Thirteen figures came out of the shadows, they were hidden quite well but each of the bore a great hatred in their eyes.
Isek dodged an arrow but the arrow exploded behind him, It threw him forward and when he was in motion, a hammer came sailing toward his face.
There was no time to dodge, Isek brought out his saber and cleanly planted it into the ground. With it, he was able to bow backward, narrowly escaping a brush with the hammer.
When the hammer strike missed, the figure tried a different direction but Isek jumped against the wall. Once his foot had tacked against it, he leapt again and toward the roof. Three steps up and an arrow grazed his cheek.
Isek spun and grabbed onto a window, crouched and kicked off. He jumped into the fourth story roof and caught an archer off guard. It had happened so fast, in such a tight space it should have been nearly impossible to maneuver.
Knocking the arrow out of the bow, Isek ran across the roof and shoved the archer out to the street. With his hand on the Bow, Isek held on tightly. The Archer could only grasp at the bow string but it cut at his fingers and he could not hold on.
Isek stored the bow and ducked. A Spear had followed his movements and tore through his shirt collar. Dropping to his ass, Isek rolled out of the way when the spear came slapping down. Sweeping his Saber, Isek batted the second slap of the spear and jumped down the ledge and to the street. He picked up the Archer's corpse after landing on it and sprinted to the open field nearby.
Three Spears flew as he was running, their crashes caused a racket. There was no choice but to commit to the path. Their Archer was dead but the ambush had failed, subtlety was no longer necessary.
Flaming sacks filled with herbs were thrown into the air and when they exploded, glittering gas spread everywhere.
Isek quickly established an isolation barrier but the gas was quick.
A spirit fruit appeared in his hand and he bit down. The shield bolstered. More of the figures who had come to attack had arrived and they were all coming for the kill.
The shield was strong but by no means was it impenetrable. It was hands on and there were some problems with their coordination but the barrier was holding.
"We'll deal with him later. Meet up later.." The moment that the sounds of approaching guards could be heard, their leader called for them to fall back and vanished.
Isek stood upright and as guards were passing the corner, he had fallen into their vision, He dismissed the barrier.
"Where did they go?" The guard that seemed to be in charge stopped on his mount and asked.
"The Rooftops and Alleys." Another guard interjected and pointed toward a shadow blazing across the roof down the street.
Isek watched the guards run off without asking anything further, he turned the street corner and was hit in the face. The System couldn't feel the energy undulations and Isek fell down.
About eight minutes later, He woke up to someone casting a spell nearby.
[Poison detected: low toxicity]
[Eliminated]
[Analyzing]
[Threat Assessed]
Isek kicked his feet lightly and felt the chains binding his body.
[Scanning Complete]
[Calculating]
"Struggling is useless." Another voice came from the wall across from Isek. He looked over and his teeth had been broken, his mouth was bleeding like he had been beaten repeatedly.
Isek remained quiet.
[Calculations Complete]
A stream of ones and zeros passed across Isek's HUD and the precise actions needed to break free were streamed into Isek's perception. Conjuring the spell to break the chains easy enough and required little more than the manipulation of energy to sever the pattern on the chains. The route and even the intensity were specific.
The system continued to work in the background. Isek still wondered what was going on, he took a look at his fingers and his rings were gone.
"Martin, this wasn't suppose to happen. Tell me, What did I miss?" Isek asked aloud. What was going on was strange and he felt disconnected from everything.
"My name isn't Martin but I can tell you that they robbed you right after stringing you up, Valzir doesn't care if your seals are on the items. Once you're dead, they won't be there anymore." The man on the wall coughed again and seemed to be on his last breath.
'Martin had failed to respond, but the rings were gone.' Isek though to himself, the system should have responded.
There were just too many things that were wrong.
Then it happened.
[System Update: Host is under Mental Attack]
[Provoking Physical Response]
Isek's Heart literally skipped a beat, his body pulsed and he snapped out of it.
In front of him there were five goons who had been beating him the entire time. For more than a few minutes they had been kicking and beating on his body with non bladed weapons. Judging from the damage that Isek could feel when he snapped out of it, the goal was to break every bone in his body.
[Mental Attack has ended.]
Isek probed his body gently, it was numb and the many shattered bones felt made it feel like he could die in that moment. The beating continued for a while, his hands and even his feet had been hobbled.
When he was about to pass out from the pain, he could feel guards came running to his position. However, he wasn't the only one that heard them approaching.
"Guards are coming. Lets get out of here." The group scattered once again after one of them spoke up.
Isek was beaten so severely that he was likely to die anyway, it wouldn't be an easy death, it wouldn't be quick either. Two Guards came up to check on him.
More Guards came from behind and even a Captain had arrived.
