Path of the Slayer B1 C23. I Expected Better

I teleported into an adjacent room close to the wreckage area that held the imperial Portal. From here, I wouldn’t know what they were doing or who they were.

I didn’t want to spy on them directly and risked them seeing me in return through the viewing window. I had no idea if it was two-way or not, and I’d forgotten to test that with one of my monster helpers.

Outside, a cloud broke, raining rainbow-colored oil.

It wasn’t highly flammable, strangely, but it could still burn once convinced to do so.

I avoided the rainbow oil dripping through the holes in the ceiling and floors above. My every step remained quiet and measured as I listened for activity on the other side.

I heard nothing.

Stilling my movements, I waited.

A minute passed.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

Finally, they spoke first.

“We know you’re there, rogue nomad,” said a voice that sent my heart rate skyward.

The son of the city mayor. The golden hero of Steel Blitz City. The most accomplished golden adventurer of the current era.

Elric Auraguard was here just for me, and if he was here, then the rest of the golden killers were here as well.

Crap.

This was both the worst and greatest thing to happen. The golden killers didn’t lose. I might as well consider myself dead unless proven otherwise.

That meant I could go all out, giving me some measure of freedom without having to feel guilty.

I spoke aloud, with Path Energy masking my voice. “Leave now. This is your final warning.”

“Give yourself over. This is your final warning,” Elric replied, sounding amused.

There was one wall between us. I didn’t wait for them to break through it. I took two steps away, teleporting out in the nick of time.

I heard the resounding noise of a wall getting smashed a few floors under me as the teleport ended with a snap and pop. A notification came into direct view of my vision, regardless of the logs.

[You are in combat! Realm Master privileges disengaged!]

The noise hadn’t settled much before I picked out Elric shouting orders, which were fake. The golden killers communicated via gestures that were so subtle most of their enemies wouldn’t pick them up.

“Set a barrier and wait for him to come to us!” Elric said confidently two floors below.

Instead of rolling my eyes, I activated the magic of my spatial ring.

Six oil-filled canisters the size of water buckets appeared from near my left hand. Each one had frost coating their metallic surfaces, the runes I’d inscribed on them glowing in an array of blue and green.

I set them down, activated the timer, and lunged out of the nearest window.

An Umbral Arrow from Sylas the elf struck my shoulder, doing no physical damage, which would’ve been preferably. Instead, it ripped away 10% of my Path Energy, dropping me from 99% to 89% – the bastard.

Well, I was already falling toward a street covered in stakes, with Sylas left in the room with the enchanted oil-canisters.

The elf was quick-witted enough though and shouted, “TRAP!”

The explosives went off, obliterating the entire floor and the one below. The common materials couldn’t withstand the force amplification I’d enchanted on the canisters. That was the most extreme enchanting I’d done on short notice, and the results struck me with burning debris flying down with my fall.

The debris bounced off as I twisted midair and narrowly slipped past two cursed stakes. They would’ve gladly run me through if it wasn’t for Path Magnetism nudging me around them.

I landed in a crouch and strode away with brisk but measured steps. The building with the portal collapsed floor by floor onto itself behind me.

I heard the clamoring clap of thunder behind me. The air crackled with growing static from an electrical build up that could only belong to Lara, the half giant.

Without even looking back, I took a sharp turn to my left behind a nested barrier of stakes. The timing couldn’t be any better. A surging lightning bolt landed on the metallic stake barrier, filling my vision with a blue flash momentarily.

The barrier grounded the elemental electricity, thwarting an attack that would’ve cost me dearly if it had landed. Some residual shock still got to me, costing me a percentage, dropping me to 88% Path Energy.

The building was still falling on the golden killers’ heads, but they were forcing their way after me anyway. I was certain that three of them had higher Vitality than the average for Rank 3s, so they were as tough as physical monsters for their Rank. That and they probably had Aether that was higher than the average, too, so they could use their magic for a lengthy period, especially Lara.

However, the scariest one was Sylas, who I knew had a Suppression that was stronger than usual. He could affect another typical Rank 3 as if they were a Rank 2.

Combine all of that with their separate powers they’d mastered over the years and you have the scariest adventurers ever to go hunting you.

They were monsters among Rank 3s.

I was a dead man walking.

But the drumming in my heart felt good. My body was hot, with blood coursing rapidly everywhere. There was no room for fear. All I could do was act and react to what was happening.

