ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 51: The Village - Conqueror

Chapter 51

The Village – Conqueror

The two guards seemed to be absently looking away from her. It took a few seconds of observation, but they were clearly guards along a back hallway. Alexa looked around for the purpose of the back hallway but was unable to see any true reason for such a hallway to even exist. Ultimately, she figured that the hallway itself was likely meant as a normal mode of escape. One that the original builders of the building would have let the general staff out of to confuse invaders, while the important people exited the tunnel that she now found herself in.

At least, that was what she figured she would have done had she built a palace with an emergency escape tunnel. Not seeing any other evidence to contradict her theory, she went with that as fact until it could be proven otherwise.

Her scan also revealed a few things. The first was, the guards were likely guarding an external doorway. The second key feature she noticed was that while one guard was near her, the second guard was on the opposite side of the hallway. This meant that if she moved, she would have to disable the guard nearest her as quickly as possible and turn to disable the far one.

Worse with her sudden overreliance on magic, and there seeming to be a magic dampening field around her, the number one path she used to get to this point was off the table. Also, with her over reliance on magic recently she neglected to get a weapon. She could go back through the tunnel to get a weapon, but she didn’t know how the already frightened gnomes would have responded to her running around with a blood soaked sword. That was part of her rationale for leaving the weapons where they dropped.

Now she was beginning to rethink her strategy.

Though she did have something else she could try. Something that she felt might be a great alternative to magic. Her school often classified her psychic powers as being different from her magical powers. Now she wondered if this magic dampening field also considered her Telekinesis to be a different set of powers, as well.

With that, she focused on using her Telekinesis. To her immense relief, when she focused her will, she was not greeted with the same message she had, when she tried to conjure Wind Blades. This she hoped meant she could use her Telekinesis unimpeded.

Realizing she would likely only have one chance to get this right, she calmed down and focused her mind. Just as she had with the Wind Blades, she split her focus and concentrated on the two glowing red skulls of the guards.

Then with an intense surge of will, she focused on the two skulls and imagined them being squeezed like watermelons. Well watermelons that were being squeezed with giant hands the size of a giant metal crane.

At the same time, she burst forth from her hiding spot. The idea was that she would distract the two guards with what might at most be a headache, while ducking in grabbing a knife from the nearest guard’s belt, quickly stabbing him with it, then spinning about and hurling the dagger at the second guard who would likely be moving. She predicted that the guard would either move to intercept her or flee to get more help. That was what she expected, what happened was entirely different.

Alexa burst forth from the tunnel, while making sure to  put her full mental force behind the Telekinetic Grip she was now employing. The result was a lot different than she expected.

Rather than at most causing a slight headache for the guards. A headache that she would take full advantage of. She was instead met with an entirely different scene.

Crackle-pop.

Yes, the heads that Alexa had imagined to be watermelons burst just like watermelons would, when being struck by a wooden mallet.

Alexa burst forth from her hiding spot ready to strike, only to be covered in blood and brain matter from not one, but two guards.

Still Alexa continued with her plan, charging forward, quickly grabbing the knife off of the belt of the first falling guard. Making a quick stab to the kidney, then turning to aim for the second guard. A guard who was hard to aim at due to the way they crumpled to the ground.

Alexa paused, dagger in hand. Her body and training uniform covered in blood and viscera.

“Oh.” Was all Alexa managed to say. As she realized belatedly that the stab to the first falling guard was likely overkill at this point. Especially as she looked to see that the first guard, was missing a head.

When she took a second to notice, it was clear that the second guard was also missing their head. Well, they were not exactly missing them, the heads were still there, but they had been squeezed so hard and from so many different angles, that the brain matter had been forcefully ejected and the cranial cavity smooshed.

Yeah, I guess Telekinesis still works. Alexa thought to herself, as she evaluated what to do next. Then before she had much more time to think about what to do next, she was met with an all too familiar message by this point.

Absorber Class Material Found: Would you like to absorb essence of Elite Elven Guardian?

“Yes.” Alexa said. As soon as she spoke the thrill of energy filled her, causing her to all but think she radiated energy. A slight smile crossed her lips, as she felt truly awake and alive.

“Did something happe…” A new voice called out from the far end of the hallway. Their voice trailed off as they rounded the corner and saw a blood and viscera covered Alexa smiling over the two decapitated corpses of what were presumably friends of the red highlighted elf.

Whip-whip-whoosh.

Before Alexa even had a chance to fully process what she was doing, her body moved on instinct. The dagger that she had grabbed for the express purpose of being thrown flew end over end, at the new guard. Finally allowing the dagger to complete its intended purpose.

