Wild Era, Ch 19: Sarathian Assassin

As the adventurers closed in on his location, Kelin decided on the simplest course of action.

He targeted the Sarathian assassin and a soul arrow appeared in his hand.

“Hold on there,” he called mildly as he let his camouflage fade and walked out onto the road. His staff tapped on the ground beside his boots.

The adventurers were almost to his position and when they saw a man emerge from nothing, the Winter Sylph in the lead jumped, sprinting away from him.

The dwarf behind her let out a shout and an earth-aligned mana barrier sprang up in front of Kelin to block him, but he kept running along the road.

Maro, the man carrying the healer, swerved away from Kelin. Streaks of sweat ran down his face and his expression was hard. He had one arm wrapped around the healer over his shoulder while the other held an axe.

Then the adventurers were past him and it was only the assassin still approaching. 

Kelin raised his staff and turned it horizontally. A golden mana shield spread out to the sides, creating a barrier across the road. 

He didn’t need the staff as a focus, but there was no reason he couldn’t use it as one, and it pulled attention from the rainbow light in his other hand.

Even though his ability was called Soulfire Shield now, it was still a mana shield and he had no intention of constantly referring to it another way.

The assassin saw him blocking the path and didn’t hesitate at all. Two dark knives appeared in his hand as he flung them at Kelin. They whipped through the air like black serpents, surrounded by a writhing web of shadows.

“Good enough,” Kelin said as he hardened the mana shield and let the knives slam into it. The impact was considerable, taking twenty-five points of mana for each dagger.

Since the assassin had declared his stance, Kelin didn’t hesitate as he tossed the soul arrow he was holding at him.

The assassin saw the spell coming and was agile enough to hurl himself out of the way. He flipped into a somersault and twisted in the air toward the side of the road. 

His class as Silent Assassin was apparent as his movements made no sound when he landed on the stones. 

The soul arrow curved around and struck him anyway, but as it did, a thin white barrier appeared around the assassin’s body, stopping it from penetrating.

It was a soul ward of some type, probably from an artifact that the assassin was carrying. They  weren’t too uncommon among advanced adventurers.

He was well equipped for whatever mission he was on.

The soul arrow hovered just beyond the edge of the ward, and at Kelin’s command its aura began to fluctuate, alternating between sharp and dull as it hammered into the barrier.

The assassin sensed the impact and dodged again, turning his somersault into a roll before he twisted and sent two more dark knives flying toward Kelin.

Kelin’s hand swept up and a smaller mana shield appeared, one that was denser than the large one across the road. The knives ricocheted away from it, and this time the impacts took only five mana each.

Behind them, the assassin blurred into a streak of shadowy light as he headed straight for Kelin. 

He wasn’t wasting any time orienting himself on the new target. 

His subclass as Darkwind Walker gave him the shadowy aura that was boosting his speed and concealing his presence, as well as some other effects that would have been useful if he was hunting people at night, but Kelin was tracking him by his soul. 

The first soul arrow was still trying to break through the assassin’s ward and artifacts tended to have limited mana to draw on, so he sent two more after it, followed by two soulfire bolts that seared through the air,

The bolts ignored the assassin’s veil and struck him in the chest, but this time a steel-grey barrier of defensive light appeared that resembled armor. The bolts exploded against the ward, sending the assassin flying backward. 

He rolled across the ground and jumped to his feet again, unfazed by the impact, except that he gave Kelin a considering look. His eyes were dark and his expression was as calm as still water.

Then he was moving again, but this time he pulled something out of a storage bag and threw it at Kelin.

It was a single-use talisman of some type, a faster version of a scroll. The talisman ignited into lines of crackling blue light as it shot across the distance.

Yellow runes glowed across Kelin’s body as he was covered with Stoneskin, but a soulfire bolt shot out to meet the talisman before it could reach him.

The two spells exploded in the air. The talisman exploded into a cage of blue light, while the soulfire burned away at the structure of the talisman itself, making the cage warp as the spell failed.

A dark blur shot through the chaos of the spells as the assassin closed in on Kelin. 

This time, he held two knives in his hands instead of throwing them. The blades were connected by a line of shadows, making it look like he was holding a garrote.

His movements were fast and graceful as he came in at an angle. One of the blades headed for Kelin’s neck as the other looped around to stab toward his kidney.

Kelin didn’t bother to dodge. Instead, he raised his hand and a pulse of soul energy poured outward, saturating everything at point blank range with overwhelming force. 

Everything around him froze in place, like flies stuck in amber.

