Chapter 429: The Hunt for Night VI

“Hi! Can I help you!” I asked the group of blue headband-wearing men who’d just come into my little clinic.

They spread out through my sparse clinic, looking a little lost. It wasn’t like I had anything here yet, not really giving much ambiance or… anything really. Only thing I’d done were a number of runes to help with privacy and reinforcing the walls. The endless threads going round the city had crept into my space as well.

I was tempted to start experimenting on them in my spare time. I had [Parallel Thoughts] and a full wizardry education.

“Hello [Healer]!” The obvious leader of the group said, coming over and offering his hand. I figured why not, and shook it. He tried to do that stupid vice-grip thing, and while he was stronger than I was, I was much tougher than I looked.

“We noticed you were new to the area, and we figured we’d stop by and say hello. Be good neighbors, you know.” He continued.

“Well hello again!” I said, not quite knowing what to say. This was by far the friendliest interaction I’d had since opening up my clinic. “Always good to know my neighbors.”

“The name’s Billy. We’re the Three Dragons Triad. If you need to acquire anything, no matter what the guards say about it, we’re the people to talk with.”

My face fell at that. It was like a ballista bolt to the heart. It was some of the worst news I’d gotten since I discovered what had happened with the fae.

The Night I knew wouldn’t tolerate a gang calling themselves the Three Dragons Triad in his city. He’d ruthlessly stomp them out, then hang their corpses from the city gates to send a signal.

Well… I suppose in Sanguino, they stuck them on crucifixes on the side of the road instead of hanging them off the city gate.

A few tears sprang to my eye, and my entire expression was entirely misinterpreted by the [Gangster] in front of me. He grinned viciously at me.

“See, if Dreamflower’s your vice, we can get you that. If it’s not Dreamflower, you can let us know, we’ll tell you the price. Poisons? We’ve got you covered. Have a taste for the exotic? We run the best brothels in Sanguino. Rare creatures are more your thing? Just say the word. A small raptor could be great for a woman like you in a place like this. Or if that’s not your speed, we can get you a spear. Don’t worry about the guards, they don’t come here.”

He paused at that, looking me up and down in a slow, deliberate fashion.

“Of course, the best, cheapest, and easiest protection is to just pay us. Our rate’s 400 arcs a month. We’ll be round next week to collect.”

I put my hands on my hips. I opened my mouth to start arguing, looked at the various [Gangsters], realized I’d get absolutely nowhere, and in a rare moment of social graces, shut up.

There was absolutely no question in my mind which way this fight would go if it came to it. I’d slaughter them all in a heartbeat. Maybe two, if my adrenaline was up and one was particularly twisty or tricky.

I didn’t want to fight. I didn’t want to kill. I didn’t want to explain to the guards why there was a pile of corpses coming out of my clinic, I didn’t want to deal with a never-ending stream of enforcers from the gang coming round, trying to avenge the last set. It promised to be a mess and a half.

Especially the ‘here’s the latest set of enforcer bodies, please don’t make me stand trial for murder again.’ part. I was enjoying Sanguino. I wanted to stay here.

I also didn’t want to pay 400 arcs a month, no matter how I could afford it. Fuck that noise. Forget how many mangos I could buy. So many mango trees. Okay, fine, maybe only a half-dozen saplings a month with that, but still! No. Way.

I was the daughter of a guard. I’d grown up around them, I’d joined the Rangers and the Sentinels. I was firmly on the side of law and order. I knew paying them would simply embolden them, cause them to slowly squeeze and up the pressure until they found my limit.

I had a whole week to figure out how to get the triad off my back, a task that others with as much or more political and social power than I had probably tried and failed at, before I’d need to resort to more drastic measures. Guards were the obvious choice, but there had to be a reason the Triad was still operating. Bribes? The Rangers were next… if the Rangers here held the same role as the Rangers in Remus. A bit of a stretch there, but I saw no issue in asking them to help. What did I have to lose?

A problem for another day.

I was gearing up for a much easier problem. One that I could punch in the face, one that I could burn with searing Radiance and get patted on the back instead of hauled up before a [Magistrate].

We had a wyrm to slay.

“What do you want on this one? And forgive my ignorance, but what part is it?” I asked Iona as she handed me a narrow, sharp piece of armor. We were in the field behind the Drop of Blood inn, enchanting Fenrir’s gear while the wyvern watched closely. Auri still wasn’t back from her day trip.

I’d already told Iona all about the Three Dragons Triad, and she said she’d think about the problem.

‘Armor’ was being generous, and the only difference between armor and a weapon was how it was used. I doubted this did much protecting.

“Talon-sheaths for Fenrir’s hindlegs. Got something to make it sharper and pierce more?”

I eyed the piece, and its size.

