Astral Threads, Ch 29: Bellisagi (Patreon)

Sam looked along the high road to the north, following it until it descended into a valley between the foothills and curved out of sight on the way to Runekeld. Weathered crags protruded from between the hills, giving the area a strange contrast between grassy slopes and the sharp cliffs of the mountains. He could feel that the foothills had once all been just as jagged, but time had ground them down while leaving the others untouched.

The logic of why some stones had surrendered and others stood firm had no obvious pattern. Perhaps some force dwelled within those that were still tall, refusing to give in to the ages. In that, they were like people. Some were stubborn and others bent with the flow of the river. It was an opportunity for greater reflection, but his gaze only took in the differences in passing as he considered how long it would take to reach the dwarven city.

From the maps he’d seen, Runekeld wasn’t that close to the road, but rather a day’s travel or more away from the road and into the interior of the mountains before its gates rose tall in a narrow valley. It was a long journey by foot to reach the point where the road diverged, but his new ability to fly meant their travel would be much faster. With the golems to manage the horses, he was fairly sure he could carry Ayala and Krana along with him, and if things went well, it might only take a few days.

If they were going to fly, he needed to make another set of blinders for Ayala’s horse, and perhaps update the ones for Krana’s. He rubbed his chin as he glanced over at the girls, but it didn’t look like they were in any rush. They’d moved off to the side of the road where there was a patch of slender alpine grass and tiny pink morningbell flowers. Now, they were chatting happily as they caught up on all the details that couldn’t be sent through message scrolls, which were too short for long conversations. They’d grown up together and had clearly missed one another’s company.

Instead of interrupting them, Sam pulled out a roll of Hoarfrost Serpent skin and got to work on the blinders. He needed another sling for Ayala’s horse too, but it was a simple task and they should be ready to leave in less than an hour. He’d make the horses a nice illusion of a rolling pasture on endless plains, with some distraction and concealing runes to help them ignore that they were actually in the air.

It wasn’t what he’d thought he would be enchanting today, but it was practical and that was important. Being an enchanter wasn’t all about weapons and defensive artifacts. It was about shaping the world with structured magic to make it a better place to live.

As he worked, he considered the problem of Ayala’s father. It was a lot to ask of him with their current level difference and with the attention his interference might get from the Boundless Alliance, but either way, there wasn’t much he could do for Helimar right now, even if the man wanted his help. He’d have to subdue him first and he didn’t plan to try that until he was closer to Level 200, or even in his own Second Evolution.

He was turning a set of new blinders around to inscribe a band of runes on the other side when something odd began to prickle his attention. It was distant, like a faint breeze tickling his skin, but as soon as he noticed it, it turned into an itch in his mind. He frowned as he looked around the area, scanning with Crystal Focus.

At first, he didn’t notice anything. Then there was a strange scent on the wind, blowing through the grasses as it carried the faint presence of smoke or some type of incense. An instant later, his mind locked onto two strangely blurred spaces in his field of awareness, one about three hundred feet away and one a little closer, about a hundred feet from the girls. Each of them was about a dozen feet across and the edges of them were interacting with Crystal Focus, like blades of grass brushing against his nose.

There was an aura there, something concealed.

He turned toward the area as a spike of warning roared through him. The blinders fell to the grass as crystal flame rose out of his skin. As soon as he moved, the blurs froze, as if they were aware of his attention, and then they erupted into action.

A streak of motion like mottled glass shattered the illusion as three figures appeared. One of them darted toward the girls as the other two sprinted toward Sam. The first thing he noticed was that two of them held staves that were gleaming with the remnants of the obscuring enchantment, while the other had drawn daggers.

The second thing he noticed was that they weren’t human. They were some type of monster, or at least an uncivilized race, which was obvious as soon as their presence appeared in his mind. They were each about seven feet tall with thin and angular bodies and protruding bones. They also each had four arms, and as soon as they began to move, weapons filled them.

A sense of danger roared through Sam’s awareness as he activated his bracers. They flared to life in contrast to one another, one a dark starscape and the other a brilliant wash of moonlight. At the same time, more details on the attackers filled his mind.

