485 Decoy

Before any useful information could leave the mouth of Gevva, a sudden force suddenly fallen on the entire flat courtyard in front of what used to be my chamber, pushing all the air from her lungs and making her unable to speak.

But at this point, I wasn't willing to save her from the wrath of someone willing to go for the additional length to silence her. After all, it was doubtful that the main mastermind behind th entire scheme would do the honours himself, giving me way more chances of finding out who I was up against by going after the current enemy rather than trying to keep my first witness.

*BONGER!*

Even though I could simply use my energy vision to locate the source, I knew that I only had a small window to do it, so rather than relying on my still limited reflexes or taking the time to properly unlock them and risk alerting everyone about my real power, I simply decided to rely on my trusty partner, who wasn't bothered by the earthy distractions.

"On it!"

This time, rather than bothering me with his usual, quirky remarks, Bonger instantly put an overlay on my view, allowing me easily trace the flow of the magic that was pressuring everyone tightly to the ground, with only me and several other cultivators capable of remaining standing. 

"He is there!"

Rather than turning my entire head towards the direction that Bonger pointed out in the corner of my visions with a flashing arrow, I simply allowed the peripheral vision to guide my entire self as I stopped pretending that this attack had any effect for me and jumped into a run.

Yet rather than escaping from the scene, I dashed towards the buildings, where this kind of attack could deal a lot more damage by smashing the hard material they were made off on my head rather than just using the air pressure to stall my movements while suffocating Gevva!

But instead of hiding within one of the buildings and giving my opponent an easier way to deal with me, I used my momentum to climb as far as I could on its wall, before using it as a foothold when the force of gravity or whatever replaced it in this world equalled to my diminishing speed. 

Suddenly turning around to the enemy that I had behind my back during my dash, I gathered all the strength I could, coated myself with a small cloud of mana and made some childish signs resembling those I saw back when watching Narato as a kid, before propelling myself forward with a simple kick against the wall of the random building I was standing on!

"I got you!"

While my strength was still limited, it didn't change the fact that the power coursing through my veins right now was still far more than enough to deal with someone like that, who could only use sneak attacks to meddle in my business!

As the last few meters shrank to one, even the veil covering the face of this guy was unable to hide his fear-filled expression from my prying eyes!

With my fist shooting forward, I made sure to bend my fingers to make them resemble the claws of some bird, before casting yet another shockwave right on top of my palm.

"Divine claw!"

Fighting off my embarrassment, I still shouted the name of the technique that I was pretending to use. If those who were certain to watch the ongoings of the events were schooled enough, they would without a doubt recognise this as the fighting art used by the long-gone leading tribe of their entire community, whose downfall allowed the third wave of barbarians to replace them as the rulers of the continent.

The dragon tribe.

As my extended palm reached for the head of my opponent, rather than being pulled towards my fingers or even losing the ability to keep his defence up, this guy was promptly repelled backwards by my shockwave, as if the divinity of the technique I used found him too filthy to even affect him, simply forcing him back out of its way. 

With the snakebite still tightly held in my right arm, just a single smash right at the chest of the assassin was enough to deprive him of his breath and allow me to tear his veil apart, making sure to save all the details of his face in my memory if some unfortunate accident were to silence him from my questioning as well.

"You have attacked the disciple of the elder Monica, of the goose sect. Do you have any words before I will provide you with a proper sentence and its execution?"

Rather than actually asking him, I simply said those words in the same manner as a modern policeman from the earth would recite the laws of the man he would arrest, saying some bullshit about his right to remain silent and all.

Before the guy could even open his eyes, my charm already made a short work of his mind, forcing him to tell me everything I wanted before anyone would even have a shot at him.

"I was just a decoy…"

With the charm working as a confusion spell on the people rather than a forcible truth extraction, they always spoke about the things they internally considered to be the most important. 

That's why, when hearing his words I instantly turned back to face the plaza where the duel took place, only to see a strange monkey impaling Gevva through her heart with a spear, only to turn around, look at me, wave its hairy hand and dissipate into the thin air!