50 – Ambush

Melina’s eyes immediately darted around to scan the place as soon as the road began emptying itself of people. Five seconds ago the street was like a flood, an uncontrolled stream of people walking and shuffling, elbows and limbs moving chaotically, but in the span of what felt like five seconds the chaos and overall busy-ness of the street had vanished like evaporating mist. Mist that was still very present, in the form of smoke and concealing thickness to the air, which her magic vision struggled to pierce. She had other ways, and already a spell was forming to gain control of the wind, to turn the tactical disadvantage into an asset as quickly as possible. Ishrin had taught her the Magnify Effect spell, a Tier 6 magic that could amplify all other magic, and she was ready to unleash it at a moment’s notice to turn a simple wind spell into a powerful gale.

The moment seemed to stretch into eternity as she seized up her soon to be opponents. Still silhouettes against the fog, slowly coming to view. She considered the chain of events that had brought them all here to this city, the spur of the moment decision to take a quest to gain some insight into the location of the artifact Lisette needed. Perhaps she should have argued against coming here, but forward came upon her mind a large knot, doubt about her ability to lead making itself present once again. Ever since the failure that had resulted in the almost-death of the whole party, and the death of the pixie, she felt broken.

Incapable of making sound decision, so that even when she felt that other people were not making sound decision themselves, she could not divine whether that feeling was correct or faulty in origin. She had not spoken against coming here, and while part of the reason was her own self-doubt and the seemingly monolithic presence Ishrin had come to represent in her mind, another part of the reason had been her lack of knowledge. Obscuria had proven to be a lair of degeneracy and scum of the earth, barely concealed by thick stone walls she had no trouble penetrating with her winds, to take a peek inside.

The places was as rotten as they came, enough so that had she known it beforehand, perhaps her disgust would have been enough to win her own self-doubt and make her speak her misgivings out loud. Alas, what was done was done. Ishrin was looking towards the empty distance, where all bazaars were closed shut and the silhouette of a man could barely be seen through the smoke of the still smoldering incense sticks. His body language was that of perfectly calm, of a man totally in control.

Much more in control than she felt, despite being three full tiers below her in power. Even though his tiers meant more, and he could access Tier 5 magic, at the end of the day he was still a Tier 3 cultivator with an unusual sturdy body, seemingly unlimited mana and a bag of tricks. She wondered if the kind of fighters this city could conjure up, coughing them out of the bellows of the earth where the villainy of man went to hide, could measure up to herself and the rest of her team, making up with numbers what they lacked in skill perhaps.

But Ishrin was calm. There was a possibility, her mind told her, that he had been aware of the fat person walking slowly towards them from the very beginning, having known that they were being watched and followed way before she and her wind got a sniff of him. If that was true, then he knew whether he could safely deal with the emerging threat or not.

Perhaps she was giving Ishrin too much credit, another part of her mind told her. And she stood, conflicted, paralyzed over a conundrum that had no place in a dimly lit alley surrounded by possibly hostile men armed with magic and weapons. Yet no matter how much she chastised herself, no matter how much she tried to return to present, her mind was wading through mud. Through syrup, perhaps. Hard to tell.

She was unfit to lead the party, and she thanked her good foresight for abdicating that role before her mistakes and shortcomings caught up with her.

The silhouette approached as time once again regained its curvature, her mind bringing itself out of its frenzy. The man—nay—the creature wore a lab coat, white but stained with blood and rust. A long, scaled face with sharp teeth that glinted in the low light of the torches shrouded in smoke. Yellow glowing eyes. He was a crocodile-person, a subspecies of lizardkin she had never seen before. From him came a low growl while his bare clawed feet clanged against the concrete steps he was descending. When he reached the road, she could feel that his steps were heavy, and his bulging stomach swayed and bobbed with every step.

“Dramatic entry.” Ishrin said with a whistle. “That’s cool. It gives away a bit too much information but it’s a nice intimidation technique nonetheless.”

A low growl. “You think,” the lizard said, inhaling a whiff of smoke from a strange device. “You think you are funny, young man.”

“I do,” said Ishrin.

The monstrous voice was like sand being crushed by heavy stone gears.

