《Agnisotra: The Fall of Hourai》
Ch 1: Troublemakers
The year 2507 on the Hourai calendar, it''s a beautiful, normal day in Nadila, the capital city of the Hourai empire, the phoenixes are singing, the no-winged dragons are drifting peacefully next to the clouds, the sylphs are dancing and a stampede of regular cows is running through the market.
Okay, maybe the day wasn''t so normal after all. Three brats were spotted riding on these cows. A small kid with silver hair and a fox tail, a small kid with blond spiky hair and a tiger tail, and a small kid with black hair in a braid and a cat tail. They were riding the cows and seemed to be having fun. That couldn''t be said of the people on the market, but the market wasn''t the destination of these troublemakers, the stampede rushed through and left for the city gate.
On the way out some of the brats grabbed some fruit and spices from some stalls. Three figures were running behind the stampede trying to catch up, one was a kid of about 9 years old with brown hair and bear ears, another one a woman with red hair in a gold-orange feathery dress and the other woman was clothed in a casual shirt with a palm tree print and wearing sunshades, this woman had blonde spiky hair and she had a tiger tail.
¡°Say Yuna,¡± the blonde woman said to the woman with red hair and a feathery dress.
¡°Hmm? What¡¯s the matter Tallys?¡± Yuna responded to the blonde spiky-haired woman.
¡°Why does your little brother always drag my cute Raishin into trouble?¡± Tallys continued.
Yuna looked puzzled.
¡°Isn''t it your little brother who drags Agnis into trouble all the time?¡± Yuna said skeptically.
They both are troublemakers. The 9-year-old boy said, huffing and puffing.
I take my eyes off them for one second and they hijack some cows and start cow racing!
¡°Didn''t you temporarily put Gregory in charge of them?¡± Tallys asked.
Well, I did yes but they bribed him with square pears, which is his favorite fruit, and that they wouldn''t play with him if he didn''t let them go cow racing. After that, he just gave into pear pressure, what a cow-ard.
¡°You need to ease up on those dumb puns¡± Tallys responded while facepalming. Yuna''s arms turned into wings covered in yellow and orange flames, each wing was as long as she was tall. Her body got engulfed in flames and the temperature spiked. She spread her wings and took off in the direction the cow race was heading towards.
Tallys asked Ted, the brown-haired 9-year-old if he knew what was up with Yuna''s family since Yuna is a phoenix but her little brother Agnis seems to be a nine-tailed fox.
Hmm well you know that our Empress Edea is a nine-tailed spirit fox as well as a Phoenix right, it seems that passing these traits on is quite hard and Agnis¡¯ two older sisters are phoenixes while he seems to have both.
"Wait, he is both?" Tallys asked, surprised. ¡°I have never seen him exhibit any phoenix traits¡±.
I don''t know the details but it just seems to be a preference. It might be related to the palace almost burning down 2 years ago. Ted said as he and Tallys started running towards the gate where the cow race exited out into the plains outside the capital.
¡°Don¡¯t phoenixes have 2 strong elemental affinities besides fire?¡±
Yeah, the empress has lightning and doubles down on fire, Yuna has water and also doubles down on fire and his oldest sister Xelia has lightning and water. Agnis seems to have lightning and Ice.
¡°Isn''t ice the same as water?¡±
It is not but I forgot why that is the case.
They exited the gate and entered the plains. They encountered a dust cloud in the distance and Yuna raining fire down on the stampede.
¡°She''s gonna turn them into tailed-flavored beef dinner!¡± Tallys shouted.
She grabbed Ted by the back of his shirt and started imbuing herself with lightning and started speeding toward the commotion. Tallys jumped up and aimed a lightning kick at Yuna who was still frying some beef and lighting a fire under the troublemakers'' asses. Yuna easily dodges the kink.
"What are you doing?"
"I just felt like it" Yuna sighed at Tallys'' comment and looked at the beef buffet and the slightly burned troublemakers.
¡°Ok, bringers of chaos what do you have to say for yourselves?¡± Yuna said in a stern tone to the three brats lying on the floor. Raishin¡¯s head was stuck in the ground and his butt was on fire, Gregory was looking at his fried pear and looking through a cooking book wondering what he could eat it with and Agnis was laying on his back, holding up a piece of beef his sister fried and was adding salt to it.
¡°Hey, Yuna I don''t think they are listening¡± Tallys whispered to Yuna.
Yuna approached the three kids and was about to pull Raishin out of the ground when she noticed something. The image of the troublemakers blurred and shattered as if they were made out of glass. What she was looking at was an illusion! The three kids had escaped when they had the chance.
¡°Another of my little brothers'' illusions¡±, Yuna sighed. ¡°I don''t know if I should be happy or upset that he¡¯s getting better at this¡±, as she looked for the escapees. She didn''t find any, however, just a small mound on the ground. ¡°Ted! They went underground, help me out!¡±
Meanwhile underground
Are you sure escaping was a good idea? Yuna is going to be pissed. Gregory said as he was using earth magic to dig his way through the ground.
She already was pissed, she almost fried us! And at this point, it doesn''t matter if she¡¯s pissed or even more pissed, we¡¯re screwed anyways if she catches us. Agnis said while he was carefully looking around.
Hehe, this is all possible because of the hole I dug! Raishin shouted as he slapped his right biceps.
Landing with your face in the ground isn''t exactly digging a hole and do I need to remind you that I am the one digging here?!
I don''t want to rush you Greg but they¡¯re coming for us, Ted is digging after us with sis and Tallys in tow.
Yeah, no pressure Greg but we need to speed up!
Greg kept digging with earth magic and speeding up, Agnis felt a weird energy that disappears almost as suddenly as it appears. He looked back and checked the area where he felt the energy and noticed something but didn''t understand it well but made a mental note.
Hmm, the ground here is getting softer, it might be a good idea to stoo¡ As Gregory said this the ground under them collapsed and they fell into something that looked like an underground cave complex. The fall wasn''t long because the cave was filled for the majority with water.
Ugh great, I dig down and what do I find? Water... Greg said unamused.
What is all this water doing down here?
Blub.
I have no idea; I can''t tell if it was always here or if it''s new.
Blub Glub
I wonder if our moms know about this.
Oh shit, I forgot! Gregory can''t swim! Agnis said as he dove down to save Gregory.
He successfully caught the sinking Gregory but also saw some interesting energy flowing on the bottom of the body of water. It was the same energy Agnis spotted earlier on saw briefly when Gregory was digging.
Just checking, do you guys see that energy flow on the bottom of this underwater lake?
Nu-uh. ¡..
Greg get a grip! Agnis slapped Gregory¡¯s face and Gregory regained consciousness.
What happened?! Gregory coughed and cleared his throat.
You drowned.
Ugh, I hate water. Is there a way out of here?
I don''t know, I don''t see anything that could serve as an exit, although there is a current so there should be an exit somewhere.
Can''t you just make an ice floe and use it as a boat?
Hmm, I could but you''ll freeze your asses off on it.
No problem! I will make a flame to keep us warm!
There is no reality where that would work.
Gregory sighed.
Agnis could use regular ice or ice element but both won''t support your plan because with regular ice your flame will melt our boat and with ice element, it will keep sucking the mana out of your flame until you collapse from mana deficiency.
We could also try diving down to find crevices we can enter into.
You really can''t find anything with your eyes?
There is a lot of strange energy flowing here and since I don''t know the nature of it, I don''t want to come close to it, leaving not many options.
Hmm, can you link up your eyes with mine? Maybe I can manipulate it.
Sure, and you should teach me how to do that, seeing the flow of energy isn''t always useful when I can''t interact with it.
Sure.
Agnis linked his eyesight with Gregory and felt the strain on his eyes and magic depleting. Agnis'' Elgards eyes allowed for him to see things that were normally invisible. It worked with filters so he must know which filter to use for which situation. If he doesn''t know what he is looking for he might miss it. He currently only has a few filters and one of these showed different flows of energy. For the first time in his life, he felt a wave of an uncomfortable nauseating feeling associated with the use of magic. Gregory followed the energy flow with his eyes and tried to manipulate it. The energy flow showed no signs of budging. Gregory poured more magic into his energy manipulation but didn''t seem to make a change in the energy flow. Gregory¡¯s complexion changed pale just like Agnis.
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Ugh, I feel a bit nauseous.
You too?
Feel what?
For some reason using a lot of magic made us feel uncomfortable and nauseous.
It''s not from that beef buffet we ate earlier? Raishin started to drool while thinking about fried beef.
I have confidence in my sis'' skills to fry stuff so I don''t think it was undercooked.
Yeah, Yuna never misses a beat with frying stuff, speaking of which weren''t they chasing us? We can''t afford to waste time.
Well about that, they were quite close last time I checked and we wasted quite some time here and yet they still haven''t arrived.
Maybe they gave up? Or maybe the water repelled Yuna! Or, or! We''re in a different dimension. Raishin said in a mysterious tone, looking into the distance.
All quite unlikely.
No, he¡¯s right.
Agnis looked around with a different filter and noted that the dimensional energy was slightly different than where they were originally from. Since the change was subtle it didn''t ring a bell. Nine tailws spirit foxes know when they get moved from one dimension to another but detecting this subtleness came with experience.
Wait, the water repelled Yuna? That is unlike her.
No, we''re in a different dimension, but it''s subtle. I think breaking the boundary between this one and ours is quite easy, which is probably how we ended up here.
Wait, how did Raishin?
Hmm, maybe coincidence.
Agnis indicated to Greg that he was about to grab him and dive down. Gregory held his breath and Agnis, Gregory, and Raishin opened their private telepathy channel.
Anyways can you move this energy now we¡¯re closer?
Hmm, this energy doesn''t seem to budge, I don''t even feel like I''m compatible with it even though three-tailed shadow cats are supposed to be compatible with any form of energy. How odd.
Let me try!
As Raishin shot like an arrow into the energy flow.
How is he so fast underwater?
Hmm, that''s quite smart using your tails as propellers.
Agnis made 2 more tails appear and made them spin like propellers and shot through the water while dragging Gregory along.
Wait where are we going?!
Raishin showed that this energy is harmless so maybe we could learn more about it by camping in it.
