Mana System Chapter 172: Elusive catch (Patreon)

After Fiona woke up, we spread out and deployed the spirit repellers around the last reported location of someone going missing. It wasn’t close to one of the working enchantment circles but it would let us know if the items worked.

We met back up after a few hours.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Let me get a birds-eye view,” she said before turning invisible and floating into the air.

I gave her a few minutes to get set before I activated the devices.

I didn’t have to wait long before a spine-chilling screech tore through the buildings around me. There was a flash of liquid darkness as it tore out of the alley and rushed toward me.

Without my weapon, I had no way of harming the spirit so I leaped into the air, activating my wings and quickly flapping backward until I was within the safety of my repulsion field.

The creature let out another baleful scream as it contacted the field and vanished into a nearby shadow.

I landed back in the street and looked around to see if anyone had witnessed our test. It seemed nobody was dumb enough to hang around outside at night, which was good. I was about to deem the test a success when I heard the same scream but from farther off within the city.

There was a thump as Fiona set down next to me and became visible.

“It escaped the cordon. We have to hurry and reset it.”

I nodded, “I turned off the field, quickly collect your devices and redeploy them.”

We both rushed off to retrieve the items. If I had just used the lantern, this would be over already but I didn’t want to tip my hand and let these people know I could make items of that nature. Not until I knew them better.

My hope was the spirit would be gunshy about going back to its previous haunts and we could eventually push it into one of the circles.

We reset the cordoned area around the new location and activated the devices again. This time I wasn’t nearly fast enough to get away as the creature attacked without warning or sound. My armor took the brunt of the attack but I still felt the ethereal claws rip into my skin below. I whirled away from the next strike as the creature howled in outrage.

I blocked the pain from my mind as I cast Rejuvenate. I didn’t have to dance with the creature long as Fiona appeared behind it, swinging the staff I had given her at the creature. It vanished into a shadow before her attack hit.

I pulled out the last repellant device and turned it on flooding the area we were standing in. There was no indication it had worked except for Fiona’s grimace so I had to assume the spirit fled to another section of the city.

“Sorry about that,” I said, turning the device off and storing it again.

“It’s fine, but how are we going to locate the spirit's new position this time?”

“We will just have to work in a grid, clearing it section by section until we find it.”

***

We had to set up three more times before we caught the spirit in our trap again. Instead of leaving an open zone inside the area, we had closed it off so the devices' fields overlapped slightly.

With Fiona watching from above she was able to determine that the creature fled to the south section of the city. This was good for us as that’s where most of the active enchantment circles were.

We changed our tactics slightly and slowly leapfrogged our active fields south. Essentially, hemming our prey into a corner. Distance didn’t seem to matter as to how far the creature could teleport through shadows, but the direction did. We used this knowledge to our advantage, as we slowly pushed the increasingly angry spirit towards the enchantment circle.

The Chief had wanted us to do this incognito but that was hardly an option any more thanks to the creatures wailing and the frightened civilians that were out this early.

Mugat rode up to us and leaped off his horse before it even came to a stop, “what are you doing!” he demanded, “you are causing a panic within the city.”

“Well, excuse me for trying to save the city, but it's not like we can control the actions of this monster,” I snapped back.

The man ground his teeth, “can you at least hurry this along. I am going to have to answer a lot of angry people after the day is through and I fear if night falls, all of your efforts will be in vain anyway.”

He was right, if we didn’t finish by nightfall, we would have to start all over in the morning. Which given the time constraints on the devices I build wouldn’t be good.

“We’re working on it. Just try to evacuate anyone south of us and we will work as quickly as we can.”

Mugat nodded stiffly and rode off, yelling at people in his path.

As we got near one of the enchantment circles I had Fiona circle to the far side and deploy her devices first. After she was ready I activated them again.

The creature screeched in frustration as it was flushed out again but I saw it beeline straight for the circle. Just before it crossed the boundary it tried to flash into another shadow but seemed to stop for some reason. Not wanting to give it time to ponder I deployed my last device, forcing it across the barrier.

There was a flash of rainbow light as it crossed and the spirit seemed to go from irate rage to docile in a moment.

It did try to flee through a shadow again but the barrier flared subtly and it reappeared close by. This happened a few dozen more times before the spirit finally gave up and floated into a dark alley.

Now that our work was done it was up to the chief to locate the person bound to this creature. Seeing as it was no longer a threat to the city, he could take his time.

Fiona dropped down beside me, “did we get it?”

“Yup,” I replied, with a smile.

***

“I want to personally thank the both of you for your assistance in this matter. I would have preferred it to have been less disruptive but I can’t deny your approach worked,” the chief said, nodding his head, Mon Ying and an unknown Silent one stood behind him, arms tucked into long sleeves.

“We would have preferred that option as well but the creature proved to be difficult to catch,” Fiona replied, playing to the nervous crowd that had gathered to watch the exchange. “But now your city is safe again.”

“Indeed, please, let us retire to my home and discuss your payment,” the man said, gesturing for us to follow him.

I wasn’t all for hiding this from the citizens but had agreed to Fiona’s plan so kept it to myself. Mostly to get access to the mana heart supply but partially because this wasn’t my city or civilians to care about. I also wanted to wrap this up as soon as possible and get out of here. I suspected my spirit repellers may have awoken some other sleeping spirits. While I doubted the city would mind more spirits looking for hosts, I didn’t want to get stuck here helping round up spirits for the next few months. Plus they had two of the lanterns, they could use those.

It didn’t take long to settle debts and Chief Harar thanked us again for our confidentiality on the matter. Fiona collected the massive bag of low-quality mana hearts and stored them in her ring.

I tried to talk Mon Ying into another duel but she only smiled slightly in reply. It irritated me but I figured forcing her into a duel wouldn’t end well for me. With our business done and payment received, we headed toward the gate out of the city, Mugat leading us.

“Thank you for your help, I know you two didn’t do it for completely altruistic reasons but thanks anyway. You likely saved a lot of lives.”

“I like you Mugat, you don’t mince words or hold back. I’ll let you in on a secret, I left a few gifts in the form of magical lanterns. If you suddenly find yourself having other spirit issues just have your town guards patrol the area with these lanterns and stop in one of the working enchantment circles. You don’t even have to tell them why other than to keep the city safe.”

The man stopped and looked at me. We were far enough out of town that I felt fine about speaking about this.

“You suspect more spirits may stir?”

I shrugged, “I doubt our efforts to capture the last one left them undisturbed. You should be prepared. If more lanterns are required in the future, you can speak with one of the merchants we send your way and they will get word to me.”

Mugat nodded, “very well, I will keep that in mind. Safe travels to both of you.”

Fiona nodded, “thank you for your kind words Mugat, relay our thanks to your people for their hospitality.”

With one final nod, Mugat turned around and walked back to the city gate. Fiona joined me at the exterior door to the fortress and we stepped inside. I felt much more emotionally stable after this trip and decided it was time to head back to Saint June and see what was up. Seeing as we hadn’t gotten a message I figured they were doing well.