Chapter 16: Chapter 16 - Interrogation and Hunt
Quick Note: I see a lot of people questioning the MC's intelligence and you are right he has and is making mistakes. Mistakes that he will learn from. This is his first experience with someone like her. It may seem like things are going down a very bad road but trust me by chapter 18 I think everyone will be happy. I ask that you be patient and understand that our MC isn't perfect, not yet at least.
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"I apologize for Allard's behavior," the queen said when we were alone in the tent. "He and I... have an odd history." An odd history? Up until this moment, I had thought that he didn't like me because I was an outsider of something, but perhaps he was... jealous? Every time the queen had paid any attention to me or complimented me, he had scowled or reacted badly.
"What sort of history," I replied. "He seemed jealous of the attention you were giving me."
She nodded at my words, "Let's just say that he has made several advances towards me and that I have rejected them all, and not just because he is a commoner, but because I have no vested interest in him. He is fairly strong and useful, but that's it." The words were spoken casually and I imagined the look on Allard's face if he had been here. The man would most likely have found a way to blame me for Adarra's views.
"Nathan?" the queen said, and I quickly shook the thoughts away and focused back on her.
"You want something," Adarra said. "Something from me, correct?" My mind blanked for a few seconds and I opened and closed my mouth a few times, searching for a response. Should I say the truth, or lie? How does she even know I want something from her? She hadn't said it as an accusation or in an angry tone, so I didn't think she was mad, but there was a familiar pressure to her words. After a few more seconds of thinking, I decided to go with the truth. I needed to earn some level of trust with her if I wanted to complete my quest.
"Yes, but it's probably not what your thinking," I answered. I didn't know what she was thinking, but I doubted it was me wanting to get into the meeting. Adarra was silent for a long moment in which I worried that I had said the wrong thing, but then a smile spread across her face and she rested her chin on the top of both of her hands. I was really starting to think the queen was either bipolar or just liked putting me off-balance.
"You're an enigma, Nathan," she said. "I don't understand you, and I hate not understanding." I felt the pressure increase slightly and a predatory glint appeared in her eyes. I focused on my breathing and prepared to use my summons to escape if she became hostile. I didn't know what my chances were, but I wasn't just gonna roll over and die. Although I didn't think that she had dressed me up and invited me for a meal just to kill me afterward.
I waited but nothing happened, and the pressure lifted a second later. "But I also love figuring out mysteries and more so, people." She leaned back in her chair and raised a hand, palm up. A small ball of silver tinged wind appeared above it. It made a whistling sound and even though it looked only slightly bigger than an egg, I still felt the breeze from where I was sat.
"My beast affinity and praxis are partially to blame for that," she said in a nostalgic voice. "But my mother is the main reason." She didn't move, but the ball of wind swiftly moved around her in a circle before returning to her palm and winking out.
My mind whirled and tried to process what she had said, but I knew little about beast affinities and I had no idea what a praxis was, so I filled all of the information away for later. Instead, I chose that moment to speak up and ask a question.
"Why do you think I'm interesting?" I asked in a curious, yet respectful voice. "I mean apart from my beast and other... gifts."
Apparently, that was the wrong question.
Something changed in the air, and the room suddenly felt a lot colder. The candle flames winked out one by one, leaving only the blue balls of magic light, which cast the room in an eery glow. An ominous feeling washed over me and I felt my instincts screaming danger. Adarra's smile grew sinister and she gazed into my eyes with the same intensity as she had when I had first met her. I held that gaze for along as I could but eventually was forced to lower my eyes. An unfamiliar feeling appeared then.
"No mana, or kor," she replied in a cold voice, her sultry and seductive tone gone. "I can't sense a drop of mana or kor in you. A novice or less skilled person may assume that you are concealing it, but I am no novice, and I am certainly skilled." She gracefully rose from her chair, the movement smooth and beautiful, she slowly walked closer to me, brushing her hand across the table as she did. I felt my heart rate increase and a small bead of sweat appeared on my forehead. An interrogation, I realized as she stalked closer to me. This was more or less an interrogation on her part, and she was playing the role of good cop and bad cop. I was also keenly aware of my lack of physical strength and power. Adarra could probably easily kill me if she wanted to, but I had to rely on my summons, which wasn't a bad thing, but it made situations like this harder for me because I held no power in this conversation at all. The unfamiliar feeling became clear then. Weakness. It bubbled up inside me and felt... constricting and... heavy.
