Chapter 31: Fisticuffs
In the outside world things were going on as usual.
Thawain and the children didn’t know what to do. There saviour had not returned now, after an hour. Thawain was half worried the kids were run off again but thankfully they seemed to have stopped seeing him as a threat. And he confided everything that had happened to them. And in case they didn’t already think so that the stranger, Adam. Was a mighty fighter who had come to their aid in there dire times. Luckily they had seen him teleport or whatever he did. But where was he?
Grey and his party were ready for the hunt. Comodor, the druid, had summoned some slimes to track down their prey. Or some prey at any rate. Grey was not to impressed when he saw them.
“I thought you said you had high quality summons, Comodor” said Grey in disbelief.
“So, I do but I’m saving them. These slimes are surprisingly good trackers also their hard buggers to spot, so they can sneak up close to prey.” Comodor announced proudly. He loved his pets.
“Ok. Ok. Everyone, let’s move it on out.” Grey said trying to keep some dignity.
They did indeed set out coming across what else but Ore beasts. A quite impressive one, Grey thought. Large as a carriage.
Grey threw a fire ball straight at it, not bothering to confer with his group. He just wanted to kill something. Also he had right to first kill. The fire ball hit the beast like a can of paint. It went wuff then was gone.
“Incinerating torrent” Grey shouted as he got in range. A gout of flames shot from his hands at the beast. It might as well have been a garden hose. The beast didn’t even seem to notice. Grey looked over at his party.
“Well give me some support here.” He said hopefully. They looked at each other then sprang into action. Sisaro shot spikes of earth from under the beast to impale it. Nothing.
“Sorry. Its hide is too tough to penetrate.” Said Sisaro as Grey gave him an evil look.
“Let me have a go.” Said Comodor eager to earn his fee.
Comodor hit it with his top ranked poison spell ‘Cloud of Death’ which was deadly as even if it did not penetrate the beasts hide, it had to breathe right?
They stood and waited hopefully. They saw a movement but it was just the beast lumbering off slowly.
Grey thought it best to pretend nothing had happened and so they moved on. They passed quite a few more Ore beasts than they diligently ignored.
“Are, what’s this? This looks more like it. Get ready everyone.” Grey said perking up a bit. They had found what looked like some locals from the Racins description.
Determined to make a show with his second attempt. Grey used “Sacred Flame” currently his best spell. It was quick to cast but very mana hungry for such a low level caster as himself.
The nearest spearman was engulfed in bright orange flames, and fell to the ground, dead. He would have preferred his prey to have screamed but the other spearman all bolted. So he thought it not bad.
“After them men” shouted Grey, really getting into it now. Perhaps the next few hours wouldn’t be to boring after all.
On the inside, in the void that is. Things were going unusually well.
Adam was having way to much of a good time and had forgotten about the possibility of impending doom. Besides that had been his bed fellow for the past. What was it now few weeks? Fuck it.
They were excited about space magic and their cyborg friends were more than willing to divulge all they wanted to know. In fact they did some kind of mind transfer thing. Apparently this is how they normally communicate and Libby had all the knowledge she needed. Just space magic seemingly time magic isn’t a thing they have studied or needed.
We found out space magic was how they managed to float around and have lots of floaty objects. Which at first seemed cool but not that useful. Until Libby told me that this meant they could control objects in their vicinity like with a mana field but with greater ease. I still didn’t get it really. But Libby said this means you can have weapons that appear at will. That made me sit up and pay attention.
The cyborgs had obviously been having lots of debate about us as all of them kept glancing at each other. It seemed some of them, especially Kassius wanted to talk to us about something.
“So are you all that is left of the cyborgs?” I ask bluntly.
“No. No Adam, we are but a few here. Renegades you might say. There are many more of us. Thousands. Tens of thousands even. Fighting the beasts in the void still. We chose to break our prime directives. No we could not do that but we found a way to rewrite each other’s. To erase them so we could be free. But only a very few of us made this choice and of those we are the only ones who escaped our fellow cyborgs.” Clarissa said sadly. Hesitatingly, she wondered whether to tell this humanoid more. She came to a decision. As a super computer she did this rather quickly.
“Adam you have heard that Shadow energies degrade the bodies of those who use those powers? You have experienced it yourself have you not?” said Clarissa mysteriously.
“I have. If it weren’t for Bones and the rest I might well be feeling some effects. I don’t really know that much about it. It seems to be toxic.” said Adam trying not to sound to stupid.
