He had thrown his burning orb an instant before I had launched my own attack, and had also managed to invest more energy into his charm than I had in my technique. But I wasn't worried about that, because techniques and spells usually trumped charms in every area but direct physical augmentation. Even though he probably had more essence substages than I did, our attacks should still cancel out at the very least.
Instead, my water sphere blasted his fireball apart like it was an overconfident candle flame, then slammed into the surprised practitioner like he was an overconfident leaf in the wind. He spiraled awkwardly through the air for almost a dozen feet, then landed in a limp pile of bones.
Did I kill that one? I asked both Mara and Vessa.
No, dear, the dragon said happily, but I am very proud of your performance. You should feel more comfortable with cutting loose.
No, Jas, Vessa said irritably, and at the same time as the dragon-woman, and you should consider holding back a bit. You're supposed to be knocking them unconscious, not reducing them all into permanently boneless heaps!
Didn't you just praise Nova earlier for getting ahead of my own count, and through the use of explosions? I asked, confused and looking around for more foes.
Well, yes, but, Vessa sputtered in my mind as I found the last slaver in the group, running away from me and screaming. I picked up the smallest rock I could find, and threw it at the back of his head. The thug went down limply and immediately. She was in control the whole time. Even with the fireballs, she's careful to use the exact amount of force necessary to subdue an opponent. No more, and no less.
That makes sense, given her training as an officer, I replied as I spent a bit of Source energy to refresh all my enhancement powers. With that done, I took off into a run, heading for where the kidnappers' dormitory was likely located. She was probably trained heavily in restraint techniques.
But didn't you say you were trained too? Vessa retorted, as grass and dirt flew under my feet. It felt good to be running this fast, I realized. We had always been so cramped back in the ship, and that one time we were outside the hull, I had worried about accidentally launching myself into outer space until Nova had gotten hit. I looked about to confirm no enemies were near, then spent a second savoring the sensation.
Well? Vessa demanded, and I realized I had forgotten to answer her.
Oh, apologies. I'm still getting used to being outside again. Yes, my mother trained me in various martial arts.
Including self-defense, right? Vessa clarified, as I caught sight of another group of large men running in my direction. They saw me, saw that I was alone and unharmed, and must have noticed something else, because they immediately turned and began running in the opposite direction.
Oh, especially self-defense, I answered my teacher, sheathing my halfblade for a moment, and reaching into my qi again. I worked a bit of water qi into my gauntleted arm, and air qi into my open hand. Then I merged the two into a ball, freed one hand to operate a quick physics spell, and then sent the spinning ball of qi through the spell, guiding its flight to land in the middle of the pack of cowards, where it detonated and sent bodies flying.
You just—Vessa began, before catching herself. Nevermind, that one was fine. Nice control. But back to your self-defense education. I know I've been neglecting this area myself, and that's my own fault, but if your mother already taught you these things then shouldn't you have a vast arsenal of ways to subdue or disable your opponent without serious damage?
Of course not, I replied, looking around for more targets. I realized that some of the last group was still conscious, and a backwards glance told me that I had failed to knock out one or two enemies in my previous fights. But all of them were either moaning, crawling futilely for the distant jungle, or shouting "I surrender" over and over. I didn't receive subdual training, I got self-defense training.
Those two are related! Vessa shouted in my mind, as I tried to remember how many total slavers she had said this place held, while counting the number I had already downed.
Not in my mother's opinion, I said with a shrug, continuing my walk to the center of the outpost. I saw one other jotunkin run shouting away from me. I decided to just follow this one, to see if he could lead me anywhere useful. My mother had a very low opinion of most self-defense classes that followed the 'least amount of force' school of thought. Her view was that an attacker probably wasn't going to use the least amount of force necessary to rob or murder you, and that you should take him seriously, and respond in kind. As for sparring matches, she always said that 'if a move is illegal in a martial competition, then it's probably a really good move for self-defense.'
That's… Vessa began, before catching herself. I had to catch myself as well, because I was already outpacing the screaming idiot running away from me, and if I caught him too soon, I'd never find out where he was headed. That's actually a really good point. Especially given that you couldn't use Source energy back on Earth. Okay, I'm going to stop yelling at you, and just teach you some basic disabling skills when you get back. I don't even know why I'm getting angry over this. You're doing fine.
Thanks, I said, slowing down as the guard I was chasing fell down to his knees, panting and still shouting. There's some more jerky and a drink pouch on top of the terminal behind you.
I didn't—Vessa started to say, before going quiet again. Thank you. That's good to know.
She broke off the conversation, and I turned my attention back to pursuing the bandit.
The fleeing guard seemed to have finally stopped running for good. Another figure was walking up to him, this one much larger than the rest—a full head taller than me. Despite his large size, his appearance was more human than giant, with a full head of red hair and a red goatee. His eyes were dark and calculating as he looked at me.
"Who are you and of what group?" he asked, pointing at my halfblade. "And why do you have a jotunblade?"
"A concerned third party, representing a group that doesn't want this world's people and economy disrupted," I answered carefully. "And I gained this weapon through trial by combat. Your turn, senior. Why are you disrupting the economy of this world, and would you please consider surrendering?"