“You all always think you can afford—”

“Five men on the roof there,” Ishrin interrupted him, speaking evenly as he pointed at a building. “Seven more with crossbows over there, looking through the windows. Ten spear guys at the ready left and right, behind these two doors. Five more coming from the back, heavy armor. And—”

A voice and a swirl of mana. Grand Haste, Adapted Brief Stop Time, the voice seemed to say, although she was sure it had not been her ears that had caught the words. It was as if magic itself was recognizing some sort of structure being applied to it, and whoever had impressed said structure to the magic of the world had chosen for her to be able to witness it. She remembered Lisette asking Ishrin to teach her about magic some more, and even though she had been talking about dimensional magic at the time, this felt very much like Ishrin teaching them a lesson even in the midst of combat.

As the magic took hold, suddenly Ishrin moved, and his speed was so great that Melina struggled to follow his right hand as it came sweeping across his own face. It arrested its motion right between his eyes, palm facing outwards and where there was air before now was an arrow. Caught between index and middle finger, the hand that held it hid a self-satisfied smile behind its digits. Ishrin was having fun.

Then Ishrin looked at the arrow, seeing that it was tipped with a crystal, sharp and deadly, exuding a sinister kind of energy. With a snarl it made the arrow turn 180 degrees—without the use of any magic that she could detect, as if the world was simply obeying orders—and it flew out with great speed. A thud followed the fall of a shadow from the roof. The smoke swirled.

Ishrin looked at the rows of crossbows leveled against him, the foot soldiers having shown themselves now that they had been spotted.

“What makes you think that you can stop me with that?” Ishrin said, he was dead serious now.

The crocodile held his stomach, lurching forward in gravelly laughter. “Good. Good.” He said. “That’s very good.”

He wiped away a small tear that was streaking down his cheek, following along the path of least resistance that water always took, circling around the bumps and crossing the scales of his face, with a cloth he produced from his coat. He pointed at his fallen man with a clawed hand, and two of the guards disappeared into the smoke to deal with the body. Then he leveled his gaze upon the party, and suddenly his presence was strong and menacing. He looked tall and imposing, occupying the whole cramped space between the two stone houses, casting long shadows.

“Why are you the one talking? Are you in charge even though you are the weakest?” He spat.

“None of your business.”

“True, that. Your Source feels solid enough, much more than the women.” The crocodile said, and Melina did not miss him talking about mana as Source, nor did she miss his dismissive comment about Lisette and her being women. “Let me ask you another question, then. What are you doing here, looking for trouble?”

Ishrin shrugged. “Only if you want it. So far I haven’t done anything while you did the work, trouble and all.”

“You’re all the same, you adventurers. You think that just because you have some power, you can push your weight around, poke your nose where you don’t belong… you think you can fix the wrongs in the world. Impose your ideology. I ask again, adventurers. Are you looking for trouble?”

Ishrin shook his head. “We are here on a quest, actually. If you didn’t want adventurers coming in, you shouldn’t have put out a quest at the guild!”

The crocodile laughed. “You’re not here to fix the city?” He asked, holding his bulging stomach. “Oh, man. This is crazy.” A pause. “How about her? She looks like one of those guild people with a stick up their asses. What does she have to say about this place? Does it stink? Bother her sensitive nose and sensitive sensitivities?”

“Probably. But she won’t say the things she thinks about this place unless you want to know them.” Ishrin said. “We are but guests here, I will do as you say as long as you don’t try to kill us. And she,” Melina suddenly felt the gaze of the two men on her. “She can be trusted.”

The crocodile clicked. “Well then. You seem reasonable enough.” He conceded.

Power was among the chief currencies of the world, after all, and Ishrin had shown that he and his party had power aplenty, while keeping the bulk of it hidden. The same could be said of the strange man-creature barring their way, but his eyes now regarded them with a sort of subdued respect, from an apex predator to another. Or perhaps, from a predator to another, sizing each other up in search of the right moment to strike, never letting their guard down for even a moment. It was enough of a stalemate to resolve the conflict, for now, which was better than fighting. To Melina’s side, Lisette’s body language—minute as it was—told her that the woman in question would not agree with her assessment.

With a gesture of the crocodile-man’s hand, the guards and soldiers disappeared. The road was suddenly crowded again, as if nothing had happened at all. He motioned for them to follow, and Melina and Lisette fought against the suffocating crowd that flooded the street to keep up with the two at the lead.