Quinn, the pirate, wasn’t too worried about the Knights and their investigations that would happen as a result of his robbery.
He was to rendezvous with a small ship tonight and return to the Dazzled Lady.
This meant that it was perfectly fine for him to leave a small mess, such as breaking into an inn to rob a silly, naive boy. After all, he didn’t exactly plan on killing the boy, and he would not be staying long enough to get caught by the Knights.
The investigations that would follow would undoubtedly be resolved as a quiet and small matter within a matter of days, and he would return in a few months to roam the city once more.
He had been motivated to rob the boy on land, given that the information on this naive little fellow was bound to spread soon, and it would be much more difficult to rob his ship at sea.
And given that this was his last night in the city, he was not opposed to ‘topping up’ his cash reserves…
“How many charms do we have?” Quinn asked cautiously at his 2 subordinates.
Quinn was the 3rd mate on the ship, barely cutting the line due to his intermediate grasp of martial arts, and had come ashore with the two subordinates in question.
“Three charms, boss! Two binding charms, and one should be a defensive charm!” One of them whispered enthusiastically.
“Overkill, isn’t it?” The other chuckled softly.
The three of them had already scouted the area around the inn, and peered into the windows next to Aurelius’s room, and failed to find any sign of potential bodyguards or whatsoever.
This was undoubtedly going to be easy!
“Can’t never be too careful these days. You can learn from him, Frey.” Quinn grunted, scoffing at Frey’s remarks.
“Throw the charm immediately on three.” He instructed gruffly.
“3…2…1…”
???
“A robbery-” Aurelius started, whirring around as he just saw a circular object tossed in through the window that had sneakily torn itself open in the meantime.
“Sigilia!” A voice called out, immediately creating a strange effect in the room. As his eyes widened, Aurelius felt the charm make a small gust of wind, as it pulled the mana out of the air into itself, creating a deep, impactful sound, and the sounds from the inn’s bar downstairs immediately muffled itself significantly.
A wind charm! It had ‘bound’ and altered the conditions of his room!
Just as the charm took effect, three burly looking men sauntered their way into his room, looking ferocious and threatening. They held a revolver in their hand respectively, and clutched at their scabbard on their waists.
…This is completely overkill! Was the first thought that crossed poor Aurelius’s mind.
While mages had some advantage in their flexibility, speed and area of effect, martial artists like knights, or even normal people were more than capable of bringing down a mage with numerical advantages.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The Royal Knights were a great example of this principle. While they were not allowed to wield magic directly, with the proper plans, magic items and charms, the advanced knight team was capable of standing their ground against a team of mages of similar size, at least, up to the 2nd soul layer.
“Bang!”
As Aurelius deliberated on his next course of action, a gunshot sounded in the room. These lunatics had actually shot at him!
Aurelius’s eyes widened immediately as he saw a strangely shaped bullet hurtling towards him.
With great difficulty, a yelp, and a rather disgraceful pose, Aurelius, with the reaction time that he had nurtured during his past three years, he… took the bullet pathetically in his thigh.
“Fu-” Aurelius started, as his thoughts immediately became groggy and slippery.
The strangely shaped bullet was a dart, which had just injected Aurelius with a rather sizable amount of sedatives…
Fortunately… I’m… not… a… woman… Aurelius thought to himself humourlessly as he recalled the foulness of pirates. He would not sleep within 2 miles of a pirate without proper vigilance…
Aurelius did not pass out immediately.
Being a mage meant that he had a level of power over his soul and, therefore, a certain amount of control over his physical body and mind, as well as his heart.
That was the nature of mana.
Therefore, using his resistances, he groggily staggered and gingerly took the sedative dart out of his thigh.
The pirates were prepared to send a few more sedatives his way, of course, but since too many would kill their target, they were merely calmly observing the situation for the moment. And since the sedative usually did take a minute to kick in proper, they were not particularly bothered by Aurelius’s struggle.
Of course, Aurelius’s resistance to the sedative was strange to them, but it was clearly working, so they didn’t think much of it for now.
With groggy eyelids and a staggering figure, Aurelius’s brain thought about ways to turn his situation around…
He definitely didn’t want to die pathetically here! And this was clearly an opportunity to gather clues to a pirate crew!
And Aurelius finally found a… rather uncomfortable way to resolve the crisis.
“Fuck.” Aurelius muttered under his breath, mustering up his strength and wit to utter a single, terrible magical phrase with great reluctance.
“Pultris. You can take over now.” Aurelius declared.
With that, Aurelius felt his left hand go numb, and a small, gash of ancient red appeared on his palm…
???
The lights in the room flickered and dimmed, as if a shadow had engulfed the room in its embrace. And Quinn frowned as he heard the strange words come out of the boy’s mouth.
Pultris? Who in the name of the Dragons is that? He thought, nervously looking around to see if the boy had some sort of hidden spirit familiar or the sort.
Was the boy actually a mage?
And just as he glanced back at the strange Central boy, Quinn’s eyes dilated in shock.
On the boy’s outstretched hand, Quinn made out white, bony pearls, and a strange, red tongue with horrible, wet gums. There was a… mouth on the boy’s hand!
“Bang. Bang. Bang.” All three pirates fired simultaneously, and held out their swords at Aurelius with panic lining the very muscles under their facial skin.
This development was not creepy, it was downright horrifying! Even for pirates who often sailed the seas and encountered monsters among the ruins of the past eras, the unexpected element gave much more… horror to the situation!
“Sigilia.” Pultris said calmly, threateningly and horrifyingly, opening and gashing the mouth as if it felt foreign to It.
Immediately, the wind rushed, and the confines of the room shrank…
No, a shadow of the room was formed, separating itself from the wall adjacent to the door, and pushing forward into the path of the bullets.
Pultris had used his authority to ‘adjust’ the boundary of the seal in the room! He had brought forward the seal to use against the bullets!
The bullets could only harmlessly ‘ding’ against this makeshift barrier, and fall to the ground, its sharpened darts crushed to a nib in its front.
“It has been such a long time since I had a mouth!” He said, rolling his tongue like some sort of sweet candy in his mouth, and terrifying the absolute shit out of the three pirates…
If Aurelius wasn’t so groggy because of the sedative, he might have pissed his pants at the sight as well…
“Now, let us start with something… simple.” Pultris growled sinisterly, as the pirates fired more and more erratically at the barrier.
They were now practically climbing over each other to get out of the room as fast as they could. Quinn, using his abilities as a martial artist, leapt over his subordinates, crushing one of their heads under his feet, with it magically producing a comedic ‘oof’ sound.
Just as he reached the window, Pultris uttered another foul word.
“Sigilia.” He said smoothly, with grease dripping from his creepy words.
And the room’s shadow shifted once again, and what had once corresponded to the exit at the window now faced… Aurelius.
“Where are you going?” Pultris asked, a smile forming on the corner of his horrible, creepy lips…