"I know that you are no Mage or Kord, which should make you weak, but, "she said, reaching me and placing a hand on my chin, lifting my head to meet her gaze. "My instincts are telling me that your dangerous, and powerful." She moved her face closer to me, and I focused on staying as calm as possible because despite what I was feeling, she hadn't attacked me. We stayed like that for several long minutes, her eyes examining me, and I desperately trying to push away the fear and weakness I felt, before she let go of my chin, and moved her face away.
As she walked away from me, I summoned up every bit of willpower I had and pushed away the fear and weakness I felt. The pressure and ominous feeling slowly vanished, and my instincts calmed as I let out a gigantic breath of air, that I hadn't known I had been holding, and slumped in my chair. I cannot stand this, I thought to myself, she's like a hawk, beautiful, but deadly, and I feel so... powerless against her.
"I won't force you to tell me your secrets," she said, her voice now back to her sultry tone. "I shall instead, wait and see your power for myself."
I nodded and focused inwards. My mind was still in disarray and I pushed at the remaining weakness and fear I was feeling. It took me longer than I wanted because the thoughts of my lack of personal power kept reappearing, but I finally managed to push it all away. Perhaps I was weak now, but it wouldn't stay that way. I had the system, and from what Eden had told me, I had yet to even glimpse its full power. I could- No! - I would level up, and pass the likes of Adarra in power.
I moved my gaze to her and opened my mouth to speak when a soldier ran into the tent.
"My queen, a large pack of spiked pesters has been spotted on the south edge of the camp," he said, shooting a glance at me before focusing back on the queen.
Adarra looked unbothered and slightly annoyed, "Why have you come to me with this news? Have Gisela or Allard take care of it." It was a clear dismissal but the soldier didn't leave.
"An alpha is among them," he replied in a fearful tone, looking nervous.
Adara's eyes suddenly lit up and she smiled at the soldier, "Well why didn't you just began with that," she said cheerfully and turned to me. "Come Nathan, this is the perfect chance to show me some of your power." Once again I was slightly unnerved at how she kept changing how she acted but I nodded nonetheless. It sounded to me like free exp and a potential level up, that wasn't something I was gonna pass up. Not to mention the way the soldier had spoken about the alpha had got me curious.
Adarra quickly left the tent and I hastened to follow. Every person we passed bowed low when Adarra walked passed and I noticed that a lot of the men's eyes lingered on her figure and assets. I honestly couldn't blame them, Adarra was a beauty and I might find her even more attractive if her personality wasn't so... odd. I snorted at that, I might as well have said that the ocean isn't deep because Adarra was more than just odd, she was scary and unnerving. It didn't take long for us to reach the south edge of the camp, where to my dismay, Allard and Aldith were waiting. I stifled a groan when Allard immediately shot me a glare. The guy was like a jealous boyfriend, who wasn't actually a boyfriend. Ok, that sounded stupid, but the point still stood.
"We've killed some that have dared to approach, but the alpha hasn't shown its face yet," Aldith said. "We believe it's waiting for the right moment."
As Aldith informed the queen of the situation, I stared into the dark trees. There were balls of magic light near the tree's edge and It took me a moment, but eventually, I was able to spot shapes moving through the darkness. I took a step closer and one of the shapes came closer to one of the lights. To my surprise I recognized the beast immediately, it was the same creature that I saved Ivan and his group from. "So these are called spiked pesters, huh?" The black and grey beast growled at me and moved back into the tree brush. They're not attacking, I thought, what are they waiting for?
"Nathan," Adarra called to me, and I walked over to her. "Aldith is going to attract the Alpha to us, and you're going to deal with it." I wanted to ask how she would do such a thing but held myself back. It didn't matter and I didn't object. I would need to do this to get closer to the queen. If I just refused her then she would either get pissed off and attack me or force me to leave, neither of which would be good. The quest rewards appeared in my mind and I firmed my resolve, it would be worth it in the end.
