Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3) Page 9

  Several things clicked in her brain. She knew how Tisha and the others had been taken, or at least she was fairly sure. Shaking her head, she began her ascent into the trees, ignoring the branches to fly above the canopy and into the dark sky. Only it wasn’t that dark, because the moon was now visible, creating a silvery sheen on the leaves.

  Creating a wind wall, she cut her sound and scent off from the world as she pulled out a mirror, inserting her mana and calling for the person she wanted. It took nearly thirty seconds before the call was finally answered, and King Derrick and Queen Ashanna looked startled, obviously having barely woken. They were still in their bed as Derrick asked in a worried voice, “Jade, is something wrong? Has something else happened?”

  Shaking her head, she stared at them as she asked quietly, “Sorry to wake you up, but I have something I needed to confirm. I was told the mesmer that took your children came in through a secret passage. Is that correct?” When he nodded, she went on. “Am I also correct in that very few people knew about that passage?” Another nod. “Was Brodie’s father one of those people?”

  A troubled look crossed their faces as they exchanged glances, and Ashanna answered, “Yes, but why would that matter? Do you think he told the mesmer?”

  Jade looked away from the mirror, out at the expanse of trees around her. Shaking her head, she sighed and looked back at them. “No, I don’t think he told the mesmer...I think he IS a mesmer. I was studying their bodies…and I’ve realized how they multiply. Their victims become them. Once enough of the taint enters their body, the virus forcefully transforms them into the monsters that attack us. They retain their intelligence and memories, it would seem, at least in some form, though they lose their humanity. I don’t know exactly how it works, but if I had to take a guess… I’d say that Tevon is very much alive, or at least, in as much of a sense as in he’s moving around. Just...as a mesmer.”

  Raking a hand through her hair, she regarded the king and queen, who turned pale as paper. “What I’m saying is, anything known by those who’ve been taken, the mesmer should know too. That’s how they knew I was a traveler.” She paused, her voice choking. “Frank...knew I was the traveler. My guess is they also know about the mesmer traps now, so those probably won’t work anymore…”

  “I...see. We’ll pass the information on. Thank you for letting us know…” Derrick paused, seeming to realize he could see the moon behind her. “Where exactly are you right now?”

  She pulled the mirror back from her, turning it so he could see the sea of trees in front of her. “I’m currently flying above the treetops.”

  “Oh. I see.” Derrick’s voice was slightly strained, before he shook his head. “Be safe. However, I think it’s best that we deal with this new information as quickly as possible. Was there anything else?”

  Shaking her head, she smiled wearily at them. “No, that’s all. Take care.” She closed the connection, staring out at the starlit trees. Was this the truth? Could she handle the truth?

  The truth of the matter was that she was basically dealing with the zombie virus of this world. The truth was that she’d killed at least twenty-five creatures that had once been human. The truth was that she didn’t know what to do now.

  Was Frank already becoming a mesmer? Could she reverse the process if it was fresh enough? Could she reverse it if it wasn’t? Should she keep killing the ‘monsters,’ or should she be trying to ‘save’ them? Was she already too late? The questions churned in her brain, her confusion and anxiety skyrocketing before she forced herself to take a deep breath in and out, regulating it.

  She attempted to clear her mind, focusing on the relevant information. The nine prisoners from last night had most likely not been turned, since it seemed to be a drawn-out process, given that the guards she’d healed from mesmer attacks before hadn’t turned while the virus was incubating in their blood. Frank...she wasn’t sure of. She was sure that the faster she found him and rid him of the virus, the better off he would be.

  As for those who’d already been turned...until she could capture one and attempt a healing, they were trying to kill or capture her. She couldn’t put the safety of those who could be saved at risk for those who might not be able to be redeemed. Still, her goal to completely eradicate them would be put on hold until she’d at least tried.

  The thing that worried her was the varied results. What if she couldn’t turn them back on her own, but she would be able to if she had the team of healers with her? They weren’t exactly readily available, and she doubted it would be cleared to have the best healers in the city head to the woods. That meant she’d have to capture and drag a mesmer back to the city. Several, if possible. There was also the concern of how she’d get them there, as they were resistant to her compulsion. She couldn’t exactly put everyone at risk with her scheme.

  She sighed, coming to her decision. She would rescue the captives and try to capture one of the mesmer, but she wouldn’t hesitate to kill any of them that got in her way. After all, they were still monsters.

  Why in the world did they have to be intelligent zombie monsters? She could’ve lived happily without ever knowing this truth.

  Chapter Nine – Misdirection

  “I wonder if that’s long enough for them to come…” Looking down at the trees below, she imagined the mesmer forces making their way to this spot. Had it been a bad idea to use light magic on the mesmer in the fight before? Probably. Would it draw more mesmer to this area? Almost certainly. Was that her goal? Absolutely. The more mesmer that were here, the less there would theoretically be at her target.

  Pulling a rock from her ring, she pulled a single drop of blood from her finger, smearing it over the stone. She then proceeded to treat it like a baseball, sending it flying through the air to the south towards one of the nests she had yet to hit. The slight noise and the smell of her blood would hopefully lead them in that direction, since she was currently high above them, and the winds here would be very unlikely to carry her scent below.

