Chương 52: Rava

Rava pushed herself to her knees and coughed up blood. She stared at the red splatter in disbelief. A couple of the guards nearby were staring too. She shot them a glare, and they went back to wrangling with the chimeras. How long had it been? She couldn't remember the last time she got hurt. It wasn't just that she was a Tier 9 archmage. At her level, and with her stats, there were very few things in this world that could be considered a serious threat to her. Who was this woman—this Hooded Winker?

How had she never heard of this person before? Rava had spotted her earlier, walking confidently through the yard with no concern for the chaos around her. The chimeras had avoided her much as they did Rava—out of pure survival instinct. The Winker's eye had been hidden beneath that dark spidersilk hood, and it was only later, in the gymnasium, that Rava got to peer into its depths. A sharp and intelligent soul had gazed back at her, piercing effortlessly through her [Invisibility].

All without a single trace of mana. She'd thought it had to be some sort of trick. This person couldn't be a mage, for not even centuries of training allowed one to suppress their mana so completely. Even when the two of them touched, she couldn't sense a wisp of it. That's why the [Fireball] had taken her by surprise. Oh, that [Fireball]. Completely fluxless, yet so perfect in form. So finely controlled that not even her [Gale] could blow it off course. So mesmerizing in its beauty.

She'd thought it had to be an illusion. A trick—it was even in the Winker's name. Illusion or not, it would have been sensible to take some sort of precaution. Put up a [Force Wall]. Step out of the way. Break it up with a counterspell. But then she would have looked the fool. Someone who overreacted to a feint. She had absolute confidence in it being an illusion. And if she was wrong, her Tier 9 [Quantum Shield] should have protected her completely. Looking down at her blood staining the grass, she grew furious.

How was this possible? And what's worse—other people had seen her bleed. The Winker hadn't come out from the gymnasium. [Gale] was an easy spell to overcome. Seeing her adversary struggle with it only furthered Rava's frustration. But first things first. She applied [Heal] to her injuries. Besides the guards' struggles with the chimeras, she could hear the din of the dragonkin fight coming from inside. Thankfully the manor was protected with powerful structural wards, or it would have collapsed by now.

At that moment someone was flung out through a back window. It was the blue-scaled dragonkin woman. She tumbled across the flowerbeds, tearing up bushes and stems as she went. The woman appeared to be on her last wind. To her credit, the eight opponents who flowed out of the manor after her were all looking rather ragged too. When this woman said she was looking for a child, never would Rava have guessed that she'd meant Maelle.

With the level of skill on display from both sides fighting over her, it was clear that Maelle was no simple orphan. While she didn't know how this woman and the girl were related, it was clear when they were earlier reunited that there was a deep bond between them. Rava had someone like that once. Someone who looked out for her like an older sister would. After a succession of brutal blows, the dragonkin woman fell to her knees. One of the soldiers moved in for the kill. Rava couldn't let it end like this.

She dashed in under the acceleration of [Haste] and knocked the soldier back with a [Force Bolt] before dropping her [Invisibility] so that there would be no doubt in the soldiers' minds about who was standing in their way. While the soldiers wore their displeasure clearly on their faces, they had the sense to hold themselves back. One of them—presumably the leader—spoke.

"Give us back our quarry, elf."

"I brought this woman here as my guest, and therefore she is under my protection," she declared.

"As is the girl. Now that you've had your fun, I'm going to ask you to leave the Ardark region."

"We had a deal."

"Your deal is with Dabaux, and I'm not a party to it."

"We didn't come this close to our goal to be turned away now." The leader looked to his soldiers, and there must have been some hidden communication between them because all eight pointed at her, and their mana began to flow.

"Put your fingers down," she warned.

"Little pigeon, you've still got blood on your face." At the same time that the soldiers unleashed their [Force Bolts], Rava surrounded herself and the fallen woman with layers of [Force Walls]. Their pitiful attacks dissipated harmlessly against her defenses. But she did more than just defend. She was a fifth-circle archmage, and she wasn't going to be taken lightly. She sent out eight [Fireballs], one for each dragonkin soldier, conjured in quick succession.

In the face of overwhelming power, their discipline fell apart in an instant. Some tried to dive out of the way. Others sprouted wings and attempted to escape into the sky. None of it mattered. She guided each projectile surely toward its target. Even with their innate fire resistance, all eight soldiers were vaporized in an instant. A squad of guards who'd assembled nearby had seen the entire exchange, and all the blood had drained from their faces. They quivered respectfully in their boots when she glanced over.

"Remember," she said to them.

