Bab 124: 122: A Company of Fools: Shapers Market VII
"BO!" Nate yelled as he jumped off Bone-lasher and ran to Bo. He picked up his son and hugged him tightly.
"Dad!" Bo cried and hugged his father back, burying his head in his father's chest. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
"I'm just glad you're alright! I mean you're grounded until you're thirty but I'm still glad you're alright." Nate added.
I let Bo and Nate have their moments while I walked over to check on Bone-lasher. He was covered in blood, with barely any scratches on him I guessed that it all belonged to the red dragons. I channeled wet attribute mana into my hand and pointed it at him. A jet of water gushed from my palm and washed all the blood off Bone-lasher's body. He purred softly and moved closer rubbing his head against my cheek. I stopped channeling mana and patted him on the head.
"Good job keeping Nate safe and dealing with the red dragons." I said.
[Easy prey.] Bone-lasher replied.
[Ssssssecond rate meat sssssshield.] Alpa'nagia hissed. I frowned and looked back at the salty Transcended. He was coiled up in the alley that Bo and Nate were standing in front of watching me and Bone-lasher with envious eyes.
[Jealous!] Bone-lasher said. Alpa'nagia narrowed his eyes at the liger shark.
[No fighting you two!] I ordered as I looked between the two of them. Alpa'nagia looked away and hissed softly while Bone-lasher made a sound similar to a chuckle then retreated into my farm crystal. I walked over to Alpa'nagia and acted him on
the head. He flicked his tongue out and let out a contented sigh. I glanced over my shoulder at Nate and Bo, Nate had set his son down and was looking over at Alpa'nagia and me. He approached cautiously as he eyed Alpa'nagia.
"I wanted to thank you for your help. If I had gone in myself I would have died. Your evo is very strong." Nate said. I smiled at him as I felt a wave of pride swell up in my chest, most of it was from me but I also felt some from Bone-lasher.
"You're welcome, I'm glad to be able to help…and be rid of some of those red geckos.." I said.
"Yeah…it'd probably be best if my family disappeared for a while. The red dragons are going to be out for blood after your evo killed so many of their members." Nate said.
"And your other two destroyed that warehouse." Bo piped up. Nate froze then looked back at his son and then to me.
"You destroyed the warehouse!" He yelled.
"And killed all the sssssplicerssss inssssside." Alpa'nagia added. Nate's eyes grew so large they nearly eclipsed his face
"IT CAN FUCKING TALK!" He screeched. I sighed wearily and nodded.
"That's Alpa'nagia, my Transcended Dr'idi'saiyo or sonic viper in universal standard." I said with a smirk.
"Transcended? The hell is that?" Nate asked. Alpa'nagia uncoiled to his full length and stretched taller than the buildings that lined the alley and looked down at Nate.
"I am blesssssssssed with the esssssssence of the Ssssstar Ssssshaper. Transssssformed and ssssssaved by him." Alpa'nagia replied. Nate stood there, staring up at Alpa'nagia, and just nodded with his mouth open. It was pretty obvious he heard absolutely nothing Alpa'nagia said and was in shock.
"It's a long story." I said then glanced over at Bo.
The kid looked normal but considering what he'd seen only fifteen minutes ago I figured it was either an act or he hadn't had time to process everything. It was the first time I had ordered my evos to kill and not in self-defense and I had to admit I was reeling mentally still.
"Hey, just a heads up Bo saw some pretty messed up things in that warehouse." I whispered to Nate. He narrowed his eyes and gestured to elaborate. "The red dragons killed a woman in front of us. They thought we were there for her but when they realized we weren't they killed her…it was bad."
"Oh no…" Nate gasped. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
"I tried to shield him from it as best I could but…"
"You kept him alive, that's the important part. Everything else we can deal with in time. Thank you for telling me though." Nate said softly so only I could hear then turned around to face his son. "Let's head home, your mom must be worried sick by now…"
"She's going to kill me!" Bo groaned.
"Yep! Rightly so too!" Nate chastised.
[I'm going to ressssst Ssssstar Ssssshaper, if that issss okay with you?] Alpa'nagia asked.
[Go ahead, you all earned it.] I told him. Alpa'nagia returned to my crystal with Grimm-Guard and Bone-lasher, settling into his personal space inside the crystal.
"I know your shop is only a few blocks away but let me walk with you two, I'd feel better if I knew you got home safe." I said.
"That's fine, I was hoping you would. I'd feel better too." Nate said.
The three of us headed off toward Nate and his wife's shop. We still traveled using the alleyways and stayed off the street as much as possible, there was no point in getting into any pointless fights. When we got about a block away I suddenly had a bad feeling. The shop was now in view but something felt off. Nate must have sensed it as well cause he tensed up. As we neared the shop I noticed that there was glass and tasted metal shards thrown across the street.