  She pulled out a second rock and did the same thing, this time boosting it with wind magic to fly even further south before it plummeted. Satisfied that she’d hopefully cause some chaos as they searched for her below, she set her course to the west. She traveled high above the trees, drawing the meager light of the moon in to cloak her passage in darkness.

  Flying high above, she kept an eye on the trees, occasionally catching glimpses of things moving among the boughs towards the east. Both of their speeds were very quick, so she only saw tiny snippets of them as they passed like two ships in the night. Still, it was rather reassuring to her that her misdirection worked at least partially, by the looks of things. She didn’t dare open an illusory window in that part of the woods at the moment, for fear they’d realize they were being watched or that something was wrong.

  It took several minutes of flying through the air to reach her target, and she’d taken the time to chew on some more of her meat to refresh her energy reserves once more, happy with how little meat it took to do so. It was rather ironic to her though, and she realized why the monsters would hunt them. Just as these monsters constituted a mana-rich meal for her...humans were the same for the creatures. It was common sense.

  Standing in the sky directly above the outer ring of blackened trees, she once again pulled out a rock, smearing a little blood on it before boosting it with wind and hurling it to the south. She saw several figures emerging from holes in the trees, climbing up along the branches and moving in that direction. She pulled the shadow of darkness more tightly around her, hoping that if any of them happened to look up, it would merely look like a dark cloud drifting overhead.

  Now that she’d misdirected as many as she could on wild goose hunts, she moved over the deadened trees, searching for any indications of where the prisoners might be kept. Drifting through the sky like a shadow, she searched the center of the encampment for a hollow tree, according to what she’d been able to extract from the mesmer.

>   The tree wasn’t any bigger than the ones surrounding it. If she couldn’t stand in the sky and search for the center that way, she wasn’t sure how she’d know which tree was the right one, but the center wasn’t what gave it away. The forest floor was littered with crumbling stone, only some of it better kept than others. The stone and trees were covered in scratches, old and new, that indicated the mesmer taint and occupancy.

  It was strange, actually. With how ragged the clothes were of the mesmer she’d killed, she realized they practically never took them off. She couldn’t imagine removing delicate cloth would be easy with their long claws, and that indicated the general state of things in the mesmer nests. Building was not all that possible, unless they forced some of their victims to do so. When you had long weapons permanently welded to your fingers, she could image quite a few things became difficult. Even holding a weapon would be hard without stabbing yourself.

  More than anything else, she figured this might be why the city hadn’t been overrun before this. They were primarily a melee species, despite having knowledge of life before they turned. They lost what magic they had, and were given hypnotism in its stead. Their physical capabilities were boosted, but something happened to their minds to make them turn on the people they once called families and friends. Was someone under that influence even able to recover? What if their minds were well and truly lost? If she did manage to bring them back to their humanity, would they be able to live with what they’d done?

  She didn’t know.

  While she was contemplating the changes these people underwent, she still searched for them. In reality, it was much harder to pick out any individual mesmer in this area because the whole place was covered in their sickly taint. She dropped her mana sense because looking at it made her feel ill. Instead, she relied on her heightened senses, trying to block out the horrible stench that pervaded the place. If you couldn’t wash properly, it was only natural that you would stink. Funny how she’d been too preoccupied with staying alive before that she never paid a lot of attention to the smell.

  So she hovered above what she felt was the center of the trees, trying to pick out anything abnormal. She finally gave it up as useless to attempt spying from the sky. Darkness wrapped like a cloak around her, she descended quickly in the deep shadow of one of the large trees. She remembered that once she touched the ground, she’d be able to use earth magic to search for any chambers below ground.

  What she hadn’t expected as she lowered were mesmer coming out of the woodworks. She silently cursed, realizing they were drawn to her magic, even darkness. She paused in midair, trying to count the mesmer who were scrabbling on the ground and up the trees. So much for her misdirection.

  Her danger sense was screaming at her, and she felt the air current behind her shift. Turning her head, she saw three mesmer jumping for her, claws outstretched despite their inability to see her through the darkness.

  With a growl, she lashed out with lightning. The bright light forked, seeking the path of least resistance, drawn to the small metal bits still attached to their bodies. The mesmer revealed expressions of surprise as they were thrown back through the air, falling limply, the paralysis of her strike not allowing them to move their limbs.Before they could hit the ground, other mesmer leapt into the air, catching them before turning eyes glowing with anger upon her.

  Legs tensed as they watched her descend ever further, and she was only twenty feet from the ground. “Come to ussssssss...” They hissed, and she smiled in grim determination. They would get what they wanted. Feeling like she shouldn’t waste the opportunity of them all watching her with such curiosity and anger, she reached into her magic, readying her burst.

  The shadows dissipated as she released her hold on them, replaced by a sudden burst of light as she glowed like the midday sun. Hisses of outrage and dismay escaped their lips as they were blinded. They shielded their eyes or ran backwards, trying to duck behind trees to lessen the blow of her radiance. She ruined everyone’s night vision, even her own.