The ward around the assassin hummed under the force, but it was only designed to block direct attacks, not area effects. It was to the artifact’s credit that the assassin was still moving, but only at about an inch a second.

Beads of sweat formed and rolled down the man’s face as he struggled to bring his blades closer to Kelin and finish their arc.

Kelin ignored the weapons as he reached out and placed his hand directly on top of the ward on the man’s chest.

“Soul Ignition.” The words were a focus for a spell that was a dozen times stronger than usual. 

Soul energy turned into a tidal wave of rainbow light on Kelin’s palm, the force building until it reverberated like thunder. 

Then it tore through the ward on the assassin’s body and sank directly into his soul.

The assassin shuddered as his eyes turned to rainbow pools. Smoke began to erupt from his eyes and mouth. 

When Kelin pulled his hand back, the man tumbled to the ground like a marionette with his strings cut.

A notification from the Path rang in Kelin’s mind, but he ignored it. His expression was calm as he glanced down at the assassin, confirming that he was dead.

The entire fight had only taken about ten seconds.

He turned to look over his shoulder, to where the adventurers were staring at him. They had stopped running and their weapons were in their hands as they looked back along the road. 

It seemed like they’d figured out Kelin was helping them and they were ready to come back and join in, but the battle was over fast enough that they hadn’t been able to.

“I wouldn’t go any farther down that road,” Kelin suggested, his voice still calm. “I haven’t cleared the monsters there. If you’d like to rest up, feel free to join me. I was meditating here when I saw you.”

He waved off to the side of the road, where he’d been sitting.

“And if you’re willing, I have a few questions for you about what’s going on,” he added. “That was a Sarathian assassin. Based on what I know, he should not have been in Celadon. Why was he chasing you?”

Without waiting for them to answer, he turned and walked back to where he’d been sitting. 

Behind him, Gaius created a platform of earth and lifted the assassin up on it, carrying him along. Kelin sat down and Gaius set the assassin next to him. 

While he waited for the adventurers to decide, he began to search the corpse. Since it was an assassin, he was very careful about it, covering his hands with a mana barrier so he didn’t stab himself on a poisoned needle or anything else the man was carrying.

He swiftly extracted a few interesting things.

First was a belt that doubled as a spatial artifact. It was a basic one with a space that was about five feet long, three feet across, and two feet deep inside. It was long enough to hold some weapons and just a bit larger than his spatial pocket.

It would be useful, so he didn’t hesitate to claim ownership of it and put it on. 

It wasn’t a high level artifact, so there was no binding on it to worry about. 

It looked like a plain, but high quality leather belt in a rich brown hue, and it was slightly scuffed at the edges. No one would give it a second look unless they noticed the spatial storage woven into its structure, which was hard for anyone but an expert to spot.

There wasn’t much inside of it beyond a spare set of clothing, some basic food and water, a decent collection of weapons, a couple dozen potions, and a small collection of coins.

The weapons were mostly knives, but there was also a shield, bow, arrows, and a couple of short spears, all of them made in a similar style and from the same dark metal. 

They were of decent quality, but nothing too special, and none of them had enchantments.

The potions were a mixed bag, but much more valuable. Some of them were poisons, but the majority were for utility and combat boosts. 

There were four invisibility potions, four more to enhance stealth and silence, four to enhance night vision, five for healing, and four to regenerate mana.

There was one more of the talismans that the assassin had used too, which Kelin studied for a moment. 

It was an Arcane Cage talisman. 

It was designed to trap a mage and prevent them from using mana, but this version had a crude activation process that drew on the user’s vitality to activate it.

He was tempted to just incinerate it, since he had no intention of using it himself, but he left it alone for now.

The wealth in the assassin’s possession was just over forty silvers. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to travel on. 

The last things he inspected were the wards the assassin had used to protect his soul and to shield himself from mana. It took him a minute to find them, since they weren’t among the assassin’s possessions.

They turned out to be tattoos inscribed onto the man’s back and shoulders. He sliced apart the clothing in the way with his mana blade and studied them with curiosity.

They were written in a dark and bold style that was probably Sarathian, but now that the assassin was dead, they were beginning to fade, slowly turning grey and disintegrating at the edges.

Like the talisman, they must have fed off of the assassin’s vitality, rather than using his mana or another more replenishable resource. 

There would be no gathering these for his own use.

“He was a disposable tool,” Kelin said, indicating the tattoos as he looked up at the adventurers, who had gathered around as he searched the corpse. “And now the evidence is disappearing.”

Maro, the human Fire Berserker who was carrying the woman, set her body down gently, and his hand reached out to brush across her eyes and close them.

