“And that is what we’re doing here?” I asked, to get the information straight, “We’re here to take down an organization charged with illegal gambling, drug smuggling, kidnappings, and sex slavery?”
“That is correct,” Orrin confirmed, sipping his tea with his pinky finger extended and cane hanging off his arm.
I looked around the ornate teashop with fancy tables, fancy-looking elf servers with big breasts, and fancy tea cups. How the fuck could he possibly figure out that this place is a mob hideout? Besides the big titty elves, this place looks completely normal. So why am I here helping him when he could probably do this alone? I sipped my tea, nearly melting from the delicious flavor, and wished I could share some with Yuki, but she had to stay outside. No pets allowed. But I shook my head and asked, “How did you figure out this was the place?”
Orrin cocked an eyebrow at me and put his teacup down as he took a moment to collect his thoughts. “Haven’t you noticed how I always know where you are?” he asked.
Now it was my turn to cock an eyebrow as I thought on his question. “You do seem to know how to find me, no matter where I am, and you also somehow know what I’m doing now that you mention it.”
“That’s because of an ability I created myself,” Orrin began, “Using my first core, I’m able to send out tiny imperceptible tendrils of chakra that connect directly to my mind, allowing me to see and hear everything within a certain radius. So when I say those two elves over there,” he gestured with his head to the two elves at the front counter, “don’t have long to live, I know why.”
I hesitated to ask but did it anyway, “Why don’t they have long to live?”
“Because they have a deadly STD. I can see it in them, wreaking havoc in their immune system. Elves live long lives, but even they can be brought down by disease or a weapon. The presence of an STD set off a red flag for me, so I started investigating this place and found a concealed door on the west side of the shop,” he pointed toward a shelf on the west wall with a dozen small boxes of different teas, “Down there are five floors with a dozen rooms on each floor with women of all races in them and five guards, one on each floor.”
I nodded, “So that’s why we are here. To clear out the hideout.”
“Not quite,” Orrin said, raising his pinky finger and taking another sip of his tea, “This is one of the places to be hit today, but we are only here to meet with someone very important.”
“Who?” Before Orrin could respond, he froze, his cup halfway to his lips as he stared off into space. I cocked an eyebrow at him again and looked around the shop to make sure it was only Orrin, and once I saw the servers still moving normally, I waved a hand in front of Orrin’s face to get his attention. “Uhh, hello? Earth to—or whatever this planet is called—to Orrin? Are you there?” I asked.
Orrin blinked at my question and said, “We named our planet Nuuadar. And something bad just happened.”
“Oh, I never even thought to ask someone what this planet is called … wait, something bad just happened?!”
At that moment, two men wearing light plate armor ran into the shop, startling several servers as they slammed the door open. Orrin stood and quickly approached the two men, and I followed. “What happened?” he demanded urgently. The two men were too busy breathing heavily and couldn’t speak. One of them reached into a pocket and pulled out a small square sheet of paper.
Orrin took the sheet and began reading it hastily. “What does it say?” I asked curiously, as I was too short to read it over his shoulder.
“Call off the pigs, or she dies. Meet at level two, quarter three, warehouse building two-three-two. Bring nobody else,” Orrin read slowly and clearly. He sighed and said, “Well, looks like I won’t need your help after all, Zeana. Why don’t you head home and—where are you going?”
As Orrin talked, I turned and began walking to the door. Looking over my shoulder, I said, “Level two, quarter three, warehouse building two-three-two. The note says to bring nobody else but never says anything about bringing a monster along. So let’s go save this person we were supposed to meet.”
Orrin smiled and shook his head, “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works, but I will appreciate the help. Let’s be off then,” with that, he followed me out the door where Yuki was patiently waiting.
I bent down, picked her up without missing a step, and asked, “So, who are we saving?”
With a mischievous glint in his eyes, Orrin answered, “You’ll meet her soon enough.”
***
I exited the hover taxi Orrin and I had been riding in two nearly kilometers from the warehouse. The district and level we stopped in was full of trash, beggars, and sick people that looked down on their luck. Quite literally, the place had been filled with the unfortunate scum of the city. “Follow from the ground and don’t be spotted,” Orrin said as I stepped out, “there are five of them watching the perimeter of the building, so be careful.”
I nodded and began cycling my Speed core throughout my body, and Crucible cycled her chakra to my eyes as Orrin left. I blinked as she did so and asked, “Why are you cycling your chakra to my eyes?”
“See,” Crucible answered … absolutely nothing.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Left,” Crucible answered. Thinking a little too hard, I decided to take her words literally and looked left. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny glint of light. I looked down and saw a small vertical line on my hip and reached with my right hand to touch it. “No,” Crucible said, stopping me.
I cocked an eyebrow and asked, “Why?”
“Wait,” was Crucible’s only response.