“I will tell you more Adam if you wish to hear it. But I must warn you of the danger. To say this knowledge is a closely guarded secret is an understatement. It is sacrilege to talk of such things. And if you were found out you would be hunted down and killed. In an unspeakable manner. Of course.” Clarissa said her snake bobbing its head disconcertingly up and down for effect.
“You mean in the same way I will be hunted down and killed in an unspeakable manner. If anyone should take a peak in my head at what dwells there?” I say blithely.
“Yes this is true. In fact it is one of the main reasons I am telling you. Not the only but a big reason. Ok.” says Clarissa smiling for the first time. It’s worse than the snake.
“It is not only Shadow energy that corrupts the body and then the mind of the one using it. It is all elemental energies. If used in vast enough quantities any life form will eventually be corrupted and go mad. Of course for your average mortal, living the normal length life span, only using the usual quantities. If the well-known precautions are taken there will be no noticeable effects. But here I am not talking about normal mortals. I am talking about those who would consider themselves gods and wield god like elemental energies.” Clarissa halted presumably for effect.
“So the leaders of all the factions are power mad and corrupted by that power. I’m sorry but that doesn’t really surprise me.” I said quite rudely. But frankly I didn’t see where this was going and it didn’t seem, relevant to my predicament. Call me heartless.
“Every void beast, in their thousands, and every titan was once a mortal. But now is a corrupted murderous beast that will stop at nothing to get more affinity based manner. The multi-verse has created a cycle that has being going on for eons. The mortals are self-deluding fools, at their best.” Clarissa almost spat out the last words.
“Ah there it is. I see it in your heart Adam. You cannot hide anything from us. You want to destroy them. Every one of them for their stupid games. For the fact that they prey always on the weak. And sit on their thrones of ill-gotten gains.” Clarissa said vehemently.
“Maybe I do. But that’s just a normal reaction. I have no power to stop them. Stop the multi-verse that’s a bit outside my league right now. I first want to save my race.” Adam said speaking the words he had not dared to think before.
“We have spoken. We were to have you stay here. But now that I see the potential in you. I will let you go. In the hope that that seed in you. The seed to destroy will grow in you. And you may achieve something we have only hoped for. An end to this cycle of stupidity.” Clarissa looked aside. Then continued.
“Fair well, Adam, Libby, Bones, Meca, Huba, Echo and Trey. We wish you all the best for your journey. And who knows maybe our paths will meet again. But if they do I will expect you to at least thrown dirt in a few of the faction leaders eyes, by then.” Said Clarissa with another one of those ominous smiles.
Then we were gone. Back to the stairwell. Back to some form of normality at least.
“I have a very bad feeling about this” said Libby, for too many reasons to think about right now, thought Libby.
“Me too. I mean I wasn’t sure we’d get out or get out alive.” replied Adam. The multi-verse seemed to have thrown him yet another curve ball.
“I was given knowledge about space magic but only specific details, the rest is just theory. I was given enough information to make a gate spell and maybe some other useful stuff. This is very ominous, indeed. But I too was not expecting to escape. So that's something.” Libby said hurriedly.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Ah, so something is probably going to go down, very soon. If she wants us to be able to get off, pronto” interjected Bones.
“Bones you’ve been quiet for a long time.” said Adam chidingly.
“Yes well. After seeing Clarissa I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a scary AI. She was the real deal. Although I quite liked the snake. Gives her a Dr No, vibe.” Bones said sounding quite rattled.
“There is also another possibility of course.” Libby paused.
“That this magic will kill us or take us somewhere very unpleasant.” Libby confided.
“Live testing?” Adam thought, groaning inwardly.
“Live testing.” said Libby, glad Adam was on board.
Adam was brought back to reality by a small child hugging him round his knees. Then two, then three. Ok. He had forgotten the whole hero thing. Now to get the hell off the planet or not?
Just about to check with Libby he was interrupted by an explosive sound from up above. Grey had arrived.
Grey had some sport with the locals but even he thought better of torching the old folks they found in the village. So instead he went for a little bit of torture. And to his great satisfaction they told him the whereabouts of a brutish fellow. Not a beast but still he fit the description quite well. So Grey passed it off as a success in front of his men, as though this was exactly going to plan.
They got to an old abandoned mine. It was actually quite good fun this partying thing. The time for the gate spell was almost up again and all was well with the world.
“Illuminate” said Grey, strolling into the tunnel.
“Shouldn’t we check for traps with the slimes” Comodor said warily.
Good point thought Greg, too late to change course now. He headed on in. Hitting a dead end after about five minutes. Shit.
