Zero Potential: Chapter 19 (Patreon)

Chapter 19

From her perch high up in the forest canopy, Terra had a good view of what was happening in the world below her. She could feel the movements of various woodland creatures that were both attracted to and simultaneously frightened by the lingering scent of fire and smoke in the air.

Scents that were caused by what Terra first assumed was an assassination attempt. A woman and her kids riding along a road with minimal protection, while bearing the mark of the Montagues all but screamed easy pocket money for any would be thieves.

But no, right now Terra decided to follow this hunch, for if this was an assassination attempt, Terra was certain someone would be sent as a spotter to confirm the kill once and for all. That was where Terra now found herself, struggling to stay awake, while monitoring for any potential attackers. Not that she wanted to invest herself in this future conflict for the lands to the south, but that she was always curious about this chain of events. In her past lives these events never made sense, at least not the watered-down versions that made it to the Belaton Kingdom, so now she had a chance to actually understand this mystery.  In one of her past lives, she spent time looking for the long-lost Lady Montague, someone who was said to be an exceptional beauty. Which after having seen the woman in the flesh, the rumors weren’t wrong, Lady Montague was bewitching. Not only was she fierce, even when facing certain death, but she was as headstrong as Terra had heard her to be from her past life.

This was fun, finally answering an old mystery from her past life that was never made public knowledge.

Unfortunately, the longer the night went on, the more Terra slowly felt her mind eventually relaxing and rolling to the realm of dreams, hoping that her detection wards would be more than enough to alert her of any new predators that made their way into her domain.

***

“The balance must be maintained.”

Words, not quite her own, were these words from any lecture or person she remembered talking to in the past. In her mind, Terra knew that when she heard these words, they were very profound, but as is customary with dreams, she had a hard time fully linking the thought to where she heard the words.

The speaker was someone who Terra knew to be extremely important and honest, but could not remember why. Then the more she fought to awaken her mind just enough to remember who this person speaking was, and why these words were so important, she felt it.

SQUEALCH.

There was a loud ringing sound in her mind, one that spoke of danger.

Startled by the sound Terra felt her consciousness first awaken, then suddenly she jumped to her feet in her dream.

***

Terra found herself rocking in place from amongst the tree branches. The moment she did, her instincts took over and instantly caused her arms to shoot out to the nearby branches that she knew were present.

Calm.

Terra held herself still for a moment as she prepared for what would happen next. There was a moment of stillness, the calm before the inevitable storm, a moment that Terra through experience found herself focusing through.

Then without warning, she heard movement.

Scuffle.

The faint sound of people moving through the woods, as if drawn in a straight line to a final destination.

Faint glow.

Almost as if to confirm her initial thoughts, she finally saw what the distinct glow of magic, as a group of well-armed soldiers carrying made their way through the woods. In their hands the leader seemingly held a royalty finding orb, these were artifacts that were made popular by kings and queens of the past. Typically, a king or noble would gift a magical item in the form of a necklace or a ring to one of their family members, then paired with the jewelry would be a detection orb. This way should anything happen to the king or their families a search party could be sent out to find the survivors and bring them in to safety.

Over time the practice extended beyond the kings and queens and trickled down to royal members. This practice also made it a lot easier to track down anyone who was foolish enough to try to kill a royal for their jewelry, as tracking down the inevitable resting place of the jewels was easy thanks to the sympathetically linked tracking orb.

Here, however, Terra got the impression that these people were not part of the royal protection unit of the Montagues. First, they didn’t have any form of identification on their uniforms, second all the clothes worn were different from each other with no noticeable patterns. Third and likely the most important was that despite their being five armed men together with a tracking orb that seemingly was directing the group directly towards Lady Montague and her wards, not one had a color that was close to any linked to House Montague. This to Terra seemed to signify that there was a conscious effort to avoid any ties with the family at all.

Still despite this, Terra did not want to potentially get involved with a political affair if she could avoid such a fate, as there was clearly some tie to a wealthy backer if they could afford both a tracking orb and jewelry.

The group of five moved close, and then following the hand sign of the leader holding the tracking orb, they stopped. Then as any good leader should, he began going over the mission objectives.

“It looks like they are ahead on the road. Our job is to make sure the boy dies; only then will we get the second part of our payment.” The leader said.