Their skin was a metallic grey, almost the color of dull iron, and it glinted in the sun, making it clear that they had some type of natural armor. Their faces were skull-like with barely any lips and two metallic fangs that jutted up from their lower jaws. Their skulls were bare and they had sharp, prominent cheekbones that were the widest part of their head. Their eyes were sunken below a sharp ridge and glowed red from one side to the other, with no obvious sclera or pupil.

They looked like four-armed humanoid skeletons with metallic skin just barely stretched over the bones. Their chests were elongated and they had two sets of shoulders, one above the other, to accommodate their arms. It gave them a rippled appearance, but it didn’t interrupt their movements.

They were extremely fast. Their weapons flickered into their hands as they moved, removing any doubt that they’d come here to kill them. Their classes only reinforced that. A quick analysis sprang into Sam’s mind as the enemies covered half the distance.

Bloodless Assassin-Hunter Mage. Bellisagi. Level 189.

Curse Stalker-Grim Archer. Bellisagi. Level 205.

Wild Assassin-Storm Mage. Bellisagi. Level 210.

He’d never heard of a race called the bellisagi before, but it didn’t matter. The Curse Stalker was moving toward the girls as it held four long daggers, each almost the size of a short sword. The other two were heading toward Sam as they split up, one to each side.

A dagger sliced through the air toward him from the Bloodless Assassin, followed by a spell that was even faster, which formed in its second set of hands. Two more spells flew toward him from the other assassin.

The first spell was a type of arrow, while the other two were grey bolts that looked like metallic lightning and split the air with shrieks like tearing metal. The bellisagi were clearly able to use all four hands at once. Either due to their speed or some racial traits, it looked like they could produce twice as many attacks as a human, but that was all Sam had time to consider as a wave of star-filled darkness swept out from the bracer on his left arm.

Twinkling, icy blue stars filled the darkness as it formed into an arcing shield and cut off the path of the Curse Stalker who was heading for the girls. The creature was so fast that it slammed into the shield only an instant after it formed, its daggers slashing ahead of it. They were surrounded with a dense, shadowy aura that sizzled as it struck the barrier.

Instead of breaking, the blue stars of astral ice grew denser as they expanded, reaching out toward the Curse Stalker with a burst of astral radiance. That was all Sam had time to pay attention to as crescent moons flared from his right bracer and slammed into the spells that were heading in his direction.

Given the level and speed of the attackers, he knew he couldn’t let them anywhere near Krana or Ayala, and he poured more charges from his new bracer into strengthening the barrier around them. The shield arced up and to the sides as it began to form a sphere, flowing around them like frozen water. The shift was just in time as the assassin tried to leap over it, stabbing down with all four daggers. It was so fast that it was difficult to see and the only reason Sam could track it was thanks to Crystal Focus. His Intelligence was high enough to process its movements, even if his own Agility wasn’t enough to keep up.

The other two showed the same level of speed, which instantly put him on the defensive as a series of four more bolts ripped toward him. They were different this time, slightly larger and more like cutting blades of mana than the quick attack from before. Whatever these bellisagi were, they had an alignment to metal or something similar.

This time, an Essence Shield flared around Sam in a sapphire arc. The spells shattered into grey fragments as they slammed into it, which quickly dissipated in the air. His essence dropped by ten points, which was enough to let him know that their spells were a bit weaker than his.

By now, it was clear that they’d come to kill, and nothing else. The memory of the bloodline clan youths warning him about a bounty came back to Sam’s mind as he strengthened the shield around Krana and Ayala and summoned a half dozen crescent moons from his bracer, which he flung at the two mages.

They slipped out of the way as if they were boneless, gone before the spells could land. They weren’t teleporting, but their movements were almost as fast as if they were. Instead of taking up another location to fire spells at him like mages normally would, they sprinted toward Sam, closing the distance as they pulled out blades of their own.

The Bloodless Assassin had a garrote in one set of hands and slender bone daggers in the other, while the Wild Assassin had a chaotic mass of energy gathered into each hand, which felt both sharp and jagged in Sam’s senses, as if it could morph into a blade or drive home like a spike.

He’d never seen classes or an attack like this, but the training with Uncle Snake and in the relic hadn’t been for nothing. He had an instant before they reached him and he spent it by commanding his lunar bracer to fragment into a storm of spinning gemstones, which flew in every direction across the field. Trails of moonlight connected them that were barely visible in the day.

His shield held, but his essence drained away with each hit and the assassins weren’t done yet. The Wild Assassin struck him like a brawler as the energy in his hands formed into chaotic spikes that tore at his shield. There was a mix of wild aura in it that would have disrupted a regular mana-based defense. The two were clearly used to working together against hard targets.

There was also a heavy, oppressive force in the air that dragged on Sam’s movements and tried to freeze him in place. It felt like he was moving through a frozen river that swirled around his limbs. It pressed on him with what felt like a thousand pounds of weight, slowing him down.

It was an effect he’d only felt once before, when Uncle Snake showed him what a mana field was. This assassin was at the Second Evolution, but he wasn’t strong enough to use it in the same way.

With his battle aura infusing his attributes, Sam’s Strength and Constitution were around 1,000 each. The mana field’s weight was something he could push through, but it was enough to leave him at a disadvantage, especially when the bellisagi were already so much faster than him. Unfortunately, once his essence ran out, his attributes would return to normal, which meant the assassins would eventually be able to grind him down.

He couldn’t stay here to play with them hand to hand.

Sam growled as he let the lessons of the Aelvara Talon Art and Kinetic Mastery flow through his muscles, spinning to the side as he slashed at the Wild Assassin. The assassin dodged, sliding away from the blow, but he didn’t have the same shield as Sam. A trail of four cuts tore across his chest and one arm as he slipped away.

Sam continued the spin, slashing at the assassin to his back as crystal flame roared out of him and spread through the area. The garrote around his neck snapped as the thin wire that it was made from melted and its enchantment failed. The assassin evaded the attack, but it was already obvious that Sam couldn’t compete with them in speed and he didn’t try.

Mana fields could make the difference between two otherwise equal opponents and give the enemy an advantage, especially if several of them targeted the same person, but they were most effective against enemies a lot weaker than you, allowing you to wade through them while the mana field suppressed them. It was why one Second Evolution fighter was worth an army of lesser ones.

A mana field could also lock down spells and prevent a user from shaping them, but it would take a lot more than this mediocre field to interfere with Sam’s essence. He’d evolved in an ocean of energy from a divine artifact and his race was at home among the forces of the Void.

This mana field only tickled.

As soon as the assassin disengaged, Sam disappeared in a sphere of sapphire flames. He reappeared next to the girls, inside the shield of astral ice..

Ayala and Krana were not as lucky as him. They were half crumpled to the ground under the weight of the other Second Evolution assassin’s mana field. Although he was trapped outside, the field operated on a different principle and flowed straight through the shield.

Despite that, they were still trying to fight back. Ayala was weakly chanting a spell to sanctify the area, which tumbled from her lips in starts and stops, and Krana was the center of a roiling silver sphere of mana as she called on her seer abilities.

An instant later, all three assassins slammed into the shield with a dozen attacks, bone daggers and chaotic spikes tearing at the starry blue darkness. The charges in his Starforged Bracer drained away with each hit, but it would hold for a little while.

That was when the Sky Guard arrived.

A dozen black crystal pillars slammed into the earth around Sam’s shield as the massive golems landed. Their wings flared wide in furious arcs of black crystal that crackled with silver flames, forming into shielding arcs that swept out in front of Sam and the girls.

The mana fields disappeared in an instant, shattered by the golems’ presence and whatever ancient enchantments they bore, and then the spears in the golems’ hands struck toward the three assassins with unerring precision, surrounded by shimmering black fire that left trails in the air. The assassins flashed backward as they tried to evade the attacks, but they were facing golems that had been created to face far stronger threats. Ribbons of black light cut through the air in a coordinated web, slicing through their arms and metallic skin as the golems split into three groups and went on the attack, isolating each of them as they pressed them back. Behind them, the silver shields left by their wings stayed in place, shining in brilliant arcs of energy with floating stars inside.

Behind the shield where Sam was standing, there was a sense of peace and stability, the effect of some supportive enchantment that felt like it would also heal him if he were wounded.

Instead of allowing the golems to take over, however, at that moment Sam activated the gemstones of his lunar bracer that were scattered all across the slope. A network of moonlight strands sliced through the area, creating a deadly net that cut off the assassins’ escape.

The golems blurred as four of them surrounded each assassin. The bellisagi were faster than Sam, but they weren’t faster than the ancient war golems. Crystal shields slammed into bone daggers and shattered them into fragments as the black spears stabbed through ribs and pierced limbs.

At the same time, the moonlight web contracted, the individual strands morphing into crescent moons that slashed through the assassins’ bodies. Their metallic skin resisted for only an instant.

Hissing grey blood and blasts of metallic lightning filled the air under the two-pronged attack, with the golems acting as the anvil and Sam’s spells the hammer that struck from the other side.

Before long, all three of the assassins tumbled to the ground, their bodies sliced apart. Their glowing red eyes darkened to coal black as they fell still on the grass, and everything returned to silence.

The area was shattered.

The grass was torn to pieces, stones were sliced to rubble, and the delicate morningbell flowers were nothing but flecks of pink smashed into the dirt. Grey blood covered the area around the bellisagi, whose elongated limbs were twisted in chaotic directions where the golems and the spells had broken them. Everything in the way had also been sliced or flattened.

The golems stood tall in the sunlight, their black crystal wings flaring wide as they turned from side to side and scanned the area. Their eyes were pools of sharp silver light and they radiated a sense of fierce danger, but nothing else moved.

After a moment, Sergeant separated from the rest. His wings flared as he blurred across the distance and came to a halt in front of Sam. He knelt, his head bowed.

I apologize for the poor security, Architect. We should have stayed closer. These creatures evaded our senses until they appeared. They were still within range of the relic and the golem’s personality was stable. His voice was a flat rumble, but there was a sense of contrition in it. The relic has no memory of this race. We will adapt.

“It’s not your fault. Stand up.” Sam nodded at him as he turned around to help the girls to their feet. He also let his battle aura go and felt himself return to his normal height. “I barely sensed them either until they were right next to us. They had better shielding than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

Instead of being frightened, the attack had left his blood racing. His essence constellation was humming with vibrant energy as the stars in it swirled, sending a rushing demand through him to move and tear at his enemies.

The same couldn’t be said for the girls. Krana’s face was set in a dark grimace as she stared at the assassins, clearly unhappy with the surprise. Ayala was pale, but she recovered far more quickly than Sam expected, making it clear that she’d changed for the better since the last time they’d met. Krana had always said she was made of stern stuff, and it looked like it had finally come to the surface. Despite that, she had questions as she looked around.

“What...was this?” Ayala asked slowly. “Assassins? But why, and for whom?” She was recovering with each word she spoke, her shoulders straightening as her voice became stronger.

“I think they were after Sam, mostly,” Krana grumbled as she dusted herself off. Her eyes were still shaded with mana as she looked around the area, but she was less surprised than Ayala by what had happened. “We were just in the way as witnesses, which is why only the one came after us. I’m trying to scry into their past to see how they got here, but I can’t find the trail.” Krana fell silent as she analyzed the corpses, now that she had a moment to study them without the suppression of the mana field. Then she scowled.

“Bah, they had some enchantment to eliminate the traces, which is to be expected for assassins I suppose, but this isn’t good. What are these things? Monsters? No, they’re called bellisagi.” She frowned as she seemed to remember something. “They’re an uncivilized race, that’s clear, but that name...I’m sure I’ve heard it before.”

“They’re bellisagi?!” Ayala’s eyes widened in shock as she studied the corpses. From her confusion, it was clear she hadn’t been able to analyze them herself. “Those haven’t been seen in Aethra for at least three hundred years! They do fit the descriptions, with four arms and red eyes...but why would they come here now?”

