DD 302 Ch 17

“You know, I did not have Portal being the stealthiest skill in our book on my bingo card tonight,” Des said, stepping through the portal onto another roof.

“Neither did I,” I said with a chuckle. As soon as our crew was through the portal, I activated [Eyes of Wisdom] to see a threadspawn moving around the penthouse across the street. Looking through the glass, it was easy enough to rip open a portal between the neighboring rooftop and the penthouse.

As I stepped out into the penthouse, Des, Charlotte, Penny, and Felin joined me, while Misha was keeping the threadspawn we had grabbed petrified until I decided what to do with them. The group was quiet, each of us in dark robes of varying colors. Activating [Eyes of Wisdom], I looked through the walls for anyone else that might be nearby.

There were two other people in the penthouse, but they were off in the distance milling about. Given the decadence before me, I assumed they were the help.

“Des,” I said quietly and motioned with my hands, the group were doing their best to move soundlessly through the space, so we would not tip off our targets.

Thankfully Harley wasn’t here, even with the training from my parents, she insisted on the bell in her hair.

Felin paused to check a glass bottle that was resting nearby.

“It's not cream, you stupid cat,” Des hissed, and Felin wrinkled her nose, only for the bottle to still disappear into the pouch at her waist.

“We'll find out later,” Felin said and crossed her arms. “These aren’t good people, they don’t deserve nice things.”

I glared at both of them, a silent admonishment at their current lack of stealth. Then I walked my way down the hall, only to see our target moving back our way. I put a finger to my lips and waved for the rest of them to press themselves back against the wall. Thankfully, they didn't put up any more arguments.

As the door opened and the target emerged, I flashed forward with a knife-hand strike straight to his carotid artery, slapping a hand over his mouth and, just to be safe, stuffing a gag in.

He gave a futile struggle for a moment, but my hands were like a pair of vices holding him down. Des peeked into the room behind him and shrugged before ripping open her own portal. I  threw the threadspawn-infected man into the portal and stepped in behind him as the others came as well. The portal closed with a subtle swish, and none of them felt the need to be silent anymore.

“Well, that was an easy one,” Des said, stretching provocatively and swinging her hips side to side as she picked up the man and dragged him over to Misha, who had nine statues around her. Each one was a petrified, threadspawn infected human.

“You know, we're going to have to do something with them eventually,” Misha prompted.

I gave the Whaleryn a tight smile. “Thank you for being as helpful as you have. I only spotted one more target for tonight. After that, we'll hand them all off to the UG and be done for now.”

The rest of the group shrugged, seeming either to be having enough fun with our stealth missions or have accepted this new direction. The only person missing was Bellaire, though she had her own task for the night. An added bonus of our new relationship was that she could now make her own portals and she was taking advantage of that by seeking out Director Ametto.

“So where's the next one?” Felin asked, her tail flicking back and forth mischievously behind her.

“Are you going to steal something from every place we visit?” Des asked, putting a hand to her chest.

“I was not stealing, merely appreciating,” Felin argued. “We are helping them. It is only proper to offer a tribute to those who help you.”

I looked over to Des, curious what exactly Felin had been stealing.

“She's only been swiping drinks and food. I don't think there's much harm in what she's been doing.” Des answered my unspoken question.

I sighed, deciding not to take that one on. If they wanted to bicker for fun, then let them. “Okay, our last target I spotted earlier. There were multiple threadspawn present.”

“More threadspawn?” Misha perked up.

“Yeah, a decent amount more from what I could see. Honestly, my concern is that it might be their base for whatever they're doing in New York.” I explained my thoughts, only to watch as the ladies around me all grew increasingly concerned.

“If it gets too dangerous, one of us opens a portal and we don't argue — we just run,” Charlotte said, looking at me as if I in particular needed that rule.

I held my hands up. “Sounds like a deal.”

Charlotte pursed her lips before searching my eyes and nodding. “Then take it away, Ken.”

I opened up another portal, bringing our group back to the New York skyline we’d been hopping across throughout the evening and pointed toward the building in question.

It looked almost like someone had put a castle on top of one of the skyscrapers. Large, ornate stone archways topped with angels lined the upper four floors. Beyond them, there was plenty of glass, though I could tell the threadspawn were much farther inside. No one moved about that we could see.

Des let out a soft whistle. “That is a swanky place.”

“Does it get the Des seal of approval?” I asked.

The demonic mage nodded. “I mean, I could do with replacing the angels with gargoyles or demons, but otherwise, it’s a real flex to put something like that on top of a skyscraper.”

I shrugged and, with a wave of my hand, opened up another portal across the roofs. It was far easier to portal across rather than jump, and even if I was an adventurer, a fall from this height would be disastrous and all it might take was a particularly strong gust of wind to blow us off course. The ladies joined me one after the other before Des opened another portal to get through the glass windows.

