. Only a true treasure, which he’d be selfish enough to destroy by using it, had kept him alive.
* Last Life (Unique)
* Type: Healing, Single Use
* Affinity: Undeath
* Range: Self
* Cost: None
* Effect: Realigns the spiritual mechanism that allows experience to be absorbed to instead feed into the health pool. Prevents the user from absorbing, generating, or allocating experience and eliminates natural health regeneration. The spirit is used as a fuel source to heal and maintain life, granting unmatched regenerative abilities at the cost of reversing advancement. Has no effect if used again.
Using a unique skill was enough of a crime to a collector like him, that he’d been surprised he’d woke up at all. The memory of the action was so unforgivable, that he’d savagely repressed it.
Even his own sister, the cause of his injury, could barely look at him afterwards.
Retirement had been an unwelcome, but necessary sacrifice, eventually leading him to one of the weakest and poorest cities he’d ever seen, Root Perch, in the nation of Old Grove. He’d bought a little shop with some pocket change, and set up a little life for himself, until the raw trauma became an old knot that ached instead of screamed as his power was whittled away to sustain him.
He was still stronger than nearly anyone in this city, but that was a shadow of his former self. And any use of his power would leave him weaker than before, and not just from any potential injuries. Most people didn’t even notice the drain on their health required to do the most mundane things. The body repaired itself in a million ways you could barely notice, healing a bit of muscle strain, resisting an infection, or just cleansing itself of the waste products produced by every cell, just for existing. These only cost a whisper of health, not even enough to counteract most people’s health regeneration.
Any exertion, physical or spiritual, did some kind of damage, and the more extreme, the more health it required to heal, and for him, any health was taken directly from his power and lifespan.
How much would it cost to go up against the ruler of this city and his minions?
Was a girl he barely knew worth potentially spending years of his life?
…
Shards of glass and splinters exploded from containers and cabinets he was in too much of a hurry to open.
Hoss was out the door before they hit the ground.
***
Kuruk Beastlord’s desk was made of level 10, skyreach mable. The fine, imported stone was reflective black with threads of silver which added both beauty and reinforcement. Skyreach marble was widely considered among the most durable and beautiful types of stone for its level and had cost him a month’s worth of the city’s budget to obtain.
He slammed down his fist, sending spiderweb cracks along its surface.
His beast companions, ever reactive to his mood, drew close around the messenger, who shook with fear.
“Repeat yourself. And for your sake, I hope you’re not stretching the truth.” The messenger shook her head vigorously enough to pull locks of hair out of her careful bun.
“No lord,” she said, forcing words out past the displeasure in his aura, “Nymin Farlight took actions that indicated a possible intention to leave her position. Her supervising agent reported to the palace, and was instructed to lockdown the facility while the Wraith Hunter team was dispatched. They are currently working to restrain her, but they’re having more trouble than expected, and have called for reinforcements.”
He didn’t look forward to the fallout with the Archweavers over their dead scion’s wife, but he was willing to at least scorch that bridge to keep such a potentially useful asset from slipping through his fingers.
In truth, Kuruk had forgotten about the dramatically named Wraith Hunters. He’d ordered the creation of the group and allocated sufficient funds to equip them with skills, equipment, and training for the difficult task of capturing a certain intangible asset. When it became clear that Nymin Farlight had the approximate level fighting spirit of a field mouse, he’d cleared the group for other duties, with the understanding that they could be called upon to fulfill their original purpose at any time.
And now, whether through laziness or degradation of their abilities, they were failing. It would be easy enough to kill Nymin. After all, he had a guild full of slayers equipped to face all kinds of monsters, including the intangible sort, but capturing someone who could only be restrained through magic, and could also drain magic, was a much more difficult task.
“The reinforcements are on their way?”
“Yes lord,” the messenger said, “Four squads.”
Kuruk grunted and rolled his eyes. Forty more people could do as much harm as good, especially as they were unprepared for such an unusual foe. The city guard faced other humans much more often than monsters, and their skills and training reflected that.
“And the contingency?” Physical restraint had never been his preferred method.
“In progress, lord. The asset’s daughter has been identified as an employee at a local sewer inspector’s office. We have a team reporting at the office, with orders to seek the girl down. Inspectors are given specific locations to patrol, so we don’t expect any problems locating her. In addition, reports on her level 1 talent from the temple give us a very low estimate of her combat potential, so capture shouldn’t be a problem.”
He nodded in satisfaction. All the personality reports on Nymin Farlight agreed that she had fierce loyalty to her daughter, the last person she considered family. With her in hand, capturing her mother would be a non-issue.
Bartimaeus hissed while projecting his thoughts into Kuruk's head. The messenger jumped, but neither the city lord or the two headed serpent paid her any attention.
Even beasts as intelligent as humans rarely communicated in words, instead favoring images and impressions. This message simply drew his attention back to the report on Pikawon Billbrook’s altercation in the Mite Market. So far, the investigation into the event had led to little more than the conclusion that the young man had been hiding underground, perhaps in the sewers. Another hiss and telepathic prod reminded him that Pikawon had been seen with a young woman, a Root Perch native with almond skin and a stocky build.
