Chapter 23: Chapter 23 – I spy…an ensnarement!

Scarlett felt something in her shoulder break as she hit the floor, pain shooting through her arm and sending a jolt throughout her body. Kat covered her body with her own as something flew into the carriage and collided with one of the walls with a loud crack at the same time as the carriage shook. From outside Scarlett heard the driver's yell as well as the agitated sounds of the horse. Then there was a moment of quiet as she listened to Kat's slow breaths before suddenly, everything moved.

Both she and Kat were thrown around as the whole carriage tipped on its side and slammed heavily into the ground. Scarlett landed relatively softly on the Shielder, but the impact still caused her to lose her breath as it sent another burst of sharp pain through her left shoulder. She felt Kat trying to get up from their current position lodged into one of the corners of the vehicle and slowly moved to let the woman free. The faint shimmering that Scarlett had come to associate with magical defenses such as [Mana Barrier] surrounded Kat as she stood up in the overturned carriage, looking up at the window where something had just bolted through. Her eyes then turned towards Scarlett. "I'm going out there," she said with a serious face. "Just stay here until I say it's safe. Alright?"

She didn't wait for Scarlett's response before jumping up and grabbing onto the window sill, smoothly pulling herself through it in one quick movement. Scarlett saw Kat jerk back as if something struck her, but the woman shrugged it off and soon disappeared from Scarlett's sight. Immediately after, explosions rang out from outside, followed by sounds as if the ground was torn apart. It seemed Kat had already gotten to work.

Scarlett closed her eyes for a moment to regain composure. Even with the effects of the original's traits helping her maintain her cool, her heart was still beating like crazy. And the pain in her shoulder was getting worse. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to focus. This situation was so far removed from anything she'd ever had to deal with, but that applied to her entire life right now. Things like this are what she had been preparing for. Though it did perhaps say something about the original's personality that the first time she truly felt as if she wasn't in control was in a real dangerous situation. But she couldn't just lie here and waste time.

On unsteady legs, she used her right arm to stand up best she could. The sounds from the outside were raging on, and she heard a man's scream. Hopefully that hadn't been the driver.

She scrunched up her nose. Something smelled. Was that smoke? Her eyes scanned around the inner compartment of the carriage for the origin of the scent, but she couldn't find anything. Stumbling forward to the other end of the compartment, she leaned her back against the soft material of the carriage's seat. She tried to listen, shutting out the cacophony from the outside for a moment. There was a fire somewhere. She heard the low crackling from the back of the vehicle. And now that she knew where to look, she noticed small trails of smoke that were starting to find their way through the wooden boards next to her.

Crap. Could her [Pyrokinesis] and [Minor Hydrokinesis] deal with the fire once it reached her? Probably not. And by that point, the whole compartment might be filled with smoke. She had to get out of here.

She looked up towards the carriage door and the window that opened up into a wide blue sky from her point of view. The other side of the carriage was blocked, so that was her only way out. There was no way of knowing how long it would take Kat to finish the attackers, so waiting wasn't a good option. The window wasn't that much higher than her so she could probably jump to grab its edge like Kat had. But she wasn't strong enough to pull herself with just one arm.

Glancing around the space again, Scarlett's eyes stopped on the pouch of holding that had landed in a corner. She'd had it next to her while they traveled so it must have been knocked there during all the disarray. She moved over and bent down next to it. Using her right hand, she stiffly untied the rope that sealed the black bag's opening and reached inside. First, she brought out the [Wand of Fireball] and tucked it into her belt. She'd avoided bringing any fancy dresses on this trip and currently only wore the same clothes she'd worn when she first met Kat. After the wand, she brought out the rope she and Kat had used to descend into the Isolated Hollow back in Ambercrest, followed by a hook she'd made sure to buy along with the rope, though they hadn't actually had use for the hook itself before now. Occasionally throwing a glance upward to check for any danger, she set to work tying the end of the rope onto the hook. It was hard work doing it with only one working hand, and the carriage was slowly filling with more smoke the more time passed, but by making use of her feet and legs—in a manner that was decidedly unladylike, but which thankfully didn't seem to bother her much, perhaps thanks to the current circumstances—she soon had herself a means for getting out of here.

Standing up again, she had the pouch of holding tied to her side with the rope held in her hand. She then lobbed the hook up through the window and outside, then tugged at the rope. It seemed to have caught hold of an edge somewhere, just as she'd wanted. She moved so that she was right beneath the window and firmly tied the rope around her waist and rolled up part of the rope around her hand. Then she planted her foot on the carriage floor—which was now the wall—and slowly began making her way up by using the rope as a handhold like a mountain climber. It was incredibly tiring with just one arm—especially as her muscles were still a bit sore from all the climbing she did in Ambercrest—but before long she managed to make it up to the window. Peeking through it, she witnessed the disorder outside.