"No," the large man-giant answered me. His chest was bare, except for a number of intricate tattoos of various beasts. That probably marked him as a much more powerful essence user. "And if you're working for who I think you are," he added, gesturing at the Sourcegauntlet I had taken from Koram, "then you already know enough of what's happening here. Probably more than I do, in fact. And if you're not working for who I think you are," he added, still looking at the gauntlet, "then you're already marked for death, and I need to distance myself from you. We're leaving," he snapped to the smaller, panting giantblood on the ground. "Get up, and go help activate the portal. We're leaving with whatever prisoners we have time to take with us."
"Apologies," I interrupted, stepping forward. "But I am not that generous. You're leaving all of the prisoners behind. As well as any of your people who are already unconscious."
"You shouldn't test me," the man-giant said, turning back to me. "Your backing protects you somewhat, but you don't have enough power to deal with the rival you've been sent to oppose. If you push too hard, my employer will take out his frustration directly on you, and your own backer will give you to him immediately. Don't believe him when he says he will protect you, we're all expendable to the likes of them."
"And what about the prisoners?" I asked, matching my rival's stare. "Are they as expendable as we are?"
"Even more so," the beastman answered flatly. "And it's extremely unusual that you did not already know that and even more unusual that you bothered to ask. Change of plans. How did you find this place?"
"Apologies, but I object to your tone," I replied in a calm voice. "I'm not sure you heard my earlier command to leave the prisoners, and I worry that you won't take my request seriously enough. Here is your second change of plans. Lead me to the po
rtal and the prisoners, and I'll let you exit it before I shut this place down. Tell your employer that one of his rivals sent a team down to interfere, and that you were overwhelmed."
"Except that my employer's 'rival' wouldn't care so strongly about the prisoners," the beastman countered. "He'd only free them to make us look bad, and he wouldn't care if one or two didn't make it out. So I don't think you represent who you're pretending to represent. I think you represent a group that doesn't realize whom they've just offended, or how powerful their new enemies are. And as inexplicably strong and expensively developed as you are, you still aren't powerful enough to deal with the mountain you have just tried to knock over. So I am going to do you a favor, and help end your ignorant existence, then take whatever knowledge I can find from your corpse."
"Very well, senior," I replied, drawing my halfblade. "My name is Jason Sky, and I accept your challenge. Show me what you're capable of."
But the giant man only snorted.
"Very well, Jason Sky," he replied, holding his hand, and revealing a ring on one of his fingers. "Your first and last lesson is that it's a bad idea to reveal your name to an enemy determined to take your life. Outside a formal duel, they have no reason to reveal their own. Or play by any rules at all, for that matter," he added as an afterthought. The next moment, his ringed hand held a massive spear, with a blade like a broad, barbed arrowhead. "Get him."
Right then, all of the other jotunkin that Vessa had quietly warned me about moments ago all sprung up from their hiding places and began to attack me.
I did my best to act surprised and off-guard until they had all come close enough, then I activated a limb charm and bolted into the air, drawing upon my connection with Nestor to increase my speed. Then I repeated the same water orb attack I had constructed earlier and hurled it into the packed center of enemies. The leader managed to back away in time, but the rest were struck and incapacitated almost immediately, collapsing in a limp, moaning pile. A few of them looked to be bent at unnatural angles, which meant that I had broken at least a handful of bones.
One of the tattoos on the leader's chest glowed red, as did the head of his spear a moment later. As soon as he pointed it at me a spiraling pillar of fire blasted out, heading straight for me.
I tried to dodge, but he had aimed his attack too well. So I strengthened my flood barrier and punched into the attack with Koram's gauntlet. There was an explosion of steam, and I was knocked away, landing in a crouch, fist smoking painfully.
Essence user, Vessa whispered into my mind. Looks to be at the end of the third stage, the striving stage. His Advancement appears to have been carefully crafted, making him much more powerful than his level suggests.
So he's like me, then, I thought to myself.
"Who do you work for, really?" the large man said as he stepped closer to me. His red tattoo glowed brighter, making his spearhead blaze more intensely. "The only people I can think of who would have both the resources to learn about this and the altruistic desire to intervene would be the Sparkling Sky Sect. If you don't stand down now, there will be consequences for your sect that not even they can throw off."
I affected a confused expression, then quickly shifted it through anger before displaying what I hoped would pass for a clumsy attempt to hide a clever grin.
"The Sparkling Sky Sect does not fear you!" I shouted. "Nor does it fear your master! Bring on your threats!"
Jasper, what are you doing? You shouldn't implicate Lunei's sect in this!
But the bandit sighed in relief at my words.
"Right," he muttered, "laying the blame directly and artlessly at the feet of the source of his latest embarrassing encounter. You work for him, after all. And apparently aren't much smarter."
Oh, Vessa said next. Nevermind. Good job Jasper. I'm… just going to eat some more jerky.
"You can't know who my master is!" I said next, adopting Koram's blundering defiance as best as I could.
