The next day word of Luxuron and many of his most loyal men's deaths spread through the city. No one really knew who the culprit was, but there were two suspects. The first was the mysterious figure called Batuman who'd been eliminating gangs for a while now.
And the second was actually the Marquess, as he'd already executed two gang leaders, so it wouldn't be strange if he had the last one killed as well.
Regardless, most people were happy that such an event had occurred. The Salhope was relatively 'well-liked' among the Nobility, while the civilians hated them for kidnapping wives, daughters, and essentially enslaving them.
If you failed to pay your debts to them, they'd have you work it off. And regardless of whether you were male or female, the work would be laborious, dirty, and humiliating.
Michael was oblivious to the rumours going around however as he'd just sold Milky in preparation to board the Airship to Albion. You couldn't take horses with you obviously, so it was needed, even if he felt slightly bad for pawning off his first true companion in this world.
The only thing that really improved his dour mood despite this was the large improvements to his status :
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Name : Michael Hunt
Rank : Common
Stats :
Strength : 9 > 10
Agility : 11 > 15.4
Intelligence : 12 > 13
Abilities :
[Gandalfr] : Enables user to utilise any weapon at two ranks above their current proficiency while granting them the knowledge necessary to use them. While wielding a weapon, temporarily gain +100% in all stats.
[Language Comprehension] : Enables user to understand all spoken tongues, and increase the rate of which they learn reading and writing.
Spirits :
Shadow Shaman : Lvl MAX
Slark : Lvl 3 > 8
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Spirit : Slark
Level : 3 > 8
Abilities :
Slithereen Strokes (Rank 1) : Allows user to swim with the same proficiency of the Slithereen race.
Dark Pact (Rank 1) : After a short delay, user purges most negative debuffs and deals damage to enemies around him, while also dealing damage to user. (User takes half damage)
Pounce (Rank 1) : User leaps a large distance while leashing any enemies he lands on. Leashed enemies will be unable to escape user for the duration of the ability.
Essence Shift (Rank 4) : User steals the life essence of enemies with each melee attack, draining each of their attributes and converting them to temporary bonus agility for the user. If user kills a target under this skill's effect, user will gain 0.1 Permanent Agility(Scales based on opponent strength).
Shadow Dance (Rank 1) : Active effect : User is able to shroud themself in a cloud of shadows that render enemies unable to target or detect them for the duration. Passive effect : User gains bonus movement speed and health regen while unseen.
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The biggest changes were obviously his Agility, Essence Shift, and Shadow Dance. To be honest, with the number of people he'd killed last night, such an increase was rather low, fortunately, once Essence Shift has fully upgraded the Agility gain was now scaled based on how powerful the opponent is.
Shadow Dance was also an incredibly useful, yet strange ability... Whenever no one was observing him, he'd feel significantly more powerful than usual. And while he moved, shadows would cling onto him as if attempting to caress him.
He hadn't tried the active effect yet as he wasn't sure how big the cloud of shadows would be, as well as how long it'd take to recharge the ability. It seemed that most ultimate had some kind of arbitrary cooldown. With Shadow Shaman's snakes taking a day or two to recharge now at max level.
Regardless, Michael felt that he was on the tipping point of becoming completely broken. Something that he was rather excited for. For now, he was sat waiting for the Airship to get here.
The Airship would arrive at around noon, so Michael was left sitting on a bench waiting for it since he'd woken up at around 11am. Fortunately, he had a new book to alleviate his boredom... The Magical Theory book he'd gotten from Loutiel.
He hadn't gotten the chance to try any spells yet, but he was learning a good amount about how magic in this world actually functioned. Essentially, it was all elemental manipulation with some slight assistance from ambient magic.
The methods used by the descendants of Brimir essentially involved using words, gestures, and runes to force the elements to work in certain ways. Allowing people to create spells that could be used by others, regardless of their skills in manipulating certain elements.
Of course, some spells required proficiency in combining elements, but those were regarded as higher levels ones. Dots, or one element spells could be used by everyone from the get-go if you knew the gestures and words. But Lines, Triangles, and Squares required knowledge on elemental manipulation.
Michael closes the book and stops his studies for now however, as it seems that the Airship had finally arrived. Over the ocean, he could see the familiar shadow slowly making its way through the sky...
A frown formed on his face however as he noticed something... Using the Ganalfr runes to enhance his vision, he notices how ragged the airship actually looked.
Small fires continued unimpeded in various areas, and many holes could be seen in both the wood and the sails. Lastly, he couldn't see a single person atop the Airship, meaning that no one was currently manning it...
It continue to fly towards the city, but unlike last time, its momentum wasn't slowing at all. His eyes widen as he stands and starts sprinting away from the Airship landing zone, nearby people noticing them and mimicking his actions.
Screams soon sound out as the Airship finally enters the airspace over the city, its trajectory being the landing zone, but... It was coming in far too fast!
"Holy fuck!" Michael exclaims, wondering if this is what it felt like to personally witness 911. He looks over his shoulder just in time to see the huge Airship barrel into the landing platform, completely destroying it and itself, while sending huge stone shards flying all over the city.
The remnants of the Airship weren't dissuaded either as it begin rolling through the city, flattening a great many buildings as people scream and try to flee from it.
Despite Michael having gotten a good distance away from it, he was still forced to dodge various shrapnel from the stone platform and the pieces of the ship that'd flown off.
