Last Words chapter 35 (Patreon)

My first target was one of the men. Namely, the broad one. Apparently, whatever abilities they were used to dealing with, or had suspected me to have, the ability to conjure an assault rifle out of thin air and unload it at them was NOT on the list.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much when things stopped going my way.

As I depressed the trigger, bracing for the recoil as best I could, I released a short burst of rounds directly at the broad man. Before they could impact him though, there was a flash of white light from an earring on one of his ears. A symbol appeared in the air, a golden pegasus surrounded by a web of intricate gossamer light threads, and the bullets slammed into it. Where the rounds impacted, cracks began to spread across the shield, but it stopped my initial salvo cold.

Alice was running, getting out of the way, and I needed to buy her time, so I jerked my rifle to the side, still holding the trigger. The golden shield shattered, and the broad man’s arm exploded in a spray of blood even as I pulled the barrel to the muscular man, who dove out of the way.

Cursing, the woman flicked her hands, a wall of tarot cards shooting out of her sleeve, and the cards spread out in front of the group like a shield. Each time a bullet impacted, a card would tear, and every few bullets one of them would burst into flames, but they held off the assault as Alice ran to my side, slipping behind me.

When my gun ran dry, I didn’t bother reloading, a quick flex of my skills and I sold the empty magazine and bought a full replacement. I cocked the rifle, chambering a round, and smiled unpleasantly at the woman. “Well, I’m back to full. And I can literally do this all day.”

“You’re making a big mistake, brat,” she sneered. “You should have just come with us like a good little boy.”

“Sorry,” I said sweetly. “I missed that, my ears are still ringing from the whole clip of 5.56 copper jacketed NATO rounds that just tore a massive hole in your nifty magic items. That wasn’t THIS clip, in case you missed what I was insinuating earlier. This is a different clip. Which is entirely full.”

She glared at Alice. “You said he was a TIN, girl. Conjuration at that level can’t possibly be accomplished by a Tin rank skill.”

Which was interesting, but ultimately irrelevant, because I wasn’t conjuring anything. Still, it let me know that as I’d suspected, the way my skills scaled was on another level compared to most speakers. The exchange of money involved was both a limitation and a HUGE advantage, apparently. I was basically sidestepping the normal power scale.

Of course, I also suspected I would have hit a ceiling with earth weapons long before any other speakers had. But the introduction of wordworld items was synergizing with my advantages in a pretty crazy way. I’d have been a lot more smug if I hadn’t figured out Alistair’s insane skill already.

“What do you want?” I asked bluntly. “Because you’re not taking me. OR Alice. Your shields are impressive, but you can’t do shit to us from behind them, and I’m betting a few more mags will chew the rest of the way through them. So whatever you’re hoping to get, you better ask yourself if it’s still on the table.”

I was not NEARLY as relaxed as I sounded, of course. While I could theoretically do what I said, if one of them decided to drop their shield and charge, or if they spread out, I’d have no way to counter. Not to mention I hadn’t seen their skills, and I had no clue what OTHER magic items they might have been hoarding from the various wordworlds they were obviously exploring.

My only advantage was that they likewise had no idea what I could do. They apparently assumed I was Iron from my sheer power output, which meant I would have a second word. It was clear they were wary of finding out what it was, and how it synergized with what I could only assume they thought was some variation of ‘gun’.

“You’re infringing on our territory,” hissed the woman. “Exploring wordworlds and selling directly to our competition. We don’t know WHERE, but we know you’ve been operating a market for extraordinary items without paying any tariffs. The Ten Thousand Doors Society are the ONLY explorer faction in Boston. We don’t tolerate poachers.”

“What a coincidence,” I said with a grim smile. “I don’t feel very tolerant myself. But in case my actions haven’t clarified things, allow me to be blunt. Fuck you. I do what I want. You guys can explore to your hearts content, enjoy whatever wordworlds you’ve found, and we can stay out of each others way. Or you can try this shit again and we’ll see if I can conjure enough ammo to chew through those shields.”

Oddly, I was more concerned with what she HADN’T said than what she had. They didn’t know where I was exploring. Following me should have made finding that out simple. Which meant they were NOT following me to campus. Which implied someone or something was keeping them OUT of campus.

“THIEF!” she hissed. “Tell us where you found those mushrooms, and we can resolve this peacefully.”

Alistair had a mole. I’d considered it before, but this proved it. That wasn’t just ‘we’re tracking your bank account’ intel. That was full on espionage. “I got them from your mom,” I said solemnly. “She says hi by the way.”

Ok. It wasn’t the wittiest comeback, but I was terrified and needed a default. Your mom jokes might not be clever, but they work. Sure enough, her face lit up with incandescent rage, and she looked ready to attack when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned to look at the broad man, who had stripped off his coat and shirt and tied off his arm to staunch the bleeding. It wasn’t doing as much as he’d probably hoped, but he looked stable enough to remain upright at least. For now.

