Polymath Redux – Chapter 19

Polymath Redux – Congratulations! You win a permanent time out
Chapter XIX

Having finished with her job a little early, Irina had decided to go back to Vardis inn for the day. Recently her master was away on business but was to be returning today after having tested the mettle of the Hywel Knights. Personally Irina did not understand the need to test such weak individuals but she had once swore to herself to never question her master’s convoluted plans and thoughts.

As she closely approached the inn, the air in the area was a little different. If one had to describe it, the most apt word to summarize this situation would be ‘displeasing’. The air tasted horrible, thick with the scent of blood and smoke, even though Irina wasn’t near the inn she kind of got a general gist of what was going on.

Her master would not like this, this horrendous scent, it was unforgivable for someone to be desecrating the place that her master had currently called home.

As Irina drew close to the source of the scent her dissatisfaction was realized as she saw the burning of the Vardis inn. Her blood started to boil as the corners of her mouth edged downwards. The place that her master had deemed worthy for his stay was burning down, the light that reflected off her eyes were those of rage in knowing this.

She could feel it, the movement of several men inside the inn, they were just about to run out of the burning building. And while it was faint she could also feel the fading pulse of another from within. ‘Rena’, she thought. It was most likely the matron inside. Irina did not hate the matron, she had provide adequate comfort and served her master well during his stay, but right now her life signs were dwindling from within the burning building.

It was fire, Irina’s specialty; it would be mere child’s play for her to stop a fire of this scale. She gathered all the mana she could muster to summon a tornado around the building, sucking out all of the fire and smoke. As the winds cleared the only thing left was debris and ash from the building with some support columns remain standing. Inside she saw the stunned expression if six men who gazed back at her.

Off to the side was Rena’s fallen body with a sword lodged firmly into her chest. She was still alive but unconscious, if she took any more time in rescuing her she would likely not make it. However before she did that, these men needed to be taken care of first. They dared to assault what her master had come to enjoy; even death was not a suitable punishment for these buffoons.

“Oi, oi, what’s going on?”

One of the men asked in a gruff voice. Of course he had some idea of what just occurred, that some magician had summoned a small tornado to extinguish the fire but such magic was rare. The only person that was foreign was a red haired woman but she looked more like a warrior than any magician. ‘It couldn’t have been her’, the man thought as he looked around to see if there were any magicians in hiding.

“To trespass on the domain of my master, you will not be forgiven!”

Irina roared at them and before any of the men could react to her threat, that threat had turned into actuality. One of the men’s head was decapitated and fell on the floor. Rolling around for a solid few seconds before stopping and oozing what blood there was.

It was so fast that the men couldn’t even register what happened.

“What?!”

They each cried as they realized their comrade’s death and all drew their swords. The woman had closed the gap of a few meters in less time than it took to blink.

Irina’s sword glowed red as it absorbed the blood of the slain man, a nice and menacing glow that contrasts with the burnt and black background. The men were considerably shaken up, with the subtle shaking of their swords confirming their fears. Unable to wait any longer one of the men lost his nerves and tried to run away but before he could clear even a few meters a sword was thrown and stabbed right through his back, coming out on the other side.

Irina has just thrown her sword to kill a man who tried to escape. ‘escape? I won’t let you’, she thought to herself as she growled and leered at the other men.

“What are you?! Are you an adventurer?! Why are you doing this, all we did was kill a demon! Don’t you guys kill demons all the time? Isn’t this a bit hypocritical?!”

The man who looked like the leader shouted out in panic. Was the man insinuating that the killing of mindless beasts and killing the woman that her master had come to enjoy the company of were the same thing? As far as insults went for Irina there could be no greater than one that mocked her master.

“The same? No, this is not the same. I will not let you compare this woman to that of a mindless beast’s.”

As though she had just set herself on fire, crimson flames had surrounded her but not burning her. In fact the flames almost seemed to be obeying her will and as she drew closer the men felt a stinging and burning sensation on their legs and ankles. Chains made of fire and burning metal had shackled their legs, preventing them from moving an inch from their current spot.

Unable to endure the burning sensation some of the men fell to their knees in pain but were caught by Irina. She grabbed two of them by the neck and pulled them up, placing massive amounts of pressure on the muscles in their necks the men started to go red in the face. They wanted to scream but Irina’s grip was so tight that they couldn’t.

A small red magic circle appeared below the men who were being hung from their necks. Out from the magic circle was heat so intense that it warped the air around it. More chains flew out and wrapped around the two men, burning them all across their bodies. This was no mere skill this was the Crimson Dragon Lord’s ultimate ability, the skill that would instantly kill a player. [Hellflame shackles].

As though they were being pulled down to hell the men were being dragged into the magic circle. Screaming out on top of their lungs and saying that they ‘didn’t want to die!’ they begged for mercy. However Irina wasn’t as merciful as her master was, their deaths were sealed the moment they decided to Intrude into this inn.

Tears, blood and flames covered the vision of the men as they were lowered, seemingly to hell. The remaining two men looked in abject horror, regretting the decision to ever come to this place. One of the two remaining men could stand waiting for his turn and tried to crawl away. His legs destroyed by the burning shackles he tried to crawl away but his the result was only broken fingernails and blood. The chains had stuck on tightly to his legs that it had virtually fused with him due to the intense heat.

Shouting and screaming that he was getting out of here and that he had a wife and child he needed to be with. However a cold, sharp and metallic sensation to the back of his head was the only response he received. The edge of Irina’s black greaves dug into his head and as he cried his head was crushed into the floor leaving only a pool of blood and mesh.

Irina then turned to the only remaining man. However Irina decided not to kill him, because knowing her master he would want at least one of them alive to be interrogated. A good thing too because this man had looked like the leader and obviously the one with the most amount of knowledge.