There was a sudden howl and I turned to see the shapes moving forward and out of the forest. We backed up a little as a larger shape appeared in the trees. The pesters were out in the open now, but they didn't attack, instead, they all howled into the sky and turned their heads to the large shape. The shape slowly walked forward and my eyes widened slightly when it stepped out from the tree's edge. It was exactly the same as all of the other pester, except this one was 4 times as large and looked 10 times more ferocious. Saliva dripped from its maw as its yellow eyes moved from one of us to the other until they finally landed on me.
I looked around with a start and noticed that Adarra and the others had backed up even further, leaving me alone and closer to the pester. Adarra was smiling at me as usual, Aldith looked stoic and unbothered, and Allard as I had expected was glaring at me, although he did seem eager to see me fight, he was probably hoping I'd die. Well screw him, I thought as I turned away from them and focused back on what I presumed was the Alpha.
I didn't know when it would attack so I quickly thought about who to summon. I didn't want to summon everyone, as I didn't want to reveal all my cards, but I also wanted to show off a little. I could just summon Rath, I thought, then shook the idea away. They had already seen Rath, and I had the feeling Adarra was expecting something different. With that thought in mind, I summoned the person I thought would do good for this occasion.
Zombieman appeared in front of me and immediately noticed the beast in front of him. He shot a quick glance at me, and I nodded, sending him the mental command to attack. The Alphas eyes had moved to my summon and he growled. A long-bearded axe appeared in Zombieman's hands and he took a single step forward. That was all it took. The alpha roared and charged at Zombieman, crashing into him and tearing him apart with tooth and claw. Blood and guts spread across the ground and the alpha grabbed Zombieman in his mouth, shaking him and then throwing him to the side. He let out a triumphant roar and turned his eyes to me. I thought I could see the pleasure in them as he took a step towards me.
I didn't move an inch, instead, I smiled, as Zombieman, looking completely unharmed, drove his axe into the alpha's side. The alpha let out a pained howl and turned to swipe at Zombieman. The swipe took Zombiemans head off, but a moment later it was back and Zombieman was driving his axe back into the beast. It continued like that for several minutes. The alpha attacking and attacking, and Zombieman just taking it all and dishing back just as much. The alpha was bloody and had wounds and cuts all over his body now, and his right foreleg looked to be barely functioning. Zombieman unsummoned his axe and two desert eagles replaced the weapon. I covered my ears as the loud shots rang out, and tore bloody holes into the alpha. The shooting stopped, and a moment later the alpha fell to the ground, dead. There was complete silence for a few seconds before the other pesters howled and ran back into the trees.
[Congratulations! You have Leveled up! You are now Level 4]
[Reward: Summoning Token]
[Congratulations! Zombieman has Leveled up! Zombieman is now Level 2]
My smile was wide as Zombieman unsummoned his guns and took a cigarette and lighter from his coat pocket. Unlike last time, I didn't feel the urge to vomit at all, instead, I felt really happy. I called out a thanks to Zombieman before sending him back to storage and turning to Adarra. I couldn't keep my smile from growing when I spotted the expressions on everyone's faces.
Adarra looked extremely pleased and was nodding in clear approval, which eased my worries and got me one step closer to completing my quest. Aldith and the soldiers that had also been watching looked shocked and slightly disturbed, which was understandable. The best reaction however was from Allard who had his mouth completely open and his eyes as wide as saucers. I held back the urge to rub my summons victory and my continued living In his face.
"We start our march tomorrow in the morning and if our fortune is good, we will reach the capital by mid-afternoon," said Adarra, sending me a wink that made me shiver instead of blush. "Get some rest."
With those words said, she turned and began walking back to the camp, trailed by Aldith and Allard, who sent one last glare at me. I spent a few moments longer basking in my victory before I too headed back into camp.
Today had been a challenge, but I had gotten through it, and not only had I leveled up, but I was also one step closer to completing my quest.
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