65 A Deadly Party - Part 1

I can't have her dying now. It's both too late and too early.

Even if he didn't believe her, she definitely planted the seed of doubt.

I won't be able to act freely if he watches me and my followers.

If I can't have her die now, I'll just have to save her.

I send a direct wave in the direction of Kawaii 2.

I developed a spell for my followers to use.

It basically makes a net of forces, so it allows for a more wide sensing area.

So just sending the direct wave in the approximate direction should be enough for him to get it.

[Anna]

I have to hurry.

I don't know if he'll actually let me live, but I'll put all chances on my side.

I'll free her friend, and even if he still wants to kill me, if I'm fast enough, I might have time to flee.

Fleeing and hiding for a while will give me enough time to prepare a comeback.

I reach the building I hid her follower in.

My eyes can't stop noticing a line is traced on the doorstep. It's imbued with meaning.

-Do you want to saved?

I look at Sofia's friend. He's still tied and unconscious, I free him.

On the wall just on top of his head is another line, imbued with specific instructions.

I see, I must put a piece of soul there. I have no choice, do I...

I make my decision.

I cut a part of my soul and put it inside the wall.

Liberty is only worth something if you're alive to enjoy it. It's not that bad of a trade-off.

[Kawaii 2]

She did it.

-Proof of obedience confirmed.

I say as I get up.

-Kawaii 1, I got the soul piece.

I walk to the stunned Anna.

-Rejoice! You were chosen to serve my Master!

[Anna]

They got a hold of a piece of my soul, for such a specific thing to be required, they must have some kind of way of attacking me. I figured out someone was on the other side of the wall, ready to pick the soul piece up, but was this man acting all along?

Then...

I laugh out at the irony of the situation.

Not only was I totally beaten, but I also screwed myself up...

I was interrupted in my thoughts by a feminine voice.

-It's no time to laugh, he's coming.

It's Sofia's other friend. Now there's no doubt Sofia is the mastermind who played along. She just had to do a small push when I was playing around the rabbit hole.

I'm interrupted in my thoughts by a few slow steps.

[DarkSasuke]

Once arrived at the building, I intentionally slowed down my pace, and stopped hiding both my presence and noise.

As careful as I am, I'd like to enjoy this moment. I'm just making her aware I'm here before arriving. To be sure she's prepared.

I'd like to taste a good victory, not just a silent execution.

I take slow, loud steps.

This is when I realize my mistake.

Two?

I put my guard up again, and uses several forces to look around me.

Three actually. There's one behind the wall.

I'll ignore this one for now.

Too bad I couldn't have a good fight, I must eliminate Anna now!

At least that's what they think I would do.

I send two kind of attacks in succession.

The first is a very fast alternative force but little power, covering a big range. Of soul type, it's meant to impede them from communicating well. This kind of noise affects other forces to a greater degree than one might think. Unless they find the exact frequency and calculate a way to encode or decode the messages in a way that would allow them to get the full message, no one will be able to communicate. It might sound easy, but it implies several variables, among which are frequency \u0026 position of the source of the noise, the starting and end point, the distance between them, the timing, the speed at which the message and the noise travel to. It's an impossible task to do in just a split moment.

With their communication taken care of, it's natural the second attack would be some kind of sneak attack. It's a powerful and fast direct attack of matter type aimed at the third one behind the wall. I'll just kill her through the wall. To ensure it at least severely injures her, it is doubled.

I can see one of them reacting before the force hits the wall. It means he's using some kind of detection. With such a high-frequency noise, even me am unable to use forces to detect anything. The calculations involved are too complex.

I don't know what he intends to do, but this will give me the time to kill Anna.

Acting as if I am still looking at the others, I send an alternative force in Anna's direction, the length is barely her size, and the goal is simple.

The first force I sent earlier just reached the wall, and cross it in an instant, it seems I'll succeed.

Right at his moment, I feel an increased consumption in both forces. I assess the situation and quickly cancel them.

That bastard.

He just did a bunch of perpendicular alternative forces, constantly pushing my forces in different directions, causing its consumption to increase exponentially to keep a straight trajectory.

It didn't cost him much because both of my straight forces are set to have a deadly power, which is prone to easily decrease, when he himself is using weak alternatives forces in great quantity. The constant small moves in different directions cause the stronger force to do multiple and constant adjustments. As for him, the cost isn't as high due to its predictability. He sends a batch, then cancels those that hit after just over half its path, once it pushes my force twice, the rest of the path isn't needed.

This kind of optimization might seem small, but at the scale of a few thousand small weak alternative forces, it definitely represents a good 20% of the mana costs cut down.

What he did was definitely a message to me.

"I don't care about the other that much, she's only valuable as an ally, but if you are ready to lose all your mana, you can go and kill her".

I wouldn't go and give an opportunity to kill me by running out of mana.

I wanted to release the noise after the third one died, but I have no choice.

She's not an idiot, she probably moved since then, keeping the noise up would be the equivalent of telling her to ambush me from behind.

Also, it won't be long before they notice they can use the voice to communicate even with the noise up. Living all their life without using their voice won't keep them from thinking about it forever, it's too risky.

Then let's see how prepared you are!

For a higher cost, I start a direct wave from both behind and one of his sides, I'd like to see if he can detect those before they hit him.

He stepped to the left side and avoided the one from behind.

But that won't be enough, he gets hit by the one from the right, and I hear a few ribs break under the impact.

But it's not finished. I do not withdraw the force, as I would usually do. Forces do not impact actually, they move along a path, using mana to keep their speed and momentum, which means right about now, his organs are getting displaced with the same strength that was enough to break his right ribs, they're going to be squashed against his left ribs, that will also break on the impact.

Oh, he is truly fast.

He canceled out the force before his organs were crushed. They were displaced, which should cause quite a bit of pain, but not yet crushed.

At that moment, I feel a force pushing directly on my soul, quickly reaching its center. I quickly generate a force to stop it.

An attack? Impossible, the third one shouldn't have been able to know my position, the man is too busy dealing with his own injuries.

Is it Anna. She seems to be still in shock.

There is another? [1]

An arrogant laugh sounds from behind me.

-Come on, I join the party and what do I see? My own followers being attacked unjustly. I might want to claim your life in return, you know?

[1] Hope you got the meme.