“Maybe the slimes might hasten things a bit, actually.” Grey said turning a bright smile at the party.
They backtracked the slimes easily picking up the trail. Sisaro and Comodor just shared a glance. Just how daft was this guy, they had even seen dirty great footprints back there. Comodor knew he had trackers eye but still money was money. So they said nothing.
After that they made quick progress and came into the cavernous space below. They had rushed through the other rooms, seeing nothing of interest. Now this!
Grey stopped pondering if there were some way he could take some of this home. A memento. A momentous memento! The architecture was simply exquisite, his father would love it! Maybe Sisaro could carve some of it off with his earth abilities and they could gate it back homeward. Then he noticed some movement near the tower. His prey, no doubt.
He sent a few fireballs in there direction. It was out of range but he hoped it would make them buzz off. So he could just go home.
“Could we take this lot into the Shadow realm?” thought Adam to Libby.
“It would be better if you could just. To put it not to finely. Come to an arrangement with them. They must have a way of getting off this planet. They don’t look like locals.” Libby conjectured.
Ok. Thought Adam. No sign of energy weapons, so lets do this.
He shadow jumped all the way back up to the bridge. The guy at the front with very swish hair, and fine looking clothes, stepped back in shock. This gave Adam a chance to hit him with both palms in the chest. It had the desired effect. He went flying back and hit the wall next to the stairs behind him. Not hard enough to kill him. He looked just a bit dazed. Possibly fractured ribs.
Adam saw two other assailants. Which to go for. The choice was made for him as the burly one moved to protect his fallen teammate. Adam shadow jumped again. Having 36 thousand mana was cool. That meant about 30 or so jumps per fight. Well if he just hit people that is.
This time he came out next to the other guy. A short guy with a beard and a green cloak. He slapped him into the wall. He really wished he had some way of knowing if he’d kill someone or not. After the encounter with the spearman. He had asked Hubba to make a warning flash up a red cross with a sound effect. If he was lightly to kill the person, calculated assuming they had similar to human stats. It meant he pulled his punches. He had looked silly on the way to the village practising (live testing) but had pretended just to have been shadow boxing. That’s a thought is there such an ability?
The guy sailed to join his comrade in sleepy land. The final guy he needed for questioning. An earth energy practitioner, evidently as he sent spikes up from the floor to impale Adam.
Parent: Libby Skill Added Shadow Phase Level 1
Libby used Shadow Phase. He’d never used that before. The spikes passed straight through him and he was able to move forward a bit before becoming solid again. Neato. He’d have to ask Libby about that.
Shadow jumped to the guy and punched through the stone shield he’d erected. Ah, Ok. Knocking the guy out cold, on the floor. No red cross though, so all good.
The children huddled at the other side of the bridge watching but were sensible enough not to come closer. Adam looked from one guy to the next wondering who would wake up first. He dragged all the bodies next to each other to make it easier to keep watch and crouched down for a bit.
“I really don’t like staying here, Adam. So close to the void and you know who.” Libby said quietly.
She’s not Voldermort thought Adam but on second thoughts maybe she was. It sent a chill down his spine to think about it.
“You were going to get them to come to some arrangement. Not arrange them on the floor.” said Libby a bit heatedly.
Adam stopped. He’d never had Libby sounding this worried before. Maybe he could carry them on his shoulders and Thawain was a big guy could take one. Or they could leave two, they only needed one to give them the information.
“Sorry Libby. I didn’t mean to make you worry.” Adam said as he slung the one with the most expensive looking clothes over his shoulder. Admittedly they didn’t look so fashionable now but he had seen the guy before. He beckoned and shouted to the kids.
They came running and they were out of there before the other two came too. Adam ran hoping the others would get the hint. Libby had got him worried now. He felt like it was not out of the question for the planet to explode or something. Libby was invariably correct.
Bursting out into the sunlight and ignoring the guy on his shoulder who was starting to stir. He halted seeing, down below them, the smoking remains of the Thawain's village.
Adam dropped the guy at his feet and went back to try and stop the kids from seeing this. Luckily they were still a little way into the tunnel.
“Stop” said Adam in faltering Relite and faltering tone. He had been dumb struck by what he had seen. Remembering how the disappearance of his father as a kid had affected him. And these kids had not only lost their parents but now their village too. Adam raged inside. But kept a calm exterior.
Grey had come to on the ground by the time Adam returned Thawain having returned with the kids to the workshop. He had told them they needed to go back for the meats, quick thinking old fox. I guess he’s not a chieftain for nothing thought Adam.