The dirt road was only about five meters wide and surrounded by forest on both sides, but all along the strip of road closest to the carriage there jutted out several person-sized walls of stone in an uneven pattern around the vehicle. Although most of them seemed to have been damaged in some way. About twenty meters back stood Kat, leaning out behind the cover of another stone wall to fire a spell of several flaming daggers towards a group of black-clothed individuals in robes with hoods. Every single one of their faces was covered by a golden mask. Judging from the ground between them and Kat, the woman had done a lot to force them back there. They didn't seem to have any problem dodging her latest spell though, some of them moving in behind the trees. It appeared as if Kat had already dealt with two of the assailants, however, as two motionless figures were lying on the ground close to her.

Scarlett couldn't really hold herself in this position for long so she was forced to climb out through the window—accidentally knocking her shoulder into its frame in the process which caused her to clench her teeth in pain—and stand on her knees on top of the toppled carriage.

Both the remaining attackers and Kat seemed to take notice of her. Two of them darted off to the side and towards the carriage, while four others all focused their attention and ran at Kat from several directions.

"I told you to stay inside!" Scarlett heard Kat yell, but her eyes were locked onto the two figures that were moving towards her. She hurriedly moved towards the edge of the carriage and flung her legs over the rim, using her right arm as support as she jumped down. The landing was a bit rough and she grazed her palm, but at least she didn't hurt herself overly much. Instinctually dusting herself off as she stood up straight, she grabbed the wand at her side and moved towards a nearby stone wall as she looked towards the two figures that were running towards her. Now that they were closer, she could see that there was gold gilding over most of their black robes and they both wore gold vambraces and greaves that covered part of their limbs. Those pieces, along with the golden metal masks covering their faces, were bejeweled with cryptic patterns and symbols that were far too familiar to Scarlett. In their hands, they both held a pair of long sickle-like weapons—khopesh, she believed they were called—that were the same golden color.

There were no other obstacles between them and her so she raised her wand and was just about to fire her spell when one of the figures suddenly had a stone wall extrude from the ground right in front of them, blocking Scarlett's vision of them. A moment later a large boulder came flying and Scarlett heard it impact with the person. Their body was thrown to the ground on the other side of the wall with its limbs bent in odd ways. The action was followed by a pained scream from Kat's direction, however, so it didn't seem as if the action had been entirely cost-free.

The other figure running towards her didn't even spare their companion a glance as they kept moving. She pointed the wand at them and cast Fireball, the blazing ball of fire forming before her in an instant and shooting out towards them. The weapons in their hand suddenly began emitting a blue glow and sliced out towards the spell. The Fireball almost looked to be split in two by the glowing blade, immediately dispersing into the air around it as if whatever it was that held the spell together had been cut. Scarlett scowled as the figure moved through the remainders of the spell without any apparent damage. She'd been hoping it wasn't one of the Mage Stalkers.

The Mage Stalker was quickly closing in on her. She conjured a couple of Aqua Mines in front of them with as high an intensity fire she could to ensure they reached the right heat. They slashed out towards them with their weapons too, and despite seemingly destabilizing the magic of the area around where the blades touched her Mines, they obviously weren't prepared for the resulting water that exploded towards them like miniature geysers. Their movement stopped for a moment as the boiling water slammed into them and Scarlett took the opportunity to cast another Fireball. This time the Mage Stalker didn't react in time and was hit by the spell straight on and was knocked back to the ground. Scarlett didn't hesitate to cast another Fireball immediately after, and then another. Explosions rang out as her spells slammed into the same spot twice and it took a moment for the smoke and dust to pass.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the Mage Stalker shakily standing up from the ground. Much of their black robes were burnt off and they had clear burn marks on the skin beneath, but they were very much still in the fight. Their masked face turned towards her again as they grabbed their two weapons that had fallen to the ground, and then they began running towards her again. She conjured another pair of Mines but they simply dodged them and let the residual water wash over parts of their magical defense. She tried to aim at the weak points she spotted through the effects of her [Charms of Apperception], though it was hard when her target was moving so fast. But she saw one spot around their midsection that didn't move around too much.

When the Mage Stalker neared the wall she was standing next to they raised one of their blades as if to strike at her. She half-stumbled a step back and moved her hand in front of her, creating a wall of pure fire about the size of a washboard between the two of them. The glowing weapon cut through the fire—the area around the blade dissolving into the air—but most of the fire remained. Taking a few more quick steps back, Scarlett saw her attacker duck under the fire. She let it disappear and used her skills to create another obstacle between them. This time it was a floating wall made of water. It was smaller than the wall she'd made out of fire—there was only so much she could do with [Minor Hydrokinesis]—but she'd placed it right in front of the Mage Stalker's face. Their distorted visage was visible through the water and just as they were about to run into it, Scarlett struck.

