Ruthless ~ 56!

~ 56 ~

Joe stumbled out of the Pathfinder’s Hall bruised and bloody. There were open wounds on him, and his right eye was swollen shut. He bent over and spat out a mouthful of blood, then lifted his head and looked at the huge amount of people staring him down. He stood up proudly, and announced, “The golems came back, so don’t go in, but I’ve cleared out this patch of villainy! No more will we need to fear an attack on our flank as we focus on the real issue!”

There was a roar of approval, started by the man that had told Joe about the situation inside the building, and picked up by the others as they realized that something good had happened. That was the way of a large crowd, though. “Let’s move out, and join in the encirclement of the main area!”

Dark Charismatic effects have had an exceptional effect on a large number of people at once! Charisma +1!

The area around the Pathfinder’s Hall rapidly emptied, and only a few people were left in the area to protect it until the leadership had a chance to claim the area. Joe was fine with that, as this was his plan from the start. He had persuaded the people in the building to beat him badly, then when the exterior was empty, they would use the open area to stage their attack.

When Joe was able to get the Ritual of Quarantine to work correctly and make everyone outside the town too ill to come fight, the people staged at the Pathfinder’s Hall would charge in and assault the people surrounding the core of the town. Then, they would work together to retake the town at large and get the walls back in place. Joe was confident that they could work together, gather all the damaged stone, and use the wall-raising ritual to put their protections back in place. The only downside of this plan was that Joe needed to survive walking through… that without getting recognized. 

Joe gulped as he looked at the seething masses of humanity that had overrun the town, knowing that this was simply the smallest fraction of the total force: which couldn’t possibly fit in its entirety. He started walking nonchalantly through the area, moving toward the Southeast of the town. 

The distance wasn’t too terribly far; standing stone number sixteen was simply the name of a marker that the town had put in place to help people find their way around. There weren’t formal roads in the town yet, which meant no street names or addresses. Also, there was an astounding number of people that simply looked at you blankly if you told them to go to the ‘south’. So, the pillar-like rocks had numbers carved into them, and that was how people found their way around.

As it turned out, they were also an excellent place to put a ritual. The stones had been very carefully placed so that they were all equidistant from the next, which was beneficial for magic like rituals that needed stability and perfect proportions to use effectively. This, along with helping people with finding their way around, was why Joe had been in enthusiastic agreement when a seemingly minor point like his had come up in the required-attendance leadership meetings a while back.

The hardest part of his walking was to make what he was doing seem natural. He was going against the stream of humanity here; everyone else was doing their best to make their way deeper into the area, and he was leaving. That alone turned a few heads, and got more than one person considering him calculatingly. Joe shook his head at the unexpected gift that he had been given by the silence mage; his current robes and bearing were off-putting and recognizable. Everyone knew that the order of mages that Joe appeared to belong to was cruel and efficient, which caused many of those considering, sizing-up, greedy stares to turn into panicked ‘nonchalance’. 

Soon enough, the crowd parted in front of Joe like a shark fin moving through water. The darkness in his aura seemed to be having a serious impact on the crowd, which he was both pleased and concerned with. Pleased, as he got where he needed to go much faster. Concerned, because he was gathering far too much attention. After twenty minutes, he was finally at the stone. Normally, this was a five minute walk at worst thanks to the speed people were able to move with their higher stats.

Joe went to work right away, finding the ritual set onto the stone with ease. This wasn’t something that should have needed to be hidden, as it was intended to be in the safe area of the guild. It was ready, Joe could see the mana contained within swirling and practically begging to be released. He held the gold ingot close to the ritual and activated the binding that would bring it all together. He breathed a sigh of relief as the binding began and his mana rushed out to put the effect in place.

“It stabilized.” Joe carefully wiped the sweat off his head.

“Who are you, and what are you doing?” The sharp voice was clearly directed at Joe, but he didn’t turn around. Answering right away could only make him look guilty, and he couldn’t afford to be interrupted right now. “I asked you who you were! You will stop what you are doing right this instant, or by authority of the Floodwater family I will end you where you stand.”

“Ahh… the Floodwater family.” Now the group offering money to this cause was clear. The Floodwater family had, as far as Joe knew, only a single strategic resource. Floodwater grapes. A grape that had recently been found in a second place: the Evergrowth Greenhouse. Joe replied without turning around. “You have the authority to tell me… to stop what I’m doing?”