“Enough, Maggie,” he gritted out. “There’s no good ending here. Besides, this has been going on for too long, and that gun is loud. Someone will be coming to check on the noise soon. None of us want the normies catching word of this. H.A.D.E.S monitors the police bands for things like this. I don’t fancy getting dragged off into a black site.”

She snarled at me wordlessly, then reined it in. “Fine,” she spat. “But this isn’t over brat. You don’t just get to stick your nose wherever you want. Even if you are an Iron. I don’t know what faction you came from, but Boston is our town. You’ll leave if you know whats good for you.”

Slamming her hands together, the cards in front of her flashed, and when the light faded, the five of them were gone. I saw the remains of five cards floating to the ground in the fading light, ashes swirling in the wind. I grimaced, then sold the rifle off, freeing up my hands. “We need to go,” I told Alice quickly. “They’re right, someone will have called the cops.” A quick glance around and I sold off all the casings from my bullets, cleaning the scene as best I could.

Alice, who was still grey from the potion, was gaping at me in confusion and awe as I dragged her off. It only took her a second to adapt and start running to keep up. We ran for about five minutes, before Alice had to stop, doubling over with a wheeze. “Wait!” she gasped. “Please, I can’t breathe.”

I grimaced, but I couldn’t exactly blame her. My Mana Body wasn’t exactly impressive by the standards of the Windvein Empire, but it was more than enough to up my cardio. Even with my focus on external training. Speaking of which, that little target practice session had kind of hurt, and I was pretty sure I’d be a wall of bruises if it wasn’t for my Mana Body. A nice side effect of the training.

Leaning against the wall, I crossed my arms, waiting for her to recover. We were in an alley about a mile away from the riverside. I doubted anyone would notice enough to decide to do a search, and if they did we’d be long gone by then, so a minute of breathing room wouldn’t hurt.

“That,” Alice panted in exhaustion. “Was INSANE!” She was waving her arms in energetic distress. “You pulled a GUN out of thin air! And that potion. And the mouse that gave it to me. What is even HAPPENING RIGHT NOW? You said your word was cleaning related! How is THAT cleaning?”

I shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry, I was playing my cards close. I mean, no offense, I like you, but I don’t know you that well. Seemed stupid to tell you too much, especially with Damon’s warning.”

Her expression looked a little hurt, but then it fell. “I…I guess I can’t really blame you,” she said miserably. “I sold you out. I didn’t want to tell them anything, but I was so scared! I tried to warn you though!” Her eyes were filling with tears. “Shit, I’m a terrible person. You’re like the only friend I have who knows what’s going on and I almost got you killed.”

I waved it off. “Hey, don’t sweat it. I’d prefer you answer than find out what they’d do if you didn’t. I’ve got a place you can lie low where they won’t mess with you. Where did they grab you anyway? It seemed like they were avoiding campus for some reason.”

She paused. “I…wow, I didn’t notice that. Yeah. They got me on the way home. It would have been a lot easier to grab me on campus, huh? I barely pay any attention when I’m getting in my car after class. I’m usually so exhausted from the work they’d barely have to try. Why do you think they’re avoiding the school?”

“If I had to guess it’s protected by someone,” I said worriedly. “But none of my contacts mentioned anything like that. Maybe whoever it is JUST has a beef with the Tennies.” Alistair had only introduced three factions. I didn’t know who H.A.D.E.S was but I could assume from context it was some kind of government agency. Which honestly scared me even more than the serial killer on the loose, but there wasn’t much I could do about either.

It was possible Alistair had hoped to avoid me getting their attention, or alternatively that he hadn’t run into them because he hadn’t done anything to warrant them taking an interest. But the idea that one of the three listed factions had a rival he hadn’t heard about…that was worrisome.

Alice slumped against the wall, looking rattled. “I…I don’t even know what to say. Like, thank you doesn’t seem like enough. You saved my life. And I’m guessing whatever THIS is wasn’t cheap,” she gestured to her stone grey form. “Also how long does this last?”

“No clue,” I shrugged. “But it would have been way MORE expensive than it was if it lasted too long. It’s probably set to wear off within the hour. Maybe way sooner. Does it like…hurt?”

“Nah, it feels fine,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Kind of cool actually. Thanks for looking out before the shooting started. Your aim was pretty good actually, you do that kind of thing often?” She smiled wryly to let me know it was a joke.

I shrugged. “Not exactly, but I’ve been doing some training.” Noticing she wasn’t panting anymore, I looked around to make sure we weren’t being noticed. “Anyway, we should get going. You can crash with my friend for now, or come with us when we leave, or I can take you to that safehouse. We’ll decide when we get there.” And with that, I turned and headed off towards Ron’s place. I had a lot to tell my friends.