Chapter 18: Chapter 17: Abduction
Volume 01: Start Again
Chapter 17: Abduction
[Quest auto-accepted]
'What the fuck! I declined it.' Staring at the notification before me I could not help but drop my jaw in astonishment as this had never happened before even in my last life. Usually, people would be ecstatic to get such a quest at the diamond tier, but I was just level 11. How was I going to save that boy from whoever was chasing him?
Quickly shooting out a couple of quick breaths I tried my best to gain my composure and try to think of something to get out of this. Even as I thought about all of this the boy never stopped running and was already within twenty meters of me.
Seeing the face of the obviously crying and scared boy a sudden bad thought came into my mind.
Coming down from the train tracks I slid down the side of the grassy slope and made my way toward the prince.
"Thank you. Thank you." The 5th prince called out as he ran towards me dripping tears down his face.
As he closed in on my position I moved out and grabbed his body trapping him in my arms. Seeing this the frogman stopped not too far from my position as his arms were behind his body hiding whatever was behind him with his body.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!" The voice of the 5th prince screamed out as he wiggled in my arms.
Ignoring the words of the boy I looked over to the frog man and said, "How much for the boy."
As if stunned by my words the frogman ten meters before me stood in place while the skin that acted as his eyebrows began to move together in confusion.
"Give him to me or I will kill you. There are no negotiations." The croaky voice of the frog man called out as he looked on at me.
'Luckily this is an abduction and not an assassination because I know they need the boy alive.' Hiding my thoughts, I tightened my grip on the boy's neck.
"AH! STOP!" The cries of the boy continued in my hands as any hope he had previously held by coming across me must have now been gone.
Catching the slight flinch of the frogman during my actions I knew that my plan could work. Knowing this I only tightened my grip on the prince.
"AHHHGH!"
"Stop!" This time it was the frogman that called out to me.
Hearing these words, I loosened my grip on the prince and began to look over to the frogman to see what he had to say now.
"Leave the boy and we will call it even. You can just leave from here and I will take the boy." The frogman said aloud now bringing both his hands to the front of his body to show his hands in an attempt to calm me down by showing that he held no weapons.
'Just leave? What am I an idiot? Just to be tracked down and eventually killed by whatever organization can just about abduct a prince of a kingdom. Doubt it.' Internally rolling my nonexistent eyes I stared at the frogman.
"Okay. But you have to promise to let me go after I give you the boy." I responded to the frogman before me.
As if not expecting such a response both the frogman and the crying prince in my hands both froze and turned to look at me with odd expressions. Quickly putting this expression away, the frogman immediately began to smile exposing his large red tongue that lay within his mouth.
"Of course, just give me the boy and you are free to go." The smile of the frogman grew larger as the words rolled out of his mouth.
"NO DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! HE WILL KILL YOU…" The shouts of the prince came out, but they were quickly stopped in their tracks by my hand.
Mumbling behind my hand the young prince looked up at me with red eyes. Watching the frogman begin to walk over to me with his hands out to take the prince I just waited.
'Closer.' The frogman was now about to grab the prince.
'Now.' Tossing the prince to the side I instantly activated [Hands of Time].
*WOOOSH*
As if kicking up a small storm the wind around my body began to accelerate quickly and then instantly slow down to an almost unmoving crawl.
*tick*
Peering downwards with my peripheral vision I could see that the outline of a clock was now etched into the ground below me. As I watched the hands of the clock immediately pointed toward the frogman.
[-63 Corrosive Damage | 10% Slow]
Watching the body of the frogman suddenly slow down within the area of the large clock on the floor I began my assault as I knew I did not have much time till the shock factor of my attacks wore off.
'Wow, corrosive damage is rare. It is one of the only poisons that shows almost no outer effects as it hits you in your mind.'
Dashing forward I moved out of the center of the clock and moved along the hands that were facing in the direction of the seemingly shocked frogman who was now slowly reaching behind his back.
'No shot.' Watching the actions of the frog man I threw out a single punch directly at his torso.
Watching my first fist move towards him the frogman tried his best to dodge my incoming attack but the slight slowness that accompanied his body seemed to hamper his regular movements.
As my fist contacted the torso of the frogman, I noticed the slow opening of the frogman's mouth as I now stood before him.
[-8 Blunt Damage]
'I need to retreat.' I tried to push off back to try and get to a safe distance but before I could the large tongue of the frog came out of its mouth like an arrow striking me right in my chest.
[-53 Poison Damage]
Being propelled backward by the hit of the red tongue I landed on the outside edge of the clock that was still ticking below us.
'He did one-fourth of my health with one attack and it was not even one of his weapons.' Rather worried now I looked over at the now normal speed frogman and watched as he pulled out two daggers from his back.
'Of course.' Seeing the two daggers I could not help but think that the system must have been rigged to put me in such a situation tonight.
'First a pack of wolves, then a wyvern, and now an assassin.'
The only lucky thing for me was that since the frogman was using daggers and his tongue attack sent me to the edge of my own ability this would put me in a good position to wait and counterattack after three more seconds.
