Book 2- Chapter 10 – Kidnap
“….” represent dialogue. *….* represent thought
Nu-Ru POV
It was a couple of days since the elimination mission. Recently our relationship with the six grew even more that previously. Now we were chatting about all sorts of stuff. We were finally opening up to one another. Shae and I found our own little group to hang out with.
I mostly talked and sparred with Rumo, Requa and Haus while Shae stuck with Traus, Yusei and Kugei. I was still suspicious of them revealing Shae’s secret to the others but as I observed them, that thought faded away. The way Shae was around them, it was clear they were friends. We all got along with one another, well all except for one. Als.
Ever since we got back from the mission, Als became a bit more distant. In the past couple of days, she completely went silent. Avoiding us and simply refusing to speak. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get any response from her. The others weren’t bothered and pleaded for me to stop.
It was another day as always. Our special class ended and Als was the first one to leave without a word. We were on our way out as well until a messenger arrived. Ignoring us and made their way towards Rumo.
*A messenger. Don’t tell the prince got another job for us?*
I looked to see Shae nodding her head. Sharing the same thoughts so we made our way to them.
“What’s going on? Another mission for us from the prince.”
Rumo: “Yes but nothing like before. Apparently a certain group has been causing trouble. Local nobles are complaining that their slaves have been taken. Seems like they are then sold to other buyers.”
*You allow slavery but you’re having problem with slavery. How does that work?*
I kept the thought to myself as openingly voicing it would lead to unneeded complication. The group was an underground organization. It ran part of the black market and caused trouble for the Empire. Recently they were stealing slaves and doing who no what’s with them.
Apparently stealing a slave and putting that slave into slavery was equivalent to a person stealing someone else’s property and claiming it as their own. Of course the implication was there, it still baffled me. I wanted to question the absurdity of the whole thing but kept my tongue hidden. Our new task was to patrol the lower district in hopes of finding the members and arresting them.
Of course there was one lingering thought in my mind. *Why are we doing this?* The prince could easily ordered the city guards for searches. But instead he sought us to take of the job. No matter how you think of it, it made no sense whatsoever. I didn’t had much to time to question it so I saved my complaints for later.
We divided ourselves into teams of two.I volunteered to be Als’s partner as I knew she would mostly likely chosen to go by herself. The others quickly agreed and the teams were formed. Shae was the only one that didn’t had a partner. None of us were concerned with her being alone especially knowing what he was capable of so everything was set.
I quickly chased after Als in order to inform her. To my surprise I easily caught up to her in a hallway. When I informed her about the mission and the recent kidnapping, for a moment I saw her shudder. Als wasn’t all that happy being paired up with me but we were ordered by the prince so we had no opinion.
The day ended and tomorrow would be a weekend. Dawn came early and we were up. We would meet first at the academy and decided where to patrol. Our group was in the lower section. A thing that I picked up immediately was the sector. It was where Als and her sister, Alia lived.
We would simply patrol the area and look out for any suspicious activity. Most of the time we simply walked around the slum area. Something that I took noticed was Als. She was looking around furiously. Snapping her head towards at every small noise.
It was obvious that she was jumpy. I argued with myself in my mind whether or not to actually speak up. After a few minutes of arguing, I decided to open up.
“Is something wrong. You seem paranoid.”
Als: “I’m fine.”
She immediately responded with her short, curt response.
“It obvious that something is bothering you. Judging by how you reacted yesterday and when you were vocal about taking this sector. It must involve your sister and you.”
Als: “…”
“If there’s a problem then I’ll be happy to lend a hand. You don’t have to burden yourself.”
Als: “…… Let’s go. I want to check up on Alia.”
I didn’t have to time to talk back as she was hastily walking away. I sighed in resignation and followed her. The familiar terrain started to appear as we neared their home. However everything was messy, even more so than last time.
Even more trash littered the ground. Rummage goods and broken glass was sprawled all over the area. Nearby houses looked to be damaged, as if someone broke into it. But just as I made that conclusion I heard Als running. I looked forward to see her in full sprint.