“You know about them?” Sam asked with surprise as he turned toward Ayala. As he spoke, the gemstones across the area were flying back to him and reforming into a bracer. Most of the charges in them were drained. He hadn’t been sparing in attacking.

From his own study of the creatures, he had to agree with Krana’s assessment. They were definitely some type of uncivilized race or monster. Experience was glimmering like a shroud above each corpse, waiting to be claimed, which meant they weren’t protected by the World Law.

“They’re practically a legend, and not a good one,” Ayala explained briefly. “They’re a clan of murderers, cutthroats, and assassins who are known for being part of the fall of kingdoms. Wherever they appear, chaos seems to follow. There are a lot of rumors about them on the edge of history, but I’ve only read two sources that really discuss their origins.” She paused as she gathered her thoughts and then continued.

“One source argues that they’re a monster race and barely intelligent, but with skills that make them extremely dangerous opponents. It thinks they’re from the far northern mountains and that they descend from there to raid nearby kingdoms for food and experience. That’s the only reason it offers for why they are seen, but it’s not very convincing.

“The other source seems more credible, and it says they were once a civilized race, but they chose to follow Outsiders during the last Breaking to survive. They did, but as part of the Outsiders’ army they became advanced scouts and hunters who used their abilities to kill tens of thousands of people. As a result, the World Law rejected them and reclassified them as an uncivilized race.

“Now, they give experience when you kill them, but they can also gain experience for killing civilized races. They took advantage of that to become a highly specialized clan of assassins. The source suggested running if you ever saw one, but also that if you did, it would already be too late. Their name supposedly means ‘War Wise’ or ‘War Sages.’

“They’re best known for their speed and combat ability. They’re also seen as an evil omen of worse things to come, like another Outsider invasion. If we tell the kingdom about this, it will send the entire capital into an uproar.”

“They were extremely fast.” Sam frowned as he listened to Ayala’s report and returned to studying the bellisagi. “And they are definitely assassin classes. I don’t feel the presence of an Outsider on them, but there could be a connection. The bloodline clans warned me there was a bounty on my head, but I was expecting adventurers.” He rubbed his chin in thought.

“They were clearly targeting you,” Krana agreed with a dour look, “but the real question is why.”

“It seems word of the relic may have reached the wrong ears.” Sam stared down at the assassins as he spoke. “If we take the worst case scenario and assume they’re working for Outsiders, either directly or indirectly, that means trouble. There’s either a group of Outsiders inside Aster Fall or these bellisagi have a way to receive orders from them. More importantly, they have a way to track me.”

The only possibility that came to his mind was related to the relic’s awakening. Void knew he’d certainly sent off enough flares of power while working on it. Perhaps these things were capable of tracking an aura signature or astral energy and had managed to follow the trail back to him.

If that was the case, it meant someone or something knew the relic was awake and it didn’t like it.

The other question was how the bellisagi were related to the bounty. An uncivilized race could not enter a city to set a bounty, not even in the most disreputable of places where an assassin’s guild existed, especially not a race that was known to be the servants of Outsiders. That meant there was another link, a traitor who worked with them or hired them. Perhaps someone was waiting for them to return who wanted to make his death look like the act of regular mercenaries—someone who wanted to stop the relic’s activation.

He didn’t have all of the details, but it felt like everything was connected.

The Cabal sprang to mind, but if they wanted to kill him, they’d probably just do it themselves. Working with a known Outsider force would be dangerous for them, since they were already on the edge of what the World Law would tolerate. It didn’t take him long to share his thoughts and everyone fell silent as they considered the idea.

The battle had taken only a couple of minutes, but it left their nerves frazzled. The wind played across the fragments of stone and dirt that covered the area as Sam went to gather the experience.

When he touched the corpses to claim it, an intense wave of silver light built up around his skin, and off to the side, a much fainter one appeared around Krana and Ayala, showing that they had earned a small amount, but not much. A few moments later, the voice of the World Core rang in his mind, accompanied by a surging wave of experience.

