Touch of Fate

Chapter 63: The Tables Have Turned

In the captain's cabin of a quiet ship in the harbor of Wyrport, three monsters in human guise sat around a table.

Garl clutched the table in excitement, staring intensely from the hood of his robe at the map. On it, a wave of red dots, stretched out in a line, approached a single purple one.

"Looks like the team of chosen will be unnecessary." The shark-toothed woman commented absentmindedly. To all appearances, she held no real interest in the moving colors on the map.

The misshapen figure glanced over at her before returning its attention to the map. "Indeed. It would be good to take her alive, but simply removing her from the field will improve our overall chances of success."

The Anhilite Priest, known simply as Smiler, scoffed wetly, "What can one little girl do against the might of a true god? Our success is all but guaranteed."

Without taking his 'eyes' off of the map, Garl replied. "Do not underestimate the power of a natural born Oracle. Powerful ones can change the course of history for entire countries with a well placed word or action. Even though our target is still immature, her foresight could lead our enemies to victory. Besides, our leader has made it a priority to capture or kill them whenever we encounter them."

He gurgled a little, as if clearing his throat. "The presence of an Oracle was one of the two factors that our leader predicted could lead to our failure, here. The other was a potential intervention by the Court of Night. Since, the Lord of War was killed by some unknown Rank 4 caster, their involvement was deemed unlikely at this time."

The woman shrugged, "I still think it was a bit hasty to enact our plan so quickly after he was defeated. After all, it was entirely possible that whoever killed that vampire could become involved in this as well."

"It was agreed that the potential benefits outweighed the risks. Now, if we just remove the Oracle from the equation."

It was then that something unusual happened on the map. The purple dot stopped, and was quickly approached by a large red dot. Right before the dots intermingled, a green speck shot past, seemingly eliminating the red dot. Soon afterwards, the trailing line of red disappeared in a fast moving wave.

"What?! What happened?" Garl screamed hoarsely.

The shark-toothed woman chuckled slightly. "It seems you were right about Oracles. This one appears to have gone straight to a person capable of defending her."

As they watched, the green and purple dot traveled back behind the green defensively line at a high rate of speed. As soon as they crossed it, they disappeared from the map.

Garl growled in rage and stood up quickly, toppling over the table and the map. He set about wrecking much of the nearby furniture, while the other two watched him warily.

Smiler turned to the woman, "What does it mean when those dots vanish from the map?"

"Usually, it means that the life form it represents has died, or been rendered incapable of independent movement. However, this map is not omniscient. It can only track signals from creatures within the range of its synchronized servitors."

She received a blank look.

"Put simply, they moved out of our range of detection."

Garl finished his path of destruction, and after visibly calming himself down, walked over, righted the table, and resumed where he left off.

"It's no matter, the chosen will take care of it." He said with conviction. Although, to the other two people in the room, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

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"Alright, now that we have decided what to prioritize, the better questions would be how to go about dealing with that monstrosity." Mike pondered while placing a hand on his chin.

Victor raised a hand, "I actually have an idea of that."

Mike, the silver-haired woman, and Tal who had wandered over after he landed, all turned to look at the mage expectantly.

He continued, "After watching you in action, I can tell that you have an almost inhuman quantity of mana. So much so, I can only assume that you have several skills or titles that contribute to your overall Mana attribute."

"What are you trying to say?" Mike asked, trying to steer the conversation away from his skills and more towards a practical solution.

"Why, if we arm you with a decent chant, your magic should be more than capable of dealing with these demons, even the Mali'kalith."

Mike gave him a blank look, "The what now?"

"The Mali'kalith, more commonly known as a Greater Gluttony Demon. It is ranked in the Yon class primarily due to its size and durability. I very much doubt that anyone here besides you could do much damage to the thing. Thankfully, gluttony demons are known to be both slow and stupid, so we should have ample time to teach you a proper chant."

Tal pulled Mike's sleeve. "Should do it. Strong."