"No matter what your boss says, this woman and the girl are not to be harmed." They nodded profusely and ran off to wrangle chimeras in another part of the compound. The nearby chimeras followed behind. Rava didn't have any concerns over the safety of the girl. The mage who'd blown the hole in the compound wall was clearly very capable. She had no doubt that they'd be able to easily handle Poshit.

It was gratifying to imagine how the foolish academic had no idea what she was walking into, marching out there so confidently to round up the escapees. Poshit was too inexperienced to pick up on the clues that Rava had. As much as the rescuer had tried to hide it, the speed and efficiency of their spellcasting was a little too good for the level they were pretending to be. She suspected them to be one of the do-gooders who'd been trying to tail her party.

It appeared they'd caught up a little sooner than she'd expected. But Rava had no time to think about all that, as Hooded Winker was making her approach, having escaped from the gymnasium at last. The tornado in there had lost most of its energy to the open sky and would disperse on its own very soon. But the Winker, that sinister woman, had her gaze fixed firmly on her. Even though Rava couldn't see beneath that dark hood, she could feel that eye coldly appraising her.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. But she wasn't going to show any fear. She pointed at the Winker.

"I'll deal with you once we get this woman someplace safe." The Winker glanced at the dangerous chimeras still running about, nodded, and then said, "I saw what you did. You stopped them from killing her. Why?"

"She came here in search of a child. One of the people abducted by Dabaux."

"She's innocent, then." The Winker turned her gaze to the ash drifting to the ground.

"And what about them?"

"They wanted the girl and had made some sort of deal with Dabaux for her." The Winker nodded.

"So that's what this was all about, then. I'm glad you put a stop to them." When the Winker stepped forward, Rava felt herself tense up. But this didn't lead to a fight. Instead the mysterious woman crouched down and casually hefted the unconscious dragonkin woman over her shoulder. It was only now that Rava got to see how slim her frame was. It seemed comical, seeing how easily she lifted a woman three times her weight. But that was the nature of good stats.

Rava followed as the Winker carried the woman into the manor and handed her over to the staff behind the upstairs barricade. Once that was done, the two of them returned to the yard.

"Now we can finish our fight," Rava said.

"What's the need?" the Winker replied.

"I only came here to bust up the kidnappers. But you weren't really involved in that, were you?"

"You can't just hit me with a spell and then call the fight off."

"I recall you hitting me first."

"Only because you grabbed my wrist," she pointed out.

"Because you were about to attack that man."

"He insulted me."

"You can't hurt people just because they offended you. What's wrong with you?" She stepped away and pointed at the Winker.

"I don't care what you think. You hurt me, and I want satisfaction." The Hooded Winker sighed.

"We should at least move the fight away from here so that innocent... uh, other people don't get hurt." They walked together through the hole in the compound wall and out into the forest. They continued until all the shouts and screams from the Dabaux estate faded beneath the rustle of the leaves under the warm night's breeze.

"This is far enough," she said. The Hooded Winker held her hands out placatingly.

"How about I make it up to you with some cake?"

"There's no cake good enough for that." The Winker replied sadly, "No, I suppose not around here, there isn't."

"Enough stalling." Rava pointed at her target.

"Prepare yourself!"

"This is so childish," the Winker sighed. She lashed out with a [Firestorm]. It was unsportsmanlike to attack without warning, but she couldn't bear any more of the Winker's ribbing. Besides, there was no such thing as a surprise attack against a high-level mage. The flux should have been more than enough of a warning. As expected, the Winker reappeared, unscathed, a couple of yards back from the cloud of fire, having escaped so fast that it looked like she'd teleported.

Rava put up a line of [Force Walls] to pre-emptively defend against a counterattack and then launched a volley of nine independent [Fireballs], coming in at their target from every different direction. The Winker fled through the forest, ducking and weaving, forcing Rava into pursuit. Not once did the Winker take any defensive measures. There were no [Force Walls] or counterspells like [Force Bolt]. There were no attempts to counterattack or disrupt her focus. All the Winker did was duck and weave, duck and weave.

As if taunting her, as if to say that this was nothing more than a game to her. The mounting frustration was beginning to affect her focus, and she lost two of the [Fireballs] carelessly against a tree. Another two she detonated as they were flying past the Winker, hoping to catch her in the blast. But somehow the accursed woman continued to run on without so much as a singed hair. Rava didn't bother to replace any of these spells and instead focused on closing the distance.

If she could get close enough, she could begin laying down some [Firestorms]. But as she got closer, she heard something that disturbed her to her core. It was the sound of giggling. No... it couldn't be. That was when the cold realization set in her. The Winker wasn't pretending this was a game in order to taunt her. The Winker thought this as a game because she really didn't think Rava could actually hurt her. Rava's temper flared. No one got away with treating her lightly.