Congratulations, Chaos Smith. With the assistance of constructs under your command, you have eliminated three traitors of Aster Fall. As your constructs are not able to receive experience, their contribution is assigned to you.

You gain 1,400,000 Class experience.

You have gained 7 Class Levels and 7 General Levels.

You are now a Level 60 Chaos Smith and General Level 160.

You gain 14 Strength, 14 Wisdom, 14 Intelligence, 14 Aura, and have 28 free attribute points to assign.

As this is the first time you have fought with constructs against a dangerous enemy, you gain the Trait: Golem Commander.

[When you fight with constructs under your command, as long as you contribute to the battle, you will receive a degree of experience for their actions. Your contributions can include direct damage as well as supportive spells.]

For slaying two Second Evolution opponents in a single battle while still at the First Evolution, you gain the Trait: Battalion of One.

[You radiate a natural aura of war, intimidating enemies who think to oppose you. Challengers will think twice before engaging with you and intimidation abilities have a reduced effect on you. Charisma +10.]

The surge of experience flowed through his blood as the changes settled in and the information on the two traits rang in his mind. The boost to Charisma was unexpected and helpful, but he still immediately added all of his free attribute points to it, which brought his Charisma to a base of 206. At the same time, his Strength rose to 338, his Wisdom to 270, and his Intelligence and Aura to a base of 602. The Starforged Bracer added another 40 on top of that to Intelligence, Aura, and Charisma.

The World Core’s announcement of the bellisagi as “traitors” was confirmation enough that Ayala’s information was on the right track. Whatever their history was, they were clearly not on the World Core’s good side. He had also received a large amount of experience from the bellisagi, which he hadn’t expected. It improved his mood, but he still frowned as he looked around and considered what this attack meant.

Where there was one set of assassins, there were often more on the way.

Assassins were like knives thrown in the dark. There was always a hand behind them. It made him glad they’d brought the golems along. He might have been able to deal with these three on his own, but it would have been difficult to protect Krana and Ayala at the same time. If more than three showed up, things might have gone south quickly.

The Sky Guard were spaced around the area, looking outward as they scanned for more intruders. Half of them were hovering in the air while the other half bracketed the three of them, two on either side of Krana, Ayala, and him. Their faces were expressionless, but a dark, swirling energy covered their bodies and wings and a dangerous light glimmered at the tip of their spears. It almost looked like they were angry. Emotionless or not, they were still on high alert.

“There’s one last thing that source had to say about the bellisagi,” Ayala said slowly as she looked at Krana and then at Sam. Worry filled her voice. “Supposedly, they have their own sense of honor, or maybe something in their blood that links them together like a shared compulsion. Once they target you, their clan never gives up until they kill you.

“It’s like it’s a sacred duty to them and one of the things that makes them greatly feared. If you kill one, they will send ten more after your head. If you kill those, they will send a hundred, and they will keep sending them until either you are slain or their entire clan is destroyed. Kingdoms have fallen for the death of a single assassin.”

Her words hung in the air as she stared down at the slain creatures, tinging the air with a note of foreboding. She was wringing her hands together, weaving her fingers between her knuckles and relaxing them, only to do it again.

“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Sam announced grimly. “If they want to take my head, they will find that it’s hard to separate it from my body.” If they came to find him, he would deal with them, one by one or in groups.

His real concern was if they went to the relic and his family. He would have to send a message back to warn them, and tell his parents and the golems there to pay close attention. It was a good thing there were more than a hundred Sky Guard still there to guard it. The relic was also capable of defending itself and if an assassin tried to cross an area that had been repaired, it would know. His family just needed to stay close to the first layer.

As for their travels...Sam glanced over to where the blinders he’d been working on for the horses had fallen in the fight. It looked like flying would be more important than ever. With a bit of effort, they should be able to stay ahead of any trackers. He looked to the north, his gaze returning to the road that stretched into the distance, its rise and fall a peaceful illusion amongst the hills.

A breeze began to swirl around him, lifting the blinders from the grass as it brought them to his hand. His voice was determined when he spoke.

“If we press hard, we should reach Runekeld in a few days.”