Chapter 294: Come along

Chapter 294: Come along

Noah’s soul found his gourd and he materialized minutes later, flopping to the forest floor. Luckily, Lee and Moxie had noticed his revival and had stopped running to set the gourd down, saving him from returning to life and mid-step.

“That was slower than I expected, if I’m being honest,” Moxie said.

Noah sat up, pressing his hand to his forehead and grimacing. The headache was worse than most of the ones he’d had of late – for once, his killer had been someone other than himself. He’d almost forgotten how annoying the soul damage from getting killed by another creature was.

At least it didn’t eat my body before I came back, or this would be even worse.

“Did you win the fight?” Lee asked.

“Unfortunately not,” Noah replied. Moxie handed him his clothes and he tugged them on, suppressing the headache as best as he could. “But I found out how to win the next one.”

“It’s within reason to challenge, then?” Moxie helped Noah into his jacket and to his feet. “Do we need to keep running?”

“I don’t smell it coming in our direction.” Lee turned her nose to the air to confirm her words before returning her attention to them. “Yeah, it’s not following us. We’d probably hear it if it was.”

“Maybe not. I don’t believe the snake was actually anywhere near the size we believed it to be.”

“It was an illusion?” Moxie blinked. “That’s odd. It looked pretty real.”

“No, not an illusion. I managed to land a pretty good blow on it with Sunder, and I didn’t even get through all of its armor. I think the whole snake is basically one giant earth construct, and the real monster is hidden somewhere inside it. I suppose it could technically be outside it as well, but either way, there’s something going on there.”

“It did smell a bit more muted than I expected it to,” Lee mused, rubbing her chin and pausing to think for a moment. “I thought it was because the whole place smelled foresty, but maybe it was just concealed in a bunch of dirt.”

“How fast is it?” Moxie asked.

“Within reason. It’s huge, but I could match its speed without too much trouble. Lee would have no trouble at all, although I don’t think she’d be able to do much damage to it.”

“I could run inside its mouth.” Lee patted the hilt of her axe. “Then I can just swing this around until I hit the real thing.”

“Probably not the best idea. It can control its entire body,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “I got stabbed by spikes that came out of its scales, and it could turn them to quicksand as well. I would avoid getting anywhere near it.”

“You don’t want to fight it anymore?” Lee’s face fell. “It squished my pet. I want to kill it.”

“Oh, we’re definitely killing it.” Noah threw a glance over his shoulder, his brow tightening as another pang of pain rippled through his mind. “We just have to approach it a little differently. We need to get past all that armor covering the real monster.”

“Sunder it again?” Lee offered.

“It could take a while. Sunder targets a single thing, and I have absolutely no idea how big the snake is. If its just hiding in the tail or something, it could take forever to actually land a blow. The Fragment of Renewal might be much more efficient.”

“You didn’t try it?” Moxie asked.

“I’ve only got one shot with it a day, remember? I didn’t want to waste it. My headache will clear up in around twelve hours, so I’d rather just go right back after the Great Monster as soon as it clears up instead of waiting for a whole day.”

“I forgot about that.” Moxie rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Sorry. Good thinking, then. But, based on what we saw the Fragment of Renewal do to Evergreen, I think it would probably work really well against this thing.”

“Agreed. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of how we can handle this thing in our next fight with it. It should actually be a pretty easy fight.”

“Who are you?” Karina demanded.

“What a coincidence. I was about to ask you the same thing.” The man adjusted his fine clothes, then arched an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t happen to be the owner of the mansion that stood here a little while ago, would you?”

“I am. What’s it to you?” Karina’s eyes narrowed. “What branch are you with?”

“None of them,” the man replied. “I’ve been waiting for you. I come bearing ill news, I fear.”

“About my house?” Karina glanced back at the empty lot despite herself. “What happened to it?”

“It was taken.”

“I gathered that much.” Karina drew a deep breath, repressing the urge to explode in fury. An image of Vermil’s face flickered through her mind. The man reminded her of him. There was an air of danger about both of them – and it was one she wanted absolutely nothing more to do with. Angering him wouldn’t help her. “Was it moved somewhere? I’d really like to know what’s going on.”

“Polite. Interesting. Not what the reports said.”

Asshole. I’m going to shove my foot so far up your ass it comes out of your mouth.

Karina opened her mouth.

“Your parents are dead.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Both of them. Died on a mission.” The man picked his nose, then yawned. “Their wills stated to use their entire fortunes on their funerals, so your house was foreclosed.”

The world felt like it was falling apart around Karina. “What? Are you serious? But–”

“The funerals happened a day or two ago. I can’t quite remember,” the man continued. “I spent the entire budget on myself and burned their corpses before sticking them in a plain grave.”

“Who are you?” Karina asked, anger starting to seep into her words. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“Ah. I’ve been rude again.” The man straightened his back and held a hand out, his dark eyes flashing with amusement that showed he didn’t regret anything he’d said. “My name is Jalen, Head of the Linwick Family. Sorry about your parents. I’ve still got some of the cake I used their fortunes to buy in my office, if you’d like to have some.”

A ripple of energy passed out from Jalen, slamming into Karina. It wasn’t an attack – he’d allowed the pressure from his Runes to leak out for the briefest instant. She nearly crumpled under the enormous pressure that bore down on her, but she managed to remain standing. Karina’s blood ran cold.

Screw this. I don’t care what happened. I’ll sleep under a tree if it means I can be left alone.

“That’s kind of you, but I’m fine.” Karina’s throat felt like it was going to close up around her words. She’d never seen the head of the Linwicks before, but she didn’t doubt Jalen at all. He was easily the most powerful mage she’d ever stood beside. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

Jalen’s smile grew wider. He took a step forward, somehow crossing nearly a dozen feet and arriving beside her in the blink of an eye. His hand fell on her shoulder in what should have been a comforting gesture – it was anything but.

“Ah, but I insist. It would be a shame not to share. The cake is to die for.” Jalen tilted his head to the side. “Is that insensitive?”

Karina swallowed. “No, Magus Jalen.”

“Lovely. Come along, then. We have much to talk about.”