Chapter 10-316: Dark Acquisitions (1/2)

I flicked up the Stats listing, and they read down it slowly, and pursed their lips.

“Teleport without Error at will won’t be something you missed out on from that erinyes,” I noted calmly, and they nodded in some disbelief.

“Indeed.” They drew out Sleipner’s Alicorn, pulled out Fred’s Grit, and attached him underneath it. “How do you intend to capture her?”

“Well, I was thinking I could just lock down the area, and you could show up and beat the ever-loving shit out of the bitch.”

The smile that rose was almost sunny. “Not the most efficient, but such a plan will be very satisfying, my Lady!” they agreed.

“How about we drop you off on the west side of the city, and you drive Sleipner on a Ward Ride to the northeast so you get there quickly.”

They pulled the Alicorn back off, and the folded-down Cycle was taken out of their Masspack, ready to unfold as soon as I moved us.

“She’ll recognize you because of your Pact. Maybe you should serenade her so she realizes how you’re misusing your Pact, too,” I mused thoughtfully, as a Disk popped up.

“That sounds possible.” Their smile didn’t fade as they hopped up effortlessly on the Disk, and I took off up into the sky.

Using The Map as my guide, I had a few hundred miles to go, and I didn’t have a Lived-Line, so I could only Linejump myself. I would have to repeat this several times to get to Memphis, but that’s what the Pool was for, spending the magic, getting it back for less than half price, spending it again...

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She came in directly below me with a pop of displaced air. I blinked, and the Interdiction went up instantly; I flicked a finger for the Fastcast Stillflight to take effect.

Her hair was a red so dark it was almost black, pale skin with haughty eyes and the posture of a powerful woman, currently in a rather hurriedly-assembled attire of sweats and loose shirt, not even having any shoes on.

There’d been a period of thirty seconds from the time Legion popped in to her appearance here. Given it was very early morning, she’d reacted with commendable speed.

Master Fred didn’t recognize her until I flicked up my True Sight, and then her current image became illusionary, overlaid by the reality of darkly angelic raven wings, crimson eyes, slowly writhing hair, with an unseen bow on her back and blades at her waist.

All of Legion suddenly got pretty intense, looking at her through my eyes. Yeah, Master Fred recognized her, and they all knew what she’d done to him.

The erinyes turned southeast, grimacing as she felt Master Fred coming directly towards her via his Pact. Hellfire eyes snapped due east, magic pulsed-

She gasped as she ran into a metaphorical steel wall of dimensions that didn’t bend and allow her to get away.

“Pits of Cocytx!” she hissed, and her shirt tore as she materialized her wings, beating at the air, and launched herself off it urgently to the east.

Her scream as she started to spin and plummet was most amusing, her wings beating at the air which refused to support her, and were only able to send her arcing back toward the tower as she fell out of the sky.

That did inspire her to look up, and then she saw me there, now a good hundred feet above her as she clawed herself to steel-protesting stop against the struts of the tower, clinging there as the wind at this altitude ripped at her useless wings.

“You!” she snarled, and then blinked as I began sliding down the struts of the GDS tower right towards her.

“Me!” I agreed. She tried to bounce away, and I just slid over to match her position calmly, reflexes totally up to her movements. She swore, and then I slammed into her head with my feet, totally ignoring the wings she put up to block me.

“Gah!” she shouted as I pounded her off the tower and back into free fall, and also left the impression of my foot in the side of her face, sparking with released Focus. If she didn’t have the extra Health Qi of being a Pact Grantor, I could have broken her neck there with Find the Flaw, and she knew it.

Blinking away the shock, she spiraled down, trying to manage her descent, clawed hands sparking on the steel as she tried to brake herself, looking up to see me sliding down the side of the antenna in pursuit. I was not even bothering to toss any spells at her, which would have totally sealed her fate, of course.

She was plenty strong compared to a human, but there was no way she had the strength to keep those relatively puny wings spread to hold her weight. She still dropped uselessly, oily feathers clawing at the air as I chased her down, down, and she kicked off the steel and dragged at it to keep herself from entering a death-dive which, while possibly not ending in a fatality, would have been quite painful and possibly crippling.

The acre of field about the tower was mostly clear, and she was aiming outside of the transmission building attached to the tower, halfway between racing me down to the ground and trying to stay in control.

Such a shame. Here in the mortal world for almost seventy years, and unable to pick up even a lick of Class Levels...

She hit the ground hard, but simply rolled and took the impact without any harm, bounding right to her feet. Her blades were drawn and in her hands as she looked up at me following her down. I was skidding sideways down the metal as if it was a lazy slide, obviously completely in control and not at all afraid of her.

I got to the ground about five seconds after she did, braking at the last second and setting foot on, or just above, the cement pad supporting the tower.

“You! Traveler! Why are you here?” she demanded, wings spread wide, but wisely deciding not to just jump at me.