“I didn’t expect them to have hundreds of weak mana hearts they were willing to trade for our assistance,” I said as we walked behind another of the Silent Ones.My first assumption that the Silent Ones were some weird harem was proven wildly inaccurate with this one, seeing as he was a man. Then again, I didn’t know how this society operated maybe they swung both ways. Who was I to judge?“That’s because you get too defensive,” Fiona added flatly, “Martin told me an interesting saying, you catch more flies with honey.”I grunted, “I’m familiar with it. I just don’t like being lied to and manipulated.”“Nor do I, but you should still try to be nicer to people, at least when Martin or I am not here to smooth things over for you.”I couldn’t deny that, but I wasn’t opening up to people I hardly knew anymore. Not after what happened with Javier. Once bitten twice shy so to speak. I knew I was being obstinate but it kept my friends from being hurt I was fine with alienating others. But th
After Fiona woke up we spread out and deployed the spirit repellers around the last reported location of someone going missing. It wasn’t close to one of the working enchantment circles but it would let us know if the items worked.We met back up after a few hours.“You ready?” I asked.“Let me get a birds-eye view,” she said before turning invisible and floating into the air.I gave her a few minutes to get set before I activated the devices.I didn’t have to wait long before a spine-chilling screech tore through the buildings around me. There was a flash of liquid darkness as it tore out of the alley and rushed toward me.Without my weapon, I had no way of harming the spirit so I leaped into the air, activating my wings and quickly flapping backward until I was within the safety of my repulsion field.The creature let out another baleful scream as it contacted the field and vanished into a nearby shadow.I landed back in the street and looked around to see if anyone had witnessed ou
A white ring of swirling energy opened outside of Saint June and three men stepped out.One of the men looked around in disdain with a cloth over his mouth to block out the dust that was kicked up by an errant gust of wind.“Pu’v, why did we arrive outside of the walls?” Lord Vik’t asked in an accusatory tone.A shorter man scuttled over and knelt, “I am unsure my Lord, my spell should have brought us well inside the walls and near the government residence going by the information we collected.”“Ugh, useless,” Lord Vik’t said, shoving the man aside and heading toward the gate in the distance. His guard and Pu’v the teleporter expert followed in his wake.He would have replaced Pu’v with someone more competent but he was his sister's kid and keeping him around ensured that his sister would owe him a favor.Their arrival had not gone unnoticed and the large gate slammed shut at their approach with hard-looking men watching them from the top of the wall. Lord Vik’t had confidence that i
As soon as the portal vanished and Lord Vik’t was secure, Ashlam went to gather his forces.The Lord wanted an all-out assault but Ashlam knew there were better ways to secure a city than attacking it outright and he knew the Lord deferred to him on matters of battle. With that in mind, he headed toward the barracks and his infiltration team. He would still ready the army but that could take time, time his infiltration unit would need to undermine the enemy city and make it an easier target.“Gol, Nalam, where are the others?” he demanded after entering the room.The two jumped to attention and Gol answered, “they are on rotation duty, Sir.”“Gather them up, I have a mission for the four of you.”Gol hurried off to collect the others while Ashlam and Nalam waited.“What sort of mission are we talking about?” the female Narmani purred.Ashlam ignored the question of the beautiful Narmani woman. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was her superior and that feline kin were almost always ex
“Any idea who or what it was?” Martin asked as he stared at the mangled corpse on the coroner's table.Martin was thankful the city had power again, otherwise, the smell would have been unbearable.Kurt shrugged, “your guess is as good as mine,” the man answered noncommittally.Martin suppressed the urge to throttle the man. He had become more a detriment than an asset since Martin took office.“Who got the kill message?” Martin asked, keeping the frustration from coloring his question.“One of the guards, why?”“Go find out who it was and see what the message told them.”“Fine, but I don’t see the point. It's pretty obvious who sent them,” Kurt grumbled.“Just do your job, Sheriff.”With one last irritated huff, Kurt left the room. After he was gone Martin turned toward the coroner, “was he always like this?”Before answering the coroner made sure to check that Kurt was long gone.“Far as I can tell, the man has always been an ass. I never really worked with him but others I knew sai
Ska walked back through the city gate. He was going to relay what he found to Martin when a familiar scent crossed his nose.He paused, inhaling deeply. Unlike the old scent trails located outside, this one was new, and he knew it was enough to trigger his skill. He rumbled in delight as he began to stalk his first target.The trail meandered and at times went below and above the city streets in an effort to throw him off. But the efforts were in vain.So lost in his hunt Ska didn’t notice the trap laid across his path. He knew his mistake the moment he made it as the wire went taut. He threw himself clear of the blast, only catching the edge of it and getting his hair singed off for his trouble.Other guards rushed over to see what had happened. Ska roared in anger, some at his foolishness but most directed at the perpetrator of this trap. Ska could see a few people lying motionless near where the bomb had detonated and it made him furious.“Gather a team and follow me,” he ground ou
