Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia - Chapter 159 - Targeting
🕑 Added 2024-08-03 20:20:31 +0000 UTCDrendros, the ancient green dragon of woes and waste, glared balefully at the mass of corpses alayed out in front of him. Roughly a third of the mages he’d used for this ritual died on the spot, drained of every ounce of mana contained within their pitiful forms. Then, when there were no more, the ritual took their lifeforce instead.
Without craning his neck to the side to look at one of the more useful humans in their cage, a young female seer, he commanded his answer. “Is he dead?”
The rattling of chains and the meek and powerless voice which answered him only angered him, as she’d been told to keep the clattering chains quiet. “N—no.”
“How did he survive?” Dendros asked, as he turned his yellow eyes toward the pitiful human, locked away for the rest of her days.
“I—I don’t kn—”
“So, you’re useless?” He stated, earning himself the grating sound of clanging chains and fearful sobs.
“No! N-No!” The woman cried out, but Dendros had enough.
“Take her back. No sustenance for three days.” Dendros commanded as he tuned out the sounds, she had her chance.
Two of his healers began transferring the cage back down below, where his pets could lick water from the walls, saving his dwindling army of healers from having to take care of them to ensure their survival.
“What of the new healers temple up above?” Dendros asked, having his answer delivered from another red robes healer, one who had survived thanks to having enough mana for the ritual.
“It still stands, my lord. While we could erase it from existence with sheer force, we didn’t want to have to use any of your precious artifacts. As you know, a full sized battalion of Thexian mages came to learn from the Genesis. We don’t have the numbers to contest, as they’ve taken on guard duties and even work inside. There’s also the right hand of Fatalina Castana, the general of the army. Regina, an assassin of great skill. Level in the eighties.”
Dendros huffed out a plume of green, noxious gas as he shifted up upon his throne. “Pay little mind to them, as long as Lee Barnes joins us, or dies, we can recover.”
Not hearing a ‘Yes, my lord.’ in reply caused Dendros to crane his head down toward the one who’d answered him. He huffed out more noxious gas, coating the red robes healer for his disrespect. But still, no reply came. Only a continuation.
“I—He—He has taauu” The red robed healer coughed and spluttered, gasping for air and clawing at his throat, but still he continued on. “He has taught others, ho—how to hea—heal.”
Dendros raised his head, done with his pets. “Then we kill them all, slowly and surely. Should we not make progress soon, I might have to take matters into my own hands. That would mean you’re all worthless to me. Remember that.”
“Children, feast upon the corpses. Leave but one to feed the pets down below.” Dendros commanded as he shifted upon his throne, full of treasure and wealth.
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Neia sat across from Ruven, a small fire separating the two as they waited for their guide to wake. It was just a few months ago, but Neia didn’t miss the extended camping periods. Lee hadn’t caused them too much trouble upon their first meeting, but Neia remembered wasting hours upon hours watching him sleep.
They hadn’t gotten far along their journey, but already they’ve heard tales of the wandering foreign healer in the two stops in nearby villages or towns. First, was the simple village of Breye, where Lee had apparently eloped with the local… monster.
According to Harper, their guide, Thexis had a system in place where monsters protected them. She’d asked to see the one in Lopus before they left, but either they were keeping it away from them, or the partially destroyed town didn’t have one any longer.
She’d keep asking at every settlement until she saw one with her own two heavily shaded eyes.
By far, the worst part about Thexis was the bright, invasive, never-ending, dreadful, blinding rays from the sun. Even with their hats, when they got out of the wagon during the day, it was almost unbearable. Especially so for Ruven. He’d refused to step out of the wagon at all, taking his meals and holding in his bodily functions until night time arrived.
She let loose a sigh as she stoked the fire, dreading the incoming daylight.
“This place is a hellscape. No wonder we lived underground.” Ruven murmured as he looked over his shoulder at the muted gray, orange, and red horizon. The sun made its incoming arrival known.
Ruven got up and nudged the sleeping form of Harper with his foot, causing him to jerk and let out a shriek upon seeing the gray skinned giant in front of him. “Breakfast, then we leave. The sun is coming.”
Harper slid his long wavy brown hair out of his eyes as he squinted to see in the dark. “What time is it?”
“Time to eat, then time to leave. The sun is coming.” Ruven said, nudging Harper with his foot once more.
“You can’t outrun the sun, Ruven.” Harper complained as he rolled off his sleeping mat.
“But I can hide from it. Now, hurry… please.” The slightly pleading tone caused Harper to sigh. He got ready to eat and leave, these next few weeks would be interesting.