Raishin was making wild moves in the energy flow trying to move it and the energy flow started showing some fluctuations.
Well, isn''t this interesting?
Agnis looked at the wild movements of Raishin and observed how they affected the energy fluctuations. He also inspected Raishin to determine if there were any abnormalities in his body.
It doesn''t seem like he''s getting anywhere.
I think I got it, yoo Raishin come carry Greg, let me try.
Agnis threw Gregory to Raishin as they swapped places. Agnis enhanced the 3rd person view he had of himself with the filter that showed the strange energy.
Greg, a crash course in manipulating energy, please!
Right, you first try to unify or remove as much mana from your system as possible, then you try to match your energy with the energy you want to manipulate, for shadow cats, this comes automatically but with your eyes, it shouldn''t be all too hard, then you have to connect your internal energy with the one you want to manipulate. Now for the roughest part, when you make the connection the information the energy carries rushes into your body, loaded with instructions on how to use it, what it is for, etc. This places the biggest burden out of all the steps and this is the reason why most shadow cats choose a type of energy to specialize in because dealing with every type of energy is like stuffing a library in your body. Not a great idea. After this, you just move the energy by directing it with magic.
Out of curiosity, at what step does your energy manipulation attempt fail with this one?
Hmm well for some reason I can¡¯t feel this energy, it is that I know this energy exists but I can''t feel it at all so I can¡¯t attune myself to it. Do you feel it?
Hmm seeing as there''s a high concentration of this energy, I can say I feel it weakly.
Agnis went to where the energy was the densest and followed Gregory¡¯s instructions. Since using magic made him nauseous not too long ago, he decided to clear out as much magic in his system and move it to his tails. This went easy since it was a basic skill of tailed beasts. The matching of energy, however, was quite difficult.
Agnis went at it for 30 minutes, constantly resurfacing to catch some air. Until he got a semblance of success. Raishin and Gregory both were watching closely and silently.
Some energy matching needs some kind of energy within you to move about, not all work with still energy.
Agnis made the natural energy within him swirl and suddenly the matching was successful. He attempted the connection, but it failed. He tried again once more and it felt like something clicked. A lot of information flooded into his body. But he also heard a loud voice that spoke incomprehensible words. Agnis clutched his head as a throbbing headache assaulted him, he lost focus and thus dropped the connection. Because of the pain, he released the air from his lungs and started to drown. Raishin shot towards him, lightly imbuing himself with lightning, grabbed Agnis at the back of my shirt, and headed towards the surface. Agnis coughed heavily as he gasped for air.
You, ok?
Kinda, I lost focus.
What happened? I succeeded in making the connection and the information rushed in as you said, but I also heard a loud voice talking in an incomprehensible language. Gregory looked at Agnis in a confused manner before adopting a pensive look.
Hmm, that is odd. I have never experienced a voice when connecting to energy, nor have I read about it in the Shadow cat Book of Energy. Is this a new type of energy? I don''t want to pat my own shoulder but my peers tell me I am quite exceptional in energy manipulation but I can''t even feel this energy, forget manipulating it. If it wasn''t for your sight, I wouldn''t have known it exists.
Hmm, something is up with this energy yes. Maybe it''s because I made a brief connection but I''m starting to sense this energy stronger and stronger. I''m gonna try it again. Now that I know about the voice, I''m prepared. I want to know what it is but since I don''t know what language it is and we¡¯re stuck in a dimension that can wait for now.
Yeah, I''m quite interested in that energy. Let''s go check out the library later to see if we can find some books about foreign languages.
Hey don''t forget about me, I''m here too. I don''t like books though.
That is fine, I will go with you to hang out with the sylphs, you do have to make up with the kelpies though!
Nice, there is this one sylph that is super hot!
Yes, yes, we know Raishin now be quiet, let Agnis concentrate.
Agnis dove back down to the energy stream and repeated the steps. After connecting, the information did not rush in because he had already possessed it but the voice returned. He tried to block it out but it was quite unsuccessful. However, it was in the background enough that it wasn''t super annoying and he could focus.
He compiled the observations of Raishin¡¯s movements in his head and moved my body. Gregory suggested moving the energy with magic but some information about this energy suggested that it doesn''t interact with magic or even repel it.
Agnis combined the most impactful movements Raishin made with what he simulated in a tail of what could work.
Agnis made wide-flowing movements while exchanging his internal energy with the energy flow and cycling it through his arms and chest. He made the energy flow into the fingers of his right hand, while while left hand expelled the energy his right hand brought in. While the energy flowed from right to left, he mixed in some of his own energy with it before expelling it from his left fingers.
This made the energy move greatly. It more or less moved to match his movements. It felt like Agnis was physically moving the energy, so it was straining his body. His physical stamina wasn''t that great because he is just a brat and nine-tails specialize in ranged and magical attacks so their physical condition isn''t anything special.
Agnis decided against using magic to enhance himself because he had learned from the information that entered him earlier that this energy interacts poorly with magic and he was unsure what would happen if he brought magic into the mix.
He attempted to use this strange energy to enhance himself which succeeded. The burden on his body was still quite heavy. He suspected that he could only pull off 1 big move before his physical stamina would run out. And this is where he decided to do something impulsive.
Greg, Raishin, get out of the way! We¡¯re going up!
He shouted telepathically at them while gathering the energy in a loop around himself and sending it all upwards. After releasing the energy it all turned into water. What the¡ Oooh, shiiiit! Whoops.
The energy that Agnis sent up, which had turned into water, dragged all the other existing water with it and broke the rock ceiling like it was paper.
Meanwhile above ground,
¡°I don''t understand, how could they just disappear?¡± Yuna said worriedly as she paced around.
Any chance this was another of Agnis'' Illusion?
¡°My brother is adept at illusions for his age but when I or Tallys focus on finding him it shouldn''t be a big issue to find him. You even did a seismic scan and didn''t find anything close did you?¡±
Hmm yes, this is a problem.
¡°Noo. I¡¯ll never see my little brother again!¡± Tallys cried dramatically.
Common, Tallys, those guys are really tough, I''m sure they are fine!
Ted said in a comforting nmanner
¡°They won''t be after I find them!¡± Yuna said angrily but also with a sign of being worried.
So, what do we do now? We have no idea where they are. Agnis is good at covering their tracks but never have they seemingly disappeared.
Yuna sat down as the three were brainstorming about what to do.
Uh oh.
¡°Whatsup Teddy?¡± Tallys asked.
My name is Ted! Not Teddy and¡ oh it''s too late¡
At that moment a loud rumbling was heard and at the spot, where Yuna was sitting calmly, a huge waterspout of about 100m shot out of the ground, launching Yuna up in the air. Everyone freaked out including Yuna but that didn''t last long because a head covered in blond hair collided with her head and knocked her down.
So¡ tired.
Please! No more water!
Hmm, I think I hit something on my way out.
Three small wet individuals landed next to the waterspout, suggesting they rode it to the surface. Yuna was clutching her head and rolling on the ground from pain.
¡°How hard is your head? You three are so dead!¡± Yuna said as she got up and ignited.
¡°Uh oh Yuna is pissed again¡± Tallys warned, she imbued herself with lightning and blocked a flame wave.
Whoa, Yuna is going berserk again, run for it!
Jeez, Tallys did you anger Yuna again?
I don''t think I will drink water for a long time.
Yoo guys what''s up! I would suggest running though, Yuna is pissed at you guys.
Why? We didn''t do anything? Agnis seemed visibly confused
Yeh, we¡¯re innocent! We didn''t do whatever she thinks we did! Said Raishin indicating that he agreed with Agnis.
Gregory took a pensive stance. Maybe I should order 200 liters of my mom''s liquid shadow vodka.
Uhm well, you guys kinda disappeared, tell me all about it later but you gotta run now!
Oooh
Ohh yeah, we totally did that.
Hmm, only 30 silver I''ll have to ask Jusay to deal with the logistics.
Raishin grabbed Gregory who was too busy ordering liquid shadow vodka at the back of his shirt and dragged him. He also grabbed Agnis who was too exhausted to move.
¡°Oi, c''mere you brats!¡± Yuna shouted while being held back by Tallys. Agnis and Raishin looked back at Tallys blocking Yuna¡¯s flames and throwing lightning jabs back at her. Tallys teleported behind Yuna and kicked her downward.
¡°Let me through!¡± Yuna said with an intimidating tone as her flames blazed even hotter.
¡°You need to work on your temper Yuna¡±.
Yuna¡¯s face turned red and she was about to send a wave of flames at Tallys when a golden Phoenix touched down. A shadow separated from her and formed into a silhouette that turned into a woman with black hair and cat ears. Shortly afterward a lightning bolt struck next to the 2 that just arrived and a woman with long blonde hair and tiger ears appeared.
¡°Always as flashy as ever with your entrances¡±, the phoenix woman said in a clear enchanting voice to the blonde woman.
¡°Where is Viridian?¡± The blonde woman asked.
¡°I think he took Hisui for the graduation assignment and since she is his daughter, he wanted to make sure everything was in order¡±, the black-haired woman replied.
Oh crap, our mothers are here, Raishin speed up!
I¡¯d like to but I''m kinda carrying both of you, and y¡¯all be heavy like a bag of potatoes!
Did you just compare me to potatoes?
Hmm, I could eat fried pears with ginger and chili butter next to the liquid shadow vodka.
The three women collected their sons with ease and apologized to their daughters and Ted.
¡°We know our sons are a handful and thank you for keeping an eye on them, Ted do you want to come with us to the palace?¡± Ted nodded and the blonde woman picked him up by the back of his shirt and they flew off. Does this family only have one way to transport others?! Ted shouted as for the second time he got transported away similarly by another member of the Torai family.
Ch 2: Potatoes our Archnemesis
After getting dropped off at the palace by mom we went to the hall where she did her duties as an empress; issue orders, be bored to tears and listen to boring people and their troubles, and come up with ways to fix them. She sat down and spoke to us.
¡°Gregory, Raishin, and dear son of mine, you have made a mess in the capital and flooded the main road to the eastern gate to the point that it became a small river. The creativity you''ve shown to create a unique event in the city is truly remarkable!¡± An advisor interrupted my mom, reminding her that she is supposed to be scolding us and not praising us. Mom corrected herself. ¡°So obviously this is a problem, you kids could have died! I wouldn''t be able to bear the thought of you kids dying in an unspectacular and lame way!¡±
¡°Wait, Empress Edea!¡±, another advisor said shocked, ¡°That is not the issue! Their lives are important but the damage!¡±
¡°A market can be rebuilt but a life snuffed out early is unrecoverable¡± Mom said with a serious intimidating tone. The advisor broke out in cold sweat and physically backed off. ¡°So, tell me, dear son of mine, why cows? Don''t kelpies make for a more exciting race?¡±
As expected of my mother, kelpies make for a more interesting race, yes but the kelpies were on holiday this week and Raishin kinda had a fight with one of the younger kelpies, so out of pettiness they didn''t want to be around him.
¡°I see,¡± Mom said while in deep thought. ¡°Anyways I have to hand out punishment, or else these pain-in-the-ass advisors will never shut up. I can''t even have my son have the freedom to adventure when and where he wants, she said dejectedly. I hoped you wouldn''t feel as caged as I do but unfortunately, I was wrong.¡± All the ministers and advisors looked uncomfortable.
It was known throughout the empire that my mom loved freedom and adventure, but the citizens decided that they wanted her to be their leader. So, my mom is quite literally and figuratively a bird in a cage, stuck to rule a group of organized citizens that she loves and this is where she was conflicted, if anyone could take over for her, she''d drop being the empress immediately, but nobody with those qualifications has been found yet.
¡°So, I will delegate Gregory''s and Raishin''s punishment to Nadila and Felicia. But your punishment is to peel 2000 potatoes.¡±
Whud?! Please! Not the potatoes again! We don''t even eat that many potatoes!
¡°I know my dear¡±, my mom said with a complicated look as she approached me and hugged me. ¡°Please help your mom out, I skipped an important meeting yesterday to visit the village an old dragon friend of mine started. My uncle gave me a punishment to peel 10,000 potatoes. You know how much your mother hates peeling potatoes.¡±
But you''re the empress! Can''t you just tell him that potatoes are overrated and that we don''t need them in this empire?
"I diiiid!" Mom said "But uncle told me I''m not allowed to come on the expedition to investigate a dimensional crack, which is in 4 hours, if I don''t finish peeling these potatoes, I will have to sit out this adventure ehm investigation. I already peeled 8000 potatoes!¡± I shudder at the thought of peeling any number of potatoes that exceeds 1 potato. ¡°And it would be embarrassing if the empress wasn''t allowed on an important adventure, eh investigation like this.¡±
Fine! I said unhappily
But you''ll have to take me on a flight again and catch me some fresh yellow-finned spirit salmon and cook it with your golden flames, these are the best!
¡°Of course, I will¡±, my mom answered while giving me a warm hug and separating from me. The comfortable warmth of being hugged by a mother and a phoenix left with the separation and I had the urge to ask for another hug, but I controlled myself. I wondered if I should tell her about the underground cave with strange energy in the other dimension, but I missed my chance.
I decided to tell her later. It seemed like Raishin and Greg also got their scolding and punishments. ¡°Even though you kids just got your punishment, you still need to eat, my mom said with a cheery tone, it is time for them to awaken their soul containers and get some extra lives because at this pace they might get themselves killed.¡± Most advisors agreed and we went to the dining hall on the 4th floor.
When arriving at the dining hall my mother started explaining.
¡°Soul Containers make us mythical and legendary creatures that have multiple lives when killed you will return to the physical and magical state you were in, moments before you died. Some effects can occur when this triggers, like restoring some health or gaining some mana but those need to be developed. When your soul container is empty, you''re out of lives and you will die for good. There are some caveats to that but I will not discuss them today. All you need to know is that to increase the number of lives you have to eat a certain thing or you can extract them from others. The things that give you more lives are quite rare. So, treat every life as if it is your last,¡± my mom warned us.
We were quite hungry but we still listened to what she had to say. ¡°For Agnis¡± Mom continued, ¡°There are red sky mangoes and blue ghost truffles since he can use both the phoenix and nine tail method to replenish the soul container, Gregory has the liquid shadow potato and Raishin gets some magnetic dynamo beans.¡±
Why do they get these yummy-looking things and I get beans!? Raishin said as he seemed to be upset about this unfairness.
I''m glad I didn''t get potatoes.
My mom and I shuddered at the thought of being a three-tailed shadow cat and having to peel liquid shadow potatoes. Felicia grabbed some beans and shoved them into Raishin¡¯s mouth.
Hmpf?! Hey, these things taste pretty good!
¡°Thought so¡±, Felicia said while shoving more beans down her son''s throat. Everyone was watching that scene while silently eating their dinner, which had these special ingredients as an extra. I had some pasta with a creamy cheese sauce with the ghost truffles added to the sauce, with a fruit salad on the side.
Gregory had a bowl that just looked like a liquid shadow but it was supposed to be mashed liquid shadow potatoes with some potato wedges and greens, but they all got swallowed by the liquid shadow. Gregory looked confused about how to tackle this dish. He decided to take the bowl with his two hands and pour it down his throat. I don''t blame him for making this decision since everything looked liquid. But there clearly was solid food in it, so he poured the bowl down his throat and started choking at the first pieces of solid food that left the bowl.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Nadila rushed at him, took the bowl out of his hands, and performed the Heimlich on him. A piece of liquid shadow potato shot out of his mouth and landed next to my mom. The violent appearance of a potato shook her and she lit the potato and with it, part of the table on fire. During all this, Felicia was still shoving beans down Raishin¡¯s throat.
The butlers were panicking and grabbing cans of water from the table to douse the flames. But my mom is the empress and a very strong phoenix, some mere water wouldn''t be able to douse the flames. The water violently evaporated causing a small steam explosion, sending all the food on the table flying.
My mother''s uncle walked into the dining room to a bowl of liquid shadow potatoes flying in his face. He removed this shadowy dish from his face and witnessed pure chaos in the dining room. Raishin, getting sick of getting beans shoved down his throat, tried to get a bite from my food, but I didn''t let him because my food was really good. Felicia was chasing him in the meantime with a half-finished bowl of magnetic dynamo beans.
Mom was lighting every potato she saw on fire, Gregory was grabbing some liquid shadow vodka that his mom was drinking and trying to wash down what he just ate while Nadila was trying to calm down my mom while the butlers were trying to kill the fire with water magic, setting off more steam explosions. Yuna was trying to stop Gregory from drinking the liquid shadow booze, while Xelia, my eldest sister, was ehm, I don''t know what Xelia was doing, it looked like she was daydreaming. Tallys was looking at everything and laughing her ass off while Jusay, Gregory¡¯s older brother tried to convince Tallys to help fix this chaos. Mom¡¯s uncle stepped into the room and spoke up with an air of composure and confidence.
Sadly, nobody paid attention to him and the chaos continued. Uncle was quite strong but he was also a doofus sometimes. I decided to help him and froze everything. Only my sisters, my mom, and my uncle managed to not get frozen. Guess I didn''t help much after all, but at least the chaos and fire died down. After releasing everyone from the ice they were transported shivering to the hot springs to warm up. I got put on potato peel duty and my mom got called in by her uncle, probably for some scolding. Uncle is the only family from my mother¡¯s side, everyone calls him Uncle so I kind of forgot his name.
He is probably also the only one who can make my mom do stuff she doesn''t want to. I have heard that she fought back many times but only has about a 40%-win rate against him. But he doesn''t mean any harm, he is kind of a father to her and he is quite wise. That''s why he is the head advisor. My mom still challenges him when she disagrees with him because she knows that she can win and a lot of times she gets her way, but seemingly she lost this time and had to peel 10000 potatoes. And at this moment I am looking at the legacy my mother left behind for me, a mountain of 2000 potatoes.
As I stand before my archnemesis, I look at my equipment. Sadly, peeling potatoes has become quite frequent lately because I keep getting caught doing cool stuff. I have 2 sharp knives and a short sword. Actually, it is a big knife but since I''m only 7 years old and I''m not so big it is a short sword for me. I have become quite adept at using knives and short swords because of the constant battle I have with my arch-nemesis. I have already slain over 30000 potatoes and I won''t let a mere 2000 become the end of the road for me. If it was just cutting them up it would be easy but I have to peel them so a great deal of accuracy and precision is needed when doing this fast and correctly.
Nobody has time to peel 2000 potatoes one by one in the traditional manner. No! I am gonna put my skills to the test to finish this as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Regrettably, I''m still a bit tired from my earlier adventure, moving that big mass of energy took quite a toll on my body. But I don''t want to waste time on these stupid potatoes. I made 2 more tails appear and focused magic into my eyes. Because my eyes tire quite fast, I will have to do batches of 500 potatoes per session. I can only accurately peel 100 potatoes at once, by throwing them into the air and swiftly dashing about, cutting the skin off before they fall. Getting to this point involved a lot of trial and error but now I''m confident of peeling 100 potatoes before they hit the floor.
I scooped up 100 potatoes with 2 of my tails and threw them in the air. I grabbed my potato peeler short sword, focused my eyes on the potatoes, making my eyes turn orangey yellow with a crosshair pattern, and moved to cut the potatoes. The potatoes looked like they were falling in slow motion and with the help of my Elgards eyes I mapped out a path to dash which would make the peeling of the potatoes as efficient as possible. I used my third tail to balance myself while dashing about.
At this point, I can only make 4 tails appear. Making them appear and being able to use them well is something that comes with age and practice so I am not too worried that I can''t access all nine yet. I did however get to use my 4th tail quite recently so I''m not too used to it. I tried using it in my last potato peeling session but it was more of a hindrance. Imagine if you would suddenly grow two more arms! It will be useful in the long run but just thinking of how you would make them move and what would you use them for would be new and hard to deal with in the short term. Another example is using a task you can do very well with your non-dominant hand. It will feel slow, clumsy, and awkward and you''ll be better off using your dominant hand.
