My eyes snapped wide open. For a moment, I was wondering why I was laying face down on the dirt floor in the middle of nowhere. My cheek was pressed against the soil, and there was the taste of iron in my mouth. Then everything came back. The sleazy guy talking to me, the distraction, someone sneaking up from behind, and the hit on the head that made everything go dark. There were two of them, one person distracted me while the other ambushed me.
I looked beside me and saw a pair of legs, which I assumed to be the ambusher. Zap first, ask questions later. I grabbed the person by one of his ankles with my right hand and just formed a basic discharge rune before releasing a whole load of electricity into that person. There was no time for finesse.
This was the most basic spell that got me through my early days. The man collapsed beside me without putting up much resistance. I made a mental note of how frail humans were before lightning magic compared to the beasts I took down. Even a Red cored boar took more than this to go down, especially if I didn't target a vital point.
"Blighted grounds! Does he have some kind of mutation?" the first sleazy guy said, which prompted me to look up. He stood less than 10 meters away and seemed to panic for a second. He came to after a momentary pause and started to form a spell in his hand. I could see a shimmer of something forming. It took a second before he released the spell aiming at me.
Instincts took over — I tucked my left hand under me and used Lightning Infusion on my left pectoral, triceps, and deltoids. In other words, I did a very forceful one handed push up in my attempt to get away as fast as possible. I was in no position to use my regular programmed movements configured in my Lightning Brain mutation as those were for when I was standing on two feet. Something to fix in the future.
My palm sank into the soil briefly before I launched myself through the air, surprising even myself. The recoil ran up my arm like a kicked spring. I spun for one or two circles, which I lost track of as it was disorientating for me. Sky and ground swapped places, and my stomach relocated to my throat. I made a quiet promise never to improvise aerial maneuvers mid combat.
FWIP — FWIP
I heard it more than saw it, as what seemed like blades sunk into the ground where I previously lay. I stopped spinning and felt myself starting to fall, and I could see the ground beneath me — lucky that I did not fall towards my back — I promptly tucked my legs to land, supported by both my hands when I touched down. Subconsciously I aimed for a super hero landing but ended up with a Yogi Squat instead.
I quickly stood up and got into position, noting that the sleazy man was preparing another spell which he fired at me. This time I was prepared and used my regular Lightning Infusion movement to dodge out of the way.
"Blasted goblin! How are you moving like that?!? Ar... ar... are you an Orange already?" the man stammered. If he knew I was already at Yellow he probably would have run away the moment I woke up.
The spell seemed similar enough to the Wind Blades that the hawk I hunted had used in the Greywoods a few weeks back. However, the penetrative power and the speed were much lower. The hawk had been a Yellow cored beast and used its magic actively. While this man was probably only an Orange, and looked to be the type that spent his days drinking and gambling.
Now that I had my bearings, I could take a moment to assess the situation. The other person was still down from my zap, completely knocked out. The first two Wind Blades the sleazy man launched sliced close to where he was. If it was off by a few inches it would have been friendly fire. This told me the kind of person the sleazy guy was, ruthless and had no care even for his accomplice. A man who would risk killing his own partner to land a hit on me was not going to honor any bargain I made with him.
I was still assessing the situation when I saw two wind blades flying at me. I decided to open up some distance as I dodged so that I could determine the range of the spells. I jumped back a few more times till we were almost 30 meters apart. The last spell flew vertically at me and sliced open the soft ground along its path. I took notice of where the marks ended — Hmmm, about 10 meters, give or take.
The man seemed to be emboldened by the fact that I had only been dodging, and assumed that I did not have any ranged spells. Since I was outside of his range now, he ran towards me before stopping and preparing his spell.
I was not trained in combat and I could tell this person was bad in fights. He telegraphed everything — shoulders wound up before releasing the spell, eyes going towards where he was aiming at. A low life bandit that only targeted people weaker than him. He probably thought I was just a kid and was an easy mark. I would need to show him that he bit off more than he could chew.
When the blades flew at me this time, I used the same trick I had used when fighting the hawk instead of dodging immediately. I aimed my Lightning Bolt in the same path that Wind Blades were taking.
CRAK
The bolt of lightning flew through the Wind Blades and dissipated them outright, unlike the blades from the hawk that were just pushed off course. There was a sharp pop sound as the compressed air blades came apart. The bolt still had enough energy left and flew at the man, though he managed to jump out of the way as I wasn't aiming directly at him.