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Two hours after his near spontaneous combustion, Lee was walking in the center of a platoon of soldiers. After his attempted assassination, Fatalina’s reinforcements came swiftly with wagons, warriors, and determination. If Lee was in their position, he would have noped the fuck right out of there. He would not have walked toward the giant pillar of flame which could appear at any point in time.
Fatalina’s aides were still quite shaken, obviously a part of the military, but not soldiers in and of themselves—not that he was faulting them, he found himself in the same position… but Fatalina herself was back to normal. Currently, she munched on jerky as her silver eyes scanned the various documents allayed out in front of her as she sat in the wagon.
Lee was done with wagons.
As Lee could see the scaled up replica of Selldun, Emerson, mere a few minutes away, he was worried about bringing a Flamestrike down upon the innocent by his presence, but almost as if she could read his thoughts, Fatalina spoke up without looking away from her papers. “Calm down, Lee. Another won’t come for a while. They would have known they've failed. We have ways to prevent long range targeting. Now, please stop swallowing and gulping. It’s annoying to hear.”
The fact that Fatalina could even hear him swallowing nervously in the middle of hundreds of footfalls was telling. While it was easy to think of what super-hearing would be like, Lee didn’t think he could ever truly understand what a blessing and a curse it could be. Childishly, to test to see if she could read minds or not, (He was still not one-hundred percent sure) he took one big gulp.
Fatalina stilled, placed her papers down, then turned to fully face him. Her sharp eyes glared at him, unpleased was an understatement for her expression. “Stop. It’s sickening.” She let the glare settle in place for another second before she returned to her papers. “Someone get Mr. Barnes some food. He’s hungry.”
Within seconds, a soldier came by and opened a small bag on his hip. The older man, probably around his forties, gave him a cheshire grin as he tossed Lee some strips of jerky. “Don’t poke the Owlbear.”
Lee took some of the offered jerky, realizing that he was in-fact hungry. He squinted his eyes in suspicion toward Fatalina, earning a scoff which apparently didn’t even deserve a look in his direction. The man who’d shared his jerky answered Lee’s unasked question. “She can hear your stomach and intestines. Don’t underestimate the general.”
She can hear that?!
Lee mentally noted down that flatulence was forbidden in her presence.
A few minutes later, everyone made their way into the strict security checkpoint to proceed into Emerson, the central fortification for the war—and base of operations for Fatalina.
Fatalina herself was checked with what Lee would deem unwarranted scrutiny. She quickly abandoned Lee to head off with her aides, some pressing matters to attend too, leaving Lee in the company of Hank, the man who had shared his jerky with him. Hank had some old wounds from battle, which Lee had quickly taken care of during their walk, and Hank was a pretty chill guy all things considered.
Hank Simmons - Human - Level: 41 Slayer. (Uncommon)
“Well, let's get you to the vault so you don’t cause us to get melted into goo by Burstina’s fire. Follow me, I’ll lead the way.” Hank was pretty chipper as he led Lee through the near replica of Selldun, just upscaled about fifty percent.
“You seem pretty happy to be standing next to the target of the Flamestrike.” Lee commented as he followed along.
“Well, this gets me out of some grunt work. Also, no more knee pain! I think I forgot what not being in pain felt like. The last time I met a healer, they couldn’t do anything for it! All things considered, I think I’ll stick with you. Too many perks and the downside is death, which has been a threat looming over me for twenty years straight.” Hank’s smile was infectious, and Lee was glad he wasn’t ostracized yet. If he were in charge, he wouldn’t allow anyone near Lee with a ten-foot pole.
After Hank led them to the so-called ‘vault’, which was indeed a vault, just much smaller than Lee would proclaim and boast to be a vault, Lee got himself a small golden, gaudy ruby ring.
Ring of Non-detection (Target): This gold ring, slotted with a large beautiful ruby, prevents the wearer from being targeted when not in line of sight.
Lee frowned, not seeing any enchanting marks or mentions in the item's description. “Where did this come from?”
He would have liked to have studied the enchantments to be able to replicate it in the future, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards.
Hank was casually browsing through the small area filled with expensive items as he responded. “Dropped from a monster probably. I think that one belonged to the old healer we had around here. Pompous prick he was.”
Lee ran his finger over the ruby, and flecks of red slowly peeled off—dried blood.
“Well then… What happened to the old healer?”
“Fatalina killed him.” Hank shrugged.
Comments
Wintermelody
Thanks for the Chapter
