Astral Threads, Ch 5: Bloodline Clans (Patreon)

“So, there is something good in the ruins after all!” The faded out form of the Pale Walker circled around the room as he tried to edge toward Sam’s back. “What did you find up there that makes you want to keep them so badly? An ancient inheritance?”

“There is nothing there for you,” Sam growled back as his irritation turned to something hotter. The crystal flame spiraling around him twisted into the shape of runes in the air. “Who are you to come to my home and make demands? Until I arrived, the ruins had lain dormant for tens of thousands of years.”

He didn’t care about these three, but they had harmed Garild and threatened him. Their disdain for everyone besides themselves was apparent. He had more important things to do, but if they needed a lesson before he left, he was happy to deliver it.

As for Garild, he was still thrashing around on the ground, but it would take more than a little poison to kill someone at the First Evolution, especially if it was only limiting his mana circulation. Sam shook his head as quickly formed an Essence Shield around him and tossed him to the side of the room. It looked like he was trying to say something important as he stared at Sam, but Sam ignored it. A handful of gems streaked off from his Lunar Bracer and infused the shield, which should be enough to keep him out of trouble.

He felt a certain level of strength from the three adventurers, but it wasn’t anywhere close to the Terror he’d faced or some of the other opponents he’d had in the past, and he hadn’t been idle since his Evolution.

A quick analysis of their levels and classes suggested they all had 6 or more points per level, which put them at somewhere between 400 and 700 in their main attributes, although likely in the lower half of the range unless they had seriously neglected their other features. That meant the Ashen Brawler probably had three times Sam’s Strength and twice his Constitution, or even a bit more before his Battle Aura evened the field, but none of them was as strong as Micas had been.

Of the three, he was least concerned about the Ruby Clan Witch. Salara looked like she focused on Fire magic, which he was nearly immune to, and she seemed disinterested in the fight. She was hanging back as she played with her ball of reddish-gold fire.

He pretended not to notice where Eranis was moving as the crystal flame runes around him disappeared and fused into the area. The Pale Walker’s illusion skill was a strange one. He seemed to have leached the color out of everything around him. The black lines of his eyes and on the edges of his clothes had disappeared, making them seem like lines that had defined his existence. When they were there, they had kept him from fading away, and now that they were gone, he was formless.

It was a strange ability and it had a flavor that reminded Sam of wraiths and other amorphous spirits, although he’d never seen one exactly like this. The sense of aura in the man’s bloodline had also intensified, bringing with it a hint of whistling grave winds. If the Guardian Star was right about his origin, it meant his bloodline had somehow been combined with auras. That was a far more interesting question to Sam than the threat he presented.

Sam finished his preparations as he formed another series of crystal flame runes, which hovered around his shoulders like a short cloak. With all of the practice he’d had recently, it only took him an instant, but it was just in time, since Eranis wasn’t the only one moving to attack.

Ashomar had finished transforming and roared as he charged forward. The runes engraved on his stone skin burned with a dark grey light that felt like heavy earth and the dark pressure of caves and fires long expended. The aura was similar in some ways to the Basalt Gnomes that Sam had encountered so long ago and he had to wonder at the connection.

The brawler roared as he approached Sam, his stone muscles bulging, and he swung out one massive fist that was gleaming with runes. The air around his attack condensed as it pulled at Sam’s balance, trying to drag him into the punch.

A flare of crystal flame sped Sam’s movements as he slid to the side and ducked under the arm, and then he punched upward, slamming the full weight of his Astral Hunter physique into the brawler’s armpit. It landed with a titanic crash against the brawler’s stone skin and the sound echoed through the room, but he didn’t stick around to see the effect.

He was gone in a wash of crystal flame, disappearing just as Eranis’s short sword sliced down through the air where he had been. The edge of the blade was coated in a thin black line of energy that was probably some type of venom, given what he’d used on Garild, but it had a dense mana signature. He’d thought the man was related to wraiths, but it looked like there was a connection to serpents as well. Perhaps his bloodline came from some type of spectral snake.

Unfortunately for the two nobles, when Sam disappeared, he left a line of runes hanging in the air. They glittered like frozen sapphires with each edge formed of crystal flame and faceted ice and they shimmered with condensed essence. They exploded outward in a wave of twisting currents of frozen flame that lashed through the area in arcing patterns like flares from a sun.

