Chapter 19: 19-Meeting complications

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One of the two cloaked figures at the end of the alley twirled two daggers in his hands while the other carried a saber at his side and was about to reload his hand crossbow after the missed shot. Meanwhile, the broad and intimidating attacker behind them stomped toward Avan, who had entered the side street behind Yue.

Yue rolled and dodged another crossbow bolt and just barely shouted a warning at him, thanks to which he was able to avoid the giant's grasp with a sideways duck. Without much thought, Avan turned to his attacker and prayed inwardly that his companion could handle the other two attackers until he was done with this one.

While he could hear some curses behind him, now a little further away, he analyzed for the first time his overgrown opponent in front of him. The human guy was easily two and a half meters tall and extra wide. With his big hands, he would have no problem breaking Avan's neck in the blink of an eye if he let himself get caught. Fortunately, the brute didn't seem to be quite blessed with intelligence and went back to the bull attack with his two outstretched arms.

Ahh, fuck! This will hit me like a wrecking ball! He frantically thought and tried to evade it like the first time.

He ducked under the right arm just in time, but stumbled over a small bump in the road and was almost caught on the shoulder by the left hands grip. Avan stumbled to the ground and caught himself with his right hand, spinning around with the momentum and thus escaping the iron grip of his opponent. He skidded to a halt in a crouched position and beads of sweat, caused by the narrow evasion, ran down the back of his neck. Without waiting for the surprised giant, who was looking at his empty hands and wondering about his victim's whereabouts, Avan rushed forward and released a charged [Akkalon's Touch] punch directly into the back of his opponent's right knee. The brute growled momentarily in annoyance, lurched forward slightly, and then, with a flourish, turned on the fly that had dared to hurt him. Avan, in one of the fighting stances he had practiced for hours and days, dodged with a backward step and knocked the arm aside with another charged blow. Very briefly, blue veins flickered on the hairy, bare arm of his opponent and faded again shortly after.

Aware of his precarious position, Avan jumped backward once again and decided on a different tactic. To defeat this guy, he first had to wear him down, since even his mana-infused blows didn't seem to do much. With an evasive step around to the left, he dodged another attempt to grab him, and briefly caught a glimpse of Yue. She was doing well, but dragging her seemingly injured left leg a bit, while the crossbow guy hadn't fared so well, if the drooping right arm was anything to go by.

Without being able to help much, Avan focused again on his bandit, in whose back he now stood. Without launching another fruitless attack attempt, he began to gather ambient mana around him and channel it through him into his left palm. With a golden glow and shining dots, a billowing sphere materialized above his hand, which gradually took on more contours and gained stability. Reading the twitching shoulder muscle correctly, he dodged another swing coming from the left by making a crouching step to the right. Unfortunately, this caused him to stop with his back to a house wall. Keeping his focus and mana flowing into his spell, he watched as the brute slowly lost patience and turned to him with an angry grimace.

Avan inwardly slapped himself for his stupidity as he thought about finally identifying his opponent.

[Brawler - 43]

Alright. Somehow as expected! He hastily thought.

The brawler, meanwhile, crouched slightly, both arms forward sideways in a fighting stance, and it made Avan look like he was just going to run him over. With an annoyed grumble and a low yell, the giant of a man sprinted toward him, intending to crush him against the wall behind him. In a few milliseconds, Avan had to decide how to dodge, while his left hand continued to stabilize the spell with mana. With a desperate yelp, he was off to the left, toward Yue's fight at the end of the alley, and landed hard on the dirty street floor. With scraped palms and gasping for air, he hurriedly pushed himself off the ground and turned around just in time to see his slightly dazed opponent shaking his head. At the spot where Avan had just been standing and from where a loud impact had come from, there was now an indentation in the stone wall. With a brief shudder of his shoulders, he suddenly looked distractedly at his left palm, where one of his [Akkalon's Sphere] had fully materialized with a mana-infused hum. Not wanting to be crushed by the man-shaped truck, he gave his sphere a simple command; to tackle the back of his opponent's head as hard and as often as possible. The bullet immediately fizzled and whizzed around the head of the man who had just regained his composure. With a loud and angry roar, he tried to knock the annoying golden sphere away with the palm of his hand, but couldn't even come close to the supernatural speed. Meanwhile, Avan had begun to summon the second of his [Akkalon's Sphere] spheres, which was now also materializing piece by piece, and only very transparently at first, on his left palm.

While carefully and attentively keeping his opponent in his sights, he cast another quick glance in Yue's direction. She was fighting bravely, but her inexperience and fatigue were already very apparent. She limped slightly and her movements were less elegant and fluid than before.