'I doubt he would expect my ability to keep attacking him as long as he stayed inside.' As I thought about this the frogman hopped around side to side before they began heading straight for me zig-zagging back and forth like a lightning bolt hopping quickly between each spot.
My head moved back and forth as I tried my best to keep track of the position of the incoming frogman. He quickly made his way on top of me stabbing out with one of his daggers.
'Holy shit.' As the frogman got within two meters of me it was as if something accelerated in his body as his movements suddenly went into overdrive making his attack look almost like a blur. Barely being able to see the movements of the frogman's incoming dagger I had seen in his hand earlier had already sliced across my left shoulder causing my outer shirt to tear.
*SHHHHHINK*
Cutting across the chainmail I could feel the force of the dagger pushing against my bones causing me to take a slight step backward under its unrelenting force.
[-46 Piercing Damage]
Before I could catch my breath or try anything to respond to the attack I watched as his next dagger attack was already heading for my skull.
*tick*
[-63 Corrosive Damage | 10% Slow]
[Time Lock Triggered]
Seeing this message all my previous misgivings were immediately put to the side as I punched as hard and quickly as possible throwing lots of punching combinations into the face of the frozen frogman.
[-7 Blunt Damage]
[-8 Blunt Damage]
'I need another proc.'
[-9 Blunt Damage]
[-9 Blunt Damage]
The frogman unfroze before me but instead of continuing his assault on me, I watched as his face turned to horror as he pushed himself backward away from me.
"How did you do that? Why was I frozen?" Staring at me in fear the frogman shouted out at me.
Hearing the words of the frogman I finally came to understand something. 'My abilities are very scary to fight against as they leave you completely vulnerable.' Not answering the frogman, I just stared at him in silence.
A couple of seconds once again passed as we just stared at each other and once again the hands of the clock swung around and pointed in the direction of the frogman.
*tick*
[-63 Corrosive Damage | 10% Slow]
With this attack, I could now see that there seemed to be some ware on the body of the frogman as I watched him spit out some light green blood.
*pah* *pah*
Seeing this I knew this frogman was superiorly stronger than me as it took three attacks from my strongest ability to hurt him. Even with this he was not worried about taking the damage but was probably just scared of any side effects of my attacks as his mind has probably had a small toll taken on it already.
'I need to get him to believe I can kill him.'
Opening my mouth, I spoke out to the frogman, "You are poisoned."
Creasing his eyebrows, the frogman stared at me, but his slight sense of fear suddenly disappeared. "The Frogolians are immune to all forms of poison." The frogman croaked out in satisfaction as if relieved by my words.
Hearing his words I smiled, "Not all poisons. Have you ever heard of a poison that eats away at your mind? Why do you think that every time I am able to attack you, you freeze, and your mind slows?" Leaving my point at this I stopped speaking and merely kept a rather mysterious smile on my face.
"Liar!" The frogman shouted out.
As if hearing my words, the clock hands below us once more moved.
*tick*
[-63 Corrosive Damage | 10% Slow]
Once again feeling the slowing effects of the hidden attack the frogman slowly lifted his head to look at me only to raise his skin-like eyebrows in fear.
Looking past me the frogman's eyes widened before he turned around and began quickly hopping away from me.
Happy with the outcome I turned to look in the direction I had tossed the prince only to find no one there. Now seeing this I understood why the frogman looked past me and then immediately escaped as the prince was no longer even here.
'That fucking kid.' Annoyed that I had to fight such a strong opponent for the kid and for him to not even be here anymore.
*sigh*
'Life is never easy.' Deactivating [Hands of Time] I turned around and began running into the distance in the opposite direction the frogman had hopped off towards.
Moving my head left and right I analyzed all the areas around me as I knew I had to find the prince no matter where he had gone. This search went on for the next two minutes before I got to a small patch of bushes where I heard a slight amount of movement.
Getting closer to the bushes I could hear the muffled sound of light crying.
'Here he is.' Hearing the crying I knew it was the prince.
"Come out I already got rid of the frog," I called out to the bushes.
As if responding to my words the muffled crying that sounded from the bushes in front of me suddenly stopped and the light swishing of leaves sounded as the prince crawled out of the bush.
"Did you?" Looking at me the small prince got up and wiped himself off trying to look noble.
But this looked nothing less than childish as the small boy was covered in leaves and had dirt smeared all over his face. After wiping off only his clothes the small prince looked me over and then gave me a slight nod. "You will be fine. You can be my personal guard."
Staring at the young prince I tried my best not to laugh. Letting out a small breath I shook my head.
"I am sorry, but I must decline. You see I am undead and can not work for the royal family as I am sure the kingdom does not want the Church to say anything." Bowing my head, I declined the offer.
"Ahhh. Yes, well for now you can just be my escort and I will pay you handsomely once we make it to the capital. How does that sound? I can even get my mother to give you anything you want for protecting me." The young prince smiled as he looked at me.
'Not bad.' Acting as if I was thinking about the offer, I slowly nodded my head toward the young prince.
"I agree."
"It's a deal then!" The young prince just about shouted out as if he was worried, I might change my mind.
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