Bab 26: Unfriendly Fire
My hand didn't get cut off, but I sustained a deep cut across my palm.
"Break it up! We're teammates, we shouldn't be fighting." Serith stood in between me and Saliza. "She attacked me first. I didn't even hit her."
Saliza used blazing rush in an attempt to cut down Serith. I intercepted it just in time with twin steps and blocked the attack with my swords. "Something's wrong with her!" I yelled. Saliza's superior strength and stronger skill knocked me away.
Serith used his skill and blasted lighting at Saliza. A portal protected Saliza from the attack and another one behind Serith sent the lightning back at him. Saliza puts the disc in a slot in her armor and clashes with Serith after he got up from the lightning blast.
Saliza's stats were focused on attack and speed while Serith spread his stats out evenly. She was faster and stronger than him, and her superior speed allowed her to dodge and parry attacks. Serith blocked a blow and grabbed the blade of the axe with his free hand. He thrusts his sword at Saliza's arm and a portal caused him to stab himself in the back.
I launched an energy slash at Saliza and she opened up another portal to send it back at me. I waited for the portal to appear around me, and when it appeared, I used twin steps to dodge my energy slash and blink into the portal.
I appeared near Saliza and used a spell to bind her with magic ropes. "Grab the disc from her!" Serith reached for the disc that Saliza placed in her armor slot while I tried to hold her in place. A portal opens up below her and she fell through it before Serith could grab the disc. I released the rope from my hands to avoid falling through the portal, allowing Saliza to break free from the ropes that were binding her.
Saliza created another portal and jumped through it. Portals started appearing all around the cave. She would appear in one of those portals and attack us before jumping into another one, just like the nedar but much faster.
We were forced into a defensive position. Her portals were much more unpredictable than the nedar and her speed lets her easily avoid any attacks I throw at her. It's going to be hard to incapacitate her without killing her.
Saliza summoned a nedar far away from us and created a portal in front of it. She copied what that nedar did earlier and launched scales all around us. We created barriers around us to protect ourselves from the scales. After ten seconds, the scales stopped coming. I couldn't see through the barrier but I could tell that the scales barrage stopped since I couldn't hear the sound of the scales hitting the barrier.
I wasn't going to remove my barrier in case Saliza starts shooting scales again. She jumped out of a portal in front of my barrier and used a new skill called burning execute. She covered her axe in intense flames and smashed through my barrier and slashed me across the chest.
As I fell to the ground, I wondered why she didn't just open up a portal behind me. If she teleported above or beside me, I would be able to react to the portals in time to dodge her attack. If she had chosen to teleport behind me, I wouldn't be able to react in time and my barrier would prevent me from dodging her attack.
I'm guessing that she can't create portals if she can't see since my barrier blocked her from seeing the area behind me. Even if I can deal with her portals, her speed and strength are still a problem.
Serith stepped in front of me to block any attacks Saliza might use. She knew he was simply going to come from the front so she raises her axe and dashed towards him. Serith guards himself with his blade only for Saliza to use it as a way to boost herself into the air.
She targeted me while I was laying on the floor and used blazing rush. I raised one of my swords the moment her axe ignited and hit her with a point-blank energy slash.
The explosion blew Saliza and Serith away from me. When the smoke cleared, I was lying motionlessly on the floor with blood staining the area around me.
"Here lies Zeigel, he was born pathetic and died pathetic." Saliza showed no remorse for what she did and mocked me at my death. Serith was overcome with emotions and tears flowed out of his eyes as he tries to figure out what to do. He knows that Saliza was being influenced by the disc but it's hard for him to accept that she just killed me.
"Shut up!" He started swinging his sword around in a rage and casting spells whenever he could. Saliza manically laughed in his face as he fails to land a single hit on her. "Once I kill you, I'll kill Reizo as well! Then I'll kill those two old farts for trying to ruin my dreams!"
Fortunately for me, I was barely alive and still breathing. I created red water around me during the explosion to make it look like I died. I had to hold my breath until Saliza started focusing her attention on Serith and breathe as quietly as I can. I covered my wounds with 'blood' while I healed them so that Saliza wouldn't know that I'm alive. I should be able to fight again in a few minutes.
Saliza and Serith were still at each other's necks. Serith was getting worn out and his reckless spell casting caused him to run out of mana. Saliza surrounded him with portals and was about to make her nedar fire needles at him, so I grabbed my swords destroyed her nedar with an energy slash.
"Oh come on! Just stay dead!" Saliza yelled out in frustration. She was getting annoyed and Serith was relieved that I was alive. Unfortunately, all that healing drained my mana and I could only use a few spells left. My wounds weren't fully healed so another good hit from Saliza and I'll be acting dead forever.
Saliza surrounded me with portals and jumped into a portal in front of her before Serith could stop her. I don't know which portal she's going to come out of but I know when she will appear. I create an orb of smoke in my hand and the moment she appeared, I threw it on the ground and created a smokescreen.
Saliza swung her axe around to get rid of the smoke and saw me trying to summon a doruso. She used blazing rush and nearly cleaved the doruso in half. Then she used burning execute and tried to slash me. I used twin steps to dodge the blow and tackle her with the second step.