"Get him to a Doctor. He doesn't look good." The Guard kicked over a rock that was smeared in Isek's blood. Looking at the trail from the thugs, the Guard shook his head. "It's the Brotherhood again."
Several of the officers came to grab Isek, they took him away.
"You three, head out with me." The Captain yelled at the others and leapt onto the roof, there were still traces of the attackers, the brotherhood was a problem that had plagued the Sect for nearly a decade. They would only come out of hiding when something big was happening.
Captain Wasli broke a tile under his foot and sailed onto the next rooftop. The trail was disappearing fast.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Martin continued to work hard on his cultivation but he saw system notifications that didn't make any sense.
The system was giving alerts one after another in a stream.
[Host Unconscious]
[Alert: Broken Bone]
[Alert: Broken Bone]
[Alert: Internal Bleeding]
[Alert: Broken Bone]
[Alert:...]
The messages continued for a while and then suddenly, they stopped. The system seemed busy with something for what seemed like half a day.
When Isek didn't come home, by morning, Martin was worried. He put on a sect uniform and disguised himself a bit, then headed out to investigate. Isek hadn't come home, the system didn't have an exact bearing on his location and the last alerts were extremely worrisome.
Putting on the Grass Hat, Martin covered his face with a blue scarf and pushed against the wind.
"System, tell me when I'm getting closer to Isek."
A line appeared on his HUD, Martin followed it to the corner where he saw lots of blood still tacky on the ground. Carts had driven through it a few times and his blood was spread across the area lightly.
"This is a lot of blood," Martin knelt down and touched it. A Guard saw what he was doing and came over.
"You there. Stop." Martin froze. He wasn't sure what would happen but he also didn't think he could run away. Uncertain about what to do, the choices evaporated when the guard flipped the grass hat off of Martin's head. "Come with Me, the Patriarch will want to speak with you."
Martin was still considering his escape when the guard went to escort him. He was also looking for Isek, the Guard even recognized him. Rationalizations rammed their way through Martin's head, explaining that he was a clone was easier if it was to the Patriarch but it was better to hide. He didn't say anything, it was better than confessing something that could get either of them into some trouble.
Unwilling to say a word, Martin followed the Guard.
They came to the Patriarch's Villa and Martin was led inside.
"I thought you were dead, the Patriarch needs answers, he will see you now." Saeden led the way. "Mistress Wrey hopes you've gotten better since the last time we saw you, your cultivation was horrific and it would have damaged you significantly."
Martin coughed, he didn't know what to say. He had learned the cultivation technique that the Mistress had given Isek but he was far from perfect at it.
Patriarch Blimare sat in a chair at the end of the Pavilion, "I heard you attacked last night, how are you awake and walking?"
"This humble one greets Patriarch Blimare. Patriarch, I do not have answers for that. I am Isek's Twin Brother." It was a bold faced lie but it was better than claiming to be a clone but still not have the knowledge to answer his question. Martin held his breath and waited.
"Twin?" The Patriarch and the Mistress exchanged looks and turned to look at Martin. "That would explain some things, but it raises more questions."
"This humble one will answer." Martin kept his head low.
Mistress Wrey cocked her head, Martin's behavior was definitely not like Isek. There were things you can't fake. "I don't know why but I believe that he is not Isek. Isek is in the courtyard, he's severely injured."
"Injured?" Martin's suspicions turned out to be true.
"He was attacked, we don't have the details." Patriarch Blimare stood up. "Come."
Leading them all outside, Patriarch Blimare brought Martin to the Courtyard.
"He's inside, you can go." Some servants pulled open the doorway to the tent, there were oil soaked rags and talismans covering Isek's body. A spell circle spun below him and the bed, there were two healers standing around him.
"I don't care. I'm not giving up, he's exceptional." One of the women standing by had watched Isek's performance at the Arena, to her, Isek was destined for greatness. Watching him in a state of suffering, she winced.
"Ah.. Patriarch." The other healer stopped casting and turned to bow.
"Don't worry about it, go back to work. This is .." Patriarch Blimare almost lost himself when he realized that he hadn't even asked the Twin's name, he had moved on compulsion afterward.
"Martin. My name is Martin, Patriarch. My apologies, it too slipped my mind. I was careless." Martin bowed and then looked at Isek. "Is there anything I can do?"
Patriarch Blimare stepped forward, "These are just two healers and some recovery runes. It will take time but eventually the body will heal. He wouldn't have stood around and let himself get beaten like that, it's likely that he suffered from a psychic attack. We detected traces of poisons in his system but it wasn't enough to hurt him, like he had been poisoned at one time but had fought it off."
"Poison." Martin scratched his head and grabbed the storage ring off of Isek's finger.
"You can't access it, only the owner can access storage rings without breaking the seal. You'll hurt him if you try." One of the Healers moved to stop Martin but he took out some grasses with thorns on it and a fruit. "We found this before he met the Mistress, maybe it will help."
"That's a great antidote but he's not poisoned anymore." The Healer spoke quickly to dismiss the need for an antidote.
The Mistress flew inside the tent, "What is that?" The fruit was giving off energy, there was a lot of it.
"It's a fruit, we found two, he ate one and that's why he's so uber. This was suppose to be my ticket but it's better to give it to him, right?" Martin spoke candidly but he left everyone with a sense of pity. The fruit was marvelous and to use it as a quick medicine to restore spirit would work, but, it was a fine ingredient and if used properly could make many medicines.
"Stop." Patriarch Blimare gave the order.
"What would Patriarch have me do? Watch my Brother die?" Martin played the sympathy card well, he held the fruit out, letting fate decide. The system would work, it had to work.
The Mistress grabbed the fruit. "I can turn this into pills, just sit down."
"Mistress Wrey, I'm sure you understand that fruit could save him as it is, are you sure you can refine it?" Patriarch Blimare was confident in her skills, he only needed to see it.
She nodded and threw out a pill furnace. "It's not a matter of if but how long it will take. It shouldn't take longer than a day but if it does, I will need to supplement my energy requirements."
"Then I will thank you, Mistress Wrey." Martin bowed and sat patiently.
"System, you should record this." Martin whispered to himself but there was no response.
A strange fire came out of the Mistress and flew into the cauldron. She drew a lot of ingredients from storage and disassembled them in the air. Slowly, small bits started to flow inside. She threw the fruit into the air and gripped her hand slightly, the skin tore and pulled away.
It's fleshy core floated and slowly, two halves came away from the seed at it's center. Like a Spirit Peach, it's seed was rather large. The spirit fruit seed pulsed with energy when it was freed. The Mistress put it to the side and it fell into a mortar.
The Spellwork on the Mortar turned the seed to mash.
The flesh was set into a bowl for safe keeping and a beaker was prepared to distill the essence from the seed. Oils re-condensed in tubes and dropped down into a vial.
Martin watched everything, it was better than relying on the system to record. He couldn't understand everything but he was doing a fine job of following her movements.
Mistress Wrey adjusted the fire a few times in the first hours but the distillation of the seed was still ongoing. Despite the size of the seed, energy was still coming off it's dregs. The distillation rig didn't stop and within six hours, two vials of raw nature essence had been collected.
It was a higher yield than the Mistress expected but that would only make the medicine stronger and more abundant. She threw one vial of the essence into the pill furnace and sent more energy into it.
The cauldron started to rock. Energy was doing it's best to burst from the furnace, Mistress Wrey was forced to concentrate and pour energy in to counter the turbulence. Eight hours passed until the rocking settled but the Mistress's energy was close to spent.
The healers came over to supplement her, they fed her energy and she continued the refinement.
Using the Healer's energy to supplement her own, the Mistress was able to regain some of her own but it was slow going. The second vial would make things considerably more violent if she added it before the flesh. Straining her own energy, she threw the first half in, she would have to refine the second half after.
The cauldron grew more violent, banging could be heard from inside. A hum poured out as the lid began to pop and twist.
"I need more energy." Mistress Wrey had the healers push more of their energy into the siphon rune array but they were taxed and it was only a matter of time before they ran out.
Martin saw them swaying softly, there were guards outside prepared to help but he stepped in and started to send what he had.
The Patriarch took notice of Martin's actions.
Mistress Wrey perked up, the energy was plentiful and it made the cauldron stabilize. 'Why is it like this?' She threw the other half in, there was no time like the present and the quicker they were both refined, the faster she could start with the seed essence.
With Martin pushing his energy alongside the Healers, the second half of the flesh was refined within a matter of minutes.
"This is good progress but what happens next will require a bit more finesse and a lot more energy." Mistress Wrey gave the only warning she could give. The Cauldron had settled down in a timely manner but it was impossible to tell when energy would run out.
The vials of distilled essence made their way into the cauldron and the cauldron began to bounce like it wanted to tumble over. Chained to the floor, it was somewhat stuck but the cauldron could still move slightly, the chains threatened to break and the lid began to glow.
"Don't stop.." Mistress Wrey's voice turned a bit lude but the pills popped out of the cauldron and circled in the air.
'What the hell?' Martin watched the process and it all seemed a bit too ordinary and orderly. There was no mystery to the process, it looked like she had been cooking. He dared not say anything and did his best not to let it show on his face. The pills were the same color as the fruit, a vivid red.
"When can we give him the pill?" Martin asked.
"He should take one now and another shortly after." One of the pills flew into Isek's mouth and the Patriarch directed it into his body. "The results could take time."
Martin saw sixteen pills still flowing overhead in an orbit around the cauldron.
Mistress Wrey grabbed a vial and the rest of the pills flew into the bottle like it was their home all along.