I could see his face starting to turn pale at the realization that I was not an ordinary kid. He started to run towards the woods but I fired a bolt of lightning to intercept the direction he was running in, forcing him to back off.
He stopped dead in his tracks and jumped back, his body seemed to float slightly which extended his jump distance by a little bit. Hmmm, seems like he's using his air element to help him with his movements. Unlike my Lightning Infusion based movement that stimulates muscles and forcefully contracts them, his seemed to help reduce his weight momentarily and extend his movement range.
"Look kid, I don't want any trouble. If you let me go we can just forget about this. I was just trying to make a quick buck, it's nothing personal. I hope you understand." the man said, realizing I wouldn't let this end easily.
"What about your friend over there?" I nodded towards the other man that was out cold on the ground.
"Him? You can do whatever you want with him. He was the one who hit you in the head. I had nothing to do with it." I was not surprised that he was quick to abandon his accomplice.
"Unfortunately, I've read enough books to know that letting you go will bite me in the back one day" I turned solemn, internally already making a hard decision.
"Books? What ..." he stopped halfway and suddenly manipulated the air around him to kick up a cloud of dust. The radius was not very big but it was enough to obscure him if he was dealing with someone who relied on normal vision.
Unfortunately for him, I had activated my Electro Perception and could see that he was swinging his arms, probably releasing another pair of Wind Blades at me. I just dodged to the side, and fired a Lightning Bolt, aiming directly for him this time.
To my surprise, he seemed to sense it coming — either some sort of air spell or just a lucky guess — and jumped out of the way. However, he was not quick enough to evade completely and part of the bolt still zapped one of his legs. He tripped and fell as he lost control of his legs mid jump, and ended up rolling on the ground to break his fall.
I walked slowly towards him, priming a Lightning Bolt to be released but kept my distance at around 15 meters to be out of range for his Wind Blades. The man tried to get up but I could tell his legs were paralyzed temporarily by my lightning, and he started to crawl away instead.
As he turned around, I expected him to release another spell at me as some sort of last ditch effort, but instead he started begging for mercy.
"No, no, no, no, please wait. I-i-i-if you kill me my brother Jonas wo-would come looking for me" he stammered.
That stopped me in my tracks. "Jonas brother?" Hmmm, didn't know they existed in this world too.
My comment seem to light some hope in him "Y-yes, yes. You know him? He's someone important at the camp. He'll reward you handsomely if you let me go. I promise I won't come looking for you"
"Which is it? Will you reward me handsomely, or you won't look for me?" I could not help myself but call out the contradiction in his statement.
"Whatever you want. Please just let me go" the stench of urea floated to me, and that was when I realized the man had wet himself sometime in the last minute during our conversation. At least his friend had more dignity than this. I should probably put him out of his misery.
"Sorry, but letting people like you walk is the kind of thing that comes back to bite me. I'm sure you get why I have to do this. It's nothing personal, I hope you understand" I just smiled while I primed a Lightning Bolt, maximizing the lethality now that he could not jump around anymore.
He seemed to be in thought for a few seconds, probably praying to whatever gods that kept him safe for a miracle.
"No no wait. You don't want to get your hands dirty. A kid like you probably never killed anyone before right?" the man pleaded to the innocence in me. Little did he know, I was probably not as innocent as he thought.
Joras POV
Did all Vesperian kids progress that fast? What in the blighted sky is going on? Is this because of the Grand Weave they mentioned. Joras was at his wit's end trying to find a way out of this predicament. His brother's name could not bail him out of trouble this time. It had always worked at the camp whenever he lost a fight.
The kid was walking closer. Recalling that he probably had not even bedded a woman, let alone killed a man, Joras tried to appeal to his innocence.
"No no wait. You don't want to get your hands dirty. A kid like you probably never killed anyone before right?" Joras begged, putting his dignity aside.
"You're right" Blessed Light, Joras thought it worked. Luck was giving him one last chance. He swore he would come back with his brother and make this kid pay for humiliating him.
"But there's always a first time for everything" Joras's face sank, as he saw the bolt of lightning flying at him. In the half instant before he blacked out — Joras cursed the heavens one last time for his shitty luck. He only hoped his brother would avenge him.