She was prepared to redirect the blade with Telekinesis, or even hold the guard steady with Telekinesisshould the guard try to move. Unfortunately for the guard, it was caught in complete and utter fear by what it saw, as it just stood there in horror.

Thunk.

The blade landed deep in the skull of the attentive guard.

Clatter, clank.

There was the sound of the body hitting the floor, along with its long blade.

“Huh.”

“Wha?”

A few guards said, guards that were apparently lining the other hallway. Alexa saw the guards as three of them quickly assembled and charged forward. Rounding the corner where her hallway and the long hallway to the left met.

The three guards turned the corner, to find a weaponless Alexa standing over two corpses.

“What?”

“Surrender now.” A larger and more physically imposing elven warrior said, as he brandished his long sword in the confined hallways. Looking at the guard, it was clear that he was not prepared to defend these halls at all. Especially with the fact that he had a smaller bladed dagger that was much more conducive to swinging around properly within the narrow hallways.

While these hallways were far larger than the cramped escape tunnels she had gone through to get here. They were still too small for a large elven warrior in full refined armor to swing about their weapon freely. Especially when the one large guard blocked his two support guards from being able to enter or move around the hallway to flank her.

Also, looking at the armor, it was clear that most of it was for show, as the guards did have a slight head covering, but that was mostly seen to be decoration, as the neck of the elves were all fully exposed.

“What, is it just one girl?” The second guard asked, trying to peer around the first lurking hulk of a guard. The one that seemed closer to an orc than any other elf Alexa had come in contact with to this point.

“How could she have used magic?” The third one asked, also peering around the large hulk of a man, but this one from the other side.

“She can’t use magic. No one can. Not in here.” The first guard said.

With that, Alexa just held out her empty hand in a halting gesture. Then with a large malicious smile, she got to deliver a line she had always wanted to.

“I find your lack of faith, disturbing.”

Squish.

“Wha?” Three voice cried out in unison.

But it was already too late. Alexa had already used her Telekinesis to summon the blade from the skull of the fallen elf. It made a sucking splat sound, as it was forcefully yanked free. Then it began to move towards Alexa. But the blade didn’t move in a direct path, as it began to spin about in a wide horizontal rotation.

Whoosh.

That was the only sound the two guards at the back heard, before they turned to face a blur that arced through the air right towards them. Before it spun off and hit the next.

“Gah!”

Was the only warning the main elf had, that anything had happened behind him. He too turned to look, only to stare face to face with the blade that was spinning towards his exposed neck.

The guard used lightning-fast reflexes to try to parry the blow.

Scrape.

The only problem was, once again the guard brought the wrong weapon to fight in these narrow hall ways. Had this been an open terrain, Alexa had no doubt that the guard would have been able to parry the strike. As it was, the guard could only look on in horror, as his blade first cut into the wall and then was held tight as he tried to made a defensive swipe.

Woosh-snik.

The blade cut through the neck of the elite guard. Ending in second what was likely the largest threat to her safety with but a single attack.

The spinning blade continued forward after decapitating the guard, spinning about wildly, until it rested comfortably hilt first, in the palm of Alexa’s hand.

Alexa was tired. Her mind was not used to using Telekinesis this thoroughly for this long. She had of course practiced with it as it would be foolish not to. But she found that her mental stamina for this set of exercises were slightly lacking. She made a mental note that once this was over, she would practice her Telekinesis at least as much as she would any one school of magic.

She had of course practiced her control. Picking up objects, spinning them about, inserting keys into slots, etcetera. But she had not actually gone through the practice of using Telekinesis for sheerly offensive capabilities. This was something she would need to improve upon. Every tool is a potential weapon, when wielded optimally, and all that.

Still Alexa was content with her success thus far.

She had achieved her primary objective and more. She had exited the fatal tunnel, established a hold in the enemy stronghold. Then now, as far as she could tell, she was still unnoticed.

Alexa skillfully made her way over bodies and around ever-expanding pools of blood. The idea was that she wanted to avoid having her feet touch blood as much as possible. First, the blood trails her shoes would leave behind would be an easy marker that detailed where she went. The second major concern was that on a smooth marble floor like the one that lined this building’s hallways, trails of blood would cause a squeaking sound every time she made a step. This would all but ensure she would not be able to sneak up on any other sets of guards.

Alexa used the large body of the elite elf to form a bridge. A bridge she then used to jump onto the next body, and the next. Until finally she was a few inches away from the pool of blood.

Alexa then went over to the far guard. The one with the stab wound to the center of his forehead. While blood was seeping out of the wound, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the others.  Alexa used this guard to gain a second dagger. One that she now wielded in her off hand.

With two blades in hand, she began making her way down the hallways, killing off groups of unassuming guards.

For as loud as everything seemed to Alexa’s heightened Perception, none of the elves seemed to either notice, nor care. This was good, as it meant she could sneak up and wipe out guards from behind. Once she broke through the initial entrance, she found three more sets of guards. That made a total of six sets of guards.

All six sets covered four main hallways that all seemed to converge around one room.

By looking at the room, Alexa’s cheating eyes allowed her to see that there were four main guards in the room, along with a red being who seemed to be sitting relaxed in a throne of some kind. Of course, in the room were several now light-yellow gnomes who either stood still or hurried about tending to different needs of the elven captors.

Alexa figured the dungeon wanted her to charge forward, into the room, attack the guards and then try to get at the elven ruler. All the while the gnomes in the room would either be caught up as collateral damage or be forced to fight her. Both options seemed sub optimal.

Also, Alexa knew a secret to dungeons. Take out the leader, and the guards who would normally be well disciplined would break ranks. Some would charge forward, others would hesitate, each disjointed movement would allow her defense to be that much easier.

As such Alexa did what she always did, when it came to clearing dungeons. At least what she always did, whenever possible: she cheated.

Focusing on the skull of the elf sitting on the throne, Alexa focused her mind. Then using not just one, but two giant sets of metal claws, she squeezed.

Telekinesis.

Splat.

This time she saw, rather than felt the explosion as the dark red traces of the ruler slowly faded as chunks of brain matter flew out wildly.

Trickle.

Alexa felt a warm trickle coming from her nose. A quick swipe at the tingling liquid showed that it was both warm and sticky. She almost didn’t have to look to know what it was, her nose had started to bleed. This was something she had expected as she felt her mind pounding from overuse. Still, this was a minor price to pay, as she had now cleared the village’s greatest hurdle.

Standing outside the door, she waited for the inevitable. First one of the four guards opened the door to look out.

Slice.

Alexa struck at the exposed neck of the first guard.

The guard of course had no way of blocking, as his hand had been holding onto the door.

Spurt.

Blood sprayed into the hallway, fortunately Alexa had taken a step back at this time.

The guards looked confused for a second, but then began forming up on the wall.

A quick scan of the wall showed Alexa that the wall surrounding the grand meeting room was little more than sheet rock. Or a facsimile of what Alexa took to be modern sheet rock. This meant the walls were thin and easy to strike through.

Whoosh.

With dual stabbing motions, Alexa plunged her two daggers through the necks of the second and third guards against the walls. It was clear they had been lining up to form some type of charging attack out the door in an attempt to swarm her.

Alexa wasn’t done with just her quick lunges, as she used her momentum to charge forward through the wall, tackling the two guards to the ground in the process. Then once she was in, she got up and quickly went to strike at the third guard, the guard who had up to this point been staring at the door to see if she would enter through the conventional way.

Alexa of course had no intention of being conventional or predictable, those were two characteristics of people who died horribly in dungeons.

Shink, slice.

Alexa made two quick slices with her blades. One for the neck, one that went under and up the metal shirt that covered the last guard’s torso. The wound to the neck sprayed blood right in Alexa’s face, a final token of revenge from a dying guard.

Silence.

Alexa looked around the room to see a dozen eyes watching her.

Small Humanoid (Gnome). Emotional State: Fear.

Six sets of eyes, all looked on at her blood covered body and face. Even now, she could not help but feel the rush of battle frenzy coursing through her. An emotion that she tried desperately to squash as she wanted to make as good of an impression on these people as possible.

Clatter, clank.

Alexa dropped her blades to the ground and held out her hands in what she hoped was a calming manner.

“Hello. My name is Alexa. You are all free.” A slight pause, as Alexa added the last part, “now.”

There was a silence, before one of the older gnomes walked forward. This one was short, even for a gnome. The reason he was short was apparent as he had a huge hunch in his back, as old age had not been kind on him. He had been one of the gnomes who had been allowed to stand about, while the others worked diligently.

“Thank you.” The old man said, then dropping to his knees he prostrated himself and looking down to the ground he added, “master.”

At that, Alexa just felt vile rise in her stomach.

“Rise. You are free, and I am no master.” Alexa said, as she herself thought back to how badly she had done with being the pack alpha. Shaking her head, she realized people like her were not meant to lead others. People like her brother, or even Gina those were the ones that people should follow. Not her.

Then Alexa realized something. Despite this being the leader’s room, she had still not received a quest completion notice yet.

“Are there more guards within the village?” Alexa asked.

Silence.