(TPOR) Chapter 173: Not a Ranked Weapon (Patreon)

Lightning streaked through the air.

It was magical, but it seemed to follow some form of already established world principle. Zed wasn’t sure what exactly the case was. But the force it carried when it left the rune was far more significant than what he saw strike Babajide.

Babajide held up his staff and the electricity ran through it, taking most of the damage as had been the case with Eitri.

A notification flashed in front of Zed.

· Basic rune [Lightning] has applied effect [Electrocute] on [Babajide] and [Devil’s Lance].

· [Electrocute] does not take effect on [Devil’s Lance].

· [Babajide] has been stunned.

Babajide spasmed slightly, falling back on the chair he had begun this entire ordeal on.

Zed shook out his hand as pain tingled on the edge of his finger tip, then suddenly turned numb.

Did I somehow electrocute myself, too?

He checked his finger and found a small black spot. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was about. All the runes he’d learned so far had left no such effect on him. [Flame] hadn’t burned him, and [Pain] hadn’t hurt him.

Was it because of how fast I learnt it? he wondered. And how did I learn it so fast?

“What did you just do?”

Zed turned his head to find Eitri staring at him with a scowl.

I really hope this isn’t going to be one of those unspoken rules about not stealing runes.

He didn’t think a world cut throat enough as this would have such rules. Then again, people did learn to find some form of civility even in chaos.

“Is there a way someone can kind of hold old chap down so we can do something about that?” he asked, gesturing at a still spasming Babajide.

Eitri shook his head.

“I don’t think that staff will let us,” Eitri said, but his eyes claimed he would still require an answer to his question.

Zed looked at the staff. True to Eitri’s worlds it was letting out wisps again. Each one undulated as if waiting for a command.

“Well, we’ve got to find a way around it,” he said. “I don’t think we want to be here when his friend changes its mind.”

“What friend?” Eitri asked, puzzled. “And unless he drops the staff, nothing short of cutting his hand off will help.”

“Lance,” Zed corrected.

“What?”

“It’s a Lance,” he repeated as Kid and Ronda slowly eased towards him. “A Devil’s Lance, actually.”

That caught Kid and Ronda’s attention.

“What?” they asked in unison.

Zed turned to them. “You’ve both got completely different surprised expressions. Has anyone told you that? He looks like he stepped on a cat and you look like you’re the cat.”

He spied Babajide from the corner of his eye. The man was still spasming.

That doesn’t make sense, he thought.

Babajide was a Rukh rank mage. He was either a category two or three. Which meant a runespell from Zed wasn’t supposed to put him out so thoroughly. And the Lance had carried a brunt of the rune’s effect, hadn’t it?

“How do you know it’s a Devil’s Lance?” Ronda asked, pulling him from his thought.

Zed shrugged. “Intuition?”

Everyone remained quiet, simply looking at him.

“You know you guys have to learn to take a guy’s word sometimes,” he said, shifty. “Think about it, how else would I know?”

“A devil’s lance isn’t something to be joked about,” Kid said.

“Definitely.” Zed gestured at the lance that somehow happened to still be active in a still spasming Babajide’s hand. “You’d think the spell would’ve deactivated by now.”

“It’s not a spell,” Kid said.

“What do you mean it’s not a spell?” Eitri asked.

“Not important. What’s important is that we chop his hand off. If we can achieve that, then we can turn that damned thing off.”

Zed looked between the three of them.

“Turn that damned thing off?” he repeated. “Are you saying something like that is not even his magic?”

Ronda ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “We shouldn’t have let you leave your axe in the car.”

Zed thought about that and paused. His axe. [Titan’s Axe] was a weapon. He looked at the Devil’s lance in all it’s black ominous visage.

Is it a weapon, too?

“Are you telling me that that’s a weapon of some sort?” he asked. “Can ranked weapons even be that powerful? What’s it’s rank?”

“Not a ranked weapon,” Kid answered.

He moved around the room, checking every unconscious minion, looking for something. When he found it, he reached down to the person’s belt and jimmied it a bit.

He pulled out a knife.

“The dude’s a Rukh,” Eitri said. “I think you’ll need more than just some knife.”

Kid wasn’t deterred.

He walked back up to them.

“Can you still read that thing with your attribute?” he asked Ronda.

Ronda shook her head. “He’s lost his control, so it’s acting on it’s own. And you know how they react to ambient mana.”

Zed looked between the both of them, then at the still active lance. They were too calm, considering not too long ago they’d been on high alert. It was weird.

“Not to be the illiterate in the group,” he said, slipping in between them. “But why aren’t we panicking? We’ve got a live lance on our hands over here. Well… technically, it’s his hands. But you get my drift.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kid said. “Devil weapons won’t make a move against you unless you go after them or their bonds.”

Zed paused.

Kid was speaking of the thing like it was sentient in some way.

“Tell me that thing’s not really from the devil,” he said. “My mom and dad were strictly religious but I don’t think I developed their level of faith before I was hit over the head and shot into the second awakening.”

Both of them looked at him.

“Metaphorically speaking of course,” he added.

Eitri looked like he was thinking. What about? Zed had no idea. Maybe he was thinking of the runes he had, and if any of them had a cutting function.

How would that even work? Zed thought. A cutting rune. Would it just cut the target? Maybe there’ll be a length of very thin very sharp mana… I should ask Festus.

The door to the room burst open suddenly. Someone dived in, rolling on the ground and coming up suddenly, gun aimed.

To everyone’s surprise, the Devil Lance struck at the door with one of its whips. It wasn’t necessarily instant, but the distance was significantly farther than anything it had covered when it had been actively fighting them. They ducked to avoid it.

