“Karif gave Penny a stone as well that he put magic on. She had been moving north for the past hour but came to a stop a short while ago. So either they found the tracker or they reached their den. Regardless, we need to move to get to her.” Garrus explained as we moved out of the inn.
“What about the investigators? Surely they could help us in this.” I asked, it seemed a reasonable assumption. They had come here to solve the issue of the disappearances in the first place.
“No, we don’t truly know that. For all we know they’re the ones behind it and they had just been out of town for a few days. And they come back and all of a sudden somebody goes missing? It just doesn’t add up.” Garrus replied.
I understood what he was saying, but I didn’t agree with it. I didn’t argue with him though, this wasn’t the time to debate whether or not they could be trusted. I felt like they could, but I wasn’t about to go behind Garrus' back. I just had to trust that his plan to rescue Penny would work out.
We dashed out of the inn and Karif directed us in the right direction which had us heading back into the forest to the north. I blasted both of my sensory skills utilizing them to their fullest to see anything that might help. These skills I was learning weren’t particularly useful for tracking people down who did things without magic. [Mana Sense] allowed me to see mana floating through the air. Almost like air currents, flowing and seeping across everything. [Electric Sense] was much more stationary. Showing off more of what was happening the moment now that I’d found them. Neither helped all that much with finding things that went missing.
But maybe if I was lucky the ones who abducted her were careless and had left behind something I could see, maybe Penny had done something that one of us would notice and be able to follow.
As we got close a group stepped out of the woods blocking our way. It was that damned guard and his little groupies.
“Whoa there friends, we have business with that one.” He said and pointed at me.
I was already pretty worked up now that Penny had gone missing. I was feeling frustrated because there just didn’t seem to be anything I could do to help her. And now this? I was about to snap.
I stepped forward before Garrus could say anything, “Did you take Penny?” Despite my overwhelming emotions I managed to keep my tone calm.
“Penny? I don’t know about any Penny. All I’m saying is you need to come with me before someone gets hurt.” He gave an obnoxious smirk
It took every ounce of self-control that I had to not just explode and go off the rails. I knew I had an issue controlling my anger in situations like these. It was one thing when it was just me being inconvenienced or bullied, in those moments I could easily brush it off. But when someone else’s well-being was at stake that was a completely different story.
I glanced at Garrus and he could see my mood written all over my face. He stepped over and placed a hand on my shoulder. I assumed he was going to try and stop me or convince me to let him handle the situation. But feeling his hand squeeze my shoulder let me know that he was just as pissed off, if not more than I was.
I let out a long deep breath before speaking again.
“I’m going to say this once, and only once. So I want to be absolutely perfectly clear when I say this so that there’s no mistaking what’s going to happen when you don’t do what I ask. There is no law in this land, no wall to hide behind, no person to stand in front of you that can protect you from me if you don’t do this. Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” I had reached my nerves ends. Penny was in trouble right now and we had to waste precious time dealing with these smooth-brained nematodes who were going on a power trip.
In a perfectly expected manner, they just started laughing, they probably laughed for a good thirty seconds before they responded in an equally predictable manner.
“No.” The tier 3 guard said in a malicious manner.
I reacted instantly. Buffs instantly flared to max electricity and mana exploded off me and dirt got flung off the ground as I launched forward. The tier 3 guard barely managed to react fast enough that I wouldn’t have managed to get a lethal blow on him.
Good thing I wasn’t aiming for him. My sword flashed outwards wreathed in lightning and cut straight through his neck. The guard didn’t even know what had happened before the deed was done.
My sword finished its arc and I received several notifications letting me know he had perished instantly. I quickly rotated and sprung off the ground moving for the next tier 2 guardsman. This one had been given enough time to start reacting. He pulled out his sword and swung at me.
It seemed agonizingly slow and clumsy from my point of view. I deftly slipped past it and cut through him cleanly from the left hip to the right shoulder. His armor didn’t slow the strike even in the slightest.