Hearing that, Terra had a few things confirmed for her, as she had always wondered if the talks of a hidden assassination attempt were true or not. Now she knew for certain.

That was the thing about such plots, there would always be rumors, if there was a piece of truth to them. Someone would get loose lips while drinking one night, eventually. Terra could easily see one of these people easily using the assassination attempt of an infant as a bragging point.

“Disgusting.” Terra muttered to herself, before rising to her feet. She made a quick cat stretch, as she prepared her mind and body for what she would do next, then finally she moved.

The five went over the plans and escape points, but Terra was not interested in hearing any of these extra details, as far as she was concerned These people were scum and deserved to be dealt with accordingly. Killing off rivals was one thing, but purposefully targeting children, regardless of lineage, was a line she could not forgive.

Pulling her dungeon trial daggers from her belt, she did a quick inventory of her items. Her wand was strapped neatly on her back, and her clothes were still on and amazingly fresh thanks to her enchantments. With everything ready, Terra leapt into action.

While Terra’s resting spot had been close to the path used by the would-be assassins, it unfortunately wasn’t right above the assailants. Nor was the spot close to other trees where she could run across, as such Terra dropped down silently, using Wind magic to cushion and silence her fall.

Ruffle.

There was the faint ruffling of grass, as Terra landed in a crouch. Terra held her place, wondering if the five assassins were aware enough to hear that sound. Pausing for a moment, she listened.

“Any last questions?” The leader asked.

Realizing that she had gone completely unnoticed up until now, she decided to move forward.

Stalking.

Despite this being humans, despite there being the very real fact that she was going to ruthlessly end lives right here and now. Lives that had families to go back to, there was always a thrill that arose from stalking prey of any kind, but especially humans and humanoids.

This was something that Terra often found herself battling with, the fact that she was often just one small step away from being a complete monster. The fact that she truly enjoyed this portion of her life, the hunting and the inevitable kill.

In every life she had to use her skills to hunt and kill humans constantly, many were just guards doing little more than trying to protect their country’s borders. Others were royal guards who risked their lives so that those born to better stations in life would be able to get away, for a moment. Eventually, it didn’t matter, as Terra eventually got so prolific at hunting and killing that even the seconds afforded one by their guards was nothing to her.

Obfuscation Aura.

With this aura on, Terra felt the thrill of the hunt rise even more within her, as she could feel her targets. She could feel their minds first register her, and then slide right off.

Terra had problems, she realized that. In fact, in some of her first lifetimes she even spoke to others about it, killing was something that society frowned upon, but Terra had to make it so she could be a killer. She had to be the monster that hid openly.

Badump, badump, badump.

Honestly, Terra felt her heart beating so loudly with the perceived excitement that she wondered if her aura would be able to hide her.

Fortunately, her aura held up.

“Alright then, follow me.” The leader said, still holding the orb and using it to guide him the last few steps back to the open road ahead.

The four others followed suit, standing in nearly a perfect formation of two ranks of two. Clearly showing that these five had some type of military training. If Terra had to guess, they were likely a squad from a military unit.

The moment their backs turned; a wide smile crept up to Terra’s lips. She couldn’t help it, if she had been squeamish, or had hated this part of the hunt, she would have burned out long ago as the hero. Instead, she embraced this part of herself, not denying this part, but welcoming it, unleashing this hidden aspect of herself that she hid so well from most people.

Creep, creep.

Terra moved with the poise and presence of a true monster of the night. Her long, graceful strides and quick fluid movements allowed her to move three times faster than the group that was slowly moving forward, trying to remain quiet as they prepared to exit the woods.

This was perfect for Terra as she moved forward, then when she was close enough to reach out and touch the trailing two soldiers with her hands, she struck out with her daggers.

Slink, slink.

With deft and practiced movements, she raised up both daggers and then plunged them into the base of the neck where the spine met the back of the individuals.

Gurgled gasps.

The blows were quick, deadly, and precise. Instantly the two bodies went from being able to move freely, to being completely cut off from the rest of their bodies.

The fresh scent of warm copper filled the air, and instantly Terra felt alive.

Thump, thump.

The bodies landed as if they were puppets with the strings cut, while Terra quickly reversed her momentum and pulled her blades free of the bodies.

“What?” The soldiers ahead cried out, turning to try to look behind them. As they did, only the faint glow of the orb in the leader’s hand lit up the darkness, revealing the glowing silhouettes of two confused warriors.