After 500 potatoes I took a short break, I put the peeled potatoes in a barrel and swept the potato peels with my fourth tail. I''ve found that doing this speeds up my familiarity with my new fourth tail a bit. After the second round of peeling potatoes, I wondered if I could speed it up more. It took me 30 minutes to peel the first 1000 potatoes. I knew I had an affinity for lightning but I never really used it much besides pulling pranks and zapping people. I remembered how Raishin and his family imbued themselves with lightning and gained a lot of speed and power due to it. I wondered if I could pull something off like that and peel more potatoes at the same time if I used that.
I focused on the memories of when I saw members of the Torai family use that technique and I tried to analyze it and formulate a method of how I could pull it off. I tried some things out but I couldn''t find a way to generate enough lightning to successfully imbue myself for longer than a split second. Generating lightning in large amounts isn''t an easy feat but the six-tailed tigers can more or less create energy from thin air so they have no issues with that. I don''t have that luxury. I tried thinking of how I could use being a nine-tail. I could try to deceive myself with illusions to think that I am a six-tailed tiger.
There were two problems with this idea though, my illusions aren''t strong enough yet to make me truly think and believe that. And even if I could it might not work. Another problem was that a possible paradox might occur which could deal a lot of damage to myself because using a nine-tail technique, making myself into a six-tail momentarily might not work because six tails can''t use illusions, and if six tails can''t create illusions, I can''t use illusions to make me become one, or I would be stuck at being a six tails. Thinking about the possible loopholes in this and the implications gave me a headache. I scrapped this idea. I got another idea, and it was because of the dinner we had a while ago.
Raishin got dynamo beans. If I could replicate the workings of a dynamo I could make as much lightning as my stamina or magic would allow. I settled on having my fourth tail be the static component and make it mimic some copper coils and make my other three tails spin around it mimicking magnets. After spinning my tails for a couple of seconds I discovered how effective this was at generating electricity. I sped up the rotation and the intensity made the lightning shift color. In this world, some elements have different strengths or properties within the element. Fire has default orange-red but goes to red into blue indicating an increase of power, fire also has colors outside of those but they indicate a specific property, for example, light gold flames replenish stamina and help against fatigue.
With lightning, the color indicates its power. It goes from white
The trail led outside and we were met with some cool outside air. It was a bit past midnight and the night sky was like an obsidian sea adorned with silver gems wrapped in a purple cloud. As I looked into the capital, I saw a lot of magic trails converging outside the city. The city has a protective barrier but these trails seemed to get through it with no issue. I started to get an ominous feeling. As I said this to Xelia, her normal calm aura turned into a serious one.
She took me off Yuna¡¯s shoulder and flew me into the air instructing me to tell me exactly what I saw, the properties of the magic trails, and if I saw anything else which could be important. I realized how serious this phenomenon was, and poured all my energy into putting various filters on in my Elgards eye. It''s like if I want to see magic energy flow, I put that filter on and I only see magic energy flow but I can add filters for airflow, non-magic energy signatures, infrared, etc. but these take a lot of energy.
Xelia covered me in light golden flames which recovered my energy and stamina so I could keep it up for a time longer than I ever could by myself. I noticed the magical traces were accompanied by a certain non-magical energy I couldn''t identify; I could see it but not identify what it was. Different signatures of this energy indicated that different users created it but it was the same type of energy. I followed the trails with my eyes and they ended up with some individuals at the edge of the barrier I also saw some cracks forming at the edge of the barrier, but they were minuscule and they spanned quite a sizable area. I noticed something peculiar though, though the individuals on the north side got their energy from something. I tried to trace it further but lost focus when I found the source for a bit. And the backlash of using the Elgards'' eyes so long and not keeping up focus made my eyes bleed a bit.
¡°Are you ok?¡± Xelia asked. ¡°Was it too much for you?¡±
It''s ok, I lost focus.
I told her what I saw.
¡°Hmm an eight-tailed monkey on the north side supplying energy to individuals to break the barrier¡±, she said while banking sideways and making a turn to return to the palace. Xelia still sounded calm and a bit aloof but I could feel she switched to serious mode. ¡°Mom went to subjugate a group of extra-dimensional monsters so she isn''t in the capital yet. We might need her, Felicia, and Nadila¡¯s help because if that monkey is who I think he is this might not be a simple attack but an invasion.¡± Xelia said while putting me down. She stroked my hair and called Yuna over. ¡°Yuna, take Agnis, Raishin, Gregory, and Ted and take them to safety, I will tell Tallys to get Viridian and after that, I will mobilize our city defense and lead the defense until mother returns.¡± Yuna nodded, turned into her half-phoenix form, grabbed Raishin and me who were already outside, and flew inside to look for Ted and Greg. Yuna sped through the corridors while talking to herself.
¡°How did they even get so close to the capital?¡±
They seem to use some special energy that bypasses every system we have in place it seems. But this energy doesn''t feel natural like it''s not from this world.
Hmm, what''s going on, where is my fried chicken?
Shut up please Raishin, I think our city is under attack.
Wait? Really? Then why aren''t we going there and kicking their asses! I''ll show them not to mess with my fried chicken!
Yuna and I both sighed while rolling our eyes and ignored Raishin. Yuna sped to the Sheru wing in no time and encountered Ted and Gregory fighting a huge ugly chicken. They were struggling a bit because the chicken knocked down a pillar and they were fighting in a cramped space. Yuna went in and instantly fried the big chicken. Ted and Greg thanked her and Raishin went to cut some meat out of the chicken. I handed him some salt and we started munching on some fried chicken. Yuna looked at us in disbelief.
Whud? I''m hungry!
Yuna picked all four of us up and started flying again.
While chomping on some chicken I see various trails combine. These probably originate from chickens scattered throughout the palace.
Big chicken up ahead!
I just realized, isn''t Yuna practically a big fried chicken?
Uh oh.
Oh no.
¡°Could you repeat that? I might have misheard you!¡± Yuna said in a very irritated and angry tone. At the same time, her flames flared up and they started to become quite hot. I have high fire resistance but my buddies don''t really.
I was wondering¡
Oh no, Yuna you misheard him! Gregory said hastily while putting his tail into Raishin¡¯s mouth, gagging him and preventing him from finishing his sentence.
Hot, hot, hot yowch, could you turn down the heat Yuna? I''m not a big fan of spicy! Ted said as he wasn''t helping with calming my sister down.
Yuna reminds me of spicy hot wings. Raishin said after freeing his mouth after a struggle with Gregory.
Aight buds, you¡¯re on your own. I said as I covered myself in frost to protect myself from what was to come.
Agnis, could I get some of that ice of yours?
Yuna¡¯s flames flared up a split second after I covered Gregory with some frost.
¡°I hope you guys have a high tolerance for spicy because imma make you sweat!¡± Yuna said angrily as she flared up yet again and her flames turned bluish.
Aargh!
Ow ow ow.
Idiots. That¡¯s what you get.
We reached the huge chicken I spotted earlier but he got vaporized the moment Yuna in her blazing rage blasted it. I was wondering if I should use my special technique to calm Yuna down.
Can you turn the heat down Yuna? We¡¯re about to turn into well-done steaks!
I¡¯m sorry for calling you a fried chicken! I was wrong! You¡¯re... Yes, you are not food you¡¯re graceful like uhm a pigeon?
You do know that pigeons also get eaten?
Really? Does it taste like fried chicken?
Yup, not helping those idiots out. Yuna¡¯s rage hit its zenith and the corridor walls she was flying through started to melt. I was hanging on comfy covered with frost, as was Gregory. Meanwhile, Ted and Raishin were doing their best to enhance themselves with magic but they were still getting fried. Being in the proximity of my ice helped them to not get vaporized but that''s all it did. Yuna, trying to control her rage, was putting a lot of effort in to shut up and focus on getting us to safety.
Agnis and I will kick their asses later, is that fine Yuna?
I will make you some high-quality ice cream, sis, so please calm down, I''ll even make some ice sculptures of them on which you can vent when this is all over ok?
¡°Do you have the ingredients on you?¡± Yuna asked, clearly calming down and even a little bit excited.
Of course, but I can''t make it if you¡¯re too hot.
Yuna¡¯s mood and flames stabilized and I took the ingredients for the Agnis Special: deep-frozen sugar apple ice cream, out of my dimensional pocket. Nine-tail spirit foxes had control over time and space to a limited extent. I¡¯m of course a noob in all this but the first thing I learned and kept using was making a dimensional space or pocket as I call it and storing whatever I find useful in it. Nobody has the time and energy to physically lug all those around! I lifted the frost from Gregory who was starting to shiver and started making some ice cream.
Ted and Raishin looked at me making ice cream.
This is not for you guys, you should reflect.
Fair.
But I also want ice cream!
I finished the ice cream and gave it all to Yuna, putting her in a cheery mood...
Ch 4: To the Shelter
¡°Ted and Greg, where are your brothers?¡± Yuna asked in a cheery mood as she flew up to the 5th floor and then the 6th floor, probably aiming for the big balcony on the 7th floor.
I think they went with your mother.
Yuna flew outside from the balcony on the 7th floor. We were only inside for about half an hour but after coming back outside I saw that the barrier was broken and the capital was on fire. And I saw a creature with a lot of magical power. He seemed to rival my mother in magical power. It was the same 8 tailed monkey I saw feeding energy to some random goons.
What is that? I asked while pointing at the eight-tailed monkey.
¡°Enott Hing,¡± Yuna replied.
Nothing? But I see something there!
¡°Yes, and what I''m saying is that something is Enott Hing!¡±
Yuna, are you sure now is the time to joke around? Our capital is on fire you know?
Maybe she is going blind, she could use a bit of your vision Agnis.
You see it too, right? I''m not the only one?
It is hard to miss something that''s exuding so much magical energy, yes.
Hey, Yuna are you alright? I think I have some glasses somewhere here for you.
Wait, why do you have glasses on you?!
Haha, to become smarter of course!
I am speechless...
You can''t be serious¡
Yuna started to become quite pissed off and yelled: ¡°That eight-tailed monkey there is called Enott Hing! It''s his name!¡±
I thought I was the only one making un-bear-able puns, I''m glad I rubbed off on you!
Calling a person ¡°nothing¡± is cruel even for you Yuna¡
No, my sister became a bully.
