"Three days passed by so quickly...I can't believe we leaving already, I was having so much fun exploring Mesial City," Sighed Aura, slumping in her seat with a pout, before adding as she frowned and fidgeted slightly, "Hm? Weird, is it just me, or have these seats gotten more uncomfortable than before?"
No, they're the same, but I get why she thinks that.
She just got used to the cushy seats in Centralis, and by comparison, these chairs kinda fall short in terms of comfiness. I have to admit, I'm a little bummed at leaving Centralis too, I don't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much, the last three days were definitely the most fun I've had in this world.
Today's the 23rd of December, 1029, and we were heading back to Septen now. We'd departed pretty early in the morning around 5 AM, and it was currently about 6 AM, we'd just left Centralis's north border.
The other Adventurers seem to be in a pretty good mood too, and as a result, they were a bit less antagonistic towards me compared to how they were before we arrived here, guess they must have had a pretty good time in Centralis too.
It'd be hard not to, given how much better it is in comparison to Septen. It really did feel like a proper vacation. I'm definitely coming back here, as soon as possible.
I'd spent most of my time over the last three days with Aura, we explored the city, trying out different foods and checking out other interesting stores. I also took a few dips in the hot springs, it took some getting used to since the water was a lot hotter than I expected, but once I got used to it, I found it to be pretty relaxing.
It's turning out to be kind of difficult to switch from vacation mode to work mode, especially so abruptly. Could've used at least another five days or so, but I am being paid for this job and the last three days were basically a free vacation, at least in terms of travel cost, so I can't exactly complain.
Well, whatever, we've got less half a day or so before we're back at Septen and the Quest is completed, I've got a good sum of money coming in from this Quest upon completion, so I think I'll take a few days off once we get back.
We've probably covered about ten kilometers past the north border of Centralis by now, so-...
Suddenly, the carriage came to a sudden halt, nearly throwing me off balance as I heard some noises echoing out from outside.
Oh, god damn it, what now?
"What's going on? Are we being attacked?" Frowned Consillia, as the panel at the front of the carriage slid open, and the Knight driving the carriage turned back to face us.
"Er, not exactly...there's a woman standing on the path up ahead, blocking us."
"What? Just one person, all on her own?" Responded one of the A-Ranks in bemusement.
"Whew, false alarm, then. It's probably just some lost traveler or something," Shrugged the other A-Rank.
"Don't get too complacent, we need to be prepared for anyth-...," Hye began with a frown, before trailing off as several excruciating screams of pain and yells of alarm rang out from outside.
The carriage then shook as loud thuds echoed out, sounding like human bodies were crashing onto it.
What the hell...?
I pushed open the hatch at the top of the carriage and jumped up, grabbing the edges of the opening and pulling myself up to get a glimpse of what was happening, my eyes widening at the sight that met me.
Several of the Knights were dead, their bodies severely mangled and broken apart, and the few that were left were either frozen in fear or attacking wildly...I then spotted the Captain, who was sprawled on the ground, a deep wound on her chest with blood pouring down her torso.
Yeah, she's probably dead, that's what must have set the rest off into a state of panic.
"Yeah, it's not looking good out there. Miss Consillia, if you want to live, get in my Item Box and I'll get you out of here," I instructed, opening a Slot.
"Er, I don't think that's-..."
"Oh, and let me guess, you want us to stay behind and buy you time to get away?" Scoffed one of the A-Ranks.
"That was the plan, yes. Try to hold off the enemy for at least, say, five minutes? That should be enough time for me to get the client to safety."
"Why, you-...!?"
"Enough of this nonsense, we don't have time to bicker and argue. I'll take care of this myself!" Snapped Hye, kicking open the door and stepping out, as the screams of pain ringing out from outside faded, replaced by the faint sound of footsteps approaching.
"Hm? Ah, so that's the carriage where my target is in, huh? Time to do my job...[Compress]," Came a woman's voice, my eyes widening as the carriage began to creak, cracks rapidly spreading out across the wooden structure.
"Get out of here, NOW!" I snapped urgently, grabbing Consillia by her collar and leaping out the carriage, Aura close behind me as I sprang out the door and tossed Consillia into an Item Box Slot as she let out a sharp, strangled gasp at the force exerted by me pulling on her collar.
Right as we exited the carriage, it suddenly and rapidly collapsed in on itself, getting crushed into a ball of splintered wood, agonized screeching of pain ringing out from the A-Ranks, who'd still been inside.
It was like the carriage was being crushed and balled up by giant, invisible hands, streaks of blood spurting out through the crumpled mass of wood and splattering across the area.