“Als? Als! Wait up!”
Either she didn’t hear me or she didn’t care. I was still unfamiliar with the layout so I quickly lose her. Running around, I eventually came to a familiar path.
Als: “Get your hands off of her!”
Just as I turned the corner, Als scream filled my ears. I turned to see their home was ransacked as well. Suspicious, gruff looking men were scattered about. Focusing on one of them, I saw Alia being dragged along by one of them.
Sensing trouble they ran towards Als. However they were a fair distance away, giving he the advantage since she was a mage. Using |Crystal Shards|, they were incapacitated as Als blindly rushed forward to save her sister. The perpetrator obvious came prepared as they unsheathed their weapons in retaliation.
“|Arcbolt|”
Against so many enemies, Als didn’t stand a chance. Before they could attack, small orbs of electricity shot towards them at blinding speed. The moment they made contact with their body, a loud popping noise was accompanied with their screams.
Sensing they were out matched, they started to back off. It was at that moment that something caught my eye, the one holding Alia pulled out a small potion and threw it towards a building. The next second an explosion took place where the potion was thrown. It was strategically thrown as the building near the explosion erupted into fire and proceeded to fall downward.
“Als!”
It seemed that he threw the potion just at the right moment that Als would be into range. The building was crumbling and almost crushed her if I hadn’t use several buffs to increase my speed. I ran in, and quickly pulled her out.
Dust, dirt and debris flew everywhere as the charred smoke filled the air. I quickly pulled us out of the smoke for us to catch our breath.
“Ar…Are you alright?”
Als: “I…I’m fine…but…”
Although Als wasn’t hurt that bad, it wasn’t physical pain that was hurting her the most. Using the support spells again I easily jumped all the way to highest building. I thought by using the elevation I could easily locate them, but it proved to be more difficult than I thought.
The layout of all the housing was a mess. Most of the time all I could see were the decrepted roofs rather than the streets below. There was no way for me to locate them as it is. But that wasn’t true. Deep in my mind, there was a way but that would mean breaking the rules again.
Every second pass meant that the odds of saving her was growing less and less. I took one huge deep breath and —
“Echo – Shae.Alpha.”
— messaged her. The familiar phone ring ringed through my ear as I waited for us to connect. After a couple more second I was through.
Shae.Alpha: “Nu? Nu what’–”
“No time, listen to me. We ran into trouble, Alia was kidnapped. I can’t track her, I need your help. I need you to use |Hyper Sensor| to locate her.”
Shae.Alpha: “That would require me at full power. Nu what happened to being hid–”
“I know what I said! I’ll bear the consequences, no matter what they might be but right now to please do this for me.”
Shae remained silent for several seconds. Doubts started to form in my mind as I drew wild conclusions to which Shae made of me. Finally it was her that broke the silence.
Shae.Alpha: “Give me a second.”
The call ended and I was left to myself again. I anxiously looked again to see if I could scrounge up anything to help me. Within a couple of seconds I received the call back from Shae.
Shae.Alpha: “I think I found them. Currently I’m looking at the sector you’re in, there are several fast moving blips.”
“Look at their trajectory. My first guess would be they must be looking for a way out.”
Shae stayed silent for a bit until finally returning.
Shae.Alpha: “I think I found them. Something is heading towards one of the gates and quite fast as it seems. 11 o’clock your position.”
I quickly thanked her and jumped down. Als was a mess, tears were running down her cheeks as she sat in a fetal position.
“Als! I think I know where they are! They’re heading towards a gate close by.”
Als: “A gate? That must be the west gate then. But how will we make i– ahh!”
I didn’t waste any more time and picked her up. Using my support spells again I decrease our weight while drastically increasing my mobility. With one leap I was up in the air and jumping towards the gate. Within minutes the gate was looming below us.