I nodded, “All right then.” Then I began cycling my Light core momentarily as I cast a level two spell with the Light, Balance, Dark, Body, and Sight runes. My body immediately turned transparent as a shimmering aura covered my body, and I looked like a blur in the middle of the walkway, like heat from a rock that had been in the hot summer sun all day. With that final protection in place, I moved quickly and cautiously.
With my Speed core active, everything around me appeared to move in slow motion, even more than usual, when I activated a core around ordinary people. Luckily, with my speed, I had enough time to read each warehouse building designation as I passed the buildings. “WB-222, WB-223, WB-224,” I muttered to myself as I read each designation until I reached warehouse 230.
I saw five human men with swords on their waists blocking my path, and they all had one core at varying levels. This gave me pause. Why would cultivators be helping a criminal organization? Shouldn’t they be trying to stop them? Then I noticed their age. Each of them had to be at least in their twenties to thirties. Much older than most single-core cultivators that I’ve met. All though, to be fair, I’ve only met two people with a single core. But that’s beside the point. I shook my head as I refocused, jumped over the men easily, and kept moving.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I quickly reached the designated warehouse and saw Orrin stepping out of the hover taxi amidst half a dozen men pointing swords at his chest. Each one of these men had cores as well. But they also left the door to the warehouse open, and I slipped inside. The building was completely dark except for one light in the center, which provided enough light for my eyes to see everything else. There were rows and rows of stacked wooden crates piled halfway up to the ceiling, and several dozen steel supports were scattered evenly around the building, holding everything up.
I nimbly jumped up a pile of crates and climbed onto the support beams overhead, giving me an even better view of everything below. With this view, I now saw an area of the warehouse that had been completely demolished and replaced with what looked to be purple and pink crystal flowers and thorny vines. Whatever happened here must have ended quickly because whoever did that had to have surrendered without much of a fight. Otherwise, Orrin and I wouldn’t have come here. Then, my attention was drawn to the center of the warehouse, where I could see eight people. Five had four cores, one had five cores, and the other two only had one core.
With that final observation, I stopped cycling my Speed core and felt time resume at its normal pace. I heard Orrin speaking from outside the building, “Well, this is quite the welcoming party. Oh, and you are all so heavily armed. It feels so good to feel welcomed.”
“Shut it and follow us,” a man answered Orrin’s words with hostility.
“Hmm, yes, of course, Henchmen one,” Orrin chuckled at the first man’s order.
“I said, shut up!” Henchman one said as I saw him enter the building.
“Yeah, what he said,” a second man said in a weasely voice.
“Why, but of course, Henchmen two.”
“Enough!” Henchmen one yelled before anybody could say anything else, and everyone went silent except for the soft chuckle of Orrin.
Henchmen one led the small group through the maze of stacked crates, and I followed them from above to the building’s center. It didn’t take long to reach the one light source in the building where one of the men with four cores stood. I canceled my chakra sight and looked closely at the average-looking guy, and recognized him. It’s Geoph Schaeffver! One of the four people I go to for gambling! Oh, no, does this mean the people we’re taking down are the people I gamble through?! Aww, man! I sighed disappointedly as Orrin finally reached the center of the room with the six henchmen.
Orrin smiled at Geoph amicably and said, “All right, I’m here. Surprise me.”
“Orrin Orre Wong Shi Tong,” Geoph said in a bored and bland tone, “I am not one to beat around the bush, so if you would be so kind as to cease your attempts to shut down my organization.”
Orrin didn’t make any visible movements that I could see as he asked, “And why, pray tell, should I do that?”
Geoph snapped his fingers, and two demon men dragged a slender woman with black hair and a tattered violet dress, out into the light. She looked up at Orrin as she was dropped and spoke weakly, “Don’t do this.”
“I’m afraid he doesn’t have a choice,” Geoph said, “If you—”
“No, I was talking to you,” the slender woman said, “When you said you were getting a ransom note to someone in my family, I thought it would be to Daddy or Mother, not to my worthless younger brother.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Orrin agreed, as polite as ever, “if the note had said you had my elder sister, I wouldn’t have wasted my time.” Then Orrin sighed and asked, “How did they even capture you, Lily? Even I know your self-centered pride would get in the way of you surrendering.”
The slender woman, Lily, looked ashamed as she turned away from him. “We had an insurance policy,” Geoph said, then snapped his fingers again, “These two were caught in our battle, and once their lives were threatened, she surrendered easily.” Two dark elves walked out from behind a stack of crates and tossed two unconscious girls into the light on either side of Lily. “Once we subdued these two, she had no choice but to surrender. And I intend to keep them as my insurance policy,” Geoph said and knelt to grab the two girls by their hair and reveal their faces. This time, I saw Orrin’s body tense as he saw their faces, and I gritted my teeth in anger.
The two unconscious girls were Leila and Shersha. A sly grin spread across Geoph’s face as he saw Orrin’s expression, “Here’s the deal, you may take your sister home and be a family again. So long as you stay away from my organization, these two will stay out of harm and be treated well. I will put them to work if you even consider going after them. Hauling my drugs, or maybe testing the quality of the products,” Geoph’s grin turned into an evil smile, “or maybe I’ll put them to work in a hoer house.”