“He killed Sarella,” he growled as he turned back. His foot lashed out as he kicked the assassin in the head, making the neck twist to the side with a sickening crack.

The other two adventurers were glaring at the assassin’s corpse as well, but they didn’t attack it.

“Those do look like Sarathian runescript,” the dwarf muttered. His voice was a low rumble, but pleasant to listen to. 

He was about four and a half feet tall, and almost as wide. He was wearing a set of full plate and chainmail that looked like regular clothing on him. There was a broad shield slung across his back and an axe at his waist.

His main class was Mountain Axe and his subclass was Shield Wall. Both were fairly self-explanatory. They gave him a solid melee build with his axe and shield and abilities that matched.

“I’ve never seen one of their assassins before,” he added, “but he identified as a Wind Rogue and said he was from Oakfar. How do you know he’s Sarathian?”

“Perhaps it was concealed,” the sylph offered from beside him. Her voice was like the melody of winter winds, soft and chiming.

It was interesting to see a Winter Sylph here, since there weren’t very many in the Celadon States. They were a well-known race with an elemental affinity for Ice and Winter magic.

She was about a foot taller than the dwarf and had pale silver-white hair and a graceful build. Her eyes were a bright crystalline blue like a glacier lake. 

Her classes as Wind of the Falling Snow and Winter Mage were typical for the Winter Sylphs. They tended to have racial classes with flowery names. She was an elemental mage with a focus in Ice and Wind magic, and then her subclass had reinforced that. 

“If he’s Sarathian, at least we know where to go for revenge,” Maro snarled as he kicked at the man again. This time it was in the chest and resulted in the sound of ribs cracking.

He turned back to the woman’s body and fell to his knees. He laid one hand on her forehead and the other on her stomach, and bowed his head over her.

“Forgive me, Sarella,” he said, his voice cracking. “I thought you would have time to heal yourself if we ran. I didn’t realize how bad it was.”

The sylph and dwarf glanced at Kelin, but he just waved them at Maro. They nodded and then went to join him, kneeling beside him as they began talking in low voices.

Kelin didn’t interrupt. He just gave them some time. 

They weren’t attacking him or jumping to conclusions, which was enough.

From the muttered conversation, they had decided to enter the dungeon as a test for themselves. The assassin had been a new group member that they picked up in Cerith, a town to the southeast where they were from.

It was another of the Celadon city states, like Highmist, and the closest neighboring one. This dungeon was about halfway between the two.

The assassin had apparently been a solid group member until they entered the dungeon and he turned on them by attacking the healer.

Their run after that had been them trying to get away from him while letting the healer recover, and they’d simply run in the direction where they sensed no monsters.

The rest was self explanatory.

After they paid their respects to the healer and the sylph worked a preservation spell over her, Maro gently set her body off to the side. 

Then they came back to where Kelin was sitting and began asking questions.

Kelin was still meditating, since the fight had dropped his mana back to about 40%, but he was able to do that and talk at the same time. 

“Forgive me,” Maro said gruffly as he sat down in front of Kelin. “I haven’t thanked you for intervening. That one...assassin or whatever he was, would have eventually chased us down, or we would have run into a pile of monsters. It seems we were only lucky because we followed your trail.”

The berserker was a muscular, red-haired man with a shaved face. His hair was in multiple braids behind his head. 

“Actually, he should have been faster than us.” He grimaced. “I wondered why he wasn’t catching up, but I suppose he wanted us to run into monsters and was just pushing us along to see what happened.”

He shook his head, looking exhausted as he studied Kelin.

“I thought we were out of luck, but then we stumbled onto you somehow. I’m not sure how you did that, but I’m not going to ask too many questions. You helped us.”

“Anyone who believes in the guild would have done the same,” Kelin said, waving away the thanks. It was true, since there was a strong principle of protecting each other within the guild, but it would have been hard for most to see the assassin’s status.

He could sense the guild badges on each of these three, as well as on the healer. Only the assassin didn’t have one. 

Dungeons weren’t limited to the guild, but guild adventurers were the ones who usually entered them. The assassin must have played off his lack of a badge well enough to get them to trust him.

From their badge signatures, these three were at Low Bronze, two ranks below him. They should be able to sense a similar but High Bronze-ranked signature from him, which was probably why they hadn’t asked too many questions.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Kelin offered as he inclined his head toward the healer. 

“That bastard stabbed her in the back,” Maro muttered, his words turning into a string of curses. A flush of red and yellow light flowed over his skin, making it look like he was about to catch on fire.