¡°Why did I have to babysit¡±, Yuna sighed, ¡°Fighting something as strong as mom would have probably been easier than dealing with these brats.¡± She picked up speed and headed for the mountain southeast of the capital. As she landed outside the city, she chucked us at the ground and returned to her human form. my buddies and I were used to rough landings so we landed perfectly, besides Raishin who somehow still didn''t get how to orientate himself in the air and landed on his bum.
At that moment a huge explosion went off and we saw part of the palace collapse. And moments later I saw a golden phoenix with a flock of phoenixes and other mythical creatures arrive in the city and a big battle broke out. My eyes started to become tired trying to figure out what was happening, but from the few things I saw was that my mother knew that monkey I didn''t know the name of and that there was bad blood between them.
What did you see?
Our mothers made contact with that monkey. I don''t know the name. He has some weird-looking sidekicks and it seems there is bad blood between him and our moms.
Well since your mothers made contact with them, means they will get wiped out sooner than later, no need to panic, we should just go to our shelter and wait out the fight. No need for us to deal with this monkey business.
We started walking towards the mountain where the shelter was when Ted and Greg¡¯s brother joined us.
¡°How did the situation with the dimensional crack go Jusay?¡±
¡°Hmm, it was quite weird actually¡±, Jusay replied. ¡°Bob and I were at the side lines but the enemy was quite organized and it looked like they were stalling.¡± Jusay explained to Yuna.
So, it is all connected! I knew it!
¡°What do you mean Agnis?¡± Jusay asked.
I saw some weird energy accompanying the magical signatures of those that invaded the city, at first, I didn''t recognize it but now I remember. It was similar to that dimensional fugitive we had 2 months ago. Since he came from another dimension he had a weird lingering energy around him, these guys had the same, that eight-tailed monkey was the only one who didn''t have that strange energy.
¡°Hmm, it certainly explains a lot¡±, said a guy that looked like an older, taller, and more mature Ted.
Bob! Ted exclaimed as he ran over to his brother.
Yo, bro, you got some liquid shadow vodka?
Oh, you got booze?! Gimme some too!
¡°Wait what? Why would I give you any of this? You guys are still brats! And I don''t have any on me!¡± Jusay said flustered while he tightly gripped his backpack.
Suspicious!
Gimme some! I had a rough day!
Ted and Gregory pounced on Jusay, trying to grab the backpack. Yuna and I facepalmed at the same time.
Bob and Yuna separated the alcoholics from Jusay. Jusay brushing the dirt off his clothes calmly explained more about what happened at the dimensional crack. I wanted to pay attention to what he was saying but something else grabbed my attention.
There were two things. The first thing was I saw a lot of that strange energy we discovered in the underground water cave. And I saw 3 quite strong individuals approaching. I only remembered the magical signature of the people I was close with so I couldn''t tell if they were friends or foes. But the fact was that our capital was under siege.
Yuna, 3 people approaching from 8 o¡¯clock!
Yuna turned around and shifted to battle mode. Bob and Jusay did the same.
¡°Just relax and stay behind us Agnis, you must''ve overworked yourself today.¡± I was ready to go into a battle stance too but I decided to heed Yuna¡¯s advice. Three girls arrived 2 minutes after my warning.
Fry them!
¡°Nooo, wait we¡¯re one of you guys!¡± One of the girls said in a panicked manner.
That is exactly what an enemy would say! Yuna turn them into ash!
¡°Wait! Don''t you recognize me Agnis? It''s me! Giana!¡±
Who?
¡°Ugh, why can''t you ever remember my name?!¡±
Ha! Nice try invader! I will not fall for your petty tricks.
I went into battle stance and was about to rush in with my potato peeler when Yuna grabbed me off the floor mid-dash.
¡°Hey, Agnis aren''t those Giana, Noelle, and Yvonne?¡±
Do you know these villains Yuna?
¡°No, silly brother, these girls are the daughters of our high ministers, you''ve met them a couple of times.¡±
Hey, who are these chicks?
I feel like I''ve seen them somewhere before.
¡°What''s wrong with these guys? Why can''t any of you seem to remember us?¡± A girl with brown hair and 4 wolf tails shouted while stomping her foot on the ground, sending small tremors through the ground. ¡°Especially you Raishin after you broke my bracelet not too long ago!¡±
Did such a thing happen?
I don''t know, it sounds like something you¡¯d do though.
Haha, you''re right, remember when I accidentally kicked the ball of that kelpie chick over into the house of Grumpy Garo?
Your ability to get into trouble of yours is truly remarkable. I don''t think there is anyone who could successfully pretend to be you.
Hmm weren''t those chicks at Yuna¡¯s birthday last month?
You sure? I would remember meeting hot chicks like them. Raishin said as he was inspecting the newcomers.
I don''t think you would remember anything that happened more than an hour ago.
Meh, stop roasting me! That''s the job of Yu¡
Yuna throws a mean glare at Raishin and he starts visibly sweating.
¡°Can you guys stop ignoring us?¡± The girl claiming to be Giana said frustrated.
¡°Hey Agnis, you want me to put some healing flames on you? I don''t remember you having this bad of a memory.¡± Yuna said worriedly.
Nah, I''m fine, if I forgot, it probably wasn''t important.
An icicle got sent flying my way from a pissed-off Giana. I could easily dodge it, but I could also see that it had like 0 firepower, so I tanked it like a boss.
¡°What...!¡± A surprised Giana took half a step back.
Wait! I remember! Weren''t these, those chicks that hit like wet noodles?
If I remember correctly Giana has a healer-oriented skillset, Noelle has a tank-oriented skillset, and Yvonne... Ehh hmm, what did you do again Yvonne?
Yvonne shied away behind Noelle.
¡°Stop bullying Yvonne!¡± Noelle said while stomping on the ground and causing more tremors.
¡°Ok, playtime is over¡±, Bob said while drawing our attention. We need to get these kids to the shelter ASAP.
Yes, we have no time to deal with you chicks, we have to get to safety.
¡°Wha¡ but we have the same destination! We will accompany you.¡±
Hmm, I don''t know, we can''t let possible spies into our shelter.
Yuna flicked my head and said that they were allies. I chose to believe Yuna and shut up. This Giana chick however kept glaring at me for no reason. I kept looking around for enemies which tired me out a lot.
Yuna told me to relax, but I couldn''t. The battle in the capital was still going on. From what I could tell this eight-tailed monkey and his team were putting up one hell of a fight. But I could also see that something was off with the energy he was giving off. It was like he was stalling for something and it gave me a really bad vibe. During our walk toward the shelter, a lot of enemies got spotted by me. Our older siblings dispatched them quite easily, but the further away we got from the capital the more frequent the enemy encounters seemed to be which was really concerning.
¡°Eek, his eyes are bleeding!¡± Noelle shouted.
¡°Take a rest, Agnis, we¡¯ll be fine¡±, Yuna assured me. Yuna picked me up and let me piggyback on her. Exhausted, I almost passed out. I didn''t because Yuna covered me with some light golden flames. Because of her temperament, she wasn''t as adept at using this as mom or Xelia, but it did help. We were closing in on the mountain so the shelter should be nearby.
Maaaan, whose bright idea was to build this shelter so far!
¡°Well, most shelters are in the capital but since the whole capital is unsafe, we have to rely on those which are outside the capital¡± Jusay explained.
¡°Yeah, it''s kind of unprecedented that anyone has been able to get near the capital, not even to talk about getting into it and launching a successful attack¡± Bob added.
¡°This all seems like a well-planned attack, which isn''t surprising, Enott Hing was an important member of our society a couple of centuries ago, he knows the city quite well so only he could have pulled something like this off,¡± Yuna said while looking around. I was about to fall asleep when I felt a weird energy tugging at me. I tried not to use my eyes so I tried identifying the energy, but it was unlike anything I''d felt before, or so I thought as I remembered the strange energy, I saw for the first time yesterday and saw quite a lot recently. I tried to connect with it, which was a mistake. I forgot the loud voice talking in an unknown language. My head felt like it was about to split and I fell off Yuna.
The moment I hit the ground it was like for a short moment I got a map of the close by area in my head, indicating everything that was touching the ground. it looked like magic signatures but that wasn''t quite right, it was signatures of this strange energy. Unlike magical signatures which I needed to get used to and remember, these instinctively told me which were allied and which weren¡¯t.
¡°Agnis! Are you ok!¡± Yuna panicked.
Did he get hit in his head?! Enemies? Where are they? Raishin said as he looked around trying to find enemies.
Something like this happened in the underwater cave.
¡°Underwater cave?¡± Yuna asked. I tried to collect myself. I shut down the connection to that energy, which somehow drained my energy even more.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
We¡ need to run. I said weakly.
¡°Are you alright?¡± The Gina? Rian? Reina? Whatever her name was, chick asked.
We¡¯re surrounded.
¡°What?! Impossible!¡± Jusay said when a group of individuals appeared from thin air.
Whoa, where did they come from? This isn''t teleportation!
It looks like our shadow portal but uhm without the shadow, and I guess also without the portal.
So, it doesn''t look like it at all?
Gimme a break, I had a rough day!
Gregory seemed as if he had seen enough water for the day.
¡°Ugh, a dimensional blink¡± Yuna said as she covered me in more light golden flames and protective flames.
¡°What? Isn''t that something only nine-tails and eight-tails can use?¡± The Rina? Lina? Linda? chick asked. The chick with the spirit fox ears and 5 tails out. Why is she so forgettable?
¡°These guys don''t seem to be part of any of them.¡± The stomping girl said. As usual, the shy girl was being shy. What an unbalanced team! As I was thinking why this energy could tell me where enemies would appear while with normal magical means, this was not easy, to nearly impossible, and a battle broke out. I sloppily counted around 22 enemies, I might''ve been off by give or take 5. I¡¯m exhausted ok! Cut me some slack!
