“Shit!” Araum cursed, glancing over at the conductors nervously. “What should we do? Tie them up while they’re focused on piloting the Hleapan?”
“Don’t fret.” Naadi returned to his book, flipping through the pages calmly. “Sooner or later, they’ll reveal their true nature. And when that happens, I will take over the situation.”
“Take over-?” Araum groaned as he realized what Naadi meant, tossing his head back in annoyance. “You want to fight them? All five at the same time? In what world?”
“Trust me. If I didn’t have any fighting skills, I wouldn’t be chasing the Locket bearer.” Naadi muttered back. Besides, it’ll be a good warmup. I must be in top shape so that I can kill the Locketbearer without trouble.
Araum stared at Naadi, looking for even the slightest trace of hesitation, yet unsurprisingly, found none. That was the way Naadi had been ever since they were kids, after all; he was just like the late king in that regard. I just hope he knows what he’s doing.
The Hleapan came crashing down towards another stop, falling right through the hole in the ceiling of the stop, and landing firmly on the elevated platform that served as a landing space within the building. The door to the Hleapan opened up, and the nobles sitting around the platform began to rise, shuffling into the structure one at a time.
“Sorry, everyone for the delay! Our destination is only a few minutes away, so you won’t have to wait any longer. Thanks for riding with us.” One of the conductors said, a brief intermission followed before all five conductors once again met up at the center of the Hleapan, pressing their hands onto the floating magic orb, and starting the machine up.
Naadi closed his book as the Hleapan hopped into the air once again, putting it underneath his seat. Closing his eyes, he sat still and sharpened his ears to the sound of the Hleapan’s movements. He could sense an overwhelming presence of clusters of magic energy nearby; they were indeed very close to their destination. This was it.
“Sorry, ladies and gentleman.” The conductor that had first welcomed them onto the Hleapan pulled his hands from the piloting orb, a cruel grin painted across his face. “It looks like there will be yet another delay.” All five of the conductors stood in a circle around the piloting orb.
“Bladepoint.” One of the conductors murmured, and a whitish aura shot from the soles of his feet, rising into the air and forming a dozen swords which floated around the Hleapan in a circle, the blades pointing directly at the nobles below. Stricken with fear, the passengers watched in horror as one by one, the conductors showed their true colors.
“Bladepoint.”
“Bladepoint.”
“Bladepoint.”
“Bladepoint.”
All four of the remaining conductors chanted the same phrase as the first one did, and with every chant, more and more blades of energy rose into the air, one for every passenger in the Hleapan it seemed. As the passengers stared up in shock, most of them unable to even move out of the fear of being struck by one of the floating blades, a boy slid out of his seat. Spinning towards the door, before the boy could even take another step forward, a blade descended from the ceiling and plunged towards the boy’s head.
Naadi immediately bolted out of his seat, speeding towards the boy and flinging his arms over him, shielding the boy from the two blades which shot towards them; one for the boy, and one for Naadi, both piercing right through Naadi’s shoulders. Biting down onto his own tongue, Naadi barely held back a bloodcurdling scream as he tightly clenched the boy.
One after the other, the passengers began to scream as Naadi slowly shrunk to the floor, lying in a vast pool of blood.
“NAADI!” Araum shouted, barely able to keep himself still as the two blades embedded within Naadi’s shoulders vanished. “What the hell do you people want? Money? I have plenty of that; so just stop this madness already!”
“We don’t want much. Just don’t move, and you won’t die. Simple, right?” One of the conductors said condescendingly, wagging a finger at Naadi.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“We understand that the passengers here are nobles. We’ll let you all go, just as soon as each and every one of your families sends us the required amount. Then we’ll be on our way.” Another conductor said.
“Just, one by one, tell us which noble house you belong to. Then we’ll take care of everything from there.” Another conductor said.
“That’s not necessary! Look, I’m from the Aria Family! I’m sure that they’d pay way more money to get me back then you could ever possibly dream to get from this little ransom scheme. Just- let everyone else go, and heal him!” Araum spoke frantically; he had to change their mind, or his best friend would end up dying.
The lead conductor whistled. “The Aria Family; they’re one of The Four Noble Families, right? We got lucky, roping you in; but you didn’t do anyone any favors by revealing that. We’ll do the ransom scheme and get a load of money from the Aria Family!”