I hastily looked down to see if I spot the cart carrying Alia. Shae’s |Hyper Sensor| increases the radar radius but at most it only covered the entirety of the capital. If they made it outside the capital then we lose them.
That thought slowly creeped into my mind causing me to panic a bit. Dragging my eyes from one place to another, I drastically looked for them. The west gate apparently functioned as a way for merchants and other businesses to easily go in and out of the capital. If that was true then that meant that they were away from the capital.
Soon something caught my eye, one of the guards was talking with an individual. It seemed like a normal conversation, except that they were talking in a remote area, away from the guard. What solidify my suspicion was when he pulled out a small sack filled with gold.
“There you are.”
I immediately dropped down, hitting the floor with a loud thud. The sudden noise caused everyone to turns towards me in surprise, giving me ample time to charge at him and pin him against a wall.
“Where are they? Where did you take them?”
XXX: “I…I don’t kno…w what you ar–”
I applied more pressure, causing him to stop mid sentence.
“Currently I’m not in a very good mood. So if you want to live you will answer my question. Right. Now.”
XXX: “Alright, alright! I’ll talk.”
“Good. now where did they go.”
“We were supposed to meet up with the others at Lockay Forest. The others are on their way now.”
I threw him on the ground and called the guards. Handing him to the guards I raced out of the gate with Als. The Lockay forest was one of the three large forest that surrounded the Capital of the Empire. The only issue was that they had a head start. Even with my massive movement buffs, who knows how long it would take.
Of course simply thinking about it would get me nowhere. Als wouldn’t budge in letting me handle this on my own so I informed Shae and we were on our way. The trip took about six minutes even with my buffs.
During my haste I forgot to ask where they would meet up. I silently chastised myself before remedying the problem.
“|Spectors View|”
Three gaseous and ghostly looking orbs formed and drifted towards the forest. |Spector view| was a support spell that summoned monsters that acted as scouts. Through them, it was possible to scout ahead of unexplored area in the game. I let them drifted around, looking at anything that would give a clue.
After a moment of searching one of them caught something. I command it to investigate and eventually found the cart. It was still on the move. It quietly followed them until them reached their rendezvous point. It was next to a cliff area that had a river flowing down the cliff.
After confirming I was right I called them back. To keep our presence a secret I activated |Shadowy Presence| and |No Noise| which concealed our presence and silence our footstep. We quietly navigated through the forest until we were on a small area just above them.
They seemed to have made camp, with their wagons and stolen goods out to sorted. There were around twenty of them moving about. Near the center was what looked to be a mage, who looked to be the ringleader as well.
Material goods were one side of the camp while some slaves were being taken to the other side. Most were demi-humans, ranging from adults to little children. Considering their numbers and their equipment, I could easily overpower them.
The only problem was how I was going to fight them without injuring the slaves. Not to mention, Als was with me. I had to watch out for her as well.
While looking over the entire camp to formulate a strategy, Als was looking for Alia.
The slaves moved around, inspected by the mage. I could only guess that they were appraising them for their worth. It didn’t take very long to spot Alia who was one of the first to be inspected.
Als wanted to immediately jumped out but I forced her to stay as we still needed a plan. As much I hated it, we needed to watch for just a bit more. Most of the slaves were female so many of the men there were looking at them with lecherous eyes.
We didn’t stay silent for very long as while the mage was inspecting Alia. Most of the time he would simply look at them, for Alia he was getting physical. This was enough to make Als to finally confront them. Since our cover was blown, I headed out as well to support her.
Mage: “Well, well, looks who finally showed up. It’s about time.”
*About time?*
“By order of his highness order, you all are under arrest for crimes against the empire. Surrender peacefully or else we’ll be use force to make you comply.”
Mage: “How cute, a dog obeying his master’s order. Here’s my answer.”
He snapped his finger and his men swarmed to his side. This time they were armed and full prepared and that was the thing that stuck out the most. But I didn’t put much thought into it as I had bigger problems to worry about.
“Als, let me take care of Alia. You help free the slave.”
