Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Five - 185Felix tried to calm down, wrangling the nest of vipers that writhed in his chest. He tried to think calmly, to strategize. His Manasight flared and details were picked out in the tunnel. The floors were relatively smooth and the walls were coarse and pockmarked from excavated ore. Dusty brown and grey-black vapor swirled everywhere, threaded through with various metallic hues from the ores that studded the walls. It was like standing in a shimmering night sky, while before him the miners crowded back, threads of green-gold life Mana coiled about with crimson blood Mana.
The old man, however, blazed like the sun.
Orange fire and golden light Mana vapor hurtled through his aura, suffusing the green-gold and crimson of his Body so much that the latter was barely visible. The sense of solidity and control Felix garnered from the man was astounding. In many ways, he reminded him of Zara. But he couldn't be a Master Tier combatant...could he?
Voracious Eye!
Name: Charl Hornsworth
Race: Human
Level: 52
HP: 2465/2465
SP: 2554/3014
MP: 922/1137
Lore: Humans are multitudinous on the Continent. They are statistically weaker than most Races, especially at lower levels. This Human appears to excel at the redirection of force.
Strength: Agility and Dexterity far higher than average for their level.
Weakness: Slightly lower than average Strength for their level.
Aside from Hornsworth's information, Felix's Voracious Eye snagged the man's advancement. He was only at the upper end of Journeyman, a far cry from the last few Initiates he'd fought, yet not nearly as Skilled as Felix had assumed. How was he kicking Felix's ass? The man was like fighting a river, if said river had a sword made of fire.
Hornsworth raised a bushy grey eyebrow at Felix and tapped his foot. Felix snarled and dove back in, pushing Unfettered Volition for all it was worth. Visceral frustration mounted with each missed strike, each dodged advance, mutating swiftly into a burning rage that burned at his Mind.
Peace! Trilled Pit from far away. Calm!
But it wasn't time for calm; it was time for action. Rolling beneath Hornsworth's horizontal sword sweep, Felix snapped a claw at the man's leg in the hopes of hamstringing the bastard. Yet the leg was gone before he connected, and his opposite boot caught Felix in the temple. The kick wasn't particularly hard, but it rang his bell, and Felix had to hurl himself ungainly to the side to avoid the Initiate's flaming follow up.
Felix propelled himself into the wall about ten feet distant, cracking into it hard enough to make his own Health drop several dozen points. He looked back, stilling his head as if to encourage his vision to stop swimming, and saw that Hornsworth was once again standing still. Waiting.
What a jagoff, Felix grimaced. He got back to his feet slowly, watching the Initiate for any sudden movements. The man was impossible to predict. Then something caught the edge of his perception and Felix suppressed a grin.
From the darkness, a spiked chain shot out at the old man. Snaking through the air like a living thing, it altered direction twice as it wove toward the Initiate, moving faster than most anyone in the tunnel could track.
Harnsworth slid through her attack without even looking at it, and when Evie's chain changed direction, he simply lifted his sword and deflected the chain into the ground. He had to look to do that, at least. Evie ran through the rubble, twirling her chain with renewed fervor. She seemed almost as pissed off as Felix felt.
Felix frowned and watched them, hoping to see some way past the man's impeccable defense and trying to bank the fury that was building up within him. Which is how he noticed that the miners were slowly beginning to lessen in number. At first he feared that they had somehow hurt them, but when he spotted two more of the Untempered workers vanish into the darkness he realized what was happening. Thangle was Obfuscating a few people at a time and getting them out.
The Gnome's a genius.
And he wasn't alone.
Evie ducked low as a silver spear shot over her head and straight into the Initiate; the projectile, unseen until the last moment, was barely avoided. A terrible screeching sound shredded the air as his breastplate and left pauldron were scored by the arcane missile, but he wasn't impaled. The spear instead slammed into the ground immediately behind the Initiate.
"Thangle!" Felix shouted and rushed the old man. As expected, the Initiate wove around Felix's lunge, turning the man's own kinetic energy against himself and hurled him through. But this time, Felix managed to grab hold of Hornsworth's fluttering red cloak. Yanking hard on that, he slowed himself down and pulled the Initiate off balance. The man took two steps and re-centered himself easily while Felix fell heavily to the ground, which was not exactly the result he was hoping for; but it was good enough.
Vess' silver spear sat between the two of them, one prone and the other holding aloft a flaming sword. His mild voice belied the intensity of his gimlet eye. "Do you seek forgiveness, child?"
"Not really," Felix grunted. "Thangle! Now!"
An instant later, both the spear and Hornsworth vanished from Felix's senses and he thrust his hand outward until he could feel the tingle of active magic. "Mine!"
Ravenous Tithe!
A tiny stream of Mana surged into Felix's channels, a chaotic mix of ambient earth, fire, and shadow. At the same time, the space before him imploded with the sound of a screaming gale, and the Initiate was thrown backwards.
Finally!
The old man's legs and right arm were torn up, the enameled metal scored so deep that in some places it was cut righ through. Blood welled along his limbs and Hornsworth gasped a series of pained breaths through his mustache. He looked up at a Felix as the young man got to his feet.
"How did you--"
"Vess! Thangle! Again!"
Another spear tore from the darkness and plunged into the earth, yet before Thangle could cast his Obfuscation circle again, the Initiate leaped aside and ran. The old man vanished back out through the rubble in moments, his insane Agility blasting past all of their Perceptions.
Felix stood a moment longer, fists up, worried that he'd come back. When seconds turned to minutes, he figured it was safe enough. The wave of relief that spread through Felix at that moment was nearly enough to send him to his knees.
"Twins' teeth, that greybeard was spry," Evie said from the nearby darkness. "Did he put you through a wall?"
Felix grunted in annoyance and ignored the question. "Thangle, did you get everyone out?"
"Almost," the Gnome said, and Evie jumped about a foot into the air.
"AH I hate that!"
"My apologies," Thangle half bowed to the woman. "There are a few people still farther back that I couldn't reach without making myself far more conspicuous."
"Alright, Vess? You good to lead the rest of the miners out?" Felix called out.
"It will be done," she replied from near the blocked off entrance and soon Felix could hear the heiress' voice calling out for the miners to follow her.
"Awesome job with the evacuation, Thangle," Felix grinned. "I wish I'd thought of it."
"My pleasure," he replied, though his face betrayed his emotions. "I will admit being so close to danger is not...not a usual happenstance for me. I was happy to be of use."
"With illusions like those, I've got scads of ideas for ya," Evie said with a laugh. She clapped the Gnome on the back hard enough to stagger him, which only made her laugh more.
Felix's fight or flight response felt keyed up, and it was all he could do not to pace with the excess furious energy. His emotions still felt amped up, super charged by just...everything. Forcing himself to breath deep, he let his transformation Skill fade away. Being ready for a battle didn't help his nerves at all, and he could reactivate it quickly if needed. The pain of the transition helped clear his head too.
Nothing like seared nerves to really find your center.
Felix turned toward the deeper darkness of the tunnel, where more dislodged stone was built up into small ramparts down its length. Something was moving back there.