All Akira could do was raise his shield to try and block the attack before both the skills hit him.
The attacks slammed into Akira’s shield creating a large explosion that enveloped Akira, blocking him from Neal and Glen’s vision.
The shock wave from the explosion sent Akira flying backward out of the two brothers view.
The fire from the explosion was so strong that it vaporized poor Ted who had only been a few feet behind Akira.
Akira’s laid on the ground in agony. His exposed face and hands were cut and burnt the hair on his head was gone, the leather armor covering his legs had been burnt to ashes, allowing his legs to receive serious burns.
His Hauberk was scorching hot but was still fine and was quickly cooling down. His shield had taken the most abuse but was still looking good most likely due to the Aorium ore that had been used.
The excruciating pain only lasted for a few seconds as he heard the sound of a message window opening and felt the soothing feeling from leveling up.
“That’s too bad. He died fighting the boss valiantly,” said Neal laughing at his own words.
“You always talk too much, with this our job for the magic guild is complete,” said Glen.
“Ughhh, I’m exhausted using the Skill gems suck. Can’t the magic guild make using them not take so much energy? I wonder what the poor bastard did to make the grand masters angry enough to give us an assassination contract,” said Neal.
“I don’t know and I don’t care. Now shut up and go check to see if he really is dead,” ordered Glen.
“Why do I have to? I’m too exhausted from using the skill gems. Why can’t the magic guild make using them not take so much energy,” whined Neal who received a punch in the gut from Glen.
“Fine well both do it, so quit your whining,” said Glen picking up the lantern from the ground and walked into the room.
Akira’s wounds had fully healed due to the regeneration he received upon leveling up. But the shock and memory of the pain still stayed with him for some time.
He had been thrown far into the room where the light did not reach. It was lucky he had not been thrown against one of the pillars or he might have been snapped in two and killed from the impact.
Akira had been conscious through the brother’s conversation. After hearing that they had were hired to kill him he slowly got to his feet and walked further into the shadows of the room hiding behind one of the large pillars.
“Where is he? He should be here somewhere or was the explosion so powerful that it blew him to bits?” asked Glen.
The sound of a blood-chilling howl rang out from one of the dark corners of the room.
“What was that?” asked a sacred Neal.
“How should I know,” shouted Glen who was just as scared.
The sound of swift running footsteps reached the two brothers ears.
Two dark figures were running towards them. As they came closer the light from the lantern revealed a humanoid wolf with black fur which was at least a good head taller than them, at its side a large shimmering black wolf was running on all fours legs.
“You take the one on the left I’ll take the one on the right,” said Akira in his gravelly voice.
‘Finally, I get to have some fun,’ said Nox, who sounded like he was truly pleased.
“De..demon race! No one said anything about there being someone of the demon race down here,” stuttered Neal as the two brothers turned and started to run away.
Akira and Nox were far to fast for the likes of them to be able to escape. As Akira caught up to Neal he pounced forward slamming into Neal’s back knocking him to the ground.
“Neal!” shouted Glen with worry, but his voice soon turned into a cry of pain as he was attacked by Nox who he had carelessly ignored.
Akira grabbed onto the dazed Neal’s arms and pulled them behind his back with all his strength creating loud snaps as the ones broke. One of Neal’s arms were torn off on accident.
The room was filled with screams as both brothers were mauled. Silence returned to the sewers a few seconds later when both brothers last breath escaped their mouths.
Akira looked over to see Glen had his throat torn out and his stomach ripped open.
The full meaning of everything that had happened so fast hit him all at once.
‘Holy fook that old geezer wasn’t joking when he said he would have to kill me if I found out about their secret. How am I supposed to escape?’
***
Back in the office of the grandmasters both Deve and Beel were quietly talking between themselves.
“It’s such a shame that a fine young warrior like Akira had to be killed,” said Beel Geets.
“I warned him, that if he learned of our secrets we would have to kill him. Such talent, if only he had a few more years to hone it he would be fierce indeed,” said Deve Hobs.
“We shouldn’t worry about it too much what’s done is done.”
“You’re right. What’s taking the twins so long?”
“Patience the sewers are extremely hard to navigate even with the map we gave them. If they aren’t back by morning then we can send in another group to look for them.”
***
Akira rummaged through the twin brothers pockets to see if they had anything worth taking.