With my strength, I wasn't able to do much with just a tackle. Saliza raised her axe to cut me down, but her hands got pierced by something. Before I summoned my doruso, I summoned a gendion and had it camouflage itself behind Saliza.
She kicked me away and slashed the gendion, but the paralyzing poison had already taken effect and her movements slowed down considerably. After a few seconds, she fell to the ground and she was now paralyzed.
I quickly grabbed the disc out of the armor slot and inspected it. I asked myself if I should keep this or turn it in. It could be key to getting me home and if I turned it in, I doubt they'll give it back considering what it does.
While I was busy checking out the dsic, Saliza sprang up from the ground with her axe raised above her head. The poison didn't fully paralyze her yet. She faked the paralysis to catch me off guard and land a fatal hit. Our defensive stats made our bodies more resistant to poisons and viruses which was why Saliza was able to move. "Look out behind you!" Serith was too far away to stop Saliza.
Just as the axe was about to hit my head, it stopped. Someone was grabbing the handle of the axe that was an inch away from my head. "I leave for one day and this happens." Reizo said with a tired tone. He lifted the axe and Saliza's body dropped on the ground.
By now the poison had fully taken effect and Saliza can no longer move. "Now, give me that disc." Reizo pointed at the disc I was holding and reached his hand out. I'm not suicidal so I had no other choice than to give Reizo the disc. He inspects the disc and rubs off the blood that was on it. He found a dark purple marking with a dim glow that was covered by blood.
Reizo turns to me and Serith and pointed at the marking. "This is a cursed artifact. They are rare items that hold powerful abilities." Reizo drops the disc onto the ground and starts stomping on it so hard that he created a hole in the ground that was a meter deep. He picked the disc up and there wasn't even a scratch on it.
"Furthermore, these things are also indestructible. These artifacts will cause whoever uses them to become extremely violent and bring out the worst in them, so if you see any object with a glowing dark purple marking, do not use them." He warned us with a threatening tone.
Reizo puts the disc in his pocket and carried Saliza over his shoulder. "Wait, how did you find us?" Serith asked. "I finished investigating a bandit base and decided to take a drin- take a nap in Feilo Forests when I heard explosions and some familiar voices coming from a cave, so I decided to check it out and found you guys. Good grief, I just can't catch a break."
Reizo grumbled under his breath about how no one is letting him have his drink. "What's going to happen to Saliza? You're not going to kill her right?" I asked. "I'm not gonna kill her. Just follow me back to the headquarters and I'll show you what to do when you encounter someone affected by a cursed artifact."
We were brought back to the headquarters. When the receptionist saw Saliza's dark aura along with her trying to bite Reizo, she rushed into a room and came out with paper tags that had weird symbols written on them and hands them to Reizo.
"These are sealing tags. They can temporarily disable abilities, including abilities from cursed artifacts and make them unusable for a while. All you need to do is point the tag at a target and focus on sealing what you want to seal."
Reizo placed a tag in-between his fingers and pointed it at Saliza. He closed his eyes and focused on sealing the artifact. The markings on the tag glowed and came off the tag to touch Saliza.
Her dark aura faded away and Reizo took out the disc. "Put this with the others." Reizo tossed the disc to the receptionist and she nodded before running off to store the disc in a vault.
"As ventgards, we need to get rid of cursed artifacts to prevent anyone from getting hurt. We have a sealing room that we use to permanently seal artifacts, but it takes one whole year to seal one artifact. Right now we have 11 unsealed artifacts including the disc you found."
The receptionist came back and handed Reizo a syringe with an antidote for the poison. He injected Saliza with the antidote and shortly after she sprang up from her feet.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean any of that, I would never laugh at any of your deaths! I won't ever try to kill any of you!" Saliza remembered everything she did when she was being influenced by the disc and felt a tremendous wave of guilt.
"Don't worry, we know that you only did those things because of the disc. We're not mad at you." Serith comforted Saliza. She felt a little better but still can't help but feel bad that she nearly killed me.
"Where's Meitre, I need to tell her what I found." The receptionist told Reizo where to go and he went off to find her. Before we went off to get lunch, the receptionist asked us to come and collect our reward.
The amount of money we were given was nearly five times what we were supposed to get. The money was split into three equal stacks and given to us. "This is the reward for your mission and for finding an artifact."
We now each had a few hundred dollars to freely spend. Now I can buy more clothes to wear and some books to pass the time with.
We thanked the receptionist and went to get lunch. "I need to talk to Zeigel about something. We'll meet you in the cafeteria later Serith." Saliza grabbed my arm and brought me back to our room to talk to me.
"Are you mad at me?" Saliza had a sad tone and her usual cheerful attitude was replaced with shame. "I know what Serith said but I just can't get over the fact that I thought I killed you and laughed. You didn't even want to go on the mission in the first place but I forced you to go." She couldn't even look at me while talking.
Simply telling her that it was the disc's fault wouldn't get rid of her guilt, so I had to think of another way to comfort her. "Don't feel bad. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to live in this world anyway. You're the reason why I'm alive and I'm thankful for your help."
Her smile returned and she no longer felt guilty. "Is there any way I can make up for what I did?"
I placed my hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Pay for my armor repairs."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone