“I’m not going to kill him while he’s blocked. I’m going to do it in a fair fight one on one.”
“Unacceptable. If he wins, and I calculate the odds of that happening to be 99%, I’ll lose access to the dragon’s blood. Since I can’t take that risk, you’re only welcome to fight Halas after you hand me the blood. Would you like to do that right now?”
“Only after the equipment and coins,” the boy replied. “We’ll wait.”
Instead of the hour One had estimated, it took an hour and a half. The right minion wasn’t available right away, though the ancient’s servants hauled so much different equipment into the temple that Tailyn’s eyes began to glow. Twenty-five million coins hit Mean Truk’s account. That was enough to fund the city’s development over the coming month and a half, and there was even plenty left over for afterwards if they fought off the attack. One of the white minions accepted the equipment; two others threw it right into the shimmering film. Thanks to Valia, Tailyn was able to keep a close eye on the process, making sure nothing was broken. Forian and his brigade helped carry everything away from the portal, and the job was done an hour later. Everything Mean Truk needed for its defense had been handed over, twenty builders included.
“I held up my end of the deal, Tailyn Vlashich,” One announced as soon as the portal closed, “and I want my dragon’s blood.”
One of the white octopuses went over to the boy and held out a tentacle expectantly. There was nothing for it. With his word his bond, Tailyn pulled the container of blood off his belt and handed it to the minion. The latter gently pulled it away, took a few steps back, and...
Invisible force fields gripped Tailyn. They were the same as the ones holding Halas.
“Even after paying up, I owe you, Tailyn,” One said, the face on the screen satisfied. “And so, before I kill you, I’m going to let you enjoy the victory you’ve been thirsting after for almost thirteen years, ever since you were born. You may defeat your enemy.”
The fields didn’t weaken, but that didn’t particularly bother Tailyn. Deciding there was nothing else for him in the city, he activated one of his abilities. He’d been counting on it.
Note! There’s a remote communication suppression device active in the Grivok location.
You can’t use two-way portal cards or your Return ability.
It didn’t work. Not only that, but One chimed in immediately.
“Did you think I didn’t know about your teleportation ability? Naïve little boy. The suppression device was turned on as soon as you closed your portal. Actually, I figured you’d try to jump in and run away, only that didn’t even cross your mind. You humans are so predictable. And now, you’re mine.”
The old Tailyn, the person he’d been just a year before, would have instantly decided it was time to panic. But that version of the boy didn’t even consider that option. Just a few days before, over in Tartila Mine, he’d been in a similar situation where he hadn’t been able to leave the location but was still permitted to jump around in. Presumably, things were analogous in Grivok.
It took everything in Tailyn to turn his head. The protective fields pushed back, almost as if understanding that something was afoot. Just in case, One increased the pressure, but it was too late—the boy’s gaze had found the white minion standing by the door opposite the way out. The passageway, which was protected by a thick panel, opened, and the minion was about to head on his way when someone appeared next to him as if out of nowhere. Tailyn had gotten a good look at the dragon’s blood container, and that had let him teleport right over to it. One’s servant didn’t even have time for surprise. In an instant, Fang buried itself in the creature’s throat, rubbing it of all feeling. A black mist dropped to the ground along with, to Tailyn’s delight, the very same container. The System had decided to let him loot it. Grabbing the valuable device, the boy ducked past the closing panel and dashed down the stairs, Raptor already tracing the way forward. Tailyn knew all too well that his head start was going to be measured in the seconds. Any delay could have been his last.
Just at that moment, One finally figured out what was going on. The air reverberated with his shout.
“Stop him! Stop Tailyn Vlashich! Don’t let him leave the temple!”
The face on the screen turned toward Halas.
“I’m giving you one more chance to prove your worth,” the ancient said as he deactivated the force fields holding the former lix. “Get me that container! You can do whatever you want to Tailyn, only get me that container. If you do, you’ll be exalted! You’ll get as much loot as you can carry. Do it!”
With his newly acquired freedom, the head of the freak army dashed off after the boy without a moment’s hesitation. But he wasn’t doing it to help his tormentor. The door began rising slowly, opening the way our for his opponent, but Halas already had two scanners up in front of him. One was his own; the other was One’s showing both Tailyn and all the ancient’s servants. Most of them were down on the lowest level and hurrying back up to meet the boy, only the latter was in no hurry to head off in that direction. For whatever reason, he’d stopped on the next level down. The boy was a fool. Halas’s Nemean lion was going to tear him to shreds in seconds as long as he got there in time.
The room Tailyn was rushing toward was in a distant part of the temple’s second underground level. Just in case, the boy’s dragon flew out in front of him scattering stones, though there were no force fields to be found. Apparently, One hadn’t suspected that his security system could be defeated so simply. Raptor showed a depressing picture: there were enemies charging toward the boy on all sides. From above, below, and to the side, while they had no descriptions, they had to be the ancient intelligence’s servants. Tailyn kicked in yet another door and found himself in a fairly spacious room.
