I stare down at the city below, wondering how my teammates are fairing against a potential ambush.
Remembering back to when we showed the guards in the middle of town our bounty to clear the break, Issac slipped him a second piece of paper.
I grit my teeth and curse under my breath again.
“How could I have been so careless…”
Well… trusting is a better word.
How could I have been so trusting of a grunt that would turn his back on his own town’s people for some gold? Of course, he’d turn his back on me once he got a better offer!
I swallow hard, rolling my eyes, then tighten the grip on my blade for reassurance while staring down the mountain trail that leads back to the town.
“Think…”
It’s been a little over 2 hours. Even if the 3 of them ran the whole, there’s a low chance they’ve defeated the entire break already. I still have time to scope out the center of town and prepare for what happens next.
Thinking back to what the guards that attacked me said, they were the only ones that knew of my whereabouts and hidden abilities. Hidden in a much more private setting, they were going to cash out on my bounty alone.
My teammates will re-appear in a much more populated area, it’ll be much harder to keep a secret, so I can only assume they have a lot more guards on the job.
No one else has to die…
If I can just get us out of the city quickly and quietly that would be the best-case scenario here.
I’m sure, given enough time, they’ll figure out where their missing guards went. However, our immediate concern is to escape this city, all 4 of us have a bounty on our heads.
I begin walking down the mountain at a quick pace while re-activating conceal and throwing on a new generic villager disguise while covering my face with my long red robe just to make sure no one identifies me.
It takes nearly half an hour to get down the mountain. The sun has risen higher in the sky, making its hot rays much stronger, pulling moisture from my skin with every step.
The city is still invisible to me too, the odd magic barrier shields any visuals from making it through. Maybe that’s it?
I walk up to the invisible magical wall. Using my All-Seeing Eye it appears as a rainbow-pink-tinted wavering wall of light-imbued magic.
In the silence of the desert, I look over both my shoulders but see no one to my left right, or back. There isn’t even anyone from the village past the wall looking at me. It is a more unpopulated portion of town with residential buildings facing away from the open desert.
I slowly bring my finger forward and tap the wall of glimmering transparent magic 2 times.
To my surprise, it sends rippling waves all throughout the barrier and actually stops my finger from pushing through it.
“Well.. this is unexpected…”
I tap it again with my outstretched pointer finger, but the vibrations just show up in my mind’s eye and flow throughout the entire town-sized curved dome. The waves look like the result of throwing a rock into a pond.
“So… odd…”
There’s a good chance that if I hit it hard enough, this barrier will most likely break. As I gauged it before, it’s a high-grade D-Class spell. I’m sure it does well at keeping most intruders out.
I’m not exactly sure how it’s maintained or operated, so I don’t really want to break it beyond repair if the caster isn’t in town to fix it.
I activate my mana manipulation skill and coat my finger in a layer of pink shielding, then try my tapping again. To my amusement, my finger slips right through.
Tiny fragments of clear shimmering energy fly off of the area my finger touches and dissolve into thin air. It looks like paper-thin glass being shattered. It only affects a small area that is touched with mana and disappears within seconds. The ripples don’t carry throughout the entire barrier like before.
With a smirk, I coat the rest of my body in mana and take a few steps forward to walk all the way through.
More small rainbow-shimmering, transparent fragments burst from the spell as I slip through and dissolve into the air. I do a final scan once I get to the other side, making sure that I’ve left the wall completely unharmed and remained totally unscathed myself.
Powering down my perception skill, the city is visible to me without any outside aid. I made it back inside.
Immediately, I head toward the Inn we stayed at last night while using my Special Grade Conceal perk to shift my appearance around to something that’d help me out a bit more at a time like this.
With long black slicked-back hair, a beefier build, and a smug look on my face, I take on the appearance of the fire-wielding grunt that crossed me and head for the camel stand at the back of the town.
Without even batting an eye, the kind old man taking care of the animals in the back gives me the reins for 2 of the 3 camels he was taking care of. I mention if we’re not back by nightfall, the 3rd one, Issac’s old ride, is his to keep, a token of my gratification. It may be better off with this caretaker anyway.
He looks at me with an astonished stare, but graciously accepts as I walk off with our two rides toward the town square.
My heart beats faster and faster as I walk through the narrow alleyways holding the reins of both camels tight, leading them behind me.
There’s a cool shade near the walls of the buildings that line both sides of the street. Every step forward I take makes me more jittery about the sight I’m about to see.
Finally, making it to an opening that leads out into the bustling crowds of people, I tie the two camels up in the last bit of shade and slowly walk forward into the mass of people going about their everyday lives. The top of the massive metal box is visible, reflecting the mid-day sun right back at me.
Still in full disguise, looking exactly like the fire-using thug that tried to have our heads sold off to the highest bidder. I wade through dozens of people, making my way closer and closer to the metal box.
The laughter and conversations all around me fade away, all I can hear is my own breathing and my slow footsteps on the hard ground.
The mana shielding contraptions gets closer while the crowd of villagers gets thinner.
I activate my All-Seeing Eye and stay hidden by the hoard of people all around me and begin to walk around the open courtyard in slow circles while examining the mana in my close vicinity.
There are tons of mana crystals and mana-imbued items being traded all around. Some wear item boxes while others are holding goods on their person. The 4 guards that stand around the large metal box are all stacked up with lower-level C-Grade gear. There are another 8 guards stationed all around the square, armed with similar gear.
I continue to walk around in a slow circle stopping at random shops and switching directions every once and a while with the crowd’s natural flow for a full 10 minutes.
Keeping my head down and out of sight, only using my perception skill, I completely blend in with every other merchant and villager that passes through.
It’s been just over 3 hours now, so my teammates still have plenty of time before our decided meeting time, but I would have guessed that they beat this break by now.
My breathing slows, and my eyes grow sharp as I continue to watch the box from all angles and wait.
Finally… I feel something.
The strong magic within the portal ceases to spin and I feel an intense wave of familiar earth and ice magic hit my mind’s eye seeping through the heavily shielded metal box.
One of the guards takes out a glowing silver contraption from his pocket and yells out with a fearful tone to the guard next to them.
“They’re here! Get into positions!”
Just like before, moments prior to when I cut through the magic box up on the mountainside, I hear one of the nearby guards counting down.
“3….”
The 4 guards scatter, running away from the box while yelling at villagers in the crowd to stay back.
One of the other guards continues to yell.
“It’s a break! Get back! Everybody get back! The containment is failing!”
My eyes dart back and forth while I watch everything go down in real-time. The men are clearly lying, they’re collapsing the box from the outside.
At least they’re getting the innocent citizens away, that’s good…
The surrounding 8 guards begin to walk closer from all sides.
“2…”
The villagers and merchants all around me start to scream and smaller children in the streets cry in fear, but I run forward, making my way straight at the metal box.
I pass one of the guards on my way through, locking eyes with him for a moment to see that it’s the same one that Issac handed the small piece of paper off to this morning.
I get a surprised look from him, but pay it no mind. I’m still in full disguise.
“1…”
I lunge forward, then the countdown hits its final number.
“0…”
There’s a loud bang, and everything glows bright white.