She must have had some impressive armor and defense items to make her last this long with me in the ring. Despite her being a level 70 warrior, her base strength was no match for my Enrage. And yet, she was holding it down, that was, until I went beast mode on her. I slashed her eyes to permanently render her accuracy, and then I went to town with a barrage of slashes. Left, right, up, down. Fur, blood, and sweat spat in the air, my blade landing every strike. Whatever invisible armor she had, I was wrecking it. Until the girl howled in agony, puffing her chest out with rage. Her battle cry shook the ground under my feet, but before she could go all Super Saiyan mode, an ice disk flew into her neck, courtesy of the arcane fae.
Rufian decapitated Tras, her body dropping with a big thud. When I turned my head around, I noticed Binti out too, her corpse a charred mess on the ground.
“Sorry to interrupt your playtime session, but I had to dispose of your playdate. The girls are famished!” Rufian said, but I knew he killed Tras off just to flaunt his awesome arcane fae skills to the girls.
Meleenia, Sevii, and Dathy to be more accurate.
Rufian tucked his bird away as he and the girls approached me. I turned to face the merchant, who had been turned back into his goblin form as he sat there on his knees, begging for his life. To be honest, I had no clue why he hadn’t vanished sooner. He was clearly wounded, my Enrage breaking his arms and limiting his shifter abilities. But as I walked closer to him I remembered he still had one power up his sleeves, deadly scream, and I didn’t want to be on the other end of it.
However, Bo-an backed away from me with fear in his eyes. “Please, I’ll give you everything to my name! Just spare my life!” he begged, but Rufian caught up to us, and as always, the fae was kill-ready. So when Rufian picked up his finger, Bo-an shrieked, and I jumped in to shield the girls. To my surprise, the scream that came from Bo-an wasn’t to attack us, Rufian’s summoning too quick for him to react. Instead, he cried for his life, a giant ice wall dropping in on him at Rufian’s command. But when Rufian brought the wall back up, Bo-an was gone.
“What the?” I said, pivoting over to Rufian who was just as disappointed.
“Pity.”
“Where the hell did he go?!”
“He probably turned into a roach and made off,” Rufian suggested.
“A roach, a shift that vermin could relate to!” Meleenia hissed as she shivered in her battered clothes.
“Here darling, take my cloak,” the ladies man offered, the girl taking kind to his generosity.
She gave him a blushed smile. “Thank you. It’s not often fae act nice to us.”
“This isn’t some twisted gesture of kindness, right?” Sevii, the one with the black long hair whimpered. “You are helping us, right?”
“You may calm your nerves, ladies. Rest assured, we are here to assist,” Rufian said with a smooth and gentle tongue.
The playboy was probably itching to get compensated later, though.
“Allow us to introduce ourselves formally—my name is Rufian, and this here is my traveling companion, Silas.”
“But, your stats say Syodas,” the soft-spoken Dathy pointed out.
Rufian smiled. “Oh, do we have much to discuss.”
“Not now. We need to get you girls somewhere safe. Right after we loot these bastards.”
“It’s a shame Bo-an left. I’m sure he’d—”
“No way,” I said in awe, cutting Rufian off. I hit the mother-fucking gear motherload! That slimy goblin wasn’t kidding when he said he had gears to spare, because his girls were loaded too, and Tras had over twenty parts to her name. One being a leg sleeve and XDM attachments!
“Oh yeah, we are definitely swinging by Prism. I need to pay Madeem a visit, ASAP.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Do not pass go, do not collect sammies.
Rufian teleported us straight to Senterra and we walked the rest of the way to Prism Point. The girls were bubbling with plenty questions, all of which Rufian answered. I on the other hand was more preoccupied with watching our asses and making sure we weren’t being followed. Unfortunately our path wasn’t clear, and Rufian and I spent some time clearing the way from cyber monsters. I used my mega rare Quadruple EXP Amulet and leveled up twice before making it to PP, Madeem opening the door for us with an interesting reaction.
“We don’t take kindly to non-Senterrian folk who make their way here,” he said defensively, before I realized he wouldn’t recognize me in my fae get-up.
“Madeem, it’s me, Silas.”
“And Rufian,” he tweeted. “Someone who also lives in this lovely establishment. I mean why else would two fae come to you offering humans?”
He sucked his teeth. “Mi could tink a’ plenty reasons.”
“All right, here,” I said, offering him my broken arm piece. “You modified this gear for me just a few hours ago. Added a machine gun with a grenade launcher. It’s torn but that’s because I went through shit out there. Only the real Silas would know that.”
“Or someone who slaughtered him and now acts as an imposta.”
“You’re giving the hero of Senterra too little credit,” Rufian chuckled. “But I don’t blame you.”
I gave Rufian a playful cross look, then turned back to Madeem. “I understand why you’re not over eager to let us in, but it’s the real me, here. I just took a fruit to make me look like this so I could travel around Mavriel. We had a fight before we left, remember? About doing my job and Jezz. I was being selfish and I kicked myself in the ass and finally woke up, just before I left to find the crystal shards.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me, still skeptical. And then I saw Elle and Butch coming out of Mimi’s Bakery with a basket of bread, the chipper stout gal jumping with joy at the sight of me.
“Silas!” she cried, and I was spooked.
How the hell did she even recognize me?!
Wait a minute… Butch…
That’s right, my dungeon core energy probably gave it away…
“The prodigy has returned!” She dropped her basket and tackled me with a hard hug, nearly bringing me down.
