Chapter 9: Chapter 9
[|||| =LEVEL 9= ||||]
4 years 4 months in Remnant
I closed the book with a happy sigh. Five months of leave at the Rose and Xiao-Long residence. If you wanted to be technical it was the Branwen residence as well. Qrow and Raven pitched into the house with Summer and Tai but only Qrow used it now. He was still on that mission now. It had gotten complicated apparently so he would be taking a while. Another month apparently.
The past months had been peaceful. Ozpin gave Summer three months of leave since hunting me down was classified as a high risk and high priority mission. He also wanted me to have gotten a teleport spell completely down. Not mastered, of course, but enough for me to consistently do it.
I had gotten a portal spell easily. I performed it for Ozpin and he sent Summer and I out on a mission. Just killing a troubling grimm horde. Summer and I annihilated them and portaled back within a week. Easy stuff. Two other jobs had popped up but Summer barely needed my help. I just made things easier for her. The jobs had gotten slowly harder as Ozpin eased us in to combat together. It wasn't hard really.
We had seen a few interesting places. A tropical island off the coast of east Vacuo. A snowy mountain range south of Vale city. A few other nice and unique places.
I'd gotten new skills, new stats, and been studying my ass off. The insane affinities from Summer had equaled out as well. It was fantastic. I even broke through 150 INT and WIS. There was nothing as crazy as before though. I warned Summer I was going to try something for a few days and that I'd be a few days before I reconnected. She was worried but I ran a laundry list of precautions for her. Now my stats were this…
Abyss Mavros
Title: Passenger
Level – 89
HP – X
AP – 25, 012 (+1250.6/min)
MP - 19,224 (+961.2/min)
STR - X (+115%)
VIT - X (+115%)
DEX - X (+115%)
INT - 178 (+20% + 50% + 100%)= 480.6
WIS - 169 (+20% + 150% + 100%)= 625.3
LUK - 34 (+0%)= 32
POINTS - 344
Affinities:
(4x as potent due to skills)
Purity: 87
Air: 79
Light: 64
Water: 44
Space: 41
Motion: 34
Nature: 22
Heat: 21
Life: 7
(NEW) Lightning: 6
I had also developed the lightning affinity, which wasn't really surprising. I just made a few thunderstorms which was easy now that I had gotten the nature affinity from Summer. I mean, it was already at the edge of being one of my affinities. It was just at the top of the list under my actual affinities. I have some good ideas for using it. I just need to get it's affinity up more. I've only been able to use it to make a simple lightning bolt spell, which I trained my affinity in often.
My 150 INT and Wis skills were powerful. Really powerful. I mean, they always were but these weren't just throwing higher numbers at me. The INT skill was incredibly useful especially for my project for a new body. The WIS skill seemed underwhelming but it really wasn't.
*Ding!* By reaching 150 INT a new skill has been acquired! - Higher understanding
"The difference between knowing and understanding is as wide as ice and fire."
-Venetius the arcane scholar
-All skills are understood at an instinctual level as well as a theoretical level
*Ding!*Parallel processing has leveled up!
*Ding!* By reaching 150 WIS a new skill has been acquired! - Attuned
"The world at my fingertips. I can feel the universe shift around me."
-Farengandur, Grand sage of the world's end mountain
-Twice as potent affinities
-10% less mana used in elemental spells
-Affinities develop 5% faster
-Moderate mana sensing abilities
Ahhhh, the feeling of getting the skills is always great. The attuned skill didn't seem too great but it was. It really was. Even without the better mana senses. I could feel my affinities as a part of me so clearly now. If I tried I could simply feel through the air. Not mana sight or a skill but simply by tapping my affinities I could use my elements. My elements would respond to my will without any effort from me sometimes. Ruby was running down the stairs and she almost fell but suddenly she fixed herself and I could feel the air itself nudge her in place.
I felt my affinities begin to stir in a way I can't say I understand. The stairs were just one incident. If Summer and I drank some coffee my heat affinity would twitch of it's own volition and the coffee chilled down to the perfect temperature.
When Summer was sparring with Taiyang (I learned her weapons other forms by the way. A longsword and a pistol alongside her shortsword) she and I were backed almost against the treeline. I felt my space affinity push at Taiyang and he traveled towards us noticeably slower. After the fight he described what he felt as a resistance to moving. Like he was moving through water but less potent. That had given me an idea for a skill too. The Spatial resistance skill. It wouldn't bring any decent huntsman to a halt but it made the space in an area or around somebody thicker in a way. It took more energy to traverse it. I can't explain it in a way that makes theoretical sense. All I can say is that I felt like the space was rejecting movement in that area.
The INT skill was as impressive as attuned in it's own way. If I learned a rune I knew somewhere deep inside myself everything about it. How it worked, why it worked, what runes went well with it, and everything else. I didn't know knowledge. I felt it.
With anatomy I could understand human anatomy like I had practiced it a lifetime. With my spells I could feel out how the spell worked and just know. With my cooking I knew how an ingredient meshed with another, how it tasted, and how best to use it by feeling it a little. I also gained an immense appreciation for Summer's cookies. They were almost the perfect cookie.
For my time in Summer's soul I had read through all of the books on spells and absorbed them. I had gained a fair number of spells. I had only focused on the space ones and a few select spells that were too good to just pass up.
SKILLS -
Mundane -
Cooking (Lv. 41)
Singing (Lv. 16)
speed reading (Lv. 29)
building (Lv. 3)
tactics (Lv. 5)
lip reading (Lv. 13)
Metalworking (Lv. 44)
Weapons designing (Lv. 1)
(NEW) Sex (Lv. 19)
See more?...
AURA -
Aura (Lv. 23)
Aura control (Lv. 41)
Aural reinforcement (Lv. 38)
Accelerate thought (Lv. 8)
Aura transfering (Lv. 64)
Aura sensing (Lv. 19)
Aura suppressing (Lv. 47)
Dust usage (Lv. 1)
Absorb dust (Lv. 1)
PHYSICAL -
High speed movement (Lv. 21)
Controlled breathing (Lv. 93)
Sneak (Lv. 36)
Parallel processing (Lv. 2)
COMBAT -
Swordsmanship (Lv. 24)
Polearms (Lv. 19)
Light armor (Lv. 2)
Assault rifles (Lv. 1)
Pistols (Lv. 1)
Shotguns (Lv. 1)
MAGIC -
Mana control (Lv. 54)
Meditate (Lv. 74)
Physical mana projection (Lv. 47)
Mage sight (Lv. 57)
Imbue element (Lv. 37)
Produce element (Lv. 18)
Runes (Lv. 78)
Enchant (Lv. 70)
SPELLS -
Mage armor (Lv. 44)
Exo suit (Lv. 43)
Sun screen (Lv. MAX)
Air blade (Lv. 10)
Negate light (Lv. 7)
Water whip (Lv. 2)
Warp (Lv. 44)
Illusions (Lv. 27)
Controlled light vision (Lv. 4)
Blink (Lv. 18)
Expand (Lv. 5)
Spatial presence negation (Lv. 8)
Invisibility (Lv. 7)
Still winds (Lv. 39)
Wind whisper (Lv. 54)
Focused sensory enhancement (Lv. 27)
(NEW) Portal (Lv. 24)
-Create a portal to connect two spaces
(NEW) Teleport marker (Lv. 14)
-Create a marker in a location and become able to teleport to it.
(NEW) Dimension cut (Lv. 1)
-Create a hole in the dimensions of the world
(NEW) Tornado (Lv. 5)
-You create and control a tornado
(NEW) Fly (Lv. 15)
-You fly on the wind
(NEW) Heatwave (Lv. 1)
-Creates a wave of extreme heat that goes to an opponent
(NEW) Momentum (Lv. 1)
-Maintain your momentum no matter factors like air resistance or gravity
(NEW) Purify (Lv. 1)
-Imbue the element of purity into a corrupted entity or object and wipe away the corruption
(NEW) Flash step (Lv. 2)
-Use a rapid burst of motion attuned mana to kick off at high speeds
(NEW) Sanctify (Lv. 1)
-Erect a barrier to repel all weak forces of corruption
(NEW) Disaster call (Lv. 3)
-Call a natural disaster of varying intensity based on affinities and level
(NEW) Storm (Lv. 7)
-Create a thunderstorm through air, lightning, chaos, and nature
(NEW) Lightning bolt (Lv. 5)
-Create a bolt of pure lightning to fire to enemies
(NEW) Animate (Lv. 1)
-Grant temporary life to an object. Temporary golemancy
(NEW) Ice storm (Lv. 3)
-Add ice into a storm. Lightning jumps between the ice. Requires a storm to function.
(NEW) Heal (Lv. 2)
-Bring back a body to a healthy state
(NEW) Cure disease (Lv. 1)
-Cure a minor disease on a person
(NEW) Grow (Lv. 1)
-Draw on life and nature to rapidly grow a naturally occuring entity
(NEW) Resist spatial interference (Lv. 1)
-The space resists any change that occur within it
(NEW) Weaken spatial interference (Lv. 14)
-The space more easily accepts any change that occur within it
MISC -
Gamer's body (Max Lv.)
Temperature resistance (Lv. 68)
Pain resistance (Lv. 41)
Observe (Lv. 91)
Grimm anatomy (Lv. 3)
Human anatomy (Lv. 94)
I actually had so many skills that it gave me a bit of a headache to think of them without the higher understanding skill. With the skill I just knew what skill to use when I wanted to do something.
There were a few skills that I thought really showed promise. The growth skill was the biggest one. It had the potential to make a homunculus if I had it down. I'm confident that I could make one but I'd prefer to finish up my anatomy skill. I had finished all the books I could find now. I'm not sure I could get more though. I probably had to dissect somebody… I'm alright with that. If they're the trashiest most terrible person I can find I wouldn't feel very bad about it.
My metalworking skill was still a little low but I felt that it was good enough to make myself a metal body if I ever need or want to. I could actually make an inferior version of my combat body right now with some time. I had the runes, the metalworking expertise, and the enchanting expertise.
However, Summer's soul was superior at the moment with the spare aura and safety. I'm happy to just live here for a time. I want to get it right the first time anyways. No point wasting the metal or flesh to make myself a body just to make a new one later.
I didn't really focus on the spells all that much. I worked them for a week and got bored of them. I was more interested in getting a body. Runes and enchantments were more interesting anyways. Spells just got kind on underwhelming after a while. I didn't abandon them but I wasn't going to just grind them day in and day out. That's just boring. Magic is supposed to be fun. It normally is too. Just repeatedly casting spells is boring and tiring. I left my parallels up to it sometimes but I myself have little reason to work them.
The spell dimension tear though… I don't even know what that does. Portal is like Raven's semblance that goes anywhere but it takes time to make and teleport marker needs a marker, which I put in the Xiao Long house, to teleport to. Dimension cut does something along the lines of rip space apart. I… I'll stay away from that for now. My higher understanding skill I just got is helping a little now but dimensions are hard to understand.
Besides my reading, rune and enchantment studies, and physical world work I tried meditating again. Unlike before, though, I wasn't meditating to pass the time or anything. I was meditating to search my soul for my semblance. I was just a level away from seventy five and it was frustrating. I could catch glimpses of a power more and more often but I could never touch it. I had asked Summer about it and she said that not many people even unlocked their semblance.
To unlock your semblance you had to do a number of things. You had to be in the right mood with the right motive to unlock it. You had to have an understanding of yourself and seek desperately to change it or you had to look at yourself and completely accept who you are. Besides that already rather tall order you had to have a large aura pool, which I had already.
Summer had scolded me a bit when I got so frustrated with not unlocking my semblance. I was a prodigious wizard with a huge repertoire of spells at my fingertips. I had a number of affinities and had achieved immortality. I was even in a super huntress. Summer had heard my complaining and snapped all of this at me. At first I was angry but I meditated and I realized that she was absolutely right. I was powerful. I could take it easy. I should relax a bit. My semblance wasn't critical to me. I didn't even know what it was.
I took a good look at myself through a lot of meditation and I was a little disappointed to realize that I was a power hungry and greedy person. I eagerly grabbed for power all the time. That was why I didn't want to settle for a subpar body. Why I so often desired to level up my spells. I didn't really like that though. If I was always power hungry could I really ever be happy with what I would have? I don't think so. I forced myself to slow down a little after the scolding and just enjoyed the family I was staying with. Slowly it became less stressful to not have a body and not be as powerful as Ozpin or Salem. Just another thing to be thankful to Summer for.
Not that I got rid of the urge to be powerful. I want to be on par with the strongest of this world. I won't be controlled or beholden to anyone. I've got a few ways to do that but they're only ideas at the moment. For now I wait until I'm a bit stronger, smarter, and so on. And relaxing with people who are quickly becoming close can be forgiven. Working too hard is a bad idea, I know.
[|||| == ||||]
Miss Rose,
Recently a new maiden has emerged in Anima. We believe her to be the spring maiden. With all due haste you are to track her down and bring her to me so that she will not fall into the hands of Her. A private bullhead will be arriving to your house in two hours. This mission is expected to take several weeks if the last mission of this type is anything to go by. Please act with haste. I suspect that enemies are closing in on the maiden as well. If I have sensed her mana flare than She has too. Abyss' ability to teleport with you has no doubt been noticed by agents of Hers so any agents you encounter will certainly be equipped with an enchanted item to deny teleportation. Sadly there are no spells to bypass such an effect. I have tried. Good hunting. The last pang of mana I felt was in Wind path.
-Meridian Ozpin
"Oh no." I thought. Summer looked up from her scroll. It was dinnertime at the house so everyone was already together. She wore a fake smile.
"Sorry sweeties. Duty calls. I'm off to rescue maidens and beat up bad guys." Tai's eyes flashed in recognition. Saving maidens was meant literally, of course. Summer got up and went to throw on her cloak. Her sword was already standing by the door in case of emergency missions like this one.
