ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 114 London is Burning

Chapter 114

London is Burning

Friday (Morning)

A gore and viscera covered Alexa appeared in the dungeon tunnel exit right outside of London, just as she had told her brother. Mucus, and gelatinous slime clung to parts of her created super uniform. With a simple coaxing of her will, Alexa summoned jets and streams of Water to wash down herself and her Aru’ka suit. Then once she felt mildly clean, she went about first using her Creation magic to seal in any gaps that might have formed from her battling the undead army with Kelvin. The reward for having cleared that dungeon was impressive. Not only did she also learn the power word Purify, just as Kelvin had, but she also got a unique skill.

Power Word Purify Learned.

Skill Unlocked: Corruption Resistance (Tier VI) 625%.

While the skill learned did make sense for the level, she couldn’t help but feel that there was more to it than just the skill. She was also sort of sad that she didn’t gain a new psychic power from the exchange. However, she could see that her learning a power word was just as important. The more power words she learned, the more she realized there was a distinct difference between just being able to speak the words of the Precursors, and being able to share them as a comprehensive thought to others. In a way that is what the Power Words were, they were her ability to take the information provided and condense it into a sharable form that was almost forced upon others. Thinking on it, this was a very powerful ability, as it seemed to border the line of Mind Control, or other taboo powers. While the power words themselves did not necessarily constitute the true meaning of Mind Control, they were close enough to make her slightly hesitant to use them. Just because they had a good effect, didn’t mean that learning to share the concept of negative words wouldn’t have a similar, but opposite reaction to others. That was something she would have to think about for the future, and was listed as a likely reason why the Precursors might have died out. Did they either use negative power words, or did others learn to perverse this power to hurt the Precursors? Those were of course topics and conversations for a different time than today.

Switching mental topics to ones that had a more immediate impact, Alexa was surprised by the fact that the dungeon had decided to not only give her a shard for completing the dungeon, but it also gave her Kelvin’s as well. For a moment, she would be lying if she didn’t feel the impulse to take both for her own. Despite everything, despite the fact that she had her own shard, that she was able to bask in the radiating energy of Kelvin’s power word Purify, despite the fact that she had absorbed energy from the undead monsters around her, she still wanted more.

Looking back on it, she was glad that she had given the shard to Kelvin. These dungeons were getting tougher and tougher to complete on her own. She knew that logically; she would need to complete at least stage IX of her Trials of Ascension with Kelvin, as that would be the next time they could meet up. By then she would have contacted her brother to let him know that both she and Kelvin would need an exit after stage IX. That of course made the question of where they would go? Should she take him back to campus to meet his father? Or should she wait and have him come with her to help her finish her tenth stage? The second option was the one that her cold calculating mind would choose, but her emotional mind was still in control for the moment, especially after he absorbing the most recent crystal from the high end dungeon.

Mentally she paused began the process of hiding her features. Fortunately no one was immediately outside the dungeon, meaning she could take the few minutes needed to put on her mask correctly so no one could spot her. While the media made a reasonable effort to help conceal her true identity from the world, it would harp on the chance to find her willingly showing her unmasked face in public. With that thought in mind, she quickly grabbed her still wet hair and began placing her golden top knot of hair into its spot in her Created mask, then slid her mask over her face.

The suit she had created was much better, not only did it fit her better and provide support where needed, but it also offered more insulation to protect her from both the elements, and bludgeoning attacks. Granted the dragons she was being asked to assist with had nothing to do with elemental attacks at all, these were dubbed, quite accurately, by the media as the twin dragon of Death.

Of course, the reporters were correct in their assessments, these dragons were highly proficient in their use and wielding of Death magic, not only were they able to strike down warriors with Death magic, but then they were able to use the residual magic of the dead and dying to either power more spells, or absorb as a way to level faster. If Alexa had to guess, she would figure that these dragons either had a class similar to her own, or had somehow perverted Death magic enough to make it so they were easily able to mirror the benefits offered by her class. There was clearly at least some minor links one could make between her class and a blasphemer like the dragons, but from everything she could tell they were distinct enough to not cause too many issues. There was no wielding of Death magic, and in fact her class could almost be considered an Anti-Magic class, if she was being technical with herself. Still, there was a certain misconception that would be easily fostered by others, especially if she allowed herself to be seen in a darker light. That was why she made every effort to be seen as a healer, even going so far as to be an elven lackey while they go out to slay the dragon, with a handy healer on retainer in case things go bad.