Hey, Fiona, I think we may have a problem,” I said as I looked at the remote viewing orb.It wasn’t quite clear as we were still a ways off from the coast and the orb wasn’t designed to see that far away. What I had noticed was a haze of dark smoke. I may have missed it if I hadn’t been watching the orb out of boredom and saw a slightly thicker clump of smoke.“What is it?” Fiona asked as she hurried into the room.“Smoke, I’m going to cloak the fortress. Can you fly ahead and get an idea of what we are flying into?”She looked worried about the possibility that the city and most likely Martin may be in trouble and nodded.It didn’t take her long to fly off and return, being much faster than the fortress.“City is mostly intact. It seems a few attacks made it through before the shield got raised. The smoke is coming from the walled-in farming area to the east. There seems to be an army camped out near the remains. They also appear to have mobile mana cannons and are occasionally firin
“You sure this will work?” Martin asked worriedly.“No,” I responded while I positioned the large cube full of runes into place below the teleportation scrambler.“You could have at least lied to me,” Martin grumbled.“And what good would that have done, hmm? Besides, the test worked fine, the only concern I have is distance. But I have a solution for that as well.”“Fair point. Can you activate it separately from the shield?”“For now, no. but if I had a few more days I could rig up a separate control for the drainer,” I replied.“That is a terrible name,” Ska said.“I'll leave the cool naming up to you and Martin,” I added, grunting as I squeezed past the massive block that took up most of the room in the small attic space.I heard Martin groan and Ska croon happily. I chuckled.“Are we ready?” I asked.Martin flicked on his little two-way radio and talked with the guards.“Everyone is in position and ready in case they attack. Ska could you join the wall guards?”“Very well, give m
Was the person in the mirror really Henry and not an international supermodel?Henry could not help but wonder.However, Mia's reaction told Henry that it was not an illusion.Mia's mouth was wide open as she walked to Henry's side in shock. She looked at him in the mirror and was amazed."Oh my God, Henry, I never realized that you're so handsome! Gosh, you look so good."As Mia spoke, she couldn't help but touch Henry's firm chest."Oh my God, these firm pecs are worth dying for…"Henry looked at Mia, who was acting like a pervert. He shook his head helplessly and slapped her hand away."Alright, now that I've changed my clothes, let's hurry to the banquet before we go late. I'm not known for attending any events late." Hearing this, Mia finally came back to her senses. "Ah, yes. We have to hurry over. With such a handsome companion by my side, I'd like to see if those little b*tches will still show off in front of me," Mia proudly said as she pulled Henry's arm.After that, they q
Martin strode down the hall of the capitol building with a worried smile on his face. He was a bit greyer now but he still oozed charm and confidence. Time had been kind to him.The city had become a booming metropolis in the ten years since Paul returned, after his year and a half of being missing. Martin knew something had happened because one day a bunch of massive flying ships had come from nowhere and obliterated the ships that had been harassing the city non-stop for over six months. They had quickly taken care of Lord Vik’t and his remaining forces, the man managing to flee back to his homeworld before the Guild caught him.When Paul had returned, he had returned a quiet man. You could see the loss in his eyes. But the man pushed on and his businesses flourished, producing the Earth’s mightiest warships and most advanced runic items. Then five years after Paul returned, he took a fleet of ten of his capital ships and vanished for another year.When he returned again, the ships
As soon as the pirates realized the Guild ships were approaching the island, they broke off the fighting and retreated toward the edge of town to dig in. They weren’t stupid enough to attack the Guild but it seemed they wanted to ensure there wasn’t an accidental incident.One of the Guild ships docked and the Captain stepped off to greet the three of us. I had been carried over by Barcos and Em’ah on the same chair she plopped me in the night before. My legs were looking less like mashed potatoes now and instead looked like mushed putty. It was hard to ignore the sensation of the bones moving around within my shattered legs but I was managing.“Captain Paul, I hope this wasn’t a last-ditch attempt to hold off your enemy. I can assure you, we will leave for safer shores immediately if it was.”I ignored the man’s condescending snark before replying. “You have the agreement from the Director?”“I do,” he smiled. “Do you wish to review it?”I nodded and he produced a stack of documents
Groaning, I opened my eyes. All I saw was darkness. I tried turning my head or moving but it seemed like I was pinned in place.I fought down the urge to panic as I evaluated my condition. My arms were still broken, the sharp stabbing pain when I tried to move them told me as much. I could breathe though so my organs had healed after the beating I had taken. That was something at least.Seeing as I was in no immediate danger of dying, I checked my skills. My blood ran cold as I saw what remained of my abilities.[Rejuvenate][Multicast][Eye of the Storm][Aura of Rage][Calcifying Strike]Frostwave][Orb of Darkness][Energy Lance][Overcharge][Tempest Ball]That was the sum total of all the skills I now had. They had stripped me of every ability I had stolen from them along with every ability my second class gave me by default, making it impossible to recover skills by stealing them from others.I let out a morbid little chuckle as I lay there. Tears of frustration leaked from the
Those two words seemed to freeze everyone in place, but it wasn’t magic that caused it, it was fear. My body was frozen along with everyone else but my eyes rose into the air, tracking two creatures as they forced the magical fog away from the entire area with some ability.It was hard to tell by their alien physiology but I got the distinct impression they were looking directly at me. The initial fear was subsiding and people were starting to move again until the larger of the two squid-like creatures cast a spell. I managed to get off an Identify before the spell hit.[Ulq | Void Hunter/Maw of the Void | 47/41][Xiph | Psy Commando/Maw of the Void | 45/42]My body shook as I realized they were here for me but not a single person or even the entire pirate armada currently assembled here would be able to kill these two creatures.I felt the spell wash over the area and everyone was frozen again but a halo of golden light burst into existence above my head, washing away the spell’s eff
The meager fleet of ships I was now in charge of, rose from the dock and slowly spiraled into the air to get above the mist. The chaotic coloration of the mana storm was visible in the distance even through the mist. That meant the enemy was almost upon the island.The Retribution was the first ship to breach the thick covering and it was no surprise to see the enemy ships had spread out in a crescent shape to surround the island. Enemy fast attack craft zipped toward our location and I double-checked that everything was working as it should. I had also turned the mana accumulator back on.I sometimes wished I had been able to fit multiple layers of shielding on the ship. But my experiments in that regard had not gotten anywhere. Shields that close together acted like soap bubbles. Either they popped completely or merged together, but it didn’t increase the strength of the shield when they did. The only way to prevent this was to have separate bubble shields that only covered a certai
After weeks of sitting around, the Retribution finally got to fly again.Knowing we were leaving, the harbor was a beehive of activity. Cobbled together crews were drilling aboard the other captured pirate ships. The people knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when another enemy would appear.As soon as Khikall got us away from the docks and any possible collision, I engaged the cloak. It was far more effective now that I could enable and disable the automatic recharging system. The massive disruption of mana we used to leave in our wake was now a tiny trail.I hadn’t had time to figure out a way to smooth our passing completely but this would have to do. I also had Em’ah watching for trails from a crudely assembled periscope. Now she didn’t need to be on the deck to use her Mana Sense skill.Speaking of skills… I had picked up a few from the last fight. I also managed to finally hit level twenty in my Maw of the Void class. I stuck two of my stats in Strength, one in Endura
I watched as the workers placed the last armor panel in position and began to weld it into place. It had taken a few weeks to repair the damages from our fight but the Retribution was looking almost new.The replaced sections were clearly visible by the heat transfer in the titanium. I could easily fix that when I turned the thermal defenses on. It should make everything a uniform color. Paint would work too, I suppose, but why cover up the beauty of the metal.It was a good thing the ship was complete, over the last few days, we had been getting reports from the Guild merchant ships that were stopping to trade, and they weren’t good.Large fleets of pirate ships spotted raiding islands. The Capital of the Avulian Protectorate was sacked and all of the leadership missing. The remaining fleets of the Protectorate were attacking any ship that wasn’t theirs or the Guild's. Cities burning due to the slaves I helped free, it was madness and it was spreading.Already I could hear concerned
Captain Grulaine hissed in annoyance as his second in command handed him his “orders”. His second flinched back and hurried out of the room. If he hadn’t, Grulaine may have cut him down in a fit of pique. It galled Grulaine to be under the thumb of another. He had gotten rid of his father for that very same reason. And now thanks to a series of unfortunate events, he found himself beholden to the damn pirate king Black Gar’s lap dog.How was he to know the repair yard where he went was controlled by that snake. If he had he certainly wouldn’t have agreed to the loan to effect repairs to his cannons and ship. Repairs that had taken far longer than necessary, and left Grulaine on the sidelines as the entire protectorate seemed to be crumbling around him. An opportunity-rich environment he wasn’t able to take advantage of.But that wasn’t the most galling part. He found that his repairs were delayed on purpose so Gar could tighten his stranglehold on the local pirates. By the time Grulai