Ruby hopped off of her seat and ran to her mother. Summer knelt down and hugged her tighter than normal. "You'll be back soon right?" She asked innocently.
"Of course. I'll be back before you know it." I can only hope. This is obviously a high risk mission.
"Promise?"
"Of course. I'm not going anywhere. This job might take a while but I'll always be here."
I felt a pang throughout my soul. This was it. This was THAT mission wasn't it… "Abyss?! What's wrong?"
"I just have a bad feeling. This is a big mission. There's no backup? Nothing but us?"
"Qrow is on a long term mission. Tai has to take care of the kids and he's not a part of the inner circle. Glynda can't just leave right before the final exams. Ozpin has duties here at beacon. No one else is close enough or trusted enough to get there. We're the only ones to go."
I calmed myself and hoped I could make enough of a difference. Summer was strong. Far stronger than she was just half a year ago. She had her affinities. She had opened her core completely now. She was the second strongest person I know but I still worry. It's a big mission. A burden beyond any I'd felt before.
Summer rushed around the house. She made cookies in bulk for both her and her daughters, gave Tai some kisses, and packed for the trip in my inventory. Sure she could use her inventory. She knew the basics of the spell but I liked her soul space. It was a big house with a workshop, study, bedroom, and whatever I felt I'd need or want projected in it with the handy reality warping powers. I like it that way.
I myself made sure everything was set around the house. My runes were set to keep the house mostly clear of dust? To keep the temperature nice? To make the walls sturdier? The enchantments were in place? Were the runes filled with purity attuned mana filled and powering the sanctify spell? Did Summer forget something?
Eventually we got everything settled and ready. The bullhead arrived and Summer hugged her kids and kissed Tai again. I stayed out of this kiss as I always did with the goodbye kisses. This was one for them and them alone. Ignoring it doesn't actually do all that much but it's the gesture of it that matters since I basically take away all of their privacy.
Summer and I got on the bullhead and waved a little before shutting the door and sitting down. Summer closed her eyes and napped and I practiced my runes a little. I was trying to figure out if runes carved into flesh were actually viable or if they would screw everything. So far they were looking very possible… sort of. The person applying the runes had traces of his or her mana in them since mana was used in creating the runes. I could use them on Summer if I used only her mana. But could she power them herself? And the rune structure for runes on the body would be extremely complex to not kill the person… what about enchanted objects to make people stronger or faster or the like?
It took a long time for the bullhead to reach Wind path. We had to stop for refueling when we hit the coast. Summer slept through most of it and only woke up once, where she sent Tai an update. The scenery of Anima was very nice. It was a huge variety of cliffs, swamps, and I saw some naturally occurring geisers as well. I wanted to see some floating islands but we never saw any.
Finally we arrived at wind path after sixteen hours of flying. The city was… dark. And sort of underdeveloped. And it was also raining. There weren't many sources of light to shine out of the city so it was hard to see. And when I say small I mean more like short. There were no towers or high buildings.
I nudged Summer's consciousness and she woke quickly with a brief application of supplement in place of coffee. "We're here?" She asked. A quick look out the window answered her own question. "As dirty and terrible as I remember." She said with disdain.
"You don't like the place?" I asked.
"I don't like Anima in general. Mistral is… alright and plenty of small villages are friendly and all around nice places but Wind Path, Kuchinashi, Himawari, and Renge are cesspits of crime. There's some nice people, sure, but the police are corrupt, the children are starving, and gangsters thrive. Only a few places are actually nice in Anima. Tenjikubotan is probably the only nice city in western Anima. Then again, out of eight cities besides Mistral itself only having one nice city west of it isn't much to brag about. Vale isn't perfect but at least our crime isn't blatant about it like Mistral or our government militarized like Atlas… there's not actually much bad about Vacuo. It's hot and sandy but the fact that they have a city at all is impressive."
I looked out with mage sight and scoured the city. I saw a few different hotspots of crime around in a few miles. All of the crime seemed… organized though. "The crime seems different here than in Vacuo." Summer rolled her eyes.
"Vacuo's always had a whole bunch of small gangs and one or two bigger ones. Mistral, though, has crime families. They're organised and usually spread throughout the cities. They even get along together except for the Parti family. The Parti family is the only family that actively expands into other family's territory. They're the second strongest behind the Lias family, which owns about half of Mistral's underground and most of Fire Path, Earth path, and Water path."
I thought on that for a moment. "Who owns Wind Path's underground?"
"The Dell family. They're smugglers through and through. Contacts from Vacuo to Atlas and they move enough dust under the table to make a Schnee cringe. Most of it probably comes from their mines, I mean."
"And what about outside the cities? The villages and such?" A well of some buried anger reared it's head before being squashed down.
"Bandits. Not murderers and rapists since spreading too much negativity is bad for business but extortion, raids, and threats are fair game. Most of the bandits are under one of three clans. The Uzu clan, the Insuro clan, or… the Branwen clan. They're the strongest and they focus more on keeping the other clans in line than harassing villagers but they're often the most bloody of the clans since bandits know how to fight."
I was silent for a moment. I just had one question left. "Why is the city so short?" Summer really wanted to brood and think but she answered it anyways, feeling that I needed to know this out of more than idle curiosity.
"The winds are intense above Wind Path. Intense enough that making tall buildings is risky if inclement weather comes along. It's why the city is called Wind Path. Everything is underground. The real city is down there. There are tunnels leading down into the underground around somewhere."
I sent my mage sight into the earth and poked around. Oh! I looked in no small amount of awe at the massive cavern that was Wind Path. I couldn't see all of the city, of course, but the city was still a city. A large amount of buildings sat on the floor of the huge cavern as buildings do. Roads were made of smoothed stone rather than brick and the whole cavern was lit by massive crystals of light dust that sat in the roof of the cavern.
Massive stalagmites pointed upwards to the roof of the cave and even speared almost into it with some of the biggest. The tops of most of them were flattened and a house constructed on it. Around the stalagmites that were… colonised, a road spiraled downwards. Obviously for the rich.
I looked in awe at the sheer size of the cavern. This is the sort of stuff I want to see in the world. Natural wonders that stretch the imagination and make the impossible seem possible. Wonders that beggar belief. This was just one example. I'll bet that somewhere buried in Vacuo lay massive cities and temples filled with riches. In Atlas there could be massive grimm of ancient times trapped in ice. In Anima there are undoubtedly things just like this. And I want to find them.
I gazed at the city as Summer strided through the streets of Wind Path. "Where are we going first?" I asked.
"We're not going into the underground unless I can't find anything up here. I have a well informed contact named Gerobril that owns a bar here. Qrow introduced me, of course. He'll probably know something."
I scoured the city in a flash with my parallels and found it in no time. The bar was a rustic sort of style that was open but empty. It's a little surprising that it's open at midnight. Maybe business is bad? Or perhaps most everyone lives underground.
I showed Summer a back alley on the way to the bar to beat up some muggers. She seemed to appreciate my effort. She does like stopping bad guys. Besides, the guy attacked first. His fault really.
Summer approached the bar and sat down. The bartender, a big man with a beer belly, glanced at her and growled out: "You'll be having?"
"Information preferably. Did you hear anything about a girl who had some sort of incident? The one that involves a lot of fire, wind, ice, lightning, or something like that without dust?"
"A'course." He grunted. "Everyone's heard that bit of news by now. Girl in bottom south quarter caused a blackout. You want the details, though, yeah?" Summer nodded and passed a 50 lien card.
The bartender leaned back a little. "Yesterday a rich girl by the name of Bondi Trys was yelling with her boyfriend, some local asshole, about him cheating on her. He gets defensive and it escalates. Bondi screams at him and the local asshole decides to slap her to shut her up. This does not have the desired effect. Now asshole is fried, Bondi is a murderer, which nobody really cares about except the rich people, and a stray lightning bolt of hers shot into a transformer and broke the whole city down for a few hours. You want where she ran it'll cost you extra."
"You know where she went?" Summer asked somewhat excitedly.
"The girl wasn't tidy about getting away. She's a rich and sheltered girl. She bought a ticket out of the city with some pocket change she had. Well, and a little threatening by throwing her family name around. Some sort of lightning semblance, we think. Nobody knows where she got aura, though."
He basically said nothing we could use. He must be running out of fuel to run that mouth of his.
Summer passed another fifty lien card and the bartender shook his head. Summer sighed and passed a hundred. The bartender smiled toothily and passed back the fifty. I guess a hundred lien is the fee. "Furijiya." Summer left without another word.
"That was easy." I commented.
"It was. It doesn't seem like the girl is very smart though. That's good right now but she's going to be a pain, I can tell. Now we have to get on the bullhead again."
… I wish I had gotten to go into the underground. It seemed like such a cool place.
[|||| == ||||]
Furijiya was boring. No way around it. The city was fairly new and quiet. Not much happening but some construction. Just a really tiny city still being constructed. It was located northeast - with an emphasis on east - of Wind Path on the peninsula. It had only taken three hours since the pilot had needed to refuel for another half an hour.
"I've got some ideas for finding Bondi. I'm going to make an avatar and go see if my route works."
"What're you planning?" Summer said suspiciously.
"I'm going to go invisible and poke around the local gangs. They're powerful, right?"
"That might work. Go for it."
I made an avatar and sent it invisibly flying through the city. I didn't really like flying but I admit that it's useful. It's really draining even with my absurd affinity for wind. Flight wasn't viable for combat because of it's cost. It was also hard to maintain since it was complex on top of expensive. Funnily enough, according to the book it was one of the best flying spells out there second only to a gravity spell. Everybody just teleported everywhere. It was cheaper in terms of mana and space magic could transport people in bulk.
Either way I could still use flight sometimes. Like now. I flew over the city and looked for a big headquarters for gangs. It didn't take long. Maybe ten minutes. I landed my avatar and swept through the whole building almost effortlessly. I could see everything, go invisible, and silence an area. It wasn't hard to be quiet. I even gained two levels from the more terrible human beings in the building. There weren't many, surprisingly. Maybe it was a Vacuo thing.
I had the boss on his knees with my magic controlling his breath. "Now… what do you know about Bondi Trys. Sort of rich girl, lightning semblance, passed through a while ago… she might still be here actually."
"She got a loan and ran east with a horse twelve hours ago! She came in here all swagger and pomp but actually desperate! She ran right after she got her money! I sent a hitman after her I'm sorry! Please let me live!"
"Of course you're going to live. You haven't done anything really bad yet. Let's see, four counts of extortion, eighteen successful heists, extensive amounts of bribery, and three assisted murders. Smart fellow, though, all those people were real assholes so if you were caught you could plead vigilantism. You're just here to keep an eye on things, right?"
"I-but-but I-dauh-huh? How?!"
"Yes, yes. Now go to sleep. And get a new job. Not everybody is as forgiving as me and I'm a bit of a bastard myself. I also killed four members on the way here. All the assholes who deserved it I assure you but-and he's unconscious."
I hummed as the man's brain finally knocked himself out from the pain of being choked. Anatomy was really helping me out here. I could easily count down in my head how long it would take for the man to pass out thanks to visual cues. It was terribly convenient.
Now with everybody knocked out or dead I could loot the building with a parallel and tell Summer. Say, how is she doing with that bar hopping?
[|||| == ||||]
Summer was currently walking from one bar to the next information hotspot I think. "I found her. She went east. She has a horse. She has a hitman after her. That's all the boss I interrogated knows since she apparently stopped only for a few hours before running."
Summer slowed and looked to the sun before walking quickly in a direction. "I looked in two bars and a bona fide information dealer. How did you find the information?"
"I got lucky. The man I interrogated was a local gang leader more here to keep an eye on things than do actual work. He gave Bondi a loan and she ditched him. He had probably already been looking into her to send a message or work her to pay her debt back somehow."
"Lucky indeed. Now the only place east worth a fart in the wind is Keshi. A small town around the edge but still just big enough to hide in. Bondi isn't a complete idiot it seems. Bondi is small and out of the way. She could probably hideout there for a while in a brothel or something. Maybe she'll play huntress and shoot lightning at the grimm."
"Let's hope for the best. Can we take the bullhead?"
"When did Bondi leave?"
"Twelve hours ago."
"Then we'll sprint it. The bullhead is still refueling and we'll better find her on foot."
I quieted as Summer walked a few minutes more to the edge of town. She found a road and took down it at a quiet jog. After getting somewhat out of sight Summer sped up and eased into a run. Summer could run for a LONG time too. Her VIT was over five hundred with aura so she could keep herself going for over a day. She once said she had gone two days without stopping once but wasn't anywhere near fighting condition then.
I didn't slack off either. I tapped into the wind and gave her a strong tailwind to push her along a little. I also pushed my space affinity with a parallel and pulled a weaken spacial interference spell in front of Summer. Finally I pushed my motion affinity and made momentum constant while negating air pressure. Summer was going REALLY fast now. Not speed of sound but more like bounding down the road at the speeds of a car with the agility of a professional gymnast, which she probably was come to think of it. Perhaps not a contortionist but no slouch either.
I also looked around with mage sight a bit though I couldn't properly focus with it. I maintained the tailwind, the least draining part of our system, at the same time though so I couldn't properly look.
For over three hours I vigilantly scanned the country while Summer ran. I had pushed our mana and aura regeneration to the limit and sometimes a little beyond to keep the pace. Sometimes a grimm would be in our path and I would blast it with an electrically attuned mana arrow to kill it. They barely impeded us.
Finally after so long following the road we must have gone a quarter of the way across the peninsula. Further ahead on the path I noticed a young lady and an older woman with two horses ahead of us. The lady wore tattered everyday wear of a long sleeved somewhat light blue shirt and dark grey pants. Her blonde hair was short and swept almost over her left eye.
The older woman was far more interesting and clearly more deadly. She wore her ashen grey hair down to her neck in silky curls that stayed out of her eyes. A black and blue almost bodysuit-like attire was on her and no jewelry other than a small steel amulet hanging down to her breasts. Strangely enough it looked almost casual while at the same time enticing. It didn't escape me that she had plenty of concealed weapons underneath her clothing. Her eyes seemed to almost glow with how fiery a golden amber they were. She was dangerous. Extremely so.
I slapped an observe on both of them as soon as they came into view.
Bondi Trys
Title: Maiden of Spring
Level – 19
HP – 77
AP – 680
MP - 20,680
STR - 6 (+10%)= 6.6
VIT - 7 (+10%)= 7.7
DEX - 14 (+10%)= 15.4
INT - 47 (+0%)=47
WIS - 17 (+0%)= 17
LUK - 12 (+0%)= 12
Semblance: Locked
Affinities:
Lightning: 1036
Wind: 1024
Nature: 1009
Earth: 1000
Water: 1000
Fire: 1000
Ice: 1000
Chaos: 22
Perks:
Maiden of Spring - You are a maiden. One of the heirs of the legendary women blessed with powers by the wizard. Whether this power is a blessing, a burden, or a tool is decided by you and you alone. No matter your decision you are worthy. +1000% to MP capacity and regeneration. Mana and aura are unlocked. Nature, fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, and earth affinities are increased by 1500. Luck increased by 100 in spring. No limits on your total affinities.
Bio: Bondi Tris was born into a wealthy family in Wind Path. Her parents were upper managers at the local mines that made a sizable sum off of the smuggling operations common in Wind Path.
Bondi decided early on that she wanted to be a musician and she trained under tutors in the clarinet and soprano saxophone. Her parents also allowed her private tutors in every core study typically taught at school.
Throughout her life Bondi was mostly confined to the upper districts of the west under-district of Wind Path and so she grew up lonely. In addition, her parents were rather strict and valued the trait in her tutors, which gave her trust issues of authority figures and a eschewment for many rules. Last year she begged to be granted more freedom after gaining top scores in the REAA (Remnant educational aptitude assessment) at eighteen with several advanced subjects being covered in addition.
She recently murdered her close friend, Cadet Frost, on accident in surprise. She is running from Wind Path to escape her parents, her guilt, and criminal charges.
Ashaya Fall
Title: Queen's finest; Burning spectre
Level – 229
HP – 7362.5
AP – 10,656
MP - Locked
STR - 181 (+680%)= 1411.8
VIT - 155 (+680%)= 1209
DEX - 268 (+680%)= 2090.4
INT - 138 (+0%)= 138
WIS - 296 (+0%)= 296
LUK - 107 (+0%)= 107
Semblance: See the world burn to ashes - Your body may be composed of fire or burning ashes at will. Consumes very little aura at the lowest possible heat. More heat emitted means more aura consumed.
Affinities: Locked
Perks:
Favor of the queen - The queen of grimm, Salem, has grown attached to you. You have slavishly devoted yourself to her and been granted a unique boon as well as other effects. You are damaged by purity affinity. Some grimm will obey you and none will attack you. All entities with a natural born purity affinity will be able to sense your alignment and will be naturally hostile in nature to you.
Boon: Blackest soul: Your soul has been tainted by corruption and eldritch powers. As a result of shunning your soul's natural form your soul must be forced to shield you as it wishes for death due to it's corruption. Your aura provides double the physical buff it normally does. Shielding must be done manually. Aura size is reduced by 10% Regeneration due to aura is incredibly rapid; almost instantaneous; and 90% cheaper than usual.
Bio: Ashaya Fall is the mother to Cinder and Ember Fall and a devoted agent of the queen of grimm.
At an early age she ran from her abusive family seeking strength. She found Salem and was put through trials to serve her. Grimm being the most powerful force on Remnant she eagerly agreed and faced several trials such as killing her family, seducing a man, and committing self mutilation in Salem's name.
At age nine she was formally trained by Salem to become powerful. For years she has served as Salem's primary agent and has even birthed two daughters for her, named Cinder and Ember Fall. She is teaching them when possible and preaching absolute obedience to Salem, who is their mother figure. She is currently attempting to befriend the Spring maiden to sacrifice her to her daughter Ember as well as waiting for Summer Rose to appear so she may kill her. She is equipped with two custom made dustcaster swords equipped with wind, fire, and corrupt dust as well as an amulet enchanted to deny teleportation. She's incredibly skilled beyond that of masters in her twin blades to make up for her physique, which falls just short of that of the strongest hunters.
She knows you are there.
While the lines about having two daughters I nearly stopped but continued. At the last line in Asha's bio I immediately shouted "SUMMER STOP!" And to her credit she did. I stopped all of my buffs and told her fearfully "There's an extremely powerful enemy ahead. Her aura is tainted by corruption, making it… different. She isn't a wizard or witch or whatever you call female magic users. The maiden is with her. Be extremely careful since she has an anti-teleport amulet as we suspected."
"Does she know I'm here?" Summer questioned calmly.
"Yes. However, she doesn't know that you know she knows. She intends to ambush you. Possibly under the pretense of friendship. Her semblance is to turn her body to fire. Or part of it into fire anyways. She's hurt by the purity element. Her aura pool is smaller than yours but she's also extremely fast and strong. Far more than you on all accounts. Our only advantage is our aura pool and magic. However, she regenerates instantaneously and at a tenth of the cost most do."
"Shit!" Summer hissed out loud. I felt her soul shift as every aura enhancement she had was applied to her. I pitched in as best as I could with the sensory buff focused on her sight to more accurately let Summer see Ashaya's blades when they inevitably clashed.
"We'll talk to the maiden first. Even if she is untrained a maiden is powerful enough to be important. Attacking first would be pointless since Ashaya knows we're here and she isn't attacking. Bondi might be hostile if we attack as well."
Summer kept her sword sheathed and walked up the path at a sedate pace. I noticed Ashaya look towards us and narrow her eyes. My lip reading skill kicked in and I could make out some of what they were saying.
"Is something wrong?" Bondi asked.
"Not particularly." Ashaya said casually. "A rather bad woman is coming here. I can defend you if you want."
"What?! How can you tell?!"
"Like I told you, dear, I'm a huntress. I have good ears as well. You can trust me to know these things."
Bondi looked extremely concerned but also rather hesitant. "I'd like to talk to her or him first."
Ashaya frowned disapprovingly at Bondi but said nothing. Summer came into the clearing with her soothing smile on her. The same one she had when she found me. It was hard to tell that it was fake.
"Hi! You're Bondi, right?" Summer asked cheerily. Bondi nodded. Ashaya casted a burning gaze into Summer's eyes, clearly hostile. Summer didn't look at her but I had a sense that her entire focus was on her rather than Bondi despite the fact that she looked to be talking to her.
"And you are?"
Summer took a deep and dramatic bow while leaving no openings. I wonder how long she practiced this. "Summer Rose! Huntress extraordinaire at your service!"
"Wait, Summer Rose?! THE Summer Rose?!" Bondi looked at Summer closely. "The one from team STRQ?"
"Why couldn't you have been this way? You called me a pedo and pushed me away! Look at this nice girl playing along!" Summer complained to me. I rolled my metaphorical eyes.
"Yup! Ozpin wants to meet with you. Nothing bad, I promise, but people like you are special. Not everybody can do the things you can. I can bring him here right now if you want…"
In a way I could. The portal spell wasn't bound by distance and didn't need a marker like teleported marker. My marker was at the Xiao Long residence right now though. The portal just needed about a minute to form properly since not having a marker made it a bit hard to get it in the right place. I could probably make one faster with practice but I don't care to. Blink is my combat teleportation.
"I… No thanks." Bondi said with a frown.
Summer faked looking confused. "Why not?"
"Ashaya already offered me a job at her family home as a musician. I just want to live my life in peace. I don't want anything to do with huntresses. Sorry if that disappoints you."
"So the hard way it is then. This is going to be hard, of course."
"Could you do something?"
"Stall. I've got something a bit draining but no less good." I called on several affinities and stirred the sky. Clouds began to coalesce to a darker form.
"He's not going to force you to do anything you know. Ashaya can come too if she wants." Ashaya shook her head. She didn't notice the clouds forming. I made a parallel maintain the light levels from a clear sky so it wasn't obvious.
"I'm sorry miss Rose but we have a ship to catch in Keshi. It would be a shame if we missed it so we'll have to end it here."
"Done." I said. I had combined my disaster call skill with storm to make an artificial storm quickly. It wasn't fast but it wasn't slow either. It took all of my electrical, air, and water affinity to hold it back. Even then it was getting stronger with every second I held it back. At best I could direct it's strike but lightning was more than just electricity. It was stronger. I was missing that core component that only made it stronger.
I collected all of the charge in one place for the first large bolt and waited for a signal. Turbulence kept building the charge in the storm and making me struggle to hold the bolt with my low affinity.
Sadly all I could do to protect Summer was cool the air around her to protect her from the coming heat and still it to muffle the boom. Poor Ashaya, having good hearing.
"End it here you say? Well… we can do that I suppose."
"Now."
I let the lightning loose and pointed it straight down onto Ashaya. Somebody screamed and the world went white.
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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