Even the Amber Mage himself would have to show respect. She decided that it wasn't enough simply to return the bleed. She had to bring the fear to the other woman. She cast [Flight] on herself and rose into the sky. Her remaining [Fireballs], no longer being controlled, crashed harmlessly into the trees, obliterating them in clouds of smoke and fire. But that was nothing compared to what she was about to do. The Hooded Winker noticed something amiss and stopped running. That sharp eye was staring up at her.

"Hey! That's cheating!"

"This isn't a game." She pointed a finger straight at the Winker and opened all her mana channels. But instead of feeding into a multitude of spells, they were feeding into one, accelerating the casting process as fast as she could supply the flow. All directed at the Hooded Winker. But instead of taking any countermeasures, the Winker continued to stare up at her. Was she oblivious? No, no one at this level could be unaware of the enormous spell form being weaved beneath her feet. This was a challenge.

The Winker was so arrogant to think she could tank a Tier 9 spell. It was only when the first rumblings began that the Winker appeared to worry. But by then it was too late. The earth shook as a stream of magma pushed its way up to the surface and burst up in a violent [Eruption]. Even from where she was flying, the heat was unbearable. An entire section of the forest was gone, and the hill behind it too. Flaming rocks rained down from the sky, setting patches of woodland on fire.

She glanced over at the Dabaux estate, where the people below scurried around like panicked ants even though they were safely out of the fallout range. She turned her attention back to ground zero, searching the molten rock for the Winker's corpse. Her heart skipped a beat when she spotted the hooded figure pointing at her from the edge of the blast zone.

"No..." She'd been right there, right at the epicenter. Their eyes had been locked on each other right up to the moment the column of fire [Erupted]. There was no way she could have escaped. That was her strongest spell. The work of her entire life. The woman's stern voice carried up to her.

"Why'd you have to go and do this?" The tone of a matron scolding a misbehaving orphan. The guards at the Dabaux estate were looking up at her and pointing. She'd deactivated her [Invisibility] in order to free up a mana channel for the spell. They were too far away for her to make out their words. But she could tell what they must be saying. She wasn't the strongest. She didn't need to be feared by all. She had to get out of here.

She set her sights on the horizon, any horizon as long as it was far away from here, and shot off as fast as she could. To get away from the shame. To get away from the scolding. To get away from her failure.

Amberlin had been rather surprised when Rava started to fly. Up until that moment, she'd thought she'd been facing someone at about her own level. After all, Ardark was an early location in the game, and all the monsters in the area were weak. It didn't make sense for a high-level person to be hanging around here. She should have known better because of the rock troll that had attacked Restford. People and monsters in the real world weren't restricted to zones.

But everything since then had been so normal, it had lulled her back into a false sense of security. That spell in the gymnasium. That was Gust, wasn't it? It was either Tier 4 or Tier 5, she couldn't quite remember. She really needed to brush up on her magic theory. But this last spell was definitely beyond Tier 5. It was Tier 6 at least. She never got far enough into the game to learn to fly, but she imagined it would be in the second half of the tier list, so Tier 6 sounded about right.

Looking at how a mere Tier 6 spell had reduced a large chunk of the forest to ashes, she worried about the balance of this world. She couldn't imagine what properly powerful people could do. As much as she wanted to have a simple life, could she really live with herself in allowing such destructive power to sweep through the world when, as an immortal, she was one of the people most capable of keeping it in check? It was something she would have to think about later.

For the time being, she felt validated in her decision to wear this costume. Quite a few times Rava had caught her with her spells. Luckily it didn't matter how much she showed off her powers because it would be attributed to the Hooded Winker, not Amberlin Kalimori. Her real identity was safe. Looking around her, Amberlin realized that she didn't know the way back to the Dabaux estate. While she was thinking through what to do next, something came running through the forest. It was Boots!

"Aww, did you come to check out the big explosion?" she cooed.

"You're such a curious cat, aren't you? Aren't you?" Most cats would run away from an explosion, but she knew Boots was different because he lived on a mountain surrounded by dangerous monsters. There he'd survived by scavenging the kills left behind by bigger predators. It made sense, then, that he would associate a big explosion with the potential for a nice meal. With Boots here, was there any reason left for her to return to the Dabaux estate?

According to Rava, all the kidnapping victims had already escaped, so there was no urgency in her returning there. She should just return to the city and check in with the watch in the morning. With the testimony of the victims, they'd be able to send the proper authorities out to arrest all the people behind the kidnappings. There was no further need for the Hooded Winker to act tonight. She changed back into her regular cloak, and Boots hopped up onto his usual perch on her shoulders.

The city would be easy to find because its high walls were visible for miles around against the starry sky. Or it would be once she was out of the forest, in any case.