I received another cluster of notifications letting me know he had been finished. I turned to the last guard who had an alarmed look on his face. Garrus stepped forward, probably to take him on himself but I held up a hand to stop him.
“No, I’ll do it. If this comes back to bite us in the ass somehow I want you to be able to pin it all on me. There was definitely a better way to solve this. But this is the way I chose, so you don’t need to do anything.” I whispered to him before turning to look at the remaining guard.
“What did I tell you? I told you to get out of my way. I said. No law would protect you, no wall to hide behind, no person you could send forth. I said that, didn't I? I told you. To. Move.” My teeth were gritted as I spat out the last few words. So many people acted like this and I just couldn’t comprehend this kind of behavior. I had warned him and his lackeys and for some reason, they just ignored the warnings I gave them. I couldn’t understand it.
“Y-y-you killed them…?” he stuttered out. I was walking his way to finish him off, just because he had lost his will to fight didn’t mean I was going to spare him. I wasn’t that noble of a person. If it came down to it I could just blame it on whatever else was taking everyone around here, unless these people were the ones responsible.
“Alex!” Karif yelled out to me. I snapped my attention back to him and saw him pointing at one of the bodies. I looked over at the one he was pointing at. What was he wanting me to see? I had just killed him, I had decapitated him, there was no way he was still… I squinted my eyes trying to see the body a little better.
That wasn’t a human body. I quickly scanned the first notifications I had gotten.
‘Ping’ [Clawed Demon - Level 23 (T2) / Ravager - Level 19 (T2)] has been slain - 10 ability points have been granted for slaying an enemy one tier above you.
Demon? What? My mind instantly launched into overdrive trying to put the pieces together before it all snapped together and everything made sense. All that happened before I remembered there was still one left and moved as fast as I could to kill him before he could do anything.
Turning towards where he had been I noticed he was gone. I quickly spun around and noticed the rest of the group was looking around for the remaining demon as well. I used my sensory skills again, glancing around trying to find a trace of the demon.
And for once they finally came into use. I felt the pulse of electricity and mana coming from above me and threw myself out of the way just in time as he came crashing down right where I had been standing. I rolled across the ground before I managed to slow myself and flip up off the ground back onto my feet holding my blade in front of me.
“Well color me impressed, little elf. I guess it’s safe to say you weren’t just getting a big head because your little friends were there to protect you. I will say I definitely didn’t expect you to be able to kill two of them without them even being able to lay a hand on you.” His voice still sounded roughly the same but came out more gravelly. Almost distorted, like it was coming through a voice changer or something.
His form had twisted to show how he truly looked, he had doffed his armor in favor of a pair of large leathery wings. The wingspan on him was massive, roughly nine feet, maybe ten. He was also taller than he had been as a human. About as tall as Garrus, so about 6’6”. He didn’t look particularly grotesque like one would normally think about demons and the like.
“Where is Penny?” Garrus growled at him while readying his weapon. George stood next to him, sword and shield at the ready while Karif stood several feet behind them preparing to cast spells.
“Ah, yes. Your ranger friend. We managed to snatch her during the little romp we had with your elven friend. As for where she is, well, I’d say you’d have to make me tell you. But you won’t ever get that chance.” He jumped as he finished flapping his wings to push him up over the trees.
Karif and I both launched spells at him to try and prevent him from leaving, but he easily dodged them laughing while he flew out of sight above the trees.
We sat for a moment, checking around us and every angle to make sure this wasn’t a trap to bait us into letting our guard down. After a few minutes, we were able to determine that he had really left and it was just us here now.
“Alright, Karif you’ve still got a bead on Penny?” Garrus asked as we grouped up.
“Yes, hasn’t moved from her last spot, still directly north of us. The same direction the demon flew in.”
“The village,” I said interrupting, “The entire village is demons,” I whispered.
“What do you mean?” Garrus said, giving me a look.