The black stone the minions had used as a sacrificial altar was standing all alone near the far wall. It was the very same terminal Tailyn had been given access to for defeating the destroyer. But it wasn’t what had brought him to that room. Right in the center, there was another device taking up most of the space, something looking like a stone cube three meters high with cables enveloping it. Hundreds if not thousands of the latter led in from all corners of the city, disappearing inside where they were no longer visible to Raptor. Even without checking to see if his omnipresent scanner could penetrate the cube, Tailyn knew what was in it. One’s brain. The organ that held the ancient monster’s consciousness.
Finding the way in took a few valuable seconds. Unlike the cube in Mean Truk, that one didn’t have a side that opened, instead featuring a small hatch secured by a simple padlock. And Raptor couldn’t see the hatch or the lock—they were made out of real material. Fang activated as if by magic. The named dagger could sense that its help was needed, and Tailyn didn’t think twice about bringing it down hard. There was no other way. With no sense protecting the blade, the boy knew either the knife would break, dooming him, or...
Or the blade would glance off without doing the least bit of damage to the chunk of metal. Fang didn’t break, but it didn’t leave so much as a scratch, either. Tailyn was taken aback. In his mind, the lock was going to shatter, and so he had to start looking around in search of something that could help. His gaze fell on a thick cable next to him. Buzzing like a hundred fat mosquitos, it pulled him away from his search. Fang was still active, so Tailyn quickly took a swipe to cut off the noise. That time, everything went beautifully—the cable was made of System material and couldn’t stand up to Fang. The severed cable flopped to the ground; the light in the room flickered. Taking that to be a good side, the boy turned into a windmill, sending bits of shredded cable flying around the room and sending the city into chaos. Raptor showed the temple beginning to sag and collapse while the buildings nearest it crumbled as if robbed in an instant of their strength. And while Tailyn wasn’t sure why that was happening, he could sense that he was making the right move. One was losing control of his city as he was confined more and m
ore to his stone prison.
Busy keeping track of what was going on outside, Tailyn missed what was happening inside. One of the points rushing to aid the ancient appeared at the door, only it was a powerful, dark-skinned man with a golden lion instead of the expected white eight-leg. If it hadn’t been for his dragon’s enraged roar, the boy wouldn’t have even known to whirl around and freeze, Fang still held high. It was the worst timing. More than half the cables remained, and he figured One could still find a way out of the situation if he didn’t finish the job.
Halas snarled, disfiguring in an instant his handsome face. But instead of ordering his companion to shred the boy, he yelled over.
“Keep doing what you’re doing—it’s more important than our feud. Once we’re done with One, we’ll deal with this. I’ll stop his servants; you keep going!”
Despite his transformation into a human, Halas had maintained the sensibility that had kept him alive all those years. Intuition. And in that moment, it was yelling at him to let his personal enemy continue slicing through those cables. Somehow, that was doing serious damage to One. The latter was losing control of the city, several warehouses included, and Halas very much wanted the chance to root through them without interference from their owner. He wanted the location for his own. As a squad of white minions appeared at the other end of the corridor, the Nemean lion rushed into battle, cutting through them like so many dry twigs. Halas suppressed the urge to send his companion hunting the creatures wherever they were found and instead pulled it back. In that moment, he had to protect his personal enemy.
Tailyn worked relentlessly with Fang, though he kept an eye fixed on Raptor. He didn’t like having Halas that close. As yet another cable lost its connection between the stone cube and the outside world, the boy found he had but one thing left to do: get on top of the cube and clear everything off that side. His dragon flew up to place a teleportation stone on the edge of the surface so it was visible below, Tailyn activated his ability, and it was at that moment that One realized the threat he was under.
“Tailyn, stop! I’ll make you the most powerful person in the world! Emperors will bow the knee! You’ll be my equal! We can find a deal!”
“It’s a bit late for that,” the alchemist muttered as he continued slicing through cables. With each blow, One’s voice quivered and changed. From powerful and menacing, it went to hysterical and whining before switching right back again. He begged, threatened, and promised wealth, knowledge, power, and even women, only Tailyn didn’t need any of that. The temple trembled as if under attack from beneath by some enormous monster, but everything fell silent when the boy cut through the last cable. The lights went out. The minions turned into limp dolls. The earth stopped shaking. Out on the surface, every building, walls included, turned instantly into black dust. Grivok had been literally wiped off the planet.
“Is that it? One is dead?” Halas could see the changes and turned to his enemy.
“No, he’s still alive,” Tailyn replied as he sprang back down to the ground. “His essence is locked up in this cube, though he can’t get out unless someone helps him. They would have to reconnect all the cables.”
“In that case, let’s make sure nobody knows he’s here.” Halas extended an arm in Tailyn’s direction, and the boy easily recognized Valkyrie as one of the devices attached to it. His personal enemy had been investing heavily in himself.