“We cannot bring her back,” the Winter Sylph, Serai, said with a sigh. She was seated next to Maro and her hand was on his shoulder for support. “I wish that we could.”

A chill wave of icy mana spread out from her touch, cooling the berserker back down.

“Aye, she was a worthy friend,” the dwarf said sadly. He was sitting on Kelin’s right now. “Our band of four was a strong team. Over a year after we met at the guild...and then this.”

Of the three, Maro was clearly the most affected by Sarella’s death, but it remained to be seen what he would do now that the assassin was dead.

They were adventurers, so they had probably seen death before, but they weren’t that old or high of a level yet, so it probably wasn’t too much. 

Maro was in his mid-twenties, while Serai and Galin were about ten years older, but their races spent longer as children than humans did, so subjectively they were a bit younger than him.

Still, they were older than Kelin’s current twenty years.

“His real classes were Silent Assassin and Darkwind Walker, and he was Level 62, not 50,” Kelin said, indicating the assassin. “And he was a Sarathian. I was able to see through the veil he had on his status, which is why I intervened. Those are all things I can swear to. But how did he end up joining your party and what was he doing here?”

He had overheard some of their conversation, but not all of the details, and it was more polite to ask.

The group frowned as they looked at the assassin, struggling to reconcile Kelin’s words with what they knew.

“He said he was just looking for some money to help his family,” Galin muttered. “Typical story, really. Met him in Cerith as we were leaving this time. He was hanging around the guild asking for work. 

“I saw him about a week before that too,” Serai added, “but he picked up another job and disappeared. He came back with a story about the job being too dangerous and that he wanted something more reliable.”

“Lying scum,” Maro growled as he kicked the corpse again. “He probably killed that other team too, and then came back pretending he’d left them out there.”

“Why would a Sarathian assassin be out here killing Celadon adventurers?” Kelin asked. “I assume it has some connection to the war.”

The Celadon States weren’t known for their hospitality toward the Sarathian Empire, since that power was always trying to invade its neighbors, but they maintained an uneasy neutrality, trading with both Baralis and Sarathia in the war.

More with Baralis, he had heard, but he wasn’t sure if that was enough to motivate something like this.

Maro frowned as he thought about it, but after a moment he shook his head.

“Maybe they just sent him out to cause trouble for us and disrupt the supply lines,” he said at last, “but I don’t know why he would have been targeting adventurers instead of merchants.”

Serai and Galin thought about it, but shook their heads as well.

“There must be some advantage to it,” the sylph said, “but I can’t tell what it is yet.”

“A puzzle for the guild to figure out then,” Kelin agreed. “You should report it once you’re back in Cerith. I came from Highmist, and I’ll tell the guild there as well.”

He was intending to lead the group back out of the dungeon once they gathered themselves, and then he could go back to his grinding, but Maro suddenly looked up and shook his head.

“That Sarathian trash wanted to kill us,” he said as he started to glow with Fire energy again, “and maybe to stop us from running this dungeon. I don’t know why, but I’m not going to let it happen.”

He looked at Kelin, grimacing now.

“I know you’re capable,” he said, grinding his teeth, “more than us, since you took him out alone, and you were here first, so by rights you can claim precedence over the dungeon, but I’m not going to head back in failure like this, just carrying Sarella on my back. That’s not what she would have wanted.”

He clenched his hands into fists and cracking sounds echoed from them. 

“I don’t have the right to ask this, but I’m going to anyway. That trash wanted to stop us, so I want to see this dungeon through and grind his face in it at the end. Let us go with you, or at least me, if Serai and Galin don’t agree.”

He glowered as he waited for Kelin’s answer.

The sylph and the dwarf looked at each other and then at Sarella’s body before they turned to Kelin and nodded.

“We would come along as well,” Serai agreed. “This dungeon is known to be very dangerous. Perhaps we will be helpful to you.”

“Aye, and if that Sarathian was trying to stop us, there’s reason enough to keep on and see why,” Galin agreed, looking stubborn. “Maro is right. If enemies push, we push back harder. Leaving like this won’t help Sarella to rest in peace. Perhaps an answer will, if we can find one.”

Kelin looked at the three as he debated the offer. He could see how serious they were about it, and he took that into consideration, as well as their potential in the future.

“Very well,” he said, agreeing with a nod. “You’re welcome to join me.”

He had planned to do this alone, but he could take advantage of their presence to use fewer killing moves and to train his abilities, like he’d been doing before they arrived.

It would mean sharing the experience, but it would also speed things up and bring in experience at a faster rate, and probably result in a faster end to the dungeon, which meant he could do another one sooner than he’d planned.

