Bent World: Chapter 35 Foreign Profilings

Chapter 35

Foreign Profilings

Orange.

I had not seen an orange crystal before, nor was I fully aware of what to expect from monsters that were enhanced by orange rift energy. While these were obviously colors on the spectrum, and ones I no doubt should have been prepared to see, I still found myself completely floored by the arrival of orange and yellow crystals from the larger continent to the west of us.

The larger continent comprising thousands of consecutive miles of land that was this world’s equivalent of Asia to Europe with a distinct land bridge connecting to what I recall as Africa. The lands here had different names, but for my own mentality, I was unable to disassociate the lands masses from their original names from my world Earth01.

This was how I managed to open both a yellow crystal powered rift earlier, along with this one an orange infused rift.

Yellow dealt with Illusionary Forces, monsters appearing larger than they were, or smaller depending on their attack methods. Somehow the monsters that came through the yellow rifts instinctively knew how to use their new powers quickly, focusing on evasion and distraction techniques.

As a Pathfinder, those were the easiest rifts to take down, and honestly one that I wouldn’t mind doing again. They were clear simple, I didn’t have to worry about fires, lightning, or disruptive bursts. Instead, I just turned to the real monster, made my strikes quickly, and helped the first family of wealthy foreigners conduct the first of two back-to-back Profiling Ceremonies.

Yes, because why let each group of extremely rich and influential families from another continent feel like they are in a competition for services than by double booking their Profiling Ceremonies for back-to-back events.

In the case of the yellow crystal powered rift, all the guardians that came instantly fell for the feint of Illusionary attacks and were seen fighting what were bushy tails that apparently held images quite well.

Still, the profiling did its part, as both family heiresses were first bathed in the golden yellow light of residual rift energy.

Then in quick fashion, Auntie paused, waiting for the two participants and their parties to nod that they were ready. That’s when she started the second rift using the offered rare orange rift stone provided by the second visiting family.

Just as always, there was a faint thrumming vibration that I could feel in the back of my teeth, one that told me something wrong was happening. After a few seconds the first of orange power infused monsters appeared.

I don’t know what I expected orange power to mean. Heck, after seeing the way everyone was completely confused by the opening attack of the infused beast, I don’t even thing that the family that provided the orange crystal was aware of what that power meant. Because what happened as soon as the oversized and supercharged otter appeared was insane.

Shockwave force.

Immediately upon appearing and being infused with power causing the otherwise cute otters began to increase by ten times their natural sizes, yet the fact that they started off so small was likely why they were so deadly.

Not only were dozens of the monsters able to come through the rift together in a bevy, but each was infused with powers that seemed overpowered. Well, overpowered against the other members of the group around us.

With them being so small, I began moving quickly. Grabbing three throwing daggers with my left hand, before hurling them forward with my Telekinetic auto-strike attacks. Followed by my going in to strike at the lead otters that lead the charge into our world.

Yet, this only thinned out the first wave of the monsters.

Shockwave blasts!

Blasts of wind charged forward, but seemed to stop the moment they got within a few feet around me. This was good, as it let me know that my protective barrier was still in play. I had noticed this effect, the way most powers seemed to gradually drain away the closer they got to me. While speed and distance naturally played a difference in these types of powered attacks, this draining phenomenon was increased around me.

FWOOSH!

A seismic wave of force plowed forward, carving a clear rift in the land, only to come to a complete stop in front of me. Meanwhile, I just charged forward, trying to react quickly to the oncoming spree of power infused monsters that were pouring out of the rift.

It was a perfect storm of chaos, much like the tiny insects from my first profiling ceremony were too small to truly stop at first, so too were these otters too small to hinder by closing the rift. Even now I could see Auntie reversing course and trying to close the rift almost immediately, but the opening was there and it didn’t take much space for the otters to be able to get through.

Slink.

I cut through a casting otter, who looked absolutely confused by the way its wave of energy seemed to stop when it came into contact with me. After the first one was down, I began cutting and striking at the others.

They were all casters, and I could see them all using their waves of cutting force against the dignitaries and their bodyguards.

Slink, slice, stab.

I moved quickly and methodically through the crowd of otters and their corpses, going to the rift itself and holding up my left hand to draw in the overwhelming power of the orange rift. There was a slight burning sensation, as this energy type was new. There was a variation of this energy that I was not used to, much as the yellow crystal had done before.

One otter apparently seeing that I was cutting off their exit and any chance of reinforcements charged at me.

Prad-ump, brah-dump.

Charging forward the otter seemed like it wanted to ram me. The act might almost be commendable, had it not seemed so ridiculous. My right arm was spinning and moving my blade as an extension of my body before I even had a chance to wonder what the creature was doing.

Slink.

The head of the beast sliced off so quickly and cleanly that It took me a second to realize that I assisted my strike with Telekinesis almost instinctively. Not even having to think about holding the beast still for a second, while I empower my strike, creating a perfect strike.