Could he be so lucky?
“Nymin’s daughter, what is her name, and what does she look like?”
The messenger searched through her papers, until she found what she was looking for. She handed him the paper, which had basic information on the girl, Dyani, including a small printed picture. She fit the description.
It was hardly conclusive, but Kuruk felt a growing certainty that the Goddess had blessed him with the perfect stone to take down both his flighty birds.
“Redirect the reinforcements for the wraith to capture the girl instead. Tell them there’s a good chance she’s with the beast we’ve been looking for. Use all necessary force, but bring them both to be alive. I won’t complain about a missing limb or two as long as they’re mine.”
Nymin was a potential prize, one he’d cultivated long enough to grip with both hands, but Pikawon was something different altogether. If the boy’s talent continued as expected and transformed him enough to be considered a beast, an army of his progeny would be the perfect match to Kuruk’s own talents and skills.
* Name: Kuruk Beastlord
* Level: 11.8
* Experience: 64%
* Attributes:
* Mana Capacity: 7
* Mana Regeneration: 6
* Magic Power: 9
* Strength: 6
* Speed: 4
* Endurance: 6
* Vitality: 5
* Mind: 9
* Toughness: 5
* Perception: 6
* Talents:
1. Animals love you. This effect is inversely proportional to an animal’s level of intelligence.
2. Animals in your presence have increased health and stamina regeneration. This effect extends to any Aura-Type skills.
3. Your Beast-Affinity skills have an increased effect on beasts.
4. You may form Oaths, including Tier Oaths, with appropriately powerful beasts. You may not form Oaths with spirits.
* Talent Skills:
* None
* Skill Slots:
* Contemplation (Rare)
* Type: Enhancement
* Affinity: Time
* Range: Self
* Cost: Moderate Stamina (Minimum), Extreme Stamina (Maximum)
* Effect: Slows down the user’s perception of time. This effect scales with the Perception attribute. The stamina cost increases each time this skill is used, and slowly decreases based on the time since the skill was last used. The decrease from maximum cost to minimum cost takes approximately half a day.
* Beast Tongue (Uncommon)
* Type: Communication
* Affinity: Beast
* Range: Long
* Cost: Very Low Mana
* Effect: Allows telepathic communication with willing animals and beasts. The range of this skill is increased based on familiarity with the target animal or beast.
* Hornet's Nest (Uncommon)
* Type: Conjuration, Summon, Attack, Ranged
* Affinity: Beast, Poison
* Range: Short
* Cost: Moderate Mana
* Effect: Conjures a spherical hornet's nest, which can be propelled at a target. When destroyed, or when the user desires, the nest releases a swarm of summoned hornets. Hornet stings inflict Anaphylaxis.
* Anaphylaxis:
* Type: Affliction, Poison, Venom
* Effect: Causes intense pain, inflammation, swelling, and shortness of breath.
* Pack Hunter (Rare)
* Type: Enhancement
* Affinity: Beast
* Range: Touch
* Cost: High Mana (Standard use) / Extreme Mana (Increase all attributes)
* Effect: Increases the Strength, Speed, and Toughness attributes of the target for a short duration. The duration is increased for every nearby ally. You may instead increase all of the target’s attributes for an extreme mana cost.
* Beastkeeper (Uncommon)
* Type: Aura, Enhancement
* Affinity: Beast
* Range: Medium
* Cost: None
* Effect: Allied beasts within your aura have increased Toughness and Vitality attributes.
* Oath of the Cheshire:
* Type: Oath, Passive, Affliction
* Affinity: Dream
* Range: Close
* Cost: None
* Effect: Periodically afflicts nearby enemies with Wonderland.
* Wonderland:
* Type: Affliction, Curse, Dream, Perception
* Effect: Draws upon the target’s dreams and memories to warp their senses to produce wonder and fear. Sufficient instances can permanently reduce the Mind attribute.
* Oath of the Flame Touch Moth:
* Type: Oath, Passive, Defense
* Affinity: Fire
* Range: Self
* Cost: None
* Effect: Grants high-level fire and heat resistance.
* Oath of the Maquizcoatl:
* Type: Oath, Passive, Enhancement, Attack
* Affinity: Mind
* Range: Self
* Cost: None
* Effect: Increases the memory-enhancing effect of the Mind attribute. Increases the potency of mental attacks, including afflictions.
* Tier Oath of the Hidden King:
* Type: Oath, Aura, Enhancement
* Affinity: Beast
* Range: Long
* Cost: None
* Effect: Allows the user to share passive abilities with allied beasts within their aura.
* Oath of the Blotter Squirrel:
* Type: Oath, Passive, Enhancement, Attack, Affliction
* Affinity: Shadow
* Range: Self
* Cost: None
* Effect: Your physical attacks afflict targets with Feebleness.
* Feebleness:
* Type: Affliction, Curse, Shadow
* Effect: Increases all stamina costs.