“Think about it. No one wanted to talk with us despite the fact that their families were being abducted, they just seemed okay with that happening or that they might be next. A guy was randomly pushed out of the village because his family had been abducted. He more than likely wasn’t a demon, but the demons here were the ones making him do this. It just makes sense.” I got slightly worked up towards the end and took a deep breath to calm myself down.
Karif nodded slowly, “I agree with Alex. It just makes the most sense. However, we can deal with that later.”
“Agreed, Penny needs to come first,” Garrus said.
I nodded in agreement, “Penny comes first.”
Penny awoke with a hacking cough. Chains rattled as her whole body shook. She spat out blood from her mouth as she blearily looked around. She hung from her wrists which had been rubbed raw from being there for the last few hours.
Penny had barely even seen the attack coming and most certainly hadn’t been able to move out of the way in time. She had been following Alex as he had run away from the guardsmen when something big and dark came flying at her at high speeds impacting her head and knocking her out instantly. Her head was in a lot of pain now because of that.
Penny glanced around the room trying to get her bearings, but the entire room was just stone. There was a way out from the room she was in, but otherwise, there wasn’t much else to see.
She wondered how long she’d have to wait before someone showed up. Hopefully, it’d be a while, the longer it took for someone to come the longer her party would have to try and find her and rescue her.
Not quite the turn of events she had expected, but one she didn’t mind. She hadn’t felt particularly great asking Alex to be the bait, even if it had been the best course of action as a plan. But it turned out that she was the one who had been abducted, while she wasn’t happy about this, she was happy that at least it wasn’t him having to go through another traumatic event.
As Penny started to become engrossed in her thoughts she heard steps coming from the corridor leading out of the room she was in. She looked up to see who it was approaching. In walked two creatures, the first was around average male height and build and had large leathery wings across his back.
[Level 10 (T2)]
An average level, one she would be able to handle on her own given she was tier 3 level 20 herself. The second creature was absolutely massive. It had to be at least seven feet tall. Its body rippled with muscles as it walked into the room staring straight at Penny.
[Level 72 (T3)]
Oh, that wasn’t good. It wasn’t often you saw someone in tier 3 to begin with. In fact, most tier 3 humans were adventurers or elite soldiers. And the vast majority of them sat under level 50. The reason for that was most people unlocked their third class at tier 3 and as such most of the exp they earned got sunk into their new class until it caught up to the same tier as the one they were in and then it would begin splitting experience evenly again. That caused a lot of people to stagnate in levels.
Penny herself still only had her class in the second tier, it was getting close to another ascension, but she still had a ways to go. The fact that this humanoid had gotten so far in levels meant that its third class was now in the third tier, which meant that it was extremely strong and extremely dangerous.
“Ah, our little captive has awoken. Congratulations!” The creature spoke to her as it drew up to the center of the room, “You’ve been selected as the newest participant in our royal ceremony. This is a great honor, and as such we’ve imparted the most important role to you to carry out. Don’t worry, however, it’s painfully simple.” It smiled maliciously.
“Do tell,” Penny replied in a mocking voice, “If it’s so ‘painfully simple’ as you so eloquently described, Why don’t you carry it out yourself, you grotesque oaf?”
The creature laughed jovially in response to her provocations, “If only my dear human, if only I could. Unfortunately, your role is to be a sacrifice and I am still very much needed for the plans that are to unfold. It wouldn’t do for the mastermind to get themselves killed before the fruition of their plans now would it.”
“A sacrifice? What for?” Penny asked, she tried to keep the worry out of her voice not wanting to give the creatures the satisfaction of sensing her fear.
“A wonderful question, come along and we’ll show you.”
With those words, and a flourish of its hands, the chains holding Penny up snapped and she was dropped onto the ground. They didn’t seem to care to bind her with anything, which made sense given that the big one could probably easily deal with her given that she had no weapons to fight back with.
No, Penny couldn’t do anything at the moment. But what she could do instead is bide her time. Her chance would come to get free, she just needed to make sure she was ready to take it when the chance arose.