The destroyed ship slowly slides to a halt, and that would have been the end of it if it were just a regular ship, but... This had been equipped with weaponry, cannons, and a Wind Stone engine that allowed it to fly. This meant that it had a large stockpile of both Wind Stones and Gunpowder...
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!*
A humungous explosion occurs from within the destroyed remnants of the airship, launching sub-sonic speed shrapnel in all directions, while also causing a LITERAL FUCKING TORNADO TO FORM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY!
Michael doesn't even give a second glance as he hightails it towards the city gate. His method of getting to Albion was fucked, so there wasn't any need to stay in this shit hole anymore. He doubted there'd even be anything left if that tornado continued unimpeded!
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Loutiel observes as Michael sprints towards the city gate and sprints away. The guardsman left the gate open to help people flee from the tornado, which allowed him to exit unimpeded.
This was the correct decision on Michael's end anyway, with this blatant terror attack from Albion or the rebels residing their, troops would soon be dispatched by the capital to Antomiers. Specifically, the air forces like Griffin Knights and Dragon Knights were the only units capable of attacking Albion without an airship on standby.
It'd be a shame if Michael stayed and ended up getting executed... His favour would end up going to waste. He wouldn't be able to intervene either, as his future plans would be in disarray if he became a criminal.
He shakes his head and whips his wand in Michael's direction, casting an Air Element based whisper spell. "Michael, head South-West to La Rochelle in Gallia if you truly wish to go to Albion. It is the closest Airship port, and is unlikely to be attacked like Antomiers... Of course, you could head to the one in Germania, but that would be weeks of travel... Good luck! And, remember your debts." he explains before cutting off the spell, now glancing over at the tornado raging through the city.
There were a few mages in the city trying to deal with it, but all of their attempts were useless, or simply made the situation worse... Some fire mage even tried to 'burn' it, causing the tornado to momentarily become a spiral of fiery death for a couple of seconds.
"Seems like I'm the only wind mage present...?" Loutiel mutters in a low tone, a slight grin forming on his face as he plans out how to deal with this... First, he'd wait for the other mages to retreat, and allow the tornado to cause more damage. Then, once all hope seemed lost, he'd intervene.
He glances over his shoulder at Samara who was standing in the doorway while wearing a maid outfit that was slightly too big for her gaunt form. "Girl, gather the others and have them take refuge in the basement."
She nods but pauses just as she's about to leave, "Y-es... Sir... Is h-he-... Michael, going to be okay?"
Loutiel chuckles, "Certainly. I sent him out on a mission before this attack occurred. Don't mind yourself worrying about someone like him. I doubt he could die if he tried." he explains as he stands, opens the window, and levitates himself to the roof.
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Marquess Guiscard Carmel pales as his strongest spell peters out against the monstrous force of the tornado. He was a fire mage, with smaller affinities concerning Earth and Air. Yet, none of his spells seemed to work against it.
The Airship must have been carrying a huge payload of Wind Stones to cause this amount of damage. He was sure that once this was over, he'd wage war against those Albion bastards for this!
With no way to stop the tornado, Marquess Guiscard Carmel just retreats with his entourage, but just as he's about to stage refuge in his keep. Shouts of elation and surprise occur from behind him. He turns to see if the tornado was headed their way, but is dumbfounded as a huge, visible blade of airstrikes the tornado, literally splitting it in half.
The tornado reforms of course, but the windspeeds generated by it had certainly slowed! He looks over to where it'd come from and spots a handsome white-haired man with glasses, raising his wand for yet another spell.
"Mountain Carver! HHAAArrrgh!" Loutiel shouts, doing his best to make this spell look as difficult to cast as possible... He wasn't as intensive as he made it look, but it was better for people to see his 'effort'. With the incarnation, he swings his wind horizontally and causing a larger blade of air than last time to strike the tornado once again.
*SSS---Sssssshooooo!*
Again, the wind speeds lower, and people start crawling out from the ruined city to cheer Loutiel on. It only takes three or four more Mountain Carvers to completely dissipate the tornado. To everyone's eyes, Loutiel had single-handed saved the city, and he wouldn't allow anyone to say otherwise.
Marquess Guiscard Carmel and his entourage quickly make their way over to the street that Loutiel gracefully lands in. "S-sir! You have saved our city! What is your name!?"
Loutiel smiles and bows slightly to the Marquess, "My name is Loutiel Outous, a humble merchant in this fine city." he states, and people immediately start cheering his name. Thanking him for saving their lives, and the lives of their families.
The Marquess is mildly annoyed that Loutiel had taken all the responsibility for removing the tornado, but isn't able to argue against the civilians. Instead, he walks over and gently clutches Loutiels arm, raising it up high for everyone to see. "The city of Antomiers thanks you, Loutiel Outous, for your incredible feats of magic! I will see that you are justly rewarded for your service! A feast will be held in your na-"
Loutiel just passively nods his head at the Marquess abrupt speech but cuts the man off before he's able to spew any other platitudes. "Excuse me Marquess, apologies for interrupting, but shouldn't we concentrate our efforts on repairing the city and saving lives instead of celebrating?"
The Marquess chokes slightly at Loutiel's abrupt rejection but nods anyway as people cheer with more intensity than before at seeing their saviour deny rewards to help with the rebuilding efforts. "O-Of course! The feast can be held later! Once we've saved our friends and families under the rubble! Come, everyone! spread out and look for survivors!"
Loutiel inwardly grins as he begins making a big show of clearing rubble and saving those trapped beneath it. "Hmm, hmm, hm! All according to plan."
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