"No I can't," the bandit leader said with another shrug, still advancing upon me. "But given how perfectly you're subconsciously adopting his blubbering idiocy, you had to have spent too much time in contact with him to be anything other than a favored and fanatical underling. But I'm tired of being curious. They don't pay me to care this much."
With that, another tattoo on his side glowed, and he leaped forward, closing the distance between us almost immediately and thrusting his blazing weapon toward my face.
I backed away in a hurry, genuinely caught off-guard. My halfblade hastily knocked away his attack, but he brought his spear around again and slashed across my chest, the strike steaming as it was barely blocked by my qi barrier.
I leaped about ten feet backwards and fired a blast of water qi at my enemy. Another tattoo glowed on his body and summoned a shroud of fire to turn my attack into steam.
Once again, my enemy charged forward, leading with a spear thrust.
Tattoo magic, my grandmother said in my mind as I purposefully deflected his spear into my gauntlet. Essence users can have certain tattoos grafted onto their bodies, that will allow them to duplicate the benefits of either qi or mana Source users. This fellow seems to have made contact with a qi user willing to inscribe a number of fire tattoos onto his body. His powers will be all the greater for it.
That makes him like a dual practitioner, then, I thought to myself as I grabbed onto his spear with my gauntlet, except that he only needs to focus on his essence Advancement.
I grunted as we both tugged for control of his weapon. I saw two more tattoos start to glow on his body, and I let go of his spear and rushed him, diving under his spear as he swung it and finally closing the distance between us. My blade and gauntlet struck at him over and over, slashing and punching him multiple times before his firecloak flared up and forced me away, putting distance between us once again.
He growled in anger and pain as he watched me, firecloak still active. I noticed that other than a few superficial cuts and angry bruises, he seemed rather unharmed.
His skin has been enhanced as well, my grandmother said in my mind. You're going to need to really work to bring him down, grandson. It might be time to use a larger weapon.
I would have loved to, but my larger weapons had all come from Mara's Sourcepalace, and many of them had already been distributed to Lunei's Sparkling Sky Sect. If a witness escaped the battle alive—which was a likely thing, given how reluctant I had been to kill—they might see the weapon, and report back to their masters, who would report to their masters and eventually implicate the Sparkling Sky Sect. Vessa hadn't stressed the issue, but I was certain she didn't want Lunei's sect to be the target of any backlash.
I had already made a mistake by using Koram's gauntlet. If I used any more easily recognizable or traceable weapons, there would be long-term consequences. Unless I was willing to kill every single witness in this place, including the prisoners.
I would have to find another way to break my enemy down.
We continued to circle each other warily, each looking for an ideal opening. He clearly had the advantage, with both the longer weapon and the tattoo-granted powers to keep combat right at this range, but he was still the more injured of us two, proving that he couldn't relax his guard. I was probably still the better in terms of being a raw, versatile fighter, but he clearly had at least as much experience as I did in combat, and he didn't have to restrict himself to conceal his identity.
But as we kept pacing, I crossed over a spear dropped by one of the guards. I quickly kicked the weapon into my gauntleted hand and suddenly the reach advantage evened out.
The bandit leader hissed and thrust his flaming weapon at me as soon as he could. I intercepted the attack with my own polearm, inferior to his, but still covered in flood qi. Our magic coatings both fizzled into steam as I forced my way through his guard again, dropping my spear to try and grapple with him using my free hand. He dodged backwards, but I was faster than he was, and I managed to catch his wrist. He struggled a
gainst my grip and activated his flame shroud almost immediately, but this time I was prepared. I reinforced my flood barrier and activated the scale armor charm to maximize my resistance to the flames, then hacked into my enemy's arm over and over. He twisted, kicked, and struggled, but despite his height we were roughly the same strength, even with his tattoos and my powers activated.
So he dropped his spear to draw a knife of his own from his belt. He got two stabs in, but he was weakening, and both blows bounced off my scales or disguised, armored jacket.
Eventually I was able to tackle him to the ground and run my halfblade across his throat, and this time my blow went deep. He coughed and gurgled, and then stopped trying to fight me.
I punched him hard in the temple, and then his head lolled to the side. Then I crafted a recovery technique with wood qi and cast it into his throat. It may not be enough to save his life, but at the very least he was out of the fight, and I could turn my attention elsewhere.
Good job, Vessa told me. That was brutal, but probably necessary to bring him down, and he might still pull through.
I don't think he'll be willing to talk, I informed her, as I rose back to my feet, walking over to pick up my enemy's spear. In fact he seemed to do a better job at reading the situation than I did.
No, you misdirected him, and exposed that he was at least somewhat familiar with Koram, Vessa countered. Which means this group is connected on at least some level with either the Glorious Star Charter or Koram's Exalted Pillar family. Probably both.
The second time we fought, Koram mentioned something about having a lot of brothers that he was competing with, I said as I began walking to a different part of the camp. I think this might be connected to some kind of contest between the different siblings of his family. How is Nova doing, by the way?
She's fine, Vessa replied absently. She made it to the location of the portal and is securing it. She's managed to prevent several bandits from escaping or taking prisoners through it. She's been careful about her wings, though, which is a good thing.
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