"Wh-what the hell just...?" Hye trailed off with a stutter, a stunned look on his face as the Unicorns ran away in a panic.
All the Knights are dead, and we're also down two Adventurers. What the fuck just happened? Who is this woman?
"Tch, so close. What a waste, it takes a lot of Mana to cast one of my Spells on such a large object, you know," She huffed indignantly.
She looked young, maybe in her late teens or early twenties, with short dark brown hair that framed her face and greenish blue eyes.
She's an Oryctoloid, a person with rabbit-like features, she was on the tall side with a curvy body, and had rabbit ears the same color as her hair on the top of her head, along with a floppy, fluffy rabbit tail.
"You'll pay for what you've done...die, bitch, [Sonic Screech]!" Chanted Hye venomously, inhaling sharply before firing out a deafening blast of high pitched noise at her from his mouth.
"[Silence]," Chanted the woman, the noise instantly disappearing as a smirk spread out across her face and she remarked with a chuckle, "Good, looks like your Mana Pool is inferior to mine."
"Well, this isn't good. That's Word Magic, one of the Arcane Classes, and a highly dangerous one at that," Arkiela informed me warily.
"Who the hell do you-...!?" Hye began to snap at her.
"[Shut up and Bow Down]," She interrupted him in a casual, almost bored, tone of voice, his jaws snapping shut abruptly as he fell onto his knees and lowered his head, the woman chuckling before adding with a frown as she glanced at me and Aura, "Hm, only one was affected, huh? That means you two have equal or greater Mana Pools in comparison to mine...strange, you with the green stripes in your hair, I don't sense any Mystic Pressure from you at all. I didn't even know it was possible to suppress it to this extent."
"I get it, when she uses her Magic to target a person directly, it targets the person's Mana. Since you have none, she can't use her Magic directly on you. Guess your lack of Magic saved you," Realized Arkiela, as I looked around for an opening to get away...damn it, I should've forced Consillia into my Item Box and booked it when I had the chance.
"Hey, you, with the green stripes! That woman you put into a portal or some kind, was that the Royal Coucilor who was representing Septen?" Inquired the woman as she narrowed her eyes at me.
"Sorry, but I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," I responded dryly, quietly taking out a gun from me Item Box, my hand behind my back.
"Hm, cute. Alright, then, let me introduce myself, my name is Lexis Shakespeare. There, I'm not a stranger anymore. And now...[Get Zapped]," She chanted icily, firing out a bolt of lightning at me.
Before I could respond, Aura swiftly stepped out in front of me and raised her hand, the lightning hitting her palm and having no effect, simply fizzling out as it struck her.
"That was pretty weak. I can sneeze out stronger lightning attacks than whatever sorry excuse for a Spell that was," She scoffed tauntingly.
Damn, she's hot.
"Ugh, this is turning out to be a real pain. Alright, you're both pretty young, and it'd probably weigh on my conscience if I killed a couple of kids, so here's the deal...give me that woman, let me kill her, and I'll be right on my way. Not a bad proposition, is it?"
No, that's not gonna work for me. After all, I can't trust her to break her word, pun intended, once she has what she wants.
"D-damn, you...!" Growled Hye, straining against her Spell and getting back up onto his feet with a fierce glare, "Y-you smug little cunt...don't you dare ignore me, I-I am one of the best S-Ranked Adventurers in all of Septen, and I will not stand for this! I...I swear I'll fucking k-...!"
"[Snap to the Left]," She cut him off icily, his head abruptly and rapidly turning across to the left, a loud snap echoing out as his neck broke, his body going limp before he collapsed onto the ground.
"Okay, that's concerning," Frowned Aura, taking a wary step back.
"I hate it when I come across people that I can't affect directly with my Magic...those with inferior Mana Pools are fodder to me, they stand no chance against me. So, why'd there have to be two of you who I can't use my Magic directly against?" She sighed, before I quickly moved my gun out in front of me from behind my back and fired a bullet at her, her eyes widening at the sound of the gunshot as she quickly chanted, "[Stop]!"
Right as it closed in on her, my bullet came to an abrupt halt as it kissed the tip of her nose, dropping to the ground as it drew out a trickle of blood from her nose, before she quickly sprang away as Aura fired out a powerful lightning bolt at her, narrowly avoiding getting hit with it.
"She's pretty quick on her feet," Remarked Aura with a grimace, as I dropped a smoke grenade and grabbed her wrist.
"We're getting the fuck out of here," I stated, starting to run-...
"[Walls]!" The woman's voice boomed out from behind us, the ground rumbling and my eyes widening in disbelief as tall walls of earth rose up around the area, trapping us in, as her grumbling voice echoed out, "Come on, stop making me use large scale Spells, it's really tiring."
"Well, so much for that idea," I sighed, letting go of Aura's wrist as the smoke began to clear.
"Appreciate the thought. But yeah, she's pretty powerful, running away from her without having someone to buy us time is going to be next to impossible. In which case, we need to kill her. I'll attack her from up close, you back me up with those projectile weapons of yours. Just be careful not to hit me by accident," Said Aura wryly, before stepping forward as the smoke cleared away.
"That weapon...ohh, I get it now! Yeah, you must be the one who fought Icaro and Vera. Come to think of it, your appearance does match their descriptions of you," Remarked the woman, as she strolled towards us, her hands in her pockets.
These people sure do love to give out information unprompted, don't they? Though, this time, I kinda figured she had to be involved with those two, the timing of this attack can't be a coincidence.
"Wait, what did you say your name was again? Lexis Shakespeare, was it? And you use Word Magic? Is that, uh...is that your real name?" I inquired in bemused curiosity.
Doesn't the word lexis have something to do with language, as in lexicon? And Shakespeare...pretty sure that's not exactly a common last name in this world. Has she been reincarnated too?
"Huh? How-...? No, it's not my real name, it was given to me by someone else. Anyway, back to the matter at hand, I take it this means you've rejected the deal I offered? Okay, then, guess I'm doing this the hard way. Now, [Burn]," She chanted, an intense wave of flames bursting out in front of her and came shooting this way, blazing a trail towards us rapidly.
"[Emerald Black Lightning Bolt]!" Exclaimed Aura, firing out a powerful bolt of lightning straight through the middle of the roaring flames, dissipating most of it and continuing to shoot forward towards Lexis, who turned her body across to evade it, before Aura raced towards her as she chanted, "[Emerald Black Lightning Cloak]!"
I fired out a couple of bullets at Lexis, who once again chanted to stop my bullets in their tracks, before chanting again as Aura closed in on her...
"[Sink]!" She yelled out, the ground in front of her turning to mud as Aura's right foot stepped onto it, sinking in upto her knee, before she unleashed several dancing streaks of lightning from her body defensively, one of the streaks zapping Lexis as she sprang back to evade the lightning, a pained grimace on her face as her body sharply stiffened up.
I then quickly took out one of my Umbrellasers and fired out a powerful laser beam at her, her eyes widening in alarm as she landed and quickly tilted her body across, letting out a sharp scream of pain as my attack struck her left shoulder and incinerated a chunk of flesh off it.
I put away the weapon and began to take aim at her with my gun, as she met my gaze with an infuriated look on her face, gritting her teeth and chanting before I could lock my aim...
"[Get Flattened]!" She snarled, my eyes widening as a large shadow got cast over me, before I quickly sprang out of the way and sprinted away as fast as I could, just in time as a large boulder came crashing down onto the spot where I'd been standing.
It struck the ground with immense force and a devastating impact, creating a small crater as deep cracks spread out from the point of impact, thick clouds of dusts bursting out and billowing across the area as I let out a slight cough, inadvertently inhaling a bit of dust as the force of the shockwave that erupted upon impact knocked me down.
"Fuck, that was close," I muttered to myself, getting back on my feet and letting out another cough as I dusted myself off.
A burst of lightning exploded up ahead, Aura having pulled her leg out of the mud trap and was attacking Lexis fiercely, who was just barely evading her attacks, her expression wracked with pain and frustration.
"[Drown]!" She suddenly exclaimed, as Aura found herself in a spherical mass of water, floating above the ground, as Lexis evaded a couple of gunshots from me and chanted with an irritated growl, "[Regenerate]!"
The deep injury on her left shoulder healed rapidly, the burnt off flesh growing back and restoring her shoulder back to normal. Damn it, she can even heal herself with that Word Magic?
That's just unfair.
Aura unleashed a massive burst of lightning to blast away the mass of water surrounding her, before converging all the lightning she'd unleashed into a single point between her hands as she began to plummet, sparks crackling violently around her hands as she fired out a powerful, rapid blast of lightning at Lexis.
"[Wall]!" Exclaimed Lexis quickly, a wall of earth rising up behind her as the lightning blast closed in on her.
It struck the earth wall with a vicious crackle, Lexis's eyes widening in alarm as cracks rapidly spread out across her wall before it shattered and crumbled, a sharp scream of pain ringing out of her mouth as the lightning struck her back, scorching off the fabric of her clothes around that spot and burning her skin as she collapsed onto her knees with a look of agony on her face.
I quickly took out my bazooka and aimed it at her, firing out the loaded rocket straight towards her as she struggled to get up, her body severely electrocuted.
"[B-Blow Away]!" She cried in desperation, a powerful gust of wind suddenly hitting her body and shooting her away as my rocket closed in on her, hitting the spot where she'd been and exploding fiercely.
Looks like she broke her own left arm doing that.
"I've got you now!" Exclaimed Aura, racing towards her rapidly, lightning intensely charging around her metal claws.
"[Explode]!" Snapped Lexis as Aura began to close in on her, her eyes widening in alarm...
Aura quickly halted and began to spring back as the air in front of her began shimmering violently, before an intense explosion burst out from that spot, the shockwave created as it exploded sending Aura flying back and crashing onto a large boulder with a sharp gasp of pain, the back of her head hitting the rocky surface with a thunk.
She let out a dazed groan, her body going limp and her eyes rolling back as she fell towards the ground, the lightning crackling around her fading as she lost consciousness and collapsed onto the ground.
"[Stop]," Chanted Lexis, as I fired several bullets at her, which abruptly stopped and plummeted to the ground as she turned her gaze this way, a smirk spreading out across her face as her lips moved malevolently, "[Explode]."
I quickly took out my shield and jammed it into the ground in front of me as the air ahead of me shimmered and then exploded, just barely getting my shield out in time to block it, grimacing as the force struck my shield and the impact traveled through my right arm, fracturing the bone in my forearm as a stinging pain erupted and throbbed across the injured ares.
"Shit...," I muttered to myself as I peered through the glass slit, to see Lexis dusting herself off.
"I suppose I should thank you...it's so rare that I come across someone who I can't use my Magic directly on, let alone two such people, so more often than not, I barely even have to try. But here, against two opponents whom my Magic can't directly affect, I've been left with no choice but to get creative and think outside the box.
I have to say, I can't believe I never thought of this...if I can't affect you directly, I just need to cast my Magic onto nearby objects or onto the very air itself!" She cackled excitedly, her eyes gleaming as she chanted, "Now, [Regenerate]!"
Her broken arm rapidly repaired itself, before she raised another earth wall as I fired more bullets at her. Damn it, I'm just wasting bullets at this point, but what else can I use?
"How the fuck do I kill this bitch?" I muttered in frustration, putting my gun away and hiding behind my shield.
"Let me get that out of the way. [Crumple]," She chanted, my eyes widening as my shield suddenly got crushed into a ball right in front of me, exposing me to her gaze...shit.
"Ohh, I know! I bet I can use your own clothes to crush your body! Hm, what's a good word I can assign for that? Got it! I've visualized it, and now...[Constrict]!" She exclaimed gleefully as she locked her gaze onto me with a vicious smirk.
Oh, shit!
My body reacted on instinct, leaping off to my right as she chanted. Awfully nice of her to tell me how her power works...but I guess it doesn't really make a difference, I'm fu-...huh?
I grimaced in pain as the end of my left trouser leg sharply constricted against my ankle, before I took out a dagger and quickly slashed at the fabric before it could squeeze any more tightly, deeply cutting through my skin in the process, but that's a fair trade, considering the alternative.
I then quickly dropped a smoke grenade, which exploded and obscured me from her vision, as I took out a Healing Potion and chugged it down, the cuts around my ankle closing up.
I survived, holy shit. That was way too close, I might've died just then if I hadn't reacted as quickly as I did...if all my clothes had begun constricting around my body, I would've gotten crushed and died for sure.
I get it now, how her power works.
Based on what she said, she has to visualize the effect she wants to cast and then assign it a fitting word...but there's more to it than that. When she chants, she has to take aim and fire out the effect at whatever it is that she's targeting.
And if her target moves out of the way in time, they can avoid the effect she's trying to cast on them, like I just did.
Which means, if I follow the line of her sight when she chants, I can predict the direction of her aim and get away from that direction to evade her attack.
However, it's not as simple as that...when she fires out her Spells, not only is it invisible until it reaches its target, with a few exceptions like her Burn or Wall chants, but it's also incredibly rapid.
I reacted in less than half a second to avoid her Constrict chant, and I still couldn't fully avoid it, and she was quite a distance away from me too. It'd be impossible to dodge her at close or even mid range, so-...
"[Clear Away]," Suddenly came her voice, the smokescreen I'd created fading away almost instantly, before I quickly flung a grenade at her and raced away, as she chanted in response, "[Reflect]."
As the grenade closed in on her, it hit an invisible wall and began to bounce back this way...before suddenly exploding, a startled, pained cry ringing out from her.
Nice, that worked...based on her chant, she was trying to sent the grenade right back at me, but the method she used was faulty, thanks to her not knowing how grenades work.
"[Walls]!" She cried through the cloud of smoke created by the grenade's explosion, walls of earth surrounding her as another, muffled, chant echoed out, "[Regenerate]!"
"Damn it, just die already!" I snapped, taking out my second Umbrellaser, as the first was still cooling down, and firing out a laser beam straight at her earth walls.
"[Fly]!" She exclaimed, before shooting straight up into the air with immense speed, her legs visibly broken before she chanted to heal them, as my laser drilled through the earth wall facing me.
"Fucking DIE!" I yelled, taking out a submachine gun and unleashing a storm of bullets up at her.
"[Stop]!" She chanted as she began to plummet, before glaring down at me and snapping, "I've had enough of you already, I'll kill you with everything I've got! [Explode]! [Get Flattened]! [Get Flattened]! [Get Flattened]! [Get Flattened]! [Get Flattened]! [Explode]! [Explode]! [Explode]! [Explode]! [EXPLODE]!!!"
Fuck...!
I raced away as quickly as I could in alarm, as five massive boulders came plummeting down towards me, several spots in the air around me shimmering violently as I desperately ran away, but it was no use...
In the next instant, immense pain erupted across my entire body, from several directions, my consciousness fading fast as I felt several of my bones breaking like twigs, my body being thrown through the air like a ragdoll...
———————————————————————————
Point-of-View: Lexis Shakespeare
———————————————————————————
"[Re...Regenerate]," I chanted with a pained grimace as I landed on the ground painfully.
Shit, that took way too much Mana. I'm probably down to less than a fifth of my total Mana Pool, I let my emotions get the better of me. But as usual, I won. Of course I did.
Now, then, time to finish this for good.
When a person with an Item Box or Inventory Skill dies, all the items stored inside are cast out. The woman he put into his storage Skill, I'm pretty sure she's my target.
Once I kill her, I'll be done with my mis-...huh? No way...
"Wow, so you're still alive, are you?" I scoffed as I came across his body.
His bones were severely broken, with a deep wound on the side of his head that was bleeding profusely. His right arm was badly broken, and his left arm was completely mangled, his legs in pretty bad shape too.
Several of his ribs were broken too, his breathing was very labored and ragged, so it's likely that he's got a couple of ribs puncturing his lungs.
He'll die in a few minutes if I do nothing...but I can't wait that long, so I'll just kill him now and be done with it.
"Nothing personal, but you're dangerous, and a potential threat to our cause. So die. [Expl-...]...huh!?" I blurted out in disbelief, as his injuries suddenly began healing rapidly, his broken bones straightening out and getting fixed, his breathing growing more stable.
What the hell just-...suddenly, as a dark red beam shot out towards me from his collar, I quickly tilted my body across, wincing in pain as it grazed the side of my left arm, the skin around that spot getting scorched off painfully.
Th-that...that felt different from the red beams he fired at me earlier from those umbrella-like weapons. But he's unconscious, so how-...!?
"Ugh, this really fucking sucks. Can't believe I'm revealing myself like this to a lowly mortal such as yourself, but you haven't given me much choice, you stupid fucking bitch. Yeah, mortals really are the worst," Came a woman's voice, as a small figure flew out of his collar before growing in size.
"Wha-...where the hell did you come from!? Who are you!?" I blurted out as I took a couple of wary steps back.
No, the bigger question is...what is she?
Those black feathered wings, and that ring floating above her head...she's not Human, at least not of any race I know of. What the hell is she?
"What a philosophical question, Miss Shakespeare, fitting considering your name. Now, kindly fuck off and save me the trouble, would you? I can't let this shithead die, so get lost," She demanded, looking down at me in disdain.
"Tch, I don't care who or what the hell you are, get in my way and I'll kill you! [Expl-...]...mfph!" I began to chant, before she suddenly shot forward and clamped her right hand over my mouth.
"See, the thing about Word Magic, is that it's useless if the user can't get the words out," She smirked, before swinging me up and throwing me away with immense force, my eyes widening in alarm and horror as I flew back through the air at a breakneck speed.
"[B-Bounce]!" I cried in desperation, forming an invisible, bouncy wall of air behind me and bringing myself to a halt, the springy wall absorbing the force exerted on me, a slight twinge of pain erupting from my lower back.
Wh-what...what the hell?
How the hell is she so strong!?
She threw me like I weighed nothing more than a pebble, I-...I then froze in fear as I turned my gaze up, to see a massive, swirling red sphere above me, the woman with the black feathered wings flying over me, before swinging her arm down and sending the sphere plummeting down towards me with immense speed...
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