“I most certainly do.” The voice was cold, and the rasp of a blade scraping leather as it was pulled from a sheath caused chills to run down Joe’s spine. He turned and locked eyes with what appeared to be a grizzled veteren, likely the leader of the mercenary group he had fought against when the wall was first damaged. If that were the end of it, Joe still wouldn’t have been too concerned; he would have attempted to bluff his way past as a ‘respected silencer’. Unfortunately, another man in purple robes was standing there obviously trying to place where he knew Joe from. His dark purple robes were ornate, and he was clearly a high-ranking member of the mages.

“How do I know you? No,” The mage tapped his chin, “more, why do I recognize you and not know you well? I approve all who join my order. Why are you wearing our colors? You can only be a spy.”

“His bald head sparks no joy, only furious memories of trapped brothers and sisters.” A Jester stepped forward and stood next to the others. 

“I know this one.” A man in simple robes and wearing half-moon spectacles stared at Joe over the top of his eyewear. Joe had only ever seen him once before: at the library of Ardania. “He is the one who convinced Boris that he was a scholar, and even achieved the highest rank and honor from our organization before his true intentions were brought to light. He is the arcanologist that forced us to demote Boris and send him on missions like a man half his age.”

“What? What did you do to Boris?” Joe stepped toward the group as he heard these words. Now that he thought about it, the ‘tenured scholar’ profession had vanished from his status sheet, leaving behind only Arcanologist. He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but now… 

“We did nothing.” The scholar put his hands in the sleeves of his robes, arms crossed. “He did not do proper research, the hallmark of failure for a scholar. This is Joe, the focal point of all these disturbances within our organizations.”

Joe swallowed as the area around him went still. The people in the area knew that something had just happened, but they didn’t know what to make of the situation. The mercenary stepped forward. “Come with me. My employer is very interested in meeting you.”

“No, we have the right of first blood with this one!” The silencer had a ball of mana glowing on his palm.

“I plan to have him dissected to find what makes him tick.” The scholar announced bluntly.

Joe wanted none of this, and started backing up toward the edge of the crowd. The mercenary saw through this right away. “And where are you going, Joe?”

“Away from you.” Joe muttered, though in the strange silence of the area, his words were heard clearly.

“I think not.” The merc pulled out a second sword and started advancing.

“Let’s find out, shall we? Dark Lightning Strike!” Joe called down the darkness, and the crowd that was starting to press in on him was fried, all lower leveled people dropping instantly.

Skill increase: Dark Lightning Strike (Apprentice 0). Sacrificing hundreds of humans is totally what this skill was intended to be used for! At least you never flinched away from putting yourself under the effect. Because of that single fact, this spell has gained a new ability! Bonus: Call down the lightning anywhere within line-of-sight.

Joe didn’t stop to appreciate how huge of a benefit he had just gained. He ran over the pile of corpses, but only made it to the far side before a sword scraped along his Exquisite Shell. Joe knew right then that he needed to fight; fleeing was not an option. He turned and released an Acid Spray, soaking the mercenary. 

Well, that was the plan. Instead, a barrier appeared and the acid slid past the man or directly to the ground. “Huh. When you’ve been in the business as long as I have, you make sure that liquids don’t land on you. Nice try.” 

Planning a Cone of Cold next, Joe found that his mana fizzled and the words stuck in his throat. A bright purple glow appeared in his vision, reading ‘silenced’. He glanced over and saw the other three people walking over leisurely. Joe grabbed a fallen staff, kicking a body that had fallen on top of it, then took a ready stance.

“That’s… so cute.” The Jester shook his head at Joe’s antics. “Leave this one to me. We need to feed the Creeping Death Squirrel.”

Even the Scholar blanched at that, and the man had wanted to dissect him while he was still alive! What horror had Joe unknowingly given to the Jesters? All in return for what? Coffee…? Coffee! The silence wore off, clearly the others weren’t seeing him as a serious threat. “Mate, Over-Caffeinate!”

The others attacked, not knowing what Joe was doing. Dark liquid swirled on Joe’s arm, and he felt a massive increase to his heart rate. He parried the sword coming his way with a burst of speed, then knocked the flying daggers of the Jester slightly off track with a large sweep of the polearm. Using his burst of speed, Joe dropped to a knee and held up a golden coin.

“You can’t buy your way out of this, fool!” the Jester snarled. 

Joe simply smiled as he squeezed his hand and the ‘coin’ broke in half.