“Karif gave Penny a stone as well that he put magic on. She had been moving north for the past hour but came to a stop a short while ago. So either they found the tracker or they reached their den. Regardless, we need to move to get to her.” Garrus explained as we moved out of the inn.
“What about the investigators? Surely they could help us in this.” I asked, it seemed a reasonable assumption. They had come here to solve the issue of the disappearances in the first place.
“No, we don’t truly know that. For all we know they’re the ones behind it and they had just been out of town for a few days. And they come back and all of a sudden somebody goes missing? It just doesn’t add up.” Garrus replied.
I understood what he was saying, but I didn’t agree with it. I didn’t argue with him though, this wasn’t the time to debate whether or not they could be trusted. I felt like they could, but I wasn’t about to go behind Garrus' back. I just had to trust that his plan to rescue Penny would work out.
We dashed out of the inn and Karif directed us in the right direction which had us heading back into the forest to the north. I blasted both of my sensory skills utilizing them to their fullest to see anything that might help. These skills I was learning weren’t particularly useful for tracking people down who did things without magic. [Mana Sense] allowed me to see mana floating through the air. Almost like air currents, flowing and seeping across everything. [Electric Sense] was much more stationary. Showing off more of what was happening the moment now that I’d found them. Neither helped all that much with finding things that went missing.
But maybe if I was lucky the ones who abducted her were careless and had left behind something I could see, maybe Penny had done something that one of us would notice and be able to follow.
As we got close a group stepped out of the woods blocking our way. It was that damned guard and his little groupies.
“Whoa there friends, we have business with that one.” He said and pointed at me.
I was already pretty worked up now that Penny had gone missing. I was feeling frustrated because there just didn’t seem to be anything I could do to help her. And now this? I was about to snap.
I stepped forward before Garrus could say anything, “Did you take Penny?” Despite my overwhelming emotions I managed to keep my tone calm.
“Penny? I don’t know about any Penny. All I’m saying is you need to come with me before someone gets hurt.” He gave an obnoxious smirk
It took every ounce of self-control that I had to not just explode and go off the rails. I knew I had an issue controlling my anger in situations like these. It was one thing when it was just me being inconvenienced or bullied, in those moments I could easily brush it off. But when someone else’s well-being was at stake that was a completely different story.
I glanced at Garrus and he could see my mood written all over my face. He stepped over and placed a hand on my shoulder. I assumed he was going to try and stop me or convince me to let him handle the situation. But feeling his hand squeeze my shoulder let me know that he was just as pissed off, if not more than I was.
I let out a long deep breath before speaking again.
“I’m going to say this once, and only once. So I want to be absolutely perfectly clear when I say this so that there’s no mistaking what’s going to happen when you don’t do what I ask. There is no law in this land, no wall to hide behind, no person to stand in front of you that can protect you from me if you don’t do this. Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” I had reached my nerves ends. Penny was in trouble right now and we had to waste precious time dealing with these smooth-brained nematodes who were going on a power trip.
In a perfectly expected manner, they just started laughing, they probably laughed for a good thirty seconds before they responded in an equally predictable manner.
“No.” The tier 3 guard said in a malicious manner.
I reacted instantly. Buffs instantly flared to max electricity and mana exploded off me and dirt got flung off the ground as I launched forward. The tier 3 guard barely managed to react fast enough that I wouldn’t have managed to get a lethal blow on him.
Good thing I wasn’t aiming for him. My sword flashed outwards wreathed in lightning and cut straight through his neck. The guard didn’t even know what had happened before the deed was done.
My sword finished its arc and I received several notifications letting me know he had perished instantly. I quickly rotated and sprung off the ground moving for the next tier 2 guardsman. This one had been given enough time to start reacting. He pulled out his sword and swung at me.
It seemed agonizingly slow and clumsy from my point of view. I deftly slipped past it and cut through him cleanly from the left hip to the right shoulder. His armor didn’t slow the strike even in the slightest.
