Sacrifice Mage-Chapter 37: Challenger Approaching

There were just two others. A thin Scalekin in tight-fitting clothes and light leather armour, and, surprisingly, a human woman.
“Oh wow!” she said, smiling brightly. I couldn’t place her age, but it was definitely somewhere older than me. She was scarred too, but nowhere near the amount that Ugnash sported. “Another human! We’re so rare these days. Ugnash didn’t tell me his contact had referred you, or I’d have been looking forward to this delve a lot more.”
The Scalekin didn’t even bother greeting me, just scowling a little. Oh boy, I had a feeling that guy was going to be trouble.
“Nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m Ross.”
“Glad to make your acquaintance. I’m Cerea!” She took my hand in both of hers and shook it hard. “Welcome to the party.” Then she glared at the other two. “Make the newbie feel welcome, you two!”
Ugnash hummed. “I already did that before you two showed up, late as always.”
He was one to talk about being late, considering Kostis’s little complaint before he had left.
The Scalekin stared daggers at me. “Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves? We have no idea who this scrawny little human even is, and we’re supposed to just take him in like that?”
“We have a very legit recommendation, Khagnio,” Cerea said. She cursed. It sounded oddly familiar. “Do you have to give every newbie this sort of treatment, you snake?”
“Watch it, you hairless ape,” Khagnio hissed. “You’re defending a paltry
human
.”
They continued bickering for a bit, but I was distracted by what Cerea had said just a moment ago. Her curse, to be exact. I recognized it now. It was different from New Zair, but not unfamiliar. Linak had used it too.
And like with the Plumefolk Artificer, I tried to focus on talking back in that specific language. “You know Sortecarii?” I asked.
Cerea turned to me with surprise. Her eyes widened, preceding her bright smile. “How do
you
know it?”
“Uh, long story, but I’m not from around here either.”
She laughed. “Astute of you to guess I’m not a Zairgon native. I hail from Claderov, north of Mirror Basin. We’re not a permanent party, mind you. We just occasionally band together when we want to take on group expeditions. The only problem is that our regular fourth member couldn’t make it, so we had to put out an open call.”
“Well, we
would
have put out an open call,” Ugnash said. “But one thing led to another, and my contact learned about Sokoryer’s absence, and then offered Ross in exchange for the current mission.”
“Ha, so nepotism!” Khagnio said, like it was some great mark against me. “Not even a random newbie from the open call. He’s got
no
excuse now.”
“No excuse for what?” I asked.
“No excuse for being a lousy, overblown, human mageling! You have no idea about what shoes you need to fill. Just because you finished some jobs in Zairgon doesn’t mean you’re anywhere near ready enough for what a dungeon delve needs,
newbie
.”
Pissed as I was at his attitude, I tried to take it in a different direction. “Aw, are you worried I’ll get myself killed? I appreciate your concern.”
Cerea chuckled. Khagnio’s slit pupils narrowed so much, they almost turned into lines. I could tell he was trying very hard not to retort that he was concerned that I’d get the rest of them killed with my inexperience, because that would be a tacit admission that they—including Khagnio—were only as strong as their weakest link.
The standoff wasn’t exactly going down, and we were turning some heads in the guildhall. Though nobody, not even the Scalekin bartender, looked worried. I had a feeling that altercations turning violent wasn’t an uncommon sight in the Adventurer’s Guild.
Nevertheless, Ugnash stepped forward. “What’s going to solve this, Khagnio?”
“What’s going to solve this is finding a
real
replacement for Sokoryer.”
“I meant
this
.”
The Scalekin scoffed. His eyes bored into me. “Maybe if the mageling can prove himself…”
Cerea rolled her eyes. “Of course.”
“Just make sure to take it outside,” the Scalekin bartender said.
I suppressed the impulse to respond with annoyance. It had been building up to this for a while. Ugnash had mentioned earlier that I would be getting an opportunity to show what I could do soon enough, and I got the feeling that the big Rakshasa had predicted his companion’s actions. He was hoping to see what I could do too.
Sure, I probably wasn’t strong enough to take on seasoned adventurers yet, no matter how much I had grown over the last couple of weeks. But Khagnio hadn’t said to
beat
him. All I had to do was prove that I wouldn’t be a liability.
Even if a big part of me wanted to kick the Scalekin’s scaly ass.
“Fine by me,” I said. “Let’s take it outside.”