Als: “You must be joking. As I would ever leave her with you. I’l–”
“Damn it Als! Would you listen to me for once!”
To both our surprise, that was one of the first time I raised my voice and showed my clear annoyance.
“Face the fact, you can’t save her but I can. I can do it, all I’m asking you is to trust me… Please.”
Als: “……If she gets hurt in anyway, I’ll hold you responsible. Now, what do you have in mind?”
“I’ll keep the rest busy while you take care of the slaves. The moment I give the signal, run as far back as you can.”
She looked a bit puzzled by my orders but nevertheless nodded in agreement. I took a deep breath and prayed that my idea was going to work. As planned I straight towards while Als ran backwards. As I had hoped they charged straight at me.
Quickly looking back and judging that she was far enough, I moved onto step two.
|Anti-materia Cube|
Planting my hand onto the ground, I activated my spell. A bright light formed and expanded into the dimension of a cube. I expanded it as much as I could to capture us. They all looked at the odd reflective dimensional cage that was around them. One was about to touch the mysterious light but.
“I wouldn’t suggest touching that. |Anti-materia Cube| is a special spell. If anyone were to touch the barrier or try to get out, well they’ll die.”
Of course that wasn’t the whole truth. In Eternia the spell was meant to hold down/suppress a monster. Should it try and break free or touch the barrier, it would apply damage per second. But a bluff was needed or else all they had to do was endure the pain and they were out.
XXX: “Oh? I’ve never seen spell like this before. Impressive as it is, all we need to do is to kill you.”
Giving his orders, the men organized themselves again and charged straight at me. But they didn’t touch me as I used |Levitation| and floated up in the air. Everything was going according to plan but the only problem was Alia. If she wasn’t with the mage, all I needed to do was cast a powerful spell and kill everyone in the cube. I had to be extremely careful in what spell I used as she could be used as a hostage.
“|Arcane Missle|”
The surrounding air formed small mana orbs which rained down upon them. Luckily for me they all decided to charge at me so I had a designated area to attack them. Within a minute they were on the floor, leaving only me and the mage.
XXX: “Impressive. Such talent at such a young age. Shall we start?”
What bothered me the most was the attitude of the mage. He didn’t seem concerned about how strong I was.
*There isn’t without a doubt that I’m the strongest, even he knows that. So why is so calm.*
A fireball interrupted my thoughts as I dodged to the side.
“Damn it.”
I couldn’t help but let out a silent curse. During that time the mage pulled Alia in close, making her a meat shield. I could feel my face making a nasty frown as I could only dodged around.
Mage: “What’s wrong? Got cold feet? Hahaha!”
“No, I was just buying some time.”
The mage gave a quizative look as all I did was swipe my hand across the air. In the next second, the barrier trapping us was gone. But that only added to the mages greater confusion, which worked into my favor. Meaning he forgot about Als.
Als: “Ahhh!”
Als came running from the side. The mage didn’t have time before he was knocked back with a punch. I floated over just as Als untied Alia and was embracing her.
“Is everyone alright?”
Als: “I’m fine and so is Ali– Watch out!”
I was slow to respond to Als sudden warning as I assumed the coast was clear. Instinctively I turned around just as someone lunged at me. In his arm was an odd looking dagger, which looked out of place.
I felt the tip of the blade piercing my skin and ultimately my muscles, plunging deeper and deeper into my chest. A sharp and burning pain racked my body as I pulled it out but he kept it in place.
XXX: “Activate!”
Instantly electricity coursed through my body. For the first time, I felt genuine pain as an odd color electricity shocked my body. But it didn’t end there. My sight started to falter, like a static TV, my vision was obscured with all forms of color.
Soon enough it came to an end when Als managed to get him off of me. I fell to my knees, clutching the wound. I looked up and to my surprise, saw the thug from last time. The one that tried to take Alia and ambushed me.
On his face was a sweaty grin.
“I told you I would get some payback!”
