ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 118 The Prey

Chapter 118

The Prey

Friday

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. The hairs on the back of Delantha Dragon Slayer’s neck were rising, warning of imminent danger. This was a feeling she had long ago learned to listen to, as these were the same sensations that let her know when another hunter had joined the hunt. These were instincts that had kept her alive from the ambushes of feral hounds, ghost wargs, and numerous other beasts that she had encountered during her numerous training missions.

Just as there were the Trials of Ascension, watered down versions of dungeons meant to force people towards a mediocre reward. So too had there been Trials of the Dragon Slayers, these were trials specifically designed to see if people had what it took to be a member of the Dragon Slayer party. Delantha had gone for many years and countless trials, learning the skills needed to survive in those harsh environments. Her last trial was as simple as it was hard, survive until the dungeon eventually threw you out. It was a harsh jungle environment with no real end in sight, all she could do was set up a shelter, find places for food and water, and then survive. That was where she learned about her innate sense to find danger. That was the first time she had ever needed to rely so heavily on that sensation. She didn’t get a crystal for it, she didn’t get something telling her that she had unlocked the ability, but she still knew it was there. More often than not, the sensation, that strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck would be accurate. The other times she assumed that it was accurate, but the predator that had been stalking her lost interest or went away.

This time things were different. The sense of danger she felt, it was unparalleled. Yet, despite her best efforts, Delantha could not find out who, or rather what was following her. Her first guess was that the dragon had somehow managed to hatch one of its clutch early, and that it was one of those little ones that were now chasing her around. Yet, that didn’t seem to be the case. First such a creature would not be silent in their approach, they would be rather large and gangly, also she knew from experience that they would make little excited sounds of the hunt. Here there was nothing but silence.

Sniff.

Delantha sniffed the air, trying to catch scent of the predator, but caught nothing. Well, she did smell the same horrendous stench that all humans and their dwellings seem to exhibit, but other than that, nothing. Rather than calming her, this only further set off more alarms in her mind.

Double back.

At one point Delantha double backed, making a quick loop in an attempt to catch her stalker, but nothing. She darted behind blind alleys and waited for the stalker to pass, but nothing. She even used Illusion magic to make her darting into alleys that much more convincing. She had an Illusionary Replica of herself continue walking forward as she stayed behind, but nothing. It was almost as if the hunter could see through such diversions, but that was impossible, she was a Tier VIII user of Illusion magic. Only Ryelifa was a higher tiered master of the craft, the last known master among the elves, which is why so many have tried to join the Dragon Slayers in recent years, she is the last and Illusion magic is one of the sacred arts that have allowed elves to rule with such sovereignty over so many newly integrated worlds.

Still, despite her best efforts Delantha could not do one of two things. First, she could not shake the feeling that she was being stalked, not just followed, but actively hunted, there was a difference and her skill did let her note the distinction. Animals had often followed her out of curiosity, this is the way that most scavengers operate, they go find a capable hunter and follow them, waiting for scraps. In this case she did not get that lesser feeling of being stalked, instead she got the full on hunter vibes of someone tracking her with the intent to kill. Secondly, she could not get the stalker to reveal themselves, this showed that they were not just a random animal that had stumbled across her trails. Rather this had to be the work of a sentient creature that could somehow differentiate her from her Illusions, but again that should be impossible.

Scent Muffling Illusions.

Delantha began casting fake and false scents on her trails, she did this so that any scent based tracker wouldn’t be able to keep up with her. While her Mirrored Illusion of herself was perfect, it didn’t mask her own personal scent. The mirror did have her own scent, that was something she had practiced over and over again, but she didn’t hide her own personal scent in the process.

She walked a few hundred more feet, then darting into an alley created a Camouflage Box around her. This was a higher tier showing of Illusion magic, one that cast a box around the caster and then had light transfer into and through the box, making it so what appeared on the outside right was mirrored perfectly on the outside left and so on. The idea was to hide her appearance, then once she was confident in her design, that it had been made perfectly, Delantha moved into the grassy intersection of the city street and waited. With the Camouflage Box being made the way it was, she could stand in the center and turn around without fear of being noticed. At least, that was what she thought. The box was nearly perfect, causing more than one stalker to reveal themselves in the past, but this time there was nothing.

Delantha waited, holding still for so long, looking for something, anything to show that her stalker was still there.

Nothing.

Gentle breeze.

There was a gentle breeze that blew through her Camouflage Box, this was one of the hardest things to anticipate, and if done by an amateur, the box would ripple and distort itself. This was why Delantha paused in her efforts of scanning the surrounding area and instead went to reinforcing the mental construct of the box, not just showing the box, but also allowing the wind to go through easily.

Had she been just a little more paranoid, she would have noticed that the wind that just blew through was surprisingly warm for a cold winter night in England. Of course, Delantha was an invader, and this being her first time here had no true way of knowing about the wind patterns of this land. If she had more time, spent more than just a few days here, she would have realized the anomaly almost immediately. Her senses were still warning her of inherent dangers, but they had been going off for so long that she was nearly numb to the feeling. In fact, part of her was so tired from constantly being on high alert that she was willing to concede here and now, everything she had done had not produced the predator, the predator that her senses were clearly warning her about.

Glowing light.

Delantha noticed a glow from behind her, added to the light was the odd sensation that the unseasonably warm wind current had changed direction.

Duck.

Every instinct in Delantha told her to duck, to roll out of the way. She did, or at least she tried to. The moment she moved, she felt a giant invisible hand grab her about her core and hold her still.

Shink, shink.

Two glowing vertical streaks of power sliced at her, straight into and through her arms.

Pain.

White hot pain shot through her body as her mind instantly tried to and failed to process what had just happened.

Thump, thump.

Two items hit the ground, as blood began spraying from her arms. She had been hit, no, not just hit, but ambushed. Suddenly the warning her mind had been telling her made sense. Her mind had been warning her about a stalker, about a predator. Those were Wind Blades, even if they had been modified in some way, their presence was unmistakable. Instantly, in the kind of perfect clarity that could only come through from perfect hindsight, she saw all the clues. All the warnings.

This wasn’t just a hit on her, it was by a rival faction, but which faction?

There was screaming that was making it hard to concentrate, but that was secondary to what was happening.

Warm glowing, and relief.

The blood that had been flowing from her arms stopped almost immediately, as an intense wave of Healing magic wracked her body, sealing her wounds and making it so she could leave her mental shell and focus. Only now did she realize that she had been screaming, as her mind simultaneously worked on finally identifying the threat that had been stalking her for quite some time now.

It had been an ambush, someone with mastery of both Healing and Wind magics, mentally Delantha went through every possibility and realized it had to be the “Eclipsion?”

Delantha found herself asking that, as she watched a dark figure coming from out of the shadows. Seeing where she had been hiding, right in her blind spot, Delantha couldn’t help but feel both vindicated and annoyed, she had looked there, right at that spot.

Then as she got closer, a more shocking turn of events happened. This was no elf, this was a human, but how? This human was supposed to be dead, set up to be assaulted by the great dragon.

“You? But how?” Were the first words that came from her lips as she tried to leave, only to find herself still being held in place by the gigantic invisible hand that seemed to wrap itself around her torso. Then a second and more important thought hit her, as she switched to English, at least the English she knew. “We are here to help you. Do you know what this means for your kind?”

“I do.” The Healing human Aru’ka replied back in perfect elven.

“You know our tongue?”

“I know the language you speak your lies in most fluently, yes.” Aru’ka said, her voice cold.

Hearing the calm demeanor in which she strode up, the way that she held herself, it was clear that she was far more powerful than she had let on. No, she was far more powerful than the watered down reports had seemed to indicate. Of course, they had seen the repots from the Knight Captain, the ones that spoke of someone with not one, but four mastered schools of magic, but that was impossible. He even went on to claim that she had somehow mastered Arcane, the ancient magic of the orcs.

Still Delantha knew that there was a chance. “So then you know how badly it will appear if you are caught attacking a representative, especially before a big battle.”

Haha.