It was an effect of his new Cloak of Runes, which was a condensed formation of explosive and restraining runes. He’d designed it so that every time he teleported, he could leave some of them behind, like a chain of exploding stars.

The Pale Walker tried to fade away, but he was caught up in the blast and hurled across the room, where he slammed into the wall with an impact that sent splintering cracks spreading through the white stones. The Ashen Brawler wasn’t much better off, but he was a lot heavier. He was knocked backward a dozen feet as he tried to raise his arms to protect his face and the arcs of energy sliced through his stone armor, leaving bright, sizzling lines behind as he roared in pain.

The swirling runes along Ashomar’s skin absorbed some of the impact as they began to glow with a dark, smoky grey light. He roared as he turned toward Sam again, his arms stretched outward as a cloud of swirling ash began to spread around him, but he couldn’t find a target.

Crystal Flame flickered across the room as a wave of arrows tore through the air toward Eranis and ripped through a black barrier the man was trying to create. They slammed home into a defensive shield he summoned in a series of flares that sent him stumbling backward.

Then Sam teleported again, reappearing next to Ashomar as he drove a fist coated in Starfire into his side. An Essence Shield channeled the explosive force of the spell away from Sam, and the resulting explosion sent Ashomar flying across the room as half of his body was charred.

When he struck the opposite wall, the stone shattered into a thousand shards as he barreled through it, leaving a hole the size of a wagon behind.

Sam stood in the center of the room with crystal flame spiraling around his arms. A moment later, dozens of gemstones flew off of his Lunar Bracer, weaving together as they formed nets of arcing energy in the air that slammed down around Eranis and Salara, who was just covering her eyes with her hands as she slowly shook her head. Another gemstone net flashed through the wall and scooped up Ashomar before it dragged him back and deposited him on the floor.

Arcs of crystal flame and three-colored moonlight connected each gem to the next as they floated in the air, forming a shielding formation that trapped all three of the adventurers inside.

The fight had taken less than ten seconds, but the room around them was half destroyed and two of the walls were little more than rubble. Cracks ran along the floor, part of the ceiling had fallen in, and the wall with windows facing the gardens was missing. He’d managed to spare the side with the books, at least.

Ashomar’s stone armor was half destroyed and the runes along his body were broken in a dozen places, while Eranis looked like a tattered white snake. The crystal flame arrows had torn through his arms and legs in a dozen places when his shield failed. Only Salara was unharmed, since she’d been wise enough to stay out of it.

Sam glanced at the three as he shook his head and turned toward Garild, who was still lying on one side. Interestingly, he was covered in a rippling white light that was slowly driving a reddish haze out of his body as he gritted his teeth. The sense of the energy felt familiar and after a moment Sam recognized it. The governor must have got the Purify ability from the fight with the Terror. More interestingly, it seemed to be working against whatever venom he’d been subjected to.

“This wasn’t what I expected when I came to visit you,” Sam growled at him as he channeled more essence into the array around the three adventurers to make sure that it wouldn’t fail. “Are you alright?”

He could have killed them, but he didn’t want to make a habit of offending every family in the kingdom. He wanted to recruit people to rebuild the relic and it would set a bad precedent if these three nobles died. Who knew the impact that might have on his plans.

Besides, if he had the chance, he wanted to study their bloodlines to see how they worked. It might give him some insights into how to merge auras with his enchantments or living things.

“You damn Bloodline clans…are insane!” Garild choked the words out in a gasp as the Purify ability finally managed to deal with the venom and his breathing became easier. “I told you he was strong and not to bother him! I wasn’t trying to protect him from you. I was trying to protect you from him!”

He forced himself to his feet as he stared at the destroyed room and the three in the center. Then he turned to Sam and gave him a deep, embarrassed bow.

“Thank you for not killing them,” he said with a sigh. “It would have caused me a huge amount of trouble, since their families have deep connections throughout the kingdom. As an apology, I’ll ensure that they pay you a ransom for their lives. It’s traditional anyway.”

“What?! We barely got started!” Ashomar grumbled from the center as his armor began to regrow. The runes along his body fluctuated with energy as he breathed and it looked like they were slowly reforming. “Let’s fight again! Then we can really see who’s stronger!”

“I wasn’t involved in this at all!” Salara protested as she shook her head. “I shouldn’t have to pay a ransom!”