I am so caught up on watching the otter crumple into two pieces that I almost miss the moment the breach is fully secured. Only the fact that there is no longer an intense tingling sensation on my left hand lets me know the task is done.

“Attack,” Auntie cries out, with the rift officially closed, she too can join the battle.

From there, it is a one sided extermination experience as otters that had been beefed up on rift provided power suddenly began shrinking down to regular size as the powers that had been fueling their rampage suddenly stopped.

There were still a few more bursts of energy from the otters that would cause the guards to stagger, but nowhere near as powerful as the first wave of monsters were.

It was at this point that I saw one of the noble dignitaries get up in a daze from the ground.

Squeak!

I hear one otter cry out in pain, only to see that it is flipped over on its back and wiggling wildly. Only for the other dignitary to quickly move forward and provide a direct killing strike to the immobilized beast. At the sight that we are mostly done with this Profiling Ceremony, I nod. Only to be immediately pulled from my thoughts by someone calling out my name, angrily.

“Sal!” Hearing the authoritative tone I immediately turn to see who is calling for me. Only to be surprised when it is the head of one of the foreign houses calling out for the female who had been knocked to the ground. A quick glance around let me realize that I had not outed myself as apparently everyone had turned to see the exchange.

The second female, this Sal, looked confused at first, before the matriarch of her household pointed to the pinned and otherwise desperately squirming otter. An otter who was clearly losing the last threads of orange energy held within its little body, even now.

The girl looked stunned for a moment, before being scolded once more. “Kill it, and be done with this.”

With those words, something broke within the girl as she seemed to shrink inward on herself before going forward, her blade wavering slightly as she fought to gain control over her muscles. Then in an almost comical way, she raised her sword up, then turned away towards me, before dropping her sword in an automatic motion. A motion that her body had apparently done hundreds of times before, as her blade sliced through despite her looking straight at me.

Slink.

I could see the moment she realized her blade had struck, as that’s when she opened her eyes and they locked onto mine.

While my face was covered by both a cloth mask and an outer mesh that protected against blood spray and viscera. My eyes had only the mesh coating, meaning when I looked, it was easy to see my eyes.

Chills.

In that look, that shared glance, I felt a wave of destiny roll through me. It was the sensation that this was not a random encounter with someone who I would never see again. Looking into her gaze, I could almost swear that I knew her on some deep fundamental level. That had we not been thrust into this odd power dominated world together, we could have been friends, or maybe more.

“Stop that, and respect your enemy, lest it strike you down from beyond the grave” the mother chided, clearly angered by the seeming show of weakness that her daughter was now showing before her. The girl broke her stare from me to turn and face her mother, at which time she saw her blade clearly stuck in the ground, which required a quick yank. All but proving that she would have been unable to defend herself had there been a retaliatory strike.

Fortunately, Auntie was here to try to smooth things over before they went too far.

“All right, now come up and see what your potential holds for you,” Auntie declared, while gesturing to the more composed girl who, while having had her monster immobilized, clearly looked more put together than the girl who stole my name.

The second girl, moved forward with a grace that spoke to a lot of time training and practicing precise movements.

“Remove your right hand, and touch the rod like so,” Auntie stated, while demonstrating, again showing off her lowercase ‘w’ as she did so. This was a clear flex of power that all of the adults seemed to immediately understand, as they took in sharp reflexive breaths of awe.

The girl was either too focused on removing her own right glove, or excited by the chance of seeing the powers she would unlock just moved forward. Then placing her hand on the rod, caused it to glow.

“As expected, Tier III Illusion, Tier II Kinetic Waves, Lightning, and shadow,” Auntie declared reading off the glowing potential of power before her.

Kinetic Waves, I guess that was the power provided by the orange crystal, a fact that was proven when the second girl went forward and placed her own right hand on the crystal staff.

“Tier III Kinetic Waves, Tier II Illusion, Tier I Light, and Healing, each with a Tier II potential,” Auntie declared.

With that, the mother just stared at her daughter, Sal, as if she was somehow a disappointment by not having reached her true potential already. I was still confused by this, as apparently this was the bottom baseline, and could only go up. Well the potential could only go up, as for what actually got unlocked, that was all dependent upon the male that the female paired with.

There was a slight hush that fell over the group, as I could feel more and more of the guards that had come to assist in this, all turn their gazes towards me.

“Well, I guess that concludes . . .” Auntie began, but was instantly cut off.

“Wait, what of the Pathfinder?” the first Matriarch asked, the one who provided the yellow Illusionary crystal.

“Oh, would you like to see what the Pathfinder’s potential looks like?” Auntie asked.

“Yes,” a number of voices all cried out, one of which was Sal, who received a glare to the back of her head by her mother. But for her part, she seemed oblivious to the obvious contempt, that or maybe she was just used to it? Either way that could not be a healthy relationship, not that many relationships in this world were what I would consider healthy.

Still, I paid no attention as I was already moving forward, pulling off my left glove. This was something we had already gone over and I knew it was to be expected of me.

