Devourer

Chapter 93: The Fall Part 5

As I cast my gaze to the destroyed wall, I saw the flying magma setting both houses and people alight. The red crackling balls of ether charged stone and magma hit the houses and streets. They exploded and popped like firecrackers spewing their lethal contents in all directions. I could see the magma eating into the surrounding stone houses. Any human that got hit by some of it didn’t last very long, death came in seconds as the magma ate into their bodies.

Ether charged materials tend to be destructive to other non ether charged materials when they are this unstable. All that latent energy has to go somewhere and if you get flooded with that energy bad things happen.

God that felt good, it’s been such a long time since I cut loose like this. I’ve been far too civil for far too long. Nothing like a little death and destruction to unwind all that pent up aggression…

Speaking of aggression…

I can see my vision going a little red…

And I’m starting to feel really excited and I just want to…

Kill something…

I know this feeling, it was the same feeling I had back in that bandit camp. The joy of battle…

I guess at the end of the day I am still a monster, still Firstborn. My race defined natural selection and enshrined the law of the jungle in the logic of this world.

I sensed a group of mages on an untouched section of the wall. Channeling a spell at me. I could see other soldiers and archers getting into defensive positions. I could also see a mithril team of adventurers there. Funny… I thought there weren’t any mithril teams here… also… they don’t look Volerian… something was off…

Well I really want to kill someone. It must be my monstrous side coming out…

Those guys are alive…

I saw the spell fly free from the ritual so I raised my hand and blocked the spell with a simple barrier spell. 

Yeah they are alive… they’ll do…

I flapped my wings and dove right at the group of soldiers on the wall. I activated my ability [Solarite Strike]. It's simply my variant of the Phoenix’s ether explosion ability. Azatherine used it in our first fight to get me off her after the initial ambush. It was also a rather creative way to turn myself into a missile.

I saw their faces go pale as I dived down. I slammed down into the center of the group and detonated my ability. My vision went white for a moment as the blast triggered then when I looked around I saw the section of the wall I was on had the top layer blasted apart. I found myself sitting in a shallow pool of ether charged magma. 

Annoying filth… 

I held my hand out and drained the ether out of the surrounding magma. The magma cooled and hardened as I drained all the energy out. With a simple shake of my body the dried magma fell off. As I resurveyed my surroundings I saw that some of the humans survived. Some soldiers were caught on the edge of the blast and I could see them writhing on the ground. Their armor was either smoking or warped from the heat. Many were clutching their faces as they screamed and moaned, I could see that their eyes were ruined from the heat. The heat from the blast had completely dried out their eyes. But these were not my main concern.

Those mithril ranked adventures had made a clean escape and as far as I could tell they were completely unharmed. There were two of them that had an interesting appearance. If I couldn’t see their physiology and I didn’t have some “borrowed” memories I would assume that they are not human. 

What is so special? Well simply put I have never seen a human with such dark coloured skin. It was this dark brownish color that I had never seen before. But from what I can tell internally there are just some minor differences that shouldn’t affect overall performance. Was this an offshoot of the main template? Or was it something like hair color? I know humans have a large amount of variation between different members of species mostly due to their rather unstable genetic structure and their high birth rate. Especially for the older races the variations were small, mostly extending to slight changes in colouration. But humans had differing heights, skin color, hair color, even hair structure such as curly or straight. Certainly an interesting anomaly in the humanoid class.

“Who are you? Guild Master Gavril mentioned there was this odd appearance of this Mithril rank team from Eastern Voleria but somehow I don’t think you are Western Volerian…” I said as I examined the group. 

I could still feel the feral excitement inside me but it is good to know that I still had control over it. But I suppose if I really get put into danger or I get really angry then all bets are off…

The group didn’t reply but I saw their vitals do a little jump when I mentioned I didn’t think they were Western Volerian. 

“No… you aren’t are you… Guild Master Gavril had her suspicions and now… so do I… so where are you from really…” I said as I slowly slithered closer. As I did so the group backed away and matched my pace. They had good movement, even though their eyes were glued on me they were moving backwards in perfect formation. These guys and girls were well trained, very well trained.

“Come now, did you think Gavril didn’t know what you were doing in this city? So many inquiries and investigations into a particular subject…” I said with a smile and I saw the group flinch again, I could tell they were realizing that they had been made. Their cover was blown and now they had the wolf’s undivided attention.

“Come on, you were so curious about the Great Beast of the Elysian Woods. Well he’s right here, if you want to ask some questions now is the time…” I said with a chuckle.

I looked over to the right and saw the dark skinned woman reach into her pocket and grasp this canister.

“I wouldn’t try to run if I were you. You really I think I can’t see through that little smoke bomb or whatever that is in your pocket? I said and the woman visibly flinched and her hand let go of the canister for a moment. 

“So where are you from? Hmm? Mugumma?” I asked as I continued to approach. No reaction in their vitals, that rules that out.

“No… not Mugumma. The Valley? No… not that either…” I said as I smiled and I could tell they were getting more and more uncomfortable with this situation. It was starting to dawn on the group that I was ever so slowly creeping towards the truth.

“Merchant Princes? Oh… so the two of you are from the Isles of the Merchant Princes…” I said as I turned to the two dark skinned ones. This really shook them up and I could tell they were getting ready to fight.

“So the other three of you are from Divonia…” I said and I got a reaction from the other three. If they were working together chances are their homes were geographically close to each other. 

“Well that is interesting…” I said as the mage flourished her staff and buffed her team. That was a speed buff, they were going to try and run. 