The rewards from that should be worthwhile.

A few dungeons did grant greater rewards for solo challenges, but most were the same whether or not you did them with a group.

It would balance out.

There was also an advantage to making allies in this new life. It was difficult to accomplish things alone. 

He wasn’t in the habit of trusting raw teams from the guild, but this meeting had given him a good idea of who these three were, and he had no reason to deny them their revenge.

“I can build Sarella a stone shelter until we return, or Serai could do one in ice,” Galin said as he looked at her. “Then we can take her home after. It’ll just take a little bit.”

Kelin could have let Gaius do it faster, but he didn’t offer. It would have taken something away from them.

Together, the three of them built up a stone and ice-sealed shelter for Sarella. Serai and Galin with Maro helping to move things as he could.

While they worked on that, Kelin continued meditating to recover his mana and then he checked the notifications from the fight with the assassin.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained a level.

You are now Level 40.

Your Soulbonded Elemental has also reached Level 40.

That was interesting. The Path had given him experience for killing the assassin, which only happened if there was a bounty out on someone’s head.

Sure enough, that notification came next.

You have eliminated a target with an Alliance bounty on their head.

You may collect your reward at the nearest guild hall.

Bounty: 10 gold.

Herath Oresta was wanted by the Stars Alliance in connection to the disappearance of three groups of adventurers in the Celadon States.

Apparently, the assassin’s actions hadn’t gone unnoticed, but they hadn’t known he was the one killing people. The evidence must have been lacking. 

Otherwise, the reward would have been higher.

He would have to share his information with the guild when he got back. Perhaps they could track down any other assassins that were out there.

There were several other notifications after that.

You have learned the Spell: Soul Paralysis (Basic). 

You have gained the Skill: Empower Soul Magic (Basic).

Soul Paralysis was the point-blank spell he’d used on the assassin to freeze him in place. It was a good defense at short range.

Empower Soul Magic was the skill that had made Soul Ignition stronger to break through the assassin’s wards.

Both of them were now recorded on his status sheet.

Since he’d hit Level 40, there were also a couple of other things.

You may upgrade one Class and one Subclass Ability by a tier. 

Make your choices now.

Kelin looked at his status sheet, and then he chose the two core skills for each class again.

Your Ability: Soulfire Sigil has reached the Expert tier.

[The benefits of this sigil have increased by 5%. It now bolsters the recovery of health, mana, and soul to the caster and allies by 25%, and adds a 20% improvement to the duration and protection of Fire and Soul spells. The duration has improved by 50%.]

Kelin nodded. That was the base bonus. With the refined quartz symbol, it would be another 10% higher. 

It would also last two hours as a stand-alone sigil and three hours with the engraved version now.

Your Ability: Artisan’s Sight has reached the Expert tier.

[Your Perception of magical artifacts, natural energies, and the flow of mana is now enhanced by 30%.]

More subtle shades of mana appeared in Kelin’s vision, as well as the color of other natural energies now, like the Wood essence drifting through the forest like a mist and clinging to the branches of the trees.

It was another fraction of his old sight coming back, and that was satisfying.

You may choose one new Class Ability from the following list:

Touch of Soulfire.

Soul Recovery

Soulfire Reinforcement. 

He didn’t hesitate over the choice.

Congratulations, you have gained the Ability: Touch of Soulfire (Basic).

[This is a touch-based healing ability that infuses soulfire into your target, and then activates the unique properties of that energy to heal them.

The strength of the healing relies on your Wisdom, Aura, and Intelligence attributes, as well as the amount of mana and soul energy that you direct into the spell. 

At the basic tier, minor wounds can be healed quickly. Moderate and severe wounds will take more time and dedication.

This ability may also be used to purge negative energies, disease, and poison, if it is strong enough to overpower the source.

The mana and soul energy cost is variable based on the wounds healed. Healing must be channeled to stay active.]

A wave of fiery golden energy swirled around Kelin as it settled into his spirit, giving rise to a series of changes. 

He felt his self-recovery improving, and his soul that had still been scorched began to repair itself more swiftly. 

The resiliency of his meridians and his body also improved as a synergy appeared between this ability and the Soulfire Body Refinement that he already had. Strengthening and healing were two sides of the same coin.

The healing ability was at the top of his list for his own purposes, but it would also be useful now that he had a group to look after, especially when they’d just lost their dedicated healer.

It took the team a little while to finish their work, but eventually they returned to where Kelin was waiting.

“We’ll follow your lead,” Maro said, his voice tight with emotion. His hands were clenched again, but this time around the axes at his belt. “Where do we go from here?”