Unlike the other two, Eranis said nothing. He just sat slumped in the corner of the array as he sighed and began to look for a healing pill in his spatial pouch. His sword was still on the other side of the room. He gave Sam an unpleasant stare as he looked at him and then ate the pill, but some of the arrogance in his expression had disappeared.

Garild folded his arms across his chest as he studied the three nobles at the center of the array, but he didn’t ask Sam to release them. He ignored their protests and complaints as he went to grab a chair that had survived the fight. He dragged it over in front of the array and flopped down in it with a satisfied gleam in his eyes, as if he was content to see them trapped.

The protests went on for a few more minutes until they eventually wore themselves out and just stared out of the prison, but Sam didn’t pay much attention to what they were saying. Instead, his attention was on their auras as he studied the flow of energy they were emitting. Their energy felt more energetic than regular humans, like it was jumping from one part of their body to another.

“My apologies again,” Garild said as he turned to Sam, shaking his head with a sigh. “It’s a flaw of the Bloodline clans to be impulsive and to fight for almost any reason, whether it’s reasonable or not, and these three are extremely young, which makes it worse. They’re not even twenty yet, and clansmen of that age are notoriously troublesome. I should have thought of it before I contacted you.

“A meeting with the clans is bound to end up with half of them injured, but they do usually draw the line at killing civilized races. They have a system of honor and ransom set up for situations like this, where they pay a forfeit or demand one if they win. I doubt they would have pushed it too far if they’d won. They probably just wanted to force you to tell them about the ruins.”

“This happens a lot?” Sam grumbled as he glanced at Garild. It was true that he’d never felt any real threat from the three of them, which was why he’d just trapped them. It was also a surprise to hear that they were almost the same age as him. “Why do you call them the Bloodline clans?”

“You’re not familiar with them?” Garild asked, before he nodded as if confirming something. “They’re spread throughout the kingdom and some of them have widespread titles and lands, but no one knows exactly how many clans there are. New ones are encountered from time to time. Analyze skills will show you a unique race, which is the main way of identifying them, but they’re still human, except that each clan has unique abilities.

“They all tend toward impulsive behavior, which has given them a certain reputation, but they have strong ties of loyalty that are often forged through fighting and paying ransom. The clans send the youths out to adventure and be tempered, which lets them experience the world and make new connections at the same time as they grow up. This was a pretty traditional greeting for them, although these three were too arrogant, which is why it’s good that you taught them a lesson.” Garild turned to Eranis as he glared daggers at him. “Poisoning their host for example, is something I’ll be sure to tell their parents about. They will owe me for that one.

“At any rate,” he continued. “Offending one clan tends to end up causing trouble with the rest, which is why it’s not a good idea to kill them, but this is a good opportunity. Their ransoms can be worth a significant amount, either in gold or in treasures. It depends on what they have. They started this fight and you finished it, so they shouldn’t cause you any more difficulty for now.”
“Is that true?” Sam turned toward the three in the array, his opinion of them shifting as he reconsidered their actions. “Are you going to cause more trouble?”

A ransom was one way to settle the problem, and he wasn’t intending to turn down free gold. He was able to make it more easily than before, but the resources he needed for crafting were all expensive. The more wealth he had, the more he could do.

“Of course not, since you won so easily,” Salara muttered as she glared reproachfully at Eranis and Ashomar. It looked like it wasn’t the first time she’d berated them. “Right?”

“The battle was short, but he won it cleanly,” Eranis muttered pettishly, as he looked away from Salara. “I didn’t expect he would be that strong. I will pay the forfeit.”

“I’m nearly broke, Salara...” Ashomar grumbled sadly as he raised his hands in the air, as if asking for forgiveness. “What if we fight again and then decide?”

Salara sighed as she looked at him and then she turned to Sam. “Will you accept information as a ransom instead of gold, Hunter, if we know something that’s useful to you?”

Sam studied the three Bloodline adventurers, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. It had been a rocky introduction and he was still irritated that they’d attacked him, but Garild was the one who’d suffered the most, including the damage to his mansion. It seemed they were basically wild children who needed to learn some manners. More than that, he was curious about their bloodlines. He’d never heard of their clans in the kingdom before, but Garild made it sound like they were well known.

“What information do you have?” he asked at last. If they were broke, he wasn’t going to get much gold out of them and he didn’t feel like waiting for their families to send it. “If it’s useful, that’s acceptable.”