I received another cluster of notifications letting me know he had been finished. I turned to the last guard who had an alarmed look on his face. Garrus stepped forward, probably to take him on himself but I held up a hand to stop him.
“No, I’ll do it. If this comes back to bite us in the ass somehow I want you to be able to pin it all on me. There was definitely a better way to solve this. But this is the way I chose, so you don’t need to do anything.” I whispered to him before turning to look at the remaining guard.
“What did I tell you? I told you to get out of my way. I said. No law would protect you, no wall to hide behind, no person you could send forth. I said that, didn't I? I told you. To. Move.” My teeth were gritted as I spat out the last few words. So many people acted like this and I just couldn’t comprehend this kind of behavior. I had warned him and his lackeys and for some reason, they just ignored the warnings I gave them. I couldn’t understand it.
“Y-y-you killed them…?” he stuttered out. I was walking his way to finish him off, just because he had lost his will to fight didn’t mean I was going to spare him. I wasn’t that noble of a person. If it came down to it I could just blame it on whatever else was taking everyone around here, unless these people were the ones responsible.
“Alex!” Karif yelled out to me. I snapped my attention back to him and saw him pointing at one of the bodies. I looked over at the one he was pointing at. What was he wanting me to see? I had just killed him, I had decapitated him, there was no way he was still… I squinted my eyes trying to see the body a little better.
That wasn’t a human body. I quickly scanned the first notifications I had gotten.
‘Ping’ [Clawed Demon - Level 23 (T2) / Ravager - Level 19 (T2)] has been slain - 10 ability points have been granted for slaying an enemy one tier above you.
Demon? What? My mind instantly launched into overdrive trying to put the pieces together before it all snapped together and everything made sense. All that happened before I remembered there was still one left and moved as fast as I could to kill him before he could do anything.
Turning towards where he had been I noticed he was gone. I quickly spun around and noticed the rest of the group was looking around for the remaining demon as well. I used my sensory skills again, glancing around trying to find a trace of the demon.
And for once they finally came into use. I felt the pulse of electricity and mana coming from above me and threw myself out of the way just in time as he came crashing down right where I had been standing. I rolled across the ground before I managed to slow myself and flip up off the ground back onto my feet holding my blade in front of me.
“Well color me impressed, little elf. I guess it’s safe to say you weren’t just getting a big head because your little friends were there to protect you. I will say I definitely didn’t expect you to be able to kill two of them without them even being able to lay a hand on you.” His voice still sounded roughly the same but came out more gravelly. Almost distorted, like it was coming through a voice changer or something.
His form had twisted to show how he truly looked, he had doffed his armor in favor of a pair of large leathery wings. The wingspan on him was massive, roughly nine feet, maybe ten. He was also taller than he had been as a human. About as tall as Garrus, so about 6’6”. He didn’t look particularly grotesque like one would normally think about demons and the like.
“Where is Penny?” Garrus growled at him while readying his weapon. George stood next to him, sword and shield at the ready while Karif stood several feet behind them preparing to cast spells.
“Ah, yes. Your ranger friend. We managed to snatch her during the little romp we had with your elven friend. As for where she is, well, I’d say you’d have to make me tell you. But you won’t ever get that chance.” He jumped as he finished flapping his wings to push him up over the trees.
Karif and I both launched spells at him to try and prevent him from leaving, but he easily dodged them laughing while he flew out of sight above the trees.
We sat for a moment, checking around us and every angle to make sure this wasn’t a trap to bait us into letting our guard down. After a few minutes, we were able to determine that he had really left and it was just us here now.
“Alright, Karif you’ve still got a bead on Penny?” Garrus asked as we grouped up.
“Yes, hasn’t moved from her last spot, still directly north of us. The same direction the demon flew in.”
“The village,” I said interrupting, “The entire village is demons,” I whispered.
“What do you mean?” Garrus said, giving me a look.
