The air filled with the savory smell of cooking flesh, yet the screams of muffled help and tortured pains drowned out any other senses. His screams alerted everyone to Alvis's presence. The assassin level was instantly established. The ice mage sent an orb of freezing magic flying at the hand, clutching his friend's face
By the expressions on the assassin's faces, a friend was the wrong word, along with the idea of helping him when the orb got close, it was instantly apparent to Alvis
The spell's purpose was to trap Alvis's hand to deadweight, but the spell was not calculated to cool a heat produced by a god. When the orb touched the metal arm, thick steam enveloped everyone. The pair instantly spread out, combing the fog
The pair searched in Figure eight to track each other through the new environment, a painfully ego-centered tactic displaying that they felt they were the predator or at least one was confident in the other.
On the third sweep, a shot rang out when the figure eight intertwined. The bullet of pure mana cut through the fog, drilling through the ice mage's chest and impacting the orc's stomach. The force of the mana shot slung the mage's body into the orc.
With no respect for his fallen comrade's corpse, the orc discarded it with one hand, letting out an angry roar of "WEAK! YOU TWO WERE WEAK!" the orc shot the body into the display glass of a shop
When turning his attention back in front of him, Alvis was already within attack range. The orc, wasting no time, threw an open palm strike and countered a punch to the palm by the elf's cooled arm
A slight smirk came from the assassin, who closed his hand over Alvis's fist, attempting to yank the elf off his feet, only for the tug to fail in true underestimation of his opponent. The orc, inspecting his grip on Alvis, ignored the elf's position…
The metal arm used a 360 rotator, allowing Alvis to twist boneless in a hold that, combined with a simple martial defense spell, put Alvis below the orc, the entwined hands blocking each other's face and with the click of a trigger
Alvis, to the orc's surprise, shot at their interlocked hands, blowing off its stone-covered middle finger and launching shards at the orc's eyes and blood into Alvis's eyes
The orc broke off, wiping the shards from his eyes and staring into Alvis's. "y-your ey-"More powerful blasts rang from the pistol, which rattled, barely containing the power. The almost fist size bullets demolished the orc into a red smoke, splattering the elf feet away with gore
The hang hung silent for a second
An exhale left him while he holstered his gun. Alvis, covered in blood and gore, did not want to walk around looking like a dungeon mob from a horror novel
He stripped off his button-up trench coat, ignoring the light elf stricken by fear, her legs shaking but standing her ground. She watched him, waiting for him to do something.
Once the trench coat was peeled off of him, leaving him in a white sleeve button down and dress paints, he produced his badge from his back pocket, hoping to calm the victim
It did little to help the situation. Watching him dispose of assassins of their level like nothing only put her mind in the clutches of paranoia that, for whatever reason, she would be his next target. " Relax," his voice was cold to her
"I am not going to hurt you." Again, it sounded cold and fueled her fear. He was looking deep into her, giving a small smile with his face still splated in blood.
FATE
It took till he was thoroughly cleaned up and many reassurances of safety till the woman lost her edge to him, softening,
despite her wounds, she dragged the bodies of her party to a safe space on the sidewalk, clasping her hands together, started praying for the valkyries to take them to where the souls needed to go
"Not many worship the new gods, let alone call them for aid. I thought Valkyries only took souls to Valhalla?"
"I am a native of Álfheimr. I have met many sweet valkyries who have told me that if I pray to help the souls, they will do their best to guide them in death. I didn't think i would pray for this party."
" What happened here? Why is a dungeon in the middle of downtown?" his voice wavered from questioning to accusation
She unclasped her hands, slowly turning from the bodies to face him. " it was a quick link-up party; i didn't know any of them. We were doing a training dungeon outside the city to see how we would all fit for the real deal. It was going great no matter what the dungeon master threw at us. We excelled at the encounter… "Her voice started to crack
" When we reached the boss room, the training dungeons always have you accept a teleport spell to enter a boss room since they must be monitored closely. When we teleported in, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge study behind a hooded figure. The room was filled with antiques, jewels, and books, all arranged chaotically like a hoard; everyone thought it was cool. We thought we were going to take on a dark sorcerer. We thought it would be easy, gods, we thought." She started to spill words in a vomit. Alvis quickly grabbed both her shoulders and whispered breath, breath
She took a few big gulps of breath
Our tank was freshly knighted shotgun knight. While we squealed and wanted to admire the setting, he attacked; eager to show off his power, he loaded up a lighting shell and blasted the soccer at close range
The lighting bolt bounced off sphere-like protection that suddenly appeared around the wizard, sending the bolt whipping around the room and forcing us to duck for cover
We started yelling at the tank for starting the fight, who got defensive, barking at us to get ready to fight, but strangely, the boss didn't react; we thought maybe we got lucky! We went after the tank bickering till the figure spoke out
" Silence and be still." we all froze in place, unable to speak, only able to watch the figure walk around inspecting us but stopping at me getting inches from my face despite that his face was still cloaked by the hood of his wizard robe
" Money has exchanged hands, and promises have been spoken. You will die, but not in my tower. "
My heart was already racing from the tank attack, but when our sos beacons started to go off as a reaction to the sorcerer's spell, i immediately wanted to puke. They say when the teleportation glow engulfs you, you are saved
i watched him fade away… only for an old hand with disgustingly long fingernails to invade my vision, simply taping my forehead with the tip of a nail. Then, the party was engulfed in blinding red. The next thing i saw was being back in the middle of downtown and immediately attacked by these unknown killers
" did you get to see the wizard's face?"
" yes, he had a crooked nose. He was an elf but with gray, ragged hair! And blood-red eyes, a Cimmerian elf! I never seen one in person, only heard stories of the blood drinkers."
Alvis was silent, his face covered in various changing emotions. The visible mood swing disturbed the female elf, causing her to ask about causation
"Are you ok?"
He didn't answer. The reason for his facial expressions was a side effect of his mind diving into a blackout of old memories
Locking into a special moment, he was at a desert picnic enjoying a cup of Cecro Coffee, a bitter, almost sludge-like drink from a lizardfolk tribe, with the elf she described Solomon
"Young prince, you are growing so strong that you may no longer need my guidance. It's a bitter yet proud thought."
"Solomon, i may not be the sickly boy who needs your protection at every minute, but that doesn't mean i won't need your guidance," Alvis snickered, slurping down a sip of the sludge
" True, especially with you inheriting your mother's anger, so i will tell you a secret. If you think i am near or need to find me, look for the smell of Cecro coffee. I stain my clothes to keep sand and blood from sticking to them. Take comfort when you smell this brew."
Alvis returned to reality, taking in a massive inhale, absorbing all smells around him; cutting through each one was the smell of fresh brewed Cerco coffee; the comfort that washed over him long ago was gone, replaced with rage
" ok, follow me. We will get your tank, and when we encounter the wizard, leave him to me. I'll distract him while you and the tank flee to safety. "
Alvis, battling from being consumed by emotion, did not wait for a response but started walking, following the scent like a bloodhound with the light elf following close behind
FATE
Alvis barely contained his contempt for himself or, instead, his luck from spilling out of his mouth. Once again, hopefully, for the final time today, he went over how lazy he was. His spell arm was meant for civilian use, attire was meant for a quick outing, not standard issue police, and he skipped fucking breakfast
Though he was mighty in raw magic and felt confident in his boons, his anger was indeed at dissatisfaction with the encounter of his past, a real threat to his new life and who he is now. The impact of this encounter was not something he could control
The gasp from his follower broke him of his self-loathing to focus on what was in front of him: a massive crater; inside the impact in this crater was a floating figure squaring up in the direction of the shotgun knight
Who was sending out fiery shell spells toward the figure, fireballs, ice shards, and mana blasts, all of which did little against the sphere protection spell the figure was engulfed in. The dark wizard raised a finger at the knight
A red lightning bolt zapped from the tip of the finger at the shotgun knight, collapsing him to the ground on impact. The knight, despite prominent muscle spasms, immediately tried to get back up
" By Atheris, you have taken four hits. I am impressed. Let us see if you can survive a blast from two fingers," Solomon jested
Alvis gritted his teeth." go get the tank. I will deal with him." the light elf nodded and descended into the crater, making her way to the knight
Alvis wielded his pistol, aiming at Solomon's head and taking a quick kill shot, hopefully at the wizard, only for his attack to crack the sphere. With a little shock, Alvis screamed at Solomon
"I think you may need more than two fingers for me." solomon snapped his whole body unnaturally towards Alvis, floating to the edge of the crater where he stood out of earshot of the survivors
"I stained my clothes extra for you to find me easier, but damn, you are sluggish now. Look at you!"
" fu-" Solomon cut him off
"I took a blind eye to you using yggdrasil bark chewer sword techniques, but using gun magic; maybe your mother was right about you."
'BREATH BREATH'
" Solemn, I conquered the adventures of Cimmeria with weak swordsmanship, and now I cracked your protection with supposed BABY magic. You and Mom need to stop crying; unfair."
The venom leaked from Alvis's words. The gun pressed into solomon's face, who lifted down his hood. The old elf looked at Alvis's metal arm, poking at it with a physical speed, surprising alvis
" Conquered is a strong word."