Cold laughter came from her lips, in a way that sent a shiver of fear and panic in her. This wasn’t the actual laugh of someone who felt, someone who could empathize, but rather the forced laugh of someone who only faked the sounds, someone who learned to blend in to society, but never be truly a part of it. Delantha knew the sound well, for it was one that she herself had taken years to erase from her mind, especially after she got back from her training.

“You, you’re a monster…” Delantha said.

At that the healer smiled widely, going so far as to show her sharp glowing white teeth. Then she replied, “aren’t we all?”

With that the monster locked on her two glowing blue eyes onto Delantha and stared at her, truly looked at her. For a moment, Delantha felt like she was being violated, like she was being laid bare for this monster to see. This monster who was clearly not just content with killing her, but lording over the victory.

“What is it that you want?” Delantha demanded.

Scoff.

“I want many, many things. Before you all came along, I might have called this the human condition, to want more. But now that I have you here, I can see that we are not so dissimilar, we all seem to want many things.” She said, as if she was coming to some big epiphany herself.

As she spoke the glowing of her eyes only intensified.

Realizing it was now or never, Delantha did the only thing she could. The called upon every strand of magic she had, and called forth an Illusion that would help her destroy this monster before her. Something to disorient her senses, to make her lose her concentration. Only, there was just one problem.

“How, my power, what did you do?” Delantha asked, and she was right there was only one person who could have blocked her power. Did she use some type of mana dampening rune? If so, then Delantha didn’t see it.

“I have been taking your power, I’m working on a theory. That the longer I keep you alive, the greater the chance for my stealing your power entirely the first time will be.” Alexa said, her voice cold, despite having the lilts that are indicative of higher born elves. Only when she realized that she spoke with the higher lilts did things begin to truly click in Delantha’s mind.

“Enchanting Voice of control?” Delantha asked, then continued with the thought. “You have the voice of control? But how?” Then she began to tremble as she truly looked back at the monster that was staring before her. The monster that had somehow clawed its way from the depths of this planet, the monster that had somehow stolen? Was that the right word, stolen powers. Even now, she could feel that more and more of her power was still being drained from her body, into the monster before her. “You’re worse than a vampire.” She said belatedly.

Malicious chuckle.

This time the skin on Delantha’s back crawled, as she realized this wasn’t a fake laugh like earlier. This was the sick malicious laugh of a monster who was going through every length to make sure they got every ounce of power they could from this interaction.

“I am worse than your vampires. I am worse than even your master vampire that you are going to meet.” At that she paused, staring straight at Delantha.

At that Delantha paused, “you knew our plan?”

“I did. Tell me, are you relieved that you don’t have to go into the dark, to try to find the monster that you set loose?” Aru’ka asked, her voice oddly hypnotic. Delantha knew this was an effect of her stealing the voice of command, somehow, but that didn’t stop its effectiveness.

“I…” Delantha tried to lie, but the relaxing of her shoulders, and subsequent breath of relief about not having to go into that darkened cave gave away her true emotions.

“Very good.” The monster said, as she clearly read her body’s visual cues. “Now tell me, is this something all of your kind have? A fear of the underground?”

Delantha paused, her eyes growing wide at that. This thing, this monster had realized that, while there were a few brave elves that could go through tunnels, mostly that was something they sent slaves to do. Delantha didn’t answer, not that she had to, as the monster before her just smiled wider and nodded her head.

“Good, because you have done so well, I will offer you a reward.”

“A reward? You mean it, you will let me go?” Delantha asked.

Malicious chuckle.

Whoosh, shink.

The wind blew and a surge of energy struck the immobilized Delantha. Her head was toppling and falling to the ground, before she even realized what had happened. Then as if to answer her question, the monster spoke.

“No, I will offer you a quick death.”

Thump, rustle, roll.

Delantha’s head landed, bounced, then rolled until it was laying on its side, staring at the boots of the monster that had apparently just slain it.

Delantha opened her mouth, trying to speak, to protest, but only felt the taste of cold blades of grass enter her mouth as she was unable to make a sound with her vocal cords now severed. Then she watched as the beast let go of her body, letting it fall to the ground, as she calmly walked away. Her last thought, before the eternal slumber of death took her was on just how tall the monster that had killed her was.