I summoned another oil-filled canister, activated the timer, and used magnetism to lob it behind me. It wasn’t a fast throw. I sent it on an arc that would carry it through two open doorways and toward the far corner behind me. It blew by the time I made my way up the stairs with more urgency in my steps.

I lost track of the golden killers. They could be anywhere – especially Sylas, the elf archer. If there was anyone I wanted to kill first, it would be him.

The structure rocked and groaned around me. The vital supports were out.

My steps remained surefooted as I sped up, flying up the stairs, before reaching the necessary floor and taking a turn to my right. I ran through a room that seemed like a place for administrative work, but with too many desks that were smashed or thrown aside in disarray long before my arrival.

Reaching an open window, I lunged out and entered the rainbow-oil rainfall that covered one side of the building and a few blocks in the direction I faced.

Another Umbral Arrow from the elf Sylas caught me in the calf. It ripped 10% off my Path Energy, dropping me to 78% – the bastard.

I heard crackling thunder and felt another high-energy charge from the half-giant Lara down on the street below. By the time I landed in the building I was aiming for, I used Path Magnetism to yank me forward faster. I skidded belly first on my oil slick body as Lara’s Arc Lightning blasted the wall behind me along with a section of the floor and ceiling.

A few fires broke out, though they were slow-going with the rainbow-colored smoke. I forced the stuff off me with a push of Path Energy, dipping me down to 77%.

Settling onto a knee, I reached out to all the cursed javelins placed in bundles all around me and pulled them close. A hundred cursed javelins flew in my direction until I pushed them to a stop – Path Energy: 75%.

Waiting three beats, I stayed knelt until it felt right to shove all the javelins in as many directions as I could throw them. Unfortunately, not all of them flew straight and true, but most of them did as I dropped to 70% Path Energy.

The cursed javelins that flew the straightest cut straight through the Common building material and flew onward.

None of them hit the mark I was hoping for, especially when something shadowy appeared beneath me, binding my legs and my left arm. Two Umbral Arrows landed on my back, dropping me to 50% Path Energy.

As a topper, Sylas struck me with his overly strong Suppression and froze my existence.

“I expected better,” he said, stabbing my neck with a knife.

As he began to behead me with a swift motion, my Path Energy dropped to 35%, with Pain Eater Gluttony activating. That slowed his beheading cut, confusing him for a moment.

That was the last mistake he made as I sacrificed 25%. I broke free of the Suppression with a loud crackle of static discharge. The restraints on me broke as I stood to my towering height.

Sylas scrambled to get away while using that invisibility power of his that I’d never caught the name of. I used Path Magnetism to tug on the metals on his body.

It would cost me too much to manipulate his metals – there was a certain personal defense against manipulation like that with someone else’s gear. His Aether was high enough to counteract an overt abuse unless I wanted to pay up a huge lump sum of energy.

But with him being so close, I could use Path Magnetism to sense him exactly even if he was invisible and silenced.

That made it easier to pierce him with a cursed javelin flying in from an angle he didn’t expect while drawn by my hand. Of course, I wasn’t idle. My hand flew toward Sylas as well, specifically the half ripper hand.

The claws wrapped around his neck tight, choking him, before I slammed him through the floor. The weak surface broke under us, sending us into a fall.

I grabbed the pull handle on my half ripper arm.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

Hellion roared mightily. Sylas panicked while stabbing me with his knives in the gaps of my armor.

My Path Energy dropped to 1%.

We struck the ground floor. A metal stake caught Sylas by the arm and tore it open with its cursed edge.

That stunned him long enough for me to readjust my grip, resting the palm of the half ripper hand on his chest, before letting Hellion have his way with the elf.

Sylas screamed until he didn’t have the lungs to scream any further. 

Hellion’s autosaw energy ripped and tore its way through Sylas’s chest, draining Vitality sharply, filling me back up with Path Energy. The elf’s pain was a tragedy, but regaining my energies from him was a pleasure I wouldn’t dare cut short.

That and I needed him dead after I squeezed him dry.

I wasn’t done with him yet when the dwarf shielder Taver appeared with his heavy box shield and war hammer aimed at me. Behind the dwarf, the shining light of Elric Auraguard followed in pursuit.

There was thunder clapping and another charge of electrical energy further behind them.

I held up Sylas’s mangled body as a shield, and Taver slowed down at the sight of that.

“No!” roared Elric, who kept charging past with Rank 3 speed that was above average.