¡°Ted! Take the brats and run to the shelter! Jusay, Bob, and I will keep them busy!¡± Yuna stroked my head. ¡°You might want to hide your silver hair from here on out¡±, she said as she applied an illusion to my hair. Yuna blazed up and went steam phoenix mode. She is proficient in combining water with fire and this kind of contributed to the nickname people gave her: Boiling Point Yuna. I don''t know exactly how her steam phoenix mode works but I know it''s helluva strong. Steam explosions are nothing to scoff at. I also totally didn''t try blocking Yuna''s fire attacks once with ice resulting in steam explosions and sending myself flying with minor burns. I would never do something that foolish! Seriously people thinking that ice or water is a good matchup against fire have never fought against anyone competent at using fire. It''s like playing Bomberman but since Yuna is more or less immune to all that stuff it''s a huge disadvantage attempting to use water against her since you will most likely just blow yourself up.
Ice element works but I¡¯m too noob to put up any form of meaningful resistance against my sis if she¡¯s serious. Anyways the explosions I see go off confirm what I just mentioned. The enemies are sending huge volumes of water at sis and she''s just turning it into bombs and blasting them off. Since I''m quite exhausted, I''m getting dragged by Raishin. Of course, in the traditional Torai manner, by grabbing me by the back of my shirt. This Pinda chick keeps asking me if I¡¯m alright. I ignore her and try to estimate how far it is to the shelter but since my head still hurts, I can¡¯t really concentrate.
Ted, how far to the shelter?
Hmm, I don''t really know but I think we¡¯re close.
How do you know that?
Ha! Coz, I told him!
Do I even want to know? Fine, I''ll bite, how do YOU know?
There was a sign pointing this way, which had shelter written on it.
Yeah, that''s a trap.
Definitely a trap.
Yup, a trap.
¡°Then where are we supposed to go?¡± The stomping chick asked.
Beats me, but I suggest we get ready to defend ourselves. I said as I released myself from Raishin¡¯s dragging and mustered some energy.
Hey, Pinda, you¡¯re a healer, right?
¡°And who is that supposed to be?¡± Pinda replied.
Seeing as you responded, means I''m correct, stomping chick, Ted, and Raishin will be in the front, shy chick, and me in the middle, and you and Greg in the back. I suggest we try to limit our tailed powers as much as possible, all the circumstances since we left the capital suggest that we might''ve been a target. If we pretend to be regular kids, we might get lucky I said as I activated my Elgards eyes.
¡°Wait wha¡¡±
Here they come¡!
The first thing I noticed after I activated my eyes was that my hair was black, but not fully. The ends of my hair were still silver. Yuna wasn''t adept at illusions at all, so this was the best she probably could do. I appreciated Yuna¡¯s effort as I heard steam explosions in the distance. Since I don''t know what these chicks can do, I will assume they are dead weight, yet slightly inconvenient for our enemies, which appeared from thin air. Weirdly enough these looked way tougher than the earlier group, there were only 6 of them this time though. I applied double-layered illusions on us all to appear as low-profile snot-nosed brats.
¡°Hey, Jeff I thought Boss said that we would find the brats of the calamity trio here, not only are there six brats here they look... Uhm, bland.¡±
¡°Hey! Who are you calling bland? I''ve been told I''ll be one of the most beautiful women in the capital, next to Hisui when I grow up!¡±
Zip it Pinda, I put an illusion on us to look like regular kids. I whispered to her.
¡°Who are you calling Pinda? And why would you cover up my beauty?¡±
You¡¯re not helping¡
Wow, what an ego. Who is Hisui by the way?
I got shivers down my spine at hearing that name.
That is not important right now, hey stomping chick can you get Pinda to corporate?
''Crack!'' Went the ground as she stomped yet again.
Why are they so moody? Hey Agnis, maybe you should make some ice cream for them, and don''t forget to make it for us too!
Wait this isn''t the time for this we need to get into formation.
¡°I will if this guy would put in the effort to remember my name!¡± Pinda shouted as she rushed at me and started grappling me.
What the¡
I got headlocked by Pinda, Raishin started to argue with the stomping chick.
''Crack, Crack'' went the ground as fissures start to form.
¡°Hey, Jeff look at this we¡¯re getting completely ignored by these brats.¡± An opponent said as he pointed at us.
¡°Yeh, quite vexing,¡± says the bulky guy with a green afro and pink star-shaped sunglasses, which got referred to as Jeff.
¡°I think we just capture these random brats and sell them to the slave market for some pocket money. Our goal is to find the empress¡¯ and her associates¡¯ brats. The description of these brats is quite colorful, how come we didn''t find them yet Hubert?¡± Jeff shouted at a tall, thin guy with long black hair covering half his face.
¡°Uhh... um... I¡I... I¡¯m sure they...they should pass here soo... Soon.¡± Hubert said, shivering like crazy.
¡°I knew it! your idea to put down a sign was stupid!¡± a fourth person said to the first guy. ¡°Your ideas always stink Unog.¡±
¡°Wow, and trying to kidnap them out of the palace under the watchful eyes of their mothers was a better idea?!¡± Unog returned to the fourth guy.
¡°Aight silence y''all!¡± Jeff bellowed. ¡°We¡¯re doing the same thing as those brats now.¡± As he looked at the location we were when they appeared we were not there anymore because we legged it. "Damn, these brats!"
¡°So where are we running to?¡± Pinda asked me.
I see a cave structure up ahead; I don''t know if it''s the shelter but it should give us more cover.
Pinda kept asking me questions but I tuned out because my eyes and head started to hurt and exhaustion was catching up on me again, not only that Raishin, Gregory, and Ted started to become tired too.
¡°You guys have no stamina!¡± Stomping chick said mockingly, as we started to lag behind.
Hey, we had a rough day!
Don''t bother Raishin.
But!
I nodded my head at Raishin. He reluctantly gave in. I got some paper out of my dimensional pocket and drew a map of the cave system on it. A notable thing I noticed about this cave system was that it exited at the edge of this dimension. It would end up in the regular dimension where all the humans and more common races lived. I looked at the map I drew and acknowledged that it was a truly shitty drawn map. Anyone who could navigate with this is probably a genius. I grabbed another piece of paper and imprinted the image I had of the cave system in my head onto the paper with magic. I looked at it and was satisfied. I pressed the map into Pinda¡¯s hands.
We will only slow you down, we''re quite exhausted. Here is a map of the cave system, go on ahead, we will throw our pursuers off and catch up later.
¡°But¡¡±
Just go!
Pinda and her group looked at us reluctantly and then ran off.
Very cool mister, so what is the plan?
Good question, my head and eyes hurt so I¡¯ll delegate this responsibility to Greg, good luck Greg!
What the... Fine, let''s see.
How about we just kick their asses!
Hmmm. Hmmm Hmmm.
We didn''t have much time to think of anything since the 6 goons showed up.
¡°Look, Jeff, they split up. I bet they got into an argument and separated from the chicks.¡±
¡°Dammit!¡± The 4th guy said, ¡°Those chicks would probably fetch more on the slave trade.¡± The 2 goons that didn''t say anything yet and which I''ll call guy 5 and guy 6 rushed at us. Raishin was about to imbue himself with lightning to counter the rush but I stopped him.
Wha?
Try not to give your identity away.
Ted intercepted the two guys by low-kicking guy 5 and body-blocking guy 6.
"This kid is strong." I remembered words from Xelia about circulating magic in a certain way to be still able to fight when exhausted. I tried this but using magic again made me nauseous. I was confused, I used magic when peeling potatoes and I was fine. Also using ice didn''t give me any issues. I subtly tried to use lightning but the nausea persisted and I got a nasty feeling like bugs were crawling through my veins. At last, I tried my ice element but that didn''t seem to not make me nauseous. I really should work out the reason for this but now is not the time. Maybe because the ice element belongs to lost magic. Anyways ice element has a free water affinity attached so this should be fine.
I started blowing bubbles that would intercept collision-triggered magic and I made the floor slippery and started chucking icicles. The goons surprised by the sudden disruption started slipping all around and their magic hit my bubbles, meaning it didn''t hit any of my allies. Ted started going all kung fu war bear on goons 5 and 6 while Gregory started casting a curse but I saw him emptying his stomach shortly after. Seems he has the same problem as me. Meanwhile, Raishin was just looking around in nearby shrubbery.
Ugh, I thought this nausea caused by magic usage was temporary.
Yoo, I could use some help here, Raishin what are you doing?!
Found it! Raishin exclaimed while triumphantly holding up a thick stick about 1.20 meters long
A stick?
A bo staff!
Ahhh.
Raishin smacked Hubert who was casting suspicious-looking magic. The first guy I forgot the name of tried hitting Raishin from behind but I made him slip. Greg, you, ok? Yeah, without magic, I don''t have any options like you guys though.
That''s fine, I''ll just keep making these goons slip. Why don''t you grab a stick too and I don''t know, attach a rock to it and bonk them on their heads?
Sure, can do. As Gregory went to craft his equipment, I continued intercepting magic with bubbles, keep slipping goons, and send blasts of water and icicles toward them.
¡°Jeff, we can''t land any hits on these brats!¡±
¡°Focus on that water user then!¡± Jeff shouted as he got chain slipped and his pants frozen by me. As he finally got up, he got bonked on his head by Gregory and his shitty improvised hammer. ¡°Hah, wrong target kid! My beautiful afro makes me immune to head bonks!¡± I could see the panic on Gregory''s face as his bonk was unsuccessful and Jeff was preparing a fireball.
Greg! Get out of there! You''ll get toasted!
can''t! My hammer is stuck in his afro!
Just let it go!
No, I spent so much effort crafting this!
Really, just let go!
Shit, it''s too late he won''t make it in time now.
Of us four, Gregory was the slowest. As 2 goons rushed at me to stop me from disrupting them, I decided to show off my speed. I normally play an offensive support role but my strength lies in my speed. I made ice tracks and ramps, skated past the goons rushing at me, freezing their feet to the floor, slid towards Jeff, and kicked his arm, which was casting the fireball, up in the air, making him shoot the fireball to the sky. I picked up Gregory and placed him at the back of the battle. This all happened within about 5 seconds, and all the goons were shocked at the speed I demonstrated.
¡°Yoo Jeff, how are we supposed to take that guy out if he moves like that?¡±
¡°Shut up! I don''t know!¡± Jeff shouted as he was fixing his dented afro.
Whoa, I forgot you could do that.
Yeah, although making sure no enemy can move so he doesn''t need to is also a valid strategy.
But this is way cooler! Raishin said while knocking out Hubert and goon number 4 with his stick ehh I mean bo staff.