“I can do sharper, or I can do pierce. I doubt I can get both on, not with how small the piece is, and are you sure? He walks on his legs, with all that weight, I’d imagine durability is more important.” I said.

“If Fenrir’s grounded, we’ve got bigger issues than durability, and he’s got an armor skill.” Iona pointed out.

“Wouldn’t he be grounded if he’s using the enchantments proposed anyway?” I asked.

“Big dive.” The wyvern in question answered with a rumble.

Ahhh, that made sense.

“Alright, big dive it is. I’m going to go for sharpness, unless you think you’ll land on your toes?”

Fenrir gave a minuscule shake of his head, which was a much larger movement than it sounded like.

I went back to studying the talon-sheath, trying to figure out how to best enchant it. Enchanting a large piece of gear was easy. Take the standard sharpness runes, slap it on with the right skills, call it a day.

Enchanting a small cone like this? Tricky, tricky.

I could just enchant the entire set of armor with a few runes, but individually enchanting each piece was better overall.

The School had lessons on circular enchantments, but we’d learned and practiced on large tubes with a small bend, not tiny cones. The theory was the same, but the execution…?

This was going to take some brainpower. The alternative was a very small rune that couldn’t have as much mana flow through it, and wouldn’t be nearly as effective. Still better than nothing.

“Got any more ideas for your arrows?” I asked Iona as another part of me was busy solving the curved cone problem, while a third was carefully drawing an enchantment on another piece of Fenrir’s gear. A fourth was reading a checked-out library book off to the side. Wasn’t hunting for Night through library books anymore, not for some time. I was getting a fun reading break in.

I’d be back to the grind soon enough.

How did I ever live without [Parallel Thoughts]!?

“I changed my mind on a light enchantment.” Iona said. “One arrow with it could be a lifesaver.”

I mentally added it to the list.

“Yeah! Also, I think I can make one so bright that it hurts to look at. That’s one heck of an attack.”

“Right, so far I’ve got a wide range of elemental arrows, from Fire to Lightning, piercing arrows, long-flight arrows, shadow arrows, and thunderclap. Also, explosion, void, splinter, whistling - we should make a code on those, be great to talk at a distance - fake dull arrows, growth, binding arrows in an array of different elements, and… that’s it for now.”

Seeking wasn’t an option, along with phasing, good magic nullification or mana draining, teleporting - either the arrow or the caster, at least not at my skill level and actual level - transmutation - including petrification, although the arrow itself could be changed, arrows that drew their own skill as they landed, and frankly the list of options was endless.

I wish I knew more about curses. A curse was the perfect

thing to send over an arrow. There was just the tiny issue of a huge knowledge gap, both on curses, and on making them.

I was disappointed with myself for not thinking of enchanted arrows earlier, especially since Maximus had suggested that type of archery build for myself in the past. In my defense - it was Iona’s class, not mine.

Shrinking arrows was a possibility, but… why?

“Poison?” Iona suggested, and I shuddered.

“I can’t do poison, and do we honestly want poisoned arrows hanging around? An enchantment that requires thought and effort is one thing, but I have no idea how to coat an arrow, or properly store a poisoned one. Or keep its potency. What about a… double-hit arrow? It hits you once, then the momentum hits them a second time?”

Iona flicked my chest.

“That’s about as hard as an arrow hits. No, the damage is all in the barb, and how nasty I can make it. That’s why explosion arrows were top of the list. Shatter into a bunch of pieces and just stick inside someone.”

I thought about that for a bit. Arrows as a means to deliver nasty effects. Made sense why poison was so high up on the list, and why ‘punching’ a second time wouldn’t do much. I looped back round to ‘transmuting arrows’.

I couldn’t do terribly complex transmutations, and I wanted to change after it hit, so I didn’t slap someone with a wet noodle.

Actually, a wet noodle arrow sounded like a hilarious prank arrow, and I made a whole new book in my [Astral Archives] dedicated purely to prank arrows. Wet Noodle went in at the top. Underlined.

A wrap-around arrow was next, one that looked like it’d hit but didn’t actually, and an apple-arrow came after.

Focus. Prank arrows were an interesting idea, but not what I was here for.

Although, a wrap-around arrow could make it look like a person was lethally hit, and…

FOCUS!

I thought a little bit more about substances that made for bad arrows, but were terrible if they managed to get inside you, and I came up with an ugly one.

“Glass.” I said. “An arrow that conjures barbed glass when it hits.”

Iona winced.

“Yeah, alright, let’s put that one at the top of the list.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I shot Iona an unamused look, and lifted my hands, still enchanting a piece of Fenrir’s armor.

“Oh great and mighty [Paladin], far be it for a lowly mortal like me to complain, but have you noticed there’s no time to do that much enchanting if we want to fight as planned? I already feel like we’re squeezing things a bit with Fenrir’s gear. I’m just not a world class enchanter, and there’s a world class city filled with them right there.”