Still, with Taver hesitating, I had enough wriggle room to make a magnetic link between me and a grouping of stakes outside. I yanked myself out magnetically and slipped the swing of Elric’s shining sword.

I kept my current prey as I smashed through a wall to get out there. I nearly ran myself through on a cursed stake before pushing off of it with a pulse of magnetism.

I was hoping Sylas had above average Vitality, but as soon as I turned the corner while using magnetism to flick me around quickly, the elf died in my half ripper grasp.

[You’ve slain a Rank 3 elf!]

I was back up to 25% Path Energy.

But there were other options, weren’t there?

I fished around on Sylas’s belt and found his Health Potions. They were Rank 3 stuff, some of the most expensive Health Potions an alchemist could create. After that, you either needed a healer or your own Vitality.

I popped open two of them and chugged them sloppily. As they worked their magic, I continued fleeing from the angry killers, with Sylas still propped on my half ripper hand like a corpse doll.

The Health Potion didn’t agree with me.

My Path Energy went up and down weirdly, and I felt sick more often than fine. But I didn’t go through a horrible wave of side effects and withdrawals.

Instead, I ended up with more Path Energy, raising me up to 40% after I burned through some from running while using magnetism.

The clap of thunder grew louder. I tossed Sylas’s body behind me and dove behind a grouping of stakes.

This time, the lightning didn’t come.

Instead, a tremor rolled heavily under me, which was the telltale sign of the dwarf Taver’s earth powers getting used. Before I could get back to running, the street bucked heavily, throwing me down. The nearest cursed stakes serving as my barrier fell, too.

I forced my vision to steady and spot the half-giant Lara standing two heads above Elric while pointing her lightning-charged hand at me. Hell no. I refused to get hit by that, so I sacrificed Path Energy and sent the large metal stakes flying in a scatter shot toward her.

Her lightning bolt was on its way. Multiple stakes ended up in its path, sapping some of the zing off the bolt. It missed a direct hit on me by a hairbreadth, but the discharge of electricity still hurt my Path Energy, making it hard to get off my feet and run.

“Die, scum!” Elric caught up and swung his mighty greatsword while it was covered in shining magic, a well-known power called Radiant Blade.

I was a lot of things.

But I wasn’t Elric’s equal in swordsmanship.

At least not yet.

Which was why I’d summoned an oil-canister to my left by the time his shining sword swung in my direction. I triggered the spark without a timer and blasted the both of us before he could hit me.

I came out better because of Pain Eater Gluttony.

Still, my entire body got thrown through a few walls all to create space. I lost count of how many, but I was pretty sure I put a hole through two or three of the commonly made structures.

There was no time to catch my breath.

I forced myself free of the rubble, though I came out stumbling while my left hand was mangled. Path Energy was fixing it up, my fingers snapping back into place, the wounds sealing.

I only gave it a curious glance for a few brisk strides before noticing Hellion’s impatient nipping at my Path Energy. It was already hungry for another bite.

Chiding the cursed thing mentally, I took my exit out of a doorway and pulled out another thing from my storage ring. It was an item I’d chosen from the Realm Treasure Chest I earned after defeating the Mole Lord Portal Boss.

[Path Elixir: Level 31 (Rare): Ever need a pick-me-up as a Pathwalker up against the odds? Well, here ya go! Not only will it recharge ya fully if you’re Level 31 or below, but it’ll make your Path Energy Quality even greater than normal for a short time.]

The bottle was light blue and somewhat clear. The substance inside shone with a soft white light. It looked like a fusion between liquid and vapor.

I was almost afraid it would escape once I removed the light brown topper. Once it was open to the world, I quickly drained it.

The taste was divine.

For a split second, I felt like I was part of something grander, as if I was part of the whole. Then that feeling was gone, leaving me slightly dejected.

That didn’t remain an issue for long. I felt my Path Energy was back to 100%, and more importantly, it felt stronger.

Before I could take advantage of that, a sudden storm appeared above me. Twisting winds howled like mad wraiths. The temperature dropped so fast, my next breath was chilling going down my throat. I knew what was happening, but it was too late to get out of it.

Lara’s Storm Arena slammed down as soon as it appeared, entrapping me in a funnel of ice and lightning that enclosed me by thirty feet in all directions. The half-giant storm mage remained outside of it, but her two warrior companions entered freely from either side of me.

They looked pissed off.

Why was that?