Innocent children [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHdJhzALnueAo0gRSfyBXWFSNcCFwab4dQ0fP8fM_IkqYztiTI4XlAVOQcNamcd2IHkBkJAKuUUc01aEjOEK0t0txRp0iDb0mc1qWkNXG989FSFw2WHwBQSdroDRCDEOfBW5F1JEEpISjNBi-b2vOBTR=w621-h931-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Phoenix was on the opposite side of the city from the encampment point when she sensed the twisted aura and had been hoping to meet up with Uriel soon at this halfway point but she knew there wasn’t any time to wait for him as she felt both the fear and glee increasing from within the building in front of her.
She hesitated for only a moment before going through the already broken door hanging uselessly from its frame. There were a sickening number of bodies already on the floor, far beyond her ability to heal as no aura came from any of them, and she made her way up the stairs towards the likely cause and only remaining auras.
When she reached the door to the room she sensed the Crystal Caster in, it took her a moment to process what she was witnessing. Her book helped though, as it appeared behind her and fed the information directly through her aura.
New Quest: Innocence
The children’s innocence threatens to be destroyed by the craven raider.
Objective: Save the children.
Reward: Epic Crystal Caste Spirit Gem.
As she saw the scared girl and boy, both no older than 10, clinging to one another in fright, their clothes tearing as the large runeforged man attempted to grapple them, she knew she hadn’t needed the quest to guide her in what she needed to do. She triggered [Pull] and felt herself get dragged towards the man as he was ripped away from his prey.
The Wayfarer had the upper hand with the surprise attack as she deployed the combat techniques that both the Balanced Body Stance and Silent Stealth Stance had taught her and that she had diligently practiced with her party under Paul’s tutelage for months now.
As she maneuvered her body to sink her onyx dagger into the arm of the raider with shaved black stubble on his head and face, she was surprised to discover that he must have had some kind of Strength and Fortitude enhancing ability as he simply took the hit and overpowered her with his hulking mass; shattering her [Sun Shell] and pinning her to the stone floor as he sneered, “Wots a purty lass like ye doin’ ‘ere?”
He gave her a malicious grin that was missing a few teeth, apparently unaffected by the blinding Bane of the broken shield, as he roughly grabbed her jaw in a meaty palm, “I ain’t ne’er seen such pale skin ‘n red hair ‘fore.”
The raider licked his lips and she could smell the putrid breath as he chuckled, “I’ll enjoy tastin’ ye ‘fore I eat them other youngin’s o’er there next.”
Phoenix felt her anger flare up at the threat levied towards the two children and she triggered [Push] once more, sending the man flying into the ceiling above her only to crash down as she rolled out of the way.
The giant man staggered to his feet, seeming barely affected by the attack, and conjured two wicked-looking serrated daggers that vaguely reminded her of the claws of the miserlings; weapons meant more for inflicting as much pain as possible rather than delivering a quick death.
It became easier to imagine this enemy as just another monster with that revelation and she conjured her second weapon in response, the shadowy stiletto and icy sword gleaming from the fiery light entering through the window behind her.
“Ya know wot?” the runeforged began as he grinned at the weapons and her hesitant face, “I don’t think ye ‘ave it in ya. Yer one o’ them adventurin’ types. Thems that thinkin’ they’re too good fer the likes o’ me. I met one o’ thems ‘fore an’ they got real friendly with Rosey ‘ere,” he said, lifting one of the daggers with a rose painted on the base of the blade, “It’s wot they got fer bein’ too good ta kill another person.”
He slowly stepped closer as he spoke, the crimson runes on his skin making him look almost like a cinderen at first glance, and Phoenix clenched her teeth as she chanced a look at the frightened children before stating in a low growl that she had often heard Paul use, “You’re not a person… you’re just another monster.”
As he moved to lunge, she surprised him by not pushing him away or dodging but by stepping back towards the window and bracing herself against the frame as she triggered [Pull] to increase his momentum suddenly. As the thug impacted with her, both of them crashed through the window from the third story.
While they were falling, she reversed the direction of her power and sent the larger man further into the sky as she was hurtled into the stone street. The breath left her in a sudden whoosh of air and she heard the crack of a rib or two. She wasn’t quite sure how many had broken through the wave of pain that flooded her body.
She collected her senses quickly enough, pushing down the pain before the man dropped on top of her, and sent another surge of mana into the ability to send him flying up once more and her body became further crushed by the force of mana trying to separate the two of them.
Phoenix attempted to roll out of the way but was having trouble focusing as a wave of exhaustion passed over her from spending so much mana at once. She had been going nonstop for a while now and her initial stab of the man with her dagger failed to trigger the [Mana Siphon] effect it had. She could only assume the Caster had some buffed-up resistances to go with that Fortitude.
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She stumbled out of the way like a drunkard as she hoped that the fall would be enough to eliminate the threat. It apparently hadn’t been, though, as the body landed with a loud crunch, the serrated daggers clattering away, only for the ravaged body to groan and slowly begin to rise again after a brief moment. Definitely enhanced Fortitude, she thought grimly.
When he finished standing and she saw the wounds quickly closing, she ruefully realized that it wasn't just general attribute type Boons but some kind of self-healing ability. She vaguely wondered if he had the Troll Aspect and mentally assigned the monster type to him.
The Wayfarer contemplated once more about trying to capture the man instead of executing him, now that he was away from the children. There was a small piece of her still trying to hold back; to not kill another person. To cling to her own innocence and hope that she could preserve life, no matter how unworthy it might be.
In her momentary distraction, the runeforged charged her again. This time moving much faster than she had anticipated and knocked her backwards into another building’s wall, the force of it flinging her own blades from her grasp. Pain surged through her back once more and then she felt a hand grasp her throat as she became pinned against the wall by the bulky man’s body.
Phoenix shuddered as she felt the raider’s tongue slide up her cheek and gasped as she felt his other hand grab at her, tearing at the clothing as he growled, “I’m going ta enjoy yer tears. Will ya scream fer me? Cry out fer someone ta save ye? That’s wot the last lil lass I had did, an’ no one came fer her neither.”
Phoenix’s blood ran cold as she reconjured her dagger and plunged it up through the monster’s ribs. He gasped for breath as his lung collapsed and stumbled back a step. She took advantage of the opportunity to return her sword back to her inventory through her aura and reconjured it directly into her hand, running the man straight through the gut.
He spit blood and punched her hard across the cheek, knocking her off balance but she recovered swiftly and began to move quicker, treating him much like the Frost Lurker as she danced around and slashed at his exposed areas.
His daggers had reappeared and caught her a few times as she maneuvered around him shallowly tearing through her unprotected flesh as she was carefully focused on not letting the stronger opponent get a hold of her again.
“Phoenix? Are you okay? You haven’t checked in yet,” Dazien’s voice came over the chat telepathically and she lost her rhythm, crying out in response as the serrated daggers landed true; one in her gut and the other in her left shoulder. The Supporter heard the others call out to her again but she tried to push the voices from her mind as she focused on the grinning face of her assailant.
“Gaze into the abyss,” she said coldly and felt the Bane take hold. His smirk fell as he growled and used the buried daggers for leverage to kick her hard in her center, tearing the serrated blades and a decent chunk of flesh from her in the process.
Phoenix was bleeding heavily now, the bleeding Bane effects of the daggers having thoroughly taken hold and slowly draining her life from her. She grimaced as she vaguely thought that it wouldn’t be the first time she died nor the last. However, as she glanced up and saw a pair of tiny scared cinderen faces staring down at her from the broken window, she realized it wasn’t just her life on the line at that moment.
The man was staggering towards her, his own wounds showing that he wasn’t that much better off than she was and she thought she might just have enough time before she bled out to attempt one more maneuver.
“Time to shine, Tala,” she whispered as she spent the moderate mana to reconjure the glittering shell to protect her and released the [Starlight Qi] she had been storing up. An explosion of swirling night surrounded her, quickly restoring her mana and stamina reserves, as her Familiar manifested above her.
Her opponent tried attacking again only to be rebuffed this time by the shield of light as he rubbed at his blinded eyes and she recited, “Let dreams become reality,” and a swarm of semi-transparent Tala clones appeared to swirl around the man in a flurry of feathers and starlight.
As the real Tala began to breathe [Star Fire] upon the Troll-like enemy, she began dumping her mana into constructing her weapon, [Nyx, the Dagger of Darkness], and sending it flying with [Ruler of Relativity] straight into him like an arrow. Then she conjured it again to repeat the process. Again and again and again; turning her [Night Blade] into a railgun as she became quicker and quicker and dumped more of her mana into taking down the burning foe.
Only when the screaming abruptly ended, and the enemy’s perforated body lay in an unmoving heap with no gleeful aura, did she allow herself to collapse to her knees in the middle of the street, finally accepting that she had killed the monster.
Quest: Innocence
Objective complete: Saved the children.
[Avatar Spirit Gem] has been added to your collection.
Quest completed.
20 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.
Hidden objective complete: Sacrifice a piece of your own innocence.
Bonus Reward: [Crystal Caste Alchemy Cache] has been added to your collection.
New Title: Slayer
Your aura has been slightly modified by your accomplishment. The resolve to end the life of another person can be sensed within it. Your aura has slightly increased resistance to being suppressed when combating foes of the same or higher Caste.
The Wayfarer wasn’t sure how she felt about the new title but didn’t have enough energy to ponder on the unexpected alteration. As her vision began blurring and everything around her started spinning, she vaguely remembered that she forgot to heal herself before emptying her mana pool into the chain attacks.
Tala landed in front of her, chirping wildly in obvious concern, and she muttered, “Right, I know. Paul would be scolding me too,” then she clutched at the wound in her gut and cast the only version of her healing spell, [A New Dawn Rises], that she could afford at the moment, “See the dawn.”
Phoenix felt the flesh begin to slowly knit back together and Tala gave a few more cheeps before merging back into her, attempting to regain the lost [Starlight Qi] and making her skin softly glow once more. Over the last month she had been slowly getting used to the fact that she was just going to be stuck glowing like a nightlight and this fight made it abundantly clear that the regenerative glitter bomb was worth whatever attention her ability might draw from the people who weren’t actively trying to kill her.
“Phoenix!” Dazien’s voice broke through her mental haze as she registered the voices she had subconsciously muted earlier, “Where are you?! What’s happening?”
The Supporter noticed when the healing effect wore off and not all of her wounds had been taken care of and she grimaced as her head swam again, “I'm just going to take a little nap now…” she muttered before collapsing completely on the half-destroyed street.