Irina chanted a spell, one that would inflict the target with the ‘sleep’ status, [nightmare haze], of course as the name implies the flavor text of this skill was to induce horrifying nightmares on the target. In the [Hellgana] game it would blur the player’s screen and spawn hallucination targets that only the victim could see on their screen. The hallucinations would deal light periodic damage and that was it but in this world it was a dreadful skill.

Confirming that the leader had collapse unconscious Irina checked up on Rena’s condition. Her heart was still beating and because the sword had not been pulled out the blood loss was minimal, but if left in this state it would obviously become extremely dangerous. Irina lightly shook her to wake up but not so much that it would make the wound worse.

“Nngh…”

Rena slowly and painfully opened her eyes once more. Her complexion was terribly page and there were dark rings around her eyes. She breathed incredibly slowly and painfully with blood spilling each time.

“Don’t worry I got you.”

Irina lifted her up so she could be positioned better and stay comfortable for the time being.

“M… Miss…. Ir… Irina…?”

She spoke with all of her breath, coughing violently as she tried to remember what was going on.

“Here drink this. Dragon’s blood will reinvigorate you temporarily but will not save you. Unfortunately I am not of the [cleric] class so I cannot heal you. I will contact my master as soon as your condition stabilizes.”

Irina told her as she cut her palm with her own sharp nails. Her blood dripping slowly into Rena’s mouth. Instantly she looked a lot better but that was only temporarily, too much dragons blood was likely to kill her as it was too potent, thus the balancing act was on its way.

“D… Drag… on?”

Rena asked as she slowly drank.

“Hush, you’re just losing energy by talking.”

Rena complied and lightly closed her eyes as the sunlight was a little too intense for her. Her heart beat had temporarily stabilized and she was breathing normally, well, as normally as she could with a sword through her chest. However this was only a temporary solution and wouldn’t last for more than an hour or two at best, for now it was most prudent that Irina contact her master and told him what was going on.

…

“Ah… I guess I should replace your broken sword.”

Morialia asked, though she was a bit hesitant on whether or not she wanted to give him one out of her collection or [legendary] or [exotic] tier weaponry. Perhaps it wasn’t too bad of a trade off considering that she was getting full access to his territory and resources but still her hoarder spirit tormented her.

“No, it’s quite fine. You didn’t think that the dragon king’s golden sword would be that useless did you?”

The dragon king, Aurendra Sinclair asked with a hearty laugh. He pulled out his broken Hilt of a sword and activated some sort of skill. As the hilt glowed, all of the pieces of his sword rushed back to him, repairing the sword to its former, prime condition. It wasn’t just his sword but his shield was also just as easily repaired with convenient repairing magic.

‘How convenient,’ Morialia thought to herself before breathing a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to reimburse the dragon king.

As she was about to further discuss about the plans she had in mind about the alliance with the dragon king’s territory she received a contact from her familiar Irina.

[“Master, it’s Irina. I have some news.”]

Morialia broke away from the group to accept the call. As she listen in to the events that had taken place at the in a clear sign of anger could be felt swelling inside her right now. To the point where the Hywel Knights and the dragon king could feel the pressure emanating off of her.

They wanted to approach her and ask what the problem was but didn’t have the courage to interrupt her. They had no idea she was receiving a call from someone else and merely saw a scary little girl who was getting more and more angry by the second.

“Dragon king, Hywel Knights, it seems an urgent matter has come up.”

Without waiting for a reply Morialia jumped from the Base of the chasm to the top and rushed back to the capital city, Solaris at faster than usual speeds. As the wind brushed past her, her eyes glowed a bright red color in abject anger. Her form shifted back to that of a man’s, around the age of 18; she transformed back to her original form of Mordred.

His white overcoat flapped violently in the wind and each stop he took left behind a small crater around his footsteps.

To Mordred, Rena could be said to have been his very first genuine friend. Irina was his familiar, Morgana was just him, Yda was another subordinate and Grimal was Yda’s familiar. Only Rena had treated him kindly without an obligation, she was his first friend and Mordred would not stand to have her die like this.

…

“Irina!”

Mordred arrived at the scene only to find the charred remains of the inn and Rena lying in Irina’s arms with a sword through her chest. Mordred rushed to her side and took over for Irina.

“Mr… Mordred…”

“It’s okay now. I got you.”

A large blue magic circle surrounded the area and started to heal Rena back to health. The only problem was the sword, if he pulled it out recklessly he she could die from shock and thus during his hesitation Rena placed a hand on his and told him with a smile.

“It’s okay, I can endure it.”

Seemingly being able to tell what he was thinking she told him to pull out the sword and that she trusted him to do so. Mordred gulped and slowly pulled out the sword, with Rena’s face twisting from the pain, but in the end she was really able to endure it. After being healed up to full health she had fallen unconscious once more.

Mordred brushed her hair and whispered under his breath ‘thank god’.

“Irina, take this and nurse her back to health.”

Mordred threw a small black box. It was an item known as a [Portable Camping Kit], which was exactly as it sounded. When used it would create a small outdoor camping set.

Irina nodded and took Rena to outside the city where there would be no pursuers and into the forest on the outskirts of town. While there were monsters there, it would be much easier to fight them than intelligent beings like humans, though in all honest there was no real difference.

After seeing them leave Mordred walked towards the unconscious man on the floor. He had been told that this was one of the survivors of the group that attacked the inn. Whilst Mordred was still iffy about killing people he excused Irina’s actions today, no in fact he actively cherished it. For the beings who dared to hurt his friend only torment.

However this man was necessary for information and he would get it out of him no matter the cost.