How does it feel to pass out from my stick?!
Could you please not say it like that?
These 2 goons are quite in a stick-y situation!
I speed-blitzed goon number 1 and froze him solid leaving only Jeff and goon numbers 5 and 6.
¡°What is up with y''all brats?¡± Jeff shouted as he finally fixed his afro and was defending himself from Gregory who decided to go for Jeff''s kneecaps. Ted knocked goon 5 over towards Gregory who bonked him on the head mid-flight and knocked him out.
Give up Jeff, you''re outnumbered!
I always wanted to say that.
¡°Hah! Do you think so?! Reinforcements are coming, it won''t be a 4v1 for long!¡±
¡°Uhm I''m still here,¡± said goon 6 as he was trying his best to not get locked into a combo by Ted.
¡°I will always remember the great times we had,¡± Jeff said as a single tear appeared from behind his sunglasses.
¡°Hey, don''t kill us off yet!¡± Goon 6 said. As he lost focus, he got locked in one of Ted''s martial arts combos and knocked out.
So, these reinforcements of yours. Gregory huffed as he swung his shitty hammer at Jeff''s kneecaps.
How would they even know where you are?
"Haha, I''m glad you asked! I sent a signal of course!" Gregory, Raishin, and Ted looked at me and I shook my head indicating that I didn''t see any magic traces of anything like covert signalling.
So, you were secretly contacting allies while pretending to fix your afro?
"Whud? No, I''m just a normal guy, that fireball that got shot in the air should be sufficient.¡± Gregory, Raishin, and Ted glared at me and I broke out in cold sweat.
Come on guys I made the best out of the situation, or else we''d have a fried cat!
Raishin and Ted glared at Gregory.
Ahaha yeah this might be on me.
He nervously laughed.
¡°You guys look bland but are quite strong, will make some good bucks at the slave trade. So be good lads and stay here till my reinforcements arrive.¡± Jeff said as he sat down cross-legged, fetched an afro pick, and started combing his afro. At these words, we started to become restless. The three chicks flashed through my mind. They were annoying, yes but they were also quite attractive and would probably have a worse time as slaves than we would. I normally am not very pessimistic but our mothers are still locked in battle, and so are our older siblings, since it seems their enemies¡¯ got reinforcements. And I saw 3 individuals approaching which seemed to be quite strong. I telepathically relayed this to my buddies.
I quickly layered a third layer of illusions on us and this is where the time started ticking. Normally I could keep this up for 5 minutes but since I''m quite exhausted I would be surprised if I could manage 3 minutes. I notified my allies about the strict time limit and suggested we use it to try and get back to our siblings. As my buddies headed toward the direction our siblings were fighting, I ran in the opposite direction.
Agnis, what are you doing?
I''m going to seal the cave entrance so the three chicks won''t get caught.
But what about you?!
I''ll use a long-range teleport to get back to you guys.
Wait, you haven''t succeeded in any long-range teleports at all ever, right?!
It is fine, I will manage this time.
I wasn''t sure if I could pull it off. It is possible to teleport multiple people with it but since I can''t even teleport myself that would''ve been a tall order. I decided that I would put more effort into this in the future. 1 minute passed and I dashed towards the cave entrance, fatigue building up and the strain of layering 3 illusions and using my Elgards eyes continuously eating at my body. I arrived at the cave entrance and used my ice element to block it completely. Ice element can absorb any heat, energy, and magic-based phenomena and turn them into magic which flows into the ice element user. This makes ice element quite anti-magic since it drains magic in its vicinity and it also never melts. Only other types of lost magic, special tools, or the caster himself can affect ice element after it has frozen something. With this, the chicks can''t be caught, but also can''t leave via this entrance. My mother or I could remove it when it is safe so it should be no issue.
I have about 1 minute left to get back to my siblings but honestly, I''m extremely exhausted. The magic that flowed into me from the cave blockade was useful but attempting long-range teleport in my current state might actually kill me. I started dashing back. For others, this might have been a still decent speed but for me it was slow. Too slow for my current situation. I was halfway through the distance I needed when the bleeding in my eyes became so much that I could barely see. On top of that, my internal clock said I had 23 seconds left till the 3-minute mark. I hoped I would get hit by the backlash at the 5-minute mark so I could cancel it prematurely to not get screwed over. But the last thing I saw was that 2 of the 3 strong individuals were close to my buddies, and the other one seemed to have gone to the cave. If I dropped the illusion now, I would screw over my buddies. Now you would think, just drop the third layer and you will be fine!
Well, first things, 3 layers are standard for deceiving opponents that are not specialized in illusions, 2 can be sufficient but it''s a huge gamble, 5 or 6 layers are used against illusion users, and 10 or more against master illusionists. I am a noob at everything so 3 is the best I can do for a short period. Now about just removing 1 layer¡ It is hard. Not because I am a noob but because it is hard. Illusions are like sticky paper. It is easy to add layers. But if you want to remove layers it is hard to peel just 1. You are more likely to peel off 2 or all. The more proficient the illusionist, the higher chance he has of succeeding but the success rate never seems to exceed 85% even for the most skilled illusionist. 3 seconds left to the 3-minute mark. I am still nowhere near my buds or siblings. I might not make it. 11 seconds past the 3-minute mark I got hit by a tsunami of exhaustion and the backlash. A metal taste filled my mouth and blood flowed out of my nose. And that is where I collapsed. I don''t think I will make it. Thank you for reading but this is where my story ends.
Ch 5: Captured
Or so I thought. I woke up in what felt like a cart judging from how it moved. My hands and feet were shackled. He''s awake! I reacted to Raishin''s smiling mug who was a bit too close.
Never thought I''d be happy to hear your voice. What happened?
After your illusion dropped, we got found pretty easily. But I didn''t know you were this good at illusions, only the last layer disappeared, but somehow you managed to keep the other 2 layers up after you collapsed. Gregory said as he was leaning against the side of the cart and peeling a potato.
Don''t count on that in the future, I have no clue how I managed that. Are you guys alright?
Ted had a worrisome look an his face. he seemed roughed up but it looks that whatever did damage to him had happened quite a while ago.
Are you kidding me? You''re the one who almost died, we just got captured, quite easily sadly.
Yeah, weirdly that Jeff guy helped out quite a bit, they wanted to let you bleed out and die but he convinced his reinforcements that you were probably the strongest out of us 4, so they healed you up. But man those 2 new guys were strong; it was like they were taking candy from babies.
Well, we don''t have any combat experience so we might as well be. Anyways, my eyes hurt like hell so I''m keeping them closed, what is the situation?
Hmm well, it has been 2 days since we got captured, we were being transported in a cart. There are no other kids since this seems to be the only cart that has cargo, which is us.
We''re in the regular dimension where the humans live now. I don''t know if you can feel it but our home is gone.
Gone? Yeah, it got swallowed up in a dimensional rift or something.
I could feel that the mood was heavy.
I hope everyone there is okay¡
They must be! Nobody ever has gotten the best out of our mothers! And even besides them, we have a lot of strong races that defend our city. They will be fine! Right?...
I hope so¡
No use in thinking about what we can''t change! We should focus on getting out of this and getting back home!
Even though this optimism is a little misplaced looking at the situation, he is right. Even if we were in the capital, we¡¯d be too weak to even have an impact on the fight. All we can do is believe that our mothers keep everyone safe and focus on getting out of this mess.
Ted slapped his cheeks and seemed to get out of his somber mood.
You guys surely are positive, I can''t afford to stay down when you guys are already looking forward.
I suggest we just reflect for a while on what happened and after that start thinking of how to get out of this mess.
Good idea!
¡°These brats sure turned out lively!¡± A voice said from the front of the cart. An old wrinkly light brown face appeared, peered at us, and said: Seems the other kid woke up. Just in time! We''re about to reach our destination in under a day! I opened my eyes and looked around. We were in a covered cart that hid us from the outside. It was quite dark and the only things with me in the cart were my buddies and some potatoes.
Great, the first thing I see when I wake up are potatoes¡
Yeah, maybe it was a good thing you were knocked out for two days because the only thing we got to eat was potatoes.
I shuddered and tried to not think of potatoes.
So, uh we¡¯re gonna get sold as slaves, right? What¡¯s the plan? We bust out and escape?
Hmm, that''s a good question. I don''t know about you guys but I haven''t fully recovered and we don''t know what kind of strong characters will be out there.
So what? Do we just get sold off?
I don''t think there is any good answer here but the fact is we will probably get separated there.
Hmm, I don''t like that at all.
Yeah, me neither.
Hmm, what are our options? I don''t think asking them will be effective.
Hmm.
What''s up Agnis? Gregory asked with a curious look.
If I remember correctly, nine-tail spirit foxes have an ability to probability manipulation and it could be used to raise the chances of us ending up together but I have no clue how to use it.
How about we run simulations?
Whud?
Hmm, we can let our tails run simulations about events in the near future or about perfecting magic. It does cost quite some energy though¡
Well, luckily, we have a six-tailed lightning tiger that can make energy out of thin air.
We all looked at Raishin.
What?
Hmm ok, won''t it become painfully obvious if you guys suddenly go all-tailed beast mode? Hmm good point, Raishin, can you summon thunderclouds? In response to that, I will cover our area in a shroud of darkness which will make the situation quite shitty to travel in. We can also use the darkness as a veil to lessen the burden on Agnis Illusion so that we can pull this off.
Can we use this to escape? Hmmm, I looked around a bit and the 3 guys sitting in front of the cart are about as strong as the guys who caught you guys. If we try to escape, we might get in trouble, but if we are just being quiet, we might get lucky. Raishin, did you already forgot how you tried to escape a day ago and they caught you quite easily?
That one doesn''t count! How am I supposed to successfully escape with a potato-only diet? By the way, can you peel some potatoes for me? Hell no!
What kind of answer did you even expect? Gregory sighed.
Raishin started summoning thunderclouds and Gregory made a veil of darkness descend accompanying the thunderstorm. What the! One of the men in front said. That is quite a sudden storm. Shit! I was hoping to arrive in Jubra city today. Said another man. It can''t be helped, just make sure the brats don''t try to escape again. The cart went on for a bit and then stopped. It was storming right now and the visibility was poor. We got dragged out of the cart and put in a structure that seemed to be freshly made from earth magic. Luckily the men made their structure some distance from ours. They were probably confident that they could deal with whatever we would try to attempt. Which was fine by me because this gave us the opportunity.