The only things they were carrying other than food and water was rope and the two magic skill gems.
Akira picked up the magic skill gems studying them closely. He tried to get them to work but after failing to produce any results, he put them into his bag for later, when he might be able to figure out how they work or find a use for them.
Akira looked at his naked legs, he looked quite odd now only wearing his hauberk without any pants or leg armor that had been burnt to crisps.
Akira looked at the armor both Neal and Glen were wearing. Akira guessed that the leather-armored pants Neal was wearing were about the right size for him.
He stripped the armor off of Neal and equipped it. It felt odd wearing the armor of a dead person.
Akira was finally able to take the time to add the bonus points from leveling up to his stats and look at the message windows that had appeared while he had been in agony from the twins surprise attacks.
-
Lvl Up! Current level is now Lvl 16.
You now meet the level requirement for two of your equipment
-
Shield mastery Lvl up!
Shield mastery: (Beginner lvl 5| 11.00%)
Heavy Armor Mastery Lvl up!
Heavy Armor Mastery: (Beginner Lv: 2 | 53%)
Gained 10 points in Toughness Stat
-
New Title received: Roasted Potato
Fame +5
You now know what it is like to be cooked over a fire.
-
Useful Aorium shield (common):
Durability: 40/40
Defense: 25
+10 Strength
-
Hooded Cloak of Secrecy (Rare):
It takes a good eye to be able to understand the greatness of this cloak.
-The user is able to stay hidden from others view for ten minutes
-The effect can only be used once a week.
“Holy cow this is great! This should be able to help me escape this city. But first I have to get out of these sewers, come on Nox we’re leaving,” said Akira.
When they reached the spot that Ted had died Akira picked up 1 gold coin and a red magic stone that had dropped.
“At least I got something out of this,” said Akira.
Nox who had also leveled up to level 8, continued to complain while Akira led the way back through the sewers towards the ladder.
When he reached the rope he set fire to it and then continued walking down the left side of the tunnel.
The door that was blocking the path to the main sewers was easily knocked down with Akira’s strength in his werewolf form combined with the help of Nox.
Akira stepped over the broken door and walked into the main sewer tunnel the murky water reached just under his knees. The smell assaulted his nostrils it was even worse than the smell from the tunnels under the under the magic guild due to a large amount of flowing raw sewage.
‘You know it’s not easy to get this smell out of my fur,’ complained Nox.
“Let’s split up and search for an exit. If you find one let me know,” said Akira.
Nox ran off down one end of the tunnel without saying anything, while Akira went in the opposite direction.
After searching for an exit for over an hour Akira finally found one. The light from the moon could be seen shining through the metal bars blocking the entrance and exit of people or animals from entering.
‘Nox I found the exit you can come back,’ said Akira through the mental link they shared.
He waited a short while for Nox to reach him. Without saying another word he jumped back into Akira’s shadow and disappeared.
Akira grabbed onto the thin rusted bars and used his strength to slowly bend them just wide enough that he could pass through. He canceled his werewolf form before exiting the sewers.
He looked around to get his bearings and recognized some of the buildings. He was now in the outskirts of the city slums near the city walls.
Akira thought for a moment about what to do. The gates would be closed since it was late at night so he would be forced to escape over the tall city walls which had guards patrolling it.
“Better put this to good use,” said Akira as he took the Hooded Cloak of Secrecy out of his bag and put on using its skill to get walk through the rest of the slums and reach the stairs to the wall unnoticed.
Akira walked on top of the wall searched for something sturdy enough to attach the rope to.
As he was fastening the rope to a large metal flag pole connected to the wall two guards appeared a short distance away on their nightly patrol.
As they were passing Akira who was standing still one of the guards stopped.
“Do you smell that? It smells horrendous, like the sewers. Where is it coming from?” asked the guard.
He raised his torch he was carrying and walked forward closer to Akira lighting up the area.
“It’s probably just a rat from the sewers. We don’t have the time to be chasing after them,” said his patrol partner.
The guard with the torch looked around one last time before returning to his partner and continuing the patrol.
Akira let out the breath he had been holding, gulping in fresh air.
The Cloak was the real deal the guards had not been able to see him but they sure were able to smell him.
Akira threw the rope over the side and started climbing down it. When he reached the end of the rope there was still a large drop. He let go of the rope and fell to the ground where he completed a messy landing but was overall not hurt too badly.