I shot at them as I opened my mouth and breathed a jet of white fire at them. They easily scattered, I saw the archer leap onto a nearby watchtower to my left. I spun and used my tail to strike the watchtower and the stone gave way. The entire structure collapsed and crumbled like a sand castle. The archer leapt off the tower and I shot a spine at her. But I saw a flash of blue and the archer was replaced with the warrior who had his glowing shield raised. The bone spine struck a magic barrier and shattered it. Then it hit the enchanted shield and bounced off. 

I moved to pounce on the warrior who was stuck in mid air but then I saw this magical platform appear below him. He used it to kick off and retreat back towards his team. I moved to pursue, then the archer and the mage shot a pair of attacks at me. Then I noticed that the rogue was missing and I sensed a magic signature behind me. I did a quick estimation of their attacks and I realized I was going to take some minor damage but it was within the acceptable range.

All things considered this was a well executed attack, it’s like these five knew exactly what to do and when to do it. By attacking like this, they ensured I had to choose. I could either defend against the frontal attacks or the one in the rear. There is more danger from the front but the attack from the rear actually put one of their fellows in danger. I had read about this strategy, it was designed for attacks against extremely dangerous and unknown foes to gauge defensive ability. By having the rogue strike from the rear they could gain insight on the defensive properties of the monster. It was a strategy to gather information, most monsters will deal with the most immediate threat. 

Yes the frontal attack was the more dangerous, but no one said the frontal attack was considered a significant danger. I turned around and I saw the rogue’s eyes open in panic, in a flash I snapped him up in my jaws. I felt the attacks strike my back. It damaged my wings but they would be healed soon enough. At the end of the day this strategy was not an all out attack, it was a probing strike. So they did not put everything into that frontal strike.

I closed my jaws and I felt myself cut him in half at the waist. I tossed my head to the side and flung the lower half of his body off the wall. I turned around to see the whole party staring pale faced at me as I calmly chewed their companions' top half. The shock was only a short moment and soon their guard was up again. I saw the dark skinned woman who served as the mage grasp the canister again. The others flashed their gazes at her and they tensed their feet as if preparing to run.

I smiled as I spat the mangled dagger that was in the rogue’s hand in their direction.

“Go on then, run… see how far you get…” I said with a smile as I lowered my body as if raring to pounce.

“I love a good chase…” I said with a chuckle.

Then the canister flew and it exploded in a cloud of smoke. I couldn't help but smile at that little device. It was pretty clever honestly, it wasn’t just a smoke cloud. It also had an ether interference effect, if that smoke bomb was thrown into a group of mages they would have some trouble channeling their spells. It was obviously designed to interfere with ether detection methods, if this was done in front of scryer mages they wouldn’t be able to see anything. But I could see everything just fine. I saw them jump off the wall right into the outer city. Looks like they are trying to use the city as a shield, I can’t go all out in the city, I’ll just wreck everything. 

Still let’s see how fast they can run, their retreat options are limited. The warrior and the casters will struggle to keep up with the archer. Then to my surprise I saw the mage and priest flourish their spells mid air, a magic board appeared under each of their feet and they picked up speed. Ah so they had an escape plan like this. I was wondering why foreign spies didn’t run at the first opportunity. They must have wanted to observe me and test my abilities in combat before making a getaway. 

They were moving quickly, they would lose even a pursuing wyvern, even a weaker phoenix. But something like Azatherine will be easily able to keep up and even catch them. They probably didn’t know this, it’s not like information on White Fire Phoenixes were just lying around. Still at this rate they will be out of the city soon and I didn’t feel like doing a long chase.

I casted this spell Mahiala taught me [Batian Jam], an old spell that specialized in frying spells. Particularly useful if you wanted to capture targets alive.

I released the spell and from my hand shot out a narrow wave of blue energy. The mage and priest spun their staffs and put up a barrier. They must think this is some kind of offensive spell, jamming spells were rare in this day and age.

But jamming spells jammed barriers the same way they do magic hoverboards. They ended up being blasted off their hoverboards as their barrier spells shorted out violently. They hit roofs hard and their bodies ended up rolling off and landing in the street. The warrior and the archer found their hoverboards disappearing from under their feet, the archer managed to stick the landing but the warrior stumbled and ended up denting the roof as well as destroying a few dozen roof tiles. 

Seize the casters

I commanded the hive mind and I sensed Legiana send back an affirmative. Oh hang on, this is interesting, both Legiana and Cecilia are on the move…

I hovered over the archer and the warrior as they warily looked up at me with weapons raised. 

“End of the line…” I said with a fanged smile. Honestly this assault is quite interesting, I found that cool elf specimen and now these guys. I thought this whole event would be dry and boring. Good thing humans are interesting are fun, if not life is going to be really boring.

“Now then I’m going to give you two a choice, you can either surrender or you can be captured. You see we may eventually have to negotiate with the Divonia Empire so a few extra bargaining chips never hurt.” I said as I extended my hand like a killer salesman.

I could see two invisible figures float up from behind the two adventurers, it was a high level concealment spell so the two adventurers were none the wiser.

I saw the warrior turn and give the archer a look and the archer nodded. 

“For the Empire.” the archer said as she turned around, I could sense sorrow in her. She thought she was going to leave the warrior behind. 

She turned and was about to run when Cecilia reappeared and shocked her with a lightning spell. The warrior whirled around to see a smiling Cecilia reappear with Legiana calmly standing next to her. The archer was now gasping and groaning on the ground, her body smoking and her hair singed from the lightning.

“For MY empire…” Cecilia said as her hands crackled with arcane power.

No casters to protect you now little warrior…