Mana System Chapter 203: The hunters (Patreon)

Ulq and Xiph stepped out of the portal of the Bazaar. Xiph’s tentacles twitched in distaste at the thin environment before he reached out to his partner mentally. [Do you have a trail?]

This wasn’t the first time asking this question, nor the first Bazaar on this strange world they had exited from. But the priests had assured them this was the correct world and so they came. The cost to hop from Bazaar to Bazaar was expensive but there was no other way to start locating what they were sent to find.

He waited while Ulq twisted his tentacles in the air, using whatever skill he had that allowed him to find their target. Xiph remained alert though, watching the less than friendly emotions rolling off the locals as they passed by. He assumed they were giving the two of them dirty looks but he wasn’t well versed in alien physiology.

[Trail. Close.] Ulq sent back with his limited telepathic ability.

Xiph scanned his companion's thoughts to locate the next destination. He would have done this all the time but it was easier to get images than it was to access thoughts. Once he got a clear image from Ulq’s surface thoughts, he opened a rift and teleported the two of them past the enchantments and into a small room with two individuals.

***

Lord Vik’t was busy discussing the ongoing stalemate with Saint June and how they had surprised them with their damnable smaller ships, essentially neutralizing his advantage of airship power before it even got off the ground.

“Do we have any idea how many ships they possess?” he asked Ashlam.

“So far we have spotted five. On their own, they aren’t much of a threat but they are more nimble than our ships and they have those modified mana cannons.”

Lord Vik’t muttered a curse and was thinking about ways around the issue when two alien visitors popped into existence behind Ashlam.

He was so surprised by their appearance that he hesitated a moment, nobody should be able to simply teleport past his wards. Thankfully Ashlam was a seasoned fighter and didn’t hesitate after seeing his expression. The man blurred into action almost immediately.

[Be still and silent!]

The mental command seemed to roll through the room from the floating cephalopod-like beings, making everyone freeze.

The command was all-encompassing making it so Lord Vik’t couldn’t even breathe, he couldn’t move, even his awareness of what was going on around him had become fuzzy. For the first time in many many years, Lord Vik’t was terrified.

***

Ulq and Xiph floated through the frozen room. Ulq used his tentacles to touch and feel the lifeforms within the room, looking for clues while Xiph restrained the beings with little effort on his half. They were weak, less than half his level so there was no surprise there.

[Nothing] Ulq sent telepathically, moving on to the second smaller creature behind the weapon-wielding one.

He repeated the process, probing the creature's timeline for any clues. [Interaction. Faint. Prior.]

Xiph responded with a telepathic nod and the two vanished, moving on to the next link in the chain.

***

By the time the skill wore off, Lord Vik’t was blue in the face. He collapsed to the ground, sucking in deep lung fulls of air. He imagined the experience was much like drowning and he never wanted to have to go through it ever again. Never had he been placed in such a vulnerable position. As his senses returned he got shakily to his feet. He noticed Ashlam was either unconscious or dead as the man lay sprawled out on the ground with his sword scattered to the corner of the room after it fell from his lifeless hand.

Lord Vik’t activated his emergency enchantment and a host of guards rushed into the room shortly after to try and see what the issue was.

“We were attacked, gather the guards and activate all the wards in case they return. If I find out anyone was shirking their duties during this time I will personally punish them, am I clear?” The guards nodded, “ Good, get to it and check to see if Ashlam is alive or not.”

Ashlam did survive, although, it took the man a few minutes to regain consciousness. Lord Vik’t didn’t even berate him for his complete ineffectiveness in the face of an enemy, he knew a high leveled enemy when he saw it, even if his quick Identify, before getting frozen, only returned question marks. What he didn’t know was the who or why. Ashlam was able to supply the who.

“They are known as Void Hunters, My Lord. I don’t know much about them as their race is rather reclusive. All I know is to stay out of their way as they will destroy anything they need to to get at their target.”

“But why come here and attack us? Did you hear their telepathic conversation?”

“No, My Lord. I attacked and then I couldn’t move, everything else was distorted.”

Lord Vik’t could puzzle over the why of that later, for now, he told his captain everything he heard, although, it wasn’t much. He figured it was a side effect of his family's enchantments. Maybe he could market that.

“It makes no sense,” Ashlam mumbled, “We haven’t encountered anything that would put us on their radar, you especially, except…”

“Paul Fuller,” Lord Vik’t finished for him. Lord Vik’t smiled. “Well, this may end up working in our favor then. If these hunters are looking for this man, for whatever reason, it is unlikely he will enjoy it when they finally catch up to him. For now, keep up our aerial patrols but don’t engage the enemy ships. I have people looking for this Paul and have a good idea of where he might be. If we get confirmation of his death, then we can assault the city in force.”