I slowly got to my feet but for some reason almost all of my strength was gone. I pulled out the dagger before turning my attention back towards him. I prepared myself for a follow up but instead he ran away. Just as he ran he knocked over several barrels, spilling a black color substance.
It took a moment before the smell finally reached my nose. It was a odd smell, a dark, charcoal. But what made me immediately recognize the continent was the acidic smell, it was gun powder. After running far away from us, he pulled out a potion similar to the one that caused an explosion.
The moment I saw the glean from the potion I knew what was going to happen. Using the gunpowder and the explosion potion. A giant chain reaction, blowing away all of us. I mustered as much as strength as I could to will myself to protect us.
“|Harden Cocoon|”
Activating my spell it would erect a round barrier of light but power thin fiber that wrapped around us and shield us from the blast…But something was wrong.
“What the…”
My spell didn’t activated. I had only a split second to act and went with my instinct. Something was wrong as I my spell didn’t work. I ran towards them and pressed them against my chest with the explosion towards my back.
BAMMM.
One reason why explosion were dangerous weren’t simply the blast/explosive part of the explosion. Rather it was the shockwave, the almost instantaneous wave of air being pushed in all direction.
One second my ear register the noise the next silence. An deep and screeching silence rattled through my conscious. Slowly my ear register some noise and my mind began to wake up.
My eyes slowly open and was meet with water. I jumped back to see I was lying against a rock on a river. I slowly stood up and looked down at my body to make sure everything was in order. I gave a silent thanks to myself for choosing some durable armor. But my relief was short lived as I swept the area, looking for Als and Alia.
My vision was slowly coming back as I spotted them ashore. I trudged over them while my body was aching. I bent down to see just how hurt they were.
As I inspected them I could feel the color of my face draining. Although I did as much as I could to shield them, they were still heavily injured. Small burns and marks covered their faces and body. They were unconscious but they needed help.
“|Heal|”
I expected a warming glowing light to heal their wounds but that didn’t happen.
“Wha…what’s going on?”
The memory rushed to my head as I remembered the time where my previous spell didn’t work. Internally I panicked but forced myself to calm down. I than tested the theory of my magic not working. Using all the spells I could think of, nothing worked. Even when I unequiped the Binding Ring, at my full power, I couldn’t activate my spell.
This time I was really panicking. I had never anticipated a situation where I couldn’t use my magic. Racking my brain I looked back to see if there were any clues. The only thing that was out of place was the dagger and the odd electrical shock that lead the static image.
A wild thought popped into my head and I opened up my menu screen. I scrolled to a certain screen where it showed an overview of the player character along with buffs and debuffs activated. There was one debuff, Bane of Magic.
Looking into it, it was a status effect that caused the target to be unable to use any and all forms of magic. No matter how strong it may be. All I could do was stare at the sudden turn of events. Without my magic I was completely useless.
But there wasn’t any time to dwell on it, my first priority was to drag them to safety. I pulled them completely out of the water and looked for a shelter. There body were light in addition to my new found strength so I was able to carry both of them.
Walking deeper into the forest I spotted a small cave. Moss and vines covered the walls but it habitable. I laid them against the wall and inspected just how serious their wounds were. It also didn’t help that I lost my magical item bag that stored all equipments, including potions.
I treked back to the river to see if I could find either something to treat them or my bag. After searching for around 15 minutes all I could manage to scrounge up was some broken material, a cracked potion with a little bit of liquid still inside, a shield and a broken sword from behind and lots of cloths.
Heading back I treated their wounds with water and bandaging them using the cloth. I splitted the portion between them as much as I could before dealing with myself. The only wound that bothered me the most was the dagger. The cut had stopped bleeding so that meant only magic was effected. Patching myself up I tried to get into contact with Shae through the echo message but that didn’t worked either. Technically echo was a spell so the curse afflicted it as well.
I heaved a heavy sigh before heading back to the cave. All I could do now was wait.
Rebirth Online World 