My nerves were tingling as we took to the field outside the guildhall. Like with the Mage Guild, the Adventurer’s Guild here had lots of open space around it that members could make good use of. In this case, good use being people arm-wrestling with each other, having sparring and training sessions, and what looked like testing a small siege engine somewhere farther off.
Ugnash was a big fellow, and he used his size to clear us some space. No one was going to complain against the gigantic Rakshasa. Although, the way he did so garnered a lot of attention. Great, we’d have an audience. Just like at the Mage Guild.
“Don’t kill him,” Cerea said very seriously like it had happened before.
“Right, right.” Khagnio was at the edge of the cleared area, taking off his armour and putting away a pair of daggers. “I won’t use weapons to make sure the little mageling doesn’t die. Even your fists won’t hurt,” he added, indicating the armour he had taken off. His smile was all sharp fangs. “That is, if you can land a blow.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. sightings.
Khagnio approached. Cerea was cheering me on while Ugnash had crossed his arms, an evaluating look on his face.
The rest of the crowd, a gaggle of more Rakshasa, Scalekin, Ogres, more I didn’t recognize, murmured. I heard a few snatches here and there, and it was clear that Ugnash and Khagnio were known quantities here.
Which meant them dealing with a complete unknown—and a human at that—made a lot of their attention shift right to me. All that regard felt like a living bug buzzing at my back. I tried to ignore it. Had to focus on the fight. Over and over, I replayed everything I had learned from Gutran, remembering all the tells and stances and forms.
“Already tensing up?” Khagnio said. “Try not to lose
too
quickly, now.”
There was no bell. This was a brawl and Khagnio took full advantage. His snaky arm shot out, fingers pressed into a pointed jab.
I dodged to my right, Siphon lowering my weight and helping me evade. My eyes had been on my opponent since the moment I had entered the field. I had seen his muscles shift, knew how Scalekin musculature worked thanks to observing Gutran for so long. And so, the jab missed me widely.
That’s it
, imaginary Gutran said.
Watch the tensing and shifting, the motion of not what’s going to hit you, but what’s powering what will hit you
.
Several people in the crowd oohed. I had done just enough to prove this fight wasn’t going to be a ten-second show.
Khagnio’s bravado hadn’t fallen, but there was a smidge more seriousness to his motions. His attacks were precise. Chops with his hands, followed by a set of jabs, switching between the two seamlessly depending on where and how I evaded the blows.
And then came the kicks. The first one almost caught me out with how fast it had lashed out, but I had spotted the rotation of the Scalekin’s hips just in time.
“Flighty little mageling, aren’t you?” Khagnio hissed. “You just going to keep dodging, or what?”
Bait
, imaginary Gutran said.
I nodded imperceptibly. Khagnio was trying to goad me so I could move in a more predictable fashion. Giving in to that would hasten my defeat. I wasn’t so proud and disillusioned that I was sure I could beat the guy if I just fought right, if I just took advantage of all that I had learned and ranked up.
No, this was a veteran adventurer. He was well known around here. This was someone capable of things levels beyond what I could do.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t give this snaky asshole a run for his money.
More attacks came, and I kept on evading. Dancing back, ducking under certain high strikes, doing my best to evade the faster kicks. Khagnio wasn’t committing to his blows. He was still anticipating a counter, still
creating opportunities
where I could charge in with my own attack. I wasn’t going to be tricked and lured in so easily.
Because I was going to create my own openings instead. Dodge, duck, another evasion, and then I stopped to block.
This time, instead of swerving under the chopping blow, I raised my right arm. I wasn’t prepared for just how strong the hit was.
My intention had been to block, considering Khagnio seemed to be conserving his strength, and then counter. Turned out even the reserved power that the Scalekin was capable of was more than I could handle easily just then.
The blow was
powerful
. At the very instant that pain burst at the point of impact, I used Siphon and Infusion at the same time, increasing my blocking arm’s weight while lowering it in the rest of my body. I was sent thudding to the side by just that one chop, my feet scrabbling along the ground as I tried to maintain my footing.
Honestly, I was lucky I hadn’t fallen or that Khagnio hadn’t pressed to take advantage. He seemed a little surprised I had chosen to block.
A few people in the crowd cheered. I wasn’t sure whether they were finally happy to see something different than dodges or that they were happy Khagnio could now get on with kicking my ass properly.
“What’s this one’s Aspect again, Ugnash?” Khagnio asked. “Gravity or something like that?”
Oh. He wasn’t surprised I had blocked. Rather, he was wondering why hitting my arm had felt like hitting a fridge even though the rest of me had been pushed back so far.