Hectic and fearing for her life, Avan thought about how he could help her from a distance. Practiced by now, he quickly scanned his inventory for an item or weapon that he could throw at her opponents. The bow was immediately discarded, since he still had no practice with it and that would not change in the near future due to lack of time. His gaze remained fixed on the [small stone]s he had collected for campfires and countless construction projects in the dungeon.

With a flash of inspiration, he tried the one thing he had completely ignored and forgotten; as a dungeon, his [Celestial Sphere] skill allowed him to move things freely within a ten meter radius and handle them as if he were physically doing it himself. A kind of advanced telekinesis.

Without further thought, he summoned two small stones from his inventory and NAILED them with all his mental power and accuracy onto the two opponents who had just pushed Yue against the opposite wall of the building.

A loud boom echoed through the side alley followed by two thudding impacts. One impact was accompanied by a dull thud on flesh and followed by a human cry of pain, while the other tore a section of the wall apart with full force, raining stones and mortar onto the ground.

The unfortunate former human crossbowman stared in shock at his chest, or what was left of it. Although the stone had only been the size of a thumbnail, the impact had torn a fist-sized hole through his upper body and penetrated it completely. Yue and the remaining dagger-wielding rogue looked, frozen, first at the chaos caused by the two projectiles and then synchronously in the direction from which they had flown.

Without caring, Avan noticed out of the corner of his eye, where he had been watching the big brute the whole time, that the brute was about to lunge at him in rage. Blood ran down his side and neck to his shoulder, while Avan's first sphere, stained with blood, continued to pound the back of his head. Avan knew that his second sphere would only take a few more seconds and ran toward Yue. The thug and Yue, now recovered from their stare, looked in his direction for the second time and watched wide-eyed as the bull of a man ran after Avan.

"Run!" Shouted Avan directed at Yue, waving his right hand as his left hand grew heavier. Channeling this immense amount of mana for the second time in quick succession was draining him more and more.

The stunned human dagger guy was caught off guard as she leapt toward him and rammed her daggers into her distracted opponent. Both weapons drove into the side of his neck without much resistance left and right, spraying a bleeding fountain as Yue pulled them out again in quick succession and sprinted past him.

Avan, with a now screaming bull behind him, ran around the pool of blood and out of the alley after Yue. Surprised passersby and residents cried out when they saw first the girl with her daggers drawn and then a tall man running out of the alley. The horror was complete when they saw the angry and screaming man rushing after Avan.

Avan, by now with both [Akkalon's Sphere] hovering over his two hands, spun around with a jerk and a skitter, extending both palms forward as if to stop the giant behind him.

With a short and precise command, both spheres flew and landed with full force on the face of his opponent at the level of his eyes. A loud crack echoed through the sudden silence and the people looked fearfully back and forth between him and his opponent, whose head hung at an unnatural angle. With a dull thud, the massive body landed back-first on the street and, as if shot by a pistol, people ran away shouting "Murderer!" and other things.

With a weary sigh and both celestial spheres hovering over his shoulders, Avan dropped to the ground and propped both arms behind his back on the cobbled street. He dismissed his summons while Yue dropped down next to him and stretched out her legs, one of which had a bleeding wound on the side, probably due to a graze. In addition, the leather of the pants she had just bought was torn open and a bloody welt was visible.

Before they could even catch their breath, ten guards came running with drawn swords and spears and positioned themselves threateningly around the unequal pair on the ground.

"Stop! In the name of the city guard, we arrest you for killing innocent citizens! Hands up so we can see them, and far enough away from any weapons!" Shouted a handsome young man at them as he fumbled with his spear unpracticed in Avan's face.

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Avan and Yue, too tired to retort, held up their arms and were pulled awkwardly to their feet, flanked left and right respectively. "The head of the city guard will surely have some questions for you!" Ordered the same young man, turning to two more guards. "You and you, secure the bodies and question the witnesses as to what happened here!"

The two men, a presumed veteran judging by his scars and an even younger newcomer, saluted without comment, nodded and went about their task.

The leader of this guard unit looked with an evil eye first at Yue, who was hanging powerlessly between two guardsmen, and then suspiciously at Avan, who was still standing between two other city guards. With a hand gesture and surrounded by the other three guards, they followed the leader who marched in front.

Just down a street and adjacent to a large forecourt with several important looking buildings and structures, they stopped and the leader marched into the guardroom. Only a few seconds later, a grim-faced bald man with a mustache came out of the door, followed by the young leader from before.