"No…" Nate breathed then sprinted towards the front door. "Jade! Jade!"
Bo tried to run after his father but I grabbed him quickly and stopped him. Bo squirmed and jerked as hard as he could trying to get away from me. By that point, Nate had made it inside the shop and was screaming his wife's name.
"Let me go! I have to check and see if Mom is okay!" Bo yelled. I spun him around and looked him in the eye.
"Bo! I need you to stay here!" I told him.
"But Mom…"
"We can't help her if we're worried about you! Now I need you to stay here so your dad and I can focus on her okay!?" I exclaimed. Bo looked like he was about to protest when his face suddenly went white and his head dropped.
"Okay…I'll stay here!"
I spun around and ran towards the shop. When I made it to the front door I saw that it was completely smashed into splinters. The inside of the shop looked just as bad. The glass cases and counters were shattered every vial of blood and piece of jewelry spilled on the floor. Thanks to all the blood vials it was impossible to tell if all the blood was from the vials or a human.
Nate came running out of the back room with a note in his hand just as I was stepping into the shop. He was panicked and close to losing it completely.
"Did you find her?" I asked rushing over to Nate. Nate shook his head.
"She's not here! I found this in our bedroom!" Nate exclaimed shoving the note into my hands. I took the note and read it out loud.
"We have your wife, if you want to see her again then come to Skalliq Park, bring your son and Chase Kingston. Be there by two pm….Audin…" I looked up at Nate with a dumbfounded expression.
'They targeted her because of what happened at the diner!' I realized.
"BO GET IN HERE NOW!" I bellowed. Bo rushed into the store with Gadget on his shoulder and his eyes widened in horror as he looked at the destruction of the shop.
"What are we going to do?!' Nate exclaimed. He grabbed my shoulders and shook them as blind panic was starting to take control of him. I shoved his arms away and grabbed his shoulders and gave him a shake in response.
"We do what they say and head to Skalliq Park." I said, putting as much authority as I could in my voice. I turned to Bo and gave him a serious look. "Bo I need you to not freak out right now and do as I say, your mom's been kidnapped and her life could be in danger if you don't do exactly as I say."
Bo looked like he had a thousand questions racing through his mind and was about to dive into the same blind panic as his father but to his credit, Bo kept it together.
"What do I do?" Bo asked. I motioned to the shattered display cases and counters as well as the jewelry that was left behind.
"Carefully get any rings or bracelets and gather them up and see if you don't have something you can etch with." I said. Bo nodded then ran over to the shattered cases and started picking up all the jewelry he could find. I turned my attention back to Nate.
"Nate I have a plan to get your wife back but to do it I need you to pull yourself together and tell me everything you know about that park." I said slowly but sternly to help pull him from his panic. Nate nodded a few times absently then blinked and looked at me with focused eyes.
"Skalliq Park…" Nate said softly then scratched his chin. "…it used to be the most beautiful Park in the silver city. Then the red dragons got into a major fight with the gold titans and turned the whole park into a smoking crater."
"The entire park?" I gasped. Nate nodded.
"I remember that night. I just closed up the shop and was locking the door when I saw a massive explosion in the distance followed by a mushroom cloud. People who say they witnessed the fight said the explosion was cast by Draco Kanas. The leader of the red dragons and the reason for the gang's name. He's a talented splicer with a gift for offensive magic, particularly fire Magic."
"Well, we'll be dealing with his second in command Audin. Is there anything that could give us a tactical advantage?" I asked. Nate shook hIs head.
"The entire park is a giant crater. You'll be able to see anyone coming long before they could attack."
"Unless we attack where they can't see us…." I said softly then smiled deviously.
Bo rushed over with his hands full of rings, bangles, bracelets, and other forms of jewelry and lifted them up to me to see.
"I got everything I could find!" Bo reported. I nodded and looked at his haul. I plucked a few rings and necklaces out of the pile then patted Bo on the head.
"Great now go and get me something to etch with." I told him
"Right away!" Bo exclaimed then raced off to the back room. I glanced around the remains of the counters and found almost all the ingredients I needed to make rhank.
"I need a mortar and pestle if you have one." I told Nate.
"Okay but how is this going to help get my wife back?" he asked.
"I'm going to enchant these rings, it won't guarantee we get her back but make it easier…hopefully." I replied. Nate shook his head and frowned at me.
"You can't just enchant jewelry and make them enchanted items! That art has been lost for thousands of years!" Nate exclaimed.
"Not lost, just forgotten." I said then marched over to the one part of the shop that wasn't covered in glass and blood and plopped down. Bo returned with a scoring needle in hand and quickly handed it over to me.