“Get on with it,” Ugnash yelled back.
“Thanks for the confirmation.” Khagnio dropped his sarcasm and turned to me with his slitted eyes. “Since I’m too bothered to tell if you’re going to block or dodge, how about I just hit you hard all the time till you crumple, alright?”
Khagnio wasn’t kidding. He didn’t care to read my body language and take advantage of that because I was probably too far beneath him to do so. But that just meant he wasn’t going to give me much of an opportunity to do so either.
His blows rained in hard and fast, shooting with unbending force and incredible speed. I got almost no time to read body language. Imaginary Gutran was terribly silent at my imaginary question of what to do when an opponent was so much faster and stronger that I didn’t even get the opportunity to apply my training.
The crowd was getting excited, hoping to see things draw to an exciting finale. Through their din, I could hear Cerea cheering me on, telling me to keep up the good show.
Somehow, I managed to barely dodge most of the blows. It helped there wasn’t any finesse or feints to Khagnio’s strikes. They were pure power and speed, aimed straight and true.
I evaded most, but not all. At times, I did get hit. But the way I kept moving, and judicious use of Siphoning and Infusion meant I wasn’t struck too hard. Most of those brushed against me or even just shoved me in the direction I was already going. None were debilitating. And more importantly, there were points where I was
letting myself
get hit.
Because that very first blow had been a test of what I could withstand, and now that I knew I could take Khagnio’s hits without being defeated in one go, I used Gravity.
The next jab struck square in the chest even as I was dashing backwards, only managing to push me back further. But at the contact, tiny threads sparked to life, writhing over my opponent’s body. Threads that I immediately darkened by pushing more mana into it.
Infusion
.
Khagnio tried to lunge at me, only to immediately fall to his knees as heavy void-violet threads wrapped around his gloves and tight outfit.
He hissed, stunned for a second before looking up. Just to meet my weighted fist colliding with his scaly jaw.
I released the hold of Infusion on his clothes at the moment I struck. They lost all their added weight so that my punch sent him sprawling backwards. I didn’t get the chance to be amazed at the kind of strength I was capable of with my Power raised to a much higher rank than before. As soon as Khagnio’s momentum slowed, I used Infusion to weigh him down again.
The crowd went wild around me. Their roars and cheers warped into my ears with a vibration that made me feel like I was in a stadium.
“Gravity.” Khagnio spat to his right. Sadly, there was no blood. I either hadn’t hit him hard enough or his Vitality was just that high. Probably the latter. “Tricksy little thing.”
“You haven’t even seen the real deal yet,” I said.
Khagnio’s eyes sharpened to stiletto-thin lines again. I read the movements of his muscles just as Gutran had taught me.
This is it
, his imaginary voice said.
I pushed away the impulse to ask my imaginary mentor where he had been a while ago and focused on my opponent. On not just removing Infusion’s effect on Khagnio’s clothes, but also on increasing the weightlessness using Siphon. Right at the moment he charged.
Khagnio had overpowered it. He had expected to be working against a lot of weight so had poured a great deal of energy into his lunge.
But I had seen that coming. Now, with not only all the added weight gone but with Siphon taking away the original weight as well, Khagnio easily overshot himself. Having read his muscle movements, I was already dodging, though the force with which he shot past made my hair and clothes rustle as I rolled back to my feet.
Screams and curses confirmed that the Scalekin had crashed into the crowd. I was already rushing at them, lowering my own weight with Siphon before leaping at my target in a practiced manoeuvre.
Khagnio righted himself and turned, only to see me flying in feet forward. A moment before impact, I turned Infusion on, massively weighting down my shoes and feet.
The contact sent a thrill straight to my spine. We went crashing through the screeching, rapidly dispersing crowd. Khagnio’s shriek had a very satisfying hiss to it as he went down. It was a wonder no one had retaliated at the rude way our fight had sprawled out of bounds. The curses just sounded more exasperated than annoyed.
I got to my feet as fast as I could while people cleared space for us. Khagnio was already rising several feet away, though.
“This isn’t done,
mageling
,” he spat. “Having fun with your little Gravity powers?” He ripped off more of his clothes. “Let’s see what you’re going to do when you’re facing monsters who aren’t conveniently wearing shit you can weigh down.”
I looked around, trying to see if I could spot my new party members. No sign of them in the chaotic crowd. I could hear Cerea, but she definitely wasn’t anywhere nearby.
Khagnio approached, half naked. I steeled myself. This fight wasn’t over just yet.