[Eyes of Wisdom] activated, and I could see my own reflection in one of the mirrors as I scanned the penthouse for the threadspawn. There were plenty of them in the center of the structure, but what caught my attention even more now that I was this close was what almost appeared to be a very large threadspawn or maybe many of them intertwined.

I shook my head. Something was very wrong.

“Be cautious,” I whispered before I moved through the building as silent as a wraith.

The rest of my party slipped in behind me as we made our way deeper into the castle touching the sky. It was eerie how life there was in the building as you could feel it sway from the winds.

I could see the threadspawn, but each and every one of them, and their hosts were simply standing still.

They were not moving an inch. In a deeply unsettling way, it was as if they were waiting for us.

I held a hand up before we got too close. “Past that door,” I mouthed, flashing my fingers. “Eight threadspawn and something strange in the center.”

The ladies all looked at one another and nodded, armed with as much knowledge as I could give them. Penny stepped forward, sword at the ready. We’d bagged almost a dozen of them so far tonight without much issue. Though this one was already different enough that I wanted her to be careful.

“Defensives as soon as you go through.” I said, my legs tensing as I readied to be right behind her.

“Alright, I’m going,” she whispered as she launched herself forward.

The ornate door tried its best to hold up against her surging strength, but even solid hardwood shattered under the impact, splintering into a thousand shards against her shoulder.

Penny smashed through it like it was made of toothpicks, coming out the other side and immediately swinging her sword and wreathing herself in frosty armor, creating an icy trail through what appeared to be a grand bathroom.

The room was made of black marble with gold and white veins twisting through it. In the center was the largest pearlescent tub I had ever seen. It was probably more appropriate to call it a jacuzzi. The jets were roaring, frothing the water, and a beautiful blonde woman sat comfortably inside.

As soon as Penny smashed the door down, the woman looked up as if she’d been lost in thought staring at the water this entire time only for something to casually catch her interest. Around her, each of the threadspawn hosts snapped their heads up before roaring and charging Penny.

The first shock of the night came when one of the threadspawn managed to block Penny’s sword barehanded, only for another to tackle her in a sweeping motion that threw her from her feet and smashing her into the ornate tiles.

She put up a good fight though, her frost covered fists sending the clear message that she didn’t much care for him.

Bun-bun bounded off Charlotte’s shoulder, growling and snapping at the threadspawn that was trying to pin Penny. I appreciated his help but dove in to stand between the others and the rest of my group.

Penny went down quickly, and my own blades struggled to find their mark as these infected turned out to be far more capable than I had been expecting given the ease of our other captures. My target dodging me several times before one came back around, his arm glowing with power, moving like he was about to take my head clean off.

I ducked under his glowing fist, feeling my hair tug from the near miss, only to come back up, slicing him several times and spinning around behind him to work on his kidneys.

I barely had time to pay attention to the rest of the room, but I took a quick glance, finding my group just as busy as me.

Des had found herself in a magical duel with two of the threadspawn, while Penny struggled with two more. It was unsettling to watch the way they were knocking her around. If it weren’t for Bun Bun dancing between their feet, they probably would have had Penny pinned again.

Part of me couldn’t help but be shocked at how much stronger these threadspawn were than the ones we’d faced thus far. The number of humans that could compete with my party were slim and I recognized none of these people.

I looked to Charlotte to find two of them doing their best to get to our healer. Felin was the only barrier standing in their way.

Options ran through my head, I wondered if enough [Liminal Speed] stacks would allow me to turn this situation around. We had the benefit of surprise at this moment, and with it we were barely holding our own. I needed to break the stalemate.

As I was preparing, the woman in the tub stood up, and the situation became far clearer to me.

The woman was not actually in a jacuzzi. She was in a massive tub that perhaps had jets, but the frothing was being created by hundreds if not thousands of threadspawn that were outside of a host, wriggling in the water. As the woman stood, I saw the hole in her abdomen. She might have had a pretty face, perhaps the trophy wife that went with this place, but the rest of her body looked gaunt and wasted away, as if feeding the threadspawn had drained her. At least, that’s what I assumed had been happening.

“Children,” she said, with a tone far too warm for what was happening around her. “We have guests for the night, and you are making a mess.” She scolded the threadspawn and then moved faster than my eyes could track.

Before I knew it, she snatched Penny’s sword out of her hands and tossed it to the ground before turning her gaze toward Charlotte and Felin. Both fell as if their strength had been ripped from them and they didn’t have enough left to stand.

The threadspawn in the tub squirmed, and an eerie screech mixed with the burbling water sent shivers down my spine like thousands of cries for her to return to the tub.

We had, perhaps, found their headquarters here in New York. And apparently we had bitten off far more than we could chew.