Alexa did not feel like she was being used in this endeavor, quite the opposite actually, as she was ready to see how a group of elves that specialize in hunting dragons operated. For the most part what she had done to this point was mostly done as a means of trial and error, mostly error followed by sheer overwhelming force. There were simpler ways to kill dragons, of that she was certain and she hoped to learn most of these methods by watching the true masters at work.

Taking a breath, she gave herself one last pat-down, making sure her uniform was perfect and clean, that she looked presentable. Then looking down at her watch that was set for being seven hours ahead, London England time, she clicked her watch-phone contact list, then found the seventh saved number and clicked it.

Ring.

“Hello, Bullford here.” A deep masculine voice answered.

“Bullford it is me…Aru’ka. I am at the dungeon exit that we spoke about.” Alexa said, as she began making her way out of the dungeon. There at the other end she found a guard shack which was standard at most dungeon entrances around the world. What was odd about this guard shack was the fact that this one was completely vacant of people. Then taking a few steps further out, she could see why. The parking lot and new structures were destroyed. Well they looked like they had been first crushed by falling debris then burned and melted into place by extremely hot breaths and corrosive acids. Alexa used this time to walk forward and see exactly what she was going to be dealing with. The burn marks were not actually caused by fire, while some of the structures and falling debris might have been on fire at one point, the true cause for the melted look was due to an oddly corrosive magic. Magic that Alexa could still feel the glow of to her energy senses. Energy that even now she could pull into herself. This was minor, like the warmth one would find from a fire that had been allowed to burn out into embers. Just enough to realize it was recent, but not recent enough to rekindle the fire, or in this case hunt down the creature that caused this destruction.

“You mean the one out by Ealing?” Bullford asked.

Alexa mentally tried to recall a mental map of the area, and felt that the name seemed to be accurate. “Yes.”

“Well, as you might be aware, there was a recent battle. The elven delegation that you were supposed to meet up with were apparently ambushed on their way to meet you. I suggest getting to cover quickly, in fact, if you haven’t done so already there is…” At that Bullford’s voice was cut off, as a female mechanical voice came over the line.

“Thank you for using Skyline Mobile. I’m sorry, due to your current calling plan international calls are not allowed. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 9-1-1. For all other calls, you will need to contact the customer service department.”

Hearing the voice seem to echo over the open streets, Alexa angrily tried to hit the end call, but there seemed to be a glitch as her phone was simultaneously in the middle of ending the one call, receiving the important message for Skyline Mobile, all while her watch tried to update to the nearest cell towers. The result ended up as you might expect, the first call was allowed through, as the phone still thought it was in the states, then once she got out from the interference of the cave she placed her call, only to have it get cancelled halfway through once her phone established a true connection.

SKREEECHHHH!!

Almost as being just as annoyed by the annoying automated response as she was, the screech of a dragon could be heard piercing the night.

End.

End call.

Alexa hit the button once, then twice more in rapid succession, trying to get the voice to stop.

“Connecting you to customer service now.”

SKRAAHHH!

The dragon hissed out its displeasure as the annoying voice seemed to echo through the empty war torn streets. Streets that looked like they had just witnessed a terrible battle with the dragon. Thinking about it, this made sense to Alexa, if the elves had in fact been ambushed on their way to her, then the dragon was more than likely still in the area, possibly hunting survivors. That had been what Bullford was hinting at, right? That there were other survivors that she was to meet up with.

Click.

“Hello, customer service, this call is being recorded for training purposes. How may I help you?” A voice cut in over the phone-watch. Frustrated that the device was still synchronizing to the new environment and therefor not listening to her, that or her watch didn’t recognize the texture of her gloved hand pressing against it. Regardless of the reason the phone would not listen to her, worse the phone was clearly drawing the ire of the dragon who was still hunting in its ever expanding territory.

Realizing she would be little more than a sitting duck out in the middle of an open war zone, while the dragon flew circles overhead, Alexa did the only thing she could think of. First she yanked the annoying phone watch from her wrist, then threw it as hard as she could to her left.

“Hello? HELLLOO?” The customer service representative said.

SKKKKRRRAAHHHHH!

