Chapter 41: Back Alley Brawl (2/2)
Julia had depended on the skill to serve as her ace in the hole. It required the user to be in an extended state of tension or emotional anxiety, often taking several minutes of fighting to reach the right peak. Once used she would have a short period of time, typically a few minutes, before the effect would wear off. Afterwards, she would suffer a rebound which would leave her largely helpless for the rest of the day.
Never before had she failed to defeat an opponent once her Atavism activated. She was at a loss on how to proceed.
[How can any human, especially one that young, keep up with a beastman during Atavism? Its so unfair! He hasn't even drawn his sword!]
Knowing that her effect would wear off soon, and the newbie adventurer was no closer to being defeated than when she started, Julia gave up on beating him.
She stared at him defiantly, ready to accept defeat, but quickly noticed that he had an absent look on his face. She didn't know what had happened to the adventurer, but she decided to seize the opportunity presented.
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Mike watched the thug leader struggle to her feet. Her mask had slipped enough to let him get a glimpse at her face. If not for the slightly feral snarl currently twisting her features, Mike thought she would actually have been really cute, in a tomboyish sort of way.
[She's pretty close to my type. If she was a little less homicidal, she'd almost be perfect.]
He let his thoughts drift back to her earlier offer, and found himself regretting that it was an obvious trap.
Since he hadn't really been taking things seriously up to this point, it wasn't all that surprising that he lowered his guard at this critical moment.
The thug leader pulled a small round object from a belt pouch and threw it against the ground in one swift motion. It burst on impact emitting a large, white cloud of smoke.
Mike coughed a couple of times, and used Air Magic to clear the air. By the time he had done so his opponent had already disappeared.
[Was that a real smoke bomb? I always thought they were more of a narrative device than anything else.]
He looked around and realized he was still standing in an alley full of unconscious thugs. Not really sure how he would go about turning them into the authorities, he shrugged and decided to let them go.
[All this exercise had made me a little hungry. I guess I'll head back to the inn and get something to eat. I wonder what Morris is doing right about now?]
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Julia staggered into the Watering Hole, utterly exhausted. Her Atavism had worn off shortly after she escaped the terrifying adventurer, and she was left to limp her way back. She glanced around quickly hoping to spot the spineless informant that had gotten her into the situation in the first place, but to no avail.
Albert rose from his chair and came to meet her. ”Julia? What happened? You look like shit.”
She responded with a glare, and made her way over to the bar, grabbing herself a bottle from behind the counter. Activating her Atavism took a lot out of her in a number of ways, and she usually ended up dehydrated because of it. Not that this particular course of action helped that in any way.
Julia took a long swig before answering her boss's question. ”We got beat. That's what happened. Roger's information was bad.”
She limped over to a table and sat down, with Albert soon taking a seat opposite.
”What do you mean bad? What happened?”
”I don't know who that guy was, but he wasn't a newbie. That's for sure.”
”What do you mean?”
”The guy Roger wanted us to rob? He took down three of my guys in a few seconds, and then matched me blow for blow while I was using Atavism.”
”What? How is that possible. I haven't heard of any major hitters coming into town lately.”
Julia was staring at the label of the bottle with a disgusted look, not really listening at this point. ”The really irritating part was that he was holding back the whole time. He didn't even draw his sword! Even when he was surrounded by armed enforcers!”
Albert leaned back and let his follower vent, mind already trying to develop a plan for damage control.
”If it hadn't gotten distracted by something at the end, I'm not sure if I could have gotten away. Ugh! Its all so frustrating!” She threw the now empty bottle across the room where it smashed against the wall.
Albert could sympathize. In his long career, he too had been at the mercy of powerful individuals. It was simply a consequence of the world they lived in. However, he didn't really know how to comfort the girl, so he remained silent.
After a few minutes she stood up angrily, a little bit of her old fire sparking to life. ”I'm going to find that bastard Roger, and make him wish he was never born, and then I'm going to come back here and we are going to plan how to get this guy.”
”Well, I'm not too sur-”
”No.” She said sharply. ”I need to get my revenge on him.”
Albert just sighed while rubbing his bald pate. It was hard to talk to her when she was like this. He just hoped that this wouldn't bring any more problems to his benighted guild.