“Think about it. No one wanted to talk with us despite the fact that their families were being abducted, they just seemed okay with that happening or that they might be next. A guy was randomly pushed out of the village because his family had been abducted. He more than likely wasn’t a demon, but the demons here were the ones making him do this. It just makes sense.” I got slightly worked up towards the end and took a deep breath to calm myself down.
Karif nodded slowly, “I agree with Alex. It just makes the most sense. However, we can deal with that later.”
“Agreed, Penny needs to come first,” Garrus said.
I nodded in agreement, “Penny comes first.”
Penny awoke with a hacking cough. Chains rattled as her whole body shook. She spat out blood from her mouth as she blearily looked around. She hung from her wrists which had been rubbed raw from being there for the last few hours.
Penny had barely even seen the attack coming and most certainly hadn’t been able to move out of the way in time. She had been following Alex as he had run away from the guardsmen when something big and dark came flying at her at high speeds impacting her head and knocking her out instantly. Her head was in a lot of pain now because of that.
Penny glanced around the room trying to get her bearings, but the entire room was just stone. There was a way out from the room she was in, but otherwise, there wasn’t much else to see.
She wondered how long she’d have to wait before someone showed up. Hopefully, it’d be a while, the longer it took for someone to come the longer her party would have to try and find her and rescue her.
Not quite the turn of events she had expected, but one she didn’t mind. She hadn’t felt particularly great asking Alex to be the bait, even if it had been the best course of action as a plan. But it turned out that she was the one who had been abducted, while she wasn’t happy about this, she was happy that at least it wasn’t him having to go through another traumatic event.
As Penny started to become engrossed in her thoughts she heard steps coming from the corridor leading out of the room she was in. She looked up to see who it was approaching. In walked two creatures, the first was around average male height and build and had large leathery wings across his back.
[Level 10 (T2)]
An average level, one she would be able to handle on her own given she was tier 3 level 20 herself. The second creature was absolutely massive. It had to be at least seven feet tall. Its body rippled with muscles as it walked into the room staring straight at Penny.
[Level 72 (T3)]
Oh, that wasn’t good. It wasn’t often you saw someone in tier 3 to begin with. In fact, most tier 3 humans were adventurers or elite soldiers. And the vast majority of them sat under level 50. The reason for that was most people unlocked their third class at tier 3 and as such most of the exp they earned got sunk into their new class until it caught up to the same tier as the one they were in and then it would begin splitting experience evenly again. That caused a lot of people to stagnate in levels.
Penny herself still only had her class in the second tier, it was getting close to another ascension, but she still had a ways to go. The fact that this humanoid had gotten so far in levels meant that its third class was now in the third tier, which meant that it was extremely strong and extremely dangerous.
“Ah, our little captive has awoken. Congratulations!” The creature spoke to her as it drew up to the center of the room, “You’ve been selected as the newest participant in our royal ceremony. This is a great honor, and as such we’ve imparted the most important role to you to carry out. Don’t worry, however, it’s painfully simple.” It smiled maliciously.
“Do tell,” Penny replied in a mocking voice, “If it’s so ‘painfully simple’ as you so eloquently described, Why don’t you carry it out yourself, you grotesque oaf?”
The creature laughed jovially in response to her provocations, “If only my dear human, if only I could. Unfortunately, your role is to be a sacrifice and I am still very much needed for the plans that are to unfold. It wouldn’t do for the mastermind to get themselves killed before the fruition of their plans now would it.”
“A sacrifice? What for?” Penny asked, she tried to keep the worry out of her voice not wanting to give the creatures the satisfaction of sensing her fear.
“A wonderful question, come along and we’ll show you.”
With those words, and a flourish of its hands, the chains holding Penny up snapped and she was dropped onto the ground. They didn’t seem to care to bind her with anything, which made sense given that the big one could probably easily deal with her given that she had no weapons to fight back with.
No, Penny couldn’t do anything at the moment. But what she could do instead is bide her time. Her chance would come to get free, she just needed to make sure she was ready to take it when the chance arose.