The angry dragon bellowed, as it barreled closer. Alexa for her part was not idle, the second after she threw the watch phone she bolted, running quickly towards the nearest section of houses. Everything in the immediate area seemed to be part of an urban sprawl, at least a lot more urban than what Alexa had been used to seeing around her home. This meant there were a lot of large buildings and endless lines of shopping centers that were strung together. This was both a blessing and a curse, the buildings were a blessing in that they made it so she could hide easier. For the moment, she was wide open, but once inside the rubble there were plenty of places where she could scamper and hide while stalking the dragon towards its nest. Alexa remembered overhead surveillance that all but showed the roughly twenty miles of land before the known nesting grounds of the dragon. That meant there were twenty miles of densely packed streets to dart between and buildings that could possibly mask her approach. There were of course resistance cells, but they were a wild card in such a situation and her going directly to them, might alert the dragon of their presence. As it stood, her best course of action was to make her way towards the nest, where she could hopefully meet up with the remaining members of Ryelifa’s war party.

Though how they knew where she would end up was also a matter of concern, as Alexa had only told a few people about where she would be. That was the reason that Agent Bullford and Agent Johnston had taken leave to meet her here, but they wouldn’t have spilled these key details, so if they didn’t then who exactly did? There was likely leak, the fact that these elves would find out exactly what dungeon she would leave from was all too perfect.

“Hello?” An increasingly angry customer representative asked.

“DIIEEE!” The mighty black scaled dragon cried out, as it was now close enough to make out the words it was shouting over the city.

WHOOSH!

Alexa felt the residual waves of black energy wash over the area, blanketing the whole area in a firehose type spray of burning acid and corruption. Green liquid sprayed out from the dragon, melting the offending watch and surrounding street to more melted sludge and liquified mechanical waste. The sheer scope and power of the blast was almost majestic in is ability to destroy.

Looking at the swooping dragon, Alexa couldn’t help but think that this dragon in particular would have been more than happy to exist in the corrupted lands that she had just come from. Seeing the destruction left in the monster’s wake, she wasn’t even sure if her recently acquired skill of Corruption Resistance, would be enough to survive such an attack. While there was clearly a corruption component to the attack, it was clear the main devastating force of the attack began and ended with the acidic spray that seemed to melt everything in its path.

Seeing the devastation done to her watch, she realized a few things. First she was glad that she had taken the time to memorize the key phone numbers in her life, for without that, she would not be able to contact her brother once this was all over. Her second major concern was that she would need to find a new way to communicate with Luke and her parents before she went back through the dungeon. Still there was not just one, but two giant monsters of death that she would have to deal with, before she could even begin to worry about such minor details. For now, she had to buckle down and hope that the dragon eventually landed somewhere. As it was, the dragon was too large and moving far too quickly for her to be able to grab the beast in any form of magical trap.

For now, she decided that she would use the momentary distraction of the beast to make her way further east, towards the known resting spot of the dragon. Normally this too would be a mark of foolishness by many hunters, as the dragon had the ability to track its prey by scent over vast distances. Alexa figured that this was likely how the dragon was able to hunt down many of the elven fighters that had been sent to strike it down. Still, Alexa had something that she knew for a fact that neither the elves, nor the orcs had, Scentless Stride. This had been a hidden quest reward for Alexa when she helped out Falank Twintail during the fifth stage of the Trials of Ascension. The reason she was certain that neither elf nor orc had this Power was due to the fact that it was a Beastkin only power that was only given to those the Beastkin found truly worthy of receiving such a gift. It was with this gift that she now made her way through the city, her class ensuring no magical residue was left behind that could be used to denote her passage. As any traces of her magic would quickly be absorbed. If anything Alexa mused that the only real way to track her would be following a lack of energy in an area, but that would have to be done quickly, particularly in large areas that were filled with dungeons as the magical nature of dungeons would quickly replace the minor lapses in power that could be used to indicate her passage.

“I will find you.” The dragon bellowed, as it screamed angrily in the night sky.

Alexa paused, wondering if the dragon somehow had managed to track her down, despite all of her advantages to the contrary. Standing completely still she waited, hiding in the shadow of a torn down café.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Alexa heard the giant beast flaps its massive wings overhead, as it angrily went off.

“Using illusion magic to throw their voice, how annoying.” The dragon muttered to itself, before its voice tapered off to that of only indistinguishable screeches.

At that, Alexa realized that the dragon likely thought she had been one of the elves, or that one of the elves had used a long range Illusion spell to throw off the enhanced hearing of the dragon. Realizing that, Alexa realized quite a few things. First, she realized that the dragon had exceptionally good hearing. Second, and more importantly, she realized that these elves had a new form of magic. Given that most were already cast off as dead, a slight smile crested her lips as she realized she might be hunting more than dragons today.