Iona dismissed my concerns with a wave.

“Yes, there’s a world class city of enchanters right there… with an eight month waiting list. I checked. They wanted six figures of arcs for Fenrir’s enchantments, and let’s be honest. We’d get comfortable. We’d settle.”

I nodded agreement. I was too comfortable living in this inn already, paying way too much for a room every night.

“Heeeeeeeey! Did you save dinner for me?” Amber called out as she approached, a familiar flaming phoenix sticking to her staff. The vain little bird was admiring herself in the reflection of all the gems on Amber’s staff, keeping carefully perched as she let Amber carry her around.

I wanted to snap my fingers as an idea came to me, hitting me over the head like a mango dropped from a tree - honestly, what was it doing in a tree and not in my hand already, that was just rude and damnit I couldn’t spin the idea off into [Parallel Thoughts] because I was already doing too many other things.

Focus.

“We did, then Fenrir wanted to have a small bite.” Iona called back with a laugh.

Amber groaned.

“Tasty.” Fenrir growled with contentment.

Seeing Amber’s staff gave me an idea.

“Hey, why don’t we borrow a dozen gems or two from Amber and just make this fight easy?” I proposed.

Amber snorted.

“Even with the ‘you're my friends and I don’t want to see you die’ discount, not charging you a use fee, completely ignoring the significant risk of never getting any of my gems back and you dying in a way that means you can’t pay me back-”

“Hey!” I protested.

“Brrrpt!!”

“Auri would like to point out that she can’t be killed in the first place.”

“And have it stick.” Iona pedantically corrected.

“- you couldn’t afford to just use the gems.” Amber finished, then got a predatory grin. The same type she had when she knew she was about to fleece somebody, and there was nothing they could do about it. “Of course, you could borrow my staff and freely use it for giving up your stake in my gem business.”

I gave Amber a flat look.

“I think we’ll be fine.” I said, and Amber dramatically gasped.

“Dang! Honestly, most of my skills are defensive or for getting out. I’ve got a few interesting offensive skills in my inventory right now, but if you want to live there after, well… they’d be a bad idea to use. A very bad idea. Yeah… no… I don’t think I’d want to swing by Sanguino for a few years if you used that one… or… yeah.” Amber was nodding to herself as Iona and I traded concerned looks.

“Brrrrrrrpt…” Auri flew off Amber’s staff, back to her spot on my shoulder. She didn’t like the sound of Amber’s skills either.

“Look, the neat murder spells are a dime a dozen, it’s the big, fancy, city-ending ones that are worth the trip!” Amber protested.

“Who sells that!?” Iona asked.

“Uh, well… I probably shouldn’t tell you. Would you look at that, it’s been two weeks, I should probably get that last gem from Elaine and start heading towards Shahrazad!”

Amber was less subtle than I was about changing the subject, but I didn’t mind. I’d seen how smooth she could be, and we were all allowed to lead our lives.

As long as she didn’t drop a meteor on our head or anything.

“While we’re wildly changing the subject, I want to talk about our timeline. Iona. An assault in three days is not going to work. We need to shakedown our gear. We need to shakedown our armor, our tactics, our teamwork. I haven’t sparred in a few weeks, I need to get back into the habit. I’d like to do some research on what we’re fighting. Isn’t Fenrir thinking of classing up? Is he really going to class up and get into a big fight immediately? Come on, that’s dumb. I get your argument about sitting around forever, but don’t let your impatience and enforced idleness cause a mistake.”

Iona got a small unhappy look on her face before she sighed.

“Fine. Shakedown first, but we’re going to do it properly. Four hours of sparring a day, minimum, and I’m going to be working on the rest of my gear. Can you take a stack of arrows with you when you go to your clinic to enchant them? I’d like to test the enchantments before I use them, which is going to mean a lot of destroyed arrows.”

I nodded.

“Seems fair. Did you give any thought to my issue?”

Iona stood and stretched, and I took a moment to appreciate the view. Goddesses, I had lucked out. Hard.

“It’s not easy,” She admitted. “If taking out an entrenched gang could be solved in three sentences, they’d be gone. I’m not in the good graces of the Exterreri legal or armed forces. It’s not like I can go hunting, and even if I did, there’s deeper reasons for their presence. If they went away, someone would replace them. On the shorter, narrower end of the spectrum though. I can hang out next week when they swing by, which should be a deterrence. You’ve ‘hired security’, after all. And go to the Rangers. Talk with them. See what they say. You wanted to swing by their headquarters in the first place to look for Night. Kill two dinosaurs with a single stone. Gives you a legitimate reason for wandering around there in the first place.”

I nodded along with Iona’s explanation.

“That sounds pretty good. I’ll go tomorrow morning?”

Iona grunted.

“Afternoon. We’re sparring in the morning, remember?”