On her guard, she began to move as quickly as she could away from the alley she’d been skirting, only to give a tiny startled shriek when something hit the ground in front of her with a thud, turning towards her.
Her voice was locked in her throat as she stared in terror at the...thing...in front of her. It was vaguely humanoid, though something about the way it moved seemed wrong. Its skin was gray and its eyes were glowing slits of yellow like a wild animal’s. It was grinning at her, its mouth full of pointed teeth. It reached a hand up and she tried to step back, only to find herself against the building wall as its claw reached for her. She winced as it nicked her cheek, touching her to take a drop of blood and licking it. Its voice was oddly hypnotic as it hissed, “Ssssuch a sssweet ssscent…”
Its eyes were drawing her in and she found herself unwillingly taking a step forward. Only the new little blinking dot in her vision stopped her from stepping further. Trying to distract herself from its gaze, she clicked on the dot mentally.
You have touched a Mesmer, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Acrobatics, Hypnotize, Mana Sense, Natural Weapons, or Stealth.
Its eyes were drawing her back in, and she wanted to step forward… She quickly clicked on her choices.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Dexterity and Mana Sense from Mesmer underway.
She welcomed the itching sensation spreading across her body because it broke her concentration on the thing’s eyes. Before it could pull her entirely under again, she mustered her voice for one small yelp, “Help!”
The thing hissed and lunged for her, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her like she was nothing as she heard footsteps and shouts pounding towards her. She felt the thing’s legs bunch beneath her, about to make some sort of jump.
As she opened her mouth, it hissed at her again, and she found herself unable to disobey the simple command, “Sssilence.”
“Where is it!?” She heard the voices coming nearer, searching. The thing had dragged her into the darkness before she’d even realized it, moving in quick jumps that didn’t feel real to her.
Stubbornly, she tried to think. She couldn’t fight against the compulsion to be silent, and she didn’t have any weapons on her. What could she… And then it clicked.
I didn’t survive this long to die to some random encounter. Shine bright like a diamond, you freaking monster! Hoping the light would both startle the monster and draw the guards’ attention, her entire body lit up like a flash bomb that wasn’t stopping. The monster hissed and dropped her roughly to the ground, backing up and shielding its eyes against the luminosity.
“Over there!”
She saw it tense as she sat up, about to jump away from the guards who were rushing over. With every ounce of her willpower, she dropped her light and mentally screamed at it, “Stay there!”
Chapter Thirty – Cancelled
The mesmer hesitated for just a moment, but it was long enough for an arrow to lodge in its side. It met her eyes, and they no longer possessed the hypnotic quality they had before. Instead, a deep-seated rage that it had been stopped by its prey had taken root. Instead of jumping up, it jumped straight at her, claws extended. The world seemed to be going in slow motion as she watched the claws headed for her face.
Still sitting, she was about to throw her body to the side when someone rammed into the mesmer mid-leap, throwing it away from her. She heard a deeply unsettling screech and the thunk of several more arrows landing in flesh. Silently, she prayed, Hit the monster, not the man. The shrieks cut off, and the world seemed to speed up again. A new red dot appeared in her vision. The pounding of boots was all around her as people flooded the alleyway.
She stared at them blankly, still trying to process everything that had just happened. It wasn’t until she heard someone cry, “Get a healer!” from the area where the monster had fallen that she seemed to snap back to reality. There was someone hovering over her, asking if she was okay. Ignoring them, she lurched to her feet, startling them. They tried to grab her, but she stumbled, the motion letting her evade the man. She grunted as she pushed her way through the people, landing on her knees next to a man on the ground.
There were people pulling off his armor, exposing the long gashes in his side. He was having a hard time breathing, and she could hear the air escaping through his wounds. “Get her out of here!” someone yelled, and she felt a hand on her arm trying to pull her up even as she reached for the man.
She lost it. “Let go of me before he dies!” Her scream was surprisingly audible, and the person was so startled that they actually let her go. Before anyone else could lay a hand on her, she shoved her fingers towards his chest next to the wound and closed her eyes. Her magic pulsed and a picture of the gashes came into her mind’s eye. Calling the blood from his lungs and the air that had leaked into his chest, she pushed her magic into him, demanding his body reknit itself together again. She heard startled cries when the blood came gushing out with a spray of air, but almost immediately after, the man’s breathing evened out, buoyed by her healing.
She worked from the inside out, pushing out the contamination she could feel was left behind from the creature’s claws. With the healing magic coursing through her body, she could feel the same taint in her cheek. She decided she might as well take care of that at the same time, and she felt the blood dripping down her face as she pushed whatever the mesmer had had on its claws out. Both Jade and the guard’s wounds began to close, and silence had fallen around them, punctuated only by the sound of harsh breathing. The tang of blood and something more sickly sweet permeated the air, though the true stench of death from the nearby body hadn’t yet set in.
When she was done, she felt the magic seeping away and a deep ache setting in. She knew she’d overdrawn her magic again, and this weakness was the price. Still, she was gratified to see the man beneath her open his hazel eyes. He smiled weakly at her and said simply, “Thanks.” Someone was pushing matted light brown hair away from his face, and she felt gratified as his grizzled face came more into view.
She nodded, then muttered softly, “Just returning the favor…” She swayed, feeling dizzy from the multiple massive energy expenditures she’d just made. Someone quickly grabbed her to stop her from falling on her face.
“Where’s the patient!? Let me through!” She smiled wearily as she heard Mike’s voice, opening her eyes just enough to watch a pathway open up as Mike rushed through. He blanched at the sheer amount of blood that was covering her and the man as he spoke in a hoarse whisper, “Jade? What are you doing here?” He quickly dropped down, putting a hand on both of them.
She smiled and reassured him, “We’re okay...just tired…” She would have swayed again at that point if she wasn’t already being propped up.
She felt Mike’s magic going through her, checking her out, and after examining the wound site and finding nothing wrong other than her energy being overdrawn again, she felt him boost her once more. “Well, can you fix them?” she heard someone ask harshly.
“There’s nothing to fix anymore. Lady Jade did a remarkable job saving this man’s life.” He paused, and she could hear his voice become sterner as he asked, “What I’d like to know is how Lady Jade became involved in this incident in the first place.” He was using her title. Uh oh. She had a feeling somebody was going to be in trouble and half suspected it was her. Still, she wanted to defend her rescuers in case it was them.