***

Screams and confusion suffused the population of Houston. Something or someone had attacked. Nobody had died but the people were fresh off two other attacks and fear and paranoia were at a high causing mass panic.

The two beings floated through the chaos, ignoring anyone that ran away from them and only freezing the minds of those that tried to attack.

[Trail. Old. Many.] Ulq sent.

Xiph flexed his tentacles in annoyance. Most of his frustration stemmed from the single-word mental replies he got from his companion. He knew it couldn’t be helped, sending a multi-word reply telepathically was draining for a non-telepath, especially in this weak environment. He longed for the crushing depths and silence of the homeworld. But he needed to be vigilant for the mission. As a hunter, he didn’t fear reprisals from the locals. Even if they did become strong, no outsider would survive the crushing depths of Quix to even attempt it. It's why hunter teams never bothered asking for information, why bother when you could just take what you need and move on.

The two of them continued their investigation through the town, leaving a trail of stunned and frozen people behind them and at least one corpse. They eventually found another link and Ulq was stripping the beings timeline for clues. But the being behind the mind was resisting, it never ended well for those that resisted.

[Recent. Clue. Lead.] was all Xiph needed to hear. He transported them to the next location.

As soon as they left, the body of Jim Mors collapsed to the ground and lay still and quiet.

The arrival at the next location was met with surprise. Instead of arriving where Xiph had wanted to, they appeared outside a wall on an open rocky plateau. Alarms blared in the distance causing Xiph to recoil slightly at the harsh discordant wail. For a moment he mistook the sound for a predator from his homeworld. Thankfully it wasn’t a sonic attack and he quickly recovered.

Soon after the noise, beams of bright lights swept across the ground and quickly oriented on the pair. Xiph twitched a tentacle and a dome of telekinetic force sprang into being, deflecting the incoming magical attacks that followed. He wasn’t worried about them breaching his barrier, they were far weaker than anything on his homeworld.

[Trail. Multitude!] Ulq quivered in excitement.

Xiph ignored his partner's excitement and just pushed forward, ignoring the increasing volley of incoming fire as he twisted two of his appendages to form a circle in order to cast Void Lance, removing a large hole in the wall in front of them, allowing the pair to float straight through.

The defenders of the city tried to fight them off, but nothing they did could even harm the pair. They did encounter one creature but the hell beast was quickly dispatched with a hammer of telekinetic force.

Ulq dug through the minds of anyone with a scent of the target before we ran into an issue.

[Trail. Unknown. Unknown. Unknown.] his companion repeated in agitation.

Xiph sighed internally at his rookie companion's agitation. He should have asked for an experienced hunter for this mission but they were busy. Instead, he slapped Ulq with a tentacle to admonish him to keep his cool and approached one of the frozen humans, the hell beast summoner he realized, and dug through its mind. While the result wasn’t as accurate as Ulq’s Void Hunter skills, he was able to trace a path. They would pick up the trail again it was only a matter of time.

The two vanished, heading South.

***

Martin screamed in agony as his lungs returned to working order. His head felt like someone had dipped it in acid and split it open. With shaky limbs, he managed to stand. He wobbled over to check on Ska – his new Chief of the Guard – and make sure he was alright. He seemed to be fine, only unconscious. Martin let out a sigh of relief, collapsing to the ground, his energy spent.

As he lay there he could only be glad that Fiona had remained at home, he couldn’t imagine whatever skill was used to disable Ska and him would have been good for their unborn child. And she didn’t have the safety of being able to go incorporeal while she was pregnant.

His mind went to the two dark blue floating squid-like creatures that attacked. As his mind slowly cleared he got a picture of what they wanted from the memories they accessed.

He shuddered just thinking about these creatures and what they might be capable of.

After the fight with Lord Vik’t and his forces, Martin had upgraded his Identify skill to something called True Sight. That one skill bankrupted his entire finances but it was worth it. It could cut through most abilities to hide class or level information and it also didn’t have an upper limit on the level it could identify. He looked at the messages he got after using it on the two creatures and hoped Paul would be able to avoid an encounter with him because Martin knew, they were here for Paul. And with no way to contact him, as he was out of range, there would be no warning for Paul if they did show up.

Ulq | Void Hunter / Maw of the Void | 47/41

Xiph | Psy Commando / Maw of the Void | 45/42