With that final threat, my patience snapped. Canceling my spell, I grew eight more tails and felt Fengbao, Apollo, and Crucible cycle their chakras through my body, and I shot down from the support beams, landing with a loud boom between Orrin and Geoph. A loud yelp escaped Geoph’s lips as he released Leila and Shersha, stumbling back. The twins hit the ground and sturred. Their eyes opened, and they looked up from the ground at me. Their faces were bruised and swollen, and their eyes barely opened. “Big … sis,” the twins said weakly before putting their heads down and closing their eyes again, too weak to continue.
A low growl escaped my lips as I glared at Geoph. “You dare hurt my friends,” I growled, “You dare harm my family,” my nine tails opened their maws, and their growls joined with mine, creating a cacophony of angered growling as I felt Crucible’s power surge.
“Now,” Crucible demanded, and no more words were needed.
Reaching for the silver line on my waist, I spoke one single phrase, “Let the crucible of sin burn away your transgressions and rid this world of your taint. Manifest!” from the tiny sliver of light, I reached in and grabbed the hilt of my sword with my right hand. I began to pull it out of the sliver, and cold, blue flames wreathed the blade in powerful energy. As I pulled the blade out, two massive silver wings materialized on my back with a fiery orange and icy blue outline spanning two and a half meters across by the time I pulled my sword entirely from the sliver.
Geoph smiled wearily, and I saw him begin to cycle his chakra. “Fine then, I’ll just kill everyone here,” Geoph said as he drew his sword, “Kill them!” he ordered, and the rest of the henchmen began readying their abilities.
I didn’t wait for them to make a move as I swung my sword horizontally, and a wave of silver light sliced through the air at incredible speeds. Geoph barely had time to raise his sword and block it. The wave collided with his blade, sending him back into a stack of crates. The four henchmen behind him weren’t so lucky as they lost their arms and hands, trying to defend against the wave of energy. I paid their cries of pain no heed as I focused on Geoph. He struggled to stand from my opening attack, and before he could even move, I shot forward with a blast of lightning and fire and punched Geoph in the gut, sending him bodily through the rest of the wooden crates before hitting the steel wall on the far end of the warehouse.
I sped after him, my wings slicing through the crates as they fell, and I slammed my shoulder into Geoph, smashing through the wall behind him. Screams filled the area as we slammed into the center of a stone platform. I quickly got to my feet, and Geoph soon followed, readying his sword.
“Zeana?” a familiar deep voice asked.
I paused and turned in the direction of the voice. Jax and Xiao were there, and another familiar voice spoke next, “Geoph?” I turned to my other side and saw Jeff standing next to two golden-scaled drakes, “What are you doing here?” he asked, clearly confused.
“I want to know the same,” Jax asked, also confused.
I pointed my sword at Geoph and said, “That fucker hurt Leila and Shersha!”
Jax and Xiao froze for a moment, then focused their attention on Geoph and Jeff. They both cracked their knuckles and said, “You are in for a world of hurt.”
Geoph gritted his teeth and lunged at me with his sword, one of his cores flaring to life as he drew upon its power. I bit down on his blade with one of my tails, smashing it into several large pieces. Then I twisted a little as another one of my tails slammed into his gut and sent him flying up into the ceiling. I followed closely after him and punched him into the ceiling again and again. Each punch sent him flying up through the rooms above.
We quickly flew through several dozen floors until we finally blasted through the floor of a restaurant. I grabbed his ankle with one of my tails and slammed him down on a nearby table, easily breaking it into dozens of wooden shards. I landed and dispelled my chakra as I placed the tip of my sword on Geoph’s neck. “I’d say we’re done here,” I said as Geoph coughed up a glob of blood.
He spat on the ground and said, “My business partner will have words with you one day soon.” Then he passed out.
I cocked an eyebrow at his words and didn’t have long to ponder their meaning as a familiar yell bellowed next to me, “GODS DAMN IT, ZEANA!! DO YOU HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING!?!”
I turned and saw Shiro and Scarlet standing next to each other, holding hands. I sighed and said, “Sorry for ruining your date. But I did have a good reason.”
“And what would that be?” Scarlet asked, sounding almost as angry as Shiro.
“He hurt Leila and Shersha. So I hurt him more,” I explained simply.
“HE WHAT!!?” Shiro yelled, almost pouncing on Geoph himself.
“Now, now, Shiro. I’ll handle the rest from here,” Orrin’s voice came echoing up from the hole I just made, and he soon came up from the hole and as he continued, “I will take this from here, Zeana. Thank you for your assistance.”
I nodded and withdrew my sword as exhaustion began to overwhelm me. I slide the blade into the sliver of light and wander my way to the restaurant door. And left Orrin to clean up the mess I’ve made.