  Thankfully, her eyes weren’t as sensitive to the light as theirs, so she recovered more quickly, landing on the ground in a spot that’d been vacated. She needed to act quickly, given that she was sure her shining beacon would draw back those she’d sent on a wild goose chase. The only question was how long it would take them to return.

  “Attack!” The guttural voice forced those who’d been displaying some hesitation to start jumping towards her in a frenzy, and she realized that even among the mesmer, there were those in charge. At the same time, she heard the voice tempt her, “Releassssse the light…”

  Her brightness dimmed for a second before she sent out an even brighter pulse, causing the mesmer to hiss in alarm and momentarily shy away again. He wanted her to release the light? Fat chance! Still, now that her feet were on the ground, she sent out a pulse of earth magic, mentally mapping the ground in her vicinity.

  She turned to her left, spotting an unassuming tree with a stone building at the base. The tree looked like it had grown through the building, tearing it in half, but she knew that was the entrance now. She stepped in that direction, only to have her knees buckle slightly from the impact of a head-sized stone striking against her wind barrier. It bounced off, but the force still made her stagger. In that brief moment, she saw the mesmer jumping at her like a tide once more.

  “Dream…ON!” She felt the energy leaving as lightning exploded outwards from her body in all directions. A thunderous boom assaulted the ears of every living thing in the vicinity, and she felt her own eardrums rupture as she fell to her knees from the shock and pain. Bodies littered the forest floor around her as she blinked away the bright sunspots that were the remnant of her lightning wall.

  She’d killed a large swath of enemies, and the rest seemed to be in a similar condition as her, clutching their heads carefully, or not so carefully in a few cases. She screamed in pain as she felt claws raking across her back. Her disorientation completely dissipated her normal wind wall shielding, and one of the mesmer still had enough willpower to attack her. Probably one of the ones that had been further away.

  As she felt the claws cleave through the material of her clothes she lurched forward, pulling herself away from the mesmer as she turned. A dagger had no sooner appeared in her hand before it was thrown, embedding itself in the forehead of the mesmer that left a bloody trail across her back. It seemed surprised that she was able to counterattack, the shock on its face evident as it shuddered to a stop before falling.

  She forced a wind wall up around her in a bubble, sending a burst of healing magic through her back and ears to stop the bleeding. Her head still felt like it was ringing, but she could hear the shouts of angry mesmer, along with the groans of pain of those who’d been injured, but not killed. She finished healing her ears, shoving a piece of meat into her mouth from her ring. They still felt sore, tender, but at least she had her balance back.

  The mesmer were starting to warily regroup, but her eyes were for the group blocking her way. She felt more rocks hitting her bubble, though now that it wasn’t wrapped directly against her, she didn’t stagger. She knew she would only be able to hold it for so long before they figured out how to breach it.

  Still, a smirk lifted the corner of her lips as she looked at them and muttered, “Yippee ki yay, mesmer.” She lifted her hand and metal appeared as they shifted back nervously, but they obviously weren’t prepared for her next assault.

  Her fingers squeezed the trigger, unleashing fiery armageddon upon the forest. She pivoted, sending the flames in a full 360. The screams of pain as their flesh burned from their bones echoed in the forest. The dead trees caught flame, unable to resist the blistering heat. The living trees beyond the circle of dead ones were more resistant, but she figured it was only a matter of time. The very air seemed to burn as she began to run.

  Her bubble of air protected her, any residual fire being absorbed by her for energy as she sprinted towards the underground ent
ryway. Any mesmer still alive retreated from the flames, trying to get away from the living hell she’d created. She stepped and jumped over the blackened bodies spread like ragdolls, forcing down her gag reflex and circulating the air so that she didn’t get choked by the smoke from the fire.

  Thankfully, once she passed the stone entryway, the fire’s influence dimmed. Though the air warmed up, it wasn’t superheated like the outside. The heavy walls blocked the majority of the fire, even as the surrounding trees burned.

  She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but a room with nothing more than a large hole in the center of the floor was not it. There weren’t even any guards...which meant one of two things. Either they’d been drawn out by the fight, or they were down below with the prisoners.

  “Leroy freaking Jenkins.” She mumbled under her breath, choking back the cough. She hadn’t been able to help inhaling some of the smoke or soot as she passed, and her throat felt dry and dusty. She tried not to think about the fact that she’d probably inhaled the cremated ashes of what were once humans. With that oh so pleasant thought running through her mind, she jumped into the pit of darkness.

  It was deeper than she anticipated, the cool air rushing past her face as she descended through roughly-hewn dirt walls marred with countless scratches. As she neared the bottom, she realized she could still see, a side effect of a fluorescent moss growing in patches along the walls. The floor was fast approaching, and she made herself an air cushion to slow her descent at the last second, landing with bent knees to absorb the rest of the impact as she took in the scene around her.

  The floor beneath her was caked the deep brown of dried blood, and little rusted flecks flew into the air in response to her wind. Several human figures huddled in the corner, but in front of them were three mesmer. And in front of them...they held the necks of Tisha, Hayden, and Hunter. The teenagers were dirty, obvious claw marks disfiguring their bodies in the form of clotted blood streaks.