Ding!
-
Exterminate the mutated experiments Failed!
You have left the city of Fregoldawae. While the Quest was still underway.
-No rewards will be received
-The grandmasters will now view you in a negative light.
“Who cares about those old geezers,” said Akira under his breath as he began running away from the city.
***
Next morning.
“This is bad! They’re both dead! What do we do?” asked Beel Geets.
“I don’t know!” said Deve Hobs.
“Right, we need to calm down. It doesn’t appear he is coming after us, but instead, he is most likely trying to escape. We must send word to the guards at the gates and order them to close them and to not let anyone exit the city,” said a fretful Beel Geets.
Just as they were making plans on how to fix the situation a knock on the office door interrupted them.
“What is it?” asked Beel Geets briskly.
The door opened and the new young female secretary that had just been hired the day before entered the room bowing to both of them.
“There is someone in the hallway. They demanded to be brought to see you,” said the secretary.
“What’s his name?” asked Beel Geets.
“He didn’t say, sir,” said the secretary.
“Tell him we don’t have time to talk to him. If he wants to talk to us he can make an appointment like everyone else out time is too important. Now leave us,” said Deve Hobs.
The secretary exited the room and closed the door behind her. A few mummers came through the door as the secretary informed the person of their decision.
The door was slammed open, and a burly man of medium height with short gold hair and a golden beard walked into the room. He was dressed in fine golden clothing showing he was not a commoner.
“Sir you can’t go in there!” said the young secretary.
“Who do you think you are? Telling ME to make an appointment?” shouted the man glaring daggers at the at the two grandmasters. His sharp eyes and overall look made the two grandmasters feel like a lion was staring at food it planned to kill and eat.
“Who the hell are you to be barging in on us! Do you know who you are angering?” shouted Beel Geets ignoring the bad vibes he was getting from the man.
In anger the golden-haired man slammed his fist onto the table in front of him, causing a large hole to appear. He didn’t say a word instead he started to roll up his right sleeve as far as it could go and then turned and showed the tattoo on his shoulder.
The faces of the grandmasters immediately went white when they saw it. They knew far too well what the tattoo meant only people of that group would be allowed to use it.
It was suicide to try and fake membership if they did and were found out they would be killed.
The tattoo on his shoulder was one large triangle with 7 smaller triangles surrounding it. Inside the large triangle was the number three.
‘Holy f*** why is someone like him here?’ Deve Hobs thought. Trying to think of a reason why but his mind was blank, too much was happening and he couldn’t think straight.
Lucky he didn’t have to keep guessing because Beel asked the question he was thinking.
“May I ask what was so important that it required such an esteemed and high-rank person as you the third head to personally travel to our humble magic guild,” asked Beel Geets meekly.
“Wait you mean he is the one they call the golden lion?’ asked Deve Hobs
The Golden lion snorted at the two’s sudden change of attitude.
“You want to know why? I’ll tell you why. Because there were two reports about a person we are looking for was seen here in this city. But two certain idiots tried and failed to kill him allowing him to escape.”
“He learned about the magic skill gem creation method that your group gave us! We had no choice but to kill him to keep the secret!” said Beel Geets.
“Sir the scouts you sent have come back, here is the report,” said the female secretary walking into the room and interrupting them.
Before she could hand it to one of the grand masters the golden lion snatched it from her hands.
“Leave us and don’t interrupt again,” said Deve Hobs to the female secretary.
The Golden lion began reading the piece of paper.
“It looks like he is headed towards the Ugabuhga mountains where those detestable things live. You two are quite lucky that I already had a group of Head Hunters stationed in this city. With this information all is not lost we have a good chance of getting what we want,” said the Golden Lion.
“Thank you for letting us live, you are truly a wise and merciful person,” said Beel Geets with a sigh of relief.
The golden third head looked at Beel Geets like he has said something extremely stupid.
“Whoever said anything about letting you live, I said you were lucky. The reason why is because I won’t torture you,” said the golden lion.
A flash of gold light which was his hand shot forward and sliced Beel Geets head in half horizontally leaving only his lower jaw. The rest of the body fell to the floor spurting blood and gore all over the room.
Deve Hobs gave a shout of horror.
“Failures must be punished,” said the Golden Lion.