“Deal!” Ashomar shouted as he half stood, before he winced and fell back down again. “Urgh. You don’t fight fair. What was with those runes? It was supposed to be a brawl!” His voice was full of grievance.

Eranis continued to sulk in the corner, but he looked over at Salara and nodded before he closed his eyes to focus on healing. He was the most injured of the three. “Tell him,” he muttered.

“To start with...” Salara said as she turned to Sam. Her ruby eyes were intent, the irises like burning embers. “Do you know there’s a huge bounty on you? For such a small city, you’ve certainly made waves in the kingdom recently. Someone wants you captured, dead or alive, and they’ve put the information out to the assassin guilds and other more disreputable people. Eranis’s family has some connections there, so we heard about it.”

“You were trying to assassinate me?” Sam rumbled in anger as he turned to Eranis. He wasn’t too surprised by the bounty, since he’d been expecting something like that after tossing Micas through a portal. The trash had probably made it home by now and started causing waves.

“Of course not,” Eranis grumbled. He looked annoyed at the question, although he still didn’t open his eyes. The vertical black lines were nearly invisible. “I’m not qualified to be an assassin yet. I was just going to capture you to collect the bounty if you were weak. There’s a premium if you’re delivered with information about the light in the relic. That’s why I asked.”

“How much is the bounty?” Garild asked with a frown.

“A thousand mana crystals attuned to any common element of your choice,” Salara answered.

“That’s ridiculous!” Garild’s breath exploded out of him as he glared at the trio. “Everyone and their brother will be looking for him with that much on the line. That’s worth almost a hundred thousand gold!”

“Salara keeps spending all of my money,” Ashomar grumbled, “but at least we wouldn’t be broke for a few months.” It had only been a few minutes, but about half of his stone armor had already regenerated. As the runes on his skin repaired themselves, the armor was fading away and his size was returning to normal.

“That could be a problem,” Sam muttered as he considered the information. The bounty wasn’t his largest concern, but it could make things more difficult. “It depends who comes to the ruins.”

“It might be best if you disappear for a bit, or at least pretend to,” Garild said as he turned to Sam. “I can put out word that you’ve left for a while and spread some rumors. A bounty like that isn’t supported by any major city or power, since the assassin organizations are poorly regarded, but some powerful or desperate types who want quick gold might take them up on it.”

“That might not be enough,” Sam rumbled as he considered the news. “Anyone who thinks they can capture me won’t give up that easily. It might be possible to stage a departure or even make it seem like I’ve already been captured and they were too late, but either way, I’m not leaving for at least a few days, not until I’ve figured out what’s going on with the Harbinger.”

And not until his parents were done with the Trials.

He’d already been thinking about leaving to look for auras that the relic needed, so the idea of it didn’t bother him that much. It might be an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. He could also look into the Flaws and bounty targets that had appeared nearby. It would increase his level and he’d be able to stabilize the region and collect more Marks all at once. He still needed hundreds of them if he wanted the World Core to tell him what it knew about Astral Titans.

How long will it take the relic to complete full repairs on its own? he asked, directing the thought to the Guardian Star as he considered something that had been on his mind for a while.

Approximately 1,200 years, the star replied immediately. With your assistance and the reserves in the storerooms, that can be reduced to between 300 to 500 years, but you will need to infuse it with intense elemental auras to finish the repairs more quickly than that.

With that confirmation, the path for the future began to crystallize in his mind. Siwaha and the wards on the valley were capable of protecting his family even if a Second or Third Evolution assassin appeared here and the relic could do the rest. It would be hard to leave them, but if their lives were more peaceful for it, that would be enough.

His parents would be out of the trials in less than three days, and if things went well, he would let them take charge of the relic while he staged a very obvious departure. That would draw potential assassins away from Highfold and his family while hopefully giving them time to let the relic grow. He'd stay close by until the defenses on the first layer were finished in twenty days, and once that was done, he could roam farther afield. The only question was if he'd be leaving alone or if he'd take someone with him. Krana and the others would probably complain if he left them all behind.

As for these three adventurers, if information was going to be the ransom, then he was going to rake them over the coals until they told him everything, including about their Bloodlines and anything that could have caused the Harbinger to ring. That was another reason he wanted to scout the area. Whatever had caused it, he felt like it was a distant and grave threat, and he wanted to find it before it found him.

“The bounty is a start, but that’s not worth a ransom yet,” he said as a bright flame of curiosity began to burn in his eyes. “Start talking."