The deadly bolt sprang forward to end the young alchemist. Unfortunately for Halas, an air wall appeared a moment before the shot was fired, turning the bolt away. The former lix glanced down at his weapon in surprise and fired again. Then again. And again. Every shot missed.
“Magic isn’t going to help you!” the enraged man called over as he shouted for his Nemean lion. Even though it was the size of a racehorse, it felt at ease in the confined space, streaking toward Tailyn. The boy had no time to react. The lion didn’t even notice the air wall—its immunity to magic was in full effect. With the stone cube withstanding the hit, golden fur spread over it like oil over water. Somewhere inside the shower, Tailyn was hiding. The Nemean lion had been planning on finishing off its target with one powerful strike, though Vargot withstood the first attack. After that, it was all up to momentum—despite how the lion twisted, Fang still landed. Just a millimeter in, that was still enough for a disappointing message to pop up in front of Halas.
Your companion is dead.
Nemean Lion legendary card spent and removed.
The enormous monster dropped to the ground in a pile of dark dust. Tailyn took a step forward, though he had to stop—Halas was still firing despite his howl of frustration. Losing his companion hadn’t made him weaker; it had made him angrier. As he forced himself to stay where he was instead of running over and tearing his enemy apart with his bare hands, the former lix continued shooting in an attempt to break through the invisible wall. A few flasks appeared in his hands. Per the description, they were capable of doing damage even to high-level creatures like Tailyn. They flew forward, passed above the invisible wall, and cut loose a powerful wave of fire.
But Tailyn was no longer there. He’d given his dragon orders to scatter stones around for a reason, and he’d been waiting for the right moment to leap forward. Halas didn’t feel pain. All he experienced was a moment of surprise when the boy disappeared, and it was with that sensation that Tailyn’s personal enemy, born on the same day as him, met his end. There was no drawn-out fight. There was no drama. One blow, and the twelve-year conflict was over.
Congratulations!
You destroyed your personal enemy.
Your deed has earned you a truly generous reward...
Note, block detected! You cannot receive your reward because of your current debuffs. The reward has been postponed until they are removed.
***
Because of your penalty, you cannot loot Halas.
Tailyn pounded a fist on the floor. Nothing remained of Halas—the pile of black dust had quickly dissolved into the ground. And with it, everything he was wearing and had in his inventory also disappeared. But the worst part was that the System was doing everything it could to minimize Tailyn’s chances of getting loot. First, the Cleaner, then Halas. Was it going to keep up that way until he died? Unwilling to settle for that, he tried something desperate and called out to the game.
“I have dragon’s blood I want to give to the System!”
The reply was instantaneous, the sound born out of the very air around the boy.
“Your request is being processed. Evaluating the material in your possession. With your penalties and the time it has been on your person, the System can remove two random limitations. Would you like to accept that offer?”
“Why two? There are five of them!” Tailyn shot back in surprise. “I’m giving you half of what I didn’t give you right away.”
“The offer stands.” The local System wasn’t into bargaining. “You have twenty seconds to make your decision. The next time you decide to turn in dragon’s blood, you will only have the option to remove one of your five debuffs.”
“Deal!” Tailyn yelled when he saw the timer. Two out of five gave him almost a 50% chance of pushing back the attack on his city, and that was worth the risk.
“Your choice has been made!” the voice said grandly. “Dragon’s blood removed. The following limitations have been cancelled: -20% to all attributes, all your attributes and skills were reduced by three.”
“No!” Tailyn yelled, though there was no reply forthcoming. The System had taken what it needed and betrayed him by removing the most useless limitations. Yet again, it was underlining who was in charge of the planet. No matter how desperately Tailyn begged, pleaded, and threatened, he didn’t get an answer. The System had no interest in him sans blood.
For two days, the furious boy turned upside down everything that remained of Grivok in the hopes of finding something he could use for his city. But every time he did, the System informed him that his debuff kept him fr
om getting the loot.
His return to Mean Truk dropped him in the middle of everyday life. Everyone was running around in their attempt to beat the clock. With the additional builders a godsend, the boy was even more happy to find something only the reptiloid could do. Locking up One had frozen his servants, which led to a problem with equipment installation and configuration that was only solved by Valrus. As it turned out, the ancient was more than familiar with complex machinery, and he managed the builders closely as they installed the ray emitters, reflectors, and crystals. He assured the city leadership that Mean Truk would enjoy an impenetrable protective field no army could get through. At least, that was what the equipment description said.
The next month turned into one long day. As they lived on stimulants, everyone looked drawn and haggard, frail copies of their former selves. The builders were doing the lion’s share of the work, but that didn’t mean there was nothing for everybody else to do. Some hauled materials, others carried away what was left over, and still more headed over to work the marble quarry. Even Tailyn was hard at work. Ignoring the fact that he was supposed to be just keeping an eye on everything as head of the city, the boy often spent time side by side with Forian and Valanil, bringing a pick down on block after block of clay. The cement workshop couldn’t work without marble; the builders couldn’t work without cement. And that would have made the whole thing an exercise in futility.
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 23
