Chapter 144: The Job (P3)

I don't get to finish my spell call as much to my expectation, the rogue Red woman slices through my bone shields.

I'm immediately left vulnerable, my front unguarded and ripe for to be split in two by her daggers. However.

With a snap of my finger one of the ten souls from earlier springs forth and spreads out in a thin, shining ethereal shield that does far better at withstanding the slashes of my bloodthirsty opponent.

I breathe a breath of relief and let myself the luxury of a smile as I raise my fingers for one more snap. She seems to realize what this means, the look on her face changes and her mouth falls open in a gasp.

"Sator!"

"Ignition."

The resulting explosion of the pile of over twenty zombies sends shrapnel made of bones, teeth and guts all around. Blood splatter so perfect for my next spell.

With her back turned and her face no doubt riddled with a look of horror and disbelief, I take a page from her book of ruthlessness and snatch the opportunity.

"Blood Scythe." Mana seeps out of my body and quietly fuses with blood all around, by focussing my will I have the spell take the shape I want.

The pools of blood ascend and form several thin, sharp crimson crescent blades, all of which are ready to slice and dice the rather ironically named Red.

However, it seems she's not as lost in her grief as I thought, just I as I unleash the flurry of crimson blades into her position, she disappears. 

Literally. 

I can't find her anywhere.

Looking about helplessly my eyes glance over at the distance where Anselm and Quen, the archer are still going at it. There's ice everywhere.

For once I'll take that as a good sign and assume that Anselm is on the winning side of his tussle. I mean, how well can an Archer do at close range anyway?

THUD

My attention is drawn to the black roll of…cloth of some kind, perhaps a pouch that hits and rolls an inch away from my Soul Manipulated shield.

"What is-"

Booommm!

Protected by a shield or no the resulting explosion from whatever that package was knocks me on my ass. The concussive force alone is enough to disorient me enough that I lose focus and control over the souls powering me with filtered mana, as well as the shield.

"Ughh" I grunt, dazed, as though struck by a sudden drunkenness. But there's no time to be under the influence, the damned woman is dancing towards me right now.

Her daggers slicing and dicing the zombies I had left over to protect me, her arms swinging in a flurry and her voice screeching with pain.

"I'll kill you!"

"Bone Spikes." Is my rebuttal.

To her credit, despite being blinded by a burning anger she manages to flip and vault out of the way of several of the bones erupting from bodies, most of which she fell herself.

But not all of them.

"Aghh!" She screams as a bone gets her in the thigh.

I push more mana into the spell, sharpening the bones tips and sending them out of the bodies at speed.

Within seconds she's got another bone spiked through her other thigh, one piercing her back, her shoulders, her arms, and her abdomen.

Falling to her knees one after the other, her daggers lose their glow and clatter onto the bloodstained ground. 

That's two down.

"Ack!" she coughs, hacking out blood. 

Strolling over to her I gaze down at her kneeling, defeated figure. "You gave me a reality check…Red. Thank you for that."

Raising her chin seems like such a draining task. There's a light smile on her face even as her mouth dribbles with blood.

"You're…going to die today."

I scoff, "How audacious."

I start to walk away, heading to kill the last of the arrogant trio when a thought occurs to me.

Turning back, I squat down and look her in the eye. She's almost gone but I begin to mould mana for a certain spell that could change that.

"I will not apologize for killing your friend, you should have helped him back then instead of coming after me, in fact, you should have rejected this job when the Mayor brought it up to you."

She doesn't say a thing. More like she can't. 

I smile and continue, "But leaving the past in the past, I belief I could have use for you, good use in fact. I'm about to become the Mayor of this place, add this territory to Frozia and Spol and the fact that I am possibly the only one willing and capable of fighting a Beta, then you arrive at the fact that I will become the Marquess."

"See, I want to be a responsible Marquess. I need an army, a functional one, one that acts as an organ, a strict and disciplined system just like you and your comrades. I don't have anyone of my team who can train such an army to achieve these standards."

To begin with, the army is rather…malnourished. But small steps, the elves will not be the only ones to enlist, there will also be the dead as well as the living breathing humans.

"How about you take a government job and train my burgeoning Army? Hm? What do you say?"

She quakes and sways a bit in her movement, her lips trembling and then, in a raspy voice she breaths out, "I can't breathe…"

"Ah, right." I let the moulded mana go and mutter the words to a spell I've only ever used once before, "Spirit Summon; Healing Dire."

The mana I let go is taken and pumped into the ground below my feet before spreading outwards and then quickly coalescing into a huge lumpy ball of white light that begins to jerk, twist and form into the shape of a wolf until the light settles and dims out.

The spirit as like before, does nothing and simply sits there. Already I can feel its effects as the wounds on my back slowly begin to close up.

For red the spikes are slowly pushed out and the wound closed up until she can breathe properly again. I briefly worry that I may have healed an enemy but those worries are dismissed when she tries to stand and instantly topples over.

"You've lost far too much blood to be so eager, Red. Now answer my question, will you serve in my administration or do I have to kill you and your last friend?"

Fallen in my arms she looks up at me sleepily and nods. "Spare Quen."

Ahh, I love it when things go my way.