As I went forward, I made sure to show off the capital ‘P’ on the back of my left hand. One that now had a faint yellow and orange glowing dots in orbit around the ‘P’ along with other glowing planets of power.

Then with an overly dramatic flurry, I placed one finger on the tip of the staff, allowing everyone to see my power slowly flow into the staff. As the power flowed into the staff, each individual color was filled out, red first, then orange, yellow, on and on the powers went until finally we were at blue, then violets, then purples. Once filled, there was a split second of time, before the power continued to flow into the rod. At which point the normally separated prisms of color blurred for a second, before merging all together into one glowing burst of pure light.

All pageantry, and all an act that Auntie and I had gone over a number of times together. More than one finger, and the process was too quick and showed as just a blinding flashlight that seemed to burn the retinas of anyone staring. If I broke contact at any point, I would have to start over again, or risk somehow flooding an individual color chamber, which would cause a cascading effect of light.

“There it is, the purity of the Pathfinder on full display for all to see,” Auntie declared, holding up the brightly glowing staff high for all to see.

As she did this, I gave one last wave of my backhand, before I put on my glove again.

“Thank you Pathfinder for your assistance in helping these two maidens take their first step towards womanhood.” Auntie declared.

At that I nodded and began to leave.

This was our cue, where I turned to leave. Sarina was the only one who also left to come join me. As she got close, she held out a hand with my three daggers. I nodded and began sheathing them in my harness as we left.

Yet, as we left, I could hear Auntie beginning what would be part two of this exceptionally long day.

“Now, then, we will all go and get cleaned up, after which time, we will see if the male of House Andry will be acceptable for future arrangements.”

Yep, my Auntie is also my pimp.

Sarina and I went north, not for any real reason other than it was away from the group. Once we were far enough away to be out of eyesight of everyone present, I turned to glance at Sarina, then nodded. She nodded back, at which point we began running as quickly as possible to our away cabin in the woods.

This was all part of the obfuscation.

As a male, I was to be cloistered away, to maintain my purity. Lest I be subjected to the violent and aggressive nature of females wishing to defile my virtue. Translation, my first time was going to be worth a lot, so don’t blow it for Auntie who was trying to work her magic.

We got back to the cabin, where Ceecee was standing guard. I knew it was Ceecee due to her energy signature that felt comforting in a way that was almost impossible for me to describe. Just something that I knew as a Pathfinder. While I couldn’t tell every energy signature of everyone, I could make out the way known individuals felt, even if they had all the same attributes, I could tell the difference.

As we approached, I nodded to Ceecee who had been assigned as extra detail ever since the noted break in attempt was identified and reported. Since Ceecee was already written on, and well aware of my true nature as the Pathfinder, it made sense that she would be assigned for this extra detail. Especially while we had more dignitaries in the area.

I got in, and immediately began stripping down so I could bathe off any residual scents of combat and otherwise look presentable. During this time Sarina too prepared. It was her job to hide my gear in the secret compartments of my room. Before also stowing away her own gear.

This was likely my only real chance to relax, which I took and gave myself five minutes of just sitting in the already warmed bath. Again, another great thing about having Ceecee here to help guard the house, she could ensure that a flame was set to keep the water warm by the time I got back.

Finally, my moment of reprieve was over, as Sarina called out to me.

“Come on, you need to get ready, while I also need to bathe,” Sarina declared through the door.

Sighing, I took my last relaxing breath, before getting out and mentally preparing myself for this next phase of negotiations. The part where I would be paraded around as some prized bull to be used to awaken the potential of future heiresses from noble houses from around the world.

Yes, a sign of how much word has spread of my abilities, along with how much business acumen Auntie has. For here we have arguably two of the most powerful houses of what would be Europe and Asia together at the same time. Where they would be pitted against each other for breeding rights to me.

The fact that they were both here at the same time was not missed, as this would no doubt cause a bidding war to ensue.

I had managed to put on my extra frilly tuxedo, when Sarina cried out from behind my door. Apparently, she had gotten out of the bath early too, as she too needed to prepare for this.

“Just a reminder, house Jaupry, house Amherst, and house Oteranski will also be in attendance for your official unveiling,” Sarina declared.

Of course, why parade me off between two bidding houses, when you could make it five. Well played Auntie.

I would almost be impressed with Auntie’s ruthless efficiency, if it wasn’t for how degrading the whole process was.

Still, it was what it was, and this world was not going to change to be more accommodating to me. Meaning, for now, I needed to deal with this, the best way I could.

Glancing at my appearance one last time in the mirror, I checked to make sure everything was in place. I had my cufflinks on, a platinum collar with silken chain. Yes, here ties were just as dangerous as in my world, though here they made them out to be more true to form, as in slave collars that women could use to move us around as desired. Still, my tie was impeccably done, as I deftly wove the silk thread through the leather choker around my neck.

Taking one last glance, I had to admit I looked good. Well as good as I could given this world’s fashion sense.

“You ready?” Sarina called out.

“Coming,” I replied turning away from the mirror as I began to head out to my destiny.