She conjured the hottest wall of fire she could muster right on top of the water. The liquid sizzled loudly as steam burst out to cover the Mage Stalker's entire upper body—a maneuver she'd come up with and tried on Kat during one of their 'sparring' sessions—and Scarlett used the opening to create three more Aqua Mines. This time she placed them all close together in front of the Mage Stalker's midriff, near where'd she noticed a lapse in their defense. Fortunately, it was also one of the spots where most of their robes had already been burnt up. Not daring to lose this chance, she kept the Mines small and detonated them as quickly as she could. The resulting torrent of water slammed into her assailant with force and she saw the shimmering barrier around them flicker as the attack pierced the spot she'd aimed at and completely unravelled the barrier around it. The Mage Stalker let out a scream as their unprotected skin was carpeted with boiling water and bent over in front of her. Scarlett was close enough that a few droplets hit her unprotected face too, but it was nothing she couldn't ignore. Instead, she immediately set to creating another cluster of Mines.

Whatever kind of magical defense this person had—if she were to guess it was the Assassin class's [Adumbral Cape]—didn't restore itself immediately and actually had more weak points in it now, all of which clearly stood out to her artifact-enhanced eyes at this distance. One of the Mines formed close to their head, one at their left arm, and one above their right shoulder. The Mage Stalker had barely just recovered from her previous attack when she detonated this batch. One of them missed and simply glid off part of the remaining magical barrier, but the other two destroyed the defense around the Mage Stalker's head and upper back and completely knocked them to the ground. From there Scarlett didn't hesitate. She focused her complete attention on creating set after set of Mines that aimed at all of the attacker's weak points and unprotected areas. Soon any magical defense they'd had was completely disintegrated and she was just bombarding their unprotected body.

Eventually, after she didn't know how long, she stopped and wiped the sweat from her body with tired breaths as she stared at the unmoving figure, waiting for any sign of movement.

A yell rang out.

Scarlett's eyes opened wide as she remembered her current situation. The pain in her left shoulder washed over her once more like a wave of cold water and she clenched her teeth as she spun her head to where the sound originated. There, about a dozen or so meters away on the road close to the forest edge, stood Kat with one of her hands pressed to her side, blood running through her fingers. The area around the woman was utter chaos. Half-broken stone walls and small craters left and right, the bodies of several of the attackers lying on the ground with holes and burn marks on them, and Kat herself spitting out a spittle of blood as she waved her free hand towards the last of the assailants and caused a cluster of spikes to spring up from the ground. The robed figure managed to jump back just in time to avoid the attack before cutting at it with their own glowing khopesh, which caused the whole spell to just dissipate into the air around it. This one was also a Mage Stalker.

Scarlett heard Kat utter a curse and was just about to try and help when she saw the Shielder lift the hand placed at her side and with a grimace gesture with both of her hands. The ground around them started to shake, and suddenly the ground under the Mage Stalker split apart and they were swallowed by the earth itself. As quickly as it had opened, the ground closed itself over its victim and Scarlett could almost imagine herself hearing a crunch.

[Quest Completed: Survive the Hallowed Cabal's ambush]
{Skill points awarded: 3}

Scarlett only briefly glanced at the window that appeared before her as she watched Kat turn around, the woman's head hurriedly scanning the area. When Kat's eyes landed on Scarlett and the still body next to her, her expression calmed down. As the Shielder started walking towards her, Scarlett took the opportunity to gauge her surroundings. The stone walls erected by Kat were starting to dissipate, although smoke was still coming from the overturned carriage. It seemed like the fire itself had started on the other side of it. She might have been able to extinguish it if her pyrokinesis skill was one grade higher. But at least they didn't have too much luggage with them.

Her eyes shifted to the front of the carriage, where the horse and the coachman had been. It appeared as if the horse had torn its bindings and run away sometime during the fighting. The driver himself was also missing. Hopefully he'd also gotten away and hidden somewhere, without getting injured. Other than that, there wasn't anything around them except for their assailants' bodies and miles of forest.

"Are you alright?"

Scarlett turned back to Kat as the woman neared her. The Shielder had that slight pulsing light to her that appeared when she used [Earth Pulse]. The injury on her side was still red with blood, but she appeared able to walk despite it nonetheless.

"Largely, yes," Scarlett answered after a moment. The adrenaline from the situation had started disappearing and that general sense of poise and calmness that she had gotten so used to by now were beginning to make their way back. "My shoulder is injured, however. I would appreciate it if you could alleviate some of the pain."

"Of course." Kat moved forward and gently pressed her hand against the injured arm. Scarlett felt a warm feeling move through her arm towards the rest of her body along with a faint light, slightly relieving the pain she felt. It caused her shoulder to itch somewhat, though.