Mike nodded his thanks for her positive appraisal, "Works for me. What do I need to do?"

At little ways away, Mike heard James give a command to the archers. "Once they get in range, fire at will. Focus on the lesser demons, you won't be able to do much to the big one."

"Chanting, although complex beyond measure due to near infinite permutations of language, is fundamentally simple. Think of it as a formula. Put forth the necessary mana along with the correct chant and a known outcome is produced. Typically mages spend much of their early years simply memorizing...."

Mike could hear the sounds of battle starting, the rattling of arrows leaving bows became constant. Inhuman screams rent the air. Thankfully the Gluttony Demon was still far away.

"Victor! Focus! We don't have time for a lecture!" Mike said with urgency.

"Right, right. Unfortunately, I don't know many elemental chants, but with your mana I believe even a simple fireball will be an instrument of destruction. Now listen carefully, and repeat after me."

He drew himself up, and spoke from deep within. "I let thee free. Dance in your fleeting brilliance, and sing in your eternal fury, [Fireball]. If you put forth enough mana, and give it direction, the chant should do its work."

[Seems easy enough.]

Mike lifted a hand, pointed at the approaching demons, and started muttering under his breath. "I let thee free. Dance in your fleeting brilliance...."

Victor was still lecturing while he was doing so. "Now it is very important to pronounce every syllable correctly. I know chants sound like a string of nonsense, but even the slightest mistake can..."

"....eternal fury, [Fireball]. Hm, what?" Mike asked Victor distractedly while a small ball of fire formed in his hand and was launched towards the demons, almost of its own accord.

The flame zipped over the barricade and traveled past the first few dozen of the lesser demons. The fighting seemed to halt as virtually every person stopped what they were doing to watch it, both adventurer and demon alike.

After it reached the middle of the intersection, it seemed to disappear. For a brief moment, Mike thought the spell must have failed.

There was a sudden burst of blinding light.

A concussive blast of air knocked most of the adventurer's off their feat, as a wave of heat and dust swept over the barricade.

Charred demon bits rained down on the prone defenders.

Mike got back to his feet, ears ringing. After a few moments his hearing returned, and he felt clearheaded enough to survey his surroundings.

There was a cloud of dust hanging over the area, but it had already cleared sufficiently to show that everything in the intersection, including the intersection itself had been obliterated. A crater almost 30m in diameter was the only thing that remained.

Rubbing his head, Mike looked around at the others, and was met by blank, open-mouthed stares.

He smiled in what he hoped was an apologetic manner, "Hehe, whoops."

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"HAHAHAHAHA-"

The thunderous crack of an explosion from the eastern side of town interrupted Andromeda's cruel laughter.

She had been facing a pair of greater demons, although she wasn't knowledgeable enough to say what kind.

They had been roughly 4m in height from their cloven-hoofed feet, to the top of the curled horns emerging from their vaguely humanoid heads. Mottled black and red skin covered thickly muscled limbs, and pairs of membranous wings emerged from their backs.

Between their abyssal-forged battleaxes that could cleave through normal metal like paper, and their ability to wield Advanced Fire and Darkness Elemental Magic, even a single one of these demons could easily destroy a small city.

They lasted about three minutes against The Crimson Disaster.

The demons had initially managed to land a few sneak attacks, and it looked as if they might present a real challenge for the Rank 9 adventurer, but that was until she finished Synergizing with her summon, an Elder Oni.

From then on the demons didn't stand a chance at all.

Andromeda dropped the demon arm she had torn from one of her attackers onto the roof of the half-ruined building. She had already finished beating its owner into a bloody paste with it.

Light from distant fires glistened off the pair of long, black horns that currently grew from her forehead, as she stared in the direction the explosion had come.

"Looks like someone is having fun over there. Too bad I can't join them." She sighed dramatically.

"Oh well, better start getting to the bottom of this mess. I'm going to have to make them regret messing with my city."

She grinned maniacally, before jumping to another rooftop.

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