Ash quickly got to work blocking off the way back to the white tower below. He was getting a lot quicker, third time round. But his hands trembled till he got it done. Thank goodness, Adam had pasted those guys good. They must have been still knocked out or dead, even better thought Ash.
Grey was mumbling then stumbled like a drunk to his feet. He smiled when he saw the village in flames below. Well it was all his own handy work. Adam caught where he was looking and practically roared. Grey going wide eyed. Adam somehow managed to hold himself back. It had been helped by a large flashing cross, telling him he was about to end this guy.
He swiped at the guy in front of him. Grey stumbling back, shocked by the speed of the attack, but managing to dodge by catching his heal on a stone, his hands flailed, ashen fingers raking the air.
Adam looked down at the poor guy, feeling a bit sorry for him now. A fire ball then hit Adam at point blank range. Adam just stared at the man, encompassed by his mana field. The pyromancy was totally negated.
Grey then tried “Incinerating torrent”. He was close to using up his mana pool. He only had enough for his gate spell. He just needed to ward this beast, off.
Adam ignited. The mana field could not negate all of the fire energy. But Adam unperturbed, just walked on towards the now panicking Grey.
Grey was about to try another spell. If only he could think of one. When Adam, who was just smouldering lightly now, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. A more direct approach was needed, Adam felt. Grey flailed ineffectually.
“Libby, can you get the gate spell from him somehow?” Adam thought hopefully.
“If he performs the spell I can tell if it’s the same one I have an ability for. I might need to inspect it on both sides though.” said Libby plaintively.
“If you want to live? And I take it you do. Conjure up a gate spell. And I will be gone out of your hair. You will leave you to go on your merry way. You would like that wouldn’t you?” Adam said squeezing a bit more for effect.
Grey tried to nod his head in agreement as the madman was cutting off his air supply.
Adam dropped him to the ground and looked on expectantly to see if the man would try any tricks.
Obediently the man made a nice oval shaped portal, slowly materialise. But then Grey of course had to make a dash for it. Adam didn’t need to shadow jump. His tendons were literally like sprung steel and he catapulted himself at Grey. Knocking him to the muddy ground.
At that range Libby could easily scan the portal with her mana field.
“It’s exactly the same although looking at it I think I could make some improvements. But fuck it, let’s go” Libby expounded. Her expletive strangely bringing Adam to his senses. He dashed through the portal.
Ah, Ok. Adam had appeared in a very well furnished room. In what could only be a medieval castle. Unfortunately he was not alone. Five body guards, he supposed, unsheathed their blades and came at him. They responded so quickly he realised they must be very competent indeed.
He moved backwards into the portal. Appearing again near the mine entrance.
Adam had decided killing everyone connected to that idiot guy might be warranted. But going down that root was a bit homicidal.
Oh to hell with it, he thought. As the 5 guys called mo, appeared through the portal he decided, enough was enough. There were kids somewhere nearby. That was all the excuse he needed. But no shadow abilities. He had to give himself some kind of handicap.
He continued forward and punched Grey, square in the jaw sending him head over heels down the hill. The guardsmen squawked in disapproval. He turned on them. With insults.
“Your lord or whatever he is over there. Has just burnt down a village, and a load of old guys, of a friend of mine. So you’re all dead. Just by association. Is that clear?” Adam said feeling it bit of drama was warranted.
The men faltered for a moment seeing the beast of a man was clearly madder than they’d thought.
This was exactly what Adam had hoped for. Adam turned tail down the hill.
Then glancing at one another they charged with great gusto, swords raised down the incline.
Now if Adam had been a swordsman or even a good enough fighter to take on five men at once it might have seemed. Less ugly but as it was. He had to improvise a little.
He grabbed Grey by the leg and hurled him at the swords men, who fortunately had already homed in on his position. Strike!
He then just laid into them as they lay in disarray on the muddy ground. Maybe he should have just used his shadow bolts? He needed to learn some proper combat skills.
He had had training from Huba but none of it had included disarming a sword wielding attacker, well not 5 of them at any rate.
Two had manage to evade him. One running off back to the portal. Standing still he could see them all perfectly clearly. The other one was standing over his downed boss, guarding him. Despite their no doubt years of training he was still as fast as them. If not faster.
Whatever, he had no real interest whether they lived or died. Only what stupid things they might get up to.
“Can you close that portal, Libby?” Adam queried getting a read on the situation.
He was in range and the portal snapped out of existence.
Then walked over the now very flustered body guard. He used shadow bolt. And took out the guys legs.
Grey however, was a different matter. He would let Thawain be judge and jury on that one.