Advent of Eternity - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

The man’s eyes widened and he spun, but there was nobody behind him. Knell cast Slow on him one more time, nearly blacking out in the process, and drove his sword upward with the last of his strength.

The blade pierced clean into the man’s chest without a sound. Blood splattered across the ground as Knell ripped it free and scrambled back. His opponent turned toward him and reached out as if to continue the fight, then pitched forward and hit the floor with a meaty smack.

Cyll and Stix were both freed from the mist, and that spelled the end of the fight. The remaining masked men were cut down in seconds, and the town was silent once more.

The gods have granted you experience for besting your foes!

You have defeated an entity more powerful than you. Experience Gained.

“You okay?” Cyll asked, jogging over to Knell and extending a bloody hand.

Knell coughed. His felt like it had been dropped in a volcano, and his head thumped with a violent headache. He waved Cyll’s stained hand away and Stix handed him the other half of his staff.

Taking it gratefully, Knell slid his staff back together and pulled himself to his feet with a groan.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad,” Stix drawled. “You think that was everyone?”

“It’s possible,” Knell said, glancing around. “Forget the ship, though. If we got attacked, those men were trying to hide something. It’s likely they already know about our ship and it might be trapped or defended, and I’m in no shape for another fight.”

Cyll nodded and the three slipped into an alley, winding through it until they emerged at a small side street. Stix approached a run down house and tried the door, nodding a confirmation before pushing it open.

It was only a single story, so it only took them a few seconds to clear everything. Knell locked the door behind them and sat down at an old wooden table, staring up at the ceiling.

“So, what now?” Cyll asked. “You said they were trying to hide something?”

“No other reason for them to attack us when we were about to leave,” Knell replied. “There’s something here that someone is trying to protect.”

“When you put it like that…” Cyll said, a small grin tugging at the edges of his lips. “I think I want it.”

“Likewise,” Knell said. “This will be good for us, anyway. We need to get stronger, and while those men weren’t too powerful, they were more than enough to give us a fair amount of difficulty.”

“Only because they managed to restrain me,” Cyll grumbled. “Why is that how it always ends up?”

“Because that’s the only way to stop you, so you should get used to people trying to hold you down once they realize you can’t be killed,” Knell said, shaking his head. “I’ve warned you twice now. You’re wasting your greatest ability.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Not dying is a pretty effective use of my not-dying ability.”

“You don’t get it,” Stix said, catching on. “He’s not talking about your immortality. He’s talking about how you use it. Nobody knows who you are anymore, Cyll. Or, nobody recognizes you on sight yet.”

“Well, that was uncalled for.”

“It wasn’t an insult,” Knell said with a sigh. “It’s an advantage. People don’t know you’re unkillable. So, when you charge in like an idiot and take a bunch of attacks straight to the chest, they realize you’ve got some form of magic keeping you alive. Logically, their next step is to restrain you and deal with things later.”

“But I can’t die. They can never deal with me.”

“They don’t know that,” Knell replied. “If you were to fight more like a normal person, you’d last much longer before someone caught onto what was happening. Your greatest mistake in your past life was letting everyone know that you couldn’t die. If you use that as a trump card instead of your only ability, you might actually get somewhere.”

Cyll blinked. His open mouth, ready to refute Knell’s words, slowly closed as he pondered over them. “Huh. I never thought about that. But… I don’t actually know how to fight like a normal person. I never bothered learning. I just use the biggest sharp thing I can get my hands on and swing it until my opponent dies or runs away.”

“Or traps you,” Stix snipped.

Cyll ignored her.

“And you wonder why you keep losing?” Knell asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Try things my way. There weren’t any survivors in that last group. Unless someone we didn’t spot got away, you still have a good shot of keeping this secret. Learn how to fight and start using other things to augment your abilities.”

“Fine, I suppose I might see what you’re getting at,” Cyll said, stroking his long beard. “But I still have absolutely no idea how to fight correctly.”

Knell slowly turned to look at Stix. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Oh, no. Absolutely not. I am not teaching him.”

“She’s like two years old!” Cyll added. “How am I going to learn anything from a glorified child?”

“I am not two!”

“Enough,” Knell said, raising a hand to stop their argument before it could start. “Cyll, that wasn’t a question. As a member of my crew, I order you to better yourself in any way possible. I will not tolerate a willful fool. If I tell you to learn from a little girl, you’ll ask her what her favorite dress is. Do you understand?”

Cyll cocked his head to the side, studying Knell for a moment. Then his lips parted in a savage grin. “As you say, Cap. I hear you loud and clear.”

“Good,” Knell said, turning to Stix. “And you’ll teach him?”

“I can’t help but notice that I am the little girl in your analogy,” Stix grumbled.

“It was a hypothetical,” Knell said with a sigh. “Stop wasting time. You want to see results? Then do what I say. Of course, I always welcome better suggestions. I want us to all be as powerful as possible. If there is a way to do it that I have not considered, I want it brought to my attention.”

“Fine,” Stix said with a huff. “I’ll try to teach him, but these are Shadow Stalker fighting techniques. Cyll is about the farthest thing from an assassin that I can think of.”

“Anything is better than nothing,” Knell said. “We don’t have time to get fully started now, but some dungeons can be quite large from my understanding. We’ll have more than enough time there.”

Knell’s crewmates nodded and he rapped his staff on the floor. “Let’s go, then. The pirate at Blackfoot Bay said that this town was built around the dungeon, so the entrance is probably somewhere near its middle. Did anyone see it while walking?”

Both of them shook their heads negative.

“Unfortunate,” Knell said. “We’ll have to go looking for it, then. I can’t imagine its far, since we passed through the town square. It’s probably somewhere on the other side.”

“What about all the fog? If there’s another Path user messing with it, we could get ambushed,” Stix said worriedly.

“No way to plan for that,” Knell said, walking up to the door. “This conversation was necessary, but the more time we waste, the more time someone might have to react. Time is on our side, but only if we act quickly.”