“You little-!” Araum desperately searched his brain for something, anything that could convince them to heal Naadi. “Wait-wait, you can’t let him die though! He’s-”
Before Araum could finish, Naadi pulled himself off the floor, and closed the distance in between himself and the lead conductor in a single leap, roughly grabbing the man by his scalp. Holding out his right hand, a brilliant, jewel encrusted sword materialized within his grip, and in a single swing, he sent the conductor’s head flying off his neck, and rolling onto the stone floor.
That was a scary gamble, but it worked. Naadi rolled his shoulders, which were completely unscathed despite the earlier attack, glancing back at the child whom he had shielded, who was barely holding back tears. “Stay seated, everyone. This is only a slight delay.”
Naadi glanced up at the blades floating at the ceiling; none of them moved an inch. I get it. Their magic skill summons one blade for every person; if said person moves, they’ll get struck by a blade, but once they do, they can’t be struck again. I guess they didn’t take into account that anyone on the Hleapan would be capable of surviving an attack like that.
Two of the conductors sped towards him, whipping out daggers from their sleeves and slashing at him with the grace of a flyswatter. Stepping out of slashing range, Naadi brought his blade up gracefully, sending the daggers flying into the air, and then swung it downwards, cutting through both attackers simultaneously with a flourish of his hand.
“YOU-how the hell did you do that? You got hit by two blades; nobody can just walk away from that. You can’t do that!” The conductor rambled, and Naadi rolled his eyes.
An obvious stall for time. He’s probably planning something; but I’ll humor him. “I didn’t walk away from it, I almost died. So to survive, I just awoke.” He replied, and the conductor’s eyes grew so large it seemed they would pop out of his skull at any moment. To be able to activate the awakening process without having to go through the trouble of setting up a ritual; that was a talent only the greatest of magicians possessed. It was a clear sign of overwhelming talent, potential, and skill. “And luckily for me, clearing the spiritual ordeal was quite easy.”
“That’s-”
“Anyways, I’m done talking now.” Naadi spun the blade in his hand and took a step towards the conductor, who frantically raised his hand. The blades floating in the air began to stir, before all at once shooting down, all aimed towards Naadi. Naadi closed his eyes, steadying his grip on the blade as hundreds of blades surrounded him on all sides; if he didn’t do anything, he would be dead within the next second.
“Tch.”Naadi slammed his palm into the butt of the sword, sending a greenish aura shooting through the blade. A wispy green ball of energy appeared just before the tip of the blade; and Naadi sliced the ball right through the ball of energy, unleashing a burst of wind which ricocheted throughout the room, blowing back every single one of the blades, dissipating the swords of energy with it’s very force. As the wind knocked the conductor off his feet, Naadi quickly closed the distance in between them and in a single motion, lopping the man’s head off his body.
Didn’t know he still had that much power up his sleeve. He let go of the sword, the weapon vanishing into thin air before it could even touch the floor, and turning to the passengers. “Sorry about that. Is everyone alright?”
The passengers said nothing, quivering in shock after the utter bloodbath they’d just witnessed.
Yikes, I didn’t know he could be that violent. Traum thought shakily, and then smiled to himself. It’s kind of badass! Narrowly avoiding the puking passengers and crying children, he made his way over to Naadi, who was opening up the door to the Hleapan. “Naadi, when the hell did you learn how to use magic like that? That was insane!”
“I told you, I’ve picked a thing up or too while searching for the Locket-bearer. Anyways, you need to take care of these people. Get them back to their homes, help them, comfort them. I need to be on my way now.” Naadi said.
“Wait, what? Naadi, you can’t just leave me with all this! I wanna go with you!” Araum protested.
“I thought you said it was time I start living up to my responsibilities as a king. Doesn’t that apply to you as well? This is the Fiefdom of Aria; it’s your responsibility to take care of them.” Naadi reminded Aruam, wagging a finger at him playfully.
“Man, I hate you.” Araum sighed and then grinned at Naadi. “But you’ve got a point. Guess I’ll catch you later; but when I do, you gotta teach me how you did that, okay?”
“We’ll see.” Naadi smiled back at Araum, before spinning around and departing, stepping down the flight of stairs which descended from the exit that was the Hleapan’s mouth.