I gave the woman a tight-lipped smile. “I think we showed up to the wrong party,” I said, taking a careful step back, working to get closer to the others. It was time to portal out of here. “We apologize for any interruptions tonight.”

She took one slow wet step to fully face me.

I smiled, my brain quickly processing our limited options.

The threadspawn that Felin had been fending off were now standing stoically in the doorway, arms crossed, glaring down their noses at us.

I got the feeling this was not the kind of party anybody left easily.

As the woman’s apathetic smile lingered, she spoke again. “I see,” the threadspawn said. “Mistake or no, I must insist now that you stay.”

The burbling tub told me exactly what would happen if we remained in this room.

I chuckled and decided there was little to lose. I dashed forward, striking at her with everything I had, quickly finding out my firepower wasn’t nearly enough.

I’d fought Crimson enough times to know the feeling of being completely outmatched in stats, but that baffled me, because this woman was human. She shouldn’t be anyone anywhere near Crimson’s level of strength. I had no idea how that was even possible.

But however it happened, the exchange cleared up our options very quickly. We needed to escape as quickly as possible and I needed to create that opening.

She toyed with me as I attacked.

I used every ability I had; [Triple Breach], [Shadow Claw], [Shadow Ambush], [Shadow Limb] all one after another. I wondered if this is how Number Five had felt when he had fought me. None of my hits were landing.

The second I flipped behind her, she blocked my blade with her bare hands, not even turning to acknowledge me. She slowly turned a moment later, as if it was simply easier to fight facing forward. “As I said before, and as you can clearly see, you will be staying here,” she said, her tone flat.

I wasn’t going to simply give up, a plan was forming in my mind, I just needed as many stacks as I could and then to gather my group.

Even as she continued to block, I noted the first flicker of emotion. She was frustrated before she blurred.

The next second, I found myself flying across the black marble, slamming into the wall hard enough to crack and chip large chunks of it away. My ribs weren’t doing much better.

I had to suppress a grin at one thing going right.

She’d thrown me over where the other threadspawn were gathering the rest of my party and whatever was going on with her, she sagged unnaturally like she’d injured herself with her movement. Perhaps that was why it took so long for her to act, but that was a consideration for later.

I activated [Liminal Space] with my party nearby, ripping open a portal the next second and throwing each of them through with as much speed as I could muster. There was no choosing favorites, just the closest person got chucked into the glowing escape route.

My [Liminal Speed] stacks dropped precariously fast as the portal held in the shattered space. There wasn’t much time, the threadspawn hadn’t let me build up that many stacks.

I had just thrown the last of my party through and grabbed Bun-bun by the scruff of his neck as the space began to stitch itself back together. I dove as I canceled the portal it shrinking even as [Liminal Space] was coming to a close.

Either because I had moved out of range of my own ability or because it was already beginning to fail, as the portal closed, time resumed on the other side. There was the briefest flicker of confusion on the threadspawn woman’s face before she darted toward the portal and reached her hand through the portal that was no bigger than a head.

However strong she was, I felt confident the portal would slice her arm off.

That confidence wavered as the portal struggled to finish closing around her arm, the ability sizzling and crackling around the woman’s flesh.

“Cut it off!” Des screamed and so helpfully threw a pillow at the grasping arm.

Penny was a touch faster than me, already drawing her blade. She raised it high and swung with as much strength as she could muster.

It bounced off the arm, her sword ringing like she’d struck stone rather than flesh.

I joined her a second later, hacking at the arm. Between the two of us and the portal trying to close, it would have to be enough.

The realization of how far out of our depth we were hit hard when, rather than lose the arm, the threadspawn simply withdrew it. As if it had grown tired of the attempt, it pulled its hand back through, allowing the portal to close completely.

I looked at where that hand had been reaching through moments before, a new and profound concern settling into my gut. Just what was humanity up against now?

“What the fuck was that?” Misha asked.

We all turned to her voice to see the Whaleryn still babysitting the petrified threadspawn we’d captured earlier in the night.

“Apparently a very powerful threadspawn,” I said, double-checking the space where the portal had been and confirming again that it was closed. My adrenaline was still surging, and I couldn’t help but check the corners like that woman was going to appear.

Des slumped to the floor. “All right, kitty. Why don’t you share with me some of those bottles you pilfered? I could use something strong right now. And Ken, let me make this clear we are not going back there.” Des’s voice was half panic, half laughter.

I held my hands up. “Don’t need to tell me twice. Whatever that was, we need help before we pay that place another visit.”

“If it’s still there,” Penny said, shaking her head. “I mean, if I were that strong, I’d be cocky as fuck, but there’s a good chance it’s smart enough to get the hell out of New York after that.”

I tapped the corner of my glowing eyes. “Well, good thing I’m fairly certain I can find it wherever it goes.”