Ok, so the plan is to reduce the burden on Agnis as much as possible since he was kind of carrying us hard during our escape. Raishin, you make the energy, I manipulate it and make it compatible with Agnis and then move it to him, and Agnis does simulations to try that probability manipulation thing.
What about me? Ted said as he pointed at himself.
Maybe you could distract those guys, how about you just walk around, and look around a bit suspiciously, it is dark but they will notice and keep an eye on you.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Ugh, decoy, eh? Fine. Won''t they notice a massive amount of energy?
It will be fine, I will catch the excess energy and bank it in my shadow, no energy will make it past this hut for them to feel.
I am surprised, I thought all of you guys were good for making pranks and causing trouble, but look at you guys! Being competent!
Zip it, Ted, I need to concentrate!
Yeah, go get caught by those men!
Raishin our plan doesn''t involve Ted getting caught we''re trying to escape¡
I still don''t understand why we can''t use this to escape.
How about after my simulations are successful, we try to escape? Won''t hurt to try.
Yes! Aight I''ll start producing some energy then! The more the better right?
Please keep it reasonable, if you make too much too fast, they will notice and even our escape plan will fail!
Fine!
Raishin said as he pouted.
We started up our plan and everything seemed to proceed smoothly. All the energy Raishin created, got converted and sent to me by Gregory, and the little excess got banked in his shadow. Something shadow cats can do well is manipulating and storing energy, they tend to use shadows for almost anything so it wouldn''t be surprising if they stored energy in their shadows. I don''t know what they will do with it but I guess I will find out one day. They also seem to have the ability to flip alignments and attributes. I heard a story of Nadila fighting an individual with an insane magical and physical defense that was impossible to bring down, and she flipped his defense to offense and one-shot him. If you ask me that sounds very overpowered but I guess we all have some overpowered traits from our races. I don''t think Gregory has mastered this yet or even attempted it. Anyway, I started running some simulations in 3 of my tails. I spent the first half hour trying to simulate how to even use this ability and then started trying to use it in my simulations. After 3 hours I started to get the hang of it but time was running out because the thunderstorm was subsiding and to not make it suspicious Gregory had to gradually reduce the darkness with it. After getting some half-satisfactory results I signaled the guys to stop.
Did you get something?
Hmm not really, I have a good grasp on how to use it but the best I can do is probably add about 20% on top of the percentage we have to end up together. And yet again this is a skill that takes a lot of energy so if I could get some of that energy, you banked just now when attempting it that would be a great help.
Sure.
It''s escaping time! Raishin was about to dash out but I grabbed his shirt and pulled him back.
How about we make something resembling a plan before we run out and get instantly caught?
Meh.
You can slow those guys down with shadow manipulation right Greg?
Yeah, but my crowd control isn''t as effective as yours.
That is fine, you just need to slow them down temporarily.
What is the plan?
It is very simple, but it depends on how well you can match my speed, Raishin.
Oh shit, I can match it but not for too long, you¡¯re crazy fast.
How does 10 minutes sound?
Ugh, this is going to suck for me but I guess I have no choice.
The plan is simple, Greg slows those men down a bit, you grab Ted, I grab Greg and we dash off, I¡¯m going to make ice slides and ice ramps to augment our speed and to hinder the men when they pursue us.
So, what happens after 10 minutes?
I will probably be able to break my shackles by then and will be able to carry you as well
Ooh smart. I like the Idea, it''s simple enough for Raishin to understand and the only thing that could go wrong is those men being able to catch up.
I rechecked the status of the 2 illusion layers I had on us from the beginning. Made some tweaks and gave the ready sign. The plan commenced, and we casually walked out of the structure. It was clear skies by now and the men were getting ready to resume the trip. Gregory applied the shadow bind, while they were standing still so that they would only notice when they would try to move.
Raishin grabbed Ted from behind his shirt.
What the¡
I piggybacked Greg and we dashed off. The three men stood still for about a couple of seconds in surprise after which they tried to move but were struggling. They broke free in 3 seconds but those added to our head start I gotta tell you, it is hard to move fast with your hands and feet chained together. I had to use shorter steps but still try to keep up the speed I wanted to reach. It was also hard to balance with my hands chained and Gregory on my back. Gregory was trying to make sure the chain on his handcuffs didn''t choke me because it wasn''t easy for him to hold on either. I looked at Raishin and he seemed to have the same problem running but his hands were free.
What the fuck Raishin, why are your hands free?
Oh, this? Haha, I forgot that I broke out of them when I was generating energy.
Both Gregory and I were speechless. I decided to ignore this and started making ice trails and ice ramps to aid our escape. The men were hot on our tails but the ice I left behind seemed to hinder them quite a bit. It seemed like our plan would be a success because the distance between us and the men started to increase and Gregory was feeding me energy to speed me up... And then Raishin tripped. It was one ugly fall. I don''t blame him because the leg shackles were a real pain in the ass but this couldn''t come at a worse time. I went back to help Raishin up but the men caught up in the meantime. The men quickly overpowered us and put anti-magic shackles on us.
Jubra city, a city of welfare and commerce, there were markets, stores, merchants, and carts carrying various goods and stuff everywhere. Also, what we saw were slaves. They were recognizable by a magic circle with a chain icon floating on the right side of their necks. It was kind of hard to miss. The chain came in 3 colors, Red, Blue, and Green but I didn''t know what that meant. We were brought to a big square where the slave trading was held just out in the open. Due to the uncomfortable atmosphere and series of events there, I will quickly summarize what happened. There were about 200 slaves sold there and we were one of the last to put them on display. I ran my probability manipulation technique but I had no idea if it worked. Raishin tried yet again to escape and got captured almost instantly. We got sold for 1 gold each by a group of men who seemed to be well acquainted.
We didn''t get sold to the same person but it seems these 4 men knew each other well so I could say it could be worse. The man who bought me seemed to be a blacksmith and needed help in his workshop, Raishin got bought by a hunter, Gregory got bought by an alchemist who needed an assistant, and Ted by a martial artist who seemed to be unable to get any disciples. All our slave marks were green except Ted¡¯s which was red. My hypothesis was the nature of the master-slave relation, we three were bought to help out with something while Ted wasn''t. But I didn''t have enough information to say for sure. The men who bought us were quite nice but we all were in a bad mood obviously so we didn''t want to associate with them. We got transported to their hometown in yet another cart. It seems that the strong desire to escape and acting on this desire by trying to flee sets off the slave mark and binds you and notifies your owner where you are, quite the pain in the ass.
The journey to their hometown would take five days. The scenery here was very different from Jubra city. Jubra city was on a plain but we were going through a mountainous area. Raishin, trying to look at the scenery, fell out of the cart and almost fell to his death. Luckily, I was fast enough to save him. The men were quite talkative and even though we still tried to associate as minimally as possible, we realized we were stuck with them for an undefined amount of time so at least Gregory and I tried to start building a friendly relationship with our owners. Mine was called Phillip and it seems he had a son who would''ve been about my age but his son got mauled by a bear. Gregory¡¯s owner was called Pietro and it seems all his assistants were clumsy or had low intelligence. When slaves are sold some magic shows some traits of the slaves. Observant and accurate seemed to be mine, intelligent and studious seemed those of Gregory. I assume those of Raishin and Ted were some that made their owners buy them. On the fifth day, we arrived at Boshi town, their hometown. It was protected by a light purplish barrier that spanned over the whole town. It was invisible until something passed through it when you could for a split second see it appear and then disappear. It seems it doesn''t let anyone through and some procedures were done by some customs-looking process. I got curious about how and what but I didn''t get any answers.
The town looked like a slightly old town; it didn''t seem to lag much behind in time despite how remote it was. At least from what I can tell, I compared it to Jubra city and Nadila capital. There seemed to be a lot of devices running on magic that I hadn''t seen in Nadila, Jubra was full of it and Boshi town seemed to have them too. We realized that we knew nothing of this regular dimension of life. But I guess we will find out how too soon.
I wondered how long I had to keep up these illusions. It was draining. I decided to do something possibly very stupid. Before we split up to go and check where we would be working, I told Philip that I was hiding our appearance with illusions and that I''m gonna lift it. Which I did. Raishin was shocked of course but Ted and Gregory understood why I did this. The men were slightly surprised; besides Philip, it seems they made a bet about who could buy the best slave and it seems he won since he bought one who could use illusions. Besides that, they didn''t care too much, they were even happy that we didn''t look so bland anymore and that they got a good deal getting us relatively cheap. I found this inappropriate but I just went with it. These men didn''t seem to live too far from each other so it would''ve been easy for us to meet up in breaks if we wanted to. I started my life as a blacksmith apprentice and got taught all there was to know about blacksmithing and forging, Philip''s wife was into clothing making, or whatever term describes that. So occasionally I also got subjected to weaving stuff. It wasn''t too bad and my speed and precision made it a piece of cake. Raishin started to be the hunters'' sidekick. He seemed to enjoy it.
Gregory seemed to be a good match with alchemy and he even helped Pietro with a breakthrough in his alchemy research. Ted was ehh, happy I guess, he could keep punching stuff and he learned various types of martial arts. He was the only one who left the village to compete with his master in some tournaments. In our free time, he taught us martial arts since he seemed to be passionate about it. I and Raishin were quite interested in it but Gregory would have none of that. We still had plans of escaping slavery even though our lifestyle didn''t turn out to be that bad and our owners were genuinely nice people. We got a lot of freedom and of course, we abused it. We started gathering as much knowledge as we could, we also practiced our magic and trained in martial arts, besides Gregory, and in general, we tried getting stronger. We didn''t reveal that we were tailed beasts or anything. Any tailed beast can hide their ears and tails as a basic skill, even Ted could hide his ears and tail easily. I still had to apply an illusion on my hair though. But in remembrance of Yuna¡¯s deed to protect us I didn''t make it fully black but kept the ends of my hair silver. While living this new lifestyle but still making plans to escape, five years passed.