With a threatening look, he first looked at Avan and then cast a softer glance at Yue before he began to speak. "I've received a report that there's been a murder in my neighborhood! Explain yourself, and you'd better stick to the truth before I give you to our... specialist down in one of the cells."

Avan cast a silent glance at Yue and was about to start talking when she beat him to it and replied in a tired voice. "Commander! We were ambushed by three men while we were on our way to the guild house for a meeting with the guild master. These three... individuals had been after me for weeks..." She continued with a serious look at the leader of the local city guard, while her fluffy ears were submissively placed against her head. "We were just fighting back, commander! I swear! Please check with the adventurers guild. They can surely confirm an appointment with us and the guildmaster. My name is Yue and this here is my companion Avan, who had saved me many times already." She told him and nodded in the direction of Avan.

The commander of the city guard had visibly raised his eyebrows more and more and now looked grimly from Yue to Avan and then to his subordinate. "Did you at least ask beforehand what had happened at the scene of the incident? Did you, as I had taught you, examine the place to match the testimony at least?" With a nervous and intimidated shake of the subordinate´s head, the guard leader threw his arms in the air. "You fool! How many times have I told you! It should have been drilled into you by now! Pah! Come on, take two men and run. I want a report on this at my desk in a few minutes!" he instructed his subordinate through clenched teeth. As soon as he had rushed off with two more guards, he turned to the only other remaining veteran, who was flanking Yue. "Please go and check out the story. And if necessary, ask through to the guild master Helio. Meanwhile, I'll take the two into custody and expect a report in my office as soon as possible."

With a nod and a firm salute, the man let go of Yue to turn around and march towards one of the buildings with a large wing. Immediately, the last of the ten guards took his place and gently grabbed Yue under the arm.

All the orders had taken less than two minutes, which was indicative of the commander's competence.

The guards escorted Yue and Avan into what they thought was the commander's office and seated their two prisoners in the chairs in front of the large writing desk. Two of the guards then positioned themselves in the room to the left and right of the entrance door, and the head of the city guard sat down in his chair behind the desk with a deep sigh and a muttered "Incompetent nobleman".

Silence fell and the commander propped his elbows on the table to rest his head on his palms and stare at his two would-be killers.

Yue was too exhausted to react further, and Avan quickly took care of the status reports of the fight, which he had suppressed. He was not worried so far and hoped that the local police of this world and city would solve the problem properly.

*Chime*

Congratulations on reaching Level 54!

For leveling up, you gain 5 free stat points.

Please look into your character interface to distribute your free stat points.

Just wow. One level, at least something. He grumbled to himself. But now I finally had the courage and chance to test out my dungeon sphere. Totally forgot that... Too many things, skills, and everything to remember all the time. I wish there existed a reminder somehow... Like my alerts I set up in my smartphone. Pah...

Somewhat satisfied, he waited and looked around the sparsely furnished room of their current host.

Barely ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door and the young patrol leader stood in the room, sweating slightly and saluting.

In short and concise sentences, he confirmed that the story of the fox girl could be true, since the bodies and the situation on site were exactly as described.

With a short hand gesture and still slightly annoyed, the head of the local city guard waved the boy away and gave him the task of bringing the bodies into the room provided for this purpose.

Just as the young man stepped out of the door, he almost stumbled together with the veteran who had been dispatched earlier with another task, and dodged to the side just in the nick of time. With a slightly embarrassed expression on his face, he quickly turned and marched away. The more experienced guard saluted smoothly and gave his report. "Sir, it seems that Guildmaster Helio was beside himself! I have just encountered a group of adventurers when I went to inquire about the two aforementioned persons in our custody. A warrior named Eve left immediately and returned with the guildmaster himself, who appeared more than unhappy. I was then able to verify the entire story and there was apparently a... incident with a submitted mission on the questboard. Said quest titled the fox woman present here as niece and one should please bring the runaway person back safely. Apparently, however, this was nothing more than attempted kidnapping!" he concluded the report and saluted again.

The commander ran a hand thoughtfully through his short stubble beard and now had a much friendlier expression on his face after hearing the report. "All right, thank you, dismissed! I'll escort these two to the guildhouse and talk to the guildmaster in person. If this is true, then there are people in my city who have tried, and will continue to try, other ways to implement their machinations through the guild. This cries out for an investigation and discussion with Helio."

With a sigh and an expression that showed no desire for all this stress, the commander stood up and went to Yue and Avan with a wave of his hand calling them to follow. The man in front helped Avan and Yue to their feet and supported her through the door and down the short hallway out into the street. It was already dark outside, and the starry sky shone down on them in all its glory.

 

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