Zed stared at their new guest and found Daniel pressed up against one of the walls with a semi-automatic rifle in hand.

“Everybody alright!” Daniel called out.

“Good, Boss!” Kid didn’t even bother to look at him. “Just got something from the Devil’s armor set.”

Zed was beginning to dislike this more and more. “I keep hearing devil here and there. Please tell me I didn’t wake up in a world where gods and demons are real.”

“Gods are still in the heads of their priests, kid,” Eitri said.

Zed looked down at him. “Thanks. It would’ve been more assuring if you’d sounded more confident about it. Right now, you’re the equivalent of a priest doubting his faith. No offence.”

Back against the wall, Daniel swore under his breath.

“Which one?” he asked.

“A lance,” Ronda answered.

A lance? Zed thought, worried.

“You guys are trying to tell us there could be another lance from this devil set?” he asked. “Please tell me there’s some kind of paladin armor to counter it. And who the fuck makes a Devil set?”

Kid looked like he was preparing himself to rush in.

“These things usually have a weakness.”

“These things,” Zed groaned. “Oh, God, save me now. Just how many Devil sets are there? Someone please answer me.”

“No one knows,” Ronda answered. “But we’ve identified six different items from five different sets. Nasty things.”

Speaking of nasty, Zed flared his aura out again, seeking the aura signature he’d noticed at the beginning, before some imbecile had decided to fight with a lance that had a mind of its own.

One of the Lance’s whips struck at him with a viper’s speed and he ducked to the side to avoid it.

“Why the hell would you antagonize the damned thing?” Daniel said.

Zed remained ducked low, watching the lance. When he was sure it had no current intentions of another attack, he rose slowly.

“Well, if you must know,” he said. “There’s a Rukh rank beast outside this building that’s stronger than false king over here. Just making sure it hasn’t decided to come in and maul us yet.”

“How long have you had this piece of information?” Eitri asked.

Zed shrugged. “You remember that time that dude hit me over the head with a gun? Yeah, that’s when I found out.”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

“I was too busy being sent flying through a wall.” Zed made a vague pompous gesture. “I was waiting for you to come to me. You know how I like to whisper my information.”

Ronda shook her head in frustration. “No matter what I try, I can’t read it. The ambient mana around it is too messed up.”

“Who got hit?” Daniel asked from where he was.

Kid looked from one person to the other. “Who got hit?”

Zed’s jaw dropped.

“Did everyone suddenly forget?” He gestured at the wall he’d been sent flying through. “There used to be a freaking wall over there.”

All of them looked at him.

Zed threw his hands up in confusion. “I got hit. Me. Dude with the auburn hair everyone keeps thinking is red. I swear you guys are worse than Nurifa. He got my hair color wrong but at least he cared.”

Kid shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts. “I’m so sorry. It was in the beginning, and it happened fast. And we didn’t really—”

“Who got hurt?” Daniel asked again.

“Zed did,” Ronda announced.

Zed looked at her. “Can I ask why he’s still standing there? He can just come out. It’s only attacking those with offensive intent, right?”

“It can smell bloodlust, too.”

Bloodlust, Zed mused. Well, I’ve got a lot of bloodl—oh, shit.

He remembered something important and pulled up his notification. He didn’t waste time focusing on what he wanted to see. When it came up, he was both relieved and confused.

· [Blood mana] required to next [Bloodwrath] activation: 0359/1200.

That was odd. He was practically covered in blood. And he’d cast a few runes. How was the amount of blood mana only 359? He’d been expecting to see something closer to a thousand. Usually the thing liked to ramp up like it was on steroids.

Is it because it’s been a while since the blood got on me? He pondered. Does old blood somehow have lesser blood mana?

He wasn’t entirely sure what the answer was. But if it was positive, then it would make a lot of sense.

“How bad is the injury?” Daniel asked.

Ronda moved to Zed and he took an instinctive step away from her.

“If you want all of this, you’ll have to buy me dinner first,” he told her.

“Don’t be a child,” she chided him. “How’s the injury? Is your ability to regenerate taking care of it?”

Zed looked down at the injury on his chest. The black spot had reduced significantly until it was pretty much just the size of a child’s fist. And while it no longer stung, he could feel the pain if he focused on it.

“I think it’s doing fine,” he answered. “It’s taking a while to healing, but it’s healing.”

“That’s good.” Kid nodded. “I was worried there for a while.”

“Worried?” Zed asked. “Why? Wait, is this thing going to poison my mana core and somehow render my ability to use magic useless? Am I going to have devil’s mana?”

That last one sounded cool in a wrong kind of way.

“Will I grow extra limbs?”

Ronda squinted at it, then shook her head. “You’re good. And Devil’s mana doesn’t contaminate anyone.”

Zed let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I don’t think I’m ready to have multiple hands.”

“You’ll most likely just get voices in your head,” Kid said.

Zed snorted. Like the memories aren’t enough.

“Besides,” Ronda added. “Devil items don’t contaminate people. It just kills them.”

Zed paused. “Oh.”

Daniel’s hand shot up immediately and he held it out at the door. “Stay right there.”

“What’s wrong, boss?” Kid asked, back to full alert, his attention swiveling between the potential threat of the Devil Lance and the potential threat at the door.

“It’s just Shanine,” Zed answered before Daniel. “She’s with the others.”

He had sensed them when he’d flared his aura, before the Devil lance had tried to take his head from him.

“Uhh…” he pointed at Babajide. “I swear he was younger when we were fighting him.”

Everyone turned their attention to Babajide, seated on his chair.

He looked wrinkled and old. He looked like he was over ninety and dying.

Zed sucked in a sharp breath. “That doesn’t look good at all.”