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253. The Battle Continues
🕑 Added 2024-12-19 15:00:05 +0000 UTCA roar broke Ike out of his meditation. He sat up, checking his aether levels. Over three-quarters full, almost completely full. Good enough. He hopped off the table and headed outside.
Mag swooped down the second he saw Ike. He landed in a bounce and walked alongside Ike, strutting a little on habit. “Didn’t see anything funny from Rufus and his bunch. But I saw that old guy, like you told me to look out for. He’s out there.” He pointed his wing at the forest. “On the right side.”
“Got it,” Ike said. As expected, he’s loitering. This was why he’d put himself and his team out in the forest first, in case the old man did exactly what he’d expected him to do, exactly what he had done. Typical of the old man to totally ignore Mag’s capabilities as a bird, with excellent eyesight. If he couldn’t see past physical characteristics, he’d totally overlook Mag. How he’d managed to survive so long was a mystery to Ike, but then, as Relin had said, encounters with beasts were rare. And maybe the old man was strong for his Rank. Not that it mattered. He cracked his knuckles, grinning a little. Whether he’s here to convince Rufus away or pick a fight, there’s only one way this is ending. And it’s not well for him.
Wisp walked up next to Ike. She raised her eyebrows. “We boutta hammer someone?”
“Yeah. Well… I am. I need you to hold the line while I’m busy.”
Wisp saluted. “Just shout if you need some help curbstomping the old man.”
Ike mock-gasped. “How’d you know?”
She rolled her eyes. “Who else would it be?”
“Fair enough. Keep your ears open. I think he’s weaker than me, but I’m not sure,” Ike said. The old man could be hiding his strength, and he couldn’t forget that the trial allowed in people up to Rank 4. He could fight Rank 4s, but it wasn’t easy. When he mixed in the monsters that would simply exist in the next round, he could easily see himself getting pressured, injured, or even losing. He wasn’t going to hesitate to call on Wisp if he needed to. Honestly, he would have brought her from the start, used overwhelming force and the power of numbers to crush the old man and forget him immediately, but he really needed someone to hold the front line.
“You got it, boss,” Wisp said, putting her hands behind her head.
As he walked up to the wall, Relin jogged up beside him. She handed him his ring. “I’ve organized it by category and strength. The most powerful items are at the end of each category. You had no flight-enabling relics, but there are plenty of one-time-use battle items and potions, if you need them. Both healing potions and performance-enhancing potions, to be clear.”
“Oh, neat,” Ike said. He slipped the ring back on his finger. Running his hand over the band, he briefly sent his consciousness inside. All the random items had been sorted into neat lines and rows, and tidily ordered as well. He had a wild assortment of weapons he didn’t know how to use, from ornamental swords and sabers to spears, daggers, chains, and polearms. There was plenty of money, in various denominations and form factors, and ornamental items—chairs, wallpaper, wall scrolls, art, that kind of thing. Those he ignored. He had a good sword, and he didn’t know how to use the rest of them. Aside from throwing a dagger or something, he was good on weapons, and furniture obviously had no place in a battlefield.
A few different talismans sat in piles, with two of them separated out specially. He scanned those two in particular. One was a powerful ice attack, and the other was a sealing technique that would pin down his opponent’s movements. He nodded slowly, raising his brows. I didn’t even know. The rest of the talismans were relatively weak attacks, below his actual strength level, but since they didn’t take much of his aether to activate, they were still worth using.
The potions were organized by type and strength as well. Some of them were condensed into tight pills, but from the mana emanations radiating from them, they were just as powerful as the potions, and with similar mechanisms. There were lots of healing potions and pills of various strength, and plenty of potions that restored mana as well. Strength- and mana-boosting potions were ordered by strength. One was set apart. It emanated a fierce aura, but maybe too fierce of an aura.
As if she knew which item Ike was looking at, Relin cleared her throat. “There is a potion you should be careful with. It’s the most powerful one, but it also has powerful drawbacks. It will boost you to the next Rank temporarily, but its backlash, if not handled properly, will shake your core and threaten your future ascension. I would avoid it at all costs. In fact, it’s the kind of potion I might give to an enemy, not a friend.”
“Damn,” Ike muttered. He turned his eyes away from that potion. Not for this fight, then. He couldn’t even think of a scenario where he’d use it. Not unless his life was on the line, and even then, he’d have to be pressed beyond the point where he could think of a way out of it. Relin’s last words lingered in his mind. I might give it to an enemy. He snorted. Maybe that’s what I’ll end up doing.
For a second, he let himself contemplate that Shopkeep had given him such a dangerous potion, but he dismissed it in the next moment. He and Wisp had willfully looted Shopkeep’s vaults. Shopkeep couldn’t be blamed for failing to warn them about the loot they’d stolen from him. Besides, who said he even remembered the potion? He had so much in his vault, and not only that, he was only a piece of the original man, who’d then been locked underground for gods-only-knew how long. Reading too much into it was his mistake, so he didn’t.
He nodded at Relin. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She saluted.
Ike hopped off the wall and ran into the forest. Wisp descended, running along her spiderweb lines to the trapped field.
Behind him, Rufus stepped out from behind a nearby wall. He stared after Ike. “Going to kill Peter…?”
Comments
Tom C
don’t be a doofus Rufus 😂 TFTC!