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Kat's eyes turned to the burning carriage. She had a grim expression on her face, sweat and some loose strands of hair covering her forehead. "I'm sorry. I should have realized they could do something like that."

"...Do not mention it," Scarlett said. "I believe we were both taken by surprise." She couldn't avoid a scowl. She'd been expecting an attack eventually—that was the whole reason she had Kat with her to begin with—but now it was clear that she hadn't quite grasped the truth behind the complications and consequences of such a conflict. Yet another indication of just how unused she actually was to all this. And to how she had to be even more careful with her planning to make up for it.

"As for the carriage," she continued, gesturing towards the vehicle where the fire had now spread to this side too. "Can you control this?"

Kat shook her head. "I don't have any real spells for putting out a fire. And I can't handle a fire that large with just my pyrokinesis."

Scarlett slowly nodded her head. "I understand." That was one carriage less for the Hartford estate, then.

They watched the carriage for a moment, then Kat pointed towards the burned figure Scarlett had fought against. "Who in the Blazes were these people? I've never fought bastards like them. One even nullified my magic somehow."

Scarlett looked at the body of the Mage Stalker. She was pretty sure this person was dead; a fact she'd normally want to spend at least a little while to ponder and come to terms with. But she genuinely couldn't be bothered right now. She'd already suspected killing a person wouldn't faze her much emotionally as she was right now, so her general emotional indifference to this person's death didn't come as too much of a surprise for her. She could think about whatever ramifications and such this should have later on. "They were members of the Hallowed Cabal."

"The what?"

"The Hallowed Cabal," she said, looking up at Kat. "I presume you are aware of the Tribe of Sin?"

Kat narrowed her eyes. "...Yeah, of course."

"The Hallowed Cabal is the body they serve under."

The Shielder's eyes widened. "You're telling me they were related to the Tribe of Sin?"

Scarlett shook her head. "No. this group in particular is not related to the Tribe, apart from tangentially through their organizations. These were Cabal Adepts. In essense, assassins. They carry out much of the Cabal's work. The ones that caused you and me issue are called Mage Stalkers and are specialized in dealing with mages. Fortunately, there usually are not more than two of them to each squad."

"Wait, wait." Kat shook her hand and massaged her temples. "You're speaking as if you're familiar with these guys. Were you expecting this?"

Scarlett hesitated, leaning her head to the side. "I...suspected they would eventually take action. It is likely that their primary goal in this venture was to capture me."

Kat stared at her. It seemed she was unsure what to say. Scarlett waited for the woman to gather her thoughts. After a while, Kat just let out a tired sigh and sat down on the ground. "Do you have some water?" she asked and reached out a hand. Scarlett reached inside the pouch of holding on her waist and pulled out a flask that she gave to the woman. Kat grabbed the flask and thirstily drank out of it, wiping her mouth with her sleeve before handing the flask back. Scarlett was also pretty thirsty and took a sip of the water, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling she got from sharing a receptacle with someone else.

"I don't even know what to say." Kat suddenly said. "But honestly, I don't think I'm actually that surprised." She looked up at Scarlett. "Could you at least share why they're coming after you?"

Scarlett looked down and met her blue eyes. "It is likely a consequence of our encounter with the artifact in Stoolie's Nest."

Kat frowned. "What, when I heard that creepy voice in my head?"

Scarlett nodded. "Yes. That was the leader of the Cabal."

Kat raised her eyebrows. "So he's after you because you found that mirror? Or because you put a stop to the trafficking?"

"Neither. I presume I garnered his interest." At least that made the most sense from his words that day. She imagined it wasn't often he encountered people who could resist his powers.

Kat looked at the body of the Mage Stalker close to them. "He sent this whole group just because of that?"

"Evidently," Scarlett said, looking over the other bodies nearby. In the game, the Hallowed Cabal would sometimes randomly send groups of Cabal Adepts after the player if you had gotten far enough in the main questline and chosen the route where you fought against them. Most Cabal Adepts had a level ranging in the thirties, but they mostly worked in groups of four. It wasn't until later that they started attacking in larger and more dangerous groups in the game. It seemed she had a slightly higher priority level.

"Will they come again?" Kat asked.

"Presumably, yes. However, it will likely be some time before then."

"Is there any point in me asking how you know all of this? The Tribe of Sin is a pretty huge deal, you know." Kat turned back to her.

Scarlett looked at Kat for a moment. "I believe we both know the answer to that question." She couldn't exactly tell her that she'd fought against the Hallowed Cabal in a game, or that she had been part of them in her second playthrough.

"Right, right. 'Research' it is, then." Kat simply shook her head.

"I am glad we are in concord," Scarlett said, then she signaled towards their surroundings. "Now, I believe we should do something about this."

Kat's eyes passed over the area and she let out a tired sigh. "Yeah, you're probably right."

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