Those silhouettes were all that Terra needed to make her next strikes.

“What are you.” The warrior on the left called out, as he was already turning his drawn blade to face Terra. Unfortunately for the warrior, he was too close to his own squad member to come in swinging his sword. Instead, he moved with practiced motions, lowering the sword blade as he moved past his partner to the side, and then was in the process of raising up the blade by the time Terra was on them and prepared to strike.

Slink, slink.

Once again Terra struck out with two daggers. Her strike on one that she had been focusing on struck the warrior on the left right in the heart. Then turning her attention to the second remaining warrior she realized that her other blow had been deep and likely would be fatal but was not enough to cause the warrior to drop their guard instantly.

Seeing the guard still standing, Terra smiled wider. She had seen blood, and suddenly like an addict who had one shot, one hit for the road, Terra felt her consciousness fade as she began giving herself over to her true self. She was a murderer, and regardless of when it started, the first time she killed a human with her own two hands, the bloodlust of battle was always set free.

She had managed to avoid it earlier with the bandits, as she had used her magic then, and for some reason using magic to kill humans and humanoids never quite triggered this effect. Not even killing the fake humanoid constructs of a dungeon would set this off.

It was the smell, more than anything, the fresh scent of warm blood wafting the night air that made her feel alive.

In this state, Terra was unstoppable. While in this battle frenzy as she thought of it, her movements became not her own, as she began moving and swerving as if she was drunk but she was still completely normal. She still had control over her faculties and movements, but her inhibitions were gone. Rather than being clean with her strikes, she got wild. Striking out in a flurry of blows and strikes that instantly ripped the flesh and clothing of the warrior before her.

Slink, slice, slink.

A slash across the inside of the right arm, a slash across the torso, a follow through return slice across the neck that was a bit too energetic causing the head to become detached.

Her movements were deft and precise, even though she was moving far faster than the dim lighting of the orb would allow most people to keep up with.

Finally, the fourth body fell, as a spray of blood washed over Terra covering her in the smell of copper and instantly awakening that primal portion of her mind that helped her to survive both physically, but also mentally to this point.

She was a monster; of that she had no doubt. She willingly killed hundreds if not thousands of people each lifetime, and each lifetime she was reset so she could do it again, and again. And the worst part of it all, somewhere along the way, she lost the portion of herself that said this is wrong. Long ago, she discarded that portion of her mind, as it was weak, caused her to hesitate, to lose loved ones. Now she knew the only thing keeping her from being a true monster were her control rules she had for herself.

Number 1: Kill the being of ultimate evil, regardless of the cost.

Number 2: Save the children.

Number 3: <Redacted>

Pausing for a moment, she realized that she had a number three, but it was suddenly gone from her mind.

Phil, the leader of this band of warriors stopped in horror, as he saw Terra, a small girl in an academy uniform strike down four elite soldiers in under twenty seconds, then pause covered in blood to stare off into space as if trying to recall something important to her.

She was a monster, a vampire made flesh, at least that is what Phil thought while seeing the blood-soaked girl being lit by the glow of the tracking orb.

Suddenly every survival instinct in Phil’s body told him to run. His instincts screamed at him that he would not survive an encounter with this monster in human flesh. He had heard horror stories about such monsters. Monsters that took the forms of little girls and prayed upon the evil men that dared to enter her forest. Then suddenly he remembered the name of such a monster.

“The Yaga.” Phil said, as he turned his back and began to run out of the woods and towards the open roads. His instincts telling him that he could run faster on open ground.

The only problem was, while Terra had been momentarily distracted trying to remember her third rule, the fact that a weak prey like creature turned its back on her ignited every killing instinct she had. Smiling widely at all the open spots to strike, Terra moved.

Lunging forward, she caught up to Phil at the exact moment he made the tree line and began to set foot on the road.

Pounce.

Terra landed on the squad leader, tackling him to the ground as both daggers easily cut through flesh and bone as she rode his collapsing body to the ground.

Silence.

There was a moment of silence as Terra felt a soft breeze wash across her body, instantly telling her that she was both covered in blood and that it was now getting cold. Then just as Terra managed to calm herself, as she realized the final threat was over, she heard a scream.

“AHH! What is that? A monster?” Came the cries of a small seven year old girl.

The words instantly causing Terra to stop and realize her surroundings.