Advent of Eternity - Chapter 59 (Patreon)

This was where she would strike. When they hesitated in the face of the Wyvern’s flaming breath, Emma would strike at Knell. His team would be unable to interfere because of the dangerous monster fighting them, and the test would go uninterrupted.

What Emma did not expect was for the long-bearded man to charge at the wyvern before it could even open its mouth, roaring out a battle cry of his own. When the fire erupted from its mouth, the man dropped to the floor.

Flame scorched over him in what should have been a brutal wound, but it did nothing to stop him from bringing his huge, dented sword down on the monster’s head with a loud crash. Scales shattered under the strike, and then the assassin was in the fray as well.

She moved unnaturally fast, aided by green energy that Knell had placed upon her. The moon elf darted up to the wyvern while it was preoccupied with the first man and, leaping onto its head, drove both of her daggers down into its head.

As the monster roared in pain, a bolt of green leapt from Knell’s staff. The energy faded around the elf the same instant that the spell went off. It leapt across the room and struck the wyvern, slowing its movements.

The assassin struck twice more before the white-haired man slammed his weapon into the monster’s mouth. It punched out the back of the beast’s head. With a final thrash, the wyvern slumped, the light fading from its eyes as its blood pooled on the floor.

Emma gritted her teeth. There was no more time to wait. Knell was separated from the rest of his crew, even if it was only by a short distance. The assassin and the warrior would be preoccupied with the wyvern for a few seconds. That would be enough to get to Knell.

She slipped from the shadows, a blade materializing in her hand. Emma closed the distance between them, not making a single noise as a slow smile split across her lips. Even her dagger was pitch black. To anyone watching, she was merely a flicker in the darkness of the cave. Knell was just a few feet away from her know. She raised her dagger, preparing to strike. It was impossible to see –

Knell spun, his glowing yellow eyes falling straight upon her. Emma blurred into motion. She didn’t know how he’d spotted her, but she was a professional. She knew his fighting style, and he’d always stayed at the back of every fight.

Someone like that would dive backward to make distance, and then Emma would be upon them. Knell lunged, as she predicted, but he dove toward her. Emma’s blade whistled over his head, just barely missing.

She twisted, another dagger materializing in her hand as she brought it toward Knell’s stomach. There wasn’t enough time to block the strike, but Knell slammed his staff into the ground and shifted his body so that it cut across his back instead of burying into his chest.

“Cyll! Stix!” Knell roared. A bolt of green light caught Emma in the foot and the world slowed. She gritted her teeth as Knell hit the ground and rolled back, scrambling to his feet by the time the spell wore off.

“Damn it,” Emma cursed, slipping back into the shadows before the two could arrive. If she fought all three of them at once, it would be impossible to win without killing at least one. That hadn’t been the Veil’s instructions.

An invisible strand of energy tugged on the back of Emma’s mind. Her mouth pressed thin. Veil was calling her back. But… had she failed? Or was this what he had known would happen?

Emma slipped away, sinking deeper into the shadows and vanishing from the dungeon. One did not keep Veil waiting, even if all that would greet them was punishment.

***

“What in the Sixteen Seas was that?” Cyll asked, arriving beside Knell. His burnt skin had already healed. Stix stalked up as well, her weapons in her hands and her eyes darting around.

“Not part of the dungeon,” Knell replied, his eyes still shining yellow. A trail of blood trickled down his face, but he ignored it.

“What do we do? Did someone somehow trail us? Do you think they were from Blackfoot Bay?” Stix asked, her eyes darting around the room. “I didn’t even realize someone else was here, even when they attacked. If you hadn’t yelled, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

“They were an expert,” Knell said, touching the wound on his side gently. It wasn’t serious, but it stung and – worse – had ruined his new shirt. Somehow, his coat had been spared the blow. His spin must have moved it out of the way in time. A twinge of pain shot up Knell’s lame leg from overuse, but it wasn’t the worst he’d had.

Still, adrenaline thumped in his veins. If his future sight hadn’t still been active, the assassin would have killed him before he even knew they were there. Knell grit his teeth and shook his head. “What’s done is done. I’m hesitant to say they were from Blackfoot Bay, though.”

“Why?” Stix asked. “They can’t like us much.”

“I don’t disagree there,” Knell said. “But that assassin was incredibly skilled. I’m honestly not sure why they pulled back when you arrived. I doubt we would have been able to put much of a fight up without a plan. They could have had me if they just kept attacking. Also – no normal pirate in Blackfoot Bay is that skilled. The assassin was at least at the level of a captain, and would one of those really come after us?”

“Probably not,” Stix admitted. “But… who then? The bandits?”

“I don’t know,” Knell said, shaking his head. “And that annoys me more than anything. I don’t think it was a Scion either. We’ll have to play things very carefully in the near future. Until we can figure out who that was, we have to assume they’re watching us.”

“Aren’t we discussing what we’re going to do right in front of them?” Stix asked, gripping her daggers.

“Their stealth is better than what we can see through,” Knell said with a shrug. “Avoid specifics. I’ve got some thoughts on how we can reduce their effectiveness, but those can wait. For now, we return to the ship. We got what we came here for anyway.”

And that he had. The dungeon had proved incredibly profitable, netting him some significant gains in level.

Name: Knell Coda [Age: 0]

Path: Scion [Rank Zero]

Magical Energy Level: 16

Attunement A: Foresight of the Vulture

Attunement B: Empty

Attunement C: Empty

Attunement D: Empty

Attunement E: Empty

Bloodline: Eternal Body [Epic]– Time magic bends around you, modifying your lifespan and granting you resistance to spatial magics.

Abilities:

Tax the Living – Death magic erupts from a wound you have inflicted on a target, inflicting the same damage once more.

Path: Epoch

Magical Energy Level: 13

Abilities:

Mental Clock – Use time magic to keep time or set an alarm audible only to you.

Slow – Impede the movement of a single creature by warping the time around them for a brief instant.

Haste – Increase the movement of a single creature by warping time around them for a brief instant.

Anchor – Lock a target’s current state in the timeline, returning it to that state after 1 minute passes, reverting any changes to the target that have happened under the duration of Anchor.

Advent of Eternity (Passive)- You do not fall under the jurisdiction of time. With sufficient strength, it will bend to your will, and your existence is absolute. You were never born, and you will never die.

Scion had gone up by two entire levels, while Epoch had managed to gain three. Evidently, gaining double experience from slaying the wyvern had been incredibly beneficial. Knell hadn’t gained any new spells, but his body felt better than it had in years. Even the encroaching age that his time magic seemed to place upon him and slipped back slightly.