"Thanks! Now bare with me, this might take a little bit since I don't have all my tools." I said I picked up a ring and started etching runes into it. The runes "shadow" "form" "disk" and
"protect". A shadra shield spell.
"Mortar and pestle!" I said a little sterner. Nate rushed off to find what I needed and I started etching runes into another ring. The same spell I used to kill that giant rachnid in Tolapo village, Draco Lance.
Nate returned with the mortar and pestle and handed them to me. I quickly went to work making a small batch of rhank, it wouldn't be the best quality but it would do the trick. While I worked Nate paced impatiently while running his hands through his hair. Bo admired the rings I had etched. Strictly speaking they weren't the best quality to make enchanted items out of, the metal was a cheap replica made to look like gold or silver. It would work in a pinch.
I popped my claws and bad a gash on my right hand to add the last ingredient to the rhank, splicer blood. I mixed it in with the rest of the ingredients and let my mana close the wound. Bo's eyes widened when he saw the wound close before his eyes.
"How'd you do that? He asked.
"Mana manipulation and conversion spell. It allows me to change my mana attribute with a thought at the cost of being unable to learn new spells. The more knowledgeable I am about mana the more dangerous I am without having to cast spells." I replied. Bo nodded silently then looked at the rings once more.
'He's trying to distract himself from the situation.' I thought.
"You know any spells?" I asked Bo without looking up from my task.
"The splicing ones, grandpa taught me before he died." Bo replied then looked down at the ground, his cheeks were red with embarrassment. "no matter how hard I tried u couldn't learn any other spells…"
"That's still more spells than I know, all I learned was the mana manipulation and conversion spell. Now the only way I can cast spells is through spell sheets and enchanted items." I said with a sigh as I finished making the rhank.
I plucked the shadra shield enchanted ring from Bo's hands then took the scoring needle and dipped it in the rhank. I carefully traced the lines of the runes and filled them with rhank, then closed the ring in my hand and channeled burn attribute to heat it up and then cold attribute to cool it off. When it was done I handed it to Bo.
"Step back, put it on and channel mana into your hand like you're trying to use mana to learn a new spell." I instructed.
Bo did as he was told. The runes in the ring glowed and a defensive spell sigil formed in front of Bo's hand. The shadows beneath his feet liquefied then jumped to his arm and fused into this black mass before turning into a disk shape about half the size of Bo, the disk then turned into a black mist and swirled in front of his arm.
"It worked!" I exclaimed happily.
"OH MY GODS!" Bo screamed then turned to his father and pointed to the shield. "A shield! A shield! I actually cast a spell!"
Nate stared blankly at the shield and then at his son. I continued and finished up the Draco Lance enchanted ring then paused and looked at the jewelry I had left to work with.
I grabbed two more rings and a necklace and went to work enchanting them. On the first ring, I etched the runes "cycle", "volt", "mental", "burst", and "flame". Creating a new custom spell: tricky movement. In the second ring, I etched the invisibility field spell.
Finally, in the necklace I etched the runes
"Shadow", "shroud", "slip", "combine", "cycle", "burn", "mental" and one I had been hesitant to try out: "Juggle". I had no name for this spell. I chose the necklace for it because if it didn't work I could yank it off easily and throw it while praying the mana explosion didn't kill me.
When I finished enchanting the items I handed the tricky movement ring to Bo as well the invisibility field ring. He took them and immediately slipped them on.
"That one casts a spell called tricky movement, it's an axiom spell that takes a large chunk of your mana and uses that mana to enhance movement with a thought. Want to run fast as lightning, it'll do it. Want to move a quick burst of flames to alter how you move in the air, done." I explained while I pointed to the ring. I switched to the other ring and gave a description as well. "That ring casts invisibility field, it's a personalized version of the invisibility spell. When we get your mom take her and your dad and run somewhere safe then cast that spell and stay inside the field, don't come out until I say so!"
"Okay!" Bo exclaimed and stood up straight. The look in his eyes told me he understood how serious of a task I had given him. When I turned back to look at Nate he was looking at me like I was an indescribable being.
"You killed an entire warehouse of red dragons, have talking evos, and can enchant items with shit that you found on the floor of a busted shop…who….who the hell are you?" Nate asked, his voice barely a whisper as the last words left his mouth.
I took the enchanted necklaces a simple metal plate attacked by a faux gold chain and slipped it over my head then looked at Nate.
"Chase Kingston, owner and operator of Sho'lajah artifact company and student at Andromeda College. I'm the one that's going to help you get your wife back."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn [HUTEXA_THE_DJINN HERE! Sorry for the late posts this week. My job is forcing everyone to work extra hours next week so I'll only be able to post two chapters that week. sorry for the slow releasing but I'm not able to work three 16 hour days and also post frequently. hopefully things slow down and idiots get back from vacation soon! THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!]
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone