ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 120 The Phantasmal Hunter

Chapter 120

The Phantasmal Hunter

Do things hurt just because we believe they should? Do we inherently wince in pain when someone runs into us out of reflex, or anticipation? Often times the wince of pain comes from people far faster than the brain can detect if there is any pain involved. These thoughts and more surged through Alexa’s mind as she tried to grasp her newest school of magic Illusion magic. The concepts of this school of magic were simple, and yet complex, it was a primarily defensive school of magic that at later levels could produce truly debilitating effects, that much Alexa was certain of.

There was of course only one problem with Illusion magic as an offensive power, it wasn’t real. The damage caused would just be mental in nature, not enough to truly kill a dragon. This was why Alexa was wary about her next target, while the underling only had the one school of magic, the master, this Ryelifa must have had a second school of magic that could be wielded to deal immense damage nearly instantly. But if that was the case, then what was it? Wind magic seemed to be a far stretch, as that would often be too weak to penetrate the scales of a dragon. So that left some other unknown version of magic that Alexa was not aware of.

Also, one thing about the dynamic of the team of hunters that were assembled caught Alexa off guard. In particular the way that Delantha was just level 58, while Ryelifa was level 143, at least the last time Alexa saw the hunter elf she was level 143. This meant that either there was a huge apprenticeship program for elves, or elves didn’t trust someone who was even remotely near their own power level. If it was the former then it meant that elves were jerks to everyone, and not just humans, not surprising given the way they have subjugated nearly every race they’ve come across. If it is the latter, then it means that taking out Ryelifa is even more of a priority, as she is like a pillar of training. At least a pillar of training on a pre-integrated planet like Earth.

With all of these thoughts going through her mind, Alexa decided she would continue with her original plan, lure Ryelifa out to a secluded area, and strike her down. That was the ideal. The next option was to get Ryelifa to show her true colors while being filmed. There was clearly something about Ryelifa that made it so she could kill dragons, her titles and levels all but spoke to that capability. That was why striking from behind was a much better option.

That was the reason why Alexa had stayed still. Well relatively still, she had secluded herself in an area out of the way while she did two things. First she waited for her magical high to leave her. Second she used this time to practice her two new abilities. Again, there was something odd about the way her class let her know things. It was similar to the way a skill crystal imprinted knowledge directly into her brain. In this, her class let her not only take the energy of an opponent, but convert that energy into a form of muscle memory that she could work with immediately.

During her down time she not only went over what it was to be a Tier IV Illusionist, but she also found out the depths of her new ability Mimicry.  As it turned out Mimicry was more than just a way to remember things, it was a way of helping an Illusionist envision the subject they were trying to imitate, everything from the body posture, to the vocal inflections, to the look and glow of their eyes. Everything was detailed in Alexa’s mind, right now she could easily imitate anyone she knew intimately. She could pose as her brother, mother, father, Gina.

Badump.

Alexa’s heart beat when she thought of Gina for some odd reason, though she couldn’t quite understand why. Oddly enough, impersonating any of her family members didn’t bother her, but for some reason she felt that impersonating Gina would be too much, odd. Alexa quickly left that train of thought, as she also tried to figure out who she could also imitate, Sarah Marie Stevens came to mind, as did her bodyguard, though mimicking the voice of the bodyguard would be tough. Then there was Mr. Mackie, at that thought, Alexa realized she could also pose as the dean of discipline for the school. Normally this thought would have been seen as unimportant, as Alexa was not a troublemaker at school, but things had changed considerably now that Alexa knew his true rank and position in the hierarchy of elven culture, particularly as they got closer to integration. Keeping Mr. Mackie’s form and being able to impersonate him was a must, that also gave her the idea of being able to use all of Mackie’s runes that were so clumsily created around the campus. If she needed to, an absolute last ditch effort would be to burn away his infrastructure and take over the control of the campus. That was something to consider, later, for now she focused on her new task, memorizing the actions of Delantha, the 58 Illusion Hunter, and posing as her.

Focusing on her recent memories of the woman, there was one slight problem, Delantha didn’t have arms when they spoke, so Alexa wasn’t certain she could imitate her speech patterns perfectly. While she had stalked the hunter for quite a while and was fairly certain she had her movements down, talking would be an issue. Mimicking the tone and inflections would be easy, as the hunter had gone through the whole gambit of emotions during their conversation together, everything from fear, to relief to indignation, it was all there, and thanks to the power of Mimicry, Alexa was certain she could pass for the huntress. The only concern was if they had a hand signal or other form of greeting that would give her away. It was this thought that made it so Alexa gave up on the idea of outright posing as Delantha.

Instead, she chose to go in as herself. With the camera rolling, recording their interaction, Alexa knew that the stern huntress would not be able to attack immediately, that or if she did, Alexa would be well within her rights to defend herself. It was a foolish gesture, but Alexa figured the primary means of attack by the higher level huntress would be magic, which Alexa was fortunately well and truly suited to defend against.

Taking a moment, Alexa reached down to the earth and pulled up some clay and quickly smeared it over her body, covering her white cross with mud. Then covering her arms, and smudging her face with dirt, she felt ready. To even make sure she sold it, she dropped to the ground and rolled back and forth twice, to make sure random patterns appeared. The idea was she had just run for her life and had happened to find the hunter elf and her remaining cameraman. Yes, she could have likely used Illusion magic to show the same thing, but there were likely tells to the magic, tells that a higher tiered practitioner of the magic could easily notice and dispel. For this dirt was a minor inconvenience.

With her dirt covered uniform set, she got up and began sprinting as quickly and silently as possible down the still glowing magical trail. Even when the creator of the magic was dead, the trail still glowed, this made sense as it wasn’t a direct link to the mana well of the hunter, but rather the residue that the hunter instinctively left behind. Again Alexa looked at her own trail and found that she left no such trail. Either this was a safeguard of her class, allowing her to automatically Absorb the residual energy, or there was something odd about her mana in general. Alexa mainly thought it was the former, as her class seemed to have a lot of nuances that she was only now able to understand, or at least begin to notice. Little things that seemed to stand out like a beacon to her.

Proximity rune.

Alexa felt a Proximity Rune up ahead, with a simple exertion of her will, she could turn off the rune, alter it, or completely drain it of its energy. This again was a new facet of her ever growing power set and knowledge that was making it so she was becoming even more capable of handling different scenarios in multiple ways.

Internally Alexa debated for just a moment about messing with the rune, but after she found it to be just a warning rune, or one that would warn the creator when people drew near, Alexa figured it would cause more confusion if she appeared without the rune going off than with the rune going off.

Pulse.

As she passed the rune it let out a snaking arc of energy that went from it, and flowed directly to a spot off to the right. Apparently Ryelifa and the camera operator had moved. At least they had moved from when Alexa had first overhead Ryelifa give her orders to Delantha to get the master vampire.

As she got closer, Alexa didn’t notice any other runes, though she did hear Ryelifa speak in English. “Oh my, it seems my apprentice is back early.”

Yes, it most likely did seem early for Delantha to have gone to the meeting spot, signaled for the master vampire to come, the master vampire come and then give orders before heading back. Especially as Delantha clearly had no clue about where she was going to begin with.

Alexa burst into the room and panting slightly, turned to look at Ryelifa, who all but glowed with multiple magic energies. There was the deep blue of Illusion magic, and then a darker black miasma that instantly caused Alexa’s skin to crawl. Seeing the hunter, Alexa made sure to scan her.

Elder Elven Delegate (Ryelifa Dragon Slayer): Level 147: Status: Exhausted, Disposition: Flustered

Seeing the message, Alexa knew she had caught the elf unaware. The elf had apparently also been busy, leveling from 143 to 147, somehow gaining four levels on a pre-integrated world. Alexa wondered if part of that power growth had to do with the now dark miasma that was rolling around inside her. Or had that always been there, and only come to life now that it had likely been called upon.

“You, you’re alive?” Ryelifa asked, first turning to Alexa then glancing over at the camera operator.

“Just barely.” Alexa says, “I am still able to help right?”

There was a slight pause, something that could easily be dismissed as the fog of battle, but it was there, Alexa had seen the expression cross her face and get confirmed by the system. Contemplation, Malice, Calm; those were the quick evolutions of emotions Alexa saw cross the face of the elf. It was at this point that Alexa knew whatever came next, the elf would try to kill her. “Yes, yes you are. I am just waiting for my associate, she is gathering the resistance fighters as we speak.”

At that comment, rational Alexa was glad, well as glad as an emotionless monster could be, that her calm and dispassionate side was in charge. Not even giving away the fact that she knew all too well that no reinforcements were coming. Before she could speak to this, the camera operator spoke.

“Aru’ka? The American healer? You managed to arrive?” The Cameraman spoke, a sense of joy in his face.

Alexa nodded, “are we live?”

“Yes, there is a slight time delay for omitting cursing and what not, but yes, effectively consider we are live.” The cameraman said.

At that Alexa nodded, good that limited what Alexa could do next, but it was still good to know her limitations, or at least what she was working with. Anything she did would either need to be done off camera, or in a way that painted her as the victim, not too hard all things considered.

Silence.

There was a momentary pause as everyone went back to trying to understand the dynamic. Off in the background Alexa could hear the camera operator speaking about Alexa to the camera.

“She is the hero who saved Sarah Marie Stevens, the Prime Minister’s daughter. She is also the same healer who killed the black dragon out in Maddison America.”

Hearing that Alexa found it odd how the camera operator didn’t seem to know geography, then again she figured it would be the same for her. Other than street sights, and knowing where her original dungeon exit was, she would have no clue herself about the parts of London. Even now, she didn’t know exactly where they were.

“How exactly did you find us?” Ryelifa asked.

At that, Alexa felt she could move ahead this little waiting game that they were both caught in. “I saw an elf running from here. I also saw the dragon swoop down. When I went to investigate, I saw only what remained of her corpse. Backtracking the way she came; I found my way here.” Alexa said, pointing in the direction that she had killed Delantha from. While she strung together multiple independent facts, her words were not a lie. She had seen Delantha running, she had also seen the dragon swoop down, just not at the same time. Even investigating the corpse, and backtracking were all true statements, if composed in a way that would cause one to lead to a conclusion that the dragon was the main culprit, not her.

Pause.

There was a slight pause as a look of calculation and determination crossed Ryelifa’s face. Then finally she nodded to herself. “Well, it looks like this is it then. We need to go out and slay the dragon ourselves.”

“Just the two of you?” The cameraman asks for clarification.

“Just the two of us, isn’t that right, Aru’ka?” Ryelifa asked.

The old elf stared at Alexa, trying to get her measure, trying to see if she would back down. Alexa just coldly stared back and answered, “yes.”

Another slight pause as Ryelifa looked at Alexa before nodding to herself.

“Very good. We will head out to its lair. I believe after all of this feasting it has done, they will settle down before beginning to produce more young.” Ryelifa said.

“You mean the other dragon will also come here?” The cameraman asked, a slight note of worry to his voice.

Hahaha.

The old elf just laughed in her slightly melodic tone. “No, of course not. Dragons are asexual reproducers. They do not need a partner to copulate, meaning leaving just one alive could have dire consequences for an entire planet. This is why it is important for us to work together, to strike down these foul creatures, before they become a menace we cannot extinguish.”

Fiery words, words that the cameraman was eating up, as he nodded his head while still somehow managing to keep the camera completely still. Looking at it, Alexa found that to be the most interesting part of the whole exchange. It was clear from a glance that the huntress had planned that speech, even going so far as to make the diction nearly perfect while speaking. This was a play, and the elf figured herself to be the star. Alexa also realized that if the elf thought this was a play, then to add more dramatic tension, her death would not only be warranted but expected.

“To be clear, you saw the dead body of Delantha, the hunter?”

“What remained of her, yes.”

There was a pause, as the crafty elf suddenly switched to elven. “How did you know her name?”

“I scanned her before she died.” Alexa said, coldly, not denoting a single doubt to her words.

There was a slight pause, “before the dragon killed her?”

Alexa nodded.

Another pause.

“Very well then,” Ryelifa said, switching back to English. “Follow me, and be sure to keep quiet. From here on out, even the slightest sound could alert the dragon to our presence.”

At that the cameraman paused, “um, perhaps I should stay here then?”

Ryelifa paused and looked at the cameraman as if just realizing that he likely wouldn’t be used to hunting in such a way. “Oh, right. Yes, if you feel it is too dangerous then you should stay here. Just go over to that window and look towards the tower. That is the nest, and that is where you will find us slaying the beast.”

Relief.

That is the emotion the cameraman had at that suggestion. “All right, I can do that.” He said, a bit of excitement filling his voice.

With the cameraman taken care of, it was now down to just Ryelifa and Alexa. “Come then, let us do the impossible, slay a dragon who has taken out the majority of my team already.”

Alexa nodded again.

With that the two made their way through the rubble, into the nearby streets, before finding a different broken trail to enter, one that would ultimately lead them to the death of a dragon. As they moved, Alexa could see the trails of magic Ryelifa made, her magic was blue and dark at the same time, not like the others of her squad. The others had all had solid light blue markings for their magic. This one felt of rot and decay.

Once or twice Ryelifa made Illusions of her body go off to different sides. They were thin blue constructs of mana, something that easily stood out to her senses. With a simple touch, Alexa figured she could reach out and absorb the foreign energy. In fact, part of her body wanted her to do just that, to reach out and grab the energy and make it her own. But she stopped herself, this was good, as it showed she could absorb the energy.

“Don’t worry about that, it is just an Illusion, meant to trick the enemy. I am still right here.” Ryelifa said, as she looked back to see Alexa staring at her Illusionary constructs.

Alexa nodded, not wanting to say that they looked completely fake to her senses. Instead, she let the elf have her moment of victory.

Elder Elven Delegate (Ryelifa Dragon Slayer): Level 147: Status: Tired, Disposition: Confident

With that Alexa knew her ploy was working, now all she would need to do was find the right time to strike, hopefully before the elf made her own attempt at her life.

“This way…” Ryelifa beckoned, and Alexa followed.